Kolja Kaehler
Munich, Germany
On the road from graphics software engineer to artist - mostly interested in comics, characters, 3D modelling/sculpting, animation.
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Sonja Müller
•
3yr
added comment inAssignment - Developing Characters
I have a question.What does lineup mean? Are the 3-5 characters supposed to be in the same final illustration? So should we have considered that the three work together? Or will we chose later on which on makes it to the further development steps?
Kolja Kaehler
3yr
Interesting question, Sonja! My take on the early lessons was that it's about exploring ideas for one character, and then refining that one. Now I have one main character I really like, and could either think about others complementing him, or come up with independent ideas. Hm. @Scott Flanders Can you shed some light on whether we're ultimately designing a group or a single character? Thanks!
Kolja Kaehler
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3yr
@Scott Flanders Hey Scott, is there a deadline for the video critique? I have a bit of catching up to do and would like to estimate the time I have. Thanks!
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3yr
Hi Kolja. There is not a deadline set yet. We will likely shoot the next round of critique in early August. You should have a few weeks :)
Kolja Kaehler
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3yr
Man, this is a long video, but well worth watching! So much information, it's a miniworkshop in itself! Also love how you can barely hold back and go off playing all the time ("I'm supposed to be giving feedback" while drawing a spaceman :D :D ) - very inspiring! Thanks for putting in the time, Scott!
As a side note, after having watched the whole video: There were plenty more submissions all over the place... as was said, new platform is bound to produce some chaos, but we should probably make sure to have all the submissions collected in one place for upcoming assignments.
@sable40k
•
4yr
Man, this is quite challenging; I'm realizing how little I know about farms or harvests! However, here is what I have so far. I will continue trying to pull more ideas out of my brain...
Ha, can totally relate to that. Not even Halloween has ever been much of a tradition over here :) I really like your cute animal characters! The plant variations go more into the monster / creature direction, though. In the context of MonsterLab, maybe you could play with modifying the animals - mutate them, combine their bodies with other animals, plants, or tools. I like the idea of a "monstrous farm animal", and would like to see that play out!
Adrian Potato
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4yr
Hey there, i was wondering how much time do you usually take to produce a sheet?
Do you have a minimum a maximum amount of time you set for yourself?
Do you sometimes look at images that might inspire you while doing this or doing other kinds of research?
Hi Adrian, I did two sessions of maybe 2h over two days, not counting the time my brain was just processing, and I kept making little notes every now and then :) Scott emphasized working in writing and from your memories at this stage, so I avoided looking up inspiration or reference.
Andre Camargo
•
4yr
Asked for help
Hey guys, I did go with the harvestman "theme" here. When I signed up for the course I planned on doing a monster I currently need for a story, but found during the first lesson that it wouldn't go well with the harvest/farming/halloween theme.
With my visual brainstorming, I tried to go in a different direction that Scott did.
I used this method before during my graphic design courses, but it was never nearly as much fun as it is with monsters :)
I will do another sheet with follow up ideas. Can't wait to continue. I have some rpg troupes in my mind, some mythical monster concepts and some more machine/plant (cyberpunk) hybrids.
I had little peeks into Sonjas, Teds, Gracielas and Nates work, because I was too curious. I will comment and try to give feedback but want to wait with my follow-up sheet. Otherwise I get too distracted and just feel jealous of all the great ideas and themes!
Amazing start guys, looking forward to see the progress through the course.
If you guys have any hints for me, feel free to hit me!
All the best,
Andre
I like how you are exploring many possible directions, and especially the combination with machinery! I see a lot of Scott's associations in your sketches, too - which doesn't hurt, but I'm curious: I actually found it hard to let go of the notions we already were presented with in the lesson video. E.g., I made sure to not do a pumpkin, and was wondering if I'm limiting myself that way. Did that trouble you?
Sonja Müller
•
4yr
Asked for help
As promised I did some more variations of the Army of Gobbling Apples. I wanted to post it as reply of my first post, but I am not able to find it. I also can't remember if I posted it under assignments or comments. Is there one place where we can see all the comments related to this course?
Anyways sorry for double posting, I include the old ones, so everything is together. Also I will continue brainstorming about the Cute Eye Monster until the next lesson. Looking forward to the upcoming episode :D
I like how you were thinking of situations or story moments for your apple army. I found that really helps to define the personality of the characters while one is working on them. The very last sketch with the leader apple stood out to me, it has a lot of movement, and suggests some madness going on - nice funny / creepy combo :)
Andrea Rubbini
•
4yr
Asked for help
This is so much fun! To write down the notes I had to think in English, which is not my first language. I wonder if that influenced me somehow.
I was also a little concerned about that. Above all I believe the exercise is about letting your thoughts flow freely... I'm OK with english, but at times I just put down German words if the english term didn't spring into my mind immediately. Glad to see someone focusing more on the notes part, too :)
Kolja Kaehler
•
4yr
Hi there, here's my collection of notes for the first assignment. I'm not quite sure how far we're expected to take the design in this week? I've mainly collected ideas, and honed in on my favorite with a few options I would now want to actually design more thoroughly, look up inspiration and references and so forth.
To get to my own take on Harvestman, I felt the need to define a background, a story for the character I can build on. So this was a lot more about writing than drawing so far. In short, I went for a sort of Frankenstein background, a mad-scientist experiment to create a humanoid creature from a plant, with some mechanical addons. Designed as a farming assistant, he went rogue at some point. He still likes sowing and gardening, and you might see him doing his scarecrow routine, guarding the crops. Harvestman has a bird friend, and his relationship with humans is difficult. He lives in hiding most of the time. For some reason he likes hats, so he has a whole collection, including a pirate hat, matching his leg stump.
I hope these pages make sense, I tried hard to forget about making them presentable to not stifle my thought process :) I coould provide a cleaner summary, if needed.
It's been a lot of fun and a pretty intense exercise so far. Any feedback appreciated!
Hey Kolja,
great to see other artist from so close to me (Augsburg) here on Proko! (BTW; I am also detouring from engineering ;) ).
But you came for feedback, here it is!
I couldnt take much from your first sheet, because it is a bit too small for me to decifer, but that is ok. I guess it was your thought process, and as you said, better to get it straight to paper than to loose your trail of thought.
I enjoyed your backstory with the second sheet, it adds so much to it. The figures are very readable and I have a pretty good picture of him in my head.
The idea with the companion is cool. Gives you a lot of room for interaction. I would like to see more of that during the development!
As I understood your ideas, you went for different variations of one monster/character. Dont know if this is correct, but I assumed we "had to" do find completely different forms and variations.
Looking forward to your monsters!
Andre
Kolja Kaehler
•
4yr
Ah, wonderful! I've started sculpting in Blender a while ago, and am eager to up my game! Also thinking about trying out traditional sculpting.
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4yr
Yeah I highly recommend trying some traditional sculpting. Like drawing with paper it has a beneficial tactile element that’s good to feel and learn and I’ve found the knowledge transfers easily over to digital 3D work whereas the opposite (going from digital to traditional) is more difficult.
