Halfmonk's Scratch Corner - *UPDATE* - 07/03/08

[RandAlThor]

More regularly dude... lol. Good progress in the recent pieces, and i like the color harmony you in that dragon head thing. you should incorporate more of what you learnt there in your future works... ;-)

[Halfmonk]

More playing...


Dark Elf... Drizzt

[Silveraxe]

Hey Grant! Lovely sketchbook, I like your grumpy looking figures But I think we need to see some more expressions on those faces
Your CG work is really neat, but I think you should do more practice on your pencil work. Since your painting is beautiful, your pieces will look amazing once the drawings improve!
Also I'd like to see more compositions, like that girl with the red flag-thingy!
It was lovely to meet you in Seattle, my friend! Keep artwork coming!

[Halfmonk]

Thanks for the comments Yasemin, really good crits!

Another doodle playing with values:

[Halfmonk]

Another lunch-hour doodle playing with values and lighting, trying to get my head around a few things.

[Halfmonk]

A beefeater in foggy London, I may colour this guy at a later date.

[Silveraxe]

The last one is awesome! His balance is a bit off, but the char. design is really neat, love the rendering on the face. If that's a torch on his hand, you should capture the light areas where the fire reflects, and lower the lighting on other areas. Depending on the time of the day, you can darken the shadow areas too. It would make a lovely colored piece.
Also I really like #34, though the lighting is not consistent throught the piece.
Nice value studies, i should do some too ;p

[pencil1]

great stuff . I love the last one, very awesome charachter-design, i think its worth some colors .

~pencil

[Halfmonk]

Some of this stuff is a few months old, not really happy with it, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Some more painterly cutesy stuff:



Zombies and Golems (because I love them):






Playing with colours and lighting:

I'm sure this made sense at the time...

[Maestro Andres]

Hey man, it's nice see you updating this regularly. This is something I would have to do as well. The value studies are well done but gotta agree with Silveraxe in some of them. Also, your concepts are very entertaining and glad to see.
I definitively agree about painting the one in #36. However, I can notice small anatomy errors. The way his left leg is contracted makes the right one look shorter since this one is stretched (hopefully that makes sense). Just think on how the legs will look when stretched all the way, and probably you will see they don't have the same length. Still, really dig the details on that one.

On a side note, I came across that "project" you were mentioned you were working on, and it looks very promising. Best of luck with that one!

[Halfmonk]

Hey Andres!
Thanks for the crits dude, really good stuff, I can't believe I didn't notice that leg myself! :-D

Here's another lunchtime doodle (more brush play):

[Halfmonk]

A very quick doodle, 20 mins or so:

[Halfmonk]

An environment doodle, still playing with texture overlays and whatnot... I'll keep trying :-]

[snubbed]

Hey, Halfmonk.

Your work is good. It seems that you fluctuate in quality a lot, though from mediocre to really great. For example, I think post 41 of that robot/bug looks really awesome, but then there are pieces that look like just the start of an idea. I suppose that's the nature of a sketchbook, right? Mine is much the same, I think.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this thread and the regular updates!

[phoenicorn]

i love your mutants. they rock

[Halfmonk]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Snubbed - You are right about the level fluctuating. These are mostly quick experiments, nothing I'm committing too much time to. Some are more successful than others ;-)

Here are another couple of brush tests:

[Bones Weep Tedium]

did you achive that splatter effect through custom brushes, or is that a seperate texture scanned in?

[Halfmonk]

Hey Bones, thanks for looking!
It's all custom brushes, I have a few nice splattery ones I use.

[Bones Weep Tedium]

It's very good --- do you use a dappling motion with the stylus, or do you set the flow way down?

[Halfmonk]

Bones - It depends on the brush, some of them I just dab on, others I have affected by wacom pressure. The small splatters (my toothbrush) I tend just to dot around. Hope that helps :-)

Here are two more I did during my lunch hour:

[Silveraxe]

looking good
Your figures are a bit too stiff, they need more gesture. I would recommend that you do 2 - 5min quick gesture studies and learn to see how the body naturally curves (not the outline of the body, but the general thing).
Also I would love to see more colors every now and then.. Reds, greens, yellows etc...

Keep up the good work my friend!

[RobRey]

Grant! Your steadily improving! I like the pointy nosed guy with the culry ears. Good renderings. Remember structure in your drawings though, ex: draw a center line and make sure that not only do the eyes line up, but that the whole skull lines up in proper perspective. ...But remember contrapposto too! Now I'm getting confusing, anyway, life drawing is good for this.
Looking good, keep it up.

[Halfmonk]

Rob! - Glad to see you posting here, get a sketchbook going! Excellent crits, you noticed I am rushing through the design stage straight to rendering, something I am still guilty off, I will try harder :-]
Silveraxe - You noticed I'm doing lazy poses too, damn, I will do more dynamic stuff just for you :-D

[Maestro Andres]

Like you last updates man. I like how you are developing your textures in your recent pieces, it's adding a lot to them. Is it all photoshop? The texture in the guy on the cat reminds me a bit to ArtRage stuff, still good stuff. Can't think of anything general to critique, but in being specific, the sidewalk perspective is not matching the one of the character or at least it seems. It's good seeing how your designs are developing, keep it up man.