Fin - 1 APR 11 - x1

**fionkell** · June 10th, 2010, 05:48 AM

Myoooozik! UNKLE.

Another small update, face studies!

**fionkell** · June 16th, 2010, 09:25 PM

Music for today: Bear McCreary's work for Battlestar Galactica is so diverse and varied.

Working on some Red Dragons at the moment, you'll see them soon.
Some more from the sketchbook, I can't seem to concentrate of late. Jumping around all over the place.

**vatteh** · June 16th, 2010, 10:42 PM

The face studies in post 391 were nicely textured. Just keep on sketching.

**HunterKiller_** · June 16th, 2010, 10:56 PM

Thanks for the encouragement, mate. Appreciate it heaps.

On the greyscale portraits, I reckon you could afford to use some strong highlights, just a little bit of speculars, on the nose for example, or brow ridge, eyeballs, lips.

The monster in the last post has a really cool head, please do something with it!

P.S. Stop drawing so many Halo stuff.

**MattGamer** · June 17th, 2010, 03:05 PM

haha@hunterkiller post. you should draw what you love. :] if you love halo draw it. if you love titties draw them. when you draw always for others pleasure (unless it's for money to get by), then you lose a part of yourself that you can't get back. and drawing doesn't become fun anymore. but when you draw for yourself and want to constantly improve, then you won't care what others think.

loving the portraits. the more you do the better you get!!! go go go :]

**fionkell** · June 17th, 2010, 09:30 PM

vatteh thanks! I am currently working on some more of those.
Hunter the muse does what it does, and if that's soldierblokes in armour...

Monsterface is going to become a character design heh heh.
Matt yeah it's weird the things you become attached to. I'm not even that big a Halo player but there's something interesting there. Maybe I should invade the portraits thread in the Lounge again.

Music for today: Pelican! Instrumental, kind-of metal but more...land/mindscapey? I don't know, they're just great to put on in the background and work to.

For CGHub's Drawing Jam 33: Bad, bad puppies. Starter rough sketch, progress to be posted later:

**MattGamer** · June 18th, 2010, 02:40 PM

watchout on that doggies anatomy. the front bones by the rib cage look faked. though the back look good. it's not bad to use reference to help you in these situations. reference is your greatest friend! i like the doggies face. ;]

**Brendan N** · June 21st, 2010, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by fionkell

Muzak first - something a bit older (for me haha).

More of the same, painting over and under earlier sketches from reference. I spent a bit more time on these than the last few.

At The Drive In? You into Mars Volta as well? Fans are few and far between here in SA, but I hear they've got quite the following Down Under - ? If that's true, I might be emigrating soon purely to catch a live show in the future>

Dig the painting on the bird - good complementaries. Linework on the alien with nostrils but no claws is great too, but the face studies are stealing the show - wonderful job on letting your hatching inform your brushwork.

On the bad puppy - canines with such an imposing and zealous upper body usually have a sloping back and shorter hind-legs. Hide the head on this one and it starts to look like an anorexic diary cow

I'll be back once you post a Mars Volta music-vid>

**fionkell** · June 21st, 2010, 10:11 PM

Brendan: Cheers. Funny thing is I couldn't get into The Mars Volta. I'm not sure why, but they just never did anything for me even after a couple of listens.
lol anorexic cow. I'm working off a mishmash of doberman and greyhound references and they are quite lean, long-limbed, very deep-chested dogs.

This one is supposed to be slightly turned away from the viewer but maybe I need to emphasise that more. His butt area needs to slope down a bit more though as he looks like he's tipping forward heh heh heh.

matt: no ribs there, that's why

was trying to get the overlapping fascia appearance but erased most of it out. I'm currently painting it up in Photoshop so update is to follow!

**fionkell** · June 21st, 2010, 11:09 PM

Edit: forgot the music!

Some Dillinger for you folks - Phone Home

Here we go, ugly stage part one. Figured I would post this first to show before I get back to work on it today, a basic setup really.

**LisandroG** · June 21st, 2010, 11:30 PM

Right now the only thing describing to me why this dog is a "bad bad puppy" is the head...think about body language! All 4 of his legs don't have to be stiff and touching the ground, perhaps he could be prowling or in a semi-crouched position..who knows! Anything you can do to make it a mores interesting image will ultimately result in a more successful piece. My 2 cents...

BTW Pelican is a great band, I really like the song "Final Breath". Check out the band Russian Circles, they are also very good :]

**LAL** · June 21st, 2010, 11:37 PM

I like that bird very much ,good works!You will become very strong!

**oren90** · June 22nd, 2010, 02:18 AM

cool studies

**fionkell** · June 22nd, 2010, 07:02 AM

Thanks LAL and oren

LisandroG, you were right. Messed about with it some more today and changed a few things:

There is a still a fair way to go but I think it might be heading in the right direction...need to take a break from it for tonight.

**Brendan N** · June 22nd, 2010, 05:39 PM

Cool, I see what you're going for and this last one is definitely on the right track - ignore my comments of the sloping back - this looks badass.

I would say drop the camera to the ground to make it more intense, but then you'd lose the idea that's he's turning away from the viewer; instead, maybe try this: extend your canvas size so that it becomes portrait format. Then add more vertical lines to the background - this will help to instill energy into the composition; The intersection of these vertical lines with the puppy's horizontal back/spine should create loads of visual tension. More impact and more bad.

But, I confess, I look through the cross-bred cross-eyes that can only belong to the bastard offspring of an illustrator, a graphic designer and a bat. Help yourself to large, nauseating portions of coarse sea salt when considering my crits>

**Nenad** · June 22nd, 2010, 05:56 PM

Wow, very rich and beautiful sketchbook, I admire you, keep up!

**Mag-Neo** · June 23rd, 2010, 12:21 AM

---Wonderful sketches you've done here. Good luck & keep more & more creating, mate... ';D
---/btw: sorry about my poor English..........................

**fionkell** · June 23rd, 2010, 11:12 PM

Music - WALL-E had another great score by Thomas Newman, it's one of my favourites. Track 29:

Thanks guys. Going to work on this a bit more in landscape format but toward the end I'll see how it goes with your idea Brendan.

**HunterKiller_** · June 24th, 2010, 02:24 AM

Hey bra. I was just taking the piss about the Halo thing, you know that right?

I've got this photo of a mangled dog that you might find appropriate. Come on MSN sometime and I'll send it to ya.

I can see the effect you're going for with the dribble but the curvature looks a bit weird to me composition-wise because it's imposed over the vertical background line.
That's just me though and I don't know shit about composition.

**fionkell** · June 24th, 2010, 02:53 AM

Mangled dog? You know me so well!

Heh I know you were kiddin'.

Ready to call this done before I get sick of it (if not I'll just keep tinkering and tinkering and...)! So it's been submitted to the Drawing Jam, which by the way has some great entries going in it so far. So go check 'em out toooo

Augh back to humans and their slightly more familar anatomy now!

**fionkell** · June 28th, 2010, 12:10 AM

Music: Cave In! These guys have a real range, if you're familiar with their work. Great to work to.

Thudding in here before I scan my sketchbook pages, I've been attacking people in the "Draw from the what do you look like thread" thread in the lounge again.