Project management and dev log

Week Number & Date: Week 6: 30.03.20-06.04.20

List of Tasks planned for this week:

•  Start and hopefully finish environment painting, Do sketch, base colour, shading leaf stamping, detailing, lighting and texturing.

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)

To start off with my environment I used the environment colour idea I did as a base to create a cleaner overall sketch of the scene for my paintover I plan to do. This was just a really simple sketch, detail will be added into the painting, shading and texture process so the finished scene will look much better than this. The reason I haven’t highlighted the leaves in this sketch since they will be painted on in the final painting so I felt it would be unnecessary to sketch in the leaves.

The overall painting process of this environment is the same as any environment I hae worked on in my own time, after doing the sketch I block out the entire scene in colour using the oil pastel brush in different layers. I am following the same process here for my environment piece with the colour blocking with the pastel brush. I layer up the different layers in the appropriate order, so for example the tree going over the waterfall is infront of the rock layer since it is infront of the rocks in the painting and is easier to work with that way.

I then finished off blocking the colours and I moved onto the first layer and attempt of shading and lighting. During my environment piece I tend to go over and redo shading and lighting all throughout the process to make all of the shading and lighting consistent throughout the piece. As well as this I decided to sort out the shading and lighting of the trees early into the painting so that I knew where the light was coming in within the scene.

After the shading and lighting was done I still felt that the rocks were missing an edge to them in a way, the ones I had painted looked too smooth and perfect and they didn’t look natural. I decided to go onto a stock website and got some free rock textures to overlay the scene with this texture to give the rocks an extra layer to make them a little more rough. I think it turned out really well after this texture was applied. To add a tiny bit more detail I added some cracks to the surface of the rock, I think this gave the rocks a finishing touch and made them look a bit more realistic.

I then moved onto the water, if I’m being honest I was dreading this part since I haven’t painted water for ages. As well as this I was starting to worry that the water tutorial I used the first time I painted water had been removed from youtube. the tutorial is a really good one and I was hoping to use that as a general guide for the water. Thankfully I found it again but it was quite hard to find! For me this is a great water tutorial since the steps are so simple and it is very easy to build up the water.

Youtube. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/OypsHFBAHj8> [Accessed 10 April 2020].

I began by added dark tones to outline where the shadows of the water would go, I kept my brushstrokes loose and a little sketchy to give the water a natural look. As well as this I made the areas around the rocks darker to show they are apart of the river and are submerged.

I moved on and added two sets of ripples around the rocks, one is a fine and rather visible set and the others are thicker but are less visible to transition them out into the rest of the water.

After this faint yellow shimmers were added to make the water look like it was reflecting the warm light I plan to add to the scene. It just gives the water a pretty sparkling effect, it’s subtle at the moment but I will be moving on and adding more details to show the shimmer of the water against the light, it’s just easier to break up the water this way.

I then went ahead and and added small dot like strokes to the water in a similar but lighter yellow tone along with some pink shimmers to give it a pretty glow effect. I am really surprised by how well my water turned out here, I thought it wouldn’t look as good as my first attempt last July but I think this turned out really well. To speed things up I duplicated this part of the water to use on the upper tier so I wouldn’t have to redo it all.

I then moved onto the waterfall, I had to translate the water techniques into free falling water so I thought this would be a challenge, I started out by using the shadow tone to section out the water, when water goes down a fall it often falls into sections so I wanted to highlight this. Of course it looks rough since this is the first step so I’m trying not to loose hope now.

I added highlights in streaks along the sections of the waterfall to show that it was catching light, it still looks blocky and unpolished here since there is no glowing highlights or splash, those will be added next, but these streaks are the starting point for the highlights I’m going to add.

I added the yellow and pink highlights in to match the main body of water so it looks like the same water and is consistent, I think this turned out well and it really looks lie the water is flowing as one.

I then added the splashing effect you get at the bottom of the waterfall, I layered up a rounded brush very lightly, almost as if I was painting clouds. After this was done I used the small splatter brush in photoshop to add small droplets coming up from the splashing of the water. I think the water fall turned out really well, I took the knowledge that I had and adapted it to the subject I was painted and it worked well!

Like the main bodies of water I duplicated the waterfall so that I wouldn’t have to repaint another one, it just makes things quicker for me in my workflow which benefits me a lot.

I then moved onto the wisteria branch in the foreground. I knew from the beginning that I would be using the stamp tool to create the build up of the flowers so I was able to add detail to just one flower and then stamp it across the whole stem. I did the process for all three of the stems and I think it turned out well. To break up the flowers I made the ones at the back darker so that the flowers didn’t look blocky and too much together.

After the main flowers were done I moved onto the shading of the branch. I used the same technique and way that I normally use for trees but applied it to this branch, I followed the structure of the branch and added some grain details, because the wisteria is the focus I didn’t put crazy amounts of detail into the branch. I think this works well, om top of this there will be leaves all over the branch anyway so the leaves will also overshadow the branch.

I moved on and added the leaves, I went and stamped leaves on the vines I drew growing around the branch, It looks really bare since this is only the first set of leaves, I am going to do the same technique as I did in my ideas generation where I make one layer of leaves and duplicate them while changing the tones to create depth.

I did this twice to create a mid tone, light tone and dark tone, I think this worked really well here, like I said earlier it had overshadowed the branch but that isn’t an issue for me since the branch wasn’t very detailed.

Here is a close up of the leaf I stamped across the branch, I really like how it all turned out here.

I moved down to the ground and stared adding the flowers, mushrooms, and leaves across the rocks. I got the way the mushroom was shaded and coloured from my mushroom test pieces, I really like how they all turned out here. With the tiny flowers on the ground I just did very small brush strokes in different colours, there isn’t anything special about these ones. The bigger flowers were painted first and stamped throughout the painting. I made some of them darker than others to show that some were submerged in shadow (The foreground will be darker than the midground). I think the flowers really broke up the green of the grass nicely and added a nice spring of colour to the scene overall.

I then moved onto shading and adding detail to the grass, I made sure that the parts of the image that are closest to the viewer were darker, to show that there was an incline near all of the rocks I added shadow to the bottom I think this all worked out really well.

The next thing I decided to do was add some grass stems around the rocks, river and trees. This gave the grass a little more depth and texture overall which I think really benefited the scene as a whole. The grass really popped out and looked like grass this way which made me happy.

I moved onto the blossom tree that looms over the river, I removed the bark shading layer so that way I could focus on the leaves here, like with the wisteria I made one leaf and stamped it across the branch, I had to flip and transform some of the leaves so that it looked like they were growing naturally from the branch.

I then duplicated the layer twice to create the depth like I have done a few times, it worked here as well as the other elements of the scene and it built up the tree in a really nice way! I like how all of the different tones look here, I’m happy that I tried this technique out in my ideas generation since it’s really helped me a lot so far!

The final part of this specific tree was to do the blossoms! I used the same technique as the leaves, where I used the stamp tool and duplicated one specific and detailed asset across the area. I think the pinks of the blossoms really break up the greens in a nice way. I spaces them out with the leaves to make sure that it looked natural.

This is a close up of the leaves and the blossoms. I am really happy with how thy all turned out. I’m glad the details in the leaves aren’t that strong since I didn’t want it to be overwhelming here. I think the flowers turned out really nicely as well, I referenced my test pieces while painting to make them accurate here. I think it turned out well!

After this was done I added the sky gradient, if you see in my final colour idea the sky isn’t one whole colour, the middle point of the sky is lighter which added to light coming through. It’s just to transition the light as it all comes through.

As well as this I moved onto the leaves that are coming from the trees in the background. Like the layering and tonal technique I have used loads in this project lately I have used it again for this part of the project. I started with the darker leaves first so that way the lighter leaves will always be infront. If I did this the other way round it wouldn’t have worked since the light leaves would have been covered. I this turned out well in the end. I way worried the top part of the scene would look bare but I managed to sort this problem out!

I did feel that the leaves did look a little too sudden and that they would need a transition into the sky. I used my favourite pastel brush to lightly create a blotchy effect to transition the two, I think it looked a lot nicer this way, the forest looks a lot more natural when these things don’t just cut off so I think this has really benefited the scene.

You might think the scene is complete but for me there are still things I really want to add. The first final element I want to add is the warm and welcoming glow of sunlight coming from the trees. I used a very faint yellow gradient to make a glowing effect come through the trees, as well as this I painted light beams of sun coming through the trees and leaves and added light to objects to give it a nice glowing effect. I also added light splatter effects to ass a particle light effect to it all.

As well as this I added a dark gradient to the bottom of the piece to bring attention to the middle since that is where the light is. I think this helped the scene even more to bring the eye to the middle!

There is still one more thing I really want to try and add to the scene, I really wanted to add the shadows of the leaves to the ground and show patches of light as well. I have never done anything like this before so I didn’t really know how I was going to achieve this first. I thought of just using a texture online that is black and white and put it on screen mode and lowering the opacity but I really wanted to paint it myself.

I tried out a lot of different layer types, I settled on soft light since it showed the shadows still and it was a lot less intense than overlay. I drew one layer and multiplied it a few times in order to rotate and spread it around the ground to build it all up, I added the shadows over the water so that the water didn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

This didn’t take as long as I thought it would in the end, I thought this would take a while since I’ve never tried this before but I am really happy with how this turned out overall! I think the piece has come together really well which really shocked me since I was worried it would look too cookie cutter due to the stamp tool. I am so happy with how it turned out, I am really happy I pushed myself with this environment since it turned out really well!

• What did I find difficult or easy?

What I found difficult:

• The water was quite challenging even with the tutorial, I kept getting worried I was doing brushstrokes wrong and I had to redo some things a few times to get it right.
• I don’t know where to put this point but I actually found the stamping of assets really tedious after a while, it was the same step over and over and it felt rather mechanic, I really like the end result but the process was tedious.

What I found easy:

• I found the shadows on the ground surprisingly easy, I’ve never done them before but I’m still happy with how it all turned out.

 

• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

I managed to do everything I wanted to this week, nothing is outstanding!

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

My proposal timetable says I should start the dragon page next week so I will start the dragon page next week!

Week Number & Date: Week 7: 07.04.20-14.04.20

List of Tasks planned for this week:

 I would like to start and finish the dragon reference sheet this week, I don’t expect to do more than this one sheet since I have to do the main render and the design break down which will take me a week to do.

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)

The first think I did for the dragon was to ink over the concept art to create a simple base to apply all my paint to. This may seem pointless but for me it just makes the structure of the design easier to understand when painting.

Other than this simple task I haven’t done anything else this week other than this and written work, I am starting to really struggle with motivation and trying to carry on in general due to the overall situation and my work place. I ended up spending all of this week trying to get back ontop of things but that just didn’t work. I have lost a week of time on my fmp which is worrying but I need to just carry on after this.

• What did I find difficult or easy?

Because I have only done a tiny bit I don’t feel that I can really comment accurately on what was easy

What was difficult however was motivation this week, I really didn’t feel great due to everything that is going on at the moment. I’ll need to really crack on next week to catch up.

• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

Like I said I was meant to do the dragon board this week and I have only done inking this week. I need to do my usual amount of work and try to get used to my new situation and carry on as normal.

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

My job is probably the biggest cause of stress so I need to step back and ignore customers when they are abusive and try not to take the negativity back home with me so that I can focus on my college work and not get dragged down.

Week Number & Date: Week 8: 15.04.20.22.04.20

List of Tasks planned for this week:

Because the dragon wasn’t finished last week (Infact all I did was start it)I will be pushing myself to finished the render art and the board for the dragon! I feel a lot better this week so I’m sure I will get it done.

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)

Carrying on straight after the inking I did to outline the dragon, I created a single leaf asset similar to how I did my environment piece. I started at the bottom so that each leaf that would come after in different columns would layer over in a natural way like how fur of scales grow on a real creature. I did this process over and over on the dragon, it was a very tedious since it didn’t feel that I was painting here, I was just stamping over and over and it was really draining. I didn’t really enjoy this part of the process although the final product did look nice.

After I finished the stamping of the leaves (Which I was very happy about) I added the colour gradient overlay to make the overall colour a lot less flat and to match the concept art I made before. The colour gradient had to be altered a few times since I couldn’t get the right balance in the saturation, it either looked too saturated or too translucent. I had to duplicate the overlay layer and decrease the saturation on that layer, I managed to get something that looked good in the way which made me happy with the end result.

As well as this I began shading the underbelly and legs after this on a lower layer. I used the same technique I have used for previous environment pieces. This part of the creature was a nice breath of fresh air since I felt that I was actually painting now. I made sure to shade in the shapes of the bark on the dragon’s legs just like how I normally paint trees! I really enjoyed this part of the process since I was able to do with I normally do and just paint.

After doing the legs and tummy I moved onto the branches coming from the back and head. I did the same process as I normally did, I did need to be careful here since the branches are thin and I needed to make sure that I didn’t  smudge the actual shape out. I followed the outline and I think it turned out really well.

I then added the flowers and the leaves to the branches, I simplified the flowers and leaves here so I don’t overwhelm the piece. I like how this al turned out since it doesn’t look too much and is nicely balanced.

I then added the flowers across the dragon’s body, I used the flowers from my environment to save time painting the flowers all over again. I referenced the concept art to make sure the placement of the flowers was accurate. As well as this I painted the branch going around  the body to the legs, After this was done the dragon was complete! I need to now make the reference sheet for the dragon.

Now that the dragon’s main pose was complete I could move onto creating the presentation board! I know a lot of people do the boards right at the end but the art I have done has been made specifically for boards so it won’t be complete unless I create the boards too!

In my proposal I stated that the environment would be the background for the creature presentation board, this is why I did the background first. I added a lens blur over the background to make sure the attention was on the dragon. Despite this the Dragon still didn’t look like the focus, I gave the Dragon a white outline to get around this issue, this really fixed the problem and brought attention back to the Dragon. I will be doing this outline on all of the breakdowns so that they pop out from the background.

I then moved onto a side view of the dragon, I used a sketch from my idea generation as the base, I did make the legs a little longer here along with a few other minor adjustments so that the Dragon didn’t look as crushed. I made the colouring here flat and didn’t shade any of it since I didn’t feel that it was necessary and I didn’t want to waste time on this. I think the side view is quite cute and turned out well!

I then made a back view of my Dragon, I didn’t have a sketch to start off with here so I made a quick sketch of a back view digitally.  I used the same brush size and colours as I did with the side view. I thought this looked really cute and showed the back of the design well. I also added a colour palette of the whole design in the corner of the piece to add an extra something to the sheet. I really like how this has all turned out here!

To finish off the piece I made a small white boarder around the piece along with white text in the top left.

To dial back the intensity of my background my tutor recommended applying a green opacity layer over the background so that the background isn’t as harsh. A first year helped me with the amount to put the opacity back. I think this turned out really well, the background looked nicer this way and all of the assets looked really nice together.

• What did I find difficult or easy?

What I found difficult

• I found the stamping of the leaves really boring and tedious to do, it was easy in a way but it was really boring and tedious to get through.

What I found easy:

I found painting the side and back view easy and nice since I was able to draw on this section. It was a nice change in scenery.

• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

I completed the dragon board which I’m really happy about, I am ontrack, although my proposal timetable says otherwise I am where I would like to be.

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

The next thing to paint art the tree people, this is next on my proposal list of my timetable, this should take a week to do, I need to work at my usual pace to finish this off on time!

Week Number & Date: Week 9: 23.04.20-30.04.20

List of Tasks planned for this week:

 This week I would like to finish off my tree board, this includes the three tree creatures fully painted and laid out on the board.

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)

Just like my spirit of the forest board I decided to paint over the concept sketch to speed the process of not having to draw out the new pose. I planned on using this process for the other two however I realised the tall and skinny one way drawn at a front facing angle (I will tackle that issue by redrawing him when I get to him). For now I will focus on the stumpy one.

I used the concept as a guide to paint over, this helped me with the structure of the bark and the overall design. I built up the shading here on the bark before adding leaves, mushrooms and other detailing. Because of this I was able to focus on different areas and not worry about overlapping and ruining other areas.

I used this same technique on the brows, leaves and mushrooms to build up the creature. I did all of this on different layers to keep things separate which I think worked well. I then went over the bark with a thin brush to add some grain effects to the bark, they are very subtle and you probably won’t notice them but they added a nice bit of texture to the bark.

After hiding the base the creature didn’t stick out against the background, like the spirit of the forest I outlined the creature with a white outline. I think this added nicely to this creature so I will be using it on my other two creatures.

I then moved onto the second tree creature. I used the same techniques for this tree creature to create the bark structure, leaves and mushrooms on different layers. It only started to work when highlights were added, the whole piece looked flat before this.

I then added the white outline like what I did with the first creature to make the board consistent overall. I think this tree creature turned out well! I had to move onto the last tree creature and make sure I could sort out the issue I brought up earlier, which was the concept being forward facing.

As you can see the concept is forward facing. You might not think of this as an issue but it won’t match the other two creatures on the board so it won’t be consistent. I decided to redraw the tree creature at the angle I needed it by referencing the concept. This was easier than I thought it would be and I think it turned out well. After it was sketched out I applied a base coat of colour to start shading on.

I did the exact same process as the last two when it came to painting. The leaves took a little longer since there were more of them on this design (For the facial hair) I had to break them all down and shade them to get all the detail in so it could look consistent. After I sorted the leaves I added the shading in the bark and mushrooms like before. I think this tree creature is my favourite of the three due to the facial hair. I think it’s really unique!

