Flip a coin & scratch my teeth, Here's my SB (may contain tiny amounts of nudity)

[Wr00m]

Let's hope I improved since the last time I uploaded something on the Internet.
Anyway, this is WIP of a birthday gift for a friend.

Paintovers, crits etc would be much appreciated.

Soon to begin coloring.

[kuni-bob]

Hi Wr00m! I really like the concept of this. The bored expression contrasts nicely with the poor stressed little guys. :D I'm sure others will be able to offer better crits than I can, but one thing that seems off to me is his right forearm (our left) -- it looks too tube-like, with no definition around the wrist (unlike his other hand, which has clear definition). Defining the shape more will add to the weight of his motion and be more pleasing to the eye. I hope that helps!

[Wr00m]

Thanks a lot! I love when people define the mistakes one makes. I see that something is wrong but never know what, thanks again.

[Wr00m]

Thanks alot for the help, I definetly used it.

Here's an update. more pointers anyone?

Right now im having trouble keeping the face recodnizable. It changes after coloring.

[Wr00m]

2 speedpaintings i did some week ago. Just trying out colors.

The green field one is supposed to be my friend lost in a field.

The black dude I've noticed the hood looks like a monk hoop and lines on the lips are wrong but meehhh.. Perhaps i'll fix it later :)

And at last an update of the painting of my friend

[Wr00m]

Many things I'm not happy about but I'm finished

[Wr00m]

Some pages from my sketchbook. I happily appreciate comments.
After i scanned the drawings i realized that photos probably look better.
Most of them are drawn during boring school lessons :)

[Wr00m]

By the way, how do i add an icon to the thread?

[Wr00m]

Some sketches.
I really should update more but i don't have the energy to scan the drawings and I mostly draw traditional.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9833/webp.jpg

Btw my question still applies, how do I add an image to the thread?

[palladium]

Thx for visiting my SB Wr00m:)
Really like whats going on here dude. Keep up with the updates:D

[Wr00m]

Thank YOU!

You've got some cool stuff going on there man!

[Wr00m]

Very basic planestudy on the the digital and the A4. I realised i never studied planes and that it's time to do so.

Rest are some outtakes from my sketchbook
The one where it says Per is a portrait i made of my music arrangement and composition teacher during a lesson.

Just ordered an Intuos4. Finally upgrading from my graphire 3. Can't wait!!! :)

[derss]

cool SB, i like how u try out so many different styles. is the last sketches in inc?

PS. from sweden? :P

[Wr00m]

Haha, thanks.
last one is a caligraphy marker thingy. That's what it says anyway.

Yep i live in sweden.

[derss]

hehe, yeah noticed some swedish words there so i figured.

btw, think if you edit your first post and remove and attach the picture again it will show. worked for me. had like 4 pictures in my first post and nothing showed, then i went back and removed them all and reattached one of them. after that, it showed. hope it works out :)

[Wr00m]

hehe, yeah noticed some swedish words there so i figured.

btw, think if you edit your first post and remove and attach the picture again it will show. worked for me. had like 4 pictures in my first post and nothing showed, then i went back and removed them all and reattached one of them. after that, it showed. hope it works out :)

Thankyou! finally worked!

[Leo Ki]

Hey there,
Keep sketching and post more, the quality of your lines is improving.
I'm especially stunned by your digital sketches, did you clean the lines?

[DiR3Kt]

Hi some nice lines here, espcially like the face of of 'Per'.

[Wr00m]

Leo Ki : Hehe Thank you :tihi:, the funny thing is that most of them aren't that new and they're not chronological, It's just that I draw a different line depending on the pen/pencil I use.

DiR3Kt : Thanks It's made with a thin Marker/pen, Makes it more important to draw a definite line.

Self portrait made somewhere in October :)

[dana brancucci]

Hey, thanks for commenting on my SB. I wanted to stop in and see what you're working on, and by the looks of it you are on the right track. Learning to understand how the handle the planes on the human head is definately tricky, but looks like you are getting a handle on it. I don't know if you have seen it before, but I referenced (still do actually) a book by Andrew Loomis called Drawing the Head and Hands a lot when trying to understand how to draw the human head. It's definately worth it if you can get a copy- you can find it online for free in PDF form if you look hard enough. Anyway, good work. The last drawing you posted looks like it represents a big step forward, keep moving!

