Artman's Quest to Become an Art-Master!

[Artman77]

MAJOR EDIT:
Goals are changing this year. I would still like to log 10,000 hours (the apparent requisite number to achieve mastery) doing my art, but this will come automatically as I fulfill my other goal(s). I have various projects that I will be working on throughout the year, one of which is launching a t-shirt line, and I will post my progress and discuss my ideas live on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/artallday).

To see some of the art I thought was worth uploading you can check my tumblr (http://wingmind.tumblr.com/)
To take a look at some of my past/current fantasy work you can check this old thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?385611-I-will-draw-your-character-%28later%29) or this new thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?487106-I-can-draw-your-character).
To check out some of my really old stuff you can go here (https://wingmind.wordpress.com/).

[Artman77]

Week 1

Magic: The Gathering Mana symbols:
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mtg-black-001.jpg
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mtg-blue-001.jpg
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mtg-green-001.jpg
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mtg-red-001.jpg
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mtg-white-001.jpg

And I've been kicking the idea around of doing a webcomic, here's a little sample:
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/rebellious_red-001.jpg

[Cuthalion]

Ah maaaaaaan.

Nah, you're good.

[Artman77]

Thanks man. Good is alright for a hobby but I'd like to do it professionally, so I probably need to step my game up. Life-like shadows, colors, proportions, etc. Get better at oils and digital painting, stuff like that.

[Cuthalion]

Have you tried watercolor, pastels, acrylic?

I'm not doing a daily thread here this year, because I didn't, but I am posting the highlights (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?401524-Cuthalion-s-Art). The dailies are somewhere else I can show people if they'd like.

[Artman77]

Have you tried watercolor, pastels, acrylic?

Acrylic yes, pastels and watercolor no. I'm not sure if I would really enjoy pastels or not and I guess that's probably why I haven't spent the money on some. If I got some for free I might try em out.

I regret that I haven't experimented with watercolors yet because the medium does lend itself to some really beautiful results. I would like to try my hand at some Alphonse Mucha style artwork at some point this year...

[Thanqol]

Aw man, I gotta reap your skull for my throne as well?

If there's a single trick to doing this for the long haul it's to never miss a day. Upload the failures as well as the successes and talk about lessons learned.

You're evidently pretty good already so I'm going to step up any criticism I get to acknowledge that your baseline is really high. First off, the weakest of your MTG symbols is white. The face of the angel seems like a mishmash, particularly with the very realistic lips contrasted against the cartoony black lines. I don't think the gigantic head does you any favours there either, it makes it look like a doll instead of an angel. While the wings and cloth are great I notice you've skimped on detail on the hands and feet.

While green is very good I feel like the four branches at the top are a lot more two-dimensional than the rest of the piece.


The cartoon I think needs serious work. I don't like the designs of the knight guys, if I had pen access I'd redpen to show you what I'm talking about but the main thing is that they don't seem to have key or repeated shapes. Every part of their bodies is in a different shape group, almost. In such a simplified style it makes them look busy and mishmashed and I don't get any feel for who they are as people. The devil is much better because he has a unified design of triangles, which is a pretty universal design for the devil. His hand in panel 3 is a mess though.

If you want to go for a simple style like that I'd really advise looking at cartooning and animation design guides. Cartoons in general, really. Take a look at things like Gravity Falls (Grunkle Stan has some great implied triangles) or FIM (all of the circles).

[Cuthalion]

Aw man, I gotta reap your skull for my throne as well?

Hey, I'm still going, even if I wasn't perfect last year. I think I'm up to date so far this year.

[Artman77]

Reap my skull? Nah man, you can have it. All you gotta do is ask.

https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/artmans_skull-001.jpg
Seriously though, I'd be surprised if I made it six months without missing a day, much less a year or more. I'm not trying to do what you do, but I am inspired by it. Your dedication is impressive. If I try the daily thing though, I'll keep that tip in mind.

Thanks for the critique(s). I agree white is the weakest one, albeit for different reasons.
The "flat" branches on top were intentional, I was trying to make the two on bottom more rounded and defined like cheeks and the four on top flatter and broader like a forehead. I didn't succeed very well, but with the amount of free time I had that day I had to call it good enough.

I agree with you on the comic too. It does need work. Of all the projects I've got going on right now, I'm not sure if I want to make that one a priority or not. If I do end up drawing/writing more of it, I might change the style or it might evolve on it's own. We'll see.

Any particular reason you link to your images rather than putting them right in the post?

The last two days:
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/hat-001.jpg
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/eminem_portrait_mug.jpg

[Cuthalion]

I really like the second and disapprove of the first. Specifically, is that your hat?

[Artman77]

Lol, no. That's a co-worker's hat.

[goto124]

Just posting here in support of your art! (I'm no artist, so no advice to provide unfortunately.)

[Thanqol]

Reap my skull? Nah man, you can have it. All you gotta do is ask.

https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/artmans_skull-001.jpg

That is smooth.


Seriously though, I'd be surprised if I made it six months without missing a day, much less a year or more. I'm not trying to do what you do, but I am inspired by it. Your dedication is impressive. If I try the daily thing though, I'll keep that tip in mind.

I think if you're gonna do it, commit to it. I keep bringing up the example that drawing a smiley face on the back of your hand with pen counts and it's so much easier to keep throwing something out day after day than go from a full, cold dead stop to "I should draw something"

If you've got to spend all that time talking yourself into drawing again you're wasting huge amounts of mental energy. If you're doing it daily then the decision is made and you don't even have to examine it any more. Or at least, that's how I think about it.


Any particular reason you link to your images rather than putting them right in the post?

Someone asked me to once. I think it's a good change in general because of the way resolutions work on different sized screens. If someone clicks on a link it takes them to an auto-fullsized version of the picture in it's own tab while opening a spoiler box means that it's awkward and cluttered amongst other stuff.


The last two days:
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/hat-001.jpg
https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/eminem_portrait_mug.jpg

I really like Tuesday's one. Is that on a drink bottle? It's very effective.

[Artman77]

If you've got to spend all that time talking yourself into drawing again you're wasting huge amounts of mental energy. If you're doing it daily then the decision is made and you don't even have to examine it any more. Or at least, that's how I think about it.
That is a really good point, actually. I read an article one time about habits, and how they can increase your effectiveness in day-to-day activities. They used the example of jogging/gym. If you do it every once in awhile it uses mental energy to make the decision, you have to force yourself to do it, reason with yourself etc. But if it's a daily habit, it becomes automatic.


I really like Tuesday's one. Is that on a drink bottle? It's very effective. Yeah, it's a travel coffee mug.

[Madcrafter]

If you've got to spend all that time talking yourself into drawing again you're wasting huge amounts of mental energy. If you're doing it daily then the decision is made and you don't even have to examine it any more.Even if not doing it daily, if one wants consistent output it's probably more efficient to talk yourself out of it than into it.

Daily helps with building that habit to be sure, though I do find it comes with the added stress when I forget if I made that drawing today or yesterday...


But really, this post is just to sub. Keep up the art!

[Artman77]

Thanks for the support guys! I Did a few portraits to round out the week. It's been so long since I've done portraits I forgot how hard they were. That being said, I cranked these out in about half the time it used to take me. :smallwink: I've done my own critique of them already, but I'm still interested in what you guys have to say about them. It would be telling if you guys picked out the same problems with them that I saw...

As far as next week goes, I'm not even sure where to begin!

Doing the comic was quite fun, even though I didn't spend the appropriate time necessary to make it a finished piece. I've thought a lot about the "repeated shapes" idea because I know that's a concept the pros use, both in corporate and fine art. I'm not sure whether I want to "design" my characters/style, or just crank out 200 pages and let it develop organically; keeping the good and tossing the bad.

I tried my hand at animals; lots of room for improvement there. As well with trees. And plants. And anatomy. And cars. And machines. You begin to see my dilemma... :smallwink: Maybe do one of each and let you guys tell me which is the least awesome?

Week 2
sketch (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/hat-001.jpg)
coffee mug (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/eminem_portrait_mug.jpg)
skull (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/artmans_skull-001.jpg)
portrait (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/eminem-002.jpg)
portrait (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/gandhi.jpg)
portrait (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/marilyn-monroe.jpg)

[Artman77]

My artistic brain has a will of it's own. I'm not really that interested in doing a web comic, but that's what I've been doodling for the last 3 days.

concept sketches (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/rr-sketch-001.jpg)

[Artman77]

just playing around with some chalk...
Landscape (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/green-sky.jpg)

[IZ42]

Mildly envious. These are really good, dude. I'm an aspiring artist (albeit one with little in the way of skill :P), and I love seeing people draw stuff like this. Keep it up!

[Artman77]

"Aspiring" in what sense? As a hobby? Part-time? Professionally? I tried to improve myself in many areas and failed mostly because I didn't have a clear cut goal. With no endgame in mind, I had no way to plan my strategy.

Don't sell yourself short. When it comes to skill and/or talent, I like what Tim Notke said; "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard."
I have talent, but I neglected to use it for anything worthwhile for the last decade! I could have probably been in a high-paying art related job right now, but instead I'm still working in a factory!

I had heard of a study awhile back conducted by an art professor who split his class into two groups. The first group would be graded based on the quality of the pieces of art they turned in, and the second group would be graded based on the quantity they turned in. Needless to say, in the beginning of course the second group turned in a lot of really bad artwork, but interestingly enough, by the end of the course, they were out-performing the first group.

“If you want to succeed, fail faster.” -Thomas Edison

[Artman77]

Alrighty then. Week number THREE. Got a head start with the character concept sketches, then stagnated in the middle of the week. I went for a strong finish though; this habit isn't going to form all by itself!

Week 3
Landscape (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/green-sky.jpg)
Concept sketches (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/rr-sketch-001.jpg)
Comic: Secondary colors vs Primary (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/color-cartoon-05-03-15.jpg)
Changling thief (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/changeling-rogue-001.jpg)
Mandalorian armor (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/mandalorian-sparring-05-03-15.jpg)
TMNT mourn their loss (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/tmnt-rip-donatello-05-03-15.jpg)

[Madcrafter]

I like the chalk one, quite colourful.


Changling thief (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/changeling-rogue-001.jpg)

I like his clothes. Eberron?

So; question. Did you try this pose yourself while you were drawing it? As I was once told when learning anatomy, your own body makes a great reference (it wasn't made in an artistic context, but still relevant).

I'll hazard a guess that you didn't, because it's not very comfortable, and you'll find that without something to sit on, you're going to be falling over. It's definitely not the natural position I think most people would go too if kneeling in front of a door, which is far more upright, with the legs in line. It also keeps your upper body a lot farther from the target lock, because that front foot is so far forwards, and makes it harder to get up quickly, which given the pointing man, might be an asset in this situation. (Sidenote: a child would be a lot more comfortable with the pose, though given the size I assume this person is an adult).

I went and redlined a bit, thought I don't really feel qualified to be giving you criticism. Red is current as I see it, blue is suggestions, assuming there's still an invisible object he's sitting on (maybe another bag?)https://dl.dropbox.com/s/hrf4jo562jloliz/Artman%20redline%20changeling.png?dl=0

Proportions were actually pretty bang on, except the femurs, which were quite different in length. Kneel down in that position, and you'll find your right knee is going to be hovering a lot closer to your shoulder, especially hunched over like so, unless you have quite short legs. In addition, the hips are going to be a lot more in line (in fact, currently they're rotated in the opposite direction from what they probably should be, more on that later), pushing the left knee up even with the ball of the right foot (the blue mark is actually a bit farther back to make the legs more even).

Shoulders are pretty good, right one should probably be a tiny bit more forwards.

Major kyphosis in the back, more of that bending will be done in the lumbar spine instead of having such a hunch in the thoracic spine, unless a deformity is present.

Lastly, while the position it's in does give a good view of said changeling's excellent manual dexterity, I don't see why their left hand would be in that position. Being fully dorsiflexed like so will limit range of motion and require some movements to be done with the shoulder and elbow, a likely impediment to lockpicking, as well as being slightly uncomfortable. A more useful grasp of the tool could likely be achieved by supinating and palmarflexing the hand (flipping it over). This will give better control over the lockpicking tool as well as feeling more natural, though the viewer will only be able to see the back of their hand and fingers then, not the grasp.

That's all for anatomy, overall it's quite good.

The second major thing is the door. Which depending on the order you did it in, might have negatively influenced the above. Specifically, the handle. It's on the right side of the door, but the character picking it is lined up with the left so there's some sneaky space bending going on here. Otherwise they'd have to be very contorted, especially since the hips are currently facing the opposite direction. Secondly, it's really low. Now, the changeling could be really tall, but currently if they stood up, the handle would only be about mid-thigh, even using their shortest leg. For comparison, I'm decently tall, and modern door handles are about level with my hip joint. I suggest you try this yourself too see what might work.

[goto124]

And all I can think of is 'why does he look like Deadpool?'

[Artman77]

Thanks for the critique. The clothes weren't taken from or designed for ebberon. The problem with this piece is that it started out as a rough sketch and I didn't try very hard on the proportions before I started designing the outfit. I never drew an outfit like that before and found it mildly fun to do, getting carried away and adding more and more detail. By the time I noticed anatomical problems in regards to proportion and position, it was too late...

Did you try this pose yourself while you were drawing it?
I don't remember. I may have, but if I did, it wasn't in front of a full-length mirror.

It's definitely not the natural position I think most people would go too if kneeling in front of a door, which is far more upright, with the legs in line...and makes it harder to get up quickly, which given the pointing man, might be an asset in this situation. (Sidenote: a child would be a lot more comfortable with the pose, though given the size I assume this person is an adult).
Not sure which position you are referring to. Kneeling on your kneecaps with both feet behind you? I tried kneeling in that position quickly just now, and my right knee went to the floor while my left knee stayed upright. I stood up fairly quickly as well, with no trouble. My right leg propelled my body up, while my left propelled my body away from the door.

your right knee is going to be hovering a lot closer to your shoulder....pushing the left knee up even with the ball of the right foot
My right knee was about a head's distance from my chin, in line with my left elbow, and my left knee was behind my right foot... and the "invisible thing he's sitting on" just hit me.

His heel.

His left shin is parallel to the ground, it should be headed back up into the air as it goes towards his hips. His foot was off the end of the page, that's what threw me off. If he was sitting on his ankle (as a child might do) it would put his right knee closer to his armpit and left knee closer to his toes, and hinder his ability to make a hasty getaway.

I don't really feel qualified to be giving you criticism.
Maybe not in an artistic, stylish, or compositional sense, but I think in an anatomical sense you are. Kyphosis, thoracic, dorsiflexed, supinating, and palmarflexing aren't words in my vocabulary. You've got me beat there.

Proportions were actually pretty bang on
Lol. After looking at the red pen I'm surprised you think so. His head is too big, ribcage is too small, femurs are too short, and perhaps spine too short as well. If you decrease the size of his head these "too small" issues are more proportionate though. As far as "twisted hips" go, I think it has to do with the fact he's not really sitting on his heel number one, and number two, his belt buckle is in the wrong spot.

I don't see why their left hand would be in that position.
Two reasons. The first is artistic: It's fun to draw his hand that way. The second has to do with what's going on. I can't draw the changeling biting his lip, or sticking his tongue out, so I have to communicate frustration in some other way. Normally, you'd go at night, dressed in black, pick the lock in two seconds, and be in. This guy is going in broad daylight, dressed as a noble, and he's having trouble. He keeps twisting the tools around in order to get a better angle. This is the same reason why his right shoulder is elevated, instead of more inline with his left. It's a subconscious action done in response to the previous action(s) failing...

The second major thing is the door.
I know. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I added that as an afterthought and it is UGLY. Perspective is off, handle is too low, door is crooked, detail is lacking vs the rest of the picture. I know. I should've done it right or left it out.
But hey. Maybe a halfling paid the village idiot to build his house? :smalltongue:

@goto124; I've had other people say that too. I think it's the nose.

[Madcrafter]

Not sure which position you are referring to. Kneeling on your kneecaps with both feet behind you? I tried kneeling in that position quickly just now, and my right knee went to the floor while my left knee stayed upright. I stood up fairly quickly as well, with no trouble. My right leg propelled my body up, while my left propelled my body away from the door.I'm thinking both knees flexed 90 degrees, with one hip straight and the other at 90 as well, both directly under the torso, like so:http://www.tenphysio.com/images/articles/post-hib/3.jpgThen bend at the waist to get upper body level close to the door. Also allows for a scissor lift kind of motion to jump back to one's feet in a hurry


My right knee was about a head's distance from my chin, in line with my left elbow, and my left knee was behind my right foot... and the "invisible thing he's sitting on" just hit me.

His heel.

His left shin is parallel to the ground, it should be headed back up into the air as it goes towards his hips. His foot was off the end of the page, that's what threw me off. If he was sitting on his ankle (as a child might do) it would put his right knee closer to his armpit and left knee closer to his toes, and hinder his ability to make a hasty getaway.Mmm. I see the pose you were getting at now. However, the bend at the knee makes it look to me as if the changeling is half in a "w" sitting position you sometimes see in children, just without his butt on the ground because of the length of the other leg prevents it. In this position, his lower leg is off laterally from the body, which is why I said he's be falling over, since there is nothing supporting under the centre of mass.http://childrenstherapy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/wsitting.jpgAlso why the comment on them being a child is there, adults have a hard time sitting like this.


Maybe not in an artistic, stylish, or compositional sense, but I think in an anatomical sense you are. Kyphosis, thoracic, dorsiflexed, supinating, and palmarflexing aren't words in my vocabulary. You've got me beat there.

Lol. After looking at the red pen I'm surprised you think so. His head is too big, ribcage is too small, femurs are too short, and perhaps spine too short as well. If you decrease the size of his head these "too small" issues are more proportionate though. As far as "twisted hips" go, I think it has to do with the fact he's not really sitting on his heel number one, and number two, his belt buckle is in the wrong spot.Well maybe. Though you don't need particularly accurate anatomy for art, as long as you look like you have accurate anatomy. Audience POV and all that. I like the anatomical terms for clarity's sake, but I guess if no one else understands them without google it's not really helpful. :smallredface:

To be fair, I only measured the proportions of his legs and arms, compared to an estimated height (and not particularly accurately at that). But they did line up very close with my anthropometric table, so I think that's a success.


Two reasons. The first is artistic: It's fun to draw his hand that way. The second has to do with what's going on. I can't draw the changeling biting his lip, or sticking his tongue out, so I have to communicate frustration in some other way. Normally, you'd go at night, dressed in black, pick the lock in two seconds, and be in. This guy is going in broad daylight, dressed as a noble, and he's having trouble. He keeps twisting the tools around in order to get a better angle. This is the same reason why his right shoulder is elevated, instead of more inline with his left. It's a subconscious action done in response to the previous action(s) failing...Ah, the hidden backstory. Fair enough.


@goto124; I've had other people say that too. I think it's the nose.Smoothed nose, missing mouth, black circles around while eyes... he's a dead ringer. A Deadpool ringer.

[Artman77]

I tried out some new techniques with spray paint this week. I made some planetscapes, which might not be a 'real' word, but it fits and is accurate enough linguistically to satisfy me. Not super happy with how they turned out, but once you lay that paint down you can't take it back. So, what you see is what you get.

I also did another comic, and worked on a couple elementals.

Week 4
planetscape 1 (https://theflightofchoronus.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150510_213346.jpg)
planetscape 2 (https://theflightofchoronus.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150510_213237.jpg)
comic (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/rr-water-elemental.jpg)
fire (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/elemental-fire.jpg)
water (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/elemental-water.jpg)
metal and air (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/elemental-metal-air-001.jpg) - sketches
wood (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wood-001.jpg) - sketch

[Cuthalion]

I really like the inking on the comic and the fire elemental is perfect.

[Artman77]

Thanks. It was my first time inking with a brush, and I think the strokes are a little heavy when compared with the knight. I like the look of it though. I'll probably be using a brush more often.

I didn't really plan out the composition of the fire elemental, so I was pleasantly surprised when he turned out as well has he did.

Fixed water elemental link.

[Thanqol]

Beyond my ability to provide useful feedback!

The way you've done the planets makes them look a bit like coins though due to the way they're textured; I don't buy the curvature as much as I should. They're still dang pretty though, how'd you do that?

[Artman77]

Yeah, my spray paint skill suck. This is the technique though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEnicYr4Xe4

My can control sucks. The major muscle groups in my arm required for the smooth lines that make up the shadows need to be trained. In pic 1 you can tell the moon is more than 60% in shadow, and the planet only about 30% in shadow, plus that shadow isn't a gentle curve, its more straight at the top and curves dramatically at the bottom. Pic 2 is better, but still more than 50% shadow due to poor plate placement. Also I kinda cheated a little bit by making a straight line instead of a waning or waxing shadow.

[Artman77]

Here is a high-contrast, film noir style piece I was working on last night...

rooftop justice (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/noir-detective-0011.jpg)

[Madcrafter]

I'm sure there are easier methods but I wonder if that technique would work digitally as well. It'd be interesting to try at least.

[Deathkeeper]

As someone who's done a Fallout 3 Mysterious Stranger cosplay (yes, I know he's Every Film Noir Stereotype Ever, but when you use the guitar jingle it becomes Fallout), I wholeheartedly approve. :smallbiggrin:

[Artman77]

@Madcrafter; I'm sure you could get the same effect with any program that uses layers. The 'organic' texture that comes from peeling layers of paint off with wrinkled newspaper would be harder to reproduce digitally, but I'm sure it could be done. If you thought the use of layers was akin to cheating you could just use the circle marquee tool to make your mask, replacing the plates, cups and lids...

@LordDeathkeeper; thanks. :smallsmile:

On to my recent artscapades:
So in some of these 'spacescape' painting videos, near the end, they'll take a scraper and remove the paint all the way down to the paper, revealing the white underneath. I tried my hand at this technique, but with slightly different subject matter:

skulls (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150512_134444.jpg)
skull (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150512_134405.jpg)

OMG that was hard. Even taking into account that I’m pretty critical of my own work, I’m still not very pleased with how they came out. The first thing that took me by surprise was the finesse required when using a paint knife. Because the spray paint goes on so thin, a really minor adjustment in the angle of my wrist would mean the difference of removing a thin line of white vs two whole bloody inches!

Another thing that took me by surprise was how little time I had to accomplish my task. I’ve used spray paint before, so it wasn't how fast it dried that was surprise, and I had watched the three-minute-videos online too, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. What surprised me was how slow I was! LOL. It was a challenge for me to accomplish anything at all in such a small amount of time. My speed is better suited for oils at the moment. But it was fun, and I do like artistic challenges, so expect to see more of these in the near future...

[Thanqol]

Oh damn. Stuff like that is why I am dying to set up my own physical paints studio. What an interesting challenge.

[Artman77]

Yeah the first skull was pretty smooth, i just messed up my knife control, taking off too much here and there, but I was like "that's cool I'll just do another." So i did, but then the paint started to get sticky. Then dry. Then it was too late. I was like "Alright. let's do another." so I did another. Didn't like it. "Alright. Imma just do one more." And then DANG. It was time to go to work. :smallfurious:

[Artman77]

It was a long week. Didn't get the stuff done that I wanted to do, but I humbled myself attempting new techniques...

Week 5
Noir Man (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/noir-detective-0011.jpg)
Skulls 1 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150512_134444.jpg)
Skulls 2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150512_134522.jpg)
Skull (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150512_134405.jpg)
Noir Comic (http://radicalred.thecomicseries.com/images/comics/87/a2311fa3682a7585f40dd4170ee3ba4e56805702.jpg)
Logo (http://comicfury.com/comicavatars/87/27111_258953.jpg)

[TechnOkami]

Oh S$!&.

I got a shout-out at the beginning of this thread and I only JUST discovered this today??

I really need to make more of a presence for myself on this side of the boards.

Anyways, hi, I'm TechnO, aaaaaaaand you draw skulls really well. Your line detail and skeletal anatomy is pretty good, like, several steps above myself good (not that it means much but whatev').

Actually the only thing I'm finding myself disliking so far is the shading and the colored pencil use. I'm not a huge fan of either (I dislike the gradient shading look you get with pencils. I never enjoyed the way it looked on paper.), and my personal recommendation would be to explore your options as far as that's concerned. Overall though you've got a lot of little things going for you which is cool. Keep drawing.

[Artman77]

Yeah, you noticed that huh? I hate colored pencils for the same reason(s). I haven't been able to get good shading/deep colors with them, but I think it might be because I buy cheap pencils. I haven't really had the desire to use colored pencils that much until recently. I have other things I'm trying to do right now, but I'd like to get the whole colored-pencils-suck thing figured out at some point...

Thanks for stopping by my thread. ARTISTS UNITE!

[Artman77]

more spray paint stuff.
#31skull (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150521_133401.jpg)
#32skull plus paint pen (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150521_133427.jpg)

[Artman77]

Portrait of a friend:
underlying colors (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150518_132657.jpg)
building values (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150520_134905.jpg)
#33added skin tone and details (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150521_121103.jpg)

[Artman77]

So on the plus side, I got my scanner and Wacom tablet back from my brother, but on the flip side my laptop ate a major virus and is down for the count. Posting will have to continue via my tablet until a solution can be found. That laptop was old and clunky anyway, so it's probably time to upgrade. In the meantime, I got some art to show you all.

Practice characters for a FF14 piece commissioned by a friend.
#34final fantasy characters (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150524_175117.jpg)

These were supposed to be panels to a noir chapter of the comic I've been working on, but since my computer took a crap they've been put on hold. I don't want to mess with trying to edit them on my tablet. Forget that.
#35noir 2 - Hercules (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150524_085603.jpg)
#36noir 3 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150524_143647.jpg)

This week's problems aside, the painting I did was really fun; I might try more of that.

This marks the end of Week 6

[Artman77]

#37 40K coat of arms (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/wpid-img_20150526_091708.jpg)

[TheCountAlucard]

Needs 1000% more skulls. :smalltongue:

And unnecessary, unnecessarily-huge pauldrons.

Just kidding of course. Looks great.

[Artman77]

Yeah, I was going to put three skulls looking down under the shield between the lower two blades, and a skull in profile(looking away from center) on each side just above the banner, but it seemed too cluttered to me, so I left them out.

#38:spray paint girls (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113755.jpg)
#39:sketch 1 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113845.jpg)
#40:sketch 2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113833.jpg)
#41:sketch 3 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113927.jpg)

[Thanqol]

Yeah, I was going to put three skulls looking down under the shield between the lower two blades, and a skull in profile(looking away from center) on each side just above the banner, but it seemed too cluttered to me, so I left them out.

Thank goodness you didn't make any cluttered (https://gonzohistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/warhammer-40000-art-d0bfd0b5d181d0bed187d0bdd0b8d186d0b0-imperium-322656.jpeg) Warhammer (http://40.media.tumblr.com/70b580afa6df4ebb1f245f47809dd07e/tumblr_mvx9wnQ2yn1t069vlo1_1280.jpg) artwork (http://41.media.tumblr.com/18d6df3f9b9d9fc0a7366793e44ae7fc/tumblr_mk2vxxsbjM1s46vxbo1_1280.jpg).


#38:spray paint girls (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113755.jpg)
#39:sketch 1 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113845.jpg)
#40:sketch 2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113833.jpg)
#41:sketch 3 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113927.jpg)

Kind of good on a level beyond my ability to provide useful feedback, you know?

Hey, I forget if I asked this, but what artists are you aiming towards in terms of where you want to be? Do you have any idols or favourites?

[Artman77]

Rembrandt for his speed, Caravaggio for his drama, and Monet for his color. There are too many modern artists to get into right now, but Louis Royo (spelling?) comes to mind. These are just for a solid baseline. I'll migrate towards concept art and promo art after that...

[Artman77]

Nope. It was Boris Vallejo I was thinking of.

[Artman77]

Been doing a lot of stuff offline for awhile now, and am fearing the massive art-dump that's building up. Here's some of it, in no particular order:
42, 43:girls (https://41.media.tumblr.com/0ebc69e93fa7b9e61aa68d8ed4a91e6e/tumblr_nqc40k0yHa1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
44, 45:dogs (https://40.media.tumblr.com/476cfeb4216602d5567c22c31f4463a7/tumblr_nqc3x34oom1uvm9nio3_1280.jpg)
46, 47:greyhound one (https://36.media.tumblr.com/973f715ddf52635b8e3b3de3ef03d0ba/tumblr_nqc3x34oom1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)and two (https://40.media.tumblr.com/a88b8fea5d400aa9e4b446b0732c05d0/tumblr_nqc3x34oom1uvm9nio2_500.jpg)
48:insignia (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/insignia.jpg)

[Thanqol]

THERE IS ONLY ROOM FOR ONE DRAWTHREAD IN THIS SUBFORUM

Really, hoping you've been keeping up offline. It really sucks seeing people flame out after a couple of weeks :smallfrown:

[Artman77]

Yeah, I've got a mountain of paper in my art room waiting for upload: I'm just really not that much of an internet type of guy...

[Thanqol]

Yeah, I've got a mountain of paper in my art room waiting for upload: I'm just really not that much of an internet type of guy...

I know I personally have stopped uploading my P&P sketches to the computer - I don't have a scanner so I have to photograph, crop and resize them and they're still blurry and crap.

Still I think that it's important to talk a bit about your art when you can, putting experiences into text can break them out of an emotional tactile zone and let one approach things more critically.

[Artman77]

Okay. So. I've been spending mega amounts of time either, A. Playing with colors values in photoshop trying to get the lighting right, or B. Doing figure sketches trying to get my anatomy down. Neither of these practices, while important, haven't produced anything upload-worthy, in my opinion. That being said,

ART DUMP!!
49:succubus (http://40.media.tumblr.com/cc4e6640b1e3d15dea8cb79c27298e03/tumblr_nqmc5qkiUr1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
50:[/URL]
51:[URL="http://41.media.tumblr.com/3a09bc83a5acd91c1458306e2afa626b/tumblr_nqn89rJLaA1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg"]sketch (http://41.media.tumblr.com/c6527ebc117d4e4ca9e491230b13dca2/tumblr_nqmc91RxRT1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
52:goat (http://36.media.tumblr.com/8a66327a0ca850602561d430f29466e4/tumblr_nqn8znBln41uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
53:zombie (http://40.media.tumblr.com/86c81a7685219c3fb918dad9aa6e7b11/tumblr_nqn93jgV3b1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
54:hip/thigh study (http://36.media.tumblr.com/38b67e9f29ced769002652a5414bf299/tumblr_nqn967DgiZ1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
55:2 light sources (http://36.media.tumblr.com/991d2b2f739691ab5451d0de85ece211/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio5_540.jpg)
56:batman(color/brushes) (http://36.media.tumblr.com/5aceb67298e1c6a73bc4a3ef6471b237/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio4_540.jpg)
57:dog (http://41.media.tumblr.com/91bc105768eb03d14ba5ad462da0dc60/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio3_540.jpg)
58:starwars (http://40.media.tumblr.com/9a71abb8196ed5ccdf46a3eab8a8583b/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio2_540.jpg)
59:orc (http://40.media.tumblr.com/cfa653ed362566a79016278ef2259cf0/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio1_540.jpg)
60:tree (http://41.media.tumblr.com/db5504768d924c60fa0c4bd493b27393/tumblr_nr09x5L6lI1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
61:man (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113845.jpg)
62:woman (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113833.jpg)
63:rage (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113927.jpg)
64:FF14 photoshop (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/six_ff_2.jpg)
65:mother teresa (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/img011.jpg)

@Thanqol; talk more smack please. It is very motivating.

[Artman77]

Week 14 under my belt! Got burned out on the uploading/posting there for a bit, but I'm back at it.
66: Calvin and Hobbes
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/bafcc39fed5d21980bb03df92250163e/tumblr_ns4sjyl9FL1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)67: Elephant (http://40.media.tumblr.com/77ef213c84a5a54b949b4c64de032869/tumblr_ns4sjyl9FL1uvm9nio3_1280.jpg)
68: Dumbledore (http://41.media.tumblr.com/da7eb05732a1eb58a10b67dd44623d46/tumblr_ns4sjyl9FL1uvm9nio2_1280.jpg)
and
69-71: orc study (http://wingmind.tumblr.com/image/125163212588)

The last one was the most fun for me to do, and I'll probably be doing more of these over the next few days.

[FinnLassie]

I really like your spray stuff - what do you use for it?

[Artman77]

Spray paint. Rustoleum 2x coverage mostly, but some cheap store brands too. The textured effect was achieved by spraying multiple layers of color, then lightly placing newspaper on top and peeling it back.

(Note: It has to be done on cardboard, posterboard or some other smooth surface to work well. I've seen people try to use that technique on canvas and it fails because the tooth of the canvas doesn't allow for a large surface area contact with the newspaper to pull off sections of the top layer of paint.)

Some of the white linework you see was created by scraping the paint off with a palette knife while it was still wet. Other lines were done with paint pens after it was dry.

[TechnOkami]

THERE IS ONLY ROOM FOR ONE DRAWTHREAD IN THIS SUBFORUM

Fite me IRL I swear on me mum. :smallamused:

On your "art threads burning out" comment, I've actually got basically a sketch dump in the works, it's just a lot of scanning I really don't want to do. :smalltongue:

So I'm still active as far as art is concerned, I just haven't done anything digital as of late and have been working almost solely in traditional mediums. I actually just bought a few things I needed to give watercolors a try, so we'll see how that goes!

[Artman77]

Ditto on the watercolor stuff--I've been wanting to give that a try for awhile now.

[Cuthalion]

THERE IS ONLY ROOM FOR ONE DRAWTHREAD IN THIS SUBFORUM

Really, hoping you've been keeping up offline. It really sucks seeing people flame out after a couple of weeks :smallfrown:

I was gone, and it's going to take a while to imgur up everything onto the thread here. It's on tumblr, though.

[Thanqol]

@Thanqol; talk more smack please. It is very motivating.

Sorry I'm late in replying to this but I just couldn't find the motivation to wade through all this crap.

SMACK TALK GO


Okay. So. I've been spending mega amounts of time either, A. Playing with colors values in photoshop trying to get the lighting right, or B. Doing figure sketches trying to get my anatomy down. Neither of these practices, while important, haven't produced anything upload-worthy, in my opinion. That being said,

ART DUMP!!
49:succubus (http://40.media.tumblr.com/cc4e6640b1e3d15dea8cb79c27298e03/tumblr_nqmc5qkiUr1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

Ear looks too small, the skin and wing tones are too similar. The texture on the wings looks really flat, I find that this is a persistent problem with texture effects.


50:I FORGOT TO WRITE SOMETHING HERE (http://41.media.tumblr.com/c6527ebc117d4e4ca9e491230b13dca2/tumblr_nqmc91RxRT1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

Look at me with my fancy-pants leaf brush and brilliant compositions, la-de-da


51:sketch (http://41.media.tumblr.com/3a09bc83a5acd91c1458306e2afa626b/tumblr_nqn89rJLaA1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

Your skill is clearly deteriorating here.


52:goat (http://36.media.tumblr.com/8a66327a0ca850602561d430f29466e4/tumblr_nqn8znBln41uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

You have drawn this goat as some sort of terrifying demon entity trampling trees underhoof. Completely inaccurate and possibly goat-racist.


53:zombie (http://40.media.tumblr.com/86c81a7685219c3fb918dad9aa6e7b11/tumblr_nqn93jgV3b1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

Picture is excessively creepy.


54:hip/thigh study (http://36.media.tumblr.com/38b67e9f29ced769002652a5414bf299/tumblr_nqn967DgiZ1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

Butt is insufficiently sexy.


55:2 light sources (http://36.media.tumblr.com/991d2b2f739691ab5451d0de85ece211/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio5_540.jpg)

Too political


56:batman(color/brushes) (http://36.media.tumblr.com/5aceb67298e1c6a73bc4a3ef6471b237/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio4_540.jpg)

Batman's new costume includes half a dozen scarves in place of a cape.


57:dog (http://41.media.tumblr.com/91bc105768eb03d14ba5ad462da0dc60/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio3_540.jpg)

Dog is not cat.


58:starwars (http://40.media.tumblr.com/9a71abb8196ed5ccdf46a3eab8a8583b/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio2_540.jpg)

Obi-Wan's lightsaber is blue. So is Anakin's, actually. Poorly researched.


59:orc (http://40.media.tumblr.com/cfa653ed362566a79016278ef2259cf0/tumblr_nr09b3UFBV1uvm9nio1_540.jpg)

The snout seems to be facing directly towards the camera despite the 3/4 view.


60:tree (http://41.media.tumblr.com/db5504768d924c60fa0c4bd493b27393/tumblr_nr09x5L6lI1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

Sky is not actually pink


61:man (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113845.jpg)

Face accidentally cropped from picture


62:woman (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113833.jpg)

Too talented


63:rage (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/wpid-img_20150601_113927.jpg)

Bicep has transformed into basketball.


64:FF14 photoshop (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/six_ff_2.jpg)

Weapons are clearly impractical. Any given woman is showing more skin than every male combined.


65:mother teresa (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/img011.jpg)

BABIES ARE RUINING ALL MY TABLETOPS


Fite me IRL I swear on me mum. :smallamused:

Fight me in the park at lunch time tomorrow. Sincerely, your nemesis, Johnny Snow.

[Artman77]

BABIES ARE RUINING ALL MY TABLETOPS
. . . . LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha! No. Seriously. Ruining your life? You can still get a full night's sleep. :smallwink: (It's a friend's baby, right?) We actually have babies going on over here too, so I feel your pain. TIMES TEN.

@49: Yeah I know. I spent like a million hours on the face/torso, and by the time I got to the wings I was pretty much burnt out. I wanted to get it done by the end of the week so I rushed it and called it quits.
@50: WoW. I can't believe I did that. Kudos on finding the art tho.
The rest of the critiques are too funny and are really more like jokes than critiques. Smack-talk fail.

More artwork to come. Soon. Maybe next year. :smallbiggrin:

[Artman77]

66: MMA Dwarf (http://40.media.tumblr.com/d0f98cb04ded7664c9172274d7de2090/tumblr_nreve4gq4A1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
67: goblins (http://40.media.tumblr.com/cd0fda2ec8bba7f3329c0e03f9509bcc/tumblr_nrevh8BrmV1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
68: animal (http://40.media.tumblr.com/77ef213c84a5a54b949b4c64de032869/tumblr_ns4sjyl9FL1uvm9nio3_1280.jpg)
69-70: boring
71: orcs (http://41.media.tumblr.com/92294a7cde37a1d99e25c574f6428d2c/tumblr_ns5912QSuN1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
72: more orcs (http://41.media.tumblr.com/f0ff9fe56114ef88b1afb9369f01e45e/tumblr_nsfxjhHIuB1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
73: Michelangelo (http://41.media.tumblr.com/92294a7cde37a1d99e25c574f6428d2c/tumblr_ns5912QSuN1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
74: Sisyphus (http://41.media.tumblr.com/79047353620c833bbe248cf0368b7772/tumblr_nsfyjtRL921uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
75: fantasy commission (http://36.media.tumblr.com/7e029e216099df227e12816a32bef46d/tumblr_nsg2o49NXs1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
78: orc facial structures (http://41.media.tumblr.com/dfb63da9054d66eb352cf2e4f670018b/tumblr_nsuqazexmr1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

[Artman77]

79: Stoneskin Halfling (http://41.media.tumblr.com/0015c973c19438fd258d6e863d2af1fa/tumblr_nt65b1jTu31uvm9nio2_540.jpg) commission.
80-84: boring.
85: Ugly famous dude (http://41.media.tumblr.com/52208bc781a826f8572608ad46a206ee/tumblr_ntgv9qts4u1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
86: Face study (http://36.media.tumblr.com/144f924277ae701449bc3afc6434b86b/tumblr_ntks28AK701uvm9nio1_1280.jpg) this wasn't that fun to do, but I learned that peoples' muscle structure, wrinkles, etc, are just as important for capturing/defining/recognizing their face as correct proportions are.
87: Here is a Picnic table (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150822_150632.jpg)I painted. Did some spraypaint stuff on top with the nine planets. Here's another picture of it after I painted over Mercury (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150822_150641.jpg) somehow. "REO" was cut out of tinfoil and applied to the table while the spraypaint was still wet.

Artman77 rolled a natural 20 on initiative, and got an AoO on top of getting to go first. FYI; AoO is Art of Opportunity in this case.
Limited colors due to circumstance, -2 to Art Roll.
88:Result (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150826_184142.jpg).
OOC: I feel like 88 should have been the Dalorian from back to the future.

In other news, I'm expanding my clientele as merchant now, and spent my next five points in Craft: Shirt.
89: Shirt (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/extra-shirt.jpg) and Shirts (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/extra-shirts.jpg).
90: Shirt number two, Front (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150830_0118351.jpg); Back (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150830_0118581.jpg).

91: Military Gnome (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/img0296.jpg)

[Thanqol]

86: Face study (http://36.media.tumblr.com/144f924277ae701449bc3afc6434b86b/tumblr_ntks28AK701uvm9nio1_1280.jpg) this wasn't that fun to do, but I learned that peoples' muscle structure, wrinkles, etc, are just as important for capturing/defining/recognizing their face as correct proportions are.

Am I correct in seeing the bottom row as overlaying the original image? It's a very cool looking experiment either way, how'd you do it?


87: Here is a Picnic table (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150822_150632.jpg)I painted. Did some spraypaint stuff on top with the nine planets. Here's another picture of it after I painted over Mercury (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-img_20150822_150641.jpg) somehow. "REO" was cut out of tinfoil and applied to the table while the spraypaint was still wet.

This is kicking rad though!

[Artman77]

Am I correct in seeing the bottom row as overlaying the original image? It's a very cool looking experiment either way, how'd you do it?

Yeah. I put em all in black and white, and then reduced them to their strongest values. This was the last of three steps; they go in chronological order top to bottom, left to right.

For the experiment I wanted to see which was more important; facial structure/volume/measurements, or specific shapes/wrinkles/details.
Step one was to find easily recognizable faces that were directly facing the camera. Step two was to resize them so that they were all the same size and line them up, and then copy-paste them into rows.

For the first row I measured and marked the proportions of the face; The top of the head, bridge of nose/eye line, bottom of nose, top of lip, mouth, bottom of lip, and chin. Then I measured and marked the side of the head on either side of the eye, the outside of each eye, and the inside of each eye, the width/each corner of the mouth, eyebrows, and corners of chin. After measurements were done, I hid the layer with the reference photo(s) so I wouldn't be tempted to copy the face, and just drew the face using curved, nonspecific lines, following the measurements I had already laid out, kind of like a children's connect-the-dots game. This resulted in very almond shaped eyes, and generalized noses.

For the second row, I kept the reference layer hidden, and drew the basic "face oval" with the center line, line for eyes halfway, nose line half way between that and chin, mouth line below that. Eye width 1/5 of face, etc. Then I took this generalized facial structure and copy-pasted it so the other faces would be proportionally exactly the same. Then I un-hid my reference layer and began putting specific details from each face on top of the general measurements.

I then compared and contrasted the two to see which I thought was more recognizable, and added the third row just for fun.

As it turns out, I don't think one aspect is more important than the other. Both proportions and details are taken into consideration by the brain when trying to recognize a face. I think this conclusion is backed up by artwork in popular media too. When a famous person makes an appearance on the Simpsons/Family Guy/South Park, they ignore the details (usually) and focus on the structure of that person's face. Conversely, a caricature of a person focuses more on just the details of a person's face and even exaggerates them to the point of misrepresenting the proportions of that face. Like I said... it wasn't that fun, but the only way to learn from the experiment was to actually do it, and I feel like I did learn something in the end. :smallsmile:

[Artman77]

Life is crazy busy!!! In a good way, I guess. I will not be uploading about two weeks of practice art because A) the art is lame/boring, and B) I don't feel like it.

I did do another comic strip tho: BAMM (http://radicalred.webcomic.ws/images/comics/94/46006afab6d12278816f73e986eda5111791681474.jpg).

[TechnOkami]

I just wanted to stop by and say that table you painted with the planets in the background was really, really nifty.

[Artman77]

Thanks bro!

[Artman77]

Shirts I've been working on:
92-116: Not worth uploading.
117: Deleted saved-over by mistake. Supper pissed about that one.
118: the weak picture (http://36.media.tumblr.com/636ffdc53ed741b961c5624775518f80/tumblr_nwi84xkkEr1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)that I saved over it with.
119: beginnings of an old man (http://40.media.tumblr.com/764d49b6619bac923407b3a1861d509a/tumblr_nwi84xkkEr1uvm9nio2_1280.jpg) portrait.
120-128: too lazy to upload.
129: Motivation (http://radicalred.webcomic.ws/images/comics/96/67112f57e699bffed0b3ab30f2fd7c611289477349.jpg)
130: shirt 1 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/wpid-img_20151014_133910.jpg)
131: shirt 2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/wpid-img_20151014_133426.jpg)
132: shirt 3 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/wpid-img_20151014_1337501.jpg)
133: my first foray into watercolors (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/wpid-img_20151026_010511.jpg).
134: Shirt 4 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/wpid-img_20151026_010637.jpg)

[Artman77]

135: refusal (http://wingmind.tumblr.com/image/131939506968)
136: strip (http://radicalred.cfw.me/images/comics/97/dd87b48be4d168a7309176e22364e5af1326732530.jpg)

[Artman77]

135: Shirt 5
136-139: left out
140: red's origin comic 1 (http://radicalred.webcomic.ws/images/comics/98/9fe32c6f421931cf5e3fcb669110e35e156372389.jpg)
141: Gnoll Prisoner (https://41.media.tumblr.com/72989e8aeaad4e571ccce567bfa5b7c8/tumblr_nx6ktczglE1uvm9nio2_540.jpg)
142: evil skelly (https://41.media.tumblr.com/0621084abac87a5ff6e892f410e8833b/tumblr_nx6ktczglE1uvm9nio1_540.jpg)

[Detkef]

Hey dude keep this stuff up, I love seeing people progress in art!

[Artman77]

Thanks bro!

[Artman77]

“What?” Aiden couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I don’t know if you and your dad are still fighting, but you’ve got to go back and make things right with him. We’ve got to keep this whole space teleportation thing a secret for right now, but it would be wrong of me not to think of your dad’s rights as a parent.”
“But—” Aiden started, but grandpa cut him off.
“I’m sending you out into dangerous territory Aiden. I’ve tried to set things up so that you are as safe as possible, but who knows how long I’ve been gone before you got this far. A lot of things can happen between right now and when you get this message. It’s a big universe out there. You owe it to your dad, and to me, to go back and make things right. If somethings happens to you…” grandpa looked away as he started to get choked up, “If something—hah. Ahhh shh—” it looked as though grandpa was having trouble breathing, and then the video cut and suddenly grandpa looked very tired. He cleared his throat a couple of times.
“If something happens, your dad has to know that you love him, and forgive him for the things he’s done, and that everything’s going to be all right. Do you understand me?” His voice got suddenly serious. He felt his stomach tightening up. Whenever his dad got ‘serious’ he would always get angry. When he got angry, Aiden didn’t really care what he had to say. On the rare occasion grandpa go serious, it would invariably be during a very emotional time to explain some cosmic truth to someone. And this time the truth was apparently that he had to forgive his father. Maybe this journey wasn’t going to be so fun after all.
“Do you understand??” he repeated. For a moment Aiden thought Grandpa Walt could have stepped through time and space and grabbed him by the collar.
“Yeah,” he said quietly.
“Good. I’ve got more messages that I’m going to record for you after this, but I don’t have a lot of time, so I don’t know how many more I’m going to do. Mike will play them for you at the appropriate times. I love you Aiden. You’re going to do great.”
“I love you too grandpa.” Aiden mumbled.

