The Human pit stop

The bar -- where humans stop to relax, regardless of era or location. No matter how technologically advanced we become, there will always be a need for places for people to meet -- be those places real or virtual -- and a bar is bound to remain standard for a long time to come.

All done in GIMP 2.4rc1 [link] . Some random prop and pose references where used for the sketching, otherwise it's all done from scratch. Work time around 14 hours, spread out over two weekends.

The scene is inspired by the MMORPG EVE Online [link] , but only in spirit; I haven't explicitly used any actual graphics or reference materials from there at all. Some character types you will recognize though.

("Blackback Starkiel" is my character's name in EVE, by the way, if you want to drop by and say hi.)

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I have heard from time to time that many scenes I do are rather calm and serene. Now, this is an attempt to make a really busy scene. The idea was to have people sort of caught doing normal things and not being bothered about us, the viewers.

I also really wanted to train drawing males of different ages and postures. I also worked hard on adding texture to almost everything in sight. Unfortunately most of that hard work is not really showing at this image size, the print is based off the full-size original, showing all the details .

Hopefully the bar should feel used and sort of ingrained, despite the fancy bar desk.

I am, as always, looking for critique on this, I'm still adjusting it, but it's easy to go blind to one's own images.

UPDATE: Incoorporated some changes to this, increased level of detail on the man sitting to the left at the bar, as well as the man in the leather jacket, to make him look less flat. Tweaked light a little bit too.

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Griatch