Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Day 29 & 30

I'm going to try something different with my post layout here that I will inevitably regret when I redesign this blog someday in the future.  Then again, that could be a while and this post will be long forgotten.  So yes,  here today we have a 2 day study (a couple of hours yesterday and today each).  

Anyway, I wanted to write a little more today than I usually do since I'm coming up on the end of month one of my deathline and I wanted to assess the first month and where I'm at.  I looked over my goals and am pretty pleased with the progress I've made so far.  Studying daily has become an obsession.  I am still extremely new to digital painting and have daily struggles with rendering.  Drawing is also improving although I feel that was my one strength (albeit tiny) coming into this.

For month two, I won't be able to focus as heavily on the Bloodsport Challenges because I'm kind of overloaded with client work (all music and indie clothing related freelance stuff).  My main focuses are going to be efficiency and routine with specific focuses on anatomy speed.  I'll be working heavily on Bridgeman studies and probably a mix of still lifes and MMA studies. 

And to cap this post, here's a handful of doodles from the past two days including another self portrait.


Monday, February 27, 2012

Day 28


Daily study - another hand.  And doodles from the weekend, mostly Sunday, including CAPTAIN FREAKING PLANET (a redesigned version anyway).

I don't think I'm going to be able to do anything for this Bloodsports challenge which is a bummer because it's such a cool challenge (Zelda Windwaker redesign) - I just have way too much freelance graphic design work on my plate at the moment (4 album art jobs).

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Day 27


Loomis and quick head sketches of various durations from magazines and other references.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Day 26 - Study + Bloodsports: Monster Hunter


This isn't based off of the video game "Monster Hunter" - but the challenge was inspired by it.  I'm definitely not finishing in time since the deadline is in 2 and a half hours.
You can see my monster for this challenge a few posts below.

And a study as well.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Day 25


I've been extremely bogged down with client work and Bloodsports the last 2 or 3 days.  I have 4 album art projects on the plate at the moment (2 actually into production).  One of them features a lovely glass sphere containing a person -- this is an ultra quick study from that project.

This is actually a two part study - there is a hand holding the orb and I'll be getting onto that part tomorrow since I want to keep running with hands and other anatomy weaknesses.

Day 24


Day 24 study carried over to today.  I'll probably still do another quicker one for today.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Bloodsport 6 Creature Sketches



I had a few more ideas in my sketchbook.  The gorilla/boar/ram guy started out in the sketchbook.  I'll be running with the one that I colored and pushed the furthest.  It was the most compelling design to me.  The hulky gorilla bast is way too far into my comfort zone.  I do also like the dinosaur/mantis guy quite a bit - I may render him up into a full creature design after Bloodsports.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Day 23




A handful of items from today.  Trying to get back into figure warmups (60 second and 5 minute poses here).  Also a sketch from a few days ago of some kind of dark skeleton rider guy.  Lastly, my daily study - didn't time cap this one.  Just wanted to get all of those textures and surfaces as realistic as possible.

Day 22


I had lofty goals for today but ended up tangled in a typography job that is ruining my life right now.  So all I have to show is my daily study which is aimed at my Bloodsports entry which is what I wanted to be working on all day today originally.

This was a fairly quick study.  I'm happy that I'm actually completing my studies (albeit with varied degrees of success) within the time limits I've been setting for the

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Day 20


Still pushing on.  Working on skin tone mainly.   Having trouble with photobucket at the moment so I'll host here on the blog for the time being.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Day 19


Another day, another study.  Actually this is the first time I'm seeing that self portrait speed paint since I posted yesterday.  It's taking every ounce of will I have to not delete that thing.

So today we have a grayscale portrait study and some progress on my Bloodsports VI character.  I've never done character or armor design outside of doodling in sketch books without the thought that I was actually designing anything, so this is a new (and awesome) experience!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Day 18


Kind of a weird day for me... I think I'm kind of burnt out a little bit just from staying up waaaay (4 - 5AM) too late routinely and still waking up in the AM and working.  Pity me.

So I did a study that I'm not going to post because I didn't finish it and I won't be finishing it.  It's terrible and really not worth posting.  So here are other sketches and doodles from today.  The character sketches are for Bloodsports 6.  I was working on trying to figure out what directions and influences to take with my character's armor.  Also did a speed self-portrait while staring at myself in a mirror.  I want to get into doing this routinely so I'm drawing portraits from life and not just doing digital photo studies.  The disconnect from drawing while looking at myself in a mirror, through my eyes, mind, and out my arm and hand and onto a tablet, then onto the computer screen, was weeeeird.  The results? Not so good.  I hope I don't look like this.  In fact I know I don't because this face doesn't look human!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Day 17

Everything was going well... then I got to the wrinkles in the thumb.  Time capped study.  Make it and move on.

And some digital doodles.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Day 16


Daily study for Day 16.  Those antlers were way harder than I thought they'd be.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Day 14 & 15



Started this study yesterday and just kept on pushing it pretty much as far as I could today.  So I'm calling this one a long study for days 14 and 15 of my Deathline.  Drawing is pretty off here - just practicing rendering armor and metal.

I've decided that if I encounter a situation where a study isn't going to fit into a 2 or 3 hour cap, I'm going to let it be a long study and count it for 2 days of the Deathline, so long as I'm spending at least 2 hours studying each day.  

Also some sketches/doodles from Day 14.  The knight guy is roughly referenced from a D&D book I borrowed. 

Other/Old Work



I just wanted to post up a few pieces I had done in the past year or so leading up to this point in my career.  These are all music related pieces.  I may post a few more later on down the road when they are unveiled by clients.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Day 13


Decided to switch it up a bit for Day 13.  I've been wanting to get into studying Loomis for anatomy so here's my first few exercises or whatever you would call them.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Day 12

Long study for Day 12.  Trying to get much better at skin tone.  Also, I experimented with HSB sliders for color selection as opposed to the color picker which always seems to distort  my perception of the color.  The HSB sliders kind of make me choose the color based on theory rather than eyeballing it and hoping to get it right.  I think I'll be incorporating quite a bit of the HSB into my method.

Bloodsports 5 - Princess Mononoke, not quite final



Going to finish this one still even though I didn't finish it by Bloodsports judging.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Days 10 and 11


The buckskin leather fabric study is from yesterday.  The fur is from today.  I've been plugging away on a few things that have deadlines coming up and it forced me to cap these studies pretty quickly which is a good thing because I need to get quicker and a bad thing because I'm not really happy with either of these images.