The hologram disappeared. For a while Aiden was left sitting there, staring at the darkened control panel of the communications room. He felt silly. He just told a video recording that he loved it. That wasn’t his grandpa. It was just a recording. His grandpa was gone; he couldn’t hear him anymore. At some point he would probably have a question that he would try to ask, just to have his grandpa not have made a recording to answer it.
The ship suddenly felt very small. His grandpa wasn’t there, and Mike wasn’t really a person either, just a vaguely person-shaped collection of metal pieces and circuitry. He was all alone. With nothing but a few thin pieces of sheet metal between him and the vast emptiness of space. Well, he wasn’t really alone he realized, as Tink put a hand on his arm.
“Thanks Tink,” Aiden smiled weakly. At that moment, the little alien was probably the best friend in the whole universe. “Hey, do you know how to play chess?” he asked. Tink shook his head no.
“I’m sorry,” interrupted Mike, “But our lessons are done for the day, Captain Walt instructed me to send you back home immediately afterwards.”
“What? Why?” Aiden demanded.
“For the reasons stated in his message.” Mike replied matter-of-factly.
“But what about the time pinch?” he argued, “How are my parents even going to know how long I was gone?”
“I am sorry. These are my orders. I was instructed to see that they were carried out.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I have been instructed to lock down the ship, suspend all communication and flight functions, and destroy all the food.”
Dang it! thought Aiden, Grandpa knew that would get me to go back home. Well fine. I’ll go back at least this one time so that Mike can just chill out.
“Alright fine. Don’t worry Tink, I’ll be right back. Because of the time pinch, you won’t even know I left! Then I’ll teach you some chess, alright?” Tink nodded. “Alright you big, dumb robot, I’m going.”
“Captain Walt instructed me not to let you speak in that manner.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Aiden grumbled. He grabbed the teleporter off of the desk and headed to the cockpit. “Here I go. Wish me luck.”
He placed his palm face down on the screen of the teleporter and braced himself. For a moment everything went dark. Then he realized he was standing in the middle of the old bomber’s cockpit once more. The birds were chirping outside. Filtered sunlight streamed through the broken windshield revealing the dirt, grime, dead leaves and rust holes that let him know that he was once again in his grandpa’s back yard. He looked out at the sun between the branches of the trees. It hadn’t even gone down yet.
He stuffed the teleporter into his pocket and climbed carefully out of the cockpit so as not to cut himself on one of the sharp, rusty edges. He was halfway back to the house when he realized his father was probably still furious about the argument, and about all the names and accusations Aiden had shouted at him before he stormed out of the house. He stopped dead in his tracks. He also remembered he still hadn’t done any cleaning or any sorting on any of grandpa’s old junk piles.
This is never going to work, he thought, Dad’s probably still super angry. Even if I said sorry, and forgave him, all he’s going to do is yell at me and tell me I’m worthless again. So what’s the point? It’s not like I really have to try and do it right now anyway, do I? If talk to him for three days, or if I go back right now, how would they even know? Because of the time warp, it’ll be like I never left right?
Aiden turned on his heel and headed right back to the old bomber cockpit.

In no time he was back on the Blackbird. Weird, he thought. It really was like he never left. Mike was still standing there in the cockpit. Tink was still looking in through the open doorway.
“How was your time back on your home planet?” inquired Mike.
“Fine,” he replied
“Did you talk to your father?”
“Yeah,” he lied. He hoped that intelligent robots didn’t have some kind of built in lie detectors too.
“Excellent. And how did it go?” If Mike did have a lie detector, it looked like to Aiden that either he had fooled it, or it was switched off.
“It was terrible. He’s still mad and he didn’t want to talk to me at all.”
“Did you tell him about the ship, the teleportation, or Captain Walt’s plan?”
“Nope.”
“Very good. We may now resume your instruction. Please take a seat in the pilot’s chair, and I will load Captain Walt’s planetary travel tutorial.” Grandpa’s voice was heard in the cabin once again.
“Hey there champ, I hope the talk with your dad went okay. I know there’s a lot of issues between you too, and it took a lot of courage on your part to come out and say some of the things you said.” Aiden began to feel more than a little bit guilty. “And I know it took courage to sit there and listen to some of the things he had to say to you too. He probably wasn’t very nice about it. He used to be nicer, but the stress of what’s going on back on planet earth has eaten up a lot of his patience. I hope you can forgive him for that. Anyway, how about you and me get started huh?
“Alright. So… the Andromeda galaxy here doesn’t have any good allied planets for you to land on, so we’re going to land a wuren planet. That’s an uninhabited one. Wuren; that’s what their called. The one we’ll be landing on should pop up on your HUD momentarily.” A little red light blinked over a starfield in the lower left quadrant of his screen. “We’re going there because it’s basically just a giant rock. It’s got no radiation or electric interference to worry about, and it’s got enough gravity to make her engines do some work. But before we do that you’re going to have to navigate this asteroid field.”
“What?” Aiden breathed, fear and excitement gripping him in an instant.
“That’s right!” he could hear the smile in his grandpa’s voice as he said it, “We’re going to fly a little obstacle course.”
“What if I hit one?” he asked, a bit worried about the ship.
“Don’t worry if you hit an asteroid, the Blackbird is a sturdy ship. Lord knows I’ve hit a few with her in my day. But—try not to okay? We’ve still got to make a jump today and we don’t want her getting torn apart inside a wormhole, do we? That’d be no good. You ready? Let’s disengage from this rock.”
Grandpa’s comment reminded him of something.
“Grandpa, what were those tiny huts outside on the asteroid? It looks like there was a little village out there.” Aiden waited patiently for an answer. After a moment Mike spoke up.
“It appears there is no video or audio file related to the life forms immediately outside. Shall I give the most likely answer?”
“Sure,” said Aiden.
“There are several species of sub-intelligent and semi-intelligent subterranean creatures from the Natalus family that live on small rocky planets and asteroids and small planets. They are immune to changes in atmospheric density and exposure to vacuums and ultraviolet radiation.”
“What, like Tink?” he interrupted. Mike looked at the alien. Tink stood there and stared back at him. Aiden laughed, amused by the thought that Tink would probably be making a face at the robot right now if he could.
“I do not have a description available for this particular life form. Would you like to hear more about their habitat, eating habits, reproduction habits, or behavior?”
“No,” said Aiden, now ignoring the robot and looking at Tink. He stood up out of the chair and craned his neck over the dashboard to see if he could see the small huts from his limited view inside the cockpit. He could, just barely, all the way over to his left.
“Hey Tink, is one of those your home?” he asked. Tink jumped up on the dash and pressed his hands against the windshield as he took look. He shook his head no.
“Where did you come from?”
Tink pointed towards the huts.
“So you came from there, but none of those is your home?”
Tink nodded.
“Do you want to go back?”
Tink shook his head emphatically no.
“Do you want to come with me?” he asked excitedly hoping he would say yes, but a small part of him was afraid the little guy would say no.
Tink nodded vigorously, his eyes squinting happily.
“Alright!” shouted Aiden. He held up his hand for a high five. Tink tilted his head to the side, confused. “Oh, right. You probably don’t know what that is. Mike, hold your hand up.” He ordered. He slapped Mike’s hand, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, considering his hand was made of metal.
“See? We call that a high five because we have five fingers.” He held up his hand to show Tink. To his surprise, Tink lept off the dash and smacked Aiden’s hand with his own in mid-air. Regardless of whether or not Tink was from the “Natalus” family, Aiden knew one thing; Tink wasn’t dumb.
After a moment of silence, grandpa’s voice came back on.
“Are you ready to continue?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” said Aiden.
“Disengage the asteroid and apply minimal thrust.” Aiden did, this time without the help of Mike. He grabbed the controls and pushed off gently, sending the Blackbird floating lazily into the asteroid field. The next several minutes were the best of his life. It was like a videogame, only better. Everything was Three-D. Everything was real. He tried to ignore the creeping anxiety that got a little bit stronger every time he got a bit too close to an asteroid. Grandpa explained more of the autopilot functions, and how the ship could detect incoming objects like asteroids, comets, and missiles. Grandpa explained that in large fields like this it was best to find a ‘pocket’ in the middle to check your options, rather than try to fly straight through, like in Frogger.
“Frogger? What’s that?” Aiden asked.
“Ha! I bet you don’t even know what that is!” he laughed, but offered no more explanation. Eventually he reached a large open space in the field that grandpa had called a pocket.
“Alright, now take a look at the ship’s radar. Look out the viewport. Do they match up?”
“Yeah,” said Aiden.
“Do you see a good course to fly through?” Grandpa asked. Aiden didn’t. He wasn’t about to give up though. This was one of the most interesting challenges he ever had. “Try flipping the plane upside down.” Aiden rolled it over. The radar image zoomed and spun in a crazy fashion, then refocused.
“Hey! Look at that!” Aiden exclaimed.
“Sometimes looking at a problem from a new angle will help you see a solution you never knew was there. Now hit the auto-path icon.” Aiden did. A completely different path was highlighted on the display. “Sometimes there are multiple solutions to a problem, and you might not know how many there are, or which of them is best without asking for advice from someone else. Mike, show him another way.”
Mike pulled up another radar screen on the copilot’s display. He traced a second path, which was also separate from the one Aiden had seen.
“Which do you think is the best?” grandpa asked. Aiden traced his own path.
“This one,” he said, highlighting his own path.
“Mike, do you agree?”
Mike hit a button. Percentages popped up next to each of the paths. They represented degrees of success. The autopilot’s path fluctuated between seventy five and eighty percent. Mike’s path was seventy nine percent and climbing steadily. Aiden’s path fluctuated wildly between eighty one and ninety three percent, and then started dropping rapidly.
“His course would be best if we had an expert pilot who acted now. My plotted path will likely be the best course in a few moments.” Aiden felt betrayed. If grandpa wasn’t just a hologram—
“Aiden, Mike said yours was the best. Go! Now!!”
“Hold on to your seats!” Aiden yelled, grinning. He plunged the ship forward, sending bits of rock flying past the ship with incredible speed. He wasn’t an expert by any stretch but he had more than familiarized himself with the controls in the past twenty four hours. He also knew that his path was getting more dangerous by the second, and he couldn’t afford to wait.
He steeled his nerves as the adrenaline kicked in. A huge asteroid sailed over their heads, missing the top of the ship by inches. He heard Tink yelp. It was a funny, high pitched sound, but Aiden didn’t have time to laugh. He sailed over the next big asteroid. They started getting closer together. He slipped between two. Three seemed as if they were about to collide with each other right in front of him. For a second he thought it would be better to go over the top, but then saw a large cluster of rocks behind them in that direction. There was a massive Titantic-crusher down below.
“Captain Walt…” Mike began.
Aiden punched the accelerator. The ship zipped through, Aiden sending it into a tight spiral to avoid colliding with the largest of the three at the last second. There was a break in the action as they got to open space. They were almost there. Aiden punched the radar just to check his options.
“Good job!” came his grandpa’s voice. Aiden flipped the ship several times, checking the radar again briefly before reorienting himself. His course was still fluctuating wildly, but now it was between eighty nine and ninety nine percent. He smiled. The hard part was behind him. He jumped back on course, outrunning a group of rocks behind him and then banking the ship swiftly to the side. The last challenge was a large field of rocks headed straight for him.
He punched the accelerator. The rocks grew in the viewport as he flew headlong towards them in a dangerous game of cosmic chicken. He outran the giant asteroid below him. He killed the forward thrust, and lowered the ship directly in front of the large asteroid. A few small rocks flew by below him as the dangerous cloud zoomed by overhead. He lowered the ship some more, banking lazily to the side as they exited the asteroid field.
“Well done Aiden!” said his grandpa, “Well done!” Aiden felt a pang of loneliness as he heard his grandpa’s congratulations. If only he could have been here to see it, he thought, he really would have been proud. I would’ve probably had him jumping out of his seat. Grandpa used to talk about his dad, Great-grandpa Herb, and about how he flew planes in World War II when he was only fourteen. Aiden just dodged a million asteroids, and he was only twelve.
“But that was the easy part,” grandpa’s voice stirred him from his thoughts.
“What?” he asked.
“We’ve got to land her now. Don’t screw it up.”
Aiden listened as he and Mike went over the landing procedure. It sounded easy enough. He couldn’t figure out why grandpa had said that. Soon the pale purple dot in the viewport became a globe. Then a large globe. Then a really, really large globe. With clouds. And wind. And mountains. His heart began to pound. He felt like he was falling in slow motion. Soon he would be falling faster and faster, until he was hurtling at terminal velocity at the ground to his death in a giant clunky metal coffin.

