Girl of the Day (Thom Scott's artblog)

Go Team Black hearts!

2010-09-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Whew. Well, rush at the college has finally subsided enough to get some work done. And in honor of the new season of VB, I did a new painting of Miss Cocktease as a way to shake off the rust of the last month.

Orca Sapiens, legged version

2010-04-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

Slowdown again, this time for a good reason. Just got a batch of commissions that have to take precedence over these dailies.

Not just giving up on them though. For today here's a legged version of my Mutation Nation entry I worked on yesterday.

Imitation of Life

2010-03-31T16:31:00.000-07:00

the problem with eldritch horrors, yer basic eldritch horror problem, is they stick out like a sore thumb in the sleepy new england towns the control from the depths. The solution? Pseudopeople!

grown from the finest protoplasm and convincing almost 80% of the time, they let the average bloated tentacled monstrosity control it's cultists in nice warm anonymity. Ask for them by name.

;)

Chess Empress

2010-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

First off, apologies. Last week was the suck on steroids. First part of the week down with a head cold, then down two days later from bad chow mein. In the middle find out the simple brake job is now replacing the bit that holds the wheel on. Long story short I got jack squat done last week. I'm writing last week off completely and just picking up from here.

As for today's drawing- at long last the full white chess set is complete.

Bound angel

2010-03-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Catch-up day

2010-03-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Woot. Got the scanner back online last night. As promised then here's both Chess piece drawings I had waiting. I'm also including my Beholder WIP for the new artorder giveaway.

NOT a Girl of the Day #1

2010-03-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it had to happen eventually, setting myself a span as big as a year. I drew two pencil drawings to put up yesterday but when I get home, the scanner doesn't want to power up. I think I may know what happened, and might be able to fix it. Anyway, if and when I get it back up I'll post both drawings as 50 and 51.

In the meantime, here's a digital warm-up I did today while listening to BOC on pandora.

Girl of the Day #49- Samurai Girl (final)

2010-03-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

Now I'm calling her done. :)

Girl of the Day #48- Samurai Girl

2010-03-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

I had this drawing sitting in a file of work to take another crack at for I forget how long. I finally stumbled onto it last night and thought it was time to paint her. Not calling her done yet, still need to give some love to her swords and spend some time refining things, but those will be tasks for tomorrow. Happy with the colors though, at least on this monitor.

Girl of the day #47-Priestess

2010-03-10T18:47:00.001-08:00

Girl of the Day #46- Undead Sexy

2010-03-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Just a nice little concept techno-zombie girl today. :)

(Bob Ross voice) Happy little claws (/Bob Ross voice)

Girl of the Day #45- Orca Sapiens part deux

2010-03-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

Had a nice Livestream session yesterday afternoon working on this with Mike Faille in attendance. He made some very nice suggestions I'll be trying to incorporate as I work on it today.

Girl of the Day #44- Orca Female

2010-03-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

First pass at my Orca race design for Mutation Nation. Planning a livestream tomorrow when I paint it.

Interlude- character design exercise

2010-03-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

Trying something a little different for designing today's girl. (ganked from http://autodestructdigital.blogspot.com/2010/03/design-protocol.html?zx=a138dfc28fd20abf) There is an ulterior motive here in that I am also using this as a piece for the Mutation Nation Challenge at ArtOrder

Orca Sapiens

CONTEXT
After da bomb, new species have emerged after a period of rampant mutation, resulting in uplifted species and hybridization of previously incompatible species.

LOCATION
Pacific Northwest coastal areas. Rocky inlets that were far enough away from impact sites to be relatively safe and are slowly coming to be shipping centers for the few growing cities during reconstruction.

FUNCTION
Orca Sapiens have formed into small communities of 15-30 members that earn their keep providing escort and navigation assistance to the boats brave enough to ply the waters.

SYMBOLS
Signal lanterns/flashlights, utility belts/ vests, light body armor?

MASSES
Humanoid, larger than humans, lithe but muscular. 8-10 feet tall, 300lbs females- 400 lbs males

HIERARCHY/FLOW
Social packs evolved from pod structure of Orcas, some adoption of tribal customs studied from local Human Amerind tribes.

MATERIALS
Scavenged and adapted maritime supplies, some naval gear

MOOD
rocky coastline, overcast day

Girl of the Day #43- Lady Blackheart (final)

2010-03-04T16:14:00.000-08:00

MUCH happier with this background and color scheme. Didn't fight me a bit as I painted it today.

Girl of the Day #42- Lady Blackheart (part 2)

2010-03-03T16:43:00.001-08:00

Did some major reworking of this when I realized the background I had in mind at the outset just wasn't serving it well. Tomorrow I start taking it to color.

Girl of the Day #41- Lady Blackheart (part 1)

2010-03-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Down with a cold today to the point where I couldn't concentrate worth a damn. Tried Livestreaming a few times only to hit server issues as well. Not a good day. Anyway, Today is the first of a two or three day paint. the full image is going to be the entire figure.

