Forward to a better drawing

[surfandsnow]

Hello, my names Tim, and Ive been into art for a few years now. It started when I ran across a 3d app called blender. I was inspired and amazed by the art created with this application and decided to give it a try. I had fun with the program, but nothing I made was original. So I decided to put 3d on hold and learn to draw so I could design and create original work. That was about two years ago, and although Ive gotten a lot better since then, I am always looking to improve.

I guess Ill start out by posting old work for a little while and then post new stuff as it comes. Thanks for stopping by.

Edit: moved pics to second post to keep the first one neat.


Critique appreciated. comments, paintovers, whatever, if you think you see a weakness just say something so I can work on it. Thank you.

[surfandsnow]

This pretty much does it for the old stuff.
I am thinking about looking at some of the community activities soon.

[surfandsnow]

life drawing + life painting(digi) + figures from imagination

I am happy with how accurate the life drawing turned out, there was a problem with the perspective(the planes of the tape dispenser and handle were skewed) but I was able to fix it with some minor alterations to the handle.

I was all over the place with the digital life studies, but they were fun and I intend to do lots more properly.

I also sketched out a few figures in different poses.

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[surfandsnow]

For a change I spent a little more time rendering something and I am starting to get a little more comfortable navigating space and rendering lighting.

I am having trouble rendering the clothing on the figures and I know the faces are going to be difficult, so if you have any suggestions I'd be glad to hear it.


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[surfandsnow]

A quick sketch for color practice and a DSG entry. I am starting to get a little more comfortable with perspective and modeling with light, I really need to work on loosening things up, line work, and of course color and composition.

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[jefflarose]

nice work so far like your environments

[jeremygordon89]

I think it looks like you have improved since the first post, so really just keep practicing every single day that you can. Try to practice for at least three or four hours a day (or more). If you haven't already, I suggest picking up the book Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life. It's a great book for learning anatomy.

[surfandsnow]

jefflarose- Thanks, I really need to do more enviros though I dont do them that often and I need work on larger perspective.

jeremyg0rd0n- The first post was old stuff(2-5 months) so its a bit of a false jump, but its still progress. Also I have already been through bridgman and it is good stuff.

right now I am working through Bammes book on anatomy. Its long and a bit tedious at times, but its very good. I just finished the units on the lower half of the body and I did this as a review of the legs. I screwed up the adductor muscles a little bit because they connect to the femur, and they go a little bit to straight down, but it works. No reference used.

[Zorcron]

i really like the digis from life ,
perhaps some still life would be in order

work larger on big paper to
get some gesture line practice (use your whole arm ! )
those anatomy studys are looking great

keep up the good work ! hope there is much more to come

[surfandsnow]

Zorcron: I definitely do need to use up the more of the page on a single drawing, but i am use to using my whole arm. thank you for the suggestion.

The Dsg was a crappy flying pizza delivery vehicle. its definitly missing some things, but I think it works. I especially like how the reflections came out.

The rest are life studies for the molten core workshop, http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159509 .

[vardoburrito]

oooo sns ... Thank you so much for the help, much much appreciated. :teeth:

I love your bone constructions.
And all the studies look solid.
#4 laybacks look cute, in a sculpty kind of way. :hehe.
Are you doing some basic 3D as well? Those leggo likes could spark off another obsession.

#5b, is that a floating house with it's own ... power gen?

[surfandsnow]

@dwardo - your welcome, It seamed like a good excuse to practice the leg anyway. I use Bammes for the bones, but the forms are simple enough once you understand the shape of the bone and how it works. Where I am at with 3d depends on what you call basic, but I am probably around the intermediate level.
http://surfandsnow.deviantart.com/art/zbrush-Head-Sculpts-105519557
http://surfandsnow.deviantart.com/art/Phone-turntable-84002650
http://surfandsnow.deviantart.com/art/Shiny-New-Phone-74914766
The house thing was a DSG that was a wagon the size of a small house being pulled by horses.


A speed paint, some variations, and a finished scene.

[halfgeek]

It looks like you have a great eye for mechanical and architectural design. I'd love to see more.

I also really like the bell ringer! Awesome stuff.

[surfandsnow]

halfgeek: thank you, I really do need to work on organic things more though, and its actually not a bell but a cap to put out candles with.

I tried doing some self portraits with some especially stupid facial expressions. They average out to around 30 minutes a piece. used a mirror.

I also started sketching within a 3d program called blender, the 3d grid makes perspective a lot easier. A version or two ago they added a tool called the grease pencil that lets you sketch in the program, its a crude tool but its still fun, and if I feel like it I can screen shot or save a grid and open it up in photoshop.

Blender is a free open source program.The latest versions require installation of python 2.6 along with the program but their are zipped versions of version 2.48 and below that dont require installation.

If you want to try it for sketching.
http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.48a/
file "blender-2.48a-windows.zip" The grease pencil is under "View" the quick start guide should handle the rest.
The main website.
http://www.blender.org/

[NewGuy22]

Hey!
Thanks for the comment on my sketchbook! It actually really helped because I was confused about the contour. So this is good...going to try to do some more today...suppose to do a whole page of them before moving on to more gestures - for my nicoliades assignments. ^^

Awesome sketchbook..I have never heard of blender..but after reading ur sketchbook i have seen shorts that were in blender that i really liked...but didnt know it was blender. =).

I love the facial expressions...very clean looking =0) . Soon, i tell myself, soon i will be close to that... lol

Well take care..going to try upload some more stuff.

later

[surfandsnow]

NewGuy22: your welcome, with how much you practice, it wont take long for you to improve, you just need to understand the terms.

ok this time I just have some practice from photo references and a couple speed paints. The photo reference work is some front and profile drawings derived from a pictures and a couple of different views of a ram. The speed paints just started out from a random arrangement of values that you develop as you go until you see something. I am going to try to update my sketch book a little more often, I draw everyday I just need to upload more.

[surfandsnow]

Some more work constructing objects from reference. I am going to try to practice this a lot more so I can refine my perspective skills. I would like to get to the point where I could open a reference and construct something accurately using the reference in under a half hour or so. I think I am going to try doing this with faces soon.

[surfandsnow]

ok, to start off with I have some posermaniacs practice. I tried to draw the hands using singe strokes instead of sketching and I was surprised how well it worked. Next I sketched some silhouettes both from the regular figures and the negative space version, I was working on seeing the larger masses. Finally I did some horrendously bad sketches on the 90sec mode.

The next image starts with drawings of a manikin from life to work on perspective & proportions, I am trying to do 2 a day. Next I have a bunch of skull sketches using reference and finally a sketch of my stove from memory.

The stove thing was actually just a warm up that I happened to like so I saved it, and between that and the hands I think my line work and control is getting a lot better. I usually warm up with a variety of exercises for a variety of skills, and I think its definitely helping my line work.

I am not going to post the same routine exercises that often, just every now and then as a bench mark. Also I talked to another user http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=161616 , about starting a ssg or something like it so it looks like I am going to be working with her and another user http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2351876 working on figure drawing and stuff, so hopefully I will finally get some where with figures.

[surfandsnow]

ok, I just got a still life table set up. Its pretty nice, its right next to the computer table, I have a clamped flexible light I can mount from many different positions and a drop cloth that I can prop up as backing for a simple background. I started of with some simple life paintings of some food and a jug of drink mix. The food is a avocado, onion, and garlic and I wanted to work on translucency, so I put a jug of drink mix in front of the light.

I spent a pretty good amount of time on them, but the results are good so I dont mind. I painted them in greyscale first and colorised it after. I am planning on trying to do a still life of the week in which I pick a theme for the still life and of course do at least one a week.

[surfandsnow]

ok so for this one I figured I'd share some of my warm up exercises in case they are of use to anyone, but also to see if anyone could suggest any more, or point something out.

After the exercises I have a sketch and a self portrait with a mirror.

Linework

The first exercise is a simple dexterity/line exercise in which I draw a random array of dots and then connect them with a straight line. I eyeball the invisible line formed by the two dots and place my cursor on a point on that invisible line beyond one of the two dots, I fade the line in and fade it out. I try harder to keep the line straight rather than curving the line to connect with the second dot. I also try to look ahead to where I am drawing too rather than just staring at the cursor.

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Angles

For the second exercise I zoom out and take the grid I created with the line work exercises and I copy it by drawing lines that are parallel. This is called triangulation. I originally learned the exercise as a method of copying, but angles are also important for perspective so the exercise can still help for drawing from the imagination.

I dont focus on proportion at all, as long as the lines are parallel the grid will be the same even if its a different scale(thats why this exercise is for angles), scale is established once the first triangle is complete.

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Scale

The basic idea of any of the scale exercises is to establish a single "key" shape to define scale and then compare and draw everything at the scale of that key shape. The exercise can be made harder by having multiple key shapes to compare against and also by defining a specific location to draw a shape like defining a circle center so you have to control scale and location. I always compare against the original key shape.

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Ellipses

The first six ellipses are just examples of the various basic rhythms you cans use to draw a ellipse, they mostly effect how you move you arm. The next one down, is basically where I start with two circles and then in one continuous stroke I slowly flatten the circle to a ellipse centered in the middle trying to keep the ellipses from getting distorted.

For the next one I start by drawing a line, then I draw a buch of dots, some on the line some off the line. The dots on the line represent the center of a ellipse and the dots off the line mark the widest point of a ellipse. So basically I have to draw the ellipse in a specific spot and in the case of the dots off the line, at a specific scale too. Its important to note that the dots off the line have to be at a 90 degree angle to the line to form the axis of a ellipse (look at the one at the bottom right).


Warning: complex perspective information.

The final exercise works on keeping the ellipses planar and at a certain scale, its sort of like one of the earlier scale exercises put into perspective. This is also very good for finding angles in perspective because I start by finding the axies of the ellipse which are formed at its widest points(these two lines are always at 90 degrees to one another), these two axies give me a base to draw two more lines through the center and then I have eight evenly spaced points on the ellipse that I can use as a location to draw smaller ellipses.

I draw the first ellipse in the center, because I can use the axies of the large ellipse and also because its easier to tell if their coplanar (the smaller ellipse should be equidistant from similar points the bigger ellipse, I couldnt do this if I drew it somewhere else, the ellipse will not be coplanar if it is too circular or too flat).

Once I finish the ellipse in the center I draw the remaining eight making sure that they all share the same axis as the big one and making sure they all lie in the same plane.

Theirs a lot of complicated information in the last exercise, so I couldnt explain everything, but I think it will be useful just to see. I hope I didnt confuse anyone.

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Perspective

Finally I practice some perspective by sketching planes and or cubes, I sketch each one relative to the one next to it.


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[Streetz]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook and giving me some great links. Your stuff seems to coming along real nicely. Your digital still lifes look spot on. I tend to have some trouble adding color when I paint in greyscale. Any advice? You seem to have an Industrial design feel in your sketches. Keep at it man. I look forward to seeing your progress.

[surfandsnow]

Streetz: your welcome and thank you. anyway about the coloring grayscale, I use a colorize layer. The more accurate you get the values the easier the coloring is, so value is the most important thing (Ive even used color to check the values a few times). I start out fairly desaterated and use saturated colors sparingly. I usually use the most saturated colors in the mid tone where light and shadow meet. Finally I am pretty big on color temperature and I gently shift the hue between light and shadow, and I use saturated and desaturated colors as well as hue to make regions warm or cool. most of the important stuff should happen in light, after all thats where the eye goes first, the rest is a lot of little things that have to do with material properties and circumstances that can raise and lower saturation.

not to much this time just a couple of sketches and a material study, for the material study I rendered the line art. Theres a value thread in the community mentoring section that I am going to post the line art in here http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=165667 .

[vayne108]

Wow, thank you! your work is wonderful. Anyways I came by to say thanks for all the helpful critiques you have given me on my SB. I do have to say that the last one you gave me went a little over my head. However, I did get the small vs the whole thing. But now that I look at your sketchbook I see how focused and profressal you are. I will make it a goal to be focused like you!!!

[surfandsnow]

vayne108: your welcome and thank you. I try to help when I can.

ok mostly Ive been trying to keep up with poser maniacs practice(one digital sheet daily), so my studies are a little bit scattered right now and I am working on all kinds of different things.

to start off with I have a still life study on translucency, it was tricky, but I think it came out ok and I learned a few things. Next I have a figure study from my imagination and finally, a full self portrait from life with the aid of a mirror.

[bigus_dickus]

lots of really good concept thumbnails. keep at it.

[Rolo]

Wow. Some of your stuff looks really real.
You're very structured and articulate! I very much enjoy that! I want to see more! Pretty pretty pretty good perspective too!

[surfandsnow]

bigus_dickus:thank you, and hopefully for me good concept thumbnails will make for good concept art.

Rolo: Thank you, the real stuff your referring too was painted from life on the table next to my computer. Perspective is definitely my strength.


ok so I finally have a figure painting from my imagination that dosent suck. It started out as a simple anatomy sketch and I turned it into a finished piece, I have no idea how long it took me, but I am fairly happy with the results. the left sholder is resting too high on the arm rest and I had problems with the left knee, and the hands could use some work, but its one step closer to better art. I didnt use any refrences.

Next I have a couple of life speed paints. I have a habit of nit picking every little thing, so I set a timer for 1 hour and made sure id finish in time. I am quite pleased with the results, each glass jar was completed in 1 hour.

Finally I have some skeletal copies from a free program called bonelab. The program is free, all they want is a email address, the program dosnt exactly require installation, I installed it on a old computer and then copied the program folder to my flash drive and I can run it off of that. you might be able to install it directly to a flash drive. If you want to give it a try the link is below.
http://www.nextd.com/downloads.asp

[surfandsnow]

well I read a article on form a few days ago and although their wasent anything completely new, I think something 'clicked' and I understood the concept a little bit more. Sometimes it takes a few readings of the same concept to start to get it.

Basically I arrived at the idea to try to separate light and shadow with a single continuous line as much as possible. I was already aware of separating light and shadow, but I think that this helps to solidify the concept. It also reminds me of the blind contour exercise, and how defining the shadow area with a minimal amount of lines can help maintain a solid form.

I warmed up with some simple basic form exercises, where I defined the shadows on the individual forms and then tried to connect them into one solid mass. After that I tried to paint a figure from my imagination. Keeping the values distinct, and separating light and shadow made it much easier to sculpt with the light, not just the major planes but the little ones too. Its going pretty well I still need to finish it though, I also dropped in some quick color.

Heres the article just in case anyone was interested. http://www.nasonart.com/writing/fixlerlessons.html

[Fumble]

I really like your anatomy studies and still life's. The colored ones look really good you should do some more :)

[midknight523]

cool studies

[surfandsnow]

Fumble: Thank you, more it is. Nice sketchbook by the way.

midknight523: Thank you, I try to practice things in a variety of ways.

To start out with I tried the "mental rotation" exercise with a face, and it was difficult to say the least. I used the cutout filter on the face to see what shapes the light formed and the planes that created those shapes. It was a failure, but I at least got some sort of likeness though.

After visiting fumbles sketchbook I remembered its been a while since Ive done any photocopies, especially in color, so I tried a few. I dont like posting copies without the reference, but I dont like posting other peoples photos at full resolution either, so I am going to post the reference at a fraction of the copies resolution.

Finally I have a color still life. Its been a while since Ive gone straight to color, I definitely need to work on color a little bit more.

I know Ive learned a lot of things by looking at other peoples sketchbooks so I figure when I learn something new I could share it as well. one thing that Ive been doing for a while is checking the values by using a layer of all black set to color. That may not be that uncommon, but what Ive discovered recently is that a posterize adjustment layer is a great way to quickly check lighting. The posterize layer is also a great way to check the major shapes/planes when doing copies and can be used to check the warmness or coolness of the colors as well.

[surfandsnow]

To start out with I finished a old character sketch, sort of a mad scientist thing.
Next I finished up that torso-head painting, I am done with it, but any suggestions are welcome. After that I have some environmental thumbnail sketches. I am planning on rendering out at least a few of them. Finally a quick painting of a air freshener from life. More photo studies coming.

[surfandsnow]

I have a portrait from my imagination, I usually do line based photo work with graphite, its hard to compete with the value control of digital. Then I have a couple photoshop sketches from my imagination. After that I have some life paints a quick one of a converter jack on the table and another one of a supplement bottle in color. It took forever because I am still getting use to color. Finally I have a quick photo study, I think I shifted the hue towards yellow a little too much and over saturated the red in the clouds, but I dont think its that bad.

[surfandsnow]

To start out with I tried some water soluble graphite on a reffed portrait of a girl. They work pretty good for laying in value, but they dont really erase well. Next I have a old sketch of some armor, I might paint it later, but I dont exactly know what to do for the head or the legs.

Next I have some quick life sketches, I am trying to work on color by doing lots of quick lay ins to get a feel for how color works in terms of a quick read. I am going to try to mix these quick studies with longer, more detailed studies.

Finally I have a hogarthian manikin multilimb from life, I am hoping that seeing other areas where the limbs could reside will help increase my sense of proportions in perspective and I can also use it to work on my line art to make sure the limbs read. I am also thinking of trying to do a turn around rotation of the manikin with a similar goal of seeing and keeping proportions consistent in perspective.

Any crit or suggestions welcome.

[Sirkenneth]

Sweet sketchbook man! Keep posting. Those still life paints will work wonders for you!

[link_choi]

=O Hi, surfandsnow, your pwnage of form, perspective and light effects is beautiful to look at.

[Vatsel]

Hey there, great studies! keep em up!

Try to watch some of the proportions though, some anatomy studies won't hurt ;)

Love the still life's.

[surfandsnow]

Sirkenneth: Thanks, and yes more life painting always.

link_choi: Thanks. pwnage you say, my perspective is slowly getting good and my forms are ok, but I think I may be a long ways off from pwnage though.

brewin: thank you. Right now I am finishing up a marathon of pose manics to burn in the proportions, but I think I need to draw from my manikin more though, I only draw from it about once a week.

As for the anatomy studies, Ive been putting off a bone- muscle-skin build up of the torso for a long time now, so I'll try to get on that. I am almost finished working through the bulk of bammes anatomy book, I still have the head and neck to go, 47 pages of a larger sketchbook(11*14) front and back for 94 pages of anatomy illustrations. I also tried doing more full page copies as Zorcron had suggested. I would post them but I dont feel like scanning them in, and there all copies anyway(translating the muscle names with a basic 2d anatomy guide was pretty tedious too, but I like the way he goes over anatomy).

I am also looking at a new anatomy book right now, its called Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier Second Edition. Its not meant for artists exactly, but it shows all the muscles in various perspective and positions and shows all the connection points on the bones and all of the names. So far I like it and I think it seams like a pretty good follow up book to bammes because it goes over the functionality of the muscles and shows how they would look in different perspective. I also think working on drawing the complex interweaving muscles is a good opportunity to work on line work since its difficult to make sure separate muscles read properly.

TLDR - The anatomy book I am working on.
Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier Second Edition
will get started on a torso study soon.

--

Scattered studies as always, starting off with a photopaint portrait of a girl. I need to work on skin tones and color, a lot.

Next I have a couple random character sketches. I definitely need to work on gesture a lot more.

[surfandsnow]

About a week or so ago I decided I wanted to try to do a 1000 30 sec gestures from pose maniacs. I was originally planning on doing them all at once and I didnt want to run the risk of burning in bad habits so I played around with a few different ways of practicing.

The best new way I found to practice was a sort of raw triangulation of the landmarks. I basically just looked for the landmarks on the figure, compared their location to each other and painted them in as dots on the canvas and them connected them with lines before moving on(I left the lines out on one of the figures).

I was so happy to come up with this exercise because it is useful to me in so many ways. For one thing I use point-to-point a lot in my imaginative drawing, so its not to much of a jump. I think that looking at the location and spacial relationships of the points helps a lot to help see things like foreshortening and perspective lines. It was also a good reminder about how I can use the orientation of landmarks to show the figure in different perspective and gesture of the figure. The triangulation is also a good warm up for life or photo drawing.

Next I tried some practiced with bridgmans 3 masses. I tried to get the orientation of the masses correct to one another as well as their proportions. I also tried to add some gesture to the masses. I payed a lot attention to getting the center line right at the end.

I also practiced some basic contours. For me I think these helped to compare one side of the figure to the other to make sure they matched up and also to help with the overall proportions of the figure.

Finally I have some plain old figures, I usually use jack hamms triangles for the limbs.

Combined with the daily 90 sec figures I been doing almost daily since late july I should have close to 2000 gestures now, but I still have a long way to go. If I am doing anything wrong or if you have anything to add, just let me know, I know Ive learned a lot just from reading other peoples comments.

[Bartovan]

Great sketchbook, man! I like a lot of the exercises you are doing (I should try some of them myselfà. You heve some great results with your digital paintings as well. Keep going!

[Jacket-Buttons]

Yea you are learning a lot since the last time I saw you.

By the way, my computer is working again finally if you got my pm so we can finish discussing etc. So much has been posted since I last got to talk to you, damn you move along fast.

[surfandsnow]

Bartovan: thanks man, Ive actually looked at your sketchbook a couple times, small forum eh, haven't commented yet though. I am basically trying to learn everything I can and so far it seams like its paying off.

Jacket-Buttons: yeah computer problems always suck, everyone has their horror story, good to hear its working ok now though. I got your PM I took my time getting around to responding. I'll PM you about what kind of 3d project you have in mind.

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ok so I am up to my usual old tricks again, and Ive found yet even more new fantastic ways to practice.

To start off with I got the idea that if I chop a 3d model in half, I can draw the mirrored half and then mirror the model to check my drawing. I also get a nice bounding box based on the full model as a perspective guide. It turns out I was underestimating the effects of rotational foreshortening. The other thing that really helped is that I block in the planes of the face so that I can draw the symmetrical shapes better, so I also get practice with the planes of the face.


The first model is a crappy old model of mine that I made from reference(I usually draw mirrors of the good models though :) ), You may recognize the next model as the zbrush startup head. The best part is that since the goal is symmetry it really dosent matter if the models accurate, since your mirroring the information presented. I also found tons of free models online, its not exactly easy to prep them for mirroring but their there in I need them. I can also do lots of other things like mirror or array entire models or key off models for scale like cars, whole new world of drawing.
The next couple images are some quick paint from rendered 3d references. I have a file set up with a bunch of 3d models off the internet and a real nice lighting and camera set up using yafray so that the renders include bounced light. It takes maybe 5 minutes to set up a render so I can do them whenever I feel like it.

Next I have a quick face paint from my imagination, it took about 2 hours. I think I made a bit to round and smooth.
Finally I drew some manikins, so I could get some life drawing practice in.

-----------
I didnt want to tease anyone with a method of practice they could do themselves so I made a couple blend files with mirror ready models that are ready to go so that you dont have to know anything about the program

As I mentioned in a earlier post version 2.48 of blender does not require instillation http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2324798&postcount=14 , so you can try it without worry. All you have to do is start up blender and open the blend file in the zip and its ready for practicing. The alt key rotates the view, the shift key pans, etc, you can figure out all the little stuff.

The last file I included is a simple render set up with a couple digital manikins and a head that you can mess around with if you want. I use yafray for my renders ( which is a separate install) so it wont render the same as some of the paints I did above because yafray renders reflected light a lot better than blenders internal renderer , but its something to mess around with anyway.

none of the models in the files are mine, but they are all freely available, I just did the prep work on them. I really hope you try it, its a great way to practice, happy drawing :)

[Vatsel]

Hey man good stuff, studies are coming along well keep at em!
On that chick's face, she looks a bit too "glossy" like her face is more of a sphere - define the planes of her face more, plus the highlight on her nose is too long, watch out for overdoing those.

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/tuts/colorident.jpg

[surfandsnow]

Mark Vatsel: Thank you!!!!!!, your absolutely right, I fell into the trap of over blending, I sort of knew it, but I was a bit apprehensive of trying to fix it, but I read your comment and decided to give it another go. The values didnt match the planes I defined with the line art, and the posterize adjustment layer made it obvious the planes where over rounded. I think the second one is much better, Thank you.


