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
    

Drawing Bambi's Head

     Disney's animated classic " Bambi " is one of my favorite Disney movie.  When I was at Disney Australia, I had a chance to worked on the sequel "Bambi 2", but I didn't have a chance to animate Bambi. At that time, I was afraid to tackle that character, not having much experience animating 4-legged animals before, and with the high quota expectations, I didn't think I could do a good job with that character, so I chose to work on Thumper instead, another favorite of mine.  I enjoyed Thumper a lot and no regrets.  Now that I'm reminiscing about it, I thought of doing some drawings of Bambi just for the fun of it. No pressure.

       So here's my accelerated speed- drawing videos of Bambi's head.   Ooh... how I wish I really draw that fast.

        
       
       

 

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 7 - Fundamentals of Character Design

      "Character Staging and Setup"  was the topic for week 7.  The assignment for the week was to do two master copies of Frank Frazetta's work in black and white, using only two values, and transitions.  And create two scenarios, that demonstrate  good composition, pose, camera placement,spacing, lighting,
1. Character detained, imprisoned, alone and hopeless (students choice of subject and setting)
2. Character heroic, victorious, superior (students choice of subject and set)
Plus a page of hands and feet.
    
     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)

Week 5 - Fundamentals of Character Design

      "Creating Forms From Abstract Shapes".  Starting with a simple, appealing abstract shapes, we're to create three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional plane. This technique utilizes an understanding of the fundamentals of tone, value, form, lighting, texture.   Carter Goodrich's work best demonstrates this technique.  So we're to do a master copy of one of his work.  He's now my new favorite.   I copied his drawing of one of the rats in Ratatouille. 

     Combining our previous understanding of shape language of visual association, character personality using body/facial expressions, we're to design using this technique, two characters -  1)  a proud, confident, heroic cowboy/cowgirl.  2) an unmotivated, lethargic, depressed four-legged animal character.

     So, here's what I've done.... (click to enlarge)

Week 4 - Fundamentals of Character Design

     Week 4 was about Character Personality. Starting with correct gesture, a clear silhouette plus understanding the character from within would help design or draw the right body poses to express character's personality and/or emotions. So that week, we were given a number of descriptive scenarios to draw.  

     Heinrich Kley was the one of my favorites and the inspiration for that week.   We're also to do a master copy of one of his drawings while studying the loose and gestural quality of his characters' poses.   I chose his famous dancing elephants.  I've always admired Heinrich Kley's drawings, but not until I was copying them that I got to see it more clearly how much personality, energy and anatomy he integrated in those anthromorphic characters. Simply awesome!  I got a glimpse of how a master artist like him thinks. I'll definitely be doing more master copying on my own after the course. Simply a fun way to learn.

      So, here are my assignment drawings.... ( click to enlarge)

Week 3 - Fundamentals Of Character Design

     Week 3 was about Visual Association.  Using the shape language of square, circle and triangle, we're to design three barbarians, one male, two females, describing the following archetypes:
- Routine, orderly, rule follower - but also timid and shy.
- Leader, proactive, aggressive -but also selfless and warm.
- Peace keeper, kindhearted - but also slightly sadistic and cynical, including their props.
Plus more sketchbook drawings, designing from life.

     David Colman always tell us, drawing or designing is more thinking than actual drawing.  By using the shape language of square, circle and triangle and combining them will achieve the design that conveys the personality and appeal of the characters. Each of the primary shapes is associated with certain meaning or evoke certain feelings, that we consciously or unconsciously perceive and understand. And if the right combination is done, good design results.
 

     So I spent most of the time thinking about the designs, poses, shapes, their meaning and doing rough sketches in the process. Part of  the challenge was to illustrate what seemed to be opposing or contradictory character descriptions like,

"kindhearted but slightly sadistic and cynical".  Wow, that really got me thinking. Nevertheless, that week's lecture have been very enlightening for me.

     As for the sketchbook drawings, I drew some animals from videos, as I didn't have enough time left. Fortunately, there's a good resource for artists like me, who sometimes can't go to the zoo. That is Rhino House. 

     I was really tired after that week's assignment.  And  in spite of my right hand becoming sore after, I totally enjoyed doing them,  (click to enlarge)

Leader, proactive, aggressive -but also selfless and warm.

Routine, orderly, rule follower--but also timid and shy.

Peace keeper, kind hearted --but also slightly sadistic and cynical.