Sectra's Book o' Sketches

[S3CTR4]

Thanks!

Starting to just make arbitrary strokes at 3 in the morning. Calling it quits for the night. Back at it tomorrow:

[bpic]

Heya, you should post that piece you did in Larrys class, that last one. It was pretty sweet. Havent visited in awhile didnt realize you posted so much! Hope to see some cool stuff over break.. let me know if you want to go sketch! Hoping to do that as much as possible now that school isn't raping. Talk to ya soon!

[S3CTR4]

Hey man. Yeh, I'd like to post that once it's finished. There's a few pieces from this past semester I'd like to re-visit before their portfolio worthy. I'm gonna be posting progress updates from the mod project i'm in right now, and I'm gonna do my damndest to get 2 brand new illustrations I've had floating around in my head before summer term starts. So right back atcha man! Excited to see what you work with now that class is out of the way.

In the meantime a new self portrait/ID for DA. Haven't done one of these since Sophomore year i think, haha. That first piece I posted in this sketchbook. Where the hell is the time going????



If anyone's interested, I posted the video time lapse. Painter and Photoshop.
youtube: http://youtu.be/4dEOQLB3pyM?hd=1
vimeo: http://vimeo.com/22277615
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/video/video....=video_comment

[S3CTR4]

A few early character designs for the FUBAR mod team. Started with some quick thumbnails to establish gesture before scanning and laying down loose strokes on top. Still not happy with his face, but we'll revisit that for the final render. Both characters sketched today.





P.s. the stance second from the left in the bottom row will forever be known as the Pickrell Pose

[SirEvil]

Personally, i hope to be one day as good as you. This stuff is amazing..Purely amazing. I especially love the baby with the bow, that was so....Awesome! Keep it up

[S3CTR4]

Hey! Thanks so much Evil. That's very humbling to hear Keep going! Draw everyday!

[sony]

Your sketchbooks is very nice , this one is hot, Ballpoint studies n sketches are also very nice.

[Riox]

Hey great sketchbook! I really like the latest portrait, the colours work really well together. Also your brush work is fantastic on that too, did you use custom brushes or just the basic photoshop ones? I'd also like the see how your latest character designs develop.

Keep updating I look forward to seeing more.

[S3CTR4]

@ Sony - Thanks so much!

@ Riox - The're were a few custom brushes in there once I got to the photoshop portion. If you watch the video time lapse, you'll see everything (up until I add the white bars to the sides) was done in Painter X using the default wet oils and wet pallet knife. Once I drop the white bars in, everything is completed in Photoshop CS5 using a few custom brushes, and some default photoshop chalkies.

Working on those characters now! Along with an environment. Busy busy

P.s. I almost forgot to post the final penguin piece! Sorry guys:

[S3CTR4]

Man, this got more intense than I expected. It's one thing to quickly sketch out a design from one angle. It's entirely different to make it WORK in the round. No place to hide your flaws. LIKE FACES FOR EXAMPLE!!

Just the front and back for now. Should finish up the side views by tomorrow. Then i can move onto James. Damn, I had expected both of their turns to be done by today :/

[Aveh]

I really enjoy that illustration. I think it turned out pretty fun and cool, you must be
happy with that?

The drawings you been doing are good and detailed, one thing I think is missing is
some line weights to really give a bit more form and what not to them.

[JesseM]

Your last dA ID is mad awesome, man. I love the arms! Not only do you clearly understand the structure and anatomy, but the texture you used to illustrate that.. just awesome.
The hair looks very soft and fuzzy, too. <3

I also really like your composition for the war-penguin thing...

Nice work, keep it up!

[S3CTR4]

@ Aveh - I agree. I feel like line quality is something I'm going to struggle with for a while until i finally sit down and start thinking about it. I intentionality used a single weight brush (no pen pressure) to get the orthos to read cleanly, but they would feel much more solid if I went back and added some thick/thins.

@ JesseM - Thanks so much! I can't take too much credit for the anatomy portion though. That whole piece is a self portrait done from a personal reference photo i shot, so it wasn't too hard difficult getting the structure right. I'm going back through Bridgeman now actually, something I stopped short of a while back :/ So we'll see where my anatomy knowledge is 2 weeks from now. Lol

Ahhhhhhhh! Almost there. This whole process has really taught me a lot about design coordination and time management. I definitely need to get more structured lines out of my sketches so I don't save ALL the functionality questions to be answered in the final stages of development.

