Erik's Elusive Sketchbook - Updated July 20th

**Erik** · July 7th, 2008, 02:17 PM

Two pages from my new sketchbook - haven't posted in ages, hope somebody still remembers me

Anyways i quit doing video games and now i started a company doing multi touch screens. But besides that i need to do some non-techy stuff so i started drawing again and free my brain up a bit.

The first one is after a portrait by Steve McClurry. Second one is a design i did for a friend of mine who is working on a fantasy-pirate game called Black Sails.

Here goes!

**Erik** · July 8th, 2008, 04:23 PM

Update - another page painting after a photo... done using Tria inks (I heard they are taken out of stock! O_o) and some Citadel paint acrylics i had lying around. The ink washes do work really great for me. I ditched using the prisma colors since i can;t keep the points from breaking off and i have more fun with paint anywayz. I tried using some alcohol to make some texture top left corner but ended up a bit scared to go close to the picture... maybe i'll go back in in photoshop since it feels like some sort of boundary now.

Cheers! E.

**Lyno** · July 8th, 2008, 04:30 PM

Hi Erik, nothing to crit. You've got some really nice paintings here. The "bubbles" on the last one are quite cool. Seems like he's getting in some kind of trance by drinking his glass

.

Anyway, hope you post some more, maybe some pencils?

**carlosranna** · July 8th, 2008, 04:32 PM

Hey, those are really good! I like it a lot! Gonna watch this sketchbook. Oh yeah!

**Erik** · July 8th, 2008, 04:36 PM

Thnx peepz!

Lyno - thnx, dunno if there will be pencils soon, i am quite happy using inks for the moment

Carlosranna - thnx! gonna check yours now !

E.

**Dan Valkar** · July 8th, 2008, 04:49 PM

really cool paintings..nice mood on them ...keep it up!

**voraz** · July 8th, 2008, 05:22 PM

Hi, nice start to this sketchbook, this pieces look very good, especially the 1st and 3rd.
That alcohol effect looks cool!
cheers

**ditchman** · July 8th, 2008, 05:52 PM

I love the textures you're getting with these. do you do a monochrome underpainting first?

**Erik** · July 8th, 2008, 06:11 PM

Voraz - thanks!
Ditchman - thx! Basically what i do is a take on the process Coro showed way back at the amsterdam workshop. What happens is i do a pencil sketch, then ink it with a marker that doesnt bleed in tria ink or water (so basically any rotring, indian ink, brush pen, whatever) and erase the pencil since that will smudge in the ink. Then i quickly paint with the Tria refill and a pencil and fill in the basic shapes with some contrasting color, as fast as possible. So then there is monochrome shapes. THen some Tria markers to create a basic shading, so i use gray and so on to darken it. Now the image is really quite medium/dark. Then i use ink washes and acrylics to make the colors and shading i want, and then i use lighter acrylics (also thinned down) to bring up the lighter parts from the dark. You do need some time and patience, make sure you apply the acrylics thin. And use sturdy paper. But if you want to see a real master of this technique look up Coro's old sketchbook thread.

Cheers!
E.

**fantasyartist** · July 9th, 2008, 09:27 AM

Hey man thanks for dropping in my sketchbook. Those paintings look really great! Why did you quit doing video games?

**Erik** · July 9th, 2008, 01:22 PM

Coz it took friggin ages to complete creating one game

and i want to have the opportunity to do a variety of different things. I worked at Guerrilla before.

**jedininjaman** · July 9th, 2008, 01:34 PM

Fantastic lighting on that last one, It is very gripping nice color scheme to
-jedi

**ghostdj** · July 9th, 2008, 04:15 PM

Hey, thanks for coming by the SB. You have some nice work yourself. Love how you handled the paint on the last post with the guy drinking. Lets see some more!

**DannyMuskens** · July 10th, 2008, 04:31 AM

Hey Erik,

indeed nice to see some dutch peeps, you dont see them very often here, which can be a good and a bad thing haha! Your work is great really love the feeling that your paintings have, and your colors are great, keep it going and thanks for dropping by!

And thanks for your good advice and tips, I understand what you mean, and your totally right. I always draw from ref, and when im halfway I just paint what I think is supposed to be there instead of really looking/working/learning from the ref for 100%! Gotta work on that!

**Erik** · July 11th, 2008, 03:08 PM

A page done after a picture from the master Marko Djurdjevic's Degenesis book which i copied for practice in pencil and inked, then colored. I hate doing hair. Need to learn that!

I made the image a bit smaller as
i found out my previous images were a tad largish.

Not too happy with the scan though. The real one has better coverage... Anyhoo.

**Erik** · July 20th, 2008, 01:52 PM

A quick sketch i did today - with a flat grey added in photoshop.

**RandAlThor** · July 20th, 2008, 02:06 PM

Cool stuff dude. I didn't quite understand post nine, but it would be great to see you post a step by step, its sounds an interesting approach. Keep posting ;-)

**AShelton** · July 20th, 2008, 02:52 PM

I like your work, but I wonder what the guy in post 1 pic 2 is doing.

**Tom van der Linden** · August 13th, 2008, 03:29 PM

hey man, thanks from posting a comment in my sketchbook. your stuff looks also great, I love the fact that it's not digitally. Keep it up!

**Oblio** · August 21st, 2008, 06:33 AM

ha ha ... look who;s back. glad to see you're still at it brother.

**kamal_anjelo** · August 21st, 2008, 09:38 AM

wow...fantastic colours, characters...

**HAJiME** · August 21st, 2008, 09:45 AM

God I love orange.

I love your style too. :]

**Hive_minD** · August 21st, 2008, 09:59 AM

Looking forward to seeing you SB evolve. Loving the portraits, and great usage of paint!

Chris

**JellevdVegt** · May 11th, 2009, 05:36 PM

this sb seems to be kinda dead.. last update in august :/ well, just want to say that you got alot of talent those painting from the pictures are tight!.. bye