Meat House

[meat]

Amit : Just a horse would be kinda boring... I was thinking of tweaking that a bit, but definitely putting all those horse studies to application (the Hultgren book's chapter on horse is longer than the rest...).

Kurt : Yeah I'd love to sketch live animals for the challenge. Outside there's only sparrows and maybe squirrels, and I usually can't be persuaded from this computer during the day if I'm not working at the cafe. "It's free time! I must do a lot of painting/study etc!". There's a big and expensive and far zoo from here, but I just realized there's a tiny local zoo much closer as well! Maybe I can even befriend them by offering to do a volunteer drawing...... *ahem*

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Not too much anatomy studies recently, there are representative pages of what I did - 1 for the Hultgren book, and 1 for pose studies from a video (paused while drawing of course). Lastly, the main project in recent days. Do all these horse anatomy studies contribute to these creature designs? Yes, a bit. I appropriated some bones from memories, and then of course without previous anatomy studies I would never know the shape of those bones, or be bothered to look up skeleton structures or muscles.













There was a profound and intellectual discussion in the Hangout about concept art for games, to be successful, need this mysterious thing called the "fuck factor". So I attempted to capture that elusive concept as a practice to sell this chick.




Lastly, fixed a few details on previous creature based on feedbacks received:

[AngeliquevdMee]

Wow the horse studies look really good man I didnt even see those :) very dynamic. And yaayy you finished the lizard and bird XD can't wait to see the next one

[RenatoCaria]

Really liked the dynamic poses studies you did man, are those traditional?

And those creatures.. damn dude, pretty sexy bird you got there aha xD and may I ask why the use of such saturated colors? keep up the awesome work! *_*

[meat]

Angelique: Thanks! How are you doing there? I missed you in the Hangout! Come by more and let your awesome art skills rub off on all of us!

Renato: They are copies from a how to draw animal book by Ken Hultgren. I like the energetic gestures of his drawings, so decided to copy that entire book. The thin size of said book is the second decision making factor, lol. I do my studies on paper probably because I was traditionally trained in school, and that feeling is ingrained into me.

If only I had started training digitally, I might've feel more at home sketching in PS.

The colors are saturated because... I kind of prefer colorful stuff over muted tones... is it going over board?

[StardustLarva]

Hi there Meat, I'm liking those creature designs. I personally would say that the saturated colours work well with the designs, considering their anatomical features. I think it works particularly well with that raptor-like one, which I really like. They do look like they could function realistically, which is something that isn't always present in a lot of creature concepts like this I find, so good job with that.

If I were to make any suggestions at all, maybe to compliment the designs you've already produced, you could draw up what these creatures would look like as juveniles, perhaps. I'd love to see what that mineral beast looks like as a juvenile.

Anyway, very solid stuff, so keep it up!

[meat]

StardustLarva: Yeah I want to do a life cycle and maybe some behavior sketches of them! I just been kind of busy going to an art event - Spectrum Live - and the days following that has been busy as well, as they will remain being for the near future. Hopefully I will get those sketches out and make some fake explorer journal pages :D

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Some meager sketches done while travelling:

[BlueBear]

Check urban sketchers Meat ,nice sketches,the nature studies are specially interesting, love the colors !

[meat]

Blue Bear: I have not yet meet up with any local Urban Sketchers, but I have posted a few sketches in our local FB group page. Meeting up with them and sketching could help curb procrastination when it threatens to set in!

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Here's a more ... diverse update - still on horse chapter of that animal drawing book, started a composition-a-day sketchbook (an exercise idea from a book about composition), and feeble attempt at portrait drawing from life. Some changes regarding work and a bit more busy lately too. 











As you can see what skill I have are with fauna and flora, and less so with portraiture. So when I sketched Lyraina I did not do her full justice! And yes, she came by New York City. 

[crackedskull]

Those horse sketches remind me of old master sketches, well done.

[Ursula Dorada]

Aaaah Meat those horse sketches are SO GOOD! Unnnngh
Also, thanks for the composition challenge! It sounds amazing! I'll get to work on it asap <3

(and damn is that watercolor on your sketchbook? yessssss love it!)

[Jaik]

So much improvement man... What is this "I dont do work because I have a day job" I call BS, you do kick ass work all the time!
Cant really comment on much because you are filling in those weak spots one by one!
Nice sketch of Lyra too! Keep up the good work, my man!

[KurtJeremy]

yo meat really like your drawings. its cool you get to draw peeps , you got some mad ninja skills for being able to draw them without getting caught xD

ahhh the see through stuff, its really hard to do them in pencils, and it requires A-LOT of time and patience to be able to draw them convincingly. i think you learned alot on that study though , so if you gut the gots do more of them. im sure youll be able to render them more efficiently.

ooh thats cool you get to meet up with a fellow dageroo. wish i can fly to NY right now. literally fly.

[smrr]

I'm not kidding when I say this, but I seem to have always visited your sketchbook, see your watercolour work and tend to stare at it for a good while, before my alarm would go off or some other nonsense and I'm off to go study something else... and so I just realised, even though I've been checkin' out your sketchbook for a while, I've never actually commented in it? .____."

I'm just a.. a serial... creepy-ass lurker, meat! o_O
YOU DID THIS!

tl;dr damn you and your wonderful traditional work!

Also holy shit those horse studies and that plane study are gorj <3

I don't have any crits just yet, just keep it up man, I'm no longer a serial-lurkerina in your thread lol

[BenFlores]

I love those animal sketches you're doing, it's really interesting the way nature has carved all these different shapes over time. I'll have to look into that book as well. If I can suggest something for you, it would be to do more master copies. The impressionists were great at communicating hue shifts and temperature.

[Farvus]

The animal studies is something that stand out here the most. A person might learn a thing or two just by looking at them.
The 3/4 sketch of Lyriana seems to have some problems with structure. The nose looks like it's completely from the side and further eye don't sit well in the face. It has some nice value range though.

You could practice drawing faces. The monsters would improve too this way. :)

Cheers.

[pnate]

Damn, all the cool kids hanging out in cool New York (I'm just jealous). Awesome that you're doing lots of stuff from life. How was Spectrum Live? Are you studying from The Art of Animal Drawing? Love that one, it taught me not to hate horses. By the way, it's super helpful to trace over photos of muscular horses for reference as you go through the book, so you can see it IRL.

[Fedodika]

I like dat chickenorapter with the bra and panties; my typa gal ;)

[meat]

Many thanks to you guys giving me suggestions of study directions! I will slowly get through all of them. Either do a bit of all each week, or dedicate several months to each study before moving on to the next. What do you think works better? I will still have to try both out, and only time can tell maybe. 

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Kurt: Most of them knew I was sketching them, I think. I try to not stare at them too much, and I don't sketch the ones who belligerantly stare me back. I don't need all that trouble just for warm up sketching. But as you can see those quick warm up doodle of people didn't really make me all that good at doing proper portraits of fellow dagger, lol!

smrr: What can I say, smrr? Turning normal people into creepy lurker is my Gods-sent gift. To not use my gift is a crime against the 11 heavens. Licks index finger. Places finger on chest. Makes sizzling sound. Your sketchbook is really inspirational too - epseically all those pencil drawings and sketches jammed together. 

Ben: Yeah, I've been collecting hi-res images of master paintings, intending to do studies of them _one day_, and still hasn't gotten to it! Somehow it's like I just manage to do animal book study, warm up composition drawing, and one other thing - and that's it for outside day job hours! 

Farvus: Yeah I totally see what you're saying.... I don't want to do faces from photo, so I'm thinking dedicate a pocket book to shaded drawings of faces of anyone I can get. Thanks for your input!

pnate: I am studying from The Art of Animal Drawing. You mean get photos of horses and draw the muscle and bone over them in Photoshop using what I learned? 

We might all be going to see you in Cali soon, although not much detail at this stage. Where in Cali are you? Anywhere near San Fran? 

Spectrum was super expensive but really important and inspiring experience. I managed to use the hard lessoned learned about attending conferences and managed this one well. Got to talk to several artists I respect and ask them specific questions I had about doing creatures and other stuff. I'm usually a controlled person, but at Spectrum I was so moved I nearly lost it in the middle of the show floor from awe and admiration and gratefulness. 

Fedo: And Ms. Mandel's type is the cuddle-able koala ;)
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Sketches from local zoo. It was nicer than expected, although small with not many animals, it was like a very nice garden with animals that get peace and quiet that animals in bigger, more popular zoo don't get. They move a lot and it was hard to get any decent looking sketches down. It was also tiring to be on my feet all day. Does it ever get easier standing on feet all day, and are there any training one can do to stand and sketch longer?

[smrr]

Oh my gaaaaaaaaaad yasss <3

Daily composition sketches are looking bomb, meat! And wait, are you trying to tell me... you... you've been venturing... OUTSIDE?! To the... to... places that that animals in them...?! woah. How to venture into outside pls?

Seriously though, great update man. If you're wondering about the standing on your feet thing becoming a pain - you'll get used to it. Don't force yourself to be standing all the time at the start however, grow into standing for longer periods of time as it will get easier the more you do it ^^.
Same goes with sketchin' them quick-fast animaleleles. Idek how you can be so bold doing these sketches using a brush pen, aaah the inspiration <3
I guess thinking gestural in your head before passing a stroke is the way to go.

So good to hear Spectrum was the bomb for you!

Keep up the great work meat!

P.s. HAHAHA your reply to my comment above = priceless! So much yes! And thanks for the kind words too meng

[StardustLarva]

Hi there Meat. I'm loving the gestural sketches from the zoo, they almost kind of have a primeval look to them. Great work with the horse anatomy stuff too, you've reminded me that I should get to work with that book myself. Keep up the excellent work.