This is the final board. Overall I think it turned out well, I like how the creatures look together!

• What did I find difficult or easy?

What did I find difficult:

• The middle tree creature looked flat before I added highlights. Before this I couldn’t quite make the middle creature work since he just looked flat.

What did I find easy?:

• I found painting the bark really easy, since I was able to follow the sketches out structure.
• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

The tree board is complete which is what I needed to do this week!

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

I need to just carry on and finish the woodland creature board before the 8th, I need to just carry on like I have been!

Week Number & Date: Week 10: 01.05.20-08.05.20

List of Tasks planned for this week:

 This is the last week of production! My goal is to paint all of the woodland creatures, this includes the Rabbit, Fox, Owl, Raccoon and Hedgehog. 

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)

While the concepts of the animals look nice I would like to make new poses for all of them since the concepts looked really boring to me pose wise. I grabbed reference from pinterest of the animals to see what kind of poses they naturally hold and how they carry themselves.

I started off with the rabbit, I really wanted to make sure the rabbit looked cute and chubby like in their design. I found a really nice image on Pinterest of a rabbit with their front paws up. I really wanted to try this out, I had a few issues with the length of the arms which had to be adjusted a few times. I think the sketch turned out well in the end.

I moved onto the leaves, to create a variation in colour I created three different coloured leaves to place randomly on the rabbit’s coat. I really like how these three colours looked, to me they really complimented eachother on the design!

I then moved onto the ears, the ears are two large leaves so I just painted the leaves like I did before but bigger. I’m happy with how it turned out here, the floppy ears make the rabbit really cute!

I started colouring the rabbits, arms, legs, tummy and face, Because the texture is grassy I had to consider the way brushstrokes and blending could be done to create the effect of grass stems. I pulled the strokes out in long and stem like ways to layer it all up in a way like actual grass. I used both light and dark tones for this, I had to reattempt the shading here a few times to get my desired look since it wasn’t going to plan at first. I think it turned out well in the end but it did take a few attempts!

I moved onto the design element which I think is the cutest in this design and that is the flower crown. I decided to give myself a break from the stamp tool and decided to paint each flower by hand, they look a lot more organic this way. I had to also make sure I didn’t fall into the trap of making the flowers pink instead of the orangey coral I wanted to use! I was also using this colour on the tulip tail so I needed to colour to look right in the design to break up the green.

I then added the tulip tail in the colour I used and the beady black eyes to finish off the rabbit. This was a really easy step and I didn’t need to redo this step at all. After this the rabbit was all done. I’m really happy with how the rabbit turned out here!

I then moved onto the fox, the fox was easy in the sense that many photos show foxes sitting up straight with pressed out chests. I was able to do a pose like this without struggling which was good.

Something I did worry about was the leaves looking too similar to the rabbits. To get around this issue I created a different type of leaf for this creature to make him stick out from the rabbit. I really liked how this turned and I would like to try a different kind of leaf on each design!

I used the stamp tool again which got really tedious after a while. This is just something I’ll need to get used to in the end since it creates a really nice end product! I had to make sure the eaves were applied in a certain order to make sure unnatural overlapping didn’t happen.

I then added the underlayer for the leaves and the visible fur. I did the same process as the rabbit for the belly. I had to layer up light and dark a few times to get the effect I wanted here.

I then added the mushrooms, twigs, acorns along with the eyes and nose. These all broke up the multicoloured leaves ad made the fox look a little more chaotic which I really like. The stray leaves make the fox look a little scruffy which I like.

I then moved onto the owl! The owl was a little tricky since I had to keep readjusting the wings, head and chest which got tedious after a while. I did manage to get a product I like in the end. The owl looks a little different here due to how I didn’t restrict the wings to curve only around the body in one direction. I really like it this way since owl seems a lot more proportionate here.

• What did I find difficult or easy?
• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

 

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

Week Number & Date: Week 11 (Hand in week):

List of Tasks planned for this week:

 

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
• What did I find difficult or easy?
• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

 

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

Week Number & Date: Week 12:

List of Tasks planned for this week:

 

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
• What did I find difficult or easy?
• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

 

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?

Week Number & Date: Week 12:

List of Tasks planned for this week:

 

Current Position – 

• What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
• What did I find difficult or easy?
• What tasks didn’t I complete from this week?

 

Planning for next week – 

• How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?