sketchbook (10th Feb 2007) 365 design challenge

**Eva** · March 18th, 2006, 02:05 AM

you do so much ! keep at it !
i would like to compliment you on your machines and background skills =) it is true that like other says you could spend more time working with your humans. i advice taking life drawing classes to loosen your wrist up some and add volume to your people since they tend to be on the flat side. its going to be a pleasure seeing you advance.

hp · March 18th, 2006, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by machzero

yo hpslashluvr,

still typing this from the hotel lounge in karachi, so can't view most of the images cause the internet is a bit erratic. Can't see your paintovers now, but recalled seeing them a few days ago. I remembered you had a bit of quivering lip going, plus some wooley eyebrows... heheh. As for the proportions, sometimes I get myself stuck on previous designs... got previous char design sheets with various profiles of characters to used (semi-large project in the works).

lol yeah i don't like to do po's cuz they sort of suck, but i think the main problem is the eyebrows and how they "cut" the forehead really sharply...plus wooly or thin they look too long and unnatural.

**GRAPHICDUDE** · March 18th, 2006, 01:23 PM

Very Nice I Like Your Sense Of Concept In Your Renderings..

**machzero** · March 19th, 2006, 10:44 AM

Eva - thanks for the compliment~! but it's been years since i left uni... and i don't think there's any life drawing classes within a couple of hundred miles unless I enroll in a full time art college or something (and they're mainly commercial art orientated, which I really like but working full time doesn't allow it).

GRAPHICDUDE - thanks!

yo hpslashluvr,

hmm.... i shouldn't have used my own eyebrows as reference then! kekekekeke

meanwhile, getting my arse kicked in the weekly industrial design again... I'll never figure out that activity... heheh.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63797

still working on a project in karachi, hopefully will get to fly tuesday for home.

**Farvus** · March 24th, 2006, 06:32 PM

Hey. There's lots of fantastic update since my last comment. Sorry for longer absence.
From all your last digis my favourite is AI troop carrier. Really strong and believable mechanical design. That's what obviously lacks in my sketchbook ( and how I want to draw SF without all those machines?

)
The woman with rifle is also great. A bit too tight composition but that's minor problem. I'd change the values on her closer leg. The higlight and shadow are only close to edge it gives a feeling of flatness.

Cheers.

**machzero** · March 25th, 2006, 04:36 AM

Yo Farvus,

no prob since I've been missing for a bit too. The woman/rifle pic is old, but was one of my first attempts at composition. And you're right regarding the flat look since I forgot everything about lighting and shadows when working on it... heh.

I kind of like the troop carrier too, the overall shape is pretty standard for me... but somehow I got inspired when it came to the detailling. Here's a breakdown of the individual layers (unfortunately, did not save a step by step for this one since I was working fast). Hopefully, it'll give you ideas.

onir's pic! unfortunately I think I messed up... apologies... apologies...

just recovered from the jetlag, and still suffering from a bit of stomach flu. Time to get back up to speed. Went though my folder of photos which I've taken previously and picked on at random to do a quick doodle. 30-45mins. Still not happy with the middle bit.

**Onir** · March 26th, 2006, 12:07 AM

hey machzero, I love that picture of me lol, I can definitely see me. I think you got my expression really well lol.. anyway! the WIP is definitely good to see, great to see what you started with and how you advanced it. the environment you posted looks good as well; nice to see color

looks really nice though, definitely has a nice tropical feel.. was that done from ref? just wondering of course

keep it up man, hope ya feel better as well

**machzero** · March 26th, 2006, 12:23 PM

hey onir,

glad to hear to liked the pic! You're right as in I got the expression better than the features (the proportions are waaay off compared to the photo). And yeah, it's from a photo I took. But I also did very rough pencil sketches when I was there (got a semi-decent tan too while at it... heh).

meanwhile, been working on a little personal project, but the rough WIPs make no sense to anyone but myself... here's a WIP of one that's a little more cleaned up.

OLD STUFF...

just to put all my old CA stuff onto this thread... first and only entry to the character of the week activity. Worked on it a few hours after work every day for about four/five days. I can't do anatomy nor colours very quickly so this one was almost painful. Clothes and accesories came out semi-decent considering I didn't have time to hunt down any reference nor poses.

SOME SUPER OLD STUFF...

and actual non-digital work!

for glikster, since he wanted to see some of my old stippling stuff. Partial stippling only (can't find the 100% ones) over linework. The fourth one killed my hand. This was all done sometime around or before 94. A bunch of friends got together and decided to create a fantasy world for gaming... koshime's ideas are visible here too!

**LoTekK** · March 26th, 2006, 12:59 PM

Damn, that dropship is looking sick! Love the design on that one. The urban corsair pic is pretty cool, too. Nice dynamic posing and all of that. Jesus H Christ, those traditional ones in the last post are insane, detail-wise. Those musta taken forever!

