Sketchbook of The Amaranth 04/09/09 - Page 3

[Alex Chow]

I will give a little background of myself in the next paragraph so scroll down if you want directly go to my sketches.

I recently turned 18 and I'm a resident in Toronto. I've been drawing cartoons and anime for far too long (without the proper basics) and it wasn't until last year, with the help of some high school art teachers, that I started to become serious. For awhile, I was planning on becoming a physicist, but ultimately chose illustration. I began with very limited understanding of colour theory, painting techniques, and anatomy, and a majority of my works being cartoons. From October 2007-January 2008, I had a hell of a ride; creating twelve portfolio pieces, taking life drawing/painting classes, reading books and tutorials off the net, and eventually managing to get accepted into the program after 4 months of inhuman stress. I'm drawing and painting almost everyday (much to the dismay of my calculus and physics marks :android: ), and I believe it's time to expose my works to the community in order to further improve as I venture into post-secondary education.

In my opinion, my colour schemes are the most questionable, amongst other flaws, as I find I am always struggling to pick colours which work well together. You will find a lot of my works to be digital as I'm currently focusing the most on colours, which digital mediums can deliver with the last amount of wasted paint and time spent. A close second would be life drawings I accumulate every week in class.

Any help regarding colours and other topics in my works would be greatly appreciated, and I look forward to entertain, at least enough to get people to visit again :geekg: .

I am always open for critique and ideas on how to improve. I will hopefully display constant improvement every time I post and post daily. Feel free to comment!

Please note: The image in this post pertains to my current skill level (as of: November 20th, 2008 ), not when this thread started.

[Alex Chow]

1. Outdoors blind contour drawing of my yard (fineliner)
2. Photo studies (pencil)
3. Digital refining the face from 2 (using my own horrible colour scheme)
4. Digital photo study of a woman's back

[Senira]

I agree that your colors seem muddy. Push the saturation, and toy around with brightness/contrast as you work in order to double check that you aren't leaving the values too similar. Dull color schemes are a problem I have, too, but I'm learning more about how to avoid them as I do more studies.

[Alex Chow]

I agree that your colors seem muddy. Push the saturation, and toy around with brightness/contrast as you work in order to double check that you aren't leaving the values too similar. Dull color schemes are a problem I have, too, but I'm learning more about how to avoid them as I do more studies.

It's a huge problem for me. I only notice muddy colours when I take a rest and come back. Thanks for the advice.

Today's digital studies, thus, are not as muddy because I distinctively kept that in mind while doing these. I also spent a majority of today's drawing time studying colour theories on this website (http://www.huevaluechroma.com/index.php). I think I'm going to emphasize on environments for the next bit in order to better my understanding on natural, cohesive colours to reinforce my knowledge of colour theories.

1. Yesterday's ref'd sketch digitally rendered; I used a few samples of skin tones in photographs as aid to avoid muddiness.

2. Yesterday's face but repainted with more saturated colours and greater contrast

3. Environment study ref'd; I improvised the colours of the mountains and tower in the distance as well as the person in order to test my understanding of colours. Hopefully it fits together.

[Alex Chow]

1. Creature idea (armadillo, T-rex, and a dog put together)
2. Another creature idea; trying to test out colour schemes without reference
3. Photo study of environment
4a. The second photo environmental study; first step. I saved this because it intrigued me just how much the right colours can hint even if the details are not placed yet. It further motivated me into studying colours more extensively.
4b. More details added. The red guy on the yellow ball on the bottom right is to test colours which works in that specific environment.
5. No reference mono-coloured environment
6. A display of how rusty I am with anatomy with some mistakes indicated.

[Alex Chow]

Absolutely stressed with school work. I managed to squeak in some time for to avoid rust, but in very short spurts at a time.

1. Mind gestures; each one was done very quickly with no reference in order to test my knowledge of general proportions and movement.

2. Some expressions and faces to break away from studying.

3. 4. 5. Environment photo studies again but I tried to avoid the same colour schemes everytime. I double-check using the colour sampler afterwards to see how close I get. My biggest problem is still picking muddy colours, but I think more of these practices will improve my perception. I got this activity from Enviromentoring forum, so it must mean something (though I don't have rendering at the level of the participants)!

[Alex Chow]

New dump.

[Alex Chow]

Picture dump, starting from life drawings towards studies then, finally, random concepts to get out of studying all the time.

[~Faust~]

I've got to admit, your life-drawings look yummy, makes me want to draw some nudes, too :) this one especilly: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=370643&stc=1&d=1210995111

As for the colors,you seem to be too hasty for now, try to nail the marks you put down somewhat more and correct your mistakes. Also, you should pratice your blending, paint some fruits for instance, helps a ton.

Your scetching is on its way, you're trying to find underlying structures for your markings when doing anatomy, you should incorporate that into your doodlings as soon as possible, as well.

