Stoat: it's all coming back to me...

[Mr.Delicious]

woo, bumped you up to 5 stars! those traditional ones from the beginning are soo awesome! did you work as an artist in the 80s? The Self Portrait made me laugh, but its so amazing at the same time... do you still have that jacket? and can i have it?

[MeTaL-Mike]

Man too bad you didn't make it to the spartan thread. your gestures look amazing man. hope to see you there one day.

[Stoat]

OMG! I have stars! I can't tell you guys how surprised and flattered I am. There are so many people in this forum whose work flat out blows me away. I tiptoe around the sketchbooks every morning with big eyes.

I posted the old stuff to kind of nerve myself up to begin drawing again. When I found that sketchbook, it reminded me that I had *something* before I disappeared in the bowels of a corporation for 25 years.

In a way, I kind of stepped on my own tail by posting the older work, though. What follows is going to be loose, sketchy and mostly digital until I can unpack my drawing materials.

Yeah, lucky me...I'm trying to sell a house in this market. The real estate lady was like, "about all this junk...can you make it go away for a while?" So my life is in boxes for the foreseeable future. Partly, I'm drawing to distract myself; otherwise, I might start screaming and never stop.

[Wasker]

Cool.

[Frank Gressie]

25 years?? damn, i'm not even that old...
looking backwards, can you give any advice?
love your last sketchbook and the oil paintings!

[Stoat]

looking backwards, can you give any advice?

Ummmm..."don't get laid where you get paid"? Or, ummm..."never take amphetamines when you have a headache"? Eh. Pass.

I really enjoyed my corporate job. All my friends and family thought I was nuts, because I had been Snotty McFineartist all my life and then all of a sudden I was a cubicle-monkey. But those early computer graphics systems were INCREDIBLY expensive, so if you wanted to play digital, you had to go corporate.

[Hellbeard]

Groovy work, man. I really dig those old school sketches. I think the hand-made stuff is much better than the digital works. The oils look really good too, good technique. What about some backgrounds to put those characters in?

[Stoat]

I completely suck at environments. That's something I'm going to work on.

The old-school stuff is a little misleading: those probably aren't sketches as such but are things I had been working on for a while. I often did drawings multiple times until I was happy. I'm very slow.

I'm hoping digital will help me loosen up and be more sketchy -- at least in my preliminary drawings. Electrons are cheap and ink doesn't have an "undo" button.

[Mark Tarrisse]

Well I must say you do amazing things !

[Pascallo]

You show some really nice stuff in here. I love this style of drawings:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...35&postcount=4
c´mon and show us more!

[alyssa milano]

nice stuff... like the autoportrait too...and interesting story... i m glad you dropped on my sb.... thanks!

[Christian223]

Haha!, it shows that you are having fun with ps, keep having fun and posting... holy carp, thats funny

[Drunken_hand]

I am humbled by your skill, and pretty stoked that you actually came to my sketchbook. Your art's amazing and I hope to see you getting back into it. Show us more!

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Very nice stuff! If you ever think about teaching some pencil techniques I would be happy to learn! Actually, it would be an honor^^

-Even

[Jack the R]

What's great about your commentary about mullets and heroic posing, is that half the guys you've given it too have been photographed with goatees and other stylized facial hairs, with their pants around their hips, posing like thugs.

You're structures great. I'll keep an eye on this sketchbook although there's not much I can tell you.

[light]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1194182970
This is gorgeous. I really like your traditional stuff man, hope to see some newer.

[Izi]

you're a funny guy

great satyr....

I don't look at the genitals, btw...

I'm generation X....I look at your fucking soul

[Hellbeard]

I completely suck at environments. That's something I'm going to work on.

The old-school stuff is a little misleading: those probably aren't sketches as such but are things I had been working on for a while. I often did drawings multiple times until I was happy. I'm very slow.

I'm hoping digital will help me loosen up and be more sketchy -- at least in my preliminary drawings. Electrons are cheap and ink doesn't have an "undo" button.

I'm quite a novice compared to you but you may still find this useful: what helped me to not feel I suck(and actually suck) at backgrounds.

I realized that I invest a lot of creative energy in making characters, I'd try to make them express my intent(or emotional charge) in every aspect. Simply put I'd try to draw them as well as I could and the backgrounds were more of a boring chore. As a result the backgrounds looked boring and uninspired. It dawned on me, then, how to put as much creative energy in drawing the background as the characters. The background has enormous potential to enhance the characters and to convey the artistic intent. I started thinking about the background as a character in my drawing. How can I make the background contribute to and enhance the emotional intent of the work. Background gives context and opens up more possibilities for expression. Sometimes, when I'm planning a piece with a BG it forces me to abandon some conventions in regards to posing and action of the characters, I think that's a good thing. It's also a fun exercise in imagination: what's there?

As for conventional vs. digital- a pencil has undo, and sometimes it's not so bad to work on something for a long time. Maybe you're slow but you're also very good and I personally would like to see more physical media. That being said it's also a personal bias of mine so I guess digital isn't all bad. I don't wanna come off as a jerk but maybe I am so please excuse me for pushing conventional.

[AmontilladoAg]

woot for hideous velvet hand-me-downs

Your old stuff is fantastic Do I detect some Rockwellian influence?

Can't wait to see more of your recent work, btw -- I'm likin' the Holy Carp

Cheers

[Stoat]

Thanks for the nice words, folks. I'm a little taken aback. I find visiting this forum a very humbling experience -- there are some mind-blowing illustrators here.

Heh. Found this cleaning the basement today. Old, unfinished oil on canvas, about the same year as the other old stuff I posted. The moment I saw it, I remember how many times I repainted his stupid face, and never got happy with it. The idea was, the one up top is the mama of the one Mister Smarty Britches there has just stuck a shiv in.

[Killer Napkins]

very awesome sketchbook man... love the oils there.. keep at it!!

[Miles_]

Wow, you are really talented. The early pencils kind of remind me of marco djurdjecvics work. I love that style of high contrast rendering. Keep posting man.

[Kravenous]

Wow very nice work!! We might be in the same boat, my corperate was a little shorter though and for now I am still in it.
can't wait for you to get set up and draw again, good luck with the move.
cheers

[mohd al mahdi]

Movements of people very strong
Study successful

[smugbug]

First off, thank you so much for taking the time to post in my sb.

And...wow. LOVE your pencil work. But I adore those gesture drawings. They show a real awareness of the shapes/forms but with a great rhythm and energy.

So glad you decided to come back to the crazy creative world - your talent will certainly be a grand addition!

[alteredvision]

Thnks for the crit on my work, and nice work here! Just a question, when I do the digital painting, what brush should I use to maintain the sharper stroke? I have been using the wacom intuos pad for about 2 weeks now, still trying to get the hang of it.

[Keenox]

Nice work over here... I like the pencil drawings the best. I don't have any crits by now. Hope to see more good work!

[koeifan]

wow... nice. No crit

[PieXags]

...holy crap man, definately approve of this. I'll be checking back here a lot, really could learn quite a bit.

More!

[johanerik]

That pic of you 1985... I seriously want that on my wall.. It's priceless.. I was 5!! "The Lost Boys" was 87.. But I get that nostalgia feel.. Back to the future, teen wolf, Goonies and cocoon.. Everything comes back like a hit from thors hammer....