James Wolf Strehle, UPDATE! SKETCHBOOK REVIVAL!! last page!

[young paddy1]

I'm not trying to have a poke or anything but the first impression I got from the executioner sketches was that you were doing a new take on the character 'Disturbed' used in their "land of confusion" video, the painting however changes all that, it could still use some more contrast in the torso, but otherwise is incredibly cool (and a bit cheesy)

cheerio

[BobbyDash]

On another level. Very nice. That is all.

[James Wolf]

Mr.Delicious-thanks, more contrast aye,

D@niel- no problem, I'm certainly not going to hinder anyone from helping me lol, as long as the person isn't just doing it for the sake of painting my sketches. unfortunately that version of the sketch was scrapped all together, i'm not going to post any more progress shots, i'll just post the finish when i'm done so I don't fill my SB with all these silly executioner sketches.

jdeegz- ah gotcha, thanks for pointing those things out.


mynameisrichard- thanks!

agelaos- thanks, yea I do sometimes, i'll try post some soon, I don't like the straight on much either but the client does, true the hulk is pretty muscular! i didn't even think of him.

aedman-thanks, hmm i'm not sure, all I know at the moment is that my friends set up a 4 day art show called the urban art market. i'll try to see if i can find one.

MonkeYoakum-thanks I sort of just fill in the sketches with some tones to make it easier on me to see whats goin on, so I don't really put much more effort into that stage.

AnthonyFoti- ooOOO you will!

mrpank-thanks, that one sort of came out of nowwhere, I was just skribbling and it started to take shape lol
young paddy1- haha yea the client actually gave me that as a reference along with some of the music from the cd, yea he is a bit cheesy lol

BobbyDash-thanks

heres a quick stage tutorial that came out of my need to take a break from a larger piece, Just a sitting figure: If its not helpful at least it should give a little glimpse into my process.

[agelaos]

excellent man, love those skin tones. Solid working process. Seems like you get things done quickly and efficiently. Keep showing when you can, man.

[MR. Carbon]

James Wolf, Your first page is freaking killa, loving it, keep looking forward to seeing more man.

[kinnas]

just dropped in to say "good stuff" "keep it up" and "here's hoping to meet you one day as two rookies at massive black" : )

[James Wolf]

Hello,

heres a few more!
first the finished executioner, finally done...so many adjustments...I'm not to fond of the smile but the client felt it was very important to have it in, also I was torn between painting a nude figure and making a sci-fi character,.. so I ended up doing both! well she's not actually naked but anyway, it wasn't me intention to make her look like a jedi but I guess I kinda asked for it when i added the "magnetic energy blades" in. I've already had a few people from other forums mistake her for a...padawan... is that right? now i will be working on the 100 creatures for a while, see ya later!

[Kamikazebob]

Beautiful update! Love the whole atmosphere on the first pic and the 2nd/3rd piece is dead sexy.

[roidvoid]

the backview of the woman (with the lightsabers) is pretty good as a sketch but it looks like you ran into troubles with the side of the face and with the feet.
the sketch has great weight and ballance to it but the rendered out painting suffers in areas mentioned above
im not really loving the rust color on the wall in front of her.

my two cents

[jdeegz]

nice i think her calf is to thick though! but still, i thought it was a photo at first, hahaha

[halaster]

nice!!
i love your work.

[Jakers]

I really enjoyed looking through your work...its nice to see the nice form drawings start your pieces. One crit if anything would be that the feet could be more curvy in the odd female piece. Good stuff!

[Dan Valkar]

i def love the way u colour man! very sweet and realistic...keep the good work!

[RandAlThor]

very nice progress here, loving the skin tones, keep it up dude. ;-)

[BohemianChaos]

the finished pieces are looking awesome

[deadred]

hey you're that guy who drew the awesome evil-eye-with-flies-and-veil image love your mastery of skin colors and anatomy! nice lighting too, especially on that jedi (undressing, panties) girl pic, looking forward to updates!

[razz]

Sexy!! But a pleasure to look at not just because of that, hehe. The tut might come in useful, though that's sort of the way I paint already. Say, do you always start with the linework? I find it more free to start with blobs of color/silhouette or a very very loose linework. This way I don't get trapped inside the linework.
Keep showing this good stuff!

Cheers

[Camara]

Damn!!Your chicks are hot!!The anatomy and the colors in the last one are great!!Very good work!

[MonkeYoakum]

The reflected light to under her butt makes for such a nice depth and weight to the form.

[Coleb]

Your skin tones and blending are wonderful. Do you often start on a white ground and then change it later? I guess I´d love some more step by steps.

Please post more.

[OBX]

wow, incredible, this last page blows the stuff on the earlier ones away. the lightsaber chick is hot. verynice.

[kischi]

Great progress! The last one is awesome.
Your coloring is pushing your drawings to a next level!

[James Wolf]

Sheesh I guess I should check my sketchbook more often, I've had so much work over the past month, this is about my 30th day straight of work, I guess I don't now how to give myself a break. on top of that I foolishly decided to take on the 100 creature COW as well lol, pretty exhausting month anyway I guess I'll post a few sample creatures to give you a taste till the post is up.

Kamikazebob-thanks
roidvoid- thanks for the crit, I agree with you, I may fix it up a bit before posting it over at CGSociety.
jdeegz- I see what you both are saying, I need to practice my feet more
halaster- I'm glad you like my work, I appreciate the comment
Jakers-it always helps me to see how an artist goes from sketch to painting so I try to do the same, incase its helpful. yea, her feet aren't very sexy..
Dan Valkar- thank you
RandAlThor- I like skin
BohemianChaos- hopefully I'll be able to get some full fledged illustrations up at some point.
deadred- yep thats me! I'm actually going to be making a tutorial for that one in a magazine soon.
razz- I usually do, getting all the work done in the sketch stage makes the painting portion go quicker for me, also depends on what i'm doing, I'm much more loose with the quicker stuff.
Camara-lol thanks.
MonkeYoakum- I love reflective light and I'm glad it was successful in the piece!
Coleb- I'll try to get some more up, usually I find a midtone to start with so I can add lights and darks to it, similar to with charcoal drawings.
OBX- cool, hopefully that means I'm getting better
kischi- thanks, I always loved painting more than sketching

[MonkeYoakum]

third row, far left has my vote for favoright, looks botanical. Nice.

[BohemianChaos]

these thumbs look great

[zephyri]

Wow, stunning work in this thread, and really interesting to see how you've handed the whole speed issue, something I really need to work on myself. I actually like the smile on the executioner, and the finished version of the girl with the swords is stunning, how long did that take you? Liking the thumbs of the creatures too, very very nice indeed. Damn I need to work more!

[Jakers]

Great thumbs, im impressed by a great deal of them...its going to take ages to check out all the 100 COW entries!

[James Wolf]

MonkeYoakum-thanks he was the last creature I painted.
BohemianChaos- I have more lol
zephyri- i'm definitely getting faster, She took around two sittings, I can't remember exactly but I know i did it over the weekend so it went pretty fast. thanks the thumbs took a lot of energy out of me lol, if you haven't already be sure to vote over at the COW thread!
Jakers-thanks, yeah there's so many up its hard to decide.

I had a lot of of with this COW! after seeing everyone else's I sort of wish I had presented mine a little better lol, but o well. here are the rest of them. if anyone wants a certain one in a higher resolution let me know and i'll post it up. actually the 100 creature poll has a much higher resolution version of these so check that out as well if you'd like

[BohemianChaos]

wow!! these all look awesome.

[Jakers]

I distinctly remember seeing a few of these designs when I was browsing though them once the event was finished, great job! I feel bad for not doing it and bettering my skills in the creature department. Though nothing is stopping me from doing it on my own just too much else im working on. Post some more stuff when you got it sir