hey all... wanted to show the reason why i have been absent for so long.

 Fall 2012 was very very difficult time and i was struggling through a ton of things and realized that i cannot design when i don't have the foundation down.  it was a completely disastrous and lot of things went through my mind... questions went through my mind... "do i want to continue this?".... wanted to stop so many times....  a lot of things have been on my mind since then but regardless i wanted to update my blog (since its been a while and show some of the stuff i have been up to) 

here is some of the stuff i completed during September - December 2012.  

the way the images are shown are based on the class.  its divided by classes.  so the next class will begin after the long line.  and the images are presented chronologically from setpember to december 2012.   

________________________________________________________________

one of the other classes i was taking was industrial design.

our first assignment was to design a weapon based in a universe.  i believe our choices were lord of the rings.  

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and i forget the other...

i picked lord of the rings and chose to design a bow

so here are some ideas.

and the final.. my instructor had us try a little 3D.. i used sketchup and attempted to put some color in it.

this was done in the month of september 2012

_________________________________

then went on to design sword designs.

so the idea was to have different tiers that the player would use to upgrade.  so i provided 4 tiers.  

and as noted in at the bottom i was not referencing at all when it came to the color part so i stayed away from it for now.

one thing im still struggling with is trying to understand the idea of referencing.. and how to use it in your own work.  

but here was the final...

did one final attempt with color ( should have left it)

 this was done during the month october 2012

________________________________________________

and the final project was to do a car design.  i always wanted to do a sports car so i decided to do something like that.  

i drew over existing cars which some of you would definitely recognize.  but i had no idea how to design a car.  so wanted to understand the shapes.  

cars are very difficult to design.  drawing in that 3/4 view is the reason why i need to practice more foundations.  

__________________________________________________

the next class

some of the color studies that i did through the fall 2012.  (need to do tons more of these)

some are from other concept artists / artists.  and some are from photos.  (re uploading here as show of reference .  copyrights to the originals and their respective owners.  )

these were some ways our instructor showed us to study bc it was evident that i needed the practice.  

__________

this last one was something i did on the side (when i wasnt too frustrated to draw).  black and white figure study done in photoshop.  

__________________________________________________________

and here were some designs i did for the class these were done in september 2012

the hangar that would be located in the environment

some thumbs

worked on some ideas.  was thinking about doing a stone hedge idea with the base / hangar that was underground

attempted to draw out simple shapes in 3ds max.  had to try and learn 3D as well as the program 3dsmax (complete nightmare)... i was just searching for ways to solve the problems i was having.  

__________________________________________________________________

here was an airplane design i attempted to do.  

scott robertson is really helpful.   tried to study his gnomon dvd and apply it to my own work.

some thumbs

i was struggling with drawing thru the form  so i tried to set up a perspective system to do this and try to help me out.    see how that would work.  so much work it was insane.  drove me crazy because i did not understand perspective at all.  and cannot draw through the other side.  

this was probably one of the most frustrating designs i worked on this past semester.  here was what i ended up with.  i didnt even attempt to paint it.  

__________________________________

these environments were done in September 2012.

some attempts on thumbs

ortho view based on a thumb

zoom in view at some of the plant life growing on the cliffs.  

______________________________________________________________

and the last class

this was the final for our turn around orthographic based on Valves Team Fortress 2.  I did the Spy class .  this is where the trouble began.  the shapes are off.  my line work was really wobbly... completed in the month of September.  (copyrights to Valve and original character belongs to Valve).  these orthos are used to present to the 3D artist so they understand the shapes they must make in the game.  

______

the next project was going to be based on capcoms Monster Hunter...

the idea of the game is you defeat the monster and wear some of its armor.  so coming up with character designs thumbs for it.  my instructor thought this was too advanced for me ( i agree with him) so he had me go back to basic under drawing to understand how the armor would look on the human figure.  

and since i wanted my character to be a female.  i chose a female.

as can be seen in the notes i had forgotten everything i  learned in figure construction.  the problem is i haven't absorbed and applied it to any of my designs.  none of the stuff i have learned were being applied to the designs i was doing.  very evident that i need more practice and time.  

another attempt at some character design thumbnails.

my instructor then saw it fit i just use modern armor that is not fantasy but in real life and use it on top of my character.  in other words go off armor that has been made in our world.  find photos and use them as base for the design.  

so this was the reference i used on the left and would try to put this armor on the character seen on the right

playing with some more female thumbs based on the ref.  

 the reference i used for the model wasnt working.  i then was provided with reference from my instructor, he wanted to see where i was going wrong.  so having the reference with the right pose (that he was familiar with) i would use this male person as the base of my model for the armor design.  (which was still going to be based on real life armor)  i wasnt going to be designing my own.

here is the new reference of the armor i would be using.  

as you can see i was struggling very hard to paint.  i have no idea how to paint armor and make it look 3D which is why my instructor had me working like this to begin with.  wanted me to get from painting 2D like and paint 3D .  

the right arm was the most i could do .. i realize that i need to practice painting much much more so i can get faster at it.  

this was a color exercise he had me do since i did not finish my character design.  using the colors of the creature and applying it to the armor on the left.  playing with Photoshop gradient to come up some colors the character.  THE original design was one of  Capcom's artist that originally worked on the game.  please note i did not Draw this character i just applied the color layer on top to a design already done by a professional artist.  copyrights to the their respective owners.    

