http://www.livestream.com/tomscholes

**Gloominati** · June 23rd, 2006, 11:47 AM

rock'n roll digital landscapes dude, simply awesome, especially the textures are badass!!
Diggin all of your stuff, your colors are damn cool.

Keep on rocking dude and give us some more of that stuff!!!!

**Kitsu** · June 23rd, 2006, 11:57 AM

Grrr, I like virtually everything you do anymore! Your level has increased some much from just a few months ago. Your black and white stuff is great, and I like most of the exposure experiments you're doing. The BaRONTiERi sketch is extra nice.

Did I mention you've got some gorgeous greenery going on? Is the "Drunken" thing for real? 'Cause I'm thinking I may need to take up drinking... and crayons

Anyway here is one maybe useful comment - On the 'old style' landscape you say you don't like I think composition is the problem. It seems to me like everything is wisking you right out of the image, and there is no focal point.
Illustration

Maybe it just needed something in the pointed to corner to bring us back in?

BTW: me and a few other of the lesser dieties are thinking about creating an informal Sketchbook Support Group. Any interest in having some lamers come and harass you when you don't post enough? It will basically just be to encourage regular posting and regular critting amoung some of the less traveled SB's...

**Cup of Joe** · June 23rd, 2006, 12:44 PM

Great stuff! Love 'em.
Only problem I see is you got some lens-flare type things going on in a few (particularly the dragon piece) I'll try and stop by the Coloring Book thread, although I should really spend more time on the perr project. Keep it up!

Also, if it makes a difference, I'll be one of said "lesser deities".

**Spacey** · June 23rd, 2006, 10:37 PM

You're having WAY too much fun.

[<3'ing your sketchbook]

**P E N Ricklund** · June 24th, 2006, 08:33 AM

Oh I've been missing out much. Your a harmonic machine drawing and painting for your life, nothin' but love for such a thing

I'm fascinated by pretty much everything you've done on this last page. Big props.

Hugs!

**Erilaz** · June 25th, 2006, 08:32 AM

Bumskee just told me to get my ass over to your sketchbook. I'm glad he did. Wow. Very inspiring stuff.

**Idiot Apathy** · June 27th, 2006, 02:14 AM

@PeterLee: Thanks Dude!
@mull77: Haha, yeah - it's been a little while huh? Life is busy! The third one was fun, the brush is from the pack that BaRONTiERi's has on his site, definetly give them a shot. I've learned a bunch about making brushes from them and often still use a few of his I really like. Now, where is your update? Or do I have to come berate you?!
@Burning Eyes: Haha, I'm still learning how to use them properly though mate! I subscribed to your sketchbook, I'll try and get in some comments if I can think of anything

. If you have a specific question you think I can help out with send me PM ok? Cheers!
@Ham-e: Hehe, if you could help me out - explain where you get confused as to what it is? Is it just wierd or is something reading strangely? Thanks for sticking with me mate
@Gloominati: Thanks dude! I'm really having fun lately - I'll try and keep the updates coming.
@Kitsu: Hehe, thanks mate! Glad to know I'm improving. It's not so much the drunken thing as it is the crayons, trust me

. Good eye on the composition of that one painting, there are other reasons why I don't like it - but composition is part of it for sure. I'll make sure and harass your sketchbook group when you don't post - and try to get in some crits if I can too! As for me, I draw and paint with just about as much free time as I have, what you see is about what you get besides work and school stuff. Cheers dude, nice new avatar by the way.

@Cup of Joe: Eek! Don't say that word... lens-flare. Really? Is it that cheap looking? Lens-flares happen for a reason, but they look really bad because they are camera lens(es?). I'll have to be careful, but I'm after the elusive beast that is re-creating light you know? Cool to see you in the coloring book thread! It's a nice way to sit down and focus on the small picture for once if you know what I mean. I'll have to check in on your new sketchbook group, cheers mate!
@Spacey: Yes, yes I am - that's the name of the game right? Fun? Usually I find if it's not fun, I'm not learning - so that sort of works out I think.
@Pencilator: Hahaha... harmonic machine hehe. Thanks for the kind words, I'll try and keep you entertained

Hugs!
@Erilaz: Damn man, I wish I could hang out with you bastids - we'd have an art monopoly going on for sure, muahaha! Hey, can you do me a favor? Next time you see min, punch him in the arm and say it's from me! PLEASSSE! Cheers dude!
- - - - - - - - - -
Some links I thought were interesting:
Samuel Michlap - Blog
http://www.samuel-michlap.blogspot.com/
Used to work, or still does work for Disney? I just found this one - cool stuff and great commentary/insight.

Cory Godbey - Thephotoshopexperiment:
http://thephotoshopexperiment.blogspot.com/
Another blog - some interesting techniques with photoshop, compelete with tuts. Might learn a thing or two.
- - - - - - - - - -

Right, on with the show! Mostly black and whites today - one color and one animation.. hehe... heheh. We'll start with those.

EEEEEEEEEHEHEHHEHE! This makes me happy for some reason.
Just some line practice, saw this as I flipped it to check something.
Added the extra junk just for fun.

Quicky color experiment over the lines, some new stylistic color ideas.
Painting into different colors...

Hehe.. hehe... started out as a 20 minute or so sketch -
evolved into another 10 I think.
My muse said I needed to add some things, birds - smaller totems.
Butterflies were my idea though

This one makes me laugh a bit too

More totems, I like these little guys.
Some new texture ideas here, testing some custom brushes.

Totems, woo! Testing a "flower" brush I created here, and the one for trees.

Another brush test with some totems on top...

It's a shack... falling down the hill.
I corrected it so it wouldn't slant but I didn't like it as much.

Fossil or something, monster embryo? I think I should study some animal heads...

Should have worked up the character some more here...
If you're saying, "What character?", I don't blame you, *sniff sniff*

Oogly castle structure. Brush test!

Hey guess what! Started out as a brush test!

More line practice, having some fun.

Wierd random doodle, sketching practice? I dunno...

Yeah... same... doodle !

Scribble?

Cheers~!

**Kitsu** · June 27th, 2006, 01:10 PM

That robot kicks ass!
Your values read very well - nice trick using the lightest/darkest values to seperate the fore/background. Your lines are looking good too; have you been doing some contour drawings on the side or something

**Erilaz** · June 28th, 2006, 12:17 AM

Teeheehee! Dancing robot is cool. And yes, I'll whack Min for you when I see him on Sunday.

I'm really liking the totem environments.

**bumskee** · June 28th, 2006, 12:38 AM

:| :| I...might not be....able to make it this Sunday Martin.. *cough cough*

totem is totally awsome. and that robot dancing is...too funny..crack me up..hehe.. totem on this one..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ld2394873b.jpg

looks DRUNK!!!

**Erilaz** · June 28th, 2006, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by bumskee

:| :| I...might not be....able to make it this Sunday Martin.. *cough cough*

What? *blinks innocently*

Originally Posted by Idiot Apathy

Some links I thought were interesting:
Samuel Michlap - Blog
http://www.samuel-michlap.blogspot.com/
Used to work, or still does work for Disney? I just found this one - cool stuff and great commentary/insight.

Cory Godbey - Thephotoshopexperiment:
http://thephotoshopexperiment.blogspot.com/
Another blog - some interesting techniques with photoshop, compelete with tuts. Might learn a thing or two.

Thanks so much for those! Really inspiring stuff. So many cool links from them as well!

**Zaknafain** · July 3rd, 2006, 06:52 AM

huh... haven't replied here for to long. just read your reply and remembered that I wanted to talk to you as well. Just forgot about it (now who is the real idiot?). Just added you to my msn contact list and I will send you a message as soon as both of us are online.

Nice sketches, I like those landscapes. The animation is very funny as well.
It's interesting to see your texture experiments. Are you trying to achieve traditional brushwork feeling? I spend a big part of yesterday (ok actually not that much) with impasto effects and stuff like that as well.

