Thanqol Learns To Draw IV: NO EXCUSES

[Anarion]

The mane and tail for Celestiabot don't feel the same to me as the chest and legs now. The robotic parts have some really detailed shading whereas the fiery parts, while awesome colors, feel still unfinished when I look at it.

[Madcrafter]

The mane and tail for Celestiabot don't feel the same to me as the chest and legs now. The robotic parts have some really detailed shading whereas the fiery parts, while awesome colors, feel still unfinished when I look at it.

I agree with this, and would add the face too, since it's a face and all, should probably be one of the most detailed parts.

[Colonel Fedora]

I would also recommend increasing the value contrast in general.

[Thanqol]

Day 1242: Genius

Took some of the advice above and messed around with the colours and hues a bit. It's okay but a bit garish. Needs more thought and work.

Would like to revoke my earlier recommendation of Person of Interest. It's okay when it's talking high concept stuff about the machine but it kind of morphs into a lazy police procedural which is really frustrating. And they keep using lazy writing shortcuts, most commonly the knocked-out-from-behind gag and the 'untrained civilian goes around a corner with 15 seconds head start and the highly trained secret agent instantly loses her'. They're such pathetic tropes and I really resent the series for promising me more than it could deliver. Just file it under the generic 'white guys in suits fight crime' genre.

On the other hand, been watching the new Sherlock series and it's brilliant. It's clearly made with absolute love. Not only are the Holmes books my all-time favourites, but the series innovates on it so marvellously. It's clever, crisp, deeply respectful of both the audience and the source material, and saturated with love for the culture built around the Sherlock Holmes stories while also confidently presenting it's own ideas. It's so soaked with character and personality that it's got me really strongly thinking about the type of story I want to write myself.

A note, though; it's written for the people who've seen all the famous Holmes stuff before so that it can give those people a new take on their favourite stories. The more you know about Holmes the more you'll appreciate Sherlock so go on and sit down with Doyle's books first.

E: Okay, wow, that was the best Reichenbach scene I've seen in any media.

Links

[Thanqol]

Day 1243: Sunlight

I stood on the roadside and sketched the sunset.

Forgot how shading worked.

Day 1244: Moonlight

Tonight there is a blood red eclipse.

Captivated by beards.

[Thanqol]

Day 1245: Stiff

That was a really productive week on anything but art. But I'm super pumped for art again!

Watched Legend of Korra S3. That was great, they finally figured out what they were doing.

Day 1246: Horse With No Name

Basic design for an upcoming Fallout Equestria game. Think I'm going to go for bright hard colours this time around.

Cutie mark is the symbol for a dry well.

I might actually have to think of a name for the horse.

Links

Music: A Horse With No Name

[TheAmishPirate]

Day 1246: Horse With No Name

Basic design for an upcoming Fallout Equestria game. Think I'm going to go for bright hard colours this time around.

Cutie mark is the symbol for a dry well.

I might actually have to think of a name for the horse.

Links

Music: A Horse With No Name

Miss Nomer.

[Tiki Snakes]

Miss Nomer.

I don't think that name is right, somehow...

[Anarion]

Day 1245: Stiff
Watched Legend of Korra S3. That was great, they finally figured out what they were doing.

Yep. The villain set this time around was particularly well-executed compared to the first two seasons, imo.

Cutie mark is the symbol for a dry well.

Interesting.

I don't think that name is right, somehow...

Spoiler

Show

[Tiki Snakes]

The obvious name, via slightly removed reference, would be either Mulberry Field or Mulberry Field 30 (maybe closer to 35).

[Thanqol]

Day 1247: Colonialism Sucks

I was going to do a lot more, I was all psyched for it, but then I watched Lawrence of Arabia.

Great movie. Big movie. A lot darker than I was expecting, too. I was expecting something like Kingdom of Heaven but instead got something closer to Heart of Darkness. It's left me with a lot to chew on.

Anyway, that left my head scrambled and I just started doing stuff to the picture without an agenda per se. Yes I can see the torso thing. I'll untangle this mess later.

Links

[Tiki Snakes]

I'm just going to assume that my reference was a touch too obscure.

[Thanqol]

I'm just going to assume that my reference was a touch too obscure.

Yeah. Also I can't in good concience make a pony name that doesn't have at least 3 layers of pun.

Day 1248: Stories!

Started watching MLP season 4 for the second time. Damn that was good pony!

Links

[Tiki Snakes]

Yeah. Also I can't in good concience make a pony name that doesn't have at least 3 layers of pun.

Spoiler: Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo

Show

...

...


"As names go, it's good enough."

Genuine classic.
The (entirely unauthorised) American remake provides us with the link to your "Horse with no name".

[Thanqol]

Been super busy with work and new projects this week. Just sketching by for now, will group upload on the weekend.

[Thanqol]

Day 1254: If This Is Good?

Eh, uploading sketches is such a pain. Between scanning, transferring, cropping, uploading and linking it takes more time than the sketch itself. I'm just gonna put it off until I have something worth showing.

This week has not been good for art but it's been good for other stuff, so I'm pretty happy. Getting my sleep cycle into whack, finally writing Applejack's Infrastructure Adventures, it's all good.

Links

Music: Sledgehammer

[Thanqol]

Day 1255: Doctor Zhivago

I intended to get a lot more done today but I got suckered into watching a three hour twenty minute movie so that's kind of gone down the drain. Just did more sketching. Hopefully more time for art next week!

Also today I played a board game called Tragedy Loop which is basically Madoka Magi: The Board Game. It's a murder mystery game between fighting time travellers, it's great. I nearly lost the final round when the players started feeding everyone into the serial killer buzzsaw but I got them in the end.

[Thanqol]

Day 1256: Blindsided

Rainbow Rocks was really good. Really good! I was expecting to like it but this is crazy! Got me psyched for everything!

Links

Music: Under Our Spell

[Thanqol]

Day 1257: Dawn to Dusk

Work remains pretty intense

Day 1258: Makes Ya Lose It

Two of my colleagues experienced legit meltdowns today.

Did more than this, this is the only thing I like though.

Links

[Anarion]

Day 1257: Dawn to Dusk

Work remains pretty intense

Day 1258: Makes Ya Lose It

Two of my colleagues experienced legit meltdowns today.

Did more than this, this is the only thing I like though.

Links

I like the drawing, the hair has a really good feel to it. Eek at the colleagues though, that's going to probably make things rough for a lot of people.

[Thanqol]

I like the drawing, the hair has a really good feel to it. Eek at the colleagues though, that's going to probably make things rough for a lot of people.

They found out they were getting paid less than the people they were training soooooo

Day 1259: Wear It With Honour

Based on successful experiments yesterday, I finally took the step of designing my own brush, which I affectionately call Sharp. I really like how it feels; there's a lot of room for pressure sensitivity and none of that annoying slightly blurred edge you get with round brushes. This was just a test drive with it and it was nice and fun to do.

Links

Music: Metroid Prime - vocal

[Anarion]

Thanqol have you drawn any metroids or Samus? Your music made me think of them and I'd love to see your take on thst universe.

[Thanqol]

Thanqol have you drawn any metroids or Samus? Your music made me think of them and I'd love to see your take on thst universe.

Sure.

Day 1260: Chozo Dreams

I've always loved the Metroid series after being introduced to it with Prime. Best game. It has such a profound atmosphere that I've wondered for decades how I could possibly replicate it with writing alone and keep coming back to the thought that maybe I can't.

The Chozo are my favourite figures in the universe; to a large degree, it is their universe. Their style is just shockingly beautiful in all things; they build tremendous machines woven so closely with the natural environment that they blur the line between science, magic and divinity. Exploring their temples is almost a religious experience and I'm just captivated by the thoughts that Samus must feel exploring the wonders of her adopted race.

Today's picture was just a continued exploration of Sharp's potential. Gonna do a proper picture in this sequence soon.

Links

[Anarion]

Sure.

Day 1260: Chozo Dreams

I've always loved the Metroid series after being introduced to it with Prime. Best game. It has such a profound atmosphere that I've wondered for decades how I could possibly replicate it with writing alone and keep coming back to the thought that maybe I can't.

The Chozo are my favourite figures in the universe; to a large degree, it is their universe. Their style is just shockingly beautiful in all things; they build tremendous machines woven so closely with the natural environment that they blur the line between science, magic and divinity. Exploring their temples is almost a religious experience and I'm just captivated by the thoughts that Samus must feel exploring the wonders of her adopted race.

Today's picture was just a continued exploration of Sharp's potential. Gonna do a proper picture in this sequence soon.

Links

Awesome. I get a definitely mythic feel out of that sketch, hints of (perhaps unintentional) aboriginal/tribal bird god feel to it.

As far as Prime, it's one of my favorite games ever. The original Prime was the best, imo, with Prime 2 being okay and Prime 3 wrapping things up with several unfortunate stumbles (albeit some reasonably fun gameplay).

I think, in terms of writing, that the closest you could get to Prime would be a book written entirely in third person descriptions, with all dialogue coming from notes or other written material: no spoken words at all. One of my favorite things about Prime was how it told its story through the scans you did. Even though most of the time Samus is looking around empty rooms, punctuated with brief shoot-outs and the occasional boss fight, there is this driving feel to what's happening in the story. The Space Pirates, in particular, have rising panic running through their logs as Samus penetrates further and further into the facilities. Despite the relatively small number of explosions or "bad-ass" moments compared to most shooters, I don't think I've ever felt more personally powerful than I did when reading a panicked Pirate log about how they can't stop "the Hunter."

[SiuiS]

Sure.

Day 1260: Chozo Dreams

I've always loved the Metroid series after being introduced to it with Prime. Best game. It has such a profound atmosphere that I've wondered for decades how I could possibly replicate it with writing alone and keep coming back to the thought that maybe I can't.

The Chozo are my favourite figures in the universe; to a large degree, it is their universe. Their style is just shockingly beautiful in all things; they build tremendous machines woven so closely with the natural environment that they blur the line between science, magic and divinity. Exploring their temples is almost a religious experience and I'm just captivated by the thoughts that Samus must feel exploring the wonders of her adopted race.

Today's picture was just a continued exploration of Sharp's potential. Gonna do a proper picture in this sequence soon.

Links

Word. It's not often a game has me exploring architecture, and Prime is directly influential on my use of scenery in writing and gaming.

[Thanqol]

^ Both of these posts are truefact.

However, I'm going to take a brief detour from this Prime thing, something pressing came up.

Day 1261: Mirror Mountain

An exhausting debate. We agree on 95% of the cosmology but that 5% which is raw unexamined doctrine seems an impassable wall.

Day 1262: Gateway Drug

Star Wars was my gateway drug. When I was a little guy I was all over the EU stuff. And now it turns out I'm finally playing in a Star Wars tabletop! I am so ready!

It's the Fantasy Flight Edge of the Empire system, which is... well, it's like a masterpiece of the old school design philosophy. Eighteen different dice types, attributes and abilities, a laundry list of skills, exceptions, combat moves and special rules. Same kind of thing as Rogue Trader. But dang if they haven't done a good job with it. They've kept all the numbers small, sharp and within bounds, the balance seems really fine, it's got the best presented version of a talents grid I've ever seen and a bunch of really excellent gaming innovations like range brackets and so forth. They've even made RT's ship combat much more exciting and interesting. It's got some cruft and it insisted on inventing a hobjillion new dice types and unreplicatable symbols for the vaguest of reasons, but I'm generally pretty impressed. Set between episodes IV and V if you're wondering.

I'm going to be playing Aephero Manse, "The Skeleton". The gist is that he was part of a weird blood cult of TIE Interceptor pilots who were staggeringly effective combatants until they decided to rob the tax shipment they were guarding, distribute the wealth amongst themselves, and go into hiding throughout the galaxy. Aephero is a paranoid force-sensitive ace pilot who opted to use his share of the loot to purchase a freighter and go into business as a pilot in the Galactic Empire's dark underbelly. He comes across as dark and scary, but he's really a nice guy who's just terrified of what'll happen if his connection with the Force is discovered by the authorities and so he plays everything as cold as he can. His ship is a YT-1300 called "The Honest Mistake".

Links

[Thanqol]

Day 1263: Old Friend

Forever is such a short time, really.

As long as you're not waiting.

Links

[TheAmishPirate]

Star Wars was my gateway drug. When I was a little guy I was all over the EU stuff. And now it turns out I'm finally playing in a Star Wars tabletop! I am so ready!

It's the Fantasy Flight Edge of the Empire system, which is... well, it's like a masterpiece of the old school design philosophy. Eighteen different dice types, attributes and abilities, a laundry list of skills, exceptions, combat moves and special rules. Same kind of thing as Rogue Trader. But dang if they haven't done a good job with it. They've kept all the numbers small, sharp and within bounds, the balance seems really fine, it's got the best presented version of a talents grid I've ever seen and a bunch of really excellent gaming innovations like range brackets and so forth. They've even made RT's ship combat much more exciting and interesting. It's got some cruft and it insisted on inventing a hobjillion new dice types and unreplicatable symbols for the vaguest of reasons, but I'm generally pretty impressed. Set between episodes IV and V if you're wondering.

I'm going to be playing Aephero Manse, "The Skeleton". The gist is that he was part of a weird blood cult of TIE Interceptor pilots who were staggeringly effective combatants until they decided to rob the tax shipment they were guarding, distribute the wealth amongst themselves, and go into hiding throughout the galaxy. Aephero is a paranoid force-sensitive ace pilot who opted to use his share of the loot to purchase a freighter and go into business as a pilot in the Galactic Empire's dark underbelly. He comes across as dark and scary, but he's really a nice guy who's just terrified of what'll happen if his connection with the Force is discovered by the authorities and so he plays everything as cold as he can. His ship is a YT-1300 called "The Honest Mistake".

Links

Oooh, you'll have to tell me how that goes/how the system plays out. I've only been in one EotE game so far, and it sputtered out due to tons of IRL business and only having a two-person party. It seems like a really interesting system, but the Advantage/Disadvantage dice did seem to lead to a lot of bouncing between a small shuffle forward and a small stumble back before we actually managed to get anything done.

[the_druid_droid]

Day 1263: Old Friend

Forever is such a short time, really.

As long as you're not waiting.

Links

I think the jawline should be more square here. As it is, my brain is reading "female anime-style face with a dark bandana on", although I'm pretty sure that's facial hair?

[Thanqol]

Day 1264-1265: Twelve Lines

Work is a disruption. I try to get 10 hours sleep a day, eight hours is spent at work, one hour is spent in transit. This leaves five hours, one of which is spent cooking and other meals, and another one goes towards general chores, upkeep, shopping etc. This leaves me with three decent hours to work with. A lot of that goes towards posting and so forth.

Hopefully the vigour of work will calm down and I'll have more time for sketching. It's just a very poorly structured workplace without clear goals and objectives and a mountain of catchup to do so things are constantly way more hectic than they need to be. And if all else fails the contract will be over in a month.

In the meantime, some days are just going to be sketch days.

Day 1266: Highlights!

Experiment with painterly + Hard line highlights. Has potential.

Links