brooo…those concept sktches are amazing…u r mehod is so difrent and nice…u r fan bro:D
Hey, those are some great sketches, Etcher. You have a great sense of construction. I usually just scribble stuff til it looks right. 
stuffs looking good man! your sculpts are progressing, and your drawings are awesome! if you can get your sculpting to the same level youll be in good form! keep it up!
nice stuff. really awesome detail in the muscle fiber stuff. I like the character in your last drawing, i hope i’ll get to see him sculpted soon.
looking forward to more, and thanks for responding to my posts
Yep, you got me sketching, Etcher! 
Well, I often need to use the REAL ETCHER. 
I´m happy, it´s friday and you know what that means:
Zbrush-weekend. 
By the way – I´m still waiting for your update.
Sorry for being so annoying. Hehe
Hi guys and gals! Finally got enough work done to update my sketchbook!
neozerahan: thank you man – glad U like. Thanks for droppin’ me a line! (man, your latest speed sculpts… encourage me to keep goin’ as well!)
Marsyas: thanks for the nice comment on the sketches. You say you scribble… well, your scribbling certainly gets you a long way man! What’s a great sketch when the resulting sculpt sucks… .
Mdale13: hi Matthew, thank you so much for stopping by. Yep, I really hope I can get my sculpts to a decent level (need to practice a lot). Thanks for the encouragement!
Truedeja: hi Jason! Glad U like! Well, as you can see, I started on the sculpt. Still got a long way to go (me=envious of your Grifter).Thanks for stopping by.
Moni: Stop pushing me ! 
, ! Hey man, I’m so glad I got you sketchin’. Lookin’ forward to seeing some of your sketches, say, what do you mean by “the real etcher” ? So, here’s the update Moni !
In my defence: we’re currently doing some major renovations on our house, the whole house currently looks like a fallout zone. Every day, amidst the debris, I have to find a place to put my laptop and Wacom, and fire up Zbrush to do a little bit of sculpting. Needless to say that the great community feedback and constant flow of great work posted every day on ZBC gives me the drive to keep goin’!
Might not seem like a spectacular update, but I spent quite a lot of time researching: needed to build a good basemesh. While sculpting, I took my time to study human anatomy. So, the sculpt might still seem in an early development stage now, but it taught me a lot. I didn’t have to sculpt the nude, since the character wears clothes, but I want to study the flow of cloth around the body as well, so I think I’ll benefit from having the nude sculpt underneath the clothes. Also, I noticed that I sketch using angular shapes to block in the basic masses/muscles and when I sculpt, I tend to use rounded, flowing lines and shapes to get the masses/muscles right. I’m curious as to how my sculpting style will evolve as/if/when I get more skilled.
Zbrush is fun!
So, here goes: AXL_Post_#002:
Next update: helmet and VM Stealth, bit of work on the clothing, maybe… .
Thank you all so much for viewing and commenting !
hey etcher,
you make really nice concept work! looks professional.
looking forward seeing more
Great update Etcher, I like his overall posture/silhouette very much !
Keep it up
nice start man, already his personality is starting to show. i really like the workbook style too, like what we had to do back in uni, really does keep things in order and shows your progress clearly
Looks good Etcher. Very cool presentation
looks very cool ! i like it !
Yezzzzz, that´s what I call a great update!
Super cool presentation and very great Z-tyle!
Well, maybe posting the update wasn´t a good idea at all –
because I want to see much more now! Heheh.
Regarding “the real etcher” - I thought an etcher is the… rubber…eraser thingy on a pencil ?
– I hate this language barrier.
this is great - love the silhouette, very heroic and dynamic pose! Kinda reminds me of the old Soviet era monuments in the feel of sculpting and readable stance for some reason 
small_orange_diamond
Etcher,
Your AXL character seems like a giant leap forward from the anatomy studies (though those were also well made).
