| The Rabbi's Sketchbook | Updated 22nd April 2012 |

[Rabbi Satan]

*Please go to the last post for the most recent updates.*

[Dman]

Hey Rabbi,
Good to see your sketchbook up over here! Continue with the good work in the Bottega, when you can start applying the lessons learned there into your character designs you will see a great improvement. I'm not great with advice, but I would say that maybe you should take a little more time with some of your work. Instead of finishing a character in 20 minutes, take that 20 minutes just working out the pose and volumes only, and then once you get that down, take your time and work out the rest of the details. Remember to draw with your head, not just your hand! Keep it up!

Peace!

[Rabbi Satan]

Hey Rabbi,
Good to see your sketchbook up over here! Continue with the good work in the Bottega, when you can start applying the lessons learned there into your character designs you will see a great improvement. I'm not great with advice, but I would say that maybe you should take a little more time with some of your work. Instead of finishing a character in 20 minutes, take that 20 minutes just working out the pose and volumes only, and then once you get that down, take your time and work out the rest of the details. Remember to draw with your head, not just your hand! Keep it up!

Peace!

Heya Dman! Good to see you on CA.org as well :)

About taking the time to finish a drawing, yeah, that's one of my HUGE problems when it comes to art. I rarely ever find the will to take more than 30 minutes to finish a drawing. I love doing quick drawings and starting off images and sketches, but not finishing them. It's absolutely wonderful for training to work fast, but even if you're the fastest worker in the world, you still won't get hired if you can't produce a solid, finished drawing.

Anyway, here is some more stuff. Some acrylics from my portfolio (Which still sucks) and some drawings, and a digital rendering of an apple for digital painting practice.

In other news, I injured my right toe yesterday night whilst on the way back from the art store in Hong Kong, in the underground train station. I tripped and stumbled on the escalator, and completely lacerate my right toe. I almost lost a chunk of flesh from it, and had to walk all the way home from the train station with blood filling up my right sandal. Luckily the Japanese restaurant close to where I live gave me some tissue and bandages, so I managed to patch myself up until I got to the hospital, where I received some local anesthetic (Which hurt like a fucking bitch, let me tell you......), and 6 stitches. Woo.
As they say, there's always an opportunity in disguise in every negative occurrence. And the opportunity here is that I get to do art more now! As I can't really walk away or anything. Or take a shower for that matter.

Enjoy :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another batch of works. Some figure drawings, from imagination, and 1 from life. Includes a demo on how I draw figures from imagination.

There's an acrylic painting that I did today, somewhat pleased with the results, but I'm not good at painting details yet.

Speaking of details, I'm trying my best to learn how to paint details on apples, but am not doing so well. I'm looking for anyone to help critique my work if they're willing to spare the time. In that regard, can anyone give me any advice on how to approach texturing/detailing of an apple?

Anyway, I've tried to paint some portraits, but they're coming off very badly. I don't want to put up any of my bad work, as I feel that it is self defeating. Should I?

Thanks for your patronage.

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another apple. I'm slowly getting better :) I posted this on the Something Awful.com forums in the Creative Convention section, I'm getting help from great guy there. I'm not sure of his CA.org username though.

[Nanosheep]

Awesome stuff Rabbi! You have got to teach me how to do that...

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Dennis, nice to see that you've finally joined CA.org, stick around :)

Here's another quick apple I just did:

[Mosthorribleyet]

I've tried to paint some portraits, but they're coming off very badly. I don't want to put up any of my bad work, as I feel that it is self defeating. Should I?
How I see it is, even if it isn't that good looking, you still drew it. I post everything that I draw in my sketchbook because if they didn't see my not-so-good looking pieces, I wouldn't be able to improve. Just my opinion, though :)

Anyways, those apples are looking nice and I like the referenced model a lot. I like your figure drawing process, I'll have to try it ;) Keep it up!

[Jamesy]

Those apples are looking good, Rabbi. I just started digital painting myself and mine aren't quite as good. If anything, I would say you could add darker areas in some places and you might want to try something other than a white background too. You probably already know of the digital painting thread in the ps section, but if you haven't been there already, you should definitely take a look.

I wish I could say more about the paintings, but you've probably noticed that I'm a complete novice at it. With the last painting, I noticed you were observing how the red of the apple reflected off the brownish surface and how the brownish surface reflected off the red apple. I think the brown on the apple(s) was too overstated as it seems to mute the color. But then again, I'm no painting masta and someone probably needs to back me up on that statement.

As for the studies, keep those up and strive to have the correct proportions each and every time you draw the figure. Anyway, good luck with your portfolio and your foot and keep posting!

[Xerotin]

Nice work you've got here Rabbi. Like your apples, as you know im not the one to give advices. All i can say is keep the good work up :D

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi Satan!!

Wassup dude! Well just look through ur sketchbook! I like ur paintings!!
Well what i would suggest to u for ur portfolio u might try to finish one paiting as good as u can. Do u know the book "Oil Painting Techniques and Materials" by Harold Speed? Well it's pretty cheap but really good written even if u use Acrylics.

I good practice to improve ur drawing skills is for example do a self portrait everyday or draw a hand everyday for a couple of months or even a year! Will help a lot to improve u observation. But keep doing those character from imagination they force u think creative! Dont loose that!! Keep at it looking forward to see more and good luck with ur portfolio

[Maridius]

Slow down! That's my only advice based on what you've said about how you don't like to spend more than a half hour or so on a drawing. One thing I'm learning is that I can't put new lessons in my brain for later use if I'm in a hurry. Next time you do the foreshortening work, take time to get the perspective exactly right even if it's frustrating. Then later, you'll be able to combine speed and skill for your future clients.

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks for the replies everybody, will keep continuing on trying to improve :)

I took my time with my 2 latest proper figure drawings. I was inspired by "Gloomati"'s sketchbook, and took the poses from there. And then I tried my own style of rendering.

The other quick sketches were from Bridgman.

Then there's 1 more foreshortening exercise for the Bottega.

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's an apple with some brushes and texture that I got from the "Fine arts and Discovery" section, and some female studies. Unfortunately they're too masculine X_X.

Can anyone tell me how they find the poses of the 3 studies? Thanks :)

[Vyliss]

Rabbi Satan, I see you're trying hard with the studies :) Taking your time with the studies is important, probably have a think about what you're drawing and why it is the way it is. I know I rushed through my early stuff too but I think that was because I didn't know what to stop and look for. Educate yourself with anatomy books, Bridgman is good but don't just mindlessly copy it, study what the body is doing in his drawings and try to udnerstand how it moves, you also need to do a lot of life drawings.
Regarding your poses, there doesn't seem to be much rythm to them, it seems all kind of stiff and unnatural. The shading is also a bit rushed and makes everything look confusing.
I also would avoid putting in all the details of the macules especially on a female body, they are usually not so obvious as it would be on males.
Life drawing is important here if you want to learn about the body.

WIth your apples, I would not have a white background for them, it really flattens out the image, especially when there is a hard edge around the apple. Think of where the light is coming from from your reference image and paint in the cast shadows and possibly brighten up the areas of the surface the apple is sitting on where the light would hit it to make it not look so flat. Hope that helps :P

[Rabbi Satan]

Rabbi Satan, I see you're trying hard with the studies Taking your time with the studies is important, probably have a think about what you're drawing and why it is the way it is. I know I rushed through my early stuff too but I think that was because I didn't know what to stop and look for. Educate yourself with anatomy books, Bridgman is good but don't just mindlessly copy it, study what the body is doing in his drawings and try to udnerstand how it moves, you also need to do a lot of life drawings.

Thanks for replying and your advice Vyliss, appreciate it :)

As for Bridgman and the anatomy books, yeah, I'm doing just that - doesn't it show though? Hm, maybe I'm doing something wrong...

But I'll keep trying.

Regarding your poses, there doesn't seem to be much rythm to them, it seems all kind of stiff and unnatural.

Yeah, that's my biggest problem with it comes to drawing the figure - either from life, reference or imagination. Could you help me identify what I'm doing wrong?

The shading is also a bit rushed and makes everything look confusing.

That's another problem of mine - I was never ever really good at shading. I don't know how to shade. That method I'm using of shading via the contours is something I discovered today, so I'll need some practice.

I can't seem to go light enough. If I try, the pencil barely touches the paper, and doesn't get the effect that I want. And I can't seem to get the shade/hatchet lines to line up properly. Gah, what am I doing wrong? I guess the answer is to keep practicing at it.

I also would avoid putting in all the details of the macules especially on a female body, they are usually not so obvious as it would be on males.
Life drawing is important here if you want to learn about the body.

Do you mean muscles? Sure, ok, I'll do just that.

WIth your apples, I would not have a white background for them, it really flattens out the image, especially when there is a hard edge around the apple. Think of where the light is coming from from your reference image and paint in the cast shadows and possibly brighten up the areas of the surface the apple is sitting on where the light would hit it to make it not look so flat. Hope that helps

Hm, I thought I was doing this already? Oh well, back to the drawing board X_X.

Anyway, should I practice rendering on drawings of the figure that I do, or gradient balls just for the practice?

Thanks once again Vyliss :)

[daestwen]

I was just browsing through - don't have a lot of time to comment right now, I'll come back tonight and get some good crits in.

For now, though, keep up the studies. For me, i never used anatomy books (gasp and shock), i only did life drawing.

[Maridius]

The female studies strike me as very masculine, especially below the chest, and much more muscular than the upper body suggest they should be. Women usually don't show that much definition in their abs for example and I don't think I could ever get thighs that buff without a major hit of steroids. You and I also have the same problem with our pencils too--we forget to sharpen them and just go-go-go with the drawing until down to the wood.

[Call0ps]

i think quite a big part was mentioned, i just can tell you to when sketching just take your time, dont rush like "i need to finish this in 20 minutes"... rather slow and beautiful, than faster and scratchy... u can get faster with time and pratice ;) keep it up man

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi Satan!
great update! i can see u've been busy! good thing!
but as everyone said u need to slow down. maybe it's better for u if u just focus on one part of the body. it's easier if u try to learn each part seperated.
So work through the body step by step makes it easier to keep it in mind.
Keep it up!!

[Jamesy]

Hey, Rabbi, it looks like you've already received a lot of good critiques with this last update, so I'll just say keep up the hard work! I know rendering can be pretty frustrating at some times, but struggling through it will only make you better (I guess that goes for anything, really). Well, keep up the studies and always try to improve upon each drawing you make!

