Sun Cheetah; ref

So yup, just an update on the image that I posted last. I've turned it into a reference sheet for this specific species, just because I've never really sorted them out and decided on what they truely are. So yup, this is the beginning of the ref, and I'll post an update once I have some colour on it.

Sun Cheetah

So it's 03:02 at the moment and I'm pretty sure the reason I can't sleep is because I'm too worked up about my assessments tomorrow. Although I'm happy with the work that I have produce, I'm worried that it wont be enough. So yup, anyway, because I can't sleep, I'm doing what I always do when I can't get to sleep- drawing.

So yup, here we have the beginnings of a reference sheet for my species, the Sun Cheetah. I haven't drawn these guys in a long, long time, and I'm finally happy with their design, although I'm sure it'll change again in the future.



Here's the original picture (cringe), done back when I was in college so no wonder it looks awful. Here is a second attempt, which isn't much better.

I used this as rough reference for the face.

Oh, and I thought I'd throw Mr Grumpy Face in here too :3



I have been sketching a lot, and creating a lot of lineart, but unfortunatly I've not been able to fully finish a piece that isn't do with uni work in a long, long time D: Hopefully now that summer is here I'll get the chance to finish up some of my pieces.

Dissertation Proposal

I've put this in the digital drop box on the Uni's Black Board, but just incase that doesn't work I thought I'd stick it here too.

Student name: Rachelle Fryatt
Date: 23 May 2010
Subject for Research: How animals and their behaviours are incorporated into games.

Outline/Rationale for proposed dissertation topic:

For my dissertation I will be looking at the various ways that animals are incorporated into games, whether as allies or enemies. My dissertation will focus primarily around how game designers, concept artists and animators bring animals into virtual environments and how they make them interact with the players.
The main two areas that I will be writing about are:
1. How animals behave especially through body language, are translated in games, and how they are exaggerated and played upon in order to communicate their meanings to the player.
2. How artists portray various animals for a game by exaggerating certain features depending on the nature of the creature, even using real life animals as a base for designing fabricated creatures and monsters.

Research Methodology:

I believe that there will be numerous ways in order for me to gain the research needed for me to write my dissertation. Some of these will include visiting zoos, reading books by animal experts, and looking at concept art books for various games and films. I also know that several films on DVD have special features which talk about the design aspects of characters, such as on the Van Helsing DVD where they talk about the process they went through to design their werewolves. Lord of the Rings on DVD also contain many special features which centre around the development of their character designs, such as the “Fell Beasts”- giant flying creatures.
I will also conduct primary research by attempting to contact professional artists in the industry and enquiring as to how much animals influence concept art, how they go about the designing process and how they bring life to the designs in game.
I also believe that it would be very beneficial to contact as many professionals who work with animals as possible, such as trainers and rehabilitators who understand why animals do some of the things they do, and what can provoke them to such behaviour.

Resources:

I plan to use several different sources for my research, including both primary and secondary sources. For my primary research I will study the behaviour of various different types of animals by visiting centres such as Chester Zoo, Pili Palas, and other locations where animals can be observed.
Although zoos are perhaps not completely ideal to study non domesticated animal because they are sometimes prevented from displaying some natural behaviours, it will how ever give me the chance to study other behaviours first hand instead of relying completely secondary sources.
I will take photographs and film different animals, as well as make observational sketches. I also feel that studying my own domesticated animals will be a benefit. Dogs and cats are being used more and more in games today, and are often used as companions for the player and therefore play a large role.
My secondary sources of research will come through studying documentaries and footage filmed by others of animals displaying behaviours that I will not be able to observe in captivity.
Another large amount of my research will involve reading material by different animal behaviourists and experts such as Cesar Millan and Jane Goodall.
I will also be looking at various concept artists and games, especially the World of Warcraft and Guild Wars series, as animals as both companions and enemies play a massive role within the game.

First Bibliography:

“Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar’s Way to Transform Your Dog...And Your Life.” By Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier (2007). Paper back, available online at: http://www.cesarsway.com/shop/Be-the-Pack-Leader-New-York-Times-Bestseller-Hardcover [Accessed January 2010]

The Art of “Avatar”. Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; Media tie-in edition (24 Nov 2009) [Accessed January 2010]

Second Bibliography:

“The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour”. Online at: http://asab.nottingham.ac.uk/ [Found 23 May 2010]

“Animal Behaviour Society”. Online at: http://www.animalbehavior.org/ [Found 23 May 2010]

Cesar’s Way. Online at: http://www.cesarsway.com/ [Accessed 23 May 2010]

The Jane Goodall Institute UK. Online at: http://www.janegoodall.org.uk/ [Accessed 23 May 2010]

Van Helsing (2004) Two Disk Collector’s Edition [DVD] Extra Features. Universal Pictures UK. Online at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Van-Helsing-Two-Disc-Collectors/dp/B0002U4A9A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1274705598&sr=8-4 [Accessed 23 May 2010]

The Art of “How to Train Your Dragon”. Titan Books Ltd (26 Feb 2010) Online at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Train-Your-Dragon-Film/dp/1848566654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274642177&sr=8-1 [Accessed 23 May 2010]

Guild Wars Gallery. Online at http://eu.guildwars.com/gallery/art/ [Accessed 23 May 2010]

The Art of World Of Warcraft. Brady Games; 1 edition (5 Jan 2006) Online at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-World-Warcraft-BradyGames/dp/0744007259 [Accessed 23 May 2010]

Life drawing continued

I really enjoyed life drawing, especially doing the line of movement practices. I really feel that it has helped to improve the motion and dynamics of my work, and I look forward to more life drawing in the future. In the mean time, I've been using Pose Maniac's 30 second life drawings to create these and these.

Life drawings

I realised that I hadn't stuck my life drawing up, so yup, this is what I could find of the classes that I attended.















I'll upload the rest in another post.

Man...thing...

It's something I drew up a moment ago on a whim. I don't draw men all that often, so they're always that bit more of a challenge, which is always fun.

I used this and this as rough references.
I kinda like it so far, so I might take it further, and although my tongue may turn black for saying so, I have urge to turn it into some form of fan art. We'll see.

I think I've improved a little since the last time I drew something like this, which is quite similar really. But still, an improvement I hope?

I want to do some more of these quick portrait sketches soon, so look out for them?

Research

NOTE: Any images in this specific post are NOT my own, I do not in anyway claim that they are, and they are copyright to their rightful owners.

So I'm going to start off with some research into Concept artists. As this is the area that I want to go into myself, I feel that it's really important that I keep update with what is going on in the game art world.

My favourite concept artist currently is Romanian born Daniel Dociu.

I find it rather odd that I am so drawn to his work, as his work is just so raw and harsh, which oddly enough is the complete opposite to what I personally create. My own work is always very refined and tidy, and it must be the appeal of being able to draw so freely that draws me to his art.
He mainly does environmental art, but there is some character concept in there too.

Have a look at these pieces, which are some of my favourites, and include both his environment and character designs.

Armor Girl
Delta Temple
Puppet
Goth
Mine

Dociu’s work is very recognisable and unique, and that’s largely down to the fact that his work is always very raw and passionate, which conveys a lot of emotion, especially tension and atmosphere.
His environmental designs create this not only when viewing them on paper, but also when encountering them in the game itself. In game his landscapes cause the viewer to behold them in wonder, and can even cause fear and apprehension.

Dociu has fairly quickly become a successful concept artist, and has worked for several companies, including smaller businesses. His more notable placements include Art Director for big gaming companies such as Squaresoft, Electronic Arts and Zipper Interactive. He has also done free lance work for companies such as Digital Anvil and Wizards of the Coast.
Since 2003 to the present day Dociu has worked specifically with AreaNet on their immensely successful game Guild Wars as an Art Director and lead concept artist. This has led him to also work since 2007 as the Chief Art Director for the company NCsoft, the parent company to AreaNet. His role involves the overseeing of the visual development of all of NCsofts’s major North American projects, focusing especially on AreaNet’s newest game, Guild Wars 2, a game which I am looking forward to imensly, as it looks like it is going to be one of the most beauitful games around.

Check out this teaser trailer that introduces the playable races in Guild Wars 2.

I could carry on writing about Dociu's work, but I don't really want to turn this into an essay (...yes, I have writen an essay on Dociu in the past :P), so on to the next artist.

Inspiration

Although I have already posted this on my other blog, I thought that it was relevant to my PDP, and therefor I'm going to put it and my other artist reviews here too.

NOTE: Any images in this specific post are NOT my own, I do not in anyway claim that they are, and they are copyright to their rightful owners.

Another artist that has continued to influence me over many years isn't in fact a concept artist. Kay Nielsen's, -who was an illustrator in what was known as the "Golden Age of Illustration"- work has always fascinated me, and I think it's mainly because of the gorgeous colours and the subject of his work, which were usually based around some kind of mythology, which I find fascinating anyway.
His beautiful, flowing forms gently lead the eye around the piece, and create a lovely fantasy like atmosphere.



The image above is my very favourite of Nielsen's pieces, primarily because the colours are just so appealing to me. Another reason I believe that I am so drawn to this illustrators work is because of the amount of beautiful and intricate detail that Nielsen put into his work. I absolutely adore detail, and when I finally get to put loads into a piece I enjoy it immensely, something I think which was influenced from looking at Nielsen's work.

Over the summer holiday I hope to experiment with and push my style and see if I can include some hints of influence from the Golden Age of Illustration, as I think it can really add to a painting.

Bradford Animation Festival

Back in November last year we were taken to the Bradford Animation Festival (BAF)for a day. We attended Day 2: Indie Gaming, and spent the day listening to talks given by professionals in the industry such as Stuart Varrall from Fluid Pixel Studio, Charles Cecil, and Sean Murray, Managing Director of Hello Games.
The talks were given on the Great Hall stage in Bradford university.

The first to speak was Stuart Varrall of Fluid Pixel Studio. Fluid Pixel is based in Middlesbrough, and they specialise in in creating games for the iPhone and other mobile platforms. He spoke about some of their most recent successes, one of which was Kami Crazy, which was downloaded more than half a million times in the first three weeks after it's release. Stuart then went on to talk about one of their newest projects, Animentals, which is a cyber pet simulator for mobile phones.

Having just played the demo that is available on their website, I have to say that it looks nicely done, very simple, with some interesting "Animental" designs. I can imagine that it would hold the players attention well, and would draw them back to play more.

Charles Cecil, who is hailed as a visionary games director, was the next to give a talk. He spoke about relaunching classic games such as "Broken Sword" on the Nintendo Wii and DS, and "Beneath a Steel Sky" for the iPhone, as both games had proven very popular when originally released, and so had good potential to be remade with the more advanced technology on offer today.

What really interested me in this talk was Charles Cecil then introduced two young animators, Ravi Govind and Aron Durkin, who had both just graduated from Bradford animation when they worked on these games. They have since used this experience to gain footholds into the game and animation industry. It was really encouraging to see students being able to go straight into the industry, and that it is possible to gain fantastic experience early on.
Ravi Govind then gave a talk on how character development and creation is accomplished, from initial design to final model and rigging.

After lunch David Surman gave a speech about the future of games, how they will develop and the role that they play along side other media. He then interviewed Erik Svedang, a young games developer who had created his game Blueberry Garden.

"Blueberry Garden is a short experimental game about curiosity and exploration. You take on the role of a creature investigating a mysterious world to find out what is going on there. It’s probably not very much like anything you’ve played before but I hope you will find it enjoyable!"

About Blueberry garden, Erik Svedang: http://eriksvedang.com/blueberrygarden/

He also spoke about his views on the gaming industry, and how he didn't really like mainstream games and therefore had set about to create a new, unique and imaginative game that stands out. He did speak about how Shadow of Colossus was a big inspiration and influence on Blueberry Garden.
Although this type of game isn't visually attractive to me, I did find that the atmosphere created and the beautiful music in the game was attractive.

Sean Murray from Hello Games was the next to give a speech about the development and creation of their game "Joe Danger". Of all the games featured, "Joe Danger" (click the link for the trailer) was the one which stood out the most and was the most appealing to me. It combined a fantastic visual environment with humour and fun, and I just thought that it was an incredibly professional looking game.
Sean Murray then went on to demonstrate the fantastic level editor feature within the game that allows the player to create their own courses.

Finally, Alex Wiltshire the online editor for Edge magazine, chaired a panel discussion where the audience had the opportunity to ask questions to the various professionals. Alex Wiltshire was joined by Sean Murray, Stuart Varrall, Simon Barratt (from Four Door Lemon) and Pete McClory (from Panoetic) who all gave more advice to aspiring artists, animators and game designers.

Although I enjoyed the day at BAF, and feel that I learnt a lot from listening to the various speeches, I do how ever wonder if we might have gained more from attending the day before the one we went to, as there were several large and impressive figures attending such as Sony, Claire Jennings (Coraline Producer and Laika Inc’s President of Entertainment) and Brian Van’t Hul (Laika Inc’s Visual Effects Supervisor).
I do think how ever that it was a really positive experience, and I look forward to attending BAF next year again, as I hope to.

Stumble is...

Brilliant! Stumble is an add-on for your internet browser which brings up random pages that could be relevent to you.
And through my boredom, I clicked on Stumble and low and behold what should load? A sculpter who I found a few years ago and was absoloutly amazed by, but then lost his gallery.

This man is Mark Newman, a very talented artist who's work is absoloutly stunning in detail.

Looking through his gallery, here are some pieces that really stood out for me:

Eel Walker
Eddie Riggs 2
E.V. female bust 2
And my favourite Sisters- the expression in the faces are just amazing- there's just so much life in their smiles it's beautiful.
And they are so dynamic too- they just don't "sit" there, they twist and flow and curve in amazing ways that just completly lead the eye around the piece.

Sculpting has always been something I've wanted to try, but alas my hands seem too clumsy to deal with it. I'm sensing yet another summer project coming on though, as honestly, how could you not be inspired by this artist?

Ardor the Slayer...

Continued.

I decided that I've done quite a bit of work tonight, and so I did some more work on Ardor. Although I'm not drawing it for myself, I'm finding it really relaxing and pleasant to work on, which is what I need to bring my stress levels down, which are rocketing at the moment due to my final assessments coming up in under a week.



So far I've blocked in rough colours and loose detail. Need to check with the owner of the character if the colour of the wings are alright, and then I'll continue.
He's supposed to be a black panther, so as I add more detail his fur will get darker. Painting black fur is no where near has difficult as it used to be, so I guess I'm improving in photoshop? I hope so, god knows I'm trying hard enough :P

I used this for reference for the colours on the wing. The wing itself is still bothering me, but I don't really know what to do about it to be honest. I'll just have to keep at it and hopefully something will click in my head and I'll be able to make it look less deformed.

I forgot to mention earlier too that I used this picture as a rough reference when I initially sketched out Ardor's face.

Ideas for next year

So I haven't even finished my current university project and already I'm rearing to start on my next one, and believe me, I have lots of ideas running around in my head.

As next year is my third and final year in university, the quality and quantity expected is going to be even higher than what is already expected. So the final product will be a playable demo (unfortunately, I know nothing at all about making games, only drawing for them!), and despite the obvious problems, I don't think I've ever been so excited to work on something before.

