UPDATE 2/10

[smokenmirrors]

shadow detail and random clothing/lighting study.... I found from working with my baguette brothers that I need to step away from some of my overbearing line/rendering: that is extreme lights and darks and really dive into the subtle tones that make the characters a bit more believable.... in any case, D@niel work shows a lighting finesse that I really want to explore and embrace. DaneilC has fantastic line work and figure/characters and I love his pencils so Im working on mine. And Vorace has such kick ass imagination and the aptitude to actively put it to paper/wacom which I admire and want to tune my engines to a similar cadence.... work to do... likewise with my studies to translate to my worked up illos, I love the simplicity of bold and textured strokes in that they can translate the form, but also stand out as "unfinished"... that balance creating a really fresh image vs. over detailed ish'... which ive been guilty of many a time...

[Pseudocognition]

I found from working with my baguette brothers that I need to step away from some of my overbearing line/rendering: that is extreme lights and darks and really dive into the subtle tones that make the characters a bit more believable....

This may be true to a degree, but don't let go of your style of line work! It's really interesting, bold and graphic. It could be a matter of separating line work and illustrative work into two separate categories or something, you know? Go lighter on pieces you intend to color, but keep those meaty juicy lines for us to drool over mmm

[kischi]

Great updates dude, like what you did for your team chow! And the death cowboy on the hores is just awesome.
Keep it up

[jatherip]

sweet sketchbook! you have fckin amazing ideas, a cool style and you have very vital figures in here!
keep practising!

[smokenmirrors]

just some drawing excercises for me... from the movie TAKEN. Just paused it at random spots where I liked the facial expressions/moment and then put myself on a 10 min. timer for each translation. Nice lil progression as I got warmed up and refined my technique. From just trying to nail a line drawing to throwing down tones immediately and then refining... good excercise and I highly recommend it.

[midknight523]

good likenesses

[Vorace]

it's time to update!!!

very interesting last post. loving those fast scenes.

[smokenmirrors]

studies/excercises......... *fart*

gran torino....good ole grimacing clint

fyi to my sketchbook sistas and brothas....the past 7 months or so I had been applying to be a cop with the SJPD.... made it all the way to the hiring board.... after 6 months of testing, background investigations.... polygraph, psych tests..... passed it all. But in the end they catergorized me as "non selected"

WEAK sauce.

HOWEVER, my heart wasnt in it, I suppose I was just looking for a better pay check for my standard day job where i currently work at a hospital..... monotnous punch in punch out shyyyyyyyyte, but pays the bills without worrying from paycheck to paycheck.

MY HEART, which has pitter pattered for quite some time since leaving art school/college is slowly but surely coming back to full indian pow wow drum beat action and Ive begun to realize that it only truly beats to art makin! So if I was one to beleive in fate, coincidence or Gods hand... perhaps NOT getting into the SJPD is my sign to fully pursue some fine mark making.

Nobody to shake my finger at but myself.

NO more slackerage. time to make some serious progress!

without this site I fear i wouldve never got out of my slump.... not that Im out of it yet..... but thank Jason Manley and crew for providing this place as it has for many others, keeps me motivated and inspired!

enough of my rambles of my shambles... its make it or break something trying time.

edit*: puuuuuuuure coincidence Vorace that I updated some minutes after you checking in on me! lol, but my friend, no doubt, updates coming in plenty!

[smokenmirrors]

studies studies studies, top from ref. bottom from head....

[Jamie Romoser]

Whats up smokenmirrors!
Its been awhile since my last visit.
Im really liking those face studies i need to do some now.
Have any more of your badass characters to post up?
Keep having fun drawing and painting -Omerta

[Mark Tarrisse]

Nice studies man, keep them coming

[smokenmirrors]

so im DEFINATELY going to participate in the Newborn contest. As such I decided to go for the "birth of a daemon" action as i enjoy myself some good warhammer 40k reading which fills my head full of all sorts of crazy chaos imagery....

so I got a thumbnail setup for my comp, got a guardian up front setting up a perimeter lest the summoning be interrupted, psykers/warlock/mages floating in the center and then the daemon shrugging off some warp afterbirth...

now I have to start concepting the daemons facial features and likewise the guardians and mages..... GOOD TIMES!

