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.  

------

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