Good luck

[Alex Chow]

I've got to admit, your life-drawings look yummy, makes me want to draw some nudes, too this one especilly: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...d=1210995 111

Thanks.

Your scetching is on its way, you're trying to find underlying structures for your markings when doing anatomy, you should incorporate that into your doodlings as soon as possible, as well.

Yeah. The difficulty in my doodling comes down to my inability to create a realistic "human model" in my head. I do try to incorporate my understanding from life drawing when I sketch through imagination, though, it may not seem that way because I make obvious mistakes in my markings without realizing it. I'm trying to alleviate that problem by going to more life drawing sessions. I'll do my best to continue improving my sketching, notably being able to note muscular forms like it was a second nature rather than struggling through guess and check. I would say, however, I do not guess and check nearly as much as my "anime and cartoon" phase in the past after going into life drawing sessions.


As for the colors,you seem to be too hasty for now, try to nail the marks you put down somewhat more and correct your mistakes. Also, you should pratice your blending, paint some fruits for instance, helps a ton.

Advice taken. I do rush a lot which is a horrible habit, so I tried my best to carefully paint and render an apple for today's update.

Today's update is a step-by-step process of a digital apple, which took 3 hours, as well as the first three of Idiot Apathy's fundamental exercises (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76955) (much harder than they seem). I did not use the colour sampler or any other brushes other than the basic round brush for the apple. The first final copy is without a lot of blending, while the second is after I blended a few spots. Any thoughts on which one is better?

[Alex Chow]

Onion dump! Yet another digital photo study (with step-by-step process) taking around 2 hours this time. These exercises really help me train my eye to see colours and render things more carefully. The only difficulty I faced in terms of colour detection is the lower left part of the onion which confused me for quite awhile before succumbing to the colour sampler. NOTE: The last picture is the reference photo but it's pretty obivous I can't render that realistically... yet...

[Alex Chow]

Environment sketches using alti's brushes recommended in this thread (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=126808). Both took around 3 hours and done with reference. I wanted to portray a sense of depth as well as shifts in colours. Rendering is still awful, but it was interesting to experiment with different brushes.

[Alex Chow]

Small update. First one is a 3 hour environment study off a photo reference but I got bored and went my own way with this (tower and dragon). This is yet another piece that tests my rendering ability and colour perception in order to create depth and unity.

The second one is a two model life study with Conte. I experimented with colours with this one in attempt to create convincing skintones.

[Tomoran]

Wow, it was great going through your entire thread and seeing how you improved with your coloring. I think that the apple and onion look excellent--very realistic. I really like that last figure drawing you posted. Cool stuff.

Tom

[Chris_Grisham]

Pretty cool environments and good life studies, the onions are quite nice as well. I'm glad to see you are not doing the "anime" thing any more.
I hope I don't offend anyone when I say I could never take that stuff serious... but I guess I have to admit some if it is kinda neat.

As for colors I think you are doing pretty good, just look at what is out there in the real world for clues as to how best to choose your colors (if that makes sense).

Anyway, cheers and keep it up.

[Alex Chow]

Wow, it was great going through your entire thread and seeing how you improved with your coloring. I think that the apple and onion look excellent--very realistic. I really like that last figure drawing you posted. Cool stuff.

Tom

Thanks.

Pretty cool environments and good life studies, the onions are quite nice as well. I'm glad to see you are not doing the "anime" thing any more.
I hope I don't offend anyone when I say I could never take that stuff serious... but I guess I have to admit some if it is kinda neat.

As for colors I think you are doing pretty good, just look at what is out there in the real world for clues as to how best to choose your colors (if that makes sense).

Anyway, cheers and keep it up.

Thank you.

Well, my style still incorporates some elements of Anime, but it's not like in the past where I had no clue of anatomy other than the Anime proportions. I don't dislike it (since I still read manga and watch anime), however, I'm certainly not imprisoning myself in it like in the past. Comparing my works now to stuff a year or 2 years ago, it's like night and day. If I get bored, I could start salvaging my works and scan it for everyone to laugh at!

And, of course, an update before I start doing my calculus and physics homework. First one is the previous environment with some things fixed. The second bunch is a no-reference, 4 hour environment work in order to test what I know so far (can't be copying off photographs for eternity!). The final two are two different versions; the first being monochromatic and the second incorporates more colours (plants) to brighten things up.

I planned to add some architecture in there midway but I thought I'll leave it for my next piece.

EDIT: I love Alti's brushes.

[Alex Chow]

Update!

Here's an entry to Teen Challenge #47 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=126765) with a concept of a High-Tech Knight. This was a huge challenge for me because I had to analyze how lighting affects metal and glass on top of creating a concept that looks decent enough (I'll be coming back to this piece to improve on it). I also wanted to avoid monochrome and muddy colours as much as possible. The second one is to show how I went about the figure.

[cmoreland]

Wow, I'm really impressed with the fruit, I tried and tried but couldn't get the darn apple to look real. I also like the environments, ever tried any indoor areas? Such as a firelit old english pub or anything?

Good work!

[Alex Chow]

Wow, I'm really impressed with the fruit, I tried and tried but couldn't get the darn apple to look real. I also like the environments, ever tried any indoor areas? Such as a firelit old english pub or anything?

Good work!

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try tackling indoor environments for my next update.

Regarding the apple, it comes down to colour. I think regardless of how well you can render, having incorrect/incohesive colours will ruin it. If you notice some of my studies, even blotches of colours can hint what something is. Muddy, oversaturated, or simply colours which won't work together is my problem that I've alleviated since the beginning of this sketchbook.

Oh, and update! First one is the final for the Teen Challenge in my earlier post. The second one is a life portrait which I'm not satisfied with. Protip: Never sit with the light source blinding your eyes. I did it for the life drawing session and I couldn't make the right drawing choices (could not concentrate)

[Alex Chow]

Updated! Okay, not necessarily indoor environments, but I'll study them sooner or later.

While drawing my entry to Teen Challenge #47, I realized I needed to practice drawing metals (plastic sharpener was warm-up). Generally, my biggest mistake for my entry is the lack of sharp contrast in values like how metals should act. The lock, in particular, showed me that metals change values very sharply and reflect light sources very well.

[cmoreland]

I love the detail on the spring most for some reason, very cool!

[Justin.]

before anyone slays me, he asked that I post this here;


Lemme preface by saying 2 things; first, I'm not picking on you I swear!! Just hoping to help where I can and support my fellow teen. Second, that every method has a problem. The "line under drawing" doesn't really give you much leeway for on-the-spot designing, but the silhouette way doesn't allow you to visualize form. In this case, I think you using the line method probably wasn't as effective as the silhouette.

Being a knight character, (which seeing as how there is no apparent backstory, can easily fit into the "macho meathead" role), try to think in big, massy, muscular shapes. Shapes that are thick, and then piled on with even more thick. You don't have to make it realistic though, which allows you to push the shapes further and get more emotion out of the drawing. I think the biggest problem with your proportions were the limbs and the head. It is not a bad thing to have those skinny limbs or a large head, but they have to be well balanced with the rest of the shapes of the body. In the picture, the first iteration is your version but with a smaller head. Whenever you draw anatomy, gesture should be very well noted.

Stiffness can make a beautiful rendering seem very awkward. Think of gesture like waves, or like trying to jump on a soft matress (confusing?), each line has to work in 'harmony' with another line connected to it or next to it. You will get a much better feel for it the more you do figure drawing from life. I made a tiny, crappy diagram of the way gesture affects the 3rd image, and then outlined it in red as well. The second is essentially a "thickened" version. Looks a bit more "realistic", but still lanky and kind of un-interesting. The fourth image is something very important. Feet. :P In an image that is character centric, you always want to see the entire character. Feet help plant the perspective in the viewer's head, so the more feet the better!!

The last version was just me having fun with a "hulked up" version of a knight. He has very large, thick shapes on the body that thin out at the torso (contrast), and stubby legs. I don't know why stubby legs. They kinda make the arms look bigger I guess. Either way; it was all done with minimal rendering.. drawing and design are almost always going to trump rendering. Alot of people will say "you can take your turd and polish it as much as you want, but in the end you'll just have a shiny turd". (I'm not talking about your piece, it's just a general statement). If you aren't satisfied with your under drawing, don't take it to polish.

Hope I could help (putting off priorities... I'm a procrastinator.. also, pardon how bad this looks, just did it in a few minutes)

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/2438/hightechknightjl0copydc7.jpg

[sketcheth]

I just wanted to drop in and say nice entry on the Teen Challenge, also, you've got a really nice sketchbook going so far. Fruit and veggie studies, some fantastically gestural figure studies...wow, you do it all! Keep up the great work. It seems like you use a lot of smaller brushes when you're doing your paintings. I think it might benefit you to try and vary the sizes you use. It can save time and also help you block in the basic shapes a little quicker. Nice texture on them, though. I'll be stopping in again!

[Alex Chow]

*critique*

Thanks; just like the doctor ordered :yayca: .

The reason why I wanted this critique in my sketchbook is because I think this deserves to be exposed to others who read this thread. It also allows others to pick on me when I start making renderings of stiff figures again.

I just wanted to drop in and say nice entry on the Teen Challenge, also, you've got a really nice sketchbook going so far. Fruit and veggie studies, some fantastically gestural figure studies...wow, you do it all! Keep up the great work. It seems like you use a lot of smaller brushes when you're doing your paintings. I think it might benefit you to try and vary the sizes you use. It can save time and also help you block in the basic shapes a little quicker. Nice texture on them, though. I'll be stopping in again!

Thanks. I tend to use smaller brushes because I have a bad habit of going into details before seeing the big picture, similar to what happened with my knight and some of my life studies. I am getting out of that habit through life and photo drawing and simply being slapped hard by critiques like Justin.'s.