[smokenmirrors]

lil progress with my demon heads..... some experimentation coming.... perhaps texture overlays and of course some color.....

[smokenmirrors]

gettin there.... started messing around with some color action.... post that later...

[Jamie Romoser]

Lookin sick man!
The end results gona be mind blowing!
Keep it up -Omerta

[smokenmirrors]

OmertA: thanks for the confidence!

COLOR!

technique: seperate layer with a shade of red on multiply. then erased the red around the silloutte.

then two overlay layers: one with some blues/violets for the shadows and then the other with an orange/yellow to pop the lighting.

and finally one last one to throw on white highlights and some blending...

I think Ill try another with some texture overlays...........

[smokenmirrors]

just experimented a bit with different brushes and a lil texture overlay.... I like my first version much better, but I certainly learned a couple tricks and even made a brush or two!

this ones process was: multiply with the base color, then texture/custom brush over the top with fading the opacity of that layer, then some dodge action to bump the highlights and finally just some basic clean up....

[smokenmirrors]

lil mma sketch pft. (hair trigger fart) will take it through a couple more paces with some color... study study study... never enough time to do all that I want to do.... I gotta quit my day job.....

[DanielC]

Cool stuff man ! Don't jump too quickly to those darks though !

[Plonar]

WOW! Your artworks amazing!

[dU5K]

damn good job chap. i really like your style. i love the pen drawings. i think i should just add that i too love to draw with pens. it forces you to think about every stroke your about to make. your digis are hella sick too. well keep up the work. ill check back soon. keep updatin

[DeKal]

that demon head is soooo sick! you lost A LOT of detail when you put the color on it though

[zou]

hey i dig those warrior

your work is very good, keep it

[TheGnoll]

shit man...wow.
This thread deserves more stars.
Lovely studies, creatures and characters

sorry, just an asspat from me

ciao!

[smokenmirrors]

finished this lil study... still figuring out my method for coloring from my comfort zone: grayscale...

hmm... essentially from what Ive explored so far, once I have my values all worked out then I start adding overlay layers mixed in with some multiply ones. once Ive got enough tones to work with, I flatten it and then smooth out the transitions with some direct paint... hmmm.....

DanielC: fosho fosho, Im slowly learning how much smoother things go by waiting to throw down the blacks.... waaaard up son.

Plonar: gracias!

dU5K: Brotha de ballpoint! yeah I love drawing with them fosho and youre right about it bringing about a bit more commitment to ones stroke. Sketch away my friend!

DeKal: yeah it kinda did lose a bit of the texture I worked up, when I threw down the red over it... perhaps as DanielC mentioned I got to lighten it up a tad then color, then throw down the blacks. Which Im sure would bring back the grit!

Zou: Ill certainly keep at it, thanks! Heres to warrior diggin!

TheGnoll: *blush* and Ill take the asspats my friend, nothing like the lingering sting and tingle from a low five!

[Jesus Food]

great approach to getting better dude, that makes me want to do that kinda stuff more often! u really capture the expressions well and thats not bad detail for 10 min gj

[Ricardo Robles]

Great works
The demon head is awesome,
keep posting please.

[smokenmirrors]

well.... turns out with my slapstick slackerage that that thumb nail was about as much participation in the constest as I go.... LAME! just got sidetracked with getting a new auto..... and then customizing that bidness.... shyste.... distracted fosho.

in any case, luck would have it that the team chow II came along and my main man Vorace was down to get down.... so sketchin bonazazs begain once again! heres some views: started out with trying my hand at some sillouttes... i think the later ones def. show improvement from the first batch... It IS a great excercise to get some basic ideas for characters with quick results. Recommended it is to any whove not tried it.

then some more refined concepts bounced off my team Baguette mates.

more to come...

[Seage]

Woo, nice updates!
So you're slapping everything down loosely at first? Then tightening it as you go along?

[midknight523]

these are great!