Sketchbook: sacboi

sacboi

Hi there:

This thread will be about a selection of stuff I really dig and hopefully learn from as well.

Anyways first cab off the rank, a piece I've already made a start on via those Blender nerds, Aidy Burrows and Gleb Alexandrov's robo tutorial which for me has an intriguing workflow with a combined boolean and sub-d technique creating tight hardsurface mechanical shapes I've a penchant for, also I might add nicely presented too.

Blockout/Early Refining:

sacboi

Tinkering with non-destructive hard surface workflows.

 

sacboi

Exploring a 2D Portraiture workflow in Blender (2.77)

sacboi

Still researching a FOSS 2D painting alternative, at the moment experimenting with GIMP v2.10 over the last couple of weeks. Basically interested pushing the boundaries creating complex hard surface objects with precision in mind, too that end CS6 tutes are quite handy for highlighting specific workflow tool tips. So currently just a wip of my ride, a GMH 2002 VX Commodore V6 was actually waaay back in the day, an ex unmarked Police pursuit unit but sadly the go fast bits were removed prior to release for public sale : / she's also kind of a good luck charm, got me out of the shit when I was destitute/homeless in terms of travel once I'd eventually found work. Anyway she'll be a project car and the hope is getting her back too factory spec as funds become available.

Ref (front yard smartphone pic)

Current State (path tool selection, paint fill - blockout)

sacboi

Well, apparently there's more too drawing with curves than I'd initially thought...and then some O_o

So after peeping various resources, had eventually settled upon a proprietary budget option as opposed to a wholly FOSS paradigm simply to make the learning process less mind bending grindie-'ish for yours truly. However that said will definitely revisit an Inkscape vector workflow sometime in the foreseeable future once I've calibrated an intuitive, efficient, personal 2D 'painting with shapes' methodology which hopefully taking another crack at carrying *my ride* project above toward completion! that may or may not accrue  : ) 

Anyways, resulting output thus far over (on 'n off) 2 month tinkering 'under-the-hood' session/s

   

edit:

at the moment working on generating front & rear 3/4 views

rollin

Wait.. is this a vector image?

sacboi

Yes.

rollin

Then very well done!

sacboi

Cheers mate, thanks for that. 

though I'm thinking at this early stage, busting out those two further versions of the Porsche I'd mentioned above will not only test my noob level of 'competency' implementing this particular drawing technique but patience, as well...lol 

edit:

also here's the car's wip, I posted on the soft's forum I've been testing during the past mth's

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/108367-porsche-911-realistic-drawing/

sacboi

All righty then, managed to finish masking the refs for tracing the object (...to many other projects on the boil, really not enough hrs in a day, dammit! ) before making a start drawing the front & rear view of the Porsche. Just low res ones but not recommended if a 'photorealistic' aesthetic is the intended goal however these, like the profile side drawing will be more 'painterly' in aspect which I like better. Though can be a bit of a time sink, dependent upon skill level using this specific workflow to draw stuff.

Front 3/4 View: (Reference Preparation)

Rear 3/4 View: (Reference Preparation)

sacboi

Quick update: want to post before another power cut happens to strike (...been unseasonably warm here downunder, f'ing 'summer storms' drenching local electricity infrastructure plus we're about to hibernate for winter, which will further compound potential issues nationwide on top of this whole awful corona virus thing - ffs )

Anywaay regardless! it's important to note, that this vector drawing method is explicitly non-destructive, wherein the soft's layer stack is a sort of conventional 'modifier' system not unlike Max or Blender, when implementing procedural polygonal pre-sets.

So, including but not limited to Affinity's native 'Effects' suite i.e. Gaussian Blur, Shadow, Glow, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay...etc, or indeed calling various 'Actions' be it Transforms, Boolean, Fill, Stroke and so forth.

