Slowvember Work

[Chip Valecek]

In no way is this as organized as everyone else but I figured I would share my process. This post tailbacks off my Finding my Style post.

I wanted to continue from my inktober characters and take an alien and have him find a lighting bug. He is excited and also curious as to what it is...

With that in mind I started to gather some reference:

I was thinking of a forest/jungle location or maybe sitting on a pier. So then I started to get some thumbs done:

I really was drawn to the one that is circled. So from there I started to near it down some more with a few more thumbs that define more of a silhouette but while doing that my direction of an alien shifted to some sort of forest creature. The bottom is the one I am running with.

I also did a few scribbles on heads to get a feel of what the alien would look like. You will see one stands out and this guy was done after the last thumb was done.

Back to my previous Art Style post, I am going to take what I have learned so far working on the master studies and going to paint this piece in that style. So I took one of my inktober pieces and followed that process to come up with this:

This is where I am now with everything. I will share more while I work. Thanks for taking the time to look.

[Chip Valecek]

Did a little more work the past couple days.

Tomorrow I will start to work on building up my values. But before I do that, does anyone see anything that stinks out that needs to be tweaked?

[Whitney Simms]

@Chip-Valecek I like this guy. The texture and molding look nice. I like the direction you’re going. Keep it up!

[Elena Marengoni]

I like your character, he's really cute and it makes me want to see more of the story. Just a couple tiny tweaks I would make: I would enhance the gesture of the hand (maybe 5 fingers or more variation in the length of the fingers can make it more explicit that he's trying to grab the little animal like a ball) and I would perhaps sketch out the volumes of the trunk/branch a little bit more, just to make shapes look more solid. Definitely not a must, but I like the character so much that I would love to see more of his equipment or other bugs he has captured! Keep it up, great work! I also love your latest style studies!

[Chip Valecek]

I named him Gary. I find when I name my characters, I have more fun painting them and bringing them to life. Anyway here is some more process.

Rough values:

Cleaned up values before I start throwing color at it:

[Chip Valecek]

Put some color ideas together. My first thought was night and a lighting bug:

Then I thought let me change the color of Gary:

Then I thought, what if its day:

Day is the winner. I really wanted to do some color rim lighting from the lighting bug, but now I will prob make it a butterfly and use some dapple lighting through out the piece. Onto painting now.

[KaraDaniel]

Cute! I love the creature alien. I like the coloring on the bottom image best. Gives that swampy vibe. The lightning bug is cool maybe it's dusk he gives a nice extra bit of lighting that could be dramatic. The only thing I see a little off is the roots he's standing on..where its connects to the ground is a straight line across and therefore feels quite flat. I assume its nestled in the ground, it might need some rounding at the base. Overall I think its a cool idea and i love the little worm too

[Chip Valecek]

@KaraDaniel Yes those hard edges will get lost when I actual start to paint. Here is an updated version. I need to clean up some areas and then I will start on the lighting and shadows.

[KaraDaniel]

gotcha, yeah that look awesome already!

[Heather Boyd]

@Chip-Valecek this colour palette is best of the ones shared.

[LauraA]

I agree. That's a nice color palette!

[ZeeZeeMonster]

@Chip-Valecek I agree with everyone about that last coloe palette. It really helps draw the attention to the central character

[TessaW]

I can see you sneaking in some color variation already, where I think you normally wouldn't, right? The eyes are also a different choice from your usual. It's interesting to see you incorporating changes.

[Chip Valecek]

Thanks everyone! @TessaW yes I am trying to get different color variations of the same tone but different color. Also with the new process I am trying some of the colors are naturally mixed when I am adding different tones. After I try to grab that tone and brush a little extra in. As for the eyes, yes trying different things. Right now I am doing something and then say to myself lets do the opposite and see what happens lol.

[Chip Valecek]

Here is where I am now. I might put a little guy in the jar on the hill front. Not sure yet. Any other things anyone sees that might need to be tweaked?

[TessaW]

I'm not sure how close to finished you are, but I think more work could be done with edges and tweaking value contrasts. When I look at Matt Dixon as a model, he tends to soften edges, and lessens the contrast of elements going into the background. I think you could follow suit and soften the edges of trees and rocks, and lessen the contrast of value in the grass as you go toward the background. He also does this within the figure itself, generally being more contrasted in value and edges toward the focal point of the figure and softening edges and contrast in certain areas of a figure.

Something I've learned lately from a schoolism class, is that you can often really simplify detail in areas as long as you keep the silhouettes intact and it will keep the piece from being too busy visually. So for example, you can really simplify the detail in the grass, but if you keep the silhouette of the grass intact, it will still be convincing. Similarly, you can simplify the fur in the non focal point area, and just keep the silhouette of the fur intact and it will still read nicely. If you pop in bigger contrasts between light and shadow around the upper portion of the creature, it will help us have a focal point within the figure itself.

[Chip Valecek]

@TessaW thanks for the great feedback, it was to late when i saw it. But all things I need to work on. I have a real hard time not trying to put detail all over the place. But I am going to keep on trying.