Snow Leopard update

The final thumbnail choice:



And the finished linework and initial colour/lighting pass:



Here's the progress with the Share One Planet piece. For a while I couldn't make my mind up between the two compositions in the thumbnail. A tiny part of me still loved the original on the left, but couldn't say why, since the right hand side was the obvious choice for composition... the lines and the way the eye were led around the image followed every rule in the book. And despite a post on dA where pretty much 100% of people told me I should go with the right hand version of the two final thumbnails, in the end, some advice from a great Art director and friend (thanks Andy!) gave me the nudge of confidence to follow that gut instinct that said I shouldn't go with the 'safe' option. The left felt edgier, and he pin pointed that the way the eye was lead up the image was in more of a zig zag, whereas the right was more flowing, in keeping with the lines of the animal. The focus of the piece was the cat's face, everything led up to it, and thinking on it now, that zig zagging feel is the sort of eye movement you might get from a frightened ibex knowing there's something slightly amiss.

So, the more I work with this piece the more I feel like I have made the right decision, if only for myself!

Been a while!

Ah, that newfound enthusiam wained a little, but I'm back again! Here's what will most likely be my final wip for this piece. Might have to call it done for now.



And some life drawing from last night, really enjoyed getting back into it again.









And here's some initial composition thumbnails for my entry to Share One Planet . My page with bigger versions, if you're the type who likes being able to see every last messy stroke, is here:
Sam's Share One Planet page

updateyness

I need to think of better blog post titles. Just a couple more sketches, one traditional of my novel characters, Jay and Nick, the other another one of these colour-intensive ladies, with a few steps. She seems to have unintentionally morphed into and Angelina lookalikey on the way, which is weird given this is off the top of the head stuff!

There's something quite relaxing about these kind of non-commital paintings. Also bought James Guerney's Colour and Light book, and am putting some of the wealth of new-found knowledge to use in this latest piece, by using a gamut mask on this colour wheel. An amazing little trick to keep my palette under a stricter control, and I'm really like the results. Might have to try painting a wheel like this in watercolour for reference too. I cannot recommend the book enough though, a real eye opener and probably the msot thorough look at light and colour alongside Jason Manley's lecture I've come across. The two as companions will stand anyone in a good mental state of knowledge that they will then have to practice like mad to perfect. Great stuff. here's a link to the book.

lunchtime doodle

Nothing terribly exciting, just relaxing on a lunch break. So tired of doing environment stuff. Want to do characters :( Somewhat inspired by Bao Pham's gorgeous work: Bao Pham's sketchblog

And some more wips

And here's the rest of my hotch potch work. Some doodles, some wips that I managed to salvage from work lunchtimes.












A wip and thumbnails for the CGHub miyazaki challenge. Not sure if I'll finish in time tho :(



My first attempt at 3D modelling - in Sculptris. Given me the bug to want to try it in Zbrush now too :D

Finally Finished!

First off. This piece is 3 years in the making and is finally finished. Good grief. I love my lovely commissionee for being so utterly patient and understanding that artwork is a bitch sometimes, and that when an artist wants something to work, it takes time. This piece gets its own post :D

Characters of all kinds!

Here's an update with the wow character, fleshed him out a little more and decided on a change of armor from tank to dps.


And a couple of character design sketches for my own long standing character, Kana. Trying to give him more of a real-world feel, and make him feel more like the tribal-style royalty he is while giving myself a decent portfolio piece in the process, as this is the kind of work I'd love to be doing. The first sketch there is unfinished as far as linework goes, and shows the rougher stage i tend to do before I neaten up the lines for colour.





Also adding a wip shot of a sketch I finished a while back of one of my main novel character's Jay with some start of a splash of colour, after the vein of work I did for Bizarre's Bond title, Bloodstone.



And finally some of the life drawing sketches I did a while back through work. Really enjoy this kind of thing when I get chance to do it. Sketching in watercolour is damned hard when you've only 20 mins max to do it










The last there is one of my favourites of all the life drawing I've done. The tutor even took a photo to use it as class material!