Visual Language

Last week we had a lesson on visual language, and how to create a cohesive world by finding commonalities that you can echo in the characters, objects, environments, creatures, etc of a story. Think about the triangles in Atlantis, the shapes throughout Cinderella, or more difficult with live action you can find colors. Shapes in the environment but altering someone's physical shape might prove to be a bit of a challenge.
Unless you're Peter Jackson.

So, we were split into groups of 3 and chose the worlds out of envelopes and ended up with Nightmare Before Christmas, Princess Mononoke, and Doctor Who (WHICH I ALMOST FLIPPED MY TABLE ABOUT). The three of us each chose a character from one of the worlds, and after we found common languages throughout the 3 worlds, created characters based on what we scratched out.
We ended up with elongated limbs, triangles and circles, big eyes, cool vs. warm colors (mostly blues vs. yellows), and saturated colors.

I GOT TO DRAW THE DOCTOR FOR CLASS. Sometimes...college, man. College.

Here's the end result:

painting a Master's

I recently had the pleasure of Tintoretto's Penitent Magdalene grace my ocular...modules for the first time. Oh Lord...

I think it's inspired me to attempt to recreate a classic painting, on occasion, to better grasp anatomy, color, lighting, value, etc. I learned a little while I recreated this. A bit of a speedpaint I suppose.

I'm going to try to hold myself to doing this at least once a week.

Tinoretto, Penitent Magdalene (detail)

speedpaint recreation.

I know a lot is off, especially scale and anatomy wise, but it was still a really great challenge for me and more an exploration of the colors he used. I didn't want to get too in depth, but I loved her face. The bone structure is so subtle and so beautiful.