Insatiable Curiosity

[ThomasM]

Marian - its becoming such a regular thing that we comment on the other's sketchbook and its great I think. Always good to have a nice bit of feedback or encouragement when you finish a day's work. I will be doing a fair few more inks and pencils in the same style tomorrow. Nice to break away from the relentless still-life's that I think are so important to improve.


It was my friend Rob's birthday today - I made him a little card with this on the front and a carrot cake (not everyone's cup of tea but a favourite of mine)

[PaintMyBrain]

hey! glad u did some more, as I said the syle suits u, they look awesome Hope ur friend was happy with the card which he should have! keep on rocking.

[ThomasM]

PaintMyBrain - yeah I don't know if it was a good card or not, but I enjoyed drawing it. Thanks again


I just saw my sb rating has gone up a fair bit since I last checked! Thanks to those of you who gave me those stars, it is nice to know that people are seeing the improvement from my daily work. And I know it doesn't mean anything to many people, but it represents something to me and thats what counts after all.

Ok so I'm going to revisit something I tried earlier (months ago) with terrible results. I'd love to try some more tech-y topics and start creating some semi-believable machines and craft. This is inspired by Doug Chiang, who uses markers and inks in an incredible way.

So yeah.. markers and inks.

[PaintMyBrain]

wow thats very cool! what does it do?

[ThomasM]

PaintMyBrain - no idea!

[Marian Rowling]

Here I am Tom your sketchbook stalker ha ha I really enjoy our feedback as well. You are quite a bit a head of me and I love the new areas you are developing into. I always feel inspired after I've seen what you've been up to.

I really like the card you did for your friend, and you made carrot cake! I'd love the recipe if you don't mind, I've just been thinking of having a go at making one myself. Great to see you having ago at the concept tech art stuff. I wonder if initially you were inspired by a crab? I remember reading someone say that you have to think about all the functions of your drawing and what they do. Which I think is a good advice. Be interesting to see where you take this. LOL we must have been posting at the same time, because this cool drapery study has just appeared which is very nice.
By the way I think the 'stars' are well deserved.

[Jakers]

Its really neat seeing peoples studies change pace into different areas - right now you're totally hitting some different styles and finding inspiration to change how you draw. Really smart move. As usual, those last studies did feel accurate, the buildings interesting and didn't feel overly labored in execution...great job.

I'd like to get to more buildings myself, but this time with a theme after some studying as you've done

That cloth is looking nice, working mostly with lights. Not an easy thing to illustrate. I found it hard to study folds unless different materials were directly compared, but hopefully you are noticing some patterns while studying em!

[ThomasM]

Marian - of course yeah, I have linked it to you on your sketchbook page. Now that you mention it I didn't look at any animals for inspiration (doh). I'm gonna try and do something like one mech design a day just to shape up my feel for construction. Thanks again

Jakers - great comment thanks. Yeah I feel like my drawing abilities are definitely evolving (particularly in the last few days). I feel all these influences are starting to take my drawing style in a different direction. I must admit I haven't thought about materials at all. I have just used the same cloth for each piece. I will do some in the coming weeks with various materials to see the differences. Thanks for the useful tip.



Today I watched a program on Illustrator-writer relationships (iplayer). It mentioned John Tenniel, who originally illustrated alice in wonderland. He was also a highly skilled engraver. Because of this I did a copy of one of his much simpler pieces. I love the style of the engraved illustrations back when wood-engraving was the only method available. You can also see the huge influence that wood-engraving out of necessity had on many artists today.

Also, a chalk study. This time instead of pencil and pastel I decided to opt for a darker paper and only take my values in one direction. This was suggested in a life drawing session last week so I had to give it another try.

more!

[LtPlissken]

Wooo, you are working real fast.
#931 - Inking/hatching animal head is great.
I see that these inking drawings are going nicely to you,
just as I like the inking in #932 and in #936.
That owl just knows his shit, he is so serious,
you made him so serious with just a few smart lines.
I like the pig also and the chalk study that you did in your
last post. You made those folds to make look real hot.
You are improving lightning fast. I am amazed.

[Marian Rowling]

Hey Tom thanks for the recipe. That was one I had looked at so it's great to have you recommend it. You should definitely draw on your zoology knowledge for mech ideas, could be a lot of fun to combine the two. I really like this Alice in Wonderland study reminds of my yesteryear's! Shall have to look the guy up when I get a chance. I'm also a big fan of drapery studies so I'm really appreciating this post. Good stuff, keep it up.

[karmiclychee]

Damn man - these are some fresh, vital illustrations you got here. What kind of pen are you using on your moleskine (I'm guessing it's a moleskine) sketches?

[Elophant]

Love the animal studies!
So lively and full of mood! ... GREAT

[ThomasM]

LtPlissken- glad you like man, I'll stop by your sketchbook in a second too!

Marian - no problem! Yeah Tenniel, who I only discovered yesterday is amazing. I'll probably do another study of his later, just to learn some more techniques.

Elophant - Thanks, although I'll have to say again that I am mimicking another artist's style - I don't want to claim praise for another's work!

Karmichylee - Fineliners are what I'm using at the moment. Staedtler ones - I'll definitely be buying more soon at this rate.


Two from today from life

Elephant skull and suit of armour - I rushed the armour a bit which I'm not happy about (parking time was running out) but he elephant skull went well

[AeonPhoenix]

Good stuff!

[ThomasM]

AeonPhoenix - cheers amigo


Daily bot. This time with colour and a little thought as to what it actually does. Borer-bot. Raised upper body with long flexible fore-limbs allows for positioning in those inconvenient hard-to-reach spots The movement of the arms and raised fore-body, with lower, more angled back legs is inspired by a the body shape of various chameleons

[Yor]

Great sketchbook, loving the last mecha, every time i try crosshatching it fails , loving your animal sketches!

keep it up!

[Deadlyhazard]

Damn I love your ink work. I'm going to go out and try pens soon .

[Marian Rowling]

Ha ha Tom I love the description for the daily bot, put a smile on my face and I was just waiting for that cheesy advertising line that says, BUT WAIT, that's not all it's does, there's more! Really good I can see and like the chameleon influence. The elephant skull and armor are looking good, I had no idea elephant's skulls looked like that. I'm guessing you visited the local museum and didn't have these lying around the house.

[ThomasM]

Yor - I'd definitely recommend making some copies then trying your own pieces but imitating the style. The initial copy allows you to observe and try to see HOW they make their marks - i consider this part the mechanical part of learning another's style. Next I try to learn the mood and style, without having to worry about the problem of how their marks are made (already covered). I ask myself questions like "what themes are found in their work" e.g. in Toppi's work a lot of overlapping geometric shapes and vignetting. If you can answer a few key questions then it will help imitate another's style. In itself this isn't making progress, but these lessons will definitely carry over into your own work.

Thats how I learn anyway... what works for me may not be the same for others but each to their own.

Deadlyhazard - yeah inks are great, I have come to accept that now!

Marian - Yeah cambridge is brimming with good museums, if only it were just a little closer to home! I did the elephant skull in the University Zoology Museum (which has hundreds if not thousands of stuffed animals) and the armour in the Fitzwilliam Museum.


Ok.. so it is my baby cousin's birthday (I say baby, shes 2) next week. I know that her favourite book is "More Farmyard Tales" and she can recite the book pretty much word for word, despite not being able to read. Knowing that, I decided to make her a card with some of the key characters on the front. I thought it would be easy but its taken me all day so far! Worth it though, I love making cards for people.

Watercolours

[alexson]

Cool stuff as usual! That red robot kinda looks like a giant walking old english castle, with the two towers. That was what hit me first when I saw it at least. Great sketches too, keep up the hotness!

[ThomasM]

alexson - haha yeah now that you say it, it really does. Thanks for stopping by!

Ok.. repaint

[ThomasM]

Some sketches from Andrew Ley's paints. Great mech inspiration to be found there. Definitely doing to try some of my own next.

