Drawing Madness!

Head Study

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 13:19:00 +0000

This one took roughly 5-6 hours! Dunno if it's indicative of how far along a drawing should be after 5-6 hours, but that's how long it took me, haha. Done with conte on newsprint.

Head study

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 13 Jun 2015 05:08:00 +0000

Did this head study, and I wrote a lengthy write up of it over on my tumblr!

You can see it over there: Art of Andrew Sides Tumblr

Pinup sketch

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 23:24:00 +0000

Been REALLY busy with a big freelance project I can't discuss at the moment, but here's a little something I made during a work hangout on Google.

Also I'm tumblr now! I'm one of the last dinosaurs to be on blogger, I feel like. I'll still keep this updated best I can, but I won't lie, it's WAY easier for me to keep tumblr updated.

Here's a link for everybody to follow through to: asidesart.tumblr.com

Frog King

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 13:36:00 +0000

I've been super busy with freelance stuff, which is great! Except it leaves me little time to devote to atelier work or personal projects at the moment (at least for the next month, at least.) But I've been continuing to experiment with some painting techniques in Photoshop. Like this Frog King!

It's the same sort of method I've started to use on the Orc portraits, and that I've begun to use in gouache - close knit tiles of value and hue to suggest form turning. If I need to break up a hard edge I create noise along that edge (as evidenced in the nose area of the frog.) Doing a noise filter over it all helps blend it a bit further.

Stog the Pitkeeper

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:00:00 +0000

Here's the latest finished Orc portrait...Stog the Pitkeeper. This time around I really utilized a tiling technique to put in swatches of color and value to build it up, I think it came out really successful.

Lunch Doodle

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 02:56:00 +0000

Quick little thing I did during lunch...

Head drawing

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 03:15:00 +0000

About 40ish minutes, conte on newsprint

(click to see a larger version)

Detail shot of the current orc portrait

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 03:33:00 +0000

Detail shot of the in progress Orc Portrait. I've been experimenting with the tiling technique I've picked up from my studying at Watts Atelier on this one, and I've been liking the results I've gotten.

Color Comps for the next portrait...

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 03:11:00 +0000

Plus the finished inks.

Newsprint drawings from February

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:10:00 +0000

Working on stuff that's in no state to be shown yet, so here are some skull studies, and a nice 30 minute head drawing. I've been experimenting with using a soft mop brush to knock back and soften my tones after I lay them in - it's a good effect, it doesn't blend it and destroy the tones like a blending stump, but it softens everything and unifies it a bit so I can go back in and sharpen focus by drawing over bits and pieces and sharpening the edges.

Luchador!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 17:48:00 +0000

Done for the Daily Drawing challenge group over on Facebook. I've been pretty busy so I haven't had a chance to work on these as often as I'd like, but how could I pass up a luchador?

Decided to try out doing some tiling for painting and just letting the values and colors optically blend with each other instead of trying to blend them myself - I'm terrible at that with digital work (don't know how other people pull that off,) but the tiling system works well for me.

All in all it ended up being a neat little exercise and enlightened me to some things I should be mindful of when I do it again in the future.

Gorath Spearsnatcher

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 21:12:00 +0000

Finished the second orc portrait out of...12? 14? This will likely be the last one shown in its full until I get the book done and out.

So the main difference between this one and the first one was I tried to avoid the process I did of flats+multiply shadow+overlay/color dodge light layers, and instead just work the colors right from the get go with the appropriate values. I must be absorbing more information than I thought, because even though I struggled with this in the past this time around it was much easier.

Ink with photoshop.

Orc Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 18:58:00 +0000

Here's some recent personal stuff I've been doing as part of an idea of a digital book I'm kicking around. A series of portraits of Orcs, which is really an excuse for me to draw some appealing but ugly guys and work on my handling and understanding of light and color. I originally toyed with the idea of doing it all digitally from start to finish, but having actual ink work in the piece REALLY makes it sing, so that's the method I'm taking for these.

Finished piece, and color study for the next portrait.

Atelier Studies

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 18:48:00 +0000

These are from the end of 2014 - going back through to get passed on Head Phase 1 now that the guild system is implemented at Watts, plus it's been helpful to revisit this stuff and see how much better I am after taking some of the higher courses.

Conte on newsprint.

Back to the grindstone

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 16:40:00 +0000

As it's become painfully aware each year, holidays are terrible for me when it comes to productivity and keeping up with stuff. So like clockwork, at the start of a fresh new year I need to play a bit of catchup and get back into the swing of things. So let's start!

I just came back from a trip to London and Paris for the holiday with family, and it was a blast. Prior to the trip I picked up Graphic L.A., so throughout my time there I was trying to incorporate some of those thought processes in the book into my landscape sketching while we walked about. There's some successes here and there, and some flubs, but I like the exercise and I'll probably continue it.

Done with ballpoint, pentel brush pen, and markers (kept to one value at first, then opened up to a light and dark value.)

