Rhys Harvey Artist

Hello all,

Its been a while since i have posted on my blog and the main reason is because i have put my focus else where. So if you want to see my latest work i will be posting more regularly on these sites:

Website: http://www.rhysharvey.com/

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artist/rhysharvey

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rhys-Harvey-Artist-1677059882513226/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhysWHarvey

Intagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhys_harvey_artist/

Feel free to follow me and ask any questions you have about my work. :)

The pursuit to becoming a visual development artist update

Hello, its been a while since I have updated my blog as it has been a busy couple of weeks, I am now officially a graduate in animation and visual effects and thought it was time i stepped out of what i'm used to doing and give matte painting/concept art a go.  The technique of using photos to create concepts to me used to be an annoying thing for me as I didn't see it as "proper art" but now after 3 years at uni and the last few months realising what it is I really want to do. Concept art needs to get across the idea quickly and look cool! so for a realistic looking piece the only way to achieve this quickly is to use photos and mash them together in a clever way. Most people don't agree with this approach to concept art but the professionals are doing it and getting paid for it so what's so wrong with it?

so here is my first approach to this way of doing things. I started with thumbnail sketches, then created a 3d mock up in maya to play around with camera angles and composition. Then I took it into Photoshop and started mashing images I collected and painting all over the place.

 updates with the full breakdown and process will be coming soon.

Anatomy study in depth

So I thought this time I will take a lot more time over the process of an anatomy study. There is a certain way that I have developed to draw the figure that i find works really well for me. I find that its more about thinking about what you are drawing when it comes to figure drawing, not just the final drawing.

so here it is, how my brain works when I do figure drawing most of the time.

The reference

Real life drawing is so much better but as its so much quicker and I just want to learn loads with lots of different models quickly I have been using this great you tube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/NewMastersAcademy

for this piece this was the reference I used

1)  I start by looking at the model and focusing on purely the pose and proportions, drawing simple lines, the blue lines are looking at what direction the pose is going in and things like the the gravity centre point  (if that's what its called) The black lines are the bones in a way and where the joints such as the knees and elbows are. I start with the direction of the shoulders, hips then the spine and go out from there.

2) The next step I take is adding in the muscle structure, as I can't see through this models skin and I don't know the ins and outs of the human body I make a good guess from muscles that I know are there and general shapes that make up the figure. Ideally this would help a lot more if I did know the full muscle structure of a human but that will come with time and lots of studying. 

3) Then I go onto putting the line in around the muscles as if you were tracing the outline of the model and using the muscle and shape structure as a base. 

4) next and nearly to the end its the fun bit of putting in the tonal values. Again having this base of bones and muscles (well something similar to) really helps figure out why the light and shadows make the different shapes on the figure. 

5) finally I add the finishing touches. 

I don't always go into depth this much with my figure drawing but this process does go through my head, even if it is very quick 30 second sketches. figure drawing is one of those things that I feel I will never master but i hope this helps those trying to improve there figure drawing.  

The pursuit to becoming a visual development artist (trying a new style)

So I thought it was about time I tried something new and just went for it and did something I wanted to do.
This piece is one of what will be a set around the idea of a hunt and who is the prey and who is the hunter?

I was inspired by the amazing visuals of the maze runner and wanted to create something with a similar feeling. I created this piece in Photoshop and used Maya to block out the shapes and play around with the camera. I then took a still into Photoshop and worked on-top of it mainly painting everything in and using photo textures here and there for the grungy walls. I really enjoyed this piece even though I know there is mistakes and issues to correct but it was nice to create something for myself

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The pursuit of becoming a visual development artist (anatomy drawings)

Here is a collection of sketches, some quick and some more refined, that I have done over the past few weeks. Most of these human form studies are of the male form but I am now moving onto the female figure.

Even though I have been drawing mainly just the human form for the last few weeks I feel like it is something that you can never practice enough. I will continue to practice my anatomy drawings and am still trying to hit the target of a drawing a day. 

and a few I did a while back 

The pursuit to becoming a Visual Development Artist

So I have recently finished my degree at University in animation and visual effects and its time to get a job! I had been struggling for a while on deciding what it actually was I wanted to pursue as a career within the animation industry. There are so many aspects of animation that interest me and so many areas that I have had a go at and wish to do more of but it seems with this industry its hard to get a job if you like doing everything and don't really narrow yourself down to a specific area. I recently attended the Annecy animation festival in Frace for the second time which is an amazing festival and for those who haven't heard of it or been yourselves I highly recommend it. http://www.annecy.org/home.  Anyway this was an amazing eye opener for me again and made me realise that every company is different in many ways making it more difficult for me to understand the big question, How do I get a job in animation? 

The more I think about it and the more I find out it seems like there is no set way of getting a job, obviously being good at what you do and networking is a big part of that but most of the people I spoke to at the festival and stories i have heard from guest lecturers all have a different story to tell in how they broke there way into the industry. 

For about the last year I have been following the amazing artist Chris Oatly and his online site that offer's a great deal of knowledge and advice for students http://chrisoatley.com/. Over the last few months really thinking what it was I wanted to do was stressing me out, as I felt like there was so much pressure on getting a job in the industry straight out of university. But a great piece of advice from Mr Oatly really set things straight in my head and that advice was.... simply what is it that you are really passionate about? I'm really interested in loads of things within animation and visual effects and am inspired by everything but what was it that im really passionate about? and for me that is coming up with designs of characters that audiences fall in love with, designing environments that the audience gets completely lost in, creating moods and telling stories that engage people. 

So Becoming a Visual Development Artist is by far the job that I am passionate about. I know I haven't picked an easy one to break into but the most important thing to me is doing a job that I love for the rest of my life.

For the past year I was the writer/director/art director/character + environment artist/lead texture artist and other bits for the short film Headless which is in its final stages of completion so I haven't really had the time to specialise in the visual development side of things, bringing me to where I am now. Finished university wanting to become a visual development artist and not feeling like my work is strong enough so I have decided to take thing back to the basics and get better at drawing firstly brushing up on my human anatomy skills. I have set myself the task to make sure I draw at least once a day every day for as long as it takes until I produce work that will help me to achieve my goal as a visual development artist. 


so here are the first two sketches and hopefully over time I will improve more and more. 

Headless Update: getting the right style

Its been a while since I posted about the Headless project and a lot has happened.

Being the director and art director on this project i have had a lot of work to do and have found myself telling people what to do more than working specifically on anything. Of course the main role of the director and art director is to keep everything looking the way that i want it and for the story to say what i want it to say and being caught up in doing the animatic and storyboard constantly i have done the character designs quickly in order to get the characters modelled so they can then be rigged. But it wasn't until i looked back on my original designs that i realised the 3d models didn't look anything like the original concepts i created.

here is the turnaround i did for the head.

And a few stills of the 3D Model in progress Created by Alan Ation

then the finalised 3D Turnaround of the head.

After looking at these for a while thinking there was something not right about the character i realised that they where far from the original concept that i did myself. Just being caught up in doing everything else i missed over the important aspects of my original design which i liked so much. So i went back and studied my original concept thoroughly. 

Looking at this and having it stuck to the side of my monitor i soon realised what was missing in my first head character turnaround. It was the small things like the positioning of the eyes, ears,mouth and nose. The shape of the ears and how square they are, the shape and size of the eyes and so on. 

To gett a better idea of how this concept to be created in 3d i got my hands on some clay and created this head character as a real 3d object that i could continue to look at for reference and understand more how it could work. 

Although This was a very quick clay sculpt i was happy with the outcome and it helped me see where i went wrong and how it could be fixed. 

The next stage i took was to re create this clay sculpt in Mudbox as a 3d sculpt that I could refine even more.

