Tah dah, pictures!

So I have some good news. I've not only finished that underwater background but completed another one! I'm actually quite enjoying this. Still using concept art as a reference but I started to mess around with the plants and colours in this first picture. Starting to feel confident enough to start messing around. I'm surprised at how quickly I'm picking this up. I know it's difficult adapting to colouring in graphics programs. Must be because I'm experimenting so much!

Also, a friend recently told me about downloading brushes in photoshop. I'm ashamed to say it's taken me this long to start using more than one brush! It's making the drawing so much easier and looks a lot smoother than it did before. Really glad I was told about this. You should check out her stuff. It's amazing! You can find it at liliacheung.com!

I wasn't too sure of this second picture at first. Originally I was starting to make backgrounds that could scroll but I wanted to try something a bit more detailed. I found this concept art online and fell in love with it. Thought I should redo it in my own style so I could learn more about underwater colours and sea life. I'm now really happy with it. Took me slightly longer than I expected (maybe 6-8 hours?) but it was well worth it. I've been told this is quick for a background but it still feels really slow to me.

Anyway that's it for this week. Might try and do some character work for next week and show the character design I did not long ago. I'll wait and see what I feel like first. Also depends on what Zapcoder want from me next week.

Quick update

Just a quick update this time. Been pretty busy with work so not got much to show this week. I'm currently in the middle of a new background - being adventurous and going for an underwater theme. Hopefully that'll be done within the next day or two so it should be ready for the next update.

Also, I've been having a bit of artist's block lately. I get it every now and then and usually I can get over it by just looking at other people's amazing artwork. Not a good thing to have though when you've got to draw for work experience. I thought I'd do a quick character drawing to try and get myself out of this slump - plus it feels like it's been ages since I've done a character drawing. Don't want to get out of practice!

Still got a lot of things to work on, mainly colour and proportions. I'm quite happy with how this turned out considering it was supposed to be a quick drawing. Plus I'd seen a colour palette I wanted to try out and this gave me an excuse. Better get back to that underwater background so I have something for next time!

Such a busy bee!

So between work and work experience I've got hardly any time to myself. Good thing the work experience is an excuse to draw! Gives me a chance to keep experimenting and keep learning. I'm now proud to say that I've started experimenting with my colouring so I'm now picking my own colours. Must mean I'm learning something!

I thought I'd try a more dark background that lacks colour. This way I can work on my tones and even lighting. I'm quite pleased with the end result, especially since I wanted a more cartoony style than my usual drawings. I think this works well and I'm glad I tried it. Definitely found that it's helping with my tones for other drawings.

I was asked to make some general assets for work experience. As I usually draw human characters, I thought I'd go for a change and draw an animal and see what I came up with. After some doodling I came up with this bee. I'm very pleased to say that's it's completely my own design, colours and all. That's something that doesn't happen often. Usually I use some sort of image as reference.

Today, although I was working on general assets, I did a LOT of backgrounds. I've been asked if I can try out Illustrator so I thought I'd try out a vector style in photoshop before I learn the new program. I've got to say I quite like the style. It's a lot different from what I'm used to but it's fun messing about with gradients and shapes. Plus it takes a lot less time than I'm used to!

This isn't something I usually do but I was reading manga the other day and came across one called "Bokura no Kiseki". It's all about people remembering their past lives and being friends in more than one lifetime. Also, it explores the idea of people being reborn to forgive past mistakes. I thought this was a pretty neat idea. I'm not just randomly saying this, I actually got really inspired by this! I think that it's a really sweet thing to imagine so why not play around with this topic. It's gave me an idea for a short animation, although it won't be started for a while. Since a blog post's supposed to outline development and thoughts I thought I'd stick this in here. Plus it means when I reread this I'll remember about this idea. 

Work experience is fun!

There is an incredible amount of freedom during this work experience. Lately I've been working on a specific game so I haven't had much freedom on the topic but style is entirely up to me. I think I'll explain my progress a little (be prepared for more drawings than usual).

I got this work experience due to my 2D honours project. The guys from Zapcoder loved my hand drawn backgrounds and then asked me to come in and do some work for them. Personally I was very proud of them. I've never properly experimented with backgrounds so it was interesting to test this out. Also, I know that most big 2D companies (ie Studio Ghibli) draw their backgrounds so I thought I'd test this out with my project. It also meant I was able to figure out what I could and couldn't do when I went into the industry.

The company requested that I drew parliament for the upcoming game on Scottish Independence. I'd never drawn a background on a graphics program so I thought this would be great reason for experimentation. Plus it'd save the hassle of deciding what to draw! They liked this style so much that they asked for more, which I was very pleased with. Not bad for my first ever background on the computer!

For the past couple of days I've been working on something for the Ryder Cup. I'm getting more confident with buildings so I thought I'd challenge myself again and add a proper environment to this. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I'm now getting used to backgrounds so I was experimenting more with the colours for the grass. 

