Renewed Attempts

 

Incorporating more of my research...I'm taking yet another approach to this character. I still have much more development needed, but I feel like I'm getting much closer with this page. The finished "page" for her will probably be several pages long. XP
 

I had been close to finished on another important piece for a while, but then I had a break through (On a Sunday evening no less, so very hard getting myself to go to sleep for work the next morning after that epiphany) and scrapped it. Now the redraw is super close to finished and I feel super energized about it, so the painting will go speedy fast!! :) (Teaser below)
Then I should get back to that Fancy Bear...and some trees...lol 

Onisan Update

Two more pages of Onisan content: Julia's family and the Yosei who is disguised for most of the narrative as a house servant named Moriko. Still hoping I can at least get Oni ready by the CTN portfolio deadline this Oct. 13th. Had plans for two additional illustrations, but one they wouldn't get done and two...my brain exploded.

 

Why?

 

Linchpin by Seth Godin.

 

Chris Oatley recommended I read it and it kind blew my mind. I realized that with Onisan I had finally made a push with a personal project that was closer to being personal, but I could still push it further. It made me realize a lot of other things too - mainly though was this notion of giving/sharing and being genuine - being truly indispensable. So I started sketching...

 

 

These were mainly from photographs of when I spent a summer (2007) in Japan with YFU. It was absolutely brilliant. I'm now trying to figure out the best way to share this experience - utilizing my abilities and passion. Who knows, maybe when I finish I'll do a New Zealand follow up??

 

Seriously, go read Linchpin. Or get the audiobook and listen to it while you're drawing. Good stuff!: )



Yang Guifei

Still feeling bad about the lapse in posts, so here's another quick one before I call it a night!
The last of the Four Beauties - Yang Guifei - so beautiful that flowers would wither in jealousy.
So yeah, that's it for these guys...or not. I may decide to do one last piece with them. For kicks and giggles. Generally pleased with how they all came out this round. Has been very interesting pushing things here and there, trying out a mix of different references.

For the other three Beauties: Diaochan, Wang Zhaojun, and Xi Shi.

And another shout out to she who inspired this redesign with her own artistic awesomeness: Liana Hee. She is so sweet and so talented. Please check out her blog!!

May...May??

 So I don't know what happened to March and April...the snow storms kind of mushed them together somehow. I moved apartments and started a new job (Still not the dream, but significantly more art involved already and utilizes my IT experience) To make up for lack of posts, here are:
1. Diaochan - Another Ancient Beauty of China, so beautiful that the moon would hide behind the clouds in shame.

2. Lady Jane Seymour - 3/6 of a new set of watercolors I started entitled Tudor Roses. and 3. Lady Catherine of Aragon - 1/6 of the aforementioned set. What can I say...I was re-watching the Tudors as I wait for the next season of Borgias. Both are great shows. Not without their faults, but very entertaining.

So I have one Ancient Beauty left and four more Roses. I may well soon have other projects to post (Now that I have a designated, well-equipped art creation space and a rhythm going I feel I will be very productive in the next few months) and if things go well with the work proposal tomorrow I may also have a whole new set to start posting from that too. YAY!!

The Youngest Miss Clarke

So here as promised is the design plan for that armature in the previous post. Already added the first block-in of clay, so it's starting to come together. I'll post an update before I'm ready to bake. Really glad I let Raul instruct me on armature building because if it weren't so darn sturdy I would probably have busted it up and died of frustration by now. Also saw Jordu Schell's Gnomen DVD on sculpting monsters...very informative AND super funny...would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Again, this is my design for the main character of Beauty and the Beast (aka Beauty, but that's not what I've named her). I'm sticking a little closer to the original fairy tale story-wise, set in a time/place that I am (haha, it's not cheating to draw what you know) very familiar with - though judging solely from the above may not be what you'd guess. It'll probably become more clear when I get around to posting the Beast half of this equation. For now, enjoy and ponder the awesomeness to come. ^^

Xi Shi

 

The next Ancient Beauty of the series - Xi Shi with imitation coy (since she was so beautiful that fish would forget how to swim and sink ;p). Might take a break before I finish the last two - to work on another portfolio piece since a workable composition finally came to me while at work today. Thank goodness it was truck day so I had ALL the cigarette boxes to break down and sketch thumbnails on...hey, it's better than drawing all over the receipt tape. lol...sigh -_- 

Wang Zhaojun

AhHa! Another update!! This is a revamp of Wang Zhaojun and a fanciful bird of paradise (since she was so beautiful that birds dropped dead from shame ;p). Stylistically I wanted it to be recognizable as something I would do and find visually appealing - but I more heavily referenced a different set of artists than I normally do in an attempt to start experimenting a bit more, pushing those style boundaries, etc.

Honestly I was most influenced by a set of prints that I purchased at CTN this year by Liana Hee of four geisha. I was drawn to them for several reasons, but most importantly because they are ATTRACTIVE. When I say they are attractive I mean that their simple shape language reads clearly, tells four individual stories that are cohesive as a set and they possess a certain charm that makes smiling irresistible. I hope that as I revamp the other three Beauties of China that I can also make them as attractive as Liana's geisha are. : )

Ximena Redesign

 I have decided at this point that if I'm feeling inspired one-way-or-another I should just run with it instead of frustrating myself and getting nothing done. I mean this strictly in terms of my personal work obviously. Thus said, I felt energized to pick up a pencil and work on Ximena's redesign...not the ASUBB pages that I told myself would get done this week. (It's still early, who knows - they might still manifest?) The result being the above as opposed to no post at all. Having something to show is better than having nothing (well...I suppose guilt and frustration aren't nothing, but it's harder to show them unless abstractly and I don't fancy abstract art).
I'll start Gregorio here pretty soon. He's being a bit more stubborn. Silly boys always are.

Taste Test Round II

 

Ah Ha! The last taste test before I start posting pages regularly - a little ways off now that I have a tighter schedule, but still closer than I was before. ^^ I struggled a bit with the visual content of this page, whether or not I should just jump into the action or not, and decided for pacing purposes that this was best. Who is this woman? What impact does she have on this story? More than you would imagine - but you'll have to follow along to find out!!

Learning ALL The Things!

 So...I randomly decided to learn Trimble/Google SketchUp because why not...and this was my first attempt at an interior. Saori's Tea Room. It took me a couple afternoons, mostly because I fussed over that table which I already want to change for so long. The only things in there I didn't build from scratch were the tea set and the chairs because at that point I was ready to try different things. And the "paint" job was just the default swatches since I was just experimenting. I wanted to take it into DAZ to light it before truly painting it in Photoshop, but then found out that I needed the non-free version to have that feature...or find the plugin elsewhere. I have the plugin now, so maybe so I'll get around to finishing this...but WAIT I've already started a new model!!

So here it is in Top view with the perspective turned off. (One may or may not catch that this is more directly related to the project I'm working on now) I found saving out a quick flat allowed me to map it in Photoshop super easy. No graph paper involved! And I guess, as is, it is a rather boring layout to look at, very symmetrical and lots of straight lines. But that works for the inhabitants. They are very unimaginative, paranoid, unwavering people...sans the eldest son. Anyways, pulling this one into 3 dimensions has taken a couple days at least because of scale and detail. I started in the kitchens on that fireplace and went on from there, still periodically working on it since it's helpful in staging scenes more accurately, but am now back to what I really need to be getting done.

PS. SketchUp - You have taken much frustration and wasted resources/time out of my environments. Considering that I've only had you for about a week now...well, I just wanted to say Thank You. I'm sure our future together will be happy and productive. You're awesome. Cheers!

Shall We Play A Game?

Aha! Proof that I have been quite busy. While I haven't reached my goal of posting some serious stuffs now, I have made much progress - in compiling a more thorough Style Guide, some quick character redesigns, mixing various digital palettes (Why didn't I do this earlier??), finding mean-time employment, taking a weekend trip to visit family (Not mine, but I love them as if they were), etc.

Anyways, I guess I do have a sneak peek at what I'm working on...

Anyone recognize this guy? This is a relatively-fast color study of his redesign. I wasn't trying for a render, but I did try to push it further in regards to edge control and general presentation. One small step for Beki. One giant leap for Raul's patience. : )