The Benihana Book (update 4/27/07) Painter Tutorial

[bdfoster]

Go to the end of the thread for recent works!

(moved to next post for easier editing of thread title)

I'll try and get stuff from the last week or so scanned in and up over the weekend. As always, C&C is more than welcome and especially appreciated.

[bdfoster]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook2.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook2b.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook9.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook3.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook4.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook5.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook6.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook7.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook11.jpg
Some Bird studies:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook10.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook12.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook14.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook15.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook17.jpg

A brief phoenix obsession:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook16.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook25.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook27.jpg
A decent drawing that died a slow death when inks got in there:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook28.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook18.jpg

The figure on the ground is very poorly realized:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook19.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook20.jpg

Playing with the snake/human hybrid, based off a facial appliance a friend has:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook21.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook22.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook23.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook24.jpg
A color comp for a kids book pitch I'm working on:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook26.jpg

An awful elven mummy design for a gaming cover:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook29.jpg

[bdfoster]

Some anatomy studies:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook30.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook31.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook32.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook33.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook34.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook35.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook36.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook37.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook38.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook39.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook40.jpg

Random Armor and costume designs (to be actually constructed)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook41.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook42.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook43.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook44.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook57.jpg

A terrible page of stuff from the head:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook45.jpg

Some studies from ref:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook46.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook47.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook48.jpg

Thumbnail and a few studies for a SF piece I'm working on:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook13.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook49.jpg

Attempts at figures and faces w/ no ref:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook50.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook51.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook52.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook54.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook55.jpg

[bdfoster]

Sketch for the last C.O.W. that I ran out of time to take to paint (I need to go digital!)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook53.jpg

Some rough ideas for a SF baseball piece I'm in trying to hammer out. (robots and baseball, what's more american?):
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook56.jpg

C&C is greatly appreciated

[Miau]

really good stuff here!
keep updating!

[bdfoster]

Experimented a bit in digital paint over the weekend. Most of it was done in "Painter Classic" which came with my Wacom. I have no idea what I'm doing with it. I'm frankly scared of what will happen when my copy of Painter IX comes-- I think I'll be way over my head.

I also seem to have some sort of "digital disconnect" What meager drawing skills I have seem to go out the window when I try to sketch digitally. Oh well. Keep banging at it, right?

Here's a sketch for an RPG cover. The creature is described as a ritually summoned predator composed of the bones of various animals and held together with energy. This one fails miserably, in my opinion:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook59.jpg

Here's another sketch for my robot baseball. A little better than the last, but also a little more sketchy:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook58.jpg

After getting frustrated with Painter, I went over to photoshop, which I understand a little better. I also decided that, since my digital drawing skills were crap, I'd try and just color an existing drawing. Nod to Mike Corriero for some of the technique to approaching the image:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook60.jpg

[bdfoster]

Working comp for that SF piece a few posts back:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/WhenlastIsawthesunrise.jpg

There's a number of issues I have with it that I'm still trying to work out. I'll likely take the tracing paper to it to try and figure the background out a little better, or I may use it as an opportunity to hone more of my digital skills.

Here's another sketch for the piece I'm in the middle of right now. I'll try and get a WIP picture up soon:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Ascension.jpg

[bdfoster]

Ugh... A sketch for the Swamp Creature COW this week:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook61.jpg

Hoping to go digital on it tonight and bump the color. Finally got Painter IX in, so I'll likely flounder around in that.

[Number_6]

Wow, you're awesome.

[Recursive_End]

Really nice stuff !! More please :)

[D.Labruyere]

hello bdfoster :)

your stuff is awesome, really like the things you are doing here.

to give a crit;

your heads look really, and then I mean really nice when they are standing in a way so that you can see like 3/4 of them. But in other poses they look a bit less.

nice stuff nontheless.

[S.C. Watson]

Heya,

You've got some really nice stuff here - *LOVE* the pencil works!

Cheers,
~Oreg.

[Sawa]

great stuff! the animals and figure stuff is awesome.
i like the shading on the 2nd piece from post 7. hurry up with the wip man! i cant wait :D
keep rocking!

[spacemanchris]

your work is very interesting. Although the quality is sort of inconsistant. Some of your figures are spot on and beautfiul while others are sort of awkward and positioned strangely. the heads on many of your characters get a little small at times. It's hard to crit since you get it right in some images. Just keep it up, I suppose. I look forward to seeing more of your work!

[bdfoster]

Number 6, Recursive End, Sawa-- Thanks for the kind words.

Haldor-- thanks for the note on faces. Do you mean my 3/4 views are the strongest, and the rest (front, side, bottom, etc) lacking? Faces from my head kill me

Oregano-- (Oregano is in my skecthbook?!? Rock!!!) Thanks! Pencil is definitely where my preference lies. I just need to get better at the constructing part.

SpaceManChris-- I'll put money on the fact that the inconsistincies you're looking at are driven by whether I was working with reference or completely from my head. Reference is definitely where my skills are, but it's too much of a crutch for me at the same time. That #2 sketch in post 7 is evidence of it-- you'll see more when I post the painting in progress. I had great reference, but leaned too hard on it and realized 1/2 way into painting it that the concept was lacking. For one, it looks too much like he's carrying a woddsman's axe, which wasn't the intent. Check back when I get the WIP up. You'll see what I mean!

Thank you all for looking and commenting!

[D.Labruyere]

yup, your 3/4 views are the strongest :)

[BAKI]

wow, you got some good stuff going on here
the realistic work is top notch, and i like our creature designs
keep em comming

[Fallen]

I really love all the details you put in our pics, they're awesome!! :D
But i think that sometimes you're portraits ( faces ) aren't as nice, work on those. Anyhow , <3 I can't wait to see more!

[bdfoster]

Here's that painting WIP:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Ascensioninprogressreduced.jpg

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the sketch followed my reference a little too closely. I'm back to the drawing board on it, trying to hammer out some of the detail of the axe, especially. I've also given him the beard to age him a bit, and a guantlet on his right arm to say "warrior" a little more.

Here's another sketch that I'm gonig to have the same problems with:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Watersedge.jpg

[D.Labruyere]

nice update, I like the last one, though I think though one of your mayor focusing points will be the hand he isn't coming forward enough. Maybe make the pool of water opposite. Now you are having a triangle pointing to us, maybe try to reverse that, and make it a triangle pointing to the guy with the sword. Then you will have the hand in top of the triangle, which makes your eye automatically looking to that. And else maybe make the hand a bit bigger or something, so that it raises more out of the water.

[Gloominati]

yeah some cool stuff you got in here, mate! I really like the WIP painting I am really excited how it will turn out finished!!
I also like the studies but watch the size of the heads, they tend to be a biit too small in your drawings!
Keep on rocking mate, you're doin good!!

[bdfoster]

Haha!! Apparently I've been looking at too much El Greco! (master of the 12-13 head figure) Time to get out the anatomy books and get back to measured proportions.

Thanks for the crits guys!!

[Bruce Pluto]

I like your stuff dbfoster,

your pencil work I like the best. Its really fun and creative.

see ya, Bruce

[spacemanchris]

the lighting in the torch painting is really nice. I'm sure it's because it's a WIP, but the flame looks a bit clumpy. I could also see making the main core of the picture darker, give some more contrast to the strong blue light and strong torch light.

the pencil drawing looks great. I wouldn't say drawing from reference is a crutch, it's hard to do and mastering that gives your "from the head" stuff a lot more knowledge for you to base it off of. And you really get the from reference stuff. Are you using photos or live subjects? Either way, great work.

[SirGreenSock]

The torch painting is quite stunning so far. The lighting looks great. I agree with spacemanchris in that it could use more contrast. Also, the one thing that is bugging me is his grip on the torch seems really loose. I'd bring it further into the hand to show a stronger grip.
The second picture looks good, but I cant quite figure out what angle its being viewed from. The foreshortening suggests a top-down view, but the background and the hand reaching up suggest something a bit closer to eye-level.

[Number_6]

Looks pretty good to me.

[bdfoster]

Spent most of last night working on my COW. Then, instead of my CHOW entry, this guy came out. Oh well!!

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook62.jpg

[D.Labruyere]

I really like him, don't know anything to crit him about...

[Number_6]

It's good. I think his left arm is a little short though, and his face doesn't stand out enough from the armour.

[Gloominati]

thats pretty cool mate!! You should try to add some more texture because everything seems to be made of the same material in here, try to work with the contrast a little bit more and try to use some of your blackest blacks to make the image pop.

[Mike Frank]

Awesome variety of stuff in here. I envy that really sweet tonal control you got going on. I tend to agree with gloominati.. a touch more of darks would make these a lot stronger. Really good stuff though.

[bdfoster]

Not sure who follows the "Illustration Activity" thread, so I figured I'd post this here. My first attempt at using Painter IX. I feel so lost.

There are a few drawing problems-- like size of hands and feet relative to the body. If the Thunderdome doesn't eat up too much of my time I may go back and clean up the glaring errors in the sketch.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/CAOrg%20Activities/SciFiWizard.jpg

More scans later in the week.

[Number_6]

His staff is awfully large. Still, it looks pretty good.

[D.Labruyere]

nah, that staff is nice :P (bigger is better ^.^) and well... then his hand just mutated to get big enough for the staff :D

ghehe, the piece is nice and you already have seen your own mistakes :)

[bdfoster]

Playing again in Painter IX rather than scanning the sketchbook. Back to the basics: Gesture Drawing.

Care to guess which ones had reference? (It shouldn't be too hard)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook65.jpg

[koshime]

Hey, great start there, Some strong 2D 3/4 views and a range of subjects and versatility

Approaching the Digital Domain

When I started scanning in my line drawings and attempting paint overs, I had alot of issues. I still do.

The logic behind this is such: if i scan in my images, then all the values (dark/lights) are already taken care of, so i just paint over/colourise/multiply right?

Well - there are many technical issues.
1/ you might need to clean an image up
2/ a paintover includes alot of "greyness" in the paint over and the paintover is challenging to achieve that completed look. I.e is tends to be very graphic novel-ly unless one

1/ paints over the hard lines
2/ blends background and subject drawn together - making it look at the worst times, like slush, and great when perfected
3/ colour is a different master to the greyscale painting/drawing

Solutions?
the old masters either coloured over their detailed b&W value studies on canvas and achieved the desired effect or they started off with colours already in mind and blended the colours to achieve midtones, hues, and forms.

Well - actually, they rarely used B&W, but rather, sepia/umber yellows on yellow parchment, and thus the skin tone would be variations of that basic yellow, with highlighting/shadows to give shape and form

In this digital age, we have white photocopier paper and pencils abundant. When scanned in, cleaned up and contrast added you either painted over the scaned image with an adjustment layer or made the scanned image a multiply layer and paint below on the canvas, and merged it in later.

have fun!

[Number_6]

Looks good to me.

[D.Labruyere]

when doing something like that your lines form shape, watch your places where you put thicker and thinner lines, so you give at one picture the arms really thick lines, making them seem really thick, which makes them compared to the legs not correct.

[bdfoster]

@Koshi--
Thanks for the kind words and the further explanation of your philosophy. I'm glad you made your way over to my book, because I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot to learn from you.
@#6-- Thanks. ;-)
@Haldor-- line weight is certainly something I try to be aware of. These were all quick 1-2 minute gestures, tops, and I tried to worry more about proportion and pose than about line weight. Plus, I'm really not used to the Wacom and painter yet. I think I was using the scratchboard tool on these, which offers a lot of variation in line, a little too quickly. I'll keep playing.

[Mike Frank]

Nice gestures man, really good sense of weight. I really like that Illustration Activity piece also, would like to see that tightened up. Good stuff.

[bdfoster]

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Lots of family crap going on right now that's distracting me from art....

Reworked the soldier from earlier a bit:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook62A.jpg

I actually thought I was going to manage to finish something for this weeks CHOW (Mortimer). Here's the thumbnail roughs:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook66.jpg

A rough sketch:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook67.jpg

And a final pencil sketch:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook68.jpg

[bdfoster]

Here's a page of hands. I busted out Bridgeman this week, since I was feeling a little lax in my anatomy. These are studies after his:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook70.jpg

Some dragon studies for a project:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook69.jpg

And a Drow Psionicist:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook71.jpg

Hope to get more stuff up soon, and have more time to comment. Sorry...:bashful:

[Number_6]

I like the drow. Her right arm seems a bit off though. On the goblin soldier-in-a-dress the arm seems too long and the hand seems to be at an awkward angle. Good work though.

[D.Labruyere]

nice update, I really like those dragon-heads on the drow I have the feeling that the mouth is just a bit to far to the left. good job :)

[Mike Frank]

Sweet updates. I really dig the CHOW entry, cool design for that guy. The Hogarth studies look pretty spot on also. The dragons are fun, would like to see some bodies on them. A small crit on the dragon at bottom left.. the gums in his mouth seem too simple in form.. they should be sockets for the teeth and show off a little bit of their form. The drow chick is cool, the hands and the arms are really expressive. The skirt feels a little bit as if you are hiding the legs.. reason I think that is because I feel as if I should see a little bit of the foot poking out.. the foot should be about the same length as the forearm. Also on her facial expression - if you are going for tension in the eyebrows.. like concentration or anger, bring those brows in a bit closer to the top of the eye. Where they are placed now seems about where they would be at it if the brows were at rest or relaxed. All in all looking good though! Keep it up.

[jtheanswer]

Ive seen lots of good crits coming from you on other threads, so I said, why not visit your SB? And here I am, and you ve got good stuff. I like your pencil lines and cross hatching.
Keep em coming.

[bdfoster]

#6-- Thanks for the crit. Her arm is a little off-- I think it's an issue with the foreshortening and the overall length of her forearm relative to her upper arm. I still can't quite fix it, but it's been bugging me.

Haldor-- Thanks. I defaulted to my "cartooning" approach with the face, and so her mouth became a little too much of a charicature of the expression. It's mostly the side of her mouth on our right that's the issue. I'll have to see if I can fix that without losing the expression.

Mike/Some Guy-- Really good call on the dragon. I'm not even sure it occurred to me when I was working on it, but there should be much more texture to the gums. Also good call on the Drow's eyes. I'm not sure I agree about needing the foot in there. Floor length skirt and all with lots of motion in it... I may see about giving a little more indication to the foot, but I'm not sure I *need* it.

Mr theAnswer ( :teeth: )-- Thanks for stopping in! Where did you see my crits? I really don't feel like I've been giving them enough-- I'm still very much the lurker in these forums....

Alright. No update for me because of Turkey Day and the SSG TDome. I've still got a lot of work to do...

[Gloominati]

yeah man, I really love these hands, more of that please!! The character designs look great as well!
Keep up the good work, mate!!

[bwkeough]

hey nice set of sketches in here!

Where are you in CT? There's a semi-regular group that meets at the New Britain Diner (in New Britain). If it's not too far and you have the time, you would be a welcome addition.

Brendan

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38490&page=5

[bdfoster]

hey nice set of sketches in here!

Where are you in CT? There's a semi-regular group that meets at the New Britain Diner (in New Britain). If it's not too far and you have the time, you would be a welcome addition.

Brendan



Brendan--

Thanks for the invite. I live in South Windsor right now while we finish building a house in Ellington. I work in Farmington at my day job, so work is really not that far from where you guys are meeting. The biggest issue is that I've got a 4 month old at home, and a wife who is (relatively) disabled-- 3 spinal surgeries= lots of hardware and lots of pain. So time is the big factor. Do you guys only meet on weeknights? How late/early? Weeknights might be tough for me just because of the whole "bedtime routine" thing for the boy. Any weekend afternoons in there? I'd love to get into a "local" SSG type-thing.

As an aside, I checked out your SB. Really nice stuff, but no update since August?!!? I'm pretty lax in updating lately due to the holidays and house building, but I hope I don't fall that far behind. I need to see more work!

[bwkeough]

it's been mostly Wedneday nights at 7pm but the last couple times it's been Mondays -- trying to work around folks' schedules. It sounds like you have your hands full at home, I don't want to provide a complication for you. We haven't discussed weekend meetings, but I suppose that might be a possibility.

Yeah, that sketchbook thread of mine is gathering dust! I have at least one book that needs to be scanned, maybe two. I tend to dump a pile of work at once when I have time to sit, scan and resize. I prefer to do this with book and a six-pack of beer at my side. :)

[bdfoster]

How late are you guys(/gals) usually there until?

[bwkeough]

until 10pm at least.

[Slash]

I apologize for neglecting your sketchbook.. You have some very nice pieces, i espescially love the progress on your mortimer character. I dont really have any useful crits for you, and i think i've already given you my 2 cents in the ssg7 forum. So all that is left to say, is:


ROCK ON!

[Xastic]

Wow, your animal studies are terrific

[mentler]

Post and thy crits will come <> good looking book <> critters are better than humans which is often the case because we have less preconceptions about them <> now new stuff please

[bdfoster]

@Xastic-- Thanks. I need to start studying animal anatomy more, since these are really straight from reference. Or as I said to one of my friends recently "All of my animals from my head end up with human anatomy"

@Mentler-- Thank you Dr Bone. New stuff will hopefull be coming soon once the new scanner comes in (old one is dead), but likely not a lot of it. (Blah blah holidays, sick as a dog, building a new house, studio packed up in boxes, Blah blah blah /excuses) I'll take my licks like a man on that one, 'cause I know I've been slacking despite all my excuses....

In the meantime, here's a couple of the sketches used to prep for the T-Dome:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook72.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook74.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook75.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook76.jpg

[Gloominati]

cool 'new' stuff dude. Where is your final, todays the t-dome deadline,right? I am really looking forward to see yur finished piece :D
keep rocking,dude!

[gmags]

Nice SB there BDFOSTER. You have nice shading skills there. And your animal sketches are awesome. Keep postin. :)

[D.Labruyere]

I've seen them, and they're absolutely amazing :) hope you get your final to look kick-ass.

[bdfoster]

cool 'new' stuff dude. Where is your final, todays the t-dome deadline,right? I am really looking forward to see yur finished piece :D
keep rocking,dude!

Today's the deadline?!? For some reason I thought we were on a Friday deadline (the 6th). I'm pretty sure there's no way for me to finish that piece today-- I've got contractors coming to finish the new house tomorrow and I'll be spending the night at Home Depot picking up supplies for them. I can't wait to be moved in and actually have some time to draw/paint again!

[necromisanthropiak]

Jeah! Quite good drawings, however I see some irregular here. Some of your works are very high level (refers?), some not. Great character concepts, swamp creature!! (my english is very bad but I want tell something more than "I like your style". I hope you understand me) ;)
______________________________

My Dark Visions... (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57906)

[Number_6]

I think the elf is your strongest piece here, but there are some length issues with the arms, and I think his rear ankle might be too small.

[mentler]

Great action on the last one dude <> keep em' comin'

[Mike Frank]

I agree those poses on the last update are kicking ass dude! Awesome.

[spacemanchris]

nice work! the samurai dude with the spider-vase is my favorite. YOu've got some interesting and dynamic poses going too.

[Helzon]

Great dynamism and expressions BD! love the hand studies, and Mortimer final sketch is fantastic! Keep up the fine work. And as always there's a seat for you at the sketchgroup whenever you want. Cheers!

[Helzon]

Bumpity bump....Update bro, some of us need to see your brilliance in action.
:)

[bdfoster]

Bumpity bump....Update bro, some of us need to see your brilliance in action.
:)

Hahaha! Alright, alright. I don't have the PC up and running in the new house, but I'll try and get it moving and scan some shizzit sometime between now and the big game.

[bdfoster]

I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "This guy still has a sketchbook?!??!" Yep, I'm still here. Been very busy with the holidays, a new baby, building a new house, and a minor artistic crisis of confidence. But I've been still working through it all. I'll be slow to update for at least another month or so, as we've just gotten into the new house and life is a pile of boxes right now. Anyway, the updates:

I blame Oregano for pointing me into Marko's Degenesis world. I was enraptured, to say the least:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook77.jpg

Got very frustrated with my creatures, and started to experiment with abstract shapes as a basis. This was the beginning of an emotional downhill slide for me:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook78.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook79.jpg

My pages just got worse from there:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook81.jpg

(Bad Bridgeman studies):
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook80.jpg

Things got better, but not good. Here's some sketches from in front of the TV and lunchbreaks:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook82.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook84.jpg

Ballpoint sketch while I was on the phone with DSIllustration:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook83.jpg

Decided I needed to practice anatomy, so I went back to Stephen Rogers Peck and the "bare bones":
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook85.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook86.jpg

Anyway, lots of crap to weed through this post, but it's an update!!!

[NightVision]

Hey there, really nice sketchbook you've got. Loved the animals on the first page (birds, fishes, ..), they have that little extra in tone & shape that makes me keep looking at them. Nice creature and character sketches too.

I'm pretty impressed that you keep drawing with all those things on your mind, don't worry about the quality too much, each bit you do will pay off when you got the time to get things kicking again.

About the abstract shapes, make sure they work with your design, it's distracting to have the knee & heel touch on that 2nd creature. In fact, I think you have a natural feel for shapes (like the telephone doodle), so maybe let your 'feeling' do most of the work, and not so much your mind. :)

I'm liking how you mix ref, non ref and study, maybe some more life drawing would be good though (ignore me if you're just not posting it) !

See ya !

[Number_6]

It's all great stuff, my only issue is with the legs on the first guy. They don't seem correct.

[MrBobMarley]

Pretty cool work in here man. Liked what I saw on both pages. Your style can be dynamic at times and it works well. I like the "stop drawing like bridgeman" line. I do that all the time.

[Helzon]

I applaud you grinding everything back down to the structure and building back up from that. I like the way you are hitting those markers of anatomy where they look natural to the eye.(of course with the exception of the monsters and such). Great update!
Cheers!

[bdfoster]

Nightvision-- Thanks for the pointers. the abstract thing was a bit of an exercise to try and push my "design sense". I'm feeling pretty stagnant in my designs, so it seemed like and interesting exercise. As for the life drawing-- haven't done true nude studies from life in a few years. Still trying to fnid open sessions in the area. Makes me miss the college days.

#6-- I absolutely agree with you. That's what I get for not drawing the full figure and trying to establish a sense of weight first. That's partly why the legs are so unfinished.

MrBobMarley-- Thanks. I like the "dynamic at times". Wishing I could figure out how to make that "all the time". As for the Bridgeman-- that's why I actually stopped studying from his stuff. I find it's so dynamic, but like Hogarth I find it's too stylized for me-- I find myself trying so hard to emulate the style that I end up forgetting what it is I'm trying to learn. And so I'm back to Peck.

Helzon-- Thanks bro! I 'll have to get clarification from you as to what you mean about the "hitting the markers of anatomy" comment. But yeah... I think Mentler really got me back to thinking about the bones in anatomy, and I realized I needed to just started from the ground up again.

[bdfoster]

(Long Overdue replies):

Gloom-- thanks for the compliment. Wish I had time to finish that piece, but you may see it pop up in the SB once life settles down.

gmags-- Thanks for stopping by! Ya'll come back now, ya heah?

Haldor-- Thanks. Me too.

necromisanthropiak-- I understood you perfectly. Believe me, with all the bilingual people on this board, I feel like the "typical dumb american" limited to English and a spattering on Spanish. Thanks for the compliments. There are definite inconsistencies in my work, and it's often a combination of the amount of reference I have and the amount of time I spend on it. I see them too, but some days I get so tired of noodling for hours to get something from my head to look "right", so I leave it for what it is! You've got some great black and white stuff in your sketchbook, by the way.

#6-- noted. I'll take a look at the elf before that painting goes to final

Mentler-- :: humbled :: I'm waiting for the Mentler book to come out so I can study it along with my Bridgeman, Peck, Loomis and Goldsmith.

Some Guy-- thank you.

Spacemanchris-- Thanks man. As usual, the best stuf had reference (to a degree). Looking forward to more bird man studies. ;)

[Helzon]

Yeah man, the markers of anatomy...those spots on the human body that make it feel natural and proportional..the end of the bicep connecting to the elbow at near the same level as the bottom of the ribcage. The fingertips extending down no further than midthigh..etc...sorry to have been obtuse.

[bdfoster]

I was clearly the obtuse one. Should have known that's what you meant, I guess I was just confused at "making it look natural". Or rather, I didn't get why I was being complimented, since I felt there were so many failures in there. ;) (I am no Mentler)

[redehlert]

Consider myself hooked/jacked in to your SB, Ben!
I'm going to give this a thorough go-through tomorrow, but didn't want to forget to subscribe. Great skulls and Degenesis interpretation. The smiley face on the belt buckle is perfect. Stance is a beauty.
Cheers!
Dave

[bdfoster]

Dave-- Welcome aboard!! (:: rubs hands together evilly :: it seems my plan is working. hahahahaHAHAHA ::cough cough:: ... Uhm.... HAHAHAHA!)

Glad I've managed to jack almost the whole EmW crew into here. ;) Blame the CT peeps.

[Mike Frank]

Man this latest batch is really good all around. I especially like the one of the girl with the birds flying around her. Pose seems really solid with that one. That creature with all those crazy eyes is really awesome too. The degenesis character definitely has a good degenesis feel to the design. The pose of the legs and left arm feel a little awkward though, and I feel like some of the shadow areas on the skin could go a little bit darker for some more pop. Oh and those skull studies are sweet!! Keep it comin!

[D.Labruyere]

be a bit more cheerfull about your drawings, they look great!! I like the skull studies, they really show in a clear way what is going on, even better it is that you do them in different angles, maybe it is a idea to do some angles which you use a lot within your drawings, so that you can clearly see what's wrong and good about them :)

[dCepT]

Good sketches man! Like your hatching! Especially diggin' on this one (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook79.jpg)!

Keep 'em coming!

d-C

[bwkeough]

hey good looking set of updates man, keep it up!

[redehlert]

Dave-- Welcome aboard!! (:: rubs hands together evilly :: it seems my plan is working. hahahahaHAHAHA ::cough cough:: ... Uhm.... HAHAHAHA!)
Glad I've managed to jack almost the whole EmW crew into here. ;) Blame the CT peeps.
Hey Ben - happy to be aboard the good ship!
I have really enjoyed seeing so much progress since your SB launch! Love the animals and can't believe you didn't enter in your COWs and ChOW even though they were pencils. There's nothing against entering those. Word to the wise - :) - enter into the fray! Those were slick.
Keep it real, mate!
One thing that I would like to see more of is in the gesture of your characters (or creatures) - you're on a good beat right now, just don't lose that. Jumpin', divin', off balance, etc. That'd be sweet to see.
Cheers!
D

[Gloominati]

sweet stuff, dude!! thanks for making me realize that I need to work harder!! Awesome, more of this stuff please!

[koshime]

Good set of updates here mate.
I really like the ballpoint cross hatch approach for the dragon (perhaps becasue i love crosshatchign myself) and I think thre are some good character developments that woudl look great on a digital illustration (the fantasy styled dressed characters)

[bdfoster]

Some Guy/Mike--(too many Mikes!!!) Absolutely agree on the Degenesis character and the posing. I got frustrated as I went into rendering it, and so that one arm is ugly, and the legs just never got the right attention. The bird lady is one of my favs from that batch-- might take it to paint after I finish the 25 WIPs that are in the studio. Haha!

Haldor-- Thanks! Will keep the skull idea in mind next time I get into those studies (I'm moving through the skeleton right now, but will surely come back)

dCepT-- Thanks! More on the way!

B-dub-- Thank you! Awesome to finally meet you the other night!

Red/Dave-- Gesture is my enemy! (I said that at the Back-Booth Sketchgroup the other night. Trying to do comp thumbnails and realizing I need to really practice my action/gesture drawing. Time to bust out some reference!) As for the ChOW/COWs-- Slick, but not half as slick as the stuff that does go in there. I just need to learn the crazy digipaint speediness of Hurri or JasonChan!!

Gloom-- I realize I need to work harder every day!!

Koshi-- Thanks! Maybe I'll practice my digi (lack of) skills on one of these sketches!

More updates from the last week or so:

Random work doodles:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook87.jpg

Trying to "create" some anatomy....
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook88.jpg

...made me realize I needed to study anatomy(spine this week)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook89.jpg

Life Drawing from ref:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook90.jpg

More work/lunch doodles:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook91.jpg

Bad conceptualization for CoW:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook92.jpg

Lastly, a WIP that was intended for Valentines fo rmy wife, but never got finished. (Conte is the tool of the devil!!)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/KC-WIP.jpg

[Recursive_End]

Nice! Especially those baby faces.
Your getting closer. :)

[bdfoster]

RecursiveEnd-- Thanks! I've said it too many times before, but "When I've got good reference I can nail it." Working from good photos on the babies.

Oh yeah, I suppose I should cross post for those who missed it in this thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=61846)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Paintings/Teddy-Bear-Tea.jpg

[D.Labruyere]

ghehe, I missed it, looks great :)

one tiny crit though, the leg is a bit big and you posted this two months to late :P but for the rest looks quite nice actually :)

[redehlert]

BD!
I love your pencil work, mate! Totally slick. Regarding COWs and ChOWs - there's nothin' wrong with submittin' your pencils - they're that tight! :)
I see you got the Stephen R. Peck book out for anatomical referencing. I'm tellin' ya, if you read the sections on the bones and then review those drawings as you did above, they'll be makin' a lot of sense. It's funny because I happen to be doin' just that right now. This book really gives some wonderful tips and tricks any anatomy instructor/anatomist/biomedical illustrator does not know. :)
Your creatures are sweet. Love the dragon head in profile....that's my favorite. So simple yet such wisdom in the face.
Cheers!
D

[koshime]

dude. much better updates.
I reckong sketchbook 87 - the horse/wyrm like figure and Sketchbook 91 deserve a digital conversion for practise and artistic sake! Go for it dude

[Helzon]

Oh sweet update Ben!
Teddy-Bear-Tea has such great personality to it...goddam..
The baby portraits are incredible as well, please keep us posted on the progress on that one.
Can't wait to see more!
Cheers bro!

[Mike Frank]

Wow dude nice updates. The painting of the girl under the tree is great. Really has a good warm feeling to it. I like the babies also :) The crazy looking guy gripping his beard is really sweet too, definitely conveys a lot of personality. Good stuff dude!

[koshime]

curious - woudl we benefit form a group sketchbook

[D.Labruyere]

I think we will koshime, and if it doesn't it certainly is fun :)

[bdfoster]

I'm not sure if I replied to the PM on this. I like the idea. I've just been so swamped of late that I'm not sure how limited my participation would be.

[D.Labruyere]

yeah you replied, but andorz, gloom and slash haven't replied yet :)

[bdfoster]

Slash is MIA outside of the lounge

[D.Labruyere]

mia? :S (really bad in such things :P)

[libor]

cool stuff in your SB!! I dig your lunch doodles - simply stunning hatching (esp. love #88 doodles) - but I found some unconsistency in drawing quality ie. post 88 (the dragon head is in different league oppose to character beneath it).

and the horn/beard holding monster simply rocks (idea and execution is awesome)

Keep rocking!

