One artist's journey into the world of Illustration
I've been commissioned to paint a portrait of a dog so I thought I would post my progress as I've been told that I just don't post often enough. My bad, so here are the first steps in the process...the prep and also the part I dislike the most. I'm having fun painting, though. :)
This is from my second and last session at Dr. Sketchy's in Toronto. I'm sad to hear it's over.
I just finished step 2 of Quorra. During (digital) inking I noticed areas that needed some changes and I think they help to make her look a little more like the original reference. I also added more of her body to the portrait. I plan on colouring it later.
I came back from a showing of TRON: Legacy and was inspired to draw one of the characters. I used a publicity still for reference. Enjoy!
Since it's been quite some time since my last update, I wanted to write about what I've been up to. I have to admit that the long-overdue fair summer weather and a lot of changes at my day job contributed to lulling me into slacker mode on the drawing front. I just wanted to get out, enjoy the weather, see friends, shop and enjoy the city! Then came fall which always means three things for me: the Toronto International Film Festival (yay!), an increase in work at the office (boo!) and a renewed determination to become a better artist. The last usually means becoming a hermit and devoting whatever spare time is left at the end of the day to draw.
An aspiring writer friend (I'm sure she'll become famous one day) recently asked me if I'd be interested in helping her take a script she is working on into graphic novel form. After reading only a few chapters, I was hooked but where to begin? I was extremely flattered but mostly concerned about all the work involved. Victor and I decided to get some industry knowledge by taking separate classes at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop where they have veterans of the comic book and animation industry like Ty Templeton, Geordie Miller and Scott Caple to name a few.
I chose two classes focussing on perspective and anatomy respectively as refreshers while Victor is taking Ty's Comic Bootcamp that covers scripting, layouts and rudimentary figure drawing. The classes are already helping us to see things in a new light. I'm not sure how this project is going to turn out but I'll do my best and we'll see what happens. :o To make up for my absence here are some of my doodles, studio life drawings and character sketches from the last few months:
An elven girl searches a cave looking for a special flower to heal her ailing brother and in using her powers to illuminate the cave awakens a sleeping dragon that has made it his resting place.
This has been the one of the most challenging pieces I've ever done but I think the effort and time was worth it because of all that I've learned through the process. Hopefully it will make future pieces a little less painful. ;-)
This piece has gone through a quite a few revisions to make it to this stage but I think I am finally starting to feel better about the results...or maybe I just want this to be finished so I that can move on to the next piece and in the process save my poor hubby from any more of my outbursts. I think it's about time to start on colour. Did I mention that I don't like working in greyscale? :)
It's been a while since I've posted something and so I thought I would share some closeups of a digital painting that I've been working on, both on and off during my moments of freedom between work and errands for the last few weeks. After watching the movie, Avatar - gorgeous movie, by the way - I was inspired to drop my study of anatomy and lighting for a while to do a piece just for fun! Little did I know that this would become a frustrating yet educational journey into exactly what I planned to avoid: anatomy of a creature (fashioned after a mix of animals) and an elf; and lighting (low light source, argh!). To make it unknowingly more difficult I thought, "Why not do it in greyscale and apply colour afterwards?" At this point I'm not entirely certain how I'm going to introduce colour or what colours I'm going to use but, hey, it's all part of the journey. I do think the piece is starting to come together though. :)
