Rakugaki (FEB 2ND) 14:54

[skrubbles]

lookin good buddy! we'll keep each other entertained/distracted tonight while drawing... if I'm not toooo sick.

Keep up the work

PAGE 3 !!!!!!

[Undertow]

thx Lou. Well, verizon is being retarded so I'm unable to update my site today. I'll try again tomorrow. My update WAS a samurai archer on horseback and a few head studies... there's always tomorrow.
-Mike V

[steak-tron]

dude whatever, total bullshit excuses.

nice study pages dude, I've drawn those same pics from the same book. Those are good but hands down the best thing for me has been to build figures from the inside out. I think it's the loomis method too. But I'd suggest just drawing allot of skeletons in lots of poses. Dosen't have to be the whole skeleton but get all the landmarks in there. After that bust out the book and get all of those muscles in there, attach them to all the rights spots. It helps tons for understanding the logistics of the body, that way you can assemble it in the future.

keep up the good work, -AND DON'T STOP.

[DavidCousens]

Just thought I'd stop by to say there's some great stuff going on in this sketchbook. Well done

[redehlert]

Hey Mike!
Lookin' good with the static arms and postures! One thing I noticed in the bottommost image I quoted is the left arm elbow bend. The inner crease (bicep side) feels pretty good, but the elbow point just seems a bit off to me - as if the triceps are extending a bit too far down making the elbow point lower than it should be.
How's COW 11 coming for you?
Cheers!
D

[Undertow]

Steak: Congrats again on Massive Black bro, I know you'll do just fine. Thanks for the suggestion, I will fill a few pages of my sketchbook with just skeletons today. Be sure to drop back in and brow beat me, I need it!

Dave the Original: Thank you!

Redehlert: huh.. you know Dave I didn't notice that elbow being too low until you just pointed it out. Good catch, I'll fix it and post it later. W/regards to COW.. I'll be cramming to get it done this weekend, I haven't started. Got a quick question for you, now that I've switched over to 3B and 2B leads I'm having issues drawing on opposing pages, as in the pencil is transferring onto the opposite pages when the book is closed. The 2 pages of arms I drew are all smudged to shit now because of this. Right now I'm only drawing on one side of the page to prevent this from happening anymore. Is there anything else you might recommend?

-Mike V

[skrubbles]

that's what you get with softer leads... it sucks, but either you just use fixative... or if you're like me (lazy) then don't draw on the opposing side... you'll still get a lil smudging going on but you won't be ruining two pages of artwork this way.

[redehlert]

yup....fixative - and spray that shite outside or in a well ventilated space (not around anyone) - that's some nasty stuff, but the alternative is to live with some smudging or as sir lou has stated - use only one side.
one other alternative - which i've seen, but am not anal retentive enough to deploy: tape tracing paper sheets over each page and secure them down over your drawing so as to not transfer to other pages.
how do you feel using a softer lead?
as for cow 11 - this was to compel you to do other things as inspiration - what you have come up with for the local group to inspire us and yourself is the path you were seeking, right? so....long story short - if you don't do it, i know that you are busy being more creative no matter what.
peace!
d

[Undertow]

Here's my take on using a softer lead.. I like it but I don't like it. The problem I had with my F leads was that they don't scan very well. I had to darken the pages to pick up my pencils on scanning, as you can see on page one of my sketchbook. I like the fact that I can lay down a fat line and it's there.. I also hate that because it's a bitch to erase completely. It's forcing me to work more loosely, and commit more to the page than before. With regards to fixative.. f' that. I used fixative for my charcoals when I was going to MICA and hated the stuff with a passion. Looks like I'll be wasting more pages just using one side. I'll have to ask Kekai how he keeps his sketchbooks looking clean with the 3B's. 'shit boggles my mind, maybe it's his paper weight? Anyhow, back to drawing the skeleton..
-Mike V

[redehlert]