Girl of the Day #40- Walkies!

2010-03-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

I'm going to play with this one some more to tighten up the girl's figure and finish it up, but I have a headache now, so letting it sit for a while. I'll post the final later. I'm going to try to do a one day piece tomorrow.

Girl of the Day #39- Llolth (final)

2010-02-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

Finished piece. The Livestream session I was thinking of seemed a little pointless when all I had left by Midnight was a little tweaking on the cocoon silk and a few background elements. Comments are welcomed.

Have a good weekend, btw :)

Girl of the Day #38- Llolth (part 1)

2010-02-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

Think this one is going to be a two day piece, but so far it's cooking pretty well. Might Livestream tonight while working on it (midnight-ish central if I do.)

Girl of the Day #37- Winged Message (final part)

2010-02-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

And for today I present the final of my wood elf piece. not completely satisfied with the little fairy, but I can live with it for now. Otherwise quite pleased with the piece.

Girl of the Day #36- Wood Elf (part 2)

2010-02-23T14:39:00.000-08:00

Second day of working on this. Hopefully tomorrow's post will be the final version. planning to have another go at livestream later tonight when I work on it. Watch my Twitter for the announce when I open the live stream (http://www.twitter.com/thomscottart).

Girl of the Day #35-Message (part 1)

2010-02-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

OK, going to try something a little different, but still inside the rules I set for myself. The Daily pieces I've been doing have been a fantastic learning exercise, but very few have been portfolio material. This week, I'm going to do a longer piece, and post each day's efforts towards completion. The goal is to have a portfolio level piece by the end of the week.

To that end, today I'm posting the mono drawing/ underpainting. I'll be starting color later tonight (possibly in a Livestream session if I can figure out how to work it.)

Girl of the day #34- Nautalie

2010-02-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

It's Friday. Time for something goofy.

Girl of the Day #33- Pali-monk

2010-02-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

Got stuck on possibly the jankiest workstation we have today, with a gimpy video card. I'll prolly end up color correcting this later since I have no idea how off the monitors are here, but it's looking decent so far.

Edit: Let this be a lesson for any beginning digital painters out there. Work on gear you can trust, can calibrate, and are familiar with. Opened this up on my normal work machine and absolutely hated the color. Took about 45 mins fixing whcih also opened my eyes to a few improvements as well.

Girl of the day #32- Caster

2010-02-17T17:32:00.000-08:00

Got a late start today, so this one's a bit rough.

Girl of the day #31- Wired

2010-02-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

Feeling better after dragging this morning. Felt like doing something machine-y.

edit: Fixed her bighead a bit. Always fun looking at these a day later and realizing you missed something obvious.

Girl of the Day #30-Blanket

2010-02-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Home sick today and in no fit shape for anything long. But was able to sketch out something at least.

Gril of the Day #29- Scarab

2010-02-12T15:48:00.000-08:00

It's Friday, so I just threw some randomish scribbles down and started picking forms out, then developed a figure from there. Somewhere along the way I thought "future Egyptian-ish."

Girl of the Day #28- Vulkoori Paladin

2010-02-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

Just started today playing with some of the brushes in the pack Mark Molnar ( http://momarkmagic.blogspot.com/ ) uploaded. Early on I got the idea to revisit the chitin armor of Eberron Drow. I'm not aware of anything in canon about them making half-plate out of it, but the idea of a dark elf scorpion paladin dual wielding poison whips invokes the Rule of Cool to me ;)

Girl of the Day #27- Aegis EP8

2010-02-10T17:09:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. I'm really pushing the girl part by only having a face and snakes, but I really like the idea of a medusa integrated into the design of the gun (and the challenge is due tomorrow as well.)

Girl of the day #26- Rust 2

2010-02-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

Happier with this one. There's still something not there yet, but it's a lot closer than the first pass at the mood I want.

Girl of the Day #25- Rust

2010-02-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

I'm frustrated with this one. It's not bad per se, but it's not what I wanted when I was imagining it in my mind. Try again tomorrow I suppose.

Girl of the Day #24- Geomancy

2010-02-05T17:07:00.000-08:00

had the damnedest time grokking out how to do her torso. I've been contemplating doing glowing rocks inside a ribcage ever since the ArtOrder Earthquake Dragon Challenge, and finally decided to see if I could pull it off. It fought me for a good two hours to get the effect, finally had to cheat and use an uplighting effect, but it looks decent

Girl of the Day #23- Purple

2010-02-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

Got a really late start on this, so I had to drop down to just the shoulders and head. Thinking I may give the full figure some love over the weekend.

Girl of the Day #22- Shacklewraith

2010-02-03T17:27:00.000-08:00

Had an urge to do a masked figure today (the undead one.) As I was thumbnailing, two of the figures were really close on the page and I connected them with a curvy line and thought there's my idea for the day.

Edit: fixed some nagging issues from the initial post in the piece

Girl of the Day #21- Asari Attitude

2010-02-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

Picked up Mass Effect 2. Love it, no surprise there. Bioware has done such an amazing job of creating a living breathing sci-fi world again. Hope they put out another artbook for this one to go with the one from ME1. Anyway, today's GotD is a lovely Asari in a decidedly un-lovely mood.

Girl of the Day #20- Flame Knight

2010-02-01T08:59:00.001-08:00

Just a one hour drawing today. Most of my time is budgeted to updating my gallery website today, but I still wanted to get something up. Elven girl in flame themed plate and a Neinhalt Sieger style battle arm.

EDIT: Found a couple hours at the end of my shift to throw some color on. really loose, but I'm grooving on where the coppers are going in her armor.

Girl of the Day #19- Juggling Jade

2010-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

I had a better idea for one of the spheres at the beginning, but thanks to a rush at work had to simplify down to simple glowing jade. I'll find a way to work the hedgehog that would have been into another piece sometime.

Girl #18- Captain Raven

2010-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

Since yesterday was a ninja, today is a pirate.

yes i am aware that the meme is older than dirt.

Girl of the Day #17- Akako

2010-01-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

First off, the number. I didn't miss a day. I went back and saw I'd misnumbered, using 11 twice. (d'oh!) So today's number is correct.

Second, thanks to Scott Purdy (Ninja Mountain member and paintin' badass) for suggesting today's subject.

Girl of the Day 15- Chess Bishop

2010-01-26T15:58:00.000-08:00

Today was less than fun. Woke up with a fever so I was stuck at home. Then my computer got hit with a scareware app, so I had to pull it's fangs and nuke it. On the plus side the Creature Retrad challenge field was posted over at http://artorder.blogspot.com and it's an amazing lineup. I'm not going to pick a favorite because about 2/3 of the entries are in the running for it. Anyway, as a result I didn't get a chance to paint this girl. What's getting posted is my Chess Bishop at the pencil stage.

Girl of The Day 14- Level 53

2010-01-25T17:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back i had the bright adea to paint one of my WoW toons at various points in her progression towards level cap. First at level 11 (where she was when i had the idea,) then at 40, 70 and then 80. i figured that i'd have plenty of time between those milestones.

Blizzard said Ha!.

They completely reworked the way dungeons queue in-game in such a way that it is completely viable to level a character solely through dungeon runs from level 15 on. On top of that the character levels like a rocket. So, next thing I know (and I am a super casual player,) Basheba here is level 53, and Brain pokes me and says "weren't you going to re-paint her 13 levels ago?"

so, yeah...

Girl of the Day #13- Burning Construct

2010-01-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

another loose Friday painting

Girl of the Day #12 Assassin Demon Final

2010-01-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

Today was fun. decided I hated my original sketch for this final piece, so I started over and , thanks to a relatively slow work day, powered through the whole piece. I'm pretty happy right now with it too. I'll let it age a day or two before I send the link in to ArtOrder in case any changes come to mind.

Girl of the Day #11- Ophidia

2010-01-20T16:04:00.000-08:00

Can't get much more curvy than a serpentine.

Girl of the Day #11- Flowing

2010-01-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

Today's is admittedly a quickie, only about two hours-ish of actual work time. Needed to budget today to favor starting the ArtOrder Challenge final. Still there are some passages in here I really like.

Girl of the Day #10- Redheaded and Dangerous

2010-01-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

Was feeling like doing something redheaded today, so I looked through my DA gallery, picked an old redheaded character, and repainted her.

Girl of the Day #9- Emma

2010-01-15T16:52:00.000-08:00

Tried to paint a classic, but had a fail on Dame Rigg's Likeness :(

Still, hard not to like a girl in a catsuit.

Girl of the Day #8- Assassin Demoness full figure

2010-01-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

As promised, today was drawing a full figure of my Assassin Demoness for the new ArtOrder Challenge. The idea here is to separate character design from composition by having her armor and other details set before sketching out the actual piece layout.

Girl of the Day #7- Assassin Demoness

2010-01-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

Jon Schindehette(Senior AD for Dungeons and Dragons) revealed a new and rather kick-ass challenge on ArtOrder (http://www.artorder.blogspot.com) today. An Assassin Demon based on an actual D&D art brief. well, I had to bite. So today I painted a design for her face and part of her armor. I'll prolly do a drawing of the full figure tomorrow for GotD as well, before working on composing what the final piece will be.

Tried to stay loose (in spite of calls all day at the day job,) like I was for yesterday's Chess knight. I really like some of how that one turned out, and wanted to try and catch some of that here too.

Girl of the Day #6- Chess knight

2010-01-12T13:39:00.001-08:00

Worked much looser today just to keep things fast and less stressful. Got a good result though I think.

Girl of the Day #5- Techno Medusa

2010-01-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

Day job was hella busy today so I didn't have time to do any color on this. Some days are going to be like that though. I just have to make peace with that.

Girl of the Day #4- Ifrit

2010-01-08T17:08:00.000-08:00

Decided, being Friday, to take a break from the Chess girls and do something looser and more fun. So today it's a sexy ifrit. Used reference for the pose, but otherwise just stayed loose and had fun with it.

Feel free to comment/ critique/ throw fruit. :)

GotD #3- Chess Rook

2010-01-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

The original of this design was a defensive theme, with one large girl at the top with a spear and a shield, and two smaller girls partially encased in the base each with a shield in hand. (There was a fourth shield between them.) this time I decided to go with a more offense based design, making the Rook a larger, blunt attack figure with extra long arms and lots of square edges.

GotD #2 - Chess pawn

2010-01-06T15:39:00.001-08:00

So today i decided to finally start revisiting the designs for my Chess Girls. One of my more popular pieces is a knight standing over what's left of a bishop. BUT at Gencon everyone thinks the knight is the Queen. So, as part of Girl of the Day, I'm going to redesign the girls, starting with today's piece, the Pawn.

(And yes I know she's cut off at the knees. Pawns are shorter than every other piece on the board.)

Fennec Girl, Now in Color

2010-01-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

Girl of the Day project

2010-01-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, We'll see how well this works out, but I'm going to try to draw and post a drawing of a girl (of some sort) each weekday for a year. First up, A fantasy girl inspired by the cutest damn picture of a Fennec Fox that was up on Digg this morning.

Krampus color

2009-12-15T17:23:00.001-08:00

And here is the painted version (maybe final- gonna let it sit a few days before I mail the link to Mr. Schindehette,) of my krampus entry.

Krampus pencils

2009-12-15T09:34:00.001-08:00

Pencil drawing of my Krampus for the current ArtOrder challenge:

Seraphim stage three

2009-12-10T11:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday's progress on the new piece. Played with color choices and decided gold figure against a muted purple background. So here you see a quick color rough, laying in a nice warm red-gold dark over her armor, and then starting the render of the armor.

Seraphim stage two

2009-12-08T17:01:00.001-08:00

Three stages of taking the earlier rough to a drawing I can start color roughs with.

Seraphim step one

2009-12-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Step one is a rough sketch just to get the major design elements in. Real rough at this stage. Started with some digital watercolor blobs just to loosely describe forms, then line to pick out some of the features and create the figure.

two hour B/W

2009-12-01T17:48:00.001-08:00

almost ready for the road

2009-11-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

WIP of my current piece, the tiefling biker girl I drew for an ArtOrder challenge ages ago. Finally got back to it two days ago. Still needs some detailing and tonal adjustment, and I'm maybe going to work some purples into the sky behind her, but it's looking okay to show as a preview now.

warm up quickie (about 30 mins)

2009-11-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

cribbing from Gallegos

2009-11-18T10:10:00.001-08:00

I saw Randy Gallegos' Balance piece at Gencon this year and loved the luminous gold/ red tones he had going in it. I'd been meaning to try for something along those line for a while now and finally had some time to try it.

Still a WIP, with lots of armor detailing and then color adjustment on the good monitors at home to go, but decent enough at this point to give a peek.

Project Owlbear

2009-08-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd actually show how I do a piece from beginning to end for once. In this case it's the upcoming Owlbear challenge for ArtOrder. The brief was to try to reinvent the critter away from it's previous versions. Now, this is a fairly classic monster. Usually portrayed as a really big bear on all fours with an owls beak and head. My thought was to move more into humanoid territory, changing to an upright posture, but still very ursine and awkward. I'll try to get rid of any fur and have them completely feathered, using patterns of Great Horned Owls. (There are few more foul tempered birds I can think of, which fits the Owlbear as well.) So here is the drawing of the three, composited from three separate drawings I did during the week. I will update as I go along here on the sketchblog.

1 hour Xen'drik Drow head

2009-08-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

sketching last night. Liked it. Figured I'd show it here on the sketchblog.

Tattered Wings

2009-08-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

More playing with blue.

Color Practice Blue- Twilek Jedi

2009-07-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Playing in the blue end of the color wheel this time. Pulled out an old drawing I never got around to painting, made a palette from one of Jon Foster's pieces, and went to town. (Thanks to Melissa Findley for that suggestion.)

color practice- Red Armor (for girls!)

2009-07-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I found out that Windows 7 has a built in color calibration utility.

So i spent time with a copy of spectrum, comparing reds, blues, and greens, and running the util to try to make this lappy's monitor more trustworthy. I then spent a couple hours practicing reds:

Not DONE done, but close

2009-07-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm not calling this one done yet. Going to give it the afternoon of leaving it alone then take a fresh look at it later tonight. It's close though.

Drow Vs. Illithid part deux preview

2009-07-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

Finnally got the monchrome underpaint of the background basically in.

Drow v. Mind Flayer WIP preview

2009-07-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

It Friday and I'm in a show and tell kinda mood.

SOOOOOOOO here's the current monochrome underpainting WIP of my entry for next week's ArtOrder challenge entry.

I'm an Eberron nut, so I decided to go with a Xen'drik drow for my heroine, trying to stop a group of tentacled servants of Xoriat from letting something out into the world. Nothing against traditional underdark Drow, but I find the Eberron variety more visually interesting.

And just to help with what's going on with the figures, here's the drawing of the two lead dancers in this performance:

Have a good weekend everyone :)

Earthquake Dragon

2009-07-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

My entry for this week's ArtOrder challenge.

2009-06-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here are my comments/ crits for each of this week's entries. As always, this is meant as constructive criticism. The work this week was good from everyone.

Scott Flanders- I love these inks. They're full of character and attitude.the design of the bike is a bit simple but, on the plus side, the back end reminds me of the Heli-bike from M.A.S.K. I am having a bit of a problem with the way the rider is sitting, as it looks like his tail would be getting nearly broken by the angle it rests at. Still, the piece has that desirable attitude from the inks and posture of the figure otherwise that fits the notion of "Biker."

Chris Burdett- I can't stop chuckling at this one. The big, relatively macho dragonborn on that little ROFLscooter is hilarious. Craft-wise your pencils are gorgeous. No muddy forms anywhere, the border lines all sell their forms clearly, and just enough shading to keep it from getting too cartoony. (actually it reminds me a little of some of Jeff Laubenstien's old Shadowrun stuff :) )

MuYoung Kim- I like this piece, but I don't think it's successful at selling the Biker nearly as well as the bike. (The bike is pure gold btw- very Akira/ Empire of the Rising Sun-ish.) The figure is turned away completely and the proximity of the blade and the face make it hard to even see he's got his head turned. I'm seeing some problem areas with tones that are too close together- the reds on and around the front tire, and especially the helmet and the bike behind it. (part of that may be the round form next to it that is part of the bike as well and the tangent it forms with the rear diagonal.

Liz Clarke- Of the two I like the tiefling better, mainly due to his outfit being more visually interesting and the bike's design carrying more character. One the other hand the pose and expression of your deva girl carry a bit more character than his stiff up-and-down pose. I'm not sure the backgrounds are really serving the figures either, especially in the tiefling piece. He and the bike aren't "popping" very strongly from the background. Your deva is "popping nicely, partly due to the nice yellow/ purple contrast of the fuel tank, arm, and sky. However, her right arm is getting lost against the similar light tone behind it.

David Miles- I like the idea of the aqua-choppers, but something about these just feels too much like boat, and not enough like bike. The parcel of loot on the middle ride also looks very overbalancing in a piece that reads and simply rendered, but serious (That is NOT an insult btw. I LIKE simple clean rendering.) I also had a bit of trouble picking out that the riders were halflings at first, given the non-tolkien proportions of D&D halflings.

Claudio Pozas- Nice clean inks, and your goliath gal is hot. Watch the proportions on her pelvis and legs though, they're looking short. Also his hand on her side looks in an odd place for where you have his shoulder. only complaint I have about the bike is it reads as more American southwestern to me than mountain-y. Most likely due the the cow skull carrying that association.

Heather Hudson- I generally like this piece, but I have two areas that are bugging me. The headlight/ front end of the bike just isn't reading very clearly to me. I honestly can't tell what you're going for with it (some kind of bestial mouth? also, his hair is too saturated and shaped a bit oddly, giving me the idea that it's a big beret in the thumbnail. (that one's a minor quibble)

Phillipe St. Gerard- This one has a great cartoony feel to it, reminding me of some of the lighter-hearted WoW-related art out there. The "log rocket" shape is great, and I like the exaggerating of 4E gnome spiky hair.

Rafi Adrian Z- I like this one. The deva elements of the bike are subtle but read well. I think pushing the bike a bit darker might have helped it pop from the similar background tone a bit more than just the pencilwork alone. I generally like your deva girl too, though some of your brushwork to lay in specular on her legs and under her right arm seem too heavy next to the delicate and consistent washes of the rest of the piece.

J. Lonnee- I like the very 60's England feel to the bike and her helmet. It feels like a bit of Avengers influence (though that could be her riding suit, which screams Emma Peel catsuit (to me anyway.) I do wish the suit were rendered to the same level as the bike though- the gloves and thights especially read very sketchy.

Mike Faille- This is a great design and my favorite after Chris'. the bike designs scream goblin and dwarven. Your linework is clean, and your dwarf driver looks great. I have to wonder (and others have mentioned part of this in the ArtOrder comments) about the expression of the girl, given her lack of pants.

And, though it isn't actually finished, it's only fair I show mine so others can crit it if they feel so inclined (click to embiggen. )

Ideally, I'll get it done this weekend after the vampire piece for the current challenge.

