Gnoll's Stuff *UPDATE 01/04* hippo rider, creepy mama, spaceships and more!

[shockowaffel]

These latest sketches are really neat.
The color and the blurry edges adds a really nice touch.

[p sage]

What you wanna bet AustenFM loves this one?

(Tis pretty cool). Great update. Congrats on the new publish (April '13)

[Danny_K]

awesome! such improvement, gj dude

[witcrack]

Wow! There's just too much great stuffs in here and I won't get enough!
Subscribed and waiting for mooore!

[SpaceJelly]

The robots are great! Also your beastie sketches are pretty damn awesome and creative.

[Chompi'n]

How can I be helpful when u have many amazing pages?
no critics here.. hehe
I see the improvement from the first pages though - but..all strong

[xyphid]

haha, insta-dump is incredibly pretentious but looking great.

[Farvus]

Hey. I think I posted in your sketchbook before but rechecked everything since page one. That's a quite a journey. I still wonder how I totally missed your thread especially when I started posting also somewhere around 2005
Since my last post you started posting tons of comic art and I think the level of refinement and complexity of compositions/storytelling jumped several levels which is totally inspiring. Once in a while I try to do some comic pages but unfortunately the lack of self discipline comes into way and I end up making pointless doodles. Looking at your efforts motivated me to give it another try (though probalby after Bucharest workshop beacause right now I try to refresh my portfolio).

Cheers.

[Sickbrush]

you
me
bucharest
september
PARTY.

[Tofa]

wow your stuff is insane, great work

[midknight523]

great work

[kevin_]

great style! interesting stuff, keep pushing put more!

[TheGnoll]

@shockowaffel: thanks

@p sage: thanks man, i'm really grateful for your constant support.

@Danny_K: thanks!

@witcrack: thanks (and sorry for the long wait)

@SpaceJelly: i love drawing robots! thanks

@Chompi'n: thanks for the kind words!

@xyphid: yeah, probably way to pretentious...

@Farvus: hey Marek!!!!

@Sickbrush: hey dude! good to get a glimpse of you in Bucharest!

@Tofa: thank you!

@midknight523: thanks dude

@kevin_: i'll try!

sorry for the long absence.Looks like a lot of stuff has changed around here since my last visit!

I've been trying to freelance for the last months and it has reduced the time to post (and amount of stuff i can show).

I'm pleased to announce the 2 games i've worked on this summer (MUD: Motocross World Championship" and "WRC 3" by Milestone- x360/ps3) are in stores!
Regardless of the quality of the final games (and my artwork :/) it was really great seeing my work on my tv!

The character portraits i did together with my buddy Lorenzo can be seen at the beginning of this video-
I'll try and post them in the next updates.



Here's the first 12 pages from my 24 page contribution to an italian comic series - "Madadh".
Character designs and script are not mine, and the inking was done by Lorenzo Fornaciari.
I'll post the next 12 pages in the next post.The whole thing was done in around 3 weeks, so 2 pencil pages a day.
Enought excuses, i'm curious to get any kind of feedback on these.

[TheGnoll]

here's the rest:

[bbwolf]

looks awesome. Your style shines through the inks. a very entertaining "read" which really picked my curiosity about the story and all those characters. That bug guy for instance.
The dark lady suiting up is also really cool. Great work mate, great work!!!

[walnut]

Yay! New stuff! I really enjoy the way you're inking and compositing, all very dynamic. The faces you could perhaps still push a little, like you don't entirely feel the volumes and shapes of them sometimes, especially with the ladies. Told ya you should've drawn more women :p But it's really only a tiny teeny crit, as a whole the pages work very well.

[HunterKiller_]

Good to have ya back.
Great work on the latest comic. The only real crit I have about them is the organization of blacks; on some panels there's just too much detail and it doesn't read as fast (there were never any that didn't make sense, just some that took a tad longer to read).
I think it's just a matter of trying to get too much visual information into each panel.

There's one other minor stylistic gripe I have, and that's putting white outlines/halos around characters set against a black background. This may just be a personal taste but I think this only serves to flatten an image and weaken the depth of a scene.

My 5 cents.

[p sage]

Absolutely killer story-telling, and great characterizations... the expressions and emotions really pull me in to the stories... regardless of the language or lack of language

The only real crit I have about them is the organization of blacks; on some panels there's just too much detail and it doesn't read as fast

Would have to agree there; my first impression was that certain panels were chaotic for my eyes to read very quickly... a lot of different angles and the line rhythm seemed to be lost.
But then again... maybe you want a chaotic impression for some of the panels. Some movie directors seem to go for that feeling... like action that moves so fast you can't possibly follow it... you just wait for the result (some of the action scenes in "Gladiator" or "300" come to mind)

[Qikalain]

I really like the shaman guy on the page before. Some times your artworks have this Mike Mignolia feel to them, what i really like (still different enough!)

[AustenFM]

Hey Ryan, happy birthday amigo! Hope you have a good one~

And holy Cow, those collaborated comic pages look great! No dialogue is necessary either, the panel flow and composition is superb! Thanks for sharing, can't wait to see more!

[Quike Garcia]

Wonderful work man, as usual

Happy Birthday!!

[TheGnoll]

@bbwolf: hey Wolf! always cool to see you stop by and comment! thank you!

@walnut: hey there! you're definately right, but dude, i never drew so many ladies before in my life, you should appreciate the effort! let me know what you think of these other girl sketches.

@HunterKiller_: thank you! excellent crits- i agree on everything you said!

@p sage: thanks! i really, really appreciate your constant support also, i agree with your comment! (see above) It does work in movies (or in a storyboard) but in a comic a panel should work in itself.I'll try and keep that in mind.

@Qikalain: thank you! i should try doing more stuff like that Shaman! Also, Mike Mignola is one of my favourite living artist, so i'll take that as a big compliment.

@AustenFM: thank you Austen! glad you liked the pages!

@Quike Garcia: thanks Quike!

here's some more stuff:

this guy is supposed to be a Lovecraftian ghoul. It's been some time since i last gave a shot at some digi-painting. I tried some new things on this one and i'm looking forward to hearing you guy's thought on how to make the next one better!



a WIP page for a thing i'm working on:



and here's some random sketches:









C&C much appreciated as usual!

[NickyBeats]

awesome updates man! looove those comic pages!!

also really love the sketches! so much energy!

[phatbuddha]

your pen and ink work is really nice! I love your loose sketchy style.

[phatbuddha]

Ok, I know it's old, but the tiger on page 51 (#1519) is sick! One of my favorites for sure.

[G@m]

hola, long time no see D:
The ghoul has a nice design but the image as a whole could use some work, i suppose the missing part of his right leg is inside an hole? I've also noticed that you used the same range of values on him and the background, it makes the image feel flat in my opinion and lastly, the light on his left knee seems to be coming from a completely different direction, is that intentional?
The comic book page looks nice, where is the rest of it? and whats the title?

mi e toccato scrivere il tutto nel mio inglese maccheronico perche non avevo idea di come dire le stesse cose in italiano

[FAST ART]

I would be the happiest man on the planet if i could take a look into your moleskine!

[Velocity Kendall]

that battle scene is intense!! so nice to read through. amazing work sir.

[Quike Garcia]

I think one of the issues on the ghoul piece is the monotony of the piece. All is in the same tone, shades are cold, lights are cold. I'd use a warmer shadow to help it pop out a bit. Also, I'd tone down the light in the background so it would catch so much the eye.

Wonderful sketches man, specially the last girl

Keep it on

[TheGnoll]

@NickyBeats: thanks dude!

@phatbuddha: thank you! also whoa, that's from some time ago, thanks for going back so far in ths SB!

@G@m: hola! there's another page from the comic in the previous page. The book is going to be called S.H.A.R.K, it's a spinoff of the "Block 109" series published in France by Akileos Ed. Regarding the Ghoul, thanks for the spot-on crits! althought yes, that was "supposed to be a hole" and when you see obvious mistakes - they rarely are "intentional"

@FAST ART: likewise man!! We should sort something out then! thanks for stopping by.

@Velocity Kendall: hey! thanks man, i really appreciate you support!

@Quike Garcia: thanks Quike! the thought of making these mistakes usually stops me from trying again (yeah, i'm that dumb)- so recently i'm trying to not think too much about it and just have some fun with it, let's see what happens. Thanks for the crits!

here's a couple more digidoodles. I'm trying to figure out if i can actually have fun with these.
Not portfolio pieces, but just me trying to gain some much needed confidence with digital medium.





Comments crits and suggestions on how to make the next ones better are much appreciated

Ryan