Only wilderness may tame me...

Good evening my puddin' pies, this is my final blog entry for this series. I do so hope you enjoy it. Though it appears to be a one panel depressing comic, I assure you it is not. All stories connected to these posts can and will be found on my parent blog; http://panduhgrafix.wordpress.com/about/  I know. Creative, right? On to the show!

Part 1

1. Thumbnails. For this single word of inspiration, I had a difficult time thinking of one thing that would illustrate 'Wild'. I didn't want to repeat others who thought the 'wild' was filled with JUST animals and people going out to parties. There is a softer side to the wild and I tried to implicate that with a solo polar bear. Mono-bear. Uni. Un. Just one bear. 


2. Draft sketching was the easiest and most fun out of all of these posts. Rather simple, right? Wrong. I love anatomy and study it of humans and animals. Getting an angle perfect enough to bring across the point that this bear isn't wandering, he's searching and wondering was hard, but done. 



3. Outlining and a hint of colour was bringing my bear to life in my eyes. If you've watched nature shows or even scoped google for images, you'd see that a polar bear when in an adult form isn't pure white.



4. More colour was added. A yellow hue to with a hint of brown on the under belly helped to round out this creature without having to add greys. It wasn't enough though.



5. Going back over a few of the lines that would be darker on the bear gave the impression of shadows. I contoured wherever I thought would be shadowed if light were to come from the upper left [corner].

Final

Too much blue? Not to me. The blue is to signify the cold and loneliness this polar bear feels as he treks through the blizzard conditions of the Frigid North. The wild is filled with more than just animals, people, and nature. It's sometimes filled with loneliness.


Though this was my last post. It will only be my last for a short while. I will post in bursts, my works and my stories. The inspiration for all things Panduh. The results for all things me. I've let you all in on my process and thoughts and do hope you like what you've seen. 

Farewell for now, my friends. Until I return. Thank you for reading.

~Panduh 

Mr. Peanut is getting old

 I recently became an owner of a new pair of glasses (I had lost a previous pair) and thought it'd be a laugh to let you all see what I look like with them. That's not what this blog is for though! So, to go along with the theme of 'Spectacles', I bring you Mr. Peanut in need of a thicker monocle OR a pair of glass all his own.

Part 1

1. Thumbnails. This process was relatively simple. Just focusing on one character made it easy to think of a single pose. Since this weeks word was 'Spectacles', I wanted the focus to be on his make-shift glasses; essentially two hand held monocles.

2. I sketched out the pose I liked best, on another sheet of sketchbook paper then with a sheet of Carbon paper I traced my sketch onto a 9x 12 sheet of peterborough board. 

3. After the sketching, I took to my gouache paints and 'blocked' out his body.

4b. After the paint dried, I retraced his monocles, mouth, and cane.

5. After painting the rest of his body, I used fine liners to outline the details

 Part 2: Digital 

6. I used quick selection and command + J to create a new layer with the selection.

7. Clicking on the image in the layers tab, I selected Mr. Peanut and brightened the entire selection.

8. After introducing a background of peanuts, I used the Gaussian Blur filter to 'unfocus' the image.

9. I then add a drop shadow overtop to allow a bit of depth.

Final

Mr. Peanut has gotten very old and is in need of new glasses. Just to give you a taste of what he sees even with his two monocles, things are still quite blurry.

I hope you had a laugh or at least a smile at this one. My next blog will be the final in my first series of Conceptually yours. 

'Untamed'  is your clue! Let your imaginations run rampant with ideas!

 

Wish you were here...

Hello again, puddin' cups! I'm finally back after a hiatus filled with projects. I would like to present to you the third instalment of my story-like piece inspired by the word, "Sky". 

Due to the complexity and number of steps to create this piece, I'll be posting the end results of some steps of my process. Also, the photo that I've incorporated into this image was rendered using photoshop and reference to a real photo of a friend of mine. With her permission, I was allowed to use her photo as reference and to respect her wishes of anonymity; I have not taken pictures of the process of recreating her photo. 

Part 1: Thumbnails and components

1. Thumbnails; the hardest part was deciding a proper perspective and what to focus on. My first thoughts were to include a person and try to focus on them. I then rethought the entire image and decided to have only one 'person' in the image.




2. (3.) After I created the image to be in the photo frame, I needed to incorporate a background that would appropriately create a 'romantic' feel. I played with a few filters after finding an image I liked on google, resized, cropped, and then used the 'Cutout' filter to create a vector like feel.




3. I then placed the rendered image of my friend over the background, resized and decided to add a gradient that would highlight her eyes.



4. To create the frame, I used the shape tool and made a single thin yellow rectangle and replicated it 3 more times. After making the shape of the frame, I merged the layers and then added a few effects as noted in the screenshot.


 
5. Final Photo. This was the main component, not that it'd be as large as it is now.

 Part 2 Digital completion

 

6. To make the overall piece a bit more dynamic, I took my background and skewed it.



7. Another component was the plane. After using quick selection and command + J to create it on a separate layer, I  reduced the opacity to help it appear as more of a reflection on the background. 



8. Though the plane would be barely seen, I didn't want the harsh edges to be what people focused on. I used the palette knife filter. 



9. Another portion was the counter top on which the photo would rest. After creating the counter top, I used the Dark Strokes filter to help it look a bit more like marble. 

Final!

This is the final.  The photo on the counter has a drop shadow and I hope it can be understood as to why I did so much for the photo itself. I couldn't have just any blurry image. It wouldn't make sense to me and the story.  


I feel that it came together well and do hope you like my first all digital piece (not including thumbnails).

Stay tuned for my NEXT post. "Glasses" is your clue!! 

Deities among us; Artistically speaking of course

Myths: The inspiration of faith and inner strength

Myth: A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities of demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.

As stated, a myth could be something of fact or fiction. We'll never really know what truths exist about certain stories and which parts of a story are embellishments. It is the lack of 'proof' that is wonderful about a myth. We can let our imaginations soar. There are mythical beasts which are now being linked to creatures of present times that, through  simple flourish of imagination were thought to be horrible creatures of the sea!

The Kraken for example, is thought to be the giant squid. A creature in the depths of the ocean which is rarely seen LIVE by human eyes. 

Speaking of rarely seen, I now bring my second project. Following along with my "Conceptually thinking through story telling" stream, I would like to bring to light one of my personal favourite myths of Hinduism. A single line appeals to my reference and inspiration for this piece.

"Realizing the true power of Surya (the Sun God) as an all-knowing teacher, Hanuman orbitted Surya and requested Him to become his teacher."

You can read the rest of this at: http://www.dollsofindia.com/library/hanuman/  

Part I: Sketches to Medium

Step 1: Of course, I start with a pencil sketch. I had the idea of what I wanted. The audience looking UP at Hanuman as he makes his way towards Surya, the sun. The difficulty was creating a flowing perspective which also conveyed that this IS Hanuman. I had no references save for superhero shots, but even then I had to piece them together. 

Step 2: I then took the sketch and made a 'Carbon Copy' onto water colour paper. I literally got a piece of carbon paper [a pack of 10-20 small sheets from the dollar store; when things were still only a dollar] and traced my image on to the paper.

Part II: Making it permanent & adding the colour: water colour that is!

Step 3: I used black acrylic ink (FW), the same brand as in my first piece and outlined Hanuman. I needed the edges to be crisp and remain true for when I add the water colour. I learned from my first piece that Ink -India Ink, does wonders for keeping lines safe from water.

Step 4: I did a basic wash using Yellow Ochre to give a base for Hanuman's tanned skin. I let it dry for an hour before beginning to add the actual colour. 

Step 5: I added the first layer of a watered down Burnt Umber in areas where I would develop a shadow. I wanted to create depth and dimension on his body. This step took numerous layers and hours of waiting since, painting over still moist water colour would actually remove the pigment (in my experience).

Step 6: The final image before I began my digital additions. I attempted to include the background I imagined in my head and later decided that a digital adjustment would harbour better results. I added a bit of Titanuim white while the image was dry and gave areas a sort of highlight.

Part III: Digitally in favour

Step 7: I masked the main image out using the free mask tool in Photoshop. I then hit Command + J to create a new layer of just Hanuman (I had to turn off the original layer in order to take this screen shot and see what I was working with). 

Step 8: Since I wanted to focus on just the background, I turned off the Hanuman layer and then googled an image that I could modify to have planetary bodies in the background and imported it into a different layer.

Step 9: I stretched and moved the image as I wanted it to look. There was empty space on the left and bottom, to which I then used the clone tool and filled up with the original space image.

Step 10: I created a circle shape on a new layer and had it appear half on page and half off. I then added an outside glow. This sun didn't seem like enough, so I once again went to google and found an image.

Step 11: Using the image I found from google, I made the shape I had created into a selection by hitting Command + 'clicking on the tile image in layers'. I then made an adjustment mask. 

Step 12: After having masked out the 'Sun', I used the clone tool once more to add some solar flares, giving a slightly more realistic look to the sun itself.

Step 13: After turning all layers on, the traditional image and digital image looked obviously disjointed. I decided to add a filter to help create unity and make everything look a bit less 'different'.

Step 14: I went to 'Filter > Artistic' and clicked on one technique. This window popped up and I went through each before I settled on Palette Knife.

Step Done!: The final product and result of the filter. The painterly effect, I feel brings a better unity to the entire piece. The digital additions seem less digital and more like blotched water colour.

I hope you enjoyed the second piece of my Conceptual tasks. You'll have to come back in a few more weeks for the third piece! Want a clue? 

...Flight.

I am methodical, I am Logical, I am Panduh and this is Aquatical!

Hello lovelies!

I've finally finished the sketches for Primal Aquatica and am ready to share it with you. To explain this, you must get into my head...but beware, things are dangerously cluttered. Since there are numerous components to this first piece, I attacked each part separately.

Part I of Primal Aquatica

Mermaids

The first sketch of my mermaids will help discern perspective. Since she will be dragging a sailor with her, I'll be setting her within a 'second' field of layers...She won't be in the foreground or background, but in between the two.

Mermaid 2 is swimming up for a fresh meal of sailor. She may be in the distance to help convey vertical depth.

By far, my favourite of the three mermaids! A male sailor clinging to 'his' mermaid, not for life...but for the lustful intentions he has [being a man at sea for so long]. This pair will be in the foreground if only to illustrate the idea that mermaids aren't just beautiful, but deadly as well. With his arms around her, she holds him to her breast in hopes to send him to his watery grave a happy man. On a bitter note, she may then devour the poor man. 'Tis the life in such a twisted chaotic tale as weaved together in my mind.

The lack of detail in these mermaids was purposely done so that I could do all of it when painting. I will not follow so closely, the flow of hair if it is drawn. I feel as thought the hair should be lofty in the ocean; spreading and swirling about. Though I would be able to sketch that, I feel as though it would ruin any visual I have in my mind when it comes to painting the hair. Conflicting visuals of that nature stress me out to the point where I would stop for a little while before attempting it again. I haven't any time to waste, so I will forgo anything that isn't necessary to my process.

The Kraken  

I first needed to understand how I would show the Kraken above AND below water without the entire piece looking odd. Since it would be Kraken who would both help create vertical and horizontal depth, I had to vaguely sketch what I wanted to see. Numerous tries...I continually forgot a basic principle: Refraction.


  (thanks to shaddybaby for this photo) A perfect example of what all of my sketches of the Krakens tentacles was missing.

Finally, I've figured out the problem and now have an idea of how I want the tentacles to look. I must not forget 'refraction' when painting.

The tentacles were the easy part. I was now tasked with creating a 'mouth' for this demon of the sea. Teeth and a sphincter. The conical curved shape will also help with the perspective. The difficulty I had with Kraken was simply the refraction. I couldn't figure out how to draw the tentacles to give distance. In all honesty, I should've started solving this problem because after it, everything else was easy.

Cthulhu 

A brash figure of nightmarish proportions. Though you may not have heard of him, many underground 'nerds' and followers of H.P. Lovecraft have...and they've paid homage to this obelisk of terror time and time again. The hard part was doing something NOT already done. Needless to say, I had a lot of reference material. I decided to go the route of, 'less is more'. A giant hand reaching out towards the ship as it is being tormented by the Kraken. In the distance, you see Cthulhu's head and shoulders whilst the rest of him is shrouded by mists. 

The ship

A simple sketch of a ship that will be broken down and torn to pieces. The reason as to why it is whole instead of shattered and splinted in the water, is because things it is easier for me to take away what is there rather than to add what is not. If I had sketched this ship in a 'hole-y' state, with broken masts and hull, I wouldn't know what to add or what it would look like if I needed to provide a more realistic 3D view.

Thumbnails 

  In this first thumbnail, I've arranged the characters on the page just as I had imagined them in my mind [sans land]. It was much easier to do these thumbnails now that I had a solid grip of what I wanted each component to look like. I didn't include the shore as I had previously stated because I think it would take away from the idea of leagues of ocean. To properly play with 'Ocean', I had to ignore the thought of land and focus more on the crashing of waves beating against the ship as it's ravaged by the Kraken. The sailors on board have their minds being tormented by Cthulhu as it reaches towards them with a menacing hand. The gravity of the situation dawns on very few of the men who take their chances in the ocean with the ambush killer beauties who 'save' the men from their hell in Primal Aquatica. The mermaids must avoid the whipping of the Krakens tentacles to get their prizes, but are in awe of the mythical equine created from the white waters as they spring from the ship. The unicorns are the serene end to this sordid tail of fantasy woe. The turmoil each person envisions on their journeys over the oceans come to an end at the tip of a unicorns horn.


In this second thumbnail, the only major change is the wave of unicorns. Instead of them coming from the ship and a few from tentacles, they'd all be the result of waves crashing back on the oceans surface.




