platform board game drawing

This is a drawing I have done in Photoshop for a platformer board game we had to design for the "Game Theory and Practice" module. The reason I have done the drawing is because I was in charge of designing the board and I wanted to see what the rest of the team thought of the actual design.

first attempt - freehand

Second attempt: I have remembered how to draw straight lines in Photoshop :)

Final result

object drawing part 2

Initial sketch. 3 terracotta pots

second stage - adding some basic colours in Photoshop

third stage - emphasizing the shapes and shading 

Final product. Time lapsed between second stage and final product: 2 hours.
I have had a lot of intermediate products with a lot of shading, or none at all, as at this stage, I was trying to colour from memory. Last tim I have seen the pots was 3 weeks ago. I am guided by the initial sketches and first colours added. I'm quite happy with this, and I think if I spend any more time on it, I'm only going to ruin it completely... 

other drawings 19/10/2012

In Sainsbury's car park, killing 10 minutes, practicing perspective. Looking at it now, it looks a bit strange on the side, I didn't the shape quite right, but quite proud of the way it looks in 10 minutes :)

House drawn from a side, while sitting in my car.

Same house, another attempt.

Orange juice maker, stainless steel. I really wanted to attempt capturing the texture of the stainless steel, as I have never attempted anything like that. Didn't quite get the size right though. It should have been taller.

ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART - Part 1

For this project, we had to research into different artist and come up with an image of an environment that inspires us, and then try to reproduce something similar. After spending around an hour looking through different websites of various artists (3D Total, the one provided by our teacher), I have chosen this image. 

This environment was created by Joachim Barrum, a Norwegian artist.

Image chosen is a digital landscape containing figures. It is a pretty still image with landscape , but very brightly coloured, quite high values. It is a happy, but calm environment, with landscape vanishing in the background.

I really like this image for the balance of colours and still and live elements in it. You can see a very coloured house, with high values of orange, contrasting really nicely with, again, high values and different shades of the lime green. Using the contrast of these two colours for the foreground, has really made this image very vivid. The artist has very nicely introduced some live animals for creating some movement in this still image. At the same time, the landscape that vanishes in the background, is being painted in very low values of grey and blues, which creates the perspective beutifully. 

 First attempt at concept art. After choosing my landscape of reference (see previous image), I have tried to create my own environment in a cartoon style drawing

Using a 2B pencil, I have drawn very fine lines for the basic sketch. I would like to "personify" the objects in my drawing, so I have attempted to give my house eyes.

 After being explained that concept art should start with credit card size drawings, here are my attempts

1,2)

The first 2 credit card concepts were done in Inkling. the first one has only got the house which will be the main element of my environment, while the second one, has got an attempt of a bridgein front of the house. I'm not happy at all with it though, as it is not realistic at all, and perspective is very poor in this one.

3,4)

In the third one, I have attempted, yet again to draw a bridge, but again, it is not a realistic one, while in the third one, I have dropped the house altogether and attempted to draw some animals.

5,6)

In the 5th credit card concept, I have decided to do a tree as the main element of the environment, and added an owl and a person. For the 6th one, I have come back to my original idea, the house is the main element, and I have drawn a path leading to it, abandoning the bridge, while in the background, I have added some landscape vanishing, for the added perspective effect. The 6th credit card concept is my favourite one, so I think I will develop that one further.

For the next step, we had to chose one of the credit card concepts and develop it further into a refined A5 sketch and afterwards into a final A3 piece.

Developing from the small size images, attempting to build the landscape. The following images, however, are A4, and are just practice drawings towards the refined sketch. I am still trying to follow my initial idea of giving life to my objects, so I am experimenting with drawing houses/trees with eyes.

The house looks a bit strange with just one eye, even though the reason I have only given it one eye, was because I thought the front of the house would look better with just one window/eye. The tree looks like it has a perm hairstyle, and that was not my intention, as it looks strange. My idea of the environment, as per the chosen reference image, is a peaceful but colourful landscape, with the characters (if any will be introduced) being innocent, childish, not scary or gory one, so not happy with my first attempt.

For the second attempt, I have concentrated on the tree, trying to make it look lore realistic. Attempt failed again, as this one looks like Sideshow Bob from TV series The Simpsons. I quite like teh bench, though and the perspective is a lot better in this attempt.

A few attempts to draw a bridge, trying to make the sides as lemon slices, in my attempt to add life to my objects. Not succeeded though:(

My idea of the landscape I would like to draw contains cartoonised/humanised houses, bridges as lemon slices, a funky/cheeky tree with a messy hairstyle. 

The river in this drawing is very very very unrealistic, and as someone pointed out, it looks like the house in the bottom right corner is holding the hand out and holding a bat up. Because I would like to draw thatched roof houses, I thought I can give my house a middle partition hairstyle, but doesn't look as innocent as I would like it.

