max1975 finally drew that comic book he's been threatening for years

[max1975]

All this work on heads, I seem to have forgotten how to draw bodies. Dammit.

[max1975]

just some stuff.

[max1975]

more stuff

[dCepT]

The guidelines for the head you drew up looks like they're helping you! The faces look a lot less skewed now! Eyes line up all better...

Diggin' the girl with the brow-piercing in the last post! Her chin really stood out as the best part of it IMO... you're really describing form well there!

d-C

[max1975]

Thanks, dC. Was hoping there'd be some improvement

Focus on technique has made my drawing feel really tight lately...tried to loosen up a bit on some of these, while applying some of what I've learned about heads. Also experimenting with more heroic proportions and ridiculous "clothing".

The dude is from a photo I took of myself, the rest are without reference as usual.

[max1975]

towers

[max1975]

Oops. Seem to be developing a backlog again.
Big dump!

[staylor]

Hey, I'm glad to see your stuff again! It looks like there's been a lot of improvement too.

I think you're pretty much headed in the right direction with all the studies, which is awesome (the heads are really good). One thing to remember with coloring pictures is that usually there's a fair amount of interplay between the colors of all the parts of the picture. On the tiger picture the yellow grass is rather divorced from the cool rocks. Maybe some interplay between the two would help.

[max1975]

Staylor: Thanks. Yeah, that painting's just sitting there at the moment waiting to be worked on again as I wish I'd started with a two or three-toned underpainting to unify all the colors. I'll do that next time.

Couple rough sketches for a new character. This girl's a perfect candidate for some wildly impractical fantasy clothing, but I haven't quite decided what form it should take...

[dCepT]

Hey man! Good batch! The tower-enviros are my favorites of the latest stuff! Good lines in 'em
Small-ish crit as well: your shading/rendering in your pencilwork could use some work... I see you're often using strokes that run in only one direction, which kinda makes you loose a bit of form description. Try to make 'em follow the form (I know... generic crit hehe... sorry, dude)

Other than that! Keep rockin'! Stuffs lookin' good!

d-C

[max1975]

dCepT: I can't hatch worth a damn. But I'll work on it.

Workin' on what could be my most successful digital painting in ages...we'll see how it turns out...Trying to decide whether I want blood, more blood, less blood, or maybe just a little blood. Also, the severed head is giving me trouble.

[Ezidof]

i think more blood is cool!the severed head seems to not fit with the rest of the character because it hasnt got the same contrast so it doesnt feel like shes holding it, once you punch in more values in the right place it should feel more whole

[dCepT]

The last one is looking good! I think the amount of blood there is now is cool. The severed head looks a little cut-n-paste on the outer edges, and the details of the face are kinda mushy... try to sharpen up the detailing in the face and making the surrounding edges a bit less in focus... if that made sense... heh... if you're having problems working in the dark tones, paint it brighter and knock it back after

Looks cool, though! Gonna be cool to see it finished!

d-C

[max1975]

Oops, fallin' waaay behind on scanning. Here are some butt and character studies. Digital stuff next time; I've been working on that a lot.

[That fat kid]

Hey Max,

Hell yea, there's a crazy amount of improvement since I last rolled through. Your understanding of form has improved quite a bit. And I think it'd be even better if you took the time to really, really understand line, how to make it convey a sense of space around your figures instead of putting your figures in that static envelope. Let the line change in width, be as sensitive as you can be, follow the form, let the line yield to the way the form bends, getting softer and lighter as it bends towards light or away from you, getting firmer and deeper when it folds underneath or into shadow. Approach it fluidily and forget the result, even forget proportion, just allow your hand to be reactionary to the subject and almost visually make love to it, all slow and sensual like. Eh?

Well, keep on trucking!

~Andrew

[max1975]

Andrew, I have to thank you for what may well be the best prose art lesson I've ever seen. I've had my line critiqued before, but never so colorfully nor, I think, so helpfully.

[Mikko Voipio]

That fat Andrew was right about the line. I would suggest you drawing circles and lines and shit, just something that really doesn't matter if it looks good or not. I think that drawing different types of curved lines etc. is a great way to loosen up your hand and at the same time it trains your hand to hit those contour lines more precisely. One thing that i have found probably the most efficient way to get rid of the too controlled looking line is by drawing with the pencil under my palm. It makes it a lot harder to draw but it also gives a beautiful tonality and shape to the lines once you get a good feeling to the technique. Nice to see that you have been busy with the drawing for I'm am way too lazy to update my SB right now. Maybe when summer comes and I'm not so darned tired all the time.

[max1975]

I owe people so many comments. Will try to do it next week, after the current craziness is over.

What current craziness? Well, I suddenly drew a comic book. I've been wanting to do that for a long time, but I lacked two key ingredients: A script, and a deadline. Finally got those at the end of February, then spent all of March drawing eight hours a day to get it done in time for Pittsburgh's Comicon--which is tomorrow. Eek!

It was kind of exhausting, but I think I learned a lot. Especially about inking (which I really shouldn't have been the one to do, but there was no one else). Anyway...

Key info:
Website: http://cosmichellcats.com
Buy the comic: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/pr...roducts_id=996
Super-expensive (but really nice) version: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/218512

And here's one of my favorite panels from the book, plus some lineart for pinups I did for the super-expensive version.

[fractured1]

Heya Max! Thanks so much for stopping by my SB and leaving a comment. Not sure what made you drift by there, but I am really glad that you did. Thanks for the kind words about my pencil work. I have been busting my chops working on getting my pencils to be better.

Now for the important stuff... Damn! you have been very busy and it shows. you color work is MUCH better and your studies are really starting to pay off. The improvement in this thread from start to most recent is fantastic! I like the towers and enviros you have been doing. Great sense of scale in them. Keep up the great work.

[dCepT]

Thanks for dropping by in my SB! Long time, and you've been keeping busy Lotsa cool stuff going on here! The studies are looking good as always!

I like the Mahyana-piece... would be cool to see that one painted Even though I think it might benefit from redoing the composition a bit... it's very dead on and symmetrical right now..

Cool cat chick pinups

Keep 'on keepin' on!

dC

[max1975]

Sigh. You know it's been too long since you scanned when you can't remember drawing half the stuff you're scanning. I have a lot of catching up to do...there's some cool stuff I wanted to post that i can't even find.

For anyone who wants to see what I'm up to more than, what, once a year? I've been drawing Cosmic Hellcat Adventures, which updates twice a week and can be found here http://cosmichellcats.com. It's a lot cartoonier than what you find here but I'm having fun with it and I think all the work I'm doing on it is actually improving my other skills, though I have little idea why.

So here are a bunch of sketches from the past year plus a current WIP which if all goes according to plan will be finished and posted here in the very near future. But nothing ever goes according to plan. I'm in a situation with this girl where the longer it takes me to decide what kinda clothes to put on her, the more likely she's just gonna end up naked.

[max1975]

Notes to self on the eve of a new Cosmic Hellcat Adventure.

[dCepT]

Looks like a very good start on the nude chick and the bridge in the background! More on that one, please

There's something weird goin' on with the Hellcat thigh... looks bent... maybe a couple of lines to define the knee could work? And a drop shadow that curves around the form of the thigh from the skirt could push the form more?

dC

[max1975]

dcept: Yeah, the leg does look off. Adding knee lines might help, but I think I simplified the rendering where I should have simplified the anatomy, and bulged where I should have pinched. The skirt shadow is a good idea, I'll try it out on the next one.

The painting is on hold while I do an insane amount of Hellcats design but I hope to get back to it soon.

[Zebz]

Lookin' cool! It doesn't really feel like you're expressing much of the forms inside the body very well just yet with those lines. And I'm not reading a lot of emotion or character either. Perhaps some expression would help? My art director at work... well... the work I just got laid off from... heh... well, she draws a lot of cats in her free time too. You might have a look. She's pretty awesome at it! http://lackadaisycats.com/

[max1975]

zebz: heh, love the new avatar

So these are for a comic strip, and for technical reasons lines are all I really have to work with. It would be good though if I could maximize the amount of form I convey with just the line. I'll keep working on it.

As far as the personality/character, these are kinda model sheets so intentionally drawn with fairly neutral poses and expressions. Maybe this one's better?

[dCepT]

Definately shows off more character that way If the goal of the concept is to show who these cats are, I'd say go for expressions and whatnot.. makes 'em a lot more.. alive

dC

[max1975]

Scratching a transformers itch.

[dCepT]

Oooh! The cleaned up version at the bottom of the post is lookin hella nice! Good job on the thumbs/roughs as well!

Gonna color it up? Would be awesome!

dC

[max1975]

Actually I think I'll color it twice...once with traditional comic book inking and once as a (hopefully) photorealistic digital thing...here's my WIP of the latter (the shading won't make any sense yet, I'm still working on color separations)...man, this process takes forever but the results should be pretty cool.

EDIT: Maybe I'll periodically update this as I go...it'd be nice to have a record of the stages...