Pinflux sketches, or 'that guy with the goggles'. APRIL UPDATE!

[Pinflux]

Wow, I just had an amazing week in Wellington at the Marama workshop. I've only (barely) lurked on the boards until now, keeping tabs on a few threads. Now that I've met so many awesome people I feel I have to jump in here a bit more seriously.

Highlights from the workshop -

The Massive Black guys. All totally down to earth people, more than willing to chat about art and anything else, and with mindblowing skillz to boot. I have to be honest and say I hadn't even heard of most of these guys before I arrived, but now am a giant fan of them all.
Life drawing! I haven't been able to go to any in about a year so it was wonderful getting back into it again, even if I had to use A4 paper. The models were amazing, and diligently held their poses.
Jason Manley's colour theory talk. It totally blew my mind - I learned far more than should be possible in that small period of time. Now to look for it in the art (and life) around me...
Poring through Wes Burt's sketchbooks. The tonal strength in his sketchbooks makes grown men weep (I've seen it)!
Watching Whit paint digitally from life. Nuff said... Was great talking to him as well.
Winning Thunderdome! The comp rules were to draw a self portrait, and I somehow managed to pull a first! The other entries were simply fantastic, so I was surprised and ecstatic to win. The loot was a painting easel signed by the guys, a brilliant portrait done by Carl Dobsky at the workshop, a few t-shirts and a couple of Massive Black DVD's. Cheers guys!


Pics of my entry and the prizes -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/202Thunderdomeselfportrait.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/203dobskyportrait1.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/204dobskyportrait2.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/205massiveblackeasel.jpg


A bit about me - I live in Auckland, New Zealand. I graduated animation school two years ago, and have since started a small animation studio called Rhubarb Zoo with my good friend Dane Jacobs. You can check out our stuff here - www.rhubarbzoo.com, our basic goal is to produce our own creative work, and maybe convince a few people that animation isn't just for kids along the way. At the moment we're cooking up the story for a serialised web series that we'll be releasing once a month once preproduction is finished, but that's a good two years away.

I love to draw/paint and really badly want to improve my work. So far I've only really done colours digitally, and am about to jump into learning to use acrylics. I have miles to go with everything, but especially colour, tone subtlety and backgrounds at this moment. Please crit away on what you guys think I should be working on, and I'll start adding my two cents to the other threads. You should also jump in if I met you at the workshop to let me know who you are (I'm in the unusual situation of having to put an alias to a face rather than the other way around)

Here's a random assortment of stuff I've done from the last year to start the thread off (starting with a few pages from my portfolio), but you can find a bunch more on my blog http://pinfluxsketches.blogspot.com/ -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/210PINFLUXportfoliocover.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/211PINFLUXportfolioocean.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/212PINFLUXportfoliothebeast.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/206PINFLUXportfoliosketches1.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/207PINFLUXportfoliosketches2.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/208PINFLUXportfoliosketches3.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/209PINFLUXportfoliosketches4.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/176scrapbook.jpg
I actually won my ticket to the workshop with this piece on the NZCGI forum in New Zealand, interpreting the concept of 'time' with this illustration - I wouldn't have been able to come otherwise!

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/198threecolours2.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/177king.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/165tinker.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/164pandakagirl.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/149getclean.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/147geisha.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/142PrayerStairs.jpg


And finally some stuff from reference -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/190markers.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/170bison.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/171whatwhat.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/172tie.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/173morphs.jpg

That's all for now... see you guys around! :D

[Max Challie]

Hey Jeremy!

It's hilarious how you won the ticket, then won the grand prize for the Thunderdome!

"Luck is for those without skill. I'm very lucky."
And you're very skilled. Some sweet work here, I'm particularly in love with your portfolio cover, your winning entry for the ticket and this thing (http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/165tinker.jpg), which reminds me so darn much of bengal (http://www.conceptart.org/?artist=bengal)!!

[Pinflux]

Study Buddy - Speedpainting from reference

Something I've been doing for the last month is a wonderful speedpaint scheme someone (I can't remember who I'm afraid) named 'Study Buddy' - I've uploaded a Photoshop template here (http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Junk/studybuddy_template_new.psd) that you should all download.

Here's an example, the last one I filled out (with reference pics compiled by Flaskpost) -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/213PINFLUXstudybuddyexample.jpg


How to use the study buddy -

1) Pair up with someone who has the time and will be committed to doing the studies on a timeframe. You'll need a total of a little over two hours a week to finish one buddy.

