MeTaL-Mikes's Sketchbook

**VanDog** · October 23rd, 2007, 10:21 AM

hi!many interesting stuff here!good study sketches!

**Tmza** · October 23rd, 2007, 10:36 AM

Hi there. First of all I have to say you got great sketchbook here. Really like your anatomy studies, especially arms look great and those digital eye/face renderings are very cool, I think I shoud try one. Also the painting in pg.2 has got great feel of volumes and somehow it reminds me of Frazettas Conan paintings. Great work, keep going.

**LEVIATHIN816** · October 23rd, 2007, 03:34 PM

thats some nice stuff you got here man lots of anatomy work i like. not much that i can see that you can improve one but maybe a little more value in you paintings but i cant say much cus i cant paint worth a crap but thanks for the post and comments keep postin and nice work

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 27th, 2007, 06:20 PM

VanDog - thanks a lot!
Tmza - thanks man, the eyes and face rendering are an idea i saw here on the forum. it's really helpful cause you're cont concentrating on the rest of the face. thanks for the comment on the painting. i'm kind of really proud of it. Am curious what i'll cook up next

LEVIATHIN816 - thanks man, i agree on the value studies, i have to work on those too.

sketches for the Spartan thread
50 hands

Lower leg study

**Konstruktion** · October 29th, 2007, 08:27 PM

Hey thanks for the comment in my sb, and thanks for the link to the spartan thing. Sweet hand studies, do you use a system for doing all 50? I'm joining in this week, I'm thinking 10 pieces every day, and the optional study at the weekend.

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 30th, 2007, 03:57 AM

Sarcophagus - it's like different every time. if i have the time during the week i do a couple a day, but it usually comes down to drawing them all at once.

**matejkovacic** · November 1st, 2007, 06:40 PM

Thanks for the visit at my sketchbook! I like your hard work.
Keep it up, it pays off.

Matej

**thinairart** · November 1st, 2007, 11:52 PM

Great start to your sketchbook. A lot of variety in your work, I like the studies (your hand studies reminded me that I need to do a set of those!). Keep up the hard work and keep posting!

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 4th, 2007, 05:15 AM

matejkovacic - Thanks a lot man.
reidaj - Thanks. Yeah you should. hands are amazing and super difficult. i'll be doing them a lot in the near future. have to get this down...

OK here's another small update. For the spartan thread. I'm running it at the moment, it's pretty cool. The activity on the thread is growing. Everybody can joing, it's an amazing practice. check it out, every week in the Community Activities section of the Forum.

50 Gestures. You guessed it, Hands

The Optional Lower Leg study.

and some other head sketches.

**funfetus** · November 5th, 2007, 10:35 AM

I admire your dedication to those studies. Keep it up.

**D@niel** · November 5th, 2007, 11:07 AM

Great job on the gestures, cool SB

**DannySketch** · November 6th, 2007, 06:13 PM

love the effort being shown here man, thats really all its about just keep chugging away at them, much respect, some of those hands are coming out really well. keep going!

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 7th, 2007, 03:31 AM

thanks a lot you guys, i appreciate it a lot.

I found some old stuff, thought i'd put them in here as well. these are from last year mostly.

**dan.man.86** · November 7th, 2007, 08:33 PM

COMIC BOOKS! You art style has it written all over it. Well, i think so anyways

Great studies. Great reference work. And great bodies! I can tell someone is definitely a fan of the female figure though

hahahaha

Your realistic work is fantastic, and I have nothing to really critique on it. However, since you are already more than capable of drawing the figure correctly, I think you should turn your focus to character design and perhaps thinking up your own ideas. You do have some designs in here, but they are definitely not as strong as your other work and that's fine. I think as long as your work on that as well and try things out, you could become one hell of an artist!

Definitely watching your work! Keep it up

**Lander** · November 9th, 2007, 07:32 AM

Very nice studies. I'm inspired. I'll bring out some paper and pancil to participate in the Spartan Camp.

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 11th, 2007, 10:52 AM

dan.man.86 - thanks a lot man. appreciate it a lot. I guess you are right, it's kind of time to start coming up with things. plus it's a great practice too right?
Lander - you totally should, it's awesome, i've improved a lot since i participate and believe me i'm not putting as much time into it as i should

.

Here are some new ones for the spartan thread.

and 3 more heads.

I will make the Optional Foot study later today. am running kind of late for this but will do it anyway.

**Lee W** · November 11th, 2007, 08:38 PM

looking good

keep up the studies.

**Kan Muftić** · November 12th, 2007, 06:01 AM

Hi there,

You're doing it right: figure studies, facial studies, eye & mouth, hands... And there is a very obvious progression with each and every image you make.
If I may give a tip: let the photo ref be only a guide for shapes or maybe light but not for the whole composition. I did the same once and got very stuck in it..
Cheers, my friend, I'm looking forward to see more of you..
Best,

**ajvenema** · November 12th, 2007, 06:59 AM

wow dude, nice studies in here! u seem to be very busy with this

go on, cuz its definitely paying off

**dan.man.86** · November 13th, 2007, 09:12 PM

Oh for sure man. Studies are the foundations. It could just be cool to see a solid character come from all of it. You are totally capable of it

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 15th, 2007, 10:35 AM

Lee W - thanks man. i will
Chupacabra - Thanks man i will try to. I have to say that i was drawing only from photo ref for years without trying to come up with things. Since i started to participate in the Spartan thread i started to draw things from my imagination and i have to say i've progressed much more in this short time than in all these years.
ajvenema- actually i'm not practicing as much as i should or even could. Have a very busy month right now so i have very little time to draw. am doing my best to have the Gestures finished every week for the Spartan Thread.
dan.man.86 - I'll be working on that as soon as i have my current projcet done. Am designing a CD cover for a band. December 1st is the deadline. After that, i'm all character design

. Actually i was planning to take the Character design course over at Schoolism.com
but don't really have the money for it right now.

Here are some creatures i sketched out. They were actually for the 100 creatures in a month thread but didn't make it really. just a few.

Blind Rock Climber

Crustacean Shark Eater

Firestarter Amphibian

One Eyed Deep Sea Monster

Purple Tentacle Creature

**Anurizm** · November 15th, 2007, 11:52 AM

looking good, try to loosen up a bit more though.

**Villa** · November 16th, 2007, 06:28 AM

aww man, looking at your sketchbook really makes me want to do lots of studies mike. ive just not done enough. some lightning/shading ones would be cool.

great work, keep em coming.

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 18th, 2007, 03:03 PM

Anurizm - thanks man, i will
Villa - Thanks man, appreciate it. yeah i know, i have to put much more time in value studies and definitely more color stuff. Will start to do more work on the soon.

here are 50 more gestures. all kind of stuff. optional study is coming up in a few.

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 19th, 2007, 11:22 AM

Ok here is the optional study of a T-Shirt on a body.

**Jabo** · November 21st, 2007, 09:07 AM

Man, you're putting great effort into your skills. I can feel the motivation. Already paying out with the hands and gestures. Not sure about the faces tho, you've been neglecting them over the course of the sb. They still look very clichee, very flat and cartoony. Looking forward to meeting you in April. I'll be there, hope you'll make it!

Greets, Jannis

PS: Thanks for the visit in my sb!

**MeTaL-Mike** · November 21st, 2007, 09:14 AM

Jabo - i know man. the thing is that the heads you see on this page and page 2 are all from imagination. all the heads before that were done from ref. since i kind of switched to trying to draw from imagination more i tend to make the heads look very cartoony. not know why.

Oh and i will totally be there in April man, i was waiting for something like this for a very long time now and won't miss this for sure.

**joaKimArt** · November 21st, 2007, 09:46 AM

I like your work with the many characters, faces etc. Feels good to see that. I hope to see more of it too! I will try doing some myself also. Great sketchbook!

**Vermis** · November 21st, 2007, 01:23 PM

All very inspiring.

**Euthyphro** · November 29th, 2007, 02:22 PM

Been meaning to get over here for a few weeks now. You have some really great work here. The digi skull from the first page, and the digi fabric study are really nice. Also the oils of the lady and the guys back are excellent.

Its great to see all of your Spartan work together, really shows how much you've been at it. I am hoping to get my gestures for this week finished up tonight. Here's hoping.

I'll be back with some crits, till then keep it rockin. Cheers!

Vale-