Daedelus Workshop Study Group

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Hey Eb, My wife said the same thing about the face . I'll play with it some more as well as I'm not too fond of the way I've framed it so far. Stand by for more updates and I'm looking forward to seeing more jetpack designs.

Eelis: No Updates ! WHAT?! lol post up what you are working on and share it. I suggest that you wrap up the Jetpack or move on. Letting a gig linger just adds weight to your neck and drags you down. If you want to move on to something else, just let us know and we can move on. I suggest you just power through it and crank out something. Doesn't matter if it is super designed or Rendered. Just take the idea as far as you want to go and then call it done. Learn from it and move on. You like doing Environments and that is cool but you do need to broaden your portfolio if you want to do concept art. So why not, do one Environment and then one of something else and keep alternating. This way you get to work on both. For myself, I love character work. It's all I would do if I could but I recognize that I need to work on other things more and I try to do things that way to keep myself balanced.

So guys what do you think of the Study group so far? Is it working, isn't it? Are you losing steam? Was the Jet pack assignment boring?

I think it is going good so far. It's keeping me motivated and inspired and I am enjoying the feedback and our little community.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. Meant the still life linework! I actually already have a sketchbook page ready with some jetpack concepts, I'll get my hands on a scanner tomorrow so I'll get it posted here in 20 hours!

On the diversity dilemma, I agree. If you want to be a concept artist, you better know at least two fields inside out. For example, environments and structure/equipment etc. design. However, to get my foot to the actual door and get those first few jobs I've heard from various locations that a niche, focus, will be real helpful. So I am trying to establish myself as the "environment guy" when my tech hits the right point. That's why I have to distract myself from other works from time to time to scribble up some nice environment studies.

However, I can't ignore everything else because of that. I've got a bad habit of working a bit slower when the subject doesn't motivate me much, and that's something I should really get rid of. I'll finish this one, on the double!

This study group is damn great, and it's really helping me out since I kinda have to dwell in the areas I've not visited before. +everything that you mentioned Wheel. I definitely gotta say that I am not an ID guy (too much pedantic drawing), but Ebersol seems to have great going with it and I hope Re has too. I am definitely looking forward to the next job! Will be fun when we all are working on the same subject.

EDIT: Hey, page two already! Great going.

[rebelionature]

Its very obvious to me now that i need to practice a lot more. I re did a line drawing of this loaf of bread so many times to even get it like this. Im posting it as is because i feel like as though ive hit a wall. I just hope that art is like working out... If it leaves you exhausted then that means that you are getting a good workout! I feel like i just ran 10 miles...

[Wheeljack18]

Ok Guys, I think She's done. What do you think?

I spent WAAAAY too long on this piece but that is what happens when you go into an illustration without a plan. I find that this happens way more often when I work digital as opposed to traditional. Next time, remind me to put more time into prep and planning before I dive in. I messed around a lot with color but I ended up coming back to the the scheme I started with. I won't even share the " Barbie and the ROCKERS' version I made. The NEON pink still hurts my eyes. I went over the face and here is a post breaking down the proportion and she is roughly 8 heads tall with heels on so she's fine in that regard. I think her face looks small because of the Big 80's hair and the tilt of her chin. Your thoughts? I've been looking at this piece too long so my objectivity is lost.

Reb: Don't kill yourself but yest drawing is an entirely learned skill and only hard work will get you where you want to go. It can be a pain but nothing worth doing is easy so don't get discouraged. Just try to draw a bit every day. After a month or two, you will look back on your previous stuff and hate it because you know you can do better. This is how we progress. One thing I want you to try is to just draw simple shapes. Boxes, circles, pyramids, cylinders etc. I draw them all the time to warm up and they are the fundamentals of good drawing. Master those shapes and you will be able to draw anything. Have you ever worked on perspective exercises before?


Eelis: Lets' see those sketches and everything else! I'm glad you are picking up on the same positive vibes as it's going to make all of us better for sure!

Cheers!

[David Keen]

Hey guys, great to see some really nice work going up recently! I'll have to apologise again for my lack of updates, university is really kicking my ass at the moment but I'll be settling into the routine again soon and plan to get a few hours of personal work in tomorrow. So far I think the study group is going really well. It's great to have a place that we can go and discuss each other's work freely without worrying about bumping sketchbook threads too much or any other forum etiquette related issues. Eelis has mentioned wanting to work on the same topic together which I would enjoy as well but we'll just have to make sure it's something that everyone is interested in to avoid the weekly challenge fatigue that inspired Daedelus originally.

@Eelis: Can't wait to see your jetpack sketches, let's get this one done and dusted and then move on to something else

@Reb: Nice job on the line work buddy. It's really tough working that way because we aren't able to trick ourselves into thinking the proportions are pretty much correct. I still find working in that way quite tough and I think you're attitude for improving your work is fantastic! I'm sure if you keep going with some regular studies you'll see a dramatic improvement in your work, this is one of the best things about having a sketchbook on CA. Keep up the good work!

@Wheels: Your final rendering looks really good mate. The work you've done on the background is especially impressive. Bonus points for incorporating the electricity ball and atom sign into the design, they invoke the theme very effectively. I still feel like her proportions are slightly off but as you say that may purely be due to the huge hair she's rocking. It's so hard to tell with some poses and is a very minor issue.

I sympathise strongly with the enthusiasm to start a piece getting the better of you issue, as you know I've encountered this quite a few times myself . I'll make sure to be tougher on you next time and make sure the major points are worked out in some comps.

What are you thinking for the next piece? Would you like to go ahead on something else now or wait to do a group assignment together? I'm not all that fussed either way and wouldn't mind throwing you a bit of a curve ball for the next one if you're up for it? How do you go finishing off everything for commissions? ttyl.

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Here's the ID page, just three sketches. I beg your pardon for not being able to put more into this! Had all kinds of final school stuff and all. I am ready to move on now.

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Guys. Its like we are waiting on Eb to wrap up the Jet pack. I'd like to see Eb wrap it up before we move on to a group project but in the meantime, we can move onto something else. I need to plug some holes in the Portfolio and I really need some Sci Fi content a la Mass Effect. I'm ready for that curveball EB. "Bring on the heat!"

Eelis: So your done with the jet pack eh? Well that's OK. How abut you share some of those landscapes with us too? What you have in the top design is looking good. The idea and design is clear and concise and ready to take to the next stage. Not bad for your first ID drawing. It's not as easy as it looks is it?

Eb: Thanks for the feedback Mate. I'm glad I finally completed this piece as it has been on my to do list for way too long. Getting it done feels good although all I notice are the mistakes. I've wrapped up 3 commissions with one to go and a storyboard gig has been placed on hold due to a client rewrite. So it's good. I wish I could share the some of the pieces as one of them I am particularly proud of. According to the AD, I can't post it until it is published in October.

Looking forward to our next challenge. Go Team!

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Oh sure, ID is darn hard. Mostly because the precision needed, but yeah!

I'll try to post a few thumbs here later today.

The final render of your piece looks good! Congrats! Shame you can't show your commission stuff yet. :/

Sci-fi wouldn't hurt now that ME3 (and because my The next generation-marathon is still running!) is just around the corner. I suggest we brainstorm an idea while waiitng for Eb to finish up.

May I suggest, that we choose a same subject, but vary how we do it? For example, if the subject was "alien species" if one want's to do a portrait work and one more illustrative action-packed piece, it would be okay? Or does it make comparing et cetera too hard?

I'll try to come up with some ideas today!

[Wheeljack18]

I'm game for whatever although I'm intrigue by Eb's curve ball threat.

I was reading over at Art order and I thought I'd share some of the tips from an AD over at WoTc who was interviewed.
SCWATSON :: By now, almost everyone is familiar with the mantra of putting your best work in your portfolio, and keeping it down to 7-10 pieces, and showing the type of work that you want to do …

JON :: This IS my mantra. I have been preaching that a general “illustration” portfolio is great when you want to have an untargeted message, but if you are serious about stepping up your game and what to wow an art director – build your portfolio around their needs! What makes for a good portfolio?

Another Article: http://theartorder.com/2012/01/30/tr...spire-to-hire/

These are related more to an illustration career as opposed to a concept artist career but it is good information none the less.

Cheers.

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Yeah, that's what I heard from Noah Bradley's art of freelance vid too wheel. Not quite something for me yet, but good to know this stuff before the time comes.

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Eelis. Did you pay for the Noah Bradley thing or just watch the 30 min teaser?

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Paid for the full record.

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Alright, this is the thumbnail I am currently working out. Was picked out of the many "mountains & towers" thumbs. I am still trying to figure out size & distance & atmosphere fundamentals, so I guess a familiar subject is goody.

I am yet to define the architecture of the tower, will have to gather some reference first.

[David Keen]

CURVE BALL INCOMING! Because you guys have been talking about working on a Sci-Fi Mass Effect style piece for the next topic I thought a tricky one would be designing a new race to fit into the existing Mass Effect universe. The current races are very different from each other and all fulfill a specific role ie Salarians are scientists & spys while Turians are soldiers and police. Think about the way the other characters appearance expresses their place in the universe and strive to create your own character in this model. Your character should both fit in amongst the other races while visually contrasting with other character designs. For the displaying of the final you should have a front and back view of the character in some kind of space underwear to show the anatomy of the race, some close ups on areas of interest ie space gills and a hero style illustration with the character all dolled up in n7 armour.

That sounds like a pretty large assignment to me so if you guys are unable to do the whole thing and would like to just select one area to focus on that's totally cool. Although I'd like to see Wheels and anyone else who's keen have a crack at doing the whole lot if time permits. I hope that brief suits what you guys were hoping to do next? I'm gonna try and wrap up the jetpack asap and get in on this one too.

@Eelis: Great to see your jetpack sketches mate, I agree with you that ID is extremely hard. I think it's much easier to get away with (or not notice) little errors in your perspective in a full illustration but with only the design your working on everything stands out like a sore thumb. I've been planning on getting Noah's Art of Freelancing vids as well. What do you think of the series? Is it worth it for someone who is still a ways off from actually applying for freelance work? The 30 minute preview was pretty engaging.

The thumbnail for the enviro is looking good. Not much I can critique on that one until you increase the size and start the next stage of detailing. I'm jealous of your natural skill with environments.

@Wheels: I know what you mean about only being able to see the errors in the work, I feel the same way about all my pieces but thankfully it's still satisfying to finally call them done. I'm very interested to see the commission work when the client allows especially now hearing you're happy with them, but with any luck by the time October rolls around you will have pushed your work that much more in this space that you'll look at the commissions from February and hate them. It's still odd to me that as artists we're eventually able to disentangle ourselves from our pieces and take great joy in how bad our old work is.

I've had that transitioning from aspire to hire article bookmarked for a while. It's a great one to go back and read again to get the excitement up and reengage with the things we need to be working on. I'll try and post some links to similar articles as I come across them as well.

What do you think of the Mass Effect assignment?

[Wheeljack18]

Hey guys, here are some quick doodles for EB's ME challenge. I know next to nothing about the IP so I'm in for a learning curve. I want to see characters that are not Shepperds Minions but his equal or at least fellow officers. The 1st officer on the left I imagine as some alien that exists in liquid form and must inhabit a suit to interact with other lifeforms. Hence the N7 clone suit with a dome head. Not a lot of ideas are forth coming at the moment except that all the aliens I can see look very Star Wars Esque and none have hair. I see Kit fisto, Diner guy from episode 2, and a white Sebulba. They are all bipedal and humanoid. Just thinking out loud here...

Eelis: There is not much I can offer base don the thumbnail you posted. What are you going for? How is this piece going to push you? What did you get as Extra resource material that he talks about? I echo Eb's questions so I look forward to your response.

Eb: I think with anything, you have good pieces and bad ones. The key is to learn something and improve each time. And with time I am able to look back on a piece and appreciate it for what I learned or what was successful. That's where I find my pleasure in old works. Otherwise, onward and upwards! What do I think about this assignment.... Hmm. I don't have any aliens or sci fi in my portfolio so that is good and it should push me out of my comfort zone and add variety to my portfolio. It's still character work which I already have a lot of but I think I can use this as an excuse to beef up other areas with multiple iterations of the character.
You are the Art Director on this one EB so Bust my chops. I want each assignment to be portfolio worthy and to that end I'm not afraid of being told what is what. Give me some direction base don what I've shown as well as hep me out because I know Jack S#*t about the franchise besides playing ME 2 for about an hour.

Talk to you guys soon and I'm looking forward to seeing your work and ideas.

[David Keen]

My very overdue jetpack update. I've spent the majority of the time just getting to grips with some of the subtle perspective issues that come from having a curved object. It's been great to keep chipping away at it and begin to feel more comfortable working on ID. I also spent some time playing around with sketchup for the first time which has really opened the door for me to using basic 3D models to block out larger perspective elements. It's nice to know that I can double check my perspective that way if I'm really struggling to envision it in my head.

[David Keen]

@Wheels: I've found a couple of links for basic info on the major races in the Mass Effect universe, image info. Because you don't have stacks of first hand experience with the game this topic may simulate the commission environment more closely. Artists often talk about picking up a book cover for the third book in the series and the challenges that are presented by having to research all the back story and aesthetics of the previous work. I know you like a challenge .

I think your self critique of your sketches raises some good points. Looking at the other Mass Effect races it's easy to spot they're all bipedal so breaking that mould might be a good avenue to pursue. I like the idea of a creature that has evolved to rely so much on technology that they must use a suit as their avatar to interact with other beings. That could be pushed quite far to contrast heavily against the other races. Some of the armour elements on the far left character are good but there are similar legs are on the Salarians which could be confusing for silhouette recognition. I'd now spend some time looking at some animals and see if there are any features that inspire you for another round of thumbnails. Identify and list some characteristics that the current roster of races share and then break away from that and go with something completely different. A few examples would be the number of eyes or limbs, internal or external skeleton and organs, skin texture, traditional or non traditional weapons, technological evolution etc. So far a lot of the races are similar visually, so step away from these shared attributes and mix things up.

I think you're right that for the next topic we should get right away from character work as you and I both have quite a lot of it already. There are some huge holes in my work that need to be addressed with environments being the most under appreciated. I've got an opportunity to do some free choice oil paintings for University this semester so I'm going to try and combine that with the work that I'm doing for Daedelus. So far I'm leaning towards doing some Neo Classical styled images but depicting moments from modern stories. I'm not sure if I'll go all out and use historical looking figures for these images or just invoke the feel of Neo Classicism with the poses. It should be fun and I'd greatly appreciate input from the Daedelus crew.

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Eb, Thanks for the feedback so far.

The Jet Pack is looking good. Are you done with it or will you take it any further. Sketchup can be a great tool and it can speed things up quite a bit but don't rely on it as it will become a crutch. You want to be able to draw it the old fashioned way first. personally find elipses the hardest thing to draw well in perspective so I bet the shield sides were a lot of fun. I'm holding off on critiquing the piece any more because I'm not sure if it is a WIP or not and how far you want to take it.

You don't actually expect me to read the whole Wiki Page you linked me to do you? I prefer to think that because I don't have too much XP with the series that I can bring a fresh perspective free from bias. I'll count on you guys to keep me on target so I don't make any glaring errors. By the way, what does N7 stand for?
I'm certain that the team working on the game made most of their design decisions based upon technical restrictions of the Engine such as the need to be Bipedal and possibly the fur angle too although I'm sure they could texture some fur onto the the characters to some degree. That might be more of a design aesthetic. I actually like the idea of an animated suit or some type of android / synthetic character. I like the 50's sci fi feeling of a bubble head guy but I don't think it fits the Edginess of the series very well. Think Mysterio in Space!

Next job will be an environment! How about that?

I love the Neo Classical period! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. We'll all pitch in to help no problem.

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Bah! I had written a long response and then accidentally went to previous page. I'll try to keep this short.

Firstly, eb, the jetpack design looks real good, I agree with everything wheel said.

Secondly, the assignment sounds goody. I am not really a lorenuts person, but I'll see what I can do to shape it up within the boundaries. One plea though, may I just paint a pose with a neat background instead of more technical sideview/frontview stuff?

I think you don't know this Eb, but I am not even in an uni yet! (will get results in a few weeks), so I am way behind you guys, but even for me that lecture was really helpful.

It covers everything from portfolio building to contacting art directors, networking and marketing yourself. It is just one man's opinion on yes, but since he is such a newcomer to the industry he really sheds a nice light how it is for the beginners now days, and what are the most effective ways to get your foot in the door.

The resource section itself is an ever growing library of info, that's being updated on a basis with new information Noah comes across or his readers send to him. So everything not mentioned in the lecture will be stored there.

I'll try to get bigger thumbnail here soonish, as well as some neat colour sketches. + the next job!

Cheers.

EDIT: Neo-classical? Sounds great! Wheel, N7 is the armor the main protagonist wears.

Eb: Thanks for the compliments, but hardly natural. Just hard work! Still ways behind, but it's shaping up slowly but surely.

[Wheeljack18]

I hate it when that happens. When I go about doing a long reply, I tend to write it another software and then copy and paste it into the reply. That way I can edit it, review it and not worry about losing it if I make a mistake.

No Ortho's for Eelis. Deal. Just knock out what you want to but I'll leave it up to Eb regarding the particulars.

Thanks for the feedback on the download. I think I may go ahead and get it.

Regarding N7. I meant what does the N7 stand for? Ie: is it a unit number or his rank?

Lets see some more posts.

Cheers all.

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Yeah, I should really make that a habit too, writing in notepad for example.

Hmm, good point. I didn't know that either! Mass effect wiki describes it like this:

"The "N" designates special forces and the "7" refers to the highest level of proficiency"

[Wheeljack18]

Not much to show for now but a couple of heads. I was just banging around some alien head portraits and here is what I came up with. Hey Eb, I have an idea, what do you say to giving me some more direction on this character? Have me make your character like you were the AD on this gig. Take a look at the heads and give me some direction on them too. Pick one or two and give me some ques to push the design further. Today has been one of those days...

Thanks Eelis for the tip. I think I might go and play some ME2 tonight to get some inspiration.

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Guys,

A while back I mentioned that it would be cool to put together an influence map showing who our influences have been. Now I'm way older so I probably have more but still, I would like to see what you come up with. I find this exercise to be very enlightening and helpful and you might too.
Anyways, here we go...

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Hey! That's pretty nice idea! I'll make one over the weekend. Sadly none of those names ring a bell for me, even though I am sure I've come across plenty of em. I should pay attention to the names more!

I like how you named propaganda as one of your influence factors.

Nice going with your character wheel. 5 and 3 kind have resemblance to certain races in ME universe, but 2th doesn't, and in my honest opinion it's the one that would have most grounds in the lore. Just a gut feeling!

I'll be working on the character tomorrow, meanwhile, I would like to post this (almost) final black and white landscape thumbnail I'm working on. It's bigger too! Hopefully you can give some critic up with this one.

The left corner will have some life too, I'll paint a dog in on the later stages.

I am mainly trying to nail on the graphic space and scale here. Also, I would really really really want to get rid of the "cramped" look my work usually has.

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Eleis,

Here is a quit paintover to show how you could make your scene look less cramped. Always try to think about the law of 3rd and the path your viewer follows. What is the story and how can you use graphic shapes to tell it? I made some simple changes like expanded the screen and played with the scale a bit. I made a few quick notes on the screen in red too.

Thanks for making me feel old ! Are you saying Frank FRazetta doesn't ring a Bell? Norman Rockwell? NC Wyeth? I suggest you check out the artists and see their work, some of it is simply amazing. I am totally a product of 80's toy marketing and I think the influence map really tells my story. It's funny to look at that and I often wonder if other people can pick out my influences or not? Propaganda Art is amazing graphically and was once a very powerful tool for conveying messages to the public. I could write a whole paper on the subject and even took a few classes in university on it.

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Thanks loads of the paintover man, it'll be real helpful. Especially the bottom right really, really delivers and I can already see how I'll play this thing out!

I've actually got that darn big book by Donald W. Graham, Composing Pictures that has all the composition related stuff inside. I should pay more attention to it's lectures, especially the base level. Some of the info inside it has been invalidated, but the basic stuff is clean.

Actually, I've heard of Frazetta before! I'll have to check those artists out yeah, pays to know the culture. I completely agree with how studying propaganda could be helpful. That stuff was made to affect people, so why not use it for some good stuff?

[David Keen]

@Wheels: I'd like to take the jetpack one step further and polish it to a level that can be displayed in my portfolio. Seeing as most of the design work is already done that shouldn't be a huge stretch now. I agree with you that using sketchup too much to mock up all work would be very detrimental to my development, but I also find ellipses very difficult to portray accurately in perspective so for that particular task it was helpful. The sides of the shield sure were fun :| Feel free to critique what I've got so far to make sure I don't polish it all up with errors that I can't identify anymore..

Very good point that the design team would have been working within the restrictions the engine presented. That makes even more sense considering that all those creatures were in the first game which came out in 2007, some huge leaps in graphical fidelity have been made since then. I think you're probably right about space Mysterio, he would fit a retro sci-fi serial piece perfectly but might be relegated to quirky sidekick who tragically dies early in Mass Effect.

The character heads are looking nice, I'd like to see you push the 2nd design and maybe throw together another quickie for the synthetic, androidish guy. I like elements of the other sketches including the helmet on the no. 5 and the suit on no. 4, maybe you could combine those components on your and android character. Once you've mocked up the synthetic guys head we should move onto some silhouettes or sketches to show how the head's will fit with the rest of the characters body. Something to keep in mind for the next stage is how you can make subtle changes to the core characters to give them individual personality, maybe it could be skin patterns, fins or some kind of bulbous growths that play the role of hair.

I'm going to throw together one of those influence maps as well, it'll be fun to see the mutal inspiration we all share. There are quite a few on yours that will also be appearing on mine but I'll have to look up a couple of the comic artists that I'm not familiar with.

@Eelis: Hey mate, no worries about not doing the turnaround image. Just make sure you post lots of sketches of your character as he's developing so that we can share that process with you. Your environment is looking really good, Wheels has pointed out all the major things to work on at this stage so I'd tackle that stuff first. Once you've solidified the space I reckon you could push the shape of the building a little bit and get some more out of the design. I know it's only early days for this piece and you'd probably tackle that later on anyway but just something to keep in mind.

I reckon I'll get the Noah Bradley lecture soon, you've made it sound very attractive and I'm sure there is a lot to get out of it.

All the best with your school results man, I'm sure you'll nail it! What are your plans once you've finished up with school?

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Eb,

here is a quick paintover of the shield. I pointed out some mistakes with the perspective by drawing the horizon and 2 vanishing points in Red. I pointed out that the jets use their own vanishing point which is incorrect. One thing to keep in mind when you do ID is to draw the boxes first as it is easier to tell if it is correct or not. When you are unsure, always draw the horizon and VP's and work it out. Make a ton of marks and think it through. I find it is helpful to subdivide the forms into halves and thirds if it s going to be more complicated. Another thing I suggest that you do in the finished version is to Ink the form first and color on a separate layer. It will help the image maintain a slick clean appearance. When you ink the elipses in PS. Use the Eliptical marquee tool to draw the line, go to edit, stroke and voila, you have a perfect curve. Next, free transform the shape to fit and erase the remainder. Also, when inking manually in PS, don't be afraid to draw through the lines and erase the waste. It helps a lot when drawing curves and intersecting lines.

You had to pick the head I hated the most! way to go EB I'll see what I can do but can you give me some more direction RE: Character?

