Jan 28th 2013

 Few sketches today.

stuffs.

and KONATA!!

Photoshop again! (Fixed problems)

So after I posted yesterdays blog, I did a bit more research on how to fix the various problems I was having with my photoshop.

Surprisingly I fixed EVERY problem I had with photoshop haha!   I have no idea how it would perform under more intense usage, but I was very pleased with the results.  (will explain how I fixed the problems at the end of this post)  Naturally, I felt a bit out of practice from the minor break i had from drawing to finish that animation, but after a few sketches I think I'm back in gear (if not maybe a tiny bit rusty but there is no doubt that more training will fix this little setback)

These more non-timed studies.  All were done in photoshop.

Lag Problem Fix:
It turned out the lag problem I was having in photoshop was do to it not having enough allocated memory to run the program correctly.  I had no idea such a problem could even exist, but I found a fix (at least for my case) to be the following:

On the top bar click "Edit" ->  "Preferences" -> "Performance..."

A new window will open up.
In this window, I upped the "Let Photoshop Use: xxxx MB" to allow 80%
Then just right, I changed the Cache Levels to "8"

There is now no lag BAM.

Pen Pressure Issue:
I was under the impression that the pen pressure issue was because of my tablet, however, after looking into it a but further, it turns out it is in fact a driver issue.

This is the problem I was having with the pressure sensitivity:


And this is the fix:


I am happy.
More training tomorrow.

Here is the stream:
http://livestre.am/4jxFv

Photoshop?

(Nudity warning...  kinda.  I covered it up, be quite.)

Spent a good portion of the night fooling around with photoshop.

While I see that is is an amazing program...  Not sure my tablet pc can really handle it.  There is a certain delay that it has that really throws me off.  I will need to search around to see if there is any way to speed up the performance.  So looks like i'll continue my studies in flash more than likely.  (A little more on that at the end of this blog)

On to the art!  I was lucky enough to catch a livestream session, I dont recall the guys username but I've been sitting in on various artists to see their technique.  This particular user was giving some rather interesting tips on how to draw anatomy and a training method that seems like it can be very helpful.

The training was to take your reference image and directly draw on top of it with your guide.  The idea is to get the feel of the inner workings of the character. and to understand how the bones and stuff fit together in the character.  After that, do another sketch of the character using visual reference (not to draw on top of it)  then lastly redraw the image from memory then study the results.  Then theres a ton of tests with photoshop to see if i can work with it...  aaaannnd im leaning more towards no at the moment.  At least until i can sort out the lag problem.  Maybe if I can get ahold of a really old version of photoshop.

This next thing was something i drew along with that guy while he was explaining it.  It was a strange way of creating a figure from a box.  I'll have to hunt down the video if he saved it in the archives.  If he didn't I'll try to explain it more here.  But it was really helpful!

And this happened too.

**EDIT**
OH YEA  I meant to talk a bit about flash before I end this blog.  For some reason I really like the sketchy nature of flash, which is the main reason I do these studies in there.  Not to mention there is 0 lag and it's better than Windows Paint haha XD

I NEEEEED to stop doing these late sleepy studies.  >.<

Either way, MORE TRAINING!

BLITZQUEST

It only took 3 days!!  I didn't expect this little spur of the moment project to take 3 days.  But it did somehow.  This ended up turning into a technical nightmare.  BUT I DID IT! WOO!!!

And here's these.

Didn't want spoilers for the animation so i just held onto them for a while :P
NEXT PROJECT
MORE TRAINING
SLEEP!!!

All Nighter

Spent the entire night working on an animation.
It isn't quite done, but I'm sure i can finish it up tomorrow.

Here is an art trade I did with a good friend of mine Melly.
I wanted to give the adventure time style another shot.  I like how it turned out.

AND Here is one I did before bed. I've decided to study characters from various games and such.  And decided to start with League of Legends.  I dont play the game much, but I have nothing but respect for the art direction of the game.  I'm sure I can learn a lot from these characters.  This is the first skin of the first character.  I will probably just run down the list.

The 2nd one was an alternate pose i wanted to do for the art trade that I didnt end up using.

More training tomorrow.
I REALLY need to step my game up.  The month is coming to a close, I'd like to go out with a bang this month.

mroe sleepy draws

Another awesome art trade with my good friend Shaunzy.

More sketches.

Bed~

too late.
more trianing tomorrow

Sketches

Wanted to draw a cute little chun li.  Inspired by the freakin adorable sounds from Streetfighter X Megaman.  Squeaky little sounds haha! I LOVE IT!  The one on the left was originally going to be the pose, but I didn't like it too much.  so I finished it off like the reference.  Middle one ehhh, I wasnt feeling it.  One on the right, better buuuuut.  I'll have to retry this another tiem when im less sleepy.

 Zero reference.
I wanted to see how well i could do with zero reference.  Not bad.  No doubt improvement from buuut.  As I always say.  More room for improvement.  Even still, it's nice to note improvement.

I wasn't able to get as much drawing as much as I wanted to.  But instead of feeling bad about it, I took a moment to admire all the work I've done since I've started this little adventure.  I gave myself a nice pat on the back.  Good job me.

More training tomorrow!
I can do better.
MORE POWER MORE TECHNIQUE!

Good Times haha!

Studies started out just as normal as ever with these two images.

 And well...  I was in a chat with a few freinds at the time... and let's just say I changed a few things.  Queen of blades, large hatted, derpy faced Bluto.  Creepy Me Gusta Super Saiyan female Popeye with a pipe in her ear. and Pink Ranger Olive Oil. with a jetpack.  I'll just let that sink in a bit.

Before I decided on bluto's face I originally wanted to try a "The Baby" face from Mokuu's Metroid Other M picture but couldn't pull it off quite right.  It felt to fitting for the pose, so I had to change it up a bit.  I also went ahead and put the other images by silly ones haha.  Olive Oil's pose was created through various popeye google searches.

I had a lot of fun doing these kind of silly random drawing sessions.  It's a good way to spark some creativity and just be goofy.

A thing I've noticed, especially when doing these, is that I am really beginning to understand how to use resources and references.  It seems like such a nobrainer, but I'm legitimately surprised with how much I've learned, even from silly little things like these.

But one things for sure.  SLEEP NEEDS to get sorted out.  That will be my #1 task this week.  These stupidly late hours.  No.  Just, no.

Live stream link to this session is here:
http://livestre.am/4iVMg

Lots of training!! (updated)

While doing these studies, I always try to incorporate some form of guide into them.  In some cases, even in my gesture drawings (though im pretty sure that defeats the purpose of a gesture drawing but it's ok)  This is important to me because it really helps give me a general idea of the 3d space the figure is taking up.  Something that I dont feel I would be learning if I merely drew the lines of the figures.  I need to see them as shapes.  And since I started using these guides I've learned that some guides seem to really be better than others.  So I decided to take some time to figure out which guide is the best for me.  I drew a few of them, changed up a few of them, and even switched ideas from one to another.  While I haven't came up with a definitive answer as to which one I like the most just yet, it was a nice exercise to actually sit down and study these guides as apposed to just throwing them down before a drawing.

I drew a picture for a Shaunzy in an art trade a while back but wasn't happy  with the end result.  I tried to give that same picture another try.  I just looked everywhere for the original picture but I cant seem to find it...  Nevertheless, here is the newer one.

I started this Megaman from Battle Network but I stopped for some reason, not sure why.  No doubt I'll go back and touch it up and finish it but this is what I did so far.

Next i switched to rage faces...  Rage faces wat?  I dunno XD  They didn't turn out too shabby.

                                                     Challenge accepted?


And I believe the livestream footage started right about here.  I wanted to do some nontimed studies of the human figure.  I used http://lovecastle.org/draw/  as image reference for the next few.

I rather like how these turned out.  I can see little flaws, but I can also see areas I did pretty good on.  All in time.  All in time.


Lastly, before I ended the stream, a friend wanted me to draw a metabot.
So I did MetaBee :D! Reference from google images.

Then I gave him a fro.

 A Meta fro
 

Here are the streams.

1.  http://www.livestream.com/doggyzart/video?clipId=pla_8ed86fa0-e55d-4a8e-98fc-74f966052519

2.  http://www.livestream.com/doggyzart/video?clipId=pla_cab44cdf-b5ac-43ef-8571-b96206d1e231

3. http://www.livestream.com/doggyzart/video?clipId=pla_cddcf64d-df80-467a-8f8a-470c2d66e234

I'm proud of all the time I put into this today.
More training tomorrow!

Livestream and Blog

After much fooling around, I think I finally managed to figure out this livestream thing.
I did a few drawings before the livestream, then a few during.  I've gone back and watched my livestream and I think this could be a helpful tool to see just how exactly i draw and what areas I could improve on.  Though, during the livestream i spent too much time thinking about all kinds of things that I shouldn't have been.  Stream quality, playlist music, events from today, etc.  Not to mention I was a bit nervous from this being my first stream.  So needless to say my mind wasn't really in the right place.  Here's hoping I lose these stream nerves soon enough.  A link to the recorded stream will be at the end of this blog post. 

Here are todays pictuers.

Stream Link:
http://www.livestream.com/doggyzart/video?clipId=pla_777e160c-0c0e-43b7-a313-0e331fc12158

While I was doing these I was rather angry for some reason.  No doubt the reasons I listed above, but I was pretty upset with the quality of my work and was really asking myself if this was all worth it.  I managed to talk myself out of this silly talk and tried to stay focused on the training.  Though, by the time I had ended, I had done a few good drawings that I really felt proud of and reminded myself of how far I've come since I started these exercises.

I've come some way from when I first started, and I can see it in some of the pictures.  Some things really shape up nicely, while others not so much.  But I can feel the improvement.  Stay focused on the goal doggy, stay focused!  You had a rough day, calm yourself.  *takes a deep breath*
Just gotta pound out those negative thoughts and replace them with positive.
More training tomorrow!

Also, these are good.  Thanks for sharing Mokuu!

http://hibbary.deviantart.com/art/Poses-an-introduction-349002015

http://hibbary.deviantart.com/art/Poses-methods-of-drawing-349068486

I need to go back and analyze my work more and see what little areas I can improve on.  I consider just about everything to be in somewhat of a "mush" state, so going back to redo sketches i thought were bad might not be a bad idea.  But MAN...  I really am happy that I am drawing again hahaha.  Had a little grumpy night.  But not even tonight's grumpage could ruin my excitement and determination to improve!  Art is slowly becoming my favorite pastime.

A Comic!?

COMIC!
I really wanted to do some dramatic thing that ended in a book shooting.  SO I DID xD!!!

AAAND by the time I finished that little comic thing it was super late.
So I didn't have time to cram some  figure studies.  Perhaps tomorrow!

I will not allow what I don't know, to prevent me from what I can learn.
TOMORROW MORE TRAINING!

More Training

Good friend of mine Shaunzy streamed a bit of DMC tonight, so I did SMCBHWBHAB

"SHAUNZY MAY CRY! BUT HE WONT BECAUSE HE'S A BADAZZ!!"

I like the way this one turned out,  It's a devil may cry inspired image only with shaunzy!  I had a lot of trouble with the head, but after much tweaking I think it turned alright.

Here's a few sketches I did.  some features really stood out as being rather nice.  The middle one in particular stood out as having decent proportions.

Lastly, WOW, this is a guy!
Another old character creepin up, WATISTHIS!?

I changed his design up just a tad from his original.  His original was very very basic.  I might have to do a thing with him, much like Nona.   But we'll see.

I'm pretty happy with the small progress I've made.  I need to get back into figure studies and pick up "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" again.  Till then, MORE TRAINING!!!  I really need to up my speed on these.  Speed is VERY important with animation, or at least with my tastes in art speed.  While I'm becoming more and more comfortable with working longer hours on a single image, I still think speed is important.  Maybe this will change one day?  Who knows, but for now, i need to keep this in mind.

Oh also, I saw some guys on other blogs doing this, and I think I will add it to this blog as well.  Where they had a tag on their title that said what day they did their drawings on.  Example, first post would be Day-1, 2nd post would be Day-2, etc.  I'd of-course have to go back and edit in the titles,  or just start tomorrow as "Day-1"  I'm not sure.  But it sounds like a fun way to track the days I put into my art.

Either way, till next time.
I MUST KEEP UP MY TRAINING!

Squiggle Physics

After almost 2 entire days of fighting with my computer, I DID A THING!!

Since I redid windows on my tablet, I was able to use the detect pressures now... who knew?  haha  I did this for about 10 minutes just goofing off with the function, I like it!  (I wont upload everything i did just because it all pretty much looked like this one XD)

 After my amazing Squiggle Physics, I just...  I dont know, but there's a soda machine in it.  FREAKIN SODA MACHINE!!!

 And lastly, I thought I should really focus on a thing, so I did these!
Not the super best, but it was pretty late.  I learned a lot from these, good studies.

I have also been dabbling around a bit in photoshop.  I know almost nothing about the program, but my good friend shaunzy does amazing things in it and I think it's worth my time to learn it better.  I REALLY love flash for this kind of stuff, just simple things... although, it really wasn't designed for this stuff, it's a good program and I know it inside and out.  Buuuuuuuuuuuut....  I'll give photoshop a try.  ILL DO IT!

Tomorrow more training.

Same Blog New Name!

I've decided to change my blog name to "DoggyZart" instead of the old DoggyZartAttack.

The reason is to keep all my stuff with a similar name that pertains to my art work.  I've been debating on this for a while, and I'm pretty satisfied with my decision.

No art tonight, I literally got no sleep last night and I spent most of today fixing my laptop which screwed up last night for some reason.  So I'm just getting everything into order tonight.

Then I rest.

Jan 12, 2013

Pika Pi!
I dont know how to draw pikachu...  WHY!?  Used google for this reference.  I will learn how to draw pikachu!!!

Next, Fan Art picture for my good friend Mokuu I used MASSIVE reference for this one.  His style is very different from what I'm used to.  Still not sure if I'll give him this one or draw up a different one.

Nona again!
I wanted to try this pose then I thought why not use Nona!  (that's her name :D!)  I couldn't get her little skirt thing to work right...  So I just took it off this time.  Sorry Nona!  ^^;;

Lastly two little sketches I did before I called it a night.

Sleep is still a thing I need to fix  @.@...  I would try to pull an all nighter, but I'm getting to old for that crap haha XD

Jan 11, 2013

Few more sketches

Random head/face.

An old character.

Rather like how my character on the left turned out.  I did a random pose and thought I would turn it into her! SO HERE SHE IS!  Haven't drawn her in years.  It was nice to do it again.


#1 task this week.  Fix this sleep schedule!  @.@

Ryoko

Ryoko was an old friends favorite character.  I always told him I would do something with her.  So here ya go dude!

Pretty surprised how well this one turned out.  Still, plenty of room for improvement.  But I think it looks nice.  I have been fooling around with shadows the past few pictures.  Kind of like how they turned out.

And more.

I already did a thing tonight, but I wanted to do more.
So I started with these.

Ended up doing these.

Then finish up with a fox girl.  Because, why not?!

I might actually touch up this last one some time.  I rather like how it turned out.  :3

Flag Handstand!

A friend doing handstands in a box of flags.
Good times XD!!

Didn't use any references on this one.  I must say im pretty proud of the end result!
The story behind it, back in high school I turn around and a friend is doing a handstand in a box of flags.

It was pretty great!

Productive Night for Art

Just had a pretty productive night. 
More working on poses:

I'm pretty pleased with these.  I'm beginning to feel my understanding of the human figure really work.

I did a little work on faces.
For these few, I just went to deviantart and tried to create a few that I saw that looked interesting.  There's no doubt that I need more studies on faces and the way they work, but im pretty pleased with these also.  Plenty of room for improvement, but I like them.

 I wanted to get a little work in on my character, So i jumped in and tried doing a few expressions.  I am not familiar with these types of characters AT ALL.  But I'm having a blast exploring the possibilities.

And lastly, I really need to take time to study styles that I really like.  I'm a pretty big fan of simplicity.  and Egoraptor's art style has always been one that stands out as something I like.  So I decided to attempt  drawing the title image for ego's sequelitis series.  It turned out pretty good I must say.  I had a lot of fun trying to get his colors as close as I could without using the dropper tool.

It feels so great to have done more than usual tonight.  But I still must step up my game.

MORE TECHNIQUE MORE POWER!
I must keep up my training.