Lurkers Unite!

[leviathan]

I happened to check my user CP today and noticed that I've been a member of this forum for exactly one year now. In that time, I have (including this one) 44 posts. Even though I visit these pages nearly every day, often several times in the course of a day, I still feel like I've contributed very little to the forum.

I know there must be dozens -- hundreds maybe -- of others who visit Conceptart.org all the time, but hesitate to post for whatever reason. So here's a place for procrastinators to start.

Introduce yourself in this thread. Get your feet wet in the company of other lurkers, and then venture out to post some art and crits. Do it! Or else I'll have to watch this thread sink to the bottom of the board...only to disappear into the bottomless pit of the archives.

[WoadWarrior]

:dork:

standing up hesitantly, slight cough.
"uh, Hi I am WoadWorrior, I have been a lurker for a while, I started lurking about a month or two ago.
But never signed up, untill yesterday (i was brave that day). Uhhh, I will post more in the future and as for presenting my work there will be a time and a place when i reach that stage.
uh thanks,
sits down again looking nervously around the room.

:dork:

[leviathan]

WoadWarrior:

Hey - Nice to see you! Welcome to conceptart. Thanks for being the first to take the challenge. Hope you're not the last! That's a clever username, by the way. What made you choose that?

Any one else??

[Dahsramu]

watup peoples... good idea for this thread leviathan.

I guess I consider myself a lurker cuz I pretty much have CA open on my computer at work the whole time i'm there (so I can dream about being a great artist and creating artwork for a living) but I barely post.

I've posted a few times here and there and on about 10 DSGs over the course of the last few months, but nothing big.

I am too untalented and unlearned to be spitting around my opinion (and I dont like just writing "wow :D !! thats awesome! :)" all the time) so mostly I absorb all that I can from all the threads I find. My goal is to have read every thread in this forum because there seems to be great advice and tips in everything here... (yes I have no life :D). I guess I mostly come here to learn and to be motivated... it'd be great to talk to some of the amazing people here, though...

So, for those I havent talked to: Hi.

I'm a 23 year old Computer Programmer who is about to start law school but has had a sudden resurrection of his once-lost artistic dreams. I live in Virginia near Washington DC. If you live close by (or just feel like it) you should hit me up. My MSN messenger name is maximus_primeval(AT)hotmail.com and AIM nick is "Paki Prime". For those on DeviantArt my user name is "Maximus_Prime" (Check out my crappy DevArt gallery (http://maximus-prime.deviantart.com/gallery/) )

Anyways, Peace out pimps.

-Umar

[leviathan]

Dahsramu:

That's exactly the kind of post I was thinking of when I started this thread. Nice to meet you. We sound a lot alike -- I'm 24 and work as a full-time Television Editor and Graphic Designer.

I still hold out hope that one day I'll find the time to write and illustrate some books or comics, but for now I live vicariously through CA.

Thanks for the post, man. The floor is open. Next?

EDIT:: Dahsramu, I checked out your Devart gallery -- Nice. You've got some good stuff in there. I particularly like the Mitsuko.

[jrr]

hey lurkers!
lurk here! www.penciljack.com

:p

[leviathan]

Hey jrr!

That wouldn't be a suggestion that we go somewhere else would it?

Because that would be a real jerk-ass thing to say.

:p

[TheDirtSyndicate]

yea...i dont post often for the same reason. i'm not a silly little fan boy going "wow!! thats amazing!! your the best artist in the world!! can i suck your cock??!!"

i'd rather just admire the work and learn as much from it as i possibly can. if i'm particularly impressed (like with Lungbug, Puddenhead, or Marko etc), i'll say something, but most of the time i dont.
but i still come here 5 to 6 times a day, check out the new posts and read comments. so yeah. i guess i'm a lurker too.
and if jrr dont like it, he can lick a toad. hehe. (i think i commented on one of his pieces once actually...i cant remember)

[regina1323]

hi my name is regina, and i have a lurking problem

guess you would call me a lurker. I've been to the site about 30 times, three times today, and i've only posted about four times?.
I do have to admit that my passion isn't drawing but another form of art~stained glass. Drawing comes in at a close second. I stumbled across conceptart.org while looking at a web comic's links. I was very impressed by the artwork i found and have been back to look at more, hopefully to get some tips to improve my own work. cause in my opinion its shit compared to some seen here, but then again i'm only 19 and have a while to improve.

~regina

[Dahsramu]

leviathan - thanks for the nice words and for checkin out my work! i've run into a lot of people that are gettin a resurgence of the artistic spirit recently, its good to hear i'm not the only one :)

complete2 - yo dude! I just ran into lungbug's sketchbook the other day and i'm completely blown away with his work too...
regina1323 - watup girl! stained glass sounds cool...

I think maybe people should try to post one piece of artwork they've created if they introduce themselves here... what do you guys think? I think it would be cool - they wont be critiqued or anything, it would be just another way to step out of the "lurker" shell... if you're comfortable doing it, anyways... :D

[WoadWarrior]

Originally posted by leviathan
WoadWarrior:
That's a clever username, by the way. What made you choose that?



leviathan thank you.
ah, the name WoadWarrior well I was given it,
I was working on the new King Arthur film as an action extra, they painted me black & blue gave me a realy long mohaok (i think thats how to spell it) put me in leathers and gave me a big sword. We fought for a month or so.(day to day film stuff)

Woad is the name of the plant i think the Pictish people dyed thire skin with it was an anticeptic against cuts, it oxydizes in to blue over time + it would stay on fo weeks. (but the stuff they had was food dye which was hard to get off, during the weekends i was slightly blue)

Good idea for a topic by the way the whole Lurker thing !

[WoadWarrior]

Dahsramu:

leviathan:

complete2:

yea...i dont post often for the same reason.
i'm not a silly little fan boy going "wow!!
thats amazing!! your the best artist in the world!!

Thats Right! I also dont wish to be a silly little fan boy, over all else i want to go through post that have intresting information and ideas to learn form i dont want to be wading through a load of posts just for one decent reply. Posting is not about how many times you post to show how intrested you are in knocking up numbers, but suppling a decent and meaningful contribution.!
thats the border between lurking and the others... :dork:

regina1323: Thanks for sharing that with us, welcome to the group free Tea and coffee is over there. With such support we have here today, the Lurkers are pointing out there is a problem with lurking in ConceptArt, it is good to get it out of your system, and to see it as not a problem but transition.

:dork:

[SicFrost]

im a semi-lurker :(

[leviathan]

Everyone:

It's great to see this thread taking off. And it's nice to meet you all.

WoadWarrior: That is a way cooler reason behind your name than I expected. I saw a trailer for the King Arthur film this weekend -- looks sweet. I imagine working on a movie like that must be an awesome experience.

Dahsramu: Good idea about posting art in here. It might be a good way to get used to the process of reviewing others' work and finding the guts to post your own. I still think giving crits is a good idea (it is an art forum), but this could be a place to get others' opinions without them being over-critical.

We might need to develop a thread in the Sketches & Ideas forum if that is the case, though. Any one else have thoughts on that?

regina1323: Nice to meet you. Don't worry about having a different medium than most here -- I'd like to see some pics of your stained glass work. There are tons of different threads here for other styles of art: sculpture, 3D, photography, etc. I think you will find plenty of people interested in your work.

complete2: I agree 100%. And thanks for the jrr support.

sic8sic: Welcome to the club. Good to meet you!

[SicFrost]

there might be some UBER-lurkers lurking around this thread too...

[Nold]

Oh oh, I don't want to be an UBER-Lurker !! It's hard enough to be a lurker.
Like many others I don't want to write "cool" and "awesome" all the time.
The problem with giving crits is that I the most stuff around here is better than I could do it, so what can I say ?? And if I find a picture where I could give some crits, all that comes to my mind has already been said by someone else. So crits from me are really rare.

The other problem is posting my own work. I have a thread in the sketchbook section, but I don't post there often. It's just because I don't think all the stuff I do belongs there. It's more like a "Hey, I'm still here and my stuff looks like this now" every few months.

[leviathan]

Nold:

It's interesting to see that so many others have the same impression I do about posting crits. Although I feel I can point out things that are remarkable to me, and I can describe what I like, I'm certainly not skilled enough to give someone suggestions on how to improve the mechanics of their work.

So, anyone want to be the first to volunteer some art in here? Get that first post off your chest?

[SicFrost]

im not at full blown lurker...i do post my art here, not often though...and leave crits once in a while....wehn i see that its needed.....if you want to check my shit out....go to my site... :)

[regina1323]

i wouldn't mind posting some pics of my stained glass and get some crits on it, if i only knew how the hell to post. i've looked for help and found some, however, i'm not a into all the computer lingo, and got very confused. could someone put it into simpler terms for me.

~regina

[SicFrost]

gotta have ur pix up on the web....when you do you just put ...."your link here" .... ....youre done

[Dahsramu]

okay, well I kind of posted some of my art (by posting a link to my DeviantArt gallery) but here's some stuff to help get this thread warmed up (some of which is not on my DevArt gallry)...

Just a quick pencil sketch that I colored to learn Photoshop ... I'm having trouble with rendering metal... (the background is a picture - I did not draw/paint it)...
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/uarshad/art/doublepandemonium.jpg

Another quick color study from a frame of Underworld - NOT a color-over (paused the DVD on my tv and used that for reference). I did this to learn how to use Painter, but I still suck at it, though... all those damn brushes confuse the hell out of me (anybody know of any good tutorials?)
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/uarshad/art/underworld.jpg

And, an ink drawing I colored using prismacolor pencils to learn how to use them... I know, my anatomy is horrid in this, and some of the shading is off (cant fix it now - the limitations of traditional media, I guess)...
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/uarshad/art/wolverine2_small.jpg

okay, well - anyone else want to take a stab at posting images? Dont make me be the only one...

[Johann de Venecia]

lurker here. have a good one, people.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

this is an old sketch of mine. its even on my website...
cant post any of my new work yet. gotta get a new scanner.

http://www.complete2.com/site/illustration/batch1/02_mansonite.jpg

[SicFrost]

heres one of mine..

http://crackerbee.com/pix/anubis-copy2.jpg

[TheDirtSyndicate]

thats cool sic. i like the detail of the veins.

[SicFrost]

thanks alot dude, i like yours too

[silverslash]

i am a ninja lurker, i hide in the shadows and strike everynow and then...although lately its been more than ussual.

so i guess im making the transformation into normal almost lurker..:D

maybe we can all almost lurk together?

[leviathan]

dahsramu + complete2 + sic8sic:

Hey- good work all. For lurkers who are supposedly nervous about posting your work, it looks to me like you all should've been posting long ago.

I really like your color study dahsramu. And the Wolverine is cool, even with a few anatomy issues. Good stuff.

complete 2, man that is a great concept. Very creepy yet nicely realized. You ought to finess it out into a final render.

And that Jackal Anubis is very tight, sic8sic. The anatomy is good, even though it's obviously exaggerated, and I really like your rendering work.

Keep it up folks! Glad to have everyone here.

[eldritchmonkey]

I've been hesitant about posting because I'm just a cartoonist. There's all this great incredibly detailed work on this site the people ooh and ahh over where as most of mine is deemed...cute. For example:

http://www.whymestudios.com/images/thebug.jpg

and

http://www.whymestudios.com/images/oneshots3.jpg

[SicFrost]

thanks dude, this was done for the DSG thread here, the theme was "An Egyptian God"...so I wanted to make this dude look godly and almost like hes drwan on papyrus or something...:)

[Mezz DeJé]

Hey this is a great concept for a thread. My name is Mezz Dejé, I only post replies to art if I know that what I post will have some kind influence on the artist or communiyu, it takes time to make longer posts so I cannot post a lot.
I am a rather new member, but I have known the forum for a long time, though due to the fact that I am a pixel artist I have avoided posting any art.
I only post art that I look upon as finished, and I do not like to post quick efforts since I do not care about feedback for something that small. But stay tuned; I will post more and larger cg pieces :)

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20709 <- I made this post that quickly dropped out to the unknown lands of page 2. You can see some pixel pushing there.

[regina1323]

hey eldritchmonkey, do you have a webcomic? cause if you don't you should, thats some pretty good work.

~regina

[eldritchmonkey]

Thanks Regina! Actually I do have several webcomics but the only one currently running (pictured above) is One Shots: Thieves of Thalegor. If you're interested, the address should be in my signature.

[Kalikat]

Well, if I'm ever going to post at CA, then I guess this is the thread to do it in. I've been reading the forums for a year or two, but never posted even once due to many of the reasons that you guys describe above. I don't want to dilute the quality here with my meanderings, and I certainly don't feel qualified to critique anyone else's work. I just like to soak up the talent, motivate myself, and learn new things. I actually feel quite guilty about my lack of contribution, as I've learnt so much from CA. One day when work isn't kicking my ass so much and I can actually contribute, I'll hopefully join in with the middle class.

I'm a graphic designer by trade, but it's predominantly vector-based educational work for kids CD-roms, et al. I studied art at St Martin's in London, then did a degree in photography, and now I'm one of those jaded designers trying to get back to my roots. Lotsa life drawing, but nothing I'd want to air in public yet. ;)

[regina1323]

i finally got my fiance to help me put the pictures of my glass on here hope this works
this is one i did a while ago, but i love it
http://mathcssun.emporia.edu/~Zach/lefty2.jpg

~regina

[leviathan]

regina:

That is excellent! The perspective makes it look huge, but I guess it's probably smaller than it looks. The colors and textures are very nice. Really beautiful.

And is that a Chinese character in there?

Kalikat:

Welcome. I'm really glad that you picked this thread to make your first post in. Nice to meet you.

I do a good deal of design work myself, and often don't consider it worth posting here among so much amazing traditional work. But I've had pretty good response to some of the more design-oriented things I've posted, and I know I've seen others with great vector work here. With as much training as you have, I'm sure there's something you could feel confident posting. And even if you don't feel confident about it, I bet you'd gain some from giving it a try anyway.

Good to see everyone.

[acid]

hi, i'm acidkick... i've been looking around here for over a year or so, but i only registered a month or so ago...

i don't really post any art, mostly because i have nowhere to host it, i'd rather it not be one of those free upload sites, so i'm SOL for the time being

[regina1323]

thanx leviathan
yup thats a chinese character: happiness (i think)
the actual size of the piece is about 6"x12" so no its not very big, but i zoomed in for the picture so it looks larger.
here is another one that i did, thats actualy three dementional
http://mathcssun.emporia.edu/~Zach/side.jpg
and a different pic of the same piece
http://mathcssun.emporia.edu/~Zach/purple2.jpg
this one is called my coffin, cause of the shape of one of the pieces of mirror. however its not even large enough to be my cats coffin:p

hey Kalikat i'm with you all the way, soak up the talent, motivate myself, and learn new things. i've discovered that thats what this website is for.
hope you enjoy the pics
~regina

[Scarecrow]

luuuuurrkerrr...:evilbat:erm, yes. I've been a member for maybe a month, but I've been cruising this site for over a year now. Some of the stuff here is insane. I would post some of my art, but my camera pretty much destroys it, and theyre all just sketches anyway. Plus I'm too lazy to find a decent scanner... btw, sic, that anubis guy wrox. and Regina, i like the glasswork, you dont see too much of that sort of stuff around here.

[Syrogen]

psh ive been a member since forever ago, i visit these forums about 2 or 3 times daily, and often draw a lot of stuff off here. unfortunatly, no scanner :(

[apocalypse-cow]

well, I've been watching this forums over a year now but only recently joined.

I want to improve my drawing skills some more before I start posting here. I improved quite a bit in the last year but I still don't feel I'm ready.
you can have a look at my stuff on DeviantArt: here (http://apocalypse-cow.deviantart.com/gallery/)

[Mezz DeJé]

I hope that it is ok that I am bumping this thread since I really think it could have a nice influence on the forum because some people can often feel overlooked.
Thank you

[WoadWarrior]

Originally posted by Mezz DeJé
I hope that it is ok that I am bumping this thread since I really think it could have a nice influence on the forum because some people can often feel overlooked.
Thank you

bumping or Dumping?

[liquidwerx]

Originally posted by jrr
hey lurkers!
lurk here! www.penciljack.com

:p

Why in god's name would someone want to do that?! Comparing Penciljack to CA is like comparing a Hyundai to a Rolls-Royce. Not even in the same league...

Anyways, Howdy lurkers. Come out and say hi, no one's gonna bit ya. ;)


~Malachi

[Roam]

*lurk* *lurk* *lurk*

[klid]

*lurks*

[Aerythes]

Hi Mezz Dej,
I think your pixel art are all pretty attractive. I've been wondering for the longest time, how long does it take to make one of those small, full-body sprites?

Oh yeah, I'm also much of a semi-lurker. Will change soon once I learn how to paint digitally :)

[regina1323]

I hear ya on that digital paintin Aerythes
I still prefer the ole paper and pencil, to my spiffy new tablet.(though i wouldn't tell me mum that since she's the one that paid for it ~Christmas;) )
now if i could only get my damn scanner to work:p

~regina

[Mezz DeJé]

I've been wondering for the longest time, how long does it take to make one of those small, full-body sprites?

Well it depends on what you mean by small. My avatar is known as an RPG sprite, which takes a couple of hours to make. Though like you can with a larger canvas you can do speedpainting and get one in a matter on an half hour.
Larger sprites (like the ones seen in Street Fighter) can take much longer and if you choose to animate it can take days. I hope this answers your question :)

[slug]

me is a lurker too :cool: I have probably around 10 post but I even have conceptart as my homepage :eek: I am bulgarian, 24y old, started drawing 1y ago and am currently applying to an Industrial design course in england. I send my portfolio 1 week ago and am currently eagerly awaiting a result. Here is one piece, for the entire 15 drawing visit http://members.lycos.co.uk/sluginfinite/portfolio/
Do you think I have a chance? Oh and btw the two portraits are my first 2 ever ;)


http://members.lycos.co.uk/sluginfinite/portfolio/15.jpg

:chug:

[Bruce]

Hello.
My name is Bruce and I am a lurker.
Combining my lack of creativity and my horrible grammar and spelling I usually don't post n forums. One post at one other place.
I have been looking at this site almost daily for about a half a year or so now and am blown away all the time by the quality of work.
I have not pushed myself to do more with my art and don't have much to show for it. Still enjoy looking around though.
So instead of feeling small and afraid of the artist giants on this site I though I would join and share a bit.

Here is my first work on this site.
Pencil and Marker on board. done a couple of years ago. don't have the reference photo but it was from their tour book.
I'll be back in a moment with links to other pages.
http://www.bruceswork.com/Illustration/steve.jpg
sorry to cut in again. more works here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23536)

[Mindflaw]

Hi you lurkers :)

I´m well semilurker I mostly post in the guest self portrait thread ( thus making quite a lot of posts), since well I´m not good and that thread is kind to beginners and a great way to improve so all you lurkers you should join that thread. Atm I don´t have time to draw but in three weeks I will be going strong again.

Anyway I post my amateur C&C:s here and try to make them harsh so please critique my critique (I have a theory that we might gain a lot from crit our crits does that make any sense?) anyway hope you get something out of the C&C:s

Slug: you should check out the shading at the foot I´m sorry that my bad eng. prevents me from giving you good advice but you shou should take a cylinder shaped object and e.g table lamp to create light from different positions and observe and draw the shadow it creates to get the hang out of it.

regina123: Do you take in consideration when you do your "windowglass art" to make it fit with the surroundings" it´s hard to tell from the photo anyway just a thought that might help improve to make the entire surrounding a part of your art. Like you would do an exhibition it´s important that you place the art right and stuff like that.

Mezz DeJé: sorry I know nothing about the limitations and potential of "pixelpushing" but I think they are nice and are of the same quality as games I played using those kinds of sprites

eldritchmonkey: It´s hard to give any qrits to such a stylized work but I try anyway when I look your the bug pic the enviroment is a lot more 3d than the figure which takes out the unity in the pic and makes the figure look pasted on to the background. One other thing since the figure is so 2d it´s hard to say in which direction his right leg is going, one has to do a lot of guessing or it looks deformed like could really the foot be in that angle well not in the way I percieve the leg.

sic8sic: tried to find something to be harsh about but nope anyway I like the design of the well in lack of better words the clothes and braces well I guess you know what I mean.

complete2: I think you got some nice looseness in the sketch xcept for the ellipsformed gadget.

Dahsramu: I you are trying to learn how to draw/paint metal when I practice getting metal right I get a good picture and then focs on study the values. I and then try to render it then try to simplify it as much as possible. When trying to find the right value I take a paper then shade the paper over a larger area in the value i want to get and then I put it beside the area on the photo to compare if I got it right.

Edit: Bruce: looks good but a little to photolike for my own taste (you know you could just as well just trace it and save time kinda of pic) but as I said that just my own opinion and not really a crit so to speak.

OK tried to make som harsh qrits well here some pics (from life) I did so you could get even ;)

This one is portrait in acrylics with retarder put on very thick and blended on the paper (made for acrylics)
http://hem.bredband.net/b257354/lifeport01.jpg

THis one is a sp made in ketchup and made more red when I scanned it and therfore making the contrast between shadows and highlights to strong (for those who is interested ketchup is a lot harder to paint with than I thought)
http://hem.bredband.net/b257354/sp.jpg

[Bruce]

Mindflaw That first image is great.
Really thick and rough looking.
Makes me just want to touch it.