This Sculpt was simple but achieved the more innocent and charming character that i was going for and as you can see from the old and new next together the change made a difference and is now more like my original design.  

Headless Concepts and Art Direction

Before i Pitched This as an idea i spent a long time refining what style i wanted it to be in, i had the style in my head and eventually got it down on paper.

the style is a mixture of artists work that i have seen but all with this similar look using pastel colours with an edgy painterly look to it.

Style reference. 

So After studying images like the ones above I re did some of my old concepts and tried to get this style in there. I Have see this style  a lot now i have been looking for it but im hoping that taking reference from a combination of them and creating this in 3D with give it a slightly more original take on it.  

Here is all the concepts so Far for headless all created by me. 

Concept art is something that I have always loved doing and is something I wish to do a lot for this film. But being the director and sorting the story out at the same time is making it difficult to create the concepts along side all the other work. The concepts are a key thing to have so modellers can then create the stuff in 3D and keep to the style but at the moment the modellers are quicker at doing the work than there is concepts being produced so I have started to recruit extra concept artists and am still looking for more. 

Flat design

A key part to the story is figuring out how everything is going to work in 3D and how things are going to work together in a way that the story makes sense within the environment. The flat interior was one of those environments that had to be right and fit with the style, i didn't have the time to design this so i got a second year on board 

Katie Wyman, who is brilliant at concept work and i asked her to design the interior of the flat, at this stage it was just a plan to get an idea of where everything would happen. 

I gave her information about what was going to happen in the story and what we would need where and this was the result. 

it may not seem like much at the moment but i was very pleased with it as it all works perfectly and fits with everything around the story that will take place in the apartment. 

Headless Short film

In a few weeks time I will be pitching my idea for a short film in front of my fellow class mates and an industry panel so i thought its time to make my idea more interesting and refined. 

the rough outline of the story ....

He is the only person in the world to be born with their head detached from their body, but the head and the body have two separate personalities, desires and attitudes. They never get on with each other but need each other to do everyday tasks. How will they learn to live with each other and become one person?

Im really excited about this idea but i'm more excited about creating a world and characters that are visually stunning. I am planning on creating the film in 3D and it will range between 3-4 minutes  long. Although it will be in 3d Im planning on sticking with a more stylised look inspired by many different artists. i have collected a range of images which can bee seen on my pintrest board http://www.pinterest.com/rhysharvey/headless-film-inspiration/. But recently I have been more inspired by the work of an artist called Goro Fujita, check out his blog http://chapter-56.blogspot.co.uk/. 


A back alley of the setting of my film inspired by the beautiful cornish seaside town Falmouth, where i am very luck to be living. 

The body of the main character.

The Building that the main characters the head and body live. 

Fxu Freelance Animation

A while back i was asked to create a short animation by my universities student union, Falmouth & Exeter student union (FXU) the animation had to promote there advice and welfare services and the style was my choice. I wanted to use this opportunity to try  out a different style and experiment with fluid moving 2d animation. I used Tv paint and i was inspired by the work of crcr http://www.crcr.fr/ a small animation company with a very distinctive style. So here is the short animation that I created from scratch from the beginning concepts to the final edit.

I was very happy to be given this opportunity as i had the chance to do everything on this short animation which was a nice experience as i only had to rely on myself and although there was a deadline i could work at whatever pace i wanted and had that freedom to create what i wanted. As long as the clients where happy with what i was putting into the animation.

Oceans in Peril

The ocean acidification project in collaboration with the university of west England animation that I had been doing background art for is now complete and has finally been released for the eyes of the public. I and pleased that I was a part of this project and overall really happy with my work being used to help this video, promoting the awareness of ocean acidification from the shark and coral conservation trust.

HEADLESS

Its close to hand ins now and I have done a few concepts for key aspects in the story and have done a quick character design for the girl in the story, here are the concepts I have done for this project so far and some ones i did a while back which I forgot to post.