Returning to Titus. This is turning out to be a heck of a lot harder than I thought. There's been a bit more stress on this one than the others. This is still in rough form, and I'm sure there's many issues with pose and form, but I'm slowly but surely trying to clean it up. I may redo his face expression (eyes specifically) yet a 3rd time. BLEH.
Cleaned it up, line art, and grayscale. Haven't decided on the background yet. I might just paint the whole damn thing rather than draw it. :\
Welp, I did tons of fine tuning on Titus....AGAIN. (left arm, eyes, coat, boots, etc). I cropped part of the pic so what I've drawn is bigger. I'm coloring this bitch tomorrow and hopefully I can make light of what's been a stressing project.
As a side lesson for any artist that cares to read, one thing I've learned about "finished pieces" is they're more than just high quality pieces. For me, it's about conveying a message, a meaning about your content...your character. You need to tell a story within one image. I feel I did that in earlier pieces, but wasn't consciously aware of what I was doing. NOW I know. My stress from this project has been due to foggy direction. This piece has changed 3 times of what it was going to be about...drastically.
This piece had to show WHO Titus was....not WHAT he was. He was originally going to be in an intense fight pose. I then realized at least 4 of my characters could all be doing the same thing, and no story was actually being told, or showing a glimmer of what their personality is. Then I thought it would be humorous that he was looking at blood getting on his glasses. Then I realized it wasn't humorous and was almost creepy, making him appear psychotic. I realized it was very important how I displayed Titus's inner character. You'll know what this scene is about once it's finished.
TIP: PLAN YOUR PIECES BEFORE YOU START, NOT JUST TECHNICAL BUT CONTENT WISE!
BTW: Livestream tomorrow Saturday May 31, 3PM EST: http://www.livestream.com/fxscreamer
All done! 1920x1200 pic and description on my page.
Oh, and here's the speed paint. My computer crashed for a part of it though :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mKdJUYSMYk
I started chicken scratching my next piece, returning to my villain Ivan. I want this piece to be epic, and started to get extremely daring outside my comfort zone with perspective. The lighting will be as dramatic as the perspective shot. This piece will be a "story" piece.
If you can't tell, I definitely got some inspiration off the Joker from Dark Knight.
Seriously though, if anyone has any tips on the perspective, or something that's seems wrong or off, PLEASE tell me or show me. I've never gone for a perspective like this. It took me 2-3 hours to get this far. (I have no idea if that's fast or terribly slow).
Did a lot of work on this with some tips from somebody else. My hand hurts, and I'm not even close to line work. Hopefully this is working. :\
Let me first start by saying that perspective is the devil, and I have no idea what I'm doing.
The poofyness of that coat is really throwing off the forms for me. I think you should lock down the coat on one side and let the wind flow through another. As the character currently stands, the legs and tail visually aren't adding up anatomically when I look at it.
At 6/2/14 10:15 PM, fxscreamer wrote: Seriously though, if anyone has any tips on the perspective, or something that's seems wrong or off, PLEASE tell me or show me. I've never gone for a perspective like this. It took me 2-3 hours to get this far. (I have no idea if that's fast or terribly slow).
At 6/4/14 02:29 AM, maficmelody wrote: Let me first start by saying that perspective is the devil, and I have no idea what I'm doing.
The poofyness of that coat is really throwing off the forms for me. I think you should lock down the coat on one side and let the wind flow through another. As the character currently stands, the legs and tail visually aren't adding up anatomically when I look at it.
At 6/2/14 10:15 PM, fxscreamer wrote: Seriously though, if anyone has any tips on the perspective, or something that's seems wrong or off, PLEASE tell me or show me. I've never gone for a perspective like this. It took me 2-3 hours to get this far. (I have no idea if that's fast or terribly slow).
