UPDATE 2/10

[smokenmirrors]

yikes been awhile.... much chagrin....

well luckily aside from my lil analog doodles the team chow got me cranking again... though Ironically we didnt make it to the poll in time. But it was still great fun esp. given the fact that I trepidation with being able to produce in a sprint of sorts was squashed when I whipped out the knight of swords in a day.. or part of a day. i made this one into a GIF...

in any case here are some WIPS to near finish. I say near finish because I want to take some more quality time with them, smooth out some rough stuff, add some texture treatments... and some richer more integrated color... ( for the female piece "strength" you can see the color version in the team Baguette SB.... )

definately happy with them though, going to make nice additions to the folio.

...

hope you like

[smokenmirrors]

still alive... and trying to revive this SB.

lil quick fighter study... playing around with my drawing technique....

[monotony]

it's a shame you guys couldn't make it in time.
but your team-chow work still looks ridiculously good.
might be my new favourites of yours along with the centaur piece. great work, mate.

[smokenmirrors]

thanks brotha! yeah I was a bit bummed as well... but it was a great time trial excercise fosho!

nother study... and I love gifs...

[dmoreno]

I love the drawing of the guy on the explosion!!! So much energy on the pose and composition..

[smokenmirrors]

Thanks! yeah i was happy how that one came out... probably work on it just a tad more, but itll be minor detail work....

heres a application of the last study... i worked a bit more on what Im exploring stylistically... hatching..... and then the lighting and color.

I figure to really notch down what I do in my studies I have to actively apply it, else Im just going through the motions without fully retaining the info...

[smokenmirrors]

working on structure....

[smokenmirrors]

demon bust revisted... i think it might be finished... hmm.....

[smokenmirrors]

finished the fighter study... think Ill do a Ryu to apply the lighting/color/tone that Im working on... hmm....

[smokenmirrors]

demon update... figured id add a few lil details to the finish...

[Studio Colrouphobia]

demon update... figured id add a few lil details to the finish...

Now we're talking!
This is really good!

[smokenmirrors]

sargent study.... worked really small on this one, and refrained from trying to get every detail.... working on color and just getting the shapes...

[smokenmirrors]

applying the mma fighter study into a character setup... some Ryu action.

[smokenmirrors]

sheesh... my SB gets no love...
but I post in this Beeiatch nonetheless!

i jumped on the chiustream quite a bit late in the game but whipped this oddity out and contributed to the sketchoholic contest. I think I got one whole vote! but Mr. Chiu took a closer look at my creature despite its neglible vote status which made me grin.

the topic was creepy cute....

ive been doing some landscape studies... but figure Ill post them when I get a bit more as I limit myself to 1 hr... and I realize I suck at it. Just trying to nail the color part w/out my usual gray scale setup.... definately way outside my comfort zone. BUT HEY! i got to improve, and only through ninja art training can I attain my black wacom belt.

[smokenmirrors]

ryu update... been playing around with facial expressions... how would one draw a "keeeee yah!"

[smokenmirrors]

some more tweaks, think i figured out the comp/graphic treatment that I like... on to rendering!

[JustinBeckett]

Nice work, good studies, keep at it!

[smokenmirrors]

think i found a fresh idea for my folio pieces: warriors standing triumphant over the fallen. Ie: last man standing. Ill do a Barbarian, Knight, Gladiator, etc.

this is the start of my samurai piece...

[smokenmirrors]

bodies added. now onto refining the lines...

[Magic Man]

Some wonderful work Smokenmirrors!

I like the form that you achieve in your work and the dynamic compositions that you achieve, keep at it! One thing I might point out, and this is just from a personal aesthetic position, is that there are a lot of marks that you create, that could otherwise be softened and unified - this helps to reduce visual noise and easier for a viewer to read. It's not a huge issue however, and as I said it is purely from my own aesthetic view point =)

I encourage you to keep up the fantastic work!

I've also just started posting on CA after a long ass hiatus, would love for your to visit my sketchybook to give any feedback: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=184254

Cheers, Darren

[smokenmirrors]

Thanks Darren, and yeah, what with the aesthetics Im definately exploring my mark making. I do enjoy myself some mean hatching though... but your right in that sometimes the form is best served with the softness.

samurai wip cont'd: getting that "i just chopped up some suckas" expression

[smokenmirrors]

I work early. Early as in I have to be on the road at about no later than 5:30am to get to work at 6am. Im used to it by now... been doing that shift for 5 years or so..... in any case thats just to say that I get to listen in on Dave Rapozas chat stew o crimson daggers which starts at 9am on the east coast. Which is great for me as I would have otherwise just been zoned out while doing mindless data entry... hes been doing some landscape studies the past week or two... and I thought Id give them a go as I generally have dreaded backgrounds in my work. I worked them out really small... just concentrating on the shapes and color, which is interesting as they do read as landscapes, but the few times I zoomed at 100% they looked like absolute shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite. Great practice though, I suppose details are the easy part, fleshing out the big shapes, tones, shadows, colors.... etc, thats where the meat is. These are all about 1 hr a piece. Also done while at work.

My job isnt where I want to be, but it certainly allows me many freedoms and for that I do appreciate and recognize its value.... still a lame job though. HAH!

[Istmin52]

Nice sketchbook. I agree with some of the comments from above. I feel like your colors might get a little muddy because you use black to paint in your shadows. You should never use black because it will make your colors buddy. Instead, try using a very dark blue or something. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Yuki_slider]

demon bust revisted... i think it might be finished... hmm.....

that's a nice one, from here so semms tho i think that you may also use some additional lighting from front to get that to 3d
nice work with the scape

[pauloricardo]

You have a good SB, I like your linework and ideas about characters...

keep updating it

see you

[smokenmirrors]

Istmin52: yeah, been working on my colors and avoid the blacks....good lookin out brotha!

Yuki_slider: that would be an interesting effect... i might try it out. thanks for the suggestion!

pauloricardo: thanks mang!

and if you really dig the progress in here please hit up that 5 star system as Ive been sitting at 4 stars for ages now.... be nice to finally bump that ish up!

Ive been making an effort to go to this life drawing session that they have at the local university by where I live (SJSU)... everyone knows how beneficial drawing from life is and especially the human figure... so heres just practice to the preaching. From top to bottom: 1 minute, 2 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute, 20 minute, then finish with 5's (i combined this with the first 5 minutes set), which is the standard setup with their life drawing. Ive a bunch in my analog SB thatll ill selectively scan a bit later on but this was the first time that I brought my laptop and tablet with me and I can tell you its a whole nother experience doing it that way! so quick and easy. going to be bringing it every time now.

[Jamie Romoser]

sup man been awhile since my last visit, digging the updates though I do miss your old character sketches
I know what you mean about the 4 star stuff im trying to stride for the 5 stars aswell haha tough crown to please
looking forward to seeing more, will rate your thread though if I havnt already
have a good one
-Jamie

[PieMonster]

Really cool stuff man, digging all of those studies - and the applied studies, the gifs are a really nice touch. Thanks for sharing, keep up the good work!

[monstertree]

The line quality in your pieces is fantastic, and the energy captured is immense! A little more vibrant, daring colours could really add something

[smokenmirrors]

some 1 hr face studies... working really small, just trying to get the basic shapes and colors down...

and I messed around with my demon portrait a lil bit... trying a complimentary color setup... i dont know, i just felt that the last version was lacking something.... so i just started roughing in some color/lighting changes.... hmm....

and thanks for the stars! finally jumped up to a 5 star SB, Ill do my best to keep it crackin!

Im going to be really pushing myself to crank out a bunch of character work, as thats my passion, so hopefully there will be some extra freshness to show soon.