Work in progress

well, here's this weeks project, working on it when I get a chance. Hoping to put up a new project each week. Planting some seeds, see how we go!

C&C welcome on any work I put up

The Sketch, done with the old pencil. Still enjoy the more tactile approach occasionally over straight wacom

Heres the first progress.
About 2 hours work, still need to clean it up alot and fix the ear - alot of work in that
oco2006-12-10 01:06:46

Next update - Got a bit of free time, so another half hour spent cleaning up and fixing the ear

C&C welcome on any work I put up

Adjusted the ear, less pink - prob can't even really tell. Not sure which is better yet?? need to still work on the nose an eye
oco2006-11-27 07:48:56

Just about there I think, worked on the nose and eye. Just the mouth left to go. Ditched most of the line work and tried to make the image alot cleaner.

looking good, I really like the overall feel of the painting. Very delicate use of colour and tone... maybe too delicate in spots? not sure if it would be improved, but I would be interested to see a version with stronger colour is some areas. I also think the outline on the nose, forehead and top of the chin are probably not helping the delicate nature of the whole piece and could be knocked back or better yet removed completely.

all up very good piece.

ps. the ear is excellent!

Thanks for the reply John, must say I was inspired by the 'Alien' link you directed me to. Very different to my own style but I was impressed by the skins. The ear is really the pride of the piece so far! the nose has recieve the same treatment - the eye and lips are yet to be tackled. Been working alot on my techniques to get real depth in to my pictures, often leave things looking flat, especially ears, noses etc. Ill have the finished piece up soon hopefully! I know what you mean about the outline, being tosing up whether I should have it or not. See what you think...

At first I thought he got a bit lost in the background but Its growing on me, well spotted.

- Took a look at your portfolio, you have very clean, strong line work. Have you done much technical drawing?

This is it, finished the eyes and lips. Thanks for the critique john, getting rid of the outline really adds that extra bit of realism I think. Now Ill have to look at intensifying the colours as a bit of an experiment! Trying to pioneer
a realistic stuble technique, only a touch ontop of his head but I think it adds to the pic as a whole.

Total work time 4-5hrs

MUCH improved with the removal of the line work there - looks like there is still a faint line, is that right? if you decide that the face edge is too undefined try darkening the background in that area. Just a small increase in tone will make a huge difference.

Good luck with the stubble. It's looking like 3day growth more than fresh shaved at the moment (just an obversation rather than criticism) I suspect that working light hairs on a dark base might work better for the 3day growth look. Might also be a choice feature to create a custom brush for... food for thought.

re:tech drawing, I'm sort of an engineer trapped in an artists body I guess (or the other way around?). I even did a year of engineering at Uni. So that probably does explain my general approach and artistic thought process. It is probably only due to a few cruel twists of fate that I didn't become an industrial designer.

Ha, I ask the question because I too have the anal retention of a drafts men, studied tech drawing for a couple of years. Very particular about my line work. Every Line!

Got excited this afternoon and decided to give him a body, to convey a bit more of the picture in my head. This whole piece is inspired by the book Slaughter House 5 - by Kurt Vonnegut. He's an old bastard but the book is one of my favourites

- The stubble i speak of is just the little bit on the top of his head - not much to speak of at the moment but a custom brush is exactly what im working on, combined with a few blurs and layer effects.

Even though he's meant to be really thin...he's too small in the body area with that lovely head you did.

Hey frostblade, Linda isn't it? Thankyou for your kind words. I can see what you mean about the head, I have tried to oversize the head, hands and feet to give him a very underweight look but the head is a little to big.
my problem being that
with the layers Im working on I cant really change its size easily till a bit later on in the process.. So you'll have to wait untill its a little more complete before I downsize!

heres an update. Worked a little on the hands and feet

oco2006-12-03 19:47:37

I guess you made the connection at cgtalk?

Well he looks like someone but can't get the name out... his neck is a bit fleshy too, maybe some spine bumbs too?

Awesome man, all I can say. I've always been a major fan of pale skintones like that

Here we go. Letting this on rest now, alot of areas I could continue to refine but I pretty happy with it where it is. Got to move on to a new project

Thanks for the kind words John, frostblade & jackydablunt

The conductor. this weeks project. Something with a bit more spark and movement

heres the sketch

some good action to the line work - it will be interesting to see how you interpret it into paint. should be quite a different challenge for you from the last one.

Cheers John, Thats exactly what I after. Going for something at the other end of the spectrum. Working from black, alot of movement. Much more animated character but I still aim to handle it with subtlety. Want my pics to be more engaging then flashy. Thats the aim at least. (...ill have to produce some flashy works all the same, just to give some substance to my position - Im not just jealous!)

was trying to think think think of where this man could be. Played around with a few ideas and nothing grabbed me. Then it hit me - Electric Light Orchestra! - good conductor! might name him copper. so the subtle approach my be a little bit lost but I'm happy with the direction its headed.. 4 light bulbs done - another 10000000000 or so to go

heres an update

A little update. Playing with creating a bit more depth and movement

Sketch and first step of this little guy

Progress & a detail shot. Pretty happy witht he hair and the eyes

bit of progress. Not sure if I like the old version or the new one better. If any one notices dicey shadows or a strange colour tinge let me know - my monitors all out of wack I discovered. Tried to calibrate it but I think its a lost cause.

Got the back drop coming together and Im a happy guy. The idea is to have him in front of some old peeling wall paper - because he's a poor little fella. The wall paper is will depict the young buddha, who lived as a wealthy prince. A little bit of a juxtaposition. Ill try explain this better at a later date...

decided to change the whole expression of his stance. Shift the shoulders up a bit and added the left arm with a nervous hand picking at the wall. Wanted to make him look alot less comfortable. I hope you like the changes because I think I'm beyond the point of no return now. Still need to work a bit on the face to get the expression I wont. not much tho. Still a fair amount of work left to go on the singlet and body

an update.

looks like it is getting very close to finished... and looking great too.

That shirt has such a realistic feel ! those colours are amazing as well !!!

I?m not an expert or anything but his neck seems a little bit too thick, or his head is just slightly too large. Probably woulda been more helpful earlier on ^_^ sorry !

