beelow a mentor again

[Beelow]

Mentor: beelow
mentee: lilnebo

Okay here it is. I will only train one mentee this time. I will take on no others and that is final. Feel free to add input: I am always open to hear pro tips and get some things cleared up. Lilnebo give me a name, and let me know what your expecting to get out of your mentoring session. Let me know in depth what you want to start off with. You have an array of things that we can cover. Remember that it will take you years to improve. Depending on how dedicated you are to drawing, you can speed the process. You can be a yung stunna like WHit or Icon; they're both really young. I think younger than me. But remember, you willl have many years to improve. Only you will be the one to call the quits on when you've had enough and do not want to improve anymore. I hope that you have fun working with me. cheerio! XD

[lilnebo]

Wasssup =P beelow thanks so much for doing this.
Now hmmm i donno but my real names nibras lol i had to say that and what am wanting to learn is to literally cover as much of the basics as i can, if you've seen my sb i've done tons of anatomy but i still want to get better at it. So stuff like prespective, anatomy, colouring digitaly, shading *pencil* and other stuff which ran out of my head and am also just willing to learn what ever you teach me :P.
And a little about my self :) :
Am 13 and i was born in sudan but i live in the Uk cuz am half scottish half sudanese*lol*. I've always had an intreset to drawing but only really started focusing on it this year so by the end of the year i really hope to improve loads, And i go to high school lawl 2nd year. Hobbies well drawing, and my obession with everything to do with hiphop etc breakdance krump pop lock, basketball!!! and parkour well thats basically all. Ty

[Beelow]

We can go ahead and just start with characters. We will go over environments creatures and props/vehicles later. You will definitely have to have balance. You should not only be able to design characters but also design other things besides characters. We'll go ahead and try to go more into the fun stuff. You've got some skill, I think you can handle it.

Try to think of something that you want to draw. Come up with a character bio and of what this character will look like. Do nots and make small thumb sketches. start from there. Use what you know with what you've attained in your studies and if you don't know if your unsure of what something looks like as far anatomy, perspective, design,etc. then go find references and/or do some research on the subject. For example, if you want to do a character design that is pertaining to africans and/or Native Americans and you want to fuse them, you will go look for reference and do some research. Maybe you want to find someone in particular, like pocahantas, and base your character off of her and give her some african atributes and yadda, yadda, yadda. It's up to you what you want to design. But, make sure it is a subject matter thaty you would enjoy doing. But, start off with doing sketches and doing a bit of research and finding some ref to start your character. I am a strong believer in drawing what you see. You will be using that reference to aid you in getting your character done smoothly. I will give you critiques along the way and we will post them here. Sure we can talk on msn if you have any questions for me. I am rarely on msn so you may not be able to get a hold of me there. But, I will stay on the lookout there. Hope you come up with something and post what you've done here.

[lilnebo]

Alright, this is going to be fun i already got some ideas just gonne share them.
As you know am obessed with hiphop so my character will look kind of hiphopish baggy clothing chains etc etc... Going to be a guy and i'll start working on the ref right away and i'll do some small thumbs but i probably won't be able to get them in today because i just saw this right now...
But i'll get starrted.
Peace

[Beelow]

Hope to see something soon. So I can steer you in the right direction. Remember to plan before you execute. XD

[lilnebo]

Hey beelow XD sorry for bieng a little bit late with this it's just i wasn't so sure what to do lawl i had some ideas and stuff posted in my sb but i'll be posting more of this stuff here my first post today is the silhouettes my first try :D so they took pretty long to do... espically the first one i tried it over a billion times i spent about 15 mins just trying to get the first one.... i know this is pretty slow but they took me one hour to do BUT BUT BUT they were sooooooooooo fun to do now am gonne go get started on some sketches of GANGSTERS lawl but i want to make up two characters because the gangster one is too real i want to make my second one like fantasy or something magical *ahhhhhhhh* well anywayz heres the post after i sketch i'll post more and mabye do a digital painting from ref PEACE!!
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[Beelow]

Try to mix something else with the hiphop look. Give me something interesting new and fresh to look at. Have you heard of The Skillful Huntsman? Try to get a copy of that, that is if you have money. I think that is what you need to work on. Still stay with a dominate hip hop them just add some pimp juice to the design. I wanted to let you know that before you move on to the next step. Sorry for the late response. Later.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Beelow is this the thread you were referring to?

[Beelow]

yup this is the thread.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

OK, I should introduce myself. Hi lilnebo my name is Dayanna a.k.a cAstAwAyLOVER and I just was recruited by beelow..hurraiii!!! Ok, so I'm new at this and was looking for someone for guidance and help when it comes to Character Design, environment designs, some perspective and relationship between characters and their environments. I also want to work with digital paintings and try my hands on them. I am willing to work really hard and give it my all even if I do have a bunch of work to do with school and all. I am 18 years old and I currently go to Savannah College of Art and Design and I'm studying Animation and Concept Art. I really want to practice and really understand how to bring my characters to life.

I enjoy drawing all types of characters and from life. I will be posting some character profiles later on the week and probably some small sketches in planing. Also I plan to get a Sketchbook here on CA and get moving..haha.

[Beelow]

Okay, lets see some stuff from you. I will try to do my own stuff and post them here I guess for inspiration. Keep up kiddos! :hugsmile:

[lilnebo]

hey wuzzup dayanna, sorry for not posting earlier and great to have you join us. Am really sorry because i know this just sounds like a shitty hello lawl but am just having a really bad time well anywayz i hope that your not and am looking forward to seeing all you work
peace lilnebo

[lilnebo]

Ok some updates am sorry beelow but am just lost i have no idea what to do and i think am just going to change it from hiphop or what ever but i really don't know what to do..., some help??

