Travis's 2D and 3D sketchbook

[Travis Smith]

Update for October 2012.I graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver in October 2010, since that time I've mostly been working at the animation company Rainmaker Entertainment as a Character Artist (including surfacing, texture painting, shaders, and modeling), and now as a Junior Designer (junior concept artist). I'm currently studying in a private atelier to learn volumetric drawing, sculpture, anatomy, composition, art history with artist Misha Pertsev, graduate from Stroganov Soscow State University of Arts and Industry's monumental sculpture program. My goal prior to entering school was to become a concept artist and this site was crucial as far as making that dream into a reality. Thanks to everyone from this great community.

Also wanted to add some new images:

Sometime in 2009. My name is Travis and I'm currently a student at the Art Institute of Vancouver. I have known about this site for years but I always hesitated to join mostly because I thought I needed to improve first. Now I realise there's no better time than now.

Moved old images down a few posts...

I'd be very thankful for any and all critiques,

[Twilightsdon]

I really enjoy the pose of the large bird creature, it's almost kind of stuck up in a way. I just noticed it doesn't have any knee joints, how does this guy get around? I really like that you posted your life drawing, you've got a solid understanding of anatomy. I get the general feeling from your works is you might get too caught up in the details and burn out, try to pace yourself.

[towy]

interesing sketchbook, this one so funny!
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1248685325

[Travis Smith]

I really enjoy the pose of the large bird creature, it's almost kind of stuck up in a way. I just noticed it doesn't have any knee joints, how does this guy get around? I really like that you posted your life drawing, you've got a solid understanding of anatomy. I get the general feeling from your works is you might get too caught up in the details and burn out, try to pace yourself.

Thanks Twilightsdon,

I'm glad you enjoyed the bird and something definately went wrong with the bird's legs. If I'm remembering correctly I added an additional joint near the meta-tarsals bones either by mistake or by design. Not only that, the knee joint or at least the appearance of the knee advancing in space got away from me. Next time I'll try to get a more clear idea of the anatomy and structure.

As for the details I agree. Right now I'm trying to create drawings that are more focused on structure instead of rendering and I plan to post more of those soon.

[Nivlac]

I liked how your "cheetah warrior" turned out. It was interesting seeing the development of this project. You deffinately have a solid understanding of structure and I loved almost "history" you put into the mad scientist labratory.

[Sublimus]

Nice figure drawings dude!

Keep up the good work!

[DStraX]

hi, your anatomy studies are great. keep posting.
ill try to give some crits next time

Tim

[Travis Smith]

@towy
Thanks,
Aztec warrior costumes are really unlike anything I've seen before and the one in the painting isn't nearly as elaborate as some.

@Nivlac
The lab was really fun to do, making up the story as I drew the world map atlas was a great exercise.

@Sublimus & DStrax
Thanks man, I'll post more studies pretty soon.

[clanlord]

Very good start for a SB! I love your studies keep them up. Open some new boundaries - g

[jigje]

Wow, nice start to what will no doubt be an ace book TbOne. Watching with interest.

[Travis Smith]

clanlord
Thank you, I have more of the 3D mesh looking studies but they're on 18x24 inch paper so I might not get a chance to scan them for a while. The original plan was to draw a full study of the entire human skeleton using that method and then use those skeletal drawings as the framework for tracings to study the insertions and origins of the surface muscles.

jigje
Thanks, I hope to post more soon.


As for this update: Over my last two week break from school I tried to do a speed painting from a photograph every day I was at home because I'm fairly new to painting (in Photoshop or real paint). I wanted to cover environments, industrial equipment (or things made by industry), and faces. These were made in December and early January 2010.

The other speed paintings of desert canyons and lava environments are for a team video game project that I'm working on at school. Most paintings involved some colour sampling from photographs but only some had compositions/shapes inspired from photographs. These were made between September and December.

The paintings for both ranged between 30 mins and 2 hours.

The last should be a creature concept where I was testing to see how much anatomy I could draw from memory.

[Travis Smith]

Nearing the end of my time at school so hopefully after that point I'll be able to update this sketchbook on a more regular basis.

In this update,
-Screencaps of models I'm building in Maya. One is based on a drawing of an Alien I posted in the last update and the second is a portrait of my dad.
-Some screencaps of models I'm sculpting in Zbrush including a slightly cartoon styled Sasquatch that I made for my friends demo reel and a portrait of Obama that I'll use for my demo reel if it ends up looking much more like him.

Also,
-Some quick studies from Sargent's and Bridgeman's drawings.
-Quick arm sketches, some studies for a creature I'm developing and others made while cafe drawing.
-A mixture of cafe drawings and drawings from photographs on grey paper inspired to Chris Sear's amazing sketbook.
-Some random sketches on gray paper.
-An alien soldier from a pre-computer era.
-Speed painting of an alien city.

[DeeStar]

wow, thoses last two updates looked great! I especially like the environments, as someone with no patience for creating them myself I'm always impressed when I see them well done. Cool 3D work too. Do you mainly use Zbrush, or is there some maya or Max thrown in there too? It would be great to see some of the meshes

[Travis Smith]

wow, thoses last two updates looked great! I especially like the environments, as someone with no patience for creating them myself I'm always impressed when I see them well done. Cool 3D work too. Do you mainly use Zbrush, or is there some maya or Max thrown in there too? It would be great to see some of the meshes

Thanks Deestar

Environments arn't usually my first choice to draw but I enjoyed making these. Glad you like them.

