Back to Basics: Animation 101

This week I am starting off with the ...you guessed it. BOUNCING BALL! I guess this took me 20 minutes, the timing isn't great but it's my first (freehand) animation in Flash. More to come the rest of the week.

Early morning sketching

Got up early today so I did some drawing in Photoshop: I really like this drawing: The anatomy is all messed up, but I like some of the linework and specific parts:

This was quick for fun! :)

The drawing below, is a drawover I did from one of the women who goes life drawing with me. She was so into her drawings and had these amazing poses! :)

Game Background : Work In Progress

Background I'm working on between other stuff for a game project. Here's what I have so far:

This is how it started: 1) I created the lineart:

2) Then painted in the darker background tones:

3) Give the overal lighting scheme (as explored in my thumbnails which I posted before):

Morning sketch

This was a drawing I did in the morning:

Here's a wip. It's a scanned image from my sketchbook, cleaned up in Photoshop.

Mass Effect : Wrex vs Han Solo

My sketch using my new line, really liking the results so far:

These were color thumbnails I did before the sketch:

EDIT: Colored it quickly:

More color thumbnails

Sketching away

Started with some posemaniacs sketches:

I then took one of the poses (with arrow pointing to it) and recreated drawings based on that idea on the following pages:

And stories develop :)

Color thumbnails

Pin Up: Step by Step

1) I started with a drawing based on a picture from characterdesigns.com. I did the base drawing in pencil and then worked on top with a cheap stift. Bad idea because I couldn't make a nice line with that, I tried to save the drawing with an inkwash but that didn't work out either

2) Mark (Awesome animator: http://markkilkelly.blogspot.ie/) Said I should clean it up since I was not happy with it. Said it might be worth my while. So I did:

3) For fun I wanted to try a digital watercolor approach:

Which then motivated me to do a colorsketch :

Saturday Sketchin'

These drawings are color pencil with a biro on top. The two bottom figures are based on a photo, I tried to infuse them with a bit of character:

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 1

Learning from our mistakes is important! Do you look at your drawings and analyse them? I decided to once and a while analyse one of my own drawings and share my thoughts with you. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes as well.

Sketch till you drop!

Here I was...Photoshop open, ready to do some sketching. And I decided to sketch a character. Here's the outcome:

So how did it start of? Well first of all I picked a word, in this case: "strong", and as a result I drew the pose beneath. Now you will see the lineart is very rough and unappealing. This is because I drew it in a small window without zooming in. It's a sketch, so no need to get into detail (even for coloring and inking).

So I then create a new layer and the previous drawing si set to an opacity of 20%. I then ink and while I ink I draw some random clothing. I've gotta be honest, I didn't have an idea what I was drawing. It's random, it has no meaning or story. But that doesn't mean it isn't any fun!

Here are some flat colors with a lighting scheme implemented.

Sunday Sketchin'

As you know I am switching focus to animation, so I'm no longer doing digital painting but instead try to improve on my quicksketches. Here's a few doodles in Photoshop:

Color concept

Since I am still doing the Schoolism course I wanted to do a color concept. I created a fairly broad colorpalette before laying in the colors based on the drawing I did yesterday. The drawing didn't make much sense to start off with so I basically changed everything apart from the 2 center characters. I think the color palette works, so I'll call it a succes on that. In terms of painting I hate that I started painting mushrooms. they are like the most cliche piece of scenery in fantasy. At least I didn't draw an elf on it :P

Oh yeah, and then I saved it in small size so all I have to work from is this thumbnail should I decide to paint in the details! haha way to go Dave! :P

Working on a story

It's the first piece of rough concept art for a story project, The artstyle will most likely be very different, the creatures will definitely be different. But the idea of the 2 main characters will stay intact.

Here are some thumbnails:

More detailed thumbnails:

Kabang: totally random sketch

Here is the construction of this random drawing. I really really need to be more conscious about story and perspective. Two areas that I really need to improve in this year.

Mass Effect: I'll be home for Christmas

I offered to do some drawings based on existing fanfiction, the first person who came to me was LyingOwl-Aria with her fanfic : I'll be home for Christmas. I wanted to keep this quick so I chose for a simple coloring style. You can see my lineart is very rough because I rushed this one. I think something needs to go on the pink apron, but I can't think of something clever.

Featuring Garrus and commander Shepard (FemShep).

2012 in review & plans this year

This is a good time to have a look at the achievements (artistically) in 2012 and make some plans for 2013.

So let's start of with my achievements in 2012:

1. Since June I have been drawing consistently:
Before I always had a month of hard work and then a few months of doing nothing.
To get good as an artist I really think you need to be able to put in some hours almost every day of drawing. I didn't think I would be able to keep it up, but now it has become something that is as normal as eating breakfast in the morning. If I don't draw, I feel something is missing. It's become a necessity and so this is my proudest achievement this year.

2. Weekly life drawing
This is the main reason why I have found consistency in drawing, I committed to go life drawing at least once a week. And no matter if I was tired, had a migraine, didn't have time to eat. I WENT!
And every single time I have returned home motivated to draw, it's the mid week spark that ignites the inspiration and drive for the coming days. In big part to do because there are a talented bunch of artists there who I can bounce of ideas, and get new ideas in my approach to life drawing.

3. Commissions
The world as I knew it, my plans, my ambitions and goals were blown to bits in June by something that happened in my personal life. I really had to rethink my life and my priorities and the only thing I could find was..art. So I set myself a goal to start earning money with my artwork, 2 weeks later I was doing commissions and that was it. All it took was the motivation to go out and offer my services. I was really enjoying commissions but I signed up for a Schoolism course in October, and since I've been enrolled in that, I just didn't have any more time to work on commissions. I don't think commission is the way I see my career advance either, I see myself more as an artist who works as part of a team in a studio. This will covered in my goals for 2013.

4. Long poses / accuracy
In my year at Ballyfermot art college we mainly only did gesture drawing. Quick 2-5 minutes drawings. It was all about capturing the weight, the pose, the energy and it's the class I enjoyed most during my year in college there. One thing I noticed this year when I returned to life drawing after 2 years of not drawing, was that my long pose studies sucked. My 1 minute drawings outclassed all my 20 or 30 minute drawings. The proportions weren't great, the anatomy was incorrect, my line was ugly. So my mission was to get better at long poses this year, which I have achieved by constantly rethinking my approach and trying new ways of building up my drawing.

So now that we have 2012 out of the way, what are the plans for 2013?

- Continue to go life drawing at least once a week
- Build an animation portfolio using Flash by September
- Find a full time creative job in September
- Work on my book "How not to draw"
- Finish 2 story treatments I have been working on.

That's it in a nutshell! Wish me good luck and I hope everyone has a great 2013!!

Let's get the ball rolling

I can't say I had an artist block..I was suffering (am still suffering) from laziness, something I picked up during the Christmas period. I allowed myself to take a backseat, and I started playing through the Mass Effect trilogy for the second time. That's about a 90 hour gaming assignment :P

So far I managed to complete the first one and on my way through the second one, what can I say. For me it's the only game series worth playing, every other game I just get bored of. But Mass effect is a fantastic fleshed out world, with great characters, great dialogue, great story, great visuals. But yeah, I've gotta go back to drawing so after a night of drinking I came home and did some quick gestures (from imagination).

First post of the New Year, it can only get better form here on :P