Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Behind the Iron Curtain 2


About a month ago I took my holidays.  The past few years I have not travelled but with another summer of rain I thought it would be good to go somewhere warm.  It happened that the Behind the Iron Curtain workshop was happening around that time.  I had not been to any workshop before and I had no idea what to expect but off to Bucharest I went.  

I was so glad I took the trip.  It was educational and inspirational. The workshop was covering 2d and 3d work but I went just to focus on the 2d.  

The demos were good but what was most useful for me was finding out how the industry worked and what to consider when putting images together.  

Daniel Simon


 A designer  Daniel talked through his career and design philosophy.  He worked on the bugatti.  I had to take this photo as I painted one last year.




  Iain McCaig
Was all about the story.  After giving an overview of his work his sessions focused on storyboarding.  They were great - lots of interaction.   




 Raphael Lacoste

Raphael went over some of the projects he worked on and some general pointers about design.  I went to a few of his sessions which included a speed paint and a matte painting.  I have not tried any matte painting so was really interested to see the workflow.  








Neville Page 
Neville modeled the fine fellow below over the weekend.  I started out working in Maya and played with Zbrush but have not gone back to them since. Seems like Zbrush has moved on since I used it.  
The sessions were really informative - once again a focus on good design. 



Overall met some great people learned alot and had alot of fun.  
One of the re-occurring comments was to have a story behind the image or design.    The other one I heard alot was for those wishing to work in concept art was to think about if it would suit you - can you work in a team? Are you OK with the possibility no one may ever see some of the work you produce or worse it may even be destroyed due to contractual restrictions?


For a more photos and a look at the more informal parts of the workshop look here.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Polar Bears Study

Polar Bears Study
I am still working on the personal piece.  This is another study I did to help with it.  This was a study of a photo.  The colours were striking but mainly I was interested in the anatomy in this image. 

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Dog Sled Study

Dog Sled Study
Following on from the previous landscape study here is a sled study done from a photo.  Wanted to practice the snow and get a feel for what makes up a sled.  By now I have worked out the composition for the personal piece but still need to do a few more studies. 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Snow Scape Study


Snow Scape Study



I started a personal piece and I need to do a number of studies to help.  This is the first of them a photo study so no prizes for guessing that the piece will be set  in a snowy landscape.  I just wanted to get the feeling for shadows and a little bit of rendering snow. 

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Roman Soldier Study




Roman Soldier Study




Following hot on the heels of the armour study did this photo study.  A Roman Soldier.  This was a bit  faster and looser.  
Cant believe it is almost a year since I did this study of a Roman helmet. 




Sunday, September 30, 2012

Armour study 1

Armour Study
Over on Deviant Art is a relatively new speedpaint group run by Wolkenfels .  This was one of study images this month.  I did not end up doing as a speedpaint however.  I started it that way but ended up detailing it out took close to 4 hours I think.  

 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Pup Portrait


Pup Portrait


This pup portrait is a rendering of a dog I have shown work of before.  This is a photo.  I also did a more recent quick sketch .
In the latter she had a grooming not strictly for cosmetic reasons.  As she is part Bichon she suffers from allergies and the vet recommended the crew cut.  Anyway this was using a photo taken before she lost her locks.   Took about 2 hours.  Definitely getting faster at these photo studies. 





Monday, September 24, 2012

Snow monkey study


Snow Monkey Study

A study of a snow monkey from a photo.  The source is from a photographer
Kiyoshi Ookawa who's work can be found here  Kiyo Photography [busy]'s photostream.
 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Maintenance Man


Maintenance  Man


Woman


This is a quick effort at portraying a maintenance man. The spanner may be a bit of overkill.  The other is a really quick study of a woman. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

After -Street Scene

O'Connell street Dublin
After- Street Scene

Following the last environment effort I wanted to have another go putting some of what I learned into practice.  This is based on O'Connell Street Dublin.  It did not take as long as the last one so that was a plus.  Built on a one point perspective I did a value study then painted over that.  The hardest thing with this was not to let it get too muddy. 















Still Here

  A year since my last post here but that does not mean I have forgotten.  I stop by from time to time and this still remains the most compr...