2) Fill the template with cool reference pictures for your buddy to speedpaint. Art, photography, movie stills - anything interesting. Paste all of the reference pictures into the 'references' section of the photoshop file and resize appropriately. Feel free to crop the images as you see fit. Of course, this stuff will be someone else's work, so don't try to take any ownership or treat the results as anything other than simple studies.

3) Shift the circles under the 'circles' folder to the appropriate letter. Hold down the shift button and slide up or down on each. The four options are Mass, Palette, Detail and Composition.

Mass - concentrate on the form of the subject - whether it be through linework or light.

Palette - Attempt to replicate the colour scheme of the subject.

Detail - Focus on a single part of the subject and paint it in detail. For example you may try to render only the hair of your subject.

Composition - Using block colours, try to match the exact composition of your subject.

4) Fill out the names and set the date for a week from now. Flatten into a jpeg and send it to your buddy, then get them to send you theirs.

5) Get painting! You have a 10 minute time limit per image, so think big when you are painting and don't get too close. I like to mask off the area around where I am painting to make it easier. Get em done all at once or break it down and do a couple per day. I also like to drag the finished image over the top of the original at the end to help figure out what I did right and wrong.

6) Once the week is over send the result back to your friend as a jpeg and start the process again!



At the risk of oversaturating this post with lists, here are some reasons why this method works -


You're accountable to someone else. It's a lot harder to let laziness kick in and ignore your studies when you owe them to someone else within a timeframe!
You'll never know what you'll have to draw! Not only is the element of mystery exciting, but you'll improve in areas you wouldn't have otherwise as your buddy will choose reference shots you may not have.
It's fun! The 10 minute limit might seem daunting at first, but once you settle in you'll discover it's very refreshing flitting from subject to subject, trying to get across different things in the timeframe. Putting together your buddy's template and seeing the results is also really fun and rewarding.



Well, I hope some of you decide to start this thing up. I've only done four of them and I can already see a decent improvement in my speedpainting abilities! Enjoy!

[JesArt]

I like, I really likes, the study buddy is very neat, I might have to try that sometimes, keep em coming, my friend.

[Kaffinated]

Great stuff man. Grats on the thunderdome prize , goggles guy.

[neacser]

dude neat stuff man keep it up whooopa!

[Flaskpost]

aaah, hey mister J! great to see you on CA my friend!
that is a mighty impressive first post, you know i´m a fan!

i hope you keep this baby updated, brother!

[Hybrid_75]

awesome sketches, loved the self portrait. Well deserved prize. that study buddy thing looks great! good to see you on here!

[Jamie Romoser]

Very inspiring and also very refeshing, i will have to try out the speed paint looks like tons of fun. Cheers

[Gail_Blitzy]

Amazing stuff, I love your referance drawings! Downloaded your "study buddy" and will deffonately give it a try!

[stoph]

i expect you to keep this updated and regular (or i'll steal your goggles..)

[Pinflux]

Max: Heh yeah, I almost feel bad for it! Almost...

JesArt: Thanks man, and please do! It's a surefire path to improvement :D

Kaffinated: Thanks for that dude :)

neacser: Heh cheers buddy :D

Flaskpost: Hello my friend! Of course I will!

Hybrid_75: Thanks heaps! Bully someone into doing the study with you dude, you won't regret it :D

OmertA: Thanks so much - and you should!

Gail_Blitzy: Thanks - did you do the study buddy with anyone yet? :D

stoph: Of course dude! (and you wouldn't dare)

New for this week - one coloured piece (painted onto the lines in one of the sketches above) and tonnes of sketches from the MB workshop...

