Working Holiday - Colour

Okay - so here's the thing I'm trying. No outlines at all. Radical huh ? :

Working Holiday - Case outlines

A bit more done this evening :

Working Holiday - Gun outlines

I did something cool in Photoshop tonight - I worked out how to make a custom shortcut ! While that probably isn't that amazing to you, it's a pretty damn handy thing for me ! I use the 'stroke path' command quite a lot these days - and having a shortcut to this command, rather than having to 'control + click' then select the option from the drop down speeds things up a fair amount - particularly when I can map that shortcut to the buttons on my drawing tablet ! Good times.

Anyway - I've been doing the outlines on the gun:

It's not great - but I'm thinking of trying something a bit different with this piece, so the outlines might just be more of a reference point for what's to come.

New Project - 'Working Holiday' cover art

The last few weeks have been very hectic - but let's not get into that shall we ?

I volunteered for this cover art a few months ago, but haven't had the time to start. It's another old podcast episode that I'm helping to update with some new art. The story is called 'Working Holiday', and it ran on The Dunesteef podcast - which is one of my favourites. It's about a guy going to this alien planet to assasinate their king. It's funnier than it sounds !

Anyway - I've been doing a few sketched of sci-fi rifles over the last week or two, and I've learned that guns are pretty freakign hard to draw. All weird angles and detail which are hard to get perspective right with. In the end I took a picture of my nerf rifle leaning up against my chair at work ( I keep it at work for some stage combat work I do with my year 10's ) :

 Which really helped a lot.

Got the original sketch scanned and then quickly went over it in PS, then did the same with a suitcase :

As always - very rough at this stage - but it'll get better !

Rose and Elderberry

It's as done as it's going to get :

I'm reasonably happy with it.

Titania and Oberon - Nearing the end

I have to get this finished tomorrow night. I was late home from rehearsal tonight, and Lorenzo was going MENTAL when I got home ( he was overtired - AND he's figured out how to escape his cot, so that made bedtime extra challenging tonight ), and I finally had something to eat at around nine.

I did sit down for 40min and got a little more done though :

It's coming along - though it's not as cool as I wanted it to be. I think I might have a try of adjusting Oberon's clothes so they're a little more blue / purple - as the gray is blending into the background too much now.

Day of truth tomorrow !

Titania and Oberon - Background !

I'm not entirely sure of this background. I might try a different one tomorrow :

Titania and Oberon - Shading #3

Long day at work today - had a performance assessment evening to oversee. Made myself sit down and do a little more on the art before I crashed :

Some skin shading on the Queen of the Twilight Kingdoms done. Looking better already !

Titania and Oberon - Shading #2

Not much to say tonight. I like the way Oberon's cloak is looking though.

Titania and Oberon - Shading continues

More of Oberon shaded.

So tired.

Titania and Oberon - Colour #3

Right - I've got one week to get this done. Added the rest of the base colour tonight, and started the shading process :

Titania and Oberon - Colour #2

Super busy yesterday and didn't have a chance to get to the drawing, but I got some more base colour down tonight :

So that's good. Time to get to my 250 words of writing now !

Titania and Oberon - Colour #1

Jeesh - been SUPER busy at work with the production, AND I've been doing this writing challenge as well, so that's cut into the art time, which has made me very unhappy. But I went to a TMBG concert last night, which was fun. Sure - I got effectively stood up as well, but that wasn't going to make me now enjoy seeing those guys ( it was so good ! ).

Anyway - had a little time this evening to tidy up the outlines and start to add some colour :

It's always exciting to get to this stage - the picture really starts coming alive.

I'm going to try using clipping masks with this piece ( which I've only just learned about in the last couple of weeks - they sound REALLY useful ). More soon - seeing as I have to get this done in two weeks !

Titania and Oberon - Vectors 6

Gosh, I'm tired.

Two nights of being awake from 2am is not great. Hopefully a better night's sleep awaits me tonight.

