Colour Theory

For this assignment, we looked at colour theory. There was a video to watch, and then we were given two similar pictures of Yoda from Star Wars to practice what we had learnt. 

The left image was to be coloured using a medium saturated analogous colour scheme. The right needed a desaturated complimentary colour scheme. 

Using the advice from the video, I picked out my colours. Analogous colours are next to each other on the colour wheel and I tried to make sure my colours were quite saturated but not blinding. 

I got started by putting some colours down onto a multiply layer. Here is my progress on the first Yoda.

After I put down the base colours, I picked one of the browns and used that to colour in the shadows on the same layer.

Then I cleaned it all up on a new layer. Here is the final image for my medium saturated analogous Yoda.

I am very pleased with this, though I think it might be a little bit too saturated. Either way, it was great practice at colouring grayscale paintings and I learnt that you can't just put down base colours on multiply, you have to also add some colours to the highlights and shadows for depth. 

For the next Yoda, I had to pick out complimentary desaturated colours. I put them onto a grey background, the same grey as the one in the Yoda image. I picked out quite a range, having some saturated colours on there, however this was to ensure I stayed away from them and kept the painting desaturated. We learnt from the video that complimentary colours schemes work best when one colour is dominant and the other is for small details. I picked yellow and purple because a lot of Yoda's colour scheme is made up of pale yellows and browns, so I thought that the yellow would be best choice for a dominant colour. 

Like the last one, I started by putting down the base colours on a multiply layer, before adding in some purple to the shadows, hair and eyes, and cleaning it all up. 

This one works very well. Yoda's colour scheme is very monochrome so this still looks just as recognisable as the first one, if not more. The lightly added purple tones to the shadows helps the dominant colour pop out more and again, adds depth.

I really loved this assignment. I love colour theory, having studied it before in my own time. I started drawing so that I could mess around with colours on my own pieces and I was very excited working on this assignment all the way through. I got to try out new things, like turning a grayscale image bright and saturated, and I learnt that even a desaturated palette can still be colourful and eye catching.

Perspective Practice: Blueprints

In this class, we were practising perspective by sketching from blueprints. We were given some blueprints of a ship. 

First, I put down some guides so that I could set up the perspective and sketch the ship using the guides. 

Here are the perspective lines. I put the horizon line just above the image.

After a lot of struggling, I finally got the basic shape down. I think it could be a lot better, but I spent the entire lesson fiddling with it.

I ended up turning the lines into a silhouette because over the course I have gotten much better manipulating shapes than lines.

This still doesn't look quite right but it is a lot closer than before. At this point, I wasn't sure how to continue and since it was after the lesson, I didn't get to ask Steve.

I found it really difficult to position the vanishing points in a way that did not distort the image too unrealistically. I also found it hard to copy the image into the perspective, particularly because of the curves.

Insectoid Character Design

For this assignment, we had to design an insectoid character. The brief specified that the insect had to be evolved in some way, so couldn't just be an insect with a human body or with clothes. 

I thought really hard about this and came up with a concept. 

I thought of a butterfly living in an evolved insect community. The butterflies have evolved to walk on their back legs, so their wings have no use anymore and they can't fly. The working and middle class butterflies have them removed at birth because they are clumsy and get in the way of labour and other work. The upper class butterflies, however, do not need to work, so they keep their wings. Over time, this has become a status symbol and is used as a way to oppress those who have snipped their wings. 

Here is my progress on this character. 

I started by blocking out the silhouette and adding in some vague details before putting it on a low opacity and painting over it again on a new layer. The resulting silhouette looks more natural.

I tried to keep the limbs as skinny as possible but still keeping some muscle definition to avoid noodle arms and legs.

Some butterflies have fur on their upper bodies so I used this like a rich person wearing an expensive fur coat. I wanted to give the impression of clothes without actually adding any.

I continued adding in details.

Here I used brightness/contrast and levels adjustment layers to brighten up the image.

