Marcel E. Mercado's Sketchbook

[system404]

Hello everyone. Decided to finally create a sketchbook thread, critiques and comments are always welcomed.

These are 5 minute poses:

[system404]

some more

[system404]

ok here's the last one for the week, I'll be on vacation next week so I won't be able to post. I'm planning on taking my sketchbook with me though.





This one took more than five minutes...

[Dan Valkar]

nice figures man! i can see a very interesting work here....... keep it up!

[Kaffinated]

love your figure drawings. How long did it take you to get where you are with anatomy and besides life drawing did you learn from any books like Hogarth's?

[Flipnastywebby]

bad ass bad ass bad ass

one thing, i love the texture, but i can tell its a texture
rotate the texture you use of screw with the size, thatll help creat the illussion of it being real even though its digital


I love the figures


Slainte!

[system404]

Hey thanks for the comments everybody.

Kaffinated-- My first "anatomy" book was "How to draw the marvel way" when I was about 11yrs. I attended an art school from seventh grade to my senior year in high school. My biggest teachers during that time was Leonardo, Caravaggio, Zurbarán, Bernini, and Michelangelo. I didn't see Hogarth's books until I came to the states during college. By then many of my fine arts teachers were very inspiring, most notably Jim Radford. Learned a great deal from him.

Books are a good source of resource, you can use Hogarth's book as reference for muscle studies and whatnot, but you really want to do as much real life drawing as possible. It helps in keeping yourself focused on the figure as a whole(especially during quick 1-3 minute gestures)

Flipnastywebby -- Thanks for the comments and suggestion. Yeah it's a texture, wasn't trying to pass it as a "real" painting. In reality it's a big PSD that I end up making new layers on top when I'm doing digital life drawings. And then I just output the background with the new layer into a separate jpg.

anyways thanks again for the feedback.

[system404]

Here's some work from a session I attended in the University of P.R. during my vacation.

These were two minute gestures





These were 4 minute drawings

[jedininjaman]

wow very nice figure work here, the nice curves and lines are brilliant
not quite sure what it is about them but you have the proportions down and you figures are gorgeous
one thing to keep on eye on though is that when you shade try to smoothin out your tones a little bit,
but the way you use the line width to help portrait the figure is neat work, I look forward to further updates stop by my SB some time I would appreciate some advice on how you make your people so relaxed and human looking, like they are living
but ya cool stuff and ill see you around

[Chiko]

Wow, incredible gestures and poses! These are amazing, post more.

No crits from me.

[ProgDraws]

very nice drawings here, i'm waiting to see more of then!

[system404]

Thanks for the compliments, and jedininjaman thanks for the tip
Something a bit different this time.
Wanted to do a POP art/Bill Sienkiewicz kinda of design. Had a lot of fun with it, especially trying to convey a watercolor effect digitally.



These sketches are for my next marvel superhero piece.

[tensai]

way to go on the figures - very dynamic. will be interesting to see where you take those.

cheers

[system404]

Ok over at CgTalk there's a thread on Concept Design: Steampunk Star Wars. You can check it here
Anyway this is my take on Obi Wan Kenobi.

[Amazing Action Ape]

Hey man, theres some pretty nice work in here!
I think you could probably do a bit more with your 5 minutes per figure, give it a shot, and push yourself a bit harder.

Looking forward to your next marvel piece though, that ghost rider is fucking hype!

[system404]

Here's some more quick paintings based on the Blade Runner movie

this one took about 45 minutes


these took 35 minutes each


all done in Photoshop

[system404]

I've been doing more portraits.

[Sofa King]

Hey cool sketchbook you have going on here.

Your figure drawings are looking real solid, and I love the movement in the Ghost Rider sketch, you did a great job of capturing that energy in his air guitar playing (and I have to agree air guitar does indeed rock).

But I have to say your take on a steampunk version of Obi Wan Kenobi is easily my favorite here so far, the character and overall atmosphere is nicely pulled off and put together. One thing that caught my eye though were the proportions on his lower legs, like they may be too small for the rest of his body. Although it does add to that kind of withered appearance the character has (I'm guessing it must be the hookah). Either way great job on that one, a very memorable piece in my opinion.

[system404]

Thanks for the comments Sofa King. Glad you like my work, as far as Obi Wan you are totally right on the legs being to short. A friend of mine had pointed this out to me too, definitely going to change that.

[grae]

Yo, this SB is really nice! I love the soldier with the brown/orange watercolor looking background and Old Man Ben (the text made me lol, btw). Really solid work, I look forward to seeing more!

[system404]

Thanks grae!
Well I've been kinda busy trying to update my site, so I haven't been able to really draw much. Did took a break today to do some PS brushes testing and this is what came of it. Critiques and comments welcomed

[system404]

here's one I had done awhile back. It was for a gods and monster thread, I chose Loki

[system404]

ok hope everyone had some good holidays. Getting back on this sketchbook, new piece came out of the blue. It had been too long since I did anything fantasyish. Still a WIP, the details aren't final. Really wanted to play around with a lot of jewelry so I might change what's there to something a bit more art nouveau(more intricate and delicate). I don't like the spearhead that much, maybe once I have a look for the jewelry the weapon can borrow on some of the design.
critiques and comments are always welcomed.

[system404]

Dominance War 3 has been announced, and although there is no info yet on the specifics of the contest I'm freakin excited to start on it. This year there will be nine forums competing and they have a concept category. If you don't know anything about this check it out here. Last year the concept was about the only thing I could get done, unfortunately.

Anyway, I started this sketch as a goof on everything that's consider next-gen in video games (huge armor, weapons, glowing bits, etc). Hopefully if I do more of these by the time the contest starts I'll have these cliche design out of my system and I can tackle the whole thing more creatively.

I think my next concept should be a woman with minimal armor and her boobs sticking out. :p

[Eon]

Beautiful, beautiful gestures. So full of form and grace. Very inspiring to look at and study! I really love how your PS brush testing came out! Loving this sketchbook of yours.

[Gadbury]

Amazing life drawings, such a feeling of solidity and the movement and poses are fantastic, thanks for posting

[YihyoungLi]

I am in awe of your figure drawings.

If I may ask: When you figure draw, do you start with the head, then the body? Or do you sketch out the body/torso first, then work outwards towards the limbs/head?

[system404]

Hey thanks a lot for the comments everybody.

Ninetails -- I always start from the head and work my way out to the body.

[mythwork]

Great work Marcel, got you in my fav's. You ever been published?

[mkshden!!]

Hi Marcel, nice sketchbook.

like a lot your figure drawings, and your entry for Steampunk Star Wars is my favorite!!

I also remember you posting some creatures in the creature thread, they were amazing, and I liked your style a lot,
hope you can post more creatures in the future.