Endlings | End for most recent!!

[Gibi]

damn this is all so great! I really love the Rockmonster!

[Nickodemus]

Damien Levs - Thanks, man. The environments are something that I have probably put most of my time into, and enjoy most. I use the lasso to quickly block things in. Pretty much, I'll draw some interesting shapes on a layer, fill them with a dark grey and call them my foreground. I'll then to the same thing again, except filling this layer with a slightly lighter grey. This is my midground. Same thing for the background. It quickly sets up a range of values and starts to give dimension to the scene. I could do a quick demo, if you think it'd be helpful.

n1frit - Thanks! Glad you like the brush strokes. I put alot of work into em.


Gibi - Thanks dude!

Here is a dragon I sketched tonight.

[Nickodemus]

The rancid pit demon atop a hulking scourge.

[kidult]

That dragon one looks very cool! thanks for stopping by my SB

[Saarmander]

Hey Nick, you've got a really nice SB here! If I could offer one piece of observation, it's that your drawings and sketches have a lot of nice form explanation in them by way of your light and brush work, but you tend to add certain details that flatten the forms right out. I.E. The harness straps on your demon's beast, and the texture on your Dino sketch. If you can use the details and texture to explain form, like you do your values, your images will be that much stronger. Super stuff already, can't wait to see more!

[Nickodemus]

Saarmander - I think you hit it right on the head, and agree with you. The texture in the dragon is a convention I've been doing lately that I especially need to stray away from, as well as minding the way certain details I add effect my forms. But yes, this will be something I address moving forward for certain. Thanks so much for the crit, man. Loved your SB, by the way. Cheers!

Here is another portfolio building piece for the this weekends workshop in San Francisco. Work in progress...

[PieMonster]

Great stuff here!
You might want to focus some more on anatomy and structure on some of these pieces though, as they seem to be lacking in those departments a little.
Most of your pieces seem really expressive and loose though, that's a quality you should really take with you.
Looking forward to seeing more!

[dessinateurimpulsif]

Pretty stuff

[Jephyr X]

Schweet! Lovin yer character designs and concepts!!

[Charmer]

Hey man! How're you doing? It must have been months I haven't been here watching your sketchbook, everything I can say is that your figures and characters are very well drewn, too. But like I'd always say: your environments are so full of life that this is one of my favourite sketchbooks in here. We've come a long way and it's not the end of the journey. I wish you very nice xmas and a happy new year. Hope you're fine and you are adding more work soon! Keep it up

Flo

[[o]]

Great art! and great concepts!

Your use of color is excellent as well.

Great sketchbook. Lets see more.

[Nickodemus]

PieMonster - Thanks, man. Yeah, anatomy is something I'm beginning to focus on. I've been predominantly an environment artist up until this point, and am now starting to branch out in that direction.

dessinateurimpulsif - Thank you, sir.

Jephyr X - Glad your liking the character designs. I'm really trying to make them unique and my own. Cheers!

Charmer - All the best to you and yours as well, man. Thanks so much for continuing to check in on me. I will do the same. May this journey continue to take us places.

[o] - Thanks for the kind words. Color is something I really put my heart into. Glad you dig.

Here is a poster I made for work last week, in preparation for a demo I'll be giving to some of our employees. The car was a free model I found on deviant art, that I added the intercooler to, lit, rendered and composited myself. The background is a combination of photography and digital paint. I hope you like it.

[Nickodemus]

It's really been far too long. Anyway, I'm back on my horse, and trotting forward. Here are some development sketches for a sketch topic over at Cghub. The subject is "a king's throne" with a horror theme.

[Nickodemus]

A study I did last night, from The Dark Knight Rises trailer.

[Nickodemus]

If anyone sees this, please give me some feedback, if you have a moment. I went to Workshop SF and was pretty much told that I need to be a much better storyteller, and get better at composition. Here's a sketch I did last night. What do you think about it, in all aspects, but specifically in regard to compostion and story? I thought making the boatman a behemoth was cool and hadn't been done before. If it sucks, say it, I'd really appreciate the honesty. Cheers!

