Trying to improve, crit my work if you have the time :)

[DomasPorada]

I really like your character concepts man, especially the robot design,

[purplegoat]

I like your sketchbook! I'm interested to see how your character designs evolve. Keep on!

[Black Spot]

You life studies are getting a lot more solid. Cool cd cover design.

[Kjesta]

I'm very much in love with your robot design. I'm a sucker for anything to do with spines, and transferring part of it down to the calf is pure genius, very nice. I also like the clean, simple outfit designs in your latest post, they're no too busy, which is good. (The brown one reminds me a wee bit of Star Wars, haha.)

Oh dear, I feel very incompetent now because I don't have much CC to offer You just made a mad dash miles ahead! (Or rather, you've been a good artist and done some actual work instead of dropping it for months like me. *headdesk*) I'll get there, promise! I'll keep watching and offer something more helpful.

[Jonas_J]

Really cool sketchbook Liffey, your characters are nice!

[Turbosnail]

Cool character updates Liffey. Looking forward to seeing more!!

[Ian Barker]

Thanks you guys! I really appreciate the comments! Don't worry about it Kjesta... hope to see some updates from you soon!



If you are interested in the story for these characters you can check out this thread: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=179892

[Rotor]

Hey there SSB pal.
Haven't had the time to properly drop by.
I really enjoyed the costume concepts, they have some really clean and solid ideas. Good luck with the project!

[AlexTooth]

Hey Liffey, well this all looks good! I think you'll make a great concept artist if you keep practicing like this - not sure what to suggest other than keep going!!

[Ian Barker]

Thanks for stopping by, Rotor! Hope to see some updates from you soon.

Thanks Alex, I really appreciate it... I sure hope that day will come, I'm gonna keep practicing until it does!

Here is an environment I'm currently working on:

[Black Spot]

Watch that lighting.

[Huey Yeng]

Here's some tips that I acquired from my experience in dealing with man made environments:

1) If possible draw the outline of the building and paint over it using Multiply mode on a new layer. As you touch it up preserve some of the line as it will help sell your building to be more solid (and in real life the edge of the building somewhat has a chamfer edge due to imperfection which will either catch light or become darker when facing away from light)

2) Do some studies on stuff that you rarely draw or paint before attempting the final work (or semi finish work). It will lessen your stress a lot when you trying to figure out what's wrong with the picture at the final stage. :X

3) Gather references that is as similar to what you envision in your mind. The more refs the more accurate your final rendition that you're looking for.

Hope that helps and you sure have improve a lot! Keep it up.

[Ian Barker]

Thanks very much for the advice! I will definitely keep that in mind.

Here is a quick digital sketch of a live model:

[Ian Barker]

Here is a design for another character. One more character to go after this.

[Black Spot]

Gee, I wish I had a laptop to take to life drawing - so jealous.

Your character is very masculine (being an old tom boy, that's okay), but her feet look a bit big (I may be wrong). The jacket can't be closed if the weather gets cold - I'm sort of practical in that way with 3 kids.

[Onisan]

He Liffey nice work! I saw some of your pictures at discovery and thought I drop by

[Ian Barker]

Black Spot: Actually I don't have a laptop, I did a charcoal drawing in class and copied from that. Great point about the jacket and the feet, I always tend to overlook those things.

Onisan: Hey thanks for coming by, I appreciate it!

[zachalicious]

some nice studies going on in here! keep at it.

[Turbosnail]

Nice updates Ian. Love that digital sketch of your charcoal drawing. Thanks for the support in my SB and keep up the good work buddy.

[Ian Barker]

Thanks Zach and Turbo, will do!

Here is some progress on the cave/mine:

[Krato]

in your last piece the area should be reflecting the color from the orange bulbs. also make the whole at the end of the cave darker unless your bringing the lights down that

[Ian Barker]

Thanks for the tips, Krato! Does this look any better?

[NicG]

Thanks for the comment in my sketchbook. I really like what you did with the textures on your model pic from 3/1 and the cave mine looks really good.

[Ian Barker]

Thanks NicG!

here's another character design:

[Cyberman]

cool really like the b/w profiles!, thats funny having her drinking a soda

[Turbosnail]

Hey mate, the enviro is coming along nicely. Like the latest character design a lot, but something about the 'toe' configuration (right foot as we look) on the left-hand character doesn't quite look right IMO. Keep up the good work my friend.

[Ian Barker]

Thanks darknight and Turbo! Yeah I agree those toes are a bit weirdly drawn. When they're done right they're supposed to look a bit more like talons.

Here is the illustration for that character:

[RyanWC]

Very nice sketchbook. Btw, that digital live model sketch is so appealing to me. The fluidity and texture just works. There is just something magical doing quick paintings.

did you use a art pen on a wacom to get the strokes on this? Or did you use 6d art pen? I'm guessing you probably used a cintiq too?

[Ian Barker]

Thanks Ryan! I didn't use anything special, just the default Intuos 2 pen and some custom photoshop brushes.

[witcrack]

Damn! that latest character is looking great! Love how you do the skin texture and the gold chains especially. One nitpick if you don't mind, that shading on his right hand, 'inner elbow' (?) area (our right), is looking off, perhaps the transition isn't smooth enough or perhaps it's the shape of the shade, idk :p