◘♦◘ Art Of Choob ◘♦◘ Fantastic Five

[Choob]

A new page at last. Sketches, a couple of them done while watching a Glen Keane video, and trying to keep up with him. Damn he draws fast.













Mock up of my first page for the group project this semester, and then a quick study. My group really liked the style of the image, but didn't completely understand how to do things like that, especially the layer settings and such. So, I did a quick study of it, kept everything on separate layers, and gave them the .psd. Original is on the left, I could have done with a sharper brush for the linework, but oh well.

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

Choob it is then mate, fine with me.

LIke the disney stuff you nailed the tarzan figure and the gorilla, good one.

got nothing to crit really its all just fine man, so stay well and keep at it.

[donalfall]

Choooooooooooooob!

[Choob]

Lightship69 - Thanks man.

donalfall -

So, I'm very busy with coursework at the moment, only have two or so weeks left, plus my group keep moving the deadline for the comic art forward, so working mainly on that. Also, have a friend who's flown up from England to stay with us for a couple of weeks, so spending most of my free time xboxing and such with everyone. Life is good.

On top of this, I'm now part of an art study group on Facebook, started by Brittany Pezzillo, known here as Pezz (click for sketchbook). New topic every day to do some studies of, here's some I've done so far;





Was on xbox chatting to friends while doing the swords one, and sketched out their idea for a sword. Not sure how practical it would be.



And here's the next comic page. Still have a bunch to do, will post them here when I can.

[ManHands]

whoa, your digital pieces are really nice! definitely alot of improvement in here. just gotta keep on the anatomy studies man. the muscle and bone studies in 189 are awesome.

[Choob]

ManHands - Thanks man, I'll be doing a lot more anatomy stuff in the summer, want to start getting good at characters.

For now, more coursework. It's been mainly 3D this week, I switched ideas to doing some Lord of the Rings architecture, namely, the Mines of Moria. These pillars from the big open area, called Dwarrowdelf, are really cool, so I made a few of them.

Still needs some texture and lighting, but modelling is pretty much done.

[HarbingerofIllRepute]

Very cool stuff you've got here

[Choob]

HarbingerofIllrepute - Thanks, I try my best. Have so many ideas and WIPS which just have to wait for the holidays, deadlines are getting close.

Here's some process on the 3D work, some rendered shots. Had trouble doing this because my mouse doesn't work anymore, and to set up the stage with the right camera angles, you really need a mouse. Still, did my best with my tablet.











Also finished my coursework for another module, was mostly video editing. Might post the final video here soon.

[Mat Kaminski]

I may have seen this already, but... what school are you going to? What is your major?

Anyway... great job on the 3D that is looking great. Is it a table or a large open space with squared columns? Either way, it looks great.
Are you going to do a texture pass? Or just keep it like that?

Sorry for the question overload. Just curious I'm going to start 3D myself soon...

Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see more.

[Choob]

Mat Kaminski - I'm going to the University of Abertay in Dundee, and my course is Computer Arts. Aimed for giving us the basics for getting into game design; we've done animation, 3D, flash programming, sound design, video editing, a tiny bit of kind of art history, and some life drawing.

The 3D stuff is going in as is, along with a sketchbook and an essay, I just don't have time to put on texture and such because of all the other work I have to do. It's the second one, large open space with columns, based off the Moria pillars in Lord of the Rings, these ones:



Hope that helps. For getting into 3D, everyone I've talked to about it, lecturers, students, professionals, have said that 3DS Max is way better than Maya, which is what we have to use for my course. No worries about all the questions man, answering them all makes me feel smart haha.

OK, so here's the video I put together for another module this semester. Brief was to make an intro sequence for a movie or tv series, I chose to do a mock up for a TV series called "This Thing Of Darkness", based on the book by Harry Thompson, which follows the voyage of the HMS Beagle, along with Captain FitzRoy and Charles Darwin.



Footage is edited shots from various Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I was originally going to do a whole animation for the intro, but would have taken too long to do, and this seems more effective. Before you ask about copyright, there's no problem with this, since it's for educational purposes, just to show that I can do the work, and that I'll take no credit for it or submit for festivals and such.

Also, the awesome selector from OneHitGamer made me this as a gift, for being "a contributor to the arts".



I feel loved. More work coming soon as always, I have some presentations to do next week, but almost done with coursework stuff.

[Choob]

I've finished my uni work at last; everything done and handed in, and I'm now free. Ahhhhh, feels so good. I've got a nice leather sketchbook I've been saving until I was finished, will have scans of that up soon.

So the Illustration of the Week (IOW) challenge this week is to design a poster for a classic movie. The suggestions/choices were Clockwork Orange, Casablanca, Seven Samurai, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I had no trouble deciding which movie to do.



Here's the best of my thumbs so far, the final will be twice this size and much more detailed, trust me. On the one hand I'm on a disadvantage, since this challenge has been up since Monday, the deadline is this Sunday, and I only saw it today, but on the other hand I started late on both challenges I've won in the past, the IDW and Teen Challenge.

[Choob]

Trying out some different ideas for IOW, very aware of the deadline being tomorrow, but I don't think my original idea is unique or interesting enough. Here's some more thumbs, feel free to tell me which you prefer; I've not decided which one will be the final yet, and I'm open to feedback.

[Choob]

I'm out of time, this'll have to do. For my next challenge I enter, I'll start work as soon as it starts, finding out about a challenge when it's almost over doesn't go well. Still, text worked out ok I suppose.

[Choob]

This week has been strangely sunny here in Scotland, so on Monday I set up outside and tried to do some digital painting from life.



Some notes:
There's glare on your screen even when you're in the shade.
When you're in the shade, it's bloody cold.
I should never start in painter, and then switch to photoshop. Photoshop all the way.
You'll need a bigger spoon, because that's a lot of humble pie.

Other things I suck at include drawing digitally, and drawing people. So, two birds with one stone, that's my next goal, to get good at doing people and characters digitally.

[Choob]

So my mission this weekend was to try find a nice digital sketching set-up. Played around with various brushes and techniques, and I've found one I like a fair bit; just a basic chalk brush with some custom settings, and for technique very similar to this one I posted a few months ago.



Expect to see more of these, I'm going to start a purely digital sketchbook for mindless doodlings like my IRL ones. Hopefully that'll get me more comfortable with drawing digitally. More coming soon, I have a statue study on the way which is taking longer than expected.

[Choob]

There was only one person who had done the latest Sketch Group topic, so here's a little sketch, started before midnight so it technically still counts. Done to a Livestream recording so I had Dave Rapoza's dulcet tones soothing my stylus.



More to come tomorrow perhaps, oriental architecture is pretty cool and I have some nice stocks. Also have a couple of old photos on my camera of my 3D sketchbook to upload at some point. But for now, bed.

[Lightship69]

Ok so you went outside to paint and draw from life and you found a trampoline and a load of naked girls dancing about!! I got to get on the train to Scotland as soon as bleedin possible mate! Oh you lucky student you ha ha ha ha ha!! Sorry just having some fun with the two posts up there it just struck me as funny with the wording and .......... all ..... that..... er .... ok I'll shut up.

By the way get on with that clint poster mate and get it posted its looking interesting is that.

all the best matey thanks for posting and see you soon hopefully

[Choob]

Lightship69 - Hahaha, I wish I had naked girls all round my garden. But you know how it is, they just want to be in my bed all the time.

So it turns out my poster won IOW by a couple of votes which is pretty cool. Might get the badge eventually, to add to my growing collection.

I've been spending all week on this statue study thing, learning a lot and it's beginning to look nearly finished at last. I also started my summer sketchbook a couple of days ago; an awesome leather one like my mini sketchbook, but this one's twice the size, so A5 instead of A6. Started off with some Bridgeman studies, feels great to get started on them again, you learn so much so quickly.







Want to use these studies to get good at rendering in pencil, I've used a 0.5mm mechanical one for ages now, but I usually stick with just linework.



And here's the mini sketchbook on top of it to show you the scale.



More coming soon, including the statue thing in another couple of days.

[Zatch]

Oh man, I remember using those references for drawing. Lookin good

[Choob]

Zatch - Thanks man.

So, moved out of my flat at uni this week, I'm home for the summer again, so that's been taking up most of my time. I considered entering this weeks Teen Challenge, since I turn 20 next month, and so won't be able to enter again, but I think I'll do next weeks instead, give myself more time to do a better entry.

Here's a birthday card for my Granny, started out as a Bridgeman sketch, but I customised it a bit. Looks a little like Rolf Harris now, albeit an incredibly manly and square jawed one.



The statue study's still going strong, spend 2-3 hours on it most days, and it's paying off. Considered posting it last week, but it improves so much every day that I'm going to keep working on it, try get it as good as I possibly can.

Also, going to try do more daily posts again. One of my mini goals for my art at the start of the year was to reach page 10 of the sketchbook by my birthday, which is the 19th of July, so I'm going to have to start pulling my weight. More to come soon, as always.

[Choob]

Finally got a new address for my blog, check it. ArtyGoodness.com, for all your artistic needs and desires. The blogspot url was stupidly long, hard to remember, and somewhat clichéd so it needed to change. I would have gone for Choob.com, but that's taken, so I need to wait it out. In the meantime, this'll do nicely.

Also, made a bunch of new banners for the blog which should change every time you refresh. The new type/logo stays the same though:

[Choob]

Daily updates, here we go. More Bridgeman sketches, and a page of thumbnails/ideas for the weekly challenges and personal work. Even if I know I'm not going to enter a challenge, I might still do doodles and thumbs for it. Getting the ideas flowing is useful even when you don't have time to do a finished illustration.

[Choob]

Just a doodle for today, since I don't work too well on Sundays. I forgot to post this one a couple of days ago. I got a new turtle beach headset since my old set broke, and doodled this at about 1 in the morning while trying them out on my laptop. These ones have a bass dial thing, works so well with The Chain.

[Choob]

Gas mask studies and doodles, because masks be cool yo.

[Choob]

Quick gauntlet study today.

[James Thomas]

Excellent studies my good man, really think your progressing with them recently.
And goodluck with 3d- i also am learning it, its a pain but it holds some prospects eh!

[Choob]

A Faux - Thanks man, glad you think I'm improving. You wait until you see the other stuff I'm working on, this is all just somewhat hastily done dailies. Good luck with 3D yourself.

So I have another sketchbook type thing which I don't usually show. The sketchbook you've seen is slowly filling up with careful studies and nice looking drawings. This other one I sometimes use when I'm on the move and see something I want to sketch immediately, and messily, like this building in Dundee I saw while on a bus:



But mostly I use it for notes, ideas, and terrible thumbnails which make sense only to me. I keep it open at the side of my bed because though I have been blessed in the past year of waking up in the middle of the night with a wonderful idea, I rarely remember them in the morning. I also make to-do lists, plans for my next piece, write down any interesting dreams, all sorts of things. Here's what an average page of it looks like.



Some of the things on the list have been tried and found to be worthless, others are being worked on as we speak, and others may even turn out to be my best works so far. Either way, I need somewhere to capture this raw brain mush, so that I don't forget any of it, the good stuff and the bad stuff alike. My only regret is that I always have a fear of doing these things in my nice looking study sketchbooks, because it'll mess them up. Though of course, I had a messy sketchbook like this last summer, and it's ended up being full of some of my favourite drawings I've done.

So today's lesson class; take a couple of pages in your class, and make a mess. Write a to-do list, random thoughts, draw your skyrim character that you want to level up when you get home, whatever. Learn to be messy, so that when you're clean, you don't end up being all stiff and rigid. Loosey goosey baby.

[Choob]

I've been struggling to get my Steam games working all week; they keep crashing, no matter what I do. Mainly trying to fix so I can play Lord of the Rings: Online, my first MMORPG type game. Finally had some sucess today; played it for over an hour on high quality without a crash or lag. Celebratory sketch of my character type, which is a Dwarf (of course) Guardian. Apparently Guardians essentially distract the enemy away from their weaker teammates and then take the hits for them as well. My kind of role.

[Choob]

Did some 1 stroke doodles today, to warm up for other things. I'd forgot how much I enjoyed doing them. Basically, you draw everything in 1 stroke, without taking the pen off the paper at all. I recommend using pen for this, mainly because it means you don't worry about making mistakes and rubbing things out so much, and it also gives a better finished drawing.





Might start doing some of these from life and for sketch studies. They might not look as good as other sketches, but I enjoy them so much more, and so get more done and more out of it. Will only post the good ones though. I've also considered learning to do these in pencil and then rendering them, similar to how Alan Lee seems to sketch, I love his work.

[Choob]

Axe studies. Need to get a bigger axe in LOTR: O, I'm currently using a nice delicate looking sword, which doesn't really go with the whole oh-so-manly-dwarf thing.