Graver

oooOOoo, great work so far! I belive you really captured Grae there! the face seems to look dead on and the armor is great! I can't wait to see this one finished, it's gonna be cool!

How about the freezer? Maybe you were carrying it around and decided to get some ice cream, opened the fridge, put it down to get the ice cream... check the freezer.

On an unrelated note, man, i really really dig The Fowl! I love the hard black on white! I have to agree, you really need to do more Noir styled characters! Great stuff!

congrats there mar!

Now you'll finally get to say "Oh, I can't believe you did that! What were you thinking?! Why can't you be more like your older sister?" when, all the while, it was the eldest who planted the bad idea in the younger's head to begin with and then turned on them then minuet the heat came down on them... damned older siblings... ger!

PS: also congrats on the name choice... very pretty!

ooo, very nice there. It's like the Hulk got even more irradiated, turned yellow, and had some seriously bad bone spurs XD

great work and the flat color works quite nicely. i don't think it gives it much of a 70's comic feel (the clouds kind of ruin that... and possibly the clarity of the image and the fact that the cmyk all line up perfectly XD ) but still very nice. I'd say it has an animation cell quality to it more so then an old comic feel... but i guess that's just splitting hairs. Nice no matter how they is split

Okay, I got the pencils for The Arena done and they can be found...

HERE

Oh and, Sarrate, I actually have read How to Draw the Marvel Way. My mom had gotten that for me waaaaaaaay back when i was about 13 and first mentioned that I wanted to be a comic artist (at the time). A lot of people bash the hell out of that book, but in it's defense, it sure as hell taught me the importance of "camera angle" and the center of gravity in figures in making sceens dynamic

Okay, so I totally forgot that i hadn't posted this piece yet because I was still waiting on Rowr to get back to me about whether it was finished or not But I got the clawy thumbs up on it, so, now for your viewing pleasure...

Rowr Plays with a Fuzzy Puppy

Sorry there was no WIP's for this one. The bulk of the work was done on it while on buses, packing crap up, and trying to find all the parts to my computer once the move was complete.

Hope you all enjoy it

*fishes around in his pockets and pulls out a kyt to a broken scooter, 3 pennies, and a cough-drop wrapper*

So... um... is this enough for a buy in?

I wouldn't have suggested it if I wasn't down with it ;p

And, ya, forgot i hadn't posted Rowr yet... it's been a long couple of weeks

That will be rectified in the next few minutes

Thanks for the input guys! Weirdly enough, it seems like Deviant Art is all about #2 while these boards are all about #1 XD

I think i'll end up going with #2 though. Lots of good points were made for both images, but, in the end, DonnchadH liked #2 the best. I belive this might be due to the face that I belive one of those characters belongs to his wife (something I didn't know untill he got back to me about which layout to go with XD ) and she needed to be a touch more visualy equal.

Women... sheesh... I tell ya what

I should have the pencils for this piece up soon®

hrm... I guess I wasn't around enough to notice that you weren't around much XD

Glad things are getting back on track for ya... and the Crystal owl and Li'l Unicorn looks great... sparkle sparkle!

ah, don't worry about it... and I totally understand where your coming from. I do work with a very subdued palate (I have a weird kind of weakness for sepia toned photos, old and faded things, etc ). However, my palate seems to get a touch more colorful with each piece... maybe by the time I got to you I'd only have to make a moderate effort to make the colors a bit bolder then I normally would and you'd have the "in-yer-face" colors you want. Of course, I could also do the line work and Jtran or someone else could apply the emboldened color's to it... getting chocolate in your peanut-butter is not always a bad thing

just a thought

Edit: and since color was brought up, it got me thinking about my work and what would happen if I just tweaked the paintings digitally to add a punch to the color. Here's the results on two of them
Tweak 01
Tweak 02

I never tweaked any of them before 'cause it just felt dishonest... not an accurate representation of what the painting looks like in real life.

Just more food for thought. I'm gonna go now... gotta stop thinking about colors... gotta stop thinking about colors.. gotta stop being so obsessed...

Ya, unfortunately, it i a bit of a wait for my work (I really am trying to speed up... the world just won't let me!)... but if you don't mind the wait... I do sooooo love doing piles of dead and mangled bodies... and blood... oh how I love things that splatter and sputter! And after all the dead CoT I've done... I think I'm getting pretty decant at it

That and the imagery you have here is some powerful stuff... something I'd love to sink my teeth into... it brings back blissful memories of the Heaven and Hell piece I did a few months back.

Good luck in getting that piece done... it sounds like it will be a great one!

It's been a bit too long since I've put anything up on the old bords here, but at long last, i have my computer back, my scanner, an internet connection, and all that while I'm working on a piece... so it's wipin' time!

Currently up is The arena, a piece for DonnchadH featuring 2 versions of DonnchadH from various realities, a flame tossing cow-girl, and an evil lizard guy battling it out in a fixed tournament hosted by a universe conquering alternate reality version of DonnchadH.

The work has gotten boiled down to two sketches and while DonnchadH has selected the one he wants to go with, he also wanted me to post both of them up here on the bords to get you guy's opinions as to which is the better of the two top layouts.

In Layout #1, I had a bit of trouble getting all the elements in, but in the end I think i have a fairly dynamic and interesting composition. The main hero Donn (the one I see most often from the works that have been done of DonnchadH's characters, will be in the extreme foreground looking back over his shoulder as the dead that Evil Donn has summoned fly and swirl out of the eye and around the combatants. The armored Donn stands facing hero Donn, his armor bashed and cracked, a deep gash in his arm, grinning through his broken helmet as he sees the tide of battle about to turn in his favor. Further back is Flaming Mistress, a fireball in hand ready to chuck it at Eck, but turning to look up at the new horrific development in the fight. Eck, barely visible, perches ready to dodge on the wall to the throne, a wall scorched from Flamings attacks. On the dais, cloaked mostly in shadow, is Ebil-D summoning forth the dead from the Eye Window.

In Layout #2, I tried to give all the characters a bit more equal weight wile still keeping things interesting. I focused in on the two heroes, Donnchad and Flaming, getting ready to fight back-to-back the new hoard of the dead. Armored Donn wipes blood from his partially exposed face as he bleeds through the cracks in his armor and grins, knowing the tide has turned. Eck clings to a pillar or spike waiting to dart another blast from Flaming and watching to see how the situation develops. Ebil-D is on the dais again, in shadow, summoning the dead from the eye window.

Either way, more to come and it comes... and here very soon, there should be another Rowr for all to see gracing the posts of this forum

ooOOooo very nice... and damned generous to boot!

heh, neat generator there. e chart at the bottom of the page reminds me of an old pen and paper supper hero game / social satire of epically crazy proportions (just think of what the Vietnam conflict would have been like if all the solders had cape fetishes, a love of skin tight flashy outfits and could shrug off a 7.62 mm round like it was nothing) I have called Underground... crazy, bloody, and supper heroic? Ah, memories

well, it's about time you came back and got back to work

I can't wait to see what you turn out next!

Well, after finally getting some new pens in the mail yesterday, the kat, the kitty, and the cop is finally finished up.

The Gift

I can say one thing, Katfood is one patient girl... thanks for putting up with my slowness , and thanks for all those still waiting. Up next, that suppa celeb of cat girls, Rowr.

Thanks for the replies all!

And, Marty, ya that is one of the way more rare Kitty outfit's she's wearing, but after going though her outfits, it was my favorite (I'm a leg man ). However, the deciding point to chose that outfit over her more popular one or a slightly less used one of fishnets top and bottom was gravity.