It wasn’t until they were safely on the ground that Aiden realized his grandpa was joking.
“See? That wasn’t so bad was it?” grandpa couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice.
“Yeah right!” he said, “What the heck grandpa! What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack? I thought I was going to die!” It wasn’t fair. Grandpa knew what was going to happen, and got a good chuckle out of it during the recording, and now he wasn’t even alive for Aiden to scold.
“Alright,” he continued, the amusement still in his voice, “Let’s get the ship ready for takeoff. Mike will take you down to the engine room to show you everything you need to go over prior to takeoff.
“Come on. We just got here!” said Aiden.
“There is no atmosphere, and the suit Captain Walt left for you needs some repair before we go on a wuren planet excursion.”
“Let’s fix it then!” Aiden protested.
“All the more reason to leave. We have the tools, but not the materials. We need to go to a jeju planet for that.”
“Aww man!” Aiden followed Mike reluctantly to the engine room to get his lecture, all the while wishing he could’ve gone outside.
“Can you at least go grab a rock for me?” he asked the robot. It was the first planet Aiden had ever flown to and he felt the need to collect a memento.
“I do not see the need. Captain Walt instructed me not to deviate from the schedule until after we had the entire ship checked out by a trusted engineer. The airlocks could have been damaged by asteroid debris prior to your arrival.”
Aiden hung his head. He followed Mike down to the engine room and listened wistfully as Mike explained how to check the engines prior to takeoff. Tink listened for a little while then wandered off towards the corner of the room. Aiden watched him as he went and then all of the sudden he couldn’t see him anymore. He was just gone.
“All checks are now completed. Are you ready to return to the cockpit?” Mike asked. He nodded. “Good.” Aiden kept his head on a swivel as they headed back up the stairs, to see if he could see where Tink had gone, or perhaps if he was coming back.
Once they were back in the cockpit, grandpa’s voice came back on to describe the launch process. It was a bit different than taking off from a surface without a strong gravitational pull because insert reason here.
Just then Tink walked up from the cabin, and took his seat in the copilot’s seat. He handed Aiden a light purple rock. Aiden smiled at Tink as he accepted the gift, and set it on the dash in front of him like it was a little hula girl. If Mike had any objections, he kept them to himself. Aiden wondered how he had gotten out of the ship.
Mike guided an impatient Aiden through the flight process, and Aiden hungrily squeezed the controls. For a second the G’s were so great he thought he might pass out but he sent the Blackbird hurtling through the sound barrier in no time. Too bad there’s no one down there to hear the sonic boom, he thought. He pulled back on the joystick and began to climb.
Soon the thin atmosphere gave way to the deep blackness of space and the piercing lights of the stars that populated the galaxy. The sight was more colorful, he thought, that when he first arrived. He had a real appreciation of the Andromeda galaxy for the first time since he got there.
The events had taken the better part of the day, and grandpa let Aiden decide if he wanted to continue or not. He was excited to learn how to jump through wormholes, but it sounded like a grueling process, so he decided to call it quits for the night and continue in the morning. He sat down at the main table with Tink for a while and tried to teach him chess with grandpa’s old chess set. Tink picked it up pretty quickly.
“So how did you get the rock?” Aiden asked, after making a few moves in silence.
Tink hopped down out of his chair, and put his hand on the floor. No, Aiden realized after looking twice. He put his hand through the floor. His hand magically passed right through the metal of the floor. Aiden jumped up at once.
“How are you doing that!?” he asked, trying not to yell. Tink pulled his hand back out as he shrugged. Aiden searched for a hole, or a mark, or any indication on the floor that he had really just seen that happen. There was none.
“Do that again.” He said. Tink did. Aiden laughed in disbelief. Tink sank his arm all the way in up to his elbow.
“Can you do that with your whole body?”
Tink nodded.
“That is so cool… Is that how you got on the ship in the first place?”
Tink nodded again.
“Wow. That is so cool.” Aiden echoed himself.
They continued their first game, Aiden beating Tink quickly. Tink won the second game. Aiden blamed it on being distracted by Tink’s magical powers.

He woke up the next morning hungry and physically sore. He hadn’t realized until just now how hard his muscles had fought against the inertia (?) as the Blackbird accelerated. He shuffled over to the brig, found himself some flavorless, gray, oatmeal-like cereal. Not finding any milk in the fridge, he added water to it. Tink found a box of croutons and upon seeing Aiden pour his oatmeal in a bowl and add hot water, did the same with them. They both headed out to the main room and played a game of chess.
Did they do something else too? Foreshadowing, plot ideas?

Mike led Aiden to the secondary cockpit in the rear of the ship. Aiden thought it looked more like an office than a cockpit. There was a large computer at a desk and the viewport was small. Aiden noticed the Blackbird had a long, pointed tail protruding out from the center of the back of the ship. Or perhaps a nose, if this was the front of the ship now. Grandpa explained it housed a device to align the ship perfectly with the center of the wormhole. He told Aiden how to warm up the warp drive, and gave him a quick overview of the warp process, with Mike pointing things out as he explained them.
“I will go over the exact procedure with you in detail after the warp drive has been properly primed.” Grandpa said.
“How long will that be?” Aiden asked. He had expected to have started the jump already, and was a little disappointed that he had to wait.
“About three hours.”
“Three hours?” he asked, surprised that it would take that long.
“Yes.” Mike confirmed.
“What if we were being pursued by bad guys? We couldn’t fly away? There’s no way we could just fly around and avoid them for three whole hours while we wait for the warp drives to warm up!” he reasoned.
“No. Opening a wormhole to jump through is not a practical evasive maneuver for the Blackbird. You are correct in assuming the process would take too long to make it effective. Also, you must center the ship and it must remain stationary for several minutes prior to the jump, which would make you vulnerable to an attack. Larger ships have bigger warp drives that can cycle through the processes much faster, making it a more viable option.” He was disappointed that the explanation wasn’t coming from his grandpa, but at least he was getting one.
“Yeah. That doesn’t make any sense. How are you supposed to get away? It’s not like there is a lot to hide behind out here.” He said, waving his hand at the empty vacuum just outside the viewport. Just then a giant rock floated by, reminding him they were in an asteroid field. “Well, maybe here there is, but normally you are just out in the middle of nowhere. Then what?”
“Most ships are outfitted with armor and also have energy shields. When it comes to evasive maneuvers, most will fly into or through to hyperspace.

Describe three hours of downtime or not? Pacing issues? CUT ALL TUTORIAL SCENES IN FAVOR OF GETTING STRAIGHT TO THE ACTION? Could train in gym/shoot at the range/play chess/read grandpa’s books, listen to vinyl records/listen to a personal recording from grandpa/read star charts or read about alien races/discover something on ship? Grandpa’s footlocker or some other crew member’s personal belongings?
Grandpa tells Aiden about their allies, what races they are, what planets they live on/the planets and natives of the planets that they have emigrated to.
So they make the jump to Zeanon (describe), it goes well, then they see the planet:


The first thing Aiden noticed when they exited the wormhole was the massive amount of space debris. Apparently the Zeanoneans didn’t seem to care about the space around their planet. Grandpas voice came on once again.
“Most developed planets have traffic control around them, and most interstellar and intergalactic spacecraft must check in with the authorities prior to approaching the planet. Mike will do the talking for us this time, and Gerrard will teach you whatever protocol you need to know prior to heading to the next planet. He’s pretty good—”
“The planet is dark.” Interrupted Mike. He beeped several times.
“That’s because we’re coming up on it from the back side,” explained Aiden, “It’s night time on this side, if we flew to the other—” Mike ignored his comment. Aiden realized then that Mike’s comment wasn’t directed at him. Something was wrong.
“In the event you can’t find Gerrard on Zeanon, or if for some reason Zeanon has gone dark, head to Hexanon next. I’ll leave a list of contingency plans along with a list of planets to fly to.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Aiden. “What do you mean, dark?”
“There are no communications coming from Zeanon, and we aren’t picking up any signals within or around the planet,” Mike explained. “we are going to fly to the far side of the planet and see if we can’t pick something up. If not, we will land and see what we can see.”
Tension hung in the air, and that tension grew thicker by the minute. They neared Zeanon’s cloudy atmosphere, and were soon were caught by the planets gravitational pull. Aiden sat transfixed. The thick clouds parted every once in a while to reveal a planet a lot like earth, except for where the forests should have been, he saw nothing but rocks, desert, and vast stretches of dark earth and blackened wreckage. Mike beeped several times. Aiden started getting a bad feeling about the whole situation.
“Scans are coming back highly radioactive. It appears we will not be landing after all. Come with me,” he said. Something was definitely wrong.
“What is it? What happened to that planet?” Aiden asked as he followed him from the cockpit back to the warp station.
“Prime the warp drive again, and set a course for Hexanon.”
Aiden was still curious, and a bit frustrated that Mike wouldn’t answer him, but he did what he was told. Mike watched him closely as he plotted the course to make sure that he didn’t make any mistakes. As worried about the ‘dark’ planet as he was, Aiden still kept his mind on the task in front of him. There would be more time to ask questions later—probably.
“Aiden has successfully plotted his first jump.” Mike said.
“Congratulations son, good job! That was the hard part! Once the warp drive warms up all you have to do is punch the jump button and we’re out of here. Gerrard! Give Aiden a slap on the back for me, will ya? That boy did good didn’t he?” Grandpa’s voice thundered through the room. Aiden smiled at the recording half-heartedly. He wished he could enjoy the sentiment. He tried to correct the recording, but his voice caught in his throat. Things obviously weren’t going according to plan. Either grandpa expected them to have found Gerrard already, or he didn’t expect Aiden to figure out how to plan a jump on his second try. He felt even more alone than before. No. Actually, he had only felt lonely before, now he was realizing just how dangerous being alone could actually be.
“We have not found Gerrard yet,” Mike said.
“In the event you can’t find Gerrard on Zeanon, or if for some reason Zeanon has gone dark, head to Hexanon next—” the recording came on once more.
“Turn it off,” Aiden said. His frustration was getting worse. Mike beeped a few times and the playback stopped. Aiden looked around for Tink. He was back at the table in the main room, studying the chess board as if nothing else of interest was going on. Aiden watched the numbers on the warp screen creep higher. There was nothing to do but wait. He took a deep breath and blew out his cheeks. Well, I guess there’s nothing else to do… he thought. He stood up from the desk and headed back to his chess match against Tink.
His stomach growled to let him know it was getting close to lunch time, but he didn’t feel like eating. He made a plate of hot purple mush and poked at it for a while before giving up and dumping it down the trash chute. He started another game of chess with Tink, but after a few moves he found himself doing nothing more than just staring at the pieces. There were a lot of questions he still had for Tink, but he didn’t feel like playing guessing games to figure out the answers either.
“I think I’m going to read for a while,” he said to Tink as he stood up from the table. He shuffled over to the bookshelf, grabbed a random book, and headed to his room. He plopped down with a heavy sigh and opened the book to see what lay in its contents. He heard a heavy plop. He looked over to find that Tink had also grabbed a book, followed him in, and plopped down on the floor in the corner. Tink had opened the book and held it over his head just like Aiden did. Aiden was trying to read the cover to see what Tink had grabbed when he realized it was upside down. He smiled. Tink might not be much for conversation, but he was still certainly good to have around.

