In this sketchbook I plan to concentrate mainly on 2D and concept artwork.

First up.

I've been trying to find a way to emulate Markers digitally.

This is a sketch I created with some simple brushes I made in photoshop.

Time: 1hr

Not bad! I don't think it looks much like markers, but it's a pretty good pic. Perhaps it would look more like markers if your brush were a little bigger so you had fewer overlapping strokes?

The biggest thing I noticed is that it's much too light. You don't have any blacks in there at all. Even if you just slid the levels down a bit, you would see greater depth, but ideally you would use the additional darks to give you depth just where you want it.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the comments Pearson

Yeah. Agreed that its not exactly like markers. I'm finding it tough to get something that reacts exactly like markers. I've tried artrage and had a quick go in painter. Which got pretty good results. But i'd really like to get something that i can use quickly in photoshop. Its the blending and bleeding that photoshop misses.

If anyone knows a good technique for digital markering. I'd love to give it a go.

Anyway. Here's another quick interior sketch while im on

40 mins

looks cool man!
I'd be interested to see what happens if you added a stage after this where you solidified some of the overlapping strokes into chunks of colour (like, go in there to bits with a lot of overlapping strokes, pick the average tone, and just block in a whole bunch with a 100% brush. Reckon itll add some punch! look forward to the next bunch

Cheers Rich. Will give that a go next time round.

Ok. Here's a quick sketch using a technique (devised by Scott Robertson http://www.drawthrough.com/ ) of overlaying marker sketches and playing around with the blend/opacity/etc properties of each layer. Then zooming into the image and trying to pick out shape and making sense of them.

I love working like this as its impossible to know what your going to end up with.

This one has turned out a bit abstract and still needs work to make it read better. But it'll do as a learning curve.

time: about 2 hrs



and heres the marker layered sketch that i zoomed into and pulled out the image.

Snowscape.

time: 2 hrs

I really like the first two, they have a great sense of scale. But I agree with Pearson, they would really benefit by adding more contrast. Just go in and mess with the levels and curves and really darken up some spots.

Thanks sXe Seany. Agreed. I'll keep the contrast more contrast...y in future.

Quick Crustacean thing

Time: 20 mins

darn never show a paint with a white background unless if it is a important paint. My eyes are bleeding watching one of ur last paints.

vofff, Noted. Thx

I dont usually leave it white. I normally start on a gradient background. I was just mucking about on the last one so it was an oversight. Anyhoo..if your eye's are bleeding i'd probably just turn the brightness down on your monitor first. Its not normal unless your a Bond Villian.

Jet Ship design

Time: 20 mins

cool reminds me of flight of the navigator

Cheers Roo. Which reminds me. Heard about this the other day. Why dont they just make sequels instead of remakes. Its sacrelege...

http://akas.imdb.es/news/ni0799037/

Heres a Sketch I did a few weeks ago. Nowt special but I thought i'd put it up. I really like this silhouetting technique lately.

Time 1hr...ish

This one looks much better! And I'm impressed that you keep pumping these out. Persistence is one of the main keys to improvement.

The thing that jumps out to me about this one is that the lower half is basically covered by 3 mostly parallel lines. I like the top half much better because the silhouettes intersect. Each one has a little hill that hides the line behind it.

I also like the silhouette technique, but part of my brain thinks.. I'm looking at 6 big thick planes shaped like mountains. I do reckon it needs something more than just the silhouette rim light to give some shape clues. See the big rock in the distance, with some rim light shading inside the silhouette? I reckon you need more of that describing or at least hinting to more forms inbetween the silhouette planes

Thanks Pearson. Hopefully I can keep up the pace. Really enjoying doing smaller pieces for a change. I usually tend to overstretch myself and do big projects i never finish (Dom War 4 and currently i'm neglecting Unearthly...nevermind though as long as im busy i suppose). I get your comments on the parallels, will keep that in mind in future.

Cheers Roo. again, I agree. Adding more light and dark detail to each layer is something I will be doing with pieces like this. In fact I intend to learn to make whole scene blend seemlessly so the layers wont be so noticable.

Here's one I started a few weeks back as a silhouette picture and finished off with added lighting and atmosphere today.

I call it "Hello Crab "

Time: 3hrs



And as an added bonus

Here's a piece I did for the EOW over at CA.org about a month ago.

Gas Planet City: Project Olympus

Time: 5+ hours

Wow. I like that Hello Crab, dude...even knowing that my values are off in LCD.

yeah man hello crab looks sweet! nice work the silhouettes work much better
I think it was the previous rim light on the edges of the silhouette that made them look like cutouts, the light gradient in the underwater one and the extra lighting on the ground around the crab show the space nicely

Hello Crab is sick. Nice job man

Thanks for the comments guys. I was really please with the way "Hello Crab" turned out. I really like underwater scenes so expect alot more like it to come.

Ok. Here's what i've been doing the past few days. I wanted to explore some other ways to highlight and shade the silhouetted scene. So I spent a lot longer than I intended to on this pic. In fact I started to think about abandoning it as I was having difficulty with getting the levels half decent. I'm still not happy with it tbh...nevermind though. There's parts of this pic I like and parts that don't. Lessons learned and now I can move on and get back to doing some quick sketches...YAY!

EDIT: realised the levels/values are still off in places...Bugger it!

The Spire

Time: 9hrs!

nice one man, feels pretty epic!

Pretty nice! The thing I find distracting, is that there isn't a clear focus in the piece. I think that if you increased your brush size in the areas that aren't of interest, you would have less noise that attracts the eye.

Cheers Rich

Pearson: Thanks man. I think your spot on about the brush size. Its too uniform and a bit scratchy through out. I tried to add focus on the central spire by increasing the contrast there...but I dont think its worked and it's unbalanced the Atmospheric perspective. Anyway...Lesson learned. I plan to try and use larger brushes in earlier stages of concepts in future.

This sketch I started with an Alchemy silhouette.

"Send in the probe"

Time: 3hrs

Do you have storylines to go with your sketches?

Hey StephenVyas. I don't have storylines as such. But I generally like to think up something to add to a picture that will give the viewer a sense of a back story. It gives the scenes purpose which gives the concepts more believability imo.

Ok. Here's another pic. Wow...2 in one day!

Thought I'd do an anatomical piece. And what better way than to do a Zombie surfer bum...

I haven't deformed him too much, maybe he's in the early stages of zombifacation. I might go back to this and take an arm off or something, but for now here he is.

Time: 3 hrs

If you do mangle him up... one place surfers get torn up on is the fleshy bit right underneath the diaphram. Especially when we dont' wear rashguards. The wax on the board makes that area super raw.... I had a hole there for a good while after surfing down in Costa Rica

-Also another idea for your consideration could be, just after he was first bitten and he's floating in the water ready to turn into a zombie- A good ol' shark came up to have a bit of a nibble. Random flesh wounds from the sea life would look great, especially if they're still clinging on !