The spectacle of an aerospace engineer attempting art!

**Poohgee** · October 14th, 2005, 07:02 PM

Cool stuff !

Really like ur daemon with a jet engine as a head ... sexy :-)

**Bomba** · October 14th, 2005, 07:43 PM

You've got some good ideas... just need to fortify your anatomy understanding. If you can, study from life when possible. Believe me, it does make a difference. Keep going, you are on the right track.
-J-

**staylor** · October 24th, 2005, 09:30 PM

Wheee! I've returned from vacation and finally have access to my computer!
Pooghee: Thanks!
Bomba: You're probably right. I've started drawing from photos recently and already I can see how much I need to learn.

And now for the artsy stuff!
Here's an unfinished picture. I erased the parts still in pencil, including part that went over the hand.

Here's a quick sketch of a photo of a skateboarder

The final inks of the jet head monster seen earlier in the thread

Random sketching (and an odd looking cat)

Attempts at dynamicism and composition. Alot of mistakes in this picture but at least I know what not to do.

**BAKI** · October 24th, 2005, 09:33 PM

wow you make amazing monsters with beautiful pencil and ink work

**Brutillus** · October 25th, 2005, 01:37 PM

Really sweet stuff!
I love your more finished pieces of monsters and crazy fantasy stuff. as far as "creature design" goes these are actually pretty crazy. I also like the primitive warrior with the spiked club and the cat thing in the background, it's more original in terms of character design than a lot of the ho-hum fantasy stuff I see all the time.
Although it looks like you've got an understanding of some basic muscle groups, I think you could benefit from a little deeper study of anatomy, even if it's just checking out a Hogarth or Bridgman book at the library. you're drawing skills are good enough that you could probably improve your anatomy pretty quickly.
I also like that you're not afraid to jump into crazy scenes or unusual poses.
I think it's pretty damn cool that we have an aerospace student on CA.org,
you could probably teach everybody a thing or two about spaceship design!
edit: that last one reminds me of frazetta, I'm sure you've seen his stuff.

Keep up the good work!
I'll be back for more

**staylor** · October 25th, 2005, 07:31 PM

BAKI: Thanks!
Brutillus: Thank you! I just did another anatomy study, but I'll check out the books you recommended. I usually reference a college anatomy textbook, but it's becoming clear that it wasn't intended for art. And yeah, sometimes I do see some really unrealistic aircraft here, but unless they're aiming for reality I ignore it. Sometimes art comes first and realism second, I've slowly come to understand that (a long time ago I used to be a rabid aerodynamics critiquer!).
And I am terribly proud of being compared to frazetta

Here's an anatomy study. He's a particular superhero I made up. He may be one of the most powerful superhumans ever but he's rather useless. Anytime anything resembling a fight breaks out he runs in the opposite direction as fast as he can. Why? Any powerful impact causes him to start a nuclear reaction and fry anyone within twenty miles. He'll be perfectly fine but noone nearby will be. His body is so radioactive he even tends to irradiate any innocent bystanders. He does have the handy ability of forcing radioative materials to decay, so the government occaisionally evacuates a nuclear powerplant so he can remove the radioactive waste (seen here), but the rest of the time he's stuck in a heavily shielded bunker alone and depressed. Poor guy doesn't even have genitals

**staylor** · October 26th, 2005, 04:04 PM

More sketches from pictures. I love the kitten. The man's hand is too long though.

And another fun sketch. I'm practicing with larger pens now, though I love the .2mm microns I feel that it may be letting me fiddle with details as opposed to working with the entire composition.

**staylor** · October 28th, 2005, 02:37 PM

I can't believe I'm doing this...

It's the beginning of a comic. I figure it might be a good way to practice doing different things and to become more flexible. They won't be too spectacular, just quick drawings. It follows the picture in the previous post. Hopefully it's clear and readible.

**staylor** · October 31st, 2005, 03:24 PM

Thatfatkid: You're right, already it's forcing me to draw new stuff.

