Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Classwork - The Chair

We worked on value and contrast in class, using a still life of a black backdrop, white chair, black pillow, white pillow, two pieces of wax fruit and a striped cloth.



I enjoyed this tough assignment.
See if you can identify what is what!

Random Cartoons coming soon to Nicktoons Network



On Cartoon Brew there's a link to Frederator's title cards for the Random Cartoons show that will be on the Nicktoons Network on Dec. 6th. I mentioned in a post from February that Fred Seibert presented these shorts at a special ASIFA-EAST screening back in 2007.



The cartoons are crazy and entertaining, especially Adventure Time, one of the funniest, most offbeat things I've ever seen. Seriously, it's a YouTube phenom. It reminds me of all the make-believe, sugar-frosted goodness I loved when I was eight. Yay!

If you've got satellite check out the programming. Well worth it!

30 Days of Cryptids Day 13: The Unicorn



Who doesn't love mythical horses with horns jutting out of their skulls? No one I know!

Here's how I made my magical-horned horse.

How to make your own Fancy-pants Unicorn

Step 1



Make a rough sketch.

Step 2


Make a final sketch.

Step 3



Using the hue/saturation tool, set Cyan and Blue levels to 100%. This will make the blue lines disappear. Then set to grayscale. Set contrast to 25& and fiddle with curves levels until all the weird grainy dots vanish. Then set back to RGB.

Step 4



Color on different layers using the pencil tool and the paint tool set to 32 tolerance.

Step 4



I grouped all of the unicorn layers together (color, two shadow layers and highlights). I also used the dodge/burn tool for the unicorn's skin and horns.

Step 5



I used the paintbrush tool to apply a final shade of blue to the trees in the background and an extra shade of brown to the cliff side. Voila! Instant unicorn.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

30 Days of Cryptids Day 12: Nymph and Faun



Here's my first two-fer - the Faun and his tree Nymph girlfriend, (also known as a dryad for you myth buffs out there).

Unlike mythology involving other fauns though, in particular, Pan, my Faun is a friendly little guy.

Monday, October 27, 2008

30 Days of Cryptids Day 11: The Genie



Hi everyone,

after much MileHiCon and other assignment fun I'm back with more Cryptidity-goodness. Today we feature one of my faves, the Genie, a whimsical creature said to grant wishes.

Anyone who has seen Aladdin, I Dream of Jeannie, The Fairly OddParents, heck, any numerous cartoons knows what I'm talking about.

I enjoyed working on the background for this one - after the Yeti this is the most detailed background work I've done for an illustration. This picture almost didn't get made today. The power went out in my apartment complex, but I discovered after calling the apt. manager that the complex is served by two separate grids, and my apartment happened to sit dead in the center of them. So one room had no power, and the other room did, so using various extension cords and thanking the heavens that my desk is on wheels, I reconfigured everything so I could do my work. Yes folks, I go to great links to provide art!

Hope you enjoy it and more cryptid fun tomorrow!

© 2008 Angela Entzminger

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Cool Things I Found On The Net This Week

Ohmygosh I found so many things on the internet this week it's rather obscene. So I've put them into CATEGORIES, there are so many!

COMICS

Inverloch



Thanks to friend of the blog Perzik for getting me hooked on Sarah Ellerton's first webcomic, which I read, all 764 pages of it, in two days. IGN describes it as a cross between The Dark Crystal and Lord of the Rings. I kind of see why they say that. But a better description is that it is an excellent fantasy epic exploring why people treat others the way they do and how history is no excuse for treating an entire race like the enemy. You will most assuredly enjoy this. And if you REALLY like it, go buy it, so that Sarah can make even more cool comics (like The Phoenix Requiem, one of the previous features in this series).

Good Cheese
This furry-style webcomic is an absolute delight. Created by Kelly Hamilton, Good Cheese tells the story of sweet shy Ashlee, a dormouse with the world's biggest crush on the geeky hottie lynx, Gunther. Seriously, it's like my years in high school but with animals instead of people. Sigh. A great, cute, funny, read in awesome manga style.

Roza


And if you like Kelly Hamilton's art in Good Cheese, you'll love her latest web comic Roza, a mythical fantasy about a young girl whose blood contains magical powers. Good Cheese may be great art, but Roza is at the top.
You can see Ms. Hamilton's animation training leap from the page onto your screen. I like Good Cheese better as a story but Roza is entertaining and still going strong.

ARTIST WEBSITES

Agent44



Jake Parker is an animator for Blue Sky who is also the creator of Missile Mouse, a comic featured in Flight Explorer that will soon be published as its own graphic novel. On his blog right now you can see how Jake's creation progressed from fanciful doodles to full-out story. A great look into the creative mind of an excellent draftsman.


Paperwalker



I consider it an absolute travesty that I did not find out about Florian Satzinger's blog Paperwalker until this week. This is some of the best character animation I've ever seen. Satzinger details his process for creating characters, showcasing everything from his color scheme to the types of tools he uses to get the job done. Bravo!


Creature Box



The creators of Creature Box, are fabulous artists Dave Guetin and Greg Baldwin of Insomniac Games, makers of titles like the super fun Spyro the Dragon and Rachet and Clank. The site is exactly what it says - a collection of weird and wonderful creations that have sprouted from their twisted minds. If you like Invader Zim-looking stuff and monsters in general (who doesn't?) this site is for you. They've also written a comic which I haven't had the opportunity to read yet but look for it in a future Cool Things post.

SUPER RANDOM

Zoetica Ebb

Russian model Zoetica Ebb poses for alternative lifestyle magazines and I first learned about her through Molly Crabapple's MySpace page. Her photos are phenomenal - from a design standpoint, you can learn a great deal about color and characterization from her poses and fashion choices, which is why I mention her on this blog. Definitely not your average photo shoot.

And that's it for this week's edition. Tune in next time when I bring you more from around the interwebs!

MileHiCon!


Hi folks,

I had the great pleasure, thanks to my friend Rose Beetem, of volunteering for the 40th Annual MileHiCon in Denver today. It was quite fun! I have been to cons in Texas (Wizard World Dallas - first year held!) and the East Coast (Big Apple Con! New York Comic Con! Mocca Fest! Onna Fest! Katsucon!) but was beginning to fret that such interesting times were not to be had in Colorado.

But oh, how wrong I was.

I arrived at 8 a.m. to register and sign up to volunteer and was helped by no less than five people - Annabel, Steve, Ron, Suzi and Richard. I then met up with Rose for pre-event coffee and breakfast and met several of the authors giving panels later that day including Nicole Givens Kurtz, Tim Powers and David Boop. Very excellent and enjoyable folks.

And that, in fact my friends, was the theme of the Con. I must say that the people I met were some of the friendliest Con folks I've ever worked with or listened to. My previous Con experience has been with comic book and anime conventions so it was interesting attending a predominantly literary con (and a scifi/fantasy one at that) for the first time. And the Dealer's Room was selling Dr. Horrible goggles! And Captain Hammer t-shirts! How awesome is that?! Oh, but if I only had more expendable income! Curse you low funds! Grrr!

While in the Dealer's Room I also met Stan Yan of Squidworks, the local comic book collective. Man, was I glad to meet him. I was beginning to think that myself and my handful of comic book friends here in town were the only ones in the state that read comics. Stan proved me wrong. Squidworks meets once a month on the second Sunday of each month and you can check them out here. I'll definitely blog about them come November.

I also learned how to BUILD MY OWN WORKING LIFESIZE R2D2, courtesy of Lynelle Phillips' panel. Did you know that people do this for fun? I had no idea. It's expensive, but interesting, I'll tell you that.

And I met Hugo and Nebula award winner Connie Willis, who is an absolute hoot. One of the funniest speakers I've ever heard, and considering she was talking about WWII, not typically considered comedic fodder, is saying quite a bit.

I also had the great pleasure of volunteering for Jeanne Stein and Robin Owens' panel, both of whom read from their upcoming novels, and meeting Susan Crites, owner of Neon Hearts, an online used book store. Lovely ladies!

Since MileHiCon is on the smaller side of Cons, you have the opportunity to actually talk to authors and guest speakers for a longer period of time ( 10 - 30 minutes instead of 2, on average), there is more of an opportunity for you to volunteer for rooms with panels you'll like, and volunteers got a discount on parking.

The downside is that some of the panels were rather obscure. And some I just didn't like. I volunteered for one that ended up being on cannibalism in film and literature. Didn't realize it would be on cannibalism. I didn't see the sign until afterwards. The presenter was actually really cool and knowledgeable and the audience was fun but quite frankly, that's just gross. Eating people. Ewww. And the panel on Joss Whedon was disappointing because instead of it being about Joss and say, how he gets ideas, or how he is so successful, became a group of people lamenting over the loss of Firefly. And I love Firefly. But EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG is in agreement that Fox totally blew it with that one. That's not news. Let's lay it to rest and move on by supporting Dollhouse in January. Thank you. But on the upside I learned about stuff that I didn't know even existed (like droid building) and I even learned a few Joss and cannibal facts. Facts I'd rather not know, but hey, knowledge is power. I guess. So not a total loss with those two.

