Everyday Folk...

Spottet a guy today that looked like this... Sort of shuffled along taking small (quick) steps, gazing into every shop window he walked by... His hair really was that long, & he had this very same expression on his face... I tried, but couldn't help starring as I walked past him...

-M-

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-

Sketchercise #73

Here's a scene from last week's Sketchercise, I titled 'Celestial Anomaly'; & here's my piece from the previous week... Before I had any idea what I was going to paint, as usual I did a quick search through some of my categorised reference folders; but found nothing that sparked my imagination off... I did a quick Google image search for "epic scenes" & came across this image as a thumbnail, a few rows down... At that size, I wasn't sure what it was or where it was from, but from what my brain interpreted of the image, the scene below was what suddenly jumped into my mind... at least an idea of it anyway...

Vers 01...

Vers 02...

I knew I wanted our view-point to almost feel as that of someone (... say a shepherd) stumbling across & secretly being witness to some sort of celestial anomaly taking place in the still of the night, on his way back to his village.

This 2nd version is really just the same image, but without the dark, sinister-looking wispy things; which originally were a slightly off-white colour & represented 'gusts' of wind... Decided not to go with that (which may or may not have been the right choice), & opted for 'tentacles... No, you're right, let's just say they're dark wispy things, same as before... Lastly, I wouldn't necessarily say this is a hostile event... I actually imagine the suspended megaliths & debris are just gently floating there, slowly circling the light-source... What do you think?

Line-work...

-M-

Sketchercise #72

Here's the scene I came up with for last week's Sketchercise #72. "Silent Scouts". And here's the previous one... I call them "silent scouts', but I'm imagining these crafts would give off a single-note 'whistle' sound as they enter hearing range... I think that'd be pretty cool... and eerie.

-M-

Sketchercise #71

Hi folks! Late to make this post, but here's what I worked up for, not last week, but the week before's Sketchercise...

Final piece...

Again, as with my last piece,  I really wanted to get away from structures I was more comfortable rendering, so I chose to have the location be a city-scape of high-rise buildings & some sort of ledge... I'm not gonna lie, within about a half hour of roughing out several compositions, I was already gritting my teeth in frustration (not a fan of drawing city blocks... you try it!). Anyway, after a little while, I managed to nail down something I was happy with & could see working... (Line work done)

Linework...

Mood-wise, I originally went for a twilight lighting setup, but then decided I wasn't getting any or enough impact from it; there was no drama & no suggestion of what kind of city this was... Had a little play around with the contrasts & found the more I increased it, the grittier & moodier the scene got. At that point I could tell, to get across the atmosphere I had in my head, it would definitely have to be a 'night' scene...

Reference board...

Coincidentally, I'd actually been doing a little research on the BG artwork of BTAS (Batman the animated series 1992), as well as having just recently watched The 1990 'Dick Tracy' movie, staring Warren Beatty. Both are clearly set in the same period & I found I was able to draw inspiration from each for the 'look' I was after.

I've been a HUGE fan of BTAS since it first started airing over here in the UK, & still am.
Loved everything about it; the engaging stories, the dynamic character personalities, the character design style, & classy Art Deco architecture/ period... The general lighting & 'moodiness' given to Gotham, which was actually dubbed, "Dark Deco" was definitely something I was drawn to also, stylistically... Visually, there really was no other animated kids show like it at the time.

... I feel myself slowly getting carried away sharing my love of this show, so I think I'll leave it here for now & dedicate an entire post in homage to it & it's creators another time... Look forward to that soon!!

Below is the incredible Harrison Ellenshaw (legendary matte painter) adding the last little touches to this matte for 'Dick Tracy'  [...this is either him or his dad... the other legend!].

-M-

Sketchercise #70

Howdy! Here's Monday's Sketchercise! Thought I'd pull myself away from doing rocky terrains for a change, & work up a location that looks a little more inhabited... So I came up with this; some sort of strange castle-type fortress. The one key thing I had in mind before putting anything down was that I wanted some sort of construction towering over us... After a few rough sketches, I settled on the object being a tower. I wanted it to be the main focus of the scene, with pretty much nothing else near it or close to it's size... So from there, I knew it'd be best to have the sky mostly bare, as the scene would look too busy otherwise, & would disrupt the balance of shapes; not to mention, distract from the focus of the tower... Lighting-wise, I originally started this piece off as a night time scene, but then somehow (adjusting blending modes etc) decided the lighting I already had worked up, worked better for a daytime setup.