Thanks for the reply. I went back and adjusted some things. I redid the bottom of the coat, adjusted the the leg length and perspective, and ultimately played around a bit with the entire pose. If you can't already tell, it's got a bit of a wide angle towering perspective. Rather than having the hunched old man look, I'm trying to pull off a bit more of a "power pose" with the back arched a bit more, yet I think his head can still hunch a tiny bit looking down at the paper.
I did grayscale so you can see where everything is a little better. I'm open to any suggestions if you still have any. :)
I started drawing the scene, taking the wide angle approach. I've never done this perspective so I'm trying to make sure it's balanced, yet surreal. I made a bunch of bookshelves so now I unfortunately need to draw a zillion books (GAWD). This is the rough line work too, not final. Ivan is still in pencil. I did the grayscale to show where shadows primarily are, plus I did a planetarium-like skylight where I want to do a giant thunderstorm. There will be a desk lamp and some musty fog and dust in the room, with accent electric lighting and glaring spotlights, along with flashes of lightning. I'm wanting this piece to SCREAM atmosphere with lighting and perspective. Ivan is my villain after all.
Hopefully Ivan's pose and perspective make more sense now? Anyway, I don't see this piece finished for at least another week. :P
Well, I'm as far as I think I can go before line work. There will be more details, plants, and accent lighting when the painting starts.
Line art and base color are done. I've done some test runs of the full lighting and effects, but they were sloppy and sketchy. I'm excited when this thing is fully shaded and done. My wrist hurts like hell right now, so I'll be doing this tomorrow or another day. Getting close. :D
After an exhausting week it's done! Full description and 1920x1200 on my page. There's a lot more detail when you see it bigger. :P
ALSO SPEED PAINTING VIDEO COMES WITH THIS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVaKk_8pVLQ
After two darker pieces I'm going a bit more light hearted. Here's Arlo and Archer in a bar. Archer is clearly not amused with Arlo (he's drunk as hell). Archer isn't just Arlo's superior officer (Commander), but also his legal guardian. As a child, Arlo's dad was killed (also a friend of Archer), so Archer decided to look after him and Enzo. For the most part, they get along great, but sometimes Arlo gets a little out of hand with booze.
This is in very early stages, but I thought the focal point are these two characters, and probably a dead-on shot from the bartender's view, with the restaurant behind them, possibly with onlookers as Arlo is starting to make a scene lol.
Any suggestions are welcome. :D
I basically played "catch up" today since I missed a whole bunch of days of drawing. I finished their poses, got the rough background, and did a splash coloring job so I can see more of what's going on. Of course there will be a lot of fine tuning adjustments, but this drawing is turning out to be more tedious than I anticipated. :\
At 6/14/14 11:02 PM, fxscreamer wrote: I basically played "catch up" today since I missed a whole bunch of days of drawing. I finished their poses, got the rough background, and did a splash coloring job so I can see more of what's going on. Of course there will be a lot of fine tuning adjustments, but this drawing is turning out to be more tedious than I anticipated. :\
The cat on the rights shoulder is awkward, it goes out too far and looks disconnected from his body. Other than that looks good.
At 6/16/14 03:21 PM, JackDCurleo wrote:At 6/14/14 11:02 PM, fxscreamer wrote: I basically played "catch up" today since I missed a whole bunch of days of drawing. I finished their poses, got the rough background, and did a splash coloring job so I can see more of what's going on. Of course there will be a lot of fine tuning adjustments, but this drawing is turning out to be more tedious than I anticipated. :\The cat on the rights shoulder is awkward, it goes out too far and looks disconnected from his body. Other than that looks good.
Thanks for the reply and you're absolutely right! :D I had noticed it shortly after I posted it along with many other issues. I'm finding how much I'm sucking at anatomy (I should be studying volume and structure), and recently had a strict critique from someone else regarding my studies. Now I just want to drink my frustrations away like these characters. : \
Anyway, I got to base color, along with lots of fixes to Archer and a little bit of Arlo. Hopefully that arm (and the arms) look correct now. There's some background issues with the furniture that I'm either going to try to hide, or simply try to fix. I'll admit this isn't my best background work. I think the shading on this one will get difficult too. :|
Perhaps I'm getting burned out and need to draw a flower or something. lol
Just scribbled a thought, but you're probably in too deep for implementing this anyway.
