What happened to the paper, you lazy git?! ( July 6 )

[Matt Dixon]

Years of Wacom abuse have withered my skills with a pencil; I feel sketching is definately my weak spot. I hope this thread will motivate me to open my sketchbooks more often, and some of my fellow sketchers will find time to offer advice. All contributions gratefully received.

Here's a few from my most recent sketchbook to get things rolling...

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb04.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb01.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb02.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb05.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb03.jpg

[mos667]

Absolutely beautiful! More please ;).
The muscles and poses look great, but I think there's something with the mouths on some of them (maybe it's the teeth). Other than that, these look great. Let's see some finished works :)

[Yiako]

Welcome Matt. Those sketches are all but weak -except teeth, yes. They are far below their position-. Very clean and volumetric. Keeping an eye on your updates.

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, both. I have many bad habits when constructing heads - I think the teeth look wrong due to a case of elongated maxilla. Going to stick to heads for a bit - here's a few more from today.

( Mouths closed ;) )

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb06.jpg

[mos667]

Looking good, you express the features very well. I'm seeing a little problem though, around the eyes. It seems (on the girls) that they may be a little larger than normal. Also, they seem to be...not straight? Have you tried "goose egging" the head and drawing the lines on the face (I believe Rembrants technique)?

Otherwise these are looking great! :)

[Matt Dixon]

Smaller images to save download time.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb08.jpg

mos667 - Thanks for checking back. You're quite right about the size of the girlies eyes. I've drawn with simple mass and measurement line construction ( Hogarth theory ) for a long while, though the lines are usually imaginary rather than actually on the paper these days, if that makes sense. Perhaps I'm kidding myself, and it's time to draw them in again...

[davi]

lovely stuff matt :}

[DavidCousens]

Draw the lines mate, nobody will judge you. :)

Your work always ends up looking great anyway, so don't worry about the odd construction line. In fact, some times they add to sketches, IMHO.

Have fun

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks for stopping by, chaps. I think there will be many construction lines over the coming weeks, Dave!

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb09.jpg

[Matt Dixon]

Further experiments in mediocrity.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb10.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb11.jpg

[young paddy1]

busty women, enormous warrior types and a bit of ming the merciless stuff it's all good stuff, better than my junk but that's not difficult I suppose:)

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb12.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb13.jpg

yp1 - Heh. Thanks. You can never have too many busty lasses.

[Matt Dixon]

It's been a month since I put anything in here, and it's not even from my 'real' sketchbook. Weak. More when I'm not so busy / lazy...

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_baldy.jpg

[Layil]

whoa, LOVE the last two posts. put up more color stuff and ink work! the faces are great. for all your "laziness" theres a marked improvement in youre more recent work. You must be doing SOMETHING right.

;) :D

[Jeff Gran]

very inspiring stuff. I especially like the page with all the faces in the middle, good expression studies.

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, both! Nice to get comments.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_red.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_fish.jpg

[insane visions]

I like the fish...it looks funny(in a goodway)

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, IV - diggin' your sketchbook thread.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_bill.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_redhair.jpg

[young paddy1]

bottom one looks a bit like anna friel, in the mobile phone ad, the froggy one.

[insane visions]

whoa you blew me on the last 2...like your progress went 3 levels..keep it up

[Matt Dixon]

young paddy1 - She does a bit, now that you mention it. I like the ad where she's choosing shoes...
insane visions - Thanks. I'm much more comfortable with digital work than with a paper and pencil; the whole point of this thread was to try and rediscover traditional chops, but I seem permanently stuck to the Wacom at the moment so all I have is digital 'warmups' like these. I must make the effort to open my sketchbook...

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_raven.jpg

[toinjoints]

Great to see your book man!keep posting :D
i started one myself, but i must be very bad, dont get so many replys :D


:chug:

[Groover McNab]

Really good stuff you got here! The face on that old pirate dude is great!

[mos667]

Your painting stuff is really looking great. The only thing that I can see that may need work are the noses. They seem not as fleshed out as the rest of the face, and they seem to be at the wrong angle. Do you get what I'm saying? :)

Look at the strokes on that last girl! Wheeeww...

[insane visions]

the last one is hot...(jerking off)

[steak-tron]

wow, very intense faces.
costruction wierd in some but I'm the pot calling the kettle black.
Awesome work.

[DavidCousens]

I love that fish Matt, it's so ugly that it's cool! (That made sense right? ;) )

Lovely work on your faces, as always.

[Matt Dixon]

Cheers for the comments! Wish I had something interesting to put up, but I'm still really busy so I'm afraid it's just more pale, pouting ladies wearing too much eyeliner.

mos667 - You're right ( again ), those noses don't look right. Thanks.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_pinkgreen.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_goth.jpg

[Calle_]

Nice to see you're updating your sketchbook, like your work =)
Dont have any crits, just keep going.

Calle.

[Jaded]

Matt you are absolutely amazing my hero. Great inspiration for me! keep drawing....

[Muttonhead]

Whoa, very strong stuff. Me likey. Your pen drawings in your sketchbook have a really nice line quality.

I actually like the eyes. I am into the slightly cartoony look so I dig it.

More more more!

[AmadorL]

dude love'n your painting skills....


-A:chug:

[Ra Havok]

Very nice paintings, Matt. Lots of panache.
You're a good renderer, this is obvious when looking at your sketches.

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_bleed.jpg

Thanks a lot for the positive comments.

[Yina]

wow! what media did you use?

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_spread.jpg

Yina - It's all digital.

[JackalAnubis]

I'm loving your digital paintings man!, keep it up

[empty]

the pirate looking dude is solid. on the other ones the eyes seem off to me. not that they're drawn bad, they just don't seem to fit the planes of the face. other than that, they're pretty good. keep it up.

[Matt Dixon]

Spent a bit of time doodling people in the park this morning - quick stuff, no more than a couple of minutes each. Not very exciting, but at least I opened the sketchbook!

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb14.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb15.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb16.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb17.jpg

[Keepiru]

I disagree, I think those ink sketches in the park are really great. I like your portraits too. You seem to take one feature and play it up juat a little bit to make them really intense. Cool stuff.

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, Keepiru. Slowly getting back into the habit, but I'm tired and couldn't be arsed to scan any more...

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb18.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb19.jpg

[spok]

some very beautiful stuff here man... i love the pirates...especially that captain hook lookin dude...

[maldrin]

great stuff man!

these undead truly rock and are well suited subject matter for your line style!

i'm diggin on your color works, too.. I think you've got a pretty well defined style in both areas, but your color style seems pretty well defined - your pencils and inks cover a wide range - but you do pretty well at all of them. bastard. ;)

Good show, show more!

maldrin

[Matt Dixon]

Spok - Thanks.
Maldrin - Cheers. Yeah, the way I draw does jump around a bit, eh? Not sure if that's a good thing.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb20.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb21.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb22.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb23.jpg

[arghmisfit]

Nice stuff as always matt.

[van]

Wow, man. Very inspiring work. Keep it up.

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, chaps. I updated two days running - I almost have a daily sketchbook..!

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb24.jpg

[elboy]

nice stuff. I can see the temptation to work on the computer when you can make the digital beauties like you do, but your hand-drawn stuff is hardly shabby. Looks like it didn't take you very long to get back into the hang of it (does this sentence even make sense?). your inks are cool, but then again, most of your stuff is lookin cool. me likey.

[steak-tron]

great stuff man, liken' dem ballpoint pen drawings...

gotta love a good ol' zombie...

[van]

Damn, man. Very nice...yet again. Keep 'em coming.

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, fellas - I really appreciate you taking the time to leave comments. Nothing much to show today. The first two are the kind of lazy scrawls that fill most of the pages of my books.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb26.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb27.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb25.jpg

[Summer Pudding]

I bet you think you're great!

:mad:

haha. Only joking man. Your faces are wonderful, and so expressive. Tres jealous!

Go girl!

[van]

Great update. Just curious, are those two portrait type drawings from ref, model, or just your minds eye?

[buzzz3d]

Hi Matt,

All great stuff, both digital and traditional.

Keep posting.

[Matt Dixon]

Four days, four updates. It can't last!

Pudding - Pfft. You're crazy as fruit on a sponge. ;)
van - Those two are loosely based on ref photos, though I have to say I'm not really concerned about reproducing the reference with any accuracy - it's just a starting point for lighting and whatnot.
buzzz3d - Thanks, man.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb28.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_herman.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Sketchbook/sb_priestess.jpg

[Matt Dixon]

Heh. It didn't last. ;)

This is unashmed cross-posting of DSG work. I'm putting them here because the sketchbook section attracts a slightly different crowd with ( perhaps ) different opinions, and without some sort of update my little thread is going to wither up and drop off.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/VillageOfTheDamned.jpg

http://www.vortex.plus.com/EvilMerchant.jpg

[Summer Pudding]

EvilMerchant

:chug:

PS: crosspost away. I hardly ever visit the DSG, so would probably have missed these two.

[buzzz3d]

I like them both very much.
I saw the village of the damned on the dsg but the other one I missed so please post them in here.
Great colors on the first one, although it doesn't look very damned except for the skull in the clouds.
I also use my sketchbook to collect all my speedpaints sketches and stuff in one place.
Cheers

Erik

[van]

Add me to your fanlist.