It's lovely being able to draw in my own style, something I completely didn't expect. Being at my work experience has definitely motivated me into learning more about drawing and is actually inspiring me! I've spent the past couple of hours looking up different kinds of backgrounds to draw, something I always hated doing before. I'm really glad I got this opportunity as I'm able to expand my drawing skills and gain some contacts along the way. Not to mention I'm thoroughly enjoying their company! They make work so fun, it's actually hard to stop drawing at the end of the day and relax. I hope that I can stay there for a while and I definitely plan on making the most of this opportunity. Be prepared for a lot of work to be posted!

Who knew characters would be so fun?

Wow talk about being busy! Everything's happening at the one time. I got a job to help out my family and then just after got contacted by a local company about work experience! I'm allowed to create any kind of artwork, no matter the style, and it'll be uploaded to their app. It's not quite up and running yet but keep an eye out for Zapcoder. It's basically an app where you can create your own games, even with your own customisation settings. Going to be pretty busy if I'm going between work and work experience!

I've also got a little job as a character designer for a friend. I never thought designing kids characters would be so much fun! You get to be as crazy as you want and go wild with the colours. I do really enjoy drawing characters, but usually they're inspired by an image or a certain style I come across. It's not often that I actually design my own characters. So I never thought designing would be as much fun as experimenting is. Don't think I'm quite cut out for character designing but it's definitely fun giving it a go!

So I've been experimenting more with that style from last time. I'm quite pleased with how these have turned out. Perhaps they're not as good as the last but I'm definitely adopting this style! Plus I've decided my next project will use illustrations in this style. 

The first is loosely inspired by "Nausicaa" by Studio Ghibli. It was quite an interesting pose to attempt. Think I'll try and stray away from the rigid poses I'm used to as this pose gives the character a bit more "life".

I also wanted to do another "cute" picture. One theme I've never explored in an image is a proposal so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try. I think the style fits it so I'm very pleased. Think my next challenge is working on my colours so that my project can be even better. Bring on the inspiration!

Simple, yet effective

So it's about time I upload something new. Not that I'm keeping to a strict timetable but I feel that this should be updated regularly, even if it's just progress sketches.

I've now officially graduated! It wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be, just another day. Not one of us tripped up, in fact it went by rather smoothly. I was lucky enough to get a photo with my class so that I can remember them for a while. It's kind of put me in a weird mood. I want to be productive and be the best I can but at the same time it's the end of an era and I don't want to rush things. I'm finally through education (although I'm considering a Masters degree) and it's quite emotional going through that. The stress of trying to get a job combined with a lack of knowing what to do with yourself if a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. 

So right now I'm taking things slowly. I decided that I'd experiment with a new style I came across earlier today. Just something small and cute to upload while I sort out the inevitable question of what to do for the rest of my life. I'm incredibly pleased with how it's turned out, despite how quick it was to create. I definitely think I'll be using this style a lot more often. I quite like the colouring style too. Despite not knowing much it was very simple to replicate. Every step helps though so I'm glad I've managed to create something I love.

I've always wanted to create something Japanese and I've never been able to create something I'm happy with. I'm quite happy that my fascination with a culture so different from my own has been put into a simple drawing.

Patreon and sketches!

A friend of mine told me about a website called Patreon. If any of you are artists and are wanting to share your work (for a donation) feel free to check it out. People can donate whatever amount they want to help you, the artist, create more work. It's kind of like Kickstarter only it's with small, regular projects rather than a big one. If you want to have a look mine is at http://www.patreon.com/nanimations. Anyway onto the blog.

So it's been a pretty busy week. Graduation's just round the corner and I thought I'd do some sketches to distract myself from IMPENDING DOOM! If only it was that dramatic...

First off, I thought I'd do a bit more pose sketching. I do it a lot so try not to get sick of the pose sketches. I figure you can never stop learning and it's always interesting seeing new poses. I've never drawn a character from this angle before so it was quite interesting to try. I'm quite liking it so I may try a few more dramatic shots with a similar angle.

I've been having a look through all of my old work. It took me quite a while to look through and personally critique it but I've learned a lot. It's weird seeing all of your old work. Especially when you're comparing it to the new stuff. You see how far you've came in not only a short amount of time but you dig up work from years ago. It's amazing what you can learn over the years!

It also makes me appreciate everyone that's helped me along the way. From my parents, to teachers at school and online critiques, I've developed my own style and I'm truly happy about this. Not so long ago I was able to copy any drawing style but I was never comfortable enough to try my own. Now I think I'm developing it, still got a long way to go but I'm getting there. Every little step counts.

So this next drawing is just a quick character design I created. I realised that I tend to draw a lot of single characters so I thought I'd try two boys this time. Yes that's a boy on the right! I wanted to make him look a bit girlier than I usually do. I've been reading a manga that explores friendship between two male best friends and it inspired me to create this. 

It's also a bit of experimentation. Another friend of mine is helping me get better with my colouring so hopefully in a few years I'll have something completely original that I'm happy with. Can't wait! Anyway that's enough text for now so I'll keep sketching and post another time.