The rigors of copying reality could beat the imagination out of you, so it’s wonderful to see character take charge over realism.
Just out of curiosity, what references do you have in your library (books, dvds, statues, etc.). Are you biggining to feel as though they are less and less necessary, or even a bit distracting to your work?
This has the makings of a retroactive top 10 finisher in the action hero contest. Or maybe submit him to the Gnomon Watchmen contest this month.
Anyway, I sense the evolution of another great sculptor / sketch artist. Amazing work.
wow etcher bro…
u r rocking man…this stuff has the perfect mixture of aesthic and exgertation tinge to it…u r work speaks abt u and the way u think…
very nicely done till now…and u hav got a fan!!!:o
I hope you get a top row for this. This stuff is great to see. I agree about topology, you can do that later. Although its best to do it after you got the main forms and gesture there.
Great work! Cool how you’re applying your anatomy studies to something more stylized.
Hey Etcher
Very cool love the pose and proportions
cant wait for update:D
hey Etcher great work man
Hi girls and guys! Thank you all for the many replies! You rock! It is nearly impossible to describe how your feedback is boosting me while learning/drawing/sculpting! !
Wethand: hey man, what a great comment! I’m trying to make it look professional, without overdoing it, cause after all, the drawings and the sculpts have to be decent. Thanks man! !
Lucky: thank you! Worked hard on that and had a tough time getting it right. So, let’s see if I can get it through again when the clothing comes on. !
Euge: thank you for commenting! Quote “already his personality is starting to show” = awesome comment: I worked so hard on the sketches and the sculpt to get that in! I hope I can bring in some more when he’s clothed and action - posed! Also glad you like she workbook style. I’m actually printing these pages out for myself, cause I use them as some sort of “process tracking diary” (man… “process tracking diary”… that was some great English… 
)
Undoz: Thank you for dropping me a line, energy levels just got boosted to the max!!! So glad you like my progress so far, also glad you like the presentation. But now, let’s see if I can take this guy to the finish line. You have no idea how much I study your sculpts to get me through this one (Seth Bullock, flamethrower guy… ow man… and all those awesome sculpts on you website). !
Skulll_monster: thank you so much for giving me a comment,so glad you like the sculpt! But, still have to do clothes, gear, weapons, details, polypaint… .Gotta’ say though that your latest sketchbook posts are teaching me a lot on the next steps I gotta’ take, so thanks for dropping me a line and thanks for posting your art and Wip shots on ZBC! !
Moni-Poroni: Hey man, glad u like, cause part of it is all your fault… . Working full blast on the updates.(Don’t forget my house is a warzone right now…). About the etcher thing: I got my cue for this name from Rembrandt, who made beautiful copperplate etchings. I started my artistic endeavours too by making copperplate etchings, so… there you go… . !
Intervain: ultimate thank you for taking the time to view and comment my work! So glad you like it! Quote: “very heroic and dynamic pose! Kinda reminds me of the old Soviet era monuments in the feel of sculpting and readable stance for some reason” You are so right. I didn’t look at those Soviet sculpts while working on the Axl sculpt, but I know them, so probably, some of that stuff went in subconsciously. I think some of that Soviet era (paintings) stuff is gonna’ resurface when I get the polypaint on and place the character in a scene. I saw your latest cloth study (tudor gown) It is beautiful in sculpt, fabric and color… . Guess it’s my turn now to do some serious cloth study! !
Ravioli_rancher: thank you for your awesome comment! Quote:” The rigors of copying reality could beat the imagination out of you, so it’s wonderful to see character take charge over realism.” Couldn’t agree with you more on that one, I’m glad I succeeded in “using” reality rather than just copying it. Quote: “Are you biggining to feel as though they (they = references) are less and less necessary, or even a bit distracting to your work” I now what you mean, but I am in an early stage of my learning process right now, so I’m leaning quite heavily on my reference library, also, I’m a slow learner (can’t seem to absorb and retain a big volume of information). But, my study and creation process could best be described as this: first, study human and animal anatomy by copying (drawing and sculpting), next; apply what I learned to visualize my own ideas. I guess I’m going back and forth between studying and creating right now and I hope I will get to a point where I feel that leaning on my references is holding me back or distracting me but I feel that I’m gonna’ need way much hours of sculpting practice to achieve that goal.
On my reference library:
These are the books I always seem to come back to
Human anatomy by Gottfried Bammes:
“Die Gestallt des Menschen” ISBN 3-473-48378-8
“Studien zur Gestalt des Menschen” ISBN 3-363-00761-2
“Menschen zeichnen” ISBN 3-363-00720-5
“Arbeitsbuch zur Künstleranatomie” ISBN 3-473-48374-5
Animal anatomy by Gottfried Bammes:
“Grosse tieranatomie” ISBN 3-473-48366-4
“Studien zur Gestallt des Tieres” ISBN 3-473-48342-7
These books are only available in German (not a problem for me) but they are without a doubt the best references on constructive anatomy.
Medical anatomy:
Human Male V.3 – www.anatomytools.com
CD-ROM “Sobotta – Atlas der Anatomie des Menschen” V. 3.0 R. Putz and R.Pabst ISBN 9789031130009
Human and animal locomotion:
“The Human Figure in Motion” (E. Muybridge) ISBN 0-486-20204-6
“Human and Animal Locomotion Vol III” (E. Muybridge) ISBN 0-486-23794-X
“The Animator’s Survival Kit” (R. Williams) ISBN 0-571-20228-4
Worx on Zbrush:
“Zbrush Character Creation” (S.Spencer) ISBN 978-0-470-24996-3
“Zbrush Central”: ZBC is providing me so much information right now that my brain is practically melting… .
Various worx which cover the creative process behind the visualization of ideas:
All works by Umberto Eco (novels, short stories collums, lectures and essays)
All works by Chris Ware
All works by David Lynch
All works By P.P.Rubens
All works by Rembrandt
“Bauhaus” (J. Fiedler and P. Feierabend) ISBN 3-8290-2592-0
And, to top it all off, add a sprinkling of Squee, Bear and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
Quote” This has the makings of a retroactive top 10 finisher in the action hero contest. Or maybe submit him to the Gnomon Watchmen contest this month.” You’re too kind man! But he’s gonna be retroactive for sure cause I don’t know how long it’ll take me to finish him.
Hope this answers your questions a bit. Lookin’ forward to your new stuff Rancher!
Neozerahan: thank you so much for revisiting my sketchbook thread and the kind words. Quote:” this stuff has the perfect mixture of aesthic and exgertation tinge to it…u r work speaks abt u and the way u think” I’m very pleased about that remark, cause it was what I hoped for when lookin’ at my works. !
Womball: quote: “I hope you get a top row for this” that’s the nicest thing to say man, thanks! But I think I’ll need to do a lot better than this to get to top row… ,who knows, maybe someday… doesn’t hurt to dream from time to time… . About the topology: I think I can hold off on the edgeloop/flow modeling on these sculpts, since I’m not planning to animate them. See ya later man! !
Marsyas: Thanks for checkin’ the update! You’re right: studying anatomy is one thing, creative application of it is definitely something else… glad you like!
Hope I can hold it to the finish line though… !
FoOD: Hey man, I’m trying-working hard, so, you givin’ me feedback is awesome, so: thanks again. Quote: “cant wait for update”, yep I new I had this one coming –I honestly won’t tell you to “keep goin’” anymore… . !
Arunzb: Thanks for visiting my thread and the nice comment! I see that you are at working hard to developing your artistic skills and I have to say I think ZBC is THE ultimate place in the world to do this – the info here is top notch! So: let’s see where it gets us man! !
Gotta’ get to modeling the helmet now… . If I can keep away from ZBC.