Munch's Art [is bad and he should feel bad]

Munch

So, after being savaged in the Doodle thread, and in an attempt to get Manovon off my back, I decided to make a thread. Now we can all argue about the merits of imaginary ape-manatomy here. So, here's a bunch of recent stuff. And in an attempt to better diagnose the problems with my drawings, I'll also be posting the many, many rough marker sketches I do when I'm planning a drawing. Or even when I'm just fucking around. I find they usually have more energy than my finished stuff anyway.

Basically, you're going to see everything I draw, so you the viewer can tell me what I'm doing right (nothing) and what I'm doing wrong (everything)! And in pursuit of self-improvement, I'll begin drawing Posemaniac sketches sometime next week, in lieu of life-drawing, and in addition to the other stuff I'm doing. Excited? I sure am. Let's get started!

Deathlok Redesign; Marvel Comics character redesigned for a thread in Graphic Violence

Tigra Redesign; Marvel Comics character redesigned for a thread in Graphic Violence

Spaceboy of Dark horse Comics' Umbrella Academy, kind of going for a Jack Kirby vibe

Really bad drawing of Marvel Comics character Luke Cage, just me trying to draw kind of sloppily, and a case where the sketches were much better than the finished product

Pencils for 1/3 of a comic page about Musashi Miyamoto fighting an alien

Rasputin v.s. the Devil, meant to look like an old illustration out of some kind of faded and stained text

Crying Platapus, done to mark the passing of a comic writer I liked

Monkey with a gun. It's been pretty thoroughly discussed in the Doodle thread, and I'm not going to work on it anymore, but thought I'd toss it in for the sake of completeness

Munch

4/25 Drawings

Edit: Forgot this one

I'll be posting things besides rough sketches, but since the general consesus seems to to be that my stuff is too stiff, I though I'd start off with some simple gesture exercises.

flowerhoney

Whut.

I think your drawings are super fun, but I guess in comparison to everything else the monkey is pretty boring (my opinion could be biased, because I hate monkeys. Ugh monkeys...)

Luge Cage's arms looks kinda funny, cant quite put my finger on what it is though. So I guess you better feel worse about yourself lol

I laughed at Rasputin vs the Devil XD
Is he spraying him with plasma or something?

Munch

Just generic magic special effects. It's the kind of thing that'd probably look better if I knew how to digitally color at all.

And Cage's hands are what my eyes always hone in on in that picture. And his legs, which are teeny tiny even for the exaggerated look I was trying for.

flowerhoney

I dont think its supposed to be funny, but I find it hilarious
I can just imagine the look on the devil's face, then I crack up!

Oh, its Cage's hands. His hands are really little.

ManonvonSuperock

in the rasputin picture, you should try lowering the saturation of the page texture and changing the black of the lineart to a deep brown and setting the layer to multiply. it'd probably help with the look you were going for.

also, hell yeah, a munch thread. slowly but surely my plan of filling the ac with comic artists is coming to fruition.

mwahahahaahaha.

JLM-AWP

I saw the conversation in the doodle thread about the monkey/gorilla, and I don't want to seem like another pass on a broken record, but a lot of the character poses seem a bit stiff. In the case of the Tigra, I think it might be the positioning of her feet that is bothering me...not exactly sure there.

Rasputin doesn't seem like he's putting a whole lot of effort into that generic magic attack, but that may be for a reason I'm not aware of...like he doesn't need to try that hard cuz he's just badass.

I really like the Space Boy one though.


EDIT: I know you said it was a bad drawing, but I wanted to point out that Cage's right shoulder/arm look like they sorta disappear behind his chest/torso.

ManonvonSuperock

yeah, in the rasputin one, the middle of the first page of sketches was a better composition. look at the curve of rasputin's posture compared to the roughly straight stance in the final. also the arc of the devil accentuates the strike of the blast in the sketch where you inversed it, countering the direction of the blast in the final, also, look at the strength and emphasis on the blast in the sketch as it compares to the weaker blast in the final.

MufasaJoe

Your sketches have great energy, but your "final" inks are dull and too precious. Your variations on line weight seem arbitrary and you fill in large blotches for bodies of shadow that don't really seem to convey any volume. I say ditch whatever you're using to ink because it's not doing much for your stuff.

Also, I still think your deltoids are a little preposterous, even if you're getting better about not making them spheres.

Spoilered for loomis:

Did I mention that I really enjoy your sketches?

DeeLock

You are losing so much in the transition from your sketches to your finished work. Your sketches, while rough, have a lot more fluidity and life to them. There is a lot more energy in the poses and the fast linework is really serving to move the eye a lot better.

I definitely think you should be looking into buying some anatomy books and copying a lot of skeleton and muscles plates. The worst anatomy is seen in your Deathloc and Luke cage drawings. Maybe if your anatomy was better represented, the overall piece would have a lot more visual power, but right now they're not doing much to excite the viewer.

If you look at a dude like Steven Silver, he has a very cartoony style that is based on simple shapes. However, he knows his fucking anatomy and can draw from life like a mother fucker. I have yet to see a single life drawing from you, something i would be very interested to see. It would be a good thing to judge your progression and to help us critique your work further.

