ShardBook ***UPDATED TODAY***

[kidult]

Nice updates, loving the 3d tree, welldone on that! I feel your last render of it in the scene seems a bit bright.
Nice creature, why doesnt the front leg / tendril have a rimlight? You could also add a slightly darker value with an overlay layer on the the head part just to round it out a bit more, just a dab with a soft brush, it feels a little flat. Good job on the fleshy colours.
Keep it coming!

[Shard]

[Shard]

[Shard]

todays speedy

[Ian Miles]

Your speedies are awesome! I really like the "dirty" feel of the concepts, but there is ONE thing that, I think it makes the message of the picture a little confusing.

Everything it´s in perfect hard edge shapes, I mean, there is not enought depth of field, or lens blur, or aerial perspective to make clear that something is very, very far away than the other elements.

http://dvd.massiveblack.com/whit_images2.html#

[Shard]

thanks Ian I often overdo an unsharp mask after i'm done to bring the little accents out but yeah i should be more careful as it tends to make hard edges even when its not supposed to..
oh well here some more:

[Shard]

[Sebastian Gromann]

speedies looking top mate !
i fAcking love #201 and saved it yay. THANKS

[fullmetaljacket]

Awesome stuff man, and enormous improvement trough out ur sketchbook.

And ur enviroments rock, keep em comming :p

Grts !

[Shard]

thanks a lot fullmetaljacket and SnobbyOo

here's something I just finished..

[jatherip]

WOW! ive never seen so many sick environments in one thread! man, how did you get these ideas?

[UCT]

shardana - I havent been hear in a while and these enviros are great, I like how you have ovbious marking making but it blends in with the general atmosphere of the enviroment looking stuble within structres and implied space. Thats talent in my book.
Your creature from 198 is brutal and that sppedy in 202 is jizz'm good. thats right,... I got excited. You capture the mood very well.
MORE!

[Shard]

UCT,jatherip: thanks guys glad you like
to get ideas I usually stack a few finished works in different layers in photoshop and flip/rotate/scale/play with blending modes until it becomes something different that sparks an idea..
then i start working what i see in that abstract mess to suggest things and eventually it all takes shape.
its a very fun technique to quickly come up with something rather than starting from scratch everytime..

working on some character piece atm that's taking ages so i needed a break with another enviro:

[Bagg]

hey man i'm really impressed with your enviros and structures, really great sense of detail.
Just wandering what brushes you use and how do you create such beautiful textures?

[Shard]

hey Bagg thanks, I generally use textured brushes to get rid of that clean digital look, I made a few textures myself using some of my old works as a base, its an ongoing thing..I still cant get the right look/settings but its getting closer..I'm trying to balance between a textured and a standard brush..I found that my early brushes were a little too textured and left a very strong mark..so shading was a bit of a problem (well kinda closer to what you'd expect traditionally but i still find it easier to play with opacity)
current one is a little softer it leaves a nice texture and at the same time allows me to blend and fade things out better.

its good to play a bit with them and make a few that fits the way you paint,
a great starting point are "M@." brushes you can find here in CA, I still use them a lot or as a base for new ones..check them out!

[Psychotime]

Great environments!

[Shard]

after reading about the wacom contest over deviantart I was toying with the idea of "good and evil" one night and end up with something I quite liked so i decided to go for it and this is the result..

damn I'm not used to do finished stuff..the whole polishing has been a pain.. took me ages, I got bored of it after 3 days but I've definitely learnt a lot..especially on being patient and keep at it
anyway hope you like..

[revenebo]

Wowwww! Creepy!! It's worth the three days effort (I have the same problem I get tired of refining an image and I must force myself to complete the work...).

Why don't you try and bring some of the last environments to the same level of refinement?

[Shard]

hey cheers revenebo! took way longer than 3 days was almost 2 weeks between sketching to the end.. but yeah i dont have much patience and tend to get bored of looking at the same thing after a while. not too comfortable doing characters too so that doesnt help..
when it comes to enviros I also really like the roughness and to give a suggestion of detail rather than explaining everything..still trying to find what works for me in terms of rendering..
should revisit some of the previous ones and give it another pass or two..
eventually!

[Shard]

more practice from imagination..

[Vulgar`]

Last one is immensely cool, I like the girl at the bottom who's the only girl not possessed. She's fighting, trying to escape - great story in the image. Now I know where all the gingerbread men go to die.

Keep doing you

[cout<mecha]

I've been meaning to say you're stuff is really awsome for a while now. I've never seen z-brush used like that before. Really love what you did with that tree and the background! Stop by my SB sometime, maybe we can collab...

Cheers!
<<

[Thor's Hammer]

Whoa, awesome work man. I can only hope to ever get to be this good. So where are these M@ brushes you speak of? I'd like to give them a whirl. I've been in a rut for the month and haven't really produced anything or done any practices, and I need to get back to drawing and painting. You've inspired me friend.

[Shard]

thanks a lot guys
something is cooking already!

for those brushes check out the first post in this thread and dont miss his excellent stuff!! he's also in the top banner.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73169

[monotony]

awesome work, shardana!
haven't been here in a while and your environments are really taking of!
love the one on top of this page and http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1238183810 this one.
you're making great progress for sure!

[Shard]

cheers monotony! been following your thread for a while now and your stuff is always inspiring!!

here's a war shaman..
perspective is terrible at places..I might work more on it but for the time being here's a wip

[Shard]

some zbrush fun...

[Shard]

more work on the shammy

[Φ]

uuhh, I missed some stuff in here! good stuff!! lots of nice environments! ahh, cant get enough of em

last one cracked me up. I really like it.
no c&c once more, Im sorry……but……keeeep et uup!

[firecrow]

yo dude! finished Shaman worked out well. keep them coming! Good to see you doing some Z-brush sketches.