ShroudStar's SB - Forward to the future!

[ShroudStar]

I've been looking around and it seems like it's time to start a sketchbook. Saw some great work on other people's books and instead of lurking, I'm gonna dip my toes in the pool. I also hope to learn a lot as 2008 rolls by. =)

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[ShroudStar]

Some pen sketches done during free time and downtime during work:

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Sorry about the small picture sizes of these. Still trying to figure out PNG sizes that look right on screen.

[ShroudStar]

Some digital painting study and one quickie for the Girls' Forum for fun (original character):

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[ShroudStar]

Haven't been idling...got some stuff:

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[ShroudStar]

Part Deux:

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[ShroudStar]

Some sketches on a story of mine and studies on fighter jets and pilot character.

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[ShroudStar]

Going back to perspective:

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[MacTire]

Nice start to the sketchbook shroudstar! Good to see you're doing plenty of studies, watch out for perspective in stuff other than buildings. It's just that I'm noticing that a lot of your figures seem to be squashed into one plane.

[ShroudStar]

Nice start to the sketchbook shroudstar! Good to see you're doing plenty of studies, watch out for perspective in stuff other than buildings. It's just that I'm noticing that a lot of your figures seem to be squashed into one plane.

Thanks. :) Yeah, the figures in relation to perspective is another weak spot of mine. I know who I need to study to understand that.

[vayne108]

Thanks shround star, recently you have been helpful in making me feel better. Here http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=155184 and http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154225. So I've come to look at your sketchbook, and I like your persective and life study work. Plus the stuff draw in ink has a nice style to them. I hope we will be able to reach ours goals!!

[ShroudStar]

Thanks shround star, recently you have been helpful in making me feel better. Here http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=155184 and http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154225. So I've come to look at your sketchbook, and I like your persective and life study work. Plus the stuff draw in ink has a nice style to them. I hope we will be able to reach ours goals!!

Thanks, vayne. :) I'll be watching your progress as well. We'll make it!

OK, getting down to business. I've been busy for the past few weeks.

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[vayne108]

Good studies !!!!!!! Are these brigeman ? I haven't a clue because I've only heard of him recently here on CA.

[ShroudStar]

Nothing too much for today. Just a sketch that I like quite a bit (used some of my own reference photos for some parts) and a sketch that I did for a current WIP digital painting to help me figure something out. This character will be re-occurring, as he's one of my favorite OCs.

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[ShroudStar]

Some studies for a current WIP and some sketches and drawings for a story of mine I'm digging out of the woodwork:

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[MacTire]

Nice update Shroudstar!
I think I realised what made more notice the perpective problems (already resolving!) I mentioned in my last post, is the lack of "pelvic definition" so to speak. Get some iliac crests in there to support the fabric / armour hanging from the waist and you're good to go!
Thanks for the comment in my sketchbook! Keep up the good work!!

[bharat]

good start anatomy n other studdy is cool....!

[ShroudStar]

Thanks, MacTire and bharat. :) The mention of the missing iliac crests really helped in this week's run of studies. I hauled out the Loomis mannequin with his shorthand for the pelvic region and got cracking. Plus, I put my watercolor Moleskine book to use for some handy observation studies. I also got a book with modeled pictures of a person dressed in samurai and ninja attire, so I'll be back with better represented versions of my Japanese characters in due time.

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[ShroudStar]

A lot more WIPs and hand studies, the start of foot studies, and some stuff from my imagination and stories.

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[Eugie]

Hey I am here to return the favor of course (btw tell kevin to post more). Your hand studies are awesome, something I really need to work on. It's also cool seeing your characters evolve every time you have a new post. It might be weird cause I am probably wrong but I do see some resemblance between the way you and Kevin draw, although he's more into drawing girls for obvious reasons. I'd give constructive criticism except I kind of suck at that, I guess the only thing I can really say atm is that your characters kind of seem to lack facial expression or I could just be crazy. Anyhow, I will keeping tabs see ya!

[ShroudStar]

Thanks for the honest crit on the facial expressions, Eugene. It's the one remnant from my days in anime that still needs work. I'm going to have to study faces more and particularly the muscles of the face. Good thing I have a book on that sitting on my shelf! :) Gotta get the mirror out too and do some self-portraits in due time.

I told Kevin by the way, so he knows. XD Best of luck to you in your journey as well.

[Zorcron]

i enjoy your work a lot , a real sense of personality i would do some color studys , still life , what have you

but i also really like the pen work you have got

keep up the good work and upload lots !

[ShroudStar]

Thanks, Zorcron. :) I'll be sure to drop by your SB this week, although I've already perused it. You've got some wonderful environments and color studies. I do need to get that into my regimen.

Well, this week, I've been having trouble with feet in my current WIP. So after watching 'Terminator Salvation' today - which really was a great refresher and creative jolt to the brain - I sat down and had at it for 2.5 hours with Bridgman. I still need to learn to remember the details and shorthand by memory, but I'm getting it.

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[vayne108]

Cool updates, I feel sorry for the character that got shot to death.

[Eugie]

hey nice bridgman update not much to say but keep up the studies cya.

[kelly x]

Shroudstar!!!!! these are amazing studies and your working so very hard!!!! I love the series your doing too!!!!!!!!!! HI AND HELLO!!!!!!!!! Hang in and post the new guy from the G!! ;)

[MacTire]

Nice studies Shroudstar! Your work is coming along nicely. Regarding the pic of the guy being shot, the alignment / position / orientation ... of the pistol seems to contradict that of the hand holding it, also the angle of the jaw near his ear seems a little off to me. Nonetheless great work!
Keep it up!!

[Strela]

Those skeleton studies are great and all, but were you aware that there's special software you can get for drawing manga? It has brushes for manga eyes and everything, makes it easy as pie.

[vayne108]

Those skeleton studies are great and all, but were you aware that there's special software you can get for drawing manga? It has brushes for manga eyes and everything, makes it easy as pie.

But, that won't teach anyone their fundamentals on drawing. Your just getting handed it without learning ti draw yourself.

[ShroudStar]

Those skeleton studies are great and all, but were you aware that there's special software you can get for drawing manga? It has brushes for manga eyes and everything, makes it easy as pie.

Looks like Vayne beat me to it. :) I do like drawing it by myself, as I'm trying to differentiate body types and I'm not exactly going along with manga eyes. But I do want to give the software a shot in paneling and some other stuff, which should be fun and an interesting experience.

Well, I haven't done many studies as of late, but I did get mad into the Zhang Lu download and cranked out two pieces of my own. I'm trying for painting a different head/face each night as well as starting on Manley's suggestion of drawing 100 different heads/faces.

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Painted 6/7

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Painted tonight and I'm very happy about it.

[Eugie]

Hey nice update, the guy on the bottom his mouth seems a bit off compared to his nose. Other then that *very nice high five*, btw did you sign up for the saturday classes in ASL?

[vayne108]

Hey nice update, the guy on the bottom his mouth seems a bit off compared to his nose. Other then that *very nice high five*, btw did you sign up for the saturday classes in ASL?

I agree, one rule I was told that the mouth should end at the tip of the tear ducts.

[ShroudStar]

vayne, I think the lips end at the middle of each eye (at least from what I learned). I think the part that's not lining up right is the hollow between the nose and lips and the upper bow of the mouth. Either way, thanks for catching the offness - hats off to both Eugie and vayne for that! :)

Thanks for the support, MacTire and kelly x! :) Eugie, I'll be signing up beginning of August for fall classes. I can't wait for the life drawing/anatomy to come!

Well, haven't been able to do too much this time round. Some quick gesture drawings, a few sketches from my table today at the bookstore, a more realized realistic version of my assassin character, a Zhang Lu-inspired piece, and a perspective practice from openCanvas a while back.

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[Strela]

About the perspective: ALL horizontal lines across a given plane point toward the same vanishing point.

When you need to draw a new line, try drawing it all the way to the vanishing point and then erase out the part that you don't need. If I were you I'd just stick with one-point perspective until it becomes easy. One way of doing it when painting is drawing out a nice perspective fan with the endpoints of the lines irregularly spaced, and then draw basically only vertical and horizontal lines to cut in your forms. Draw irregular arrangements of blocks hanging in space-- think of looking into a fleet of boxy spacecraft coming toward you. If you check back I will try to remember to draw something to show you.

Also in your drawing, the horizontal lines in the rail structure in the foreground should be pointing toward the vanishing point.

Let's think about an orthogonal world where all lines are either up-down, north-south, or east-west. You can get a really detailed urban drawing that looks perfectly fine where this is true because much urban construction is orthogonal.

*All east-west lines fade to the same vanishing point.
*All north-south lines fade to a different vanishing point, if you're using 2-point perspective, or are horizontal if you aren't.
*All up-down lines are vertical (unless you are using 3-point perspective)...

If I were you I would just do studies of single blocky buildings in 1- and 2-point perspective until you get it.

It's funny but once you figure out how to use perspective, drawing gets much easier. Perspective is a very powerful tool. Of course take all this with a grain of salt because I am still learning myself.

[ShroudStar]

Thanks, Strela. :) Doesn't matter if you're learning it yourself. Like I said, you got it down better than me. I do hope to get perspective down, because it will help me a lot. Some of the images in my head now are visualizing tougher and tougher perspectives, so I got to get my skillset up to get there. Looks like I'll be returning to Seedling's tutorial for Perspective 101 practice.

[Eugie]

Hey Ann, always cool to see you evolving you characters. What's his story btw? Oh, a great book for perspective drawing check this out http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Perspective-Artists-Illustrators-Ernest/dp/0486273377/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245106633&sr=8-1. Hope that helps, cya.

[bharat]

good work ....keep it up , n thanks 4 coming on thred, wait 4 new stuff.

[ShroudStar]

Thanks, Eugie and bharat! :)

Eugene, Akira's story is that he's an independent contractor (an assassin not affiliated with any group or syndicate). During one of his contracts, he upsets his employer (a ruthless syndicate, which has a nasty way of testing potential assassins) and has to run for his life. He meets up with his friend, Eiji and things get a bit quiet but still unsettling after that. I'm still working on the details.

Well, a bit of Bridgman tonight, the beginning of the 100 heads suggestion set forth by Jason Manley in the Zhang Lu vid, and a lot of combat aircraft, which is something I really really want to get good at drawing. Loved them fighter jets since the debut of "Top Gun" way back in the days. :D

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[ShroudStar]

I'm jumping around and working on whatever needs to be dealt with. There are two original character designs/concepts that I did after seeing Jason Chan's Hero video (old characters - updated designs), two cloth studies, and the two previous characters illustrated in drawing ink.

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[JailHouseRock2]

Nice improvement! The studies really are helping, keep them up!
Your sketches seem really solid, great line work!

Keep at the digis too, there getting better every time:P:)!

Cheers,
matt

[fluorine]

Great progress. It is amazing to see every time you post something new, there's improvement. and I totally love your hand and feet study. Something I should do more. And the anatomy study is very impressive too.

If I may offer a suggestion, try not to smear. I feel that most your colored work is a bit "muddy". Speaking from a personal experience, it is very important to understand the form, even we're dealing with a flat surface. Essentially, we're trying to create a 3D illusion on a 2D surface, so the more you're aware of the actual form, the better your painting will be. When I paint, I try to make every brush stroke count. the color, the direction of the stroke, all should follow the actual form. It's just how i try to paint, hope it helps.

[Hipalien]

Nice to meet you and looks like you are off to a good start. You are doing all the right things about the body drawing with breaking down the structure and learning how it all works. I used to have a figure drawing class where the teacher would have a skeleton and live model next to each other so we could superimpose them in a drawing. It is also good at this point to draw as many live figures as you can. Family, friends, etc.

Also I see you are drawing from your environment. That is another good thing to do along with learning perspective. Like you I can never stop learning and drawing pretty much every day. Well take care and rock on!

[ShroudStar]

Thank you for the advice and encouragement, guys! I'll continue to practice my digital along with my anatomy and environment studies.

Today, I have an old color study that I forgot to scan in last week and three watercolor pieces I worked on this afternoon and evening. Been trying to familiarize myself with the medium and get more adept at colors. I also had a chance to test some Japanese waterbrushes and a Sakura Koi field sketch watercolor kit. This is going to make watercoloring on the go really handy. :)

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[spoonfruit]

Nice, solid studies bro!! Keep em goin! :)

[Jesus Food]

man i dont do enough of that study stuff, keep it up g!

[ShroudStar]

No studies this time but some sketches from imagination and one Vagrant Story fanart, which I'm really happy about because my studies of muscles really helped.

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[Eugie]

I knew it you are a spy for "Jersey Mortgage Company." You're looking better with every post, great to see some progress.

[Skwerl]

good work at keeping up with the studies so far =)
Two points stick out to me for critique at the moment, will be referring to your latest post:
1. Pencil sketch: Guy raising his hand on the top right, it felt as though the lines are a little bit too loose, it doesnt really define the shape/motion that well (i.e. it lacks a certain punch and strength to it).
2. Colored painting: the shaded area of the skin tone seems to be a bit too desaturated? That'd make the skintone feels kinda muddy. If appropriate amount of red/warmer tone is added in some area of the skin, it could make the skin more life-like.
Areas such as nose, cheek, lips, bottom of the chin.
His right arm also bothers me. I tried to strike that pose myself and it just felt quite awkward. The pose is putting quite a bit of strain on the wrist.

[JailHouseRock2]

I love watercolours, those look goood!

The colour pencil still life looks really solid as well! Nice job ShroudStar!

Sketches and studies are going great too, and your getting some fantastic crits and advice from Skwerl too!

Thanks a bunch for your kind words in my thread, appreciate it!
Cheers,
matt

[ShroudStar]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice! Been trying to apply them to my recent work.

Have been on a fanart spree this week. :) More Vagrant Story fanart but I'm finding my studies are really helping me to get out images that I couldn't have done before. The boss fight one (tinted green) makes me really happy that Bridgman's rhythm exercises came in handy.

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[omegaman20]

very cool, just add some more structure, things are starting to look a bit mashed potato-y

[ShroudStar]

Quite a dump today. :) Finally got back into my studies with Bridgman and because I was on vacation this week, I got a good set of observational sketches. I also have another Vagrant Story fanart which I'll finalize as a digital tomorrow.

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[vayne108]

HI, how are you doing? sorry for not commenting lately, my DA inbox has been swamped with deviation (over 600) + being busy in general. Anyways it is good to see that you are keeping up with the studies !!! Also watch the portions on the last guy, his forearms are to short and his leg on the irght ( the one shadowed in) is a bit small.

[ShroudStar]

Thanks, vayne. I knew that leg was off, so as you saw, I did it the lazy way. Hopefully, that can stop soon since I've started life drawing again. My weekend classes at The Art Students League of NY began last Saturday and I used conte pencil and charcoal (my preferred 'breaking into' mediums). The instructor taught me how to "design the page" when drawing the model, so there was a new way of seeing things.

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[ShroudStar]

A little update. (Heh, I'm still kicking).

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This one is a current WIP (started out as a speedpaint):

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[ShroudStar]

Here's a bit more from over the weekend. My life drawing classes at ASL of NY has stepped up to the point where I need to know the skeleton, so I did some practice sketches while on the train ride there. I also worked more on my fighter jets and pilots in both ink, pencil, conte pencil, and digital. Understanding openCanvas a lot more in terms of brushes and finished my WIP of the pilot and jet in the cave.

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[Saramel]

Hey, great studies! your hard work is inspiring, and definitely paying off! Keep it up!!

[ShroudStar]

Holy crap, have I been gone long or what? *rolls eyes*

Well, the good thing is that I've just been kicking it back and drawing for fun. Somehow, somewhere in that fun, I've still retained my knowledge and for now, can apply it. In other words, I'm seeing improvement. Cool beans to me. =D

Here's some updates since my disappearance a couple years back, from most recent to earlier:

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A storytelling image of my two Japanese-American assassins.

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The close-up details of the main assassin in the story.

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A Tsutomu Nihei tribute fanart done with India ink, scanned, and then touched up in Photoshop. I've always wanted to do one, and I finally got it done.

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Two pencil pieces of another Japanese character of mine. One is more landscape, as a breather from all the people-heavy art.

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A storytelling piece with my Celtic warrior characters. Night scenes are hard!

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Oekaki piece of Iori Yagami from the King of Fighters video game series.

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A quickie digital piece with my Byzantine-inspired twins.

[JesseM]

ohh.. all the comments I thought up while looking at your sketchbook are kind of invalid after seeing the last post. ;__; You really have improved a lot (so congrats!), but I'm struggling to think up something constructive right now... uhhmmm..

Well, uh, you're looking good, at least! Your attention to detail results in some really beautiful work (like all the careful textures in your pencil drawings<3). The atmosphere and mood in your assassin-drawing is great, too. Definitely draws the viewer in and makes them curious, and it's just two guys sitting on a couch...
One thing, which still lingers in your more recent work, is the occasional proportional problem and off-balanceness in figures. Doing lots of figure practice (2-3min gestures should be long enough to establish proportions and balance without needless labor) would help, I think... This site (http://lovecastle.org/draw/) has a gallery of real photos to figure draw from and lets you set a timer. Maybe you already knew about it, I dunno, but it's just like my FAVORITE place on the internet now so I thought I'd share. @__@

Great improvement, and keep drawing!

[ShroudStar]

ohh.. all the comments I thought up while looking at your sketchbook are kind of invalid after seeing the last post. ;__; You really have improved a lot (so congrats!), but I'm struggling to think up something constructive right now... uhhmmm..

Well, uh, you're looking good, at least! Your attention to detail results in some really beautiful work (like all the careful textures in your pencil drawings<3). The atmosphere and mood in your assassin-drawing is great, too. Definitely draws the viewer in and makes them curious, and it's just two guys sitting on a couch...
One thing, which still lingers in your more recent work, is the occasional proportional problem and off-balanceness in figures. Doing lots of figure practice (2-3min gestures should be long enough to establish proportions and balance without needless labor) would help, I think... This site (http://lovecastle.org/draw/) has a gallery of real photos to figure draw from and lets you set a timer. Maybe you already knew about it, I dunno, but it's just like my FAVORITE place on the internet now so I thought I'd share. @__@

Great improvement, and keep drawing!

Thanks for the critique on the off-balance thingy going on with my figures, JesseM. =) I'm trying to work on that at the moment by doing some sequential panels for my assassin story. Seems to be helping to resolve that weird tilting they do (which I can see in my art now thanks to you). I'll upload those when I get the entire story event I'm paneling done.

Double thanks for the site! I haven't done any life drawing or gesture drawing since last year or so, so that'll help out. You, too - keep it up! =D A line a day keeps the art doldrums away. (OK, you can trout me for that, LOL).