Monday, March 17, 2014

Eric Ryan Workshop - Color and Creature Design


Last week I attended a free Eric Ryan workshop at the Art Institute. Here are some notes. 

Color - 
Eric taught color in a really interesting way. He talked mostly about "local" color. He would overlay color on a separate layer so he could change it as he went. After he got a couple of layers in, he was able to quickly create multiple iterations. The choice of the local color helps 

Uses of color
- Conveys information about the type of creature: blue = aquatic, stripes = camouflage/ aggressive. Shows personality and the type of environment he lives in. 

-indicates different materials. Soft underbelly vs thick hide skin vs horns vs eyes - they are all different materials. Use color to indicate that information.

- show focal point such as eyes. Complementary colors help us achieve that (purple/ yellow, green/ red)

- use 60/30/10 rule (big/ medium/ small) to design color. Have a larger base color, a small secondary color, and a small accent color. Don't have the ratios of color be equal. 



He adds the stripes in white on a separate layer. Then he changes it to a different color. And adds some details to it. Pattern is a great way for something to look complex with really little effort.

 Creature Demo
In this demo, he designs a creature from thumbnail to a rendering. 

 


 Rim Light
- catches the form, like calligraphy, goes into the form - not just outline. 
- faces that are perpendicular to light are brightest
- shows texture
- rounded forms - more rim light



Thursday, March 6, 2014

Name Painting - Frozen, Disney Princess, Pixar, Monsters Inc, Stitch, Aladdin, Superheroes, My little Pony, Mickey, Winnie the Pooh

I don't usually post my name paintings (name art) on my blog - but these are some of my personal favorites. My style has really evolved and grown since I stopped working at Disneyland 1 year ago. It was nice to really grow and experiment with the "name painting" art form.  I owe my improvement to a lot of my customers (store link) - they give me the great ideas, and really push me to do my best work. I'm really grateful to all my customers - especially the really picky ones! They are the ones who drive me the most crazy - but are also the ones who are responsible for improving my art form! lol

Hailey - Disney Princesses with Boo and Sally
KAILYN - Disney Princesses, and Vanellope von Schweetz (I love that movie).
Classic Disneyland style Name Painting + Elsa + Anna from Frozen

Classic Disneyland style Name Painting + Meg and Hercules (they don't do that)
LOVE - frozen theme
 
 
Frozen Theme Name Paintings
Jacob Name Painting with Monsters Inc, Peter Pan, Stitch and Buzz Lightyear!
Mary Poppins, Wall-E, Winnie the Pooh, Up, and Alice!
Aladdin themed Name Painting

My Little Pony Name Painting - Fluttershy

Super hero name paintings! 
Disney - Mickey Mouse name painting
Winnie the Pooh Name painting!