And updated with another session of life drawing and some silhouette practice similar to what Justin. has shown.

[Ash888]

nice SB I like where you are going with the charcoal figures, its really beautiful.

[Alex Chow]

Thanks, Ash888.

Update! Similar material as the previous update.

EDIT: I'll like to note something I've found interesting. For many works I've observed in my high school, many of the artists make the same mistake as I do. They draw stiff figures even though those in the art courses are given life drawing sessions. I guess it's simply difficult to transfer that knowledge to apply in artworks without making errors. Through these exercises, I realized how difficult it is to create less-stiff figures without making some sort of proportional error.

[Alex Chow]

Update!

I apologize for the delay. Exams + Metal Gear Solid 4 = Nothing gets drawn :/

It's a small update. The first is an entry to Teen Challenge #48. I am not happy with it, but what can I do anyways? My life drawing instructor stated it perfectly; I go for details before the big picture is done. I'm making too many bad choices and I'm not happy about it.

I need to get looser, or else I'll be a loser.

EDIT: I'm remaking my entire entry for the Teen Challenge. It's absolutely horrendous in my opinion. I forgot the idea of the gesture before details yet again. I'm putting this onto an entire sheet of paper and taping it on my monitor so I'll remember.

[Alex Chow]

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/834/slowpokediscoveryvx1.jpg

Another slow and small update! My only excuses are that a) I'm going back to absolutely bare basics, reading through concepts of huevaluechroma.com step-by-step which means most of my works tend to be "disposable" and b) My digital camera is broken thus I won't be posting life drawings for maybe another week. I'll cook up something soon because of the new Teen Challenge.

One of the most significant things I've noted is how coloured lighting on surfaces (which pretty much constitutes 90% of situations) follow subtractive mixing rules.

Could it finally be the reason why my colours always seem off? I'll be reflecting on this maybe in the next few years after I utilize this knowledge more effecitvely.

Here is an exercise I did that was derived from Idiot Apathy's Peer Exercises (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53517). This is as technical I can ever get, so do not read since it will be long. Some notes:

-There's a white light source (indicated by the black arrow) and sky blue ambience.
-All blocks, in white light, would be at the same saturation and relative brightness for all planes (for the sake of simplifying the situation). In addition, all the blocks are pure hues.
-The white light shifts the blocks be neutralized (as it can be considered complementary to everything)
-The blue ambience causes the yellow and red block to be slightly darker and less saturated, while the blue block is slightly lighter and more saturated (than in an environment where the blue ambience does not exist).
-The ground emits a reflected light.
-The cast shadows on the ground are darker because it is inherently orange; the blue ambience is complementary and, thus, neutralizes, darkens, and shifts towards a red hue.
-All three blocks retain the same ratio of relative brightness for the light, midtone, and shadowed areas are in the same environment (with some exceptions)
Exception 1: The red block, due to radiosity from the blue block, causes a part of its shadowed area to be even darker and more neutralized.
Exception 2: Reflected light, off itself, causes one of the top portion's planes to be lighter and more saturated (same hue emitting on the same hue will cause greater saturation).

Hopefully, I've considered everything and hopefully I did things somewhat correctly.

The second piece is just a "what if" picture if I were to change the lighting.

[aussiedeza]

Hey mate great to see your dedicated, keep at it and progress will be your reward.

[Alex Chow]

Hey mate great to see your dedicated, keep at it and progress will be your reward.

Thanks.

And update! Teen Challenge #48 and another "Block Practice" (with steps)!

[Danuh]

Great figure studies. I especially like the standing man in post #26.

It's good to see you doing all these different value studies with the arrows and different light sources. It shows that you're not afraid to break away from what you know and dive into something different.

Keep posting! It'll be fun to see how you improve further.

[Alex Chow]

Great figure studies. I especially like the standing man in post #26.

It's good to see you doing all these different value studies with the arrows and different light sources. It shows that you're not afraid to break away from what you know and dive into something different.

Keep posting! It'll be fun to see how you improve further.

Thanks!

And, of course, it's update time! The first one is for the new teen challenge, and I'm trying to use curvilinear perspective (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=123667) to create a sense of "OH JESUS". I'll probably increase the contrast of shadows so the woman truly looks demonic. The woman portrait is referenced from a grayscale picture and using this tutorial (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1831456#post1831456) for guidance on skintones (never knew there would be so much going on for skin).

[Alex Chow]

"Oh hai guys! Wanna like hang out with me?"

Another progress report for the teen challenge. I'm pretty satisfied with my colour choices with this one. I'm going to have to test out the colours of the table, bowl, and shadow to see what can get it to pop out in the picture though.

[GriNGo]

It's looking great: try softening the "borders" between light differences, like in her breasts, the visible skin. Why did you sign the piece so early? keep it going!

[Alex Chow]

It's looking great: try softening the "borders" between light differences, like in her breasts, the visible skin. Why did you sign the piece so early? keep it going!