[bdfoster]

mia? :S (really bad in such things :P)

Missing in Action.

Sorry, may just be an American military term.

[redehlert]

m.i.a. — it's also that british/sri lankan dance singer.....
galang! galang! galang!
hahahahaa....

[Prehistoric]

what's up ben?

thanks for stopping by and checking out (and hijacking:P ) my sketch thread.

got some good looking stuff here.

and thanks again for the crits, you left me some good advice that i'll definitely take to heart.

by the way, even if you don't join us, you are now an honorary member of the east meets west sketch group.

i'll keep poppin' in here, and next time i'll leave some detailed crits.

take care.

[redehlert]

hey ben!
glad to have ya in the EmW SBSG....
that's all i have to say...just happy. :)
cheers!
d

[Helzon]

hey ben...when you breakin out that sweet shwag you were working on Wed?
I think it was definitely headed in the right direction.

[redehlert]

yah....get to friggin' work, princess! ;)
seriously lookin' forward to your new imagined ideas.
cheers!
princess red

[bdfoster]

Haven't gotten to the scanner in a little while. Too much time as a corporate drone working the O/T. I did clean up the digicam a bit this weekend, though.

The wife finally got the "Chain of Drools" pic back around Washingtons birthday. Better late than never on Valentines:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Paintings/Valentines06.jpg
I had already put it under glass and given the gift when I realized I needed another photo of it, so there's a little bit of reflection from the glass showing through on the 2 largest faces there. Like any piece, now that I'm away from it and have a little time to look at it, there are things that are bothering me. I'll take it out of the glass to sign it (I forgot) and then I'll fix my issues and re-photograph. (I really think the piece needs more low-end value in the upper faces-- especially the top left and top right-- to push the contrast a bit more)

Also grabbed a better photo of the "Pop Pop and the Indian" piece:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Paintings/PopPopandtheIndian2.jpg

Not much else to show here, though I hope to hit the scanner and get some pages up this week, plus show some of my digital failures of late. heh. For almost a month away, I assure you it won't look like a lot.

[Number_6]

Wow, really nice stuff. Some of those babies look like old men though.

[Gloominati]

Oh dude some really awesome stuff goin on here. I really dig these last two illustrations. Really cool ,man!! more of that please :D

[bwkeough]

ah, nice to see some more finished work from you! great set of baby faces there. :D

[GRAPHITE REVOLVER]

good work on the babies. keep it up

[Dutton]

Hey Ben, wow man, I really like the chain of drools montage! The motorcycle piece is awesome too, but knowing just how hard babies can be to draw, I'm just very impressed at how well you've pulled it off without it looking overworked or accidently aging the baby.
On a different note, I completely relate to the trouble with finding time to update or even sketch when there's a dayjob in the way. You've got the added factor of being a family man. I admire the fact you find the time regardless. Glad to see an update and sorry it's taken me a while to finally post here (been looking for a while though).

[D.Labruyere]

last two are really nice :)

[Helzon]

Shwag, shwag, shwag....Someone needs to hup their ass to a scanner and get some of that fine sb up here...otherwise i'm gonna start calling you Nosho Shwaggins (one of bilbo's distaff cousins who secretly hoarded all his fine work and showed no-one). :}

[bwkeough]

yeah, Ben, it's saturday for cryin' out loud. get scanning. :P

[fooxoo]

Ohh, those babies are awesome, always hard to capture the lok of a child, you ve done well!

:teeth:!

[redehlert]

what's this? yer holdin' out on some sketches? pony up bud. :)
i want some butts!
cheers,
d

[bdfoster]

Mike (Helzon) has been referring to the secret stash as sweet schwag. I only agree in so far as I think we should burn it. ;)

It's been a rather unproductive couple of weeks. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Anyway, here we go:

My unsubmitted entry for the COW "portal opener". I was dissapointed everyone immediately went to "interdimensional portal" when the definition is really much simpler than that:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook94.jpg

A really off balance demon thing from Sketchgroup the other week:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook95.jpg

Random spider creature thing. Trying to work some "tech" into my overly organic sketches:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook96.jpg

More studies from Peck. Shoulder girdle, bones pt 1:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook97.jpg

DSIllustration recommended a great book called "Cyclopedia Anatomicae" ($10 from B&N). Great reference for both human and animal anatomy. I was looking at the apes one day....:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook98.jpg

Two Face. More proof that I can't draw hands from my head. I'll have to spend a good amount of time on that in my anatomy "homework" when I get there. The bottom face is also rotated too far towards the viewer for where the "hips" are. Oh well:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook99.jpg

replies:
libor Thanks. I agree on some of ths inconsistencies, though the one you pointed out to me I'm not sure I see. I did get commentary from my local peeps that the scan is way off on that-- lots of detail lost. BUt I'm working on being more consistent.

Zach/Prehistoric Thanks. Glad to be double dipping.

Dave/Georgia/Princess Red Thanks for the ass kicks and encouragement

#6 Thanks. Which ones?

Gloom I'm working on it, bro. I think it'll be about another month before I can really get back into spending time in the studio and painting. But I hope to show you more soon.

B-dub Thanks Brendan. I think I fixed the scanner issue that you and Mike were talking about. Let me know if these look closer to the real thing?

Graphite RevolverThanks man. I'm just happy my wife loved it.

Dutton/Mike-D Thanks for posting. I'm glad to see you around here-- I feel like I've got a lot to learn from you, bro. Overworked was definitely hard to avoid with the babies-- especially since that's my "natural" tendency. I think doing it in conte really forced my hand a bit towards a looser approach. As for the time thing-- yeah, life as a corporate drone is not the life I wanted, but I'm really having a hard time making the math work trying to do art full time. That, and I know my skills ain't there yet. It's been a rough month for me pondering that stuff, 'cause I manage to demotivate myself whenever I start to think that this is not a viable (financially) career.

Haldor Thanks. :)

Mike/Helzon You saw the schwag in person, but here it is for all to crit. I'll still take the Nosho Schwaggins title, though.

Fooxoo Thanks!

[Helzon]

LOL! Ben, now that's the stuff!
Man I think it goes beyond just the anatomy but also shows the depth of your imagination and how you fuse the various bits and bobs of creatures to form a new cohesive whole.
I mean the last one looks like it walked straight out of a Bosch scene. Really wild!

[T-Raktor]

Heheh niiiice work! I like the skulls, and the little babys heads. I want more :D

[Number_6]

The three bottom ones, though especially the two in the bottom left. Nice update today. Your hands aren't that bad, I think you just need to pay more attention to the width of the fingers and proportion of the palm/fingers.

[bwkeough]

ah, this is the afore-mentioned shwag!

nice update man, yeah, definitely these scans are much closer to real life.

[redehlert]

This image (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook95.jpg) and this image (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook99.jpg) are just rockin' my world, bud. GRRREAT!
For the first one I chose, off balance or not, I just love it. It's a swagger, I tell ya! And the second one is a riot - "Hello, my chin is the upper fella's crotch. Now, do me a favor and give me a square punch to the jaw." :)
MORE!!

[Helzon]

Yeah...now who's the man!?!? Hmmm? Yeah that's what I thought...now how bout those shwiggity shwag head studies?..I saw em, B saw em...
Let me put on my best car salesman suit and ask "What's it gonna take to get you to post em hotshot?" ;) How bout this deal?... I post one you post one, no matter how diggity shitty YOU may think it is. Cool?

[bdfoster]

Yeah...now who's the man!?!? Hmmm? Yeah that's what I thought...now how bout those shwiggity shwag head studies?..I saw em, B saw em...
Let me put on my best car salesman suit and ask "What's it gonna take to get you to post em hotshot?" ;) How bout this deal?... I post one you post one, no matter how diggity shitty YOU may think it is. Cool?

Dude, you're a trip. Even if our little psych session last night made me stupid late and got me in trouble with the wife. (She's been sick, and was hoping to get to bed early. I promised.... blah blah blah). But yeah... I appreciate you pulling teeth with me and making me face the issues I'm going through. I've been on a downhill slide with regards to my feelings about my art, the reality of finances and the viability (is that a word?) of a career in art while trying to support a family and pay the mortgage on a gorgeous brand new house. It's definitely an uphill battle, and every new struggle spirals into a much bigger issue than just the piece at hand-- it becomes a re-evaluation of my life and expectations and plans and dreams. Crap, listen to me ramble again. At least the new siggy line made me laugh. I need a dozer and then some....

I'll post the crappy faces and the crappy figure (I can't twist the torso from my head!) from last night in the next batch of updates... which, hopefully, will not take me another month to get up. Hopefully I'll have something to post to show you why I hate Painter too (and a PS experiment to show why I hate digital in general... or perhaps just hate my painting skills. ;) )

Everyday is a heaping mix of inspired, intimidated and frustrated. I'm trying to find the healthy balance in there instead of the unhealthy one. Inspired leads to more work which means less sleep which means overtired which means moody which means frustrated quickly, and it spirals down from there. What did I say last night? There's not enough hours, days, years...

SB's are journal-style entries, eh? Well there's a journal entry. "Dear Diary, last night Helzon and I had a long chat...."

[Helzon]

There has to be a way for me or someone(s) in this community to help you with 'rekindling' your passionate love for the language of visual arts. Call me a die hard bro...but from when I scoped the very beginning of your SB thread it convinced me that it would be a horrific tragedy if by measures it were eventually stripped away or forced to be let go. I realize and appreciate that the load you carry is especially heavy. Time demands are a real and appreciable part of life. Your child needs you especially now, your wife needs you, the dust bunnies under your couch need you..:). I think in some respect then..the art has to then become the contortionist. Perhaps it would be that you have to learn a new 'language' to convey those images that are aching to get out of your brain by using quicker compact style, or by some use of technology to aid the process along. I realize that that type of idea may present a paradigm shift..and be scary because it would be a departure from a style you have found comfortable.

Perhaps though, if there were a thread by which you could ask pros in very much the situation you find yourself in..that they may have some really killer tips on how they cope with the stress and strains and still get that artwork out there. Don't suffer in silence bro.

Please don't get me wrong...I don't have all the answers, nor do I profess to...In that addage about 'holes' one of two things are gonna happen someone's either gonna throw you a rope or they are gonna throw you a shovel...I'm just trying to lower down an escalator.
*scritch, scritch, scritch*...now where can I plug that bastard in?
Dave...bend over and brace yourself..you gigawatt of inspiration you.
LOL!
In all honesty ben, I know you can pull through this I got faith in ya. And wish you the best man.

