Continuity Break -- Feb 20: A Valkyrie's Journey (large images)

[masque]

Ok, OK, tensai, can't a guy get a little shuteye!? omigosh, it's been more than 2 weeks?! call me Rip van Chip! anyway, the "experiments" are fun but it's tough to integrate that look into figures. my "Metrosexual Pirate" ChOW entry wasn't as strong as i'd've liked for a number of reasons, including the newness of the technique. i don't feel fluent with it yet, at least with figures.

madplanet, thanks for the comments, it's encouraging that you see some tranquility in the "chaos" of the strokes, it was definitely a goal in a few of the enviros.

Sve, i do so love your comments. you're quite correct about "Gaia Cavern Temple," it gave me fits from day one. i worked on it for 5 days off and on, only in the last two did the final concept gel for me, so i had to do a lot of repainting, then spent nearly a whole day getting the structures integrated (and then only partly successful). so the disunity you see is a result of my not being all that "clean" at rendering my concept, though it did OK in the EOW poll. funny you should mention Dr. Seuss, 'cause both my son and i thought the stsho character looks like the Grinch . and there may be some deepset influences -- my first memory of a book i read "all by myself" was On Beyond Zebra, an early "concept art" masterpiece imo.

i guess 70's sci-fi is maybe a "spesheealitee", Cthogua, since my decision to get really serious about my art as a career was made in '71, and i've been a sci-fi/fantasy fan all my days. thanks for the "woot", 'tis appreciated!

sone_one, thanks man, i'll work hard to keep them stars!

some new Chanur-inspired material:

i often like to do spaceships that look a bit cobbled together rather than slick and ultra-neat, more resembling old rebuilt carburetors or some such. the bowshock is caused by quantum effects as the ship exits subspace in a dusty region surrounding a young planetary system. Urtur station is an industrial port of call for the spacefaring merchants of the Chanur novels.


Tully is the only human character of any consequence in the Chanur novels; after escaping brutal captivity by the kif, he eventually becomes one of the crew of Pyanfar's ship The Pride of Chanur. the small sketch is a quickpose of Tully just after his escape, nearly at his limits, but nonetheless able to "commandeer" refuge on the Pride.

just some doodles, 10-15 min max, pose, gesture, faces, the usual sketchbook suspects, no refs:

[madplanet]

Hey masque, it's nice to see those quick sketches and the eyes on Tully are great; very penetrating gaze.

[jereus]

Masque - Your L2 Dockside paint exercise turned out really sweet. Really dig the texture, and how you 'colored' the light. Very nice.

[kingcoyote]

Hey Masque! I've been admiring your work, (and your... I guess... I don't know, man, Knowledgeabitlty... is that even a word?) for a while, and just noticed that you have a sketchbook goin', so I figgured I'd pop in and pester you for a bit! Ha-ha!

No... really, you're doing some beautiful work here. I really like the astroid miner. I remember thinking at the time of that ChOW that it really reminded me of the short story "The Martian Way" (I think that's the name... Might be wrong!) by Isaac Asimov. Incredible story, and I really wanted to do somr illustrations for it myself. But anyway, I really enjoyed the pose, angle (okay, composition really...) and really just the overall... I don't know what. What got me about it is the fact that when it comes down to it, he's just this guy that happens to work in space stripping down astroids. And I think you got that!

I really like the latest spaceship design, and I totally agree with you on (at least interstellar) spaceship design. The biggest difference is that in a zero-G environment with no atmosphere, the ship doesn't have to "fly", per se. I think that a lot of people don't really consider this when they make up a ship... Now shuttles or even fighters are something else all together. How big do you think a ship would have to be before it started forming its own gravity well?

I really enjoyed the general figure references too. There were a couple of things that bothered me about the "barbarian with shield and axe" drawing though. (I had to do something to keep this from being a pat masque on the ass session!) First, he's in a kind of "between" pose. What I mean is, it looks like he's just holding his axe above his head, you know! It would look more like he was going to really clobber somebody if you arched his back more, and really pushed that arm further back than it should normally be able to go... to the extreme of it's rotation. Does that make sense? Also, his right thigh is bothering me for some reason. I guess it looks like it's attached too high up, or something... I don't know, but it seems like we shouldn't be able to see as much of it as we do.

Take care man! Keep up the great work!
Later.
KC

[sve]

Hello, Chip. How are you these days? My last week was pretty hectic and worrisome. Christie started to limp suddenly and was limping for 6 days, we went to hospital several times. She is fine now. Hope you and yours are fine.

My favorite in your update is a space. because you make it look attractive and inviting. I don't' feel intimidated by space like this. maybe because it's not empty and cold at all. it's spacious but I don't feel small looking at it. I think you balanced emotion very nicely. The image looks adventurous. I'm pretty careful person, aware of potential danger all the time, but I feel unrestricted and free in my movements when I look at this piece. Love the star dust very much, on of the trick which make this space beautiful. I like all the colors and the careful choice of the foreshortening of space ship. Really, no harsh words can be said about this paining, there is much love and heart in it and it looks very positive emotionally.

Character study. Well, my only note is the character looks a bit extremely nice, a bit one sided. Everything is open in his face, open forehead, open straight looking eyes, open ear shell, the hair light and long, freely, carelessly falling to the back of his head. Everything hints on an open, straight, simple, easy to predict character. You didn't give him bright fighting colors, he looks calm and I would say mild. if he is a fighter, but only because circumstances make him act like this, not on his on free will. I can see him as a gardener or trade man, working with his hands, they are probably the most vivid characteristic of him, more than a face.
He doesn't look much like a thinker to me, more like passer by, bystander. He could be a leader, because he is probably very loved and respected by his people for fair, calm nature, but the character looks very soft to me, he can fall from a treachery very easily, because he is not capable to see it before head. Well that's what I think looking at him. Hope you had a good laugh at my faults.
Proportions are gorgeous in your line work and lines are beautiful. Very smooth, and this btw make them look calm, the lines I mean. The speed is constant in all drawings, makes me think you are confident and calm when you draw. I wish to see some irregularity though.
Sveta

[johnny78]

You´ve got a nice sketchbook. # 12 and the first pic from post #24 are my favourites!

[sve]

Chip, miss you! Do you have something to show, new art, old art, any art???
Sveta

[masque]

sorry to be so lax on updates and such, been trying to square away some RL stuff and also find a way to get the programming end of digital calendar project out of the Windows-only rut it's currently in (a corner i seem to have painted myself into). not much to show but for what it's worth:


i think the size diff between rider & beast could be handled better, but wotthehell, next time...


one idea for COW45, The Mover (my entry was much different, though)


kind of a digital scratchboard technique, playin' with stark contrasts and positive/negative spaces


a digital greyscale paint version of this character was to be my ChOW22, Spiderman's Female Sidekick contribution, but i wasn't able to post it in time due to forum access probs -- no big deal 'cause i wasn't all that happy with that version, so i reworked it in pencil. i'll skip the big long backstory i wrote for her and be brief --Moira St.Clair, known as "Oracle," blind but able to perceive potential futures and also affect in which direction the "present" timeline evolves -- all very pseudo-quantum-comic-metaphysical.

[sve]

Hello, Chip! What a beautiful update! You said it was kind of hard to start drawing for you? Well, I cant tell. Very enjoyable artwork and I really mean that.
I guess it is just typical eternal love hate relationship between an artist and his art. All four pages are great. My favorite 2,3,4 heheh. Especially I like this sympathetic evil creature. Ohhh, it is so evil and so sympathetic . Somehow I think its bite are not so bad, it mostly likes to take spectacular poses . too small really to have a bigger impact. I think in certain circumstances with given a lot of caring and grooming it will become a funny pet. For people with slightly perverted taste, but still. . Nice one, good doggy.

I like the drawing of beautiful woman a lot, it is lovely, as always you are so effective and smooth with body anatomy and gestures, looks so natural and effortless.
The same about the last character, very subtle and natural looking pose. Anatomy, shading, the outfit folds, the body language are very harmonic. She looks very nice, all put together for the blind person though, I wonder who helps her, she looks so attractive. must have someone on her side. Beautiful technique, so simple and elegant.
I wonder if I will ever learn saying my thought in drawing or painting so delicately, not too loud, with respecting my viewers intelligence, so to speak. As you do.
I have to say though, that you are changing, Chip, your art is getting to be more open and emotional. I see passion in you art now, it was calmer when I first saw your portrait of hani.

First drawing is lovely, if you want my thoughts I wish it had more variety in lines weight and length. Hehehe, girl has the same curvy hair like her pet. heheh, owners very often look like their domestic animals .
See you, wish you all the best. I am going to take a look at ready version of calendar now.
Sveta

[madplanet]

Very nice update, Masque. That first one would look good as a painting and I think that the size difference between them looks just fine. My favorites are The Gift (I think that the haziness makes it) and the Spider-Man sidekick thingie. You did a mighty fine job on the pattern on her shawl.

[Amazing Action Ape]

Hey Masque, Nice collection of work here! Your environment speeds are inspiring! I like your rendition of the "oracle" as well.

[kingcoyote]

Reminds me of the book "Grass" by Sherri Tepper... Malevolent, super intelligent beasts... I really like it, but I think the body doesn't match the hooves. What I mean is... the beast is formed like a giant cat, but the hooves are incongrous. Don't know if that makes any sense...


Both this one and this one remind me of Keith Parkinson. Really like the drawing of Spideys sidekick, but I don't really feel like she "fits" as a sidekick for the web-slinger though... Would fit great with the X-men, however.

I hope everythings going well for you in the real world, and hope to see more from you soon!

Take care
Your friend
KC

[masque]

been away from CA a while but not entirely unbusy. a few quick doodles first:


a little more time in each of these, more character emerging, i hope:


some concept thumbs for the "man calendar"


these are part of what i've been doing since last spring, character realizations for personal project that started as a game idea but tranmogrified into a graphic novel and is now on its way to a novella (or more). who knows how it will finally emerge?

pages one & two of the GN treatment of the story (currently in limbo while I write the rest of the story)



and some "loose" panels from Page three

[sve]

Chip . How I'm glad that you came back!!! Don't leave me alone please. I missed you so much!!!
Especially the last month I started to remember about you several times a day and feel bad that you are not talking to me as before. Have to let you know, chip, your conversations with me changed me a lot, your and three other people's way to deal with things, calm, well balanced, distanced from personal attachment ( it distorts judgment a lot) is new for me, and I'm trying to be more like you. I don't know if I will be able to be in control, but I think it is the right way. Hope I will. I remember so strongly how you advised me to never make any decision when I'm angry. And another one you told me, not in those words, but I took it like this... Not be personal in replying to bad things, emotion clouds a better judgment and discredits my words in eyes of other people.

You really gave me a lot, Chip, saying those words to me... Because I was terrible when I saw disturbing things. Reckless and not efficient. Thank you so much for this and you are special for me.
When I was a student in my third years in University, I worked in the laboratory. And it was a man there, he was an engineer. for microscopes. I lie to talk to him a lot, in fee time. he was strikingly laid back, calm, and always even and fair to any person. And I in my student year was a bit of adventurous person ( lets called it like this). I aways had some stories happened to me. Still do actually, but better, I hope.
So I asked him one day, he was not my generation, . How he was when he was very young. How he manages to be so calm and not affected by all the mess around him. And he told me he was very short tempered when he was a young guy. And he told me he had quite a few heart attacks behind him. And that calmness is a knowledge he got from his experience.

OK... hope you don't mind my usual waste of words.

back to the art.

Lets start with the meat and potatoes. The comics!

I started reading it and was floored with the strong dialogs. But then I got acquainted with characters int this story and that's what I think. I think it is how they talk being stuck on this lonesome job, high in space... swearing and being angry and blaming everything and still doing what they're supposed to do.
....I was sitting in an airplane with sportsmen one day in Russia and that was exactly how they talked and behaved. Strong men not belonged to themselves. Part of the big, awkward, slow turning system. So they were angry and claustrophobic too. And tolerant of the conditions.

Only three of the characters showed a bit of their personalities in this story so far.

Sci, the oldest one, who lost the strut and being the most unhappy about the circumstances and most secured one too.
on his portrait you made him look tired and a bit worn out, with democratic appearance (ponytail), mustache. not very sophisticated, simpleminded man.
Seems that he likes his job but has nice thoughts about future retirement.
His eyes are drawn too close to his nose and actually it is so for most of your characters in this update, in my opinion. His hooked nose is a good characteristic to his a bit pessimistic personality.

Next one DeWitt, he is teasing the Sci a lot, on the portrait you gave him humorous features, He has a wide smile and his nose has a lot of planes, I think it hints on his backhanded manner to talk and mock his opponent. Eyes are too close tot eh nose again, I think.

Daniel Redpath,the one who caught the slipping strut, probably on the level higher in his skills, a leader, probably. Strong and silent type, I think. His haircut is very simple and just accurate. there is no embellishment's in his ascetic face. But he is bringing his own cards for game, strong personality, but not domineering, somewhat reasonable... Could sit in other person shoes and understand.

There is one more, Santos, right now he is hard to read. might be grey horse in the story which can go many ways. He looks regular, but somehow ambivalent, uncertain.

There are two more characters, heavy set man, Sammy, who is probably manages their maintaining and a not in a hurry to buy new supplies. Thrifty to the upsetting degree. Likes good food and beers a and good company, friendly joke. I thought that because of his thick sensual lips and squinted eyes. he likes comfort when he can get it, I think.

Ace, looks the youngest and has strong features. probably one of the most skillful and reliable in the job. Not sure about his personality. he has a closed face.

As a not I would say you a bit too economic in giving them personal features which separate them from each other. the all have closed set deep eyes, straight noses ( one type for most of them) straight hair. I thin it would be better to give a little more variety to each character. Scars, earrings, bandanna, manner to wear their clothes, careless or accurate.
The black illustration of ship in space create feeling of lonesomeness and horror in me. I don't envy those guys.

Like the gladiators theme in your pinup sketches and especially the thumbnails, with the beautiful girl. The compositions are very good, very engaging, all of them. Love them.i hope you will work more on them.

Critique. Figures are very stretched and those long legs. In my opinion, too long unrealistic legs make characters less sensual, more phantasmagoric, more like a book hero, less as a sexy idol . I don't relate to them as the same human race as mine. .

On the first page i like the character sketch with cards, it is very nice pose and position f the head.

Sketches look a bit too cautions, I'm getting cautious too looking at those careful lines.

Hope you will post more, more, more. And I want to know who is the bad guy in you comics. My money on Sammy or Ace.

Hope you will do more art in this digital scratchboard technique from the post before, I like it.

Hope you and yours are doing great.

[maxetormer]

Sweet work man, post some more

[masque]

hey, Sve, i won't go away forever (unless i "go away" forever) 'kay? but sometimes courting the Muse needs a little privacy, y'know, she's just such the jealous type (ha ha). thank you so much for your comments, superb as always, and the crits of the character faces are pretty accurate, i'll definitely keep 'em in mind.

the long legs thing -- point taken, and something i have to keep an eye on always, proportions and such. but these are pretty raw thumbs, not always striving for accuracy as much as getting an idea recorded for further use.

Maxetormer, thanks for stoppin' by. you've seen these from the OFDW, but i may have some new stuff soon (if posting it won't screw my Battling Gods Thunderdome chances).

my efforts in the Open Figure Drawing Workshop 020 -- Master/Copy reference. see that thread for the originals.



this is half-size, use thumbnail to see it at working size:

[sve]

Hello, Chip. Yes, don't go away. And if you ever feel that a moodiness is letting you down or too many ugly things at once showed up and you just can't not notice them, well, don't hesitate to come to me and we can talk about thousand different things. Just about everything, life, travles, religion and our limits and to the contrary our ability to jump over our head, and great artists, and I need some education in comics genre where I'm so most ignorant person on this site. and I can tell you about Russia and you can tell me about America, in which history I'm pretty ignorant too, and about interesting scientific discoveries you thought of or read...
I was a good listener some time ago, before I found my way to this site. I'm a mediocre listener now, but still better than some.
We can talk about strange effect the virtual reality has on people, how addictive and domineering it is...
OK...
Lovely copies, a bit on spooky side actually, because of meticulosity . I believe you when you said you learned a lot from them. I did copies of old masters a lot, starting from school years, but ti was more like therapy, like construction something big and complex , which you already saw, again, step by step, stroke by stroke, very relaxing.
New knowledge I got from these excesses was how differently colors behave in different surroundings and how rich color palettes of the masters were, so many values and hues.
Very gentle transition of values and imitation of iron cast and marble. Beautiful gentle semi shadows in folds of the clothes and skin.
No real crits, it's beautiful. Hope you enjoy doing those studies.

[trevor]

my god man your enviros and studies are fantastic!
i need to talk to you soon about some work





paying btw

[GriNGo]

woah man, nice SB! your pencil sketches are killing me, you're so full of skill! i'll be checking this one regularly...

greeting!
GriNGoLoCo

[Rebeccak]

Thanks a lot for the silverpoint link! You have a very strong book and it's great to see your OFDW piece here. Very cool to have your participation and I definitely look forward to seeing you in the next one too I hope!

[ikuru]

some serious skills in here, marking this for further njoyment.

[masque]

Sveta, thank you for your compliments on the OFDW studies, i think you can probably actually see some influence they had on my latest paintings. the biggest thing i learned there -- subtlety! one need not be brash and slapdash to achieve satisfying results.

trev! hey, dude, thanks for stoppin' by! you mean they pay people to have this much fun?! contact me any time, 24-7. powerful G.A.W. TD entry, btw.

GriNGoLoCo: thanks, man, you're always welcome here.

Rebecca, so nice to have you visit. i may try some silverpoint again myself, if i can find all my old jewelry-making supplies and claw-mechanical pencil.

ikuru, stop by any time, grasshopper, just behave yourself and don't pester the adults (just kidding. really!)

NEW:
some development stuff that eventually led to a number of images, all resulting from enlisting in the Gods at War Thunderdome.


a study for Yama, Deathgod, as described in Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. My first TD concept was the Hellwell battle from that excellent novel. back & forth between Painter Elements & PSCS2.


a quick Painter Elements pose&gesture doodle for Kali, again from the above book. she's walking down a set of low steps.


bust portrait (pun intended) PS sketch for Kali, led to the following progression from Kali to my twisted Miss America:


initial pose&gesture; adding some accessories (typical Kali accoutrements, plus tiger skull & belladonna flower) from web refs


laying in hue & tone in Painter Elements, building BG, changing hair style. by this time i was starting to see a completely different incarnation of Kali -- Di doo, strangely mutated crown, a twisted Miss was being born.


ditched the arm gesture, changed the head tilt to more coy, bobbed the hair a bit, started in on the Miss in earnest. just paint, paint, paint. got to a point it seemed a Critique Center session was in order (right image)


the final image, with feedback incorporated -- used a ref for the mouth & moue, polished the strokes into translucence (i LOVE this look for the skin -- nearly a true subsurface scattering), polished the jewelry, nose pierced, tweaked and nitpicked and then done.

The concept was a sardonic look back at America that was, a sort of sexy innocence represented by a better-known pageant, now become a still-attractive but dangerous-looking Kali-esque parody. An American Kali as death goddess, not her nuturing alter ego.


the scanned pencil for ArmaRagnaGeddonRock-yer-Yuga (ARGRYY). this preceded the text, though the entire concept was set in my mind by now.


i'd started painting ARGRYY with the BG clouds and Skoll, and had done a crappy version of La Bomba, when i lost my nerve on this as my TD entry, and started in on Ragnarok. This is the only image i have left of the formative steps. i painted Fenrir (big toothy wolf-thing) in direct, then digitally sketched in Odin, Thor and Jormy. i fought with the fire giant Surtur -- this is version 3, the others are dead and gone & good riddance! you may note a major difference in color structure compared to my submission -- it was at this time i started using PS color modifying layers to decide on a new color approach more appropriate to the no-longer-light-and-humorous subject matter.

[ikuru]

I prommise I'll be a good boy! Is that courtney Love you got going there on your Kali painting?
Its kick ass!

[masque]

nope, ikuru, no refs on that one, just straight outta my noggin'.

progressives and details leading up to Valkyrie Ascending


the final GS before adding color:


the full-size RGB final. 40+layers in Photoshop for the coloration and final edits:

[ikuru]

HOLY FUCK MAN! Thats just so sexy! you using that for the td huh?
(one small crit would be she is not so heavy on the ground... might be she is a bit missplaced or should be smaller in perspective? but it works well nevertheless since I guess its just cool if she is allmost soaring among the dead sort of thing...)

[Rebeccak]

Damn, you have a lot going on here! So great to have your participation in OFDW 021, your piece really impresses me, both for it's concept and the speed of execution - it occurs to me that I know squat about your art background, where did you study, and what do you do? Glad to have your participation in the Workshop, and thank you for the kind comments to my thread.

[dan liimatta]

damn, while I liked the initial concepts - the later pieces are blowing me away

& the experimentation is in the end probably what I like the most

[Dreamworker]

Very beautiful stuff! I like your style and I think that the last pice is awesome.
Keep more updates, cheers

[croovman]

wow, that's.. wow. striking.
the idea expressed through the composition alone is so original, and the execution is excellent.

[ATAnderson]

Mr Masque

Man, I see your stuff in the activities and it's always good, but this stuff is shit hot. Thanks for sharing.

These messageboards I'm all the time finding something new and cool. Look forward to more

Adam.