The Art of Eric

[arteric]

Hello.

I am brand new to this forum yesterday. In fact, I am brand new to ANY forum yesterday. I hope I am doing all of this correctly. I thought I might take a moment to introduce myself by way of some artwork, and quite frankly, I just wanted to see if I could figure out how to post some images in the first place.

Critiques are always appreciated, and I will try my utmost to return the favor. I really look forward to spending a lot of time here and meeting other artists. Looking at work is always a great way to get motivated to do your own. Best of luck.... to ALL of us.









-Eric

[Kresh]

WoW thats all I can say for now. I really like your work. Are you a professional? If not you should be.

[RobHughes]

Nice clean art. You should be encouraged. For a newbie you already have a style and the skills to render well. I'm new here myself and there's so much to see and learn. I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing more of your work soon.

Rob Hughes

[arteric]

Thanks for the comments (all BOTH of you so far)! I appreciate people looking at the work. I have a number of internet-ready images and will post more soon if the comments in this thread are favorable.

Plus, let me know if you have any images anywhere, I would love to see them.

Eric

[Needlelhead Puppet]

Hi,

your work shows your good lineunderstanding. Very clear, although its for me a bit too clear but thats your style and its very good. very clear coloring.
The pencilwork is very nice...good linework to!

Do you have some more, please?

[arteric]

here are a series of fantasy greeting cards I worked on. Pen and ink images colored in photoshop. Would love to get some more input on these... (who wouldn't?)









All of these ended up being printed. One was far more successful that the others.... can you guess which one?

Eric

[dogfood]

Well designed and very stylistic. As a big fan of subtlety and juxtaposition, I especially like the dragon shadow piece; such an idyllic scene, so much danger just missed.

[Kresh]

Hehe great greeting cards. I like em all.

Have you ever considered using hard edged brushes in photoshop?
I would love to see what your work would end up like if you used em.

By the way you asked where my other artwork is.....recent.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36694

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36774

[arteric]

All of the colored pieces below were colored in photoshop using the airbrush feature. (Also, the were done WITHOUT the aid of a drawing tablet, so they were a pain in the arse.) I am upgrading my computer soon and getting the most recent version of Painter and a drawing tablet. Very shortly you will start seeing work that is more "painterly".

I did a lot of oil paintings in college, and I have worked with the program Painter when I downloaded a trail version for practice (and thought it was great) so all of this will come together and the level of my posts will hopefully improve in both frequency and quality.

-Eric

[Vallera]

These are great, I really like the colors you use, the cards are fantastic! Id really like to see more,
Keep posting

[arteric]

I am making the plunge and buying myself a g5 with a drawing tablet and painter so I can get more free with my art style and try a more paiterly effect to the work. (Right now I almost entirely use the airbrush in photoshop.) I should have the machine soon, and once I am up to speed... expect weekly (if not daily) posts and additions with lots of work coming through.

Also, I admit it, I wanted to add to this thread so that I could bump it back up in the list to a more current status and get more people to see my work. Please, if you haven't all ready had the chance, drop me a few critiques and comments... if you have work online youself I will be more than happy to return the favor.

Keep Drawing!

Eric

[arteric]

Just taking a brief moment to update this for anyone interested in seeing some more work.

These were two items I made for other threads in here, but I figured I can keep them with the rest of my online art here as a sort of digital portfolio.

As always, critiques are more than welcome.

-Eric

[arteric]

Here is the newest image I drew for the Creature of the Week post... the topic was Venomous Bird, below is the concept story behind it.

In the waning years of World War II, Hitler’s desperation for world domination led him to give free reign to his scientists in an effort to create the ultimate weapon that could crush the Allied Forces. After a long trial-and-error process using various machines, guns and missiles, the scientists struck upon the idea of combining genetic engineering with their chemical weapons program. Their hope was that they would breed and organic delivery system that would send the deadly agents directly into the Allied front lines decimating as many soldiers as possible while, at the same time, spreading fear amongst them and demoralizing their leaders. Thus the “ Falke von Brennend Dea” (roughly translated into “Burning Death Falcon” was born.

The “Burning Death Falcon” (singularly named although it contained 22 bird species spliced together including Toucan, Owl and Vulture) was also bred to withstand being pumped to near bursting with many types of corrosive acids. It was unveiled to the German elite and set loose upon the world in a grand ceremony on January 18, 1944. The ceremony would turn into a slaughter when the birds immediately turned on and destroyed the viewing audience, killing over 300 scientists, officers and politicians. It was not until years later that the cause was determined... during the splicing process, German scientist accidently used too much homing pigeon DNA.

