Steph's Brain Farts (NSFW): 11/17 - Creatures and CTN

[Steph Laberis]

Alright, I will make every attempt to keep this as "daily" as possible. I need to sketch more - I realized at the SF Workshop just how rusty I've become since graduating. Blah!

Anyway, my opening doodle was about 10 minutes of sketching, a half hour in Photoshop. One of my ratties has been battling a fierce abcess for the last 2 weeks and this just sort of sputtered onto the page.



I didn't use reference for this one (again... bad me!) and I sketched her with Col-erase pencils and those spiffy pens everyone got at the Japanese stationary store. Those pens are awesome!

See you guys tomorrow... after Blueberry's next visit to the vet. Hopefully.

[0kelvin]

Good to see you starting one of these too, Steph. Another Daily Sketchbook for me to keep an eye on!

I'd say the sketch is cute, but you're probably sick of that adjective being applied to your drawings.

Wish Blueberry good luck for me!



0kelvin

[Steph Laberis]

Thanks for the welcome It awesome to be joining up, since I now have so many names and faces to associate with these sketchbooks.

Saying that my work is cute is probably a fair assessment, what can I say? You guys will probably find that my sketches jump from cute to angsty to cute to depressing to cute. ...and no, I'm not bipolar. Just fickle.

And thanks for the kind words about Blueberry. I just want to get rid of the stress of her illness, for both of our sakes.

[-sideshowbob-]

hehe :>

without ref ?! thats wow looks cool N sweet :>

what kinda pens are these from japanese store? can u may scan them or take a photo ? really like to see them


calls the dentist

[Red_Rook]

nice one

[steak-tron]

heya Stephanie, It was nice meeting you at the workshop Thanks for the invite to roll with you guys on the last day, I would have gone if I had my hotel arrangements squared away buy then

Nice work on your site! That's great that you're working for Hasbro, it's nice to have alla' these professionals with daily sketch books. I like the rat, keep posting!

go team insect battle x infinity ... see I told you you wouldn't get banned... esp. after reading the original thread.

[Steph Laberis]

*Blows dust off of her sketchbook*

Ok, here we go...

Sideshowbob: Thanks much! The pens are called Hi-tech C's and Pilot puts 'em out. I'm going to harrass my friend in SF to pick me up some more, those are like... liquid pencil...

Red_Rook: Danke schoen! Vielen Dank! Aber... hast du ein Kartoffel? Ich moechte kein Pomme Frite, Ich moechte Kartoffel Puree.

Steak: Hey you! Ditto - 'twas awesome to meet you at the workshop too.
I tried my best to kidnap you on the last day, but I guess you had your priorities, huh? Thanks for the coment about my site, too. I'm not working full time for Hasbro anymore, just freelance... so does that mean I'm not a pro anymore? And yes yes, you were right. I wasn't banned... instead I became a part of a living legend on CA. Funny how life works that way sometimes...

OK! Sketches! Here's a handful of my sketches on my "Road to a Raven". I basically revamped one of my favorite characters for the "USA vs the World TD" and looked up some Haida references.


Kinda congested, I know. But I wanted to play with some face and beak designs.


The pretty but confusing sketch. I'm kinda proud of how the lineart looks but I really botched the composition of the head and neck.


Pardon the watermarks, I know no one here would think of stealing art. I figured I'd post the colored version to show the progression and how I tried to let complimentary colors polish the turd of my head and neck issue. I'm TOTALLY open for crits on this, since I am dying to rework this into a portfolio piece.

That's it for now, more to come soon.

[Steph Laberis]

After a rousing commentary on those Raven sketches (joking guys, joking) I'ma gonna shoot myself in the foot and show you an Illustrator doodle.

...I know this, ahem, "style" of work doesn't fly well here, but the areas I am looking for help with are pretty universal:

-Color choice
-Lineweight
-Character Design



I am trying to get more comfortable with Illustrator - I realize that illustrators who are good with vector art are desirable in the freelance world right now, and although vector art isn't my firts choice in media (meaning: I don't think it's much fun) I'd rather have freelance work right now than not.

Any feedback would be swell and yes, this is an off-shoot of Insect Battle.

[klinesmoker]

Loving the style on the second piece. Great action and wonderful color. Keep rollin'!!!!!

[0kelvin]

That is awesome! Go Chibi League!

I hate working with vector graphics. I can't get them to do anything, so I'm pretty impressed.

Don't really have any crits, I love it. I want one of those hats!



