Challenge 4 - Day 14

Was so happy to find Life Drawing sessions after so long! So I used some of the time to draw the head of the grandpa modelling. He jokingly scolded me at the end of the session for making him look grumby...he is indeed the sweetest thing ^_^

Challenge 4 - Day 13

"Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view."

Challenge 4 - Day 12

After the summer upset my routine, it was about time I got the exercises (*cough* Challenges) back into my every day life. After all, the most challenging thing was to remember to leave time in the day for drawing.
Eyes not great, I tried to draw my glamorous sister from memory (I did look at references before that) but turns out both my memory and proportions are not up to speed yet.

Challenge 4 - Day 11

I had another go at ZBrush. I started with the intention of making a girl, but I was failing so I changed it to this.Which is not much of a win in terms of anatomy. I spent time tweaking the shape of the head, looking up references, tweaking some more, but something was always off.
I was taking decisions as I went along, so my workflow wasn't very good for this one once I thought "Hey! Maybe I could texture him too!"
So I exported in .obj the lowest poly one I had, unwrapped, brought him back in ZBrush, redid some details because of the UV mapping (which I did not have before), created normals, went to 3dsMax and applied the textures (which were done in Photoshop) and the normals.
Rendered with SSS and Mental Ray.
I attempted to paint the hair in Photoshop whilst making the preview, but it looked off so he is now hailress. Hihihi.

Challenge 4 - Day 10

My first Z Brush sculpt! Started sculpting on a thin cylinder. I found that thinking about how I would draw this helped in bringing out some shapes, like the lips. They are not great,but they got much better after I started thinking about where the shadows would usually be and the reason why they form at the places they do.
I wanted to work on it more and maybe attempt some texturing as well to get the feel of how it is in Z Brush however I naively saved it in the wrong format..so it is forever lost *sob*
I created a Movie though, from which I was able to take some snapshots so I think it is a sign for me to start from scratch and so something better!

Challenge 4 - Day 9

Challenge 4 - Day 8

A dwarf mechanic. Still in his forge, the fire burning, taking a break before finishing the forgery of the missing pieces of his latest machine. His scars are not ones from battles. They are those of creation, earned from hard work, putting together the pieces one by one. Testing, failing, then testing again. Until one more step is taken towards advanced technology.

Approximate time: 12 hours, over the course of 2 days

I felt the need to draw the portrait of a dwarf. I made a bit of a back story before starting the sketch as I wanted to not simply draw a hairy face, but draw the portrait of the character. I did of a lot of back-story thinking, some of which I did not write down and now regret. Here are some of my main notes:

• Being young (for a dwarf) he has ambitious eyes and a mind that wants to achieve big things, even if going against the traditions of his battle dwarf and gold greedy ancestors (mining for gold and hammering for weapons, not for strange moving things)

• As a mechanic he is someone who follows practicality, so when his hair got too long he would tie it up if not just cut it. The beard tucked into the robe so they don't get in the way.

• Working with metal, fire, machines and greasy parts, his hands would be dirty during work. Scars  from burns and cuts are not elements missing from his arms and body.
• The cigar is part of his break and recollection-of-thoughts time.

Challenge 4 - Day 7

 Ah~ Much better.  Not splashy, but more controlled, it took some time as I worked with layers, sometimes waiting for the paint to dry a little bit so it doesn't spread in unwanted areas. While other times I felt the need to water the whole piece so it does not completely dry.

Here are also some progress shots.

Challenge 4 - Day 6

An attempt to create an interesting splashy watercolour portrait, which ended up in me trying to patch up things that went wrong with the splashing! I used a coloured pencil at the end to intensify some areas.

Challenge 4 - Day 5

This time I tried to identify what pulls and what pushes during various expressions. They are quick drawings, not always correct, but even drawing wireframes over the incorrect ones helped me to identify what went wrong and what I should look out for. It was interesting and fun. And an exercise I should definitely keep on doing!

Challenge 4 - Day 4

Same face from different angles. Started quite but wasn't able to maintain it, hence the frustrated doodles. The teeth are mocking me... I know they are...