For the Alien and the portrait of my dad I only used Maya but once the meshes are finalized I will take them into Zbrush to do a detail pass for skin texture, smaller wrinkles, scars, etc. Here are the wireframes,

[GoGoJojo]

OOH the fourth one down on post eleven, I love it! Just those subtle hints of bright colors are very beautiful!

[Metal Fingers]

lots of good studies going on in here, really try and implement each daily study into an imaginative piece immediately or relatively close to finishing the studies, it really forces you to go back and think about what you just drew and how you did it. keep up all the hard work, it'll pay off in the end.

[mairuku]

haha hey, i'm the girl you met at metrotown today!!
i was so stoked seeing you guys draw...damn, i'm going to get onto some more practicing!

good stuff meeting you guys...i love coming across fellow artists!
just one word...UPDATEEE

[Jeff Bartzis]

Pretty cool.
"Insert generic response and critique here"

Also,

Update this sketchbook sometime.

[KrispyKream]

This is all very reckless work Trav, very reckless, hmmm just reckless conservative eh?, you need to stop being reckless man, especially the blue sketches of the old men, those mustaches are too reckless for me

[Travis Smith]

A lot has happened since my last update. Since May 2010 I graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver, had my first freelance character modeling gig, and have worked at a couple location 3D Animation studios.

Here's the character modeling, texturing, and concept demo reel I created at the Art Institute:

http://vimeo.com/15214472

I have a lot of new work to show (not posting it all now, need to scan some stacks) and I am eager for any and all advice.

Can't remember how CA posts new attachments so I'll just go by the order I see below,
AnglerFish - Concept for a friends demo reel for modeling, sculpting/surfacing, and shading reference.
Nemisis - Quick doodle trying out the shape tool. Based on a story idea I enjoying trying to illustrate. I didn't realise you could auto rasterize the shapes and likely made things more cumbersome and difficult than it should have been. Want to give it another shot soon.
Inuit Girl - Drawn partially from a photograph, was attempting to follow the structural/planes drawing techniques I read about in Fundamentals of Drawing.

Stylized Shark - Something I'm still working on, currently focusing on the gums and teeth. Right now all but one tooth is just a block-in as I want to establish how the gums are going to look before I invest the time adding all those teeth. I may lengthen the torso between the dorsal fin and pelvic fins, shorten the nose and or move the eyes further forward.

[Travis Smith]

lots of good studies going on in here, really try and implement each daily study into an imaginative piece immediately or relatively close to finishing the studies, it really forces you to go back and think about what you just drew and how you did it. keep up all the hard work, it'll pay off in the end.

I've heard this from a couple of people now and I've found it's really helping, thank you.

[KrispyKream]

sorry bout that, the angler fish is wicked dude, i'd suggest working on where the teeth protrude out

[Travis Smith]

sorry bout that, the angler fish is wicked dude, i'd suggest working on where the teeth protrude out

I'm not sure if I'll revisit the Angler Fish but if I do I'll probably move the pivot for the jaws backwards as well. Thanks brah.

[Travis Smith]

Quick Pterodactyl-inspired Dragon head concept. I'm a fan of GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series and this is sort of how I pictured an adult dragon from that series.

[KrispyKream]

wow!, keep pushing the limit dude, it looks like u combined the combo of render and form into one and it works extremely well, he has personality too, I'd add a whole body next time

[Travis Smith]

wow!, keep pushing the limit dude, it looks like u combined the combo of render and form into one and it works extremely well, he has personality too, I'd add a whole body next time

Thanks man, this is just a second pass on Pterodactyl-inspired Dragon so I might do some more sketches before I make one for the full body.

Here's the latest version of the gums for the shark, I'm having trouble figuring out what I should do. Should I try to stylize what I'm seeing the reference, simplify it even more. I might place the latest version of the teeth into the gums (almost all of them are placeholders rigt now) and see if that helps with the solution.

[Stinkfist]

Nice rendering!

[KrispyKream]

Thanks man, this is just a second pass on Pterodactyl-inspired Dragon so I might do some more sketches before I make one for the full body.

Here's the latest version of the gums for the shark, I'm having trouble figuring out what I should do. Should I try to stylize what I'm seeing the reference, simplify it even more. I might place the latest version of the teeth into the gums (almost all of them are placeholders rigt now) and see if that helps with the solution.

I say simplify because how far can you go stylizing the teeth set, It may not have a direct impact as you would stylizing the whole body which will give a distinct silhouette/form off, just a personal opinion

[Travis Smith]

I say simplify because how far can you go stylizing the teeth set, It may not have a direct impact as you would stylizing the whole body which will give a distinct silhouette/form off, just a personal opinion

I was mostly referring to the gums but I might have found a solution. Unfortunately I had to scrap what I modeled before as it would take too long to shape it into what I want. Basically I modified the main tooth to match my reference more closely then duplicated and modified it to use as a base for the gums.

[KrispyKream]

I was mostly referring to the gums but I might have found a solution. Unfortunately I had to scrap what I modeled before as it would take too long to shape it into what I want. Basically I modified the main tooth to match my reference more closely then duplicated and modified it to use as a base for the gums.

That works much better because to stylize, from experience i find i get blinded to a model aesthetic wise, steering off believability and function for aesthetic purposes can be tedious, its more simple now and it looks "right". I assume the teeth and gums are still in basic mesh and you'll give them the right spacing and growth that a shark has.