Genre project - Final pieces

My final pieces are all A3 in size and I have tried to do them all in different mediums.

My character final piece was done in charcoal entirely, and I have chosen the black background, to create the atmosphere. There are issues with the anatomy (feet are too small and the legs are not in proportion with the rest of the body). I will try to amend that, even though, I really don't know how I will be able to do that. So I might just have to redo the whole thing... This drawing took me 6 hours, but it's all a learning exercise, so not too upset for having to do another one, I just hope I will have enough time to finish off for my hand in in college (as for my personal development, I will thoroughly enjoy drawing it again:))

After I have drawn the car on an A4 framed canvas in oil pastels. I have imported it into Photoshop and recoloured it entirely, sticking to the same colour theme as well, though. I have spent around 12 hours in total on this Photoshop piece, but I have acquired quite a few extra skills in this software.

This is my environment final piece. I have done this on extra smooth Bristol card, 220g. I have again, attempted a new media, and have done the entire thing in graphite stick. The whole theme for my game is Film Noir-Gangster, so it is all black and white and awkward angles. So for my environment I have decided to go for  fish eye lens angle of a corner of a street. This is still work in progress as my tutor gave me some feedback and advise me to put some more work into the bricks. So an updated version of this will be uploaded soon.

Genre project refined sketches

Following up from my credit card concepts, I have drawn some refined sketches for each aspect.

I have decided to do the refined sketch for my car on a framed canvas, as I wanted to take a risk and put myself in the situation where I can't erase. It took me about an hour and a half to draw the car, and I am quite happy with the final result.

I then decided to colour it as well, and I have started with the front of the car, moving slowly towards the back and getting the tones darker and darker as I did that. The car was coloured using oil pastels, while the background was added afterwards, using soft chalk pastels. All in all, I am quite pleased with the final result, even though, the front wheel looks somehow as it is in the wrong angle, but I can definitely live with that for my first attempt on a framed canvas, and it has taken place of pride on my wall:). Time taken to do this drawing, was around 4 hours, with colouring as well, and the fun had, was great.

This is my character as I would like to draw her as a final product. She will be standing / leaning against a bar, in a dark, mysterious place. The main things I wanted to have in this drawing, were the flapper dress, feather in hair, as these are essential for the era, cigarette and martini glass, ans I have introduced a little bit of red on the lips, for that splash of colour I am keen to introduce. However, some of the things in this drawing will be changed when I will draw the final piece: I don't like her pose, the legs don't look very realistic (proportions are a bit off), arms look a bit out of place and I will probably take out the lights as I feel that they will distract from the character itself.

This is my first refined sketch for the environment. However, there are so many issues with it, that I will definitely do at least another one. I have drawn the corner of the street as intended and the bar entrance, I have added the extra trash cans in the road, to enhance the dirty grungy look, but the perspective works only on some bits of the image, not on it as a whole, and that is pretty bad. I am a bit disappointed, as I have worked on this for around 2 hours, but as I have admitted numerous times before, perspective is my weakest point, and I will need to practice a lot more before I will proceed to the final piece...:(

Genre project - credit card concepts

I have now changed my mind regarding the genre and went for Film Noir mixed 

with Gangster. So here are my credit card concepts for each area:

These are my car credit card concepts. I have chosen the green car mentioned in my previous research post and the brown creamy one and attempted drawing various versions of them combined and various angles of it. I have done an interior as well, just to give me an idea of the space and size.

These are my credit card concepts for my main character who will be a flapper of the 1930's, a gangster's moll. I have tried to draw different poses, but keeping the main theme: flapper dress, feathers, and I really wanted to incorporate cigarette and drink, as that was the era.

These are my environment concepts. I have chosen a city landscape for my environment, purely because actions was mainly set in the big cities in that era, and also because I wanted to challenge myself with the perspective ( that is my absolute weakest point) and I will attempt to draw a different view angle, as opposed to the normal face on image of a building. I absolutely love the 3rd concept, which is an image taken from "A stranger on the third floor" - a point of reference when it comes to Film Noir movies (it is actually considered by many to be the very first Film Noir ever made). I also like teh 5th image very much (second from the top on the right hand column),  as I like the idea of drawing a corner of a street, looking slightly from the bottom up.

research for genre project - part 2 - the environment

For my Game genre project, I have decided, in the end to draw a street at night, with the entrance to a bight club, with a neon sign above it. So I have done yet some more research into this, and came up with these images.

I like the idea of having the Martini glass incorporated in the sign, as it was part of my character drawing, and I like the combination of red and yellow, which really stands out in the dark background.

This is just another example of a sign I was looking at. I have chosen this one,  as I intended to do an upright one (the writing to be done vertically). But I think this would be way too big for my drawing, as this will not be the main focus point.

I have changed my mind about the final environment piece, as the initial idea was to draw the skewered view of the blocks, but I felt that that image was not containing a lot of detail, so instead I have chosen the one above, with a neon light above a "club door". I really like the dirty look of the street, with the garbage bins just lying around, and a lot of stuff coming out of them. I will however, set at night, and change it into a corner view, with the left part of the image, being a night club, while on the right, I will do a corner of this street.

experimentation with different media

This is a 1 hour exercise I have done in class using oil pastels for the very first time. I absolutely loved working with them. Love the way you can create shadows and lights with the overlaying the different colours. I am not happy with the perspective, which is one of my weakest points and I have to work extensively on, but quite happy with the overall outcome of my exercise.

This is a half an hour exercise I have done, while playing with my 3 year old daughter. We were painting using oil paints on watercolour paper. I have started by painting an apple, as I had the previous oil pastel drawing just behind me on the fridge, and ended up drawing some abstract shapes to which I have added shadows. On top of the oil paint, however, I have added oil pastels to correcta few issues (wrong positioning of the cast shadow and wrong light and shadow on one of the objects). Again, quite happy with the overall outcome.

This was a 1 hour exercise I have done in class,  with the theme human anatomy. It is not a finished drawing, but, in this case, I am relatively happy with the perspective and the shading of the side planes.

Another piece I have done while playing with Sophie (my daughter). We have both chosen a theme from one of her books and drew that. Obviously, my theme was a teddy bear. I have used cold press watercolour paper,  which, with the bumpy texture, created quite nice effects. Again, I have used oil pastels on top of oil paint, just to finish off the light and shade and to give it a more 3D look. It's not the best I have done, it's not my favourite, but it was a good exercise. Time wise,  it took about 2 hours in total, (it was done in 2 stages - oil paint first, for about 15 minutes, and the rest applying the oil pastels)

This was a 1 hour pencil sketching of a cartoon character. I have found this character on te internet and used it as reference, changed only a few minor things, but I absolutely enjoyed drawing this. This is my kind of thing, my preferred subject for drawing. I am really happy with the outcome of it. I intended to colour it, but then changed my mind and drew another one for that purpose.

This is my very own idea of a cartoon character, based on the previous one, but adding extra features (glasses, extra years :)), ha ha), and adding the colour that I was so tempted to do the previous one. I am happy with the way it came out, and I really enjoyed drawing her. I could have definitely spent more time on some details (i.e. making her dress more realistic,), but the I'm quite happy with the face, and that was my aim for this exercise.

I have purchased my very first set of oil pastels at home and was dying to use them, so I have drawn the first thing that was in front of me: my daughter's milk cup and a pack of baby wipes. The baby wipes were white, and I have encountered difficulty drawing them, that's why I have introduced the blue. I have applied black for the shadow, but it just doesn't work...:( The cup is not too good either, I didn't get the angle right, and I can say the same for the table mat: perspective at its poorest in this example. I have put this on my blog, however, as I would like to see this in the future, as a point of reference, where I started, and hopefully where I will get with lots of work :)

research for genre project part 1

For this project, we needed to choose a genre and then draw an environment, character and object in that genre. I have chosen a mixture between Film Noir and Animation and looked into different environments, characters and objects that would fit with this mixture of genres.

Love the look of this character. Love the fact that is black and white and also, the defying look on her face, in spite the guy with a gun standing in front of her, she seems completely undisturbed...

This is the car I would like to draw as my object for this project. The thing that captured my attention was the shape of it, but I also love the colour of it. My whole setting will dark, black and white, but with a murder feel to it, and by adding a splash of colour, I would like to bring the "Sin City" feel to my whole environment.

I have chosen this image for the colour combination used. I will mention Sin City again, but this is the feel I would like to create to my game. I love the black and white combined with just one extra strong colour (red in this case, or green in mine)

These are a few of the objects I would like to introduce in my murder mystery game. They fit really well with my theme and with the era this will set in. (1930's - 1940's)

Just another car that inspired me.  I like the shape of it and the angles it has been photographed from. I will stick to the colour green, though.

photoshop workshop - unfinished

This is a drawing done exclusively in Photoshop (during the workshop). in order to learn about shading in Photoshop.
There is a lot more to do to it, but for a the time allowed, I think it's ok, even though it looks a bit creepy with the lips so dark and the eyes outlined so heavily