**Idiot Apathy** · July 3rd, 2006, 05:47 PM

@Kitsu: Thank man! The lightest darkest trick? Can't say I was really doing that consciously - but I remember reading something about how outdoors at least your darks will be darker closer to you, probably has something to do with aerial perspective I imagine. Glad my lines aren't too horrible, can't say I've done much drawing on the side - what you see is pretty much what you get here haha.
@Erilaz: Hahaha, you didn't really whack him did you? The totems are fun, really enjoying them.
@Bumskee: Heheh, I like that drunk totem

. He is falling over after all.
@Zaknafain: Sweet dude, can't wait to pick your brain and have some good art discussions. Can't say I'm really after looking traditional, but some of things that get taken for granted in traditional work really add a lot of life and interest to things I think. That's all I'm trying to do, and in an efficent manner too.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Anthony J. Ryder:
http://www.tonyryder.com/demo/index.htm
I'm sure many of you have bumped into his name before, the guy is amazing after all. This link will take you to his demonstration page - which you have to check out. Make sure and look around the other areas too

Jo Chen
http://www.jo-chen.com/engpage/engpage.htm
Some really nice stuff, not quite my taste but nice techniques for sure.
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Crits, Comments and all that Jazz greatly appreciated

Been painting something at least once a day lately, kind of cool haha. Uhm, on with the show.

Still having fun with black and white, focusing on value and more on the
actual landscape than usual; and still having fun with the totem guys.

This one makes me smile a bit.
Started out as I guess a leaf study, from a leaf I had seen earlier in the day.
Totem came about midway in a flash of inspiration.

These are a bit out of order haha...
Going to try and be a little more descriptive of trees,
different types - add more branches where they need to be etc etc.
Got some studies to do then

Ugh, 1x1.5 ratios are ugly. (I think that's the ratio..)
I like the idea of some giant totems

Not too much to say here - maybe just something I was thinking about
Having one subject like this is fine, two seems broken, but three seems good.
Makes a bit of a triangle moving your eye around.
The face that they also have eyes, which I sometimes try to make it look
like they are looking around,
- that they also have eyes moves your eyes around too.

This is from today -
Random composition, don't particularly care for it though

Got some good thoughts on shrubbery etc though.

Just trying to figure out what I want these totems to look like,
I need to do some more of these.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

New Media Colouring Book Collaborations!
There, maybe now no one will mistake these as mine yeah? I just colored them, lines were provided in the new media colouring book - do a search. Good thread, learned me many a color in there. These are pretty quick, warm ups and cool downs, really been fun - thanks guys.[/size]

Lines by EvilDisco

Look at me ma! I'm cel shading.
Messing around with this style, been pretty fun actually.
I think it's a good exercise in lighting, being that you have to express light and shadow with a single seperating line.
Actually been a good learning experience.

Lines by ArtGuy

Started out as simple cel shading and then I went back and tweaked the edges...
And then I went all out and had some fun

I like how parts of this turned out for sure, good learning.

Lines by DavetheOriginal

Something about this bugs me...

. A little too airbrushy, maybe too monochrome. Compositionally off somehow? The leg shouldn't be in that corner

Bah, anyways all in the name of experience.

Crits, Comments and all that Jazz greatly appreciated

**MattGamer** · July 3rd, 2006, 05:52 PM

totem's rule! you should make a site just for them! i love the coloring of the linework as well!

paint paint paint 'nd do some traditional stuff too! balance it out or work more on the stuff you don't know. hehe i will do the same

**tensai** · July 3rd, 2006, 07:47 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...scoshtuf5f.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...uys-girl-9.jpg

really well done. did you use layers on a certain blending mode for these or are they all 'normal' colours? especially the second one has some great depth to it. good edges.