So far I have decided on a Viking/Norse themed game, as I am always really inspired by the Norse history and mythologies, and I'm constantly surprised at how little the gaming industry has taken advantage of the possibilities that the Norse religion provides.

Really, the only notable Viking based game that I can recall is Viking: Battle for Asgard (pictured below).



I played this game a while ago, and was totally blown away by the visual side of it. It is one of the most stunning games I have ever seen, and the concept art for it still remains some of my favourite to this day, some of which can be found here by an artist on Deviantart called michaelkutsche. (Hel, Freya and Skarin)

Unfortunately, in my opinion at least, visually stunning was all that Battle for Asgard to claim. It was at first, fun, though nothing new or challenging, and very quickly grew repetitive and tiring.

So my aim is to design a game based on the Norse that would be visually stunning as well as really playable and fun.

So as I can't really start working on it just yet, I've started putting a team together to work on it over summer and during the next academic year.

My team so far consists of:

Myself: Group leader and lead concept artist.
James Ballantyne: Game Design
Thomas Knight: Narrative and concept art
Orrin O'Neill: Sound
Bryn Richards: Animation and web design

Only Thomas and myself are in university together, and I felt that it was important to out source, and as I have several very talented friends, I thought it could be a good opportunity for them too. Thankfully, they have all agreed (enthusiastically too!) to get together with me on this one, and I really can't wait to start.

I do how ever need to find a programmer (I will be paying our sister course "Programming for Video Games" soon to see if anyone on there is interested in the project) and possibly a modeler.

I also have plans to take this further than just my university project, and to develop it into an experience that will be beneficial to all who are involved.
This will include creating a small "company" complete with a website for the game, which would also include all our contact details and CV. I also received some fantastic ideas from non other than my Uncle the other day, which was to look into making this an application for the iPhone. I really think that this has endless possibilities and advantages, and would look fantastic on our CV's and in portfolios, especially if we can get it published.

So thats really as far as I've gotten so far, aside from knowing that there will be two playable characters- one male, and one female, who will most likely be Saga, the character below.



That's all for now I think. In a few weeks I'll start my research, which will initially be what type of game this will be, and researching further into Norse mythology, history and costume.

That was one hell of a post, and thank you if you managed to make it all the way through!

Bee 6

So I revised my initial logo design, and I’m much happier with it now. I think I realised what was the main issue with the original, and that was the stripes. It looked much more like a wasp, which of course people react to even worse than bees. I also really cleaned it up, and even added detail :D The only thing I’m unsure about is the font, but I think it does work.

I’m really happy with this design, and so I’m going to call this my final logo for the game. He's fluffy, he's bright, and he's even smiling, and so I hope he's appealing to people (...I still think bees are cute :P)

Reference for the bee.
Font used.

Bee 5

This basically illustrates idea two, which is a scrolling game where the player controls the bee, shooting batteries into bins and dodging objects such as rocks, etc.

So here is a quick mock up to illustrate what I mean. I don’t think you would see the environment become polluted in this one, but the scenery would change. I think one direction to take would be to base the game along the battery bee route that is in Wrexham, which I hope would amuse kids as they recognise areas that they had been too.



I think another interesting idea for the player to gain points would be to encounter different animals. For example, if there was a hedgehog somewhere on the screen, the player could move the bee into position, and as it flew over said hedgehog, an interesting fact would come up about it. The facts would become more interesting as the game went on, and it would be a great way to teach young children about the wildlife of Britain.

The player would need to get a certain amount of batteries in bins in order to move to the next level, and would get bonuses if they got more than one battery in a bin. As the game became harder, the screen would scroll faster, making it harder for the player to dodge objects as well as shoot batteries. In regards to the player hitting an object, they would be given 3 “lives” to start off with, and the more points the collect, the more spare “lives” they gain, so that it wouldn’t just be game over if the bee crashed into a rock.