Eelis: Your welcome for the paint over.
I'm not familiar with Donald Graham but I can not recommend Andrew Loomis's book creative illustration. I struggled with composition all through university and did not get it until I read his book. He breaks it down in a very understandable way and he gives you a lot of useful tools that can help you figure it out. Good to hear that you have at least heard of Frazetta. I'd be surprised if he was not on every ones list on this site, he was a very gifted illustrator.

I'm stoked to see your influence Maps and see where you are coming from. Eb, which Comic Artists are you unfamiliar with besides Ron Wagner as nobody knows him. That Gi Joe story that I posted the cover of has got to be one of the best examples of comic story telling you will EVER see. The story is called " Hush job" and it has no dialogue, it's just a pictoral narrative. Classic!

[David Keen]

Wheels has raised a very valid point that I haven't really specified that nature of the character or what their species is most proficient at. It's a little tricky to find a role as most of the obvious ones have been tackled and filled by Bioware already but I why don't we proceed by saying that the species (The Sethlans) tend to focus on trade skills and are proficient with mechanics and electrics. Although they display a keen aptitude in these areas the other races think of them as less intelligent and far too wrapped up in their crafts and material possessions. Although the generally the Sethlans aren't great scientists or scholars they are quick to learn new things as they are shown to them and are extremely practical and therefore are very good at refining processes and efficient work. Their homeworld has a more toxic atmosphere than other inhabitable worlds so the Sethlans evolved to filter the air they were breathing for impurities and have thick, hide like skin which protects them from a hostile environment. The heavy, toxic air has also clouded their world with a thick haze so the Sethlans vision is excellent in low light, but they struggle with brightly lit areas. Because of their practical skills they aren't a slight race but range anywhere from a medium to very heavy build. Because of their fascination with technology the Sethlans have been keen to embrace mechanical enhancements and synthesised organs.

Does that help with the designing of the character? Would you guys like any more detail about a particular Sethlan to design or is a general race description ok?

@Wheels: I've got a long way to go with my perspective. Thanks so much for the crits mate. I made a mistake in working the shield out first and then bolting the thrusters onto that form without really thinking too much beyond “how do awesome jet engines look?”. That's a great tip about using the elliptical marquee to create clean lines, I had a quick play and found you can also access the stroke by right clicking on the circle and selecting stroke from the pop up. I'll try and tackle the jetpack again this afternoon and get everything looking right before progressing to the next stage. I've got a Carl Dobsky perspective tutorial that I haven't watched yet so I think I'll queue that one up for viewing today.

Sorry to have picked the your least favourite, always the way isn't it? Do you feel more of a connection with any of the other heads?

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Boys we need some more of your work on this thread . I feel like a Hog!

Eb: Good job on the brief and I think that should be enough to go on but if you want to add more, be my guest. I've picked up a few more gigs so I'll be slow on this one too but I'll still be chiming every day. My favorite heads would be 3-6 with a special place for 3,5 and the helmet on 6.
So are you a big Mass Effect fan? You seem to know your stuff. In an effort to get up to speed last night I played the game for an hour or two until I got sick to my stomach. I'm the guy who can't play many video games because I get "the motion sickness". It's especially bad with the first person shooters.

Regarding perspective, I suggest you don't watch the video and break out the loomis and sit down with a ruler and just plow through the exercises. The only way to learn it is to do it the hard way and practice. Want an old school drafting tip? When you are working with a triangle, tape or glue a dime to each corner. This lifts the triangle off the paper and helps reduce smudging.

[David Keen]

@Wheels: Hey mate, if you're leaning towards the other heads feel free to create an amalgamation of them for one of the characters. They are all valid designs I just thought the 2nd was the most different from anything else Mass Effect. I'm a pretty big fan of the series but sadly don't have the time to play the 3rd one with so much other stuff going on. It's a real shame that you get motion sickness from playing games, but not having that terrible addiction plaguing your personal and professional life is probably a good thing.

I'll have a look into the Loomis exercises, practice is my middle name.