2009-06-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Got the drawing for the Tiefling biker girl part of this week's challenge at ArtOrder :)

I think she looks pretty good. Hope I have time to get to paints. (Two paid pieces to finish first.)

Exchange Concept Challenge Crits

2009-06-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

(Or, Wall-of-text 2: Electric boogaloo)

Again, the following is all meant as constructive criticism. I'm not flaming anyone or calling anyone a bad artist. Please don't take offense.

Dana Henderson- Both pieces have a really nice badass quality to them, especially the second (Scott Flanders' silhouette.) That said, I think the Flanders' piece is the very successful at conveying the silhouette to the viewer. I don't have a big problem with re-posing the characters, but by turning Jorge's girl to the side, all that indicated detail in his drawing is hidden, and there were interesting shapes indicated in there I'd have liked to have seen rendered out. Even so there are some details from the silhouette I can see didn't make it across, like the way her hair is loose in Jorge's piece, and tied in your render.

Piya Wannachaiwong - There are some really cool elements to your construct here, starting with the negative space face in the mask. What I would love to see is more texture over the whole figure though, and more confidence in your brushwork. The figure as a whole has a certain soft-edged finish that doesn't serve the piece so well. The flesh and metal and cloth should read as distinct from each other texturally, which at the moment isn't quite happening except on the blade of the sword.

Liz Clarke- I'm guessing this is a scan of actual paints? The paper texture here actually hurts the piece by imposing itself over your brushwork and giving evry element a same-ness. I'm seeing some lovely brushwork under it getting drowned out. As far as the figure goes, it's a solid translation from the silhouette, though the second staff on her back seems to be placed oddly. Only the top part of it is visible, which breaks a shape element of the silhouette.

Scott Purdy- (oo ee oo ah ah, ting tang walla walla bing bang) This piece is great, Scott. One of my favorites of the bunch. My only thought would be to have the bird pecking in a hole in the head, since it kinda looks like he's helping himself to some grey matter in the silhouette. Also maybe just a bit more fill lighting on the face. Just a little, so we can see his features a bit better.

Christopher Burdett- This makes me chuckle. There's a great bit of humor in the heavy, Knobbly-bit covered armor on a short figure already, but the smile sells it. Something like "Yeah, it take three hours to go to the can and my face is a scarred mess, but we get GREAT dental."

J. Lonee- Good solid render. Would like to have seen the contrast pushed a little more. I'm also picking up a hint of color in the face and rifle stock that I would either push up a bit more or desaturate out and have a pure mono piece. Maybe a little stronger texture separation between the wood of the rifle and the bayonet?

Claudio Pozas- I almost think this would have looked better without any shading, just as clean linework. The shading you've introduced has the clear "runny liquid metal" look of the Photoshop smudge tool to it, and it pulling attention away from what is otherwise a cool design. This would have also forced you to render out the belt design and engraving areas, which right now are more just indicated than really laid in.

Justin Orlando- I love all the textures you've put into this, unfortunately, it's reading very flat to me. I think it needs the lighting pushed more to help define the underlying volumes and shapes. Otherwise he's a cool design with some nice African inferences on the helm (which I think we don't see enough of in fantasy art.)

Mike Faille- The character design is interesting, and the marker-style rendering is visually interesting. It also contributes to some problems I see though in terms of translating Dana's silhouette.The messy "outside the lines" style you've chosen has made some of the negative spaces in the silhouette read as filled, taking away from the nice crescent shape in the silhouette where it crosses the torso. Also, though I appreciate the effort to redraw the figure, some of the proportional changes, and smoothing of protruding bits, changes the character of the figure from the silhouette to your render. Not in a bad way per se, but still different.

Heather Hudson- Nothing really "wrong" here. (well, except that we can't see his tail. quibble that.) This is just me, but something about digital wash over pencil just rubs me wrong, and I've never been able to figure what it is. Mantal miswire on my part. this is a solidly rendered piece, and a Dragonborn in plate is never a bad thing and I should shut up and move on to the next piece.

MuYoung Kim- Undead Cyber-nazi is a cool villian concept right there.As Mr. Schindehette said, it's a great translation of J. Lonnee's silhouette. That said, maybe just a bit cleaner rendering? Some areas like the belt, boots, and the fur are looking rushed.

Michael Lavoie- I was hoping some brave soul would take on Christopher Burdett's non-humanoids. Beautifully rendered bugger. I do think you oversimplified the creature from the silhouette though. Your beauty is more snake-like, where Christopher's is more undulating mass of tendrils lifting themselves off the ground.

Thom Scott- (yes, only fair I post-mortem my own work too, so from now on I will.) I should have spent some more time on the horns- the texture is close to what I was going for, but still kinda rough. The bits on her back are fading a bit, and they're good and strong in Jorge's silhouette.Not sure how to fix that, but it bugs me. The crystal texture is selling ok on the horns, but not so much on the ends of the staff, and not at all on the widget near her right "hand." Lost the bit of negative space behind her face, really wanted her head to seem partially hollow. Happy with the overall cloth rendering for once. Background isn't an oversaturated mess like it was last week.

