Weekly Sketch Thread -

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boyexpert9

New member
Ok here goes the very first bit of some steampunkishness...
Unfortunately I inked right over my original blue pencil drawing... so these are a bit tighter than I'd normally go at his stage (eg. the ink is tighter than I'd normally go at this point as wel). But I got carried away. I need to get these moving towards the steampunk feel... right now they are just dandy and dame and not any real discernible steampunk motif going on... it took me a bit of looking at reference to get some ideas for Victorian or Edwardian costume... I'll have to slap them down on the light box and rework them a bit. Comin' up in just a bit...

Things to do:

1) make/add more steampunk motif
2) place in a suitable environment that reflects the steampunk world/era

FWIW - the image quality on these is better than any of my previous posts... they were scanned at 1:1 size and saved out at 100dpi as PNG format. The nice thing about PNG is that it's a non-Lossy format so you don't get the degraded image like you do with JPG's lossy compression.
 
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AngelicaB

New member
jeez it went dead silent in this thread. I was hoping the topic would spur lots to post up their sketches! I'll be posting again when I come back from the post office.
 
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AshleyZ

Member
It's only one topic a week... or at least that's how we're trying to keep it. Remember it doesn't have to finished art... it can be quick sketch... just gesture with a hint of detail. I've gone well overboard on my last post.

Here is the ref (in the reference thread) for the Steampunk theme:

http://www.ihav.net/forums/showthread.php?t=104641&page=3
 
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BaronessNox

New member
I've actually been working on getting it all in my head and coming up with:

1. Some sort of story moment that'd translate well visually (since you mentioned we should try to get some environment and themeing into it). I think it's of great importance to start there so you have a solid direction to build from. It's kind of hard to workout the question of "What am I trying to convey here, and why am I putting pencil to paper in the first place?" otherwise.

2. Themeing elements and costumes.

3. The overall feel I want to go with so I can workout lighting and textural issues (one of the reasons I've been listening to a sampling of Abney Park music).

I'm hoping to have at least a rough sketch of the idea by a little later this week. Just have to get caught up on some other stuff first. It won't be nearly as cleaned up and finished as what you're posting up, because, being honest here, you're wwwaaaayyyyyyyyy beyond my current level.

Just wanted to let you know I'm giving it a shot and have things in the works.

* tips top hat
 
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knillsoccer_13

New member
@Hapuka - Nice! Good stuff the elements for steam punk are coming together! If I had to critique anything I'd say more work in the pencil stage on structure... the character on the left has some very odd things going on with his head/hairline. Also... hands! I'd say go a Google image search until you find hands that are a good match for the post you're trying to pull of... or even better... get a mirror and use your own! Classic animators trick to get them down! The first thing art directors and editors look at is hands. If they are hidden or not quite there... it will override what they think of the rest of the art. The inks are digital I'm guessing. Very nice clean up. One think you might want to try ... and by no means expect it to come out well the first million times is inking by hand... whether by brush or ink pen... the problem I have with 99% of digital inks is that the interior lines are evenly uniform. All the same boring weight. To really make it pop then varied line weights are the way to go!

Now - the big challenge for you is going to be placing these characters into an environment that reflects the era/theme. At the moment they are floating in space... try to see how you put them into an environment!

@ Mike Mellilo -
Nice man! Very Chiaroscuro style lighting! With a bit of work that can easily be translated into the full Steampunk theme! Van Helsing definitely falls under this theme. You could go with steampunk influenced monocle or some environment details... just a bit of glint off some brass in the background.
 
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Axl

Member
Well, it's Monday. And I've finally just gotten some drawing and staging problems figured out for the ideas I've been bouncing around all week. Any problems if I post up on this once I get more of a cleaned up drawing done?
 
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Verbal_Abrasion

Member
Post away! I have one more load of sketches on this topic! It's a worthy topic that's for sure. I need to figure the time difference between Hong Kong and the UK... but also we need to come up with a new topic. I'm surprised though I thought with the Steampunk topic we'd be able to get more people posting!
 
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andresegarra

Member
It's a very cool topic with tons of potential. My problems this time have been that I've been trying to work on the basic issues you've pointed out in my drawings, while also wanting to do much more advanced stuff with this topic. It seems like there's actually quite a bit involved in trying to get an interesting multi-character drawing posted.

The thing that's been great this week is that it's making me push a lot harder than if I'm just working on my basics. And that's been really frustrating but also very beneficial! So, sorry for the serious slowdown, but fighting through a lot of these issues has been more helpful than you know.
 
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luvn_it

New member
Ok here goes one on the Steampunk topic...



lol... ok that's the rough concept in my head. Need some work. Will get the other sketches scanned and up! I wanted to do a whole chase seen across the rooftops of Victorian London with this mad steam-powered robot chasing our hero while he desperately tries to get his steam-flight pack working... at the very last minute he manages it just by the skin of his teeth.. leaving our villian and his sinister machine to gnash their teeth.
 
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KEITHN

Member
Ok the threads getting lots of views but not a lot of posts... hope to see more posting sketches!

Anyone want to venture a new word/concept/phrase for the coming weeks sketches? Let's get a few going and then I'll randomly choose one. They can be martial arts related or have absolutely nothing to do with marital arts.
 
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vambothefourth

Member
If there are going to be MA-related themes, why not just cycle down the "Styles" section of this forum?

http://www.ihav.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5

I'm working on various ideas for the "Steampunk" theme but I'm having to figure out a lot of stuff so that I can get them expressed into sketches.

For "Steampunk", I've got ideas fleshed out in my head for Sky Pirates, Hybrid Mecha-Scavengers, and Train-based Mech/Human defense systems having their own railcar steam systems the mech/humans can plug into. And then there are costuming issues I'm trying to work on. I just have to pull enough reference so I can figure out how to draw all this stuff. But I thought that throwing some ideas out there might inspire others who can already draw at that level.

Maybe going with some more basic and simple ideas and themes would get more sketches coming in?

Love your "Rocket Corps" sketch and storyline!
 
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AutumnStorm

Member
I turned this out a while ago, I just thought I'd get some constructive criticism. I know that the head doesn't flow with the body very well.
I'd bash one out now, but I've tried and my hands are shaking too much. It's either some sort of virus or zopiclone withdrawal.
 
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