Steph's Brain Farts (NSFW): 11/17 - Creatures and CTN

[Grafixsuz]

I really like your versatility with changing between different styles. Great work! I mistakenly came across this site from a search for jumping monkeys (for a book I'm illustrating) of all things and this sketchbook link came up and found little about monkeys but found these awesome sketches. As you can see this is my first post, I just thought I should tell you how great I think your work is! Totally Awesome

P.S. I currently have 2 family members with Alzheimer's, both well along in years, but I have to agree watching them now compared to what they used to is quite challenging. You have my understanding and sympathy.

[Brendan N]

Hey Steph, really sorry to hear about your loss .

The image you have there is very emotive, very well done. I like how your flat colour planes still have that bit of texture. They still read flat, but that small amount of texture just activates the whole thing.

Thanks for sharing, *hugs*

[Badger]

Sorry to hear about your loss Steph. I really like the feeling of movement in the sepia doodles, i think i'm going to have to study them a bit more.
-B-

[JellevdVegt]

love your stuff!!!! last piece is very well... my grandma also pasted away couple of months ago, also had alzheimer... so i know how you feel.

plz come check my sketchbook for some help

[Seedling]

Steph, the drawing of your grandmother is touching and eerie. I am sorry to hear that she suffered from Alzheimer's for so long. Keep those happy memories going.

[DavidCousens]

Hey Steph, sorry to hear about this, glad to see you can still remember the good times though. Take care

[Steph Laberis]

Emily: *hugs* thank you hon. It's tough to post personal work here, there's a definite "pro" vibe here that conflicts with stuff like this. At least to me, anyway.

Carnifex: Thank you for your empathy. It's hard to watch and worse for the people afflicted with it.

Grafix: I'm honored that my artwork brought you out of lurking here - can you start up a sketchbook thread so I can return the comment to you.? Thank you very much for your condolences as well.

Brendan: *hugs* I'm glad the piece stirs a reaction in you. Thanks so much for looking and sharing.

Badger: Miss you hon. I'm glad you like the sepia doodles, they were created in a really lighthearted moment

Teh Gosu: I'm so sorry to hear. Thank you for sharing and understanding.

Seedling: Thank you hon. I'm going to pay homage my Grandmother by making a batch of corton, which is this awesome French pork spread she used to make for us as kids. It sounds gross and looks like dogfood. But them's good eatin's

Dave: Thanks dude. I hope you're holding down the fort OK with your big project

So, not a lot to report, except that I have started playing with web layouts again and that I've reached 2 options that I'm liking. I worry that I am pigeon-holing myself into a cutesy, childish image, but hopefully the icons will help defy that image. I just want the site to be memorable, clear as all hell and simple.





And for your monthly dose of personal work...



This isn't the end of the story of course, more of a recurring theme. There will be future installments (I hope).

[bhanu]

aww teh site is so very much visiitable and homely.Its cute, but it could be mroe cozy , by I dont mean childish , funny , just more homely.

[Brendan N]

Hey Steph, awesome stuff!

The web designs are looking great! Think the first one is better, better colour harmony. Second is great too, though I'm not sure if the green is working - maybe a yellow instead? Dunno, maybe its just because I'm not a fan of green.

Haha, the comic made me laugh a little. Meh, you have my sympathy and empathy, for what it's worth .

cheers!

[BohemianChaos]

Dar... I've seen you all over the girlie forums, plus I'm familiar (ish) with your work/style... so I don't know why the crap I haven't been to this sb before!! Loving your stuff, from the little cartoons/renditions of yourself to the touching image of your late grandmother. Great.

Oh, and I the pug fishies... have you made those stickers yet?? I have some friends who love pugs, and I'd totally buy some.

Were you at the San Fran workshop in December, by chance?

~Boho

[Steph Laberis]

Bhanu: I'm glad you're responding well to the layouts! I think I am gonna move forward with the PugFish layout, perhaps tweak the palettes a bit.

Brendan: Thanks! There seems to be a pretty unanimous vote for the PugFish layout thus far, so I will tighten that one up. And no need for sympathies hon - I'm just trying to get some thoughts on paper is all Glad you managed a laugh though, it was meant to be a little light-hearted.

Bohemian: Thanks for stopping in! I am almost out of stickers but I have plenty of buttons. If you PM me a shipping address I will gladly send you a set. And yes, I was at the workshop but I was sort of laying low - I'm not in any known pics and sort of lurked about. If you saw a chick in a black pea coat with a brown cap, it was me

I forgot to upload this yesterday - I have had this idea tickling the back of my head for a while to draw up my brother and I in the style of Foster's Home, with our childhood imaginary friend, Anchiwa Wontopeteeka. I need to get ahold of some more reference (mainly clothing ref, we were true children of the 80's!) but I plan on vectoring up a scene that totally mooches off of the style of the show. You know, another shits n' giggles project.

[joelhinxman]

haha i love your stuff. i like the pug fish one. i love how hes looking at the hook like wtf. i think it would be funny if there was something on the hook looking at him like wtf. there is something about it that makes me think of shag tho.
i love the drawing of you brother with his socks half on(i remeber my parents bugging me about that). he looks like hes trying to intimadate someone.

[Darktwin]

Pugfish all the way, thanks for refering the better game design book in the lounge I really I'm more than halfway through it, and I have to say it is a really interesting read. sorry to hear about grandmother, I really like the portrait of her.

Cheers,

[lefran]

ah the imaginary friend idea is so cool!
personally i like the first web layout, hopefully im gonna buy my domain name tomorrow! =D
oh, and hopefully you should get your parcel pretty soon

cool stuff again steph
Fran

[Carnifex]

ah,can't wait for more sketches of this,foster's rocks!

[TacticallyWacked]

I love your bird sketches on page 1! Necks are a fun thing to draw in animals and it helps to be loose like you have shown. Very inspirational for me thanks for sharing!

[0kelvin]

I'm sure I've said it before, but I really love your personal work Steph. It's honest and sad, but your sense of humour and style keeps it from crossing over into cheesy and emo. We don't see nearly enough of that kind of stuff around here.

I love the pugfish layout for your site. I'd definitely go in that direction.

The Foster's inspired image is great too. Can't wait to see it vectorized!



Eric

[Steph Laberis]

Joel: Thanks man! The hook ended up staying empty... even though it makes no sense to fish without bait, I was too in love with the silhouette to put something on there And LOL about the socks! My parents always always nagged my brother about it too, it was those damn tube socks from the late 70's.

Dark: Hey, when are we gonna do sketchcrawl again? Anyhoo, I'm so glad you are into the book, it's a little clinical at times but worth it to snap up those little details about character design. And thank you very much for the condolences for my Grandma.

Fran: You're in luck, I went with PugFish Though I admit I was slowed down on the website because of a certain sugar induced coma... I'm mailing your package first thing next week!

Carnifex: Thanks! It's a little low on the list of things to draw but then, who knows when the right hour will pop up at work ^_~

Tactic: Thank you! Birds are ridiculously fun to draw, still haven't figured out why. Thanks so much for commenting!

0kelvin: Should I just call you Eric from now on? I hate using forum names when I know the person well... anyway, thank you, knowing that you're being affected by my more personal stuff is always encouraging and comforting to me. Makes me wanna post more stuff with soul to it

...but this post is soul-less. Kinda, it just involves stuff I did for work back in 2005. I only just got permission to post some work from Soup 2 Nuts so I figure I'll send out a little teaser here.





You might have seen these in my flatbook at a workshop or remember the sketches of these ladies a few pages back. They were actually my first characters that I ever created in Illustrator and they took me ages to do the simplest functions X__x

And finally, this is the look I decided upon for my site. Thank you so much to all who offered feedback!

[Brendan N]

Hey Steph, wonderful vector work as usual - also love the drawings from your previous post.

You site is looking wonderful so far, but I can level a crit at it. The text in the little window isn't working for you - it's too heavy and feels too formal in comparison to the rest. It's looks like you're using Arial Bold or Helvetica Bold - they have a very corporate feel to them. Think you should try something lighter, more friendly - perhaps Gill Sans, Futura or even a Century Gothic. These fonts read as more friendly for various design reasons - think they will aid the feel your design and maintain the readability you already have.

I'm being nit picky I know, but I don't think your font is helping your design right now. Other than that I have nothing to crit - great job!

cheers!

[Onir]

whoa you did stuff for soup 2 nuts?! haha that's a place I'll probably look for an internship at next year great stuff as always Steph, haven't stopped by in a while but always happy to see new things. love the gesture in all of your drawings, such a nice liveliness to em. your site is looking nice as well, the paper texture works well in my opinion. really don't know enough about design or typography to help in that area, but yea looks good!

keep up the good work!

[Steph Laberis]

Brendan: Dude, thank you so much for some GD advice! I haven't tried out the fonts you suggested yet, but I agree that the arial looks a little clinical. I did use arial rounded for "the art of steph laberis" bit so I thought I could play on that, but I will try out a few things to see what works. Nothing is set in stone just yet so I might as well.

Onir: Yup! If you're looking to intern there, shoot me a PM. I'll give you some contact info, I still keep in touch with my old director and producer. The current production is apparently really fun to work on, from what I am hearing.

So, I figured I would add s'more work I did at Soup. This is for a PBS series - the interstitials have already aired, so here be some of the characters I did for them!

Yup, that man has a meat arsenal. Doesn't everyone?

[nonie]

Ha! I love the meat dude's ammo belt of sausages

[jubjubjedi]

I do so love the Meat Warrior...

[johanson]

Damn, I'm a little behind. Just wanted to drop in and say that the new look you're making for your site looks rad. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing up and running.
- ex-roomdawg

[0kelvin]

0kelvin: Should I just call you Eric from now on? I hate using forum names when I know the person well...

By all means!


Eric

[Steph Laberis]

Nonie: Everyone loves a strong sausage arsenal I miss you hon, I need to head to the city in the next couple weeks before I have a stress breakdown X_x

Jubjub: Thanks dude!

Johanson: Well thank you, Mr. Groom-face! I'm sorry I can't see you this weekend, but my love goes out to you and The Jen Johanson on this special day of days. Check your mail when you get back

Eric:

So, a big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to crit my pin-up. I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to put all of your good advice to work just yet, but I will definitely tinker with those ideas before this goes to print in the folio.

The rest of the stuff is the usual mind farts, although I used *actual* markers for a change and forgot how rad they are. Looks like I better stock up, since my copics went dry after like, 10 pages of sketching O__o

Thank you as always for looking guys, means a lot to me







Oh and to all it might apply to, happy Pride Week!

[Brendan N]

Hey Steph!

Something doesn't want me to reply here - this'll be the fourth-and-a-half time I try to make the same post haha.
Cool stuff happening here! I really dig these:
http://flyingclam.com/casketches/doodles.jpg
especially the colours - the desaturated tones still come across as light hearted but also mature. Digging the shapes too - very easy on the eye but still interesting enough to hold the viewer's attention.
Also liking the World Girl characters - I like characters with personality and not just a bunch of gimmicks pasted on them.

Gave you my thoughts on the nymphs in FF - they rock!

Also, swung by your site - the new font is really doing it for you - is it Gill Sans? Looks terrific, can't wait to see the site up and running.
Keep rocking!

cheers!

[Jester_retseJ]

love ur work, a lot

[Carnifex]

that pony expression made my day. still laughing
finished piece is very nice aswell,but i think i already told you somewhere else...

[sketchling]

hehe. cute as usual, but I really like that last one. You get a lovely sence of emotion in your characters. Its inspiring, thank you Ya put a smile on my face