[Myllys]

Hi. Thanks for commenting my sb. You have cool style. Btw I'm also trying to learn the facial planes. Hope it pays of for both of us :)

[Wr00m]

dana brancucci : Yeah, that's the book i'm looking into :)
Thanks for looking at my stuff.

Myllys : Thanks, means alot :D I'm sure it will!

Decided to do a speed painting since it was real long time ago!
The darker one i played around on ps color balance settings (like 5 sec)
Not sure which one's better so please tell me your opinion!
The darker one is probably to dark on the block but since its late now i dont have the energy to fiddle with it.

The object you can see is an iBlock made by apple about 1000years in the future which later lead to a semi-apocalyspe on earth.
(Yeah I'm that cool and made this up right now 8) )
What it does you ask!? It can do anything and everything!

[Leo Ki]

the funny thing is that most of them aren't that new and they're not chronological, It's just that I draw a different line depending on the pen/pencil I use.
OK, then I can only repeat that your digi lines are best, and my question about them still stands ;)
On your latest piece, if the sun we see in the fog is the only source of light, the shadow and shades of the iBlock are weird (imagine the scene from above, with the parallel rays of light from the sun). And if the atmosphere is postap-dusty I would expect paler or bluish colors for the ground in the dark version. Or maybe there's a second sun that entered the system... Or that's some kind of magic monolith :P

[Wr00m]

OK, then I can only repeat that your digi lines are best, and my question about them still stands ;)
On your latest piece, if the sun we see in the fog is the only source of light, the shadow and shades of the iBlock are weird (imagine the scene from above, with the parallel rays of light from the sun). And if the atmosphere is postap-dusty I would expect paler or bluish colors for the ground in the dark version. Or maybe there's a second sun that entered the system... Or that's some kind of magic monolith :P

Oh right! Thanks :D On some then I used large brush for the basic shape (verly light) and then a smaller one for the lines. And sometimes i draw them directly.

Haha yeah... About the sun, i guess i cheated abit there. It was the last thing i Painted since i felt the sky needed something. Reslly stupid if me not to think about it.
Thanks alot for the comments. It really helps!

[Wr00m]

Gaaah still waiting impatiently for my intuos!

Painted a speedie here.

[Wr00m]

And quick faces made yesterday, abit too mangish :(

[Nibras]

Looking good bruv!
Nice faces, I can see improvement in them.
I love the fact that your experimenting and doing all this imagination stuff, it'll push you to improve

Keep at it

[SMILEFACE]

HAHA i REALLY DIG YER SKETCHES SOO MANY COOL FACES an THE BLOCK STUDY ROCKS ahh an id like to see you push one of yer enviros they already have presence

[palladium]

Really like that last enviro speedy:D It's a little monotone at the moment, so try throwing some compliment or analogous colors in there to livin it up a bit more.:)

[dan liimatta]

the last two environments are pretty good, and keep posting - and keep working those muscle memories etc.

Jag gillar också avatar delen av det gröna landskapet : )

[Loathsome]

Tja, shysst att du tittade förbi :)

My opinion on the image where you changed the colorbalance; keep the original. The changed one doesn't have that calm feel to it. And the first one feels so mysterious.

Also add in some studies in the thread, I'd love to see that :)

[Wr00m]

lilnebo : Thanks, I most certainly will.
Grandmassa Mr. Spect : YEAA! Thanks :)
palladium : Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try mess around with it later :]
dan liimatta : Härligt, tack :)
Loathsome : Tack själv. Thanks for the opinion :)

A couple of portraits. The first one is the most resembling one.

[Wr00m]

Thanks to my teacher i got the chance to study blending & oilpainting.

[ColorExcursion]

Can see the improvement :] Keep it comin

[Shilpi]

Those portraits look great. Can't wait to see more!

[Wr00m]

ColorExcursion & Shilpi : Thanks guys :)

A speedpaintig. Should've quit earlier but meeh.
I felt like I had to upload something

[Wr00m]

Instead of sleeping, I decided to do a painting using values.

I also did discover a new thing (everyone else probobly already knew this), when working digitaly, Work with a MEGA LARGE picture and zoom it out to like 10-15%, really helps alot. In this case i did A4 size wich is larger than i usually work in in PS.

[Krato]

hey wolf in your last update you need to have a larger value range, you just have mid tones in their, add in some darker and lighter values as they're needed

[Jonvier89]

keep up with your studies!! keep drawing!

[Wr00m]

Thanks Krato, Can't get it quite right but meh.

I'm on it Jonvier89 :)

[Joe777k7]

Thanks for checking out my sketchbook man. I see your working on some digital stuff which as it looks it starting to improve greatly. Keep em coming man, draw all the time!!(advice i need to follow faithfully lol)

[Krato]

values

[kingkostas]

interesting ideas mate.I think you have to keep up with the anatomy study.
Yeah krato did the next part you had to do (either darkening them with level adgjudgement or placing the darker darks :)
keep up the good work

[Wr00m]

Joe777k7: Hehe, thanks for checking out mine to man. Will do!
Krato: You have no idea how much i appreciate your paint over. Thanks a bunch! Really helped.
kingkostas: Thanks, I'm on it ;)

Fixed it a bit, then I got carried away and here's the result.
I know the light on the hat is off but meh... It was mostly for fun.

[Roboko]

Keep it up, don't forget about boring drill exercises (20 faces, 20 eyes etc) everyday not just imagination stuff, and don't move on to colour just yet. Preferably you should just stick to line first, then once you've got a grip on that move on to values.

Useful stuff:
- Loomis books (you can easily find them)
- The practice and science of drawing (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14264) (amazing book, worth tolerating the dated language)
- various threads around CA, too many to list but all are easy enough to find

You should also try to stay away from your tablet for a bit until you've got a basic grip on drawing

[Wr00m]

Hah, No offense Roboko but either you didn't look at my sketchbook at all or you have no idea what you're talking about, seems like you wrote this just so I would comment your sketchbook.
About Loomis I think there are some plane studies on the previous page but no sense in uploading 10pages of Loomis studies.

A'lil higher up you'd see both oils and portrait studies. I usually draw traditionally, but now it's time to practice digital too.

You clearly see that the portrait above (the non messed up one to the left) is a value study from a photo ref so it's no imagination. (I have almost none imagination stuff uploaded I think.

I'm sorry if I'm a bit on the offensive side the the basic grip of drawing comment made me kind off laugh.

There's one thing that you're right about though. Time to study sum of 'em values!! ;)

PEACE!

Keep it up, don't forget about boring drill exercises (20 faces, 20 eyes etc) everyday not just imagination stuff, and don't move on to colour just yet. Preferably you should just stick to line first, then once you've got a grip on that move on to values.

Useful stuff:
- Loomis books (you can easily find them)
- The practice and science of drawing (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14264) (amazing book, worth tolerating the dated language)
- various threads around CA, too many to list but all are easy enough to find

You should also try to stay away from your tablet for a bit until you've got a basic grip on drawing

[Roboko]

none taken, and nah I haven't updated my sketchbook in ages, only added a couple doodles, I don't need comments in my sketchbook at the moment.

I didn't see any pages with several studies of one thing/loomis style anatomy studies so I assumed you didn't do them. I saw that most of the stuff on page 1 was imagination stuff.

And um, no offence, but if I were you I'd practice traditional a while longer and not think about digital but hey, no real rules, just my opinion :)

Good luck

[Parsakoira]

the values on the portrait is coming along better and better by each update! dont stop! thanks for the comment btw, was real nice :)

[smuli]

I like the way you draw the faces looking a bit angular. The pencil sketches have at the top of the page show a lot of personality IMO. Hope to see more full figures and color paintings!

[The7Artist7]

Hey hey - thanks for dropping by my SB!

I'm liking what I see here - keep it up and keep postin! I'll drop by again and see how you've progressed soon.

Rock on

[AmontilladoAg]

Looks like there's a lot of improvement being made here :) Keep drawing from life -- you can learn so much from life-sketches!

Cheers :^^:

[kingkostas]

it is an interesting one.You could push the values a little more but hmm maybe it will be more interesting do something new :):).Maybe reduce some whites and render some outlines to make it comunicate better with its surrounding space
keep it up mate :)

[Joe777k7]

mARIO!!!!
Ah the memories of that game. Come on! Lets see some more lol :)

[monstertree]

You've got a good start, and you're studying so you're only gonna get better! I think you'd benefit from having a more confident line. If you're not happy with a line, don't even try to fix it - going over only underlines (literally) the error. When choosing values and colours, it can't hurt to experiment and learn from trial and error. Exaggerate what you were originally going to choose, and see what the result is, work with a limited palette that you've set before you start, try working with no opacity setting etc. You'll always learn something if you keep pushing yourself to do things that you've yet to try ;)

[N E X T]

thanks for dropping by... my response is a bittle late but anyway! ;)

there is an improvement.

sometimes i think the face proportions are a bit off, but probably you figured that out by yourself.