Then I used some gradient maps to quickly add in some colour.

I added in some final details and this is the result.

I am overall very pleased with this result. I think the pose and facial expression of the butterfly help convey a stereotypical personality that you'd expect from a privileged rich person in power. I really liked the idea I came up with, too. The colours, however, make her look more like a moth than a butterfly. This doesn't really work, as moths are not as flamboyant looking as butterflies. I also think that the shadow is not very convincing.

I was pushed even more out of my comfort zone with this one and was still able to create something I liked and recognise as my own.

3 Point Percpective

For this assignment, we had to make a 3 point perspective line drawing of the sci fi room we designed previously. 

I started out with the red guide lines provided and made some perspective lines to match. 

Next, I added in the key objects of the room, not getting as detailed as the original for the sake of time, as well as focusing mostly on the different perspective.

Here is my final image.

I surprisingly found this easier than the original 2 point perspective room. This could be because I got quicker at using the pen tool and have a better understanding of the method. I really enjoyed this task because it was interesting to see my room in a different way. I need more practice with 3 point perspective, though. When making my lines with the pen tool, I often doubted that they would look correct before applying the stroke. However, once that was done, I could see it was fine. I need more practice before I could do this with minimal or no lines.

Animated Sprites

In this lesson we learnt about animated sprites. We were given two animations, one of a pig guard walking which had 4 frames, and one of a girl walking which had 12 frames. We were asked to try adding red eyes to the guard, which I did below. 

Then we were asked to add a prop to the walking girl. I chose to add some headphones. I drew them once on a layer above the first one, then to save time, copy and pasted the headphones onto separate layers. I used the pencil tool to tweak each layer to match the relevant frames better. Here's what I ended up with. 

The headphones do look like they are on her head, but I think they move around a bit too much in the middle frames which gives them a bouncing effect. Next time I will try to edit each layer more closely or even try to redraw the headphones for each frame.

Rendering Curved Surfaces

We watched a video about shading curved surfaces. In the video, we learnt about different types of light and shadow, such as highlights, centre light, reflected light, half tone, form shadow, core shadow and occlusion shadow. We were given a lineart to practice shading curved surfaces. 

Here I tried to work out where the light source would be coming from by laying down the kind of shadows and lights in the video. 

Next I tried to bring all the shadows together to look more realistic.

Then I cleaned up the edges and the areas where the original artist used cross hatching to shade, such as the legs.

Finally, on a new layer set to multiply on top of everything else, I added some colour. I used a yellow-green base, added some lighter green near the lighter areas and darker yellows and browns in the shadows. On a separate layer I added the highlight.

This is the final image.

I struggled a lot with this assignment because unlike in the video, which uses an egg, the creature has a lot of skin folds and is not a smooth surface. I found it hard to deal with the shadows and determine where the correct ones needed to be. I think the shadow on the floor is not convincing enough, so next time I will spend more time there. Also, the colour is a bit dark. Next time, I will use the background colour as the mid tone and add lighter greys where the light is reflecting. This should allow the painting to look less muddy. 

Steampunk

Our assignment was to create a recognisably steampunk character, machine, vehicle or device. As I like to create characters the most, I decided to go with that.

First I did some sketches to explore what I already associated with the steampunk genre. 

Goggles, glasses, gears and clocks, belts and corsets are what first came to mind. Also, I think women in steampunk are often sexualised, which means things like bigger busts, lace and items of clothing such as garters. I also feel like there are mostly browns, greys and blacks in steampunk colour palettes. After this, I did some more research and created a moodboard.

After this, I started designing some concepts.

I really loved the prosthetic leg, however I went for the arm instead because I wanted to do something a bit different and women in steampunk are almost always in corsets and dresses.  

I painted over the sketch and here is what I ended up with. 

I am really pleased with the outcome. She looks wonky - I need to work on strong poses. Also, the illustration is very rough. However, I learnt how to render gold, although I need more practice on this. Also, I think the colour scheme works really well.