Jesus, Let's Try That Again

Okay, it's safe to say my last delve into colour was... regrettable. But apparently we make mistakes so we can learn from them or some bullshit. So here we go.
Decided to try jumping straight in again without any line art to make me nervous, I tried this method with the charcoal and it gave me much better results. So instead of making all sorts of mess again I decided to go to work on the "Chalk Brush" in photoshop.
The first thought was to actually find some nice colours.

I think the key will be to have earthy tones for the main parts of the character's bodies and then punches of brightness and colour on them, like from hair, feathers or markings. This is definately the right method when it comes to quick ideas.

Hers a couple more final ideas for the big guy.

  I like the bottom one a lot in terms of complimentary colours but I'm definately gunna have to work on the contrast, I know it was a quick sketch but seems way to flat and the body probably needs more markings.

Colours of a fat man

It's about time I threw some serious colour in this mix, I know I've done some pastel tests but need to start think about specific palettes. I thought the best way to do some quick test would be just to take the charcoal bust from the last post and quickly throw some stuff into it, try a few combinations and see if anything sticks.

As you can see without exception, every single one of these is hideous, I don't know if I wasn't in the zone or what but Jesus Christ these are bad. I think the only thing I gathered from these is that I like the earthy colours I guess and that would make more sense but they should probably be brighter. Oh And i like the feathers on his head and his tongue being the same colour.

Char-Grillin'

So to keep in theme with this, "Found diary" look I was bangin' on about I thought it was time to face one of my greatest fears... Charcoal. We all hate it but tutors freakin' love' it so why try and fight it. Picked myself up a nice brown sketchbook as well which of course needs to cost three times the amount because they don't dye it, and did a few scribbles.

Kept it pretty loose just to see how freaked out I got, and you know what, I actually enjoyed this bastard. It was mainly how effective crosshatching is with charcoal, for some reason it always just looks like michelangelo shit. Well maybe an exaggeration but still looks cool. Also it has that "rough, sketched on sight" look. Will keep this in mind for the final piece.

Dinotopia

I was trying to come up with ways in which to display my work or make it a little more interesting than just a board of finished, polished pieces. I really felt that for the final project the work should be really different from my previous stuff.
Around this time I was browsing in a charity shop, essentially killing time until i could have another meal, when I came across a book that looked like I really should of heard of it before. It was Dinotopia by James Gurney. Having never really grown out of the awesomeness of dinosaurs I was immediately attracted to the cover, I know you shouldn't judge books this way but every so often it has it's merits.

Once I'd gotten over the general bad ass-ness of the cover I had a horrible feeling that this was some sort of creationist science book or something, however after a brief flip through I quickly realised that it was just one of the most beautifully illustrated story books ever. Not only that but it was set out as though it was the found notebook of an explorer and his son recounting their adventure on this island. It was so well done, using this format to go into great detail about things that other books could possibly overlook or would think it pointless or off putting for children. Here's a depiction of how they raise the new born dinos and the alphabet he created for the book.

Anyway, my point is that seen as though I'm supposed to be showcasing a new tribe, i thought this would be the perfect way to layout my ideas, lets see how it goes.

Parry tripping balls

Okay my tutor mentioned this a while ago, how some tribes use drugs to induce a state of heightened enlightenment, or so they say, also mr Whillock introduced me to Bruce Parry who gets his rocks off from gettin in with the tribes. Had a snoop around and came across this video of Parry trippin his arse off on this crazy hallucinogen.



Thought it would be pretty sweet if my characters had the ability to have spirit like, out of body experiences when they take a drug of some sort. It would be a nice way of getting loose with the colours and having the balance of friendly and the creepy/surreal.
I'll have a mess around with how this "spirit state" could look on the fat guy i've been working on. More to come.

Pastel Panic

Time for the scary bit, never been that confident with colour, especially in scary media like, oh I don't know, Pastels!
Need to get over it though, really think this is the best way to get some energy out of the colours and work with pastels always looks nicely textured. It will help me get a bit freer which i desperately need as well. These are some quick tests with colour and movement.

Now these just make me happy, I know they are far from perfect but they represent the first step to conquering a very real fear of mine. This vibrancy needs to be translated into my final work I think. Need to try some more pastel work on different coloured papers and with a more finished look but definitely no cleaner.