DVDizzy Forum

Yeah, I know . . . I probably have an old art thread buried here somewhere. But I'd much rather start a fresh one.

Anyway, here's a gathering of some random stuff that I'd like to occasionally add to, some of which you may have already seen scattered about in other places. As always, more can be found on my dA page although it's been a while since I've updated. I'm afraid I'm not currently in the position to do any requests/commissions as I've barely enough time and energy to do my own work right now, but I do hope you'll enjoy what I post here.

Hmm . . . I guess I should start with something Disney.



^I used this for my banner a while back. It was my attempt to draw a line-up similar to what was seen on the official Disney princess site, but with the neglected ladies.



^I absolutely love Tiana in her blue dress and couldn't resist drawing her.



^Here's something I recently had a lot of fun with, using one of my drawings to have a custom iPhone case made.



^And this was the thank you I drew for the forum awards last year.

While I love to draw, I think my real calling is coloring. I often work with other people's drawings . . .



^This is a drawing I colored that was done by the amazing Chris Sanders; I figure it's ok to post despite the implied nudity since it's tasteful and absolutely nothing is showing. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the SDCC back in '08, and I brought him a nicely printed copy of this colored piece as a gift. And of course, I brought a second copy so he could sign one for me. Talk about an awesome afternoon.



^And here is a Glen Keane sketch I've colored; unfortunately I've never had the chance to meet him but he's been my favorite artist for as long as I can remember.

Once again, hope you enjoy!

awesome

Your art is excellent, Enigmawing; the aesthetic Tiana picture is particularly impressive, being both nice to look at and expertly drawn. Your use of colour in the Chris Sanders sketch is great, too.

Aw, thanks guys!

I'm the colorist for the online comic O Girl, the artwork is by JKR. This piece was done for the log-in page of the site (I can't link to it here as it's NSFW):



This is a drawing a friend did for me of my character, I did the colors and the simple gear animation:



And here's some fun photoshop silliness I did a while back:





I just really have fun with some of this stuff.

enigmawing wrote:Aw, thanks guys!

I'm the colorist for the online comic O Girl, the artwork is by JKR. This piece was done for the log-in page of the site (I can't link to it here as it's NSFW):

BRB...going to fap.



pm me the link.

Sure, I'll PM ya. Your OC's actually remind me of his work a bit. For the heck of it here are some studies we did of the main characters before we got started:





It's a superhero comic. I'm also the colorist for Mindy in Space in addition to some of the covers for his other titles.

Ah so you do work with the artist who does those Mindy series. And thanks for my art compliment. Interesting enough, The influence style that I draw is from J Scott Campbell. He did do some Mindy fanart drawings (2 I think).

How you know the artist or got in touch with him? You're very lucky get to do something like that. Wish I had that type of partnership thing.

Also If you like, you can color my latest drawing i post up if you like. I don't mind. I'll pm you the color choices if you want to do it.


Thanks for pm link.

Actually, Mindy isn't the Dean Yeagle creation you're thinking of (Mandy), she's a parody. JKR specializes in parodies and can work with a lot of different styles very convincingly. Much of his work has a heavy J. Scott Campbell influence so that must be the connection I saw with your work.

I did get a nice compliment from Mr. Yeagle once when I did a drawing/fanart of Mandy though at the drawingboard.org forum; I haven't posted there in a while myself but he's been known to occasionally post his work and give feedback on fanart (this version of my drawing is cropped for modesty's sake but can be found in my dA account):



This piece was my way of preparing for the coloring style I'd be using while first working with JKR back in '08 or so, and I learned a lot while working on it. I'm currently working on a couple of pin-ups for his site in addition to some personal projects so I'm afraid I don't have time to color anything else for now; I also usually charge for that kind of work.

I think Mr. Yeagle does all his own coloring/painting . . . and for those of you reading that aren't familiar with him, he's as an amazing artist; his studio clients include Walt Disney Productions among several others.

