Insomniac artist

[Thaw Naing]

My first post
Been watching the concept art forum for half a year now....i finally finished my degree last week, so now i have a chance to post some work up.

Heres a self portrait I had done for a digital painting class about a year ago.

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I'm in the process of touching up all the work I had done for my Final year project, which was a concept design project for a proposed video game. Ill post them once they're touched up.

From, Wellington, New Zealand

[Jeff Lai]

hey man really digging all the texture you achieved,
especially round the hands and shirt areas.
the lightings nice too.

[FIG]

Really nice painting but why so sad?

[Ivan Vegar]

Hey nice work. It looks really well resolved and communicates your idea perfectly. Love the textures and colour pallet.

[FIG]

Well lets see a self-portrait tomorrow where you are happy. Theres a thing tomorrow here.

[Thaw Naing]

Thanx alot Ivan
Hey FIG im guessing you meant to say there was is a portrait thing on the forum here 2mrw? I wont be able to do anything because I'll be tied down with work all day (office work! i know, disgusting) but heres to make it up. Some work from my Final year project.

Its concept art work for a proposed video game based on the life of real life pirate Anne Bonny. The theory of this project was to create a game derived from historical research/accuracy. So thats why you wont see eye patches/parrots...or anything thats cliche pirate.
Heres portraits of Anne Bonny and Jack Rackam (with Ralph Fiennes as cast) and a couple of environments.

There is a keyscene painting I want to show but I'm currently touching up its flaws. About 80% of the project was drawing. Other paintings from the project I'm not so content with. I worked with a 3D animation student as a collaboration project, so I might consider showing u guys what she came up with.

But I guess this is a good enough taste.

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[tmyohlaing]

Hi, Thaw Naing, nice paintings. Are you a burmese? just asking cuz of your name.

[Cavematty]

Heya Thaw,
Cheers for the kind words :)
Great work here! I'll leave you a more helpful comment sometime soon, kinda in a rush right now! But have subscribed to ur thread, so keep posting.

Would love to see the 3D work ur collaborator came up with. Really interesting idea for major! A friend and I toyed with ideas of doing a joint major too, but it never came to fruition :P

And I love pirates too mate :) Liked your Peter Pan (?) Enviro you did for digi illus too - spotted it on the forum (incidentally the pencils for that were particularly Alan Lee looking! - not a bad thing). I did a painting of Jack Sparrow for Pauls class. Love the pirates :)

Cool, catch you round at Vincents :)

Matty

[daveskogstad]

Hey man i just finished my first year at massey and cant wait to come see the rest of your work after getting this taster!

[Thaw Naing]

sweet dude, come say hi if you happen to run into me at the exhibition. btw are you related to lauren? just asking because of the skogstad

[daveskogstad]

yep i sure am shes my cousin:)

[JailHouseRock]

Hay mate love the textures, what program did you use?

And great to see another kiwi in the forums!

[Thaw Naing]

i used PS, those portraits were 80% acrylic and I finished off the details in PS, i originally only worked that way to save time, but i like the result
yeah NZ represent!

dave: oh dude thats cute.. hhaha. yeah laurens a nutter! i love how shes so absolutely hardout!

[Jeff Lai]

awesome man
i always loved those portraits, you really got those colour palettes down (and the texture...)
i so don't want to be exhibiting next to you haha
hurray for more NZ pple!

[JailHouseRock]

Cheers ThawNaing

KIWI RULE!

[Thaw Naing]

here are more pics from my final year project...didnt get a chance to touch them up..so they have problems..but a few things have come up recently so i wont be able to touch them for quite a while.

if by any chance you read this Jon Foster, your paintings for National Geographic 'Moche' and 'Republic' were inspirational.

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[daveskogstad]

Hey man i went into the exhibition today, was great to see the rest of your stuff, it was very inspirational to see to final year work and showed me lots to work on!

[Nikolai_H]

Great stuff, was definitely one of the stand-out illustration projects- particularly liked the portraits. I actually did that wind turbine that was in the room next to yours (industrial design)

[NathanLong]

Beautiful work. I hope you haven't forgotten Mary Read.