**Cup of Joe** · July 3rd, 2006, 10:26 PM

Glad to see a return of the totems! One of those was actually my desktop for a while.
Danf! Coulda sworn I commented on that last bunch. Well, going back a bit, in the last one from the 27th, the trees suggest wind, but they are gong in different directions.
I love this last bunch! Especially the leaf(although i didn't even see the totem 'till you mentioned it.). Keep it up man!

**Masayasu** · July 3rd, 2006, 10:48 PM

Hey, I really like your characters. Interesting ideas and perspectives. They really come out in your work. Keep it up.

**Zweit** · July 3rd, 2006, 11:18 PM

i'd forgotten how much i liked this thread. i absolutely love how vibrant your colors are, and your environments are just gorgeous in general. ( this, and this, for examle)

**Danomight** · July 4th, 2006, 01:17 AM

Wow, Tom, amazing environments for sure! The textures and values are blowing my mind. I love the totems by the way

, they are a funny contrast to the scenery. Can't wait to see more and more and more and more!

**DieOxin** · July 12th, 2006, 12:10 PM

cant beleive i havnt seen these yet .. phenomenal stuff mate
i am loving your brushes .. especially the straight line ones

**Idiot Apathy** · July 12th, 2006, 05:40 PM

@MattGamer: yeah dude for sure, I'm trying to work in more and more things I haven't before, but a lot of the time what little time I have I just want to relax and paint something fun you know? As far as traditional, I've got a beginning oil painting class three times a week right now - it's going great

Cheers, talk to you later.
@Tensai: Ah, yeah - on these two in particular I had a idea I wanted to test out to see if it could work, see if it could speed up the process a bit. For both of these I started out with normal flats, fairly specific but still just flat colors. I then took just the right color set to multiply and carved out the shadows, so still just two shapes per flat really. After that I took again, just the right color on a overlay layer - this time with a bit of a softer edge to it and painted over the "lighter flats" giving much more contrast to it all. The "just the right color" bits are just what works best, you can lay something down and then play with it using ctrl+u (forgot the name!). After that it was just blending and creating the edges I wanted on a normal layer, all of this of course underneath the lines set to multiply. Then I think some more fine tuning with some overlay over everything, thus the lines got colored too

I'm not sure I'd recommend this sort of technique for anything except quick and clean production work - it's not a very good way to learn I don't think. Cheers dude, keep on rocking your sketchbook

@Cup of Joe: Yeah, good catch - I thought that as I painted it but liked it anyways haha

(in reference to the leaves going in different directions) Hehe, I like that totem under the water one too

I like surprises like that I think.
@Masayasu: Thanks dude! But just to be sure, you aren't confusing some of my stuff with the New Media Coloring Book Collaborations are you? I only did the coloring on those

Cheers!
@Zweit: Thank you! I've been having lots of fun with enviroments, it's nice to create a place I think. Cheers and come back soon!
@Danomight: Hey man! Thanks for dropping by! Talk to you soon yeah?
@DieOxin: Haha, yeah... wonder why some posts seem to get missed... o well. Cheers man!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Some Links/Inspiration:

Some Illusions:
http://www.johnsadowski.com/2006/06/...ariations.html
Oh man.... I've only peaked at one or two of these, well they kind of hurt your eyes... but anyways - some really cool stuff. Also check out the root page for some other interesting junk.

Naimoka
http://naimoka.com/forum/viewforum.p...a05ac9bd8da4c8
This is actually a french art forum, seems pretty big.. but I don't know french so I have no idea. The link will take you to their, Discover Artists forum - and yeah... man french people have some great taste in artists - especially with color. Mmmmmmm!
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Crits, Comments and all that Jazz greatly appreciated

Not too much going on over here. I took my brand new Intuos 3 6x8 out of the box last night though - really loving it so far. Oh man... twice the pressure sensitivity... woo! Goodbye graphire2, you've served me well.

This is actually the "current" EOW, abandoned colony survivors or something like that. I should really put more into it, but I don't really feel like it

. Was fun though.

Evil totem monster, muahahah ... hahah. Again, called it quits a bit early. Too much to do, too much to learn.

