I've wanted to do a cool Witcher piece for a while now and at first I was gonna do a big thing with one of the munsters from the game coming up behind him but I just couldn't get the composition right. So I thumbnailed and thumbnailed and finally settled on a much closer, more intimate scene. Had to go out in my back yard at dusk and build a tiny fire to make sure I had the lighting right. This is roughly 8 hours of work so far today. I'm actually making pretty good time since I've been sick and haven't had anything else to do.
*Garbage phone quality ahoy
**The X's denote areas that will be completely black in case anybody was wondering
Any Update on this? Looks cool so far! I just started reading the witcher books haha
Shit yeah sorry @Sublimus It's actually been finished for a while I just have to get it scanned. My scanner will only save on crappy jpegs so I have to borrow a friends. I've knocked out a few other things too so I'm going to try and do a little art dump here soon.
Here are some annoyingly angled process shots of my current project.
About done with the inking and then I guess I'm gonna try and color the flowers and then do the gold leafing. I'm honestly terrified about coloring because I'm not sure these copics are gonna do what I want but I can't really think of anything else to use. I just want flats, no shading. Worst case I just even it out in photoshop later but it kinda tanks the original if I want to sell it. OH WELL
These are great man, the detail and stippling is wonderful.
I would say if you're worried about coloring get some good scans of the drawings and practice that way first. With a good scan anymore it's difficult to tell the difference between the original sometimes. Plus you can just practice on the scans and see how it goes!
If you have some extra of whatever paper you are using, do a few tests before committing to the drawing. Draw some simple flowers and do some simple stippling and see what happens when you run the marker over them. Copics are Alcohol based and can make some other inks smudge, I'd be worried about it smudging your fine stippling into a tone.
I actually did a couple tests and it worked fine so I went ahead with it. I'm about halfway done coloring the flowers and so far they look pretty good. It's not 100% what I was seeing in my head but it's pretty dang close.
There are some issues with it. That drawn back arm is wonky and I feel like theres not enough stuff in the ring? Like, I need more details and frills but I'm on a sort of self imposed deadline. I'm hoping once its leafed the gold will kind of fill in the gaps and keep everybody from noticing the empty space maybe.
with the right lighting just using your phone, would a scanner even be worth it anymore? that looks pretty darn clean
For general post-ery nah a phone probs works alright but I have to make prints and stuff so I'm passing it off to my friend who owns a scanner.
I'm actually thinking about getting some small umbrella lights and rigging up a sort of board to hold images and just using my mirrorless camera to take pictures. Eventually I plan on upping the size of the paper I work on a good bit so a scanner kind of becomes useless. Unless somebody make a big ass monster scanner, which probably costs like, an actual bar of gold.
I'm basically limited to paper that can fit in a book bag and on a small coffee table because I haven't been able to buy a drafting table yet. One of the reasons why I work so small. Once I get a better set up I can work larger and maybe... quicker? The thought!
It didn't go quite like I wanted but it also didn't go horribly, horribly wrong, either. The steepest learning curve is the size. I have to find a way to get more detail when laying it. Might just need a smaller brush for that. Also the drying time is not at all what the book said. Something like 15 to 30 minutes but I waited that long and had spots dry out and not adhere. You can actually lay the leaf after like, 5 minutes? Anyway. Gonna use this a lot more.
Still trying to practice with this stuff. I think I need a smaller brush and a not completely white size. I know somebody makes like, a rose gold size that's super visible so you know exactly where you're putting it. This stuff I think is more for like, leafing plates or stuff not fine art.
Alright need some feed back here. I want to do a big piece with a mammoth sort of sinking into tar. Beneath the tar you'll see bones but I'm going to gold leaf those and also probably the tusks. I think it would make a cool contrast. I'm just trying to think of a good way to go about the composition. I think the 3rd one is the most dynamic but would kind of obscure the face and also I would have to draw weird elephant mouth and I don't want to do that. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Composition is one of the harder things to judge in photos of sketchbooks at angles. I suggest (if you have photoshop) to quickly straiten these photos up and then just make some digital thumbnails, quick and dirty.
You can get a better idea of the actual ratio of the elephant to the negative space, and the angle you want him at, with less work.
