NB's SB (update: sketches and CHOW entries)

[Black Spot]

Wish I could go wild at work, but I think it's frowned on in accounting.

Solid king - not sure what of.

[Mat Kaminski]

Hey hey miss Grace, it's been awhile since I've lurked in these parts.

I'm gonna be watching your team with enthusiasm.

I've actually been drawing alot compared to when we were talking... and I mean alot, prepping for the GH app lol!!

I plan on making an attempt to apply in the summer as I'll finally be done with undergrad.

I haven't posted really in my sketchbook so I can't update you with the recent work, but it's good to see that you are still lurking about!

How goes work by the way? I hope everything is treating you well.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll talk more soon, just gotta get back to drawing :3

[Nightblue]

Flaskpost: Thanks! That's my dad He was going to sit as my model but he quickly dozed off, and it worked out in the end.

Black Spot: LOL! At least you get the money so you can go wild after work. I don't think I'll be able to retire early in this business, so it's good that at least the work is fun.

Matt: Hey there! Glad to hear you are busy, and still at the guildhall thing. If you need a critical eye on your entry submissions you know where to find me I'm doing well - much better than I had hoped, in fact. Work's been really fun. I'm sure I'll be looking back and thinking, "wow what an awesome first gig!" a few years down the line, heheh.



King of wand, slightly updated.

[ZhouPeng]

cool sketchbook you have~~~ and so is the latest one you just updated~~~ i love the man~
i could find your progress since you first post~~~ wonderful~~~
cheers~~~~

[Mr.Juicy]

Oh shyyyyt... I missed a lot
Nice progress NightBlue!
Goblin sketch is very sexy
Oh and game art looks very solid and professional - triangle count and quality is at it's best i think. I would suggest you to try marmoset engine for actual view of your models http://www.8monkeylabs.com/technology#Tools (of course companies use various engines and the result would be absolutely different on some of them, but still it's better then rendering on some not real-time renders.)
BTW, as i noticed water on your fountains, it came to my mind, that maybe you would want to try animate it? (some basic uvw's animation would be great cheat for it).
Keep on working and showing us your art!

[Asettimi]

NB, Great work here. I stumbled upon your stuff from the "Snowflake Fairy" thread(great entry BTW). Anyways, I like the professionalism in your work, its very inspirational. I also looked at your portfolio and was very impressed. The 3D models, of the fountains, and the textures are awesome, even on the simple boxes, Great Stuff.

Keep it up, and see you around.

[greyskill]

I like your 3d models, not a lot of people have those in their sketchbooks! They are really solid low poly models.

You do nice paintings, and you have a great grasp of anatomy. It really inspires me to be able to look at your work, thanks!

[Nightblue]

ZhouPeng: Thanks a lot I've been learning a whole lot in the past year. It's been an incredible journey.

Mr.Juicy: Hey! Long time no see Thanks a lot for the kind words! The fountain was done as a portfolio piece, and I'll think about animating it if I ever makes a demo reel. Thanks for the helpful suggestions!

Asettimi: Thanks a lot for the kind words. I had a lot of fun with the fairy, for sure. Need to paint more for fun now that I actually feel more comfortable painting. Thanks for stopping by! Your blog is all kinds of awesome, by the way. It's been added to my bookmarks

greyskill: Thanks a lot! I started out working as an environment artist, and I've been keen on improving my 3d skills because of that. I do concept art mostly now but I'd love to keep honing my skills both in 2d and 3d. Really appreciate the kind encouragement!

=======

Crunch at work seems to have ended, so my friend and I were finally able to make the life drawing session again. Here goes - the model was a wonderful lady. She's on the bony side, which makes it easy for me to force myself into using straight lines. Her lack of long hair also allowed for great opportunities to focus on the neck and shoulder, areas I've been very iffy at.

[jackpot_anjr90]

Good improvement! I like the last digital piece...though you're gonna want to work on the positioning of those legs and feet. Great studies though! Keep it up

[wilkerson]

Great work with the fountains, added to my reference folder, as I had no good fountain drawings. hehe I guess its your niche.
Regarding those crate textures a few pages back, good job, but I think they need a displacement map as well to bring out the forms.

[Asettimi]

NB,

Thanks for the time to stop by my blog, Im going to add more stuff soon. If you have some spare time, I could use some strong crits on my work. Im trying as you were to land a gig somewhere, and any feedback on what to remove, add, or fix would be great.

Keep up the posting, look forward to more of your stuff.

Last weks Chow got extended, so I can finish mine.

Asettimi

[knoxie]

dude...... you draw ALOT! I love that about you! you are killing those life drawing sessions, and I've got some lessons to learn from those enviro thumbnails you did a while back.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the Team CHOW.

[LORD M]

Heya Nightblue! Thanks for visiting my sketchbook, I have seen on your deviantart updates that you have been progressing a lot aswell! And hearing from you also brought along good memories of the Art Crusades.

I don't have much to say about improvement, you're really good now. Although I think you should watch out a bit on your proportions and shadows a bit, especially the legs that looks a bit too short compared to the body sometimes.

The last life studies are lookin fantastic, great shading technique (any idea what that is called? I wanna learn it ). Good job!

And I have to add that I just love the fountain on the previous page, always liked those kinda picture series lik that, undamaged and damaged.

[Nightblue]

jackpot_anjr90: Thanks much! Definitely needed to define the feet

wilkerson: it was a diffuse map only exercise. In many cases, low-poly game modeling (often last-gen assets) cannot afford cool stuff like displacement maps or normal maps, thus many details are faked in diffuse. Glad you liked the fountains Thanks a lot for the encouragement.

Asettimi: Hey, no problem! I really like your drawings of houses on there. The style is insanely cool. The animations are very nice as well, especially liking the more abstract one. Your model is looking great, but I kept wishing to see more of the "jaggedness" that's in your sketch. It's beginning to happen but I think you can push it more. That's my 2-bits, hope it helps Best of luck!

knoxie: Thanks! Haha I get kind of ashamed when people say I draw a lot I don't... I play too much games! Evil, evil games... I'll be sure to draw more now that drawing is getting more fun for me.

LORD M: Hey! Thanks for stopping by The shading is simple hatching, not so much focused on value rather than form. Basically my attempt at understanding stuff rather than copying something mindlessly like I'm so used to doing.

=====
Back from trip, small update on King of Wands, with crazy neon color. Here is where I panic a little and go to bed... Got carried away painting that main wand too, ugh.

[Nightblue]

more life drawings.

[aedman]

The life drawings are looking good, the ones in post 578 seem a bit more fluid and organic to me than some of the others. The king of wands image is coming along, I think it might be useful to simplify some of the value structure a bit, let things fall into darkness more, let some things become less distinct than others. Right now I feel like the detail overall is pulling my attention to different points at the same time. I think the core of the image and the design is good, just reduce the detail to where you really want the viewer to focus. Keep working, the improvement in this sketchbook is excellent.

[Nightblue]

aedman: Thanks a lot! Yeah, the values are pretty chaotic. I tried to make the king of wand more simplified but I might need to push it more. Thank you for the excellent advices!

King of wand 75% done. Tower... nowhere near done, haha. The pose is way off at the moment. A new round of researching and sketching will happen, hopefully before team chow deadline... brr..

[Nightblue]

Tower WIP. Thanks to Paul in helping me wrestle with this pose.

[Nightblue]

tower update.

[Nightblue]

Tower finished. Time to polish king of the wand...

[Nightblue]

King of wand finished - or as finished as I can get it before the deadline. This seems to happen a lot when the deadline is a month rather than a week, funny...

[Nightblue]

Life drawing from last week, and doodles. Goodbye Austin Sketch Group It's been fun! Back to packing.

This was the only time I've made it to the drawing session next to spiderhouse. They have wonderful 15-minute sessions. The model fainted when doing the sideways standing pose, but she recovered enough to allow for more seated poses.

[knoxie]

night blue!

you've been busy since I last dropped in. great polish on that male character. killer composition on the falling chick too.

.. you reminded me I gotta practice skin tones. start getting some colours into my pieces.

[Jesus Food]

nice work! with that girl falling from the crumbling building it looks like there is nothing stopping her breasts from completely falling out of that top shes got. thats not a criticism.. just an observation

[Nele Klumpe]

Your figure drawings look really good! Very well constructed.
I also like you colour work. As I feel that I shouldnt leave without some crit: Though your color work looks pretty cool I always feel that something's missing. And I think it's shadows, mostly cast shadows and really deep shadows. I think working on that would make your picture pop a lot more. (Got to remind myself of this advice as well, haha)
Keep up the good work!
Nele

[Nightblue]

knoxie: Thanks a lot! You have wonderful colors in your pieces, so I don't know what you are being so modest about!

Jesus Food: You'd like that wouldn't you really though, I can see your point. Just imagine it as the magical property of her platemail vest for now.

AvisNocturna: Thanks a lot! Still have to stop myself from fearing for hiding details. ugh.

====

Rushed valentine's day card for my boyfriend, squeezed in between nights of packing sessions. I will not have the internet for a while after maybe this morning. Up and moving to sunny California! Hopefully I'll be painting outdoors a lot more now.

[William b. Hand]

Wow, your figure sketching is so good. Certain poses... one with a pole, some bending forward ones, one on all fours... lingering in my mind's eye because they are so good. The King of Wands got much improved from it's early colouring, which frightened me when I saw it. You really managed to tame all that wayward detail nicely! I'm loving that last batch of figures and fantasticals. Creatures are yummy.

[zhiao]

Hey NB - Love the chef and murloc.

[Nightblue]

William b. Hand: haha yeah, the king of wand definitely freaked me out at that point. It's like a mutated experiment. I really enjoy doing figure drawings, and hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do more of them soon. Must locate a local group...

zhiao: Thanks! Wanted it to be even more twisted but had to rush.

=====

Spent the last week moving to and settling down in south California. Kind of a big transplant process. Finally had time to go to the beach, and here's a very quick sketch before the sun went down. It got dark really fast...

[Jonas_J]

Congrats on moving
Love the the king of wands illustration.