- silhouettes can show emotion too, especially to the person sitting in the waaay back of the theatre
At 6/18/14 10:37 PM, maficmelody wrote: Just scribbled a thought, but you're probably in too deep for implementing this anyway.
- silhouettes can show emotion too, especially to the person sitting in the waaay back of the theatre
Well crap. I knew I was too conservative! (that's definitely more animated) Oh well, that's why I do this right? To get better? Thanks for the example though. :P
Anyway, I'm definitely too deep by this point. Here's the textured pic with all the refinements I could do (shirts, heads, some moved lines). I'm literally starting shading after this post.
Actually I might as well say that my livestream will be running too. I try to record everything for speed paint videos (I pray my pc doesn't freeze). So when I'm working, I'm streaming.
Live now: http://www.livestream.com/fxscreamer
All done! 1920x1200 wallpaper on my page.
Also Speed Paint...WERD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7dphEEQOO8
Proof that I can draw and paint more than just cats. LOL. Did this impulsively this afternoon in about 3 hours. Full version in my profile page.
Titled: The Coastal Pathway
Speed Paint Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-wwu8jjrY8
Working on my last finished character piece for awhile, but I'm genuinely open game for any advice on this. Feel free to whip out the red ink. I've ordered some new animation and character books since I still have a lot of drawing issues. I also redesigned Holly extensively from her concept because I never felt it was right. I put the leg contour up the dress to see the anatomy a bit better (won't be in final).
This will be a piece with Holly making breakfast, making eye contact with Enzo (he still lives at home). I'm still deciding on the final content of the piece though.
Did some fixes and added Enzo so you can see how awesome breakfast is going to be. :P
I did a bunch of refinement to the characters and started on the background (aka kitchen). I'm taking some queues from my "Diplomacy Has Failed" piece, but with less of a fish eye lens. The lines I put down are very rough, and was just trying to get a scope of the room. Tomorrow will be cleaning up all of the lines, symmetry, and any odd angles of perspective. There is going to be a lot of detail (more than any piece I've done I think) added once I have the room nailed down, and that doesn't even count outside the corner window once I finish the piece.
Did the line art, re-adjusted the background, and added a crap load of detail. It's just about ready for coloring. YAY
I've done a lot since the last update, but believe it or not, it's still far from done. While I got some lighting done, I haven't really begun shading or anything close to fine tuning and effects. The environment is still in serious need of ambience. I hope to have this released on Thursday. Here's hoping. :P
As silly as it might sound, I was a little hesitant posting this. It's a concept of a character I've been devising for months, and decided to make a go at it yesterday. It's a bit more ahem...."suggestive" than my previous works, but had been inspired by the random people I see here in NYC. I'm proud of myself for at least being able to do all this in one sitting (roughly 4-5 hours), but I also know by doing that, I probably sabotaged the character a bit.
She's a bit of a "tough" girl, and a bit tomboyish, but don't know if I screwed up the anatomy or pose. I also played it a bit safe on the face which I may redesign again since it's a concept. If anyone has advice or things they spot that are wrong with this, please feel free to elaborate. :P I'll be training extensively this month (and maybe the next) on everything, including anatomy, expression, gesture, volume, design, etc.
Oh, and her name is Lily Graham Bell ...or Lily Bell (lol)
I've begun studying and training for awhile out of my Cartoon Animation book by Preston Blair.
ZOMG NO CATS THIS TIME! Here's a homage to the toontown-esque style I did after work today. I'm really trying to work on structure, gesture, and pose. Bigger version on my page.
A Visit to Toontown
