The Eternal Abyss - Iku-Turso the Forgotten

[Turisas]

Yyyeeeeah, the last sketchbook got pretty banged up during the last moments of 2007.
Well, here's the new one! Will possibly be a collaborating sketchbook between me and a pal of mine, who will most likely come by with the name Thunor. Or maybe not. We'll see.
Anyways, lets get it started. Have some sketches.
Mostly painter tests and color stuff, but I decided to do a quick caricature-ish head sketching thing. Four stereotypes. Each I have seen on games or tv more than 5 times. The two obvious ones: The Biker and Gangsta' Rapper. And the less used or unfamiliar ones: The old grumpy silent asian casino owner, and the rich old businessman who always wears a stetson and has a strong Texas accent.

[angelo cordon]

sweet first post!!!

I love those robot designs. anyways, will comment more later, i just wanted to secure my first post :)

[Turisas]

redSpade: Is that some sort of a return-a-favor thing for my first comment on your new SB? =P
Thanks.

Anyways, I just thought I'd post this. A 45 min speedpaint. I could have used the zoom tool, but I forgot all about it. Lawl, I suck. I'll have to see if I'll make another update today. If not, well, expect one tomorrow. Or Friday. Or Saturday. But I think I'll update tomorrow next time.

[Turisas]

And as I thought, I drew the lil' idea I had yesterday. This is just a quick sketch. Might redo this thing sometime and actually use some time.
I could call it "Two faces of End." As it is, in many movies that takes place after the apocalypse, mankind has one of these two "villains": Zombies or Robots.

[Turisas]

Testing out more brushes in painter. My favourites are Thick'n'Thin Pen, Detail Airbrush and Oily Bristle so far. These are oily bristle tests with pen sketches as the base. Both lack depth, detail and shades. And the old man needs wrinkles, the robot is made of clay and such. Usual mistakes of mine. Oh well, here goes nothing.

[Yautja892]

Hey MonsterKill nice new works, I can see improvement from the last time I've visited well in the old book. Apologize for being away for so long but I'm back finally. Really interesting ideas you've been coming up with. Won't crit on much since everything is pretty loose, but I would suggest pushing that anatomy and maybe focus on more traditional mediums such as pencil or pen before getting into the digital relm. Really want to see some life stuff from you. Your faces are really nice from the first post do more of those. Also don't be afraid to refine your paintings further and just take your time and have fun. I'll give you proper crits further on. See ya next update Monster. :mod:

[angelo cordon]

sup mk:

i would agree with yautja and practice more traditional. you really have a way of colors and i think would really benefit from learning traditional paints. also dont just sketch people, sketch environments from real life! and thumbnails!!!

[Turisas]

Yautja892: Welcome back! Yes, anatomy is a thing we all need to practice all the time. I've been practicing colours for now, will move with anatomy later. Also, pens and pencil are something I do practice all the time. My scanner just broke a few weeks ago, so I haven't got a chance to scan anything. Remember the ten pages of my traditional sketchbook I posted on my old CAsb? Well, I still use the same sketchbook, but I've only got 10 left from the 100 pages. So I've been working with traditional media. =P
Thanks for the comment.

redSpade: Thanks. I got an easel for christmas, so I've been practicing with paints, too. Acrylics, to be exact. And I can see that I really do benefit from it. Also, yeah, I have a bad habit of only sketching people. I need to do more of environments and such. Thumbnails I do daily, though.
Thanks for the comment.

Now here's a few more pics.
First being some random brush study off painter again. A drug dealer.
Second a little paint-standoff I do from time to time with a few pals of mine. Kinda like CHOW/COW/DSG of our own. This time the subject was: 30 minute Steampunk Gladiator. I screwed up many times during the first ten minutes so I got left behind and lost the standoff.
Third is something I like. A quick doodle in a paintchat, but still. around 80 mins. Haven't drawn a car this far in 4 years or so. It's supposed to be a black Ford Mustang GT with hot pink/purple vinyls/paintjob. I need to do cars more often.

[Moai]

Hey there, Monsterkill. It's been a while. Sorry about that, man. I'll try to make up for that with this critique.
Just glancing quickly through the work, it's obvious that you need to do two things. First of all, you need to do more studies, from books and from life, and you need to post them. You're drawing this book, cool, super-robot-soldier guys, but you don't have a firm grasp on the basics yet. I read in your last post that you're sketching and painting and stuff in traditional media, and that your scanner broke. Well, keep the studies up, and try to find a way to show them to us!
Secondly, you really, and I mean really, need to slow the heck down and be patient with these pieces. The necessity of slowing down and getting things right from the start is one of the biggest lessons that I took away from the workshop. Take the time to develop a strong sketch before moving on to rendering, and by golly, take the time to finish one of these pieces. Blend out and clean up all those transparent brushstrokes and sketchy lines. Pretty much all the paintings in here are still in a pretty messy, unrefined stage. Refine some of them.
Now, some more specific crits, in which I will probably reiterate what I've just said numerous times.:P
Post #1- The "turn up the volume" robot is a pretty cool character. His blank eyes and the angles of his legs in his pose give him kind of a spaced out feeling. It would have been really cool, and probably pretty fun for you and not too difficult, to refine the shapes and the silhouette.
The action and colors on the next image are nice, but like I said before, it's still at such a messy, chaotic stage that I'm having trouble appreciating its better points. Aside from that, the flat ground in the background isn't really working for me. It would be more interesting to have some craggy shapes against that colorful, fiery sky, in my opinion.
The next two images, the robot and the gasmask guy, are textbook examples of what I meant when I talked about taking your time and bringing your images to a state of completion. Both show that you have good ideas and that you can draw them; but unfortunately, they also show that you don't take the time to draw them really well. Also, add cloth wrinkles to your list of things to study.
Your caricatures weren't really successful at all, I'm sorry to say. It shows that you don't have much knowledge on the structure of the human face, either in terms of anatomy or in terms of simple, 3-dimensional construction shapes. They aren't really recognizable as the archetypes you meant them to be, either. Really think about how each detail adds to the audience's impression of the the character. How does the proportions of his face affect our idea of him? How about the expression on his face, the angle of his eyebrows, the squintiness or openness of his eyes, the pointiness of his noes, or the prominence of his chin? How about how he styles his hair, how he wears his clothes, what little knick-knacks and accessories he decorates himself with? All these things go into visually making a character.
Post #3- Again, messiness that needs to be refined, but I don't think I need to even mention that. Anyway, the perspective is a little strange on this piece. In the foreground, it seems like we're looking more downward on the scene, yet in the background it seems like we're more level with the scene. Also, rock forms are very difficult to make up, so use reference.
Post #4- Cool pic. Nothing that I can critique that I haven't said ad nauseum already.
Post #5- In no picture has the need to take it to a more refined form been more dire than in this image of a robot. It is, I believe, the best design you've yet done, and also probably the most solidly constructed in the sketch stage. Its proportions are great, and the only thing wrong with the design is that its head could be more interesting. The metal looking like clay can be fixed easily: just put down some bright highlights. Make sure that the highlights all conform to to the same lightsource, and keep in mind that if you make the highlights just plain white, I will hit you.:P But really, very cool design. You have the abilities, you just need to take the time.
There's really nothing more that I can say for the next post that won't be a repeat of what I've already said. So, have fun, do your studies, and be patient with your artwork.

[Turisas]

Moai: Thank you again, Moai, for you straight way of talking, honesty and... well.. the long comment and all the critique, which I won't ever be able to pay back due to my small vocabulary and patience when it comes to typing or looking at a good image a tad longer to find mistakes. It's even less as my patience when it comes to drawing when I'm stressed. And I've been stressed as hell for the last two, three weeks. School.
How ever, I decided to follow one of your pieces of advice right after I read your comment: I took the robot a bit further. It seems that the clean surface I was fairly succesful in making used to be on my old work too, as I checked my sketchbook of 2007. I just tend to forget things like that in time, because I've had a few too many hits to the head. Yes, literally.
Also, I noticed when working with metal, I need to use a bit more darker values in certain spots. I hope that I didn't take the meaning of "a bit" too far on this one, as I usually do.
You don't need to remind me of the highlight colour thing anymore, really. I've come across that so many times that sometimes I tend to make them too dark or way too far away from greyscale to make it look like a highlight. So, I'm starting to have the opposite problem as before. So, I believe the next time you have to mention something relating to highlights in an image that doesn't have a white background, you'd propably say "Lighten the highlights up. Afterall, they're highLIGHTS." Haha :D
The design still has some very uneven things, like balance, bent lines when they're supposed to be straight, etc. I need to flip the image horizonally more to see the mistakes more clearly.
Enough of the robot. I think I'll get my scanner to work again soon, Moai. But I believe I will not have the patience to scan all the pages, so I'll scan, say, the top 30 or something like that. And I need a new sketchbook soon, too.
I'll try to get back to anatomy, colour theory, value, life, etc studies after this school term. I'm having a hard time right now. English, Swedish, German, Physics and Art. And I need to get somewhat decent numbers so I won't have to go to the 10th grade before high school. But I really need to get to highlights more, no excuse.
Well, that's that, and here's the image. Now I'm heading off to read for a mini-exam on Swedish. And it's 12 at night.

[Sapphire]

I love the idea behind your Stereo robot, and I'd love to see you go back to it and refine it as a character! I can see how you were carving out around the edges, and that made a cool silhouette. Moai already commented more than I ever could have. Keep goin!

[Vritra]

I really like your process (as much as I can understand from your posts), because it has a very loose approach and to me that is absolutely necessary for creating rhythm.

However, I think you should do some more reference work and play around a bit more with tones.

[amer-nazri]

I agree with Moai. Its essential that you find a balance between imaginative work, which is great, with studies and life drawings, be it anatomy, perspective, value, etc. That will build up your technique further, so that your imaginative stuff will look better and better. You find a good amount of satisfaction by getting these studies right. So, yeah, keep doing studies, and take each piece slowly, and nurture it.

cheers,
amer

[Turisas]

Sapphire: Thanks for the tip, although I think I won't go any further with the volumebot because it was just a silhouette practice. And yes, Moai kicks more ass than most when it comes to critique, at least in my opinion.

Vritra: Absolutely correct. I've been quite lame when it comes to actual studying, due to busy school term and actually the whole semester.

amer-nazri: Thank you. And I know I have a problem with studies, but as said above, my school and the teachers really love jackhammering my motivation and overlay the damage with some stress. As for the slowly thing... Yes, I have no excuse, except I always lose my interest because, again, said above and I really haven't got much time. I've had 3 mini exams this week alone and I need to work an essay. Schools a bitch.

I decided to do a few studies though. Yeah, really FEW. TWO of them. I fail. Anyways, a knight from a reference picture that I lost somewhere and I had no time to finish it in the first time. And an arm study I just did.
Also, my current mood (Photo not taken by me, obviously)

[Sapphire]

I'm busy with school too, and two jobs! What say you for making a pact? If you enter for Creature of the Week, (Which is Comet Rider), then I will enter something, also. :) Motivation!

[Yautja892]

Hey MonsterKill nice recent updates, especially the recent robot. Don't worry about being busy Monster... If you have tons and tons of homework, then do it. You shouldn't try and rush or pump out some stuff just to have something instead maybe do one piece a week ether it be a sketch or a speed painting or whatever you want and when you get the free time give that piece a few hours or minutes each day then by the end of the week you'll have a more refined and thought out piece. Then you'll be giving it the time and yourself the time to really watch for mistakes and to push the piece. Maybe try that out see if that works for ya. That's what I would do if my schedule is busy. Anyways don't be hard so on yourself, you have plenty of time with your art. Cheers Monster. :yayca:

[Turisas]

Sapphire: Woah, you seem to be way busier than I. Anyhow, I haven't got the mind to start anythign like that right now. Sorry.

Yautja892: Thanks for the support. I have been trying to stick with that for the past two weeks. But I always end up being so lazy because of school that all I do is some mindless doodles in paintchat, aside with a few practicies on colour and such. I need to continue my Tribesman sometime. (See the pics about to be below)

Anyways, here we go with an update from the last two very busy weeks. Many exams, miniexams, tens of pages of homework and dozens of hours of studying. Yet every evening I got myself a small while to do something. Also, the school term is about to end, so we'll see if I have an any easier schedule. Just like last time... meh...
Anyways, here are doodles, sketches and tests. Everything that was save-worthy from the last two weeks. Mostly paintchat stuff.

[Turisas]

Oh, look, I'mma update. Well, it hasn't been but 3 weeks and a day. Jesus, I suck balls.

Anyways, I have good news, neutral news and bad news.
Good news is that my school term is a lot easier this time. I think I will have time for studies now. Oh and I got my scanner fixed.
Neutral news: I've become very fond of sculpting with plaster. I like how it powders off.
Bad news (Of course, I have the most of these): First, I lost my sketchbook somewhere. Ironic, huh? I'll scan some pages right after I find it. Second, I have very little motivation to do any studies because of my last school term. I think I'll have a break sometime when the summer starts. Third, I haven't drawn pretty much anything since my last update. Except, again, some paintchat things. Although, I did the most kick-ass concept for a games final boss ever. And last, SSG, I think I'm losing touch with you guys. Please bare with me until I find my lost muse.

Now to the pictures. I have six. Wow, two per week? THAT IS AMAZING, WOAH! And all of them simple paintchat crap. I WANT MY MUSE BACK!
Anyways...
First, we've been practicing the Golden Cut in school. So I tried something here with that and colour to create a sort of composition in the image.
Second, a duke. Yep.
Third... Well, this pic simply was provoked by a group of ten year olds who thought they're old enough to watch porn and have sex that roamed around the paintchat.
Fourth, an old guy examining gold.
Fifth. This is the best concept for a games final boss EVER. Lets see. Helmet, goggles, musket, suicide bomb, two miniguns, AT gun, MG turret, naval artillery gun, Tomahawk missile, quad missile, bow, axe, spear, shield and last but certainly not least; beer. All check.
Sixth. this has a story, even. I was checking through most of the notes and comments you SSG comrades have given me. Seriously, thanks for the support, guys. But it makes me feel awkward when I watch my own doing and compare your comments to it. It makes me feel like this girl: Horrid, but family trying to convince her that she's a darling.
And last, my current mood again.

[angelo cordon]

hey buddy -

glad to see you updating. one of my teachers back in the day told me that we draw what we see in ourselves. i think that as an artist, its kind of our only way to express our feelings. at least thats how it is for me as i am very very horrible with words. i draw what i know.

where do you go to school? what do you do? i think we would like to see some pics of your sculpts!

best,
spade

[Yautja892]

Hey MonsterKill cool to see your updates. :) Interesting ideas you have in this mix... like the two guys, the duke and the guy with the piece of gold. Ha well I hope you don't feel like that girl...:wtf: Also the zombie guy is pretty wicked. Yeah I second what red said. I want to see some of the sculpts as well. Cheers Monster. Oh and thats one creepy cookie.

[Odium Eternis]

Message from MonsterKill to his Sketch Support Group:

"Hello, fellow comrades of #42 and other sb-subscribers. Sorry about not posting in your sketchbooks or my own, but believe or not, I have a reason.
I can't connect to CA. Not sure if some connection around my IPrange got banned, my whole country got banned, I got banned or is my ISP just screwing around. All I know for now is that I have a problem trying to connect to such sites as itchstudios.com/psg, conceptart.org and a few others. And I need to solve that problem.
I'll be direct with this: I'm not sure if I'll get to CA for a long time now. If I do, then good, but I can't promise a timeline, because I have no idea how to actually fix the problem I have. Yet. This is why I'm writing this message, because I know it will wake some suspicion on why I have gone suddenly. Boredom? Not liking the site anymore? Nope, far more complicated than that, as I mentioned.
I'll try to let you know somehow when changes occur.
Well, that's basically all I have to say for now.

#42, if you need to contact me somehow, here's your choises:
email: ssuuronen@gmail.com
MSN: booz_666@hotmail.com
AIM: ssuuronen
Y!IM: ssuuronen

Thank you.

~MonsterKill

-----end of message-----"

[angelo cordon]

pay that internet bill :)

[Turisas]

redSpade #19: I know what you mean by that message. Also, I'm in a regular primary school. Will soon move either to high school or profession school. As studying isn't my strongest point, I think I'll go to the profession school. Graphic messaging.
What do I do? Pretty much nothing, haha. :D
As for sculpts, I haven't really got anything to show. I have this block of plaster I play around with because I haven't found a good place to get more from yet. I just play around with it for now, make small things. I was succesful at making an AK-47 the size of the tip of my thumb, but I lost it in the debris when I dropped it. Oops :dur:

Yautja892: Well, I haven't got much to reply on that. Thanks for the feedback. :)
See above for the answer on the sculpture thing.

redSpade #22: No. Never.


Well, if you haven't realized by now from reading the top of this post; I'm back. It seems my internet provider was just being a complete dickwad. Again.

It's kind of ironic that when I loose a source for inspiration for some time, I gain inspiration like it was an edible plant you can get outside from every square inches you gaze upon. Except here. It's winter. It also could be that I have been a week out of school. I have tonsillitis.
Anyways, I have sketches for you. Yes, only sketches. No studies what so ever. Except a colour study which you can find in the bottom. And which was a horrid failure. But before I'll show these sketches and the study, I want to show you that I have something to use my inspiration on.

I have started a small artistic project. I haven't named it, but due the way I started it, I'll call it "Christ Project" for now. It's basically a test on how well I can create a world of my own. This is an alpha version of sorts. First time I'm doing something this wide. It's basically set in a paraller universe, in the year 2120 or so.
I started off with designing the Christians. Lets just say that worlds Christianity is far different from ours. I have the basic story built up and such.
Well, enough blahblah about it, here are some images. All sketches, but who gives a damn, right? At least I'm updating.

So, here we go:

Basic Architecture (http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8987/basicarchitecturehr0.jpg) - Crappy perspective. Yes.
Some Army Guys and the Three Councils (http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/8423/armyandcouncils01aw5.jpg) - Yep, I wanted to keep the gasmasks. Because gasmasks kick ass. And I want kind of a Knight/Legionnaire/Rome/Heavy Armour feel to these guys. This is a reminder to myself of it. Also, yes, those are pope hats. Because pope hats are badass.
The First Weapon Designs for the Army (http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/2528/weaponregulararmyweaponso2.jpg) - Yeah, I want to keep these people quite like an autistic child; they don't want change much, especiall the change of technology. They have quite modest technology when it comes to normal footmans weaponry.
Father Councils Mostly Used Weapon (http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/6106/weaponfcflailslingil4.jpg) and a bit Rarer Weapon (http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2198/weaponfcfatherofslaughtch3.jpg) - The only guys using high-tech stuff would be the councils. Yes.
Son Council Equipment (http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/1513/weaponscequipmentdw7.jpg) - Ruiot Police are rough and heavy armoured due to massive riots of the peasants who live in poor conditions.
Father Council B&W Concept (http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7873/fathercouncilbwconcept0ju9.jpg) - A bit too simple. Oh well.
Son Council B&W Concept (http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/1709/soncouncilbwconcept01xg3.jpg) - Not much to say about this.
Flag Design (http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/4195/flagcw6.jpg) - ...If I'd like to explain, I'd need to copypaste the whole friggin' background story of the Christians of this world. So, have a flag that won't make any sense to you.

That's about it when it comes to what I've designed. Last thing I want to show is an image I made a while ago; It's basically the christians attacking/defending some snowy mountainous area. Here:
-Preview image. Click-
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8413/charge1ge9.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8413/charge1ge9.jpg)


Now to the sketches and colour study. The sketch for the colour study belongs to Blackswordsman28 (http://blackswordsman28.deviantart.com/): Image Link (http://blackswordsman28.deviantart.com/art/Funky-LOVE-Bot-sketch-29647326)

[ShaunLey]

like the robot designs and the zombie girl, awesome stuff

[Turisas]

ShaunLey: Thank you.

Bah-zim, it's an update.

I haven't really got much stuff for now. Been fixing text stuff for the Christ Project mostly. But I do have some things I've tried in a paintchat. I really need to get back to photoshop soon. And studies. I've been slacking majorly on that one. Oh and I need to scann stuff from my sketchbook, too, now that my scanner is working.

Anyways, here we go now.

The tips and tricks I've learned here at CA have really pushed me forward. An amazing length, too. But now I decided to try and break some of the rules I've come across to learn. Just for the fun of it. To see what will happen.

First, Davy Jones. I've always loved the design of the seamonstrous man and his crew in the movies, yet I never came across to draw the guy. In this I broke the rule "Keep it simple" I've been pushing down my throat, so the forms of things stay clear(er) for me. Instead I went directly to tiny details all over the place right from the few first brushstrokes. This of course ended up being as gritty as a picture can be. Although, I do like how the texture of the face turned out. Fairly well, I think.

