William Thorup

Illustrator, Motion Graphics Designer, Animator, and VFX Artist

Category: Sketch

Time Lapse Video | Unfinished Art of 2013

After the long silence, I return. Though I am not being silent on purpose, I do regret not being more consistent with my posts. I have several paintings I need to add to my portfolio and write about, so, stay around for those in the near future.

As for the screenshots and video below, I wanted to share some of the unfinished work from the previous year, and talk briefly about a book I am putting together of my work over the last few years. Plus, new site layout, not sure if I like it yet…

Whats featured in the video is just a fraction of the work that I never finish. There are tons of paintings and sketches, that I start to take to finished pieces, but never find the time, or I move onto other projects.

Something interesting though. Recently I have been putting together a book of all my work since I got off my mission (pics below), and I have noticed how much my finished work draws from my unfinished work. Especially anything that has a story to it. I don’t know if it’s because I get too attached to an idea, or what, but my finish work is a culmination of things that never finish. Allot of the games my brother and I have started over the last few years have been doing this, and many illustrations and other paintings are a result of this as well.

Speaking of this book I am putting together. I am always thinking about possible career roots in the future, and I thought it might be a good idea to collect all my work over the last few years and get it in a nice hard bound book of some sort. The book can be used as a portfolio, but the main motivation is to get a hard copy of my paintings.

Currently, none of my recent work has been printed. The inherent properties of the digital medium make it a bit more volatile. So, having a hard copy of my work, I believe, will be a good idea.

The book will be 8.5×11 format, full color. Right now I have about 90 pages put together, and, at this point, it looks like the book will break 125 pages. The book will include an Illustration, Thor Media, Ongoing and Personal work, and a sketchbook section. Along with a small index to quickly find pages that feature character design, story boarding, etc… So far this has been a huge project to undertake, but I think it will be well worth the time in the long run.

January 27, 2014
Weekly Sketch Review | End of the Year Sketch Dump

I have neglected my blog a bit over the past few months, but I have good excuses. My brother and I have started to get more involved in the Atari Jaguar community, and that has been taking most of my time. I have been picking up C code, so I can do some work with my brother on that end.

I am really looking forward to learning how to code games. So far I have found it very fulfilling, and I believe my are will be able to reach more people through it. It is quite an enabling skill to learn, and I would recommend to anyone to take the time to learn to code.

I also have had some things with work, and other end of year things in my personal life that take up my time. Through all of these things, though, I find time to draw, and having a very portable device that I am comfortable with make all the difference.

Because it has been so long since I have done a Weekly Sketch Review, this will probably be the last one of the year, and it is much more like a “Sketch Dump”. I hope there is something here you will enjoy and comment on. I have had several down points in my artistic endeavors over the past few months, at it has been a good thing for me to look at some of my work over the last few months. I am still progressing, even though my focus has shifted in a different direction.

This only represents the work that I have done on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, I have done quite a bit in my Moleskin and on loose sheets of paper. There are also a few illustrations that I never finished, before I post those though, I would like to compile the screen recordings of them all, and put together a time lapse video. It is hard to believe how many pieces you start, but never finish.

December 13, 2013
Krita Time-Lapse Demonstration | Inking | Inking with Wolthera van Hovell’s Inking Brush Kit 1.2

Thought I would pay tribute to some of the people helping to make Krita an awesome program for artists. By tailoring to specific mediums, like ink.

This time-lapse video highlights a few drawings being inked with Wolthera’s new Inking Brush Kit that you can download HERE. Enjoy the vid.

September 24, 2013
Weekly Sketch Review | Faces and Characters

I should probably start calling these bi-monthly sketch reviews, considering how much time that has elapsed since the last sketch review. I am drawing quite a bit, it’s just getting around to putting these posts together. It’s more time consuming than I expect.

I have been working in both Krita and Gimp lately, and I definitely lean towards using Krita for my study. Smoother workflow and all. I mainly use gimp for its more intended purpose of post processing now. Adjusting color curves, sharpening, etc.

The first few poses that are drawn in the video are actually from an illustration, I did over a year ago, here. I liked the original and I wanted to draw poses, so, I tried fleshing out the character a bit with some different poses.

The faces in the middle of the video are purely study. Then the last set of drawings are a character concept for one of our Jaguar games.

August 26, 2013
Weekly Sketch Review

I have been slammed for the last couple of weeks. Things in Thor Media look good business wise, but that means more of a burden on our shoulders. With so few people working in the company full-time, it becomes very difficult to find time to do anything on my blog.

Also, I had a very close grandparent pass away, so the family has been dealing with that. But this doesn’t mean I am giving up on the blog, and these recent events have provided sources of inspiration for both work and personal projects.

I decided to dive into a bit of composition. Practicing on creating a focal point and depth in an image. These kinds of studies are simple, fast to do, and seem to be one of the most effective ways for me to study composition.

Then during the week, I worked on anatomy and various poses, faces, random ideas for paintings, and costumes/fashion. I covered allot of ground over the last few weeks, and I am thankful to these Weekly Sketch Reviews for that. This has been a great way to motivate myself to draw and paint more.

I would suggest to any budding artist, get a blog, and try something similar. Its great way to look back on your previous work and see the progress. With me the progress is slow, and sometimes frustration, but gratifying when it is seen.

June 23, 2013
Weekly Sketch Review

Armored Empire is in full swing, and other prospects for the company are growing. We have been very busy at Thor Media, we like what the future is looking like. Amidst all the commotion and work, I always seem to find some time to sketch and paint, that is what these posts are for. Keep the train rolling.

And that is never as easy as it seems. These time lapse videos are encouraging though. I can see progress in my anatomy and gesture drawing, and I am better realizing how important these two things are in obtaining my artistic goals.

More faces. Trying to broaden my portrait skills with different ethnicities, and also some more fictional studies. I used Krita’s multibrush option to do the alien head below. By selecting and axis point and setting the mirror direction to horizontal, it is very easy to sketch out faces, and relieves the pressure of making sure the face is not lop sided. I can see how something like this would make things more efficient in a production, but it is something I definitely don’t want to become dependent on.

All the sketches here are a mix of digital and real. I enjoy switching back and forth. I get to see the differences in how I draw lines, and the differences in the feel of both mediums. There is still a stark contrast between the two, something I believe that will never go away, but I enjoy both, and find that both have their pros and cons.

I have also been working on some characters and costumes. The animal mechanic below was fun. I don’t work with animals much, I am not sure what kind of animal he is, but I thought I would give it a try. The other images are basic costume and anatomy studies.

The last couple weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster. I stress out about how much I am practicing, and I am worried that recently acquired skills will disappear. I struggle with this more often than I should, and I know that part of the problem is that I don’t incorporated these skills into my work enough. I spend allot of time in Blender, modeling, texturing, and animating, which I enjoy, but I don’t want to do for the rest of my life. I hope, in the near future, we can find someone that can cover this work at Thor Media, so I can focus more on the 2D artistic sides of things. On the up side though, I seem to be doing thumbnails allot more. For trailers, interface design mock-ups, and other technical stuff. So my pencil still gets used allot.

June 9, 2013
Weekly Sketch Review

I have been able to do some casual sketching here and there, and I would like to just share a few sketches that I have done over the last few weeks. No real focus, but I am sure you will enjoy them anyways. These where all done through Sketchbook Pro on my Lenovo Thinkpad tablet.

The portrait sketch above isn’t completely mine. At Draw Night, Michael, Ethan and I began talking about how difficult it is to draw the eye, furthest from the viewer, in a 3/4 portrait. I handed my tablet over to Mike, so he could adjust my handiwork. Thanks Mike!

May 26, 2013
New Cintiq 13HD

I am going to brag a little bit, only because this is such an awesome device. But before that, I apologize for the lack of posting. We have officially started our next project, so, I have been doing allot of writing, organizing, and discussions, to make sure we give this project a good start.

This Cintiq 13HD has been very fun to work on. Having worked on an Intuos for such a long time, it takes a bit to adjust to working on a display, but it comes with some advantages.

The first thing that I noticed was how much easier it is to do line work. It is more accurate. The reason for the increase in accuracy is because the disconnect created by drawing on one surface while looking at a different surface, is gone. This makes it more like a traditional medium, which, for some artists, can be very attractive.

Pro number two, is how portable this thing is. It is the same width and height as my 15.6 HP ENVY 15, and they easily fit side by side in my bag. I take it between work, Draw Night, parent’s house, and my house with out worrying about it at all. It does add a few extra cable to my bag, and is slightly heavier than my medium Intuos 4 tablet.

Which brings me to my next point. This device is deceivingly light. And, even thought I don’t do this often, I can easily draw with it sitting on my lap. This is the big plus to this device, light and portable.

Now some down sides. The screen is a bit dim. Most of the time I don’t mind it, just because it is still brighter than most LCD’s. I heard somewhere there is a way to adjust this, but I haven’t been able to find a service manual to adjust brightness. There isn’t anyway to change the brightness with Wacom software unfortunately.

This one isn’t really a con, seeing it will be resolved soon. Getting it to work in Linux was a bit of a chore. Because of how new the device is, native support won’t be around for a little while. I was able to build the latest driver from source, and then I have had to trouble shoot the Settings GUI so I could map the buttons. A bit frustration at first, but I eventually got everything working right, and it works great in Kubuntu 13.04. It also works great in programs like the Gimp, MyPaint, and Krita.

The one big downside to this device is the connector for the proprietary cable, and how it connects to the device. It is a bit flimsy, and one good bump would definitely render it useless. With some extra care though, this can be avoided, and shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

Overall, it has been a joy to use, and for the price point it is a very good device. Great color, great portability, and a great price. I would definitely suggest it to anyone interested in getting a Cintiq, and not wanting to spend more than $1000.

May 20, 2013
Gimp 2.8 Time Lapse | Quick Portrait | The Scientist

This one might count as a weekly sketch review, since it was really just a study in lighting. This face was actually from a sketch session of many faces I started a couple weeks ago. I decided to go back and pick one of those faces and push it a bit further.

I think that I have been using Krita a bit too much. The shortcuts, like the shift+drag to adjust brush size, have spoiled me. I keep thinking that they should include the option in the Gimp. But I also understand that Krita is more geared for an artist like me, while Gimp is more built for photography. Both programs have their good and bad qualities, and I still enjoy using both programs.

A little about this painting though. I have been studying a bit about photography and lighting for portraits, and I wanted to try my hand at a Rembrandt lighting. Using this kind of light seems to create allot of depth in the subjects face. I wanted her to feel more ominous by dropping the bounced light, creating a starker contrast between the right and left sides of the face.

I like her somewhat “I’m better than you.” expression, adds to the character. The background says things like “Science” and “Progress”. Her character kind of reminded me of something that you might see in a Final Fantasy game. Overall, I believe the portrait does it job. Enjoy the video!

May 9, 2013
Weekly Sketch Review | Mechs

These weekly sketch review posts are a bit easier to put together, simply because they don’t take as much time. I have a few long term paintings in the works, that I hope I can get published here on the blog soon. With time lapse videos and every thing. But, there just isn’t enough time in the day to get that stuff done sooner. Too many other projects and jobs to work on.

I have been focusing on the face this last week, with a bit of an emphasis on facial expression. Working with expression forces you to have a better understanding of the structure underneath the skin. This is really good, as I do still struggle with heads and faces, so working with expression should help me get to that next level.

The image below, is just a sheet I was doodling on during other work. I have actually taken the center image and reworked it for a larger painting that I hope to post in the future.

Concerning projects though. I believe I have mentioned Thor Media’s next app project in previous posts, so, here is a little peak into that project.

I have been spending allot of time putting together flow charts for our programmer. Mainly menu and game mechanics. But, I have also had some time to sketch some mech’s, something that I have never really done before. These sketches are nothing to write home about, but considering it is my real first attempt at drawing mech’s, I think I did pretty well.

And along with some mech design, I have spend a bit of time just drawing random maps and thinking about layout and balanced level design. Something else I have never really done before, but it is fun to think about, and stretch a bit. It turned out to be a good way to get thinking about additional game mechanics and possible story scenarios as well.

April 9, 2013