Schoolism Week 8

In week 8, our assignment was to combine everything that we had learned over the past few weeks into a full illustration.  We were encouraged to use one of our thumbnails from week 7, but I didn't really like how the backgrounds in my thumbnails turned out.  Instead I decided to do an illustration of an idea that I had last Christmas for a picture for my sister.  She's a big fan of the show Spartacus and anything gladiator related, so I decided to make a slightly more festive version of that by using gingerbread men.  I was a little strapped for time this last week, because I was out of town for CTN but I got as much done as I could.  I generally like how it turned out, but it could still use a lot of polishing.

Schoolism Week 7

For week 7 we had to integrate a character into a background.  We only had to do rough thumbnails of a few different options, mostly to figure out possible colors and lighting.  I wanted to use a new character, so I quickly sketched a french bulldog as a mime.  I like how he turned out, but I still need a lot more practice with lighting.

Schoolism Week 6

In Week 6 we learned all about custom brushes and how to make them.  We covered general painting/sketching brushes, photo brushes, texture brushes, effect brushes and stamp brushes.



I had always wondered how people created their own brushes and got certain effects in their work, so I was really glad that we got to learn how to make our own custom brushes. I also really enjoyed seeing all of the different ways that you can use them to get awesome effects.  I think that for where I am right now in my digital painting I will mostly just be using the basic brushes though.

Schoolism Week 5

For week 5 we learned how to approach a drawing with a more painterly approach.  I had a hard time coming up with something to draw, so I used a few random word generators and eventually got 'radioactive single minded regenerating crocodiles that throw blasts of energy'.  Andrew had shown us some techniques to create some cool effects, so it ended up working pretty well for me.  I didn't really cover off the 'radioactive single minded regenerating' part, but I did give him a lovely ball  of energy to throw.  I'm decently happy with how it turned out, and I kind of enjoy how it looks like his skin is made of pickles.

I haven't had a chance to make the changes that Andrew mentioned in his critique, but I will hopefully have time to tackle them soon.  The thing that I most need to work on is defining the form more with shadows.  Overall Andrew thought it was pretty good though! :)

Schoolism Week 4

We tackled cell shading and coloring this week.  It's a lot closer to how I would normally color things in Photoshop, but Andrew still showed us some things that I had never thought to try before.  My tablet and Photoshop were not getting along very well, so I used a sketch that I had scanned into my computer instead of drawing something directly in Photoshop.  The first image is the one that I submitted and the second one is my revised version after watching my critique.

There weren't a lot of changes to make, mostly just refining the shadows and adding some more highlights to make his tentacles look a bit more shiny.

He caught himself a nice looking spleen!

Schoolism Week 2 and 3

So after watching my critique from Andrew on my week 1 assignment I went back and re-drew the sloth giving it more volume and form and making it looks less like a scary, gangly monster.  I fixed up the arms as well to give the drawing a bit more flow.  We then had to do a pass of the shadows and highlights.  I was still getting used to the pressure sensitivity and drawing with a tablet in general so it turned out a little messy.

Then came the time to COLOR IT!  We learned about all of the blend modes for layers, which are super cool.  He also showed us how to mask off your drawing which makes not coloring outside of the lines a lot easier.

After watching Andrews week 3 critique I went back and toned down the highlights and fixed up the background.  I also brought out the features of his fuzzy little face a bit more.

"There ain't no party like a Sloth Club party."

Schoolism-Week 1

Well hey there!  I started taking an Intro to Digital Painting class through Schoolism.com a week or so ago and I though that I would post what I've done so far.  I had never really painted, let alone sketched in Photoshop before but it always been something that I wanted to learn.  The class is taught by Andrew Hou, and he has some mad digital painting skills.  He's been digital painting for a while and has worked both in comics and as a concept artist.  You can see some of his work here www.andrewhou.com.

The first lesson was how to sketch in Photoshop.  I hadn't really worked with a tablet before so it was all pretty new to me.  I decided to draw a sloth having a party.

It definitely could have turned out better, but I'm still kind of getting used to everything.  Andrew recorded a 15 minute critique where he went over my drawing and showed me ways to make it work a little better.  His drawing looked a lot better than mine did, hahaha.