Challenge 4 - Day 3

A character that I created myself! Using the angle from Day 2.
It took about 8 hours from sketch to finish (+ 1 hour of me starring at my reference)over the course of to days.

Challenge 4 - Day 2

Challenge 4 - Day 1

Challenge 4 =START=

Challenge 3 - Compilation

And finally, a compilation I prepared aaaages ago!

Challenge 3 - Day 15

Had a go at a darker skin tone for the last one of this challenge.. I tried to play with the reflection of the background on her skin but I am not sure how I feel about this one..

Challenge 3 - Day 14

I have not posted for a while (a quite long while), however I have been working towards my goal!! Which is, of course, to get into practice practice practice to get better at what I love doing.

I tried a more reddish skin tone, with a bit of make-up on the eye ;)

Challenge 3 - Day 13

Sometimes I don't understand why I pick a hard subject late at night..But finished! Well..Finished what I wanted to draw (nose). I may continue another day and finish the whole portrait.

Challenge 3 - Day 12

Challenge 3 -Day 11

Challenge 3 - Day 10

A zombie

A vampire?

Challenge 3 - Day 9

Yesterday's drawing. It was completely unintentional but it seems I ended up having small cyclopes on paper!

Challenge 3 - Day 8

Challenge 3 - Day 7

Challenge 3 - Day 6

 

I started off trying out different kinds of skin tones. I spent a lot of time researching and finding references for a variation of skin tones. I found it very helpful looking at make-up foundation charts since they need to take into consideration all kinds of skin tones. The downside of relying on the internet is: photos LIE! So I am unsure of how correct those skin tones go. However, it is my only source of reference, so for now it will suffice. 

And now this:

I had SO MUCH FUN making this! I wanted to concentrate on the nose but I ended up expanding a little bit. I wanted to create something different apart from the smooth noses I have been doing so far. It is a little bit mild in the details, if anything I would have liked them to have a stronger impression...I will keep on practicing!

Challenge 3 - Day 5

This time it was all about Sub Surface Scattering! I managed to keep everything (apart from the sketch) on one layer, a feat which I am proud of! I kept saving my progress so I thought I might as well create some brief commentary on it.

Challenge 3 - Day 4

I took a step back from trying to make things look pretty and focused on angles. The teeth~ argh!

Challenge 3 - Day 3

For this day I tried different painting styles I found in various tutorials. Although the end results are similar, having a reference of how each setting creates the details proved useful (and fun!).
The nose on the left looks like it caught a disease! I considered lowering (if not removing) the freckles (those were meant to be freckles) however it is a valuable lesson knowing the amount of details required to create a desired effect. So I left it sick.

Challenge 3 - Day 2

A mixture of pencils and a digital paint-over.

Challenge 3 - Day 1

On to Challenge 3! I thought I would start digitally this time. I created a standard palette to use with some general coloration that I would probably find in most Caucasian skin. I thought I would start with something familiar to me and then explore various skin tones as I go along (which also means the palette will keep on growing).
I tried to setup a mirror but it proved impossible so I will have to do with photos.
But here we go! This marks Day1!

Challenge 2 - Compilation

Challenge 2 - Day 15

Challenge 2 - Day 14

Challenge 2 - Day 13

This day I decided to prioritize rest and had an early(-er) sleep. These exercises are indeed a challenge since I have to make sure I leave enough time at the end of the day for drawing!
So here is a kitty!

Challenge 2 - Day 12

Challenge 2 - Day 11

I have come to love drawing on this kind of paper. The biggest issue I am facing right now is being able to see colors as values and represent them on paper. But with this one, I have to look out for the highlights and shadows and then add more detail to the midtones, since they already exist because of the colored paper.

Challenge 2 - Day 10

Challenge 2 - Day 9

Challenge 2 - Day 8

Challenge 2 - Day 7

 Digital painting. Took about 1.5 hours to finish. I am having thoughts to go back to it and put more detail and aim to make it realistic. But I am happy the glass looks like glass! Since that was what I was mostly worried about!

Here is my progress from sketch - shadows - highlights - details

Challenge 2 - Day 6

New object day!

Challenge 2 - Day 5

Challenge 2 - Day 4

 Value study, lighting being behind & above.