Artist Trak's Stuff - Updated 11/17

Great Gands!

 

Wow your work is really really great Trak. So detailed. You will definitely go far.

 

I certainly hope so! While comics might be a bit of a stretch at the moment, I'd be happy to start off doing sketch cards and such. Then move on up the ladder. Considering that while I have drawn comics, I'm not quite accustomed to the rigorous deadlines that I would be required to meet (even as a fill-in artist), it would be best to start small. So once my foot is healed and I am once again able to make the trek to the post office, I shall be sending out copies of my portfolio.

In the meantime... I should use this time to draw more, rather than try to force myself to get off these crutches sooner than I should and end up on them longer.

 

Well, yesterday, I did some sketching, starting with my first sketch of Tarkin, ever.

[image=http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/6711/tarkinsketch01.jpg]

Then, for whatever reason, I felt like drawing Bossk with a beer.

[image=http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/3151/bosskdrunk.jpg]

Which then led me to this.

[image=http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/9494/drunkenhunterparty.jpg]

Since I can't go traveling anywhere until my foot heals, I might as well draw.

 

Great scene and Tarkin WOW

 

I especially like Tarkin. I think you captured his expression well.

 

Thanks. I spent a while studying my reference to pick out the specific traits in his face that make Tarkin Tarkin, like the pursed lips and how his one eyelid droops a bit more than the other. Cheekbones and hairstyle aren't his only identifiers, something I noticed in another Tarkin image by another (established, not here, as far as I know) artist, Michael Sutfin. His art appeared in the New Essential Guide to Characters, and while a number of images are quite nice and I use several as palette references, his main Tarkin image just lacked the Tarkin traits. The secondary image was great, as he prolly used the same reference I used, but the main image strikes me as having been drawn from memory. It just lacked Tarkin's traits. I'm not criticizing the artist himself, as he's published and I'm not, I just didn't like that Tarkin pic.

Anywho, since I had posted it elsewhere last night, I might as well drop it in here:

[image=http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7174/zuckusslecard.jpg]

Repurposed Zuckuss pic from my sketchbook, edited to serve as a title image for my entry in the Second Proverbs Challenge. This one was drawn in parts and later combined in Photoshop; the background was separate, Zuckuss was separate, and the original lettering for the placard (not shown) was a separate piece. Zuckuss was drawn with a Pigma Micron 01 pen and colored with Prang colored pencils.

 

like your new picture

 

So funny!! I love the colors

 

Nice stuff you have here! It's cool, I like the details and the colors, you colored it so well, you also made some shadows. Very nice!

 

Thanks. Coloring digitally has been something I've been doing for perhaps the passed five or six years. Prior to that, my oft-used media were colored pencils. Though, from learning digital painting and coloring techniques (I mostly study comic coloring, as opposed to actual digital painting, though I have done quite a few exercises), I've acquired new techniques to add to my colored pencil work, such as shading with purple. My "Dark Orchid" pencil has become one of my primary shaders now, as it can work nicely for both a cool and warm palette.

 

You are not only a jolly good artist, you nicely explain how you do things.

That helps me to understand how computer art programs work. Thanks!

 

You're welcome.

And what one learns with the computer, one can apply to other media. Not sure how some of the digital inking techniques I've used can be applied to other media, though. But, if anyone wants to give those a go, this is pretty much what I do after I scan my pencils to make them look inked.

In Photoshop, I adjust the levels to make my blacks almost as black as possible. This will bring out the blue pencils I used for sketching. I then go to Replace Color, select the deepest blue shade, and adjust the Saturation, Lightness, and Feathering until the blue is gone. Another way to remove it is to just remove the blue color channel entirely, but I'm told that this works much better with red pencils than blue.

Anywho, after the blue pencils are either gone or desaturated and lightened to the point where I can just remove them by hand, I go back to Levels and adjust them until the linework is stark black and white. If I want to keep the pic in black and white, I'll select "Black and White" to remove any leftover color information, while still keeping the pic in RBG mode. This way, if I wish to color it at a later date, I can.

