Reservoir Dogs (two pieces)

[Angry Ewok]

I haven't drawn any Star Wars in a while, but here's two Reservoir Dogs pieces.

The first piece is Mr. White blazing away. Drawn in a single afternoon with a white prisma color pencil on dark green (shows as black on scan) matte board. Pretty rough looking on the scan because the matte is heavy with lots of texture. I definately suggest you artists try experimenting with the prisma on matte board stuff. It's fun.

Second piece is was a bit cut-off because of the size of the paper is larger than my scanner. It took about a month to complete, mainly because it's merely an 'on the side' thing I did to practice shading and my Commercial Arts classes and two commissions are overloading me with other pieces.

(From left to right, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. White, and Mr. Orange. An interesting note is that because I'm left handed, I started on the right side and gradually made my way left... I think you can actually see the progress I'm making as far as drawing/shading goes with each face. Or at least I hope you can see progress.)

As usual, all input is much wanted and appreciated!

[BobaShek]

Very impressive work, Brad!

As you said about the second piece, I can see how your shading and line work progressed.

[jokabofe]

brad, your artwork has always impressed me, but these are (in my opinion) the finest examples i've seen so far. you sure can see the progress you are making. not to say that your other work isn't good, but these are fantastic. and i have a friend who is a major reservoir dogs fan - and a mr. white fan in particular - so if you are interested in selling these pieces, let me know.

keep up the great work... now draw some star wars stuff  

[Angry Ewok]

brad, your artwork has always impressed me, but these are (in my opinion) the finest examples i've seen so far. you sure can see the progress you are making. not to say that your other work isn't good, but these are fantastic. and i have a friend who is a major reservoir dogs fan - and a mr. white fan in particular - so if you are interested in selling these pieces, let me know.

keep up the great work... now draw some star wars stuff  

Thanks a ton for your very kind words.  And yes, Star Wars stuff is coming! I'd like focus on Jedi Luke and Lord Vader. I've already bought two very large sheets of black matte board, and I am planning on doing a very nice 'Vader vs. Luke - Silouettes' deal from the scene in ROTJ.

Regarding selling either of these two pieces :

The top piece is far too rough looking to sell; the matte board is a very dark olive shade, not black (like I said, the scan made it look black), and plus some moron in one of my Commercial Arts classes took a mechanical pencil and drew a deep but fine line down the center of the piece from center-to-bottom. It's simply not a sellable piece.

The second piece I think I may hold onto for a while, but because a few people showed interest in buying it - I made 5 prints. One print was given to a friend, one print is in my portfolio, and another just sold for $25 - if your friend wants the one of the two last prints, let me know.

Very impressive work, Brad!

As you said about the second piece, I can see how your shading and line work progressed.

Thanks Michael! Tell me something, do you use prisma colors? If you've mentioned using them before I've forgotten. Oops.  . If you don't use them, definately buy a box off of Ebay and experiment with them - they're pretty expensive, but if you ever sell any of your work they'll pay for themselves. If you already use them - I feel like a big dummy.  

[Thomas Grey]

These are both done well Brad! Your willingness to experiment and play with different media will make you more well-rounded and adept with drawing materials & paper. I actually like how the top drawing looks. Don't ever discount the importance of texture. It can add a dramatic element to your art and add to the feel of the photo. Res Dogs is definitely a rough movie so the texture complements the subject matter.

Your value awareness and shading are improving. Your bottom drawing looks much like an Alex Ross pencil study. It looks more like you are painting with the pencil than drawing (which is cool). Smoothing and smudging and blending are great techniques to master. I might suggest you photo copy this and experiment with some harsher pen & ink hatching/cross-hatching on top of the smooth base art. Combining these could be lethal!

I am proud of you. You have really become dedicated to your creative ability and are beginning to realize how much you can grow if you keep doing it often. Van Gogh started when he was 27 years old. It took him 2 years of hardcore practice before he became a master of art. It's never too late to start if you have the time and you practice a lot. All things require a decent amount of practice if one wants to master it and grow beyond and into their own style. It really shows that you are practicing and making increible strides.

My only constructive criticism is to work on likeness. The drawings are well done, but they could look a bit more like who they are. But it stands on it's own and had I not known it was a montage of Res Dogs characters, I would've sadi it looks like you were inspired by Res Dogs or agents from the Matrix.

Nice Brad. I need to start putting some of my stuff up to back up all this talk and sage advice. Hope to do it soon.

BTW, BD is off the shelf. I'll talk to you soon about it.

[BobaShek]

Tell me something, do you use prisma colors? If you've mentioned using them before I've forgotten.

Actually, I think I have a small set of them somewhere. I haven't used them for a while, but I want to get back into experimenting with them again. Those and watercolor.

It looks more like you are painting with the pencil than drawing

That's what I've always wanted to express about Brad's work, but I could never find the words! Your drawings tend to look like paintings, what with your style of shading and blending.

[jokabofe]

brad was kind enough to sell me a print of his awesome reservoir dogs artwork, since one my friends has a birthday coming up.

i took his art and framed it, but before framing it i added a little color to it:

i just added some strips of colored cellophane over the faces, in the matching colors of course. i was going to ink it first, but thought better of it and decided to just leave it as a sketch. i didn't think that i could do it justice with the inkwork, since the sketch itself has varying light and dark parts.

[Angry Ewok]

Woah... that's just awesome. I wish the picture was a tad better but hey - that's just awesome work there. Did you sign it, too?

[jokabofe]

no, i didn't sign it since i really didn't do anything to it besides add some colored paper over the top.