1.30.12 - Zebz Sketchbook - Sketchfest

[Zebz]

Hey everyone,

Some of you might know me and some of you might not. I've been around CA for a while but haven't been very active in recent years due to most of my artistic mind being poured into NDA projects for work. As time went on I sort of lost a lot of momentum and started doing less and less personal work and art slowly got less fun. But something happened late last year that sort of started a spark (not sure what exactly lol) and I've been slowly building up speed again. And since I've found that joy for creating images renewed I've made a resolution that this year I'd finally start posting again on a sketchbook thread in hopes of getting more feedback and crits that would help drive me to evolve my skills further. So I guess I'm just crawling back to the learnin' tree. Heh. So I really appreciate anyone who gives my doodles and pencil hacks a look. And appreciate even more anyone who offers some sound advice and criticism. And I'd just like to say thanks in advance for that.

I started a new sketchbook thread (old one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50224&page=22)) because most of the links seem to not be working on most of the pages to the old images. And I'd just like to sort of let all that stuff go and give myself a clean slate to move forward. As you can see from the post below I'm sort of all over the place. Heh. I'm not sure how to comment on each individual image so I'll try and give an overview of what's below here. Most of it is just random, unfinished doodles from my sketchbooks. I pulled a few of the more interesting ones from the recent months. The toony stuff towards the bottom are some sketch ideas for a project that several of the artists I'm working with came up with. I'm just helping concept some characters. I'll explain more about that in later posts as I'm sure to have more concrete concepts.

My experience with color has been all about saturation since I started working and I've never really focused and just spent more time studying it for myself. So you'll see a few digital random things in here and that's me just trying to learn how to paint better and find new ways of working. I'm trying to be more concerned with limiting a palette and not letting my color work overtake the value and lighting. The last image you'll see on here (the girl with the red scarf) is still in progress. You can probably tell what I'm trying to learn from how I'm approaching that image.

So yea, there's a lot of ballpoint, mechanical pencil, brush pen and digital in this update. Sorry it's just sort of scatter brained and all over the place. I'll try to update more regularly so that it isn't such a mess. And man, I forgot how long it takes to scan and get all this crap in here! lol So thanks for looking and I promise to keep my mouth shut better next time. :yayca:

- Zebz (Ryan Bowlin)

[Diego]

Great new start dude, really diggin' the moleskine pages and the studies, keep it up the good work.

Cheers

[maxetormer]

Hi there ;) looking forward to your new book, oh and I love this page
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=596349&stc=1&d=1234936814

[shumizu]

Truly great drawings! The boobs in the last painting are looking very weird.
: ) Look that you are drawing with lines as simple as possible. (sorry for my english) - Like her right arm...

keep it up
Cheers

[Hyptosis]

Crazy stuff man, good pencil pushing though! Totally awesome. I freaking love that sound guy with the microphone boom, haha

[Janos]

Aha
Portman, well well well, so we meet again.
Natalie Portman is awsome but in your study (which is great valuewise) her eyes are to close together.
Your sketches are very nice, too.

[azekariel]

Wow, that is truly awesome. I don't think there is much more I can add to that! Please update soon :D

[Zebz]

azekariel - Thanks, man. Keep pushing your stuff too. You'll get there in time.

Jano - Thanks! Yea, she's a saucy little thing isn't she? lol I don't think eyes are too far apart. I actually think I just made her face bit too wide. At least that's what it seemed like after looking at the photo later. Thanks for the crits tho.

Hyptosis - Thanks! Glad you like 'em. Yea, he's apart of the news crew for this monster movie type animated thing some buddies of mine are working on. I'm just trying to scribble some characters out for 'em. More on those soon, I think.

Schmitz - Yea, it's still not finished. I'm still trying to sort out the values and really some parts are still just blocked out a bit and need to be refined. I really need to sit down and hammer the rest of it out. I should have plenty of free time soon tho... sadly. Thanks for stopping in! Let me know what you think of it when I finish. Your ladies look very nice in your thread, btw! Great work.

Max - Good to be back, mate. Yea, I love sitting and just rendering. It doesn't really help much with job type stuff tho. i need to continually find ways to cut corners and get faster. Heh. I'm sure you know how that is. I always love fully rendered pencils tho. Maybe it's the strange inks that you like in there and not the pencils... in that case disregard my comments. lol

Diego - Thanks! I'll do my best!

Thanks again for all of the comments! It's nice to be back and having people look at my scribbles. I do have some sad news tho as I update today. Today the developer I work for laid off a good portion of our work force and almost all of the art stuff felt the blade. This is my first time going through this sort of thing and it's been hard to swallow. The studio is being very cool tho about letting us show everything we've created for the game. I was told I could post all of the work I've done for it which is pretty gracious on their part and unheard of from any other dev I've seen. So I'll be adding more stuff from there soon as I start gathering all of my art that I've created over the last 2.5 years. Not sure if I should start a thread in the finally finished section or what but regardless I'll let you guys know in here what's going on. So it sucks but hopefully I'll find something else and it'll be even better. If anyone is hiring and reading this be sure to message me! lol Anyhow...

I went to the many random images I worked on and just grabbed a few within context for me to toss in here tonight to celebrate the occasion. lol These concepts are for Lightless Cultists. They basically worship a sort of undead group in the game. Kind of wannabes, y'kno? The first couple images are me sort of feeling out some ideas. The last three characters are what we ended up going with. I've been all over the place in terms of my process and it's continually changing and evolving. These were done last year sometime. I'll have to get the more recent ones in here so I can show what I've been doing lately. Also, Street Fighter 4 is pretty awesome. I need to finish a Ryu sketch I started the other day and I'll post that soon too. Anyhow.... thanks for looking and I'll catch you guys next update. Take care.

-Zebz/Ryan :mod:

[Cam Sykes]

ah sucks to hear man, but on the bright side you can smash out heaps of nice personal works while you're on hiatus.

[Zebz]

CamSkyo: Thanks, man. I'm going to do my best to keep cracking on my stuff but the next week or so is going to be me getting my portfolio together. Thanks for the encouragement, man.

Here's another few concepts for a human style guide I was working on a couple months ago. Basically just for the wardrobe and hairstyles. These were loose ends that I was supposed to tie up once we got all of the race style guides finished. I'll probably refine these and paint them up for my portfolio tho.

[Diego]

Hey man, diggin' your latest stuff, i like the latest characters, they look more solid and more functional than the previous designs in terms of balance of the gesture and design, i think the non-armor gear are your weakest points in those chars http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=598200&stc=1&d=1235113490

Keep on going dude, i'd love to see a color version of the human chars.

Cheers

[kingcoyote]

Hey man, Great stuffs as always. You know I heart the work you do, dude! I'm really looking forward to seeing how the portfolio comes together. This is a hard thing, but like I said last night, I know it'll all work out in the end, and maybe this is a good opportunity for you.

Also, it's important to remember that there is a big difference between getting laid off, and getting fired. This wasn't because they didn't want you, and chances are good that somebody else is going to want you too. I'll miss you when you move though... lol.

I'll talk to you later, dude

Your friend
kc

[TheGnoll]

yayyyyyy!
off to a brand new frsh start!

loving the characters and the sketches, col designs, and cool lines too

looks like you don't enjoy drawing feet a lot don't you hehe

don't go dissappearing again somewhere, keep this up

ciao!

[Zebz]

Diego: Thanks! Yea, I'll probably colorize those for the portfolio if I can get some extra time this week while prepping the stuff to send out for more work. As far as the cultist designs and their "non-armor" portions being weak. The idea that we ended up running with was that we wanted them to have a high contrast silhouette. You'd have patched together, dark leather bits and then you'd have the more detailed chromed bones and such. That was the direction my art director pushed me in at least. The first ones were just trying to find some ideas and second ones seemed to push them too far into creature territory (tho I think I like those designs better then the ones I ended up with even if they are pretty busy). So in a job you do what they tell ya. Heh. I was pretty happy with them tho.

KC: You're always a wonderful friend and I appreciate all of your support, dude. Thanks again for the Darth Maul Mighty Mugg you gave me to cheer me up. It's just a pitty he won't get to sit on my desk at work with all the rest of the brothers. I'll bring them all home soon so he can have a happy family! Love ya, man. This is still our year, man! We've got this shizz!

Da' Gnoll : Yo! Glad you're digging some of it. Yea, I struggle with the feet. But now that you've called me out I need to kick around some studies. Be looking for those in the next couple weeks! Hold me accountable and keep me posting, man! I need a community now more then ever! lol

So thanks again for the people who've looked this crap over. lol I'm still in shock a bit but I'm starting to rally forth and pour my effort into my portfolio. By the end of this next week I should have a new website up and will be hopefully ready to send out my stuff to a ton of companies. I have a couple strong contacts so I'm hoping those work out first. No matter where I end up I'll have to move but thankfully I'm in a position right now where that's not a problem. So if you know anyone who is looking for an artist let me know! I can do textures, GUI, concept art and even low poly models! lol I'm advertising myself here now, this is sad!

So I haven't had much time to draw as I've been compiling things for the portfolio. But I figure I'd take some time to post some of the stuff I've worked on at work over the last few months. These were last fall/winter, I think. I'm not a great environment artist (character is my stronger area, I think) but I tried to get these out there and some came out decent. They were really supposed to be more speedy type paintings where I nailed down some colors and basic shapes in an area. These were just to give a basic idea for what an area might look like. These were areas we hadn't previously concepted and had very little info available to us. So we took what we had and just started pushing paint around and seeing what we liked. Some of these I worked on more then others, as you'll see, but I generally got a couple done a day. As I said before, I sort of had to feel around for a color scheme and such since nothing was really noted before. These were more of a starting point for future concepts. I'm considering taking some of these and pushing them a bit more and including them in my portfolio. If I get some time this week I'd really love to bring some of them to a bit more of a finish. They're pretty rough right now. So which ones do you think I should focus on? I'll probably go back to these regardless of whether I can do it with this portfolio or not. We'll see...

See ya next update! Thanks for looking.

- Z

[courtyard]

What an incredible start for a sketchbook. These environments are amazing...I especially love the abandoned mine shafts and the enormous weeping willow. Your handling of trees is so skillful--they look magical! I look forward to seeing the development of any one of these.

[TheGnoll]

ALERT: i am no enviroment expect at all, actually, i know shit about enviroments, so take comment with pinch of salt.

i like 2.22.09.2 the first two work better than the green ones imho, contrast makes em more interesting

in the weeping willow the foreground objects are a bit too light, maybe making them darker would guide the eyes better

my suggestion would be to carry on with this one

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=600314&stc=1&d=1235337291

and this one

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=600319&stc=1&d=1235337383

they all seem very "busy" to me, maybe try and focus on something specific, strong focus on small elements scattered around imho doesn't work

and don't give us that low confidence title man :)

no really, at least stop calling it crap :D

keep on rollin'

ciao!

[JimahJames]

first i like to comment on your icon lol bob ross... next i would like to say that your work is good ... i believe your strengths are in the planning stages. I know digital painting is difficicult so i have to give you a plus on that. you style is very original and keep it up :)

[sandeepbarot]

good work

[JimahJames]

hey i added a couple of more pics to the forum i found them hiding lol , the link that you sent me helped me out alot thanks for that amigo :)

[Diego]

Oh, i see man, well, that was i saw about those characters, just a minor crit, brcause the silhouttes reads very well, and if that was what your AD wanted you did your job man.
About the enviros, you said your not great at them, i dont think so, you have a great base that you'll feed as you go along with color, mood, perspective, it's just a matter of time and studies hehehe.

Keep on going mate.

[arghmisfit]

Yo Zebz!

Good to see some of the stuff from your work. The environment defiantly have potential. I agree with gnoll, they are a little to busy. trying to simplify the values and have the most extreme contrast around the focal point will help. Personally i think the one with the floating trees has a nice feel to it.

i also like the demon that is eating babys ;)

keep pushing

[Mikko Voipio]

Hey there. Long time no see. Thanks a very mucha for your kind words in my sb. It was a nice start to a dull and grey monday morning. I'm loving your progress. especially those moleskine drawings on feb 18 post are really looking good. Good to see that your still at it. I'll keep you company on your journey to excellence.

[sketcheth]

Ryan you finally got around to scanning all of that moleskine business, way to go...looks great, man...the circumstances for the return to the sketchbook are certainly awful, but it's good to see you back here with new work. Now keep going!
First off, the color stuff looks really nice, beautiful renderings. Try to push your values more, you seem to just fade towards neutral tones a lot and you end up not letting things reach the amount of drama they could. I think you've mentioned working from movie stills before, give it a shot...you won't find more perfect lighting to recreate. Good luck! Can't wait for more!

