From Concept to final artwork - colour tests

From the previous post (see here) - I now have coloured up the above image in Photoshop. Also have added some yummy textures. There is certainly a lot more to this piece which can only really be covered by checking out the tutorial by Matt Kaufenberg here. Awesome, seriously check it out.

For these next examples below I colour corrected (played around) with the colours to find a pleasing colour scheme. This was done in Photoshop using Hue-Saturation.

 

How's about some gradient

This was a new technique that I stumbled upon. I had selected the outline of the boxer character and filled it in with a flat colour on a new layer. In this case it was yellow. Then I selected the filled shape and did a gradient with a purple colour. Also on a new layer. The gradient was set foreground to transparent. From there I played around with the mode settings for each of the respective coloured layers to get the above look. Overall I was stoked with the outcome. Super bonus.

Thanks for visiting and take care. Will post up image with background soon.

From Concept to Final Artwork

Next 30 day character challenge (Lesson 2). Create a character and complete to Final Artwork by the amazing Matt Kaufenberg through Skillshare. Course found here.

The above characters were just quick roughs to flesh out a character to push through to final design. So I went with the bottom character (mr big nose), a.k.a  boxer.
I referred to Matt's style to hopefully capture elements from his artwork and infuse into the character design.

Once you had a character idea, it was into Illustrator to get the shapes of the character which were then saved out as paths and exported into Photoshop. This wasn't a process I was familiar with but have found it has some real advantageous. I really must one day put up a little tutorial regarding this process.

Well, thanks for visiting. Next post coming up soon.

Building character with basic shapes final

Finally finished up 'Diva Karate Pirate'.

This course through online 'Skillshare' was brilliant. Challenging and very concise thanks to Brian Shepard the tutor. Check out the course here

Two great lessons

The first lesson for me was learning the importance of silhouette. And secondly was developing a character based on keywords that guided you towards a finished idea. 

As always, thanks for looking. 

If you liked this post, you may also like the following:

• Build characters with basic shapes
• Build characters with basic shapes continued

Build character with basic shapes and silhouette

Building on from the previous post here. The 'Diva, Karate Pirate' was starting to take some more shape. First thing for the chopping board was his initial hairstyle (top left). I felt that it didn't read well as a silhouette. After some investigation online I found the perfect solution. My little pony. Yes. Those gorgeous curls. So he got the 'DIVA' curls.

Silhouette

If there is one thing that I cannot stress enough. Is good silhouette. I think I have managed to design a pleasing read for this character. The funny thing is I have heard this term plenty been voiced online regarding character design. I now understand why. Must have good silhouette.

Final design next post. 

Thanks for visiting.

If you liked this post, you may also like the following;

• Build characters with basic shapes
• Build characters with basic shapes continued

Build character with basic shapes continued

Building on from the previous post here. My hero character was based on the primitive shape of the circle. As a part of the course you had to come up with 3 keywords to build upon the character.

I chose 'Diva, Karate and Pirate'. Bit of a crazy combo. 

So I went online and google image searched under these keywords. Came up with some great creative startups.

Still a nice guy

The main focus going forward was the general 'feel' of the character. So emphasis was placed on that he was a 'happy, approachable fellah'. I felt with the top 4 heads with no pupils made them a little scary. So adding the pupils made him nice again (YAY). 

Next post I will show some developments of the basic body shapes and silhouette exploration.

As always, thanks and take care.

Build character with basic shapes

Hello everyone. 
Just started another great course through 'Skillshare'. Called 'Build a fantasy character with a shape language' by Brian Shepard. So recommend it.

Skillshare is an online education portal that offers many courses which you have access to by paying a monthly subscription fee. Well worth it. Find it here Skillshare
I had only recently finished up a course there by Patrick Brown (amazing artist). Find my finished art piece here (star wars fan art).

Pareidolia
Pareidolia what? Yes, thats what I thought at first glance too. Actually I had to wiki it to get my head around it. Very cool concept. Basically you as an artist take very basic primitive shapes like the square, circle or triangle and arrange it in such a way that you can create a pattern. That pattern may hopefully look like a face. Look at that wall plug socket in your home. Kinda looks like a face aye?

Circle equals nice guy and triangle, the antagonist
All rules are made to be messed up somewhat. But a general rule is that a character that is more generous in the round department is going to be nice. Jolly and worth a hug or too. The angular. Well they are something again. Little edgy (hehe) and more dangerous.
I experimented with these concepts (as above image) to develop some basic ideas. I worked within Illustrator CS3 which lends well to manipulating and arranging shapes into pleasing compositions.

Next post will be some more developments of a chosen character with three 'keywords' to help create the personality.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

If you liked this post, you may also like the following;

• Star Wars fan art  (Overview of lessons with Patrick Brown)

Tools used

• CS3 Illustrator

Funny Wolverine illustration

Still can't get Wolverine out of my head. It's those killer curls, awesome. For this illustration I wanted to keep the image fairly clean and also wanted to try out the A-tone (mechanical tint) in photoshop. Credit here to Hi-Fi comics for the A-tone range.

Tried a new font called 'DK Lemon Yellow Sun' which my lovely wife suggested I use. Check it out online. Used here in the speech bubble. It has a lovely hand drawn quality about it.

A big highlight this week is finally joining up with Chris Oatley's Oatley Academy Live.  Lots to learn and lots and lots of people to meet. Very excited. 

So recommend that you go check him out. Find him here.

So long, take care.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas on ipad for the inking
• Adobe illustrator for the type
• Photoshop CS3 for A-tone (mechanical tint)

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

Character illustration

A rather random idea that started with the man character here on called 'Mr Flick'. Mr Flick started as a pencil sketch that was transported to Adobe ideas.

Can't say this more than enough but Adobe ideas is a wonderful "free", yes you read that right...free program for the ipad. I just love the way it handles even with a cheap stylus. And best of all your lines are 100% vector. Absolutely crisp!!!

I finished off the concept with some help from Sketch-up for the vehicle and trailer. Mr bunny was done in photoshop.

Well, another illustration done. Completed. Finished...in the bag.

As always, thanks for coming on in and having a look.

Question? Have you tried Adobe ideas. And if so, what is one thing that you just love about it. Love to hear your thoughts.

Tools used:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Sketch up
• Adobe ideas on ipad

Zombie illustration

Originally this all started with the character at left. Not content to just leave him as he was I thought, he needs a background. The dog was random initially, as was my first concepts to have the dog on a leash. But it just didn't look right, not dramatic enough.

So I jumped on google and after some looking found these funny images of dogs with their bones. From there all the other elements fell into place as I now had a direction.

Loving sketch up - so great to get quick references for 3d structures...like the dog house, fence and house in background.

Thanks as always for visiting. Keep well.

Tools used:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Sketch up
• Wacom tablet

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)

Rocket Raccoon final

 

Rocket now with the final gun choice. Yay!!!!

Overall fairly happy with the look. Hope to at some-stage colour this up.

Thanks for visiting and....countdown to Christmas begins. Can't wait. Holidays, relaxing times. Get to hang out with my beautiful wife. Maybe get some more art in too. Yay!!!!

Bye for now.

 

Rocket Raccoon gun final

In a previous post (Rocket Raccoon Guardians of the Galaxy) I had developed Rocket Raccoon but wasn't that happy with his gun. So for some awesome inspiration I turned to Skottie Young's many excellent versions of Rocket. He has one version which is just sublime magic...and a little crazy.

The first gun (at top left) was done in adobe draw. Such a great app (and free) - how awesome is that. I was then able to take those beautifully controlled lines into illustrator and do a live trace. Onto number two gun. I really liked the bulk of the gun but didn't like the front handle bit. So I changed that.
Onto number three gun. The final - yay!!! With all its bell's and whistles. Super overdone, crazy and just the way I love it.

Will post up gun with Rocket next.
As always, thanks for coming on by for a visit.

Tools used:

• Adobe draw
• Illustrator CS3