Perspective and Composition Practice

To start off the new term we practiced our perspective, lighting and composition skills, and produced the paints below:

Sci-Fi Military Vehicle Assignment

As with every assignment, research is key, and so I began this with doing research on existing Sci-Fi vehicles. However this brief requires the design to look like it would be believable created in the next 100 years, so anything that would involve extreme fictional themes would have to be ruled out:

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-sci-fi-space-transport-ship/831002 (15/03/16)
http://conceptships.blogspot.co.uk/2013_02_01_archive.html (15/03/16)
http://digital-art-gallery.com/picture/4384 (15/03/16)
http://digital-art-gallery.com/picture/gallery/spaceship (15/03/16)
http://vladgheneli.deviantart.com/art/Sci-fi-Ship-448725598 (15/03/16)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268402/Flying-car-developer-says-hes-80-million-closer-making-sci-fi-dream-reality.html (15/03/16)
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?348409-Sci-fi-Concept-Vehicle (16/03/16)
http://jcobes.deviantart.com/art/Sci-Fi-Vehicle-3D-Render-ATSV-Savage-419482364 (16/03/16)
http://whatzitoya.deviantart.com/art/Sci-fi-Transportation-Vehicles-353371122 (16/03/16)

After I made this moodboard, I watched the film Elysium for inspiration on Sci-Fi vehicles. The reason this film was chosen in particular is it is set in roughly the next 100 years, as well as having been conceptualised as a believable science-fiction film. Below are some concepts from the film that stood out to me:

http://www.artofben.com/ELYSIUM (16/03/16)
http://skul4aface.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/elysium-artwork.html (16/03/16)
http://cargocollective.com/christianpearce/Elysium (16/03/16)

Since Elysium based it's concept on real world assets I feel it would be sensible to do the same and also do a moodboard for military vehicles to establish a theme and look into similarityies to carry over into my design:

http://www.aishtechnologies.com/products/military-vehicle-components (16/03/16)
http://www.copybook.com/military/companies/goodwolfe-energy/articles/goodwolfe-supply-mission-batteries-for-military-vehicles (16/03/16)
http://www.army-technology.com/projects/tmv6x6/ (16/03/16)
https://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=57255 (16/03/16)
http://www.extremewest.co.uk/military-vehicle-driving-experience/ (16/03/16)
http://militarygearr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/military-vehicles.html (16/03/16)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275172/Britain-leave-3-000-military-vehicles-worth-2BILLION-frontline-pulls-Afghanistan.html (16/03/16)
https://www.armourgeddon.co.uk/military-vehicle-driving.html (16/03/16)
http://www.military-vehicle-photos.com/picture/number3821.asp (16/03/16)

From these I produced a couple of sketches of hovering/flying vehicles:

Out of these I decided to create a 3D model of the first drawing (top of page 1) in Maya 2016, and then lit it:

 

 No lighting

 Top angle with basic lighting

Lower angle with night lighting

Although the lower angle shows a less clear form the lighting makes it look more interesting. Despite this it would be easier to do a paintover with the top angle using the below textures. I also tried different colours and designs:

http://veryshareimg.com/free-seamless-metal-textures.html (30/03/16)
http://seamless-pixels.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/free-seamless-metal-textures_28.html (30/03/16)

I feel that my favourite variation is the dark blue one, as not only did I experiment with overlaying text but I feel that it's a more interesting concept, although strictly speaking it would be a "Police" vehicle and not a "Military" one. So in conclusion the variation I would choose is the green one. I felt that paintingover was rather difficult despite trying it before, although it was quicker there are some areas which are rough around the edges. In the future I could look into tips on the paintover technique.

With background added 

https://www.pexels.com/search/landscape/ (30/03/16)

Perspective Drawing 2

To practice the use of 3 point perspective we redrew our 2 point perspective room in this fashion, doing this made the room look more expressive and pleasing to look at but takes a little bit more effort to establish a 3rd vanishing point. For this redraw I only added the main features and tamed the colours down into a blue theme:

Next we applied 2 point perspective to a 2D designed vehicle and translated the blueprint into a 3D drawing:

It took a while to create the box shape, and the sketch was done rather quickly and therefore doesn't fit well, next time I should try a simpler shape.

Colour Theory

In this session, we watched a video that explained terms and meanings behind colour such as value and saturation (which I knew of before hand) and the ways in which colour can be used to achieve different effects, as well as the different combinations of colours based on their locations on the colour wheel:

Using this knowledge I produced 2 colour sets of this Yoda illustration, one with analogous colours (A set of 3 colours next to each other on the wheel) and complimentary colours:

I like these equally, as they both give off a different style: the left one gives one off surrealism and cartoonishness, wheras the right one looks more natural with the colours making a nice match.

Digital Painting: Blob and Whale Boy

In this session we were given a plain black blob and had to add depth to it using light and shading:

I feel this demonstrates how much I've picked up on shading techniques, and giving a sort of texture. After this we had to recreate an image by Bobby Chiu:

We started with a low resolution version of this image and had to shape out the basic colours of what we could see:

After this we were given the full size reference and added additional detail and shading:

In conclusion I feel that the face looks too muddy and the eye doesn't look defined, however this was developed from a technique I haven't used, and I think that the result overall was alright.

Design Task: A Tree With Character

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g32908-d124505-i58678961-Point_Reyes_Lighthouse-Point_Reyes_Station_Marin_County_California.html (06/03/2016)
https://roadtrippers.com/stories/8-cool-trees-that-defy-belief (06/03/2016)
http://www.alansblog.org.uk/?p=3561 (06/03/2016)
http://ankit0621.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/trees-with-character.html (06/03/2016)
https://www.pinterest.com/kaydelong/trees-with-character/ (06/03/2016)
http://www.theeclecticblog.net/tag/trees-with-character/ (06/03/2016)

 After this I produced 3 sketches of trees, using this moodboard for inspiration. Then scanned them in for later reference:

Out of these ideas, I took the shape of the tree at the bottom and attempted to experiment with digital painting:

I am proud with how this came out as I don't make art by painting alone, so this was a challenge. It is evident that I found it difficult to produce a clear form without the use of lineart, and as a result the depth seems rather confusing and flat. But I do feel that the crater in the middle of the tree makes a good focal point and is my favourite part of this image.

Life Drawing Task 17

For our last session, our model was clothed, and just like every session we did some quick sketches:

After this we drew the model holding a broom to achieve perspective, and even tried mixed media:

Overall drawing the model clothed was an interesting experience, the detail on the clothes was a bit hard at first but I feel that it was quite useful to know how to draw folds and such. I believe that these sessions were fairly useful for practicing, however I did feel that they got a bit too repetitive after a while and that the clothed model added a new angle, but I do feel grateful for getting this experience.

Form Language

In this session we watched a video about form language, and produced designs based on what we learned, first of all I designed construction vehicles using straight lines and triangles:

Next I did the same with circles and flowing lines:

I feel that combining these two extremes with this knowledge will be useful in creating interesting designs.

Life Drawing Task 16

Quick sketches to start off the session:

After this the model walked around and paused in 1 minute intervals, at first I drew a stick figure to capture the pose, but then I tried drew a silhouette and achieved decent results, and doing this also helped with my drawing speed.

Lastly we drew the model in perspective using circular indicators lined up around them:

Personally I believe the best of these was the first perspective drawing, where the circles are properly aligned and shaped which gives a more believable feeling of depth.

Speed Painting: Composition Practice

In this task we watched a video talking about composition and its importance in creating a good looking image. We learnt about focal points, structures, balance and how to incorporate these into practice. We demonstrated our knowledge of composition by speed-painting this picture of a house:

When repainting, we had to recompose the image into an A4 landscape size, and where encouraged to try and make something with it. I produced the following below:

Aside from the lack of high detail, I feel that the composition of this image isn't too bad, the structure involves a subtle use of the rule-of-thirds (although could be more aligned to the crossing points) and there are a couple of leading lines that guide the viewer towards the main focal point: the house. as well as this the house has the most contrast in the image, but is balanced by the shading of the mountains on the left. I am pleased with how this turned out, and if I where to attempt this again I would probably attempt another composition and maybe add more detail overall.

Design Task: Insectoid Character

 As with any design task, I start of with a moodboard of research relevant to the brief: an insectiod creature.

http://showkunz.deviantart.com/art/Insect-creature-362764549 (19/02/16)
http://funkydomo.deviantart.com/art/insect-creature-design-425633419 (19/02/16)
http://s650.photobucket.com/user/kitsunegunslinger/media/COW_humanoid_insect_v03_vi_s.jpg.html (19/02/16)
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/521784306801872151/ (19/02/16)
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jaem/insect-crature/ (19/02/16)
http://l4w.wikia.com/wiki/PC:SoundofStone_%28rb780nm%29 (19/02/16)
http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=3966 (19/02/16)
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2013/07/03/creating-eso-the-kwama (19/02/16)
http://jamesngart.com/insectoidarmy.html (19/02/16)
http://carolzilla.deviantart.com/art/Bug-peeps-533025477 (21/02/16)

Then I attempted 3 ideas: 1st a scaley menacing creature, but I feel like I fell short of making it look intimidating. The 2nd idea was a more cartoony fly-esque creature that weilds four weapons, which doesn't look too bad. Lastly I went with the idea of making something that is inspired by a butterfly, and tried making an anthropmorphic creature that would appear elegant, just like a butterfly.

I like the potential of the butterfly lady, as I think they could appear elegant but also battle ready with their mask and sword. From this I produced a model sheet, similar to my 3D statue:

After this I produced a 3-quarter-view, in which I played a bit with shading and the background:

Princess Papillon

 An monarch from a kingdom in a faraway land on a rite of passage to become the next heir to the throne, where they must prove themself a worthy ruler. They are as dedicated, capable and understanding as they are swift and deadly. They also have a strong sense of justice, aiding those who are unfairly treated and punishes those who thinks they are above moral standards.

After some feedback I altered the 3-Quarter-View and adjusted the image to appear brighter, lowered the opacity of the wings to appear slightly transparent as well as altering the style to fit the character's graceful nature:

 

I enjoyed drawing this character in this pose, however I feel that the only part I dislike would be the head shape and highights. Despite this I feel that this concept image portrays their backstory well.

Life Drawing Task 15

As usual we warmed up with some sketches:

After this we drew the model withing a frame, at first this was difficult but I feel it got a bit easier to do, and that framing the model helped keep their proportions in check:

Lastly we practiced with hands again:

I felt this time my block method for hands ended up not working as well, however this could of just been down to the poses I drew.