Gorgonzola's Noodlin's - Feb. 4th 2012

[Gorgonzola]

Hey All,

I've lurked on here for a long time, and I decided it's high time I drag out what's been sitting on the computer and throw it up here for everyone to look at and all that. If anyone here frequents Drawingboard, you might have seen this stuff before, so apologies as I slowly bring this thread up to speed then with semi-old stuff. Apologies also for the first huge couple of posts this thread will have..

Crits are always welcome, since how else do you intend to improve?

[Tofa]

pretty damn awesome stuff man
keep it up!

[polipol]

wow man these are really great sketchs :)...they communicate visually pretty well...... keep us posted :) would love to see more :D

[revenebo]

Wow, I stopped by because your nickname made me laugh and then I found some great sketches. More of them!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks for the comments, fellas!

Here's some more dredged up from the depths of my hard drive...mostly sketchbook stuff, and a few color tests and fool-arounds.

[Tofa]

great post. i would say im loving the creatures and the armored dude, but its all really nice. :)

[Gorgonzola]

Cheers Chris, glad you like it.

Here's some more stuff. Slowly working through what I have left, soon it'll have to be new stuff!

[Gorgonzola]

Well, here's some more from the old piles. Some more sketches, as well as a few old comic pages to boot!

-Andrew

[Gorgonzola]

I do believe this might be the end of the stash! I'll have to start being responsible and putting up new stuff...

As always, comments and all that are most welcome.

[carakhan]

I like the colors youre playing around with for the space suits! The joker one is hilarious. Your dinobirds colors look great, but I wish he was more refined (specular, shadow). You do so well with your color choices, but they all look a little flat. A little more love and they'd be awesome!

[destinyapocalypse]

dude you rock cool stuff in here



keep it up! take care

[AustenFM]

My word, there's so much here to look at! I really love your environments and creature designs, i can definitely learn a thing or two by keeping an eye on you.

Cant wait to see more!

[Gorgonzola]

Hey guys, glad you like all the stuff.

Here's some recent comic pages I did for an upcoming webcomic. Site isn't totally up yet, so I won't bother with giving the url yet. I also have some gesture work here, courtesy of posemaniacs.com. Love the site, except for the occasional awkward model the site gives...

[Gorgonzola]

Here's some more random junk. I think I got a handle on attachment sizes, so hopefully these aren't oppressively huge:[

I went to the Georgia Aquarium this past weekend, hence the little drawings of fish in the travel book. The submarines..well, I can't give reasoning for those, you know how doodling goes.

Also threw up a little critter drawing, which I took into photoshop to try and do some value painting. It's a step in the right direction, I think, but obviously nowhere near some of the talent you folk have here! Methinks I should study some more Mark Behm...I've got a love for the chunky application of paint.

[AustenFM]

Rockin' updates! Those comic pages are really nice, and those sea critter studies are really fun. I wanted to do that the other day at the zoo, but i was too distracted.

Keep on updating!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks Austen! I wish I didn't post the pages so small, they're almost impossible to read. Maybe once I color them I'll post them back up larger and easier to read.

Here's some stuff I did while I was out of town, then yesterday at the park in ATL.

[TheGnoll]

hey man, great batch of work to start with!
very cool sketches and comic pages (altho they're a bit too small to read, you should post em a bit bigger!)
i coudn't help but thinking some of your stuff reminded me of mine for sime reason... don't really know why, curious :D

my fav of all the sketches you posted are the "frabel" ones, really interesting design, kudos!

keep sharing!
ciao

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks TheGnoll! I promise I'll post the pages bigger once they're colored. I'm glad you like the Frabel designs too, they're a favorite of mine. They're planned to appear in a comic I'm working on down the line...

So after another week of being out of town and on plane trips and all that, I'm finally back, and I have some sketches! The speedball on the plane exploded because of the cabin pressure:( Ah well, at least it wasn't alone, I had a wicked sinus headache from the exact same thing...

[AustenFM]

Great updates dude! Love the glass-headed Frable designs, everything on that last post is awesome as hell, and the homless robot is too fun!

Thanks for the inspiration!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks Austen!

So I feel a little silly for admitting this, but I didn't know you could map keystrokes to a wacom pen. Found out this past weekend, and promptly mapped brush increase/decrease to the buttons, then didn't get a chance to test it out until this morning. So today I made a new flat marker-like brush based off of the standard round, and gave it a whirl with my rubbish painting skills!

Worked as well as I expected, which means I don't have to reach way across the keyboard to hit the hotkeys anymore for it, and my hand can sit comfortably in the little spot where all the rest of my frequent hotkeys are.

[destinyapocalypse]

ilike your style

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks!

Not too exciting of an update this time, just some gesture drawings done before I get to work.

[Gorgonzola]

Here's some little demon drawings I did. I'm painting up one of them mostly for practice, so here's an in-progress shot and the original sketch of it. Still a long ways to go, but so far it's shaping up better than previous ones...

If you can't tell by the other drawing, I'm a bit of a fan of Guy Davis...

[sevarenge]

eyy nice fantasy stuff dude!but wher is the studys =)kipp going and

seck my sbhttp://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=149972&page=3

[Carbono]

Lot of diversity on this sketchbook, makes it quite pleasuring to see it and be "surprised" at every new image, great and inspirational.

I've noticed from your artworks that you seem to struggle a little with straight lines, your curved ones are perfect, smooth and flowing. But I didn't saw a lot of straight lines and when I saw I could notice a little difficult on it, maybe you should practice it a little, get out of your comfort zone and push yourself a little.

Good works so far man. Hope to always see more from you!
Keep hitting it!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks Carbono and Sevarange! I'm not really sure what ya mean by the straight line thing, I do know if I start drawing a little too big my stuff starts to fall apart (something that I've been slowly trying to rectify...). Is there a particular image you're noticing it on? I'd at least like to be aware of my faults, hehe.

Well, I know it's been awhile (and in conceptart.org terms, that's a lifetime,) but I've been busy wrapping up a promo I'm putting together for my booth at heroes con...these two doodles were done yesterday during my day break between inking and coloring...I might use them as a base for my ongoing pursuit of trying to learn painting techniques...

[Gorgonzola]

Here's the previous sketches, only now with some color block-ins! It's been a tortuously slow process as I descend into the wildnerness of painting again, trying to learn its intricacies. They're both done in Painter, just different approaches: The alien dino is taking a cue from Ryan Church and being built up in transparent glazes with the Scratchboard tool (I ought to figure out how to tighten it up from there...it seems tedious-in-the-bad-way to keep doing glazes...) and the troll is being done up in Artist's Oils (gotta figure out how to blend a bit with those...)

Of course, this being a weak point of mine, any and all advice is welcome, be it help, passing comments, nags, or death threats. Not so much on the last one.

[humanNature6115]

Love it,

Nice and loose.

=================================
:mittenbop: :mittenbop: :mittenbop: Sketchbook:mittenbop: :mittenbop: :mittenbop:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761)

[HugeHarHar]

Bad ass! You have such variety. The first few posts of the demon/helmet stuff and your looser cartoony stuff. I'm sold dude.

Have you talked to any of the CATL members? It's the Sketchgroup up there, and there's some really great people. I just moved out of Atlanta and down to Macon.

Here's the thread for the sketchgroup (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53365&page=121). Check it out if you're interested, I know they'd love a new face.

[Gorgonzola]

HugeHarHar Whoa! Thanks for the thread to the ATL sketchgroup, I'll definitely be checking them out. I've been looking for a group or something to mingle with, ever since I moved up here I have been lacking in the co-artists/friends area.

HumanNature: Thanks man!

So here's what I had been working on the past week and a half, a promo comic being done for my table at Heroes Con in June. It's for a webcomic that me and my writer are doing, and with the launch scheduled for a little bit before Heroes, we thought we'd make an issue 0, so to speak, for the con for people pick up. No lettering on this (wouldn't want to spoil the story, would I?) but hopefully you guys still dig it. The colors are a little spoiled from the mode switch from CMYK to RGB, but it's still fairly close.

[Gorgonzola]

S'more creature doodles...for some reason the lizard's feet got screwed up somewhere in photoshop...

[mike butkus]

Good imagination and great drawing skills.

[destinyapocalypse]

dude i like your chararcters

[Dragonspit]

good stuff. great linework. i really like your ability to tell a story line. when I look on this site, I cant always follow stuff, but yours I can.

[Gorgonzola]

Mike Buktus: Thank you sir! It's always humbling to get complimented from fine talent like yourself.
DestinyApocalypse: Thanks!
Dragonspit: Haha, thanks! I focused mostly on comics in school, so I hope I picked up a trick or two...

So I took the demon drawing from above into Painter, and actually got it done! Considering how frustrated I get at painting, this was a pretty calm experience, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm thinking of putting some markings on it though...thoughts?

[Gorgonzola]

Decided to take what I learned from the last painting and revisit some previous sketches to apply the skills...so I restarted the Alien dinosaur. Didn't like the color I was going with before, so here's some color comps of it to get started.

[Gorgonzola]

Here's a wip of the Alien Dino, and a quick doodle done during lunch.

[Gorgonzola]

Here's a paint study, based off of Rien Poortuliet and Wil Huygen's book Gnomes. Love the illustrations in it, and I learned quite a bit while using one of Rien's painting's as reference.

Would love feedback from the folk around here, slowly learning the ins and outs of Painter...definitely seem to care for it more than Photoshop for bringing stuff to completion...

[Dethklaus]

I'm loving all the animal designs. Most of them are quite odd and almost alien in their appearance, yet have a believable qualitiy to them. I could easily imagine how they'd behave if they were real.

Have you ever considered incorporating speech into your comics?

[Gorgonzola]

DethKlaus: Actually, all the comics I've posted so far do have dialogue to go with them - but because it's not my IP's (collaborating with a writer,) it doesn't feel right showing that off witht he art. Thanks for the comments 'bout the creatures! Someday I think I'd want to make a fictional bestiary book, like "The Wildlife of Star Wars" or "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You." Those sorts of books always interested me tons.

[destinyapocalypse]

yeeahhh now i lookin your website ilove storyboardss

[kidult]

Nice stuff here!

[Gorgonzola]

Destiny Apocalypse: Thanks! I'm hoping to land some sort of storyboard job soon...the woes of being unemployed.

Kidult: Thank you!

I participated in the CoW challenge this week, where the topic was "Shadow and Flame." So here's my entry, which I called "Donovan's Basilisk". You can see the full description, as well as all the other great entries over at CoW forum here.

[Gorgonzola]

Been waaaaaaay too long since I last posted, mostly because most of the stuff I was working on was for hired projects and all that...

Here's two personal pieces though, so yeah! One was a fun little test in painter (trying out some different methodology), and the other is linework for an illustration I'm working on.

[Gorgonzola]

Still working on the illustration from last post, usually during the little bits of freetime I have not doing one random freelance or another...

I was testing out a new ink brush in photoshop (to save some time/money printing out bluelines and all that) and I decided to put it through it's paces and make an illustration with it. Later on, I wound up coloring the thing...

[jackpot_anjr90]

Nice work! You've got some really interesting creature designs :) Keep it up!

