Maklai's Art

The random ramblings of an artist

[captain-maklai]

Blarg

Just a quick doodle I thought I’d post, was a bit random but I liked it enough that I thought it might be worth sharing :)

[captain-maklai]

Some WIP stuff

A bit of a continuation of what I was doing in my last post; vignette’s and test pieces for some far larger scale stuff I’m going to be doing in the next week or so for my current University project. Like I said this one is still very much WIP and is still just a vignette so nothing too over the top or anything.

I did want to still post this for a couple of reasons though; firstly I’d been utilizing ink washes far more in this one than in the last one and as a result it ended up with a different, but (at least in my opinion) still just as nice aesthetic. Also this one still has quite a lot of the pencil work in it alongside the ink lining that isn’t block shading or anything like that, so I thought it gave a little more insight into my working process and how I go about constructing my line-work.

[captain-maklai]

More Comic Art Stuff!

So like I said in my last post I’ve done some more advanced experimentation with Indian inks and I’ve actually been really happy with the results considering the level of quality I’ve been able to get out of these next couple of pieces compared to how long it took to created them.

I intentionally went for a far messier style with them and tried to exaggerate the grittiness of the scene overall; and I found that it reminded me a little bit of Mike Mignola’s stuff with a little bit of Iron Maiden’s Eddie thrown in too. I also in massive contrast to most of the other stuff I do actually utilized washes with this to pretty nice effect on the shirt and used it to supplement and complement some of the areas wherein I’d used a more minimalist form of shading.

Couple of last things to note; these two vignette pieces were actually done freehand which in addition to making the process of their creation a bit riskier and more experimental, also allowed them to be more expressive by dint of being naturally exaggerated. They are also technically a little work in progress too because I’ve also been planning on colouring via ink washes, I just need to figure out what kind of inks I want to use for it. Lastly like I’ve said these were more prototype focused and as a result they don’t necessarily 100% reflect the quality this style is capable of; I have however, been working working on a more comprehensive piece that isn’t freehand with this style that I’ll hopefully be able to post soon.

[captain-maklai]

More Advanced Stuff!

I promised more advanced artwork, and I hath delivered such! These three photo’s were all taken of a splash page I’m currently in the middle of working of for a University project; as you may have guessed just from their aesthetic I’ve been going all out on trying to replicate a more “American Super-hero” art style in a somewhat similar, although certainly not identical vein to Marvel or DC comics.

The two characters of especial importance within this splash page, and the first you’ll likely notice are Patriot, whom I’ve created art for before, and who is actually the source upon which I’ve based my current project. And Red Winter, an equally “Patriotic” meta-human character, but who plays off of entirely different stereotypes and tropes to The Patriot.

Lastly, whilst I can’t really say much more about my project (primarily because I hope to do more with it long term once I improve further as an artist) I can talk a little bit about further attempts that I’ve been undertaking to replicate Super-hero comic art-styles and improve my illustrative skills in general. I’ve been working far more lately with Speedball Indian ink; which is the medium that makes the line-work on this splash page pop a bit more and seem more dynamic, as well as micron fine-liners which I’ve been using for smaller details. Another important thing, probably THE most important thing actually has been the “Shapecrafting” now this term doesn’t actually exist, I just thought that it was the most accurate way of describing the primary artistic building block for comic art. “Shapecrafting” basically entails the use of a very abstract shape or object drawn within the boundaries of some pre-existing line-work that is used to provide definition and shape to the outline in question without having to resort to repetitive tonal work. The best example would probably be on Red Winters clothing; the shape of the cloth itself is really rather basic, consisting of a few spikes and bumps in a vaguely hill-like shape. But with the addition of the more jagged and zig-zag lines within that it helps define itself very clearly as a piece of creased clothing.

Anyway I’ve likely rambled on far too much already in this post, and going into weird art process is taxing enough, so that's all from me today. I will however be posting another update to my more advanced comic stuff tomorrow that is far more developed than this one, so stay tuned.

:)

[captain-maklai]

Some Character Development Stuff!

So I only just realized (accidentally honestly) that I actually had a bunch of different art pieces all depicting the same character at different stages of development. Like I said I never actually created these 100% for the purpose of developing this character or its design but I figured that they were pretty good and gave a bit of an insight into how I develop stuff subconsciously.

Each of these pieces were all created using similar materials and media, but they each showcase a slightly different way of using said media to have fairly different stylistic outcomes. The two pieces that incorporate the headband for example use near identical processes, the only difference is that the first is Biro overlaid on top of water-colour and ink, whereas its second counterpart is exactly the same but with Fine-liner instead of Biro. The remaining piece is obviously a bit of an outlier but I still think it holds some value; specifically because I think it is of a higher level of quality than the other two, but it isn’t quite as creative and doesn’t really hold that much stylistic strength.

Anyway just figured I’d share these because the whole subconscious revision of this one character’s design was something I only just noticed myself and I thought it was interesting. Lastly my next couple of posts are going to pertain more directly to the project I’m currently embroiled in, and will showcase art that is both of a far higher quality, but that is also a lot more experimental when compared to what I usually do. (Even more than usual, its VERY different from the kind of approach I usually take, but I think Y’all might like it)

[synthcalibur]

bloodborneまとめ  by あれく-コミティアみ14b

[captain-maklai]

Holy crap this is awesome. I know me re-posting stuff is a bit random and inconsistent but this was far too good not to

[captain-maklai]

Microns are sweet

So recently (because of some final pieces I have to illustrate in the very near future) I’ve been stocking up on better quality materials and media of late, and amongst them are Micron fine-liners. Needless to say I really like the results; this piece was by no means comprehensive was still pretty nice considering It didn't’ take too long to create. I’ve also been experimenting with a few more comic-focused art techniques too, some less specific, but some a little more comprehensive like the ever so loved Kirby Krackle which I’ve been finding myself to be more of a fan of recently.

[captain-maklai]

Comic Prototypes!

Ok so first off sorry for my absence for the past week or so; the last little while has been a bit busy with University work and stuff, but hopefully I should be done with that for now and will be able to post regularly again for at least the next couple of weeks. One of the things I’ve been producing over the past week or two includes this; a bit of a mini-prototype that I created to help try and congeal some ideas I had for the final product a bit more and give me a better idea as to the direction I wanted to take it.

Despite its appearance this piece was actually done in biro, albeit I did place especial focus on trying to exaggerate the lighting within the scene I was depicting, and I also tried to make certain that the tone felt uncomfortable and a little disorientating. I also did a few new things with editing the piece after I scanned it in, which has left it with its weird aesthetic.

[captain-maklai]

Biro Moleskine Stuff!

So I tried out using a moleskine sketchbook for the first time ever, up until this point I’d been kind of put off by how thin the paper was and the fact that they didn’t have ring bindings, but I ended up getting one as a present in the past couple of months. Thankfully I ended up trying it out and I am SO damn glad I did because it turns out my misconceptions were wrong, the thinner paper isn’t actually much of an issue and the paper takes to biro ink really, really well.

The two Illustrations here were done freehand and just sort of as doodles but overall they actually turned out pretty nicely. The designs were a bit off of the cuff but the second one was something of a culmination of a few ideas I’ve had for a while but haven’t been able to implement up until now. Either way I like both pieces and both designs, and I’m definitely going to be using Moleskine’s more although unfortunately as you can likely tell the ink reflection on moleskine paper is quite a bit more exaggerated than it is on cartridge, I may end up finding a way to minimize or subvert this (I really hope I do) but either way I’ll be posting a few other moleskine doodles I’ve been doing in the next couple of days.

[captain-maklai]

A new format

So I’ve decided on uploading the backlog pictures in a new way, primarily because i need time to locate all of the pictures, but also because I think it would make things a bit more interesting. I’ve decided on uploading a recent or brand new piece in addition to a backlog one, simple so you can see what I’m currently working in addition to the old stuff instead of just having one or the other.

Anyway to the art pieces themselves; the first one is a developmental piece for the project I’m currently working on, it was created with a 0.7 fineliner and whilst I did employ my more usual method for shading and toning I did attempt to add a bit of block shading in there as well. I’ve actually done quite a lot of these quicker fineliner illustrations recently in the hopes that I’ll be able to ween myself off of my usual illustrative process and start doing something that incorporates block shading far more or at least feels comic-booky.

The second piece is the older piece and was and still is the only biro piece I’ve coloured using inks; kind of odd considering it turned out pretty vibrant and didn’t really rob the piece of any of its tone. Another note about this piece is its very odd design, the reason for which can be attributed to Dark Souls, as there is a very unusual enemy known as an eggburdened that is a kind of weird parasitically infected cultist. This design was sort of an effort to make a more humanoid version of the eggburdened whilst still keeping its horrifying aesthetic.

[captain-maklai]

Submission pieces!

Considering the haphazard way I’ve been uploading the backlog of stuff I have its no wonder there’s a lot of inconsistency, but even then I may have gone a little too far with these pieces. To clarify these were final hand in pictures (not specifically for the “Proper” hand in, they were ancillary stuff, a fashion illustration and a poster) but even still they do both have a few hours put into them.

The first is somewhat par for the course for my artwork, although I think the spookier backdrop and the increased use of block shading and dark tones really helped the image “pop” more when compared to previous biro pieces I’ve done. Then there’s the second piece, which honestly looking back on it isn’t as good as I remember but I still love this piece. As you can likely imagine it was heavily inspired by a lot of Gothic steampunk crossover stuff and was heavily centered around “Frankensteinian” themes. It also has a quite a lot of colour variety considering how much I like to go monochrome, and the lighting was a nice touch too that I really should use in more of my art and try to improve upon.

Overall, both nice pieces that I really should have learned more from, I may go back to utilizing watercolour and inks, nice to look back on and in retrospect I really should do more stuff like this in the future.

[captain-maklai]

Marker Development.

These pieces were also created as development pieces for the project I mentioned in the previous post. Whilst not Too remarkable in and of themselves these pieces do have significance because they laid the foundations for the marker style I used for some of my older posts. Aside from that I do also like the Lovecraftian tone some of these designs have and whilst I’d not use them again exactly I think I’d probably consider integrating some elements of their overall designs into some newer and more compacted and developed art pieces.

[captain-maklai]

Halloween-ey Development work

Another bit of art from the back-load I keep mentioning, these two pieces were created for a project where we were required to design an album cover. I ended up going with something a little more horror themed and warm toned with some of my initial designs and because the project was taking place around Halloween I decided to throw in a few Pumpkin motifs as well.

[captain-maklai]

The first of many...

So these two pieces are the first (not chronologically though) of several...well several godknows how many development pictures that I’ve created for University projects, personal, projects, and just from doodline over the past 4 months of so. Needless to say there’s a shitton to get through so I figured I’d start with some of the better and more interesting stuff.

These two designs were created in accordance with some experimentation I was doing for a project revolving around comic creation and character design. More specifically I was trying to use coloured pencils (and ONLY coloured pencils) to create art in an effective manner. Along the way I also ended up making all the character designs weirdo and hipster, and putting them in weird angular frames for good measure. Like I said I still have a massive amount of stuff to post, but in particular I have quite a few of these, so expect to see more in the coming days.

[captain-maklai]

The Dictator

So the Utopian fellow I posted a few days ago? Well this lovely chap is his counterpart; The Dictator, and not only that but I wound up stumbling on a load of WIP pictures of both of them. I figured that the WIP’s were interesting enough in and of themselves, and still pretty aesthetically pleasing so I figured I might as well upload them. There is also an inked version of this guy, along with a fully completed and coloured poster version as well, both of which I’ll upload when I find the time and the files themselves.

As for a little bit of background on the image and character themselves? Well for starters The Dictator IS a mythos character of mine that I plan on basing some narrative art around some day (although  that's not likely to be too soon though) and he featured into an essay wherein I analyzed the differences and similarities between propaganda posters and how they related to rheumatics and semiotics. Riveting stuff, I know. Overall I still love his design and not just because his Armour is weird and his helmet is also his gorget mind you. Its also because I went out of my way to include as much occular and eye symbolism into the piece (of stuff that mimics it) as I positively could, so the dude is effectively a walking, talking, paranoia beacon.

[captain-maklai]

Ill-ustations

So these next two were part of a series of illustrations I created whilst I was still ill, specifically I think it was the third or so week of me having the infection. As you can imagine, illustrating when you can only see out of one eye is not the best thing in the world, but taking that into consideration I think these two actually turned out rather well.

The first was an attempt to experiment with more dynamic poses and character interaction, and took a bit of inspiration from the aesthetic of things like Viewtiful Joe, and Super Sentai. The second was an attempt to create a character that I’d developed in Champion’s online and I’d consider her to be the better of the two pieces overall.

[captain-maklai]

Biro Stuff!

This piece is actually a bit more recent, I did it just over a week or so ago, after I’d mostly recovered from that oh so wonderful eye infection. As per usual for many of my illustrations this fellow was done entirely in biro, and took a considerable amount of time to create, but overall I think it turned out quite nicely.

There is one thing of not about this piece however; and that is that it was illustrated on card, odd for me considering I usually stick to smaller cartridge paper sketchbooks instead. Thankfully my work on this new card has proven to have improved the quality of my artwork quite a bit (at least I think so, but I’m misguided so whatever) and I’ve produced quite a lot of illustrations on this card in the past two weeks or so.