Art Monkey: WIP art and inking

art monkey

Hey guys, My names Paul Spencer, I've been working on my inking lately and I thought I'd get you guys to offer up constructive criticism to help me progress.

I was tossing up whether to post this all up in the sketches, but considering it's all one big study, I figured I'd start a thread so I have somewhere just to dump the wip's as I go.

Hope that's all ok

So, I've been trying to work on my inking lately and develop my block shadows and cross hatching/feathering techniques.

I started off just with some random sketches to ink up in different lighting situations etc, here's that page:


Next I wanted something to ink up completely, so I sat down and drew this picture which I've done a bit of inking on already.


Ok, so I'll post up the inks when I'm done and in the mean time if anyone has any helpful suggestions, I'll read them and put them into play while working.
(If interested, here's what I've done so far in animated gif.)

*gets to inkin

multimoog

There's some anatomy stuff that needs working, but the big one that really sticks out is the monster's raised weapon arm... I can see where the arm bends, but I can't tell where you've drawn the elbow. Its bicep is too small (even for foreshortening). You might want to change the angle of the sword it's holding as well - it should be angled more towards the spine.

art monkey

No worries Multimoog. I'll have a look at getting the arm fixed up.
If you were curious what's where, I did a lil draw over for you.

I know of a lot of the anatomy problems, I overlooked a bit so I could get to the inking, cause I drew this up just so I'd have something to ink. Thanks for the crit though, I agree with you, the arm looks off. Later on tonight I'll look into it a bit more.

Incidentally, I'm not sure how to draw the elbow, anyone have any pointers there?

I did a bit of inking before work.

More soon.

Scosglen

I like your style a lot, although as moog said there's some anatomy problems and significant compositional/gesture issues in the second one. I can see your stuff looking really awesome eventually.

I took a shot at a drawover as a solution for his elbow. I've always found arms to be a bitch to draw when they're back in that "readied battle-axe" position. This probably isn't totally anatomically correct but It's a bit more realistic than the christmas-ham connected to his shoulder currently.



If I could have my way I'd move his hand and forearm as well but you've already inked it so you'll just have to roll with the punches. 8-)

beavotron

the facial expressions are great

though the old man is way too chris hart for me and man is that guy ever fucking terrible.


i think aside from anatomy, which pretty much everyone and their dog has to work on, you have to work on avoiding tangents
which again, i think everyone and their dog should be working on.
you're losing a lot of depth and a lot of quality to ugly tangents
which is unfortunate because you seem pretty skilled
i've circled the ones that popped out at me



edit: some of the circles are too big, but really if you're not sure what i'm talking about, tangents are when too lines overlap or meet, when they're supposed to be on different planes in 3d space. it creates a feeling of flatness that could be remedied if you staggered the lines a little more.

bombardier

Make with the fixed avatar you dork!

All I can say is that you've improved a heck of a lot since I've seen your stuff last.

NakedZergling

some of these seem suspiciously like some of the "Invincible" art work.
are these from your head or were you "inspired" by other art? I could be wrong and if i am than please realize it's a compliment. But if this is from other art, you're only hurting yourself.
it great to draw inspiration from other artists, but you want to be able to draw a convincing face/body.car/ etc without having to cite another artists work. that happens from years and years of drawing everything you see. Looks good though. there are some anatomy issues you should deal with before the finished inking. the guy choking the other dude...his left arm is waaaaay to short. and his hands are a bit small, but otherwise, thats my favorite of all the sketches.

art monkey

Sorry about the late reply guys, I've been crazy busy with work, but I have been working on these inks.

Here's an update for you...


Great suggestions all around actually, I tried to take them all on board, so thank you for that.
Beavy baby, I went in and tried to fix up all of the tangents, how does that look now? Not crossing the planes makes a lot of sense to me now!

Scos, I drew the elbow more to your draw over, I think that looks a ton better, you've got a good eye.

I changed the arm of the demon guy, I hope it doesn't look too bad... it was kinda tricky. It looks a little bit awkward now, but I think that is better than looking anatomically incorrect like before. The perspective of the swords hilt is a lil bit off aswell to the hand. I might have a little bit of a play with that.

I am new to crosshatching and feathering techniques and I feel like when I started this piece I may have gone a little too nuts with it. I've been studying some of townsends inks (who I think is rad) and he uses it quite sparingly. Towards the bottom half of the picture, there's less feathering. Stylistically this probably looks a little bit odd, but the piece primarily is a learning tool, so I'm not going to worry too much about style continuity...

But any comments on that would be appreciated!

I'll finish this picture off in the next couple of days.

Oh. Naked...to answer your question, I've SEEN the invincibles...that's the image mascot isn't it? I am more inspired by Ramos and Mad... but everyone has their inspirations.
I'm not looking at anything when I draw my work though, so I'm not "copying", if that's what you mean.
Comics like Crimson and Battle Chasers are what I grew up on

Thanks aswell Bomb, it's been a lil while since I was here last.

in_absentia

the thing that sticks out to me the most is the younger one's left hand. The fingers look very flat and very large.

oh, and definately get rid of the white outlines. They like, some of your original problems, help to make everything look very flat.

Other than that, I don't have anything too important to say

NakedZergling

i need to get crimson..i grew up on mads run on uncanny..and pick up invincible..you will thank me.

art monkey

Wow, this took me a while to get around to. Sorry about that, but I finished off the inks tonight. Not completely happy with it, particularly with the guy on the rights face... any suggestions there would be appreciated. Mostly just been trying to get the hang of the feathering, I think this is pretty messy to be honest.



Here's a few more inking exercises I did, which aren't great but again, just practice.




(If you can't see the inks, here's a hard link)
(and the colours )

I'll keep practicing.