Phaethon's Sketchbook, etc

[Phaethon]

Just wanted to show off my sketchbook and get some feedback. I'll warn you now, I do a lot of writing in it, and I'll try to transcribe a lot of it here because its pretty important to the sketches (Its often for school, as my ideas require some explanation). If there's anything you want clarified, please ask me by all means! I'm only too happy to talk about my ideas, and only too happy to get your comments! And hopefully the photo/scan-quality will get a bit better over time...

So, let's start of light with a few figure drawings...

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook1.jpg

2 5-minute facial studies

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook2.jpg

3 2-minute poses

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook4.jpg

A 22-minute pose

Unfortunately, I don't have other figure drawings at hand right now, but I'll post more if people are interested...

[mull77]

Welcome to the sketchbooks!

Some nice looking studies (charcoal?), but always interested in seeing more, so post em if you go em! Nice lighting on the first heads, although the one on the left seems a little squashed. The poses look natural, but hey do seem a little flat.

Apologies if you didn't want any crit. Keep posting :)

[Phaethon]

I've divided my sketchbook into different "project series"; I develop an idea (usually combining a number of disparate sources, whether they be historical, cultural, philosophical, scientific, etc, to create a fictional world) and then generate sketches and artworks on that framework. When I feel that I've done enough finished work with it, or when something else hijacks my imagination, I move on to another idea.

The following sketches are based on the idea of "Moorish Steampunk", namely a world in which the Moors (Spanish Muslims) were not expelled from Spain, but continued on as a civilization into the 19th century. At this point I give the idea a more fantastic, sci-fi spin, combining Moorish design, art, and architecture with steampunk clockwork, steam engines, and similar retro-Victorian technology.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook5.jpg

A dual sketch-experiment dealing with line weight (I used an HB, 3B, and Ebony pencil for different levels of detail) as well as steampunk design.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook6.jpg

A sketch studying Moorish architecture.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook7.jpg

A sketch for a Moorish train. Note the keyhole arch struts and the keyhole design of the engine.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook3.jpg

And, for comparison, the final drawing. For this I was working in the style of illustrator Brett Helquist, who is known for his work on the A Series of Unfortunate Events childrens' books. I was fascinated by his crosshatching style, which creates very complicated textures while maintaining an overall simplicity and readability in the image.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook8.jpg

Finally, a skecth for a steam-powered bird-esque mount used by the Moorish police. I found it interesting that, in a number of predominantly Muslim countries, even female police officers wear head scarfs and sometimes cover their faces as part of their uniforms. I am, in addition, rather fond of 'mechs...

Also, A great amount of my sketchbook is taken up by Daily Sketch Group topics, some of which I would be glad to link to if anyone wants to take a look.

[Phaethon]

mull77 (and anyone else for that matter): Crit by all means! If I wanted nothing but compliments I wouldn't put myself out here!

[armando]

I like steampunk too, didn't know it had a name until a few days ago, not that I've done any drawings of it though. I'll give you the same old generic crit, work on anatomy. Work on head construction especially since it's so important. Books to check: R.G. Hatton's "Figure Drawing"; saveloomis.org for his heads and hands book; Burne Hogarth's "Drawing the Human Head". Some more crits: That Moorish design perspective is cramped from the vp's being too close together. I like the sketch of the train more than the finished drawing, I think a wider view suits a train better than a taller one.

[Phaethon]

I deliberately put the viewpoints close together on the building because I was going for a bit of an exaggerated, cartoon-esque feeling. I guess its hard to see where I'm coming from with some of these without some influence pictures, etc. Thanks for the tips!

[grenappels]

david bb? i thought i recognized the avatar from somewhere... i've never really gotten to talk to you in school but it makes sense i'd see you here, this is your thing.

great stuff, you are so imaginative and seeing your work around school is such a refreshing deviation! by the way it's kyle, from painting last year, if you don't remember me well bleh. see you around.:^^:

and your blimp with the smokestacks reminds me of what they thought the future would be circa 19th century, i've not been able to find any of the conceptual drawings from then online, but i have seen them. they thought hydrogen was the future and they have pictures of airship traffic and i think even houses and maybe even towns resting on giant air vessels. it's funny but really cool at the same time.

[Phaethon]

Sure I remember you! I'm glad you like my stuff; I get a real kick out of all retro-19th-century design. There are people who maintain that the whole allure of it is because 19th century technology was somehow more personal and individual that today's mass-produced tech. Maybe that's it. Incidentally, I was encouraged to do some work on that blue charcoal paper with black and white charcoal because of that portrait you did. I don't have your subtlety, I'm afraid, but its a great medium. I'll post some sketches for that project series later on.

[Phaethon]

Ok, another slew of sketches...

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook015.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook016.jpg

Figure drawings; 3 two-minutes and one five. These are actually older that the ones at the top of the thread. The proportions are not quite as off as they may seem at first; this was a rather short girl, you understand.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook9.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook010.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook011.jpg

Concept development for another Moorish Steampunk vehicle. An amphibious vehicle is one that can travel both on land and in water, therefore an avian vehicle can travel on land and in the air! I started working with a bird-based vehicle in mind, but it didn't work out, so I switched to an insect-based model, which became the final drawing.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook013.jpg

The last of the Moorish Steampunk images- A zeppelin fleet commander leads his armada into the blue! This became an oil painting, trying to mimic valazquez in his almost impressionistic treatment of detail. That didn't work so well, as I can never leave well enough alone, but I was happy with the final image.

My next project revolves around a visual re-interpretation of Isaac Asimov's Robot Novels. I always imagined, while reading them, a very clean-cut, smooth future. So, I'm trying to subvert my own mental image and create a ggrittier, more dystopian Asimov future based on film noir (The novels were futuristic detective stories). This first sketch is not directly related to that, but was simply an experiment in a potential architectural style, based loosely on concept art from the game company Relic.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook014.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook018.jpg

The two main characters, Elijah Bailey (right) and R. Daneel Olivaw (left). Bailey is a police detective in the underground NYC of the future, and his partner Daneel Olivaw is an android from the elitist Spacer planets.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook020.jpg

An urban study in watercolor, trying to capture a feel for future NYC.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook019.jpg

A robot study, trying to understand its "anatomy". This would be a fairly standard model positronic robot. This became finalized as a charcoal sketch, below.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/DavidBrunell-BrutmanSlide21.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook017.jpg

Playing around with cartoon portrait busts!

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook012.jpg

Piracy!

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/sketchbook021.jpg

One of a series of drawings in which I put on an album and just drew whatever image came to me. This was done while listening to Frengers by Mew (http://www.mewsite.com/album.php), and is based on the title of the song "Snow Brigade", which is not their greatest song but still pretty good. I'm rather fond of "Am I Wry? No" and "She Spider" if you click the link (I apologize for the trippiness). Man, I should totally use this thread to impose music on people!

[neoknocker]

thanks for the CHOW comments.

[Phaethon]

Just a quick one today, as I haven't posted in a while.

I've taken to drawing obscure background characters from World of Warcraft. Is this the sign of a problem? Only history will tell.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/Nials.jpg

[Phaethon]

And now in digital: Outlined and filled in the character with black, then erased out highlights

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/Phaethon/Nialssketch.jpg