ws2315

[ws2315]

A variant of sushi readily available by diving off your local coast!

1+ fillet of any seafood of your choice

Rice

2 square meters of seaweed

1 lb of ground rocks, or misc ocean substrate

A dash of vinegar

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Assignment Name: Pixelizing Monstrosities

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A large sea monster themed after various marine reptiles, such as a saltwater crocodile, a leatherback sea turtle, and a pliosaur. Rendered in four different pixel sprites, each with their own size and quality (8x8 with 4 shades, 16x16 with 4 shades, 32x32 with 4 colors, 32x32 with multiple colors). Also has the "original" sketch below.

Feedback: Before actually tackling the pixel sketches themselves, I wanted to redo the sketch of the Dracochelys macrops, since the original wasn't very conducive for a square-sized pixel sprite. I also wanted to experiment with a more dynamic pose. I think the upper two were easily the hardest due to needing to actually retain the shape language of the monster in such a small space, and having only four shades of black to work with didn't help. I think the thing that gets lost the most in this small space is the long crocodilian jaw, but otherwise I wanted to try making the overall "flow" of the pose clear. The other two in a 32x32 space fared better especially since now I have actual colors to work with; in the unrestricted fourth one I especially wanted to try experimenting with dithering to create a sense of depth and shading.

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Assignment Name: Industry from Biology

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: An artillery truck shaped somewhat like a common snapping turtle. At the bottom of this post are also the original silhouette sketches, as well as references.

Feedback: The main problem I encountered with this design was the contrasting proportions; a truck is generally taller than it's wide, whereas a turtle is wider than it's tall, so I had to work out a compromise. Choosing a boxlike structure did help me practice perspective more easily, especially with horizontal vanishing points in mind, and I think I did fine with the front part of the truck, which is intended to represent the turtle's small head. It's not quite as small as a real turtle's head, though. The rest of the truck, representing the carapace, is a bit more nebulous, though I liked adding "guards" in front and behind the first and last wheels to represent the feet. The back might've been either a rocket launcher or an exhaust pipe; either way it's kind of meant to be the turtle's tail, but either way I realize I could've continued keeping perspective in mind.

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Dracochelys macrops

A monster/creature design for my personal OC project, inspired by the above shown aquatic reptiles. With no eyes, this giant lake-dwelling dragon relative draws in prey, whether on the surface or deep in the depths, with the glowing lure on its tail.

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Assignment Name: Fantastic Vista

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A reimagining of a building across from my apartment. I'm not sure what exactly it's supposed to be, possibly a residential building, but the upper floors seem entirely empty. The photo wasn't taken from ground level, but from my 27th floor apartment.

First is an illustration reimagining the building as a tower from Feudal Japan, set atop a rocky foundation. Underneath that is my sketching over the original photo, to capture the building's basic form and what I thought were the vanishing points of prspective.

Feedback: From the start I had the idea in my head to possibly design a traditional Japanese building, since the architecture always seemed captivating to me. This was a really good opportunity for me to study it up close and see just what makes it all tick. The parallel lines and wood beams that make up the structures helped me a lot here to keep perspective and straightness in mind. I do think the highest roof could use some improvement in the perspective regard though, not helped by how the upper half is cropped out.

References and Original Pic:

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Assignment Name: Redressing the Figure Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet Desc: A redressing of the statuette titled "Terracotta statuette of a man riding a donkey", reinterpreted as a knight riding on a robotic donkey. Feedback: The original statuette, as described by the Met, depicts what likely was a common sight in the days of ancient Cyprus, a man and his steed. I chose to try doing something a little more "unordinary" in the form of a knight riding a donkey robot instead. The knight themself, while obviously based on traditional depictions of knights in history, also has a bit of a "sci-fi" edge to them with their strangely-shaped helmet and detailing. Mammalian animals and robots are both things I'm not particularly used to drawing, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to practice. I took inspiration from several robotic designs across several franchises, especially for detailing the donkey. While I think I did fine exaggerating some features of the statuette(namely the knight's weight and the donkey's oversized head and posture), I do think I can work to exaggerating these features even more to really create a standout silhouette and a sense of strangeness.

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Sketches in three different styles of "Terracotta statuette of a man riding a donkey", a statuette from ancient Cyprus of exactly what the name sounds like.