VisComm 3 Homeworks

I haven't posted for a while, so I figured I'd show some of my recent homework assignments. These are all for my VisComm 3 class. The first is a painting done over a photograph of a foamcore model (which I just realized is probably still taking up space in the shared laundry room... oops, I'll have to take care of that tomorrow...). None of the model shows, but it was the starting point for perspective and shadow reference.


These are thumbnails done for the image that follows. Some weren't too great, and I really liked a few of them. I might come back and revisit some of my favorites.



This was based on the winning thumbnail. I tried to go for the iridescence of a beetle, and I think it turned out pretty well for my first attempt to do so. It was an interesting process.

You've got a mis-shaped head

Just a quick doodle to flush the homework out of my system. Midterms are gathering like buzzards, so I've gotta do something short-term and fun once in a while.

Quick Portrait Fun

This is just a quick little portrait I sketched tonight to relieve the pressure of homework. It's nice to have super short-term projects like this to remind myself that drawing can be fun. I did this one in about 15 minutes, and it is in no way related to any of my school or work projects.

Israel Hands: Pirate, at your service

This is a character design for my Visual Development class right now. We are developing Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Israel Hands is one of the nastier conspirators and mutineers who take over once they land on Treasure Island.

Derelict Spacecraft: Exterior

So, here's an exterior view of the derelict spacecraft for which I've recently been designing the interiors. To be more accurate, this is the spacecraft before it has been left derelict and is portrayed in full working order. I've got to weather and damage it a bit before it reads as derelict, but it's a start.

Derelict Spacecraft Interior- Sleeping Berth

This is another room in the derelict craft whose interior I started exploring this week. Classes begin next week, so I've been trying to cram in all the personal pieces I can before homework takes over.

Space Craft Interior

This is an interior environment I did for an Epic Tuesday Studios project.

Lava Monster

Our speedpainting in Working Title this week was "Lava Monster." I did most of it within the 1 hour limit, though I took an extra 15 minutes afterwards for finishing touches.

Spacemen and Monsters

I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I'd put up some sketches I've done recently for a couple of unrelated personal projects. I've still got to paint the monsters, but other jobs have taken up a lot of my time recently. Hopefully I'll be able to put up some of that stuff soon, too.

Colorado Bridge

Here are a couple of sketches I did a little over a month ago at the Colorado Street Bridge with Aaron. I've just gotten around to scanning a big stack of images, so I figured I'd post these up.

Creature Design

I'm working on a collaborative project with some friends, developing a science fiction short story as if it were to be a live action film. This is one of my sketches for a creature that sucks the flesh off of its living victims. I gave it a venom sac behind the jaws. When it attacks, it sprays the flesh-melting venom on its victim, enabling it to suck off its liquified flesh. Yum!

Serious Play Conference

I had the opportunity over the last couple days to attend Art Center's bi-annual design conference, this year entitled "Serious Play." Sometimes it's nice to benefit from where my tuition money goes, but that's a discussion for another post... Anyway, I was helping out with the documentation efforts, and decided to do a couple of sketches of my own. The first one was from my point of view on the far left side of the conference hall, the stage to my left.



The sketch below is from Michael Curry's presentation. He is the one who developed the puppetry for the Broadway production of The Lion King and other shows. He talked about how puppeteers auditioning for his shows must be able to convey personality and emotion through a simple mask held in the hand. I liked the imagery of that, and here is my representation of it.

Welcome to the Gun Show

Sorry, ladies, not those guns...

Here are some sketches I've done over the break, practicing the sketching techniques I learned in Dynamic Sketching. It's pretty fun.

More Dynamic Sketching- Planes

These are some compiled pages from my final Dynamic Sketching sketchbook. If you hadn't guessed, we did planes that week.

Beowulf and Grendel Finals

Our second project for Character Design 1 was to redesign key characters from the story of Beowulf. We were supposed to base the designs on a particular historical culture, while modifying the motifs a little bit. I chose to base mine on the ancient Celts and worked that culture's ornamentation and design motifs into Beowulf's costume. I'm not sure if the resolution will be high enough to see, but the band across Beowulf's chest depicts various creatures and monsters he has defeated, among which is a Teletubby...

Tank Studies

A couple of weeks ago, our Dynamic Sketching class went to the Military Vehicle Museum in El Monte, CA. I had no idea something so cool was so close. Greg, the proprieter of the musem, does all sorts of military vehicle work for films, both as a driver and as a consultant, and many items in his collection have appeared in major motion pictures. We got to walk around the collection, taking photos and sketching. He even let us crawl around inside an M60 tank. It was pretty sweet. Here are some sketches I did on site, from photos, and from a book on tanks that I picked up at Borders a while back.

As is often the case, part of our Dynamic Sketching assignment was to do redesigns of what we had drawn from observation. I explored several designs that could be built over a 1940's farming tractor. The premise is that US munitions factories have been destroyed by invading Nazis, and the army is forced to fit anything and everything with armor to defend American soil from the invasion.

Speedpainting

I did this in about 15 minutes, mostly with the line tool in Photoshop. I added the atmospheric snow and some detail in the foreground with a brush. I've been studying tanks this week and wanted to get an image out of my head so I can get on with my homework. This one might be kinda fun to explore a bit more in depth someday.

Weekly Creature #002

Happy Easter! At some point I'll probably flesh this out a bit (yeah, right...), but I have other things to get to this evening.

Transform and Roll Out!

For those with whom I am not in regular contact, just thought I'd throw up an image of the work that's been consuming most of my time lately... Weston James Anderson is 3 weeks old today and looks to be a WIP for years to come.

So far, being a Dad seems a lot like being a POW in a foreign war... I am constantly awakened just as I fall asleep; I need to be alert and on my toes at all times; strange substances are always flung at me, making sure at least part of me is wet, damp, and uncomfortable at all times. But instead of relentless beatings, he is actually sweet some of the time, so I can't complain too much. Besides, if I've got the time to complain, I oughta just sleep instead...

Weekly Creature #001

Okay, so I've decided to do weekly themed drawings before (see the... um... 2 weekly robots I did... months ago...), but this time I really mean it! Well, by calling it "weekly," I feel like I'm at least making the commitment to do it regularly. Maybe you all can keep me on task and demand more creatures. Right now I'm not very good, but after a couple of months of weekly creatures, I should at least improve. Comments and crits welcome and encouraged!

As far as format, I kind of like the idea of doing them at a 3.5"x2" size, as that is a standard size for business cards. It might be kind of fun to print them off on business card sheets and trade 'em with friends. If anyone else is interested, let me know. We could trade them physically or just download 'em from each other's blogs and print 'em off ourselves. And why not throw vehicles/robotics/whatevers in there with it? Yeah, this could be kinda fun. Anyway, here's week #1: