Bill’s Sketches, WIPs & Whatnots

[bill618]

Finally got on board and started a sketchbook.

[bill618]

Photoshop sketches.

Life drawing of crow skull found on a walk in the woods.

[bill618]

More stuff done in Photoshop, and one oil quick paint.












Oil paint quicky:

[bill618]

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I’d put the b-movie poster I did for a b-movie cg challenge. It won best character.

Photoshop illustration.

[Incinerated]

very nice start, I think I speak for all of us when I say: more please.

[bill618]

Incinerated--Thanks! I’ll be piling up more stuff today.

Keeping in the eerie theme, here’s a ZBrush head study of Alfred.



I’m working out some ideas for the head for a 2d/3d illustration.
Here’s one that I’ve been playing with, still on the back burner:

[bill618]

ZBrush studies and WIPs:












Work in progress:

[Patrik D]

I like your studies, keep it up.

[bill618]

I started the Sprite work to create a hybrid oil painting/digital painting out of an abandoned oil done 12 years ago. I scanned the oil and removed the chipmunk to replace it with the Sprite. This is another back burner piece that I thought would be an interesting project.

Done in Photoshop







I’m also thinking about doing a ZB sculpt of her, without the butterfly wings—maybe some other unique insect-like wings.

[aargh!]

Wow.. These are great man, I'm drawn to your studies and you've got a great eye for design.. I love how the sprite you've created, maybe work some translucency into her wings?

[kevin_]

great work, really dig the portapotamus one! :b

[bill618]

Patrik D--Thanks!

aargh!--Thanks. I initially thought about going more transparent with the butterfly wings. They look a bit heavy and earthy like moth wings right now. I’m not sold on the wing coloration yet. I might go a more translucent route, when I revisit.

kevin_--Thanks! Glad you like the Portapotamus.

[bill618]

Some more head scribbles.

[Amber Marie]

Wow, I am in awe of your stuff! You make me want to work even harder to get better with my art. Keep up the great work.

[bill618]

Amber Marie—Thanks so much--glad you find the stuff motivating.


Here’s a Photoshop line-drawing I did from 'life', a while ago, primarily to test out the sensitivity of the Wacom Intuos4 tablet I just bought (in comparison to the intuos3 6x8 wide it was replacing). In conclusion I was a little underwhelmed at the difference.
All of the lines are freehand, no straight edges or ellipse guides were used. #4 is #3 with a stroked fill (the thick trapline is the result of the stroked fill).

[AztcFireFlower]

Cool work in the varied mediums! Great crow study and the foreshortened arm study! Really nice.
3D work, what can I say. Right on!
I've yet to hunker down and learn the perspective drawing process. Soon.

Nice sprite design. There is one issue that I see. I find my eye doesn't easily settle on the sprite as all the other elements (background, even frog) are competing with her. I think it's a matter of orchestrating the light further to emphasize or focus on the important object in your piece. Hierarchy of importance idea.

I look forward to see what other cool things you post in your brand spanking new thread. :]

[Mashach]

Great skills. Respect!

[inkR]

Awesome stuff you've got here! As AztcFireFlower said - the arm with extreme forshortening study is very impressive.
I love the design and colours on the Meadow Sprite as well.
Thanks for sharing wireframes, now that's a proper topology for animated 3d models!

Cheers,
ink

[bill618]

AztcFireFlower–Thanks.
Yes, the sprite idea needs some lighting and compositional finagling. I’m still not quite sure what I want to do with this neglected backburner piece—needs some attention.
Don’t hesitate to jump into the linear perspective pool. Having a handle on perspective drawing techniques comes in handy for anything you draw. Once you have it committed to mind, you won’t have to, in a most cases, go through the complete technical process of establishing your horizon line and vanishing points to create convincingly accurate drawings, in perspective.

Mashach and inkR–Thanks for the comments.

Eagle sketch on gessoed hardboard panel.



‘Cloud Shadow’ –oil on gessoed hardboard panel, painted back in 1998.



Ref photo for Cloud Shadow was this film photo I shot at a small zoo. The eagle was a rescue and couldn’t fly do to permanent wing damage.
What inspired the painting was the caustic light spilling from the eye onto it’s outer edge. I would have been fine just painting a large eye, but decided to do the whole bust shot.

[insanelight]

Truly interesting stuff!
I like the eagle sketch in the latest post a lot.

[Candra H]

I saw your comment in the paying the bills with your art thread and decided to come check you out.

Your work is stellar. I love everything - your drawings and paintings, and even the 3d stuff which goes way over my head. I guess thats what thirty plus years of working professionally does for your art.

It was a pleasure and an inspiration going through your sketchbook and I'm definitely subscribing because I'm hoping you keep posting.

Thanks for sharing.

[Goremageddon]

Subscribed!! Definitely.

[Niam]

Came here through there paying bills thread too XD
Amazing skills!! I love the sketches!! Suscribed!

[Fuggedaboudit]

I love everything in post 3! The 3d arm is amazing! Jack is also great! Keep it up!

[bill618]

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

Here’s an oil quicky, done in the 90s.



Graphite drawing, also done in the 90s.

[bill618]

Channeling Yerka.
Here’s a Yerka styled surreal mobile. It is a 2d/3d combo piece. The spiral tongue, junk in the cab, compound eye texture and dark brown leathery fins were done in 3d (cinema 4d). The rest is all Photoshop painted.






The illustration was done for a contest back in 2009. The goal was to create a surrealistic image in the style of Jacek Yerka. It’s always an interesting challenge to work in the style of another artist—at least to try to.

[Anthonycarey]

Dude this has to be one of my favorite sketchbooks I've found on here so far. Gonna bookmark it for sure... Is there a way to subscribe to threads on this site?

[bill618]

Thanks, Anthony!
To answer your question (which you probably figured out by now), to subscribe to threads, go to Thread Tools (above).

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Here’s a scan of a 4x5 transparency I shot with my view camera of an oil painting done in 2000. I scanned it, unprofessionally, on my little Epson scanner (with transparency scan top). I should have scanned the original but it has long since been sold at gallery.
It’s not a sketch or WIP, but in keeping with the thread title, I’ll call it a Whatnot.

[untier]

Oh, God. Stuffs in this thread dazzled my eyes. Your works are that awesome!

[bill618]

untier—Thanks.

---
‘Lepidoptera and the Frog’

Update



The inspiration revolves around a candid (just bad) 35mm film slide I shot of a little frog while on vacation in the Poconos, many years ago.