Monkey's Sketchbook - Nudity

**retardedmonkey** · October 5th, 2009, 09:24 AM

Unearthly challenge sketches in Photoshop...duh!

I really enjoy working in greyscale. I know I said this already, but when I'm working in just greyscale and no color....its so relaxing. How do I work with color...I need real help with color! If there is a super pro that is a wiz with color out there just looking for an aspiring young artist to mentor...I'm here!

Yea...I need to get under someones instruction soon. But for now...this competition. The theme is "End Game", so the idea is that these alien objects have crashed into the earth, they contain a virus thingy that spread and feeds on the materials here on earth to grow.

We liked the apartment view as it puts you in a somewhat passive viewing role, and then the action in the second shot turns the apartment into a more active role as the alien thing starts to take over the building. Also we're playing around with the idea that this apartment was owned by a guy that predicted/helped set into motion this event, and no one listened....and regardless of his part in the event he is still taken over.

So I'm trying to play with contrasts throughout the environment. The object light and dark from left to right. The rising sun is supposed to suggest a sliver of hope against the impending doom to the right of the image. Also pushing the clean regular look of the city on the waters edge and the chaos of the right hand side.

I'll keep this thread updated with our progress on the project...hoping to start modeling stuff today, so check back if you're interested

**Nele Klumpe** · October 5th, 2009, 09:45 AM

O_________________________________________________ __________________O

Awesomeness!!!!

**DStraX** · October 6th, 2009, 01:04 PM

cool, the grayscale pics are a good idea (:

**retardedmonkey** · October 7th, 2009, 09:38 AM

Thanks guys!

Well, I don't have to much to show here. Been getting really depressed with art these past few days. I can't seem to make any improvements and I just feel like I'm going no where. Overall it sucks, and what sucks more is that I keep thinking of dropping art and doing something else...which blows because its the last thing I want to do. I just need to figure out how to keep going on improving. It's hard though when you're teaching yourself and you have no clue what you "should" be doing...ya know?

Eh, oh well I'll get over this little period soon enough. In the mean time some pencil sketches.

**young paddy1** · October 20th, 2009, 04:41 PM

some of these enviros are truly spectacular especially the round house and alpine cow herd (although the foreground cow has a smaller head than the midground one, but that's such a tiny thing) The sketches interspersed on the previous page are beautiful, wonderful shading style.

the enviros on this page are lacking a bit of dynamism, probably due to the central placement of the corner of the room. A crop putting it about a third of the way across the image might be better.

anyway cheers for dropping by my sb

cheerio

**retardedmonkey** · October 20th, 2009, 05:25 PM

Thanks Paddy!

Those two most recent ones do need alot more work. I did them for that competition so it was kind of rushed. The main thing for them was to get as much shown in as little time as possible. However looking back on them and hearing yours and another persons inputs made me see a few things...stuff that could have saved me time and helped them look better.

The centered composition is just boring. They lack a definite focal point and thats only emphasized and made worse by the composition. The outside and inside are both rendered at about the same level when I should have at least used softer edges on the outside, in order to seperate them. There's alot of stuff in those I'd change now...I got "Alla Prima" by Richard Schmid this week and reading through that has made me see tons of errors in my stuff.

Unfortunately I'm crunching on a freelance gig right now so I've had no time to paint or fix these up, which is painful as this book is making me wanna paint like crazy.

But yeah thanks for the crits dude, I'll be back in your sb soon!

**DStraX** · November 22nd, 2009, 04:43 PM

AWSOMELINES!!!

**botho81** · November 22nd, 2009, 05:01 PM

dude, you have so much style in your lines and your drawings. also composition wise they're great. i like it how you use the white empty space. btw your progress from 2007 till now is fantastic!
cheers

**BenClark** · December 9th, 2009, 11:58 AM

where did the environment project go?

Sweet progress as always. The pencil sketch stuff is still my favorite, the characters and faces have come on massively

Makes me want to draw

**ChaoticKnight** · December 10th, 2009, 11:22 AM

Man I'm loving those environment works. The pencil drawings are cool, but they're begging to be a bit more fleshed out. Don't get in the habit of quitting drawings too early, that happened to me a while back and I never got anything done.

**J.R.Segura** · December 10th, 2009, 12:37 PM

Man for your work and your progression! Five rocking stars!!

**Cranberry** · December 10th, 2009, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by retardedmonkey

Thanks guys!

Well, I don't have to much to show here. Been getting really depressed with art these past few days. I can't seem to make any improvements and I just feel like I'm going no where. Overall it sucks, and what sucks more is that I keep thinking of dropping art and doing something else...which blows because its the last thing I want to do. I just need to figure out how to keep going on improving. It's hard though when you're teaching yourself and you have no clue what you "should" be doing...ya know?

Eh, oh well I'll get over this little period soon enough. In the mean time some pencil sketches.

I feel you man, I'm having the same thing... It's all I want, to get better, but it's hard... You're doing great, don't quit, there's some great progress in here too!

**Yautja892** · December 15th, 2009, 01:38 AM

Really great progress your making here....I agree with cranberry don't stop man. I'm sure you will push through, everyone gets in a slump at times. Just have to push through and enjoy life, find inspiration. Nice to see other members from OH on here, I'm originally from OH, what part are you from? Curious to see your new updates. Cheers

**retardedmonkey** · December 16th, 2009, 08:58 AM

Thanks alot everyone!

Ben, the enviro project was put on hold unfortunately. Just as I started making some progress on it I got that big contract and I've been workin ever since

You should draw, your latest pieces you sent me were gallery worthy.

Mike, thanks man. You're totally right. In fact its something I've been trying to fix lately. I am to impatient with my drawings and paintings, its like they absolutely have to be done in under an hour. So I've been trying to force myself to try and spend longer on each piece. I've definitly noticed a difference in my work once i started to slow down and take my time.

Cranberry - Yea it's hard to be in that place dude. I've realized though that I'm the one that causes it because I'm lacking patience. I know with time and work I will keep on improving, its just that I can't have it now. And we live in a time where we can have everything super fast, so I guess that transfers over to my art...I want to be able to spend a couple hours and instantly be as skilled as the masters. Now that I'm starting to realize that more and more, its becoming alot easier for me just to take my time on stuff and enjoy where I'm at....enjoy the process. So yea, you'll get there dude just keep at it!

Yautja, I'm from Spencer which is in Medina County. Probably haven't heard of Spencer tho its got like 700-800 people in it. Where abouts in OH are you from?

Righto, so I haven't been updating half as much as I'd like to, and I have excuses for that! About 2 months ago I got a contract working on a AAA title, and I've been working on and off on that as work comes in. I realized after that contract that if I could focus on working for the next few months I could be out of debt by about mid summer, which would let me be back into a school program alot sooner than I expected. As a result of that realization I have been mainly doing freelance 3D work and spending less time doing what I'd like to be doing.

I've been trying to draw when I have the time but unfortunately ive been running low on that. I took some pictures of some of the stuff I've been doing though, it's maybe a month or two old but its better than nothing

I'm going to start sketchin more often now...so hopefully the updates will increase, but for now here's some stupid pencil stuff! I apologize for the bad quality, it was just easier to take pictures with the camera than scan them in.

**staticpen** · December 23rd, 2009, 02:38 AM

Nice! It's been a while since I've had access to this place, but your handling of the pencil has really improved since I was last here. Way to use the broad side every once in a while and knock these out.

**Jonas_J** · December 23rd, 2009, 04:40 AM

Lovely pencil work

**snootchy** · December 24th, 2009, 08:42 PM

waddup Mikey! damn bro ur pencils have gotten soo much better, really dig the subtle tonal shifts in that last portrait, keep up the goodness mang!! Any updates on art center?

**Yautja892** · January 2nd, 2010, 02:31 AM

Nice updates man! Oh ok yeah I think I've heard of Spencer before. I'm originally from Kenton, which is in Hardin County. About an hour north of Columbus. Ha small world

**Mischeviouslittleelf** · January 2nd, 2010, 03:22 AM

The last one has some great rendering! Good work on that

-E

**Twan** · January 2nd, 2010, 03:50 AM

nice digital scenes (at the begining of the page 12).
your portraits are great especially the last one which have a very good rendering, value seem to be understood.
keep on drawing

**retardedmonkey** · March 2nd, 2010, 05:19 PM

Thanks for the comments guys

Snootchy - Thanks dude! As for Art Center, I've decided not to go there. I dont think I could manage going to another college like the one I left, even if they do teach what I want to learn, at this point. Aside from the excessive price tag, it would bring me down quite abit not 100% focusing on what I want to learn.

My friend is going there now and he's been frustrated because he has sooo much work to do he cant do his best on the classess he wants to focus on. He just has no time to really work on stuff to the level they should be.

So yeah I've settled on a couple ateliers that look really good. Right now the "Water Street Atelier" is the one that looks the best to me. If it is as good when I visit it, as it seems online then I'll be going there. I'm excited for the fact that I'll be focusing completely on drawing and painting and on top of that its extremely cheap. So....that's the plan right now!

I've been working my butt off as usual, leaving me little time to paint. However I'm taking this week to relax a bit before the next batch of contracts comes in, so I've got some new stuff and some older stuff to post finally

**zerdron** · March 2nd, 2010, 05:26 PM

You are pretty good at realism.

**PHATandy** · March 2nd, 2010, 05:33 PM

The studies are cool and the portaits are pretty good too.
Id watch out for them being TOO smooth though, try pushing more black and then more highlights so your using a full tonal range and youll create more shape and definition. possibly even by just doing Level Adjustments on photoshop might help.

Good stuff , your pencil work is great.

**retardedmonkey** · March 8th, 2010, 03:52 PM

Thanks guys

Andy, you're right about the values. I should have pushed them a bit further. I was trying to keep the darkest darks and lightest lights out, except for accents. However I should have pushed them quite a bit more.

Sketches....sorry for the bad quality. Some of em are blurry for some reason :/