As mentioned above I gave another go at the previous head, I tried to play around with cast shadows a bit more, and I played around with the check bones a little bit. I also threw in some of the notes I used to fix it if they help.

Next I tried a exercise that walid recommend in the value thread in the mentoring section. I played around with a posterize adjustment layer so I could see the shapes of the dominate values. I think the exercise helps with separating light and shadow as well seeing the shapes of value formed by planes and how minor changes of the shapes in key areas can effect how something looks. I followed it up with a couple black and with sketches from my imagination.

Next I have a character paint, something a little more futuristic and spacey, just dont look at the face for too long or youll hurt your eyes.

Finally I have a life drawing and life painting.

Ive switched up my daily routine from poser maniacs to 3d mirrors. I try to draw the object at 3 different levels every time I rotate the view, first a orthographic view, then a view of the whole object then a partial view of the object. I think I figured out a way to use it to help practice cast shadows to. I am also trying to get a "digital cast painting" of a rendered object at least every couple days.

[andres333]

Keep practicing structure like the ones above
Nice painting

[surfandsnow]

andres333: always do, and thank you.

been busy, I am trying to focus on faces right now, with sketches from photos, thumbnails from magazines, mirrored 3d heads, heads from imagination, pretty much everything I can think of. Doing the 3d mirrors has helped me work with planes in perspective a lot. After I am 'done' with heads I plan on moving on to value, edges, and form using silhouettes.

To start off with I have some faces from my imagination using what I practiced with the 3d mirrors, drawing in the planes and checking against each other for symmetry and also checking against the contour. I also tried to work on the line work too.

Next I have a life painting of a cheap Halloween skull.

Finally I have some rendered silhouettes.

[midknight523]

really liking that skull

[surfandsnow]

midknight523: thank you.

ok, first off I have a life paint of a camera(theirs irony their), about 1hr1/2. Then I have some life drawings of that skull, I tried doing one a day, but its a little hard to stick too.

next I did some quick thumbs from a magazine, mostly to work on color.

I wanted to work on masses shapes and color a little bit more so I tried doing some paintings without any prelim line work. A sort of sci fi sunset, I am reasonably happy with, another one where I was trying to work on skin tones and I noticed they were a little red so I tried to have some fun with it, the eyes are horrible.

Finally I tried working on skin tones by rendering silhouettes in color, you may recognize the tubes from Hannes sketchbook.

[surfandsnow]

I finished a portrait from my imagination, took forever. The eyes are way too big, but it could be worse.

Next I have some more silhouettes to work on proportion and gesture.

Finally I have a quick scene I made in maya today to get back into 3d a little.

[surfandsnow]

I just got a bunch of figure drawing/anatomy books off amazon, so right now I am reviewing anatomy. I like bridgman for simplification of the masses, peck for his annotated notes and detailed well labeled illustrations and vanderpool for his planes and simplified illustrations that do a good job of separating light and shadow in order to show what things would look like on a average person.

wasn't wild about peck at first because the book is poorly organized, but I really like the comments on the simplified illustrations right after the detailed anatomy illustrations.
-

Did some quick thumb nails to try to illustrate things from some different angles. Next I tried a life paint of that skull in strong lighting to work on separating light and shadow, quit early because the details would have taken forever. Did a bunch of thumbs from photos to work on color as well and to try to get a quick read. Next I have some color thumbs without ref working on the same things as the reffed ones, would probably help if I tried some implementation from the photo studies.

Did some more torso copies from a program called bone lab. Some vilpu inspired gestures. Then some life painting of various limbs and finally some anatomy sketches without reference.

C&C welcome

[Danny_K]

really nice studies I like it, just keep going, go through Loomis drawing the head and hands book it will help you a lot.

[vardoburrito]

Nice studies and updates SnS, and thank you very much for the pointers, you're
always helpful mate and I really appreciate it.

Checking values - I use a layer of white, on hue layer blending, but I'm really curious if you think grey would work out better? (I've no clue with digital values, I just know my eyes still aren't used to them. Digital or trad. o.0)

The glass studies are nice, and the skintones render I've never seen before. They look
like candy, or perhaps I'm just hungry. Both.

I like the lighting on DailySpeedPaint 0012.

[Parsakoira]

Hi! I like the studies a lot, but some lack proper values, and look a bit flat. But at this rate, youre gonna kick ass very soon. Keep at it!

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K:Thanks, yea its been awhile since Ive done any work from loomises book, worked through about a third of it and then tapered off, but I'll try to pick it up again, especially since I use the loomis head so often.

dwardo:Thank you, all the layer blending modes work the same in the way, in that a layer of all gray,white or black will reduce the color layers below it to grayscale, the most important part to note is that it incorporates the inherit value of hue, unlike desaturate under image adjustments.

Parsakoira: Thanks, sometimes I use diffuse or AO lighting on quick sketches because I only have to find the crevices where light gets blocked out, that would at least explain some peaces, but I am definitely more used to working with line so its not surprising that my values aren't the greatest.
Having read your comment earlier I tried to work on value/masses a little more for this update.

For starters I rendered out a sketch with as many different light sources as possible.
Next I render out some silhouettes of a digital manikin and then tried filling them in with light, working on cast shadows space, etc.
Finally I rendered some of the other silhouettes I had painted a while back.

[surfandsnow]

ok, right now I think I have reached a decent level for drawing, so I am going to try placing more focus on painting for a while to get more used to working with shapes values and colors and such.

Ive been trying to do some daily figure sketching from refs with quick value lay-ins from a couple sites, they took about 20-40 mins each.

I also just finished some eye studies that I started a long tome ago for the molten core workshop. There all from ref, I labeled which ones are old and which ones are new with red lines.

Next I have some paintings, a removed eyeball, that I wanted to give a shiny wet look(and failed). A sort of dark and grungy hallway, couldnt figure what to do with the end, went with a weird red light thing.

A cold cloudy desolate field, with paths leading into the abyss. Finally a wip of a ballerina on stage.

[surfandsnow]

want to try to get some more life painting in for the next round, maybe some more anatomy studies too. Also made a timer in flash to make timed studies easier.

Some arm and torso studies from imagination.
A couple life paints.
Quickie photo face studies
quick speed paint.

[surfandsnow]

right now I am trying to go straight to paint with no line work to work on shapes, values masses, etc and I have to say Parsakoira was definitely right my values are pretty sketchy and I am have trouble painting without lines, but I am working on it though.

trying to do self portraits from life more often,
I should probably try a better expression though, something less sinister.
They average a little under 2 hrs a piece

next some more life work, folds colors, form etc. trying to work on improving my edges too.

Next I have a portrait from my imagination, tried pushing the color a good bit.

Finally some cube heads to work on perspective of the face, warm up etc.

[surfandsnow]

I have some more photo studies, little more time on the landscapes especially the last one and the heads were around 20 minutes.

A cloth study from life

a self portrait thats hopefully a little less scary. I think I have a habit of wrapping the eyebrows around to the inside of the eye cavity and that combined with muddy colors made them look really bad, but I am working on it anyway. The self portraits are pretty difficult, which is probably good because that means its something I need to work on, but hopefully it will get easier after a while.

[DiR3Kt]

Hi I really like how you are using the basic forms to create your picture. It gives you your own style.

Your sketchbook is a great source of information because you explain your process. Thank you so much for sharing!!

[Zazerzs]

thanks for the inking tips, been redoing all my lines :)

and nice sketchbook you have going on.

[surfandsnow]

DiR3Kt: thank you and your welcome. I try to provide as much information as possible. The way I figure even if any of its wrong it will be easier to correct and critique because somethings been explicitly stated rather than being ambiguous.

Zazerzs: your welcome and thank you. I try to help when I can, and nice sketchbook yourself ;)

still working on painting mostly
some head and character sketches.

life stuff
self portrait
quick ribbon still life
longer study of a shoe

[surfandsnow]

primary current goal: painting, rendering, shapes, values.

I still suck at eyes so I am tried doig a ton of sketches from ref.
I tried sketching a couple characters, hopefully I'll finish them later on.
Trying to practice combining value composition with some light rendering/readability, a couple are loosely based on ref.

[surfandsnow]

same old same old, slowly starting to get more comfortable with paint, trying to keep up with drawing to. I think I am going to focus on character design next.

Head sketch from imagination with quick value wash.
snow/night scene.
some animals from memory while watching tv.
some life sketches, trying to combine some structure of measuring with gesture
of a blind contour(not done blind of course), some paint sketches.
A self portrait, little under 2 hrs, it was late...

[surfandsnow]

-life sketches remotes/cameras to work on detail, structure and repetition(buttons)
-another sheet of eyes from ref, on the right side I tried deriving a couple profile and others view of the ref eye
-some landscapes while watching a nature show(memory)
-some heads in profile from imagination
-some rendered anatomy from imagination, need to work on some different poses, their starting to get repetitive.
- a clown portrait from imagination fairly happy with it, its a little messed up in places but it was a nice chance to mess with local values rendering design etc

[surfandsnow]

-life stuff, some outlines to work on measuring and outlines(I also think that practicing with outlines will translate smoothly to silhouettes used in painting), some sketchy paints, some curvy stuff to work on perspective, repetition etc.

-A painting of my eye from life that I copied and altered with some variations

-some anatomy sketches

-another clown painting, messing with some repetition in design

[surfandsnow]

no much to show, little slow at the moment. I am looking at some of the community activities, thinking about switching my goal/focus in the next few weeks.

some life sketches
some photo studies
head practice
enviros from imagination

[surfandsnow]

-life painting of one of the casts I got recently( http://philippefaraut.com/store/reference-casts.html )
-one off the dsgs, got part of the theme wrong
-some kchen studies

[surfandsnow]

little disorganized right now, but I am doing something everyday, I think I am going to start doing master studies since I havent done any yet, mabey try to finish one a week. I am going to start out the master studies a little rougher at first and then get a little more precise later on.

- life study
-sargent master study
-character design/value schemes

[surfandsnow]

finishing another sargent study

-life stuff
-self portrait
-photo study
-some attempts at painting

[Metal Fingers]

Nice studies man, your edge control is getting really good, and all the work is inspiring. Keep it up.

[surfandsnow]

Metal Fingers: Thank You, Ive been trying to practice edges and painting more, so I hope I am improving and I am trying to keep up a consistent effort, but its tough not getting discouraged sometimes with how hard it is to learn to paint.

-life paintings, some color temperature studies to work on color, and I tried doing some studies of crumpled paper that were pretty difficult because of all the micro-faceted planes and edges.
-another sargent study, this one was tricky but I feel Ive improved at least a little at color

[Metal Fingers]

thanks for stopping by my SB dude, the renders on those metals on those water bottles are great, great great great. Keep at it dude! One thing I'd reccomend when drawing spherical objects, if they are perfectly round, use the eliptical tool for the sphere then mask it it off, it can help a lot with really rounding out those edges while not losing its roundness.

[Liffey]

cool stuff! those studies of everyday objects are the way to go, you can learn a ton from stuff like that. :)

[kip.kun]

nice nice studies! and your lighting is sheet hot, really brings your artwork out.

I really want to see some fleshed out environments or characters,I think it would be a good chance for you to work in the lighting and surface stuff you've studied hard on.

keep at it :)
kip

[matejkovacic]

Your studies from life are great!

Keep up the good work!

[surfandsnow]

Metal Fingers: thank you again, and yeah I thought about using the selection tool, but I decided against it since I thought it would be better practice painting without it.

Liffey:Thank you, thats why I do them.

kip.kun: Thank you, I have trouble finishing original designs because stuff never comes out as good as you think it will, but I'll try to push myself a bit more.

matejkovacic:Thank you

-master study wip
-gestures
-enviro thumbs
-creature silhouettes
-drone sketches
-space station silhouettes
-some quick character design silhouettes
-some head stuff(no ref)

[jskotte]

wow, so many great studies. Can I ask where you found the refs for all the eye studies, as I really need to work more on eyes.

[surfandsnow]

jskotte: Thank you, deviantart.com has a lot of stock photos and photos of people
http://www.treklens.com/photos.php?filter=Portrait
http://www.portrait-photos.org/
and john vanderpools book has some good eyes in it
http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2007/05/vanderpoel-on-eyes.html
http://meetingedges.blogspot.com/search/label/vanderpoel

-finished the sargent study
-started a michalangelo study(mild nudity)
-life painting
-added color to that old sketch using a transparency lock technique
-tried a couple old chow sessions

[jskotte]

Thanks so much for all the info, both about the eyes and all the links you posted in my sketchbook, really appreciate it.
Great updates, the values are looking really good.

[surfandsnow]

jskotte: your welcome and thank you

pretty scattered at the moment still chipping away at the old chow stuff, going through a little bit of a slump overall, but I am still at least sketching something everyday. I really got to start working on designing things.

-A few creature sketches(no ref)
-A oil portrait from a workshop at a local art store about a month ago, about 4 hours long from a live model(you probably cant tell from the crappy painting, but it was a woman) They didnt have enough time to get to color unfortunately
-quick self portrait about 1hr - 1hr 1/2
-some zbrush heads eyeballed from ref from over the weeked(not traced just opeded the ref with windows picture viewer) I had two more at about the same quality but lost the good parts of them due to crashing, but it was probably better that way because I just had to move on to the next one ;)

[vayne108]

Yo are doing awesome, and kicking ass with these studies ^_^ !!! keep it up !!

[maeshanne]

you have improved a lot, why don't you show some blender stuff

[jskotte]

Cool update, dinosaurs are such a good thing for inspiration. I'd like to see these creatures more developed. Nice SP, great expression. I've never tried Zbrush, but these heads look great.

[surfandsnow]

vayne108: Thanks, I certainly hope all the studies are helping.

maeshanne: Thanks, but unfortunately I still have so far to go, and I havent done any blender stuff in quite a while and I still want to focus on drawing for a while longer. The zbrush is just sculpting though so I am probably going to do some more z sculpts.

jskotte: Thanks, not sure If I'll render those any more, but finishing is definitely one of my weaknesses so I'll try to render stuff out a bit more.

Pretty much everything from imagination this time, I still have have to finish the one chow and that master study from a few updates ago. I gotta try to work more on design and composition.

-hands
-gestures
-lit figure
-color thumbs some from ref(not copied)
-Some eye color variants and a sketched head
-Enviro
-finished old chow
-unfinished Atlantian Anarchist

[surfandsnow]

-life painting
-head sketch
-unicycle ID
-futuristic armor
-failed illustration about a guy in debt to the mob

[Danny_K]

yo!
Nice work, the amount of studies and your dedication is really awesome, keep on with the insane amount of studies and you will get there in no time.

[jskotte]

Great updates, I like the small enviro-thumbnails, such a good idea and great colors. The still life studies are really good and I really like the design of that armor.

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K:thank you, I am really trying my hardest to improve.

jskotte: thank you.

mainly working on sketching ideas, thumb nailing, speed painting and character design at the moment, any suggestions would be most helpful.

-some self portraits
-swampthing speed paint to a old bobby chui podcast 20min
-some face studies
-some figure sketches

[jskotte]

wow, portraits are looking so good.
Don't know much about concept design, so can't really crit except for the boxing guy, they would keep there elbows close to the body to protect it and probably hve more spread legs the have better balance.
I think the enviro needs a bit more depth.

[jskotte]

uhh, sorry, double post.

[Danny_K]

Thanks for the links in my thread I checked the links on DA too pretty good most of them I knew but now I just made folders in my bookmark menu for every subject so whenever I need to learn something I can quickly refer to those tutorials.

the portraits are niiiiiice, and the dude in the water is pretty cool too.
good stuff dude keep it up keep up!!!111

[surfandsnow]

jskotte: Thanks, and yeah I considered that in the pose, but I wanted to avoid symmetry so I pulled one elbow up and I was also kinda thinking of something like a pre fight photo shoot shot anyway. Thanks for pointing that out though. And yeah I completely screwed up the background, I over did the haliation on the right side and I should of pushed the background in the middle back further, I'll try to keep it in mind.

Danny_K: your welcome and thank you. Mostly I just got lucky with the portraits.


-color thumbnails from memory while watching tv 2-4 mins each
-some quick warm up ref work
-a kinda sketchy self portrait, threw all construction out the window and just sketched it 30-40min
- some creatures, any specific tips/links on learning creature anatomy would be greatly appreciated. I am basically just going with the classic method of switching between ref and imagination and studying some anatomy, but its tricky.

[Danny_K]

I love the creatures, there's potential there
try this link, it's good:http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/466/Designing-Creatures-in-Adobe-Photoshop

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K:Thank you, The dvd looks a bit pricey though, so I am not sure I I'll get it, I'll have to look at some review and stuff to see if I think it'll be helpful for me.

- self portraits 2hr and 1 hr respectively
-creatures no ref but their basically just octopi heads on a human body, but I think it show some improvement. I tried airbrushing(soft brush) in the major values directly over the line art and then move in with harder brushes and added color half way through.

[Danny_K]

the self portraits are too dark, try lighting them up a bit.
the upper octopus is really working color wise, the other not so much. cool update

[Vatsel]

mm yeah lighting is getting better, pay closer attention to edges though :o

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K - cool, I'll try doing some more high key lighting and yeah I dont think the color on the second one is as good but I wanted to try something different.

Vatsel - Thanks, I'll have to do some edges studies.

-some legs from imagination
-some self portraits complete with cold icy stare
-a portrait from imagination
-a illustration from imagination(not entirety human)

[Danny_K]

do more head studies, draw from magazines and stuff get the proportions for the head, that is what you lack most atm.

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K - more studies it is.

-backgrounds
-photo studies
-creature thumbs
-anatomy practice

[surfandsnow]

-head studies from photos
-character from head based on random scribbles
-still life to work on cloth and edges
-larger version

[Ivan Turcin]

last still life is kick ass!

[hunchback]

lookin good man. i agree with ivan. last still life looks solid. keep it up.!

[Danny_K]

Solid! the girl with her funky dress and nifty unrelated looking pouch is good! :P but the gem here is that skull that you brought out of nowhere, this thing rocks!!
seriously keep doing tons of anatomy and head studies not only on digital but actually do tons and tons of lines in your sketchbook that is when you really progress, after you got the proportions and stuff in your head go back to digital and you will feel big improvement. and do this cycle over and over again until you grow old and die OK? game over signing out.

[jskotte]

wow, loads of great stuff since i was here last. Specially like all the animals and creatures, really great, and this last still life is awesome. How about some colors on the portraits?

[Gloominati]

cool stuff going on here! really diggin that last still life. All I'd suggest right now is to be a bit more careful with proportions. try to get the drawing as good as possible before going into the funpart with paint. No awesome paintjob can make a wonky portrait look really good :)

[surfandsnow]

Ivan Turcin:thank you

hunchback:thank you

Danny_K: Thank you and the skull didnt take too long, the fabric actually ate up most of the time oddly enough, and yeah I'll spend some more time with pencils.

jskotte:Thank you, I'll try throwing some colors here and there but I still need to work on other things first.

Gloominati:Thank you, and I'll be sure to focus more on structure


I usually spend some time sketching in pencil everyday, but I put in some more time and went through the effort of scanning them in this week. Most of the sketches are 5-10min per item(face,figure, etc) 11*14 mechanical pencil

reffed
-figures
-faces, cast drawing warm ups
-sketches from tv freeze frams
-self portraits

[surfandsnow]

-some figure sketches from imagination
-cg society master study,used photoshops vertical and horizontal rulers/guides. lots of practice with triangulation, I usually do photostudies by using windows picture viewer.
-a couple of attempts at illustration
-some heads from imagination
-anatomy practice

My structure and drawing still need a lot of work

[Danny_K]

Hey dude, good going it seems you are making your values too dark at many places.
draw lots of black and whites from reference to knock down those values.
I did a paintover for you to help out a bit, hope I succeeded.

first off before even starting to detail you must make sure your painting is working value and composition wise, the composition in this one was really weird, felt like an amateur camera operator took a snap shot, there's a big empty area that nothing happens there so I added a little something of interest to make the viewer stick with the painting a bit and think what's happening here? is she aware of that figure behind her? you know stuff like that.
then I moved to fix her face which was totally off and I must say I struggled with it because the whole construction and angle was wrong so I eventually redid her whole face.
Also keep in mind your direction from which the light is coming, you can paint an arrow for you while you paint to remember where the light comes from and after your done just erase it.
I also lightened the Background value to make the character stick out and lightened the very darks you have throughout the picture.
Also remember that values are never the same anywhere they change all the time even on a 1 inch on her arm there are so many different variations of values that we might not recognize with our eyes but they are there. also remember about bouncing lights, they bounce everywhere you will notice that once you study from life especially and examine your subjects youll see how amazing light can be.
Hope this helps it sure helps me to do these paintovers

Cheers bro!

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K - thanks, I definitley need to do more with the background and up the reflected light a little bit, I think the face itself was okay, but the problem I had was I zoomed in too much and it lost all relation to the rest of the head. For the light I had arrows in the sketch the light sources were a low front right source and a rim from the upper left which is why I added a spec highlight on the middle ridge of the hair. I'll try to keep that stuff in mind though thank you.

finishing up some more things and some pencil studies I'll upload in a few days, still trying to work on drawing and design.

-life sketchs
-random paint
-figure studies from photos
-quick painting
-head photo study
-self portrait
-figures and faces from imagination

[Chr. Steam]

Cool grawings, man!
Great work you do.

[Chr. Steam]

Cool grawings, man!
Great work you do.

[surfandsnow]

Chr. Steam: Thanks

-first two pages are from imagination rest are from ref, used a slideshow program with a five minute timer most were 6-7 min 11*14paper
-a couple of heads from imagination
-a firefighter scene from imagination
-armored knight wip from imagination

[Danny_K]

yesss! lots and lots of practice there is no other way! man your faces are getting better, the punk is pretty good! rest of the faces are getting better and better keep it coming man.
I also see some interesting concepts which is great.

[jskotte]

Nice figure and head studies, everything looks great. And I really like that last image, hope you'll work more on that :)

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K-thanks and yeah need more concepts.

jskotte-Thanks, and yeah I worked on it more but I cant exactly call it very finished looking though.


-some stuff from head/ some style stuff (9*12") the rest is 11*14
-reffed figures
-cast drawings from life
-finished wip
-more reffed figures

[jskotte]

Figure drawings are looking better and better, but some of them still look a bit stiff and are missing some of the curves for example on the legs. Also sometimes the legs look very thin and they have tiny feet.
You call the character a finished WIP, does that mean is it completely finished? I think it could use some brighter highlights both on the helmet and in the face and maybe try to vary the skintones a bit more.

[Danny_K]

solid studies, I like your knight head I tried to push it's values even further, hope I didn't ruin it.

[glaudarien]

Wow i really envy your anatomy skills, i love your digital renders of anatomy, they really come to life! Also those face studies are looking great, a few proportional issues but i assume you know that and could fix it if you needed too. Keep it up man! :)

[surfandsnow]

jskotte:Thanks I'll try to remember to focus on the legs a bit more.

Danny_K:Thanks nice paint over, I had a doge layer and a multiply layer to up the contrast up I preferred the matte finish a bit more. I probably should try more reflective things though.

glaudarien:Thanks long way to go though, and I still need a good bit of work on proportions and structure.

-enviro studies from photos, ones marked with a red x/dot are from memory/head
-more

from head
-city enviro
-underwater illustration
-figures
-character
-creature

might do some more work on some of them

[jskotte]

Really nice landscape studies and the city scene looks great, are you going to color it? Cool character and creature designs.

[Danny_K]

working hard I see, keep it up mate do more figure studies go do some posemaniacs it will help!

[surfandsnow]

jskotte-Thanks, I might do some more work on the city, but I think its a little far in for color though.

Danny_K-will do, there was actually some posemaniacs in that last batch.

-some quickly rendered silhouettes, I got the silhouettes from one of those photostock sites, I think it helps though because I think I try new things when I dont have to spend a lot of time drawing a silhouette by hand
-some photo studies and color gradients from ref
-some enviros from head, trying to use texture, line, selection, brush and other tools more
-some drawings from ref practicing duplication

[jskotte]

Nice fighters, you caught the balance of these very well. The cityscapes look really good, but I think you should be careful about placing one big building in the center, it leads the eye a bit off the page (the 3rd one). Perspective look right on in all of them. I tried painting in selection last week as well, a bit different feel, but almost necessary to get nice clear cut line for buildings. Maybe try to color up and finish some of these cities.

[DonovanGonzalez]

Wow your still life's are bad ass! your studies are awesome as well.

[Danny_K]

good studies, some of the buildings and environments have some perspective issues.

[surfandsnow]

jskotte- thanks, just to be clear though I didnt draw them, just the values, good practice with lighting. I'll try to keep the composition stuff in mind and I'll do some color stuff soon.

Also a few tips for selections I am not quite good enough to paint with the lasso tool outright yet so I have a brush with the pressure opacity turned off and then use the shift key(mapped to tablet) to draw straight lines with it(you tap one point hold shift and then tap a second point) and then the quick selection tool works well and I can fill in the selection with a brush.

A few more things, you can contract and then expand selection to clean up artifacts(from magic wand selections), you can also use the "border" option to draw with it and you can also use selections with the line tool when drawing perspective lines from the vanishing point to only draw the perspective line where you need it.

just figured that stuff might be helpful.

DonovanGonzalez-thank you.

Danny_K-Yeah, am aware of the perspective stuff, but I was trying to focus on completing the scene I also started with random value shapes instead of a sketch which made things a little trickier too, so I let the perspective lax a little, just trying to focus on one thing at a time.

-some perspective sketchs memory/head
-some enviro studies
-some figure sketchs from head
-some quick figure studies from ref
-some material studies from head

[jskotte]

Okay, but the lighting looks really good. And thanks for the tips :)
Cool update, good with some perspective exercises, the top left looks weird, but it might just be me, all the rest look really good. Very nice enviro studies as well, and the cars look cool, I like how you did different paint jobs on them.

[surfandsnow]

jskotte: thanks.


ahhhh, its been awhile, been mostly doing photo studies and life drawing in pencil working on structure and proportions and I think their slowly starting to improve. hopefully I'll get back in the habit of updating again and I think I am going to try doing more color photo studies and try to put that proportional practice to use.


-life paint
-life paint
-some photo studies

[Dana_T]

Great sb! I especially love your work with cubes - although that seems to hinder you when drawing figures. It makes them look super stiff. Try circles and ovals instead!

Keep up the fantastic stuff!

[skMOP]

Cool perspective studies and a solid amount of photo studies done too..

Show off some newer/imagination work to apply those studies!

[CrazedIvan]

Awesome studies man. Just like SkMOP said, Id like to see what you can come up with in your imagination!

Dont ever stop Posting! :)

[cgaddict]

Nice updates, really enjoying your use of values on your paintings.

[surfandsnow]

Dana_T: thanks, and I'll try to work harder on gesture.

skMOP: thanks, and yeah I'll try to get some more imaginative stuff in.

CrazedIvan: thanks, wont stop posting, just might get a little lazey updating sometimes.

cgaddict: thank you.

-dsg 1584 dyhdrated animal(husk and raindrop parts left out)
-an old speedpaint
-another sheet of figure sketches
-face/skin tone photo studies focus was on color and mass painting(no pre drawing)
-landscape color studies

[Danny_K]

slow but steady progress, these are decent studies indeed!

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K: Thanks, I sure hope I am improving, its hard and stuff though :\ .

-color thumbs, most 5 min or less
-photo thumbs color abstractions/ poster studies
-life color studies
-face and skin color studies
-painting from head
-figure sketches from head

huge life drawing sketch book dump coming up.

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Dum dum du m dum, proud mary keep on rooooolling! Rolling on the rivEER! Nice stuff here man! Well done on the studies. You still have a few issues with structure in your figures, but you'll figure them out;)

Good good good:D

-E

[Danny_K]

tons of colors it's great, try to work more on your rendering most of your studies are quick and unfinished, try to push few to the limit then you can do better quickies.

[surfandsnow]

Mischeviouslittleelf - thank you and yeah I definitely have a ways to go with figures.

Danny_K- there are a few more rendered ones in there but its hard to see after the rescaling, but I know what your saying I need more practice finishing, I'll try to do a well drawn still life for the next update.

Heres a good chunk of my life drawings from the last couple months I am still finishing scanning/prepping the rest of them. sizes are 11*14,18*24 times range from a few minutes, 20 minutes, and 2 hrs.

[surfandsnow]

-the rest of the life drawing
-self portraits

all 11*14 from life
working on more traditional and figures from head.

[surfandsnow]

some color keys from head.

[surfandsnow]

-still life
-photo studies
-figures from head
-attempt at a figure paint from head

[vayne108]

Hello surf and snow !! Haven't talk to you in a while. How've you been?

Anyways, awesome looking studies you have I envy you for sticking to it ^_^ !!! and showing lots of progress, Keep it up !!!!! I wish I could as dedicated as you. I have trouble studying for long periods of time without getting bored.

[Danny_K]

try studying a certain subject until you feel you really got better at it and move on to something else, for example your heads could use a lot of practice, the lips you draw on the self portraits are too rough and stand out more then any other feature in the face, also where are the eye pupils?
when you design a head first you should make sure that the very basic shape of it reads correctly, try with the outline of the face and hair and then draw little lines for the features:eyes, nose, lips... and start closing in into more details slowly after you are happy with the overall read of the head. it takes a lot of practice so no matter how much I can write its up to you and how much your willing to put effort in it.
Keep it up

[surfandsnow]

vayne108: yeah, just gotta keep up the studies

Danny_K: k more studies it is.
As for the eyes, I like the pupiless look for eyes unless I need the pupils for expression or rendering and I do a lot of quick sketches from photos to practice its just not worth the time it would take to get them in the computer.
I'll keep pushing and I'll try to concentrate on the head and figure. thank you.


-figures from head (I'll try for better photos next time)

[surfandsnow]

-speed paints from head
-gestures from head
-some painted figures from head
-movie stills , the first on the left is from head and it shows
-self portrait from life spent a good bit of time on this one

[skMOP]

On the last portrait, don't feel like its necessary to draw each individual strand. Instead, clump the hair together..into clumps, and then focus on detailing on part.

Very nice screepcaps.

[surfandsnow]

skMOP-yeah I need to work on hair some more to get the gesture, rendering the hair was fun though:)



-life drawing
-stuff from head(after attempted fix)
-digital leg studies
-legs from head
-head study from screencap on right, the head on the left is from head after

[surfandsnow]

-life drawing(painted last one from memory)
-life paint
-photo studies
-stuff from head

[Aryeh]

dude, you are working so hard in here. very nice sketchbook. ill be watching!

[surfandsnow]

Aryeh-thank you, I'll keep at it.

-life drawing
-mouth studies
-reffed arms(2 pages)
-arms from head/memory
-sketches from head
-sketch from head that I am going to try to work on some more

[Aryeh]

those arm studies are fuckin sexy. i need to do me some of them! (bad english)

[sony]

Some of your studies are really great, keep doing!
B/W nice use of soft brush!

[surfandsnow]

Aryeh-of course, the arm is undoubtedly, the sexiest part of the body.

sony-Thanks, I have a sort of hard brush soft brush technique thing going.


-some more arms(all from ref)
-some quick figure sketches from head

I am going to try to do a weekly 100 things exercise focusing on a specific part of the body with 50-75 from ref and the rest from head. I did legs a few weeks ago, but they were almost all with pencil so I didnt post any. I did arms this week(I also did a bunch of pencil studies from hogarth,bridgman, bammes, and jack hamm) and I am going to do torsos next.

[BenjaminL]

Woah, very nice arm studies! You have inspired me here.