Good anatomy books:

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Artist-Jeno-Barcsay/dp/1586631748/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272312008&sr=8-6
http://www.amazon.com/Bridgmans-Complete-Guide-Drawing-Life/dp/1402766785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272312031&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Lessons-Great-Masters-Robert/dp/0823002810/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272312066&sr=1-1

Munch

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

in the rasputin picture, you should try lowering the saturation of the page texture and changing the black of the lineart to a deep brown and setting the layer to multiply. it'd probably help with the look you were going for.

yeah, in the rasputin one, the middle of the first page of sketches was a better composition. look at the curve of rasputin's posture compared to the roughly straight stance in the final. also the arc of the devil accentuates the strike of the blast in the sketch where you inversed it, countering the direction of the blast in the final, also, look at the strength and emphasis on the blast in the sketch as it compares to the weaker blast in the final.

Unfortunately, I'm sans-Photoshop, so I'm kind of limited in what I can do digitally. I do all the coloring and layering junk in the free version of Open Canvas. I'm kind of low tech at the moment. And yeah, I liked some aspects of that sketch more, but I should say it was a conscious decision to give Rasputin a more relaxed pose, hence his pretty calm expression. And I was trying to make it look like the Devil was crumpling around the blast. Which admittedly looks much wimpier than the sketch version.

JLM-AWP wrote:

EDIT: I know you said it was a bad drawing, but I wanted to point out that Cage's right shoulder/arm look like they sorta disappear behind his chest/torso.

That was actually intentional. He's supposed to be thrusting his chest out, with his shoulders back. I think it'd have come across better if his chest was eclipsing his stomach a bit.

MufasaJoe wrote:

Your sketches have great energy, but your "final" inks are dull and too precious. Your variations on line weight seem arbitrary and you fill in large blotches for bodies of shadow that don't really seem to convey any volume. I say ditch whatever you're using to ink because it's not doing much for your stuff.

Also, I still think your deltoids are a little preposterous, even if you're getting better about not making them spheres.

I do tend to get a little obsessive-compulsive about my lines, trying too hard to keep them uniform, and in effect likely robbing them of any character. On the large blotches of black, you could be right, but I think it works in some places. I'll admit, I do tend to use the black to break up shapes and lead the eye more than I do to convey shadow. But it's something I've really only recently started messing with, so I'm sure I'll be revising my technique on that over time. As for what I'm inking with, I'm currently using a Cotman Size 1 synthetic/sable blend brush with Speedball ink, with a stylus pen for fine details.

On the shoulders, I do tend to round them out a lot. I should also point out, in case it's not obvious, that Deathlok's right arm's supposed to be a robo-arm, complete with kind of a ball-joint shoulder. So that's supposed to be really round. But I'll pay more attention to that in the future, because I do see what you mean.

DeeLock wrote:

I definitely think you should be looking into buying some anatomy books and copying a lot of skeleton and muscles plates. The worst anatomy is seen in your Deathloc and Luke cage drawings. Maybe if your anatomy was better represented, the overall piece would have a lot more visual power, but right now they're not doing much to excite the viewer.

If you look at a dude like Steven Silver, he has a very cartoony style that is based on simple shapes. However, he knows his fucking anatomy and can draw from life like a mother fucker. I have yet to see a single life drawing from you, something i would be very interested to see. It would be a good thing to judge your progression and to help us critique your work further.

I do have Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, and use it, though admittedly as not as much as I probably should. Thanks for the book recommendations though.

On life drawings, all my old charcoal ones are currently rotting away in my garage somewhere. To be perfectly honest, life drawing's never interested me much because, while I understand the ability to replicate reality is important, slavishly trying to achieve photo-realism bores me to tears. I really like those Silver cartoonish life drawings though, so I may try to do something in that vein, though it'll have to be referenced from photos or videos.

Thanks for the comments everyone, always much appreciated. Hopefully some of the advice take root in my brain.

4/26 Drawings
I woke up with Spider-Man on the brain today, so some of my sketches are going to reflect that. Later, I went and did the Posemaniacs 30-second gesture drawings for a while.

Started the day off with some really junky stuff.


















I really like that Sandman sketch, though the hands look really wacky.


Fiddling around with a design for Rhino. For some reason I really like his round little noggin and stooped posture. I lengthened his arms for cartoonish effect in the lower right drawing but didn't think it really worked.


Shortened up the arms, did a few pencils sketches. I know the proportions aren't remotely realistic, but I kind of like the general design.

Munch

4/27 Drawings


Drawing on the left is a referenced video still of a UFC fighter. Right side is me working out the composition for a Rhino drawing.

Trying to loosen up with my inking a little, and use some broader strokes, though I rushed and got a little messier than I'd like on the bottom figure.


Thinking of doing a costume redesign for an old Batman character, Batman Jones, who was kind of a Silver Age Budget Batman.


Today's Posemaniacs gesture drawings. These are actually kind of nice and relaxing to do. Hopefully I'll build a nice little library of poses while doing it.

Zaengo

Munch wrote: »

Monkey with a gun. It's been pretty thoroughly discussed in the Doodle thread, and I'm not going to work on it anymore, but thought I'd toss it in for the sake of completeness

magilla is PISSED.

Munch

Zaengo wrote: »

magilla is PISSED.

He spent so long organizing those files.

4/28 Drawings

Munch

Had a busy day, and not much time to draw.

4/29 Drawing[strike][/strike]