A Break

Time for some good news: I finished my demo reel! It's now on the main page of my site as Environment Reel: Oct 2016. I got some good critique for it and rearranged a few things, and have submitted it for a few possible opportunities. 

Now it's the last day of my Fall Break (and likely the last day I'll have to do absolutely nothing for awhile). Yesterday I tried to step away from the computer for awhile and did some sketching. Not quite my Inktober schedule or prompts, but it was relaxing to just sit and draw what was around me for awhile. 

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Sketches of Mr. Otis, the black lab that I was dogsitting this week! 

Unfortunately with my school schedule I've been totally wrapped up in making games but not so much in playing them. Today I dust off my PS3 and spend a few hours as a pirate in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag! 

Inktober Day 6: Hidden

I grew up in South Florida where hurricanes are kind of a way of life. We haven't seen one as powerful as Hurricane Matthew since 2005, and somehow Florida managed to scrape by without getting hit too bad. Right now they're predicting that it's going to loop around and actually hit them, but for now I count myself lucky that my family and friends just had an easy day watching movies and listening to the wind. 

Inktober Day 5: Sad

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And once again I forgot to post on here last night, but here was yesterday's Inktober. I was supposed to use the prompt "Sad" and based on the fact that it was October I started thinking about ghosts. So I did a little doodle on what would happen if Pacman stopped being afraid of his ghosts. 

Tonight I'll be starting to work on my cabin environment, so some sketches and beginning models will be posted on here soon. 

Inktober Day 4: Hungry

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I forgot to post my Inktober from yesterday on here, but I did post on time on my Instagram! The prompt was Hungry, and I had no problem relating. Yesterday was a late night and I ate dinner around 11pm before having to do some more work. Sometimes when you're feeling a little unmotivated you just need a nice bowl of mac n cheese to help you along, so that's what I did! I sketched this out really quick before proceeding to consume the entire bowl. Excellent prompt. 

Inktober Day 3: Collect

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The theme was collect today and I was stuck for awhile on what to draw. When I was younger I used to collect all sorts of things but none of that has really stuck with me as an adult. What I have noticed is that as my level of work increases throughout the semester, I have an impromptu collection of cups that start to surround my desk. Eventually plates or bowls start to get added to it. The quantity increases as I move closer to deadlines. 

It's only day 3 and I've already started using my sketchbook more frequently, which means the challenge is working the way it's supposed to! This sketch was posted at 10pm instead of 3am so there's definitely been an improvement in my timing. I don't really sketch in ink too often- being able to challenge myself and work on these quick little sketches without second guessing my lines or perspective and just doing it to do it is reminding me how easy it should be to just put marks on the paper. 

Stay tuned for Day 4! 

Inktober Day 2: Noisy

Today's prompt was Noisy, and because I didn't remember to sketch until I was already in bed, I chose to work from my surroundings. 

My bedroom shares a wall with the bedroom next door. This building is old and echoes a lot, so when I'm laying in bed I can hear the guy next door snoring. Tonight was particularly loud and seemed fitting to sketch out my current predicament. 

Inktober Day 1: Fast

Anyone who's met me knows that I've had trouble keeping sketchbooks for years. For whatever reason I just couldn't get out of that "IT HAS TO BE PERFECT!" headspace. I think every artist goes through that, where they want their sketchbook to be beautiful. I'm slowly starting to realize that mine is a tool and that the beauty comes from the process. So I started a new sketchbook today and to break it in, I've decided to participate in Inktober! 

If you don't know what Inktober is, every day of October you sketch something in ink and then post it online. It's meant to promote good drawing artistic habits and in the past I've never realized it was going on until about halfway through the month. But today that changes! 

Today's prompt was Fast. When I think about Fast I think gesture drawing, so I got on Pixelovely and pulled up the practice tools. I gave myself 30 seconds to draw each hand that came up on the screen, and tried not to stop moving or retrace my lines as much as possible. Here's the results: 

This went by very quickly but I had a lot of fun doing it and I might start using it as warmups. I'll be choosing the most appealing interpretation of the prompt each day, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up next!