Below: The “Burning Death Falcon” seen here with handler.

[arteric]

Below is the entry I made to the C.O.W. week three "Anal Parasite" thread. The story behind the art is as follows:

The Vermis Undisonus, or Surge Worm, has been nicknamed the “Puppeteer Parasite” by the scientific community due to the unique nature of it’s parasitic invasion. It’s enormous size at adulthood (larger specimens have reached 25 feet in length and a weight of nearly 1 ton) make it one of those rare parasites that remain outside of it’s host during the feeding cycle. The Surge Worm has no developed digestive system of its own, and has evolved an interesting way of getting it’s food supply. The worm has three elongated upper appendages that invade a host through the rectum. Over a period of 24 to 48 hours, the worm not only infiltrates the full length of the digestive tract, it also extends a secondary tubular feeler that embeds into the hosts spinal column. Through thousands of small synaptic tentacles, the “Puppeteer” takes over control of the hosts nervous system. While not capable of absolute control, the “Puppeteer” can manipulate all major appendages as well as the chewing and swallowing functions of it’s various hosts, and render them unable to resist or attempt escape. It can then force the host to ingest food which it absorbs after the material has been digested by it’s new “external stomach”. The Surge Worm can live off an individual host for varying lengths of time depending on it’s size and capacity for food consumption.

One recorded case of human contact involves German biologist Otto Weldkampt. In August of 1989, Mr. Weldkampt disappeared from a survey team exploring a remote Central American mountain range. Ten months later, and 60 miles away, construction workers digging the foundation on a new resort uncovered a Surge Worm’s lair, and found Mr. Weldkampt in the “Puppeteer’s” grip being used as a host. The workers killed the creature and rushed the biologist to a medical facility where he passed away forty-eight hours later due to massive internal injuries, extreme malnutrition and dehydration. Before his passing, a translator speaking to Mr. Weldkampt was able to determine that he had spent the full 10 months in the Surge Worm’s grip. Although unable to control his own body, he was completely aware during the entire infestation. An experience that had not only left him physically devastated, but completely insane as well.

[arteric]

Here was my Creature of the Week Entry for C.O.W. Week 5 - Symbiotic Predators". The story is as follows:

The Rue Ox and the Thayllich

The Freelantus Plains are a harsh environment, plentiful in wildlife but also full of vegetation poisonous to most of it's inhabitants. Here, carnivorous predators rule and the Rolankus is near the top of that food chain. A strong, lean and quick predator well suited for it's environment, the Rolankus is a near perfect specimen.

However, a sudden evolutionary offshoot of the Rolankus, known as the Rue Ox, was almost certainly destined to be a genetic dead end. Unlike it's cousin, the mutated Rue Ox was massively sized and covered in heavily armored bony plates. The Rue Ox was a slower, plodding creature and though nearly unstoppable, it could not keep up with the faster mammalian creatures around it. With the addition of poor eyesight as a result of it's rapid genetic changes, certain extinction seemed near.

Then, an unusual relationship formed between the Rue Ox and the Thayllich, a small, bat-like creature with bioluminescent sacs used for attracting a mate. The Thayllich, though quick, had few places to hide and was low on the food chain at the time, that is until it started using the Rue Ox as a home.

The Thayllich began to burrow into the the Rue Ox's enormous back which, having no nerve endings there, seemed hardly aware of it's new neighbors. The Thayllich had stumbled across a mobile, heavily defended dwelling and was now protected from it's attackers. This, however, ended up being as beneficial to the Rue Ox who was suddenly saved by the Thayllich's unique diet.

The Thayllich's saliva contains a neurotoxin that will render it's prey unconscious. The Thayllich drinks fluids out of the spinal column of it's meal, but leaves the creature alive. Several hours later the prey would normally wake up with a massive headache but otherwise unharmed... that is no longer the case. The Rue Ox, able to see the bright bioluminescence of feeding Thayllichs even with it's poor eyesight, now finds ready-made meals lying about the Plains. The Rue Ox protects the Thayllichs, and they in turn prepare meals for the Rue Ox which was not well suited for catching food on it's own.

The Rue Ox and the Thayllich are now the most effective hunting combination on the Freelantus Plains, and both are living quite well.




And here are a few close ups of some of the details and lighting.

[arteric]

Here is my entry for the Creature of the Week - C.O.W. Week 6 - Digger Creature.

[Skulldog]

That last one, great. I'm not one to just praise and not help offer some advice, but that's just wonderful.

[arteric]

This piece never made it into the voting, I wasn't able to complete it on time and get it in, so I dabled with it for another 3 or 4 days and came up with this. No story here, I think in explains itself pretty well.

Enjoy...

[OxCreative]

wow, i really like the C.O.W wek 6 pic coming out of the page. How did you distort the text as if it has been torn??

[JokingClown]

Wow, I really love your imagination. Im serious, you have more imagination in some of these pictures then most other pictures on this or any website. Your drawing ability is good too, but your creativity is just awesome.

I love the raw emotion of the orc thing in the guillotine with the small boy, although I think the piece should have more to it.

I actually think the boy should be completely redone to get the highest level of cuteness possible. He looks a little adultish. big hands and feet. Actually, I think a little girl might even contrast more.

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I love the concept of the monster ripping through the computer. Kick ass. Although, personally, I think a more life like monster would have been better, and made it more realistic. I mean, the monster is quite cool, I just think a realistic looking one fits the idea better. Personal opinion.

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You might want to work on anatomy more, even though you work mainly in cartoony figures. I think thats somewhat of a weakness that shows a little on some pieces.

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You have a wonderful imagination, and an amazing eye for lighting and lines. keep it up, im jealous.

[JERI]

your compostions rock!!

[look]

Your pieces are so creative! Especially love that digging creature. It really cracks me up.

[arteric]

Hello there.

Well, I don't know what happened in the last two days but I got an influx of several new viewers. Thanks to all who took the time to look over my stuff and comment on the posts. In response...

look: Thank you, I try. Most of the comments I get seem to focus on my creativity, so I must be doing something right. Now if only I can get my art up to the same level, maybe I can get somewhere! Thank you for the positive feed back though, I appreciate it.

JERI: Thanks for positive comments, you are too kind! Rock, huh? No one has said that yet, so you are the first.

JokingClown: Thanks! I agree with pretty much everything you said. The Orc in the guillotine SHOULD have more to it. I wanted to create a whole "small european village" look washed out in the back, but due to time constraints and the due date for that weeks contest I didn't. Of couse, I still have the layered photoshop file, so it is something I will probably do when I get the time.

The boy could be even cuter, and you are right, the hands/feet are too big... that is the cartoonist in me always exaggerating too much and not seeing it until later. A little girl? Great idea, and no one had suggested that yet.

Yeah, the moster was the weakest part of the "digging through the computer screen" image. Another time limitation thing. There is more detail to the image than what shows, but it was lost due to my resizing it down to match the size/resolution of an average post. For example, there are small red veins all over the creature that you can barely make out in the posted version. I had other ideas for the moster later, but of course, they always come to you when you are almost finished.

As for anatomy studies, I am trying... below are a few newly posted images. They show a departure from more "cartoon" looks closer to a comic book style. Believe me, I am ALWAYS trying to make my forms look better... but it is good to know others see the same areas that need improvement that I do, thanks for the comments.

J2XA: To create this image I drew the ripped hole (with the boards and pipes) and the moster as two separate pencil sketches and scanned them in. I colored bother images and merged them in photoshop.

Then, I came to conceptart.org and typed in the text for the post and actually posted it temporarily in this thread. I then took a screen capture of the whole window and brought that into photoshop to give me the proper pixel dimensions fo the final image. (Note, I am on a mac, and my default text is different than some, so that is why the text in the image may differ from the actual text in any other posts you look at, but they were similar enough to make the concept work.)

I then merged all of the elements together and resized them at screen resolution (72 dpi). I made selections around areas of the text where the wrinkles met, or near the edges of the tear and used the distort features in photoshop to skew the text slightly to make it look like it was moving along a rumbled surface. Final lighting touch ups and a screen capture of the actual code behind conceptart.org to fill the hole completed the image.

That's all for now, below are some newly posted pencil sketches for your enjoyment. The two Wizard covers were entries I made in the Draw the Cover contest for Wizard Magazine... they are Red Monika from Battle Chasers and Lady Death (in the cemetery, of course.) Enjoy

[ChaosEidolon]

THATS BLOODY BRIALLANT! seriously...

[arteric]

Thanks ChaosEidolon. Seems like my Digger Creature is a big hit... if only more people had voted for it (sigh).

