Creature Designs

Been trying out some character design to see where my skills are at. They're very time consuming considering the form changes and colours, but I'm not being strict and trying to keep them quick, intuitive and fun. About 15 hours in total for both. Before I would do something for fun and just be deflated by what I think I should be learning. Now I'm just taking it easy and taking it back to the days of painting something for the fun of it
I copied the style and process of Mr Jack Art, an Australian artist who moved to the US to work with Blizzard - living the dream! A source of inspiration for myself.

Here is his tutorial for the Hydra. There are many more tutorials on his DA account-
http://mr--jack.deviantart.com/art/Hydra-Progress-113069710
Creature ideas from Melvyn Yeo's DA account-
http://melvynyeo.deviantart.com/…/Fat-Katydid-Nymph-4106574…

Gouache and watercolour studies

I wanted to enrich the colours I used so the bug photo taken in UV was perfect to try that out and I think I was pretty successful.

Reference:
http://melvynyeo.deviantart.com/art/UV-Bird-Dung-Spider-Pasilobus-sp-387280513

Harvestman study

Getting into gear with painting more in gouache. Upon finishing it I've noticed I'm timid with colour and they start to become muddier as the painting progress. Gotta keep cleaner with my colour choice

Found a Deviantart account with awesome photographs of all sorts of critters from the undergrowth. They include detailed descriptions of the insects as well.

http://melvynyeo.deviantart.com/art/Harvestman-428907156

https://www.facebook.com/melvyn.yeo.9

Alligator study

Digging deeper with this form and lighting/shadow business lately so I can be more fluent with my painting process. Some drawing exercises have helped a lot with the rough layout of the alligator as well.

Reference is of an American alligator.

Kung Fu Panda studies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltbzLZHIK4I

The plan was to watch the whole scene and study stills throughout it, but every couple of seconds there was a good scene to study, So I think I only got 50 seconds into it.

Soon, I will be doing studies in gouache and this process was a way to get me more comfortable with it. They were done on one layer with very basic proportions first, wash layer primarily focusing on colours and light values. I should have worked on a white layer so I could preserve the light areas, but I suppose with gouache you can just paint over the top with white paint.

Not so sketchy morning sketch

What was supposed to take me one hour extended to three hours - whoops!

For the past year I've been looking at Mr Jack's work, an Australian living in the US working for Blizzard. His attention to forms is astounding, but now I'm understanding more and more what he's thinking about when he 'sculpts' his artworks.

I planned out the sketch a lot first, but slipped up a bit when it came to defining the shapes in 3D, but at least now I've narrowed down what I need to practise and HOW I think I need to practise it (an important part that I often neglect).

Anatomy studies

Anatomy study from references i purchased from- PoseSpace.com