Super Strudel

Poster design

2011-10-25T03:44:00.001-07:00

A friend's band wanted a poster design that they could use for upcoming gigs... et voila.

Acrylic paintings

2011-08-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

I decided that painting on different supports is a good idea, because as convenient as my paper sketchbook it, the paint kind of soaks in and I lose any texture that I might be working on.

So I found a few junky canvases and also some other kinds of board/paper to experiment with.

These two paintings were both done with a limited color palette (3 colors plus white and a little black) which is good both for color mixing practice and also getting a unified look. It always surprises me at the end of a session to look down and see how many colors i have mixed, intentionally and by accident, using just 3 colors. I've seen some masters paint with only TWO colors and it doesn't feel lacking. There's an incredible array of color and tone hidden in just a few paints!

Unfortunately these photos aren't great, but they'll have to do for now.

Digital painting

2011-07-18T01:46:00.000-07:00

Last time i was painting it was super-cold and I didn't want to stay in my painting room (which is chilly!) so I decided to do some digital painting in the (heated) office.

I had been reading some more about underpaintings and their functions, so I decided to give it a go for the still life I was painting.

In the end, it didn't have much effect on the final work (i.e there aren't many parts where you can see the underpaint shine through) but I think it did help me with choosing colors and values. In any case, the painting turned out pretty well, I think... quite accurate to the photo I was referencing and I was particularly pleased with the glass/water (apart from the wonky, non-circular shape which is a big no-no!).

Face paintings III

2011-05-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

A few more paintings...

I had a few pages in my sketchbook with already-painted backgrounds (remnants of paint at the end of previous sessions) and it was interesting to work on these... seeing how the underlying color enhanced or contrasted the paint I was laying down. A nice change from starting with white.

I'm starting to get a few parts of my images that I like - an eye that has some depth to it, a nose that's nicely described using just a few efficient strokes, it's a good feeling to see some progress and things starting to come together.

Face paintings II

2011-05-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

Been doing some more face painting practices in my sketchbook... gradually getting a better feel for the paint and learning heaps more about color, as usual. I think the next thing to concentrate on will be values again, because as always I don't push the darks dark enough. I think mixing paint and maintaining the correct colors is a pretty tricky skill, but i'll get it :)

I said in my last post that I might start focusing on structural/facial accuracy and depiction as well, but that didn't happen. I get bogged down in that a bit, so I feel alright leaving that aside for now.

Face paintings

2011-05-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

As part of my acrylic painting forays, I've started painting a few faces to practice skin tones, paint handling and particularly getting used to the unique aspects of portraiture compared to other kinds of art. I don't worry too much about accuracy and realism apart from doing a quick pencil sketch to start, but I am thinking maybe I should incorporate it, cause I need to work on that as well.

They're quick studies, probably less than half an hour each, so I haven't developed any of them very far, but just try out new things. The plan, I guess, is to gradually start doing more 'serious' work as I improve - portraiture is something that appeals to me and I'd like to find a unique, interesting way to present them (rather than just a very realistic, documentary approach).

But for now, here's the first few...

Painting development

2011-04-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

I've started painting a few canvases to hang in my house, as part of a general push to do some more "real" painting... i figure if I get going with these then I might get some momentum and keep painting more.

The first one is done (photo will come at some point) but I've gotten stuck with the second. I spent a few hours playing round with some ideas digitally, which is great for testing/drafting since it's quick, non-permanent and very flexible. I don't think any of them are actually what I want to do, but I enjoyed the process anyway.

Face

2011-04-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

Was just doodling round for a bit while I waited for something, and liked the colors that were coming together.

On the weekend I went to a children's book illustration exhibition and saw a lot of great stuff. I didn't exactly have that in mind when I did this but I guess it's along those lines. I've recently been really digging lens artifacts as well - light blooms, bokeh and all that filmic stuff. It adds a level of texture that I find appealing, and isn't something I see much in other people's art/illustration work.

I'm still somewhere

2011-03-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and so on. I've been somewhere... still here but not doing a lot of arty stuff and not uploading the bits I HAVE done. I'll be doing some painting soon, which is cool, but for now, here's a few hipsta-photos just to get me back into the swing of things, hopefully.

Apparently I'm in a blue and lemon mood at the moment, cause the ones that stood out to me from what I had on my phone were all that sporting lovely blue look with light touches and golden highlights.

Poster design

2010-11-28T20:15:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, finding the old illustration was quite handy as I ended up basing my entry for a poster design exhibition on it. The designs are going to be screen-printed and we were only allowed to use one color (which was chosen for us) so converting my illustration took a bit of work.
I ended up simplifying it a bit and then using texture and pattern to create layers and delineate areas of space. It was a good challenge to work on, and there are definitely some nice areas of the picture which I wouldn't have come up with otherwise. I think it would be interesting to now use this as a base and add in a few more colors again to see what happens. But I don't know if I'll bother with that :)

Unearthed illustration

2010-11-25T23:26:00.000-08:00

I was looking through some old files trying to find something when I stumbled upon this illustration which I had done in proparation for a music-based animation (which I never ended up doing).
The colors and illustration style quite appeal to me, and I was a bit surprised to see it, because I don't think I could do something like it at the moment!! I guess I was more immersed in illustrative stuff at the time. I like the simplicity and the types of shapes.

I was looking for a different file to use in whipping up a quick poster design for a sort-of-competition but I ended up adapting this illustration instead, as I decided I'm quite fond of it.

Color scheme analysis

2010-11-22T18:33:00.000-08:00

I was browsing a website and saw this great stock photo that had a really nice orange/blue color scheme. This is a very common scheme, and when you start looking for it in design stuff it pops up all the time. And for good reason, because the colors really pop against each other and I think it allows a very saturated, colorful image that doesn't feel overwhelming, because the compliments keep each other slightly in check.

Or something like that.

So i did a color study of the photo. I was thinking about doing a different image and just applying the color scheme but I'm glad I didn't because I think I learnt some stuff about how to achieve the look that I probably wouldn't have, if I just tried to make it up myself.

