Chris Hilbig's Online Sketchbook

[theYiffer]

My name is Chris Hilbig a.k.a. theYiffer. I decided after listening to Manley's web-seminar from, I guess two weeks ago, about creative business, I decided too take a page out of ManCandy's book and start an online sketchbook. (I plan to keep a duplicate over on CG Society.) My point and purpose for this sketch book is to improve on both my accuracy and speed. I feel that I have quite a few weaknesses in my work including proportions, light/tone, and (I wish I could think of the third one) but I'll say color for now. Color's a big stumbling block whenever I paint. Anyways, I originally intended to link to my photobucket account, but that's against the rules... That's okay.

I mainly do cartoonish type of stuff, thanks to Disney and Warner Brothers. (Or better yet Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, Romano Scarpa, etc.) That seems to be my comfort zone. I do wish to sharpen my skills further so I can draw more realistically, and not with so much frustration. There are a ton of awesome artists here online and here at CA. I understand that skill-wise, I have a long way to go.To give you more of a vague idea of what I'm about or like, I'll start with the following samples:

1.) Character sketches for a story I planned to submit to Radio Comix
2.) Sketches of a steam-punked tanny
3.) Pencils from page 14 of that same submission

Any comments, suggestion, etc will always be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Dr.Blindsy]

Wow your comic pages are so dynamic. I love your style and can't wait to see more. The only thing I can think of is to make your lines maybe a bit more solid (less sketchy... er... if that makes sense haha)

Otherwise, your lines are fluid and dynamic! Keep at it and I look forward to seeing more from you

[corza334]

Cool work, try to be more confident in your lines.
One thing about the comic, the last panel is confusing to me, because the hole looks very shallow all of a sudden. That might just be me however haha
Keep it up

Edit: Don't worry about the shallowness, I get it now!

[Demon Lizardman]

Very neat looking comics man, how long have you been drawing?

[FightingSeraph]

Nice start for someone who just came here.

[theYiffer]

First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone for their replies. I didn't expect to receive so many. (To start with anyway. )

Dr.Blindsy: Sketchy lines have been my habit. You're right, I should break it because there are time when people (including myself) will look at a sketch and become somewhat confused by the lack of clarity. (i.e.~ What's that supposed to be?)

corza334: Thank you for the complement on the pencils for page 14. To more or less continue on with Dr. Blindsy's answer, I'm also a perfectionist, which might explain my lack of confidence. I'll draw a couple of lines, not like what I see, and redraw them. Now that I'm putting in more thought to this, being sketchy might be my way to half-ass my way to a more perfect line...

You're right about the last panel, it's supposed to be shallow. The version of the story that this came from (I had to cram it into two chapters, 14 pages each), the adult in this story is a detective in search of a missing girl who was pulled down into "a ghost well". In page 14, the end of chapter 1, the detective exposes the "ghost well" for what it really is.

The inks for panel 6 of page 14

Demon Lizardman: I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil. I've been trying to be more serious off and on since high school. So I've been an amateur for roughly a decade. (I won't waste any bemoaning here...)


I'll be play catchup for now, but will try not to flood this thread with too much at once. Some of the sketches I'll post originate from magazines I find at my work. I'll try to give proper credit or the source.

1.) Model from a hotrod magazine. (Source: Super Street Magazine Photographer: Henry Z. DeKayper Model: Tracy Nova)

2.) Three sketches, two from observation, one from imagination

3.) A quick female sketch.


Thanks!

[theYiffer]

These are some quick sketches I scratched out while catching up on some MMA. Since the fighters obviously won't stand still for me, I had to pause each moment the best I could with the ol' VCR, and draw them as quick as the VCR would let me. (I'm guessing about a minute.) I had to rewind and pause again a couple of times just to get the majority or as much of the moment as I could...

The first two are from the Leonard Garcia v. Jameel Massouh fight at WEC 42. Awesome fight!

The last jpeg is sketched from a rebroadcast of UFC 100 on Spike this past Saturday. These were from the Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher. (I'm sorry I couldn't do them justice....)

[Izer]

Nice comic pages, someone already said to be more confident with your lines, maybe go back over then as well before u scan, sometimes scanners don't catch all the subtle lines.

[Dr.Blindsy]

Those studies are faboo! And haha, don't worry about the sketchy thing, so are mine. Hehe, still great update!

[theYiffer]

Izer: The comic pencils were done in Painter. Basically I scan in the thumbnails, scale them up in Photoshop, and draw out the rest in Painter. I normally complete my pencils enough to when I ink, I can still tell what's going on.

[theYiffer]

I don't if it's from the lack of sleep or the amount of time it takes to scarf down food, but it sometimes seems almost impossible to complete any sketches while on break and lunch...

Anywho, here's something from my sketch book from work. It start out as a sketch from another hotrod mag, but I just went forward from the partial and made it more complete on my own...

Then I decided to quickly throw in some color in painter. If I complete it, I may just finish it in Photoshop, due to my frustration with many of Painter's brushes. (Or how to best use them.)

[theYiffer]

To make things short and sweet, here are some more scans from my work sketchbook. (Note the last was sketched from a photograph taken by an unknown staffer in Super Street Magazine, July 2009, pg56)

[theYiffer]

At the moment, I'm entertaining the thought of going back to school again, and I'm planning to take an online/distance learning direction. One of the schools I'm thinking of enrolling in to is the Art Instruction Schools. Today I started prepping or working on some warm up sketches for a scholarship they offer. (See the first image below) The paper I have to draw on is a little heavier than your usual photocopy paper, but with a matte or satin finish. The basic objective is to replicate one three drawings inside the square. My first instinct was to sketch out the pirate on plain photocopy-paper and then transfer it with graphite paper. That would save me from tearing up the paper, since I would naturally end up making numerous corrections. Thus the reason for the warm-up sketches. I chose the pirate, because "Cuddles" was way too up my ally (since I'm more comfortable with cartooning) I should opt for more of a challenge...

[theYiffer]

Okay, it's done. I thought I'd really screw it up, but it's a pretty close reproduction:

[theYiffer]

Dad-gum, I fergot 'is beard! Dammit!

[theYiffer]

I've been watching Manley's Color Theory Seminar (which is definitely worth the hype, and I'm not some fanboy saying this) I've decided to experiment with warm and cool colors in Painter. I even used middle grey as a transition. I'm amazed how it blended so well.

Color has been more or less a thorn in my side due to the fact that I never have really painted much from real life, I've never had a proper understanding as to how color works and how the eye and brain interprets it, and of the art related classes I've taken, I've never attended a class involving color theory that went beyond the basics. So the seminar is a great step in the right direction....

[theYiffer]

I originally started on this WIP before viewing Manely's Color Theory seminar. My original goal was to color the sketch using photoshop techniques common among colorists in the comic book biz. I made some alright progress, but I wasn't particularly satisfied. Labor Day rolled around, the color theory class became half-off, and the WIP hit the back-burner. Just for shits, giggles, and comparison I'll start out by posting my progress in PhotoShop.

[theYiffer]

The following two are after the color seminar. Actually they're the same, one with the sketch, the other without. I brought the WIP into Painter and eliminated the background and main detail layers. I kept the background relatively mute or neutral, nothing too overpowering. It has more going on than the PS version. But it similarly starts out like at the top and gradates darker towards the bottom. My main focus on the character this time around was the flesh. I now feel that I made the flesh much too pale. I tried to apply what I learned from the seminar, mixing in different colors and minding my warm and cool colors. I incorporated local colors into as many area. (ex: the color of the dress was applied to shadow area of the model's hair.) I also work to keep the WIP balanced with my color variation, incorporating different color in different areas...

[theYiffer]

As note on my facebook, I'm officially a student of the Art Instruction School, and class starts today, or yesterday, or tomorrow... I'll post my progress as I work my way through the program. I'll be starting out on some real remedial stuff to begin with though...


Anyways here's a quikie I sketched out before meeting with the enrollment representative. It's based on this photo by Dave Mandel from the Strikeforce Gina Carano vs. Cristiane Santos fight:

Original photo:


My sketch is the attached....


----

For the WIP, Johan Derycke from CGTalk suggested I should work out some grayscales before jumping into color. As much as I don't want to, given the fact that I have difficultly making the move from grayscale to color, I'll do it anyway to help me determine my lighting beforehand and not while on the fly. (If that makes any sense...)

[theYiffer]

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I've been occupied by way too much stuff. (MMA, Forex frustration, resizing photos for Facebook, etc) And if you don't care, that's alright too. It's all good.

Another drop of stuff from work...

1.) Experimenting with anime style. (I've been reading a ton of it as of late.)
2.) Co-workers who were able to hold still long enough...
3.) A partial of a milk bottle and a bottle of anti-bacterial lotion.
4.) The van is a friend's that was parked outside work. The model was found off a male-enhancement ad. (Which was a gob of text with a small pic of her near the middle) I'm not able to credit the model...

[theYiffer]

Tis the season for 12 hour days and 40 hour weeks...

The unrecognizable sketch from #5 is from a photo of Sandra Bullock from the 11/15/09 issue of Parade Magazine. I had very little time to scratch her form out...

[theYiffer]

# 1 & 2 are from my day at jury duty last month.

#3, the model is from a Target ad I had on hand

#4, the bad sketch of Angelina Jolie was from People Magazine