I encourage you all to go tomorrow if you have the chance. If not, they'll be back October 23, 24, and 25, 2009. And if you volunteer for 8 hours, you get a free staff shirt. And raffle tickets for prizes! I'll post my winnings if I get 'em on the blog.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Live from Art Class: The Figure

We had our second model come in for my drawing class last night. I enjoy drawing the figure - it's challenging and forces you to focus on what you actually see.


Here is the first five minute contour drawing - you draw the figure or object without looking at the paper.


This is a modified contour drawing - you look at the paper only sporadically - done after 10 minutes.


Here is the second 10 minute modified contour drawing.



And here's the final contour drawing done in three 20 minute intervals.
I really like this one. I have a "confident line" my classmate told me.

After three hours all I wanted to do was go home and draw some more!
If you want to learn how to draw - take a figure drawing class. Money well spent.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Cryptids Day 10: The Minotaur



Part man, part bull, the Minotaur of Greek mythology inhabited the Labyrinth, a vast maze not to be confused with the 80s Muppet movie starring David Bowie of the same name.

Monday, October 20, 2008

A Few Sketches

I was quite inspired by Dr. Sketchy's and Victorian art in general yesterday. Here are some quick sketches that I did last night for some forthcoming drawings.


Sun Moon Stars


Sexy Librarian

Cryptids Day 9: The Werewolf



Here he is in all his feral glory.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Dr. Sketchy's Extravaganza

I went to my first Dr. Sketchy's drawing night this evening. What fun!
Dr. Sketchy's is a "cabaret-inspired alternative life drawing class."
The event was created by Molly Crabapple in Brooklyn, NY back in 2005 and has spread far and wide across the United States and every continent except Antarctica at bars all over the country. Burlesque dancers, roller derby girls and other interesting people are the models, and they wear funky costumes!

Here are my best drawings.






This one won a prize!


This one won too!


And here are the super prizes I won.

I met some interesting people, enjoyed a tasty beverage and listened to great music. For those of you interested in joining the shenanigans next month in Denver, check out the local Dr. Sketchy's MySpace page.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Cool Things I Found On The Net This Week

Hi all,

I found two awesome blogs this week. The first, Illustration Friday, gives novices and professionals a chance to showcase their artistic chops by posting a word each week that inspires you to draw something related to that word. Anyone can submit an entry and the winning entries are featured on the site. It's a great way to get exposure and find cool drawings by others on the web.



The second cool thing is animator Ward Jenkins' personal blog. A freelancer from Portland, Oregon, Ward's unique design style and use of color are quite fascinating. And special props to anyone going the entrepreneurial route. Check out his post on his B-Boy exhibit - absolutely stellar.

Seize the day!

Cryptids Day 8: The Phoenix



My personal favorite of all the cryptids is the Phoenix, a mythical bird of fire that sets itself aflame in order to rise from the ashes, reborn.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Cryptids Day 7: Pegasus



Here is my magical flying Pegasus - winged horse of Greek mythology, son of Poseidon, born of Medusa (her blood or neck, depending on the story). Enjoy!

Life Drawing Class









Here are some figure drawings from my life drawing class. We had a good model who held poses quite well for one minute, two minute, and five minute sessions.

Cryptids Day 6: The Yeti



Hi folks! This image took longer than expected due to using a new technique I learned online with opacity and paint brushes. But it turned out well and I'm proud of it. Hope you like my Yeti - or Abominable Snowman if you will - and his prey!

Here's how I did it.

How to Make a Fearsome Yeti: The Tutorial




1. Scan your image.



2. Add finishing touches to the image. I changed it so that the Yeti's fur went in the direction of the wind.



3. Fill in the background layer at 100% opacity.



4. Give your Yeti bluish/white skin set to 86% opacity.



5. Using a 16 point brush, create the first overcoat layer of fur.



6. Using that same 16 point brush, but with the brighter white, create coat #2.



7. Use a darker color for shadows and color the nails.



8. Select a cold, deathly brown for your dead mammal of choice on the Yeti's shoulder. Use a lighter color for the antlers and a slightly darker color for the antlers' shadows.



9. Use a darker brown for the dead mammal's shadows.



10. Set the brush to 40% opacity to create blood seeped fur.



11. At 100% opacity, choose a brighter shade of white for snow and after choosing a shade of gray, use an 11 point brush for snow shadow lines.



12. Using a specialty brush of your choosing, (or the one I found here) create the appearance of windblown snow.

And voila! You have your fearsome creature of the tundra. Remember to use different layers for each step and to save often.

Have fun!

© 2008 Angela Entzminger