I have been putting in some time working on quick environment visuals in the trusty sketch book recently. The aim has been to pump out a large volume 'high school english journal style'(27 piccies done so far) rather than getting hung up on details and creating masterpieces. Particular attention has been paid to process, perspective, composition and line quality.
The excercise was triggered off by a job application that required a small drawing test to a mock brief (didn't get the job, bummer).
Dear John,
These look great, lets see some more. I like the line weight to create seperation for distance. It looks a comic book style, you done any of that?
If you are into a good venue for sketches, drop into the design studio press forum. There is a sketch group there each week. It's a bit of a ghost town but the few that post are a fun encouraging group. And it's a different topic each week to keep you on your toes.
Incidently, what do you think was the problem with the job? Drawing or adherence to brief?
Regards,
EtaCarinaeEtaCarinae2006-10-09 21:06:13
thanks for the words guys :)
I hope you post some environments when you get around to practicing them Neffy. My 'time finding' technique was to draw in front of the evening telly. Maybe a time management technique that would work for you too!
Cheers for the dofus link JI. It was new to me and inspirational to browse through. Triggered off the 'birds eye view' scenes in this post.
Eta, haven't done any comic book stuff (this century at least). regarding the job - I understand the quality of my submission was fine, someone with more appropriate content in their portfolio got the gig in the end. Annoyingly the company obviously can't disclose what their up-comming project(s) are and hence can't say what content would have been more appropriate... frustrating.
...few more enviroments from my sketchbook for ya all to have a look at too.
Dear John,
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk,the old "someone with more appropriate content in their portfolio" routine eh? I always think it would be interesting to see the work that got the job! but that of course is impossible to disclose as well.
I know these are just sketches but try paying a little closer attention to perspective. Amongst other nit-picky things the right hand roof in the middle sketch is off. It's your beautiful precise parallel line work that gives it away.
If you sketch in acurate persective, it'll be good practice for more finished work.
You prob already know this but if you don't...
To do this roof correctly, connect the diagonally opposite corners of the top facing surface of this rectangular building. Where they cross is the true center of the 'roof'. Then draw a line down from the center point to the vp your walls are going to. Follow it up and make this the apex of your roof.
Make sense? You probably already know this cause everything else looks pretty solid. I really like the top one.
Regards,
EtaCarinae
...and you guessed it, some more environments from my sketchbook.
That roof is a bit of a glaring oversite on my part isn't it Eta! It is amazing(or amazingly annoying, to be more precise) how I can miss measuring up such a major element and then overlook the error before inking it all in! On the whole I think the sketches are getting technically more accurate though, so the practice is working I think.
Looks great.. having said that, I have no idea about perspective. have you by any chance looked at Feng Zhu dvd on perspective? I had a quick look over the weekend, and I must say it was very inspiring.. lots of infos and it was frankly a little freaky to see someone work so quick with perspective.. Might be a good resource if you haven't looked at them.
Looking good john! cheers, Min
Yeah ditto to that! I'd love to see some colour or even some value.
Perspective is a funny thing. It's not really art! It's more akin to a table than to a drawing, in that it is a TOOL only. Once you learn the basic rules they just sit in the back of your brain waiting for you to need them. No one should feel intimidated by perspective. I think your sketches prove it John. Keep it up!
Regards,
EtaCarinae
Hey John these are looking really nice.
I would like to see a bit more lighting though, to emphesis space and depth in your image.
I did a paintover to show you what i mean-
http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeaforum/uploads/20061028_020005_Untitled-1_c…
*edit* I should have darkened the right hand end of the image as well, doh.
I reckon if you worked on your lighting you could really fly with your work :)
ps. Im envious of your perspective skills!
Makk2006-10-28 02:04:58
HOly Sh*t Makk, how much radiation do you have coming out of that hatch?! that can't be safe :p
Not sure if I agree with your execution, but sentiments taken on board and acted on. I have added the tweaked image with the original for easy comparison.
for anyone who is analysing the alterations: Easy changes to pick are cast light from hatch an darkening of some nearby shadows. Harder to pick, but helped greatly in create more depth - increase of colour saturation in the foreground and decrease in background and lightening the line work in the background.
this one is going in the portfolio me thinks.JohnN2006-10-28 03:50:13
Dear John,
Hey these look great man! I think I prefer the light and colour in the Sunday morning on. Yeah, the radiation coming out of Makk's is killer! You have to be careful of this. I think it's called radiosity (may be wrong). It indicates particals in the air which light is bouncing off. A better way to indicate light in a clear atmosphere may be to show shadow. For funs sake I did a real quick paint-over too. The main thing I wanted to show was;
1. using contrast to draw the eye
2. try to indicate the light source better by fixing shadows.
Don't get me wrong, the image is great, just check where your light source is and what it's falling on. Can't wait to see more!
Regards,
EtaCarinae
And thanks to all who did feedback for the colour studies. I have included the final version in my portfolio. The others look a bit underworked in comparison so I haven't included them (yet). Might still revisit the 'Sunday Morning' version and see if I can't make it worthy too.
editx2: yesterday afternoons and this mornings effort --
JohnN2006-11-02 21:31:12
No new colour characters (yet) Eta. and, no, sadly I am not in the games industry
I am currently making a big push to change this though with new/better portfolio work (hence regular posts here) and actively looking and applying for jobs worldwide.
---
The Black Knight -
I might even call this one a WIP, although I don't quite know what I am going to do with it next. Thinking about making the horse into a Unicorn too.
Dear John,
Nice work mate! This guy really pops off the background and the values make it really dynamic and not all muddied up like my grey stuff tends to be. I really like how you've rendered the light but maybe you've got the guy too small. I don't know but something seems a bit screwy with the proportions of the duo. It may be that the horses leg are short too, although that just makes him look like one of those mongolian ponies Ghengis Khan was so keen on. I'm sorry, that's probably not real helpful. Great tone though.
I noticed Creative Assembly England are looking for 2D at the moment, Sussex I think. Check the webpage. Also Pandemic has a sister company somewhere in the sticks of Canada that apparently takes on a lot of newbies. Can't remember the name but maybe someone else reading this can shed some light.
Regards,
EtaCarinae
Creative Assembly and Bioware - applications sent. I'm keeping an eye on about 5 industry sites so not many jobs are escpaing my attention. I've actually noticed a distince lack of interest from overseas companies though. Most applications I send don't even result with the company visiting my online folio - pretty frustrating, I might consider a slightly different plan of attack soon.
Latest addition to my folio -created in Painter, I am starting to get comfortable with some of the default Painter brushes, there are so many! but still have to default back ot photoshop for some stuff.
Man, I could swear that I posted this image in this thread a few days ago... If it is somewhere else on the forum let me know and i will delete the repeated post. It seems that too much work is making me lose my marbles!
so my (re?)post: I've been busy with graphics work in the new year, so busy in fact I have not done any illustration (apart from reskinning a mobile game, I guess that counts as illustrating- I might try to get permission to post some samples)so to keep things ticking over here I thought I might post an abandoned painting done late last year. It was my first attempt at modelling, then doing a paintover.
JohnN2007-02-01 05:21:30
Thats a shame about the job, the sketches are really nice im reading a book atm on drawing landscapes and citys that has stuff on perspective and composition. So its nice to see work similar to what im learning hopefully it will inspire me when i have some time to sit down and do sketches my self ^_^