[Catatafish]

the creatures, scetching, proportions and stuff are really good
though you need some more work on your use of colors and rendering, but im sure youre aware of that nonetheless and with those awesome skills you have this should be no problem at all!
cant wait to see more!!!

[Gorgonzola]

Jackpot: Thanks! I love the idea of creature design, and basically making new worlds from the ground up...I think SimLife is to blame for a lot of that...

Catatafish: Thank you! You are correct, colors/rendering is one of my weaker points (never really gave it much push until the past month, month and a half.) Hopefully that will change soon enough.

[Gorgonzola]

Wheeee, a new update!

Lately I've been packing up stuff around the apartment in preparation of a move that's coming up, which has unfortunately creeped into my time to do any real work. But I've been keeping busy by at least working steadily on comic pages! All of these pages were done for a webcomic I run with a writer named Chris Sager. If you're curious at all about checking it out, feel free to pop on over to www.thelastisland.com.

These were pencilled traditionally, and then the first was inked with rapidos, while the rest are a mix of brush and photoshop. Enjoy!

[Gorgonzola]

Been a loooooong time since I updated this. That'll be changing for sure.

Here are some pages out of the ol' sketchbook from this past week. Hopefully the quality jumped since the last time I posted!

[AustenFM]

Yeah Buddy! Good to see you back, your lines definitely look more confident from the last time i saw, and it looks like you're grasping the form of your figures much better. Looking good, those hat designs are fun. Cant wait to see more of what you've been working on!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, Austen. I feel pretty shitty about neglecting this (and other haunts of the internet) for some time, so here's to a turnaround of that.

This was something that started off as a couple streaks of color, and then it just went from there. It ended up being an exercise in using the photo filter for shadows instead of a multiply layer...it's interesting. I think I like it more than the multiply layer, though I'd have to twiddle around with it more.

[Sycra]

Wow, I really like your creatures! Could you explain a bit more about this 'photo filter for shadows' thing? I haven't heard of that before...

[Seraph Fawkes]

Personally - i like that beast with red horns up it's bottom )) I hope you had a good year while not updating. Last piece is sweet. I can see your design in some animation, like "Monsters Inc" )

[Gorgonzola]

@Sycra: The photo filter thing was something I picked up from this little tutorial: Painting Via Adjustment Layers. (http://fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/Painting-via-Adjustment-Layers-114727026)

The basic idea is using the adjustment layer in conjunction with a mask to fill the piece with all of your shadow, then you go in and paint in your lights...there's a good while where it looks like ass and you think you're doing it wrong, but once you have about 60% of your lights figured out, it starts to come together.

@Seraph Fawkes: Thanks! I have no clue what I was thinking with that fellow...somewhat stream of conscious, I imagine. And you're probably the 1200th person to mention the animation bit to me...I reckon that's sign, eh?

[Gorgonzola]

Some more pages from the ol' sketchbook...gaze upon my horrific attempts at drawing hands!

[Gorgonzola]

Some new pages, mostly of heads!

I really need to find myself some folk to hold still for head drawing...

[Wilko]

Wow, I really love your SB. Love your creature designs and your digital painting. You draw like an animator - I can imagine your drawings popping off the page and coming to life. Great stuff.

[Ivan Turcin]

Gorgonzola :D very cool cartoon characters and facial expressions. Something I need to work on it. You are able to execute it from start to finish and define a solid pose.
Keep it going!

[Joce]

really nice monster designs man. ur a good artist. keep goin

[Traveler]

Very impressive SB! Do keep posting. If you want to find some people to sketch that will remain relatively still you might try a public library. People reading are about as still as they get (for free, anyway). :rendered:

[andres333]

you've got to paint that sketch of that gorilla in the previous page=)

[Gorgonzola]

@Wilko: Thanks! It never ceases to surprise me how often I hear that animator quip..I guess my old loves still show through here and there.

@Ivan Turcin: Ah, I'm a hack with facial expressions. Honest! There's like, two, three of them I have down pat. Rest look like faces that make Shannen Doherty's face a shining example of symmetry.

@Joce: Thanks!

@Traveler: I hadn't thought of the library...that's not a bad idea at all. Though I suppose most of the time people's heads are down.

@andres: Oh, don't worry - that gorilla is for a larger project.

So this week was troublesome for drawing...everything felt incredibly forced, and it was capped by a bothersome watercolor painting that fought me at every turn. A note to folks out there: Never, EVER use bristol paper for watercolor work. Just don't.

[Gorgonzola]

New piece of artwork - same business as before, watercolor and ink. The guy in it is from a webcomic I draw regularly, called Border Crossings. These fellas are made out of glass, and are called Frabel (named after a glassworker.) I used watercolor paper this time - MUCH BETTER!

[AustenFM]

hey buddy! Love these most recent posts of yours, great to see you back in action! That last watercolor of the Frabel is great, I've loved those guys since i saw them on page 1. Im off to go check out your webcomic now, keep it up!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks Austen! They're some of my favorite characters from the comic...not enough chances to draw them.

Some more sketchbook doodles and another watercolor for heroes con...

[Gorgonzola]

Another little paint study...trying out some new things my brain absorbed recently.

[Gorgonzola]

S'more stuff from the old sketchbook...Take a guess as to which page I was really enjoying!

[Ivan Turcin]

enjoying your updates. Wish I can draw these animation ready figures and faces like you. Keep it going!

[Traveler]

Your pencils are great. Got to show us some more of those. :rendered:

[Gorgonzola]

Ivan: Thanks!

Traveler: You're in luck if you want to see some more pencils...

Here's another recent page out of the sketchbook, as well as some watercolor sketches. I've also uploaded a sneak peek at the pencils of the next page of Border Crossings, which should be live again next week. Enjoy!

[Nenad]

Wow, great stuff you have here, such a diversity. Love your creatures, some are mind blowing. Keep creating excelent works!

[Gorgonzola]

Nenand: Thank you! I've actually been worrying lately that my creature work has gotten stale...this might mean a trip to the zoo!!

Here's a bunch of new crap...watercolor sketches, sketchbook doodles, and some corel painter studies. I'm trying to get a feel for rendering in digital art, since for some reason that's something I don't feel like I have my brain wrapped around well enough. It eludes me, like some sort of slippery slug. So there's a few pages here of just colored balls, trying to work shit out. >:|

[Yautja892]

Nice sketch book, I'm really enjoying the watercolor sketches and this sketch in particular :
http://attachments.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1011298&stc=1&d=1278128479

Nice gestural quality in a lot of the sketches! Keep it up! :)

[Gorgonzola]

Yautja: Thanks man! I'm using that ogre sketch to try out a new approach to rendering for me...so expect that pretty shortly.

Not too much to show this time around! Still, an update it better than no update.

[vertebra]

i love your style, it appears to be very animation influenced. you show a lot of confidence in the drawing areas, a bit less in the rendering. once you find a technique that suits you, im sure it will all come together beautifully. comics seem to be working out well, keep truckin yo.

check this out.
http://vimeo.com/4460097

[LAL]

Great, I like you style very much,It like watercolors,very beautiful.the pencil works are also nice .study from you my friend.

[Marlee.]

Ughhhh man, I want to BE you. This stuff is already awesome. Everything feels really solid. But lets see some more digitals!

[JellevdVegt]

your characters and creatures are a step up from the rest. your storyboards are very good btw, i saw them on your site. thanks for the pointers on my painting!

[Gorgonzola]

Vertebra: You're right - I feel pretty confident with the pencil, but when it comes to bringing it to a finish...well, I feel like I haven't quite found it yet. Still searching though! I reckon it'll come soon.

LAL: Thanks!

Marle: Hah, thanks. And I'll promise some digitals - there's a few that aren't quite post worthy yet, even for a sketchbook. But they'll be up here soon!

Jelled: No problem! I really liked the lighting and color work you had going on. And thank you about the storyboards - I've been itching to do some more, so those might get updated soon.

Some more sketchbook pages, as well as the next step of that ogre sketch, and also a preview of an illustration I'm working on!

[Jamie Romoser]

man really diggin this sketchbook you have going your styles awsome
looking forward to seeing more ill be staying tuned
have a good one
-Jamie

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, Jamie! Your sketchbook is pretty neat, love the bridgeman studies.

In an attempt to learn painting, I present to you: A shitty Repin study. I had to rely on the eyedropper here and there because my color picking is still rubbish, but that's what studies are for, yeah?

[Gorgonzola]

Ach, didn't update for a week because of work being busy. At least I have life drawing and concept junk to give!

[Gorgonzola]

Whoo...when your day job gets busy, it definitely cuts into your free time to post! Fortunately things have winded down a bit, so I can finally update this ol' thread.

Here are some more sketchbook pages - Expect some color stuff from me soon though, because starting Thursday I'll be taking my first ever oil painting class! I somehow slipped through art school without taking a painting class, and it's something that I've seriously regretted. So instead of moping about it, I saved up and found an awesome teacher to start learning some basics. I'm super excited to be starting it!

[adamwstjohn]

Andrew...
This SB is cram packed with awesomeness... one of the best I've viewed.
Very inspiring and inciteful.. thanks for sharing.

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks Adam. I dunno if it's the best (I can think of 50 others around here way more worthy of that title,) but I do my damndest.

As always, more sketchbook pages. I tried my hand at some light studies from imagination, and I think they came out relatively okay...you can see towards the end I tried to make it more complex than just a ball.

[Gorgonzola]

Ooog...I hate it when life gets too busy to update your internet haunts...

Not as many sketches as usual, I'm afraid, but there is quite a few digital pieces this time around! I think I'm starting to feel more confident in my handling and understanding of color (not 100% there yet, but little steps, man.)

Now if only the same thing can be said of my rendering skills...

[Gorgonzola]

Been a loooong time since I've come onto this sketchbook! I'm noticing a trend of me disappearing around fall from the internet...

In anycase, here's some recent stuff that I've doodled...

-Drew

[Dope Fiend]

wooo! you're back, new doodles looking good, HUUUGE improvement in your digitals, keep it up!

[Velocity Kendall]

wow supergood work! I love the storyboards of life on the sub, and the creatures
5*

[Gorgonzola]

Dope Fiend: Thank you! I haven't really felt like I've made progress with my painting skills, but occasionally when I look at some older work I see glimmers of improvement here and there. I'm taking a digital painting class later this month (from the good folks at CGMW,) so I'm really looking forward to that.

Velocity Kendall: Thank you!

Some more brainfarts...these were all done at one lunch break or another...

[Gorgonzola]

Some new updates!

I've been taking a digital painting class with the very talented Erik Martin as the teacher and even though we've only had two lectures and assignments, I feel like my brain cogs are working overtime from the excitement. This class came at the perfect time, since I feel like it pushed me through the wall I was starting to encounter and bring me to a new level of learning.

So now onto the embarrassing part - the first assignment was to do value studies from film stills. Guess who never did this sort of thing before? THIS GUY!

Yeaahh...I'm not proud of that. That should really be a no brainer thing to do. In anycase, I'm glad I did them, and I'm going to see what I can do to make it a regular practice.

The second assignment was to create an environment or character using primarily the selection and pen tools. The goal was to stress simple, graphic shapes. This was something way out of my comfort zone, and I loved every second of it. So much fun, my brain is already churning new thumbnails to try another one.

[Gorgonzola]

Forgot to post this last night - a gift I made for my fiance's sister. Done in watercolor and colored pencil.

[Gorgonzola]

Torso and Leg studies from imagination - I'm trying out an approach of breaking down the body into modules, studying those up, then reincorporating them into larger forms again. So from here I'd start drawing full body figures that focus only on the torso and legs...after that, study arms.

I never understood doing studies of things like arms and legs separate from the ribcage or pelvis - it never worked for me, and seemed to take away an important part of drawing such things - the gesture. So for these I've been putting in a simple box form to represent the pelvis so I have something I can at least attach to the legs.

[Stuford]

Amazing work.

[*Rena*]

This sketchbook is full of great stuff!!!My favorites are the creatures sketches and designs,:D Awesome!
You are Italian too, aren't you?

[*Rena*]

This sketchbook is full of great stuff!!!My favorites are the creatures sketches and designs,:D Awesome!
You are Italian too, aren't you?

[D.C.]

Awesome progress man. Loving those last studies from imagination.

[Gorgonzola]

Stuford: Thanks!
Rena: Thank you! I'm Italian in blood only, not by nationality.
D.C.: Thanks! There's still more to come...

Speaking of, here's the latest digital painting homework assignment, plus more studies from imagination - the legs have been brought back into the torso as a whole. I ended up doing a lot more of these in my actual sketchbook than my photoshop one, so when I get a moment of time I'll scan them in. From here, I'm going to focus on arms - which will require me to do some observational studies for some of the weird subtleties that the muscles possess.

[AustenFM]

These value studies and torso/leg practice shots are really nice, great sense of form and weight! Love the digital painting assignment as well, keep up the awesome work!

[Gorgonzola]

So crazy behind! This is a short little update as I finish up this week's assignment - here's LAST WEEK'S assignment: Design a robot and paint it with the aide of photo textures. For some reason was drawn to designing a construction bot. There's some stuff I'd like to tweak on it from the critique suggestion, but it'll have to wait until after the classes are done, unfortunately.

[Gorgonzola]

Semi-caught up now (still need to post more anatomy studies that I've done.)

This was last week's assignment - design and paint a creature with the aide of photo textures. Unfortunately I went a little too overboard with painting over the photos (to try and make it fit) and removed a lot of the indication of the photo textures. I still like it well enough in the end though, especially considering the work and frustration it gave me.

[Gorgonzola]

Latest assignment - design another environment! Photo textures were used in this one too - mostly to add an effect to the water, give my tree trunks some detail, and for the clouds - because I suck at clouds (and lightly painting over it would give the result I wanted faster.)

I liked a lot of my thumbs for this, so chances are I'll revisit some of them as other environments.

[D.C.]

Really cool thumbs indeed. I also like how your lines flow. You're doing great, keep it up :assspank:.

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, D.C.!

After a good suggestion, I went back and reworked that environment. So here's that, plus a 20 minute skull paint-up, from imagination (did not have my skull on hand, so these things are all kinds of wrong...)

[in2eternity]

Amazing works here, very inspirational, just keep it continue )

[AustenFM]

Lovin' those bird concepts a few posts up, they all look pretty genuine and believable, the final product was really neat too. I'm eager to see how your character design is progressing after all your gesture practice.

I always enjoy dropping through here and browsing all the pages, i wish there was more though~! Keep it up!

[Blunko]

wow man your artwork is amazing even your thumnails are fantastic dude your a great artist.

[Blunko]

dude love your monster sketches

[Traveler]

Great sketchbook going here. I'm especially appreciating your school assignments along with their descriptions. Quite useful.

[Gorgonzola]

in2eternity: Thanks!
AustenFM: Thanks dude! I think you've become my regular here. Now that the online class I was taking is over, I have a few things planned for some personal pieces, both concept and illustration wise. We'll see how they pan out...
Blunko: Thanks! I haven't done a whole lot of creatures in a while...I think that's something I should rectify soon.
Traveler: Thank you! I like to put descriptions with stuff, at the very least it gives some context to it.

Here are some more imagined figure studies - I fooled around with arms a bit, then incorporated them back into the body. Some I like, some I don't, but that's what this stuff is for.

After this, all there is is the Head. I haven't decided yet if I want to shoot for really exaggerated and pushed features and bring that stylization into the bodies, or try to do a more 'realistic' approach. I'm right now leaning on the former.

[Gorgonzola]

More imagined figure studies...

[lemming-clone-]

I absolutely love the expression in your figure studies! They look great! I also really like the landscape in post 92. The purples and grays are fantastic! Keep it up! :D

[raminafshari]

post #102 , your bird study is really cool .

[Ludic]

Really good figures, keep those up :)

[D.C.]

Really cool and expressive figures, do you study from a specific figure drawing book?

[Gorgonzola]

Lemming-Clone: Thank you! It's tricky with imagined figures - it becomes VERY easy to make them stiff if you think about it too much or too little. I think I slipped on a few of them, but I'd like to think that I've been largely successful with it.

raminafshari: Thanks!

Ludic: Thank you!

D.C.: It depends on the time of day, season, and month (short answer: no.) I think I have somewhere around 8-10 different figure drawing/anatomy books that I've collected over the years in an attempt to gain as much information as I could on it all (in addition to life drawing or photo drawing.) Currently I'm between Michael Mattesi's Force book and Michael Hampton's Inventive Figure Drawing. Off the top of my head, here's what I've got in my library that I've used at one point or another to study figure drawing:

-Almost all of Hogarth's books (got them at some point when I was teenager - I wouldn't really recommend any, except maybe the hand book. Rest of it has some bits of good info here and there, but there's a lot of chaff you have to separate from it.)

-Vilppu's drawing manual (very much worth it.)

-Michael Hampton's book (again, also very worth it, though his section on clothing looks weird to me.)

-Eliot Goldfinger's Human Anatomy book (I used this book back when I did a lot of figure studies in clay. It's sadly been neglected for some time. Good reference book, but it may not be good for a beginner - very easy to get wrapped in the details and lose the big picture)

-Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy (great book, wish the reproductions were cleaner.)

-Harold Speed's Science of Drawing (this one is up next to be read - haven't gotten a chance yet)

-Strength Training Anatomy (not a book geared for artists, it's still a great book to see various muscles on a beefed up person. Shows it from a lot of angles that art books don't normally show too, so...bonus!)

-Andrew Loomis' set of books (All great, obviously Figure Drawing For All It's Worth is the main one in this set.)

-Victor Perard's Anatomy and Drawing (First figure drawing book I ever got. Not worth holding onto though if you have any two of the above books along with Bridgman.)

-How to draw Marvel Comics (Decent book with some info. Good for a beginner, and definitely beats any of the schlock that putz Christopher Hart puts out.)

-Drawn to Life vol. 1 and vol. 2 (Two great books about gesture drawing. Worth every penny.)

-Atlas of Foreshortening (good little photo reference book for that stuff.)

-Famous Artist's School's book on Figure drawing.

...Hmm. Looks like I have closer to 20 books on this stuff. And that's not counting art books I've gotten solely because I like how the artist handles the figure (The Rough Works Frazetta book, or the Alex Ross Rough Justice book.) That would probably double the number.

At the end of it, a lot of the info in the books is retread, some of it is misleading, and usually what I look for in these books is another artist's viewpoint of it, since that usually provides a breakthrough for me in figuring out something. Then it's a matter of taking all of that and applying it to both observed and imagined studies, which always takes quite a few times to sink in...and sometimes bits of the info gets forgotten, so it needs to be relearned and studied again.

...Err. Wow. Hope this long ramble answered your question.

[Sean McClain]

wow great work, those thumbnails are great, and the imagination anatomy is really
refreshing. Cheers!

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, Sean.

Two more Figure studies for now (taking a short break from them), and a handful of sketches for some personal concept work I'm developing. I should point out while I was doing these I had a separate photoshop document that was quite large (6000-7000 pixels wide? roughly) that had all my reference laid out. I got the idea from Ian McQue's tutorial in ImagineFX, and it's immensely helpful - way better than flipping through the damn things in Preview. It also forces you to think more on the front end about the look you're going for.

[Gorgonzola]

I downloaded the trial for Painter 12 last week and I've been mucking about in it...and I like it! I really enjoy their new watercolor brushes - they beat the hell out of the old ones for sure, to the point I think they just should have gotten rid of their old "real" watercolors and kept the new batch and the digital ones.

So these two paintings (the plains one is in progress) are the result of me trying out some of those brushes. They're both about an 1 hour, 1 1/2 hour I think in time, and made with the real watercolor brushes and digital watercolor brushes for lay-in, followed by using three modded digital watercolor brushes (that now act like gouache) to do the rendering pass. They're done from imagination, so that might be why they look a little sucky.

Also, Photoshop: Painter 12 has pencils and brushes that adjust the size based on angle tilt! How do you not have that?!

[D.C.]

Thanks for the thorough explanation on figure drawing books.
Really cool concept work, reminds me a bit of Zelda The Wind Waker. Also nice brushwork on these environment studies.

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks D.C.! Hope the book list helps you out. I love to share information as much as possible, so if anyone else has any questions, feel free to shoot 'em.

Here's a final update on that little sketch of the plains. There's a lot wrong with it, but as a quick imagined environment there are some qualities to it that I enjoy...

[Gorgonzola]

Well, this is probably the fastest I've ever updated...here's where the turnaround of the girl is at the moment. Still a loooong ways off from being called finished.

Once this basic mockup is done, a "rendered" action pose is still planned, as well as details of the shield, dagger, and sword.

[Gorgonzola]

Here's the finished turnaround of the girl - I'm debating if I should leave it fully lit like this, or actually flesh it out a wee bit with some shadows- I might leave that for the "rendered" action pose. Thoughts?

[in2eternity]

I like your graphic style and those anatomy studies are just amazing! Thanx for useful info about anatomy books and this large reference sheet - definitely will try this out )

[Gorgonzola]

in2eternity:Thanks!

More value studies and life drawing - 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 11 minutes.

[n1frit]

Great study, creatures and characters! You could create illustrations! Your skill move ahead) And keep posting!

[Gorgonzola]

n1frit: Thanks! I have some illustrations planned for the next few months, so I intend to post those as they move along.

In the meantime, an update on that little concept bundle I'm making for the ol' portfolio: The girl for the moment is sorted, so now it's time for the environment for the monster she'll be hunting (Which will be a dragon of sorts, for sure.) Whenever possible, I like to figure out the environment of a creature before the creature itself, since that dictates the behavior and physical qualities of the creature. So for the dragon, I wanted it to live in a cave, and have the entrance for the cave to be incredibly forboding - like it was perhaps the remains of an even larger beast from long ago. So that's where these explorations went.

Originally I imagined a more rocky/desert environment, but as I explored a bit more I started to think more about Yellowstone park and some of its geography...I particularly liked the idea of there being some clues of a natural forest, then this blown out desolate area where the dragon lurks. It makes it seem like it destroyed the surrounding area to mark its territory.

[Gorgonzola]

A quick detour from the environment concept - here's a page from the ol' sketchbook. These are some alien mule ideas for an upcoming illustration.

[Gorgonzola]

Another update on the cave - I liked the last two thumbs I did, so I went with that and expanded the idea. Originally I wanted the creature to live in a more isolated area, but this won out in the end. It'll work out better for me later, when I do a set of storyboards off of this - the girl will have more areas to hide as the dragon chases her about.

There's a good chance that I might flit back and do a better take on this cave, but I'd like to see how far this goes first.

[Gorgonzola]

Here's the alternate cave idea that I'm currently building up alongside the other...right now, I'm leaning towards this one - I think it's just the better composition and design of it than the other.

[Gorgonzola]

Not much new, just some more pages out of the digital and traditional sketchbooks.

[Gorgonzola]

Wrapped up the environment dragon cave concept this week - so here is the color comp and the final of it!

[Swiezy]

Your studies about landscape and dinosaurs are awsome! I will watch your thread with pleasue.
Salute

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, Swiezy.

A few more pages scanned...working on the dragon portion of the concept series next, so I'll start posting some of that in a bit.

Also, I got the lyrics wrong on the Beatles song...so these dinosaurs are all sorts of messed up in their singing.

[Odayga]

Really love your character designs, enviros, linework and movement!! Beautiful! I'm really glad I stopped by in here! SUBSCRIBING :D

[Mike L]

Great sketches, love that line work, confident stuff!

[Gorgonzola]

Odayga: Thank you!

Mike L.: Thanks!

As I prep some portfolios to send out to companies this past week, I started work on the dragon portion of this little concept series thing.

One thing I knew that I didn't want was for the dragon to fly. For story purposes it would have made the girl's fight against it incredibly implausible because of the huge advantage it would afford the dragon. So wings were clipped and he became an earth-bound scaly.

Other than that though, I had only the vaguest ideas of what I wanted this thing to look like. So off to the internet I went!

I collected a bunch of reference of gators, komodos, crocs, monitor and basilisk lizards and threw them up onto a gigantic Photoshop mood board. If you've never done this before for a project, I'd urge you to give it a shot. It definitely beats having to search for crap on your hard drive and it's all in one spot. If I was working traditionally I'd do the same thing, just print it all out.

From there I did some head sketches to get a general feel. After a few of them I thought I had some decent ideas, so I started to try out some full body designs.

I like the idea of making the dragon look like an overgrown monitor lizard - I'm thinking when I go to board the action sequence I want him to move about like a giant lizard, darting here and there, so I want him to look like he can do that - No sluggish creatures here.

He's still a bit away from being a final design, but I think I'm zeroing in on it...

[Gorgonzola]

Some pages out of the ol' analog sketchbook...take a gander as to what I've been watching recently.

Also, for some reason had the urge to draw cars...that's odd.

[surus]

Keep on posting these body / greyscale / shadow studies! Great stuff!

[Odayga]

Your creatures ROCK! Loving everything in here, phenomenal environments as well!!! keep it up :D

[Gorgonzola]

Surus: Thanks! I'm going to switch gears on them a bit, but those studies will probably never stop.

Odayga: Thank you! Now that I think about it, I dunno if I've drawn a whole lot of creatures lately...maybe I should rectify that...

For your perusal: A busted little digital still-life. The drawing is all sorts of bad in a lot of places in this, but I like the color and light I was able to achieve in it. This is what happens when you're used to actually doing a line-drawing beforehand then try to fix stuff as you paint - you get f*cked up cups.

Something I still have trouble with is getting photoshop to respond as sensitively to me as painter does - I find I can get the sort of looks I want from Painter waaaay easier and faster than Photoshop does, which is funny because I more or less use them the same way (No opacity pressure, just size variation.)

[David79]

beautifull concept mate 5 stars O_O
ur creature are just a feast for the eyes ;D

5 stars man!

[Gorgonzola]

David79: Thank you very much! Love the avatar.

So! Here's some more painting fuckery - The mish-mash that could be called a face is from painter, while the...thing...is from photoshop, done after poring over D@niel's sketchbook (which really, is just spectacular.)

Both of these were done roughly 10-20 minutes each, and would not have been saved if I didn't find some quality about them redeeming. So these little scribbles survived a binning.

[Gorgonzola]

Currently between hopping from one wedding to another, so no time to really scan and upload anything...instead, here's a quick environment paintup I did during lunch today. Done in Painter.

[Psychotime]

Oh man, this is great.

[Gorgonzola]

Much appreciated, Psychotime!

Back from all the weddings and day job stuff, and I finally had a chance to sit down and scan stuff in. So here are some pages from the ol' sketchbook, and some zbrush sculpts! Hopefully this will make up for loooong period of no updates...:bashful:

Zbrush sculpts were done in about 30 minutes each, the sketches are a variety of imagination and observations from the LA Natural History Museum.

[Gorgonzola]

Random little thing done during a few lunch breaks. In case you don't catch it, I was watching Sinix's awesome, AWESOME youtube videos when I started this...

In anycase, it was a lot of fun! Great way to help push my sense of color, which I think I was only half-successful with. Blue-head was done trying out some gamut masking stuff.

[Gorgonzola]

New sketches from the ol' sketchbook...

[AustenFM]

Been too long since I dropped a proper comment in here. Im still flabbergasted by all those imagined figures studies on the last page and this one. Great sense of physical form and perspective on the foreshortening on limbs in top notch. Lovin' all of your character and creature concepts as well. And those creepy dragon caves up top really imaginative, while they were in the grey stages i thought it was a frigid ice environment, perhaps another avenue for you to explore?

Awesome work, you always make me feel lazy D:

[shambok]

Love how full of personality your characters are! Lovely use of colour as well ... thanx for sharing!

[Gorgonzola]

Shambok: Thanks!

AustenFM: Hah, me making YOU feel lazy? You're the one that updates at least 2, 3 times a week. I only get around to once a week.

Speaking of, here's that weekly update! Usual sort of stuff: lizards, monsters, and studies from life. Guess which is which! (hint: The toad man would NOT be from life.)

[andres333]

man..killer studies you seem to have a good grasp of anatomy and form, it comes to me as a surprise that you've mistaken the proportions and the position in space in the last sit seated figure

[Gorgonzola]

Andres333: Thanks. The proportions seem fine to me, the torso looks a little small compared to the limbs, but that's the only thing I see that looks glaringly wrong. The position of it could be better though.


Very small update - I'll do a sketch dump this weekend. In the meantime, here's a zbrush sculpt done during two lunch breaks. I want to point out (just because I enjoyed it a lot) that the scales are done by hand, no alphas used. I'm planning to do a polypaint of it and do a proper render of it...once I figure out how to do that.

[Theodor]

I like those two characters there, the one with the curly hair and the other one with a big forehead. They seem British somehow. Wonder why?

[Gorgonzola]

Theodor: Haha, probably because I was watching Sherlock when I was drawing on that page.

Came home tonight and decided to try and get the Lizardman out of the way just so I can focus on other stuff. Here's the finished polypaint and render. It's not perfect (and I don't have a spiffy renderer other than Zbrush for it,) but I like a lot of things in this.

[Egg0]

Amazing designs mate, really nice sculpts, keep doing it

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, Egg0. I'm trying to find a better renderer than Zbrush's standard one. Anyone have suggestions on what might be a good solution?

Here's a little sketchdump - I've been busy with freelance and daytime job stuff, so the time spent sketching for myself has decreased a bit...

[AustenFM]

Z-Brush lizard man is really cool, i need to get into that program myself someday. You should give those Queen singin' dinos some freddie mercury moustaches if you ask me ;)

Those pumkin heads are cool too, hope to see more of them this month!

Keep on chuggin' away, you're awesome!

[Gorgonzola]

AustenFM: Oh thanks man! Zbrush is a pretty great tool...some people have trouble with it, but once I figured out the keys I was like a fish in water...just comes easily for me. If you ever pick it up and have questions, send me a PM or something. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get past it the program just opens up.

So I have pretty much neglected this month in terms of uploading stuff. I've been sketching/sculpting/etc., it's just that I haven't had the time to sit down and get it all on the computer (which is a shame, because I have some life drawing stuff I'm rather proud of. God-damn light turned on for me with that stuff.)

In the meantime, may I present an illustration I finished up earlier this week, plus a step-by-step of it. Any questions, feel free to ask them, I love talking shop.

[GeniusFetus]

I like the "derek monster" look that a lot of your critters have.

[bobby1991qw]

i really like those fantastic monster or animal？i lack imagenation like you
keep it up

[Gorgonzola]

GeniusFetus: Thanks man! I love Derek Thompson's work, so that's a mighty fine compliment.

bobby1991qw: Thanks!

Sorry for the lack of updates...this always tends to happen around the holidays, work ramps up a bit, family visits happen, and I get sucked into personal projects. Incidentally, my posting always drops off around now...let's try to break that habit!

Here's what I've been working on as of late - my entry for Artorder's Princess of Mars challenge. I'm happy with how it's coming along, but there's still much to be done...I'll be posting the final in a few days. Right now the process is pretty much similar to the previous post, for any curious.

[Gorgonzola]

And it's done. I like how it turned out, except I couldn't find a great solution for John Carter...next time it won't be a problem I imagine, it's just this time it kept eluding me at every turn.

[Gorgonzola]

Small update, just a page of ink doodles done during a meeting.

[D.C.]

Supercool stuff going on here. Keep it up.

[Gorgonzola]

Thanks, D.C..

A rare sight for my postings - life drawing stuff! These are gathered from the past couple of months.

[Alternative]

You drawings are full of expression and imagination. Please post more life drawing! i am loving it!

[Gorgonzola]

Alternative: Thanks! You're in luck, because that was the plan.

This is the 2nd batch of cherry-picked life drawings, and possibly my last post for the year, what with the holidays imminent. I'll see if I can squeeze one more posting in though.

[Gorgonzola]

Hey, first post of the new year! Not a lot to show this time, some shoddy sketchbook pages and an illustration I'm working on for a challenge over at ArtOrder.

[perpetualInsomnia]

I wish we were on tumblr or dA so I didn't have to say anything to let you know how in awe I am. I just love everything in this thread, but asides from that I can't find the words.

keep it up.

[The Fez]

Loving the work in here. Your designs are always surprising and evocative in their characterizations.

[Gorgonzola]

PerpetualInsomnia: I actually do have a DA account, but I only really post up finished work over there, as opposed to here where it's sketches and finished stuff. It's the same as my name here though, so it's an easy enough find.

The Fez: Thanks! Lately I've been feeling like my designs have gotten a bit stale...that's something I'm planning to change up this year.

Little update of sketches and more in progress stuff of a current piece.

[KiBa]

amazing sketchbook!

I love your comic influenced style. Great ideas, unbelievably good expressions of the characters and your colors just harmonize perfectly!

The only thing I can think of is that you could experiment more often with perspective in your rendered illustrations. I guess especially #180 would benefit from a slightly more extreme low angle perspective. But hell... that´s just nitpicking :D

Waiting on new updates...

[Gorgonzola]

Kiba: Thanks! I'm in agreement about the perspective thing...I tend to go very safe on that sort of stuff, and I'm not proud of it. Time to shake that up for sure.

My finished ArtOrder piece, as well as some sketches for the next challenge, and some random doodles...did not know John C. Reilly was in Gangs of New York...

[Gorgonzola]

Quick little update, some more exploration sketches for the next Artorder challenge...