Thursday, January 31, 2013

Cheech, my life drawing model...

Week 2, Day 4, CDW Workshop

Tried to copy Aaron Beck's gun today. I don't think I have much interest in a future in game design... Jaime continued to talk about his approach to painting. He's like an encyclopedia, he has so much knowledge. Things he spoke about today: 1. Pay more attention, do more life drawing 2. If you don't draw from life you will continually repeat the same mistakes over and over. It's not smart. You can't expect a different result if you're always doing the same thing. 3. He was influenced by comic books in his teens, but chose to be a more realistic artist. In his mind it was better in the long run. 6. Early on he decided to get more influences and studied a lot of art history to understand why people do things instead of what they are doing. 7. To really improve, you need to increase your mileage and put in the hours, and be intelligent - do things that will push you, aka. work hard and long but also smart. 8. Music affects his moods and his mood is reflected in his work, he listens to music that is appropriate for his work, with no dramatic change. 9. He learnt to ignore when he didn't feel like drawing or painting. 10. Tangents. 11. Draw very very well so that you will be more confident in your painting. 12. Artist's he mentioned - Wayne Barlowe, Doug Chiang, Craig Mullins "the Godfather of digital art", Birke, John Harris, Ian McCaig (star wars), Anders Zorn, K Bougliereau, Repin 13. Book suggestions - Famous artist course 14. Material variety in paintings 15. Weening himself off using reference I was very lucky to show him my sketch book of life drawings today too, I actually waited around til 8pm to do so. He told me I shouldn't be in such a hurry to get to the rendering stage, to focus more on getting the form. He said that I was good with showing movement and weight in my drawings which I think is huge for me. I really wanted his advice so I can improve. He also suggested that I read the Loomis books, and also, even though he hadn't read it yet, he'd heard that Michael Hampton's Figure drawing: Design and invention was great. So I'm definitely going to get it. I also got feedback on my black and white painting today by Simon, so I made the changes that were needed, basically fixing something in the middle and the clouds to get it more accurate to the photo... So I think it's better, and I'm leaving that for now to do the rest of them. I don't think I will be coming back to that.
These are some of the drawings that I got good feedback from Jaime on:
And these are some more drawings done today. I couldn't go to life drawing, so I sketched some hands and drew some bystanders and then came home to a very helpful dog, who did some posing for me.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Oh and I found a great source of motivation...

Great value. Check out his tumblr. He's always posting great covers and artists! Plus a great sense of humour! http://brianmichaelbendis.tumblr.com/

Day 3, Week 2, CDW Workshop

I had a laptop today!!! My awesome friend Izzy let me borrow it last night and man, does it make a difference!!! The day absolutely flew! I also have to say I love Aaron Beck! He is refreshingly honest about everything, and you can ask him anything! This is his blog: http://skul4aface.blogspot.com.au/ His designs are incredible. While I'm at it, here are the rest of the places that you can see the Artist's artwork. Simon Scales: http://simon-scales.blogspot.com.au/ Simon is the Director of CDW. Victoria Ying: http://victoriaying.blogspot.com.au/ Victoria Ying works at Disney Feature Animation. Mike Yamada: http://mikeyamada.blogspot.com.au/ Mike Yamada works at Dreamworks Animation. Bryan Wynia: http://bryanwynia.blogspot.com.au/ Bryan Wynia was teaching us sculpture in Z Brush. It was a real eye-opener! Jaime Jones: http://www.artpad.org/ Jaime Jones is the most amazing Artist I have ever seen. Ben Mauro: http://benmauro.blogspot.com.au/ Ben Mauro is working at WETA in New Zealand. He also taught a workshop in Z Brush. He's also a great Artist. Khang Le: http://khang-le.com/ I call Khang Le the Art Rocket Scientist because he does awesome things in Photoshop. He's the creator of Hawken. Also, an A-Mazing Artist. I'm so glad it's only Wednesday. I was worried it was Thursday today... so I hope I appreciate tomorrow when I'm there. CDW has made me so curious, and you realize how much you don't know about certain things. I have so much to learn and so much information to get, and lots and lots of practice... This is one part of homework from Simon Scales. We have to do 5 black and white paintings working with values. It still needs work but we were only meant to spend 2 hours on each one. I'm ok with it now but actually happier that I'm getting critical based on what I now know from doing the course, on lighting, soft and hard edge lines etc. It's really exciting :)
Also, here is a work in progress, but I'm not sure when I'll finish it, it was an experiment with colouring in Photoshop.
Can't wait for tomorrow. I actually really have to go now to continue with my sketching of hands...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Day 2, Week 2, CDW workshop!

