Get Addicted

[GreenTea_Addict]

Hello all.

My name is GreenTea_Addict and I am a NOOB aspiring to do great things. I recently (like last September) started the 4-year animation program up at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA. Although I will inevitably move on to do much 3d work (where my true aspirations lie), right now all of my media is traditional (gotta start with the basics, right?).

I have been eyeing conceptart.org for some time now, although I have not gotten the courage to post anything on it until now. I have to say that you guys are awesome -- most of the art here is a lot to live up to. Hopefully, I will become one of those posts that people want to watch.

On top of that, a bit of forewarning: most of my stuff was completed in a very short amount of time. Due to the fact that I am in an animation degree, we start out with 2d animation - where, simply put, gesture is king. The shorter a drawing takes, the better. The more something can be represented in fewer lines, the better. This is definitely reflected in my work, so don't expect to see anything super-polished ... yet.

Of course, there is always the future to look forward to.

Well, I guess that's about it, for now. Expect some pics in a few minutes (gotta upload).

Thanks so much,

-GreenTea_Addict

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well, here it is, some of my older (some of it last semester) stuff. I luckily had enough breathing room from homework to upload these tonight (a rare occurance - we are usually beat to the ground with work).

Hope you enjoy!


**Side Note: My scanner is not the best thing to ever grace the Earth's surface, so bare with me, thanks.**


Here are some monsters that I did while experimenting with a dip-pen and ink (and brush and ink) last semester. First time I used the stuff, really. These are mostly just doodles (probably took me max 15 minutes):
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb+-+20+-+06+-+Monster1.JPG

Here's one that I really like a lot:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Monster2.jpg

And here is probably my favorite from this bunch, I'm not sure why:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Monster3.jpg


And Here's some lifedrawing I did early this semester. I used grey prismacolor pens to give it a unique look (although some of the real light greys don't really show up). Take a look:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Life1.jpg

Here's one that I did just a few weeks ago using a blue animator's pencil as well as a 'Design Ebony' pencil:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Life2.jpg


Now I shall show you some of my early painting attempts. I thought I did a decent job until I got them back with critiques from my teacher who basically said that the shadows sucked. After looking at them again, I tend to agree with her, but I thought I'd show 'em to you anyway:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Apple1.jpg

This one, like the last one, was done in acrylic on some recycled paper (not the best stuff in the world):
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Apple2.jpg
Those unfortunately didn't scan as well as I would have liked them to. Oh, well.


And now some more life drawings! Yay! These particular ones attempted to capture the force of the action. These are five-minute drawings done with blue animation pencil + ebony design:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Life3.jpg

And finally, something I did the other day at a life drawing session. Hooray! These are 15-25-minute drawings done again with my favorite blue+ebony combo:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Life4.jpg


Hopefully you can already see some improvement in my work! Crits are more than welcome (preferably on my newer stuff).

Thanks for looking -- more coming soon!

-GreenTea_Addict

[Bad Brownie]

Hey, DigiPen. Cool! Tony teaches there. = ) Worked with him yet?

I like your apple studies a lot. Your more watercolor-ish stuff interests me too, I love the watercolor look.

I'll be looking forward to seeing more. ; )

[GreenTea_Addict]

Hey Mr. Bad, or is it Mr. Brownie? :P

Anyway, yeah I had Tony last semester. He was great, I really learned a lot from him. An amazing teacher.

Haven't really used watercolors much, although I would love to in the future. So much to do, and so little time! Hopefully my tablet/photoshop will arrive tomorrow, and I can dabble in that outside of class (haha, right).

Anyway, I appreciate the crits.

Thanks,

-GreenTea_Addict

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well, I couldn't resist. It seems that I'm addicted! I drew this at around 1 AM, so it is not the best that I could have ever done, but it took about 20 minutes for each drawing. The first is from life, the second from imagination (of the same subject, obviously).

http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-20-06/Feb-20-06+-+Skull.jpg

Thanks,

-GreenTea_Addict

[Bad Brownie]

Hehe, the posting addiction is strong in this one...; )

Glad to see you putting yourself out there! (Also glad to meet someone with a mutual teacher). Tony really is a great animator, huh? I like to poke fun at his accent. He's a good sport about it. If you see him sometime, say to him "How is it on the top and bottom?" in a british accent...and if he looks at you odd, say Bad Brownie put you up to it.

That might confuse him more, hehe.

Oh yea, by the way, it's Miss Brownie to you! ; )

Looking forward to your progress in school, and I still love your apples.

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well, my apologies Miss!