JKR works with various colorists depending on the final look he's seeking for his current projects. I met him at another forum where he eventually asked me to collaborate on a contest with him. From there he hired me to do some occasional coloring work.

DEAN YEAGLE...That's who it was. How could I forget his name...stupid me.
Ah I see about the connection to my work.

It's ok that you're too busy with other work. I was just curious to see what my drawing would look like computer color wise. I suck with computer art. I usually do my color good ol' fashion way with copic markers and PITT ink pens. which is what i'm going to do anyway.

But yeah, so seems like JKR is quite great guy. I like to meet him or ask for helpful tips.

Thanks for help Enigmawing.

You already know this, e, but I love your work. I just love how great you are at drawing the female figure. Even with the exaggerated sex appeal in some pieces, they are convincing and most importantly beautiful. I especially love your coloring and shading, colorful yet very detailed.

I love your Tiana blue dress picture the best, especially the hand drawn artwork.

Like always: very, very good drawings, enigma! What else can I say that I haven't already said? I think pap64 said it best. I don't know all these guys you mention; I just know that I like your art very much. Not the same way Super A. seems to like them, though.

Much appreciated, guys!

Dr Frankenollie~ I meant to give you a more personalized reply before but sometimes I'm not so great with words. But thanks again. I'm not so confident with my drawing skills so I'm always relieved when a picture turns out at least halfway like I'd intended. I feel I have better control over my coloring. I think I was probably the happiest with the Sanders sketch since it somehow screamed out celestial colors to me, and I felt like I managed that.

pap64~ I've been trying so hard lately to find the balance of what I do . . . it's kinda hard for me to explain though. I've always just liked drawing pretty and sexy things and I'd like to think it's been therapeutic for me. But I'm still trying to find my voice with my style and especially my subject matter. I try to broaden myself beyond cheesecake but it's been kinda hard.

Super Aurora~ It's cool, I have a hard time with names myself. I actually had the chance to meet Dean Yeagle, but I was so intimidated that I wasn't even able to speak with him.

I'm exceptionally proud of the work I've done with JKR; without him I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard and learned so much in the past few years. And yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. I feel really lucky that he created O Girl especially with my coloring in mind, he's even given my characters small cameos throughout the comic.

It took me a while to get the hang of digital coloring, but I still have a deep appreciation for more traditional work. I've been thinking about picking up the Copic markers but they're so expensive! They sure look like they'd be fun to play with though. I'm looking forward to seeing how your final piece with your characters turns out.

Goliath~ Thanks! And we all can't, um . . . appreciate art in the same way that Super Aurora does. But what can I say, I'm having fun and love that people can enjoy my art for whatever reason.

* * *

And for an early example of where I started . . .



^ I was 12 when I drew the first picture; my dad was pretty cool with it but I think it made my mom worry. The second one is obviously much more recent. I don't have many examples left of my childhood artwork, but if I did you'd see it was full of pre-renaissance Disney girls until Ariel came along, giving me a new obsession. Oh, and Garfield. Lots and lots of Garfield. What can I say, it was the 80's.

And for something slightly less conventional for me:



The majority of my work is all digital these days (even the sketching) but I'm hoping that I can get somewhat more of a traditional feel through it.

enigmawing wrote: Super Aurora~ It's cool, I have a hard time with names myself. I actually had the chance to meet Dean Yeagle, but I was so intimidated that I wasn't even able to speak with him.

Damn, you should of taken it! I would love get that opportunity. But there is few artist I'd rather me first before him. Like J Scott Campbell- which i admit would also be bit nervous too to not just meet him but show him my profolio as well.

I met some famous comic/character designer artists myself like Darwyn Cooke(Justice League New Frontier), and Stephen Silver (Kim Possible)

enigmawing wrote:I'm exceptionally proud of the work I've done with JKR; without him I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard and learned so much in the past few years. And yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. I feel really lucky that he created O Girl especially with my coloring in mind, he's even given my characters small cameos throughout the comic.

