James Wolf Strehle, UPDATE! SKETCHBOOK REVIVAL!! last page!

[James Wolf]

Hey everyone! SKETCHBOOK REVIVAL, LAST PAGE!!


Hello all you wonderful people of CA. After looking through all of these amazing sketchbooks i've decided to make one of my own,
but I wanted to give it some purpose rather than putting stuff up now and then so I've decided to make it a Journal of sorts, tracking my progress through to my Goal of making it into the gaming industry! and ultimately a position at MASSIVE BLACK! which is my dream! although I realize thats pretty ambitious and I may very well end up a 70 year old man grasping onto old dreams that never were... thats sad :( ..um but also it will be interesting to see my skill grow over the course of this sketchbook, well I hope it will!

Anyway down to business, here are a few full fledged illustrations so you can get an idea of my current skill level: attached, and after that I will begin my entries into my SKETCHBOOK!

Thank you so much for taking a look, I will try to barrage this thread with all the artwork I can muster up, so be sure to check back! :yayca:

edit: moved the images to my second post so i can change the sketchbook icon :^^:

[Ampersand]

Your finished work looks great! I look forward to seeing your sketches. :teeth:

[Dreamworker]

Awesome start! this stuff is great.
Keep it up, cheers

[James Wolf]

810581
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Ok so my first lead was through TIMEGATE STUDIOS, I got in contact with them and we had a phone interview. the creative director I spoke with mentioned that they were looking for someone who can whip up mood paintings and sci-fi environments, which is something I don't have much of, so my first step is to get moving on those. so I've been checking out many artists that do that sort of work. semi relating is a quick painting i did for the gnoman labyrinth contest. it took around 8 or 9 hours which is ok but the pros seem to get similar results in 40 minutes so i must work on that. about the piece: the hero is stuck in a crossroad where he must decide his path, the path of the braves or the path of the jackals. I'm pretty happy with it but it is muddy and feels overworked, anyway here it is:

[The Dream Walker]

stunning stuff. its always great when someone can tackle figures and environments so well

[James Wolf]

Ampersand- thanks! I will get some sketches up soon.
Dreamworker- :) I certainly will keep it up!

here is a quick speed painting it took maybe 1.4 hours, its not very good at all and I'm sort of embarrassed but here it is anyway :$

[James Wolf]

and now for a creature sketch along with a color version, don't ask me what it is as I do not know lol, I just started scribbling in some ovals and it sort of made itself and i went along with it.

thats it for now. I will be back in a little bit!

[Sawa]

lol that last one is cool ;)
oveall, great stuff. i really like the colors in your paintings.

[kuroart]

great sketchbook, man. I've seen some of your stuff on cgtalk. I like that texture you made with some of you pieces. gouache-ish maybe spray paint-ish, idk. only thing is, to me, it doesnt give the distance look that there should be. mainly on the last two enviros, but thats just me. Other than that, awesome stuff.
keep em comin.

[Envisor]

All I can say is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! More please.

[RaistlinTheDark]

awesome stuff man!

[Piranha Clan]

I'm pretty sure you're going to be working somewhere in the gaming industry before too long with work like yours. The first post is incredible, great color and mood on all three. Great start and good luck with MB!

[designboot]

nice pages!

[Zombie_dla]

Your environments look really good. I _love_ the Hateful Eye-piece! Now I want to see some more :D

[ChaoticKnight]

This stuff is great. Its ridiculously dificult to paint digitally to the point of that kind of realism, at least for me, so many props and much respect!

[ccsears]

cool stuff. keep up the good work.

( i agree with kuroart on the gouache texture, though )

[zeitgeist]

I won't ask you what the last one is but the first thing that comes to mind is "festering head chandelier"... which just makes me smile. :)

[James Wolf]

Sawa-thank you sawa, i think i need to explore color more though, i seem to always use my favorite colors lol.

kuroart-thanks, ya some of this stuff has been over at cgsociety for a while, the hateful draft piece recieved a viewers choice award, I definately agree with you about the depth problem, i think with some of them i just slap a texture over it and it flattens the whole thing, but i'll keep it in mind for the next environments.

Envisor-i've got more! :)

RaistlinTheDark-thankies

Piranha Clan-I hope so, i'm trying really hard!

designboot-:)

Zombie_dla-i'm glad you like them, i'm gona try to post more sketch work than finished pieces but i'll definitely get some bigger things up at some point.

ChaoticKnight-thank you chaoticknight, it certainly takes a while, but i think it definitely gets easier as you do more and more, thats probably obvious lol.

ccsears-i'll try something new for my next environments and see if that works a little better.

zeitgeist-o my god thats what it is! although its probably the most impractical chandeler i've ever come across as it spews out blood from the bottom.

here are some new ones I did yesterday and tonight: the first one I would consider a wip only because there was something else i was going to add to it but its fine as is i think. the other two are just quick character sketches. I had another one but it got lost when my computer restarted itself>:| :xpld:

[BohemianChaos]

holy frickin cow :jawdrop: I'd say you're a lot closer to getting where you want to be in industry than most of us who aren't there already (I'm speaking for myself as well). Speed is definitely the key though... I'm having issues with that also.

That first piece of the girl with the flies in her eyes is my favorite... how long do you think you spent on it?

You've come into the forum with a very strong start... I'll definitely be checking back to see what else you post. :wink: If you haven't been to one already, you should attend one of the MB workshops for sure... they're fantastic. Good luck! :D

~Boho

[IndieWise]

Fantastic stuff, you really have a great eye for placement. I like seeing your sketches next to more polished versions. I hope to see more of your sketching process as more posts come up.

The only critique I have is on the girl sitting on the rock. Her weight appears to be too far back. If she really was holding that sword she would be having to be counterbalancing it with keeping her bodyweight shifted forward. Right now it looks like she is about to fall backwards. This could be fixed with moving her upper back/shoulders or her arm that is holding the sword forward more.

Other than that I have nothing but good things to say about your work. Keep it up!

-Addison

[fooxoo]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=165566&stc=1&d=1183914016 - great design, but much harder to read in the colour version. I d think more of light and where you choose to put detail to make it read more!

great stuff you have here though!

cheers and keep going!

[Henchman 21]

really dig yer environments, man. especially that sweet gazeebo tower in the woods. very nice colors as well.

[HunterKiller_]

This is hardcore start for sure.

may very well end up a 70 year old man grasping onto old dreams that never were

Don't ever that! Don't even think it! If you want to do it, believe it, do it.
Your works here are obviously already of high quality, just keep at it!

I like that large sword design, nice combination of traditional and hi-tech aesthetics. The next monster is rockin' too. :D

[3d3n]

truly some incredible work here, that first one blows my mind.

[loveandasandwich]

Your very first piece you posted is definitely my favorite. Such fantastic colors & details. You could definitely get a job at Massive Black I think if you keep pumpin out stuff like that first one.

[MrArmadillo]

these are all awesome! i like how you aren't afraid to show the sketches; it really helps me out, because for a while i've been trying to avoid lines, but i see it is possible to sketch out the basics and then render with paint so that the lines disappear completely.

i particularly like the oval heads merged thing... quite an imagination!

[James Wolf]

BohemianChaos- thanks, I think I'm definitely getting faster, to answer your question about the time spent with the hateful draft piece, I couldn't say exactly but it actually didn't take nearly as long as some of my older pieces. also it was an on and off piece. till it got revived by a client wanting it for a comic book cover. I would absolutely Love to go to a MB workshops, unfortunately at least to my knowledge they are only on the west coast and I am as far to the east as possible in Boston. I'll make my way over somehow though.

IndieWise-thanks I appreciate the comment. about the girl on the rock, Yea i know what your saying, that actually Y its unfinished, originally I was planning on having the ogres ghost helping her hold the sword which is why it looks as though its light as a feather. I should finish it as I really liked my original concept.

fooxoo-Yea I'm gona try working on cleaning up my colors.

