Thursday, December 30, 2010

BACK


Back from the... unplanned 'hiatus' I suppose. I really should blog more. Bah. I used to blog all the time.

NOW I JUST... DON'T.

I HAVE been drawing though, but I have been busy also. I'm working on a fun drawing that should be up soon!

Meanwhile, CHECK OUT THIS FISH I DREW.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Dancin' Funcheon


One of the Baristo's/Bartenders from my work. He does this dance, and he swings his arms all the way around but I was too lazy to animate that

ACTUALLY. I was too lazy to even animate ANYTHING. Obviously: 3 frames.

Come on. What the crap?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ha.


Gosh I'm so lame.

The original drawing of this is actually hanging in front of the pastry case ( I misspelled pastries on the original drawing too) at my work.

So I re-drew it.

Yeah.
Enjoy it.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Shark Week

(Hastily) Drawn images for the sake of Shark Week!

I drew this one first, foaming shark!



Oops, wrong channel:

Thursday, July 22, 2010

GARGOYLES

With a third arm to show that his wings are webbed between both arms and his side.



No arm here, wings are separate appendages.

GROOOOOWRRRRRR.
I've been watching copious amounts of the 1990's cartoon: Gargoyles.
I actually drew the night elf from the previous entry while watching it.
I planned on another elf related drawing but I quickly found myself bored of it.


So I drew a gargoyle. Rather quickly.

I'll probably color it.

*glides out*

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Who's that Ladyyy(man)

Finished... ish.




Ohh Black.


(working on the armor at the moment)

So talking about nightelves with Kristen made me really want to draw one. So I took a break from the soldier and proceeded to draw one.

In my mind I imagined a relatively androgynous woman.
I was honestly going for someone really girly. But Kristen said it looked like a man and told me that I should just draw men if I liked androgynous women. :'<

Anyways, in game you often work for Gold. This is just a one of the many characters, marveling it's reward.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Second Installment

Sloppy drawing number 2!


EDIT:

I've always wanted to influence someone.
With the recent, badly drawn (purposely mind you) comics I've been developing. I find that people rather enjoy these snippets depicting certain situations in my life.
People tell me that they make them laugh, and that honestly makes me feel so happy.

One of my friends, Kenny Heidenreich took one of my comics and turned it into a quick animation. Check out his website, from there you can access his blog, twitter, facebook as well as his youtube account (where he puts up the majority of his work). He's very talented with animation and 3d. Go! http://www.kennethheidenreich.com/






I'd like to mention that I was brought onto this notion to do stick figure comics -not because the internet is littered with them- but specifically because I had recently came across a blog where this amazing person would blog about her life with little drawings. Please check out her blog, its really rib cracking hilarious: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

The More You Know



Dedicated to Allie Brosh: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Monday, July 19, 2010

Status




Update: My soldier just said the canteen made no sense. I'm not sure why I have him holding one in the first place.

I should probably get to redoing this soon.
Updated version
Working on a background now. Gotta add in a gun.
This is my first time doing armor work. And drawing this without a reference, I realize there's a lot of inefficient pieces of armor, I had to shorten his shin armor because I noticed it would dig into his ankle if he sat/walked.

More to come.

(This is a hastily thrown together blog: due to be edited when I wake up.)
Quick color concept of a soldier (update expected).


Dedicated to my Solider in training.
As well as an homage to all Soldiers.

I haven't gotten around to developing a story, but I have brief summary for my comic. This is just one of the main character in it.
His alias is "Status".

Further details will be added later.

Preliminary sketch building up to it:




Still in progress.

Later for now!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Earthbending


I'm not sure what to say.
I've found myself enamored with the Nickelodeon "Avatar: the last airbender" series.
It's such a cute cartoon!

So, like many fans, I drew some fan art of myself as an earthbender. (I got so lazy with the actual earth part though. HOORAY.)

Why did I choose earthbending? I'm not sure, I like how 'sturdy' and 'solid' it is. Besides. Bending metal (Ore?) Is pretty cool too.

So I pretty much ripped off Toph's outfit.

Different with only a few minor (very minor) details. But I figure it would be what most earthbenders wore? I don't know.
The pose is based off an actual Kung Fu Pose.

The legs were originally mirrored (like the above image, a horse stance), but I decided to extend the other leg. In the actual series, they mention "shift your weight into the bending'' or whatever.
So I took it upon myself to 'Earth bend'.
I went from a standing position and stomped down as if I could somehow raise up a wedged piece of earth.
I found it more plausible and more 'forceful' to stand in a position with a leg out. Especially if one were to shift their weight 'forward'.

I realize that her hand is at an abnormal angle.
I felt that something as forceful as 'earth bending' would require a lot of 'forceful
movements'. If her hand were to be stuck flat with the palm upwards, and given that her hand controlled the 'earth'- than doing a forceful flip upwards with a flat palm; the hand would be at that harsh 90 degree angle. (Although the feet and arms are still amateurishly drawn.)

I got lazy with the actual 'rock' though. I'll fix it later.
---

I sure hope that this is what concept artists do. Think by using the logic of the 'fantasy world' they're designing for.

