Mark's art for Shelter page

The basic process is,

Find a reference photo,

Increase contrast/gamma, change to grey-scale.

Sketch out the black areas, dark grey, mid grey & light grey into blocks - colour them.

I set my canvas on photoshop for the reference to be the same size (A3/A4) - so it's easier to judge perspective when 1inch on my screen is the same as 1 inch on my paper :).

Pending on the complexity of the picture I start out with very basic size sketch/perspective lines to get a feel for it, then work in segments (starting from the eyes/most complex area - then it's just a case of simply working from that point onwards with regular distance checks for key metrics (IE, I'll judge the eyes as been exactly 1/2 the way down from the reference picture & mark them out).

The only hard bid is the drawing really, the photo-shop prep is simple, as is the colouring - but as you get a hang of it you only really need to sketch the black (the rest of the tones come naturally).

For the picture above, i just drew the face a few times as a sketch until it matched, then the top of each shoulder as lines, along with 2 blocks for the legs & the chainsword & worked from that - the shading I did as I went along.
 
All done (Took longer than I thought it would!), I'll be borrowing a camera tomorrow (hopefully) so will be able to take a better picture for you.

assassins_creed_by_darkelmarko-d5ye39t.jpg


Love the space marine one :)
Thanks :) - just noticed Fareham! (live by Fareham station lol so very local!).
 
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Mark that looks fantastic :) Turned out exactly as I had hoped! Do you have frames for the A3 sizes by the way? It doesnt matter if you dont I can always grab one myself, plus it would make things easier for you postage wise I guess.

Have made a donation to your justgiving page, when its ready if you could drop me a trust email to sort out delivery that would be great.

Have you had many requests from the forums? If not whats wrong with you people! Its a great idea and I hope you smash your target.
Sent a message in trust, glad you like it & it's all for a good cause.

:)
 
Some great work Mark!

Do you reckon http://blackmannrobin.com/wp-content/uploads/image_2076.jpg would look good at A4 or A3? There are loads similar otherwise. Gonna have a think about it overnight.
Picture looks great, already done a quick sketch & seems to work well on A4 - I'l upload a pick later.

Edit - Done the sketch & some of the black fill from it - (no shading yet obviously) (only done the first coat of the black, i go over it after (as it sometimes doesn't fill right with these stupid art pens, going to switch to another brand me thinks)

de_wip_by_darkelmarko-d5yfm6g.jpg
 
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That is pretty close indeed! I actually live in Knowle but it's only 5-10 minutes to get into Fareham from there :)
Hehe, ay - very close indeed!, good living next to the station on the regular commute to Havant! - not a bad town, but a little boring.

These are awesome. Any chance you could take a photo after each shade has been put on? I can't even draw stick men so have always wondered how its done. Or do you have a video online that shows the technique?
I'll do some snaps on each stage for the Deus Ex one, it's black & 3 shades of grey usually, but come next week I'm moving upto 6 shades (when my new pens arrive!).
 
Replied to your email Mark, been a busy day so sorry it took so long. Also bump for a worthy cause.
Cheers, I've replied too :).

Finally borrowed a better camera - still isn't great mind... :/, must go & get a DSLR when I get paid..., (That's £600 gone :/....) (higher quality than my stupid phone).

Sadly I got carried away & finished the Deus Ex one without doing the stages.., I'll remember to next time! :)

dues_ex_by_darkelmarko-d5yh4bb.jpg
 
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I'd be interested in seeing how Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet might turn out.
Like this.

First attempt at using the promarkers (instead of the Faber Castell ones) - which actually seem much better & less than half the cost... (shakes fist!)

louis_armstrong_by_darkelmarko-d5yl1xd.jpg
 
Took a while this one, really happy with the material on the clothes - but something about the face not 100% accurate <shakes fist>

The Avengers - Black Widow

the_avengers___black_widow_by_darkelmarko-d5yw7ii.jpg
 
elmarko, this stuff is amazing! Do you do any subject? How long do they take you on average?
Thanks for the good feedback :) - Well, part is finding reference photos which will work with the style (needs to work monochrome atm) but I'm building up more artist pens of colours to start a few of those but don't have enough yet) - the time it takes is totally pendent on the complexity of the design, for example the last one took about 4 hours - an hour finding a good reference picture & preparing it in photo-shop, another hour sketching it - then two hours colouring the layers & adding some final details.

Glad you approve :), sometimes if you've been staring at the same things for hours you get blind - helpful to have a view from another perspective lol.
 
First dabble at colour, didn't have enough art pens for all the colours I needed to had to improvise.

Not 100% happy with it, but the papers saturated with ink so can't change anything else really.

dexter_by_darkelmarko-d5z3obl.jpg
 
That's fantastic; could do with a dash of blood on the gloves though.
Hehe, I don't have any reds :P - got some on order still - only got flesh/brown & grey scales atm.

Will probly do another one at some point for Dexter, pretty good to draw.
 
Elmarko, are you still doing this? Would love to commission a piece from you!
Yeah, still got a fair way to go to hit the fund raising target - will just need to know what you what/reference picture & such.

Posted all the ones which had been requested last night, so managed to clear up some room to do a few more.
 
Excellent mate :) was talking about your thread to my missus and she was excited at the idea of getting our Old English Sheep Dog inked :) ill try and find the best picture to use as a ref :)

What sizes can you do?
Currently A4 & A3 paper - I used artist ink pads which don't bleed so have to use set sizes currently (as they are basically glorified felt tips).

Drop a few links to reference pics (if you want them landscape/portrait & I'll give you an indication as to how it will look (as I'll create a final reference picture to draw).

They don't normally take too long, but some a little longer than others - currently working on the Donnie Darko one but that should be done by tomorrow (if I get out of work at a reasonable time).

After the charidee stuff you really should start selling your work online. GD's purchases would keep you in Nando's and shandies alone!
Thanks :), still not that comfortable selling art for personal gain - feels unnatural for some reason, it could end up draining the joy of doing it (admittedly some requests are a bit boring lol).
 
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I'll knock up two different reference pictures for you to pick between (to give you a feel on what It will look like & you can pick from those) - I assume top one portrait, bottom one landscape? as otherwise the bottom would would lose his behind or be very small on a white background lol (would be a shame as it's a good angle!).
 
I think the red coat one is our first choice, and yeah definitely landscape!

She's a stunner, eh? :D
Yup, she a great little one :), I'll see what I can do when I finish work today to sort out the reference, if your happy with it I'll start work on it over the week (once the rabbit mask is done) & should be able to pop it in the post by the weekend (assuming all goes well!).
 
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