[bdfoster]

Thanks man. Just be careful what you lower that escalator down onto. I've got a lot of crap down in this hole already. I don't want to wreck it.

As for asking the pros-- we discussed that answer. "Shut up and draw" :D

And Brendan-- I certainly wanted to thank you for the chitchat, also. I realized I was throwing it all on Mike when you were certainly an active part of that conversation and helping me get my head on straight. You guys rock.

[redehlert]

GROUP HUG!
And I mean that. I have the very same moments as you and, boy, do I have a lot of crap to sort through. Geez....us artists...I tell ya. :)
I think your work rocks, Ben and I am looking forward to your head studies and continued progress in your already impressive skill sets.

Kisses!
D

[Helzon]

Yeah big props to B and to you Dave. It's an incredible honor to know you all.
Cheers!...and here's me shuttin up and drawing...LOL!

[Fellah.]

I really like the last update with the creatures, bd.
Good stuff!

[bdfoster]

T-Raktor Thanks, more coming up

#6 Got it. I disagree on the baby faces, but it may just be because I see the kid everyday

B-dub Thanks, brau!

Dave and Mike I can't thank both of you enough. Really. It's funny how this little collection of 1 and 0's becomes a community, and even better friendships. You guys have pushed yourselves so far into the latter group it's silly. I'm buying if I raise the funds for Montreal.

Simon Thanks so much. Glad to see you popping in!

So on to the crapticular. Come one Come all! (two updates in one week? Is there a holiday?)

Digital colors escape me. But I'll keep banging my head against this one:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook53colorcopy.jpg

Random pen doodles on the back of a flyer while waiting in line at the bank. Nothing like trying to draw on a single sheet of paper on your leg:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook100.jpg

The aforementioned crappy faces, only now there are some better faces in there:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook101.jpg

The aforementioned crappy figure:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook102.jpg

Random creature 1/2 finished:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook103.jpg

That's all I got, but you didn't have to wait a month for it!!

[bwkeough]

the colors getting there, you just need to hit the values a little harder then go on top of the pencils with opaques -- nothing insurmountable.

this is the book I mentioned: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/071483839X/sr=8-1/qid=1143256072/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7721960-2701658?%5Fencoding=UTF8 $20 list, not $10 as I had thought. I'll bring it next week for you to borrow if you like.

[Helzon]

Two updates in a week indeed!
That first one...I could easily imagine the name "Left Sock Eater"
written under it. Simply for the flannel extension out it's ass.. I could see you doing another iteration of this in a more Mike Kunkel fashion...super toony and bursting with personality. As for the colors, they will develop..I agree with B...it looks like the value range could be pushed a bit more...but realize you haven't finished with it yet.
I gotta give ya big props for doing that while standing in line bro...to have that much control... my example would be full of pressure holes and look like I had the shakes. :scribble:
The heads are interesting...need a little tweak here and there..but that lower left head is the scene stealer...really spot on!
The one underneath is hysterical! Reminds me of Val Kilmer as Mad Martigan in Willow... And somehow he looks happy not to have calves or feet "Look at me nothing below the knee, it's a bit breezy but yeah Peck..where's Bavmorda, got some bitch sorceress ass to kick!" :tihi:
And with the last one I can see you really striving to capture that torso just right and then add a little tweak in there to make it part of the creature.
Great stuff bro. Keep this feast for the eyes flowin.
Cheers!

[Number_6]

Looking good! The upper right guy in your crappy faces page: Is he supposed to be Harrison Ford? His nose turns to the side too far, and his chin doesn't seem to be in line with the rest of his face.

[mitch]

hey man, your stuff is really looking good. i'm loving your drawings, they are very strong. keep up the anatomy studies and pay atttention to where your light is coming from. keep it up .

[D.Labruyere]

hi bdfoster, really like your last update a lot, I think a big problem with digital colors compared to rl (this is what I experience btw. . . ) is that you to fast just grab a blue if you want blue, though in rl you mix things and it looks more like one 'thing' . Maybe a good thing to do is make a color scheme before you start and stick to that. . . (but I'm sure you already knewthis :S )

[mentler]

Last critter is pretty cool <> Thanks as always

[redehlert]

I'll echo Mentler - that last critter is indeed cool!

Ben, tell me about your colorizing process - how do you paint, essentially. Perhaps I'll read something in your process that I can tweak or jedi mind trick you with.

Cheers!
D

[bdfoster]

I'll echo Mentler - that last critter is indeed cool!

Ben, tell me about your colorizing process - how do you paint, essentially. Perhaps I'll read something in your process that I can tweak or jedi mind trick you with.

Cheers!
D

How do I paint digitally or traditionally?
I'm not really sure I have a "technique" for either, but I would say that I at least have a "mindset" when it comes to traditional paint. I'm not even sure I have that for digital.

[redehlert]

tell me about the first colored image in your last batch and go through how you're colorizing it. does that make sense? i'm only suggestin' it since you spoke about digital colors escaping you - a feeling i still have, but am slowly grasping more.
if i can offer up any advice or point you to any insightful sights, i'll do that. ;)
cheers!
d

[koshime]

oooh. that random 1/2 creature images..begs for a small digital paint over......

[Orozc0]

i really like what im seeing. very nice shtuff

[Helzon]

Hmm..last update Mar 24th..and today is April 5th...that's......oh hell a bajillion days....and too long since an update. Crack those pretty pics out...their dying to get their moment in the sun. I know you can hear them screaming.
LOL!

[redehlert]

yeah.
potato ribbon blinky.

[bwkeough]

cricket....cricket

[Helzon]

: Sees bdfoster, and pulls up a chairin anxious anticipation of new work being posted:
:just added some cushions to the chair..seeing as it might be a while:...LOL :)

[bdfoster]

Brendan I'd love to borrow that book. I didn't realize when you showed it to me at the diner that was the offer on the table.

Mike Thanks for the comments and crits. I'm getting there with some of the stuff. Sometimes I need the lows to push me to new highs.

#6 Nope, not Harrison Ford. I can see what you're saying about the nose, but given the overall shape/planes of his nose, I don't think you would have seen any of the other side, so I think it's as right as it can be from that angle.

Mitch Thanks. Light is definitely one of the things I try to focus on

Haldor thanks for the thought. Whether you know it or not, sometimes it's good to have people remind you of things. I think my biggest issue with digital colors is expecting the process to be "faster" than traditional, when really the computer only saves so much.

Mentler Thanks for popping in. Sorry I haven't been on the SOFA much lately.

Dave (Dave, Dave Dave) we need beer and photoshop to really figure out my process, as I don't know it at all. I'll pay more attention on the next one and maybe we can talk it through.

Koshi Thanks. I've got a bunch of stuff I need to paintover. Once I figure out how. ;)

OrozcO Thanks for popping in!!

OK OK. Finally got around to scanning some new stuff. After seriously bugging other people to get into marker stuff, I broke down and bought a set of AD warm greys for myself. Here's some of the results:

Random Creatures (ballpoint and marker over one):
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook104.jpg

I actually thought I might be able to do the 3CH T-dome, but life conspired against me:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook105.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook106.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook108.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook107.jpg
About 15 minutes into paint:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/TripodScarecrow.jpg

[bdfoster]

A little more stuff:

Playing with marker first, then adding line:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook109.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook110.jpg

Taking a page from Hurri's book (no pun intended) and doing some thumbnail creature designs:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook111.jpg

ROBOTS!!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook112.jpg

[D.Labruyere]

hi bdfoster! I like your latest update, the robots look really funny :) I like the one on the topleft of your last page best! really nice :)

[Helzon]

HEY hey! shwiggity shwag! I see you're definitely digging the markers...really interesting shapes you have there. Man those bots...great work. In a couple of them..does my little eye spy a touch of 5th element?
It was all over tbs and I have to admit..i watched it every damn time...:i know...pathetic; but it's so chock full of great tech: The only thing I think you may want to start playing with is perspective/foreshortening...I know..the two scariest words in the universe. But they add so much impact to the work...I have to start getting into it again, been away for too long. But keep at it bro...we'll all be behind ya shovin you up the hill. Cheers!

[Mike Frank]

Hey bd - Been awhile dude, I see you've been up to some good stuff. I struggle a lot also with trying to find time to draw, and motivation. Trying to balance work, life, and art all together gets a little crazy sometimes. Its been helpful to me lately to look on all of these things as having an equal importance.. meaning that they all can be just as enjoyable as the next. Art isn't something you have to do, its just something you do . So when you find yourself doing it, get really caught up in it and have as much fun as you can even if your just making big slops of crap on a page. I dunno, thats just been helping me lately. Cheers!

[Dutton]

Hey Ben, I like the robot sketches! They have a retro feel and at the same time they're not the typical retro robots we're seeing over and over again in a lot of contemporary illustration. I'd love to see some of these fleshed out...... er, well, you know, not actual flesh on the robots.... but yeah.

[bwkeough]

great robots man, especially the spheroid one in image #108 (I like it just as much as I did when I first saw it on the train). The most recent set looks good, too. the hinged elbows and ball-and-socket shoulders look good. perhaps take your anatomical knowledge of humans and try to sort out how one would replicate the movements with metal?

I'll bring the portrait book again this week, definitely available to you to borrow.

try doing some reference studies of mechanical and especially hydraulic systems, that will help you draw tech stuff that looks functional.

keep grabbing those spare moments to sketch -- lunch breaks, waiting in line at the banks -- all those minutes add up.

[mentler]

Good to see you pushing some markers around!!

[Number_6]

Nifty creatures, keep it up!

[Zarquino]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook60.jpg

Simply AWSOME. Another won't say the same, but i have allways had some fixation with phoenix, and I love this one ;)

I like your medieval staff...ive allways loved medieval times, like phoenixes ^^

[Idiot Apathy]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/Ragnarok27/eep2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/Ragnarok27/eep.jpg

:\ :\ :\ :\ :\ :\ :\ :nohope: :xpld:

To the death !!! (I think this is firm at least...)
Oh and, you should update...

[bdfoster]

Apathy--

Didn't see that yet. Thanks for the heads up!!!!!
Of course, my home PC kicked it this week (after my laptop died around my last update), so I may either be dropping or going completely traditional and posting from a friends. We'll see.

So for the rest o' y'all bitches, even longer wait from me for updates! Doh!!!

[redehlert]

OH YEAH! What a battle! Ben....buddy, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one going against a giant. I have Flaptraps! Go traditional bro....you got mad skillz. :)
Peace!
D

[bdfoster]

D--

I'm screwed. What the hell are you talking about?!?? HAHAAHAHA! Mrfmrnneking Arena.Net mutherfihnsnndjes

[redehlert]

LOL! Damn straight. I'm goin' against fellow Seattle brethren!
:)
Good luck, bro.
D

[dCepT]

Good stuff! I like your markers-the-pencils sketches! More of those?

Thanks for dropping by my SB!

d-C

[Egets]

wow I absolutely love the inking style in this image, where you using something for reference for this style or is it your own personal style ?

I mean this image:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Sketchbook28.jpg

[bdfoster]

Since I can't upload new work due to dead PC's, I may as well stay current with the replies:

Haldor Thanks. Funny, the one robot you like most is probably my least favorite-- I was relying on the crutch of the "profile shot" and the curve of the neck is a little goofy in my eyes.

HelzMike We've talked about most of this in person. Thanks bro. If there's any 5th Element in there, its completely subconscious. Perspective is on the agenda.

SomeGuy (Mike) Thanks for the philosiphy, bro. I'm definitely struggling with the balance. At least LMSTD is keeping me mentally in Art. And the wife seems relatively supportive of this effort. As she said "There's no way my husband is ending up on some 'I pussied out of the Thunderdome' website!" It got my heart all a-flutter. ;)

MikeD (Three Mikes in a row!! Too bad Undertow didn't post after you!!) Thanks. I think my natural style has a little retro-throback that's inherent in it. I don't really "do" tech stuff, so you'll likely never see some killer ID'd mechs or slick looking robos out of me. I guess it's a weak area for me that I need to work on.

B-Dub Thanks for the feedback. I'm definitely trying to work some of the anatomy stuff into the robo designs. But I think, as you said, I need to study more mechanical "parts" to truly make these believable. I'll have to find some good machanical references

Dr. Bones (Mentler) My SB is filled with Michaels! Thanks for popping in. How's things on the SOFA these days?

#6 Thanks!

Zarquino Thanks! The phoenix definitely needs a few more layers of "finish" put on it, but it was starting to get where I wanted it. Medieval/Fantasy stuff has always been easiest for me, since there's more reference out there for it, and I used to be a larper, so I understand how a lot of the stuff is constructed (plus I have costume pieces all over the house still)

Idiot Apathy It's on!

Red/Dave Thanks. I'll need all the luck I can get!

D-Cept Thanks for popping in yourself. There will be more marker stuff when I can get to a PC that will scan it. It's all sitting in the SB waiting for you guys. ;)

Egets Thank you. That one is all me (as evidenced by the wonky anatomy in the hand) I'm glad you like it!!

[Idiot Apathy]

No no my friend, it's double on! TRIPLE ON!
But seriously, I was hoping for some new stuff dude.

[Mike Frank]

Hahah nice dude! Nice to see your wife has got your back :)

[bdfoster]

Idiot Apathy-- No new work until I manage to a) fix the computer(s) or b) get (a) new one(s). Sorry Dude! You'll have to suffer the anticipation along with everyone else!! (It'll be a hellish update when I do get things fixed.)

Some Mike-- Usually there's a little powerplay in trying to balance home/family life with my various "hobbies" (even career minded ones like art). I was a little nervous when I told her I signed my life away on the internet. She gave me the expected eye-roll, but ended up putting boot to my butt to get working on it. We'll see how she feels when I'm a few days into the actual piece and there's no end in sight. ;)

[D.Labruyere]

waits for update :cheerleader: :teeth:

[Gloominati]

waits for update :cheerleader: :teeth:

ditto

[mentler]

See you are working a great deal on movement and emotion <> in my book motion creates emotion <> thanks for your support.

[D.Labruyere]

waits for update :cheerleader: :teeth:

is still waiting :D

[bdfoster]

Alright. Looks like some serious time and some good friends paid in beer have gotten my home pc working again. Lost a lot of digital stuff that I could have used some crits on, but the short version is it was all crap. Here's some papers I got through before all my doodles were geared towards thunderdome. Not really sure how the whole attachment thing is working here....

[bdfoster]

Alright, attachments are working. Here's a couple more:

[bdfoster]

Replies for the faithful:

Haldor Thanks for sticking around and prodding me with sharp objects. Pics are up. Hopefully there will be more once I get my ass handed to me in the T-Dome and can sketch in peace again. Hahaha.

Gloom Thanks for the support. Hopefully this will cure the "jones" for a bit....

Mentler Always a pleasure to have you by Michael. Please do it more often and crit to your hearts content. Movement and emotion are definitely high on the list of "things I'm working on"

[redehlert]

YEA!!!!! Bout time and worth every bit! MORE!!
Cheers!
D

[Helzon]

Ditto on Dave's good word! Glad everything worked out
for you on the PC front. Cheers!

[D.Labruyere]

ghehe :) good work, I'd say, with your colors, more contrast!!! and the heads sometimes don't look in the right proportions. for the rest, good update, something we've been waiting for :P

[bdfoster]

Dave Thanks brother. I know it's been a long time coming, and sadly not a whole lot worth showing.. Hopefully there will be more soon. I need to buckle down more on the T-Dome right now, so it'll be a bit. There's also a terribly composed landscape hanging in my studio right now that is my first real attempt at oils. Maybe I'll throw that up when it's done... (If you're good...)

Mike Thanks. One of my HD's is shot, sadly the one with my images and not my music (I still have all the CD's!). The weird thing is that all of the other issues I was having with the PC just up and dissapeared. Nothing on virus scan, nothing on adware/spyware scans, nothing on disc checker. It's weird, and has me feeling a little trepidatious. Since I didn't truly fix anything, I wonder if it'll come back.

Daniel Thanks for sticking around! Help me with your crits a bit? With the copntrast comment, do you mean more value contrast or more color contrast? The "colors" in my last post are really just warm grey markers, so there really is no color contrast. I feel like the value contrast is a little better than my pencils, not worse, so I'm very curious. As for the other crit-- yeah, proportions are the bane of my existence (after drawing hands). Too much El Greco influence early on in my career...

[redehlert]

I'm good.....but I can be bad.... lol.
Post! Post! Post!
I'm workin' on my tdome too....hitting walls left and right. :)
Cheers!
D

[D.Labruyere]

Help me with your crits a bit? With the copntrast comment, do you mean more value contrast or more color contrast?

I mean more value contrast, sorry for not being precise enough, but I think this would also go for your pencils, though I had the feeling you more concentrated on lines and such with your pencils, so the contrast crit is less important then. So that's why I adressed my value crit towards the colored ones instead of the pencils :)

[Sartell]

Cool sketches I hope its the first of many posts this summer. If anything I would say you're only putting a "hint" of tone in your drawings, linework plus a little shading. I would like to see like shadow shapes and a definitive lightsource (I know they're quick sketches:) ) Great stuff, I wanna see you draw crazy aliens w/ a shirt and tie~* Take care.

[Number_6]

You have skills. I'd just suggest that you pay attention to foreshortening. In you vehicle pictures, it looks like the arms furthest away from the viewer are longer than the closer ones.

[bdfoster]

Dave Let me know if you need another eye on it.

Daniel got it. Will try to push the values a bit more.

Joel Will do, bro. I try to get out of really shading because a) I'm already slow, and that will make me slower. b) I suck at truly defining a light source realistically without reference.

#6 (Why don't I know your real name? Oh well...) Fantastic point. I knew something was looking off on it, but I wasn't sure what. That's not something that I do well on instinct.

[redehlert]

Thanks Ben! I will!!!
Cheers!
D

[Gloominati]

nice new stuff, dude! Great to see you updating again!
Anatomy seems to become nicer and nicer, good work on that. Try to push the values more in your portraits so that yo get a better feel of forms in there.

Good stuff, more of that!

[koshime]

Hey. great new stuff. What would probably pop your images to life could be a dash of contrast in a foreground object like a finger...or head....

[bwkeough]

hey ben, good to see you getting some mileage out of that photo portrait book. when are you getting back to the diner? I understand I missed you the other week.

[bdfoster]

replies:

Christof Thanks man. I'll have to bust out some 4b leads or something, since "Contrast" seems to be a common crit these days.

Koshi More contrast it is. Sounds like your thinking in terms of atmospheric perspective and photographic focus... I love both ideas. Will do!

Brendan I'll continue to make some appearances when I can. You know the story. Oh, and I think MikeL now has the photo book. I hope you knew that. ;)

[bdfoster]

OK, I'll start off with the apology. This is not really a "new" post. Photobucket has been giving me some trouble, and between LMSTD2 and some other projects I've got going on right now, I need to update my CA 3.0 profile. So with that said, I need to dump some paintings somewhere, and since my computer at home (read: scanner) has made it clear to me that I will get no reliability from it, I figured this would be some kind of an "update" for those who haven't seen them before. These all date back at least a year, some more like 4. But you should see some new paint from me soon, I promise. :teeth:

We'll start with the real crap--

[bdfoster]

And here's some of the more "recent" and/or better stuff.

[Gloominati]

hmmm although they are pretty old, some of them are the best paintings I have ever seen from you! unfortunately the colors seem to suffer from the scanning a bit, but I can imagine how they might look like in reality :D
Really cool I am really excited to see some more recent paintings, man!

[koshime]

hmm. greally great diversity and colour control. I second glooms comments. lets see soem fresh paintings (with its natural colours)

are these game card pics by chance?

[bdfoster]

Christof Thanks man. Not sure if it's monitor settings, or what, but the colors look fairly close to me other than some loss of darks due to glare in the photo or scanning process and some slight desaturation (which gets really weird when I try to fix in PS). Is there a specific one there's an issue on?

Koshi Thanks for the support. They were all done for either old school assignments or promo pieces. no paying jobs for me yet. What's "off" in the colors for you guys? I'm starting to think my monitor is off.

The T-Dome piece became my first true oil painting, but I doctored it in PS to make it read better. The landscape mentioned in an earlier post should go up soon, as well as finishing some of the other 1/2 finished projects laying around. Hopefully in the next week to two you should see a deluge come in here. Sadly, the home PC is not fixed like I thought it was, so we'll see how I get them up here.

[Helzon]

Hey ben,
Diggin the DarkTower painting. Nicely handled.
The opened chest and underwater creature (your avatar) are more polished.

The couple kissing..I was wondering if you had a more blue/green light on them if that would make them really jump off the canvas and detach them more from the background.
Other than that, some suffer from anatomy issues, contrast issues but the subject matter is pretty damn spiffy.
Look forward to seein more when you get the chance.
Cheers!

[Idiot Apathy]

DaDAYMN. And you lack confidence for the TD? Shaaadup.

