Angelo's Drawing drawing drawing drawing, partying partying partying partying

[angelo cordon]

Newer works last page

[Turisas]

Ahh, nice work you're doing. Quite messy, though. But it sort of fits for the first work.
Keep up the good work! Oh, may I ask why did you change your account? Got tired of the nick, or...?

[angelo cordon]

hey mk,

thanks for the first comment! well the shoe's been dead for a while and it feels like i've grown so much more as an artist since then. i felt that changing my nick would be a good step towards a new path to greatness, lol. mumbo jumbo, but thats what i honestly feel like.

cheers man!

[Micaiah Nelson]

you have som nice concepts here. Welcome to CA.

[Yautja892]

Hey man, good to see your back. Like the first two characters, interesting design to them. Won't critique on anything yet. Glad to hear you've changed as an artist. Keep feeding us.:)

[dkounios]

great start on your SB!
welcome aboard and pump them studies out!
good luck!

[Moai]

Welcome back to the boards, man! Nice to see you again. So, what's the situation with us hanging out sometime?
Anyway, some crits and comments.
The first piece is looking okay. There are two major problems, however. First and foremost, the values are bad, to put it quite bluntly. Look at the image that I posted below. What I did was desaturate the image and shrink it to 12.5%. There are some areas that are slightly lighter and darker, but there are no distinguishable shapes or areas of value. More than anything else, value is what makes a picture. Form, depth, and composition all depend on value. Making everything basically the same value, therefore, doesn't really work.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/cordon-darklores.jpg

The other thing is that the cloth wrinkles have problems. I know, cloth wrinkles are some of the most difficult things to draw. What you need to do is study up, and use reference. Right now, I'm studying Hogarth's Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery. Hogarth's style isn't the most appealing, but this is the most complete guide to the subject that I've yet found. I'd recommend it. Secondly, use reference. For my Puppeteer piece that I did, for reference I threw a blanket over my head and took some photos of myself in a mirror. If you can't use yourself, you can always try to find something on the internets that'll suit your purpose. It need not be exactly the same, just similar enough for you to learn from and use.
One more thing about that piece: the texture on the background looks good, but the texture on the figure looks kind of haphazard. I think this is, once again, due to the values. Since there are no clear lights and shadows, the texture--which is a good texture, actually--just serves to messify and obscure the figure underneath.
Just my three cents on that piece.:teeth:
The rest of the pieces look pretty good. I could say some things about them, probably, but there's just so much criticism in me on a given day. That techno-fairy thing with the robotic wings is a pretty cool concept.

[angelo cordon]

moai: thanks for the tip man! desaturating your works really helps! i always loved your criticism; dont worry i have thick skin.

dkounios: thanks for the welcome


somethings for tonight:

sketch 01: practicing values

02: i always thought that lincoln couldve been the main model for skeletor.

03: throne concept wip


cheers!
spade

[davi]

i really enjoy the way you coloured the first image, reminds me of the artist from final fantasy(excuse my lack of remembering his name).

[angelo cordon]

davi - thanks for the comment!

could use some help with this one... im stuck and dont know where to go from here. need fresh eyes. !!!! lashgasd

sleep.

[oziroyal]

Hi, the work looks good. But I also think you should put some extra work on the values.

[angelo cordon]

oziroyal: thanks for the comment! it seems to me that values are my weekest progress at this point.

practiced values by only playing with black and white:

[Yautja892]

Nice new updates. I think for the one piece in post #10 really needs is more value range. It seems that your getting the lighting right on the main light. I'm confused with the blue light, and where its coming from. I think you just need to push some more shadows first then start bringing out the highlights. I think maybe set up some still life's with one or two light sources and practice studying that for a bit. I like the abe Lincoln sketch it stands out to me. :)

[Katfayheirti]

Hey, I'm liking the new name and new sketchbook! There's a lot of progress between this new SB and the old one. I love how you've started using colours and textures. They add so much to your work. One problem I'm seeing right now is with value. Don't be afraid to paint with a higher opacity brush. It'll make your characters look more solid.

[Turisas]

Hey there again. About your painting, also add much more detail to the area you want the audience to focus. It seems hard to see what you're trying to point out the most right now. If it's the person sitting on the chair, add jewelry, pottery and all kinds of accessories and such that make that specific area intresting.

About the church sketches. Looking good, but they kind of look... weak... Try to make the shapes and edges harder and more straight to make them look strong. Even if it just a value study, I'm pointing that out. I haven't critiziced anything for a loooong time.

Keep on going.

[angelo cordon]

hey guys! thanks for the comments!

kat -
One problem I'm seeing right now is with value. Don't be afraid to paint with a higher opacity brush. It'll make your characters look more solid.
thats a really awesome advice! thanks for sharing.


sorry for the lack of update; ive been swamped since the quarter started. havent had the time to do any scanning or fun doodles. ill upload hopefully by the weekend.

cheers!

[angelo cordon]

i need to get back into this routine. will post more later.

[StarbonesCoffin]

cool, nice circle,weird but cool.Thats one huge girl you got there.

[angelo cordon]

here are some sketches on the new project im working on!

<3
Spade

[Moai]

First of all, man, huuuuuge apologies for going over a month without commenting in your sketchbook. That wasn't cool for me to do. I have some various excuses, but that's not important.
What is important is how much better your artwork has gotten lately! I mean jeez, look at those Inca-ish characters. You took your designs to a whole new level with those.
So now, a post-by-post critique:
Portraits and Throne- Cool work on these. You're definitely branching out. However, you're making a classic Photoshop beginner mistake. You're using a lot of smallish, transparent brushstrokes. Having many, many small, transparent brushstrokes overlapping each other gives a painting a busy, messy feeling, and the results often look somewhat watery and squishy. An excellent CA.orgian by the name of Meatsworthy once gave me an excellent piece of advice, one that I often repeat in my head as I paint. Allow me to paraphrase: "Find the largest brush for the job that you're doing, and then use an even bigger one." Use bigger, more opaque brushstrokes. The marks you make will be more meaningful, the painting will look better, and you will grow as an artist.
Throne- Interesting concept. I can tell that you pushed yourself in some new directions with this one, and probably felt some frustration. There are three things that need to be worked on most in this one: the lighting/values, the brushwork, and the perspective. For the lighting and valuies, I think you might have bitten off more than you could chew by having the multiple competing light sources. The blue lights, though they look cool, don't effect the environment around them. They would leave blue highlights on the surfaces around them. The very bright highlight on the right side of the throne is killing the form. Here, look at this excellent art tutorial by Prometheus|Anj: link (http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm) (apologies if you've already seen it, but I find that I learn something new every time I look at it). He advises to keep your highlights fairly small, so that the color and form of an object isn't lost in a blaze of light, as is happening here. Also in terms of values, the background of this piece is showing a higher value range than the foreground, which is causing the throne to appear rather pale and flat. The general rule of thumb is to decrease contrast as the distance from the viewer increases, so that the darkest darks are in the foreground.
Moving on to brushstrokes, I don't see a billion small, transparent marks, so that's good. You're also making use of textures, which is also good. However, the throne has this soft, fuzzy, out of focus feel, that would be remedied by using some harder brushes, especially in areas that are in the light.
And finally, perspective. The face part of the throne is looking directly at us, or at least appears to be doing so. However, the lower part of the throne is angled towards the left. For the small figure sitting on the throne, I think it would be better if his legs were foreshortened a bit. This would lessen the illusion that we are looking down on him, while at the same time looking straight at/a bit upwards at the rest of the throne. And finally me critique of this piece is done.
Buildings- Again, lesser, larger, and more opaque brushstrokes will do ya good. And it's a good idea to get the perspective and ellipses right in the drawing stage before moving on to the painting. Nice to see you studying buildings, in any case.:rendered:
Faces and Statue- The topmost face plate/shield thing is one of the better pencil drawings I've seen from you. The lines are crisper and less choppy than in previous works by you. As for the statue, it looks pretty good, except that the statue/structure is off balance. Perhaps that was your intent, though. Also, make a point to find reference when drawing things that you don't really know how to do, such as that flag. And internet image search is always helpful.
Incan/Aztec dudes- These are awesome! Easily the best designs I've ever seen from you. I can't wait to see where you go with this project. My only crit for you is to keep practicing your figure work, since those charas are rather stiff, especially that sniper.
Hopefully this long-ass critique made up for my long-ass absence.:rendered:

[silvestri99]

Nice work and design ideas here. Watch some of your perspective ie the throne shows different perspective between left side / right side/ and the head. I would suggest laying out some lines of perspective to follow and to determine what type of perspective you are going from. Also, lots of reference drawing. Study the figure and keep improving. But most of all, just keep drawing!!