Adjusting the pencils digitally saves time, so I've been doing this more often. I still ink off and on and I'll pencil pics in the same way as if I were inking, but doing it digitally has saved a lot of time. I still need to toy with actual digital inking, but this method has been producing some nice results.

 

Just playing around with traditional (or as traditional a Pigma Micron can be) inking techniques. I modeled the shading and texturing off of the cover for Tales of the Bounty Hunters, to experiment with translating painting techniques to ink, without bogging the drawing down with excess cross-hatching.

[image=http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/5314/zuckussink.jpg]

I'm hesitant to make a colorized version of this, as the colors might hide the inkwork. I may do a flat-shaded one just as an exercise, but I'm gonna make sure to keep the inked version around for portfolio purposes (Zuckuss has been a portfolio favorite for a while. Quite the crowd pleaser).

 

I really like that!! You did a good job showing texture.

 

Thanks. That design has now been given a letterhead, flat shading, tweaked, and is currently saved on Zazzle for when I get around to making it into a shirt.

[image=http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/296/zuckusstshirtdesign.jpg]

This was just the mock-up to see how it would look. The final version is much larger, the brown background was removed, and it's pretty much just waiting for me to order the shirt. The lettering was done by hand, based off of Rodney Matthews's typeface for the Thin Lizzy album Vagabonds of the Western World.

And now... for very big elements of an image composition...

[image=http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5475/laerassaber.jpg]

It figures that after I drew this, that was when I found my protractor and proportional scale... >.<

[image=http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4458/marinehelmet.jpg]

Tweaked from a Radiation Zone Assault Trooper's helmet. This will be added with the lightsaber and another element (that I still need to draw) for the final composition. It's for the cover of Goodwood's story on Star Wars Fanon, The Great Leap Forward.

 

Great new stuff and the shirt should be awesome

 

I've said it before, Trak, but I will say it again: that is awesome artwork.

But don't go off reading The Great Leap Forward just yet, folks. It's actually the fifth installment of the Laera Reyolé saga. The first two, Star Wars: Death and Life and the nearly-complete A Marine Went to Jedi Camp, are posted on this site.

 

THe shading details are amazing!

 

Thanks. I've been concentrating more on shading recently, mainly how much shading and when, trying to find a nice balance without overloading the image too much.

Anywho, earlier this evening, I dug out a reference of Shaak Ti and drew my first ever image of her in ink.

[image=http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3152/shaaktiinkjt.jpg]

Then, because it took little time to do so, I made a t-shirt design mock-up with hand-lettered logotype.

[image=http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6309/shaaktishirt.jpg]

 

Great work again. You are amazing with ink and colours and the pose is great

 

I think you're doing a great job at it! (As further proved by the new one )

 

Thanks. I'm tempted to see if my local 501st garrison would be interested in t-shirt designs in that vintage style of the costumes we currently have. It wouldn't take much, just plenty of good photo reference and I can crank those inked portraits out in about an afternoon.

And speaking of spending all day to draw something in ink...

[image=http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7084/marinetraining.jpg]

I has a Gand gunnery sergeant supervising a recruit during training.

 

a great scene very detailed and bristling with action

 

Thanks. The pic's gotten a good reaction in my portfolio, and after having my portfolio reviewed by Joshua Emerick of Fangoria fame, I may have an in! As a fill-in colorist and inker, to start, but it's something!

Anywho, here's some random sketches, starting off with a model sheet.

[image=http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7581/tuffassmodelsheet.jpg]

And because I mentioned it in the social thread, here's that naked Gand I promised!

A naked Gand, TOS-minded.

Even though there's really nothing showing, I'm still linking it. This lil guy, Tuffass, lost his left arm and leg in the Great Sith War, and they regrew too short, which canted his pelvis and back, hence his asymmetry.

And what the hey, here's some first-ever sketches of Duros.

[image=http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/4899/durossketches.jpg]

That's it, for now.