Rotten's Pocket

[cgmythology]

Great work on your most recent character design, very creepy and I love how you handled the face... seems like something out of Resident Evil. Great work!

[RottenPocket]

Thanks CG!


 Was a bit burnt out today but managed to knock out this drawing for painting on the weekend.

[Pubic Enemy]

It has a very appealing Art Nouveau look to it, and the linework gives a good 3D impression. The devil reminds me of le genie du mal (i.e. the most handsome Satan).

[RottenPocket]

Hey Pubic Enemy,

He did start out monstery but after a few re-draws he did turn into the handsome devil.

I didn't start with a plan for the BG, and mentioned offhand that I could just fill it with thorns....

... SO I created a tiling pattern to fill the BG with thorns...




Gonna try and sell it along with any future repeat patterns. Might get some fabric in it too.

[exartlurker]

Hi Rottenpocket,

Thanks for dropping by. Congratz on that last portfolio piece. Wonderful work! In addition to displaying technical skills, your recent works display an increasingly sophisticated approach to visual thinking. Your most recent artworks shows a strong sense of storytelling.

Everything, the thorns in the background, the rose in the devil's hand, and the floating blossoms in the foreground, tell a story together. Both characters, the goddess and the devil, are beautifully drawn and tastefully designed.

There is only one criticism. Your drawing of the devil's wing outside the frame is fantastic. But I think the cropped wing would work better fully drawn. The shape would be even stronger this way. But it is still a fantastic piece of art despite that. Keep doing what you do!

[RottenPocket]

Hi Rottenpocket,

Thanks for dropping by. Congratz on that last portfolio piece. Wonderful work! In addition to displaying technical skills, your recent works display an increasingly sophisticated approach to visual thinking. Your most recent artworks shows a strong sense of storytelling.

Everything, the thorns in the background, the rose in the devil's hand, and the floating blossoms in the foreground, tell a story together. Both characters, the goddess and the devil, are beautifully drawn and tastefully designed.

There is only one criticism. Your drawing of the devil's wing outside the frame is fantastic. But I think the cropped wing would work better fully drawn. The shape would be even stronger this way. But it is still a fantastic piece of art despite that. Keep doing what you do!

Heey artlurkerrevivalist

 I'm definitely exploring a lot more digitally and haven't touched trad in months, and I think I've gotten over a lot of hurdles I used to have adjusting to digital painting techniques. I will definitely put that down to the fact that I stopped following the wrong advice and just did what worked for me :D I appreciate you seeing the narrative in every piece, I've always been very story oriented over pure aesthetics. If anything I enjoy making something off or weird because I know it makes some people uncomfortable. I think drawing the wings in full would 100% look cooler, however the practicalities of framing for print did overrule that idea. I have some silver leaf I want to fudge around with so I've ordered a giclee print of this one to embellish. 

I'm actually on holiday right now, so driving hard into painting and put my tentacles out there to acquire a few paid gigs. This here is the finished linework for the last CHOW (Now CHOM?) which includes a few firsts. First for flint, will be a first for painting fur properly, first for dead pheasants and first for de babies. Wil see how she turns out.

[darktiste]

Great Pose and control on the detail great proportion of the baby even those i couldn't say you draw alot of them great result if it was the first attempt.

I think i would add a bit more thickness to those leg just if you think about how much they had to walk everyday it would make sense but that isn't necesssary it just the extra thinking that serve to make you always question your design and why someone is the way they are.

One thing to remember is to make them look dirty and tan because they don't all have the luxury to wear cloth and they don't generally bath because it can be dangerous. Also some scare could be nice.

A quick trick for breast is to use the liquify tool if you can't get a satifify rounded breast of course breast tend to sagg so they aren't perfect.I say that because i find the breast you did to be kind of squarish.

[cgmythology]

Great work with your latest sketch, looks very impressive all around. If I had to nitpick I'd say it would be better to draw the shape of the feet as their more ideal, as opossed to how it would look with the cloth/boot because the shape isn't too flattering at the moment. Other than that, very solid all around!

[RottenPocket]

Hey CG, 

 Thanks, and I thought so too. I tried initially but it looked very cartoony and I kind of wanted a bulk in the footwraps. It the footwraps and skirt were the two things I actually did seek out refs for and are definitely not foot-shaped, I guess because it's literally just someone stepping into the middle of a hide and bunching it around the foot. What I may do is I have an anatomy reference model I can wrap a chammy cloth around and see what I can change later in the game [I'm anxious to touch him now because I knocked him over and broke off his thumb :( ] 

Here's a snippet of what I'm currently working on. It's one of four illustrations for a client. As usual, I pick the most detailed plant possible to fill the BG - a Wisteria... Just want to say, Celtic Harps are the most beautiful harps to reference imho. Searching for specifically elven or fantasy harps for inspo just doesn't compare. Probably because they look like they actually function as an instrument...

[JosephCow]

That's quite pretty, i love how the deer is drawn.

With the harp though, I think it could actually be even more functionally realistic. The soundboard (bottom part) of the harp is very small and thin. Even with harps that sit on your lap, that part is usually the chunkiest part since that's the resonance chamber for the instrument. The rest of it I think is fine, but could have a little more indication of the sides so we know it's not a paper thin object.

[RottenPocket]

Ahh, you're totally right I see it now - don't know how I botched that bit. I'll fix the harp then probably start on another of the set of illustrations and then come back to it.

Side note, I'm currently at a stand still trying to import all of the Grutbrushes to Clip Studio which is like a 500 abr brush pack that may or may not actually function in CSP but I wanted to give it a go.

