CGMA Academy, Lighting and Color Key for Production

I'm currently taking a class at CGMA Academy, studying Lighting and Color Key for Production with Mike Hernandez. I think he's at Dreamworks right now, and have been working on movies such as Shrek, to mention one. And he's my current teacher now!  Respect.

My first week is already over, and here's my first assignment!
We had to pick one of the still frames that he uploaded for us, and then make greyscale paintover using the lighting that was described underneath each image.

I picked a still frame from Kung Fu Panda, where I obviously had to turn a daytime frame into one with both moonlight and a dramatic underlighting upon the character himself.

Tried to keep it simple and easy to read, keeping the amount of detail rather low.
Fingers crossed that I got it right.


It's been fun so far though, and I'm looking forward to learn more from him :)


Anyone else studying at CGMA at the moment, or have been taking courses there?
Which classes did you attend?




- Andrea

How did I become an illustrator?

I recieved an e-mail a while back with some questions about my background as an illustrator, and how I became one. Thought that I could share my reply in this blog too :)



How did you become an illustrator?

Well, I've always loved to draw and paint and somehow.. I just naturally gravitated towards it. I'm self taught when it comes to art and haven't really taken any real class to become better.. Yet. Just been practicing since I was 2 years old, and just kept doing because it's so much fun! I think many people and fellow illustrators can relate to this :)

However, I do have a 2-year long education in 3D and digital graphics, where we had to do internships, and that's how I got a foot in the door.

Today I'm hired at a game studio as a concept artist, and I also have my own small company since I work as a freelancing illustrator/artist :)



What does your workflow look like?

My sketches are often very small and messy in the beginning. I rarely worry about making things pretty at such an early phase, the ideas are more important. I don't even use an eraser, since I believe more in repetition rather than starting to correct and polish things too early.

When I've found a funny idea, I either redraw the sketch  one more time to refine it a bit, or move on directly to Photoshop and redraw it from scratch. I never scan my sketches, since I'm too lazy and feels too time-consuming imo ;)

I start playing around, trying out rough colorschemes, and when I'm satisfied, that's when I start creating that pretty piece of art.

Here's a video showing how I sketch, and here's another video showing how I apply colors.



How do you approach companies/employers? 
Do you just submit your art to them?

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Make a nice portfolio, send it to companies/possible employers and say Hi. They probably won't buy your work that way, but they may want to hire you for their projects, if they like your work. That's how I did in the beginning, don't do that as often anymore though. I've been focusing on trying to put myself out there through posting my work online, so that the right people will see me. Hopefully :)


How do you get exposure?

By creating awesome stuff. Hang out at the most popular forums and communities out there, such as Conceptart.org, DeviantArt, Behance, Twitter, Facebook, CGhub, etc. Networking with fellow artists out there. Stay active and stay friendly :) And stay humble! Your work will never be perfect, and there are always things that can get improved. Enjoy the idea of practicing and learning new things all the time.

 
Is it a fun job? :D

YES :D It's very demanding, and I had to work superhard to get where i am today(still got so much to learn) and it can get very draining from time to time. But it's definitely worth every minute and I would never trade it for another job. It's a lifestyle for me, since I truly love to draw and paint. Nothing boosts me more than the actual thought of being able to create something out of.. Nothing. It all starts with a pen and a piece of paper. It's the coolest thing ever.



What's YOUR story? :) Feel free to share them!


- Andrea

"Lucky Season" is finally here!

My happy little collection so far :)

I save them all through the years. Just haven't figured out what to do with them yet...
They're starting to pile up :o



- Andrea

Work in Progress

 Work in progress. Photoshop CS5 & Cintiq 12WX

I always have ongoing personal projects brewing beside everything else. My brain NEVER rests ;)

These are two of those. Not sure what I'm gonna do with the lizard one. Toss or keep, toss or keep? Hm.  I dunno.


The tiger is fun to work on though! Been lying around for a while now, so I guess that I gotta put myself together and finish it up. It's sooooo close to be finished...
It looks finished when you squint, ha...