And a final Jim broadbent version

[Marian Rowling]

Hey Tom really like what you've done with the Jim Broadbent repaint, especially the brush marks you've made. The card for your baby cousin is very sweet as well.

[ThomasM]

Marian - thanks, yeh I'm happy with that card actually. I do have a new found respect for the illustrations done in that book though. If they are watercolours then they're done by someone far more skilled than me! I couldnt get an exact likeness no matter how hard I tried, and they are far better painted.


I checked out Andrew Ley's sketchbook today:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...=42514&page=53


Definitely one I will be returning to for inspiration. he does some amazing tech designs and sci-fi machinery and here I have taken on of his pieces done in exactly the same layout in an attempt to learn how to imitate his very clean, precise style. I didn't achieve anywhere near the incredible rendering he does himself with my own design, but I did learn a few little tips and tricks. I do so little digital painting that everytime I open photoshop I seem to learn something new.


Anyway, firstly the original paint, and then when I'd played around with it in PS I thought the second one could make quite a good little logo, perhaps a graffiti piece.

EDIT: oh and the white section is just parts that I didn't have time to finish, but I thought they looked better white than pencil

[LtPlissken]

Hey there buddy, you always have something
fresh and interesting.
Way to go!

[Deadlyhazard]

God damn your work is beatufiul, I hope I can reach your level by the 33rd page my SB haha. And yeah, Andrew Ley's designs are great. I scan through his SB every month to try and get inspiration, but it's kinda pointless since I'm not so great at sketching/painting from imagination .

[monotony]

I have to agree, the brushstrokes in the jim portrait look beautiful!
and I like the last bots you painted. hope you actually make it a "daily bot" routine (or something close )
looking forward to more!

[ThomasM]

LtPlissken - same to you, lets keep on bringing out the daily updates

DeadlyHazard - Its never pointless! Even just looking at other people's art you are learning about new ways of thinking and seeing things. Its always important to get that inspiration, as its what keeps a lot of us going. Without this community and other people's sb's I'd have given up long ago.

Monotony - Thanks very much. I am trying to do a daily bot yeah at the moment, as its helping me think so much more about shape and volume



Ok... so if I can't afford art school this year, I will bring art school to my home! muahahahaha (been driven mad by all these studies)

I bought the Karl Dobsky perspective videos aages ago and finally watched them and understood them (an improvement on the first time round). They cover 1 and 2-point perspective as well as some worked examples, getting progressively more complex.

To learn as much as possible I treated these like lectures or classroom lessons. I sat and watched the DVD's making notes and diagrams for around 3-4 hours and then after did a couple of smaller examples of my own. Learnt a ridiculous amount about perspective, but am definitely in need of a little break from perspective for at least a few days.


All done in the last 24 hours

[Marian Rowling]

Wow very impressive perspective studies Tom, but don't forget you need to do a drawing or painting and apply this to test what you have you've learned! This is a very important step I think that I keep forgetting to do myself!

[ThomasM]

Marian - I'm on it!


2 Point Perspective of a mech design done in Markers. After that I attempted to paint it in PS which didn't go as well as the designing.

This is was designed around the idea of a machine to destroy landmines. It hovers (ever so smoothly) over the fields. In order to destroy them it drips a couple of drops of that radioactive (barely visible) barrel onto said landmine and hovers away. The acid generally takes a couple of minutes to destroy the outer casing, which gives it plenty of time.

I like the bot, but as far as showing what it does clearly this is a terrible paint! Next time I'll put more consideration into actually displaying its purpose more openly



Every time I open PS these days I ALWAYS allow a little time to play around with settings and try out new things. I stopped using it a while back in favour of pencil and I felt I wasn't still learning about it. I think its such a versatile program that it needs to be explored as much as possible. Even just 5 minutes of playing around with filters and selections etc always brings something new to my attention. This time I realised I could extract edges from a marker paint to give a much more "schematic" sketch which I could then use. I have included it below to show what I mean. I will probably use this filter with extracted edges to re-draw the original at a larger size. Useful stuff.