It came from Slidell, Louisiana...

[Joe777k7]

Hey how is it going!! Thank you so much for stopping by my sketchbook! Keep up the good work!!!!

[FightingSeraph]

Sorry for the disappearance, but the computer that I scan my artwork is obscenely low on hard drive space. However, I have some stuff I did with Synth1 and ACID:
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/...ed7e39e80a6406
I don't know if it's ok to post a music, but wanted to show something here.

[FightingSeraph]

I miss posting in this thread, and here's some new stuff!

[thanoss]

so basically in 3 -4 years since the start of this SB you havnt made any progress?

[FightingSeraph]

Keep in mind that what was posted yesterday and today was done at random times of the past four months.

[LtPlissken]

Hello there my friend, first of all I want to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year,
all the happiness and joy on this world, lots of drawing hours in the future. I’ve kind of missed you,
and all the veterans who disappeared from the earlier days. Fortunately you didn’t disappeared,
you made a pause but you came back, and I feel very good about that.
Last years March, then was the last time I’ve visited, and you are right, that was a loooong time
ago. Honestly I almost forgot your sketchbook, lots of happenings on conceptart.org and lots
of movement, I am getting older, and it’s hard to remember everything. However I am trying to
stay in shape and to keep in touch with my ol’ mates.
I’ve scrolled back a few pages, and I observed again your earlier and latest drawings. Then I
glanced on the comment above, about you not improving at all over the last three or four years.
Well, this is a very tricky subject and can be discussed in many ways from many aspects. There
are many ways you could look a drawing or any art piece in general. Million people, million different
thoughts, expectations and opinions. There are also standards, which are acceptable,
likable or aesthetics that the general population will accept. There are commercialized paintings,
ugly in some kind of way, but still more effectively sold and accepted, than any other beauty out
there that never saw the sun, cause lack of promotion. For me, your art is great, your drawings
are ok, and the most important your consistency and never give up approach is priceless. However
I agree that there are very few and very slow improvements visible over these few years. My humble
opinion is that you have something that is literally blocking you from doing major advancements.
I don’t know what it is, but there is something. It could be a mental blockade, a fear, an emotion,
lack of something, it’s a heavy psychological question. Would compare the scenario with a sport
related subject. For example, a kickboxer, you know the guy who fight in the ring, a kickboxer
have his goals, and training schedules planned in forth. So one of his main goal, and weapon is
a high kick. But at this point he is unable to achieve it, due to lack of skill, flexibility and overall
strength training. So the high kick is at head height, but he is stuck at low kicks, at knee height.
You are also stuck with the kick at knee height. You cannot push it forward, you cannot go higher.
Sometimes you managed to pull out a hip height kick, but then instantly you dropped back to your
previous level. Something is preventing you. If you really want to improve, you should approach the
problem wisely and strategically. The kickboxer, would sit down, and try to figure out, what should
he do next, what is the thing that is preventing him to go higher with his kick. Could it be that he
doesn’t do enough strength exercises, could it be that he doesn’t stretch enough, or could it just be
that he doing all that, but he never mastered the correct technique and the correct form.
The same way, you should eliminate the problem, you should find the spot that can push you
forward and make significant improvements. It could require a mentor, a teacher, someone else
who is honest, beside you, just like an athlete need a trainer. Maybe it’s an impossible mission
to go alone into this, maybe you need someone to aid you day by day. You have to have something,
a switch inside of you, you just need to find it. You definitely have the most important ingredients
for art. You have the will, you have the strength required, the determination, and I think that you
have also put your heart and soul into all this. And you know what they say, if you put your heart
into something, there is not an option for failure. You just believe in your self. I want to help you
somehow and not to leave an empty ‘good job’ reply again, which I did many many times before.
I want to be honest, and be open so I could help you. Just as I said I like your drawings, and your
dedication, you already achieved a lot, by not quitting all these years, and not throwing away the
pencils. There are many others who tried, got frustrated and gave up on the subject. You achieved
much more then them, you have something special inside you, you shine on your own way, and
yes you have a gift, even if someone say that you don’t have.
Well, roughly those are my thoughts
about the improved, not improved subject. I think that you improved, you just need a bit harder
kickstart, to bring the technical side of your skills to another level. That is if you want to improve,
cause I never asked, do you want to improve? I totally understand if someone don’t want to
improve, cause not all of us who like to draw and paint, necessarily wants to improve. If you do
things just for fun, and for relaxation sake, then forget all that I said, in that case, you don’t need
to put yourself under any kind of pressure or override your system abilities, by banging your head
up against a wall, and asking how to improve.
In the end of this lengthy post, I want to thank you that you visited my book, and that you didn’t
forget about me and my work, and the most important that you still support me. I support you
and your art fully also, and I feel proud, that I know someone dedicated and true, as you are.
You post more, think positive, draw, and never give up.

[FightingSeraph]

Thanks for the most insightful post I have ever received in all of these years. In fact, I'm going to share this on Newgrounds.

[Staal Sander]

I very much appreciate your sketchbook. skimmed through it and you really are the most determined guy i have found on this site. Much respect bro! If you want to fasten your improvement I do not think I can give advice other then look at how others improve. There are some pages where you really where on a roll. That to me proves that you have it in you.

If you draw for fun just keep drawing for that reason!

I like your first 2 gun designs. . I see the first one the front part having some blade under the barrel and that makes it cool straight away.

[FightingSeraph]

Unfortunately, my scanner is having problems and that sucks shit. However, here's some new songs I made:
Something Pleasing
Minimal Techno Attempt
Update: New stuff, along with other old drawings.

[FightingSeraph]

For my thousandth post, a new piece of pixel art and more old shit.

[FightingSeraph]

Even more stuff from the past few months, and my birthday is coming up.

[Brave-New-World]

Obamney! youvote for one you get the other ^^

i like this and its great to see how much you have progressed from the first page very good

[Ian Barker]

Glad to see all these pages of drawings! Keep at it and keep having fun Those simple 3D shapes you were making there on your last post were a big help to me when I was starting out, practice those a bunch

[FightingSeraph]

Thanks, and what do you think of those two songs I posted?

In spite of the Not Work Safe tag, I haven't posted anything that's deserving of such until now. However, I'm not sure whether to upload two very salacious pictures I drew last year.

[FightingSeraph]

Same shit, different day.

[Henry C.]

greetings,

I saw your entry on the gun design lab page thingy and started going through your sketchbook...
It looks like you've been practicing heaps, but compared to the amount of work you've done, there doesn't seem to be that much improvement, which is rather sad really..
I still have a humongous amount of stuff to learn myself and am nowhere near as good as most people on this website, but, for what it's worth, I think you might want to seriously work on your lines....I've seen a few other comments which address the very same problem as well...

I really reckon that this is one of the major issues holding you back. You can practice anatomy all you want, but I very much doubt there'll be any kind of improvement if you keep relying on your current line-work. Your way of coloring/shading is also rather sloppy: Your lines appear to be all over the place, and it sometimes looks like you still have some issues coloring between the lines. Furthermore, I have noticed that you almost never appear to sketch at all: you mostly rely on very hard and rough lines, as if you're pressing your pencil down with both your hands when drawing...try to make some very soft, subtle lines first (barely visible), once you're happy with the result, you can then go over them with harder, stronger lines. This makes it easier to correct possible mistakes and these subtle lines will also improve the overall look of the drawing, make it feel more organic/lively, .... Finally, I'd advice you to start looking at crosshatching...There's this Alan Lee LOTR sketchbook which might be pretty useful. I'd say he pretty much mastered the skill of crosshatching to near perfection.
If this seems to be a tad too difficult, you could perhaps use some smudging, though I'm personally not a great fan of that technique...It will however erase some of the messy linework, and, when used in combination with a decent eraser, can lead to some pretty rad results...

Now, remember, I'm still an amateur myself when it comes to art, so I might very well be completely off. However, these are my personal thoughts on the matter, and I'm ever so sorry for being so rough about it ...Best of luck on your future journey

Also, if you wouldn't mind me asking, how old are you?

[FightingSeraph]

It's my birthday and so far, nothing has really changed. Oh, and I had to force myself to do these.

[JaredArtDennis]

Hey FightingSeraph, you had commented on my sketchbook and so I took a look at yours and just wanted to tell you that I look forward to seeing more from you and I look forward to seeing your improvement over time, which will definitely come if you keep at it, and I hope you do. One thing I want to strongly recommend though, is I'd really like to see you do a lot of studies from life or photographs of animals and human anatomy, I think you'd benefit a lot. Have a good one and I hope to see more! Later.

[FightingSeraph]

To Henry: Yesterday was my birthday, which makes me 28. As for the linework, that's how I had to work due to my scanner being unable to pick up the most faint of values. It may not make them better, but an explanation was needed.

To Jared: I don't disagree with what you said, though I have done a bit of that.

[Henry C.]

Perhaps you could edit your scanned pictures in photoshop, to make those values come through a little more?
Also, the face you drew there is pretty cool, but you might want to add some nostrils/eyebrows and define the ear a little more, that'll add to the overall feel of authenticity (if that's what you're going for, of course...). Finally, the nose might be protruding a little much and i reckon you could shrink the lip/chin area a bit...apart from that you've got a pretty solid sketch...

One last question, what's with all the little pencil dots on some of your pages ?

[FightingSeraph]

To Henry: That's banana paper I bought.

Oh, here's some Hogarth studies, guns, and psytrance.

Speaking of music, what do people here think of those two songs I posted earlier?

[FightingSeraph]

I admit that this flat out sucks, but did it out of boredom.

[StressCavity]

Hey man, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook! I really like your hogarth studies (I need to hurry up and open my copy xD) and I hope you keep doing them! I like your newer work and the gun thumbs for sinix's DL as well

[FightingSeraph]

More studies...

[thanoss]

I think you need to slow down, breathe, really look at what your doing, look at themarks your making, and then do some proper learning. I just dont see what your learn Your doing the same things over and over again for 4 years. I mean have you truly learnt anything? Looking at these pages it dosnt seem so at all. Yes it might be boring to looat something for 3 mins or 1 hour,m but its better than just scribbling something or shading some gunn shape in that looks like it took 2 seconds to do. Man really start to think about what and why you are doing things. Dont just aimlessly think you are going to do a so called study then call it practice. START TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR DOING MAN!!!.

[FightingSeraph]

To Thanoss: Why didn't you say that in the first place instead of leaving an inane, one-sentence question?

[thanoss]

See there you go, much better. Once again slow down, breathe, think about what you are doing. If you have to draw 100 cubes to understand the form do it man. Dont just start drawing all sorts of figures etc. DO SOME DEEP LEARNING, not shallow surface learning. Really try to understand why something works the way its doing, look at the shapes your marks, the lighting. Associate ideas, think about what your learning goals are for the session. Dont just randomly sit down and think you are going to draw these awesome figures. If you have to spend a week drawing cubes, ellipses in perspective, then do it. If you have to spend a further week understanding how light turns forms, and the planes on a sphere, cylinder then do it man. Really get down to the fundamentals and understanding what you are learning.

I know we all want to draw the cool guns, dragons, environments etc, but we cannot unless we really start to do some DEEP learning about the fundamentals. I kepe putting deep learning in capitals because I think it applys alot to learning. We are taught so many surface shallow learning techniques in school, that we forget how tolearn. Look it up on google.

[FightingSeraph]

Another take on form and value...

[FightingSeraph]

I wanted to push myself with these studies, even if it was a foolhardy decision. Oh, and I tried to draw a King of Hell out of boredom.

[FightingSeraph]

More experimentation with value...