Critique - Lucebelle

About and Critique
This was created after a while looking at the Disney fairies style. I'm a big fan of the style of the characters as well as the very soft coloring that the watercolor for that particular style creates. I really like how this piece in particular turned out, because it really shows how far I've gone in terms of coloring, particularly with pencil medium. The details in her face are soft and alluring, even, showing her intense interest with flames. Her style of clothing emulates ruffles in flowers as well as softer silks.
The only thing would be the background the hands. I wish there was more detail in hands, rather than pudge-hands.

Critique - Figure Sketch

ABout and Critique
This was a piece I did for one of the finals in a figure drawing class. The purpose of the class wasn't only on figure drawing but on creating a figure piece that was focused on line emphasis rather than shading and texture. Even though the face seems a bit off in proportion, I think the rest of the figure turned out really well especially in capturing the stance of the figure.

Critique - Geared for Christmas

About and Critique
This is one of the few pieces that was not an assignment (I didn't want to fill my portfolio with stuff I just did by assignment). I'm also relatively proud of this one since I included both a background and a figure. This piece also shows the particular style I enjoy doing, which is more comic-book, by have the figure outlined thickly on the edges and inked thinner on the inside lines. This was, I believe, originally inked traditionally and colored digitally. I'm also a fan of the bright colors. I'm a big fan of pudgy hands, not to say that I can't draw hands (see previous image), I just like the look of them. The only thing I noticed that is a bit proportionally off is the ear is just a bit too low for this elf.

Critique - Tiger

About and Critique
This was actually used as a digital print template for a class, but I really liked how the image came out, so I kept the original. I don't often shade in pencil, but this is one of the few pencil shades that I think turned out relatively decent. I would really like to expand on this piece, perhaps, and go a bit further with it.

Critique - Western Storyboard

About and Critique
Both of these pieces are from a storyboarding exercise about a showdown for a Western game. It was done digitally and shows my storyboarding work.


This is the shots right before the shot, setting up the scene. I really enjoy the close-ups then wide shots, to help create a tension in the scene between the two figures. For this the characters could be further apart or perhaps this should be cut into two shots to emphasize distance a bit more. I love the crow though since it adds really interesting framing and movement to the scene since everything else is very still to add to the tension.


These two shots are right after the shot goes off and Earl (the antagonist's) is in shock (since he was the one to be shot). Although it isn't put in visually (since it's not an animated story board), I put in a focus falter during the close up to his face to reflect what Earl's current state of vision.

Critique - ACEO Design Poster

About and Critique
This is an illustrative poster that I created for an event I set up held by George Mason's AIGA chapter. It was for a meet-n-greet with an activity to create ACEO (art card, editions, and orginials), which are basically original pieces of trading card sized artwork. So for the event, I wanted it to be sort of crazy and fun, hence the crazy looking guy and bright colors. I used Illustrator for this piece because it further emphasized the cartoon-fun quality I wanted the event to embody and vectors are really the best thing to use for any sort of poster art (especially since I printed the poster on multiple different sizes). I also wanted to do the crazy, oversize, foreshortened limb. Although looking back I might have brought the limb down a bit and more forward to make it a bit more proportional.

Critique - School Girl Portrait

About and Critique
I particularly liked how this piece turned out. Since it was for my figure drawing class, I think it turned out pretty well. I had to recreate a portrait of a young child. I particularly like how the eyes and nose turned out with the emphasis on the line with little to no real shading you can get the depth of the nose. Although there isn't too much shading in the piece (due to the nature of the class), I think I'll go back and add highlights since the paper texture picked up and created a nice gray scale for the image.

Critique - Portrait Adult Female

About and Critique
This was another portrait sketch assignment. Generally most of my female characters have very soft lines so I think this was a jump for me to create a portrait of a woman, who although still attractive, had much harsher features than my normally female character. Oddly enough, she came out really well, and this is probably one of my best portraits that I've completed. I think I'll work more towards this since it takes me a bit out of my comfort bubble.

Critique - Cat Warrior (Line Art)

About and Critique
This was a piece that was done for a fanart commission of a character from a comic book. The person I was doing the commission for, wrote fanfiction for the comic and it was going to be picked up by the people who created the comic (they have a fan book created every year with art and stories from their fans). This was strictly a line piece, but I think I'll go in and color it digitally since the lines are so crisp. This piece was also particularly hard (if you think drawing people is hard, try drawing an anthropomorphic person...it's pretty rough), so I think that it turned out pretty decent was why I put in in my portfolio in the first place. I also love the detail in the skin of the lizard mount (which took forever). The line work is also nice and clean. I will definitely be coloring this.

Critique - Old Man Head Model 4-Up

About and Critique
This is the 3D model of "Gerome: Old Man of Time" sketch below.
The assignment was pulling a quotation and creating something that went with the quote but didn't at all. I picked a quotation from Walter Benjamin about how fragile time is and created Gerome to be my spokesman. Although I really liked the design, the model is decent and shows some modeling skill. Gerome wears his face like a mask, where behind it holds all the gear workings. I think I might redo the model since I enjoyed the character so much.

Critique - Gerome

About and Critique
This is probably one of my favorite character designs. I thought it would be interesting to depict Father Time as a clockwork robot with a human face. This is probably the most human deformation that I've done where I've pretty much stripped the body except for the face. It's also one of my designs that shows a different, older age group. I find that most artist show their range with different genres of art (such as landscape, figure drawing, still life, etc.) when I feel that they should also show range in those particular genres as well. I'd like to primarily be a character designer, thus I want to show my range with male/female and old/young. In terms of improvements, I might spruce up his hip joints. The issue with creating robots, particularly clockwork, is that you have to create it to where the movement makes sense. If they don't, it'll look off or unusual.

Critique - Dragon Lands

About and Critique
This was part of the pre-production work for a small game idea that I had involving the raising of dragons. I'm not very adept with a watercolor brush, but I really like how this particular piece turned out since the watercolor brush actually obeyed me somewhat, this time. I wanted it to be a bit vague and mysterious to where you can make a guess on what the creatures that are flying around might be.
I really enjoy the colors of this piece. And will probably keep them if I remake it. I think I want to expand on it more and put more detail into the design for the game.

Critique - Mary

About and Critique
Ahh...my dear Mary. This and the design in the previous post for Judith, were character and costume designs for pre-established characters in a horror indie film for the sequel.
The character, more feminine in the previous film, is now a warrior in the second. I wanted to go for a combination of a Spartan look combined a bit with post-apocalyptic aesthetic while keeping with a modern feel. I think the only thing I would fix would be the proportions that are a bit off, but the costume stays. =)

Critique - Judith

About and Critique
This is Judith. Apart of the same project as "Mary," Judith loses her mind in the second film. I went with a sort of swamp witch look that was sexy and crazy. Although I colored Mary in the same way, I really liked the coloring style I did for Judith; a combination of blending smooth transitions and cell-shading, which is really noticeable in her skin.

Critique - For Alphonse

About and Critique
I'm a HUGE Art Nouveau fan. Like HUGE. I love the inking, the style, the coloring...I just had to try it! So, this is the result. It was actually used for an illustration for a book design assignment about Alphonse Mucha (one of the most prominent art nouveau artists). This was actually done traditionally using Copic markers (which are amazing and I love 'em!) and touched up digitally. I really like how the colors came out, which is how I would imagine the colors were originally, hot off the press. I think I would change her left eye since it's a bit off, and definitely expand on the crazy swirlies that are very reminiscent of art nouveau.

Critique - Snakes after Escher

About and Critique
For a while, I was going through an "I LOVE MC ESCHER" phase. So for a large scale assignment I decided to do something that was partially an homage to the man, and a self portrait. I'm not sure why I chose snakes. Perhaps it was because the unraveling pieces remind of snakes or some other deep seated meaning that I don't know about myself. This is one of the few pieces that I've done in ink washes and india ink. It is also one of the largest pieces I've done (I tend to work relatively small), at about 3' by a little over 6'. I think this also shows a start to my fascination with body pieces and breaking the body apart into putty like sections, almost as if the body was made of clay.

Critique - Benjamin Character Ref Sheet

I'm working on critiques of things that are to be in my portfolio...but ALAS! These might not even make it to the final portfolio. I'm also going to do them in a random order. Because I like that.

Benjamin Char Ref Sheet



About
This was also apart of the same project (Diaphanous) as the "Geared Robot" piece. AS part of the pre-production process (for both animated films and games), it's good to see a flesh out of the character (AKA character sheet) and some emotions that the character might express to use as reference. This is one of the few sheets that I had for the character Benjamin, who is one of the main protagonists of the game. This sheet also shows the final interation and style of the character (there were about 5 or so different versions of him).

