Grue's Cintiq experiments ---Update January 16 2010, Page 4, post #118---

[grue]

---Update January 16 2010, Page 4---

Hi all :)

I got my brand new Cintiq 12WX last week and I've been punishing it nonstop. I'm still getting to grips with it so I hope my future pieces will be better.

CCs are welcomed and wanted. :)

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq11.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq10.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq9.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq5.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq6.jpg

[grue]

A little hungry Chulhu :)

[Quigleyer]

A little hungry Chulhu :)

Zoidberg?

I wonder...

Nah.

Nahhh.....

[grue]

Quigleyer: Hahahah ;P Poor Lovecraft must turn in his grave ;) Thanks for having a peek mate. :)

[grue]

Fiery waterfalls.

About an hour total. I like the dirty Goya like textures. :)

[grue]

And one more for tonight :)

[grue]

Fairy. Slightly referenced :)

[grue]

And one more...

[Hammed Al-Tamimi]

Pretty cool stuff. My only suggestion would be to work on the composition, most of the focal points are right in the center of the image.

[grue]

Hammed Al-Tamimi: Thanks :) I tried that on the lava waterfall, need more practice. I'll try again tomorrow.

[silliKONe]

nice work!
how do you like your new cintiq so far?

[grue]

silliKONe: Thanks :) I can't stress enough how excellent the Cintiq is. I'm a quadroplegic so although I've been drawing mostly traditionally all those years the ease of digital colouring has given me the freedom to expand my creativity. I still sketch mostly on paper but the Cintiq has spoiled me massively ;)

[silliKONe]

i agree, digital painting rules! i've been a wacom junkie for years, but have not bit the bullet and bought a cintiq. it's always fun to play around with them whenever i come across them in stores. i've been worried about the lag though. is this something you adjusted to easily?

[grue]

silliKONe: Most of my works above are A4 size at 300dpi. Quite big. The lag is there but you only notice it when you use big and complex brushes over a lot of layers.
I don't use Painter though but I've heard that the lag there is worse. :)

[grue]

Retro sci-fi. Bzzzzt ;)

[jameli]

wow textures on your paintings are amazing! and I love those slimy guys :D I won't tell anymore because I'm new here and I'm amateur :p thanks a lot for a help with a thumbnail! :)

[grue]

jameli: No problem :) Thanks for the kind words, but don't be afraid to critisize, it's the reason most of us post here, for a constructive comment that should push us further. ;)

[grue]

A dragon statue that took me about 2 hours. Much more than it should!

[grue]

Wizard's tower with baloon harbour in case the escape magics fail. ;)
And a town inspired by Planescape's Ribcage.

[grue]

Inspired by tarrzan's mind bogling excellent works. :)

The second one is the result of too much H.P. Lovecraft again.

[FAST ART]

hey there,
your way to use textures and colours looks really profesionell and i really like the discreet style u are usin..
but just a lil crit by the way: would like to see some studies of human bodys or stuff like that cause this is very important for every artist.. think you have to work more on your basics.. i know its hard because digital paintin is most time more fun :D ..

and thanks for stoppin by at my exhibition-thread :)


EDIT: oh sorry, i thought that was your sketchbook-thread :D :D :D keep postin your great work ;)

[grue]

FAST ART: Thanks for looking mate. :)

About the anatomy stuff.. I know, I've bought heaps of books on anatomy and I've sketched parts and wholes but I'm having a hard time focusing.

I work full time as a graphic designer so drawing and painting is like a relaxation thing for me. I miss the live model sketching from the university, that was fun.

Still, I'll have to dive into it soon, no matter how boring it is. ;)

Thanks again for your nice words. :)

[grue]

In the mouth of the Alascharian cave that the expedition was last contacted with.

[grue]

Some horned helmet for narrowheads :D

[artistcaleb]

Great stuff! I love the textures too!

[grue]

artistcaleb: Thanks mate :) Here's one more, losely based on a Loomis' sketch.

[chuck18mp]

Very great textures! I like the creatures you did at the beginning! I wanna see more! :D

[grue]

chuck18mp: Thanks mate. More will come.. ..eventualy. :)

Meanwhile, have an egg. :D

[grue]

Closest proximity to a wormhole. ;)

[grue]

Uncovered lines :P

[狐lee]

I Love This ...

[grue]

狐lee: Thank you :)

[grue]

Hang on a minute!

&

Wormtongue. ;)

[grue]

I hadn't drawn from reference for ages. Here are today's tries. Started from reference, ended somewhere on Pluto. :)

[WRappiii]

all so simple yet imaginative... i like!

more please!

