I drew this before I even had breakfast. Yes, you read that correctly. Before. Breakfast. If you’re feeling cold it’s because hell has frozen over.
Cheers
Matt
Hello Deer
illustration
Load of Animals
It’s a nice change working on animal because they offer up so much variety in shape and character. I’ve found that I’m more prone to seeking out basic shapes and exaggerating proportions, whereas with human characters I’m always a little more cautious.
Since starting the daily characters I feel I’m able to get my eye in much quicker, though I still think I’m looking for something that I can’t quite see yet. What that something is I don’t quite know; a new process; an evolution of style, maybe? I think I just have to keep going and hopefully whatever it is I’m looking for will appear through repetition, like training any skill.
Cheers
Matt
More Characters
The amount of time it can take to draw these characters can really vary. The cat, for instance, was a quick 30 minute exercise that started out more proportionally realistic, but was stretched and simplified over a couple of sketches. The lines were kept intentionally loose and sketchy because of the speed of the drawing, and the same can be said of the colour application.
The lumberjack was a bastard. I originally intended to only spend about an hour on him, but I just couldn’t seem to get the look right, so I ended up doing multiple versions (different poses, face, beard, clothing, etc…) which took about four hours in the end. I still don’t really like the design which makes it worse, but I realised I wasn’t loose enough with the initial sketches and I think that stumped me.
The old hag was a fun character to work on. I took inspiration from an photo of a young girl backpacking. I sketched her out and then just exaggerated the shapes, added an octopus, a weird cat-like creature, and aged her up about a thousand years, and voila!
Cheers
Matt
Daily sketch update
These dailies are flowing out of me a bit quicker now, and think the speed and looseness shows up in the line-work. I quite like how rough the lines look though I might have a look and see if I can discover some new digital brushes to play around with. I quite like the Roman legionary out of these three characters, he looks like he’s been through hell and back, especially with that thousand yard stare. Honesty, imagine having to go into battle wearing some tin-foil and a skirt! No thanks!
Cheers
Matt
Daily Character Studies pt 2.
I feel like there’s a nice progression here in terms of colour use, line work and texture (images read left to right). It’s taken a few days to get my eye in and develop a style that I’m happy with, but I think things are starting to click. The work flow is speeding up and the shapes are getting pushed and simplified more and more. I think simplifying shapes and creating a strong silhouette for the character is going to be a focus going forward!
Cheers
Matt
Character Studies
I’m trying to get into the habit of doing a character study everyday if I can. Typically I’ll have a look on Pinterest and find a candid photo of someone and work from that, so it’s a little similar to sketching in a coffee shop or doing life drawing. The study on the left is a little bit too real for my taste and lacks interesting shape, line and gesture. I was a little looser with the guy on the right exaggerating the proportions and pose which lends a lot more character.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of posts recently, I’ll be better.
Cheers
Matt
Life’s a Beach
UK lockdown feels a bit like this. There’s an awful lot of just waiting around while you’re stranded on a desert island. You have a means of getting off the island, but there’s nowhere to go when you do, so you just come back. You can meet up with another person which helps keep you sane, but all you talk about is how great it’ll be when you’re finally rescued. And so you wait. And wait. And wait some more. And just like that a year has passed since the first lockdown began. Hopefully there’s a ship going to appear any day now… hopefully.
Limping into Port
This took waaaay longer than it should have. Annoyingly I kind of got lost in drawing and redrawing the lines, and then deciding not to use lines, and then going back on that. It was frustrating to the point I almost abandoned it all together. I surmise that I am my own worst enemy.
If I’m honest I feel like this piece is missing something but I can’t work out what?! I do however really love the smoke coming out of the tug boat.
I moved away from using a perspective grid for this (for anyone not in the know, a perspective grid helps you to draw in perspective). I made the decision to do this because I often feel like it gets in the way when I draw and I end up focusing so much on the grid, and getting everything perfect, that I lose what makes an illustration interesting. Using the grid also makes things too rigid and lacking in character in my opinion.
Cheers
Matt
Making a House a Home
Some basic house designs here for my visual development portfolio. The images are in order (top to bottom) of how the work flow tends to happen in visdev, starting with multiple thumbnail sketches, refining an idea, and then fleshing it out. I’ll do a more refined colour version of this tomorrow.
Cheers
Matt