[angelo cordon]

Moai - always love hearing your comments!

silvestri - thanks for the crits and advice! will look into that.


here is a wip for chow#84. looking to hear crits from you all!

[angelo cordon]

development....

[angelo cordon]

here is my entry for the latest chow. its suppose to be a biochemical warfare medic. this was a really exciting painting for me even though i dont personally think i accomplished getting the idea across. learned a lot through photoshop.

[angelo cordon]

somethings im working on for work...

[Niva.]

Hi there - thanks a lot for leaving acomment in my SB, just wanted to return the favor and see where you're at with your art. I guess you've just joined so welcome to CA - this forum has been very instrumental to improving my art and has kept me motivated on its own. The higher res robot/spacesuit in #24 is one of your stronger works here, keep hacking in that direction. Also your very first post here - the colored version of that sketch looks great - is that digital or traditional media?

In general you should attempt to finish some works but at this stage you can probably mostly benefit from quick pose sketches and you're going this route thusfar. Still, try to get amore complete piece once a week or so and post it in the crit center if you're up for people really tearing into it :)

[angelo cordon]

n1va - thanks for the plan, man. i think i will try to finish a piece every week. the first post was drawn with color erase pencil then colored and rendered in photoshop.

[Yautja892]

Hey red I apologize haven't commented in your book in awhile. Really interesting ideas/concept you have been making recently. The main thing I think you should focus on would be really get into the habit and study the anatomy as much as possible. Do you have any open figure drawing session you could go to by chance? I think also maybe practice some more stuff from life as well. This is something I need to do as well. Your chow piece is nice, I kind of like the looseness in it and where you can see your strokes. Keep pushing man :)

[angelo cordon]

hey yautja! - awesome hearing from you again man. i definitely miss figure drawing. i still do it though once in a while, just never post it here. i think i will start doing that again. thanks!


here is something i discovered today in photoshop! the texture brush!!! i knew it was there, just never played with it. i think for the most part, i was able to imitate a grungy and gritty feel of a charcoal or pencil. interesting enough, i feel a lot more comfortable seeing my gestures on photoshop like this rather than a regular round brush. then i moved on to coloring on top of it.

[angelo cordon]

heres a two paintings im proud of from yesterday's painting class. my scanner is too small to scan these two completely, but i will rescan the second one after its done.


i really like how the second one is coming along. except for the hand in the background, the size or shape of it is really bugging me.

[angelo cordon]

work. in. progress.

[The Curehead]

quite a nice sb your building,id love to see you do more pencil drawings though

[angelo cordon]

The Curehead - Thanks for the comment! will scan pencils for ya sometime.

update on gaurd:

[angelo cordon]

logging in some progress + 1.

[angelo cordon]

for the love of posting...

[angelo cordon]

now, concept!

[Dan Valkar]

interesting concepts...ur character design its gettin' better..and u have good colors...keep it up man

[Moai]

Hey, redSpade! I'm sorry it's been so long since my last comment here. I'm a habitual procrastinator, if you haven't noticed. Anyway, crits:
Chemical warfare medic guy- I'm glad you had fun with this and learned a lot in painting it. It feels like you stopped too soon, though. Or, at least, the picture isn't finished yet. Many areas are still quite messy and undeveloped, such as his right food, right hand, and firearm. At this stage, try to make things as clean as possible. I notice, for example, there are some stray brushstrokes going off to where they shouldn't, and some fuzzy edges that should be more distinct. Also, don't just make things darker for shadows (just adding black)or just lighter for highlights (just adding white). That kills the color and creates an unnatural look. Change the hues a bit as well when changing values.
Purple Guide- Far too high key. The figure and the surface s/he's standing on could be a lot darker. I also can't tell the figure's gender.
Boat- This image exemplifies the type of messiness I'm advising you to avoid. A rule of thumb is to make your brushstrokes as large as possible, so that you don't have a bunch of small brushstrokes scrambling all over an area. This is especially noticeable if the brushstrokes are semitransparent. Our friend Monsterkill has been having this problem as well.
Robot 'n' monster- This, along with your guard character, is your best digital painting to date, I think. Very clean, and with a good value range. Still some problems with using many small brushstrokes, and just adding black and white for value changes, but much better than the previous paintings. I'm getting a funny feeling from this picture, like the two characters are toys, fighting in a bedroom while the kid's away...:teeth:
Texture girl- Yeah, the photoshop round brush can be uncomfortable to work with at times. That's why I usually paint with a "spotty" brush composed of several dots, rather than the default brush. Anyway, I like to sketch using a much thinner line, but to each his own.
Paintings- Cool job on these paintings. You did an excellent job and were very brave with all the different colors you used for the skin tones. The values aren't very good, though. Very middle range, few lights or darks, inconsistent light source. Making color and value work together is even harder with traditional media than it is in digital, though. The second painting, the one you especially like, is muuuch stronger in terms of lighting and value. I think that's why you like it so much, because the values work. I've read that values make up 80% or so of a painting, with colors being far less in importance. Perhaps try a more simplified "mitten" shape with the hands, rather than a mass of fingers.
Guard- Possibly your strongest digital work yet! Much cleaner and less messy than your medic, and you aren't leaving out important details. Some things to change: separate the values of the skin tones and the hair on his face, and decide on your lightsource. The light source seems to be coming from the upper right, but there are some strange fugitive highlights on the left side of his cloak thing. Also, two books to consider buying: Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life or whatever it's called, and Hogarth's Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery or whatever that's called. Bridgman's book is the best single human anatomy book that I know of, and Hogarth's book, though not quite as great, is still in my opinion the best guide to cloth wrinkles out there. It'll give you a new way to think about how and why wrinkles form on clothes, and decide how to put wrinkles on your own figures. Wrinkles tend to radiate out from fixed areas on the clothing called anchor points, and they follow the direction of action. For example, on a raised arm, the wrinkles on the upper arm would radiate outwards from an anchor points (probably in the armpit), and go upwards with the direction of the movement. I'm kinda rambling, so I'll try to get back on the point. The wrinkles on your guy's cloak are wrong. In fact, there really aren't any wrinkles. Here's a link to a really bad paintover (http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/really-bad-paintover.jpg) that I did in an attempt to help you out with this wrinkles, just to give you an inkling on how they can be improved. You'd be much better off getting advice from someone who knows his wrinkles better, or from Hogarth's book.
Anatomically, he's pretty good. The values and the way you drew his muscles on his forearm makes it look a little flat. His legs are off a bit too; the knees are probably too high, and the legs are too stiff and straight. Remember, that when you look at a figure from the side, the front of the shin is in line vertically with the back of the thigh. Be careful not to make the legs too straight like that.
Sketches- Cool, dude. Bridgman's book would definitely help you out anatomically, though.
Priest/ess- I'm pretty sure that's a woman, right? You need to make the gender of your robed characters more apparent. Your values and forms are improving. Again, I'd recommend Hogarth's book for the cloth wrinkles.

Anyway, it's too bad that you weren't able to come down last weekend. I doubt that I would have been able to spend very much time drawing with you, though. Better luck next time, hopefully!

PS- It probably took me at least forty minutes to right that out. See why I procrastinate?

