BMB's sketchbook

[BMB]

Hello and thanks for taking the time to click my thread.

I doubt anyone would know me, I do a little sci/fi webcomic called Stark Reality (Also under the name BMB) and for the last couple of years I have been slowly trying to build up its universe, making a stable of characters. Pretty much all the stories take place in one enormous city a few thousand years from now in the area that is now known as the eastern side of Australia.

However, last year for a comic competition I created the basic idea of a war story, set in the same universe as Stark Reality but taking place somewhere else, mostly revolving around a young private who joins up under false pretences and how he changes as the horrible conflict progresses. After the competition finished I found myself still thinking about the little 12 page story quite a bit and continually adding more notes, scenes, characters, situations etc so that I now have a small pile of (fairly illegible :P ) pages of scripts.

The young private, named Joseph Gutter, has fast become one of my favourite characters to write, and I can feel that he is going to be one of my staples (Similar to what Judge Dredd is to 2000AD, if anyone out there gets that reference?!?) and as such I really want to take the time and get it right. Someone I know from the net who reads my comic urged me to participate in this forum, and whilst I’ve had it in my favourites for a long time I’d never taken the final plunge to submit anything. But after thinking about it and seeing how constructive this place can be, I thought that posting the progression of my development on Gutter (as the story is called) could be fun. :D

I’ve been pretty much exclusively just working on the writing for Gutter since my original character concept art, so the first images I post will be nearly a year old, but as I’ll be working on Gutter a lot in the near future there should be plenty of fresh work popping up.

So here’s hoping I’ve done the image posting etc correctly…. :P

Sorry about the wordy intro I just didn’t want people to walk in and wonder what the hells going on with this newb. :D

I've moved the images to my second post as I learn about the uploading process... :P

[Mr. Perfect]

Woah. Messed up! Just how i like it I must say! Fantastic work. Keep it up!

[BMB]

Thank you very much Mr. Perfect. :D

Here is an uber basic colouring of the Hermit Crab, because in war, you want to be a big red and yellow easy to see target.... :P

[BMB]

A quick sketch I was able to get in before I seem to have lost pressure sensitivity from my tablet, bugger!

[BMB]

Got a couple more pictures in today. I'm pretty new to painting with photoshop so I'm probably going to go through a few basic staples...like females in shiny black clothing and armour that probably wouldn't actually do much etc! :P

[BMB]

Quickie:

[Whitevillage]

I like your man into machines concepts, reminds me of the Stroggs from Quake II. I'm not really sure, but the lady in the suit's right breast looks like a ball while the other breast looks more natural.

[BMB]

Thanks WhiteVillage. :D

I see what you mean, the highlight to make it more of a teardrop shape is getting lost being next to the highlight of her armours right side up the top. Could do with some more defining.

[Lakka]

Heya BMB, I'd like to see you work on those faces, just grab references from whereever and study them, and every now and then try to apply your knowledge.

I like the values on the fullbody image in #5, but the face just isn't on par with the rest.

p.s. B/W is a good thing, and I hope you wont drop B/W stuff out! :)

[BMB]

Thanks for the feedback Lakka, and don't worry, I don't see myself stopping on B&W for a long time yet. :D

This is the next thing I think I will try to paint, all goes well I can start on it tomorrow:

[BMB]

There's about 10 hours or so in this painting...I really need to work on my speed. :P

I did a step by step, I'll try to post them up soon if I can find a cool gif maker or something.

I think my favourite bit is the lower legs, seems to have worked best.

[BMB]

Ok, here is a larger version of the pic so you can see more of the detail, plus a close up of the head, and a step by step gif:

[BMB]

Going for more of a speedy feel in this one, took about and hour and 40 minutes.

It might look a bit random so I'll mention a few of this 'characters' main points. Basically, this is a sort of suicide soldier (There would be many of them, mostly similar looking) The spiky tanks on the back are explosives. This is like a last exit for troops that have sustained horrendous injury and don't want to/can't fit back into society (The side these chaps are on is pretty Draconian anyway, more on that another time. :D )

Short term troopers, you might see a small swarm of them approaching your trenches etc at high speed.

I've included a step by step...mainly because it's such fun making it! :D

[BMB]

Quickie:

[BMB]

Haven’t had any time to get drawing done for nearly a week but I did today, so I did this basic idea for a car. It’s pretty much just taking a regular vehicle and trying to make it slightly more damage resistant. More of a hit and run, as they’d die pretty quick against anything serious.

Plus a step by step as I have so much fun doing them! :D

[BMB]

Little bit more today, working on 3 different hypothetical factions' warbikes with sidecars.

I've finished one, I'll post the others as they're done.

[BMB]

Here is the next bike, bathtub sidecar ferocity! :D

Between bikes I have also started on my first painted comic story, rather than pencils as I have till now always done. It's a....bleh...in spots but I hope I can continue to get better as time goes by.

[BMB]

A tentative try at colour! :P

[Brun]

u have some great ideas in here, don't forget about the basics though

keep rocking

[BMB]

Thanks Brun :D

Here is a pin-up I've done for a character of mine. I haven't been able to do much extra-curricular art for the last little bit as the first volume of my STARK REALITY graphic novel is out! Hooray! :P

If anyone is interested in knowing more you can check out my website: www.starkrealitycomic.com

This character will be appearing in volume 2

[BMB]

Another update! Finally!

I haven't been lazy, I’m drawing very nearly everyday, but its almost always for my comic so I don’t want to upload the pics/pages in case a reader see’s them and gets a 2 month advance update!

A few days ago though I did start work on what’s going to be the back cover for 2nd volume of Stark Reality graphic novels. I’m still to colour it in, but I was trying something different with the background inking and at the moment I’m fairly happy with the results. Give it another week or so before I start cringing at all the flaws. :P

[Arsenopyrite]

Oh wow!
I love the imagination you've portrayed in these pieces!
And I love your linework to death. I could just eat it up.
Please make more like work, it's so beautiful~

I also really like how you've shown the process in creating your pieces. So insightful.

[BMB]

Thank you very much Arsenopyrite! :D

I'm sure some more linework wont be too far away.

[BMB]

Here is the picture finished. I've used basic big colours as I wanted it to jump from the black gloss of the back-cover of the graphic novel it will end up on. Also, it might end up smaller so I didn't want to crowd it too much.

[BMB]

Haven't been lazy, I've been busy doing my comic pages at full steam ahead. I was recently asked to do some concept art for a the Unearthly Challenge competition, for anyone interested in learning more about it you can check it out here. (http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/events/4/rules/index.php)

Basically we're doing a family of cannibals that live in a quiet area of a train station. I use sketch-up to get the basic shell of the lair, then use photoshop to draw in the details. I've also included a gif also, showing the sketch-up model VS the final product.