Final PDF Presentation

:) click screencap to load PDF or click here.

:) Off topic post, more of a sentimental post

Character Visualization class is ending...but it doesn't mean I am not using this blog for future art projects and maybe as just a "go to blog".

Four major projects and two final exams.  Hm...I'm not gonna lie, I cried after I finished my finals (and a little during my panic stage).  I'm proud of myself...not because I think I have super cool finals, nor because I actually finished my finals in time...but because of how much I have grown as a person through this semester.  To be quite honest, I have had the worse temper this semester.  I am someone who breaks under stress and am really stubborn and work until I drop.  Back in freshmen year of high school, I overworked myself so much that I was hospitalized and eventually missed a whole semester of school.  It's something I don't talk about in public because I just...it just hurts when I think about it even today...and I try not to think about it, but this weekend I honestly felt like history was going to repeat itself.  Growing up in an Asian family (not trying to be stereotypical but...) I was always taught with the "no play, go hard" rule and so that's what my personality has been shaped to.  I take my work very seriously, and sometimes overly serious.  And then I crash.  Overwork and insomnia = Bad, bad.  But during my panic stage, I came to terms with myself.  Life is going to keep throwing rocks in your face, it's how you go about it that matters.  Sometimes, it's not about the 100% and the A's.  Life moves on.  Once I recovered from my own stupidity, I felt like a new person.  That following night, I was actually able to calm down and fall asleep.  Then each day, I rested when I felt tired instead of working until I dropped.  In the back of my mind, I knew I had to get my work done, but for the first time I was willing to accept failure (not the letter grade).  I was willing to fall to get back up to be a stronger person.  And now, I do feel like a new and refreshed person.  :)
Thank you mom and dad for coping with my poor attitude this week and the nineteen years that passed.  Thank you all my friends that gave me encouragements and told me to never give up.  Thanks Garrett for dying and staying up with me and offering such awesome advice...especially since Miss Leticia  decided to go MIA all weekend.  And thank you God for loving me unconditionally and listening to my prayers.
I know this sounds like a depressing post but it really isn't.  I am happier than I have ever been for a while, it feels like I unlocked a door in life and I'm ready to move on!  And on another brighter note, I totally lost a few pounds this weekend.  

Happy Holidays Everyone :D!!  So sleeeeepy ZzZZzZzz

Stella

And at last, my final character, my sidekick.  The most struggling thing I had with this character is that she kept looking like a pigeon, an eagle, a falcon...every other bird...besides a hawk and I promise you I am still having issues, but my eyes got a bit sharper at spotting differences.  I even stalked a pigeon to observe it up close (legit).  I think by this character I had really cramped time but by this time I got a little more pro and calmed myself down quickly every time I panicked! :)
Anyways, Stella is a messenger hawk and the sidekick of Edgars.  She looks mean but trust me, she's a sweetpie ;).  The other hard part is that once I started coloring my flats I went, "Oh darn, I am gonna have to color the multi-color feathers hawks have".  Haha.  Added some feather texture for flare ^-^

Did I mention I can't really draw side views, gotta practice them over break ;))

To check out more on this character, look here: Midterm

Edgar Castor

Edgar is the hero of my story.  I find it really challenging to draw men for some reason.  I am more used to drawing females but hey, if you never try you never succeed :).  I think this is where I started panicking a bit but I recovered after a while.  Anyways, if I had more time I would have loved to add some texture to that cape 'cause it's bugging me just a bit.  I spent maybe 10 hours on this character...or probably more, I don't really remember.

I like Daphne's color palette a lot more than his.  

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I didn't like how my character came out so I took a step back and decided to look at my midterm sketches.  I actually liked my pose from back then a lot more so I ended up redoing my character's pose.  The color palette is similar but I changed the pinkish red to a blue.

I think I have to start checking out guys more xP...my guys always end up looking like either pretty boys or have this feminine form...hahaha 

This took me maybe 6/7 hours to do both Character and Model sheet...which is a lot faster than what I did before.  :)

If you want to view earlier works of this character check out: Midterm

Daphne Vinewood

Daphne Vinewood, the "villain".  I love villains, everyone looks at me weird when I say that but I usually like villains more than heroes.  In this case, I also love my villain the most.  She's one of those crazy avengers xD.  She was really fun to design, actually the funnest and thus you can tell I spent the most time on her.  I honestly stopped logging my time because the whole final took me almost every minute of my weekend and then every minute of free time on my weekdays.  She was the first character I worked on for my finals and so i spent the most quality time on her and you can tell from my work.  I like how she came out most :).  For this character I think I spent around 12 hours in total (of my weekend/weekday).

View my earlier work of her here: Midterm & Coloring

Sketches & Silhouettes

For the last hour or so I've been working on a mask for my villain character :) My villain has burnt scars on her face from being burnt at the altar and so she uses her mask to cover her scars.  However, wouldn't it be awesome if her mask was scary or evil looking?  I experimented with some "skull" looking mask and a bit of ribcages (which was really fun actually).  The ribcages though might seem a bit "cheesy" and defeats the purpose of the mask a bit since it doesn't cover the scars completely.  However, this made me have an idea for my character's top, which I will be working on a bit next ;) .  Stay tune!

Some clothes and armor sketching for Daphne's character that I did on Monday.  This took me an hour or two.  The armor took me some time 'cause I looked at various reference pictures of our skeletal frame...yet I didn't want it to completely just be the structure.  It's cool and all but I'm not sure if it's "too much" since she has her corset top, pants, and cape already.  If I add armor, it feels like I'm just covering her corset... I'm getting a little tired of her cape so I tried giving her sleeves.  

Afterwards, I worked on some Daphne Silhouettes.  These took about two hours.  I liked changing around the weapons.  It was quite fun.  Also, I was getting a bit tired of her hood...on silhouettes it sometimes looks like she has a tumor on her head o_O.  So for a few of them I tried adding hair.

On Tuesday, I worked on some of my hero's sketches.  I just basically tried different hairstyles and facial hair.  This actually took me a while - maybe three hours or a bit longer?  And I am totally guilty because a lot of time was spent rendering the faces.  I know it's bad to "waste" time rendering sketches but I just really wanted to "see" what my faces looked like rendered.  I am a really big newbie at face drawing because they will always end up anime-like - especially when it's just outlines!  

I just finished some of my sidekick sketches earlier.  It took me maybe two/three hours.  These aren't rendered though.  I tried drawing different armors and accessories, then mixing and matching to see which looked best together.  

Right now I think I'm gonna work on some silhouettes...maybe.  Truthfully speaking, I'm a little worried because our finals are due in 7 days.  I usually finish all my homework on the weekends and that's usually when my work looks best and I do my work waste.  This week, however, started the "Finals Hell Week Part 1" so it's actually the first time I've had to work every weekday for Char. Viz.  Kinda stressful, but I'll get there.  I know everyone else is sharing my stress as well.  Ganbatte kudasai, minna-san :)!  We can do this!

Character Sketches & Silhouettes

I did the silhouettes after the sketches.  They were much more enjoyable.  The time it took ranged from a sad 5 hours to "only" about 2 hours on my last character.  It took practice and you can tell from my silhouettes!  I really think the ones of my knight were the best (last character I did) because I had more practice.  I also realized I draw a lot slower if I don't have something in mind (no, duh) so after a while, I just took a scrap piece of paper and randomly draw stick/ball figures to visualize the pose before attempting to draw them on PS.  Things went a lot smoother afterwards!  

Ah, and how can I forget to mention that I struggled with getting my hawk silhouettes.  They were fun but a little frustrating.  At first all my hawks looked like pigeons.  Then I looked at reference and refined them a bit but they ended up looking like crows.  I took a break after struggling for way too long and decided to move on.  The next day, I went back to it and it was so much easier trying to pinpoint the mistakes and changes I needed to make.  (I also made my dad look at them because he has very sharp eyes when it comes to certain animals like hawks and tigers).

The first set I did was brutal.  Again it time ranged from torturing 5/4 hours to a little more than an hour on my last set.  It takes getting used to and at first I just focused so much on quality and fixing small errors that it just took so much unnecessary time.  Nearing the end, I just threw on whatever I thought of and only went back to fix details the next day.  I enjoyed drawing the eyes.