Henchman 21-thanks!

HunterKiller_-thanks for the words of inspiration, I will keep at it although I may get knocked down many times :)

3d3n-:) seems a lot of people like that one.

28chelseaslater-your words excite me! i'm constantly admiring all the work that comes out of MBs artists, certainly can't get my hopes up though.

MrArmadillo- i'm glad it helps you, sometimes i just paint right over the lines while other times i'll create a multiply sketch layer over everything as a template and get rid of it once its no longer needed.

It has been a long stretch of work but I finally have some time to put a few things up. I've been working like a madman for clients. My most recent job lead was with Cryptic studios on the marvel MMo, I had an interview with the recruiter and she gave me their art test which was super fun. I'd post it but I don't think it would be right to give away the test or if i'm aloud to... also I just contacted a few people that are in the industry to ask a few questions. most were fairly typical answers and understandably a few didn't have time, but that helped a bit. I have a few more possible interviews coming up but I'll let you know what that happens. on to some work:
the ink was sort of a test, I was so amazed and inspired by Kieran Yanners ink drawing that I thought I'd try it out. It was very fun but obviously mine was not as successful, I'll definitely be trying it out some more though.

I have many more, I'll post them in a bit, unfortunately I have many pieces that i have signed non disclosure agreements with as well. but I'll be back!

[Dan Valkar]

wow, a very cool sb bro...nice character design...and rockin' colors ..that creature u dunno what it is ...its one of my fav..keep sharin' man..u r obligated now hahahaha

[James Wolf]

heh heh, I will, actually here's two more I just found, the first crystal one is very old, I created it over a year ago and never finished it but I'll post it anyway or else it will eventually disappear. The original concept is that the crystal is a living creature that travels blindly throughout the land and its wealth memorizes the greedy who mindlessly follow it to there death, leaving only there ghost left to pick up what its left behind for all eternity. A bit silly but i was into the idea at the time.
the other one is a creature concept of a predator haunted by its victims.

[BohemianChaos]

Boston isn't too far away... I'm only a tad closer, being in Florida. :)

Great update, btw... and why don't you have any stars yet? Blingage for you. :tihi:

[BohemianChaos]

*ahem* go check out the lounge forum... they have announced two new workshops, one in December in Washington state, and one in February in Shanghai, China.

now's your chance! :tihi:

[James Wolf]

wow thanks BohemianChaos I've never had stars! and thanks for the info! I'll look into it!! heres a quicky. My friend wanted a painting of his gf with a snow tiger in front of a large moon...so thats what i did. unfortunately i didn't have time to finish it as he needed it right away so there are many things i'd work on but don't have the time, as I have paying clients waiting for me. i'll be back soon!

[RaistlinTheDark]

dude awesome updates lov ur art!

[jMarkus]

yo, this is a fantastic sb.. you have some great stuff in here, and u definetly deserve some stars from me

[James Wolf]

thanks both of you! and thanks for the stars jMarkus!
heres a quick sketch, the client doesn't like this particular sketch but I do so i'll be rendering this up at some point for my own enjoyment:

[Puck]

Very nice stuff here James. You really know how to construct and render off an image nicely - love the colour in that last one with the girl and tiger. and those 3 images in your first post really knocked my socks off. I also appreciate seeing the work in progress shots showing the progression. Good stuff.

[Newbs]

james, these look great, post more!

[MrBobMarley]

That last sketch has presence man. Good solid stance, should be a good one.

[Chief]

Totally awesome work man!

[voraz]

Hi, great start to your sketchbook.
Those two first pieces are really great.
cheers

[lisenbart]

suppper!

[Fishspawn]

Love your stuff man, keep posting and keep working hard!

[James Wolf]

hi again,

Puck- thanks, I'm glad you like the tiger one, I never really finished it but i guess it still holds some interest.

newbs- I certainly will, I have a few actually, maybe i'll post them in a bit

MrBobMarley- thanks unfortunately the client didn't but again i'll be rendering it up soon so check back!

y thank you chief!

voraz-I can't wait to get a few pages down to see if i've progressed. may take a year or two though. .

lisenbart- supper, mmmmm can't wait!

Fishspawn- I certainly am working hard, quite straining, I need a break, so I can do some personal paintings!

heres another version of the executioner, the client actually wanted it simplified a bit pose wise and was looking for more of an exaggerated form, I have a feeling this commission may take a while to get right. I don't tend to stray much from the natural human form but it can be fun to exaggerated every once in a while. oh by the way I'm not doing the legs because it'll be cropped at the thighs.

[Mr.Delicious]

Hmmm, I think his chest is too long, I'm sure you can find a really good photoref for that pose on google. Would probly solve every problem.

edit: Your color stuff kicks so much ass.

[jdeegz]

yo man, just wanted to let you know that i love your style of sketching and finished pieces, I just subscribed, looking forward to your updates :)

On your last update with the new executioner, check his collar bones - they don't go up, they slant down. nice curves though, love the abs and chest.

[James Wolf]

Ah thanks for the crits both of you! I think i'll make the adjustments in the painting stage, I just don't wanna race forward just yet until I hear from the client cause he may want some adjustments as well. thanks for subscribing jdeegz, I'll try to make it worth while! O and I went to the art institute of Boston, not to far away from MassArt, I went to a few shows there as well.

[jdeegz]

sweet man! yeah AI is just down the street, i pass it on my way to and from home. but now my home is on tremont st :)

[James Wolf]

hi everyone, I have yet another executioner version, I was wondering if i could get a few crits on the sketch to make sure there isn't any funky business going on, The client is looking for an absurdly muscular beast of a man, also he wanted more of an angle and was dead set on a hood so hopefully this is closer than the last version. guess I should post it in the wip section, just thought I'd post it hear since i had the other versions in here as well. thanks!

[MrBobMarley]

looks solid, but if the client is lookin for a beast I'd spread his lats out and pump the biceps/triceps up a good bit.

[jdeegz]

rock solid man - yeah - lets see em with a tid bit wider legs, i like the arms how they are though :)

[James Wolf]

thanks both of you, I think i'll add what both of you have said to the painting as the client made similar remarks as well, until then here is a painted version of the first executioner sketch i did, just for fun while I was waiting for a response from him. I think Mr. executioner is wondering why he has cheesy mini skulls attached to his outfit and axe, lol. I'll be back!

[Mr.Delicious]

Good to know I'm not the only one posting art at 4 am. Looks good man, I think it could use some more contrast though ;)

[D@niel]

Hey man, firt of all GREAT SB!!! Awsome stuff you have here:) Hope i am not pissing you off by doin this lil overpaint, if so just say the word and i will delete it! It just sounded like you had a stickler of a client and this is my humble attempt at help. Just googled Executioner and saw a couple of hoods like this, beefed him up a bit too.

[jdeegz]

dude, your painted executioner is rad. i think the strings that come down from his hood don't pop enough, they kind of look like a tattoo? also, what is the "skin colored triangle" next to his knee? his other leg? looks funny =\

Daniel, that hood make him look more goofy than scary :) but nice paint over on the arms. but bigger muscles doesn't always mean more frightening haha

[mynameisrichard]

Dude! Your art is really something! I love it, terrificly atmospheric and beautiful!

[agelaos]

hey man I love your coloring style, Do you do gray scale painting?

I think that last painted executioner is great. The recent one seems a bit more plain, as it is just straight on. I'd definitely use an angular approach like your first one. Also if the client wants an overly done muscular figure I would look up some pics of the hulk, it wouldn't hurt to see some overly exaggerated muscles. Might come in good use as reference.

[aedman]

Great stuff going on this thread, nothing to crit right now, going to keep an eye on this thread. By the way, do you know if anybody has a boston sketch group going? Seems like there's some pretty skilled people in and around the city.

[MonkeYoakum]

Nice illistrations, I like the imagination level of your work, but i wish the sketches had more shading and highlights and dynamic light sources, but maybee that is diviating from "a sketch?" I don't know. good work

[AnthonyFoti]

wow, I really like your style, the polished digital stuff is really fantastic. I hope to see more!

