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Lately, I just haven't had much time to spend working on actual miniatures. Mostly because that time has been dedicated to drawing. For a long time, I've focused a lot on graphic design, but now I'm trying to segway into my real passion. Having recently graduated, and looking to work as a concept illustrator, and finding myself woefully lacking in terms of the skills I need to actually do my damn job, I've been spending as much time as I possibly practicing, working to learn the skills, techniques, and workflow that will make me effective and efficient in my work, enough to make me desirable enough to hopefully one day be hired (for all you aspiring game designers out there, I'm totally available for freelance work). I've got an incredibly long way to go, but lately, I feel as if I've started to make some real progress, and I'd like to share that with Dakka. I'm always open to criticism, so let it fly as hard as it has to, until I'm good at what I do.

My latest (and a piece which I'm quite fond of).
This is my first time using gradients and textures while colouring an image to make it 'pop,' and I feel it came out really well. The tall shoes and computer tower head were chosen to make her more intimidating. I wanted something slightly sexual, but with a strange, uneasy feel to it. What started off as trying to look like some strange zombie cyborg samurai actually ended up taking a turn to look more like a Victorian era vampire, which I actually quite like, and fits really well with the sexuality of the character.
In the original sketches, the shoes are meant to open up to reveal thrusters.
I ended up really liking this character. I wouldn't mind drawing more of her in the future (especially showing off her hands and the activated thrusters, which are not in view in this picture)

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The precursor to that piece, essentially developing that workflow:
First time working in this style of colouring and with this workflow, but I think it came out okay. I'm still having trouble colouring large, flat areas. I picked a fairly simple diesgn that didn't make me focus much on proportions or other technical elements, so I could have an easier time working with the colour. The lighting's pretty bad, but I'll try to focus more on that with future work. Yes, it is supposed to look incredibly phallic.

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Additionally, here are some of my older pieces, just to show you where I've come from.
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/199/8/2/descent_of_the_bird_god_by_thinkinglines-d6e4osq.jpg
http://th08.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/200/1/5/rosche_lineart_by_thinkinglines-d6e4q53.jpg
http://th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2013/200/0/c/beast_king_lineart_by_thinkinglines-d6e4pjk.jpg
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2013/200/4/7/swordmaster_lineart_by_thinkinglines-d6e4qpc.jpg
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/199/e/8/efdie_the_fortune_teller_by_thinkinglines-d6e4oe4.jpg
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/202/f/f/elba_the_cursed_by_thinkinglines-d6efj5s.jpg

There's plenty more available on my website, www.thinkinglines.com, most of it is pretty old. I'm in the process of updating it right now (and switching over to HTML5, which is kind of annoying), so it might be a bit sporadic for the next day or so.

The 2nd one is fantastically disturbing. Very, very, very creepy looking.

I like the first one but I really am not a fan of the gigantic tall shoes. Makes her look more ridiculous than intimidating. But that's my opinion, YMMV Everything else looks pretty cool.

These 2 when compared to the older ones really show how you've been improving.

My very first speedpaint, 90 minutes. There are a lot of pretty glaring flaws, and obvious room for imporvement, but I think it came out okay overall. It reminds me of the dancing/singing frog from Loony Tunes.


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Another speedpaint. Around 90 minutes. Might want to get that fire checked.
I rushed the hand, and should have slowed down a bit on it. The fire/lighting could also probably use a bit of work.

Also realized I forgot to change the glow on the background to orange...


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Today's warmup. Not sure how much time, I was constantly interrupted by the landlord/plumbers. Less than 90 minutes by a fair bit once you count the time spent talking to the landlord/plumbers. Not entirely fond of this one, I lost my focus. The cape is way too flat. Not entirely satisfied with the face or the helmet either. At least the hair came out nicely.


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Another image of the Cyberzombie, this time showing off her sword and those funny shoe things. I've grown quite fond of this character over the course of drawing her.
I'm aware that she's holding the sword improperly (it should be right hand before left), and I could probably just flip the image over, but I ended up liking the composition enough that by time the lineart was finished, I didn't want to change it. Besides, who's to say that cyborg vampire zombie ninjas aren't ambidextrous?
What I should have done was show her leaning towards her left a little more, since right now, her left arm feels a little too long at the bicep.
Overall though, a fun drawing.

1 hour. It came out okay, could use improvementon the hair. The right eye being off is intentional.

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Today's warm up... it's a dragon. I didn't spend very long on it because I don't really like dragons that much, and I want to get straight to my main project.


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Well...dunno if you want comments or not. I mean this IS a miniature/wargaming/modelling forum. But with that being said, your art is pretty incredible. Ive noticed you havent had any comments yet and im assuming its because there are no miniatures here.

