The Brog and the Monark

Hi people :)

Another busy week comes to an end. As I’ve mentioned before, one of our final project is to do a short film. The video shoot is eating up all my time, even on the weekends. I’ve decided to put on hold updating my blog till I finish the semester so I can focus more on my finals. I’m still going to continue practicing, but not as much.

I’m really looking forward to the holidays. There’s a project in 3d that I’ve been meaning to work on for a while now.  Can’t wait :)

As for this week, I spent half of it practicing anatomy and the other half drawing animals using photo references. I remember reading interviews from successful artists about developing your own style. They emphasize on the importance of drawing from life rather than copying other artist. Its also important to keep in mind is that it’s going to take time. Draw every day, with passion and the constant need to learn new things. Drawing from life also improves your design sense in a way.

I noticed it somewhat when I was drawing animals. I did studies of two separate animals first and then tried to come up with one of my own creatures by combining the two. Not that I was able to design a super cool super awesome creature.  not yet at least :D but rather than trying to come up with a random design using my imagination, it helped a lot in terms of design knowing how something actually looks like. Even the weirdest aliens from far away galaxies are based off of something in real life. Maybe I should plan a trip to the zoo. Something else I can look forward to do during the holidays.

Hope everyone has a great week and happy drawing :D

here's a still from last weeks shoot

   it makes me sad that i didn't get this shot. it was clear skies, then it started to rain.

   I've always wanted to do a star trail. sigh! managed to get enough for 1 second 

   though. i'll have to try again next week. click HERE to view a gif i made with it

Sunrise sunrise!

Hi :)

It’s been a busy two weeks. Mainly because one subject this semester requires us to do a short film. Which is taking up a lot of time during the week. So I was occupied with the shooting last week. The location is a town near the seaside. Which is good since it’s been a long time since I haven’t seen the ocean or a beach. It was very nostalgic. I also got to do some time-lapse photography. I love time-lapse; even though it’s kind of tedious. There’s a lot of waiting around.  But to see the shots compiled and everything sped up is really rewarding. I should really make more projects for myself during sem break.

It’s also one reason why I didn’t update my blog last week, the other being that I felt that there wasn’t enough content. I’m still using the Loomis and Bridgeman books to study anatomy.  There’s still much to learn. It’s a never ending process after all. For people with lack of  motivation, you’ll only start being motivated once you start drawing and keep practicing and learning every day.  At least for me it did, and I bet if you try, it will for you too. I was waiting for someone or something to magically inspire me. But that never happened. It’s really your choice. You just need to push through the first couple of days or weeks until you get the hang of it.

Last week I tried adding values to my daily studies. But it was a bit time consuming since I have assignments to worry about and they come first. Although recently I feel like I’ve been paying more attention to this rather than my assignments. Working on it now hehehe

I really need to manage my time efficiently. So I've decided that that's going to be my task next week, besides my daily practice. I could also work on lighting and values separately. I’m also itching and scratching to start painting in gouache. maybe after i learn to manage my time.

Hope everyone has a great week and happy drawing :)

bones aren't as fun to draw, but a good practice nonetheless

trying out a different layout. looks similar to a traditional blue pencil sketch than digital

haven't seen one of these in a while. here's the link to the video.

One small step

Sup  :)

It’s been a month since I started drawing every day. I find myself more involved with it. I’ve noticed a change in my attitude towards drawing and the need to constantly learn new stuff.

I used to plan things in my head, how much I should draw everyday or what I should practice next. Discussed with friends and other artists on how much discipline and hard work is important, but never actually did something. So to everyone reading this, if you feel like you’re not improving, start…start NOW. Don’t wait for a new day a new month or a new year. Start now or you’ll never get around to doing it.

Don’t rush it either, when I’m practicing anatomy, form and other stuff, I really take my time in understanding what’s happening with the drawing. How something takes shape, why something is drawn a certain way, regardless of whether it takes me half an hour, to get the shape of the head right I get what’s happening. And the next time I draw, I take less time to draw it. Practice till you get it right. If you’re stuck then take a break, draw something else or do something else and come back again. Speed eventually comes to you. Believe me; a month ago I couldn’t properly draw a straight line using the stylus. Now it feels really natural and easy. Even if it’s a little accomplishment, it feels great and I want to find more time in a day to learn more. So yes, start now. Don’t think about it too much, like how and what and when you’ll do it. Eventually you’ll find yourself drawing and determined to learn more J

The highlight of this week was that I got to attend a masterclass by Rishikesh Nandlaskar from Rhythm and Hues. He’s the guy who modeled the hulk (the recent one) and a lot of other cool stuff. He showed us the actual models in maya and talked about how he goes about creating one. too bad we couldn't take photos though. apparently there'd be some issues since the content belonged to Fox and Universal. It was so fricking awesome!! The talk was very inspiring, and awesome. I said that already :p but yeah, it was hehe check out his gallery :)

Next week I’m going to start practicing drawing the skeleton, simplified and semi-detailed and more anatomy. I've been using a book called "Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life". Hope everyone has a great week. Till then, happy drawing :D

p.s. ooh ooh, I’m gonna start learning to paint in gouache soon. It took me two weeks to save up to buy the materials. Very excited :D 

my friend's from college and i started a little sketch group in facebook.
 just a weekly art jam, to have fun and to learn.
here's a material study from this week

after a successful month of drawing

The road to creature design

Hi :),

Hope everyone had a great week. I was supposed to work on female anatomy, but since I couldn’t find references I was happy with I did something else.

I was watching an interview with Terryl Witlatch on the cgchannel. She’s an awesome creature designer. She said that any artist who wants to be a creature designer should know how to draw animals inside out. and also to start collecting references from magazines and whatnot. Maybe i should plan a trip to the zoo when i'm free. do some sketching. So yeah, I practiced animal anatomy this week.

I followed a tutorial by MarshallVandruff, who explains on basic form and anatomy. Getting the basics welded in your brain is very important. If you don’t get the basics right you’ll stumble with the rest.  Apparently it takes a slight error in proportion for a horse to look like a dog and a dog to look like something else.  

I'd also managed to find time to do a little digital painting. I really want to learn how to paint, I mean traditionally. I practiced doing the color wheel using water colors. Boy do I need more practice. I should put “mastering the color wheel” on the list of things I should do. Although my target now is to learn how to paint using oils. Someday soon I hope :)

This week I’ll be going back to doing male anatomy. Till then, happy drawing and have a great week everyone :D

horses are such beautiful creatures

and here's the painting. dedicated to Dorothy
you're awesome and i miss you <3

body parts and then some...

The beautiful monster

Hello again :)

Hope you all had a good week. I was suppose to update my blog yesterday, but I came home very late from a friends office and just went straight to bed so I can wake up early to do my sketching. It was a very long day. Mainly because I spent a couple of hours driving to and from the airport and the rest of the day at a friends office. My better half just left to the Maldives for her two week holiday. How I’ll miss her…sigh!

And I spent the rest of the day as I mentioned before at my friends office, which cheered me up…a lot, cuz I got to take this monster out for a spin.

the Cintiq 24HD. Haaaaallelujah!

here's me being a happy fool

My god this thing is so awesome. I can’t tell you enough how utterly and immensely easy it is to work with. The accuracy is out of the roof. it feels so natural, like sketching on paper, only much sleeker and sexier. Sigh! I think I’m in love hehehe

I also did some sculpting in Zbrush. I did a lot more in an hour than I’d normally do. It’s like a wonderful dream that you don’t want to wake up from. thanks hafiz! you da man!

doing some sculpting in zbrush, like a baus!

Ok, back to reality. It was a very good week. I really enjoyed myself with all the sketching I did. I found myself spending an extra half an hour or so sketching so that I have more stuff to upload by the end of the week. I did male anatomy and some extra stuff this week. Next week I’m planning to do female anatomy. I haven’t really practiced it as much as I have with the male figure. Looking forward to it :) apparently the trick to drawing the female figure is to draw as few lines as possible with beautiful curves.

I’m going to plan ahead each week of what I’m going to draw next. I guess I’ll have more consistency in terms of what I upload rather than drawing random stuff for the sake of posting something.

Have a good week everyone, and happy drawing :D

here's how far i took the sculpt. happy with the result :D
click for larger view. go on, click :)

a study of heads

obviously i need more practice using the stylus. but i'm happy with the progress

A good first week

I’ve set a goal to draw every day. So I’ve been waking up at 6.30 in the morning for the past week and the first thing I do is draw for a couple of hours. It took a little bit of adjusting, but I’m getting used to it.

I’ve been drawing straight in Photoshop for the first time. I’ve always had difficulty when it comes to using the stylus, mostly because I’ve never really tried sketching regularly with it. I’ve been avoiding using it, until now. I always do my sketching on paper first. I like how the pencil feels against the paper, it just feels more natural and I’m able to quickly execute my ideas.

But I stumbled onto something recently while I was trying to do some sketching in Photoshop.  All this time, when I use the stylus, I’ve been holding it at the edge and I’ve never been able to draw accurately. Even drawing a straight line which I’m easily able to draw with a pencil feels like a chore in Photoshop. So I started holding the pen in the middle like I would use a pencil, and it made all the difference. A lot of you may probably already know this, but for those of you who don’t, I suggest you give it a try. Hope it helps :)

here's how i used to hold the stylus

here's how i use it now

who knew?

I’ve decided that I’ll upload my sketches once a week rather than uploading stuff every other day. I’m thinking it’ll be a good way to see my progress in terms of how much I practice. I’ve been using a book called “Drawing the Head and Hands” by Andrew Loomis. Awesome book by an awesome artist. I was able to do about 30 pages this week. Simply love his approach. I can’t recommend the book enough.

I’m looking forward to see how much more I’ll be able to do this week. Have a good night everyone and keep drawing :)

sketches_01

there, done! goodnight :)

A time for change

hi, welcome to my blog :)


i've always felt that if i wanted to say something or reach out to someone that i'd prefer doing it in person, because it has a bigger impact that way. i'm starting this blog for a couple of reasons, mainly to share my artworks, sketches and things that inspire me.


i recently read this book called "the perfect bait" by artist bobby chiu. its about how he became a successful artist. its very simple, straight forward and insightful. after reading it i felt like most of the things that he talked about are things that i'm already aware of but fail to act upon. one comment really struck me by artist dylan cole ( the book includes comments and advice from a lot of successful artist in the industry)


"there's so much talent wasted by laziness, its disgusting"


and i felt like thats how i am now, and i should really change as a person if i want to become a better artist. being lazy is a choice, so i'm deciding that i won't be lazy anymore. that i'll strive to be better every single day. stop making excuses of why i can't do something and just simply do it.


so yeah, i'm gonna go do a couple of sketches now before i go to sleep :)