fazhom - you can't stop the signal

Some Darksiders inspirations and others

2010-04-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

Been a while since I posted some drawing. And since I played (and finished of course) the game Darksiders recently, it inspired me to try some drawing of male figures.

So, here are the results from Darksiders as well as a quick drawing of yet another a woman.

Feel free to post comments!

Thanks for watching, see you soon!

Mass Effect 2 review

2010-03-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

Since I'm in the middle of a great book, I found it hard to find time to draw stuff worth showing. So, I'll take a few minutes to write a quick review of Mass Effect 2 after completing a first run of the game and starting a new one.

To give you an overview of how I played, I visited every planets of the game and completed every mission I found. All this in Veteran mode. Total time of this run is around the 45 hours (think of how many drawings I could have done with all this time available...).

To say that I was waiting for the game is an understatement. I completed 4 runs of Mass Effect 1 on various difficulties, with various ending but always as a Paragon. I'm just a sucker when it comes to bullying people around. You get more done with a smile in real life.

So, high expectations is the short road for high disappointments. But I'm an optimistic. Ask around.

When I first put the game in my 360, I was excited! I had just completed a last complete" run of ME1 to import my character! The game begins with a bang, not unlike the first. But the gameplay is so different that I was not sure what to think of it.
However, after a few hours (roughly 20), I began to remember that this gameplay was actually what I was expecting from the first 3 years ago. But even then, I was thinking "it took me 3 runs of ME1 to 'get it', to master the game, to customize my character to create the experience I wanted. And almost all of it is now gone". Nevertheless, it didn't bothered me for long.

Let's go to the point right away, shall we.

What really disappointed me?

- the way you gain experience:
In ME1 you really felt that each experience, each action was a step forward because everything was rewarded with experience. Even a few points is a great feeling and encourages you to do more, especially when it comes to speaking with your crew. your character was always evolving and you could level up in the middle of a fight. That felt just GREAT!

- the way you buy new powers :
I can't emphasize enough how frustrated I felt toward the end when I leveled up and gained 1 loosy point that didn't allow me to buy any power. You have a limited amount of powers, and the first time you boost this power, you need 1XP point, the second time, you need 2 points, the third time, you need 3 points, and the fourth... I let you guess. I couldn't buy new powers for the last 3 or 4 missions.

What surprised me, and not always in a positive way, but never in a destructive way ?

- importing your ME1 character (Shepard):
I was expecting A LOT from this. Way too much I guess... When I heard, a week before the release of the game, that I would loose my powers and my level 50, I was already devastated... But knowing it before getting the game was a good point. I could concentrate on the other stuff I was expecting

- importing your ME1 character (some of your choices):
So, tell me how saving or not saving the council is a huge consequence in ME2? Because we don't see much of the council in ME2. And I really didn't felt any consequences. I just notice that it was indeed taken into account but how does it changes my adventure? The council give me back my specter status: does it have any consequences? The council refuses to see me, I don't know if I have a specter status but, really, does it change anything? We don't see much of the reporter Emily Wong either. What about my romance too? Except for a brief kiss when crossing path with my former girl, we got right to business.

- don't feel the pressure of your mission during the game:
Unlike ME1 where you always felt guilty doing side missions because "the fate of the galaxy" is waiting for you to complete the 4 majors missions (Feros, Virmine, etc), in ME2, it felt like "take your time, do what you want, humans can more or less wait". Overall, I didn't feel much relation between side missions and the main quest and this left me with a strange feeling. In the first, I felt I was helping the Alliance. Here, I don't know if I'm helping Cerberus or just doing some level grinding.

- empire strikes back feeling
So, we were told this was a dark sequel. I was expecting something way darker. I mean, really dark. Pitch black dark. I was expecting my ME1 romance to die. This would have been hard and sad. I was expecting some friends to betray me.
All in all, at the end, my team survived and I didn't feel any loss. I didn't feel sad. I didn't even have to sacrifice anyone unlike the first.
and I didn't feel quite alone: my team was with me till the end and Cerberus is now backing me up for the inevitable final confrontation.

- the "romance"
And by romance, I mean SEX. My first romance in ME1, with Ashley, really took me by surprise. Mainly because it was sensual, erotic in a way and it was filmed in a very suggestive way. For my first run of ME2, I romanced Subject Zero (not really by choice, I just didn't managed to seduce Miranda... I guess I'm more natural with bad girls :-)). Was I disappointed by this "sex" scene? Hell YES! We don't even get the feeling the girl is naked!

This absolutely needs to be corrected in the final chapter! ABSOLUTELY!!
ROMANCE = SENSUALITY = SEXUALITY = NO CLOTHES and NO BRAS!

Work the camera angles if it feels to "pornographic" or "erotic" but having sex, in bed, with a girl who keeps her bra is just weird and gives us the feeling we are playing a game for kids. ME2 is rated Mature! Same goes for Dragon Age: Origin by the way!

What felt good and really good, and really awesome?

- importing your ME1 character (your missions and your choices):
I really loved to see my choices to save the Rachni having a consequence in the game (can't wait to see how it helps in the final showdown in ME3). I loved to cross path with the crime lord I helped in ME1. I loved to see, even briefly, former characters like... Conrad. It felt really GOOD!

- the new team:
You have a team of bad asses that kick asses! When I first learned that our team would be different in ME2, I was disappointed. You grow attached to your sidekicks... But the new team is simply AWESOME! Based on the teasers prior to the release, I was worried about Grunt, he turned out to be a real asset. I didn't know what to think of Subject Zero, she is Ze real bad biotic. I was enthusiastic about Miranda (I mean: just look!), she exceeded my expectations. Mordin is so fun and funny, I really love the guy! And I can go on for each and every member of my team.
They plain and simply rock!
Even Joker, the only character I couldn't stand in the first, was a real fun guy in this one. His tandem with the AI is just great and funny as hell.

- the new gameplay:
Like I said, it was, after all, what I expected from ME1 the first time I played it so, it's cool to have a more action game this time around. My only regret lies with the Mako. I'd have love to have a bit of planet exploration aboard the famous vehicule.
Beside, this bold change raises the question: what's gonna be the gameplay in the third? More vehicule? More action (is it possible?)? A way back to more RPG features?

- the story:
Even though it's not as full of surprises as the first one, learning who the Prothean are, was really a blast and a shock (didn't see that one coming!). And basically, the way this story brings us little by little to an epic conclusion is just awesome. I can't wait for the third now.
Well, ok, I couldn't wait the moment I started ME2 anyway.

- the animation
Characters animation is just simply great. I love to see Shepard jumping those crates! Actually, it's so seamless that I almost forgot to mention it. "The greatest FX are those you don't see".

- the score, editing and movie experience
I can listen to Jacob's theme over and over. I can still feel the excitement of the last battle just by listening to the themes. Great work there.
Basically, Bioware can create a game and gives us the feeling of watching an epic movie during the cut-scenes, they can even do that during credits (I mean, look at the intro of ME1!). Again, they don't disappoint in this one.

So now, I give a rating right? On a scale of 1 to 10...?

And thank you Bioware for an amazing saga!

from below again

2010-02-09T01:12:00.000-08:00

Hey!

So, I kept trying and trying to get the result I wanted with a view from below.

First (well, not really first since I did lots of try and error) I came up with this one:

Not quite exactly what I intended because we have the impression she is wearing super wonderbras but we dont get the feeling that the view is from below. But I added some details and stuff and I thought "why not show it and see what people think after all".

Then, I took a break and decided to draw some other stuff inspired by Michael Turner. I came up with this one:

Then, coming back from a nice evening with a friend, I was a bit drunk but it didn't stop me from drawing on the train. And I did this one:

We see more that the view is slightly from under but not quite yet. The head is bigger than I intended but I like the overall pose and I feel I'm getting closer to my goal. So stay tunned for a final result... somewhere between now and... later.

Thanks for reading!

Seen from below...

2010-02-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone who comes on my little blog!

So I did a few try and error recently, working on points of view, angles and stuff.

Here are a few sketches that resulted from the most recent attempts...

This first one was done thanks to PoseManiacs.

I did this last one a few days ago and figured it could be posted too:

See you soon with more drawings!

inspired by mass effect

2010-01-20T01:38:00.000-08:00

Hi!

After seeing the cover for issue#1 of Mass Effect by Daryl Mandryk, I really wanted to go and try doing something similar. So here comes the result. I did several attemps so, here you go, phase by phase: the first "draft":

The head was messy by I wanted to add a background, just to get an idea of how it would look with one... So here is a scan of the WIP:

After I finished the background, I thought it was to bad to have such errors like the small head, the armor on the right leg that was not exactly as it should be.