Scribbles

2010-11-22T16:08:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I wasn't really feeling inspired but wanted to do something so I forced myself to just jump into photoshop. Ended up with this little doodle, not much to say :)

Color value study

2010-11-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

Like the previous exercises but I tried a color picture. Worked ok, you can see the value analysis in the corners (my painting is the left, photo on the right). The main difference seems to be that I don't push the darks enough in some bits, particularly the shaded half of his face. I knew this was an area I need to work on, but again, mostly quite accurate which is good.

Practicing values

2010-11-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

One thing that's crucial to realistic painting, and just good images that pop, is a good grasp of values - being able to capture areas of light and dark properly. On a very basic level it's not too hard, but as soon as I start dealing with shadows (which are, of course, everywhere!) I lose it a bit - it's really important to really see what is there, not just what you think you see...

So I did a few practice paintings, just trying to get correct range and contrast throughout an image. I blurred each one after I finished so I didn't get distracted by the unfinished, blotchy strokes, and I could look only at the overall accuracy. I think I did ok. In the last one, I took my painting and the original photo and applied a Gradient Map which basically colorises the picture based on brightness. And mine ended up fairly accurate, which makes me happy :)

Next I'll have to try using some color, because hue/saturation/value together is what's really tricky!

First acrylic painting

2010-11-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to kickstart this whole 'artist' thing, which I temporarily suspended because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do it (and still don't know), I have finally bought a few acrylic paints and decided to do some stuff with them.

I wanted to find something I could just copy, a still life of sorts, so that I could just focus on playing with the paint and learning how they work, mix etc. I painted on some crappy old paper that I had lying around. It turned out ok, it's pretty difficult, but I enjoyed it. I realised that all the digital painting I've done has been good for helping me understand color, saturation etc, but that the difficulties I have there are still translated across, as WELL as having to mix my own colors, and work with the medium.

Don't know how i'm supposed to get really dark values, I think black paint deadens everything but mixing my own didn't seem to work, so I'll read up on that. Good dark/lights is always something I need to pay attention to anyway.

But for now I'm trying to just enjoy it and keep myself actually working at it.

Katie Melua

2010-08-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

There's a video on YouTube of Katie Melua, a musician, playing in some hotel or something. I really like the look of it and the framing of her shifts throughout and makes some really great compositions. So I found a frame I liked and did a painting. I wanted to spend a bit more time on today's painting, and it did take a little longer, but not heaps... it came together pretty quickly which I was happy about. And I took some time to get the angles and construction better, which worked out too.

I think her face feels a bit flat, but i'm not sure why. And I'm still learning a lot about saturation and how to get a good balance with colors. Overall I'm happy though.

Cloudy with a chance of painting

2010-08-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd do a few quick studies of clouds, to understand a bit of how they look and how to construct them in painting. One from a tutorial, the other just copying a photo reference.

Underpainting test

2010-08-18T04:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how common underpainting is nowadays, but as far as I understand it, it used to be used very widely... the idea is that you paint an underlying layer of your picture in the complimentary colors of the final, then paint over the top of it. And bits and pieces of the underpainting will peek through the finished work and add more vibrancy and depth to the colors. I'm not sure if people always leave bits showing, in fact, or if it's just a way of achieving richer, more interesting mixes as you paint.

I thought i'd give it a go on a quick painting, so I whacked down a VERY rough layer which looked pretty bad (all greens and purples). You can see it most clearly in the face - there's green showing in bits that stops it becoming too pink and monotonous. I think I overdid it, because she's looking pretty sickly, but it was just for experimenting anyway so it's all good.

Then, for fun, I painted streaks of bright colors on the underpaint layer, which ended up looking a bit like using a Colorise brush mode in Photoshop. Whatevs.

Eye painting

2010-08-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

Today I followed a "tutorial" of sorts that gave some hints on painting eyes, from an artist I really like. I tried to follow it quite closely, to see what happened and how it differs from my usual approach. Gave me a few things to think about and reminded me how much work goes into the refinement process and how much difference it makes.

No wonder all my half-finished sketches never have the look I'm going for, when I abandon them before the real work begins!

A game

2010-08-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today we are playing "guess who went to the European Masters exhibition"?

One thing I really liked there was looking at the way color was used in many of the pieces... some of the paintings just felt like a breath of fresh spring or summer air. Lots of high-value paintings, sometimes with NO real darks at all. I guess Monet is one of the better-known examples of painters using these kind of colors.

Anyway, I started this as an illustration that was going to have a character in a foreground balloon but I ran out of time and anyway I liked the spacious, calm feel of this.

All my work with color recently is starting to affect my work, too, which is encouraging.

Paintings

2010-08-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Another color study, this time I wanted to try a film/photography approach, using color as a stylistic thing in the shadows and highlights. Worked ok, I think it has potential. I should start focusing on accuracy and proportion as well when i do these studies, because a well-colored but very wonky face still ends up looking weird!

EDIT : Ok, every time I glanced upon this image, the severe wonkiness was giving me the irrits, so a few seconds with Liquify in Photoshop and it's a lot better, but I have kept a little thumbnail of the original proportions in the corner to remind me that it's worth spending a *bit* of time on construction even for quick stuff.

Then, following the same idea, trying to paint depth of field, which is pretty much a totally wrong concept, but i like the idea of capturing a 'lens' with its particular qualities and artifacts in paint...

I'm getting a bit keen to try some "real" painting, on canvas, so that will be cool. Gotta keep working on anatomy and portraiture fundamentals as well, though.

Color studies

2010-07-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

A few quick digipaintings to test out some of the colour theory stuff I've been learning recently. Very interesting.

I can see already how a better understanding of colour and lighting will help my work... some of it is technical knowledge/science of why, and some of it is artsy "this is how you can manipulate colour even if it's not technically what you see". Both of which are very valid.

Not concerned about proportions or accuracy here, it was all about the color.

I'm particularly pleased with the nose on the first one... that rosy glowing look that comes from saturated color next to quite neutral midtones. Something I've appreciated a lot in other people's work but never really understood.

Quick painting

2010-07-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Was messing around with a quick idea, and ended up with this. Some proportion issues but i like the overall graphic-ish feel and the color palette.

Value study

2010-07-21T00:09:00.001-07:00

Today I did some reading about colors, skintones, color temperature and all that sort of stuff. A lot to think about, and I realised a few things I was doing wrong, which is good.

Didn't have time to play around with it but I did a quick values study, since getting the values right is just as important (or even more, I guess).

On the left is my attempt (in 5 tones), on the right is the reference image, and a posterised version of it in the corner. As you can see, I didn't do TOO badly, but I didn't use my highlight color enough, and the shadow-covered eye I kept too bright (which I knew I was doing but even after adjusting I guess I didn't do enough).

Painting

2010-07-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

At the moment I'm pretty impressed by some painters who use color in really interesting ways - either unrealistically, or in a realistic palette but with dashes of contrast colors throughout. I wanted to give a shot at using a non-realistic palette and also thought i might try something from my head (no references) to see if my recent work has been paying off.

Overall I was pretty pleased - I felt like I had a better sense of the form and contours of the face, but there are still plenty of problem areas. But that's good to know, so I can work on it. And I also realised that even in some areas I knew how it should look but my rendering skills let me down, particularly around the mouth.

The color was fun to play around with, I think i will study some examples to get an understanding of how to use color effectively and creatively.

Sketchbook scans

2010-07-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Back into sketching again... trying to work on anatomy (where I seem to have forgotten the little I learnt, but hopefully it will refresh quickly) and also faces in particular so I can start doing portraiture.
I'll be picking up some acrylics soon too, would love to get into some proper painting.

I want to experiment a lot and go a bit wild, but also be very disciplined in developing some skills. And illustrate. And do sculpting. And everything.

Focus!

More quick snaps

2010-06-24T23:15:00.001-07:00

I've been getting into some anatomy and drawing again recently, but I haven't got it scanned in yet, so in the meantime I'm chucking up a few more Hipstamatic shots.

Fairy Lights

2010-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today I needed to take some photos of fairy lights for work, and the first shot I took came out really blurry - it was a much longer exposure than I had expected.

This kind of shot can often look really cool when people play around with lights and drawing stuff. Maybe a cheap trick, cause it's not very hard to do actually, but I still like the results.

I simply cropped this shot and did a bit of color treatment on it.

Wuthering Heights

2010-05-12T22:15:00.001-07:00

Finally got round to doing another book illustration... this time for the brooding, strange gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It's the only book she wrote, yipes!

A linocut style illustration came to mind so I gave it a try. It's kind of tricky to show what's going on without more details, and lighting is really important - the best linocuts can have a really dramatic, moody feel to them due to interesting cast light/shadowing, and that would have worked really well for this novel but I didn't really hit it.

Hipstamatic 2 - Sky edition

2010-03-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Some more photos from the iPhone app Hipstamatic. This is the "sky" series. Basically I had to wait for a train so I wandered round taking photos, and liked a lot of the skylines I found... thought about some nice framings that would feel spacious and balanced.

I'm not sure if it automatically ghosts the images, but it seems they all have it except for the one highly saturated one I have here... so perhaps my hand is just always a bit shaky? I don't mind it, but it would be nice to have *slightly* higher fidelity. There's a high quality option for the app but it takes way too long to develop shots on my phone (it's already about 6 seconds which tests my patience sometimes!).

Hipstamatic Photos

2010-03-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

There's an app for the iPhone called Hipstamatic which emulates an old, analog camera that was made in very limited release many years ago. Basically it's just doing the typical retro/weathered stylings which are perhaps overdone, and purists loathe, as it's essentially hipsters (ahh, the name is quite convenient!) jumping onto another trend.

But y'know, i don't really care... the iPhone camera I have is fairly crappy, and this app means that I can take photos that are kind of cool looking. It's making me look at lighting, composition and other photography stuff, which I haven't done much before, and I wouldn't be doing with the normal iPhone camera, so as far as I'm concerned it's opening up new creative possibilities and that's a good thing. I reckon the random snaps I take will inspire other art I do, be it in color choices, composition, subject ideas, whatever.

Here's a few shots I have taken with it, just during my wandering home from work, or around the house.

The Alchemist

2010-01-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

I guess this counts as a book illustration. I recently read The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo, and that's vaguely what I was thinking of when I did this. Really, I was just too lazy to do a proper illustration and just wanted to throw some (virtual) paint around for a few minutes...

But I quite like the colors and although fuziness is a cop out to avoid actually trying, I do like some of the results. This is sort of a bunch of desert people coming out of the hot haze. Gotta love haze.

A Pale View of Hills

2009-08-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

This book is by a Japanese author and I wanted to at least slightly reflect an Asian feel in the illustration (hopefully). The tree is really a cop out on my part, as I just didn't manage to achieve the look I wanted and would have liked a tree with much more detail and one that curled around in a beautiful shape... but it wasn't to be I guess.

The Road

2009-08-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Back to the book illustrations finally. Here's one for The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Not sure if I would recommend the book! It is all about the atmosphere really, so I wanted to do something very moody and tried to capture the bleak emptiness of everything.

Also, that's easier than doing anything definite that can be critiqued!

NOTE : this one looks a lot better in the bigger view.

A Bird

2009-07-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I managed to get one book illustration up before I got distracted!

I saw a nice bird on the grass on my way to work. Nothing unusual, but i just liked the look of it and the composition with the road. This is EXACTLY what I saw... colors look so much flatter at that time in the morning.

Or something.

Brave New World

2009-07-08T22:56:00.001-07:00

I thought I might do some illustrations inspired by books that I am reading... makes it easy to think of an idea!

Not necessarily of a particular scene or theme, i'm using it VERY liberally, it's really just a starting point for me to think of something, anything.

Here's Brave New World.

Debbie

2009-06-15T17:45:00.001-07:00

Found a portrait on Flickr that I could reference for a painting (I'm trying to work on portraiture, I'd like to start doing it with actual friends/people). Then realised after a few minutes that I didn't feel like doing it. I kept going for a bit longer regardless, but the result is sloppy and very half-done. I find my paintings tend to look bad until the very end where they (hopefully!) come together... this definitely didn't get to that stage.

Something on the water

2009-06-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

I wanted to play around with some color, so I just picked some and started going.

I guess it's clouds and water and ________?

Cityscape

2009-05-14T19:52:00.001-07:00

Was messing around in grayscale for a poster I was doing, and while I didn't end up using this, I liked how it was coming along so i just added a bit more today.

I like the feel of the top half, the bottom is the added bit, it needed SOMETHING to make it a bit more interesting but it doesn't work as well, i think.

2009-04-08T19:17:00.001-07:00

I've recently been upgraded at work to a massive tablet which makes drawing and doodling so much easier and more enjoyable.
It also came with a program called Sketch Pad which is kind of just a toned-down Painter.
Very easy to use, and quick!

Designed thing

2009-04-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Was random text (its the name of some place in Germany) and I wanted to play with pale colors that almost clashed and blended into each other.
Different monitors probably make it look crap or indistinguishable.

A Pink Man

2009-03-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

This man is pink.

Again, smeary Painter stuff. Too easy, probably a cop out really!

MUG

2009-03-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

Drawing my empty mug to pass time. Was going to do it more graphically but the Painter oils and stuff won't let me, they're just so nice.

Painting

2009-03-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with Painter a bit. I really like it... great for texture, smudginess (which i love) and just general noodling about.
This is something, i'm not exactly sure what. Enjoy?

Chili Illustration

2009-02-03T02:24:00.001-08:00

Soon I will be going to a non-chili party, which is for people who don't want to go to a chili party happening at the same time. And I felt like making a little picture for the facebook invite.

So just a few minutes in photoshop, nothing special but a nice little gimmick.

Stop-motion Food

2009-02-03T02:22:00.000-08:00

This isn't my own work unfortunately... it's pretty amazing. I love the fluidity and the motion of the guys, especially the profiteroles.

50th post

2009-01-13T03:30:00.001-08:00

Been a LONG time since I put anything up here!
I got caught up in the job-hunting and -getting process, then since I have started work I haven't had a heap of spare energy to do this kind of thing. Having said that, I am doing some stuff, so maybe i just need to get in gear to put it up here.

Today's showing is two little pictures I digipainted... the statue was from a photo reference, I just liked it and wanted to attempt a rocky texture. The fireball is a doodle i did using a huge Cintiq tablet at work, just trying it out.

Website banner

2008-09-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

I am designing a basic site for my dad's business, which is mining/blasting engineering. He wanted something a bit fun and bright, not too corporate. This design was a winner in my books but he doesn't want to emphasise the blasting too much, apparently.

I haven't tried comic book style stuff before so it was fun to experiment a bit, even though it's not strictly a comic style in the end.

DVD menu

2008-09-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

I made this original image a long time ago and never used it for an actual project or anything. Then it came time to make a DVD menu for my showreel and I thought it would fit well - looks kind of interesting and very clean... shiny!
I chucked a particle effect inside the globe on the left just so it wasn't COMPLETELY static and did some color grading but didn't animate the whole menu. I'm not convinced it's really needed.

Simple and I think it works fine. 3D stuff really can be so helpful if used well... i wish i had maya or something at home so I could do more with it.

Baking

2008-09-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

I made croissants last week, and as far as I'm concerned they are as aesthetically pleasing as any art, and far tastier. I love looking at the layers, the flakiness and the unique shape.
The photos were very red due to the lighting but I like it that way so I hardly processed them at all.

Fun animated tidbit.

2008-08-19T22:59:00.001-07:00

I did an illustration in 2nd year uni that was basically a tram advertisement for opera in Melbourne., and I really quite liked it, was probably one of 2 pieces from the class that turned out like i was hoping.

But i never did anything with it because it was just an illustration and I didn't have a print folio. I found it again recently and decided that with a bit of animating, it could be a nice second or two in my showreel (and give me a bit more animating practice with the Puppet tool in AE).

So here it is, i'm quite happy with how it turned out, even though it's only about 3 seconds long! The next step would have been to add a whole 3D set to it and have some more action happen, but I have other things to focus on...

Two quick things

2008-08-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

I started painting a picture of some kid i found in a magazine, but it was looking yuk and i realised I didn't want to do it!
They always look bad when I start out (I wonder if this is the case for great artists, or if they know ways to do better foundational stuff, because it's quite discouraging for me until it all suddenly starts coming together much later on).

Anyway, i then decided to try something without a reference, and for some reason a cook came into mind... didn't want to do a female since i've done them recently, so i just drew a bit and tried to be vaguely anatomically minded, though I know it's a long way off. I tried lighting the opposite direction than I normally do, and to make a textural brush to paint with.

Overall I don't really like it, but it was quick and I don't mind. Colors are pretty bad too, i wanted dulled but not in the same way my pics always seem to be, but this turned out like the usual!

Another painting

2008-08-12T23:57:00.000-07:00

I was afraid that after having one painting success i would just suck again, but i think this one is still better than my old stuff so i haven't completely regressed.

such inane subject matter... i use fashion photos a lot because they are of people, which interests me, and they are always lit well. But it is a bit boring drawing generic_girl_27 or whatever. There's something appealing about the colors and makeup and all that but overall, "eh". Admittedly I'm not doing much to move away from the fashion-y feel. I will try doing more illustrative/cartoony stuff perhaps.

I don't like the hair on this one either. I always do it last so it's when i'm starting to get bored. I almost left it completely flat-color which may have worked better, as a kind of graphic approach.
OK, i just decided to change it, so here is the new, flatter, blue-ish hair. I like it more. When you compare the two, the lighter one looks pretty washed out because there are NO really dark values. But it didn't look that washed out to me until i compared them.

DigiPainting

2008-08-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

I felt like doing a digital portrait after a long time of not doing any (because they were looking crap and i was frustrated by them!).
I started this one and it wasn't doing any better, and i stopped, but then tried again today and i feel like i got somewhere. Not sure if i "learned" what i was doing wrong, my skintones still look a bit murky and getting the balance between smooth and textured is hard, but i like the result at least.

Fluoro hair is because i painted normal hair but didn't want to spend the time refining it so much, and it was taking focus off the face which i think was more successful, so i just blend-moded it and modified it a little.

Stills from animation

2008-07-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

I have been working on an animated segment for a short film... I mentioned it briefly a while ago. I am almost halfway through and I think it's coming along fine. Luckily, they are happy with/even looking for a sketchy style, and so i don't have to get too caught up in making it all ultra smooth and accurate. Which I couldn't do even if I DID need to!

There is some mighty funky (in the weird/wrong sense) anatomy taking place, and the motions aren't really natural. Nevertheless, the overall feel is fine and it conveys the scene ok. Here's a few stills from the girl... you will see how much variation there is (they were chosen to deliberately display that), it's really quite poor... the head size varies a LOT, the style evolved as I continued drawing frames and I haven't done much to fix up a lot of the bad anatomy/posing. I simply don't have the time, and it's not crucial.

It will be interesting, however, to see how the guy turns out when i start drawing him. Every time I do more animation/drawing I learn new things and improve, so just as the drawings at the end of the girl's sequence are/can be better, the guy might be better overall. It's slightly less-than-ideal when you see this development throughout one scene, but ah well!!

Noramel

2008-07-17T02:26:00.000-07:00

I found this post when looking up some lyrics and enjoyed the capitalisation of EVERY work and some of the funny grammar... not in a mocking way, i just liked it.

then a quick wander in photoshop and i'm done. I kept making the words less and less obvious as I went, not exactly sure why but i kindof liked the simple background i drew at the end so thought it should be visible with the words over the top but not obtrusive.

looks better in the bigger view.

Academic achievements

2008-07-07T02:17:00.000-07:00

These were some leftovers from when i was trying to typograph-y my resume, and i had to choose some nice typefaces so it would look neat and slightly designed.
I thought you could read all sorts of 'artistic intention' into it... maybe if i write an essay about it I will be able to sell prints for lots of money. But really it's just scrap paper.

Rehash

2008-06-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

I revisited one of my earlier 'paintings' today, and after redrawing the lines, decided that it would be better as a more abstract thing so i cropped and rotated it, then repainted using a color palette from one of my other old things.

I kinda like this one. The smudgy digital paint look is ok with me, some artists can use it to such good effect (i.e knowing when to leave edges/overlaps rather than smoothing everything out) but i haven't practiced nearly enough to be good at it.

Cavernicles

2008-06-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

Painting.
Glowy green things.

Colorstrips

2008-06-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

I often enjoy cropping images or designs to get new interesting shapes and compositions.
Tonight I accidentally made my canvas 800x80 px instead of 800x800 and I liked the shape, so I decided to create the larger square canvas but divide it into a series of strips.

The design I came up with is based upon a photograph (bet you can't guess what) which I cropped and then painted over with colors I chose on a whim. it's actually really hard to get good color combinations! In the end I put a gradient over the whole thing and put it on Color mode to unify the palette... I think doing a subtle grading is often helpful to bring together a design, but I went fairly intensely in this case because I liked the orange and yellow tones.

I am also including the un-gradiented version so you can see what a difference it makes. Might be a bit easier to work out the subject matter from this one (but I'd still be surprised).

As an aside, I just put in an order for some business cards, which is fun. They will be here in a few weeks and I will take a photo of them so you (whoever you are that actually reads this) can see them. I like the design though it is quite simple and not anything mindblowing.

Pink

2008-05-22T00:56:00.001-07:00

This is based off a photo from a david jones or myer catalogue or something, hence the fashion look and generic-ness of it all. I really liked the striking colors in some of the photos so wanted to work with that a bit.

I added the gradient color because it was looking a bit scraggly... I didn't want to incorporate more levels of shading so thought it might help bring it together a bit. The actual dress is satin or something very shiny so the highlights and transitions were quite strong, and i think i captured some of that.

The hair looks a bit like snakes or worms, i think. But i didn't want to play too much and get it overworked. I quite like the overall palette (which, though inspired by the photo, is different because I used my eyes, didn't scan or anything or stay strictly to it).

Something

2008-05-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick photoshop thing. I decided to use a calligraphic brush and this came out. I have always liked low-contrast darks together... something cool about it when it works.
In 'real' life, the effects you get particularly at night are so beautiful, like driving home and seeing silhouettes against a dark, slightly blue sky.

This isn't meant to capture that, though it is a scape of some kind i guess.
I actually thought I was going to do an illustrative treatment of some fruit today.

Dime

2008-05-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

I liked this when I was part way through it, but i must have overworked it or taken a wrong turn or something, because i'm just not very keen on the final. Of course when i say final, that's just when i stopped working, it's not what i would consider a finished piece.
I tried hiding a lot of the layers and looking at different compositions to see if i could work out which bit i don't like, but i think it's a combination of things and i'm not going to do anything more on it.
A dangerous step is always once i start incorporating photo/texture bits into a drawing-based illustration, so for example the coins in this one don't work, i think.

In any case, I learnt a few little things doing it, and had some fun with light sources (though i can't really self-critique to see which bits are wrong).

Flyer design

2008-04-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me to design a flyer for a theatre production that her work is putting on.
Then i found out about 2 days ago that they wanted it ready for tonight, and since i wasn't aware of a timeline like that i hadn't really started much at all.

So i got to it!

I am learning a lot about typography at the moment, through other people and also trying to just be more observant. I know that my type skills let me down, and it's one of those things where i can often know that it's wrong, but not know exactly WHY or how to fix it... if i look at a great example of clean, minimal design (like, say, Mark Gowing's work) and try to "work out" why it looks resolved and professional, i can't really... all sorts of fine details and decisions about the type, color, layout work together, and i guess I just need to keep at it.
Anyway, point is, I tried to be conscious of my type in this, but i still don't think it's great. Part of it is just the actual fonts used... I only have free ones really (or the ones that came wth software) and while i have d/l'ed some good free ones from design sites, they are usually at least *partially* odd or something's not quite right with the balance or kerning or whatnot. Still, that's not a crutch really, and i am going to keep working at getting my type to look great. There's things I would change now from this design, but it's OK and they've probably already printed it.

It is also evident that this "it's OK" attitude is good in some ways, but i think you have to be a bit anal to get great type, so when i am rolling my eyes at friends who will disregard a font because they don't like ONE of the characters, maybe that's actually a good move...

Süp

2008-03-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't exactly call it practicing photography, but i did try a few different ISO speeds...
and it was good soup.

The resulting photos were pretty average, so i just did a lousy tint on one and worked on the levels a bit... but bad lighting to begin with can't be fully rectified.

Ahhhhh ahhh ahhhhh

2008-03-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

In this one I played with saturation in a strange way... for example, the shadows of the bodies used a lighter and very desaturated color instead of the usual darker/more saturated. I don't think it's a thing i could use mostly, but interesting, and worth playing with.

I think this would have worked well with a handdrawing scanned in to get a nicer quality for the lines.

Things

2008-03-18T03:14:00.000-07:00

First, a photo I took quite a while ago... just some sticky tape stuck into a little shape which I liked. I started working on removing the warm cast and stuff but then decided I liked it (but now that i look at it as I upload I wonder if i should have...). I need to learn some photography technique so that my shots are a bit nicer... never pro, but at least more competent.

And then a very photoshoppy thing I just did using old resources I already had. A bit of fun I guess. Sometimes I don't want to avoid typical photoshop looks (blend modes, pixelly, etc) although i still don't quite have it in me to go the lens flare.

I was thinking about OK Computer (by Radiohead) a while ago and how its cover art is very obviously digital... i have heard people say that the packaging is amazing, but i don't really like it. Looks cheap and low-budget tacky now. Maybe because i wasn't "there" when it first came out I just won't get it. Meh.

Just thought as well, i haven't done much drawing for a long time. Must get back into that.

Muckaround

2008-03-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

A few little things for you today.

the colored stripy ones use a secret technique I have developed over years and years which i'm not going to tell you. I like its potential though, and i thought these stripes were nice.

And I scanned in the crest from a letter I got... it's so small that it automatically went jagged when i scanned it big. Looks a bit like a Photoshop filter unfortunately but it's not (though the color halftone over the top is).

Now, off to get a sour apple slurpee.

Test frames

2008-03-10T22:49:00.001-07:00

I am (probably) doing a little animation segment for a short film... it's an experimental piece that will be mostly video and stills, with a few animated scenes. The whole thing is pretty bizarre and the narrative will be have to be interpreted a lot by the viewer.
Anyway, they want me to do a 15 second scene where the two characters are sitting in a coffee shop and having tea. That's all... they just sit there. They will do stuff like take a drink, look around, whatever, but no specific actions or dialogue.

Pretty open, pretty fun :)

They gave me the background and a mockup of a frame to show kind of what they had in mind. I worked off that but also just did what i wanted to, because that's most likely to work when i try and do the full animation! I don't know how it will look with this much detail and sketchiness, whether it will just get really jumpy, because i usually keep the lines a bit cleaner - not straight or fluid, but not scribbly with the construction lines like in this one. One of my two images is a little cleaner and that takes longer, because i have to go back and get rid of some of the extra rubbish, but i suspect it will be a bit easier on the eyes.

Anyway, I've sent it to them to check what they think, and if I get the go-ahead I will do a second or two to see how that works...

A thing.

2008-03-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

There wasn't any inspiration, goal or meaning to this... just opened photoshop, chose colors based on what i liked, and put them down and started layering some things on top.
I have a temptation now to vignette everything i do in some way, whether it be the traditional soft dark corners or through more blatant methods... things often look good with some kind of framing. But I don't want to always do it, so i didn't today (well actually i did, but i blended it pretty low so it wasn't very prominent). I sortof wanted to do bold, dark strokes around the left and right. but no.

self portrait of sorts

2008-03-05T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was reading last night before I went to bed, and as I got up I realised that my reflection was very visible in the window, which for some reason made me want to draw myself. I've done it once before and actually got a pretty good likeness, but i wasn't in that mood tonight, and the lighting was also not conducive to that... when i sat close enough to the window to see it well, i was almost directly under the light so lots of my face was in shadow.
Nevertheless, i grabbed a piece of cardboard I had looted (i like drawing on cardboard for some reason) and chose to work in black biro, and got to work.
Because of all the shadows, i didn't really know how to work but i jumped in and started plotting out some lines, and built up lots of form through directional lines and layering. In the end, I don't think it's very "me" (particularly if you ignore the hair which is a bit more of a giveaway) but it was fun and good practice I think, as i really imagined the forms of my face and where lines might go. I made a fair bit up, and didn't do the shadows quite consistently but it wasn't meant to be a 'study' as such.

Then i photographed it today and found a cool effect where the light was gleaming under my curtains, so i used that, heh.

CD covers

2008-02-18T04:08:00.000-08:00

here was a comp that just finished to design a cover for some band. I like competitions for a few reasons...
1. they give you a brief ready-made, and motivation to do it
2. you can win cool stuff
3. they often allow you to see other entries so you can see how others approached it.

and it seems they're often for things i wouldn't normally do or when i start them i find it really difficult, so it is good practice to push on and problem-solve.

i ended up putting four entries together for this one because i was working on two and not really liking either but kept developing them for good practice. Then i got a new idea so i did that and figured i might as well put them all in.

I don't expect i will win, even though i quite like 1.5 of my entries, but it was good for me to do anyway!
There's something about most of my work that just doesn't look professional and i can't really work it out - some of it is about color and quality (of images, type etc.) but yeah, it's like even if i have a concept that works and a good start, i lack the eye to really polish it, even if i do spend the time on refining. For example the cover with the cut paper text straight on and the fabric... i think it could be a really effective cover, but i don't think it fully 'works' here. Partially is about the photo - it is sharp and alright but lacks a bit of pop (but when i upped the values it became washed out or harsh) and the fabric needs to be richer and better lit. maybe that is all, dunno.

old sketchbook things

2008-02-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

I lost momentum with drawing in my sketchbook, i'm getting a bit back now but here's some old stuff i didn't get uploaded. It's good to come back to it a bit later, because you see lots more mistakes with fresh eyes (yeah, *great*, i know :P) which is a good thing in the long run.
As i continue i expect to get better at seeing with "fresh" eyes while I do the drawing, so i can correct mistakes and not just get absorbed in little things that aren't important/right.

Now looking for a neat anatomy resource for hands :)

Dodgy painting

2008-01-29T04:27:00.001-08:00

I was feeling lazy and opened photoshop... not a good combination for me i've found, because i end up doing *something* but it's not inspired or fresh or anything.

anyway, listened to a song saying "hiding inside the horrible weather" and found a photo of rain. Painted this just using colors from the image which i like in principle, again, not necessarily good here but ok.
If i were doing it again, i would do a fun illustration for it because the one here is a little depressing in its look and just 'eh' overall.

nevertheless, here it is because that's what this blog is for :)

Next time : do something that isn't just a sketch... refine something to a point where i need to claim that it's a finished thing. It's too easy to hide behind the 'sketch' tag to avoid doing any real work!

Illustration

2008-01-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

I was doing some sketchies and developed this one a bit more. I was initially thinking of a nice streamlined, smooth kind of illustration but couldn't be bothered being disciplined so just threw lines wherever! Tried to be anatomically decent though, and i think it's not too bad (for me). The poses were a bit tricky on purpose, i am pleased to have gotten the left one semi-right. I was going to make him wet (since he's climbing out of water maybe?) but couldn't really work out how.

I like the kindof sun-bleached look with mostly white. Hoipefully gives an impression of a hot, bright day.

EDIT: Oops! forgot to do the shadows on the ground! I had it in mind to do all throughout and then got interrupted right near the end and left them. will go back into that if i can be bothered later :)

CD cover

2008-01-19T00:56:00.000-08:00

There was a cool challenge on www.typophile.com a while ago which i just saw yesterday... basically, design a cover for a fictitious band but with some big restrictions:
1. the name of the band is the first article that comes up on wikipedia under random.
2. the album title is the last 4 words of a page of quotes
3. the main imagery used is the third image in flickr's "interesting photos"

so it's good because you're forced to work with the restrictions and make the best you can. Some of the entries people gave were really great!

I had a go today, and though i tried a few refreshes to get an image that was CC (so i could use it without having to seek permission) and big resolution, i gave up after a few tries and just used one that came up with high-res but was copyright. Since i'm not using this design for ANYTHING apart from my own exploration I don't feel too concerned about that, but i do try to treat other people's contributions the same way i'd like people to respect stuff that I worked hard at and put online.

So here's the cover I came up with, after a lot of cropping and grading of the photo. Not anything too detailed, just a quick little fun exercise. I reckon i'll do more similar little projects with some restrictions to stretch me... could involve anything!

A bit of coloring

2008-01-17T03:38:00.000-08:00

I felt like doing some coloring so i grabbed one of my recent sketchbook scans and played around briefly with some texture and making a feral Paris-style girl, then a clay/porcelain style skintones a bit. But i got bored and didn't really refine any of them.

T-shirt design

2008-01-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

I just finished up with a T-shirt design for Threadless. The contest theme which I entered was "big ideas" and i was playing with a few concepts when I thought of the illustration Devie did for uni last year... it fit really well and so I emailed her to ask if i could basically steal the idea and just make new art for it. I didn't hear back from her so I've done it anyway and if I win I'll just chuck her a pile of hush money or something :P

Should be approved for voting soon, so check it out here. I also had another idea but I won't have time to do it because the theme contest finishes tonight. ah well.

Sketchbook

2008-01-13T20:43:00.001-08:00

More sketchbooking. For some reason I've managed for the moment to get a bit of momentum going with drawing... it's not as if this stuff is suddenly amazing (though I am improving which is what matters) but it seems that I have more motivation to draw regularly... and I'm quite enjoying it :)

Trying to do a few different approaches/styles for a face... I usually start with the eyes but I'm not sure that's the best for me. Sometimes i do the general head shape which can work but sometimes i end up having to squish features into a misshaped head (particularly when I'm trying to achieve a likeness). This is a problem with forgetting to focus on the solid shapes rather than just eyeballing and working from what i think. Anyway, i want to get into exaggeration and different stylising/simplification more.
And efficiency with lines. My pencil stuff turns out better but as I improve I hope to be able to do more confident, accurate strokes to describe things simply.

The pink is a scan of the diagram from Anatomy for the Artist, the grey is my drawing... not too far off :) (well, it's a bit off, part of it is just the way i rotated/positioned the pink incorrectly but there are some bits i need to work on). I'll keep doing this exercise occasionally to remind me of the proportions, where things meet/line up. Theres one that has muscle and skeleton which would be a good one to do.

More Sketchbook

2008-01-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Some more images.
Don't know how often I will update... it doesn't take that long but it's just a bit of a hassle :P Now I understand why others don't, particularly when they are doing a LOT of stuff (i'm looking at you Adrian).

Sketchbook stuff

2008-01-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

I've started my sketchbook and have been doing a mix of studying stuff (i.e anatomy, techniques) and experimenting a bit, trying to do stuff in different ways and stop getting stuck in one mode of thinking. At the moment it's pretty much all copying from books or images and trying to understand what is going on, learning as i do it. It takes quite a while for me to sink this stuff in but i think it does work longterm, i guess it just requires lots of repetition and focus when i'm doing it.

i won't comment on each bit, it's just various things.

Watery

2007-12-07T17:04:00.001-08:00

Been listening to Water by Thrice, specifically The Whaler and Open Water (both of which are so great) and wanted to do something wet.

I like this technique of copying an image and using it as my paint stroke... i duplicate the bottom layer/image, move it and then mask it all out and paint back in lines.

Consumption

2007-11-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do some kind of illustration or painting last night, so i used a random word generator and it gave me the word "consumption". This is what i came up with for that.

