ArtCtrl

Open licenced artwork by William Mckee

DOTT

Feng Zhu is a talented lad. His blog and Youtube channel are a wealth of information  In October last year he posted two paintings of remade video game shots. Classic, but certainly dated with graphics. He posted two paintings - DOTT and Monkey Island. To be honest, I haven’t played them. I’m not a puzzle fan - I do enjoy Adventure games such as Heavy Rain and The Walking Dead, but as soon as puzzles are involved, I’m out.

Feng Zhu also posted a video of a painting he did for the game - Flashback! Another classic game…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azP1im6SznA?feature=player_profilepage]

So being inspired by all these repainting of classic games I had to do one myself - for a game that one of my Twitter friends mentioned. Day of the Tentacle.

tott

I found a screenshot from the game during my search. It’s still visible on my painting - at the top.

I had just finished my new color palette painting and decided to pixel grab again. There are some colors here I’d like to use again - the orange and reds in the clock. The environment is washed out. all the color in the characters. The green and pink contrasts greatly but has potential - maybe use a  range of tones. Interesting purples with the walls.

Here’s the video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffpPnSm6Mbc]

Read more →

anna new color sample

Now for something completely different. I’ve been using the same color in GIMP forever. It’s been over 6 months with not much change in color. I need to practice with a wider range of colors. Here’s my  attempt at increasing my palette and exploring color.

My friend Cathryn once sampled colors from photographs and created paintings from it. She used beautiful fruit and such. I went with cooked food, not so beautiful. The reference I used was roasted veges and eggs. Both are stock images that I took myself. You can go check out the rest of the food photos of eggs and veges.

Anyway, onto the painting, even though it’s only one layer:

annanewcolor So no line or gray scale in this. It was purely a color exercise.The yellow samples I picked were exciting. Yellow has got to be a favorite of mine. The darker version of it looks rather green! From the roast photo I got some interesting browns… something I don’t normally use. I also picked up a blue from the plate - the dark version is ok, but I made a lighter version of it - which is horrible. Too bright.

As you can see I painted a figure with the new sampled colors - for the reference I used a digital painting that I was open in Blender. The post including the reference is here.

I certainly found this exercise fun to do - I need to do more fun exercises like this rather than just the same process everyday. I took photos at the Rose Garden today - I must use the photos in a similar way.

And to end the post, here’s the video of the painting:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAiF7wRImM]

Stay cool honey bun.

Read more →

Dads Hens

It’s been a nice day. Went for a walk and took photographs. Pretty flowers, and food! This afternoon I decided to sit down and do another painting (I really don’t produce enough paintings).

So here’s the painting. Dads Hens:

Reference I used. This is a photo I took recently of my Fathers Chickens. You can view more of the photos over here. I used this photograph as reference on my laptop monitor - and painted on the desktop.

choock-line

When was the last time I drew a animal on the computer? It’s great to draw a different subject. This was very quick to get down and certainly helps my visual library.

choock-bw Gray scale tone. I started with the eye- the darkest gray and worked out from there. I decided later it was too dark and make it lighter. That’s the great thing about working digital - if it isn’t working then just paint over it. I used two tones for the majority of the Hen, bringing in a third later for dark highlights. The background, a layer of light gray.

choock-color Color now. Used the same colors as the painting I did earlier today. I’m really enjoying these two yellows and how well they work together. No red in here. Maybe I could of created an environment for the Hen to be in. Poor thing, just covered with blueness.

Here’s the video to go along with the painting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqWvplhPeAg&feature=youtu.be

Read more →

Lvn-Rework

Woke up not as early as I wanted to. I think it was 8:30. Freaked out as I went to paint and was unable to find my tablet pen. End of the world. I gave my room a tidy to find it - sure enough I found it under my keyboard. The freak was off.

Here’s the painting -

ca.lvnrose.line

This is the reference I decided to use. It’s the line work from a painting last year that I wasn’t happy with. View the post here. I imported this line drawing into a new GIMP file - slightly larger than the original so gave me room to work around the edge… add extras on.

lvn-rework-line

Here’s the line done. As you can see the drawing has been extended at the bottom, adding in more vegetation and water areas. Other lines have been extended to fill in gaps. Figure added to the left.

lvn-rework-bw And tone. I started with the figure on the left - the darkest gray. I then moved onto the sky and filled in the rest of the areas with tone. I experimented with making the tree branches in the same gray as the figure but it was too strong, dropped it down so it doesn’t clash.

lvn-rework-color Color. I added red into, something I haven’t been happy with. Decided to use my normal red and a black version, helps with making the color not so dominate and balance it out. Maybe a lighter version of the red? Two shades of green for the water. Yellow for vegetation, and blue for the sky.

Here I’ll include the painting I did previously from the reference:

ca.lvnrose.ctone As you can see I’ve clearly improved since this painting. There is more detail, areas just made up, and a better sense of depth. I don’t like the pink colors in this work either - the red is certainly stronger.

And finally, here’s the video:

Read more →

Levin Water

I woke early this morning. 6:30. I switched on a episode of The Walking Dead and started painting. I mucked around a little but managed to get a painting finished. I’ve spent the rest of the day cleaning and getting washing done. It’s still not 100% but cleaner that what it was.

Here’s the painting I did this morning -

lvn-win-ref I grabbed random drawings from my Levin drawings folder with the intent of adding water elements into the image. All three reference images offer interesting contrast. The right side is lacking a little with drawings, but I can just fill it in with lines. There is enough here to work with.

lvn-win-lineOk Line done. As you can see I’ve changed the image somewhat, adding water behind the foreground area. Drifts into the horizon. Scatted around the edge are vehicles  trees, and buildings. I want my paintings to have a more 3d feel to them, create scenes that could then be modeled out - not just use this painting as a background - but create from within. lvn-win-TONE And tone. People are lacking on this work. It’s been quite usual lately for me to include them. I used my standard flat brush but also mixed it up with a watercolor brush.something different. The tree in the middle is strange and out of place. It wasn’t this dominant in the line drawings but I brought it out in the tone. Doesn’t work.

lvn-win-COLOR And color. I’ve really gone off using that red. I even tried darkening it to see if it would help - decided to not go with it though. At least I got the yellow in - two versions of it - the light (which i always use) and the dark (which I need to use more). Blue in the background could do with another shade, the opacity was high (90%) when I painted the sky - doesn’t help. 80% is good.

Video (also includes unreleased paintings):

Till next time.

Read more →