Favourite Artist Post 3

It is time again for another favourite artist post.  I've looked at digital painters and now I want to express my admiration for an Animator.

Ryan Woodward was introduced to me when I was creating my motion comic (in the second year of Uni) I found his animating style to be extremely interesting and beautiful.

In the video for Thought of You was brilliant, especially how he used the distortion and stretching of the limbs so gracefully.  I was so impressed I tired my hand at emulating this style in my own motion comic (see the ballerina at the top of the page).

You can find his work >>here<<

Digital Painting Practice

In Uni I've been looking at the Digital Painting magazine, which is filled with such talented users of Photoshop and Painter.  So I took a few minutes out to paint some facial features using what I learnt from the artists advice in those magazines.

I tried using various brushes to see what kind of mark they made on my canvas and I found that I had a watercolour build up brush in my set brushes, I will never go back to a soft round brush and the smudge tool!

Christmas Post!

In celebration of Christmas time I always tend to draw Christmas-y things. Whether it be just for Christmas labels or actual Christmas cards I celebrate by drawing every year.

Character Designs

Another one for University.  The comic book script I was given by Black Dragon Studio's progressed onto making a Motion Comic/Animatic, I decided that I wanted to do this motion comic/Animatic to add to my Animation show reel.  

I decided, though, that instead of carrying the story on where I left it (with the comic book pages) I wanted to work backwards, from the last page and as many pages as I could finish.  It also keeps the script I was given a little broken up, I didn't want to start publishing the whole story without the permission of the company, but I am allowed to post this artwork as my own for now.

A pretty much typical looking Sheriff, although I quite liked the idea of him being a little younger and more hot headed, almost like he's starting out and hasn't got the wisdom to accompany him yet.

A typical looking Mayor type, from the western movies that are always on TV, it's one of the more striking images in my mind even though I know the Mayor could look any way I wanted him to.

Finally, the "boss" of our two protagonists, she is still somewhat pretty but just hard enough looking to intimidate.

Portrait Work

My friends and family have always asked me to draw them pictures for special occasions, like birthday's or for Christmas so here are a few of those images.

Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam was one of the first Portraits I did on Photoshop.

My cousin's children

And a commission for a family friend for a 40th.

Favourite Artist Post 2

One artist I've been following online is thealmightyp on Tumblr, I really love her style of work and how she uses different media to create one image.  She mainly draws fanart (I can understand that) but it doesn't make her work any less beautiful.

I love the way she's able to blend different media into one image as it makes it look a lot more interesting.

Her digital work is something I envy greatly.  

You can find her art on her Tumblr page >>here<<

Personal Project 2

Following on from the mentions of Marta Dahlig, when I was doing my GCSE's I had a project that revolved around the Seven Deadly Sins.

From this project inspired a new wave of imagery for me, and since my final piece from my GCSE exam I have been revisiting this topic ever since.

 So this first image is from 2007, my GSCE final.  It was on A2 cartridge paper and completed in Oil Pastel.

This second image is from 2009 when I traveled the world with my sister, we were in Australia when I decided I wanted to redo this image so it's only completed on A4 with a fine liner pen and Copic Markers.

The last image isn't completed yet (when it is I shall update), but for now I can show the rough image that I sketched out on Photoshop and show a snippet of one of the Sins more-or-less completed.

And for the type of colouring this will be subjected to:

I will most definitely be uploading the final image once it's complete so I can see for myself how I've progressed over the years.  As I have gone through certain phases of favouring one type of media, I have revisited this image, so the may be a lot more of these to come as I progress as an artist.

Favourite Artist Post 1

Generally, I like looking at artists that aren't very well known in the industry.  I tend to find artists that draw exactly how I'd like to draw myself but am unable without the amount of work they put into their own, they draw the types of images I'd love to be able to or they use the techniques I desperately want to learn.

The first artist that I remember finding and falling in love with was Marta Dahlig, who I found on DeviantArt when I was about 16.  I remember thinking "this art is amazing" when I found her portfolio and also thinking "I'd like to learn how to do that!"

She was the first digital artist that I'd ever come into contact with, because before her I thought that all art was pencil and paint on paper or canvas.  Her style is super realistic but in the fantasy genre, something that I've always been interested in.

What really drew me in were her Seven Deadly Sins images.  Her inspiration from Alphonse Mucha clearly showing through in these images gave me more incentive to use other artists to help me achieve what was in my head. 

Marta Dahlig has always stuck in my head as the artist that gave me ambition, as her work is so beautifully rendered I will always try my hardest to be as good as she is, my Photoshop skills are not nearly as refined but looking at her work will always inspire me to be better.

The link to her Deviant Art is >>here<<

Studies

Again I had an overwhelming urge to draw, this time practicing how well I could simplify a face or try it in a style that's not supposed to be hugely realistic.  It is easy to copy an image or to complete a life drawing as it is.  I wanted to challenge myself to drawing my family but in a cartoony sort of way. 

I think it'll really help me with my character design in the future.

Personal Project 1

Aside from all the University work I get there are times when I have an overwhelming urge to draw something else.  Usually it's to give myself a break from the project, its also a really good way for me to practice anatomy or colouring.

In this case I wanted to see what I could do with light and where it fell, how I would colour it and what I need to add next time to make it better.  I like to try drawing images again once time has passed and I've learned more, so I think I may redo this in the future to see how I'm progressing.

Working on T-shirt Designs

I was asked via my Facebook page if I could design a "cartoon style" girl to go on a T-shirt. The image went through too many modifcations to show, but I'll condense it into the important ones.

This experience really taught me a lot about working with people, not big companies, but smaller individuals that want a specific thing.  I also learned that making a contract with an individual is a really good idea, just incase some wires get crossed or they decide not to pay, fortunately I learned this before I really got ripped off, but it's only a matter of time!

Caricatures

Last year we had to fundraise for our final show, we did the usual fundraising by having a cake sale (themed around Easter, it seemed to go down really well!) but since we are artists we tried something a little different! To gain interest I drew a really quick sketch of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow (I think it appealed to the ladies more than the men) we decided to sell these uncoloured images at £5 each, bargain!

I did gain a lot of interest and managed to complete a few of these quick caricatures.

First Uni Project

Hello! Welcome to my Blog, my name is Sarah Diamond and I am an aspiring Illustratior/Animator. At the moment I am studying at University and I'd like to share with you my progress through my final year and onwards.  

So let's get to it! For our final year we are focusing on getting fake or finished industry standard jobs to get into a routine of what working life will be like.  I posted my situation on LinkedIn and I got many replies from people in the industry.  One company in particular, Black Dragon Studio's, sent me scripts to turn into a storyboard/comic book.  These are the sketches from the first three pages of the script.