Showing posts with label hut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hut. Show all posts

Friday, 2 February 2018

Slavic Hut - video courses

Some time ago I decided to focus on making video classes. I’ve been asked for that quite a few times, but it required resources and time, so the courses have been postponed constantly. Until now! The course about designing fantasy architecture was prepared (with loooong breaks) for about a year. For some strange reason, the hardest part appeared to be self-presentation…

Anyway, now it’s finished, so if you would like to get to know the rules of designing imagined buildings for a need of games or books, or if you just would like to take a look at the whole mass of hand-drawn more or less fantasy details and listen about medieval buildings you can visit my Skillshare page (link to my profile). 

In this course, besides plenty of many details, I presented also a few “case studies” which are detailed illustrations based on the knowledge handed in the course. I explained there WHY these illustrations look the way they look and here I’ll explain HOW they were drawn step by step.

1.      A small and super fast concept sketch with side notes. What a potential, Ladies and Gentleman! Nah, the aesthetic aspect is not the strongest point here. What does matter is capturing the right composition and it’s much easier on a small piece of paper and without worrying about drawing fine, straight lines.


2.      The first line was the horizon line. Then I marked the basic parts of the composition. The corner of the hut is placed in the 1/3 of the width of the frame. The boat and the roof lines are pointing to the main tree.


3.      Adding more structure: reed, a fence, some strange skulls, a large stone with magic symbols (also placed in 1/3 of the width of the frame). The “Thundermark” on the stone is a symbol of Perun – the God of warriors and lighting (in other words a Slavic version of Nordic Thor).


4.      After clarifying the most important elements in the previous step, I feel confident enough to draw with ink. I traced here the pencil sketch with a little more awareness of materials(note that wooden beams and the forked pole are more organic than geometric now).


5.      Textures and shadows - part I. In my humble opinion, the XIXth century craftsmen were absolute masters in capturing textures and material structures, so after short googling, I got some inspiration.


6.      Textures and shadows - part II. It took me ages… or at least a few hours.


And then I colored it with watercolors! If you are curious about how it proceeded and eventually the illustration turned out, just click below 馃槉







In the next post, I’ll present another “case study” from my course – a medieval town square.

Friday, 7 February 2014

Winter Scene




"stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune (...) Happiness is never grand." 
Aldous Huxley, "Brave New World"









To be honest I do not like winter: a runny nose, frostnips, trudging through snowdrifts and wearing funny hats. For me the main advantage of the winter is  it's temporariness. Hovewer I have to admit that it's quite an inspiring drawing theme. It seems to be severe and ruthless (if we won't think about sleeding or making a snowman :) ).

Szczerze m贸wi膮c, nie przepadam za zim膮: katarem, odmro偶eniami, przedzieraniem si臋 przez zaspy 艣nie偶ne i noszeniem 艣miesznych czapek. G艂贸wn膮 zalet膮 zimy jest dla mnie jej tymczasowo艣膰, chocia偶 trzeba przyzna膰, 偶e jest do艣膰 inspiruj膮cym tematem rysunkowym. Sprawia wra偶enie srogiej i bezwzgl臋dnej (pod warunkiem, 偶e nie my艣li si臋 o lepieniu ba艂wan贸w i je藕dzie na sankach :) ).




That's why I thought about an abandoned and devastaded hut among leafless trees, when I got a task to illustrate "Winter Scene".

Dla tego, kiedy mia艂am zilustrowa膰 "Zimow膮 Scen臋", przysz艂a mi do g艂owy opuszczona, zniszczona chata po艣r贸d bezlistnych drzew.

Snowflakes were made by spattering  masking fluid with a brush with hard bristles (before using watercolors of course). These yellowish drops looking like a resin (this is the best association I came up with) are in fact my new masking fluid (the previous one was grey).

Efekt p艂atk贸w 艣nie偶nych powsta艂 poprzez rozpryskiwanie p艂ynu maskuj膮cego za pomoc膮 p臋dzla o twardym w艂osiu (oczywi艣cie przed u偶yciem akwareli). Te 偶贸艂te krople przypominaj膮ce nieco 偶ywic臋 (to najlepsze skojarzenie, jakie przysz艂o mi do g艂owy) to w艂a艣nie m贸j nowy zaschni臋ty p艂yn maskuj膮cy (poprzedni, jak by膰 mo偶e kto艣 zauwa偶y艂 we wcze艣niejszych wpisach, by艂 szary). 

After removing the masking fluid we can see a paper white like (exactly!) snow.

Po zdj臋ciu go pozostaje papier - bia艂y niczym (a jak偶e!) 艣nieg.

Finally I can add little more shadows and emphasize elements in the foreground with a pen.

Na koniec jeszcze troch臋 cieniowania i "wyostrzenie" element贸w na pierwszym planie za pomoc膮 pi贸rka.

Oh yes, details:

Ach tak, detale: