Finished Roller Babe

As I predicted my next blog post would be the finished coloured women character! I showered Josh in an earlier stage of colouring and he mentioned that it was more the linework that defined the image, than the colouring itself, I understood this as even with a single layer on Photoshop with a lowered opacity shadow looked pretty much the same of the finished result,

Paint Tool SAI

 After this stage I discussed with Josh how to go about achieving the painted style I wanted from the picture I found and he suggested "Paint Tool Sai" a different painting software which has amazing blending options with brushes where you can pull and push colours into each other with a brush effect, much like the smudge tool in Photoshop however the added brush gives it a seamless look with an easily achieved great outcome
 

I tried with the girl drawing however it was proving difficult but more so confusing using this different software and the outcome wasn't very good so I decided to practice a little with some more old work, (above)

I stopped practicing however due to the essays that needed doing but now they are completed my next blog post should be the completed punk girl drawing hopefully finished by using this Paint Tool SAI

Base Coloured Character

I spent a couple of hours over the last week or so setting up the base colour for this character ready to go in and pick out the detail and definition..

While writing essays..

Since my last blog post I took a break to catch up with other work that needed to be done for the course, this work was the two 750 word essays which have been handed in today, however in the time I have been doing these essays I also decided to produce another character, this time I wanted to delve into realism, all my artwork so far has been characterized creatures and stylized people,

So while researching into artists for my essays I stumbled across this image..

I feel in love with this image imideatly, and it isnpired me to draw a simular character. I wanted to also find out how this was painted and paint my own characters in this way..

So I decided to create a bad ass girl character, and after a couple of hours and moodboarding into clothing for said character I produced this linework :

Idea test/video experiment

On Friday I decided to use the newly painted ogre creature to create a mock up for what I will be producing next year, I have been worried the effects of 2D characters in 3D environments will look out of place and not work to create a dynamic new way of presenting characters..

I create PNGs of the arms at first and animated them in after effects, Blogger hasn't allowed me to upload the video unfortunately but using a 3D environment I found online the outcome was actually quite impressive though from this test I learned that it will probably be best to do the line work for the character, place them in the environment before colouring to make sure the lighting is correct for the scene

Revisit

After experimenting with my old character sheets I also decided to go back and recolour a character I produced in my honours project, the character was a goblin like giant and as I already had the linework I used the rest of the that Tuesdays lesson to recolour it, (the old one on the left)

The new version had alot more depth to it however it lacked character which the original had, now whether thats because of the scattered brush i used on the original or the colour choice im not sure all I no is that the two outcomes have confused me greatly.. though Im really starting to get a hang of the painting technique!

With the last part of the lesson I decided to go back to an old silhouette face that I really enjoyed and felt had alot of potential however the shading I had done at the time lost the initial concept-ed Idea so I produced this quickly, already alot me in depth and true to the concept however still lacking in my opinion..

Its been a while my friend!

So alot of time has passed since I l uploaded anything on my blog however I have still managed to do a large amount of work it was just finding the time to document it on here which was difficult, so anyway.. since last time I been practicing painting as much as I can and a couple of weeks again I showed Josh a character sheet I had produced in third year of uni so he told me to colour those instead of drawing new ones as they where front facial profiles perfect for colouring

I coloured the three below first in slightly different styles, despite the sickly colours each was produced in a matter of minutes, some with the line work merged into the colour and all done with the tonal detail being a lowered opacity solid black shading

After these I practed more as the character sheet consisted of about 20 creatures faces and below are the results..

The largest one from these was the best piece of digital painting I had done so far oddly, by blending the colours into the linework and highlighting ebrow ridges with solid coloured lines and also the implementation of apposing colours to compliment it I was shocked by the depth this image had and now Im aiming to achieve this with all future works

I also key pointed the stages I went through while colouring these faces for future references

Female Painting "study"

After practicing painting the skyrim concept art peice I decided to try and paint from a photo this time so I chose a delicious female as the subject matter and began painting, after about an hours work I grew tired of the peice as so much of it was based of subtle white shades however I still felt it was a good source of research to practice

 

Artwork study and practice

So over the last couple of days I've wanted to take a already existing art piece with great lighting and copy it myself to try and pick up some techniques or whatever so I found this skyrim battle scene and decided to copy that as its lighting and coloring was stunning, The process of copying this piece was over whelming at first as the quality is much higher than my own however after an hour or so I produced this result..

Im pleased with the outcome and now im excited about producing my own battle scenes with my own characters but until I still need practice though I'm feeling as though I'm getting somewhere now I've learnt the painting technique I just need to master it!!

Animal light paintings

So in todays lesson I completed my animal painting study sheet and I'm really happy with the results, I switched brushes for the bottom three dog paintings which has given them a slightly different appearance to the others they look more painted and less blurred together with a soft brush like the others, I'm still looking for more things to practice painting and im planning on either doing 3 tone character paintings or I will take a piece of concept art and copy it to try and understand the elements of the piece I'm copying

Not really sure what I did here..

As I said in the previous post its been a while since I updated this and unfortunately due to Halloween shin digs and working Ive not had a chance to do much :( so today I had a go at coloring an old silhouette to test if I was getting any better, I kept it fast as I don't want to be precious about detail until Ive mastered the basics however Im disappointed in the result, it lacks everything the outcome is nothing like the concept for this character. *Signs*

Last weeks work

So its been a while since I last updated my blog, In last Tuesdays lesson I used scanned in sketches of character faces and went about shading them in using the same technique Josh was showing me using two solid tones to start off then blending with lowered opacity brushes and there are the results, Em still lacking in understanding of lighting etc but I'm also running out of characters to colour I'm starting to think I should practice other peoples work, coping a well light scene would help alot I'm guessing.

Anyway below is the results of my painting,

The bottom left and one up i only used three tones as Josh was sat with me at this point and he told me to take that image onto another page and work on that while still only using three tones and then add colour to it to enhance it the result below isn't a high standard but the understanding of tone works well in it so this use of minimal tones needs practice which is where I'm heading next!

Practicing a previous style

After Tuesdays lesson I've been decided I need more practice in the painting methods I've been using so I have decided I will get back into pencil and paper media and draw some more creatures and faces for scanning in and colouring but instead of drawing round the line work with a tablet I'm just going to go straight in with silhouette shading, 

However until I have produced a good collection again I decided to try more of the white drawing lined lighting in silhouettes and quickly produced the following three silhouettes and picked out lighting areas with a solid white brush

PROGRESSION!

 So today I made a massive amount of progress, practicing painted shading details, defining lighting and shading, creating brushes and blending using opacity and then finally alittle of adding colour and texture :) with help from Broady and Josh they instructed me giving me two minute tasks of adding light etc and below is the results of today's work!

I felt that without linework I was getting alittle lost with defining detail in areas as in my head they where just blank so I used a large selection of my character faces as the basis of the shading as there features where already defined due to the line work, Im very pleased with the outcome and the little amount of time it took to actually do these! I took one of them on to add more detail and blend the linework in and then josh instructed me to add colour and texture and for a quick test as im still learning im looking forward to the future of my workflow :)

On the road again

So I decided instead of waiting for tomorrows lesson I would give on of them a go with shading them using the lowered opacity brush technique and also building a custom brush with shaded spacing and soft edges, In terms of quality its not stunning but for me this is a good step forward to getting there with this type of painting style :)

New tablet practices

Over the last couple of I received my new graphics tablet so I've been testing out it out by doing some more silhouettes I've found the brush strokes alot more detailed and finer which has enabled me to get more defining characters and below is the results

I don't really rate these highly myself however I recalled a technique I used on my third year honours project where I would take sections of character faces and combine the elements I liked from them so I had a play with my favorite silhouettes from the last couple of weeks and created these three although the far right one is unchanged I just really like the posture so now I am going to take these on and try and colour them in Tuesdays lesson

Development Of practices

Since last blog update Ive had some more practices on silhouette paintings but mainly in the shading area now of the ones Ive already produced, using a lot of layers in Photoshop I worked on the silhouette below firstly, but upon showing Josh he mentioned that there was still too much line work involved and I had sort of segmented the images and colored in in sections rather than one whole image.