[sfa]

Hi Rabbi,

Good start on your sketchbook. And nice work on them apples.

When figure drawing your intent should not be to copy the model but to analyze it. Visualize the model as a series of interlocking shapes (triangles, circles, squares, rectangles, ellipses, etc.) and forms (cones, cylinders, spheres, cubes, etc.). The experience gained from the perspective and foreshortening exercises you did above will help you with this, so keep doing those.

As an example, I've quickly redrawn your last figure drawing and in a separate doodle colored in the forms and gesture lines I typically think about and use while at life drawing workshops. Use whatever works for you.

Don't worry about shading or even detailing in musculature at the moment. Focus on nailing the gesture first, then try to achieve a sense of dimensionality without resorting to rendering, by using shapes, forms, and overlaps. Look at Kevin Chen's figure drawings (http://www.characterdesigns.com/index.php?sitepage=tutorials) for good examples on how to do this. Notice how by using a simple cylinder lightly drawn in he gives the impression of volume on the torso, legs, and arms. Aim for a similar kind of economy in your drawings.

Keep it simple in the beginning and resist the temptation to render. Try to imbue your figure drawings with life and personality even if they're no more than simple stick figures. Remember, if it looks good in the early stages, it will probably look good fully-rendered as well, but no amount of beautiful shading will save a drawing that has problems with the underlying gestures and shapes.

Draw from life as much as you can so you can build your visual library and loosen up your line work. Also, start learning anatomy, so you understand what it is you are seeing, and be sure to memorize proportions, so you can self-correct yourself. Study the body in sections (torso, arms, legs, etc.), so you don't get overwhelmed.

When you're not drawing from life, for studies do master copies with the aim to create a perfect carbon-copy. If this means you need hours to do just one, then so be it, but don't sweat it if it takes you that long. Your brain just needs time to adjust. The more you do, the faster you will get, but be sure to go slow and pump out a stellar product in the end. The reason for doing these is to develop both your hand-eye coordination and self-discipline, and in the process you will also learn how the experts solved similar drawing problems back in their day - tips which you can apply to your own work in the future.

Good luck.

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks for taking the time to reply sfa :)

Thanks for your advice, but it only makes me more confused. I am already using basic shapes and forms for my figure drawings, so hearing you say that I'm not doing it only makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong, or not doing correctly to some extent. Yeah, my figures lack rythym (As Vyliss said), but I've got no idea how to correct them. I use gesture lines, as you suggested, and I use basic forms and shapes, as you suggested - but they still seem rigid and wooden :( (Your version of the figure I did did use basic forms and shapes)

But I will definitely forgo the shading and work on getting the pose of my figures to look more dynamic first, thanks for this piece of advice.

As for doing carbon copies of the masterworks, I don't know if I really can or not. I mean I'd love to try, but I'd probably get a lousy product in the end, even if I did spend 8 hours or more on it. *sigh*, but I'll try anyway.

Anyhow, I've done some more analogue drawings, mainly from Birdgman's Constructive Anatomy and Life Drawing book, so I'll post those in a few hours time, after I come back from my life drawing course.

Thanks again sfa :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Ok, here's the next batch of updates. I'm most pleased with my hand studies. I couldn't attend my figure drawing class tonight, or finish/start it rather, as when I got there I suffered from suffocation (Constant blocked nose) and a rather bad panic attack. The train ride home was quite bad :( Gah, I'm a bag of mental dis-orders. But hey, we all must persevere.

I'm slowly getting better at faces, and I'm taking what Call0ps said to me on MSN to heart - about the actual pencil to paper contact time as being important, not just "thinking" about it, which amounts to nothing, as it's mileage that counts.

With this update, I left out about 4 or 5 pages of studies that I weren't too happy with. Should I post them anyway?

Thanks once again for commenting and critiquing my crappy SB ;)

[enrigo]

Hey Rabbi, good to see you start a sketchbook. Keep up with the work man.
If you are worry about the perfect carbon copy, why not start with doing a more refined copy of Bridgman. It's a good chance to practice line quality; try to follow the line that was used in the original instead of going scratchy with it.

[Rabbi Satan]

Hm, that sounds like an excellent idea enrigo, thanks for suggesting it :) I see that your Bridgman studies are absolutely beautiful as well - something to strive for now that I see someone else can do them.

Will post more tomorrow, it's 1:10am here in Hong Kong.

[sfa]

You're doing great. I'm just reminding you to keep it simple. Your figures will get better as you continue to draw. In fact, I already see improvement in this last batch. Those sets of hands are especially wonderful.

You're actually doing master copies now, by copying Bridgman, so you are capable of doing it. Tackle one when you feel you are ready, and don't worry if you can't get it exactly like the original - it's practically impossible to. The idea is to get relatively close, and by copying the lines and techniques of the masters your brain learns to problem solve like them.

Drawing can be very frustrating at times but try to enjoy the process of creation. Celebrate the little successes and be proud of your breakthroughs. Keep up the good work.

[Maridius]

Oh I love the expressiveness of your hands! Keep up the good work there! Your figure work is already seeing some improvement, though you seem to tighten up when you get to the female figures and faces. Maybe draw uglier girls for now (or just men, as I'm doing) and gradually beautify them as your skills develop? I've found heavier, masculine features way easier to draw than pretty ones since pretty faces have very strict bounds to qualify as attractive. It can be a major roadblock and right now you probably just want to focus on general proportions.

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi Satan!
Good man u work hard that's good!!
Well but i think u still need to take more time.
Maybe u should try to do some of ur study with a ball point pen
or brush that forces u to make clearer lines.
But keep up the good work!!!

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another semi large update.

Thanks for the advice Soja, I'll try to switch to ball point to see if it'll force me to keep my lines clean.

Once again, my many thanks to everyone who commented, critiqued, and gave me advice :) I really appreciate it.

With these studies, I think my figures are the poorest, whilst my hands are surprisingly the strongest. I'm getting a whole lot better at hands. In anycase, instead of just copying the hands, I tried to deviate from Bridgman's drawings and draw the hands in a dis-similar pose from the original. To train myself, so to speak.

Hope you guys enjoy it :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Here're some studies that I did in photoshop alongside a tablet (What else?) to practice using those two items better, since I'm a lot better at analogue than digital.

As for my figures, I've been getting criticisms lately that my figures lack rhythm and look wooden. I'm trying to correct this, but I've got no idea how to besides the age old golden "Practice!", but if I'm not practicing the right way, all the practice in the world wouldn't do anything. So does anyone have any advice on how to improve the rhythm/dynamism of my figures?

Thanks :)

[RandAlThor]

Try to use more gestural lines, long and sweeping rather than short and choppy. Check this link out, might help...

http://www.art.net/~rebecca/LifeDrawing1.html

;-)

[Call0ps]

hey man, its awesome to see you working so much :) about the lines they look a bit scratchy, best solution for it, is not to lift the pen/pencil whatever... as much as you can... try to simplify the form, you will be amazed how much information can contain one single stroke on the right place. keep it up man

[Rabbi Satan]

Try to use more gestural lines, long and sweeping rather than short and choppy. Check this link out, might help...

http://www.art.net/~rebecca/LifeDrawing1.html

;-)

RandAlThor: Wow, thanks for the link RandAlThor, I just wish that I found that link 1 and 1/2 years ago when I started. It would've saved me a bunch of time!

I sort of suffer from a syndrome where I have to have things confirmed for me before I can learn and move on. And what I learned there is that it's perfectly ok to use stick figures as a foundation instead of simply using delineated contours to draw figures from life.

But I wish there was more stuff at the very end on rhythm though, as that's something that I'm currently stuck on.

But thanks A LOT! :)

Call0ps: I'll try your suggestion of not taking the pencil off the paper. It's kind of hard, as I'm so used to going rapidfire short bursts all the time.

Anyhow, I've gone ahead and started on the character design per day theme we have going for our SSG.

Maybe we need a logo? :)

[enrigo]

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.3/3.3pages/3.3vilppudrawing.html
Here's one awesome gesture method, I think most of the time people with great gesture skill are animators so you might want to check some animation rough drawings.

Man, character design per day sounds cool, wish my SSG at least ever update. :(

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi!
Good to see u work hard! U will see lots of progression soon! im sure about that!
Well already got lots of good critique!
Another good practice what u could to is try to draw urself. Do some selfportrait and try do them in just one line! I will force u to observe ur face better!
Good luck buddy! U doin good and im looking forward to see ur characters!!
Keep rockin!

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another semi large update. I'm focusing on trying to get gestures and the action down, so these won't be finished drawings.

These are all done in ink - my black ink is currently pen writing ink, not for drawing, so it's quite thick, and it often globbed onto the paper and messed things up. I'm still not used to drawing in ink, but I'm getting there. my future ones won't be so messy.

This update is for figures and hands. Some of the hands were from Bridgman, others from imagination. With figures, most from imagination, some from Posemaniacs.

Thanks to everyone for their support so far.




Edit:

Here are 2 character designs in as many days, as well as another sheet of gestures.

[Jamesy]

It looks like you're working really hard to get things right. I like how you're trying to do hand and figure poses from imagination- that's something I should do more often too. The first character is a bit off with the proportions while the second (skeleton?) is actually pretty good proportionally speaking. I can't really give you any more advice than to keep do what you're doing with the studies, the correct proportions will come with time and practice. What were the ideas for the characters? Did you have an objective before making them? I had to ask myself the same questions AFTER I made my character (I'm so ashamed of mine!). This is all very new to me as well, so I'm trying to generate ideas that can make our characters more interesting. Anyways, you're killin us with the sheer amount of studies you've been doing lately, so I guess I'll have to catch up now that school's over!

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi Satan!!
Great update man! U using inks and ur lines look much better! and i can see u really paying attention where u putting ur lines! really good!
to ur characters! they are not bad at all. just some propotion issues.
the head is a bit to small while the neck got to big!
And maybe if u make her legs thiner it could help. But i think the pose is nice!
For the skeleton! I like it! really! u could take a tracing paper and an anatomy book and redraw it while studying the skeleton. Well just a practice suggestion.
Keep up the good spirit!