Still missing her headset. I think what I'm gonna end up doing is a full callout sheet with facial expressions and prop designs, because those seem to be the two areas that are lacking in these static poses.



And I wanted to give the mod projects a break and get started on an idea I've had milling around for a while now. This will hopefully be 1 of 2 personal illustrations I complete before heading back for my final term this summer. The primary goal I have for this piece is executing multiple light sources coupled with multiple figures, something I fell short of on one of my last finals. I'd actually like to re-visit that piece and get it ready to post sometime soon but we'll see how the next few days pan out first.

I took some time to sit down and watch Dave Finches dynamic figure drawing workshop before starting this. He has a nice loose approach to quick sketching that I'd like to get more in tune with. Definitely helped to get some of these basic block in's started.



Thanks for checking! Should have an environment to post soon for the Sprawl team They're doing some nice work getting multiple assets together in tandem so we'll see how the rest of the artwork comes together in the coming weeks.

[S3CTR4]

Thought I'd post a brief update on the first piece I'm working on for the Sprawl mod. These guys push non-stop 24/7 so there's always something to do. Everyone on the team is constantly giving and receiving feedback round the clock (I think there's members in something like 5-6 countries?) so the work gets refined rather quickly. Great environment to work in.

This first piece I started just today actually. Had to push it off for a bit while I tackled the Fubar characters, so this stage represents 50% completion. I'll make sure to post a tutorial once it's done sometime by the end of the week.

For now, I started by building a basic block-out in Sketchup from a top-down view Adam provided the team a while back. I took a few shots and played around with some values in the early thumbnails.



But my build wasn't nearly as accurate as what the team had already begun to construct. So Liam shot me a few screens of their current model and I used this to begin the paintover process.





Thanks for looking! Like I said, should have this guy finished by the end of the week. I need to get through some more album revisions and work on a logo for a new client for tomorrow, but my late nights from 10-2 have been set aside for personal work/mod projects. I'm really enjoying this new sleep schedule outside of classes..

[towy]

really good work, keep it up

[Aveh]

Damn dude the mod work looks like a ton of fun.
I tried to get into the mod scene a long while back and never really took
off for me, the 2 or 3 groups I tried to work with were lazy and slack as hell.
Gave me no motivation to spend time on it, but looks like that is not the case at
all with you. Should give you some fun work from it.

The sketch for the personal piece looks like it will turn out pretty legit AND a handful.
There is some complex shit goin on in here, goodluck.

[bpic]

Holy updates. Nice self-portrait! I see your characters are getting better and better. That mod work does look fun.. hmmmmmmmm... interesting. Keep on man! Nice updates, glad to see your posting agian

[S3CTR4]

@ aveh - It is fun! But I know what you mean about certain groups lacking the motivation and/or means to produce work. I've already run into that issue with one group and it makes getting the work out there quite a challenge. On the other hand this second group I'm with has nothing but passion and drive to get this thing off the ground, and that has directly affected me and my process for the better You should give it another go if you have the time (pphhsss....even if you DON'T) and see what happens. Always a chance to get some descent portfolio work that contributes to a team effort.

@ bpic - Thanks brah. You as well

A few quick renders of the building silhouettes I sketched up over break. I've been busy getting a logo finalized for a new client, and school has started back up so I'm taking advantage of every assignment I get to create another piece for the portfolio.



Between the Fubar and Sprawl mods, class assignments and personal work I should have a more well-rounded portfolio. That was something I was missing a few months ago, a nice balance between characters, environments and vehicles/weapons/props. So long as I can keep up with the sketchbook and continue producing development work AND illustrations I'll have the confidence to start submitting to the industry once and for all. And by that point I'll be able to showcase some new work that hasn't been seen before in my final grad show...

Thanks for checkin'!

[FUSHANDCHUPS]

Word, nice clean work

[adamsimons]

what you're doing sounds(and looks) awesome.
did you know someone on the mod team before you joined or did you apply to an open position?

[S3CTR4]

@ fushandchups - word up homie. Thanks much

@ adamsimons - Thanks adam! It's been way fun getting to work with these groups. Gives me an idea of how a real game dev. studio operates.

I was asked by a member who had also joined a previous group I was with. He saw what I was doing, mentioned that this new team he was with could use some more 2D artists and thought I could contribute. But to be honest getting started with the whole mod community was as easy as searching on the job boards for teams that need concept artists: http://www.moddb.com/jobs.

The hardest part is finding a group of artists that are committed to the project, because without any sort of income for these indy games people tend to fall off quickly if there's little progress being made :/

Left my wacom pen in my friends car the other night so I decided to go crazy with a mouse and make a banner for my bloggity blog: http://finalrites.blogspot.com/



Should have some new characters ready to post by next week along with some props and assets from the mod groups. Thanks for looking!

[S3CTR4]

For my Computer Illustration II class, our first assignment is to illustrate 2 characters. The first is some sort of protagonist and the second is the antagonist. The focus is to practice rendering a certain type of material ie: fur, scales, skin, etc. But I've started to see over the years analyzing character designs for entertainment, hell even watching people around me, good design tends to incorporate a variety of surface materials in one outfit.

So I've decided to challenge myself a bit and push a few of these elements into both characters. The story I came up with involves a frozen landscape (I'm thinking Siberian plains) with a gladiator theme. The protagonist is some sort of female warrior and her opponent.....is yet to be determined.

Initial gestures and a semi-finished sketch of Nissa. Too tired to mess with hands and feet tonight





Already started thinking of a color scheme/rendering style so I'm hoping this all pulls together fairly well for the final piece. Getting pretty excited

[S3CTR4]

HHHHHAAAANNNNNDDDDSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SirEvil]

Nice Haaaaannnnndddddsss!

[Loathsome]

Good character stuff. I love the penguin painting.

[SSquir33]

lovin ur ballpoint studies!

[Lucdehaan]

those building thumbs are really neet, lovely

[S3CTR4]

@ sirevil - those things are tricky to get right on the first go. think i finally got close for the final sketch

@ loathsome - thanks. I'm really trying to work on my characters lately because they've never been my strong suit. hopefully it's starting to pay off. thanks for checking!

@ ssquire33 - thanks! i need to do more. i try keeping up with bpic, but that dude is a machine with a sketchbook.

@ lucdehaan - thanks for looking!

Small preview of this Nissa character. We has critique in class yesterday and it was really helpful getting some feedback on value issues, specifically her face, before I took everything to finish. Want to have this wrapped up by tomorrow. Check back then

[S3CTR4]

Another environment paint over. Started last week with a few 3 minute warm ups to figure out composition. Showed these to the SPRAWL guys and from there Adam provided me with a basic 3D screen from the current level build. To push myself and avoid noodling around with details, I made sure to 1) save any photo crops for later in the process and 2) stop finished or not at just over 2 hours to see how far I could get.

I went through Dylan Cole's Gnomon matte video again (i think the last time was well over a year ago) to better understand indicating detail quickly and efficiently. I've had issues in the past trying to figure out how concept artists construct urban landscapes that are so heavy in detail. But after going through both Dylan and Feng Zhu's methods I see now it's really just a TON of various mark-making with photos used to support the overall structures.



I guess my underlying goal here was to see how well I could communicate an urban setting without the use of photo crop and in a relative time crunch. Hopefully I hit that mark, if not at least landed somewhere close. Haha.

Also came back from Kung Fu Panda 2 tonight. If you haven't seen it already drop everything you're doing and get to the theaters...now!

[S3CTR4]

Definitely need to spend more time figuring out what exactly this characters helmet will look like. It going to be a nice selling point so we're going to have to go through some design callouts and nail this one. I'm also going to need to spend more time understanding the value shifts in this area. I'm thinking my best best is to render each metalic surface as though it's brand new and highly polished before layering the grit and grime and doing a final paint pass to make everything feel worn. But as-is those highlights and shadow tones are completely off :/

I'm trying to mash classical gladiator with a Siberian setting (see Nissa character post above) so there's elements I need to drop and some I need to incooperate so these two characters look like they belong in the same universe. Right now I think they feel a bit detached from one another design-wise. BUT! I'll make sure to pull them both back together in the final stages.