Minor Project: Sea Mink and Sea Cow character refinements 2

Nearly there! With the Sea Sturgeon sorted, the sea cow and the sea mink needed more refining. I've reshaped both characters from the side view, the sea mink in particular was hardest to refine as it keeps ending up looking like a different animal. I've changed its side view as it wasn't anatomically correct and applied this to the front. The same idea went with the sea cow, making the tummy and head more refined. Numbers 2 and 3 from both characters were other versions that I came up with but decided to stick to number 1.

Latest Sea Mink refinements

Latest Steller's Sea Cow refinements

Below are the previous versions of the characters.

Life Drawing: Week 4

In today's lesson, we've got our hands started drawing from a real life model, Jane. Our main focus for today was to draw dynamics and shapes. We've started the lesson off with a simple 20 minute warm up observational sketch. For the first piece, I've used charcoal and try to concentrate in getting proportions and tone. The hands and feet are still something that I need more working on. It's been a long time since I've drawn anatomy and was pleased that I could pick it up and improve this again. :D 

Next after having a mini critique on each other's work, we did a 1 minute sketch of six different poses. This piece my only aim was to try and get some shapes drawn in as quick as I can.

The next was a more relaxing as we had to drawn Jane in two different poses for 15 minutes. This could be drawn overlaid but I kept this a two different images as my main aim for this piece was to try and create lines of movement and getting the proportions right again. I felt that the image on the left was more successful than the one on the right as the lines are more clearer.

To finish up the lesson, we've did a 30 second sketch of Jane in sixteen different poses. This was more exciting yet fun due to the amount of time given to draw and worry less of other things. My aim for this piece was mainly to have at least the figure drawn out using the lines of movement and using shapes. I was quite pleased with the way this piece turned out! ^_^

@Alan- Minor Project: Sea Mink and Sea Sturgeon refinements

I've made some slight changes on the characters especially the mink and also applied an egg shape on the fish and the sea cow- does it work? :)

Minor Project: Steller's Sea Cow Character Refinements

Made more character refinements on the Steller's Sea Cow, for influence, I've looked at Harper's art of sea life. I've made the sea cow look more basic in shapes and slightly lengthened its head and body.

Minor Project: Eastern Elk and Sea Mink Character refinements

Another set of refinements on the mink and the elk. I was going for a more basic shape look to the characters as if you can remove a part and reattach them again. Again I've look at more animal influences from Charley Harper whilst trying to not make the characters look too anatomically correct, in particular the mink as it kept turning into a cat no matter the changes I put. Hopefully now it looks less cat-like!! :D

Minor Project: Haast's Eagle Character Refinements

I've attempted to tidy and define the Haast's Eagle shape a little more from different views. I've used shapes as a guide as suggested by Alan from my tutorials last week. I've made two versions of the character's head- number one is more 'pigeon' head shaped whereas number two is more fixed by the shape guides and more like Charley Harper's "Red Bird" character. 

Charley Harper's "Red Bird" reference

Minor Project: European Sea Sturgeon (Fish) Character Refinements

I've applied some changes to the European Sea Sturgeon (Fish) character based on the previous feedback and suggestion of using basic shapes from Alan. I've made an in-between design of both the previous and the 'round curved head' version together. I've also made some changes to the frontal view of the sturgeon, making it look more in shape than a "blob". For the front, I've had a look at Harper's The Coral Reef where a fish is seen in a frontal view. I've also made a quick model of the head to get the perspective of the nose right. 

Quick Head perspectives test model (Light blue colour is used to define the area of the nose from the front)

Harper's The Coral Reef  fish image reference

Minor Project: Animal Character Refinements

Latest update

Previous version

I've made some minor changes to my animals, making them look more simpler in terms of shapes like my influences Eric Carle and Charley Harpers as my previous version looked a bit slightly too detailed. I'm not sure does the European sea sturgeon (Turquoise fish) looks better in terms of shape or shall I "shape" it more?

Minor Project: All Characters Turnarounds

Here are all the 2D turnarounds for the animals along with their original poses that I've had from the beginning of the project near their names.

Minor Project: Updated storyboards

Updated final storyboards

Life Drawing: Week 3

This week's has been really fun!! :D We've got to try our hands on using pigment inks, focusing on colours and tones. I was really excited with this as I've never had any experience in working with inks for painting. Our subject this time is of another installation with colourful sheets hung around it. I've started my drawing in pencil first before using the ink, it was a bit difficult in getting the right colours especially the orange which most of the time ended up being red. To make things interesting, I've stuck bits of masking tape around my page which I hope at the end, mimics the installation. The results of this worked amazing that I've ended up doing the same thing again for my last image but without any black pen. 

with pen

with masking tape on

Installation reference

 The second piece was more of trying to play around with colours and see if I can improve getting the right orange. I've mixed around with a lot of colours just to get the brown tone I wanted.

Without pen

Minor Project: Animals movements research

In preparation to make my 3D models, I've had a look at some reference footage of animals on how they would run. The hardest animals that would need more focusing on in terms of movement would be the Eastern Elk and the Sea Mink as their rhythm is more fast paced compared to the others. I've made a list of the sort of movement and needs that the animals make that would be seen in my animation:

Xerces Blue Butterfly:

• Wings flap up and down

European Sea sturgeon (fish):

• Swims with tail swimming side to side(like a shark)

Sea Mink:

• Caterpillar-like movement for running (possibly need a ribbon rig)
• Tiny stubby legs
• Big tail

Haast's Eagle:

• Wings flap in an arc-like shape

Steller's Sea cow:

• Swims but tail goes up and down

Eastern Elk:

• Quadruped model
• Quadruped rig

For further research on the Elk and the Mink's run cycle, I've had a look at Eadweard Muybridge's run cycle of the horse and of the squirrel as their movements are almost similar to my characters. I've made a 2D run cycle of the mink and a 'Passage' dance walk of the horse after looking at some reference footage which I hope to apply this to my Elk.

Mink Running test cycle

Horse dance "passage"

Horse reference dance (around 01:30)

Slow motion ferret running (dooking)

Minor Project: Final Animatic

It has been decided from my previous animatic post, version 2 seemed to work better than version 1. So here it is, the final animatic! :D

@Phil: Dissertation Structure

Hope I didn't miss anything out! :)

Dissertation Planout 01

Minor Project: Colour Tests- Abstract sequence 2

From my previous post, set 1 number 3 seemed to be more appealing and the animals seemed to stand out a bit. I thought about developing this further by changing the elk's background into blue as the orange kind of blended into the character. I've made some subtle changes by playing around with the saturation and hues a bit.

12

13

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15

From previous post: Number 3's layout seemed more appealing

Minor Project: Colour Tests Concepts- Bird sequence 2

 Here I have applied more colour tests for my bird abstract sequence using the colour scheme. I've also change the colours of the shadow to make it stand out from the background and making the scene look more vibrant. Numbers 7, 11, 13,14 and 15 seem more interesting to me.

7

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9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16