Sketch dump and life update!

That last one keeps getting longer and longer every time I open the file! "Oh wouldn't it be cool if there were more mob references? WHAT ABOUT MORE TENTACLES lets just move that up and voila more room for more characters" It'll be the death of me but It's going pretty well so far! I intend to animate the writing (placeholder font) so that it, and several aspects of the painting flicker/fade. 

Top two are yet more visuals for my Dragon Age pen and paper campaign, 3rd is a 20 minute warm-up for thumbnails and then of course at the bottom my old nerd guild wars feels.

Not much has changed since the last update, though I will be heading to Industry workshops next week and I am hella excited about that. I look forward to seeing all everyone from my MA course too, and to catch up with everyone while learning a lot! I will be in London for the week and I intend to be sketching a lot!

Also I started a new project, lowkey. I've been thinking about it since office days in Osaka and I'm gonna make a little oneshot Guild Wars 2 comic, about 10~ pages long, give or take a couple. I've written the script so far, and started thumbnailing out how I want the layout to go. Its pretty dang hard but I knew that going in. Thanks to this though, Im finally starting to get my head around clip studio paint! Another program to learn the quirks of! Hopefully next update I'll have something better than napkin scribbles and some cheesy lines in a .doc to show for it. (And also progress on the long painting)!

Sketchbook update as of July; Lots of people looking at me! So I drew their eyes :)

See you next time!

-Sam

I got plans!

With my teaching contract with Interac ending in early March, I've decided to return to the UK for the summer, instead of re-contracting for another 7-12 month period from next September.  Teaching at my elementary schools have been incredibly enjoyable and the time has flown in, almost without me noticing it; only 5 weeks left! I'm glad I applied and got the chance to work here, but its not a job where I can work on my art after work or on weekends, most of my free time is spent getting enough sleep so that I can wake up early enough to get to my rural schools for 7am.

Thankfully I was able to recover the PSD file from an old backup of that GW2 piece at the top- I started it back in the summer and just got back to finishing it over the Xmas break

 This was for a Dragon Age codex illustration, the games have such a cool art style for the murals and wall art that I wanted to give it a go!

My sketchbook hasn't been entirely neglected either (but still not enough!)
 **Sketchdump incoming**

 I've been drawing out variations on these characters, which are developed versions of the "Monk" concepts from the Excelsior MA project. Looking at some of the art I submitted for that course, I can only be embarrassed of. So to Level Up! as it were, and to update my portfolio, I'm working up turn-arounds and character paints for these guys/gays/masked constructs/whatever they are.

Please check out my artstation profile and like anything that takes your fancy!

Finished painting!

Finished the painting a couple of days ago, spent yesterday merging and splitting layers and repainting small sections that only get seen for a few seconds as the camera moves. I've currently got around 30-35 layers  that made it through to aftereffects. As a bonus,  a screengrab of my workspace in Aftereffects, with a nifty 3 quarter-ish view of everything- almost in place. 

Today I'm focusing on the camera's path and getting some of the smaller particle systems in place. 

Oh. Its you. It's been a long time. How have you been?

Haha, excuse my Portal 2 reference, but it has been just shy of a year since I last updated this blog. Things got a bit hectic there towards the end of last year, with moving house, living with friends and moving back, then my application for the MA didn't go through for February. Since then, however, I've been trying to draw and print more, so that I can re-apply for the same MA in September. I now have life classes twice a week, one being a regular fine art untutored session, and the other being 3 hours of fast paced gesturing and sketching; a tutored club in the University of Ulster for Life drawing in Animation.
Printmaking got set aside while I've been focusing on strengthening my anatomy and drawing technique, but with the R.U.A's annual exhibition open submission date looming, I'm thinking of a few new plate ideas- perhaps I'll get three pieces in, who knows?

Portfolio wise, the previous content wasn't close enough to the requirements for the course, so between now and August, I plan on developing on the things which I lack. Namely, Character design, weapon/vehicle design and environment concepts- with several variations thereof.
To this end, I've chosen a short story I wrote when I was younger to be the setting that ties my designs together. I think it'll do the overall portfolio good to have some connecting theme, and to give myself an anchor as to not get too bogged down with small details.

Thats it for now! If you wanna check out some of the work I've done since I started my life drawing classes, check out THIS LINK RIGHT HERE. It will take you to the tumblr tag "Sam's draws" on my non-srs-bsns tumblr.

Thank you for reading!