Bee 4

I’ve mocked up what would be the first level. It’s not much, but as the player would advance through the levels the backgrounds would become much more dramatic and eye-catching. That way (in my wierd warped mind), the more beautiful an environment, the more the player would do their best to stop it from becomming polluted, and the more upset they would feel if it were destroyed.



In this one you can see that the colours are really bright, the sun is shining, and Mr Bee looks pretty happy. Thinking about it now though, this type of background would only work with idea 1, which I explained back in my first post (where you have to catch the batteries), but to make it harder, the screen would need to be much wider. The speed that the batteries would fall would also increase as the levels progressed, making it harder.

Below is a basic illustration of what would happen if the player begun to miss too many batteries.



The colours are de-saturated, there are more clouds and it’s raining, and the flowers have died! D: As I said earlier, if the player did even worse than this then horrible things would start to show up- rubbish dumps, tree stumps, etc.

I think the point of doing this in the game would be to try and help the child thats playing make a connection with the real world. Obviously if you drop litter, (or batteries for that matter), it’s not going to grey and start raining, but it will harm the environment and the animals in it. It’s really important that kids care about our world, and sadly not many seem to these days.

Bee 3

After realising from my last attempt at a bee that it wouldn’t be all that appealing, I went and tried to make a much fluffier bee. This one also seems to be smiling :D I think the colours are much brighter, and therefore more attractive.



I’ve just finished a mock up of a background that could be used in the game, and I changed it too to illustrate what happens when the player misses too many batteries. If the player did really, awfully bad then I think some more detail could be added, such as litter, etc.

Bees 2

Right oh, so I thought I’d upload some initial logo designs for the game. As you can see, they’ve been flipped just so I can work out which I think flows the best. Also, the text colouring is different, and I think I’ll go for the plain grey text. I’d also like to make the font look a little more child like.

I like the bee too, but I don’t think it would appeal to most people really- like I said before, bee’s apparently do have much in the way of cuteness factor D:



I do how ever think that I will keep this basic design, and probably brighten the bee up, make him fluffier, etc. The final design of course will also be a lot cleaner too.
Come to think of it, the font is really bothering me. I’ll upload in a bit with an update.

I used this vaguely as reference.

Battery Bees

There are a couple of tutorials that I want to try out over the next few days before I can comment about them, so I thought I would just post my work that I did for another university project.

This is re-posted from my work press blog, and will probably take up quite a few posts. Here we go:

A quick introduction is in order methinks!

My name is Rachelle Fryatt, and I’m a student at Glyndwr University. I’m specifically interested in creature and character concept art for computer games and films, and really enjoy using digital media to draw and paint with.

Our brief for this project is to design something that could possibly be used by Wrexham council around the theme of batteries and bees. The aim is to make something interesting and eye-catching that will draw in people, especially young kids, in to want to learn about the environment around us and how to preserve it.

So my first thought was that bees are adorable!! Well, I think so anyway. And then I realised that it might be hard to make a bee (something people will automatically squirm away from) into something cute and enticing. Kids especially seem to be frightened of them, and so, although I think they’re cute, I think I’m going to have a job on my hands to make them more appealing.

As I am working in a group with some good friends, we had a chat and decided on what we were going to come up with for this project. The final idea would be a flash or java based game that would be aimed at kids. We have two ideas for this kind of game, I’ll explain both in detail below-

Idea 1: There is a bee at the bottom of the screen which you can scroll left or right. The scenery behind would be of a bright, beautiful landscape, perhaps hills and a river, or a forest. The environments would change with every level you complete.
Batteries fall from the sky, and the bee (that is the player) must catch them before they hit the ground. The more batteries you catch the higher your score will be. How ever, if you miss a battery, then it will add to the pollution of the environment, and the scenery would actually change to look polluted, i.e the sky would go grey, plants would wilt, etc.