I'm not sure if I want to scare Tony anytime soon, but I will mention you in passing. I would venture to guess you go to his other school up here in the Pacific-Northwest (or maybe 'tis something else entirely... I'll probably never know). Either way, I'm sure we'll both get a laugh out of it.

I'm not sure if I have time to post any images tonight (seems to be a time-consuming endeavor), although I'd like to, because I have an all-nighter of homework ahead of me. No, I didn't procrastinate, that's just how much we have to do :(. Oh well.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, and the crits. Hopefully I'll have some better apples (with more convincing shadows) soon.

Oh yeah, my tablet/photoshop came in today! Woohoo! I'm certain that I will enjoy them. Will I have time to use them is another story.

Keep your fingers crossed, I may post some of my character designs (big assignment in that department) tonight or tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Thanks all (or one, whichever it may be),

-GreenTea_Addict

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well, here they are. I said I would deliver, and I did. Here is the first batch of ruff model sheets for my character:


http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-21-06/Feb-21-06-Punkinn1.jpg

http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-21-06/Feb-21-06-Punkinn2.jpg

http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-21-06/Feb-21-06-Punkinn3.jpg


They may seem simple -- but don't be decieved! This is hours upon hours of work (and pages and pages of preliminary sketches). Animation characters, as I am discovering, are much more complex than they may seem, for the simple fact that they must rotate in three dimensions - and move in perspective!!

Her tentative name is 'Pumpkinn' or 'Punkinn' (not sure which yet). She has anatomy to her -- she has to be able to talk, and bite-and-chew, after all, as well as run, jump, fight etc. in perspective.

Backstory as well as some more dynamic poses/expressions are in the works. Keep checking back! (She's due Thursday afternoon, so it won't be too long).

Crits are more than welcome, especially on how to move her dress in perspective, that is still not yet ironed out. Everything else, however, is pretty solid (how does her hair work you might ask -- 'tis brilliant: it can deform when she's moving and pop back in to place when she's stagnant, as long as it keeps volume).

Okay, 'tis nearly 4 AM, probably a good time to doodle a little bit more and call it quits.

Thanks all,

-GreenTea_Addict

[GreenTea_Addict]

All right,

Here she is... She's all done (for the time being). I am pretty happy with some parts of this, and pretty unhappy with other parts (see the entire left side of the faces page), but what can you do. I worked straight on this from when I woke up on Wednesday at around noon (after going to bed at four) until around five AM, with one break really to eat once. I got up at 7 AM for class, and then worked some more that day (Thursday). I'm not completely happy with the result -- but, what can you do, right?

Anyway, enough jibber-jabber. And with out any further adeau, here she is -- Punkinn:


Turnaround:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/Punkinn+Turnaround+copy+smaller.jpg

Facial Expressions (neautral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, jealous, up, down):
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/Punkinn+Faces+copy+smaller.jpg

Action shots (running, walking, jumping, fighting, etc.):
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/Punkinn+Actions+copy+smaller.jpg


And that's it -- for now. Crits are welcomed, and ENCOURAGED!! Please help -- especially with the dress, which still needs work. Remember, she's a (2D) animation character.

Thanks,

-GreenTea_Addict

P.S. That was my first attempt at Photoshop EVER right there. :P -GTA

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well,

I have been meaning to post these for a couple of days now, but I had to get them from my roommate first.

Here's the story behind them: We had President's day off, so, living near Seattle, my roommate/good friend Dave and I went down to the Space needle downtown with the intent to draw portraits of people.

We got downtown, made up a sign (which read something like 'free portraits, 15 minutes'), pulled out the charcoal and began to draw one another for practice/examples.

And then our fingers fell off. It was damn cold out! This was something that we had not forseen, but that we dealt with anyway. Drawing overtakes all else!! After a while, we got some interested customers/guinea pigs who decided to give us a try. We drew and set a timer for fifteen minutes.

We ended up drawing several more people (mostly couples or two-at-a-time), both drawing the same subject and giving away our drawings after we had finished. We moved on to pencil because it got too cold and we had to use gloves. A street band played near us accross the pathway under the grey sky and shadow of the space needle.

And then business got slow. We ended up getting less and less people, and it got colder and darker outside. The band picked up and left, and we decided, begrudgingly that's what we should do.

Just as we started cleaning up, some kids came back (they had looked at our sign earlier) and asked for some portraits. Frome there things picked up again, and we actually formed a line of people behind us waiting for a free portrait -- Success!! We drew until it got so dark we couldn't see, so cold we couldn't feel, and so ... uncomfortable with all of the drunks and weirdos coming out at night.

Here are some of my results from the excursion (in order):

Our sign:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/IMG_4483.jpg

My partner-in-crime, Dave:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/IMG_4476.jpg

Our first victim... er -- subject:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/IMG_4472.jpg

Those meddeling kids:
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/IMG_4495.jpg

A tough guy (but not too tough to ask for a portrait):
http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/IMG_4497.jpg


These are taken off of my roommate's camera, so if the quality sucks, complain to him :teeth: -- or if you just want to see his renditions of the same subjects, go here here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55953).

Also: remember, these were done in 15 minutes or under (20 or under for the doubles) with frozen sausage fingers and pencil!

As always -- thanks for the look,

-GreenTea_Addict

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well, here's just some quick doodles at 3 AM.


http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Feb-24-06/Sketches%403AM-Feb-25.jpg


So... tired...

-GreenTea_Addict

[Sirio_Brozzi]

=) Your free portraits stuff is admirable dude. Like the fact that youre using multiple media as well. Keep those studies going. Looking forward to more posts.

[Bad Brownie]

Awesome that you went and did that in Seattle! Definitely not something to do alone, though, hehe. Good experience, maybe people will recognize you if/when you do it again. Then someday you can start charging. ; )

With your 2D character, "Punkinn," one thing I would have to ask you about is the arms. In some views she has these little wing/fin looking things, and then in some views she is holding things that don't look like she could possibly hold with hands like like that. Also, be mindful about the size of her feet. It would be very difficult to walk with feet the length of her legs. ; )

[fattkid]

I'm watching you!

[Yakumoooo]

:x

comments coming in the future... just to sick to look at these any longer!

That dude is right, do something cool with the arms of punkinn, and that foot-leg ratio thing, i wonder how that's going to be :blah:
-dave

[GreenTea_Addict]

Well,

I have been/am having a really bad day/week, so I don't think there will any posts any time soon :(. Oh well.

Seems like my image-hosting service has been having some problems recently. Hopefully I can resolve that.

To everyone who replied to me so far--

Brozzi: Thanks for the comments. I'm glad the portraits were so well recieved!

Brownie: I am starting to animate Punkinn, so I think that some of these issues will resolve themselves (the arms are already), but thanks so much for the crits. I think it would be a good idea to do the portraits again, when I have the time... :(

FattKid: Oh yeah, well I know where you go to school!! :p

Yakumo: Well, I can go talk to you right now, in person if you want. lol

Anyway, thanks everyone for the crits and inspiration. I have to go do some more bad paintings!! Horay!!

Peace out,

-GreenTea_Addict

[GreenTea_Addict]

Oy...

Well, these last few weeks have certainly been hard on me -- but, at least I have come out the other side of them alive. Long story short, I have been working my @$$ off, barely squeaking by in school, and my scanner broke. How I have missed posting on conceptart.

Anyways, I don't have too much right now, because, well, my scanner is broken and I need a few days to recuperate (spring break is right around the corner...), but you can expect quite a bit more in the next few days as things cool down around here.

Well, that's it for now -- here's a self portrait I did to tide you over for the next few days. Yes, it is stylized, and yes, I do like Tim Burton, already (does it sound like I've heard this before?)!! Anyway, enough gab, here's the drawing.

http://strike9.com/zach.berger/ConceptArt-Mar-15-06/Self-Portrait+3-10-06+smaller.jpg

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for the look, and, as always, crits are more than welcome.

Later,

-GreenTea_Addict

P.S. -- BTW, those commenting on Punkinn's arms - you were exactly right!! The arms have been giving me problems, although much of them have been worked out. I have a bite/chew animation that I recently finished and I hope to have up soon (just have to figure out how and then have the time to do it). Look forward to it. Thanks again, -GT_A

[Bad Brownie]

Hey GreenTea, so sorry to hear you've been going through rough times. I know exactly how you feel...I am enduring senior projects at the moment and no matter how hard I work, it isn't enough! Hang in there, I promise things will get better (however much that means to you at the moment). ; ) Actually...I'll let you know if things REALLY get better after I graduate, hehe.

I like your self portrait a lot. I really dig the style, and the fact it is done in blue pencil. ; ) Gotta love that look!

Good luck! Drop by my homepage sometime and let me know how you're doing.

[John T]

Hey man...
You're getting there... I like the solidity in that last portrait, I can really feel those shapes. Not sure about the hair, I mean, I know it's stylized, but it looks a little too much like shingles for me... haha... but hey, just keep it up man, and don't ditch the pencil once 3d starts for you next year... I need drawing buddies! -John

[fattkid]

Hey! Where's yo drawnz! Your slackin' worse than me!

[Duque]

YO man, I can't see any of your pretty artz cause the links are down... :(