Reflections: A little something extra

Over the course of this module my digital painting skills have increased dramatically. I'm still no where near where I need to be to become commercial, but the differences in quality are huge.

For fun, and as an example. Here's a painting I did for fun for my friends November 2012.

The original, Nov 2012.

And here's an updated version created November 2013, half way through this semester.

Version 2: Still needs finishing though. Nov 2013

Can't wait to see what kind of progression I'll make in 2014.

Final Character Sheets

Lars was the first of the character sheets to be completed.

Cliff being the second.

And Hammett the third.

Concept Art

I've created 4 concept paintings to practice painting and add some flavour to the characters. Lars' piece was posted below.

Hammett

Loved working on this painting, Hammett using his magic as an attack and looking more heroic doing it. Learning about the importance of lighting in concept pieces. The drawing started off with just a character painting, but after going back and looking over environment tutorials such as Hannsaki's tutorial (found here http://hannsaki.deviantart.com/art/digital-painting-tutorial-pt-1-90347578 ) I decided to try my hand at adding an environment.

I've never been good at environments and have always stuck to character sketches, so this was a big success for me personally, I'm trying to reach that darker DOTA style, it's trying, but I'm getting there slowly. I feel like this is a huge leap in quality for me.

The original character drawing

Cliff

This was created using the previously posted picture of Cliff. I'm trying to work faster. Again the overall quality is so much higher than I usually produce for environments, and the fact that I can keep this consistency is exciting.

Hammett and Cliff

Going for something a bit different from what I usually do. Artists often incorporate a main colour for a piece and I wanted to try something similar. Hammett plans his path, while reluctant Cliff holds on to him with a wary hand, almost trying to pull him back from the task.

Cliff Final

I really liked the way this character drawing came out. I'm starting to understand where less is more in drawings like this. Adding in lines at key points and leaving areas without seems really effective in furred creatures. Drawing is without the bag.

Meet Cliff

Hammett and Cliff are like peas in a pod, and they need to look the part too, so I sketched up some interaction between them.

Drawing this I realised that the pair have nowhere to store their gear, and as Cliff would be on Hammett's back a lot, Hammett can't wear a back pack.

So Cliff is getting one.

I think that adding the pack to Cliff not only cements him as a necessity for our hero, but also adds an unusual interaction between hero and sidekick while also adding more to Cliff's design.

I'm trying to not use opacity while painting Cliff, as practice in being a bit more bold with my colours.

Creating our Companion

No Hero is complete without his sidekick. Helpful, cunning and always there to save your hide when you've hero'd just a bit too hard.

Those traits aren't what we're going for though.

We want someone just as bone idle as our hero.
Upon drawing these out I was interested both in the Sloth and Tapir, both being generally "stupid" looking animals. The Sloth I feel just suits our character more, he's slow, ungroomed and uninterested, more so than Hammett could ever be. To back up these points, here's some fun facts about both.

Fun facts about Sloths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrUM8m2rnP0

Fun facts about Tapirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJm6nDnR2SE

Rafei went for that quick witted, snappy Daxter. So lets go with someone who doesn't even really speak.

Draw me like one of your French Sloths.

Lars final

Trying a different approach with Lars' final piece, I tried the approach shown in a speed painting video. It can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU2kGFHOOaU and is a speed painting of Viola/Windrunner from DOTA 2 not using the Silhouette technique. The end result seems strong in areas but just doesn't have enough of that DOTA vibe. At this stage I do not see myself achieving the look through sheer lack of talent at this stage, but I'm learning so much through this module that I'm very happy with where everything is headed.

Silhouette's looking pretty good as well. The pompousness radiates from it.