Heya Neffy and johnN. Thanks for the feed back. Narrowed the neck a little, hope its ok now. Either way Im putting this one to bed. Time to move on before I get sick of it

Heres my new rigger. The kiddy Trap. Might need to work on the title but it gives you the idea. quick sketch

It's probably your style, but your works are a bit too washed out, pale, and monotone!

It needs a burst of colour and more dark! The Electric Light Orchestra piece from the previous page is an example I want to see more of!

First, is that an Atomic logo on his shirt? @:-)

Any chance we could see the wireframe? I'm not sure what area you're specifically aiming for (or perhaps you're just tackling the whole kit 'n' kaboodle) but the texture could benefit from some additional shading. Just some more diverse tones over the skin could make it stand out a little better. The colouring is just a little flat, and could be easily fixed with some darker darks. Seeing you're restricting yourself polygon wise, you want to make the most of your texture.

Keep it up @:-)

Hey Brain,
The logo on his shirt was not meant to be anything, i actually screwed up the unwrap by only unwrapping half the shirt, causing whatever i did one side to duplicate on the other, so i ended up doing that simple logo.

The reason for modeling this guy was simply for fun, its not my best work, but that doesn?t matter to me because it was just for fun. I also love the challenge of really low poly and trying to push it as far as possible to still try and portray the overall shape and color of the character etc.

Thanks for the advice, in my next post ill try to demonstrate some more intense texture work, in a low poly range of 500-1000 tri?s.

all the best.

ooooh, Makk looks like a zombie! nice :p

It is hard to get a face looking finished in P.Shop in half an hour isn't it. Good to see another sketchbook being started up, I look forward to updates.

gah! i need a better monitor, thers places around the face that thought were painted dark enough but upon seeing it now, they need to be tweaked.

Thanks John, prolly spent only 15mins on the painting side but i agree with you nonetheless :)

Started on an enviro, hope to post it soon.

Here we go with an update...

*edit* Yeah, tried to fix it up abit more.

Makk2006-12-14 08:10:16

Tapioka pudding environment, yum! just kidding, I know it's snow. The bottom half looks like it is an overcast day ('warm' shadows and no cast shadows) but it is a clear blue sky. Might be worth trying to model the forms with cool colours (the snow will reflect the sky colour) and adding some cast shadows and defining the core shadows in a more sharply might help too.

...and the horizon line is dividing the pic in half, generally a no-no as it doesn't help create a focus within the composition.

might be worth just trying some of the alts on thumbnail sized versions. That would allow you to play around with lighting etc quickly.

Looks good. Things I noticed were:
- Forearms look disproportionate to upper-arms (they're too thick, imho).
- The left (or perhaps, his right) forearm doesn't really taper towards the wrist.
- The shape of the left (his right?) leg is a little... strange. I think the knee is too high (particularly when compared to the other leg).

Otherwise, it looks quite good. The background adds to the scene, but isn't busy enough to detract from the character.

very brave of you to be drawing in a public setting, can you tell us a little more about the why/where etc?

This work is purely to increase and challenge my skills. Thats why I'm throwing it to the dogs to be dissected and criticised. I Normally work on grotesque, awkward characters and scenes. Trying for something ellegent and gentle with this. Thats largely the insperation for the work. Heres an update.

looking for some in put on which direction to take this..

Robot? I liked the colours of the 2nd image more then that last update, nicely chromatic. Back of the head looks a little bizarre too, what happened to his ear in the last pic? Also his nostrils look flattened as well, hehe like micheal jacksons :P
I like the pose as well.
Keep it up, just doesnt look like a robot boy thats all (as far as the latest update goes).

yar, agreed, not obviously robot at the moment. As you are aiming for a less grotesque, more elegant image - The skin colours are little 'dirty'. Block in the shoulders (and background if you intend to have something other than stark white) with some loose colour/tone too so we can see what you intend do with them. That will help with our critiques too.

edit:
suddenly though of a someone that does great android stuff. They get a real plasticy feel to the skin with sharp highlights, might inspire and give some new direction

http://www.alien1452.com/
JohnN2006-11-24 21:39:54

Looks fairly good to me - proportions look quite good, although the female torso might be a little undersized.

Off-topic: A long shot, but you don't know Shannon from BTE (and possibly work there yourself) by any chance?

At least you completed the competition task, and it was quite a demanding task at that. I think that is something to be proud of in its self. I also recommend that you don't just dismiss the project as a failure and move on. Review all the comments that the judges made (for all entries) and try to make sense of them. These people may well be part of the team that chooses who does/does not get hired in their companies, so understanding their point of view would obviously be very advantageous.

onto this piece - concept looks good in general.

The girl's pose is a little awkward, would be good to see them both 'striking a pose' with a little more attitude in general(they look a bit like they are posing for a photo that their mum is taking!).

Technically the line work could be working harder. Try using two distinct line weights, thicker for general shapes and thinner for describing details. I find photoshop and painter not so great for very clean, bold linework and have had very pleasing results using the brush tool in illustrator, might be worth your while doing some experimenting with a vector program for linework too.

Subtle psychological detail - if they were looking at us they would be more engaging.

hope that helps.

Thanks for the feed back

John I found it amusing with this comment:

"they look a bit like they are posing for a photo that their mum is taking!)"

because when I was doing it I was thinking about them being at a photoshoot.

But all your comments were very helpful thanks. I'll have to see about getting illustrator. All I've played around with is Photoshop.

arcane: Yes, how did you put that together you clever person you :)

no sweat.

If you have access to some other vector program (freehand or flash or something)they probably also have features that will be good for creating strong, clean linework too.

This is an interior I was creating for the end of the level we are working on for this project, but alas we are not going to be able to include it in this first demo.

just as a point of interest, all of the shadows are in the textures so this scene could be lit by a single light.Savarn2006-11-12 20:39:22

The snakey device in the centre of the ceiling delivers and deposits the bodies to the wall storage units? I don't thing it will reach to the floor! It would also make a great focus for the room if it was much more complicated and robust looking (imho). I like the overall idea of the room though.

well everything in the building is built in a "less is more" fashion. I was just keeping with the stark, clean, simple style we were using.