Hedz

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 03:04:00 +0000

Been doing inktober, so I'll probably post drawings at the halfway mark of October. BUT! In the meantime here are some recent things from the easel! Head studies! One of these is a study of Francis Vallejo. It's probably the one that looks obviously a cut above the rest because I'm borrowing his eyes instead of relying on mine. Also, it says "After Francis Vallejo" on it, so...yeah.

Nasutoceratops Available NOW!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 22:43:00 +0000

Finished paint job done by the ever talented Martin Garratt

Finished paint job by Martin Garratt

I'm so excited to finally announce that my Nasutoceratops model is now available as my SECOND resin kit! This time the guy is in 1:15 scale, which gives him a whopping 13" in a neutral pose (the above pose, which the model is in, is about 10" from the two farthest points") I've been really happy with how this came out, from the initial sculpt to the final finished paint job that was done for it.

Like the T. rex, you can purchase the kit either unfinished and unassembled or finished over at Dan's Dinosaurs. This is Dan's 7th exclusive model for his site (with my rex being no. 6!) I can't wait to get my copy in the mail and go to town on it!

Unfinished Nasutoceratops model
Finished Nasutoceratops model

Digital Sketchbook pages

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 01:25:00 +0000

I keep a digital file that's pretty much a digital sketchbook that I use to try out some different photoshop stuff, doodle ideas, and just generally fulfill the same purpose my physical sketchbook does for me. This stuff is from the past several months, so some of it has been seen elsewhere, but others I haven't posted before!

Cast Studies

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 17:41:00 +0000

While I've been on the hunt for a cast of a bust to draw from in person, I've been doing studies of marble busts from photos taken by the MET and put up on their online archive. It's been a great boon since the lighting in them is very good and accentuates the forms of the statues incredibly well.

Right now I'm finding I have trouble depicting the soft forms of female heads, and I suspect most of it has to do with my edge control - Jeff Watts pointed out that I'm leaning towards mostly hard edges for my mapping and all that, so I need to become much more conscious of my edge variance and work more soft, firm, and lost edges into it to help bring the drawings to the next level. So that's my goal for the time being!

More feature studies and a self portrait drawing!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 02:57:00 +0000

Here's some of my remaining feature studies, plus a shadow map self-portrait! Lately my studying is involving cast drawing so I've been looking for sources to get some of those at a fair price.

Allosaurus

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:51:00 +0000

I've been swamped in doing an minor addition to my backyard the past handful of weeks, so I haven't been updating with new drawings as much as I'd like to (despite keeping at it during this time.) So to get back on track, let's start with my latest prehistoric sculpture! (All pictures can be clicked to seen larger.)

This was a sculpt that I just finished for a client about a couple weeks back. Allosaurus is a favorite among a lot of dinosaur fans, and I'm no exception. Not sure why exactly people love the species so much, maybe because it's been known for so long, or maybe because it's this sleek, Jurassic predator. Whatever the reason, he was an absolute blast to sculpt.

Unlike some of my previous models, I actually started this one not from a dynamesh ball. Instead, I loaded up my T. rex model I sculpted late last year and used that as my start point.

Compared to an Allosaurus, there are some severe morphological differences to a Tyrannosaurus rex. Head size, neck length, finger count, overall proportions...but it IS a therapod, which means the basic structure is there and it just needs to be modified.

Once the general shape was blocked in, it was a matter of carving, adding, and carving the shape some more, slowly bringing it closer to the final dimensions of an Allosaurus. At this point I'm looking at a lot of reference of the skeleton, as well as some sculpts by other artists to see how they solved certain problems. Doing this with the right artists is incredibly beneficial, since it also helps me learn how they sculpt certain features and effects.

Right, so as stuff comes together and I find that my passes are becoming more focused on smaller areas and refining more minute things rather than general forms, I move towards detailing. If you don't have a solid foundation all the detail in the world will not save a good sculpture, but if your sculpt is good and your forms are true then that extra pass of finishing will really bring it to the next level.

There's three stages of detailing through with dinosaurs, and at this point it's gotten pretty methodical for myself: wrinkling, scale work, detail scale work.

First thing I do is tackle wrinkles and skin folds, which is just another level of adding minor forms and the start of the first detailing pass. I try to think about where areas on the body would develop skin folds, look at reference of birds and lizards, and emulate. These major wrinkles will show up underneath all the rest of the detail, so it's important to be as careful with these as you were with earlier forms.

After that, comes the first pass of detailing (or adding noise, I sometimes look at it.) I take a brush that resembles a rake brush (using an alpha that's supplied with Zbrush) and start to rake across the forms, almost like I'm making a cross contour drawing. I'll typically also hatch it the other direction as well just to break it up in some areas and make some more texture. Use this to emphasize rhythm lines and areas where forms flow from one to another.

This photo shows the head a bit further along than I'm describing - I've already
put in the hand tooled scale work ontop of my generic stamping, but you can get
a good idea of what it looks like from this.