And here's page two! I hope it reads well. Critiques are appreciated.

**staylor** · November 3rd, 2005, 08:26 PM

Nanananananana...Batman!
I got the animated series DVD's for my birthday. I love batman.
This is a very quick speedpaint, made in about 45 minutes.

**staylor** · November 7th, 2005, 06:52 PM

And here's another picture of Chimera, he mutates alot.

I think I'll have to work on my values. I've started to realize that I shade things as if they are all the same color, so I'll be experimenting with that.

I won't get much sketching done this week. Two tests and plenty of homework will see to that. But I'll do what I can.

**staylor** · November 8th, 2005, 03:31 PM

I don't get it...
When I have a week off I get almost no art done, when I have several tests and much homework I all of a sudden start sketching like a madwoman. Oh well.

Anyways here's another mutatey chimera, I love this character so much.

**staylor** · November 13th, 2005, 08:51 PM

Yay for acrylics!

I did some experimenting a while ago on painting on a canvas (sadly I have never done that, digital spoiled me). It came out better than I expected, but I made some major mistakes. Like painting the plane on top of the background, which was really stupid now that I look back. Not only did the paint underneath show up, I also couldn't sketch on top of it so I had to eyeball the plane. It's a bit distorted because of that.

So from now on I'm sketching on the canvas and then blocking in the colors.

**staylor** · November 14th, 2005, 01:05 PM

And page three of the comic is complete! What happened to the dragonfolk? What is the story of that funky axe? Will Archie really refrain from biting? Tune in next week to find out!

Critiques are very appreciated, please tell me how the comic is doing. Is it clear? Does it make sense? Is it interesting at all?

**staylor** · November 15th, 2005, 04:18 PM

I just realized that I haven't used MS paint for years. When I was younger I'd meticulously paint huge space scenes with it. I played with it for a few minutes for nostalgia's sake. Not anything special, but it was fun.

And could someone critique my comic? Is it good? Passable? So bad it hurts your eyes? And how can it be made better?

**staylor** · November 16th, 2005, 03:10 PM

Here's a few new pictures. The first was an experiment in having different pencil values, it only half succeeded. The second is a speedpaint I'm fairly proud of. I have trouble drawing directly onto the computer with my tablet, so anytime I do manage to do it I'm happy.

Are there any specific critiques for my stuff? I want to get better but I don't know how without your help (engineering school doesn't care about art).

**staylor** · November 21st, 2005, 06:29 PM

Awwww... No replies yet? If possible could any readers please critique me, I am just a poor art lover in the cold cruel world of engineering school and I need real critiques to improve

.

Here's an ink picture of some frankenstein birds.

**young paddy1** · November 21st, 2005, 07:57 PM

I really like your monsters and creatures especially the jet head and the one with mouths all over its face, my one and only real crit is take some time over your work, you don't have to rush at it, come back to it if necessary. (I should kinda take my own advice there)

The squadron speed paint you did could do with some blur on the props to add more motion and maybe some different angles for the aircraft to give it a more interesting dynamic.

**dCepT** · November 21st, 2005, 08:08 PM

Good lookin' out! You obviously let your work seep into what you make.. I'll show some of this to my brother..hehe.. he's an airplane-mechanic, going to be a technician this year I think.. He'll blow a wad! He's in love with WWII-fighters..hehe

Poses on your characters are a bit stiff... if they're standing still try for example an exaggerated contrapose (don't know if that's the correct term..) to loosen up the way they come across.

That probably didn't make sense, but I'll leave it there just in case.

peace

d-C

**TGping** · November 23rd, 2005, 08:59 AM

about your comic- there's nothing wrong with using a regular douple lined border for the frames, its less gimmicky. try changing the angle of the scene within the frame, like tilt the horizon. having the characters basically the same size throughout tends to be boring, but you haven't really fallen into that yet.

above all, you are telling a story, try and make it so that the audience can understand what's going on without the use of words. even if you are using words.

so I think you are off to a good start for your first comic.

**staylor** · November 28th, 2005, 07:48 PM

Young Paddy1: Thanks for the comments. Because this is my sketch thread I really tend not to spend much time on this stuff. I do come back alot to my more finished pictures. And I agree with what you said about the squadron picture, maybe I'll fix that.

dCepT: Airplanes are awesome, and WWII warbirds were even more awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it (and hopefully your brother will too!). I'll have to look into what you said about poses, I definitely need to get better at them.

TGping: Thanks for the critiques. I'm not using the normal border lines because the comic is just a quick ink drawing, it's easier for me to do some quick messy lines than pull out a ruler. I will keep that in mind though. I'll also try to "liven" up my scenes.

And here's a birthday gift for my mother. She likes Japanese prints and I decided to do one in that style for her. It was stained in tea for several hours to get a yellow aged look.

**staylor** · December 1st, 2005, 07:35 PM

Alrighty, here's the completed inks of something I've been working on. I think I'll add some ink washes or gray marker coloring. I'm not that practiced with creating ink backgrounds so I decided to go all out. This was also an experiment with trying to get the foreground pop out from the backgound with darker colors and thicker lines. It worked partly, better than the previous stuff I've done but there's still a ways to go.

It's not really a sketch but it isn't done yet so I'll put it here.

**TGping** · December 5th, 2005, 01:58 PM

that last piece is incredible... but here s an oppurtunity where the ruler would've been helpful. specifically on the left hand building, it seems to be leaning right a little.

you know what I really like? its that it seems you know how to use ellipses, quite refresshing actually.

**staylor** · December 5th, 2005, 05:12 PM

TGping: Thanks! And you are right about the building. I used a ruler for the initial pencil sketch but didn't do so for the pen outline, and it strayed a bit. Now I'm using rulers everywhere!
As for the ellipses...are you talking about the wheel? I did that freehand, but years ago all I drew was cars at car shows. It taught me a couple tricks about drawing tires and other such cylinders.

And here's another quick .2mm micron pen sketch! No underlying sketch, no reference, just a terribly detailed doodle. A bit of practice with hands, because I'm not so good at them.

**staylor** · December 7th, 2005, 05:06 PM

Wheee! Page two!

And here's a doodle of a freaky jet man.

I'm going to have to do some life studies, things have been really busy for me recently though. Maybe I'll get some done over christmas break.

**Hypronost** · December 7th, 2005, 05:49 PM

Inspireing sketches you got here man!
I really like your style.
I'd love to see some more of the finished up sketches.

**invinciblewombat** · December 7th, 2005, 06:10 PM

Love the monsters you've got here, especially the one with a human face for a forehead. Can't wait to see the final finished piece of the demon fight either. the only real crit i have is on the airplane drawings it looks like they're just hanging there becasue the propellers don't appear to be moving. Otherwise great job and keep it up

**staylor** · December 8th, 2005, 05:14 PM

Hypronost: Thank you! More finished art can be seen on my deviantart account (yeah I know, most people here don't like DA, but I'm too lazy to update my webpage). Click on the Turbofanatic link in my signature. I'll also start putting my WIP pictures up here in addition to the quick sketches.

invinciblewombat: I'm glad you like the monsters, they are my favorite thing to draw. And I see what you mean about the airplane picture, maybe I'll edit it some day.

Here's some more airplanes, in the snow! This is what I end up with when I try to make holiday themed art.

And here's page four of the comic, you might need to see the previous ones for it to make sense.

**staylor** · December 13th, 2005, 06:30 PM

Another quick sketch in Photoshop. I'm trying to get some of the dynamicism seen in the speedpaintings done by people better than I, but it is obvious that I have along ways to go.
1.5 hours, Photoshop 6.0

**Zebz** · December 13th, 2005, 08:14 PM

Keep updating! I wish we could see more work from you from life. I think you'd benifit from more studies and such. We all would. You'll be able to draw much better from your imagination if you kick those up a few notches. Keep at it, mate!