Macaroni and cheese.. Now updated every 3 years.

[Helium Macaroni]

Welp, I thought I'd pony up and throw out some of the crap I've been doodling in my sketch book.. oddly enough during studio classes at school, while not actually doing studio work. Anyways, now I can stop feeling completely useless and actually have somewhere to point would-be challengers for the next local group Tdome challenge. Let the inanity begin!

Here's a little heavy power armor guy.. Christ will you ever be seeing a lot of these..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/LilBuster.jpg

A few random sketches in preparation for a larger project later on.. wow, what a surprise, more power suits!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/loading.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/loader2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/PowerLoader.jpg

Some random thumbs, personal storyline related..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/randomthumbs.jpg

Some alien spaceships..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/ships.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/alienships.jpg

A human spaceship.. this is a bit old though, noticing a theme?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/cruiser.jpg

Some hyperdrive engine concepts, for said spaceship..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/hyperdrivethumbs.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/hyperdrivethumbs2.jpg

And lastly.. a portrait of myself as some sort of robotic man from the future! This is a personal shout-out to anyone from Pratt who had to do La Padula's 6 self portrait assignment. It was done a good... 5 years ago? Holy God I'm old..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/portrait.jpg

And this concludes my first attempt at maintaining a sketchbook thread! Hopefully this interweb will not eat me alive and I'll keep the bloody thing updated. Until the next episode, feel free to proverbially rip these things to shreads, and tell me your thoughts.. I can take it.. besides, a good cry never hurt anyone.

[Helium Macaroni]

I lied.. I found more..

A drawing I did a crazy long time ago and keep coming back to now and again.. maybe in 7 years it will be somewhere close to being finished.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/heros.jpg

A very untextured alien, and his power armor, done before I had really flushed out his proportions. If anyone knows how in the hell I should go about giving him a less milky soft appearance, I'd greatly appreciate it.. I'm a lousy texture drawer.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/kelmoran.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/kelarmor.jpg

Lastly.. two diametrically opposed themes, 2 politicos from a roman/fantasy storyline I have, and a dropship pilot. I know her face looks like lumpy clay.. I can't draw women to save my life.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/oldguys.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/pilot.jpg

[Doktor Focks]

:x
incredible

[liam.c]

exelent ~!

[cotron]

your robot designs are sweet! and don't be so down on the girl's face above, I think it looks fine... everyone's their own worst critic :)

[character]

LIKEY LIKE LIKE! WANT MOAR OMGZ! nice stuff man, you're really good =)

[Groover McNab]

HeliumMike! Good to see you start one of these.

This one is damn tasty!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/kelarmor.jpg

[USER777]

great stuff u got there!
like the detail in all of those!

keep em comin!

[flex mathews]

awesome work dood. your mech stuff is hot.

[Helium Macaroni]

Thank you so very much gents! Thanks for the positive feedback, especially from you Flex, I have great admiration for your work and really appreciate your approval.

I'll be posting again soon, I have some homework to finish before that though... which will probably consitute some of my next post :)

[Sikkness]

wow...sick designs man. you inspire me.

[Helium Macaroni]

Thanks Sikkness! Don't let me inspire you too much, you'd be eating squirrel and doing black tar heroin by the end of the week if you did.

Here's a very blunt plane, ala Scott Robertson, and lo and behold I did it for his class. I apologize to all the Industrial Design guys out there, I've no ID training and this is my first real attempt at hardcore ID drawing. However to any illustrator who want's some fantastic instruction, get his Gnomon DVD's or (for Art Center kids) take his class.. he's phenomenal.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/plane.jpg

[JadeDragon]

Wow!

Top knotch design technique there, Helium! Lovin the alien characters. And those spaceships...I have always really been fond of the organic shape approach to starship design, seems like a logical choice for advanced sentient life to mimic nature for it's functionality. That crustacean layered shell look is smokin'~! It's a neat contrast to the human tendancy for straight lines and boxes.

And you are in Scott Robertson's Art Center class? Lucky Bastard! A coworker just showed me his website for the first time last Friday! Amazing, you will be even MORE genius-like after he's done with ya!

I'm very impressed and I'll be keeping my eye on this thread for cool new updates. Keep em comin'!!

Cheers and welcome!!~~~JadeDragon

[Burning Eyes]

Wow, this is some really great stuff... Love this kind of work, and I just cant seem to pull it off, no matter how hard I try! Alwell, ill stick to the figures for now! But you are doin great! Keep it up!!!

[Jonny]

Nice concepts man. Would you say you have any influences for the mech stuff? I've been trying to improve my mech drawing for some time. I think I've been learning a lot just by looking at spinefinger's stuff (and shirow of course). Hmm as for advice for alien texture, look at some super closeups of weird bugs for ref. They have excellent textures indeed. I feel your pain with the ID class. I'm an illustrator myself taking my first ID class this semester. :dead: Keep up the sketchbook!

[steak-tron]

wow, cool stuff man. Tech drawings like that require some real patience, I haven't done one in so long...

that alien that groover pointed out is great and the un-textured alien is a good un' too. If you want textures try screwing around with filling in the thing with graphite and erasing in funky patterns, keeping in mind to concentrate light, a good ol' smudge stick can work well too. The hand looks a little funky too, like it needs some more bone structure... other than that it's solid design, like a gentle giant type guy that gets furious if you fuck with his friends.

I've seen your work elsewere and am a Fan! glad to have you join the DSB partay.

I'd write more but I gotta go cook up some more of that sweet black tar... :D :inject:

-steak

[mentler]

Welcome to the asylum ~ You got some uptown drawing skills here Mac
Your take on anatomy is very interesting to me (especially your lower legs)
You have obviously spent some time developing your own figure structure.
Also like the way you shade (shade) your forms ~ the own side plane down plane thing is alive and well here.

Pax, Pox, Pix, Pos ~ Do not breath to much of the air in this forum!

[metalwinds]

fuck. ..another sketchbook to keep up with. you have some great stuff going on so far.. ..i ll give you some crits when ive seen more work.. .got any color stuff?

[xia]

Yummy!

[Helium Macaroni]

Good lord, 4 illustrious CA.org artists commenting in a row.. the pressure be on.

Let's see if I can pull this reply off.. I'm sure I'll get much more lax about this over time.

JadeDragon, yeah I'm a lucky son-of-a-bitch.. I actually had to track Scott down at ComiCon to get him to sign my "add a class" form. That's just how annoying I am! Glad you like what you see.

Burning Eyes, thank you sir!

Jonny, like you I am a disciple of Shirow, he and Otomo are really core components to my mechanical design. As far as I'm concerned the Japanese are light-years ahead in terms of what I like.. that's just the fan boy in me talking though. The biggest thing for me about the manga/anime approach to ID and what-not is a very uniform and cohesive design mentality. It can sometimes become monotonous, but the novelty hasn?t warn off for me yet. Thanks for your advice on the Alien!