I guess I now have my standard that I am going to try and top each time I post a new submission.

For those of you who don't know about it, check out the Creature of the Week posts under Community Activities. It is one of the best Ongoing threads out there.

-Eric

[sodomizer]

Hey Arteric... pretty nice line work, i must say. The only thing that is really giving you hell in my opinion is your color work.

Its very saturated, and harsh on the eyes (in some pieces) its more successful in others. I'd like to see you paint more opaque, and with harder edged brushes to start, then get softer when you lay down accents. Maybe consider taking out your sketch layer once you've colored the piece and refine it, so it doesn't look as sketchy.

[JokingClown]

I dig the wizard covers alot, they look very cool. The first two posted images have some problems though, especially the girl.

1 - her bicep area is very thin
2/3 - Her whol arm is thin, and her elbow should be lower (or posibly he forearm higher) and if you look right below the bracelet, there is skin (i think) that curves off and it looks like flab or something.
4/5 - her belt should be lower and something is wrong with her legs. I could figure it out if i drew her naked or bones but.. meh. im lazy.
6 - the head is too small.
7 - the breast on our right is wider across then the other, too much for the perspective.

I think in general she is kinda annorexic which could be causing the wierdness.



you are attacking a really hard angle here i think, which is good.
1 - The head is too small.
2 - He needs more of a forearm.
3 - his right (our left) leg doesnt seem the match up with the beggining of the leg before the arm. ignore the lines i drew drawing the foot. His foot is out at a very bowlegged position like a cowboy, it should be facing a little more front closer to how the closest leg is faced.



maybe if you quickly sketch the body out naked in the position you want it you can avoid alot of these problems. tlike the bracelest thing, the girls waist and the prirates leg.

I think sometimes the clothes covers up to anatomical problems at its hard to see what you did wrong.

Anyways, i hope i wasnt too harsh, i know i used that read ink liberally :|

[sodomizer]

Nice lookin out JokingClown. You might want to take his suggestions Arteric, they're very beneficial.

[arteric]

First off, I never thought I would be thanking a Sodomizer.

2nd, thanks Joking for all the time you took. The critiques really did help and make me look at the art in a different light that is for sure.

As for the girl, she did turn out pretty annorexic looking, maybe because I was kind of thinking of someone I know while I was drawing it, and SHE is pretty annorexic looking now that I think about it. All of your comments seem spot on, good eye. (As for the flab by the wrist under the "bracelet", that is actually a glove with a wide bumpy edge, but it DOES look like part of her hand and not glove-like.... so again you helped point out something I couldn't see.)

More work to do, more practicing and more drawing.

Sodomizer: The color is pretty bright, mostly on the older pieces, as I work more and more I am becomming more subtle. The colors on the 4 dragon-type greeting cards is REALLY harsh, but they are bad web images and the actual images are richer and not as washed out.

I am just getting into using various brushes in my color work (and NOT just the airbrush) so things will start having a more painterly appearance. And I just got my drawing tablet TODAY (Woo-hoo!) so you should start seeing better painting styles shortly. Thanks for the tips.

Eric

[arteric]

The Boralus (bore-al-us) or “Light Bringer” (AKA: Eater of Vampires)

The Boralus is a powerful and high level elemental demon that enters the physical plain as a being of energy and light. Since it is of unknown alignment, no know rituals for summoning the being exist, and their arrivals are entirely unpredictable.

Mostly amorphous by nature, the Boralus seems to be able to control it’s shape at will creating appendages as needed to deal with it’s environment. However, certain aspects of it’s appearance are always the same including the flowing, tattered, red hooded cloak that sits atop its form, and a unique mask that floats where one would assume it’s face to be. Since the Boralus has no face or even features resembling one, the purpose of the mask is unknown and unfathomable.

The energy emitted by the Boralus has been said to melt through metal doors and stone walls, and the light they produce banishes any darkness for hundreds of yards. Most interesting about the creature is that it’s light seems to have the same impact on vampires as that of true sunlight. Many times Boralus have been known to attack these undead creatures, burning them to near cinders and then consuming the remains and any energies they contain. No one is sure why the Boralus does this, but rumors range from there being a centuries-old war between them to the belief that the Light Bringer is the soul of a vampire victim come to claim it’s revenge.

Below: A villager enters a tomb to stake a vampire occupant only to discover that a Boralus has all ready begun to consume the monster.