robindigitalimaging

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 13b: Final album cover

Doing this was one of the most frustrating yet rewarding pieces to do in this class. I was agonized by the line art limitations but learned a lot about how to use that to my advantage to break the molds of reality. In the end I feel as if I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone of messy sketches and I’m proud of the result. I still feel slightly unsatisfied with the results just because I would have wanted to do more in depth studies of cartoony poses. To me they feel stiff unlike their colorful personalities but that’s something I’ve been working on for years and am still slowly improving on. I really hope to get some feedback on that during the crit. Also in doing this I became more passionate about learning how to create backgrounds. They can add so much to a story and I keep ignoring them. Actually, while writing this I’m realizing I kind of hate this. Oh heck.

If I could do this again I would have done a different band so it wouldn’t be so limited cause the visual elements aren’t really negotiable. I also would have tried to do a more exaggerated cartoony style in a vector based fashion. I would have created something less cluttered and simplistic with a color palette that I could pick instead of sticking to the binding rules of their character designs and very literal imagery. 

I wish I could have ended this class on a good note but it’s okay.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 13c in progress: Album Cover Final

For this piece I’m delving into something I don’t do so much and I’m trying to get better at. Cell shading and clean line art. This project is something I’m not as excited to do as the last project because of it being based in original ideas as much especially for my band because they have very literal meanings of their songs and character designs. I still am excited about it because I love the band and they mean a lot to me. I am learning a lot about the restrictive nature of line art and I hope to find out a way to make the characters seem lively in this style. I need to learn more about this since I’ll be doing work in animation. I think the hardest part so far has been the line art itself. I’m looking forward to coloring it because I’m definitely not having fun with the line art. I might make the objects on the back more in a painterly style but it might not fit the rest of it. Idk I think I could make it work by using a similar color pallet to the front.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignments 13a+b: Final proposal and thumbnails

Ninja Sex Party

Cool Patrol

Track list:

"Intro (Cool)"

"Cool Patrol"

"Orgy for One"

"Danny Don't You Know"

"Release the Kraken"

"Ninja Brian Goes to Soccer Practice”

"First Date"

"Smooth Talkin'"

"Heart Boner (Part II of the Boner Trilogy)"

"Romance Novel"

"Eating Food in the Shower"

"Courtship of the Mermaid"

"GFY"

"Mansion Party”

"Outro (Patrol)"

This is a two person band comprised of the singer, Danny Sexbang (Daniel Avidan) and Ninja Brian (Brian Wecht). This is a comedy band and their musical style is based mostly off of 1980s pop and hair metal such as Rush, Van Halen, Aha, and many more. 

The album is a comedy album featuring a couple of themes of sex, romance, violence, fantasy elements, the coolification of nerds, and contrasts for the purpose of comedy.

There are a lot of different visual themes from song to song but the most prevalent are “bad ass” things and sexual things. Such as a kraken, a ninja, a mansion, gangs, fighting pandas, super models, money, mermaids, dancing, and explosions. But then also masturbation, tissues for said masturbation, knights, romance novels, genitals, and sex. Everything is very literal so the comedy comes across well and it’s very visual. Colors would probably be red for the sexual nature and violence but something to contrast it because of their comedic style like a calm happy blue like in Danny sexbang’s outfit.

Here’s the original album cover:

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 12c: Early Morning Dew

Oh goodness where do I even start? This was easily by far the hardest yet most enjoyable project so far. I got to really push myself to apply what I learned from class (and from youtuber Borodante) since I never really pushed myself to create something so detailed before. Heck, I think this is one of the first backgrounds I’ve ever fully committed to painting for an illustration of mine. It was a whole lot of fun and although I had to slightly cut corners for time by using blending mode layers, clipping masks, so many gaussian blurs, putting everything on their own layers, and using a specific textured brush for the granite and carpet, I really feel like I am proud of this more than any other project I’ve done in this class so far because I didn’t color pick or trace a single thing and it’s something that means something to me because it’s my characters. I really feel like this helped me jump into the cold pool of digital painting and has helped me warm up to it a lot more. It definitely broke a barrier for me in a good way. I still need to work on using references more though cause god that kitchen window thing makes no sense. I did use a reference for the lights though which helped a lot. My favorite part was drawing the little hidden gems like the wedding photo and then in the back on the fridge a photo of them together when Ken was still pre-transition to show they have been through a lot together for a long time. I’m real proud of it overall (even though there’s things I’d probably do differently or redo if I had more time.) ^w^

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 12c: Narrative Painting In process

“Early Morning Dew”

In this assignment we have to create a narrative digital painting. I really am learning so much from this now that I’m applying things I’ve learned without a clear reference. I am noticing things I usually would have missed like where the light source is coming from and how that effects different types of objects like how the ears and skin would have transparency to them. I really love how it’s coming out and it’s extremely satisfying to me. I am hoping to ask for feedback during the crit of how to tackle the background because I want to approach it with a good technique. I had a lot of fun testing things out and then scrapping them and reworking things just because it was so exploritive. I really hope the rest turns out good!

[robindigitalimaging]

“Early Morning Dew”

“Early morning dew” by Robin Miele

In this piece I want to have my characters Ken and Bun:

Ken will be playing video games and Bun will be interacting in a romantic way since they are together. Ken is focusing mostly on the game but Bun will be focusing on Ken. I have a couple of ideas. Ken could be sitting on the couch of the living room looking into the camera as if it is the tv and then Bun will either be walking by and looking at him lovingly (portraying that they feel love for him even in the simplest moments) or could be leaning on the back of the couch looking at the tv with Ken as Ken is talking to them with a smile (talking about the game with passion). My third idea is less of a passing interaction and more involved. Their legs intertwined on a bed as Ken is holding a controller playing a game on the tv. I have them both generally centered and close to show their closeness romantically. I also want to have a photo of them together in the background (maybe a wedding photo) and they are both in their home to show that they are all domestic and things. For the lighting I wanted a warm morning light to represent how even though they have been together for a while, they still have a new love sort of feeling. I continued this warm theme in the color palette, using an analogous color palette to keep the warm fuzzy feelings of their love. I used the adobe color website to get ideas of a color theme.

Here’s the reference photos and thumbnail sketches:

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 11: Painting light

In doing this assignment I had a lot of challenges and struggles because I pushed myself out of my boundaries with tools and process alike. But I learned how to use wet brushes, use reference to create an image that isn’t a direct redrawing, and I learned a lot about how hair works (since I have such dark hair it barely ever has a need for detail but in this it caught a lot of light.) I feel like I enjoy making a more stylized piece rather than trying to match detail for detail and I am happy with how it turned out for an experiment.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 11 in process: Light Painting

Wow, this is terrifying unfinished. Happy spooktober I guess? Anyways I honestly have been learning a lot through this project. Not about the way lighting works actually (although it definitely is reinforcing concepts I had learned before this class) but it has been teaching me how color, stylization, and different brush types work. For this i ventured into wet brush territory and I am still getting the hang of it but it’s kind of fun not having as much control. I also tried stylizing it slightly so I’m not relying on the color picker as much and thinking about the forms and how light works with them in a more logically way of like “if this than this” versus “color pick, color, color pick, color.” I feel like I might not get as good of a result because I am experimenting so much but I am going to learn more in the long run and that’s more important to me than a pretty picture or a higher grade or compliments during a crit. I want to be challenged and judged for my growth since I might be using these skills a lot in my future career and even in majors. I’m definitely starting to feel like I can challenge myself and am learning it’s better to try new things than stick with old ways. (Even if a clipping mask might work ;3)

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 10: Context self portrait

In this we had to make a painting of ourselves working on our previous assignment. For mine I drew myself in my dorm watching youtube on a tv screen off screen. I had a lot of struggles with making this and had many panic attacks in the process and I still wish I had time to detail the bed and blanket more for the purpose of keeping things consistently decreasing in detail as the piece goes back in space. I also wish I didn’t have to rush through my face and bear because they feel inconsistent to the style of the piece overall. I also wish I could have spent more time making the screen look realistic but I was at my limit mentally and time wise.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 10b in progress: Context Self Portrait