That's great to hear. I check his site. I wish I could see the images better to see his work better. Too bad it's a pay site. Does he have a DA?

enigmawing wrote:It took me a while to get the hang of digital coloring, but I still have a deep appreciation for more traditional work. I've been thinking about picking up the Copic markers but they're so expensive! They sure look like they'd be fun to play with though. I'm looking forward to seeing how your final piece with your characters turns out.

Yeah, Copic markers are expensive as fuck. I usually get one set(there's 4 main ones with 72 markers) per birthday. I have 2 so far. going get the third this June.
Copic are really fun to work with. You also gotta know how use them too, which took me while to get use to. but when you do know, they come makes works come out really damn good. Many manga artist use them such as Tite Kubo of Bleach fame. here's example:





And thanks for looking forward to my artwork. I also have to finish or raher fix up one for Pap64 I promise him with.

enigmawing wrote:Goliath~ Thanks! And we all can't, um . . . appreciate art in the same way that Super Aurora does.

LOL, I'm not JUST that with the art. It's one of em yeah lol, but there are other things I appreciate it for as well.

enigmawing wrote:And for an early example of where I started . . .

For 12 yr old, that's not bad imo.

Super Aurora wrote:Damn, you should of taken it! I would love get that opportunity. But there is few artist I'd rather me first before him. Like J Scott Campbell- which i admit would also be bit nervous too to not just meet him but show him my profolio as well.

Oh, I totally should have! He looked rather aggressive at the moment, and it already took everything I had to speak with Chris Sanders (that was the same day at the SDCC). Plus it was immediately after he'd emailed JKR with a concern that people might mistake Mindy for his Mandy and asked for more changes to be made on her design. I was a bit intimidated. I'm sure I'll get another chance though, we'll certainly be heading to more cons in the future .

Super Aurora wrote:I met some famous comic/character designer artists myself like Darwyn Cooke(Justice League New Frontier), and Stephen Silver (Kim Possible)

That's pretty cool. I'm not super familiar with Darwyn Cooke (I really haven't kept up with animation and comics like I should in the past few years but I'm googling him right now) but I'm sure you already know I'm a huge fan of Stephen Silver.

Super Aurora wrote:That's great to hear. I check his site. I wish I could see the images better to see his work better. Too bad it's a pay site. Does he have a DA?

He doesn't post any art on his dA, I think he only uses his account to check out other artists. However, I'm PM'ing you the link to a forum where he posts actively, you can probably get a better look at some of his work there and will be able to ask him questions and such if you like (again, it's NSFW as it's a sister site to his own).

Super Aurora wrote:Yeah, Copic markers are expensive as fuck. I usually get one set(there's 4 main ones with 72 markers) per birthday. I have 2 so far. going get the third this June.
Copic are really fun to work with. You also gotta know how use them too, which took me while to get use to. but when you do know, they come makes works come out really damn good. Many manga artist use them such as Tite Kubo of Bleach fame. here's example:

That's pretty cool. They have sets and individuals for sale at my local Blick store. I figure I'll splurge on them if I can talk myself into doing more drawings on actual paper. It's crazy what you get used to; I used to really be into colored pencils and bought myself a great set a few years back . . . and they've been sitting in their tin all this time, still unused since I've gotten into digital art so much. I used to work with brush tip markers for a while too, but like I was saying, I've yet to try out the Copics.

Super Aurora wrote:And thanks for looking forward to my artwork. I also have to finish or raher fix up one for Pap64 I promise him with.

Hey, it's cool.

Super Aurora wrote:

enigmawing wrote:Goliath~ Thanks! And we all can't, um . . . appreciate art in the same way that Super Aurora does.

LOL, I'm not JUST that with the art. It's one of em yeah lol, but there are other things I appreciate it for as well.

Oh, I totally get that, lol. I can't say the art "does" anything for me, but I have an appreciation for all kinds of work.

enigmawing wrote:For 12 yr old, that's not bad imo.

Thanks! Everyone in my family had a thing for drawing so we were encouraged at an early age.

I forgot to mention this earlier, e, but I also envy you. I LOVE character design, and I've always wished I had the skills to draw and design my own characters.

I think all artists have a "niche" they are best at. After watching Chris Sander's gallery, he definitely has two: cute and quirky creatures and curvy women. This is more than noticeable in Lilo and Stitch. Stitch, Nani and Lilo have Sanders's look all over them, and in How to Train your Dragon Toothless is a Sanders creation through and through.

Glen Keane is like that as well. His forte is definitely female characters. I mean, sure, he has drawn and animated male characters, but I think his best work has always been women. Ariel, Rapunzel, Pocahontas, all seem to best represent Keane's own talents. Also if you noticed, he loves them small, quirky and barefoot .

I believe this is why they hire multiple animators and artists for an animated movie. Even if they all come together for ONE animated movie they can all share an idea that evolves into multiple creations. One animator may be good at drawing young girls, while another can create awesome creatures.

The process of taking all these designs and creating one uniformed aesthetic must be awesome and painfully frustrating.

pap64~ I do love the collaboration process between so many talented artists that each have their own unique strengths, and I love seeing others pointing it out. So many seem to give all the credit to the animators. Of course they're important, but so many others are needed to contribute in order to make a final film with a cohesive look and overall structure that works. I totally agree that most artists have their niche; it was something I thoroughly discussed with a friend last year when I was lamenting about my lack of anatomy skills (I really need to go back to art school).

I don't think any artist is ever completely satisfied with their own work, not even the most popular professionals that so many of us look up to. I think we all have an envy for an ability we've struggled with or feel we never had to begin with. But I think we all have a way to contribute creatively to anything we're passionate about. And I totally agree that it's gotta be both awesome and painfully frustrating to be a part of the process. While they were on a much smaller scale, my very first collaborations with different artists were amazing experiences for me, allowing me to feel accomplished over work that I was in no way capable of doing all on my own. And conforming to someone else's style can be enormously frustrating/challenging, but often well worth it.

I had so much ambition and drive when I was younger, I even competed for and won a scholarship at a big city art school where I specialized with more realistic work than my current friends are used to seeing from me:



I only lasted a year though, as I put my dreams on hold in order to care for my mother when she was dying of cancer. After we lost her . . . well, I let my dreams die with her. Oh, I still drew a little here and there, but the ambition and drive I had once possessed was completely gone. I spent a couple of years in limbo before becoming an airbrush artist, and that was a position I felt I had little creativity with, mainly because we did little beyond stock designs. Sometimes I got to work on something a little more original, fun, or detailed, and I did learn a lot in my time there. I even toyed with making up some original characters but never really went anywhere with them. I spent four years in that position before getting laid off, and once again stopped drawing as I got busy and distracted with other areas of my life.

I didn't really start playing around with a pencil again until I started working with groups of children a few years later, where I'd often draw to teach them about various things and sometimes simply for their entertainment. One day I drew one of my characters while everyone was coloring, and several girls asked if they could color her. I asked them to hold on a moment while I inked the drawing with a Crayola marker and ran off to make photocopies to pass out. This isn't the exact same picture (it has since been lost) but this one was made around the same time of the same character:



And to my surprise, they all interpreted her as me, matching my hair, eyes, and uniform with their crayons (I had short hair at the time). It was a fun moment and made me realize that maybe I could really get back into art again and perhaps put some passion back into drawing like I had when I was younger.

I was extremely rusty at that point, but I started drawing various things to copy for the kids to color, everything from Disney to Pokemon to realistic animals. I'd use those copies to teach the kids how to draw step-by-step, use them to tell stories and teach information, and even gave them tips on blending colors with markers and colored pencils (these were kids aged 6-12). This is how my coloring looked at the time (Crayola markers and colored pencils):



I eventually started getting more ambitious and nervously started sharing my work online . . . to little reaction, lol. But I can't blame anyone, once again I was way rusty and had a long way to go before my art became a little more refined. Here's an Ariel I did back then along with a more recent one:



I had to retrain myself how to draw all over again, and pretty much everything I've learned about cartoon figures and coloring has been self-taught. Cartoon proportions and forms are deceptively simple; I actually have a much easier time drawing something realistic and still have such a long way to go with my learning.

Okay, I think I've rambled on long enough for one day. I appreciate all the comments so far.

Since the upcoming Smurfs film is becoming a hot topic, I thought I'd dig out my own offending take on one of the characters from last year.

enigmawing wrote: Oh, I totally should have! He looked rather aggressive at the moment, and it already took everything I had to speak with Chris Sanders (that was the same day at the SDCC). Plus it was immediately after he'd emailed JKR with a concern that people might mistake Mindy for his Mandy and asked for more changes to be made on her design. I was a bit intimidated. I'm sure I'll get another chance though, we'll certainly be heading to more cons in the future .

Ah. I know that feeling. I’d probably act similar if I had chance meet someone I look up to.

enigmawing wrote: That's pretty cool. I'm not super familiar with Darwyn Cooke (I really haven't kept up with animation and comics like I should in the past few years but I'm googling him right now) but I'm sure you already know I'm a huge fan of Stephen Silver.

I knew you like him hence why I brought him up. Darwyn Cooke is a comic artist, mostly for DC. He’s most know for the two volumes Justice League New Frontier series which has also got adapted into a direct animated movie.

enigmawing wrote: He doesn't post any art on his dA, I think he only uses his account to check out other artists. However, I'm PM'ing you the link to a forum where he posts actively, you can probably get a better look at some of his work there and will be able to ask him questions and such if you like (again, it's NSFW as it's a sister site to his own).

Thanks for pm. Didn’t check it yet.

enigmawing wrote: That's pretty cool. They have sets and individuals for sale at my local Blick store. I figure I'll splurge on them if I can talk myself into doing more drawings on actual paper. It's crazy what you get used to; I used to really be into colored pencils and bought myself a great set a few years back . . . and they've been sitting in their tin all this time, still unused since I've gotten into digital art so much. I used to work with brush tip markers for a while too, but like I was saying, I've yet to try out the Copics.

Copics are great. I personally suggest the copic sketch ones as they work much better and have a brush side to it. The colors work so well and I’ve been improving on it too. Doing the skin tone very well now.

I also uses PITT brush marker pens too for inking and some coloring.

Also have huge color pencil set too. I use to do that a lot but I’m getting more and more hang of the copics and feeling more comfortable with them now.

enigmawing wrote: Thanks! Everyone in my family had a thing for drawing so we were encouraged at an early age.

I have an uncle who’s an artist. That’s where I got my art stride from.

enigmawing wrote:pap64~ I do love the collaboration process between so many talented artists that each have their own unique strengths, and I love seeing others pointing it out. So many seem to give all the credit to the animators. Of course they're important, but so many others are needed to contribute in order to make a final film with a cohesive look and overall structure that works. I totally agree that most artists have their niche;

I agree with all that.

enigmawing wrote: I don't think any artists are ever completely satisfied with their own work, not even the most popular professional that so many of us look up to.

This is most definitely true. I have this ALL the time. Never being satisfied with what I make for the longest time. But his is a good thing cause it actually enable the artist to push and improve themselves even further and better.

enigmawing wrote: I think we all have envy for an ability we've struggled with or feel we never had to begin with.

Oh I so agree with that and can empathize with that. Lol

enigmawing wrote: But I think we all have a way to contribute creatively to anything we're passionate about.

Yep indeed.

enigmawing wrote: I had so much ambition and drive when I was younger, I even competed for and won a scholarship at a big city art school where I specialized with more realistic work than my current friends are used to seeing from me:

I only lasted a year though, as I put my dreams on hold in order to care for my mother when she was dying of cancer. After we lost her . . . well, I let my dreams die with her. Oh, I still drew a little here and there, but the ambition and drive I had once possessed was completely gone.

Yeah I had similar thing. After my Japanese best friend die felling off a cliff 3 years ago (near my birthday too.), I kinda went the off the deep end of depression and didn’t do much art work or care to bother doing any. Even during my art school years.

Now I’m able overcome that and move on forward.

enigmawing wrote: I had to retrain myself how to draw all over again, and pretty much everything I've learned about cartoon figures and coloring has been self-taught. Cartoon proportions and forms are deceptively simple; I actually have a much easier time drawing something realistic and still have such a long way to go with my learning.

Yeah same here as after taking off from School of Visual Arts and going to Bergen Community college lately, I’ve been self teaching myself and learning things on my own which surprisingly I actually been able to learn and improve far better than I ever had before. I’m very happy with progress I’ve been doing lately.



As for your smurf drawing. Nice. I like J Scott Campbell's version too:

Super Aurora wrote:Ah. I know that feeling. I’d probably act similar if I had chance meet someone I look up to.

It probably doesn't help that I have social anxieties, lol.

Super Aurora wrote:I knew you like him hence why I brought him up. Darwyn Cooke is a comic artist, mostly for DC. He’s most know for the two volumes Justice League New Frontier series which has also got adapted into a direct animated movie.

That's pretty cool. I've been trying to get back into comics again recently. And if you want to hear something crazy, I had the same Life Drawing teacher as Alex Ross (I went to the same school he did). Never actually got to meet him though, he's a bit older than me. But the teacher had some of his student work hanging up in our classroom

Super Aurora wrote:Thanks for pm. Didn’t check it yet.

No problem.

Super Aurora wrote:Copics are great. I personally suggest the copic sketch ones as they work much better and have a brush side to it. The colors work so well and I’ve been improving on it too. Doing the skin tone very well now.

I also uses PITT brush marker pens too for inking and some coloring.

Also have huge color pencil set too. I use to do that a lot but I’m getting more and more hang of the copics and feeling more comfortable with them now.

I was in that store yesterday and saw that someone's offering lessons on how to use the Copics, although I'm guessing I'd do ok with them after a little experimenting. All we picked up for now were a new set of pencils and some paper.

Super Aurora wrote:I have an uncle who’s an artist. That’s where I got my art stride from.

That's cool.

Super Aurora wrote:

enigmawing wrote: I don't think any artists are ever completely satisfied with their own work, not even the most popular professional that so many of us look up to.

This is most definitely true. I have this ALL the time. Never being satisfied with what I make for the longest time. But his is a good thing cause it actually enable the artist to push and improve themselves even further and better.

I struggle a lot and have self-doubt, but I agree that it's a good thing. It's never really a good thing to feel settled with where you're at and have no incentive to try to improve.

Super Aurora wrote:Yeah I had similar thing. After my Japanese best friend die felling off a cliff 3 years ago (near my birthday too.), I kinda went the off the deep end of depression and didn’t do much art work or care to bother doing any. Even during my art school years.

Now I’m able overcome that and move on forward.

I think that happens to a lot of us, losing something or someone important to us. It's almost a test if you think about it with how we cope, and how we grow as people from those points.

Super Aurora wrote:Yeah same here as after taking off from School of Visual Arts and going to Bergen Community college lately, I’ve been self teaching myself and learning things on my own which surprisingly I actually been able to learn and improve far better than I ever had before. I’m very happy with progress I’ve been doing lately.

You know, sometimes I think you can pick more things up from self-study than you can with a teacher; it probably depends on one's current drive more than anything else.

Super Aurora wrote:As for your smurf drawing. Nice. I like J Scott Campbell's version too:

Heh heh, thanks! And I like that one too. I did an earlier one as well but it's not exactly appropriate to post here.

* * *

Anyway, more old photoshop silliness:



A house I built for my hamster (which I submitted to icanhascheezburger with no success, lol):



Another KP pic with my character . . .



An awesome drawing a friend did for Rey and I back when we first started dating, I did some simple colors on it:



* * *

Well, until next time.

enigmawing wrote:A house I built for my hamster (which I submitted to icanhascheezburger with no success, lol):

Haha, don't worry, I never have any luck with that website either.