Next, a design for my Renegade Space Marine legion for WH40K. This time I took no care of colour what so ever. I just let it flow. Due the tools I used, this one too ended up as rough as an image can be, but this isn't the point of the test. The stuff that is supposed to be metal turned out to be a lot more like plastic. Also, the form of the guy is awkward and flat in certain areas.

Third, a few quick sketches I did. This time I broke the tip Moai so eagerly reminds/reminded me of: No completely white highlights. This test surprised me, for I noticed that if done right, white can look okay (The gladiator helmet) and it gives a feeling of slight glare and makes metal surfaces look more metal. Although, overuse of white (Dreadnought and skeleton robot) can lead up to the conclusion that it's polished so much that it doesn't abide by the rules of reality. This also destroys the forms of the work slightly, like it did to the robot. And that's not cool. Especially when the guy doing it is a kid who already has trouble in depth.

I made these to show myself how to do it wrong. Lets hope I learned something.

Then, just as a fill-up, Homeworld ship wannabe design thumbs. Great game, great ships, great action. Yes. Also a perspective practice. Believe me, you don't want to see the one I did before those two. So horribly wrong. And I didn't save it anyways, so you won't see it.

That's it for now.

[Turisas]

---NON ART UPDATE---

Outdated, nevermind.

Today, gentlemen, I am pissed off as hell. I seriously want to kill something right now. I have ripped a few pillows and bedsheets apart and chewed some stuff out of shape already, and I think mauling lifeless objects doesn't shut my rage down. Anyways:
Common sense of the US Goverment, as slightly glimmering as it is, is losing the rest of it's minor shine.





READ THIS ARTICLE WITH CARE AND CAUTION, MY FELLOW ARTISTS (http://mag.awn.com/?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605)





The bottom line is that in the US they might set Orphan Work legislation up as a law. A goddamn LAW, gentlemen!

What does this mean?

You need to PAY for a registration so you can own YOUR OWN ARTWORK! All the blood and sweat you put into it must be PAYED.
And the possibility is that if someone else registers it first, you can be SUED for presenting YOUR OWN WORK!

So what? How does this have an effect on us?
Well, when an orphan work (unregistered and unpayed) is taken to a project without permission, you can't do squat. That's right, they are LEGALIZING THEFT, PEOPLE! MOTHERFUCKING THEFT!


I know this doesn't really have an effect on me yet, but if the law passes, I know that it will most likely provoke European governments to do the same. FUCK THAT!
It is like they take our money, and more importantly: RIGHTS away!

They make us BUY OUR PURPOSE! As it is, for me at least, this is my LIFE! I simply can't live without expressing myself in images and present them to others. And it most likely will relate to my future career.

Let me say this, friends, if they take away my purpose, my rights, my LIFE...

I WILL take THEIRS.
I'm not kidding, shit will hit the fan. And I believe I'm not the only one. I know if this thing goes further, many professional artists will first strike, then form groups, fuse these groups and fight together. No matter what.
There will be riots, there will be death, there will be suffering. Just because people are too greedy.

Anyhow, it is possible that I've misunderstood the few points. That by orphan they actually mean orphan, that there is no artist to be found for the said work.
Still, it just feeds companies and not the artists. And as it has happened before; such guidelines can be twisted by editing and changing perspective.

That is all for now.

Good night.


IMPORTANT EDIT:

If (By "if" I mean "as") you are against this bill, sign THIS PETITION (http://www.petitiononline.com/at1357/petition.html)


ANOTHER EDIT:

I just read this (http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html). I feel like a complete twit now.
Carry on and nevermind that rant.

[phiq]

He he, go the 40k stuff ;)

[Turisas]

phix: Yeah, I love the 40k stuff. Especially Space Marines and Chaos Marines. I think I've seen you before. Phiq at devart, right?

Here's a small update of some sketches. I'll try to start something bigger next week.

First there's a small anatomy practice thing. I need to practice a lot more. Also I need to do some foot studies. Can't do feet worth shit.
Second, the NOD Cyborg from C&C:TS redesigned. Quick stuff.
Third. Leopard warrior thing.
Last, some swamp lizard. I screwed the head up about 20 times so I gave up with it.

[Yautja892]

Hey MonsterKill, I'm seeing some great improvement in the recent posts. I really like the last robot in post #23. He has a better sense of form and perspective on him. You should take him further to a more refined state. Also the cheetah character sketches are nice. Just keep pushing your colors more, trying getting some better blends. Try playing more with texture on some of the paintings as well. Keep pushing those fundamentals and experimenting. Cheers.

[Turisas]

Yautja892: Thanks a bunch, Yautja! How ever, the robot... It was basically just a practice on how I handle colour. Badly at that time, it would seem. the sketch wasn't mine, look at the desription to get a link to the artist and the work.

Okay, as you, my fellow SSG comrades know; I'm a very lazy person when it comes to scanning and MAKING traditional stuff. I have yet to scan the sketchbook pages and all, and there's not even much of them. I'm hooked to digital working.
Anyways, all I can say for certain now is that I will most likely be making only traditional sketches for no less than two weeks.
The reason: A dog. A 9 month old puppy to be exact.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/3394/28042008049aq7.jpg

If you can see through the bad phonecam quality, the Intuos3 Grip Pen head and side buttons have disappeared. And I know for certain that they have also been digested and crapped out, too.
The incident is unclear: I have no idea exactly when, why and HOW the dog got my pen off of it's secure place.
It happened about two-three weeks ago, but you know me: Lazy updater.

At least I got something intresting done; a wooden sword carved with a knife. Sandpaper finish.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5916/19052008050ol3.jpghttp://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9320/19052008051ft6.jpg
I got two blisters and a massive ache in my arm while I was making it. You better like it.

Anyways, here's some stupid digital sketches. I might or might not get some traditional stuff for the next update.

[Turisas]

I have returned from my lazy slumber. Time to be lazy awake.

I have one traditional pic. Hawhawh, I'm such a comedian.
Well, got a new tablet pen. The same kind. Here's some sketches.

At the last pic I was testing out a little thing I realized in my head. Not sure how high-saturation metal would be painted, though. That's why I tried it. Succesful, I guess, but I need to do some more tests.

Summer started. There will be studies. I'll go to a cafe this week some day.

enough chit chat. Pictures. All of the digital ones are paintchat because Photoshop is being a 100% dickhead. Again. Although, I did manage to make a 30 minute speedpaint, though. It's the second last one.

[Turisas]

I think I've had my summerstart break. Aka being even lazier. Not sure. I will still stay lazy.

Have a few sets of thumbnails. Hey, look, I'm a Björn Hurri wannabe :D
I tested this being inspired by his thumbs while browsing Best of CA and noticed my older thumbnail technique is obsolete. I kind of like these. Even though I'm copying Hurri (a bit. yep, just a little bit. teeny-weeny bit). Sorry, Hurricane! Take this as flattery! The thumbs of yours kick ass!

[Turisas]

It's been a nice while since I've received critique. Oh, those were the days...
Anyways, I tried something new. And now I have a more reliable excuse to use paintchat for sketches.
Before some uploaded pics, I'll show you how far I've gone with this new test.

Step one: Paintchat sketching.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/3585/0619barbarianwarriorsaibe0.jpg

Step two: Copypaste, flipH, multiply.
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/3630/0619barbarianwarriorsaizi1.jpg

Step three: Resize and continue on PS.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7066/walkingdemisewippp2.jpg

Step four: ???

Step five: Profit?

This is a guy I might actually give legs to. Still quite a big WIP, but it's turning out nicely so far. I think I might use this flip for the legs somehow. We'll see.
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6239/0619warriorsaintcopyvi3.jpg


Now to the uploaded images. I would have some studies done, but I don't feel like scanning them. Also, I think my mom threw them to the trash for some reason.:shrug:
But at least I have a lot of doodles from oekakis. If my photoshop wasn't such a dick, I'd have more courage to work with it.



First a few APC thumbs.

Then four WH40K fanart pics. Not too happy about any of them.

Then, we have the best superhero ever; Nuclear Fallout Man!

I've been playing Colosseum:RoadToFreedom with my face almost merging with the TV screen. So, once I stopped, I had a massive urge to draw a gladiator. The pose failed.

Then we have the picture that was the first step of the flip I think I'd give legs for the big guy from.

That's pretty much it for this update.

[the ANGRY filipino]

Hey there Turisas..or is it MonsterKill?
Thanks for dropping by my SB.
One thing that struck me about your works is how your sketches are "rough"
and you make them bad ass when you paint over them.
I admire how you can convey shape and structure with your
brush strokes...something I really suck at.
If you ever decide to finish up the "Our Darling" piece, let me know,
I'd love to see a finished version of that.
See yah around man!

[angelo cordon]

someone's heavily influenced by war hammer :)

you have a lot of good shit here, but i think it's about time to start pushing yourself to the next level. it looks like you're only using the sketcher programs? why not get into photoshop and painter? you have a lot of rough drafts which is great to start off with but it's time to smooth those out. your colors and values are pretty decent, close to very good. but it's all rough!!! no more roughs!


your technique of bloby colors is right, but id like you to start using bigger brushes and work your way down smaller.

its okay to copy bjorn. its probably one of the best ways to learn.

[Turisas]

the ANGRY filipino: Hey there. Thanks for the comments. I propably won't be working on that one any more. It was just a sketch.

angelo cordon: Is it a bad thing? Something wrong with warhammer? :P
Yeah, I've noticed that I have a bit of trouble getting myself out of the rough zone, but I did one piece that tuned out okayish after gone through the critique center:

420123
There are some mistakes here and there, like the arm, but I guess I'll keep it that way.
I'll try to get out of the rough zone =)

Now, here we'll have some of the stuff I've made since the last update. I haven't drawn that much lately, because school is starting in two weeks and I think I want to relax well before the start.

There are lots of mistakes among the quick works, such as balance, shape, proportions, colour, pose.... well, I could go on for eternity. Anyways, I need to work more on those things.

[Moai]

Hey there, Monsterk...Turisas, I mean. You name-changer, you.:P Anyway, it's been a while since my last comment, partly because I recently moved, and partly because I'm a terrible procrastinator. So, I'll try to make up for that with this critique (while trying not to get too long).

Flaming-headed guy- This is kind of a cool concept for some sort of diabolical character. Here's some things to think about, going roughly from the top of the image to the bottom of the image.
-It's obvious he has some sort of flaming, crackling energy emanating from his skull. Just what this energy stuff is isn't quite clear. It's kind of stuck between flame, some sort of ethereal glow, and firecracker-like sparks. If you refine this more, perhaps get a bit more specific in your rendering of this energy.
-The boundary between the flesh and bone of his skull and the energy could be more dynamic. Darken the skull a bit to add contrast between the energy and the flesh. Give the edge of his skull a more interesting, fractured shape; studying the individual bones of the cranium might help with that, if you decide to go in that direction.
-The planes of the skull aren't that well defined. Differentiate more between the front and side planes of the forehead, the front and sides of the cheekbones, nose, etc. The perspective on his eye sockets looks off, and the eyes themselves aren't really doing anything; they're just staring off into space. Have him looking at something.
-The energies of his scalp would cast light much more strongly on the collar and shoulders of his vest, the rim of his ear, his chair, etc. I'm fairly sure that his head energy his a stronger light source than the candle, so make its influence on its surroundings stronger.
-There are no cloth folds in his vest. It looks like it's made out of some fairly thick, stiff material, but there would still be some folds in it. I'm no good when it comes to cloth folds, but there was a thread on it recently in the Art Discussion section. Do a search for it, if you want.
-Get some arm anatomy reference. Any decent figure drawing book will have the information you need.
-You could probably get a way with cropping away some of the space to the right of the character. Nothing much is going on over there.
-Is he chained to the desk?
-Try to get a very clear idea of this character in your head. Who is he? What's his story? Is the way you've depicted him the best way to reveal what kind of character he is?

Skeleton sketches, etc.- I've believe I've mentioned to you the value of visualizing objects as simple shapes a few times before. Really try to sketch in a few simple masses before moving on to contour lines. These skeletons and figures show a lot of improvement from your earlier work, but they'd be better and have more confidence if they had some sort of simple framework underneath them. Bridgman, Loomis, Gottfried Bammes, and CA member Kchen are good places to look for finding out how to do this.
Bug, Warhammer, etc- Your rendering technique is getting much better and cleaner, and your values are improving. The Warhammer dude also seems pretty solidly constructed, which is very good. But, you really should avoid those scribbly brushstrokes. It's not so noticeable in this image, except on Mr. Warhammer's shoulder pad, but you should try to use larger, fewer brushstrokes all the same.
Golden man with glowing face and elemental hands- Kind of a neat, superhero-esque concept here. It doesn't really make sense how his icy hand fades into orange further up on his arm. The anatomy needs work, particularly the pectoral girdle region (the chest muscles and collarbones, especially particularly). His legs are also somewhat short.
Robots- These little robot guys are great! Wonderful energy and personality, and the simplified mechanical bits are done well enough to be convincing. These sketches are a complete success, as far as I'm concerned.
Silver badass of doom- Are you enjoying my names for your images? I hope so.:P This looks promising. The character's surroundings have a good energy, though the warm smoke in the background looks a lot better than the grayish scribbly stuff in the foreground. The perspective on the barrel of the gun is off, and the character could have been constructed better. Armor like this lends itself well to construction with simplified masses, like I've been recommending to you.
Walking tank- This isn't quite as good as the earlier robots that I liked so much. I don't think the blade-like forelimbs work for the concept. The main gun is well-realized (by which I mean it's rendered clearly, with the different planes and whatnot easy to see), but the stuff higher up could be re-rendered to make the planes and such more clear.
I gotta go to dinner now, so I'll finish this critique later.

Update: Sorry for the delay. I'll finish my critique of your most recent post now.
Character with gun- This is one of your better character designs and renderings, I think. The use of values is simple and effective, and the character design/concept looks like it has good potential to be taken further. Crits: his left hand is too small, as are his feet. I've read that it's better to make hands and feet too big rather than too small. Also, some of the shapes in his armor seem somewhat haphazard; try to make it so that the shapes you choose for a character all work together. This is why starting with thumbnails and gradually taking the character to a more complete state works so well; you get a chance to explore shapes and find out what looks best.
Giant zombie- This is a pretty cool, nasty, evil character. As far as crits go, the foreshortening on his right arm looks slightly off, and I've said before that combining color with pure gray in the same image isn't often a good idea. This image is pale enough that it doesn't matter much though. While we're on that topic, this character's pale skin tone is a great opportunity to play around with hue and color temperature variation. You have the pale overall color, but you could add variety by adding hints of rosey flesh tones, sickly blues, moldy greens, etc. It would also increase the gross and unnatural "feel" that the character projects.
Robot- This robot character looks pretty good. However, you really need to decide on a design theme when you draw a character like this. Here you have both blocky, industrial, plane-based elements and curvier, more free-form components. Of course, contrasting boxy and curvy shapes can be used to good effect in a design, but here it looks like you just didn't put enough thought into the overall style of this robot. My recommendation is that you keep the boxy elements of the upper body and the ringed tubes of its limbs, but get rid of that curvy bit at its pelvis and its anime-style boots.
Also, if you want some inspiration, I found some cool robot images the other day. Just look up Asimo (that little astronaut-like robot made by Honda) on Wikipedia, and then look at the prototypes which led up to Asimo. It's a really cool transformation over a couple of decades, with the earliest models little more than a pair of legs with a huge battery pack on top and ugly wires and gizmos sticking out everywhere, and the newest models really sleek and clean.
Barbarian babe- I don't want to be too harsh, but this image just how much you need to work on your figures. Proportion, posing, anatomy, etc. You'll learn more from your paintings if you really try to get everything right rather than make an incomplete effort.
Red Warhammer guy- The colors and lighting look pretty good on this guy. However, be careful not to overdo it on the highlights. The simple highlights on his legs look good, but the highlights on his upper body are too large. It's just highlight and then shadow, rather than highlight, midtone, and shadow. Also, the shinier a material is, the smaller and more concentrated the highlights tend to get. So, those big highlights on the shoulder pads and helmet need to be reduced a bit.

So it do believe that takes care of my critique for that post. See you later, Turisas. Keep on going, the improvement is noticeable.

[Turisas]

Moai: Thank you a lot! This is propably one of the biggest crits you've given. I'll try and make soem notes at Sunday, but I promise nothing because I'm a horrible procrastinator.

School started, and I've learned something. PROMISE NOTHING, TURISAS, PROMISE NOTHING, WHY CAN'T YOU GET THAT IN YOUR THICK, FAT HEAD OF YOURS, JESUS CHRIST!

we're learning all kinds of new stuff in schoo and it's great. but it has caused me to become a lowzy slug ONCE AGAIN.

That leads to this.

GUESS WHAT FOLKS.
I Have Nothing, Forgive Me Once More!
...Please?
(Not too satisfied with any of these things. At the moment at least. Might be because I feel depressed. We'll see when it'll pass. I need to learn how to live right.)

Lame Update:
Yeah, they suck alright. Especially the last one. God damn.

[Turisas]

Okay. Enough explaining and whining.
I'm just not up to it when it comes to updating something on a frequent basis. I wonder if I'll turn out okay (Most likely not, haha.) if I actually am going to do this as a profession.

[Turisas]

Oh look, a small update.

Haven't been drawing much because of school and my brand new XB360. Gears of War 2 kicks ass. So does GTA IV. Halo 3 not so much, but it's alright.

[Moai]

I'll critique these last updates soon, honest!
Until then, merry Christmas!

[eminkey2003]

Saw you on Paintchat. Nice painting there, by the way! Warhammer for the win. I love the designs from June 20th. I think that the poses are often too stiff. I like this pose (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=527957&stc=1&d=1227666050) though. You may want to study proportions more too.

[Moai]

Hey, Turisas! (I keep wanting to call you Monsterkill, still). I'm here for a somewhat overdue critique. It's not going to be one of my multi-paragraph supercritiques, because those take more time and energy than I currently have, so I'll just touch on a few things that you're doing well, and some things that could be improved.
First of all, your sense of...well everything, has improved. You're making better use of colors, values, and edges. Your brushwork, and the brushes that you're using, is getting more interesting and fine-tuned. Nice overall improvement. Your sense of perspective has improved as well.
On the flip side, there's still room for improvement in all of those areas. Your colors, while good, are somewhat washed out in some places, such as on the faces of those skull-face guys. Your darkest shadows aren't as dark as they could/should be in some images, such as in that last viking guy. While your brushwork has gotten quite a bit better and more interesting, you still leave quite a bit of messiness in your paintings. Clean up those scribbles and blurry edges!
Overall, like I said, good improvement, but there's still lots of things to work on. On another note, related to what you've been saying in your posts, you really need to decide how serious you are about this art stuff. If you want to just do it for fun, that's great. Have fun. If you want to do it as a profession, though, you need to get serious. Move away from these doom warriors for a while and do some serious studies and drawings from life. Make time for your art. If you're serious about it, that is.

[the ANGRY filipino]

Turisas, time to drop those game controllers and draw again.
Lot's of improvement here since I last visited, don't let it all fade man...

[Turisas]

Moai: Thank you once more. I am in great debt to you. Will most likely always be, because in comparison your writing, thought and critique outruns mine 10 to 1. Yeah, you have lots of great points there and I need to work A LOT more on my crap. Also, I believe that I want to be serious about all this. I think the problem is that there's no actual kick to the balls to get me to it, and my procrastination is not too helpful either. I have to figure stuff out. So far, the main studies I've done have been for school. Lucky that they're real life drawing and stuff.

eminkey2003: Hey there, thanks for the tips.

the_ANGRY_filipino: Yeah, haha. Got sort of over-excited with the console. Plus I've had some crisis times lately. Thanks, man.

Alright, just a quick reply and update. I have some shit going on.
Being a teenager fucking sucks ass at times. Speaking of which, I turned 17 Feb 21st. Wooh.
I need to give myself some time to figure things out. Also, a few kicks to the nuts.

In the meantime, have a quick sketchy bear piece of crap thing.

[Turisas]

Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah "blah Blah Blah" BLAH blah blah blah blah.
Blah.

EDIT:
Don't mind the portion above. It was a rant and a way to release my frustration. Now you don't need to spend your time reading it. :]

EDIT:
Added a quick value test. 20-25 minutes. The light is coming from the wrong direction on the face. Oops.

[Turisas]

Where's the critique?
Either my work is flawless or I'm not taken seriously.* I doubt the first option is the case.
To support the second option and increase the irony and lack of self esteem:
DEADPOOLU

(*This counts you out, Moai. You're awesome. :) )