Flight Wrap, Let's Hope

So tomorrow I go to print with my little book for the new scene of "Flight." Good. I'm done. I guess it feels kindof good--I might rejoice more if I did not have a midterm on Thursday, Maya assignments all weekend, and two costumes to somehow complete by Friday. Ergh. Ah, but who cares about my life!...this is ART!

So I finally finished "Cold Morning" (I have terrible names, I know...they're just my descriptive filenames that then somehow turn into titles), which you see below. I swiped some color on those empty areas and threw a filter on it. I know that's kindof taboo, but all those lines were really just mucking the thing up, and overall I did not dislike the piece, it just needed to be simplified. So simplify I did, at the click of a button :-)

The other is my favorite piece from the whole project. I have terrible eye-level-horizon-line syndrome, so I wanted to try'n break out of that by doing a composition with the figures way way way at the top (even one of them cut off)...this would be even more dramatic if it were in a vertical format, but I wanted to stick to the widescreen constraints of the projects, even though I can kindof do whatever I want as a visdev artist. I like it just fine how it is, though, and I think the color came out very nice (quality is so bad on the internet! it's so much cooler than this, for real!). I looked a lot at Craig Mullin's "Sedone--Irish Knight" painting for the color and atmosphere. It was a big help in this project, as Craig is a big inspiration in everything I do :-). So without further adieu.... --L

A Day's Worth...

More doodles for you. Some of these are for "Flight," (yes, still), and some are just little doodles I scratched in my sketchbook throughout this day. I have never done a successful caricature of a teacher...or anyone for that matter...so I'm quite happy that I have finally acheived that. This is my art history professor...she's really a nice lady, and a good prof, but I think she knows I'm not paying attention to her, and drawing instead. Oh, and for Eripuuu, a pink girl :-) Teehee! Is that all I'm posting?...guess so... --L

"Black Beauty" Final

Here's the final of the black horse in harness. I like it just fine :-). Huzzah! :-)

"Black Beauty" Work in Progress

I'm trying to put together some more finished pieces of artwork for my portfolio, based on some of the development sketches I have. That is, I have a whole bunch of good drawings of horses in harness (or carmel mission, people on donkeys, etc.), but no finished drawings to make it all portfolio-worthy. This, in combination with what Bunny said about there not being enough color work in SJSU portfolios, has spurred me to develop some "display pieces." I do a lot of color character work in Photoshop, and have pretty good success with it, but none of those characters are appropriate for portfolio (read: I don't think Pixar wants to see nude fairies or cat-women), so I've taken the same process I use for those drawings, and have applied it to my "display pieces." The first is what you see here, a WIP for a horse in harness, to supplement my, well, supplemental drawings. I think he's going fairly well. I have a lot of work to do on the harness, of course, but then I'm kindof liking the line and solid hue look--kindof "Triplets of Bellville"-ish. I've also seen artists (noteably Wendling) use a gradiant as the fill color, which gives it that nice flat look, with a bit more interest. I may just render it out, too...I'm afraid of having a totally volumetric horse and just that flat harness. I'll likely finish this drawing soon, so I'll post it in its final form then :-). --L

Oodles of Doodles, Part Deux

I have a whole mess of drawings to show you. I got super-inspired by the events of last week, one of which was going to Pixar and talking with very encouraging people, as well as seeing the amazing art all over the walls. Seeing that mecca just makes me want to work harder to get there...we've touched paradise, and now we just need to find a way in there.

Anyway, so I went down to Carmel today to do some studies of the mission, and also try to get a handle on what it looked like before its renovation in the 1930s. I was there for about 4 hours, maybe more, and got a whole passle of drawings...I've selected the best ones to show you here, so do enjoy :-).
Also, here's some other development work from the "Flight" scene my group is working on. I delved into horse harnesses (I'll post those later), and also sketched how the mother might look on her wee donkey, with her skirts flowing almost to the ground. More "Flight" stuff--you're going to be sick of it soon!

Some other doodles for you...and "real" doodles...some unicorn designs that vary from the norm. I'd like to explore this more, so maybe there'll be more drawings up in the future.

I'm putting together an updated portfolio. The whole idea behind the portfolios was to be able to just go in an replace drawings, but I'm ending up replacing entire pages. This is a good thing, but a lot of work...hopefully it'll pay off in, like, an internship :-)

Still 'Flying'...

The new project in BFA is a group go at a new scene for "Flight." Our group is working on the scene of Pepe's father's funeral (and I think also when Pepe finds the body). This gives us lots of opportunity for good VisDev, but it also requires mucho research to get all the ceremonial tidbits correct. This sketch is a straight-out-of-the-head initial reaction/initial mind's eye image. I was going for atmosphere. --L

Another Portrait.

Playing more with brushes. She is not so mesmerizing to me as the other. I am not quite so scared of her. I altered the brightness and contrast for this more extreme look...it was very pastel and gray before, which I did not dislike, but it did not quite fit the mood I was going for. --L

Brushes!

I learned how to make my own brushes in Photoshop, huzzah! I don't have that texture problem anymore :-). I did this doodle just to play with them. Oh the joy! :-)

(I don't expect you'll be able to see all the lovely textureyness of this, since the upload is not very high quality. But you and I both know it's there!)

A Kitty

I've been doing a lot of cartoons in Photoshop...it's so fast and clean and easy, and I like sending them off in e-mails to certain people :-). I was inspired by Eripuuu, who draws wonderful little animal characters, so I decided to try it myself. So I give to you, a "slightly sexy kitty." --L