_________________________________________________

our final assignment for the semester was creature design. december 2012 

so tried the same thing referencing some animals

decided to go with a monkey like creature so did iterations off of that.   and this was my final.

i need to practice with color a lot more.  but the design is originally mine with appliance of a color layer on top.  definitely know what i need to really focus on and is evident in the work that you see.  

________________________________________________________________

and as you can see it was really really stressful... 

i could never solve the problems.  

this is probably the reason why i honestly did not want to post in the first place.  it was such a horrible semester for me.  nothing was working out.  everything i did for those 6 months i was not able to solve any of my problems with the designs.

that being said i buckled down over the break and went back to the basics.  i need my 2D drawing foundation skills to get better and i needed to draw more  like alot more..  i mean lot more.  one thing i did not do enough of was studies on the side or even draw enough of.  time needed to be spent doing studies as i was doing these assignments.  i see why everyone says this really does take all of your time away .  bc its exactly what needs to be done.  so i talked some sense into me found some inspiration and just drew...

  

good times....

this summer i was finally able to catch up in the assassins creed games so i decided to do a character study digitally since i am a huge fan of the character designs in that game.    

this made me realize that i really don't like drawing on my wacom tablet.  i love painting on it, i just cant stand doing line work.  

so i decided that this is how i will do my work.  

with these it kind of helped break down the way i work.  id like to get the line work down traditionally with pencil, then bring it into Photoshop to do a value and color study.  

i was honestly very happy with the way the second one turned out.  it showed lot of improvement and also places where i still need to definitely work on. ( arms and hands :/.)  but with this i now have a process i can follow.  

and finally a little fun vector i did. Not many people know this, but while i was studying engineering i loved the way vectors looked so i decided to learn how to do that. i did a quick silhouette of a character from Naruto... saw this image that i had saved and wanted to vector it in black and white for old times sake.  the original was done in color.  

i definitely had a good break.  summer is now over and now i am finally in my first semester of 2d entertainment here at TAD.  we just had our first week of classes so had to make sure to update all the work i did during the summer before i got really busy.  but one thing for sure is i would like to keep doing this for its the reason why i want to become an artist.  this is work for myself and it will definitely help me continue to improve .  It will help keep me on my toes as I search for answers and solve problems.  Probably the best advice that i can give to someone who is pursuing a career like this: is to always make sure that you are creating artwork for yourself because it will constantly remind you as to why you are doing this.  its something i didn't do much of because i kept telling myself i was not ready for it.  but remember, you have to start somewhere...

with all that...

 i hope to keep my blog updated at least once a week.  and in my spare time i plan to do more traditional, digital, and vector work of characters i come up with.

thanks as always for stopping by,

salaam,

Sameer

PS i haven't come up with names for those 2 characters... i am really bad with names...  maybe by the time i do the digital work id have come up with names and some background story.  oh and ill prob do a full figure the next time :).

Major Portrait Studies

and so here the studies i did of the human head.  focusing on placement of 

eyes, nose, and mouth.   

the pictures are in chronological order going from the top to the bottom.  i also did a digital one that i spent about 3-4 hours on.  i realize i should have done much more of these studies but i lose interest way to fast and move on to the next piece of reference too quickly.  Have a long way to go but this is definitely starting to get me somewhere and i want to do studies like this more often.  

my main focus has always been to be really good draftsmanship in pencil / graphite and digital.  its why i began pursuing a career as an artist. (needed to remind myself of that this summer)  Which is why i pushed graphite this summer.  I wish I had spent more time doing digital values and color studies.  i definitely need to work on line weight still and stop second guessing myself.  the thing with my graphite is i just want to get the line work down then i can come in digitally and put some tone down and began painting with shape; just as Artgerm does with this work.  (Artgerm is one my major influences and his real name is Stanley Lau, definitely go check out his work)   and the main reason as to why i want to draw with pencil is because i like having traditional work.  eventually id like to work all digitally but for now this is the way i wish to go in my career.

thanks as always for stopping by,

rgds,

sameer

Summer Studies Continued

Began by watching a gnomon dvd by david finch where focuses on the head.  

basically was drawing from memory and just showing the way he does his portraits / head when he does his work

since i was watching his dvd on the human head.   i decided to also take a look at his hands and feet dvd since i really want to be able to draw those really well.  

i was happier with the way my hands turned out but not so much the feet.  definitely will have to make sure that i keep on studying these 2 features of the human body.

Summer studies!

one of the main focuses for the summer was being able to draw the head and the features of a person.  so i did lot of portrait studies in graphite.

here are the warm ups to get into my routine for the summer

and here is a continuous line drawings (need to do more of these)

wanted to do some environment matte painting studies.

so I...

began watching gnomon dvd of matte painting by Christian Lorenz Scheurer.  

these are the exercises he had us do based of stock photos.  would love to practice this more... but i really wanted to focus on the creating a sort of style when drawing the face portrait .  especially since i want to be able to be able to create characters.

just trying out new things.  always gotta broaden up; the more you know the better.  its all just practice.