★ TheDirtSyndicate ★

[Renier van der West]

Great stuff here man! I must say, your designs blew me away. that one huricane pointed out really is the best.

id love to see more so keep this thread alive!

5 stars

[Daggeronie]

dude, That looks really sweet, I envy your drawing skillz! going to follow this thread freom now on.

sweet!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

few more environment sketches.
nothing special...

citadel, blah
guy hanging in barn, blah
run of the mill tree city, kinda happy with, but still blah

[TheDirtSyndicate]

ok, sooo today i decided i'd try to start getting back into the swing of things and do some illustration. its been awhile... work has been kicking my ass lately.
and i'll be able to post some WORK work on friday, after i get the greenlight from the client.
*i landed us a nike job with one drawing*


anyway, today i did a couple speed paintings, about 10 - 15 min a piece. i know the environment is shitty... but im pretty happy with the jet.
feedback welcome.

[DanielC]

Nice work !

[magnut]

Wow.

You're building up a rhythm here. Your solid sketches have that rough quality which gives your work that 'edge', and you draw women with a sensuality like you've actually had sex with a few of them.

Too many people draw women, and it looks so evident that they've never even seen one naked in person. These are the times you know when someone knows what they're doing.

And the speed paintings are incredibly strong! Damn. This is where I believe you're hitting a stride.

The greatest part of all this is your broad range of abilities. People should learn from you, and not keep their skillset on such a narrow level, only specializing in one thing, which does not make for any kind of solid career.

You are fucking fearless!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

just thought i'd post my progress shots from my first chow.
chow #88 "the fly breeder"

my idea is simple:
the guy is a serial killer. to the outside world his kills have no motive... but to him there is, to breed flies.

anyway,
1. first i did the sketch. done in pen.
2. sketched out the victim.
3. put the killer and victim together, cleaned up the linework a bit and added intestine over the breeders big stick.
4. made a textured bkg for mid tone.
5. started pushing my values, added the crown back in
6. color and flies.
the end.


but its not due til sunday... so im still open to suggestions.

[Stark]

My first reaction was awesome. Liked the process (wish more people did this), and then it changed to WTF? It's too dark. You can't really tell what is going on unless you look through the process shots and I don't know how many people in the CHOW arena are going to come to your SB to see them. Lighten up the victim to match the killer. Those two areas should be the focal point of your piece. I like the concept a lot though. I doubt too many people are even thinking about it this way.

Hope that kind of helped? Good luck and keep rocking bro.

[Kman.]

Yeah I would say brighten that up so you can see how the character is interacting with the dead body a little more clearly.

Interesting work! Keep it up!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

thanks for the feedback... i know he's dark... i just didn't want to have him take focus away from the main character ya know?
but you're right... everyone seems to be saying that he's not bright enough.
i'll make some adjustments later on tonight.
thanks again!

[daveneale]

I didn't even realise there was a guy down there found you in the chow thread and have perused your awsome SB...great work...some sweet characters in here!

[dmoreno]

u're style.. man.. i´m speechless..

keep it up, i'm kinda new with this concept world and looking at sketchbooks like yours just HELPS me wanting to draw more and more..

this SB's on my Favourite list. period.

[DARAF]

Nice works man. I'll stop by your site tonight.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

whats up guys.. been busy with work lately. and on my free time i've been doing other things, like camping.


so i did this piece the other night, based off of a photo i took when i was in colombia.
feedback welcome!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

damn... i was hoping for more feedback from that last painting...
oh well.
anyway, these sketches i did for the character of the week but didn't get a chance to take to the next level. wasn't really happy with any of them anyway.
the theme was "the antagonist"
kind of a crossover theme, sci-fi/horror.
meh..

[TheDirtSyndicate]

oh yeah, forgot to post these.
some photos i took recently that i was pretty happy with.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

keep forgetting shit.
couple self portraits (most recent):

[Stark]

Looks great. On the last painting, the painting looks washed out, making the colors seem runny. Also, the right (our left) forearm looks huge so take another look at that also. The blue thing in the middle, what is that? If it's a paint splotch, then I can understand. If it's a creature or something, then more definition is needed. Uh, the CHOW concepts look awesome, so take it further and don't quit on those just yet. Self portrait or just a photo? Take those photos and do something crazy to them and see what you can come up with.

Kudos Complete2 and good luck. See ya next update.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

did it yesterday.

just wait until i can spike it up!!

[magnut]

I keep looking at the sketchbook and then I get distracted away from writing a response. Sorry it took me so long this time...

I really enjoy seeing your process with the serial killer. I also think it's too dark, but only slightly so. I have no problem with you having done the illustration, only to then not be able to see most of it, if that's your intention from the start. However, it's not a matter of the victim needing to be brighter. It's a matter of judiciously feeding us just enough tiny details to - sort of? - figure out what's going on. Makes everything much more mysterious. Really fucking creepy, too! I would hope to see just enough highlights on the victim's form that would make him 'read' better. It's good to make the viewer work to discern your details.

Speaking of creepy... your Columbian-based digital painting is great! I like how you're making things look like it's painterly, even if it's done digitally. Especially the texturing, which is brilliantly executed. It's a mystery how your twisted mind works, but it's obviously a catalog of how to do various texturing digitally.

Speaking of your twisted mind... your scifi designs are damned interesting. I can easily imagine what kind of world your characters would live in, simply based upon the serial killer treatment. I think you'll scare yourself one day (as we all would, probably) when you put together your as-yet uncompleted projects, only to find out that you've created some pretty amazing things that can actually be made into significant entertainment projects. Just like I have to do, you need to focus your energies into developing specific projects, just to see where things go.

Speaking of focusing... I do love your photos. Especially when I can't tell what the hell you're taking pictures of! You should be happy with those photos! Sensual, alluring. Yet, I think it's organic, but it almost looks like it's not.

Self portraits are great. You look like you could be an actor. Either that, or you look like you'd kill me where I stand if I looked at you wrong. Actually, you look like you've worked a full tiring day. Then you have that look of being the lone rebel in the police force. Like you've got your own cop series going for NBC... 'Cop Dude'!

I think it would be a great thing for you one day to film & edit a tutorial showing how you do what you do. It would open people's minds up to new and great things. But, you'd be giving your secrets away, so maybe you shouldn't do that...?

Nah, screw everyone else. Just dazzle'em with what you do. Keep your secrets.

Damn nice stuff!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

thought i'd try out something a little different, some character silhouettes.
i really liked doing these. did them in illustrator, spent approximately 30-45 seconds on each one.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

thought i'd do some more silhouettes.
i love doing these things, i'm gonna try doing vehicles and environments like this too.
feedback welcome!

[matejkovacic]

Nice thumbs! Seems like a very good idea, actually like a must, before
deciding for the right design to go with.

Good luck,

Matej

[TheDirtSyndicate]

yeah, no shit. haha
its weird to me though... all through art school i never did thumbnails for anything, and NOW, 8 years later im starting to get it. haha
anyway, got some more stuff.

first four are photos of my co-worker
next is a character design i did for my boss, and the process for creating him
last 2 are boards i did for a music video side project that i wanna do with my art director.

again, feedback welcome

[Stark]

Nice stuff there. Can you tell me how you create your sillos? I always wanted to learn how to do them but I couldn't find the right kind of information. I love em btw, and the little guy you have right above. Is that a mascot for something?

[Flipnastywebby]

i voted for your fly breeder.
it was disgustingly awesome and i liekd the composition


slainte!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

thanks flipnastywebby
stark:
i use the pencil tool in illustrator. no stroke, just fill. but you have to double click your pencil tool in the tools palate and make sure that "edit selected paths" is un-checked. then i just kinda scribble about until i come up with a combination of shapes that i like and start pushing it in that direction. some are completely random, but when i created most of them i had a very loose idea in my head as to what i wanted, for example "... a really BIG dude" or maybe something like "... a thin ninja like dude"
and thats about as much thought as i put into them before i start. and like i said, i spend about 45 seconds on each one.
WORK FAST. get the forms right. use your accidents as design elements, there are no fuck ups. every "wrong" line can be turned into weird costume pieces or maybe an extra arm or leg.
anyway, i gotta get back to work.

[Delmar]

Love your characters, so stylish and wicked...nice!

Maybe i read over it, but which company dou you work for.?

[TheDirtSyndicate]

i work here: www.beliefdesign.com

[Stark]

Thanks for the info. I'll try my hand at them and hopefully can make them look coherent. Do you just do them in light and dark, getting the form and lighting through....lighting? Or do you just scribble an they turn out that way?