Sketchbook: JengyMonster
polycounter lvl 12
Hey yall!
I wanted to make a sketchbook so that I could get some advice, constructive critique, and ideas about how to get better.
I've been doing a lot of 2-D stuff (since my job is mainly 3D) but I do want to get better at both. I am interested in characters and environments.
Critique is awesome...so please share.
Thank you for looking.
Update: I will try my best to put my newest stuff in this top post.
I wanted to make a sketchbook so that I could get some advice, constructive critique, and ideas about how to get better.
I've been doing a lot of 2-D stuff (since my job is mainly 3D) but I do want to get better at both. I am interested in characters and environments.
Critique is awesome...so please share.
Thank you for looking.
Update: I will try my best to put my newest stuff in this top post.
Replies
It's good thinking of you to maintain your 2D skill even if you're professionally working with 3d. The fundamentals starts with drawing and it will help to improve your skills in any medium.
For critique, by the pieces you posted I can see you're pretty strong with faces but seem to lack in anatomy, judging from the cybergirl which is your weakest. I feel I can critique the most of this but I would actually like to see some more full body stuff first to look out for any repeating mistakes. Those would be best to address first I think.
Personally I find it hard to critique when not given specific information about what the artists strives for in their work more than just wanting to be better at everything. Nothing is perfect so I could go about and find flaws in everything or try to pinpoint the important parts which I'm not sure of.
Anyway, things looks promising. Want to see more of your stuff and see if I can be of any use.
Thank you for your thoughts!
It's true, I do tend to err on the side of shot-gun blast rather than a particular, honed skill, which is definitely a weakness that penetrates my art. I have to say that I just love making game art in general and I find any subject interesting. Though, I do agree that taking the time to get good at one skill is much easier and more marketable.
And thanks again for visiting and commenting. :] It's very appreciated.
Can't stress enough the importance of reference. If you feel any reluctance towards it, see it as a source of ideas. You don't need to copy anything, it's simply information on how things work/look and inspiration for solving problems.
Having a 3D background will help you taking realistic decisions on your concepts (how will it translate to 3d etc), although make sure it doesn't hinder you as well. It's good to start with free crazy ideas and then trim things down to fit technical limitations.
To grasp traditional principles, working with traditional medium will set you in a good practice environment. If you haven't already I'd recommend you'd get a sketchbook and draw in it everyday. Personally I draw on my lunch-brakes at work.
Haven't read many books on art, a big source for me has been video tutorials from Massive Black ( think those are at the Art Department nowadays ) and Gnomon.
I can recommend this live-stream show. It's mostly focused on illustration but they give very good critiques and paintovers of work from their facebook community.
http://www.awesomehorsestudios.com/watch-now/
Don't have any particular exercise I can think of more than simply do it as much as you can and things will work out eventually.
The concept is very ideal!
I do agree that drawing everyday is good. I've been doing just a drawing a day for a few months now and even at that low level of production I feel improvement.
I would agree that getting a design-oriented skill set would be fantastic. It aligns with my desire to get better at forms and creative skills while still practicing traditional stuff like forms and perspective. I will try out some thumbnails today, and maybe do a still life sometime this week to get the observation drawing flowing again. Getting better at drawing from observation will definitely help me.
Thank you again for you post, it's very very helpful.
@aaron2 Thanks man! These are all Photoshop drawings.
Some old new stuff:
Hand painted textures for Dino Hunter:
This penguin has a special place in my heart because it was the first character I was allowed to work on professionally (outside of my personal indie experience) and everything in the texture is hand painted--no reference baked in there whatsoever. Pretty cool! I did use a trick though. I put a penguin's feathers ref image on a layer right in the file as a reference and painted side-by-side, feather by feather...
These guns were really fun to paint. Here's the process laid out:
Some Infinifactory work (I got to do all the type for these, which was fun!):
And some modeling for a VR project I worked on:
And finally, dota 2 sword I'm working on:
Not sure how I am going to get to the 400 tri budget with this one, but hey, there's hoping!
I made a lot of other dead things for that game, but this one hurt the most.
Wanted to try a bust of Link. Feedback welcome, and thanks.
A little more progress tonight.
Getting to learn a new thing is the best part of being a 3D artist.
Maybe I'll get him some armor or something!
A little more progress
Some sketches
Small update, but I like where he is going. Started in on the master sword but there isn't much to show.
The sword for the Link bust. Working on doing hard surface-y stuff in only Zbrush. Lots of fun to start this!
Working on the buckle and sword.
Working more on the sheath!
First block out of the shield
...and more scabbard
more shield work!
Starting with paint! And more scabbard.
Some stuff for work! Concept by Alex Pelayre
This one was fun! A reskin of the texture for the frog aliens who had been taken out. Tried to get that latex-y feeling in the gloves.
Adding some general improvements to this bust I've neglected forever. 1 - Alieny fishy head is before, 2 - More realistic button nosed head is after.
Not much to show, but these couple hours working on this is keeping my art heart ticking...