SPUTCHBOOK!! Update 11/20/08

[Sputch]

Heyo! Finally decided to do away with my cowardice and get some hard hittin' crits. These sketchbooks seem to encourage people to work on their weak spots. I'm mainly looking to get more PUNCH out my images by improving my grasp of composition, colour and values. But I also want to kick my own ass into doing more environments, vehicles and maybe some sequentials. Help me kick my ass!:yayca:
Another issue I'm hoping to tackle here is bringing more sketches to a certain standard of presentation so that they are enjoyable to look at. These are some that are in that ballpark as well as some WIP bigger projects. Take a gander and speak your mind.

Thanks

[R'john]

Cool stuff...love the armor and the Ganon!!! keep em coming!!!

[smuli]

Great colours and brushwork! I also like the look of the hatching on the third picture. To get more "punch", I think there's plenty of room in your pictures for more playing around with temperatures. I can't help thinking the orc in the first painting would pop out a lot more with cold blue instead of red. And that crater has just one very warm color, why not try some grey on the shadow? I think the reddish insect thing is my favorite, the shell looks very convincing.

[Killer Tomato]

I love the 2nd pic - Octpus - and the 3rd picture. I'd like to see more of your black + white stuff!

[Sputch]

Thanks for the crits and comments! Here's a WIP of another Ganon fanart. I really like Ganon. He's pretty much my favourite videogame villain, but only with a pig nose. No pig nose, no deal. Anyway this is very early still lots of work to do, just thought I'd post a progress shot.

[Sputch]

Thought I'd toss these old Mudbox sketches up. Did a quick PS paintover on the 3/4 of the beasty for fun.

[Sputch]

This is a bit more of a finished piece I've been working on. Can't seem to really reach a satisfactory colour relationship with the foreground and background. I'll keep playing with it. I was thinking I maybe ought to throw some more sharp little highlights on his face...

[skip]

Yo sputch! Some nice stuff here.. Love that colored mudbox beastie, its awesome!
I think smuli is right about playing around with temperatures.. Trying warm lights w/ cool shadows and vice versa for environments or chars could strengthen your scope a little.. (something i need to work on as well)
And like i mentioned perhaps some more range or gradiation of midtones to help 'model' the forms a little.
Thats about it, i dig your 2nd ganon pic, its got a strong focal point and the char is silhouetted perfectly in the blast.. leading your eye up to the glutton for dispensing punishment, ganon! As for the last pic (where-bat) I would'nt put too many more hilites on his face as it might start competing with his hand, which is closer.
Just some thoughts that came to mind is all, keep up the rad stuff.

[Dan Valkar]

that wolfbat its awesome man! really creepy shit...i like the blood all over his face and hands

[Sputch]

Thanks for the comments! Quickie sad robot.

[Sputch]

Wolfbat monster is done. I posted it and some professional work in the finished works section, but I'll chuck them in here too to show the work as a body. Plus a couple speedies. Cheers!

[Sputch]

Guh, one more before bed. Seems like a lot of people like drawing rabbits. I am no exception. I came up with a fun story while working on this. Basically, this huge, lonely rabbit rescues a village matchmaker from drowning in the river and in return, she takes up the challenge of finding him a suitable mate. I will definitely keep working on this one.

[Sputch]

Hey all, I thought I'd post some moustached men in the spirit of Movember, month of the moustache. I actually did these to come up with a character to go with the quote at the beginning of "Bang On!" by the Propellerheads.http://mixturtle.com/song/559107/1/propellerheads---bang-on_.html I believe it's originally from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I want make a 3D intro to my demo real with it.
The other one is an example of how with a splatter texture and almost exclusively the clone tool in PS you can make your very own Ben Affleck! At least, I thought he looked like Ben Affleck (not intentional).

[Animation Idiot]

Hi there! Cross-posting in response to your commenting in my sketchbook thread. I was wondering if you might be willing to help me out regarding bringing sketched ideas to a finish, or better sketching methods/exercises I could do to improve. Your stuff is supersolid and I feel I need advice on proper practice and method to get there - I.E. I have a tendency to work really linear and want to break away from that.

