Speed Paint : The Optimistic Bear

Something different for a change today.



Mr. Bear The Optimistic

Fishing for a sugar cube? I don't know too XD

All done in Photoshop in... 30-40 mins?

The journey will begin again tomorrow ^.^

Left 4 Dead tournament poster : Zombie Mania

Hey there! What's up! :)

Today I will try something different. I'm covering a design I did a while back: a poster for a game tournament, Left 4 Dead. My friend, Darren Lee, was the organizer of the event. (He's currently practicing violin and blogging about it daily. Do check it out if you have time.)

This is how the final result looks like.



I will be talking about my concept sketch, the process, and design. If you are interested how the work has been thought out from the ground up, do keep on reading. :)

Now let's get started! ^^

A few years back, when the game Left 4 Dead first came out, it had become pretty popular.

In case you don't know what Left 4 Dead is, it's an online survival horror FPS (First Person Shooter). You and 3 other people are the survivors in a zombie apocalypse, and need to fight your way out to the safe zone. The unique thing about the game is that, you can also choose to play as 'The Infected', a team of mutated zombies with special ability, to prevent the human survivors from reaching the destination alive. It’s a men-VS-zombies kind of game instead of your normal men-shoot-men FPS. The mechanic of the game was quite unique and refreshing in a sense, and even though FPS isn’t really my cup of tea, I found this game to be very fun and addictive.

The survivors team

The Infected team

At the peak of the game popularity, Darren had approached me and said he would like me to design a poster for the Left 4 Dead tournament he’s going to organize.  We were then brainstorming on the concept of the event. We decided that we wanted the tournament to be fun, casual, and newbie friendly, and the event’s poster was going to communicate just the messages.

The concept had been settled in words, and now it’s my turn to come up with the right design. I spent my time sketching, thinking of the art direction and style. I ended up with rough images of a few concepts I had in my head, and then presented to Darren for his opinion.

We both agree that this design sketch was our favorite.

Something fun and lively. A fully illustrated poster depicting a fighting scene in the game, survivor team VS zombie team in a building called ‘Aloha’, the name of a LAN gaming center that we will use as the tournament destination.

After we agreed on this design, I further develop the piece into a more detailed sketch.

Before I came up with this sketch, I spent quite a while trying to get accustomed to drawing a ‘chibi’ style (smaller and cuter version) of the characters. Making a serious-looking 3D characters and horrendous monsters into something funny and cute was a bit tricky. Cutting out unnecessary lines and simplifying the details are key. I drew a detail-down, cartoony version of a character, then I cut out a few lines and details, then I redrew it in an even more simplified version.  It went on and on until I arrived at the desired result.

One of my character sketches in initial stage : The Hunter

Darren happily approved of the sketch. When everything was set to go, I started right away on the illustration. After a few days, it was done.

Software : Sketches done in Adobe Photoshop. Vector art done in Adobe Illustrator

The result was more than a satisfactory, and it seemed people in the event loved it a lot. It’s a fun project and I need to thank Darren for giving me this opportunity. It’s by far one of my best vector illustrations.

Hope you enjoy my post for today. :) The journey will begin again real soon.

Cat Girl (finished) & Alone in Dream (work in progres)

 Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I kinda fell asleep last night when I was laying on my bed >.< My mistake.

So today I'm posting 2 works. :)


It's finished at last! =D (Continue from #1 #2 #3 #4 )

And I did this piece during lunch break at work :)

"Alone In Dream" (Work-in-progress #2)

Continue from this earlier blog post. Planning to finish it some time later.

Thanks again for reading! :) Please feel free to leave some comments or critics. I would greatly appreciate it!

The journey will begin again tomorrow! ^^

Cat Girl (Almost done), and some sketch

Today I come back home very late, again x . x

Went out for a business meeting. Came back and took around 30-40 minutes to draw before I felt too sleepy to continue.





Touched up the skin and her hair. (See previous progress : #1 #2 #3)

By the way, I drew this on a subway train on my way to work XD



Still looks quite rough, but looks like fun to paint :3

Anyway, need to go to bed now or I will not be able to wake up to work tomorrow. XD

Thanks for reading. :) Have a great day! The journey will begin again tomorrow ^^

Anime Cat Girl (Work in progress #3)

Hi all! :) Today I was pretty productive at work. Managed to finished a few projects and it was all good. XD

Later I went out for lunch and had this wonderful fried chicken. :3 The place is called 'Arnold's Fried Chicken'. Wouldn't mind to eat there again. <3

After work, I headed to downtown to meet up with my friends. We browsed the art supply store, and had Japanese food for dinner, then walked around for a while before going back home. It was quite a fun day. Too bad it meant I had less time for my drawing. >.< By the time I reached home, it was already quite late.

I turned on my computer and continued on this piece. (previous blogs : #1, #2)


I finished the rough guideline for coloring, highlight and shading. Hopefully I can finish the whole thing by tomorrow. I doubt so though, as I also got another appointment tomorrow's evening.

Will try my best.

The journey will begin again tomorrow. :)

Anime Cat Girl (Work in progress #2)

Today I had a lunch party in the office.

My Filipino colleagues cooked their national food and brought to the office. One brought rice. I brought 2 big bottles of soft drink to join in. It was pretty tasty, and we had fun. After we finished the meal, we decided that we will organize a lunch like this once a week. Can't wait for the next time! ^^

Anyway, here's my addition for today.

Cat girl (still a work in progress lol)


An update from yesterday. Touched up her eyes and skin, and added some color guides. Haven't managed to finish it by today. Need to sleep already. >.< Booo....

I will bring my tablet to office tomorrow and see if I can finish it there.

The journey will begin again tomorrow! :)

Anime Cat Girl (Work in progress)

Today I woke up at 3:30 pm in the afternoon o.o

Last night I slept at 5:30 am in the morning, after battling with the realistic portrait I spent the whole night drawing. XD Please go take a look. Managed to get a good, long sleep at last, for the first time of the whole week. I will need energy for Monday, which I need to go back to office again.

Today I'm back to something simpler, Anime style drawing.

Here's a work in progress.


Sorry I haven't finished the piece. I will need time to rest. XD

The journey will begin again tomorrow! ^^

Fantasy DIgital Painting : Elven Sorceror

Today I was late to work. =( I didn't hear the alarm clock. Guess I was too tired. Haven't had enough sleep for the whole week. I guess I need to find a way to balance between sleeping, my work, and my drawing. XD Anyway, I'm so glad It's Friday. Went to have dinner at this great Japanese place called 'Standing Sushi Bar'. The food there was amazing. <3 Yum yum.

Just got a great news that I won an art contest in Roleplayer Guild Forum. =3 It's a nice community of great people that love play-by-post roleplaying. Be sure to take a look. Thanks to this forum, especially to the AOTM contest, it's actually one of the reasons I've been motivated to start drawing again. You can view other contestants' amazing artworks here.

This is the entry I've submitted to the contest.

 

The concept I picked was 'Magic'. The color scheme I chose for this piece is green and purple, contrasting colors. It's one of my attempt to draw something other than anime/manga style, and to practice myself in highlight & shading by limiting the colors I can use.

Actually the full picture looks like this. XD I cropped the piece before submitting to the contest, because the original size wouldn't fit in with the contest's legal image dimension.

Click to enlarge!

Today I've touched up a few parts in this illustration. Below is a step-by-step snapshots for the illustration progress =D

Click  to enlarge! Or view on a seperated window here.

Hope you like the piece. The journey will begin again tomorrow! =)

P.S. I also made a forum signature for Baka Kitty today. :)

Baka Kitty (AKA Darren Lee) is now taking up a challenge by self-learning a violin despite his lack of musical background. His dedication and effort is admirable. He's blogging about his practice and progress daily here. Be sure to take a look and it would be invaluable for any feedback you guys can give him to help him improve his skill. Thank you in advance. Wish you all a great day! XD

A Girl with Coffee

Drew this during lunch break in my office. :)
Wacom Tablet & Photoshop ^^


Actually I wanted to touch it up more when I got home, but my eyes hurt and I can't focus properly. I think these few days I haven't had enough sleep. x.x

Anyway, the journey will begin again tomorrow. ^^ Thanks for reading!

Mensa's Finger Food Platter - Colored!

Hi there! :)

Today I brought a set of Copic markers to work, and colored the food platter drawing I did yesterday during my lunch break.




Took me around half an hour to do. Pretty fast. Haven't used Copic markers for so long it felt kinda weird to hold one now. I should be able to do better than this if I practice more, but right now the finished piece doesn't look so bad.

Came back home and had a wonderful dinner. I touched the piece up a bit with color pencils, then took a photograph of it and adjust the brightness in my computer.

Got a bit of time, so I did this as well XD





Thank you for your attention! :) The journey will continue again tomorrow! ^^

The Journey begins!

Hi there. My name is Rachta, and art has always been my passion since I was a child.

Although I would like to confess, that it's been almost a year, since the last time that I actually painted or drew anything. I would like to blame it on the new job I got, the stress, but there's no excuse to laziness or de-motivation.

A few days ago, it suddenly hit me, that illustration is my dream. I just want to draw and paint like there's nothing to worry, just draw it from my heart, the same as last time, again.

So that's why I create this blog to keep me drawing. I made a pretty challenging promise to myself, that I would draw at least 1 piece of artwork a day; something I always did last time when I was still in school, but failed to keep up when I started working. I will have to post my artwork in this blog everyday, no matter what.

And I intend to keep the promise.

So let's get started. =)



Yesterday I brought my tablet to office, and used my remaining lunch break trying to paint something.

I first came up with this.

A head of a girl. I continued on the color sketch, and stopped at the end of my lunch break, which is around 20-30 minutes later. The piece looked like this at that time.

And I just finish this piece today. =)

It's not the most refined piece, but I'm pretty satisfied with it. It's fun painting this one.

Finish the whole illustration in around 2-3 hours. Not bad. My speed has improved from last time. =) (which I would have taken all day to finish it)

I've been making snapshots of my whole illustration progress (it's a habit now), so here it is.

click to enlarge!

Thank you for reading until the last line. =) Any comment is appreciated!

The journey will continue again tomorrow.