Long time no Post..... And might be a bit longer :(

Hey All, sorry I haven't posted in a while but I've got a legit reason, I promise ;) My computer is currently visiting the mysterious land of the after life so currently I haven't been able to do any digital work :( Here's the good news, I have been reading up on my Caricature drawing stuff, so I will bring you all some of my practice stuff to look over (nothin but black marker hehe :)) it will be facial feature by feature so I'll decide and surprise ya'll next time. Also the Character Hierarchy of Design study will be put on hold for a bit for more exploration that I'm doing in the realm of Caricature which is a BROAD level of realism. So just letting you all know I still exist in the land of the living lol. Till next time ya'll Stay Roge /;)

The Good the Bad and the BROAD!

Hey everybody and welcome back to another post. I'm your host Joel. Today we are going to be covering the 3rd level in the Character hierarchy of Detail which is the "BROAD" level of design. As I went over briefly in the last post the BROAD level of designing characters is meant for Exaggerated cartoony takes. A great and widely accepted example of this design level would be roughly all of Warner Bros animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, The Animaniacs , and all the other Toons in the Warner bros animated family. As one can tell from most of these characters the BROAD character has very big/exaggerated facial features for being "very" expressive as well as unique. I found this to be true in Caricatures as well. For those of you who don't know what a Caricature is, it is an exaggerated likeness of a person or object. An example of a Caricaturist, whom I happen to be studying right now, would be Lenn Redman. Because of this similarity between the BROAD level of Character design and Caricature I've decided to, from this month and beyond, to use Caricature as a grounds to bring forth this, and the further levels in the Character design Hierarchy. I feel this is a good practice for a lot of artists because when you study Caricature it teaches you to see the details and differences that make people and objects unique. Here are a few digital "Comic Faces" practice runs that I've been instructed to do, using one of the Grids illustrated within the book "How To Draw Caricatures" by Lenn Redman, in starting to learn how to draw Caricatures. For your guy's enjoyment :), remember it's my first time, be gentle haha. Till next time gang. Stay Roge /;)

New Month New Adventure

        Hey everyone! You miss me :) So I hope you all had a Happy Halloween this past Monday or pre-Halloween weekend for most of you hehe. This month like the last we will be continuing up the Character Hierarchy of Character Detail, and for some, reflecting on what it is that we are thankful for in our lives thus far. For me I'm thankful for a lot of things, that would sound kinda cliche in writing, but I'll give you guys one thing and that's that I'm thankful for just another day to be alive in this world, regardless of how chaotic it can be. The Sunny, the rainy, and all the days in between are all a blessing and they should be savored, especially with the ones we care about. Gmm mmmm now getting back to Art. This month I will be doing all my characters on the 3rd level in the Character Hierarchy of Detail which is BROAD. In most cases the characters in this level are meant to be used for very exaggerated reaction takes and visual humor. I'll go into more detail in the next post about this level of the hierarchy but until then here's something to keep your attention. Just a trio of quickly sketched examples of my interpretation of this level of design detail. Stay Roge /;)

Here it is All!!

     Greetings to all of you this afternoon. It's been a long road but here is the final Poster for this year's Halloween. Muwahahahahahaha!!!

Happy Halloween to you all. Be Safe out there Tonight!! Stay Roge /;) HmmHmhmhmhmhmhmmmmmmm...

Here's where we are so far

     Hey everybody! So this is the progress on the Halloween poster so far... I like it but there's still some things that I need to add to it.

Next we have the rough thumbnails of the Child elf leader concepts. I will choose my top 3 favorite thumbnails and use those to mock up some concept sketches.

     Hope ya'll like the new stuff and I'll be back with you all later. Oh by the way. For those of you who keep up with me on the regular you may have noticed new tabs at the top of my blog. These will be new pages for particular elements on the blog. At the current time some of them are blank but that will change in the relatively near future. So until then I hope you like this post and I'll be back with you guys later. Stay Roge /;) 

And The Winner is.....

You are in for a treat today everyone, I have "2" count 'em "2" pictures for you!! The first is the peoples choice for which color variation of the Halloween Poster that (the people who gave me feedback) chose. That would be option number "1" (round of applause)

The second is the winner is for the elf leader concept sketches I did last post. I though long and "kinda" hard about what feel I wanted to go for and I decided that the child leader concept that I made would be a good challenge as far as making an animated puppet goes, just for kicks :). I will be doing more thumbnails of this character so ill be going rougher than the first round. Now I'm going for a feel, of the characters personality through his or her appearance, now that I have a firm focus of what kind of character the leader will be (round of applause) 

I shall have the poster done by either this Friday or by the Day of Monsters (Halloween) Monday. Shooting for before then. So until next time ya'll. Stay Roge /;)

Pressing on...

Hey everybody.So here's what's goin down. I'm gonna continue my make shift "pole" for which pumpkin girl image I should use for the Halloween poster all the way until Monday so I will post the deciding image then. In the mean time I've done some "Elf Leader" rough drawings. These are just some basic ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Just for fun I wanna try and make an animatable puppet of one of these. Again people tell me what you think, and I hope you enjoy the images. Constructive critique always welcome:) Till next time ya'll. Stay Roge /;)

Halloween is almost upon us!

Hey everybody! So I decided to take a little break from doing work on "PROJECT SPIRIT" just for a bit of a change in pace. I'm doing a Halloween poster for 2011. I decided to go with a sort of pin up type of theme, I'm new to it so bare with me ;). I'm just trying to decide on the color placement. I decided to involve you guys, like I always do, to give your input and constructive feed back just to see what you all think. The color scheme is an Analogues scheme from the CMYK color wheel. Trying not to jump the gun and propel straight into the detail, of shadows, glows and all else, I put in the base colors for my current thoughts as far as placement and color harmony. Pick your favorite and tell why por favor. Hope ya'll like what I've got so far and I hope to here from at least ONE of you, but the more the.... oh forget it everybody come on!! haha. Till next time all you monsters out there. Stay Roge /;) MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!

  

Here's the Deal Guys....

     Hey Everyone! So here's what's going down. I've decided to limit my postings to just 2 a week. The reason I'm doing this is because I feel that if I have more time to exercise my artistic abilities I will be able to give you stuff that is of a higher caliber than what I have been. Don't get me wrong I'm working hard to try and have something good for you guys every few days, I'm just not satisfied with the level of quality I'm currently putting out. I feel you guys are worth me spending more time to give you something "Great." That being said, I will be posting new stuff on Mondays and Fridays now. Now on to some fun stuff, I have started looking into body types for the player character(s) in "PROJECT SPIRIT" and I decided to start with the Guys (just for the sake of familiarity) I'm starting with 3 basic forms Average, Big, and Skinny. I want your opinions on this just to see what everyone thinks. That means you all you character customization fanatics out there lol. So here's just a rough of those three forms. This project will be done in the Simple level of Character design detail. Hope ya'll like, and till next time. Stay Roge /;)

Heaven, Hell, and the Balance Between

Hey Gang! So here's what's going on, this post: I decided to do a few weapon concepts for "PROJECT SPIRIT." I don't know why but for some reason I thought Axes. So Anyway the way the order goes is from top to bottom Heaven, Balance, and Hell. These are just the first rough passes at this theme next I will probably break them off into their individual elements stated in the last sentence and do about 10 or so weapon concepts of this type, so keep that in mind for future concepts ;). I hope you guys like what you see and if you have any constructive critiques or ideas feel free to comment, it's always helpful to hear feedback. So until next time people. Stay Roge /;)

Very very Rough...

Here are those rough sketches I promised you guys a day and a half ago. These at the moment are VERY simple sketches illustrating what the rough character design is going to be for this project that I'm working on. The Idea is for a 2D side scrolling flash game. Right now the whole Idea is in the realm of the imaginative and random napkin sketches. A title is still in the works so for now the code name for this project will be PROJECT SPIRIT. That sounds pretty good no :). Anyway I hope you guys like these sketches and I should be back with more in the future, but for now enjoy the pic yah'll. Stay Roge /;)

The Window to the Soul

Heyyyyyyyyyy Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhh'lll!!! Haha Sorry about that, I just had an Andre 3000 moment :) Anyway, guys this post is gonna be just words this time. Sorry but I had a rather tough day on the stomach and its a bit hard to come up with "good" work when your body and mind aren't agreeing and in sync. However I have some good news! I will be doing concept art for an Idea that Struck me at work. Over the next day and a half I will work on the rough drawings. Sorry this post is kinda short, but I don't have much to say this time hehe. So until next time everyone :) Stay Roge /;)

(Hint) My project relates to this post title ;)

What is a SIMPLE level Character?

Back on our journey to ascend the Character Hierarchy tower of detail we began nicely with ICONIC, now we are coming up on level 2 SIMPLE. SIMPLE characters in the grand scheme of things aren't that different from the prior level. SIMPLE characters are usually very stylized like the ICONIC and are also just as graphic in simplicity; but the SIMPLE are more expressive "facially" than their predecessors. Most of the time this is the level of detail you will see in TV and Web cartoons. Examples of this level of character would be the old SONIC the Hedgehog, Dexters Lab, and Samurai Jack. I have taken the liberty of again giving you guys a visual of my interpretation of this detail definition. Hope you like them. Stay Roge/;)

Prepare for Level 2..... The Simple

 Muwahahahahaaaahaaaaaa. Hey there everyone. Last month I started on a theme and that was I was going to try and do things according to the levels of Character Design Detail. This month, the scariest month of them all, I will be doing things according to the 2nd level of the Character Design Hierarchy which is SIMPLE level characters. There for what better way to start than with a good vampire I thought :) In the next post I'll explain what the SIMPLE level of Character Design is. Until then all my night owls.... Stay Roge Muwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa /;)

Gold! Gold!! GOLD!!!! Oh how beautiful :)

What's up everybody. Continuing on in the realm of color manipulation and understanding I decided to bring a bit of "bling" to this blog. This is a shot that I took at making metal/things with metallic properties. I chose a color on my color wheel and it came out gold/yellow due to a reference image I was studying to get an idea of how metal responds/reacts to light. I've been really learning a lot in the past 2 weeks and I plan on bringing everything I learn to you all. Demonstrating to the best of my ability. Hope you enjoy this latest addition to the Gallery! Stay Roge /;)

Another Colorful Adventure

Hey Gang. So first post of the week. I thought I would delve further into the mysterious realm of color again. This image however is done with the CMYK color wheel unlike the last post which was an RGB color wheel jump off point. For those of you who don't quite get what I'm talking about an RGB color wheel is the basic color wheel that you learn from Kinder Garden and on; and the CMYK color wheel is the color wheel that, I believe, most printers work with to give you more of a variety of colors. Anyway that's a conversation for another time :). This week's first image was inspired by a friend of mine who said "There's no worse moment than when you finally have something you desire only to have it be taken away from you." I felt that everyone could relate a moment in their life to this saying, so I decide to use a somewhat classic image of  misfortune to portray it. Hope yah'll like it! Stay Roge /;)

If I could direct your attention to the Header Bar Please :)

    Hey Gang. So, so far this is the vision I have right now for a Header bar visual. This is also my first, in a long time, color scheme based images. Usually I just run with it but this time I thought I would concentrate on trying to make a kind of color harmony between the compliments of Yellow and Violet(Purple). Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Hope yah'll enjoy the latest renovation. Stay Roge /;)      

Baby Steps

Well this seems to be a good jump off point. I'm attempting to make my little space of cyber land here a welcoming and relaxing place to view my work rather than a grim dark void. Therefore with this change of color I feel I'm on the right path. I had a dream last night that gave me an idea for something to put on here but i have yet to figure out weather it will go with my theme of relaxation or not. Have you every had one of those dreams where you can manipulate an element? Well last night I dreamed that I could manipulate water at will! It was a really cool experience. Hydrokinesis I believe it's called. Imagine raising your hand and just doing that causes water to rise up in the shape of either a pillar or a wave just by you thinking it and directing it with just your hand. That's pretty much what it was like. Anyways sorry guys about not having a picture this week. I know how much you all like reading with pictures. I promise to have one next post. If not a part of the post, then a part of the blog maybe. Stay Roge /;) 

Due for Renovation

I decided, after contemplating some advice that I got from a viewer of my blog, to add some color and elements to brighten the place up a bit. You know make it more welcoming rather than a walk into a dark room which, to me, gives the wrong impression. Therefor for the next few days or so I will be working on things to liven up this little realm of space. keep on the look out for those changes I hope you guys like them. Stay Roge /;)

Quick Silhouette Test

This week I decided to end with a Silhouette test. I made ICONIC versions of my co-workers. 5 people this post and 5 more in a few days. I will reveal their forms in the coming weeks. The reason for this is because I have a couple of things to take care of this week so if the lake(blog) seems a bit ripple free in the coming days it's because the creative otter(me) is busy. Anyway I hope you like the shadow shot hehe. Stay Roge /;)

What is an Iconic Level Character?

As those of you who were here the other day, you know that I will be exploring the "Character Hierarchy of Detail"  and to kick things off nicely into a slow but fulfilling trip to the top of this lofty tower I thought we'd start at the 1st floor "ICONIC." An ICONIC character is one that is boarder line graphic in it's design. This means that it is made up of almost all basic shapes or variations of them. With this in mind this level of character, like in any character design level, needs to be recognizable/identifiable at a glance to know who they are (even as a silhouette which is basically a shadow). Some examples of this level of character design would be the Earily Micky Mouse from "Steamboat Willie"; Hello Kitty; or Kirby. Most of the time these characters have black orbs  for eyes and very little expressiveness capability. Since I know most of you like pictures when you read I've taken the time to make you a little animation of a character I made up just for this post. This is Suckle, he's a vampire bat, and he's happy to meet you. Hope you guys like him. Stay Roge /;)

Studying the Hierarchy of Character Detail

What up everybody! It's been a while. How are you guys? Sorry to have been away for so long but things have been really chaotic within, but now I'm letting my way be directed by the right source, the everlasting source, and now it's time to hit the ground running. I've been delving into my reference materials a lot lately and I've decided to take up a mission of sorts. I will be for the next couple of months exploring the Character Hierarchy of Detail as shown in Tom Bancrofts' book "Creating Characters with Personality." I have decided that each month I will exploring a level of the Character Hierarchy. This would consist of, going in order from simple to complex, ICONIC; SIMPLE; BROAD; COMEDY RELIEF; LEAD CHARACTER; AND REALISTIC. I will ascend to another level each month. My plan is to do at least 3 posts each week, so this, being the first, the next should be on Wednsday, and so on. These are two rough character turnarounds that I drew up last night of my spokes Character Roga and I. First Floor "ICONIC" Hope yah'll likes. Stay Roge /;)