Another Cupid and Psyche illustration

Here's the scene that follows last weeks illustration.  Although for some reason it feels a bit stretched out...I'll have to check on that.

and here are the breakdown images.

Psyche Discovers Cupid

I've been working on this piece on and off for the last couple of weeks.   I thought I'd put up a breakdown of how I worked on it.

I had a rougher sketch before this.  I refined it, figuring out better posing and started figuring out the lighting.  I also broke down Cupid's pose to get a grasp of how everything worked together.

 I created a gradient background to get a better idea of the overall lighting in the piece.  I also started a rough clean up of Cupid.

Laying down flat colors to get some idea of the local color and overall idea of what I was going for.

I started refining and getting a rough clean up of the drawing.  I moved Cupid's lower wing to a more comfortable looking position.

I did a final clean up line freehand so that it would have some variation in line.  I also put down a neutral background to lay the flat color on.

 I put down the final flat color and set what color the shadow and light would be (the two color blobs next to Psyche)

Here's the final piece.  I laid down the shadow and light and set their layers to different modes.

Work in progress sketch

Since I'm going to be out of town for the next week or so,  I've decided to post a work in progress sketch of what I've been working on.  I'll hopefully be able to go further once I get back from NY, but it all depends on how my Intuos is doing.  I'll probably be upgrading to a Cintiq sooner than I planned...

Over all I'm pretty satisfied with Psyche's pose, but Cupid is more problematic...  How does one sleep with great big wings on their back?

"In Waiting" update

I said last week (just looked and it was my 50th and broke 1000 page views) that I'd try and get an update of my short film up here this week, so here it is!

I still have about 13-14 shots to animate before I'll be finished with the rough animation.  I'll leave it as rough animation for the most part once it's finished.  I might go back in and clean it up later.

I've started saving up for a Cintiq, so once I save up enough we'll see if I have an easier time getting polished work up on here.  I love my current tablet (it's survived almost 10 years of abuse), but drawing on it is so much more difficult than drawing directly on a screen.

Psyche Maquette: Part 1

I've decided to try working on a maquette, as I haven't tried my hand at doing one since I took character design in school.  I'm going to be working on my design for Psyche from the Greek myth.  I'm going to break down my progress as I work on it.

I first had to break down the design: her head to body ratio, overall proportion, a basic breakdown of her costume.  Psyche is about 5 heads tall.  Her legs are slightly longer than her torso.  She has narrow shoulders and slightly wider hips.

After I broke down her proportions I had to find a pose for her.   Psyche is slightly shy, but cheerful.  She is feminine.  The pose I've chosen to work from is the upper left sketch.

I took the pose and created a turn around of Psyche to sculpt from.  The drawing is the same height and proportions that the maquette will be (about 9 inches tall).

I have all of my supplies ready to go for the sculpting part.   I'm hoping to get the armature put together and some of the basic shapes down this weekend. 

11 second club December competition take 1

I decided to try the Eleven Second Club competition this month.  This is my first pass at animating my dialog.  I'm still working out the specifics of the characters (especially for the first guy), but I wanted to get the timing and acting worked out.

Updated In Waiting animatic

I've updated my short film with the new shots I've been working on.

Finished Scene

I've finished this scene (for now at any rate, I may take it further in the future).  I've probably put in another 10 hours or so to get it this far and shoot it at least 6 times in between last weekend's version and this one.

Progress on Short Film

In progress on version 2 of "In waiting."