Character_concepts

Thanks Sampei.

Yes, I use reference from many sources. I presume being that you are on the Lightwave forums you have Lightwave:)
That's a very powerful tool right there at your disposal for setting up rigged simple characters, for posing and for hard to solve perspective and foreshortening problems. Its also a good tool for experimenting with lighting set ups.
I also like to augment my studies with either photo ref or if possible life.
If you have a partner or friend around your home, make use of them by asking then to pose for you:) I'm always getting my wife to explore pose possibilites for me. Like on that last piece I did, I wrapped a sheet around her and took photos in the pose I wanted for clothing and folds reference.
Failing that you always have yourself to reference from, use a mirror or take photos.

As for a wooden mannequin, yes they are useful for figure construction and real world lighting conditions. You can easily study how light effects the forms on a mannequin because its basically cylinders and spheres.

I would stress though no matter what reference you use, try not to get locked into it. Use your reference wisely and construct your figures using the ref as a guide. If your mind is actively trying to solve a drawing rather than slavishly copying a phot ref, then you are learning in the process.

Pretty soon you will build up a mental library to draw from, but you must study subjects from ref first to build that knowledge.

My latest character

th.jpg
 
drewblit said:
I think it's great that Trevor is working steadily on developing some images, however I do agree a bit with her look.
Trevor what are you saying with her out stretched limp wrist?
What about making it more forceful, pointing with dynamic fingers?
Her face is a good start though she seems to not have an expression, work out what emotion she has.
Finally pay attention to the material at the bottom of her dress it looks cut off.
May be her foot would push it out further to support her outstretched arm.

:
Click to expand...

Thanks Drewblit.

I was going for effortless conjouring:) I did try a more tense hand but personally didn't like it. Im always trying to capture subtlety and elegance rather than dramatic in my personal pieces. Something I will continue to work on:)
Thanks for your feeback, its useful.

I would love to see some of your work from life drawing if you have any you are happy to share.

I currently am working on commission, 2 characters. Thats a differnt ball game trying to nail 2 characters in my clients head. I love the challenge of that and its making me explore things I wouldn't normaly do.
 
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thanks for the great advice guys, I've currently finished an evening life drawing class and attending a life drawing club once a week, I try to draw as much as possible (on the train ect.) and also studying anatomy and perspective from books..however my 3d training takes up pretty much 95% of my time, but I still really like getting my hands dirty whenever I can :)
anyway, I'm really liking the sandy texture on that head, I guess you make your own custom brushes ? digital painting really appeals to me, but I think I need to master old school drawing before I start getting into it !
oh and drewblit, I would also like to see some of your work ;)
 
An update on my progress. Still working on 2 characters I have been commissioned to design. I will be able to show them when finished.
I always end my day with sketches of characters. I'm itching to get the best of those scanned to work on them in digital paint, which I will do after finishing up this job.

I'm also still studying the human figure as much as I can.
Here is a one hour tonal study from photo reference.

tonal_study.jpg
 
Finally got done with these two characters. Not the sort of characters I would normally do but I sure did enjoy designing them. The client was very happy with them so thats all that matters.

MJ.jpg
 
great stuff, I especially like the first figurative study of the girl.
One thing I'm not sure is the proportions of the girl character, the legs look a tad long. But what's important is that the client like it ;)
 
Yikes ! That character reads as a female, wasn't meant to be. It was the one thing I was worried about taking on that job, because the description was a guy with delicate features and long hair with an origin of Asian/Caucasian half-bred mix, something I knew would be hard to nail. I kindof thought I pulled it off, but obviously not.:D

Another character sketch. Just a bit of fun here, Frankenstein's monster.
Victor where are you? I need a repair job.lol

frank.jpg
 
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the first thing I thought of was the devil in "night on bald mountain". I cannot wait to see that finished, the colors are just WOW !
 
Thanks OnlineRender:)

Sampei you keep throwing me curved balls ;) It is finished. I wanted to keep it loose as I feel it adds to the energy of it. It is sometmes hard to know when to stop painting.
I love Ian Mcaigs answer to that, he says, " I know when I should have stopped painting, 5 mins before Ive ruined it"
Maybe you thought when I said "still working at it" I was refering to the image posted. What I did mean was I was still working at drawing and painting overall.
Thanks for your continued interest in my work, much appreciated.
More to come.
 
A new character. The first is a charcoal sketch, I saw something I liked so I took a photo and brought it into photoshop to work on.

_DSC2398.jpg


nmc3.jpg
 
yes I thought that with "still working at it" you meant it was a WIP. I'm italian so many times I misread, o misunderstand...I guess I should read more carefully..
But back to the painting, in all honesty I didn't and don't think it needs any more work at all. It's perfect. :)
anyway thank you sir for posting these wonderful creations, I personally find them really inspiring and they help me in finding the drive to continue my formal art training :thumbsup:
oh and love the demon concept, he looks so gentle but yet so strong...I hope to see more of him.
 
Thankyou Sampei, good luck with your art training. :)
An update on this guy. I reversed the composition because I felt it was stronger this way.

Mystic.jpg
 
I have been stufying quadrapeds and came up with this guy. Ths was alot of fun to play with different markings.

Creature_concept.jpg
 
I love that guy.
also, Trevor are you creating a huge story? all these fabuolous creatures and characters could have the potential of being part of the same universe...uh I've just watched the nevereding story again and that always gets me in a creative mood :D
oh and excellent fur and pose on the quadruped!
 
Thanks Sampei.

I do often wonder the same thing myself :) I just like creating creatures and characters, im not much of a writer. I do have fleeting ideas of themes or backstory to my work, it helps bring them alive. For the most part though its a visual exploration thing for me.

Im still playing around with creature concepts at the moment.
Here is a graphite rendering I did today. I plan to paint this in photoshop or corel painter.

Lizard_dog.jpg
 
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