Syn Studio Art School

Nature Sketching: Final Project

| Sabby G

NatureSketching-CreatureDesign-Final

Happy Holidays! The Evergreen Squirrel is what I came up with for our final Nature Sketching assignment, in which we had to invent a creature based on our previous class (or personal) studies. Considering the number of animals we had looked at, I decided first to come up with a little backstory. Where does it live? What climate does it have to deal with? What does it eat? And so on… My initial requisites where that it had to live in Canada, being able to survive our harsh winters. And, considering the time of year, I wanted to put a hint of Christmas into the design. Wildlife biologist that I am, it also needed to be realistic and above all else, believable! Read on for more research, sketches, and process (yes, ‘back’ pine cones ARE possible)! Continue reading →

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Nature Sketching: Rhinoceros Research

| Sabby G

NatureSketching-Rhino-PenMarkers
Last week our homework for nature sketching was to research and draw a ‘large mammal’. During the class we studied from miniature models, subjects ranging from the great Canadian moose to the giant African elephant… while I love our national symbol to bits, the moose is quite the fuzzy animal, and I wanted to try something a little different… hence, the Indian Rhino. As armored as an armadillo, as warty as a toad. Perfect. Continue reading →

Nature Sketching: Drawing Dinosaurs!

| Sabby G

NatureSketching-Dinosaur-Dromaeosaurus-Cropped
At Syn Studio this semester I’m taking a course called Nature Sketching, in which we study a different variety of animal each week. From real (albeit dead) fish we moved on to live reptiles (a snake and lizard borrowed from a local pet shop), and last week we visited McGill University’s Redpath Museum. Our homework was to push one of our dinosaur skeleton sketches further, and fully flesh out our chosen subject. I chose the raptor-like Dromaeosaurus albertensis, a local North american species. Continue reading →

Analytical Sketching: Sum Up

| Sabby G

Analytical-Animals
This Thursday will mark the finale of my latest course at Syn Studio, Analytical Sketching. Essentially, it revolved around building up objects and figures from lines and geometric shapes. It really helped me to build upon my basic skills, and I noticed a significant improvement in the ‘3D’ appearance of my comparatively flat sketches. We only ever used pen and markers, which forced us to commit fully to whatever marks we put down. Since then, I think I may have touched a pencil once or twice. Of course, I was already a pen fan to begin with! Here are a few highlights from throughout the 10 weeks. Continue reading →

Character Design: Final Project

| Sabby G

Well hello there! Been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been meaning to post this particular project for a good while now, but caught the summer bug (you know, that one where you just have to spend your entire free time outdoors?). Excuses aside, here’s today’s feature: The Atlantis Project. Essentially, we had to come up with three character designs for a video game set in the world of the technologically advanced Atlantis, a doomed floating city set in the age of antiquity. We were to design a Hero, Love Interest, and Villain, along with a brief paragraph for each to present our concepts. These are my designs:

CharacterDesign-Atlantis-Hero Continue reading →

Character Design: Digital Fun

| Sabby G

CharacterDesign-PracticeClass

It’s been a while since my last post (a sudden surge at work + Easter will do that…)! Started two new courses at Syn Studio this semester; 3D Fundamentals & Character Design. Both are purely digital-based, so expect more of that medium from now on. Nothing much to show 3D-wise for the time being, but here are a couple of quick concepts I created during my character design class. The above started off as an ‘astronaut’, evolved into an alien, then finally took a turn for the… um… aquatic monstrosity, I guess. I experimented with the posterize effect at somepoint, hence the blocky shapes.

CharacterDesign-CrystalGoblin

For lack of a better name, here’s a ‘Crystal Goblin’, hunched over due to the weight he(it?) carries and the heaviness of its crystal footsteps. The design is a bit messy and could definitely use some polishing, but this is what I got done in class.

Thanks for looking, have yourselves a merry little day! :)

Advanced Anatomy: Inkwashing Finale

| Sabby G

Anatomy-inkwash3

Yesterday marked the last day of my Advanced Anatomy class at Syn Studio Art School. We started off with quick warm up poses, but soon moved on to another ink wash session! I think I’ve improved, if only a tad, at this technique, and I hope to do more… because it’s really, really fun. The above was our longest pose, at about 30 mins (including a preliminary pencil sketch). Clearly I need to work on my hand technique. Check below for more!
Continue reading →