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another small update. I've tried my hand at a bargue drawing, and it's not going too well. I keep hearing how Bargue drawings supposedly take weeks and months to complete, but here I am 1 hour in, and I can't seem to fathom any other way to progress. Anyone have any pointers?

I've been trying to do more apples in photoshop, but I'm starting to suck again :( Need to practice more.

[Jamesy]

Wow, you're attempting a Bargue drawing? That's crazy! Everyone that I've seen do this have near carbon copies of the original, so yeah, it takes a lot more time if you want everything right. I've heard this particular one takes between 30-40 hours to complete. But I could be wrong because I hardly know anything about them. I'm not exactly sure how they're supposed to help either (common sense tells me quality and technique). There's a thread by Dorian somewhere in the forums where he explains his process and how long it takes him to do those. Good luck on that, I'm sure there's much to be learned from them.

[sfa]

Rabbi,

Good to see you working hard. Your figures are looking better by the day. Keep it up.

As far as your Bargue drawing goes, go back and refine your lay-in before you lay down the areas in shadow (which, by the way should not be smudged, but hatched in slowly, building the values up layer by painstaking layer). Use negative shapes to help you figure out which areas need correction.

Right off the bat I can see that the left side of his neck is too thin, and that the nose is too wide. Bargue copies are all about perfection. Aim for a dead-on exact copy and pay particular attention to both the quality of your lines and the accuracy of your values.

Good luck. They're not easy (I actually haven't done one myself, just read a lot about the process and seen finished copies at the school I attend part time. Maybe I'll try my own soon.)

MindCandyMan has a great thread on doing these (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12104).

[Maridius]

I've never attempted one of these but I'm wondering if you need more guidelines on your page, like you have on the original, so you can keep all the features exactly as they are based on precisely duplicating the measurements. For example, I noticed that the nose is wider in your copy and goes beyond the plumb line you dropped from the inside of the eye. Keep trying!

[Vyliss]

hey Rabbi Satan, nice to see heaps of studies since I last came here :) You're definitely improving, keep at it!

For improving rythme in your poses, you need to start doing a bunch of gesture drawings. You can either do these at Life Drawing classes, when they do the quick 30sec-2min poses or take a sketchbook to a busy public area and start to draw the people moving around and try to capture their pose as fast as you can (which is really challenging but the more you do it, the better you get at it) You can also try this link: http://www.posemaniacs.com/pose/thirtysecond.html
And try to capture the poses before timer goes :) Other than that, also looking for action pictures online and doing them fast is also an option.
Trick is just to do a lot of them (daily if you can) and eventually you'll get a feel for that rythme and it will show in your figure drawings.

I don't know much about the point of Bargue drawings either. Guess it must have some benefit if heaps of people are doing them lol. I think I wouldn't have the patience to do it though. Like Maridius said, you need to place more giudlines in the image to help with the proportions.

On shading/blending, try a circular motion instead of crossways. Small circles with as light a touch as you can that still show a mark on the paper, then gradually build it up. :)

[Rabbi Satan]

ALL BARGUE AND NO BITE:

Yo guys, Emily G has graciously offered to help mentor me in Bargue drawing, which is making me REALLY REALLY excited :) Anyway, I posted it in the mentoring section, but wanted to post it in here as well:

Here's the image of the Bargue I will be Bargue'qing:

329397
Here's my setup:

329398

Here's my progress:

Two photographs showing the entire setup:

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329400

One showing a close up. Will take one more cause this one's blurry:

329401

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's a small update: An ink wash drawing of a Bridgman figure, and a character design of a female in armour. I'd like critiques on both the shading and the rhythm of the latter character if anyone has the time

330022

330023

[Storyboard Dave]

Nice to see you with your studies here, but I would also make the strongest of encouragement to draw from life as well. Grab a sketchbook and draw as many actual three dimensional objects (preferably people) as possible. Copying from other people's works are great exercises but sometimes it never conveys things like weight, gravity and movement in them.

And try not to worry if they're not perfect. You're using a sketchbook, not a finished art book. Doodle away!

Keep up the good work.

[Vyliss]

hey Rabbi Satan, I thought I'd do a paintover on your last work, as a challenge for myself and to show you what you could look out for in the future.

By no means is this perfect, but I've tried to show you something about bringing out the rythme of the pose. It's all about curved lines and how they should flow throughout the character subconsciously.

330812

The blue line is the rythme of that pose. Your original one was really stiff, Pose felt very straight. You need to make sure you don't use any straight lines, this is where you need to do a lot of life drawing to understand about the subtle curves of lines on the arms/legs and anywhere else that appears straight. I see you kind of understand that the torso should go back, however the back is not dead straight, the spine curves a bit, esp in this 3/4 view.
I really recommend going to life drawing as soon as you can and for as often as you can, the more you draw the figure from life, the more you'll start to memorize about these little things.

[Maridius]

My favorite was the smaller figure to the far right--her pose is very dynamic even though she's just 'standing there.' There's a lot of attitude! The big figure strikes me as very tense and mainly because of the strain running from his toes all the way up his back line. I feel as if he's almost being tortured or electrocuted and if this was the effect you were after, I'd suggest transferring that tension to his fingers too, making them spread wide into 'claws'. Have the cords in his neck pop out too.

[daestwen]

Hey Rabbi,

I was looking through a lot of the pose studies in the back, and I have a suggestion for you. Your lines are pretty messy, which is fine in itself, but have you tried just blocking it out? Kind of like that inkwash up there, only when you do a figure *only* block in the shadow, no lines or nothing. It's hard, but it definitely helps force you to consider form and volume, rather than just outlines.

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi Satan!! Yeah Bargue! Never done this before! Well after im finishing with school in July i will hope i find some time to do some of this too!
But i still can see u dont take enough time on the Bargue. I read in some other sketchbooks that they sometimes took 5 up till 10 hours on those kind of drawings. U really need to be patient and ur target is to get it as good as the original. But im sure u already no by ur self.
I also think like some others here that u really need more practice from life.
If there's any life class around there u should go and draw from life as much as u can.
About shading. I would really care about right now if i wear u but. A good advice is to squint ur eyes on what u want to draw and block in the darkest dark first and the work the values to the lightes. and try to get the values right. take ur time for that to and try tomake the lines follow the form.
Keep up the good work!!

[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another apple, from imagination, and my first digital portrait from reference. It's my first, hence it sucks, and I'm not too happy with. I realise that I have to move on from apples eventually, and onto more complex forms. I think my main problem is painting within the lines - can anyone give me any good advice for what to do about that?

Thanks :)

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Edit:

Here is a self portrait I just did, not sure how much time I took, but it was less than 20 minutes.

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[Jamesy]

I'm pretty messy too when I attempt those apple paintings. To clean up the edges, I just smooth it out with the eraser tool. The edges on your apple seem to be blocky, so that could easily be smoothed in no time. I think it's just getting used to the wacom tablet over time that your paintings will eventually get smoother as you gain more control. But I dunno, I'm new also.

I think the point to doing the apple study is to do it from life so you can observe the colors and tone of the form. It's probably more beneficial to set the still life with some surrounding objects too, that way you can see how the color of the apple reflects off of its surroundings. I should try that myself.

There's a lot of issues with the referenced pic, most of which you could probably see yourself. I think the main thing is that the girl is supposed to be looking off in another direction with her head tilted slightly up. The nose, eyes, and mouth in your piece indicate that the face is looking straight at us. Watch for these closely when you do portraits, and you'll get hang of it! Well, hopefully others will come around and comment, since it seems everybody as of late is MIA. Or maybe I'm just on the computer way too much...

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Jamesy,

I saw your digital experiments in your thread - could you tell me how you did them? I can only do apples, and I'm pathetic at anything else :( I'm trying to deviate, but everytime I do a crap painting (And that's all I can do currently), I get very depressed.

Here are some figures and a digital experimentation on landscape. I tried to copy one of your paintings Jamesy. As you can see, my version is crap :(

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I can't get anything right on the last one - be it blending, lighting, colour selection, composition :( I need help. Fuck man. I'm depressed.



Edit:

Did some more work on my first environment:

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It's slightly better now thanks to the lighting, but it's still kinda crap >_<


Edit 2:

Here's another version:

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Still crap. I'm getting frustrated. I threw my wacom stylus against the wall and it broke, but it's still mostly working. Fuck me and my ineptness.

[daestwen]

Hey Rabbi:

Don't get too frustrated! Enviros are a bitch to paint, so I tend not to. :P Here's some tips, though. Get your horizon line down first. It doesn't really seem like you know where it is in that painting, since the line looks *really* low, but then I can also see the top of that ridge on the left. Remember that the horizon is always at your eye level! so you'll see the bottom of everything above it, and the tops of everything below it.

Try working with shapes and solids rather than just painting in. You can do this on a bunch of layers and then adjust their values that way - darkest at the front to lightest at the back (you already are doing that, so. :) ) That'll give it a cleaner, sharper feeling and you can always paint texture on top!

I'd make the clear sky bluer - the sky would only be that grey if it was over cast, and then you wouldn't be able to see the sun. Blue it up! Also, clouds might be easier if you lower the opacity on your brush and build up to white. You'll get that bit of transparency. Don't worry about the rays of sunlight until the last - you'll want to build up your values everywhere else first.

And don't get too frustrated, you'll get the hang of it. :)

[Jamesy]

There were several pieces that I started and spent awhile on without ever saving them because I got pretty frustrated too. I went to the Speed Painting thread and observed some of those very closely to help me with my stuff. The first few were really bad, but increasingly got better (notice the cloud developement from first to last?). Plus there's some crazy weather going on here where I live (it's spring and it's snowing outside!) so the clouds look all crazy.

I wasn't doing anything extra fancy with my pieces, just experimenting with different brushes such as the airbrushes, hard brushes, and chalk brushes. As far as everything else, I think Daestwen hit it spot on with the advice. Just play with the different brushes and opacities (I was on the super low side btw, like 10-50 range) and hang in there until you see something you're going for. I definitly feel the frustration, though. Some people can make this stuff look so easy and beautiful. How long did you spend on this last environment? (I'm not sure how long I spent on mine, maybe an hour, more or less...I dunno)

[Rabbi Satan]

Here are two more environments that I did under an hour. They still bloody suck :( But at least I'm getting better, I least like the 3rd one, as I tried me hand at some perspective there, and I failed.

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[Soja]

Hey Rabbi!
Hey good to see u trying some digi stuff. But i can see u have some trouble with it. Sometimes it's easier to learn if u break ur learning steps down to tiny serval steps. mhh...i hope that doesnt sounds stupid. What i mean is that i think that painting a whole environment with correct colors lightning and perspective is a little bit hard for u at the moment. Just concentrate on one problem first.
If u want to get the perspektive right just concentrate on that and try to finish a drawing with the perspective as good as possible.
if u want to learn color just concentrate on the color and forget about the perspective.
And before u work on colors i would try to only paint in black and white and try to get the values as accurate as possible.
I think it's easier to concentrate on problem is easier for the beginning and it's easier to have some success. Well that's my opinion. Hope i could help u a little bit! keep it up!!

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks for the advice Soja :) Will take that into mind.

I've calmed down and looked up some cloud tutorials on the internet, there was one good one that I can't find anymore, I forgot to bookmark it, but the 3rd (last) one is based on it.

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Edit:

Here's 1 more that I did just now.

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Edit 2:

Here's two more that I did - I'm pretty happy with the last one, it's the one that looks most like a cloud so far.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's today's update - some figures and an apple:

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[Jamesy]

Are these latest figures from life sessions? If so, I think they gradually get better with the last one being the strongest of the bunch. It looks like all of those studies are paying off, especially in the legs. The midsection (torso, hips) need some help, so I'm sure you'll get to that. I think thats probably the hardest area to learn, or at least is was (is) for me. The proportions are good in some of the pieces, but not all. I think you understand the proportions of the figure, it's just a matter of getting the consistency to make it look right through practice.

It's nice to see you take on a multi-colored apple, those can be hard (for me, anyway). You should try other simple, colorful objects. I think the clouds are getting better, but maybe you should try to make them stand out from the sky more (whether the sky be darker or the clouds having more dynamic values compared to the somewhat nuetral sky). Are the clouds from reference? Anyway, keep up the hard work!

[Vyliss]

oo, lots of figure drawings, great! You're definitely improving, you're on the great path! Just don't lose momentum. Your apples are still kind of flat, you should try a reference of an apple with a background, something simple though, and paint it with the background. By close attention to the colours, how the apple colours affect the environment and how the environment affect the apple. :)

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi Satan!
Nice update! The apple doesnt look finished to me.
The Shadow needs a bit more work i think.
But i really like the life drawings! Really keep at it! The last
one is pretty nice!

[Maridius]

Keep working on those apples! The life drawing too--it's coming along better already, especially the last. If you're working under a time constraint (like 30 second draw or 2 minute or whatever) you're getting more of the essence of the pose than before and without as many rushed strokes.

[Rabbi Satan]

I've just gotten back from a week long holiday in Thailand, visiting relatives and such. I did around 60 figures from reference and imagination (Reference mostly from Bammes' works).

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And the progress on the Bargue Drawing:

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[Maridius]

I think I'd need a whole grid to tackle a Barque--like maybe a 1/2 inch grid and lots of time! This is the one where it has to be exact, right? Not one hair out of place? From looking at it, there's only a few minor discrepencies but at this stage it'll be easy for you to correct before moving on to the final stages. Post more soon!

[Rabbi Satan]

I think I'd need a whole grid to tackle a Barque--like maybe a 1/2 inch grid and lots of time! This is the one where it has to be exact, right? Not one hair out of place? From looking at it, there's only a few minor discrepencies but at this stage it'll be easy for you to correct before moving on to the final stages. Post more soon!

There's my mentoring thread in the Mentoring sub-forum that you can take a look at. I had no idea how to do bargues myself, but Emily G's guidance really helped out. You should be able to benefit from it as well. Take a look!

I haven't really been busy these days, but I'll try to post more:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Some life drawings, from virtual pose and from model. And one analogue form/basic shape rendering exercise.

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*sigh* seems no one wants to comment in my SB anymore. Guess I must be worse than mediocre :(

Oh well, that's life I guess, heheh.

[Jamesy]

Yeah, I'm too lazy to post in your sketchbook now...lol! Seriously, though, it looks like all those studies are starting to pay off because there's some real improvement in this last post (better proportions and line quality). It looks like you've done some value studies as well. It can be hard to apply those to the human form, but hang in there and you'll get better at it!

[Soja]

Hey Rabbi!!
Cool to see u still doing all those studies! and as i already said on the blog!
The Life drawings are coming along too!
Yeah and i got a really nice advice from Texahol and Jens on the German Sketch Meet Weekend!!
Doooooo loooottsss of Value Studies!!
Keep it up!!

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks for the comments and words of encouragement, Soja and Jamesy, will keep on truckin'.

Here are 4 more images - there are LOADS more mannequin studies, but they're of low quality and thus wouldn't be put on here.

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[Jamesy]

How did you fit all 20 hands on one page!? That's amazing! Some of them actually look pretty good, but I think you might have rushed it towards the end when cramming the rest into the bottom corner. Are you running out of pages in your sketchbook or something? Those figures are looking better too, as it seems you're seeing the light and shadows better now. You're slowly getting better with each post me thinks, so keep it up!

[Maridius]

Hands! Yeah I'll be drawing hands tonight for sure! Next time you do another batch of hand gestures, may I suggest you go for a less 'blocky' look on the fingers? Take a couple minutes to round off some of the finger ends and add more distinctive knuckles.

Sorry if I don't always comment. I do that when I can't think of anything to say beyond 'keep up the good work' or 'anatomy plz' because I feel like an ass when I repeat myself :D

[Vyliss]

hey Rabbi, great life drawing and hand studies. THey're getting better. Your faces need a bit more work, esp the lips as they look quite flat at the moment. but keep up the good work :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Wooo, haven't posted in a long while, time to break the spell :)

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[Jamesy]

Nice to see you posting again. Now post some more!

[Maridius]

What Jamesy said! Your figure studies are really coming along. Just between now and the last batch of drawings, they've gotten far more 'solid' and convincing. The quicker gesture draws seem less rushed too. Great progress!

[Rabbi Satan]

Whew, sorry for being away for so long, fellow pencil chewers. Real life, apathy, procrastination and wanting to keep the best for my sketchbook have kept me from posting.

I decided to also most my sketches and not so polished work - it's a sketch book after all - not a finished works book :)

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here are some proper figures from figure drawing class:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya everyone, another long awaited update. I'll try to update more often:

Some figures from some months ago, and a bargue done with Jonathan Hardesty's Atelier:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya guys, big update this time.

5 figures, and 7 concept drawings - the first 3 of which I copied from Marko Djurdjevic's character ideation videos - but the latter 4 are from my imagination.

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[Jamesy]

Nice update, Rabbi! I'd say there's still some issues with the proportions on some of your figures (unless the model did indeed have short legs!), mainly with either the upper body being too long or the lower body being too short. It's good to see you copying Marko's characters then coming up with something on your own, I do that a lot too. Just keep at it, you're definitely getting better with each post!

[Maridius]

I like this batch of figures. Though they're drawn quickly, you seem to have lost your urge to rush through blindly--so now you've got some major improvement happening. The conceptual drawings need work on proportion and volume so they seen 3d and not flat and I have to pick on you for your light lines cause EVERYONE picks on me for the same thing :D There. Now I feel vindicated. Keep up the good work!

[Rabbi Satan]

Whoo, sorry for being away so long, my fellow pencilchewers. But I've improved a lot. I downloaded idrawgirl's training videos by xia, and they really helped me with my environments.

Here's what I've done:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another environ that I did. Hope you enjoy the eye candy. I used white on black to do this (On construction), which is why it seems a bit off. But I've learned my lesson.

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[Maridius]

Good to see you back at the drawing board! These last paintings are great, the perspective is enviable. I'd love to see you push the details on them now that the lighting and lines have been laid in. Is the horizontal line in the top two your V.P. lines?

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks Maridius,

Yeah, in the 2nd and 3rd pictures, the white line is the horizon, I can't really get rid of it, as I flattened the layers already T_T.

Anyway, I decided to push the details further in the latest one. Here's the latest incarnation, with a bit of 1984 theme:

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[Jamesy]

Great to see you back again, Rabbi! Start posting more so I can be really really harsh in critiquing you in the future.

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Jamesy,

I'd love to hear your critique :)

Anyway, here's another environ:

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Edit:

Here's another version of the same environ:

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[Rabbi Satan]

2 more environments I did. I'm looking forward to your critque, Jamesy :)

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[Jamesy]

I see that you're experimenting with two point (I think I saw a 3pt, too) linear perspective, which is a very important principle to understand not only with environments, but with everything else as well. Another thing you might want to consider is atmospheric perspective. In these environments, the detailing seems to be the same throughout as well as the line thickness. The linear perspective is giving it depth, but you can take it a step further by having closer subjects more detailed while further away objects fade out.

This may sound harsh, but there's no sign of life in these environments. Try adding subjects (people, birds, vehicles, etc.) that can interact and move within the environment. They don't have to be the focal point, but they should be in there somewhere.

Another thing to think about is the focal point. With the first image in the last post, My eyes are drawn into the center (distant buildings). The framing element from the closer/darker buildings have a nice contrast to the brighter central focal point. The one thing that's distracting me is the two blue and orange color dodged sections to the left. They're competing with the bright central focal point of the image.

If you continue to do environments like this, it would be helpful to do lots of architectural studies of buildings that exist in the real world. Remember that a lot of interesting illustrations/images you see are inspired from life. Take mental notes when you're out and about observing and sketching things, then try and incorporate them into your concepts.

I'm gonna go draw now. Once I get a new flash drive I'll probably unload a few painting studies within the next few days. Don't be afraid to drop by a critique away harshly at what I've been doing. These are looking good and I like how you're starting to develop an eye for detail. Keep at it!

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Jamesy, thanks for the crits :) I really appreciate it.

You're right about the lifelessness of the pictures, I didn't notice it before - thanks for drilling it into my head :)

I tried to replicate one of the other paintings I did before, as I felt a bit lost. Here's a version with more "life" in it - some birds, and some vehicles.

Looking forward to your crits again, James :)

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[Rabbi Satan]

Another environment:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's an apple :)

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[Jamesy]

With 3-point perspective you want to keep in mind that the viewpoint is either from a worm's perspective (looking up) or a bird's perspective (looking down). In the last environment the view is pretty straight on so the perspective should be 2-point.