He also discussed with me the implication of light on a character when coloring in black and white, its importance is vital to correctly color an image, an area Im not too strong one so I took another one of the character silhouettes I made and as it is holding a fire ball its a perfect chance to practice the effects of light on the character, I also starting using lowered opacity brushes instead of just separate tones which helped but I found it had to define the shadow on the form.

While I was doing this I had a word with Broady from the MA course who is just finishing off his work now, He noticed that this wasn't the strongest of pieces and mentioned this artist below, He uses a solid white brush to pick up all the light information of the character, these examples are stunning and have inspired me to give this process a go as well, whatever helps to strengthen my artwork the better.

Below is my first attempt at this sort of style, though Ive noticed It feels like Im just picking up areas of detail from this not so much the lighting of the characters, I feel its the lack of understanding of the characters face, clothes etc that's letting me down so Im going to try on one of the characters of the group sheet on the previous blog post next.

New Character Sheet

After Fridays lesson I decided I had to get a new Wacom tablet and Im currently waiting on an Ebay for one for £30 which is a serious bargin! so hopefully I will win that, so over the weekend I decided I wanted to do some rough character sketches taking into account Items, Narrative and personality through there stances and from what I discussed with Josh you cant just sketch without a purpose so I created 6 characters on paper and then using different brushes I produced there silhouettes ready to take onto coloring in tomorrows lesson :)

Making a Change

On Friday I went into uni and decided to take on my silhouettes on to a coloring process, I watched a tutorial online and tried to follow the same technique they where and produced these three quick coloring from my selection of silhouettes..

Ive noticed then from these that certain areas of my silhouettes don't make sense upon taken into detail for example the arm joints on them don't make much sense especially the one in the middle, this however will be sorted in time and practice.

After this Josh agreed with my same theory on these coloring and watched me draw some more silhouettes and asked me if I would like a bigger tablet, Ive had the same Wacom for the last three years and haven't tried any of the newer models and I discovered Ive been a fool for not doing so..

 I played with a Bamboo Wacom tablet which is considerately bigger than mine and the results where great, I loved how the tablet felt and the sensitivity of the pen so using that I created some more Silhouettes, Also I told Josh how sketching without purpose was hard when it can to this sort of artwork so he told me to do silhouettes for a zombie like creatures and then told me to cut away at them with a square brush,

Silhouette Practice

I cant progress with my project Idea and with the research model of this project coming up my work will be based off any creative work however in the next couple of days I am going to get practice in a different painting technique as I feel its vital not only in this module but as an artist! My previous work to the MA has always been linework pieces that didn't fit the gaming concept world style so Im looking forward to practicing this technique.

That in mind i produced these two pages of character silhouettes that over the weekend I will be taking them on to monotone paintings before color.

Practice makes.. rubbish

I've decided to spend a couple of hours today practicing some artwork, first life drawing I found a helpful website that sets up stock images of nude people so people can study and draw then, it also has a timer on so I tried 1 minute firstly then 2 minutes, I also made it my goal to use my graphics tablet, Pencil and pen is my strong point and I've done alot of Life drawing over the years but never straight from a tablet, below is my results.

Left - 1 minute Practices

Right - 2 minute Practices

Face Practice

I almost forgot to upload this to here, I did this the other day as well as some life drawing exercises just get some more practice before beginning the hard graft ahead!

Ideas above my station?

