ZB's Sketch Blog

PChat part 2

2012-01-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

Some sketching fun with Stef Morin aka PK in Niko's Paint Chat.

Happy New Year everyone, hopefully 2012 is treating you well so far!

Trolled by LinkedIn part 1

2012-01-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Woke up to find a LinkedIn newsletter in my inbox that didn't end up being very helpful...So I made it hilarious. To me anyway.

J’habite à Montréal,dammit!!!

More WIPs!

2011-11-22T08:01:00.001-08:00

Here are some work-in-progress pics of some illustrations I've been working on. We have a new PC at home, so I'm kind of stuck without drawing programs for now. My mac has Photoshop though, which I've been using to block in stuff until I get Painter back. :P

Colouring Experiments 2

2011-09-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Still in my lab playing with colours!

Did a quick and dirty sketch in Photoshop last night:

And a more polished illustration in Painter X.

I've been working on this one for a while, and even though there are a few things I could fix, I felt like it had reached the "beating a dead horse" stage. I'm happy with both, but to be honest I find myself preferring the sketchy, rough style.

Colouring Experimentation!

2011-07-18T13:23:00.001-07:00

Hey there,
While I've been on the jobhunt these days, I'm also playing around with some digital painting techniques. I've read about a few, but never had the time to try them myself! Here’s a pretty neat one I tried out recently, if any of you want to give this a shot too!

This technique I tried involves painting your image in gray scale, then adding colours over it.
I first read about this in my Alex Ross artbook. I haven't tried it with traditional mediums like he does, but I did give it a shot in Photoshop and Painter. So much easier for n00bs like me when there is a CTRL+Z!

Here's a screen cap of my work-in-progress gray scale pic:

I started by sketching this out with one of the soft default brushes, alternating between black and white at different opacity settings. It ended up looking like this:

Then, I brought it into Painter X, which is on my PC. I don’t have any WIP screenshots unfortunately, but I pretty much had two layers over my greys picture:

-One set to Overlay

-One beneath it set to Color.

I found Overlay left a lot of the white areas blank, so I used the Color layer to fill in anything that was missing. I don’t normally paint with layers, I use them mostly for texture. That being said, it’s quite possible I’m breaking some kind of secret “Layers rule”, but who cares, it works!
The end result was this, with the texture added in Photoshop:

It’s different from what I usually do in Painter, and I’m really digging the colouring effects.
I’m going try to play around more with this in the future.

Why are there two of you??

2011-07-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

This is just to say that I'm using another account with this blog, so if you see "Zarabeth Wilson" and "Zarnage' following you, they're both me! I'm using "Zarnage" from now on, so if you want to delete my ghost, it's alright.

Cheers!

Cyborgs are fun!

2011-06-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Photoshop fun on a rainy day...

Before Bedtime Sketches

2011-06-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Some quick doodles in Photoshop late at night...that's when the art mojo works best for me I guess! Do you have a specific time in the day where you just seem to have more creative juice?

I'm trying to get my time down on these to able to call them speedpaintings, but I always end up taking an hour (which I'm told doesn't count). Someday!!
Luca and Viola are mine, Drago and his bow belong to Twitch/Linda Komsic. I just borrow him on weekends. :D

Digital Doodles

2011-05-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all, here's some doodles from PS/Painter that I've done in my spare time...I should be posting more soon, but they're in my sketchbook so I gotta scan them. This guy is up top is Dragomir, he belongs to my friend Linda Komsic. I like drawing him, but I'm done with cellos for now. The background elements are from CG Textures, lots of fun stuff to experiment with there!
I'm going through an angel/demon phase as of late, it comes and goes over the years, depending on how tired I get of drawing wings. These two are Viola and Loic, born from lunch hours spent trying to block out office drama with Rammstein in my ears. You heard me.
This is a tiny WIP shot of something I'm working on in Painter. Loic in colour this time, his twin brother should be there soon once I'm done blocking in the rest of his body....

Cheers!

Sketches dump

2010-11-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

Mostly lunch hour doodles, chillin with pencil and brush pen. Played around in PS with them a bit too, once I got home. :P

I'm working on more traditional drawings for Christmas this year, as some of my friends requested a drawing instead of a bought gift. I'm thinking of posting a WIP of one of the ink/wash ones, I'll see if I screw up the process myself or not!

Belated Spirit Day sketch

2010-10-21T15:22:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post this yesterday but they were doing maintenance on the image uploader.
Since yesterday was Spirit Day/ Purple Against Homophobia day, I thought this sketch I did of Pan and Vesper sharing a cute moment would be a nice way to show support. ^^ I know its not purple, I tried an overlay in Photoshop but it didn't turn out too good!

Pan (left) is my friend Linda Komsic's character. Vesper (right) is one of my old characters from about 6 years ago. And yes, he's gay.

