A few things

What a week. I'm in the middle of a bunch of projects in various states of finish/ unfinish so let's start off with a comic I did about a month ago after I found out I'd won the IGDA scholarship to go to GDC:

I actually do a 5x a week comic strip for my undergraduate campus paper, and have done it for 5 years now. These days it... sometimes isn't 5 times a week. Things are pretty busy now. This one made me laugh in post though, since after having gone through GDC I think my stress and concern was actually somewhat well-placed. But in the end it turned out okay, so at least there wasn't a horror story postmortem comic that followed it up.

Things I've been working on the past couple days. The triumphant return of grandpa robot legs:

My classmate gave me the assignment wrong so I had to redo him. That sort of thing would have likely ticked me off in the past, but I'm starting to realize the more times you draw something, the better you get/ it ends up looking. I like this grandpa better than the one from last weekend. Maybe I'll just continue drawing grandpa robot legs for the rest of my life, and he will become my magnum opus.

Or.... maybe not.


Color studies:

The pink one is likely to haunt my nightmares.

Also some quick sketches of tram/ monorail car ideas. Vehicles aren't my strong suit, but I would like to improve at them, and I'll be doing a tramway system as part of my thesis if it gets approved.

So I'll probably look at those tomorrow and start refining/ doing some more iterations on that.

Drawin' fool

2 paintovers with no glasses:

One with glasses on:

One revisited paintover with new elements from imagination, 1 hour:

One paintover composited witha piece of the below thumbnails, done without glasses (1 hour)

And new environment thumbnails:

5 hours, 5 more paints + gun thumbs

 

So I hear you like thumbnails

...Actually I have no idea what you like. Do you like thumbnails? Because the soup d'jour is thumbnails.

I've been working on an interpretation of Old Man and the Sea for a club project. I'm resetting the story in a location where the old man is a member of a desert steppe village and hunts rogue AI machines with a harpoon gun on some kind of sand ship. It's not really a concrete idea yet, but I think it's going to be sort of a technological fantasy. I like the idea of a lone elderly hunter taking down killer robots with a harpoon gun, something about that resonates with me as especially bad ass.

So... I looked at a lot of references of fishermen. I wanted him to be ripped, but in a 65 year old sort of way. I was surprised at the sort of guns for find on older guys who haul nets for a living. I'm not sure we know much about the Old Man's past, but I like the idea that he was attacked by a robot  resulting in the loss of his leg(s) and so he tracked that robot across the dune sea, slew it and used it's legs for a prosthesis. A leg for a leg!

Also I've been doing some robots. I have three separate projects right now involving robots of different types so it's looking to be semester of the robot. Probably good for me. Girls don't usually grow up drawing robots, they grow up drawing horses and stuff. Oh wait, I'm rubbish at horses too. I'll just show myself out now.

 

So, just a variety. I'll be modeling one in Maya and that needs to be bipedal in a generally humanoid shape. The lower hunter type robots I was thinking of for the above project. Just brainstorming for now.

Messing around

I recently picked up a copy of Doug Chiang's Mechanika. I haven't done much with markers since undergrad, so I thought it was a good opportunity to flex the atrophied marker muscles and try some simple sketches.

Nothing too fancy, but the technique in the book was simple and really clean so I think I'll keep practicing. I miss drawing on paper. All I used above were prisma color markers, micron pen and a ruler.

A friend of mine asked me to help him design a Cthulhu themed sleeve tattoo, so I've been doing some reference research. I saw some interesting designs of morbid looking trees, and so I pumped out a little doodle that I ended up kind of liking:

ALIENS!

No scene painting yesterday (Saturday) because I went to the pride parade and that took up a chunk of my morning. Pretty intense, I haven't seen that much man junk since I took life drawing. Then today, I wanted to take some time and finish one of my personal assignments for my portfolio. It's not done in that I haven't done the male version in polish yet, but I thought I'd post what I have for the time being.