For this project we are making a self portrait of ourselves working on our last assignment. I chose to use purple light from a youtube video to make mine more interesting and challenging to have to create contrast and color within a purple toned piece. I realized that the color of light has way more effect on the piece than I thought and the colors of the switch changed in a way I didn’t expect. I learned that most of the colors were very effected by the purple light and almost every color was in the magenta, purple, and blue families. I can’t wait to add myself in and start to figure out how that purple light works with skin. I also made sure to take notes about small things I still need to do because this is taking multiple sessions to draw and it helps me be more reflective on what needs to be done and improved.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 09: Atmospheric landscape

For this assignment we had to paint a landscape that had some sort of atmospheric interference (i.e. air perspective, rain, fog, etc.) For mine I went for a very simple photograph with light amounts of air perspective. My biggest mistake was choosing something with a car in frame. I thought it would be a nice simple drawing but the car made it agonizing. Through this I learned that maybe picking a scene with a car was probably not a good idea for this short deadline. I really wish I had more time to work on this to perfect it but unfortunately I kind of had to rush through it and color pick as much as possible which felt kind of bad. I really hope next time I can have better time management and pick something even more simple. I also learned a lot about grass and how it all kind of sits on different plains with different sections.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 08b: Blending Sphere

For this assignment we had to recreate an image of a blue ball to understand the different components of light. During this project I learned a whole hell of a lot. Specifically about how shadows casted by objects can ALSO have reflected light from the object itself. I had a basic idea of it but didn’t understand why it happens. Now that I know I’ll keep it in mind with the physics of how it works for my digital paintings that aren’t completely referenced from an image. Also I learned more about values and how to push them farther. When I thought I was done, my teacher reminded me that it should be darker in the halftone area and I pushed that value deeper and it made it a lot easier to blend from the dark to the light too and gave it more dimension. Overall I am proud of this piece.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 08a: Blending worksheet

In this worksheet we were working through blending techniques and how to do them. I learned a lot about what the blending tools are in general. I normally just use the eyedropper tool to grab the colors in between the low opacity brush strokes. Although I doubt I will stop using that technique, I will be using the blur tool and use more of the pressure sensitivity based brush settings such as the opacity.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 07: Assigned still life

For this assignment we were given a piece of paper to draw with writing on it. You had to make your own composition and the paper had to not just be flat. In this I learned a LOT about painting planes and color picking. Honestly the last still life we did, I was focused too much on that I had to finish it and didn’t really look at the reference truly. Now I really focused on individual colors and even in doing the “realistic way” I found myself making subtle decisions to keep that impressionist style I wanted. I also found a brush that I had on my own laptop that I’ve been trying to find something similar to for AGES! I’m glad I found it in my weird collection of brushes because I love it. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and I even imported it to procreate for personal on-the-go usage. Also I need to stop being so scared of making things more contrasted. I had to use a filter to brighten it up and make it more contrasted because the original painting was a little flat.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 05c: GIF Process

For this assignment we had to make a gif in photoshop to show the process of our work for our Brush Control assignment. I learned through this how to reverse the frames of a gif in case it comes in backwards. I’ll use this if I’m working on an animation and it is set up backwards instead of going through the layers one by one.

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 06 Still Life

For my still life I drew a plant I got recently. My mom bought it for me and it’s something nice that I can take care of so I don’t get lonely in my dorm since I moved into a single. I’ve always loved succulents and my favorite plush to bring with me is also a succulent but I thought having the transparency of the real leaves would be more interesting to paint.

I learned about using the soft brushes to blend and put into some practices I learned from a youtuber who does digital painting named “Borodante.” He does tutorials about painting and focuses a lot on keeping all the aspects coherent like the atmosphere and the lighting aspects. I also learned a lot about what I like to paint like. I guess my “style.” I am not the happiest with it because I was sick all of Friday and Saturday so I didn’t have too much time to get details and paint the highlights the way I wanted to. Also it was frustrating to not have the tools I usually use since the assignment was specifically limited. (I did use multiply layers but only for the shadows under the pot which I technically didn’t have to make in general so I think it’s a fair loophole.)

[robindigitalimaging]

Assignment 05B

In this assignment we worked on using layers to sketch geometry and then make a final line art. I had a lot of fun with this one and in doing it I learned a lot about using only line to make 3D shapes, especially with the nose which I struggled on a little but ultimately relied on the negative space of the nostrils to help me find the right shape for the nostril wings.