Another user here posted some artwork they were working on, and I haven't seen the thread in a while, but it was midly populated.
Although not modelling related (there is painting! digitally!), I figure that there might be some relevancy because of the sci-fi/fantasy themes I generally end up working with. Also, because I've essentially had to replace my miniature time (and then some) with artwork time.

I always appreciate comments and criticism, as everything helps in improving my work.


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Easily my favourite piece so far, I learned a lot while doing it. Originally, it was supposed to be a human shaman praying, but then I decided to throw in the robot angle. I wanted to show a character who was utterly destroyed by the world around it, but managed to maintain a zealous resolve. His face torn to pieces (with his own vocal box turned into a necklace to broadcast his prayer even further), his arm torn to shreds, and what could be interpreted as his entire outer shell torn off only serve to make him stronger. I wanted to create an image of desperation, but with inner strength.


http://fav.me/d6gvh2g

Like your stuff faf, I've pretty much quit doing art at this point in my life right now so my technique (not that I had complete mastery of all the principles and elements of art anyways if I kept at it I might have been able to have done realism art) is probably dropping.

OMG this stuff is amazing! Do you also do commissions?

Absolutely. PM me and we can talk about finer points. Or you can contact me through my website, which you can get to by clicking on my signature, or going to http://www.thinkinglines.com.

As for the past few days, I've been really busy, so I haven't been able to get as much done as I would have liked. However, I'm really excited about the project I'm currently working on, and I should have it up in a few days.

I am so envious of your skill. Love the art, please keep posting it!

EDIT: Scratch that, not happy with it yet. Going to clean it up a bit.

Updated version of the Cyborg Asura. I cleaned up the right hands a little bit, and made the lighting far more dynamic. The original version looked unfinished and I couldn't stand to have it on here in the condition it was. I was fond of the design, but it was a fairly exhausting character to actually draw, and I'm not too happy with the end result. Additionally, I prefer the method I used to draw the cyber zombie images over that which I used for this one, since it is more faithful to the initial lineart. The balance on this one feels off overall, and I feel working more closely with the lineart would have served me much better. Overall, I should have been much more diligent about the balance of the drawing. I'm embarrassed I made such a mistake.

Ultimately a failure, but looking at it now, I realize where I went wrong.

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Additionally, here's the original sketch. I actually like it more than the finished piece, even if it also has quite a few problems.

Are her lower arms supposed to be progressively smaller?

No. It's just that with the angle they were supposed to come out at, they'd have to wrap around more, making them look slightly shorter. And without the musculature of the shoulder to connect to, I didn't make the upper sections of the arms as bulky as the 'normal' arms, since they were supposed to connect to a mechanical ball joint of sorts. It ended up looking awkward because of that (amoung other reasons) anyway.

The more I look at that piece, the more and more I dislike it. And I already really, really dislike it now. The current one I'm working on has been really slow, just because I've been so paranoid about making the same mistakes, and because I've been kind of stuck on that previous piece. But I've started making some major progress, and am beginning to move past those mistakes.

It'll be a little longer, but the new image should be done soon.

After I came to really hate my previous work, the original Cyber Asura (really, really hate. I can't bring myself to look at it anymore), I was feeling really stuck, and I couldn't really get anything done. So I went back and made a similar character. All in all, a better design and a much more competent drawing. There's still some issues with the symmetry, but I was much more diligent this time around. The tones and textures are all much better. I spent a lot of time on the skin on the face, to make it look slightly off, to give it that synthetic feeling. The external musculature helps to make her look more off-putting.

I ultimately dropped the multi-limbed element from this drawing. I may revisit it in the future with this design (perhaps have a docking station on the back for multiple arm attachments?), but I realize I went beyond my depth with the first version, and it ended up looking poorer for it. I wanted to make sure to capture a sense of personality and atmosphere for the design, before working in the extra stuff.


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First drawing after moving. Took a long time looking at and drawing the platemail, since I wanted it look like he'd have the same sense of motion that real plate armour would allow you (which is actually a lot, when you consider that real sword fighting was actually a lot closer to wrestling than what you actually see in the movies). The major exception obviously being the really ornate helmet and gorget. The sword could probably be about a foot longer, otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how this one came out. Really like the effect for the fur.


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Based on a character I created for a writing project several years ago, but refined. Felicia is a trans-gendered assassin (hence the .22 in his left hand). The idea was to design a character who could be suave and stylish, but above all, looked comfortable in their own skin, regardless of how 'strange' they may have appeared to be. A character who walks between male-or-female, straight-or-gay, Felicia is supposed to be a character who exudes confidence above all else. I ended up having to model for this pose, which meant he came out a lot thinner than I originally intended (I actually ended up bulking the character up in some places), but I feel it ended up working well for the piece.
I'm not very good at drawing guns, but I tried to keep it as accurate as I could in this piece. The gun is a suppressed Ruger MKIII, so all the gun nuts out there can correct me on everything I got wrong. It's probably a slight bit too small as it is.
The angle on the hands, especially the left one, could probably use a little work. The right wrist may look a little bit weird, but that comes more from me being a not very good specimen to model than the drawing itself.
I'm most proud of the face and hair. Quite a bit of time was spent making sure the makeup was just right; and I've had a lot of trouble getting hair to look good and natural in the past, so this is actually a big step upward for me.

Definitely check out the full size version (linked below), this resized version cuts out a lot of the detail.



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Space engineer. There's this funny effect where the image gets shittier and shittier the further down you look on it. The perspective on some of the technological gubbins came out kind of weird. Planned on having a background, but didn't like it (unlike Felicia, who was intentionally on a plain white background). Might end up giving her a proper background later. I'm fairly happy with the specular lighting on the insulation. The hands might be a wee bit small.
I'm fairly happy with how the face turned out, it's based on Vera Farmiga (Source Code, Up in the Air, The Conjuring), although perhaps I should have used a less famous model for reference? Getting the perspective to of the face to match the body was difficult.
Overall, I think it came out okay.


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So I went on a 22 hour drawing binge. Working past the point of exhaustion, I originally made some bad mistakes, and was really not happy with this piece. So a few days later, I went back and did something about it. It's not perfect, but it's an improvement over the original version.
Inspired by the outfits of Boardwalk Empire and fashion of the 1920s, I wanted to create something simple, and not worry about adding on a bunch of sci-fi gubbinz. A fairly simple pinup. I wanted her to look classy but seductive, without giving too much away. I'm still having a bit of trouble giving a sense of 'weight' to my images.
A tonne of attention was spent on experimenting with the skin tones on the face. Originally based on Elizabeth Debicki's appearance in The Great Gatsby (although I'll be honest, I haven't actually seen the movie, just posters), I wanted to differentiate this character, while still keeping the elegant hair and makeup that she had in the film.

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EDIT: Updated image with fixed nose and improved hair

Nice job.

Wow.... Really, really nice work - you're obviously very talented. And also very original style and concepts (as someone said above me, some a little disturbing although I don't mean that in a negative way!)

Some of this made me think you should get in touch with Corvus Belli, know that they often use freelance artists and could imagine your kind of style transferring across..

I don't know if you like to look at other similar artists? Some guys do, some don't!
Take a look at the art of Marcus Gray, if you haven't already?
This site had a few pics: http://www.thepinupfiles.com/gray.html
Now some of his stuff is a bit racy and NSFW but your stuff reminded me of the Cyber girls that he draws.
Hope it helps?

 Pacific wrote:
Wow.... Really, really nice work - you're obviously very talented. And also very original style and concepts (as someone said above me, some a little disturbing although I don't mean that in a negative way!)

Some of this made me think you should get in touch with Corvus Belli, know that they often use freelance artists and could imagine your kind of style transferring across..

Thanks for the compliment. I'm not sure if I'm quite that level yet, but I'm glad there are people who would like to see it published like that.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
I don't know if you like to look at other similar artists? Some guys do, some don't!
Take a look at the art of Marcus Gray, if you haven't already?
This site had a few pics: http://www.thepinupfiles.com/gray.html
Now some of his stuff is a bit racy and NSFW but your stuff reminded me of the Cyber girls that he draws.
Hope it helps?

I absolutely love looking at other artists. My ritual after finishing a major piece is to go and look at artists who are better than me. Helps me remember that, despite maybe feeling good with the work I have just finished, I've still got a long way to go.

Just a quickie, experimenting with watercolour effects/brushes.

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...and something I did for a friend, who's a big Jigglypuff fan... don't question it, just embrace it.

Another cyborg. Supposed to be all machine from the brain-stem down, in addition to a set of cybernetic compound eyes (pretty much added for the sole purpose of making him creepy). My original sketches went with an intention of a more Syd Mead inspired aesthetic, but I quickly realized that I wanted something that looked more organic, and would fit the aesthetic of an agile, catlike flexibility more, so I went back to the synthetic muscle look.


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Spent a lot of time drawing stuff I didn't like, and then throwing it out. Finally did something decent with this. Spent a lot of time toying around with different poses and finishing touches.



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Done for a local competition. Surprised I ended up as happy with it as I am.


http://fav.me/d6uc8m0

All very nice!

That cyborg in the first pic is very creepy... although still fantastically drawn (and I love the electrical cord-tail)