[TGM]

These all really do feel like digital PAINTINGS, which is great.

[Thaw Naing]

Nik : thanks alot man, we had a strong year
Nathan : i never forgot about her, but unfortunately i had a time deadline, and i had to cut her out.
TGM : chers dude, i try to work as close to traditional as possible. working with only one layer, and building upon layers like painting..
i work in a totally different mode (using layers) when i go about trying some concept/matte work. but most of the time i try to enjoy the painting process. the insane thing is, the closer i work to traditional (work from line, blocking in, then details), the more astute my decision making becomes, so the quicker i paint, this took me an inspired few hours max

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i have to mention this was a painting i did for my m8 lauren, its based on her characters, so dont credit me with it. she works in a stylized economic-line manner, which i thought would be interesting to depict it realisitically..ill ask her if i can post her artwork up so u can compare...the transformation is seriously hilarious

[Tim_Gibson]

Nice work man, great attention to detail :)

Keep on keeping on.

[Cavematty]

Thaw, DUDE! that croc one is awesome.
Loved her stuff at exhibition too. Was really great.
Had a decent look through ur workbook when I went back too - geez thats a lot of work budi! respect.

Like Tim said: keep cranking man!

[Shod]

Hey man, I'm new here but your stuff is amazing! I saw it at the Massey exhibition and like the fellow said earlier, your stuff certainly stood out! You could sense there was a lot behind what was on show, so all the extra work and research definitely paid off!
I wanna see more cause that croc rocked my socks, sah.

[Thaw Naing]

cheers guys, heres me trying to crank on the best i can, bday present for a m8, sketch turned painting, the neg space is for text. theres no deadline like a bday present deadline. :D
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[tsimps]

Hey Thaw
You've got some nice work here man- I especially like the works which combine acryllic + photoshop. I'm ex-Massey as well- went through in Cavematty's year. Good to see some quality coming out despite that place not teaching us a lot! Keep it up

[k-sin]

I'm gonna have to go with the popular vote and say your texture work is just awesome.

Oh and Kiwi's represent! :P

[lumar]

sweet paintings. id like to see more expression in your brushwork, as in less emphasis on getting it to look 'real' and a bit of risk taking.

probably more of a suggestion than criticism

[tsimps]

Hi again Thaw- thanks man, I'm flattered. Yup sure do, check out the links below. My website's a little outdated but planning to get it up to speed soon.
Anyway I'm lookin forward to seeing some more of your work. May catch you at life drawing one of these days

[rt_emily_nguyen]

Awesome paintings! I like how they kind of depict a scene of a story or such.

But my favourite is this one:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=229935&d=1193910075

I dunno, I just like her eyes; they're so pretty <3

[daveskogstad]

hey thaw!
gutted not doing seq this year would have been good to hear u speak!
hows life out of the cocoon of massey?

[Thaw Naing]

ive asked for the webmaster to move this thread to the sketches forum, but if any moderators happen to check this, could you do it for me because I will mostly be posting sketches/studies from now on. Cheers

thanks for the comments everyone, yo dave, much of the same but better, been really busy with commission work, but its like only doing one paper so at least i have spare time for other things. just finished a 12 spread job last nite, so gona take a few days break and get back into some concept arting!..

taking lumars advice, i realised im very much a details man, which happens to be as much a weakness as a strength. i detail everything and tighten up too much, so after doing alot of reading, thot id try out my new knowledge while also trying to keep work quick and instinctive. also delving into some anatomical study.
so starting off with some lifeD, then sketch paintings with a timelimit of about 2 hours, and stayed away from anatomical reference- unless it looked totally wrong and i needed help. just having fun while trying things out..

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this has been a good process because it pointed out that the knowledge i lack in life drawing effects the way i paint- i subconsciously avoid it, like kneedownwards. so next lifeD session will be all legs/feet. also painting a sketch showed me where my drawing is going wrong.

[Shod]

Great studies Thaw. I particularly like the pose and arms of the grey beast. Your stuff really pops when you push yourself, I wish you would post more.

[Giorge]

Hey m8 , i took a good look trough your sb , i like what i see ... you have great initiative , and its nice that you play with all kinds of tones, anatomy and other interesting and useful stuff. Because i just woke up , im kinda alert , and a bather observation , and didn't want just to pass by and say something (ah nice sb , keep it up) So i found two things that bothered my eye , when i took a quick look. In the 1st one , the eye not only looks that is looking at me , but is like glowing , and that shouldest be , its in a shadow side , the retina should be rolling backwards, like his giving his last breath , fainting or... just going to a fast sleep (anesthesia), a darker throne i think it will do the job . And the second , the sword blade and the blood , are not fitting in the action , their like from another image, the blood should be a darker tone( this one looks like hot salsa sos :)) and the blade a darker tone to , cause its on the side that away from the explosion that causes the light in the image. Hope this post is useful. And I'm keeping an eye open for new more daring posts :)
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[Thaw Naing]

flamable : thanks for the thoughts, especially about the eye..thats something i never even thought of. in my mind that fight scene is atrocious, theres quite alot of amateur mistakes in that image, so i dont use that piece in my portfolio..i wont touch it up because id like to keep it as a document of where ive come from.
but ill definetly keep in mind what you said when considering for future works - infact my next image i was planning last night involves some one having the life taken out of them.. but i will fix the tone of the knife and blood, because that is a piece i still have in my portfolio
thanks again!

random sketchbook one

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[Thaw Naing]

continuing life drawing/anatomy study. stil drawing small hands and feet at times which im annoyed at. its been great to study actual anatomy rather than the perceptual side of drawing taught in classes..which i believe can come later

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[Thaw Naing]

i wanted to spend a week on this, but a commission has cut my time short. here is what i was working on..im gona have to call it done for now. tho the only part im completely happy with is the heart. hopefuly ill have enough drive to get back on this after the comish is done in a week or two. till then, peaceout.
Mixcoatl devours a conquistador



Edited: so heres the final, times up. not completely happy wit it, but i learnt a fuckload while painting this, so im excited for the next ones

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[Law]

Hey man. This looks great, who was it for? If you have to call it done, i'd just clean up your edges on the naked dude. He seems to be in the most light but almost the least resolved, i think this may only be because of the hazy edges, particularly through his back. Maybe even put a couple of thick or hard edge lines in the body somewhere.

Cant wait to see it done dude. Keep it up. Didn't see ya at Vincents last night?

[Thaw Naing]

thanks law, thats a damn good point. ill keep it in mind. in the sketch, i had the chest opening up, skin peeling, broken sternum/ribs flying apart, as u can see with the head it only has the mandible and a part of the skull at the moment. so yeah got that yet to do, both the facial expressions to go, and the snake is looking dopey as..had a much better rough, so ill do that again. if i dont get back on this painting and start doing something else...give me a slap aye..

it was partly for my m8s book, and just for kicks, but i jst doubled up for the gnmon forum's magical fury theme. yeh im gona have to skip lifeD this week aye-ive been slapped one of them urgent illos, need roughs started and done by prety much 2nite.

[Cavematty]

Hey bro!
HOLY SHIT that heart one is AMAZING!
Shit yo - you gotta let me read that compilation of quotes ASAP man. I want to LEECH YOUR BRAIN! haha.
So impressed. Law is probably right tho, about the edges, could add a little to that FG dude, but yeah. Fucking nice stuff!

I swear I've been dropping by, and not seeing updates - I musta been doing something noob like going to page one or something... Been missing out!

[Papparazzi]

Hey Buddy, first I want to thank you for your valuable feedback on my thread. Much appreciated.
Your work is excellent man! I'm seeing some very nice Jon Foster/Phil Hale and even a bit of Greg Manches (with the bolder stuff) influence. I also really enjoy your subject matter which is something I always want to tackle , yet never do!
My only crit would be some subtle anatomical issues in some of the pieces. It seems like the paintings with the more abstracted features are fine, but the ones where you are going for more solid realism, seem to stiffen up a bit in areas. This is just nitpicking though and I really enjoy what you got going.Keep crankin' my friend and keep in touch!1
-Tin

[Thaw Naing]

Papparazzi : had a look at Manches, pretty amazing illustrations, seen a few of them in the s.o.I annuals...nitpicking is good..only way im gona get better, and i do want to continually improve - thanks for your time and stating ur observation - anatomy is a bitch of an achilles heel.. and heres me working at it..

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the skulls are from looking at people from life and estimating where the bones might be, and trying to work out the essential indications of it

Matty : flattered man, but I dont think u wana leech my brain, prob some things up there no one should see haha. ive actualy got that word document to an almost organized state, i have alot of books to go, but ill print it out for u at the state its in now, 26000 words atm?? its gona end up being a biggen.
my scripts also starting to shape up, so as u can see ive gotten into facial anatomy, soon to be expressions, gestures, hands, clothes, etc. character consistency has always been an issue of mine in the past, so im looking to plug that hole. hopefully i can get started on the comic pretty soon, in the meantime, inspired by the process in ur thread, ive decided to start a concept art project myself. ill post up the premise once i have it all sussed.

Law : i havnt forgotten to finish the painting above, ill get it done in the next 2 days, and instead of reposting it, ill jst edit the post above.

chers, thaw

[Thaw Naing]

So here it is Matt/Law/Jeff/Jez: The start of a new project.

Project Objectives

Create various elements of concept art and production design / through design process, and the final design displayed in a presentable manner. Design is to be orientated for a mature film, grounded in plausible reality.

Character design / Costume / Prop
Vehicle design / Machinery
Creature design / Horse anatomy
Environment design / Exterior & Interior Architecture
Production design
Storyboarding / Key art

Final : All final art work and process to be presented in a portfolio (book format), with extra production notes.

Brief

Genre: Sci Fi/Western
Reminiscent of: A cross between Firefly & Deadwood.

Basic Premise: Set in the colonization period of a new planet Arion, just outside our solar system. Empire Earth has colonized Arion solely for the extraction of its most precious resource: water. The lucrative trade has created a chaotic situation on Arion, as individuals/factions aim to benefit by means of criminal conduct. In the midst of this disorder, an underground movement begins to unite the colonies, which would eventually lead to the declaration of Arion’s independence, and its war against Empire Earth.
The story follows a band of bounty hunters, whose actions would prove critical for Arion’s independence.


I have a huge amount of ideas written in detail. but Ill spare everyone and put those on my website instead, and only post brief summaries here with the visual stuff.

[Cavematty]

Dowwit! Sounds awesome - whe does it hit cinemas?

Ha. Glad you had a good break bro :)

[HunterKiller_]

That last painting is crazy awesome.

Good to see more NZer's surfacing!

Look forward to meeting you at the workshop.

[daveskogstad]

mate u keep improving its great 2 c!
will be great 2 meet the new zealand crew at the workshop

[Thaw Naing]

Firstly, completion of the earlier post : makes up the rest of the 100 skulls - as you can see I'm starting to move into the surface of the face.

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Secondly, I want to kinda lay out the information much like a manual - as if it was a miner's manual or a travel guide...ala World of Kong/GTA game manuals. Just a bit of indulgence I think...But also, I love diagrams!

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Text:
Etymology: Even during the philosophical periods of human history, the tradition of naming Planet bodies after a deity of ancient mythology has not been altered. This planet is named after Arion from Greek mythology, born a horse capable of human speech; he is the offspring from Poseidon’s rape of Demeter.

Arion is the third planet from the Sun Alpha Centaurus ‘The foot of the centaur’. The reason for Arion’s exaggerated elliptical orbit of Alpha Centaurus is believed to have been caused by the gravitational pull of its outer and larger planet Despoina, during close encounters through aeons of time. This elliptical orbit causes dramatic climatic shifts in temperature and light on Arion, ranging from long freezing winters to quick searing summers.

In comparison with earth; Arion has a Aphelion 80,000,000km, Perihelion 220,000,000km (describing the distance from the orbit to the sun, Aphelion being the nearest distance..) while earth has an almost circular orbit of 150,000,000. Arion has no satellites while Earth has 1 (the moon).
Earth has a Orbital Period 365.25 days (one earth year), Arion has 640.7 Earth days (1.75 Earth Years). Earth's Rotational Period is 23h56m (one earth day), Arion's is 12h40m (approx 0.5 earth days). In comparion with Hours per year Earth=8766, Arion=7944.7. Earth's Axial tilt is 23.7 degrees, Arion's 5.4 degrees.

90% of the planet is harsh arid land: a mixture between ice sheets and mountain ranges. Scattered across Arion are many surfacing lakes, which are the centre of Arion flora. When the planet was first discovered, it was likened to the Permian Epoch of Earth’s history.

A 12.66 hour time-zone causes Arion to change from day to night rapidly. Flying between colonies is recommended to best avoid troubles that are often found during land travel, such as marooning due to depletion of solar energy or vehicular malfunction. Travelling by air also greatly diminishes the risk of running into outlaw bandits.

<Sounds like all techno jargon!! but please believe me I have thought about how it will all effect the rest of the designs..!>

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Hunter: Chers dude! Look forward to meeting everyone at workshops for sure.
Skoggie the 2nd: Thanks alot man, its very nice to know from an outside perspective that I am getting better, i find it hard to tell, its all a bit gradual for me ya know.
Matty: haha not sure :p ,but I will be doing this sorta matte stuff for the 48hr film next weekend! i painted this one in about 6 hrs last nite, so 48hrs? pfft a breeze. :p haha.

Speaking of, we filmed a model over greenscreen as a test yesterday, so this week I'm gona composite it with my Arion matte as a tester, so permission granted from my team, ill be able to maybe show you how close to film we got it to. Also gona give a go at some SE in after effects
Heres a quick pic of my m8 whos filming the model/Mike who built it.
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Man, long post, any comments would be sweet. Laters.

[nonsane]

wow cool paintings.
im finishing school (hamilton) at the end of the year and was wondering what you studied?? + are there any digital painting lessons/courses that arent all the way in welly??

your advice would help me lots im freeking out about what im going to do :)

[merl1n]

really cool! Browsing your topic has been quite fun!

keep it up :)

[Thaw Naing]

Merlin : Chers!

Nonsane: sup man, Ham-town aye, i studied Bachelors of Design at Massey, specialising in Illustration.

I cant speak for other schools, (heres a list http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=125173 ), but Massey had no concept art papers.

Quite honestly!, I am technically 90% self taught, i was lucky enough to have one digital painting class, but I had already learnt the gist of painting digitally just by experimenting the year before i took that paper. I guess you're trying to decide what course to attend. The tutors I had at Massey varied from great to bad, so it really was what I put into it, rather than what I was fed. I disagreed with alot of what I was trained to do there- I spent more time trying to juggle the workload rather than learning, and since ive finished uni, I feel like Ive learnt more in 4 months by my own study than i had done in 4 years of my degree. I am NOT exaggerating

In saying that, Massey did open my eyes to alot of across the board stuff, like fine art, research, design, typography, film, web, motiongraphics etc, which I dont regret learning. I quickly browsed your deviantart, you're young man, and its best to keep your options open. You'll quickly learn what you do/dont enjoy doing, but it can only be by trial. I originally went to Massey to learn design and animation, but quickly realised they werent for me.
I've worked in webdesign/film editing/photography (of which im completely self taught) before getting any illustration work. Versatility will help you survive in a small place like NZ where illustration work can be scarce.
With institutions, you take the good with the bad, and they are always evolving year to year. I guess what i'm trying to say is dont fret about having to make the right choice - if you put ur heart into what you do, you can have the worst teacher at the worst school in the world, its not gona stop you from growing as an artist. if it comes to it, and you dont like where/what youre studying, its not hard to change anyway- and these days there are plenty of resources around you that you can learn in your own time or on the side... imagine fx magazines, this conceptart.. web tutorials, dvds/books etc.

hope that helped man, gud luk with ur NCEA (almost wrote bursary..) finals this year. feel free to ask about anything else u'd like to know

[Shod]

Thaw mate, your studies are inspiring and beautiful!
Lets get together and draw nudes again sometime! :lifedrawing:
Honestly though, you say Massey taught you the theory and boy did it ever. You lace your work with such research and background and character it really adds another dimension to everything you do.

[phiq]

Hey, mighty fine work here sir. You like the work of Phil Hale? It seemed like a few years ago he spawned a little too many clones... I think I can see his influence in your work, but you've got something esle on top of that, so you haven't decended to clonehood... :D Will be keeping up with your progress (and maybe I can learn a thing or two..)! ;)

[Thaw Naing]

just a quick update*

some stuff from the 48hr film comp last weekend. a couple of speed mattes painted within that time. ill update this post and show u what the final shots look like: one matte for the miniature spaceship background, and one for live action as the background for the 'viewing window' -once i get my hands on the footage off my m8

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continued study:

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i wont be around for a while*...finding myself in a bit of a financial strain, gud ol freelancing... so im gona have to temporary drop some of my projects for a wee bit. but when i eventually do return, hopefully ill also have a whole lota work to dump.

shod: hey cory, flattered dude, u almost made me like massey for a split second there - and thats no easy feat!
im gona have to skip lifeD a bit aye, just cant afford atm, but ill be continuing portraiture/facial studies, its free when im drawing my g/f lol.

matty: hope u found my bunch of notes helpful, ive decided not to release it online simply coz of copyright issues, wouldnt want 20 different publishers tracking me down.

Phix: thanks for dropping by m8. yeah funny thing is, a couple of paintings ago i was getting worried that i was turning into a hale clone, because, yes i would marry him. i realised that im going to be influenced whether i like it or not, but what i decided to do was to try get to the core of why i love his work - his and rick berry's philosophy of depicting figuration/anatomy, thats why i started delving into anatomy myself, so that hopefully i can take it in a different direction, and break away from his aesthetic, what ive found useful was looking at the artists that hale is influenced by, sargent/rockwell, which has allowed me to find the greater truth to what these guys are doing collectively.

cheer guys, catcha later

[Giorge]

I see the portrait sketches are going well ... my advice is you should to some muscle studies that wold make the faces look more real ... the carnation falling and so on.

[JailHouseRock]

Hi Thaw,
Dude some awesome updates going on here
really lovin those portrait sketches, mate you keep improving with every post!
Please keep it up.

matt

[kinjura]

I already was enjoying your work - genuinely appreciating your studies...then I ran into your space project and my jaw hit the floor. Fantastic, man. I absolutely love what you've done here.

[Thaw Naing]

wooah, ive been absent for a year now. i went off and focused on freelance illustration and thats exactly what i did. i even ended up doing my first comic for a publisher...i went to massiveblacks workshop in wellington (my hometown) and that experience changed my life. Thank you team!

ive signed on as a concept artist for a film, and while waiting for the job to start, im back on the Arion space project i started. what great timing for your comment Kin, cheers. So hopefully u guys will get to see some work for that project in the next few weeks.

i cant show all the publishing work ive done last year, but here is some..just because ive been away for so long....

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[jackpot_anjr90]

Awesome work! Looking forward to seeing your next update in the coming weeks :)

[Guerilla Warfare]

Nice work here. You have a great skill for narrative art, forgive me for studying it.

[daveskogstad]

hey thaw im currently third year. Ive decided to go down the graphic design path though! Illustration wise im taking drawing for illustration with Caroline and it has 2 be one of the best papers ive taking so far. ill chuck up my stuff from my 1st assignment soon. Any new work to show us?

[Oranje Joe]

congrats on the job!
your recent stuff is awesome, i wish we could see more.

there is only one thing that strikes me as kind of odd about your paintings. the muscles on seem kind of over defined sometimes, like they are like emaciated, but built at the same time. but what do i know, i suck at drawing humans

[JailHouseRock2]

Great to see you posting again mate!

lovin the updates, and where abouts did you study?

cheers,
matt

[Thaw Naing]

Hey guys, i havent posted for a while again, been off freelancing - taking care of business..theres a few exciting job prospects on the horizons but nothings certain at the moment, so hopefully i can keep posting up artwork regularly before i get dragged away for work again.

heres some things ive been working on, some are jobs, some are practice works. still working on my faces!! doing heaps of 5-10 mins studies

[Dent]

Heya Thaw! More, more, more XDXD Awesome stuff bro!

Oh yeah, it's Claire, hahaha