Animation?

After talking with a friend I've been thinking about maybe trying animation. Along with comics it's been something I've grown up with and have had an interest with but never really had an opportunity. It never hurts to try and I'll certainly give it a go.

Clothed skeleton

I drew a skeleton with clothes on to help work on figure drawing. I like how it came out but I feel like it could to with some stronger lines and more shading.

The theme of chaos

For my piece of chaos I tried varying my brush strokes to give an uncontrollable feel. I also tried not to use blue that much just to give a focus point.

It turned out resembling an eclipse which I am quite happy with.

Tom costume designs

I wanted to have Tom be a cowboy and easily identifiable as one. The look is based on Clint Eastwood's character in "A Fistful of Dollars." 

Even though cowboys are generally associated with brown colours I felt there was too much brown in this design. I went on to redesign a couple of items an use just a couple more colours to break up the next design so it was less of an eyesore.

I'm much happier with this design compared to the last one. It isn't as hard to look at and feels less over complicated, especially for a comic book. This will probably be the design I use.

Making armour

In 3D I'm being used as a model to make a big looking armour set out of plaster. I plan to use the armour some how in my Rake's Progress idea but haven't figured out how yet. 

So far we have the shoulders, upper and lower arms done. I do think they are coming along nicely and the plaster gives them a good texture.

Wanted poster

As to go with the Wild West theme I designed a wanted poster. While I'm not happy with the writing I do like the look I have for Tom.

It is a potential cover design for the comic. I'm pretty sure I won't use it, however I do like the idea of wanted posters an could use it in a panel in the comic.

Life drawing motion

I decided to show movement in my life drawing today. I would draw a few images next to each other and they would form the motion, similar to comic panels. I only got two done as the person I chose to draw was all over the place, but I do like the idea and will try it again.

Descent into madness part 2

We added to our abstract piece show Tom's madness from the asylum.

We filled in the person in the middle with the same ideas as on the outside so it all blends into one. The idea is now you can't see the person anymore and have to take a while to see him.

Wild West background

Since my idea for A Rake's Progress is set in the Wild West I searched for some typical backgrounds then drew it. 

I then coloured it using pencils as I felt that would add more to the texture, due to it being a sandy grainy place.

The problem I always have with pencil is it so easy to tell where I've gone a different way which bugs me a fair bit. I am happy otherwise though I think it looks like a comic background which is what I was aiming for.

Frank Miller style

I copied one of Frank Miller's drawings so I could better understand how to draw using his style.

It turns out I just used the same way I draw normally and I just didn't care about going wrong a bit because of how it's coloured.

Life drawing

We did some more life drawing using skeletons to get the shapes right. We were allowed to use our own styles and it was actually enjoyable to just get on with it. I'm happy with how mine came out except I got a bit over zealous with the shading on the face.

I also tried just picking out pieces just to highlight certain body parts and work on them.

Descent into madness

In graphics I worked in a group to create an exquisite corpse of A Rake's Progress. Each of us used a different utensil to paint with. We also drew round each of us to make a body in the middle to bring it all together. The piece is representing Tom's descent into madness by show sporadic images all around him.

Costume design

In textiles I am working on a costume design for my main character. It's mainly just to give me an idea of how it will look on a person and how to draw it, as such it's not really finalised or meant to be exact. It gives me the shapes I need to work with.

Blog Crit 26/11

Today we had a group crit on each of our blogs, mine was towards the end so we didn't spend too long on mine, but I did get some criticisms to work on.

First off I need to show more drawings, especially in the way of comic books. I can do this by just sitting down in a cafe or something similar, maybe even work and get some quick sketches of people that are around.

Secondly was to try and draw some of the characters the way the artists I have put on for research. I want to focus on Brett Booth and Frank Miller mainly but I plan to do at least a one drawing for each artist.

Next up is showing how I'm working towards A Rake's Progress I do have a plan up but I need to show some working towards it. I have a setting so I should draw some stuff around that and the main characters.

I also need to work on my explanation a lot of the time I just have a few pictures with a sentence or two. i should just expand upon this whenever I can and will do in the future.

Finally I need to show developmental work, I can't wholly remember what was meant by this but I presume it's to just show some more progression, much like drawing in the styles of artists, maybe even using some different mediums and the like. Experimentation never hurt. 

Making wigs

We made started to make wigs in textiles. We started with a skull cap where we wrapped plastic round out heads.

From here we started to add materials to it to start making a wig.

Artist Andy Kubert

Andy Kubert unlike some artists does the inking and line art himself as well as write, because of his attempt to take on everything it seems like certain bits suffer sometimes. This is easily noticed in a couple of his facial illustrations as there's some off proportions.

Unlike a lot of artists in the same field Kubert tends not to use darker tones, but instead seems to use one main colour per panel, or at least one colour that stands out more than the rest.

Artist David Finch

David finch seems to have a rushed kind of look to his work at times often making some weird look illustrations. Most of his illustrations are good it's just when one is bad, it stands out severely.

This is what I mean the face is just awkward, to the point where it's actually frightening to look at. It's also just off putting and pulls away from the rest of the panel, the rest of the work looks fine it's just the face. I feel it may just be how the shading has come out and it wasn't meant to look quite like this.

Artist Brett Booth

Brett Booth seems to focus more on brighter colours against a dark background. This seems to make his characters pop a bit more.

This kind of work is best seen on the cover, where it clearly has a darker background, and lighter elements that pop out against it.

Artist Frank Miller

Frank Miller has one of the most well known styles of artwork in the comic book world. He focuses a lot on darker colours and shades. Sometimes only use few brighter colours to make pictures stand out.

This page is the absolute pinnacle of how Frank Miller works, not a huge amount of detail and only a couple of key elements that are not in dark or dull tones. He has the balance right as with the red cape you know who the character is, or if you haven't read comics before it builds mystery for you. It's certainly one of the more intriguing styles to be used in comics.

More portraits

I attempted to draw a portrait of my dad. One problem I had was the lighting it just kept on changing, still I think a couple of bits are off like the hands an his left elbow.

The foot is also at a weird angle, something that I'll have to work on.

Portraits

I did a couple of portraits today I wasn't fond of the the pencil drawings but when I went over the outlines and added detail with a pen it looked a lot crisper and neater.

I got the proportions wrong on this one I should have measured some more.

I'm much happier with this drawing as the proportions were fairly good I got a kind of movement in the arm as well. It just look like more of a comic book drawing. Though I do think in colour I could make it look less of having a third arm and more a motion.