Sketchbook Thread of Zephyri

#81

That is with traditional media, right? Well, if not, it sure looks so :slight_smile:
One thing I liked more in the pencil sketch than in the finished is that the girls face was turned away from the viewer. It conveyed some different emotions and gave a whole other feeling to the piece. We see the guys’ face from 100% front and now the girls’ face is from 100% side.
Other than that, an awesome fantasy piece :bounce:
And damn how I love your pencil drawings :drool:

#82

Ooh, Zeph, beautiful piece - the rendering of the wings and cloak especially! :slight_smile: The shimmering quality to his wings is especially nice - I think this would look even more spectacular if done digitally! Great stuff as usual from you. :slight_smile:

#83

Very inspiring! Some of my favourites are the gestures sketches in really streched positions, It looks like alot of fun. Gonna go draw.
I will keep checking back.

#84

O.o how odd… it just ate my post before I’d even hit submit. Oh well… retype all that then!

Just adding a couple more odds and ends before I go sate my need to do some figurative doodling… this place is so inspiring!

A commission from The Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God, the patron of the English province, Saint Bede, who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Used this stock shot as a starting point (puchased legally!), and various pics of beards.

Commission of a mercenary for an author, used ref provided:

Practice at eyeballing with one of the sexiest actors on the small screen here in the UK, as I suspect I’m growing too reliant on grids:

And as I was using it as example in another thread, I thought I’d post it here, though its about 6 years old, back when all I painted were big cats.

And doodles and roughs:


#85

Thanks for the comments guys… Razz, yeah, i forgot to mention it’s my favourite media, coloured pencils. And I know what you mean about the head positioning, but my main objective was to have them physically close, having her head turned inward like that would have opened up a gap and made her seem less part of him. The title of the piece was “Hearts Beat” and there was a three line poem:
“Why should it matter whether
or not we are together
When our hearts beat as one”

So the idea was to give them a sense of being one being. If that makes sense. I’m probably rambling now. I’ll shut up.

And Rebecca, I’m not so sure on the digital front. If I’d have had any reference, I’d be inclined to agree with you, but my works seem to fall down in digital when I work without reference, whereas with pencils in particular I seem to grasp shapes and mass much better through building up layer upon layer of colour. Something I’ve yet to master digitally.

#86

Love to see your work Sam. You have post some great stuff here.

#87

Sam WOW your thread is so inspiring! Beautiful stuff!

and ooohhh… so totally agree about Trevor Eve fangirl squee Gosh I miss the BBC… You made me want to watch Waking the Dead badly :wink:

#88

Wow, the tiger is fantastic and it amazes me how much work you do. I know completely what you mean about the digital / traditional thing, there is definitely intelligence in the hand that just gets missed a bit when one is drawing digitally (don’t I know it) and it’s very true that working traditionally allows you to ‘think’ more with your hands. I think it’s quite nice to see your mix of traditional and digital. Especially since both areas are quite strong and seem to be continually improving. Thanks for all your activity around the forum, I find I learn quite a lot from your posts. :slight_smile:

#89

Thanks Aggie!

Intervain: isn’t he? There’s a new series of WtD on at the minute, which is what inspired me to try painting him, aside from trying to beat painter into submission. Damned program.

Rebecca: Thanks! The good old big cat days. I can still pretty much draw tigers without reference, not that well, but enough to fool those who aren’t too familiar with them! And much as I love digital and the possibilities for learning it offers, I struggle to get a feel for things sometimes, and I’m trying to find ways to emulate the way I paint and colour in traditional with digital, so I can find that elusive ‘texture’ element that seems to be missing from a lot of my works. It’s also a big compliment that you would learn things from my posting in the forums, as much of what i’m relaying is what I’ve learned here. That and I honestly feel guilty if I post my own work without at least contributing to others!

#90

wow…I love, LOVE your pencil drawings! Especially those pirate guys…hehehe, they just all look amazing, nothing else to say really :slight_smile:

#91

Hi…Spirit Wind…:slight_smile:

Never know what kind of magic that WARM BREEZE will leave behind
Only know that I can ALWAYS count on ALWAYS being LEFT AMAZED
and DASED…:slight_smile:

BEAUTIFUL WORKS AS ALWAYS…ALL OF THEM…:thumbsup: :applause:

TAKE CARE
Glenn

#92

Awesome work again, Sam!:applause:

#93

I think it’s wonderful that such talented and experienced artists like you take the time to comment on the threads of the less experienced ones :slight_smile:
so big thanks to you Sam

I love what you did with the old man’s skin in particular.
And that tiger is indeed really beautiful

Take care,
43

#94

Zeph,

what amazes me is how you always manage to set up the poses of your characters so they look like they’re really sharing an intimate moment (as opposed to just being two animate corpses put together. I find I get this other impression quite often when I look at compositions esp. in the fantasy realm… )

Quite unique.

#95

Roja: Thank you, the pirate one on the other page is one of my faves too… looking forward to doing more art with those two.

 Glen: thank you, always appreciate your comments. Always a pleasure to have you drop by.
 
 anandpg: thank you!
 
 NR43: ahaha it makes me blush royally when people say that about my work. It seems only fair I find the time to contribute to other's threads when people are posting on mine. 
 I only regret I can't find more time, there's some lovely work in these threads.
 
 Mu: Thank you, thats a great compliment, as it's something that really bothers me, and I'm happy you think it works here.
 
 And here's a few more odds and ends:
 A christmas gift for a friend, done in the library while waiting for my car to be fixed: [img]http://zephyri.com/gallery/albums/Sketches/thefalconerlo.jpg[/img]
 inspired by a couple of songs by Stone Sour -the two main protagonists from my novel. The pose was put together with the help of the stock of Lockstock on deviant, and our very own Ben. So thanks Ben!


More Golden Age of Illustraion inspired stuff, with a fantasy twist:

This one was something of a weird blip, paying attention to my muse at 5am can produce odd results, a fusing of Scar from the lion King and Kain, from the video game Soul Reaver series:

And other random doodles:



#96

OOH awesome stuff again Sam! I love the golden age inspired illustration!:bounce:

#97

Tremendous stuff… your gestures4.jpg looks very effortless, and you capture the gesture and the 3dimensional form of the figure at the same time. Your finished stuff is really something, I can really only give a nod as an appreciative audience member :slight_smile:

#98

Ooh, really nice touch with the Scar and falcon sketches especially. :slight_smile: To be nitpicky - sometimes the characters are a bit leg heavy / seem to grow larger in their lower halves - but that’s something subjective / easily amendable when working digitally. Really can’t wait to see your next finished illustration. :slight_smile:

#99

Thanks Kary and Intervain!
And Rebecca, it’s something I’ve done for the longest time, especially when not working from a direct reference, and even with anatomy studies, it’s proving to be a hard habit to break. And it only tends to be afterwards that I notice, annoyingly. Same with making heads a little too small a lot of the time too. Thank goodness for the power of photoshop, is all I can say. I guess I’ll have to go back to doing some good old studies for proportions.

#100

Zeph, I am completely reliant on PS to fix my proportions now! :smiley: I also make my figures huge / heroic haha and with massive butts and thunder thighs - god knows why, but we all have our drawing habits, which are totally subconcious and thus hard to get rid of, even if we wanted to. :slight_smile: I wasn’t critiquing so much as observing, heh, for myself I find it extremely difficult to nail proportions, I thank my stars everyday for PS and Ctrl Z. The one method I need to really try more is Anthony Ryder’s blocking in method, where he blocks the whole outline of the figure in first before adding details to the figure. It’s brilliantly simple, but I’ve just developed a totally different method of drawing so it was a revelation when I read about his method in his book. Must remember to do that more often heh!

Cheers! :slight_smile: