Monday, March 27, 2017

Perspective and a Caprian Deity Named Capro.

I'm a bit behind with my Art Bootcamp work. Drawing buildings and trying to get my head around perspective proved a little stressful. However, I persevered and managed to draw... something.



Sure looks like a house. I will definitely be doing some more practice for drawing buildings in 2 point perspective. I'm not ready for 3 point just yet.

In other news, I finished this drawing for my Digital Fundamentals class. (Create 101).

I decided to do some character design for the Caprian deity Capro - First Daughter of Yemere.





Yemere is their divine creator. According to the Caprian Creed, the world came from Yemere's womb.

Yemere is essentially the universe, or force all spirits and life wish to return. She created four daughters who embody different facets of herself, so that she might go out into the world and experience her creation for herself.

The Empress of Capria is said to be a direct descendant of Capro, from when she walked the world with her sisters and founded the Caprian Empire. Capro is the embodiment of Yemere's strength and courage and it is through her guidance that all Foxes (soldiers) serve in battle.

I decided to try a different pose and angle - may need to work on her armour and attire a bit more.
I think the hair looks pretty good. Was originally going to turn the hair into flames.

As Caprians have no stigma associated with women being topless, Capro is often depicted this way.
(Caprian men on the other hand must always keep their rosy buds covered) :P

It's been awesome to draw from my novel and the world I have been creating for over two years.
I look forward to finishing my draft this year.

Till next time.






Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Mannequin Drawings (Line and Gesture) and Some New Art for Digital Fundementals



So I've had a crack at mannequin drawing for Digital Principals (Art Bootcamp).

I found it very tricky to keep track of my line of action (or movement) of the body as opposed to the general form.

I still need to figure out how to make clear, single stroke lines so my drawings don't appear so sketchy.




The one very cool thing about learning how to draw figures is that I can draw some more characters and concept ideas from my novel.

Which brings me to my weekly art piece for Digital Fundamentals.






Did some colouring, drew some puffy, trunk hose on a pretty young man. So I'm pretty happy with my efforts.

Till next time! :)





Saturday, March 11, 2017

Elliptical Forms and Trees... So many trees.

After playing around with my Wacom Cintiq settings (and re-formatting my laptop) I think I may have finally sorted out my wobbly line problem.

That or my hand is getting steadier. 

Either way, the pen, pressure sensitivity appears to be working properly and I can make cleaner lines.

Which is good thing, because my homework from Ned in Art Bootcamp involves drawing trees, elliptical forms and a series of human mannequins. 

So far I have managed the 30 or so elliptical forms and 30 something trees.








I have grasped the basic idea of using ellipses and cylinders to create form, but I will definitely need to work on my perspective,

On a side note - my husband Richard is currently playing The Legend of Zelda - Breath Of The Wild.

Having only ever played Sega and Playstation games as a kid, I don't get the same nostalgia kick Richard is currently experiencing; however, it does look like a very decent game. 
I will have to wrangle the WII U from him at some point to play it for myself.

While watching Link fighting his way around Hyrule, my eyes couldn't stop noticing the trees and my mind was quick to start breaking them down into basic shapes. I see you trees! In all your cylindrical ellipsicalness! How you bend, this way and that. It's pretty nifty and I'm glad that I have learnt how to do this. 

As for the final part of this homework - I hope to have a few human mannequins drawn soon. 

I hope to apply the techniques and skills I have learnt in the past week about line, form and gesture to the art piece I need to draw for Digital Fundamentals homework.

Till next time!











Monday, March 6, 2017

Car Studies and The 8 Minute Challenge

For my Digital Principles homework with Ned, we learnt how to break down a car into basic line and shape in order to create form.

I have found that it has really helped me understand the steps involved in drawing, well, anything really. I have the habit of skipping stages i.e. jumping from my basic outlines and onto line work and shading.

Today with Tim in Digital Fundamentals he talked a bit about this, as well as about how doing technical drills can help you become more intuitive and eventually get to the part where you know "exactly" what you are drawing. There is difference between knowing the "symbol" or idea of something than actually knowing it's entire form, broken down into individual parts.




This brings me to the second homework exercise for Digital Principles - The 8 minute drawing challenge. Essentially you decide to draw a subject (could be anything) for a duration of 8 minutes, but at different intervals. This is meant to help you relax and get into a drawing "flow". It can also help you get faster at drawing particular images. 





You can find more info on The 8 Minute Challenge here. The page also has a link to a timer on Youtube.

Tim also gave me some handy tips on what I can do about my wobbly line work. 
Going to adjust the way I sit with my tablet (I seem to like lounging on the couch with it sitting on my lap) so I can hopefully get a smoother, more precise line.

Could also be that I need to practice drawing circles and crosses some more. Yes you read correctly. Circles and crosses; and lots of them! Like this -



Drawing these doodads over and over also trains me to not to put so much pressure on my wrist. It's all in the shoulder! Er... elbow.

Till next time!













Friday, March 3, 2017

Week 1 Class Update

The second part of our homework for Digital Fundamentals with Tim is to create a piece of art.

I get the strangest feeling that a lot of our homework will involve a lot of drawing. :P

Here is a simple concept sketch for a Caprian, Red Fox Gunner.


This fine soldier is from my upcoming (and very first) fantasy novel - A Golden Purpose.

Unfortunately I missed my first class of Digital Principles with Ned Rogers on Wednesday due to a sudden onset of the flu. Luckily there is a second class and after many a panadol I was able to attend.

It was a great session where I learnt about how to break objects down into basic shapes i.e. squares, triangles and circles. Lines can be added to these basic shapes to create depth, perspective and form.



Line encapsulates form...


So, we're just dealing with line and shapes to begin with. Which is pretty cool because for homework I get to breakdown a couple of cars into basic shape and line.
No shading. No colour. Simples!
I also have to complete 5 sessions of the 8 minute challenge (more info to come).

Stay tuned!