Showing posts with label art lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art lessons. Show all posts

Thursday, September 12, 2013

ArtSamurai.net Homework For Sept. 4th

Here is my homework for ArtSamurai.net for Sept. 4th.

The theme was storytelling and layout.
The assignment was: Imagine what it'd be like for a superhero (established or your own) to either change into or out of costume. Draw a one-page sequential of this character changing, and create a story around it. Use as many panels as needed. Be creative and have fun!


What I originally turned in for my assignment.

After the workshop I decided I wanted to do revisions to it based on critiques from instructor Tom Nguyen and what I learned from the critiques given to the other students. (Plus some other stuff I just wanted to do!)

I changed Bruce Banner's hair to something more like Mark Ruffalo's. I tweaked the face a bit too. I wanted to have the Hulk's face changed to face straight because that is the "money shot". (I also feel I wasn't pulling off the upward shot.) It's all about practice and trying to get better. It was a good exercise.

Revised Hulk transformation.

The workshops are fun and challenging. I want to improve with each assignment and make the assignments into prints that I could possibly sell. I recommend doing the workshops and doing the same!  :)


Here's my third take on it. After more workshops I feel I am getting better. If I redo it again,  I should just start from scratch! 


Friday, August 2, 2013

Art Samurai homework for July 31st workshop

The theme for this workshop was "Light and Shadow". The assignment was:
Draw any character you want in an action pose, but try to show "dramatic lighting"
on the subject. Feel free to use photo referencing to help with your light/shadows, and be prepared to show the photo reference along with your homework. Be creative and have fun!


I decided to do the Punisher pointing a gun at the camera. Pretty basic concept but I wanted to concentrate on the focus of "light and shadow". 


I started by taking dozens of photo of myself in the laundry room. I used natural light from the outside window and then the laundry room fluorescent light. The TOP  photo is the original photo. I used Photoshop to lighten it (BOTTOM) to see more details. I duplicated the original photo and made it grayscale (MIDDLE) to see just lights and darks.


  1. I began with a quick sketch of general shapes. I like to use a color while sketching so I feel more loose. If I sketch in black it makes me feel like I need to product the finished drawing sooner. Weird, I know!
  2. I lighten the first sketch and draw over it. I either add a layer to do this or go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > Hue & Saturation then lighten. This is refining the shapes even more.
  3. I repeat step 2 and lighten and refine.
  4. I add in the dark areas and refine more.
  5. I block in a quick background.
  6. I add a multiplied layer and increase dark areas and shadow.
  7. I stamp all layers into one (highlight the all layers up to this point and hit COMMAND+OPT+E) and hide the blue sketch layers. The new layer of all sketch layers I turn into black & white. IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > BLACK & WHITE. I took a photo of some clouds and made that into grayscale and placed it over my background clouds and adjusted it and masked out what I didn't need or like. I then merged it into the layer.
  8. I found a good Punisher logo online and adjusted the opacity to low and put it onto his chest using FREE TRANSFORM and WARP located in EDIT. 
  9. I inked over some areas and tightened some details.
  10. I painted in some more shadows and added some highlights. I gave him a 5 o'clock shadow.
  11. I cropped it and added my signature. DONE!

I feel I am improving with Art Samurai lessons. I am a little biased because I am business partners with Tom Nguyen but I get no special treatment. I am just doing the assignments to improve and for fun! Students get their homework critiqued before me.


If you have questions for me, comment below or email me at:
robb@robbmiller.com

Thanks for checking out my blog!