I've got it but I dont have access to it unfortunately. Not until next week probs. The thing I'm really worried about is making the tar read as tar. Seems straightforward enough with ink but I guess I gotta figure out like, shiny spots and ripples and stuff.
the bones under the tar are the mammoth's right? i would say try to not make the split too symmetrical, give it like a diagonal sink, like how a big ship sinks. 2nd one is the strongest i think, it reads well. the 3rd not enough mammoth i think, too much skeleton.
Yeah the pose is what's giving me the most trouble. I want there to be a lot of energy so you really get the impression that this thing is mad and thrashing around in the tar while still seeing the bones below the surface. Also it's kind of an economy thing. The less gold leaf I have to use the better but I don't want to necessarily skimp on it.
I'm going to try and wake up really early Monday morning and work on this and a few other things so maybe I'll have something else to show.
What I need is a poseable 3d model of a mammoth. Where get?
Designing a shirt now. Have an art fest coming up in March so I need to make Shit™️.
Drawing snakes sucks by the way.
Its basically gonna be in the style of that "Join, or die" print from back in the ye olden days of lore but it's going to say "Frater Contra Fratrem" at the top because I'm edgy ay eff.
The flag looks really good to me, it has kind of a naturalistic imperfection that is normal for a flag blowing in the wind and is really hard to capture...for me anyway.
Thanks! I've been doing a lot of billowing cloth lately and it's often hard to find reference that isn't like, an absurd photoshop of a lady with 20 feet worth of silk flapping around everywhere so I'm kind of having to wing it when I do stuff like that.
The stippling is crazy dude, and I agree the flag looks great. Honestly If I had to pick something out I would say that the arm is a little stiff, like his body looks like he should be leaning on it, but the arm looks like its extremely extended and not taking any weight,
I also sorta hate even giving crits on this labor intensive ink works because goddamn dude if I had the patience for this I wouldn't give a fuck about anybodies input, so totally get it if you are like "Eh, whatever".
If you are having trouble with reference highly recommend grabbing a pinterest account, if you can get creative with your search terms and find just one image in the right wheelhouse, the related images can really save the day: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/184084703499628718/
Also, there's something to be said about just going to goodwill and getting the cheapest stuff you can and taking your own reference, I have wigs and rando clothes, and bought cheapish tripod with a cellphone mount. I dont take amazing reference, but it can really get shit done in a pinch.
Crit away. Yeah the pose is pretty stiff. Usually I try to take a reference of myself as best I can with my camera but this kind of ended up being a last minute cram to knock something out. Which, considering how long it ended up taking me to do the stippling on the walls I really don't have an excuse for not doing a better layout sketch. That's my big weakness right now. I need to do 2 or 3 thumbnails or rough passes before I start shit because it takes me hella hours and if I'm not 98% happy with it suuuuuucks.
Also I feel like I had a pinterest? Maybe I still do? I need to check. I always ended up seeing those absurd CHEESE WRAPPED BACON BREAD WITH CHEESE INSIDE THE BREADE INSIDE THE BACON SOMEHOW recipes.
Now I can make... whatever will fit on the screen printing kit. Mostly shirts. But maybe...
A bandana? Or perhaps a decorative handkerchief? The possibilities are reasonably limited!
I'm excited, I've gotta learn the technique but man, I can just make stuff now. And I can make stuff for other people too! Hopefully some time next week I'll be able to dig into it and make my snake shirts.
Hard as balls with a felt tip micron. I really like the wolf but I hate the lettering. I want to use this as design for something but I'll probably scan it and edit out the shit text.
Really loving your work lately man, the stipling/detail is absolutely on point (no pun intended but gladly taken) and the atmosphere created due to the detail makes you really feel like you're there. Keep it up!
Posts
I've wanted to do a cool Witcher piece for a while now and at first I was gonna do a big thing with one of the munsters from the game coming up behind him but I just couldn't get the composition right. So I thumbnailed and thumbnailed and finally settled on a much closer, more intimate scene. Had to go out in my back yard at dusk and build a tiny fire to make sure I had the lighting right. This is roughly 8 hours of work so far today. I'm actually making pretty good time since I've been sick and haven't had anything else to do.
*Garbage phone quality ahoy
**The X's denote areas that will be completely black in case anybody was wondering
Shit yeah sorry @Sublimus It's actually been finished for a while I just have to get it scanned. My scanner will only save on crappy jpegs so I have to borrow a friends. I've knocked out a few other things too so I'm going to try and do a little art dump here soon.
