Sequential Reactions...

From my 'Sketch-A-Scene' study last week, here's a page of sequential reactions I was exploring, & decided to colour up... I wouldn't quite call these 'keyframes' to flow in an animated sequence; more just a study on sequential expressions, focusing specifically on the facial features & body-language alone to tell the story.

-M-

Sketch-A-Scene #2

Here's Sketch-A-Scene #2...

"GET BAAAACK... I MEAN IT, I'LL SHOOT!!!"

-M-

'Legends of the American Old West' Art Book!

Hi folks! Here's the finished painting for the 'Legends of the American Old West' Art Book I'll be contributing in, titled 'Belle Starr' (Bandit Queen); & here's the official post I made some weeks back for more details on the project. The book is basically going to be a compilation of artworks by over 30 different artists from around the globe all working under the same theme of 'Legends of the American Old West'.

As well as Mike Collins (the host & organiser of the project), there are some other amazing people featuring in this book also. Just to name a few, there are the talented Jez Tuya, Rhys Byfield, Gillian Reid, Justin Rodrigues + much more! Here's a great post over on Mike's blog showing how the book's looking so far.

Will post up a WIP breakdown over the next few days to share my thought process on working on my piece. I went in several different directions in the beginning & couldn't quite decide where to go, but thanks to the help of my friends online who threw in their thoughts & opinions, I was able to settle with something... One thing I did manage to agree with myself on was to present the piece as a movie poster for a classic Western you might have seen back in the late 40's or so... Stemming from my Vintage Movie Poster project, it was actually more of an experiment to try out a few new painting techniques & compositional style (combining studies of a little Frazetta & McGinnis)... Was definitely pleased with the results, & the response from people on the final piece was amazing (very surprising actually). I also decided to give some shout-outs in the "film credits" to some friends too =)

Hope you guys like it also!

-M-

Day #03...

Ok, here's day 03's WIP. Threw in the guy's shirt & tie, & fleshed out the "broad"'s hair, outfit & a little work on her legs... So far, really pleased with the shape it's taking.

My palette hasn't quite been an exact match of my colour study, but at the same time it hasn't deviated so far as to mess up values etc... One thing I've found that has surprisingly been more helpful than I had anticipated in making this transition from digital to traditional, has been my understanding of painting in Adobe Photoshop... I work with a very painterly technique/ look in PS; from the way I blend my colours, to adjusting the wetness, load, mix & flow sliders in order to simulate techniques used when painting traditionally... & I can definitely say it really has helped! I'll save going into the details for now since I'm not actually finished, but I think it's more to do with the fact that working digitally frees you up to make mistakes quicker, knowing you have the luxury of easily correcting them... Depending on your process of painting in PS, I really believe this helps you learn faster & become bolder in your decisions, paint stokes & mark-making.

In terms of anything else, I'd say the biggest battle I have is with the drying time of the paint. I'm using acrylics, & though I suppose this could be a good thing, in forcing me to work faster/ make quicker decisions, at this stage it's drying a little too fast for me... [Note to self: "pick up paint retarder before moving onto the background"...  Let me know what you guys think!

Fig:01

Fig:02

Fig:03
I forget what gave me the idea to throw this in [most probably accidentally
getting a dot of white paint on the dress], but I decided to give the girl's dress
a little more detail & texture by adding lighter values as dots, to suggest
the dress being made of some sort of sequence fabric. 

Fig:04
A little more work to do on her hair...

My palette at the end of this session...

-M-

Day #02...

Hey folks! So here's where I'm at at day 02... Spent just over an hour on this today between other work. Worked mainly on the guy's suit-jacket, his hair & tidied up his face a little more.

-M-

Colour study...

Here's a rough colour study I worked up yesterday... Realised the girl just seemed a little too generic with no real story behind her... at first I actually saw her as maybe some sort of ballet dancer who had just been visited by an obsessed fan; but then kinda wanted it to be a little more darker than that, so threw in a pair of playboy bunny ears on her & a more interesting story just seemed to pop out!

In fact, would be great to know how you guys interpret this scenario... Once I've finished the piece then I'll explain what I saw too. Also, I couldn't quite decide on which of these two versions to go for; the only difference being the sort-of over-exposed hot spot in the second image where the light source is closest... I quite liked the idea of them being illuminated from below/ just off screen; as is the trademark lighting style in the noir genre, of which I'm huge fan.

Feel free to drop comments below, love to know what you think ;)

Fig: 01

Fig: 02

-M-

Speed paint #35

Today's Sketchercise... I've now come o the realisation I have ZERO skill in the art of conversing whilst drawing... too much yapping/ not enough focus; I know that now. Although, somehow she did actually turn out a lot better than I'd hoped...  Probably flesh her out later in the week... [hold onto your wallets, she's a tricksy one].

-M-

Speed paint #34

Thursday's Sketch-ercise... *thud thud*.... *clink*.... *tsssssssssss*

-M-

Speed paint #33

Wednesday's Sketch-ercise... [worked up a little more after my session].

-M-

Speed paint #32

Today's Sketch-ercise... So this week's theme is a continuation on character exploration, but with the sub-theme "story behind the character"... In this exercise, the task is to generate character concepts for a fictitious animated series. The genre must be a Western & only one character per session... Focusing on the characters background, personality, who he/she is & how they relate to the other cast members; I think this is a great exercise in developing more substance, authenticity & dynamism in your designs...

There was a quote I once heard off either Greg Manchess or George Prat... [I forget] where he stressed, "every stoke you make with a pencil or paintbrush has to mean something, every line has to tell a story"... I totally believe this & try to keep it in mind whenever designing... As I'm developing a character I try to ask myself questions like, "why does he stoop like that? How did he get that lazy left eye? Are his hands this jacked up because he's an auto-mechanic?" & so on... I say "I try to keep this in mind" but honestly I still feel I could push this a lot more.

At the end of the week we'll compile all the characters together, giving a loose synopsis of the series & a short breakdown of the characters/ names etc... by the looks of it, mine'll end up being more of an 18th century 'rogues gallery' haha. Well, here's today's piece folks.

-M-

Speed paint #31

Today's Sketch-ercise. Spent a few minutes after the session to roughly flesh this guy out a little more... Pretty tired so I'll save explaining this weeks theme till tomorrow. Here's Tee's, Chris' & Nathan's pieces... Nite folks ; )

-M-