[PeteJ]

^no kidding, your studies are great.

[Danny_K]

whoa! O_O *Feels inspired again*

[mrd33ds]

holy arms!! nice studies mate. agrees with Danny^^

[surfandsnow]

BenjaminL, PeteJ, Danny_K, mrd33ds- thank you I am definitely trying to work on the figure and lighting.

I open way too many references, after a while it just started to be about getting it done rather than properly switching over between ref and imagination.

a lot of my focus was on lighting and not necessarily rendering. I also picked these out from the same pool refs so I'll probably wind up working from the same ref at least a few times.

I am going to try and work on some unreffed stuff and some necks and shoulder stuff this "week" and then I am going to do the 100 things again with heads and hands again after that.

-reffed torsos
-life drawing newsprint(18*24, except bottom left)
-more life drawing
-torsos from head

[skMOP]

That is an insane amount of figures! I can see improvement as I'm looking at 1 to 100.
Don't forget about male torsos too, as I only see a few compared to the amount of female ones.
And yeah, work the imagination too!

[Danny_K]

wow dude you are sure giving it a push! try to concentrate on tons of line work, more then tonal work to get a good grasp of construction and shape and improve your line quality. and do males too :)

[sony]

Nice tonal studies.
this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1208770&stc=1&d=1302496867) The placements of parts are off

[mrd33ds]

omg man! thats a heck of a lot of figure studies. theyre great, keep it up please ;)

[D0ming0]

I love the your studies, especially the arms. They have a lot of volume and the lighting is really good. I'd like to see you pushing your 'from life' and 'from imagination' further to get the same chunky 3d feel.

J.

[surfandsnow]

skMOP, Danny_K, sony, mrd33ds, D0ming0- thanks, most of my ref are of woman, but I'll do some male torso later though, I'll also keep focusing on the construction and lighting.

I also got a triple mirror set up, so I can do sketches of my hands, arms regularly from any angle so that should help.

I am going to try to work more on lines from head and finishing stuff from head a bit more, with some figure and head studies here and there.

-necks from ref
-necks from head
-heads from ref
-hands from ref
-heads from head/memory
-life drawing pastel/newsprint/carbon pencil
-character from head finished line

[Reutte]

Wow! Your sketchbooks is insane! It makes me feel downright lazy. XD I checked out your links in your signature and now I'm going through the ones listed in your da journal so thanks for collecting them all for people to see.

[Danny_K]

ho ho ho, whos studying? you are and big time! good stuff man, that triple mirror sounds like a good idea, I just bought a mirror from a $ store and it sucks lol but it does the job for drawing my own hands and feet and what not. how did you setup those mirrors? a picture would be nice. keep up with the art bombing man you are sure climbing up, try to focus a lot on line work with your faces, the 2d Disney animators are able to draw their characters from every possible angle because they did thousands or probably tens of thousands of line work studies.

Cheers!

[surfandsnow]

Reutte- thanks definitley feeling lazy at the moment though.
Danny_K - The mirror is pre-made the hinges make things much easier.

been sketchin a good bit, not a whole lot worth showing, just gonna keep trying to work with line for a while.

-lineart
-figures from head
-a couple still lifes the first is a very old charcoal and the bust I did in acrylic about a week ago.

[Danny_K]

very good, pencil drawing is extremely good. keep going.

[glaudarien]

Thank you for the comment on my SB.

Wow you do alot of studies! Its very inspiring, and definitly shows in your progress, your latest sketches are oozing with life and character i love it. Keep up the studies!

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K,glaudarien-thank you.

not much too show I have some pencils Ill scan in soon and I am trying to work on stuff from head, the only thing I have worth showing at the moment is this portrait from head, but I am fairly happy with it though.

[surfandsnow]

-some character designs
-self portraits from life
-study from a magazine of the left, right two from head

[Jephyr X]

Wow! It's very cool to see someone dedicated and really banging out all those studies!

[Nibras]

Hey Surfandsnow, great sketchbook you've got going on. Your dedication is clear and it's really paying off. I like those 100 drawings you're doing, I am actually doing the same. They're very helpful.
The variety in your work is great, you've got quick vs long and all the good stuff going on. I would recommend that you do more fully finished images from mind because they really test your skills and show you where you're lacking. Other than that keep the great working going. Also thank you for the critique on my sketchbook, you pointed out things that made a lot of sense.

[surfandsnow]

Jephyr X- thanks, just need to apply them more.

Nibras- thank you, Ive been trying to work on stuff from head lately. Things are going a lot more slowly, but hopefully I am learning more.

-couple of characters from head

[surfandsnow]

-couple characters from head
-a bunch of pencil-marker drawings
the bottom two pages are studies with a couple from head mixed in, I am thinking of rendering the one on the top left.

[shiNIN]

I hope you know what you did... Posting in my SB means I come and my inner critic tears apart your faces passionately :D I can't help it.

I don't know how far #170 is from your current level but it's the last very detailed and even colorful portrait from head ;) Hm... There are some nice things going on, yay radiosity :D The face has some proportional flaws, the nose is too big for the eyes (I'd make the nose smaller and the eyes bigger, a nice face usually has a one eye gap between the eyes) and the mouth is too low, well one need a huge experience to avoid such things for sure. The head is somewhat flat, don't give off a 3d feel, if the nose has such shadowed areas, the left part of her face (our right) should have more and deeper shadows. It's strange the mouth highlight is very bright but it's not true for the eye highlights. The background doesn't compliment her, not like I could say what would be right for that.

It seems you know how to make a nice clean lineart... :) Some of your figures has a dwarfish feel because of the oversized head and the right figure in #174 has extremely short legs and an arm that basically very nice but its proportions can't decide if they follow the torso or the height of the figure. It's a pity, it would be a nice figure with a good expression... Well I can't say much about the clothed parts, my eyes aren't trained for that.

I'm sorry if I'm too nitpicky (oh no, that's much worse when I'm that), I usually can't comment in any other way.
You had zillion studies since you started this Sb and you have improved a lot, keep it up... I know you will.

[Kungfoowiz]

Those torsos are so awesome! =) Seriously nice work on your lighting in general. Your last self portrait, the big one in what looks like charcoal, just a small crit on your upper lips, would maybe suggest to push back the wings of the lips slightly so the prow of it comes forward, hope that makes sense.. =) Great drawings! =)

[AdrianNagorski]

WOW, thats a lot of practice!
Liking where its going good work on the values of your sketches! you've given me a better idea on how to sketch as well.

- - - - - - - - - -
Things I Do Weekly -- sketchbook (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=224706)

Wasted - The game's production sketchbook (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=225181)

Ctrl+Paint, a place for beginners, many helpful videos! (http://www.ctrlpaint.com/)
- - - - - - - - - -

[surfandsnow]

shiNIN- thanks for the crit, for the painted head, now that you mention it the nose is a little low and its throwing almost everything off, making the lips too low too and also makes it harder to draw small. I got mostly lucky on that one, but I think my heads have been getting a lot better though.
Ive been trying to draw my noses a little higher on female heads.

I think your right about my arms and legs being a little short, but I am not sure that there that off though. Edit: nevermind, my arms need a lot of work too, everything does really :\.

Your definatley right about the size of the heads though, i think everyone in general draws them a bit bigger so its easier to draw the features, but I still have to pay more attention to the overall size of the head since the margin of error is so small, and Ive been trying to pay more attention to it ever since you mentioned it.

Kungfoowiz - Thanks, not sure what you mean about the lips, but I'll make sure to keep an eye on the lips in the future.

AdrianNagorski - Thanks.


Ive taken a bit of a break from updating, but Ive still been sketching a lot, although without updating I havent finished as much stuff though. I have a few more paintings I am working on, that I want to try to push to finish.

For now, I mostly want to try to work on solid linework and gesture of the figure.

-sketches from head, I might paint a couple of them, all from head except the one labeled manikin. sorry for the quality.

[surfandsnow]

-some character sketches
-attempt at a mech, micron brush pen, marker, white ink pen.
-acrylic paint from life a few hours roughly 4*6 very roughly.
-a painting wip of a character from my sketchbook I liked