Perspective woes

So yesterday I got the itch to learn. What is something I'm not quite good at and need help? Perspective. In fact, I wanted to draw a military vehicle of sorts. Problem was simple: wheels.

So I went on my journey of looking up how to draw a perfect ellipse in perspective. Step 1: draw a perfect square..... Wha.... How do you do that? I dredged through the interwebs, art forums, even going so far to a few Art Center students to limited success. Finally I came across a really long-winded series of videos for one point perspective ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfDbXPPzo0c ).

For the sake of myself, and anyone that happens across this, I'd like to reinterpret the video with a quick image/walk through. Let me preface this in saying, using this in a piece or planning is WAY too much work, and very limited. My intention of using this is to check my eyeballing- ie. draw 10 eyeballed squares, check them with this method, correct accordingly.

1. Draw 2 horizantal lines perpendicular to one another. The top one is the horizon line(HL), bottom is the ground line(GL). For the purpose of the exercise, a portion of the GL will be the closest leg of the square in space.
2. Measure between the HL and GL and multiply the distance by 1.73* (photoshop users can just use rectangle marquee to select the gap, then in the height dimensions type 173%). Measure the new quantity from the horizonline, and mark, this will be your eye point (EP).
3. Start your square, draw a reasonable length near the vertical line we just drew and create the front leg, and converge the edges toward the VP.
4. From the EP, measure 45 degrees each way from the center (photoshop users can make a square, rotate it 45 degrees and mark both edges). Draw 2 lines outwards until you meet the HL, mark the convergent points.
5. Connect the 2 initial points of your square to the opposite Median point (MP). You really only need to do 1, but 2 will help to make sure your work is correct.
6. VOILA! connect where the last 2 lines converge with your vanishing square legs and you have your last leg.

*Admittedly, I'm not sure the significance of 1.73. If I were to guess it has something to do with treating the square as 2 triangles, being that the square root of 3 is 1.73 blah blah blah. It works.

Materials study

A while back I was reading David Gluck's blog on his painting process and something stuck out to me. It was one of those phrases that every artists probably know, and is painfully obvious but I think is woefully overlooked.

"you cannot paint everything the same way and expect it to read as the proper texture."

Reference: Game of Thrones still

 I've been trying to apply this to my paintings more and more, to differing results. At the end of the day, it comes down to me needing to understand materials. In a broad sense, knowing the value structure will do what you need it to, details are ansillary, though they can make/break a piece. I think my knowing of how/where to place details at the moment is lacking, but I'm beginning to grasp the difference in values from material to material a bit better I believe.

I did this little breakdown as a study, it's a fun little exercise. 2 years ago I would have went at this very differently, blacking in the silhouette and working my way up, creating lighter values towards the top. While that rule is generally applicable, being aware of glossy vs. matte surfaces I think is a KEY component to realistic rendering.

In all reality I'm just breaching the understanding of this, and need a lot of practice yet, but the only way to learn is to do right?

Ruin vs. Revolution

uh, whut...

Saw a post on facebook about this and wanted to take a screengrab.

Shown left, Ruin, a badass short made by Oddball Animation and released 2 months ago http://vimeo.com/38591304

Shown Right, A not so badass trailer for NBC's new thing 'Revolution,' Released yesterday? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfCRAtkYEI

WTF IS GOIN ON NBC?!

Before jumping onto a piracy pitchfork bandwagon- there is reason to believe NBC in it's vast knowledge paid for the rights to the clip. However, I think it's a knock on your production esteem to show off your new series via a scrapbook of recycled material.

After finishing up some jobs last week, I decided I wanted to do a sort of environment muscle-test. This is what I came up with.

I got a little blur happy towards the end, because why not? It was just a fun sketch playing around. This isn't necessarily a Delta environment, however it would fit as a nondescript location.

In any case, I've stayed away from environments for a while, and figured I'd get my feet wet a bit with this. I reckon the next step will be to do some 'oh-shit-that-scale-is-ridiculous-concept-art environment' soon, with jagged edges and particle fx to boot.

photostudy

Brapbot

So, this little guy doesn't have much of a story or function... I just really wanted to make a robot. Sometimes you just gotta make a robot...

Process Sketches

I have quite a lot of Delta Quebec sketches amassed, but let's parcel them out bit by bit. This scatterbrained nonsense is how I go about character development, the ugly way.

Delta palette

The first full-body sketch of Delta Quebec, complete with some color iterations.

1. Gaudy
2. Standard space marine palette
3. Gaudier
4. A good mixture of gaudy and old school

What I want to accomplish with this is not so much the standard space marine motif, but rather bring in some knightly fashion to a space marine. The specifics of color placement is subject to change, however I think iteration #4 is a pretty close approximation to the final palette I'd like to go with for this character.

Helmet Iterations

Exhibit Delta Quebec - Whimsical mustachioed space marauder. This is my new pet project for 2012. Don Quixote in space.

Notes:

1. Doesn't fit exactly what I was going for but I love how the blockiness squeezes onto his head.
2. Too gladatorial.
3. Has potential to be interesting with spacing adjustments
4. The best Quixote-resemblance, although I don't know if I want to be that literal in translation.
5. Cool MX helmet bro.
6. Marvin the martian.
7. Samurai.
8. No.
9. I'm going for space marine, not cyborg
   
   

I'm proud of these iterations, but there's a few more in me.

viking process

A little side illustration I've been working on: finished version coming soon.