Winter is Coming

After my last post I just had to make another one just so I could use the line from Game of Thrones. So, here we go with Winter.  I'm not too happy with the pose, I tried to get more of an extreme twist from her torso to her waist. I ended up scrapping that because I didn't want to end up spending hours noodling the pose till it was just right. I didn't want to copy the pose I did for Summer, but after putting them together in the second image, I don't think it would of been too bad. Colored Winter just like I did Summer, also colored lines are make things pretty nice lookin'.

Anyways I quickly stuck Summer and Winter together in one image. Kinda surprised that it worked so well, at least I think it kinda looks neat. I also didn't realize how much taller Winter would end up being. Wasn't my original plan to mash them together, but it works. Who knows I might just finish up this lady/swimwear/firearm/season theme I've started with these two. I mean I'm halfway there already haha, just Spring and Fall should be fun to do.

Still Alive

Hey all, sorry about not posting for like a month. Just been busy with school and more importantly the first of my portfolio classes. Which also means I will eventually be thrust out into the world to find some form of employment, kind of a scary thought the more I dwell on it.

Anyways, here's some head studies I did yesterday. One of my friends posted one the other day and it got me all fired up to do something in photoshop. It really made me see how rusty I was at painting and that faces are still something I need to focus on more. Especially since I'm aiming my portfolio for character modeling.

So, both studies are of the same girl/ref which you can check out on the poorly updated, but always useful Characterdesigns.com Did the greyscale in like 40mins, I think the color took me considerably longer. Your art skills are like a good knife, you have to take care of it or it dulls.

I'll try to update a bit more, I know I have some drawings laying around somewhere. Just have to find them. There's also a super awesome new zBrush sculpt in the works so you anonymous viewers can look forward to that.

Death con Color

Tis' Colored! Got done yesterday, and today I see all the problems with it. Mainly with the back of his torso, it's crazy dark as is. I guess it looked better the other day or something. Which is why it's a good reason to get an outside opinion of your work, or just take a break and come back to your work. Seeing things with fresh eyes helps out a lot when your doing anything. I've probably spent over 50+ hours on this thing, and it took me a good night of rest to see problems I couldn't see yesterday.

Anyways, I'll probably go back and tweak this some more, fix the back, and also try messing with some color choices. I tried to keep to the color scheme I was referencing, but the boots and gauntlets (that I made up) were from a different 'armor set' and don't quite mesh with the colors as they are. It could even be a design issue, and I think that's the main reason. The boots are a completely different style compare to the waist armor, and I think that's what breaks it. Might just have to go back and remodel those.

Just when I thought I was done, I find more work I have to do haha. Reminds me of the quote from Leonardo DaVinci - "Art is never finished, only abandoned."

Darksiders 2 Death

Been awhile since I posted, but only for a lack of material to post. So wow... almost 1k pageviews again and I'm getting hits from places like Kenya haha. So thank you again to all you anonymous vistors. Hopefully the amount of work/me rambling about art stuff in this post will tide me over for awhile again.

Anyways, here's my sculpt of Death from Darksiders 2! Did it in less than a week as well, I would of taken longer if I had more than a week to do it in. As you may or may not be able to tell I had to rush through some stuff just to get it done. I would of liked to of figured out how to make certain armor pieces as I saw them in the concept work, but I didn't have the time. The gauntlets however are of my own design, as I couldn't find something more than simple, and less than epic in the images I looked through. I think they look like they fit in surprisingly well, but I had spent the last few days doing the rest of the armor so that helped me along with their design too.

Doing my best to nail the art style was also quite a challenge. Only going off the concept will get you so far, you really have to look at some normal anatomy also to figure out what 'that muscle' looks like so you can exaggerate it properly. Case in point I did not realize that the muscles over his shoulder blades were actually his shoulder blades, till I looked at some normal stuff and saw that those were the exaggerated muscles on your scapula. It also does not want to obey the normal rules of proportion most of the time. To make the head look right I had to extend the neck up quite a bit, but overall it looks right doesn't it? Having your own style is cool and all, but the rules are there for a reason. However, knowing when to break them is quite possibly one of the most important things you could learn.

Anyways his coattail/kilt parts (I don't know the proper name) aren't ragged yet cause I figured it would be easier to do when I make my low poly version with some alpha maps. Speaking of which, this almost 4.6mil poly model will be pretty useless unless I can get a nice low poly version finished. Which is also my next challenge as well as unwrapping/texturing this whole thing. Wish me luck!

Superheroes!

Well once again I've somehow become art director on another Flash Animation based class. My story pitch sadly lost by one vote, and I wasn't able to do my sequel I've been itching to do for Desperado since I invented that character. Instead we're diving into some serious dramatic territory with a superhero story.

The story is fairly cliché and I couldn't really stray from conventional hero types. So I got down a quick and very sketchy generic hero body type, and tinkered with it. So here are the three I did, a sort of Commando Samurai Jack, Deadpool-ish masked hero, and finally a hero who's inspiration I can't even recall anymore. I want to say a hero or villain that had bird-like overtones in the costume.

Anyways the other guys in our group that actually were assigned to design the hero/villain came up with plenty of fun designs of which we more or less got our characters finalized. Hopefully our team which is much larger than it was for Deep Blue Sky, will really pull this off well. Guess I'll see what happens in about 9 weeks.

Also my heart goes out for the victims of the TDKR shooting in Aurora, Colorado. That kind of stuff just pisses me off, six and nine year olds there to enjoy a movie gunned down by a nut case. It's just not right.

A Pretty Face

I've realized lately, I've been drawing nothing but some really generic faces. They literally feel all the same, and while every artist develops their own sort of default face for men and women I felt like I needed to draw more of them from reference. I kind of worked myself into this spot since most of my boredom sketches are all about glorified muscular definition and I've never really focused on the face. So yesterday afternoon I had some time to kill, and

Anyways I felt like I should focus on faces for awhile when I have the chance. So yesterday afternoon I had some time to kill, and sketched this up.The reference for this comes from http://characterdesigns.com/ which is a great reference resource, and while he doesn't update much anymore there are more than plenty of images to practice anatomy, some clothes, and props. Go to the left, and click on 'photosets' under 'Archives'. I forget which set this is from but you'll recognize it if you find it haha.

Anyways that's all I got for now. I just realized I haven't slept since 6am yesterday and it's 5:30am now. Time to get some sleep. Also wow I'm at 5.5k views already and I haven't even posted for awhile. I think this is probably the most popular web-thing I've ever made on the internet haha. Thanks again to all you anonymous visitors.

Anatomy Drawin'

Again here's some forgotten sketches I found from last quarter. Practicing my own little brand of anatomy I suppose. Been really messing up lately, I hadn't really watched Anime for like a year and I binged on it over my break. Consequently my sleep schedule is messed up and I'm drawing legs much longer than I usually do. The stuff you watch really influences you! Which is why it's important to always practice your basics, and do Life Drawing. 

Even a sharp blade dulls without sharping! Practice Practice Practice!

Mystic Girl

Here's a sketch from like 3 weeks ago, I completely forgot it was in my sketchbook. Anyways, I don't think I had any idea in mind when I drew this out. Just kind of attacked it from an artistic vacuum, which comprised of me going "Hmm...I think this looks neat" as I drew random shapes on top of the anatomy to form her armor. I think it fits together well considering I had no direction in mind.

It's really nice to draw like this once in awhile. Remembering all your techniques and design philosophies you learn in classes/books takes it's toll when you draw. I believe one of my professors explained to me roughly as your brain draws it pulls on all you've learned sub-consciously, and when you consciously think about those things, it hinders you.  When you draw without letting all your training take up your brain's RAM (Processing) I believe you create much easier.

Life Drawin'

Finally got a chance to drop by my school's Life Drawing Club on Thursday last week. Here's the best one or rather the best two of the night.

Of things to come...

Figured I should post one more thing. This isn't the whole image, but a preview of something I'm working on. It should be pretty epic by the time I finish. I think it covers all the basics when creating an epic looking poster. Can't wait till I finish it, I'd post all my progress right now but I have a habit of not finishing something when I do that haha.

Art History Sketches

Well these are my sketches from my Art History class, a lot of stuff in class so far as focused on those classical greek statues, among other things. Anyways it seemed to make me want to draw my own. So I did. No real design stuff with these, just anatomy. Which reminds me I should take another look at proper anatomy on the back again.