Panda Leopard: Part 2 (Thumbnails)

EDIT: 5th October:
The results are in from Deviantart.com where I asked my watchers what they thought was best.
6 Votes for: The Hunting Scene in the Mountain
2 Votes for: The Sunset with man on the horse and the blue profile.
1 Vote for: The Cub
0 Votes for the Head Shot.

This is good as I liked the Hunting Scene most. Just had to make sure my judgement wasn't off. It has turned out its a good thing I've decided to do these traditionally as my Graphics's Tablet has died on me and I have to wait for a replacement.
Here I forgot to take away the lines to indicate the spine of the book... oh well! A basic hunting scene from the book. Caesar hunting Ibex in the mountains.

The turning point of Caesar's life. As a cub his mother and remaining brother was killed in a forest fire, leaving him to fend for himself with little survival training. Here, young Caesar is sitting on a fire-ravaged ground (burnt grass, charcoaled tree stump)

Caesar and his human master, a young Indian man, going/coming back from a hunt.

These last two are just simple portraits.

Panda Leopard: Part 1 (Research)

< Research sheet composed of sketches for reference later on.







Getting out a copy of "How to Draw Manga Vol.36 : Animals", by Hikaru Hayashi, out I scanned the diagrams of a leopard and panda to compare the body shapes. Laying them on top of each other and lowering the transparency will allow me to quickly plan out the design of this hybrid creature. The rough sketch in the middle was a rough sketch I did last year.

By designing the creature this way made it a lot quicker and meant I could see what works and doesn't accurately. I think the first one (top left) is the better shape overall, though the tail needs to be longer.








Now, with that all out of the way I can start Thumbnail designs in Photoshop for quick colouring and adjustments. Above I have lines indicating where the book spine is and the division of back and front so I can base my design around that.

The Life of a Panda Leopard

Can you imagine a male giant panda getting frisky snow leopard? Its hard enough to get them to breed with their own kind, never mind the literal impossibility of anything being conceived. None the less that is the background of Patrick O'Brian's book, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard, first published in 1930 when O'Brian was only 15 years old. Here you can read the first few pages online on Amazon.com .

Anyway, I must say I'm slightly fond with this book and its defiantly has a re-reading value (the fact it only has 101 pages probably helps too). And the character, the impossible Panda-Leopard hybrid interested me. Would he look more like a Panda or a Snow Leopard? Would he look like a Leopard with Panda markings?
So I've decided to do a book cover, it'd be good practice. Below are the two existing covers I have found. I must admit I prefer my Harper Collins publication with Arthur Wardle's "The Resting Leopard" on the cover, though at least the other was drawn for the purpose of the book rather than lifted from somewhere else (for one it ain't even a snow leopard). There are also a few illustrations in the book by Jane Conway, yet they show something that again looks very normal, in leopard terms.

It'll get me used to having to plan a piece with measurements of a book cover and have to think about things like text placement.

First off I'm going to re-read the book for ideas, like I said its only 101 pages so it won't take me long. Meanwhile I'll do some research.

Rodan

Another quick thing, like the line-art before. This time I was looking through my DeviantArt Favourites for inspiration and found a Godzilla piece done by Byo Tenkai ( here for DeviantArt account and Main Website ). She used scratch board which gave amazing texture. I wanted to see if I could get a scratchy feel with digital.

I know some Godzilla and Toho fans are going to "rip me a new one" for making Rodan more bird than Pterosaurs but I was thinking logically. If he fights against Godzilla and those other giant monsters than being a Pterosaurs would be a disadvantage. Membrane is very susceptible to damage (ie, a claw would have no problem tearing through it) and Pterosaurs probably had to mainly rely on air currents to take off. Not a good thing if you need to take off in a hurry, ie, a giant radioactive reptile giving you the evil eye.
So, my Rodan is more of a giant bird, though I've kept his horns.

I haven't seen any of Rodan's movies, I do want to though. Now I have a Multi-Region DVD player I have no excuse not to.

Tusks

Just a quick thing, playing around with the line tool on Photoshop, which I have finally learnt to use. I think Predator comics I was reading rubbed off on this design for a False Vampire ( Vampyrum ).
Got a damn signature sorted out too.

Damug and Cluny

____________________
< Damug and Cluny
hmmmm. I must admit it looks better smaller than zoomed in on Photoshop. I don't like the clouds in the background, they are a bit distracting, but I don't have to heart to go back and spend ages changing it when I'm craving to move on.

I realised what I was finding 'off' about the grass, there was too much detail in too much space. When I cropped it it looked better. I made some Dandelion Fluff Brushes to do then foreground.

Damug and Cluny: Part 5 ( The Little Bits )

It took me a moment to think on how to render the characters, should I use soft light or cell-style shading? In the end it seemed better to use a soft light, keeping with the setting. Damug's eyes also gave me some grief as I wasn't sure how to make them not appear flat and lifeless. They still do, now that I look at them, so they'll be improved. I'm not sure on the cold lighting on Cluny's dark fur, it looks off. So, I'll probably change it to a honey colour like in his crest's highlights (which have an almost erotic sway over me. haha!) It'll oppose him to Damug, but it might turn out better, we'll see.

Cluny's cape, seeing as it is made out of bat wings, needed a bit of reference. The colour was changed and I added veins that are evident in the membrane. I will later add some evidence of stitching because I doubt one continuous sheet of membrane would be possible, seeing as the bones would have to have been cut out.

The grass, Oh Boy! I'm not used to doing grass, at least cartoonish grass. Its hard to decided between hinted blades of grass or lots of individual blades. Well, I did one line of blades with a custom brush I made then duplicated and modified till the bottom of the screen was reached. Then it was far to colourful and distracting so I had to tone it down to the image above. Still not sure about it, I see how it looks with the grass in the foreground.

Damug and Cluny: Part 4 ( Basic Colour)

That green was too sickly. So the Curves tool was used to lower the brightness of the green without effecting the blue. Its now a lot easier on the eye.


These are the basic colours of the two figures. Damug is from a tribe that trow a two sided sword, one with a straight edge to represent land and the other is wavy to represent the sea, to decide what path the army would follow. So his palette became a cold blue/sea greens with a earthy heavy leather coat. Cluny on the other hand is quite an exotic creature from a far away land, but with dark fur. I got into my mind of chocolate, and how exotic that would be in the drab medieval world, so his colour palette had the rich browns. Also he is found of using animal parts in his clothing (ie, a cloak made from Bat Wings, Skulls ect) so again I used neutral browns/leather colours for his clothing.


The sky is bugging me at the moment. I'm still undecided if I want a high contrast or something more pale. The paleness would blend well with the clouds and contrast with the two characters.

Damug and Cluny: Part 3 ( Masks Prep )

It looks like a colourful mess, something a 2 year old would vomit if it ate the entire packet of crayons, but there is method to this madness.
I have created two solid blocks of colour for the background and on separate layers I filled in the two figures with one colour. This is so that I can use the Mask tools to quickly select one element of this painting, for example if I wanted to adjust only Cluny I can do so without effecting anyone else.
I then do more precise colour blocks for individual parts of their bodies that I might need to deal with separately, like the clothes and skin. None of these colours will appear in the final thing, it is mainly for quick mask selects, and will be hidden most of the time.

I've never tried to paint something like this so I'm not sure how it will all turn out...

Damug and Cluny: Part 2 (Lineart)

This is the Lineart. The clouds and the grass in the foreground will be blurred so the two figures have focus, an attempt of depth-of-field.

Damug and Cluny: Part 1 (Thumbnails)

Yep, chibi villains in a cute situation... something I thought I wouldn't be doing with a straight face. These are just quick thumbnails, planing layout and setting. I have this heavenly tone going on in my head, though I didn't want it too obvious (though it would make sense since the two villains, Damug and Cluny, have at least 2-3 generations between them). Anyway, it doesn't really matter, let people decide for themselves. I've ended with them running through a field of dandelion fluff with some grass blades in the foreground as a frame (instead of the mountains in the background). Anyway, I'll be doing the line art next.

Wardrobe MEME

Had to get this out the way as I want to move onto other things now.

Little "Portraits"

Sometimes I find it nice to do something that doesn't result in a final piece, just to chill. MEME's ( a thing that is hard to explain and are quite numerous on DeviantArt ) can sometimes be fun to do while not taking yourself seriously. Usually, in the past I have done this rather quickly on the computer, but this time I've taken it as an opportunity to see how good/bad my human drawings are. Below is the MEME frame made by someone calling themselves Nijuuni and here is their original example. The nice thing about this MEME you're not stuck with those already on the template :
"THERE IS NO TEMPLATE FOR THIS BECAUSE YOU CAN DRAW AS MANY OR AS FEW AS YOU LIKE, AND I WANT TO SEE HOW YOU GUYS MAKE YOUR OWN VERSIONS STAND OUT. JUST BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE MEME'S NAME "NIJ'S WARDROBE MEME" AND THE RULES IN YOUR VERSION." ~ Artist Comment

So here are my 10. There was more, but I cut back because it was feeling tedious:
Sleepwear, Everyday, Prehistoric, Water wear, Jungle, Far-Eastern, Winter, Hunter, Super-Villain, Past (in my case I'm a Haikouichthys from 530 million years ago, one of the first creatures with a backbone and ancestor of all vertebrates... so I took the term "Past" to the extreme.)

I must say these were a lot of fun and isn't suppose to be serious pieces of fantastic art.

30second Creature Sketches

What do you do when waiting in a car for someone to finish shopping, putting down a copy of ImagineFX's How to Draw Creatures Special and find a sheet of scrap blank paper on the seat besides you? Luckily I fished out a red biro from the glove compartment and started scribbling.
Only got to do five before the driver's seat got filled again. I have no idea what was going on in the bottom left. I think I had bird/squid/triceratops in mind, though it's a confused mess.

Why I Love Comments ...

Gods bless the comments on DeviantArt. They can provide such inspiration sometimes.

Someone commented on one of my old series of head shots of the main villains of the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. Those are all my little designs I scribbled in a little book in collage breaks and quickly added colour to for future reference.

Well, some one said:
"Am I the only one who thinks that if Cluny and Damug met (don't ask me how), they would skip around a field of flowers singing the fun song from Spongebob? Or in other words, become best friends. "

So, I had 30min to kill so I did a little draft. A theme like that just screamed CHIBI. I like Damug's pose and I will improve Cluny's when I do start doing this properly, don't know when (probably when I've done this big thing I'm doing). I like the idea that Damug is pulling him along.
Cluny: "Nooo! No dunking in the river!"

"if Cluny and Damug met (don't ask me how)"
Perhaps its heaven *teary eyes* ... well, a heaven for murdering psychopaths
Lol, nothing like a gay little skip in a meadow...

Goth from K.Oppel's Silverwing Trilogy

________

<< Goth

The Following quote is from Kennith's Oppel's Silverwing Website:

" "Goth is based on a variety of spear-nosed bat called Vampyrum Spectrum. He’s a tropical bat that lives in Central and South America and south-east Asia. He has up to a three foot wingspan, so is much bigger than Shade or Marina. He is not an insectivore. He’s a carnivore. He eats mice, shrews, birds and if he can get them, bats -- so his diet also has a cannibalistic component. Vampyrum Spectrum is NOT the same thing as a Vampire bat. Vampire bats just drink the blood of living animals; the Vampyrum Spectrum devours the entire animal, and is a bigger species." - K.O.

Vampyrum Spectrum
(photo© Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, Inc)
Vampyrum Spectrum, also known as false vampire bats, are native to South & Central America and are the largest bat found in the Neotropics. Their dense woolly fur ranges from dark or chestnut brown to rust in colour and their ears and nose are very long. The Vampyrum Spectrum can have a wingspan of up to 1 meter.
False Vampire bats are generally the top of their order in the food chain, that is, without predators, and feed on birds, smaller varieties of bat, and rodents. They are called false vampires because it was once thought that they fed on blood rather than meat.
Vampyrum Spectrum are usually found in lowland, evergreen forest, occasionally in cloud or deciduous forests, fruit groves, pastures or swampy areas. They nest in groups of up to five individuals in hollow trees often near water. "

As you can see he is a coloured version of one of the sketches seen in the previous post and it gave me a chance to experiment with Duel Brushes on Photoshop.
This was a quick design for Goth from Silverwing trilogy by Kennith Oppel...because I felt like it. I do one day want to do designs for the entire Silverwing cast ( haha *nervous look* that'll be a epic task) where they actually look like their species of bats ( Hint Hint TV adaptation -to the right is a picture of Goth- where no matter if you're Vampyrum or Silver-Haired bat you look the same. The same squarish head with only your hair-do and size to mark you out differently.) haha! I must admit I did stick to the idea of "hair" but, Vampyrum do have crest of fur so it can work.