farvus >> exploration sketchbook II

[Farvus]

\Hello. It's long time since I last posted. Right now I'm doing 2d art in a small game company near my home and I don't paint as much of personal stuff as I used to. However lately I'm slowly going back to painting for fun and exploring. Just to start fresh I decided to create new thread instead of posting in the old one. I want to push a little bit my design and ideas. Illustrating my favourite books would be fun too.

Here are two latest images I did in free time.

[Vulgar`]

Damn @ those, welcome back Farvus.

[Farvus]

Vulgar' - Thanks!

Cartoon update. That's me after tiring day at work...

[thinksimplybig]

I'll paint for those slippers you got, super jealous. Fun work

[Nibras]

I can't wait to see you get started again. Your sketchbooks are always so much fun and it still makes me want to throw everything out and just spend a couple of hours doing some of my own experiments. The blog is really nice as well!

[Farvus]

thinksimplybig - Haha. Thnx.
Nibras - Thanks. I will experiment but not as much as I used to. I eventually go nowhere if I just play with stuff without commiting to something.

Here's some new design.

[Farvus]

Bunch of thumbnails just to relax after work.

[thirdeye]

Some of these are really great Keep on rockin' mate

[Farvus]

thirdeye - Thanks!

Digital still life. Made me realise I got rusty when it comes to observation painting.

[Andrew Sonea]

Yay you're back! Love the thumbnails and colours in the still life. Keep it up!

[Farvus]

Andrew Sonea - Thanks.

Weekend doodling.

[Farvus]

Still life with my airsoft replica. It was tough to get the values in this one.

[BludHund]

Hey Farvus.

Your rendering looks very good, good use of color, value, brushwork.

I've noticed that in a lot of your creative paintings here the objects in the
scene are present very flatly, with one face directly toward the viewer. I
think you really need to be digging into the perspective more, right now it
looks a bit weird/lazy.

Keep it up! Heh, that self portrait looks just like me on a lot of days at
work...except we aren't down to using packing crates as desks, yet. Just
running the A/C during the winter instead.

[Farvus]

BludHund - Thanks for the notice. It's not like I can't draw dynamic perspective. Some of these images where "lazy" on purpose. It's liberating when I can do some structures as simple 2d elevation view. This way I can play with the shapes and patterns without worrying about other things. However later I had the temptation to turn few into illustration and experiment didn't end up looking well. I should've left some without any type of background.
On the other hand it was educational to first paint some structure and then come up with context and story that would compliment the design. That's something I might use for brainstorming more elaborate concepts with full attention to perspective and composition.

Below is more appropriate layout for this type of design .

[Farvus]

I'm going back to foundations and traditional mediums. I use tablet at work and do lots of graphic design and cartoony work so doodling in sketchbook is refreshing.

Pencil sketch of a female statuette I bought latelty to practice drawing form.

[Farvus]

Few things I did recently.

Personal illustration for the "Clockwork ballroom" collaborative art activity. The topic was "Alter Ego" and my description for the image below:

“I imagined my alter ego to be android who ended up being a bit like Robinson Crusoe. He woke up incomplete and now tries to find some parts to build himself up. Unfortunately there was massive flood so he has to be resourceful and take what’s available around."



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Bunch of gun designs - More modern near future on the left and more exotic ones on the right. Could be some sort of blasters.



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Something I forgot to post. Here's result of my last experiment with modelling tools in 3dsmax and materials in vray.

[Farvus]

[Farvus]

I often have problem when drawing hair especially for female so I decided to do something about it. It was hard to find photo reference with many angles. Especially top view is crucial to see how the hair is parting and which direction it follows.

[Farvus]

I'm planning to start a personal library of everything related to characters for reference so that studies could be more specific and later used (instead of being dumped somewhere). Different face types, hairstyles, useful poses, etc.

Here's another collection of hairstyles.

[HunterKiller_]

Great to see you're staying active here!

Cool work, as usual. Look forward to more updates.

[Farvus]

HunterKiller_ - Thanks!

Weekend character doodling.

[Farvus]

I haven't done zombies before and it looks like they are pure fun. Took about 2 hours.



And process for that piece

[HunterKiller_]

Hey man,
I really appreciate you taking the time to support me, thanks!

The last bunch of characters, I think the value ranges are too close together.
It would be appropriate if they were in gloomy lighting, but in terms of just displaying a character, I think the contrast of values and differing value range of surfaces could be punched up, not sure if that makes sense.
For example, the zombie's jacket could be matte dark, utilizing 100%-80% black. Then the shirt could be a lighter color, using 70%-20% black, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

[Farvus]

HunterKiller_ - Thanks. Yeah. That's what happens when you post the same day you finish artwork. Always some major things missed. Luckily you can quickly change things in Photoshop with overlays and sliders.

Changed the values a bit more.


Playing with some sci-fi vehicles for fun. In second one I used Alchemy for base shapes and painted on top. It always gives interesting results.

[HunterKiller_]

The little plane is pretty rad, looks like the pilot would stand on it, like Nausicaa on her aerofoil.

I really like that vehicle on treads! It's kind of clunky and charming.

[Farvus]

HunterKiller_ - Thanks, man

I seriously started to consider doing storyboards (while previously I totally disregarded that specialty). There are many images which I made as illustrations but forced totally cinematic framing, feeling of space and poses. The problems is that cinematic composition doesn't exactly work well for single illustration but is more natural in sequence. I should've realised earlier that somewhere subconsciously many of these images I wanted to actually paint as storyboards. Guided by some impulse last year I also bought two books and el coro's tutorial on storyboarding so I guess my intuition gave me quicker answer than reason . That might be some new fresh stage in my artistic development.

For now though I'm more in the mood to do concept art so here's old revised robot design.

[HunterKiller_]

Thanks for the excellent critiques, dude!

The problems is that cinematic composition doesn't exactly work well for single illustration but is more natural in sequence. I should've realised earlier that somewhere subconsciously many of these images I wanted to actually paint as storyboards.

This is exactly what I'm thinking, man. Go for it!

Some good resources.

http://sevencamels.blogspot.co.nz/
Recently found. Composition, story-telling. So amazing

http://theartcenter.blogspot.co.nz/s.../Storyboarding
Lessons from top-dog animators. Can't go wrong.

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.co.nz/
Not specifically storyboard, but he's worked with Disney's elites and a legend in his own right. There's sure to be some character/story related lessons in there.

[Farvus]

Hunterkiller_ - Hey. Thanks! Disney animation is not my thing but still such information is invaluable.

Something I don't do often. Monsters.
I tried drawing third one but my hand started to hurt so it's enough for today.

[Farvus]

New creatures based on the same framework.

[Farvus]

I just ordered Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists by Mark Simon. You can find plenty of this stuff on the net but book is something portable you can put in bag and use when sketching somewhere outside. Should be good for storyboards, comics and some illustrations.

Here are color thumbs with different moods.
I like to try color palettes that imply totally unnatural atmosphere as if it was some another planet. Also volcanic planets are fun to paint