Time to Start Again

Right, this blog died a little bit after my second year of university. I made it to record the progress of my developing practice module. Since then I have graduated, with a first class I might add, and .... been living at home with the parents for a year or so. I've been looking at why things aren't going anywhere for me at the moment and the bottom line is - I need to work harder. I need to stop expecting things to drop into my lap and for everything to be smooth sailing. In an effort to improve, in an area sorely neglected I might add, I have enrolled in The Magic Box . A Chris Oatley class which deals in the art of digital painting. I have only just begun and I thought it would be good to track my progress here.


So watch this space, I have just begun the first assignment; 'Fancy Animals'. You have to choose a painted portrait with atmospheric lighting and then an animal to replace the head. This is right up my street as I am keen on character design, however the aim is not on design, but the next step; Colour Comp.

You can see my research for the first assignment here

Birthday

It was Neeva's birthday on Thursday, so I drew her receiving her very first birthday present; a tortoise named Terry.

(I'm grateful that blogger decided to live again)

facebook

I'm trying to churn out a picture a day for Neeva's facebook so her page is a little more interesting. I may have also started to have conversations with her.. ie myself, so we'll see what happens with that haha.

Day 1

I have had a very good day indeed. I kept to my new schedule and ticked off all my tasks for today. Yay!
Also I work the full 8 hour day today which made me feel very good. Now I get to chill out properly, until tomorrow.

This morning I got Neeva to lipsync to 'Hello' but I am finding her face quite hard to animate as it's not got much structure, not really sure what to do about it.
Then I came home and wrote my evaluation, something I was expecting to be doing all week but I think I have finished!

And then I did a picture for Neeva's facebook which is definatly the best so far --->

Holiday is definatly over...

So, with the holiday drawing to a close I realise that all that lovely time I could have been working I didn't. As a consequence the next couple of weeks are going to be hectik but productive.

I intend to finish my days with a shape challenge. This is where I have 5 shapes, the same each week, and create different things with them. Todays was simple as it was the first one.

Faces -

holiday

So I have had my lovely week off, got burned and did alot of swimming. It was good.
But I have returned to work now, and I'm happy to say that I have written my Visual Culture essay and proposal. (A big deal for me as I fine writing essays really hard).

Not only that I have done some bits for Neeva's Facebook.

Facebook

This interent phenomina is a cause for alot of my procrastination. I didn't think I'd ever be so obsessed but aparently I have very little self control.
Well, when we had to make our professional practice presentation the professional guest said I ought to make my character a facebook page. Well I had completely forgotten about it until the other day. And I thought I would really enjoy doing this so I have set it up and now I'm working on pictures and things I can put up on there to make her seem like a real person.
I thought it could be an ongoing project. And I can involve animation and things in it too so it fits in.

Here is the background of the first picture to be put onto her page.

Neeva Sol's facebook. Add her as a friend?

Acrylics!!!!

I started on doing a painting in acrylic then got scared an stopped. So instead I did these as a test:

Landscape

Here is the view from the castle's back window. He has a sea in his garden!! (I want one)
It was painted using this colour scheme:

Here it is:

work in progress

Idea for my banner, and the back garden of the castle. Using the colours from the photograph in the previous post.

Blog trawling

I quite enjoy through the blogoshpere. It means I get to see some new things that I maybe wouldn't have otherwise. Such as this guy: David St George
Now, I have done a bit of photography so I can appreciate it. But I've never really been that much of a fan. However, his photographs are rather beautiful. I thought he was worth mentioning on here as the colours he manages to capture/manipulate are stunning.

digital painting

Both drawn straight into photoshop, using predominantly the smudge tool.
The second one is a test for the misty hands of the Ala in my first panel.

A painting!!

So I wanted to draw my main guy character for once. I had a really strong vision of what he would look like when he made his bargain with the Ala.
I drew him out and painted him in watercolour first, then just played around with some colours in photoshop.

Before I did this I did a very quick sketch of what I want the panel to look like. Its very rough.



light

In my story the girl is given over to the daemon as a sacrifice. I invisioned a procession escorting her to the gates of his castle, all holding candles to light her way. So I wanted to practice light being cast on her face from random angles. This is what I came up with.

Digital painting

I had a go at doing some digital painting (finally bit the bullet). I'm glad I did, even though it's not come out as well as I'd hoped it's a good start. It can only get better... right?

A bit of background information...

My male character started off as an vampire, but I felt that it was a bit ...lame. He needed to be a bad guy, but with sympathetic qualities and a reason for being bad.
So I looked up mythological creatures, monsters and shapeshifters. And I came across this creature, Ala. It is said to be a weather daemon that causes havoc to crops.
Ala info

I am not very good at drawing the weather so I though this would be a great challenge, and I will be looking at Turner for inspiration.

Anyway, I decided that something that cause shapeshift and control the weather would make a really good bad guy. I have written a brief back story for him, but need to flesh out his character much more.

Something to aim for...

A while ago I wrote the outlines for a story and I wanted to make it into a comic. I then decided that I wanted to make a series of illustrative paintings.
Later on I found these --->

click for more...
She has basically done what I want to do, only better. Anyway, this is what I want to aim for. Using old painting techniques, but in my own drawing style.

Some research

I want to create a series of paintings which corrispond with a story that I have been working on. It's set in the very early 19th century so I wanted to look into the fashions of the time. Here are a few dresses and things that I liked.

First post

Because so far its looking rather neglected...