0kelvin

[Imageproof]

What a great line quality here!
Why haven't you been posting for so long - wanna see some more of your great work!

[Icey]

haha - the rat is damn nice!

[Steph Laberis]

Imageproof and Icey: Whoah, you found my hidden sketchbook! I was hoping I could lay low until I had new work to post but, you got me. Thank you very much for your crits and kind words.

Right now I only have some character sketches of a generic alien that I did for a logo, the rest of the stuff I've sketched lately is for work and I'm not allowed to show people.

I am working on a C.O.W., so expect to see more creepy bird sketches soon. Thanks for watching out for me guys

[Steph Laberis]

Alrighty, here's a litle something to show I'm not a total slacker.

First, these are sketches from a character design that a friend commissioned me to do for him film studio's logo. He wanted a "generic, Warner Bros-ish, big-eyed, devious alien with an anal probe".



So, that's that. The final was inked in Illustrator, I will post it once he integrates the character with his logo design.

Next, here's the original sketch for General Sutefu - Illustrator is so mice to use for clean-up! I also doodled some Scorpion buddies, since every soldeir in the Scorpion Squad is issued one, with which to do as they please. Most soldiers find useful things to do and bond with their Scorps, but there are some who just outright abuse the poor five-eyed marshmallows.



Ok, off I go for a quick nap and maybe work on my C.O.W.

[IanE]

Hi, Willow!

Really adorable stuff. I espeially like your Feb10th piece at the bottom, looks awesome. And those aliens! Really awesome creativity.

Keep the posts flowing!

Ian

[0kelvin]

Great expressions on the alien guy!

I love the Scorpion buddies. Man, somebody needs to make a Worms-esque game starring those guys!



0kelvin

[Steph Laberis]

Ian E: Hey there! Thanks much for the kind words, glad you like what you're seeing. I'ma tryin' to keep the posts comin'!

0kelvin: Oh hells yes, looks like Matesch was one step ahead of ya. ^__^

Well, I finished another sketchbook, but it was the one I use for work and I can't show you squat until the stuff I did is in production. I'm sure those of you in the game design industry can relate. Not that you guys are waiting on the edges of your seats for Pony sketches.

I do have some process sketches from my C.O.W. to show. I apologize about the scan quality, something tells me that my precious Canoscan 1220 is nearing the end of its silver, streamlined life...

Some inspiration from the frigate bird:


Some nekkid chickens, which was my original idea:


And some buzzard-ness;


Which all led to this, my submission; I want to revamp this and color it up, there's a lot of room for improvment:


Finally, I unearthed some older self portrait doodles in my freshly-filled sketchbook, these are from December and January. The sexy long-haired doodle obviously isn't me, but it's got a lot of Junko Mizuno in it!


Thanks as always for looking, guys.

[Dirty C]

Righto, well what i was trying to say is that while you obviously have cartoony tendencies, you display total ability with more literally figurative stuff as well. Often people who are good at one can't quite make the transition.

Anyway, really nice stuff as ever

And where's this nudity??

[The Biocreep]

awesome!

[0kelvin]

Those self portraits are adorable! The gestures are just great.

I liked your COW entry. I think if anything I'd suggest taking the design an extra step, make it a little more crazy and out-there.



0kelvin

[yousir]

your birds are beautiful. photoshop or handcoloring on the dancing birdman? can't find a thing to change on it, unless you want to redraw the head. but even then, i don't think that in its current state it doesn't look believable. i guess it just depends on what the character is meant to be doing...
your stuff really appeals to me, and i think i might have to do a sb thread myself; my chops have really been slipping...
as for the AI pic, i think you've pretty well nailed it. its not the color scheme i would have picked- i'd probably desaturate it a bit and make the scheme more analogous - but thats purely a point of style and i think what you've got going is pretty appropriate to the content. i need to learn vector work too, seems like a pain-in-the-ass medium, but its a weakness not to have it my arsenal.

[Caledonian]

I for one really like your "cute style". Those cartoony doodles would work great in a comic strip or webcomic format. Since you seem to enjoy drawing birds, I wonder if you have ever tackled psittacine subjects.
Hope Blueberry is well on her path to recovery. Regards,

C,

[Steph Laberis]

*blows dust off of neglected sketchbook*

I'm not about to make excuses for the lack of sketches. All I have to show you for now is a concept for INSEKUTO BATTERU! (Yes, I decided to continue with the idea. Thank you to all who added their two cents on the issue!)

This is Akai "Kai" Ruku, who happens to be inspired by our own Red_Rook. His codename is 'Dodge & Burn' and he's the resident pilot of the Scorpion Squad's Chibi League, using rockets and jetpacks to propel himself and scorpions across the battlefields. Since scorpions were just not made to fly, his contraptions are a bit... flawed... but he's gotta a no-quit attitude, and scorpions are a dime-a-dozen anyway.



In my absence of sketching, I DID start to learn Flash and I am building models of the Scorpions. Hoo-hah!

C & C always welcome, I am looking for some good character design feedback, since I want to develop the series.

Miss you all, back when I can scrape up some time

[cartoonfox]

hey hey, i havent replied here yet, shame on me ^-^

i really enjoyed looking through your thread. you have some great work here.
and i love that you threat us with two completely awesome and different styles. delicious!! ^-^
and dont listen to anyone else, those 'cartoon' style ones are friggin' awesome, and too darn cute! ^-^ you must keep posting them ^-^ i love 'em

those ones of the nekid chikens and bird heads and the c.o.w one are hot stuff, definaltey my favourate.

i know your busy with work and stuff, so thanks for updating, i look forward to your next update, you have two very awesome style.



hope you can make it to london, i will try my best to get a place by then so you can crash at mine.
and i will try my best to get to san fran next year, so hope to see you then too ^-^


catch ya online



peace

[Caledonian]

Cute. He reminds me of USA Boy from the comic strip featured in "Comic Artists - Asia : Manga Manhwa Manhua" by Rika Sugiyama. The hair threw me off at first, but then I remembered what Red-Rook looks like. Thus, you got the likeness dead on, but can't help wonder if there are eyes under all that hair . Looking forward to your much anticipated series Have a nice weekend!

C

[Tack]

really great stuff, so it was you who did that awesome bird for the C.O.W, i pointed that drawing out to a bunch of my friends cause i thought it was the bees knees.
definatly going to keep an eye on this sketchbook!

[Dirty C]

Cartoonfox is the nicest bloke in the UK. Fact.

[0kelvin]

Great to see you back! You were missed!

I'm so pumped you decided to stick with Insekuto Batteru. Oh man, he kicks so much ass! I love how you incorporate all the Insect Battle trademarks into the design so well (the slow eye radar kills me). Can't wait to see some Wasp Brigade guys and gals.

Thanks for your comments in my sketchbook too!



0kelvin

[Red_Rook]

8)



hehe, btw i handt seen the early sketches for your cow, nice one

[Steph Laberis]

Whoops, I forgot to respond to the comments from before!

C: Actually, your original comment was articulate and very flattering.... it was the IM you sent me that confused me. No matter, you give some of the best crits on CA and I'm grateful that you took the time to shar eyour thoughts!

Biocreep: Merci, my Trash Angel!

0kelvin: Yeah, the C.O.W. ended up beingn more run-of-the-mill than I had planned. I will take another stab at him. SQUAWWK! Also, I'm glad to hear you're still into Insekuto Batteru as well I've been doing the dork thing and selecting songs for a soundtrack, putting together animations in my mind...

yousir: I'm very flattered that I might have inspired you to start up a sketchbook! Thank you so much for such a wonderful crit. I am still tweaking the Insekuto batteru coloring style - I want to have olive greens and khakis be a stable color scheme, since the series is WWI/WWII themed, but I wanted to bring in some neons to make it all the more campy and trendy. I'm finding it tough to balance the two themes. If you ever have any questions about Illustrator, feel free to ask - it's a pain in the arse to start drawing with vectors, but very seductive once you get going.

Caledonian: Yoooo! How is our Jedi Baby doing? Sadly, Blueberry passed away from her ailment, she just reached a point where we could only slow her deterioration, not cure it, so I had her put to sleep. Tough times, for sure, but I have her ashes now and her sister, Oreo, is doing quite well now without Lil' Blue. I'm going to look into USA Boy, I haven't heard of the series but it sounds like it could be very inspiring to me. Thanks for the crit and the heads up!

CartoonFox: Dirty_C was right, you ARE the nicest Bloke in the UK. And to those of you who doubt it and need proof, look here:



I will let you know what my travel plans are, just keep me posted on your University plans THANK YOU!!! *hugs*

Tack: You showed my birdy to your friends? *blush* Thank you so much for that!

Red_Rook: Arigato Kai-sama! [/obnoxious] Have fun colorin' the birdy

So uh... no new sketches this time. That could change tomorrow though, I am celebrating my 25th year on this earth by going to my local equestrian center and drawing horsies. WOO!

Thanks as always guys!