Just a Simple Sketch

Here is another simple line drawing I did.  Which was quite fun to work on.  A good friend of mine posed for this.  He's quite natural.  Just had to use a little violent force to get the pose just right.  Just mess'n.  It's very easy to work from an interesting and dynamic pose.

 

Sketching Time

Homework drives me nuts some times.  It's hard always sticking to the curriculum, it's nice to deviate once in a while when you find time and sketch on your own.  I did some sketches today, and decided to sketch a little in Photoshop, which I usually never do.  Perhaps, I should do so more often?

A sketch of Laura Michelle Prestin

Good Advice

A teacher of mine, who goes by the name of Z (http://zimoutan.blogspot.com/), once told the class to look around the room and look at the competition, and to then look at himself who also was the competition.  That was a little intimidating and eye opening for me.  Z is pretty freak'n good at what he does.  If we were competing for the same job, I'd loose, every time.  It was inspiring for me though to push myself through his class realizing that it's not about just passing classes at the Academy, but pushing ourselves to become professional material.


I miss the community of the Academy (AAU), but at least I still have the AAU online community which is, well... not as good as the real thing.  Online, classes are not very inspiring to say the least.  So, I try to spend some time to see what the global artistic community has to offer for inspiration in helping me reach that professional status.  Low and behold I found something stunning and awe inspiring.  It was an illustration of Catwoman, by a favorite artist of mine Artgerm, that was posted on Deviant Art.  This is the kind of thing I like to look at and say, "Hmmm, this guy is going to put me out of business and have me begging on the streets unless I do something about it someday."  There's many things I can do to try and remedy this problem, but I can't afford to pay off an alien abduction at the moment.  So, I'm stuck with alternative method of honing my skills and trying to hit the target Artgerm and many other artists have set so high.  It's a challenge and I like it.  By no means do I mean to become Artgerm or any of my other favorite artists around the world, but I like to think of myself as having a fighting spirit welcoming the challenge of one day being worthy of competing at that level.

Some day, will I be an artist others will inspire to be like?  In an case, I hope I am an artist that is inspiring to others.

This is from Artgerm's Deviant Art page, http://artgerm.deviantart.com/#/d34sb4z.

Myria Model Pack

Here is the final work on Myria, for a little bit at least.  This is a full Model Pack in my limited and amateurish state.  It's basically the blue prints to make Myria into a 3D model and animated.  In an actual Model Pack there may be far more pages for detailing animations for the character in combat and interacting with various objects.  But, for a intro project into Model Packs, I think this covers the essentials.  This sure took some work, but through it all I feel like I've increased the speed of my work flow.  Nothing like some good practice and experience.

There is a lot of material that didn't make it into this Model Pack.  I feel a little sad about that, but oh well, you need to do a lot of exploratory drawings and be willing to make mistakes to find out what works best for the project and for the character.

Myria Character Illustration

Beginning sketch.  The purpose of this illustration is to reveal the nature of the character developed.  Myria is a timid girl who becomes consumed in darkness on her quest for revenge and salvation for her love.  I intended to portray her dark side.

Color Flats with some basic shading to show lighting.

Face and hair details.  I focused on working on some areas out to see how I wanted the rendering to work out before taking on the whole detailing portion.

Adjustments.  I was inspired to make the wolf a little more dynamic with a touch of fantasy to show the nature of the world Myria is in.

Details.  Finished most of the details and added some texture.

Texture.  The final textures are added.  I'm quite happy with the project, but not completely impressed with the wolf.  All in all, it was a good experience illustrating Myria.  I learned a little about project management in the gaming industry.  Perhaps this is great or perhaps it could be better.  However, on a budget there is limited time and resources for game development.  You do your best with in the time frame to tackle projects efficiently and as well as possible.  With time and experience you develop speed and accuracy.  So, with this project this week, I am quite satisfied.  I think this took approximately 20 hours.  That's actually pretty not very good, but not tremendously bad.  I think 8-12 hours is a good goal to shoot for for fully detailed work.  Conceptual work should take 1-2 hours for a full scene.