A sketchbook (October 24th, 2012)

[wreck]

NickyBeats: I think your right man, i could be exploring other lighting mothods. I think i will definitely be doing this soon, i need to make some cash to be able to afford a decent camera other then my shitty phone one. that way i can take some photo ref for it. I bullshit my lighting method as is, if i were to try something else with out any ref, id be looking like a fool with my pants on the ground.. But again man, thanks for the crit !!

Mr.Ebony: thanks dude, !

heres some things.

[p sage]

Liking all your recent stuff... the technical aspects are really good... the stuff reads well, etc.

This one from the previous page is very nicely designed. (linked)

The next step would be to give your characters a sense of motivation... what are they thinking? What are they doing in those poses? If he's angry, maybe he should be lowering his head into his chest, clenching his jaw, causing his sternocleido mastoids to bulge, widening his stance and clenching his fists, causing the tendons to shorten and curl the wrists.

If he's thinking about an someone he likes maybe he turns his head to the side a bit and upward, his shoulders relax and a half grin crosses his face.

Just some ideas to add some thoughts and motivations that can be seen.

Walt Stanchfield's advice is good... put a story in every drawing.

You have the skills... put some real heart in your characters

[0000]

ow man you totally rip it!

total character awesomeness, i think that now you should try to do more story telling with your pieces, made atmosphere ,mood and a twist or plot, made a short history behind every piece and that will bring your art to a new level.

[wreck]

p sage and 0000: i hear ya guys. im not much for narratives, not a big story teller, tend to only enjoy drawing the characters and not so much finding a story to ground them in. but alas, thats a big part of being an illustrator, telling a story though imagery instead of words. something im working on. and honestly, its just one of those things that you have to force yourself to do, even if its not the thing you enjoy doing the most. So thats what im gonna be doing. Sure ill still keep doing random ass fuck sketches of dudes with no story other then the fact that they enjoy standing around in front of shit, but that will be in between the narrative pieces. thanks for looking guys!

heres a kinda narrative thing. Tried matte painting as well, im not to thrilled with how it came out, need some more practice. also, the composition in this piece wasnt thought out. i need to take more time in the thumbnail stage. i find its so easy to just rush through that part and get to the "good stuff", the actual painting part. learnin.

[kingkostas]

Very interesting piece mate. Although you have to balance it with the realism of the background. To quickly help it, share some of the mountaintexture onto the monkey [but ok with low opacity, to be seen somehow like dirt/ the color variation will do the work], and maybe adjust the contrast little, or make the purples more cyanish

keep up the great work , love the characters up there

[wreck]

kingkostas: hey man! ya i know what you mean, the gorilla is a bit out of place, its mostly intentional, i found he blended in to much with a neutral color so thats why hes pinkish and not textured as much. but again these matte paintings are new to me, so ill try some things first and eventually find out what works for me. thanks man!

okay, i need your guys's help.

Heres a dark sketch, im trying to figure out if my actual work monitors calibration is correct. My second monitor, the one i have my ref and other shit on, it makes everything way darker then it really is... at least i think it does.. so im trying to figure out which monitor is more accurate to what people are seeing. Im not sure if it has something to do with windows default previewer if the color profile for that is way off, but usually the darks are just washed out and way to dark.

Lemme know what you guys think, is it readable? is shit washed out? on my work monitor, its dark but obviously not washed out. lemme know whats up!

and also heres a doodle.

cheers!

[Jamie Romoser]

Man that monkey character is badass! and I'm really like looking at your last figure sketch
mmm tasty keep it up man looking forward to seeing more
keep having fun learning and exploring
-Jamie

[kevin_]

nice updates!! characters looking boss as usual! im not sure about the matte painting though, i think the backgrounds realism makes the characters look pasted in? just my two cents, not that they matter :b

[p sage]

The shape is readable, although his chest shape and the left arm are melded together a bit... and maybe the right oblique looks a little flat. It's hard to get a good read on the values on an image that fills my screen... maybe you could zoom way out and check the values that way... I find that's a good trick.

[wreck]

Jamie Romoser: hey man, really appreciate the comment, thanks for lookin

kevin_: ya i feel ya man, it didnt turn out how i wanted it, but it was a learning experience at least.

p sage: hey man, ya i have no trouble reading values, its the monitor that im more concerned with. and ive found out that my second monitor makes images darker then they actually are. but thanks anyways man !!


from the sketch above.

[wreck]

So I landed some work with a pretty well known studio, and because of this I might be a bit focused on that stuff for the next couple of months. Pretty pumped about it. Not entirely sure if im aloud to say who it is yet, but once i get my feet wet ill ask about it. All i can say is its a pretty well known Canadian Studio.

anyways heres something i just "finished". I tried to do a more "narrative" piece. made some choices id like to take back on this one. hoping the next one isn't so rough around the edges.

[p sage]

Hey hey, spider boobs. Awesome

Really nice job here, all around, from the luminescent blue silk to the shiny spider eyes, to the reflected lights, to the hard/soft edges. Great job.

edit for crit: looking at the angle of the right shoulder compared to the right side of the spider's human 'torso' it seems a bit high. Thinking the angle of the spider's human shoulders should be a little closer to the angle of the top of the back of the 'spider body' part... if that makes sense.

[wreck]

p sage: hey thanks man, your right, theres some stuff goin on there thats kinda wonky, but ill be puttin that piece to bed, kinda got sick of it, but much appreciated man!


Did a self portrait from life today. been awhile.

[Lane.]

You've got some great things going here! The self portrait is well done.

I did a quick and rough paintover of your spider illustration: http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...39-d5jpqlo.gif

This may not be the best example, but I tried to soften some edges and obscure details that seemed to distract and pull the eye away from the subject.

[Untouched24]

Hey maaan, your stuff is looking cool. How have you been Mr. Murphy?