Humanities Colored!

Hey all, colored my older post up trying to match the random rather colorful style I stumbled upon last night with Lilith. I know the process I used, but it just doesn't quite work for me here. The top left being the worst offender. I think the style I used before lent itself more towards the abstract squiggles I used to define the surface of the armor. Unlike here with everything clearly defined. I could use highlights and shadows to create forms that I just can't do here. It's one theory though, could be something else entirely for all I know. Which isn't as much as I'd like to think. Oh well more practice will iron it out hopefully.

Lilith Colored

Just couldn't stop after I did a quick greyscale. I've been going nuts drawing lately, maybe I've unlocked my inner potential? Most likely, I think I've lost some semblance of my sanity. (Or maybe it's the fact I haven't slept in over 48 hours.) No animator, concept artist I've ever met has seemed well... stable haha. Maybe that's why they can crank out all the cool stuff we see?

Paul Richards Style Test

Was looking over Paul Richard's work on Darksiders, and I felt like trying to see if I could nab his style. I believe the concept was for the character Lilith, who didn't make it in game. Took me awhile to get a feel for, but I think I got some of it down. A lot of transitions from small to large, and curves... lots of them. Also drawing the rough-in quickly to get a strong sense of flow and gesture. Then it's just refining from there I thinks. Finished it up in my Art History class tonight, and as an added bonus real notes are being taken for once haha.

Rigging HW 2

Once again here's some weekly progress I have to post for HW. Had to rig the arms and legs for 3 different skeletons. Wasn't too hard, doesn't matter about their shape. Still rigs the same way, at least for a human I guess.

zBrush Round 3

Forgot I did this yesterday. Anyways I did this before I did Death's Mask, on Friday. I was helping a friend with homework at school, and my other friend came in and asked for some help getting to know zBrush. So I showed him the basics cause he missed the first day. So I just decided to make my effort helping him, an exercise for me. Since the mouse was the only thing I had to work with, I went from beginning to end with this face only using a mouse. Which while a bit cumbersome and slow, is manageable. I didn't get the time to make ears or the eyes, but it was a fun demo to do. Once again proving my professors right, there's is no magical brush, program, or tool that will make you good instantly.

The Mask of Death

Couldn't sleep so I fired up zBrush and sculpted the Death's mask from Darksiders 2. Which I can't wait to play. Anyways no artsy stuff out of me for this one haha, wasn't my concept. I really think I could make this whole zBrush thing work for me. I've never really done stuff for fun in a 3D program until now. I really enjoyed sculpting with real clay, spent hours working with it. Figures I'd enjoy a digital version of that just as much. Turning a circle into something like this, is just too much fun. Anyways I did a quick paintover to make this into a contest entry to win a real mask haha. I'll post a thumbnail  below.

Progress....

Not much progress since my last post of this, the only real changes are around the face and shoulders. Mainly because I haven't felt like working on it as much after school started back up. I think I might do a revisioning of this piece. I was thinking expanding the shot into more of a landscape, and shrinking down the already finished work above, so I don't have to worry about details. Maybe show her destination, something like a large ruin in the distance. Who knows? Anyways, kind of bummed that I've been neglecting this after I was so excited working on it in the beginning. Oh well, who knows what the future will hold eh?

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.

Gettin' Riggy

Per request of my school's new academic director for my major and my professor for my Rigging class, I've posted a screencap of my homework to post online for all to see. Not much for me to say artistically. Gave him the best skeleton I could, as far as my rigging knowledge is concerned.

Humanities & Drawing 2

Once again Gen Eds prove how much they make me draw in such a short (relatively) amount of time. Anyways I thought I'd revisit my Mercenary Girl from almost a year ago that I posted here. Still pulling from my love of warrior women. I tried to keep my themes from the last one which were the obligatory skin-tight suit, gun, visor, and some sort of armor-like bits. I also added a re-modified version of one of my oldest characters as like a cutesy side-kick. My favorite idea I added to this whole piece was the area of the head, shaved back to reveal a barcode. I thought it added an idea of what the world she lives in would be like. An oppressive totalitarian regime, where humans are coded and tracked? The amount of stuff I could think up to make sense of that barcode is almost endless, and a fun exercise.  The mental references I tried to use consisted of Starcraft: Ghost, Blade Runner, and more of an Anime-like set of armor. You know the fanciful, not really practical stuff, mostly that hip/waist piece I'm not sure it's entirely practical.

