Tuesday tips -- More on color

I have several people asking me on how to even start with color when you are not sure?  My answer is always look at old master for color inspiration.  One of my favorite color person is Robert McGinnis.  I love how simple his color choices are.

And photoshop really make this easy.  I use the pixelate tool to get a simple color pallete.  Then I color pick it and make it more saturated.  Ta Daaaa!!!!  My color pallete is ready.

Try it out, it's pretty neat!

Griz

Color Pallete: The simpler the better.

The simpler the better. 

There are several go to color combination that we all know.
triadic
secondary triadic
tertiary 
monochromatic
complementary
split complementary.

My favorite one is split complementary.  As a rule of thumb, I use one general color for most of the painting, then another color in a smaller percentage, then one color as accent.

 

Try it out and have fun.

Tuesday Tips -- Every prop is a combined primitives.

Last week I talked about basic primitives.  And now we know how to render the basic ones, we can start combining them.  In fact, every object is a combination of basic primitives. Ie. square table with round legs are cubes with 4 cylinder.  This also includes human body (in the most simplified manner).

This is actually an assignment for VisCom5 week 5.  Combining 4-6 basic primitives (no more than that). This is a good exercise to get familiar with how object are connected to each other and how it affects the shadow/light/...etc.

This is the quick overview of the exercise:

Start with thumbnails, it will save you time!  I start everything with a thumbnail; whether it is a story moment painting, character desing, prop design, ... etc.

Then, analyze the object

Analyzing the object, helps me organize my photoshop file.  I usually keep one group for each shape.  Ie. for cylinder; I would have the 'top plane' group and 'side plane' group.  This way I can manipulate the texture on different plane.  (you can also use parenting, but I like using group so my layers doesn't look too long).

Then I make a master file. 

pay attention to:
* core shadow -- soft
* cast shadow -- hard
* contact shadow 

Once I have master file, I can start applying textures.  I have a couple example here.  One using a google texture I found online (this is for my product design class).  And the other one is based on a texture I made (this is more for animation)

Good luck,
Griz

Old Fashioned

Someone give me a drink!  I need one right about now!!!!

Tuesday Random tips: Basic Primitives.

Hi,

I have so many kind and wonderful people helping me out when I was still a student.  Armand Baltazar would set aside an hour each week to help me out with my portfolio when I was interning at DWA, I will always be grateful to him.  He said, "a lot of people helped him out, and he's passing along the good deed".  And I've been passing it along too through mentoring and teaching.  I was giving some tips for my mentee from Motivarti and a couple of interns at work about making your portfolio and such.  And I thought this morning, why not start posting on my blog too so I can reach more artists?  So, I'm going to start posting random tips every Tuesday.  For my first random posting is basic primitives.  Yes, I'm a big fan of strong foundation skill.

When you are hired in a big studio, such as DreamWorks.  You will probably start by making props.  Yes, everyone still does props (including me, it's just part of the job).  Even when you are making big paintings, there will still be prop page to go along with.  Before I go into details on how I approach design, first thing first, you must know your basic primitives: sphere, cone, cylinder, and cube.  All object is basically a combined primitives; for example -- a round table with 3 round legs, are basically a combination of 4 cylinder.

This is week 3 assignment of my VisCom 5 class from Art Center College of Design (oh, I miss it so.  I love my product design students.  But I'm just too busy now, maybe I'll get back to teaching soon).  Learning basic primitives is a MUST!!!  I consider this assignment to be the most critical one.  Know this!  And the rest will be easy.

Good luck!

Griz

* a lot of this approach, is an interpretation on how an object should look like.  Photoshop is a manipulation tool.  Hopefully you already know how to render these with pencil/marker/paint.  If you do, you'll have an easy time.  If you don't, then put your hours in.

My man can draw!

Man, I wish I can draw as nice as Norm.http://normandlemay.blogspot.com/

Bubbles of love

A spread from my "Summer Love" book.  Feeling very lovey today.

Red shoes #2.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I'm looking for the perfect red shoes for parties.  My first instinct was to get Jimmy Choo with a little platform.  Because Jimmy's shoes are extremely comfy and a little platform definitely goes a looooong way in the comfort area.  I do love it when I receive it, but I want something a little more festive.  And I've been into bows lately.  And Valentino makes this gorgeous shoes with huge bows.  So, I got this 'Couture Bow Platform Pump'.  It has 3 of the requirements that I'm looking for; red, platform, and bows.  It's extra beautiful, I get butterflies when I see them.  But I'm not sure if this is the one yet.  Just because feet tend to swell a bit when you are dancing and stuff.  I usually prefer something with straps when I know I'm going to be dancing.  Also, patent leather doesn't really breathe.  This is soooo hard.  I'm in love with it already.  What should I do?

Trace w/ yellow scoot with Trace w/ yellow scoot

I made this painting for my Summer Fun book (which is pretty much a book of Tracey and Natalie).  When you spend so much time with your beautiful besties, you tend to paint them.  I certainly do.  I love that very simple limited palette of black, red, and white.  So I painted this lovely Tracey in a red scoot (print available at etsy).  And since she actually has a yellow vespa, I customize it for her.  And there's a picture of her with her painting of her and her scoot.    

Rawrrr!!!

Karrie is having a boy and she's having a "monster" theme room for the baby.  So me, Tracey, and Annie (Tracer's mom) decided to make some personalized gifts for her.  I made the blue monster plushy, Annie made the tiny green one, and Trace made a monster family portrait.  I also made a little card based on me and Annie's little plushy.  We didn't plan this, but they kinda look like a 'fail' version of Mike and Sully from Monster Inc.  LOL!!!  Congrats again Karrie, can't wait to meet your little sweet monster.