Today I decided to start the drawings of my thousand hands... In this case, my thousand left hands... I'm right handed, so I think that drawing the right hand will be much, much slower... The instructors are still blowing my mind!

Day 1, Week 2, CDW Workshop - THE BEST DAY EVER!

So, today was absolutely outstanding. Simon taught first, and it was about general composition (stuff that I didn't know) and what it takes to become amazing. Again straight to the point, pretty much work your butt off! Then we had Aaron Beck who designed a robot holding a gun. He's so quick at the most awesome details - he'd done work for Avatar the movie and District 9. But the most surprising was Jaime Jones, because even though I'd looked at his website, it was just so beautiful. His digital paintings look like oil paintings and I think I had a strong reaction since I was at the art gallery yesterday looking at oil paintings, and because that kind of work seems like it's been done by aliens with super awesome technology. He was also really articulate about answering questions. I didn't draw at all today because I didn't want to miss anything... Still, information overload, but I was hanging on every word, and took 30 A5 pages of notes. Anyway. That was my day. It was also fun riding there this morning because there was barely any traffic. I feel really lucky that I'm being taught by these people and I don't want it to end. #bringontomorrow #ifeelreallylucky #theybroughtmintsliceagain #inspiring #thankful

Day 7! CDW Workshop, portfolio review...

This day I had a review of my art by Robin Eley (master of Painting and probably a lot of other art but I don't know, he's a master), Makoto Koji (animator) and Peter Yong (animator). I can't tell you their precise titles but they know their stuff. Anyway, it was really encouraging, I was given clear direction and I feel like this last week has shown me where my strengths and weaknesses are, instead of the muddle-ness that it was. I'm definitely going to be exploring more options of how I can get my dream life. I went to the art gallery after the review to gather some photos and more inspiration and this evening have done some more research.

CDW Workshop 2013 - Day 6 - It's a great day!

Ben Mauro spoke today. He's a concept artist and awesome digital sculpter. Soooo, this is a super short summary but, the highlight of this day was Ben Mauro talking about contracting and negotiations, in hopes that enthusiastic artists won't be taken advantage of. I hope so too. I don't want to be taken advantage of...

Friday, January 25, 2013

What day is it??? You guessed it - the BEST day ever! CDW Workshop 2013!

Day 5. Last day with Khang Le, Victoria Ying, Mike Yamada, and Bryan Wynia as teachers. :( I found today to be even more satisfying then yesterday. Khang did an awesome mechanical character - I tried to copy with no success... Victoria and Mike corrected another painting together and discussed portfolios. They answered all of our questions on Portfolios and what would be needed, seriously, who better to ask then them? I also got an awesome critique from Victoria Ying. I have issues with cleaning up my sketches before I colour in that I feel something gets taken away from it, like it loses it's life... And I wondered if maybe I was just doing bad designs because that shouldn't happen. She told me that she often draws it again and the second time around usually gives her a better indication of shapes. This was my first drawing:
From being given that, I drew it again:
Excuse my notes. During the break, Victoria gave me feedback. She said that I wasn't really selective in the lines I was putting back in as I had lost some of the form. To see what lines I could take from my original sketch such as in the clothing, the seams in the sleeves etc or differentiating the shoulder from the back. I had also lost some weight in my drawing - like she looks weightless but her feet are off the ground... And the guy would be tilting back more. Also to fix the back leg. She also said to do life drawing such as movement where people are doing things like lifting things and I will see the tilt in their bodies, and where the movement comes from. So I drew it again but will continue to rework it. This is the 3rd drawing:
And here are another two sketches just mucking around:
Bryan had me laughing for the whole time in the last class. What a day!

CDW Workshop 2013 - The best day ever! Day 4!

So I just installed Z brush on my computer... and probably the most important note that I forgot to write down was how your supposed to start because I can't remember and have tried to 'load tool' 3 times... Wish this tool right here took some useful notes. Thanks Jaz, twit. "Z Brush, Jasmine Style!" No! That's not right! Thanks Bryan Lee for helping :)
DAY 4 SUMMARY: Today I think was the best day, I felt really inspired by last night's hip hop class with Jack May and felt like I was drawing the whole day because I felt inspired to draw movement. Today Khang Le worked on some kind of bird reptile creature in photoshop, Victoria Ying went over style, how to get it and then improved her already amazing artwork, and Bryan Wynia critiqued other students Z brush pieces (his class today was my other favourite - as Victoria and Mike got in first if you can't tell... Anyway, Bryan's got a great sense of humour and kept everyone on their toes and me smiling) and then started sculpting this disgusting Vampire Lord deformed creature... His photo references are pretty disgusting. I feel like watching him sculpt is teaching more about anatomy and using reference. All 3 classes have been pushing references, it's really insightful. I'm upset that tomorrow is my last day with these 3 artists, but still have learnt soooo much and I'm so grateful that this calabre of Artists has come to Adelaide. I feel like I'm in the right place at this time and so happy :)

CDW Workshop 2013 - The best day ever! Day 3!

#notes Ahhh they make me happy. Life's good, so much art #BESTDAYEVER #mikeyamada #victoriaying
http://khang-le.com/picture/atlantis_01.jpg?pictureId=9714659... Next thing I know it's 1:15am... Trying to replicate the amazing work below as seen in the link (style wise, not blind), with my epic fai
lures... LOL, hoping to see an improvement by the end of the two weeks... Workshop... 1st class with Khang Le, literally copying everything he does, don't really draw this stuff but would like to learn... At the moment it's in the very hard basket... #rocketscience #khangle #whatisgoingon #mindisblown #artfreakofnature
Well, today was interesting (as always phenomenal but brought new rocket science to the table). Khang Le continued to work on this crazy dragon landscape in photoshop and then decided to start on some sort of really difficult machine, Victoria Ying and Mike Yamada when through colour and colour scripts (I am embarrassed to say to all animators out there that I didn't know the difference between colour scripts and storyboards... And in the last session Bryan Wynia continued sculpting this crazy monster with no eyes in a program called Z Brush! I took a lot of notes and drew a lot of pictures of Victoria Ying and Mike Yamada because I'm obsessed with them and feel like I'm watching a 3 hour special feature just on concept art which I get to ask as many questions as I want in! Even stupid questions like "Are colour scripts different to storyboarding?" I also have to say, hip hop with Jack May, was the best way to end the day! Just because I feel like rhyming! Seriously though, I love it, it was exactly what I needed. Thanks for organizing class, it felt amazing!

CDW Workshop 2013 - Best day ever! Day 2!

What I am witnessing today I usually just see this on youtube or on dvd special features. This is Victoria Ying character designs for a Japanese Snow White concept. #bestdayEVER I actually just died and went to Heaven, so I think when I recover I'm starting plans on going to LA. #favouriteclass #livespecialfeature
Truly have had the best day. Victoria Ying and Mike Yamada smashed yesterdays class, they're really organized teachers too! Victoria Ying draws in the Disney style and I was peaking listening to her thought process when they are approached to do concept art for a film - it was just so incredible to see her style! I'm loving every minute of it! Plus it was awesome seeing Jack May and Jenna Walasek, I'm pumped for Jack's workshop tomorrow night, so I get to draw and dance again tomorrow. Had a dance audition tonight too which was really fun, but I don't know the results yet and I had pancakes for dinner at 11pm - the perfect way to end a beautiful day :) I'm thanking life - and Melbourne for sending all of these awesome visitors to Adelaide! Thank you!

CDW Workshop 2013! Best workshop ever! Day 1!

These were my facebook status update on Monday 21st of January 2013. Well, I'm not dreaming, I'm amazed though, first part of today was a Khang Le workshop, blowing my mind with his landscape thing done in photoshop. Definitely rocket science but I still can't wait to try it. About to start with Victoria Ying & Mike Yamada, so I may die of enthusiasm and joy #wreckitralph #kungfupanda #cdwstudios #artisticgeniuses #hungerbeingfed #happy #gimmemore — at CDW Studios Obviously I'm going to keep posting every single day out of excitment but this is what's exciting for me these next two weeks, which started today! Seriously, if you are wanting to do digital art of any kind or just want to improve your skills, this is the place to be! http://www.conceptdesignworkshop.com/index.php/schedule.html ADELAIDE 2013 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE 21 January - 1 February 2013. Lv 3 MYER Centre Adelaide. WEEK 1 SCHEDULE JANUARY 21 - 25 2013 | MONDAY - FRIDAY 9.00am - 12.00pm DIGITAL PAINTING TECHNIQUES FOR GAMES with KHANG LE. This workshop covers the topics of digital painting, ‘mech and vehicle’ design and also environment design. Khang will share his working process and techniques for creating a strong visual direction for video game productions. Topics covered will include composition, visual balance, colour, scale, lighting, edges and incorporating photos into your work. 12.30pm - 3.30pm VISUAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ANIMATION with MIKE YAMADA and VICTORIA YING. This workshop will cover how to explore and develop a visual style for animated films. Mike and Victoria will share their knowledge on the skills and design process which is required for animation pre-production. Topics such as character, props and environment design will be covered. Mike and Victoria will demonstrate their process for creating pre-production artwork. 3.45pm - 6.45pm ZBRUSH CHARACTER AND CREATURE SCULPTING with BRYAN WYNIA In this workshop Bryan will demonstrate how he uses zbrush to create character and creature designs for the Game, Film, and Television. He will share his thought process and techniques for concept sculpting and creature development. Topics covered will include silhouette, anatomy, weight, forms, gesture, rhythm, and color. SATURDAY WORKSHOP JANUARY 26 2013 | SATURDAY 10.00am - 4.00pm SCULPTING IN ZBRUSH FOR CONCEPT ARTISTS with BEN MAURO This workshop will cover how to rapidly develop realistic character concepts for a modern Film pipeline. Ben will show you how to integrate ZBrush into your design process to create compelling designs which can be easily handed off to VFX artists or a 3D printer. Topics covered will include character design, thumbnails, silhouettes and archetypes, texturing and painting. You can puchase tickets for the Saturday Workshop seperately if required. See tickets page. SUNDAY PORTFOLIO REVIEW DAY JANUARY 27 2013 | SUNDAY 10.00am - 4.00pm SUNDAY PORTFOLIO REVIEW DAY On Sunday January 27, CDW will be holding a Portfolio review day. Each attendee will be allocated a 15 minute timeslot to present to the instructors and also other industry professionals and agents their portfolio. This is only available for people who attend the full two week event. Bookings for your timeslot will be made on Day 1 of the workshop. WEEK 2 SCHEDULE JANUARY 28 - FEBRUARY 1 2013 | MONDAY - FRIDAY 9.00am - 12.00pm DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION FOR FILM AND GAMES with JAIME JONES In this workshop Jaime will cover the tools and thinking process he uses to capture realistic lighting and imagery in Photoshop. Topics such as composition, lighting, mood, storytelling, brush customisation and texture will all be covered during his workshop. Jaime will introduce you to some useful digital painting techniques and also review the core painting principles which are used for any type of medium you paint in. 12.30pm - 3.30pm VEHICLE, MECH AND WEAPON DESIGN with AARON BECK In this workshop Aaron will cover the topics of creating visually interesting and believable vehicle, mech and weapon designs for feature films.. A strong emphasis will be placed on shape, design and functionality. With a focus on painting and design Aaron will demo his process of how he creates his images form the ground up using Photoshop. 3.45pm - 6.45pm ENVIRONMENT DESIGN FOR GAMES with SIMON SCALES This workshop will focus on the foundation of thumbnails, value/lighting, composition and digital painting techniques. Simon will share his process using different techniques to start a painting and generate ideas quickly. The workshop will cover the use of photoshop brushes, shape design and Simon will show workflows which can dramatically speed up your painting process. Simon will also show his process for creating highly detailed matte paintings.