Some Finals -- HAPPY NEW YEAR also

Here's the companion piece to this one with the Mirrors Edge runner. Fixed some atmospheric issues recently, so it should be a little better than it was earlier.

And my last stuff from my excellent life drawing class last semester at LCAD! We had a student modeling in her Chell costume from Portal. Brought a prop she made of the ASHPD (Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device).

So those were the warmups, very uneven. Then this was probably a ten minute...

And a .gif of the final piece. I did the pencils and prelim values in about 20 mins, then went back over time and inked it in Photoshop. 

 And here's a static version that's easier to see.

Hopefully soon I can show off my 3D stuff. I'm still not to a point where I'm satisfied enough to show it, though. Soon! 

Nude Dude Drawin

This model knows how to strike a good pose, so I figured it'd be a shame not to include some gestures.

 Later on, this was a ten minute pose. Just enough time to rough in shadows. Then I got this Scarface kind of look to it, minus the ridiculous fanbase. It won't be plastered on any oversized Tshirts any time soon.

The last one of the day, was a twenty minute pose. everything was workin well today. I mean, look at that hand! Still not great, strides: I'm makin them.

And finally there's this stuff. Different class -- more just digital painting, so the pose isn't that amazing. But, I got the render the heck out of it. I drew a random runner from Mirror's Edge (video link).

Pirates! and Ladies. And Nature.

The saddest part of thanksgiving was that it took place on my day for life drawing! I compensated by doin some trail sketches. I should've taken photos of where I was for reference later...

Then T-Day came and went in a flurry of food. Work resumed this week and immediately made up for lost time. Here's my best from today. I had the usual issues -- rushing in too quickly, not taking my time with my lines. My instructor had to slow me down. 

Here is the male gaze in action. 

And I've meant to do this in the past, but finally remembered to do a gif of the process.

Later on, there were Pirates! Starting off with... this one!

 Spyglass hands! ignore all else.

And the slowest sword fight ever. I think they were having the most fun in the room.

Major figure dump!

Since I haven't been keeping track, here's the best from the last 3 weeks. Don't really have any good streams of these, either. Such a shame, cause I was getting into a lot of these.

First two from 10/25.

These two just from last week. Mostly pleased with that session.

Finally, today. I felt kind of off to be honest, but it looks like they worked out well from here. They should be generally in order.

So I made this cardboard hat.

Last week my roommate acquired

A shipment box which I admired.

The size was close that it could sit

upon my head, if it should fit.

And so I searched the internet

for pictures of a good helmet.

I found success in history

when Romans wore this mystery.

I set about with board and blade

and soon my project was half made.

My camera was thus tossed aside

as I carved the box with pride.

Though the reference didn't show it,

I already did mostly know it.

My imagery was not the best

but I set out to make the crest.

As ancient scissors cut the notches

They resembled cardboard swatches.

So top heavy in my hand

I trusted it would make it grand.

Inserted fully, held on top

Without so much as one drop

Of glue or tape within my reach:

A rule I would not dare breach.

So, hows it fit? Not very well,

unless my head begins to swell.

Which wouldn't be so hard to do

since cardboard hats protect like poo.

Figure Drawing streams

Once again, I'm making effort to show the process here. I'm the guy who's always watching the 'how it's made' part of the dvd, where I'm always wondering how they achieved whichever effect on Disneyland rides.

I even was able to get my computer to capture video of photoshop, so I've got some of that at the bottom. Featuring music of Explosions in the Sky, and music from Halo ODST. Quite the range.

So to start, here once again are the terrible horrible 'gestures'. About halfway I changed up, trying to get the overall shape instead of a hyper-rendered thing.

We jumped straight into tens after this. None of that slow-building up today.

Of course interspersed with breaks now and again. These next ones I think were twenties. Starting not to hate them...

One more twenty, our penultimate pose.

This last one here was done as two sets of twenties. TBH on the second pose, the wrinkles got better on his pants so I was able to render out some really nice shapes.

And finally, the promised videos!

Life Drawing, + Completely Unrelated Animations

I decided to show some more of my process. Until I figure out fraps or something, screenshots will have to do.

3 min Gestures

 These were fives & 10s.... Once we moved to tens, I tried slowing down, but ended up doing so far too much and didn't get more than a head and shoulders in. Lou (the instructor) came over and showed how I could do it differently, and then I had this bright one in the middle.

Once we got to 20s, I finally got to really get some good value in there. There was another one but the face took waaay too much of my attention, and for not a lot of payoff. 

Construction on this one was weird enough that it existed more as just a value study than as a figure portrait. Also probably the most NSFW-ish drawing of the semester.... But I had a lot of fun with light, shadow, and the cloth material.

But I said I would include animation, right? The Turkeyman LIVES! Once again, modeled, rigged, and posed by yours truly. Thought I'd share my reference on this one too -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x-7v3PJ6Eg

And a jump. This is the "Norman" rig. It's providing a good outline of what I should include in rigs I try to construct in the future. Baby steps, baby steps.

Boas Boas All Around

So it looks like I only really update with life drawing studies lately. I should branch out and show everything else I'm doing. But anyways, it's the time I get to relax in between the much-more-stressful-but-oh-so-rewarding Maya & Max work.

Started with gestures as usual, these were my faves once we moved into about 5 minute poses.

A while later, we hit tens and twenties. 

And my favorite from the day! Not just because I skipped drawing the face. Scored right away with the construction and kept the momentum going the rest of the way.

Figure Drawing Madness!

I've been told a few times now that I rush into it too quickly. So on this first one I consciously tried to slow down. Good results! And the model was really tall & skinny, so I didn't mess up too bad on proportions.

10minutes

20minutes

Digital Figures!

So this was the first day my current figure drawing class started on digital. Also the first formal break-in of my tablet. The class is the first one I've done where they extensively use clothes + props. 

 Quick gestures. Filtering out the ones I didn't like, btw.

From the next batch, these were five minutes I think.

In most of these, she's wearing these leg warmers. It's not always obvious in some but here it's very apparent.

 The last drawing of the day. Went about 20-30 minutes, but Im not too sure the exact time. About halfway through, they ditched the clump of cloth. Initially it was draped all over the body, but pretty much stole the show and was way too complicated.

Basically stuff I still need to do -- more patience. Draw shapes. Don't scribble.