Lunatic's Playground

[The Lunatic]

Howdy folks!

My name is Dave, but most folks call me crazy, hence The Lunatic. I started drawing from time to time a year ago, early October 2005 actually. Before that I had dabbled in art, it was just a class that I could fool around in and have a good time being creative, but I never really saw myself doing anything with it. Halfway through 2005 that changed.

A friend of mine decided that he wanted to do a web comic based on a concept I had been writing, (I know, I know, cliche and all that.) but had horrible luck with artists. They would always seem to hijack the project or give up part way through. I told him that I'd assist him with the art if he understood that I had no formal training and absolutely no anatomical experience. He agreed with my proposal that it would become a tool for both of us to evolve as artists and writers.

Ever since then we've been pounding away at pages and what not, trying to improve with each new frame, each new page. It's been a long year since that fateful Halloween when we launched the comic and the first few pages, and already I can see the the improvements in both of our respected areas.

I intend to use this sketchbook to work on concepts and hopefully better myself as an artist. I still consider myself a fledgling in the field and am keeping an open and maleable mind.

Current Areas I'm Working On:

Anatomy (Going to be a lifelong lesson I think...)
Dynamic/Expressive Shots
Architecture/Perspective
CG Coloring


I'll start posting images in a few moments so hang in there

[The Lunatic]

Okie Dokie. I'm gonna unload a bunch here with each reply being a new subtopic until I've unloaded a bunch of my stuff up till now.

Everything will be related to the comic work I do with my pal. I'm trying to steer away from the manga influence he initially wanted, slowly altering things until I can get a more realistic look but still maintain that cartoon/comic feel.

The comic itself is based loosely on the red riding hood fable, and when I say loosely I mean it. Lol.

Incoming!

First up is the main villain for the first novel or the first main story arch of the comic. She's called by the nickname "Red" and is loosely based on "Little Red Riding Hood."

She is a nearly unstoppable being of immense power that is sweeping through the land, slaughtering any living thing she comes across (save a few peculiar things) and turning them into undead puppets.



This is a composition of some earlier shots of Red. This was before I realized that you should flat the image before resizing so you can avoid getting those lil pixels of non color that were hiding behind the lineart. Meh lol.


Last page of the prologue of the comic. Not a lot of detail here, if I had the time to do it over I'd redo Red's cloak so that it's not wrapped fully around her and spend a lot more time on the zombies and poor Caleb. I was experimenting with backgrounds in this one and looking back I want to bash myself in the head with my keyboard.


Woo. This was about the time when I told my writer that I wasn't happy with the style and wanted to change stuff until I found something I liked. The coloring style started to change into a more cell-shaded look and I got a fantastic new piece of software to assist with smoothing out my lineart. (I have a very twitchy hand. Nerves... yeesh.)


Just a sketchbook sketch. One of the shots of Red before the comic started. Back when I was first visualizing the novel.


The cover for chapter 1. I enjoyed it as it was my first time trying digital painting so I got to experiment a lot. Still has a lot of manga/anime influence in shape and anatomy and the overall appearance of it is a bit wonky, but still a good exercise.

[The Lunatic]

Alrighty, next up are the Wulfen sketches and bits I have done thus far.

These beings aren't in the story yet, but they play a very important role as it begins to progress. They are also damn fun to visualize and draw lol.

We're still toying around with how best to define the differences between Wulfen and their dark counterparts the Wulfendaark. Originally we were going to do the Daark's fur as a thicker almost quill like coat, but I couldn't seem to get it to work properly. In time I may experiment with adding quills and whatnot to key points in the anatomy to assist in giving them a more terrifying visage.



The first Wulfen sketch I did. Did this a year ago when we decided to start the comic. Took a couple minutes and was really loose. The damn thing just wanted to come out.


A study I did with a wolf reference.


Ditto


Ditto


Just started doodling the guard on this one and the Wulfendaark just sorta conjured itself. Hate when I run out of paper...


I did this two weeks ago in between bakes at work. I need to finish it up because I really enjoy it. I'll have to redo it on another sheet of paper however, because the legs are cut off/aren't long enough. Going to have to study hands too, those damn things are far too complicated for being such simple objects

[The Lunatic]

Last page of the comic I've completed. It's not on the site yet.

Finished this last night. It's several layers (Fogged Skull, Eyes, Ghostly Silhouette) with a layer Overlay to get the color/effect I wanted and a basic background.

[The Lunatic]

Ok...

Next up are some character shots pulled from the comic and some sketches.


Isaac is the main character of the story. This composition shows off the earlier panels of him on the top and a few from the point when the style of the art started to change and I started getting a better feel for layers and all that jazz. I really like the middle set of panels, and even the bottom one has it's charm even though it's a bit different style-wise.


An original concept for the last scene of the first chapter. Isaac and Red first meet one another and bad things happen. Red is evil...


Chapter 2 cover. I spent a lot of time on this trying to paint it so that it would have a similar feel to the rest of the comic. It was a partial success. anatomy-wise, Isaac and Kaitlyn's heads are a bit too large and Kaitlyn's breastplate is colored incorrectly. Damn hindsight.


Preliminary portraits of Kaitlyn and Eli


The very first sketch of Kaitlyn. Gave me a good sets of ideas to work with. I had to come up with a costume that would allow melee combat, but still reflect Kaitlyn's personality. She's the only female Occultist Inquisitor, and due to that there hasn't been a whole lot of need for a supply of female oriented Inquisition equipment so she has had to improvise.

[The Lunatic]

Ok the last update for today, and probably for a little while lol.

Miscellaneous sketches and whatnot.


Hah he looks like that guy from Pirates of the Carribean... unintentional but still funny. His core is off and his head is a bit big as usual. Woo for background Red though!


I nearly got fired over this one. I'm so enthusiastic about the comic that I tend to forget when I should be working and doodle things like this in the wee hours of the morning when I hsould be doing things like... baking bagels or not lighting things on fire... long story...


Ok so its not Shattered Mythos: Red related but who cares. This is a comic we do in our spare time called "Deus Ex Chocobo". A lot of peole got peeved by this comic, but what do I care. Sephy IS Emo, and so is the title of this strip.

[Lad]

Good stuff going on here, I especially like the designs on the wolf heads

I dont know where you want to go with your art but what I would like to see is more anatomy

[The Lunatic]

Thanks for the reply Lad

Anatomy is probably my biggest issue at the moment, so you'll probably be seeing a lot of sketches involving that in the near future. Well... at least until you see my building drawings then you'll know where my MAJOR problem is haha.

Art wise I just want to be able to put out an enjoyable visual aid for our story, I guess. Though I would really like to be able to visualize something mentally and be able to get it down on paper more or less intact. At the moment that's the biggest thing that frustrates me, the ability to envision but not to create. That's something that'll only come to me with practice though, so I'll keep slogging away at it.

Cheers

[The Lunatic]

Alrighty, my first speed paint. Seen them on the forum and figured I'd give it a crack.

Speedy of Red. 12 min in Paintshop Pro X (Dont ask, I dont have Photoshop lol)



I need to start doing work on phases of decay for the undead that are going to be popping up, so if anyone has any good ideas for reference I'd appreciate the input

[The Lunatic]

Just a quick scribble I did with the wacom and paintshop pro. Its very busy, but I may try a speedpaint over it tomorrow.

Red escaping with Sam enchained.

[The Lunatic]

Not SMR related, but still a fun comic I guess.

This is based on actual events. And yeah, I'm the one doing the singing... le sigh.

[The Lunatic]

Was at the Folks' last night and decided to give them creative control. So they tossed me an ancient hardbound national geographic comp and told me to do a few quick sketches from it. Tried to limit myself to no more than 20-30 min a sketch with a 0.5 mechanical and the trusty sketchbook of evil.

Here are the results.

Photo Ref from a documentary


Spear Fishing


Man carrying a bear on back

[The Lunatic]

Afternoon folks.

Scribbled this together a couple weeks ago for XMas, should have some new stuff in a couple days. Birthday this weekend, so I doubt I'll get much of anything accomplished.



Lots I dislike about it, but it was a fun concept anyway lol.

[The Lunatic]

Okie Dokie!

Some more comic quickies.



First one is just me playing around with a semi transformed wulfen and trying to do some stupid things with pens. I need to just fill a sheet with different marks to get a good idea how to use brush pens. This is my first time using a brush pen solely and there is a bunch wrong with it visually lol, but meh I'll post anything.


Did this just now with no refs or anything really. The only thing on TV was Lou Ferrigno's Hulk syndicated TV show on SciFi and I couldnt find my remote/was too lazy to get off the couch so I started scribbling randomly and a pseudo-deformed zombie was born. The gal zombie was a quick 20 second scribble added at the end.

I still need to find some reference material for decay and whatnot as I havent seen any zombies I've been really satisfied with in comics. Hopefully someone with a better comic background can point me somewhere fantastic lol.

Cheers!

[The Lunatic]

Yeesh!

Been almost a year already since I last had the opportunity to post anything. Been doing a lot of writing in the last year and letting my mind wander. The sketchpad has been cracked throughout, but I've just lacked the necessary time to scan and upload images.

This, I hope to remedy with some updates. Hopefully they will come a bit more regularly now, but I can never tell anymore.

Anyway moving on... Sorry bout the low res scans.

Kaitlyn Revision:


Isaac Revision:


Parchment Story Sketch:


Dream Sequence 0001 Quick Sketch/Gradient Fill:

[The Lunatic]

Watching Tin Man and doodling...

Some Old, Some New. Yeah, I'm aware of the typos and whatnot, it's just concepts at the moment. Lemme know what you think

Parchment Story Sketches



Sketch of Johnny From My Story: Fragment



Random Sketch While I Should Have Been Working



Fragment Page 1 (2nd Concept)



Fragment Page 1 (1st Concept)


Taking A Fresh Look At Page 2 Of Red



Waking From A Nightmare: Second to Second



Taking A Fresh Look At Page 1 Of Red

[gkrit]

i really like the night sky wolf pic. one thing though that i have figured out, if u want to emphasise a colour, add bright colours to the central part of the feature (forthe wolf u coulda brightened the eyes a lil bit in the centre to brng out a more fierce look... a guess bit worth a try.
if u wann ano wat im talking about. just visit my sketchbook if u want and the last few photoshop pics have that sort of thing.
anywho.. ur stuff is pretty good

[The Lunatic]

Gkrit: Thanks for the reply mate. The nightmare wolf's eyes are a bit flat, now that I look back. I was trying to get a "holllow-disc" of fiery crimson so that your eyes would be drawn to that point instantly and then wander about. It's supposed to be the last thing the main character sees in his fevre dream before waking up to the 4 panel wolf page further down the threads. It's the last page of the arc and the only one in color. If my writer ever gets around to writing more pages, I'll probably go in and add some motes to the eyes to make 'em pop a wee bit more, yeh?

Thanks for the advice, I'll pop on by your sketchbook in a tick and see whats what.

[The Lunatic]

Alrighty, got some Breaktime strips to fling around. Working on a sketch (Red Revision) that seems to be shaping up pretty well. It'll be the first time anyone has seen any elements of Red's face, yipee.

Anyway, the Red sketch will probably get posted tomorrow, if its done, or not.

Breaktime: