Gryph's Scribbles and Splatters - updated 2/11

[Gryphon]

Some life drawing and a quick paint...

Cheers!

[newman]

those ones of the chubby bloke with the beard are great! very nice weight in the second one of him.

[Gryphon]

One of my paintings in my spare time...

[Recursive_End]

Looking good
But keep working on those faces ! They got the good landmarks and you nailed the keys for a good expression, but work a bit more on their shapes. Maybe looking on planes for the construcion.
Keep going!!

[Gryphon]

Painting of the day while waiting to hear back from clients...

I love me some Frank Herbert.

[Julius Lyon]

I like how you use the direction of your mark to define form, it works really well in thoes few life studies.

[Dile_]

your paintings are very nice!
Keep studying!

[Gryphon]

Scribble of the day...

[Gryphon]

Second environment (and I like this one a lot better)

[Gryphon]

I like to sun... and so does every lizard I know, so why not a dragon?

[Gryphon]

Creature scribble from a bit ago... I liked the dragon better, though.

Happy 4th, all!

[Gryphon]

Value studies from today for a future piece.

[Gryphon]

Detail WIP shot from the piece above.

[Burning Eyes]

awesome work here why arent anyone posting! please update! i will def crit later, gotta go clean room now tho!

[Gryphon]

Thanks Burning Eyes! Heh, I was starting to wonder if anyone read this...

Painting from the last few days - finished version from the value studies -practice for expressions, multiple characters, and fur.

Life drawing this Friday, w00t!

[Ferdinand Venter]

Gryphon i really like your enviroments your characters aren't bad either just one comment though the last painting that you've done with the guy holding the staff he does'nt really hold it or it does'nt look like it apart from that i like your style man keep posting

[Gryphon]

Venter - Heh, yeah, I gotta fix that staff hand... whoops.

Apparently life drawing's canceled for the summer or something... lame.

Anyway, here's a scribble from last night.

[Gryphon]

The sketch for one of the characters from a commissioned set of D&D portraits...

[Ferdinand Venter]

1rst Fantasy rules. 2nd The horns on the guy lower right on that you posted in July 17 '06 something just doesn't look right there cant place my finger on it. Gryphon sorry no offence but can you do me a favor and don't call me Venter it doesn't sound right if you want to call me something short call me Ferdi or something like that.

I still like your stuff

[Pixeldragoon]

Great stuff... congrats on the ImagineFX article! You deserve it.

[Gryphon]

Ferdinand Venter - Heh, I'll just type out the whole thing. And yeah... I hadn't quite decided if that would be a hat or horns, which I think is why it looks so wacky...

Pixeldragoon - Thanks! Heh, I was wondering if any of the CAers would remember me... I'm not as prominent as the other Rising Stars by far, which is why I was surprised to be chosen. (I still have yet to see the actual magazine... supposedly it's on its way, though!)

[Gryphon]

Just thought I'd show some process... dunno if anyone was curious about it, but here you go. The painting's still a WIP, but it's pretty much just detailing/cleaning up from here.

[Ferdinand Venter]

I would like to see this image when it is done. Don't worry about the whole name thing i just don't like it when someone calls me on my surname. I think it is a weird habbit or something of mine.

[Listing]

Nice illustration. I'd like to see more life work.

[Gryphon]

Heh, I want to *do* more life work! I definitely want to get back to it... I've got a scheduled round of concept silhouettes and illo work through mid-August, but I'll probably get some in after that. I can always feel my figures start to wobble without it...

Cover piece for "The Darkling Band," Jason Henderson, DragonMoon Press.

[Ferdinand Venter]

It looks nice, but isn't the wings supposed to have joints and a thicker base? I don't know how to say it but if you look at bird wings their wings look stonger... damn i suck at explaining my thoughts. I just can't get myself motivated enough to start something new. And the sword looks weird, maybe it's just me. Nice job again truly.

[vantrum]

gryphon - awesome paintings here! Your work caught my eye, and then i noticed that you are a SCAD student also. I'd love to talk sometime about digital painting, etc... SCAD is a strange place when it comes to concept i've found. Anyway - great paintings. keep it up

[Gryphon]

Some quick thumbnails from today...

[Ferdinand Venter]

Nice thumbnail sketches man. I really like it :)

[Gryphon]

Some costume exploration from one of the thumbnails up there...

[Gryphon]

More costume exploration. You can tell I got bored towards the feet, heh...

[Ferdinand Venter]

Stunning man i like your stuff

[Gryphon]

I gotta learn to do better compositions. Sigh.

Oh well, here's a piece before I take off for the con.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Gryhon please post something new i still like your stuff, now here is where the bad stuff comes in the dagger the guy on the left is holding looks bend in the handle unless you wanted it to look that way ;)

The colors are well executed this is only a question: Can one really bend in that way? I'm still studying anatomy so i don't know if its possible or not.

That being said the position of the legs on the guy on the left doesn't work for me the left leg seems to close to the viewer maybe it's just me

Please post something i'm dying to see what you'll come up next

[Gryphon]

I believe you can bend that way, but I was exaggerating for the sake of an attempt at being dynamic. Still have a long way to go before I can do it decently...

I was trying to do curved daggers, actually, since I think curved weaponry is cool. I prolly didn't curve it enough to make that obvious, though. Dur.

Can't post anything new yet, it's all under NDA. *weep* You can have a couple older pieces, though. First one was done for FFG's Game of Thrones cards about 3-4 months ago (can't wait to see my cards finally in print, woo!), second was a commissioned character portrait.

[Ferdinand Venter]

<3 wow i'm speechless looks great nice work:wink:

[Gryphon]

Thanks! Heh, two updates in a row... shocker.

Just got the okay to show an illustration for the New Gods of Mankind RPG... I hate the right guy's face, but I liked the left guy a lot, so I guess it balances out.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Hi Gryphon

The only thing that i think can look wrong with the guy on the right is the fact that he has a big nose other than that i see only a good illustration.

[Dreamworker]

Very nice sketchbook!! In particular i like your paintings!!
Ciao
:)

[Gryphon]

Ferdinand Venter: Yeah, he definitely has the Nose of Doom. sigh. I gotta get better at the head in perspective...

Dreamworker: Thanks! I like my paintings better than my drawings too, heh. Color's so much easier to deal with than b/w.

On a related note, I've been feeling lately that a lot of my work isn't adequately planned out in its values, which makes the compositions weaker and the piece as a whole less interesting. So in an effort to combat this, I'm doing little studies to try and force myself to really work on pushing that "splash" of lights or darks amidst a contrasting scene.

Maybe three or four hours of on and off scribbling while waiting to hear from clients...

[Gryphon]

Another day, another scribble. This is one of the buildings right next to my apartment, since I felt like sketching outside today.

[Gryphon]

A sketch for a painting... I may or may not throw out that foreground guy, I think he's screwing up the perspective.

[Meatsworthy]

whoa, nice drawings and nice paintings. This one I like: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10910&stc=1&d=1155254969

Difficult to find anything to crit... but I'm curious to see what happens if the linework was painted out completely on some of these.

[JenZee]

beautiful sketchbook! I totally love http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3592&stc=1&d=1151643711http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3592&stc=1&d=1151643711 this painting, and your dragon piece is probably one of the best I've seen in a long while. I really like how your pieces are kind of give the viewer a "peeking in" feel... not sure why that is, but very nice, I'll be sure to check back :)!

[Gryphon]

Meats - I'm honored! I love your work - your SB always amazes me. I'll definitely do a speedie after this and try losing all my edges. (Though heh, we'll see if my anal-retentive, definition-oriented habits will win out.)

JenZee - Thanks! It's probably because I stole Feng's trick of putting dark stuff up front as a framing tool... I love cheap, easy depth of field. :)

I just finished a string of cards, sketches, etc, so before I really leap back in, I'm trying to finish this painting this weekend. Still a WIP, but with a good chunk of progress (trying to get it done for Talk Like A Pirate Day).

[Ferdinand Venter]

Wow, amazing Gryphon. I'm still a fan of your work

[Pesmerga]

I really dig your work dude. Can't wait to see more from you.

Give this guy some stars!!

[Gryphon]

Ferdi - Thanks! Glad to see you back here. :)

Pesmerga - Thanks! But, um, just for the sake of clarity - I'm actually a girl, though I know the pirates/armor/fantasy obsession would definitely indicate otherwise.

Gotta go work on my sculptural anatomy study now...

[Moai]

Beautiful stuff! Those paintings are great. Excellent creature design on the sunning dragon, and I always appreciate a good Dune picture. It's such a rich universe, ripe for artistic exploration.
Anyway, the only crit I have is that your characters all seem to have a little red ball on the end of their noses.
Great sketchbook! I'll be checking back regularly.

[Gryphon]

Moai - Yeah, I love Dune - it's such a world of contrasts. It's definitely one of my favorite SF books, though all the adaptations seem kind of strange.

I'm prolly exaggerating the change in skin tone too much on the noses... I've been playing lately with varying up the skin colors more, and I probably just went past the point of reason...

--

I fiiiiiinally finished that pirate pic. Did some life drawing this week, but nothing I like enough to show. Just about everything else is either still under NDA (argh) or still in progress. I did another set of Game of Thrones cards, plus a lot of work for Playfirst, none of which I can show for quite a while. Hopefully next week's roundup will look better.

I'll eventually start posting progress pics of my ecorche study, as well - right now he's just an armature, but once I get some muscles on him, he might be worth looking at. Sculpture isn't at all my thing, but it's the most instructive way I've found yet to learn anatomy solidly, so... onward ho.

[darkwolfb87]

Gryph, awesome stuff, especially your color work! I'll chime in a bit about composition: your works seem to be suffering from the reverse of the "rule of thirds," in that everything is pushed away from center in a fairly unorganized manner, resulting in an uninteresting center. For example:
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10910&stc=1&d=1155254969
Staring dead center into this, my eye is trapped in the middle by all the stuff happening around it, literally encircling it. In effect this composition becomes very flat; the arms, weapons, and the right guy's torso make a rectangle shape. Try experimenting with covering up this middle area with a large foreground element to ease the eye away from dead center. Alternatively this can also be done using values. In this particular image I would personally put the vantage-point of the viewer a head above the right character, looking down the shaft of the weapon and visually overlapping the two guys while letting the viewer take part in the movements.

I hope that helps!

~ Stephen

[JERI]

Awesome sketchbook and brilliant colors/values.

Rated.

[elisa]

awesome paintings! and very nice sketches too! keep posting:)

[Alexandr Pascenko]

wow some awesome sketches up in here i like that outside drawing a lot.
also your sense of colours is good , but could be better , oh when i see at the new updates they get better :D. then my only suggestion would be , work alittle more on the anatomy , sketch more and keep on pushing, i ´l keep an eye on it

[Spats]

I love these paintings. Your knowledge of lighting and anatomy is impressive.

I'm in no position to crit your artwork but I have a feeling some of your figures are a bit stiff. Fantastic stuff nonetheless.

Looking forward for more :)

[Jason Snair]

gosh, where the hell did this thread come from all of sudden? i've never seen it before.

really good stuff here. love the enviros...and the Pirate painting is very nice. You've got a eye for composition.

keep posting.

[Gryphon]

Darkwolf - You're totally right. Augh. I need to do more compositional studies... I never overlap figures enough.

Jeri and elisa - Thanks!

Goblinshark - I keep trying... hopefully the ecorche studies I'm doing now will help me push my figures. We'll find out!

Spats - I don't doubt it - I rely a lot on ref for my professional illos, most of the time, and I think it makes a lot of my work stiffer. I keep trying the action scenes, though, so hopefully I'm at least making progress.

Jason - Thanks! Heh, I mostly lurk. On the internet, just like RL, I like being quiet.

A quickie from the Metrocalypse project... I cropped it from the original, since I really liked the effect of the overlaying saturation on this section.

[Gryphon]

Sketches from life drawing today...

[JERI]

No metrocalypse on Wikipedia, is it another concept art site?

Are you working as a concept artist for fantasy novel covers btw?

[rorke]

I think if you shhat it would come out a masterpiece.


Love your stuff man

Keep it up

[Gryphon]

Jeri - nah, Metrocalypse is a mod I get paid to do concept work for every so often. As to book covers - I've done one actual novel (the Darkling Band piece) and a bunch of indy RPG book covers. I figure I've got a little ways to work on my portfolio before I submit it to Irene or anybody like her, though...

rorke - lol, thanks! Will do.

[Mag-Neo]

-Really nice sketch.... I like your colors & compositions are so much..... Those sketches are looks like awesome ..... Keep more posting & CHEERS!................ :yayca:

[bdfoster]

Duh-Damn. Now here's a "sketchbook" (in quotes because of all the gorgeous finished work in here) that I'm going to be keeping a close eye on. Thanks for stopping by my book. Much respect!

[Listing]

Really nice. Only current issues I see are a few structural lapses apparent in your drawings. Remember that drawing is your base.

[diethyloxide]

Nice sketches, good good paintings. I too am trying to figure out the stiffness of form in action poses. Are you going to SCAD? As for a critique, I think you could punch up the contrast a bit and make the backgroud really receede. Keep up the good work, and how long does it take you to complete a painting?

[Gryphon]

Gah. I feel so guilty that I can't actually update this thing - all of my newsprint studies are elsewhere, my sculpture is still basically a person-shaped blob, and all my real work is under NDAs. Adding to the work pile is an art test I just got from a company I'd love to work for... not counting on anything, though.

Here's a couple oldies (May or so) but it's all I have to tide you guys over for now...

MagNeo - Thanks!

bdfoster - awww. I'm flattered - you're all professional and stuff!

Listing - yup, still working on my drawings. I'm currently working on a better understanding of musculature... I should have a finished ecorche study in the next five weeks. After that I plan on attacking my weaknesses in perspective and composition... but that's a ways off.

Diethyloxide - Sort of? I got my BFA from SCAD about a year ago, but I'm taking Paul's Advanced class right now since I've frequently been told to work on my anatomy. Time to complete a painting reaaaaaally varies - it can go anywhere from under a day (enviros, simple stuff) to four or five (complex illustrations that I'm really detailing out). I don't think I've ever gone over five for any one piece, though usually I'm working on two or three things in any given day, so it makes knowing how long things actually took a little difficult...

[Gryphon]

Here's the cover/story illustration I did a bit ago for Apex Digest - definitely not my usual subject matter, so it made for an interesting change.

I also tacked on the sketch, in case anyone's interested in contrasting the pencils against the final...

[Ferdinand Venter]

Hi Gryphon

Nice updates just one thing that bothers me is that the kid/demon/thing (i really don't know what that thing is) it's left hand looks like a round cube with some kind of line it doesn't look like fingers.

This is a question it got to do with something that got my attention: What eat's it's flesh or what is that water/flesh/goo stuff.

That's all for now keep posting.

C'ya

[ArtZealot]

that one with the boats, a few drawings up looks nice. the boats are rendered out really well. i was drawing a boat today and wasn't really sure how to approach it but after looking at yours, i'll have to go back and fix mine. only crit on that boat piece though is that the composition of it to me, feels like it should have another thing of interest other than the boats or just something else to make it have some kind of story to it, than just some boats in the water. great stuff all in all though, i like that demon baby, it's nasty looking, but cool. keep it up.

[Gryphon]

Ferdi - Hmm, yeah, I should've fixed that hand more. As to the red stuff, it was intended to be congealing blood... the story was about a baby made from blood, so hence all the ickyness. ;)

ArtZealot - it was for a two-page spread demonstrating different types of rigging, so story really wasn't in the cards... next time I'll see if I can work in tiiiny people if it ever comes up again, though. :)

[Ferdinand Venter]

A baby made from blood interesting that explains some stuff.:P

[hurricane]

that's one juicy devilbaby :P

good work !!

cheers!

[Justin.]

The ships seem ever so slightly out of perspective, other than that they rock.


That babay CREEPS ME OUT.

[Gryphon]

hurricane - Thanks! I adore your work, especially that Warhammer-y goblin guy you just posted...

Justin - hehehe. Normal babies creep me out too, so that assignment wasn't much of a stretch...

One piece of that art test I still have to finish... with so much contract work going on right now, everything else has been really slow going, but I'm making progress.

[JERI]

I dunno what crit to give in that last one 'cause it looks good to me. I might suggest that you have mountains in the background (Mt. Doom style) as the image looks a tad empty without something there.

[Gryphon]

Jeri - Good point. I didn't really know what to put back there, which made it kinda boring... Ah well, I'll know mountains for next time!

Other half of that art test... cross your fingers for me, guys, at this point it's in their hands. It'd be nice to have a real job at a game company...

Edit: I have been rejected. So... this is the last art test I'm doing. I've gotten strung along by a series of companies now, and as I have a huge amount of paid work that this put me behind on, I'm not really interested in doing any more.

[rorke]

Hey lady, Nice update keepem comming

[Gryphon]

Rorke - heh, I think you're one of the only people on the Internet who remembers I'm a girl.

The horned guy is a sketch that wound up being unused for a professional project - I think I may go revise the pose for better dynamics and put the axehead high as opposed to low, since I like the idea and (as always) need more dynamism and combat stuff in my portfolio.

The skeleton sketch did end up being used, but I can't show the painting for a little while yet.

I'll prolly post WIP sculpture photos this weekend, I've got the base muscle layers on his back.

[Gryphon]

Couple of little thumbnails for a client... they had a pretty vague brief, so I gave them a range of stuff. We'll see which they pick (if any, heh).

There's also a tiny one from the set I'm doing for a series of game tokens.

[Gryphon]

In progress shot of the ecorches... you can see the skeleton version and the sculpture version. Still have lots left to build on him - right now I'm calling him Sir ChickenLegs since he has no lower leg muscles.

[Gryphon]

Two out of a set of game token pieces I'm painting... final art will print at 16 mm, so they're pretty loose. Hopefully I'll have time to go back and paint in some details into that guy anyway...

[Quintessence]

Awesome stuff, the textures are incredible.

Keep up the good work.