Anyways, I ditched most of the fanciful stuff in the smaller sketch. Simple pouches along the belt, and a leg strap with some ammunition on it. Kept the little companion, just having it is fun I think. Maybe that's why anime runs rampant with cutesy sidekicks haha. Played with some expressions for him along the bottom.

zBrush Round 2

Tinkering with zBrush again. Still no real homework for the class, but no excuse not to use such a fun program. I always seem to enjoy working with it. Also I notice somewhat inherently asian-like features in all my sculptures... maybe residual data in my brain from my years of watching anime in High School? Haha oh well, I'm still having a blast with zBrush, it's a really intuitive program and you can't help but have fun with it. Anyways, I don't really have any of my usual artistic rabble about why I did this and that for this. I just did what I thought would look decent. Can't wait till I get better at this thing!

Humanities & Drawing

         Gen Ed classes seem to be great places to fill my sketchbook. No where else does drawing seem to be so important. This probably stems from that fact that I would ALWAYS, doodle or sketch during classes my whole life. College just lets me do more, and I can still not get slammed for doing it, and still somehow passing the class as well. 

         Anyways, basically this is a priestess which I partially started over break (then finished today), and two warrior types Male and Female. All of which I tried to fit into a similar Civilization. Large blocky stripes, feathers, and a sort of overlapping of materials in the priestess dress I carried over into the armor sets.

         Partially inspired by the Gamestop exclusive Mass Effect 3 pre-order armor, and the Demon Hunter artwork from Diablo 3 (mostly just the spaudlers) were my jumping point for the warrior armor. A bit ridiculous and oversized but I think much more interesting visually than a pair of curved plates slapped onto the shoulder. I believe my design with the large sweeping curves overlapped makes a much more dramatic piece of armor, maybe not practical, but cool.

         Finding a placement for the feathers came from Star Wars: Episode I. Strange I know, but during the battle for Naboo with the Gungans riding those bi-pedal creatures, the way that the feathers/leaves/stalks whatever you want to call them, stood out in a way like they were attached to the Gungans, and not the animals. Which after I quickly sketched them out on the spaulders, looked good. Also I felt made the armor more mystical or spiritual. Something more than just an average set of armor.

         As far as details go, the only real thing I added was the large blocky stripes along the armor. Without which, looked pretty empty. It's surprising how a simple shape can make something look so much more chaotic/complex. It's also very bold and striking, like poisonous animals, their coloring let's you know they are there, and deadly.

         The female version I didn't change too much. I mostly scaled and shrank everything down, and tried to make it more curved and not as blocky in places. Also removed the belly armor, cause in fantasy women don't need it apparently. Also the gauntlet feathers are gone (Only one is visible on the male). The biggest change took place in the spaulders, and head. I moved the feathers so that only one is on each layer of armor, and placed one on her hood (Looks kind of like a quail). To give a different silhouette from the male armor. The hood itself is two separate pieces, the inner hood is like a normal one, and is attached to the collar piece of the armor. With a larger hood covering that, and attached to the innermost piece of the spaulders which I don't think I really conveyed that well. The last little change was a mini sort of banner that hangs from the shoulder piece, something I always used to attach to my armor drawings for years.

          I also added a lance of sorts. It is attached to the gauntlets, by fabric wrapped around the gauntlet and the lance's shaft. (She is carrying two of them if it isn't clear.) I wanted to add a weapon for the guy as well, but I couldn't find a way to make it work on the paper. So just imagine him with a large claymore or axe. 

zBrush Round 1

          So Monday I delved for the first time into zBrush, for my Character Modeling class, fully expecting it to be a harrowing and hate-filled tangle with a new program. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised when I used it that was incredibly intuitive, at least to me. Plus, it was a total blast to use I spent all my break time fiddling with different settings and brushes. I can honestly say I've never felt so... happy to use a 3d program in my life. I've used 3Ds Max, and Maya but nothing that I could pick up and run with like I did with zBrush.
          Anyways, this is starting to sound like a really lame love letter to a bit of programming, but I think this is possibly what I want to do with my major. Character Modeling, guess I'll see if that still holds true by the end of this quarter. Having a fun professor doesn't hurt either.