Look at that Critter Go!

This is probably my least favorite piece, but the process really helped my understanding of using prismacolors and drawing the motion of an animal. The prismacolors worked well up until the point where there was too much of the background showing. I kept coloring in order to hide it, but that made layers of different colors near impossible for me, as well as emphasizing the value in the fur of the animal. I think I would have been more successful if the drawing was larger (the small space was also part of the challenge) and if I had chosen a different paper color for the background. The animal itself is much too large (I call it my prehistoric donkey) and it looks too flat, as if the donkey is simply raising its leg. The only way to see the emotion behind the action is to look at the donkey's expression, which looks nice but was not the point of the project. I probably struggled the most with this piece than all other projects we've had so far, but it was a great learning experience and the first time using prismacolors.  

Figure Drawing

For some reason the image will not rotate. Sorry.

People and the figure are one of my favorite things to draw. Before drawing full, mostly detailed pictures, we practiced with 30 second figure drawings and learned how to capture the motion and use correct proportions. Having the right proportions is extremely important to a figure drawing. If the proportions are off by even a little, the realism and quality of the drawing are reduced immensely. The mass and volume of the drawing are best expressed through the shading (although there isn't much here) and placement of correctly scaled parts of the body. You want it to be clear to the viewer that the person is moving, or falling, or leaning; that some force is visible within the drawing. I found that charcoal worked best when doing the figure drawings. It has a nice flow and is much bolder than pencil. It is also easier to blend and add value.The challenges that I faced were properly placing everything where it needed to be. Even if I had been perfectly proportioned, my eyes would always find something too wide or too long even though that is how it is supposed to be. I guess that's what happens when you draw more cartoons than realistic people.

Oh, The Places You Will Go! - Part 1

When I heard the theme for this project, the first things I thought of involved going somewhere mentally, like dreams, afterlife, or even a drug trip or hallucination. Then I thought of virtual reality; going somewhere in your mind, but motionless in real life. It also has a futuristic approach, with both the advanced technology of virtual reality, and the futuristic place being shown on the monitor. For this project, we had to use pen and ink, which I am familiar with. We learned how to show value using pen and ink, which is shown in my drawing with stifling (dots) and lines.The lines on the monitor were the most difficult. No matter how carefully I lined up the ruler, my lines seemed unbalanced and crooked. I'm actually glad it turned out that way, because it gives it a more static-y look, like white noise. The building was also frustrating, because I have little experience drawing large structures. I really love how the girl and cords came out, though. The stifling really made the cords seem rounded and real. Virtual reality is something I have always wished for, so I had a lot of fun putting my vision on paper (although I made this image kind of surreal, with the cords and all).

NOTE: This is part 1 because I have been asked to work on this piece further. Please wait until part 2 for the final piece.

Zuzu Sees You!

When I was thinking of ideas for this project, my miniature dachshunds, Zuzu and Ilsa, kept popping up. I would remember how funny they look sitting on the bed and looking over, especially because they are so tiny and my parents' bed is so large. I tried to draw from an ant's point of view, or slightly under her. I had never drawn from this point of view so that was my first challenge. This perspective makes it seem like she's leaning towards you, ready to jump. I chose to use charcoal because I liked using it with my paper bag, so I wanted to use it again, mostly because it is easier to blend. The most difficult thing with this drawing was the fur. Zuzu has really short fur, so it was harder to make realistic. Using small highlights was a good technique I learned to improve the fur. Also, she has a wide range of grays and blacks in her fur, so I wanted to make sure they stood out in all the right places. My favorite part of the drawing are the eyes. This drawing was mostly a success, but if I had to redraw it, I would try and make the head/muzzle longer and more realistic.

Paper Bags

During this project we explored using charcoal and creating values in our artwork. I decided to use charcoal for my paper bag because I felt that I could get darker values by using it. Value is important because is gives the viewer a sense of depth and reality. It makes a drawing pop rather than look flat. Using value with the paper bag drawing emphasizes the creases and folds present to make the drawing seem more realistic. The most difficult part of this project was shading the parts of the bag that were caved in instead of folded. There are also places where I could have gone darker. Overall this project was successful, it looks like a pretty decent paper bag, and I learned a lot about shading and charcoal in the process.   

Backgrounds and Blood 0_0

Glow Model

Pattern Practice

 

Aww You Sneeze Like a Kitten!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA OH MY GOSH THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. Dipper from the show Gravity Falls, by the way.

Humming Bird Brushes

Using a brush downloaded from the Internet, I painted using humming birds. I applied different settings for scatter, color and shape dynamics.

Flower Brush

Today I learned how to create a custom brush. I used a flower for this one, and manipulated it using scatter and the color and shape dynamics settings.

Moon and Space Owl - Parts Project

This week we focused on a parts project, where we take an organic thing and rebuild it with non-organic parts. I chose an owl and used space as the theme. I used the stamp tool to paint over the owl with a space image and used the moons as the wing and the face (I lowered the opacity for the face). I used another space image for the background. Overall, I think it turned out alright. I like the face, but I had a hard time with the moons that made up the wing. It was difficult to fit into the owl image and to make it resemble a wing.

Buttons

I Don't Know...Bees, I Guess

Logos

Duck Drawing

More practice with Illustrator. I used the pen tool to trace and fill an image of a rubber duck. It looks kind of weird, especially the bill, but overall it looks pretty good.

Flowers

Today we made flowers in Adobe Illustrator, starting our week of Illustrator projects. I liked making these flowers and it introduced a new tool, pucker and bloat, to distort the image and change shapes.

Favorite Project

What type of project did you select (photoshop, animation, other)?

I selected an animation project.

Is this your favorite type of project?

Yes, it is. I would like to work with animation as a career so this project was definitely my favorite.

What about this work is successful?

Everything, except it is a little choppy.

Will you use the techniques learned from doing this project again?

Walk cycles and animation techniques.

What projects would you like to do more of?

More animation projects using photoshop or maybe flash.

Which projects would you like to do less of?

There is nothing I would like to do less of.

Cinemagraphs

Magazine Cover

This is my magazine using the image from the Barbie project. I tried to make it like a teen girl celebrity gossip magazine. It looks alright, I suppose. The only thing I would change is NPH and make him look better, but you can read all about that in the Barbie Project post.

Some Type Stuff

Barbie Project - NPH and PG

Neil Patrick Harris

Prince Gumball

For this project we had to apply the proportions and looks of a cartoon character to a celebrity. I chose Prince Gumball (Adventure Time) and Neil Patrick Harris because NPH voices the character.

Neil Patrick Harris as Prince Gumball

This piece is ok and somewhat successful, but I'm not very good with retouching photographs. What worked was recoloring the photo, and what didn't work too well was making the hair. I tried to style it the same way as PG and make it look kind of like bubblegum, but it doesn't look too good. If I were to do this project over again, I would experiment with different methods of creating the bubblegum hair. The most difficult part of this project was retouching the photo and making the hair. I learned more about the liquify tools and adjusting the layers. Now enjoy a video of NPH/GB singing. 

iPad Apples

For this project we went to the library to experiment with using iPads to draw. I really liked the app we used. We could have multiple layers and there were a variety of brushes and tools to use. I would like to use this in the future for quick sketches, portraits, and landscapes. I liked how my apple turned out, but I need to work on drawing and painting from a 3-D perspective.

Aisha

This is terrible and I don't like it. I am definitely not good at retouching...

Photo Touch Up 2

First Photo Touch Up

Paper Puppet Aniamtion

For this project we had to create a character and then draw it from the side. Each joint had to be adjustable so we could reposition the character. After setting up the character, you took a picture. I took eight pictures to create eight frames of a walk-cycle stop-motion animation.

I feel very successful about this project. It flows decently and the character looks good. Everything pretty much worked for this project. I didn't have any serious issues to deal with. If I were to do this project again I would have added more frames to make it flow better. The most difficult part of this project was adjusting each piece of the body and keeping it from moving when taking the picture. I learned more about using PhotoShop to edit animations.

Children's Art Animation

For this project, we had to animate a children's piece of artwork. There is nothing bad I can say about this project. Everything is seamless without jagged edges, anything I had to draw myself looks like it was part of the original artwork, and I learned how to animate and create GIFs in PhotoShop. The animation is clean and at a good speed. The only thing I would do differently is add more frames and animations to make it even longer. The most difficult part about this project was drawing anything left out after cutting out pieces of the art, but it turned out really well.

Mesh Project

For this project I had to combine an inanimate and animate object. I used a comb and a trees, along with its roots and some grass. I stayed away from using inanimate elements like fire and water, and thought that my comb was a very unique idea, but that's just my opinion. I really like how the roots look. They are seamless and realistic. I hate the grass, though. It was hard to blend it in, and it still doesn't look that good. It was also the most difficult object to avoid jagged edges. I thought the comb and tree was a perfect combination because the teeth of the combs already look kind of like roots, so adding real roots to it gave it an interesting look. Also, trees and hair both have roots, giving them something in common, in a way.

Mesh Project Idea List

For this project, we have to combine an inanimate object with an animate object.

Inanimate:
1. Refrigerator
2. Sword
3. Comb
4. Glasses
5. Hat
6. Diamond Ring
7. Doorknob
8. Jelly Jar
9. Spaceship
10. Airplane
11. Tombstone
12. iPod
13. Flail (Weapon)
14. Cell Phone
15. Computer
16. Television
17. Spaghetti
18. Rake
19. Mirror
20. Hat Stand
21. Guitar
22. Violin
23. Toaster
24. Harmonica

Animate:
1. Human
2. Vines
3. Flowers
4. Tree/Tree Branches
5. Fish/Fish Tail
6. Animal Tail/Ears
7. Octopus/Octopus Tentacles
8. Wings
9. Bug/Insect
10. Leaves
11. Feathers
12. Roots
Animals~
13. Fox
14.Sloth
15. Lion
16. Owl
17.Wolf
18. Turtle
19. Cat
20. Guinea Pig
21. Goat

Slowlat

What do you get when you combine a sloth, an owl, and a cat? A Slowlat! Look how cute it is! I wish I had one. Anyway, I feel like this project turned out very well. I'm very happy with it. This project was a big success! I managed to combine each animal's parts in a clean and seamless way and it also looks like it could be a real animal (I wish). Everything worked well, but the owl face does stand out more than I wanted it to. It is not as seamless as the kitten ears. If I were to do this project again I would work on blending the owl face more, but other than that I wouldn't do anything different. The most difficult part about this project was blending each piece together to make it look real. Sometimes part of another animal would show when I didn't want them to or the colors wouldn't match. I learned more about the eraser tool, the cloning tool, and working with different layers. 

Fruit Reflections

St. Vincent

Today we colorized a picture of our choosing. I chose Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent.

Fruit Corgi



The pattern kind of looks like a bib



Yesterday we merged a pattern onto an animal. I chose a fruit pattern and a corgi. I learned how to use the warp tool, which I had never used before. I don't really like how it turned out, but it was my first time trying something like this, so its not that surprising. Next time I would try a different pattern and maybe a better corgi picture. The most difficult thing about this tutorial was using the warp tool. I could make a better one know from the knowledge I gained from doing this tutorial.

Punch Dipper?! H-how could I...? X(

This project was started on our first day of class.

If you aren't familiar with the cartoon show, Gravity Falls, then why are you reading this. GO WATCH IT. Anyway, the time traveler has come back for revenge on Dipper, and he's using me as his pawn! He must have used mind control (I mean, look at that glazed look and cold smile), because there is no way that I would ever punch Dipper. He's too adorable for me to punch.

Art Credit to: IDK...but its not mine!

So I edited an image of a punched Dipper, a picture of me punching, and an image of a forest, because the show mostly takes place in the woods. My fist is overlapping with Dipper's face, and Mr. Time Traveler (aka Blendin Blandin) is cheering me on behind some trees. My picture isn't that complex, to be honest, I just punched air. But it did take me a while to get it to fit with the other images and edit the picture. The cartoons took forever for me to edit. Some places needed to be cut, and I had to recolor or draw anything that was removed from the original cartoon image (I redrew Dipper's arm, jacket, and fingers, as they were behind a steering wheel in the original image). The interaction between me and Dipper is intense. I mean, gosh, I punched the living crap out of him. In the original image, it is his sister punching him in attempt to remove an attacking magical gnome (LOL).

Cat Got Your Tongue?

This tutorial was done on the third day of class. I had actually done this project before in Art 1, so I combined the picture of the tongue with a cat instead of a frog. It came out ok, but it is not much different than the last one with the frog. I already knew how to use the cloning tool, but I don't use it too much on my own so it was a good refresher. What worked with this project was the cloning of the tongue, I think that it was better than my frog one. The drop shadow also looks good. What didn't work was trying to make the cat tongue appear 3-D. It looks really flat over the face. If I were to do this project over again, I would reposition the cat and try to make it look more 3-D. The most difficult part of this project was cloning the tongue to make the cat look like an extension of the tongue. Sometimes I would accidentally clone the lips or teeth,or the tongue would look cut off in some areas.

Hungry Pancakes

This tutorial was done on the second day of class. It was a really fun and interesting project, the pancakes look like they want to eat me. I think it turned out very well. I was able to learn how to use new tools in PhotoShop, like liquify. What worked about this project was that I was able to blend the mouth and the pancakes well and was happy with the final outcome. What didn't work as well was resizing the mouth to fit into the gap in the pancakes and trying not to distort the pancakes too much when using the liquify tool, also changing the color of the jaws to match the pancakes wasn't very effective. If I were to redo this tutorial, I would probably try to smooth out the edges of the jaws more and take more time cutting them out of the original picture. The most difficult part of this project was liquifying the pancakes and blending in the mouth.