As for it not reaching the bottom, yes you're right, if it weren't for it being able to retract into the ceiling like it does, it wouldn't. I'm not saying you're wrong but just that it isn't meant to be a focus. I probably could have spent more polys on it if it were more of a focus, but the focus of the room is the body that will be lying on the table. As the room is rather tight also, not many people will be noticing the tray extractor unless they make an effor to look up.

retracting - that explains it, I'm happy again :)

nah that's cool man, I'm happy I got a response. I should really display some hydrolics or something on it anyhoo, but I didn't wanna spend too much time on it. I should put some kind of body in there really to suggest that's what the focus is on. Usually I do that with lighting but everything is just so brightly lit throughout this level (we were going to try and get all the white walls almost pulsing with light but we will have to experiment with that in Torque next year).

have a lens flare :D

Started the head, pants almost ready to put a normal map.

hey codyalday, i just think you need to look up plenty of good anatomy and cloth reference and stick as close to it as you can. Since it looks like you're going for a realistic character, you shouldn't try to wing ANY of it
;)

they look great, how did you make the colour look so photo reality? Post tutorial please, i must know!(today)Hazza12006-11-03 02:11:56

ok well apparently i was late with this one sorry about that. Ummm the colours look photorealistic because the majority of the images started as photos for two reasons, im only now learning to paint digitally and two its a lot faster. It looks like wood because its a photo of wood, you then go and edit that so it kinda fits the context, like the wood on the shotguns the best example. Thats actually two different photos of wood, one had a heavier grain so i think i had it on the soft light blending mode above the other one. Then i fiddled with values like brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, colour balance etc. After that some burning on the parts that were going to be on the underside of the gun and dodging on the upper stuff. And some other messing around but basicaly if you do wanna work with photo-sourcing (the term used for when you start with an image of a photo to make your texture) youll have a solid ground to start with and then just play around with it and if things dont work out you just ctrl Z and try something else. Sorry i cant provide a in depth tutorial because each segment would have been created in a different way, something to which i still dont have a clear path for because i just play around with what i know untill im satisfied with how it looks.

Here's a quick 'futuristic vehicle', I spent about 1 hour on it and built it up from a silhouette, adding marquees, semi-transparent drawing, glazes and erase back techniques.
I'm still struggling to dipict form and feel alot of this grey stuff I'm doing at the moment doesn't really jive. I mean, maybe i just feels a bit muddy.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Dear Friends,
Here are a couple of environments of varying success.
This first one is probably the one I'm least happy with. It is a 'ruined shipyard' for C.A.org's environment of the week a couple of weeks ago.
I'm posting it because I think it demostrates the problems I'm trying to overcome with rendering light. You can see here I've got things lit from all different angles! Gotta work out the light source and stick to it.

This one is the fastest of these 3.
I did this in probably a half hour and I'm probably most pleased with it too. Really simple approach, 3 major elements (tunnel, platform, cloud.) and simple colour scheme. My wife reckons I should have had the character holding out his hand or something, I think she's probably right.
The platform in the foreground is a total Ryan Church rip off!
Incidently, this was done for a weekly sketch topic over at Design Studio Press forum. The place is quieter than a ghost town but a good spot if you're 2D and want a relaxed sketch group.

Finally another EOW for CA.org. Dual towers was the topic.
I don't know about this one - I'm pretty happy with it but on the other hand it doesn't really feel like it gels. I don't know why...
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Dear Friends,
Whilst I'm at it here are a few other things I have done previously.
Man, this fish looks so stiff! 2 versions, with or without blood.
I think the thing I like most about this is the background.

Another quick critter for Design Studio Press weekly sketch 'prehistoric'.

I need to work more on characters. I hardly have any in my folio! This one was done before the above rhino thing. But I think the rhino works heaps better!
I think I tend to overwork things sometimes. The other thing I'm trying to do since doing this is to avoid a predominance of mid-tones. I think that is the main reason this sketch looks so muddy. Also note there is no light falling on his left arm at all! I don't think that is right.

Another quicky, real quick and pretty careless as well! But much more effective at controling the eye of the viewer I think.

A couple more space vehicle sketches...
I like this first one. I was pretty 'lubricated' when I painted this. Woke up with a dim impression of having done some painting and was plesantly suprised when I found it. Using a couple of my custom brushes.

Studies

Making shapes in illustrator. I love illustrator. But don't get much of an excuse to use it at the moment.

Just trying to teach myself to layer paint in this bottom one. (I'm reliably informed it comes with practice).

You may have seen this in my launchpad gallery.

And finally this mech.
You can see here how I'm still really trying to get form though value change. I feel like this is better but still not that good.
Regards,
EtaCarinae.

got some nice stuff there Eta. The thread might be better off in the 'works in progress' section. Looks like a few others (JI and Bumskee) are starting up skechbook threads over there too. It would be good to see a few of these pieces reworked to a higher level of finish too.

Keep posting!

Hey Eta, nice going.. yeah setkchbook kinda stuff is really picking up around the forums.. Would be nice to see things like this on sumea I suppose. :)

Do you do much studies? basic stuff like, figure/anatomy.. perspective, values.. colours.. just curious that's all.

keep it going mate. cheers, Min

Dear Friends,
Well, for the past 5 months I have been working on storyboards for a TV animation (about 250 drawing last week, almost a reem of paper a month!) but now the real test begins for me. Today I returned to my 'regular job'. Business shirt, black leather shoes, the whole bit. I enjoy the job but compared to drawing all day... meh!
The question is 'am I going to be able to continue to practice enough to get 'good' whilst doing a soul destroying sales job 38 hrs a week?'
Stay tuned, the answer will become apparent.

In order to give myself the best possible chance (and to answer your question Bumskee)I'm endevouring to do the following;
1. Mornings; 30min studies. Randomly drawn subject from Vehicles, Heads and faces(male or female), Male/ female figure/ characters, environments, weapons, hands, feet.
2. Evenings; 30min studies (5min, 10min, 15min). Randomly drawn from a shoe, fruit/veg, simple household item.
3. Life drawing once a week.
4. keep a sketchbook.

I'll try to post as much of this as possible. I can assure you now, some of it is going to be terrible but if you like car accidents you might enjoy seeing some of my pretty ordinary drawings (and seeing them improve with time). Hey Bumskee, I take it my stuff reeks of needing studies? I don't doubt it.

Here are a couple of studies I have been doing recently. Crit the hell outta it!!!

Regards,
EtaCarinae

P.S. Hey JohnN, If we can pick this up and dump it in the other section I'll do it, otherwise here I stay. Thanks for caring enough to post a reply. I'd appreciate your feedback!

I'm sure if you p.m. or email souri, he will be able to relocate this thread for you.

keep posting, I'll crit when I have time (currently tying up loose ends for a trip to Melbourne *yay*)

seeing you are short on time I would suggest that you do some basic excercises too - they are quick to do and will allow you to really focus on technical skills and knowledge. I posted a sample of 'warm up' excercises for moonunit a while ago, but can't find the thread. it was just a page of basic volumes, spheres, boxes etc painted in grayscale. Didn't look very exciting but allowed me to practice perspective, tone, core&cast shadows, brush techniques and surface qualities... urrr, the point being... oh yeah, my 20 min warm up was used 100% examining and practicing these skills rather than 5 mins of deciding what to paint, 10 mins drafting it up and then only having 5 mins left to effectively practice.

anyway, food for thought.

Dear Friends,
Well, I'm doing alright on the drawing side but time has had to evaporate from some part of my life and it's ended up being the time I spend looking at forums like this and CA. Probably not such a bad trade off actually. It's better to be drawing than thinking about drawing!
Here is some of the stuff I've done as part of my 'regime' since my last post. Not so many morning studies. That's tended to be me flicking through e-books and reading Loomis rather than 30 min each day doing studies. But done a couple of nice evening studies and working in my sketchbook almost everyday, which has been a real hoot.
I know this isn't looking like much of a 'concept art sketchbook' but I've got some great advice from 2 great artists at Pandemic about some stuff to have in my folio so I'll try to post some of that stuff in the coming posts.
On that note, if there is any concept artists who can suggest what I should use as the core of my folio please let me know. If fact, anyone who wishes to make a suggestion, will be held in my good esteem forever.
Regards,
EtaCarinae
P.S. Nice one John. Your right, and I'm trying to incorporate a bit of this in my studies too. Cheers!

I like this guy with the suitcase.

Check out how bad the figure at the top is. Ugh!

For John (well actually for myself, but I had you in mind mate!)

Dodgy I know. From an excersize I found in a Loomis book. All this sketchbook stuff is drawn on the train which tends to crowded and bumpy.

Life drawing from week before last. Real problems with medium and line direction indicating form. I've pumped the levels on this so you can see it. My lines aren't really that confident.

These are the last drawings of the night. I just gave up and got loose after fussing around on the main drawing. I think the hand and foot are much better than the main event!

Same night, earlier on.

EtaCarinae2006-10-28 05:47:43

Hell! If Bumskee can do it, so can I!
(Except I can't.)

Evening studies.

Just could not get this thing to turn! No matter how I tried I couldn't get the left side to appear to be turning away and dropping back. What was I doing wrong?!

Didn't get this one finished, (note the shadow hasn't really been painted in) but still quite happy with it.

This weeks life drawing. Went for a bigger pad (A3) on a easel and used a polychroma blue pencil I picked up whilst working in animation and a dark blue prismacolour (great pencils!). Got a better handle on putting lines *across* the form, core shadow and drawing the eye. Still got a long way to go. Don't know what I'll do when life drawing shuts down over the christmas break...

How I spent my Friday night! Woot!
Problems with proportions but pretty happy with the depiction of light.
EtaCarinae2006-10-28 04:06:48

wow nice work .. wish i could start a 3d face sketchbook :)

All looks good here :D

nice to see some life drawing being posted too. I got the same problem with christmas break in Adelaide, althoug hI think some groups here will only stop for a week of two, so not so bad.

the 'bumskee technique' pic aren't skiing their bums quite as well as bumskees' bums ski... I think I smurfed that sentence up! the pen sketches further up the page have quite a nice line quality to them though. It might be work trying the same process again but starting with a pen line drawing.

Dear JohnN,
Yeah, not a bad idea. I've got to do a few more characters so I'll give that a go this arvo if I don't run out of time.
Really the idea is not to try to be like bumskee, just to learn from him. The real challenge is to learn to look like myself (only better!).
Here's a few more I did last night in the same vein.
Regards,
EtaCarinae.

Dear Friends,
Can anyone tell me how to get the green and orange pencil out of this image? I'm using PS CS2 and have tried Levels, Curves, and various Contrast tweeks but the pencil line starts to break up at the same point the last of the colour is falling out! There has to be a way.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Greyscale it, lil bit of levels, then the rest with brightness contrast, ended up with:

don't use brightness/contrast - it is a simplifyed version of curves. Use curves instead.

...but, this technique might lose some of the fine line work when you remove the gray construction lines

for a more flexable, adaptable and probably accurate result:

1)darken black line work using levels.

2)select colour range, set selection preview to matte white, eye picking the black line work, use the + and - eye pickers and the slider bar to adjust selection to an appropriate result (previews live on the image)

3)make new layer and fill selected area with black

Sharpening the image at the start and/or end may help too. If the thick line work is looking too heavy or you are losing the thin line work do 2(+) versions, layer them on top of each other, mask out section of the top layer combining the best parts of both. If you are having problems seperating the colour out you could also try increasing the saturation levels before step 1.