One of the things on my list that I'm working on this summer for my portfolio is to design a humanoid alien race. I've been working on it all last week and I narrowed in on what I wanted until I was pretty happy with the concept. Where I started was that I wanted a race that would be suitable for a game and would be something that players would find attractive, so it needed to have humanoid characteristics while still being alien. This was the rough framework. From there I started looking at pictures of different animals. I ended up with a lionfish and a mudskipper and thought it would be a fun idea to have an aquatic species that appeared to be in the process of evolving from water to land. I threw in a little octopus to keep it aquatic and push the alien side. Here are some of my concept sketches:

Lots of suction cups, camouflage markings, webbed digits etc. I threw in a tail because I thought it pushed the whole evolution-in-process idea. At the same time I kept the silhouettes very idealized human. As I worked I developed a concept for the race as a whole:

These people were exposed to space flight by other alien cultures, they didn't invent the means to travel off world themselves. Their society is tribal and it was determined that no male of the species would lower himself to leave the world to parlay with the interlopers, so the females became delegates for the species. This has become extremely attractive to the females of the species, who enjoy a sort of empowerment off world. Many do not return. Males generally only leave if exiled.

While the species can exist for short periods outside of water, for prolonged periods of time they need to either undergo surgery to adapt their lungs to oxygen or wear head pieces. These head pieces serve two purposes: they recycle and filter water to allow their gills to breathe and they also provide an environment for their kelp-like hair. If the hair fully dries, the follicles will seal and the hair will never grow again, so the head piece is necessary if they wish to retain their hair. Because it is taboo, if a male leaves he shaves his head and adapts his lungs as a rite immediately, knowing he can never return. For females to cut one's hair is unthinkable, it would be like going native in the worst way. Women of the species are usually very proud and outgoing off world, probably as a counter to their oppressive culture.

 

Once I decided on the general look, I went through several types of eye shapes and head pieces. I worked on the coloring, I wanted something aquatic, but not too stereotypically aquatic, so I went more for green than blue. I ended up with a look that is somewhat salamander-esque. The body is covered in markings and suction cups. For the eyes I wanted something large like a fish, but still not creepy looking. Despite trying a number of shapes I went for something pretty human, just because straying too far made her look odd and unattractive.

Finally I played with different costumes and color schemes for clothing. Because of how proud they are, I thought bright colors would be best. These are not intended to be clothing for the culture, but rather off world clothing shared by a mix of alien societies. The center is my favorite. I wanted a look that was sexy but also strong and proud.

They are still a work in progress, but they are coming along.

Must... keep... drawing (Drawing for 6/24)

Something a little different today... I decided to do a drawing from a thumbnail I sketched last night. I always keep paper on my desk, so when I'm doing stuff on the computer I can doodle, like while mail loads or during a game cutscene. I did a little sketch of a corridor and thought it would be a fun thing to try for my drawing today. Also it put composition totally in my hands, which was good for a change.

The sketch:

Simple, but it has potential.

I liked the angled windows, I thought it looked sort of futuristic. I didn't use any real references, just some different concept art pieces to look at how people applied brush strokes, nothing huge. I did start differently though - given how geometric it was I decided to do some hard lines in black down first.

No, it's not vector. Don't insult me.

Then I just sort of went for it from imagination. I've played a lot of sci-fi games so I just drew off my impressions of what I thought an observatory type deck could look like.

Working in gradually. The scariest stage for me.

Details are where the fun starts.

It's sci-fi, so we'll shine it up a bit.

It was a nice break not trying to copy anything. I think the fun I had came through in the end result. And there wasn't any freaking leaves! Sometimes children, we just need to put the leaves away. For a little while.

The concept was an observation corridor on a space station or ship. I thought using the windows to project information would be fun, so if you were looking out the window it would help you observe star data or orbital information or what have you. Maybe you could just browse youtube. I don't know. :) I think it came out reasonably well.

Guns. Lots of guns.

I've been working on some guns today. I operate a separate blog devoted to my 5 props a week challenge, which is just a way to coerce myself into drawing things I don't normally spend time thinking about. The link's at the top of this page if you're interested.

For this week though I didn't want to stop at five... Like it or not guns are a huge part of prop design I'm while I have yet to work in an industry setting I'd be willing to bet good money that no project is going to have anyone just design 5 guns. More like 500 if you're working on a game. (I kid, but... not really)

The first thing I think about when designing a prop is who I'm designing it for. What is the setting, what sort of person is using the item, what is it's purpose, what would I want the viewer or player to feel when he/she interests with the object? All of these things are important. Since I'm into design and I'm not an officianado on guns in any practical sense I try to design something that looks plausibly functional, but most of my energy goes into shape and silhouette.  If you want something to be cute, the shapes you use have to be cute. If you want something to be cool, the shapes have to reflect that too.

For the guns I drew today, I wanted to design something futuristic and cool. When I think about guns, I think about them from the standpoint of a player of video games. When I pick up a gun in a game I want it to have that awesome factor. If you use a gun in a game you're usually unleashing some serious righteous (or sometimes senseless) fury down on someone, and the gun should reflect that whether it is a pistol or a shoulder-mounted nuke launcher. Guns should have some menace to them, they're tools for killing. The setting in my mind was future, but nearish future. I figured the sort of person who might use these guns could be military or possibly a freelance professional.

As I've mentioned before, I use a lot of references. For these guns, I used photos of real guns. Then, since I knew the feel of the setting I wanted, I pulled some elements from District 9, Mass Effect and Halo, as well as from some other sources. I feel a little guilty using other concept art as a reference, it's something I try to avoid. For guns though it's a little difficult and I'm still trying to understand shapes and function so the additional references really help. I work hard to interpret what I see not just copy shapes, but there are times where I feel like I'm cheating a little too much. I suppose I'm just self conscious.

I tried to design a range of weapons including hand guns, SMGs, sniper rifles, assault rifles and even a shotgun and a shoulder-mounted canon. These are the rough sketches, so I'm hoping to apply some photoshop magic to them tomorrow or Sunday to  get them looking polished and colored.

Heads practice

On my path of practicing the male body structure I've been cranking out some more heads. I'm trying to do 50 heads by Tuesday. I'm also trying to spend no more than about 10 minutes on each one, focusing on learning facial structure by observation and repetition. Given that MLG Columbus was this weekend and I'm focusing on male structure, I thought it was a nice opportunity to do some sketches of the pro gamers and casters from the tournament. I drew from photos to concentrate on accuracy, but given the limitations of speed drawings, I can't say I was super proud of the "finished" drawings.

Here are some of the photos I used:

EG Idra

EG INcontrol

Dignitas Naniwa

OGS MC

I basically just did a google image search of many of the gamers and casters from the tournament. Here are how the drawings came out:

Ugh. I know they're quick but I'm still feeling discouraged.

Even though they weren't bad drawings, some of the proportions and likenesses weren't the best. I decided to revisit the drawings this morning and make some tweaks and polish them up a little bit. Threw them into photoshop and made a lot of proportional adjustments. I also looked at the photos again to try and improve on the likenesses.

Much more stylized.

The first set of sketches were sort of idealized realism. I'm really working on a shift in my drawing style to something better suited for more typical "concept art." In my revisions I reverted to my more typical style, but I've still been working to enact some changes by making things sharper and more angular. I'm going for more "cool" and less "cute," with fewer organic shapes. 

Overall I'm pleased, but I still feel like I have a long way to go.

Male figure practice

I've been drawing the male figure from photographs. I think it's going pretty well.

His legs are still a little long

Some of the references for these poses were from here

I have an unfortunate habit of drawing legs too long and making them too narrow. I think it comes from drawing so many women. Whereas a woman's figure is more forgiving of this bad habit, it really sticks out when I draw a man. I also have a few issues when it comes to smoothly drawing male shapes, so I figure learning by repetition might be just what the doctor ordered.

I started out the day tracing some printed photos to get an idea from the shapes and then I started working on drawing from sight. The tracing really helped me get a better grasp of the proportions. I think I'll keep at it!

Life Drawing Dump

Week 2 of my three week live model workshop is in the bag, so here are some of my  drawings from Thursday:

2 minute drawings

3 minute drawings

5-15 minute drawings

5-15 minute drawings

When I do drawings from live models I always try to keep myself excited by imagining them as characters or doing real things. Sometimes I will put costumes on them or transform them in some way. Sometimes I will alter the pose a little and use it as a reference instead of limiting myself to the model's repertoire of poses. (Some models are better than others but you need to make the most of each session!)

I've also been really detecting a pattern in my weaknesses and I think I need to strengthen my understanding of the male body. Now that I'm done with my 250 feet I think I'm going to try to knock out a bunch of fast figure drawings of men from photographs. At least there is the MLG Columbus StarCraft stream to keep me company while I draw... ;) Wish me luck!