Crankshaft's Sketchbook

Thanks Atto! It's been really "tough loosening up" but I noticed something important: these were way more fun and natural to draw!

Updates! Some of the past work I did with my mentor. Look carefully at the shapes and diversity of the before vs the after. I've learned that working with silhouettes is super powerful, efficient and controlled over working linearly, with just lines. Also these methods help a ton with coming up with ideas that I would of never come up with on my own!

Graphic read before:



After:



Happy accidents before:



After:



Kit bashed before:



After:



Planned: Before

After:

Here's the mech I'm currently working on for the mentor ship. He hasn't crit it yet either (due this Tuesday).

Updates. Some gestures and a study on proportions, as mentioned in a previous crit.









Crappy small sketches. I hate drawing on car rides but it's better than doing nothing. I love ww1/ww2 and I watch and listen to a lot of documentaries. Here some Japanese Val bombers are attacking the USS Enterprise during the battle of Midway.

So the mentorship is super hard and painful. I've seeing my babies critiqued to shreds ><. Design is 100x harder than simply learning the fundamentals bc it's so non linear. I feel more like an engineer building a mech than an artist. I'm wondering if I'll have the mental capacity to handle all the thinking and problem solving. Good news is that things are still early for me and I'm already getting a taste of what's it like to be a real concept artist.

Comparison of mechs. Notice how the current mech (which still has many problems) is much more dynamic, easier to read, better silhouette, better shapes and more functional. It's also feels more researched and military and not random.





I realized that my visual library actually sucks so I'm going to be doing these sketches of random things I like. Pretty soon I'd like to sketch animals and organic things. The goal of these sketches is to build my knowledge and understanding of the subjects, build confidence in my mark making and learn to pre visualize before even making marks. Before with pencil I would draw 100 lines over one thing ><. So there will be loads of perspective mistakes but that's not the point.

This is the sea king stallion helicopter.





Graphic read assignment. The goal here was to learn to separate and distribute colors/values while changing the aesthetics. Do all that under a design brief(s) as well. The eye sees the silhouette of an object first followed by the major shapes followed by a graphic separation of values/colors. Super hard, I have no experience with color so my brain was fried. Also I was quickly running of ideas and I even started recycling ideas, which was defeating the purpose of the assignment.



Unfortunately with my mentorship taking all my time everything else is taking a back seat. Here is a small update on my schoolism water assignment. The bg was already painted and we fill in the water.

Some gesture fail. I'm probably repeating some of the same problems here but that's bc all my energy's on the mentorship. I just want to make sure I squeeze other stuff as well. Going to post an update on that mech soon!

Hey Crank I agree with Atto the latest thumbnails are looking great! You could develop anyone into a finished piece. I like the spaceship and the platform the best, those two especially draw your eyes in right away, which always makes for a good piece, because the perspective is clear. I think you should focus more on thumbnails/environment pics right now as they are looking great! The one with the two containers is my fav, overlap really does a great job of separating images and creating depth. That rule especially helps me in a lot of situations. I find if you stress you won't make nearly as good stuff then if you just relax and have fun with it. I get like that too, happens to the best of us!

Don't worry about the crits on all your stuff from your mentor. I know what you mean, someone could say your stuff is awesome then start critting it, and all you can remember is the crits Try to see it from your mentors point of view and distance yourself from it a bit and it won't sting so much. Although the positives outweigh the negatives, meaning your stuff is looking better as a result of it, so you have that!

Update on my mech! Loads of problems here ie contrast creep, perspective etc. I think this is a huge level up from the previous mech! Just look at how much more dynamic it is! Hardly any boxes! I used lots of kit bashing which is super useful for coming with awesome shapes that I would never thought of! Also I've learned some important lessons: I grew too attached to line drawings and separated my processes way too much. By working with tone, value, abstract shapes all at once I was able to design this mech very organically and wayy faster than my other designs!



Graphic read and value simplification .



Original with contrast creep to help me see the planes.



Some of the refs I used for kit bashing.

microscopi wrote:

Hey Crank I agree with Atto the latest thumbnails are looking great! You could develop anyone into a finished piece. I like the spaceship and the platform the best, those two especially draw your eyes in right away, which always makes for a good piece, because the perspective is clear. I think you should focus more on thumbnails/environment pics right now as they are looking great! The one with the two containers is my fav, overlap really does a great job of separating images and creating depth. That rule especially helps me in a lot of situations. I find if you stress you won't make nearly as good stuff then if you just relax and have fun with it. I get like that too, happens to the best of us!

Don't worry about the crits on all your stuff from your mentor. I know what you mean, someone could say your stuff is awesome then start critting it, and all you can remember is the crits Try to see it from your mentors point of view and distance yourself from it a bit and it won't sting so much. Although the positives outweigh the negatives, meaning your stuff is looking better as a result of it, so you have that!

Thank you so much mirco! Your kindness means a lot ! Art is so painful and tough. There's so much doubt these days... I have to remind myself that even the people I look up too probably have their own doubts too! Thanks for dropping by!

Updates. Arghh my mentorship is taking up so much time so everything else is taking a back seat. I did muster some gesture fail. I think my overlaps are slightly improving. Anyways some shameful gloating: My mentor said the that the new mech was a massive level up from the previous one. I talked about having a lot of epiphanies, like I have all this knowledge but could never apply it in a fluid manner. Now I can!









Japanese Zero plane sketch. Gotta work on that draftsmanship. ><



Mech update. Learning so much! Unfortunately it's only a month long but that 1 month would be equivalent to 6-7 months of me learning on my own! I've learned some important lessons and info:



-It's way better and faster to learn from people way more skilled than you are than to try and figure everything out on your own. Therefore sign up for courses etc.

-I didn't realize it but he was giving me a simulation of what's it like to be a real concept artist working in a studio. We were constantly going back and forth with revisions on the mech, critiquing, improving and explaining things on the go. Therefore it felt more like engineering, like we were building something and everyone has a role to play. Ie I would design something then he design on top of that and vice versa. So in the end a design may not belong to a single person but to a team instead. It seems concept art is more about the journey rather than the end product.

-The proportions had a child like feel bc it resemble a kid. Ie Big head, big feet, small legs. I didn't even notice that until he pointed it out!