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]

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!

[Dirty C]

you didn't tell me it was your birthday! Happy birthday!!

[Sok N. Wett]

Happy B-day, pour some liquor for the homies....

[Wafflehouseninja]

this ones for you!

[Steph Laberis]

C: Many, many thanks! As promised, I drank my sake in your name tonight. ^__^

Sok: Yo yo Ryu, thanks for the birthday wishes. Sadly, I'd be drinking alone tonight, since my homies all live 90 miles south of where I do, but I'll pour some on Friday night when the official party happens. MWAH!

Waffle:

...
...
..
.
I am moved to TEARS. I'm printing this out. AND I'm bringing it into Hasbro the next time I'm in-house. THANK YOU!! You nailed the Pony form really well, better than I can most times. ...wanna work some freelance?

[incolorinred]

i think those buzzard sketches you did are excellent. I enjoy art involving birds in general. It seems you have a wide variety of other animals in here too. Nice job.

[0kelvin]

Man, I am loving these Pugfish! Your designs are always so, for lack of a better word, marketable. It's like fully formed lines of toys and dolls just spring from your mind.



0kelvin

[Sems]

ver nice, i especially like the rat with the toothache

[maxetormer]

Dam! youv got sum really strong cartooning style, (I wish I had
such ease and flow on my work ) great elephants!!
I just have one complaint, Update more!!

[oasis]

those are pretty nice girl i like the kind of stuff that you do. have you gone to any schools for art or anything like that.

[Setherial]

absolutely love your work, love them bird studies too, very good work !!

Seth

[maxetormer]

I really like your TD piece, at first I liked the caracter just becase
of her expression, all demented and full of sadness (the bloody hands
did the trick as well ) but I was only after I read the back story that
the piece really got my fullest atencion, great art, supported by a great
story is the kinda of thing I enjoy the most, and its the kinda of work
I want to produce for me as well, so congrats on a VERY well done work

[mentler]

5 bones here <><> Steph has got it going on <><> love the line work and especially like the emphatically drawn little critters <><> the birds <><> have me drawing birds in my mind as I type

[Gabby]

Yay a fellow RISDite! Your stuff is simply amazing I love it! My favorite is the Thunderdome sketch/finish, although i'm very biased because I love things that look creepy

[Zebz]

* Ahem * More please....

[blkn]

so much variety.. awesome stuff.

[Steph Laberis]

Oh man... you guys ressurrected this mangey old thread, so I guess I gotta grow a set of art balls and post.

*sigh* Been having a slow art crisis. Admittedly, I am not tending to my own art needs and my IRL sketchbook has been suffering. In the next few days, I will root through the scant pages I have done in my spare time and compile something... ANYTHING to help me get a footing again and take off. Admittedly a lot of what goes in my sketchbook is very personal and I don't always like to show it off and lately I've been doing a lot of personal works.

But as far as what I can share...

First off: This project has been the bane of my existance for half a year. I'm bored with it, screwed up the deadline hardcore and just want this done for the new year. It's a design for a board game about animal trivia. I have one environment (jungle) left to pencil in, then add some filler animals.

I could really use some help on this one. I am not used to full on illustrations with backgrounds and the composition on this one is very intimidating for me. Any feedback is appreciated; because this is a very time senstitive project, I won't be able to go back and make extensive changes, but any thoughts would help me to know what to do and not do next time around.

General sketch of board layout and path


Final line art WIP:


So, banes aside, I do have a couple more things that have crawled into my sketchbook.

First: Trust is hard to come by. Always worth celebrating when I find it


Second: This is the design for my Christmas cards. I think it needs a little more tweaking in the value department, but otherwise I'm quite pleased with it.... though it might be cropped a lil close.


And thank you to those who PMed me for a card. I'm mailing 'em out tomorrow!

So in a nutshell... personal stuff aside, I feel a bit stagnant yet timid to take any artistic chances. I am making an effort to take place in the weekly activities here (sorry Oregano, I can't do the Battle Angel... Christmas card ate up my time >_<) and sort of re-direct my artistic efforts. I tend to draw ridiculously cute things when I am lazy or don't feel like taking chances... though they have their place in the world too, I guess.

Woo, tangent. As always, I appreciate any and all feedback and please, if you have anything to say about the game board, I am in greta need of feedback.

[S.C. Watson]

sorry Oregano, I can't do the Battle Angel... Christmas card ate up my time >_<

I'll forgive you. This time.

Neet-o card btw

Cheers,
~Oreg.

[Red_Rook]

yay, the updatesorz ( i need to update mine o___O;

im glad to see the game board fiasco is slowly coming together
you know my thoughts on the magical bandaid drawing ^___^
and the christmas card is the win, however i think it would still benefitt from being cropped less tightly and the lighty dun glow cause there still under the graphite layer, i think your owrk would really benefit from the odd brushstroke over your line layer.

[hito]

awsome sketches from the museum! I kick myself everyday for forgetting to ask to see your sketchbook.

[Carnifex]

awww that's too cute.the bandaid pic is just ^^

how about an insect battle christmas card?

keep it up.

[Caledonian]

Second the insect battle christmas card idea Yet the X-mas unicorn is plenty cute already. Happy holidays!

-- C

[young paddy1]

good looking managery you have in here, i really like your style, proper sketches, obvious high speed accurate depiction of animals and people alike.

p.s. the xmas card is cute as hell.

[jtheanswer]

U use full advantage of life drawing pretty good! I have to follow your example. Just, keep em coming!