[Brett]

Hey I'm starting a new piece and was wondering if I could get some feedback on the main figure. He's a barbarian type and will eventually have boots and some more clothes on as well as a weapon or two (sword in forward hand and knife on a belt etc) and a little bit of armor. He's also gonna be joined by some companions. I'll probably persue fleshing them out the same way I've started with him so feedback would be nice. Also, I'm trying to get rid of any pixelization problems so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

You can see him at: http://www.geocities.com/tadlockart/newpics.html

Finally, one quick question, and if there's a place I can go and read the answer please tell me. How do you guys go about getting a hardcopy of your pieces, especially when they're the quality of Spooge or Fred's? Quite a bit of the stuff I've seen on here by everyone is spectacular so that's a question that's come to mind. Anyway, thanks for any feedback and an answer to the question. Sorry, I've gone long on this post.

[Chapel]

I can't help but think that I have seen that image somewhere before. I'm thinking it looks like something Frazetta might have done, but I don't have my picture book here.

[Brett]

ummmm, nope. I don't know of a Frazetta that looks like that. Not saying that it doesn't exist I just don't know of it. I'm not a big Frazetta fan.
I sketched it up Wed. night and then scanned it and started colorizing it. I'm going for a generic fantasy barbarian pose so that may be why it looks familiar. But I certainly didn't copy anything if that's what you're implying.

[Chapel]

I remember what it looks like now. "How to draw the Marvel Way!" There is a pinup of Namor in there. Very simular pose if I remember. Someone permanently borrowed that book from me, so I don't have a pic to show you the resemblance. Just an observation.

[This message has been edited by Chapel (edited August 25, 2000).]

[Rinaldo]

Hi Bret. Definitly looks like a marvel pose. Although the anatomy is way better than that marvel stuff. There is nothing wrong with the pose in itself tho.

I would ask a few questions such as: How are you colouring it. what res are you working in. Are you doing anything to the drawing before puting colour down. what are you drawing with. etc. It is very hard to crit if I don't know what you want to do with the image, and how you are going to do it.
Your anatomy is a fair bit better than mine so I can't really crit you on that. the head looks like it is too far out tho. If you put yourself in that position it doesn't really work. And I'm not sure that the head would be on that angle either.more diagonal I think?

Anyway it looks like a really good start. I tend to try and lay out the whole image in Thumbnail form if I'm going to spend a lot of time on it (although as fred pointed out I didn't do such a good job of this last time). Doing things on the fly sometimes produces disjointed images.

Really nice

[Chapel]

Rinaldo: The artist that did the book "How to draw the Marvel Way" was John Buscema. Very classic look. His anatomy and drawing technique is very simular to other fantasy artist like Frazetta. It was a little toned down though do to it being comics. So, don't judge a book by its cover. hehe

By the way the reason the image kinda stands out in my mind is because I liked the anatomy of the back. When I was learning to draw and I used that book I remember wanting to be able to draw anatomy like that one day.

[Brett]

Oh my God you're right! I remember that picture. I'd forgotten all about it. Doesn't surprise me though. That book was one of the places that I learned to draw the figure from. Wow, that's just funny.

Rinaldo: I drew it in pencil and then went over it in ink so it would scan better. Scanned it in as a blk-n-white image with med. res. I then opened it in Photo and increased the res to 1500 pixels/cm. I'm planning on pushing the lights/darks more and making him black. Then I'll add the other stuff I mentioned. The scene is gonna be outdoors on a mountain face with his companions to his upper left. You may be right about the head since my wife mentioned the same thing. I may change its angle.

[AliasMoze]

Brett,
WEll I agree with one thing. You didn't copy the image. You freakin' traced it. A word of advice: don't rip off such a well-known image and try to pass it off as your own work. I would think most of the guys in here grew up with the Marvel book. I myself instantly recognized the image of Namor.

What gives you image away the most? Buscema was a fantasic artist. You have a great pose and a not-so-great drawing on top. I wouldn't have minded if you copied or traced the image and said as much. But to blatantly rip something off and deny it...no,no,no...

http://www.moserbrothers.com/daf/barbarian2.jpg
http://www.moserbrothers.com/daf/barbarian3.jpg
Seperated at birth? You decide.