[grue]

WRappiii: Thank you mate :) That's what I strive for. Simple ideas with mood. I'm trying to produce at least one daily (excluding exercises which I don't post).

[grue]

This one came out a bit flat...

[Mark Heng]

Hey, lovin' the textures...How do you do them? Especially the grainy watercolor look...Pure digital? Or scanned in textures?

[grue]

Mark Heng: Thanks a lot :)
I save and make every texture I come across. www.lostandtaken.com (http://www.lostandtaken.com) is a treasure chest but I keep my eyes open always for new ones.

I usually overlay or soft-light them 2-3 at a time and then erase/paint over them in places. :)

[grue]

I tried to colour straight after sketching without a black & white tonal layer. Just a new layer for the colour, not even on overlay.
I overlayed the textures the usual way in the end. :)

[grue]

Losely inspired by Jaba the Hutt. :)

[grue]

Dusk over city ruins.

[grue]

More sci-fi :)

[grue]

Been listening to Monoliths and Dimensions by the geniuses that is Sunn 0))). This came out.

[grue]

A baby eyeless behemoth. :)
It has so many bad shapes and wrong shadows but I can't spend any more time on it...

[theartistarjun]

Some horned helmet for narrowheads :D very good (Ramro) work and I like the texture

[grue]

theartistarjun: Thanks :)

[grue]

Some more Mythos inspired stuff. :)

[grue]

Lava hills. :)

[Koncept]

ooo i like it alot better when you started puting more textures in the pieces.
quiet original designs too
good job!

[grue]

Koncept: Thanks friend :) I strongly believe that texturing each piece is almost as important as the piece itself. I think our eyes have gotten used to see the paper/canvas/etc texture on paintings even if we don't notice it so it bothers us if it's not there. :)

[grue]

One for the daily sketch combetition :)

[jameli]

what more can I say - your textures and creatures are still great...(but still my favourite is first one ;> ) Now I wanna paint too and I can't because of my exams!!! T.T

[grue]

jameli: Thanks :) Good luck with your exams!

[grue]

cool: nahh, they are innocent little things. ;) Thanks for looking :)

EDIT: Ok, He/she seems to have removed her post. :/

[grue]

Two very speedy speedpaints. ;)

[grue]

My first ever fully realised full-body character. Done withut refernce and it shows. :)

[grue]

The flea of nightmares :D

[grue]

Seguleh. From the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Also, my first Corel Painter picture. :)

[grue]

I'm trying to use Painter a bit more ... ermmm... painterly. ;)

I still texture in photoshop though.

[sourgasm]

WRappiii: Thank you mate :) That's what I strive for. Simple ideas with mood.

Why would you strive for simple ideas?

[grue]

Why would you strive for simple ideas?

I like to start a train of thought and leave the viewers take it to whatever lengths they want. I firmly believe that when you show everything in a picture you diminish it. The human brain has the wonderful ability to combine senses and experiences. By showing part of something you allow the viewers to piece the rest by themselves into something that mixes the new (your picture) with the familiar (their experiences).

Don't get me wrong. Technical knowledge is and will always be a priority. What I'm trying to do though, is to eventually strip it down to its absolute core and essence. That way the picture might not be 100% realistic but it will convey its subject undoubtedly and with such force that will leave the viewer staggering.

Thanks for looking. :)

[sourgasm]

I get that. The problem is, a lot of these images have taken that "simplicity of idea" and applied it to the entire approach and presentation- more a methodology than an idea. Choosing a random painting for example, I grabbed this guy:

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=701685&stc=1&d=1245349744

We don't have any reason to care about that creature. Compositionally, its just stuck in the middle of a vaguely implied background. Thematically, its just another alien thing. Conceptually, there hasn't been enough attention given to the actual design of the creature. If you want the viewer to get involved, you have to get more involved in the process as well. Think about what the purpose of this creature is, spend some time adapting his body to that purpose and then, if you choose to present us with an illustration of this creature, place it in a situation that relays all of your ideas in an interesting manner. If you choose to present us with concept art of the creature, spend more time working on the actual concept itself.

Presenting things simply and allowing your viewer to write their own story are pretty important goals, but providing the former does not ensure the latter.

If your intent was simply to provide an example of your cintiq experiments, then the only issue is that you should be posting in a sketchbook, rather than the finally finished section.

Sorry for the windbag response ;P

[grue]

No offence taken sourgasm ;)

I really appreciate your comments and suggestions. I will surely take them into consideration.

Though, I'm not a concept artist per se. I'm a proffessional graphic designer that happens to have been drawing all his life. Thus, the artworks I post here are made by me for my own personal amusement. I love getting critiqs, opinions and suggestions regarding each one on its own merits; as a picture. As you can see I'm experimenting with many different styles and subjects (although I do tend towards the darker side of the force ;) ) trying to stay away from just a distinctive one.

I'm not doing it in a sketchbook (although there's much more traffic there) because those are not sketches. At least for me. I put a lot of thought and time into each one but I always try not to exceed 3-5 hours as a self challenge. I don't post my exercises, sketches and colour palletes here.

If you ask me what I'm doing here when I 'm not a concept artist I'll tell you that I love this community and I take to heart everything I read, see and hear. :)

[sourgasm]

You don't have to be a concept artist to post here, of course. Its always good to push your boundaries, especially with two fields that interrelate so well. You should try to work the two together even more. A lot of people are responding well to your use of texture overlays, maybe try pushing your design elements into the creatures and what not? Mess around with shape design and even font manipulation (a graphic design standard) can lead to interesting illustration ideas. Fusing the two practices can make transitioning easier and more fun.

Check out Dave McKean (http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/) and Jason Felix (http://www.jasonfelix.com/) to get a better idea of what I mean, if you haven't seen their stuff already.

[grue]

You don't have to be a concept artist to post here, of course. Its always good to push your boundaries, especially with two fields that interrelate so well. You should try to work the two together even more. A lot of people are responding well to your use of texture overlays, maybe try pushing your design elements into the creatures and what not? Mess around with shape design and even font manipulation (a graphic design standard) can lead to interesting illustration ideas. Fusing the two practices can make transitioning easier and more fun.

Check out Dave McKean (http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/) and Jason Felix (http://www.jasonfelix.com/) to get a better idea of what I mean, if you haven't seen their stuff already.

Heheh, they are legends ;)

I don't want to do more graphic design for my entertainment. I want to explore pure painting but in dirty and digital ways. :D

Thanks for taking the time to converse though, even though I'm a hardhead. ;)

Here's one more painterly and dirty digital picture. Fresh from the oven.

[grue]

Here's something a bit more graphic-design-y. I'm not so sure about it. It also has a spelling error.

[grue]

Mr. plouffe inspired me big time :)

[jameli]

the composition looks really nice... I like this house and colors very much... Only crit I have: I think there are too much textures this time... This texture is very nice but in this kind of picture I think it could be more delicate... keep posting :) cheers

[grue]

jameli: Thanks again :D
The thing is that I like that heavy texturing. It makes the picture look like we've zoomed in in a detail. ;)

[grue]

One more square enviroment. I aimed for the colour palette that was used on most of the sci-fi pulp books in the '60s. :)

[grue]

I think that's my best so far. It has its mistakes but I like it on the whole. :)

[DeJakhalz]

Very interesting work! I love the creative and imaginative work.

One crit: You tend to overdo things, most of the times you use textures too much or you make it a bit too sharp. Try to be carefull with these things.

One advice: Maybe work on a piece a little longer, these drawings look neat, but it doesnt look really finished yet. It looks like you got a lot of ideas but you can't really stick with one idea for long to really complete it.

ps: Ive gotten cintiq 12 too, it owns indeed ^^.
Keep it up man!

[grue]

DeJakhalz: Thanks mate :)

I like the dirty, hard look of over the top textures. I aim for that look since it gives each piece an authentic tone which I long for on the clean too "digital" looking works. I'll try toning it down but not by a large margin. ;)

I plan to work on some piece a while longer but for now my time is limited and I want to do many different things. :)

Thanks for looking and taking the time to comment. I appreciate it!

[grue]

Run for your lives! :P

[grue]

Please don't judge it as concept art. It started like that but I took it in other directions. :)

[grue]

I'm trying some more complicated stuff. My bad knowledge of anatomy shows plainly but I'm trying to improve it daily with exercises. :)

Macbeth's witches.

[Karen Stidham]

I want some of the drugs you been taking lol

[jameli]

really nice light and composition Grue :) about anatomy - there's something wrong with their elbows and with whole arms of witch on the right... Hmmm and I was thinking that it would look great when some pieces of their faces will be lit too - more dramatic ^^... but it's just my subjective opinion :) cheers... and keep on that more complicated stuff :D

[grue]

Karen Stidham: Heheh, no drugs at all and I even quit smoking this year. :D

jameli: Thanks jameli :) I think I don't care so much about the anatomy (everybody will go for my throat now ;) ) as long as the general atmosphere of the piece satisfies me somewhat.

Here are two quickies of today.

[sourgasm]

to state the obvious, care about anatomy. care about it way more than atmosphere when illustrating with human figures, for sure. all that atmosphere goes down the drain when all we see is shoddy anatomy.

study without thorough accuracy is a bad idea in general. if you're going to post in the finally finished section and say "I didn't really care about anatomy," you'll end up getting flamed like crazy. a good chunk of people who submit work as finished pour over anatomy for years, and continue to do so. so writing it off as secondary to atmosphere just comes off really lazy, and your work only suffers from it.

[grue]

sourgasm: I've never downplayed the anatomy. I'm only talking about myself saying that my stuff -in my eyes- work on a different foundation. As I've said before I'm not doing concept art, just trying to do art in my lopsided way. That doesn't mean that I don't listen to your advice, I do, and I'm still working on the anatomy. But until I've grasped it somewhat I will continue to also finish stuff. ;)

[sourgasm]

It's cool, but if you throw up an illustration/painting/conceptart/doodle featuring a human, and the anatomy is wrong, someone will point it out. If they point it out, and your response is "i didn't care," you're likely to get flamed no matter what the reasoning behind that apathy :P

I think you'll find that if you hammer away at foundational knowledge fundamentals, when you do crank out an experimental illustration, it will be far better for that practice. Laying down experiment after experiment is fun and what not, but it doesn't do anything for the inherent understanding necessary to pull work straight out of your head.

Check out the sketchbooks of guys like algenpfleger (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=114449) to see that kind of intent in action. Pays off like crazy if you stick with it.

[grue]

Ok, here's today's nonhuman thingie ;)

[grue]

I went to the dentist again today. :P

[grue]

Been reading China Mieville's "The city & the city".

[grue]

Inspired by Romero's Dawn Of The Dead. :)

[grue]

An earless shady guy ;).

[grue]

Here's on from the Daily Sketch challenge, a bit off topic so I'm posting it here. :)

[grue]

Trying new things. :)

[grue]

Remembering my AD&D days :)

[grue]

My first dragon that I almost like.

[Uli]

sweet and whimsical, I like very much :-)

[JeromeFoster]

Thank you for posting this thread...I love it...the sparing simplicity...

[grue]

Thanks both of you :)

Here are the latest...

Something's wrong with the attachments so here they are:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq94.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq95.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/grue_doodles/cintiq96.jpg

[grue]

Alien rock hugger slug. :)

[Hannahkittie]

so beautiful.

[10thWay]

Really good work, you certainly are a prolific artist. I like the feeling of immediacy I get when I look at your work.
As per the cintiq, if you find that the lag is intolerable then it's time for you to invest in a good graphics card. Something with 1GB on board memory should do the trick quite nicely (it did it for me).

[Randis]

I tried painting with Cintiq a couple times, it felt like pole fishing, you aim but you don't hit em :P

[grue]

Hannahkittie: Thanks :)

10thWay: Thanks. :) I got used to the minimal lag and now I don't notice it at all.

R a n d i s: Lol! Actually it takes about 2 days to get used to it. My first tries were atrocious compared to my later stuff. :)

*Shameless pimping follows*
I've put some of my work up for sale as prints and t-shirts in case anyone is interested. :bashful:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/grue

[grue]

Nyarlathotep.

[Chijts]

You should listen to some Tool.

[grue]

You should listen to some Tool.

Oh yes ;)

[grue]

The lookout tower.

[grue]

My 100th Cintiq digital painting since May. :)

The confrontation.

[grue]

More tentacles... :P

[grue]

Centurion.

[grue]

The coward goblin. :D

[polybuilder]

I like the work you are showing us... it's fresh or something...hmmmm.

Keep em coming:a!:

[grue]

Thanks polybuilder :)

[grue]

Off with their heads!

[eveo]

I love your style, very unique. Looks like it's painted in real life, I guess it's the fantastic use of textures. Keep them coming :)

Also, which tablet do you use?

[grue]

eveo: Thanks a lot :) I use a Cintiq 12WX.

Here are the latest ones:

[grue]

Here're some recent ones :)

[grue]

My latest stuff:

[polybuilder]

hey grue... just spent long moments staring at your new "stuff"...
thanks for sharing man!... I really like the one with the flying creatures way of in the distance.



cheers
James

[grue]

@polybuilder: Thanks man :)

[grue]

Latest stuff...