A Musing ... A Muse ...

Sometimes you have to go away to make a comeback. I was in need of some recharging, plus I started a new job. Can't live off of savings forever (yet!). A culling took place over the past few months in which I began to examine and eliminate certain habits, practices and people that were impeding my growth (so long, alcohol ... I see you over there looking withcha looking @$$, vegetarian/veganism). In the end, we're the only ones getting in the way of ourselves.
       I've just entered my "sophomore" year of curated self-study (everything before wasn't well organized) and have my eyes set on Chris Oatley's Magic Box, New Masters Academy, Watts Atelier online courses and Scott Eaton's Anatomy course. I've been yearning to write (arcs and stories for a few game worlds) and create music. It's to the point where the few lucid dreams I had over the past month are entirely sound (music). I also need to organize my game ideas a little better. I have categories/sub-categories, but I jot them down in chronological order. An official Game Design Doc needs to finally come together. My heart feels scattered. Time to rein the wreckage in a bit more and continue building the me I see.

For some reason, images with more than one figure seem a bit easier to make. What sucked was the low resolution of the canvas. When I zoomed in or wanted to blend a bit more it just got pixelated and messy, so ...

... I made sure to up the PPI (pixels per inch). This one had 1200 PPI, but I had to resize it for the blog. Just some randomness and three female head studies. In my anatomy studies, I didn't cover the muscles of the head. To be remedied soon.

The Tensor Fasciae Latae is hard to observe in a model unless they have really low body fat and somewhat pronounced musculature. Gives me a bit of trouble sometimes. The Gluteus Medius region, also.

La Grande Belleza - 35% of Studies from January

That movie didn't hit me until after I watched it. Definitely buying the soundtrack. Watch the movie before you listen to it. And that dive I took into Painter almost drowned me. I'm sticking with what works for me and countless others (Photoshop). My focus went from foundational art skills to trying to get comfortable with new software (Sketchbook Pro and Corel Painter). None of them beat a sketchpad and pencil (yet) ....

Between the end of December and beginning of January I did about 230 gesture drawings. This signaled the end of the first round of anatomy studies I did for the few months prior. Wanted to get back to doing full figures instead of focusing on specific areas of the body.

I hadn't drawn heads for a good while. I think did around 30 in January. I used the head construction method (think it was Loomis' method). Circle, halve it, increase length by 50% (which would give you thirds), etc.

Ballerinas are great reference for figure drawing. Not only are they fit, which is great for observing the dynamics of anatomy in motion, but their poses (or at least the ones captured by the photographer) almost have a sort of built in gesture to them.

Is the flesh/fat around her pec area tucked back and under her arms? Or did I make that part a bit too narrow? Little bit of both. And that guy is just short ... not like I made his head a little too large or something.

Chose images with head tilts because I can't do them well. The bent leg still gets me a little, but I'm much more comfortable now that I know how the femur, patella and tibia (even you little fibula) work together and with the muscles of the leg. 

I just felt like it. Currently going through some Vilppu videos, but stopped halfway through to get back to Photoshop. Went through some basic tutorial vids to get back up to speed and will view a few on brush settings before getting back to figure drawing. I'll check back in in a month or sooner.

Took the Dive into Painter X3!

I've been going 'HAM' on Painter X3 the past few days. I only paused the tutorials (Aaron Rutten on Youtube) to experiment on my own with certain things. I stopped altogether this weekend to work on a piece. Seeing as how Painter appeals more to traditional artists I resolved to not use the same techniques I used in Photoshop (building up opacities). I may have been using it the "wrong" way, but the Dry Palette Knife was my best friend when it came to blending.

Everything was on one layer except for the unfocused background  (and wayward strands of hair behind her ear) and her bang. I have to stop forgetting to use more layers. Certain fixes are harder to do on just one (areas around the eyes and the edge of her neck).

Experimenting with all types of brushes and found two I kind of like. Just doodling.

Different Strokes ...

Sketchbook Pro 2011 isn't the friendliest digital painting program when it comes to blending and brush strokes. Could be me and my Wacom Bamboo, but the quality of my quick pieces are better in PS. It's probably me, though. May finally dive into Corel Painter this week. Heard good things about it ...

A few studies done over the past few days. Trying to keep the strokes simple.

Crashed Near the End of January. Emerging From the Wreckage. Eh, Just Another Superhero Origin Story :)

I scanned about 30% of the studies I completed in January. I started with +200 gestures, did around 20 faces and some figure drawings. Before I start cloth I'm going to do value and light/shadow studies. This is an area I don't have much experience in so I'll spend as much time as I need to before moving on to cloth and color.

This is from February and done in Sketchbook Pro 2011 (before the 'Fill Transparent' tool, argh!). Lacking a lot of the functionality of Photoshop, SBP forced me to do things the long way (not being able to make selections and having a pretty useless blend/blur/smudge-type tool).

Custom brushes with low opacities were used by default. I used a pencil brush to outline and the airbrush at different sizes to add light and shadow. I've gotten a much better feel for the pressure sensitivity of my Wacom Bamboo and I'm hoping this translates to me getting the most out of the Intuos' increased sensitivity when I upgrade (later this year, probably).

To get around SBP's lack of a selection tool (like the magic wand), I'd make a new layer and draw an outline of the shape with the base color I was going to use (usually medium gray). I'd fill the space outside of the shape outline with white. The layer under it would be filled with medium gray and I'd create a new layer between these to for adding value (three layers).

I'd merge the layers when finished with all three shapes. Didn't figure out a short way to create the shadows so I wound up erasing part of layer outlining the shapes and drew the shadows on another layer under it. This shadow layer was filled with a darker color so that I could better see what I was erasing on the shapes layer.

This was a value study of a black object and a white one. I tried to add a bit of temperature to the reflected light. These studies were from cgcookie.com/concept. I've been googling more traditional sources, but haven't found a lot of resources yet. Black & white photos should do for now and I'll probably open up 3DS Max and render some primitives in different lighting setups for reference.

                 

At the Buzzer ...

  What a year. Spent a little over an hour answering year-end questions about productivity/self-improvement. I went from trying to improve portrait drawings to focusing on the anatomy of the body; from Photoshop to traditional pencil and paper so I could focus on technique without technology; from anatomy specifics to learning how to simplify the body into basic shapes. A lot of backtracking, but I still managed to get ahead.

 

 

Still have 3 more pictures of her I want to draw. 

In the spring I initially set out to have two characters modeled and textured by the end of the year. A video by Ryan Kingslien inspired me to learn anatomy. "Can't paint a house until it's built" and all that. Below are a few samples of my December efforts - legs, pelvis, feet:

FunkyMonkey1945's page on Deviant Art was instrumental in the way I now look at constructing the human body. 

Kyle Kane's style is super clean. I'd love to see his illustrations in an anatomy book.

I've built the necessary momentum to forge ahead and if there's one word I'd use to describe my 2013 it would be, 'capable'. It's important to believe that about ourselves as close to 100% of the time as possible. For years after I didn't finish school I was confused as to how to proceed, thinking I needed some external catalyst to trigger growth. After the 'incompletes' I experienced with school, the military and a relationship I've discovered over the past two years that I had everything I needed to succeed the entire time. I didn't realize it on my own, though. The books on my Facebook page played a large role, also.

     I'm currently doing gesture drawings and will probably spend January doing a 'review' of the body. I've been itching to do some life drawing so that's next. That is to be followed by cloth/drapery studies and light and shadow with color being last. I'm leaning a bit towards character design (conceptualization) as I think there's more freedom in that than just sculpting a creation someone else thought up, but we'll see. I'd prefer to do it all as far as characters (concept, sculpting and texturing - even backstory), but I can't get ahead of myself. One area at a time ...

Still Climbing, Though the Pack is Heavier

Started a new job a few weeks ago, which is physically demanding (three bruised toenails). The practice has been a bit scarce, but I'm gaining speed. My hand drawings come out quicker now. I didn't feel right moving on to legs and feet until drawing them felt less foreign. I don't understand sign language, but I do feel a new line of communication opened up from staring at so many sources.

Oh yeah, finally finished 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill. Definitely one to refer back to from time to time.