This stage goes by pretty quickly, so next is stamping scale detail work onto the surface. I take a custom alpha of scales and using a low intensity (of about 12-14) I drag-rect onto the surface. It's key to remember to not have the scales too huge. Realistically these wouldn't really be noticeable from afar, but if we were to go too small it wouldn't translate well enough. Use your judgement here and look at reference to get an idea of how scales flow on a body and change size. Areas that require a lot of movement will need smaller scales while the opposite will be true of areas that move less.

Once I've made a pass with a generic scale detail on the body, I'll go in and add some hand tooled scales and scutes. This is done with the same tools I used for carving and adding the base forms earlier, the clay buildup brush, clay tubes brush, and masking. Certain areas that I want scutes on I'll mask then either build up a bit, pull out, or inflate to create the raised armored bump. Detail scales like the ones around the face will be tooled in by hand using the clay tubes brush. Like the rest of the stages, refer to reference and let nature inform your decision making.

When I hit the detailing stage I pretty much can switch my brain off - rarely if ever does that sort of stuff drastically alter the silhouette, so you can kinda go crazy and have fun during this part to really make it pop. Extra details like the teeth and spines on the neck area added as sub tools in Zbrush since it's easier to just insert them as separate geometry rather than pull it from the existing model.

Although it wasn't required by the client for the scope of the job (I was sculpting with the intent for the model to be available on Shapeways for the client,) I ended up painting it for fun because it would be a good challenge for me. Like surface detailing, I pretty much shut off my brain and had fun with it. Initially I had no reference for it, but once I started on a certain scheme I liked I started to look at reference of turkeys and pheasants to get some ideas.

Podcast interview with Pencil Kings!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:17:00 +0000

I'm excited to tell everyone that my first podcast interview is up over at Pencil Kings!

Pencil Kings is an online resource for artists who want to learn how to draw. They've just started to do podcast interviews recently, asking various artists about their working methods and what they do.

You can hear me talk about me attending the online Watts Atelier, sculpting dinosaurs, and what my views on practicing are. Also, fun fact: I am constantly unaware of how nasally my voice sounds when it's recorded and played back to me.

Pencil Kings Podcast No. 8 - Andrew Sides

Atelier Studies

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 31 May 2014 17:10:00 +0000

Just finished up Head Phase I over at the Watts Atelier, so now I'm moving into Head Phase II. I probably took more time than I should have during Phase I, but I really wanted to make sure I understood the concepts and construction of the head before I moved further along. Being methodical is paying off pretty big currently, as I'm noticing larger jumps in progress than in the past.

Planar head studies and some more sculpts

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 16:30:00 +0000

Moved on from doing skull studies to studying the simple plane head. Incredibly helpful to learn all that stuff finally instead of just winging it. This was all spread out over roughly a month, and now I'm focusing on head abstractions and eventually a more complicated planar head.

I've also been trying to incorporate what I've learned from this stuff into the zbrush sculpting. As you can see, a certain show is back on...

Zbrush Portraits and Thoughts on Finishing

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 03:02:00 +0000

As a bit of downtime between work and atelier studies, I've been doing some zbrush sculptures to see what information is sticking and what's not. Thankfully it seems like the stuff I've learned so far is lodging itself firmly in my memory!

Features are iffy here and there on some of these, and that makes sense since I haven't done extensive studies of features yet. But I have noticed the planar head studies paying off big time, I've become incredibly mindful of proportion and placement, and even some quirks that help out with fleshing out a head. I'll have to make a post about that soon.

I think I may be preemptive and work on some eye structure studies soon, because I've noticed myself really trying to grok how that assembles, but I'm defaulting to gut instincts on it instead of how it really looks and comes together. Looking at modern and classical sculptures' approach to eyes made me switch out my eyes three times - you'll notice that there's three varieties of eyes amongst this group, with the last being the most recent/accurate to what I want.

Something I have noticed in regards to sculpting these heads and dinosaurs, and when I think about it in regards to my 2D stuff it's the same thing - progress on a piece works a steep curve. When you first start on a project you make GREAT progress, that's why it's always exciting to block out gestures or thumbnails or rough in shapes in clay. But about midway in the curve you move from block-in to refinement and iteration, and from there on it's a finishing game.

You see what I mean? Basically you start to feel like you aren't making as much progress as you did initially, even though you're putting in the same amount of time. Eventually, if you're smart enough, you get a feel for when you're experiencing massively reduced ROI, and you consider the project done. Sometimes a person quits earlier than they should, and sometimes a person goes for longer then they should, and risks making the work too labored. Only real way to get a feel for when it's right is to do it enough times.

One last picture. This was a hand study I just "finished." I put that in quotations because truth be told it's not near what I felt the finish should be for it, but I just ran out of steam on it. It's not a failure in the slightest, I actually pulled away a lot of great information from it that I can incorporate into my next hand study, and by doing so I can get further along the curve before I start to feel the spinning wheels effect.