However. If I'm up to it, I'll draw my friends as 'benders' as well, using what Kristen drew as a reference. (She drew us: Me, Emily and Kenny -as well as herself- as benders. And assigned each one an element.)

---
Tired now. Just had an eventful night watching a DCI show.
The Bluecoats were amazing, as usual. There were a few people who were familiar enough with DCI and "blooooooo'd" them when they marched out (including moi) and the concept caught on throughout the crowd and in the end everyone started 'bloooo-ing' them.

The Phantom Regiment was great. The Blue Star and Boston Crusaders were really theatrical, the guard was. a-maaazing.

A relatively exciting day.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Whales of Woe


Look at what me and Dou found at the Micheal's craft store today! 10 points to whoever can figure out how many of these adorable whales we found within the mounds of miscellaneous, one dollar +, mildly entertaining junk. (Yes, we had to dig through them. And yes. It was worth it.)

The story is somewhat complex really (it's not). We were rooting through the goods that the 1 dollar sales aisle could offer, when Dou came across this adorable whale.
Whale reference of cuteness below:

(They have magnetic FINS. So they're holding hands. They're names are: David and Spencer)

She was overjoyed. The inaccurate proportions of their eyes (overly large and dark and oddly positioned) made these wonky whales, incredibly adorable. Especially when they made this face of frustration:




"HRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!"

We figured that there had to be more of these things- or animals equally as cute.

No luck.

So we went and asked a worker to see if she could locate them, but she just lead us back to the same aisle, oblivious. Then, as I rifled through some more junk, I came across ANOTHER whale. You could imagine MY excitement. (At this point we discovered their magnetic fins.)

There had to be more. Dou rummaged around and found two extra. Kept one and gave one to me. Later as we browsed around the store we found out where they originated. In an aisle among the fluffy bears and miniature rabbits. How did we know? She found another whale, along with other animals with magnetic paws. (It was the last one though, mind you.)

Quite possibly the highlight of our night, these whales.


I realized I gave you the answer to my previous question. So I withdrawal those ten points.


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

lol


Lazy doodles........Extremely lazy doodle.

I miss playing WoW... the few times that I've played. Which isn't much. Oh well.


The drawing above was a random doodle of an elf.
The one on the right was done with the intention of being a night elf, but I was unsure of what markings they had on their faces, since I don't play that often.

I realize her torso and her armor are terrible... I was busy watching television with my friends ... excuses.

BAD.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bunnicus

Who's that sexy rabbit.
Bunnicus!
IN 3D!!!!Yes it's a small image and it's rather poorly rendered.
I'm having so many technical issues with 3DS Max and it's hard to learn the program (on my own) while modeling and texture mapping this dastardly rabbit!

This is Bunnicus by the way, from the previous post :)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Stop!

Everyone's familiar with stop motion animation: Chicken Run, Coraline... etc.

Check out this rad combination of music and stop motion.
MysteryGuitarMan: Root Beer Mozart

Friday, March 5, 2010

Color toned


SORRY FOR THE LAME IMAGES. SCANNERS AND I DO NOT GET ALONG.

So as much as I enjoy colored paper, it's just so hard to really build up lights and darks with it. It really throws me off sometimes when I use a color as a mid-tone value.
On top of that, we only get about 30-40 minutes to do a 'still life' drawing. And the model needs breaks so nothing is really 'exact'.

So I feel like I could do a lot better with more time.


I was wrong: The actual drawing is more pleasing to the eye in person. The scan just didn't come out right... There's a glare from the graphite. I guess I should use the smoother side of the paper? I believe this is Strathmore... or was it Canson. Oh well. This was a rather long drawing, I guess I got bored with it after an the usual 30-40 minutes we have and just kinda ruined it by mindlessly sketching at it.

I think I'll use the 'preferred' side of the paper instead of the textured back the next time I attempt to shade/complete a drawing. Maybe that way it'll prevent future glare?

Question for you all! What's your biggest challenge when work long period drawings/assignments/music/anything? Do you feel like you hit a certain point during the process only to think that if you continue you'll just ruin it?

Also: Do you prefer the rough side or the smooth side of drawing paper?

Look at what I found!


(Click on the images for a clearer image/color idea: Im unsure why the color's are muted as I upload them)


My freshman year, we had to work with color in our Method's and Concept class.
We learned about shades and how it can effect everything!
Scintillation for example, is when two colors are similar in saturation and shade, causing a bit of a swimmy movement between the two. It makes me so dizzzzyyyy.

Now hopefully, if your computer settings allow you to- you can see my "psychedelic" poster staring the infamous pokemon: Mudkip!

Sadly, my old laptop was stolen, and I lost my original poster. I only have the screenshots and other clips that I had taken.


(Ps: I drew this mudkip in Illustrator, alright! No copying and pasting here! We don't tolerate that!)

But I will claim ownership over the work of this poster.


©Shan

Thursday, March 4, 2010

More sluggish than a drunken snail!

Dun dunnaa duuuuun!
Bunnicus! Silly. Rabbits can't fly...

(I know the animation was a bit choppy- but the point of this was to show animation IN GENERAL is possible!)
---
So a few questions:
Do you currently have Photoshop CS3?
Do you enjoy gifs?

Did you KNOW that you can MAKE gif animations on Photoshop Cs3?





©Influential Nonsense



Well! Allow me to teach you how!

First:

Draw out your animations frame by frame separately: one on each layer. This pile of boxes is my background. The individual frames of the rabbit moving are all on separate layers:



















Second: After you've drawn out your frames or
what you want to animate. Go to windows
(I'm using a mac but on a Windows it should be under the same name)















Select Animation and an
animation window should come up.



Select the menu tab at the very end of the of the animation window bar:







And Select "Make Frames from Layers".


















If you don't see that option, look for "Convert to Frame Animation" and then you should be right on track!


















You should be able to see the frames individually and you can edit the lengths of time on each frame:














If you're not satisfieded with the transition, as in- it's too choppy!
You can go to the same menu on the side (where you selected to change the frames to individual ones) and selected "Tween".

That this does is, it adds more frames and 'makes up' what you're 'missing' in between the two frames. So if you feel the need to smooth out your movements of your animation, selected this.









Once you're finished and satisfied- you can now save it. (If you'd like to preview it before hand, simply hit the 'play' button on the bottom of the animation window:


To save, simply go to file and select "Save for Web & Devices".
Or you can export it as a movie.
On windows, I believe you can simply save it as a .gif.


















As you save, this prompt will come up:


















And if you want your animated gif to loop continuously, make sure you SELECT 'Forever'.








And there you have it! Your very own gif.

Good luck!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Transitions


So my biggest struggle? Shading.
I was never into smudging. I remember doing it when I was younger, thinking it was the coolest thing ever. What a great process! But then I realized that not everything looked like shiny metallic.
This is a life drawing that I did for about...45 minutes I believe. It still has my usual cartoony-style, a habit I'm trying to break. I'm really invested in developing my skills in realism.

I will succeed!

Nu nude

We finally had a different model in Life Drawing II. I mean I adore Angela (the usual model) but I've drawn her for so many classes ...change is needed!

This woman, Julie I believe- is just lovely. Such a kind face and she strikes amazing (and challenging) poses during our 1 hour session of 5 minute gestures.
Lovely!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Landscape

This is one of my litho prints from my lithography class. (That's right. STONE PRINTING!)
YOU ETCH IN STONE. That means, no erasing. No smudging.
As a class, we were severely behind schedule, yet our professor made no moves to adjust the syllabus to acknowledge this.
So I had to work double time to make up for the time lost. For our landscape project, I took the initiative to draw out this little diddy. It's nothing glorious but everything was drawn out of pure spontaneity. It was fun to take on this personal challenge and I was surprised that it came out the way it did -given the time restraints I had.

I think when you don't have the chance to worry and stress over perfection, you can appreciate things that you normally wouldn't.

It was a nice experience, and nice outcome.

Who Is this girl I see?

I could never accurately capture who I am - and the way I look. My ultimate weakness? Self portraits.

If I was a super hero- all you would have to do is shove a pencil and a drawing pad my way and challenge me to a self portrait contest and I'll be done. (Yes, I will collapse and reach for the skies as I slowly drift into a dark abyss. Ha!)

I'm terrible with self portraits and having to do a sketch for a lithograph was a challenge. I'd like to think I've improved with such an endeavor, however.

The project was to etch your self portrait in stone- print and then make an edit. Well. Mine was about my hair since I had hair that was almost at my butt! So I cut off 15 inches for Locks of Love
So my second print would be where I removed my longer hair.
(Stay tuned for the litho print!)

Tagging Traditions

Thanks for Emily Thompson and Matt Lynch for the photos!
In an installation class we were given an assignment to work in a group and come up with an installation idea that we would later present to the art curators at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

My team consisted of Emily Thompson and Kristen Johnson . We went over several ideas, things that were visually abstract.

But after studying the space we discovered that we had to scratch out our ideas. The space was smaller, and due to the fact that it was a hallways, nothing could protrude from the walls that could potentially serve as an obstacle. So we went over a lot of ideas- thinking about murals and anything with vivid colors. We weren't sure how to depict what exactly we wanted.

I'm not positive but one of the two fellow artist of mine mentioned 'graffiti' and I brought up the concept of Chinese calligraphy and how it was an art in itself since it was an old tradition. This lead to a conversation about how graffiti was also an tradition and that a lot of graffiti usually contained some sort of back meaning.

We talked about Graffiti being popular in other countries as well.

We came to the conclusion that we wanted to take the art of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese literature and use that for the content of our 'graffiti'.
It was interesting because we all had ideas and contributed in ways that made us a perfectly compatible machine!

It was amazing, we knew we had a great idea, we perfected it- and we were selected. It was an empowering feeling since the three of use were one of the few undergraduates in the class. Having the power to direct a show was so motivational!
Anything is possible.