Process and Critique
Again, like the "Geared Robot," this doesn't show much of a completed piece (such as an inked/colored illustration) but demonstrates pre-production work (which is where I'm trying to get into). I particularly love the style that Benjamin is in, since it's simple but still can be very expressive. This also shows the blue non-photo pencils, and how I use that as a base for my art. The style for the game was very clean for the steampunk style, only because I wanted to make it seem/appear much more childish even though the story itself was dark.

Critique - Geared Robot

I'm working on critiques of things that are to be in my portfolio...but ALAS! These might not even make it to the final portfolio. I'm also going to do them in a random order. Because I like that.

Geared Robot


About
This was a piece that was apart of a much larger project that was an animation (which I should actually post as part of my portfolio...hrmmm). It was part of the pre-production process for a Steampunk-themed apocalypse game idea (Diaphanous). I'm not particular keen on creating "mechas" so this was a pleasant surprise as well as me going out of my comfort shell. It was never used in the final game intro movie, but I'll probably still use this guy as playable side-character for players in-game.

Process and Critique
Although it's somewhat unnoticeable, this sketch shows a bit of how my sketching process is like. I'm very particular in my sketching process, and I start ALL of my sketches with blue non-photo pencil. Afterwards I go into detail with another pencil (such as the red here) or straight into inking.
For critiquing, although the image is sort of interesting, I'm a bit ashamed that it isn't completed (to full color or detail). I think it's a good hinting for employers on what they'll expect to get from me in the pre-production stages of a project, but it's definitely not a completed piece.

Critique - The Artist Poster

I'm working on critiques of things that are to be in my portfolio...but ALAS! These might not even make it to the final portfolio. I'm also going to do them in a random order. Because I like that.

The Artist movie Poster


About
Alrighty, ya'll. So this was a poster that I did for a friend who wrote a screenplay called the Artist. It's suppose to be a sort of drama/fantasy movie (similar to A Beautiful Mind, Heroes TV show, and Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Even though I had pretty free reign on the project, I descided to include some of the movie artwork since the movie's main character (also onthe poster) is a college student that is also comic book artist. Thus, the sketched image in the lower corner (by the way, not my art) and the eye detail.

Process and Critique
As per request (since I'm not sure if we're suppose to discuss process/about or not for the critique assignment or not), I'm going to quickly go over what I did for this poster. I wanted to include something impactful as well as something intriguing/mysterious for the image. I felt that the close up of the main protagonist's face shrouded with a red hood, not only brought out a movie-esque feel but also helped express the darker nature of the story. The red was supposed to be reminiscent of the red used by a good number of heroes in their costume designs, but with the shadow it obscures the effect of "hero."
The effect with the eye, I felt brought the nature out that he's an artist and that's apart of the character (as well as with the sketch) but I now I feel it takes away a bit of the effect of the image, since the image's texture and coloring reflected the artistic style already being painterly. I think the only part I actually did a paint over was the shape of the face (placement of features) and the eyes, specifically. Only because I wanted the protagonist to be recognizable right when the film started. I did a paint over on the eyes, because I feel that the eyes are the hardest to reproduce for a person, since the eyes are where most of the emotion is for that person.
For the design sakes of this piece, I probably would redo a few things, such as the font choice for the title and caption (however for this I have to say that I don't remember if these were already chosen by the production).
[The Artist website]

Critique

Me, My Aspirations, and GAM631

Hello~
I'm Diane and this is my first post for this blog.

I'm not really sure how to describe myself to you all out there and how to give you an idea of the kind of artist that I am, so here it goes...

I love spontaneity but I also love order and processes.
I adore clean, crisp lines, but really like the grudge aesthetic.
I enjoy challenging myself, but have yet been able to figure out my own limits.
I feel as if I can only do art if it's assigned to me because I like working within certain restraints, most of the time. I think being creative within a box made of rules is challenging and makes you become more creative by thinking out of the box but staying within it. (Apologies for the cliche).

I'm full of oxymorons, I know. It makes me feel just as confused as you do.
And I think that's what I'd like to fix. I've been stuck in a limbo (both artistically and personally) for the passed couple of years. I haven't been really aiming for anything in particular but refusing to give up something that I've spent most of my life aspiring towards. So, for this class, semester, year...my only aspiration, my only goal is to find my creative spark.
You know. That spark. The thing that makes the little gerbil in your head, run a marathon. The energy behind what you do in life, your purpose. That's what I want to aim for. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing it. But I feel that the more I try, hopefully I'll find my way.