The spectacle of an aerospace engineer attempting art!

**staylor** · December 15th, 2005, 03:42 PM

Zebsfree: You're definitely right, I'll try to do some life drawings over winter break, normally I don't really have the time.

Anyways today was my last day of college for the year and I will finally get some free time! The internet connection at home is less than impressive so I may update less often.

Here's an experiment in graphic design, I rather like how it turned out.

Here's a sketchy page, with the gothic kitten fairy sketch.

**staylor** · December 28th, 2005, 05:18 PM

Aha! Finally an update! The only scanner I have access to right now is rather slow and awkward so I'm only scanning the "good" stuff right now.

I would also like to mention that I have actually started drawing myself in the mirror. I've also made the occaisional trek outside to draw plants when the weather was not extremely cold and wet. Maybe I'll scan that stuff in later but it's really ugly looking. I'm out of practice when it comes to real life studies, I really have to do more.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (was a Christmas present).

My house. This was a gift for my parents. Upon completing this I was told that you're supposed to dampen the whole paper before water coloring. I felt really stupid then. At least I now know why the shading came out so funky.

Alright, that's enough pretty things. Back to drawing monsters and airplanes.

**glikster** · December 28th, 2005, 05:20 PM

I love that house....

Don't feel dumb, I did a portrait in watercolor on a canvas because I didn't realize there is watercolor paper for a reason. Ended up coming out pretty good, but it was stolen with a couple other of my portraits a few years ago.

**TGping** · December 29th, 2005, 10:37 PM

as for your comic, that last page, everything looks samey, like there isn't enough line variation. the clouds look like the desert.

the house: the corner pillar thing close to the center of the page is tilting slightly to the right, so remember to drop a vertical line perpendicular to the ground when you draw, I do it especially for drawing still-lifes, like bottles. One thing that helps avoid that leaning is if you yourself look at the drawing upside down...

I'll try and crit your stuff more often than every 25 days, no promises though

**staylor** · January 8th, 2006, 05:21 PM

Glikster: I guess a lot of people make silly mistakes

. I'm sorry to hear your stuff was stolen though.

TGping: I see what you mean about the comic. I tried more line variation with the latest one, hopefully it helps. And I definitly learned my lesson about using right angles, I was so proud of finally using a ruler to get straight lines I forgot that they also need to go in the right direction! And don't worry if you don't crit too often, I should probably upload art more often!

Here's page five of the comic. Hopefully I'm learning.

And a fun sketch in MS Paint done while taking a break from a larger picture (yeah, taking a break from art to work on art is kinda silly).

**TheSundayPaper** · January 8th, 2006, 05:52 PM

Wow. Great work. But on the last post I got really confused. "Shaman, is that the great dragon?" *scrolls down* Robo Rabbit caught me off gaurd. I thought it was supposed to be the dragon >.<

**TGping** · January 10th, 2006, 04:39 AM

that bunny does look like it was fun, lol.

and I am seeing more line variation... try making things in the foreground have thicker darker lines than things in the background?

I'm going to try another watercolor robot soon, so keep em peeled... and it won't be so pink. lol

**Serpian** · January 10th, 2006, 07:04 AM

Hehe... MSPaint DOES rock. I've gotta ask you, on the many-mouth-thing and other monsters, what's your influences? Good work, keep it up!

**staylor** · January 16th, 2006, 05:44 PM

Sorry about the delay, it's been a while since I had access to a scanner.

TheSundayPaper: Lol, that's pretty funny, I didn't intend that to happen.
TGPing: Thanks, can't wait for the new robot!
Serpian: I'm morbidly fascinated by creepy malformations and mutants, biology can be a pretty neat inspiration at times (like that cyclops kitten that was recently born). Artwise I really like the work of Wayne Barlowe, who also does crazy monsters, but much better than I!

Here's a page full of monsters, and a drawing of my new alien queen figure. She's so pretty, and only cost six dollars!

An ugly unicorn and ugly self portraits. I swear my nose does not look like that. I probably should have spent more time, each picture took maybe a minute, but I'm just glad I did some referenced work.

And a drawing of some airplanes and a pen picture of a building at my school. I love brick buildings so much it scares me.

I went outside and drew trees. I later realized I stepped in deer poop along the way.

And, so you have at least one nice picture here's a robot.

**staylor** · January 19th, 2006, 04:34 PM

I really have not been living up to my title of "updated several times a week!" recently. This will be a really busy term for me. But here's some new stuff anyways.

Fanart for an old beast wars toy I had. Just some stupid fun with metallic markers. This also commemerates the last page in my sketchbook.

And a picture I'm working on. Yes, that is an anthropomorphic P-51 Mustang. There really is no explanation other than that I am quite crazy.

**TGping** · January 20th, 2006, 06:16 AM

man I love torca! one of my fave beasties!

I especially like the tank walker bot, and the p-51 mustang, very fun.

**staylor** · January 23rd, 2006, 07:04 PM

TGping: Ha! I'm amazed someone recognized Torca, he was one of my favorite toys.

I haven't been doing much other than doodling recently, but here's some more progress on the anthropomorphized P-51. Plenty more work to do, but I like the way it's coming so far.

I guess P-51's have perfect abs. Who knew?

**staylor** · January 26th, 2006, 04:35 PM

And it's finally done!

Took a while, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm slowly getting better at digital stuff. I like photoshop and all but sometimes my brain just breaks when I'm working with abstracted pixels on screen. It takes alot longer for me to get the same quality that I would get traditionally. But hey, I'm learning.

There's also a wallpaper version in my devart site (link in signature).

And here's the latest IDW: Alien Habitation Suit.

**glikster** · January 26th, 2006, 04:38 PM

these last ones a re really cool.

The P-51 man's pose is very expressive! Great job!

**gassnake** · January 27th, 2006, 01:05 AM

the boy/plane thing is totally awsome. the guesture, the body, and the whole idea is great. the shading works and i dig the bg(+foreground) the blur you did really adds to the piece and the bg is helpfull but not jumping out at anybody. great job.
the running this is a different story. although it is still better than something i can do, the piece is lacking, especially after looking at the planeboy.
having the back leg like that really kills it. but mainly the guy looks flat. the coloring and shading just isnt enough. deffinitly try more contrast. thats all man. and thnx for critin' my work. gl.

**staylor** · January 31st, 2006, 05:17 PM

Glikster: I'm glad you liked it!

Gassnake: Yeah, the alien suit is rather flat. Normally I can "pop" things out if I work on them a while, but I just wanted to get it done in time. I'll have to work on making things more 3-D more quickly. A lot of my speedpaints suffer from flatness.

Trying to sustain my claim of updating this thing every week. This term gives me no time at all. I'm just plain tired.
Anyways, here is the first decent sketch from my new notebook.

And some improvements on the mustang picture.

**staylor** · February 2nd, 2006, 05:10 PM

And a major assignment that I thought was due Friday is actually due Monday! So I drew some stuff.

I've had a moleskine notebook since new years, but it hasn't been warm enough to do sketch outside (which is the reason I bought it) until yesterday. For about five minutes the sun was shining and it was beautiful, so I started drawing the gothic admissions building. Five minutes later it got cold and the ink gummed up in the pen so I went inside and drew the theater.

And here's the semi-refined idea for a villian. Also a bit of anatomy practice. Strange thing is most animals have the same muscle structure as humans, but just shaped and distorted differently. All the attachment points are the same.

**glikster** · February 3rd, 2006, 08:25 AM

Thanks for the crit in my SB!

Very true about animal musculature (same thing applies to the skeletal system)...
I like the idea and the stance for the villain, however, some crits:
the way he's standing, you should see the twisting more from his hips up. Right now it's all in one line until you hit his ribs.
Also, I think you should lose the far second hand. It's distracting.

I'm liking the start of the admissions building... and cool little creatures all over the place...

**staylor** · February 6th, 2006, 04:53 PM

Glikster: thanks, and I see what you mean about the creature.

Sometimes you just have to draw giant robots. I swear it's mandatory or something. I think I'll color this guy in later.

Hmmm, looks a little tipsy. Maybe this mech had a little too much to drink.

