mearrin69's sketchbook...n00b trying to improve

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
I'm not exactly new here but I guess I've become newly motivated. I've been drawing, painting, etc. daily for the last month or so and, though there is much suckage, I feel like it's finally time to maybe start journaling it here for C&C.

A little background: I've got no training (this will become apparent soon :)) apart from the odd art class in school. Back in high school and college I did quite a lot of pencil sketching and drawing and I guess I was sort of passable. That was two decades ago, however, and I've more or less only dabbled in the years since. I want to build some abilities both for my own personal satisfaction and in order to be able to execute a project I'm putting together.

So, starting at the start, I've been trying to learn a bit about digital painting software. I first got a copy of Painter around version 4 (when it came in a paint can) and have had a couple of versions since then. I've played around with it some but have sadly never really taken the time to really learn how to use it. Since I don't really have any experience with natural-media paints it's a completely new experience to me.

This is an attempt at using Painter's oil paints to do a portrait. Here's the ref (http://modelmayhm-1.vo.llnwd.net/d1/photos/091022/15/4ae0df2c8b711_m.jpg). I suppose, at this point, no critique or suggestion is too obvious (okay, well, I know about Loomis and plan on buying any books bearing his name as I find them). I don't know much of anything and would appreciate any guidance you might have.

A little self-critique:
* Roughly got the right values in there. Color is off quite a bit.
* Form is hosed in many areas. Right forearm is way out of whack. Fingers need more shaping. Face is too wide and pretty much the wrong shape in general.
* Not too bad on the torso. I'm actually somewhat pleased with what happened there.
* Face. Ack. Horrid. I suck at faces even after months of trying to get them down. I have some basic drawing books and have been trying to follow the exercises there.

So. Please feel free to add to my list. :)

I love these forums and have been lurking here for years. Glad to actually join the fun...though my first contribution is somewhat lacking it's a maybe a first step. Will be posting some other stuff (landscapes, etc.) as I get up to speed and can do something other than a smiley-face sun over a crayon house.
M

Edit: Hmm...that ref is *teeny tiny*. I'll look for a bigger one. Okay...here's my boy's page (http://www.modelmayhem.com/pic.php?pic_id=4ae0df2c8b711&date=2009-10-22 15:39:40&id=1427471&pid=14860112&the_count=3&group_id=&ua=) on Model Mayhem.

[mearrin69]

My intention here is to practice drawing every day for at least an hour, more when I have time. BUT, today is a busy day so I might not get to do that. In the meantime I'm adding two more pretty poor attempts at figures, both done in Photoshop. The ref for the guy is here (http://characterdesigns.com/bandaid/content/photosets/1700/1792/Photoset_023_092.jpg). Ref for the girl is posted...not sure where I found it actually so I hope it's okay to post it.

Faces, as you can see, are a big problem for me. I'm going to work on it...a lot. I painted and erased her face about ten times. Can't get it right. Maybe I'll take another stab. Also need lots of work on hand, feet. Well, all anatomy, I guess. I'm not yet able to translat what I see into pixels. In general I'm trying to avoid my natural tendancy to work one area...staying zoomed out and trying to work the whole thing to the same level of detail. That's working for me a bit, at least on a macro level.

I've also included a couple of draft maps from a gaming project I've been slowly putting together. Bit better results here. :) I do some posting over at the Cartographer's Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com/)...where you can see my city map was recently a featured map (yay me).
M


Edit: Okay. Having a heck of a time uploading images and my maps are too big for the manager anyway. Here are some links if you're interested:
http://forum.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=7539
http://forum.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=7718
http://forum.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=7624
I guess the last two are WiPs, really.

[mearrin69]

Reckon I'm a little better with scenery than people. More practice on faces but nothing worth showing. Flower's not bad though.

Looks like I might get Painter 11 and an Intuos3 or 4 for my B-day. Yay me.
M

Q: Am I making these pictures too big? I can scale them down...really thought the BB software would sort of thumbnail them or something. How big is necessary for critique? Surely smaller than I'm posting.

[mearrin69]

Well. No real progress worth showing on figures so here's a landscape. This one is photoshop. Maybe 2.5 hours...I'm slow. Not sure if you'd call it "impressionist" or "under-rendered". :) Still, not to bad for me...though it rests firmly in the sketch category.
M

[Zweit]

Good start dude. Don't be afraid of defining the edges of your forms more in your paintings. These are all good starts but they often look out of focus (such as the flower in post 3) and would benefit from another pass.

[mearrin69]

Thanks...and your advice is much appreciated. I am still experiencing an overall nervousness in committing to pen strokes :) This applies to form and color. I've had to burn through some of it to get the color range in the last two sketches I posted. My first attempts at both were very flat.

Another problem is that I have been working zoomed out and then not realizing that I need to zoom in to detail at full resolution...but posting the pic at full-size, not scaled down to my zoomed-out view.
M

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
No posts lately but I have actually been working on stuff. Between birthday presents and early Christmas presents I have come into an Intuos4 (was rolling with a Graphire since my new computer [no serial] obsoleted my Intuos) and Photoshop CS4. Also, an Amazon gift certificate netted me some Bridgman and Loomis books (cheapos, not the sacred volume). Quite a haul...I'm a happy boy.

Been playing lately with Scott Robertson's Creating Unique Environments DVD. This is pulled from his original marker sketch composite - I took several snapshots and have been just sort of messing around to see what I come up with. Lighting's probably all wrong in this but I was trying to be quick and was focused on trying to figure out what the shapes might be. This is kind of fun stuff but I'm going to put it aside and focus on human anatomy for a while when I get my books.
M

[element1988]

for someone with no training and little experience i say your doing a great job with these, keep at it :D