The apple has gotten better as it looks like you spent more time on it. The rendering looks really nice in the apple, but I think the shadow seems a bit rough and is actually confusing me. I'm not sure if the apple is on one plane or if there's actually two perpendicular planes. It kinda looks like the apple is leaning against a wall, but I dunno. You want to make your content as clear as possible so it's easy to read. Another way to fix the roughness of the shadow is to use a bigger brush. The little black strokes at the bottom of the apple are kinda distracting because it doesn't flow with the apple. Anyway, I'll be back when you have more. Keep at it!!

[Maridius]

Try that apple again and clean up those angles on the edges, get it good and smooth. I agree with Jamesy on the shadow--you have it both underneath and against the 'wall' so I did a double take when I first looked at it. I've been learning a little about perspective and the law applies to shadows too. Also keep the shadow rather sharp near the apple, less opaque as it spreads outward.

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya again, my SSG, I'm not dead just yet :) But I have been active, just not so in the updating my sketchbook thread department.

Here's a dump of some stuff, 2 night environment, 1 cloud study, 7 snow landscape studies that I've tried to follow with Whit Brachna's demo (You can see the improvements from number 1 to 7 (They're in sequential order)), and some landscape and spaceship sketches done in the new Corel Sketcher (Initially inspired by some of Feng Zhu's works with the digital downloads I paid for, and then from Eve Online's spaceship gallery).

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[Call0ps]

those videos are sure doing some good :) i would say to work and be more careful with the edges, the snow doesn't look its falling in to the rocks. use photo refs or if you have the chance look at it in life. I really like the space ship sketch, great design :) try to polish it more.
Yeah i got accepted in the atelier but cant go, no money, no financial support. Cest la vie. =\ ^^ anyway!
Keep drawing matte!

[Jamesy]

Those are some pretty sweet ship designs! I just checked the Feng-Shu dvd out from the library like 20 minutes ago, so hopefully I'll learn something too! I agree with Callops about the snow, just reference a bunch of stuff and you'll get there!

[jedininjaman]

nice vehicle design, they are pretty cool for being done quickly, it would be cool to see some more finished stuff from you
thanks for sharing man

[Rabbi Satan]

Call0ps - Damn, that's a shame man, I would give an arm and a leg to be able to attend the CA atelier. Hope you'll be able to muster enough money to go, you deserve it.

Jamesy - Yeah, I love Feng's stuff. Unfortunately, there's nowhere in Hong Kong that carries the Workshop library of DVDs, so I have to buy them online via paypal. Which ones did you withdraw out?

jedininjaman - Thanks man - I did some more drawings, and thanks to you, decided to take the next step and colour/finish them. The drawings are inspired a lot from Eve Online's spaceships (Viewed here: http://www.eveonlineships.com/), but I have now built up enough visual vocabulary that I can draw spaceships on my own now.

Anyway, here they are, in sequential order of colouring (But the exact opposite in sequence when drawn):

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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya again,

Here are two Android Jones style inspired paintings I did. Both done in painter.

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[serio]

Nice exercisers! Pencil and digital looks better and better.. Keep pushing.

[shamandalie]

Nice to be joining your SSG! (Maridius roped me in :)) WOW, you've made MAJOR improvement since your first page. Your digitals are coming along as well, but don't forget to continue drawing with pencils! I have that problem, i still can't draw as good. Don't stop ya hear?

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Gang,

3 images this time, all done in painter.

I bought Ryan Church's Introduction to Corel Painter, and man, before I had a hard time using painter, but now it's a breeze. I doubt I'll be switching back to photoshop any time soon.

The first two aren't my designs - I copied them for practice from Ryan Church, to see if I had the skill set to do my own.

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[Linnaine]

lovely art
thanks for visiting my SB:)

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya again gang.

Just got back from a week in Thailand visiting family.

I did the first cityscape prior to going, and did the 2nd one when I came back. Both took an hour or two or so.

Both done in painter.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here are some robot thumbs that I did in Al.chemy.

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[kelly x]

I'll have to say your studies rock!! amazing studies and I like the characters, lots of good work here!

[shamandalie]

Your alchemy robots are sweeeeet. Push it further!

[Rabbi Satan]

serio - Thanks :) Will do.

Linnaine - Heya Lin, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook, I'll stop by yours and see how're you're doing. I hope you found my paintover in your thread helpful.

kelly x - Thanks, I'l keep at it :)

shamandalie - Heya sham, I know I haven''t been very receptive with you joining our SSG, but mostly because I've bee a bit too lazy to update my signature to include you (I actually did before, but then it disappeared somehow). I'll stop by your SB and critique soon.

Anyhow, here are two environments I did in photoshop. Took about 30 minutes to an hour or so each.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Holy Hell, I'm on fire today - not a bad way to spend my 22nd birthday (Which occured yesterday). Did a total of 5 images today, the previous two, and the current 3. I'll probably get accused of abusing the dodge tool eventually, it's like a drug, heheh.

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[Jamesy]

Hey Rabbi, you're abusing the dodge tool, hehe...

[Rabbi Satan]

Another update.

Some old and new city environs, and my submission for the 100th IDW.

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[Soja]

HEY RABBI!!

NICE UPDATES!!
Yes and u workin hard! Great!!
REally love ur studys and ur spaceship sketches!!
I makes me wanna do some spaceships too!!
Rock on dude!!
MOre more more!

[Rabbi Satan]

Small update, for the 100th IDW.

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[Soja]

Rabbi Satan!!
Nice Update man! I like the Idea of the Elysian!!
I like the design. Really cool!
Maybe u could but more dark values into it. Even he has lots of lights on it
i think some parts thats shows thru the armor could be darker.
just a suggestion!
Keep it comin bro!
I have a new Sketchbook by the way! Sorry i didnt tell u!
here's the link http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154107

[Jamie Romoser]

keep up the hard work man!

[Rabbi Satan]

Soja: Ah, cool, I'll update the links in my signature :)

OmertA: Thanks :)

Anyhow, here is a quick personal painting I did. I did the line work last night, then blocked in the tones in greyscale, then used overlay to put in the colours, this morning.

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[Jamesy]

Love the improvements Rabbi! Keep 'em coming!

[Rabbi Satan]

A new page, a new start!

Thanks to everyone who C&Ced :)

I'm a bit disappointed that my entry for the IDW 100 didn't get any votes at all - oh well, such is life.

I recently bought Coro's gun video. At first, I did two on my own after watching the video. Then I copied his silhouettes only, then painted along with him in the video. Then I did the last one, on my own, and I'm pretty happy with the result.
I used a speckled brush that was for some reason lying in my brush pallet, and I have no idea how it got there, but it worked wonders to add in some additional camouflage and a weathered look.

The thumbs in traditional media I did about a week ago, after I got directions to a paper importer in Hong Kong who was selling the French Kraft Speckletone paper, from a friend in figure drawing class. The paper's wonderful!
At first, I did the thumbs in pure pen ink, then slowly switched to 2 lines to make a border, followed with copic markers to add tone to the thumbs, as well as a black boder.

In some of the thumbs, I did some characters inspired by Mandryk's thread in the finished forum. I did a free hand copy first, then did my own versions - but I don't claim it to be my own design. I just wanted to see if I can draw what Mandryk drew, to see if I had the skill in my fingertips. Same with Coro's guns - I don't lay claim to the design either, as I just wanted to see if I can do what Coroo did.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Anyway, here they are:

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(My 2nd attempt. Shitty, but wanted to post it for comparison)

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(Coro's silhouettes and designs, as said above)

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(My designs and rendering that I did today. A bit better, but still not as good as Coro's)

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[Porg]

Phowarrr!
Loving your guns, very nice.

Your figure studies are great, I see great potential for them in the future.

[armetage]

great to see some studies inhere! keep working hard man, looks good so far

[Jonas_J]

The environment perspective pages done with marker are looking good! Keep it up!

[Jamesy]

There you go, Rabbi! Those gun designs are looking great! I think you could develop them a tad more and ease up on that dirty brush just a bit too. The silhouettes are pretty interesting! Sorry to here about the no votes in IDW. I think that competition in particular was tougher to get votes because there was only one vote for each user, so they had to chose the very best. At least you got to stay in, haha! I just entered my first CHOW and got cut from the competition! Keep doing the IDW thing, you're showing some wicked improvements in the ink stuff, dude.

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks everyone - whilst I enjoy comments and praises, I enjoy criticisms and critiques much more :) Don't be afraid to tear me a new asshole if I do something wrong! :D

Anyway, this update. Continuing from my previous - Environments from imagination in grayscale markers. I found Copic markers tend to dry up too fast, and too cumbersome to refill. Yoken markers also had the same problem, so I settled on Chartpak markers, and I'm loving them so far, but I have 2 reservations - the markers smell slightly of turpentine (Although I'm told by the store where I bought them from that they are oil based), and they're somewhat TOO good - the ink goes all the way through my thick gsm kraft speckletone paper.

I was inspired by the maps of Natural Selection - A Half Life 1 Mod.

I'm sorry for the bad pictures and line quality - I did most of them without a straight edge. But from this point on, you'll see straight lines :) I'm currently trying to train myself to draw as straight as possible lines without the aid of a ruler.

Anyway, here are the updates, without further delay from my ramblings:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya again guys.

I'll try to post some of my recent and old figure drawings from the past few weeks/months. But for now, here's my WIP process and final image for my 2nd Newborn entry (If I'm correct, you can submit multiple entries).


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[jackpot_anjr90]

Nice environments! I like how you're trying to work with different perspectives. For the latest digital work on the bottom, I'd say the pose looks too exaggerated for what the character is doing, making it look kind of unnatural. It might help to take a step back from digital and work on some anatomy as well. The good thing about improving with traditional mediums is that your improvement translates over to your digital work. Keep it up!

[Jamesy]

GIANT KEYBOARD ftw!! I really like the angle (although there are some perspective issues) and the idea is coolio too. I'd really like to see you take this as far as you can and push your illustration skillzz!

[shamandalie]

Hey dude it's alright, I'm here cause i enjoy looking at other people's awesome work! :) Wow, that is a massive update. Those thumbnails that you did look so kickass. I still feel that you could take some of them and push it further.

And glad to see that you are joining Newborn too! :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Hey again guys.

This is a long due update - and a big one. I apologize for some of the fuzziness of the camera pics, but scanning them would've taken eons.

Enjoy:

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[Jamie Romoser]

Really cool sketchbook you have going here alot of improvement is being seen.
Really like the character desgins and enviroments man keep it up!

[bigus_dickus]

holy crap. this is what i call a sketchbook. DUMPS AND DUMPS of images. Nice stuff!

[Rabbi Satan]

Many thanks for your kind comments from the both of you :) But don't be afraid to tear me a new asshole in terms of critiques.

And please don't forget to rate the thread! :)

Anyway, here are some more images:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Small update. Two pictures this time.

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[Rabbi Satan]

3 Environments this time. Two for the 2nd Team CHOW, and 1 speed painting in painter. Main bits took around 20 minutes, but I had to take a bit longer to learn how to do the reflected lights. I was inspired to do it after watching a tutorial here (http://www.visualprogression.com/video/video/show?id=1976985:Video:10380).

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[Rabbi Satan]

Hey again guys.

I experimented some more with Al.chemy, for the past few days, and came up with some interesting shapes. First attempt ended up with a space ship of sorts. And then used painter and photoshop to paint it up.
Then I took another stab at painting in Al.chemy, and came up with some flying orbital station among the clouds. And finished it in painter and photoshop as well. I'll tinker a bit with the orbital station some more, and then move on again into Al.chemy.

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The perspective is a bit off with the last picture, especially on the left most landing pad. I'll be fixing that.

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya there guys.

Slow, lazy day today. Didn't do much Al.chemy experiments yet, but stuck with refining the orbital station. For those reading this, would you like me to continue refining it, or stop completely and get on with the Al.chemy chaos?

Thanks :) (And to those who rated my thread, thanks to you too :) )

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[Rabbi Satan]

Two images this time. Same as before - I messed around in Al.chemy, and then used painter to block in everything (With a palette knife brush), and then used photoshop for the overlay layer and colours.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Greetings again folks. I noticed that my thread's now 4 Stars. Thanks for everone who voted.

Anyway, here's a quick piece I did today. A character I named Mr/Dr Illuminati (Sounds cool huh?). The two main inspirations for this character was JC Denton from Deus Ex, and Dr. Manhattan from watchmen.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Minor update. Two speedpaintings (Done under 1 hour for both), still need to learn how to do them faster. And one Robo/Mech suit design. I had no ideas on how to even start a mech drawing, so this took me a while. I started with the legs first, then moved to the torso. It looks pretty shit, but then again, this was my first attempt :) Will do better next time.

I've also noticed that I'm getting better at transitioning from linework into value. I still have to draw it out first, but I'm getting there, ever so slowly.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Hello again old friends :),

I took a month's break from doing art, playing the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mega mod install, and just generally relaxing. I did this because I noticed that I grow in spurts, and that after a long break and apon resuming, my art generally improves.

But I'll leave you to be the judge of that :) Here are 3 paintings I did in the last several days:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's a painting I just did today. Took around 1 hour:

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[Call0ps]

holy jesus! i didnt visit your book for some time, but this is too overwhelming. your improvement is huuge! in every single thing, figure, environment, mech. just keep it up matte, i'll keep my eye on your book, because i dont wanna miss improvement at light speed :D

[Rabbi Satan]

Heh, many thanks Call0ps :).

Btw, are you Chinese? I know surprisingly little about the whereabouts and stuff of our little SSG. I had always thought you were Spanish! Some clarification would be ace :).

Anyway, went out with my mom to the harbour. Had some food, and came back, and the urge to create was there. So here's one more I did for the night.

Took about 1 hour 40 minutes ish. Took a lot longer than usual because I couldn't get the colours to look good/right. I could've just left the structure a stale grey (Which sort of worked), but I wanted to use oranges to complement the blues. Took a while, but I got something that I'm somewhat satisfied with.

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[Jamesy]

I remember when I thought Callops was a girl...lol

[Rabbi Satan]

Did some more stuff today. I decided to present the paintings I did in the past week in higher resolution. Just in case anyone wanted to see them:

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[Call0ps]

lol, gosh, ok you two, hold yourselfs because im going to reveal my super secret identity. im no chinese girl =p im half japanese, half portuguese guy!

[Rabbi Satan]

Cool! Another mixed heritage guy :P I'm Half Chinese, quarter Australian, eighth Estonian, and the rest compromised of Russian, Jew, and possibly Swedish. But I'll never know the truth though, as my father passed away some years ago, taking the secrets of my heritage to the grave with him :P

Must be nice being Japanese. I wish I could understand the language so I can enjoy the Evangelion series and movies more :D

Anyway, I've been quite sick for the past few days - think I caught the flu from my half aunt that came from Australia, who came down with bronchitis of some sorts.

Anyway, enough talk, more art!

Here's one I did whilst I was sick. Didn't get much done besides that, was just too weak and ill.


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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya guys, the flu I had has since passed, and now I'm back to painting. I've been doing environments for a while now, I'll try for characters next.

Anyway, here are 3 environs done in the past 2 days:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya again folks,

As promised, here's something different. My first serious attempts at characters and creatures. I'm pleased with the creatures somewhat - but my characters are ending up looking like cartoons X_X. Oh well, will keep painting and practicing everyday:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Woo, been a long time since I've updated. I got swept up in game playing fever when Dragon Age: Origins was released last year, then started playing Shards of Dalaya again, and replaying through Baldur's Gate I, II and ToB with the Mega Mods.

Anyway, here are some items that I've been working on when I wasn't playing :D.

I also recently watched the 2nd Rebuild of Evengalion, You can (not) advance. <3 to Mari :D. I got inspired to do some EVAs, and the last image is kind of my rendition of how the entry plug/cockpits should be.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here are two environs I squeezed into doing today, alongside figure drawing lessons:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's one more for today. I got some crits on my previous pieces from a guy I know who has a studio in Thailand - and his main gripe was that my lighting wasn't realistic, and that it was more "splotchy" so to speak. Anyway I took his advice to heart, and tried to apply it here. A minor improvement. Still got a long road ahead.

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[Jockemon]

Hi Rabbi Satan!

You have some great perspective and atmospheric environment drawings here! But remember to draw from life. Your environments have a good atmospheric feeling, but they dont look "realistic". A bit to much color dodge maybe hehe. I recommend that you do some "landscape studying", pick a environment picture from Google or Deviantart and try to redraw it, just like you did with the fruits on page 1. Do one a day and you´ll soon be able to draw even greater environments( you probably know this already but I just wanna encourage you some). Good luck and keep up the good work! :hugsmile:

[Rabbi Satan]

Thank you for replying Jockemon =) I don't get many comments or crits as often as others =(.

I'll try what you suggested. I tried snow environments before, but I suck at that. I'm mainly good at urban environs, not so much organic unfortunately.

Here's one piece that I did today:

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[deusExMatteo]

Wow, love your colors d00d! The windows in the last one don't do it for me though - they look too cluttered with lines and also I recognize the PS filter (I think). Also, maybe double doors would look better than just one huge one? Otherwise I like this stuff a lot! :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks for dropping by Deus =)

I kind of liked the filter - but that's just personal preference I guess. But you are spot on that it is a PS filter, stained glass I think.

As for the doors, it wasn't until you mentioned it that it dawned on me that it was one huge door. I "drew" it as 2 doors, with 1 door sliding inwards to let light in. But I guess I got careless with my proportions, so it ended up looking like 1 huge door =S.

Thanks for dropping by, and here's one more piece I did this evening (Into the early hours of the morning. At time of posting, it's 2:00am+)

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[Jamesy]

Nice to see you updating again Rabbi! Looks like you're adding some matte painting techniques in places which is kewl. Look forward to seeing mo'

[Rabbi Satan]

Nice to see you updating again Rabbi! Looks like you're adding some matte painting techniques in places which is kewl. Look forward to seeing mo'

Yeah, I was on a several month long hiatus, playing Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate (I,II and ToB AND the millions of mods), Shards of Dalaya (EQ Emu, quite nice). But now I'm getting back into the grove of drawing and painting everyday.

Anyway folks, I spent a good part of the day doing this. I need to learn how to do it faster. So expect more to come.

I especially like this piece, 10 points to whomever guesses from which RPG game done by Black Isle the picture was inspired from =).

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's one for today. Standard. Booooriiiiiing. I'm getting tired of environs (At least Urban ones), gonna do organic environs and maybe characters more.

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[Jephyr X]

Hey RS...Thanks for checking my SB out...and for the feedback.

Yeah you are an enviornments guy!! I don't really do many...so this page is quite impressive!!

I looked thru all your pages and as someone else already pointed out...your improvements have been HUGE!

Your color sense is very good...and your enviros are getting complex and are really engaging.

It's good to see you doing a lot of figure study...actually an amazing amount. If I could offer a crit there...you are showing improvement but I see some anatomical issues. Maybe you're already taking classes (I didn't read all your comments) but that might really help. Because otherwise...I see some instances where you're "practicing" some of the same mistakes.

Anyway...it's a small nit. Keep 'em coming...and thanks again!

Ciao

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Jephy =)

What kind of mistakes do you think I am making in regards to anatomy? I'd like to hear your thoughts :).

Also, I lied, I did an envion today. No characters yet. I'm thinking of trying to go for organic environments first, and THEN do characters. I've also deviated from how I normally paint and tried other methods, to see which ones are faster.

Here's one for today:

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[Ragnj]

Really nice stuff, youre style reminds me alot of MTVs Aeon Flux wich is a good thing.

[deusExMatteo]

Rabbi Satan: "Take a look in my thread, about midway through, my first environ digital pieces were TERRIBLE. I've improved a lot from then, and so will you =)"

WOW, yeah I didn't check that far back - but there is a huge amount of improvement there. Not very odd really, because of all the pieces you have been posting.

THX for the comment and good luck with your stuff Rabbi :)

[Jephyr X]

Hi RS,

ummm...well...I'm still learning myself....so I may not be the one to be giving advice.

I'll try though: One thing I'd suggest is to continue specific foot and shoe/boot etc studies. I've found hands and feet very challenging myself...but I love when people get them right...and when they're right it can really strenghthen an image.

Another thought if you don't do it already...is to sketch in your character's form first. Make sure you get it right...you don't need much detail...just enough to make sure proportions are correct...and then lay your costume over that.

Are you taking life drawing? Otherwise, there are usually Life Drawing groups that meet. It's cheaper 'cause you pool money for the model...and you can get tips and be inspired by other artists.

Hope this helps. : )

Anyway...you mop the floor with me when it comes to enviros and color.............

[Rabbi Satan]

Ragnj: Thanks for the compliment - I'll have to have a look at Aeon Flux, except I'm only familiar with the Charliez Theron movie. Is there a cartoon or sitcom version or something?

deusExMatteo: Thanks a bunch :) I'm kind of embarrassed about those old pieces :D.

Jephyr X: Thanks Jeph, in this update I included some figure drawings. Some are a few months old, a continuation from the last real sketchbook update. There might be some improvements in the area you mentioned.

Here they are, quite a few here:

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[deusExMatteo]

that's a lot of sketches! :)

[Rabbi Satan]

deusExMatteo: Heheh, yeah :P

This painting took me a lot longer than expected. Mainly because I was experimenting with different methods of trying to paint environs. Stayed up all night trying to finish it. Still need to work on reflections - if anyone has any advice on that, I'd be happy to hear it.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Another environ for today. I'm also working on characters in value, but I'm not posting those :p They suck, heheh. But will post when they are better.

As I said previously, I'm trying new approaches to painting, and as a result, this painting is done using a different method, and I'm now a lot faster.

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[Jamie Romoser]

Really awsome sketchbook you have going here
the loose character sketches are badass gona have to do some of those
keep it up looking forward to seeing more
have a good one
-Jamie

[Anne-Maree]

I love your work. The lines and perspective are fascinating.

[glaudarien]

Love your work, especially the environments - you have a very natural ability at creating depth and scale in your paintings. As for the character drawings i noticed you said about them looking too cartoony, well i'm not sure what to sugggests apart from definitly continueing anatomy studies as they should help you to form the correct muscle structure and proportions, however i do also find the most drawings can have a cartoony fill when they are only lines - you could try taking a few of your character line drawings and paiting over them - removing the outlines but keeping the shape and form, hopefully that will help to give them a more realistic look?

Hope that helps in some way :)

[Rabbi Satan]

OmertA, Anne-Maree: Thanks :)

glaudarien: Thanks man. Speaking of antomy and figures, here are some I did in figure drawing class last night. First it was 5 minutes, then 3, then 1 minute.

Btw, I set up a new website and a new blog, both are located at the end of my signature. Please visit and comment :)

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[Janos]

Wow, these are humungous amounts of updates. Love the sheer mass.
I also really like your enviros btw. The collage aspect makes them stand out. Try polishing up some of them!

[Rabbi Satan]

Janos: Heh, thanks - here's MOAR!!

Did these in the span of around a week - The first 13 images were done a week ago, but the rest of the ink drawings were done TODAY. Filled out half of my moleskine SB.

I got this awesome brush pen at my local art shop. Don't know why I never tried it before.

Also, I seem to have reached/passed/attained a milestone - I no longer need gesture lines of the central line and limbs to draw figures anymore - I just do it on the fly, starting with the head. YAY ME!

Anyway, here's 32 images from my sketchbook:

(Man, it's gonna be a bitch to upload all these images...the forums really need a bulk upload mechanism)

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[Jephyr X]

Now THAT is a lot of figure drawings!!! I really like the gestures where you put some volume into the form!

You managed to sneek a couple of very nice enviros in there too...LOVE your color sense!!

Keep 'em coming.

[Bella DC]

Hey thanks for checking out my skechbook! Wow you have a lot of sketches here, I like the direction of your environments as well especially the thumbs, they remind me a bit of the artwork I've seen in the Star Wars art books! Are you perhaps inspired by those? If you haven't I recommend you check that art book out it, it has some great sketches and drawings! My only crit is the lighting. In the thumbnails its a lot clearer where the lighting is coming from compared to your coloured pieces. Maybe you should try and figure out the values first before adding the colour?

Nways, awesome sketchbook, keep it up!!

[Rabbi Satan]

Jephyr X: Will do =).

Bella DC: Nah, never referenced any Star Wars art books - but I should try to get them. I'm not sure if the bookstores in Hong Kong stock em though - they should be good for inspiration.

You're dead right on the values though - I got my environs critiqued by two pros - and they both came to the same flaw - my values. I tried to apply what I learned to this new environ, but I need fresh eyes to tell me if it reads.

Also, I'd like to pause and reflect on how much I've improved since I started my sketchbook. If you told me two years ago that I would be at the stage I am now, two years later, I would've thought you were lying :).

Environment a year ago:

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Environment today:

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Figure from two years ago:

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Figure today:

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[bagtaggar]

Wow, I really love the pen studies, and soooo many of them! Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook.... stuff looks fierce, man!

[ZhouPeng]

i was really wondering how much time do you spend on practicing those sketches~ they are so many that i just can't not look every one of them... of course, they are great, you did it very good~~~
and i hope you could add some detail for your environment sketches, since they are wonderful but lack of details~~~
best wishes~~~

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya guys, guess what? ANOTHER dump :D

bagtaggar: Thank you :).

ZhouPeng:Ni hao ma :)

I usually take around 30 seconds to a full minute for each figure. Give or take a few.

Thanks for the advice on the environs, I'll try to add some more detail to them next.

Anyway, here's the next dump :) - And you thought you were safe since the thread's now on page 7 - Muahhahahaha!!

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[Iiridellia]

Fuzzy camera shots are fuzzy. T_T arg, my head darling! None the less, it's beautiful work you've got there, it all seems to flow well and hold weight in the right places.

[Rabbi Satan]

Welp, I finished my Moleskine, now using another small sketchbook from Hotrock.

I don't think many people got a chance to see my post on the very end of page 6, so I'll repost another version here. Basically, it was about comparing myself from a year or 2 ago to today:

Figure from two years ago:

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Figures two years later:

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Environ a years later:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another batch done today. It's getting a bit tedious :) Need to find more inspiration.

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[lennon]

Great stuff man. Those figure look terrific. The only thing that I would critise is actually not a technique issue: you choose to do stylized figures almost exclusievly. I would like to see a real figure, with the full anatomy sketched.
The progress is fantastic, wich is the most important thing, as long as one progresses and as long as there's time, one can rich the further places.

[Rabbi Satan]

Thanks for dropping by lennon :).

You're right about the stylization though, I'll try to draw some realistic figures. But for now, I'm trying to fill up my small hotrock sketchbook with these character concepts.

Anyway, c'mon people, I need critiques!

[lennon]

Did I said that I also love the perspective drawings??

[Rabbi Satan]

Time for another update.

I'm taking a break from doing figures - I recently bought Zhang Lu's 2nd video on portrait drawing/painting. And since I was always REALLY bad at drawing faces and portraits, I decided to try to improve in this area.

I'm trying to figure out how to make the portraits look better, without having to resort to the rake tool. I would appreciate any critiques anyone can offer me in this regard.

Anyway, here are 4 (crap) portraits:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's 1 envron. Time taken was between 40 minutes to an hour.

I'm playing around with transparency and stuff, but if you guys think it's too much of a gimmick, I'll forgo transparency like effects in my next environ.

Edit:

Ok, after thinking about it, the transparency thing is kind of stupid. Here's a "corrected" version, after some reworking:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Wasn't quite happy with the last environ, so I took the linework, redrew it, added different stuff, and recoloured:

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[deusExMatteo]

cool stuff man! It's no mystery where the improvement came from - the sheer amount of pics on this page alone made my browser lag so hard it almost crashed (not responding). I've been getting into reading Marvel comics the last couple of weeks and I really dig their way of doing environs - kinda reminds me of your style, though they do it in b/w (it's the old sixties stuff)

thx for your comments on my sb again, good luck with your stuff

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya again folks.

I've been experimenting with ZBrush for the past few days. I messed around with it a few years ago when I was younger (When it was around version 2 or 2.5 or something), and found the interface to be about as clairvoyant as the Voynich Manuscript. Anyway, long story short, I subscribed to Digital Tutors, and started to learn how to use Zbrush again. And actually, I'm kind of enjoying it :) I'm still learning the ins and outs, but I'm not as scared of the interface anymore.

Anyway, here are my Zbrush experiments:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's an animated gif detailing how I went with the WIP for the Evangelion-esque humanoid:

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[ccp85]

WOW! really good job! I love zbrush too, I'm learning this software, I bought this weekend a book from Scott Spencer called Zbrush for Human Anatomy, I wait for it. Keep work like this, You are doing great! good luck! Peace.

[deusExMatteo]

Cool z-sketches rabbi :) I checked your site out earlier today, nice layout and such but maybe you should try and just have your best pieces in the portfolio section? There where a few that imo. where not as top notch as your best pieces. Maybe select like four or five of them? It's great that you're so productive though!

In general I like your color palette for your environments, all the saturated colors really stand out and that's cool. But maybe you should have a couple of pieces where you have a more realistic palette, so that a potential employer can see that you master a variety of styles. We did a couple of exercises in school where we took photos and made a palette from them and drew our own pictures with those colors.

Well only a few suggestions :) take it easy satan :yayca::devil:

[Rabbi Satan]

ccp85: Thanks :) Good luck to you too.

deusExMatteo: Duly noted, will try to change the colour scheme this time around. You might like this update then.

Here's a quick doodle I did in 1 hour in Painter. A snow scene, still not that good, but with more practice, I'll get there:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's another ZBrush "thing". It was actually my 2nd ZBrush model, but I didn't know how to fix damaged edges/meshes, until today. So I remeshed the model, and began working on it again. The models in the previous posts were my 1st (The orc) and 3rd (The Evagelion-esque robot) models.

Anyway, here it is. Perhaps tomorrow I'll dedicate myself to doing more environs in painter.



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[Rabbi Satan]

Haven’t been doing much. The Urban environ done in painter is a bit of a departure for me in terms of how I construct the image – No linework this time. Purely done with values first, then adding detail. It was also inspired by Vol. 3 of Ryan Church's Gnomon vid.

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[deusExMatteo]

Like the bleak landscapes :D Looking good! Did you do anything else different then change the palette?

[Rabbi Satan]

Hey guys, sorry for not updating recently. Been playing games most of the time :P. Trying to find inspiration.

I got one of Feng Zhu's tutorials called "Drawing from Design", and that inspired me to do the proceeding designs/sketches.

And in the similar concept design vein, I did some female characters, in a fantasy setting.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's a small update. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Some character designs, and a few environs:

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[deusExMatteo]

Volumetric lighting for the win! Like the space ships and stuff. Would be cool to see them in a 3/4:ths angel or something. Keep it up!

[Rabbi Satan]

deus: Sup doode, thanks for stopping by. I'll try to C&C your SB soon, been busy lately.

Anyway, I've been neglecting my sketchbook. I'll try to update more frequently.

Anyway, onto the artz:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Some thumbnails done in photoshop and painter.

I'm trying to train myself to not use the inbuilt straight line tools in both photoshop and painter. What prompted this was me buying Feng Zhu's Techniques 3, where he does thumbs. And I was amazed at how he managed to get straight lines freehand. I've been training myself since.

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[andres333]

Woah great studies, be careful with the knees of the characters just above your last post, proportions are a bit off. Hey and thanks for responding to my thread about FZD, hope someone from the one-year program post soon.
keep it up

[Rabbi Satan]

andres333: Hey there dude. Yeah, I hope we get some testimonials from the full time students - the very first batch graduated a few days/weeks ago, so I hope one of them can comment in the thread about their experiences and workloads.

Anyway, here's something I did this evening:

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I'm currently ok with doing linework. It's subtracting the lines to make value instead of linework, and adding lights, that are my weakest points.

[tobbA]

Hey there. I think what you should do is not treat everything as a single value. When doing the block in give the armor one value, the skin another value and so on. After that you can start adding light and shadow from the values you currently have. Remember some surfaces reflect more light than others. Don't be afraid to put in big blotches of dark and light. Detail can be added later. :)

[Rabbi Satan]

tobbA: Never considered that - thanks :) Will definitely take that in mind.

Here is another dump - 46 pages of sketches this time. I'm currently maintaining 2 sketchbooks - one for figures from life and from imagination, and the other for concepts, designs, and environs.

Aaaaand here they are:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's a small update:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Small update - I couldn't decide which version I like better. Originally the colours were more saturated, but then I toggled off one of the overlay layers, and thought that the neutral blues looked quite good:

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[Rabbi Satan]

I'm experimenting with brushes and different methods/approaches to painting environs and characters. And this is the result - small update, but something nonetheless:

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[Sonia Leticia]

Wooooow you have tons of sketches in here! It's awesome Your figures are sweet and got a flow to them. :3 .. & your environments are bitchin. The colors are amazing and there's a great sense of depth in them. Can't wait to see more from you!

[Rabbi Satan]

Sonia Leticia: Thanks for dropping by. I've got around 2 sketchbooks that need to be photographed, as I'm waaay too lazy to scan them, nor could I if I would. Sketchbooks are too big to fit my A4 sized scanner. I'll try to get them up soon.

Anyway, here's an environ that I spent waaay to long on. The reflections of the linework were murder, but I managed to get it in the end:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Here's one for today. Done under and between 2 hours and a half to 3 hours:

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[Holland]

Great updates Rabbi. Concentrate more on your line work though, i feel the textures you use can be a little oppressive and detract from the overall feel of your sketches :)

[Rabbi Satan]

Great updates Rabbi. Concentrate more on your line work though, i feel the textures you use can be a little oppressive and detract from the overall feel of your sketches :)

Thanks Holland, will do. I'm currently trying to stop using the shift tool in photoshop to do straight lines. I bought one of Feng Zhu's Gnomon DVDs, and was astounded how he did straight lines freehanded. So my current linework is a bit wobbly.

I'll try to cut back on the textures as well :).

Btw, love the Zoidberg avatar :) I actually once had on my computer an audio track of zoidberg's "Whooping" sound.

[Rabbi Satan]

One environ for today:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Heya folks, time for another update!

This time, 2 environs, one heavily relying on textures, one done completely in value (No linework), and a Zbrush doodle of a creature's head, or something :).

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[Rabbi Satan]

1 update: Speed Sculpt I did in Zbrush this evening.

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[Rabbi Satan]

After reading what Holland recommended about Silhouettes when it comes to rendering things in value, I also looked at Feng Zhu's Design Cinema series on characters. This was an area I was sorely lacking in skill, as I usually relied a lot on linework.

The following exercise took me half a day to complete 4 characters (Actually more than that - started at around 2pm, and it's now 4:30am where I am) done specifically in value. There was a loose piece of linework, but I didn't render out the entire figure in lines. After the basic humanoid linework was done, I started filling in the blanks and shapes.

Overall, I'm happy with the result. But now I need to practice more and more in this to improve my speed.

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[Pixelwalker]

Your zBrush stuff is looking really nice!

For your pantings and concepts i would recommend you to do as much photo studies as you can beside drawing :)
Will helps you a alot ;)

Greetings and keep it on, Silwynar

[ThomasM]

nice character work here man, I'd like to check out some of Feng Zhu's stuff - did you buy the gnomon stuff or what?

[Rabbi Satan]

Silwynar:

Thanks for dropping by :). As for Zbrush, I'm still learning. Some of the stuff over at Zbrush central is really amazing. Hope to be able to do that one day.

ThomasM:

Yeah, I bought (Actually bought, not downloaded via bittorrent :) ) his Gnomon dvds, and they're really informative.

However, Feng also has a weekly series of videos of free tutorials hosted here (www.fzdschool.com) at the school he founded in Singapore

[Rabbi Satan]

Small update:

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[oma]

wheee!! u got some nice character poses here.

nice progress overall too :)..
any chance u can tell me or advise me what a good study book is for gestures ? cause i kinda seem to have problems with those. can draw what i see.. but i have a hard time with stuff from imagination :).

nice envo's !!


the mood is catupred nicely in the last one.. tho it feels a bit stiff to me. dunno what it is can't really lay the finger on it.

[Nettle_Mountain]

i wanted to visit your sketchbook right after seeing your name, something you could pay little more attention is how light should define volume in your digitals, othervice keep posting some interesting ideas in there

[Rabbi Satan]

oma: Heya there.

I would first recommend Bridgman (As always), he holds a special place in my heart. Then I would recommend Michael Hampton's Book (http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819).

I don't have Hampton's book myself, but I perused it in a local book shop on HK Island (Basheer Design Books), and it seems to be worth it. Wish I found it when I first started out.

Nettle_Mountain: Thanks for stopping by :).

About the lighting advice - thanks for that, I'll keep it in mind. I just hope the 3 recent ones I did showed improvement in that area.




Anyway, small update here:

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[Nigh7shad3]

hey Rabbi, you're on the right track with your environs (Ryan Church techniques? :P). But there's a few minor issues that sticks out to me and I've had this problem before when I was starting out. The first is perspective, it's looking okay but it's not clearly defined enough. Number 2 would be the lack of a focal point. It's looking generic and uninteresting at the moment and there is no payoff. Number 3 would be colors but that's a whole different subject all together. Try doing these in grayscale or on paper with pen and markers.

[Rabbi Satan]

Heya Nightshade, thanks for the C&C :) I sent you a PM a while ago, not sure if you got it.

Anyway, an update:

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[Marlo]

I really like the lighting effect here!! o__o!

[Rabbi Satan]

Small update: 1 environ and 1 char.

For the character, I borrowed some elements from the Matlock Rifle from Mass Effect 2. Mainly the grip and stuff. Ammo clip and nozzle were from other references. Thought I'd add some texture/teeth/grit to the background. Got it from CGTextures, a photo of concrete.

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[Rabbi Satan]

An update: Some sketches and doodles I did in painter. I really like painter's brushes, but except for that...yeah.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Some sketches for the evening:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Late evening to early, early morning piece.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Not sure how long this one took exactly - roughly 1 hour and a half hours.

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[Rabbi Satan]

3 new environs. I changed the border style a bit, I guess to stop people from stealing my work (Preventative measure, hasn't happened to me yet!) by making it harder to do so.

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[Rabbi Satan]

1 more environ. Time to hit the proverbial sack, dead tired at the moment.

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[Rabbi Satan]

An update: Decided I needed a change of setting - this time, it's characters and stuff. I'll do environs later - feel the need to do chars atm:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Not quite happy with this painting, despite taking a long time to complete. But oh well, as the saying goes, you learn just as much (If not more) from your bad paintings than your good ones.

My inspiration for this piece comes from one of the Prothean Ruins in Mass Effect 2 (Not sure of the exact details, but it's the one which has the large chrome silvery sphere), and from the anime RahXephon.

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[Rabbi Satan]

Quick Figure Construction tutorial, also detailing my process. Mainly did it because I thought it would be a handy reference for other people who are having some trouble constructing figures.

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[jouzinka]

Thank you for the tutorial. It shoved me a few more steps to understanding. http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f136/jouzinka/smilies/motocanaglia_thank_you.gif

[Rabbi Satan]

Another day, another environ:

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[Verehin]

Good designs =)

[Rabbi Satan]

@Verehin: Thanks mate :) Dos vadanya (Is that spelled correctly?)! And make great art!

Anyway, another day, another environ:

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[Rabbi Satan]

Some more stuph:

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[MaFeng]

Wow,you have a so powerful SB.I learned many thing from you.

[Ian Barker]

so i think we're both working on the distinction game (unless i got mixed up which is totally possible!) your stuff looks good mate, look forward to working with ya :)

[Rabbi Satan]

so i think we're both working on the distinction game (unless i got mixed up which is totally possible!) your stuff looks good mate, look forward to working with ya :)

Heya Liffey :) I left a message on your SB. But anyways, looking forward to working with you on Distinctions :)

MaFeng:

Thank you :) Glad I was able to help.



Anyway, an update:

This piece was a milestone for me - I originally drew in the linework, but with previous attempts when I tried to fill the image with value, I kept dropping the ball. However, this time, it worked out. I'll be itching to do images in this vein more often.

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[prsnsweeney]

hey awsome sb love the enviros and concept designs cool stuff also great anatomy studies you can see huge improvement from the first page to the last. great stuff only crit/comment would be keep studying anatomy and proportions and maybe try doing longer studies of the figure from multiple angles and positions a great master to study from would be michelangelo especially his sculptures

ps awsome zbrush stuff man awsome !