Cartoon Me Project - Progress

So among the other projects I am working on, I am also working on a project I am calling "Cartoon Me".
Essentially this project is designed to help me practice working towards a cartoon likeness of people. The reason I want to practice this is because I would like to start drawing a web comic. Before I do I want to sharpen my skills when it comes to breaking down the face into basic shapes while still being recognizable.

I promised to show progress, and while there hasn't been much lately, here is where it stands thus far. This will be a long running project, I assure you. heh.

Thanks for looking. Be sure to check back for more progress on this project. =D

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Works In Progress

I kind of feel as though that title could be describing me directly, however, with that being said I have some things I have been working on to share with you.

The first is an illustration for the Morning Star challenge over at Character Forge. As you know, I tend to do these little challenges just on my own, in my own time, while exploring various techniques and styles that I have been reading about and trying out for the first time. While I was working on this piece, which i still am, I was looking over a tutorial for digital marker rendering.. sort of... and was led to a whole slew of amazing photoshop brushes which I then promptly began exploring in this piece. Right now the textures are all over the place and I plan to clean them up and make them more cohesive, but after working on it for a long time, I needed to step away. Hopefully I will actually finish this one.

The next one I am working on is in the same theme, however I am working from a tutorial that instructs the artist to use a traditional black and white under painting and then glaze the colour on top. This is a technique that I have practiced with acrylic paint many times but not with digital paint. I decided to give it a try and have been screen capturing as I go. 

I worked on this for many consecutive hours before hunger called and I decided to walk away from it. I am hoping that a fresh set of eyes will help me come back to it, ready to tackle the background and more of the light and shadows, which I am struggling with a little. I am at odds with myself between dramatic and subtle. Wanting to do one, but being lead to do the other. I'm also starting to lose some of the shape definition in the facial features so I need to get back to my original contour drawing. I almost don't want to show the last one, but hey, all in the name of learning right?

In any event, very unfinished, but you can have a peek. 

The last WIP that I am going to show you is a drawing from a photo I took last time I was in Toronto. I originally wanted to make it very 'inky' but as i usually do, I got distracted with colour and shapes and got away from the linework I wanted to portray. When I come back to this one, I will  create a new layer and just work with the ink lines a little, leaving the colour until after I have achieved the loose freehand pen look that I like to do in my physical sketchbook.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check back for the finished illustrations. 

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Character & Environment Exercise

As I stated in my last post, one of the places I like to go for inspiration is CGHUB. There are a ton of past drawing challenges that are perfect for flexing my creative muscles. I simply look at the challenge and attempt to work it through on my own even though I am sure I would benefit greatly from participating in current challenges, my confidence in my skills has yet to allow for such.

The following character and environment exercise was one found in the character forge section of the forums.

In this exercise I took one of the drawing challenges and followed along, but omitted a few of the specs so that I may turn around the work more quickly, creating more of an exercise than a long term study.  

The original project was to create a Kikiot who lives in the salt flats of the planet Alfmar.

The specs that I left out included long mouthparts and obviously glaring markings on the skin/fur. Instead I created a stout but large nose to help aid in the creatures amazing sense of smell. I also included a rich scale like skin.

The Kikiottea is possibly a subspecies of the Kikiot or perhaps just the pre evolved state. I'm not really sure as I hadn't given that part much though, I wanted to ensure that I followed much of the project specs but still kept it flexible since I was not participating in the cghub challenge directly. 

Once again, Thanks for looking! =)

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More Character Studies

That's right, I've been trying to develop my skills at creating characters. One of the places I like to go for inspiration is CGHUB. There are a ton of past drawing challenges that are perfect for flexing my creative muscles. I simply look at the challenge and attempt to work it through on my own even though I am sure I would benefit greatly from participating in current challenges, my confidence in my skills has yet to allow for such.
The following character study was one found in the character forge section entitled Jungle Giant. Now my 'Jungle Giant' should probably have been titled "Woodland Giant" as it developed into a character that is more likely to be found in a sherwood forest or other woodland area that contains less of the moisture, waterways, and exotic life that I would normally associate with a jungle. I picture this creatures cohabitators to be more along the lines of elves, wood nymphs, and strange birds.

I have named the creature the Diruo Gigas who is essentially a sleeping giant. The creature awakens every few thousand years or so and unwillingly causes mass destruction to the world that has developed upon its array of landscape type surface. Vegetation and plant life all develop on exposed areas of the creature who lays dormant until relocation becomes necessary. 

AnyWHO...

Thanks for looking. 

=) 

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