Not quite sure what this tower is, but I had decided that it was somehow carved/ constructed out of a giant crystal (hence the surface smoothness towards the top), & was some sort of ancient power source. With the lighting at the peak, I imagined due to the smooth crystal surface, it would reflect other highlighted clouds opposite it (off screen). Finally, as I wanted to convey a strong sense of scale, at the very end, I made a little swipe of a grainy textured brush to represent a flock of birds way up in the sky... that's about it ;)

Here's Sketchercise #70

-M-

Sketchercise #69

Hey all! A little late to post this one up, but here's Monday's Sketchercise. My process on this piece was a little indecisive... It started off as one thing during the early blocking out stage (with the very same shapes, but a completely different perspective), then ended up transitioning into this... I'm sure it's worked out better though...

Here's Sketchercise #69

Theme: "Landscapes"
Session topic: "Epic Scenery"

-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 #39

Here's Thursday's Sketch-ercise...
Guess who just got back from a long, hard day at the peanut factory?
Introducing Mr Reece O'Neal... [father]

CHARACTER PROFILE:
Reece is the epitome of the stereotypical 50's dad. I'd group him in the white-collar worker category as he works as one of the higher execs at a large peanut production factory. Reece loves his wife and kids & works hard to provide for them. Due to his poor childhood & disciplined upbringing, he's a man who appreciates the little things in life & believes in good moral/ family values... He's by no means the toughest guy on the block, but he's a real family man. Never goes a day without somehow slipping into a conversation, "Yes sir, I think America is the greatest country in the world" [homage quote].

Of all members of the O'Neal family, Reece is the most obliviously deluded of Viktor's ambiguous personality & grim intentions, & therefore the most important but toughest person Jimmy has to convince. And it's this delusional nature that's what keeps the story going each episode.

REFERENCE IMAGES:

***All work featured here, illustrated or written [unless otherwise stated] is under the copyright & ownership of 
Maxwell. A. Oginni. All rights resereved 2011***

-M-

Speed paint #20

Today's Sketch-ercise... Had a bit of an odd request on this one... sorry Ant, couldn't help making him look this sinister.

***DISCLAIMER***
SMOKING KILLS!!!... I DO NOT SMOKE... NOR DO I CONDONE IT... <--- click ; )

-M-

Speed paint #19

Here's this morning's warm-up. Photoshop doing weird things this morning [randomly messing with my colours each time I'd adjust a layers hierarchy]; managed to tame her just enough to get this out at least...

-M-

Speed paint #18

Here's this morning's Sketch-ercise! Check out my buddy Tee's warm-up too.

-M-

Speed paint #17

Today's Sketch-ercise folks! Time to call it a day. G'nite from London Town...

-M-

Speed paint #16

Morning! Here's this morning's warm-up. Had a nice little session with my bud Tee Jay. He's just started a new blog, check out his piece & drop him a 'follow'. Have a Posi+ive day folks!

-M-

Speed paint #15

Here's this morning's sketch-ercise. Another week done! Hope you've enjoyed these lovely ladies as much as I've enjoyed painting them? However, next week I'll be moving onto 'male portraits'; still within the '1940's-50's Hollywood glamour' theme. Btw, these sketches are actually all in colour, just thought I'd have a bit of fun keeping in line with the "look" of this period... I remember there actually was a point in my childhood days whenever watching B/W movie classic, I did half believe life back then was completely monochromatic.... don't judge me, you did to!

Anyways check out these colour photos of life in the early 1900's... this one's pretty amazing too... I may post up my colour versions later this eve if you'd like to see those too?

-M-

Speed paint #14

Morning! Here's this morning's warm-up.

-M-

Speed paint #13

Today's sketch-ercise...

-M-

Speed paint #12

Today's Sketch-ercise...

-M-

Speed paint #11

Hi guys, here's Today's Sketch-ercise... This weeks theme...? 
'1940's-50's Hollywood Glamour'.

-M-