Some recent stuff

[Lunatique]

It's been forever since I posted anything. Here are some recent stuff--nothing special. I think I'm actually getting worse. I need to rethink the way I work and try new approaches I guess.

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/outpost/outpost.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/outpost/outpost-closeup-3.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/outpost/outpost-closeup-4.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/outpost/outpost-closeup-1.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/outpost/outpost-closeup-5.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/illustrations/moonlight_lovers/moonlight_lovers.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/illustrations/moonlight_lovers/closeup.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/kreuweizer_tactical_pistol/kreuweizer_tactical_pistol.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/lieutenant/concept-lieutenant.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/ship/ship.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/illustrations/till_death_do_us_part/till_death_do_us_part.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/illustrations/till_death_do_us_part/till_death_do_us_part-closeup-3.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/illustrations/till_death_do_us_part/till_death_do_us_part-closeup-4.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/creature/creature.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/creature/creature-closeup-4.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/creature/creature-closeup-3.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/creature/creature-closeup-1.jpg

A quickie oil sketch:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/traditional/oils/oil_sketch-01.jpg


A couple of works in progress:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/wip/tellurian_sky.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/wip/foxglove_carries_out_assasination%20.jpg

[winjer]

loosen up dude. i cant believe all the detail you put into that dashboard on the first one. more details doesnt make the painting better. that quick oil sketch is the best one. try to stay loose like that through the whole painting.

[Lunatique]

winjer - I totally agree. It's easy to know but hard to do, since I've had the bad habit for all of my life. It'll take a while before I completely break it and loosen up. I've tried different things--time limits, using large brushes..etc--none worked thus far. It'll have to take a total change of mentality.

[winjer]

here i made a quick paintover with my mouse. i dropped out most of the unecessary detail and pushed up the contrast on the values to create a more powerful piece of illustration. try to always reserve details for where you really need them, like the main focal point. too much detail is like trying to hear one voice in a crowd of people yelling

[Lunatique]

Hey, that's very nice! Makes the piece more atmospheric.

[Erilaz]

Hey Robert, nice to see you posting!

I hadn't seen this one (http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/wip/foxglove_carries_out_assasination%20.jpg) before... is there a larger version?

Have you actually been painting much recently? You mentioned a while ago that you were getting more into your music.

[Elwell]

I won't go crazy and die looking at any of these, will I? :)

Seriously, this

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/traditional/oils/oil_sketch-01.jpg

is absolutely gorgeous. Very Cooper Studio-y.

[Rascar Capac]

have to agree with Elwell...your loosest simplest piece stands out above the rest

[Stark]

Very nice stuff. Winjer is right about the detail though...ridiculous amount...great CG though, I like the style

[Fireflights]

I agree with the detail-crits...also, although your texture/rendering skills are excellent, all of your colors seem rather...flat. Most notably in the 1st piece. While you have a wide range of colors, you do not seem to have much variation in single objects' colors. It looks like with each item you work on, that item gets one standard color.

I think I like the balcony piece the best, because it's the only one that seems to deviate somewhat from the "one-color per object" theory. The issue is still prevalent in that piece (foliage, the wall, her bedroom), but much less so than in all the others.

[hp]

i love the piece you did with the blood siren or whatever in the moonlight...it seems like you lost some of the emotion and 'painterlyness" from that piece in your latest pieces.

the main problem i see with some of your pieces is the clashing colors and the smoothness...almost airbrushed looking. it's just a preference but adding some strokes that you can see to some of the paintings would be nice. and i can't help with colors either cuz i suck ^^

on the other hand, the hands on your "lovers" piece are just beautiful. keep it up.

[CGMonkey]

I love the moonlight lovers. It has grown alot on me and I absolutely LOVE it now..

[hitman]

I'm surprise why this thread is moved??? I tot these stuffs are really good??
can someone explain??? I'm confused..

[N D Hill]

You sure can draft things on the technical side and render very well. Your grasp on lighting, especially on the moonlight piece looks outstanding. I do however have to agree with other comments that have been made regarding your saturation but at this point I'm not quite sure if that's just a matter of personal taste. All though an equally saturated background does tend to throw off a sense of depth. One thing I might add is regarding your level of rendering. Don't get me wrong, being meticulous is something I admire greatly. But when the same level of detail is applied to every surface or subjects one might regard as secondary compositionally over something more central, the focus tends to get thrown off. For instance, the piece where the warrior is defending a woman and child, you get extremely tight with your speckled five-o'clock shadow while the eyes lack that level of loving detail. Natrually, the viewer's eye is drawn towards the complex as it has a harder time resting on comparitively less developed surfaces. It's kind of a matter of picking your battles. Your care for detail is definitely a strength you should play to. For the most part, I'm diggin what I see.

[Elwell]

I'm surprise why this thread is moved??? I tot these stuffs are really good??
can someone explain??? I'm confused..
Me too. Although I doubt Rob (unlike some other people) really cares. I'm going to bounce this back up, maybe we can play mod ping pong.

[Lunatique]

Holy cow, it's Tristan! I'm a fan--that piece with the girl in grey holding the cat--loved it ever since I first saw it.

I'm certainly not offended or bothered by having my thread moved. I'm the first person to beat up on myself when it comes to my own work. We are all in this for a lifetime, and it takes a lifetime of passion and learning--it never stops. I have much to learn, just like everyone else. The minute you start to believe that you're "good enough" is the minute you stop growing. However, I appreciate you moving the thread back.

I agree with all the crits--believe me, my shit looks far worse to my own eyes than everyone else's. That's why I said in the first post that I think I'm getting worse and need a change of mentality. I've been in a rut, and I'm sure I'll flight tooth and nail to crawl my way out of it--or die trying. I totally appreciate all the thoughtful crits--and I'll try to keep them in the back of my mind the next time I reach for the Wacom tablet.

[sickelsick]

i dunno wat to say. this shit looks flawless....

this is the type of post i wish i never opened because it hurt my feelings. (feel like im drawing stick figures now...)

i quit art. ill go for a doctor degree or sumthin...

[Gavin Hargest]

Holy cow, this is godly. . . .

I adore the amout of detail, simply insane, rock on :D

[MatthewGraves]

Oh christ.

How long did that first one take you?

For that matter, how long did that tentacle creature take? The detail in those is astounding.

[Phuzion]

I use to be suuuuper detail oriented as well. It basically took about 2 years of just sketching and never finishing anything to break out of it. Now I'd like to think I have a decent balance between detail and simplicity... which also came with a huge crush on simplicity after being inundated with tooooo much detail. I think one of the main things you're suffering from is letting the sense of form become subordinate to the surface details, which will always weaken a drawing/painting. If the form isn't reading, and the sense of depth isn't working, then all the texture in the world won't save it... it'll actually make it weaker. Just some things you might keep in mind. And I have to agree... that oil sketch is the best one. Keep on keepin' on!!

Peace,
~Daniel

P.S. The other thing I'm noticing is the lack of focal point. You're wanting to show off all the crazy detail you've put into the whole painting, and forgetting about the overall composition, which should always come first and foremost, even before form and depth. Let some of those details become 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th reads. Composition is everything when it comes to illustration, and I'm willing to bet that if you take these images into photoshop and convert them to grayscale, the lights and darks will be pretty even, and pretty spotty. You may want to pay more attention to massing your lights and darks, and always let one overpower the other. If it's too balanced it becomes really really bland, really quick.

[Arctis]

Hi,

I have 2 advices that may be useful:

-1 : make some life drawing with quick poses (5mn maxi), there's nothing better to free your hand. Right now youre hand isn't free.(to me :) )
Very fast you'll see the benefit of it.

-2 : on your digital paintings, make a black&white version before adding colors. That's the technique used by Alex Ross (and comic artist Sergio Toppi said that in B&W, you can see if a drawing stands or not)
In B&W there's no details, just impact, so it help to hierarchize the elements of the scene. Here's a little tutorial I made here :
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60992

Good luck

Pierre.

[Lunatique]

I've actually done tons of life drawing--I used to run life drawing sessions at the game companies I worked at. That doesn't help for some people as they lapse into a different mentality once not doing life drawing. It's more about the way you think and how you execute your work. I think it has to do with shifting priorities, like phuzion mentioned--it took him a couple of years of limiting the amount of details to get over the old mentality.

I sometimes start in B/W and then add color, and I sometimes convert my pieces to B/W to check the values. Doesn't seem to make a difference. Once again, it's a difference in mentality. If I can't see it then whatever I try will only be empty gestures. I need to shift my mentality in order to give meaning to the gestures.

MatthewGraves - They take too long. That's why I need to change mentality and start working loosely instead.

sickelsick / Gavin Hargest - Thank you--guess there are fans of useless detail afterall. :D It really is a bad habit--at least it's become one for me.

[Boom]

Hey Robert, You might not know but I guess we have been posting around the same boards for around the same amount of time. And I can safely say that you are indeed very gifted painter, but as you put it yourself spend too much time doing all the wrongs.

For starters I think that your understanding of light, color and anatomy are to a big deal better than most, but when you put detail everywhere in your paintings they will read as being flat and 2 dimensional. You need to take that great advantage of yours - the eye for detail, and make it sing... There was a great portrait painting Android did a while ago that would illustrate this (ill see if I can dig it up again) where he puts detail, color intensity and sharpness etc. only around the focal point in the painting - Maybe it would be a nice thing for you to try out?

Keep going, don't loose faith in your self - and no, you are not getting worse! :)

Edit : this was the thread by Android I mentioned: Android - valdemo thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53555)

[Soliloque]

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/concepts/lieutenant/concept-lieutenant.jpg

I know I'll be squashed to death by the others, but doesn't she look like an evil ... erhh, what's her name again... Rei ! Rei Ayanami from Evangelion ! (sorry to let an anime reference enter Concept art)


http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/sunra/256/rei/Rei10.jpg

[Lunatique]

Rei is a lot cuter than my Lieutenant chick. :D

And what's wrong with bringing up anime here? Is there some unwritten rule about it? The Japanese are some of the best concept artist on the planet IMO.

[Sam Araya]

Hiya there,

I really feel weird critiquing your work.:)

But, I saw some of your photographic stuff, and there is a lovely playing with deep of field on these, (man, I really feel retarded stating such and obvious thing but...) have you tried bringing the same sensibility on your paintings? Maybe thinking of composing em as if you where looking throught the camera lens you know?

Just and idea, hope it makes sense.

[Lunatique]

I've tried applying blur on the background layer before, and it looked a bit strange to me, since we associate DOF effects with camera lenses, and seeing that effect in a painting throws you off a bit. I suppose there's no harm in it though.