So I corrected some of the problems and added more shadows. It's not perfect (of course!) but I used standard xerox paper and erasing and redrawing on it becomes really hard. So this will be it until I take the time to do it all over with real drawing paper. Soon?

Hope you like it!

selected sketches among others...

2010-01-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

Hi ther!

Here come a few more sketches on the train...

the first one was just to try to have a more natural pose. I was really disappointed by the lack of coolnees in my recent sketches so I tried to focu s on the shoulders. She seems still a bit tensed but at least I have the feeling she is actually doing or preparing something.

The second one was largely inspired by a drawing by... you know... Michael Turner...

I did it mostly by memory but I had to look at it when time came to draw the right hand. I still have a hard time drawing hands.

This last one was done starting with the idea to see the character from below. That is why the legs are way bigger than average. So much for the "view from below", it just seems the character is facing us but I like it anyway so...

See you soon!

Happy happy... 2010!

2010-01-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

So, first of all, Happy New Year!

I'm in a Witchblade mood lately, so here comes 2 drawings that I did today and yesterday.

See you soon!

Sketches with a new way of holding the pencil

2009-12-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

I was really in a Superman mood lately. I even got back to Smallville to witness the arrival of Doomsday in season 8... which ended up in a real disappointement. Did you noticed how every season of Smallville seems to end up with Clark giving up on his mission before getting back on it thanks to a great new threat?

Anyway, I decided to try to give the character some anger so that he doen't appear like a boy scout... I like the overall pose, but the head definitely needs improvements. It's too big and too large....

A few days later, as I was reading Witchblade, I decied to check some Marc Silvestri art and found a great (of course: it was done by Silvestri) illustration of The Darkness. The next morning, I was watching my Riven Phoenix drawing lesson, and Phoenix started to teach us how to hold our pencil so that our creations feel more organic and artistic.After completing the lesson, I decided to try this method and came up with this quick sketch:

Note that the hairs were much easy to draw when holding the pencil inside my hand. Indeed, it felt more natural and organic for such shapes.

Finally, this morning, I felt I needed to go back to basics after much trial and error on body proportion. So I tried to remember everything I had learned from Riven Phoenix and came up with a basic, but correctly proportionned of a male figure.

That's all for the moment. I hope to come with new drawings quite soon.

Until then...

Supergirl, 2 more versions and Soulfire inspiration

2009-11-30T02:06:00.000-08:00

Hi,

So I tried 2 more versions of the pose I wanted to create for Supergirl. None of them is the definitive result I wanted to achieve but let me show you anyway....

On the first, the head is still a bit messy. For whatever reasons, I find it difficult to orientate the head downward (and it's even worse upward). I'm working on this right now.

This new version was created after trying to correct the head. At the end, I thought I'd try to place the left hand differently to see what it would give. I prefer the previous version where you could feel she was simply flying. It's not obvious on that one. But it gives her some kind of cool look so... it's not that bad an idea either.

Saturday, a very good friend of mine came by the house and gave me his pencils and notepads. He's going to China to realize his dream. His dream doesn't include drawing.

Since I did all my drawings on basic xerox paper, I started to use his notepad to draw on real paper. Where you can erase several times without any side-effects like... your paper is starting to get very thin and your eraser tends to leave black markings everywhere.

So I did some training on it (based on Michael Turner's Soulfire) and this morning, I redrew one of these trainings on a basic paper:

That's all for today.

See you soon!

Sara Pezzini and the Witchblade and Marc Silvestri

2009-11-24T02:00:00.000-08:00

Hi there!

So, I'm still copying artworks from my favorites comic books artists. So here is a challenging one by Marc Silvestri representing Sara Pezzini wearing the Witchblade. I say "challenging" because the angle is quite original (and sexy) and can prove to be difficult to reproduce.

I got to tell you: no one told me what to use to draw and it seemed obvious for me so I never actually try to find anything about the type of pencils or erasers to use. I just bought a basic eraser and HB pencils. Rencently, I had a discussion with a friend who was surprised that I used HB pencils instead of 2B, 3B or 4B. This drawind is one of the first I do with a 2B pencil...

Once I finished with the posing and basic shapes of Sara Pezzini, I thought I could use my new tool (my 2B pencil) to try and add features like... the Witchblade (the gauntlet for those who don't know the comic), detail hairs, the armors around her breast, her leg etc.
Using a 2B pencil makes it easy to erase and redraw. It's also easier to draw shadows or shades of gray. Since I need work on the shadows, I ignored them for now and concentrated on adding details on the armor.

Here is the final result. Roughly, it took me about an hour but I refered very regularly to the original art by Silvestri.

Check out Silvestri's website!

Samourai pose thanks to Talent Caldwell

2009-11-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys!

So, yesterday, I felt it was time to motivate myself. So, instead of trying to create from scratch and ending up being a bit frustrated, I decided to "copy" a picture I liked. Refering to it regularly to correct my creation along the road. "Good artists invent, excellent artists copy" right? So let's copy!

I decided to try and create a drawing based of Talent Caldwell's Kiani in the comic book "Fathom: Dawn of War". Here is the final result. As a side note, I inserted in the left corner a quick copy/drawing of Michael Turner's Aspen. You might notice that

As a personnal critic toward myself, I must say I particularly see improvements in the way I drew the hairs (even though there is still a long road ahead).

Feel free to add comments if you feel you want to share something or give me new ideas or stuff on which I need to focus next time.

Tomb Raider Creator

2009-11-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I spotted a name on linkedin : Toby Gard.

I don't remember how I came to find him but if you don't know the guy (like me before I visited his wbesite), know that he is the creator of Lara Croft.

http://www.tobygard.com/

So I thought it would be nice to share this link. Some pages don't seem to work properly but you can see his blog as well as his demo reel. And that's nice anyway.

Enjoy the link!
And see you soon!

Supergirl

2009-11-17T06:39:00.000-08:00

It no news for those who know me: I love Michael Turner.

So let me start this message with a quick link to an amazing site created by a huge fan of the legendary artist:

http://michaelturnershrine.com/

Check it out and feel free to drop a line to the author: he is very nice and willl surely answer you.

Recently, I read the comic book Batman/Superman 2 : Supergirl by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner and I was simply... amazed. The story was great and mainly about Superman (my favorite character),but the thing that swept me off my feet was the way Turner drew Supergirl. She is innocent, yet strong and powerfull. Her eyes are simply the most amazing thing I saw recently.

So, the next day, I started to try and recreate something similar. Not much came out of it except that I began to pay particular attention to face expressions. I even drew several faces with various expresions (anger, joy, etc etc). Not a big hit either but it gave me something to think about as I re-opened Supergirl to check what were the details in her face that made her so full of life.

Among other things, I noticed:

- she has a HUGE smile

- her eyes are wide open

- her hairs float in the wind

So after a few tests, I came up with this drawing that I created while looking several times at a sketch from Michael Turner.

sketches on the train 1

2009-10-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't come up with much drawing worth showing recently but I thought it might be interesting to post some of "the best" so far, so that progress can be seen along the road...

This one is inspired by a drawing of... Kiani by Michael Turner. I particularly like the eyes and the mouth. Regarding the mouth, I was not afraid to push the size of the lower lips and, in the end, I kind of liked the result.

That one was for my boss Steeven: he was disappointed by the size of the breasts of my characters since he remembered I used to make pretty nice (read big) ones when we were in video game school together. So here is one with huge breast and a shy look (ok, the shy look was not intended at first but I think it gives something nice in the end).

A few days later, I started thinking about Dragon Age while on the train and here is where it brought me in the end.

All these drawing were done on the train while going to or coming back from work.

First post

2009-10-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided it was time to post my first drawing!
Ok, not my first first ever.
I drew and drew and drew again and again in the past months. But this particular drawing is really the first I could look at for more than 1h without telling myself "I need to correct so many things". Now I see a few things I can improve but I still feel it's worth showing.

The funny thing about this one is that, it was drawn on the train. A group of young girls came and seated next to me while I was starting. When I was just drawing the basic skeleton, they seemed intrigued but didn't pay much attention.
Once I started adding the skin and muscles, they saw where I was going and paid real attention to my every move (which was hard to ignore after a while).
When I was done, I asked them if they liked it. They said "yes" with enthousiasm. I hope you do too!

Please, click on the image to see the real-size version, the small one really doesn't show much...