Front view body shell (Shape Blockout)

Rear view body shell (Shape Blockout)

sacboi

Completed shape blockout:

sacboi

Beginning to draw & further (Define Additional Shapes)

sacboi

Continued refining of shapes & shading:

sacboi

Wasn't that satisfied with the rear view shape at all, so silly me decided to change the angle of perspective and over a month's hard graft later, grinding out drawing a WHEEL because I'd simply liked it's design...O_o

Current State:

Vector Outline: (a blinking 'spaghetti junction' of curves)

New Masked Background Reference:

sacboi

Was playing with SculptGL today, after taking a well earned breather from vector drawing cars.

Pretty neat little free web based app, that can be launched in any browser or from a standalone zipped directory which is not only useful and very cool but because I've a low end PC so in turn was then able too sculpt a fairly high rez triangulated object for the first time without encountering lag or crashing:

Anyways, my attempt at making a 'blob' like SciFi helmet thingy, literally riddled with alpha's

Edit:
Alpha pack by JRO Tools - https://gumroad.com/l/paTzK

sacboi

Got hung up tweaking a few things whilst still grappling with layer management, especially shading the main body shell before moving on too final completion of both drawings...gotta say has been a proverbial journey into purgatory getting my head around this particular 2D workflow over the last two months though all the same, full on determined to nail it.

sacboi

Ok then nearly there, only one or three remaining finishing touches to sort out prior to starting on completing the front view as well, with a slightly more optimised seamlessly acquired...lol, personalised technique progressively built upon over these past months

Current State:

Vector Outline:

Also thinking about additional inclusion of a possible wet environment reflection effect alongside bloom/glare for this "masterpiece's", rear light cluster.

Anyway, some refs to serve as inspiration.

Ashervisalis

Never knew a vector drawing could look so close to a rendered model! Looks great man.

sacboi

@Ashervisalis thanks mate, overall a fun 2D approach which basically depends a bit on how light or heavy one gets with gaussian blur

sacboi

Quick update, made a start on the lights which btw the one element of this entire project I could literally go nuts with Affinity's effects suite without the hassle of cleaning up shit color gradients or blending values...otherwise so far like the result.

sacboi

Added some extra bits, probably rework a few areas until finally finishing off a complete under cover parking environment, I've in mind for this piece.

sacboi

On the home stretch - yippy! - an initial environment blockout and at the moment fiddling about with colour gradients before going for it...

Ashervisalis

Hey, I feel you need to desaturate this coloured part, it's really sticking out at the moment. Also, the red circle within the blue circle, there are 3 different colours. I think you could make that inner strip a little darker. The marker bulb in front of the front right tire looks like it could use a slight bit more complexity according to the reference. Looking forward to seeing the environment!!!

sacboi

@Ashervisalis

Thanks for the feed back, also funnily enough those area's were the ones giving me a bit of a headache just prior to posting that latest update, since I decided too darken the overall shading (re-set opacity & gaussian blur effects) plus now thinking on it, may well add a vector or two when also taking into account various background sources of light, so I'll certainly have another look.

Cheers. 

sacboi

Continued work on various background scene elements.

sacboi

Ah! what a nice surprise, just noticed my little vector project got front paged kinda makes me feel quite chuffed after all the ups and downs experienced throughout getting this illustration too at least it's current state, so needless to say I'll continue plowing ahead until completion...hopefully soon'ish.

Thanks Team

Seenax

this looks great. I can only imagine the amount of work that went into this. it looks amazing! aside from what Ashervisalis mentioned above, I feel like the left tail light looks more like a sticker than a proper tail light. hope you don't mind me altering it a bit in photoshop to make my point. great work nonetheless! Can't wait to see it finished

sacboi

@Seenax

Thank you, as always crits are more than welcome and I agree with your advice which btw nice looking edit on that light. In fact I'll probably make use of as a reference when converting the effect with perhaps an overlayed color gradient or something in order to convey a sense of 'depth', alongside other likely areas of the car to be eventually re-worked and/or further additional tweaks, as well.

Cheers.

Seenax

Glad you find it useful

sacboi

Calling this done!

