Masters progress images

For the past couple weeks, Ive been working through a concept design assessment that requires me to take a kids show character and turn it into a character suited for a fighter. Its a fun bit of work, I think the hardest part was picking a show to go with. I was tossing up between using the King from Potatoes and Dragons or Nia from Canimals.

Nia from the show Canimals

In the end, I decided to go with Nia since she was such a simple, none human (or animal really) looking character.
So, Ive started to pop together some concepts and began working on the various sections of the assessment criteria. Here is some of the work that Ive done so far=)

Update time!

Time to post some of my sketches Ive done over the past few months!
Unfortunately, Ive been very quite since I haven't had much to post up. Currently, a lot of my art is work or study related so I don't really want to include it on my blog.

I'm back again!

I shouldn't have any kind of excuse for not updating this blog more frequently, but, unfortunately I do have an excuse related to the popular subject of work and study.

Here's another costume dump for my character, Teekah.  I had a lot of fun putting these together=) After doing the gypsy and firefly-like outfit, I asked my partner for any kind of character type or outfit he wanted to see me draw Teekah in. His first response was barbarian. So, although it is completely unlike her to look like this normally, she now has a rabid Amazon woman form.

Sunday update!

So, its been a very busy week with work, uni and baking a friends birthday cake.
I got a little sketching done during my free time, but Ive been mostly working on a single piece that Ill upload once its finished.

 My biggest, most time consuming project for the week was a cake. But not just any cake, a good friends birthday cake which meant that it had to be awesome! So awesome that I stepped way out of my comfort zone from the usuall cake and slice baking I do in order to make a piece of art.

I was originally going to make a castle since my friend asked for one, but I decided that a dragon guarding its treasure would be way more cool=P

 Completely edible! (except for the 7 toothpicks holding the plants and treasure chest in place)=P





I am very pleased with the result of my efforts. When I decided to attempt this, the only fear I had was not whether I could do it, but instead it was the thought of it falling out my hands during its transportation to the party.

Development stuff!
I started the whole task on Thursday night. I needed to bake the cake 2 days in advance since I wouldn't of had time to bake it, allow it to cool and decorate it on the day it was needed. The main part of the cake the dragon sits on is chocolate buttermilk pound cake and the chest is just a vanilla sponge (I know for next time to not use a fluffy sponge recipe for this kind of thing... it falls to pieces way too easily and was very difficult to work with). The dragon is made out of what my flat mate likes to think of as a huge cow patty, but really its Oreo biscuits and cream cheese - 4 boxes of Oreas and half a kilo of cream cheese! Omnomnomnom

On Friday night, after a few celebratory drink for a friends engagement, I started to work on the fondant decorations that needed time to dry and become hard. The little plants gave me a bit of a hard time, I re-made them twice since they fell to pieces the first time. I fixed this by making them quicker and then placing them into an egg carton so they didn't flop and fall apart. The wings were made in the same evening too. I would of liked to make the treasure chest too, but the cake had to be refrigerated and if I was to decorate it with fondant and keep it cool, the fondant would get sticky when taken out of the fridge.

Saturday, the day of the party, came along and I spent about 10hours completing the rest of the cake. I started with the Treasure chest, which was the hardest part of the whole cake to make due to its hur-derp fluffiness. I used apricot jam as a base instead of butter frosting before covering it with the fondant, adding the indents for the wooden plank and painting it. The fun part was making the treasure!  I used the end of a circular piping tip to make the coin indents, hand molded the excess coins and used edible gems and those little edible pearl thingies to decorate it (plus a lot of edible gold glitter).

The base of the cake was made in layers. After adding the chocolate frosting, I wrapped a ring of brown marbled fondant around the edge followed by two layers of leaves (I found the leaf cutter mold for a dollar in a book shop oddly enough). The grass was cut using a knife and scissors then painted with a little green food colouring to get the 'streaked' look. The cobble stone where then modelled on top.

At this point it was nearly time for the party. I thought 'Well, I could put the treasure chest on top and consider it done so I can avoid my friends wrath for being late'. But I figured, bugger being a bit late! I'm gonna make a bloody dragon!
Out came the black mass of dough. I hand modelled it (no, I didn't use a mold) and then relised that I didn't actually figure out how I was going to shift it to the top of the cake without it falling apart. Before going to the next step and adding the decorations, I tried to test move it first. I was so glad I tried to move it before decorating it since it broke into chunks which would have been disastrous if the dragon was complete. I moved the chunks to the cake carefully and then started adding the fondant and decorations to complete the dragon.

 

To finish off the cake, I dusted the dragon and grass in edible glitter and attached the treasure chest, wings and shrubs before transporting the whole cake onto the cake board.

Luckily, it didn't fall out of my hands during the trip and it safely made its way to the party, with only one leaf breaking off. Although I was 2 hours late, my mate didn't care  when he saw the cake=)

 

A lot of people at the party said that I should change my career to professional cake maker. Perhaps one day I may consider it, but for now, Ill stick to sitting at the computer making pretties.

No weekly sketches for this week, sorry

 - But here is an awesome breakdown video of the Witcher2: Assassin of Kings intro cinematic!

 

 Watching this gives me the shivers every time=) There's an interesting article over at CG society going over the work flow of how Platige Image have constructed this great intro clip. You can check it out here!

So, I've decided to hold off on adding any sketches until next Sunday since I've been very busy with work and study and have little to add this time. I should however, be updating with pics of the cake Ill be constructing for a friends birthday party!
On a side note, I have finally made the switch from my old hotmail account to a gmail account and after a lot of confusion from past mistakes, Ive finally switched my blog to my new account=)

Weekly Sketch-Dump

Weekly sketch-dump time!
Each Sunday from now on, I plan on posting my weeks worth of sketches here. There wont usually be this many pictures, but because this is the first time Ive posted my sketches here, they go back since last month (although if I have the time to draw I will post manythe sketchs!)

Iv been spending a lot of time focusing on both my 3D and 2D art the past couple weeks, the amount of effort Ive put into it probably exceeds how much effort Ive put in to it the past 6months. I hope to keep this pace up=)

 

Portrait Practice

Quick update!
Painting realistic renderings isn't realy something Ive done much of, mainly because I didn't find it an interesting topic to paint in the past.
I'm more keen to learn now days since my interests have expanded, I also generally want to expand my artistic knowledge.
 Anyway, its time to start practising!

Portrait practise, done in an evening

The added hair was a quick addition I included to hide the bald head, and I actually kind of like it. I would like to play with solid colours over render-like details more often.  
While I'm here updating my blog, here is an awesome film project created by some bachelor students from The Animation Workshop.

Enjoy!

A night at Qantm with Android Jones

I was lucky enough to get to sit in on one of Android (Andrew) Jones masterclass talks this evening. It was a very inspiring session with plenty of progression videos, fun stories and Coral Painter demonstrations. I personally found Andrews talk beneficial. The guy has a real knack for making you sit there and think 'Yeah, your right... we are fucken awesome!'.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with Android Jones, check out his website at http://www.androidjones.com/ Chances are, you may have already seen his famous works published in various places.

Andriod Jones -Share the Planet

Andrew had always had an arty bone in him, starting his artistic caree from a very early age. When he was 16, he started drawing portraits of homeless people and run-away kids for fun. He quickly realised that he could make a living off drawing when tourists starting offering payment for art. After attending a number of art and design schools and working for Nintendo, Andrew went on to co-found ConceptArt.org and the studio Massive Black Inc.
This all sounds like a perfect lineup for someone wanting to get work as a concept artist, but Andrew did not find joy in working on art that had to meet other peoples expectations. Nowadays, after travelling with musicians and creating theatre stages, Andrew is an independent artist. He finds some of his greatest joy creating art with no set goal at the start. 'Draw what you feel' and share it with everyone around you, he says. There is no limit to what we are able to create.

Hearing the story of Andrews past made me smile and think about my current goals and future ambitions. I can see how my story kind of sits in comparison with Andrews, getting a job in games then leaving it due to the stress of keeping up with deadlines trying to constantly impress those above you.

After the talk, I asked Andrew 'What would be your inspiring words for any artist who has started to undermine their artistic ability and have lost their passion to create art?' He paused for a while and thought before saying; 'If you don't believe in yourself, then who will?' Out of all the inspiring stories he gave that night, I felt that this one answer had a deeper, personal meaning to him. It was honest, straightforward and rang true.

We need to learn to find joy in what we do. Whether it be related to art or not, the pure love for our talents can only be found within ourselves once we relise what we are capable of doing, and what we are capable of becoming.

Clothing concepting

I've decided to dig up one of my pieces of work from a few months ago and continue working on it.

This time, I have been playing around with some clothing ideas for one my characters. I haven't decided on her main outfit yet, so for now I'm just dressing her up in different costumes that may appear in the universe she exists in.
Any suggestions for future outfits?

Teekahs outfits!

Finaly... I've started a blog

After many months of telling myself I would start putting together a blog, its finally happened! Now I just have to keep this thing updated regularly.

So, what will be the main topics posted here? Mostly anything related to my art such as sketches, finished pieces of work, 3D related goods and other WIP. Also, every now and then Ill be sure to post about my awesome cooking adventures and about interesting art related news/information sites

OK! To begin the blog, I'm going to post a small selection of some of my previous drawings=) Enjoy

One of my characters, D'Lyn. This is a WIP that I plan on eventually colouring.

Another one of my characters. This time its my D&D tiefling rogue, Shade. I had a lot of fun playing as her!

Part of a calender project I've been slowly working on. During life drawing, I would attempt to stylise the model's pose very quickly. If I like how it turned out, of to the computer it went!

Im sure I'll be adding more drawings of this fey/cat thing. Teekah is something I originally concepted for an assessments years ago at uni.

Kaylah, another character from the same universe as D'Lyn

Random sketching. I do a lot of that.