Final Concepts - Beorn's Cottage

Here are the final three for my project. I may end up fleshing this out more on my own later. Now that I'm much more comfortable working digitally I can actually start to churn out some really quick sketches. Sketching architectural things digitally is so much easier with being able to undo, hehe. But largely that's due to working with my new tablet (or my work's tablet). The right equipment makes a huge difference, like anything really.

Beorn's Cottage Concepts Continued

Still working on an interior and details. May do more details to the elevations too in a bit. We'll see. Needs more carving and details.

Details!

It was looking rather plain so I added some carving. The reference images I have for the movie's version (which are all of 5 and of mostly interior and a couple not very good exteriors) showed a lot of heavy animal carving which i would have ascribed to anyhow. So I tried to follow that somewhat and come up with my own creative push. Some color concepts will flesh this out. I think I'm going to stay away from the interior and just focus on having a great exterior concept portfolio for this final. The interior is probably another week or two's worth of work just for basic concepts since the images I have are fragments of one room and I'd have to go into a full layout of rooms, crowd flow and all that fun stuff as well as concepts. 

BTW, the bee hives? Those are what some very rustic beehives look like (that or woven baskets) and they actually are on the building made for the movie from what I can tell. I thought it was a fun detail. When I looked up my own I had fun perusing all the different ways they used to harvest honey. Very instructive.

Also... I wish this would update the date or at least have a log of when I do an update. Guess I should just make another post instead of adding on to one, huh? Oh well. These were added Wednesday... the first three were tuesday. Something similar for the last post too. Bleh.

Beorn's Home & The Carrock Concepts

So I shall be doing a series of sketches and concepts digitally for one of the lands in Middle Earth. I have chosen to go with Beorn's Home and the Carrock... which is the first on the path of The Hobbit after the Shire. There is also a mixed bunch of reference. Some for the Misty Mountains and the Carrock but limited for Beorn's home... and with being a theme park there will be other details.

So here's one grayscale concept and more will pop up as I go.

Rough floor plan sketch of above concept

Another concept, drawn as elevation.

More sketches!

These done while sitting in the Magic Kingdom

Final-ish Designs:

Tablet, Dragon & Final Portfolio

I got the new Intuos5 tablet, medium. It's amaaaazing! Drawing on it is so very natural and precise. Still getting used to the shortcuts and button differences but part of that I think is the Mac/PC conversion too.

A sketch I started at work and continued at home:

For a sort of final portfolio I will be working on a series of quick 1-1.5 hour speed paintings for concepts of my Middle Earth Theme Park lands that I did an over all drawing for a while ago as well as color for that drawing. I will also be working on this and the interior shot but the focus will be on the speed paintings since that is largely what I have been studying more than anything else. Hopefully I can get bolder with the color and add in the elements I've been practicing.

Color Study

Another color study. This one like the last with no color reference from the image.

Still a bit of struggle with mid/background designations in color. Took about 1.5 hrs

Tree Bedroom Progress

So I'm worming my way out of monochromatic slooooowly. It actually came up on a project at work today. >.<

I wish I was more confident with color on here. It actually really doesn't make sense why I'm not here but am with watercolor or colored pencil. o.O I mean, on here I can change it easily. On there I can't. Why on earth do I have this issue?

Anyhow, here is progress on the color scheme for the tree bedroom interior. I'll start refining the edges and contours next. Maybe add some more details to make it more 'lived in'.

I feel like it's a lot more cozy-happy. I sort of envision the home of the Badger in Narnia or some ground dwelling critter like Br'er Rabbit when I look at it. It fits that image so much better now. Figure I can throw some things on the stone basin and in the 'shelves' on the far left side of the frame. Maybe another throw rug. And of course sharpening up the knotted roots around the bed and the ceiling more.

Color Study

Catchin' back up!

Met with Imagineers at Disney and they say they want to see more elevations/interior designs. So expect a lot of those among my critters.

Here's a color study. I've been listening to Harry Potter books lately so maybe that's why i chose this image.

There was no perspective predrawing so it's not accurate to the image. Again, as a color study I'm mostly trying to get an understanding of color and light quickly. I will be working now on one of my other pieces to refine my detail work and will post that before bed.

Spoke Too Soon! **Progress**

So I spoke MUCH too soon when I said I was getting better. Body went crazy and I ended up with a horrible infection that had me out all week long between the infection itself and the medication (antibiotics are nasty nasty things).

So I'm afraid I don't have much and have fallen behind. I'll be working hard to catch up this week. I just finished a commission in watercolor and have been doodling a little both traditionally and digitally.

One of my little concept critter drawings in progress:

Started while watching Face Off so admittedly was a bit inspired to do some creature creation.\

So yes, catching up in the next week! Expect lots and lots of art! *knock on wooden things!*

***
Here's some progress on Fishy-beast:

Water Practice

You may remember this tutorial I posted a bit ago.

http://minnasundberg.deviantart.com/art/Water-Tutorial-279128000

I practiced one of the water types. Was really helpful to have a walkthrough to understand the process better.

Any comments, suggestions? I did it a bit differently, less hard lines largely because I don't really like the hard lined rocks.

So here it is!

Trees!

So I started applying the same techniques for rocks on trees.

Likely do a few more of these studies as I go and resume color studies.

Progress on the Tree Bedroom

Some progress on the tree bedroom wherein I added more color and detail is slowly being refined:



Sick & Sketches

So I haven't posted in a while. Soon I should have together a series of slides on techniques and research but I have been battling a bad infection over the past week that ended up having some complications unrelated but that effected it strongly. Ultimately I just didn't take it as easy as I should have.

So I have here a start of the rock sketches. There also is a further progression of the last illustration, the tree-house drawing, but it's on my work computer and will be posted tomorrow.

Pretty much it has been taking all my strength to do work for my internship. I still have a mild fever as near-heat exhaustion (I tried to ride ponies in the heat when I -thought- I was better... but I wasn't) has hopped in and made the recovery a bit longer.

That said my sheer will to want to work again is promising. So here's a start on the rocks and I'll get up the slides of the over all progress. I may try and do a bunch of other things like trees, grassy bits and such in similar style to above.

More concept practice

Woven tree or burrow type of home... Inspired by another pintrest image of an old yew tree... I simply started to make those knobbly roots and limbs into furniture.

Color technique similar to the first tutorial I posted. Using gradients to set base colors/light sources.

Still working it up but here's these for now:

More arts!

More grayscale work!

This one was a subtractive technique. Erasing into the darker iron grey.

This one was also about an hour to get to this point:

Inspiration: http://pinterest.com/pin/526710118889979206/

It looked like a cave... Of course mine doesn't know which it wants to be. Both, likely.



1.25 Hour Concept Sketch

So I did this little dude in a little over an hour.

Started grayscale and then color. I also trid something new. Changed the gray sketch to a different color via hue/saturation to make the shadows less flat.

Also a random bird sketch:

....just cause.

Grayscale Practice

Here's some grayscale practice... I'm trying hard not to over work it... maybe because the composition is too simple? The most recent is the topmost... yet the lower one seems the most complete (minus the hill at center back) in thumbnail.

More to come with commission work and progress here. Plus a few more color studies.

More Tutorials

I've actually gotten the hang of grayscale painting in my internship as I've had a few pieces to do that I tried it out in. It's been very helpful when I just need to get the idea across which could be changed at any time. It also makes it much easier to slap some color on for a preliminary showing before finishing it out.

Hunted up a few more tutorials to peruse that I will store here. Both are in similar colors which is kinda amusing but they show a lot having to do with light.

http://k04sk.deviantart.com/art/K04sk-Environment-Tutorial-160404703

These two had some great examples of light and texture build up with a walk through on rocks:

http://oione.deviantart.com/art/Strangers-tutorial-part1-130448365
http://oione.deviantart.com/art/Strangers-tutorial-part-2-130448589

Another that walks through different types of rocks. I actually learned my own basic rock style from this. I'm excited to practice more of them:

http://scarypet.deviantart.com/art/Scarypet-s-ROCK-ing-tutorial-208101226

A water tutorial:

http://k04sk.deviantart.com/art/Water-Tutorial-279128000

More detail techniques:

http://kalambo.deviantart.com/art/Background-tutorial-Part-1-208346837
http://kalambo.deviantart.com/art/Background-tutorial-Part-2-255819198

This one is really basic but I think it really gets the point across. When I did coloring I actually really enjoyed scenes with this light scheme (cool evening ambient combined with a warm direct glow). I actually got to use it in a piece I did some sketches for recently.

http://rahll.deviantart.com/art/Lighting-Tutorial-82388860


No to go make some art not for my job! :D

Seriously sad I can't show what I've been doing. If it gets out in the parks I'll take some pictures and share, but I really have come a long way in a short time... so I'll just have to show you all on other pieces!

Tutorials

(for self mostly)


Tutorials to look into:

http://tervola.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Painting-Tutorial-254185735

http://psd.fanextra.com/tutorials/drawing/advanced-tutorial-creating-broken-link/
^-- how I was trying to work... may be able to help me see what I'm doing wrong.



Have tried some grayscale work... may just go insane doing so. I don't like to think that way for some reason. *headdesk!*


It seems I can do single objects/creatures fine. Environments? Not so much. Miss my watercolors...

OH! Maybe I'll paint the BG and then add it in and tweak it digitally!

A Couple More Dragons

Just a couple more dragons to pop up.

I've given up on tinted background work for now. I've actually started painting with more direct color.

The biggest issue I am having is keeping the shadows from looking too mottled... as if I've used the burn/dodge tool overmuch (which I haven't used at all!). Any suggestions? I've been working with multiplying the contrasting light color... but now am working more in multiplying a color that is just off the compliment of the color I'm using to help simulate light without getting too grey (which the compliment seems to do).

Still a bit... awkward. Maybe I need more highlights/glazes?

This dude was doodled when I was annoyed at work... but it lead to his less monochromatic sibling:

Still working away at the other commission. Bit by bit. Will get some more color studies in and then do a series of quick sketches to show how my sketching/drawing is going.

I hope to try another technique next week for composition: working on black/dark and building up highlights.
It's actually come into play at my internship as I have to work with luminous colors on dark. Or well, I'm choosing to because it'll look better.

Now to hunt up some tutorials/examples and artists using this.

Daily Color Studies

Todays and yesterday's color studies.

First one I relied heavily on the photo for color help (the sunset in the snow). The second, the seascape, had very limited color sourcing and was much easier. I've also finished a digital illustration at work so perhaps that assisted somewhat. I worked down and up the image (top to bottom, bottom to top, repeat) The first I did background foreground, mid-ground, sky which was not as wise.

The original images are listed to their respective sources.

The 2nd isn't quite as accurate to the photo but it was done in significantly less time.