Steak-tron, thanks for the keen advice, I concur on the whole, lack of bone structure thing, I think I have to sit down, thumb through some animal books, and establish a bit of real world reference for this thing maybe.. get it a bit more firmly planted in reality, maybe I can bring out more structure that way. Glad you dig the work! I am likewise a fan of yours and quite the regular in viewing your sketchbook. Don't collapse any veins :P

mentler, yeah my anatomy is interesting.. interesting in the kind of way that needs a shit load more practice as of late! Hehe.. I've become ridiculously rusty. Glad you approve though, do hand me a straightjacket!

metalwinds, I apologize profusely for adding to the sketchbook perusing task! I will make it a point to disappoint you to a level that you will no longer have to frequent here :P I'm quite glad you enjoy my work, you yourself are quite accomplished and I look forward to any crits you have to offer... and do I have color work? Yes. Am I confident in showing it now? Heck no!

xia, you're stuff is pretty tasty too, pal :wink:

Thanks for the warm reception guys, I really appreciate it.. and I appreciate the future throttling I expect to get when I post some real crap! Christ.. just wait till the color stuff comes.. *shudder* But yeah, thanks all around, I'll post a couple images when I get a moment after finishing up some more work.

[Phuzion]

I love the fact that you have 189 posts and you're only now posting your work. HOSER!! It's about friggin time! Jeez... holding out on these poor kids, how could you?

It's all looking killer man! Great great work as always :bow:

-Daniel
"It's hard work..."
-Little Dubb Tex

[steve kim]

cool stuff here mike. recognize a few and you got some other stuff too. wow gee thanks steve for pointing out the obvious...

like i said before i think your mecha designs are badass. i like the one groover pointed out the most. i like some of the other more refined mecha/technical stuff.

this is the anal side of me talking, but i'd like to see you push line quality and refinement a bit more. i think the overall design and believability is there.. but if there were perhaps a little more polish to the line an detail. for example maybe not a uniform thickness for the outline of your mechdude or your characters. (i know uniform outline around characters is sorta of an ent-design staple but...)

post more stuff :)
steve

[t.m0]

great work man... some really fine things in here. Waiting for more!

cheers.t

[Helium Macaroni]

Whoa now, and update.. man am I bad at this.

T.mo, Thank you sir. As you requested.. here's an update!

Danny boy, hee hee.. know where I got all of those posts? The political threads.. muaha. Thanks man, I appreciate the complement :)

Steve (aka "lover") Dude, do I ever agree with that line quality statement... no really, do I? Yes, yes I do. That is the lame part about being an illustrator in an ID class, they have refinement DOWN! They do those little exercises ala Feng with the whole drawing straight lines by hand, connecting points with fluid lines, and drawing nice looking ellipses in one stroke. I'm working on it I assure you. All my crap I feel has some design quality to it as you said, but I completely agree, I need refinement and a clean execution. Next time I see you, I'll hug you for the helpful crit.

A rather shabby tank design, quick but utilizing some various perspectives on a single object.. hard as hell if you're trying to be accurate.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/tanks.jpg

This was a little sketch for a daily assignment based on a random word from the dictionary. The word was "pip-squeak" I know that gun looks very inauthentic, I had no reference handy.. and I forgot my M-16 that day :\

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/johnny.jpg

And.. some girls from mah head.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/babes.jpg

[steve kim]

yo yer womens need a little more +sexiness. now you don't gotta go all feng-esque 6-inch heel ho-style but maybe little smaller jawlines, larger eyes with defined eyelashes.. that sorta thing.

this IS conceptart we're talking about :)

[HilL]

The kid with the M-16 is very cool man:)

[rodrigo!]

whoa man these are aaaaaewsome thanks for sharing, <3

[lowpolymatt]

These (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/tanks.jpg)
are very similar to the ones I've been drawing for TD8...doing dominion Tank Police...heh...

Very nice....just surprisingly similar...funny how two peeps can be thinking along the same lines eh no!

[liam.c]

man art center treating you well huh !!! super cool mate :)

[Xpose]

WOW! those are really great. You've got a lot of original concepts in there as well. Keep em com'n!

[Jonny]

Oooh I'm diggin the tanks. Nice design. One thing to watch out for is the thickness of certain parts being too thin. If you go in with a hi tec u can probably make em look thicker. You probably know this though. Nice characters too, just maybe try to get a little more gesture in them so you get less stiffness. Good stuff.

[artkitty]

Great sketches dude!

I love the rubbery alien guy. He's got a lot of smooth and rounded shapes, so I think that's part of the reason he looks so slick. For texture I'd add some things to roughen the silhouette a bit, like small protrusions to break up the surface, or something like horns to make the silhouette more angular. Great design regardless though, you can always add some interest with a coloration pattern.

[I0N]

well well looky here a five star thread! yup five star...
the women are fine I dont mean fine as in "damn she fine!" I mean they are good the way they are, its different not overly idealized which is good. the sp made me smile...keep them comin man *sings* I got da bluez!

[steak-tron]

whoa, great tanks dude. That mechanical perspective stuff is really full-filling but it makes my head hurt :nohope:

great work man.

[Zebz]

Awesome stuff man. Your spacey/robot stuff looks really amazing. Those are subjects I always struggle with. Any pointers? How do you usually start concepting a suit like that anyhow? Great, great stuff. One crit, I'd like to see more of your figures in more fluid, dynamic poses. These pencils are so tight, I'd like to see more of your loose work. Keep it up! I'll be definately checking back! Take care.

[Morkai]

Holy god, I love your stuff. The smoothness to it all, I think more than anything the way you convey the curves and curved edges without hard lines...it nails the form so well.

Not to mention your designs are beautiful!

Just had to say something...yea.

[JackSparrow]

W-O-W dam these rock, I have no crits all I can say is these pics a H A W T baby lol. these are great, I have alot of catching up to do; so many ppl in here OWN, and your on of em.

[Helium Macaroni]

So... tired..

So I completely slacked off this last week and here I am, sleep deprived and behind.. ever have one of those weeks where your brain just decides to liquify?


HilL, rodrigo!, Xpose, steak-tron, Morkai, JackSparrow, thanks for your kind words guys!

Steve, yah i know! I'm uber-bad at the portraying the shexiness.. It's something I shall try to remedy :)

lowpolymatt, yeah I saw your stuff man! I really like it. It is really ammusing how the anime-esque designs influence so many people on different levels.. I look forward to your t-dome stuff!

artkitty, thanks! I totally agree, I'm thinking of giving him some boney protrusions and blunt horns, a little rhino like, but incorporating some dino-esque attributes. Glad you like though.

I0N, thank you sir! Yeah I tend to make my females kinda... normal. *shrug* just adds to the reality in my opinion... oh.. and stated before I'm bad at portraying the shexiness :)

ZebzFree, I'm glad you like 'em man. Yeah I really do need to get some more fluid designs and figures in the book here. As of late I've been taking ID classes to get that hardcore design training, so more fluid, gestural techniques are kinda useless, because these things are meant to be built, either in prop form, or in a CG model, so the design and practicality really needs to filter through.. but I agree with you nonetheless! I need to get some more fluid stuff in here.

As for advice and how I conceptualize, I'd say start with knowing perspective back and forth, how to mirror the far side of objects properly, and really know the dynamics that allow for things to look 3d. Myself, I really can't nail down how I come up with ideas, it's just my thing I guess. Some people have can come up with fantastic characters out of nowhere, some can paint from thier mind, etc. I can just bullshit my way around a good power suit I guess :) What I have noticed is that I fancy linking several large shapes, and then balance those out with smaller shapes and details. Having an over all sillouette or block shape structure helps give things a real dynamic style, and ads to practicality. My main advice is start with reality. The thing has to look like it can work. So that means proper measurment, that things must a realistic range of motion, that items such as armor, vehicles, etc, have the proper elements that adress key functions. Joints need to look like they work, vehicles need to have proper proportion and have room to house certain equipment or power systems. Blah its all super-nerdly talk which I can expand upon later...

Here is summore crap.. much of which I'm not rediculously fond of.. but whatever..

This first set is for a project we're doing in Scott Robertson's class. We messed around with the idea of hover bikes. So first are some thumbnails, then some finalized images.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/bikethumbs2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/bike1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/bike2.jpg

Here's a dropship design I've been working on forever and a half because of some wierd, sexual attraction I have to them.. I masturbate constantly to the idea of the Pelican from Halo.

What follows is a plan view I came up with while trying to solidify the design, and then the perspective drawing (front and rear).. WHICH WAS HARD AS HELL TO DO, and I'm not very satisfied with.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/dropshipnewplanprint.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/dropships2.jpg

So yeah, I'll probably attack this design again once I stop feeling utterly defeated by it and it's mysteries. Really, Scotts methods are awsome, but at the same time sometimes cumbersome when trying to construct a very complex shape such as that ship.. that and I'm a hack compared to him.. but I'll have at this one again with a more sketchy approach.

Aaand thassit for now kids.. I'm going to go pass out now.

Remember to vote come Nov. 2nd! Let's all feel marginalized together!

[hurricane]

cool stuff

[Phuzion]

Now you have 244 posts! Let me guess.... ;p
This stuff is still looking killer man!

-Daniel

[Nixon]

great stuff! You have great detail in all of your designs! :yayca:

[steak-tron]

wow those are some rad ships Mac! Much respect for your efforts, I tried my hand at some drop ship sketches a while back and they all came out like turds. Then the passable ones just looked like the drop ship from Aliens.:nohope: (Which is a great design no doubt) My favorite hover bike so far is the one with the 4 forward jets.

I can see how it would get tedious drawing those boxes with x's If you're familiar enough with perspective you can bypass that stuff.

Great work man.
-steak

[S.C. Watson]

GOD DAMN!!!

HELIUM!! I didn't know you could draw like this!!! I thought you were just a "Northeastern, black wearing, agnostic, pinko, urban elitist!!!" :teeth:

Seriously, some very, very cool stuff here, bro!

~Oreg.

Seriously...

[dusty imp]

Awesome stuff helium, love your attention to detail.
Watched Aliens a lot no doubt. :)

[trevor]

beautiful stuff mike
ill show you that paint over soon
and ive been saving it in stages 4 you

trevor

[gasmask]

i dont know how i missed this thread but its awesome, real concept art and not all the boring life drawing sketch books. i assume you go to art center? you got the trademark precisness to design things yet i can see your own style coming through in them, ur awesome, do you do the dot connecting thing scott teaches? anyways this stuff is great, keep thinking the way you are with design ull go far. ill be watching man.

[Bojee]

Frickin cool shit, you've got mech stuff down cold. :)

[blankslatejoe]

hey helium.... a month a no updates? Come, whatcha been up to?

Any east v. west challenge sketches to show off?


looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[AdamBlack]

I know her face looks like lumpy clay.. I can't draw women to save my life.

Hey, there,

If you don't mind my saying so, I know what your problem is with drawing women's faces. Because I had the very same problem.

Notice how that corner where the jawbone sweeps up behind the cheek is uneven. It's too low on the right side, every time, every girl. I used to do the same thing; you must be right-handed. :)

Anyway, give this a try, because it's what I did to fix it: turn the picture upside down. You'll see it instantly.

Hope you don't mind the comments. I was looking at your art (and loving it) and when I saw that, I said to myself, "hey!"

:)

Adam

[rothgar]

Nice stuff man, post more :P

[zac]

I love the tasty and your spaceships rock! :jawdrop:
Post more, it rocks!! :teeth:

[-j-]

pretty cool shit here mang. you have a class with scott robertson? i've been checking out his videos the last few weeks, and all i can say is holy shit. i love his work, and his method is insane. i don't see how you keep up.

[blankslatejoe]

your macaroni could use some more helium luuuuve. UPDATE!!!! :)

[steak-tron]

yea where's the easy mac. easy on the eyes that is.... :teeth:

[Odds]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/heros.jpg

This is simply amazing. keep it up, btw what year are you in @ art center?

[steve kim]

wtb mike a faster webserver

[blankslatejoe]

We're almost at 6 months with no updates! Happy anniversary everyone!!!!!!!

[steak-tron]

haha, an anniversary toast :vodkamachine:

Post some shit yo! i should talk...

[JAGrello]

great stuff... very good... impressed!

[bizarre]

so THIS is what it looks like to know what you're doing...
kewl. its nice to be able to learn from fellow artists.

[CruShTinbOX]

Nice sketchbook. Update this bitch, yo!

[steve kim]

wtb mike a faster webserver

clearly you did not heed my advice?

and dear god turn on some jpeg compression plz! 200k for 300x300 images? i know it hurts to lose that VISUAL FIDELITY for ur amazing artworks but sometimes we must sacrifice for the greater good.

[jayne]

oh me gad helium. if i ever met u i'd be the happiest person on the face of the earth...

GREAT concepts!!!!!! HOW LONG HAVE U BEEN DRAWING?!

[Helium Macaroni]

Hiya.

So after a short 8 month hiatus, I'm posting. So uh, since then, such events as a national election, and the workshop have transpired. Thanks to the SF guys that I met there for trying (and failing miserably) to encourage me to post. If theres one thing I'm consistant about it's lack of initiative.

Soo.. here's some stuff ( some old and some new ) that I've been coughing up inbetween sessions of work, school, and that cursed World of Warcraft game. I must however admit that having my eyes bleed never felt so good.

Anyway, here's the old..

So I don't know why I've never shown this thing off before, but I'm relatively proud of it. It's a 3 point perspective city done for first term perspective class at ACCD. You may note the blatant theivery of elements from Appleseed. Gary Meyer, my teacher, quite liked it and put it in the "example book" that he gives to his students. Gary is waaayy old school (original Star Wars old school) so needless to say I was quite overjoyed to have him include it in his class compilation.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/3ptcity.jpg

Moving on to the last term I attended, this is from Scott Robertson's class. Its super fucking messy and its a digital cam pic to make matters worse which distorted it a bit. I applogize.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/scottship.jpg

By now I'm sure most of you are familiar with my politcal leanings. I rarely do anything in terms of art that relates to politics, but I was a bit pleased with a project I had to do for a graphic design for illustration class last term. To explain, before I get barraged with opposing viewpoints, a project choice was to do a sort of public information poster. This image is playing off of the generalization that the United States went to war in part over the aquisition and privization of petroleum resources of the Middle East. Yes, I realize its a generalization and a simplification. It's pretty self explanitory, saying that we've sacrificed our brave men and women to ensure a steady flow of oil that is demanded by our bloated and wasteful consumer lifestyles, one particular aspect of which is large fuel-inneficient SUVs. It deals with the notion of "please, go buy things, consume, fight terrorism that way" which was repeated by government officials in the aftermath of September 11th, and the psudeo-patriotism of domestic warhawks and supporters of the conflict who would choose to plant a flag on thier Hummer rather than fight for thier own bloody oil, which in a general sense, was one of the many factors in waging the war. I realize it's cliche, but I honestly can't stand H2s. Living in LA you see (and breath in) the direct result of such excess and reliance on fossil fuels. I find the brash yellow color that some owners choose a bit ironic as thier machines progressively help the sky attain just that very hue.

Anyways, enough of the disclaimer, here is it is.. kudos to you if you actually know what the Project for the New American Century is.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/h2.jpg

These were thumbnails of other possible posters..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/editorialthumbs.jpg

And now, onto the new..

Here's some assorted thumbnails from my small book.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/thumbs.jpg

A few spaceship thumbs I was pleased with.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/shipthumbs.jpg

..additional ships..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/randomships.jpg

An alien starship, currently I'm trying to do a digital paint of it.. the operative word here being "trying."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/Alienshiplineart.jpg

Some random crappy heads... mostly alien ones.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/heads.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/alienheads.jpg

And now, 2 things I never do, draw women, and paint digitally. The main reason being because I'm not great at both. The drawing is something I did and didn't finish while on a plane, and the color piece is my first real attempt to do a character paint. There are shit loads of things wrong with it I realize, it's quite the work in progress. That progress now having stretched over a good 3 months now while I grapple with the difficulties of digital painting.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/planepilot.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/girlprogress.jpg

I guess that's it for now. Excuse the spelling errors in the post, I'm extremely tired.

[jetpack42]

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yeah! That 3 point city is dope dope dope! I'm really digging it man. As for the lady paint at the end, it's looking pretty swell so far. You seem to have a relatively good grasp of things. To my relatively newtrained eye, it looks like you are doing a pretty good job on the warm light-cool shadows aspect, just push it that way for the suit as well if you get to it. She might be a little on the pasty side, but it's preference, I don't think a little more color would hurt her.

Sweet fancy moses, nice update!

[Profil]

I really like those spaceships and perspective. About the digi girl painting, it is looking good, i would just push back her neck a bit, looks like the chin and neck are almost the same value. but just a bit.

[Calle_]

Wow, this is awesome, i dont have any crits. just wanna see more
awesome tech,

[blankslatejoe]

about time, my friend. That poster is great, you didn't even need the explanation, everything you explained comes across perfectly through the elements on the poster.

the newer stuff is kicking butt too.. that girl painting came out quite nice!

[Groover McNab]

You've never shown me that city before!!! That is sweeeeeeeet like Kool Aid.

[Helium Macaroni]

Hehe, thanks guys.

Jetpack, yeah she is pale, however the best way I can work around that is just say that she's a futuristic paramilitary cyborg! That or she has really bad circulation. Actually I was going for a pale look, I built up a lot of the value from that background color as to come out looking cool. I do however need to add some local warm color in her transition tones. What it really comes down to though is that I piss my pants in anxiety whenever I paint, its just not my thang.. but thanks for the comments :)

Profil, you're totaly right, the value is too simiar to her face, I was working on that a bit before I posted and will yet again be screwing around with it later. However the best part was not too long ago her neck was not only a lighter value, but thick as a bloody tree. My girls always tend to be a bit manly as thier subtle curves elude me.

Thanks Calle_ :)

Joe, thank you sir. Glad you enjoy it all. Heh, I just wanted to pad the poster with some explanation because I've been known to botch an Illustration or two. That and I didn't want to offend anyone who might take it as too much of a generalization. Anyways, thanks!

Janu, really? I thought I had that city with me like.. the first time we met. That time on the beach, that one wonderful summer.. I remember the birds chirping, and bells ringing. You strolled onto that beach, grabbed ahold of my heart, and have since never let go! *sigh*

[blankslatejoe]

Hey! how could you, JANU!!! You said I was the only one! What's this all about, eh?

[Helium Macaroni]

Boys, boys! You don't have to fight over me! Dear me, I think I'm getting a case of the vapors! *faint*

[cotron]

holy cow, nice stuff man! hope youre doin well.

[thaking]

Your spaceships are looking good man! And that city is purely awesome. More!

[gasmask]

finally, oh and btw, that alien ship is one of the best designs for a ship i have seen in along time, i dont know how you figured it out but designs like that dont come around often. keep it up

[Jucas]

Nice stuff mike.

This stuff is look really good. I think you are getting that tech stuff down pat, did you see Hawkprey's new thread? It has some real good tech stuff you might dig. Anyhoo, I remember when you did that three-point city in Gary's class, pretty fucking cool, you spent alot of time on that motherfucker, but it turned out great... ah the good ol' days.

One thing I have noticed about your spaceship designs is they are all relatively 'box like'. What I mean by that is they are all based on a single self-contained structure, if you will. But I'd like to see more diversity in the thinness and thickness of the connecting elements of the space ship designs... does that make any sense? Also I know they are just sketch but throw in a quick silouette for scale reference, makes a big difference.

Last thing... and I will just throw it out there, I'd like to see these space ships in some sort of dynamic enviroment, or in some sort of dynamic action. Lots of people can draw really good tech stuff, but the one thing that is rare is the element of dynamism in tech related stuff.

[flex mathews]

wow, very nice. you are a beast, my friend.

[aum]

yea.. uh.. your too good..

It's a shame you couldn't come to vegas with Janu, I was looking forward to meeting you and seeing some of your sketches. Oh well, maybe next time. :)

[Giordan]

wooooo men if you told me you did all the concept art of Starcraft i wouldn't believed it just because your concept art is much much impressive, men you could easily do concept art for games, movies anything at least that's how i feel about it , really impressive men . i would really love 180 degrees turn and see you draw some medieval stuff , but hey men aniway you have oficially inspired me thx for that . impresive work dawg

sketches of my character (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49507)

[carnalizer]

Sweet! You rock!

[Ben Mauro]

nice helium, especially like that first perspective drawing. keep it up.

[csteingart]

Wow, you freakin' rock my a$$ off.

And that 3 ponit perspective is disgusting <3.

c

[hito]

that's an awsome cityscape! how big is it full size?

love the sketch of the pilot girl too.

pure awsomeness.

http://stu.aii.edu/~nll181/guinness.gif

[blog]

The thing that is really good about your stuff is that you're keeping a balance with the character design, anatomy, perspective, environmental and vehicle design. It's all good!

[Hive_minD]

*drooling*

Hive_minD

[Helium Macaroni]

I'll keep the thank-yous short because its like... 4:30 a-fucking-m.

Gentlemen and/or ladies.. Thanks! You all rock. And rock hardcore at that. Don't ever forget it.

Anyways, I never paint. Well, only when im forced to. So in the spirit of needing my ass ripped off and handed to me having countless critiques written upon it, I submit two paintings I've been pissing around with. The first I can't take total credit for as a friend of mine handed me a splatter in Photoshop and asked how she could make it better. I handed back to her a rough which became what you see here... and now I'm pissed cause I didn't come up with the original splatter in the first place and that she's going to get credit for my idea. But I'm just a shallow human being like that. The other painting is 100% mine.. I swear. Both are WIP's and should be treated as such... that meaning if anyone sees any impending disaster or thinks this stuff is utter shite, please inform me and I'll stop fucking the thing up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/blimpdock1.jpg

Take two..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/gunturret2.jpg

[Flaskpost]

Impressive stuff!
What kind of grey markers do you use?

[Groover McNab]

Werd.

[Hive_minD]

A human spaceship.. this is a bit old though, noticing a theme?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/cruiser.jpg

.

hmmm reminds me a bit of the space-ships in space-troopers??
well at leest in a movie ive seen :-)

Hive_minD

[steak-tron]

Dayom, nice work Mike. 8 months was worth the wait :P

That cityscape is hot. I want to have sex with your cityscape that is...

[TheDirtSyndicate]

holy bloody hell man, great work!
i love your environments and your vehicles! killer stuff bro
go check the southern cali thread, i updated it. got the info for the coffehouse posted.

:)

[asoir]

This sketchbook is doperoni and cheese, man! Keep posting! :)

[endercoskun]

top notch!!

[Dallas]

Cool stuff!!! I Love it. Now, post more ;)

-Dallas

[codakromek]

yo, he-mac...

Love yer politics bro!!! You definitly chose the righ idea to take to completion,,,it is better than the other ones,no figures makes it more obvious that commodification/consumtion is the real gist of your commentary,,,( the only figure that could stand up under that kind of critique of culture would be a soldier, and they def don't deserve it, being bound by law and all to do what they are told)

Can't wait for the alien starship to get the digi treatment..... love all of the ships,,,,,,I really prefer the boxy designs,,, everything else would just break to peices on re-entry, and I prefer a highly beleivable kind of aeronautical physics, like yours. They look sound.

That girl digipaint is sticking out in your mech and ship dominated SB,,, vey nice,,,subdued and well put together.....The face is a bit too potent, I guess,,,but only compared to the economy of tone and info you used to create the suit and body,,,,,,hmmmmm...

anyhoo, ,,,,,,awesome alien heads!!!! where are the bodies??? I want more body armour,,,plz.....

really an exhilerating SB,, I take a lot of inspiration from it and thanks,,,,

bye

[liam.c]

man yoru thread is one of my favorits mate !the bw aug15th one is super cool !

[sparth]

helium, you really have a bunch of amazing materials in here.
you shouldn't be too scared about the fact of painting. acccording to what i see, it should really come very fast. you have some wicked perspective studies, as well as chara design.
no major crits from me

sparth

[Denart]

woa! how many hours did the 3 point City take? :)

Here's some assorted thumbnails from my small book.

how small exactly?


fantastic stuff!

[Sirio_Brozzi]

You are my hero. :} Some very, very awe inspiring images.. The cityscape, the vehicles, characters..All excellent. Cant wait to see more!

[Rampage99]

Amazing artwork. I really like your style and the futuristic subject matter.


A human spaceship.. this is a bit old though, noticing a theme?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/cruiser.jpg



One thing I noticed though was the pick I quoted is almost an exact remake of the Armor-Class Carrier from Robotech: The Macross Saga. Was that your insipiration?

http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/mecha/viewmecha.php?id=9

[Helium Macaroni]

Yiker, I'm bad at updating. Haven't gotten to put a lot of stuff together lately. Went home to NY for a while and did nothing but veg. Thanks for all the kind words guys!

Flaskpost.. Thanks man, I use mainly copic sketch greys: warm, neutral, and cool. They are hands down the best on the market.. and I have yet to master thier secrets!

Asoir, e n d e r, liam.c, Sirio_Brozzi.. Thanks a ton guys, glad you enjoy stopping by.

Groover.. Shut up, and move to LA. Do I have to have strippers kidnap you or something?

Hive_minD.. do you mean Starship Troopers? Heh, I love that damn movie. I do indeed draw a lot of inspiration from it too.

steak.. thanks dude. And you'd better be ready for the shit I drop next time! In like... 11 months from now! Fuck I'm useless.

Complete2.. thanks man, I swear to god I'll make it to UnUrban at some point in my life. I keep having shit sprung on me during the weekends.

Dallas.. Holy crap sir, you have no idea how much you've helped me recently. I once again cannot thank you enough. You are truly humbling in terms of talent and kindness. Thanks again!

codakromek.. dude I found your thread like a week ago and It's fucking increadible. Your stuff reminds me of Shirows work, and your color treatments are really brilliant. Thanks so much for the kind words. I'll throw some more armor stuff out soon probably.. you can never have too much power armor on your portfolio =P The sad think about that girl painting is that I lost the entire file in my recent computer crash. I'll probably however start it up again from scratch. Glad you like my ship designs, I too am really into practical spaceframe ideas that revolve completely around established laws of physics. I also try to stick to that sort of design for the human side of my storylines in order to create familiarity, and then throw in alien ship designs that are the complete opposite design mentality. Heh, actually its a pretty formulaic and cop-out attitude.. but it works! Thanks again man... Glad you enjoyed the political stuff too ;)

Sparth.. I have 3 words for you: I'M NOT WORTHY!!!! Also, thanks so much for taking a look here. You have no idea how much of an inspiration you are to me. In fact that turret structure drawing was pretty much inspired by your work. I'm slowly, very slowly, getting a bit more adept at digital painting. You continue to be a constant source of wonder and amazement for me.

Hey Den, haven't talked to you in like years. That 3pt city took.. hmm let me see.. forever? Yeah, it was forever =) I did it over about a 4 week time period, so in compressed time.... maybe 5 days solid worth of work? And those thumbnails from my small book are probably about an inch to and inch and a half long. Just small doodles. Thanks for stopping by man!

Rampage99.. Gah! you caught me. Yeah I get a shit load of my ideas from Robotech/Macross. And the direct design inspiration for that ship is the Armored class yes. Its not a direct copy, nor did I ever sit down and use the robotech ship as reference. The ship just had such a recognizible layout that it stuck with me through all the incarnations of the ship you see. I just thought that the design was so simplistic, and so practical that I would simply take the main physics behind the ship and create my own. If I drew you a plan-elevation view of the thing you'd notice some striking differences, mainly the ventral side of the ship being more complex than the Armored shipsm and the central hull of my design doesn't bulk at the rear like the robotech ship does, it maintains a bit more of a table type construction. woo.. I'm geeking out. But yes.. you've isolated my main inspiration =)

[J.Mac]

sup mike! long time no talk glad to see you are still posting some what, i think you should try to digi paint your 3-point city. also i want to see more of your work! cause i know you have a ton :P heh

-jesse

[Rampage99]

Well robotech is by far my favorite anime of all time and is definatley a great source of inspiration. Without Robotech none of this mech and transforming machines stuff would be around today. Any chance you could whip up your own version of a Veritech? Oh, and again, excellent artwork!

[P E N Ricklund]

Oh my. You got a nice touch to you work, they look so clean.
I think I have a goal.

That cityscape blewn me away, nice to see that some one can keep his mind focused for such a long time.
And you'r ID designs are awesome.

Come go on get some motivation and give us an update :D


Hugs!

[camilografix]

Man i love that city. makes me wanna make one of my own. great work And i love the political poster. Yeah I totaly agree with you man those h2 are a total waste of F-ing metal along with all those DAMN SUV.

[KeaL]

i really like your stuff. looks quite pro to me. u give me so much inspiration

[CaptainInsano]

wow! I never looked at your sketch book because I thought you were just an ultra-left-wing socialist freak.. But DYAMN, these are really good you ultra-left-wing socialist freak!

I am impressed by your art work.

[keeganb_2000]

Man I love your space ship designs and that cityscape is beautiful! Excellent work!

[SprayNation]

Thought I'd check out the competition, hehe. I'm very impressed by your work. Especially your tanks and mechs. Do they have classes at art center that focus primarily on mechs and vehicles? Your cityscape at the top of the page is excellent! Did you use reference for the perspective or did you completely wing it? Anyway, best of luck for the fall semester and next years competition! Later bra'.

[Helium Macaroni]

Haloo.

K, well I'm sorry I never update this dish. So goddamn busy. Thanks for your kind words guys and/or gals, I very much appreciate it. I don't have tons of time for a lengthy reply so I'll just say thanks.

Spray Nation - There aren't vehicle or mech classes per se. You can just use those ideas as projects for any number of classes. They tend to become applicable in the entertainment classes, some industrial design classes, or perspective classes. However that sort of stuff rarely has a formula to thier creation. In fact, staying too much in line with the formula that is most often demonstrated at Art Center by the entertainment teachers is actually extremely limiting when designing complex forms. The best method for vehicles other than cars, trucks, boats, (such as robots, complex planes, spaceships, etc) is to just get a solid understanding of perspective so you can do it all from your head. The city up there however is different. That was for a cityscape project we had to do in perspective class using three-point perspective. So that thing is alllllll plotted. Laboriously plotted. It was fun though =)

Anyways, heres the E.O.W. that I entered. I'm still grappling with painting if you hadn't noticed. Take a look, leave a comment, I'm going to find some food.

Make sure you stop by the E.O.W. thread and have a look at the work from everyone. Some good stuff in there. Make sure to vote.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/winter1.jpg

[Denart]

I'm scared now...



(aka, great new enviroment/robot war painting!) :P


EDIT>>
I think I should write more than a senseless post...heheh

anyways, I love the atmosphere and how you made 1 of the robot the most defined (the big mech on the left side)
Good focal point!

:D

[I.was.ink]

Hey Mike. Very cool environment! You should post some of the work you've been doin. I haven't seen any of it in a long time.

Btw, I thought your piece could use some sprucing up (not that I'm the one to do the sprucing up, but instead of talking about it I decided to do a paintover.) Hope you dont mind, but I mainly did it cus the trees made the forest look boring imo.
I'm not sure if they work better for the piece or not, but I was having fun while painting and I added some stuff to it. Hope you like it! :)

http://www.visiblesurface.com/iwasink/oskarpaintoverwinter1.jpg

-Oskar

[BAKI]

damn, I love your work
mecha freaks unite, you make me want to work on mecha's more
keep em comming

[guggemmaneuver]

damned amazing work mike!
that winter battlescene EOW is rocking my world. is the idea that the bridge is breaking??? excellent work!

how do you sleep while your books are burning?

joel

[Hypronost]

awesome painting man !
You blew of my socks with that one.

I wanna see more of those!

[Helium Macaroni]

Aw man, thanks guys! You made my night with your comments, thanks a ton!

DAMN YOU OSKAR!!!! Not for making a paint-over ofcourse, but for making my composition that much better with your paint over. You made me totally reevaluate the direction it was headed. I actually really have a problem with playing things too conservative on many aspects of my art. I'm going to try to mess around with some of the elements you suggested to see if I can squeeze a more dynamic scene out of it. I very much appreciate the paint-over and look forward to similar advice and ideas you may have for me in the future! Thanks man, hope you're terms are going well! Care to join in the fray when CCAD takes on Art Center for a thunderdome in the coming months?

Den, thank you sir, I'm very pleased that you like it. Can't wait for the AC vs. CCAD showdown :teeth:

BAKI, thanks man. Yes, I have a very open obsession with robots and mechs. Please do work on your stuff more! Too many giant robots is never enough.

guggen, thank you sir! Honestly the bridge could be breaking. I didn't really intend on such a narrative, but hey, if you see a story that you like, all the better =) I could be all "I meant the piece to be a dynamic yet subtley ambiguous broadly encompassing piece in which the viewer could derrive any number of possible stories, therefore making thier OWN narrative!".. but I'd just be jerking you. Heh, if you see a certain story, or a particular thing happening that I didn't intend, I simply say.. "rock on."

And I think its quite obvious how I sleep when all my books are burning.. I sleep on fire! But actually I'm not familiar with the meaning of that phrase. So it might be a secret code telling me where to deposit the microfilm, or maybe I've had too many Appletinis, but you'll have to tell me what you mean by that when I wake up from my stupor. It sort of sounds like that 80's song by Midnight Oil.. is that where the reference is from? Fuck I'm drunk. Anyways, thanks man! I really appreciate the comments!

Hypronost, thank you! I'm terribly sorry about your socks, I hope you can find them again. If need be I will send you a money order for some new ones.. or steel some from the appartment laundry room for you, your choice!

In the spirit of seeing more, heres a WIP that I'm W'ing on and is still deep in P. Trying to build up from value grouping and texture. Let me know what you guys think or if you have any cunning ideas. I'm sorry its another limited pallette thing.. I'm not very inventive.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/sniper8.jpg

[ericdee]

Gee Helium, I simply like those sketches, the method you concept and of course also the SciFiatmosphere in all those sketches. Especially the concepts of the planes and cities, simply great:)

I bookmarked this sketchbook, great inspiration, please post more often:)

Cya, Eric

[I.was.ink]

Cool new piece you've got goin, I'll stop by and give better crits later but the main thing that needs some fixing is perhaps the composition. It sort of feels like everything is a little too balanced out, value wise. If the composition was more horizontal and there was more space between the girl and the building to the left (a nice city scape inbetween would serve as some good breathing room inbetween).

The buildings are all looking really vertical(and eventhough buildings are veritcal and they don't add much drama to the piece)
I think I'll give this one a quick paint-over a bit later when I have more time.
If you don't mind that is ;)

-ink

[Helium Macaroni]

I know.. all the girls I draw look the same =/

Anywhoozle.. Something I did for CHOW.. take a look at the thread and vote for your fav =D

Oh, and if anyone knows how the fuck to fix the problem of a Jpeg destaturating when uploaded to the web, let me know. The fucker looks fine in Photoshop (a bit warmer in hue) or in any other image viewer I have, but for some reason when posted, it cools off.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/angel11b.jpg

[blankslatejoe]

hey! how did i miss 4 months of updates?!?!?!?? amazing stuff mike, it's nice to see you back and posting in here again :) that WIP of the girl on the building ledge is pretty dang slick.

[trevor]

i dont think you have to worry about that painter crap you were asking about anymore
you just keep getting better you little douchebag!!!
wow hope we can hang out again soon its been a year already
im completely envious of all the jobs you will be offered

trevor "color me impressed" clikitatikataxton

[CaptainInsano]

outstanding art work!

[CRØW]

First let me say I've been fairly uniterested in drawing Hard Sci-Fi stuff for the last year or so, but your stuff has got my Positronic brain itching. Please tell me that you are working on an illustrated novel, comic, something with all of these great designs you have.

[Odds]

yesssssssss

[Zebz]

Lovely update, man! Good to see you getting back in form. I had a similar idea for my CHOW actually. But I didn't make the deadline. I did get some sketches done tho. Anyhow, I like how you pulled the old school style out with this one. Very nice. The WIP is bad ass tho. I'm really excited to see what comes out of that big dog. ;) Finish it up so I can have a new tasty widescreen wallpaper. Heh. Love your work as usual. Keep at it, please!!

[Icey]

the spaceship design is awsome... so are the environments! and this last character... speaks for itself!

[Azrael]

Cool shit Helium. Your recent work is tight. I despise you.

[Yina]

i am in awe.

[steve kim]

woot terms over so that means time to browse the old interweb~~

hey like the fact you are painting and stuff. still think you got a monochromatic tendency that needs a good spanking but otherwise looking good (basically repeat of our little personal 1on1 session if you recall)

cheers,
steve

[redehlert]

dude! are you for real!?!?!?!
awesome skills and talent out the waaazoooooo.
have fun battlin' coondoggle.
lookin' forward to the interprative dance too. :)
damn....you're good.

[Gygaxis]

Hey man,

good looking stuff, really solid designs on the human ships and the stuff for Gary was smoking!! Catch me sometime around and I can give you some tips digital painting wise that'll help ya ^_^

[Orozc0]

your stuff is just purely amazing.

[Moiss]

Wow................

[yAdam]

Great great stuff! Loving the palettes you chose for some of the paints, quite understated, which is nice!

[MattGamer]

i simply enjoy your style man!!! you must post more as to inspire us all. i seriously love the ships sketches and your digital painting. very nice stuff!

[Amazing Action Ape]

RAD concepts man! RAD :)

[Helium Macaroni]

I swear to God guys, I'll update soon. Trying to finish up some preview concepts for the ACCD vs. CCAD thunderdome.

[flaptraps]

cool stuff man!

[Undertow]

pfft whatever Mike, just frigging post something;)

[lysander]

aarghhh! must go draw now!

[Helium Macaroni]

Sleesh.. I'm really bad at this. Man, my 'stars' have even gone down.. thats what I de-fucking-serve. Regardless, I've been in a slump lately doing nothing but pieces for work, and getting really rusty on many many fronts. So I've tried to jerk myself out of it by working on a few things here and there, and try my damnest to get back to keeping an actual sketchbook. I turned 26 this month and to celebrate/rue I tried to kickstart my recommitment to sketching by drawing 26 spaceships.. =D Hopefully returning to my comfort zone will help me begin to branch out again and feel confident once more.

Here's the result.. some good, some complete crap.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/ships2.jpg

Here's another page of trash.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/ships12.jpg

These are a few things that have emerged in the process for the CCAD vs. ACCD thunderdome thing.. but I can't reveal what significant they hold!!111!!@#$^ Trying to remember how to draw characters again.. cripe..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/cal.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/gromugh.jpg

And here's something else that may.. or may not.. be for that same thunderdome.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/planes6.jpg

[Tyranx]

awesome thumbnails! they are all so different from one another. Keep postin!

[Undertow]

Well it's about damn time Mike! No more excuses, just post something;)
going over these in order.
1. 3rd down on the right hand side. Great shape, take it to completion!
2. This is your scrap page, not the first one;)
3. Character on the lefts arms are a bit short.. and he looks like Kemp. That's one ugly mug;) The guy on the lefts arms are a bit short. The guy on the right looks great but I'm curious about the shape of the wrench as to whether it's a normal wrench or you threw a knife edge on it.
4. Bottom left shape is your strongest.

[PHATandy]

Awesome stuff macaroni, always loved your designs and stuff, the digi ones here lok v.slick.
If ever there was a reason for me to try and apply for art centre it would be you (Except scott robertson ofcourse :P, and maybe some others.. but ure still up there :D). And i was wandering what course u did, and wether u would reccomend art centre (amongst all the costs etc - even more for me being in the UK), id be goin for ID or the new Entertainment Arts courses, under illustration right?.

Anyways sry to bug you, but i posted in the art centre thread without mucho helpo.
Keep posting though man, i enjoy your stuff :)
Andy.

[thirdeye]

Great sketches, both ships and characters. Your sketchbook is definitely one of my favourites here. Too bad you don't update too often. But still - it's always worth the wait.

[J.Mac]

Howdy cowboy! i haven't talked to you in awhile. looking pretty good, i see a little enviroment thumbnail in there... heh pretty cool to see a lot of ship designs, but it looks like you were playing it safe on a few of them. but i do to. The characters are pretty neato i like the big guy. also nice army boot cuffs i like that added bonus. Good luck and post more. entertain us :) take care

-Jesse

[redehlert]

what is one's trash is another's delight! you're work is as refreshingly conceptual as before. may 26 be a year of great growth!
cheers,
d

[ulvdemon]

I definitely have to agree with Redehlert. Your spaceship designs are really inspiration. Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see what else you have in store.

[Groover McNab]

Wha?!! An update?!?! What's happening?!?!! You have turned my world topsy-turvy.

[Artguy]

Some awsome stuff. That city scape you did is very nice. I'd go crazy trying to do that many buildings. The end result is great though.

Keep posting!

[Denysiuk]

update, update! (nice stuff ;))
When we see something good we want to se MORE :)

cheers

[Hideyoshi]

Ok, this is some SERIOUSLY awesome stuff! Wow!!!!
The 3pt-city blew me away, slick design in all your works! Killer industrial design know-how! I wish I had your routine and precision! You really seem to enjoy what you're doing, that's great!
And I wish there was a website with more- do you have one?

[Snuggles]

As said time and time (and time) again, great industrial design. Your characters are pretty fine, too! You've got those contours by the cojones, mang. :D

[sleeperservice]

Impressive. I love it when all that work comes together in something really nice. Characters, vehicles, environments-it's all good. Beautiful work!

[jcaffoe]

So after arguing endlessly I figured I'd check out some art, and I'm way impressed with everything in here. 5-star work.

Your tech designs are spot on, I'm really impressed with the ship thumbs, it's something I should really start working on more. Now I'm all inspired...

As a crit, I think it would be cool to see something come from some more organic shapes.

The paintings are looking great as well. It looks like Art Center is doing well for you.

I hope there are no hard feelings between differing opinions. Honestly, I think you should redesign some transformers in here, I'd like to see what you can come up with.

Sorry for seeming like a prick. Cheers.

[MattGamer]

lovely planes and characters. those ships make me so happy and excited. i love them :)

[ArtZealot]

yeah i just wanted to say that i liked that page of vehicles you called "crap". If it is crap, it's a pretty nice pile of crap u have up there. Just out of curiousity how long does a spaceship like that take for ya?

[Spats]

What amazing work :xpld:

Wham ***** Sorry I don't have anything to crit about!

[Dreamworker]

Amazing work!! This sketch book is a joy for eyes !!
Please post more and more !! ;)

[trevor]

wow
so many ships on the same peice o paper
how do ya do it mike?
heres to next time we get together being better than saturday

[Undertow]

hey Mike, update ya bastid'
-Mike V

[guastaferro]

Mike it was awesome to meet you and see your sweet drawings in person. Love your stuff! When i grow up i wanna draw like you!

[Helium Macaroni]

Guastaferro, it was a pleasure meeting you too sir, remember how we were talking about how for some reason sketchbook postings always occur at like.. 4am? Welp.. here I am at good ol' 3:40 am.

Howdy guys, thanks for the kind words as always. I'm going to try go get my shit posted more often as I've started attending the local SoCal sketchgroup that our rockstar leader Trevor started. So maybe I'll actually prove my bloody metal instead of being the posterboy for slack. Still struggling with a lingering slump, and STILL trying to get the kinks worked out of working digitally.

So here's a bit of noodling from the sketchgroup, ahh.. comfort zones.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/shipthumbs-1.jpg

And here's a tank, kinks and all. This probably isn't done. I may add some differing material rendering or surface details, and maybe a pilot for scale, but I'll probably let it settle for now. Oh, and if you see the secondary front wheels, don't mistake them being tucked away and retracted for screwy perspective. If there's one thing I try to be obsessive with, its ye olde perspective.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/mmaurino/tank.jpg

[steve kim]

ah sf workshop feels like yesterday...

btw your last paintings are feeling kinda dark. brighten things up mr gloom and doom!

<3 steve

[Cold]

Your second post you did in October two years ago, I love the most, can't knock your spencil skills, really juicy.

[4rt-r41d]

Hole hell, thats some serious stuff! love it, keep posting :)

[Blaz]

Excelent indeed! Dig the spaceship designs (they all rule,i dont see "complete crap" ones there :) )
Love your line work,looks great with thicker outline and nice shading!

[Max Challie]

I became interested in your sketchbook after seeing your avatar, which looked like futuristic armour for futuristic warfare. Very good looking vehicle designs, I like them!

[Kan Muftić]

Pure love.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

I became interested in your sketchbook after seeing your avatar, which looked like futuristic armour for futuristic warfare. Very good looking vehicle designs, I like them!

you just bumped a thread that hasn't been updated in 2 years....

dont fucking do that.
there are about 30 to 40 sketchbooks updated TODAY that you can comment on.

[Max Challie]

Don't most people follow through signature links anyway?

[BorisN]

Verry Nice work:) can you tell me what is your inspiration? I love sf and this pictures are great.. verry talented . .

[Helium Macaroni]

Yeah, been a while.. splat.

947131

[PHATandy]

wow ive been dreaming of this day... pretty much since u last posted.
Love your work. Your designs and ID stuff are so awesome.

Just keep posting more! So glad your posting again :D

[Hideyoshi]

shit, now we need to wait another 3 years for the next awesome splat.

[soros]

I am looking forward to more pencil sketches. :)

[TheDirtSyndicate]

haha, well its good to know you aren't dead.
moaaar!!!!

[Helium Macaroni]

More pencil sketched you say? A reasonable request.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16789

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16788

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16787

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16786

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16785

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16784

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16783

[Zeitwolf]

cool! The dolphin in the suit reminds me of (don't read further, if you don't like sentences like this) Poipoider from the anime The Mars Daybreak.

Lovely pencils, you have nice comic style to draw faces

[Helium Macaroni]

Aaaaannnnd.. stuff in pen/marker.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16781

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16780

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16779

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16778

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16776

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16775

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16774

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16772

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16771

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16769

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16768

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16767

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16765

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16764

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16763

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3015&pictureid=16762

[DanielC]

oh lordy lord...

Cool pages man !

[2kre8]

wow awesome sketchbook, i love the imagination how do u do that:}

[eparts]

such a lovely moleskine filled with scifi-candy :) really like your renders :)

[ulvdemon]

Again, outstanding work. Keep up the great job.

[Helium Macaroni]

I posted these a bit back on my blog but figured since I never update it I'd throw them on here.. I plan on finishing them at some point.. ("plan" aka probably never going to finish).

A bit of an introduction: This is a fan-fic-esque exploration I'm doing of Transformers, my childhood love. The concept is divergent from what the original TF Generation 1 storyline was. It focuses on the Autobots and Decepticons, post-awakening, allying themselves with the major world powers of the 1980's, primarily the United States and the Soviet Union. There's a bit more of a political slant on it dealing with the Autobots being attracted towards the civilian vehicles of the U.S. while the Decepticons, finding themselves in Soviet Russia, infiltrating into the U.S.S.R. military and intervening in the Afghanistan quagmire, changing the balance of power and causing the 'cons and 'bots to pick sides in the Cold War. A tyranical Megatron offers to grant the Soviets unmatched technological power in exchange for control of the entire Warsaw Pact and its resources, while a crazed president Regan begs the reluctant Optimus Prime and Autobots to act as the U.S.'s deterrent akin to the Strategic Defense Initiative which the real Ronald Regan was enamored with.

For the first messings around here's Megs. He's modeled after a Soviet T-80 Tank. He, as with most of the Decepticons will be modeled after 80's Soviet Hardware. Instead of the Seekers (Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker) being modeled on American F-15 Eagles, they'll be modeled after Soviet MiG-29's. Other Decepticons will be similarly modeled on strictly Soviet military vehicles.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3033&pictureid=16962

For Prime, he's modeled after a Kenworth K100 with sleeper cab. Not much different than what he's based after in the cannon TF universe, however the K100 with the sleeper cab makes for more girth, an extended rear wheel frame and some interesting bevels and angles to play with.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=3033&pictureid=16963

The following is a list of additional 'bots who will be similar to thier TF:G1 alts but different vehicles for flavor and fun.. and some more practical robot modes.

Bumblebee - Pontiac Fiero (yellow)
Jazz - Porsche 911
Ironhide - Ford Bronco II
Mirage - DMC Delorian
Sideswipe - Chevy Corvette hardtop (red)
Sunstreaker - Chevy Corvette convertible w/spoiler (yellow)

[JustinBeckett]

Syyyyck robot designs!! Keep it up, looking good!

[Waterbird]

Yes! The thinking-man's Transformers. I love it. The dolphins too.

[soros]

Thanks for the pencils! Great dolphin ideas!

[Kurt.Y]

very solid works man!love your transformers!