Sketchbook of Ill Repute

[Matthew Campbell]

Hello all.

I'm starting a personal project, and thought starting a sketchbook would be a good way to follow my progress (and hopefully get some useful feedback). Here are some recent sketches. The images shown in this first post were all done purely for fun, and to develop the style I'm intending to use for my project.

[Matthew Campbell]

More! The project I'm going to start involves zombies and bikers in the 1970's. I'm still trying to figure out the right balance of realism and exaggeration in the style. I like painting heads as a way to experiment...

[Matthew Campbell]

I briefly experimented with pixel art a while back (although I didn't really know what I was doing). The first one was a pixel art self-portrait.

[Malakuko]

Wow great stuff! Cant wait to see where this goes. Awesome style too, I love that realistic lighting on cartoonish characters, reminds me of Sam Nielsons stuff. Anyway Im definetly subscribed. Is it 60s or 70s style your goin for?

[DeeStar]

Nice work, looking forward to seeing some updates

[knut-]

Nice work. You've got interesting style. They generaly gives a 3d sense. I' d say try to avoid the blur like on the feet of the captain (3d image) and the beard (last), wich don't match with the rest of the sketch. Also, i like the big masses of hard shadows you are creating but on some point, like on the first guy's and lady's nose, the degration goes like there is burned color between. Try maybe to have some more diacritic levels on the shadow changing. Also, maybe some pose/ form studies will make draw more natural poses and movements. Hope this helps cause i'm not an expert or smthing like that. Keep updating!

[Matthew Campbell]

Hey, thanks Malakuko! Sam Nielson is definitely an influence. If I ever get half as good at rendering as he is, I'll be a happy man.

The personal project I'm doing is set sometime in the seventies - it features zombies in flares, nam vet bikers and an indian reservation. I'm 'borrowing' influence from a wide variety of sources and mashing it all together, purely for the sake of creating a solid body of concept art set in the same universe. Dawn of the Dead 1978, Easy Rider, Sons of Anarchy, Scalped are a few of the obvious influences I have in mind.

Edit:

Thanks Deestar!

Knut-, thanks for the useful feedback. I'm still trying to refine the rendering style and create some general rules to follow. Hard edges are a big part of that. Those examples you gave (of the first guy and the lady) were done when I was still experimenting. I realised it looked better with purely hard edges between light/shadow.

[Matthew Campbell]

A sketch from today. I'm not too happy with this one, I may go back to it after resting my eyes.

[Ivan Turcin]

hahaa Matthew, these are all very good. Would be awesome to see one fully rendered. Keep it up!

[Yor]

sweet chara's man, great stuff, reminds me of an fps , orange box or something ..

either way, keep updating!

[Roboko]

I like your motion blur use, it's really cool, and so are the characters, can't wait to see more!

[AustenFM]

Hey, cool stuff, I dig your use of light and shadow. Pretty stylin' too. Keep it up!

[BlightedArt]

Some brilliant work here. I have a real problem trying to create interesting face shapes for characters (they always look similar... starting to stagnate), but you've got great personality invested in your characters.

Have you seen the cartoon work of Ben Caldwell by any chance? If not maybe see if you can borrow copies of Action Cartooning and Fantasy Cartooning by him. I think you'll learn a great deal from his drawings (though not the edited writing in the books, just the images).

http://actioncartooning.com/

There's his site, keep up the cool work.

[NakedZergling]

Holy shit. Dude. WOW. Your blur effects are amazing. Your skin tones are wonderful. I can't say enough good things. They eyes are so life like, even on the zombies. 5 stars.

[NakedZergling]

Is there any way you can explain your process on the 8 step process you did. Like layers and stuff between steps 2 and 3 especially.

[Matthew Campbell]

Ivan, Yor, Roboko and AustenFM - thanks for the kind words! I appreciate it.

Thanks BlightedArt! I'm not familiar with Ben Caldwell, but I just checked out that link. I'll see if I can find one of those books! This cartoon style I've been using is new to me, only been at it for a few weeks.

Also, I too sometimes have trouble creating interesting face shapes. I do pages and pages of heads in my sketchbook, and like to warm up with some really quick and loose shapes. I then try to vary the proportions and placement of the facial features with each different head.

NakedZergling, thanks - glad you like the stuff! Those are some encouraging words. I'd be happy to write a breakdown of the process. If there's anything else you want clarified, I'll try my best to answer it. Between step 2 and 3, I'm just repainting the whole thing - this time in colour. It's not the most efficient way to go about things, and I generally don't do it anymore, but it's a nice luxury if you have the time.

Step 1 and 2 - Spending no more than a few minutes on each render, I quickly try out different lighting scenarios and establish the values. I no longer spend time doing a black and white render first, unless I'm working on a complex scene or want to experiment with the lighting. It's all about maintaining consistent value relationships. I'm not great at explaining this stuff.

Step 3 - Having already established the values I wish to use in the previous step, I spend time selecting the palette. I manually pick the colours, making sure they are the correct value (as defined in the previous step). I'll also be thinking about the colour temperature of the light and how it'll affect the local colour of the object, and adjusting the hue/saturation accordingly. I like painting from dark to light, so I lay in the shadows first.

Step 4 - Painting in the light, referring to the value sketch I made earlier.

Step 5 - On a seperate multiply layer, I paint in ambient occlusion. An important step.

Step 6 - Additional rendering, and bounce/ambient light. You have to be subtle with this.

Step 7 - More rendering, and I add a rim light - because... I... just... can't... help... myself.

Step 8 - Even more rendering, and additional polish.


Here's a sketch from this morning. It's... uniquely ugly, but I was just playing around, experimenting with a slightly different technique. It was intended for a mock cigarette advert - Old Crone Smokes. With a little more practice I could refine the style. I may as well post the stuff I do that doesn't really work.

[Yor]

yeah love the last one, maybe a little to blurry but it isn't something to worry about

keep it up!

[NakedZergling]

Thanks for the breakdown! awesome work. Very inspiring. I love it.

[Aut0n]

Awesome style you have, the skin tones are very well done. Reminds me of Team Fortress 2, in a good way though. I'm a big fan of the blocky shapes and sharp edges.

Not really a fan of the motion blur. It's such a sharp contrast from your clean edges that it kinda takes away from the piece.

[NickyBeats]

hey dude, awesome stuff!!! love your style your working with, anything that has violence, exaggeration, and zombies is gold in my book. keep it up!

[NickyBeats]

hey dude, awesome stuff!!! love your style your working with, anything that has violence, exaggeration, and zombies is gold in my book. keep it up!

[Matthew Campbell]

Thanks, Yor! I definitely went overboard with the cheap effects on that one. I was lazy and hiding some sloppy brushwork I didn't want to repaint.

NakedZergling - my pleasure!

Aut0n - thanks! I'm unsure about the motion blur effect myself, and can see where you're coming from. I've been trying to emulate the kind of post-processing effects that may be seen in a video game. It's possible I'm just overdoing it.

Thanks NickyBeats, I feel much the same way!

Here's some stuff from today. The zombie looks almost pleased with his shambling abomination status. For this sketch I was wanting to try out a different lighting scheme, and use ambient occlusion and bounce/fill lights to render the form. I also cheat with the specular highlights.

I also included proof of a bad habit I've developed recently - countless minor tweaks of the same image. After a while I become blind to what I'm doing, and spend time making pointless alterations. The layer system is truly a double-edged sword.

The gun looks boring so far - it's the famous Colt M1911. I'm not finished with it yet, I intend to design a custom grip for it. It's supposed to be used by the Native American character I've been working on. I'm going to spend a lot of time designing various assets and characters before I start doing full illustrations.

[MrChow]

wow this is so pro loving the cartoony style, quality work !

[AustenFM]

Looking cool, i as going to comment on the angle of the angle of the grip but you said it was custom, looking forward to seeing what you do with it!

[Matthew Campbell]

Thanks, MrChow and AustenFM!

Here's some more sketches from today and yesterday. Environments are probably my weakest area, so I'm going to start doing more quick photo studies like these. The second one is the most successful in my eyes. The third one didn't really work - I really need more practice.

I'm also trying to design the main biker character for my project. This is a really quick sketch, based on 1970's Clint Eastwood.

[dU5K]

wowzers. such an awesome start to this thread. keep up the work

[knut-]

Oh man really great updates. The first enviro seems to me a little bit too dark on the right. Also, great zombie!

[LtPlissken]

Very good painting style. I also like the blur effects on your portrait studies.

[JellevdVegt]

nice!

[jelmerschmit]

pretty epic style you got there man! would love to see some more!