[amer-nazri]

Hey there!! Cool new SB and name!! Your work has a fresh quality in this new book, and I see you're also expanding yourself in term of subjects and use of colour. The paintings are awesome, great colours. With your digital painting, try to keep your brushstrokes consistent, because you'll find that if your brshstrokes are consistenly changing directions, it may sometimes appear unintentionally blurry. You can also keep your edges sharp by keeping them clear-cut and having a clear distinction between the subject and background, and that can also be done by contrasting values, a white or black outline. Keep up the good work, and see you around!

[Turisas]

Hey there.
You're doing great with your concepts and studies, have to say. Right now I'm too lazy and tired to give critique.
Keep up the good work.

[angelo cordon]

quick art dump... will comment again later

[angelo cordon]

So over the past couple of weeks, my computer died and i have just now fixed it up. sorry for the lack of posts.

monsterkill - thanks for the comment!

amer-nazri - thanks for the comment and the tips! i've been definitely working with my brush strokes as well as value works. will keep your advice around!

moai - always appreciate your critiques! i was able to find a copy of bridgeman's wrinkle book but have yet to take a look at it. thanks for the input and advices!

[Olof]

Heya redSpade! I've been through most of your works now and I believe I have some ideas how you can move further on. I don't feel like critiquing your latest because you haven't posted in a while. You probably understand what I mean.

I believe you need to push your colours to a cleaner state. As for now you seem to get tangled up in a mix between colours and grayscales. I believe it's because you're using too much black and white in your paintings. When later trying to blend in colours it pulls away from your intended colours and gets a dirt-gray kind of colour.

If you happen to own a sketchbook with coloured paper and a white crayon/pastel pencil it's easy to describe this. Just sketch with your usual pencil as you would, then add lighter parts with white. If you're doing it right you will get a white highlighted tone with your white pencil, your paper colours as a midtone and your pencil as shadows. But if you "cross paths" you will get a dirty mix of the white and the led, which won't match the drawing. It will probably be about the same value as your paper, but in another colour, and thus not work. Blabla :)

I'd say you should start from a midtone and work your way from there. Don't rush with the strong colours, you don't have to use a strong yellow on a dark purple to get contrast. If you have alot of purple in your painting greytones and other colours will tend to look like yellow. I'm thinking about most of your coloured works where you seem to know about colour in theory, but not how to use it in your art.

Check your posts. Almost every sketch with a face bears the exact same expression. Slightly tilted back and with the nose high in the air. You already know how to draw it, putting it on every character you make won't help you. Even though we're not having lessons or that crap I wan't to see some variations in your next post!

I'd better sleep now. School starts in five hours..

.peace

[angelo cordon]

MorteM - thanks for the critique, man! i really appreciate how you recoginze my color theories because thats how i work. using contrasting colors for shadows or highlights; i think that you are right and maybe thats why my works are not as great as i thought they would be because im not using it the right way. thanks for the tip; i actually stumbled upon a sketchbook that uses the paper as the midtones and the pencils as shadows. i tried that today but i didnt have a white pencil so it didnt work as well as it should. i will also work on my faces - i think i got stuck in my comfort zone and never got out of it.


So today i finally finished both of my newsprint pads and took pictures of the best drawings ive had over the past 6 - 9 months. out of both pads i ended up picking the best 10 (which most of them were the most recent). these are posted in chronological order.

[angelo cordon]

i found out about limited palletes when i was hanging around the painting section of the forums. for this i only used raw cienna, some crappy blue and a white and im really surprised at how awesome the results are - i feel almost that i can accomplish more in terms of painting with those three colors rather than using all of my colors.


its a wip, so far this is two hours into it.

cheers!

[Olof]

Really strong work this last one. I really like it alot!

Some tips/pointers:

Have the background continue below her. the white field that reaches up towards .. her.. is abit annoying. It doesn't place her in a room but rather some white space of nothingness.

I don't know if it's photoquality, but you don't really need those black lines on her thighs/back fof her yead. I think they're going too far away from your range of values. Abit less contrast to your darkest spots might help. Might be a question about taste though.

Last, nothing that you can do much about if you don't want to start all over, but really. Those hands. A wise conceptartist once said " your figures need to be able to wipe their asses ", think about the length of her arms.

Less blue on boobies!

Sweet work overall. The colours and the brushstrokes are really nice.


.cheers

[angelo cordon]

morteM: thanks for the crit man. the photo quality is actually sloppy; and it shouldnt be that blue. as for her arms, its actually kind of funny you mentioned it. because i started to think about why i painted the arms shorter and i went back to the reference and her arms are actually that short. dont know could use another eye on it, will post the reference and progress when i can.


for today, i wanted to figure out android's workflow using zbrush. i kind of figured it out but now i have to take it further on my own. i made my own custom brushes in photoshop and got them into zbrush and started to make random shapes to work with. eventually i started piecing pieces together and right now i have this kind of throne thing. :)

next i want to figure out the whole illustration. i see a dark twisted king sitting on this throne. and i somehow got samurais on the side by accident which looks really cool. :) wip!

[angelo cordon]

okay so this isnt working as awesome i thought it would be. im feeling too limited to the initial sketch. i think now that i have the basic design, i need to use it as reference and not a paint over.

theres no depth and my colors and values are not working together. it just looks like a blob right now :(


well. off to write a paper and ill work again on it some more later through the week.

[Dan Valkar]

the last one looks better on black&white i think...maybe try to get the figure with a soft brush with a black or more gray colour.....but.... what i know.......hhehhehehe anyway its very interesting...

[DeathChalupa]

good work
line quality's iffy
try to use long strokes

[angelo cordon]

dan valkar: thanks!

deathchalupa: thanks!



i really like this one but at the same time, it just doesnt work. i like the colors and the idea, but i dont think that im accomplishing the point across.

its a shamanic creature. the only thing that feels close to shaman about it is the red cloak. really if i disconnect myself from this, i really dont know what im looking at. its a monster in a cloak? dont know...

seemed like every part of this design is an afterthought...

didnt finish my paper....

[angelo cordon]

some 3d stuff. some of these are really old - when i didnt really know how to properly make models :x

cheers.

[Moai]

Holy crap! A lot has happened here since I last commented. Sorry it's been so long, man. I'll try my best to catch up.
Animal Post- Sweet! Some critters for me to crit.:} I like that you've expanded your subject matter to include these. What I'm noticing first is that many of these are rather stiff and out of proportion. When drawing an animal, one of the first things you'll often want to do is quickly sketch in its movement. This should be swooshy and flowy, and suggest the character of the creature you're going to draw before you even start putting details down. For example, if you're drawing a strolling cheetah, you'd want a long, loose line that suggests some flexibility. If you were drawing a much less flexible elephant, however, your line would be more bent and rigid, but still have a nice flow. Also, when drawing real animals, proportion if very important. When viewing the animal from the side, try to imagine it as a rectangle. For running animals like horses and dogs, the rectangle would be more like a square. For long, low animals like cows and lions, it's be more of a horizontal rectangle. Your cow is looking a little squarish.
Also, when sketching out animals, especially real ones from observation/reference, I find Joe Weatherly's construction method the best. I sketched up a donkey or something using his method below. I find his shapes extremely useful for simplifying the actual form of an animal. Don't take the legs I gave this donkey too seriously, though.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/donkey.jpg

Life Drawings- It only shows the importance of these principles that the three main critiques I'm going to give you for this are the same as I did for your animals: movement, proportions, and simple shapes. You have some good general movements going on in some of the drawings, such as the first one. Others, like the fourth one down, don't have as good of a flow. This is sometimes the luck of the draw, since some poses are better than others, but you can usually always "impose" a better flow onto a figure. Also, constantly measure back to see that your proportions are correct. You can do this two ways. In the first method, take a sighting stick and compare one length to another length. For example, compare the length of the lower arm to the length from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin. The other way is to measure angles, and make sure that the angles in your drawing match the angles on what you're seeing. Measure the angle between two points on the figure, then, holding your arm and hand absolutely rigid, rotate your body to face your drawing, and see if the angle matches up. Forgive me if I just completely insulted your intelligence by explaining something you already know. However, I can't emphasize enough the importance of getting the proportions right when the drawing is in the early stages. That's something my current figure drawing teacher has pounded into my head.
Also, try to connect your shadows into larger shapes. The shadows you have are often small and disconnected. Try to have them flow into one another. This makes the form more cohesive, and can help in the composition by directing the flow of the eye.

I hope that made up for at least part of my absence. I'll continue on and critique the rest soon!
By the way, are you going to the workshop? I am!:teeth:

[Turisas]

I'm having trouble with trying to critizice your work. This message I've written three times before but I gave up every time, simply because it didn't make sense.
So, sorry, I'll see you next time.
Oh, even though the shaman thing you made... Yeah, it doesn't work, but what would make it work would be that you gave the mask warm colours and the cloak some detail around the area where you want the viewer to look at.

Yeah, that's pretty much it :/
Sorry

[mybutterflyiris]

Hey,
I JUST emailed you. Basically, I'm a poo-head. Anyways, I think you are learning alot just on your own. These last ones show definate improvement. You have some great mark making on those last figures.
I think your biggest weakness right now is rendering the form. You seem to have a tendency to use a limited value range. Try to push it so that you have dark darks and lights and everything in between! Try to create a definate form shadow with a core shadow and then some reflected light. Also, pay attention to your edges, and think about makeing things come forward in space or go back in space. Crisp edges and high contrast generally come forward and greys that almost merge together go back in space...generally speaking.
Keep posting and drawing!!! :teeth:

[Olof]

Meeow. I think you need some more sketches and paintings in here.
Even though your 3d is looking good... .)

.cheers

[angelo cordon]

moai - been too long, friend! hope all is well!! good luck in seattle!!!

Monsterkill - good to hear from you!

mybutterflyiris - thanks for emailing me back! and for the crits :)

mortem - this is for you :)

[Moai]

Cool update, dude. I love those silhouettes. Someone's been looking at some Android Jones art, eh?:P A and L are my favorites. Both of those thumbnails have nice rhythms and proportions.
I see you're struggling with values a bit with your digital paintings. Values are one of the most important and challenging areas in painting. For the first image, the one of the girl, I think the problem is that the contrast for the skin tone is too low. I recently read that, the lighter the local tone of an object, the greater the value range between light and shadow on that object. So, for example, the contrast between the lit and shaded sides of a white object will be much greater than the contrast between light and shadow on a dark gray object. So, your rather pale girl's skin tone should have more contrasty shadows.
The values on your purple guy are better, but the color of the shadows looks like the color of the middle tone, only darker. This creates a muddy, grayed-out feeling. I've told this to you before, but be very sure to change the hue slightly in shadows and highlights.
Finally, try thinking of your forms as geometric shapes. You know, spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders, those sorta things. Find some examples of those in real life and study how light and shadow work on them. Then, simplify what you're working on into those simple shapes. Observe how figures' limbs change from rounder to more rectangular forms. This will help all areas of your drawing. It will make your figures more solid, and it will help you greatly in depicting light and shadow.
See ya later.

[amer-nazri]

Great silhouettes! They're such a good way of thmbnailing concepts, and I see alot of improvement on that side of your work. You're getting more creative with your designs. which is key. I reeallly like what youve been doing with the brushes to create shapes, the best ways of doing silhouettes is to stamp random shapes and strokes, and then cut and paste, erase with a custom brush, and so on. Try to be very open with the shapes you use, even when you have a character in mind.Also try to mix smooth, organic shapes with angular, geometric ones. I also feel that you should focus more on values by doing black and white paintings, like a still life, and pausing colour for the mo at least. Try as hard as possible to bump up the darks and lights, and giving a good solid contrast to your paintings. I'm doing this, and I feel, its helping me alot with my values, and it will do the same for you.
Keep up th good work!!
amer

[angelo cordon]

thanks for the input, sketch group buddies :) will work on those things. not much to post right now. been running around all day preparing stuff for an art show. havent eaten yet.

best,
spade

[Nadiamoon]

Sweet updates!!!!! Want more!:mod:

[angelo cordon]

Nadia : :)

restless tonight from a day full of painting. heres a value study. i downloaded ZhuZhu's brushes and those are really really awesome. i would also like to recommend Jason Juan's brushes and his artwork.

[angelo cordon]

here's an environment study... blah.

[Drum]

hey angelo,

thanks for finding my sketchbook. glad to finally see more of your stuff; the two newest are great.
good to see your using different brushes it looks cleaner and more deliberate

[angelo cordon]

drum: thanks, man


my goal for this one is to control the focus point and know what part of the piece to detail and what part not to. for this one, i wanted the main focus to be the gun and less of the person holding it.

[angelo cordon]

please lengthen your message to a tleast five characters.

[angelo cordon]

while im trying to get inspired for chow 100...

[angelo cordon]

trying to break my generic patterns in drawing people....

[Moai]

Hey, Angelo. I thought that since my workload has eased quite a bit and I can actually spend some time on art now, I can also spend some time critiquing my buddies. I'm going to go in reverse order, the most recent drawing to the least recent.
Post #68- What's giving you problems is that you're having a tough time thinking of the things that you draw as three dimensional shapes. I can see you wrestling with this problem quite clearly in these drawings, especially the monster's mouth and on some of your people's faces. Though I feel kinda cheap just recommending books rather than giving you info myself, Bridgman's and Hogarth's books provide an excellent foundation for learning the basic 3D shapes of the human form. They'll give you a new way to look at and think about these forms. Loomis is probably good, too (and available online for free), but I don't have much experience with those books.
Another thing the warrior/monster dude in the first image is looking pretty tense. His shoulders are held a bit high and close, and his arms are being held very straight and close to the body. All that gives him, again, a very tense look. A think a looser stance would give him a stronger and more confident character.
Post #67- What a post! These are the best sketches I've ever seen from you, I think. Lots of great stuff here.The first picture of the man riding the monster looks good, and has some nice cast shadows, but there are some problems. For one, the guy "piloting" the monster is facing us, while the monster itself is in more of a 3/4 view. This is a picture of a guy riding a monster, right? It's not just two separate but overlapping sketches? You need to study the way the forms of the arm and the forms of the chest meet, as well; the pectoral muscles play a part in this, and I don't see any on this creature. Making the edge of the monster's ribcage knobbier and suggesting more of the individual ribs would help also.
The colored sketch of the girl is also looking good. The values are nice and subtle. Again, learning more of the basic shapes of the head will help when rendering those cast shadows. Her hand may be a bit too dainty.
For the guy holding the pipe, it's good to see you experimenting with a few other styles of pencil rendering. The values could be a bit darker, and the foreshortening needs work. Think of it this way: the arms, at a very basic level, as cylinders. The cloth wrinkles that travel around arms can be thought of as spiral lines going around the cylinders. When you look at them from the side, the spiral wrinkles can look quite straight. But when you look at them from a foreshortened view, you see that they are traveling around a circular form, so those wrinkles also take on a more circular shape. That's a little something I learned form Hogarth's wrinkles and drapery book.
The dragon-worm creature is somewhat weaker than the rest of the sketches here. It doesn't really have any anatomy. Study some bat or pterodactyl wings, and look at insects, grubs, and snakes for some ideas on how to better execute those armor segments on its body. Also, the drawing would be more dynamic if it were, again, more 3-dimensional. The creature's body can, like the arm, be thought of as a cylinder (though a much more flexible cylinder for this creature). Think of those segments as soup cans, and imagine how those cans would look as they turn towards you and a way from you in space. You had a great opportunity to use those segments and the divisions between them to suggest form in space, but you didn't really use it.
The wash sketch of the dragon on the bottom of the next image looks really good. You suggested some nice forms there. The demon guy's horns, like the armor segments of your previous creature, could have been drawn more in a way to give a sense of form. In addition, the shapes of the horns themselves are rather indecisive and weak, design-wise. The girl's face is too small.
The model looks good, but her legs are a bit too long in relation to her body. You should also study up on the anatomy of the legs and the hips and get a better sense of how the two forms meet.
The cyborg with the dozens of heads is probably the best drawing I've ever seen from you. Really, it's good. I like the way you used lots of suggested lines in the faces, rather than delineating every detail, and you used perspective and foreshortening well on the mechanical forms.
Your character design is also improving, as I can see in the next drawing. He's very slanted to the left, though, and his body is rather elongated. His lower arm, in particular, is too elongated.
So, I gotta go now, man. Sorry I didn't get to the rest of your images. You're getting much better, but please take what I'm saying about foreshortening and basic three dimensional shapes to heart.
Later.

