Information & inspiration for designers, illustrators, coders and general oddballs. A visual and written diary of creative ventures, tips and tutorials!
Hello, if you have come through to this website as you are a keen reader then thank you for coming in and having a look and seeing what I am up to. This is just a journalistic type post, vary casual, doesn't solve any world problems but it does talk about a few things
Artism!
So, I have been expanding on my illustration work by quite a bit and I felt that this website – (good old blogger, you have been a loyal friend for many, many years) has now been relegated for just personal ramblings, posts and what I have been up to!
I have been working on a new professional art blog! Bosh, which will focus on what I have been doing, what I intend to do and all the bits in between.
Hello, all so I have taken the time to put some of my projects and experience into one neat little blog. This blog will discuss various things like how to design a product, graphic design, website design and various handy tips which may or may not help your business.
As this blog is relatively new please take the time and consider sharing with friends, families, dogs, and gerbils and maybe floppy disks drives... Floppy disk drives will like this blog for certain I hope!
I
mentioned that I would write a follow up to the first part of playing
Dark Souls and I finally have managed to get around to it. If you
haven't read the first part you can look here >. To wrap it up
quickly Dark Souls is a challenging, fascinating action adventure RPG
where you can create a character and put them against creatures of
your worst nightmares...
Welcome to Dark Souls...
Basic
Dark Souls Items
Dark Souls Items Sheet - Artwork Copyright FromSoftware
Titanite
A
very valuable commodity in Dark Souls. Titanite can be used to
upgrade weapons and armour. Although upgrading armour with Titanite
in Dark Souls 3 is no longer applicable.
Souls These
are the equivalent of currency. Use souls to level up or purchase
items. Souls can be found be either killing enemies or found on
perished hollows.
Homeward
Bone Great
for getting you out of tight spots. I would advise having these
equipped. You never know what lurks beyond the grey mist. Estus
Flasks Are
essential unless you have a huge health bar – and trust me, going
for a straight up large amount of HP isn’t necessary the best
decision when you start playing. Estus is flame, its warmth and above
all else is basically health potions. You can upgrade the amount of
Estus you carry or how potent each drink is in replenishing health.
‘Flame…
precious flame’
Magic’s I
have to admit that I didn’t use too many spells/miracles in my
players build. Maybe If I was to play through again maybe I should
create a Hexer? Throughout Dark Souls you will come across numerous
spells that the player can cast to heal, protect or destroy.
Pyromancy In
the world of Dark souls you can cast pyromancies. These are lesser
spells which a non-wizard or spell caster can use.
Throughout
the souls games there are many items you can pick up, wear, use or
cast in the game. Writing everything here would spoil too much. And
there is nothing like the pre-internet days of discovering something
apparently hidden. If you are adamant that you want to look for some
special items you can follow a website such as this.
Bonfires
You
will find a small comfort from the warm glow of your bonfire. These
are sanctuaries from which you are protected by the terrors that lie
in the deep gloom. They are also save points!
SPOILERS
–
Inhabitants
Phantoms,
merchants, vagabonds and lone wonderers... these are the characters
you may meet on your journey. NPC’s
Through
the Dark Souls games you will stumble upon rogues, renegades
crestfallen travellers, and many others which will either mean to
harm the player or help along the way. Generally speaking its
favourable to have the NPC’s at your side. You will often come to
notice that NPC’s will gather at the central hub of all 3 games so
the player can access them easy to either purchase supplies, weapons
and various pieces of equipment.
The
peculiar characters of DS world will come across as little ethereal
and strange, many seam to laugh for no apparent reason – maybe they
are mad, maybe the game is laughing as it knows at the torture of
some of the stupidly hard challenges that await. They know some you
don't. I'm watching you Pate.
Solaire
A fanatic and bizarre sun worshiper that you come across in Dark
souls, He is in the first level just after defeating the Taurus
demon. "You
really are fond of chatting with me, aren't you? If I didn't know
better, I'd think you had feelings for me! Ha ha ha!" Pate I
found out that The voice actor for pate was none other than - Peter
Serafinowicz, the
actor from Shaun of Dead. Pate is a shifty character that you come
across in Dark Souls, so keep your wits about you. He looks a bit
like a roman Legionary. Crestafallen
night The
Crestfallen knight is a general down and out misery in Dark souls, he
is in the first installment and basically sits around wallowing. The
Crestfallen knight is easy to distinguish, he will be sat near the
bonfire, being a melt. Andrei The
humble and generally upbeat blacksmith, he makes me feel reassured…
maybe its because of the westcounty accent. Andrei will sell and
reinforce weapons.
“Tink – Tink - Tink” Lucatiel She
is one of many characters in Dark souls 2. She is a good summon from
memory, although starts to become a little absent minded as time goes
along. You will recognise Lucatiel by her attire – She has the
appearance of a musketeer
Bonfire
Women
(Fire Keepers)
2 and 3. These ethereal characters will help the
player to level up throughout the games.
Old
Ladies of Dark Souls 2
These
3 characters are met early on in the Dark Souls 2. These cynical old
crones are former Firekeepers and they are tended to by a servant
called Milibeth. You can meet the Old Ladies intro here...
"Like
a moth to a flame, your wings will burn in anguish.”
Design
and Feel The
world(s) of Dark Souls is a large and solemn place, inhabited by the
lost, the crestfallen, the mad and... you. FromSoftware have done a
great sculpting both a enjoyable adventure story steeped in ambiguous
lore and a sword-swing, monster slaying RPG.
Secrets
What
I love about the souls games are the secrets, the mysteries and the
easter eggs – there are entire hidden zones in games which can be
discovered by pressing, knocking on or falling into walls or objects.
I won’t ruin the game for you, all I can recommend is that you
start knocking on some walls! There are many. I have to confess,
I didn’t discover enough in dark souls 1. And it has been a while
since I played.
Monsters The
monsters, the demons and even the your standard combatants have had
so much attention to detail paid them it's almost a shame to rush the
game. The designs of the characters capture elements of historical
realism which just add the the authenticity to the Dark Souls
worlds.. These monsters feel as old and as genuine as their
environment.
These nightmarish monsters pull you deeper into
the yawning darkness to join the other lost souls, the countless
1000's which never completed their journey.
The
Environment Dark
souls feels like something out of a dark ages. The souls realm is a
place of medieval purgatory where misery and total hopelessness
emanates from every cornerstone, archway and tree the player crosses
on their path. On of may favourite environments is the Majula.
Perhaps this peaceful place reminded me of where I grew up, its
peaceful and beautiful but bleak at times. The Untended Graves is
also another favourite of mine.
Other Gaming Bits
Did
you know!
They have made a table board and card games of the Dark Souls
games?
You can buy them from Steamforge Games online or from smaller
online retailers. Some of
these games may come to this website in the future – Board Games
Apparently
in dark souls 1 there is a forbidden boss that was removed from the
game in late stages of the development – he was called the Undead
King Jar-Eel
Devil in the level details : From software love
to pack in insane amounts of detail, so much so if you can access the
game from your PC you can explore the world and distant structures –
apparently. When playing the Dark Souls game in Lothric you can also
see some of the lower level detail of the roofs if you look off the
ramparts.
I'm loving using the
oil paints at the moment, it has to be said. They are such a breath of
fresh air (maybe oily air) in comparison with being behind the
computer all day. You will see the Blue Devil, Odd Body and Zombies
shown below.
Thank you for looking! for more artwork please feel free to browse this website or follow on twitter.
AS I have uploaded this
to Youtube I felt it wouldn't hurt to turn this into a post. This
post shows a hyper-lapsed video taken from my desktop, showing me
whiting out, removing scuffs from the scan, adding shadows and adding
in highlights. This is a pencil drawing depicting The Mindtap, I
imagined it to how a brain leak might feel...
Thank you for
watching. This Hyper-lapse video was made using After Effects.
A couple of tips for working with Photoshop layers!
If
like me you need work layers in Photoshop any time saving measure is
a bonus. I have a compiled a short list of techniques for making the
best use of Photoshop’s layers and icons and this is by far… only
the tip the iceberg for tricks and techniques. Enjoy! (Swap CMD for
CTRL on Windows)
Change
the layer order, move it up and down :
Cmd+[
Move Down
Cmd+]
Move Up
Cmd+Shift+]
= to move it to the bottom of the stack
Cmd+Shift+[
= Move it to the top of the stack
Direct
select a layer With
move tool selected (V) hold Cmd
to highlight
the layers directly from the art board. This will also highlight
groups.
Duplicate
a layer
Ideal
for copying a layer!
Cmd + J to
copy a selected layer! Or you can drag the selected on this icon! OR
right click and duplicate. A personal fave.
Colour
Coordinated In
addition to organizing you layers into folder and groups, why not
colour coordinate the layers so you glance at groups? Brown for dirt, green for sea etc. Right click and select a colour.
New
Layer Cmd+Shift
+ N brings
up the new layer dialogue.
Cycle
Through Blend ModesNeed
to see what a multiply, saturation, or overlay will look like on the
fly?
Shift
+ (Minus or plus, top right of the keyboard)
Layer
Opacity With
the layer selected you can quickly change its opacity by pressing ...
Shift
+ 22, 30, 23
(a number from the top row) typing the number in quick succession
will change the layers opacity percentage. Hold shift and then press
“22” the layer will be 22% “30” = 30 %. Very handy for digital painting or retouching.
Group
Layers Select your layers and press Cmd
+ G to
group them together. If you are not grouping your numerous layers…
you should start. For sanity’s sake.
Well everyone! I hope this is a little something to leave 2016 on! Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!
Feeling
that is was other due for another artwork post featuring my artwork.
For this post I have grabbed a couple of pieces of work of my
illustrated undead. Sketching, painting and rending all of the grisly
details these wanders is always a pleasure for me as I can really go
to town on the details and drive home a certain level of earthy
realism, whether that be open muscle tissue, spots, bones, organs or
bodily fluids. Read on!
The Undead, hungry and
the lost for all eternity, they roam the earth until the end of days
seeking retribution and flesh.
Hollow Zombie
This is a slightly older
image capturing a partially decomposed zombie ambling around in it’s
tattered clothes, torn flesh and its stomach bloated with decay. The
image captures 2 states of the zombie, with its stomach and without.
This image was painted in drawn by hand and then rendered in
Photoshop.
Ghoul –
Swamp Zombie
And
so, our undying friend has awoken from his long slumber by the dawn
chorus of walking corpses... or a grave digger.
This
illustration captures the moment the Ghoul clambers out from a peat
bog to meet his brothers in death. Although undead or partially
living, I wanted to capture a hulking mass of muscle that that could
serve any necromancer, witch or warlord as long as it is paid in
meat. The creature is also closer to life that death and so wanted to
capture and expression of “Where
am I!? - I was alive a moment ago”
Lady of
the Lane
As with
many folktales and local legends, I wanted to illustrate my rendition
of the Lady of the Lane for exhibition I held in Looe in Cornwall.
The Lady of the lane or the White lady is said to haunt a narrow lane
leading to Talland Bay.
Holiday makers and revelers be
wary when walking back to the camp site, should you see a white
figure coming towards in the dead of night turn on your heel and run
for the pub… ghost’s have little taste for beer.
Thank
you for reading this post! If you would like to support me on Patreon
please feel free to sign up. On a Ad hoc basis I submit artwork for
you to enjoy. Or you can follow me on twitter!
I
can also produce print on an Print on Demand basis which can take up
to a Month to Print produce and ship.
Felt compelled to draw some vile things and
a little less of the London Underground (although I will be coming
back to this very soon) I have been getting my brain monsters and design down on paper.
Most of these sketches, doodle's, drawing have been captured on a
traditional cartridge paper using both my mechanical pencil and
graphite.
I think it has to be
said that I get a level of satisfaction from drawing the grisly
details of creatures, be it afflictions, boils, wounds, teeth and any
other visceral part of the anatomy. Drawing this gives me sense inner
rhythm , a hum or chord in which my body and mind tunes into. It's
gives me sense of focus and relaxation which I can only graze upon
with these few words.
Take your time to have
a browse, I have been feeling quite inspired to do some more creature
design and studies since going to the zoological museum at UCL.
Elephant skulls are quite fascinating to draw and also strange
without flesh. That's for another day.
It's Blurred?
Thank you for looking
and reading. To view more of these pieces of artwork you will need
sign up to Patreon to see what that walking affliction might to look
like, thank for you support. (You will need to pledge $5 or more see this post) https://www.patreon.com/posts/
All artwork Copyright
JD Odell 2016. Please do not use, distribute without my prior
consent.
https://blog.jimmsdesign.co.uk/how-i-designed-a-novelty-flash-drive/
