YellerDog's Drawing School For Gentlemen #1

ALL RIGHT!

This is the first installment of the YellerDog Drawing School For Gentlemen!

Here's the rules: Every week, I'll post up a screen capture or two from a movie, and we'll all set down and draw it! Feel free to exaggerate, push poses, caricature, whatever you want. Black and white? Color? Cartoony? Realistic? Whatever! You pick. Just use the posted image(s) as a basis for the drawing you decide to make! Get your rough sketches up ASAP!

The whole point of this is to give and receive critiques on the drawings! As the pictures go up, feel free to download other folks' drawings and mark 'em up with a red pen if you see things that could use fixing. We'll make a new thread for every one of these, so you can keep re-working an older image as you see fit down the line.

Hopefully, if you're giving good advice, the person being corrected will put that to work! Draw well, and don't take it personally if somebody's critique rips your drawing to shreds. BE COOL. TAKE ADVICE. This will push you to be better! No lame-ass excuses!

By the end of the week, try to get your drawing to a "final" state and we'll put 'em on display on the main board with a poll. What will this poll get 'cha? WHO KNOWS.

WEEK ONE - THE MALTESE FALCON due 8/18/08

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...1&d=1218000351

This is the first one, so you'll get a couple extra days on the front-end.

Kick ass! Make us proud!

omg. i completely hope cigs and fury and hero and rezo and nemo and dunlap contribute. IRON PANTS, YOU TOO.

and andrew. WHO ELSE.

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Originally Posted by Finch

and andrew. WHO ELSE.

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No love for me Finch. :( Fine I won't play then.

Y-YOU'D BETTER!

Me? My 30 minute attempt; ink on sketchbook paper. I cropped it a little in PS because my camera made the image a little skewed (Yes it was the camera's fault, not mine). Some reflections from external light, especially on the hat band: it should be solid black.

Click for full size

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finch

Y-YOU'D BETTER!

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Nope, my heart is broken this week.

Quote:

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Nope, my heart is broken this week.

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PLEASE OR I'LL START BOMBING YOUR TNLSPACE PAGE WITH RALPH BAKSHI AND WAKING LIFE CLIPS.


i think you're going too black in his face, Tones. I like the idea of strong shadow and light, but there isn't nearly as much shadow on his face as you put there. hat looks very nice.
a hint of the background might make it really stand out.


Click for full size


): i hope it'll totally look different by the end of next week. i don't like how his hat sits on top of his head instead of on it, and i couldn't get his face right. I HATE STUPID DRAWING. I CAME TO THIS SCHOOL TO PLAY BASEBALL, I QUIT.

Yeah, I realized I overdid it in the shadows, so I said fuckit, I'm going all 1930's Dick Tracey on this.

mine. Definitely a sketch. And by pen ... if I had a pencil I would actually draw it.

Click for full size


I'll do better next time. Look at all that empty space ... also I just woke up. Still no excuse.

I like this thread. I might try my hand tonight. Or am I too late?

Nah man, all week!

Point here is to critique everybody else's stuff once you post and revise as needed.

Whoop!

Everybody keep drawin', I'll get something up when I get home from the cartoon factory tonight!

Kick ass, everybody who's posted so far! I'll break out the red-pen once I've posted. This is a great start!

Awesome!

Advocate, I'm no pro (obviously, lol) but I would suggest increasing the scale a bit. You can never draw too big. Having the subject go off the page suggests that you chose which details to emphasize, and therefore, make most important.

I'll probably have another go in a few days once I'm done with all my exams.

This is a neat idea. I'll try my hand at it soon.

I know I drew the lamp too low. I still need to fill in the empty areas. Oh and I need pencils.

Great stuff so far, fellas!

QUICK LUNCHTIME CRITIQUE (more detailed tonight):

TONES
Good start, sir! I like that you're going in and addressing the negative space right off the bat.

It looks like you're kind of getting the hang of using the brush, you're doing a lot of "scrubbing" and running out of ink very quickly. Try this: load your brush, and try to draw with your wrist locked. Move from the elbow and the shoulder. You'll get a very easy, very smooth line out of it with very little effort. Practicing a lot will give you a lot of finesse with this, it won't come immediately, but soon you'll be knocking out sumi-e style lines on-demand.

FINCH
Dig it! I like the fishlips, very Bogarty. I like that you dove right in and tackled the whole composition at once.

Focusing on the hat troubles for the moment, consider the shape and construction of the hat, and how it sits on his head. The "crown" of the hat is a little smaller at the top than it is at the bottom, but it should be just about the same size as his head.

ADVOCATE
Second verse, better than the first! I like that you're drawing bigger already. Same thing I said to Finch about the hat, be careful about the shape of the brim. Right now it's looking like Gilligan's hat instead of Sam Spade's fedora. Not having a pencil might be doing you a favor at the moment, it's forcing you to make decisions and stick with 'em. Try drawing a close-up of just his face, don't worry about all the background stuff. Focus on getting that expression down, start thinking about the proportions on the face.


Good job everybody! Keep it up!

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

Great stuff so far, fellas!

QUICK LUNCHTIME CRITIQUE (more detailed tonight):

TONES
Good start, sir! I like that you're going in and addressing the negative space right off the bat.

It looks like you're kind of getting the hang of using the brush, you're doing a lot of "scrubbing" and running out of ink very quickly. Try this: load your brush, and try to draw with your wrist locked. Move from the elbow and the shoulder. You'll get a very easy, very smooth line out of it with very little effort. Practicing a lot will give you a lot of finesse with this, it won't come immediately, but soon you'll be knocking out sumi-e style lines on-demand.

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Thanks for the feedback! For my next revision I'll try these techniques. Where the brush was low on ink, I was trying to achieve midtone values. Maybe using a smaller brush and hatching would work better? Also, I think I have an 11 x 17 sketchpad around here somewhere; I'll see if I can find it.

Hell, consider getting a cup of water and dilluting it down with some ink, try using a grey wash for your midtone values. Try and make sure you don't drench your paper, give it time to dry between inking and wash.

Stylistically there's a jillion different ways you can use ink, and just as many combinations of methods. Try to pick something comfortable, y'know?

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Originally Posted by Finch

PLEASE OR I'LL START BOMBING YOUR TNLSPACE PAGE WITH RALPH BAKSHI AND WAKING LIFE CLIPS.

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I shall try I have a ton of storyboarding and other things to do this week before Siggraph though. :O

DRAW!

Given what I have to work with, this is as close as I'll ever get.

Click for full size

You don't have hands? That's unfortunate.

MRWHITEFOLKS
Ok, well, let's take a look at what we got here. Nice aproximation! (I invited Whitefolks to Gmod his way into the thread as an experiment)

Your Bogey Engineer needs to be sitting back into the seat a bit more, look at the original picture. He's relaxed. His arm's resting on the edge of the table. Maybe you could balance a pipe-bomb on Mr. Engineer's shoulder to stand-in for the phone? Pull the foreground elements closer to the camera, maybe do the same with the hand reaching in? Mind those angles.

So first I was going to make his hat a boat, then I decided I didn't feel like drawing a phone but I really wanted to draw a camel. Then I realized I should've thought ahead, and made his hat a boat and people getting off it and walking down gangplanks along his arm to get on the camels and ride off. Maybe if I decide to draw this again, but the pen pretty much locks me into what I have. Damn me sketching at work, I guess.

One of the things that interested me the most about this shot is how he's sitting at an angle, which makes his hat appear perfectly straight on.

Stylish! I like the camel!

Best hat yet.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

MRWHITEFOLKS
Ok, well, let's take a look at what we got here. Nice aproximation! (I invited Whitefolks to Gmod his way into the thread as an experiment)

Your Bogey Engineer needs to be sitting back into the seat a bit more, look at the original picture. He's relaxed. His arm's resting on the edge of the table. Maybe you could balance a pipe-bomb on Mr. Engineer's shoulder to stand-in for the phone? Pull the foreground elements closer to the camera, maybe do the same with the hand reaching in? Mind those angles.

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Ah, Gmod and it's restrictive nature (ie: an example in how pen/paper give you far more freedom)...

Since I don't have control over the chair/table, it all relies on me trying to "push" the model into a solid object (as unlike spawnable props, I cannot instigate "no clip" for these objects), which explains the Engineer's poster issue. The table itself is HUGE (far larger than the shot with Bogey), to the point where I deleted everything from the Spy OTHER than his arm (thus allowing me to sneak it into the frame). The objects on the edge of the table are actually almost falling off, but the zoom style I used is more "fish-eye" in how it makes the objects have different distances from each other(this also makes the Engineer's furthest hand away look as if it's resting on the edge of the table, instead of lying on it).

Positioning/Perspective can make or break an image, and herein it shows what little things can do to your work(by itself it's fine, but comparing it to the original Bogey - not so much).

I'm sure with pen/paper it'd probably be a lot easier to recreate this image to a far more accurate scale, especially since I'd have the ability to place things exactly where I want - but unlike the pen, GMod forces some restrictions on the user that you have to fist fight with, lol.

Lastly, "mind the angles" doesn't tell me anything, so I'll need an example as to what to look out for so that I can incorporate it into my next work/project/etc. :D

If you can't pose the guy how you want to pose him, what'sthefuckingpoint?

Sounds to me like you should start learning Blender or Maya.

Cause you gotta power through and attempt to churn out something rad. That's half the fun (figuring out how to make the bodies work for you, and if they don't - using bullshit ways to make it look "good" by manipulation). This, (just like anything else artistic) isn't perfect and you gotta make good on what you work with (but knowing the limitations and working WITH them [or attempting to work around/through them]).

So, you were supposed to reply about the angles I needed to mind and I'm still sitting here with no references or examples. :(

I can dig that.

Sorry, been running errands tonight. Working on my sketch at the moment. :D

I'll post ya something up in a sec!

Are you gonna start posting Honeymooners screenies for acting lessons like John K does?

To da moon, Alice!


Whitefolks: What I am saying, is look at the elements of the original composition, and how they relate to one another. Block out the original, look at things like the angle he's sitting at, or the direction that arm is coming in from. Your job in this exercise, is to match those elements as close as you can. Analyze and approximate. Everybody drawing can play a little fast and loose with this, but since you're "cheating", you're getting a different assignment.

Click for full size


Quick and dirty look at either composition.

Great contest yeller! Here we go. Ink and brush in a sketch book. My apologies for the shitty camera work.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...iven/bogey.jpg

Kick ass! That's awesome!

I love this thread already.

YD: Alas, I cannot rep you again. I totally would though.

HEY! I like that! Now should i work on the real project i get paid for or this?

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Originally Posted by Finch

HEY! I like that! Now should i work on the real project i get paid for or this?

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Play hard, work hard.

... that doesn't really answer your question doesn't, does it?

i should probably do both and not dick around on the internet all night

Here's my 30 minute Sharpie sketch... while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance...

the hat is great! i think you should put more background into it!

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Originally Posted by Finch

the hat is great! i think you should put more background into it!

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I will. I had no time. I had to leave around 7:30 and my internet was down til 7:00.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

To da moon, Alice!


Whitefolks: What I am saying, is look at the elements of the original composition, and how they relate to one another. Block out the original, look at things like the angle he's sitting at, or the direction that arm is coming in from. Your job in this exercise, is to match those elements as close as you can. Analyze and approximate. Everybody drawing can play a little fast and loose with this, but since you're "cheating", you're getting a different assignment.

Click for full size


Quick and dirty look at either composition.

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So my assignment is to copy the exact proportions/elements of the shot as closely as possible then? I think I may have a way to make that work - use GMod in windowed mode at a smaller resolution [ie: 800x600] and keep a copy of the image open to use as a reference (I was going completely by memory with that shot I did). Then when I'm ready I can blow the resolution of the game back up, add the appropriate filters and save the shot.

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Originally Posted by Finch

i should probably do both and not dick around on the internet all night

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The internet is the doublest edgiest of swordington ever. I feel your pain. Twice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

So my assignment is to copy the exact proportions/elements of the shot as closely as possible then? I think I may have a way to make that work - use GMod in windowed mode at a smaller resolution [ie: 800x600] and keep a copy of the image open to use as a reference (I was going completely by memory with that shot I did). Then when I'm ready I can blow the resolution of the game back up, add the appropriate filters and save the shot.

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Awesome! Do it!


Here's my rough! Starting to get it blocked in, next iteneration will lose the 'tard hands and start to get some background going.
Click for full size


Why is the background green? Because when drawing on a computer, bright white light gets really obnoxious to stare at! I'll flop it back over to black and white for the final.

I'm not really happy with the likeness yet, I'll take another hack at it tonight. Bogart's got a weird face to draw! We'll have to have a pretty girl for the next Drawing School, I think. :D

Tonight I'll step back and try a slightly more caractature-y approach.

(I miss my scanner... I'd rather be drawing in my sketchbook than the Wacom tablet at home, but gotta use the resources at hand!)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finch

PLEASE OR I'LL START BOMBING YOUR TNLSPACE PAGE WITH RALPH BAKSHI AND WAKING LIFE CLIPS.


i think you're going too black in his face, Tones. I like the idea of strong shadow and light, but there isn't nearly as much shadow on his face as you put there. hat looks very nice.
a hint of the background might make it really stand out.


Click for full size


): i hope it'll totally look different by the end of next week. i don't like how his hat sits on top of his head instead of on it, and i couldn't get his face right. I HATE STUPID DRAWING. I CAME TO THIS SCHOOL TO PLAY BASEBALL, I QUIT.

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SUP ABE LINCOLN

Sup image quote?

?

Draw something or get off my plane!

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

Draw something or get off my plane!

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Now we're talkin'!

Scourge
I like the raw-ness of that a lot. He looks a bit like Marv in Sin City after getting his ass kicked! I like how you handled the hat and the phone a lot. Gimme another one with a little tighter proportions on the face, let's get the hand coming in from offscreen so he's got something to focus in on in the next one.

Good work!

Rich
I like your interpretation of the lamp! It is truly like the sun. :lol:

JM
Awesome as always. Reminds me a little bit of the bookie from Payback, "don't let the bastards get ya down".

Nice work so far everybody. Keep pushing it! Kick that ass!

Additional Bogey Reference Material!
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...5&d=1218129449
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...6&d=1218129449

Because sometimes it helps to see some different angles on a thing!

Remember, anybody can feel free to join in at any time.

rough screwing around at work. All my bosses are gone today and no one has given me a new project.

I like how your sketch layer gives you a midtone. Slick!

and now...cartoony...er!

WOO!

I dig yours Yeller. I quite like the bold lines.

Hero I like the second the best, the third is good but you need more detail in the nose, it is one of bogey's most distinctive features.

I love this thread, such a good idea and a nice little change of pace for everyone I'm sure.

Glad you like the thread, JM! I was thinking it would be a good thing to try on TNL, I'm glad to see so much participation thus far!

I really dig the new pics, Hero! JM's right about Bogey's nose in pic 2, he's a tricky bastard to draw isn't he? Slick pose, though! Pic 3 is right on the money!

Revision time!

Click for full size


I took a long look at the first picture and fixed up some of the things that were bugging me, eyes/nose area in particular. Fixed up the 'tard hand a little bit, too.

Next! Background/Foreground! Want to add some more detail/definition to the hands, haven't decided how to tackle the colors yet.

Whoop!

:chick::chick::chick:
DEADLINE REMINDER:
DRAWING SCHOOL FOR GENTLEMEN PIC #1 DUE AUGUST 18TH!

KEEP ON DRAWING!
OPEN SEASON ON CRITIQUES!

:chick::chick::chick:

My phone sucks, I will redraw this and scan it when I get home.

He looks like he should be screaming KANAAAAAAYDAAAAAAA!

You're on the right track as far as the likeness! Neato.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...1&d=1218205769

ADVOCATE

What I'm thinkin' is this: Try to adjust your guy's face so that the imaginary "construction lines" are a little bit closer to what I'm doing here. ATM he's kind of pulling away from the center of where his head is facing. If you've got a pencil yet, I'd recommend trying to sketch what I've put here in red really lightly, then building the image on top of that.

Rock!

I do like drawing with a pen.

I do most of it that way. The pencil is mainly used for what you just did.

Yeah. I will try to work on this ... today!

Awesome! Don't worry about shading or any of that right now, just work on getting the lines right. We gunna build it from there!

I'll hit up some of you other fellas soon, don't worry. :p

Yeller, I like your line work. Thick to thins look great! How do you get that on a tablet? For me it's either a REALLY THIN or REALLY thick line with a hard time getting a smooth transition between the extremes within a line.

Essentially, I wanna learn to ink on the computer but am still a doof on it. So I'll just ask someone who does a good job!

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Originally Posted by Hero

Yeller, I like your line work. Thick to thins look great! How do you get that on a tablet? For me it's either a REALLY THIN or REALLY thick line with a hard time getting a smooth transition between the extremes within a line.

Essentially, I wanna learn to ink on the computer but am still a doof on it. So I'll just ask someone who does a good job!

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Wow, thanks man!

Just practice and pressure! Working on a cartoon show where we exclusively use the brush tool has given me a lot of road-time on the tablet. I tend to draw fairly zoomed-in, and get a lot of milage out of Flash's "smooth" tool, mostly because you have to trick the damn program into doing what you want to half the time. :lol:

For the more extreme tapers * I tend to sculpt the ends with an eraser, it's easier just to overdraw the thickness a little bit then hack it down!

If you're drawing in Photoshop/Sketchbook Pro/Painter, zooming in to the point where you're looking at pixels actually helps a lot for getting the thin/thick control down. I'd compare drawing with a tablet to trying to pick up a piece of rice with a chopstick (zoomed out) and then picking up a california roll (zoomed in!). Much easier to get a handle on when it's bigger! It's not as aesthetically nice from a "working on it" point of view, but when you zoom back out, it works out really well.

Being able to quickly jump between zoomed-in and zoomed-out will let you check your work as you go!

Click for full size


Update!

Next is backgound and colors!

It looks less like a Chinaman now.

Finch's looks like John Travolta. It's a Face Off!

/ Master of Critique.

Process, process, sir.

It's ok. I am in the process of adding dicks to mine. I sure hope dicks are allowed in here!

The peen is mightier than the sword.

I don't know, my dick is pretty sharp.

That sharpener is for PENCILS ONLY, sir. Just because you keep throwing the sign away doesn't mean it's not a rule.

How's the California cartoonin' scene these days?

I can't draw for shit, so this thread rules. Keep it up guys, lot of talent here.

For example here are my best pieces in the last 5 years

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...lMike/rich.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ike/Binger.jpg

If you feel like taking an honest MS-Paint crack at it, go for it. :D

This is as far as I can get on a laptop, it's too hard to use the little ball thing.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...untitled-1.jpg

i love that.

The phone sucks, that's when I had to stop for now. It's too difficult to add subtile curves on a laptop.

Haha! I like it, MS Paint Abstract.

Try to do some kind of polygonal thing with the line tool. That is what I would do if forced to use ms paint with a laptop.

edit: everyone i just showed that to loves it, Biff.

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Wow, this thread has a lot of views so far! Needs more participation! Come on, you "non drawers". Get in the game!

Biff did!

Is Biff better than you?

He is right now!

i'm falling asleep here. this isn't so much second attempt as it is practice strokes and i wanted to play with artrage that i paid for way back in January but as of yet have only really used once. i think there's more life in this one, the stick that shoves itself up my ass whenever i try to draw something new is dissolving. second attempt. tomorrow. zzzzzz

Click for full size

That's a heckuva nose! I haven't had time to do a second attempt yet...

Ha! I love it Finch. Looks like you're loosening up a bit!

That expression is gold!

Come on Scourge!

Getting there...

Click for full size


Going out to play wiffleball and drink beer, cleanup/shading/done when I get back. :D

Damn Yeller, you gots skills.

Let me ask the Guru

What do you think of Yellerdog?

I haven't drawn in a couple years (I kind of gave up on it when I started taking writing more seriously), and I don't have a scanner, but I have nothing to do for a couple days so I'm going to try to attempt this.

I wish I had charcs.

EDIT: I don't have a medium appropriate for what I feel like doing so I'm gonna MS Paint it up, too (actually graphics gale because I like the right-click capture and better zoom). I think I have an idea. I'll post some in-betweens along the way maybe.

Awesome! Do it!!!

Alright, first couple steps. Basic lineart, and then filling in the face and trying to establish the basic tone and shading. Going to go for a flat shading with kind of blown out highlights and a high contrast. Forcing myself to do this completely with an MS Paint-style freeware doodad, so I'm keeping it very low res.

I don't really want to exaggerate the proportions or anything in this. I'm going to abstract it in a couple other ways, maybe use a little color a la Sin City if I can make it work, but I'm not much of a cartoonist, so I want to keep the forms realistic.

Hot damn, lookin' sweet! Can't wait to see that get finished!

Looks great frog.

Cleaned up the face and I'm fairly happy with it now. Starting to get rid of outlines. Not looking forward to doing the background and the lamp. Also struggling a bit with the hand and how I'm going to shade it, but the great thing about pixel art is that it's really easy to refine stuff until you get it right.

EDIT: Started on the lamp and backgound, most of the line art gone now.

Quick flat coloring pass, don't really like the contrast at all at the moment, reflection on the chair is way too harsh.

More tinkering later tonight if I finish my freelance revisions before it gets super-late. Highlights/shadows to come, gonna tool around with the base colors a bit first though.

Click for full size

Someone should do an Etch-a-Sketch one.
EDIT: More progress. Over the hump now.

Neat!

Currently looking into the various methods of using screentone patterns in Flash, I have an experiment in mind that could be pretty cool.

Done...ish. I welcome suggestions before I decide to leave it alone.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...8&d=1218430972

EDIT: Minor revision as per Yeller's suggestion.

Love it, Frog! You should keep doing these! New thread up next week. ;)

Everything around the phone base/shoulder area seems to get a bit lost, maybe a little bit of highlighting to bring that out?

Yeah, I tried that a bit with the other shoulder and it kind of worked. I'm trying to really shrink the mid-tones as much as I can, but I might need to bend the rules a bit in this case.

It was a fun diversion and it got me to draw for the first time in 3 years. I can't say I'll do them every week, but I'll try to do them when I have nothing going on.

I should have said it before, but some good contributions here. I love JM's and Yeller's especially, and Hero's second one is great too.

I'll leave the weekly threads open indefinitely in case anybody decides to revisit 'em later, as an experiment.

Thanks for the ups! :D

I was doodling a bit this morning and did a little five minute doodled based on the second reference pic 'dog posted above.

http://www.comet7.com/strips/bonus/c...entive_760.png

I'll get around to doodling up something based on the first pic later today mebbe?

Lots of great stuff in here btw!

Jawsome!

I will contribute to the Gentlemen's club when I have an open night and some spare ambition. These are pretty awesome so far.