MeTaL-Mikes's Sketchbook

**Nele Ooms** · September 4th, 2008, 06:09 PM

Nice SB !! Truely awesome!

**staticpen** · September 4th, 2008, 10:23 PM

hey man, nice work lately!

Regarding your most recent question, I don't think the eye is too high. Rather, if you're going for typical proportions, it should move in. Also, I would move the nostril in some as well. Typically, you can draw a straight line that touches the outside edges of the chin, mouth and nose, finishing on the inside edge of the eye. I also moved the line depicting the depression of the temple in some. I hope you don't mind, but I've drawn it up down below. Yours is on the left, the adjustments on the right.

I agree with most of the comments regarding the poster, too. Again, I have some free time, so I hope you don't mind if I go through the image a little bit. I also went ahead and made a paintover, if only cause I'm a visual person.

Yours on the left, my suggestions on the right.

First, I moved the top of the skull down. Like someone else mentioned, the hairline makes it seem like she's got a really long cranium. :p
Down by the neck, I circled a spot where you had overlapping lines in your drawing. One line overlapping another puts something further away from the viewer, and in this case the neck and trapezius actually smush together. I can't say I know this by heart, but I thought it looked kind of funny so I just replicated the pose in the mirror - a very handy convenience when figure drawing.

One person said the angle of breasts was a little off. To elaborate on that... from a frontal view you can draw a 45 degree triangle that stems from the base of the neck to the nipples. The breast that's further away here looks like it's coming straight down, so I moved it further away.
As far as her top, her strap is kind of suspended in the air. I inverted the strap for gravity and laid it on her arm. Also, the clip where the cup connects to the strap is near her shoulder - on the far side, her strap clip was on top of her chest, so I hid it behind her breast.
For her arm, I did as was previously mentioned as well and made it a little thicker.
For her torso, I eliminated another overlapping line. Her weight is on her left leg, so her right hip is lower. The line you drew indicates that her hip is raised and in front of her waist. I also removed the lines indicating her belly, as I found a little sweep of the airbrush under the navel was a more feminine or graceful way of pronouncing the stomach.
Finally, I shortened the legs and made her calf a little wider where it comes out by the knee.

I hope I didn't drag on for too long!! I don't claim to be an anatomy expert by any stretch, but I do enjoy tackling problems with people when they arise.

Great job, and keep painting!

**MeTaL-Mike** · September 5th, 2008, 11:55 AM

Nele Ooms - thanks.
staticpen - thanks a lot man. i truly appreciate this. i need advice like this so i can learn to look at my stuff that way too. every time i draw something i go like ok what's wrong with this. and most of the stuff seems to be alright. i guess i have to make a habit out of using the flip horizontally function in photoshop. i know that trick but i never actually think of using it

thanks again and please feel free to do stuff like that as much as you want in the future

**MeTaL-Mike** · September 9th, 2008, 05:34 PM

ok i've had a shitty weekend. my hard disk died and i've lost the work i've done on the poster

all i have is the original sketch so i'll kind of have to start over again. in some way it's not bad cause i can incorporate the changes pointed out into the sketch first and see how that's gonna look but this really sucks. I hope i've learned my lesson and WILL back up stuff that i'm working on.

of course i have been drawing a bit and here are some more scans from my sb.

**Bones Weep Tedium** · September 9th, 2008, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by MeTaL-Mike

i guess i have to make a habit out of using the flip horizontally function in photoshop. i know that trick but i never actually think of using it

I recorded it as an Action and set it to F2 so it's quicker and easier to flip the image at the touch of a button. Press it again/Ctrl+Z to carry on painting.

**gustavo desimone** · September 9th, 2008, 11:58 PM

very good student in pencil

**staticpen** · September 11th, 2008, 01:35 PM

Aw man, that's a major bummer... Sorry about that, dude. Back in the day when I used to do a lot of oekaki, my hard drive crashed and I lost a couple hundred images. Never feels good to lose work, man, no matter the amount.
But I don't know if you're tried something like this before, but it's worked for me. One of those oekaki that I lost was saved on a webpage, so I took that small resolution image into PS and bumped the image size and resolution. It got all blurry, but I was able to color pick all the exact same colors and just trace the lines. It took a couple hours for me to finish, but when I was through I had a printable copy of the same image again. Maybe you could save the small resolution image you posted here and do the same?

As far as your images in this post, I wish I could say something, but I don't see any of them. I've been having big internet signal issues, so images don't load properly very often. But I'm sure they're looking good!

**staticpen** · September 12th, 2008, 05:43 PM

Ooh, my internet is working right again. I see your sketches!

Great job, man. Really putting out some good stuff when you throw down with a pencil.

**MeTaL-Mike** · September 20th, 2008, 05:02 AM

Bones Weep Tedium - call me stupid but i actually have that set up as well. just keep forgetting to bloody use the damn thing

gustavo desimone -

staticpen - Thanks man, i really appreciate it. I see your doing some really awesome studies as well man. Sorry i haven't been around your sb much. I'll remedy that

thanks for the tip on the poster as well. i think i'll try that approach.

ok. it's been a while. Frankly i haven't been drawing that much since i started this new job. that's a bummer.

here are some gestures for the spartan cam and the optional study.
didn't draw all the gestures this week. had most of them for a while but never posted. The optional is without ref. Need to do more cloth/ drapery studies cause i suck an them.

**staticpen** · September 20th, 2008, 10:35 AM

Heyyy, great work, man! Those sketches are fantastic. Really loving that line work, and it's cool to see those different shapes sneaking in there. Fat dudes and what not.

The lady from imagination is solid, too, man. You're really improving.

**MeTaL-Mike** · September 25th, 2008, 05:09 PM

staticpen- hehe, thanks man. dito!

some quick practices and sketches.

**staticpen** · September 25th, 2008, 06:08 PM

Hey dude! Good pages here. Those arms are looking sweet, man.

I'm liking page 2 a lot, too.
Did you draw the figures on page 3 from imagination? Everyone's different, but generally speaking his waist is way thin compared to his head. A couple other things too, but Leonardo can say it a lot better than I can, so I'll just throw you a link to the Vitruvian Man. Copying images like that definitely give you a library of proportions and 'angle knowledge' so to speak. After a while you'll have copied so many figures from so many angles that you can create original poses by mixing the strokes and foreshortening of the copies you've remembered from your head.
Like, when you do your Spartan Camp, do you draw from random references or do you make up your poses?
But yeah, anyway, page 4 is looking pretty rad, too. I see a lot of loose, confident lines in the lady. Keep it up, dude!

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 1st, 2008, 04:54 PM

Thanks a lot man. i appreciate your visits a lot

yeah, sometimes i use refs sometime i do them from imagination.

some more sketches.

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 4th, 2008, 08:22 AM

**catface** · October 4th, 2008, 10:27 PM

Keep workin those studies man, its paying off.

**jedininjaman** · October 4th, 2008, 10:45 PM

ha great style I love the harsh lines
very nice
-jedi

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 5th, 2008, 08:02 AM

Thanks a lot guys. Appreciate it.

here some stuff from last nite.

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 5th, 2008, 04:45 PM

today's quickies.

**staticpen** · October 6th, 2008, 12:00 PM

Great stuff, man! These sketches are looking really good.

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 6th, 2008, 04:50 PM

staticpen - hehe. thanks man

small update today, but i'm really happy with the result. I think i'll render this one out someday

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 11th, 2008, 06:30 AM

**RandAlThor** · October 11th, 2008, 08:56 AM

Loads of progress in the figure area dude, keep it up. And i really like that last girls back in the bodice thing, i can imagine this coloured in my head already, high contrast leather and manky old dead flesh skin... do it dude, do it ;-)

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 11th, 2008, 10:05 AM

RandAlThor - yeah i like that one too. has a lot of potential as a painting indeed.

**kidult** · October 11th, 2008, 10:20 AM

Great studies and stuffs - keep it up

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 15th, 2008, 05:15 PM

kidult - Thanks man. trying, really trying

quick sketch and the starting of the fetish girl painting. Have no idea what to do here but will try to make it cool.

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 18th, 2008, 05:43 PM

some progress on the painting.

**RandAlThor** · October 18th, 2008, 07:03 PM

Looking good dude, i might right click and save as... just for coloring practice. If you dont mind ;-)

keep up the good work ;-)

**MeTaL-Mike** · October 20th, 2008, 04:29 PM

RandAlThor - no problem man. just let me know how it turned out.

ok some quick sketches.

**staticpen** · October 20th, 2008, 09:29 PM

Hey man! Haven't been been to CAorg ina while. Looks like you've been working hard! The corset in this new painting is looking really great. I love the lighting. There's a good rhythm to the piece, too. Looking forward to seeing more.

And as always, sketches are sweet. ^^