[cgmythology]

Great linework with your latest. Very solidly drawn, and the folds and detail work on the dress are particularly impressive. Keep it up!

[RottenPocket]

Heyo, Belated Merry Christmas and Happy new year for everyone. 

I have been busy. Usually that's nothing new but this time I did catch a bad cough and although it wasn't Covid it was brutal and knocked me out for a week of my Holidays, right before starting at my new job. After the Christmas breakup though, I still have another week to finish a few things. 

I got most of the Harp commission done, and getting going on the next pieces. I experimented with Vector layers for the linework, thinking it's an awesome idea to use and scale work up indefinitely. But, I was working on sections in layers, and when I merged them I didn't realise erasing would also register as a vector path, and it would erase sections that I was merging. Converting raster to vector isn't great for my very non-clean, very non-anime amount of detail. I will have to either do a detailed sketch then go over using a vector, or see if I can cut instead of erase, or just stick to raster. 




I definitely painted a lot more directly onto one layer this time around - usually I do washes upon washes. I still did a bit of that here, but with a lot of elements there were a lot of subfolders anyway so I reached 86 layers :| For the next piece I'm aiming to work on even less. 


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I participated in another Art secret santa. I was given a username and we had to repaint their work in our style. I was given the artist Leo Val: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RYRAAX



The Secret Santa turned into a secret art exchange because we were paired up and he did one of my paintings in return.

My illness hit right when I was meant to paint this so I had to crop it and rush it at the finish. Definitely could have done more, but he's happy I'm ecstatic because he painted this:




-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I haven't done as much as others, but I think I've accomplished a lot this year.



There's definitely improvement in gesture, form, value and colour saturation. Also, variety, process and speed, and bringing things to the final stages. I've posted my long 2021 recap elsewhere and I won't copy and paste, but I did stop drawing for a long time last dry-spell and I think this was a good year to re-adjust and get back into some semblance of flow.

[Pubic Enemy]

Sorry to hear about your flu/cough, some of them really knock you on your ass for a week or more.

I have noticed your work improving a lot and looking more confident since you started posting again. I like how the harp piece is turning out, it's very ornate. Both sides of the Secret Santa trade are really cool.

[cicakkia]

You really have creative and imagination on those drawing. Do hope to see more for this new year

[Artloader]

Hey RP - I'm loving your work - I've always felt that you always had one of the more unique styles I've seen on here and I feel that it stems from how you've always followed your own path which is wonderful to see and I hope you never lose that. It's also fantastic to see how you've been productive this last year and are getting some well deserved commissions, may 2022 be a great year for you art-wise but also life-wise too.

[cgmythology]

Really nice updates here, always enjoy your linework and how you handle texturing, always so lively. Love the Secret Santa piece as well, very solidly drawn with a great design. Keep it up, and looking forward to what you come up with this year as well!

[Jephyr]

Happy New Year, Rotten!

The cave girl looks very good — nice proportions through out. That composite of some of your 2021 work is cool. I might steal that idea for my SB.

The pregnant beasty on the top right is one of my favs.

You definitely are making progress. Keep 'em coming

[RottenPocket]

I'm always grateful for the words of advice, and encouragement from you all. I'm sorry I haven't participated here so far this year.

I have been hitting the road running with this new job and working with a new team - while keeping the art alive. Bloody exhausting. 

I've so far completed three of the four pieces for one commission, and I haven't heard back about two others in the works so looks like I'm not doing them :P 

My hangup with the 4 pieces is I started with the idea to use vector layers, and used harsh black lines throughout. That didn't happen, and as I've travelled along, I just found it difficult to keep to the same style as the first, when my brain keeps wanting me to do it different. So I'm working on it slowly, and redoing it. And redoing it. And doing challenges in the meantime. But here's the preview of what I had done so far:

Spoiler

With these I was careful to think about story and composition and I think that's what I'm lacking with the 4th because I've done the sketch over and over again I've lost the feel of it. Anywho, I'll get there. 

There's a lot of artwork being posted about what's currently happening in Ukraine. I don't pretend to know what people are going through even for family who are from there, but I made my own feelings on the matter through painting:

Spoiler

My veeery rushed and last minute submission to a monthly challenge - prompt Blacksmith:

Spoiler

And here's my submission for another challenge elsewhere due tomorrow or the day after I don't know, timezones. Another secret partner scenario, and they'll be added together by the event host:

Spoiler

March is almost over, wish I had done more but apart from helping a coworker fix up a wedding photo gift, I haven't done much, new job has been very demanding... Not many personal works underway but take up group projects when I can to keep the creative juices flowing...

[darktiste]

For the blacksmith piece

I think the hammer is kinda to long to make it believable let me explain what i mean .The weapon he is holding create a longer arc than a smaller hammer which mean it would hit further than if he had a hammer with a smaller handle if you look at video of blacksmith you rarely see them use two hand hammer or even a two hand hammer with one hand(of course he a centaur so i am going to assume it a bit different for him but still the arc argument remain.A longer hammer would in my opinion serve a different task which would be to flatten the blade will a smaller one would be use for control and sculpting shape.

So what i am trying to say is that i strongly suggest a smaller hammer because if you make a google research you will hardly ever find any blacksmith using hammer longer than half of an hammer.If he would to be using this hammer he would be using is two and for maximum force and have to be further away from the blae i would argue due to the longer arc. The problem as to why you choose to illustrate it that way might be due to how much strenght you wanted the viewer to feel and how a smaller hammer would have overlap and be hide by is foreshorten arm.So sometime it just a question of testing with thumbnail and problem solving but i certainly can't pretend to understand what made you took those choose.

Thank for listen to my nitpicking.