Pixel (Vector) Veiw

Segment (Curves) Outline View

Ashervisalis

10/10 would drive

Good job man! Do you use this skill in a professional setting?

sacboi

@Ashervisalis

Thank you, means a lot and professionally I've limited experience in other mediums but still finding my way with this particular workflow which I'll attest for me at least is rather challenging, perhaps on par learning how too draw freehand on paper

sacboi

Since I've been trip'n on this whole vector 2D illustration thing throughout the past year, learning the process or more specific 'proof of concept' it's viability as a legit digital drawing technique, so thought it'll be neat too round off this unintended artistic sojourn with some good 'ole character fanart.

At this point I'm pretty much hooked on The Mandalorian space western web series, screening over on Disney+ - created by Jon Favreau. Now my goal is to execute at least 4x portraits of just a few principle chars from the show:

"The Child" (Baby Yoda)

Din Djarin (Mandalorian)

IG-11 (Bounty Hunter Droid)

Kuiil (Former Indentured Servant) - which incidentally was dialogued by Nick Nolte

Therein again entirely utilizing vector curves and/or Affinity Designer's pixel brush tool - Persona, oh! and by the way I'd also given myself the cutoff date of December 24th, 2020 for completion. Heh...in a matter of weeks, HUGE! call considering my normal work rate is practically 'glacial'. Anyway looks like "Warp Factor 5" from here on in, lol. 

Current Progress

Base Colour Blockout:

Curves Outline:

Beginning Initial Detailing:

Note:

Yeah, I know the ref mask rez via a video screencap leaves much to be desired however I'm only interested in capturing at this stage, the proportional facial volumes/forms so imo good enough.

sacboi

Update - Getting there, with further facial definition and I reckon shading is coming along nicely:

Segment Outline:

Persona Raster Brush Tool:

Will be interesting using Affinity's pixel brushes for texturing, once the overall portrait's main features are finalized so really looking forward to gauge the expected result's for myself.

EDIT:

...and who said you can't draw with a mouse

sacboi

A few grunge & basic brush tests.

sacboi

Done for today, probably wrap this up next session:

sacboi

First Portrait Complete.

Which was fairly straightforward, less fiddly than initially thought and not bad if I may shamelessly say so myself

Next one up, IG-11 mech...

sacboi

Update - Really apparent that this technique lends itself quite nicely to hard surface:

Base Colour Blockout:

Curves Outline:

sacboi

sacboi

Head is moving along at pace and should finish up shortly, as well. Perhaps in hindsight at this rate the self imposed time frame toward completion may've been a tad generous.

Bramski

Really nice work, mate!

sacboi

@Bramski Thank you.

Ashervisalis

Yoda turned out quite nicely!

sacboi

Thanks mate

Figurative drawing using this method, particularly if combined with raster brushes can be a bit 'finicky' in terms of staying focused, concentrating on trying to capture the subject's personality alongside technical aspects as opposed to a lesser extent, illustrating hard surface content.

EDIT:

Ashervisalis said:

Yoda turned out quite nicely!

Oh! and it's not Yoda, these portraits are derived from the Mandalorian web series so his name is actually 'Grogu' which was finally revealed recently in ep 5 season 2, now currently screening over on Disney+

sacboi

Dave Prowse

A Tribute

To mark the passing of the man behind the mask.

Born 1935 - Died 2020

Vale

sacboi

Second Portrait Complete:

IG-11 - "The commission was quite specific, the asset was too be terminated..."

Ashervisalis

Is this last one from Star Wars too?

sacboi

Yeah, but specifically the Mandalorian expansion and this one is a bounty hunter droid.

Had set myself the challenge of drawing 4 character portraits from the series by Christmas eve, in the hope of increasing my work rate painting with vectors.

Ashervisalis

How easy is it to edit the shapes if you were super close to the image being done?

sacboi

It depends! (sorry )

Just from my limited experience working with this technique, I've noticed hard surface objects are slightly less of a hassle to edit, regardless of the stage a particular drawing would happen to be at, as apposed too chars/organic stuff which can be a time sink especially if raster layers are in there, as well. So I think that's the 'trick' wherein layer management is key when using curves to draw with.

edit:

Also, that Darth Vader tribute was relatively an 'easier' drawing to finish end-to-end so far, since it's workflow is exactly the same as the Porsche i.e. shading & reflective highlights etc.