[bdfoster]

My lovely Lady Griff--

I love your color choices. The tokens are looking really good, but I feel like both of them could use a little more space around the focal object. The crop of the ship right at the top of the mast is a little awkward, and the fact that the image is absolutely central in the image space really tends to deaden the impact of the image. The negative space on all 4 sides of the painting have almost the exact same weight. As for the knight, the hand on the shield arm is incredibly flat right now, and the fact that it nearly creates a tangent with the bottom of the picture plane is uncomfortable. Giving a little more room in that area would really help the piece, whether it's by expanding your canvas or bending that arm at the elbow more.

Speaking of composition, since you indicate that's your weak point, how do you approach your initial thumbnails? It seems like you are worrying too much about what things look like rather than how they relate to the picture plane. I'm not sure if you're a Keith Parkinson fan, but his first artbook (I think it was KingsGate) has a little section on his method, and he does really abstract compositions first, and then starts to block his figures and other elements into that space. It's a really interesting way too work, and may help you with your general layout. A similar approach, though less abstract, is the way that Dan DosSantos (DSIllustration) works his thumbnails. Check out the "Mother of Lies" thread in the FF section to see his approach. He's still blocking in figures and general values, but doing so in a very abstract way.

Looking forward to more updates.
-Ben
PS (I'm soooo not feeling like a professional, but I appreciate the comment!!)

[Gryphon]

bdfoster - Your crit is spot-on. I'm trying on the rest of them to stay away from the middle; hopefully I'll do a better job.

As to the abstracted thumbnails... man, I'm hopeless at those things. If I start with blobs, I inevitably end with blobs. I think I'll need another few years to maybe do that technique successfully - it looks awesome when other people (Sparth/Syd Mead/etc.) do it, but I must still be too left-brain or something.

Here's two of the new game pieces, plus a WIP of a promotional illo for GenCon UK.

[Gryphon]

Final for the GenCon UK image. Should have a few more of the game pieces up soon...

[Kicek]

awesome sketchbook. the last one is beautiful, love it!

[Gryphon]

Excuse the crappy image quality... some shots of conte on newsprint studies from anatomy class.

[Niva.]

Hello, first time I'm visiting here, you have a very good style. I like your colors too, I wish to see more sketches as most of your works tend to be mostly finished. Sorry to hear about your rejection, don't give up girl! It may be better to freelance anyways so don't sweat it, I know it sux to be rejected but people are looking at your work already so this much is good news.

Work on building up your portfolio and people will send you offers besides occasional commissions.

Woman in post #85, I like the colors and overall the drawing is great, there are some issues which are causing it great harm. Biggest problem is with the hand holding the spear. Consider redrawing it completely. It is small and incorrectly positioned, you're having problems with hands in other pieces but here it stands out because it's in the middle and my eye is drawn to that spear. Neck is longish and the wrinkles seem to be in the wrong place/side. Hair is a solid clump and the flat background makes it stand out, consider adding frizzy hairs around it, nobody's hair gets bunched up like this unless they just jumped out of water and it's still wet.

The sculptures in #80, awesome! You should take better photos of them, I want to see!

I hope this wasn't too critical and it helps, I really like your work, keep it coming.

[Chiko]

I love your colors and use of dynamic lighting.

I like the painting of the woman too. A very futuristic, and ancient feel. If that makes any sense. hhehe

I think her face, or head might be a bit big for her body. It's what stand out the most to me. Very nice progress though!

[Gryphon]

Oi. I took a long vacation hereabouts... sorry guys, it was a combo of holidays and that ecorche. I should have photos of it soon!

Here's some sketches from a 24 hour art test I did a few days ago. I really doubt I got the job, since speedy work isn't my forte, but I had to try anyway.

[Gryphon]

Oh, and for the person who wanted more skeleton pictures...

[JERI]

Gryph I get the feeling that the way you handle the arms ain't very consistent. Sometimes they look perfect, but other times they don't look proportionally correct. I thought you might wanna look into that.

As always, I'm digging your clothe design.

[Justin.]

Gryph I get the feeling that the way you handle the arms ain't very consistent. Sometimes they look perfect, but other times they don't look proportionally correct. I thought you might wanna look into that.

As always, I'm digging your clothe design.


Agreed- sometimes I am amazed by your work, other times I just kinda go "eeh.." Namely, the Gencon UK image... The anatomy/proportions are a bit off which gives the piece sort of a cartoony feel- Not like "Realistically" cartoony, but you know, slightly exaggerated.

[Gryphon]

Hmmm. I'll watch the arms, then - I think the anatomy problems are mainly in those pieces I can't/don't reference well (no female model around except me) so I'll just shoot more ref and hope that helps. Thanks for the crit!

Small sketch for a client...

[Gryphon]

A WIP for a client... I think one of the far guys is having arm issues, gotta fix that.

[bdfoster]

Both the far guys are having arm issues, actually. Proportionally they're both a little long (gorilla like, even) Even though the legs are bent, you should still bear in mind that were the figures upright, the wrist would fall level with the groin and the fingertips about mid thigh. Some ref might help you in general with these.

I'd also recommend spending more time refining your drawing and working on proportions. Your paintings are gorgeous, but I think it shows when you've got ref and when you don't by quite a large margin... Keep up the hard work.

-B

[Gryphon]

Doh! Thanks, bd... fixed the arms a bunch, hopefully they're better.

The final for that painting, plus an old piece of Game of Thrones art (October or so) since the expansion officially came out. I'll get the other three up that I did once I make JPGs of 'em...

[Ahkahna]

Ohh womans I love how jealous you make me X3 You make me work harder!!

[bdfoster]

Nicole--

Love the last piece. You definitely nailed it.

As for the mercenaries piece, a few general crits: The textures are really nice. However, you need to use texture as a compositional device just like value, saturation, edges, and warm/cool contrasts. Right now, the background texture is so nice, but the texture on the figures is almost completely lacking (the chainmail being a bit of an exception.) There's also some inconsistencies in the lighting on the figures, particularly in the reflected lights and highlights position relative to the figures in space. The last major crit is with the perspective. I can see that the ground plane texture is a photo overlay (tastefully done. BTW) but it forces you into a particular perspective that you don't follow throughout. It's most noticeable in the wall on the right, but also throughout some inconsistencies on the figures. I also wonder if the "straight on" view you opted for in the background wall is not the result of it being "easy" to do in perspective.

As for specific crits, see the sloppy attachment.

Pardon the harsh crit. You know I love your stuff, but I think there's definitely another level that you're sitting right on the edge of, and with a strong enough push I can force you into it.

-Ben

edit: one last nit-pick I didn't include in the attachment but meant to. The foreground females left (our right) is lacking definition between the fingers and thumb. It makes it look like she has 5 fingers rather than 4 and a thumb. I realize it probably was to prevent an odd tangent with the cape on the figure behind, but the thumb really should come away from the hand at more of an angle, or sit closer to the wrist (a tougher differentiation to make given the drastic foreshortening.)

[Gryphon]

Ahk - Aww... *blush*

Ben - Wow. I'll definitely watch my textures with future work and check the lighting direction more closely. I'll prolly give the photo textures a pass in future, too, at least for planar stuff - looks like I'm still not art-smart enough to do them correctly. Doh. Thanks for the super-awesome crit!

Here's a new sketch - I'm not too sure about the impaled guy on the bottom's pose, esp. the hand, but the other two are working, I think. (Dork note: armor on the left guy is intended to be Roman Gallic Wars-era for a legionnaire, though I gave him a shield instead of a stick - so if I did anything historically dumb, let me know that too.)

Remainder of the FFG pieces from Oct. are attached too. Happy New Year, everyone!

[Gryphon]

The Roman piece for Dark City Games... I really like the way the light turned out on this one.

[AztcFireFlower]

Wow! Gryphon You are most prolific. Some really nice pieces you have here too! I like the mood and simple design of this one. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68874&stc=1&d=1167274096
Rather sweet in tone. This one is also quite wonderful in mood. Good logic and concept.http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3590&stc=1&d=1151643571
I'll be back for more.;)

[Gryphon]

Thanks Aztec! I'm in awe of your figures... nice of you to visit. :)

Some guards for Redmist, and a personal WIP...

[Gryphon]

Finish on the personal piece.

[bdfoster]

Nicole--

Love the pallette on the personal piece, and the horse is rendered with such loving attention. The proportions on the main figure are a bit off-- the arm is a little skinny, the hand a little small, and overall he appears a bit barrell chested. Though I can see your intent with showing the back of his waist and lower back under the cloak, it reads more like a cast shadow than the inside of the cape. I think a little more modelling on the belts to make that area feel like it's receding in space will make that read a little clearer, and help solve the barrell chested issue. Also, showing a bit more form under the pants might help, since everything else is done so tight. (in a good way)

I always look forward to your updates. Keep 'em coming!!

[maxetormer]

REALLY nice designs, you still need to work on anatomy and perspective,
but DAM!! the colors, mood and expresions are right on the money,
Keep this impressive work UP!! ;)

[Gryphon]

bdfoster - lolz, it figures... I concentrated too much on getting the equine anatomy right, and failed at the human. *headdesk*

maxetormer - will do!

WIP, another personal one...

(quick edit... just saw a very unfortunate shape overlap.)

[Gryphon]

Further WIP. I may have to lighten some of the darks in the background - I think the new monitor is just not working in the gamma department... I'm going back to the old one tomorrow.

Still have to detail out a lot of the foliage and fix that arm, but I'm chugging along...

[bdfoster]

Sweet sweet update!! Watch the tangent on the top of the persons head meeting the wing. It's a little awkward. You might be able to define the spacial relationships better if you have that wing go behind the person's head. Which arm are you working more on? I think a little more definition on the sillouhette of the person's left arm would help-- particularly the hand. Last crit (I promise)-- when reworking the foliage, keep an eye on the "focal length". I'm not sure if the blurry focus on the foliage blocking the person's feet is intentional or if that area is just not worked to finish yet, but the soft focus on that area is inconsistent with the sharper focus on the large reddish leaf that is closer to the viewer (and should therefore be more out of focus, if you're intended to play with focal range). If you're keeping the focal range thing going, you should also blur out the background ever so slightly to remain consistent.

Awesome piece. I can't wait to see it finished.
-Ben

[Ferdinand Venter]

Hi Gryphon. I like your updates and the fact that your a girl/woman made me appreciate your art more than in the beggining when i (somehow) mislooked that fact on your profile. I found out a week after i began posting on your thread so for what it's worth sorry:wink: .

You are an inspiration to me and i think to a lot of members on ca. My friends internet is slow and it has errors on your page so i couldn't view all your pics :(.

One day i would like to meet you amongst all the other artists on CA, because you have been a good friend and you seem to be a nice person.

I will try my best to keep track of your sketchbook. I will visit you again sometime.

C'YA

[Gryphon]

Ferdi- Heh, that's fine - I honestly figure it's a non-issue whether artists are male or female; the pencil is the great equalizer. ;) I'm not offended if people get it wrong, just amused... the boards are pretty overwhelmingly male, and I mostly paint fantasy, so I can't really blame anyone for assuming. Ironically, one of my male buddies always gets people assuming he's female, so I just figure we cancel each other out!

I should be going to SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con) in the summer, if anyone's interested in meeting up there. I don't know if there's going to be a semi-organized CA meetup like last year, but I'd be happy to figure out something with any CA peeps that are going.

CA seems to go down every time I try to update this thing, so here's a couple of pics that have built up.

[Gryphon]

More sketches. Chime in and tell me which one I ought to paint!

[JERI]

My vote goes to the third dragon fight drawing.

[Chermilla]

You have some lovely work here, some of the proportions look slightly off to me on some of the figures but that aside I think they are wonderful.

I'll be visiting this thread again for sure!! :)

[Jorge Gecov]

Girl! Your stuff kick ass!!!
I can see your anatomy progress, very good. Love your armour designs too, really cool painting style too!
5 stars.
Keep posting.



Sketchbook:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=80575

[bdfoster]

That bug wing/space marine head tangent still kills me. Oh well!

I LOVE the way you used the beaker as a device in the jekyl/hyde painting (or mad scientist, whatever it may be.) Great great piece.

As for what to paint next? I think the two dragons are the strongest compositionally. The chariots will make an exciting piece, but the overall compositional flow is not as strong as on those dragons...

[Ferdinand Venter]

Nice stuff. I love fantacy and your painting's and style. Damn internet trows me a red x for almost every pic :[. O well i will get to see your pics as soon as i get my internet fixed "somehow".

*. edit That "SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con)" thing would of been nice, but i don't have the money to leave my town let alone go to a meeting in America somewhere in the future perhaps ;). I think ive fixed my internet problem thingy:)

[Ferdinand Venter]

Everyone would like you to paint the dragon the dragon would look nice and you've done some nice dragons in the past so there's a plus the angel would work to especially with the background. Then there's the cavalry if I may I would like to suggest something maybe add some arrows to make it more dramatic. I'm not quite fond of that one but maybe it's just me.

Now comes the part where you must decide what you want to do and if I made your decision harder I’m truly sorry.

[Gryphon]

Long time no update... the place seems to be down every time I try, weirdly enough. The dragons, an illustration of fantasy priests, two tarot cards, and two roughs for future priest illos.

[AztcFireFlower]

Hey Gryphon,

Nice update. The Dragon piece is outstanding! Very dynamic in composition and color. Like the way you handled the details on the hide. Like your brushwork. You handle texture nicely.

Good to see you posting new works.

[bdfoster]

Hey Nicole--

Great job on the dragon piece. The lighting is suberb (really great job getting that translucent feel on the wings), and you really nailed the colors on it. The blue's upper arm on his right, our left, is reading a little flat right now. The form really isn't receding into space enough, and there's not enough overlap of forms to really show the musculature. Not a huge deal, but something worth fixing.

I really like the wolf painting also, but there's some anatomy issues with the figure that detract from the overall painting. The head is a little skewed. both arms/hands seem a little disjointed and rubbery, and her right leg (our left) should be bent, since her hip is lower on that side but her foot is off the ground. (unless the leg is supposed to be considerably shorter than the other). Again, colors are handled beautifully, and the wolves are exquisite (great character on them both).

The other Tarot is a little hard to read, but works. The priest painting is nicely done, though for some reason the composition feels a little awkward (I actually think it looks better if you crop off the right 1/3 of the piece)

The two priest drawings are nice. Some anatomy issues that you can take care of with some decent reference. I think both can use a little more "leading" device in the composition. The easiest way in either would be an object in someones hand. In the first, if you had a sword or staff in the lower left fiogures hand "off stage" that roughly pointed toward the other two figures, it would definitely help lead your eye to that section of the composition, while breaking up the repeating shapes of the stairs more. In the latter piece, something in the right side figures hand (again, a staff is probably servicableo) roughly horizontal overlapping the middle figure would help unify the figures a little more, provide some interesting overlap, and set them more firmly in space. (right now there's no strong visual device tying all three figures together.)

It's great to see more work from you. Sorry for yet another lengthy crit (feel free to tell me to take a hike if I'm overstepping my bounds here).

-Ben

[Ferdinand Venter]

Great updates and the second picture "an illustration of fantasy priests," the guy on the far right closest to us the only critique I have is that his hair looks like a cube. I've been eagerly waiting for an update. Lovely work<3 .

I can't wait for the next updates:tihi:

Cheers

[Caskin]

Awesome coloring work! Really rich in the colors and nicely detailed. I especially like that dragon piece, although the wings on the blue seem a bit detached from the body, almost as if they're floating behind him. It's one thing I noticed at least ;D
Love your stuff! definitely keep posting!

[RaistlinTheDark]

very awesome nice shit!

[kinnas]

your paintings, the colours and subject matter bring back memories when I was a little kid playing all those old computer games which had box art and illustrations just like the stuff you paint. microprose's master of magic comes to mind especially well. ah good times, thank you for the nostalgia trip

[Gryphon]

bdfoster - not at all! Crit away. I'll have to tweak the dragon's wings sometime, then...

Ferdi - whoops. Guess he got hood hair or something.

Caskin/Raistlin - thanks!

kinnas - heh, I wish more games/movies still had those kinds of promotional materials. Oh well, not exactly like I can yell at Photoshop for taking my job...

Thanks, guys! Sorry for the long silence - I moved to Arizona in March and I've been doing a lot of NDA work since. It's been super-hectic, but fun.

Mini-update - another cult illustration and my favorite sketch from last weekend's life drawing.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Ah Gryphon you don't know how much I missed your updates. I love your second picture. It looks as if the hooded priest's one hand is flying in the air. What a shiny wooden Quarterstaff the front character has ;-p. That's all for me.

Cheers

[Gryphon]

Thanks Ferdi!

Here's a new cover I finished last month and just got the okay to post - it's for a fantasy anthology. I'm also doing 38 interior b/w illos for it.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Yay :) Updates. Great piece it may be in center but it doesn't bother me. The helmet looks kind of weird, but I suppose if I it, it would of looked worse. Sorry for the spelling my grammar sucks af of the moment. The enviroment gives a dark feel to it or for me anyway :). It seems like you put a lot of emotion into your paintings... it's almost as if you can get the feel for some of them

Well it's all for me cheers

[Pascallo]

Awesome paintings man! The dragon is great and the last one too. I think on the last one the head of the guy on the left is a bit too big. Colors look good, maybe you should try to have more separation between foreground and background, less details and contrasts in the background etc...?
Otherwise great job, i definitely come back soon!

[Gryphon]

Thanks, guys! Yeah, I think his head's too big as well... gotta fix that before I go to San Diego next month.

Here's some of the unused sketches for a cover I'm working on now, plus a personal piece.

[Gryphon]

Here's the final for the dragon cover...

[Gryphon]

A sketch for RedMist - the last group scene of the bunch.

[Gryphon]

A WIP from the current painting, plus some old CCG work for Fantasy Flight.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Lovely images i love the clean smooth render style. I love your pictures. :heart: <3

[Pascallo]

Great updates man. Love the dragon! Though I think it seems a little strange where the fire comes out of his mouth. As if the mouth is not opened enough or another angle or so.. but anyway nice colors and mood!
Keep it up!

[Gryphon]

Thanks guys! Here's a new RPG cover. My new website design should be up by Comic-con (anyone going and want to meet up?), plus that WIP up there will be finished. Busybusy...

[Jorge Gecov]

Great updates! Nice painting.

[Pascallo]

The right dude's face seems a little odd and I think the guys could have needed a pose with more action or motion. The painting job itself is well done though! Like to see more :)

[Ferdinand Venter]

Hi Gryphon nice update the thing that bothers me the most about that pic is that hat on the guy on the right. I think that makes the face look wrong. Hey the djini type of thing has four arms, that's a new one for me :) "good thing", apart from that brilliant image. I would like to see the finished or at least a more finished version of this

[Gryphon]

Pascallo: Yeah, I went back and fixed the right guy's head, it was off.

Ferdi: Yeah, the hat was kind of weird, but hey, gotta do what the client asks for.

The new site's up, and I finally finished this painting of doom. I think I'm going to do some historical stuff next...

[Pascallo]

Lovely work man!

[Gryphon]

Definitely moving on to some historical pieces. The fantasy market's been very shaky lately for a lot of people (me included), and networking at the con didn't really land me anything solid, so I'm going to do some samples of strict historical stuff. I'll cross my fingers that that'll land some new clients. (After this one's done, though, I'm definitely going to need an impressionistic piece to recover. Whew.)

WIP - Ramses II at the Battle of Kadesh. I know I have to shrink Ramses a bit - if anyone spots anything else dumb that I've done, crit away.

[ped454]

you're pretty damn g00d. I think your most recent images have upgraded in skill quite a bit. Maybe you've hit a good spot haha. I also like how you're not afraid to stray from your colour scheme and incorporate unusual colours. It takes a good eye to make that look good.

My fav is the guy with the flask and his face changes when seen through it...love it. later

[Ferdinand Venter]

It seems I've missed some of your stuff Gryphon. If you look at the chariot then it does'nt seem to align with the horses or it can be just me ;). It seems as if you accidently deleted a part of the arrow, but that can be fixed without any fuss <-if anyone spots anything else dumb that I've done, crit away.That's the ownly "dumb" thing i've noticed. The horse looks like if he wants to show emotion: i like it. The pic on post 141 looks very nice.

[Merlkir]

Hi! this is a great sketchbook...there's so much movement and dynamics in your work, I would love to achieve that too some time :) Also lots of facial expression, I'm struggling with those too.
My only critic would be about swords. You seem to know some stuff about armor, but your swords are lower quality. They're still good, nicely painted and all. But the designs are not very good. While they're quite realistic for fantasy pieces, there's much more beauty to be found in the sword realm ;) Also you use a lot of wild stances, but some of them look very funny, especially if the character holds a sword (the hand is often wrong. Painted well, but it looks like holding a hammer or something). If you want to, I could find you some sites or good pictures of people who know weapons and use them correctly for reference. It really helps.

You could also honor me by checking out my own sketchbook, I draw warriors of all kinds a lot. But I'm not that great with anatomy...

Anyway, I'm bookmarking this one. Good job! :)

[Gryphon]

Ferdi - Yeah, I think you're right. I'm still trying to work out exactly where the front horse hoof should go, and I think that got the chariot off-track. I'll nudge it over a bit.

Merlkir - I'm not entirely sure what you mean... are you saying I should do those weird fantasy swords, or are you advising something like an Italian rapier? Well, either way, I'll try and work on better hand/sword combos, and if you've got any fabulous reference, by all means pass it along. All I can do in that realm is fence a little, which is of dubious utility when I'm painting broadswords...

Ramses, WIP take 2.

[Merlkir]

Loving the Ramses so far :)

I meant this: your swords are somewhat rare amongst fantasy illustrators who tend to make up huge stupid ridiculous pieces of metal. Your swords are about the right size, shape and all that. I just thought you're not using the best designs there already are through the history of swords. That's all :)
About the hands...it's actually not that bad, but some small details would make it look better. You say you fence? like modern sport fencing? you're right that's not the best reference you should use for medieval and ancient sword types. The sword's use is completely different in footwork, the grip and the techniques used. Don't know if I can find some good action-posed images, but I have some to demonstrate the grip and basic attacks.

[Merlkir]

I'll go through my pictures to find some cool ones, but if you want to read and watch stuff about swords, these two pages are a must. (I think.)
You probably know them, but anyway :)

Albion. Their swords are pure genius. Simple and beautiful.
http://www.albion-swords.com/

At ARMA site you can find articles and videos about swordfighting. Helped me a lot.

http://thearma.org/

[Ferdinand Venter]

Hi Gryphon, really lovely changes. Here are some comments some good some not that good but certainly not bad or not that i know of.

Imaginary bow string: all bows has strings, love the bow design btw.

Romans helmet(btw. I don't know history all that well<-no interest in it): The horse hair is pointing in the wrong direction, pointers on that the hair is always in the middle, it's acting like a center line of the face all of the humans facial and/or the rest of the body has some sort of center line. some people has more obvious traids of that. Sorry i'm swaying from the point. This guy really bugs me and I don't know why

The lightning looks overall better

[Merlkir]

The guy's not roman, but Chetite (or Hittite). The horsehair crest however stays in the same position from the previous WIP and the guy's face turned. So you're right about that.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Fair enough Merlkir as I said I'm not into history as much so sorry about that. Just for the count i'm not fighting with you, you corrected me and i thank you for that.

[m0uS3r]

hmm way the go .. nice finished work you got here ... hmm verry old school coloring ... (its a good think :) ) i mean that you dont have those crazzy contrast betwen such odd colors ...nice work

keep it up man cheers hope il c ya at my SB

[Caskin]

I wanted to pop in again and say you're colors look great, especially in the piece from post #141 (my favorite so far). But one thing that really gets me is your animal anatomy, especially with the most recent dragon, and the horse(s) from the Ramses piece.

I think your best bet would be to just study some animal proportions for a bit. The first thing on the horse from the Ramses pic that gets me is just how small it is in comparison with everything else. Definitely make the horse bigger, much bigger. Right now it's about pony sized, any horse big enough to pull a chariot would be at least 5 1/2ft at the shoulder. The neck seems a tad long, hind legs a bit wonky, overall I think all this could be quickly fixed by finding a good reference to work off of. I don't know how much you know about horses but the Arabian breed would most likely be the closest to horses of that era, most specifically the Egyptian Arabian (or Egyptian Horse) (a google search for "arabian horse" reveals a reference candidate right off the bat actually ;) http://www.akfentertainment.com/akfpic/akfhors2.jpg).

With the dragon piece back there in post #132, his hind leg facing us is waaaaaay off, to just put it bluntly. He seems to be very much so missing the proper bones in his hinds legs unlike his companions in the background there. That is one very striking detail that throws things off for me. Also, like someone else mentioned, the way his mouth is seems a bit odd for how the fire comes out. Unless his method is to spit it through his teeth in a kind of hissing way (hey, it could work XD), I think some work on the jaws and overall face to make it looks less boxy would help the piece greatly :).

That's all for now, I hope my two cents at least help you out in some way :bashful:. To sum it all up really, I'd really love to see an improvement in your animal anatomy, if you can get that tightened up, your pieces will improve immensely.

Keep up the good work man! :D I'll be looking forward to more.

[Scannerlight]

I had a look around here,
You have a lot of great ideas and nice layout of composition or initial concept but there are a few things holding the Illustrations back from being amazing. There is a great use of color and detail but some of the issues holding it back are in the proportions and structure of the anatomy, a lot of the times more evident in the facial structure. The poses in a few or the foreshortening could also use some closer reference and observation.

Overall some interesting stuff going on in here just work on the proportions and anatomy, it seems like a lot of the faces are skewed and or the heads are too large.

[Gryphon]

Okay! Tweaked horse anatomy, human anatomy, and added a lot of detail. I'm hoping I can call this sucked done now, but as always, if you spot anything I should fix, let me know.

Merlkir - Heh, you got to the history correction before I did. Awesome. :)
Ferdi - Hopefully his helmet makes more sense now. It and a lot of the detailing (like the bowstring) should all be fixed now, too. Thanks for the crit!
m0uS3r - Yeah, I really like the more "traditional" lighting/colors, especially for historical subjects - Gerome is a huge influence for me.
Caskin - I could definitely stand to improve my critter anatomy, you're right... Hopefully the horses are improved - I did a lot of tweaking on their proportions. They may still be too small, not sure. I actually hadn't thought Arabians were around that early, but 30 seconds with Google proved you right! I repainted the head to be more in line with the breed - I'm not sure I got the muzzle right, but it should at least be less Thoroughbred-ish.
Scannerlight - Yeah, I'm slowly resigning myself to the necessity of going back and doing more pure anatomy/master studies. Once I get through my current set of portfolio submissions, I'm going to take time out and work on that.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Ooooh! Update cool:bashful: . As excited as i am about this i'm also loving every detail you've added into this picture. This is a job well done. Now on another note I love your new website it looks really cool. I don't recall seeing that weird/cool looking throne before with the weapons if it is a throne...:thinking:

[rdsarna]

HI Gryph...
AWESOME work here......really inspiring stuff...
I feel some of the figures have some anatomical problems but I'm just a beginner so I mite be completely wrong!!
Keep up the gr8 stuff!
Ratul

[Pedro Cardoso]

Hey therew griphon... i loved your work... al of them are beautfulll.. but some points have to be worked out a bit more... like the proportion of the human body... i think that you make the sketch faster so you can go earlier to the coloring... but the sketch is the most important part, if it is out of proportion of have some mistake you wil have more work to fix it at the painting... so... as your works are very good... make a proportional body, please!
sory by the sux english, rope your understood... its because i am brazilian!
later.....

[Gryphon]

Ferdi - Yup, it's a throne. It's one of the older pieces I did for the Game of Thrones CCG, but I decided I still liked it enough to put it up on the new site.

Two new sketches and a final. I can't show a lot of the stuff I've been doing lately, but hopefully in a few months it'll all be published so I can do a huge dump.

[MacTire]

Some beautiful stuff you have here Gryph! Theres a great, hand painted quality to be seen in your stuff. My favourites would pobably be the centaur piece and your recent Ramses piece.
Keep up the good work!

[Merlkir]

the priestesses are great! it really shows that you study the old masters! I can't do that :D all the draperies, lighting, poses, composition, even the landscape..brilliant.
I'm also curious about that crusader (?) piece..

[Gryphon]

MacTire - Thanks!

Merlkir - heh, the only classical master I usually drool over is Jean-Leon Gerome. That man could paint anything to utter perfection... otherwise I mostly go for illustrators like Wyeth. The crusade piece is another one I'm doing so that I'll have a few samples of historical stuff, so that I can try to entice Osprey (or any similar companies, heck, I'm not picky.)

Here's some older card work (painted in March) for the GoT CCG I got the okay to show.

[Gryphon]

So... I'm probably moving (yes, again!) to Los Angeles next month. I'm hoping we can plonk down close to LAAFIG; having an atelier within a reasonable distance would be fantastic and let me get back to doing a lot more life stuff. We'll see how it all shakes out.

WIP of the Crusades piece - I think the foreground guy's just looking too stiff, but I'm going to go tinker with other paintings for a while.

[Gryphon]

A cropped WIP from a personal painting - I'm switching off between it and the Crusades piece, since the Crusades one is so involved.

[Gryphon]

More progress on the other painting. Have to work on the Crusades piece a bit more, then I'll put up an updated version.

[hp]

lovely paintings! the only problem i see is a lot of your chars seems to have really short legs or something about their proportions seem off.

[Gryphon]

Thanks hp! Yeah, I definitely have to do more work on my anatomy...

The Crusades piece - not totally sure about the foreground guy's hand. I think I'll rework it and turn it a little more, and make the horses more agitated looking.

I definitely think this bugger's improving my equine anatomy, though.

[bdfoster]

Hey Nicole--

Sorry for the lack of comments for a while. Some neat stuff going on here. I think the courtyard scene back in post 160 is great. You've really captured some great gesture in the characters-- much less stiff than some of your older stuff. There's a few proportion concerns with the figures (the girl is much smaller than the other two figures, though basically on the same ground plane). The composition is really nice, though I think the flow would be a little stronger if there was a little more of the white-ish stone above the knight's shoulder/cape in the upper right of the piece to continue that movement created through the piece.

I think I commented on the next two pieces over in your blog, but let me know if I didn't.

The crusaders piece is nice. The foreground figure's raised arm is a little small relative to his head size. Also, I don't really feel a focal point in the piece. There's not enough story going on to really make me feel interested in it, other than as a costuming study. It's nicely painted (as most of your stuff is) but visually and emotionally flat.

The sci-fi piece is going to be sweet. Has a very Donato feel to it, with the concentric rings of the portal putting a bulls eye on the character. The only crit is the odd tangent created between the front of his chest piece and the forearm holding the flashlight. I think you can make the line of the chest more vertical and intersect the elbow guard a little more central for a better read on the shapes.

Keep up the good work, and drop me an email when you've got some time. I've not been good keeping up with CA these days.

[Gryphon]

Ben - Awesome crit, thank you! I've tuned up the emotional content in the crusader piece (I hope) - definitely needed to hear that, I hadn't even been thinking about the storytelling. :bow: Too much worrying over historical accuracy apparently didn't leave enough brainpower for the other important bits.

I also went and fixed that tangent - should have an update of the SF piece once it's done. (and yeah, I saw Donato's work at SDCC and desperately want to paint like that now - I think I sort of terrified him, though.)

I'll definitely drop you an email, probably once I have some more fun stuff to look at. :)

[IvkeBG]

Hey Gryphon, thanks for checking out my dusty sketchbook. Your illustrations are great, I really like the color and the details and the dynamics. I don't know if you use references or not, on some of the paintings there are slight anatomical issues. Maybe researching and obtaining more reference material would fix that. Anyways that's my 2 cents. Cheers!

[Inkjexion]

hey man, i was just checking out your sketchbook and it looks great. It seems that you were getting some ideas from the bible?! hehe. The one where it looks like its Pharaoh who's about to shoot an arrow is cool.

[Gryphon]

Guys, please - specific crits are way more useful to me than generalized comments about the anatomy... if you tell me what specifically looks off to you, especially if it's in a WIP, I will zip to PS and repaint it until it's better, but just telling me it doesn't look right doesn't help me to fix the problems.

Inkjexion: Uh, nope, the Pharoah's just from regular old textbook history.

A mostly-finished wrap cover - just needs more background painting and a bit of tweaking.

[Shantih]

Lovely covers :wink: You seem to be very good at the chest/shoulder area of the horse, but the legs and hind are a bit wobbly. Mostly I'm noticing that you make the cannon bone in the hind legs quite thick, when even in the heavy breeds they're much finer, there's hardly any fat or muscle covering those bones, if you run your hand over that part of a real horses leg you'll feel the skin is quite thin too.
Also, that the angle of the hooves on the front legs is sometimes a bit off. I'm on my laptop right now so I can't do a quick paint over, but the last section of the forelegs can't turn outward. Here's a quick pic I found on Google to show this -

http://www.sea-horse-ranch.com/images/common_photos/horse_jump.jpg

The hoof stays in line with the cannon bone, or sometimes the horse angles the leg inwards slightly, but (I think) it's physically impossible for them to turn the hoove outward at all.

Those little things are the only thing to crit about really, I love your book covers.

[Viking Raider]

I love the Roman stuff---your paintings are simply great! There's a few minor points about anatomy already mentioned (hands, arms, etc.) but for the most part, WOW. Very inspiring! You do a fantastic job capturing the energy of your characters. I'm subscribing to your sb!

[Gryphon]

Shantih - oooh, excellent point. I narrowed the legs down a bit for the final, hopefully they're more correct now. I'm definitely still in need of a few more rounds of practice with those devilishly difficult equine proportions...

Viking - Thanks, happy to have you! Yeah, if I can't get a mentor from the thread, I think I'm going to cave and order some Bridgman books for anatomy practice.

The SF piece and the Western, taken to final.

[Coleb]

Beautiful painting quality. I´m a huge fan of historical stuff.

Regarding proportions etc. I still find the horse in the Pharoh picture a little small. And the one in the foreground with the cowboys, the left ankle is at a very odd angle. I think it would be straight in line with the leg. The horse in the foreground of the crusader pic also seems to have a very narrow muzzle, perhaps a shade long as well. I had questions about the other ones head and how it attached to it´s neck, but it seems better in the second version.

Space guy - hands usually reach mid-thigh - both arms seem significantly too short. Elbows generally fall in an arc with the waistline. The curve of the backside looks flattened, and maybe it´s me, but the crotch line of the uniform seems oddly low. The gap between the leg armor and the body doesn´t really tell me where it´s falling. He´s also carrying the gun more like a lead pipe than a gun. The grip seems backwards. Neck might be a shade long too.

I feel like this is turning into nitpicking - sorry. I can see your homage to Gerome and I really admire your sense of color and light. Very enjoyable illustrations.

[theincredibleandy]

I meant to follow up and say hi again after the Comic-Con this year, and since I finally stumbled across your stuff again I thought I'd put in my 2 cents. I think you already know what to work on, and I think you're working on it, but nonetheless I'll try to be helpful. Also, this whole long-winded analysis will sound very negative, but you DO have a lot going right with your stuff. I just don't have time to list all of the good stuff, too :(

Space Dude-This has a bunch of anatomy problems. Even seasoned pro artists often let their proportions get out of hand when they put someone in bulky armor, so make sure that you nail the anatomy before adding the armor in the final drawing. It will help you out big-time. Specifically, stumpy arms, inhumanly long neck, fatfattyfat thighs (but the right thigh is also too short), and a disconnected torso (the rib cage to hip insertion angles seem too extreme to be believable) Also, he feels off-balance, a bad thing for this painting. I say he, but I can't tell the gender, and said gender uncertainty is probably bad for getting established as an illustrator.

Value-wise, it looks like you drew this out and then painted it, but didn't plan your values out before starting. I would suggest starting with tiny value comps to organize your value scheme before even doing a final drawing. It will help you make smart lighting decisions and make your work more powerful.

Design-wise, the gun looks like a metal stick with a handle. It needs a suggestion of function, even though futuristic weapons could theoretically look like anything. You overused the blue circles motif on the suit, but only because the rest of the suit is so plain and doesn't integrate those blue thingies into the design. You're limiting yourself by thinking of this suit like medieval armor. Get influenced by other artists:

Paul Richards (autodestruct.com):

http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_armor5.jpg (http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_armor5.jpg)

http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_armor4.jpg (http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_armor4.jpg)

http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_armor2.jpg (http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_armor2.jpg)

Donato:

http://www.donatoart.com/sf/outbackb.html (http://www.donatoart.com/sf/outbackb.html)
http://www.donatoart.com/sf/highrisesb.html (http://www.donatoart.com/sf/highrisesb.html)

Donato shows robot/machinery influence with those 2 designs, and Paul Richards is referencing military stuff, but they're both adding new shaping and flow to those ideas. Yours is still set of medieval armor pieces with glowy stuff on it. It might not be specific enough for you to fix the design with, but it's a general concept that you need to thoroughly investigate. In fact, I'd say that the downside of focusing on historical paintings is that it can be too easy to rely on others for your costume design choices. Ideally you'd be designing your own costumes that read as the specific historical stuff you're illustrating, because then you're making something more personal, unique, and more integrated into your paintings.

Western- background guy's head is creepy. It's too big and the expression on his face seems too stiff and posed to be on a horse, trying to kill someone. He feels like a puppet with his big torso, big head, and small arms. The foreground guy's head is a bit big too, I think. Finally, that tree behind the background guy looks like a 40-foot tall tree shrunk down to 9 feet tall

Pharaoh-super stumpy arms :(

Crusaders- with a battle scene, you really really need to use your atmosphere and your light/dark breakups to organize your composition. With everything getting a full range of unsimplified values this piece will fall apart in unreadability. Also, you need to use the shaping/gestures/action lines of the characters to bring a sense of flow into this piece. Some examples:

Lighting simplification, gesture, everything via Donato:
http://www.donatoart.com/gallery/alexanderb.jpg

Gesture via Dave Palumbo:

http://dvpalumbo.com/images/reckless.jpg (http://dvpalumbo.com/images/reckless.jpg)

In short, do sketchbook drawings with gesture and anatomy in mind, and maybe draw animals at the zoo. (I'm leaving to do that right now.) Drawing more animals will help you with your human anatomy, since many of them have the same bone and muscle groups. You also need to think more about compositional flow and making interesting designs. Give people more reasons to like your work!

Okay, I gotta go, but I'll try to say more later. Hope this helps!

[MeTaL-Mike]

wow! cool paintings

[dose]

Hey Nicole!

Just stopping in to say hi. Looking forward to seeing some more stuff in here- particularly drawings- I don't want to comment on the older stuff for now as it's probably not fresh in your head.

It's really great that you're doing full compositions and taking them all the way to finish.

I started a quick paintover of the western piece at home, focusing mainly on color. I'll post it in a few days if you're interested.

Tim

[Gryphon]

Andy - awesome crit, thanks! I'll go back and fix the Pharaoh for sure - SF piece, I'll fix the face, but I'll keep the armor thought in mind for next time - Western already went to the publishers... and heh, I'm hopeless at gesture. I'm doing Bridgeman studies, though.

Mike - Thanks!

dose - Yes, my master. ;) And post away!

Two VERY rough WIPs and some Bridgman studies.

[rorke]

its been almost a year since I browsed this thread and I am really seeing some new thinking and creativity coming from you.

[dose]

dose - Yes, my master. ;)

oh, ick! :dead:

I really like the green WIP. One small compositional suggestion- try making that tree behind her bend more to the left, so that we get more of a silhouette of her head. That way there will be lots of contrast right around her head- dark black hair against gray background fog, then bright face against black hair. Right now your biggest contrast is the glow from the cauldron against the black of the cauldron, so you tend to look there.

You can also try adding a bit more curve to that tree right behind her- just enough to echo the curves of the smoke. That tree is sort of weirdly monolithic and static in the middle of this nice swirly, dreamy composition.

The bridgman studies look nice. I think I'll join you in studying Bridgman- I've only read parts of his stuff when I have a specific anatomy question and never really copied anything.

A good thing to try is drawing them from memory after you've copied them- especially a day later. Then you see whether you've retained anything!

[dose]

Hey Nicole

Here's the paintover. Mainly concerned with color, and a bit of proportion. Didn't really get into too much anatomy.

It's very rough, but the main idea was that outdoors on a relatively clear day, the light will be a certain warm color, and the shadows will be a cool blue. There's two reasons for this. The main one is that there are actually two light sources in a landscape scene- the direct, strong light of the sun, and the broad, diffuse light of the sky (technically everything is at least a small light source, so there is an infinite number of light sources, but that's a bit much to deal with). So the sun will be a warm color depending on the time of day (I chose a more orange color for evening sun), which will illuminate everything facing the sun and tint it towards the color of the sunlight. But then everything not facing the sun or in cast shadow will be illuminated by the softer blue light from sky, which functions as sort of a field of light which comes from almost every direction- very, very diffuse. The strength of the sunlight overpowers this diffuse light in general, but it still is affecting the whole scene, though really only obvious in the shadows.

The second reason is that when you're painting it's usually important to decide on the color/temperature of your light source (it's never totally white), and then make your shadows the opposite temperature. So- warm light, cool shadows; cool light, warm shadows. There's a lot of debate as to whether there's any physical basis for this as in physics shadows have no color (as they are an absence of light), so some painters don't believe in this kind of rule/guideline at all. But I find it to make for much richer color in painting- there's less 'muddy' color, and less of the colorized look. I believe it has to do with the idea of gamut, which is normally a term used in technical color reproduction. It's the idea that if you have a limited set of colors, you need to shift them all around a bit when the subject has colors outside of your color set to retain the same perception- so that the relations of the colors are as close to the same as the subject as possible. You can get away with focusing on this a bit less when painting digitally, since you have a much wider range of colors to work with, but I prefer a more painterly look rather than photorealistic. I suppose it comes down to personal opinion there and what you're going for.

Anyway, that's a longer topic, but in this piece (and sunny landscapes in general), you have the blue light of the sky filling in the shadows, plus
cool shadows relative to the warm light source- so the shadows end up looking fairly blue. This is especially the case later in the day, when the sunlight is more orange and further from white, and less intense. This could all be pushed further & done more carefully in the paintover, but I think this is a good start on the idea.

I also threw in some more atmospheric perspective on the mountain range & trees in the background to push them back further, and draw out the silhouettes of the two riders some more. I also softened up a lot of the edges- particularly in the areas of less interest.

Hope this helps!

-Tim

p.s. I also have a perspective/construction paintover coming up for the gladiator piece.

[Gryphon]

rorke - good to hear - I'd hate to think I ever stay a stagnant blob... too many artists get stuck doing the same thing endlessly.

dose - oh, good point. The blue shadows do look attractive. I was thinking that the Western should be kept to more of a overall brown/orange, because of the theme, but I'll definitely push the blues next time around and see what happens.

Guess I better update this pretty fast - the gladiator piece changed a lot as I fiddled around with it this weekend. I guess I'll take a break from that one until you play with it.

Fixed the trees in the green one. I have to go shoot ref and tune it up some more, then I'll repost it.

Bridgman study/figure construction practice from imagination/gladiators

[Merlkir]

just a little note ;) I've read somewhere that the modern view of Gladiators as muscular athletes is probably wrong, from excavations it seems that their diete was meant to make them rather chubby :) The fat makes you harder to grab and protects vital organs from blows that would normally be mortal (also you bleed less from scratches and minor wounds..)

Also I liked the previous sketch better, the pose now makes less sense imho, with the shield and sword like that. With the previous one, I imagined he's lost his gear and is grabbing his opponent's throat..

[Shaw]

Gryphon
I really like your paintings, the colors are great and your handling awesome. The glaiators are coming along really well, again I love the colors. It looks like you just put the shield there so you wouldn't have to draw that part of the figure. I think the picture would definitely benefit from a rethinking of that part. Maybe something that makes a compostional line that goes in the opposite diagonal. The face on the guy on the left seems like it is too far forward or that he doesn't have enough forehead or something. Also, its way more fun to see tanned muscley gladiators than fat-hairy gladiators, regardless of historical accuracy. Your work is great and I can't wait to see some more of it!

[dose]

Hey again.

I'm focusing on figure structure in this one. The main thing that's off is not necessarily the anatomy- more the problem is perspective and construction (by which I mean putting forms together in perspective). This seems to me to be more of an issue for you than knowledge of anatomy- more the problem is how to take what you know and place it in space. Drawing the figure as cubes can be enormously helpful in figuring out perspective along with anatomy, and can also be very informative as to what your pose is actually doing.

It's actually surprisingly difficult to put the cubes together in perspective, in proportion, and in a pose that is not awkward. But my feeling is- if you can't do it with the cubes, how can you expect to do it with probably the most complex organic form we know of?

It's late and I'm a slow writer, so I hope this image will be at least somewhat self-explanatory for the time being. If you have any questions let me know. If you like, I can explain a bit more of my thinking on this drawing later.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Tim

[Gryphon]

Man, this is definitely the most hopping this place has ever been! :yayca:

Merlkir - Really? I hadn't ever heard that, but a quick Google confirms it. History is so bizarrely fun. Heh, I picked gladiators to work on my muscle structure, though, so I think I'll stick with the ideal. I moved the gladiators back to the original poses(ish), so hopefully that'll still make it a cool image to ya. ;)

Shaw - yeah, I dropped the shield out - I definitely wanted a diagonal, but I can get that just as easily with the far arm. Thanks!

dose - I think I understand what you meant and fixed it - are they correct now or do they need more tweaking? I also tried working in more reflected blues into the skin tones, and it does definitely improve the look of the piece.

Gladiator and witch WIPs

[dose]

Those are coming along nicely! I especially like the composition in the green piece.

Two quick things on the gladiators:

Compositionally, it's feeling a bit crowded on the bottom. If this piece doesn't need to fit in a specific layout, try either chopping of the top or extending the bottom. I like the top, so I'd probably recommend experimenting with extending the bottom a bit. I'm not positive this will be better, but try it out and see what you think. Be concerned with where the figures are sitting on the page as a whole.

Color-wise, the blues in the shadows add something nice to the piece. But my point with the western piece was not "shadows should have blue in them". Rather, you need to decide on the color of the main light source, and the overall ambient color for the situation in a given piece. These two factors will have an effect on the color of the shadows. Adding the blues in the shadows combined with orange-iness in the the lighter areas implies that there is sunlight. Is that what you intended?

I have some more crits on the anatomy on the gladiator piece (I can probably critique endlessly, sorry!), but I have to get my laundry and get to sleep so I'll try to write them in the next day or two if I have time. The main concerns are about proportions- see if you can figure them out! If you don't do it already, flip the canvas horizontally and see if you see things differently.

Talk to you soon

Tim

[carnalizer]

Nice colors! I just wanted to add some to dose's crits. While I agree on the importance of placing and perspective, it has to be said that having all the planes parallell in a body is the killer of dynamic poses.

[Gryphon]

Tim - I figured logically if they were lit by anything, it'd have to be sunlight, since (as far as I know) the arenas were always outdoors.

carnalizer - I take your point, but I'm not sure that particular figure would be a good idea compositionally... I think the best dynamic figures I've seen tend to be organized through a line of action. Definitely something I'm still struggling with, though.

Went to the zoo this weekend, realized that Arizona people are very much more polite than Florida/Georgia ones, and that gesture drawing is still not my thing.

Zoo sketches/more gladiator WIP

[Merlkir]

great stuff :) I'm loving the metal on the right guy..

[Gryphon]

Merlkir - thanks!

Bridgman head studies/trying to apply Bridgman/even more gladiator WIP

[Gryphon]

Nuts, kicked back down to 4 stars again.

Gladiator aaaaalmost done

[Merlkir]

I've already faved Viviane and the gladiators at DA. Beautiful pieces :) good work.

[Gryphon]

Merlkir - thanks!

Merman WIP

[Rune Rask]

great progress indeed :) and nice style.

you got the whole proccess on alot of ur pieces, wich is a pleasure to watch

Rune

[Gryphon]

Rune - heh, good to know I'm not annoying everyone with the endless WIP posts - I worry about that sometimes.

Bridgman studies/a color sketch I liked

[Gryphon]

Had to use this icon, it cracks me up. [portal]

Merman finish

[Merlkir]

very cool :) dynamic and nice colors.

[Camara]

The sense of movement in the pic of the gladiators is very good,but the last one of the fish man is awesome.I really like the blue tones on it.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Hi Gryphon, nice seeing all the new things. I really like your wip pics it gives one a better understanding of what you are doing and helps us give you critique before hand and sometimes ideas:wink: . Great updates I really love them.

The fish makes me think of Merfolk, I don't know what species are this but only merfolk comes to mind when I see them...dono maybe i'm playing to much magic the gathering;) . Great improvement on the gladiator scene and good job on your Bridgman studies.

See you

[Gryphon]

Ferdi - heh, I sort of ended up doing it since the boyfriend bought a bunch of new Magic cards and was playing, and nearly all the merfolk looked ridiculous, so I figured I'd see if I could try and do better while I was waiting for client emails and so on.

SF Bridge/2 Bridgman Studies/2 Practice Sketch Pages/Pirate WIP

Have to fix the perspective on the female pirate's head, but I like how it's going overall.

[Ferdinand Venter]

Wow SF bridge stunning :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: stars I love your merfolk :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:. I would have loved it if that merfolk was published into the Lorwyn set hey maybe you can send it for the next set and if they don't accept it i would be mad because it looks so darn cool.

Just one thing about the pirate image, her right arm seems to blend in with the clouds; arm in the back, I can't seem to immitate the picture my mind is restricting me for some weird reason. It keeps on saying it's the right hand but my logic wants to argue with reason or whatever it might be :P .

I know you're still in progress with the pirate scene but the wood on the boat/ship seems thin. Nice on the overall idea on the image Gryphon. i would love to see the end result

[Merlkir]

The scifi one is cool, I admire people who can do scifi. I know I can't :)
The pirate one is coming nicely, it's really dynamic :) right upper corner is a bit empty? maybe use the smoke to enhance the overall movement of the picture? (the arm ready to swing, the ropes bent in the same way..)

[Gryphon]

Ferdi - uh, heh, based on my last portfolio review with Wizards, I think it'll be years before I work with them, if ever. They were spectacularly not impressed with me. Yeah, I'm going to shoot ref for that piece on Wed., something just seems wacky about it and I finally got some nice photo lighting, so I might as well get my money's worth.

Merlkir - I just fake SF based on what people who really know what they're doing in that department do, and aim for super-simple perspective or overpaint a Sketchup model. It's definitely not my strong point either. :)Yeah, I still have to do all the lighting on the smoke, some particulate soot, all that sort of stuff... it'll have to wait on me finding time for it, though, my schedule's been insane lately.

Uhhh, the attachment manager appears to be moving at about the speed of a drunken snail, so photobucket attachments today... also, the move to LA is on! Should be packing up here in December, and out there in early January.

Bridgman
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bridg9.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bridg8.jpg

Sketching
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/practice5.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/practice6.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/practice7.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/practice8.jpg

RPG Illustration
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/dock.jpg

[Ferdinand Venter]

Sorry Gryphon it seems that the more i try to help the more I do the exact opposite, sorry again I didn't know. Now I feel bad... for going into the subject, well there's always new hope ;). I like your spaceship.

See you

[dose]

Some perspective/construction paintovers. Hopefully it's helfpul/clear. Will post some anatomy ref and other paintovers soon.

Tim

[MeTaL-Mike]

love the anatomy studies you've got here. amazing arms and hands man. keep it up

[MayYeo]

Your wips are amazing, I wonder how long does each one take? Your coloring skills are superb. OVerall, I really enjoyed watching your portfolio. However, I see you're still working on http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=222946&stc=1&d=1193043806 (correct me if I'm wrong). That arm is in foreshortening, you should use your own arm and a mirror to figure out what's going on. Right now it lacks anatomy and believability. That's it. Keep it up!

[Gryphon]

Been seriously swamped lately... between starting the process of looking for apartments in LA, NDA stuff, and just generally having piles of stuff to get done, I haven't had a whole lot of updating time, so have a dump of random stuff from the last two weeks or so.

Pirate finish, a color sketch that didn't go anywhere, a cover WIP, finished cover, a really fast turnaround interior (that ended up unused, sigh), my favorite thumbnail for another cover.

Ferdi- heh, it's okay. I think I'm going to start shifting out of the RPG industry eventually - the pay sucks compared to what the book industry can offer.

dose - uhhh.... I think you're saying to leave more space for the great trochanter and attach the leg lower on the hips?

MayYeo - Depends, but if I get to work on a piece straight, it's usually a week or less. Quick stuff like the mer-guy is usually more like three days. Shot ref and really reworked the pirate piece, hope it's better now.

[MeTaL-Mike]

wow these are cool!!

[spudstudios]

5 stars from me.. Great stuff!

[Ferdinand Venter]

:) I was in a bad time of my life it felt as if i pushed everyone close to me away. It's going better now. On another note nice updates, what's the last one Gryphon? it looks like a face then horse then a landscape.

[Merlkir]

Good updates!

I like the Salamis thingie. Some thoughts though ;)

- the thorax of the hoplite is skewed to the left a lot I think..
- I can't quite figure out what he's doing with the spear. If he's about to throw it, he would grasp it much closer to the tip. If he's gonna attack with it, he's still holding it a bit too far from the half of the shaft.
- the persian dude falling over the board is a bit stiff, try twisting him a bit so we can see his pain all fearlful and in pain ;)
- the oars...aren't they too small and isn't there too many of them compared to the size of the soldiers? don't know.
- have you found any references for the persians? :) many people paint them rather wrong and call it historical illustration ;)
- a minor thing, the archer would maybe have a bit wider stance...

[Farin]

wow .. the pirate-piece is wonderfull ..
the only thing I dont like is her "flying" hair ... everything else is just great

[Gryphon]

Okay... haven't updated around here for a long time (the random site downtime and general slowness just doesn't encourage me to update often) so have a massive dump. More frequent updates are still happening on my DA page and my website.

Old interiors
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwarante.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwdeadmoor.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwduran.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwfantala.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwglysani.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwvisal.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/bwvlyriss.jpg

Newer stuff
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/babayaga.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/cerberus.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/ogrefinal.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/pele.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/gryphart/goblin.jpg

[ChaoticKnight]

Your work is intense! i love the gray scale stuff.
Watch the anatomy of the orc in the last post. The arm raising the axe on its left side looks a little odd, and if it was back that far it would probably affect the torso more.
Nice work! Keep going!