Character Design project and then some

We had a character designer called Gillian Reed come in to talk to us abut character design and she gave us little exercises to do.
So for this project I chose to design an evil genius baby, maybe some part of me feels I can relate? at least to the evil part

So here are some of the rough character poses I came up with for the baby.
I gave him devilish ears and a diaper that's way too big for him. And a massive head.

Then we were asked to come up with the most important expressions for that character that described its personality, so I put down the 5 most relevant ones for him I could think of:

His face changed quite a bit by the end of the exercise but I think I prefer him this way. I'd like his ears to droop or straighten according to his expression. Gillian gave us the tip to try and draw expressions in the three quarter perspective view/

Okay, last but not least here's what my favorite thing to do as a kid was -
I don't know if anyone really does this, but it was just the most relaxing thing, to gently float on the water's edge and watch the clouds move with the sun on your face.
I could stay there for ages.

lately that pool hasn't been cleaned for ages
or it would still probably be my favorite thing to do

Hope you're all doing what you really like doing.

The one for the brother

It's my brothers birthday today, and I talked to him the first time in ages! Actually, I haven't seen him in almost a year, so this rendition of him as a zombie with flaming eyes may be slightly inaccurate.

H  appy birthday achacha, even if this one is blatantly for you, everything I've done so far is dedicated to you.
you'll always be my hero.
with or without green skin


love,


and if the question is, if he's a zombie, why is his shirt's white, you'll realize upon closer inspection that its slightly blue around the edges which must mean he's dead.
Also there is life in his eyes because he's not had his brains yet so he's hungry, thus the shirt is white, not blood smeared...yet
I'm just messing


or am I

This was the first life drawing session I attended for our new term,since last week I was living it up in London. If living it up means standing in a line so long it wrapped around a massive building twice. All for Neil Gaiman. All over again for Neil Gaiman.
Anyway
just to note, there were two female models and I alternated between the two, so you know what, for the sake of retrospect I'll arrange them so that the ones of the same models are together.

I don't really like this one,I've done Li Shang proud and made a man out of her.
all I wanted to do was make her alert, so I pushed her head way back and straightened her spine and killed her form. 

I've read in this book somewhere that when you want to draw to express, you should do it in curves.
I'm breaking a lot of rules. Most of my drawings unintentionally depend on straight broken lines.
Are straight lines by humans ever really straight? the more you zoom into a circle the more it appears to be made out of a lot of straight particles right?
Hmm, there is a science to it, the curve theory, but I think for now I'll just keep an open mind and try different things.

I like this one because together it gives the illusion of the model swinging on something. But next time I'll try to keep it less messy








 

The next ones are of the other model.

                                   

The model here was lying down and looked so comfortable I thought id draw her really relaxed with her hand barely grazing a box on the floor
She was lying down for an hour, so the next one was done during the same period

I sort of burst her head into flames in the end because it looked too warm for the model. But only in my imagination perhaps. Her head is still intact.


I'll end with this.
I am in love with the world. Not very sure its such a good thing because it often seems one sided. But that's not entirely true because there's so many things to marvel at and be grateful for, how harsh to expect everything you've ever wanted.
besides, if the world was personified, im sure that I'm not exactly all it wanted as well
Recently I've been listening to a lot of Icelandic music, and that awe the world is amplifies over.
When I moved here 2 years ago, I remember for the first couple of months waking up with a feeling of gratitude that I had the opportunity of waking up in a place so beautiful, so safe so blessed with people.
People of different kinds, people with different ambitions, reasons, lifestyles, we're all here, together and separate . We can bear so much and break down at so little. Something so glorious in remembering that. I'm going to make it a goal to do that everyday, like when I first got here.
This little outlet is probably just for me.Who reads to the end of this anyway

unrequited love for the win - ----
  

Wait...what? Photoshop?

Why yes, it is a stag in a tutu summoning a beam of light while contemplating his next routine.
All stags summon beams of light.
Isn't this common knowledge?

But yes, Photoshop has finally been breached
, even if its CS2..
for now

A year back I spilt blood and guts getting a self portrait done in the grungy style of Modigliani for a University project.  And this was it.