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[cAstAwAyLOVER]

haha..don't worry lilnebo we all go through tough days, I know what you mean.
Nice to be here.
Ok, Beelow here is what I have.

I sort of created a profile for my character and I'll give you a little brief of how she is going to look like because right now I have some thumbnails with gestures of how I plan to position her and the likes. I also have how her face is going to look like but I am looking for references on how to draw some of her clothing accessories. I've noticed that I have a lot of problems when it comes to drawing the figure out of my head with interesting positions and not just front views so that is why I drew the thumbnails like that, to sort of challenge my old ways.
My character is based upon this neck piece made of metal. At first she was going to be a normal teenager strugleing with a difficult past and her scapegoat was this mask that covers half of her face and runs all the way down to her clavicle. It prevents her from communicating any of her feelings since she had so many of them locked inside.
My second Idea which is probably the one that I am going to go with, its about this girl that is also based upon this mouth piece/mask but unlike the depressed and sad teenager this new one is a girl who doesn't care what people think of her and is doing an experiment on herself by adding with each passing day some different metal material to her body. She has her mask and parts of her arms and legs will be covered in metal and leather. I decided to go with this because I also find it very hard to draw and color metal and leather so why not challenge myself. Also if you have any ideas of how i can go about drawing these elements, please let me know..hehe. i seriously have no idea. I plan to draw her with very little metal as she is in early stages of her experiment, she will add more and more metal forming an armor, she wants to see how much she can take before she can't move anymore.

Well that is what I've come up with as concept..I'm going to post what I have drawn as of now...I'm still looking for references for leather and metal armors and such...I'm wondering whether I should try drawing her first in pencil and then trying to color her digitally or with traditional media? what do you guys think?


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gestures.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/IMG_2169.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/IMG_2171.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/IMG_2165.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/IMG_2164.jpg

[lilnebo]

nice updates man, btw lawl i no it's stupid to ask but you a guy or girl?
anywayz i wud advice starting a sb good thing it is really supports to do more keep up the good work

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

haha..I'm a girl. lol.
yeah I'm thinking of creating a SB here in CA but I just need to take some pics of my current sketchbook first so that I can post it up..yup. Thanks lilnebo, I like your updates too, are you going for sports related concept?

[Beelow]

Cool to see something come from the both of you.

Lilnebo- Again figure out what character design that you want to do. Sometimes it takes just sketching a bunch of thumbnails to come up with something interesting. Ian McCaig goes out and draw stuff from life and photos to get inspired to come up with an interesting character design. Try doing that or just doing a series of thumbnails. Taking a brake from a drawing and doing something else will also help give you time to think about it. Maybe not think about it and something comes to mind. Whatever it takes to get something going, try it. Have fun doing it though.

Castawaylover- Cool ideas. I think you should ref the head and pose as well, even if it is stylized. Ref will help you see things that you don't even think of, Shadow placement, direction of hair, etc. Keep at it. I have to contemplate on some of the character attributes. Its tough to read it and soak it up when your at work hehe.

I will have something up tonight. Later you two.

[lilnebo]

wheres your post??

[Beelow]

I'll post later tonight. I have to come up with a summary of what was going through my mind and how long it took me to do it in. Be patient, I know I said that I was going have something up a couple of days ago. XD

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

I'll check up later then. I'll try to put some more of my stuff by this weekend if not Monday the latest.

[Beelow]

okay here is a process of what I am doing. I will go over it tomorrow. I am a a bit tired right now and will have to recoup for tonite. Later.

[lilnebo]

OHHH you judt took the idea right outta my head you idea from inside the head stealer lawl i planned on doing a chinese warrior like the ones you get in mmorpgs they loook pretty real and thier well cool

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

thank you beelow for picking a character to demonstrate with that has some type of armor. it will sure help me a lot. can't wait to see more..

[lilnebo]

ahhh so many ideas well heres just some thoughts kind of i have more but not really worth posting
lawl i guess i posted then anyway
heres some crappy updates and i still have no idea who my chara is gonna be
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[Beelow]

Okay, the first set of sketches I am trying to find out what I am trying to design. I am still unsure what I wanted to do so I sketch a sillouette to start from. At at this point these sketches are straight from the dome(off the top of my head). At some point I started to search for ref and inspiration. I looked for andrew Ley"s chow piece that he won with some time last year and used that as something that will get my juices flowing. Inspiration can come from all things in life. Including a piece of hair on your head. I also found some nude ladies that I have gotten from kindgirls.com and ref some of them to get my pose right. I continue to paint and try to find something that i like.

I think at some point on the painting I settle for something and continue to paint from there,as you see it in the second jpeg. I am still making stuff up as I go along and just testing designs to see how well everything works together visually. I use the ref that I have to keep myself from going way off base and destroy what I already have. I am usually hesitant to make changes which I need to work on. I try to change things around cut and paste to get porportions right and get the anatomy right of the pose. I am still undecided about the heavy mass on the foot and thinking about changing it into a regular leg. I was thinking of making her heavy massive leg into a robotic leg of some sort. But, I still question the reasons why she has a leg that big. I will have to also figure out how to solve it designwise with the rest of her design. I wasn't meaning to have it become a chinese warrior of some sort, more of an accidental thing. This character still needs some work. As I haven't really gone through enough sketches to find solutions to help push this design further. This is a good time to send it to artistic friends to get some opinions to refresh yourself on ideas that can better the design. I am not going to do that right now. I am going to continue to try and figure things out, before I recieve any assistance and crits. I may go ahead and make several copies to experiment with some other designs. Remember that this is a digital painting and you make changes on the fly.