I edited this message to include just the links, now that the cat's out of the bag and to save Brett any further embarassment.
------------------
AliasMoze

"That activates my hilarity unit."

[This message has been edited by AliasMoze (edited August 25, 2000).]

[Joachim]

In my mind, if the pose is copied or not, really doesn't matter. Because if it is, then the only one that are being fooled is the artist himself.
But, brett, in my opinion, what makes me feel that the pose is not self composed is that the shading, shadowing and the face don't hold the same standard as the underlying anatomy. No offence, but I think it looks like you have a very nice pencil sketch in the bottom but the rendering on top is without much thought on how it should be or fit any sorroundings.

Hope you don't feel that I'm being an ass, I'm not trying to be, just my opinion.

oh, hehe, I didn't see your post aliazmose when I wrote this. Anyway that just proves my statement -this kind of stuff is usually rather obvious for other artists to see, especially when different parts of the painting don't hold the same style and quality.

------------------
Joachim
web:
http://home.online.no/~j-barrum/


[This message has been edited by Joachim (edited August 25, 2000).]

[Chapel]

Well one good thing.. I still have a semi-photographic memory, and from a recent thread I made so does about 75% of the members on the forum. Thanks Alias for the scan. I was going to go buy the book again.

By the way.. I almost gave you the benefit of the doubt till I went to your website and saw your gallery. Very inconsistent artwork. Also, all the copyright junk makes a man wonder.

[This message has been edited by Chapel (edited August 25, 2000).]

[micke]

The technique or shadowing usually show if
the picture has been copied and modified from another artists sketch.

[This message has been edited by micke (edited August 25, 2000).]

[Brett]

You're right I traced it. I was wanting to work on the shading and everything w/o having to worry about the form. I apologize for being misleading about it. I hope that you can forgive me. In the future I will do my best to be honest. It was a moment of stupidity on my part. I apologize and can't explain why I did it.

[AliasMoze]

I'm not criticizing Brett or the art on his site. I don't even have a problem with his copying or tracing. The reason I even recognized the Marvel drawing is that I myself copied it as a kid.
The problem is that Brett tried to pass the drawing off as his.

[Joachim]

nice of you to admit it Brett.
I don't personally care, because it was rather obvious, and like I said earlier, the only one that is being fooled is the artist himself. So, in my eyes, apology is accepted, as long as you behave nice & honostly from now on

------------------
Joachim
web:
http://home.online.no/~j-barrum/

[Chapel]

Well, I'm not criticizing the artwork on his site except for the inconsistency between pics. However, I will criticize his behavior. I do not like being lied to or have someone try to play me for a fool. It is an insult my intelligence. I did try to give Brett the chance to come clean. I find it disconcerting that someone so paranoid about copyrights would do the very thing he was afraid of. The only thing I can see learned from tracing is how to ink....maybe. If you are going to color the image then just do that.. no point in tracing it. I myself have copied another artist here and there, but I've never traced and I've never passed it off as my own creation. What upsets me the most is that you have an art degree and this is what you did with it.

By the way, this is just my opinion on the subject. I do not speak for everyone on the forum just myself.

[This message has been edited by Chapel (edited August 25, 2000).]

[Dean Welsh]

HEY!!!! what the hell?? I didn't realize it till now but NAMOR doesn't have a wing on his back foot.

DAMN YOU JOHN BUSCEMA. I'll NOT STAND FOR THESE SHENANEGINS!!!!

uhmm... Bed time... talking nonsense again.

[Rinaldo]

Hey I sound like a bit of a dick: "the anatomy is way better than that marvel stuff"

Hahahahahah. LOL

GRRRRRRRRRRRR

I wasn't talking about that particualr book or Buscema (he and a couple of others were very good). just yer generic crappy marvel shtuff. Never even had a close look at that book.

*Sigh* I would have thought it a pretty cool idea to paint over those pencils if there was not the "rip off" factor (good exersise). Lying gets you nowhere.

[Danny]

Heh.. it seems Brett is freightened to death others will follow his example by ripping the stuff on his page. Jeeeeeezzzz... what's with all the copyright paranoia? You might just as well take 'em offline completely as there's no viewing pleasure like that at all..

Danny

ps.. what's with all the quality anomalies? Aliasing artefacts, noisefilter confetti, interpolation oddities..
Bizarre...

------------------
[email protected]

Trust in Trance