The Spirit Day was to honor teens who have lost their lives to anti-LGBT bullying. If you want to know an example, google Tyler Clementi and read his story. Pretty cruel, tragic sh*t. :(

The colours THE COLOURS

2010-10-09T17:40:00.001-07:00

This took a hell of a lot longer than I thought, but I'm really happy with the results. I consider it step one of my newfound goal to push my work to the best of my ability. It might take me longer, but I'm through "half-assing" things. :P

Pissed-Off Drawing 101

2010-09-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

I don't think this counts as a sketch anymore, but it's still in progress, so what the hell I'm posting it! (That and I want to show this to family but don't trust Facebook enough to upload it there.)
Yep, I drew this while pissed off. I have this ability to focus more on my work when I'm angry, and drawing helps me vent. Negative vibes into positive, as now that the anger is gone I'm left with a piece of art that I'm really quite proud of. Can't wait to colour it!

Notebook Sketch-dumpage

2010-08-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

My notebook is dead, so I decided to scavenge some sketches before I recycle it. These are some characters of mine, old and new, plus some teammates that I finally managed to make chibis of. I only learned the art of the chibi from a friend of mine like a year ago...It's hard for me to draw cute stuff. XD

I..gots nothing..BUT CAKE.

2010-08-02T17:23:00.001-07:00

Drake for a friend of mine. Holy crap I drew somethin almost cute! People who know me know how rare that is... :)
He's my little dragon boy...I figured the world has enough catboys/girls already.
Markers!

I freakin love brush pen

2010-07-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Seriously. It's the best 20 bucks I ever spent on any art supply.
I can change line weight without having to switch between pens or nibs, and the ink is water proof!

Gotta work on my control a bit though, as I obviously went apesh*t on poor Masha's skirt.

Sketchbook doodle a la brush pen, the lady belongs to my friend Stef. ^^ Might play around with this pic later on...

PS: Also experimenting with watermarks. :(
Not that I think I'm so awesome that people will steal my art, but I just don't trust people in general. If it makes art theft a little harder, why not. :P

Paintchattage o' DOOM

2010-07-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Nikos Paintchat doodles!
I'm a whiteboard/community drawing chat n00b, but I really enjoy drawing with the awesome duo of PK and HK!

I gotta work on not taking up so much room when I draw though. I blame my monitor :P

New Home!

2010-07-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

The move is complete!! Thank god! Now to unpack until Christmas! :P

I'm really happy, I finally have a room just to draw in. Its an art/gaming room, depending on if you're facing my side or my boyfriend's side. I can't wait til we get this room organized, then I can bust out the inks and paint that I've been missing for the past year or so.

At least I unpacked my tablet! Little Photoshop speedpaint, 2hours. An old character of mine that I hope to see more of...I'm feeling nostalgic after having to throw out 10 years worth of old drawings last month. :(

HI ROM!

2010-05-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

For my coworker who pokes me to update my blog. :P
I'm gonna be spending most of my month packing for my move on July 1st, so I'm going to be quiet on here and deviantART for a while. XD

Quick photoshop sketch using greyscale as a starting point. I'm experimenting with this way of colouring and so far it seems pretty sweet! Especially since I'm a PS painting n00b.
The character is Zeph, one of my old original ones. ^^

Sketches+ PS

2010-05-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Two sketches that I played around with in photoshop. I like how these turn out, I should try this more often!

The red one is a quick drawing of Saya from Blood+. Even though everyone and their dog seems to be doing the vampire thing these days (stupid Twilight...) I liked the manga. It satisfied my taste for bloodspew and partial nudity for a weekend. :P

Next one was a drawing that one of my friends drew for me before I left my last job. I told him I would ink it, and this is what came out of it. Hope he likes it!

Tribute to PO

2010-05-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes at work, we can get into some pretty interesting discussions. This happens especially when we have to test a boring game for 8 hours. But I find I learn more through these team musings than from meetings.

For example, I learned this week that gingers shouldn't wear pink. One of the more senior testers on my team has bright red hair, and when we brought up how Ariel in the Little Mermaid wore a pink dress, he said he'd punch her in the ovaries.

The idea of PO taking out the Little Mermaid was too freakin funny to pass up, so I drew it. I'm slowly getting back into using art for shenanigans!

So this Guy at Work...

2010-05-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

...told me to update my blog, so I did. :P
Some scans from the sketchbook, I have a few more things in there that I'm gonna scan in later. Right now my back has had enough of my computer chair, after finishing Halak today. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Now I have a craving for watercolour/ink...

Back in the Pit

2010-04-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well folks, another jobhunt ended in failure. Finding myself running out of adventure money, I had no choice but to return to the one job I seem to excel at: Testing games.

There are worse jobs out there (ask anyone who works in retail or in a restaurant) but I was still very disappointed. As you probably all know, it's really frustrating to get turned down for something that you know that you can do, if only someone would give you a chance. If there's one thing I've learned from this experience, its that timing and connections are worth as much as skills in the art world. I'll just have to wait again.

In the meantime, I play by night and work by day! Here is a WIP of my Halak painting, the one with the Helmet of F$#%ing DOOM that is literally taking 90% of the overall time for this piece. After this is done, I'm pretty confident that I'll have mastered the Artists Oils in Painter. Now to try the bazillion other brushes!

