drawatron

2011-11-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

less time, more fashion

2011-11-08T11:22:00.001-08:00

fashionable boots

2011-09-26T16:00:00.001-07:00

checking out the sartorialist site. quick fashion shot

quickie

2011-08-17T14:49:00.001-07:00

inspired by the post i saw on craig's personal site and a nice picture i saw on google, thought i would take a few minutes to have a crack at it.

im still here......

2011-08-16T14:41:00.001-07:00

....just a bit tied up. the luxury of being in games i suppose.

Water Wheels

2011-06-13T03:50:00.001-07:00

Alright, I'm calling it a day on this thing finally. Time to move on to the Bass Reeves challenge.

-Craig

2011-06-08T09:54:00.001-07:00

working on quicker, simpler, more textural ways to make an image, also trying to make them a little more fun to look at. Need to think about different body variations. no more small leg top heavy guys.

swingin'

2011-05-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

just fooling around, reeeally quick image

Tree Fort

2011-05-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Was trying to find a more efficient way to work with structures and stuff and ended up with this. Just loosened up and had this in about an hour. I have another one that isn't much more than this and been working on for more than a week. Complete fail!! I'll post that one up tomorrow I hope.

Have a killer weekend guys,
-Craig

self portaits

2011-05-25T14:58:00.001-07:00

if yall are interested, its a fun way to loosen up, me first

Bass Reeves

2011-05-25T07:28:00.001-07:00

I had this posted below but i guess it was wiser to create a new post

Bass Reeves - Chris

had some fun, this was great, dont know whether or not it gets the real man across but i had fun nonetheless

Desert Fortress

2011-05-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

A sidebar and fair warning...I will be calling an environment for my next challenge!!!

:)
-Craig

Rugged LawMan of the Old West

2011-05-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Alright fellas,

This challenge centers around an actual historical figure, by the name of Bass Reeves. The design doesn't have to be based exactly upon him, but his life and experience should influence it. The same way movie or animated characters may be 'inspired by' real-world people and personalities.

a short biography can be found here: http://artofmanliness.com/2011/04/24/lessons-in-manliness-from-bass-reeves/

Gentlemen, have at!

Let the Samurai fly

2011-05-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

What better way to kick this off than by having our good buddy Dante Leandado join the fray with his powerful Eskimo Samurai contribution. Did I forget to mention the powerfulness??

Here is my eskimo samurai. i got a bit stupid with it, this thing is out of control. ha. i may do another. -Chris

I got six more on the way. But here's a few until they are ready. -Craig

Here's mine...finally.

getting warmed up

2011-05-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

getting warmed up for the new topic by drawing an eskimo.

I felt the need...

2011-04-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

...to do another. after being embarrassed. hopefully this one is a bit more interesting to look at. still quick but more successful i think.

Eskimo Samurai

2011-04-29T10:41:00.001-07:00

Aright guys, I'm going on vacation tomorrow night. Corey wants some time to finish up his project. So I am going to call a post date of Monday May 9 for myself to take the pressure off. It will give everyone some time. But that is it MAY 9th...noooooo pressure whatsoever. No one will be declared unpowerful for not posting on May 9th...just weak and unmighty.

The title says it all. Create a human Eskimo Samurai, with the primary focus being Eskimo.

Have a great week guys!!
-Craig

Koala Elder

2011-04-27T04:07:00.001-07:00

Wise Old Elephant

super rushed coloring and super boring compared to Craig's. i have much to learn

Elder Moose

Not fully realized, I know. But wanted to at least post the sketch/idea. Would have to tweak a lot of stuff to get something solid. Definitely some muscles I haven't worked in a long time...

Topic: The Animal Elder

2011-04-25T13:57:00.001-07:00

FIgured we could do some exercises since we are 3 strong now. I am not sure when these should be "due" but they shouldnt take too long. I imagine we could use these as opportunities to get better, which i suppose is always the idea.
I figured, try to have a sketch/drawing posted within two days of a topic. Let me know if that is too short or unrealistic.
also, we should take turns picking the topic.

on to the topic:
The character is the Animal Elder. He is the oldest and wisest of the animal tribe. what kind of animal? who knows! He is the animal that all other animals come to for his sage advice. he has been around longer than anyone can remember. the animal elder needs to have his "seeing into the future" device. again, what this device looks like is up to you but he must have it.
anyway, that is all. have fun.

2011-03-29T09:32:00.001-07:00

2011-03-26T22:09:00.001-07:00

in keeping with the armored theme, i got really lazy with this one.

stress relief

2011-03-26T00:43:00.000-07:00

quick characters

2011-03-18T15:06:00.001-07:00

coloring a doodle

Quasimodo

2011-03-18T00:16:00.000-07:00

Wanted to try my hand at this one.
-Craig

blowing off steam

2011-02-14T01:14:00.001-08:00

needed a break from some of the crap i have been doing, here is something bad for fun, and for even more fun, I uploaded a video of the terribly inefficient process
http://vimeo.com/19908161

Lunch breaks and shore breaks

2010-07-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

Painted at the beach last weekend and it got me doing these studies at lunch. Tasslehoff shall return shortly after this commercial break :)

-Craig

2010-07-20T17:42:00.001-07:00

trying out some simple designs, built for speed, trying to see how fast i can actually clean something up. simple design, not great, but something i enjoy about it.

still trying to bear in mind that a design, regardless of how simple, can always be pushed. below are some more samples of other directions i could have taken it.

and now for bread

2010-07-14T13:30:00.001-07:00

As I understand it, creativity is spurred by observation. it is with this in mind I chose to try an exercise. As I strive to learn what it means to design, and design effectively, it has become obvious to me that I need to work on my skills as an observer as well as a designer. I chose for this exercise to work from a completely random and mundane shape: a slice of bread.

I began by taking the initial shape for a test drive. How can I simply play with the basic shape of the bread. How can it be manipulated, squashed, stretched. All the time in this stage I am thinking two dimensionally.

Now I begin remembering the lessons from my early animation days. This series of drawings is much in the same vein as the flour sack exercises from high school. I began to think about how even a simple shape, like a slice of bread, can be brought to life, can be a character. Here I have explored a couple basic movements.

Here, I have essentially revisited the first set of drawings in the fact that I am again playing with flat shapes that are merely a distortion of the basic bread shape.

Volume is an issue that I have with many of my drawings. In this image I wanted to begin thinking about the fact that every shape that I create needs to be able to be turned in space. How does even the most "designy" shape exist on a three dimensional place. Have all angles and planes been considered. Will a shape read if viewed from even the most extreme of perspectives. These are things that I struggle to remain conscious of while I draw. Here, I have quickly sketched some of the more basic shapes that I found.

Now it was time to consider the volume of these forms. With simple guideline construction I have delineated the three dimensional qualities of these forms. some are more successful than others. It is important at this stage to really grab an understanding of the forms that I am creating and to be mindful that there is structure and however "out there" it is, I need to ensure that it holds up.

This stage was merely a playful stage where I made these forms into some faces. This stage served only to help me visualize how details can be placed on solid three-dimensional forms.

The final two stages are a bit of a step back in the respect that I have gone back to thinking about the large forms first and continuing with them by constructing larger, more general shapes on top of them. The faces in the previous image are far more detailed and concerned with the minutia. I need to keep things a bit more general for longer before getting tied down to specifics.

The next logical step in this whole process would be to lather, rinse and repeat. Doing this again would allow me to continue to push the thoughts and drawings farther than before. I can begin to identify different ways of looking at the same shape, finding new ways to interpret and finally resting on a new solution.

More to come....

Tasslehoff Burrfoot Round 2

2010-07-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

Pretty happy with this one. A bit lost on what to do with the feet. Whether I should put some shoes on him, or go full barefoot. I feel it should be one or the other.

-Craig

Tasslehoff Smack

2010-07-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

This is one of the cleaned up Tasslehoff poses for his model sheet. I want to play with the position of the legs a bit more. It looks like I may be able to just draw them both behind them and focus the energy to the front. More to come!

-Craig

Monster Fun

2010-06-30T07:39:00.001-07:00

Something to cure the lull in my posts. Still working hard on the Tasslhoff clean up and model sheet. Until then this will have to do. Been doing a lot of muscle studies and wanted to put them to use.

-Craig

2010-06-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

immediately after posting i noticed one issue that I really had with the image and wanted to resolve. the original drawing was more successful in having the appropriate depth in conan's arm, as noted. the lines that I used to describe the form did a poor job providing the perspective that i wanted. the quick fix for this is below.

2010-06-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

here is the refined conan image. i have to tried to keep in mind some of the things that i had mentioned im my last post. a big step for me is remaining mindful of this information as i draw so that it becomes second nature.

here is a side by side of the two images. i made an effort to make the second image better than the first by making conscious decisions.

i do think that the greatest improvement between the two is the flow of the refined piece. it seems to move better and the more dramatic diagonals add to the drama of the piece. i believe the hips in the refined piece are also a bit more figured out. there are still some issues that need resolution.

2010-06-23T19:13:00.001-07:00

so i decided that i needed an image to do just for the sake of fun and learning. there are quite a few concepts that i need to become familiar with in order to design successful characters. i decided to work with something like Conan because there are a couple elements that Conan could help me with.
For starters, the signal to noise ratio is good. meaning, he has big broad features that define his character. there isnt a whole lot there that doesnt need to be. we know who he is and what he does with a minimal amount of detail. secondly, this provides me the opportunity to not have to actually design the character but still figure out why he works as a character and identify if i can make a successful drawing.
I had a lot of fun turning my brain off and working in a style, and with shapes, that I am unfamiliar with. sure it has its problems right off the bat but i am less concerned with them as i am with identifying them.

so to begin by breaking it down. the red lines identify areas where i believe the design fell asleep. aside from the problems with the perspective/foreshortening, the weight distribution seemed a bit off. also, the calves were not interesting enough to carry the bottom half of the drawing.
I began to question, was there enough variety of shape? were they fun to look at? can i take it farther?

the next step in my head was to identify whether or not there was a clear underlying structure. although the anatomy has been stretched i have a desire to make it believable. did the structure underneath have a basis in reality? although the "skeleton" was quickly sketched in i can deduce that while there is some form of anatomy there were also some places where the anatomy gets away from me. again, the legs were an immediate source of problems, stemming from my lack of knowledge of the hip.

i begin to ask myself, is the design too complicated? can i successfully abstract the image and shapes and still convey a clear message. if the fat is trimmed, is the story still there? do we still have a violent looking beast of a man? I sketched in a very basic simplification of the drawing. the angles are still there, the movement. is this a more successful drawing?

when thinking about the image in the state of pure shape i began to question whether or not this shape allows for proper eye travel at all. at a very basic level, can the viewer decipher what is going on and as the artist, can i direct traffic to the area of greatest importance. the blue lines that i have drawn in represent the path of travel that my eye was taking throughout the image. there are areas where the travel stays within a point of interest. however, there are a few areas where you are forced out of the image, or become lost in the movement.
as i understand it, composition and your ability to move the viewer through the image should be handled like the careful construction of a highway. too few lanes and you dont allow for proper movement, too many and you invite reckless behavior.
this image could definitely be improved.

this final image was another step in process. some of the composition elements are a little resolved but the actual point of the image refers back to the second image in the series. did i go far enough? how far is too far. can this work?
naturally, there are still problems with this image but the point is not to have it perfect yet. the point was to ask myself: how far can i continue to go? even when i think i have hit it over the fence, can i take it farther? i feel that i could draw this image 30 times and continue to refine and take it farther and farther. but should i?
of course there is a line, but its a fine one. I believe that line is one that only i can define for myself. intuition will draw it out for me.

2010-06-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

big issues for me this week. after drawing the goblin king over and over all week, trying to get a decent drawing, i decided that i absolutely hate the design that i had working with him. I have decided to completely start the goblin king design over from scratch. This is just a drawing to shake the cobwebs out. thought about going another direction entirely. more to be uploaded tomorrow.

2010-06-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

a bit rough but a start i suppose. there is obviously a very large cast of characters from this movie. these are just some of the more important characters and the ones that I believe offer the greatest shape varieties. this gives me a point to begin refining from.

cleaning up in photoshop is way too clunky for me given my certain setup. should do it on paper.

2010-06-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Dragonlance Chronicles Character Layout

2010-06-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Chris,

The established property here is from a series of books called the Dragonlance Chronicles. I just realized I need to add the girl Tika. She is a pretty integral part of the group here. I will add them before the weekend is up.

-Craig

Tasslehoff Burrfoot Round 1

2010-06-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

Chris, this is my first pass for Tasslehoff Burrfoot from the Dragonlance Chronicles. I may try a less stylized version as well. Lets stick to one character a week. That is more than enough I think. Next week lets be sure to have nice pages put together that can actually be placed in our folios.

-Craig

2010-06-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

prelims

2010-06-05T20:45:00.000-07:00