Dear Friends,
Here's another character that I have just completed.
I'm afraid I let my training routine slip this week because of time, but I have a plan to overcome that next week. I'm also finding I want to use some of that time to do more finished work like this. My character folio was pretty anemic so hopefully this will beef it up a bit. Soon I'll have to do some character plans or orthos.
Thanks for the feedback Brain and John! I messed around with this one a bit to get it where it is.
1. Scanned it at 400 dpi.
2. G.Blured it 1 px.
3. Reduced noise (really pumped it to smooth off all the areas!)
4. Curved it.
5. Image sized back to 300 dpi.
6. Smart sharpened it.
Weird that it looks slightly grey. It doesn't look like that in photoshop!?
Probably not the simplest way but as I say, I was mucking around - experimenting. This technique did manage to smooth off all the jaggy's gave a more consistent line.
The folds of fabric around the wrist and ankles are 'puff flukes'. She's a paratrooper. These flukes catch the air when she's falling allowing her to control angle and rate of decent.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

nice design - arm is way too short though!

if you are planning to print your B&W line art out (for folio etc) try scanning and leaving it at 600dpi. This will ensure that it will be nice and crisp and you will have a better chance of recording very fine lines.

Dear Friends,
Here's another character. After recieving some crits to 'amp it up' I started to work on this. Spent a lot of time wondering what 'amp it up' actually means and ended up settling for 'giving my level 1 character more money to spend on armour'. Also tried painting it. Hmm. Don't really like this and not even sure if it is finished but I think I've reached the limit of my skill for the time being. Working on something more complete like this is certainly good for your learning if nothing else!
I invite, Nay! I REQUEST crits on this painting!
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Oh yeah, for background this guy (previous post)is designed to track and kill Rufus Wainright.
And here is a fix up of 'that arm'. Think this is a bit better.

I still reckon her arm is too short, at least she can reach her holster now :P

Rufus Wainright's assassin is coming along, not finished yet I think (but when is ANY painting finished). As he/she/it is more or less monotone and lit with dull lighting, the elements a little dificult to read though. The line drawing is clearer regarding materials and details. I imaging 'amp-ing it up' on this piece might mean more dynamic pose, more exciting background/environ (something that will hint to the story and demeanour of this character) and more dynamic lighting.

Dear friends,
It's been about 6 weeks between drawings - that's no way to improve .
Here's a few things from before Xmas and two things I've done over the last 2 days. If anyone ever does a game based on shoes, i reckon I'm a 'shoe in' ... ahem.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Almost a demo! No, just incremental saves.

Magneto from X-men 2. Various times... (10 min is best, never ceases to amaze me how hard I find proportions    .)

This is a copy of something else. Not sure who did the original.

Here is the original. Again don't know who it is but they own the copyright.

And a 'copy' of Sparth that went it's own way.

Sparths original (copyright him!) ...AHHH, Sparth.   

Another Sparth 'copy'. Pretty-junk.

Hey EtaCarinae, I love your art! The lady with her arm out looks awesome; are you going to post a coloured version?

Also, I like your 'character's armour' pic as it reminds me of Samus' suit in Metroid Prime (GC). Did you have inspiration from that game by chance? :)
My only complaint is that it looks like the character is off-balance, even though in the coloured version you show with a shadow that the right foot is off the ground. It still gives me the impression that the character is falling over.

Oh and thanks JohnN for the tips for scanned line-art. I wrestle with the contrast and levels and am never satisfied with outcome. I'll try these tips out :)Skyla2007-02-11 05:09:50

You are one rediculously talented artist.
Well done. Keep them coming.

you give me too much credit Ninja

did some work on the chunky guy tonight

I like him :)

reminds me of the evil soldiers in the lost odyssey video crossed with a softer chubbier fantasy style

solid work.. *applause* :)

working on this bust for a comp at game-artist.net

also made a head for the female character and updated the chunky guy, I've been neglecting them for the most part

head

chunky guy

looking very awesome Shika. keep posting the wips, it is nice to see the progression, even for us non-modellers.

long time no post.
time to fill this thread with more crap!

David Chow's demon design: here

you forgot the hair :)

seriously though.... you are insane..... just out of curiosity, how long did that take you?

[QUOTE=GuyBrave] you forgot the hair :)

seriously though.... you are insane..... just out of curiosity, how long did that take you?[/QUOTE]

I think DC's demon took a couple work days, with plenty of breaks of course :)
It was quicker skipping the HP hair this time.

P.S
no YOU'RE insane, LOLOL OMG

far out man.. your work is good... the girl is freaky!
nice one!

thanks man :)

finished off the LP and started texturing, also fixed up those nasty proportions :(

no spec map yet

crits?

Thats some really nice work - well done! just one question - what software are you using?

ultra late reply to SilentK: I use max and zbrush these days.



Decided to take a break from my sumea challenge entry to play with some of the new tools in Zbrush 3, and hopefully get back to the challenge with a fresh eye.



(base mesh for the curious)

the quality is a bit inconsistent due to my descovering spiffy new tools and brushes along the way :)

Thats a shame about the job, the sketches are really nice im reading a book atm on drawing landscapes and citys that has stuff on perspective and composition. So its nice to see work similar to what im learning hopefully it will inspire me when i have some time to sit down and do sketches my self ^_^

looking good -- for some reason these remind me of dofus

Dear John,
These look great, lets see some more. I like the line weight to create seperation for distance. It looks a comic book style, you done any of that?
If you are into a good venue for sketches, drop into the design studio press forum. There is a sketch group there each week. It's a bit of a ghost town but the few that post are a fun encouraging group. And it's a different topic each week to keep you on your toes.
Incidently, what do you think was the problem with the job? Drawing or adherence to brief?
Regards,
EtaCarinaeEtaCarinae2006-10-09 21:06:13

nice work, I think these are great.. :) pity about the job tho. cheers, Min

thanks for the words guys :)

I hope you post some environments when you get around to practicing them Neffy. My 'time finding' technique was to draw in front of the evening telly. Maybe a time management technique that would work for you too!

Cheers for the dofus link JI. It was new to me and inspirational to browse through. Triggered off the 'birds eye view' scenes in this post.

Eta, haven't done any comic book stuff (this century at least). regarding the job - I understand the quality of my submission was fine, someone with more appropriate content in their portfolio got the gig in the end. Annoyingly the company obviously can't disclose what their up-comming project(s) are and hence can't say what content would have been more appropriate... frustrating.

...few more enviroments from my sketchbook for ya all to have a look at too.

