Darkjedi

These are very, very good. I don't get all the in-jokes since I live on Victory, but I like the art style a lot and love seeing all the forum regulars in there.

I also sympathize with the whole naming thing since my main is named 'Light-Speed'; it sucks when I come across the guy that got 'Lightspeed'.

I have samples at both my website and on DeviantArt. Both links are in my sig, below.

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...MY question is how do you avoid smudging??...

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I never rest my hand on the pencil work itself; just the clean parts of the paper. I turn the sketch around and draw from different angles so my hand can rest in places that I haven't filled in yet, remaining aware of where I can and can't put my hand down. If I'm going to detail an area that is completely surrounded by pencil, I'll rest my hand on a flat ruler.

I never use any smudging techniques because it makes the pencil work look dirty. Plus, skin oils will damage the paper over time.

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"...But how the final product ends up looking like he never erased makes me think that maybe he didn't ... and that is impressive..."

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I rarely erase. Again, it can damage the paper and spoil my ability to leave a clean shadow. Soemtimes I need to fix small areas like an eye, but I do everything possible to avoid it.

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"...At school, I would see a lot of people wearing golf gloves. It helps I guess. Doug, what kind of pencils you using? It better not be just one either. So mad rite now. ..."

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Just one pencil. I've used a .5mm mechanical pencil for 20+ years. I never bought into the technique of using multiple pencils when pressing lighter with the same one will get the same effect. Plus, once I start drawing, I don't like to stop. Lead broke? *click click* keep drawing.

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I think you have talent. You should do something with that.

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He does...

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Ironik was being ironic.

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...I kinda jealously hope it took you for ever ... but I have a feeling it didn't...

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3 - 4 hours. I did it during a marathon of "Deadliest Catch" over the weekend. I almost always do my sketches in one sitting.

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Your pencil skills anger me Doug. What size you workin in, if that's anything smaller than 4 feet I am gonna be even more mad. >_<

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I do most of my drawings on 11" x 14" 2-ply bristol. I prefer the smooth finish so the lines and shadows don't have little irregularities from the paper. Unfortunately, the pencil is so light in places that the scanner doesn't pick all of the shading up.

I'm working on several COH commissions at the moment, but while the computer renders, I often sit back and do pencil sketches. This is a piece I did over the last few days for an upcoming convention in my area.

Con Sketch

<---- Photoshop.

That looks very, very good. How far are you intending to take the model? Texture and rigging? If you end up rigging it, what program do you use for your rigging? I'd love to take a stab at the texturing.

Also, have a friend that rigs models for Poser. It would be awesome to have a true Rikti model for use in Poser. I wonder if Cryptic would be up for a licensing deal to allow you to sell assets... hmm... (*sounds of brain-gears grinding*)

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..Doug, keep popping in here and telling me how it's going. I'm curious too about the pace we'll set...

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Will do. I'll keep a close eye on this one.

Hey Juggy, I COMPLETELY feel your pain. I'm doing a similar thing for my SG and am working on doing a couple full comics as well. I took a different approach though; I've penciled all 32 pages and plan to back and ink them all, then color, then letter.

I'll be watching your progress with MUCH interest. I'd like to see how my pace is comparing with others.

Woah...

/boggle

This one is easy because my SG picked actors for our heroes a while back;

LIGHT-SPEED as played by Michelle Trachtenberg

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Same picture but with a slightly different background

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The background is really hard to see. Can you pump it up a bit? The characer is getting lost in the black... which is kind of appropriate for his design, but it undercuts the impact of the piece.

It looks cool... I think! The zoom-in isn't working for me... D'OH!

And I gotta say, it's cool that you're including the iconic characters. I've generally avoided including them for legal-type reasons, but you probably have a bit of leeway in that regard.

Looks awesome from the thumbnail!

My initial response on Bryce's low price is that you get what you pay for. I tried Bryce for 2 versions and didn't like it because the terrain was clearly digital and the interface was restrictive. I haven't tried recent versions, so maybe they've matured.

I'm a Vue fanatic. Everything I render is in Vue. Their terrain is convincing, the interface is smooth AND powerful (a rare thing), and they support Poser imports (up through Poser 6). As a testimonial to their render results, Vue was used to create backgrounds for Pirates of the Carribean 2.

If you're thinking about using Poser in unison with your terrain renderer (such as Bryce), make sure you verify Poser is a supported program.

!!!!!!!!!

what an awesome thing to come home to!!!

Thanks TA

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Lay off the man was shooting up with needles all weekend...

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How ELSE is he gonna be able to draw the future...?

I guess the classic Claws/Regen is out of the question.

Creating the costume for a character is one of the coolest parts of this game. It's hard to even play without the rght name/costume/concept. Claws regen pretty much screams cat-character.

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Here's a hint:
Its a group-ie chasing the artist.

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Group piece by Alex?

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Yeah. Bummer too, because I missed out on that one =(

Wow. What a cool idea! I've always been a fan of 'what-if' type universes. Lemme know if I can help out!

Gaaaa! This is killing me! Someone scan the @#%@#$ thing and link it!

I wanna see!!!

Don't hold out on us? Who made it in?

I was contacted over 6 months ago (was it 8?) to create an image of Pagan Priest. I did the piece within a month or two and the outcome was enough to inspire a second image be commissioned... the second one being a group shot.

For the second piece, the scope became a lot larger than I think either of us anticipated as these three heroes fought valantly against the Rikti horde and were, ultimately, overwhelmed. The piece just screamed to be placed in a horizontal format, and I wished I was able to se this on the big screen.

As a result (and in our mutual desire to get it right), I created 3 full versions of "Last Stand". The piece has evolved for the better, and I'm very happy with the final result.

So, with over 2000 Rikti in the scene and nearly half a billion polygons, I'd like to present both pieces... the initial character render, and the group shot.

PAGAN PRIEST - poster

"LAST STAND" - group shot against the Rikti Horde

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I am sure I speak for many in saying that I am dying to see why DJ is asking for that!

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I was needing it because, in a different part of the forum, I mentioned that the ding animation changed and someone called me out with the age-old 'screenies' thing. Nothing more.