Aiden woke with a start as the chimes went off to inform the crew the ship was ready to warp. He jumped out of bed and ran down the hall to the warp room, Tink hot on his heels. Mike was still standing there at the desk where he had left him.
“Ready to jump?” he asked.
“Yep,” said Aiden, trying to sound like he had been awake the whole time. Mike made no comment one way or the other, only stared straight ahead at the screen. I guess I probably don’t have to try and fool a robot, he thought. He hit the jump button, fully expecting to hear his grandpa’s voice come on once again with an ill-timed congratulations. He heard the whine of the engines, and the crackling sound of the energy exiting the warp drive, but otherwise the ship was silent.
“Um, did you turn my grandpa off?” he asked.
“Yes. You requested it earlier,” said Mike.
“Oh.” Aiden was both relieved and disappointed at the same time.

The jump seemed shorter this time than it did the last time. The trio made their way back to the cockpit and steered the ship towards the new planet where they would hopefully find grandpa’s friend Gerrard.
Hexanon was completely dark. Not only did Aiden not hear any communications, but the planet was actually physically dark. The whole thing was nothing more than a black and gray mass wrapped in a thin, hazy, yellow fog. There were no clouds, oceans, or mountains to be seen anywhere. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of Aiden’s stomach.
“Now what?” he said, more to himself than to Mike. Before Mike could respond, alarms started going off in the cockpit. The dashboard flashed with red lights. The reason why became instantly obvious as another spacecraft streaked overhead. It was a small triangular ship, and was being followed closely by a missile in hot pursuit. The small ship released some flares and the missile exploded in a bright fireball.
“What do we do?” Aiden yelled in a panic, worried that whatever fired the first missile would soon be firing one at the Blackbird too. He banked the ship hard to the right, coming around in a wide arc back to where the missile had come from. In front of them loomed a dark ship shaped like a massive stingray. There were several flashes of light between the two as lasers filled the sky, and then the larger ship let loose two more missiles.
“Where are the guns? I can’t fly away! I don’t know how to fly in hyperspace! You didn’t teach me! Where are the flares?” Aiden’s heart beat wildly in his chest as he sat stupefied by the sight of the other ship.
“Move!” commanded Mike, practically knocking him out of the way as Aiden scrambled to unbuckle his harness and jump down. Mike punched buttons on the dash faster than his eyes could follow, but he wasn’t going to sit there and try and learn anything right now. He ran down the hall to the gunner’s station, put on the head set, and grabbed the controls. To his surprise the station was unlocked. The screens came on automatically.
“Brace yourself! We’re going to make the jump to hyperspace!” came Mike’s voice inside the headset. Aiden quickly buckled himself in. He didn’t feel the ship move at all.
He pulled the joystick until the crosshairs lined up on the enemy ship. Aiden squeezed the triggers and pushed every button and thumb stud in front of him. Lasers danced across the screen, and a large missile impacted the side of the enemy ship. A graphic overlay flashed red several times, indicating that Aiden’s attack impacted the ship. The other ship spewed air from the hole left by Aiden’s missile as it began to turn around. Aiden kept squeezing the trigger. His lasers continued to cut hot orange lines in the side of the ship as it turned to confront them. It sent a missile in their direction, but Mike rolled quickly to the side, sending the missile flying overhead.
“Good job Mike!” Aiden cheered.
“We are not safe yet! They are jamming our hyperdrive!” Mike brought the ship out of the roll upside down, and flew the Blackbird underneath the belly of the other ship. “You’re going to have to shoot this missile!”
Aiden looked at his screens. He saw it behind them, and coming up fast. Suddenly it exploded in a flash of light. Aiden didn’t know why it exploded, but he didn’t care about that right now. He kept his sights on the enemy ship as Mike brought the Blackbird up behind it. He fired another missile, never letting off of the triggers for his lasers. The second missile impact sent chunks of metal and debris flying through space and there was a large flare as the air inside the other ship combusted.
Its thrusters sparked, sputtered and winked out. The ship’s inertia carried it in its slow rotation towards them. Rather than carve spirals into the ship with his lasers, Aiden focused all his firepower on one spot, cutting deep into the side of the ship. Air spewed out, followed by several puffs of smoke. Aiden let go of the trigger. He waited for a few tense moments for the ship to fire back.
A blip on his screen warned him that the first ship was still in the vicinity. He zoomed out and found its triangular form racing towards them. He locked the crosshairs on its image and placed his fingers gently on the triggers, ready to fire on the ship in an instant.
It came within range. Aiden tightened his grip on the controls. It cut its rear thrusters and drifted slowly towards them. A strange language crackled in his headset. There was a jolting impact from the side, causing Aiden’s headset to fly off and go skittering across the floor. The larger ship was still active. He refocused all of his weapons on the ship and squeezed both triggers. The smaller ship returned fire as well, and neither of them ceased firing until the aggressor’s ship was nothing more than a smoldering shell.
Aiden’s heart pounded in his ears. Eventually heard Mike’s voice over all the alarms going off.
“Stop! Stop! Cease fire!” he was yelling. For a moment Aiden thought that perhaps they had targeted the wrong ship, and retrained his sights on the smaller one once again. But when he checked the flashing symbols on his screen he realized the reason for Mike’s concern. Their batteries were out. They only had two missiles left. If they got into a shootout with another ship they might lose.
The smaller ship didn’t fire. It didn’t advance or retreat. It just continued to sit there facing the Blackbird. Aiden went to retrieve his headset. The alien chatter continued. He heard what sounded like Mike respond in the same language.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t know,” came a high pitched voice, “So can I board or what? Those pirates damaged my ship pretty bad. I’ll be dead in a week if you leave me out here.”
He rembered his grandpa’s intructions: don’t let anyone else board without first providing verifiable identification. Define Motley
“Who are you?” asked Aiden. There was no response.
“I am under strict orders—“ Mike started to answer. Aiden threw down his headset, unbuckled himself, and made a mad dash for the communications room. He put on the headphones and hit the switch on the microphone.
“Who are you?” he asked again.
“Who am I?” echoed the voice, “I told you once, I’m Jax. Get it? Jax. Now you guys gotta let me on that ship, man. I’m gonna die out here. Look, I’ll be real nice and cook and clean and everything.” He was a fast talker.
“Okay, give us some identification,”
“What, you want my call number? Or my ship number? Here.” There were some beeps, and a series of numbers and letters appeared on one of the screens. “My name is Jax Laxeneovakai. I am a Carlise that grew up on planet Pra’aptalon, I met a Novi crew, joined the fleet, hooked up with Darifalarti and Meralaskraig, and stupid harptons fried my cruiser, so I had to buy this piece of junk, and launch-jump myself system by system to a planet of refuge, but apparently it’s been blown to kingdom come!”
Aiden detected a hint of desperation in his voice.
“You said you joined the Novi fleet? What year?” he asked, remembering grandpa had mentioned the Novi fleet a few times in his stories. From what he remembered, they helped the Start Knights in the last battle for Jarvin 5.
“86. My commander was Helix Esse.” The screen crackeled for a moment and Jax’s face suddenly appeared on the screen. Aiden didn’t remember grandpa mentioning anyone named Helix.
“Did you ever meet a human named Gerrard?” he asked.
“No, but Helix kept talking about him after we helped free the Jarvins. He was a Gesh, right? Like I said, I came out here to recruit, because good old Darlar has a stick up his butt about recruiting, an then the harptons caught wind of it. They found me in like ten hours man. Blew me right out of the sky. Then I star-hopped this junker all the way out here with only a hope and a prayer, just to get blown up by pirates! Can you believe that? How sad is that? How about it, guy? Can you help me out or what?”
“Do you know where the Gesh are?” he asked. The Gesh were a quasi-religious group that, according to grandpa, had an ongoing relationship with and teamed up with the Star Knights on several occasions.
“No, man. I thought they were here. That’s why I hopped out here. I was hoping they could help me out since my ship’s just about dead. I got no food and no fuel. I’ll do whatever you want man. I’ll rub your feet, sing kumbiya, whatever you want. Come on, man. Don’t make me beg. You want me to beg? You do. You do, don’t you kid? Please, man. Don’t make me do this.” Jax got down on his knees in front of the camera, wringing his hands with fraught.
Aiden ran the numbers. The ship checked out. It was legally purchased less than a year ago. His call number was transferred from another ship, an intergalactic cruiser. Aiden still wasn’t satisfied. He tried one more question.
“How about the Stellar Knights, have you heard of them?”
“Stellar Knights? What are you kid, a hundred years old? You been living under a rock or something? Nobody’s called us that for like, fifty years.”
“Wait. You’re a Stellar Knight?”
“Weren’t you listening kid? I said I was under Darlar, didn’t I? That I was out here recruiting, didn’t I? Why? You wanna sign up or something?” he said sarcastically, as if there was no way he would let Aiden join.
“Actually… yeah.” Through the screen, Aiden saw Jax examine his surroundings as if he thought he was losing his mind. Then a smile appeared on his face, and he suddenly grabbed the camera and pulled it down, causing his big nose filling the screen.
“Bless my lucky stars I’m saved! You got it kid! I’ll make you a rebel—that’s what we’re called now, ISR rebels—in no time! I’ll teach you to fly, jump, shoot, scout locations, run missions, recon—whatever! Whatever you want to know, man! I’m your guy. Let me aboard kid, let’s get started!”
“Wait. If you’re a stellar knight, rebel I mean, then how come you don’t know Gerrard?”
“Boy. You have been living under a rock, aintcha kid? I heard of him way back when the whole Javin deal went down, but he’s moved on since then. Upgraded. He’s alpha-class now. Look man, we can jaw-jack all day like a couple of ladies but I’m kinda worried that my ship is gonna blow it’s air lock in like, two seconds, so can we talk over there?”

[Artman77]

Another year under my belt. Artwork keeps piling up. I'm doing at least one per day, but have been failing pretty miserably at both uploading and logging my hours. I've got piles of art that have tipped over and have buried my scanner now... :smalleek:

Came across a bunch of old drawings in some notebooks I found in a box from like... ten years ago. I'm going to redraw some of them and do side-by side comparisons. And upload them. Hopefully.

[Artman77]

143: aliens: then and now (https://40.media.tumblr.com/5672e8ad83bb3500ad0d8930403eb32c/tumblr_o0is25XVFH1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
144: old alien, new alien (https://36.media.tumblr.com/f26ad12ba55ef8fe445873c2b0942f29/tumblr_o0is25XVFH1uvm9nio2_1280.jpg)

RESET
Year 2016 Commencing...

1: girls (https://40.media.tumblr.com/c5f8f11961333e3bb28a449e4425a4b5/tumblr_o0irxd5Uj81uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
2: octopus (http://41.media.tumblr.com/dd74afc98ac6f7a9dc38c13401952a0a/tumblr_o0it0wr83w1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
3: red comic (http://radicalred.webcomic.ws/images/comics/102/4267de273042b494a780b086fe40f888646213461.jpg)

[Domochevsky]

I applaud that octopus. Those are some pretty good tentacle curlings. :smallsmile:

[Artman77]

Thanks bro. It took a little while...

[Cuthalion]

I got 347 on the year. :smallsmile:

Yeah, the octopus is cool. :smallsmile: Saw that you were posting on tumblr again recently.

[Artman77]

I know I got 350-400+ drawings(well... sketches at least) for the year but I didn't draw every day, which was my goal. Hopefully this year goes better.

[Artman77]

keeping with the aliens theme, here are some more. I don't have names for the alien races yet, (I'm writing a book) I'm open to suggestions.

4: one (https://41.media.tumblr.com/78eb8b94b82e71d60d763f7c675b0ca3/tumblr_o0klbyrW0K1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
5: two (https://41.media.tumblr.com/2c61126db0f1d067413ff7b4ce3c5fe5/tumblr_o0klfzhdZR1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
6: three (https://40.media.tumblr.com/1a7fa89fded9e51f63ad0139fc50a26f/tumblr_o0klfzhdZR1uvm9nio2_1280.jpg)
7, 8: four and five (https://36.media.tumblr.com/951b5a2defdc870d5abaf6a5d7dd4ac2/tumblr_o0klbyrW0K1uvm9nio2_1280.jpg)
9: ...and some color (https://41.media.tumblr.com/d836286c5d0f097a6a169466fdcb4282/tumblr_o0kkuda2h91uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

[Thanqol]

keeping with the aliens theme, here are some more. I don't have names for the alien races yet, (I'm writing a book) I'm open to suggestions.

6: three (https://40.media.tumblr.com/1a7fa89fded9e51f63ad0139fc50a26f/tumblr_o0klfzhdZR1uvm9nio2_1280.jpg)

Love the smirk. Just subtle enough to be really patronizing.

[Artman77]

Thanks for the octopus praise guys. I never liked drawing them cuz they're a pain, but they are pretty cool.


Love the smirk. Just subtle enough to be really patronizing.

Thanks man. Those aliens are supposed to be physically smaller than humans but just as smart, with some possessing super-hero-type-powers. In addition their planet is full of holier-than-thou druids and hippies and stuff. So most of them would believe they are more "enlightened" than other species


=====================================

Okay, so last year I was inspired by you all to start my own art thread. Well, the year came and while I made significant progress both in terms of skill and the amount of output, I failed pretty hard when it came to uploading my art, which made the thread pretty useless. I'm gonnna try and be better about that this year. I bought a stopwatch to log the time spent on art and everything. It cost me a whole $2.25.

Anyhow, I'm keeping the goals of A. Doing art every day, and B. Hitting the 10,000 hour (http://www.amazon.com/10-000-Hours-Become-Practice/dp/1475033621/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453440961&sr=1-1&keywords=10+000+hours) mark.

In addition, I would like to add the goal of actually uploading my stuff so you all can see it, and making at least $1,000 off of my art by the 1st of June, 2016

7: back study #1 (https://56.media.tumblr.com/616499042e851e35c7047c2c3d217392/tumblr_o1ce5leDam1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
8: three-eyed couple. (https://56.media.tumblr.com/c2b074710428da5ea25772656a519b43/tumblr_o1ce7pQvOR1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
9: three-eyed alchemist. (https://56.media.tumblr.com/1c1f999923825e2099272ebdb3cb6d38/tumblr_o1cedfZRkf1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

[Artman77]

10: orcs (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/16-01-18.jpg)
11: deer-face (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/16-01-07.jpg)
12: togruta faces (http://tempmediahashed.tumblr.com/3magqqh4p9q88gwo4c4wwg44s_tumblr_tmp.jpg)
13: togruta girl (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/togruta-faces2.jpg)
14: teeth and lightning (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img028.jpg)

[Thanqol]

In addition, I would like to add the goal of actually uploading my stuff so you all can see it, and making at least $1,000 off of my art by the 1st of June, 2016

Instant reaction: Ooo commissions, I wonder if I could -
Second thought: No Thanqol, you're broke as sh*t

I think you should work more on the proportions of the deer face. The head is oversized and with the non-cartoony style that makes it look more like a grotesquery than a natural creature. Why so tiny? Tininess is particularly weird when deer are relatively large creatures.

I think there's gotta be a better way to do lightning than white lines and the glow filter. I remember reading a tutorial once that showed making the majority of the lightning bolt a surprisingly dark grey colour with only a thin line of pure white. Don't underestimate how much pure white can stand out.

[Cuthalion]

With number fourteen, the lightning seems to be coming from in front of him, so why does he appear to be backlit? :smallconfused:

[Artman77]

@Thanqol; try me. I might do it for free! :smallwink:

Also: Alien. I wanted him to look weird/like an alien. Dwarfs have disproportionately large heads for their bodies, so I thought I could get away with it. Not sure if I like him enough to keep working on him right now...

@Cuthalion; Poor execution on my part. I think it was subconscious cuz I didn't want the colors from the two light sources overlapping or touching each other. I think I got the lighting and the shadows pretty good on his hands(light source is above) and face (to the side), but his legs/loincloth are WAY off. :smallredface: The light should be on the top of his right leg, and on the inside of his left leg. There might be zero lighting on the back part of his loincloth, but I wanted to show that it was there.

It's the first time I've done two light sources, and the first time in a long time I've put a light source that close to the subject...

[Thanqol]

@Thanqol; try me. I might do it for free! :smallwink:

Amoth City-Smiter; god and Imperial Ghost of destroying populated areas. A weird fantasy mashup of a cruel and patrician Julius Caesar, a daemonic and unflinching Timur, and a charismatic and glorious Alexander the Great. These three great figures are worshiped as aspects of the Empire's Imperial Ghost. Amoth appears alternately as any of the three, or blends aspects of them together.

Ideally the composition demonstrates his composite aspect of three different philosophies of war and types of warrior.

[Artman77]

15: singer (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/img0251.jpg)
16: tree study (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/img032.jpg)
17: oak (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/img031.jpg)
18: "fight for air" draft (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/stairs-copy.jpg)for ALA's stair-climb campaign.
19: female study (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/study-02.jpg)

[Cuthalion]

Sweet trees, man. :smallcool:

It may just be me, but i think you have a tendency to make your torsos too large and out of proportion with the legs. Might be a thing to keep in mind.

[Artman77]

Sweet trees, man. :smallcool:

It may just be me, but i think you have a tendency to make your torsos too large and out of proportion with the legs. Might be a thing to keep in mind.

Thank you! I hate trees. ...Which probably means I need to do more. I'll keep leg length in mind in the future. I want to work on anatomy/figure studies more, so hopefully if it's an issue it'll work itself out naturally, along with all the other little things I nitpick about. :smallwink:

[Cuthalion]

I feel ya. Trees have so many intimidating branches and things. If you have a spare hour (I generally watch this sort of thing while exercising) I could recommend this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaEfBS1PmtQ

[Artman77]

Thanks man. I've only watched about half of it, but so far so good. :smallsmile:

[Artman77]

New comic: http://radicalred.webcomic.ws/
Web comics are more work than they look like. I'm just starting to get used to tracing lines on my tablet. Painting is fun, but that line work is a b*tch. My hand starts cramping up and everything. Ugh. Anyways... I skipped the whole "polished" look and just uploaded what I had for the week. I figure with practice the lines will work themselves out.

Sketches for the week:
1 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img050.jpg)
2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img051.jpg)
3 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img052.jpg)
4 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img053.jpg)
5 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img0541.jpg)
6 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img056.jpg)
7 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img057.jpg)

[Cuthalion]

Five is broken, just so you know.

[Artman77]

Fixed. Thank you.

[Artman77]

Haven't started/worked on my comic at all this week. Practicing coloring instead. Works in progress:

dwarf (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/dwarf1.jpg)
mage (https://41.media.tumblr.com/4e3ff9e43ecc5d3be9bbe612da0a1d04/tumblr_o5zw85zyUq1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
archer (http://41.media.tumblr.com/e5b08af820ae720f6111a59d6bf070c9/tumblr_o5w2i8mZoI1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

[Cuthalion]

Have to say, the dwarf is pretty cool.

[Artman77]

Thank you, sir.

[JeffreyWrig]

Thank you so mach!

[Artman77]

Thank you so mach!

You're welcome, I think? Thank you for what?

[JeffreyWrig]

For you art master! And I am very like dwarf

[Artman77]

I forgot how much fun it was to paint with real paint. I'll have some pix for you by this weekend.

[Artman77]

OR NOT. LoL, whoops. Forgot to upload again.

Portrait 1 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/2016-05-02.jpg)
Portrait 2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/16-04-29.jpg)
Snake (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/16-04-30-b.jpg)(wip)
Reptile (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/16-04-30.jpg)(wip)

And here's some other stuff:
brains (https://65.media.tumblr.com/05c0752f1008b6cd33bfb71ecd5609f8/tumblr_o6o72v8qDT1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)
samurai (https://66.media.tumblr.com/3b5e68a4632a47cc51590fda88317d50/tumblr_o6o781WXSY1uvm9nio1_1280.jpg)

[Artman77]

alien (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/2016-05-04-d.jpg), wip.

[Artman77]

Images from a new 6-foot-wide piece of art I'm working on for an art contest:
a: original thumbnail (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/self-port.jpg), scrapped.
1: center (http://assets9.artprize.org/works/2016/038966/038966-000002.jpeg?fit=clip&w=1000&h=1000)
2: silver surfer (http://assets2.artprize.org/works/2016/038966/038966-000003.jpeg?fit=clip&w=1000&h=1000)
3: skull, gun, edward (http://assets4.artprize.org/works/2016/038966/038966-000004.jpeg?fit=clip&w=1000&h=1000)
things I may or may not add later:
4: spiderman (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/self-port.jpg)
5: danger girl (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/dangergirl-b.jpg)
6: eminem (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/eminem-testi-canzoni2.jpg)

[Artman77]

1. Thumbnail no. 2 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/the-look-b.jpg)
2. logo (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/green-seeling.jpg)
3. spiderman 2.0 (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/spider-blue-red.jpg)
4. buff guy (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/swarz.jpg)
5. rose (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/rose.jpg)
6. baby (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/baby.jpg)

[Domochevsky]

...
4: spiderman (https://wingmind.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/self-port.jpg)
...

Is there a special reason for you to consider yourself to be spiderman? :smallsmile:

[Artman77]

Link fail. O_o

[Artman77]

Alllllllllright. Let's do some art. No for real this time. Legit. I've tried to make myself do art by "putting my nose to the grindstone" and forcing myself to practice. I hung up a calendar, made my own thread on the forums, joined The Challenge (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?345020-The-CHALLENGE-chugs-on!), bought a stopwatch to time myself and a notebook to log my hours; everything. It didn't work. I logged like 100 hours(?) over the first two months with a wild guess that another 200 hours didn't get logged? Fail. Big fail.

What to do? Try again, of course. This time I'm going to record it all when I art, so I don't have to guess. And I'm not just going to record it, I'm going to stream it... live!

Twitch.BOOM!(link) (https://www.twitch.tv/artallday)

It might start out totally lame, but that's how things get started. Imma try and make it awesome by the end of the year. We'll see how it goes...

[Domochevsky]

Alright then. Let's see your moves. :smallamused:

[Artman77]

Any requests? I'll be broadcasting tonight around 11pm EST...

[Domochevsky]

Not from me, as I'll pretty much never ever be able to participate. Time zones disagree on principle. :smallsigh:
Practically speaking that means that I can only watch recordings, which is not the point of this exercise. I presume you're doing this so you can be interactive about it. Social activity while drawing and all that, which sounds quite nice.
Kinda wish I had more of that as well.

[Artman77]

I presume you're doing this so you can be interactive about it.

One of the big reasons, yeah. The primary reasons are accountability and productivity. As far as interactivity goes, they've got a chat box, but if I'm doing my art in photoshop I don't see the chat responses right away cuz I got photoshop in full screen.

I'd like to broadcast longer/at more times to reach an audience, but I stayed up till 3:00 am EST, for example, with the intention of getting up at 9 am and getting back on, but slept in till 11. So... yeah. I need to figure out how to sleep less. :smallwink: