Hey folks. So my "How To Draw Elephants" packet is now on my brand new website at creatureartteacher.com Please go to my site and go to the Digital Downloads section to download the packet. It’s everything you need to know about drawing elephants! I’ll also be including walk cycles in the coming weeks. Thanks so much for the support!
Old Animation Design Drawings
These are a few life drawings I did of tigers in preparation for creating Rajah from Aladdin |
The next few were from early in the design process |
Here is where I finally hit the design that ended up in the film. |
These are few life drawings I did from lions that were brought into the studio at the beginning of production on The Lion King |
These next few sets of drawings I did were from the design process of creating Young Nala |
These drawings are from creating the Ancestral Ghosts from Mulan |
These were little pen and marker thumb-nails I created in trying to find different compositions for a mountain climbing scene in Brother Bear. |
A collection pen drawings creature/elf ideas
These are a collection pen drawings from several years ago that I drew over a few days as I brainstormed hidden creature/elf ideas
Continue reading A collection pen drawings creature/elf ideas
The Legend of Tembo – Here are some concept paintings and character designs I created during the Development of The Legend of Tembo
These images are from a film I was co-directing called “The Legend of Tembo”. I am always deeply involved in the design of the films I am directing. I try to create the images that I am trying to explain to people on the crew. I feel it is much better to show than to explain. It gives a clearer picture to the Art Director, modelers, lighters, and animators. This cuts down tremendously on the number of iterations needed to achieve whatever it is we are shooting for this in turn eases the impact on the budget of the film.
Legend of Tembo Pencil Test
Here are a few old Mulan designs I found…
Here are a few drawings from when I was doing some design work at that beginning of Mulan. I ultimately was the supervising animator for Yao and the Ancestors but I helped on a number of different things in the beginning. These were a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the charcoal. This is not even a fraction of the hundreds of drawings I did.
Here is a brand new oil painting I just finished this morning. It is 30"X60" I’ve included a progression.
Here is a new oil painting I just completed as a commission for a private client. I’ve included a step by step process. .
It starts with me doing a digital comp in photoshop. I can easily work out all of my compositional problems at this stage. |
I then print out my image and grid it so that transfer to the large canvas is quicker and easier. I grid the canvas the same way and begin to transfer the drawing. |
Ugh!! A blank canvas…such a long road ahead! |
Continuing on the drawing… |
The finished rough sketch on the canvas. Although I want a fair amount of detail in the drawing, I’m not trying to make it look pretty at this point. |
Now it’s time to start painting. Here I’ve started with the face of the male lion. |
I continue into the mane. Notice that I apply my darks first then work lighter. |
As the head of the lion began to develop, I felt it was time to start laying in the background to get the lion to sit in it’s environment. |
I then jump back to the lion and continue with the mane and roughing in his body. |
After adding more texture and interest to the background, it’s time to start work on the lioness. |
Here I’ve finished with the lioness and have gone onto the finishing touches in the foreground and background grasses. |
Here I’ve posed with the painting thinking I was done. The next day though after looking at it, I decided to add a few more darks in the tall sprigs of dried grass. |
“Protecting the Queen” 36″X48″ Oil on Canvas |
I painted this Great Blue Heron after waking this morning and watching him from my bedroom balcony. It’s painted in CS6 and I’ve included the steps taken in producing it.
I start with a warm midtone back ground. |
I then add a level and set it to multiply and add various textures. This will come in handy when I paint the algae covered rocks. |
Here I’ve created another level and have roughed in the drawing. It’s important to have good reference! |
Here I’ve created yet another level and set it to multiply to retain the texture underneath and roughed in the local color. |
Here I’ve created a level under the drawing layer and layed in the basic water color and value. |
This was a slight adjustment, but I didn’t like the angle of the head so I brought it down a little and fixed the beak. I also lightened the body of the heron a bit. |
Now it’s time to start roughing in color. It’s also the stage where I start to pull out some of the detail. |
I continue this on the rocks. I also roughly lay in the color for the dead grasses. |
Here I’ve created another layer for laying in final details. I go back and forth between my rough color layer and my final detail layer constantly. |
Here I went back to my final detail layer and continued on with the heron and the rocks. |
Here I finished things off by working out the grasses. I also darkened the bottom of the piece to balance it out a little better. |
I intended the piece to look as if the heron was fishing but I felt it still lacked a little of the “story” aspect to it, so I added the ripples of a fish just having hit the surface. |
Here’s a couple of sketches done using the new pencil brushes in CS6. I love them. Very natural feeling…AND you can control their softness so that they actually erode!
Here is a new Photoshop creation and the steps taken to create it.
I start with my rough sketch on it’s own level on a mid tone background. |
I then lighten the rough sketch, then create a new layer and refine the drawing. |
Next I create a layer under the drawing layers and lay in my local color. Local color is the color of an object in neutral lighting. |
I now add a layer on top and start to lay in my light areas. I generally grab the local color with the eyedropper then lighten and warm the color for the lights. |
I often like to add a secondary light source. It adds interest and helps describe the form more. |
Here I’ve continued with my deeper darks and I’ve started to lay in some mottling in the skin around the eye. |
Here I’ve decided a wanted a very realistic eye. I took a picture of my own eye then lassoed it and dragged it over and added it to the illustration. |
Here I’ve added a layer of particulate in the air and started to play with the focus. I’ve also added a layer of out of focus foliage in the foreground. |
The finishing touch is adding a layer of grunge texture set to multiply. I like the feel that it gives the illustration. |
Here is a new photoshop character creation. I’ll be demonstrating my techniques at the Photoshop World Conference in Orlando, Florida on April 17-19
A new character design done today in Photoshop.
The King of the Elves -Elves/Hidden Creature designs.
These are a series of characters I designed for a film I was developing a few years ago. Creating fantasy creatures like these is a joy for me. When I was young growing up in the Everglades of south Florida I spent a large amount of time out in the swamps and forests drawing and painting. I often imagined that there were creatures there that I couldn’t see. I’d like to add that these were all done well before Avatar.
I love painting gulls. Here is a new step by step of a pair of Laughing Gulls I digitally painted last night.
So, once again I like to start with a textured, toned background. This is several watercolor textures I have in my files layered and set on multiply over a warm tone. |
Next,I played with the textures a bit more and roughed in the gulls. |
I wanted to play with warms and cools in this piece so I next layed in a blue gradient tone. I also added shadow tones in the foreground for composition. The gulls also got shifted up a bit. |
Because of the feather detail, I decided I wanted to tie the drawing down, so I turned the texture levels off so that I could see the drawing layers better and begin to tie down the drawing. |
Tied down drawing with layers turned back on. |
Once again I wasn’t quite happy with the gulls compositionally, so I enlarged them a bit. This I felt was more pleasing. |
Now I’m ready to start rendering my values further. This is where I also start paying particular attention to color temperature. Especially between shadow areas and light areas. |
Here I’ve rendered the feathers of the back. |
Time to get to gull number two. |
Here I just use my eye dropper to grab the same colors of the first gull and I begin to render the second gull. |
Once the second.gull was rendered out I felt the background needed to darken. I wanted to get the gulls to pop better and have a better sense of light. |
As a final touch I compressed all the levels and color dodged the warm areas around the gulls on the ground to warm, and brighten it up. It gives a much better sense of light. |
One of my digital animal paintings, step by step
I first like to start with a textured, toned background. |
I then rough in the layout. This is where I resize and move things around to get the composition right. |
I then lighten that level, and create a new level to start the more refined rendering. |
Once the drawing is done I roughly start laying in local color. I set this level on multiply so that I can retain the texture underneath. |
Photoshop CS6 Sketch – Aaron Blaise
Thought I’d share this watercolor I did a few years ago
Here’s a new step by step approach to one of my Photoshop paintings.
Still not happy with the pose, I changed it again. This time I like it and I roughly lay in some lights on the monkey to get a better sense of how it will sit in the composition. |
Now I just start laying in color. The bark of the Baobob is somewhat shiny and therefore reflective of a lot of the surrounding color. I pay particular attention to changing temperature. |
Torch Tiger
A few years back at Disney we created a book called Torch Tiger. It was a collection of works by Disney artists and the content had to be each individuals interpretation of the title. My wife Karen had passed away the year before after a long battle with breast cancer and I wanted to do something for her. This is what I produced.
A couple of lion paintings.
Some ink drawings I did a few years ago.
A few personal digital pieces…
Here are a couple of new characters done in the last couple of days.
Here is some recent personal work.
Here is a random sea creature/mermaid I created
This was a little elf design I did years ago.
Please look to my King of the Elves post to see many more designs from this project |
So when we were designing our elves, we wanted them to feel as if they could actually be out in the forest. If they had been there for thousands of years without having been seen, how did they do it? We looked at animals that use camouflage and mimicry to conceal themselves. Eventually the elves began to take on a unique feel. They began to grow leaves right out of their bodies! We thought that there are so many insects, lizards and birds that match the foliage that they live in then why not the elves?