'Pretty Ugly' - More base colour

This is all provisional. I kinda like the colours in the Neon Shuriken poster though. I bet I'd REALLY hate that band if it were real ...

'Pretty Ugly' - first experimental colours

In the quickest post turnaround ever - here is the first bits of colour :

Nothing final - have already tried five different wall colours !

'Pretty Ugly' - finished line refinement !

Okay ! I think I've now finished the outlines !

It's probably not all that obvious - but I've gone though and tapered out the end of the lines. It's subtle - but I think it's an important step. You can really see it in the Sexy Reflection hair.

I've also added in the smiley face sticker to the mirror.

Let the colouring begin !

'Pretty Ugly' - Wallpaper and line refinement

The Client got in touch with me after I asked him how he thought the whole thing was going. I think he likes how it's going - though he might be a trifle concerned about how hard-out I'm going on this thing. I'm going to take it as a compliment !

You can really see the thing coming together now :

Tonight I experimented with a couple of wallpaper textures - and the stripey lines worked the best. It needed a bit of a stretch ( via transformation - very easy ) and then a couple of copy/paste actions to cover the whole wall. Masked out all the texture over the other bits of the image ( again - easy ). Transformed a small section of the wallpaper, reflected it and put it in the mirror zone.

I've now started refining the lines ( via a mask layer on the path folders - that sounds WAY more complex than it is, trust me ). You should notice some tapering in the ends of the path lines with the Plain Girl - particularly in the hair. Same for the hair of the Sexy Reflection.

Oh yeah - got the last of the vectoring done - the pupils in the Sexy Reflection, and the lipstick and jar reflections ( though those were just layer copies moved and suitably erased ).

Next steps - finish line refinement and then start with the base colours !

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 12

I've done a tiny bit per day over the last few days - so it's time for an update ! :

Added band names / symbol to the posters, added reflections of the posters in the mirror, added junk to top of desk ( but not the reflections yet ). A few more details still to come - but we're defiantly in the home stretch now in the outlining stage !

Sketch-a-week #4

It was our school's athletics day today - and whien I had some down time I did this on the back of the timetable for the day :

There's something very 'action-figure' about this one. But then I like action figures - so that's a good thing for me !

Sketch-a-week #3

Again - meant to post this on Sunday. Hopefully this doesn't become a habit ! -

I don't know - this is pretty bad. It started out as a goblin, and then turned into a fat goblin, and then a mutant fat goblin. There are bits of the face I like - but mostly it's pretty lame. Ah well. They are only sketches after all !

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 11

And again - a little more progress :

The new poster is looking much better. The desk and bed are taking shape now. I have one more piece of desk stuff ( a compact ) and poster reflections in the mirror to add. One or two other small things - then I can start doctoring the lines a bit. Then colour !

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 10

I've done some work this evening - but it's getting to the point where I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Here's what I've done tonight :

Hair detail on the pretty reflection mostly. I found a pic of a guy in a trenchcoat that I thought looked good - and sketched that into the poster space. I think it looks better already.

Next step will be to get the outlines of the bedside table the mirror is on, the bed the plain girl is lying on, bits and pieces on the table in front of the mirror, then it'll be time to be finessing some of these lines via mask layers. THEN it'll be time for colour / texture, and it'll start to noticeably shape up !

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 9

I seem to be saying this a lot, but - some more progress tonight. Actually over the last two nights :

I had a heck of a time making the eyes of the reflection not look cross-eyed. The arm isn't perfect - but it'll do ( at least for now ).

The more I look at it - the more I dislike the '3 Guys' poster above the head of the Plain-Girl. I think it'll have to change.

Sketch-a-week #2

I meant to post this on Sunday :

I was reasonably pleased with this one.

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 8

Haven't had a lot of time recently. My good wife has been needing the computer to do Play-Centre stuff.

I'm SUPER tired today. Kids woke me up twice last night / this morning. Spending most of the Sunday at A&E while we got the eldest's arm checked out after his flying fox mishap didn't help either.

Still - some progress tonight :

I'm happy that I've made a start on the 'pretty' reflection.

'Pretty Ugy' - Vectors 7

Took too long to get Lorenzo to sleep last night, so I didn't get a chance to do anything on the drawing. It took awhile to get him to sleep tonight as well, but I made an effort to make some progress tonight :

Pretty much just poster detail. I'll be starting on the reflection soon !

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 6

Happy Waitangi day to all my fellow NZers ! Hope you had a good day.

I was hoping to spend more time on the Pretty Ugly cover art today, but ut was not to be. I have spent the last hour and a bit on it though - and made some good improvements.

First and foremost is the foreground arm of the Plain Girl. I really didn't like what I'd done before - it just looked wrong. To correct it I took a picture of myself in a rough approximation of the pose :

It was a little tricky to do this, as our good digital camera is malfunctioning ( thanks to a mishap involving Angelo dropping it on the floor ). I had to use my ipod to take a shot of me standing in front of a mirror downstairs.

Then I brought this image into the Pretty Ugly file - and used the warp transform function to make it fit more with the perspective / dimensions of the Plain Girl. Then I did a rough sketch of the hand as I wanted it, lowered the opacity of that sketch, and used the pen tool to vector out the proper ouline : 

That arm is looking SO much better now. 

I had to do some work on the right arm of the 'Guitar Guy' in the poster - it also looked wrong. Better now. 

Made a start on the detail of the 'Three Guys' poster. 

'Pretty Ugy' - Vectors 5

Same old same old - a small amount of progress tonight :

Mostly initial outlines for the 'Guitar Guy' poster. I've tried to fix up the foreground arm as well. Not brilliant - but it might do.

'Pretty Ugy' - Vectors 4

It took AGES to get the kids to bed last night ( and Lorenzo decided to wake up at about half nine later on ) so I didn't have much time to work on the art today ( and none on Friday - Viv was using the computer, which is totally fair ! ). Got a bit done though :

Some depth on the mirror, the poster outlines, and stared tidying up the lines on the girl - particularly the hair ( still needs work though ! ). I have to fix he foreground arm though - it's going to bend and go behind the the other one now, rather than stick out straight ahead.

Sketch-a-week #1 ( + 1B )

One of my goals this year is to draw more. To this end I will publish at least one sketch here a week. This is starting from the first school term ( though I'll try and get a few extra up so I catch up with the weeks I missed in Jan. ) They'll probably be pretty rough - but if it's encouraging me to actually draw something on a regular basis, then it's gotta be good for me, right ?

Here are the first :

I think I did this during the first staff meeting on Tuesday. It's some kind of future riot cop I guess ? The body is MESSED up though ! Look at that left leg ! The arms aren't too bad though.

And then #1B :

Better. Not great - but I'm at least improving doing faces on this angle.