Moai's Sketchbook

[Moai]

Mike Corriero- Damn that Terryl Whitlatch! She has replaced Wayne Barlowe as the artist who most often sneaks into my creature designs. In my defense, I imagined #58 as more of a hammerhead frog, whereas the Gorg (or whatever that thing is called in the book) is more of a Diplocaulus frog. But yeah, it's too close. It's interesting that everyone, including me, has different favorites among my designs. Your favorites and my favorites seem to have the most overlap, though.
zweiDei- Thank you!
markeshi- Thank you for the kind and encouraging words. Comparing myself to others is a trap I often fall into, unfortunately.
OBX- Thanks!
James Wolf- Coming from the man who, in my opinion, has one of the two or three best collections of creature designs in the round, that means a lot. Thanks!
Ignonimious- Thanks, buddy. I'm going to go over to your sketchbook and critique you one of these days, I swear.
spazozo- Thank you.
longshao- Sweet! I'm looking forward to the larger versions. Yeah, it was only in the last 30-40 that I finally settled on a method on how to work on these things as well. I'll definitely have to research some insects and other invertebrates. I learned a bit from your mentoring thread already.

Damn, I think that's the most comments I've ever gotten between updates!
Anyway, I've begun to render out some of my thumbnails. Here's my work on #1 so far. The values and rock forms still aren't finalized. I'm heading out into somewhat new territory with this one. I'm starting out with values, instead of diving straight into color. I'm experimenting with more texture in both the creature (using the Sphynx cat as a reference) and on the background. I'm also doing quite a bit of the work on Painter. Jason Chan's video encouraged me to get try to get to learn that program a little better.
So here's what I think about this creature's biology. I was a little doubtful when I increased the size of this image, because the creature has few sense organs. Its head has no eyes, ears, or visible mouth; just nostrils. So, what the heck does it do? How the heck does it get around? Here's what I think. It's a very cautious, slow-moving creature, relying on its sense of touch and sensitivity to vibrations. It always reaches out a testing hand before taking another step. It eats only a certain type of rock-growing moss, to which its sense of smell is specially attuned. It consumes the moss by scraping its snout over it and drawing plant matter into its small, almost invisible mouth. The scraping action would explain the downturned shape of its muzzle, as that would perhaps be a more efficient scraping shape. The need to scrape surfaces at various angles would also explain why a creature that is blind, deaf, and therefore has no sense organs that it needs to aim has such a mobile head. When it senses a threat approaching through the sensitive pads of its feet, it simply curls up and presents its highly venomous spines. Why is it blind, though? I don't know. Perhaps, fairly recently, its star underwent a change and began to emit light in a different spectrum, invisible to the ancestors of this species. Individuals who carried genes that caused blindness did just as well as those who could see. Because the blind ones survived long enough to mate, when before they had almost always died, the blind genes proliferated and eventually became the norm. Why no ears? Perhaps creatures on this world have evolved a vibration-sensing method similar to insects, who have their "ears" on their legs in some cases. In that case, it didn't loose any ears on its head; it never had them.
I hope some of you enjoyed that speculation. I rarely figure out this stuff ahead of time. I just make up a story that fits afterwards.

Edit: Looking at it now, I think the composition might be calling for more space to the left.

[Grief]

God wants to trade pokemon with you.

amazing sketchbook, very imaginative.

[Blue Severin]

Hey Moai, very cool to see all those blown up. Great job on the 100.

[Moai]

Grief- Tell God I said okay! Thank you.
Jens- Thanks.
Blue Severin- Thank ya kindly.

So now a complete about face from the creatures, and on into some perspective and lighting practice. Though this sketchbook doesn't really show it at all, I've actually had some pretty sound instruction when it comes to perspective, via a couple high school level mechanical drawing classes. So I know about station points and side and top elevations and all that, at least somewhat. Note that these aren't really serious illustrations, just practice. The values could probably be better. I need to buy some simple foam cubes and cylinders and whatnot and do some still lives. I feel the need for some very basic practice in lighting and form.
So anyway, yeah, the images.
-Did this a few days ago. You can kinda see the technique I was using, and you may notice that it was somewhat half-assed. The cube doesn't look like a cube at all. I think it has something to do with the position of my station point (the little cross near the bottom, where the observer is theoretically standing outside of the picture plane), and with the angle at which I put the top views of the shapes. I don't really know the rules for those things, yet.
-Another one I did last night/today. This one was quite challenging, since I have a much more complex shape than a simple rectangular prism. Drawing the shape itself in perspective was cake, but doing the cast shadows was tough, especially figuring out the position of the right edge of the cast shadow of the tall box, since that shadow falls across three different planes.
-A non-cropped, zoomed out view of the previous image, with every layer turned on.
-Same image, shape perspective alone.
-Same image, with all the lines I used to figure out the shadows. There wouldn't be so many if I hadn't made some mistakes.

Not that exciting to look at, but informative. For me at least. I'll probably be making some progressively more complex images like this in the future. Like I said, I'm also going to be doing some still lives, so I'll be more accurate when I make up values for different planes.

[Ignominious]

you're gonna be so famous someday man! that creature is amazing

[Sway West]

Such variety and interest! I think you've got a knack for creature creation, and I was excited to see you participated in the CoW 100, and also the mentoring section.

It's nice to see another Terryl Whitlatch fan on the boards! Did you hear she's (been) teaching at The Academy Of Art University? I'd love to pick her brain and watch her work.

I don't know if I'll make it to Seattle, but if I do, I'd love to meet up!

[Moai]

Ignonimious- Thanks! I'm catching up with all my sketchbook critiquing, so you're next for that!
Sway West- Thanks! Yeah, Terryl Whitlatch Terryl Whitlatch Terryl Whitlatch. I like her. Meeting at Seattle would be cool. Hope you can make it!

Here's what the past hour or so has done to this pic. I've gotten the values much closer to where I want them, and expanded it to the left. Now its just a matter of tackling the color issue, and then going in for the rendering.

[amer-nazri]

Holy Cow!! Literally! Man your stuff looks beter and better! Your cow 100 rocks! I like how each creature looks plausible and is unique in its own way. Its great to see you learning perspective, itll be really helpful to your spatial design as a whole! Good work!

[Moai]

Amer-Nazri- Thanks, man. Yeah, the practice with shadows is already informing me somewhat, even in this latest picture that I'm working on.

Colorized, and now beginning to render.

[OldJake666]

Moai.... You're awesome man. A constant inspiration and fuel for my imagination. One day I hope to do mostly creature design and your art makes me just want grab some paper and draw some creatures. Your COW 100 blows mine out of the friggin park. I don't know why you've already bought your ticket for Seattle, you'll probably win... put me on the list if you do for ticket donations
I think if I put twice the amount of time on the ideation my creatures would look SSOOOOOOOO much better. Your ideas are just great!

[Turisas]

Tell you what, Moai. It would be far easier for me to provide critique if you made something that has something so wrong that I would notice it.
Before I was lazy to critizice, as usual, and when I feel like actually doing it, damnit, you go and screw it up by making such work that simply can't be critiziced by me.
Oh well. Keep up the great work, you prick. Haha =P

[joaKimArt]

Very cool design on the creatures. Interesting to watch. I have not read all pages. So I ask here instead. Are those creatures for something special? Good job nevertheless!

[Kamikazebob]

It's really cool to see the full pics from your COW page. Great to see all this stuff from ya man.

Heh, I might get to meetcha in Seattle, not sure yet.

[FactorZero]

great creatures. Your vibrant colors keep em fresh too.

[Moai]

Jake Kobrin- Thanks, dude!
MonsterKill- I know, I know. I'll try not to be so damn good.
joaKimArt- They were for the 100th round of Creature of the Week. Thanks!
KamikazeBob- I hope you choose to go. Thank you.
FactorZero- Thank ya.

So yeah, here's as far as my critter went before I got tired of it. That's how pretty much all of my paintings have been going lately. Oh well.
But forget about that. Here's the beginning of what will be a multi-stage dump of my figure drawings for this semester. These are kind of mixed up in terms of the order that I did them, but what the hay.
Sorry for the long delay before this update.

[amer-nazri]

wow! nice update! This is a side of your work i rarely see, and its great! Great life drawings, love the bold strokes on that portrait. As for crits, in the last life drawing, I cant help but notice that his pelvis is too small in comparison to his upper body, and his left arm looks a bit wide. Great stuff all round, I'd like to see more of these!!

[Moai]

Thanks, Amer-Nazri! Your wish is my command!

[OldJake666]

Good to see you're not only doing creatures hehehe
How big are the life drawings and what time frame did you do them in?

I hope I get to talk with you at the workshop!

[Moai]

Thanks, Jake. Well, all of these are BIG. The drawings on black paper were 28 inches on the long side, I believe, and the rest were done from rolls of paper that were 42 inches. So yeah, they big.
And we definitely need to meet in Seattle. You're my mentee, for Pete's sake!

[angelo cordon]

someone's sketchbook is getting popular


i feel like ive never seen any figure drawings from this guy!!! good work man. these are all very good studies. i think at this point, i can no longer properly constuctively critic you


anyways, im working on going to seattle during the workshop but i will not be attending off to visit some friends up there. anyways, i got a new phone and you should definitely shoot me your number again for a potential meeting (one more try) and drawing jam

best,
spade

[lennon]

Hi man, very good stuff, your fantasy anatomy looks great, and you rendered the form very good at the end. Anyway, pretty cool drawings around here.

[Draniel]

very nice figure drawings, and i really really like your creatures design, i might need to start drawing animals.

[Ignominious]

moooaaaiii!!!! where are you?

[Moai]

BEEEEEP

If you are hearing this message, then Moai is probably either working long holiday hours at his retail job, or doing homework for school. He will resume the regular creation and posting of artwork probably sometime next week, when his assignments are complete and this damn semester is finally over. Moai thanks you for your patience and support.

BEEEEEP

[angelo cordon]

press five to page this person.

[Moai]

Hey, everybody! Well, it's been a loooong few weeks for me. My figure drawing class has been pretty much my only art outlet lately, with my longer work hours and homework. But my homework is all done save for one online test and a few more lifedrawings, so I finally have time to get back into my personal art groove. I've spent the past few hours sketching up a new mermaid picture for my mom (this time for Christmas), and it feels so good to simply be making markings on a surface. So, here she is. She's more of a lionfish this time, as opposed to a carp, and she has some seahorse friends. I'm going to put some sort of top on her in a future stage of the drawing, but I think I'll also keep a topless version for myself.
I think one benefit of not being able to draw very much is that I spent a lot of time thinking of drawing. That can be very helpful as well. A lot of times I'll sketch or even paint without really thinking, and having time just to roll information around in my brain and observe light and color in the real world has been helpful.

redspade- Oh, pshaw. I'm not that good. You can still find flaws in my work and point them out to me. Thanks, though.
lennon- Thanks!
Draniel- Thanks, man. Follow the mentoring link in my signature. I'm not taking any mentees right now, but all the information is there, free to view, and I worked hard to gather it up.
Ignominious- Whaaaazzzuuuupp...I'll never say that agian.

[angelo cordon]

your mom's hot :p


i think that the arms and head is too small. but other than that, good start so far i want to see this juxtaposed with your previous one!

[Moai]

your mom's hot :p

I otta smack you for that. In seriousness, though, her face will be based on the face of this rather striking looking woman/girl who comes into my work every now and then. It's a very pretty, interesting face, with very round, wide-set eyes. I've been paying a lot more attention to the way people look, you see.

i think that the arms and head is too small. but other than that, good start so far

You're absolutely right about that. I even took my linework and pasted it over the image from Character Designs.com that I'm using for reference, and sure enough. Thanks.

i want to see this juxtaposed with your previous one!

I chose the pose specifically for it to be the opposite of my previous mermaid's pose, so the two images can complement each other. But really, I hope this new image that I make kicks the old mermaid picture's ass. I don't like to sound pessimistic, but I consider pretty much every aspect of the last mermaid image to be a failure. Values, colors, shapes, composition, everything. At least other people like it.

[Katfayheirti]

Woah, man!! SOOOOOO much improvement since I last checked in. The 100-creature challenge has done a lot for your rendering skills and your handling of charcoal on the figures is wonderfully delicate. I paricularily love the way you handled the drawing of the old man.

Out of all 100 creatures you've done I'd have to say that my favourite page is the Feathered Desert-Runners. I recently got a book on dinosaurs and those feathered desert-runners look wonderfully raptor-like. Have you ever heard of Microraptor? It had four wings and was super-awesome. You should look it up.
I love how you've brought such bright colours into many of your creatures. It gives them a feeling of possibly inhabiting the same universe (A bright, colourful world full of wonder and variety.) I wonder what results you'd get if you tried to draw desert creatures that needed to camoflage themselves in the sand to survive, or maybe if you tried drawing cave-dwelling creatures that are blind and can't see colour and so don't rely on striking plumage to attract a mate.

I agree with Mike Correiro about the general lack of Invertebrates. Don't forget the crablike things and tubeworm-eque monsters. I'd love to see some crazy, blind deep-sea-dwelling gigantic arthropods.

[Moai]

Katfay- Thanks! I'm really glad to see you back here again. I'm going to have to hop over to your sketchbook before long, too. Microraptor, huh? I'll definitely look it up. And giving my critters such bright colors might be getting to be somewhat of a problem. Most real animals are rather drab. And, of course, more invertebrates!

So, here's the mermaid so far. She was giving me a really hard time yesterday. I had a hell of a time finding those values, and they still aren't right. I can see the problems more clearly now that I've slept and surfed on it, though, and I'm in an optimistic mood about getting back to work on it today.
Oddly, her face is nothing like what I set out for. The sketch ended up quite different from the face I had in mind, and this painted face has changed somewhat from the sketch. I like the face, but I'd really like to be able just draw the face I have in my head. Back to doing studies, I guess.