[Katfayheirti]

WOAH! Amazing progress since I checked here last! I'm really lovin' the first drawing in post #67 with the guy riding the stomach of the beast. 'Great concept! I'd love to see it rendered or possibly painted. I also love the concept of the mechanical guy with all of the heads. I'm thrilled with the grotesque bent your work has taken. Just keep drawing whatever pops out of your head and then imagine your creatures as planes in space and try rendering them.

[Turisas]

I should have known. Just when I was planning to give a big reply, Moai comes in and takes it all from me. That bastard, haha :D

Anyhow, I like where you're going so far. Amazing improvement since I last checked. Intresting concepts, great colour tests and great lines. I'm being left behind here. =P
Well, keep up the great work. I really haven't got much more to say (Now that Moai got ALL the points).

[angelo cordon]

thanks for the comments guys. its 3:41 in the morning, i will reply to all of them later. just wanted to post this really quick.

[Yautja892]

Post # 30

Hey Red first off I want to apologize for being away for so long and for not commenting in forever it seems. I can tell you have been growing in your art. Really nice and loose paintings. I like the second, they are block in enough and to the point that allows them to read well.

Post # 34

Really strong update on this one. I really enjoy how the painting is progressing and the overall design of the character is great. The anatomy is shaping up pretty well also. I actually really like your sketches like these, they have a tribal/myian influence to them.

Post # 35

Nice update again on these, seems your anatomy is showing improvement on this post for sure. It seems that you enjoy keeping your sketches very loose maybe try to push the contrast and shading and get into fully rendering some of the out.

Post # 36

Nice little painting, I think the color scheme works well for this piece.. I think maybe getting rid of the white background would have made the piece pop out more as well as maybe giving more specularity to the different textures since alot of the textures have the same surface quality. You should visit an artist named prometheis, his site has a very nice color and painting tutorials. I'll see if I can find the link or search for his name on CA.

Post # 41

Really nice studies on this post... It's good that your focusing on the general shapes and not just focus on the details and rendering. You should do more studies like these.

Post # 44

Really great figure drawings, I don't see too many problems with them it seems you do pretty well drawing the figure just have to push yourself on applying that back into your own characters etc... I still have this problem as well.

Post # 45

Nice painting study ... seemed like it turned out pretty well, not much to crit on this one.

Post # 47

I actually really like this piece, looks pretty cool. I saw parts of that video of andrew and his z-brush abstraction theory. Pretty cool stuff. Seemed like you had alot of fun with this piece. Maybe I should try this as well.

Up to Post # 72 -

Sorry man getting tired of comment on each piece seperate so I'll try and combine alot of the post from then till now... here's what I see from some of them..

I really enjoyed those thumbnails and some of the creature sketches you had the anatomy on that one read really well and the design was nice also. I think its good that your experimenting with different mediums and ideas. The thing I noticed is etheir you work alot of your pieces to a point then stop and move on to another. I think if you ever get to a point and confused on how to continue stop and really learn and understand what exactly it is your confused about. I think maybe give your self some sort of structure on what to work on. An example would be to fully push yourself with your human anatomy and draw from life alot. Really take your time on each piece even if its just some sketch, no need to rush or anything. Anyways Focus on that for awhile and if you want then yeah do some imagination ideas. Maybe doing that might help or maybe not just a suggestion. Etheir way you've improved alot since the beginning of your book, your exploring more areas, and it seems your getting more confindent in your lines and in general process. Keep pushing Red. :yayca:

[angelo cordon]

Moai: thanks for the tips man! always value your opinions. i am having a hard time seeing things in a 3d form. i think im comfortable with it but only to a certain point, which is my downfall. will work on that. also picked up a couple of bridgeman books so hopefully that will help to.

kat: thanks! im working on developing its design and will paint it in the future.

monsterkill: yes, moai is a bastard. the guy went to seattle! :p thanks for the comments though.

yautja: great to hear from you! hope all is well. thanks for taking the time an going all the way back to my first page! haha. i really like the advice that i have to take my time and fully understand what im drawing instead of just stopping. i guess its a subconscious thing that i never really paid attention to.



well, these are old drawings. i miss figure drawings alot and i havent done them in a long while. i think i will have to start going to the ca.org workshops again.

[angelo cordon]

some of my works from the mentoring thread:
A Flln Spade Gathering (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1605396#post1605396)

[amer-nazri]

Wow, great update dude! the character thumbs are really well done, you can really develop those further i think. I LOVE the art nouveau patterns, they are reallyy nicely drawn. I'm into patterns recently for some reason. Like Kat, I dig your machine with a thousand heads, really freaky in a good way!

Keep up the good work mang!

[Yautja892]

Hey red, really strong recent update. I think this is one of your stronger ones. Good job man. Really nice to see the figure drawings, something I'm getting back into soon. I like the line quality to most of them, and the only thing I see that stands out to me is the proportions in the torso and stomach regions, just make sure and double check those head measurements, while pushing these out. Those thumbnails are great, like the first and third rows the most. Also is the red dot your pick? If it is good choice. Anyways keep pushing man, can't wait to see your new stuff, cheers. :yayca: :lifedrawing:

[chilibeanpastebucket]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/ca_smilies/elwell2.gif
:mod:http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/ca_smilies/membermade/oneye.gif
:oneye:http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/ca_smilies/membermade/wtf.gif
:wtf: i see

[angelo cordon]

because i love you all so much, here's a little update. more coming soon, havent had the chance yet. was in a bad mood, explains the eye patch :)

[Turisas]

Looking good, Spade. I love those thumbnails and the tribal forms.
The new painting/sketch/monochromething looks good, but to me the face looks a bit too masculine. I think it needs a bit softer brushstrokes and forms to make it look a bit feminine. I love how you made the hair...stuff on the vest armholethings... Sorry about my creative use of words, I haven't really studied words about clothing. :P
I haven't really got much else to say. Keep on rolling, Red.

[angelo cordon]

update :) now i have to rush off and back to work!!!!

[Moai]

Hey, redspade! I apologize for my long absence. Here's a critique for ya, going from most recent to least recent.
Post #81- I see great improvement here, but also some old problems persisting.
+Your knowledge of the human form is obviously improving. Your figures now twist, move, and exist in space in more believable ways. Studying Bridgman is a good idea. Really try to take the time to internalize what you study, though, rather than absently copying down the images. I didn't take as much time as I should have when I went through Bridgman, and as a result I've forgotten at least half of what I did out of that book. Fortunately I've regained a lot of that knowledge in my more recent studies.
-Some of your figures still don't have good structure or move correctly. If you have access to a human skeleton, such as those fake ones on stands that art departments always seem to have, I'd seriously recommend grabbing it and studying it if at all possible. That's what I'm doing, and it's helping me hugely. Robert Beverly Hale says that the skeleton is the most important part of the figure, as the skeleton decides how the flesh looks, and I agree with him. The skeleton, simplified, is also the best possible understructure that you can give your figures. And many of your figures need an understructure, especially in the face. Like I said, you have gotten better in these areas though.
-The key to creature design, in my opinion, is having a library of imagery from nature in your head. Your bug critters don't really have a dynamic form or anatomy, so you'd do well to study some actual insects and crustaceans to get a better since of how to construct a functional and good-looking arthropod leg, how to attach it to the body, etc.
+Your character designs are getting better all the time. Your costumes are already developing a signature style. Good job on those, man.

Post #79- Nice looking picture. Is it a study, or a character design?
+You have some nice suggestions of texture, and the costume design looks believable and authentic.
-Your sense of value can use more practice. This is a very medium-range piece in terms of value. Darkening some areas, like the shadows on the lower part of the costume, and lightening other areas, such as the face.
-The edges in this image also seem somewhat haphazard. Look up threads by Elwell; he has one that gives a concise overview of when edges should be hard and when they should be soft. Actually, heck, I'll just post the link: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51913.

Post #75- I have to go do stuff, so this is as far back as I'm going to go.
+This is probably your best post yet, even better than your more recent posts. The sheet of thumbnails and the image of pattern studies are especially strong. Very good work with those. The costumed figure also looks very nice, I can feel his clothing wrapping around his form.
-There's not much I can critique here that I haven't already said. The gauntlet looks good, but its edges and values could be improved quite a bit.

[angelo cordon]

something to post for tonight; probably a bit more than an hour and a half worth of work.

moai - thank you for your comments. i want to talk to you more about them, but will do it tomorrow.

[PerinGalitte]

Really admire the way you're tackling anything and everything. Loved the Iron man one. ;) Kudos.

[RandAlThor]

Looking good red, you are progressing nicely. You latter stuff is getting really strong in terms of design and application. Keep it coming ;-)

[angelo cordon]

moai: thanks for the tips as always. i tried to take up bridgeman, but have gotten bored of him in under 3 minutes. i can't stand trying to copy down his works, its too rigid. maybe im not studying him the right way?

PerinGalitte: thanks :)

Randalthor: :)

trying to figure out which one looks better in terms of adjusting images from scanning :wtf:

anyways. im tired of not updating. sigh.

[Lyno]

Keep going, you're improving fast!

[angelo cordon]

trying out different styles + studies

[angelo cordon]

sometimes i feel really unsatisfied with my thumbs. but by cutting and paste random shapes together, you get even cooler thumbs :D

[angelo cordon]

3 updates in one day. :asskisser:

[Turisas]

Hello there, spade. Guess who's back? :D

Certainly combining those thumbnails made some kick-ass thumbs. I need to try that sometime.
For the new painting, I haven't really got any idea how to fix it, but it seems the mans head is crooked. Instead of a straight line defining the left and right side of the head, it seems as if the line would be bent to the left a bit.
the image shows what I mean. They're a bit inaccurate, but should be clear enough. I could be wrong, too, but that's how I see it. I love the classical style you're giving it, though.
That's all I have for that.
The other things you did, like the helmet designs how ever, look great. Nothing wrong with them. At least I can't see anything. Keep up the great work, I'll be watching. :P

[Arteater]

great studdies

[Mikaty]

Hey Angelo, this is Ty. Mike and I created a sketchbook. Like I said in the blog, really enjoyed your still life. I tend to favor your work with traditional media. Lets see more of those!

[angelo cordon]

MonsterKill - awesome to have you back, bro! thanks for the tip. i definitely know what you're talking about. its because i warped my image to get that curve in the composition; i will have to repaint that face. thanks!

arteater - thanks man

mikaty - ty, great to hear mike and you made a sketchbook. i subscribed to it, looking forward to some updates from you man!


here are a collection of sketches from me ole travel book. it fits in my pocket, its awesome. kind of small, cant doo much but cant do much lately anyways. great for ideas and studies. by the way, most of these are done in a bus or train.


staring to tackle perspective and getting back to observation exercises again.

[Moai]

So, I'd been typing up a response for quite a few minutes when I clicked the wrong button and lost the whole thing. That kinda pissed me off. So, my responses this time around will probably be shorter than the first time.
Post #86 (Still Life Painting)- Yeah, it takes a bit of willpower to copy from Bridgman for an extended period of time. If you do go back to studying from him, make sure to really analyze and internalize the information. Unfortunately, I've forgotten most of what I got from Bridgman, because I focused just on "getting through the book" and copying down as many images as possible, rather than really learning the stuff. If you still don't like Bridgman, try an anatomy book by a guy named Richer (forgot the title, it was edited by Robert Beverly Hale). It's a very complete, detailed artistic anatomy book, showing all the different layers of anatomy.
As for the painting, it looks like it was a difficult subject to paint. Some tips: keep contrast in mind, especially the way it leads the eye. The little skull in the foreground is being lost in the drapery behind it, and my eye is being drawn like a magnet to the very contrasty fruits on the right. Did you want the fruits to be more important than the little skull? Also, think of brushstrokes as representing different planes of the object you're painting, in addition to being areas of color and value. One more thing: drapery is an extremely difficult thing to paint. I know because I've tried. It's one of those things were it's a very good idea to look how other artists do it and try to emulate their technique. Bumskee is a CA artist who is good at drapery.
Post#88 (Studies and Styles)- Cool bird studies, and very cool helmet concepts. For the studies, try drawing in the masses of the objects, rather than just the outlines and details. Draw an egg shape for the body and another egg shape for the head, and have the details and contours wrap around that.
For the stylized warrior guy, the design would have been improved by doing a sheet of thumbnails to play around with the proportions, silhouette, etc. Some thoughts on the color: the skin tones in the light are good, but the shadowed skin tones are extremely dirty and gray. The pale green doesn't really harmonize with the color scheme. The brown is a bit too saturated and yellowish. Overall, though, a cool experiment.
Post #89 (Thumbs)- When doing thumbnail silhouettes like that, I think it's important to think of the shapes in terms of a hierarchy. Think of the primary movements and proportions before doing all the little spines, projections, fingers, and such. Is the character wide at the top and narrow at the bottom? Draw that shape first, and then cut into it and add to it with smaller shapes, making sure that those smaller shapes don't contradict the rhythm and flow of the larger shape for no good reason. That's pretty much the summary of my thoughts on thumbnails.:rendered:
Post #90 (Blurry Roman-type Guy)- Before I go into critiquing this painting, some positive things. First of all, the colors work well together, with a few exceptions. Second, that's a very nice brushy texture in the background. Some things that aren't working so well: the brushstrokes are very messy and blurry all through the painting. The cloak/sash thing around his waist is the worst; it's more like an orange cloud than a piece of clothing. There are also some areas of dirty grayish colors, such as on his legs. There are some slightly cooler-seeming colors on his armor that don't seem to work as well with the rest of the color scheme. The shadows on his clothing are also too saturated. If you are planning on continuing with this, I suggest posting it in the WIP forums or the critique center, to possibly get some more comprehensive advice on it.
Post #94- Those environmental thumbnails in perspective are great! They're something completely new for you, and they look good. In response to the question "Is 3 pt perspective always better??" that you wrote in the sketch, the answer is no. Three point perspective is typically used when you want to really convey the height of something, such as when you're looking up at a tall building, or looking down a bottomless pit, or something like that. When your just looking level at things, the third vanishing point is often unneeded, because it's so far away from the part of the picture plane we're looking at that the lines emanating from it can be depicted as parallel. Kind of how light is radiating out from the sun in all directions, but the sun is so far away that all the light rays we see are basically parallel.
Another thing, when sketching with lines like this, try using fewer, longer, smoother lines. This will help with the scratchy feel of some of the lines, and also allow you to better feel the overall rhythm of what you're drawing.

Thazzit for now. See you later. Have fun.

[Nadiamoon]

Hey, thnx for swinging by my sketchbook. You have some sweet updates, too. I like your still life. Just couple of comments if you don't mind. As our teacher says, be afraid, no...be terrified of using pure white for the highlights, it kills all. Make the background warmer (if the light sourse is warm) and lighter from the side that's closer to the lightsource, and the farther side - darker and cooler. Overall the composition and strokes look great.

[Turisas]

Hey there, spade er, Angel0, EDIT: angelo cordon. Nice looking sketches. they look like they'd make goods pictures to colour. Simple, yet easy to see what is what.
It's kind of a shame when I'm too much of a pussy to post my roughs like that. Must be why it feels like I never update. Help me to gain courage!
I like the perspective studies, I need to do some of those as well.
Keep up the good work.

PS. How does one change the nickname?

[Mikaty]

whats up man, how are you? Sorry I didn't get back to you on your drawing jam invite. Just been very busy. Next time for sure though.

[Moai]

You doing okay, man?

[Moai]

Merry Christmas! Wherever you are.

[angelo cordon]

Didn't quite make CHOW but here's to a new year :)


p.s.

Whats with the new upload management? Copywrite, selecting categories????


http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/reference.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan1.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan2.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan3.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/thumbs-1.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan4.jpg

[Nadiamoon]

What a great collection of references. I want to see the piece finished! Please:yayca:

[angelo cordon]

Nadia: Thanks! Will shoot it to you sometime when I get back into it :)


http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/red_facedesign.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_red03.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_red02.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_red01.jpg

[Moai]

Excellent to see you back, man! I don't know where you've been or what you've been doing while you were absent from this site, but I hope your time away was a fruitful and happy time for you.
Your character designs are certainly coming along. For the girl character in post 101, that's a pretty sweet collection of references you gathered up. Nice batch of inspiration. As for the design itself, I actually much prefer the leftmost version in the fourth image from the top of that post. The one with the hood and the frilly skirt. It has a more exotic and interesting look to it, and the hood/scarf wrapped around the head and neck has a very nice shape. The downside is that it covers up the girl's ponytail, which is another strong point in this design. As for the final painting, the color scheme isn't really working for me. There's too much color variety. There are vivid greens, purples, blues, reds, and yellows in there, all competing with each other and not working together harmoniously. Pick one or two of those colors that you want to be dominant, and change the rest of the colors to be closer to those colors. Also, I think you need a lot more value contrast between the different elements in the background. The foreground hill, the middleground hills, and the background sky are all very similar in value.
The character designs in the most recent post are also interesting. Are they for a ChoW round, or something else? I like the strange aviator/cyborg girl, and that lumpy alien guy in the bottom image. I urge you again to try to find the simple blocky masses inside the things you are drawing. Hogarth and especially Bridgman are great for teaching you how to do that. Doing that will help you draw more three-dimensional pictures.
Once again, good to have you back.:)

[angelo cordon]

M - Always love hearing from you. I agree about the joan piece, hopefully I will find both the motivation and the time to rework her because she was really fun and had a lot of potential! As for the other designs, those were concept for a short I'm trying to work on.


Here are some recent painting sketches. I'm dedicating to at least an hour a day of painting from now on.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-1-3.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/01.jpg

[angelo cordon]

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/03.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/04.jpg

[angelo cordon]

huzzah

[angelo cordon]

It's interesting looking back through this sketchbook and seeing my vast progress over the years. I was looking through some of my inspiring ca.org favorite artists, and it made me realize that it really does takes pages and pages to get close to decent and even more pages to being great. That's really inspiring and encouraging to see. It also helps to know that that is what it takes. Need to keep on plowing...


This is an illustration I did for a friend's game in development - Sword of Legends.

[angelo cordon]

Some figure drawings done from city college

[angelo cordon]

A couple of new pieces I've been working on:


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SwcgWgVWnqI/AAAAAAAAAHc/L8eSPu8Mq8I/s1600/cordon_ambassadorchair.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SwSmpNal3-I/AAAAAAAAAG8/bczs1sQlV-A/s1600/cordon_spiderman.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SwSneHXtX2I/AAAAAAAAAHM/5eKXzg_USME/s1600/cordon_spiderman_closeup.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SwSnd1f8xpI/AAAAAAAAAHE/61mSmaRM8a8/s1600/cordon_spiderman_closeup2.jpg

[angelo cordon]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SxSTBPkwzJI/AAAAAAAAAH0/cNrIuGIfiok/s1600/cordon_scepterdesigns2.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/Sw5F1bP8n-I/AAAAAAAAAHs/lovUxmrAWvo/s1600/stilllife01.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SxgEevFy6nI/AAAAAAAAAIE/p9oEvxBYg-E/s1600-h/apple1201.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/SxkHS6bhTCI/AAAAAAAAAIM/OWYQx5DK1SE/s1600-h/apple1202.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kJL67pL8gIU/Sxzp_-sFgRI/AAAAAAAAAIk/dVAKNk_FFjM/s1600-h/cordon_helmet.jpg

[angelo cordon]

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_nibru.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_toy.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_helmet02.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_glad.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/cordon_bougerstuder2.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/apple1202.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/apple1201.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-9.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-8.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-7.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-6.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-5.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/Untitled-4-1.jpg

[angelo cordon]

small sketch from today for DSG. will probably come back to this since it's such a cool idea.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/dsg_mobiletree.jpg

[Moai]

Nice to see you updating again, man!
Your recent digital paintings, especially those still lives, show that your lighting skills are improving by leaps and bounds, and your recent characters show improvement in you knowledge of anatomy and the structure of the figure. The proportions of the leaping girl with the big gun are off (long limbs and short torso), but by and large your other recent figures are very much in proportion. Your faces are still rather flat and unstructured though. Learning the geometric construction and bone structure of the face is what I recommend for you next.

[angelo cordon]

Hey M! Always awesome hearing from you! Thanks for the crits. I did some head and face studies for it. Definitely still a lot of things to learn!

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/skullstudy.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/headstudies.jpg

[angelo cordon]

Some CHOW stuff

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/thumbs-2.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/chars01-1.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/chow186_progress.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/chow186_angelocordon.jpg

[angelo cordon]

3d stuff I textured for my old internship at Ghost Rabbit.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/carols_lighting.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/carols_texture.jpg

[angelo cordon]

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/aklan.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/boracay01.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/rain01.jpg

[angelo cordon]

Some new stuff and WIPS

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/lake.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/wip012810.jpg

[matty_mcmullen]

hey man, nice update.

looking through your work i see alot of improvement so congrats. but one thing that stands out to me that may need some attention is alot of your drawings and paintings are based on pre-conceived ideas of what things look like, not what they actually do look like. for example in the last post the breasts look like 3/4 view breasts and sure her torso is at that general angle but the twist in her arms and the drop of the left arm are going to change the position of the breast. i.e. her right boob should point more to the right and be pulled up even more, her left boob should be further right and almost profile in shape. this is going to change the silhouette to so the nipple is the furthest point to the left on the torso.

i hope this makes sense, if not just holla back.

[angelo cordon]

yup totally makes sense - I did notice that after posting it, lol. Expect it fixed on the next update!

[angelo cordon]

Quick little post before heading out to bed. Probably around 10 hours into this piece already. I wanted to fit more illustrations towards something what Wizards of the Coast would publish. I think the canvas size is relatively the same as Magic the Gathering cards, or at least close to it. Things I'm going to work on next is some kind of drapery to fill in some of the empty spaces and add a bit more into the character. Also a hint of a background environment is important.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/fireelf01.jpg

[Jamie Romoser]

keep those studies up
till next time
-Jamie

[shambok]

Really inspirational studies! Makes me want to do myself! thanx for sharing and keep up the good work!

[Yautja892]

Hey old sketchgroup member! Glad to see you still updating your book. I see great improvements in the recent updates. Keep rocking those studies, I'll keep watching your progress.

[gredgie]

I wont lie, Wizards of the Coasts' products do feature a fair few talented artists so I don't blame you being inspired by them 8).

It's no doubt an awesome feeling when you can take a character and put it into a dynamic and dramatic scene. Bringing life to seemingly repetative tasks and such.

I saw a really nice drawinging of a Paladin from World of Warcraft once, it was all kinds of awesome since it portrayed being "out of mana" to heal a wounded Night Elf. In the game that would just be a "Aw, bugger..." moment but the art really gave it a sense of the Paladin feeling anguish that they cannot aid their dying comrade.

Ah, here it is: http://thurinus.deviantart.com/art/Out-of-Mana-59724689

So yes, I'd say it's all about planning and execution! Of which I'd imagine for that style is to get hold of as many WotC cards as possible and pick out favourites and what it is you like about them and work towards that as a goal.

[angelo cordon]

Thanks everybody for the comments! I'm so tired right now, I'll have to reply to you guys individually in the morning, and more about the piece later.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/fireelf03.jpg

[angelo cordon]

Been crazy busy this week, I apologize for not updating too often :)

For now, I'm only able to upload some figure drawing studies off my sketchbook. I've been trying to learn how to shade better. From the big leagues people that I've been following here on CA.org, I've been trying to study how they do it. I'm not really sure if it's right but from what I've noticed is this: short strokes, follow contours of form or striation of form. It's been great and I think I'm actually getting great results.

I actually want to get some darker pencils to get farther ranges of values. Also trying to work on proportions a lot more, too. I'm getting more and more patient every day that I do these as focusing on shading actually takes me a long long time, lol.

Beyond these updates, I have some oil paintings coming up and also some pen and ink studies that I've really enjoyed this week. Coming soon!

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/sketchbook0205c.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/sketchbook0205b.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/sketchbook0205a.jpg

[gredgie]

Nice studies dude :) Seems we've all been somewhat held up with stuff, I'm endeavouring to do some anatomy studies myself today though.

[angelo cordon]

A little update today. Sorry the figure drawings kind of suck, wasn't really the ideal lighting. I think I will try to shoot them again tomorrow.

Scanner is out of commission at the moment. Would love to get back to work on the Fire Elf piece really soon and I had some new versions of that on my sketchbook. And a couple of sketches that I would love to paint in photoshop, too. Will have to figure that out soon!

In the meantime, I wanted to test at how confident I am with some new art knowledge by redoing one of my old pieces - Joan of Arc from a previous CHOW. Still working on it, but here it is so far.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joanwip.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/DSC_0356.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/DSC_0354.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/DSC_0353.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/DSC_0352.jpg

** Looking back at these now, I'm wondering when I actually did those figure drawing pieces, lol. They're pretty bad and not accurate.

[tamer516]

I see lots of good stuff here. I would try to give you tips but anything I could say you are probably already doing. keep it up.

Lover the Fire Elf. Looking nice.

[angelo cordon]

Tamer516 - Hey, thanks for dropping by! Any tips would absolutely be helpful. I'm always trying to learn something new and half the time I forget even the most basic stuff :) You're more than welcome to critique :)


More update on Joan

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joanv2a.jpg

[matty_mcmullen]

hey man, hows things? working hard i see. thought i would drop some comments and crits seeing as you have been kind enough to send me some. its obvious you know alot of the fundamentals of image making and you are very hardworking in achieving an image answering the knowledge you have acquired. i just have a comment on something that made a difference to my work, because for me it's something incredibly important and i think its something you may have over looked.

story and design. by this i mean why are things happening in the image what is the purpose of the image how do you want the viewer to feel what do you want the viewer to think. im not sure if this makes sense yet but give me a minute. an example is the fire elf piece, some questions i have is who the hell is she i didn't know she was an elf, i knew she creates energy balls and has fire hair. now i ask why does she make energy balls (i say energy because its blue and thats what it says to me) when she is a fire haired women. maybe she has an assortment of powers? this could be the case but a good quarter of the image is fire which tells me thats important, that fire has alot to do with this character.

another point is what she is wearing, her necklace seems a little after thought and i keep thinking its made of materials that are going to catch fire pretty quick. i think this point is important lets say this character really existed what happens to her clothes every-time she fires up. you might say well its shielded or fire retardant but how do you tell the viewer this.

i guess what im saying is give me everything tell me the history, tell me about her life but do it in the image.

[angelo cordon]

Matty: Hey man - havent heard from you in a while! hope you are good. Thanks for the crits, definitely could've used that. I agree with what you said, I really need to learn how to visually tell the story with one image. Going to be fun yet challenging work working on that piece! :)



Getting some progress with Joan, however there are still some anatomically incorrect places. The face took me forever to figure out but it seems fine for now, however Im still not satisfied with it, I think the nose is off, and the eyes are weird but I tried literally like 80 times painting the face over and over again. So I'm breaking off that for now. Also still trying to figure out her arms, they are a bit wonky and too long.

Finally got a chance to scan in some thumbs for the Fire Elf piece. Definitely have a lot of ideas on how to fix that a whole lot better. Instead of trying to salvage the previous one I was working on, I'm going to be starting over from scratch and implementing some illustrative story telling with it. I can do that better by selecting better angles and really thinking about what is going on in the scene.

A fast color sketch of Subject Zero from Mass Effect 2.


http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joanv2b.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/fireelf_thumbs.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/subject0.jpg

[angelo cordon]

update on this one

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan2c.jpg

[angelo cordon]

A small tutorial I made regarding how I tackle digital painting.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/tutorial-text.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/tutorialstillife.jpg

[Moai]

Really keep an eye out for those grayed-out colors, man. I'm referring specifically to the painting in post #135. There is some subtle color there in the clouds and the dress, but I think the piece would be improved if it were more noticeably warmer or cooler.

The cup still life is looking pretty cool! The outside ends of the ellipse are slightly pointed, though, and the ellipse is slightly lopsided. If I were to make any more changes to this piece, I would fix that ellipse. I'd also encourage you to clean up the edges and brushstrokes somewhat, especially around the handle and rim. Learning how to control brushwork is a challenge, both in digital and traditional media, but you've already made great strides, so I know you can do it.

Thought I'd return your kindness with a critique.:)

[Alternative]

Hey, great stuff! I really enjoyed looking through your sketchbooK! I dont have much to say other than keep working at it! You are doing a good job! I love your traditional work and thumbnails the most.
Btw, i also really liked your tutorial.
i am having so much trouble with digipainting. It all looks terrible. If you have any spare time, id love to hear what u think of my skecthbook.

keep up the good work!

[angelo cordon]

Moai - Hey man! Thanks for the crits. Right, I should've kept up with the effort with the cup. I think I eventually just got too lazy, which is the worse thing I can ever do, lol.

Alternative - Thanks for the comments. Looking forward to working with you!


Here is Joan. I'm done with this piece. I ended up cropping her for compositional purposes because all of the other elements weren't really helping much with the whole thing.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan_cropped.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan_detail.jpg

[angelo cordon]

Here's the process of this illustration.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/joan_evolution.jpg

[matty_mcmullen]

hey man hows things?

i like where this ended up, but i can see you had some issues with the general composition which is why you cropped it. usually if you end up cropping at the end it means you skipped a stage in the process from what i see you skipped thumbnails. the thumbs in 134 are amazing most of them look like solid pictures. no thumbs for joan= last minute decisions changing everything

[Alternative]

Hey man. School really raped me up the butt this last week. I am nearly done with my assignment, I am sorry its a bit late. I will have in within the next hour or so. Sorry for letting you down man.

[angelo cordon]

matty: you're absolutely right. too bad I had to crop it out, but better planning = better illustrations :)



here's a little update on what I've kept. Havent been able to scan my sketchbook stuff lately :( so digital sketches for now. Also I have some freelance stuff I want to share, but I'll have to ask my client first :)



http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/queen_web.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/knightsketch.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/brazil.jpg


plus a quick tutorial I made.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/figuretutorial.jpg

[Alternative]

Dude angelo, the third one is looking really nice! I really like it! How can I go about sending you that 20mb tutorial? Its gonna help your second piece i think!

Keep it up!

[Alternative]

Where have you been mate?

[Zazerzs]

Keep pushing.:yayca:

[angelo cordon]

Ah, to be back once again!

In the midst of finally settling over a new place, I have a whole bunch of old works I'd like to share. Most of which are unfinished projects that I've collected over the past year. I finally once again have a scanner, also, now a printer, so this will bring new depths to my arsenal!

Below is an unfinished project that I was attempting to do, inspired by the book "The Skillsfull Huntsman, I wanted to take a movie and redesign the look of the story. In this case, I wanted to make a samurai version of Sam Raimi's "The Quick and the Dead", considering that most western movies were adaptation of Samurai movies :)

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/logo.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/geisha_pose.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/geisha_thumbs.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/samurai.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/quickie02-1.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/theredshoe/quickie01.jpg

Sadly this project was put on hiatus for the longest time. Looking back at these now, I'd like to see to continue this project with the proficiency that I have these days :)