Draw, paint & animate - Mistle learns 'em all!

[Mistle]

Gpozzo - thanks! Yep, perspective is something I plan to focus on very soon after I become just a bit more comfortable with the human body. And good note about using more realistic-coloured landscapes. I didn't even notice, but you're right, they're all very saturated and cartoonish. I'll be sure to mix it up a bit.

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Anyway, I decided to attempt the human body... from purely my mind! No Loomis or references... Or Loomis references. I just tried to apply what I've learnt so far about gesture drawing, anatomy, shape, balance etc. and do it completely from imagination. I started with the frame then added bulk.

Considering I've only been building figure drawing skills for 2 weeks, I'm really happy with the results.

[Mistle]

Just messing around in PS.. no real purpose. From imagination, no reference. Just getting a feel for painting. Only took about 5-10 mins, and didn't finish the legs (obviously )

The lighting is probably all sorts of wrong. I really didn't put much effort. As I said, just getting a feel for painting.

[Mistle]

Some good news - finally got my old scanner working with Win 7! Now we don't have to settle for bad iPhone photos.

Started bone structure... not really sure how this will help? Might just move onto muscles.



Also did some more Loomis studies:



And just a messy sketch for fun in my Moleskine. Pencils feel so good on that paper:

[Mistle]

Some pose maniacs... kind of day dreaming as I did this so very rough. 1 min each. Gotta better as I went, and then I stopped as I was hitting my stride. Oh well!

By the way, should I update with posemaniac sketches? They may get a bit boring/excessive. Just let me know!

Also- I'm going to start doing a portfolio piece one a month from now on. I need to get a portfolio ready so I can get into an Australian Animation course next year.

[Anisette]

Oooohh, I'm likin' your study drawing of the bones. (Reminds me that I should be doing some...)

I also see that you are improving nicely from April. Love that drawing of the giraffe you did.

I'm really enjoying staring at the middle figure in this image for your utilization of the line of action.

[Mistle]

Anisette - Thank you! It's good that you noticed the line of action, I really tried to include that nice rhythm

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Here's some paint studies I just finished. Maybe 20 mins each? Anyway, I'm really happy with these. I used Paint Tool Sai instead of Photoshop and it's so much better for painting imo. I'm going to use it from now on. Then switch between Sai and PS when I need more advance features.

All were done on one layer, except for shadows and slight textures. No colour picking. That onion is the best thing I've ever painted! haha.

[Mistle]

Starting work on a finished piece.. It will be a city with some sort of devastation event happening in the background and people running in fear. I'm thinking tornado or giant monster. Whatever it is would be placed in the right empty space.

I've played around with perspective a bit and tried to create something that'd suit that mood. I liked the idea of the buildings bending towards the danger, as if they're getting sucked towards it and there's no escape. Not sure if it works though. The first two look better balanced than the third (composition-wise), however I do like how dramatic the third one feels.

Thoughts? I'd love any tips & advice

note: obviously it's in the very initial building-block stages. the city will be a lot more alive when it's done

here are three different variations:

[Mistle]

Decided to use the middle one. Started sketching and adding details. Final painting will be line-less however, I'll just use the sketch as a guide.

This is turning out a lot more ambitious than I expected. I didn't want it to take very long but it might end up taking... very long lol

[Mistle]

Should I clean this up more before I start painting? I kind of like the rough look, and it might help me to let lose painting a bit more instead of focusing on staying within lines.

[Mistle]

Messing around with colours...

Man I don't even know where to go from here. I've never painted properly before. This'll be line-less, and I don't know how to clean up this mess lol.
Also not sure if I want to add the monster or tornado and people running in fear now. I kind of like the calmness of it, while the emptiness is unsettling. I might add rays of light beaming through the clouds...

If anybody has any thoughts please let me know!

[fishysmell]

You can slap on a new layer and paint over everything again, if you don't want those lines.

Maybe a UFO vacuuming up a bunch of citizens would be a fun touch. The place is looking pretty desolate, and light rays would probably emphasize it even more; I'd understand people not wanting to go out on a gloomy day, but not a nice cloudy, sunny day.

Also, I really like vase/pitcher work you did from a tutorial. Keep rockin!

[frayed-symphony]

woahhhh that jar painting.. i thought it was a photo or a maya render o__o so much improvement going on here, the studies are really nice too

[Mistle]

Thank you both! The vase was fun. The tutorial helped a lot (ctrlpaint.com). And fishysmell, I'm going to add more dramatic lighting, but I'll also add people on the street so it doesn't look so desolate.

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So I'm progressing a bit more. Just painting directly over everything. I'm just doing a flat, detail-less coat of paint at the moment. I'll add proper lighting and textures/details once I get everything looking nice and smooth.

Finished this coat on the buildings, not onto the rest of the image. I've never painted like this before but it's pretty fun! I like not worrying too much about brush strokes. If it goes out of the lines, so what. I'm not going for realism, I want a bit of loose-ness.

Decided I'm going to have a big monster in the distance and people running in fear. Should be cool!

[Mistle]

Finished first ground coat of paint. Also adjusted levels/colours to make it "pop" a bit more. It was looking a bit too dull.

Will now start final rendering. This is when things will hopefully start to look good!

[Gpozzo]

those photo-studies are amazing! that's quite the onion you painted there about the last piece, i will keep my comments/advices as it is your first one, and as you said you didn't want a realistic finish (i cant help with cartoon advices, as it is not my area of comfort) so enjoy finishing it! have you learned something from painting that yet? keep it up!

[Mistle]

Thanks! Yeah I've been learning a lot. It's been a struggle though, taking me much longer than anticipated.

Anyway, still going away at it...

Things to do from here:
- Final layer of paint to add lots of detail. Most important step I've yet to do lol. This should change the painting dramatically. All I've done so far is a very basic layer of paint with a big brush.
- Adjust colours so light rays effect the city lighting/shadows.
- Add a few people running in fear and maybe a car.

Also, does it look better flipped? I can't decide. I think having the monster on the left attracts the eye more. But having it on the right lets the eye following down along the city angle to the monster.

[Mistle]

Worked my butt off today. From sun up to 11:00pm. But its done! I decided not to add humans as it was kind of distracting.

I'm really happy with this. I learned a lot from it and I can only get better from here on out. Let me know what you think!

[Mistle]

Changed:
- Fixed street lamp spacing (also different lighting coming out of them)
- Fixed door sizes (also changed position and size of "50" sign)

Officially calling it finished now. You can see critique thread here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...73#post3459573

[Mistle]

Took a small break after that painting to recuperate lol. I'll be getting back into studies tomorrow. In the meantime here's an extremely rough pose from imagination. Not my best attempt but I can see where I went wrong.

[XENöSIS]

Great studies! You're doing awesome. Keep it up.

[Mistle]

Getting back into action... Some really fast and rough gesture sketches from TV and the ipad PoseBook app (which is awesome!). A bit cartoony also.

[supreme]

Update? It's been 11 days!!! Let's go, Mistle!!!!

[Mistle]

I've had a whole month of nothing art-wise, and I feel bad because of it. I need 20 works for a portfolio by the end of October so I can get into uni.. I only have 5 from the past ~2 years! So I'm kicking myself in the butt and getting started again.

Sadly I have to put study aside and just focus on pumping out finished pieces. They don't have to be masterpieces, just decent enough for a uni portfolio. Here's what I started today... still a W.I.P but the last one is getting close to finished. Just need to render the face a bit more to bring it to life.

I've probably put 4-5 hours into it so far.

[Rhubix]

Started bone structure... not really sure how this will help? Might just move onto muscles.

This was said a while ago, but I think it needs answering. Knowing the skeleton is important for a whole pile of reasons - first it helps with proportions and movement. muscles and fat can move and change shape. Bones can't.
Your movement is inhibited by the types of joints- elbows bend up and down- your 2 lower arm bones rotate around one another in a specific way. your knee can't twist - things like that.

Next, you can see boney land marks on the body - collar bones, knees, elbows, hip bones, shoulder blades. etc. If your not sure what these points are - they're just random bumps on the surface of the body.

As an animator, you don't need to know the names of any of the pieces, or the fine details of every nook and cranny like some of the fine artists go for- but knowing the big - basic shapes will really help your life drawing and reflect in your cartooning.

When I feel like I'm doing bad art- I try to go back to studies -instead of trying to force something pretty to come out. With studies and sketching, I'm able to give myself permission to do some bad art- because I'm focused on learning - not making something pretty.
often I'll accidentally end up with something I like - and get the confidence, or drive to do something new.

Does the Uni you're looking at have a list of required pieces for the portfolio? If so, you can divide them up in to categories and make a schedule to get it done. Organization always makes things feel more doable.

Happy sketching keep it up

[Randomeister]

Wow! You've shown great improvement! Excited to see even more!

[syrella]

Check out Force : Dynamic life drawing for animators by Mike Mattesi. It's been the single biggest help for me in terms of putting more "life" into my stuff. He has a few great books out and also a website full of informative videos.

I am no animator, but I love animation. I hope you realize your dream.

[Mistle]

Rhubix - Thank you very very much for the advice. I'll definitely go back and spend more time of skeletal structure in light of new information. As for uni, no, they don't give an exact list. There are general guidelines but mostly it's up to what you feel is right to present them.
Randomeister - Thank you
syrella - Yeah I've flicked through that book, it looks fantastic. I've been meaning to go back to it and really soak it all in, so thanks for reminding me.

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Well, finished the cat piece. Just as I was about to post it though, I thought it might look better with the ears raised. So I quickly whipped up a raised-ear version. I can't decide which is better, so let me know!

[Mistle]

Messing around with a landscape sketch but got a bit fed up with it... Stopped while in early stages, it's just not interesting enough.

I'm feeling pretty uninspired lately thus the lack of updates. Doesn't help that I need a portfolio for uni by the end of October and I can't even rustle up 10 works. I guess I'm not sure if I even want to pursue the uni course anymore. I absolutely love animation but the more research I do, the worse of an idea it sounds. Especially in Australia where animation jobs are even more sparse than they are in the US.

[Mistle]

A lot has changed in my mind since the last update. I haven't drawn since then which is horrible, but I think I have a new focus instead of animation. Not that my love for animation has dwindled at all.
Starting up nightly sketches to take along to a university interview in 2 weeks. It's for a Digital Art/Game Design (mainly the art side of it) degree. I'll keep updating this thread with new sketches when I do them, which should be daily. Here's what I've done so far:

[Mistle]

more sketches: