Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Spyro sketch from CSUN 2010

Here's a little gem. While teaching at California State North University Northridge in 2010 I gave a quick demonstration on a simple coloring technique in Photoshop. I was working on a Cintiq which is essentially a monitor that you can draw on and is commonly used in animation today. Standard equipment at most studios. I took the opportunity to sketch out a drawing of Spyro. Here's the initial image in line...


Then I introduce color in two phases. The local color and a unifying tonal tint in gray...


Next I established a light source by adding shadows to help describe the illusion of form...


Lastly I touch it up with some key highlights...


Notice what's missing? If you said Spyro's wings you're right! I don't know what I was thinking of at the time but I inadvertently left out Spyro's wings when creating this. Anyway, if anybody ever wanted to see what Spyro would look like as a wingless dragon here you have it!

4 comments:

Romney Vasquez said...

Good stuff, Charles. I hope to get my hands on one of these babies soon but, I don't think I can ever ditch good ol paper and pencil.

Charles Z said...

Thanks Romney.

Cintiqs are handy but I prefer a graphics tablet when drawing directly within a computer as opposed to the screen itself. Pencil and paper will always be the real deal.

Unknown said...

Although I am more of a three demensional artist, these are very handy tips for differintiating light in concept sketching, particularly the darker shade of violet on Spyro's claws. as compared to the tinted violet of his face. It is especially great to see it in the form of one of my first inspirations, good demonstration Charles.

Charles Z said...

Thank you Michael.