Man Vs Suck

[m8y]

Hi peoples, I've decided is was time to make a serious effort at building a portfolio. These are some pieces I've created in the last month, to attempt to get some fantasy illo/TCG type work. The last couple are still at various levels of wip.

I feel I've played it a little too safe with these pieces so far, concerning rendering, poses etc and would love some critique. I'll also be posting studies and sketches as I do them.

[m8y]

In chronological order.

[Dana_T]

Very nice paintings so far, very dynamic with appealing color choices.

As far as 'playing it safe' goes just try to spice some things up a bit in your illustrations. Like in your second piece, with the knight kinda chillin in front of that burning village. Did he create that fire? Did he kill loads of innocents? Or is he protecting them? Or avenging them? Try to tell a story with your illustrations instead of just thinking "fantasy stuff!" You can do that by the pose, expression, and wear and tear on your figures' clothing. The story's up to you! That's the fun part.

Keep at it! And in future posts try to show the process you go through for each image. It could help people better advise you. Also, it's always interesting and awesome to see into the mind of another artist.

Hope this helps!
Keep posting man, you're on a good path

[whisper_wm]

I definitely like the third drawing. Good creature concept, and I feel like you're really telling a story there.

[blazinwolf]

Woah nice start! you paint lovely. the first one's cool.

my only suggestion is put the same amount of love you have for your characters into the backgrounds too!

more!

[zhiao]

Knightnbeast is great. Strange and magnetic.

[kitana_mk]

The environment in the knight vs beast is really good! The pose on the beast is apathetic and like it is not sure if it will attack or run away

[tronrobot]

mad rendering skills...

[Cojac]

I like your creatures. In general I wish you could play with more colors, to try to give more visual impact.

[m8y]

Thanks everyone who took the time to post.

Dana_T: Thanks for the encouragement. I agree narrative has been fairly weak for me so far, at least my ability to convey the narrative. With the piece you mentioned, I was trying to depict a sense of sadness in his face, implying regret at having to destroy the village.

Probably missed the mark though. I'll try and show more process in future, even though my process is kind of sloppy atm

whisper_wm: thanks

blazinwolf: Thanks, I agree about the environments being lackluster. Originally I these were meant to be more or less just TCG samples and it seems a lot of people doing that work focussed on the characters heavily, but I've since decided to put more importance into the background. Firstly, because I enjoy environment stuff ( even if I'm fairly weak with them at the moment) and secondly because it adds so much more to the narrative putting the characters into a convincing setting.

zhiao: Thanks, very nice of you to say.

kitana_mk Thank you, kinda what I was gong for, the beast sort of feeling the situation out a bit, a little apprehensive.

tronrobot: Thanks mate.

Cojac: thanks and good point. I feel I need to add more colour variety within certain pieces. Maybe hit on some accent colours here and there to lead the eye.

So I'm not posting without content, vairous studies and experiments from the last week...

SOme hands from the Bridgmaniac.


One of a few similar photo studies from the great resource that is Marcus Ranum's DA stock photo account.


A couple of experiments I did after doing, photo ref studies of related subjects. I like to do this to try and get the studies to stick more. Really need to do more enviro studies, especially from life if I can get myself a tablet/ipad or something. The girls I posted in the Paint your perfect soulmate thread in the lounge. Check it out and please participate.

[Bolo]

Hey m8y,

I loved the knight and monster pic. The dragon has a really nice feel to it too, but it looks like the left wing is not angled right. Your recent studies are really strong. Keep posting!

[m8y]

Thanks Bolo, I agree that wing is funky. Tried fixing it a few times, should really expand the canvas and draw the full wing and re-crop it because I'm having a bit of trouble seeing it with the framing as it is. I'm hoping this hacky transform fix will do the job though It'll be fairly painted out/blurred in the final.

Bit of progress on the background for the dragon image and a new wip of a ranger chick firing an invisible bow at invisible enemies.

[DNVN]

really solid paintings i like the use of color in post #10 i think it would be cool to carry it over to the girl with the helmet.

[m8y]

Thanks Geth.

Tablet is fuxed, making slow frustrating progress on this piece. Constantly having to adjust the usb where it goes into the port and is completely messing with any flow or enjoyment for this piece. A couple of times had to stop myself from thoughts of going all "office space" on my tablet.

Pretty sure its the mini-usb loose ports problem of the early intuos 4s. Undid the screws hoping to have a good look, but it seems held somewhere on the button/ring side still.

If someone knows how to get access to the ports of an intuos 4 Large, please pm me with some advice. Would really like to just solder it myself, seems easy enough from the pictures I've seen on a thread in the wacom forum. Really want to try and avoid rtm'ing it.

[LovelessDevout]

MOARRR /demand

gawd your stuff is amazing *_* keep at it! The suck won't touch you!

[GuruGaia]

Nice work, I really like the variety in your pieces, and your landscapes are amazing. But I am commenting about your usb port problems. I wrapped a couple layers of electrical tape around my plug so that it would be a snug fit. It might help if you still worry about it wobbling around/if its not to far past that phase anyway. Hope it works out soon for ya.

[Divine]

Wow man, awesome start to your book definitely looking forward to seeing more!

[Luke Flerin]

I especially love that undead dude, reminds me of something from World of Warcraft!

The dude on the Wolf (atleast i think it's a wolf ) is amazing aswell!

[Sonia Leticia]

Great start ... The studies are looking particulary awesome. I like the one with the woods and light peaking through. Sweet stuff, keep going!

[Mila]

New work is looking terrific! :] Keep it up!

[m8y]

Ok so it turns out it's the pen that is the problem. Played around with it and except for being a little spongy, it worked perfectly for about a day.
Died now though and I can't seem to fix it. Over it... ordered a new one, its forcing me to do some pencils so alls well.

Anyways here's a crop of a rough I was going to do for this weeks ChoW ; Modern Fantasy. Was having a lot of fun with it, may try and finish it when I can still.
Close to finishing the wolf-rider piece, a couple more hours needed on the environment mainly.

[m8y]

LovelessDevout: Thanks, it's a constant battle, feel like I really fumble my way through most pieces. btw I will most likely change the title of this thread at some stage, making that comment of yours seem a bit odd. hehe

GuruGaia: Yeah as I said above, turns out it was the pen. My ports are really loose though and after reading about people having problems with them I was convinced that was the issue. Thanks for the tip though.

Divine: Thanks!

Luke Flerin: Dude on the wolf? Really hoping the last update makes her appear more feminine. Maybe I should have gone with the ole' massive breasts in small bikini armour.

Sonia Leticia: THanks, that light doesn't make any sense really, I've just been looking for an excuse to try doing dappled light and that was it.

Mila Thank you!

[m8y]

Some speedies from this afternoon, really need to put some time into learning to design better.

[AlexTooth]

these all look great! keep pushing it

[Mila]

They look good. Nice use of colours

[m8y]

Thanks guys.

[lemming-clone-]

Good stuff! You have a great sense of atmosphere that shows through in many of your paintings. Keep it up!

[Velocity Kendall]

damn that dragon image has got some energy. great composition on thw wolf one too, jus tneed to sort the wolfs head out, his head looks a but wonky. great work thought.

[m8y]

Long time no post... thanks for the comments.

Velocity: Not entirely sure in what way you mean exactly. I'm thinking you mean wonky perspective, which is one of my biggest issues. Especially after staring at a piece for too long.

Gandalf for an Ozcomics submission.


Wip revisiting a CHoW I never was able to finish

[S_Gangl]

cool and nice ideas you have here
I like your imagination and your topics :p