This is probably the toughest thing to get out the way, if not the most toughest thing, to get something down and plan, plan plan. You also want to make your revisions here before you add color as well. You dont want to be almost complete with your painting and then make changes to it. It sucks doing alot of work to make changes. It happens so don't worry if you screw up. Remember that your learning.

I will be waiting for what you ladies have to offer get something up to show soon. I will continue on with mines to the next few steps. This took about 3-4 hours to do including trying to find reference.

[lilnebo]

Some quick ideas i really like the idea and am going to work on this character
Hes going to be a warrior with a little bit of crazy powers and am going to change his face and hair a bit and mabye also the post the blue and red one is it bieng corrected a little bit
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[cAstAwAyLOVER]

hey lilnebo nice updates!! ..keep at it..yup.
I'll try to post some stuff tonight in not then tomorrow for sure.

Hey guys I've found this really good website filled with poses that I think would come in handy for you guys, www.posemaniacs.com, check it out..its well worth it..also www.characterdesigns.com also has a lot of cool references for poses..enjoy!!

[Beelow]

Pull some ref Lilnebo to help guide you. Your pose unatural and not right at all. Even at a sketch stage you want it to feel like it has some fluidity and feel realistic in some sense. Everything that you will do in the beginning will determine the outcome of your design. Careful planning will help push your design further. If you have time try to do some photo studies of just random things and try to study from life. You can also do master copies of paintings. Here is a website that you can go to: artrenewal.org. You want to train your eye to draw what you see to help you better understand what you are drawing. Trust me. It takes a bit to get better understanding what you are drawing just takes commitment and just seeing.

castawaylover- Already been to them LOL. Thanks for posting those, YOu've made my work ten times easier LOL. I hope to see something soon.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Hi guys, I know I said I was going to have some more stuff up..but This two weeks are finals weeks for me and at the moment its insane...I'll try my best to put something up this week for sure...I'm sorry beelow!. "tear".

[lilnebo]

A'right sorry for the late stuff am kind of in trouble and not alloweed to use my Pc so heres my quick silhoutte update of the final idea and from here on am going to start working on the character. I like the idea and the pose if you ever played Wow you would see the pose is the one most characters start with so :P
The only difference is the hair kind of thing.
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[Beelow]

Okay here is the next update, I wanted to have this further done but, I've been busy. I'll explain what is going on in my head later, here you go:

[Beelow]

Lilnebo-Don't worry about the perspective line right now. It will only confuse you and you will be more worried about that than the design. In the sillouette stage your just using basic shapes to try to figure out the design. Nothing more nothing less. 2 your perspective is way off. His feet will be pointed down more and you will see the top of this characters head. Nice start though. Push the design further. No worries about getting in trouble. If time permits work on this one and go on further. You don't have to necessarily go digital. You can do all of your planning with pencil and paper. That is the beauty of this kind of work. Use whatever tool that is at your disposal. I'll be waiting for the next post. Later. XD

[lilnebo]

Ya lawl sorry it's not really meant to be that much accurate i just want the weapon to kind of fade away but i don't really care any more am just having trouble moving it on to the next stage

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

beelow it looks great so far. I feel so bad for not posting anything for so long. I've just been really busy, really really busy with finals all this time. I will be posting something this weekend. "crosses fingers" LIlnebo, its looking good. nice job!!..keep going.
Beelow I wanted to show you this work that I did for one of my classes and see what you think.
It is not my final for the class but it was a self portrait we had to do, I plan to practice more. Any critique from you guys will be awesome.
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs29/i/2008/071/2/0/SElf_portrait_from_the_hips_up_by_cAstAwAyLOVER.jp g

[Beelow]

lilnebo- Every step you should care for. It is ever important to care about the beginning stages. It's like holding your newborn child, you pay special attention and take care of your child especially as an infant. Same thing applies to drawing. What you do in the beginning will determine what you do the rest of the way. If you go into a drawing with a not caring attitude you best believe that you gonna come out with a drawing that is not caring finish. You got to have fun most of all. I enjoy what I do, but I do have my moments where I have some tough decision making to do, especially in the beginning. It either will make or break you design, painting, piece, shit, whatever you want to call your work. Don't think I am coming down hard on you just trying to get you hip to the game and spit it to you. I hope that you can move on so I can get into doing some paintovers for you.

cAstAwAyLOVER-no worries. Looks good. Could you post the ref with the image? sorry did you use ref at all(this should be the first question)? I would like to see that with this image as well. Right now the alignment of the face looks a bit off and you may have some values in the wrong place. Main thing I notice is that face looks crooked. Keep drawing. Drawing more and more will help with correcting some of the problems that you are having. You will start to notice them. Thanks for sharing though.

I still have to find time to process words to this page to help you ladies better understand what I am doing and what my thought process is while I am doing this. I will also post the ref that i used when I am finishd. Later you 2. I hope to see some more. I will be posting another step in a couple days. Then I will move to color.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Beelow,
I actually did use a reference, I just need to find where I have it at the moment..lol. when i do ill post it again and I'll post my final for the class with the reference as well so you could see. It has actually been getting better and better I think this is my 3rd official self portrait, my final is number 4. I find that if I keep drawing myself more and more it looks more like me.
You are correct the face seems a bit crooked, the nose is too wide and short in comparison to mine, and the hair seems to be brighter than what it really is. Thanks for your critique, look forward to more.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Well I lost the picture that has the pose that I did for the Final Drawing for my class, however, it really didn't look like it because I used both the picture and a mirror to sort of get the pose right, we could use a picture for pose reference but the lighting had to be done without any reference at all..
I had a lot of fun doing this project, however, it did take forever to do and almost lost my mind trying to make it stay on the wall where i was drawing and compared to my last self portrait its a huge improvement. I still see a lot of problems when it comes to the face and I think the nose and mouth are a bit crooked but I feel that it was mainly because I was working so closely to it and since its about 76 inches tall it was harder to step back and look at the drawing as a whole. I used Arches white paper, Sanguine conte, black conte, charcoal, sumi ink, yellow watercolor and burnt umber..in some parts.
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs26/i/2008/072/3/3/Final_Life_DRAWING_by_cAstAwAyLOVER.jpg

[lilnebo]

Can we move onto the next assignment, because this is as far as i can get with character design right now because i can't really paint digitaly.
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[Beelow]

cAstAwAyLOVER- sorry for the late reponse castawaylover. Thats the idea of drawing over and over again, to get better at drawing what you see. You want to finish and start a new illustration and sketch each time. You will get alot of milage depending on how much time you spend on drawing. Keep doing them. You are your best model. For your next illustration, working large gets a bit tougher. Imagine working on a 18 foot painting. You can be off by a foot, LOL and screw up the entire painting. Sometimes it is good to leave a painting/drawing and come back to it later. Thats just how it is sometimes.

Lilnebo- We can't bounce around. Don't work with a tool that you are not familiar with. Just work pencils if you have to. We are going to stick with doing character designs first. You need to practice and find reference to help you out. I want you to finish going through working on your first complete character design. Let me go ahead and do a paintover tonite to get you in the right direction. You seem to be struggling.

Later you 2.

[Beelow]

Okay, I am going to further explain what is I was thinking about during the time I was painting. I forgot to explain this, sorry about that. At the time I was thinking what to do, and where to go and take the further. Again, this is the toughest stage to get something down and try push the design further. Also, I have my inspiration images at my disposal to get ideas from and also I try to think about the functionality of the design of my character. It's either that or just making something visually really cool to look at least hehe. I try to be aware of the anatomy of the pose and make sure that the pose does not look wonky and make things work visually with the armor and other things that she has on or what she is holding. Be aware of the distrubution of weight when coming up with poses. The body does certain things to give balance. You don't want to make your character stiff or have the figure to where it feels like it is going to fall over, this is when reference is good to have. I build in form at this stage and am just basically try to build up the character like legos, trying to solve problems and move on with the design. I also make changes to the pose slightly here and there because I become aware of the problems that my character has with it visually, with either its proportion, design, and/or anatomy. I am still skeptical about the pose and I am thinking about changing the pose completely from the lower abdomen on down. I try to do a little perspective and I try to imagine the armor in space and just try visualize it if I were really looking at it. Will I see under this or that or where is this in relation to the horizon? These are a couple questions that I ask myself. I think it is also good to just put down shapes to figure out if the design is going to look good or not. I use my judgement to solve design issues. Just experiment at this stage, if you feel like it. This is what I like about drawing so much, you can freely make desicisons and try things. You can also stop an image and start over if it sucks. I think that is about it for now.

Lilnebo- I will try to get that paintover asap.

[lilnebo]

Alright cool

[lilnebo]

I'll try and give it another try and see if i can actully get anything done with it.
Probably not but oh well might as well try

[Beelow]

Here is the paintover.

[Beelow]

lilnebo-Try to keep everything loose and gestural, it doesn't have to look the best. You don't want to get caught up and minute detailing. Remember that you are in the planning, stage. Anything is subject to change at this stage. Again you do not want to try to make any changes later on. It's a pain in the butt to get things to work in the later stages; trust me on this. It does help to have a little bit of knowledge of anatomy and porportion to set up at least a decent silloutte to paint into. Again remember what we discussed; shapes, form. Don't think lines they don't exist.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Hi guys,
I'm so sorry I've been MIA for the past week or so, some serious stuff came up and I had to take care of it.

I've always have found it very difficult to come up with interesting poses for characters right out of my head, they all seem to be standing completely facing the viewer or they have the hands in their pockets. I really want to work on this at the moment and develop one of these gestures that I've decided to practice with, into a full blown character digitally. Beelow do you think you could give me some pointers on how to make the poses more interesting and such.
Take care guys. See ya soon...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gestures6.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gesture5.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gesture4.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gesture3.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gesture2.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/gesture1.jpg

[Beelow]

cAstAwAyLOVER-Try posting what you have here. Its better to post something so I can give you advice. A couple of posts ago I said that this is the hardest stage. That is why planning is an important stage. Try to create something from a standing pose. Find some ref for good standing poses. Don't find complicated poses with crazy perspective and them doing any kind of interaction, keep it minimal. I just want you to find a pose that is interesting enough to give character to the design that you are doing. Keep it simple, then build from there. Your just trying to sell a character. You can try to do one of those from above. Think Sargent for right now. I want the character to know that they are being looked at and painted. But, give them character and life. We will get to the more illustrative interactive stuff later. Keep it simple but aim high in design and giving character to them. I hope you understand what I mean. Cool poses, but try to describe the form a bit. later.

[lilnebo]

Ehhh beelow am soooooooooooooo sorry about this i don't wanna seem lazy or anything you see how much i update my sb XD but i just totally forgot about this well heres my latest try thanks for paintover i just really can't seem to do these lawl.
You really need to shout at me more to get updating set deadlines :P.
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[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Beelow here is my character so far. she is still going under intensive development. lol. can you please help me out when it comes to costume design. please help!!..

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/character1.jpg

[Beelow]

lilnebo- Take those perspective lines off first of all. Don't worry about perspective right now. work strictly on just the shapes. Don't try to make anything look like anything at this stage. Play with the design. Throw circles on it. Make custom brushes to add texture. Just experiment at this stage and try to work something out. Even if it takes you all day to work up something that is visually interesting just keep painting. Try to solve design first. big fat strokes to little strokes. Just work on the design.

castawaylover- I would just work straight black and white. Did you pull reference and did you pull some inspirational images at all? If not do that. Visit Turtleart.net. Some of the best concept artists links to websites are there. There should be plenty of images there to inspire you.

I will go ahead and do more paintovers for the both of you. Also do you ladies use keyboard shortcuts at all? If not, get use to using them. One hand on the keyboard and one holding the wacom pen. That is how I work. Your much faster at doing things if you do it this way. Thats about it for now. Later.

[lilnebo]

Yay k i was wondering if you can share any brushes and btw the lines arn't prespective thier just there lawl i don't really use them. And ok i'll work on it even more tommorow

[lilnebo]

Hey beelow again lawl sorry for the late assig: just wanted to show you this thread lawl just really like the way it goes. I'd love to do stuff like this but with some digital now and again. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=118693
Am working on this picture right now justt soo harddd!! lawl
And another thing is mind if i base the character on your paintover or well actully use a couple of ideas from it?
I tried to do what you done kind of thing and also failed
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[lilnebo]

Hey again double postin my self lawl!!
Heres what you get for telling me to experiment with brushes... odd shapes lmfao i tried but i failed again aggggghhhh this is soooo hard.!!!
I'd rather we start from the basics of digi painting since i suck at it so much then mabye i'll be able to do this dang dang dang :mittenbop:
ok here you go:
Just well ya i donno what am doing am just messin about with brushes
Oh and i prefer the first one i just done it a couple of mintues ago and it looks cooler
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[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Hey Beelow,
I'm going to post this gesture drawing for now, I'm hoping to put something more later on today. I was looking at different poses and sort of came up with this one. It still needs some more work, especially the clothing. I'm going to try to go with Black and white but I initially lean to working with grays. lol.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b159/look8Pwithin/angry2.jpg

[Beelow]

I apologize for not responding as quickly. I have been busy with things as of late and dealing with personal issues. I also just sprained my ankle that I am trying to recover from, from playing basketball. I thought it was broken. It should be okay.

lilnebo- that is the the basic of the basic. You've just gotta get better. Being able to paint shapes and figure out design is the toughest thing to accomplish. On top of that trying to stay realistic as possible. Nice progress though, there is no hurry at all. I have a pretty tight schedule so we will take baby steps if we have to. Remember to paint shapes. Again I apologize to you.

Castawaylover- You've got something nice going. Mimic what you do when you draw with a pencil. There is not much happening designwise though. I'll help you cool it out a bit. Thanks for hanging around.

I still have yet to get to those paintovers. Also, I want to know if any of you 2 have pen tablets or are you painting with a mouse? If you don't have one I'd suggest you both invest in one. It will make your life much easier.:hugsmile:

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Hey Beelow,
So good to hear from you again.
Of course I'll stick around I really want to get more into painting but like what is happening with you, I have a hugely tight schedule and barely get any sleep as it is. However, I really want to keep working on with this.

Yes, I had a table. I use the one that they have at the school's computer lab since I have a pen from my own. I didn't use to use it with my comp because the screen was a pain but ive just got a new computer to work with programs like photoshop, painter and Maya..all those goodies, so it should be better now. I also have access to the new Centiqs, they are a thing of beauty, haven't had a chance to play around with them yet though.

Yeah, I know what you mean, I feel that there is really not much happening and the pose is still very awkward. I am going to try doing one more drawing straight on in photoshop and another one with a pencil drawing already and just go over it and see which would work better for me.

good luck with the ankle, ill try to keep updating more often.."crosses fingers" ..(haven't seen you on MSN lately..lol) take care.

[Beelow]

Thanks for understanding Castawaylover I am finally getting better and just trying to get my team together and prepared for a basketball tournament. I am also considering doing the Hoop it up 3on3 this year as well. But, I gotta see when the tournament is going to happen though and see what else I have to take care of. Just a lot of stuff going on. I will try to give advice as much as possible.

[lilnebo]

Ok thanks beelow i've been doing digital studies, and i think i will do digital studies and work with this from now on because i have an idea of what to do.
It's not very much changed but just the beggining for now
You'll be seeing more progress with the character from day to day.
Oh and also hope your ankle is much more better now and you getting points from half court :P
356401

356402

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[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Hey Beelow,
Good luck with everything you are trying to do, sounds like a lot. Hope you have time to help us out here from time to time. ...lol. I can't wait for summer to come so I can dedicate more time to painting. There is just not enough time in the day to do everything.."tear'.

Hey Lilnebo, I really like the studies that you are doing. they are looking really good. I really like the last one it looks pretty good. I'm going to try posting up some more stuff this coming weekend.."crosses fingers"..lol. school really takes a toll on me.."tear".lol

[Beelow]

I am all done with basketball now, we got spanked. If your interested in why we lost pm me LOL. I am free of some time now and I will be able to work with you ladies again. I will try to finish up the painting that I started and get it finished as I initially planned to do. My ankle is starting to get better now. I still nursed it like a baby during play, which may have affected my play a bit, mentally. But, I still had fun and just took in what it was like to play at the challenge; it's very competitive.

Lilnebo- Good to see that your doing those studies. Keep doing them. It seems to be helping you out a bit. Still try to work on the character design. I will try to do a sheet of studies to show you how you can go about with the planning of your design. I think what I am showing you is a little bit advanced for you. I will try to dummy it down.

Castawaylover- I will have the time, now. I'm done with practices. So there is some more free time to get you ladies in shape to do something. At least teach the theory and getting you and lilnebo to use those concepts to help aid you both with speeding up your decision-making and getting things done faster. It still takes me quite a bit to finish a concept or a digital painting up.

I have to visit other threads now to see what is going on. Later.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

well at least the game was played and lost with dignity..."is better to have played and lost, than never to have played at all" lol
thats great that your ankle is feeling better, its making progress, im sure in no time you will be back to normal again.

glad, you have time now. hopefully i will be able to squeeze in something in these next 3 weeks. im bummed down with huge amount of work everyday and rarely sleep. art school drive ppl nuts..lol. after these 3 weeks ill be free for summer so I will definitely be buckling down then. I plan to focus solely in improving my portfolio during the summer and intense drawing and painting time so I'm sure you will be hearing a lot from me..hehehe. I'm aiming for next summer to apply for internships and one of the companies that I want to go for is Pixar so I'll be aiming towards great work during the summer.

[lilnebo]

Beelow : lawl dummy it down XD i died laughing at that, hope you can check this out and we start learning :P
I think am getting somewhere now, been practising shading and it's really helping me with digital stuff knowing the form and how it works.
Heres The start Blocks of colours 2mro i'll blend it in more i mean it this time lawl everytime i say i'll do it something stops me from it this time NOTHING!
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[lilnebo]

More blending
372982

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

is looking really good lil. I'm sorry I haven't put any work up but I've been extremely busy with finals and Maya is kicking my butt..lol I'll be done in 1 week and a half, hopefully before then I can post something. Just a quick question, are those gloves that he is wearing? I can't really tell.

[Beelow]

Sorry I am pretty busy right now. I will get back with you 2 in about 2 weeks. I have to take care of personal things at the moment. I will try to find some time to give you 2 a bit more feedback, after a couple of weeks have been up. But, please do continue to post until I return. I won't quit working with you ladies. Looking good Lilnebo. Try to work on just strictly design. Pull reference; I insist that you do that. It is difficult to come up with something straight from the dome. Don't kill yourself trying to do that. I also insist that you work pencil and paper first before you go digital. Plan first, or you are going to continue getting stuck and run in to walls with your design. It is simple to use a tool that you are familiar with. Work pencils first. Work small, and just work on planning the entire character. It doesn't have to be the most beautiful sketch in the world. You have plenty of time to get better at that. Just work the design first and do several.

Plan, work small, Use reference to stimulate imagination and also to aid you in getting stuff to look right, and then we will more into a more polished sketch that you can digitally paint. I see that you are struggling a bit with the block in technique. The important thing that I want you to learn is how to plan and how you should go about using reference and trying to get something good out, and just giving you a process to work by.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

Thanks for letting us know that you will be busy for a while Beelow. I'll try posting some stuff once my finals are over. They really run me dry of energy and barely getting any sleep. Can't wait for summer. lol.
I'll be back soon. lol. Looking forward to hearing from you.

[lilnebo]

Ok beelow, i like the sound of using pencils (starts jumping around like a crazy thing) Yea i really just want to get ideas down, because i think this one is pretty.... well lame, and thanks for letting me know all ideas need to come from some ref or something because thats a question that has been troubling me.
I think it will be great fun to just jot down ideas, am going to get down alot of refernce and just put things together.
Sorry to hear that your busy but np :) i'll be waiting! (XD)
And i'll do more works on the characters
Hope you'll be more active after 2 weeks
thanks castawaylover good to hear from you.
Will post more tommorow
Btw beelow if you have time could you check over my sb and leave me some crits?
Thanks and peace

[lilnebo]

Btw Man, you still here because i donno if i should go on with this, or how busy you are?
Or should i just leave it or will we start some new etc
where you been!

[lilnebo]

Beelow Ready to start When ever you Are man.
Mind if i just started a new character because i've grown in skill a little bit over the period of time and i think i can do something better if even by a little.
Cheers and will start as soon as you kind of give basics of what your looking for assignment wise or if were just still going on with this same one.
I think it would be cool if we stuck with character design for now because am needing that because i think i'll be just keeping with my normal studies but any help or tips with those from you will be highly appreciated.
Peace

[Beelow]

alright. I will review a little what i've explained already. Kinda summarize what I've doing throughout the process. Go ahead and start a new character design if you like. But, first let me condense what I've processed from a while back. Later.

[lilnebo]

Aiight. Am gonne be hanning back and waiting.
I'll follow your process and oh do you mind posting something to help with maing kind of thumbnails which have a little bit more detail or any thumbnails at all lol i fail at them

[WooDz]

I've been following this your mentoring everytime I get on conceptart and I think your a real help too you mentees and there progression is going along well I wish I could find a mentor like you can't wait to see more post from you all

[lilnebo]

Woodz thanks man
This thread isn't that active lol, or active at all hahaha
But we're getting started again just waiting and hopefully we'll go back into full blast.
were only focusing on character design and only the stuff posted here i think.
Anywayz
Beelow, would you mind giving a character theme.....??
As in hunter, or assassin or something. it makes the big list of things smaller or mabye just a list of 3 or 4 themes to choose from.
Ready to start when you are :P
Edit:
oh btw man do you mind droppin by my sb and giving me some advice?
peaceoooo

[Beelow]

Sorry for the minimal response Lilnebo. Just been a bit busy. Just gotta some work done. I am going to con tomorrow. I will be back. In 3 days.

To get things started, since you've asked for a theme: Go ahead with "Angel of Death."

Again start with pencil sketches and pull some reference. Pull the reference first. then start the sketching stage. I will work with you instead of doing a painting for right now. I really want to focus on getting your work up to par. Go ahead and continue to work on studies and life drawing whatever makes you feel good.

remember to pull reference

make sketches. keep them loose and small. remember that you are planning and not working on the full render yet.

post here get crits and suggestions or asspats

then we will go into full rendering. If your feeling froggy you can do a digital painting of what you are going to do.

reference birds, reference the pose that you want and reference paintings that inspire you. That is what I usually do. If you have a digital camera handy, take pictures; have family or friends pose for you. Just character remember to do only that. No environments or creatures. Props I am fine with. Later.

[Beelow]

thanks woodz. Hope you're finding anything that is said useful in your studies.

[lilnebo]

Wow this is going to be fun :P
I'll get reference of wings and some bells because i want to base death with the sound of bells. Am also working on the last teen standin submission
So i'll base this around angel of death and then later on i wanna add to it something which makes it also stand for "sign".
I wanna pull my first basic sketches without anatomy reference so i might use some for the end product.
Am gonne make some studies of bird wings and how the wings work
Then theres already ideas making my head explode.
Yeay beelow gonne help me get my work up to par :P
Thanks tons beelow means alot
Will scan ideas and sketches tommorow and also post my reference photographs
Have craziiiin fun in the comic con
peace bro :P

[Beelow]

Where is the update? Show me some work, don't slack on me, lilnebo. Hope to see something soon.

[lilnebo]

i ain't been slacking i swear
Heres the basic sketch idea, i sketched in a couple of poses from mind
I liked the bottom one best for some reason even though it's pretty dull and i kind of put an idea down for design.
--->
425112
Then i made a bigger sketch and was just going to make it a simple character sketch but got carried away
so heres a wip
---->
425137
Am i doing it right?'
I havn't used any reference so far, but am only in like basic sketch steps so thats ok right?
I done a little study for wings just to get a very basic shape understanding.
Any tips, or if you want me to design it in a different way?
Peace beelow, sorry i done these much earlier just been busy, my mum likes to drag me about.... so not much time for updates or that much art....a gghh whats the point of the summer holiday if theres no art ....

[lilnebo]

Edit:
Changes his arm it was too high, now to work on his face and finalize him
Oh btw beelow am doing A character a night thing, so every night i'll get 1 or more characters done, do you want me to upload the characters here?, the main focus on the will be to just put everything learned on the day on that 1 character and mainly design.
This is the sketch:
426259
this is a bit of a finished version for teen challange, the torso is a big i think, or the head is too small lol
426261

[Beelow]

I will give you a paintover later tonite. See ya soon. I havent been online to much these days. Later.

[lilnebo]

Cool cool
waiting for the next steps

[Beelow]

Sorry lilnebo that paintover is coming soon. I have to get ready to go out of town. I am heading back to St. Louis, to visit my family. No worries I should be able to post soon. I will have internet access. Later.

[lilnebo]

Btw i can get started on another assignment or you can just explain some things while you do the paint over. But if your busy i understand really i can feel your pain rofl
Aiight cya!

[Beelow]

Sorry bout that, conncect is pretty slow. I want to work a thorough critique so it is more understandable for you. I will try to get it up today. I am away in St. Louis, Missouri visiting my family. I will fit you in. Just be patient with me. Again, I apologize. Later and thanks for being understanding.

[lilnebo]

Haha its cool man i understand :D
Well sure thing i'll be doing my usual studies and just daily characters for now :P

[Beelow]

I am going to post these first then crit.

[Beelow]

First try to stay with simpler poses. There is nothing wrong with arms being down. I think we go into more action oriented poses later. I got carried away with the second one a bit, LOL. Anatomy is still a big issue. Pull reference and try to draw what you see. Every body part must connect right or it looks just plain stupid and wonky. Noticeable things that I found, was the porportion of the head to the body. Its way small. I think you need to study what connections are made with the torso that area looked odd connection with the arm. Neck was too small arms to long and you did not draw the hands and the feet or footwear was not clearly defined. also the legs being close together like that is not possible; there should be a space between the legs. The shin guards should be rounded going down to show depth. Second illustration was what direction you should go in. Pose feels more natural. Pay attention to me using shapes to describe form, not necesarily line. I am not downplaying line it has its importance, just use it sparingly when creating illustration. Think justin sweet. Remember that line is still a shape. Its a very thin rectangle or really thin oval. Pencil tip is round, LOL. Think of drawing things in terms of form and not line. Ofcourse, you can describe things in terms of line, but I want you to move more into building form. Look at some Justin Sweet and Eric Gist works. I want you to go more in that direction with your drawings. form, form, form. Eric goes by E.M. Gist here on the forums. He's got some tutorials here, very valueable info. Check it out. Thats about it. Right now. Let me know if you want to continue this project or just move on to the next one. Sorry for the lateness of this post.

[lilnebo]

Yeay :)
Its cool man, my life been busy too, just came be right now from the hospital my little bro had sugrery and all. Buts hes fine.
Thanks for the tips and crits
I'll check out just sweet and eric gist
And yea i think i'd just like to move onto a new one, gets a bit boring doing it twice :(
And np about late
Cheers :D

[Beelow]

elf tree hopper. Take what I've already said and utilize those things. Think of those ideals that I've mentioned above. Now concept and try to bring this one more to a finish. Ideas first then illustrate. Pull reference. It will show if you have not used them. Even for clothing. You don't know what it looks like pull reference. Don't try to be marko.

[lilnebo]

Am not trying to be Marko, actully the thought of marko when not using reference never even crossed my mind...
I just dont like using reference because well i've never used reference for my art feels like cheating, BUT if theres something that i have no clue what it looks like am gonne use reference but there usually nothing that i've not studied before that i draw etc human body etc. So it's just testing and making my memory stronger.
Second reason is i dont even know how to use reference.
Uggh I guess it's just a habit i dont use reference for body parts or facials or things which i usually practise but if it's something like a weapon which am not too sure about or a piece of clothing i don't know i will definatly reference it on this might as well practise here i guess :P
Other than that i'll get started on the elf
I'll do Thumbs/shillouttees
Then take my fav and make it a bit bigger
then a sketch and let you crit that
Peaco till later :P! and again man thanks like tons this means alot

[Beelow]

It's impossibly hard to commit any to memory if you don't go the lengths of using reference. I use reference because I forget things and I also don't know how lighting sometimes affect form. You have to train your eye to draw what you see first. Don't try to draw from memory. Again, your work will look wrong if stuff is in the wrong places. I immediately picked apart you character design when I first looked at it. It took a lot to get your first character design to look a bit better; it's kinda tough to get someone else's work together. Using reference is no problem. If you purchase noxizmad video he will keep telling himself that he should have pulled reference and he insists using it. I spoke with other people at the San Diego Con and you will be surprised at how many people use reference. You don't want your figures to look wrong. Any ordinary person can tell when something is in the wrong places as well. Me as well as others here can you some solutions and advice. Using refence is cheating? Hell nah it is not cheating. You would be surprised at how many people cannot accurately copy a photo or draw a figure that is in front of them. Remember to use reference. I insist that you use it. You still have color to learn and understanding how to paint texture is another thing. Setting a composition and lighting a scene with mood lighting and being a good designer if not great designer are other areas that you need to focus on as well later on. I am only working with you on the figure first. I want to see that you are capable of laying the figure down without a problem. Use reference for everything. Save yourself the trouble. Do you have a digital camera? take pictures of yourself if you have to. It saves time. Painting the figure itself is hard enough. Painting without reference is very hard. I still screw up some things even with the ref. Don't knock reference. Use it, use it, use it, please. We still have color to move into.

[lilnebo]

O.o this is a hard one...
Sorry for the bad quality, you can link to better ones it would help :) but this is my first time collecting ref like this so i suck :(
Am a bit confused with it but i just got some reference for a tree hopper and some elves
Ohh god i hate looking at insects uggh, i get goosebumps from it....
I don't know if i'll even be able to look at these insects i serouisley hate them from all my heart and they scare my like Shi*T
Tell me if these are tree hoppers cuz i just done a google search i don't even know what they are
http://www.ottophoto.com/nature/pests_1/tree_hopper4837.jpg
http://bugguide.net/images/raw/K060R0U000203R60YR0Q00KQDRQQQ050NRG0URSQS040OQ80Q0 W0TRW0DRW0K0E0TR60K020CQI0.jpg
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5118965-lg.jpg
http://www.ottophoto.com/nature/pests_1/tree_hopper4837.jpg
Or do you mean tree hopper as in just an elf that can hop on trees, thats 10times better than having to stare at insects
Well heres a general elf idea, reference from drawings and stuff
http://www.the-reel-mccoy.com/movies/2003/images/Elf_poster.jpg
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/thumb/d/d1/Elf.jpg/300px-Elf.jpg
http://www.freakygaming.com/gallery/fan_art/world_of_warcraft/female_night_elf_render.jpg

[lilnebo]

Ok wait, am hopeless at this.....
I cannot find good reference

[Beelow]

Keep searching. Just gotta put the time in to look thats all. I pmed you back.

[lilnebo]

Hey beelow, i'll be updating really early in the morning
Only time i have to update :(
I seen your entry... wow.... freak am lucky to have you mentor me in character design hah!
I was looking at the chow and it seems really fun so i started looking at ref for monks but i really didn't have to look cuz the links were provided in the thread lol.
So heres The ref:
http://www.trip-to-china.com/copper/thumbnails.php?album=11

So far am just getting ideas down :D! lol sorry am feeling a bit hyper... school just started and yes very hyper!HAHA! so please take the crazyness for a while lol.
As i was saying i looked at the ref then done some really small thumbnail studies which i'll scan in tommorow and then just looked at reference tons.
Now am doing my ideas, i think i'll do a couple of line drawings and then just choose the one i like then from there i'll see where it goes, probably wont be in on time for chow but it'd be fun to work on it more.
Peace till 6am in the morning!

[Beelow]

I'll be waiting.

[lilnebo]

Am soooo sorry beelow but i've been banned from my PC at home
I don't know how long the ban will go on for so.... meh
Am typing this from my school pc just to let you know

[Beelow]

No worries. whenever your ready to work.

[lilnebo]

Here you go, first time ever done any kind of thumbnails like these that are fully from mind
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[Beelow]

Good, Good! Finish the thumbs up. You will work more thumbs in markers just straight black then move on to taking a few of those character thumbs and do some larger sketches. You are still going to stay loose before you get into a more polished rendering. I want you to get use to working with a process so when the final illustration approaches, it looks good and looks more professional and well executed. Most pros work this way especially in concept design.

[lilnebo]

I've come to a conclusion that i suck at thumbnails so i've been training them heres some:
All from mind character and weapons
Knives:
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Charaters, top 4 are from skillfull huntsmen:
457065
just trying out again
457067

AM dying any tips ?

[Beelow]

Try to stay true to real world weapons. Dont get to crazy wit them to where you have people trying to figure out what it is. Nice thumbs. I want you to try to stay commited to this project. I want you to get the best out of this for your growth.

[lilnebo]

Sorry lol totally forgot to update here
For the monk:
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just for well for thumbs:
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Theres more to come
Enviros please please please beelow i wanna learn enviros *cries* lol
I really waanna do some enviromental art but have no clue how to go about it
so can you teach me, i wanna be able to use it to get a more illustration look

[lilnebo]

Still waiting :D

[Beelow]

Remember to pick a few of those thumbs are render some of those out a bit. Stay small with these designs. Remember that you are still planning before you decide on a final on. Stick to the script and do the characters, I want you to learn the process. In time you will do environments.