Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Modern...Fantasy?

I got a new project to complete for a client, and it's a strange (unusual?) mix of modern/post apocalyptic sort of stuff with fantasy races.

This is my first test sketches:


The races are gnome, dwarf, elf, half-elf, orc, robot, human, lizard-man, halfling.
Classes are mad scientist, gangster (pimp?), punk drifter (wasn't sure about this one), celebutant spokes model, cop, mad max/wasteland survivor/bounty hunter, Navy Seal, Starfighter Pilot.

I can say for sure it's stuff I usually don't draw. At least not in this sort of context.
Challenges are good though! 0: Let's see how I do!

Now for self-critique and such: I personally like the dwarf, the elf, and the orc best. tbh, the robot turned out not bad for a first try...though it needs a lot more work.
These will be all coloured, so I will have to pay attention to vary the colour schemes a little, making nothing seem repetitive.
The ones I am NOT happy with are the gnome scientist, the starfighter halfling, and the lizard navy seal. probably because I am too clueless about the 'classes' to add a distinct character? =/ hmm.....

Anyway, less talking, more practising. Thanks for looking!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Monkeys

Okay so, the tiger bits are nearly complete, but I've moved onto the monkey. Since the old post got long, I decided to do a separate post now for the hero monkey. :3

So yeah. this entire sheet was a pain. Just trying out various combos and mostly disliking them.
Some elements are nice, but I couldn't decide.
Asked friends for advice while slowly trying to find my favourites and fixing elements.
I really liked the last one, (bottom right) his colours were directly taken from a photo of an Orang Utan. 
Sadly, he looks too dark and 'evil' for a hero type character.


I kinda liked the white monkey thing, my friend Marcks had suggested this combo. 
Not settled, but we'll see. More testing and asking for advice from specific people.




[update Jan 16th]

Trying to decide and compare. =/ 
The colour choice at the end needs to look good next to the tiger, but I just can't decide for the life of me.
Red, brown or white monkey? Dark, regal or light armour? DX ARGHH!
This can't fill my entire day again, I have to finish this!


Sunday, January 9, 2011

Colouring tigers....

So yeah, started the colours...
This entry will be updated as I go along I think. I am still trying stuff out and such, so a lot is weird looking still.


^First try: deciding on colours. 
I had one version where the tiger looked a bit too yellowish brown. 
Got some refs and fixed that. still not 100% sure, but we'll see as I go along. 
Maybe I'll swap colours later.



^Flats down, even if messy. 
Also, lined cleanly now. trying to keep lines thinner these days, as colours become more and more important... =/


^I tried some blending in SAI, which turned out terrible, 
so I settled on Photoshop, sketching the colours down instead of painting. I feel more comfy cross-hatching, even in colour. 


Added some shading, fixed his face (was missing some 'beard')
Looking at it now, it's still a bit too orange/yellow to me. I might change up his gear/clothes colours. 
Hmmm.......



[Jan 11th Update]: 
Looked up some reference and followed fiancés advice, 
changed the shorts and cloth colour arounr the hips. Also, added the weapon. 
I keep forgetting what it's called. ._.;;



Okay, now starting with back and side view. I really like the sketch from the side.
The other one gave me some trouble.

FLATS. LINES. phew. + u+

Anyway, will continue and extend this post as I go along, so don't forget to check back. :3
thanks for looking!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

So I picked up an old idea I had, with the intention of finally finishing it....
Started out like this, until I realised this is no good. Chibi looks really out of place, and I need to stylise more, cartoony or something... Thing is, I never draw in cartoon style, despite having grown up with Disney films. Never occurred to me to draw the characters.
So this is where I went looking for reference.
Lots of Disney (jungle book) Dreamworks (Kung Fu Panda) and more (mostly from here: http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/ )
Left half is just freehand eyeballed stuff. Right hand side is my attempt to feel comfortable drawing this style.
I'll keep you posted with how it goes. 



One more~
Getting closer to what I was aiming for:

[ Jan 6th ] Update:
Sketched some more, and added a new monkey. perhaps a hero type!
Very much my own Sun Wu Kong version I guess.




The other bamboo warrior jumping on tiger thing will be picked up another time.@_@;; I am a bit angry at it still.


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

wip

Gonna be fixing this piece of crap for a while.



[Update!] New bits:




















Can you see the differences? 0:

-guy is bigger, better in perspective
-popping out of the image itself to make it look more...'in the action'
-sword and arm fixed a little
-tiger smaller, lower
-perspective fixed by adjusting bamboo angles.

It's still not what I want, so I'll be fixing some more today, but it's slooowly getting there.
A lot will probably be adjusted in colour as well. we'll see.