**staylor** · February 7th, 2006, 04:51 PM

Colored in the mech. Don't know how much I like the paint scheme.

**staylor** · February 9th, 2006, 04:23 PM

I've been working on this for several hours trying different techniques, and still the mountains look like crap. Even reference pictures don't help. I've got no idea what's going on, the pencil sketch actually looked good.

Why can't my digital sketches be anywhere as good as my pen and pencil stuff?
Moleskine sketches will come when I scan them in.

**staylor** · February 10th, 2006, 05:55 PM

Ugh, this term is insane, sorry for the relative crappiness of my recent sketches, I just don't have time to work on better stuff.

And, are there any openings in light sketchbook support groups? The kind where you post and comment a few times a week instead of every day? I tried posting in the main sketchgroup thread but have yet to recieve any reply.
I'd be a good critter, I promise

.

Anyways here's some quick stuff.

I love my moleskine. And cyborg zombies. And quick sketches of buildings turned at awkward angles.

I also like cars and steeples and ugly decaying buildings. I guess I'd make a bad architect. Drawn from life.

I also like wierd armored dragonslayers with poor arm anatomy and lazily drawn dragons. Well, actually I just like the wierd armor.

**Zord** · February 13th, 2006, 07:39 PM

Hey, nice work on this last piece! The buildings are done really well, I wouldn't mind seeing an enviro. or two. The print is well done too, your mother will definitely like it. Keep pushing the anatomy and show us some more studies! Your creatures will benefit from that. Keep it up!

Edit: didn't realize that I was looking at the first page when I thought I was looking at the second. But yea, studies!

**staylor** · February 14th, 2006, 04:59 PM

Zord: Thanks, I'll have to get to work on more anatomy studies.

And here's a quicky sketch. Half an hour of fiddling with stuff. The nose is screwed up but I'm kinda happy with how quickly I got the shading and picture done. Speed is something I have to work on.

**Boogieman** · February 14th, 2006, 05:32 PM

Love the anomorphic mustang. Saw it on this site sometime before, thought it was real cool but never commented. When it comes to your sketches I gotta agree with Zord. I mean, doodling from the mind is pretty good training (and lotsa fun). But if you wanna get those anatomy problems sorted out then studies from life or Loomis&Co is the way to go. Props on the commitment tho, considering you're studying to be an engineer it's real impressive how much time you put into drawing. I studied hardcore math and physics for a while (I'm a dropout) and during that time I hardly drew for shit...

**Inkfish** · February 15th, 2006, 11:51 AM

Hey there! i just finished looking through your sb. It really shows that you have improved as an artist alot since you started. I think you have a really solid beginning here. I think i won't go into specific crits this time, for i am kinda hard pressed for time now, but i will begin commenting on your work more thorougly when you update again

can i ask how much you draw every day, and what are your goals?

peace
Antti

**pogy366** · February 15th, 2006, 11:58 AM

... i'd always assumed that math and artisitic talent couldn't live in the same brain. i guess i was wrong.

Your mustang is really good, you did a kick ass job. Your mixture of organic and tech imagery works well and makes things unique.

**staylor** · February 15th, 2006, 05:34 PM

Inkfish: Thanks, its always good to hear that I'm improving, sometimes its hard for me to see that.
Pogy: Thanks, though to be honest I sometimes have to sacrifice art for engineering and vice versa. Sometimes I wish I'd just stick with one hobby. And I'm really glad you liked the mustang, I'm going to try to make more of those!

Sorry about the low quality sketches recently, I haven't quite had enough time to do better stuff.

Page four of my moleskine notebook. More cityscape drawings. Worcester is nice and hilly.

DSG 1020 done in the paintchat program here.

Another quicky sketch done in paintchat.

I'll try to get in some anatomy studies soon.

**Inkfish** · February 16th, 2006, 07:46 AM

Hey Staylor

The moleskine stuff looks good one thing you might want to try is to use softer values in the bg, and less details, it adds to the illusion of space imo. The cat in a tophat and a monocle looks really dapper

**T-Raktor** · February 16th, 2006, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by staylor

I really really like this one: perspective and all. The first of your works look a little sloppy, but they show improovements. And i really like your imagination. Keep it up!