I have had some time to put in the art tonight :

It's coming along. It's nice to get Oberon's other hand in there - and the lower part of his body, even if it's just a sketch at this stage.

Titania and Oberon - Vectors 5

Only a little bit of development here this time - but a significant bit :

The only difference is Titania's raised hand. It is how holding a sprig of elderberry ( which does have some significance in the play we're doing - though I wouldn't want to spoil what that was ).

It's the best that hand has looked so far. I've been really struggling with her hands ( just in case you haven't noticed ! ).

Titania and Oberon - Vectors 4

As you might expect - more development of the outlining :

I'm not altogether happy with the state of Titania's hands.

Hands are REALLY hard to draw.

In case you didn't know.

Titania and Oberon - Vectors 3

And Titania makes an appearance :

I had to redo her arms - the first time they were way too thick. Then I had to re-size the bracelets. It's nice to start seeing the balance in the piece now though.

Titania and Oberon - Vectors 2

More progress :

It was fun doing the detail on the breastplate / bracers.

Titania and Oberon - Vectors 1

Able to spend some time today drawing the 'real' outlines for the T&O art :

I reworked the face and the ear - I think they look better now. The hands are going to be a pain.

New Project - Titania and Oberon - Sketch 2

Developing the potential detail some :

I was wondering what to do to balance up the heads of the two. With the horns Oberon makes things a little lopsided. It just occurred to me now what if I lengthen the crown 'spikes' for Titania I might get the desired balance. Worth a try. 
The faces aren't great - but I'll work on that !

New Project - Titania and Oberon - Sketch 1

Ooookay - so I'm dragging the chain on this one, but I've got to produce a piece of art based on the production we're doing at  school - which is a hack of "a Midsummer Night's Dream'. I decided to do something with Titania and Oberon. Here's the first official sketch :

Not much to look at now. More on development will be incoming !

Sketch-a-week #11 - Illithid

Another classic D&D monster - the illithid ( or mind-flayer ) :

The legs aren't quite right - but I really like where the rest of this was going.

I think I might do some more D&D stuff. Got a hankering to do some of the demon princes. Orcus is top of the list !

Sketch-a-week #10 - Beholder

Here's the second of three sketches I did in one night. I'm really pleased with how this one went :

The AD&D 1st ed. Monster Manual ( my mum got me one while we were in California when I was 11 - I didn't have the faintest idea how to play AD&D - but I LOVED all the monster pictures ) describes the beholder as 'hateful, aggressive and avaricious. They will usually attack immediately'.
I never had a character run into one - thankfully ! They're insanely dangerous. Each of those eye-stalks can produce a spell like effect - the worst three effects being flesh to stone, death ray and disintegrate.

Like I said - insanely dangerous.

One of the best monsters ever !

Sketch-a-week #9 - Dynamic Pose

I managed to get a few drawings done while at my parents' place last night. I'm very pleased with how all three went - and it gets me caught up a bit with my quota !

Here's the first :

It's not perfect - but I REALLY like the pose I managed to do here - with NO reference to other photos or images - all from my mind baby !

Sketch-a-week #7 - A sign of things to come

The production we're doing at work this year is called 'We Found Love' - it's a reworking on Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' ( probably my favourite comedy by Shakespeare, though I'm very fond of 'Much Ado About Nothing' as well ), which I was also on the writing team for ( from memory I rewrote a lot of Act 4 and some other bits and pieces ). One of the students had a great idea - that we get a collection of art that was student abd teacher created which illustrated something about the play we liked - or something like that. I was really keen on taking apart right away. I sketched out this loose plan :

Very rough at present - but there are the seeds of something special there.

More as it happens.

'Pretty Ugly' - I think it's done.

I've done what I think are the final touch-ups ( at least for now ) and I think it's done :

I'm pretty happy with it. I hope the clients are too. We'll see !

And because I can't leave well enough alone - I had to experiment with potential title and by-line text. 

I had a lot of fun doing this - and continued to learn arcane secrets of Photoshop. I'm almost a little sad that it's done - but not really ! Happy happy happy ! And I've got at least a couple of other projects that I need to get moving on - one of them being a return to REAL painting ( like, with a brush and REAL paint, on a canvas even ! ). 

Thanks for the opportunity Big and Rish ! 

'Pretty Ugly' - Even more small improvements !

Okay okay - I KNOW it doesn't like I've done anything - but there's about an hour of work here :

- More skin shade on the Plain Girl. Particularly in the eyebrow region.
- Added a 'worry line' to the mouth of the Plain Girl.
- Skin shade on the 'Johnny Red' poster.
- Shade and highlights to the eyes of the girl and the reflection.
- More eyeshadow to the Sexy Reflection, and refinement of what was there ( opacity levels, small adjustments to the shapes ).

Discovered the 'blur' tool too. Gosh - why didn't I find this earlier ? Beats using the Gaussian blur filter so much !

I think now I just have to do some shading on the desk 'stuff', and a bit more development of the Sexy Reflection's skin colour - and it'll be done.

Yay ! I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking now. I hope the clients like it as well !

'Pretty Ugly' - More small improvements

Got to spend some time on the art this evening :

Most of the things are quite small / subtle ( shade in the desk, copied highlight / shade layers from the posters to the mirror reflection, more shade / highlights here and there in the posters, slight gradient shift in the wall colour ).
It's almost done I think. A little more work on the faces of the girls, a little more shading - and it'll be finished.

'Pretty Ugly' - Small improvements

I have to go and bake something soon - but I've done some small improvements here and there :

- Skin shade on Neon Shuriken.
- Changed text colour on Johnny Red.
- Halftone effect on Johnny Red text.
- Shade on bed.
- More eye shadow on the Sexy Reflection.

Sketch-a-week #6

Attack dog :

Not bad.

'Pretty Ugly' - More shading and stuff

It's getting to that exciting stage where things are actually starting to come together and look pretty good. Today I had some time while Lorenzo was asleep and out with Viva and got this done :

Shading and layer effects on the posters to a greater or lesser degree ( Neon Shuriken got the most, Johnny Red the least ), changed the colour of the guitar ( red was too jarring and pulled focus ) and more shading / highlights on the Sexy Reflection.

'Pretty Ugly' - Freckle combo / Skin shading / Hair shade and detail

It's late - and I've not got time to banter much. I've been hard at work on this tonight ( even though it won't look much like I have ) :

The Plain Girl's hair is looking pretty good now - and I've merged the two collections of 'freckles' I had - and it looks pretty good. There's some subtle shading in the skin and shirt too. The skin of the Sexy Reflection is coming along - but it's not really to my liking so far.

'Pretty Ugly' - Freckles Mk 2

Okay - so I didn't like the way the first set of freckles was looking. It was a good first attempt - but it wasn't good enough. Here's the second attempt :

These ones look a good deal better. There are five layers of freckles there - with the tones getting steadily darker.

'Pretty Ugly' - Freckles and some skin shade

DISCLAIMER : I think freckles are quite attractive. Some people find the freckles / red hair combo disturbing though, so :

There's also some development of the skin of the Sexy Reflection. I need to add freckles to the arms now.

'Pretty Ugly' - Base colour complete !

All the base colour is in :

Onto shade and highlights.

Sketch-a-week #5

Troll thing :

Could be worse.

'Pretty Ugly' - Even more base colour

Oh man - kids going mental. Lorenzo is up again - I can hear him squealing and running around upstairs. I've done a little more work tonight filling in empty spaces in the artwork :

I'd better go help wrangle the child.

'Pretty Ugly' - More base colour

Had an hour or so after the kids were asleep tonight, and I got more base colour added :

Most of the time I was tidying up the edges.

'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.