Specialism Blog

This week, I decided to do some drawing exercises to showcase my workings out. The first exercise I did was drawing out three more of my best concepts on Photoshop whilst timing myself. I started with Selena, since she got the most votes on my first Form spreadsheet due to her dynamic pose and facial expression compared to my other character concepts. I first drew her using a mouse. It took me around four minutes to draw her outline. I wasn't too pleased with the results, since it looked rather rushed. I decided to draw Selena again with a drawing pad. While it took longer, it definitely looked a lot better than my previous attempt. The only area I felt needed improving would be a thicker paintbrush size.  The next two I did were Ash and Lollipop. Both of them took significantly less time to draw than Selena, especially Lollipop. Then I began to apply shading and Photoscrap textures onto my characters, using this video as inspiration. Design Cinema – EP 43 - Video Game Characters (...

 This week, I decided that I should draw more of my concepts digitally. That way, I can fix areas of a character that needed improving and experiment with different colour palettes.  I wanted to try my hand at using a drawing tablet, so I asked Steven if I could borrow one.  I started by drawing the outline of Axel. This first attempt did not turn out good. The paintbrush size was too large and my hand was twitching as I was drawing. I also had the Smoothness set to 0% which made the outline even more messy. For my second attempt, I used a smaller brush size and Smoothness set to 80%. I also managed to draw in details such as Axel's face and symbol. This turned out much better than the previous attempt, as the Smoothing helped make the lines straighter as I drew them. However, I still thought the paintbrush was too thick and the canvas wasn't large enough. For my third attempt, I used a much smaller paintbrush and I made extensive use of the Magnifying tool to draw the de...

 After gaining confidence from watching Draw Like a Sir's tutorials, I decided to resume production of my character concepts. I opted to make my character concepts more dynamic in terms of posing and facial expressions, as the sketches I have done prior seemed static. I also vowed to get multiple sketches done in as little time as possible.  I started by drawing Axel standing as he adjusts his goggles with one arm on his hip, conveying to the viewer that he is a Speedster with an energetic personality. At first, I considered having both arms on his hips but I changed it so that I could make the pose a bit more dynamic. As I was drawing the outline of Axel's body, I realised that the hips were too low, so I raised them a bit. Likewise, I put his left arm at a better angle and I also simplified the block-out shape of the arm. As reference, I used a render of Amber from Genshin Impact, where she was in a pose similar to what I envisioned Axel in. I particularly used it as referen...

This week, I decided to watch a tutorial on drawing hands to help me improve. Drawing Hands is hard. This Tutorial isn't. | DrawlikeaSir (youtube.com) I started by drawing out the block-out of the hand gestures as part of the video's exercise.  Then, I tried to draw the fingers and details of the hand. I drew the shapes and lines before I cleaned them up. I thought the tutorial video was helpful and the sketch I managed to deliver turned out well. Although, I will admit that the fingers could have been better.  When I told my mother I was drawing hands, she offered me some hand pictures she did in her past that I could use as reference.

 Having finished two projects that were due the 28th and 29th of March 2024, I continued work on my Specialism. I began by sketching a female human body, learning from this tutorial video by Draw Like a Sir. How to draw female Bodies | Woman Tutorial | DrawlikeaSir (youtube.com) His video taught me how to use dynamic lines as guides for the body, which can help with defining the curves of a female character. This video also taught me how to use shapes to lay out the pose of a character. Prior to this, I used to draw the pose with lines and circular shapes before I drew the full body. Then I added details to the sketch like the video said. I drew circles for the breasts and blended them into the body and I defined the shoulders and collarbones. I was pleased with how this sketch turned out. The tutorial helped me branch out my drawing skills, especially when it comes to character design.  The following week, I was able to produce more character sketches following a similar tech...

This week, I decided to knuckle down on my character sketching and make an effort to follow tutorials properly. The previous tutorial I followed, linked down below, had a big section of the drawing process cut.  Design Cinema – EP 18 - Character Sketching Part 01 (youtube.com) To remedy this, I will look at more character sketching tutorials and follow them as I draw.  The first result I saw when I looked up Character Sketching Tutorial was this video from Draw Like a Sir. CHARACTER DESIGN - Step by Step Tutorial | Drawinglikeasir (youtube.com) I thought it was a good tutorial video to follow, with tips on conveying a character's personality by their poses and some good humour to boot. However, I knew I needed to understand the basics of drawing human anatomy. So I found another drawing tutorial by Draw Like a Sir and found this. How to draw Bodies (Tutorial) | Drawlikeasir - YouTube Next week, I will get around to drawing more character concepts once I am done with two ongoin...