It's a habit. :yum: And thanks for the suggestion.

Of course, yet another update. This is possibly my final for the teen challenge, with the theme being "Owner of Shadows". I believe the colours pretty much murdered the composition I had in mind but I think I am improving with colour choices.

[Alex Chow]

I didn't feel like studying for most of this week so I tried my hand at just going crazy doodling as well as practicing creating poses from my mind. The first picture is an underpainting (using a light wash of gouache) for a paper bag study and the last one is a 2.5 hr life drawing with a charcoal stick.

[Alex Chow]

One other critique I've received from a Teen Challenge was that I do not use enough hues. I've decided to practice creating appealing compositions (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3275) utilizing greater range of colours. I've also just recently read about the psychological colour wheel (http://www.huevaluechroma.com/073.php) (which is completely new to me for some odd reason) because I was confused as to which colour wheel I am supposed to use for colour schemes. It's quite interesting because I've been using the additive colour wheel when picking out colour schemes all along.

[Alex Chow]

And another update. I'm still practicing with colours and composition. I thought the colours in my Teen Challenge piece was a bit boring so I did some research and found this (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111682&page=2&highlight=color+theory). It explains the effectiveness of simply using colours to create the piece without the reliance of opacity blending. Even the slightest hue shifts also create a more interesting piece. The third image in particular helped me understand what this means by abolishing the blending process in favour of using only 100% opacity colours to do the work.

I'll be posting progress with the 50th Teen Challenge (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1854501#post1854501) for the next few days.

[Alex Chow]

Another update but nothing related to the new Teen Challenge. I've finished up the bag I started and posted a few days back. This is my 2nd time using gouache, treated it similar to watercolour, and used custom colours to create a coherent composition (hopefully) . I wanted to include as many hues as I can to avoid using the same few hues I always use.

[Alex Chow]

And another update! This is for the Teen Challenge #50 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132167) and I chose the topic "Sign of Life". Self-explanatory, but I promise this is going to be the last time I will put a morbidly obese person as the subject (for awhile anyways).

[Alex Chow]

I was extremely bored so I decided to mess around with perspective, something I don't practice often. The pictures were photo-referenced but the second picture is simplified since the original photo was ridiculously busy and confusing. I also created new brushes and tested them out in these.

[Alex Chow]

11 days later and we get an update, sir!

First one is obviously for the Teen Challenge: Last Teen Standing (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1878252#post1878252). I made it to round two (miraculously). I felt the idea needed to work in a low saturated environment, but I also wanted to avoid the same mistake I have sworn to abolish in the beginning of the sketchbook. I tried to make it so that the figure is not, in relation to the environment, too muddy while keeping my original idea.

The second is something I was planning on doing for quite a bit and that's study indoor environments. The third is just me screwing around with a charcoal stick and drawing portraits of three very popular MMA fighters.

[a la bapsi]

just couldn't wait 'til after the deadline to say something about your lts entry.
it's very powerful.
the baby looks like a little pill. so cute~ ^_____^


erm...carry on. o_o
also. loving the texture of that charcoal.

[Zombunny27]

Fantastic studies. The onion is amazing. You seem to progress and improve with rapid fire...good for you!

[Alex Chow]

Fantastic studies. The onion is amazing. You seem to progress and improve with rapid fire...good for you!

just couldn't wait 'til after the deadline to say something about your lts entry.
it's very powerful.
the baby looks like a little pill. so cute~ ^_____^


erm...carry on. o_o
also. loving the texture of that charcoal.

Thank you.

And another slow update. I'm moving near my art school soon so hopefully I can have time to sketch more. The first piece is for the finals of the Teen Challenge #50. How I got this far is beyond me!

The last is me attempting to use willow charcoal and tortillons for the first time by doing no-ref portraits.

[Alex Chow]

"What makes colours work?" I ask myself the billionth time. My high school teachers have all taught me about making colour schemes from predetermined formats (complementary, split complementary...) but I've always faced with works which do not follow any of the "rules" and still have the colours coincide beautifully. Similarly, abiding to the "colour wheel rules" may not always create art that works as I've done that many times in the past.

As I continue to do studies from photographs, I become increasingly careful of saturation and value levels. This is especially true for the third image's bottom-left thumbnail study and second image. I was intrigued how, with the right value and saturation, any hue can fit right in the image. This transcends my old mentality of robotically choosing a predetermined colour scheme rule and calling it a day!

[Alex Chow]

"Subtlety" is my key word for today. I've noticed that even slight changes in saturation can be enough to create depth in a piece (assuming it's the same object). The second study convinced me of this as the farthest parts of the tree trunk are less saturated but just enough to avoid muddiness while retaining depth.

[Alex Chow]

More of them except I've tried to avoid using references. Only the bottom-right one is referenced since I was blank on how to deal with it. I'll probably make something out of the top-left one.

