ho-ho-ho

more hands....

Did a couple more hands - this time the model is my very own....good practice

Classic Drawing - Skull

It's been a while since last I did some more classic drawing. I spend about one hour - give or take on the skull. The hand probably 20-30 minutes. It is very rough - and especially the hand would have benefited from a better construction. Think I'll do some more - looks like I could use the practice.

Inktober Day#22

Day 22

google image search on tigers - running out of ideas - things I want to do - in the limited time frame that is available to me - if I want to get a drawing done each day that is. So sketches - really fast ones, focusing mainly on movement.  

Inktober Day#21

Day 21
So.....I have been a naughty boy - I haven't done my homework for the last couple of days....I will see if it is possible to remedy this - making a "catch-up" post or something....
Well for this day 21 I did a giraffe with its head high up in the sky. Last piece of heavy watercolor paper so wont be doing more work with ink and water for now.....
I got a little impatient and so the ink and water got a little "runny" and things that weren't supposed to started to merge....wanted to start over but alas last piece of paper forced me to finish it this way.

Inktober Day#15

Day 15
A sheep - ink and water on paper. Two "versions" today - scan and photo from mobile....actually thinks the photo is better than the scan.

Inktober Day#14 (&13)

Day 14 (&13)

So since I didn't do anything yesterday I made 2 sketches today. Simple shapes - I really like the design of the mouse, but the drawing itself was pretty rushed. For some reason it felt better drawing the bear.
Two weeks and bit to go....I have to say I am starting to doubt weather or not I will "make" it.  

Inktober Day#12

Day 12
So we are moving away from the sea and into the woodland realm. Starting with a rather larger "critter" - the Moose. This one is pretty pleased with himself - and why shouldn't he be? He is a magnificent beast.
Both sketch and the more "final" result. Really happy with this one - got the sketch the way I wanted it from the get go. Only two minor kinks; again I got a hold of color pencil instead of my col-erase - and that show in the ink. The other thing is the fact that both my light grey markers seems to be due for a retirement. 

Inktober Day#11

Day 11

And to round of this weekends theme with creatures of the sea; it's a happy whale - Yeah.
Perhaps slightly overweight, plenty of blubber - so no more krill for you today mister!

Inktober Day#10

Day 10
A crab - apparently I have got a sea food platter theme going on this weekend.....

Inktober Day#9

Day 9
It's a squid....evil looking - with a bowler hat. Really not much to say about this one - Went through some of my old sketches and this guy was among them. Pretty pleased with how he turned out - only thing is a missing tentacle.....so that will make him an....heptapus I guess? 

Inktober Day#8

Day 8
Today it is a quick sketch of a raven - random image found on google....

Inktober Day#7

Day 7
More Ink, water, brushes and pens....had a lot of fun - but none of it really worked for me to night - made three "drawings" I call this one "No Ideas on a Wednesday Evening" It is a....I have no idea what it is - but like when you watch clouds and all of a sudden you can see a dog etc. this blob turned into a birds head and a dinosaur/godzilla-like creature before my very eyes.....and now I must sleep.
Hope to do better tomorrow :)  

Inktober Day#6

Day 6
Play with old fashioned pen, brush and some ink that has seen better days (almost all the pigment in the ink has over the years formed a hard ball leaving only grey-ish ink-water behind.)
In case you are wondering; it's a tree and some clouds.....actually a fun and free little exercise, think I just might do more of this.

Inktober Day#5

Day 5
Today's sketch is a happy rhino. And now while I am still high on the fumes from the markers I shall go to bed and have magnificent dreams.

Inktober Day#4

Day 4
Due to family visit during the weekend I didn't get around to do a drawing yesterday - as a penance I've made 2 today. Both sketches a little rushed as I am currently fresh out of ideas, a little tired and in need of getting my dishes done before going to bed.
So today's selection features a little angry monster-type dude, and a sad-ish triceratops.

Inktober Day#2

Day 2
It's a cowboy. Inked directly on the sketch - worked a lot better, so I'm pretty pleased with that.
The face of the cowboy works, but there where no clear idea behind his pose - and what should he do with his hands. And it shows. Also the use of both gray maker and the black crosshatches.....well there is still room for improvement.
But I'm still in the race ;)

Inktober Day#1

Day 1
So day #1 in Inktober 2015. It's a semi sad croc. I had a sketch of him lying around, a sketch that I really liked. But something happens when I decide to "clean up" my work - I feel like the drawing...well dies in a way. I think it is because I want the drawing to be to "perfect" instead of just making a drawing that works.
And so this is one of my goals in doing this challenge - a drawing a day - preferably a sketch - no clean up, no old sketch that I re-do and in the process ends up killing.
A perfect sketch with all its imperfections :)

I didn't succeed to day - not entirely, but I made the drawing, I got started - pats myself on the.  shoulder

Inktober is coming up....

....and I'll be participating. Or I'll give it a try at the very least. At had never heard about inktober before a friend from work told me about it - and lured me on board.
The concept is pretty simple - make a drawing in ink every day throughout October and post it somewhere on the Internet.
You can find more about it here; http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober

So today I went out and got some supplies. Had I not controlled myself I would have bought even more.....maybe I'll return Monday - they had some nice grey ones :)
And now even though October is almost two weeks away, I think maybe I'd better get started on the training - drawing one picture a day will be daunting especially after a long and hard day at work.

another Robot

 Finally "finished" this little guy - it started as a 3D project, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away......I got stuck in creating the CG model, I think mainly because I had no final design to work after, instead I had a couple of doodles and an idea in my head. But it didn't really work (images of the 3D work can be found on this blog if you go back in time...) So when modeling didn't move along I decided to take a step back - and make a design that worked for me. So I started on this little guy - and it is now more than a year ago....things just kept on coming in the way - I got a job and had to move, I had to do the dishes (every single f****ing day) excuses I had plenty to go around :)

But now he is here - and with a little luck (and a dishwasher - send money please....maybe I ought to do a kickstarter) I will now go back to Maya and start over on this 3D project - who knows maybe I'll finish - this year??

The work is done in Illustrator, based on the sketches and my main idea. And at the end I couldn't help myself but to play around with some textures and overlays in Photoshop.

- A little line up with some textures added - just for the fun of it - 

 

Polygonal Me

Messing around with a bit of illustrator - trying out a tutorial on creating this low poly/ polygonal look. Pretty straight forward, all that is needed is a basic knowledge of Illustrator and a lot of patience, because basically all you do is trace over a photo....and drawing all these triangles is somewhat tedious.
But I am pretty pleased with the end result.

The Auction Guy

Just a couple of images of the character I did for "Auction Day" It was actually quite fun doing some character work - it has been too long since last I did that. And hands are hard to model.....need more practice. All in all I am pleased with the result - all though, five minutes after ending the project I found things that could have been better....aaa well - live and learn.
Next time I think I'll make it easier on myself - and make a character with an actual neck.....and a more set design from the get go. I sort of just winged it.....based on quick sketches and a single illustration. - I am not liking a too methodical approach I guess.

- The Illustration of the Auction Guy....at some point he turned Pirate, don't know why -

Auction Day

 - A bottle ship, one of the symbols from Auction Day -

So the first machine I did the graphics for is now, almost done (there is a character missing - but he'll be added later) and online. We are talking casual games, in this case an online slot machine with mini games that can be won. The theme was inspired by all the TV shows involving auctions, flea markets/car boot sales and those storage unit TV shows that seems to be everywhere these days.
The main scene is designed to be like an old attic that is filled with loads of old stuff. All the symbols that is in the game can actually be found more or less hidden in the background. 

- The Main Background -

The overall theme was I my mind very broad, because you could fit just about every thing into this world of buying and selling more or less valuable, old things. From designer chairs to antique clocks and so on. And because I wanted so many things in the main scene, it was a bit of a challenge to make it all seem like one big mess - without it actually being too disturbing to watch. Especially all the colors had me a bit worried - but toning them all down just a little with bluish overlay made it all work.

One of the mini games is an auction game where you "sell" some of the old goodies you found in the attic. Winning the mini game has actually nothing to do with what you find in the main game - there is a separate symbol for that. But I found it helped me in building this world - trying to fit the maybe a little more lowbrow attic hunt and flea markets with the more "high class" world of the auction.
So in my mind telling the story of someone rummaging through their attic to find grandma's old diamond ring, so they could bring it to the auction house to make a big sale, worked out quite well.

 - The Auction MiniGame -

My main tools for this project has been Maya for the 3D work - both modelling, shading, light and render. After Effects was used for compositing. And naturally Photoshop has been used for texturing purpose.
I also did some work in Zbrush - it's an amazing tool but I am still finding my way around - but for instance the symbol of the bust is made using zbrush.

 - Small line up of some of the symbols -

more AE fun...

Polygon from Martin Hjelholt Brun Pedersen on Vimeo.

Still trying to improve my After Effects skills - so did yet another video copilot tutorial, pretty much a paint by the numbers kind of thing - but still made some changes to make it - all mine (which coincidentally is the title of a great song by Portishead)
A fun little Sunday afternoon project, and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out, although as I look at it now maybe the textures on the background could be turned down just a tad.

XGen Topology Art

I found this really neat tutorial on creating topological art using Maya and XGen on Youtube at the Maya Learning Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmAXsicpLK2EHMZo5_BtDA)
At first Maya naturally resisted, refusing to do as she was told, saving in different formats than expected, making it impossible for me to make it work. Then after putting the project aside for a couple of days - without any explanation....it just started working.
So anyway this is the first attempt on creating topological art with xgen - would be fun doing something a bit more advanced - maybe animating the camera, but as it is a bit heavy handed I decided to keep it relative simple to begin with.
Comped and music added using After Effects.



XGen_topology from Martin Hjelholt Brun Pedersen on Vimeo.