Archive for May, 2009

Jason McLellan Character Design How-To Part 4

It’s late. I’m tired. So let’s get to it. Shall we?

In part 3 of this I don’t know how many part tutorial the robot design had been accepted so now it was time to combine the cyber chick and the robot into one picture. The client asked for both figures to be placed on a gray background and well that was it. Simple enough.

As you can tell from the picture above I have have placed both on the requested gray background and now it’s time to start finishing the piece. This of course means correcting any proportions, errors stuff like that. I can honestly say I didn’t really have too much to correct anatomy wise. But I’m also really dumb and half blind so God (or you) only knows what I have missed. But, as I said, I’m done so I am moving on.

This is probably my favorite thing about working digitally. The ability to make dramatic changes in compostion or whatever with ease. Such as simply combing the two figures traditionally would have taken me much longer and would have required a trip to the lightbox. But digitally it was a snap. Does this mean I prefer digital? Of course not! Don’t be stupid. Nothing can replace my pencil, but once my pencils are scanned in; I love me some digital.

Check in tomorrow kids and I will have a top ten list for getting gigs and I may also have something clever to say. Because right now the only clever thing I can say is “Beeeeedd…..Beeeedttimmmmeee…..soooo sleeeeeepy…..”

Jason McLellan Character Design How-To Part 4

Hey guys sorry I meant to post this yesterday but I got all caught up in posting the Scarlett Johansson Study tutorial and everytime I deal with anything Scarlett related I just…uh…lose my…ummm…Where was I?

Oh yeah! The character design how-to series that I’m doing. Whew! Ok focus stupid focus. Ok so the robot design was accepted (first try bitches) so now it’s time to move forward by placing the robot and the girl together in a completed piece.

The only request the client had was to place the characters on a grey background. The rest is up to me. Muwhahahaha! I will have a rough layout ready for you guys tomorrow.

In the meantime enjoy the above video. It’s by Kathryn Hagen who is a fashion artist and TOTAL BADASS! I thought since I wasn’t really sharing anything substance today. I would introduce you to Kathryn Hagen who totally knows what the hell she is doing and has thrown away stuff better than my best. So watch and learn kids. Watch and learn.

Scarlett Johansson step by step Part 3

Now we are getting somewhere! Right? Oh God please tell me we are getting somewhere. I was really happy with the way this was turning out but now I’m all paranoid because you hesitated. Why are do artists have to be such paranoid crybabies?

Anyway I’m kinda happy with the way it’s coming along despite what you say. But still more details art needed to call this finished. It’s important though that you don’t overwork the piece. I suggest never trying to capture every little detail and nuance because it can be somewhat distracting for the viewer. Plus there is a good chance it will drive you insane. Trust me. I know.

Remember your primary job as an artist is to convey your point in the most striking way possible. The point to this piece (yes it has one) is the way the light strikes her body. As a result I really want to focus my details there. I don’t want to get caught up in detailing the background because that would only take away from the halo effect the light is causing in her hair.

I also want to make the piece warmer in color so I create a new layer, set it to multiply, and go over it with a warm red. The mulitply layer basically acts as a light wash, preserving your values but pushing the hues. I try and approach the digital medium in the same way that I do with traditional. I work in layers then flatten the image so at any given point I only have at most 3 working layers. Never get caught up in having 14 layers with tiny adjustments here and there. It’s just stupid to do that. You kill your confidence because you are not standing by any decisions you make and it will show in you work. Working in mulitple layers is like never taking off your training wheels.

Scarlett Johansson step by step Part 2

I now have a rough guide for the values down, so now I can go in and start detailing and rendering. oh yeah and I did I mention correcting the proportions?

Now there a lot of ways of getting your proportions correct. You can use a grid method, plumb lines etc. Being a self-taught moron genius I use my own bastard method.

What I do is draw the plumb line, then ‘eyeball’ one feature making sure to get it right from all angles. Like for this one I chose her left eye (our right). I check the corners, width, everything to make sure it’s dead on, from there I use that eye as a reference and measuring point for everything else. I’m sure my method isn’t perfect nor is it recommended but it’s how i do it for now.

Continuing on I just keep working in details trying my best to nail the face (since I may never nail her) because afterall that’s the key to a good portrait in my opinion. Getting the face right not nailing the person. Just wanted to clear that up.

Scarlett Johansson step by step

Hello hello all. I recently had a request for a short tutorial on the study I did of my #1 celebrity crush Scarlett Johansson. So I thought “hey why don’t I just post it here?” Then I thought “that’s a great idea!” Then I thought about what I wanted for dinner. But I digress.

I painted this piece in Photoshop CS2 using 3 or 4 custom brushes a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet and luck. If you want the brushes I used just email me and I will send them to you. If enough people email me I will upload them and link but for now I’m going to be lazy and wait for you to contact me.

I started off just blocking in shapes and values showing little concern for proportions. At this point I’m just trying to put value relations down with broad strokes. It should be noted that normally I would have watched my proportions more closely but since this started as a quick speed paint I ignored it. So guess what? I will be correcting the proportions in step 2 of this tutorial.

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