Photoshop Festivities - Angels in Attics

I am fairly new to photoshop, and for a country bumpkin like me, its all rather baffling - give me a pencil, paintbrush and paper any day! Not all these buttons and clicking, and layers and opacity...god i sound like an old woman!

But as i posted a while back, i have tried out my hand with it before, with my superhero (who I have since realized does bare an uncannily resemblance to Abe from Hellboy, unintentionally i promise!) I was pleased with my painting then, and it does take time and LOTS of layers...its mostly the backgrounds i still struggle with, so i combined my layout practise with photoshop this time to try and come anywhere near to the wonderful works of John Foster :) I strongly recommend his work to anyone who is searching for photoshop inspiration, they are wonderfully realistic, yet have that whimsical charm that only cartoons can explore and capture. Here's his website, take a peek. The amount of pictures he has done on there that capture an essence of characters i want to create, makes me long to one day have him illustrate one of my novels. that would be something!

http://www.jonfoster.com/

Anyway, heres my attempt. This is Rupert, The Enchantress' familiar from my trilogy, Morgan. Under the Enchantress' help, in Book 2 he takes this semi-human guise, accidently persuading a tribe of people that he is an Angel. So is this picture titled, 'The Angel's Folly' - here, the hero, Morgan, looks into the rafters of a church to survey his friend: the doves that flutter around him represent what the people believe he is, yet also his true identity. The light of a candle on him, yet also the moonlight, allows his face to be seen in the dark in two ways - he resembles an angle, yet evidently, is not an angel at all.

I still dislike the light however: I think its all a bit too dark. Maybe ill post another version when its a bit brighter :) Constructive tips and hints will be gratefully received!!

Happy new year everyone!

To all those out there who have never tried life drawing, i strongly recommend it. Alright, a little giggle here and there the first time you witness the model bare all, but i could never have anticipated how beneficial it has been to me. I love my cartoons, both my anime influences and western fancies, and was worried (albeit, when i was much younger) that frequently drawing the human body would affect my love for exaggeration. Fortunately it was not true! i have never appreciated exaggeration more! A proportional skeleton is ripe for the mutating, mwahahaha!

At last! Some work :D

Deadlines everywhere! its been a hectic time with lots of work to hand in but i have finally had some time to add images! At the moment i have been focusing on my weaknesses; this being layouts and life drawing, i think i have improved a fair amount thanks to constant drawing and perseverance! soon i shall have my photoshop practise done too. phew, its a long old road, but i greatly enjoy the learning :)

Character Concepts - Red Locust

Its been a busy couple of days; not long before returning to uni now and I want to write as much of my book as possible. But that doesn't mean that I don't have room for drawing! <3
One old story of mine that has been left pretty undeveloped for some time, is Red locust - a compilation of short stories about a space hacker. It needs a lot of work but I felt like redesigning the characters anyway. Hey, not many stories get a look in at the moment with the Morgan Trilogy going full pelt. Page 900, anybody?
I photo shopped all the characters into a group photo but the girl didn't fit, so I shall put her in separately. I used copic marker for these ones, but I shall definitely be photo shopping now thanks to my new laptop! <3

Cuddles!

One thing i love almost as much as typing and drawing is making dolls. It might sound odd, but its a great way to do something tactile and create characters in your own stories; they are easy to do and i have had great fun over time making them for requests, birthday gifts and for my own collection. My favorite characters can sit on my desk and smile at me after a hard day! The name 'Fugly' doesn't need explaining. I think you all know what it means, and it comes from my earliest creations which were, lets say, worthy of such a description - and it made me love them even more. A few of the Fugly's I have here are the group of misfits from my trilogy, 'Morgan', which include vampires, witches and one eyed dogs - and an avatar tribute I made to celebrate the amazing CGI movie. All you need is cotton wool, felt, a needle and thread - and a lot of love! <3

A day at the zoo

Although it may not look it, i have been a busy bee drawing non stop - everything is being painstakingly painted and prepared as i go about my daily practise, and so there are a fair few pictures waiting to be uploaded, including some home-made Pokemon me and some kids designed ^^ Almost time for uni again and i can hardly wait - i just got my new laptop (his name is Mush) and am hopefully getting a scanner, printer and lightbox very soon! now all obstacles that have thus far made photoshop difficult are soon to dissapear; and soon i shall also be 20! hip hip hooray!
These are a few old pics i did at Marwell zoo, but i was really pleased with how they turned out. Especially the fluffy anteater - it really helped me understand the texture and feel of these animals, it was like stroking them with my pencil seeing as the fence somewhat hindered my ability to stroke him myself) i like to think he was soft - probably rather bristly, actually. handsome fellow, hope he wasnt too bored in there.





I love Giraffes. They are like these weird beasts from another world; i know its easy to say its like this animal patched with that, it kind of has the head of a deer, or walks a bit like an elephant - but the truth is they really are unlike anything else. The same could be said for kangaroos when i went to Australia; they were kind of like donkey-dog-rat-rabbits, but really, they were just like kangaroos, and completely unique. It took a fair few pages to get the face of these creatures right. There is a frank beauty about them: they are as nature made them, not delicate or fragile, but gorgeous all the same. They are strong, outrageous and bizarre; and they look upon humans with contempt as they batter their long eyelashes. They have got to be one of the best animals i have ever seen :)

Layout work!

My quest is not only to learn photoshop, but also Maya, and layout too. I've normally concentrated on creating character designs and getting proportions right - my books I write are basically one big preproduction plan for animations I want to do one day, so I guess its go figure that most of my drawings are preproduction drawings for my stories! If I can get the hang of creating fine-art pieces with backdrops, I'll be a very happy girl. This is the layout I did for my first year of animation, and was one of the only layouts I have ever done!! I was proud of myself that day; I have a new respect for layout artists that I never really thought about before I tried it myself. Think characters are what I will stick to, though! x

Kangaroo Island

A copic marker picture for Kenneth: good times in Oz!
Alex x

Welcome!

Well this is certainly something new to me! Before i came to university i was a bit of a techno-phobe, living out on a farm like a country bumpkin. All my pictures up until this point had been watercolours or inks, and the world of photoshop and Maya still baffles me now: but no fear! I am trying very hard to learn how to use these things to my benefit :) so ill kick off with my first ever photoshop creation: a superhero, i designed with my little brother. woo!