Lion heart

Another idea for my character sketch. This time inspired by Florence and the Machine's Rabbit Heart.

Some Sketches

 I've been practicing with my tablet.

 I think I'm getting better with it.

 I used references for these pictures.

Except this one.

Character Sketch

I've started my character sketch for one of my units.


The character is the main character's uncle from Red Barchetta by Rush.

I'm a bit stuck with this one though, I'm not really sure how I should make him look. He's not described in the song. All that we know about him is that he preserved a barchetta race car for the main character, in a world where such cars are not illegal as they are not safe enough.
At the end of the song, the main character joins his uncle by the fireplace for wine. I imagine the uncle to be some sort of grizzled rocker type, but I'm just not entirely sure what to do at the moment.

Influence Map

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My influence map! This basically lets me share the media that has influenced me up until this point in time, there's a few pictures I've used to collect things under a kind of umbrella so let me explain them! I'll start with the larger images and work my way down in size.

Fantasy Fiction
I've always loved reading, and I especially like a good fantasy tale. I've put the Hobbit on my influence map as it's one of the first fantasy books I ever read, but it stands for the whole fantasy/adventure genre. Epic tales with being and creatures that could never possible be real grasp my imagination with a vice-like grip. I love tales of knights and dragons and everything like that. This is what probably influences me the most, as I'm always doodling dragons and creatures on my notes and other bits of paper!

Dragons (dragon illustration by Jessica Peffer)
Probably because of fantasy stories, dragons and other mythical creatures always find their way out of my pen or pencil. I probably had dozens books, calenders and pictures of dragons and other things from fantasy realms. There's just something about monsters that I find really cool. I suppose I can bundle an interest in crypt-zoology under this header - tales of aliens and ghosts and other sightings interest me, not because they might be real, but because we imagine such things.

Rodney Matthews
Like I mentioned in a previous post, my parents once presented me with an art book containing a collection of works from Rodney Matthews. The book was one of his, titled Last Ship Home, and I fell in love with the images inside. Mostly airbrush work, but with a few sketches, ink and watercolour illustrations, Matthew's style and content absolutely fascinated me. This artist has great imagination, you should check out his work if you can.

Rush
I spend a lot, and I do mean a lot, of time with my headphones on listening to music. I like a lot of music - but this one band is very special to me. I grew up listening to Rush, as my parents and their friends are all fans of this particular canadian trio of prog rock musicians. The majority of their songs having a great narrative story to them, told through instrument and voice alike. Their lyrics actually mean something to me.

Rembrandt
It was actually only last year on my college course that I learned about Rembrandt. What I particularly admire about his work is his contrast between light and dark. He is not afraid to use large dark areas, which is something I had always been taught to avoid. Of course, his solid drawing and masterly painting style is also something to behold, but it is his lighting which I enjoy the most.

Blizzard Cinematics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_fh-kdPNgo
Do I need to say anything else? They are simply breathtaking.

Comics
My love for comics started with the beano, garfield and oor wullie, and just grew and grew. Now I'm always on the lookout for comics with interesting art in them, such as CHEW (pictured). Great art combined with great storytelling is something beautiful.

Windwaker
This game has great in-game and concept art. I've pictured some concept art for it, but the cel shaded style of the game is amazing aswell. Usually I don't pick games for their aesthetics, but this one really stands out in the crowd. It's unique style is really very eyecatching and I think that makes the game more fun to play. I don't think this kind of style shows itself in my work (yet), but I would really like to try it! Other games with comicy styles hold my interest as well - like Team Fortress 2, Borderlands and to some extent World of Warcraft.

Animated Films
I've used a picture of Scar for this because he was always one of my favourite characters in the Lion King. Animated films (especially those with cool bad guys) have consumed a lot of my life, there's just something very enjoyable about watching them. This covers CGI films (like Pixar films) as well, i would really like to try my hand at some 3D character modeling and animation.

Video Games
I've used a sprite of Sonic here, because sprites are awesome and fun. I think my love for video games started with Sonic, Soleil and Road Rash. I love all the art that goes in to games, especially games that arn't trying particularly hard to be realistic with their content. I mean, a blue, speedy, anthropomorphic hedgehog? Games were better when they were ridiculous, haha!

Badass Medieval and Fantasy Characters
(Shut up about fantasy already!) The picture from this one is from a game called Knight online. I've never played that but I really liked this picture. Who doesn't like some cool plate armour? Ever since I played Neverwinter Nights I've had a really strong liking for fantasy armour.

Influences

I will soon be making an influence map for dynamic communications, and I've really been thinking about the media that has helped lead me to this course. So here's a website I want to share with everyone. I'm tempted to say that it was the art on this website, by talented illustrator Jessica Peffer, that really got me interested in digital art and illustration.
The only other artists I can name that I'll be putting in to my map is Rodney Matthews for his fantasy art, and Rembrandt for his lighting effects and masterly talent.
I'll be filling up the other areas with games and comics from my childhood and those that I enjoy today.

Communication

Here are a couple of little pictures I quickly sketched up to illustrate "communication".
Fixed up a little bit in gimp, apologies for my lack of scanner.

Tablet

My graphics tablet arrived today! It's a wacom bamboo pen.
After messing around a bit with the msn drawing tool and sketch swap, I downloaded gimp, a free to use drawing program, and did this digital painting of sorts, a portrait of a whippet. I havn't used any of the tools apart from the brush tool, I think I'll get used to my tablet first!
This is my first attempt at using my tablet, I really like how fluid and natural it feels.