[sOltan]

Matt - how do you control your palette? how do you keep it clean? do you just decide you're going to have a greenish painting, and start with green then add 2 or so moe different colors, then vary their tones? when you decide you're gonna have a greenhish painting, is it something that occurs because of past experience - seen the composition somewhere - or do you browse many references to get ideas then you start your masterpiece? I know maybe the process of deciding the palette can be different from piece to piece, day to day, mood to mood, but I'm looking for generic principles that work for almost everyone - then I can develop my own twist to the process.

[Calle_]

groovy, post some more pencil drawings, they are wicked :D

[Matt Dixon]

Just a messy DSG effort. Thanks for the comments.

sOltan - I wish there was a method I could share with you, but I'm ashamed to say I don't really put much thought into my palette choices - I have an idea which hues I want to use when I start but in the early stages of a painting, I'm usually just throwing around any old colour within that range. Of course, an understanding of basic colour theory is a huge help and I suppose experience does have a part to play but I'm quite often driven by spontaneous happenings on the canvas - 'Ooh, I like that colour! I'll use that over here...'. If I want a particular hue, I'm more likely to 'mix' it against the existing image than go for a specific value in the colour picker. Sorry if that's not a lot of help. :(

http://www.vortex.plus.com/SciFiDragonHunter.jpg

[Summer Pudding]

Great work again Matt. Love it.

It's good to see I'm not the only one with a shambolic, haphazard methodology.

Five stars from me.

[van]

Wow, that last one is just amazing. I just cant love your paintings enough. :p

[Matt Dixon]

Thanks, boys. You are my friends.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/ElementalBug.jpg

[Yina]

wow, im digging that 2nd last dsg! i really like your choice of colours, great

[buzzz3d]

Solid gold.

[DavidCousens]

Matt, your DSGs rule. Fact. :)

[The Iconoclast]

Mmm... sweet stuff. :chug: You seem to churn them out rather quickly. I like your looser painting style in some of them. And you get much praise for Mr. Munster. I used to love that show...

[van]

Oh my god, thats fucking awesome. Pardon my language...but crap. That rocks.

[xia]

Originally posted by Matt Dixon
http://www.vortex.plus.com/SciFiDragonHunter.jpg

Holy Cow superb!!! twenty thousand thumbs up!

[Hunger_Artist]

Matt, These are SUPER SEXY!

You work with such vibrant colors in your painting I can see how drawing could get boring for you.. but dont stop, because they are awesome too. :)

[Yiako]

Your colors are amazing. Maybe you're daltonic in the _right_ way... umm.

[Matt Dixon]

Blimey! Thankyou all for such kind comments - they make me very happy..!

http://www.vortex.plus.com/WoolyJumper.jpg

See?

[xia]

Holy freaking smoking Robinson!!!! U are one awesome painter!!!
How long have u been doing this!?
Seems like you nail a pretty dramatic lighting and composition really well. I want your painting hand. :D
U must be good with oil painting too huh!

Would u mind sharing with us your process how to go about it to achieve such look u have?

[van]

Im with xia! We need a play by play....PLEASE. With LOTS of plays.

[spok]

it's been such a while i haven't visited.....magnificent, but my favorites still remain the pirates!

[Matt Dixon]

Some process pics for 'Tuesday Afternoon on the Scrapyard Moon'. I'm not very comfortable showing stuff like this because I don't have a 'process' as such, but what the hell.

I think it's fairly obvious what's going on in each pic, but I'll try and explain a little of what's in my head...

http://www.vortex.plus.com/TAOTSM_wip01.jpg

Just slapping down colour. I have an rough idea how I want the final image to look, so I'll throw around a big brush to obscure that intimidating white canvas and provide some colour and texture to work against. Very little of this remains in the final pic, but it serves to help establish the overall composition - I'll be picking up colours from this mess later, so it's also part of my palette. Once I'm done with the background, I paint in the rough form of the robot. I know I'm not going to spend too long on this pic, so I'm working out of shadow because it's nice and quick. Starting this way also helps to encourage dynamic poses and compositon - if your pics reads well as a silhouette, you have a strong framework to hang your rendering on.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/TAOTSM_wip02.jpg

Modelling. I'm scrubbing over the silhouette with a single colour to define the forms, teasing the background where I need to. When I know where things are going, I'll begin to model those shapes further with some different values and hues. Things are still very rough and ready. I'm leaving the bottom left corner at the moment - can't decide quite what to put there yet.

http://www.vortex.plus.com/TAOTSM_wip03.jpg

More of the same. Continuing to layer on gradually brighter values . I lit up his eyes at this point - I used green to contrast with the hues in the rest of the pic, which should hopefully make them a focal point. Touched in some subtle greens against the robot's body - the light from his eyes probably wouldn't reflect in those areas, but it helps unify the colour scheme a bit. Now the pic's starting to take shape, I'm also fiddling with a few extra details. Considering what to add in that corner - maybe a box of spares or a little kid with a spanner, fixing his metal pal?

http://www.vortex.plus.com/TAOTSM_wip04.jpg

Tidying up. Painted into a few areas with a big brush to lift them out of the shadows. More details and a final round of highlights. Decided on a pile of scrap in the corner ( the kid would have taken too long to paint in ). In the final stages, I'm working up the background adding some distant piles of scrap and adding some final detailing to the rest of the pic. The jackdaw is a nod the Foster-esque design of the robot, and the tin heart in a limp attempt to give the pic some sort of meaning.