[kidult]

Some great work here - love the wolfbat duder - maybe on some of your looser sketches you can make marks that follow the form more to help push it....maybe cos your final stuffs rock

keep at it

[mccatana]

i like some of 'ur ideas...and i like to see some of 'ur sketches finished. anyway - good colors and tehnique. from me: 5stars

[Sputch]

Yay, replies!
Animation Idiot:Thanks for the feedback. I'm no master but, for sure, I'll have another look at your stuff with your goals in mind and try to say something helpful (not tonight cuz it's 1:20 am). I will say that linear process is not necessarily bad at all, especially for production. If you build your drawings in stages and ensure they are solid before moving on, then you avoid that whole "garnishing crap" tragedy that can happen. Plus, if you master appeal at each stage of your work (what I'm working on) then you can receive feedback before wasting time polishing. Wait...did you mean linear like line drawing linear? I bet you did. If that's the case, this still pretty much applies but I'll try to post more progress shots to show my painterly process vs "linear".

Kidult: Excellent idea. I was thinking about that very thing a couple days ago after looking at David Kassan's hatching. Thanks for the input!

Mccatana: Wow, thanks for the stars! You can be sure I am working on some more finished stuff. Some of the WIPs are in the first post and I am eager to getter'dun on those puppies.

SOoo, tonight I didn't feel like working on something specific so I thought I'd indulge in some free form doodling. Not technically the punchiest image but, still, pretty fun. Feel free to beat the crit out of it.

[Ricardo Robles]

Amazing pieces u got here. the vampire cleaning the blood from his face is really scary, so realistic. I love your works.

[Chate Noire]

Nice work! Lots of variety in style, technique and subject which is awesome. The finished wolfbat monster looks great, and I really loved those almost-silouhettes in your first post.

Rock on!

[Sputch]

Ricardo Robles and Chate Noire: Thanks! Glad you're diggin it.

Gots a quick colour sketch of a soldier man reloading his dumb lookin gun, some almost-continuous-contour-line drawings and a vendetta piece I will probably never finish because it is rife with problems. Enjoy!

[lord_regenschirm]

Hey there, some pretty freaky stuff in here but of very good quality ... Really like your thumbs, very professional approach. In this sense "thumbs up" ... ;)

[Rotor]

Fantastic use of colours.
I have to start doing that thumbnail stuff myself.

[Delmar]

hey sputch....really nice stuff you have here!!

I LOVE the rabbit....as much as i love the sentence.......

A lot of people like drawing rabbits. I'm no exception.!.......Hahaha....if you don't mind i'm gonna put this on a t-shirt. :steph:

please finish the rabbit drawing!!

the wolfbat is great.....but you could make this image and some other pieces a bit more juicy with some rim lights that would give the main objects more contour and the more depth in general.
I would recommend to play around with some stronger lighting situations.

I'm also currently tackling this lighting and color stuff seriously......it's a bitch!

Great stuff...keep em comin!

Cheers

Andi

[Nettle_Mountain]

Damn im impressed, keep up more stuff!
Values could use working there and there

[Sputch]

lord_regenschirm: Thanks man, I don't do as many thumbs as I should, but I'm glad you like em. And yeah, I'm a little freaky.:oneye:
Rotor: It's great to hear you like the colours. I'm really trying to get better with them. I'm going to try to do more pieces with broader palettes as it that is a lot trickier.
Delmar Thanks for the crits man. I've been doing a lot of thinking around rim lights lately. You can see that I do do it in a number of the pieces here and it is undeniably a great way to get punch and readability. I just worry that I might start using it to excess. I love when people create hard hitting images without it cuz it's harder to pull off. Not to say that I have done that. Probably every image I have left it out in would be better with. Gotta try though, right? I dunno, maybe I'm totally over thinking it.
Good call on the strong lighting situations. You've discovered my low light addiction. I definitely find it easier to create compelling images out of darkness. I will come into the light!
Thanks again for your insight and I will for sure finish that giant rabbit. Good luck in your own battle with lighting and color!
Nettle_MountainThanks dude. I'll keep at it.