Pixel Sketchbook

Skull Painting

2011-09-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Crits please, I was working on this at like 2 am last night and couldn't think of a way to take this one to the next level.

Midnight Monday Madness!!

2011-08-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

Come Down Monday Night to work on your comic!

7/20/2011 Wednesday Studies

2011-07-20T10:17:00.001-07:00

Artist Study, Nishant Choksi. Ugh MyPaint was fighting me the whole way, depending on the size and color you're working with, sometimes it's impossible to see the cursor. Doesn't appear to be a way to change it either. Ugh.

Anatomy Study of the skull. Happier with this one, but I feel I should move on to other parts of the body.

5 minute warmup study

7/19/2011 Tuesday Studies

2011-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Quick warmup piece using colorschemedesigner

7/12/2011 Monday Studies

2011-07-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

Free study in MyPaint, based on a scene from Diana Wynn Jones, "Hexwood"

7/10/2011

2011-07-10T17:12:00.001-07:00

Color Study with ColorSchemeDesigner. This is a triad color scheme, and I was playing around with using color and saturation to denote value relationships, using a saturated purple for the shaded regions. Sort works? What do you think?

7/9/2011 Studies

2011-07-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Quick color study with color scheme designer. Set to tetrad, and the very dark (saturated) preset. It looks pretty duochromatic, though, maybe I ought to try simpler color schemes.

Another Mary Blair artist study

7/8/2011 Studies

2011-07-08T16:08:00.001-07:00

Quick, nocturnal, color study, with colorschemedesigner, Tetrad, highly desaturated. The purples and blues blend together a bit too much, though the mix can add variety is used subtley across wide surfaces.

Big messy skull study

7/6/2011 - Today's Studies

2011-07-06T10:55:00.001-07:00

Anatomy study, the skull again, got most of the labels right, for the structures of the skull that are visible from the front anyway. I still need to nail down proportions, but I'll start doing more side/back/bottom studies from here.

Color Study with an analogic color scheme.

Artist Study, Mary Blair, not sure of the title, I think this is a concept piece for Peter Pan. I have been limiting myself to 15 minutes, and I didn't get in all the details I'd expect here. I was rushing it, which is no bueno. I think I need to explore the brushes in MyPaint and see if I can make some custom ones that do what I want them to.

7/5/2011 Studies

2011-07-05T12:23:00.001-07:00

Quick color study, using color scheme designer. I feel it needs more details and variety.

Artist Study, Charley Harper "Scare by Scared" (via Pumpkinrot's blog)

Another warm up sketch of skull anatomy in My Paint.

Today's Studies

2011-07-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Quick Anatomical Study of the Skull

Playing with tetrad color scheme in MyPaint

Zbrush Studies

2011-06-15T16:04:00.001-07:00

Back into the swing of things, I'm doing some Zbrush studies. Getting more comfortable with Zspheres, and learning to control them. Because I lack control, I usually use Zspheres sparely, but I'm experimenting with using more to really fill in the form. Also trying to build up speed working with these, this guy took about 20 minutes. Enjoyed figuring out the hands immensely, Zspheres work great for this.

This is the second study I did today, and it developed a strange anomaly, as you can see. I wanted a bit more bulk in the back, and to give the shoulders the right shape, so I added an extra sphere in between the torso-shoulder sphere and the arm-shoulder sphere. When I switched to the adaptive skin, there was a discernible bulge that wouldn't go away, you can see the crushed geometry in the pic above. So I shrugged and deleted it, which gave me this result:

"Beautiful fucking Tits!" -Raoul Duke

I'm not sure what could cause an error with the adaptive skin like this. Any ideas? Things to avoid when working with Zspheres?

Acrylic - King Devil - Complete

2011-06-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

After like, 2 years of intermittent work, this piece is finally complete. Well, I might work on the right ear a little bit, but otherwise I think it's presentable

Acrylic - King Devil - In Progress

2011-05-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Kaw

2011-03-04T15:46:00.001-08:00

More Blood and Guts

2011-03-04T15:44:00.000-08:00

A little refinement on the previous model

Anna+Tommy

2011-02-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

Been doing some really simple, blocky, anatomy studies in XSI. This is one of the ones I'm happier with. How much detail can you get in to the lowest poly cage?

Unbridled Lovliness

2011-02-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

Tertiarian

2011-02-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

Harmitage

2011-02-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Speechless

2011-02-16T10:30:00.001-08:00

Barbarol

2011-02-15T14:07:00.000-08:00

Trippy Green Skull

2011-02-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

Jolly Roger

2011-02-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

There were some luminosity issues in the last one, so I thought i'd do a lum sketch.

Lear

2011-02-10T16:14:00.001-08:00

Drawing Room Dieties

2011-02-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Let's talk color, what do you think is going on here?

Veiled

2011-02-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

Red Green Blue

2011-02-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

Bat Couch

2011-02-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

Laughing Sal

2011-02-03T14:52:00.001-08:00

Half Moon

2011-02-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Textures - Architectural Parquet Hardwood Floor

2011-02-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

First pass on some wood textures. This is the first time I've tried making wood textures from scratch using p-shop.

Black Bird Flawke

2011-01-31T16:30:00.000-08:00

Green Bird

2011-01-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

Messing with color

Tyrian Mage

2011-01-24T15:47:00.000-08:00

Feel like the color scheme really pops. Not happy with the shade of purple, maybe, though

Sodden Stage

2011-01-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

Mr. Peridot

2011-01-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

Triad color scheme. What do you think?

Bicorne Hatter

2011-01-19T14:28:00.001-08:00

Not a very good one today.

Malayaga

2011-01-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

I should take better care to blend the ambient lighting color with the base hues of the subject.

Skin Bird

2011-01-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

Starting up the daily drawing agin. Goal is to refine my use of colors and lighting now that my sense of shape and form has improved.

30 Minute Draws

2010-12-14T17:43:00.000-08:00

Been experimenting with this time management technique where you work steadily for 30 minutes, and then immediately drop what you're doing and do something fun for 30 minutes.

A Monkey With a Gun That Shoots Women's Breasts. I Guess.

2010-12-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

Don't ask me, this was Ted's idea.

Hongry

2010-11-29T18:05:00.001-08:00

More working with forms and illumination in painting.

Shaman Vulture

2010-11-09T11:27:00.000-08:00

Untitled-1

2010-11-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

Yo Pumpkinhead

2010-10-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Was working on a piece for Halloween, but I shan't have time, and so I just fiddled with it a bit, and put it through a filter.

Zad the Clown

2010-10-11T17:08:00.001-07:00

Photoshop Trainin'

2010-09-08T10:23:00.001-07:00

Just doing some studies in photoshop right now

-+ Edit +-

Another quick face study

-+ Edit +-

Weird female figure study. Been messin' with a lot of clown imagery lately.

I never liked clowns much as a child, I didn't fear or hate clowns, I just found performers inherently embarassing, it was embarassing to play pretend.

As I've gotten in to reading about clowning/mime and comedia del arte origins I've started to enjoy clown imagery more. There is a certain aesthetic to an excellent clown or mime performance, and a mythological undercurrent (the lord of misrule, fool king, and accompanying trickster gods) which I seem to dig.

Crops ~ 6

2010-09-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

I got kind of caught up in my detail pass. Kind of like this color scheme better.

I particularly like the detail on the transition around the neck.

Crops ~ V

2010-09-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Quick update to this texture pass. I think I'm going to try two other treatments in polypaint. I'd like to mess with the materials a bit, but I haven't gotten in to that before, so I might just call this done.

Crops ~ 4

2010-08-31T16:14:00.000-07:00

First pass on polypaint. Just laying in the major dark and light areas, as well as colors. Not particularly happy with this. Crits?

Crops ~ III

2010-08-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Small update, with more details. I need to move on to polypaint and high frequency details, then call this done. I may give the face one more go, but I'm going to try running the decimation master first.

Crop ~ Part 2

2010-08-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on this Zbrush model. I've gone up a couple of divisions.

I found that I don't have enough resolution in the head to do the face treatments that I was thinking about. I'll have to figure something out, for now he ain't got no face.

Crops ~ Part I

2010-08-18T10:01:00.001-07:00

With our most recent project wrapping up at work, I've got a little time during the day to work on software training and the like. Got back in to Zbrush.

The intention of this piece is to produce a piece entirely in Zbrush, starting with a z-spheres armature and finishing up with a polypaint texture.

This is yesterday's, first day work. Today I'll move up a couple of divisions, start detailing the face and maybe the skin surface. I hope to get to the texture part, but I'm going on time off shortly, so I may not get back to it.

Beasts, Cakes, and Monsters

2010-06-22T13:39:00.001-07:00

Doing a lot of vertex baking/exporting/building at work, and drawing helps fill the time. I asked Ted for a theme to draw. He said "boobs", which is a little bland. Breasts on their lonesome just aren't that interesting. It's the juxtaposition of the human form with cultural or social elements that makes the art more interesting. He recommended pancakes and aliens. No taste that guy.

I'm not particularly capable drawing female bodies in an attractive way, I just won't permit myself to on an emotional level. So I took the opportunity to work on that.

Nil

2010-06-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

"epistemological nihilism", simply denies the possibility of knowledge of truth. Previous epistemological philosophies failed in obtaining truth because all possible vessels for obtaining truth cannot be proven truthful themselves. Empiricism fails because one must assume that their senses depict an accurate portrayal of their secular existence (or that a secular world even exists, for that matter), which fuels their observations; sensations also depend on senses to provide the observer with the source of the sensation. Rationalism fails because without a secular experience, real or imaginary, one's lack of experience prevents them from being able to reason. ie, they cannot reason without the use of empirical devices. Therefore, rationalism cannot gain one knowledge without empirical methods, which are already based on assumptions (faith) of senses; assumptions cannot lead to the knowledge of truth. Intuitionalism fails because it also has the potential to utilize empirical (and rational) devices; It allows one to alter their truth based on new experiences. This leaves room for "error" and keeps "truth" from being absolute or even certain

Nihilist: Nothing can be certain.
Person: You can't prove that.
Nihilist: You're catching on.

Absinthe Drinkers

2010-04-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Monsters Jamboree

2010-02-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

Son of Eraserhead's Baby

2010-01-21T18:54:00.001-08:00

Luminance Study

2010-01-20T17:12:00.001-08:00

B&W expirement with just luminance contrast.

Nother Color Study

2010-01-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

Colored Putty

2010-01-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

Harsh light interacting with a neutral colored figure in a multicolored environment

Demonstrably Untrue

2010-01-14T16:23:00.001-08:00

This is a color study, which is also a self portrait, look for an update shortly.

And the update. Ted advises a less monochromatic (or duo-chromatic?) color scheme. Advice on implementation?

Miscelanea

2010-01-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

Just a few studies I've done recently

A Merry Messy Kweznuz to All

2009-12-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

And to All a Good Night...

My First Three Zbrushes

2009-09-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Been learning Zbrush at work. It's a pretty fun software to work with, it feels alot like drawing in a sketchbook. The skull-head was the first thing I did, simple mesh made in Maya exported to Zbrush for sculpting, a lot of people do grotesque subjects as their first Zbrush as it's fairly easy to do and make look cool with little experience. I was hoping to break from that and do something clean and nice, but I clearly failed on that account. These other two heads were quick models for testing how normal maps can be generated and exported to the game engine. I've run into some issues when I generate uv's in Zbrush, it's as if each uv shell is generated in it's own worlspace, which creates noticeable seams in the engine. Still working on that one. This is fun, I am looking forward to doing more.

Here's something that came about while I was messing around on the canvas:

Raptorok

2009-01-30T16:42:00.001-08:00

Color Study - Yule

2008-12-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

Color Study - Pig Boy

2008-12-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

Two variations on a color study. The first has colors picked from reference photos of the various subjects (pigs, jeans, etcetera). The second is color by intuition.

Observations:

The second image is more dynamic than the first

In the second image, the shade color is the native color + the environment/lighting color, and the highlight color is the environment/lighting color de-saturated.

In the second image, the foreground figure and background don't mix well enough.

In the second image the hat color is not right. the color and value choice cause too much contrast.

Color study

2008-11-14T17:38:00.001-08:00

Red

2008-09-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Another little ArtRage painting. I did a lot of variations, this is one of them.

Bozacks The Clown 2008

2008-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

We here at America's Clown Party
firmly believe in encouraging
the degeneration of human beings
back into their primordial clownish forms,
and assimilation into our infernal circus of perversions

Test Subject "G"

2008-09-09T17:13:00.001-07:00

Para La Moro

In the style of Mike Mignola.
But not nearly as good.

What is there of hope

2008-07-22T10:18:00.001-07:00

K'Tul

2008-07-18T10:58:00.001-07:00

Loaded this up because Moro wanted to see it.

John B.

2008-07-11T17:56:00.001-07:00

I liked how this was coming, so I decided to post it up. Part of a concept design piece.

Mon Goons

2008-05-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

Un-official update. Did this the other night in "artRage" first decent thing I've been able to do in there.

Of course, it is the iconic Moon Goon of the band Goon Moon.

The Bowels

2008-01-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

This is the last one for a while. I'm going to devote some effort towards completing some CG works in progress. See you soon.

Unfinished Tower

2008-01-24T18:55:00.000-08:00

Too much detail, there wasn't enough time to finish it.

Buried in the Cley

2008-01-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

There is supposed to be a sword in there somewhere

Bucket Head

2008-01-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

Boring

Yggdrasil

2008-01-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

Rust caked gears grinding into motion

The Lord of the Drinking Horn

2008-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Ale and mead

A Study in Amethyst

2008-01-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

For Moro

The King of Darkness and Teeth

2008-01-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

Extra Tall

Imp's Ears

2008-01-15T19:14:00.001-08:00

My sketch was better. Bwoop bwoop bwoop.

The Red Mage Helm

2008-01-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

A hasty one today

Self Portrait As Sad Clown

2008-01-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

Wanted to
Deserve a place,
A place beside you

This time when I reached out my hands
It reached all the way to heaven.

Remember me,
I gave you life
you would not take it
Your suffering was all in vain
It's almost over now

Goodbye.

The End of the Pill Taking Scene

2008-01-10T19:12:00.001-08:00

It's over

Dusk Horizon

2008-01-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Looming colossus and its luminary gaze

The shell shocked

2008-01-07T18:07:00.001-08:00

Permeated with the odor or disintegrating rubber and grimy concrete

Revolver

2008-01-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

Impotent Revolution

Flutterby Rebellion

2008-01-03T17:58:00.001-08:00

Her Shadow Travails Furthest

Minotos

2008-01-02T18:15:00.001-08:00

Stab 'im stab 'im, stab 'im stab 'im!

Merry Everyone

2007-12-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the solstice. The longest night of the year. When horned spectrims walk the night. Soon the son shall return.

Hearthgoblin

2007-12-20T19:58:00.000-08:00

Hearth Guardian

The Expanse

2007-12-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

Trying out some flat coloring. More things to experiment.

Mr. Punch

2007-12-18T18:46:00.000-08:00

The stereotypical view of Punch casts him as a deformed, child-murdering, wife-beating psychopath who commits appalling acts of violence and cruelty upon all those around him and escapes scot-free. The classic ending of the show has him dispatching the Devil himself, exclaiming "Huzzah huzzah, I've killed the Devil!".

Black Mage

2007-12-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

No Comment

Tis the Season

2007-12-13T19:04:00.001-08:00

Holiday Moon Goons!