Another totem, and some new technique ideas in there somewhere I think.

Just a doodle while testing out some new technique ideas - some of the uhh color setting options in PS.

Brush test

Some doodle before bed.

Colors are oogly on this one.

Doodle with a little bit of late night sillyness...

Uhh... another scribble.

... clearly it's a mushroom scribble

Some sort of frog royalty for sure.

New Media Colouring Book Collaborations!
There, maybe now no one will mistake these as mine yeah? I just colored them, lines were provided in the new media colouring book - do a search. Good thread, learned me many a color in there. These are pretty quick, warm ups and cool downs, really been fun - thanks guys.[/size]

Lines by le-mec

Saw this while browsing and thought it would be perfect to test some color ideas out. Thanks man!

Lines by Frank Wade

Frank draws some hot chicks, I like to color hot chicks... need I say more

**bdfoster** · July 12th, 2006, 05:51 PM

Hot chicks indeed.

Great stuff. I still love your texture tests and playful doodles, but I can't help feeling like you could take it further. Maybe you can and have, but just can't show me yet! (And therefore will kick my ass on Friday. HA!)

The evil totem monster really rocked me, though, because I think it has the most sense of story and history and character to it. It's the most illustrative piece in the post, and really grabs my attention. Awesome.

**Cup of Joe** · July 12th, 2006, 06:00 PM

Ha, love the "tacos" one! I'll have to second bdfoster in that I think your capable of kicking it up a notch or two.
Keep it up man!

**purb36** · July 12th, 2006, 06:09 PM

yo apathy,
as always, you been productive; thats good. about the thing thats bothering you about the singer chick, possibly the skirt? it looks very flat, almost no shadow and definitely no highlights. what material was it supposed to be? think bout that, that might help. the totem below the evil totem king looks the best, i think, at least in terms of integration with the rest of the picture. most of the totems are a much different texture from the background, giving them a sort of disconnected feeling. definitely do more character stuff (even your own, sometimes), coloring and whatnot, keep doin what you do and add to it. datte, zutto onaji houhou ni shitara, motto jyouzu ni naranai yo. gambare.

**MattGamer** · July 12th, 2006, 06:34 PM

haha where do you fine these lineworked hot chicks!? i'll make some hot chicks for you to color someday.

yes relaxing from the constraints of learning how to draw/paint is always good. haha i pretend taht when i'm learning that i'm not learning but having fun so i'm reverse psychoanalyzing myself.

not fair, i want my intuos 3 but i have to save up for stupid fall/winter college

last semester! w00t w00t!
love your totem dudes, they should have their own website

**DieOxin** · July 13th, 2006, 09:00 AM

Pretty sweet dude .. nothing but good words from me ...
and yea colouring and drawing hot chicks is always fun .. I for some reason like drawing lesbians .. I blame it on bengal !!

**bdfoster** · July 14th, 2006, 09:25 AM

OK, my friend. After seeing your LMSTD2 entry, I take back everything I said. You freaking killed that thing. I'll be perfectly honest and say Ragnar was the one I was worried about, but I think you slayed both of us. You really took all of your little studies and texture work and brought it into a solid illustrative style.

I need you to promise something to me, though.... You need to do more of that. Your landscapes are great, but I honestly feel like they're getting a little stale for me. But your LMSTD2 piece has story and emotion and and and... Just... DO MORE! That's all I can say.

**verao** · July 14th, 2006, 09:57 AM

those totems are really cool, wierd style with envirement and all. nice

**JERI** · July 17th, 2006, 05:35 AM

I wish you'd finish that colony survivor EOW. It's just so cool.

**Alday.J** · July 17th, 2006, 06:30 AM

Hi, Tom !
Cool bunch of work since the last time I have checked your SB...

I'm impressed ! You allready know all the good I think about your totems and landscape, but I really like the color stuff you did on other CA's buddy drawing. And the "colony survivor" looks great ! Niiiiiice !
J.