[Janos]

Wow
really impressed. The last post is mindblowing and shows a very nice and detailed style. I think you could push the mood in teh pieces a bit more by adding deeper shadows. The amount is great though, bet you learned tons.

Cheers mate

[Flaskpost]

dang man, been a while! good to have you back!
lovely character designs. you´ve been doing some progress while away!

[Zebz]

courtyard: I don't know how magical they really are but they are twisty and curvy! Heh. Trees are fun to draw and paint. There's something abstract and just fun about them. I'm glad you enjoyed your browse. Hopefully you'll find more to check out as time goes on! Great stuff going on in your thread as well.

The Gnoll: Wonderful crits and very helpful, mate. Thank you so much. If I can manage to swing it this week in the midst of portfolio creation I'll definitely make some changes to some of them. I've been studying value a bit more lately so I'm starting to see the need to limit my areas of light and saturation so that the eye can be guided through the composition a bit more. It's funny that you picked those two tho. I actually felt the mine shaft one you chose was also the most successful of the rest. Probably because the lighting is more limited and the details less random. Good to know my eye was picking up on something! Brilliant helps! Thanks! And I'll try and be a little less self loathing in here. Heh. Appreciate the support, man.

JimahJames: My own style, eh? I don't know if I've quite gotten there yet. But thanks! Bob Ross rules! Keep pluggin' away at your own sketchbook.

sandeepbarot: Thanks!

Diego: Thanks! Yea, I think that the more I work on envioz I'll improve. Just in doing these I already could start to see progress in the later ones. I was more confident in my process, I guess. I think that's the thing with me. Sometimes I just need a structure to follow to get myself moving in a direction. Then once I find a comfort zone there I can move towards some amount of variation. It's been good tho. I'll get cracking on more studies and such of these soon! Appreciate the comments!

Argh: Thanks, man. Yea, I really started losing focus on some of these and plopping details everywhere and scribbling away. I think you're right. Just some clever placement of deep shadows should really help pop a few of this forward into something more finished. Did you notice how the baby eating demons has no hands? I was going to finish him... never did. I call that piece "The Babysitter." How clever. lol

Placeboast: Yea, man. It's good to be back. It was amazing to see how far you've come. You guys have really been bustin' lead while I've been away. Makes a guy feel pretty guilty! Ha! Keep moving!!

Sketcheth: No worries, man. Bobby Chiu says that if something bad happens that only means that something amazing and even more wonderful is on the way! Ha! Thanks for the crits too. As you can see from my comments above I definitely agree and will take them to heart as I revise them or start new ones. Update that book soon! I'm gettin' lonely out here! Can't wait to see you over spring break! When is it?

Janos: Thank you! Yea, they're getting there. Just takes some time for those processes and thoughts to seep in there. We'll all get there in time, right? Keep moving forward yourself, man.

Flaskpost: As have you! Thanks for welcoming me back into the fold. It's nice that some people still remember me. lol So much new blood in here these days!

So I know this is my sketchbook but I haven't had time to sketch at all. lol Since being laid off last week I've just been pouring effort into a portfolio to get out there and look for more work at another developer. But this is stuff that I'm working on so I figured you guys might like to see some of it as I progress. I won't post all of it until I actually finish the portfolio (hopefully this week). But it helps give me motivation to push forward with it if I post some of this stuff and no one has ever seen any of it since we've never released any of the content before so I figure what the heck. The first is some texture work I did for this player character's armor. I didn't model it or anything. I just did the texture work. The layout of that page is kind of what I'm working towards with my portfolio. I'm going to include a bit more design towards the bottom with a logo. But it's a general idea. Comments on that would be great too. The second one is a progression I saved out specifically thinking someone might like to see how I've been going about doing some of my rendering lately in Photoshop. It is a character outfit concept that we ended up going with for a style guide for a particular race in our game. She came out kind of cool. I'm working for a more loose, painterly style. My digital work seems to loose a lot of energy that my pencils somehow have at times. I'm trying new ways to capture that and I think I'm getting closer. So thanks for looking and I'll catch you guys next time! Wish me luck! I need some money! lol

-Zebz/Ryan

[Zebz]

Been working on the portfolio all day today and was working on this one a little while ago. I think he's my favorite creature I've ever textured or concepted. lol He's an Arcanum spider and the basic idea is that he's a magical, hand crafted spider. Magic is what has brought him to life. And in our game you could fight him and all his other spider friends. Heh. He's reflective and stuff in the engine and it's so nice to watch the light glisten across him. I'll have a turntable of him eventually when the website goes live later this week. I wanna draw and paint so bad but this portfolio is kicking the crap out of me. If anyone wants to give me a job drop me a line! lol Also, still not completely finished with the layout. I'm still going to do something more interesting with that bottom bar at the bottom of the image. Thanks for looking. Sorry I keep posting random portfolio stuff. But... it is what I'm working on right now so I guess it's fair. lol

Ryan/Zebz

[Wilko]

Great work man! Good studies and interesting texture work. My only crit would be your colour paintings seem a little bit behind the standard of the rest of your work - so just keep practicing your digital painting! Can't really offer any more specific crit than that as I'm a complete newbie on the digital painting front.

[Janos]

Wow really impressed by your 3D skills. The texturing and colouring look great and I can definitely see this one in a game. I actually kinda want to slash the crap outta him!
No shame in not having time to draw. These things reflect what you are working on right now, so it is totally fair to post them.
I'd like to know more about this game of yours...

Cheers

[Diego]

hey man, you keep on flooding the thread with great stuff, thanks for sharing your hard work ryan. And good luck !!!!

[Zebz]

Wilko: Yea, I need to work more on my digital stuff, sadly. I really seem to loose some energy and confidence when painting digitally but I think that's slowly starting to creep back around with some of my recent stuff. I'll be posting a few of those concepts soon so let me know if you think I'm doing any better. I really think it has a lot to do with just not being as confident when painting digitally. I'll keep it up and you do the same, man.

Janos: Well, I didn't model him out. That's a bit too advance for my Max skills. Heh. But I did the concept art and worked with the modeler to get him similar to the artwork I created. Then I did the textures to bring it to a finish. He's actually the last thing I textured while working here. The game is an MMORPG called Hero's Journey and it's been in development for a long time. It's developed at a small developer here in St. Louis but last week got the notice that some of us were getting laid off. Beyond that I don't know if I can really say much. So now I'm looking for work elsewhere. I hope you'll be able to slash it in the future too!

Diego: Thanks, man. I have my hands in a lot of things these days. It's limiting in some ways but it has broadened my understanding of game production and such. I'd like to focus more on concept art but at a small developer we're forced to be more of a generalist. Hopefully when I move to another studio I'll be more focused. Thanks for stopping in!

Well, since no one seems to be complaining about me posting all this WIP layouts for my new website and portfolio I thought I'd toss up some of what I did today. It's been nice to get our work out there that I've been sitting on for so long. Some of it shows its age, I think. You can probably tell what stuff is newer and such. I'll try to only include the better/newer stuff in my portfolio. And I'll need to create more current illustrations. I don't have many that I've worked on recently. Most of the stuff I have from the last month or two is concept and GUI stuff. Speaking of GUI that's what I'm giving you guys next. lol I think this is all I'm going to include in my portfolio but let GUI is a wild beast. There are always minor changes and such going on between me and the programmers. Or needs for small little cursors or icons or whatever. It's an interesting and frustrating process at times as an artist trying to work through the hands of a programmer to make sure everything turns out just right. I generally just mock stuff up for them so they can follow my guides to the pixel. Heh.

Also wanted to mention that I think after much stress and changing things this is going to be the sort of layout I'm going to go with. Thoughts? And if you visit my website you'll be disappointed as I haven't updated it since I left school like 3 years ago. lol That's the point of doing all this tho. So hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some stuff start showing up. And if you know of any job opportunities please pass 'em along! Heh. I'll stop the rambling and just post the stuff! Thanks for looking!

Ryan/Zebz

EDIT: Noticed some of these are looking pretty damn fuzzy. Maybe I should post them at full res? That's pretty dang big tho. Maybe not. If you really care you can see them that way on the site when it goes live, I guess. Heh.

[DanielC]

woah haha. Nice man. Looks like something fun to do.... once. :D
Stay busy !

[courtyard]

Hi Zebz--Really sorry to hear about your job. :( I don't know the first thing about RPGs, but I'm really liking what I see here. These GUI designs are really cohesive with the rest of the visuals. I am so impressed that the players can select up to 4 colors for the eyes, by the way! I'd get so absorbed in all of the options, I'd probably never get around to playing! Best of luck with your job search.

[crazy3dman]

Hey Zebz. Really nice to have you back posting. I loved your old sketchbook and this new one is off to an amazing start. I really enjoy looking at your moleskin pages. So much to look at and enjoy.

I'm in love with the pirate girl from your first post. :)

Good luck with the job hunt. The website is looking good.

[Zebz]

DanielC : Yea, GUI is a time consuming process but it can be fun if you allow it to be. Heh. Looking at all that stuff does boggle the brain a bit tho. Thanks for the comment!

Courtyard: I should probably note that those interface designs (the character creation ones) are just mock ups. So you're not really choosing 4 colors for just your eyes. lol Some characters do have two color options for their eyes tho! lol The type was just something I put in there to give a basic idea of what it's purpose was. The interface is actually in game and is working currently but we're experiencing a problem with scaling in the engine right now that tends to create artifacts on the edge where the alpha is... why am I explaining this? lol Short answers is these are just mock ups and I'm sorry if it lets you down that there isn't 4 color options for the eyes. lol But there is a ridiculous amount of customization in our MMO. Thanks for the comments and encouragement?

Crazyman3D: Thanks! It's good to be back and posting. I just wish this sketchbook could have continued the way I wanted it to last week when I started it. I was really hoping to paint more and post that stuff. I did some life drawing last weekend and I'll probably do s'more this Saturday as well. I'll be sure to post it as soon as things settle down. I even started some quick paint sketches that went no where. Maybe I'll finish some of those up next week for fun. I'm glad you liked the pirate girl! Seems no one ever really takes note of that one. Heh Take care, man.

Well, it's been another long day and I'm going to head home from work a couple hours earlier then I have been the rest of this week to work on a web page layout so our web guy here can code me up a decent website to display all this stuff on. Should be fun. I spent the day talking to potential job leads, updating the wiki here at work, mulling over web stuff with our office web guru, moving furniture, cleaning up some of my earlier layouts with the new one and starting to lay out the concept art into lay outs. The idea is that once I have the concept art all set out I'm going to take a few of them and bring them to even more of a finish. Particularly a couple of the enviroz. I showed a friend of mine these Morghul that I'm getting ready to psot and he felt like I should push those even further so I might do that too. Even though I was really happy with the loose quality I was able to achieve with them. Oh well. Next week I plan on doing a couple more concepts or illustrations just to pad the portfolio with more illustration type content. I have more concepts from work coming tho so be on the look out for those over the next couple days. Thanks again for all the support. Hope you like these. Your feedback is also appreciated! Take care.

Ryan/Zebz

[maxetormer]

I need to get some sleep now, for now let me just say WOW, those are some
REALLY attractive designs and the interface looks really good as well, I have
no doubt you will land some work soon, best of luck on the job hunt bro!

[TheGnoll]

wow man really col work on the gui, texture and all that cool por lookin' stuff
really nice.
i second what danC said about fun to to...once tho hehe

some characters seem to have small balance issues (the male morghul's torso seems separated from his legs, nothing some quick flipping can't help you notice i guess) and when you're going for an expressive pose like the one of the female morghul, i really think its a good thing to stand up and pose it yourself, get in the character, for as stupid as you might look, the acting of your character is only as good as yours.
It makes it look more natural and adds those small details that really make it work imho

really cool morghul seet man, your presentation is sooo neeeeeat

keep 'em coming!

ciao!

[hp]

great sword designs!!

i'm sure it had to do with art direction but some of the humans you were posting seem awfully short. also some of your chars seem a bit hunched overish...but again that was probably art direction.

the enviro you posted a little bit back...um the yellow one that might be like a broken mineshaft or something, it's really awesome.

[SirGreenSock]

Sweet! Zebz has a new book!
Good to see youve been busy and improving dude! Those swords look badass!

[michaeljared]

I like the pencil sketches in the first page, very nice and there is substantial verity. I'm impressed, keep it up.

[Janos]

Sorry about the job. Any chance the game will be developed further and published? Wouldn't mind giving you some of my money =). The game looks nice and I'm impressed by the game play picture. Really lovely details for the objects and spells. Did you do all of that?
Its actually all ma cup of tea, though I still have to learn a lot more. I would love doing something very similar.

CHeers mate

[Zebz]

Max: Thanks. I'm feeling a bit better about everything now. It just too me some time to sort of come down a realize that this too shall pass. Heh. I'll find something. I can always draw and paint and there are a zillion ways to make money. And it's just money. Glad you like the stuff tho.

Gnoll: Yea, GUI can be tedious. Heh. I don't blame your response. No one really WANTS to do GUI but sometimes it can be brainless and fun. Thanks for pointing out the pose stuff. They're actually supposed to be bend overall hunch backed but yea, he does seem a bit shifted. I'll have to see if I can't bump him around a little. Thanks for the crits and suggestions. I sometimes have a tough time nailing a pose. I guess I just need to gesture more and watch people moving withe a more studious eye. Heh. Glad you like the presentation. Gotta look clean and try to market myself. Heh.

HP: Hey, Emily! Yea... they might be short. It's not really a design decision. I've probably just been drawing too many dwarves. lol Glad you like the swords. I've never been a big weapon drawer but doing the thumbnails really make it fun. As far as the Morghul poses they're supposed to be sort of hunchbacked. I'll need to post an image tomorrow of the model and pose in game to get the idea across. Maybe then you guys will see where I was coming from. I'm glad you liked that enviro too. That's my fav of the bunch as well. I'm probably going to push that one a bit more to use in my portfolio as more then just a color study for an area. Any thoughts? Thanks for the comments! I hope you're well!

Nik: Well, I haven't been improving as much as you. But thanks! lol Hope you'll be around to slap my ass to get me moving.

MichaelJared: Thanks! I need to get back to the Moleskin. All this portfolio work makes me not a fun boy to be around. Heh.

Janos: Yea, I don't know what I can really say about the game at this point. Nothing has been made public really other then the face that a lot of us have gotten laid off. You can draw your own conclusions. Heh. But I will say that no decision has been made and we were told they were hoping the layoffs were temporary. ;) But I need a job so I'm going for something. And yea, I did all of the GUI and icons and all that stuff. Fun, fun, fun!

So I'm just dropping a thumbnail update to see which plants you guys think I should render out for a final concept for inclusion in my portfolio. I might do more of these tomorrow but I just wanted to have s'more assets in the stack of work I'm showing. So let me know which you guys like and I'll bring those to a finish. Also, I'm hoping to finish that portfolio in the next couple of days. Or at least compile the stuff I want from work in it. I'll post it and send out what I have to a couple companies. But I want to refine some of the entries a bit more before I send it out to others. But I want to act quick on a couple opportunities that have come up. Wish me luck and thanks for looking!

Ryan/Zebz

[hp]

if you number them 1-8 from left to right and top to bottom, i like the first one, second, 6th (the second on the second row)

sorry if that wasn't clear :D

probably really the 1st one is the strongest in my opinion in being clear about its overall shape and function. good luck!

[SirGreenSock]

I like the hairy-fungus-balls, think you could play with the adaptation/life cycle of that concept interestingly.
Also agree with hp, the first and 6th are also strong.

[kingcoyote]

Hey Ry!

the Second one is totally boss. I'd really like to see it finished up. I like the fly-trap/piranha plant head of the last one, but the rest of the forms are kind of blah. Second choice would probably be the sixth. Maybe if you combined the body of number one with the head of number 8. Suh-weet frankenplant.

Everything else is looking really ace. But you already knew that I thought that.

Talk at you soon!
KC

[Zebz]

hp, Nik, KC: Thanks a lot. Looks like you guys liked a lot of the same ones. I'll probably flesh out another one tomorrow but let me know how you feel about the mish mash of the first one and the last one I tossed together this evening. Thought it turned out decent enough. I'm also going to add a few more image I compiled tonight for my portfolio. Most of the work I've done professionally has been more speedy/loose. I loved doing concept work when I had the chance but there was always another GUI to work on or another texture to do so I didn't really refine a lot of 'em. So while putting all this stuff together I realized I needed to have some more tighter concepts. I'll probably do another plant tomorrow and then tighten up a couple environments I worked on. Then I'll take some of the assets I penciled below and make full, detailed concepts out of them. I was thinking the temporary Burian gate would be a good one to use. Let me know what you guys think. Take care.

Ryan/Zebz

[hp]

oh wow! these look really great! how long do you get to work on say, the loading screen or the costumes for each class?

plant looks great.

[SirGreenSock]

woah, so much work to look through! Nice to see how busy you've been zebz!
I like the plant, the lighting and rendering's top notch, keep that level up and youll have a badass portfolio.
I like the dwarven concepts the best of the batch, the temporary gate would be a nice concept to tighten up, just remember to fix the perspective first!

[Zebz]

hp: Thanks. I'm pretty happy with them generally but wish my stuff was just more finished looking. I guess that's why I'm going back to show repaint some. Just want to show that I can actually do it. As far as time goes... um... I worked at a small studio so I'm sure the development process is different then others. Sometimes things would move really fast and we'd get have to push hard to get things out. The at other times they'd give us more time as they were more focused on other projects. The Burian (the big one at least with all the outfits) were done over 2 years ago over the course of about a month. These were just what I could salvage out of it. It was my first time ever doing anything like this. And they went back and forth that entire time on stuff. Once you get a look nailed down it moves a lot faster. But you have to hit that nail on the head first. I have pages and pages of drawings and sketches of other potential dwarf ideas. Mostly unfinished, most scribbles, but I have lots. These were just the ones I took to a "semi-finish." As for the loading screen, that was a rush job that needed to be done for the German Games Convention last summer. I think I had like 2-3 days. I stayed late a couple of nights to get that one finished after my thumbnail was approved.

SirGreenSock: Thanks, man! I hope I can bring the polish up on a few pieces before I send this thing out. And create a few new ones, of course. I suck at perspective tho, man. Can you tell me where exactly it's messed up? I'll look at it more closely when I get to it. I'll probably try to crap out another plant today and tighten an environment today. Lets see where I am tonight. Thanks for the feedback.

I forgot about these little guys I doodled for the game but we ended up not using. They're the Qwi and they're sort of a child-like, gnome sort of race. These were my initial outfit concepts but I guess I never hit the nail on the head for what they were wanting. I like 'em tho and I think I'll bring one of 'em to a finish. Should probably do that with a character or two. They seem to have some personality. Sorry the poses are wonky. I basically was just focused on the style and didn't ever intend for these to be finished drawings that I would use for final concepts. Heh. Thanks again for the help and for looking! Wish I could get more people in here. Seems leaving my last 4 star thread I had was a mistake. lol No one looks at threads unless they have stars! Ha!

Ryan/Zebz

EDIT: I'm adding a shot of the Morghul in game so you guys can see what he looks like. They morph so they look a bit different as they morph but you get the idea. At least for his pose. I did not work on this model, BTW. Just wanted to give a point of reference for the earlier images.

[hp]

hmmm i guess maybe they wanted them more whimsical or something...they look pretty cute.

well your thread is relatively new, maybe there needs to be more votes before a star rating shows up...

btw what are you doing now job wise?

[Janos]

You are so awsome in so many different ways... God. ANd you are kind of doing exactly the stuff I'd like to do in future. How did you get started in the industry, if I may ask?
The clothes, make up and alien plants all show a lot of variation and originality. The environmental stuff isn't as high scale as teh chars, but its awesome nontheless.
I do think the loading screen isn't as polished as it could be. Some random thoughts:
-The elf lady needs more definition in the stomach and breast are, they look wonky. And maybe some reflecting green light.
-You could use cooler shades more to your benefit
-the horns on the bear look very pasted on, and not really part of its anatomy.
Technique is great though.

[Zebz]

hp: Yea, I thought they were cute but the wanted something more steam punk. Never had the time to move back towards it tho sadly. Sometimes I'd get to start on a fun project only moved off to paint icons or something else that was deemed "more important" for the time being. So we never got back to these guys just yet. I actually just started on them again when I got laid off a couple weeks ago. Which answers your last question. Right now I'm putting together a new website and portfolio and will start sending stuff off to other developers later this week. Any ideas or suggestions? I'm open to all potential money making ventures and moving anywhere! lol And yea, I know my thread is newer. I just miss the old days when so many of us knew who each every one of us was! I feel so old here! Ha!

Janos: I'm not that awesome and I'm not doing what you'd like to do in the future anymore. lol How I got started in the industry was I started posting on conceptart.org and learned along side some really amazing artists. Then I decided to focus my university studies on all fine art stuff. I studied inside class and outside class trying to get better. I graduated from college with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts with a drawing concentration and that summer went to my first conceptart.org workshop in Montreal. I met more amazing people and had really encouraging responses from Jason and a lot of the guys reviewing my portfolio. It gave me the courage to send my crap art out even though I didn't have a proper concept art portfolio. I found out completely randomly that a small developer of online games was here locally (aren't any other devs in my state). I submitted my stuff in July and was an intern by August. I worked my butt off to show I could do it, kept an open mind, always trying to learn and in December was brought on full-time. And then fastforward a little over two years until now where I'm looking for a job again and feeling scared to death that my art isn't good enough to get one. lol Back at square one! Ha! You can do it, man. A lot of it is just getting the right opportunities. But you have to put yourself in the right places for those opportunities to happen for you. But this website is a great place to start. Thank you for your crits as well. I don't know if I'll be returning to that piece since I don't really care for it or the style I painted it in. I did it nearly a year ago now. Bleh. I'll take them into account as I move forward tho I assure you!

So I finished the plants. I don't know how I feel about the lava/tar/floating gas orb tree. Maybe if I paste some googly eyes on him... lol

Ryan/Zebz

[Zebz]

No replies on the plants. No love. Heh. Oh well. Here's an enviro that I posted earlier that I spent sometime on tonight. Trying to make it more finished looking with better lighting. Got some feedback from the world famous Mitchell and got an idea from something he was working on that helped open it up a lot more. I'm pretty happy with it. But I painted it on a CRT so there's no telling what it looks like on an LCD just yet. Let me know what you think. It's the most finished environment painting I've ever done. Heh. Tryed to leave parts of it loose and tighten it a bit more in others. Hope it works. More tomorrow... thanks for looking.

Ryan/Zebz

[courtyard]

Wow! Those last two plant concepts are quite possibly my favorite things here. They're really, really well done. Beautiful work! I'm not sure that the one on the right needs the steam/smoke, though. Or perhaps the smoke could be developed a bit further? It kind of reads as a shadow at first glance.

I'm so glad you're pushing the mine shaft image--I really like this one! The lanterns are beautiful, and the new focal point in the distance adds a whole new layer of interest. I had a couple of thoughts...the dirt piles are maybe a be a bit too conical and smooth to be instantly recognizable. I found this image online that I thought was a pretty good ref for ideas(sorry there's a random bear rug on it, LOL!): http://adeboer.com/Gallery/resized2/bear-on-dirt-pile-no-tree.jpg
I think refining a few details on the wood boards and metal in the bottom left-hand corner could help make it look more finished, too--a few finer grains, sharper highlights, rough edges, perhaps? The big wooden column that's fallen into the middle chasm is perfectly vertical, so at first glance it looks like it is part of the architecture. Perhaps a more haphazard angle and color variation (that could be carried through to the support beam it broke off) to set it off from its surroundings? Also, is there a light source that we're not seeing? If not, I guess the light cast from the nearest lantern might fade off a bit on the right side of the picture, bringing in some richer darks which could really make this pop. If you left it as is, though, this would still be a really strong piece.
You're working so hard--really inspirational book.

[TheGnoll]

holy shit man, looks like you're really working your butt off, kudos.still some issues in poses like in the Qwis.Again lovng the presentation and the variety and quality is really good.The outfits look incredibly busy to me, but that might just be personal taste.Only couple of dwarf that doesn't convince me are the middle ones in the top row, engineer looking dwarfs, theyre legs are really taking weird turn to adapt to that outfit.
Mine is looking great!

again, kudos for the really hard workin' :)

ciao!

[Malaveldt]

It's good to see your work, and especially how you've improved over the last few years. Your future within the industry is assured.

[Beelow]

Sorry for the late response dude. I've been trying to paint stuff, good stuff, just been way busy. I am trying to look for work, raising kids and moving, the usually man stuff. Yeap back in the Lou now. I stay in near Hazelwood East off of Hwy 367 of 270. I'm pretty sure you know where that is. Yeah, what happened sucked, but I have to look on the bright side I have more time dedicated to painting. I've been picking up on Oil painting as well. Yeah I am somewhat better; I am getting there. If you want to check out the book cover Illustration its in my blogger. That's pretty much where I post my work at the moment: brycesmithconcepts.blogspot.com. Did you want my address or just the area that I stay in? But, yeah that would be cool to hook up and do some drawing and just throwing down. That would be fun. Let me know what is up.

Nice Character stuff by the way. I'm diggin the design's and thanks for the crits.

[JoshK]

cool stuff, heard you might come down to florida? nice

[sketcheth]

Good luck with the more recent job developments! I really really like the plant concepts, very sharp. Especially the volcanic one...great shapes, really nice elements. The details your getting out of the mine shaft...you've really been cranking...some very nice work. I am, of course, always impressed with what you do! Keep it going.

[Max Challie]

hey Zebz, sorry for the late reply. Nice stuff! Looking at the last one though, I think you'd benefit from drawing more places. :)

[IanE]

Zebz... you're a badass and you know it. Good to see the new productions! You're doin' fine, sir... doin' just fine.

I happen to think those plants are sweet, and I would like one for my office. Promptly.

[Defaultee]

Damn, u r definitely out of your mind, i mean your mind is out of order. U must b havin some weirdness gene in your dna or somethin. m kinda new in CA and every time i check out this place it gets cooler than the last. inspiring. thanks man.


my sb:http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=152248&

[crazy3dman]

Wow. The amount of work on here is overwhelming.
Really nice sense of light in that last enviro.
How are things going?

[Giorge]

like what i'm seeing on this page , it's very nice that you can gain experience working for at that game , it makes me want to concentrate more on game design and less on illustration ,comic book art or art ^^

[XSFX2000]

Ryan-
Great GOOGLY MOOGLY!

Awesome stuff!!!

Good to see you posting again!!!!!!

aggg... sorry... too many exclamation marks... musta broke something...
maybe I should continue this in a PM.
-Lloyd

[Chris Noeth]

Awesome Ryan! I really love your last posts! Keep it up.

Best wishes,

Chris

[lennon]

Hey, interesting stuff, congratulations.

[vardoburrito]

I totally agree. Portman for president. She's so wholesome.
The details in the sketches make me hungry.
[I'll dig up your other threads if any]
Inspiring stuff. If you need an assistant to upload your work for you, send over a pm.
I'll get my younger brother to do it for me.

[Zebz]

courtyard: Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate you taking the time to really pick some of that junk apart. ;) I'll heed your words in the future as I work on more stuff.

TheGnoll: Appreciate you stopping by, mate. Yea, the business is something I'm trying to break lately. So many things going on that it really kills the design. The eye doesn't have any places to rest. That's something I'm trying to be more aware of when I'm working on stuff. It's a really hard habit to break tho sadly. Thanks for all the comments! I'll take 'em to heart.

Mike: Thanks, man. It means a lot coming from you.

Beelow: Sorry we never got to hook up, man. Life was busy these last few months. If your'e still in STL you should check out Kingcoyote's stuff. He's a great guy and I've really enjoyed getting to know him and sketching with him over the last couple years. Best of luck to you and keep in touch, man!

Joshk: Hey, Josh. Really appreciate all the inspiration you guys tossed my way when I came down there for the interview and such. Really loved the stuff you were working on and am still bummed it didn't work out. But at least I got to meet all you guys even if the situation did sort of fall in on itself randomly. Heh. The more friends the better, right? Keep doing your thing, man.

sketcheth: Thanks, Eric. And I'm equally impressed, probably more so, with your work and growth! You'd better be at the wedding! I'm going to miss spending time with ya, man.

Max: I couldn't agree more. Thanks.

IanE: Badass? Hardly. Probably just ass. lol Thanks tho. I'll see what I can do about getting a plant shipped over to you. Ha!

defaultee: Thanks! Yea, CA rocks my socks off.

crazy3dman: Thanks! Glad you like it. I'll give you an update below. Heh.

Giorge: Thanks! Yea, keep pushing what you love. Just draw as much as you can. I'm learning that concept art is more about drawing fast and getting ideas down clearly then illustrating. I probably spent more time then I should have on most of this stuff. My main thing now is trying to indicate stuff with as little marks as possible. It should help breathe some life into my work. I'm still struggling with it tho so we'll see!

Lloyd: Thanks as always, brotha.

Chris Noeth: Thanks a lot! I'm always digging on your stuff too. Appreciate you dropping some words.

Lennon: Interesting. That's what you say to someone when you see their baby for the first time and it's ugly. "My what an interesting baby you have there!" lol Thanks for the congrats too. I don't know what you're congratulating but I have several good things to talk about so maybe you're psychic!

dwardo: I hate scanning stuff. That's the main thing. lol Maybe you're little brother could help with that! Ha! Appreciate your comments, man. Really means a lot.

Now that the comments are out of the way I want to apologize for my several month vacation from this thread. I don't have a tasty update for ya. Just a quick Wolvie sketch I did tonight in Photoshop before getting ready to hit the bed. Just wanted to drop a life update...

So last you guys heard I was layed off so I spent a few months job searching and freelancing. Pretty much all of the freelance work was GUI stuff. It's not the most fun but it pays the bills. I had some great job opportunities slip through my fingers (not by my own doing but rather random corporate BS that screwed it all up) but I did finally land a couple gig options. One was for a UI artist in SC. The other was a concept gig at a start up in Las Vegas, NV. So I obviously took the gig in Vegas, moved across the country from St. Louis and haven't been happier. Lovin' Sin City and enjoying the new job working on another MMO for a start up company. I also work with another conceptart.org veteran there, Britt. You may or may not remember him from the olden days of CA. He's a great guy and there's a lot I'm looking to learn from him. It's been a great time everyday so far and I can't complain. I'm making money again doing what I really love. Life is good. ;)

The other great thing is that in two weeks I'm getting married to my girlfriend of roughly 4 years. I'm pretty stoked about it and all the new things happening in my life right now. Feeling inspired by all the newness and the change of environment. I'm going to try and ride it out for a while. I should have more new work to post soon but things are still sort of moving at a hundred miles an hour. After the wedding I'm hoping to get into a better groove/routine and knock out s'more personal stuff so keep an eye out.

Till then, thanks for looking. I appreciate all the support and the crits of the community. Help mold me into something more respectable looking, alright? Ha! Love you guys. Take care and here's to an amazing summer!

Ryan/Zebz

[courtyard]

Wow, Congratulations!!! Great news all around. Thanks for keeping us posted. I lived in Vegas for a long time, so give me a shout if you have any questions about the area. :) Looking forward to the future updates.

[sketcheth]

It's really great the way things have come together for you in the end, even if some other opportunities fell by the wayside. You, my friend, have a good thing going. I'm looking forward to seeing you again at the wedding! I'm assuming Jeff will also be there! Nice sketch! And I look forward to seeing more!

[Nicky S]

Hey man,

You've got some sweet pencil sketches, I like the consistency of your work, good sketches, nice paintings,... :)

Congrats on getting married and your new job btw

Keep it up!

[jatherip]

congratz :) nice stuff in here, the pencils and paintings rock :)
keep goin!

[Beelow]

Damn glad to hear that you've found work. I am wondering where you are working. I hope you're not working with Casey Dockendorf,LOL. If you are I know where you are at. Trying to get hired there myself. I may be back on my way to Vegas. But, who knows. Congrats though on the new gig. Yeah still in the Lou. Just trying to be patient and let myself develop until something gives. I am back at least doing some freelance work finally. Later, homeslice. Keep pimpin' out the digi's. Good luck with the marriage.

[maxetormer]

lucky git, living in Las Vegas eh? congrats on your marriage and the new job sir :D

[Lateman]

realy cool stuff ... itz hot! i see a good progress on your from-mind-works ... keep it drawing!

cheers lateman

[soverynight]

Great imagination!!
SO much potential here :) *Thumbs Up*

[Mikko Voipio]

Lost you will to live yet being married and all? I hope life is treating you good. Late congrats on the wedding and the job in vegas. Would be good to see you update once in a while.

[Nukem]

Yo Ry Guy. Guess who... It's your ol' Papaaaa.

[Zebz]

How about another fresh start on my birthday? I started this sketchbook up a little over a year ago and pretty much abandoned it after taking on a new concept art job. The last place I worked I did concept stuff but I mostly textured and working on UI (as you can see from some of my sb entries). Now that I find my pencils and digital paint brushes moving more under NDA work I barely found the strength or energy to keep things moving in my personal work. I've grown a lot and still love creating. Sadly, after doing it 8 hours a day and 5 days a week I usually have a tough time going back and doing the same thing again once I go home.

My coworkers and I have sort of decided to try and break that habit by holding eachother accountable and trying to post more each week. I'm going to give it a shot. This update is kind of lame. I did some skeching this week but not much. Laziness coupled with visitors from out of town... well... just didn't get much done. So I compiled a few sketches from a few outings with friends here in Vegas over the last year. It's kind of sad. I have more but I can't be bothered posting it as it's mostly rubbish. This is more of me just trying to get the ball rolling. This next week I promise to be a bit more dilligent. lol Thanks to those that have stuck around. I miss CA. I really do! It's just tough to find the time these days! I'll dish the comments and just leave the goods. And I'll see ya next weekend if all goes well.

courtyard: Thanks! This place is crazy. lol I'm still not sure how I completely feel about it. I do like the mountains and the weather. Beyond that I'll let you know when I can put it into words. The job and marriage have been great tho. ;)

sketcheth: Thanks, man. It was great seeing you back in Nov. Will you be around in early May?

Nicky: I don't know how consistent I've been lately. lol But thanks!

jatherip: Thanks! Glad you like my scratchings.

Beelow: I hear you're heading back to Vegas? Maybe I'll be seeing ya soon, man. It's a small world, dude. Hope things are getting better for ya. Appreciate your feedback as always.

max: Thanks, bro. I need to stop by your book and see what you've been cooking! It's been a while. Where are you these days?

lateman: Thanks. I think I do better stuff when I have a goal in mind like at work. My personal stuff is suffering. I just sit there and wonder what the heck I'm trying to do. I use to thrive off the pointlessness of just drawing. Now I'm having a hard time finding my motivation. lol

soverynight: Thank you!

Placeboast: lol No, I haven't lost my will to live yet. Ha! I'm doing good, man. I'm glad someone on here still remember or cares where I've gone off too. It made my day when you originally posted that. lol I'll try and do better. Hold me to it!

Nukem: Duke? Duke? Is that you? Have you posted stuffz? See ya in the morning, my friend.

Here's the crap. Next week will be better. I promise.

[Dock]

Reinvigorating the RynoZebz thread with much metal horns \m/ >__< \m/!!! I might move my sketch stuff over to CA, I like the format here and I can start using my photobucket account again haha!

[Beelow]

Yep I am pretty much in town Ryan. I am going to be here for a minute. Hopefully I get work from where you are at LOL. I haven't heard anything in a couple of weeks. But yeah I am still keeping my head above waters. Just trying to look for more freelance until I get a break, somewhere. I sure need it. Post more stuff dude. I will try to update my book as well. Long overdue for that one LOL.

[Zebz]

Ok. So maybe I lied about the updating once a week thing. I'm a slacker when it comes to personal work these days. Punch me in my sketchbook face, friends.

Dock: Thanks for dropping in, brother. You should totally start a thread on here, man. I'd love to steal your brains and get into those sketches more! The Zebz is back!. Sort of. lol

Beeellloooowww:Give us some updates. Drop me a line when you do. We'll get some food soon. Maybe catch a Cards game or something. lol Yea, I know you're on their radar. I just think they aren't ready to jump on another concept dude just yet. They seem to be preoccupied with getting a few other positions under wraps first. From what it seems like you're full of freelance work anyways! lol Can't wait to see some, man.

Here's a crap self portrait I dumped out tonight. It's kinda bleh and my eyes have gotten weak when drawing from observation. Need more practice. But hey, after drawing critters and characters all day I don't think this is that bad! Right? lol I'm cutting myself more slack then I should. I'll try to bring another update soon. Thanks to the none of you still looking at this thread. lol - Z

[Zebz]

Here have another craptastic portrait that looks nothing like me. ;)

[XSFX2000]

...don't cha know?

[Zebz]

Loyd: I do small posts and updates every now and then! lol

I'm working up some personal stuff in my free time but I'm not ready to share it just yet. So instead here are a few more portraits. These are of my coworkers at Red Dust Studios. They've been fun practice for a guy who hasn't done much life drawing this year. Hope you like them.

Ryan

[Mikko Voipio]

Damn these portraits are nice. I especially like the second one. Do you have a tendency of drawing the eyes a bit too big? You could focus a bit more on the curvature around the eyeball. Think of the form a bit more like 3d not 2d. Also you're lacking the cast shadow of the upper eyelid on the eyeball which will make the eyes look immediately more realistic. Anyhoo I'm always watching my friend.

[Zebz]

Placeboast: Good to see you, man! Thanks so much for commenting. I do tend to draw the eyes a bit larger then normal. I've been stylizing these a bit. Trying to bring out some of their character. But I need to watch it and make sure I'm not just doing it out of weakness. I'll take your crits to heart. I hope these eyes look a little better. This new one is probably the best so far. Maybe. Heh. I need to check out your stuff! I promise I will soon! I'm sure you're growing like a mad man! Thanks again.

Just another portrait of our lead designer at work. Hope you like.

[Zebz]

Here ya go. Spent a little more time loving on this one. I could noodle on these for a really long time if I wanted. I've been trying to get them to a place where they're acceptable and move on to the next. I have quite a few to do. Crits and comments always welcome. -Z

[Zebz]

Here's another one of our awesome 3D modeler at work. This was one a blast to work on.

[TheGnoll]

hey man!

saw all these posted on facebook (where i also read plenty of jellousy-inducing post about you awesome LV life :D :P) and they look really cool (and great practice too).
Really curious to see what you've been up to work-wise, but i guess its all under wraps.
The sketches aren't crap as you say really, they would only show more confidence if you lost the scratchy lines by using stonger, more confident sweeping lines in the preliminary phase and only then you moved on to darker, more precise lines.There's always time to clean up the extra strokes later!
Post more whenever you've got the time!

[Zebz]

Gnoll: Thanks for the post, man! Good to talk with you a bit on here. Jealousy. Pfft. lol Las Vegas is ghetto as hell, man! Ha! We're enjoying ourselves out here though. I wish I could show some of the work stuff but you're right about me not being able to at the moment. It will probably be a while before I can post anything as we're going to be in production for a long while yet. MMOs take a while. Heh. Hopefully this one gets released because I'm loving the art style we've been developing. It's really fun looking.

Thanks for the crits as well. As I was drawing these I felt like I needed to lose the scratchiness but my coworkers seem to like it. I mentioned to them what you said and they said they wanted me to keep it going because they thought it gave the images a bit of texture and was almost a style. lol I tend to agree more with you tho. I'll try to push for more confident brush strokes. I'm not the best painter but I feel like I'm improving. The color stuff I've been doing for work has been better then the other stuff I have on here. I need to kick my personal project into high gear so I can show more art other then portraits. lol Thanks for the help. If you have any links or ref that you think might help them please send 'em my way! Much appreciated.

Here's another one. Another one of our modelers from work. I tried to limit the scratchiness in this one. It was tough to really render since the forms were so soft. I love the more harshly lit forms where I can really pull out what the core shadow is, reflected light, cast shadow, etc. Anyhow... here you are. Till next time. - Z

[SirGreenSock]

Hey Zebz, nice to see you postin more regularly again!
Portraits look great, gonna try adding a dash of colour to any of em?
watch some of the blackness around the eyes, specially with eyelashes, theyre coming close to black if not black, which starts to create holes instead of form if that makes any sense?
keep it up dude! but i wanna see some colours!

[kingkostas]

hello zebz.Nice portraits you have done so far.I think that in post 83# and some more later you show the form on a better way thatn this last one.Ok its a style exploration so its ok but even in this style you have to find way to bring out the 3d forms more.You have great skills and i think you will improve them even more soon.keep up the good work!!!

[Krato]

haha nice ports 83 is cool man! and yeah your totally right with what you said on my sb its something i need to work on but hey i also need to be able to paint, concept artists cant just draw loose line drawings and expect to get paid :P

[TheGnoll]

i probably didn't express myself correctly, i was referring specifically to the drawings you posted after your birthday some time ago, not about the more recent painting (where i do realize small strokes can be a distinguishing aspect of personal style).If you're talking about useful resources abut drawing in general, this (http://radhowto.blogspot.com) is a cool blog to follow.If you where talking about the pencil sketches too, then yeah, style is what makes your drawings look like yours and its in your power to change it if you feel the need, otherwise it just sounds like a limit, doesn't it?
Personal project..? i'm curious :D

[Zebz]

Sir Greeeeeen: Thanks for the crit! I tend to paint things really dark and really light. I should probably push for a more subtle look I guess. With these I need to be consistent as they're all sort of belonging to a group of images but I'll try and take it back a few notches so there won't be too many "holes" in the image. My monitor might be too bright though as well. I might drop some color on to them later but for now they're just black and white as instructed by my art director. We're doing them on the side as a fun project for work. Thanks for stopping in! Best of luck as you prep to send your shit out! You're gonna be a star, dude.

kingkostas: Thanks you so much for stopping and in and for the great feedback. Yea, I basically had a ton of people at work send me photos and I did portraits from those. This last one was tough as most photos using flash are. It's all evenly lit and it's hard to really see what the form actually is. I'll try to be better about it. I think the ones with the stronger light source turn out better because it's easier to see the shadows and light cascading over everything. So it's my fault there on multiple levels. Thanks for the encouraging works, man.

krato: I hear ya. It's always nice to be able to render and stuff. I can usually render my ass off. But it holds me up. The guys who work as concept artists around my usually do less finished/polished work but they get a lot more done and are praised more often, I'd think. It's more valuable as a concept artist to be able to generate more ideas then fully rendered, painted, polished ideas. That comes later. I'm trying to force myself to sketch and just draw more without rendering but it's tough now that I've built up these bad habits. I'm more illustration oriented as a result and I'm forcing myself to unlearn things in order to become more of an idea generator. Just something to think about as you progress. This has been my experience at least.

Ryan: Thanks, man. Yea, I hear what you're saying and I agree with you. I'm a "searcher." I need to do that more lightly, I guess. At least give the appearance that I'm more confident. lol I'm trying more and more to force myself to finish a drawing quickly in one sitting without rendering and trying to make it all pretty and lifeless. lol You're the king of this. Anything you could teach me to push my gesture and idea generating ideas would really be helped. I need to up my speed with imaginative drawing. I've been kicking around some ideas which I'll talk about later but again I'd love feedback. Thanks again. Oh and that link looks great! I'll have to devour it! Ha!

Here's another portrait of my awesome art director at work. This dude is amazing and he's worked on some of the biggest titles in the industry. I'm so honored to have the opportunity to work under him. I have more sketches that I'll post later but for now I thought I'd offer up this. Thanks for looking. Crits and feedback always welcome. Take care.

Ryan

[Zebz]

Here's another. This one started out well but I don't think it finished very well. I just have so many to do I need to keep pushing on through them. Plus I'm getting burnt out. lol

[SirGreenSock]

I dont know what you mean, I rather like this portrait, i think you carried a nice bit of character in it. You can also tell youre loosening up a bit as these portraits progress, which is a good thing in that its more interesting, but be careful that you dont lose consistency eventually.
How many more of these are you doing? Looks like a fun series.

[Zebz]

Nick: Thanks, man. I think maybe I blasted it with to much texture or something. I don't care for it. There is some personality in there though, you're right. I appreciate the encouragement. lol These are a side project for work. We're getting ready to move into our new office and we're all getting swipe card/badges and my boss liked my portrait of myself on Facebook and asked if I'd do similar ones for everyone else for those badges and other odds and ends. I figured it'd be a good way to do studies so I've been working these up in a similar style. I think I have six or seven left to do. They're fun but I'm ready to start drawing something else for a while. lol

Another day, another portrait. I actually like this one better then the last one. the thing about these images is I could literally keep pushing them further and further. There are always little things I find I can change or improve. It's crazy. But I need to learn to leave them be and move to the next one. I feel like I might be improving. It's hard for me to tell right now. Thanks for looking. - Z

[Eddieee]

Yeaah! Really nice values in the portraits, zebz! Dunno what they look like in RL, but I'm sure you captured the likeness. :)

[prsnsweeney]

hey thanks for droppin by my sb and giving me some good advice appreciate it i deffinitely agree with you im always rushing my work then half way through i see all the mistakes i should of taken care of but cant cause a have gone to far anyway i really like your portrait sketches looks good and thanks for sharing your insight into the industry on your thread here hope i have a job like you some day

[Zebz]

Eddieeeeeeeeeeeee: ;) Glad you like them! I'm trying to get their personalities in there. I think I'm getting it at least. I'll try to post some of the photo ref along with my new ones. Thanks for stopping by!

prsnsweeney: Thanks for checking out my book. The only reason I mentioned those things is because I need to be more disciplined myself as you'll see from my sketchy works. And you're welcome on the industry comment. I love doing this stuff and hope everyone has the opportunity to do it. It's a dream come true and I feel ridiculously blessed. Appreciate the comments and kind words, man!

Here's another one. I'm including the photo ref that I used and a look at the horrid process it took to get it from one place to the other. This one was one of my most successful ones, I think. I really tried to not overwork it and keep my brush strokes pretty bold. I could have pushed it further but I think it's good where I left it. Hope you guys like it. Crits and comments welcome as always! - Z

PS: Sketches to come soon, I promise! lol

[Jasper_]

Good work on your portraits man! Why not try doing some in color? Or even going for some even tighter detail around the eyes, nose, and mouth. Try to get some variation going it will probably make these even more fun to do, keep iit up!

[cgaddict]

WHOA! Your character concepts are sick! Really interesting stuff you have going around in your sketchbook, I like :D Lots of depth in your figures and creature designs, they really pop out of the page. As for critiques, I think you should study this tutorial, really gives good shading tips for digital painting: http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm

Thanks for sharing your work, and keep on practicing!

[Metal Fingers]

Cool stuff man, thanks for stopping by the SB. These portraits are looking good I'd agree with what was said above about adding a little more detail, would help give a little more to look at on each one. Cheers!

[element1988]

wow, this stuff is f'ing awesome dude :O

[Nukem]

Beautiful studies, man. Surprised you haven't posted any of those alien sketches you've shown me...They kick ass.

[Zebz]

Jasper: Thanks for the comments, man. Yea, I'd add color but these are sort of a series that I'm doing of my colleagues for work. I'm trying to keep them semi consistent (that hasn't completely been the case, sadly). But I'd gladly do some more color ones in the future. I'll see I can't tighten up a few areas as well. I'm usually a render nazi so I'm trying to stay loose.

CGAddict: Well, thank you very much! It means a lot to hear you say that. I'm glad you like them. I'm always trying to find some sort of painting helps so that tutorial is also appreciated!

Metal Fingers: Thanks! I'll try to do better!

element1988: Thank you!

Nukem: :anime: Thanks, man. I'm going to get the other stuff togeether as I wrap it up. I'll post it in the coming weeks.

Not a lot of time to sketch or post stuff outside of these portraits I've been doing. My Mom is in town so my office is now a guest bedroom. lol I'll have some stuff for you all later in the week. For now all you get is more crappy portraits. This one is more pushed the the last ones, I think. Has a more toony feel to it, I think. Heh. At any rate, here it is. See ya next update. Thanks again for the feedback. - Z

[kingkostas]

hello mate.Great portraits again(and actually you add some more personality in the persons that you draw).Now i see you have stabilized the workflow and the skills on doing these, so maybe try to search some more the way to depict forms etc.Maybe start seeing edges some more and maybe in the final stages you can smooth(with some low opacity smooth big size brush) some parts that seem to be less clear in the photos.For example post 103 if i semi close my eyes, in his neck(in the photo) the value is close to become one, maybe i would make a quick smooth brushtroke(with opacity and size pressure)

keep up the good work!!!

[Captain Maelstrom]

Wow. Looked through your concept stuff for the game. Some of the ideas are really cool. Love the more rendered dwarves. And the portraits are wonderful. Especially helpful seeing the portrait progression. One critique on that, looking at the photo ref, I think you should tighten up and round off his right cheek. Generally though, your stuff is cool. Thanks for helping me in my SB. I've been thinking a lot about light now.

[prsnsweeney]

hello agian love the expressions on your portraits and how you ever so slightly exagurate the face and thanks for posting the proggresion shots on the portrait i always enjoy seeing the process and how people get to the finished peice

[urmb]

very nice work!!!

[sketcheth]

Dude, you've been diligent! I'm here to pay my dues. You make me want to post more. The Most successful of the portraits I think are the ones that you really push the modeling around the eyes. Keep working on that because I think some are definitely more successful there than others. Really nice work though, dude. Really nice. I miss ya, man. It's been too long.

[Zebz]

kingkostas: Thanks for the feedback. Yea, I have a lot of harsh transitions going on in these. I could smooth these things out forever. lol That's usually the biggest crit that I get when I finish these up. I'll try to consider that as I work through the last few. And thanks for the compliment. I love to try and push the expressions a bit more. It almost cartoonifies them.

Captain Maelstrom: Thanks! I'll have to stop back by your book again to see how things are rocking! Thanks for the crits. Maybe I'll go back and tighten that stuff up. As mentioned before I'm trying to be loose about this and sometimes I end up loosing things in the images by trying not to be so tight. Heh. Rendering has held me back for a while. I'm just trying to be more fluid and quick now.

prsnsweeney: Thanks! Glad you like it.

urbm: Thanks!

Eric: Thanks for the comments, man. The crits really help. Yea, I can usually tell if I'm failing at these by looking in the eyes. If there's a life there I know I've gotten something. If not then I know I've botched it up. lol I'll try to remember that as I keep going. I appreciate the post and I can't wait to see more from you! Hope I get to see you soon, dude.

Here's another portrait. I swear I'll post more stuff at some point. This one was fun to do. Enjoy. - Z

[SirGreenSock]

Think thats one of my favorites so far Zebz. Love the way the beard is rendered. His intense stare is sweet, too.

[kingkostas]

i also think this one is great!!!So i used it to show you an example of "smoothing" working for the lost edge, and letting the object communicate with the space.This is somehow extreme(like coming from the shadows or something) but maybe can give you some ideas. Sorry for using it without asking
keep up the good work!!!

[Zebz]

Nick: Thanks, man. Yours are much looser and you obviously did them much faster. I like them much more. lol I do like that last one though. He does have some intensity to him. I tried to make him look a bit more evil. Heh. Appreciate you stopping by.

KingKostas: Appreciate the paint over, dude. I see what you're saying. People are wanting me to loose a lot of the edges and smooth these things out. I'll try to play around with it and think about it more. I tend to think that seeing the brush strokes and the additional texture created is interesting. Maybe I'm not correct in my thinking. I'm going to try and think about the things you've said a bit more. I appreciate the crit for sure.

Here's another one. I only have one more to do. Then I can move on to more interesting things. lol

[SirGreenSock]

woah nice, you got a much nicer handle of edges on that one for sure. The hairline and highlights look great especially. His mouth is a tad skewed though, liquify that shit into place! :P

[cgaddict]

Nice update, really dig the lighting on the second to last piece, very dynamic!

[Starr]

Great portraits!They really have life and personality! Keep up the good work

Starr

[Juki]

Awesome work in here!

I must say your 3D-modeler is one scary *@¤%, nice intensity.

[Zebz]

Nick: I liked this one when I did it. Now I really hate it. lol I got excited trying out new brushes and it's all too soft to me. I've gone back and tried to rework it but it's not finished yet. Bleh. Thanks for the support. Doing these have been tough. I feel this crazy pressure to get them to look like the people since I'm doing them for my coworkers. I'm glad to be almost done. I'm sick of it. Ha!

cgaddict: Thanks, I'm pretty happy with how he turned out.

Starr: Thank you. That's what I aim for! Don't always meet my goals but I try to keep my brain clear enough to make something happen.

Juki: lol Thanks! He's quite friendly actually. Just don't go near him when he gnawing on a severed arm. Ha!

Thanks again for all the comments. I'm sure you're all just as bored with this portraits as I've become. I have more sketches and stuff I want to post but I'm holding off as I'm kind of wanting to have some nice presentation stuff to go along with this new "side project" that I'm doing for fun. More on that later. The rest of the sketches are just boring scribbles that no one really would want to look at.

I'm trying to focus more on idea generation and just creating images/ideas quickly in my personal work. Just getting my thoughts out onto the paper rather then getting caught up in rendering or even worrying about things being too correct. I often lose sight of the entire image and lose myself in rendering an eyeball. Today I took an hour to sort of focus doodle an idea straight from my head to paper. I did a couple but this one was the most successful.

The first image I'm posting is some doodles I did while watching The Dark Crystal the other night. I really liked these leafy critters and when I started scribbling today I made them the focus on my drawing, the next drawing you see below. It was my goal to just get the general shapes down without noodling in details or rendering too much. So this is kind of a gestural drawing I shaped up and the next step is to clean it up and maybe even paint it. It's not finished yet but I'll be working on it off and on as I have time. Wish I could post concept art from work but sadly I cannot. lol Maybe in the future tho! That's why I need to push on my own stuff more.

Enough talking, more scribbles. Hope you like them. Take care and thanks for looking. - Z

[Zebz]

Oh, fine here's another crappy portrait. lol This is the revised version of the first one you can see on the page before this one. Still pretty bleh. I'm probably just going to cheat on the last couple so I can finish this blasted portrait project and be rid of it! Ha! - Z

[SirGreenSock]

Nice to see some drawings,they both have a lot of character. The second one is awesome, you should definitely finish it!
Portrait is an improvement, has less of that flash blown-out look to it. Could still use more work on edges but i know youre sick of these.

[Captain Maelstrom]

As SirGreenSock mentioned, there's marked improvement in the portrait in post #124. I can see you fixed the forehead, right cheek/jaw and chin. Looks a lot more natural now, kudos.

As for the "scribbles" I think you succeeded. You said you were trying to stop rendering as much and just get the shapes down. It's good to change things up. Love the idea of the tree-guys.

And ahah, yeah. The Dark Crystal is awesome. :)

[Parsakoira]

very nice portraits, love the expressions!

[cgaddict]

Nice updates - really dig the humorous character concept - any chance you'll paint any of theme? Those critters deserve to be painted! :D

[Zebz]

GreenSock: Thanks, man. Yea, I'm trying to loosen up and move towards having more fun when I draw. Really just wanting to lay things down and move on. I'll probably work more on that one a bit tho. I have already but I think I might paint it up. Thanks for the feedback regarding the portraits too. I'm sick of 'em. lol

Captain Maelstrom: Thanks for the comments! Yea, they're hit and miss but I guess there is some growth there. lol And thanks for the comments on the doodles. I'm a renderer. But I want to be more of a drawer/idea generator. Doesn't mean I can't flesh things out every now and then tho, right?! lol

parsakoria: Thanks!

CGaddict: Thanks! Yea, I think I might at some point. Those were kind of fun to doodle out. They have a bit of life in them.

So I'm getting ready to head out for a few days to LA for my 1 year anniversary with my lovely wife. But I had so much fun this week working on this personal scifi project I've been toying around with lately and I can't help but post a bit of all the things I created for it. I have a lot of sketches and things to say but for now I'll just post a few of the drawings and renders of some head concepts for the mechanic character I worked up for this fake game.

I basically created a loose narrative/game design document in order to give my personal work a jolt and to document a full game design process/progress. When I sit down at my sketchbook I know I need to work on any given number of things for this side project so it keeps my pencil moving. It keeps me from getting bored. Heh. I'll explain it more at length later, I'm sure. For now I'll just offer this small bit of what I've started on.

I'm sort of exploring how to present these as well. So the graphics and presentation aren't final. I just don't have enough time at the moment to flesh it out and work out the kinks. Feedback on that would be greatly appreciated. Hope you like! Just painting these faces up makes me so excited for the potential for what could come out of this. It's like I'm working for two game companies at once only I can show the stuff I develop for this fake one! lol Have a great weekend and thanks again for all the feedback. Take care.

- Ryan

[Brandon Pilcher]

With regards to your latest post, I dig how you make cartoony characters look realistic!

[SirGreenSock]

Haha, i love how youre carrying the similar characterization through different forms! I like 4 and 5 best, they have the same character feel as the rest, but still feel different. First three strike me as more typical of what one would imagine of a sci-fi mechanic, minus a moustache haha

[kingkostas]

great i love the sketches!!!The portraits are becoming better.Well about the textures and such, no need to change what you want as your personal characteristic just think how you can improve it, how you can make it work in your aid.
Keep up the good work!!! :)

[Vatsel]

your caricatures and more stylized stuff is looking great, but once you gt realistic it seems like you need more work.

to help that keep working on observation and add more still lives in color

[Nibras]

Your concepts are rocking! Love how solid and functional they look.
Those characters and environments in the first page are killers, totally awesome

Not much constructive criticism but just wanted to throw in some support.
Looks gooooooood

Take care and keep it up

[Dock]

These are lookin incredible man! Keep up the awesome work! I can't wait to see where this goes!

[Lidiev]

Your work is whats driving me to strive even harder in my work! Thanks

[Janos]

I really like the different character heads sheet. Good job on them!

[B-Man]

love the updates! them concepts look great. I really enjoy yor updates.

[Zebz]

Well, it's been a pretty crappy week. We're up to my second lay off in this sketchbook thread. lol Showed up to work last week and a sign on the door said the company was closing its doors. So here we are! Unemployed again! If you guys know of any positions I'd be totally up for looking into some of them. In the meantime here is some of the concept work I did for the game that will never be. I have much more and will be updating bit by bit over the next couple days. Or you can just visit my website. Thanks for looking and take care.

** I removed the images because now you can just view them in the post below**

Ryan

EDIT:

Trexmaster: It's all about how you render the form! Thanks!

SirGreenSock: Thanks, man. I actually took your advice and went with one of those.

KingKostas: Thanks, buddy.

Vastel: Thanks. I don't work too much from life anymore now that I've been working. It's an exercise in retraining my eyes.

LineBo: Thanks a lot!

Dock: Not incredible enough to keep my job. lol

Janos: Thanks, so much!

B-Man: Much appreciated. Glad you like the stuff.

[SirGreenSock]

That sucks Zebz, but Im sure you'll find more work soon! You've improved tons and have experience in just about anything judging from your portfolio! Best of luck!
Love those goblins and all the variations, mustve been fun to figure out.

[TheGnoll]

sorry to hear about the studio closing man, that must be really stressful.
The portfolio looks good and i'm sure you won't have problems getting back on track.In any case, best of luck!

[pixel cheetah]

Very nice sketches, I love them!

[Zebz]

SirGreenSock: Yea, I'm a bit all over the board. Hopefully I can find someone who can use one of my skill sets. Aren't you looking for a job too?

TheGnoll: Thanks, buddy. In the meantime you should teach me a bit about how you draw such beautiful, lively characters! I need more energy in my work. Something I intend to try and work out while the layoff is happening.

PixelCheetah: Thank you very much!

So they pretty much took most of our work before kicking us out but I did have a few images as you can see below. Most of my character work and sketch work is no longer available to me. But this is about what I have to show for the last year and three months. Terrible that things had to end so abruptly but there will just be something better around the corner, right? Hope you like some of the work. I think it shows improvement in a few areas.

http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/1.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/3.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/4.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/5.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/9.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/10.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/11.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/12.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/13.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/14.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/15.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/16.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/17.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/18.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/19.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/20.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/22.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/23.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/25.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/26.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/27.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/28.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/29.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/30.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/39.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/40.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/41.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae26/ryanbowlin/42.jpg

[papervampire]

oh mannnnnn i love love love your pencil work it's amazing. i saved some of your pencil sketches to my "amazing art" folder lol. my mind's blown dude, the creatures and colored pieces are great too, you have a really confident coloring style. definitely gonna check back.

[Zebz]

Hey guys! It's been a while! Sorry about that. ;o) Just been working and being busy with life. I finished this Hellboy portrait last night and figured I'd toss it up here for old times sake! Need to get back into the habit of posting that. I feel like every year or so I keep reviving this thread and making promises I don't keep! lol Anyway, hope you like it. Might have some prints made of this one. Just a small, limited run. Anyone interested? Thanks for looking and take care!

[Zebz]

Still no comments? Man, my sketchbook thread here at CA has really become a disappointment! lol

So yesterday I was thinking about other potential illustrations for the future and I started thumbnailing some potential compositions for a Harry Potter themed image. It got me curious what my version of Harry might look like.

So I did a few quick pencil sketches of some fun versions of Harry. And I thought this one was too cute not to toss some color on. Just about and hour or two in Photoshop. Plus I figured I owed you guys something cute since might have scared some of you off with my big, ugly Hellboy image. lol Hope you like my scribble!

[SirGreenSock]

Hey Zebz! Yeah CA has gone quiet nowadays (and CGhub sketchbooks never picked up to begin with)...not many places left to consistently get crits online anymore :(

Your work has really gone a long way. I envy the variety and yet staying consistent with execution! I still havent found a consistent way of painting and getting repeated results haha oops :)

I like the Hellboy piece, nice mesh of your style with the existing design. I like the lighting and the treatment of the cut horns. I wish there was more tonal variation in his skintone, the consistent reds with the white highlights make the skin look too opaque imo.
Anyway, don't get disheartened about posting! If anyone else is like me, I check CA and CGhub every day, just might not bother to post every day anymore :X

[Zebz]

Hey Nik! I'm really glad we've been able to stay in touch. I don't get to talk to many of the old guys and gals much these days. :o/ And you're right about CA and finding good places to get crits. I hardly find any feedback these days. I guess the few of us left should band together to really help hold one another up, eh? I do appreciate the feedback! Helps not not feel like I'm doing this stuff in a vacuum.

As for the Hellboy piece... glad you like it! It started out as a study for something more. But I couldn't stop working on it. Heh. I agree that the skin tone isn't the best. Red is a tough color to paint for skin. I think this is the best I've ever handled it but it always ends up getting too pink for me. Also, for some reason I've had big color issues with this image. Depending on your monitor, computer and color profile settings it can look very opaque and oversaturated. It's strange. For example on Deviantart I see it perfectly find in sRGB (as I've created and saved it... less saturated and a bit lighter). Then in my blog when I upload it the image looks way to blown out and oversaturated. It's strange, man. So that could be some of those issues too. I've spent last weekend getting everything calibrated. I suppose I'll have to live with it until I can figure something better out to do with it. Any tips? lol

At any rate, thanks for commenting. My first comment in a year! Ha! I'm trying to be better and posting more. Considering trying to get more into illustration while doing the full time gig on the side. So hopefully I'll be updating more regularly. Miss ya, dude! I always love your updates too. I'll be diligent and go post on yours before the weekend is out! Thanks again!

[SirGreenSock]

I understand what you mean about trying to avoid making the red skintone turn pink, so I did a superduper quick paintover of the hellboy piece to see if changing the colour towards the light might help.
I used one layer set to 'color' and one set to 'pin light' to change the colour of the highlights to something a bit more red-orangey. Right now its a bit too glowy from the adjustment layers but I think it might help translate the local colour into the lights. Dont know if this is what you'd go for, just my own approach.
In terms of colours looking wrong I have no idea, I've noticed it myself and heard complaints about different file formats and even different websites for some reason making colours look different....closest fix I've found is to use .png file format when its causing trouble, seems to be more consistent than .jpg but the file sizes are ridiculous in comparison!
http://odicart.com/sb/Untitled-1.png

[Zebz]

Aha! Beautiful!! Maybe I'll go back in and make those adjustments before I run off the prints. I don't know why I didn't think of adding that orange in there. It does feel a little glowy but it might be nice to pull back the whites and pinks a bit. Thanks a ton, dude!

Y'kno what this means don't ya? I'm going to be bringing you into the circle of people I email while working on pieces! lol I went back and forth with my buddy Casey on this Hellboy piece while I was working on it. I nearly stopped very early but he kept pushing me on. Would you mind if from time to time I toss some stuff to you for feedback before I throw it at the internet? lol

Seriously, thanks for that. The fresh, artistic eyes really helps!

[SirGreenSock]

glad to help :)
Feel free to hit me up on email for crits anytime :asskisser:

[Zebz]

Nik: Thanks, man! I will. I tried making the edits you mentioned and ran it by some of the artists here at work and they all felt it was too orange. Hmm. And when we started running prints it was kinda orange-y to begin with. So I'm going to stick with my original one for now but I might edit it later after my eyes have a good long break from it. I will be seeking your feedback on stuff in the future. You have great insights and I really need people to bounce stuff off of.

Anyway... here have s'more.

Here's a sketch I did a couple months ago that I intended to finish but just lost interest. I figure there's enough in there that it shouldn't just go to die on my hard drive somewhere. I had considered doing these almost like portraits on their mantle. I even had drawn up a pencil sketch of her goofy husband to go with it. I thought it'd be really funny to have a third of their son who looked completely normal. Ha! Maybe someday I'll see it through but I've too many other things on my plate for now! So Edna will have to make herself comfortable here for a while.

Also, here is the a step by step progression of my Hellboy piece for your viewing pleasure. I don't know that you'll find much help here though. The next time I create a more simple illustration maybe I'll try to work better in steps and walk you through the process a bit better. But you might be able to glean some information from this. I hope it's helpful or at least fun to see how the piece evolved as I worked.

[ArtZealot]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook! i dig this last post, it's good to see how u work. I'll also say the original sketch on that hellboy one is quite nice! you've got some splendid pencil work.
I wish i had something to crit but i dont. I really enjoyed flipping through your SB, thanks again for checking out mine! cheers!

[Zebz]

ArtZealot: Thanks for stopping in, man. I appreciate the kind words! Just gotta keep working, right? Ha!

Anyway...

I've been spending some time lately trying out new processes for drawing and have gone back to trying the col-erase pencil method. I've never liked those pencils much because it always felt so waxy to work on top of. But this week I came across some Prismacolor col-erase pencils that seemed to work much better. I'm hoping that this will help free me up to be really lose in the gesture steps of my work. So far it's been really fun and I think it's helping! I always tend to get tight to quickly.

So out of those scribbles came this Wolverine doodle. I've actually never drawn him before. So most of this is from memory and I've added my own changes for the heck of it. Last night I sat down with my sketch and tried tossing some color at it. I was looking for a treatment similar to my Harry Potter sketch from last week but I had terrible go with it. The painting just got away from me and I spent hours trying to get back the personality I'd captured in my sketch. So when I finally "finished" the painting today I decided to scrap it. Ha! I hated it.

I'll still be trying to tackle a paint up on ol' Wolvie but I just wanted to share my sketch with you guys to let you know I'm still around and kicking! I should have a fully painted version in the coming days so be on the look out! I've got some other things I'm batting around too so be sure to check back in for more updates!

[Zebz]

Happy Anniversary... to the people in the portrait. Not me. Ha! I don't do commissions very often and am approached for them quite a bit. Particularly for this sort of work. But when my friend, Maryann, came to me asking I was in the mood to do a study. So it didn't take much arm twisting to get me to dive into this project. The fact that I also find the two of them to be pretty awesome doesn't hurt either. ;o)

Overall I'm pretty happy with it! I worked on it off and on over about three evenings. Her face seemed to come really easily but Shawn had such a fun look on his face that capturing his likeness was much tougher. I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with how he turned out. But I think I did get it close. And as far as portraits go, I think this is one of my best digitally painted portraits so far.

Hope you like it. Crits are of course welcome.

[Hyptosis]

Sharp work as usual! I don't know your two friends, but you've obviously 'captured' them in this. You can really tell, fantastic. Keep it up man.

[Zebz]

Hyptosis: Thanks a ton, man. Really kind words there. I think they were overall happy with it. They paid me so that says something. lol How's Springfield? I haven't been through there in years. I'm originally from St. Louis. Keep pushing on your art too! I need to stop in soon to see what you've been up to!

Here are some Ogre head sketches that I've included as additional gifts for people who have bought prints from me. Nothing fancy but just a little thank you.

As for other art, I'm still crafting some things for another little project that a few friends and I are doing monthly. This month's theme is "Space Princess." So I should have some posts regarding that in the coming days. I don't have much time left! Ha! So this week should be interesting. It might bleed into next week a bit but stick with me! Hope you guys are doing great. Thanks for checking in!

[marsattacks]

Hi! You've got some really great stuff here, and I'm extremely jealous. I love all the freaky monster designs.

A sort of silly question - when you scan from a sketchbook (like the scans in the first post here), what size sketchbook are you using?

[Zebz]

Hey, Mars! Thanks a lot for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

As for the sketchbook. I can only assume you're talking about the Moleskine? The yellow pages? If so you can find the specs and info here...

http://www.moleskineus.com/largesketch.html

[marsattacks]

Thanks Zebz, yeah, that was the one I was talking about. And thanks for stopping into my thread!

[Zebz]

You got it, Mars!

First of all, please pardon how messy and sketchy things are in this post. These are much looser then I'd like to be showing! But I always enjoy peeking into people's minds when they're generating ideas. So I figure it's only fair to bare a bit of mine to you guys! Here are a few doodles I managed to scribble out over the course of the last week while creating ideas for an monthly art challenge with some friends of mine.

We're hoping to produce a piece of art, monthly, based on a random theme. This month the image just had to include a "Space Princess". So while everyone seemed to be interested in drawing pin ups, I decided to take it another direction!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZddS3qIBWyg/TlyF5KhxIPI/AAAAAAAAAJk/tFWH1e5I6fE/s1600/princess_sketches_1.jpg

I knew I wanted to my Space Princess to be a little girl. So here you can see some of the many scribbles where I explored what she might look like. I loved the idea of her hair being wild and frizzy. I also thought it was kind of a fun idea to have her hair bunch up and spill out of the bottom of a space helmet. Ha! Still not sure where I'll go with her design completely but these at least helped me understand what direction I'd be moving in.

The little thumbnails included are indicators of the image I sort of had in my head. I thought about doing an angled shot with the two alien guards on either side of her. That way we could see her lording over all of her alien minions below. But I think I'm going to go with the more simplified straight on composition with her thugs at her side. I felt pretty confident about where it was all headed but I wasn't sure what I wanted the aliens to look like.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lzi9rvVMeN0/TlyGGC_MZkI/AAAAAAAAAJs/9i7l_ChOv1U/s1600/aliens_1.jpg

Which prompted these sketches! During the week, when I had a free moment, I'd scribble out some random design with no real thought other then it needed to be wacky. I just played around with shapes and silhouettes. I kept coming back to tentacles for some reason. I still don't know which one I'm going to choose and push forward in the final illustration. I'd love it if you guys would help me to decide! Leave me a post in the comments with your thoughts! And anything I don't use might make for good starting ideas for some of the aliens in my Zebzulon project! Ha!

As the week goes on I'm going to dive into the illustration and hopefully start painting by the time this weekend gets here! Hope you guys like the messy look into my mind as it tries to rough on ideas! See you again soon!

[Zebz]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TidbCt3XtSA/Tmc0SJPeqRI/AAAAAAAAAKE/YVTID4A4oxo/s1600/mega_cute_3.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-chRHvz6nC0E/Tmc0OjBf6UI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/6un_Dz_O4w4/s1600/mega_cute_3_sketch.jpg

[Zebz]

First of all, I just want to say thanks to whoever hooked me up with the stars! This the first time I've ever had a 5 star thread on CA! Feel good! You can leave comments too tho! Ha! But seriously, I'm honored.

This weekend I had the honor of taking in a workshop featuring some talented artists at the <a href="http://www.kavikaworks.com/">Kavika Works</a> art gallery in Santa Ana, CA. It was really inspiring and awesome to be apart of. Big thanks to David Pursley, Paul Richards, Kurt Papstien and Erick Rodriguez for taking the time to drop some knowledge on all of us in attendance!

During the art workshop this weekend I scribbled out some random doodles while soaking in the inspiration from the instructors there. I was scanning in my sketches Sunday evening and couldn't help but want to do a quick color pass on this dude. He was birthed after watching Paul Richards rock an amazing troll of his own for us at the workshop. So much fun.

Also, I've been thinking about why I seem to draw so many ugly things lately. I think it mainly stems from the fact that my day job has me consistently creating images that are appealing to what I refer to as "The Grandma Demographic." lol So I'm constantly urged to make stuff pretty. And when I get a chance to do something for fun I can't help but get as nasty and goofy. Ha! Hope you guys like him! More to come so stay tuned and thanks for dropping in!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zeX06WKpcAo/TnAfVz3u0FI/AAAAAAAAAKM/iuyIA0HArgw/s1600/troll_head_1.jpg

[crazy3dman]

LOVE IT. The face on the chin is genius. :)

[p sage]

Yeah, your troll is boss. And I love these (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1310392&stc=1&d=1314502963)... so volumetric and solid... plus the expressions are great.

[Hyptosis]

Man, your last few posts are slick. Those monsters are really great, you're a beast. I like that flying tentacle dude :P

[mEgA fLeeCe RaIn]

really interesting work ryan, good stuff. your work has a nice freshness to it, your very good at clearly communicating your designs using your picture making skills.

[Zebz]

Thanks for the comments and the five stars! It means a ton! I've never had a five star thread on CA before! Now I've gotta live up to it! Ha!

crazy3Dman: Thanks! I don't really know where it came from. It just started looking like a face so I just went with it! lol Glad you stopped in!

p sage: Thanks! Yea, I like to think of the stuff I'm drawing like I'm sculpting on paper. So a lot of my stuff does seem to have some form to it. Glad you like 'em!

Hyptosis: Thanks, dude! I really need to finish that stuff. lol I need to be more disciplined this month and play less video games! Ha! Hope you're doing well.

MegaFleeceRain: Freshness, eh? Well, thanks! I don't even know what to say! Ha! I do appreciate your comments though. I'm glad my work appeals to you!

Anyhow...

Last summer the video game studio I was working for here in Las Vegas, NV abruptly shut it's doors and left me looking for work. The economy being what it was I had my series of ups and downs before I decided to give the local gambling industry a shot. I've been working in now since last October and it's been an interesting experience to say this least! Not a bad one my any stretch of the imagination but just a different one. I've worked on quite a few gaming projects and none have been released into the wild yet. Until now!

This past week at the annual slot gaming expo our company deemed one of the games I worked on this year worthy to show. I figured I'd toss up some pictures of the game on the machine with yours truly posing next to it. You'll also see a couple pictures of the actual game mockups as well.There's a lot of painting going on in this game but you'll also find a good deal of photo manipulated bits in there as well. It's interesting to see that our highly rendered paintings aren't always enough anymore to sell that style now that 3D exists. It's not the way I really like to work. I enjoy a more painterly style and seeing all the brush strokes a lot more. But as the company releases more of my other games you'll see my more natural styles peeking through a bit more.

The game isn't on casino floors yet but it should be soon! I feel like I've been such a slacker this month but I promise I've been busy. Just haven't been sketching and doing much personal work recently. Hopefully October will be filled with lots of fun stuff though! Thanks for checking in and take care!

- Ryan

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rOHkFjFApR8/TpCOHw199eI/AAAAAAAAAL8/9SJD8W9qN0k/s1600/IMG_1825.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RWhIA2J5phc/TpCOCEz2HLI/AAAAAAAAAL0/7KnVYtM8MGI/s1600/IMG_1824.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l6L9HVobMww/TpCN77j90yI/AAAAAAAAALs/x_SXgLiWMkQ/s1600/4.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w8SMNmV-8gQ/TpCN27f-1PI/AAAAAAAAALk/z5ACEt_LT0U/s1600/5.jpg

[Flaskpost]

hey man long time no see!
how you´re doing well!
grats on the casino gig, must be awesome to see your work like that in person!
i hope october is productive for you man.

[Zebz]

Flaskpost: Thanks, man. Glad you like the new work! Things were productive but unfortunately it was more for my employer then me! ;o) Gotta get back into the personal art swing of things. Ha! Good to hear from you!

Here's another one of those blasted ogre heads! This was a quick scribble for my friend Aron who recently purchased one of my Hellboy prints. I've been doing these quick little sketches as an extra thank you to those who have been supporting my work.

I completely lost my posting habits this month but I've been busy with plenty of art related things. And I'd be lying if I didn't note that I've been indulging in a lot of the new video game releases as well. Ha! I get to pretend to be Batman! C'mon, who can fault me for that?! ;o) I'll make sure to have a more proper update in the weeks to come. Hope you're all enjoying the start of the fall season! I know I am! Take care and thanks again for stopping in.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rGseBA3ED5I/TrUJDnEAWMI/AAAAAAAAAM8/Q7MWSlQ9358/s1600/ogre1

[Zebz]

It's that time of the year again! The weather is starting to cool down, my video game consoles are overflowing with awesome titles to play and that sense of child like wonder is starting to fill up within me! There's something about the late fall/winter that really brings out the kid in me. I'm sure the holidays have a lot to do with that but I really love the seasons as well.

I've been living in Vegas for almost three years now and I have to admit that I've become a bit spoiled with our mild, "eternal fall." But there's nothing like breathing in that still, cool scent of winter. And I often sit in my apartment pining for the times we'd watch the snow fall out the window near the fire at my parent's home. However there are plenty of things I don't miss about my midwestern home during the winter time. It is quite nice not to have to carve my car out of ice every morning. Ha!

At any rate, like many, this is my favorite time of the year. And this year I thought I might do a "holiday" themed illustration for the heck of it. This idea was generated from my desire to draw a little kid with a big cuddly monster. Simple enough! Nothing says Christmas like some monsters, right?! Throw in some snow, Christmas lights and some snow men and you've got a holiday themed image! And that's where the initial thumbnail that you see above came from. I shared it on Facebook and received some positive feedback so I've decided to move forward with it.

But you know me, I had to flesh out my Snow Moose monster just a bit more. Hence my color sketch. I'm not sure about all of the elements but I think he still has retained at least some of his initial charm. My wife wants me to ditch his thick eyebrows and instead go with something more fluffy. I might but I enjoy how expressive they are right now. It's just a sketch so I tried to keep it quick and simple. Light on the rendering but I still couldn't help myself in areas. ;o)

Hope you guys like where Hans and his pal are heading! I'll be plugging away at it over the next couple weeks and will share more when I get the chance! Thanks again for checking it out and I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season! Take care!

- Ryan

PS: Thanks to those who gave the stars. I had a five star thread for a couple weeks and I felt like a superstar. Then someone had to knock me off my pedestal and back to the four stars that I guess I deserve. lol But for a small time I felt pretty great about myself! Ha!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eDoPIykh14Y/Ts6gLB-fYeI/AAAAAAAAAN0/hsPIFrlsTC0/s1600/308937_534180966405_150400926_30857329_825316746_n .jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4DZv9HBaeA/Ts6gIsGaoBI/AAAAAAAAANo/8S351_8ZfxA/s1600/snowmoose_1.jpg

[Zebz]

Just wanted to share this really quick. Here's a sneak peek at the pencils for my Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary tribute illustration. I'm a huge fan of the series but I've never created any fan art. Really excited about this one!

Also don't forget to like and share my Facebook page for a chance to win some original Mega Man art and a Hellboy print!

http://www.facebook.com/ryanbowlinart

Thanks again for checking out my stuff and welcome to December! ;o)

- Ryan

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--IlFKU5SBTw/Ttg0yRUnEII/AAAAAAAAAOY/bU6_C7pRghE/s1600/link.jpg

[Zebz]

Started digging into the painting today so I figured I'd upload a small update on the final drawing. Here's a rough value pass on the lines for my Zelda illustration. I almost always do this before jumping into a painting. It tends to help ground some of my ideas for me. Hope you like it! I'm excited to see how it all turns out!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dKQMdpsNR9o/Ttq3YjL3AWI/AAAAAAAAAOk/zIZ5BZV3Jkc/s1600/zelda_1.jpg

[jonafunart]

I like it a lot (I'm a huge Zelda fan too!)

[Zebz]

jonafunart: Thanks a lot! I'm glad you like it. I'm a huge fan of the series and just felt like I needed to do something to celebrate!

I have a lengthy blog post about it which you can read HERE (http://ryanbowlin.blogspot.com/). I'm sharing my process a little bit and talk about the steps I work in a bit more over there. I figure I'll toss up my initial thumbnail and color pass here as well. Enjoy!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G4HHknVaFAc/Ttvh_uxVgKI/AAAAAAAAAPU/vZPKyuGE12g/s1600/photo%2B2.JPG
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X999dPCUDng/TtvbtUkHuxI/AAAAAAAAAOw/u7N4d6sTv9Q/s1600/zelda_roughcolors_1.jpg

[Zebz]

Wow has this sketchbook become a snoozefest or what? :steph:

Yesterday I scribbled out this goofy sketch of The Penguin after discussing with some friends how disappointed I was that Bane was going to be the main villain in the newest Batman. I'm just not that fond of him when compared to all the other great villains that Bats has been thrown up against!

So I did a quick scribble and spent about another 15 minutes throwing some layers at him to add a dash of color/texture. Pretty far off from a finished painting but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! Maybe I'll paint him up proper some other day when I have the time.

I'm still making headway on my Zelda illustration but it might overtake my holiday illustration of the Snow Moose or push him back into January. The big reason is the wife and I have decided to get our first puppy! We've been in preparation mode for the little one and it's been nuts around here.

Anyway... more art sooooon!!! Enjoy your December!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dgMfftd1aeE/TuVG5qoM2oI/AAAAAAAAAPg/SiV-A4Ouw68/s1600/penguin.jpg

[Zebz]

Wow. Someone wrote me a comment and then deleted it! lol This sketchbook thread is getting strange. I'm just going to keep posting to it randomly. Maybe someday it'll just die off. I don't even know why I keep it updated! Ha!

We're starting Z Brush training at work so I figured I'd show off my first ever sculpt! It's kinda crude and amateurish but I'm quite impressed with how easy it was to grasp some of the basic tools. Might work on this dude a bit more as we keep learning! Just wanted to share! By no means am I a 3D artist but it is fun to mess around with from time to time.

Perhaps I'll have more ZBrush sketches as time goes on. It is a very interesting tool to mess around with. I don't think I'll become a ZBrusher but it's fun to mix it up every once in a while! Just wanted to share!

- Ryan

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iI77zlO11Og/TubXrWlTjrI/AAAAAAAAAP4/8qwQZW8xWwE/s1600/374805_257698844283974_248722898514902_650548_1042 868816_n.jpg

[Zebz]

Here's a Sculptris sketch/sculpt that I did recently.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8ysRA1tArdw/TuvwbG0ye7I/AAAAAAAAAQI/JMAsywzmRxw/s1600/demon_sculpt_1.jpg

[XSFX2000]

Looking Awesome! Getting some skill envy, which is actually a good thing for me!
Adding skills to the toolbox is always positive.:teeth:

[AdrianNagorski]

Great works in here man, loving your cartoony style, that hellboy is great i like the technique
that you use you should make a tutorial or something.
keep post!!

[ezekrialase]

this is a very interesting sketchbook, I love everything about it! I went ahead and liked your facebook page and I can't wait to see future stuff from you.

[Zebz]

Wow! Comments! Ha!

XSFX: Thanks, Lloyd! Miss ya, buddy! You should post on a blog or something so we can see what you've been up to!

Adrian: Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you like my stuff! Yea, I'm starting to lean a lot more towards the toonier stuff. It comes more natural to me and I have much more fun doing it. So why not, right? Not all of us can be Wes Burt, I guess. lol Thanks for the encouragement! Maybe I'll do a tutorial in the future.

ezekrialase: Thanks! It's a huge mish mash of stuff, that's for sure. But I'm glad you've enjoyed your browse! And thanks for liking my Facebook page! I update there the most frequently because it usually provides instant feedback that makes my art ego feel good. lol

It took a while but finally someone commented! lol Thanks again! I had kinda given up hope but I guess I'll post some of the stuff I've posted elsewhere. This is a mixed bag, as usual. Another sculptris sketch, Christmas card owl doodles, meeting scribbles and another WIP of my Zelda piece. Enjoy! More to come!

- Ryan

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PjSFN4PssuE/Tu_AbSk3jLI/AAAAAAAAAQU/G2kiNLQ7iLw/s1600/ogre_1.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ELw_zfdcx2U/TvE7NCawQ_I/AAAAAAAAAQg/hL8wCS4YXvM/s1600/xmas_1.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9qaKkmtGrA/Tvqz6znM8WI/AAAAAAAAARE/aHWFJpopPBY/s1600/owl3.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dYsj7fgPxDw/Tvqz3hrz7HI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/_5xLIzelJjM/s1600/owl1.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-13Jt49cpXbI/TvvL1PHJazI/AAAAAAAAARQ/mtfUstEE3TA/s1600/zelda_1.jpg

[Zebz]

Well, after several days of scraping together time to paint, I finally managed to finish off my Legend of Zelda illustration. I took some chances and varied my approach when it came to this piece. It didn't quite come out how I'd hoped but I still think it's pretty fun and I learned a lot for the next time when I dive into a work like this. And I was painting freakin' Link! So how awesome is that?! Ha!

I hope you guys liked how it turned out and enjoyed watching my progress as I moved along. There's something that I really loved about the original sketch and over the course of the illustration I just lost some of it. But I'm still satisfied and ready to move on to something new. I think I'll be working on more sketchy stuff for a while. Between this piece and work I'm getting a bit tired of working so tightly.

At any rate, I just wanted to get it posted! I was pretty sure I'd do a small print run of this but I want to see how the reception is first before I plop down any cash. I know the feel of it is a little different from some of my other work I've previously posted. Let me know what you think and I'll keep you updated on whether or not I print them off! Thanks for looking and happy Monday! Have a great week, guys!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5P7CLgBE0A/Twq_R_r1YeI/AAAAAAAAASk/ZMwf4Pdnec0/s1600/zelda_5.jpg

[Zebz]

If you guys are interested you can purchase prints of the Zelda image by clicking here. (http://theartofryanbowlin.bigcartel.com/)

Here are some sketches.Most of the stuff is scribbles/studies from photos I randomly found on the internet. Trying to practice quick drawing figures and get a little more anatomy work in there. I really just want to focus on getting ideas down quickly and trying to waste less time noodling on stuff. I suffer from "reder-itis" a bit. Tried to be more hasty when laying this stuff in though. I hope you guys like 'em!

The unfinished dwarf and the troll with the Corgi puppy were obviously random imagination stuff. The troll sketch is who I like to imagine my dog hangs out with when we're away. ;o) Y'kno how animals sometimes seem to see things that we can't? I used to imagine they could see ghosts or something. Now I think there's an invisible troll that lives in my house and just loves my puppy to pieces. lol

I'm going to do my best to be more proactive in the days to come but I'll probably only update the blog a couple times a week. Not sure which days just yet. Perhaps Sundays and Wednesdays? Regardless, I'm getting back into sketchbook mode and am having a blast! Can't wait to generate more images! Keep checking back for more scribble mayhem! Take care!

- Ryan

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