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Artwork of William Mckee

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Ludum Dare Pencil Sketches

August 23, 2013 / / Comments Off

Here’s thress pencil sketches that I’ve done recently. DSC_0708

This is the view from outside my home. I was racing around on my Fathers hand wheel chair and decided to draw the view. A fold up chair would be handy as I’m always having to draw scenes that involve a seat!
DSC_0710

I have been using a 2h pencil. It’s a wonderful pencil and I could not go back to HB. No smudging, and takes awhile to blunt – shading still works alright with it.

This was drawn well walking down the road – starting sketching ideas for Ludum Dare – but ended up writing down ideas for a podcast I’d like to start with my friend Matt. I don’t know if it will go ahead because Matt is very unreliable – I might be better to just organize something myself.

DSC_0712Sitting outside the library. Again – another Ludum Dare logo, this time I sketched the lamppost and large pillar – adding in clouds, figure and tree.

 

Lvn-Rework

January 20, 2013 / / Comments Off

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-bwAnd 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-colorColor. 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.ctoneAs 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:

 

Levin Water

January 19, 2013 / / Comments Off

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-TONEAnd 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-COLORAnd 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.

Alley-Darkness

January 15, 2013 / / Comments Off

Awake nice and early this morning. I decided to get a painting out of the wait straight away. I spent yesterday working with Unity – taking both my 3d and 2d artwork into the engine. It made me want to build something in a day – maybe for game jam where I make make everything from scratch – pencil sketch – digital painting – 3d blender – then finally unity. I think it will be a good challenge  Often I just recycle my old art assets. This will be especially helpful for the 3d.

Here’s the painting -

The photo reference. I took this photo several days ago in Levin. It’s a alleyway I often walk down. I’m happy with the photo, and photos I’m happy with are more likely to be turned into art. Here’s the art:

ALLY-COLORBURST-LIN

Line was minimal on this. Perhaps too minimal. I get better line if I mix reference together. Working with one reference isn’t enough. I added in a couple of characters to give the scene something more, and to show some scale.

ALLY-COLORBURST-LINE

Tone to flesh the piece out. Usual techniques applied – started with the figures in dark and worked off there giving a range of tone to the piece. The vegetation looks strange. I didn’t use proper reference for it. Maybe I should of refereed back to some sketch book works?
ALLY-COLORBURST-COLORColor. I had fun mixing the blue, red and yellow together. This was mainly on the vegataion areas – they parts that I felt were weak.

Clem and City photo studies

January 12, 2013 / / Comments Off

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:
WALKINGDEAD-CLEM

 

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

lvn skate

January 9, 2013 / / Comments Off

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:

nappor-ref (Medium)

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.
nappor-line-smalLine 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:

nappor-tone-smal

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:
lvn-sk8-lineThe 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.
lvn-sk8-toneAnd 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.

Nude Wellington

December 2, 2012 / / Comments Off

I used GIMP on my laptop last night to mash together reference for the painting this morning. Preparing it last night meant I was able to get straight into the painting this morning.

Here’s the painting -

Reference. I searched my laptop folders for files that I haven’t used before – mostly life drawing works and such. I may as well use these works as part of the street scene works. Man of these drawings are not uploaded to the blog it would be helpful to get these uploaded.

Back to the reference. I used oil pastel figures in the foreground on the left and right. I use a pencil drawing of skins character Cassie for the head on the right figure.  The drawing in the center was from my sketchbook – a Wellington drawing. At the top traveling horizontal is a photograph, I took this year ago of the Wellington Rowers building on the waterfront.

Line. I had problems with finding line ares to trace – it’s lacking information and compososion somewhat. I am happy with how the figures turned out – especially the legs on the left and the overall shape of the right.

Tone added. Again I’m especially happy with the figure on the right and legs on left figure. The pole in the center, center left and left in the distance helps scale the piece – this is certainly good. There are areas in the environmental that needs more highlights – maybe where light is hitting.

No color sadly – I’ve been bad with my file management and corrupted the color version.

And finally the video:

Yeah Town

November 30, 2012 / / Comments Off

It’s been a busy few days – I’ve been going into my Mothers work and doing painting with the kids – 4 year olds. When I made it home I got stuck into a digital paintings in GIMP. It’s been a awhile since I did an environment work so decided to

Alright, here’s the works:

Mashed together a drawing from Levin, a landscape from Alchemy and a photograph of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs – focusing on the singer. I’ve drawn this image of the Yeah Yeahs before – in pencil. Line. I am concerned with the scale and perspective of the Karon O figure – especially with the cars and pole in the back. The pole looks like it’s coming out of her ankle.

The Gray.  I started over the right side and worked left – with an effort to make interesting textures from the same brush. Maybe I should of used multiply brushes. I ignored the reference and focused on the line work – creating a tonal piece that doesn’t feel like a paint over. I have been applying a paint over technique to my works that I have found to be giving a weird look – focusing less on the paint over and more on creating an interesting paint layer.

Color. I lowed the opacity for the color to 20% and just painted over the gray. I used two blues for the sky, red for the tree leaves and ground, orange for other ground areas. The area on the left – which looks like mountains I used orange on it. I spread a green around the page – Karons clothes, areas in the background and on the ground on the left.


And finally the video. I’m happy that I have started making these videos at full HD – 1080p.

Court Garden

November 22, 2012 / / Comments Off

I’ve decided to change my video settings to 1080 up from 720. The quality is worth it. I’m not partically happy with this painting but happy that I’m trying new things in GIMP – full screen and color palattes.

The fuzziness is frustrating me, I need to go look at tutorials instead of making the same mistakes.

I watched this video today. The other day as I was walking to my Mums place I did quick thumbnail sketches in my visual diary. I need to work with thumbnails more. I’ve used the program alchemy before – zzit was a few years ago now.  Watching this video has motivated me to re-install on my desktop – I only ever had it on my old mac laptop.

Anyway, here’s the painting I did today.

Reference I started with. A mashup of drawings from Wellington and Levin. I decided to rotate the image on the right to give the image an interesting angle – in the past I’ve only scaled and mirrored. Line work. It was different working in 1080p – I had to stop the recording more often. It’s not a problem as it gives me more break periods during the painting. This line work is ok, I think my favorite area is the sin on the top

Tone added. Again my favorite area is the sign – the tone and contrast is working well. My least favorite area is the car in the center – it needs lights – or maybe more darks. The top right is a problem – I don’t know what the hell is happening.

Color. I used the palette option within GIMP for the first time. It seems easy to use. Pasting the colors on the page would be optimal as I don’t like working with open windows – either that or a shortcut added to open/close the palette tab.

I dropped the opacity down to 30% for the color – this allowed the gray to still have a effect on the work. I hate Sky.

Palmy Skate

November 21, 2012 / / Comments Off

I have been changing a few brush settings in GIMP to get different effects. Most notable I enabled opacity pressure sensitive. In the past I’ve always had this pressure sensitive set to just size – so the harder I press the larger the line. Turning both on really execrates the effect – the smaller line seems further away since the opacity is lower etc…

I have also started using full screen mode in GIMP which removes the top bar – the result – the painting taking over my whole screen  Great.

Anyway, I had to ink this work 3 times – my first three attempts resulted in my video file being over 2 gigs. I use CamStudio which has a bug in so that if a file hits over 2gig the file corrupts. I’m normally really excellent at not letting files hit this 2gig mark – but this morning it went wrong twice. CamStudio has a option to auto stop after a certain amount of time – I’ve got this set to 1700 – but it didn’t stop for me!

On to the painting:

The reference is a combo of 3 drawings in total. The first is a drawing I did in Palmerston North sitting in the square. This is one of the rare perspective drawings I have done – the road fades off into the distance. I mashed this up with another two drawings of the Levin Skate Park. This is technically one drawing spread over two pages – but i scan them in separably. Opacity is dropped to 50% in order to seen drawings underneath.

Line done. Holley saw me do this inking and liked it. The opacity changes certainly helps the line feel more flow. Tone added, Small detailed areas ignored and focused on large shapes. My favorite areas are the cars, Added vegetation to the foreground in order to help with the depth. Color. I had lots of fun with this. Mixed colors on the palate – something I don’t normally do. Added a figure to the right – felt it needed something in the foreground. Certainty not my favorite work as I feel it’s still too fuzzy. What if I used the smudge tool?

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