Confessions:
1) I've never used oil paints before because where I lived they were a pain to dry. But this guy used oil, so I wanted oil.

2) It was all painted with a plastic spoon. The curved part and the handle. There was oil and paint EVERYWHERE. I treated it as an experiment, but honestly I had no oil brushes.

 3) I used vegetable oil ....because...it was there.

4) Some who know me may think it looks nothing like me. But...try squinting??? - Read below for more

5) This was my first self portrait. Which I think more than lack of exp with oils, is why I struggled. It's hard to see yourself in 2D unless you've tried it before I think. And with the mirror, its generally safe to say its not exactly what you look like.

After all that, I'll make a point to note, what I've seen of the character's that people draw look a lot like themselves. Like, I draw generally short legs. Or in someone's character sketches you would see a pattern of symmetry in the spaces between the eyes or nose and mouth, etc. So technically, I lied, and we're drawing self portraits all the time.

Messy Messy Perspective

...should move on to Photoshop soon, just because more functions and convenience but theres such a charm to working on Paint! I worked on this yesterday, wanted to be looser with the human anatomy.
but that long left leg is annoying.

The human body is such a rich, complex and marvellous machine.
What are we without muscle and bone? a pile of organs and thought? 

On that cheery note,
Cheers to being human! Let's not take it for granted :)

Hmm , but looking at it from far, will probably try for something more dark tonally next time.

Let's make this a short one.
I was lucky enough to stumble upon The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic Novel by Alan Moore et al in my university library, and it will be with me for 3 whole weeks!! Which is probably a good thing regarding the pace I go through illustrated books like these, mostly because I'm sucking in all the beauty I can, and a part of me doesn't want it to get over anyway so I pace myself.

I've watched the movie before, but this is the first time I've seen the book, and it makes me revisit my first impression of Captain Nemo, but maybe a bit more enhanced because of the glorious drawings.
I think so far everything I've seen of Alan Moore's works has emotionally touched me, sketching into my soul.
But yes, Captain Nemo. Here's  a slightly older version of him from my impression of him from this book. Seriously though every time I've watched this movie or right now reading the book makes me want to read 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea. He's just such a tough guy with a sensible head on his shoulders. And he works for himself and his principles. And he doesn't mind working to achieve a purpose without much of the spotlight on him. Also. His Ship.

On a leaving note: In 3 days, I will be seeing Neil Gaiman LIVE.
For those of you who know his work, he has a new book out called Fortunately the Milk. I don't know much about it because I want to be surprised when I get to see it.
and...for those who don't know him, he's worked on Sandman, I think he's contributed to Watchmen, and there's a really interesting book of his called Death which I recommend.

Time skip one month

So. That was not supposed to happen. Honestly I tried a couple of times to post up a blog, but there was this ONE image that kept rotating 90 degrees the way it shouldn't, and finding a solution for this was a long menacing journey full of false hopes etc. Till I found this one blog that explained all I had to do was rotate it back using Picasa Web Album, and HEY PRESTO it works! Now my life is sugary sweet and if anyone has the same issue, https://picasaweb.google.com/home and make your wildest dreams come true :) If you probably already knew that, I applaud you, but I prefer my happy fulfillment now.


So following that, HERE IS THAT ONE PICTURE.

and then some.

This one was basically done on Microsoft Paint, I had sort of story boarded a little comic on my sketch book before trying finished ones on Paint. This next simple sketch was a part of that, the part on the left, where he lights his cig. But as you can see I've made some changes to that. I've been trying to get a dark stylized feel into it, so if you do get that feeling, mission accomplished! (its quite a dark story anyway)

This lonely hunched man in overalls is actually a rendition of Fuzzy Lumpkins from Powerpuff Girls. I was just thinking how underrated he was and decided to give him a more real character. Of course, Powerpuff girls is a cartoon. But there are people in the world who genuinely want to be left alone and are treated as monsters for wanting that. People want different things, why should we judge? I've played around with his nose a bit to avoid the comical huge bulbous thing. He's still not human, and reminds me of Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Of course, he still has his gun and hat. Perhaps his banjo is somewhere nearby? or stolen by a squirrel I don't know..