2017 Summary of Art

2017 has been a mixed bag for me art-wise. It felt like I slumped most of the year but looking back I did still produce a lot of work - only it was largely for class projects.

January:

I chose this picture for January because it shows an example of something I don't always feel confident in: background art. This, along with February's piece, was something I produced for my A-level graphic design. I was making a fantasy themed pop-up book, which required backgrounds in a range of locations, including forests and caves. The style I used for the backgrounds was largely inspired by some of Tom Siddel's work creating the backgrounds for his webcomic 'Gunnerkrigg Court.' I was pleased with how this scene came out in the end, despite my initial trepidation.

February:

This piece was also a page from my pop-up book, and you'll notice the dragon is missing his head. The dragon's head was the pop-up piece for this page, and was therefore drawn and printed seperately to the main bulk of the picture.

March:

This is the first piece of work in the list that I did purely for myself. Noelle is a recurring character of mine, and you may have seen her on my blog a few other times too. I was pleased with the lighting effect that I achieved in this piece, although it was before I had quite worked out a proper style (or how to draw eyes in a way that I like).

April:

This piece was again produced for my A-level graphics class, this time on the topic of Ethical Graphics. My project was an informational campaign on the inclusion and safety of transgender students, and my friend Teddy modelled for me. This piece is inspired by the work of Vince Low, and is in a style that I love to work in since discovering it at GCSE.

May:

This piece was also produced for my Ethical Graphics project, designed as a poster for school hallways. I enjoy the simple, clear colour blocks that come from working in vectors, as well as the calmer feeling created by the loose lineart.

June:

 I didn't actually do much drawing in May it turns out, probably due to exam stress. What I did produce though is a map of the starting town for a D&D campaign I am running for friends back home. This was my first time creating a full map, and it was an interesting learning experience.

July:

Speaking of D&D, this piece is of the original four player characters in the campaign. The green elf on the left was retired before the game began and we acquired another player, but I still like this piece. It was based on one of cROXover Goddess' 'Draw the Squad' bases.

August:

This is a piece you've already heard a lot about if you've been following this blog from the beginning!
Read about it and see the progress here!

September:

Once again on the D&D train, this is my character from the first campaign I ever played in. Her name is Tye, short for Tyviana, she is a tiefling wizard, and she likes fire. A lot.

October:

This piece I produced in life drawing class when my shoulder dislocated and refused to go back to its socket (not an unusual or hospital-worthy occurrence for me, don't worry). Laptops and graphics tablets are not made for life drawing. Particularly a vertical pose on a horizontal screen. This meant that the legs and the torso became a little out of proportion with one another sadly. Aside from that though, I'm quite pleased with the results.

November:

This was a fun one! I have a selection of ridiculously coloured cartoon cats that I like to doodle from time to time, including the above Spark (left) and Mesetan (right). This is coincidentally almost a perfect redraw of a piece I produced in 2013, and you can see the improvement. I love the bright and fun designs of my cats, so this piece was very enjoyable to produce. I was quite disgruntled to realise that they look better in each other's clothes than their own, however.

December:

This is my first self portrait with a mobility aid, as well as a look to a future where I can hopefully present more masculinely. I wanted to capture the full extent of my ridiculous posture, with a sway back and hyperextended knees and hips, and I think I did quite well in that aim. Of course, what better way to finish a picture than with super intense moody lighting though?

2D Head Turn and Take

Next in 2D we were tasked to create a head turn, followed by a surprise take, with an attribute such as hair or long ears with which to demonstrate overlap and followthrough. To begin with, we had to create a turnaround showing front, profile and 3/4 views of our character. I decided to revisit my character Noelle, previously seen in A Walk Cycle, But Not.

Noelle turnaround.

First I worked out the basic movement of the head as it turned, and then recoiled in surprise.

I then added detail with the face and eyebrows, giving the character expression.

Next I drew out Noelle's hair, giving it drag and followthrough separate from the movement of the stiffer head.

Finally in the roughs stage, I sketched out the pupils, exaggerating their shrink to emphasise the character's shock.

I then inked the animation:

And lastly I added colour.

I am pleased with this work, however I know it is not as good as it could be - there are a few slightly odd movements in the top of Noelle's hair, particularly as she first comes to a stop after turning, and some inconsistency in the size of her eyes and the edges of sections of hair. I am most pleased with my final sketched version of this piece, and may revisit the inking and colouring stages in the future.

2D A Walk Cycle, But Not

Over the summer leading to my start of my university course, I wanted to set myself some small animation challenges. The first of these was to create a fully looping walk cycle - but with a twist. As a part-time wheelchair user, I decided that I would animate a character wheeling themself along in a manual chair, as this form of movement interested me greatly and I expected it not to be something that we would cover in class to any extent. I chose to use a character that I had designed previously for this project, named Noelle.

Noelle, March 2017

I started with a basic sketch of a wheelchair, changed slightly from previous designs, and mapped out the frames with a stick figure. I used my own range of movement when in my chair to get a feel for which parts of the figure would feature the most movement - these were the arms and spine.

After a few attempts to smooth this sequence, I was happy with the result and ready to flesh out the sketch a little more. I filled the stick figure out into a full person, and explored the ways that the head might tilt with the movement of the body, settling for a steady forward-facing gaze. I also payed close attention to the movement of the hands, as this plays an important part in making the movement of the wheelchair user look realistic.

From here, I added more details to my sketch, giving the Noelle clothing and hair.

Finally I drew the lineart for each frame and added colour to the animation. In the final version, I slowed the framerate slightly from the sketches as the character appeared to be moving unnaturally fast.

If I were to do this exercise again, I would explore slow-in slow-out techniques further, particularly at the end of the movement as Noelle lifts her hands off the handrim and pulls them back to push again, adding more frames to the sequence in order to make the animation more fluid and realistic.