Character Construction and 4 Step Process, "How to Draw Disney's Rabbit"

Awhile back I wrote an article "Sketching: The 4 Step Process."  In the article I covered the 4 basic step of creating a drawing using classic Disney characters as examples.

One thing that I would add to that process today is breaking down character's structure…reverse engineering the character.  What I am referring to is, simplifying the character's form using primitives, it's dimensions, and skeletal or armature.  Deconstructing the character in this way helps visualize the character's design, aiding in adjusting the pose, or duplicating the character in various scenes.

In the following examples, I will only focus on a single character and pose, and use my version of Rabbit from the original article, adding in the preliminary construction steps…or in this case, Deconstruction.

How to Paint Tigger...Again

This is a leftover from last year. It is a different pose, but same procedure demonstrating one way to colorize a sketch.

LINK: https://youtu.be/2UnDwcPTGtg

Desktop Easel Arm

The Desktop Easel Arm is an extension arm that can mounted to the underside of almost any desk. When the arm is extended it can hold tablets, light boxes, drawing boards and more.  Here I show you the parts that make up the extension arm and discuss how to build on of your own.

LINK:
https://youtu.be/oqNMUom-cOY

Sketching Trees in Charcoal

This video demonstrates my approach to sketching trees in charcoal.  Starting with thumbnails approximately 1x2 inches and progressing into large studies. I am using basic tools for this with recommendations listed below.

I know that it has been sometime since I posted a video and this one is a bit longer than I normally post, but at least it isn't the longest I've posted.  Hope you enjoy it.

-Steve

LINK:
https://youtu.be/xr8BWFMES5E

Portfolio Sketchbook

In this video I display a portfolio that I use to store my loose sheets in.  I use it as a sketch book more than it's original design.  These portfolio books come in various sizes and can be found on Amazon or in any major arts and crafts stores.

-Steve

XnView - Image Editor

This is a free open-source image editor that I have used for a long time.  It works on all the major platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac) and is very light weight consuming very little resources.  XnView will not replace Painter or Photoshop but can be used for quick editing, batch editing and converting along with many other features.

XnView can be download from http://www.xnview.com/en/

In this short tutorial I cover how I use XnView, which is mainly to browse and organize my images and copy / cut thumbnails from full page scans allowing me to keep what I like.

-Steve

Cleaning a Sketch with Corel Painter

I thought it would be beneficial to show how I clean up sketches before posting to my Blog.  Here I used my Caveman sketch [from my 5x7 sketchbook] as an example in Corel Painter. One can also use Photoshop or a free painting suites such as Krita to accomplish the same.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/VY66Tm_GclY

Working with Vine Charcoal ...Value Sketching

Here I demonstrate how I use vine charcoal to do a value sketch which helps me to visualize a new character. It is a great approach to opening up one's imagination.

 I had to do a voice-over since the original audio contained too much noise.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/gSZdFenNlC8

"Alien Buggy" - The Making Of

This is an overview of my workflow of a design sketch that I did recently.  I cover the design stages and the pitfalls of not having a sold composition planned out at the beginning.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/17Ah5XWPAlw

Fantasy Crow

"Fantasy Crow"

This sketch was done in graphite with the dark tones add with Prismacolor Verithin and Premier pencils on a 60lb smooth sketch pad.

Character Design - "Creature"

For lack of a better name I refer to this character as "Creature".  This was done in pencil and finished off in Painter and Photoshop.  The tutorial merely covers the basic process used in character design and is aimed less at "digital" and more towards "art".  This is far from being a finished product but the design phase is a vital set in any composition.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/n_m_OTByZCA

How to Create Custom Tool Presets in Photoshop

Tool Presets in Photoshop is a very powerful feature that is also very easy to use.  It enables you to save a brush and it's attributes with or without color.  This speeds up painting tasks when using your favorite "go-to" brushes and tools ...it isn't just for brushes.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/FElyx5K6W3Y

Puzzled Alien

"Puzzled Alien"

This is a graphite sketch on Bristol I did the other night. This is primarily done for design , though I did add the head tilt to add some personality to the little alien ...at least that is what I think he is.

Creature Design from Noise

This is a sketch I did the other night. It started out just as a contour line drawing of the head only, which I molded with values.  The idea came from "Noise" ...what I saw in an abstract object.

How To Use KGamut

KGamut is a very small but useful tool that enables one to view the color gamut of an image.  It is great for analysis and creating color choices for to use in your own projects.

How To Extract Image Sequence From A Movie

 

Have you ever wanted to capture or extract multiple images from a movie you took? In this tutorial I take a MOV file, convert it to AVI with Pazera and then save the AVI as an image sequence with Virtual Dub Mod. 

Create Color Palettes in PS CS5

Here is a video that I posted to YouTube last year but never included on my blog. Keeping in the theme of "Color", I demonstrate how to create and edit color palettes from an image automatically and manually in Photoshop CS5.  The manual method is also compatible with GIMP and CS6.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/0LMsDNM0MoM

Adding Custom Brushs to Photoshop

This is an easy and fast way to add brushes to Photoshop without having to restart Photoshop.  For years I have navigated my way through layers of folders to add or delete brush sets in Photoshop, then restart it so the new brushes were available.  But by chance I stumbled on to a very simple way to accomplish it. Weather we are doing work on our laptops, desktops or  other computers, It is very helpful to keeping various installations of Photoshop the same.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/YejwZrsuIsU

Remove Linux from Windows Dual-Boot

This is not my usual post but for those who want to work in the digital world, you must know how to repair your computer ...and there are so many things that can go wrong.

I know I am not alone in setting up a dual-boot system with Windows and Linux who have later decided to remove the Linux partition, then being faced with a corrupted Master Boot Record (MBR).  I can tell this by all of the posts requesting help and the wide range of ways to fix the now "bricked" PC.

Transform Tool Short Cuts in PS CS6

Another quick tutorial demonstrating the short cuts for the Transform tools in Photoshop CS6.  Learn how to quickly duplicate a selection, merge and transform it.

Steve