Color and Palette Character Study

I revisited the animatic I was making about a year ago to finally make tweaks and fix the ending.  It was then I thought that I haven't been doing anything too creatively and I've been all about technical skills as of late.  Now that I've spent the past year honing in my drawing and also that I have a few months of downtime before freshman years starts (still deciding between CalArts and Ringling), this is the perfect time for me to apply those technical skills and actually complete it - fully animated and polished.

It's definitely going to take me some time, but it'll be another matter of perseverance.  This is the first time I've started drawing the boy since then, but here's a bit of the main character's color study and palette.

He looks a little too much like me, I think.  Well, the best place to start is from yourself... as they say.

Natasha Allegri

Another portrait.  I was going for Natasha Allegri's style...

Suave

Dumb doodle for the day.  Plus I felt like I needed something new for my profile photo... I drew the old one over two years ago.

ACCEPTED INTO CALARTS.

My CalArts application account updated and I'm accepted.  Mother of God.

WIP - Sully Paint: Second Pass

I'm starting to run into the same problems I had with Drake, where I'm noodling because I don't know how to take the hair and textures to the next step.  Gonna have to put this one on a halt too until I do so.

But I'm at least happy that some harmony with colors has been achieved, especially since I haven't studied that as much.

WIP: Sully Paint in Color

Got a little adventurous today and started doing some Photoshop paint in color - this time it's Victor Goddamn Sullivan.  I'll finish Drake later on, but just compare this first-and-a-half-ish pass of Victor with my first pass of Drake back in January.  Things are coming with a lot more ease after going back to fundamentals, so drawing's been a whole lot more fun.  I'll definitely go back to them again.  I've also learned that it's ok to take breaks from pieces.  I usually try and do everything in one sitting, but it's been pretty beneficial to take a step back whenever I feel like I'm getting to the point of noodling, then returning to draw with a fresh mind.

And after finally getting accepted into Ringling's CA program, my overall goal throughout the next few months is to just improve myself... draw better and faster.  It's a pretty broad goal, but I hear they work you harder there than you get worked in the industry, so I need all the practice I can get before heading into the fray.

Self-critique in Composition

Did another still life to further synthesize my studies in shapes, values, media, and composition.  Shapes came with a lot more ease but I mainly struggled with composition.  I found this really helpful site with notes on tangents and was able to pick out a lot of my problem areas.  Overall, the area surrounding the wine glass is way too busy and I wish I lit the scene with more values in the top left corner because it's pretty flat.

Fail early, fail often.

Notes I took that identify my errors with compositional tangents

ACCEPTED

On March 1st, I received a small package from Ringling College of Art & Design.  Inside was a letter, announcing that I have officially been accepted as a student for the Computer Animation program.

...

Resting for the evening, then on to create new dreams.

Nathan Drake Render: Third Pass

Blended the values and got a bit further with the hair, but it's still not quite there yet.  Stepping away from it again for now but I should also look up some texture brushes for skin and possibly fabric in the meantime.