Finished pic (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=250314#post250314)

In the finished pic, I made the canvas a bit taller - partly to allow for the moon and tall pile of scrap to make a bit more sense of his environment, but also to help offset the rather confused composition I ended up with.

All done. Just over two hours of rough and ready robot fun. All painted in Photoshop CS using custom brushes.

Hope it was interesting.

[xia]

Awesome! thanks for sharing them with us. Very helpful and very comprehensible. Thanks a whole lot Matt. :)
Looking forward for more...

[Jaded]

thanks for sharing Matt! Very helpful! Your awesome and inspiring.

[young paddy1]

Always loved your dirty (not muddy) style and that is one of the best procedurals I've seen on this sight, almost totally self explanatory and a joy to behold, Props to the man with my first name.

[DNA]

:clapping2 just G R E A T :clapping2

[van]

YES! You rock. :) Thank you very much for letting us take a peek at your process.

:blue:

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/ScrapyardTower.jpg

Thanks, guys. I'm glad you liked the process pics - I rarely spend any time analysing the way I work, so it was an interesting exercise for me, too!

Anyone fancy a friendly drawing challenge? I'm quite busy at the moment, which really drains my inspiration - having a little task to focus on would be a great help. Nothing too serious... ;)

[Groover McNab]

awesome awesome awesome awesome. thanks for posting your process. cool stuff!

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/CrashSite.jpg

Thanks Groover and Troy. No takers on some good natured art duelling, then?

[DavidCousens]

*right click, save, right click, save*

Sorry, where was I? ;)

If you haven't found anyone to draw with by Monday, I can come out and play if you'd like, Matt. I've got too much on this week though. PM me sometime if you're up for it, but if you find someone else, I won't hold it against you! :)

[young paddy1]

you gotta whole freaky scrapyard thing going on here don't ya, have the robots been making idols or is it just my imagination, that thing on the right looks like a forlorn face, love your stuff probably always will, the lighting kicks some serious ass.

[Groover McNab]

No takers on some good natured art duelling, then?

oh I didn't even see that. I'd be up for it. I'm definitely not up to your skill level but pm me if you want.

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Ghost.jpg

[young paddy1]

oooooh cleavage and well painted cleavage at that, nice.

[emilpaun]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (sudden expression of deep-rooted frustration)


errr, :cough: really "WOW" stuff man!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (me leaving the room)

:)

[Jane Radstrom]

Wow, Matt! You always inspire me with these "sketches". Thank you!

[van]

Wow. That is beautiful! :scared:

Same here on the dueling. Im not up at your level yet, but I will give ya all I got. Just PM me.

[Matt Dixon]

Blimey - three wows?! Thankyou. Now let's see if we can put a stop to all that with some dirty doodles...

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Rough01.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Rough02.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Rough03.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Rough04.jpg
http://www.vortex.plus.com/Rough05.jpg

[roger]

wow! :P I like the dirty doodles, they have sort of an underground comic feeling.

[WillSchnevel]

wow! so many different unique shapes/forms! :electric:

[DavidCousens]

It's like they're all saying it on purpose! ;)

Nice stuff Matt, as always.

[S.C. Watson]

Hey Matt,

Great stuff. Love it.

I'm just coming off being insanely busy (and a move), so I'd be up to your art challenge. Gotta head out for a couple days, but I'll be back on Thursday if you want to do it.

Cheers,
~Oreg.

[Matt Dixon]

Wow! ;)

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Bob.jpg

Right. That's the last digital stuff I'm posting here - from now on, it's sketchbook scans only, as I originally intended. That probably means no updates for a while, until I have a bit more free time. Thanks for your encouraging comments..!

[sOltan]

Matt - do you conceptualize your work entirely straight from imagination and memory? or do you use sometimes references? have you done any realism before? would you need references for that?

I'm asking because I'm interested in realism these days, and I've done some digital painting using references. Although I use references only as a baseline to get proportions right, the painting ends up being different which is OK, I wouldn't want to copy the references as is that wouldn't satisfy me. But still, the whole thing about working from a reference bothers me. The work I've gotten most satisfaction of were paintings, sketches ect. I've done straight from imagination and memory because I could say they are mine and I squeezed them of their hideout in my brain. A reference photo doesn't give me thaaaat much of a satisfaction simply because someone else captured it before me with a camera. Let's say I refuse to use drawings or existing painting as references, that'll make me feel bad.

[van]

Wow. :ahha: