My Road To Mastery

#361

Johan - Thank man. I’m glad you like them. That’s exactly what I’m going for, too, so I’m really happy you said that on your own. About the bones/metal. Still working on stuff…

To me the previous concept was too slouched, too much like a lower class enemy.

I went back with the arms and tail and yet again different shoulder guards here, and changed up the feeling of weight with the character. Also tried adding muscle shapes to the limbs, and by accident forgot to draw the left arm detached. haha.
I feel this looks more threatening than the previous draft, anyway. It actually looks a lot like the initial draft… I should get back to that and work from from it.

#362

Cool composition.

It occured to me that at that size, even the bugs could be life threatening to them little soldiers :smiley:

#363

Johan - Yeah! Thanks for the kind words. And definitely, those bugs are pretty big compared to people. Certainly one of his weapons.

I forgot to upload this envrio study earlier this month.

I also did some hand concepts for the DWIV cyborg. I’m pretty comfortable with the overall shape of the thing, so it’s time to start working on the details. I did some more robot-ish looking stuff here, and some more hand-ish stuff… I think I’m settling on something like the collection at the bottom of the page, with the patches, but I might add the raised knuckle structures from the top left area. I’ve just never been a fan really robot-looking hands or limbs.

I also did a 5 minute demo for a friend. It served a dual purpose of giving me figure practice from imagination. :smiley:

#364

Working an angle into my memory. I did a couple from reference to keep refreshing, but most of them are from imagination/memory.


This pose has always kicked my butt. I only started getting comfortable doing it from my head toward the bottom of the second page.

#365

I’ve always wondered how to get that special “glow” look that’s in most high-quality cel work. I found an excellent tutorial on deviantart the other night and thought I would once again try to get two birds with one stone… Drawing that problem pose from imagination and then coloring it according to the tutorial. It’s a little rough around the edges, but I think I understand all of the steps now.

#366

Some more details and accessories, plus a look at the rear.

#367

Nice progress on the giant creature-bot.
If you still have it, could you post the link to that cell-shading tut?
Thanks

#368

Johan - Thanks man. The link is here. A couple of them are on the cel topic.

Feet are tough! + life drawing.

#369

A sketch after David Levy. Continuing to work those painter (as opposed to draftsman) muscles!

#370

3-view sheet is finished! Woo!

#371

Messing around with a different way to select colors based on gray scale hues you’ve already put down. Kind of interesting.

A few composition ideas for the final submission. I like the image on the top right for its dynamism, but I’m wondering if it’s out of character or a little too tried. I get the feeling this character is a bit like a crazy person, walking around slowly and not doing very many acrobatic maneuvers, though when it does attack it kind of freaks out and is very fast. Not in its movement, but specifically its attacks. I figure it’s built to just take punishment, and it doesn’t care (hence the detached arm). That’s why I feel the jumping shot could be out of character.
It’s why I went a different direction for the third composition here, where it’s standing over a dead demon, looking at its heart, feeling no need to rush off anywhere and kill something else.

Any thoughts are appreciated, as always!

#372

Hi Staticpen,

The first two work well for me. The third one just seems too neutral, and to me it would be difficult to tell if robot killed the monster, or just discovered him.

I think that might work better if it was a low shot from around 1ft off the ground with the body thrust up close to the camera, and the robot towering over him, speckled with blood. Maybe even dissecting the corpse or something else with him actively treating the monster as something fairly insignificant.

#373

I think the be course of action would be to make the corpse fresh looking and a way to tell the robot did the finishing blow (have it holding a dripping organ or something)

#374

Matt - You make a pretty good point about the third composition. I would definitely be adding blood and stuff to indicate a battle in the final piece. And yeah, I’m going to be working on some low angle comps tonight. More soon!

Zac - Maybe it got lost in the values or the thumb is too small scale, but the demon’s heart is skewered on the end of the character’s tail. That’s what he’s looking at. Thanks for the thoughts!

The first in a series of ballpoint pen drawings I’m going to do. I’ll draw different places and people from the inside of vehicles as I drive across the country.

On The Road #1
Montgomery, AL
May 2009

#375

Experimenting with different ways to put color on grayscale. I used overlay and multiply layers instead of the color layer type. It works a little better for me. I had a little trouble getting temp/color shifts in there this time, but I know I’ll get it in future attempts.
I also painted it without lines and managed to get some nice transparencies and textures in there, which is always a small battle won.

#376

Another composition idea for DWIV! Kind of backwards, though, as the demon is beating my character, haha. Plus, you can’t see hardly any of the design. It was fun though, and I might reverse the positions and try something similar tomorrow. Cyborg in the top position means he’s winning + you see the whole design.

EDIT: new posts at the end of the previous page as well.

#377

Some more life drawing.

#378

I think I might go with this comp for the final piece. A lower angle, more action and stronger diagonals. I’ll figure out what to do with the background. I’m also thinking about having the attached arm on the left side of the frame grabbing the demon’s leg or something. They’re good for movement and composition as they are, but the beams on my character’s back are the same shape and in the same spot, so I can afford to move the arms without losing too much visual momentum there.

#379

All I’m doing now is working on the cel shading techniques in preparation for the final image. I still haven’t quite got down a good workflow for the glow and layer styles and stuff.

#380

Some more life drawing. Ballpoint pen and charcoal.