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Verom's stash: Meatboy painting
Verom
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been "seriously" drawing for about 2 or 3 years now, but over the past 5 or 6 months I've definitely seen the most significant improvement in myself. I've gotten to the point where I'm happy with what I can do but I know I can learn a lot more, I've gone to a lot of places looking for advice, I get some but for the most part any critiques I can get are few and far between. Lurking around here I've seen a lot of useful advice.
(click the spoilers for larger views)
An entry for a character of the week competition
"It's like the merchant from Resident Evil 4 and a shyguy had a baby"
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/057/b/c/A_shy_one_by_Veromorte.png
A weekly character design challenge that went incredibly well, I love how it turned out, experimented with lighting and I think I got the mood I was going for.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/050/4/9/Eddie_Morrows_by_Veromorte.png
Probably one of my favorite images I've done, an inside joke with friends that took on a life of it's own, tonka
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/048/2/6/TONKA_TOUGH_by_Veromorte.png
A comical modern revamp of good ol' duck hunt.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/033/b/4/Duck_Hunt__Apocalypse_by_Veromorte.png
A tribute to McBess, had a lot of fun with this one, biggest I've ever worked.
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/072/d/9/McBess_Tribute_by_Veromorte.png
Koffing and Weezing gajinkas
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/098/9/4/Koffing_until_you__re_Weezing_by_Veromorte.png
Probably the highlight of my work, a project I took on back in november, 50 characters total and over 100 hours poured into the project I couldn't have been happier with the result.
Caricatures of people from another forum I go to using there names, actual pictures of them, or characters they use to make each one.
(click the spoilers for larger views)
An entry for a character of the week competition
"It's like the merchant from Resident Evil 4 and a shyguy had a baby"
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/057/b/c/A_shy_one_by_Veromorte.png
A weekly character design challenge that went incredibly well, I love how it turned out, experimented with lighting and I think I got the mood I was going for.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/050/4/9/Eddie_Morrows_by_Veromorte.png
Probably one of my favorite images I've done, an inside joke with friends that took on a life of it's own, tonka
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/048/2/6/TONKA_TOUGH_by_Veromorte.png
A comical modern revamp of good ol' duck hunt.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/033/b/4/Duck_Hunt__Apocalypse_by_Veromorte.png
A tribute to McBess, had a lot of fun with this one, biggest I've ever worked.
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/072/d/9/McBess_Tribute_by_Veromorte.png
Koffing and Weezing gajinkas
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/098/9/4/Koffing_until_you__re_Weezing_by_Veromorte.png
Probably the highlight of my work, a project I took on back in november, 50 characters total and over 100 hours poured into the project I couldn't have been happier with the result.
Caricatures of people from another forum I go to using there names, actual pictures of them, or characters they use to make each one.
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the last one with all the designs thrown together is the most successful
I think your characters are great but your backgrounds are a little iffy. I think you're over complicating the bavckgrounds, adding tooi much texture/gradients/brush variation etc.
You characters are simple colours and tones, which is what makes them so good.
Thats my only beef so far.
Hope you stick around
I really dislike the background color. Light blue is a calm and refreshing color. It doesn't fit with a bloody butcher.
Like--in some pieces--the textures and values of your backgrounds and characters run into each other. The subjects and the settings are too similar in appearance. It's good to have some similarities between your subject and background, but it's also good to have strong contrasts.
In some other pieces, the shapes of your backgrounds are overwhelming your character silhouettes. You seem to have a habit of shooting harsh background lines through visually busy areas on your characters. You shouldn't do that anymore.
One more thing: your backgrounds seem flat, and most of them are a little dark. It's like they're squishing your characters up against the computer monitor.
I just want to say again that you have cool characters here. There's just a few common problems you should address. For practice, try drawing simple, monochromatic compositions. Emphasize depth, transitions, and relative values.
Sorry I wrote so much. I just like the potential I see in your work. Your art should evolve and look totally amazing.
This is an interesting idea. But I think you could execute it better.
If you hadn't said it was Duck Hunt, I would have had no idea. There's a duck there, but there's really nothing to me that says Duck Hunt.
I'm assuming that guy is the hunter? What tells the audience he is a hunter? He's got armor on, that makes me think he is a warrior. Are the ducks an aggressive species this time around? The way the guy and the duck are positioned made me think he was a warrior and the duck was his sidekick.
Also, you're missing an iconic piece of the duck hunt puzzle: the dog. Remember that the original Duck Hunt was a POV game. The only things the viewer saw was the dog, ducks and the Zapper in their own hand.
Do a bunch of rough drafts, I think you could come up with a much better layout with a cohesive message. You can grab your audience so much better if they look at it and go, "hmmm... that's interesting... wait... It's Duck Hunt! In the future!" If they can figure it out for themselves without looking at a caption it will resonate with them more.
You went way too crazy with Photoshop effects. The key is to be subtle, or not use them at all. Even if they weren't effects, you made it look too muddy/fuzzy.
Keep working hard!
Composition is something I also need to work on, I didn't mention that.
Just out of pure laziness I tend not to go back in fix things in my older pieces, but instead use what I learn the next time. But again, the duck hunt one, I've noticed glaring problems that I don't know why I put in, I could have made the area bigger, more obvious he's a hunter, and actually had a duck and the dog, but instead I went for a parody and only people who knew about it would know what the parody is.
Thanks for the posts so far.
To me, the setting looks flat. The background is too dark (which washes out the dark characters), and you've overcomplicated it with strong, harsh lines all over the place. The sky is comparatively very light, and that stark contrast in particular is unnecessary.
Here's a few quick mockups to illustrate some points:
In this one, I blurred some of the harsh background lines I keep talking about. This is supposed to emulate atmospheric perspective (or even depth of field). I also used some gentle color gradients for a related effect. Also, I darkened the sky a little bit. That part was more my personal taste than anything. It could have easily stayed a bit lighter.
Ok, this one is pretty exaggerated. Kind of an extreme light-to-dark contrast-oriented take on the piece. I separated your characters from their background in photoshop, blurred the harsh lines like before, and threw on some heavy gradients to emulate a light source. I also used the burn and dodge tools on your characters to adjust the shadows on their bodies to their new light source.
This one is basically the same as the first mockup, except its two orange triangles replace some boring parts in the composition. (Not that your signature is boring. You can always find a new place for it.) As a rule, an oblique or abstract frame should direct your eye a bit, and it should work well with the rest of the picture. Also, the orange frame color here picks up the color of those lit cigarettes.
Verom, you can do whatever you want with your art. That's what makes it fun. These are just a few possible mutations of one of your existing pieces. For the future, experiment with all kinds of new stuff, and never be afraid to go back and work on the basics.
Good luck!
The butchers pants, for instance. The three bands of grey you've used? I'd try making the mid-tone the biggest colour and use the shadow to indicate the leg shadow through the pants, or as a thinner band to indicate cloth folds. Because the mid-tone is quite dark already and the darker tint flattens the leg so bad, and washes out your nice outlines.
Alternatively, using a lighter tint of those colours or a different/menacing colour as a 'reflected light source' could have helped you build on the three-dimensional forms that your lines imply - the form of the nose, thickness of the neck, bloodstains on the shirt etc.
I'd demonstrate with a paintover but I'm at work, hope it makes sense otherwise.
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/113/8/f/Eddie_Morrows_by_Veromorte.pnghttp://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/050/4/9/Eddie_Morrows_by_Veromorte.png
Original concepts for the "prelims" of the character design
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/047/2/1/Shape_Challenge_Week_3_by_Veromorte.png
Turn around
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/050/4/2/D_A_C__3_part_2_by_Veromorte.png
Attempt at some tribalesque stuff, drawing an octopus is a great way to kill time. Drawn in ink, colored digitally
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/302/8/0/Bubbly_Octopus_by_Veromorte.png
o2 from kirby64, for a collab, 3 solid colors only.
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs51/f/2009/303/6/0/Zero2_by_Veromorte.png
Spy vsspy and team fortress crossover.
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/050/7/c/Ze_Spy_vs_Ze_Spy_by_Veromorte.png
First thing I drew this year
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/008/a/e/Twennyten_Mofos_by_Veromorte.png
Sonic
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/040/e/b/Adorableness_Incarnate_by_Veromorte.png
Probably my only successful digital painting with no lines used.
Koffing, done in watercolors on roughly 13x18 watercolor paper.
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/119/1/0/Koffing_by_Veromorte.png
Done for a Character of the week contest, the theme was one of the users, the mask and headband is part of the character so they were a staple in everyones entries.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/134/7/e/Cap__n_Jonny_by_Veromorte.pngParody of Captain Morgan because Captain Morgan is awesome and so is this guy.
Also took a crack at some comicery
...I need work, I know.
I've recently found out that this joke is from family, did not know that at the time
This was for Kevin Bolk's turning 30 contest
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/114/e/3/K_Bo__s___LONGEST_BIRTHDAY_EVER___by_Veromorte.png
The next 2 are for an image battle, the comics are kinda half-assed, but for the most part the line art is how I would usually go about it.
