Insatiable Curiosity

[FROZ3N]

Yeah you nailed it.
looks friggin awesome man.
mirin'

[Mike L]

That last post is just magic! Love the scale...

[BenjaminJL92]

Incredible work man, The perspective work and post #1679 are killer.
I'll have a look into that Dobsky DVD you mentioned earlier,
I wouldn't mind getting better at environments myself, hope to see more soon.

[Kambei Shimada]

that last piece is SWEEET.

[Mila]

Right on the money! That rendering is brilliant.

[ThomasM]

finished this one now too...

Oh and I've just seen today that they're extending the portofolio application date, which is great news for me as my very recent work is of a far higher standard (results wise) than anything I've done until now - finally starting to grasp a sense of form in space. Starting to dream of a scholarship.. even 10% would be incredible.

Lifted straight from my Tumblr page... which brings me neatly on to the fact that if you're an aspiring artist I really REALLY recommend starting up a Tumblr account. From what I've heard it takes months to get followers, and you need those to "reblog" your material to get coverage. Either way, its potentially excellent marketing so give it a go!

Oh... and add me! : http://lovegraphite.tumblr.com/

[Matindas]

dayum.....the robots is very good rendered, great skill

[S.F.Batchelor]

the painterly stlye of those mechs is a great idea, the turquoise one in particular, static pose yet you've made it feel lively and vibrant. Fantastic amount of effort that I think's paying off.

Keep on going man, the SB's great!

[p sage]

finished this one now too...

Oh and I've just seen today that they're extending the portofolio application date, which is great news for me as my very recent work is of a far higher standard (results wise) than anything I've done until now - finally starting to grasp a sense of form in space.

Grats, dude. That's the real trick, isn't it? Sense of form in space... definitely the biggest hump to get over when building design/drawing skills IMO. Rendering is a piece of cake in comparison.

Good luck Thomas.

[ThomasM]

p sage -go check out your SB man!

S.F. Batchelor - thanks, I appreciate it. And I will! I have until the 17th of August to get this portfolio done now.. and then yeah. another 36 months on top of that of TAD!

Matindus - cheers


This took me aaaaages! Its sunday I should probably rest now... Oh and it was great perspective practice.. I used it to calculate all the spacings in straight lines, and everything heading towards the vanishing points. (2 point)

[kikindaface]

hey dude, your industrial designs are cool, you have really great skills and great drawing and painting foundations . It may sounds harsh, but here are my 2 cents: your painting are great, but they're not really clear. Let's take post #1686, the designs are great, and the eye is completing well what isn't on the canvas, but when we try to look at some details, we can't really see what's happening, and it shows that you yourself don't really understood what you painted, but threwed some brushes here and there, to make it look cool. If you were to apply for a concept art job with those pieces, you wouldn't make it because it lacks of clarity, which is very important. Here your weakness isn't about technical skills, it's more about understanding what you paint to make it more believable and more functional ( because yes, your designs ashould be able to work in real ^^ ) anyway, i hope you won't take it personnaly, we're here to learn from each other and i'd be glad to get sincere critics from you too in order to improve AFAP ( tho it's been a while i didn't post here, i'll post again tomorow dude ! ) CHEERS

[I-Bomb]

digging the bots and the sci fi sketches

[Andofryn]

This is some CRAZY improvement since the last time I stopped here!
I have nothing to say except that this is a huge inspiration, thanks dude, please keep this up!

Totally unrelated: I will be moving to Cambridge next September! Do you have any Cambridge-related (drawing classes, etc) advice for someone who wants to study drawing/painting? + any favourite drawing spots? Cheers!

[I-Bomb]

andoflyn not from cambridge but if you are looking for advice on painting and drawing check out feng zhu youtube vids it should help out

[ThomasM]

Sorry guys no time to reply now, heading to wales in half an hour! Just thought I'd throw this up there quickly.

After reading an article about giant reef worms I was inspired to do something.... which turned out to be this. Apologies for the gratuitous use of blur and soft brushes - I'm obsessed at the moment with the idea of creating a "film still" through knowledge of edges and lighting alone.

As you can probably tell, this one is heavily referenced but I kind of like it that way

[ThomasM]

udonhead - nice one, I'll check those out too, I've never seen them

Andofryn - thanks man, I've been working seriously hard the whole time since I started this sketchbook, except for one work-related break I had for about 5 months. Two years in... and I feel I'm getting there slowly.

As far as advice for drawing/painting in cambridge there are loads of art classes going, including one that is held in the fitzwilliam museum which I've heard is great. Also, the fitzwilliam itself, and the cambridge university zoology museum are both excellent for going and getting some inspiration - definitely recommended!

I also do a fair amount of location sketching in cambs, in the coffee shops sometimes but mostly on the streets, where there is so much architecture, and so many passers-by to sketch. Anyway, I hope you like it, and if I'm still around when you move perhaps we can meet sometime for a sketch.

kikindaface - yeah thanks for the crit, I do see what youre saying and I appreciate the feedback. I will try to work on that. Sometimes its also that if I can get away with "suggesting" details I will, rather than getting too involved in the rendering. Anyway, I don't want to get lazy with that so I appreciate the mention.


Right, what an incredible weekend for GB in the olympics. I've also been reading a craaaazy amount of graphic novels recently (borrowed and bought second hand) which have given me some good inspiration and definitely a bit of information regarding camera angles and better composition. Anyway, apart from that, here's what I was practicing whilst watching some of the tennis...

Oh and OH OH I started watching "the waking dead" - its excellent, very recommended. .. I've heard that the comic is even better, but for now that will have to wait (its hard to find it for cheap and its really really long)

BLAST OFF!

[ThomasM]

Rendering practice where I attempted to paint something in a style like kekai kotaki's (unsuccessfully), but even so I learnt a fair amount!

[Harmageddon]

Hey man, great work on those perspective studies! Thanks a bunch for those!
Reminds me to start looking into that more seriously as well.

Your mechs and enviro's are crazy awesome, although as has been mentioned before, some might need a little more refining.
Might, because I've also seen conceptart for movies that kept a very loose feel to convey general mood and to spark ideas.
Lots and lots of great pieces of art in your book. Very nice. Keep rocking!

[Jonesoda]

Awesome sketchbook, the mech's are badass

[Tef]

Wow thomas !!
I had not seen your works and I subscribe on your thread immediately.
Excellent work pfiouuuu !

[I-Bomb]

unsuccessful my ass lol

[Tef]

unsuccessful my ass lol

lol

[ThomasM]

Tef - thanks, I'm glad you like it!

udonhead - haha cheers man, I'm working really hard atm because they extended the deadline until the 27th... kind of weird to work towards a goal for months then when you arrive have it pushed back!

Jonesoda - thanks man, I'll definitely be doing more of those!

Harmageddon - yeah you're completely right, I'll definitely go into some of those (probably all of those) and refine them, to make the form look more believable. I have a good knack for making things look "about right" but the form needs to be more than that... it needs to be either loosely suggested, or rendered believably. Rather than something in between.

working on this over the last day or two... I "designed it" which took ages and now I'm painting from front to back... going to clarify the depth and paint those pigs up more

pigs creep me out.

[Tef]

You will keep serious guy !!
I really like this atmosphere that you put in your compositions !

if you want visit my SB, you're Welcome

[ThomasM]

Tef - done, and left a little paintover for you to think about..

Been thumbnailing..

[qlotzan]

Nice environment studies keep it up my friend.

[ThomasM]

qlotzan - left a comment in your sb, its looking good!

More.. I've been working hard!

[kikindaface]

very nice thumbnails dude ! keep it up !

[Mila]

Oh I love those perspective thumbnails. Excellent work

[Shadow Stalker]

Wow, great composition on the environment thumbs! All of them have amazing potential.