Realising that one eyed house might not look as friendly as I would have liked, I have tried different ways of drawing my house.

A completely different landscape, trying to incorporate the perspective we did in class. I am still learning how to draw in perspective, and I feel like I need a lot more practice before getting back to my concept art, so I am trying all different approaches. I don't dislike this drawing, but it is not as I initially wanted it, as there is no house in it. However, by doing this, I have learnt how to draw a slide and the fence going around the mini garden. I have also realised that I am not using reference images at all, and because I don't have nowhere near enough experience to draw straight on the paper, I will start some more research for my final piece.

perspective + object drawing Photoshop

11/10/2012


Today we have learnt about perspective. We have used Photoshop and the Graphics tablet to draw a bench. We were shown how to draw the perspective lines using the pencil tool in the side menu in Photoshop and then use these lines for aligning the top and bottom of the bench as well as the legs. For this exercise, we have used 2 Vanishing Points (VP), in order to deliver a realistic drawing of teh bench with some paving slabs in front of it.

Drawing a bench in perspective.
1st stage. Using a low opacity for the brush (around 60%), I have done a basic sketch of a bench.You can see the perspective lines very clear on the image. VP was somewhere outside my page, but it did give me clear idea of where to place the armrests of the bench ( I simply aligned them to the lines going through to the VP)

2nd stage. Using the perspective lines, I have redrawn the bench with more confidence. I have now increased the opacity of my brush to around 90%, as the outlines were already there and only had to go over them again. I have also reduced the opacity of the first layer to around 25%, so the image in the background is hardly visible now. 

3rd stage: Again, using the perspective lines, I have drawn the paving slabs., by simply aligning them to the 2 different set of lines going to the two Vanishing Points. One was on the top right, somewhere above the Horizon, and the second one, on the left, far outside my drawing space, but on the Horizon line.
This is as far as I got in college.
I'm quite happy with the way it came out, as when I started doing this, I was very unsure as to how it's going to work out, not having drawn perspective before. But after a few attempts, It looks pretty realistic.

For the next exercise, we had to chose an object from the teacher's box and do an initial sketch using the Graphics tablet  in Photoshop, and then digitally paint it, using the same software.

1st stage of the sketch - using a low opacity for the brush, I have done an outline of the 3 mounted terracotta pots.

2nd stage of the sketch - added some shading and detail to the pots. However, I have just noticed that I have also changed the original shape/direction of the bottom righthand side pot. I think I should have left it as the original.

3rd stage - adding colour. Using the bucket tool, I have added an earthy-pink to the background, as I thought that will be a nice colour to make the terracotta pots stand out. Using different shades of brown, I have started to paint, leaving the area where the light was reflecting plain white. 

Last stage. I have added extra shading to the bottom and side of the pots and under the rim. I have added quite a bit different tones for the bit in between the three pots, as that was completely in darkness, so I have tried to reproduce that.  This is all I have done in college. I do intend

however, to work on it a lot more, as I am not happy with it.

college+home 4-10/10/2012

Here are a few drawings I have done in class as well as at home during the week of 4-10/10/2012.

10/10/2012

I have chosen the knife block at home as a subject fro my drawing as I thought it will be nice challenge. As my drawing experience is very limited at this point in time, I love taking time and attempting to draw things that I wouldn't have thought I was capable of drawing before. So after we learnt about the different types of shadows in college, I have placed the knife block on my kitchen table, with a window producing a cast shadow on the left hand side of my object and also a neon light above producing a  very slight front cast shadow. I am quite happy with the way the knives came out, considering they had a slight curve in the handle and wasn't too sure initially, how I will be able to draw that. the block can use with a bit more refinement, however.

After drawing the knife block, I had a confidence boost, and attempted another drawing. I have placed a large bread knife with quite a lot of detail on the blade on a chopping board (slightly raised by placing it on some coasters). Light was same as before, from a window on the right hand side, hence the cast shadow on the left hand side, and the neon light above the table, which produces a cast shadow on the right for the handle of the knife. I am really happy with this drawing, as I have managed to reproduce the detail on the knife blade pretty accurately, and the same with the chopping board. The thing that I should have done differently is the core shadow on the bottom side of the chopping board.

4/10/2012

This was a drawing done in class. We had to chose one object from the teacher's box and draw it using tone and shade. I have chose a bunch of artificial Gerberas. I have firstly done the outline in 2B pencil and then started to add shading to the central flower. I am quite happy with the outcome of this drawing. I thin it is a recognisable image, and the central flower, with the added  shading, looks pretty good. I haven't done any cast shadow, though, so that was one thing I did not even take into consideration. This is something I need to pay more attention to in my future drawings.

(time allowed - 40min)

W

Warmup exercise - contour drawing - before doing the bunch of gerberas featured above 4/10/12

For this exercise, we had to draw quickly some things that we had already on out desk. So I have drawn my bottle of water, the mouse and the pencil case. I'm quite happy with the proportions of the water bottle and the perspective created by drawing the mouse slightly bigger.

time allowed - 5 min

For the next exercise, we had to chose a basic 3D geometrical shape from a few provided and draw it from different angles, emphasising the core and cast shadows.

  Here are a few attempts:

                                          a)

I have only drawn one cast shadow, even though in class there are a few light sources, so my object had actually 3 cast shadows.

                                      b)

Here, I have attempted drawing all cast shadows as well as the wood texture on the top surface of the object. Not happy with the fact the lines of each side are very visible in a cartoon style.

                                      c)

I have tried turning the object and draw it from a different angle. but again, I don't seem to be able to draw it without the lines being so visible. I managed a bit more wood effect on all sides, but I should try and draw using shading rather that lines.

                                        d)

Yet a different angle of the same object. Same issue again, it looks very cartoony. this is something I need to work on and practice a lot using shading.

The next three images are of  a cylinder, a sphere and a cube and were exercises done in class to highlight the different types of shadows an object can have: highlight, midtone, core shadow and cast shadow. 4/10/12

                            

             

I have enlarged this image as it has everything well nicely described. The light source is very visible. Also, I have emphasised the way the light reflects onto the front vertical side of the cube, producing the midtone and also creating a half tone. The visible side vertical side has got a a very clear core shadow, due to the light source being behind it, and so the cast shadow is very obvious. the top horizontal side has got some of the line disappearing due to the light reflecting off its surface, and the same is valid for the left hand side of the vertical front side of the cube.

Exercise in class - tonal Range 4/10/12. We had to draw 11 square boxes, equal in size and start from the left with no tone at all and build up to the darkest tone being done in the squared numbered 10. There are many ways in which tone can be adjusted. I have chosen cross hatching, so in the square number 2 I have drawn paralel diagonal lines, and I have dine exactly the same in the rest of the boxes (3-10). In the third square, I have drawn diagonal lines in the opposite direction, and carried on in the rest of the boxes as well (4-10). In box 4, I have drawn parallel vertical lines, and the same in boxes 5-10. In box nr5, I have drawn parallel horizontal lines, and so on and so forth, until, in box number 10, I have done the most number of cross hatching, hence giving me the darkest tone.

first attempts

27/09/2012 

First session in class we were asked to chose from 2 photos and reproduce them. I have chose Salvador Dali. Time allowed for this was 30 min and for my first attempt, I must say, I'm quite happy. Coming into this course with no background whatsoever in drawing, I am really interested to learn techniques, and all different types of drawing and medias. 

                  Second assignment was to draw our hand in an awkward position. Again, I was quite impressed with how it came out. Again, as far as I remember, time allowed, was 30 min, so considering you can actually recognise a hand, I am happy.

      Third assignment on the same day, was to pick a corner of the room and draw it. Not too sure about this. I do recognise it as a corner of the room, but I'm not sure if anyone else does as well...

     

   Fourth task of the day, was to look at some famous artists and study their techniques and then chose one style and draw something in the room applying that specific technique. I have chosen Delacroix as my inspiration and have drawn something from a poster on the wall, using curved lines.

1)Matisse

2) Van Gogh

3) Delacroix

4) Ben Shahn

5) My own drawing

   We were then taught how to warm up for a drawing session. Because in a normal day to day basis, as a right hand user, we normally engage the left side of the brain in order to accomplish basic tasks, when doing anything to do with art, we need to engage the right side of the brain. In order to do that, the following exercise is very useful.
 

Vase / Face contour drawing

   The next exercise we did, was to copy an upside down drawing. We were given a black and white portrait of Igor Stravinsky done by Pablo Picasso, in order to engage the right side of the brain, as apparently, by drawing upside down, you copy lines not things (i.e. body parts, chairs, etc). I realised that my proportions are totally off, as his head did not fit on my page, so I will definitely have to practice more on this.

     

Pablo Picasso - Portrait of Igor Stravinsky (upside down drawing)

     For the next exercise, we had to draw our hand without looking at the paper. It was a very interesting attempt. Of course it looked slightly like a hand, in the sense that it had 5 fingers, but apart from that, it's quite far from a human hand.

1st attempt

2nd attempt. However this attempt was a drawing done more from memory, so I feel like I cheated a bit.

3rd attempt. 

     We had a final exercise, which was to put a few objects on the table and draw the composition 

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