Sketchies by Yours Truly

[Xenmurok]

Sorry to delete this junk, but it's not worth showing since people don't quite 'get it'

Whatever .. . :dead:

[purb36]

yo stac,
hott. nice doodles; designs seem very classic.
cant wait till you break out the good stuff...hott!

nice to have you aboard. >:D

[Xenethyl]

I'm no professional when it comes to character design and especially anatomy, but from what I can tell it looks like most of the characters are extremely skinny. I can see that working in some cases, but for the characters like the female knight you posted I would expect to see some thicker limbs representative of muscles. Unless you were going for a much more skinny look, which you managed to capture.

Like I said, I am in no way educated in the specifics of anatomy in drawings, but my general observation is that they look pretty skinny. Otherwise I really like the concepts, especially the costume designs. Very good work.

EDIT: It seems as though you have improved a lot (or just didn't post all of your sketches the first time) on the character's body structure since your original post. I really like the concepts of that dark wizard kind of guy. Very cool. Awesome up-close drawings of the characters as well.

[Xenmurok]

These are more guys. Geez, I have plenty. Anyhow--Meph goes into the video game--at the end (not to spoil). AND the wraith is one of the monster baddies.


http://img295.echo.cx/img295/2379/crmephis0gm.jpg
THIS IS one of my recent more completed works (rather than sketches). It looks better darkened--I have a moonlight Photoshopped version that is darling!
GO Meph GO! Kill those elves! Anyhow, I'm miffed that I ran out of paper to finish up the arm. I guess I'll have to live with the guilt.

http://img295.echo.cx/img295/5876/crwraith6yq.jpg
Wraith before photoshop

http://img295.echo.cx/img295/5169/wraith2cr4zb.jpg Wraith after photoshop--any questions? It has been recommended that I fix the right hand so that it seems--more defined.

[purb36]

nice stuff stac.

some crits (though you're done with these pics already):
the shot of lore from whatever building of school that was in ( ;) ): lore's pose looks kinda unnatural, a little stiff. the windows also look a little out of perspective, or were they like that? i dunno. which building was it from, btw? rocky? slums? yeah, i know its an old sketch...im just sayin...

i love the one of lore kissing/biting the girl. the expressions are priceless.

if youre gonna keep updating this one, you might want to think about getting it moved to the "sketchbooks" section of the forum. just a thought.

anyway, looking for more good stuff here, as per usual. sayoonara. :ninja:

[Xenmurok]

Yeah, I am going to hop there. :confident

I think I'm going to divide my stuff between the two--i don't know.

[Xenethyl]

...Yeah, they look skinny--they are scribblies. I am not trying to make these peeps look photo-realistic when I'm working on their design. I have several stages that I undertake when making characters. It's kinda like brainstorming. Here I'm posting my brainstorms. They look cartoonish and slightly atrociously out of proportion--but I get the ideas down and then use them to do more elaborate pieces for the portfolio. So--stay tuned. You're going to see a huge gamut of style and drawing intencity--different stages--and some of the final products. :wink:
Glad you checked it out. I'm peacing out now, though. Gotta hit the weights.

I understand completely. Like I said, that was only my general observation. I look forward to seeing your future works. :)

[BMunchausen]

First - the good: I think it's great that you have so many ideas and so much ambition and so much enthusiasm for what you're doing.

Then - what-needs-work: Your figures, doodles or not, lack dynamism, proportion, rhythm, appeal...even in sketches, accomplished draftsmen (and women) have all these things and they are necessary in creating compelling characters. If you don't strive for that by studying anatomy and also by trying to reach beyond the cliche fantasy characters, then you'll just be dooming yourself to mediocrity.

I wouldn't even bother posting 6 year old drawings. Concept artists draw so much, they fill sketchbooks in record time with this sort of thing - focus on what you can do NOW, and keep pushing yourself to learn, learn, learn. Get more anatomy under your belt, look at as many references as you can to give your designs more interest and study your pencil technique (and others) so you can give the most information, mood and interest, with the least amount of work.

At this stage, your work to me is largely sort of stiff, awkward and blah, tonally. Everything's a dull middle gray, and there's no sense of light on anything.

Those really finished portraits are obviously done from some kind of reference and they don't even look like they were done by the same artist, they're so much better and show so much more investment in them. Please don't take all this too hard - you have the potential to be very good if you don't allow yourself to become too satisfied with what you have so far, and concentrate more on expanding your skill set. Best of luck to you!

[Xenmurok]

First - the good: I think it's great that you have so many ideas and so much ambition and so much enthusiasm for what you're doing.

Then - what-needs-work: Your figures, doodles or not, lack dynamism, proportion, rhythm, appeal...even in sketches, accomplished draftsmen (and women) have all these things and they are necessary in creating compelling characters. If you don't strive for that by studying anatomy and also by trying to reach beyond the cliche fantasy characters, then you'll just be dooming yourself to mediocrity.

I wouldn't even bother posting 6 year old drawings. Concept artists draw so much, they fill sketchbooks in record time with this sort of thing - focus on what you can do NOW, and keep pushing yourself to learn, learn, learn. Get more anatomy under your belt, look at as many references as you can to give your designs more interest and study your pencil technique (and others) so you can give the most information, mood and interest, with the least amount of work.

At this stage, your work to me is largely sort of stiff, awkward and blah, tonally. Everything's a dull middle gray, and there's no sense of light on anything.

Those really finished portraits are obviously done from some kind of reference and they don't even look like they were done by the same artist, they're so much better and show so much more investment in them. Please don't take all this too hard - you have the potential to be very good if you don't allow yourself to become too satisfied with what you have so far, and concentrate more on expanding your skill set. Best of luck to you!

Thanks for droppin' by. These are my 'sketches'--for design, not my finished 'art' for design. I did post a few samples of my 'more finished' art . Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for the encouragement!
Admittedly, I go back a lot. Because of the 20+ hours it takes to complete a 3d work, I hash out my designs in elementary forms--somewhat like an artistic 'shorthand.' It was darling of you to offer your advice. I appreciate the intentions.

[look]

It seems your older work are better (those face drawings). Your figures are rather stiff, and could use more work on anatomy. It's good to see you not using straight lines for arms and legs, but muscles don't quite work as the way you draw it either. And the figure proportions are off. Try a few gesture drawings, without clothes, just circles and lines, see how you compose the figure and how they turn out. They will give you better ideas about your works.

[Xenmurok]

I'm closing this thread and moving on. This wasn't helpful-- :[