With as well endowed as that Kitty is, I really didn't want to tackle the wacky foreshortening that would be involved with her chest and figured it wouldn't be the most flattering outfit for her in that position anyway (gravity can do some odd things )

And, yup, TA's right about the cat thing. They are both mutants with the reflexes and what not of a cat (and even the tail to help with the balancing)... however, the falling like a piano is still a possibility (I can't count the number of oh so graceful cats who've gotten a touch too curios or eager and took a terribly ungraceful tumble, popped right back up and began cleaning themselves like they meant to do that... I still pointed and laughed at them... silly cats ).

And again, you were right, TA, about ** being a touch too thin even though I was going for a lean gymnasts build (though I have a feeling you had a very specific spot on her that you felt wasn't quite fleshy enough). It's mostly due to a slight lacking of proper shadows and modeling on her form. I've gotten some more work done on it and I believe the thinness issue might be solved.

The Gift: Color 04

Oh, and, Mist... I forgot my password to DA and the email addy they have on file for me was a temp account that I also forgot the password for (I really hate spam)... I keep t6rying new passwords every morning, but no luck yet... I probably won't be able to log in until I get back home (stupid me for using different passwords for different site )

WOW Rox! Thats gotta be one of your best to date. That expresion on her face is clasic (I seem to be on some weird expresion kick, hrm). Nice, man, nice!

ooooOOOOoooooo niiiiiiiiiiice!

If I hadn't known that Illidan had done the pencile and ink work, I would have mistaken some of those harsh almost grgy like lines for GNF (there's a bit more hatching, but, ahhh, those lines, so pretty). You guys always seem to get some of the best lines in your work! I love them!

Looking pretty good there, NPG. The girls face in the far upper right is great (my fav. so far). The angel you drew it at as well as the no so pointed chin really come together to make a really great face... I think the way you did the hair helps out with that a bit as well.

One thing you might want to tweak a bit though would be the backside of the woman that is *cough* um, between Smokes legs. It looks like she could be wearing a skirt which is sagging down but it comes off looking like she has a weird pear shaped figure with an incredibly sagging posterior. If she is wearing a skirt, you might want to have the cloth simply fall strait down and pool around her covering her feet or have it pulled a bit more tight around her behind and lower legs to help show there shape. There might be other solutions, but I would need to start staring at a lot more skirts.

Either way, still good stuff.

great work there, man! I love their expressions (happy and pissy, yay) and the nice simple clean style of your "animated" style stuff.

I kinda know how you feel now TA. At the moment, I'm stuck with shanghaiing Starchasm's laptop to fire off a post or two while she's at work and her wacky crazy pug goes into his usual morning comma .

Well, I have a bit more of an update on the feral kat piece. It's going a bit slower then usual as I don't have all of my tools here, have to make due with Stars but with all luck, I'm hoping to have it wrapped up by tonight (assuming the sepia pens that were ordered come in the mail today... I wish I had my tools *sigh*)

The Gift: Color 02

Niiiiiiiiice!

It turned out great (amazing improvement on the hand there too ... I didn't realize how bad it initially was until I saw how good you could make it just now ) and the coloring job you did is excellent.

Great stuff, man, great stuff.

It's amazing what you can do once the distractions of easy entertainment are removed

Nice work here... you have a intriguing style that, with a bit more development, will let you turn out some amazing work, just keep at it, man!

I love the look on Atalita's face in the group shot... you got a great look with just a few lines and seeing an eye on her sword fills my heart with all forms of warm fuzzies!

I would have to say that the weakest character in the shot would be girl to the far right. Given her pose, it seems like she should be moving, but the fact that her spine is stiff and vertical destroys any real sense of movement from the figure.

A good strait spine is good for showing a sturdy unmovable pose (like the central strong figure) but if someone is moving, bending the spine and showing the figure to be "off balance" (making sure the shoulders, hip, feet don't line up in a nice vertical line) will help to add a sense of dynamic movement to the work.

Still, nice work and don't let your self get rusty!

Niiiiiiice! Thats looking great so far. I'm a BIG fan of the worms eye view (if you couldn't tell) and I love how it's done here... and I really love her legs... great stuff so far!