**Onir** · March 26th, 2006, 09:54 PM

hey machzero, great updates! I'm with LoTekK, that dropship is looking hardcore; you really can make some clean looking mechanical stuff. your urban corsair piece is really nice as well; that pose is really dynamic and the specs of dirt add to the quickness of it. as for the traditional stuff all I can say is

the detail in those are ridiculous. talk about patience lol, looks like those would have taken a long time

**glikster** · March 27th, 2006, 10:29 AM

Da-yuhm!!

Ditto about the mechanical stuff... and great job on the beach and Onir...

The stippling stuff is crazy detailed... all I can say is ouch!

I also really like th CHOW... I think it's a very strong piece!

**Sirio_Brozzi** · March 27th, 2006, 10:33 AM

Really nice update mach. Your digital stuff is looking really good man-Drop ship looking fantastic. Keep up the updates!

hp · March 27th, 2006, 10:24 PM

wow the amount of detail in those last posts are insane...

as for the CHoW, i really like the pose and environ, however i think the black spots (dirt?) sorta look like a disease or something...it's really well rendered out though.

the photo is good...YOU USED COLORS!!! MY GAH!

anyways next time maybe try rendering a photo with more interesting lighting.

**machzero** · March 28th, 2006, 11:18 PM

LoTekK - here's a shoutout to singaporean pai-kias! heheh Thanks for the comment.

The ink ones seriously took a long time. And they're not big at all. The largest is about 15cm (6 inches) wide/tall. And it was very mechanical, take a variety of drafting pens and start laying in the dots. And no undo button, and I used crap copier paper... so erasers/razors wouldn't work.

Yo Onir! okay... little secret here... I used to be one of those dreaded "anime/manga" influenced artists out there. Except I focussed entirely on mechanical stuff, perspective and so on.

Sirio_Brozzi- yo, thanks! Will definitely update. Comments/replies in this thread will always give me the push I need.

Hey glikster! The Chow thingy was my serious attempt at a character. Knew my anatomy is super weak but dug up tons of reference pics and did little anatomy studies (those are based on my arms! heh). The scary thing is that the background came together in about 30 mins when i struggled like crazy on the rest. Also, I think I got 1 vote, which was pretty nice... considering the amount of overwhelming entries.

oi hpslashluvr, I was young and stupid then... and the guys I doodled with were always trying to outdo each other. However, you also get the pleasure of spilling ink over the piece after spending 10+ hours on it. And YOUR GAH! hehheh, I did use colours... just realised something. Should have ignored what my eyes were telling and push the atmosheric perspective a bit. Though, it was a hot tropical day, and not much shadows cast on the pic.

anyway, sneak preview of prolly my next mass upload... old stuff again... this I did for various buddies, theirs cars. Since it was a present, I used their reference pics. Entire body shots, followed by close-up shots of the rims, grills, front airdams... etc.

**glikster** · March 29th, 2006, 05:05 PM

cool... nice seeing this stuff from you...

looking forward to seeing your next update.

**Onir** · March 29th, 2006, 08:54 PM

hey man very nice mazda 3, always liked that car. nicely detailed and I like the soft painting on it. can't say much else except nice stuff

hp · March 29th, 2006, 11:59 PM

don't like the car particularly, but i like the rendering ^^ maybe make the highlights even more...highlight-y to make it look even shinier?

**Orozc0** · March 30th, 2006, 12:05 AM

cool stuff

**machzero** · March 30th, 2006, 10:53 PM

urm... most of the car photoshop files were on the damaged HD... haven't attempted to recover them. So only have some one or two small pics on the webserver.

was trying to push the contrast on the 2nd pic (something like hpslashluvr suggested). More intense specular highlights and so on. But can't find the finished large pic.

some equally old stuff. Did some "concept art" pieces. It looks like vector art, but it's actually done with a Parker fountain pen, 0.2mm/0.3mm faber castell drafting pens, and good 'ol photoshop 5.5.

**Onir** · March 31st, 2006, 08:09 PM

nice stuff man, the forester looks really good, though I must say the back of the honda made me think it was part of a photo at first; shame the large picture is lost. as for the concept ships I can definitely see your style in these pieces, and yea I agree that thick border definitely gives the vector art feel. they do look really good either way, though the top one feels like the perspective is a little wierd. good stuff man keep it up

**Smitherines** · March 31st, 2006, 09:04 PM

Cool stuff, your backgrounds,compositions, vehicles and designs in general are looking really good. Your figurative work isnt as strong...keep up your studies on anatomy. Looking forward to seeing what you post next.

**Badger** · April 1st, 2006, 06:54 AM

Very cool stuff man. Compositions kick ass. I love the your attention to detail while not loosing focus, hard thing to do!!
A bit more colour would be cool, tighten up those lines maybe.
But impressive dedication man, lots'a work here!
I'll be back to see more

-B-

**koshime** · April 1st, 2006, 07:03 AM

good uploads of stuff sen. your digi with reference is the best way forward for colour pallete I think

**machzero** · April 4th, 2006, 10:16 AM

time for some replies, was in a rush last time.

yo glikster! Thanks! should I post some more old stuff? Or are people tired of 'em?

hey hpslashluvr! my friend would be sad you don't like his baby... heheh.

Orozc0, thank you thank you!

Smitherines, yup... my anatomy and figures are extremely weak. I had a head start of about ten years doodling GIANT ROBOTS! before I even attempted anatomy (and you should see how laughable those were).

oi onir! I'm a little sad I never saw the mazda3 in real life. However, I did drive the forester a bit and was partially responsible for it. My ex-apartmentmate wanted a new car, wanted some fun but didn't know how to drive stick. I said it was BS that it was too late to learn, and gave him a super extensive crash course in my car. Two three lessons later, he bought the forester (an impreza was a little overkill on the insurance, and the forester has an impreza running gear afterall). The lower pic actually has the perspective issues, the top one just has a funny shape. Oh yeah, found those car pics!

Badger, thanks man! I did go nuts on detail in the past. Ended up never completing a piece cause it tired me out. Learned to cut down a lot recently, focussed more on the overall shape than the little bit. And yeah, I admit my lines are very shaky still. I've actually laid down a frenchcurve on the wacom after a frustrating attempt with multiple undoes once. Done many line exercises but it's still a mess. Koshime can testify to what my sketches look like in real life.

koshime... duuuude! Digging some of your spaceship designs atm. Some of the shapes I would have never thought off! *inspiration inspiration*

anyway, sorry for no updates... been very busy with work. Small chance that I'm flying off to the philippines... and got to work this friday/saturday interviewing potential hirees (how bout they make my pay level with other similiar companies first!).

however, did manage to doodle a bit... and just uploaded some.

first... old stuff. Dragged the damaged files off the HDD and salvaged what I could. Here are the old car pics. Some better than others. Wanted to make a little "postcard" collection. Koshime and I used to run around in the old days... me in the mini, he in his old galant. And we still have those cars! Honduh on the upper right is my daily driver. And Kosh and I were returning from a late night BS session, when some chaf road bully in a 325 bimmer came up, tailgated and highbeamed us... had to teach him a lesson *devil*

quick ten min doodle on the wacom... got possessed by something. Ugly but came out better than I expected.

had no idea what to doodle... picked up a newspaper... worked off a tiny almost postage stamp sized picture.

no thought or story behind this one. Somewhat mechanical... wanted to go stereotype. Had fun designing the equipment. WIP.

finally, was working on some training documentation at work. All I had to use were some dimly litted digicam photos saved at too low a resolution. So... busted out the sony ericsson and got some pics. Threw them into photoshop, applied "tracing paper" and laid in real perspective lines to correct the flaws from the tiny lens. Then redrew everything. Close-up shows the quick sloppy lines. One day, I'll learn illustrator... but the job doesn't pay me to do graphics. But I don't like to do sloppy documentation.

hope this update wasn't too boring...

**glikster** · April 4th, 2006, 10:28 AM

That's an awesome update!!
I love those cars, and really great expressions on both doodles. (I know the 2nd was reffed, but she's got personality)

I think your stereotype girl has a ballooning cranium..., but definitely cool gear.

I'm picking up a USB cable today and then I shall finally have a scanner!! So expect an update from me soon!

**machzero** · April 4th, 2006, 10:36 AM

good grief... you're fast... heh...

cranium... check... I was planning to add HUGE FREAKING GOGGLES too. And change the colour of the bodysuit.

lucky you just need to find an USB cable. For me... I gotta dig up my terminators, scsi cables... etc... but the old canon is a magazine DPI scanner.

**Onir** · April 4th, 2006, 11:46 AM

firstly, holy crap you redrew that computer?! lol seriously great job on that, I know you traced in the lines and such, but man that came out reaaallly clean.

the cars look great! really nice rendering on them, I could see them for a car brochure cover or something hehe. I agree with glikster as well, the two people doodles came out very nicely; both expressions look wonderful, first guy looks disgusted and the girl looks really exhausted. definitely good stuff, especially since they are unreffed. the soldier lady looks pretty cool as well, though I do agree on the cranium thing, huge goggles would cover that though

good stuff man keep em comin! oh and old stuff is fine by me as well, even more things to compare your recent stuff to

**koshime** · April 4th, 2006, 01:10 PM

well - should be almost ready for a machzero meets koshime CITY sketchbook perhaps?

hp · April 5th, 2006, 05:49 AM

wow those diagrams are amazing. the ninja looking girl is pretty sweet too, and interesting color choice. ^^

**koshime** · April 6th, 2006, 01:11 PM

Bumping the thread...I was wondering sen, if Jason would be presenting himself to the CA workshop since he IS in bioware. Be nice to drag his ass down to florence though. Havent seen him in ages.....