[mrpank]

You are mighty
I like this monster head here
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=167869&stc=1&d=1184217223
which express strong angre,great
cheers

[young paddy1]

I'm not trying to have a poke or anything but the first impression I got from the executioner sketches was that you were doing a new take on the character 'Disturbed' used in their "land of confusion" video, the painting however changes all that, it could still use some more contrast in the torso, but otherwise is incredibly cool (and a bit cheesy)

cheerio

[BobbyDash]

On another level. Very nice. That is all.

[James Wolf]

Mr.Delicious-thanks, more contrast aye,

D@niel- no problem, I'm certainly not going to hinder anyone from helping me lol, as long as the person isn't just doing it for the sake of painting my sketches. unfortunately that version of the sketch was scrapped all together, i'm not going to post any more progress shots, i'll just post the finish when i'm done so I don't fill my SB with all these silly executioner sketches.

jdeegz- ah gotcha, thanks for pointing those things out.


mynameisrichard- thanks!

agelaos- thanks, yea I do sometimes, i'll try post some soon, I don't like the straight on much either but the client does, true the hulk is pretty muscular! i didn't even think of him.

aedman-thanks, hmm i'm not sure, all I know at the moment is that my friends set up a 4 day art show called the urban art market. i'll try to see if i can find one.

MonkeYoakum-thanks I sort of just fill in the sketches with some tones to make it easier on me to see whats goin on, so I don't really put much more effort into that stage.

AnthonyFoti- ooOOO you will!

mrpank-thanks, that one sort of came out of nowwhere, I was just skribbling and it started to take shape lol
young paddy1- haha yea the client actually gave me that as a reference along with some of the music from the cd, yea he is a bit cheesy lol

BobbyDash-thanks :)

heres a quick stage tutorial that came out of my need to take a break from a larger piece, Just a sitting figure: If its not helpful at least it should give a little glimpse into my process.

[agelaos]

excellent man, love those skin tones. Solid working process. Seems like you get things done quickly and efficiently. Keep showing when you can, man.

[MR. Carbon]

James Wolf, Your first page is freaking killa, loving it, keep looking forward to seeing more man.

[kinnas]

just dropped in to say "good stuff" "keep it up" and "here's hoping to meet you one day as two rookies at massive black" : )

[James Wolf]

Hello,

heres a few more!
first the finished executioner, finally done...so many adjustments...I'm not to fond of the smile but the client felt it was very important to have it in, also I was torn between painting a nude figure and making a sci-fi character,.. so I ended up doing both! well she's not actually naked but anyway, it wasn't me intention to make her look like a jedi but I guess I kinda asked for it when i added the "magnetic energy blades" in. I've already had a few people from other forums mistake her for a...padawan... is that right? now i will be working on the 100 creatures for a while, see ya later!

[Kamikazebob]

Beautiful update! Love the whole atmosphere on the first pic and the 2nd/3rd piece is dead sexy.

[roidvoid]

the backview of the woman (with the lightsabers) is pretty good as a sketch but it looks like you ran into troubles with the side of the face and with the feet.
the sketch has great weight and ballance to it but the rendered out painting suffers in areas mentioned above
im not really loving the rust color on the wall in front of her.

my two cents

[jdeegz]

nice :) i think her calf is to thick though! but still, i thought it was a photo at first, hahaha

[halaster]

nice!!
i love your work.

[Jakers]

I really enjoyed looking through your work...its nice to see the nice form drawings start your pieces. One crit if anything would be that the feet could be more curvy in the odd female piece. Good stuff!

[Dan Valkar]

i def love the way u colour man! very sweet and realistic...keep the good work!

[RandAlThor]

very nice progress here, loving the skin tones, keep it up dude. ;-)

[BohemianChaos]

the finished pieces are looking awesome :)

[deadred]

hey you're that guy who drew the awesome evil-eye-with-flies-and-veil image :D love your mastery of skin colors and anatomy! nice lighting too, especially on that jedi (undressing, panties) girl pic, looking forward to updates!

[razz]

Sexy!! But a pleasure to look at not just because of that, hehe. The tut might come in useful, though that's sort of the way I paint already. Say, do you always start with the linework? I find it more free to start with blobs of color/silhouette or a very very loose linework. This way I don't get trapped inside the linework.
Keep showing this good stuff!

Cheers

[Camara]

Damn!!Your chicks are hot!!The anatomy and the colors in the last one are great!!Very good work!

[MonkeYoakum]

The reflected light to under her butt makes for such a nice depth and weight to the form.

[Coleb]

Your skin tones and blending are wonderful. Do you often start on a white ground and then change it later? I guess I´d love some more step by steps.

Please post more.

[OBX]

wow, incredible, this last page blows the stuff on the earlier ones away. the lightsaber chick is hot. verynice.

[kischi]

Great progress! The last one is awesome.
Your coloring is pushing your drawings to a next level!

[James Wolf]

Sheesh I guess I should check my sketchbook more often, I've had so much work over the past month, this is about my 30th day straight of work, I guess I don't now how to give myself a break. on top of that I foolishly decided to take on the 100 creature COW as well lol, pretty exhausting month :yawn: anyway I guess I'll post a few sample creatures to give you a taste till the post is up.

Kamikazebob-thanks :confident
roidvoid- thanks for the crit, I agree with you, I may fix it up a bit before posting it over at CGSociety.
jdeegz- I see what you both are saying, I need to practice my feet more :)
halaster- I'm glad you like my work, I appreciate the comment :)
Jakers-it always helps me to see how an artist goes from sketch to painting so I try to do the same, incase its helpful. yea, her feet aren't very sexy..
Dan Valkar- thank you :)
RandAlThor- I like skin :)
BohemianChaos- hopefully I'll be able to get some full fledged illustrations up at some point.
deadred- yep thats me! I'm actually going to be making a tutorial for that one in a magazine soon.
razz- I usually do, getting all the work done in the sketch stage makes the painting portion go quicker for me, also depends on what i'm doing, I'm much more loose with the quicker stuff.
Camara-lol thanks.
MonkeYoakum- I love reflective light and I'm glad it was successful in the piece!
Coleb- I'll try to get some more up, usually I find a midtone to start with so I can add lights and darks to it, similar to with charcoal drawings.
OBX- cool, hopefully that means I'm getting better :)
kischi- thanks, I always loved painting more than sketching

[MonkeYoakum]

third row, far left has my vote for favoright, looks botanical. Nice.

[BohemianChaos]

these thumbs look great :teeth:

[zephyri]

Wow, stunning work in this thread, and really interesting to see how you've handed the whole speed issue, something I really need to work on myself. I actually like the smile on the executioner, and the finished version of the girl with the swords is stunning, how long did that take you? Liking the thumbs of the creatures too, very very nice indeed. Damn I need to work more!

[Jakers]

Great thumbs, im impressed by a great deal of them...its going to take ages to check out all the 100 COW entries!

[James Wolf]

MonkeYoakum-thanks :) he was the last creature I painted.
BohemianChaos-:) I have more lol
zephyri-:) i'm definitely getting faster, She took around two sittings, I can't remember exactly but I know i did it over the weekend so it went pretty fast. thanks the thumbs took a lot of energy out of me lol, if you haven't already be sure to vote over at the COW thread!
Jakers-thanks, yeah there's so many up its hard to decide.

I had a lot of of with this COW! after seeing everyone else's I sort of wish I had presented mine a little better lol, but o well. here are the rest of them. if anyone wants a certain one in a higher resolution let me know and i'll post it up. actually the 100 creature poll has a much higher resolution version of these so check that out as well if you'd like :)

[BohemianChaos]

wow!! these all look awesome. :)

[Jakers]

I distinctly remember seeing a few of these designs when I was browsing though them once the event was finished, great job! I feel bad for not doing it and bettering my skills in the creature department. Though nothing is stopping me from doing it on my own ;) just too much else im working on. Post some more stuff when you got it sir

[jdeegz]

so rad.

