Ozelotl - Art School Journey

[stella]

Hi everybody

I'm a hobbyist who started Art School in fall 2019.

I loved doodling while I was in school but got discouraged when I hit a wall after trying to do anything more finished than a doodle and transition to digital.
Around three years ago I discovered some structured exercises that seemed like they could help me get over that. Since then I've mostly been working on fundamentals as I am still scared to create my "own" pieces but I'm having a lot of fun and that's what's most important to me

I'm really looking forward to where this journey will take me but I'm excited to be here.
If you have any critique or even just a passing thought about any of my submissions I'd love to hear it!

[stella]

So I just finished Term 1 yesterday (which is why I started the topic in the first place :D) - overall it took me about 10 months. I hope the next term will not take me quite as long but I'm optimistic as I am in a much better place than I was half a year ago.
But I also learnt to not dwell too long on a single exercise or do too many additional things as I found I gained the most from the assignments that threw me into cold water
But overall I'm mostly happy that I've finished something!

Photoshop for Digital Production: https://imgur.com/a/0EEHPmQ
Perspective: https://imgur.com/a/cpnwo09
Nude Figure Drawing: https://imgur.com/a/2gCPglT

[stella]

For everybody who doesn't want to click the links to the albums:

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Photoshop:

Pen Control:
1: pen stroke direction top to bottom
2: pen stroke direction left to right
3/4: pen stroke direction free

Image Adjustments: right is original, left are my tries to match original

Combine Images 1: Images given

Combine Images 2: My dream house (yes that's my cat, he passed away
shortly before I did this assignment. Now he dreams here forever.

Selections/Liquify/Heal 1: Add Apples to Basket

Selections/Liquify/Heal 2: Images given
Graft features from image on the right onto image on the left - result in the middle

Selections/Liquify/Heal 2:
Graft features from image on the right onto image on the left - result in the middle

Selections/Liquify/Heal 3: Images given
Liquify the image on the left to match the features of the image on the right
- result in the middle

Selections/Liquify/Heal 3:
Liquify the image on the left to match the features of the image on the right
- result in the middle (what have I unleashed unto the world?)

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Perspective:

Convergence Lines/Vanishing Points/Horizon Line: Mark in Photos (GIF!)

Boxes:
Top: 1P Perspective - Left with ruler, right freehand with corrections
Bottom 2P Perspective - Left with ruler, right freehand with corrections

Sculpted Shapes: 2P Perspective Lettering (Top final, bottom with guidelines)

1P Perspective Room: Fantasy Tavern

2P Perspective Street Corner: Street Café x Magic Bazaar

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Nude Figure Drawing:

Ellipses/Cylinders practice (GIF!)

Action Line/Form Overlays 1/3 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Action Line/Form Overlays 2/3 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Action Line/Form Overlays 3/3 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Action Line/Forms 1/4 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Action Line/Forms 2/4 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Action Line/Forms 3/4 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Action Line/Forms 4/4 (Photos: Proko Model Poses)

Proportions (try to fill grid from memory)

30 Second Gestures 1/5

30 Second Gestures 2/5

30 Second Gestures 3/5

30 Second Gestures 4/5

30 Second Gestures 5/5

1 Minute Gestures 1/3

1 Minute Gestures 2/3

1 Minute Gestures 3/3

Full Figure Drawing (Eye/Pen Measurements) 1: Woman (Photo: Marcus Ranum)

Full Figure Drawing (Eye/Pen Measurements) 2: Man (Photo: Proko Model Poses)

[WeirdOwl]

OMG those perspective assignments! If that's also your original design, I'm just going to go bang my head on the wall for a bit and contemplate my existence.

[stella]

Thank you so much!
I had a lot of design and mood inspiration references but I didn't copy anything.
I went a little overboard with these two but I had so much fun and tbh they are the first two pictures I've finished that I'd consider more than just an exercise so it means a lot to me that you like them

[WeirdOwl]

Ok, I'm done with the wall here for a bit. I need you to learn rendering ASAP and go ahead and color them. I want those for my desktop background for inspiration.

[ghostmonster]

You have really wonderful line quality and confidence. Your grasp of form in perspective seems to be at a very competent level. I am really looking forward to seeing more of your submissions and watching your progress.

[ashley.durnall1]

Your work is beautiful
The gesture drawings have so much flow and grace to them. There's so much motion - it's super nice to look at
I also really like your perspective drawings, the world looks lived in and population - I'm struggling with that - I'm not so confident in filling places

[dangras-almeida]

The quality of the assignments is amazing indeed! Congrats! The perspective ones are jaw-dropping! Loved them! 😍Liked the gifs you posted here as well

[oshiekuro]

They all look great, congrats on finishing term 1! I just started it myself

[stella]

Thanks you all! You really helped encourage me to start term 2 ASAP

@WeirdOwl I'd love to render them but I have never rendered anything more than example boxes and similar stuff. See you in a few years I guess

@ghostmonst3r I think the line quality comes from doing DrawABox. Nothing like being forced to draw exclusively in ink pen for a year to help with confident lines

[ashley.durnall1]

Seeing how you have done with linework, I think you'll do fine with rendering
Though I'm in a very similar boat to you (having not rendered anything before, but then again, i'm lacking your experience :P), but I've watched many videos and it seems that rendering is about putting down a basic colour/value and working from there.
Start adding some simple shadows and highlights and build up from there. It looks to be about pushing the values around to get the shadows and highlights where you want them/need them to be. Or at the very least, that's what I see people doing all the time

[lip3chi]

So clean and organized, and your perspetive exercise was really good (especially the Street Café x Magic Bazaar one)

[stella]

Hi guys,

i've been working on term 2 for a while now but today I finally finished something that I can show so here is my vector 2D character, a cat with a hat

Since Photoshop export to SVG is buggy as heck (why does it not export vector masks or smart objects correctly?), the only way to show that this is an actual vector graphic is a gif of me resizing it repeatedly...

Oh and here's my preliminary sketches - I had shading sketches too of course, I just deleted them whenever I finished the vectorization so that the whole thing was less confusing so unfortunately I don't have those anymore.

Notice the hat getting larger with every iteration xD

[stella]

Hey

I did the Blending exercise - I made myself a template: (maybe it can be useful for some of you?)

Smudge Tool version:

Hard Brush version:

Soft Brush version:

I don't think I'll ever use the Smudge tool much, it's just not for me.
But surprisingly, I kind of like the visible strokes in the hard brush version.

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Also I started practicing loomis heads, from a loomis head 3D model, from photos and a few from imagination, I rotated through the 3 types a few times but since it sums up to 180 heads I thought I'd better put them in a gif ^^'

Upwards angles where the underside of the jaw is visible are my downfall so I practiced them a lot.
Time to get started on the features! But I'll probably do some other assignment first to get some variety

[stella]

Hi
Whenever I got frustrated working on features I worked on the Photoshop shading shapes with a single light source assignment. I did it in color tho because I thought that would help me practice my blending even more.
Organic shapes are hard. But I''ve gotten way more comfortable with blending!

[stella]

Happy Holidays!
Nothing is more festive than a holiday ... fence?

[Wingz]

Wow! this is amazingly done. well done!

[stella]

I can't believe this is happening, but I finished the first round of features practice!

All finished drawings+rendering were done from 3D model references.
Anatomy and structure overpaints+drawings (for lips and noses) were done from photo references.
(Now onto actual photos and colors urgh I'm scared.)

Also, you can see my drawing and rendering style changing here as I'm using more and more structure, learning shading, and then later using a better block-in process and a textured brush.

Eyes:

Ears:

Lips:

Noses:

[Julia_J]

Wow good studies!