Animal Drawing - Final Week

To see previous weeks, click Week 1. Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5. Week 6, Week 7.

For week 8, the lectures were about prehistoric animals and some rendering.  Finally, I'll have my weekends back. It's been really challenging 8 weeks, because I didn't have much time to do more research and sketches to understand the process, with only the weekends to do it.  And yet, I still enjoyed doing these assignments.  The subject of drawing animals is really very broad, and for 8 weeks, it's just scratching the surface. There's just so many different kinds, types, species of animals one can learn about, that it's a lifetime's worth of study.

I also got sick this week, so I only managed to these.  Artrage 4 had been the program I've been using in doing all of my assignments.  Here's what I've done.

   

Animal Drawing - Week 7

To see previous weeks, click Week1, Week2, Week3, Week4, Week 5, Week 6.

Week 7 is all about birds. Understanding a bit of their anatomy, how their wings look, folded and in flight; and how to draw them using simple shapes.   But because I've been busy at work this week, including Saturday, I only get to finish 3 birds.

Here's what I've done. ( click to enlarge)

Animal Drawing - Week 6

 To see previous weeks, click week1, week 2, week 3, week4 . week 5

For week 6, the lectures and assignments are about  drawing  unusual shaped- animals.  These are the fishes, and reptiles. It's also about how much or less details, textures are indicated so as not to kill the drawings.   This is something I plan to practice on even after this workshop is done.

Here's what I've done. ( click to enlarge)

Animal Drawing - Week 5

 To see previous weeks, click week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4

For week 5, the topic and assignment was about drawing the individual and not the generic.  This means learning the different family genus and species. Or their different ages.  I focused on 2 species, dogs and tigers, specifically the Labrador Retrievers and Siberian Tigers. I decided to draw them in their different ages and observe how their appearances change.

After learning how to draw animals through the process of  gesture, construction, and anatomy it's now time to complete the drawing with some rendering. There are many ways to go about it. but since I don't have the time to explore different techniques, like crosshatching, I decided to just simply do a wash technique for the shadow shapes and a few whites in some areas. 

Here's what I've done... (click to enlarge)

Animal Drawing - Week 4

To see previous weeks, click Week 1, Week 2, Week 3.

For week 4's topic, it's about active and passive muscles, and animals in action, and being able to draw animals from gesture, construction, and with muscles overlay.  For my assignment, I concentrated mostly on dogs and a cat. I chose photos where there's interaction between animals.

Here's what I've done. ( click to enlarge)

        

Wk 6 Digital Painting - Mood boards & Making Dragons

     This week, for the first part of the assignment, we were to take a subject we don't like, then redesign it, by creating moodboards- a collection of images where we can show the concepts we have in mind, in re-envisioning the subject we chose. For the Mastering Animals part of the assignment, we were to design a dragon.

    While researching for this, I came across some paintings of Saint George Slays the Dragon, typically depicted like this....A knight riding a white horse, about to slay a dark-colored dragon, with a spear or a sword, while a princess looks on from a distance. The dragon represents evil, while the princess represents different virtues

     I'm not much into dragon fantasy, so I'll consider this as my Not My Favorite part of the assignment. I thought this concept would fulfill both parts of the assignment. While collecting costume, look and style references for St George and the dragon, I envisioned St George as a hero archetype, well-built, good-looking, in dynamic poses, inspired by Frazetta's paintings. And I thought a bigger dragon would be more menacing and and dangerous.  I also thought of changing the typical staging, into a more cinematic and dynamic composition.

      Quite an ambitious task. Not sure if there'd be enough time. So I decided to just focus on designing the dragon, and see how I go.  So here's a few sketches I did, using reptiles like crocodiles, iguana, komodo dragon and other reptiles as the basis, which is similar to the story, but I haven't decided if  it would have wings or not.

  
     Halfway through my research, where the typical dragon I see were the big, ferocious, fire-breathing monster kind. I felt overwhelmed, so I changed my mind about the whole concept and decided that instead of scary-looking, ferocious, flesh-eating monster, I'll go for a pet dragon instead, much smaller and cute.  So I started to play around with this new idea and came up with two designs and a little character personality and descriptions:


     Still maintaining the bat wings, the first one is a combo of Camel/Llama, with Lion body and Tiger stripes, plus serpent tail, lined with spikes.  This dragon is a small one. Not very strong due to his small size.  Doesn't spit fire but spit a lot of foul-smelling saliva.  Haha.   Can fly very fast. Smart and funny, and talks about a lot of good knowledge but also a lot of nonsense.  Pretty much a good pet and friend to any young wizard-in-training. Eats a lot of fruit, particularly berries. I haven't decided the colors yet. Will play around as I go.

     
 

     The second one is a Hippo Dragon, a combo of Hippo head, and a  fat puppy -like body, covered with reptile spots. and has reptile tail. Also lined with spikes. His feet have claws. Also have bat-wings but too tiny to really help him fly. He can glide though if he jumps-off from a high place then sort of glides down. and flies more like a chicken. Really pathetic. That's why he's sad-looking.    But a real darling and puppy-like.  A good pet too.  But don't get fooled for his real power lies in his strong ability to let out a big yawn with fire, that easily disintegrates anyone who mistakenly cross his master. Ha!

     So... I find myself developing these pet dragons further, and now enjoying it. I refined the drawings a bit more. and also realized that my original Hippo Dragon sketch, didn't actually look like a Hippo, but more like a Rhino, So I revised it to look more like a Hippo now.  I started to do a grey scale study of it. And played around with some colors, but haven't decided with a final one.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

     The thing I like with starting in grey scale, I can play around with colors.  And so I did.  Here's what I came up so far.  Since Hippo Dragon is more of a pet than a menace, I decided to give him some bluish colors with touches of pinks. His spikes are translucent. His personality is more on the quiet, timid, shy type, but he can be dangerous when angry. Remember, he's got a deadly big yawn with fire, that disintegrates any enemy.

     His wings are very thin and small for his size. It's more a remnant from his dragon ancestry.  It doesn't really help him to fly but do help him to glide down when jumping off from a high place. He doesn't fly that high, more like how a chicken fly. His ancestors were powerful dragons and they all spit fire, but since his great, great, great grandfather had been captured by a powerful wizard and made into a pet, the succeeding generation of dragons had been very docile and their powers unused, their flying skills undeveloped.  Thus gradually became almost useless.  Except for the spit-fire power.  It never went away, but would now require him to be really, really, really angry for that to happen.

     It's quite a challenge, since his personality doesn't lend him to get angry easily. But one thing that does, is if anyone harms his master. A true loyal and protective pet, he is. Definitely a good companion for any young wizard-in-training.

Here's Hippo Dragon in color.... (click to enlarge)

     So, I started the week, not quite sure if I would enjoy this assignment. Having to do a subject we don't like and turn it into something we like.  I think I succeeded. I like this dragon. Although he may undergo some more changes if I develop him further.

     And what about St. George Slays The Dragon concept?  Hmmm...  I'm not abandoning that concept quite yet.

     To see previous weeks, click here : Week 1, Week2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5

Wk 2 Digital Painting - Head Value Study And Animal Drawing

     For the longest time, it's been my desire to learn how to paint digitally in Photoshop. Now that I have the time, I started taking an online digital painting course last week. Even though I'm not exactly a beginner in drawing, I am a beginner in digital painting especially in Photoshop.  I am pleasantly surprised, that I became comfortable with Photoshop quickly, after learning a few tips on how to navigate the interface. That week was sort of a warm-up.

     

     This week, I got a taste of how it's like to paint digitally.  Oh boy.... it's was quite a challenge. I didn't realize that painting takes longer, and requires a lot of patience.  After watching my instructor's painting demo, I started to do the assignment,  Using the sketch of the Vienna statue that I did last week, I scaled it up to just focus on the head for this week.

     My first difficulty was blending.  I didn't know how to digitally blend the colors using the brush tool and the color picker.  I spent hours and hours struggling on this till my hand hurts. This was what I managed that day... She looks angry at me already. Haha... (click to enlarge)

                                                         

     The following day, I worked on it again,and managed to get the hang of blending that I was pleased with the outcome. I managed to soften her expression.  At least she doesn't look angry anymore. I blocked out the hair and arm roughly. This allowed me to focus on other areas, when I got tired of working on the face.

                                

      On the third day, I continued on. The face keeps evolving as I work on it. At one point, I painted the lips much too luscious, it looked like Angelina Jolie's lips.  I have to tone it down.  A good tip Anne told us is to flip the image to get a fresh eye. I knew that, but forgot about it until Anne mentioned it. That helped a lot. I saw some distortions and managed to fix it on this version below.

        I was pleased with what I've done with the head so far and decided to take a break from it for awhile. I decided to work on the other part of our assignment, which was to draw animals in interesting poses on a black background. So I did this....  

                                               Photo Image by Leslie Thief

      The following day, back to the head painting, I decided to finish it up already, because there's more animal drawings to do. I worked on the hair, neck and arm area, plus a bit of the background, I tried to fix the face a bit of any distortions.  By this time, my hand started to really hurt, due to my previous RSI.   I decided to leave the head study for now and proceed with the animal drawings, and if there's still time, I will work on it later.  At this stage, I was happy with the result.

                             

     So after painting intensely for a few days by now, drawing animals was a welcome break.  I enjoyed drawing them that I drew 6 more animals over two days.

                               

Photo Image by Draco Art Stock

Photo Image by Draco Art Stock

Photo Image by Bahaloo

Photo Image by Chunga Stock

Photo Image by Hot N Stock

Photo Image by Deseo Nocturno

      Whew.... I've finished all the assignment for this week and I still have a few days left to spare.  So, I thought of going over the head study again and see if I can polish it up a bit. After a few hours of tweaking it, I decided to let it go.  I don't want to mess it up unnecessarily.    So here is the final head value study.

     It's been a very intense and productive week for me, I started out fumbling over how to blend the colors. After hours and hours spent just figuring it out, I managed to get the hang of it by the end of the week. Not too bad.... It's not perfect by any means, but for a start, this is really, really promising. :)

     To see previous weeks, click here : Week 1

                                 

                          

Absolutely Enjoying This...

    I'm at it again - another online drawing course!   I'm taking a break from animating, now that I'm out of work and jobless again. So I should just as well use this time to hone and improve my drawing skills, and learn how to digitally paint, while avoiding getting depressed over the instability of the animation industry, and my joblessness.

    So...this time I enrolled in a Digital Painting 8-week course.  I have been waiting for a chance to do this course to finally learn how to handle Photoshop. I have been putting off learning Photoshop, because after having to learn a very technical 3D program Maya before and found it hard, learning another digital program seem daunting to my non-technical brain.

     I had some initial confusion and unfamiliarity with the user interface of PS CS5, compared to that of my instructor's CS6.  The good thing is she helped me immediately through live chatting on how to navigate and learn a few tips to help me on our first week's assignment,  After that, I was able to managed well this first week.  Fortunately for me, Photoshop isn't that scary after all.  I'm presently using Photoshop CS5 Trial version. If I eventually find that this is a program I would like to use for drawing and painting, then I'll probably invest in the full version later on.  

     I chose this course because it both involves figurative and animal drawing.  And I thought what could be a better way to learn Photoshop than to learn it by drawing and painting humans and animals at the same time, which I both like. So I'm sold! 

     For the first week, we're asked to do some exercises doing figure and animal drawings to get use to drawing with a tablet while using Photoshop.  Fortunately for me, I don't have to struggle drawing digitally with a tablet, because I have a Cintiq.:P

       These are what I've done so far.....(click to enlarge)

                            

                                 

Photo Image by Cyborg Suzy Stock

Photo Image by Lesley Thief

Photo Images by Draco Art Stock

Photo Image by Tala Stock

       I did these quick sketches below, using the Animal Practice tool from this website - Figure and Gesture Drawing  

Setting the timer for 2 minutes,

         And here's a preparatory sketch of a Vienna statue, for our week 2 lesson. Can't wait....

            ***Human and animal references used here are from http://artists.pixelovely.com ; http://characterdesigns.com; http://www.deviantart.com
    

Final Week - Fundamentals Of Character Design

      For the final week of the course, the topic was Appeal And How To Achieve It.  Clear and easy to read silhouette is the key.  Combining all the principles we've learned for the past 7 weeks, we're to do the following for the final assignment, focusing on appeal:
   1) A Raccoon that is a leader and a hero archetype, without costume,   Or a steampunk female that is a leader and hero archetype. Showing the rough and clean version.  I chose the raccoon.
   2) Rough design of two characters interacting: 
Female with an elephant- theme and story moment is students idea.  
Focus on making an appealing situation based on the clarity of silhouette of two characters as one complete strong compositional image and stimulating interaction, creating an intriguing storyline through a single image .All of this in order to make the viewer wanting to know more of what is going on.  Style is students choice.

     Here's what I've done..(click to enlarge)

Week 6 - Fundamentals Of Character Design

     Design Details and Shape Breakdown was the topic for week 5.  Nico Marlet's work is the inspiration for the week.  Our assignment was to do a master copy of one of his work,  and we're to design a dragon and his rider, in two styles -  one is a more cartoony graphic style, and another in in a more realistic style. 

     Here's what I've done...(click to enlarge)