- Andrea

Work in Progress. Photoshop CS5 & Cintiq 12WX

How to draw a Horse in 8 steps

Made this little step by step thingie a while back. Pretty basic, and quite simple I hope :)

Here are the stepsssss:

1. Rough thumb sketch
2. Refined thumb
3. Linedrawing
4. Color & layer block in.
5. Time to paint!
6. More painting
7. Adding details, and finalizing the mane and tail
8. Finished!

That's it! Now go draw a little horsie :D
It's definitely my favorite subject to draw. I draw them all the time, and some of my colleagues even banned me from doing that at work, since I always end up scribbling cute bouncy little horsies during my short breaks inbetween tasks. No hard feelings, they just want me to challenge myself and draw some other things once in a while.

What can I do, I just LOVE them ;)
Try to stop meh!


- Andrea

Golden Fox

Almost forgot about this one.

I made this hmmm... About a month ago I think.
Started out as a mindless sketch, not really serving any purpose. It still gained a lot of attention on fb, I've never EVER recieved that many likes on my work there. Ever.

Dunno what happened. I guess it was plain coincidence and timing :)


Oh and a Happy Birthday to me!
Feels a bit strange every year.



- Andrea

Others tutorials: greyscale to color

There are so many resources of inspiriation and tutorials everywhere nowadays, can't hardly keep up with everything.

I'm too lazy to create an account on Pinterest, so I'm gonna start gather some of my favorite links and tutorials on this blog, just so I can have them all in one place. And why not sharing it with you guys as well? Many of you have probably seen them before, but I'll highlight them anyway ;)

I'm gonna start with linking to tutorials showing how to apply colors to a greyscale paintings.




Color + Overlay Tutorial by Dave Rapoza



Sycra made an interesting video about understanding color and value.


Matt Kohr has also made an interesting video, that could be applied to greyscale sketches.


Here's another one from Clint Clearley! Tip from the comments section - Thank you! :)


I may have a few others in mind as well, which I can't remember at the moment. I'll add them later!
Do you know any other tutorials showing how to color greyscale pantings? 
Please share, I'd love to see them :)


- Andrea

Some recent animal sketches

 Photoshop CS5 & Cintiq 12WX

Tiny batch of some recent sketches, hope you like them!

Trying to simplify things, handle light, and speed up as much as possible. I'm really aiming to get away from rendering my images for long, since it feels like I'll lose many of my other ideas that keep coming.


Other than that, I've had a pretty good day overall :)
How have you guys been?


- Andrea

Tools that I use

  My workspace.

I often get questions about the tools or softwares that I use to make my illustrations.

Beside my old fashon sketchbooks and pencils, these are the tools and software that I use:

- Wacom Cintiq 12WX
- Wacom Intuos4
- Macbook Pro, 15 inches
- Adobe Photoshop CS5

I'm very happy with all of them, and think it's the combo that suits me best.
Since I travel a lot, a laptop and intuos4 is perfect as a portable studio.

I always use my Cintiq when I sketch and draw, it's priceless when you want to work with precision.
   
When finalizing my paintings, I often prefer my intuos4 though, I always check the painting on my computer monitor anyway, since I don't really trust the way my cintiq is calibrated(I'm not that good at calibrating stuff, haha).

So yeah, that's pretty much it!

Hope that it answered some of your questions :)

- Andrea

 

Some client art

   "The Ice Queen" - Photoshop CS5 & Cintiq 12WX

 

"The Wolf" - Photoshop CS5 & Cintiq 12WX

Here are two of my recent client works for a Swedish magazine called Kamratposten. 


I really enjoy those jobs. Usually I get to illustrate short stories that young readers submit to the magazine. I get their script and all I have to do more or less, is to come up with something nice and pretty, so I get a lot of artistic freedom :) 

These have already been posted on my other sites, but I thought that I'd share them here as well, along with the steps of how they were made. Hope you enjoy them, and thanks for looking! 


The steps:

Step by step

1. First sketch.

2. I start blocking in everything with solid colors.

3. Let the painting begin!

4. I keep painting and rendering the illustration until it feels finished.

Step by step.

1. First rough sketch.
2. Rough color sketch
3. Each part gets blocked in with solid colors.
4. Time to paint! Fleshing it all out.
5. Painting some more. I start adding light & smaller details.
6. Finished!

 - Andrea