Funky Love Bot + Random Space Chick

trying something new with this - steps:

Badfunk (badbeef? wtf vidar) Shitfest

So the piece I posted last time started so so simple haha - was just gonna be a pinup of badfunk posed all slick like haha.

that of course got jumped on for a) boring pose and b) fuck pinups - so I came up w/ somewhat more of a story with the piece, but the piece was too calm, too boring, too confusing.  Idea was basically to have bombface tagging badfunks back though, and that was the idea to stick with.
My first thought was just change the perspective ya?  That makes for good compositions right? (FUCK NO).  Anyways I impressed myself with the perspective on this so I actually liked it until stone snapped me back into reality, as the up shot doesn't really help the piece at all and just adds more questions.  The mirrored poses don't help either haha
What ended up being done based on some drawovers from stone was the idea to stack 3 of them ontop of eachother in a comic back sort of style.  I have lines for the final one but I figured I'd include this one with a different last panel instead.  Actually looking at it now I COULD change it to something like this to remedy a lot of the problems the piece is currently having... but then i lose my great crushed wall... I hate this piece ahah
more soon now that I decided I can post what I'm working on I'll be able to update much more frequently.

Badfunk vs Bombface WIP steps

steps steps steps - though this is a very unorthodox piece =/ 3 for the price of 1

and soon to be another post depicting the struggle that is, was, and will forever be this piece

Design Fail

All the way from absolute crap to decent~

the journey continues~~

also Stone's being pretty open on his blog about this project that I've been working on soooo Satellite Soda art book at SDCC - buy one woo!  I'll post up wips and stuff from it soon :]

Learning Comp 4 and Awesomeness

So no actual drawings from me this time, but just some learnings from a conversation with stone (figured I'd share)

So anyways I've come to notice through doing these studies that the negative space of a composition makes up a lot of what makes the composition.  In fact paying attention to making interesting negative shapes will most likely lead to a good composition (just because you wont have a single negative shape.  Let me explain - if you were to draw a picture of just a character in a white space with no cropping (ie we see the whole figure) then the negative shape would just be the negative of that - which isn't very interesting, just repetitive.  This kind of composition is more informative and thus useful for concept art and the like, but rather useless when you get into anything illustration related.

So something I had noticed with the negative shapes is that creating overlap and crops within the figures is in part in order to break up the negative shapes.  So rather than having just one negative shape if we were to crop tighter on a figure we may divide that negative space into a couple of littler negative shapes.  In this same way we can get the small medium large shape relations that we get with the positive shapes that make them so interesting.

Stone drew this up for me in response to that - this is basically showing that the negative shapes purpose is simply to create an interesting shape.  In the example we are looking through an alleyway, but rather than making just two rectangles for the buildings on either side we can switch up the negative shape by adding some kind of variation to them, thinking of more interesting shapes than just the basics essentially (or rather combining the essentials in interesting and new ways).

The next piece is to explain flow and rhythm.  We want to avoid using too much evenness in forms and shapes, and thus the idea is instead to vary the sizes and lengths of shapes in order to create something more interesting.  It's almost like creating a rhythm within the flow of the shape - like in music - that adds more flavor to it.  Rather than playing 3 quarter notes we could swap that up into different holds on the note to make something more jazzy or more smooth.  I have to test out just how far I can push the boundaries of anatomy with this though.
And then http://okashichan.deviantart.com/ did a drawing of zephyr :D woo.  So cool.
and I learned a valuable lesson about trying to make quick fixes on the face w/ eyepatches hahaha

Learning Composition 3

Another batch of gurren lagaan

ordered left row down then right row down - so the first would be simon punching forward and 2nd would be kittan and yoko standin w/ daryl and gimmy.

1.  small shape with the fist and large shape with the head - then medium with the body again.  The positive shapes take up about 2/3rds the panel, which seems to be the case with most of these.  Prolly better to have 2/3rds either positive or negative - I feel like half and half would be dull and strange.

2. diagonals woo.  Notice how kittan and daryl (gimmy?) kinda meld together into one form that divides the panel.  Anyways we've got two figures in the foreground and two in the mid.  Their positioning and posing (along w/ their clothing) is making for some very strong silhouettes that are going on to make some strong negative shapes.

3.  Once again taking up about 2/3rds the panel - very action packed and interesting shapes w/in it but we have a lot of flesh stuff, like along the leg and the missile crotch that keep it from getting too crazy.  Theres a bunch of negative shapes in this one as opposed to #1 that just has 1 negative shape - dunno how this factors in yet but it may be worth note.

4.  A down shot up.  Theres also a ton of circles flowing around throughout this one which is why I included them in the composition sketch.  Note the size variations in them, and the largest circle of all being the overall placement of the figures (or rather the placement of their negative shape - makes an arc).

5.  A very symmetrical shot, which I'm assuming makes an attempt at being broken up by the a-symmetrical waves and spirals of energy shooting around.  I guess you can't have every shot be a-symmetrical or it would rob it of its uniqueness?  Not sure yet on this one.

6.  I like this one a lot.  Our large figure is in the background taking up a good 2/3rds the panel and our smaller figure is in the foreground.  He is made up of the small and medium pieces as his legs get much larger as they pull down towards the camera.  Very cool diagonals on this as well.  Also all the negative shapes make arrows pointing us in towards the larger figure in the background - seems like good guiding of the eye.

7.  Warped perspective on this one.  Very cool figure in the foreground taking up like 1/3rd the panel.  Then our eye is guided back w/ the rows of spirals to the gurren lagaan, which while centered in the panel, isn't symmetrical (though isn't fighting hard to avoid that.)  I really love warped perspective though :]

8.  Tons of tiny shapes amidst some large and medium ones that hold the entire thing together.  As a result we get a lot of cool negative shapes in there as well.  Also note the curve of the body on this one.  it takes what would be a dull pose if that head was looking forward and adds dynamics by having him look the other way.  Gives it a much more life like feel.

anyways thats it for now - more soon

Learning Composition 2

Gurren Lagaan time!

More to come soonish

Learning Composition...

trying to dissect the compositions of people I admire to better myself

I figured who better to start with than Alex Ahad - seriously one of my favorite artists as far as composition is concerned (and really just in general).

next up - screen caps from gurren lagaan! (followed by more madhouse + gainax projects) stay tuned - and hell if you're bored do some of the same and we can compare notes, ya?