I chose to roughly detail each character to give me a better idea of how things will look once I put it all together on my 22 in x 30 in slice of 200lb Water colour paper. "Why suck a weight?" you ask. It is because I plan on mixing my media. Not only will I use water colour. I will be using FW brand Acrylic Inks as well as pencil crayon. The reason for this oceanic scene is to encourage questions. "What is that squid?" "Who's that giant hand belong to?" "Unicorns came from waves?!" and so on. This first piece is to illustrate the chaos that ensued in novels before Disney. Nightmares as created by amazing authors whose stories were inspired by reality will hopefully be harmoniously composed in my first portfolio piece done in all traditional media.

Part II of Primal Aquatica: 

I am proud to say the piece is finished. With a bit of help from Photoshop, P.A. is everything I thought it would be! The darkness that is increased with a reduced saturation to the actual glowing of Cthulhu's eyes...everything seems to be haunting. In all honesty, I was a fed up with not wanting to touch the piece after I had painted it. I wanted to keep drawing, even use pencil crayons! I had to stop though. I had to move on and finish since I have more on my plate to devour. Without further ado or words, for that matter- I would like to introduce you...gradually, to Primal Aquatica:

Before embarking on this task of painting my chaotic fantasy, I set out my supplies. A set of FW Acrylic inks, Reeves Water colours set, my personal set of brushes, the canvas, and latex gloves for the inks.

The first step was to sketch out my concept. I decided to use non repro-blue pencil for this thinking that the marks wouldn't be seen through the layers and the lines wouldn't smudge, thus fudging up the crisp colours I'd be using. It was a good idea until I took a photo. The image I'm most proud of is Cthulhu, the best outlined object in this photo. 

The next step was to do a basic wash. I divided it between the ocean and the sky, choosing for the skies  a green to create a sickly atmosphere. After this wash, I realized the tone was very bright and not as gloomy as I had wanted. I moved on to my next step all the while thinking of how I could 'de-saturate' this without ruining the canvas or the mucking up the shapes painted. It was at this point that I decided I would use Photoshop to fix and add details I couldn't by hand. 

I then began to 'flesh' out the demons. The Kraken, I decided to use inks with the pure thought that the pearlescent quality would give the kraken a rather dull yet shimmering appeal. This creatures colouring 'pops' too much for my liking. Cthulhu was done in water colour. He too, pops far to much. 

Part III: Digital upheaval!

The entire piece was far too vibrant to get the 'gloomy' chaotic feeling across. After I added the mermaids and crashing waves, I took a photo and started my digital assessment and adjustments.

Before I did my colour adjustments. It was dark, but not gloomy enough. I still had a lot of the colours coming through.

Post-adjustment. I desaturated a bit, reduced the brightness, and a few other things. This was the 'base' for my digital additions.

Part IV: Taking care of my Photoshopping List

I began with the clone tool and started to remove the ink lines I had first used to define the Kraken. The clone tool was best for this since it kept with the consistency of colour wherever the 'spotter' was and it didn't pixelate the sections like overuse of the 'patch tool' would.

After the line removal, I had to add the unicorns. After googling reference images, I used the brush tool, eraser, masking tool, and even duplicated layers to add the promising unicorns as they were birthed from the waves. I reduced the opacity at points to try to make them blend in a bit.

I then started to work section by section, fixing up or adding details. I masked out a certain area where Cthulhu's body would be shrouded by the mist and then Filter > Render > Clouds. I made sure to keep my pallet as close as possible to the actual colours of the sky background; picker tool on the green. 

Reducing the opacity of the mist was followed by enlarging the twisted tentacles of Kraken. I needed to   fill the empty space to the left of the piece without adding anything distracting. After masking and creating a new layer via copy, I increased the size of Krakens tentacles. 

After lowering the volume of my music...I started working in on Kraken's sphincter. Where the 'mouth/beak' would be, I needed to add depth. With 3 layers, I filled in from light to dark and shaped a 'mouth' where its food would enter.

Quite possibly my favourite part of the entire process was creating Cthulhu's eyes. One layer, hitting command+the layer meant I was able to fill in JUST its eyes without worrying about colouring onto the face. This was just colours and brushes. As you can see in the highlighted layer, there are no 'Fx'. 

The final piece. Once all the layers were merged, I added gradients along the edges to help frame the action. Because of the digital additions, I wanted to create unity. Filter > Texture> Texturize. 

Fini!

Though this single piece took me about 5 weeks to complete, I feel as though it was a job well done. I'm happy with the turn out and hope that you like it too! The NEXT adventure springs from Myths. Stay tuned for the follow up to Primal Aquatica! I promise it won't take as long as this one. 

Thanks for being so patient, lovelies!

~Panduh~