[James Wolf]

Hi! I just thought i'd let you all know that I have an article in the december issue of 2dartist. I have a ton of stuff I wish i could show but unfortunately they are all under NDA's :( but i do have a few pieces i'll be putting up soon! anyway here are some shots of the lite version:

[Rabid]

beautiful work with this one, I love the small detail in the veil.

[DARAF]

I just got done reading your tut in the mag. Good stuff in this sb dude. I love the veil over the characters face, just the right amount of see-through.

[Marjolein]

OMG
beutiful sketchbook!! i wish i was at your level!
Your lightning and shading is amazing!

one of my fav threads here!

[James Wolf]

thanks for the kind words :) I'll have another article for that magazine in the march issue i believe. I also have another one out but its only being released in greece. Marjolein thats quite the compliment considering the amount of absurdly good work in the threads! thanks! Ok I guess I can siphed through my piles of work and find something to put up......hmmm....ah... 1) just another practice env concept, still learning :) took about 45 mins 2) I added a simple background to the sci-fi girl 3) some stuff of a book cover, it looks really good with the text but thought i'd just post the image itself. everything else is a super secret and i can't reveal them till the time is right!

[VenustusVis]

oh snap! I love how clean your linework is!! plus some of those paintings are very very nice. They have a quality to them that is very painterly

[D@niel]

Hey, realy great updates, awsome stuff happening here!!:)

[MonkeYoakum]

On that pic of the jedi girl with the sock on, I wonder why the light sabers arent giving off more red light around the area? Or is it intensional to have the green light in place of it? Thanks for the step by step too.

[Diphallia]

Wow that's one sexy Jedi!
Nice sketchbook, you deserve a lot more attention.

[andyhunt]

Man, i really like your style. The stripping cyber-assassin and the sickly veiled woman are two of the coolest images I've seen in a long while. Very cool stuff.

[James Wolf]

Thanks for the comments everyone! they're actually "Bright Sabers" MonkeYoakum and give off a slightly lower aura lol :)

[Hive_minD]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=267756&stc=1&d=1198894482
sexy as hell.
Would crit more, but I'm sooo tired. Forgive me. I'll try to pop by again, and again!

Chris

[BohemianChaos]

awesome updates... I think the background really adds to the sci fi girl pic. Congrats on the 2dartist entry also. :teeth:

[DragonSnail]

Just flipped through your SB and had to stop myself long enough to say "Droolworthy"! :yum:

Love the hateful eye image, one of the creepiest I have seen. The jedi girl is eye candy, but the hateful eye image is something that really sticks to the mind. Like... sticky syrup. Likewise with the executioner, but not as strong. I really love images that teases the mind - happy, sad, creepy; it doesn't matter, but if the artist manages to make people feel something with their images, they have gone a long way. Hope to see more from you! :^^:

[Lege1]

Sick sketch book bro!

[James Wolf]

Hive_minD- thanks and no problem :)
BohemianChaos- cool I wasn't sure if the background was a good idea or not but i'm glad i did it now :)
DragonSnail- droolworthy! awright! thanks!
Lege1- y thank you!

I had a really nasty comment the other day: http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=93870
that came out of nowhere huh, fortunately I'm confident enough to not let comments like that bother me, but it definitely sucks that there are such dis-respectful people out there.

here was my submission to the chow #100 unfortunately I didn't have time to do the piece justice and had to cut corners to make it on time. I'd say its about 70% complete at this point and I'm definitely gonna work on it more. if any of you have crits or comments on the piece I would love it, I spent enough time on it that I really wanna make it successful. at the moment I feel the snakes are a major problem area, as well as her hair and arms.

[Maestro Andres]

Hey man, I did really enjoy going over your sketchbook, you have very nice pieces and HOT CHICKS which is always a plus :) Your use of color is very great too. I read your goal on the first page, and you seem to be on the right track. Would be helpful to go back to do some environments, those seem to be a "key thing" these days. You can probably learn more about them by reading the subforums in the mentor thread about environments. Also, considering speed, one of the instructors at the Revelations workshop mentioned that for speedpainting, the first focus should be on quality than in speed. If it takes you 8 hours or more to do one environment, just do it because the important thing is to learn the process and the more you are familiar with it, the faster you will become. Just takes practice.
I actually found your Medusa piece one of my favorites from the CHOW 100. Like the dynamism of the snakes flowing around. One small crit is that with such bright snakes there should be some reflected light around the character it will help unify better all the elements, you can sure play with that and made a great dramatic effect.

Cheers

[James Wolf]

cool! thanks so much for the advise Maestro Andres, I agree with you on the lighting and I definitely need more environments lol.

[BohemianChaos]

I can't wait to see that CHOW when you finish it, even if it's after the deadline. Looks like it will end up being an amazing piece. :)

[James Wolf]

Hello everyone :) just thought i'd update with a new version of the medusa challenge piece. i've been doing bits and pieces inbetween work and finally got it looking somewhat decent. I'd love to hear comments and crits as I hope to submit it to expose 6 within the next few days. :) I also have some more stuff that i'll post up very soon!

[MonkeYoakum]

Great looking medusa I reall like her presence although I did feel it was stronger with the snake attacking in the earlier post. My other crits are I wish I could see the snakes on her head more, but the detail is kind of lost in the halo, and the background of the foreground seems too empty if you know what Im saying, its just black, or dark and flat. I also have to say I like the old dagger seemed more snakish. but overall looks really nice, love the rendering of skin tone any tips as far as that goes? I have a hard time getting a believable skin color, always ends up looking barbie doll ish. Thanks for the updates, lookin great. Later.

[James Wolf]

Hey thanks MonkeYoakum, I felt the striking snake was to distracting, I was looking at it more than the figure :), I'll see what i can do with the head snakes, although when it comes to the foreground Im not to sure what I would put there. I'm not sure this is my best skin work but just remember that the skin isn't one color, its made up of many hues, and if you want it to pop, keep in mind the warm and cools of the flesh. heres quicky I just started the other day the blob in the front is going to be a horse lol:

[Coinpurse]

really digging post #111
Keep going! :D

[MonkeYoakum]

can't wait to see that one buffed out. It seems like the snakes have some luminecense, but the foreground snakes dont seem to, maybee that could fill some of the black. Thanks for the advice on skin tones also

[James Wolf]

thanks Coinpurse:) and thanks for the advise MonkeYoakum

Hi again, heres another piece, this was a fantasy portrait for a client, He wanted most of the figure in dark shadow as to hide most of her features from the viewers allowing them to make there own assumptions as to what she looks like. it was a pretty quick commission, he wants a few of these for his characters as sort of a character profile section for his books website.

[MonkeYoakum]

she looks hot, either that or her eyes are alien. hmmm mission acomplished.

[thesadpencil]

really stunning works here man. love your colors. subscribing to this one for sure.

[James Wolf]

MonkeYoakum- I also have a version of her with shades on :)
thesadpencil- thanks :)

just found these laying around, I think they were practice for last halloween, but I'm always drawing creepy heads when I'm bored haha, just thought I should post'em before they get tooo old, so are there any more crits on the medusa piece? I'm gona give it another revision then i'm sending it off.

[MonkeYoakum]

I still say the katana seems out of place.

[James Wolf]

another environmental concept attempt:....O whats that...bloody hands?! Dun! Dun! DUNNNNN!!!!

[Exquisite Beast]

Your stuff is amazing. If your figures were vomit, I'd eat it. My only comment, and this is more a comment than crit, is that I'd really like to see some warmer colours in this image. It tends to look a bit flat/greyscale other wise. Similarly, there seems to be a lack of shadow which adds to the flatness. Anyhoo, you can draw a dome in perspective without it looking weird so ***** from me.

[jdeegz]

waaaiiittt you're in boston!?

><

take me with you to the west coast, i want to work for blizzard!

[James Wolf]

Wow! Exquisite Beast thats quite the compliment lol and thanks for the crit, I see what your saying.

jdeegz- yea sure lets go! blizzards a toughy though lol, they were at a siggraph job fair that I went to and they were sitting there with their arms crossed like they were set to auto deny... every time someone came up to them with a portfolio they pretty much said no thanks before even seeing it haha. I was talking to them for a while and they were saying that they can pretty much be as picky as they want because everyone wants to work for blizzard, some general advise they were giving to people was that if you wanna work for blizzard, Make "blizzard art" "make your work fit into our world" anywaayy,..

I'm posting my final medusa up in the finished work section, no reason to fill my sketchbook with multiple revisions :) or should I....

[jdeegz]

so hey, i am interested into going to come like.. concept art fairs or galleries, do you happen to know anything about a scene in boston ? seems like no one here at massart except for a small few are into doing stuff like this.

and do fill you sb with revisions :-D

[James Wolf]

well i guess i'll post the medusa finish up here then, might as well since im not getting many crits in the finished section :)

[MonkeYoakum]

I enjoy watching the process and progress in your work. Final looks great. Keep up the good work :)

[James Wolf]

thanks MonkeYoakum :)
heres a few shots from a recent commission, I usually don't do much city/sci-fi work so this was quite fun and refreshing :) I also think I learn a lot from it. also heres a page of waterfall quickies, I limited my time to 30 minutes each I know quality is more important that quantity/speed but I was just testing what I can to in a short period, anyway comment and crits welcome :)

[joaKimArt]

Awesome paintings, Love the medusa! Keep on posting. Very cool and well made stuff you have here!

cya

[Camara]

Amazing creations,man!!!Those fast little enviros look so great!

[James Wolf]

thanks both of you! obviously i'm still figuring the whole concept art thing out so any help on that would be much apreciated :) actually last night I figured out two major road blocks in terms of concept art: one my computer is to slow to do fast sketchy work! lol and i have a major problem with not being able to stop, i keep refining things that don't need to be refined :( o well gotta keep at it :) here is another concept im working on, possibly for this weeks environmental challenge, abandoned space station, with this one i tried the grayscale and later layered color over it, which was pretty fun, now i have to make it more devastating... :)

[Gulli05]

Amazing sketchbook, I love the medusa, it is so amazing! I await more work! :)

[MonkeYoakum]

nice stuff, dont you hate computer speed limitations, Im still using photoshop 6 for the reason. But open Canvas seems to be lighter on the computer for fast sketchy stuff, smooth arcs not so much chop chop chop chop. Nice enviros, the only critic that jumps out at me is the second waterfall, there seems to be a light line that goes all around the tree that looks unnatural to me,but what ever stuffs lookin good!

[Quinn Simoes]

Hey James,

Wicked SB, your environments are turning out great. Keep going!

Quinn

[Jorge Gecov]

Love the medusa! Great art.

[James Wolf]

Gulli05- thanks :) i'm happy with it too! i do have a few adjustments to make but i'll get to that after i get some other stuff done.

MonkeYoakum-thanks for the crit :) always helpful, yea I think if i were to keep working on those, a lot of stuff would be ironed out. my computer is feeling sick at the moment :(

Quinn Simoes- thanks, i still have a long way to go but i'm making progress :)

Jorge Gecov- thanks,

I was going to post some more work i did last night but my computer just shut off without warning, and right in the middle of a paintig i was working on!i'm assuming its from over heating and over use so i'm giving it a little nap before i start up again, but i'll definitely be posting more stuff today! thanks everyone

[Trollfar]

I really like the dark girl with insekts under her eye. Really fascinating :D

[James Wolf]

thanks Trollfar, a making of, of that piece is in decembers 2dartist magazine,
I'm back again :) so here are two things i did last night. I was tired of working on a commission so i decided to paint a face, then i realized that was a waste of time so i created a character design instead :) took about 2.5 hours from 3 to 5:30am, I've realized how horrible I am at integrating simple backgrounds into character pieces lol, i'd love it if anyone had some quick advice on that :) guess i'll have to take a deaper look at some awesome character artists.

[Prophet of Death]

your stuff looks awsome and i especially love the very first piece. well done.

[BohemianChaos]

heyo! thanks for popping by my sb :) your new posts are lookin great. :)

as a suggestion to your issue with creating backgrounds, sometimes I just start drawing shapes and it kind of turns into something... you know, like cloud-reading or something of that sort. It doesn't work with everything, but sometimes it will help you come up with an idea. :)

[Glory666]

Awsum work man, love your style and choice of colours for a piece. I can see u getting close to your dream of massive black becoming ever closer. keep it up man

[keith_v]

I love the grainy look of your images. And the fact that you can cover such a varied amount of imagery is awesome.

[MonkeYoakum]

for background.. I think the goal is composition still, so i would break it up using tone, texture what ever to break it up, and some one said offset your focal point helps, I found a loomis book free online that talked about composition and ways to create it from nothing, it was interesting and might help you. nice lookin scorpion dude btw.

here are those books, creative illustration has the composition formula in it. cheers!

[Kian]

hey james.
Youve got some really beautiful work in here mate :)

[James Wolf]

Prophet of Death- thanks :)
BohemianChaos- Hi :) thanks for the advice, i'll try it out!
Glory666- thank for the words of encouragement! although at the moment there are a few hundred other artist on here that destroy me art wise so I have quite a lot of work ahead if I wanna get remotely close to my goal lol. one thing i think i have going for me is my age, after looking through many many interviews and bios, a fairly common concept artist age seems to be around 28 so I figure I have as least 6-7 years to get where i wanna be! of course there are some concept artists out there that are like 20-21! at least from what i've read/seen crazy crazy.
keith_v- thanks
MonkeYoakum- ! ah thanks! very helpful
Kian- oOOoo! thanks for the kind words!

heres an update to the space station, the first one was my original direction and the last one is more spacie to match the topic a little better.

[Gloominati]

this space station is really cool, loving how you got the best outta it ;)
The portrait of the girl with the piercings is a bit too symmetrical for me. The lack of compositional means, which should definitely be considered in portraits as in other paintings, makes it really hard for me to "rest" on the piece. I can really feel like my eyes are jumping arround, trying to find a place to rest on.

Though thats just a minor thing, the rest fo your stuff kicks ass :D

[nyssa]

Nice drawings wow I wish I could have some classes from you you're great! I like everything you draw!

[James Wolf]

thanks Gloominati, yea I completely agree, thats why I abandoned it, it was more just to keep me busy while I thought about what i wanted to do next.

thanks nyssa! :)

just wanted to post some sketches, I tried to keep loose, definitely gotta work on that :) also I couldn't help but wash some quick colors in. I just love color so much i can't help it lol

[Spade]

that medusa is way cool, the glowing snakes really pack a punch! I also like your colour pallette, great use of greens and yellows~!

[hp]

on the last figure i mighta pushed the b/w a bit further in values but the color version looks great! the sun hurts my eyes :D i think working on the clouds would really make it pop.

[Cyanid]

nice achievement on the translucency of the wings there. check the anatomy around the chest/shoulder. his chest is a bit too musceled i think.

[Peter Berkovski]

lol man you have magnificent sb,first time here and I totaly love your work.amzing skills,definitely subscribed and 5 start,can't wait to see more from you ;)
Cheers!

[mysteryofalbesila]

nice works

[James Wolf]

Spade-thanks I was hoping they'd do that :)
hp- thanks for the crit! I like the piece so I might go back and make something of it when i get the chance.
Cyanid- thanks, will do :)
atlantik- haha thanks for the very kind words :) I think i'm getting back on track so you'll most likely be seeing a lot more soon!
mysteryofalbesila-thankies :)

heres an older piece that i never got around to finishing, looks awkward and static, plus I seem to have misplaced her clothing, don't really know what to do about that :) originally she was gonna have a wedding type dress on, anyway if i get enough crits i may go back in and finish it up, especially since its very close to being finished.

[Peter Berkovski]

wow great update ;) oh and no clothing please she looks great right now and she wana stay like that ;) maybe you can change the hair position I mean more windblow hair ;)
nice work!

[climaxdesigns]

your work is insane man look forward to seeing more

[hp]

ew not a wedding dress, if anything do a waterhouse type dress :D

http://jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=4
http://jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=45

[enthombed]

hey james, nice updates since mu last visit here bro. i really liked that girls withs snake around her.

keep posting

Cheers

[MeTaL-Mike]

great sb. love your characters. nice colors on the last one.

[frog and *BAM*]

beautiful stuff, love that last painting

[Quinn Simoes]

Clothes or no clothes, its still a beautiful painting, the color palette you used is very nice. Great job James!

Quinn

[Genome]

Firstly I wanna say I definitally dig your illustrations. You can render and your not boring, which i believe is very hard to find. *caution your a diamond in some rough*

You asked for crits on that naked chick in the meadow? I have some, but feel free to disregard them if needed.

i think you need to place something in the back ground that she is looking at,(you probably already had this as a piece of the BG sticks out) i think it should be a warmer colour for a play on tempature, but its your piece. ALso i know you lost her clothes, but i would put a nice amount of detail within the portion that is on her shoulder blades and up, because although our eyes are drawn there without detail for our eyes to rest on we drift visually

anywhoo man, your a great artist and its gonna be fun to watch you grow.

EDIT- you have a fear of feet, fix it and youll own figures

[James Wolf]

atlantik- heh heh, actually i think i am going to keep it a simple nude, the figure is done well enough and i don't really have a strong direction for the clothing. also yea i think i'll work more on the hair :)
climaxdesigns- :) thanks
hp- haha yea that type would definitely fit better, so thanks for the refs!
enthombed- cool thanks for stopping by :) glad you like that one, it took a little bit more work than most of my stuff on here, still tetering on whether it was worth it or not but i was really into it when painting it!
MeTaL-Mike- :)
frog and *BAM*- I wasn't even gonna post it, but i'm glad i did now cause the crits have inspired me to finish it up. :)
Quinn Simoes-thanks!
Genome- thanks for the kind words! and great crit, i agree with everything said and will keep it in mind :)

heres another quicky, hope you like it, i've been trying not to get caught up in over rendering and such.

[Mr.Delicious]

nice, I like the butt further up, its nice, you should draw like a million butts :D

[Jakers]

new one is looking neat, i look forward to seeing all its details brought out because it generates great eye moement right now...so keep going on it.

I think it would be pretty impactful if his hand/weapon were more outstretched towards us and larger - no idea if you're even willing to rework it that much but it would make a neat composition imo.

The nude figure in the field...amazing choice to shift the shaded to brightly lit skin in the way you did...pushing reality even a bit brings it to life, and the warm really contrasts with the greens and greys. The sky looks too painted here and there compared to the rest, give it a little more attention? later!

[James Wolf]

Mr.Delicious- by the time i'm 80 I will most definitely have drawn that many bums and i shall collage them together to create the grandest buttox mural of them all, the great crack in the sky shall split and a blinding beam of light will spotlight the mural lifting it into the heavens where it will become a god.

Jakers- cool thanks for the crits, I hadn't even thought about adjusting the sky.

heres an update for the field girl, still not finish but it should be very soon. :)

[Quinn Simoes]

your "armored lord" painting is very nice, I like the lighting and texture, field girl is coming along great as well. Thanks for the updates!

Quinn

[James Wolf]

thanks Quinn :)

heres a sketch i'm working on, still needs a lot of work but hopefully I'll be able to get it to a finished state! I never really did much black and white work but i've been having a lot of fun with them lately.

[ShaunLey]

slick man very slick

[Mr.Delicious]

I think you should play with the girl's pose a bit more, right now she looks kinda static for an action scene... maybe bend her back arm up and stuff or if I were you Id just imagine what it'd be like and then go sit in a chair and pose. :) maybe take a picture of it and send it to me

nice work though, I hope you draw skeleton battles soon

[midknight523]

beautiful work through and through

[hp]

i would make her hair more dynamic and not so in one direction, also if you added like a glowy line from her hand to the part where the monster is getting blasted it would add more movement.

maybe push the blacks, it seems mostly midtones.

good piece so far :D

[DANKA]

Hi James!
Nice works here, I just seen your work on cgtalk (the young jedi girl) very nice sketchbook...
IMHO you should add some green tone on the legs of the girl in your "field girl"...this could combine better the girl with the ground...
Keep it up!...
Bye
Dan

[copperfire]

The girl in the field is amazing! I do however think it might be wise to add a few strands of hair across her shoulder, it would better connect the figure as a whole.
Other then that, perfect!

So far
I love everything you do, amazing work, please never stop :D!!! but most of all, post more!!! :)

[James Wolf]

ShaunLey- thanks
Mr.Delicious- yea i agree, thanks.
midknight523- :)
hp- good advise !
DANKA- thanks yea I should, I tried it the other day but I must have been out of it cause they ended up looking like swamp thing feet..I'll have to work on it a bit more :)
copperfire- hey thanks for stopping by :) thanks for the crit, I added in some strands the other day while doing the swampthing feet.


:)!!!!! thanks for the advise everyone I'll definitely be fixing that piece up, until then i have a few other things to post, I started reworking the fig in the said piece above but one thing let to another and well I ended up with this first piece...huh how'd that happen!! actually I posted a bulletin on myspace asking to draw people and a bunch of friends jumped at the chance lol, next is some work on another portrait, same project as the shaded girl portrait, then I was just messing around and came up with this backview character, the concept stinks but I had a color combination I wanted to try so i whipped something up quick, now that i know i like the colors i'll start up a new piece with those colors. I've got a bunch more, maybe i'll post them in a few hours :)

[kidult]

Cool stuff here - loving the ass! The armour on this last lot could do with some texture / detail maybe.
Great to see your stuff!

[Roczniak]

great color James, I enjoy watching your work :)
this girl on cloudy back, and warm light very strong !

[Noukah]

I smell pure TALENT in here!

You're an inspiration, mr! Now I go subcribe, feels more like and obligation than a choice.
Keep'em coming. I'm impressed :)

[James Wolf]

kidult- thanks very true about the armor :)
Roczniak- y thank you :)
Noukah- Hi! :) an inspiration and a subscription O.O ...thanks a lot, now i'm gonna have to work twice as hard to meet your expectations lol just kidding thanks for stopping by!

today I am mad because my computer apparently thinks its funny. for some reason the images in my folders don't load, the lasso, transform, line, and other photoshop tools don't show up when i'm using them, and it over heats for no reason, this upsets me greatly and causes me to yell at in-animate objects, I think it might be my video card but if anyone has any thoughts on this it would be greately appreciated :) also I am frustrated with having to break image links to organize my work! it was a big jumbled mess that I couldn't deal with any longer so a few images might be missing in my sketchbook...I don't remember when i started uploading them directly to the ca servers. anyway now i'm back to being happy cause I have a few things to post. I don't do many building/sci fi work so I'd love some crits if you have the time :) i'm not to happpy with the colors but I'll have to see what the client says first.

[GeistDel]

Wow... I guess all that I have to say is that you are well on your way to your goal. Your stuff is amazing. I especially love your creativiness in your ideas. How much do have to iterate on your pieces. Do you usually pretty much have the basic idea or is it a process of keeping ideas and throwing them away. Keep on working.

[Hive_minD]

I really liked the mood in the environment piece ;)

Chris

[chrishly]

great stuff man

[James Wolf]

GeistDel- thanks, well it depends, for some, generally my larger pieces, I usually plan things out in my head and by the time i put it on paper I have a set idea of what i want and how its gonna look, with others I just play with shapes till something evolves and go from there :) although i try to keep an open mind, if something doesn't work the way i had thought then I'll change it or remove it totally.
Hive_minD- thanks
chrishly-:)

here are two quick environments, just practice as usual. I have like 4 others but they're pretty bad lol

[DannyMuskens]

I dig, really like the girl blowing in the wind and the environmental piece with the flying/floating cars, raw talent man! Good luck and keep it up so that we have something pwetty to look at!

[Hive_minD]

Bloody interesting environments. Looking forward to updates on them, or just new ones :)

Chris

[Quinn Simoes]

That b&w environment has a nice sense of depth to it, nice work on those.

[Noukah]

Great environments. Post the other ones too! :)
I bet they're good as well!

[James Wolf]

DannyMuskens- I'll try! :)
Hive_minD- thanks here's a few new ones
Quinn Simoes- great! thanks, I don't really do many sci fi environments so i'm gonna try getting some more up
Noukah-heh heh well i don't know about that! maybe i'll work on them a tini bit before posting. :)

heres two more, both very similar obviously cause I was working on them at the same time and sharing elements from both :)

[MonkeYoakum]

nice stuff, I esspecialy like the snowy metropolis, but those last two seem really saturated all over, but especialy in the shadows. Or maybee thats just me.

[James Wolf]

heh heh yea they are a bit saturated, I got a little crazy with the overlay layers :) if i was gonna print them out or do something with them i'd fix it but they're just practice. Heres one of those bad ones I was talking about, i didn't really feel like painting but I forced myself to do something, it just seems dirty and things don't really work that well.

[xbert]

ok, i bet you heard this a thousand times but i really love the way youre yousing colors - it gives your images great and seriously unique mood! this is true inspiration hope to see more soon!

[Vigilandus]

Shite. Nice enviros. What would you recommend a noob like me, if I would to become better at enviros..?

Studies? If so.. what kind of studies do you make? =o

Oh and keeep it uuupp m8.

[Noukah]

Nice lighting!

Btw, are you painting everything freehand or are the layers tweaked afterwords? :)
And that last one is not bad! Be brave! :)

[James Wolf]

xbert- heh heh i have heard that few times :) I love color and i'm glad i've been fairly successful so far lol hopefully they'll get even better as I learn :)
Vigilandus- how much of a noob :) well I'd say get a few ref shots to practice from and focus on blocking in nice big shapes until you get a good composition going, its also especially important to keep values in mind with environments cause your dealing with a lot of distance and remember that the further back you go, generally the less amount of detail and saturation you should have.
Noukah- hi again lol thanks! wellll I tend to have a very traditional view so I try to get the color right the first time but lately i've been realizing how phenominal photoshop is as a post editing tool lol, but to answer your question, I don't usually tweek things after i'm done unless there are some major issues. :) also when i do have tweeking its usually done throughout the painting process...wait a minute..was that your question?

...anyway here's another I just did since my last post! I think i'm getting faster :) although i wasn't too clever with the design layout heh heh the next one will look totally different! i swear!

[MonkeYoakum]

Dang! Producer! I like those last ones. Nice sense of light

[humanNature6115]

Your figures have a good light to them..

=================================
:mittenbop: :mittenbop: :mittenbop: Sketchbook:mittenbop: :mittenbop: :mittenbop:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761)

[James Wolf]

MonkeYoakum- :)
humanNature6115- thanks

two head practices, loosely based on refs, I was just playing with this stripey brush that seems to be so popular :) now I know why! cause it works well heh heh.

[James Wolf]

Hi :) just thought i'd update with a few new things, i've been in a little rut lately so a lot of these were just to get the hand moving :) oh and its a bit late but heres a comic cover I did back in march :D

[rushwolf]

Lookin good. Do you work in Painter?

Im sort of feeling, at a glance, that your style could either use some tightening up or loosening up- depending on what you want to aim for.

Looser being more like Sparth, an incredible environmental concept artist.
Tighter... Well there are many artists but what I notice at lot is that you avoid clearly defining planes and geometry on your characters and objects.

As someone once told me, "Don't be afraid to get in there and carve it up"
Hit those points where values shift, between a shadow and light, make it more crisp.

Eh thats my 2.. 3 cents.

[Decepticon217]

Great work man! quick question, im new to painting digital..
for the mor part im doing 1 layer black and white stuff, how do I go about coloing it with out losing the original lines and tones..?

[MonkeYoakum]

Thanks for the visit in my sb, about avoiding greys in the draconian piece , I asume your talking about his skin? I was trying to keep it like mid chroma, but do you think I can achieve what your talking about with light color in an overlay layer? You are not the only one to say the color could be pushed in that piece, so I appreciate the advice, thanks again!

[Decepticon217]

Thanks for the visit in my sb, about avoiding greys in the draconian piece , I asume your talking about his skin? I was trying to keep it like mid chroma, but do you think I can achieve what your talking about with light color in an overlay layer? You are not the only one to say the color could be pushed in that piece, so I appreciate the advice, thanks again!

im talking about how you have a bw version then the final is color...
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=354935&stc=1&d=1209060355
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=354935&stc=1&d=1209060355


also what size of file do you work with? and at what resolution?

[Jussi Tarvainen]

James,

You sure are on your way to Massive black! Very strong lighting you got going on. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it and never give up!!!

[keyu6215]

These are "nasty" (good nasty not bad nasty)

[James Wolf]

rushwolf- :) thanks, photoshop at the moment but i'd love to get my hands on painter at some point. great advice, actually your exactly right, my works always been tight and somewhat stiff so i've been trying to loosen my stuff up, at the moment I'm sort of in an awkward inbetween stage but i'm workin on it! also yea I need to be more bold, I have a bad habit of smoothing everything out but it just wastes time and ruins the spontineaity, anyway i'll keep this all in mind :)

Decepticon217- thanks :) usually i'll get a base color going with overlay and soft layers, I'll lasso sections and adjust shapes till I get a nice color scheme going then I'll actually just paint like normal which is why I don't completely finish a piece off in black and white. you could also turn the bw into a multiply layer and paint under it. however i'm still learning myself so there may be better ways of doing all this :)

MonkeYoakum- :) i'll try to explain better on your page heh heh

yousa- :) hey!....thanks :)

keyu6215- nasty! I'm offende..oh good nasty, cool thanks!!

heres another wip, quite colorful when i step back lol having trouble with the city streets though,

[James Wolf]

found a 2 year old sketch and decided to fill it in, took about 35 minutes, while painting it I discovered the tool presets window... o man do I feel retarded now! just thinking of all those wasted minutes trying to adjust a brush to paint with...well at least I know about it now...:)

[Pad&pencil]

Your characters and enviros are sick!! When you start off with an eviro do you have a set look before hand or do you start working and then kinda shape it as you go along???

[Decepticon217]

Thx man!
Im actually kinda dreading working in color, never was good at it.

[Ash888]

Really nice work, love the cover you did.
Very impressive paintings and characters.
Post again soon

[James Wolf]

Pad&pencil- thanks, it depends on how much of a vision I have before hand :) sometimes i go with the flow and other times I know exactly how i want it to look.

Decepticon217- cool, colors are fun! :) by the way this piece i'm posting is a colored version of a bw I posted a while ago if your interested.

Ash888- thanks, that cover was actually done in one night cause they needed it asap.

heres another cityscape in the same series that i've been doing, I'm still not sure if the streets look "alive" yet, what do you think? I could keep adding details but it seems theres an endless amount of details i could work on and i'm not sure where to stop. or maybe there are other things in the piece that i should focus on first. anyway:

[James Wolf]

an update to this piece, any crits on this one would certainly be welcome :) if you have some extra time that is.

[SanXavier]

Great landscapes and color schemes.

[Brun]

keep em coming, the last painting could use a bit more depth and colour :)

keep it rocking

[zhiao]

Very pretty. I like the secondary color scheme on the building including the little green touches. Technically perfect for me but I would push the composition more.

The only critique I have is that the flying cars and the building seem of equal interest, to me - the color and texture are similar, too.

[James Wolf]

SanXavier- thanks :)
Brun, zhiao- cool thanks for the advice, heres a revision, last revision for now until i here back from the client. hopefully its an improvement.

[RedGallo]

That last revision looks great man, keep it up. you rock.

[James Wolf]

RedGallo- thanks :)

heres a creature I did last night, thought i'd post the sketch as well, obviously i decided not o have a rider like originally planned, I just felt it didn't really fit that well. sorry rider....I'll find you another beast...

[BigPapaRaels]

wow this stuff is insane. i love the last creature great color. your sketchbook is incredible very inspiring it makes me want to push myself to draw better and push my pieces to perfection. one of the greats here at CA. good work man and thank you for posting it up here

[BigPapaRaels]

one more why the fuck do you only have 4 stars your getting 5 from me

[Peter Berkovski]

yay, amazing work buddy, love the last insect-lava thing.keep rocking!

[aedman]

Great improvement throughout this sketchbook, that city/flying car piece is professional material. I really like the bold color choices too, do you intuitively come up with your color schemes or are they more planned?

[James Wolf]

BigPapaRaels- lol thanks! guess you must've missed some of the other sketchbooks on here though, there are a lot on here that just blow me away :)

Peter Berkovski- thanks, I had different plans for that sketch but it was just sitting around.

aedman- thanks! you think so? its hard for me to tell sometimes. for the colors it depends, the cityscape was planned out more than most but if something doesn't work then I'll keep changing it till it does.

heres a sketch for today, i'll paint it up in a little bit.

[erik-jan v/d schuur]

the first picture on page 1 is a real eye catcher
such a cool character.

[James Wolf]

`ej- :)

heres another sketch, just wanted to post it so see if I could get some thoughts on the figure, cause i'm not sure how well its working,

[algenpfleger]

These are some kickass designs man! Loving your digi paintings too, very solid and colorful and stuff. :)

[MonkeYoakum]

She seems to be lifting up off the ground, so if thats what your going for then good, but i think she'd work better grounded. also, I think bigger hips would make her hotter, though a less probable flying humanoid.

[Shard]

wicked stuff dude!! i cant tell if you're better at characters or enviros..its all so nice!! I'll be watching! :)

[MeTaL-Mike]

nice sb. some of your enviros and characters are really awesome!!

[call me snake]

Wow! Really ace stuff in here!
A thought on that painting with the flying cars, the people on the ground seems a bit large imo, putting down the scale of the whole image. It would be more action and be a bit more grand if the scale of the building was greater.
But perhaps that's a restriction from the client, just a thought.
Keep it goin'

[James Wolf]

algenpfleger- :D thanks!
MonkeYoakum- yea i agree, as you can see i've worked on it a bit more since this last post :)
shardana- heh heh :)
MeTaL-Mike- thanks :) some aye! I'll have to work on that lol
call me snake- the client likes it the way it is so I wouldn't dare touch it haha but thanks for the advice though :)

here's an update to the sketch above, also a portrait, as you can see it took a drastic turn towards the creapy side...why does that always happen! and a little 2d game background cause my little brother is just learning programming and needed something to play with, I added little things like ladders and diagonals for him to try solving.

[DARAF]

Looking good dude. I like this last chick on the left. Keep it coming.

[James Wolf]

thanks :)
heres a quick city concept, 30 mins not sure if i should take it further though.

[James Wolf]

two more from today, getting a bit frustrated cause I feel like i'm not improving as much as i should be yet I'm working harder than ever! :upset: o well on to another one...

[MonkeYoakum]

Very cool on this one really feels alive.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=439524&stc=1&d=1218943852

This one the hills in the back seem solid, but I feel like I want to see some kind of warm light falling on the top crest of her wings (as warm as that lighting is going to get. I really dig the color set up on that piece. Great work keep em comin!
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=436065&stc=1&d=1218589895

[kidult]

Love the mood and colours in your work

[Farvus]

I didn't see your sketchbook before. Wow. Design, composition, colors. Everything very well thought out. I especially like this illustration with female's face covered in shadow and those verygreen landscape pics. 5 stars from me.

Keep posting :)

[James Wolf]

MonkeYoakum- glad you like that one, wasn't sure if it was working.
kidult- :)
Farvus-:D thank you,

heres a chow piece, almost didn't make it cause I first saw the post on sat but managed to get something in for once heh heh.

[thesadpencil]

hey i really like the latest CHOW it's pretty badass, although i think his right forearm kind of gets lost in the picture maybe some simple highlights on him would help to suffice this. I also really love the monochromatic color scheme on the angel piece, looks sweet. keep up the good work.

[Layil]

these are a solid start, man. if you'd just push them all further, you could really get somewhere. the magick of photoshop layers means you can always go back. dont be afraid to keep going!

id say the first thing i notice is that your composition and color pallets are nicely thought out, your ideas arent half bad and your perspective is properly done. but, your pics look empty, lifeless, missing all the nitty gritty of the real world. throw some detail in there, mess things up and pay special attention to the way you use the play between focused and blurry. and, dont be afraid to throw some subtle texture overlays on things to break up that digital brush feel. then pic your focal areas and really nail those edges.

your heading in the right direction, keep it up!
:)

[James Wolf]

thesadpencil- thanks, the client will be using that color scheme for his new website as well :)
Layil- thanks so much for the helpful advice, I completely agree, I think its cause in an attempt to learn concept design I've instead just gotten lazy and created unfinished illustrations so i've gotta work on that :) and i'll keep your suggestions in mind!

in the mean time here are a few...err bunch of things i've been working on,

[James Wolf]

have a lot more crystal landscape stuff coming

[DARAF]

The crystal stuff is comong along nicely. It is not an easy thing to render. I like the epic stadium up top also. Keep up the good work.

[D@niel]

You are producing really great work here man! I really love the zombie gamer one!!;)

[James Wolf]

DARAF, D@niel, thanks!

also thought i'd put this up since its relevant to my sketchbooks purpose, I recently agreed to take a modeling test even though i don't really know much about modeling or texturing lol so I pretty much had to learn maya in a week, however i'm quite happy with it as a first attempt, they loved my 2d work but felt I need a little more knowledge with 3d apps, I'm sure you all will agree with them haha.

[jdeegz]

thats awesome, i just started to dabble in the world of 3d, though surface modeling, not solid block modeling. I dont know how i missed all of these updates, but awesome!

[Jakers]

Im really loving the crystal stuff as well...its a funky environment inside the large spire of the lower region...nice scale reference :)

I suppose your latest object has a normal map generated from the high poly one? Its hard to see it on your model...I've always had troubles getting normal maps to display in the package compared to 3Dsmax where it shows up more dominantly. Nice job for learning what you have in a week!

[James Wolf]

jdeegz- yea after trying to get my foot in the door for so long, I've realized that an artist that can draw and model their creations is of much more value than one that can't. anyway heres another environmental, came out of know where last night. got bored of what i was working on and started playing with a stair concept and came up with this :)

Jakers- hehe yea the normal map didn't turn out so well lol, when I read the brief and it said the normal map should be baked in from the high res model i was like "WHAT?!!" but getting the hang of it now. thanks for the comment by the way :)

[gkrit]

u r TOO talented for ur own good :P

everyone viewing this would envy you. i no i do.

ur stuff r real strong, detail and everything. in my eyes, uve practically mastered all aspects of effects whether its lighting, wetness etc, ur able to do it.

pop by my sb sometime and give me some tips lol.

ill b ekeeping an eye on this one..

[tias]

That's too bad about the job interview. Your work is really strong. Looking through them, I was sure that you would be working in the industry already. Have you ever thought of doing other work besides concept art? Your skills and talent already speaks for itself. Great work and thanks for commenting on my sb. That video game zombie spooked the hell out of me.

[Nadiamoon]

Great sketchbook! I really like the one with the zombies in the window:)