Pandora comic - model turn-around sheets: Front and side profiles

I firstly have to acknowledge this fine artist Luis Escobar for his comments on the power of the turn around model sheet for character design. Check out page here for his take on it too.

The above character 'Panda' short for Pandora is one of the protagonist's for my comic I am slowly developing.  So I just knew that I would have to get a model sheet underway to help. As Luis has said on his web page, having a turnaround takes out the guess work for every time you are to draw a character. Already I have found this to be very efficient when drawing the character.

The 'rig' like skeleton I created has also helped to quickly nail proportions and poses. Artist Andrew Loomis in 'Figure drawing for all it's worth' which I highly recommend to check out used this technique of a mannequin understructure to set up a character.

And finally there is an awesome iPad app called 'Skelly' which you pay a few bucks for. It has a fantastic feature to set up a quick pose by articulating the major joints on a skeleton structure. Not only that but you can also pan, zoom and move the view around to nail some awesome shots for a potential character pose. Below is an example of one such shot. Think of the time that saves you...AWESOME!!! Also, yes there is more. Been able to see the bones in the app helps so much when trying to work out location for muscles. Get this app!!

As always thanks for visiting. Take care

Links as follows; 

Luis Escobar 

Andrew Loomis online 'Figure drawing for all it's worth' (This takes you to download of PDF)

Skelly 

Comic character concept - Pandora

Super excited. Super nervous. This is my first of hopefully many more concepts for a comic story that I am slowly developing. The story is very much in 'development' stage as are the concepts above for one main character. More characters to come overtime.
The character's name above is 'Panda', short for Pandora. 
If I haven't already said, I am currently enrolled with Oatley Academy Live. The curriculum so far is developing a 'personal project'. My hope is that one day the content I produce will be completed for a web comic and a physical hard-copy comic book. Funded through Kickstarter or Patreon.
As always, thanks for visiting. And if you (yes, you) have ever wanted to find inspiration, clear and thought challenging direction for your art. Check out Oatley Academy Live. You will not regret it.
Take care

Star Wars fan art illustration

It is finished - whoooaaa!!!!This has been a labor of love and hate as I have worked on this for the last month and a half. So glad I persevered. Probably the greatest lesson I have learned is if something is bothering you, get rid of it. That walking carpet (Mr Chewbacca) was edited and re-edited sooooo many times till I got the fur where I wanted it. Full respect to artists who do furry creatures. Seriously!!!

I will post up soon a basic little run over of the basics in this piece. Hope some stuff in it may help.

As always, thanks for visiting.

And a big shout out to the awesome artist Patrick Brown. His tutorial online through Skillshare was awesome and helped me so much. Thank you Patrick.

Tools used:

• Photoshop CS3
• Wacom tablet
• Sketch up for AT-AT Walkers
• Illustrator CS3
• a mumbling plea of "this wookie will not get the better of me"

Character Concepts no.2

In between doing the Star Wars fan art with Han and Chewie I try to do character drawings. Not always studies as such but just doodling....so here they are. 

I feel this keeps me fresh and also breaks up stale moments I have (and I have plenty) when on a more focused piece like the Star Wars Fan art.

As always, thanks for popping on in. Go Monday!!!

Tools used: (both on ipad)

• Adobe ideas
• Procreate

Star Wars fan art_Concept completed

Han, Chewie now all setup with background elements (AT-AT walkers). Next is to ink these guys up following Patrick Browns tutorial. Then it's onto colouring. Really looking forward to that.

The AT-AT walkers were sourced from Sketch up and finished up in illustrator.

I am thinking probably a Endor feel for the colour palette (forest colours).

As always, thanks for visiting. Happy Wednesday!!!!

Character Concepts

I really love this part of the concept process. Fleshing out shapes and building up hopefully memorable character ideas.

I have until only recently been drawing directly on the ipad using these two awesome apps (Procreate and Adobe ideas).

I recently listened to a Chris Oatley podcast with artist extraordinaire Brett 2-D Bean (here).

Chris asked Brett about his approach to character design. Brett mentioned that he gathered very little reference to begin with. This freed him up to explore ideas and also not become a slave whilst reference gathering.

This is something that I have tried to aim for whilst drawing in the initial concept stage. The biggest reason for this is to find 'my voice'. This doesn't necessarily mean finding 'my style' per say. My voice is what am I trying to communicate. It just so happens that my work is humorous and lighter in content as opposed to darker themes. This is what I am drawn to (no pun intended).

Disclaimer...hehe. Brett did go on to mention that when he first started learning to draw he had to use reference. Couldn't agree more. As you become more confident (which means after drawing hundreds upon hundreds of images) you will not rely as much on drawing (whatever).

As always, thanks for visiting and have a great week ahead.

Tools used: (both on ipad)

• Adobe ideas (app)
• Procreate (app)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza toppings

TMNT fan art!!!!

What can I say. I love these guys. They are super fun to draw and as a character design they are awesome.

And they love pizza, c'mon. What's not to like.

I initially started with Raphael (Big dude). Then threw together some random face sketches and drew them on the ipad through procreate (another great drawing app). 

As I didn't have a strong idea how these were all going to fit together I did what I normally do...leave it for a few hours, come back and see what ideas were culminating in my brain. Still nothing, so wrestled with it throughout the week until I stumbled across the idea of a pizza menu. Then everything feel into place.

As always, thanks for swinging on by. 

Tools used:

• Photoshop CS3
• Illustrator CS3
• Adobe ideas and Procreate on ipad

Croc man illustration

For this illustration I wanted to focus on rendering form in a different way than what I usually do. Specifically the arm closest to your view. 

A big thanks for a tutorial here by Kiwi-RGB 'PS, Gimp shading tutorial. It was really helpful to be able to breakdown the form into different techniques and take away the mystery that is in shading. It was super helpful understanding edge control for the forms. Want to know more definitely check out the link!!! A great tutorial.

Thanks as always for visiting. Have a great rest of the week.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas for inking
• Photoshop CS3 for colouring
• Adobe illustrator for the brick wall background
• Sketch up for a brick wall model concept (sketch up is super awesome)

Joker faces

Over the last few days I have been on holiday and so I've had some time to do some more drawings. The Joker is a great character to draw. I tried for some varied approaches. My favorite is the bottom right character. Used myself to get the hands looking just right too. Yay for reference.

Hope you enjoy, as always thanks for visiting. Always welcome any comments.

Take care

Tools used: 

• Soft 2b pencil
• Mechanical pencil
• Photoshop CS3 and for left bottom version - Adobe ideas on ipad
• Ipad camera to capture my beautiful hands..hehe.

Characters in Motion - Patrick Brown part II

Alright, last image for this tutorial 'Drawing your character in a scene'. The previous post I felt that Chewie's pose was not that dynamic. So I played around with a few rough pose concepts before arriving at the above. 

For the background I went for an interior of a spaceship. This was roughly put together in Photoshop.

I can imagine Chewy launching onto some stormtroopers. Emmm, now there's a thought.

Next to post up is Han Solo, awesome.

As always, many thanks for visiting this blog. Any comments, thoughts, wishes or just to say hi please feel welcome.

Tools used:

• Mechanical pencil
• Soft 2b pencil
• Photoshop CS3

Characters in Motion - Patrick Brown

I found Patrick Brown (digital artist) during a Pinterest search and was instantly hooked with his work. So when I found out he was offering online tutorials I was super excited. Currently I am working through his first tutorial - click this link, Characters in Motion. 

The challenge is to come up with some characters in a dynamic pose. You had to choose fan art or something of your own creation. Hello Chewbecca and Han Solo. I loved these guys as a kid. Riding in the millennium falcon, nailing stormtroopers. Kinda modern sci fi pirates.

So I have started on Chewbecca. For the tutorial I have started on 'Drawing dynamic action poses' and 'Drawing convincing facial expressions' as above. The last part of the tutorial is 'Drawing your character in a scene'. I hope to have this up soon.

After Chewie is sorted I'm onto Han. And once this is all done (phew) I will go onto the next tutorial of Patrick's - Characters in a scene: Sketch to Digital. Can't wait!!!

As always, thanks for visiting and may the force be with you. I just had to say that.

Tools used: 

• Mechanical pencil
• Soft 2b pencil
• Battery erasure
• Normal clutch erasure
• Star Wars YouTube clips playing...oh yeah!!!!