Idea 2: Again, there is a bee at the bottom of the screen, which the player can scroll left or right. This time though the environment moves, and there are bins scattered through out the course. The player has to move the bee into position to shoot a battery into the bin and then dodge before flying into it. The more batteries you get in bins, the more you score, and you’d score double points for getting multiple batteries in the same bin. As the game progresses, it would become harder, with the screen moving faster.

So my job in the group is to design bee’s that could be used in the game, do level concept art, and I have also decided to make a logo for the game too. The others in my group will be creating an animated demo of the game.

I will be uploading some quick concept sketches of the two different ideas, bee designs, enviornment designs, and a logo.

Bobby Chiu is another artist who is a saviour for lesser artists such as myself :P

One of his latest tutorial videos featured a technique that is so useful you would not believe it. It basically involves opening up another widow of the image you're working on, by going to Window->Arrange->New Window For "image name here".



As you can see here with my painting of Sphinx, it opens up another separate window of the same piece of work, which you can then shrink down. Most artists usually zoom in and out as they paint, to try and get a feel if the painting works on a whole. Bobby Chiu's advice is that if the painting doesn't work on a smaller scale, but does on a larger scale, or vice versa, then your work is out of balance, and there for wont work as well in the end.
The other fantastic thing about this technique is that you can paint in either windows, and the result will show up in the other window.

I highly recommend this technique to any digital painter- it is incredibly useful, and can really help you sort out any issues you have with your work.

Eye tutorial

Another tutorial that I found immensely helpful was this eye tutorial by Acidlullaby over on Deviantart.

In my own opinion, you can tell when a tutorial is brilliant when it is self explanatory, and doesn't need to be annotated.
Although I absolutely love to paint eyes, making them appear to have form and to not look flat has always been difficult for me to achieve. From following this tutorial, I really feel like it has helped me to understand how to effectivly paint anything that vaguely stands out, such as lips.
With my main painting for my latest university project, I combined the advice from this tutorial with the grain tutorial that I linked in my last post, and I really feel that I have learnt the most from them. This, usually for me is quite strange, as I usually don't learn very well from tutorials, prefering instead to learn by my own mistakes. But these have really helped me complete this painting much quicker than I usually do as well as having learning loads, and I'm therefore hugely grateful to the artists who posted these tutorials.

The best of...

Tutorials!? So yeah, I thought it might be a good idea to list some tutorials that I've found helpful and why, and how I have incorporated the techniques into my own work. So the next few posts are going to contain a tutorial that I have found and my opinions on it, how it worked, and if I changed anything when applying them to my own work.

First up, I've got to say the tutorial that has changed my work the most is probably the most simple of them all. Adonihs's Grain Tutorial is very simple, but the effects on your work are fantastic.



The image on the left is without the grain, and the image on the right has the grain. I think the difference is very clear, with the grain taking away the synthetic smoothness of digital painting, and helping to create a really fantastic realistic effect.

After I had applied the grain technique to the portrait above, I really felt that the piece worked better as a whole and I found myself much more enthusiastic to work on it. I know apply this technique to all of my work to varying degrees.

To do list

This is just a to do list of various things that I want to stick on this blog for my PDP (Personal Development Project) for uni.

*Right ups:

Bradford Animation Trip
Leeds Gaming Expo
Blitz Open Day

* Review games and movies
* Review tutorials and techniques used through the last year (Done)
* Post Wrexham In Bloom project (Done)
* Explain how I have painted things in my most recent work
* Update any WIP's
* Write up the plan for next year's project (Done)

I think that's all for now :3 Expect lots of posts in the next few days :P

Ardor the Slayer

So this is a contest prize for first place winner over on Deviantart, of their anthro warrior panther, Ardor.
This has so far, been an incredibly difficult piece, but it's so much fun! It's always so much more fun when things are a challenge.
I have a feeling that colouring this is going to be interesting, as black is always difficult to colour without it looking flat. So I'm going to highlight it with hints of blue and maybe purple.

I've just found a really nice looking tutorial for doing fur digitally, as it's something I don't often colour.

I'll update once I start colouring :3