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.

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 3

A little time to work on the art this evening :

Not much, but I was having some real trouble getting the curves right. Many attempts - and I'm still not completely happy with the way they are now. Sigh. More tomorrow !

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 2

Did a little more this evening :

The hair is pretty rough - but I'll tidy it up later.

Always found hair tough.

'Pretty Ugly' - Vectors 1

Started getting in the base vectors :

Doesn't look like much at the moment, I know.

'Pretty Ugly' - Layout Revision 1

A quick rehash of the layout :

Changed the scale a bit, added in the new reflection and poster reflections.

'Pretty Ugly' - Beautiful reflection

I had a go last night at the 'beautiful' reflection of the girl in the mirror :

I tried to make her look similar - so there will be light freckling around the nose, and her hair done up in a pony tail. I'll need to swap the other reflection in the mockup out with this image and see how it looks.

'Pretty Ugly' - Rough Layout Mockup

I've been arranging bits from the rough sketches I've done so far to put together a rough mockup of a potential layout of the cover image :

Not perfect - but it's coming along.

'Pretty Ugy' - Plain Teen Refinement

Played around a little with the 'Plain Teen' image last night :

It's getting there - though the head looks slightly too big for the body I think. I should try resizing it with Photoshop.

'Pretty ugly' - Room poster ideas

I figure a teen girl has posters on her wall, so I'll need to draw those too. Here are a few sketches of potential band / music posters.

I think this particular girl is into 'cooler' music than One Direction or the Beiber.

I'm thinking of sneaking a 'NZ Music Month' logo in there somewhere.

'Pretty Ugly' - Developing Layout Mk 2

Okay - this one is more in keeping with the client's likings ! This would be the 'ugly' girl - who really is not very ugly at all. Maybe 'plain' is a better word - though still, I don't know. If I wasn't a married man, and there wasn't a thirty year or so age gap between us, and she wasn't completely fictional ...

'Pretty Ugly' Cover - Devloping Layout

A couple of developing ideas of the basic layout :

Coming along.

UPDATE - I've just realized that this is more in line with the 1st rough idea, rather than the 2nd. Argh. 

'Pretty Ugly' cover - Rough layout / development sketches

The first step was to get a few rough ideas of how I could do this image.

Remember the brief :

My idea--our idea--for the art was of an ugly girl (teen?) standing in front of a mirror, and inside the mirror there's a beautiful girl.

My youngest got a bit of Christmas decoration stuck up his nose, and we had to take him to the after-hours medical centre. I took a sketch book - and in between trying to wrangle an more and more manic 21 month old I managed to do a get a few very rough ideas down :

The client ( I'm not going to get tired of saying that ! ) said that they liked all of them, but the second one appealed to them more. He wasn't keen on the idea of the glasses on the 'ugly' girl though - which was no problem for me ! Glasses gone. I kinda liked where the face on the third one was going - so I'm going to run with that some more.

My first professional art work !

Very exciting news, loyal readers ( yup - all three of you ) ! I was comissioned last week to do the art for a book cover - for real money no less !

Now - before you LOSE YOUR MIND with excitement for me, just a couple of context details. It is for a short story collection written by the guys at The Dunesteef Podcast - it's not going to be an international bestseller I think ( though it hopefully will do well ! ), and it's not going to be for much money. I don't know exactly how little - but y'know, that's not important.

Here's what IS important. The Dunesteef Podcast guys liked my art enough that they were willing to ask me to do it in a professional sense. I like those guys a lot - and it's really cool to get that kind of affirmation.

Right - so the collection is going to be called 'Pretty Ugly'. Here's the brief I was given :

My idea--our idea--for the art was of an ugly girl (teen?) standing in front of a mirror, and inside the mirror there's a beautiful girl.

Alright.

I can do that.

I'm going to do everything I can to make this the best I can !

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Provisional final

I think it might be done now. I just added a little grass texture to the ground :

Tim to send a copy to the art director and see what he thinks !

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Webs

First attempt at doing the webs properly :

I think it's almost done now.

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Boy detail, spider shadow, test web

 Some more small developments :

I've been trying to work out how I was going to do the spider webs which are supposed to be covering the trees. I finally thought that I could do a bunch of stands with a white / grey coloured brush, and then go over the web areas with a white brush with the layer opacity set low ( 15-20% ). I could them have a number of other layers following the same format to get a sense of web density. I had a go at a very rough test to see what it looked like : 

Not bad ! I figure I'll get the web strands done with vectors - it'll look tidier !

