December life study

 

3 hours, charcoal on litoposter.

 

Sanguine pastel on litoposter.

Skull embrace

Life drawing. Some proportion mistakes here and there admittedly. Still a progression though.

Life study 3

Sanguine pastel pencil on litoposter. Tuesday's life drawing workshop at the university. I tried the renaissance artist approach for a change. We had one hour to draw this but I finished the hair and the cloth afterwards. A classmate complimented that this looks very realistic.

Figure drawing

 

Artist life down at the university: figure drawing.

Comic night

Another university student and I couldn't get to the 24 hour comics day event so we instead held a  late night comic drawing event listening to Vangelis and this is what I produced. Just a stream of consciousness as I could not concentrate on scriptwriting. 

Edit: The guy commented that this is rather scary. I hear that quite often, even though my works are not scary to me and I never intentionally try to make them scary, they just come naturally like that I guess. I thought the Frog comic was rather sympathetic but even that has been called a bit scary.

Study

Formulaic practise using Andrew Loomis' method, and analysis of Zsa Zsa Gabor's face.

Commissioned portrait

Oil on canvas, 46x56cm. I was commissioned to paint this portrait of the customer's father who passed away years a go. There were only two low-quality photographs of the person available so the customer wanted a painting as a memento. According to her, the man was a down-to-earth, warm-hearted person keen on nature, and that should be apparent on the portrait.

I had to study some more in-depth color theory to work on the colors and lighting as the reference pictures were flash-lit or pale, unnaturally flat-looking. I learned quite a lot from the process and gained more confidence. It was pretty laborious to get the proportions right and achieve a resemblance. Everything has to be just right, not too dark, not too light, not too sharp, not too obscure. Fine-tuning took hours.

Mech

Felt pens on laser paper.

Animals

"Choral horse" and an elephant seal - sort of. Graphite on sketchbook page.

Ink drawings

Rafael study

Study of Rafael Sanzio's drawing. Sanguine oil pastel pen on A3 sketchbook. I used a lot of sandpaper to sharpen the pen. Copying old masters gives confidence and helps to get proper understanding of draughtsmanship. Jose Parramon stated in the reference book that in order to be a good painter, you have to be an even better draughtsman. Edit: scanned version added.

3D practise

 

Above: smoothing in ZBrush. Some troublesome polygon flow causes holes in the surface. Live and learn

Well, it's a start, again. Silo 2 trial.

Hand study

Per Andrea del Sarto.  Burnt sienna and copper beech crayons.

Face emblem process (updated)

Oil on A3 illustration board.

Process:

 

Sketch from moleskine pocket.

 Trying to decide the colors. It has been said that what sets apart a graphic designer and  a graphic producer is that creative design is about making promising alternative versions and then choosing the best idea instead of working straight on the finished piece.

After settling for a satisfactory color scheme I transfer the sketch to A3 paper by grid-to-grid method. Then I insert it to lightbox and trace it to illustration board with red pastel pen (it smudges less than black charcoal, and graphite would permeate through oil). I start colouring face first, dry brushing since turpentine and linseed oil would soak through paper. 

I decided not to use much shading as someone mentioned this would look better if left like this. This is closer to drawing than painting because I used thin brushes (as opposed to contemporary concept of painting which is often defined by expressive, large brush strokes) and I wouldn't call this an illustration either since this does not have a particular purpose other than aesthetic pleasure. Almost finished...

Works in progress

Works in progress. Lots of work left to do and problems to be solved, a thought that can bring one down all too soon. One just has to remember and art is a journey; one can never reach the destination without taking the steps. Writers face this concern too, and in some writing inspiration book it said that "You can only see to the next traffic lights but not the destination. You can only write chapter by chapter until The End." One cannot truly see what the result will be, just some glimpses of it. Just enjoy the process and do your best, and accept that in the end, it's the people who will decide if your work is good or not.

Art and design is about breaking boundaries, at least your own ones. The fact that a work you were proud of yesterday seems weak today means you are progressing. At least that thought keeps me going. Kimon Nicolaïdes said in The Natural Way to Draw that the sooner you make all the mistakes the better. It's all about the amount of work you make before you can reach a master level.

Hooray!

So, I received some results from the schools that I applied to and I'm stoked:

*University of Lapland - graphic design, bachelor/master degree program 22.75 points (minimum 18.75) - passed!

*Metropolia University of applied sciences - 3D animation and visualization 100/100 (minimum 94) - passed

*Kymenlaakso University of applied sciences - digital media 90/100 (minimum 74) - passed! A secondary choise

Woo!

I now get to decide between the first two. A tough one. I love both graphic design and animation, I just don't have much expertise with 3D as of yet - no finished works at least. I've already been to one graphic design school so I have a solid background for that. I have to think carefully, lots more essay writing and researching in the uni

Too bad I didn't know about KyAMK's digital media program (emphasis on game, user interface, character and level design - how cool would that have been!)  until this year. I should have applied there last year when I just tried to get into Turku University of applied sciences' once-every-fourth-year Animation director program, but didn't get enough points eventually. They were very picky and emphasized heavily on scriptwriting, sigh.

Whichever I decide, I now get enough time and chance to revamp my portfolio, perhaps even produce a demo reel.


Statistics:

As of today, my online portfolio has had 2043 visitors since 2008. My blog pictures have been watched 50-140 times each. The photorealistic ones have been most watched, and the Bergman screenshot study with felt markers pic has 143 clicks. The ones I have put most effort into have most clicks and the sketches much less. There was a total of one comment last year on that particular Bergman pic. Conclusion: don't be sloppy, put effort into it. Use references if needed and strive for better result.

Why hurry? logo

Proposal logo, color and black/white version, for a nameless association that promotes leisured lifestyle. I drew 50 thumbnails, picked one which I in turn made a few alternative versions of, then I drew it onto A3 board with blue pencil, and inked it. I used tracing paper for coloured version, drew the outlines, smudged some blue craphite on the other side, then drew it a gain on the lines and painted with guache. Then I skanned both, traced the black-white version in Illusrator and figured out the colors for pantone system. Et voilá!

Forbearing affection

Proposal illustration. Fineliners.

The key to quality work is time. People like to see works that have obviously taken long hours and sweating. Few people enjoy works that have been made during last minute. Another important thing is concept: combine two or three things to form something with a meaning.

Face sketches

"Head is the most important part of the body, so practice it as much as possible," said a pro artist in Imagine FX mag. Here's selected pages of water color, acrylic and even oil on heavy paper sketchbook. Most are from imagination, with the exception of the first one which I drew after seeing interesting eyes in some photo. I try to write notes and draw arrows to point out less successful details so that I can avoid them later.

Snapshots from entrance exam, second day

Tv-spot storyboard for an aerodynamic, sporty all-age rollator.

Snapshots from entrance exam, first day

1) An electric gadget morphs into a cartoony animal 2) Climbs up stairs, camera follows.

Emblem

Again, drawn during subway, bus, and commuter train travels. The shaky pen formed rather interesting patterns and textures. Some drunk guy commented that this could make a cool tattoo (though they often say cliches like that). Drawing in public places seem to attract such people to come over to talk nonsense. It can be quite creepy sometimes, particularly in case of the drug abusers.

Hak

Ink on A3 illustration board and Photoshop. I saw a bird wing like pattern somewhere in the background of a TV program and I liked the colors. Inspired by them, I started sketching, taking the vision into more mechanical direction, and the idea kept developing, turning into this.

Character design

Character design application work for Metropolia University of Applied Sciences' 3D animation department. Photoshop.

Update May 20: Passed, I received an invitation to the entrance exam. So excited!

Book illustration

Application work for University of Lapland. Atmospheric scene illustration of a passage from John von Düffel's Vom Wasser. Graphite and watercolor on A3 illustration board. About 8 hours of work excluding research, thumbnails and preparatory sketches that took a few hours as well.

Update May 20: Passed, they invited me to the entrance exam.

Croquis

Ethereal gaze

Playing around with watercolor, acrylics and Photoshop. 19x15cm.

Croquis drawings

Some ink croquises from life drawing course. The teacher commented that "the hand's thumb region looks near-perfect."