Last portrait is good!

[LORD M]

Good portraits, Wr00m, they got nice values but try and push the dark values a bit more. :)

[Wr00m]

Parsakoira
smuli
The7Artist7
AmontilladoAg
Joe777k7
Thanks guys, means a lot :)

kingkostas, LORD M & monstertree: Thanks, I'll try to keep it in mind :]

I don't update my every doodle but today a friend inspired me to try pixel art.
So this is my first try. A self portrait that is.
My Hoodie was a nightmare to make so i decided not to make it perfect and just roll with it.


Upscaled 3x, It's kindoff unfinshed since like eg, feet are slightly off and it doesnt look that good att 100% but that's something i'll deal with later.


BY THE WAY: I GOT INTO ART SCHOOL! 10 out of ca 160 got in I think so Im happy :)

[LORD M]

Congrats on getting into art-school! Jävligt bra jobbat! :D Shit, jag avundas dig. :P

The pixel art one is looking pretty good, the nose looks a bit big though, maybe taking away the shading on the left side of the nose would make it look a bit smaller. :)

[Wr00m]

LORD M: Haha Tack så mkt ;)

Hehe, the nose is a bit wide cuz my nose is a bit wide, this was also something that i thought of at the begining but it looks more like me with it shaded that way, Really hard to make a face recodnizable with this few pixels. But I'm happy with the result :]

Doing another pixel portrait of a friend ( hehe,fun to use a different method then traditional sketches), This is the WIP, gonna color it later.

[Wr00m]

Update

[Vritra]

The pixel work is looking nice. Also enjoyed the painted portraits. Thanks for dropping by my SB.

[Wr00m]

A recent painting that i started on yesterday. having troubles with the raincoat. Also having trouble deciding on the size of the planet behind.

And ofc a done version of the previous pixel. forgot to upload. Not many changes.
I'm fully aware of the wrong proportions but i like it this way, keep it stylized you know :]

[Naidy]

Hello there, Quite like the variety in the faces and oddly enough they seem to be improving a bit already.
So, what to say?
Hmmm... Just keep up the good work, and experimenting. :D

[raminafshari]

your last drawing reminds me my childhood and Disney cartoons .

[RedSquirrel]

Pixel art, now there's something you don't see on CA every day. That last pic reminds me of the Dreamworks logo sequence. Keep fillin' your SB!

[Wr00m]

Hehe, I rarely stick with it and finish paintings :d & even more rarely upload. :D
But here's a speed self portrait. Had lot's of fun painting it. Think I'll make something out of it later.

[Wr00m]

Felt like doing one more portrait.

[Sean McClain]

Hey Thanx for stopping by my S.B., Those oils on page two look promising, and those last two portaits have really nice use of color, not using blacks or dark darks makes it look so clean. Cheers!

[alexson]

Finfina grejer! Gillar dina målningar! Den där pixelererade tjejen har lite för lång överkropp tror jag, skrevet skulle upp en liten bit så bena blir längre imo. Men snyggt gjort. Keep up za güt wörk!

[Wr00m]

Just playing around. The portrait one is a joke painting for a friend of mine. I'm aware that hair value is weird

Zombie one just trying to paint a zombie since I've never done that. Perhaps ill try to make something out of it later on. But then I'll probably have to completely repaint it to make it at least somewhat creepy.

Sean McClain Thanks :)
alexson Hehe, jo är medveten om att proportionerna är snea. gjorde det med mening :] & tack tackar :) uppskattas.

Btw, Trying to get some stars. So if you wouldn't mind please rate :]

[Lucdehaan]

life sure is good :P keep it up

thx for lookin at my sb :)

[umbinc]

Good stuff) I defenitely like the use of colors.

[Seraph Fawkes]

Hey there, it was nice of you to stop by at my sb. Like the pixel art girl. You not afraid of color, so keep practicing, and, as always - go for some anatomy study. Keep up the good work )

[Suncut]

I really like the energy on your latest portraits. The pixel girl has a really long back compared to her legs.

[Myllys]

Hi. Haven't been to your sketchbook for a while. Man, you've made a huge progress. Awesome colors on the fisher/planet painting. C'mon upload the finished one! Also great portraits. Man what an expression on your self portrait. Great colors on the second one! Keep'em coming!

[ryan mcshane]

just going to say that this (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1052060&stc=1&d=1283038803) girls crotch is really low
real cool portraits but theyd do alot of good with some master studys and sloowing right down and working them! study some sargent heads, some leyendecker, degas, ingres, bougooroo whatever you want to study, study it! but slowly, so you pick up everything and soak it up like a sponge my boy! A SPONGE. A MOTHER FUCKING SPONGE.

[Loathsome]

The pixel stuff looks nice!
Keep doing those color studies, I'm sure they will pay off nice!

[Wr00m]

Thnx Guys! I know the proportions are off on the pixel chick. That's a counscious choice ;)

Long time ago since i last sketched on the pc so decided to do a figure. Never do them since I'm not good enough but then i realized. I wont get good unless I do them :d


Anyway little sketch, didn't care much for proportions. Completely form imagination ;d

[celtica]

ahha,the portraits are sooo funny and positive,good job)

[monstertree]

Nice mate, your colour picking skills are getting good! Fun portraits ;)

[Wr00m]

Celtica : Thanks, your comment made me happy :]
monstertree Thanks alot :]

Some creature concepts i found stored on my hd. Some of these are really old & some new. I found that it's relaxing just to find shape so lately when I'm bored i draw one or two of these.

[kaktuzlime]

Hiya Wroom! Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook and leaving a comment :)

I like your portrait studies and pixelart. Keep it up!

And in answer to your question about education, I went to the university in Skövde, where I studied "Computer Game Graphics" for three years. Prior to that I had studied social science at high school. Got most of my 3D skills at school, and the art stuff I had to teach myself, finding as much lifedrawing as I could. Don´t expect the classes and teachers to learn you anything. If they do, that´s awesome. Find other people with your motivations and desires and learn together with them. I can totally recommend Glenn Vilppu´s Drawing Manual and Walt Stanchfields "Drawn to Life".

Take care, see you around.

[JellevdVegt]

fun stuff, and nice sihouette's also. i wouldnt concentrate on getting stars if i were you. i learned that i had much more fun in drawing the moment i cared less about what others think about my drawing. also, the most people at ca judge your piece based of it as 'being a nice picture'. they dont know the story behind the picture, which is more important imo.

but thats just me :P anywayssssss... keep on making that good stuff.

[Loathsome]

Thnx Guys! I know the proportions are off on the pixel chick. That's a counscious choice ;)

Long time ago since i last sketched on the pc so decided to do a figure. Never do them since I'm not good enough but then i realized. I wont get good unless I do them :d


Anyway little sketch, didn't care much for proportions. Completely form imagination ;d

I know you didn't care much for proportions but I decided to do a draw-over real quick.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9569/bloblboblb.jpg

[Wr00m]

kaktuzlime: Thanks a lot for the words & tips. Much appreciated.
JellevdVegt: Thank you, Hahah wise words. :]
Loathsome: as said, fully aware of the proportions but I definitely learned some things from your paint over. Thank you.

Some outtakes from my SB.
some studies, made a bunch more but just took the first ones since I'm to lazy to upload and the uploading process isn't exactly so fast.
Anatomy, figure, some imagination and recently tried drawing animals for the first time. :]

[Luk999]

Great sketchbook. You´re on the right track with the studies.
I like the crazy teletubies.

Keep it up!

[Sean McClain]

good job with the anatomy studies, I should do some myself...

[Wr00m]

Thanks alot guys.

Trying a new way of shading. character design overall is not done but i started to shade some shadows in the face. Will probably look after some good tutorials on this technique later.

Any tips would be appreciated.

EDIT: something bout the left eye is bugging me so I'll probably fix it later on.

[Wr00m]

Crappy photo of a crappy self portrait. Should probably push the values more which I'll perhaps do later on. also I worked in thin layers to achieve the darks to avoid the reflects when i photograph it. But it didn't help. Maybe i should work with black colored pencils next time?

And a pikachu for fun :)

[Krato]

a few posts up with the guy in undies i think looking up and doing some studies of muscles would help.. because in that picture you just drew ovals all over his legs.. and if i remember correctly they muscles in legs weren't ovals. :c

[Konstruktion]

Well all right, vad händer i ÖG då! Hälsa Thomas och Robert!

[PNate]

Nice, post 88 has a really cool feel to it and good job with the studies!

[Wr00m]

a few posts up with the guy in undies i think looking up and doing some studies of muscles would help.. because in that picture you just drew ovals all over his legs.. and if i remember correctly they muscles in legs weren't ovals. :c

Yeah. I guess i just wanted to upload something. won't upload random doodles that even i know suck. and yeah. i suppose i just marked muscle positions or something stupid. won't happen again :)

Konstruktion Jodå d flyter på är nog det rätta ordvalet. Hörde att du pluggar i florens nu. Funderar på att söka dit.... när jag lär mig teckna ordentligt. Kan man få någon sorts stöd eller måste man sälja sig på gatorna för att ha råd?

ÖG är nog inte direkt rätt val om man ska syssla med concept art eller lite mer tekniskt krävande saker.
Tipsa gärna om du vet andra skolor som du kan ngt vettigt om. hade uppskattats.

Ska hälsa! :)

Thanks PNate.


Recently lost everything on my hd. Ofc no backups. You'd think I'd learn from my mistakes. I still dont backup....

Portrait I'm working on. Crits are very welcome.

[Wr00m]

Wip inspired by an artist known as loish on the web, most of you probably already know her.

Loish Deviant art (http://loish.deviantart.com/)

Accidentally wound up working in a resolution of 11000pixels :]
Gonna try to finish this next week, Well se how it goes.

[Wr00m]

Quick upd.

[Wr00m]

Speedie 1.5hr

[Wr00m]

Decided to try enter chow for the first time ever. Two quick sketches before sleep

[Wr00m]

More rangda sketches with the little time i had today

[Wr00m]

color tests, gonna try to find time to make some more poses and work on a costume

[Wr00m]

lLong time no post... Yeah. Here's a quick study from tonight.
To lazy to upload stuff :d

[Wr00m]

this nights speedie. just trying to loosen up my style.
Didint bother fixing the mistakes since im going to bed now!

[Zipfelzeus]

The perspective on the last study would have killed me :O

I really enjoyed your creature concepts on page 4 :)

Just keep going man :D

[dan liimatta]

nice studies and I like the general feeling of happiness over it ~ With the last you could probably have pushed the values a bit more and same with saturation - at least if you want it to feel more loose - I do like the shapes esp. the arms (the upper arm on the gun arm is strangely attractive ~ ).

:heart: keep on posting.

[Wr00m]

Zipfelzeus Thanks Man! :)

dan liimatta Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely think of it next time! :yum:

Latest wip. Going to push the values on the skin more on next upd. And probably think somewhat of how the surroundings affect her. somewhat based on a ref.

[ArcZephyer]

Wow I really like the inspired work from Loish, it's very colorful, fun, and has a nice use of texture. Keep up the progress with the sketchbook :)

[Bing!]

The latest one is looking very promising!...skin tones looking good..especially on that raised shoulder! :) looking forward to seeing the finished piece

[dan liimatta]

mm - well I personally thing people stick too much to the right skin colour - often forgetting bounce light - but also small imperfections, blood veins or just a tan - it gets a bit like everything is newly created and perfected plastic.

Or if you would stick with the colours you picked (not saying that you would, nor that it's bad to have several reference colours - I often do the same) you would run the risk of making your latest stiff in that sense colour wise - and I guess it's just something I try to avoid, often at the expense of other things and often I might go too far.

& also the latest looks good - and I agree with Bing! that the shoulder looks especially nice~

[dierat]

Nice sketchbook dude. Some of your recent studies are looking very promising, like the portrait in post #93. Keep working on those skin tones; improving the tone and chroma of your figures will really improve their realism. I would focus on pushing the value first, then experiment with color and saturation on top. It's hard to produce realistic coloring when the values underneath are problematic. Also keep in mind that the light source has its own color, which will influence the color of the subject's lit areas (and possibly bounce off onto other objects and surfaces).

And sorry to hear that you lost your hd and its contents. That happened to me a while back, so when I got a new computer, I started using synchback (http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html) (there's a free version if you scroll down the page a bit). Anyway, you can set it to automatically backup your files onto an external hd once a day or once a week or whatever. That way it just gets done and you don't have to worry about it.

[Aryeh]

keep up this pace and you are going to get there fast!