Chad King- okay, they aren't part of the silhouette at all, but I love those demon/dragon heads.On the figure you stayed good and close to the silhouette, watched for the negative spaces, nice. One thought though- would a light-toned crescent have read better? Otherwise very well done.

Richard Aguirre- I think you also might have been better served leaving this one as linework, The greens you've used read very flat. Part of this is the really strong white glow you've put all over is killing the shading you did put in. That said there's a good solid design here, that deviates from the silhouette, but in good ways- breaking the tangent of the tailtip and spear, adding some interest to the legs and the butt-end of the spear, and adding some visual interest to the smooth lines of the arm and the spearhead.

Kristina Carroll- Nothing "wrong" here. nice solid drawing. Visually interesting.

Joyce Maureira- There are some proportional changes in your re-draw that stick out a bit, especially her right arm seems short, and the firgure as a whole reads a bit shorter. The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the inkwork is overworked on her leathers, and has that lifelessness that doing an entire piece with pen only can get. Some brush inking, and saving your hatching for where it's really demanded would help I think.

Jan Pospisil- You have some gorgeous stuff going on in the detail of his plate pieces, the head of the Lucerne hammer, and the rim of the shield. The cloth is less convincing in places (his left forearm especially.) I'm having some issues with the background as well- there are areas where the tone of the background is very close to the adjacent figure (near the face, near the feet) and the figure recedes a bit at those points.

Tariq Hassan- Nice monochrome render here. Very nice work on the rifle. Maybe some brighter highlights? It reads well against the dark background, but I wonder if it would muddy out aganst a midtone or light backing.

Mike Parr- This is actually quite good when I look at the enlarged image. I think the backgraound you chose does it a disservice in the thumbnail view. I would also up the opacity on the layer the figure sits on, as the background is showing through, and I really don't think the figure needs the extra texture from it.

Dave Studer- I'm nothing resembling a sculptor, but you get points for entering him. I think he looks badass.

Peter Mohrbacher- This is my favorite treatment of Dana's rifleman. Rendered elegantly, with that nice bit of red striping as a key color. A little more detailing would have been nice on the belt holding the pouch up, but the rest looks great, and fits the silhouette like a glove.

Michael Vondracek- I love the detailing on the cloth, especially the upper skirt. I also think you got a more successful effect on the head of the staff than I did. Good solid piece.

Cyril Van Der Haegen- hehe, I knew it looked like the bird was having a snack. Wonderfully creepy. And very well executed, nothing to remark on really.

Until next time (probably two weeks, I suck at environment pieces.)

-Fuu

Variations on a Theme Crits (TLDR version)

2009-06-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

The following are crits for the other entries in this week's Concept challenge at http://artorder.blogspot.com/

(please note this is an attempt to provide constructive crits. Please don't take anything below as overly negative)

Nick Egberts: While I love the rendering style on the piece and the overall design of the armor, I think the three variants are a little too close to each other thematically. I actually have to take a fairly close look to pick out the differences between the lightest suit to the heaviest, And if I squint, the silhouettes and hightlights/ shadows look very similar for all three. On the good side, I see some gorgeous detail in the rendering of the leather and plates.

Claudio Pozas: The thing that immediately jums at me is that there are parts (the middle figure's chain shirt, The engraving on the right figure's plate) that are far more detailed than the rest of the piece. They also have that pasted-in texture look in parts, especially the chain shirt and the pattern on the breastplate. The simpler rendering of the cloth elements seems sparse in comparison. I'd have loves to see some decorative tooling on the leather elements and the plate shoulders at least.Oddly, the chain suit has the most "Eladrin" feel to my eye though.

RC Torres: I'm seeing a significantly higher amount of tlc given to the plate and gear bits than the cloth, which is making the cloth bits seem a bit neglected. I do like the basic design and silhouette of the left figure though. It has a nice administrator/ high beureaucrat feel to it. The center has something of a cultist/ clergy feel, but not as emphatic as the left does. The third figure has the beginnings of a high priest feel, but the shoulders are so large, they detract for me.
MuYoung Kim: I like that you went with variations by time period. The Leathers on the ancient figure have indications of some really nice detail if it were taken to a fully rendered piece. I like the powered armor design as well, though I have one quibble- The shape of the weapon is very interesting and it seems a shame to not have it rendered out as well.

Tiziano Baracchi: There is some wonderful rendering here, I just wish the underlying figure wasn't twisted in such an odd way.The leather/ cloth suit is selling the nature theme through the edge shapes nicely (though I'd love to see the tooling from the shoulder extended to the rest of the leather.) The half plate is an interesting arrangement, and I love the metal overlays on the kilt.The Full plate figure is well-rendered, though the plates themselves are plain. I do love the helm though, even though visibility would be awful from inside it, it has a lovely alien look to it.

Dana Henderson: Three rock-solid Japanese-influences suits. I especially like the center suit, with it's faceless demon look.

Jorge Lacera: Minor quibble- your figures aren't the same pose. That said, The armor designs are lovely, and I like that you spnt time on weapon design as well. (I adore the glowing purple sword.) I do notice that you are concentrating almost entirely on the thighs, torso and head in your rendering, and in the middle figure especially it leaves the areas you didn't concentrate on to be very sketchy by comparison.

Mike Faille: mm, linework. I used to be an Inker ages ago, so I like when someone bucks the trend and submits line. That said, your work looks very graphic and isn't taking advantage of the character good linework can bring to a piece. I like the designs, but would love to see you use color to help break up the forms into distinct elements, as the tone overlays really don't bring that much range.

Ruth Kim: I like these, especially the plate suit, though I think the pose isn't really serving the characterization well. I like that some thought went into the weapons as well as the armor as well. I think there's a certain sketchiness to your strokes that makes we think you might be working smaller than would be best for you (which I used to do as well. As a rule though with digital, if you have the time, bigger is usually better-let's you get as tight as you need to.)

Tim Terrengal: I'm seeing two things. First, the good- You are doung a good job with rendering individual textures for leather, metal and so on. But, and I'm afraid this is the bad, The three figures are reading very flat and in places pasted together. I'm seeing a lot of too-smooth edges that yell selection path, as well as lighting coming from very inconsistent directions.
Scott Flanders: You took the same approach I did- three classes. But, what I notice is that all three are wearing almost the axact same armor save for color, shield, and one having a helm on. As a color study this would be good, but it doesn't show any design variation.

Mark Molnar: The three look good. The set looks like a nice progression from a lighter configuration to a heavier set by adding matching pieces. While I usually like more viraety, there's a unity to the three designs that works here.

Heather Hudson: I really like the crumpled leaf design of the plates on your right figure. I'd love to see it in color, hiding in the foliage like camouflage. Also I like how the leather(padded?) on your middle figure looks good and beefy, like it can take a few hits, but still looks like leather.

J Lonnee: waist up on all three limits the amount of figure you have to work with. As it is all you're really giving us is a well rendered torso and head for each figure, and each is essentially identical from the neck down. While I love the tooling and color variations, they're of the same design and aren't conveying any real difference in character to me.

S.C Watson: What character class does Chippendale's hire exactly? although I really didn't see anything outstanding about the armor designs on the other two figures, you get points for humor on the third. I DID like the facial markings and axe design though.

Peter Mohrbacher: Great trio, well differentiated according to which bird they are associated with. Rock solid rendering as usual. My favorite of the entries.

Marco Caradonna: The basic designs are good and solid, but there's not a lot of tonal range which makes it hard to read.

Kristina Carroll: Love these. Would so love to see them painted. My second favorite designs in the group.

Michal Vondracek: Good solid designs. love the Nod to Dark Sun. Only thing I can really knock is the purple you filled the background with is a bit too saturated and is clashing a bit with your dwarves.

Edit: Mr Schindehette commented letting me know MuYoung Kim's piece was loading now, so I went back and added a comment for it.

the Usual Suspects

2009-05-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

My first entry for ArtOrder's weekly contests:

Object is to render the four functional roles defined in the brief using silhouettes only. From left: Tarrasque-y/ turtle-y defender guy, lithe, sexy (I hope anyway) girl-oid with nasty hurty big sword striker, four-armed caster girl controller (also sexy I hope,) and human officer leader-type

The mighty Banana Thief

2007-03-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Painter, about 2 hours

2007-03-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Sweet mother Macree, have I let this sit fallow for a year?

Need to correct that.

what? Again with the ribbons?

2006-02-21T17:28:00.000-08:00

A little head practice. Yet another sorceress with a spellribbon hanging from her hair

Joy of sketch

2006-02-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

Warmup sketching. Random girl face, Grifter, Sho' Nuff

dude, if I gotta lop the head of one more muther#^&*#@...

2006-01-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

Weary lieutenant. Pencil- roughly 45 mins

Lass, I think there's somethin' a botherin' Ye....

2006-01-27T17:30:00.000-08:00

Painter, a couple hours of painting time.

Wanted to practice faces at full resaturation on the brush.

Armor girl 1

2006-01-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

Color sketch in Painter. Roughly an hour painting time.

a few quick spaceship thumbs

2006-01-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

done as a warmup exercise. 2-4 mins apiece.

Random padawan survivor

2006-01-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

Figured there'd have to be a few strays got away from order 66:

about 20 mins in Painter

Hooray for Captain Spaulding

2006-01-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

Okay. Welcome to the dumping ground where I will plop down sketches and other assorted drek that doesn't get finished work-level attention.