Which brings me to my next point, en guarde foo ! To the death!

[bwkeough]

was the self-portrait with angel/devil monkeys on your back used as your postcard at SU? I know I've seen it before...

Oh, mikel gave the book back to me that same night. I keep it in my backpack, lemme know if you weren't done with it the next time we're both there.

[bdfoster]

Helzmike Agreed on the polish-- those are definitely my 2 strongest pieces portfolio wise. Agreed on the anatomy issues (though I'm curious which ones you have issue with, since I don't always see my mistakes. We can chat off board about it I suppose). I did make a conscious choice in "The Kiss" to go all warm tones on it-- trying to keep that subconscious element of "romance" in it, and I was afraid cool tones would detract a bit from that.

Apathy Hahahaha. Foo? You're so done for. And lack confidence? Sure I do. Have you seen the contenders in this thing? Hurricane? Manley? Marko? MikeyAllCaps? Nicolas? El Coro? Those guys could paint me into a corner with their eyes closed. And that's just the quicklist off the top of my head. But I'm looking forward to round 1.....

Brendan You are correct sir, that was in fact my postcard. I had a bigger piece that should have been my card, since the Bad Monkey piece is the first and I've decided only piece I've ever tried to do in guache. I hated it-- I never was able to get the hands to look good in that piece. But the bigger piece got f'd up at the photographers, and so I was left scrambling to find a piece that I could fit on a scanner, and that one fit the bill. As for the book-- I could spend a lifetime with it, but I won't be doing a whole lot of misc doodles in the near future, contingent on how I do in T-Dome....

[Idiot Apathy]

Ack shit!

Just saw your TD - bloody nice man. (Where's that white flag, it was here just a minute ago... hmm)

(God, I was already in a bit of a slump right now, after looking at all those awesome entries it's down right art depression now!)

[bdfoster]

Idiot-- (And now I feel safe calling you that based on your comments). You absolutely cranked out the best pic I've ever seen from you, and I'd have a tough time calling our round. You killed bro, so I'm not sure what you're worried about.

[bdfoster]

Oh, and since the T-Dome is now up, here's the Original Pencil Sketch, a bad process shot of the oils in process, and the final image:

[D.Labruyere]

bdfoster,

beautifull thunderdome pic! I think it is one of the best you have done by now :) maybe you could have put a bit of extra yellow/orange light on the green dress, but I like the balance you have now also. realy nice piece, and I'm curious to see if you get to the next round :)

[SirGreenSock]

Loved your TD piece, the idea and execution both turned out beautifully! Hope you make it far in the td!
How large is the original?

[bdfoster]

Haldor Thank you. I agree on all counts! It's my first attempt at oils that I've actually finished. Loved it. I did a bit of tweaking in photoshop afterwards, so I need to go back to the original painting and tweak it in the oils. I'll definitely try to make the orange lighting on the dress a little broader and cleaner.

SirGreenSocks Thank you very much! the original oil painting is approx 30" x 32", which is pretty big for illustration stuff. It made it a bitch to light for photos!!

[strych9ine]

BD, your entry turning out gorgeous man. Thanks for showing the process...

[bdfoster]

Cody Thanks man. It means a lot coming from you, since you've seen a hella ton of killer art running the LMSTD. Anxiously awaiting round 2!!

[dCepT]

Lovely TD-piece! I got a Dark Tower-feel from it... hehe... downloaded it to my inspirationfolder! Good lookin' out! Thanks for dropping by my SB!

d-C

[Idiot Apathy]

Haha... you feel safe calling me idiot now... HAHA! :P

Anyways dude, bloody gorgeous piece - wish it was mine. I would perhaps, and this is probably just personal taste, like to see some more value contrast - perhaps not in general, but maybe some larger shapes to give contrast as a whole. Wonder if that made sense... cheers mate! :)

[redehlert]

Much love and mad props for your entry, Ben. You've made us all proud. :)
Cheers!
D

[Sartell]

HOOOOO DILLY

Damn i've missed several sweet posts from you if I see "page cannot be displayed" one more time i'll throw a hissy fit....

Your paintings you posted are really fantastic, the one w/ the tree in the background reminds me a lot of something Giancola would to (*props at its highest.) And your t-dome is up there with the best of them, especially because of its traditional value. My only crit would be the bars on the gate are a little bit off but I understand the time contraints on making those perfect~* Hope I can see more from you soon, I think i'm just gonna give you all my paints:)

joel

[SprayNation]

Obvious improvement from your old work to your new work. Are all of these paintings in oils? The cow piece looks like watercolor or possibly acrylics.

Beautiful LMS piece Bd. I like how you didn't overdetail the entire image, only in appropriate area's. Particularly good job on the wood. I hope you advance brotha'.

SprayNation

[bdfoster]

D-Cept Inspiration? Nah... :D... A lot of the DT elements darry over into the pic-- the wheelchair (Susanna), the beach, the large architectural structure in the distance.... And I've never been shy about being a Michael Whelan fan-- to me the best DT artist there ever was, so I'm sure some influence shows through....

Idiot Apathy We're going to comlpiment each other into submission. Ha! I agree on the contrast. Started doing some of that in PS at the end, but it could use a little more love in that dept. Thanks man!!

Dave Thanks bro. I think we all kicked some tail on this one!

Joel Thanks man! Hopefully I just keep getting better with these.... But yeah, oils is a whole new world.

Spray Nation Actually, the T-Dome piece is my first venture into oils. Almost everything prior to that was acrylic, with a few obvious exceptions: "I Could Not Be Him" (the cow piece) straight watercolor; "Sentinel" (the lion pic) Ink Wash and watercolor; "Crisis of Conscience (Bad Monkey)" (uhm, the monkey one) Guache and Watercolor. Everything else is acrylic, with the occasional airbrush/ colored pencil thrown in.

[Number_6]

Great job on the TD piece!

[Andorz]

Gorgeous TD-pic! I love the birds. Good composition and very good rendering. I really envy your paintingskills! :P

[Gryphon]

The TD piece is a big leap forward into awesome for you. I really, really love all the textures in it - the driftwood, the metal, the skin... my one and only quibble with it is that the gate-thing she's in front of appears to be leaning. Other than that, gorgeous.

[Listing]

Great illustrations. You seem to be where you need to be. Push it.

[Helzon]

Time to show this warhorse of a sb some more love bro.
How's that HD coming along?..time for a replacement or heaven's forfend it's the motherboard? Hope no matter what, it works out in your favor and you can get back up and running. Cheers!

[poise]

Ben Your TD is beautiful, really nice story too. thank you for showing the WIP.
Will I see you at AOL?

[redehlert]

tiff - whuzzits aol?
benny - be seein' ya soon buddy!
cheers!d

[Helzon]

Sorry to horn in Ben...
Dave: AOL, (Art Out Loud 3)
Cheers bro!

[redehlert]

tanks mike! so...whuz art out loud 3? ;)

[bdfoster]

Dave--

Painting Demo from the Gods (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73406)

More replies in a bit

[redehlert]

holy crapola! i wish i were rich so i could go to each of these events. ugh. ;)
thanks for sharin' the link benny!
d

[bdfoster]

#6, Andorz, Listings Thanks guys.

Gryphon "The TD piece is a big leap forward into awesome for you" That's got to go up on my wall somewhere-- just to remind me. DSIllo said the same thing, though he didn't phrase it quite the same. (leaping into awesome! I love it). I think the lean you're talking about is a bit to the right? It's probably two things-- bad edge control on that side of the gate/tombstone shape, and the last minute decision to put those horizontals coming out from the hole in the top of the gate, and not actually using a straightedge or measuring them out. I think they're off kilter.

HelzMike Comp is shot, I think it's an issue of overheating. Trying to get the funds together for a new one, and hopefully the potential new job (deeper into corporate drone-dom!) will allow for that. Not a lot to update right now. A couple paintings in progress, but the studio has not seen a lot of love lately. Getting over sick, stupid o/t at work and trying to get the house in order for the cutie 3.14159...'s birthday in August. I'll try and get some WIPs up soon if I think of it...

Tiffany I'm hoping to at least make AOL3. I've seen Donato demo a few times before, but you can't get enough of that, and I'd love to see Lockwood painting, especially since I feel lost in Painter. Always good to watch a pro at work...I just need to worry about the funds for the trip to NYC (see the post to Mike/Helzon above) --Thanks for the compliments on the T-dome. I have some more random sketches around that I need to scan once I get a computer up and running at home-- working out the wing design in the gate, trying to decide whether to use the overall tombstone shape on it, random early comps with various versions of the girl, etc.. I'll have to find them in the disaster of a studio... :D

RedDave No problrm, ya' nosy bastard! Wish you could see these demos too!! B-dub and I still need to talk plans for next Friday, since we're both working stiffs. (Ooh, and I need to get clearance from the wife, since I mentioned it but never really talked details with her...I'm so whipped!!!) Thanks for dropping in!!

[dCepT]

Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook! Love you TD piece... I got a Dark Tower vibe off it... hehe.. not a bad thing! I have all the respect in the world that you pulled it in oils!

peace

d-C

[fooxoo]

Your td is insaaaaaaaane, I love it! One of my fav tds! And traditional! Wooo!

Great paintings in general, lots of feeling in them. Post more! :teeth:

[hurricane]

damn, your LMS was in traditional media ??!

damn!

congrats on the insane skills bro :P
cheers

[Idiot Apathy]

Hey you sunuvabeech! CONGRATS! You weeeeen! (And bloody 3-nil too... jez!)

My money was on you ever since I saw your entry, bastid.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68303&page=46

Good luck in round two, oh man ... chock full of heavyweights @_@ I'll be cheering you on though! :)

[Sartell]

Like I said, nothing to worry about~* Congrats on the win, you and Mike and Brendan cleaned up!!

[D.Labruyere]

hello, hello, anybody there? :P ;) it's been like 2 months since you updated now ^^

[camilografix]

great paintings keep it up!!

[Beelow]

That was traditonal?! Damn BD that is tight! Good luck in the second round dude!:yayca:

[S.C. Watson]

I agree that pencil seems to be your strongest suite at the moment, but your other work is coming along nicely as well.

Absolutely love this one: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/bdfoster/Sketchbook/Watersedge.jpg

Cheers,
~Shane

[bdfoster]

DCept -- Thanks Bro. Oils is a whole new world for me. I take your laugh to mean you read the Dark Tower reply above. ;)

fooxoo-- Thanks for the love, hun. I'm trying to get some more paintings up soon. Lots in various stages of not quite done right now. I need to bang some more out for the portfolio.

Hurricane-- Bjorn, I'm honored that you used the words insane and skills in the same sentence when referring to my work. Even more so that it wasn't a sentence like "You're piece looks like something done during therapy hour in the insane asylum. Brush up your skills, bro" (OK, that was 2 sentences.) Seriously, I walk in the shadow of giants, and you cast a long shadow. Thanks. (oh, and 95% traditional is more accurate. A little tweaking in PS)

Tom (I didn't want to call you Idiot anymore). Thanks my friend. Sorry to let you guys down with the big loss. I thought I had a chance, but Icon's colors were just too juicy.

Sartell Thanks Joel. Looks like CT took it to the chin in round 2

Haldor While I find it hard to believe, I have no working computer in my house, and haven't for months. I can use the one from my day job to check the forums, but can't hook to my scanner. I've got some stuff to share here, but the big paper update will be a few more weeks until I can scrap together enough spare change for a new PC.

Camilografix Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words.

Beelow Thanks brotha. About 95% traditional with the other 5% being tweaks, lighting effects, a little painting, etc in photoshop. Nothing major, but still had an impact. Appreciate you stopping by.

Oregano Thanks Shane. Glad to see you poking around these parts-- you've been missed. Pencil's definitely been my medium for the longest period of time. I'm trying to get everything else up to speed. Incidentally, that comp you liked is next up on my easel to get a paint job. I overhauled the figure to give him some more costuming and make it a little more "fantasy". Hopefully you still like the results when I post it. ;)

On to the goods-- As noted above, my PC at home is out of commission, and scrapping together funds for a new one is taking longer than expected. Here's my LMSTD2 round 2 pic, and a sketch and process shot of the oil painting. There's lots of sketchbook stuff on this surrounding the design of the "dragon" (for lack of a better term). I struggled hard with it, and in trying to stay away from the cliche, ended up with about as cliche a creature as possible. Oh well. More about that when I can post 'em. On to the pics:

[bdfoster]

Alright. My computer rebooted 6 times while scanning these, so I quit about 1/2 way. Here's some various SB stuff, mostly prep work for the TDome creature design (which I now hate. Long story.)

[bdfoster]

My in laws looked at me cross eyed when I showed up to use their scanner last night. But they know the comp is shot, so it all made sense in the end. Here's the rest of the studies and crappy prep for Thunderdome (Yay for analysis paralysis!!)

[Helzon]

Ben, Im telling you....it's great to see that you worked the process of going through different iterations of your beast. I realize, ultimately that you weren't too happy with it. Though the one you 'starred' is a fantastic render of the beast you used. Scratchin my head as to you not just simply transferring it to your larger sketch. Just needs a couple of anatomical tweaks but...very cool.

I know im johnny on the fuckin spot now...but, if you want to see some cool iteration shots...check out Carlos Huante's website and his sketches....he really kind of shows how he progressed through a single idea...'flying creature'.

Let me posit this..and then see if you want to just try it out on a couple of creatures ..if not...that's all good too.
Start small.....friggin tiny in fact. What your concentrating on is the placement of the bulk in a dynamic way. Let any randomy squiggly lines just happen. Then from there take a look after a couple of minutes and see if you see any shapes that really speak to you. Take that sketch...and enlarge it. Work on then refining it; erase, strengthen shapes, correct for perspective and foreshortening...etc... Then refine some more, keeping in mind that dynamism. I know...easy for me to say right. Well then...how bout this bro.
You and me one creature each this way? Sound cool?
Lemme know.
Cheers!

[Mike Dutton]

My in laws looked at me cross eyed when I showed up to use their scanner last night.

Haha, I was tempted to visit mine to use their paper cutter when all my prints arrived in 8x12 instead of 8x10, but I went to Kinko's instead.

These creature concepts you did for your TDome are really awesome, Ben. Probably no surprise that the insect-like ones caught my eye the most. I have to say I really liked the long spikey strands of flesh hanging off the neck of the beast in your initial WIP. I'm curious as to why you hate the piece so much now though. There are so many great visual elements working for you in the final. If anything, a few touch ups on your edges, a little refinement in the perspective of the beast's head, and you're golden. That flying bike is simply awesome. The navigational map on his windshield is a great touch!

I'll try to answer your color question in my next update. It's a pretty big topic, even if you're just referring to a digital palette, but I'll give it my best shot. Hope you get your comp back up to speed (or a new one) soon.

[Bojee]

I really like the pencil for your T-dome piece, I think your pencils in general are my favorites. :)

[Gilead]

Nice creature sketches, I like the way you handle a pencil.
That last painting is really cool. I love the way it tells a story. You could sell that to Harley Davidson Co.

I wish the line of the wing were not so straight and smooth. It would scallop in and out at the fingertips. And there might be a large bit of slack membrane behind that bent elbow. Right now the elbow's bent but there's a flap of skin pulled tight on both sides of it so it doesn't look like he can ever straighten that wing any farther. But it probably works the way it is for most people.
32788


By the way that wheelchair painting is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. That deserves to be on the cover of a book if it's not already.

[Listing]

Really nice work recently. Keep moving for subtlety and quality in your drawing to sharpen your painting.

[Sartell]

Love the sketches man. I got a kick out of the "star" by the one you used and though I think it was the strongest of the bunch, it
may not have been conveyed as kick-awesome as it could've been in the T-dome. I would like to have seen a lot more thought go
into the body of the dragon, maybe some Todd Lockwood crazyness:) Either way, I still like your piece, but I think you've got a lot more
to show us. I got mad money on you:)

I'll talk to you soon~*

[bdfoster]

replies:

HelzMikeScratchin my head as to you not just simply transferring it to your larger sketch Good freaking question, brother. I liked the initial sketch a lot more than the final. I think I was worried about connecting it to the rest of the beast and keeping the perspective correct, but yeah, I flubbed that. As for the proposal... I'm in, though it'll be a bit before you see sketches on it. The in-laws might not want to see me that soon. ;)

Mike D Thanks man. I'm glad you liked the nav-map. The insect studies were in hopes of getting me moving in a different direction with the design. I was trying hard to stay away from the cliche dragon look. There's a story in the picture that's pretty personal-- the model for the older figure is going through a divorce right now, and it's his son on the back of the bike-- so in retrospect I should have stayed with the "vaginal" look of the beast in the early iterations. Other things that bug me:
--I copped out (time issues) on putting in the strands of flesh on the creature (I liked them too). I also was concerned about resolving them compositionally, since I had already repainted the beast's neck to pull it in off the left edge, and I wasn't sure how they'd look breaking that edge. (I'd love to take it into Painter or PS and try it)
--Despite what I tried to do with the color, I don't think I got the look that I wanted as far as punchiness. Everything is still pretty muted.
--I was trying to get more of a sense of "vertigo" in my initial thumbnails that never translated into the final image, and I really feel like I dropped in the planet elements without thinking about them enough.
--Lots of wonkiness in the beast anatomy. Some of it was fixed, but fixing it made some awkward compositional things happen.
--Like an idiot, I cropped the front of the bike in the original oil painting. I fixed it digitally (Is that the edges issue you're talking about or somewhere else?) but I still don't feel like it was successful.
--The initial sketch of the beast head had more "interest" to it, and the final looks, IMO, a lot more "generic"
That's the stuff off the top of my head. I realize I'm being pretty harsh on the pic, but I also know I really need to up my game if I want this stuff to make me a living anytime soon.

Bojee Thanks. Pencil is definitely my "comfort" medium.

Gilead Thanks man. The model for the rider is a big Harley buff, so as a nod to him I tried to keep the rocket bike looking as "Harley" as possible. I agree on the wing. One of those little things that "looked good enough" given the time I had, but I'll probably go back and fix soon. I've got some more studies to do on the wing in general, since I didn't get the translucency I wanted on it. As for the wheelchair painting.. I appreciate it. I'm hoping to do book covers someday, so knowing I've hit "the look" with that piece gives me warm-fuzzies.

Listing Thanks. Lots of work on both the drawing and painting front to work on. I'll bear the advice in mind.

Sartell Thanks Joel. I think you're right on both counts. The head in the final is lacking some of what made the sketch the nicest of the bunch, and the body is nowhere near as thought out as the head was. A lot of the decisions made on the pose for the beast were purely compositional, and then trying to fit the anatomy into it. I shot myself in the foot with that, and it's actually the first thing Dan got on me about with the piece. BTW, are you coming back north for any of your breaks? Let me know, we should get together.

[Icon]

:P I was looking around the area, and look what I find! Bingo!
man nothing I love more than sketchbooks that show you
a. process
b. artistic development
and you have them both.
I am in love with your first thunderdome piece and that lady with the tentacles ( the one for that creature td that you hate) Show more stuff, I demand it! :D

[Mike Frank]

Man, whew, wow, awesome stuff I have been missing out on these past couple months. Especially enjoy the TD piece with the birds.. so nice.. come teach me how to paint like that :)

[Mike Dutton]

Hey Ben, thanks for the in depth answer. I can see what frustrates you about the piece. I really like the personal element behind it as well. As for the question on edges-- I was referring to hard edges versus soft edges. The cropping looks fine. I'd love to see where you take this in PS if you decide to rework it. And I can definitely relate to needing to up the game. But once in a while it's nice to go back and rework something with fresh eyes. Sometimes, if you wait long enough (in my case, 3 years), you can come back to something having gained a lot more skill during the break. Suddenly everything that frustrated you about the piece in the past seems to dissolve away, and you almost cut straight through to the original ideas that made the piece exciting to begin with. Like Fixer-Upper houses I guess. So bottom line is, the foundation to your painting is good. Give it some time and you can go back and fix the little details that bother you.

[strych9ine]

As a guy who just broke out the acrylics for the first time in a long while, I can seriously appreciate your skill that shines through in these last dome pieces. You have great control over the medium, homes. The monster in that last painting just isn't very menacing... some sharp angles, scales, anything to take away from it being so rounded might be in order. The foreground chars on the bike are really well done man, I like them a lot.

And just because I haven't looked at the piece in a little while, I have to say yet again that your first round dome piece is amazing. Best thing I've seen from you as far as I can remember.

[Justin.]

Something I might have suggested for the Dragon would be to use a dog's head as a base, and morph that with lizard features... I have always found rabid dogs more ferocious than Lizards.

I still love your Tdome piece, can't get over that!!!!

Good luck, B-Dizzle!


EDIT: As a note, I had NOT read Strych's above post before posting, dead serious.

[Beelow]

Some nice stuff that you have added to the sketchbook, keep them coming! XD