Emily So

I felt like I needed some more work with weird lighting/color dynamics.

Underwater/coral reef-like imagery is always fun to do. I was going to do a more vibrant coral reef but everything else was already getting pretty busy so I went more on the subtler side.

Here are the work in progress shots:

I feel like I spent an inordinate amount of time on the orange-yellow dress and the food. I think I switched her belt like 10 times.

Here are some shots at 100% zoom from the full size image:

And here’s a wallpaper you can download if you want:

Now I want tea and crumpets T_T

I didn’t know what to name this so Porcelain Iris (as in the flower) is what I came up with. Even though she has a bulb in her hair.

Iris because her outfit reminds me of iris flowers, and porcelain because of the colors I used. For the colors, I mainly took inspiration from Anna Dittmann. The concept of the character and outfit is from some old doodles I did in 2014 (on the left).

I’m not 100% sure of Anna Dittmann’s process, but I’m guessing she does the black and white version of her illustrations first then drops in colors with something like soft light blending mode layers. I’ve done that before, and it can be fun, but it actually kind of makes my head hurt. So I prefer to just jump right into working with colors and values at the same time.

I wanted to get away from “normal” colors and paint in areas with weirder colors, like magenta and blushy coral colors in dark areas to give a distinct aesthetic (so basically more secondary and tertiary colors). I don’t really know how to describe it. Normally in those areas I’d put some cooler colors like turquoise, blue or purple, but the magenta to me doesn’t make it warmer nor cooler. Perhaps someone can tell me different. This is probably especially the case because the highlighted areas in this illustration have a lot of cooler colors.

Here are some close-ups:

I kept working on this on and off for a few months, so I’m not entirely sure how many hours this took. Whenever I make illustrations like these, I pretty much always go through a phase where I’m absolutely despising the way the illustration looks in the middle of progress. Those times are hardest to work through because I know, as I tell my students, as long as I sit there and spend more time on it and push through those phases in my process, I’ll finish the piece and like it a lot more.

I want to try some more exotic palettes inspired by Anna Dittmann. It’s tough trying to come up with compelling lighting for interesting compositions.

Hooray for finishing more artwork!

Other pages found here.

Other pages found here.

Other pages here.

Other pages can be found here.

Other pages found here.

I just felt like doing some sci-fi visual studies. I wanted to explore sci-fi color schemes, lighting and environments. I’m also still not quite there yet with drawing people holding firearms. The angle of the weapons are pretty hard for me to keep consistent.

I meant for this project to be pretty quick but I got carried away with making sure Holden and Amos looked recognizable and that I figured out the lighting for each of them. In sci-fi, light sources tend to be everywhere else other than from above eye level. I’m especially unfamiliar with lighting faces and human figures from below.

I hope to be able to come up with scenes from my head with this kind of color and lighting.

*Sigh* The books to The Expanse series aren’t finished either. >_>

Today I’m posting about a high school student I taught earlier this year, Juliana. Initially she had little to no experience on how to use Toon Boom Harmony, a piece of software used to create animations. I taught her for about 3 months, and she was able to complete her first animated short, Creature of My Heart:

Juliana only took about a month to complete this short film from start to finish — which is incredible considering how many frames this animation has, and the length of the whole film. She picked up the software very quickly, but more than that, she fully executed a project against an extremely tight deadline. I’m also impressed by the writing of this film — its characters are well-defined, and the story has a very satisfying flow. I would describe it as an adorable romantic comedy with a Tim Burton-esque feel to it.

I want to give my most elated congratulations to Juliana for winning Best Animation at the All American High School Film Festival!

I’m so proud and excited for Juliana, and I hope that more artists, students and children will watch her film and also be truly inspired by her talent and diligence.