I spent around an hour just fixing and re-looking at things.  I know this took a while and I admit at the beginning it made me get a little impatient with myself but after some practice it went a lot smoother.  I'm still a newbie at this but I will practice more and more.  I remember, during the summer, I tried painting a drawing I hand-sketched and it took 5 days just picking colors and doing the flats.  I never even got to rendering!  Character Viz has helped me improved not only my drawing skills but also my mentality, especially my patience.  I know I have a long way to go because this is only the beginning :) and I will look back to this site one day and laugh and cry and maybe even admire the silly things I have come up with (yeah, you know that feeling when you dig up your kindergarten journal...hehe). <3

Reworking Character & coloring

This took around 10 hours, but it was mostly because I took my time with everything.  Also, I kept asking friends to critique.  Afterwards, I'd fix things that looked odd to them and improved on the things they already liked.  

Issues I had regarded shadowing on black?  Is that even possible?  Since I was using darker colors, my shadows didn't show up too well and the light would often look really strong against the colors.  

Other than that, she still looks a little anime-like doesn't she?  I need to start making characters more realistic, but the outline and line weight are throwing me off.

Eyes, Shapes, & Silhouettes

Time: 5.5 hrs (or more, forgot to log time until mid first eye?) 

Let's say I went into this assignment thinking it was going to take about an hr to two hrs.  However, I actually took about 45 minutes on my first eye!  It's not because I was drawing slow, I was really trying to get used to drawing on my tablet again.  My tablet has this really annoying 2-5 second lag every 5-10 minutes or so (the things I draw don't appear on screen instantly).  I might finally have to replace it xD.  I also finally started using CS5 after using Photoshop 7, yes 7 and CS2 for years and years.  

So for the eyes, at first I just experimented with shapes and size.  The lighting wasn't pretty and I did not know this until my dad pointed out!  Later on I added lashes and rendered a little better!   I will randomly practice more during free time because I still have a looooooong way to go from making nice and pretty eyes.  They still look anime-like. Oh, and my brows LOL hideous...I forgot human eyebrows are not lines.  Too much anime for me!    

Mermaid Silhouettes.  Time: 3 hrs.  I actually did this assignment last thinking it was going to be the most tedious one.  However, this turned out to be the funnest and most entertaining assignment out of the three!  I picked Little Mermaid because I love the story (Disney version and the actual original one by Hans Christine Anderson) and also because Little Mermaid has such an unique silhouette.  During our first character drawings, I had to draw a Cecaelia so I experimented with swimming poses a little but I have been itching to do more for a while!  

The hardest part about this assignment was probably the rendering.  I feel like I overdid it for some of them and my blending isn't all that great.  My mom walked by when I was working on this and she told me some of the tails are too long but I didn't see it.  Now, after a day, I look at it again and some are indeed too long!  It didn't hit me that the tail should probably have similar proportions as a human's legs!  Also, I rarely take breaks during an assignment (I know, bad bad.) so it's hard to see mistakes.  I will learn to force myself to take mini breaks from now on!

Time: 2 hrs of actual work add 2 if you count my trying to figure out the layer masks (which I still haven't fully figured out).

I just totally finally realized I can't render 3D shapes to save a life.  o_o.  The only ones I am slightly satisfied with are my cones.  Oddly enough, the cubes were the most confusing for me.  I had to take a box and a lamp and demonstrate it a few times.  However, I did realize that as I got nearer to the end, I started rendering a little better.

Like eyes, I am going to randomly draw 3D shapes when I have free time.  

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I think digital work looks better than sketchbook work and there's the privilege to erase mistakes (which, I do way too much.  Lila, stop it).  I know it probably took such a long time this week because I am just starting to get used to PS and my crazy tablet.  :)  Hopefully, I will do nicer work in less time in the near future!  It was frustrating, yet a very fun and entertaining journey!

And I cannot end this post without specially thanking Leticia for putting up with me this weekend when my Filezilla, PS, tablet, Internet - everything started crashing all at once.  Also, for checking over my work! :)

Character Model Sheets and Mystery Objects

Here are my three character model sheets!  I think my shadowing and contrast is off on my characters.  I especially had a hard time with my knight.  I kept confusing myself because I was trying to mimic the stuff we did on the second figure drawing class.  However, I realized my light direction was different than the light direction of our figure drawing class - eh basically I just got really confused xD.  I tried adding a lot more shadow than I usually do though and a lot of my reference pictures helped me with that.  

I actually like my hawk the most and surprisingly it took the least time, perhaps it was because it was the last character I had to draw so I was less stressed out, or maybe I just felt more confident because there aren't many messenger hawk characters out there - where else knights and witches/pitiful villains are everywhere!

   For homework, we had to create new model sheet templates (I think, hope I did it right).  I tried experimenting with the different positions my final characters could be, fonts, patterns, and color.  In the end, I just thought my characters looked better on darker, melancholy colors so I chose this brown/tan color.  There is also a shadow element I added behind my characters.

Let's just say besides Fantasy, Mystery is my favorite genre.  I played Nancy Drew and Carmen Sandiego games and watched insane forensic dramas growing up (at one point, I thought I was going to be a Forensic Scientist).  Therefore, this week's 20 objects homework was very enjoyable for me.  I however, am sure I colored my magnifying glass wrong - still having trouble with contrast and highlights of glass and metals.  I like my bloody hand though. :D

Week 6 Figure Drawing & Silhouettes

First figure drawing session ever!  Came to class really nervous and not knowing what was going to happen.  I admit it was awkward at first but everyone in the class was so professional and mature, it made me step up my game!  Actually, being in a room with students probably just as scared as me made it a little more comfortable for me.

I think I had problems with proportions (still do) but I got a little better after drawing more figures.  The thirty second poses were really overwhelming but they were good warm-ups.  I guess as time passed I got more confident in making mistakes.  At the beginning, I spent a long time just figuring out if the line I was about to draw would be right.  Later on, I just went "what the heck" and drew from instincts, and even if it was wrong, so what?  It was actually good that I visually drew my mistakes so that the next drawing I learn from the mistakes!!

My friends are such silly models.  Haha.  Had a lot of fun forcing my friends to pose.  Seriously though, you probably don't want to be doing this at 1am though...you'll realize your friends have alter egos HAHA!

I still have issues with proportions though I'm getting better!  At first, actually the majority of the figures, I spent too much time thinking about details!  When I finally realized this,  I started focusing on my poses and gestures more.  Still have to work on my proportions!  Oh, and sometimes I don't know how to draw poses where you can't see all parts of the arm (For example, zombie pose).  They never come out looking right! 

For the silhouettes, I have similar problem with proportions.  Sometimes, I make the arms so long (lol) they are longer than the person's legs ahaha.  I also have a hard time with the curves of limbs and sometimes feet.  The details on my silhouettes are also not superb.  However, on the bright side, I work a lot faster on these than I did last week! :D

On another note, while doing midterm drawings, I totally ruined two of my Copic markers.  Don't ever, I repeat DON'T EVER color your markers over the white color pencil.  You will regret it.  The wax of the color pencils will clog the tips of your beautiful markers!  Yes, your contrast comes out a lot smoother, but it's not worth it if you have to replace your markers every 6 weeks!  Just don't do it!  

Week 5 Class Exercises & Hw

In class (LOL)

I was a deer in headlights.  I am not kidding.  Look, I even spelled "eating" and "squatting" wrong.  I didn't know what I was doing LOL.  Now looking at some of the figures, the torsos are really short...  

Hw: 20 Ball Figures & 20 Silhouettes 

Let's just say stick figures are not as easy as they look...In fact, I think this was the most frustrating drawing assignment for me!
I have the really bad tendency to shorten people's torsos and limbs!  I have always been aware of this but when I draw, especially the ball figures, they look correct to me.  It wasn't until I did my silhouettes that I realized everyone turned out short and stubby!  For the second silhouette page, I made sure to elongate the torsos and limbs and the silhouettes came out a bit better.