Here's my most recently finished piece.
A Krampoos
Aaaaaaaand the current project. My plan is to use gold foil on the arrow and stamens of the flowers to really make it pop.
I never finished this and I need to. Maybe one day but also probably not
PAN SHOT
About done with the inking and then I guess I'm gonna try and color the flowers and then do the gold leafing. I'm honestly terrified about coloring because I'm not sure these copics are gonna do what I want but I can't really think of anything else to use. I just want flats, no shading. Worst case I just even it out in photoshop later but it kinda tanks the original if I want to sell it. OH WELL
I would say if you're worried about coloring get some good scans of the drawings and practice that way first. With a good scan anymore it's difficult to tell the difference between the original sometimes. Plus you can just practice on the scans and see how it goes!
My Portfolio Site
If you have some extra of whatever paper you are using, do a few tests before committing to the drawing. Draw some simple flowers and do some simple stippling and see what happens when you run the marker over them. Copics are Alcohol based and can make some other inks smudge, I'd be worried about it smudging your fine stippling into a tone.
These are all phone pics from Instagram cause I don't own a scanner yet so just bear with me.
For general post-ery nah a phone probs works alright but I have to make prints and stuff so I'm passing it off to my friend who owns a scanner.
I'm actually thinking about getting some small umbrella lights and rigging up a sort of board to hold images and just using my mirrorless camera to take pictures. Eventually I plan on upping the size of the paper I work on a good bit so a scanner kind of becomes useless. Unless somebody make a big ass monster scanner, which probably costs like, an actual bar of gold.
I'm basically limited to paper that can fit in a book bag and on a small coffee table because I haven't been able to buy a drafting table yet. One of the reasons why I work so small. Once I get a better set up I can work larger and maybe... quicker? The thought!
It didn't go quite like I wanted but it also didn't go horribly, horribly wrong, either. The steepest learning curve is the size. I have to find a way to get more detail when laying it. Might just need a smaller brush for that. Also the drying time is not at all what the book said. Something like 15 to 30 minutes but I waited that long and had spots dry out and not adhere. You can actually lay the leaf after like, 5 minutes? Anyway. Gonna use this a lot more.
You can get a better idea of the actual ratio of the elephant to the negative space, and the angle you want him at, with less work.
I'm going to try and wake up really early Monday morning and work on this and a few other things so maybe I'll have something else to show.
What I need is a poseable 3d model of a mammoth. Where get?
Drawing snakes sucks by the way.
Its basically gonna be in the style of that "Join, or die" print from back in the ye olden days of lore but it's going to say "Frater Contra Fratrem" at the top because I'm edgy ay eff.
I also sorta hate even giving crits on this labor intensive ink works because goddamn dude if I had the patience for this I wouldn't give a fuck about anybodies input, so totally get it if you are like "Eh, whatever".
If you are having trouble with reference highly recommend grabbing a pinterest account, if you can get creative with your search terms and find just one image in the right wheelhouse, the related images can really save the day:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/184084703499628718/
Also, there's something to be said about just going to goodwill and getting the cheapest stuff you can and taking your own reference, I have wigs and rando clothes, and bought cheapish tripod with a cellphone mount. I dont take amazing reference, but it can really get shit done in a pinch.
Also I feel like I had a pinterest? Maybe I still do? I need to check. I always ended up seeing those absurd CHEESE WRAPPED BACON BREAD WITH CHEESE INSIDE THE BREADE INSIDE THE BACON SOMEHOW recipes.
Now I can make... whatever will fit on the screen printing kit. Mostly shirts. But maybe...
A bandana? Or perhaps a decorative handkerchief? The possibilities are reasonably limited!
I'm excited, I've gotta learn the technique but man, I can just make stuff now. And I can make stuff for other people too! Hopefully some time next week I'll be able to dig into it and make my snake shirts.
Spooky tree
"Civility is the weapon of the Ruling."
Turns out
Calligraphy?
Hard as balls with a felt tip micron. I really like the wolf but I hate the lettering. I want to use this as design for something but I'll probably scan it and edit out the shit text.
I'm drawing a big ole wise dragon. Lotta hair. Lotta scales. Probs gonna go blind.
This is gonna take one hundred (100) years.
My Portfolio Site