I hear ya hoss....100%. For me, I know it's a sketch and nothing permanent in my mind. Just a way to study, improve, make notes and so forth. If I want to have it become a more permanent piece, then I'll take the steps to transfer it to a better paper and/or scan it in for further work. Asking Kekai is smart - post what you find out, okay?
Regarding adjusting the levels of a scanned image. I use the middle grey (gamut) to do the majority of my adjustments with minor adjustments made to the black and the white points. And, I use the 'adjustment' level so it appears as a layer above my scanned image so as to always be able to go back and further adjust if need be. It's a 'no pixels harmed' mindset obtained from some photoshop guru I've studied via Lynda.com back in the day.
Peace.
d

[Undertow]

update for now. Verizon is back up, yay. I'll have more to upload later tonight.
-Mike V

[Odds]

http://mysite.verizon.net/res8aabz/s...g.w300h424.jpg
hot stuff.
i love the way you are able to simplify these characters/faces. yet, i'd really love to see some quick rendering to sculpt out the forms of the cheeks as well as those little eyelids. i want more, basically! keep it up

[KevinP]

Nice thread Mike, glad I found it.
Man, I love your how tight and linear your mechs are. But this strength I feel really hurts your fig renders. LOOSEN UP MAN! reading your comments about soft lead reinforces my point.
A cool excercise I think you'd benifit from is using a uniball pen only, but dont be timid. Lay down every little line and gesture form rapidly and loose, disregard clarity just use process, process, process. You can even use photo refs, just hammer out 10 or so a page and dont look back. When you sit down to render a clean study you wont be so hung up on line value as opposed to form. The line value you have nailed.
This stuff looks great don't get me wrong, but I think loosening up would get you where you want to go.
I fell in here and I cant get out. These sketchbook threads are addicting. Pehaps I should start one, hmmmm... it seems all the cool kids are...

[Carnifex]

how come i haven't stumbled across this earlier...?
good stuff in here,for getting more loose i'd suggest you use a darker,smoother pencil(5b f.ex.).
also work abit more on your lineweight-as far as i can see most of yer pics have the same lines everywhere which makes them abit undynamic sometimes.(check into prom's bigass tutorial if you haven't already)
i remember that "crab" sketch you did for me at the workshop. Are you faster with finishing up pieces already?
keep it up bro.

[Undertow]

Kevin! Hey man, I appologize for not calling you yet. I was going to call you last night after my pre-deployment brief but it didn't get out until after 8:30 (20:30). I hear, and know what you're talking about and all I can say is "I'm working on it". I'm sketching more in Painter with the acrylic brushes. The reason why I'm doing this and not doing pen and paper is because there's a mental block there when I approach a paper page that I don't have with Painter. Thank you very much for the feedback though, it helps allot

Carnifex: yeah I'm a bit faster thanI was at the workshop. I'm mainly working on spreading out artistically right now. I'm kind of crawling at this point working with softer leads and painter, and will be graduating to real paint and pen and paper drawing later on. Thx for dropping in

-Mike V

[Undertow]

[silverslash]

man is there some cool stuff going on here :-)

-jose

[skrubbles]

good updates... I'd make those faces a lil uglier to stay true to the original... LOL... jk bro, its a good likeness.

[one2hit]

ok, first of all, this is an awesome sketchbook. I'm really liking the simplified faces, and the anatomy studies. I think you should pay a little more attention to the facial structure. The problem is I think that your realistic faces aren't as strong, and the stylized ones carry the same small problems. I mean the problems are really small and simple, some eyes seem out of proportion, features are placed a tad off here and there, and some of the heads are a little shallow in the top/back.
I love this one: http://mysite.verizon.net/res8aabz/s...g.w560h703.jpg The mech guy with the ram horns is killer.

see you saturday!
yes-yes, drinks are in order!

[Odds]

sup!
awesome faces. did you do them from a mirror or just from ref?
also, the pic one2hit link'd is just amazing. keep ones like that coming. it's awesome that you're doing quick gesture studies of the full character. but one thing i think you should try to do with them is make them a little more rigid. those smooth/curvy lines sort of make them look like a bunch of gumbys! keep it up

[Undertow]

Well.. where I normally would have some time to draw at work, this week has been insane. I've truly gotten the shaft this week when it comes to responsibility for my pay grade in the navy. I will definitely have some updates on Sunday though. Now for comments

Silverslash: Thanks man, who told you to look at this stupid thing, was it Mike (Jetpack)?

Skrubbles: yeah, they're not as ugly as the original Lou, you're right I have to doctor up my face a bit so that it's easier on the eyes

One2Hit: Totally on spot commentary. My facial proportions are off, hence the reason I'm working on it. I do have to blame part of it on the fact that I was drunk when I did the most recent ones. I've been experimenting with drinking and drawing to help me take a looser approach to my work and care less about cleanliness. I'm too damn anal about the cleanliness of my work.. I'm trying to get sloppier. Erasing my habits that I developed learnign how to pencil comic books has been rough. Hence the booze, and softer leads See you Saturday!

Odds: Yup, mirror. Thx for the compliment on the piece, it's old. I'm not happy with it, that's why it was scrapped. There will be more finished work by me available soon. Once we dive into doing the finished illustration I'll be able to have fun with dynamic poses, layouts and compositions. Character pin ups and concept art is fun and all but I have more fun constructing full blown illustrations.

[Undertow]

couple of doodles from Saturday and a loose warmup with a creature in painter. The knife fighter/cyborg was an hour and 15 minute T-Dome (total time allowed, approx. 40 min. used) again Lou Holsten (Skrubbles). I was a bit rusty so it took me about 2 hours to get somewhat warmed up. The guy with the sword was my warm up sketch. I've discovered that taking any time off from drawing really hurts my work. Last week was rather unavoidable but now that things are almost back to normal the updates will start rolling again. I'm also eager to crack the spine on my new moleskin.. just need to fill a few pages in the other sketch books first.
-Mike

[redehlert]

sweet, mike!....all three images of the last post - loose, anatomically convincing, textural and good use of space. of course, i'm speaking of each image all in one sentence, so you figure it out.
i'm totally diggin' em and agree with you about keepin' at the sketchin' on a daily basis. friggin' a - how do some people do that?
peace and congrats on your win....!
d

[Undertow]

Thx Dave I know this is a weak ass update but the unfortunate end of things is that the other 7 sketches that I would put in here are all mecha for CTech that I'm technically not supposed to be showing around. So that being said.. here's a couple of heads tonight. Parts of the human head are really starting to click for me now. I'm in the process of working out the kinks.
-Mike

and some filler stuff. logos I did last year and some character stuff that my boy Phuzion and I were squaring off in a TDome with last year. I didn't finish the 3rd in the series.. I still owe him a rematch because I was a bitch and didn't finish.

[S.C. Watson]

Hey Mike,

Some good stuff you've got going on here. It's always a pleasure to peruse your books, my friend.

Cheers,
~Shane

[one2hit]

lookin' sharp! I like the screaming one, The jaws are looking better this time around! watch the eyes, some of them seem a tad wobbly. I like how you draw the hair especially. ~check my update

-nate

[silverslash]

haha. well there was a time when all i heard around the apartment was jetpack talking about how cool you where and how he wanted to have like ten thousand of your babies..

and now i slowly find my self seduced

[Sapphire]

Your graphic logos are sooo pretty. I like them a lot, especially the wildfire and Cthuhlu Tech ones.

As it was mentioned above, watch the eyes in your latest series of heads... the one on the right, the eyes look a distorted and large, which I think distorts the rest of the face because of that. They're also too high on the forehead and seem too far back from the bridge of the nose. Things are generally looking more aligned though, that's great!

[Chaosphere]

awesome work dude !! LOVE your inking style, and your suits on the characters keep it up

[Fellah.]

nice nice sketchbook man, cool mechs!