Lewis's sketchbuke - now with nudity!

[cdrfuzz]

I'm pretty much brand new here, and am in awe of so much of the work on this site. Hanging around here for the past week or two has inspired me to take my life in a new direction, so before I introduce my self I'm going to say I take my hat off to you guys and to CA.org. I begining to think this may be the awesmest sit in the universe.

Anyway, this is me: I'm a neuroscience student who got kicked out of art school 5 years ago and for all intents and purposes gave up drawing and painting at about that time. Recently, I've started drawing again and done a few digital paintings in PS. I've come to realise that science is not for me, and I've decided to get serious about developing my skills as an artist after my long absence from creative work. Hopefully, in time, I'll be able to build a portfolio that is worthy of a concept artist/illustrator, but for now I just need to learn how to draw. This thread will be my document of that learning process. I'll working at it double time to try to make up for the past five years in which i've made absolutely zero development as an artist. CA.org is basically going to be my art school over the next couple of years so I hope you will do me the honour of critiquing my work as I go.

Cheers,
Lewis

First up some screengrabs of some sketches I did on a sit called sketchfu. Sketchfu is a flash based site with simple tools and a small colour pallette where you draw stuff then it plays back the process to you. It's quite good fun, and it got me drawing again, so I thought I'd put some stuff up:

[cdrfuzz]

A couple of PS paintings I did last year: I havent been completely inactive, up until last month, I produced a grand total of 4 oil paintings, 2 PS paintings and 1 PS photocollage.

[cdrfuzz]

sorry, they were a bit massive - here's some smaller versions + a self portrait. I miss-counted too - I've done 3 PS paintings.

[cdrfuzz]

some more recent stuff (past week or two), some of which is already up elsewhere on the site, and a lot of which is unfinished:

[cdrfuzz]

This is one of those 3 year old oil paintings. I don't have any pics of the others.

[eskanto]

it looks like the past five years havent hurt you at all, looks like you still got some tricks up your sleeve. i like the painting above especially. and the the kid with the blood on her mouth... NICE. hope to see what you come up with next!

[cdrfuzz]

Thanks! I have shitloads of work on at the moment - I'm finishing up a sandwich year work placement with a pharma company, and I've got about a year's worth of research data to write up, so I'm trying to force myself not to draw for a little while, but I'll be ready to update soon (hopefully).

Thanks again :)

[topiKal]

This is a good start to a sketchbook. I like how you work with color, however I'd like to see some paintings from life. I'm assuming these are photographs? Try setting up a scene with some fruit or something and painting that... it seems that you have a good grasp on how to handle and mix colors so it may help you a lot and will probably turn out quite good. Post some figure studies too!

Keep at it, this is turning out very good so far.

[cdrfuzz]

Cheers topiKal, you're right, I do need to start working from life again. The only two pieces here not done from imagination or photos are the pencil self-portrait and the still life at the bottom. Once I get this reprt written up I'll get onto it. As for figure drawing, I have Sarah Simblet's "Anatomy for the Artist" and I plan to do a drawing of every photo in it. I had signed up for a life drawing class, but it got cancelled at the last minute, so I'll have to wait til I go back to Glasgow in September and join one at the Art School there (my old stomping ground - that should be interesting).

[cdrfuzz]

inspired by the sheer awesomenes that is here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67261), I decided to see what kind of painting I could get done in 25mins, with a similar range of colours. The result is pretty poor by comparison. And borderline plagiarism.

*EDIT* Pretty poor is an understatement. This picture is bollocks. It's only here to remind me to work harder.

[cdrfuzz]

another super speedy - about 25 mins. My anatomy sucks, I'm working on it.

[cdrfuzz]

last one for now:

[cdrfuzz]

Some quick doodles and some copies from Bridgman:

[cdrfuzz]

added to this fat prick. will maybe sort out that other hand one day:

[cdrfuzz]

Stuff from today: Some more studies from bridgman, a life drawing, a skull-head thing and some in-progress fluff:

[throtailer]

Really nice figures and shading. In first one's very rough brushing- looks not very nice for me, but looks awesome anyways. keep it up.

[cdrfuzz]

thanks! I think i do need to work on the polish in my paintings. I guess the challenge is to get it looking polished and complete without losing it's freshness and spontaneity.

[cdrfuzz]

even the badly rendered ones:

[ATAnderson]

Yeah I went to Mull once, Tobermory, whiskyfactory, bought a t-shirt.

Good start to your book man, in a few months you will be rocking if this is you with a 5 year gap. Thanks for the heads up about anatomy, I have been avoiding that for too long and it is time to tackle it. You have been to art school, which means any advice I would have would be quite redundant. However if you ever want help with environments, ID's or stuff like that just PM me the link to where you are working on it.

ATA

[cdrfuzz]

self portrait in pastels:

[AmontilladoAg]

Whew, you got madd skillz, Lew 8) Fergit that sciencey nonsense and embrace the art! :P

Your digital stuff is awesome, but I think I like your trad. media pieces even better... Keep it up! :D

Cheers :^^:

[Tony Cruz]

Hi Lewis: I'm in awe in a couple ways. One, as usual, your artwork is stunning; I think you're quite accomplished skill-wise as an artist, but at the same time I have to credit you with your visionary sense--the ability to transform images from your mind's eye into a tangible work of art. I believe that in order to be successful as an artist of any medium, one needs the innate ability to create that which has never been created before--or to have a 'visionary' sense.

Two: I'm truly VERY impressed with your decision and commitment to follow your dream of becoming a professional artist. I think that speaks volumes for your personal character, integrity and trust in yourself. With these attributes working in your favor, I will reiterate what I said before: Its not a question of whether or not you will become that professional you aspire to be, but WHEN?

I think you have a distinct advantage over a lot of aspiring artists because I can feel the vibes from you that you're extremely hungry to make it work. Despite the fact that you have to devote so much time to school/studies/work, etc., I believe that your passion for art burns hotter than the inside of a nuclear reactor :D I can only convey my appreciation for your art and moreover your character as a person through comments posted on websites, etc. but I would love to have the opportunity to actually purchase and proudly display your artwork once you have achieved the level of success that you so rightly deserve.

OK...enough with the philosophical stuff...I just want to say that your presence on SF is sorely missed---I hope you can find the time to pop in from time to time. If nothing else, at least you can get in some practice time working with limited tools/colors/features---and you can even post those works on here later.

I sent a comment to you recently about joining a newly formed club at SF called the Goat Club. All you have to do to join this legendary and exclusive club is to draw a goat....simple. I've already amassed a collection of over 70 original pictures of goats from 61 (and counting) members on SF. I'm still missing pictures from you and S9XTE. I am thinking already that this may be the largest collection of goat drawings from different artists from around the world. Possibly Guiness Book of World Records stuff...hehe. Whenever you can is fine, Lewis. Check out Samy's goat pic called "Meet Joe", he's got over 13,000 views on that picture!!! Pure awesomeness! Well, my friend, take care and if you're interested check out "Goat Club Members List" at http://sketchfu.com/profile/EC. Later, Eddie

[smws]

Hey, I followed you over here from SketchFu... wow, this site *is* pretty incredible. I'm sure you're busy, but I want to see more of your stuff... newer stuff especially. I myself have gone back into drawing after a few years' absence, although I don't have the career-changing aspirations that you seem to.
As far as critiques of your work: I don't know too much, so please keep that in mind, but here are some of my impressions:
-Running speaker/amp from sketchfu has a great spontaneous quality. More cartoons like this would be interesting.
-The cheescake pictures look, to me, sort of like posterized photos. I know you're good at getting proportion and color right, but it doesn't seem, despite the technical quality, that there's much of *you* in them. Just didn't do it for me.
-Lizard head is cool. More like that!
-Badass heavy gunner is a neat design. Head is oddly sized, though- right now it seems like his feet would be at the mid-thigh of the armored suit. Also, the suit finish looks kind of dull, like clay or plastic.
-Hatched self-portrait is well done. You seem serious and intent in this picture- convincing emotion in the features.
-"Start Position" runner study is really convincing anatomy, and I love how pictures on dark paper pop out like that. Well done! More!
-The loosely rendered bot/suit right after that is simple, but has the same fresh quality that the running amp has. Good stance, too.
-Oil of egyptian head is a little flat... the highlights on the bust are good and it's convincingly 3-d, but the rest of the canvas doesn't have much depth.
-Life-drawing from behind is carefully rendered and the back and hips are really finely shown... probably my favorite so far.
-Face-eaters look like a brainstorm should, right? Good fun can be refined later.

Hopefully I wasn't too verbose, please do post some more! You've inspired me to go and post some sketches here myself.

[gdawe5]

lovely sketches guys, especially the sketchfu work...shows alot of skill.