Dear John,
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk,the old "someone with more appropriate content in their portfolio" routine eh? I always think it would be interesting to see the work that got the job! but that of course is impossible to disclose as well.
I know these are just sketches but try paying a little closer attention to perspective. Amongst other nit-picky things the right hand roof in the middle sketch is off. It's your beautiful precise parallel line work that gives it away.
If you sketch in acurate persective, it'll be good practice for more finished work.
You prob already know this but if you don't...
To do this roof correctly, connect the diagonally opposite corners of the top facing surface of this rectangular building. Where they cross is the true center of the 'roof'. Then draw a line down from the center point to the vp your walls are going to. Follow it up and make this the apex of your roof.
Make sense? You probably already know this cause everything else looks pretty solid. I really like the top one.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Nice work John. Are you a fan of point n click adventure by any chance? I reckon your backgrounds would fit well in that style of game. If you'd be interested in doing backgrounds for a point n click adventure I could certainly use your skills =0).chameleon2006-10-11 07:49:25

...and you guessed it, some more environments from my sketchbook.

That roof is a bit of a glaring oversite on my part isn't it Eta! It is amazing(or amazingly annoying, to be more precise) how I can miss measuring up such a major element and then overlook the error before inking it all in! On the whole I think the sketches are getting technically more accurate though, so the practice is working I think.

Looks great.. having said that, I have no idea about perspective. have you by any chance looked at Feng Zhu dvd on perspective? I had a quick look over the weekend, and I must say it was very inspiring.. lots of infos and it was frankly a little freaky to see someone work so quick with perspective.. Might be a good resource if you haven't looked at them.

Looking good john! cheers, Min

hey John, you know I love these :)

are you planning to do any mood studies with these? I'd love to see some colours splashed over them

Yeah ditto to that! I'd love to see some colour or even some value.
Perspective is a funny thing. It's not really art! It's more akin to a table than to a drawing, in that it is a TOOL only. Once you learn the basic rules they just sit in the back of your brain waiting for you to need them. No one should feel intimidated by perspective. I think your sketches prove it John. Keep it up!
Regards,
EtaCarinae

your asked for it!
Some colour and tone on my latest sketchbook entry.

edit: image below added as response to Makk's post

JohnN2006-10-28 03:35:18

Very impressive work! You have a wonderful eye for detail. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future. :)

and a second mood study - less hardcore SF, more Sunday Morning.

I have indeed seen a few of Feng Zhu's tutorial DVDs Bumskee. Great reference for seeing a complete illustration process. His speed and accuracy is freakish though!

Hey John these are looking really nice.
I would like to see a bit more lighting though, to emphesis space and depth in your image.
I did a paintover to show you what i mean-
http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeaforum/uploads/20061028_020005_Untitled-1_c…
*edit* I should have darkened the right hand end of the image as well, doh.

I reckon if you worked on your lighting you could really fly with your work :)

ps. Im envious of your perspective skills!
    Makk2006-10-28 02:04:58

HOly Sh*t Makk, how much radiation do you have coming out of that hatch?! that can't be safe :p

Not sure if I agree with your execution, but sentiments taken on board and acted on. I have added the tweaked image with the original for easy comparison.

for anyone who is analysing the alterations: Easy changes to pick are cast light from hatch an darkening of some nearby shadows. Harder to pick, but helped greatly in create more depth - increase of colour saturation in the foreground and decrease in background and lightening the line work in the background.

this one is going in the portfolio me thinks.JohnN2006-10-28 03:50:13

Dear John,
Hey these look great man! I think I prefer the light and colour in the Sunday morning on. Yeah, the radiation coming out of Makk's is killer! You have to be careful of this. I think it's called radiosity (may be wrong). It indicates particals in the air which light is bouncing off. A better way to indicate light in a clear atmosphere may be to show shadow. For funs sake I did a real quick paint-over too. The main thing I wanted to show was;
1. using contrast to draw the eye
2. try to indicate the light source better by fixing shadows.
Don't get me wrong, the image is great, just check where your light source is and what it's falling on. Can't wait to see more!
Regards,
EtaCarinae

*sigh* walks back to drawing board, starts again.

yeah, I think i know what you mean, more dramatic lighting focused on the hatch...

mood sample #3:

I think this one is working better as far as drama goes. Although now I look at it more the machine might have gotten a little too dark.

No, I don't think the machine looks too dark. The shadow looks heaps better too. I'd include all 3 in your folio to demonstrate your ability to offer alternate lighting/ texture conditions (but then again what do I know? I don't even work in the industry :P).

And thanks to all who did feedback for the colour studies. I have included the final version in my portfolio. The others look a bit underworked in comparison so I haven't included them (yet). Might still revisit the 'Sunday Morning' version and see if I can't make it worthy too.

editx2: yesterday afternoons and this mornings effort --

JohnN2006-11-02 21:31:12

Dear John,
Great to see you've decided to post a variety of stuff. These look great. Do you have any finished full colour stuff to show off?
Regards,
EtaCarinae
P.S. Do you work in games already?

That chick kicks so much arse, I won't be able to sit properly for a month @:-D

Nice work John, I lke the fact the you didn't use too much black and planted them solidly on the ground with shadows! Of course nice designs and the chick is hawt! cheers, Min

No new colour characters (yet) Eta. and, no, sadly I am not in the games industry

I am currently making a big push to change this though with new/better portfolio work (hence regular posts here) and actively looking and applying for jobs worldwide.
---
The Black Knight -
I might even call this one a WIP, although I don't quite know what I am going to do with it next. Thinking about making the horse into a Unicorn too.

Dear John,
Nice work mate! This guy really pops off the background and the values make it really dynamic and not all muddied up like my grey stuff tends to be. I really like how you've rendered the light but maybe you've got the guy too small. I don't know but something seems a bit screwy with the proportions of the duo. It may be that the horses leg are short too, although that just makes him look like one of those mongolian ponies Ghengis Khan was so keen on. I'm sorry, that's probably not real helpful. Great tone though.
I noticed Creative Assembly England are looking for 2D at the moment, Sussex I think. Check the webpage. Also Pandemic has a sister company somewhere in the sticks of Canada that apparently takes on a lot of newbies. Can't remember the name but maybe someone else reading this can shed some light.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Creative Assembly and Bioware - applications sent. I'm keeping an eye on about 5 industry sites so not many jobs are escpaing my attention. I've actually noticed a distince lack of interest from overseas companies though. Most applications I send don't even result with the company visiting my online folio - pretty frustrating, I might consider a slightly different plan of attack soon.

