ArtCtrl

I’ve been following the Environment of the Week for years over on Conceptart.org, but rarely brave enough to enter. This morning though I warmed up with that birthday card for Erik then afterwards got straight into creating a concept art painting for the EOW. The reference I used for it was of the Auckland waterfront, but I used the reference very little. These are certainly not finals - but it’s a great start.

Here goes -

The reference used:

Reference thanks to my stock images over on FreshFigure

I started this with using my first reference and creating a small thumbnail on the left. This extended and I build the scene from that. Though I started this as an exterior work it developed into Cavern of Creation. The idea was to have these figures travel on a escalation - being created. This is why there is a guzabio in the middle. I guess that character could be the queen.

Tone added. I wasn’t happy with this. Maybe it needs more darks in areas? Anyway, it’s unfinished and I moved on to the next one. I’m just treating these like thumbnails.

I used the second reference for this. I stuck with the reference but added extras to it. I especially wanted to add vegetation as I believe a new world would have plenty of beautiful vegetation  It’s common for me to draw it on the street - so why not include it in this!

I also created a large character in the water (right side). This character represents God watching over the smaller characters as they walk down the path to their new home. He could be there also to build as well - not everything can be completed in a day.

Tone helped flesh out this piece and give it a sense of direction. Overall I’m happy with the left side but have concern over the right and the lack of information. This is true for the background. The best option for this will be to treat it like a thumbnail and develop the scene further - with my own reference photos. I’ll work on this idea tomorrow, but for now here’s a color layer added -

Colors are what I’ve been using regularly. Though looking at this now I should of used more yellow - especially mixing it into the red areas. The red tends to dominant the work. I used the green for the water but it’s hard to notice - maybe needs more colors mixed in.

Oh and here’s the video:

During my time in Auckland I met Erik, he’s a independent game developer based in Auckland. Go check his website out. I notice it’s his birthday today so made this painting for him, similar to what I use to do with my Facebook friends before deleting Facebook earlier last year.

Anyway, I’ll format this post like any other - first up line:  For the reference I used Eriks twitter picture. I had a quick look around his site for any higher res images I could use but no such luck. It doesn’t matter though - still looks like him! Around the portrait I included balloons and cake plus the type: Happy Birthday Erik. Of course this was hand rendered. Tone added. I choose to cover his skin first with black before later bringing lights over it. I’ve been thinking lately about working from a darker background rather than white. I’ve done this in the past and been happy with the result - it makes it feel less scary than a blank white canvas.  And finally color. I kept with just three color - yellow for skin, red for objects and blue for the background. I decided not to color the hat because I think black hats are rather rand.

Happy Birthday Erik - Hope you have a great day!

More digital painting. I had a rest this afternoon and felt much better afterwards. Here’s another digital painting I’ve been working on. I especially had fun with the color layer.

I worked differently with this - working from photography reference, my own stock images. For this I used Auckland Waterfront images. The same proces has been used with the painting though - starting with the red line. Working from the photo gave me more control over where the lines go - sometimes I feel restricted with a trace over - not always, but it’s great practice to do some photo reference work.

Next up, tone:

I’m especially happy with the ship and water. All this practice and I finally believe I’m starting to get somewhere. I like the rough and quick feel it has - but still understanding what exactly is there.

And finally, color. I used red for the ship and object to the far right. The water - green. Background vegatation is yellow, and sky - blue. Strips of yellow and red along the planks on the ground.

I’ve been playing The Walking Dead. Good news is that it’s a game that allows me to paint at the same time. So during the game I painted this following scene, it took me a bit longer to paint than usual as I was semi engaged with The Walking Dead.

Anyway, here’s the painting:

The reference is common - both pencil sketches drawn in Wellington - the left waterfront, and right the railway. I painted the railway just yesterday so I think tomorrow I’ll have to paint something different. It is a fun scene to paint though. I want more drawings with figure sculptures in.Ok line. I currently have a bad headache so not really sure. I guess this line is what I expected. Nothing special or different to what I usually do. I’m just going to move onto tone which is far more exciting.

Gayscale tone. Now this is getting there. I spent awhile on this building up the tones. I’m  happy with the water areas and the interesting large pole on the right side (left of the figure sculpture). I’m not happy with the car, I had to go over it several times but it still feels wrong and out of place.

Color. As always I had plenty of fun applying the color. I kept with my usual colors, but was brave and mixed them in areas.. such as the green/blue and yellow/red for the water. The opacity is set to 30% for the color so layering of colors greatly helps the depth.

Alright, that will do for now. No video for this one.

During my final hours in Auckland I started playing The Walking Dead. I got the majority of the way through episode one. I’ve just reopened it up on my laptop and playing it.

Here’s a painting I did of Clem from the game:

And using some reference photos that I took recently I did this enviorment painting:

I used several different references for this - the first a clock tower photo in Levin, this also included the reference for the street lamps. The second reference was from Auckland - the Sky tower. The rest of the image was just tone building up from imagination - including the mountain. I’ll like to do more of these photo studies rather than just work from my drawings.

Finally here’s the video for this these paintings -

Good morning. Another painting complete. I started this painting last night and finished it this morning. It works out well even if I just get the reference sorted, I can jump straight into it. Once I get started painting I generally don’t stop till it’s finished - unless I’m interpreted  and that’s usually only by Dad.

Here’s the painting - 

Reference. Several of these drawings I have used previously but like yesterday I thought I’d redo them, something fresh. May help with the continued theme of subject manner. Plus I reakon I’m better now than ever before :P.

On the left is a drawing I did during my trip to Auckland in July. It’s in the Westfield mall. It was always one of my favorite drawings of the trip.

Top left is a bridge drawing from Wellington Waterfront.

The top right is the Auckland Railway. I did this several visits ago in Wellington, but happy with the drawing, and I always get decent digital paintings from it.

This third reference is from Takaka - a drawing I did on the beach. I don’t believe I’ve taken this digitally before but I have produced a acrylic painting using it as reference.

I almost forgot about my last reference - a portrait I did of a friend - Hannah. This is in the far left. I was happy with the drawing but the portrait didn’t work well in this painting.

Line. Simple really, I traced the reference. I didn’t change the reference much, only little things like making the figures look larger than life and standing on rocks in the distance.

Grayscale tone added. This is always the most fun stage, I love tone and building up those lights and darks. It brings the scene out of plain line into something that’s real.

Again I made the characters dark and light for the background. I used the same brush in this whole painting attempting to create a range of textures with it.

I wanted to create a water type effect for the ground. I’ve been told the way to paint water is paint reflections.  And finally color. My normal color trends here. I used the green for the sky area in the top left and for the water area on the ground. Something a little different, though I’ve used the green for water in the past. I wasn’t scared to mix the colors together, mixing yellow and red for the figures.

Overall I’m happy with this painting, time to get off the computer, take some photos and eat.

I’ve been taking photos. The majority of these have been landscape or street scene, but I have taken some photos of people. You can check out my new stock photography website - FreshFigure.

For this painting I used several of my photographs and painted characters. I normally paint enviorments so it’s always refreshing to paint characters. Here goes:

Line. The four figures are all the same height with the two portraits slightly wider than the figures. I especilly enjoyed doing the line on portrait with the tongue out - it’s very unusal and nothing like a normal portrait. Yay for differences. 

Grayscale tone. I focused on skin and hair - missing the legs on the left two figures. I went in with the middle gray and just covered areas before going in with dark to the hair areas. I used a light gray in certain areas of the skin to increase the contrast.

Color. I dropped opacity to 30% and covered the skin with yellow. Next was red for the darks (just laying over that yellow). Finally I used two shades of blue for the back wall and a green for the floor.

Here’s the video:

Good morning. I got back to Levin yesterday - my Fathers place. One of the first things I did was open GIMP on the desktop computer and produce a digital painting - and record it. I didn’t record the color stage, but managed to record all up to grayscale tone.

Here’s the painting:

The far left reference is a sketch book I did in Wellington at the railway station. I’ve taken this into GIMP previously and was happy with the result. I thought it was about time to have another go. On the right I added a drawing of a cafe in Takaka, and above that trees in Christchurch. 

Line. I modified my pressure settings in GIMP to get more variety in my line - you can see this in the figure sculpture in the middle - very thin line. I’m happy with this line as it gave me enough information to develop good tone over it. 

Grayscale tone. I made up the tone as I went by just applying a range of tones over the page. For more important areas or foreground I used dark and light for less important areas. Darks for figures always seems to work best. Now, color. 

I had lots of fun with the color on this. Mixed and layered. The colors are my normal ones, but I also included a different tone of the red that I use for the line

And the video, sorry for missing color. Better than nothing!

Busy today taking photos - over 500. Managed to start a painting in the morning and finish it once I got back from this Auckland Game Dev Meet Up. I’ve also included a painting that I started during my time in Highbury, but never finished it. I don’t have the high res file of this so can’t go back and finish it. Still, happy with the painting I did today.

First up, the Highbury painting. The reference I used for this was a combo of Poringa and Napier sketches. Here’s the reference I used:

Sorry for the small size. Having problems with the upload - stupid connection. The mix was simple on this - on the left a drawing I did during my time in Poringa and on the right, a drawing I did on the waterfront in Napier. I do enjoy waterfronts, but don’t like swimming.

Line added. I didn’t add anything to the line but rather just traced over. Looking at it I think I could of continued the fence posts at the top across - to mix the two drawings further. The bus in the center was extended somewhat to help this. Next up, some tone added:

Though it isn’t finished I was happy with this tone. I had used a layer mask on it and hid everything - painting out the tone. I tried this technique again today but couldn’t get it working - the color was very transparent. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong with it. I’ll try again in the next painting as the layer masks meant I could change the color to whatever I wanted - will make it much faster especially with recycling layer. Finally, here’s the painting I did today:

The reference I used for this is a pencil sketch drawn in Levin - at the skate park. I’ll be back in Levin tomorrow so will try to get out and draw the town again. Despite being such a small town I always enjoyed getting outside and drawing. Normally I don’t add so much line to the vegetation - but I did on this. Maybe I should have a go at using different colors for the line version? Getting layer masks working would help with this.

And tone added. I’m rather happy with this piece. I used the same brush on the whole thing, something that I should avoid. I guess using the same brushes causes me to have to use a range of different strokes in order to show the range of objects in the scene. The marks I did for the hills are completely different to the fence-posts and tiles on the buildings. Does the building need sharper edges? I decided not to do a color layer, though color can be added quickly.