(5th post)
I created this as a very short post on it’s own because it was the first image I liked enough to actually animate the process this summer. I like making these animated gifs. They are fun to show off and I like seeing my own process this way. Helps me prioritize my drawing methods.
Hi Diary,
It’s been a crazy month for me. First of all I BOUGHT A HOUSE! Yup yup. My wife and I smashed our piggy banks and started climbing that property ladder. But with moving and a ton of overtime at work I got WAY behind in my art homework. I’ve been trying to catch up for 3 weeks and I’m still behind.
For the last month we’ve been working on vehicles and I could draw any vehicle in the world that I wanted. Naturally I chose a drone. Drones are my new obsession.
Here’s the line art for it.
I designed it as if it was in the Victorian Era. Not really Steampunk but kinda. I’m currently adding value, color and texture to get this assignment done. It was officially due 4 days ago but as soon as it’s done I’ll be back to my regular schedule.
Speaking of which, I should get back to it.
Love Michael
It’s been a little while since I’ve written in here, Diary. But I have a lot to say. The biggest thing is that I got 90% again this week! WOO! The assignment was the colour and texture and basically finish the images I’ve been working on the last few weeks.
First the harder image: The 1960s Nasa Lab
There isn’t a lot to tie this to the 1960’s with the exception of a very mid century style lamp and a rotary phone on the counter but the huge vintage satellite in the middle is pretty obvious.
I got good points for imagination. The original brief was “Interior Computer Lab” but naturally, as a concept artist, I can’t just draw a modern computer lab. I could just find a real one and take a picture. So I imagine this computer lab was where America created the first satellite.
Animated process:
Now the weirder (and more fun) picture: The Eel.
The assignment brief was: “Eel with white body, yellow head, black spots, lidless eyes and a fin running from the head to tail on his round body”.
The robot arms and legs were implied in that.
Officially I handed this in after the critique class so I didn’t get a chance to talk to my teacher about it yet. He’ll be discussing it tomorrow though so that’s good. If it’s normal notes then I won’t write about it but if there’s something major then I’ll make sure I let the blog know.
The process:
As you can see this stops before the final orange atmosphere lighting. I added that last minute before uploading it to the school and I had already created this process gif and I can’t be bothered to edit it.
I have another big post coming very soon before this term ends.
Michael
Sup, D? Werd.
After months of character and creature designs the class has finally shifted towards environments. I will still be doing characters and creatures each week but they won’t be the real focus of the assignments. The assignments are also starting to become more specific as if I was hired to draw something for a client. I was given 4 options for environments and 4 options for creatures/characters.
For the environment I chose to do a Interior Computer Science Building. That’s all the description I was given. But as always I have to make it unique. If I just draw a picture of a regular every day computer lab then why hire me, right? They could just take a photograph of a real one.
So I’m doing a 1960’s computer lab from Americas side of the Space Race. Essentially scientists building a satellite in a room full of computers.
The design board:
I love those big chunky computers. They will really give me an opportunity to play with Smart Objects in photoshop but I’ll get into that in another post.
I’ve also been trying to practice my thumbnails. The shots aren’t nearly dynamic enough but the perspective and scale are getting better. I had the critique on these thumbnails two days ago so I’m going to actually redraw them soon to make them better before moving onto the next step. The satellite needs to be the focal point.
For the creature I had to draw an eel. Just that. An eel. So naturally I decided to give it robot bird legs and arms.
Board:
Paints a picture, doesn’t it? The thumbnails:
You can see how much I struggled with getting a good shape/perspective for the eel. I didn’t want it to have a perfect snake slither. I wanted him all loosy-goosy in an asymmetrical shape. Snakes move in a very wave-like fashion but eels are influenced more by the water movements. I think the legs and arms really give him some personality. Once I have him redrawn bigger I will play with more details and mechanical components.
And that is all. I will write again this weekend to talk about some new comics I’ve been drawing lately.
Love Mikey
Is this the longest title I’ve had for a blog post? Gotta be top 3.
Hi Diary,
I’m all caught up with my homeworks! It’s a good feeling. I was caught up last Wednesday actually but I didn’t write about it because I was enjoying not having an upcoming (or passed) deadline.
Wait. Is it a “passed” deadline because I passed it? Or a “past” deadline because it’s in the past? I’ll say it’s a pasted deadline.
First of all though I updated my rabbit from the previous assignment. Fixed some obvious errors and textured the background a bit.
Feel free to send copies of him to Pixar and demand they hire me.
Right. The assignment. I drew a Post Apocalyptic San Francisco house.
It’s rough, I know. The scale on the steps is completely off. The colour is messed up. But I still got 80% on the assignment which is cool. We haven’t actually started the official environment design classes yet. (It starts Wednesday!) It took me around 10 hours to actually make this one little house and my teacher made it SO MUCH COOLER in 20 minutes.
Look at this:
He doesn’t know I have this. I take constant screen shots during my classes to keep as personal notes. I don’t show them on the blog because JOIN THE SCHOOL YOU CHEAPSKATES! But I figure since I drew 90% of this it’s ok if I show it.
The biggest thing (besides all the destruction and fire) is the atmosphere. My original is a very grey building with a red sky. The building is grey, of course. But the atmosphere would bring the colour closer to the sky colour. He says I’m going to learn all about that starting at my next class.
Here is the process for the image I made even though I hate it now.
One awesome thing though was that he thought the second step was a 3D model I found. Why is that awesome? Because I just drew it in photoshop with the magnetic lasso tool. Haha. It was only to tell me which sides faced the sun and which didn’t. Adrian told me to take it as a compliment so I will, by golly. He said the perspective had to be pretty good to make it look like an untextured model.
Ok that’s all.
Love Michael
Diary!
I’m back to the ol’ blog but this time I actually have a finished assignment. Ok, technically only half of the assignment is finished. I still have a cityscape to draw. Details, details. But the rabbit is done.
Woo! This is probably the most textured character I’ve ever done. I’m sure there are lots of technical bits that I screwed up on but I really really tried to think out what I was doing while I drew this. I hope it shows.
And of course, the obligatory animation:
I want to actually record a drawing from sketch to full render but I start and stop drawing so often I’m not sure how it’ll work. Especially with all the experimenting/screwing up I do I might not want people to see my process. One day though.
Here are all the steps un-animated if you really want a closer look.
I’ll be assigned a new assignment in about 2 hours so expect a lot of posts coming up. I still have to do the cityscape from last week. (Don’t judge me!) But after this week I’ll be all caught up again.
Michael