**Photo reference was used for Jaro! ^^

Vector wheeee!

2010-02-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

The jobhunt continues!
I'm taking some time to brush up on vector drawing in Illustrator. Unfortunately I only have CS at home, before the invention of the much favored (apparently) Live Trace function. So HOT DAMN it takes a while to trace over my drawings! Something that looks like it took me 10 minutes probably took MUCH longer. You can get some cool effects though, as I randomly discovered with the brush tool. XD

For the hell of it ( and to relax from the impending notion that I might soon be starving) I started a digital painting of Montreal Canadians goalie Jaroslav Halak. I just got into hockey this year, and he's the first player I ever rooted for. Even though he's not the #1 goalie of the team, he still works hard and kicks a good amount of ass. Maybe one day I can get my pic signed, if it doesn't end up exploding on me. It could happen, I got Alex Ross' autograph after all! :P

Hockey is a LOT more interesting when you know the rules and who the players are. But then again, I hear Montreal fans are special that way. *prepares for cascade of boos*

Snakey Snake goes hisss

2010-02-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

Today I met up with a buddy of mine for a crash course in technical drawing. I can't wait to see how much of it I remembered. (Sorry Martin..LOL) It's gonna be fun working with Photoshop for digital painting instead of Painter, I've been neglecting it for a while!

Got my tablet drivers installed on the new comp, now I'm pretty much playing around. My first guinea pig is this poor snake girl I drew for my friend Foxy.

Neutral colour layer + Multiply + Burn/Dodge tool=sketchy awesomeness!

The Last of the Work Doodles

2010-02-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

BEHOLD.
The last pen sketches I will ever do as a qa tester.
With hopes of landing an art gig (and saving myself from insomnia and a nervous breakdown), I've decided to leave the qa world. I'm using my new found time off to get some personal projects rolling, and improve my portfolio. Which means...more posts!! :)

I also tricked out my sketchbook with some collage... Nobody laugh at the Hannah Montana sticker, it was a gift from one of my team mates. Hellz Yes.

QA Daydreams

2009-09-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I might have lied a bit when I said I'd try to post everyday. (Hot damn, I haven't posted since April!?) But that's not so bad, considering I'm not even sure anyone reads this to start with!

I switched jobs two months ago, different company but same old videogame QA. I gave up the world of consoles and mobile devices for the all powerful iPhone. The testing is a lot more mind-numbing than the gameplay stuff I used to do, but at least it gives me more mojo to draw! Yep, I can actually draw while testing at my new job, just cuz no one really knows/cares what they're doing. As long as my work gets done, no one yells at me. ( STEVE >.>)

It's been a little over 2 years now that I've been working as a videogame tester, and I've noticed that there is an alarming amount of artists in QA. They all have the same story of trying to get into the art department through testing. Truthfully, it scares me a little. The longer I'm there, the more my skills get dated and the more younger artists are emerging. There are 18-year-olds trapped with me who know Z Brush! I was starting to think videogame QA was where all artists go to die, but a good friend of mine managed to escape it (The link to her blog is at the bottom of this page). Go Stef!

I guess all we can do is to keep trying and drawing; from the exhausted students busting ass in art programs, to the aspiring illustrators doing jackass jobs to feed themselves. Once we stop, it's over. So I'll try my best to sneak a few doodles during my boring-as-all-hell applink tests, and keep the creative spark going in that dimly-lit office of ours.

Speedpaintin'

2009-04-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Quick painting of Viper from SF4 and my twins : D
I'm working on speedpainting, although I have no clue what the official time limit is for those (These took me roughly an hour to an hour and a half each). I like how the twins came out, I've never actually coloured them before now! As for Viper, I only hope I haven't bastardized her too badly since I don't play the game >.>

Done in Corel Painter X.

Lunch Doodles 02

2009-04-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

More work sketches from the past few weeks. These guys are characters from a story my friend Stef and I got going in our boredom. :P
In this pile we have Caelen, Luca, Peter, Isaac, Masha, Sabine and Anais. Twins are hell to draw!

Lunch Doodles

2009-04-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Character sketches! Ballpoint and brush, with some Photoshop touches. PB&J in one hand, stolen office pen in the other. ^^

Superhero...Me?

2009-03-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is for a friend's forum, where new drawing themes are posted every week or so. The theme was Superhero You, although I seem to look more like a villain! This is what happens after Zar sees Watchmen and swims around in Kohta Hirano art all in the same week. Hey baby, take a walk on the dark side!

Brush Pen, Ballpoint and Buddies!

2009-03-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

More ink sketches! I prefer sketching in pen because pencil usually ends up on the side of my hand and not on the paper.>.> Joining me this session is Stef Morin, aka PK! Drawing is so much more fun when in the company of other artists, it's one of the things I miss most about school...

Winter Doodles

2009-03-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a few sketches from my winter sketchbook. The characters are from a story that some friends and I came up with while bored at work. As for the cursing fish, well that's just me trying to teach myself Chinese brush. (It's so much harder than it looks!)