I enjoy the painting and doodling aspects of this a lot so i neglect some aspects which would make it a better piece overall (such as working more on the character design, adding more elements, not using a computer), so maybe next time i'll be a bit more disciplined with that.

Oh and he's not meant to be Shrek! I wanted something pasty and a bit repulsive so i used a greenish skintone but forgot to make it less shrekky at the end (maybe i'll come back to it tomorrow or something).

mixed media

2007-11-22T22:42:00.000-08:00

this is a closeup from a canvas i filled with random junk just to experiment, and it's yielded a lot of great textures for me to use.
i drew over bits in photoshop and chucked in a few other photos. I was going to add more collage elements but didn't.

Who's avoiding their work?

2007-10-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

I did this as a quick, thoughtless collage painting thing. I want to try new things like colors i dont like or things that look messy/crap.

Then I played with different arrangements of hiding or transforming layers to come up with a few different results from the same layers (not adding new stuff).

2 little asides - the "first" illustration (the one i was actually working on is the bottom one, the other two are the variations).
also, you will notice i used that moon thingy i did a while ago in this - it was one of 3 or 4 images i quickly grabbed to add color/texture.

Generic

2007-10-22T16:54:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately this looks like every teenager expressing their inner darkness with the haxx0red photoshop they downloaded. If you want an argument against illegal downloading, the 'art' these teenagers create is all you'll need. I'll be putting it up onto DeviantArt in just a moment. (no, not really).

I took a photo to show how long my hair is now and then i just mucked around with it... i like the idea of the 'displace' filter (used on mah face, but you cant really see it much under the black scribble stuff) but can't see many ways it's actually USEFUL.

Blockages

2007-10-06T03:31:00.000-07:00

Was feeling crusty after doing some uni work so thought i'd relax with a bit of enjoyable imagemaking. But then it was all coming out crap too!

this is actually just 2 photos and a paint layer blended.

Pears I

2007-09-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

I bought some beurre bosch pears recently which are delicious and also look very nice - they are lumpy and odd shaped, which is what i like about pears.

I have done some watercolors of them which i will upload at some point, but here's a digital painting i did this morning.

Weird dancers

2007-09-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

I always liked illustration thats got a distinct style. I naturally try to copy what i see, and even when i'm stylizing illustration it still ends up looking like i TRIED to be realistic and just suck :P

So i felt inspired to do something geometric-ish and very blocky.
I like the idea of this but not necessarily how i've executed it so i've saved the .psd and i may revisit it sometime.

Watermelon

2007-09-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

I drew this on Adrian Hogan's graffiti wall at Facebook.
I'm not "into" facebook, lets make that very clear.

although, i did say i wasn't "into" blogging yet here i am providing voluntary posts on one of my 4 blogs (yes that number is misrepresentative as i only really use 2 of them, and i won't use one of those after uni).

anyway, the graffiti wall is a very crude paint thing.
And i painted a watermelon car.
Oh i do hope he likes it.

Sculpture plan

2007-09-21T05:06:00.000-07:00

This is a rough sketch for a sculpture I hope to make tomorrow - I'm going to a day class. I have no idea what it'll be like, we are told to come with an idea but i have no clue if the block of "hemel" will be easy to carve, or what size, or ANYTHING really! I've planned to keep with simple, stylized forms which should make it easier and more flexible depending on how the hemel reacts. But i'll probably come back with something way different.

It's also tricky to conceptualise a 3d sculpture. Hmm.

I'll post what I end up with :)

What the smeg is hemel...? time for a g00gle.

Samson - Regina Spektor

2007-09-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Already started putting other people's work in this blog, hah.

but i liked aspects of this very much. I found the editing quite clunky actually but the stop motion and some of the animated bits were really nice.

There's no place like home

2007-09-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Been listening to a lot of new The Receiving End of Sirens, and the last song "Pale Blue Dot" repeats this line throughout. It's a reference to Carl someone-or-other who talks about Earth as a pale blue dot...

So this response is pretty straightforwardly derived from that (and i guess the liner art a little too...?) but was quick and fun.

Procrastination

2007-09-17T16:54:00.001-07:00

mucking round with color... choosing, blending, making crappy digi-paint.

I wouldn't post this anywhere. but that's kind of the point. Doing stuff that isn't actually good. but still is somehow useful for development, who knows how.

Welcome.

2007-09-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

This blog is a no-rules creative outlet for me - hopefully a motivation to keep experimenting and churning out little bits and pieces that don't fit within uni stuff.

This first one is a painting i just did. It's not 'finished' and it's not that inspiring, just a copy of a photo, but it seems like as good a place as any to start.

Comments and critique are welcome on this blog but I may not pay much notice to them, as it's not really that kind of place, it's mainly for my own sanity. (though i will still read them, so if you feel the urge, go ahead!).

Super Strudel

Poster design

Acrylic paintings

Digital painting

Face paintings III

Face paintings II

Face paintings

Painting development

Face

I'm still somewhere

Poster design

Unearthed illustration

Color scheme analysis

Scribbles

Color value study

Practicing values

First acrylic painting

Katie Melua

Cloudy with a chance of painting

Underpainting test

Eye painting

A game

Paintings

Color studies

Quick painting

Value study

Painting

Sketchbook scans

More quick snaps

Fairy Lights

Wuthering Heights

Hipstamatic 2 - Sky edition

Hipstamatic Photos

The Alchemist

A Pale View of Hills

The Road

A Bird

Brave New World

Debbie

Something on the water

Cityscape

Designed thing

A Pink Man

MUG

Painting

Chili Illustration

Stop-motion Food

50th post

Website banner

DVD menu

Baking

Fun animated tidbit.

Two quick things

Another painting

DigiPainting

Stills from animation

Noramel

Academic achievements

Rehash

Cavernicles

Colorstrips

Pink

Something

Dime

Flyer design

Süp

Ahhhhh ahhh ahhhhh

Things

Muckaround

Test frames

A thing.

self portrait of sorts

CD covers

old sketchbook things

Dodgy painting

Illustration

CD cover

A bit of coloring

T-shirt design

Sketchbook

Süp