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Abdomen patterns, thorax shading, girl detail

Nap time for Lorenzo again - so some time to work on the cover project :

The new is reasonably subtle - but it's making a difference. The next big challenge will be figuring out how to make large webs between the trees.

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Head / mandibles shade and highlights - more abdomen markings

Got some more done after Lorenzo went to sleep :

Time for a break !

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Highlings / shading on legs & eyes

Had a little time to work on this while Lorenzo was having a nap :

The head, thorax and abdomen need more attention now.

Drabblecast Cover #3 - First colour application

So - I woke up at 2am this morning for no good reason and couldn't get back to sleep. At half three I decided that if I was going to be awake I might as well do something constructive. I've added base colour for all the areas of the image ( I think ), and there is some initial shading of the abdomen :

Not sure about the green colour for the abdomen markings - I might see how they look in a red / orange hue.

Almost 5am now - I don't think I'll be heading back to sleep now. Might be time to get a walk in or something.

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Children

Lorenzo having a nap - which allowed me to add in the two children. I found a picture on line that looked good and used them as a sketch base :

Might be time to start colouring this now !

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Trees and hills

Had a little time last night, and the kids are with their visiting grandparents, so I've had some time to do a little more :

Drabblecast Cover #3 - More legs, some abdomen markings

Able to spend a little more time after the kids were asleep :

Also have the sketch layer disabled here.

Drabblecast Cover #3 - Thorax and half the legs

Some more vectoring done :

Drabblecast Cover #3 - sketch and starting vectors

Happy new year to you all ! Hope 2013 has started well for you.

I have had some time to make some progress on the current cover work. I managed to get a rough sketch with Photoshop, and have now started vectoring out the lines I need :

The drawing is in that awkward beginning stage where I'm worried it looks terrible and won't get any better. It always improves at least a bit ! I just have to work though it.

More as it happens.

New Cover art project - Drabblecast #3

I got an e-mail on Friday from the art director of the Drabblecast asking if I'd like to do another piece of cover art for them. I am TOTALLY on board for that !

The episode is another Trifecta episode ( number 23 in fact ), which has three stories by different authors on a common theme. I was initially drawn to doing something based on a story about moths, but then I read the last story - in which giant alien spiders play a central role.

Here's the starting sketch :

Early days - but I'm feeling good about this one !

Dunesteef Cover Art - 'Linger' - Finished ( I think )

... and it's done. At least provisionally. I might tweek the text a little more, but I'm fairly happy with it.

Dunesteef Cover Art - 'Linger' - More colour

Had some time today to work on the cover art. Mostly I've been adding colour to the 'man' :

I've been trying to overlay a image of a skull over the face of the guy ( it makes sense in the context of the story ) with limited success. I'll carry on working on that.

Dunesteef Cover Art - 'Linger'

I'm currently producing a piece of audio fiction for the Dunesteef podcast. It only just occured to me that part of that production would be sourcing some cover art for it. I considered asking a friend of mine to have a try at it, but in the end I had a decent idea - so I've decided to do it myself.

First - I vectored out a bit of a cityscape :

 Next - I coloured it :

Then - I outlined a 'man in a hoodie' pic I found online : 

Then I added it into the city scene, and got rid of the outline / colour behind it with a layer mask : 

 Then - some snowfall :

That's it so far. I still have to colour in the man figure, give him a face ( of sorts ), and add in the title / author text and the podcast logo.

Shouldn't take me too long !

TiK contest - Entry #2 - Final composite

Just finished now :

Not bad - though I think entry #1 was actually a better idea for a t-shirt !

TiK - Contest - KG - colour

I think the outlines are finished now ( or as finished as they're going to get ) and the application of colour has started :

TiK Contest - KG - scales and other details

Been putting in some work on the other entry before hitting the sack this week. It's getting there now :

Only got a couple of days left though !

TiK Contest - Entry 2

I had another idea for The Indoor Kids contest - a much simpler one. I'll still try and finish the Angry Birds image - but I have this one almost done now.

Can you guess the video game it's from ? I'm guessing if you've played it you'll recognize those eyes in a second !

TiK Contest - Ghidorah - 3 heads

Got the outlines mostly done for the three heads 

TiK Contest - Ghidorah - Wings / 1 & 1/2 heads

Got this done while Lorenzo was having a nap :