M. Rock's Art (More Pokemon Stuff, updated 5/11)

[M. Rock]

I also put my art on Nugget Bridge, but they're both the same threads.

Intro
I'm an old-school artist that works (well, worked) in traditional mediums. Very little of my stuff is done in Photoshop. This is due to a combination of me not knowing how to use it, being too cheap to buy it, and I feel that over-reliance on it destroys one's ability to draw. Also there's not a lot of Pokemon stuff in here atm, but there will be more in the coming weeks.
Also, they all have titles because I put these in a portfolio during a time when I thought I was going to an art college. You may notice that I have an affinity for bad puns.


Pictures
Self Portrait (2010)

Thoughts: Made in acrylic paint. It was an assignment that took me two grueling weeks (I say that because it was my first acrylic painting). All in all it got me a Silver Key at the Boston Globe Show, so that was cool. PROTIP: only paint people with black hair. That means you have one less texture to worry about.


The Sweet Life (2011)

Hide

Thoughts: I hate graphite drawings. They look nice when you start, but get blurry and worn down over time. The theme here was candy and sweets. Get it?!?!?!? Ahhhh I'm so clever
One thing I remember about this is that I couldn't focus on working on it because Pokemon Black and White literally came out the same week.


Clefable (2013)

Thoughts: A sketch I did yesterday. I took the old Pokemon conspiracy and used it to parody the movie poster for Gremlins, as seen below.

Hide

On the Cutting Edge of Dinner (2011)

Thoughts: Another acrylic painting. My mom is cutting vegetables on a wooden cutting board that lies on a granite counter top. The carrots were supposed to have their reflection on the knife, but it turns out that I made the knife look transparent by mistake.


Things are a bit Pear-Shaped (2009?)

Thoughts: Watercolor. This was probably one of the first things I ever painted, so i can't remember exactly when I made it. All I remember is that it was the last time I worked in watercolor (OH GOD THE DRIPPING!!)


A Storm of Abstract Thoughts (2012)

Hide

Thoughts: A mixed media piece. I actually forget what the point of this assignment was.


The Adventures of Troop 17 (2012)

Hide

Thoughts: Made on paper and ink, colored in Photoshop. The point of the piece was "Little people in the Big World". Shrunken troop members try to rough it on someone's desk. I colored it too look like something out of a children's storybook. If you look closely, you can see a Pickachu! Actually, there's a lot of stuff going on in this picture.


Heavenly Ride (2011)

Hide

Thoughts: Yeah some of these JPEGs are too big because I'm too lazy to cut them down. The theme here was to represent a bicycle in a unique way without actually drawing a bicycle. I cranked this out in two days over the summer because I wanted to get my work done and over with ASAP.


What I learned in Cultural Anthropology Today (2012)

Thoughts: The title says it all. I got the proportions wrong, though, and as a result he looks a little chubby.


Culex from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (2009)

Thoughts: Made in 3DS Max on a friend's computer. Look at the incredible amount of effort this took! Also if you haven't played SMRPG yet, then why the hell not?!


Ugly girl (2013)

Thoughts: lol


Super Mario (2011)

Thoughts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65uNCLBTje0


So I will add more to this in the coming weeks as I make more doodles (and as I get a hold of my old sketchbooks so I can take pictures to upload). So, go ahead, love it, hate it, critique it, whatever!

 

[M. Rock]

Updated the OP with more pictures. I figure that would be better since everything is all in one place (as opposed to posting an update in a reply, which means others and myself would have to dig through the thread to find everything).

 

[bluehoundoom]

Hi there!
I really like your use of different mediums, they do give your works tons of variety. First off, I think the background of the heavenly ride looks really painterly and they show brushstrokes which show texture.
For the On the Cutting Edge of Dinner piece, have you tried out glazing before? Basically glazing is a technique which you can use to show transparency without having the knife see-though. What you do is take a lot of gel (it's better to use gloss based instead of matte based as matte is more thick) and a little bit of paint (not orange immediately, maybe start with blue for the shading or you can use red or yellow) and then you start to build up layers, adding more paint as you go (but not too much paint as it starts to look thick).
As for things to work on, things that come to mind are lineart and proportions. I have noticed your lines in the Mario piece and The Adventures of Troop 17 tend to be wobbly in many places (for the latter piece, some lines don't connect at all). As for proportions, your eyes seem to be a bit small (unless you naturally have small eyes) so a rule of thumb would be to have your nose space the same size as your eyes.
Anyways, I hope that helps!

 

[M. Rock]

Hi there!
I really like your use of different mediums, they do give your works tons of variety. First off, I think the background of the heavenly ride looks really painterly and they show brushstrokes which show texture.
For the On the Cutting Edge of Dinner piece, have you tried out glazing before? Basically glazing is a technique which you can use to show transparency without having the knife see-though. What you do is take a lot of gel (it's better to use gloss based instead of matte based as matte is more thick) and a little bit of paint (not orange immediately, maybe start with blue for the shading or you can use red or yellow) and then you start to build up layers, adding more paint as you go (but not too much paint as it starts to look thick).
As for things to work on, things that come to mind are lineart and proportions. I have noticed your lines in the Mario piece and The Adventures of Troop 17 tend to be wobbly in many places (for the latter piece, some lines don't connect at all). As for proportions, your eyes seem to be a bit small (unless you naturally have small eyes) so a rule of thumb would be to have your nose space the same size as your eyes.
Anyways, I hope that helps!

Wow, thank you! This is probably more detailed feedback than my actual teachers ever gave me.
I know what glazing is, and I probably should have used it for all of my paintings. In the case of the dinner one, that had to be done in less than a week, combined with the fact that it was the first time painting metal.
As for the other two pictures: the Mario was just a doodle. I literally included it just to take up space. The other one started out with pretty good line quality, but I had to outline it in Sharpie and make sure all outlines were closed, so making layers in Photoshop would be easier. The inking was done hastily, resulting in the wobbly lines.

 

[M. Rock]

Well the Tumblr uploader sucks and likes turning half my pictures upside down, so here's Two and a Half Men in two-and-a-half minutes:

 

[M. Rock]

Minor update:

I'm not sure where I want to go with this one yet. It could use some shading, but w/e.

 

[M. Rock]

More poop on paper:

"Giant Enemy Narwhal"

These were just doodles I made for no particular reason.

 

[M. Rock]

My first foray into Photoshop in a LONG while:

It was made pretty quickly, so in case the text is hard to read:

"Godzilla and Tom Skerrit! Hollywood's latest power couple".

And then under the picture of Bush and the monkey:
"Separated at birth? Monkey says he's insulted by such a claim".

 

[M. Rock]

So the userbase only likes photoshop? >_>

 

[Bummer]

Not particularly, although it's somewhat difficult to grab attention with only photographed sketches. You seem more fly with paintings though, as your self-portrait is surprisingly well made (although your right arm did get skinny).

What was the purpose of your photoshopped People Magazine cover?

 

[M. Rock]

Not particularly, although it's somewhat difficult to grab attention with only photographed sketches. You seem more fly with paintings though, as your self-portrait is surprisingly well made (although your right arm did get skinny).

No argument there. Just to put things into context, though: I was at college away from my scanner. Now that I'm not, it would probably look cleaner if I got around to inking them and then scanning them in high resolution.
I guess you could say painting was my forte, but it's just time-consuming, and I'm the person that will obsess over every detail. That's why I gravitate more towards sketches now.

What was the purpose of your photoshopped People Magazine cover?

Screwing around.