Moai's Sketchbook

[Chr]

Yeah your animals are looking good! Really like the last fish. The design on the two dinosaurs facing eachother is clean.

Think the perspective on the pen holder is a bit off actually. Look at the inner upper ring. Its not aligned with the others the right way. You need to make the line over the widest points of the circles face in the same direction, but you probably knew that.

[Moai]

Tadaaa! (Heroic theme plays) Page three! And it only took me just over four months to get through page two! Ah well.
Thanks, Chr! Yeah, my pen stand isn't perfect. It's proportions are off as well; the whole thing should be more squat. I needs to do some more of those still lives!
I also need to scan some of my new sketchbook pages. Mr. Hogarth has been teaching me how to draw a proper head. But (Peewee Herman: "Everyone I know has a big but!"), I moved recently and as of yet my scanner hasn't joined me. Oh well.

[(c)]

hey man lovely drawing stuyle nice and loose your paintings also improved a lot. sometimes I am missing some contrast. keep on going my friend

[Moai]

sometimes I am missing some contrast.

Yeah, that's something I struggle with. Thanks for the comments!

Edit: And what the hell, I'm now level 7.

[Moai]

I'm finally sitting down with Drawing the Human Head and doin' some studies.
The images:
-Simplified head shapes, drawn directly from Hogarth.
-Some very quick sketches for a picture idea. In the picture, a large predator (mammal or reptile, haven't decided yet), is snarling over its kill, while a pack of smallish, stout-bodied, two-legged crocodilians harass it. In the sketches below, the big-headed creatures are my ideas for the large predator, and the long-snouted ones are the crocodilians. Actually, they're probably lizards rather than crocodilians, because it's more likely for a lizard that already lives on the ground to evolve into a two-legged running form than an aquatic crocodile.
-More Hogarth studies: the basic forms of the facial mass, then some eye and nose studies. Plus, some more crocodiles and other animals. Lately I've been struggling a bit with my creatures. I can see them fairly clearly in my mind, but I can't seem to draw them right! It's kinda frustrating.
-I thought I'd show off my newfound nasal prowess by drawing a walking nose with legs growing out of its nostrils. And a Santa hat. I drew this absurd little character many times in the margins of my high school notebooks. Also, a mouth study, and some attempts to draw some heads on my own. The top left and middle right ones are useless, but I like the one on the bottom right. He's a character from one of my many little stories/worlds. His name is Akwemweya. He's very tall and lean and has a big head of dreadlocks, and because of the traditions of a religious warrior sect he used to belong to, his skin is blank white, except for black markings on his face. I imagine him having very angular and non-Caucasian features; the way I drew isn't quite perfect, but it's close.
Anyway, I'd love to hear your feedback on these heads and faces.

[(c)]

nice man i like your little animels they look believable keep pushingcontrastin your paintings

[Moai]

For those of you who recognize that mispronunciation of aliens from "Rugrats", you're alright.
Anyway, here's the current progress of my interminable Thunder Beasts painting. I haven't had much time to work on it, but even when I do work on it, progress is slow. Oh well. I'm not gonna worry about it.
The second one is my entry to the Daily Sketch Group topic "Dinosaurs Encounter Crashed Alien Space Ship and Survivors" or something like that. It was fun. I'm working on my values and contrast. I also need to work on my technological drawings; that spaceship looks like crap!

(c)- Thanks for the comments!

[Moai]

Okay, this is one of those times when I'm so happy with the way something is turning out that I have to post it, regardless of its incompleteness. Here's a large bird that's been waiting to be painted for a few weeks now. Not a groundbreaking design, but I like it, and this is largely a practice image in any case (practicing rendering feathers, scaly skin, and eventually vegetation). So yeah, I'm having fun.
The second image is a weird little landscape I'm working on at school. I'm practicing with light and shadow. It was fun to do, but it's definitely unfinished.

Edit: Yep, the second image has plenty far to go. It looks like colored mashed potatoes.

[dan liimatta]

#127 is really hot Moai - a nit pick comment is that you should look over the shadows on the ground.

still it's lub from me.

[Moai]

Thanks, Dan! Your comment about the ground isn't a nitpick at all, as I haven't even touched the ground on that picture since quickly sketching it in at the beginning. That picture still needs a lot of work. I've just been taking a bit of a break from it.

Here's a sketch page from me. I realized it's been a while since I did a good old fashioned page of improvised creature doodles. 'Twas fun!

[Moai]

Here's the beginnings a landscape piece for school, set in the land of Hu-Huffle. Hu-Huffle is a Seuss-esque world, but with a working ecosystem that has many weird plants, which are fun to draw. It's mostly just somewhat unsaturated mid tones right now, no highlights or shadows, but it'll come along. I'm trying to catch a certain quality of light and shadow that has so far eluded me, the quality of light you can find in works by M.C. Barrett and Atmospheria's landscapes. I'll post some links later.

Edit: Lucky post #777! To bad I'm not playing Final Fantasy. I'm such a nerd.

[Moai]

Here's some updated images on my latest Hu-Huffle piece. I may start a thread on this in the WIP section, or put it in the Critique Center when it's further along.
I was going to post a closeup of the most completed portion, but the attachment manager and Photoshop conspired against it.

[Camara]

The last one is becoming great!!The rendering look fantastic!

[Moai]

Thanks, Camara! Your words are very encouraging.

[Moai]

'Nother update. In a week or so I'll have some major school stuff out of the way, so I'll be able to draw a lot more. I'll also have my scanner, so I can post stuff.

[(c)]

nice progress in the last piece my friend. like the colours a lot so. no critics here just wanne see it finished

[Moai]

Thanks again, (c)! Here's an update for your perusal. Also, a crocopotamus for the Daily Sketch Group. I'm very happy with the outcome of this piece, especially since it remains readable even when the line layer is turned off.

[dan liimatta]

the last DSG is hot, and that tree is sex.

good stuff Moai - and your pencils have been good from the first post, and then your digitals started catching up around the middle of page 2 - now both are good, congrats

[Bard]

you inspired me to make some monsters...hehe
very brilliant and well executed, man.

trying to dl everything......

Cheers,
Bard

[Moai]

Dan Liimata- Thanks so much, man! It's been a difficult and often frustrating journey leveling up my digital skills, and I'm no where near "there" yet, but thanks.
Bard- Glad to hear I inspired you! Thanks! I'll go check out those monsters when you post em, okay?

Here's my Bone Ship DSG (considerably less effort went into this than my hippodile), and another update on my wacky tree. I think I'm going to start a Critique Center thread on this.

[Carbono]

Most provably you alreayd know this, but, i will say it anyway!

You got one of the most interesting sketchbooks here, you got a great eye for detail, and your studies are amazing. Keep up the good work man!

[Moai]

Thanks, Carbono! That's great to hear.
I'm finally hooking up my scanner today, so there'll be a whopper of a sketchbook update in a while.

[Tommoy]

Great sketchbook Moai, your fantasie seems unlimmited. Specialy like your pencildrawings.

[Moai]

Thanks much, Tommoy. My fantasy is limited, though. Count how many buildings and vehicles are in this sketchbook. Very few. Drawing strait lines or precise curves doesn't come naturally to me.

Edit on the sketchbook update: it won't be happening today. Turns out that fucking Lexmark doesn't have a Windows Vista driver for the printer/scanner that I have. You can tell that irks me because I'm cussing. Fucking damn it! I have some decent heads that I've been drawing, and I was going to scan a bunch of pages from an old sketchbook as well. Fuck. Damn. Grrrrr!

[Camara]

Why don´t you have some stars??????Here you are!!!

[Moai]

Camara- Did you give me some stars? I don't see them anywhere. Maybe you need a certain number of people giving you stars before they actually appear. Well, whatever. Thanks!

Here's some doodles for my newest project, the Waterfall City for EoW. My waterfall is sort of like an ancient Mayan/Aztec temple complex, with huge pyramids and lots of neat stylized animal statues. The waterfalls are all artificial, and cascade down the sides of the pyramids and out of the mouths of the stone animals. This one is going to be a challenge for me, but I'm looking forward to it!

I rented a big honkin' book on architecture today, so I'll start drawing from that. Gotta get my phobia of drawing buildings out of the way, if I actually want to make a career out of this concept art business.

[Camara]

Yeah!!!I gave you stars!!!!!!But,as you said,it seems that you need more people to make them appear.

HEY,YOU!!!THE ONE WHO IS READING!!!IF YOU LIKE THAT SB,GIVE IT´S AUTHOR SOME STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HE DESERVES IT!!!!!

[Moai]

Haha, thanks, Camara!
Here's an update on my Hu-Huffle piece. It's getting there.
On another subject, I keep trying to do some work on my Thunder Beasts (the two dino-beasts roaring at each other), but whenever I do I get this impatient, frustrated, "Gotta get this done already so I can work on other things without feeling guilty" feeling that, as you might imagine, somewhat hampers any work that I do on it. That killer bird, too. It's just sitting in my computer, not getting done, and frustating me when I try to work on it. I think tomorrow I'll just set aside some good quality time with all my unfinished pieces, so I can get a fresh start.

[Moai]

It's turning out to be an artastic day for me. One of my more productive days in a long while. Here are the results.
-I did this yesterday. A thumbnail for my Waterfall City EoW. The values are are bad.
-More thumbs I did this morning for EoW. The second one was some sort of holy waterfall fountain in an arid area, but it was looking so crappy that I abandoned it and moved on.
-Doodles for CoW! It's been a long time since I've participated in CoW. So, inspired by a page of silhouettes by the wonderful MC Barrett, I started some silhouettes. Then I got the idea of a monkey-like creature with an interesting coloration and a wise, peaceful expression on its face. So there you go. The coloration is based on the Asian Blue Quail. Look up the birds in the chicken/pheasant family sometimes. There are some very lovely birds in that family.

[Moai]

Monkey-like aliens, actually. I think. Anyway, the images:
-A thumbnail for the final picture.
-An early step in the rendering. I was going for a more painterly feel this time around.
-Further into the rendering. At first I wasn't very sure about the looser, less exact feel, but as I got going, and as the results prettied up, I started to really like it.
-A closeup of the previous image. I'm really happy with that branch in the background.