Draw Something, Dammit

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1294799967

Had some fun drawin' a picture for our own DumpTruck for kicks!

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Dog$ -- stop apologizing for it if you like doing it, shit. If you like doing it enough and keep at it, you can absolutely do something with it. CG houses are always looking for competent environment modelers, archetecture firms need people who can do good-looking work in Sketch Up, and shit, half the big company comic books are using stock Sketch Up cities for bg's as it is, being able to create models from scratch should be a boon.

Wow, I've been absent for a long time.

Dog$$: Exactly what Yeller said. Fuck it. Do it because you feel the creative urge. If you do it long enough and well enough, I'm certain you could turn it into some extra cash at the very least. That last model is really nice man, keep up the good work.

Yeller: Nice work man. I like DT's cold glare! Also, the turtle shell shoulder pads are a nice touch!

Ok, well I just made two really big blog entries. One with the last pages of my old sketchbook and one with the first few of my new one.

I'm going to throw a couple up here, but I don't want to spam 18 images up in here.

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bug eyed
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Gouache on the left, Watercolor Pencil on the right.
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slums
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Lizard - Gouache
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Check out the rest at http://swervdriven.wordpress.com/. I may be making another post today, not sure.

That looks like a pretty tiny sketchbook; I find those really claustrophobic. I think the 'slums' came out quite expressive, and it was a nice move getting that ring-woman at the bottom over the page split pretty seamlessly. Looks like that sketchbook can really flatten out. I always end up use ringed books for that reason.

Here's some more warcrafty stuff:

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1295133946

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1295133946

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1295133946

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1295133946

Thanks Fury. Yeah, it is a 3x5 moleskine. All of this stuff save for the gouache experiments are done on the go. Lunch breaks, restaurants, bars, I keep that sketchbook with me like I do my keys or wallet. Never leave without it. And the way it flattens out is exactly why I like moleskines. they way they are bound lets you use both pages as one surface without damaging the spine. That is the reason moleskines are great.

I really dig that troll. I think he snaked Battlecat from He-Man. =)

another sketch.
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that junk around her is amazing.

Always rad stuff, JM!


Having some fun! Going to try and knock out the Megaman Tribute Book entry tonight, here's some warmup drawings.

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Funny thing, I was starting on my Mega-Man pic tonight as well. No point pushing it right until deadline like usual.

Here's a rejected title/logo design for some website. I love feedback like "It's perfect, it's exactly what I described and asked for, but now that I see it, I don't like it."

Attachment 59867

Cool logo! Kinda loses itself in the linework a little bit? Maybe bold up the edges on the central "eagle" structure*, make it and the text maybe share the same outline so it has a bit of depth, but hell. Looks exactly like some kinda Warhammer-y logo is supposed to.

Well, it hasn't been painted yet, should have mentioned. There was supposed all sorts of glows, and metal effects and all that business. Luckily they decided to work something else out before I finished yet.

Honestly, I don't think you have enough faith in the line work. You could throw flat colors on that thing and it'll look 100x better than metal/glows/lens flares/whatever, even if you were just doing it for funsies.

But, blah blah blah, you know what you're doing.

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Variations on a theme:

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1295421732

I like the Batman who looks like he's about to quick-draw on someone at the bottom.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JM

I'm missing something here...

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I don't know what I was doing. Must have been high.

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I'll call him... Brachyura!

Sweet! I like the claw staff.

That's pretty cool! He reminds me of those big sand fleas on Tybee Island.

http://yellerdog.com/post/2988243000...-trollish-moon
http://yellerdog.com/post/2991011906...-screen-mockup

Say! I can post SWFs to my Tumblr website now, this is exciting.

Just register, log in and upload your photo. Click Get Started. To make a greeting card, use the 5" by 7" canvas size.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

http://yellerdog.com/post/2988243000...-trollish-moon

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True story: I was drawing that and thinking "I wonder what Mac Tonight is up to these days."

Continuing the whole "whee flash works" kick I'm on: http://yellerdog.com/post/3005498634/monster-movie

something I'm working on for friend's tribute gallery this Sunday

update desu!

Nice, Hero! I take it this is a Valentine's week show?

Continuing adventures in SWF uploading: http://yellerdog.com/post/3045495452...earth-animated

Gone from "avoiding video games to draw more" around to "not giving a shit about videogames because drawing is more fun". Feels good, man.

You know Yeller, I hadn't thought of it that way! It's for my friend that passed away - we're putting together a show and my concept was even when she's gone, she'd still be fixing hearts left behind =/

Or, alternatively, Valentine's. Yes. =D

It's really nice, Hero, the update really brought it together.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...7151472809.jpg

Mao mao

Finch's stuff is the best

New blog post up!

Here is one of the pieces I put up.

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Very nice, sirs!

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Some goofy doodles knocked out with a nib pen!

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I want to see a whole comic featuring the guy with the stache!

I want him to talk like this guy!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JM

I want to see a whole comic featuring the guy with the stache!

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I agree!

done for Finchu~

Yeller that mustachio'd man is amazing. Elaborate on him!

Nice Hero, Servbot abuse is good fun.

Here is a thing that started out as a random line drawing, just adding geometrical shapes and organic crap. Eventually a girl popped out of it all and it kinda turned into a finished piece. It was fun and I didn't spend more than 4 or 5 hours on it which is pretty good considering how happy I am with it. =)

Click for full size

Seriously i didn't see the girl AT ALL when you showed me yesterday, but now i do! It's crazy and upsetting in a good way.

I just want to mention for those who don't know, that ArtRage for iPad is the shit.

WIP attached to show you what it looks like.

Schmancy! You draw that?

Yeah, using that photo reference from morguefile.com.

The ability to float reference material on top of your workspace is the coolest feature of that program. Of course, me being retarded when it comes to color, I cheated and eyedropped some samples from the pic to help build my palette.

I also have the Targus stylus from Best Buy which makes a huge difference in making stuff like this tolerable to do.

I wouldn't call that cheating exactly! Nice work, man.

Thanks for the kind words.

Well it is cheating to me since the point of me doing some life portraits is to get a grip on color theory and flesh tones. I'm a guy who has spent years sketching and completely avoided dealing with color at all.

Though in my defense, it's not a great crutch since I have discovered that you can't just use the same colors directly and get the same result. I have to go higher/lower in hue/tone and blend them to achieve accuracy. Colors are weird.


Favorite artist of the moment: Katsuya Terada. This guy is amazing, especially in The Monkey King and his work from the earliest Legend of Zelda games.

Both JM and Proto, very very nice. JM draws the kind of shit I love to do, I'm trying to get back into it but that is just disheartening how awesome it is!

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Originally Posted by Proto Man

Favorite artist of the moment: Katsuya Terada. This guy is amazing, especially in The Monkey King and his work from the earliest Legend of Zelda games.

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i like how he draws nubile women even when he's not drawing nubile women. it's way hot. His zelda drawings are really cool too!

Also your lady drawing is really cool!

First thing I can show in a while since I don't have a scanner, my sister wants a koi tattoo so I just tried this out on her arm. I've never drawn a koi fish before, they're kinda cool.

Artrage is pretty badass from what I've seen. A friend of mine uses it and it's basically comparable to what he can do on paper. I'll probably hop on it next time I have to use the Cintiq.

Yep, Artrage it is pretty rad. The fact that it costs $50 in comparison to photoshop and painter is insane.

Need suggestions!

I'm trying to put together a brand / logo for myself and my company. We're changing names. What I basically need is a bunch of ideas for icons / images representing machine/technology and ideas for icons representing magic.

Any suggestions would be helpful / welcome. Some I already have

Magic:
Wand,
Rabbit peaking out of a top hat,
Stars,
Lightning bolt,
Wizard,
Unicorn,
Cards,
Cauldron

Machine:
Robot,
Cog

I'm kind of sparse on the machine side. I was thinking dildo for machine, too. But that may be too racy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_eyes.JPG except robotty?

Drew -

Robot:
Wheels
treads
light bulbs
radar dish
battery/ lightning bolt
radiation symbol
Claw/pincers
Cameras/ optical lenses
circuitry
stylized RAM
Um, that's all I have for now.

These are great, thanks.

Machine/technology:

Pnuematic pumps
generators/power cells
speakers?
antenna
wires and cables everywhere

Magic:

glowing orbs
the rest were all variations on what you said.

Let's see what'cha got!

Pinesnapple, that Koi looks good. Are you going to do more designs for the final piece?


I put a new blog post up. Huge update, 25 new sketchbook pics and 3 more finished pieces. Not gonna flood this thread with all the pics, but I will include one of my favorites.
Click for full size

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JM

Pinesnapple, that Koi looks good. Are you going to do more designs for the final piece?
[/simg]

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I believe she wants to do a half sleeve with that as the starting piece, so I imagine some water and other things will be included, she hasn't really mentioned too many more ideas yet, but once I get a design in mind I'll try to get it on here.

BTW sick stuff JM, always loving it!

my favorite is that big monster face at the lower left of your blog post. I want to read comics about him.

[edit] for clarification, i'm talking about JM's blog, not that goofy Ben Franklin looking character on Pineapple's sig.

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i drew a mermaid

That whale looks pretty rude!

i accidentally got blue on her face and orange in the sky, but i don't think it ruined it.

Looking good Finch. I don't like her face for some reason, though. Reminds me of my first girlfriend in kindergarten!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_eyes.JPG except robotty?

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I bought a few of these in Egypt for a friend who believes in this thing. She's pretty artsy fartsy about it but oh well. To each their own, I say! Although I don't know why she wanted it from Egypt. They look the same as they do back home in Toronto or Buffalo (for cheaps). Identical.

Also I put together a first draft for my new company (well my new name for my company). We're rebranding. The idea is that we'll have a standard set of icons (robot & bunny is the initial concept, not final) to represent each word. I'm going to be rendering different icons we will use to interchange with one another in a fun and flexible way.

Still an early-stage work in progress:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1300114586

I dig that robot.

Looks slick. I like the ampersand better than the and. I feel like initially the 'bunny' might translate better without the hat, but what do I know.

I'll give it a try. A bunny just sitting there might be fun. Also I should consider making the bunny less straight-faced. More in-line with the happy robot (I plan on coming back here later and reading my notes, so that's why I'm leaving it here).

Another challenge will be that I have to render everything at that size to be viewable at a small print application too (a thumbnail size) without losing too much quality. I'll create separate icons for a reduce-sized version of the logo. So far I'm liking it still, though. If something isn't good I usually start to hate it the more I look at it.

I like the shapes of the letters in "AND", but it reads better with the ampersand.

also i love the robot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finch

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i drew a mermaid

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I like that the whale kind of looks like a douche/chode.

Like he is seconds from saying "chhaaa, I was swiming in the ocean before it was popular."

or

"ggaaaawwwd, allll these murmAIDS."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drewbacca

Also I put together a first draft for my new company (well my new name for my company). We're rebranding. The idea is that we'll have a standard set of icons (robot & bunny is the initial concept, not final) to represent each word. I'm going to be rendering different icons we will use to interchange with one another in a fun and flexible way.

Still an early-stage work in progress:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1300114586

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I'm not usually a fan of your style, but I dig the fuck out of this.

What font is that?

FINCH! I dig that image man. As everyone else has said, I like the whale, he looks like a dickhead (is he a SPERM whale? HAW). I think your pictures could use an cranky looking character every once an a while. A bitter guy in there will make the sweet ones sweeter.

Drewbastard. I like the logo. What is the focus of this new company?

Art, design, marketing and kicking general ass. I guess. I'm pretty headstrong with my opinions on marketing. Essentially we let people know when you hire us we collaborate, but as professionals the work we do ultimately needs to represent our expertise. So if you want your logo to be banana yellow and the rest of the industry already has banana yellow logos - forget it. But if you want yellow and it makes sense we won't just say no to be dicks. We explain and rationalize everything professionally. Creativity and marketing savvy together is our strongest assets. Internally essentially I'm the machine and my business partner, the sales guy, is the magic. He's good at pitching and talking to professionals and networking.

I loved your feedback JM. I think from the general feedback something needs to be done about the rabbit / hat. It's not a bad icon but the robot really resounds with people whereas the bunny doesn't. Refining is needed on it. I have to be careful with the detail, though. The robot is already pushing it.

For our website I'm planning on doing a very clean and corporate looking site through CSS and HTML 5. But there will be a little switch on the website at the top. When you click the switch the site will switch from very clean and corporate and pleasant to extremely heavy on illustration, colour, design and art. I guess there is an ongoing duality I want to present with our brand. The overall tone is creativity, and expertise through creativity.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JM

FINCH! I dig that image man. As everyone else has said, I like the whale, he looks like a dickhead (is he a SPERM whale? HAW). I think your pictures could use an cranky looking character every once an a while. A bitter guy in there will make the sweet ones sweeter.

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He's not a cranky whale, that's just how he looks. He's a bowhead whale! He was going to be smoking a pipe, but it looked dumber than i thought it would.

That whale is rude. He's rood.

Re: Andrew: The rabbit's my favourite part...

I'm getting a lot of positive feedback about it from my friends in the field. JM gave me useful info about the rabbit's ears.

Also font is Neutra, Brisco. Look up House Industries. Great type foundry. Maybe my favorite.

Come watch me draw (or be a guinea pig for this?): http://www.justin.tv/herogear#/w/973833808

made for a charity show tomorrow night in LA (also, done on the livestream)

I like it! Did you use illustrator? Your curves are very clean.

Wow Hero. That is easily my favorite thing you've posted here. I really dig it man. Love the eyes.

thanks! And yes, Illustrator is my tool of choice!

Currently working on a painting for class, a football baby. Here's the first thumb and then comp

Attachment 60808

Attachment 60809

No connection to the team, I just picked a logo that came on TV at the time.

Love the x's and o's from the alphabet soup and the link to football strategy. Really clever!

How is she talking without her mouth being open?! Good stuff Hero!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drewbacca

Love the x's and o's from the alphabet soup and the link to football strategy. Really clever!

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Thanks Drewbacca! I'm painting it with acrylics and it's still in the early stages, I'll show it so far

Attachment 60810

It's on a 16 x 20 canvas board, I've actually completely painted over the face since taking this, attempting to soften up the features to look more baby like. I'll add more to the splash and the X's and O's as soon as I put down the background. Thanks again!

You've reduced the amount of x's and o's in the cereal. I really think that tied the soup in with the overall theme. I liked the high-chair a bit more, too. The soup is kind of haphazardly floating around now.

EDIT: Reading my post now it sounds pretty harsh. I wasn't trying to say I didn't like it -- still looks great to me. Technically it's very well rendered!

What he meant was hot damn you have a good hand with those acrylics! Can't wait to see it when its done.

Back on the SF postcard kick. This time with 100% more haiku!

Guile's turn!

I dig it man! I like how you kept the dark lines in the focal points and kept the attention there.

WIP

I love that her bracer is almost as big as her head, very nice Hero!

I'd love to see that kind of stuff as a flash animation, or whatever form of animation that has a similar effect.

In class drawing of a model. I started to do the whole fish fins but then it was time to go

Attachment 61099

Really nice detail on the back and in general, thats some good stuff. Looks like you had a decent looking model too. When I took figure drawing we had 3 different old men, 1 pregnant woman and a tiny twig of a girl who looked like a meth addict...

Hero, those are all really sweet! Keep making stuff like that.

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When I took figure drawing we had 3 different old men, 1 pregnant woman and a tiny twig of a girl who looked like a meth addict...

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The only bad models are the ones who won't sit still or just have awful boring poses!

Oh shit, somebody got an iPad 2.

So that painting program ArtRage, it has an amazingly full featured iPad app. I think stickers is the only thing it can't do that I have noticed so far. It fucking destroys everything else in the app store as far as mobile painting goes.

I painted this shoe from life in about 20 minutes or so. This shit is waaay too much fun.

Click for full size

Yeah, I love artrage. I've posted something or other that I've used it to make.

<3 that shoe.

i finished a painting during my time off, and another about an hour ago.

http://finchiekinstheowl.files.wordp...04/buskers.jpg

and

http://finchiekinstheowl.files.wordp...pg?w=500&h=691

I love misunderstood bear. The bearded accordion player is what I imagine drewbacca looks like with a beard.

Great job Finch! I really like the whole idea of both of them, very nice stuff! Also sweet shoe JM, I was going to say I really like the thick application of paint before I read that it was from an app :lol:

Great work everyone!

I just got CS5 and was playing around with the brushes, did a doodleAttachment 61198http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/ima...isc/pencil.png

Great work everyone! I just barely got CS5 and have been playing with brushes, just a quick doodle

Attachment 61199

Very nice.

So I was screwing around with artrage on the iPad more tonight. I started really messing with the pen options. Turns out you can get some cool ass ink effects if you tweak your brush properly. This was about 20 minutes of experimenting. Heavy metal guy I guess.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finch

<3 that shoe.

i finished a painting during my time off, and another about an hour ago.

http://finchiekinstheowl.files.wordp...04/buskers.jpg

and

http://finchiekinstheowl.files.wordp...pg?w=500&h=691

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Jesus, I thought this was a screen cap of cartoon at first (I was scrolling down).

This is amazing, Finchie. Amazing.

Btw., I just remembered: I named a character in a story I wrote after you.