Latest addition to my folio -created in Painter, I am starting to get comfortable with some of the default Painter brushes, there are so many! but still have to default back ot photoshop for some stuff.

New environment/vehicle painting. It was for the Daily Sketch Group over at ConceptArt.org and I decided to flesh it out to a finished painting... could probably go into the finished section but I wanted to keep things together in this thread.

I really like the style of the aircraft - it reminds me of ryan churches chrome/streamlined craft -keep up the good work!

Man, I could swear that I posted this image in this thread a few days ago... If it is somewhere else on the forum let me know and i will delete the repeated post. It seems that too much work is making me lose my marbles!

so my (re?)post: I've been busy with graphics work in the new year, so busy in fact I have not done any illustration (apart from reskinning a mobile game, I guess that counts as illustrating- I might try to get permission to post some samples)so to keep things ticking over here I thought I might post an abandoned painting done late last year. It was my first attempt at modelling, then doing a paintover.

JohnN2007-02-01 05:21:30

Very nice john, thats a clever technique :)

Love the colours too.

- Doble

zug zug is very cool.... how any polies is he?

doh the animated timelapse gif is broke -- I'll fix it...

I don't have him in front of me at the moment, but if I remember right, zugzug is something like 3000-4000 tri's. I'll check when I get home tonight.

Yeah saw these on PC, nice work.
Was zugzug contract work or just personal? Is it posible to see the flats for him? I always enjoy looking at how you render metals.

nice stuff - 'Bust 1' made me want to sketch up concept variations. It really triggered my imagination!

keep em coming.

a sculpt for a self motivating challenge that Ashkat Mizambekov and myself did over at polycount. Didn't push him as far as I would've liked to , but I still learnt quite a few things on this one which was nice.

[QUOTE=Hazza1]On a side note, my art has been ripped down at everywhere except conceptart.org, so a big(large)thanks to the rulers of the website, it realy makes me happy that someone cares, enough to not rip my art down, I know it might be strange at times(owl), but its who I am, and I am realy happy someone can accept it for what it is!

On a side note, the administrator at sumea deleted my post, what a ovary(uterus) packing bitch(sorry i got mad)[/QUOTE]

Well, I'm the "ovary(uterus) packing bitch" you're referring to.

The reason why your post was deleted was because it wasn't a serious attempt for the challenge. If you wanna make a funny picture and post it here, that's fine. If you wanna start some religious furor, this is definately not the sort of site for it. But trying to enter it into the Sumea Challenge and then when it's not accepted because it's nothing more than a Character Studio skeleton with some primitives slapped on, surely that can't be too surprising.Souri2006-09-22 01:59:37

Hello friends,
 
I modeled allah with painstaiking attention to detail, I understand what your  meaning is,  but those shapes i used with eXtreme care and precicon to my designs,  I think it turned out pretty food.  What is wrong with it?  Maybe you could offer some feedback (thanks john!)(feedback) so I can enter the sumea challenge (8)(eight) intime, I realy want to take Allah into the extreme and beyond(space)(time travel).
 
 
whats a furfue also, grandma thinks its a rodent but I wasnt sure, if so I dont realy like religious rodents either(no such thing as animal heaven)
 
 
 
 
 
 Hazza12006-09-22 02:12:43

Are you serious?

I mean. Really? I honestly feel the disbelief that Simon Cowell from American idol would feel if someone auditioned at his show by making some noise out of their armpits and expects to get to the next round.

You honestly don't think there's anything wrong with entering that into the Sumea challenge?

this guy is a hoot on CA.org for some reason

it doesnt offend me, but its not that funny either. its just.... weak :|

Hello friends,

Sorry souri, I dont understand your meaning, it just came out like(blaberblaberblaber), I thought american idol was one of those gay makeover shoes, grandma thinks it is too. But feedback I can understand is more than welcome!

EDIT: I didnt mean to come across mean souri, I feel realy mean for saying you sounded like blaber(you should use shorter words)(like this), but if you like gay makeover shoes thats okay with me(honest).

Shika, my work isnt ment to be funny, I dont understand whats so funny either, I think that some people might be trying to down my spirit(still high)(by laughing at it). It realy disturbs me how sick people are(in the head) and mind, I wish I could understand why people laugh at my artworks, maybe its just who they are(just like feminists)(who like furry cupcake).Hazza12006-09-22 06:30:04

wow

wow...just wow...oh and also, im pretty sure the people at concept art are just taking the piss out of you with their comments.congratulations(thanks), your a retard(disabled) with idiot(fool) smeared(spread) all over you like the kind of feces(sh*t) your art is made of.
souri, cant you just ban this peice of crap user?

looks like a fine start Angel. I think you just need to keep plugging away at it!

If you are feeling a bit stuck with how to proceed... I think I would look at increasing the contrast between the light and shadow values on Jessica's face next and tightening up where these light and dark area are excatily.

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/intotheblue/site/extras/wallpapers/i… I assume it's based on that one.

Looks like you want to change the light sources. Really hard to give tips if I don't know what style you're after.
Anyways, did a google search and found some of her pics like that hair on this http://www.journal.lv/blog/2006/01/31/jessica_alba_1 site

Yep, I used that one for the pose - she's so gorgeous. But obviously other than the line art, I've been changing things. I'm not sure what style I'm after either, this is mostly just for a bit of fun.. and to try and learn how to use photoshop. This is my 3rd picture in it and I'm liking it so far.

The shading and light sources thing is really hard for me as I'm not sure how to do it.. I've really just been guessing where to put the shading.

I figure the more I practice, the better I'll get.. and I'll learn where to place the highlights and shadows.

So anyway, this is what she looks like so far (although I haven't touched the shading on her face, I plan on coming back to it after I have a bit more practice).

[img]http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/4273/lilithrf8.jpg[/img]

I was also wondering, how do you figure out what style you want to paint? I like cartoony styles like the GTA one, or danger girls.. they just look so cool. I'd love to do something more realistic sometime, but I think I'll just learn the basics first.

With shadows, I've also just been using a 'soft light' layer in photoshop. Are there any better methods to use?

Thanks heaps :)

Best way to learn different styles is to get a few pieces in that style and copy them, all the time disecting what makes that style work. Why is that picture different from anything else? What are the major things, and what are the subtleties? Then try some of your own and compare. Keep working towards getting it nutted out. It's heapsa fun @:-)

On shadows, there's many methods. Straight colour picking, choosing the correct complimentary shadow colour and setting the brush to Multiply, working in greyscale first and then colourising, or whatever else someone uses out there. I'd definitely recommend reading in to some colour theory on how shadows work first, and then you'll understand how to get to the end result quicker.

Keep up the learning! And the piccie @:-D

I want to see some planes!
Not the aircraft type, but the ones that are in the beginning stages of a painting.
What you do is you paint in some nice big blocks of either light/midtone/shadow that make up the basic foundations of form of what you are trying to paint; Like sections of light and shadow.
Of course its all based on your lightsource (so know where your lights are coming from too and always keep them in mind!)

Here i did a guidline based on the pic your using...
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/makk/20069810435_mmmalba.jpg[/img]

There is better advice on this on various tuts on the net, so might be good if you did some digging around.

Thanks heaps for the advice Makk! I've started to study colour theory and it's very interesting! It's helping me already, although I still have a long way to go.

So, I'm working on this guy sketch for a friend and I'm trying to do better shading - it's something that is way hard to get right. I keep re-doing it over and over again.

Anyway, here's a peek at where I've got so far. In this pic, I'm going to try and end up getting rid of the black line art some how.

I also really want to learn how to make nice eyes, but I'll get there. So much to learn! Thankfully it's 100% enjoyable.

[img]http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/6033/khortis6ug8.jpg[/img]

This one has more contrast and better defined shadows in it :)

I think I might have made much the same comment to moonunit regarding painting on white, but it is worth repeating: unless the area is intended to be 100% white in the final image, fill in some colour/tone on the white areas. This will allow you to judge neighbouring tones (especially the dark shadows on the side of the face in this example) with more accuracy.

Do you have the line work on a seperate layer? to incorporate the line work into the painting better you could try this - copy the line art, change its hue & tone to a dark skin skin tone, drop onto painting layer, turn off black line art layer, continue painting. this will allow the line art to be incorporated into the painting better. If you find you are losing the line work too much you can just repeat the process. Alternatively, lock the layer opacity and paint the black line work with an appropraite hue/tone and leave it sitting over the top.

I second Makk's comment about planes - that is very much something I look for when I am deciding what is light/dark

Thanks for the tips :)

I've redone the skin colouring and shading a million times now, but the good thing is that I'm starting to look at my paintings objectively - and I think one of my problems is facial structure - like if it was a real person, both cheeks would be different sizes/shapes or the eyes wouldn't line up properly.

Before, I used to just try to immitate the colours from various photo references, but now I'm learning a lot more about "why" there are different shades on a face - that people don't really have technicoloured skin. It's a really cool subject to learn about and it sure does have a fun learning curve (except when I get frustrated because it's not perfect).

Cheers :)

sweet, i'l see how it goes

BTW, it took me 10.5 hours, with 2 of those looking for graphics, music and SFX and preparing them for the game. :)

Dale

simple but good - great marketing device if you're submitting this to them :)

I realise it may be too late, or that it's simply finished and not to be touched again, but a bit of balancing to maximise the fun level may be a good idea.

- player speed faster (feels too limiting)
- multiple hits before game over (or no sense of achievement)
- pickup! If multiple hits is implemented, a pickup to +1 hit

At this point it's all about presentation -- with a few simple tweaks and additions it becomes fun and more game-like than a simple demo novelty. Great job on a speedy demo :)

I'm actually fixing some bugs in it now, so if there's any suggestions feel free to post them. :)

JI Styles:

When you say multiple hits before game over, what exactly do you mean? Player lives? There are currently player lives (but a bug in it sometimes cause the first hit to be game over). Or do you mean hitpoints for the player similar to the motherships? Also, player speed being shot speed or movement speed?

I'd say hit points similar to the mothership -- and maybe try upping speed for both movement and fire rate/shot speed. Hit points to make it more accessible (more achievement than punishment, greater sense of wins than losses), speed up to make it more frantic paced and enjoyable :)

I think I hit the game over bug a few times, was kind of confused about that :D

Yeah I got the 'one hit game over' thing going, and the whole shi-bang froze up on me once - I was kicking butt too damn it! I think JI might be right with the speeding things up comment. I felt my ship was a big, slow whale :( and that was a little discouraging for taking on those little fighters that came in, I tended to just plough a straight line and take on the motherships.

edit: played a bit more and have some maybe useful crits-
the enemy ships that escaped my wrath don't scroll right off the left hand side and collisions with fighters on the side of my ship has no effect!

Some suggestions (some may be out of your scope, but I would look for all of these in a "complete" game):
1. give the ship some armor points as JI has said
2. make the player's ship smaller... it feels too fat (for a fighter) it makes it difficult to manuver in front of incoming bullets or ships
3. when the player dies, make it explode over a few seconds. it will make it clearer what's happened
4. what the hell is with that music? :P you need something fast and with a beat!
5. power ups will make the game more fun and rewarding as you go along. It adds a reward for staying alive (those motherships look like prime targets :) ).

Also, I had it crash a few times... the music still plays and it sounds like the game might still be running but there's nothing being rendered, it just keeps swapping the back and front buffers.

awsome work, dam

some really nice colours and textures going on with the ones at the top. I like the ute photo/painting too- makes me was to try some matt painting.

Hey this is some good stuff. You have clearly put a lot of effort in. That said, I think your biggest weakness is creating the illusion of depth. The matte painting suffers a bit from this and the perpective is a bit off, and therefore comes off as flat. I think you could combat that in future by sketching the structure separately first (on paper) paying close attention to form and perpective. Then you could bring it into the photo and work it in. Right now it just looks too much like you painted inside and around the trees. Keep it up though, you have some good stuff going on.