50th post

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.