Bowling, anyone? *Update Feb 21*

[Cory Hinman]

Lookin good, the feel of the form is emerging nicely.
that pattern of cross-hatching you're developing on the right lat could be a way to go, but I want to caution you. One of your strengths I've seen in your other anatomy studies is your economy of line, and your senstivity to line. The latter has you choosing placement of lines subtly weighted so as to activate the space between the lines, really give them the feeling of form in space; and your economy gives an over-all pleasing sense of airy light to your drawings.
the cross-hatching technique you're starting here seems always to demand more of iteslf. Having been introduced in one part of the drawing, it'll insist on representation elsewhere. While I'm sure you could handle it, it'll mean spending ALOT more time on each drawing,as you've probably found in just the lat area you developed. There is a risk in the end of a "mechanical" look to your drawing, on the other hand, if you take the cross-hatching too far.
And your previous, open style is so lovely!
If you decided to try the cross hatch because of my previous post, I should clarify. What I meant by "hatching" is more properly called "feathering", a technique of building shadows by layering lines put down more or less parallel to each other, instead of crossing each other. This technique is especially good for rendering contiuosly curving, egg-like forms like you find comprising the human figure. It's great whether your final work will be linear, or whether you intend to blend the lines into a single mass, as with pastel, charcoal, or conte. Even after the lines blend into the single mass, the sense of roundness remains. When you're putting down the lines, it helps to imagine you're actually drawing on the subject itself, that you're just letting yourself follow the actual roundness of forms you see on the figure, or the egg. I've got this sketch I did this morning to try to illustrate. But one more word; if you're enjoying the cross-hatching, GO FOR IT, don't let anybody tell you NOT to try something.

[Piranha Clan]

Cory: Thanks for that example. I'm not so much trying to change my shading style altogether as I am just trying to evolve to a more polished look. I often find myself absent-mindedly placing hatching/shading lines at random and I just tried to force myself to think about it more this time around. You're right, though. This one seemed to demand a bit more attention...but not too much more, wasn't that bad and I kinda' like how it turned out...

[Cory Hinman]

NICE, I really like how you started developing the negative space as well, and still kept the figure open. i think that works best with the dark outline. You've got a great selective eye!

[cmoreland]

Hey man! Very nice updates!! Regarding your question, my 1 page SB turned into 2...which I believe CA did to take down the page loading lag we've all been experiencing, I think it has worked out for the better!

[Blaz]

Oh some nice new stuff I see since last I was here!
Sweet torso studies!

-Blaz

[Piranha Clan]

Here's last night's WIP. Portrait of a good friend's youngest daughter, Sadie. Sade-O potato, the angry cherub. She smites thee.





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Oh yeah, replies...

Cory:Thanks, bro.

cmoreland:Haven't heard from you in awhile. Hope you've been drawing.

Blaz:Thanks!

I'll check up on you guys soon. For now, must hibernate...zzZZzz...

[loveandasandwich]

Ohhhhh, those little curls are so lovely. Curly hair is always a tough thing to render, you did a good job!

The bicep(?) I think its called, on the left arm of your muscley dude, looks really unnatural though. Otherwise, it looks totally fantastic. I can tell you worked hard on it. =)

[Piranha Clan]

Chelsea: Hi girl, it's been awhile. Thanks, she is lovely. The muscle dude is Arnold, so it IS unnatural looking because he was so friggin' huge. Which arm...our left or his left?

[dkounios]

great stuff in here man, loving the anatomy studies, keep it up!

[Lee W]

great recent updates the anatomy studies are looking good and child portrait looks great.

[Yacob]

Thanks for commenting in my sketchbook. Yours is one of the best I've seen. You have such a great style and can draw cartoon looking pieces and totally realistic ones. Great job.

[GunTrouver]

Thanks for visiting my SB!
You have some cool stuff, good to see some old school anime
The anatomy sudies looking good so far, just keep them up and I think you become better with pencil rendering.
Keep it up!!

[HunterKiller_]

I'm so sure I've commented here before, dunno where it's gone though.

Dude, you are old school, and I love it.
That Voltron piece on the first page, that's what I'm talking about! Haha!
Anatomy studies look hot. Keep the old school coming!

[AmontilladoAg]

Oooh ooh ooh! Fer realz, Storm Shadow emanates all that is ninja hotness Und ze mahscles! I loff ze mahscles! And the angry cherub is precious Nicely done, sir.

Carry on the great work!

[Flaskpost]

Very nice portrait of your friends daugher! Shows alot of improvement of your lines and rendering from your older stuff in the beginning of the sketchbook.
Keep kickin´ it!

[ExilE]

Very cool stuff man, nice variety of subject-matter as well. I can definately see improvement from your first post to your most recent one, keep doin what you're doin!

[ChaoticKnight]

That child's face is so well done... beautiful!!

[electricmoonshine]

yay variety! I love the neon tigers and the face paintings, and the anatomy studies are great!
I don't really know of anything to critique, except maybe on realistic portraits is to maybe soften lips like you have the other features.
but the portraits are lovely regardless. (nethus said it better below me, about the outlines--I think he means something similar to what I was trying to express, anyhow)
and to echo the sentiments of a few others, the cartoons are fun. however it'd be cool to see some original works too.
keep it up!!!

and thanks for commenting in my SB!

[monsi]

really lovin the torsos.. nice hatching work. Maybe becareful not to have the outline too strong and even.. vary it a bit.. put accents where you think it needs it and lose the edge in other spots.

[Cory Hinman]

Hey, Matt!
I really like that most recent portrait. The seriousness and intensity of the gaze are great!

[Guilemo]

I dont really know what to say....

ALL of the drawings are so awesome! You have a very unique style which I admire very much. I'll study your drawings tomorrow and see if I can learn something. The hand studies on page one are really good. Thanks for sharing your art!

Henning

[Peter Berkovski]

Hey bud, thanks for stoping by my thread,you have realy good stuffs here, i like your comic stayle drawing and the little kid portrait, keep it up man
Cheers

[JellevdVegt]

nice sb here. i see yur inspired by marvel comics. good anatomy studies keep at it!

[jim b]

thats a really nice baby portrait!

[Fahad]

Good work, man! I like the comic book stuff, the TMNT pics especially the Leatherhead one!

Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook earlier!

[cmoreland]

Hey bud! Stopping by to check up and see what you've done! Nice work as usual! Man you're drawing style brings me back to the good ole days when that's all my mates and I used to do and all we cared to do.

Keep posting!

[Piranha Clan]

Man, I've been gone for too long. Thanks for the last few comments, guys. I'll post some replies later.

Finally made myself get back to work last night. Prismacolor on black bristol board, about 2 hours.



And the greyscale. It has some suttle, cool differences, so here it is as well.

[Cory Hinman]

Oh, that is HOT! Great drawing to mark your return!
Besides the values adjustment greyscale does for it, I think it helps in that the eyes lose some power. The intense blue and really bright whites of the eyes of the color version make the eyes the point of interest of the pic. When I squint at it my eyes go right to Bats' eyes because nothing else is as intense in the composition as the eyes' bright, bright white, and that would be fine except the white's evenness makes the eyes look a little cartoony, a little out of place with the really sensitive modelling of the rest.
It'd help if you put a little greying running along the top of the eyes to suggest the shadow of the upper eyelid on the eye itself. Usually, assuming a light source somewhere above the subject, what happens is the white of the eye is dark just below the upper eyelid from the lid's shadow, and also near the corners of the eye the whites are darker because of the eye curving away from the the front of the figure and the light source as you come to the corners, so that the lightest part of the white of the eye will tend to be along the lower edge above the lower lid and right around the cornea, where the curve of the eye is most fully round and faces the front and the light source.
I'd really like to see more Prismacolor stuff, you clearly know that medium, and I could use the inspiration. I'm planning a couple more Prismacolor pix myself.

[Sketch]

Really nice tonal work on Ol Bathead. I think it would've been a bit better if you made his jaw area just a tad bit more visible.

[AmontilladoAg]

Dang, man... Luvin' those baby-blues. Welcome back