@Phil, Question on Summer Project...

I've given myself a bit of a mental block for some reason and I thought I'd just ask your opinion quick.

Do you think I should continue developing the characters I have at the moment and see where that goes or take a different route? My confidence has gone a bit so any advice and/or direction pointing would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance! :)

For Future Reference: Bao Pham...

Now if you don't think these images are beautiful then you must be crazy! I fell in love with these as soon as I saw one. I'm not normally one for soft, sort of photo-realistic, sort of faerie-like portraits but I LOVE these. I think it's the mixture of amazing colours and gorgeous eyes that got me, I'm not sure, but I'm glad it did!

Lovely lighting, amazing use of colour and beautiful faces, is there much more you could want? Well, maybe, but as far as portraits go I think these are the loveliest I've seen! So soft and elegant, I think there are just enough differences in the faces to keep them from being repetitive and every face, for some reason or another, is really striking. If I can get this kind of natural softness in my images, as well as that control of colour, then I will be so set it's ridiculous :P

For Future Reference: Raymond Swanland...

This artist is especially lovely when it comes to the use of depth and movement in his work:

I think what stands out in these images is the use of light and how it draws the eye to certain areas of the picture. the use of light also allows him to suggest shapes in the distance that the viewer can't quite see, perhaps because they're obscured by smoke or atmosphere, creating greater depth and menace too.  The detail in these images are fantastic too, in the image above on the character's head alone there's a plethora of detailed engravings that, combined with the soft light, make her seem ethereal. Lovely, lovely stuff to come back to for inspiration :D

For Future Reference: Marko Djurdjevic...

Another artist with lovely soft work! A gorgeous mix of character design, landscapes and visual naratives too, I love that he not only has the ability to paint photo-realistic images but he can also created much more gestural images, especially in landscapes.

I especially love how his creature design seems to flow, all the creatures look as if they could easily live in the same area because of their matching colours and patterns. I also think that some of the black and white work is more powerful than the coloured pieces, such as his series of masks and the stern looking lady of justice. Also, the way his characters and their costumes are layed out, with the clarity of labelling too. I just love it all really :D

For Future Reference: Glen Angus...

I was going to do a tutorial but I got distracted and ended up looking at lots more artists. Glen Angus was the first and sadly I discovered he died a couple of years ago at only 37 so it was very sad. I'm just glad his work is still available to see!

The sketches that look aged are great example of character design. All of them have great silhouettes due to their poses and it shows how important that is. Also, I love his use of colour adds to the softness of the image, the green image of Loki up above is a really nice example of it and one of my favourites.  I was drawn to the planes with their female counterparts because it reminded me of what Sucker Punch wanted to be (but failed miserably) as well as the lovely figureheads that boats used to have too. Really nice stuff!

Playing a Little in Maya...

I keep getting myself stuck when it comes to drawing so I thought I'd have a go at making my rodent-man in maya. I don't have much so far but I just want to jump in and do a bit at a time really. The last thing I want is to start disliking it this early in the project! :)

Playing with Textures in Photoshop...

 Just because it look quite cool.

 Final image above.

 Slightly softer version above.

It's not particularly amazing but I just wanted to see what I could do before I follow a tutorial and make a big improvement. I do like the idea of using textures to add a bit more detail to my work, and it's a really good way to help you visualise what something might look like, but it may not be something I use yet, we shall see. It's pretty funky though :P