Minor Project: Eastern Elk modelled

One of the first out of the two quadrupeds to be modelled, it's my first time modelling a four legged animal. Happy to say it looks well apart from the placement change on the legs based on the orthographs shown from the front as it didn't look right when modelled!! Next but last up- the mink! :D

Smooth to unsmoothed to wire frame

Front smoothed

Front Wire frame

Side smoothed

Side wire frame

Back smoothed

Back wire frame

Minor Project: Haast's Eagle Model

The Haast's Eagle is finally modeled!! :D The bird had quite a lot of geometry around the wings and feet but I've managed to try and narrow them down as much as I could. I've slightly changed the feet a little just to make it seem more sense in terms of weight placement rather than having it stand on its "toes". Happy to say four down, two to go! Next up-the quadrupeds! :D

Smooth- unsmooth- wireframe

Front smoothed

Front wireframe

Side smoothed

Side wireframe

Back smoothed

Back wireframe

Life Drawing Class: Week 8

Today's lesson is the last one before Christmas, we're continuing on tones with the use of coloured media but more focus into hands and feet. We've started the lesson with 2 minute poses of model Alan, focusing on light and shadows. For this piece I've used mainly pigment inks and a black oil pastel.

Our next activity is to concentrate on the light and shadows in each 1 minute poses. I mainly drew this as line art, dark colours for dark tones and light for light tones. 

For the next part, we are to focus on detailed areas in particular the head, hands and feet for 10-20 minutes. I've experiemented the colours a bit using the red ink as my background before using shades of blue, purple, orange and red for tones. I haven't practiced drawing hands and feet for a while but it was great! I've remembered Photoshop Phil's advice on drawing hands and have attempted this on this piece. With a few minutes remainging, I've added some yellow ink onto the lighter areas of each subject but it still turns into orange! :D

For the remainder of the lesson, we did the same challenge again. This time I've used yellow and purple oil pastels to draw out Alan and later adding some yellow/orange and blue ink to add more tones. Unfortunately I got carried away and ran out of time to add more studies onto the yellow-orange and blue strip, but it was fun!! ^_^

Minor Project: Xerces Blue Butterfly Model

The Xerces Blue Butterfly modelled, I went with using a flat cube for the wings instead of planes just to give the wings some thickness and to help balance out the flow of geometry.

Smooth to wire frame + smooth to wire frame + unsmooth

Front Smooth

Front Unsmooth

Side Smooth

Side unsmooth

Minor Project: European Sea Sturgeon Model

Modeled the European Sea Sturgeon next in the lineup, needs a bit cleaning up on the tail and the lower fins, will get them sorted!! :D

Quick turnaround from smooth, wire frame + smooth and wire frame + unsmoothed

Front

Side

Back

Life Drawing: Week 7

Today's life drawing class we were using colours as the main media whilst using negative spaces as a guide to drawing. As a startup, we are to use any kind of colours but to focus on the light and dark tones on model, Jane for each 1-2 minute poses. I've chosen to use four oil pastels going from yellow as the lightest tone down to orange, red and purple for the dark.

After our warm up, we are to use acrylic paints and block out negative shapes from the background. I've only used red, yellow and blue colours before mixing them up as I paint. It was pretty interesting to paint as I was more concentrating on painting tones and replacing them with colours from my paint palette. The result of this kind of work.

As part of the challenge on focusing and painting negative shapes, we are to paint the scenery including Jane lying down. Using the same method from earlier, this was a little tricky as I haven't done foreshortening in a while but was really happy that it still showed Jane lying down. I'm really happy with this piece!! :D

To finish up the lesson, we've been given a challenge of drawing various poses of Jane ranging from 30 secs to 1 or 2 minutes. Before the challenge began, I thought it would be interesting to bring oil pastel over paints and see the results. Using a purple oil pastel, turns out they looked great! :D

Minor Project: Steller's Sea Cow Model Update

Some cleaning up made on the Steller's Sea Cow model geometry wise and reshaping him a little as he appeared to be a bit square shaped! :D

Front- Smoothed

Front wire frame

Wireframe smoothed

Wire frame unsmoothed

Tail Wire frame

Minor Project: First Character Modelling- Steller's Sea Cow

One of the first characters to be modeled from the group is the Steller's Sea Cow, the head was a bit tricky to model as the upper lip mostly covers the lower jaw from the side but only noticeable from the front. Still needs a bit cleaning up between the head and body, but getting there!! :D

Smoothed to wire frame unsmoothed to wireframe and smoothed

Smoothed

Unsmoothed/ Wireframe

Blocking out the head

Blocking out the body

Minor Project: Group Coloured Shadows Experiments

Using the feedback given for individual characters, I've put them together to see how this would look. I've kept them all to one shadows this time which purple, blue and turquoise seems to work well in contrast to the bright colours of the characters. 2,4 and 5 are the one I quite like. :D

1- blue

2- Gradually changes to purple at the bottom

3- purple

4- Gradually changes to purple at the bottom

5- Individual shadows at the back

6- Individual shadows on top

Without shadows

@Phil- Elk design and shadows

Hi Phil, 

I've made the elk a bit more golden-ey does this work now?