[bitjockey]

Good work so far. I think my favorite are the environment studies.

[Alex Chow]

Good work so far. I think my favorite are the environment studies.

Thanks!

And I officially started my art school (OCAD) today. It's quite a shame my first course didn't actually involve drawing. Darn you, art history!

Anyways, updated with the latest Teen Challenge.

[daestwen]

Some really great work in here, man! Keep it up!

I like the environments, and this one especially: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=382014&stc=1&d=1212358584

[Alex Chow]

Some really great work in here, man! Keep it up!

I like the environments, and this one especially: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=382014&stc=1&d=1212358584

Thanks, though I think I can do better now. It has been months and, seriously, I am thankful that you lectured me about colours this past Tuesday. It helped me a lot and changed my past, very flawed perception of colours. Now, it's just normally flawed!

And, of course, an update. Art school robs my time away, but I was very determined to update after a 12 day hiatus. This portrait took me 15 min using photo ref. I received Jason Chan's Downloads from winning the Teen Challenge #50 and basically, he showed me the powers of the Overlay layer. I absolutely love Overlay layers now because it somewhat imitates glazing, which I do very often when using acrylics.

I tried to limit my time on this in order to capture the big shapes, rather than rendering the details like I usually do (bad habit).

[Alex Chow]

Interesting what colours appear when I really focus onto the object. Lots of hue transitions; white (yellow tint) speculars -> desaturated oranges -> greens -> strong blues -> purple. The purple on the right side of the lamp is caused by red curtains behind it, but I didn't depict the curtains obviously.

[Alex Chow]

Another update! I devoted one hour to try to improve my ugly face portrait from 3 days ago. I placed very close attention to colour temperature, saturation, and hue transitions in order to pop my ugly face forward.

[Alex Chow]

And another update!

This is for my project at school. It took 1 hour to create an idea and thumbnail which I think might work and 2.5 hours to make the sketch. Unlike Jason Chan, I cannot create Thunderdome-winning entries with 2 hours of work :wtf:

Perspective is a little wonky but I'll fix it in my final, which will be done on illustration board.

[Alex Chow]

Simple update. I tweaked the colours of yesterday's work since I thought I could push the value contrast and I lowered the saturation (holy smokes, my previous version looked like LSD land!)

[Alex Chow]

Well, I had the toughest decision of my life made today.

I sounded exciting going into OCAD 4 months ago but officially dropped out. That's not to say it's not a great school but after extensive research, I found it to be too academic and concept-driven which diverts the attention away from actually drawing and painting. OCAD does teach techniques but I found out that Sheridan has more intensive drawing sessions.

I am now looking into going to Sheridan. I am in an all-or-nothing situation (yet again) and I cannot fail this.

I must get in.

I must.

[Alex Chow]

I had a blank phase for quite awhile so I decided to refer to one of my 3 pages worth of subway sketches and developed it. I paid very close attention to the colours of the skin (again) and to improve upon my self-portrait in a previous update. I felt the light value could be much higher than in my other portrait as well as the saturation of certain parts.

EDIT: I tweaked the colours a bit in my second version. I'm now a believer in the idea that the surrounding colours can affect the subjects significantly. I was pondering for around an hour on how to fix it because I felt something was off on the face but disregarded the unity of the face to the surrounding. The first version was simply too saturated for the face to exist in a blue environment; the saturation made the shades feel warmer than it should actually be due to the blue ambience. I first noticed this when I took a glance at my new avatar and it worked because it only contained the face. The full picture, however, failed.

[Alex Chow]

I don't draw enough females. I know because I've tried to draw one out of my mind before succumbing to making a female portrait study. Skintones are haunting me...

[Alex Chow]

Hell, I don't draw bodies enough, so here you go; a photo study, obviously. I always treat art like a video game, and I think making notes from studies allow me to level up :yayca: I try my best not to use the colour picker but there were some colours which I could not grasp. Those tend to be the ones which teaches me the most about what colours can coexist.

[a la bapsi]

you've been hitting colors WITH THE FURY OF A GOD.
I see serious improvement since the LTS.
Keep it up!

[Alex Chow]

Thanks for the compliment, a la bapsi! Yes, I have been hitting colours with a FURY OF GOD but, coincidently, the FURY OF GOD likes to strike back at me sometimes.

This is an example of what I'm talking about. Again, this is a Teen Challenge (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1972144#post1972144) submission by the topic of "Weapon of the Gods"; thumbnail with my previous idea included. Nothing is more annoying than having rain ruin a good day.

As stated in the post in the link, my first idea was to draw Jesus urinating in a toilet and creating rain that way but I thought it may be too offensive.

[Alex Chow]

I'm going to have to update my SB more often. That's why, I created a little game.

I noticed I have a huge arsenal of brushes that I never use because I've always stuck to the round brush. I find my works to be too boring because everything is too smooth. Most of them were downloaded, the rest are my creations.

Everyday (unless I can't help it like this Saturday, when I'm going out to the zoo with Bobby Chiu and gang among other things), I am going to pick a brush that isn't my trusty round brush. I will use that brush in the majority of the artwork/sketch for that day but I can incorporate the brushes I've used in the past if I choose to do so (but the "brush of the day" must be more prominent).

This will help me in several ways. Since not all brushes are useful for some subjects, it's obvious that certain brushes will force me to draw something I may not be comfortable drawing, allowing me to expand my horizons in ideas, composition, textures, and colours (especially this; I need to get used to playing around with colour relativity to avoid muddy drawings). With that, it also forces me to draw frequently.

TL;DR version: I will draw more now.

This first brush is a textured quadrilateral shaped brush which slightly shifts in angle at random intervals. The brush is named "CLIFFS" but, of course, I wanted to avoid using it for cliffs. I immediately thought of how useful it is to portray landfill and garbage piles. It eventually expanded to using it for smoke which, surprisingly, works very well as I usually use a soft edged round brush for that. It is also excellent to portray rough elements, especially in the background. If I were to improve it, I would probably increase the space above the monster's head so it doesn't feel too close.

[Alex Chow]

And another update 7 hours later.

This time, I chose the brush "Desert Storm". As the name implies, this brush gives a wavy feeling. I thought it would make a great windy feeling to an image which I developed. This took longer than expected as I made a lot of mistakes on the value of the face. I still think something is wrong. My colour studies have paid off as I'm now able to play around with high saturation colours unlike in the past (not that I use them well... yet).


This is also a tribute to all those half-asleep IPod listeners I see in the subway all the time. If I had a dime for everytime I see this...

EDIT: This is a quick revision of the previous version. I overblended it before realizing I was polishing crap. The shades, on the side of her face, were just too dark to be realistic in that environment. I lightened the shades and, lo and behold, no blending required to get the form out.

[Alex Chow]

The brush of the day is named "TREE BRUSH". I did not particularly like this one because it seems so automated and avoided it for awhile, but I've noticed that this could create some nifty effects on top of the obvious depiction of trees. If I were to do this again, I may try using it for less-than-smooth metal texturing though I think there are other brushes which may work better than this one.

And a page of my sketchbook. I'm just exploring basic shapes and how, transformed, they can create the complexity of the world or at least make them easier to understand. Portraits are a big part of it as Bobby Chiu taught me to find the easy shapes in every face and capture them before they move in the subway. I'll post more subway sketches next time.

[Alex Chow]

No brush test today, but I did finally upload some more traditional works. Subway sketching, zoo sketching, and one page of one of the requirements for my Sheridan portfolio which is to draw mechanical objects.

Bobby Chiu is ridiculously good and he teaches well. My sketching has become faster and, though I lack a distinct style, I'm beginning to develop something. He was able to draw animals even though they move very fast and I wondered why. He said for me to study the animal carefully, where the major shapes lie, and visualize the essence of the animal. The "bandit birds" on the page is the result of his teachings. Even though the birds did not pose 4 hours for me (that lazy orangutan on the top right of the page pretty much did, though), I was able to draw it in several views. Again, it lacks style, but I'm happy I was even able to draw them.

[katinki]

you've got some nice studies going on here! and good variety, too.
i particularly like those little birds. i always have big problems drawing animals since i'm much more with human anatomy - but your major shape method is something i'll try out definitely. some of the faces lack a bit in the structure department. and the mechanical objects (what kind of thing is that?) look pretty good to me. is it just me, or is the cap of it missing a line depicting the leading edge? or is it rounded down? if that is the case, you could use an indication of shading to bring that across.
keep it up!

[Alex Chow]

is it just me, or is the cap of it missing a line depicting the leading edge? or is it rounded down? if that is the case, you could use an indication of shading to bring that across.
keep it up!

The cap is rounded down but I do see what you're saying. I'm not sure if I should shade it since I did want to keep it as a contour, black and white drawing. I'll have to think about this but, I agree, it may be a little confusing.

It's that time of year again! It's International Self-Portrait Day! Here's my portrait and 4 life drawings; 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, and 15 min respectively.

I'm trying to kick my life drawings to a new level. I saw Alvin Lee (who drew the Street Fighter comics for Udon Comics and now working in Marvel) in my life drawing session on Thursday (at least I'm 99% sure he was Alvin Lee) and noticed carefully on how he drew gestures. Back many months ago, I've posted works where I shade very early with weak contours and those ended up looking like blobs; they didn't really tell anybody anything about the transitions of curves and straights in the body. I'm no longer looking to shade early in my works but emphasizing my contours first since I've noticed that other artists do not consider shading as a priority when trying to depict form. I cannot do it as cleanly as Alvin or Bobby, but I'm trying. I'm trying. EDIT: The guy I'm talking about being Alvin Lee is actually not Alvin Lee! He looked like it from a photo of Alvin Lee on wikipedia.org, but he's still really friggin' good.

On the bright side, I'm drawing much faster than before thanks to Bobby Chiu's tips.

For my portrait, I struggled for an hour but eventually found out I was polishing crap AGAIN; my contrast in values was off. This time around, I wanted to create a portrait in a cool environment with a saturated blue ambience as a challenge for me.

[Alex Chow]

Updated with subway sketching.

I noticed my life drawings in my previous update were too stiff. I'm going to try practicing drawing contours without the feeling of stiffness.

[Alex Chow]

Guess what I haven't done in 8 days?

Bobby Chiu went to town with 2 critique bombs on me. The biggest one is that he stated my faces look flat and that's after the subway sketching session. I went on a rampage at home since I couldn't believe I didn't see it for so long and drew A LOT of faces from my head in order to get "pancake faces" out of my brain.

The other one is that the jawlines extend too far back (past the "middle" line) and he was also very right. Oh yeah, and the third image I uploaded, Chiu drew on it. Guess which of the faces he did, eh?

[a la bapsi]

your self portrait's got some attitude. *_*b

[Alex Chow]

Thanks, bapsi.

Update of the caricature. Be sure to check out the post to my Critique Center post in my signature!

[Alex Chow]

SKETCHBOOK BOMB!

Some subway sketchers suggested me to try out for Sheridan animation. I think I'll do just that since I've been impressed by the technique of animators' works lately.

[Alex Chow]

And the hiatus is over. I'll just explain why I'm not updating as often as in the past.

If anybody knows Sheridan animation, it's that it's friggin' competitive. Out of 2000 applicants last year, 125 got in (6.25%), and the cutoff mark for portfolios was 61%. Either 93.75% of applicants are mediocre, or Sheridan is really really strict. I'm banking on the latter, which is why I'm working my ass off. Bobby Chiu failed getting in his first time, and that really tells me something.

The portfolio pieces may take maybe 1-2 hours to finish, but I've been very keen on making them absolutely perfect by asking Bobby Chiu and Imaginism Studios in general for critiques. If anybody knows how to make me feel bad, it's them.

I've had to redo each portfolio piece at least once. The character requirements, 5 turn-arounds, 1 expression sheet, and 2 action poses, took me a shitload of time because anything that's fundamentally wrong with the character will cause everything else wrong. Now, add that I had to redo the character turn-arounds 3 times and time really stacked.

On the other hand, their critiques make me ten times the artist every single passing week and I'm really banked on getting in. If I had to do the same work 99 times to get in, I'll do it.

All I've been doing for the past few weeks was drawing from life and working on my portfolio. Obviously, I cannot just put my portfolio pieces and I won't do so until portfolio reviews are done. Spamming my sketchbook pages are too much of a hassle especially with the new CA copyright system. I'm doing it today simply because I needed to get out of this 21 day lockout.

The third piece with the room is me going crazy doing all of this :) It was a portfolio piece but the perspective was completely off (note all the random markings in light blue) and had to redo it.

[Alex Chow]

Time for some portfolio rejects.

EDIT: Removed the ones which meant something because of a talk I've had with another artist about putting even portfolio rejects online.

[Alex Chow]

Some life-drawings. I'm trying to simplify values but a) I'm inconsistent and b) Conte is working against me for what I'm trying to achieve.

[Alex Chow]

Updated with another self-portrait. I realized I was always overblending so I made damn sure I don't do it here.

And check my blog as well! [/shamelessplug]

[Alex Chow]

I hate it when I spend hours on an artwork and it doesn't work out in the end, though this is hardly the first time. Nevertheless, I dislike leaving something incomplete but sometimes I have to do it.

I call this "Boxing Day".

[mairuku]

Your studies are intense, and your colours are equally orgasmic. Thank you. :D

[Alex Chow]

It's been awhile.

Here's a sketch which took way too much time. I was testing two new brushes I made but I ended up having too much fun with it.

I'm currently trying to "zoom in" on compositions, specifically with one person present, rather than sticking with the "epic view" I'm used to doing.

[Alex Chow]

Time to start showing what I've been doing for the past few months since Sheridan portfolios are finished.

[Alex Chow]

A 2 hour still-life, two cafe sketches, and a picture made for my bikini armour rant in my blog...

[Alex Chow]

Well, folks, I didn't get into Sheridan. Loudest "FUCK" I'll ever scream.

[Alex Chow]

Just a spontaneous speed painting I made initially from blobs of black on the page.

[iven]

Hi there its me Iven, at last I found you,...
Very cool stuff here,...........

See ya on Sunday

[Alex Chow]

Digital cafe drawings.

[Alex Chow]

Thumbnails.

I am going to choose the first thumbnail for a final but I realized how stupid the center tree looks since it's so... centered.

I love Dragonbuses though it's not very original. At least I know who would win against Catbus in a fight...

[hunchback]

yo dawg did you get in to illustration or animation?
cool stuff , keep up the fundementals.
see you in september xD