NickyBeats- Wannabe Concept Artist

[NickyBeats]

aaaaand version one of the 'beaten to shit' character. these are going to be the health bar notifiers in the game... it will all make sense one day i promise.... (not really)

[Aaron_]

Hahhaaha, my bad. The new version is much much better. Great gesture and form. Those drawings of faces are awesome.

For the new portrait, I think you could change the mouth a bit. The form of the lower lip tend to be a lot rounder, so the highlight would be closer to the center of the form and the top of the the lower lip tends to be pretty dark, that is, if the light source is above and in front of the person. Also, there would probably be a cast shadow too. Ahhh, just a nit pick.



Edit:Holy shit, a new post right when I was typing!

[Gadbury]

Nice work, the new version of the Chow is a lot better I think, gesture is cool and the figure is looking really solid. Good stuff!

[NickyBeats]

Aaron_ - thanks dude! haha yea that lighting was loosely based off of a 3D model's lighting. so its not perfect. but i feel like im getting more comfortable with painting heads and faces, at least from certain angles/lighting conditions. but more studying is on the way! haha yea... ive been posting alot today/yesterday...

Gadbury - many thanks Gadbury! i was just going through your sketchbook today, you have some amazing works man!

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this is just some random thing ive been staring at for the last few hours... it actually was a few things before evolving into this thing. but nothing was referenced in this one, im just trying to find a faster method for rendering. and trying to better understand light and forms from my imagination.

[Mr. Corlan]

Ah sweet, your character icon gets visually beat up as your health goes down? Like Dome Wars, I always loved that. Some good junk here man!

[Goremageddon]

Awesome stuff.

[LtPlissken]

Long time didn’t see some huge breasted female sketchbook,
I was missing this so much in my life.
Thought to give you some references for that badly beaten
up game character. The face get more deformed and the eyes
get shut when the orbital bone is broken.

[Vritra]

The work here has definitely gone up a notch since I've been gone. You are working much better with tones, and the softer value transitions are also looking great.

As for the head, I agree that the cuts and bruises are looking a touch artificial right now. But somehow, as with most of your work, the overall effect looks quite good with the style. Keep on doing what you're doing, I'll try to drop by more often.

[Aaron_]

Great refs Plissken. It's hard to find good refs for injuries

And Nicky, that's a great skin tone. Definitely a level-up in terms of rendering. Skin is so hard to do too, it's as much about the texture of the skin as a sorta plaster cast shading thing. Nice one.

[NickyBeats]

Mr. Corlan - thanks Ross!! much appreciated man!! yea, i was thinking like street fighter II continue screen type of thing for that! but yea i still have two more versions (at least) to go! thanks for stopping by, your newest stuff is amazing man!

Goremageddon - thank you very much!!

LtPlissken - YES! thank you so much man! i really needed something like this!! i will rework the image, and definately be using these refs for the next few iterations!! thanks again LT!!

Vritra - thanks man! i appreciate it!! your latest comic works have been awesome by the way! always love seeing your new stuff!!

Aaron_ - yea man, i hear you! skin texture is difficult for me, especially trying to light abbrasions and cuts when the original was kind of referenced. but im working on it, and hopefully after a few more studies will be getting a better handle on it!

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thanks a bunch guys!! you all are awesome and constantly motivate me to push everything farther!! love you all!!

heres a couple quick studies for the current chow... zombify a pop icon!! haha this is gonna be easy!! and terrifying!!

[kevin_]

nice updates! definitely use some of those photos plissken posted!

[NickyBeats]

kevin_ - thanks man! yea i definately will!

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INTERNATIONAL SELF PORTRAIT DAY!!!!!

(i used a ridiculously shitty webcam pic so dont judge! haha)

[Umbravita]

Wow, you've been busy. Your faces are brilliant and I loved that rendering you did. Keep it up!

[NickyBeats]

Umbravita - thanks a bunch!!

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i was (am still) dying to do some comic work... even sloppy shit like this... i have just been doing so much crap for school that i have been wanting to get out some creative energy, so here are some super fucking rough pages. im not even sure if you guys can read the tiny horrible handwriting haha, but im having fun..

[NickyBeats]

pretty busy lately, heres just a quick sheet of characters for a game design class...

[NickyBeats]

BUBBLE BOBBLE! haha cow redesign.

[johnny24]

you are so badass! love your work man!

[NickyBeats]

johnny24 - thanks a ton dude!!

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small update

[Mike L]

Hey Nicky!
Like where your work is going with the softening of the brushes, much more fluidity to your images. Good stuff!

[Lê Ngọc Anh Thư]

nice works, so scary! I really love your monster!

[NickyBeats]

Mike L - hey Mike! thanks for noticing man yea i have this horibble habit of fleshing ot my images with a hard edged brush and then rarely switch back to the soft edge to blend... i have a tendancy to try and blend with the hard edge on low opacity it makes no sense... haha but im trying to force myself to switch brushes more to become better at soft forms and hard forms and transitioning between the two .

Lê Ngọc Anh Thư - thanks man! quite the opposite from your works haha, but to each their own

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just finished up this final alien model for my senior game project! two more to go and i feel like i learned a ton from this first one, so they should start speeding up now!

[NickyBeats]

quick alien head sculpt in Zbrush, then brought it into painter to start painting over it. started this for the daily sketch group (tattooed alien portrait) so gonna add the tattoos and color him up next!

[NickyBeats]

last wip for tonight... probably finish tomorrow if i have time...

[NickyBeats]

some storyboards i had to make for a game class dealing with story development...

[phatbuddha]

NB you never disappoint. How did you develop your drawing style? Was it conscious or something that just evolved? I would love any advice you could give me.

[Samurai_Nik]

I'm with phatbuddha still unable to find my style, too!!

[NickyBeats]

phatbuddha + Samurai_Nik - thanks dudes! my style was something that evolved (and still is) mostly because of the style of art that i am drawn to. i have always been a huge fan of comics, so that really shaped my style early on, but any linework is something that i really appreciate. always have. whenever i used to draw i would always have some of my favorite artists work on the screen, or in a book next to me, so my i would always try to emulate different styles. but later on, i just sort of developed on my own, but it has and probably always will still retain at least some of that old flavor to it.

some of my biggest influences have been :

N8 Van Dyke

Greg "Craola" Simkins

Katsuya Terada

Takehiko Inoue

Leinil Francis Yu

and about a million more too ha.

but dont worry too much about style because its something that mainly develops through things like comfort. how you sit. how you hold the pencil. certain line sweeps that youll inevitably repeat a million times over. personal aesthetics. and the type of artwork you love to look at. but if you really want to try to develop a style quickly, i would maybe suggest trying to replicate some of your favorite artists works, and pay attention to the shapes they repeat, the way they draw certain things (especially figures), and how they distort reality to suit their needs. if you can see these things and recognise them in others works, then you will be able to repeat some of them in your own. doing this enough will ultimately lead to a style that is basically a big huge melting pot of others, but you will start to make it your own as well.

but dont worry, this style thing is something that develops over time. youll find one.

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wip for the DSG thing. decided to ditch the other one because the god damn painter file shorted out and fucked up my cpu for a bit. soooo i just felt like starting over ha. maybe one day ill go back to it cause painting over zbrush sculpts is hella fun!

[Najmul]

Hey thanks for replying on our sketchbook bro wonderful sb u hav e man, keep up the rocking stuff, the comic works are excelent, quick crit is id say to focus on line weight. Have an awesome day brother

[NickyBeats]

Najmul - thanks man! you guys keep rockin!

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some really quick COW doodle... possible critter, will most likely do a few more iterations before i land.

[dimi]

man awesome updates interesting character the latest one