I faulty rocket was fired at me.
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/77/m-vero_ng-battle-royal-3.jpg
Decided to team up with a buddy and gave me the idea to be a huge gurren nerd. My jaw had also been punched off
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/77/m-vero_combine.png
How d'ya like it(how d'ya like it)
Little parody of team fortress and tankmen from newgrounds.
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/79/m-vero_team-tankmen.png
A little silliness in between projects that actually turned out quite well
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/79/m-vero_muthafuckin-hulkgloves.png
Lines from a current collab project(big because image shack sucks and doesn't have a reasonable thumbnail size)
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8281/tankz.png
Finished the WIP from above, lines and a few colors by me, most colors by Mabelma
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/81/m-vero_big-and-small.png
4 quadrants still life I did a month or 2 ago
Top left is charcoal and oil pastels.
Top right is watercolors and pencil (I should use watercolors more)
Bottom left is regular Crayola markers and colored pencils
Bottom right is acrylic and pastels
Estimated time, I'd say.......6 or 7 hours
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/70/m-vero_quadrant-still-life.png
Little doodle I made in class one time based off of concept art from Ventastic
Joke that I can't spell that I decided to draw, that I put too much effort into
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/74/m-vero_emphosous.png
And I have recently started doing an ms paint adventure parody, but done in photoshop, I do not have the patience to do it in ms paint, thread for it can be found here
Black space with white text in between panels are the suggestions given
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/81/m-vero_sapience-comic-1.png
And something I'm working on right as I type this, a little homage to good ol hsu and chan
So until then, pokemons
Was streaming this with some friends and got a complaint that pokemon wasn't manly enough
I fixed that
Grouchos for all and added manliness for those who need it
And slightly more serious one
Groucho mask still on the lapras cause I accidentally deleted the layer it was on before sketching it, and got to far along sketching before realizing this
I really like(d) the inks on the Hsu homage so far. Very clean and simple but expressive.
In regards to the unead mashup, this is something I learned the hard way, but when you draw all of the elements of the piece separately without really planning the layout, it shows. The individual drawings are nice, but when it's all put together it loses almost all of it's energy.
I would suggest next time you do a piece like that you do a rough sketch of the full-size composition, and then separate out the individuals before working on them. It shouldn't be too hard since it seems like you do almost all digital anyway, so you could even just ink each character on a separate layer in the same file.
You should finish it - it looks great!
I also really like your character style with the big head/little bodies...
There's some good stuff in here. Your color work needs a bit of improvement, but your character design is really cool!
Yesterday, I did a "whore for a day" request marathon.
Took any and all requests I received for 6 hours and this is the outcome.
I kinda wish people took this a bit more seriously, I mean this is free art after all, but it was a ton of fun for all involved, and throughout which whore me was dubbed Veronica
Requests group 1
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21258000/ngbbs4c0a7f3894035.jpg
Character request, still couldn't do to much with this one
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21258000/ngbbs4c0a83c08fc20.jpg
Friend got modded, than they took away the reason he wanted to be that kind of mod, but still had the duties that came with it
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21258000/ngbbs4c0a88460fc50.jpg
Cowboy with a magnum
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21260000/ngbbs4c0afa6b8e5a2.jpg
Cheney punching a nuke for some reason.
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21260000/ngbbs4c0afe7a922b6.jpg
Dinotard with oven mits, socks, and briefs on his head.
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21260000/ngbbs4c0b03787a29a.jpg
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21253000/ngbbs4c095726b1b6e.jpg
Pots and pans robot
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21253000/ngbbs4c095ffbc6d16.jpg
Pickle zilla with face lasers and meow face
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21253000/ngbbs4c0969e6277e6.jpg
An armadillo with an inside-out face, snail eyes and intestines for limbs, sitting on a beanbag chair on top of the sun.
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21254000/ngbbs4c0979b95325c.jpg
I didn't know what the requester was talking about, but involved me and my whore day get up, and Marcellus Wallace
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21254000/ngbbs4c098a31ef751.jpg
A car putting his front bumper into another car's trunk
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21254000/ngbbs4c0998c2d45d8.jpg
A summer girl on a bench, my anatomy is terrible
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c099ce16fc85.jpg
A turtle working up a sweat, i call him speedy
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c09a92617a75.jpg
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c09a3b944eae.jpg
A tortoise with cannons on it's back (I have made confirmation that they did not mean blastoise but it still works)
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c09b215e9f06.jpg
Pirate versus a ninja on a tightrope over a volcano
(was debating not doing this one cause it's just one of those things that idiots think up and think it's funny for like 30 seconds, but what fun would that be?)
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c09bd3f8fba0.jpg
A man and a woman who love eachother
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c09c646eb341.jpg
A cucumber cutting up a French chef
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21255000/ngbbs4c09cda20ffa8.jpg
An armored pickle in a horse (he meant on a horse and I knew, but you gotta spell check this stuff)
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/14/21256000/ngbbs4c09d44dc88c2.jpg
Team awesome
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/158/2/8/Team_Awesome_inks_by_Veromorte.jpg
Alright, that should do it
For the most part cartooning is pretty much all I do at the moment, I have some older still lifes and anatomy studies from last year, and a few from this year still at school.
I'll post some of those probably when I get them back
"The ability for quotation, is the absence of original thought."
Your stuff is good, but you still have issues. It's clear you lean on stylistic conventions in regards to anatomy, but you don't seem to have the underlying knowledge to really back it up. It's especially clear when you compare pieces like Dick Cheney punching a nuke - which has a lot of energy and character - to stuff like the girl on the bench - which, well, doesn't. You'll need to do a lot of boring as hell life-studies if you want to be able to do work of a consistent quality.
Here is a good resource for some online and offline resources. In addition, just grab your sketchbook, go outside, and draw some trees and buildings, people in the park, on the bus, etc. You'll notice the improvement pretty damn quickly.
Some quick pose sketches from around the same time last year in art class.(this is the best I got right now, plan to do some in the next few days, for a comparison)
10 second pose sketches
1 minute sketches
5(I think) minute sketches
10 minute sketch
ON TO NEW STUFF
Finished the pokemon picture(don't know if this'll work on here, but if it does, click image for bigger view)
Made a yoshi puppet as our final project this year in school
I suck at sewing, in every use of it.
Glue is coming off of the fabric where the mouth is, seems are unraveling.
Overall it was pretty good compared to others in the class, but it's still pretty much a green trainwreck
Hand painted.
about 12 or so hours (same as pokemon, click for bigger)
And a little animation of a little robot, based off Marvin
More anatomy practice, a lot more stylized, but practice nonetheless.
Click image for bigger.
Animations. linked for filesize
Octopus on a pogostick, I am aware the way it's bouncing doesnt make too much sense, but it was quick and I don't really know how to draw an octopus on a pogostick very accurately.
Do the wave, also technically a little anatomy practice.
link being bugged by navi
www.gettyimages.com has a good pool of people in a variety of poses. Most of the images require purchase, but if you go here and click on "view gallery" on the right, there are some good references. It'd be worth it to navigate the site a bit and build up some bookmarks.
Also, as much as it may make you self-conscious, getting out and doing gesture drawings at a coffee shop somewhere can be excellent practice. Just remember that for awhile you aren't going to end up with more than irregular blobs, but exercises like that are great for helping you observe the entire body as a unit.
And it's not particularly a bad change IMO
About a month ago
Bloom skeleton ghost thing made of bloom and messing around in photoshop
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/90/m-vero_skeleton-ghost-thing.png
Space singer
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/90/m-vero_no-one-can-hear-you-suck.png
Drawn today.
Lot more......meatier then from about 2 months ago, something, honestly, I really needed to do.
also most accurate self portrait to date.
I guess since you found a new drawing groove that you like you should probably start drawing more frequently!!
Everywhere I go you seem to be there V... Anyways, I love your style and your inks are amazing, keep up the great work. The only thing that bothers my on the plaid image is that you also added plaid to the converse star but the star looks squished and messy and the plaid attracts your eye toward and actually takes away from the image but if either fix the star or took away the plaid on it I'll be ok.
I hope to, especially since school is coming up and I have art classes a plenty.
Oh hey mabelma
Messing around the gradients, not sure if I like them.
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/233/5/b/Yo_by_Veromorte.png
and a little painting....thing
http://art.ngfiles.com/images/94/m-vero_georaffe.png
When I start doing paintings that aren't fuzzy cubes, that' when I'll be lost in the proverbial forest.
Parody of "the diner," but with tankmen, cause it's newgrounds and whatnot.
Only sketching right now, but any advice you could give me will help so much.
The top perspective line on that building is also almost perfectly parallel to the picture plane, when you really should be sloping down gently to the right.
Commission sketches, from left to right
Retro, competitive, japanophile, casual, fantasy, and "neckbeard" gamers
Don't like japanophile or fantasy, need to work on those.
Bigger
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9382/cgamers.png
warning, size is ridonculous
Looking for any tips on making these better, especially the 3rd and 5th ones, couldn't think of much for them