After doing this research i quickly jotted down a rough idea of characters i will want to be designing and there characteristics, I listed the following 

Warrior        - Sword                      - Human Male
Mage     - Hands or staff                  - Humanoid Female
Tank     - Unarmed or Huge weapon         - Creature
Speed     - Daggers                  - Creature
Healer     - Staff or item              - Human
Defender      - Shield                            - Creature

I will also want these characters to have a purpose, a common goal and also an enemy!

huge / powerful / dark / mage / 

Possible Outcomes

4 - 8 character profile sheets completed in 3D environment

5 animated stills with music and sound fx

1 possible final battle scene between all characters also animated!

Reason

I want to do this as it incorporates every area of software and art process I need practice in,

This MA will give me a chance to define my art style, learn new painting techniques, use a software I haven't used in used which I greatly enjoyed and also its a chance to create something I feel is unique to the gaming world and will be used as an advertisement for whatever purpose the characters have for example I may decided to give it a title, something to place on all the images to fit together and build this universe they will live

I guess my next step is to confirm this with Josh and make sure this is a suitable route to go down for me as I don't know how difficult this project will be!

Types of Characters

Above is a row of varied characters from different media and I think every gamer will know certain types of character types that alot of games share, from the images above we have the following from left to right:

Mage - Vivi - Final Fantasy 9 - Obviously a magic cast given hes unarmed and sporting a wizards hat, A design that goes back to the earlier Final Fantasy games this character design is effective as its clearly a friendly character with its warm colour pallet 

Alot of games have Mage characters with the same sort of characteristics in there design, examples being items like staffs or wands, orbs and often auras around hands etc

Tank - Venom - Spiderman - Vemon is as the title suggests a tank, strong, huge and very powerful. Jet black giving off an instant appearance of evil and in terms of his design hasn't changed alot since spidermans creation

These types of characters are always built for all brawn and know brain and often are very slow as a consiquence to there power, Tanks also make great enemies in media as the hero can always out smart or out wit then even with there extreme power

The Rebel - Vegeta - Dragonball Z - This is a character that's almost forced to join the good guys to save the world, a grumpy rough character that shares little emotion to the current affairs but even so he is one bad ass dude! his attire is battle armor custom to his race 

Rebels in games are eaten up by the player! alot of gamers enjoy playing as an over powered character who doesn't give a damn about anyone, The Saints Row series has demonstrated these types of characters perfectly over the years letting the player blow up and destroy all wit ha smirk on the rebels face!

The Techy - Sam Gideon - Vanquish - This character is more of a rebel character like Vegeta however Sam is kitted out with a gorgeous mech suite, allowing him to dash round on jets through a futuristic setting, with that in mind his design works well for the clean metal futuristic look and in terms of the suit its very believable as a character upon studying it

Tech characters are almost always kitted out with high end gear or imaginative weapons and clothing, In the game Dark Chronicle the main character wields a giant wrench, a little bit of an obvious demonstration however none the less effective, Every crew of characters has a techy, after all someone has to kit the a team with equipment and weapons

The Explorer -  Lara Croft - Tomb Raider - There isn't a gamer alive today that doesn't know Lara Croft the dangerousy sexy female icon character is a explorer type, confident and strong willed and one of the most famous explorers going, Her design has been altered over the years to stay up to date with the console etc but shes famously known for her tiny shorts, light green top and of course her two pistols

Explorers are eaten up by gamers, there sense of adventure and curiosity powers them through and task or challenge that will come there way, explorers are often depicted to be carrying helpful equipment back packs, binoculars etc and are often found in ripped or dirty clothes as they have most likely been exploring some cave

Team of Heroes!

Aswell as researching into singular famous characters Ive also researched into groups of heroes as I will creating a team of atleast 5 later on in this project so I wanted to research into characters that fit together in there universe, I looked at the team in Final Fantasy 7, All the characters fit together due to how they are designed and drawn with manga like eyes and definitive hair styles 

The sonic team fits together for different reasons its obvious to the viewer that these characters belong together with there bright colours and simplistic design, big eyes etc

 I also looked at the Team Fortress team, a group of 9 guys each with different skills and abilities yet all fit together to create this team, there colour pallet is light grays and bright reds, another way to fit characters together is to give them a shared colour or or item etc to show they are together in that game universe