No time left!

Sadly I've hit the end of this project, and didn't get to hit all of my goals to he fullest (as far as I'm concerned anyways, heh). I plan on continuing this project even after the class is done, but these will be the rest of the designs that I'll be presenting to the class tomorrow.

Cats!

More cats, some of these are edits on a previously posted image. (There's also a moose in the middle somewhere.)

Much needed update!

I've been frustrated and generally stupid for a while and haven't posted. Bad idea. :(

.. but that doesn't mean I haven't been working! So, here's what I've been up to. The bear is for all intents and purposes 'done'. I may change some colors, but with the deadline so close and so many characters that still are only in the sketch phase, I need to move on. I realize that this is in fact no one's fault but my own, but I can't change the mistakes that I made in the past, so. I'll learn from them and move on with the rest of the project.



More recently I have been working on the panther and the moose. I'll upload all of the images once I save them all out in the proper format, but for now, here's some moose. Where the bear represents the cold northern wind, the moose represents the wet rainy winds of the east.


And here's what I've got going with the Panther so far. The panther represents the western wind, one that is stormy and quick, like a tempest. More to come soon for both him and the moose!

Other animals!

Finally posting some of the work I was doing on the other three animals. These are just really rough sketches, mostly me trying to get used to drawing the animals. (Drawing bears for weeks on end, sheesh!) Drew them while I had the motivation to try something other than the bear. Back to working on, and finishing him though!

PS: Moose are hard to draw!

More sketching!

Spent the weekend playing around with color and bears and everything, but mostly being sick, ew. Some more concept stuff for the bear here mostly, looks like I left the file with pretty much everything else at home like the brilliant person that I am. Gonna see if I can get a hold of my brother and have him sent it to me before class is over. Everything here is just concept things, nothing final! (And that sucks, baww)

Edit: Just adding sketches to this post instead of posting a bunch of new posts! (For today, anyways.)

Aand more bears

I think I'm getting somewhere with the bear, hopefully, maybe. :(

Updated the image with some more work!

Workin on the bears!

Some more work on the bears, I haven't seen Gino online yet this weekend to show him what I've got but I'll post it up here! I've mostly been playing with the shape of the face and color ideas. My instructor brought up the idea of making the animals slightly opaque, to bring in the fact that they are spirits. It's an interesting idea, and I'll definitely be messing with the idea! I've also been playing with adding blue colors to his fur, because he's the spirit of the 'frozen' north wind. Have some images!

Edit: Added another image in there, since I forgot to when I posted this! Was playing with how I wanted to draw the body. Something more stylistic seems better to me, for making the interesting silhouette anyways.

New schedule

My new schedule is basically, for the next five weeks, to have one animal character finished and done by the end of each week. This should take only 4 weeks (as there are 4 animals.) The last week will be for completing the 'final' image for each character. Now that computer and internet are no longer broken, I no longer have any kind of excuse to keep slacking!

Bears again!

Been working on making a bear who's silhouette stands out and who also fits the bill as a guardian of the frigid northern wind. Hopefully he's starting to go in the right direction!

Real final design?

I sure hope so! So after some major help from Gino I think I finally have a design for Ga-oh. (And I hope that it was okay to use some of the ideas he gave me. If it's not, do say so!) We strayed further from the completely Native American look to something more fantasy and 'god looking'. I think that I lost the fantasy I wanted to add somewhere in my hours of researching what the real Iroquois were like. I've also got the turn around for his character sheet done! And some more bear stuff, but I'll post that in another post. Again, tiny image to be more internet friendly!

Bearsbears

In an attempt to finally work on something other than Ga-oh, I drew up some practice sketches for the bear. Practicing/learning the anatomy, and a general style for how I want to draw bears. Hoping to move on to, and get this character rolling this week!

Ga-oh final design!

I sure hope so anyways. Gino hasn't gotten to see him yet, but this is as close as I've come to a 'final' design on my own. Spent all day working yesterday and I hope it's ended well! I've also been thinking about changing up my work schedule/plan for this project to get it done on time and done well.

Aaanyways, Ga-oh design! (I've got a bigger version saved as well, this one is just more internet friendly.)

More updates!

Adding some blue to the clothes to give him a more 'windy' feel, though I think that I'll need to lighten it up some because it looks more watery than it does windy. This might not be the 'final' set of clothes that I pick, it's just the one that I happened to draw blue over. I also pondered adding blue to his face paints, I'll see how that works out. And I've been working on some designs for a tomahawk and/or walking stick that can have a flag/cloth/feathers that blow in the wind.

A few color tests

Before working on some more sketchy concept things I threw some color on a few things, just to see how it'd work. I used that particular face because it was the only one that was the only one I drew facing forwards (and I like it a lot, but hey). Face paint is fun and interesting! The clothes were mostly and experiment in what colors would work well with the leathery clothes, or the ones with fur, etc. Anyways, back to drawing!

More faces and clothes!

So I hope I'm moving in the right direction here because oh my gods am I behind on my work like crazy. :( Anyways, I have some faces here to go along with the hair and accessories stuff I posted last time. I'm thinking I like the bottom right face, since it offers a lot of room for expression and what have you. Guess it'll depend on what Gino thinks as well! I'm also really unsure about what clothes I like the most, as there are bits and pieces of each that I like. Maybe I'll mix a few up or something. Time to start throwing some colors down or I'll never get this project rolling!

More face work

This past weekend was pretty awesome, but not really so much for getting work done. Excuses aside, I do have some work to show! Mostly messing with the face and clothes. I think I have the general face structure down to something I'm happy with, but I have no idea what'd look best for the hair and other accessories. The clothes are also something I can't pick just one of, because I kind of like all of them in one way or another. Jim wants me to find some actual books on the Native American clothing styles instead of just using the internet. I'll have to see if I can find the local library or something! (Shush, I don't leave the house very often anymore.) If not, I do know where some book stores are, and I could just hang out there for a few hours looking at books. ... aaanyways I've typed a lot here, on to the pictures!


I didn't really hit my deadline that I wanted to with a final design by the end of last week, but I plan on getting it before the end of this week, and moving on to the bear next week!

Ga-oh concepts

Got some sketches here for Ga-oh, I'm pretty happy with where he's going right now. I think I want to stick with the slightly older looking face as opposed to the younger one, as Ga-oh seemed fairly wise, and with age comes wisdom, right? Right. Either way it gives me some room to make his face look more interesting! I'm hoping by this weekend to have his design completely fleshed out and start working on color!

A few concepts

I drew all of these before before I did any of my research that I was doing yesterday, just ideas that came to mind right away that sounded cool. I clearly need to do some research on the actual animals, because their current anatomy is kind of uhm. ... special. On to the cool pictures now!

Goals

My goals for the project are fairly simple in thought: Design five characters based on the stories of Ga-oh.

Before drawing, I'll need to research the Iroquois culture and art style some.

For each character:
- Thumbnails
- Sketches
- Model sheets/turnarounds
- Color tests
- Final colored piece

I'd like to give myself about two weeks for each character, give or take a few days on each. Given time, I'd like to work a bit on this 'lodge' that Ga-oh lives in, but again, only if time permits!

Also, Gino, if you think that there is anything I need to change or add to in this please let me know! I'm absolutely open to any suggestions since you obviously know what you're doing better than me. (Having a job and all, haha.)

Story time

I've picked out a story to work with already, and have been drawing up some ideas, though more work is needed with them since I haven't yet done very extensive research on the Iroquois art style. But on to the more important thing, the story!

Ga-oh is the Iroquois lord of the winds, he is a giant and a great warroir who's power was so great that he was in danger of tearing the whole world apart, so he called out to the world for help, and to his great lodge in the Western sky came four animals.

The first to arrive was the bear, who arrived with blowing snow and blizzards, and so Ga-oh leashed him to his northern door and gave him dominion over the frigid northern winds.

Second was the panther, who arrived with a tempest of swirling storms. He too was given a leash, bound to guard over the howling western wind.

Third was the moose, who brought with him dark and gloomy clouds, as if the very sky was weeping. And here at the eastern door was the moose leashed so that he could watch over the wet winds of the east.

Last to arrive was the fawn, who brought first a gentle breeze that smelled of spring flowers. And here did the fawn stay, bringing the gentle southern winds, ever searching for it's mother.

Welcome!

This is my little intro post to what I'll be doing here I suppose. This is where I will post and document everything I do for my Capstone project. The basic premise of my project will be to take a Native American legend or story, and draw/design the characters from this story in my own way. I will be doing research on the culture and art style of the story I pick, and applying these to my designs. Each character will be thumbnailed and sketched many times before coming up with a 'final' design, and after the design is finalized I will make character sheets (model sheets? Turnarounds?) for each, along with color tests, and finalized colored renders of each.

I hope that this project will bring a more finalized and well rounded feel to my work, while also pushing me to work with subject material that I am unfamiliar with. I'm hoping this will be an overall fun and challenging project!