[Nickodemus]

Been playing a great deal of Dark Souls, so it's inspiration on me was right on my heels on this one.

[Nickodemus]

I wanted to post the sketch as well, as it feels like it might have some essence that the final lost out on.

[lionheartGFX]

awesome dark knight study, i really like how you do texture too, do you have a stream account or something? haha anyway cant wait for more updates!

[Nickodemus]

Thank you, lion. Yeah, I've got a few texturing techniques that I've kind of held onto over the last couple years. I think what your picking up on in particular is the plastic wrap trick I use. Its a method of getting "free highlights" or making something glisten. I've attached a little example below.



Basically, when you've got something rendered out, to the point where your defining shadows and highlights, you can run this filter and adjust the settings accordingly to get something you like. This is definitely not a be-all-end-all kind of method, and can really get you into trouble if you overuse it, which I have done in the past. That said, it can be helpful and is just one more tool in the toolbox. Here is a link to a tutorial that may explain it more in depth: http://www.adobe.com/designcenter-ar...plastwrap.html

As well, whenever I lay in photo textures on top of my paint, I really can't say enough about using the blending sliders. Just google the term if your not familiar with them, and get ready to be amazed. They are awesome. Really great for isolating only the highlights in something, or only the shadows.

No, I don't have a livestream going yet, but maybe thats something I should start doing.

[Nickodemus]

Here is a concept I'm working on for an environment of the week challenge, over at "The other concept art site that shall not be named", apparently.

[kevin_]

great sketches! really like your color pallet!

[Lucarky]

If anyone sees this, please give me some feedback, if you have a moment. I went to Workshop SF and was pretty much told that I need to be a much better storyteller, and get better at composition. Here's a sketch I did last night. What do you think about it, in all aspects, but specifically in regard to compostion and story? I thought making the boatman a behemoth was cool and hadn't been done before. If it sucks, say it, I'd really appreciate the honesty. Cheers!

Hi mate! You're really awesome in environments! Like this stuff.
I'm a little inexperienced, but I can tell you what I see. Well, I think that if you want to concentrate the attention on the boatman, you have to change the framing, try take a more low visual. tilt the boat counter-clockwise so the base line of the boat go from the left low corner to upper right, diagonally, to increase the pathos. Last, the light: in my opinion have to come from the bottom of the composition. Try looking for photography image composition, it helps a lot!
Hope I was useful, and I apologize if I take the liberty to suggest. Don't have your experience, but wanted to help.
Keep up mate. You draw awesome!
Ehm... a little thing. Also try, if you want, see that the giant look in the direction of the passengers of the boat, so his head is bend down.

[Nickodemus]

Some new stuff.





Lucarky - Thanks for crit & the kind comments. That's very helpful information, in regard to composition. I'm working on the Gates to the Underworld as a separate piece currently, so I'm thinking of revisiting this image or something very similar and will take what you said into account. Again, really appreciate you taking the time to give me your advice.

[Mabelma]

Your Creature/Character design is just incredible! I love the level of detail that are in your pencils, just amazing work.

[Marlo]

you're artwork looks fun! Can you come by my sketchbook and offer some pointers, I've been having trouble with finding myself in art no matter how much I practice, and it feels like I'm regressing! I want to become a better artist, so I dont want to break but I feel like the practices, the 30 second drawings and stuff have litterally sapped any personality to my drawings. Maybe you have some inside :c?

[Cojac]

Great work. And great ideas. I love it.

[FROZ3N]

Cool style man. I like the mech pieces.....good stuff.

[Nyodra]

Beautiful stuff! Your colors are inspiring

[Cojac]

Hi, Thank you so much for visiting my SB. Thanks a lot for your comments!

[AJM]

Awesome paintings, designs, everything.