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/245pandakacoloured.jpg

I started a sketchbook at the same time as Vodka and Jeff Lai in a sort of competition, which never really came to anything as we completely forgot to compare how far we got before I left Wellington. It probably made me draw a bit more than I would have otherwise, at the least. A bunch of the stuff in these pages are observational drawings.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/233PINFLUXMarama20.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/234PINFLUXMarama21.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/224PINFLUXMarama11.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/223PINFLUXMarama10.jpg

Went to Welly Zoo one glorious day before the workshop had started. I put sunblock everywhere but the two tiny gaps of skin in the recesses of my receding hairline right above my goggles. Looked a bit weird up there for the rest of the week.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/228PINFLUXMarama15.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/229PINFLUXMarama16.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/230PINFLUXMarama17.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/231PINFLUXMarama18.jpg

I had a blast looking through Vodka's sketches one night after the workshop and had to rip a bunch of stuff out, modifying slightly to my own style.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/232PINFLUXMarama19.jpg

I managed to do a fair bit of life drawing at the workshop itself. It's all quickish stuff, I've never done life drawing with A4 paper before so it all felt a bit small.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/214PINFLUXMarama1.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/226PINFLUXMarama13.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/216PINFLUXMarama3.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/217PINFLUXMarama4.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/215PINFLUXMarama2.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/219PINFLUXMarama6.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/222PINFLUXMarama9.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/220PINFLUXMarama7.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/218PINFLUXMarama5.jpg
Lastly some 1 minute gesture drawings.

More sketches post-Wellington -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/235PINFLUXborken.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/236PINFLUXwalkers.jpg
The boy the the hat and the two girls on the right are from reference in the first sketch, and the three girls in the second page are too.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/237PINFLUXmarines.jpg
I tasked myself with the lofty goal of redesigning 40k's Space Marines, until my drawings veered wildly from the source material and then I got bored and drew something else - namely studies in form! I read a bit of Michael D. Mattesi's book on Force, and decided to follow his lead and draw from reference, not sketching in the shadows in but instead following the models form with the pencil. Mixed results, but it was certainly fun and I wanna do some more.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/239PINFLUXform1.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/240PINFLUXform2.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/241PINFLUXform3.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/242PINFLUXform4.jpg
http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/243PINFLUXform5.jpghttp://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/244PINFLUXform6.jpg

And finally a girls face, again from reference.

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/238PINFLUXgirlfacereffed.jpg


Holy cow, was that too much? I hope some of you have started using the study buddy, I wanna see some of your results and improvements!

[kidult]

Great work man and so jealous of your prizes! well done and keep it up!

[insane lemur]

well pinflux, you're much better than me so no crits! I love your work and your open attitude to exploration. That makes you unstoppable!

[Kronos]

Beautiful stuff my friend. I just had a moment of jealousy :P. your figures are so alive and full of personality, i'm sure it comes from the animation background, but i'd just like you to know it shows and really makes your work special :)

keep it coming!

[Equality72521]

absolutely beautiful sketches and finish works,

5 stars!!!

*bookmarked*

[septomin]

This is so awesome. I've gotta take a closer look at these later.

[Flaskpost]

fuck yeah man! beautiful figure studies! *****
you´re going places, brother!

[openanewworld]

hello I remember your protrait you beat my ass off haha, great stuffs man, I so enjoy your energetic life drawing so much power, and your animation skill is great too, that painting of a guy's upper torso is top to me, amazing work keep posting more your stuffs here welcome to CA by the way!!!

[HunterKiller_]

J, mah man!
You certainly started with a bang. 5 stars already! Lemme add to that.

I haven't seen some of these sketches. The red pencil figures are sweet.

Peace out.

P.S. You gotta lemme try that magic canvas sometime.

[JellevdVegt]

super nice man, just smooth like butter.. or somethin

[daveneale]

woah, super cool sketchbook-really dig your style-your characters have a great mix of stylization and anatomical accuracy for me, will be checking back for sure!

[JailHouseRock2]

Hay Jeremy, and welcome to CA!

Dude REALLY liking your skecthes and love the paintings, great colour and light.

Great stuff mate, and btw which animation school did you go to?

peace

matt,

[Call0ps]

welcome to CA.org, beautiful work with lots of personality. hope you keep it updated ;)
*subscribed*

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Oh my god what a little tasty thing you got here, loving it as we speak:D great illustrations, loving the colours, and you have a strong strong style that has the potential to go even further:)

-E

[ikuru]

wowww u have a lot of things going here mr, love the line and color.

[MyOrangeHat]

Wow I'm really in love with your lines. Nice stuff! :D

[Katrina]

Oh wow, I really like your life drawings. They look all smooth and natural :D

[zhonked]

Fantastic stuff! I can see why you won all those competitions :) I really like the study buddy template you put up! I'll be looking for one soon, but if not, I'll be a total loser and study buddy myself:P Subscribed and eagerly awaiting your next update!

[Nubb]

Great stuff followed by greater stuff. A pleasure to watch and follow :)

[Mock]

If stoph doesn't steal your goggles for not updating this regularly, I certainly will! Really great work.

[walnut]

Really hope you keep posting regularly. Those nude sketches, man they're deadly!

[animosapien]

cool/..congrats for the thunderdome win..
you have a cool style..
looks awesome..
wondering when massive black's gonna come to india..

do pls check my sketchbook if you get time..
ive got a little bit of something over there..
and do feel free to shout your opinions out there..
lol..
take care

[Salacuis]

Everything's very very inspiring, your ideas, your studies... I wanna see more!
-
-
-
-

[Pinflux]

Whoa, thanks you guys for replying! I really appreciate it! Will browse through all of your sketchbooks soon.

Kidult: Man that's an awesome name... Thanks a lot!

Insane Lemur: Wow thanks so much! Kind words, I get a bit freaked out by remaining too static I think, must explore more...

Kronos: You're a sweetheart Tom <3

Equality: Thanks for watching and starring buddy :)

Septomin: Thanks! :)

Flaskpost: Thanks Lars, better get back to my buddy :O

Openanewworld: Thanks heaps man, your thunderdome entry was freakin' hilarious! Thanks for the kind words, you know I love your stuff!

HK: Thanks Dan... err you mean my easel?

Teh Gosu: Heh thanks dude :D

Daveneale: Thanks for the complement and for watching, see you around!

JailHouseRock2: Thanks for the welcome Matt! I went to Freelance Animation School in Auckland, NZ. Same one that HunterKiller has just graduated from, I graduated a couple of years ago.

CallOps: I'll try my darndest dude, thanks :)

Mischeviouslittleelf: Thanks so much man, I do hope I can push towards a stronger style!

Ikaru: Thanks heaps :)

MyOrangeHat: Cheers buddy!

Katrina: Thanks a lot! Life drawing is pretty fun (much easier than drawing from my head :[)

Zhonked: Thanks heaps! Good luck with the buddy, it's a lot more fun with two (you could say that about a lot of things), but definitely do it anyway if you can't find someone! Thanks for subscribing!

Nubb: Aw shucks...

Mock: Hah, everyones out to get them! Hopefully it won't come to that though :)

Walnut: Never had my work described as deadly before, that's awesome! Thanks a lot, more nudity ahead :P

Animosapien: Thanks buddy, hopefully you get MB sometime soon eh. Had a real quick look at your SB, a lot of great work there! Will have a closer look when I have more time :)

Salacuis: Yessir!


A few other oddments, but this week it's mostly life drawing for you guys. Have gone to a couple of sessions in town, after a dry spell for almost a year. Am really enjoying it, the lighting is much much better than where I used to go! Funky music plays there too... I still have no scanner, so I'm using a camera to take photos of the pics :O It's mostly annoying, but you get some nice light gradients when using the flash!

I have a bunch of junk from my sketchbook (a lot of observational drawing from the bus mostly) but I'll save that for next time.



Starting with a pic done for a friend, she wanted either flowers or bellydancers (she does bellydancing), so I did both -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/246PINFLUXDance.jpg

Some flowers from reference, using acrylics. Used my super Massive Black signed easel for the first time for this one! I haven't used paint much at all yet, so it's still super daunting to me -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/247PINFLUXflowers.jpg


A study buddy that turned out ok, given to me by Flaskpost (how you guys getting on with these?) All 10 minutes -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/259PINFLUXbuddydec1.jpg


Here's all that life drawing, all done on a smooth A4 cartridge pad. I bought some grey markers the other day, so I've begun to play around with them -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/248PINFLUXlifes1.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/249PINFLUXlifes2.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/250PINFLUXlifes3.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/251PINFLUXlifes4.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/252PINFLUXlifes5.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/253PINFLUXlifes6.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/254PINFLUXlifes7.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/255PINFLUXlifes8.jpg

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/256PINFLUXlifes9.jpg


A pic done from reference -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/257PINFLUXreclining.jpg


And a doodle I coloured last night -

http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/258PINFLUXfoetus.jpg

[algenpfleger]

Loooove your strokes man! o_o And your figures, so great aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

[Flaskpost]

the acrylic painting turned out awesome man! i´m looking forward on seeing a self portrait in full color soon! =)
keep kicking ass, mate.

[zhonked]

Beautiful lines and form! Everything else looks great too but that's what I'm digging the most from your work right now :) Any tips on achieving a really strong line like yours? I'm going to try and setup that study buddy thing as soon as my schedule calms down a bit, your set looks like a whole lot of fun:)

[BludHund]

Heya J, it was great to meet you at Marama, sorry I took so long to catch up. Congrats on the TD win, and the NZCGI contest (do you ever post on CGNZ? Visionspring and a couple other CAers from NZ seem to hang out there).

You've got a heavy reliance on a technique of rhythmic curved lines that suggest musculature. You've got a very confident touch with it and its very effective for biomorphic shapes. Its also very characterful and energetic, and tends to unify the style of any subject you apply it too.

I'm a little worried though that this approach may be letting your proportions get a little crazy, but more siginicantly, a lot of your figures and such have kind of wobbly 'rubber bones' look, lacking rigidity. Not a significant problem, but something to watch out for.

Some of your mechanical sketches are struggling to come together, at least in the early stages, but other pieces (the cart being pulled by a plague doctor/birdman in the second page of 2007-2008 character sketches, the robot-builder's-garage-scene) show that you can effectively execute a harder-line mechanical drawing. The blue pencil mecha sketches (right above the 40k SM re-design sketches) look pretty confident...worthy of a more detailed work-up.

(a side note: if you post so much at once, you may want to number your pieces or something, makes easier for people to give crits :D)

Anyway, small quibbles aside I think you've got one major issue to address: Lots of strong, characterful sketches and drawings, very few thoroughly rendered, color, finished pieces. You really don't need to get any better at drawing, as far as I can see :D but you really ought to start delving into 'painting' (in a manner of speaking).

Your stuff is so much fun to pore over...keep making us jealous man!

[JailHouseRock2]

"JailHouseRock2: Thanks for the welcome Matt! I went to Freelance Animation School in Auckland, NZ. Same one that HunterKiller has just graduated from, I graduated a couple of years ago."



Cheers mate, it's just I'm planing to go to freelance next year, and I'm always please to see work from people who have gone there.
So would you recommend the 2D animation course for someones who's looking to get into concept art and illustration?

Thanks again, and happy christmas, Matt.

P.S. really dig the stuff in the last update.

[daestwen]

Yo, Jeremy, nice to see you around. Awesome sketchbook so far, keep it up. :P

[Vloth]

I really enjoy this sketchbook. Great works man. Also that study buddy idea is really inspiring. I'll need to find someone to work along with me.
I'll be keeping an eye on ya, peace!

[Dougbot]

Wow, stunning work. I love those painted flowers.

[FAST ART]

you got some awsome skillz.. keep postin

[Pinflux]

What does 'regularly' updated mean anyway? Weekly? I haven't actually done a lot lately, which is my reason for not posting; Work and laziness have been eating at my time. On an unrelated note, does anyone know why I'm not being emailed the threads I watch weekly any more?

algenpfleger: Heh thanks dude! Your work is tight, gimme some of your work ethic!

flaskpost: Thanks bud! Oh the self portrait... *whistles innocently*

zhonked: Cheers! Hrm, every now and again I get the line question... and it's a tough one to answer because I'm not sure what I did in particular to get that. I did a crapload of observational drawing on the bus for a couple of years, where I simply had to be fast in order to get the lines down before my subject moved. I think my animation background helps too - when I draw from reference usually I'll ignore tonality altogether and just go for the outline.
It's a double edged sword though, because while I'm pretty quick at getting the lines down my toned drawings are suffering :P

BludHund: Hey man, thanks heaps for the in depth crit and analysis! Greatly appreciated! (and no, I don't really hang out on CGNZ... or NZCGI to be honest) I have definitely been thinking a bit more about trying not to go overboard with the stylised lines and trying to base them on the underlying structure a bit more, not sure how successful I am yet but at least it's on my brain now. More anatomy studies wouldn't go amiss... As you can see from this post I've been doing a *bit* more painting, and am working on a big acrylic piece at the moment that is helping me realise how inadequate I am.

JailHouseRock2: Hey Matt... Are you at Freelance now? It'll definitely improve your work purely because you'll be drawing a lot, but it's definitely the animation that is the focus of the course, not the drafting skills. I see that you're self focused enough anyway, so that won't be a problem. Maybe you'll be like me and develop a love for 2D animation through the duration of the course, otherwise I'm not sure how it would benefit you if animation isn't your thing.

Daestwen: O hello! :) Thanks!

Vloth: Thanks! Hope you do get to do the study buddy exercise sometime!

Dougbot: Thanks man! :D Been a fan of your work for yonks!

Fast Art: Cheers bud! I'll try!


I'll start off with the Facebook Portrait Project I started last year. My goal is to draw everyone on my friends list - every now and again I'll just put the call out on my status update and I draw the first four people to comment (ignoring anyone who has already been drawn)... I don't wanna put down anyone diligently working at self portraits, it's great practice and you can learn a lot, I prefer this to doing copious self portraits for several reasons:

1) There is so much variation between your subjects - it's a surefire way to improve your visual vocabulary and expand your knowledge of face types/body types/ethnicities.

2) It's fun! Going through your subject's photos looking for one that sparks your interest is pretty entertaining, and although there is an onus on you to portray someone in a way that they appreciate it's very rewarding when they do! People really enjoy having their portraits done - and it's a buzz when they change their profile pictures to your drawing!

3) I'm afraid I'd get pretty bored of my own face after a while, and I don't want to risk all my drawings ending up looking like me.


Here are some of the ones I was most happy with:

1.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/278PINFLUXsarah.jpg

2.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/262PINFLUXstag.jpg
(stag party)

3.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/279PINFLUXJill.jpg

4.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/261PINFLUXbyron.jpg

5.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/280PINFLUXChristina.jpg

6.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/263PINFLUXcandice.jpg

7.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/281PINFLUXKirsty.jpg

8.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/264PINFLUXlucy.jpg

9.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/266PINFLUXrichardpaint.jpg
My friend Richard and his girlfriend Inyoung. She commissioned a bunch of her artist friends to paint tiny 4"x4" canvases and then put 'em together on a board for an anniversary present)

10.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/271PINFLUXVGbuddies.jpg
Some friends of mine as their favourite videogame characters for Christmas. They didn't realise it was a set for a month or so, and connected them up once I let them in on it.


Some life drawing and then stuff from reference photos:

11.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/289PINFLUXplate.jpg

12.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/277PINFLUXwarmup.jpg

13.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/287PINFLUXlifes10.jpg

14.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/288PINFLUXlifes11.jpg

15.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/260PINFLUXwrench.jpg

16.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/285PINFLUXclone.jpg



And finally some stuff from imagination:

17.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/272PINFLUXteeter.jpg

18.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/274PINFLUXpoker.jpg

19.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/283PINFLUXchill.jpg

20.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/284PINFLUXdescend.jpg

21.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/273PINFLUXteamwork.jpg
(I did this with a friend - he did the linework and I did the shading)

22.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/275PINFLUXwurm.jpg

23.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/276PINFLUXkraftbomb.jpg

24.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/282PINFLUXimaginary.jpg
(for the topic 'imaginary friend'. I'm the one at the desk and the imaginary friend is the one behind me. You can see the WIP of the acrylic painting I'm doing in the background)

25.http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Sketchblog/290PINFLUXtreemouthWIP.jpg
A very early WIP of a painting I started the other night, to try prove that I do paint from time to time.

Oh, and if anyone is curious about my animation - here is mine and a friends first short film we released under the studio name Rhubarb Zoo in 2006, done during our final year of animation school (and unrelated to it). The animation itself is not particularly impressive but it was a fun little story to come up with, and we learnt a lot from it. We went around the city and took lots of photos to use as the backgrounds, combined those with hand-drawn characters, and composited/animated in After Effects. I hadn't used the program before so it was a crash course figuring it out in time to sell the short at a con on DVD.

b3t3bqlm3Vo

I'll be pimping our latest short film Entropy as soon as we release it online, hopefully very soon!

To make this post a true multimedia experience, have a song (http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Music/A%20Gap%20of%20Here%20and%20There.mp3) too. I wrote it the other day in FLstudio, lemme know what you think!

Sorry about the long winded rambling post, feel free to chuck any critiques and comments this way!

[HunterKiller_]

Mad update bro.

You know I love it.

[Tigermilk]

Oh wow, what an incredible thread. Thanks so much for posting man! :)

[Dian3]

awesome thread i can't wait for more!

i wish to see more environments if you don't mind.