Rogfa's Sketches and Unfinished

[rogfa]

I think this will be a good chance to share some stuff I like but doesn't fit in any other thread.

[rogfa]

And some more...

[Mika.K]

Looks great! Keep 'em coming i really would like to see more. :)

[rogfa]

Thanks man. I did this one tonight. Had Corrine Bailey Rae in mind. I think I went a little too ape-shit on the impasto effects but just...can't...stop...the...sparkles...

[newman]

nice! i love the range of colours you work into your skintones.
how about rendering up more than the faces tho? it would be great to see some more balanced (in terms of finished/not finished) pieces.
looking fowards to more!

[rogfa]

Thanks man, I've tried and studied hard on my painting. I promise I will get back to some of these and finish them. I really want to create a couple full body concepts of my Afro Chick.

I wasn't feeling much like drawing tonight so I worked on just some gestures. I want to make my figures more dynamic, lower the horizon, raise it up -- that sort of thing.

[wookiedabo]

your painting is great, and nice figure gesture sketches. keep em comin.

[j a k e]

I really like the way with your digis how youve made your focus points very detailed in comparison to the rest of the piece. Great Sb. I also like the painter portrait. Keep it up man.
:)

[oma]

OMG this looks superb. totally like the unfinissched one's.

Never stop updating. i love you style. <3
That painter peace looks cool. Realy can learn alot from you, like i can learn from alot of people here at CA.
But you unfinnisched drawings are so cool!!!

[Tigermilk]

incredible colors, post one and two are especially awesome.
you should finnish the two fat guys in post two :)
tiger

[Cup of Joe]

Fantastic stuff! Dang, I could of been rooming with you in MTL...
I second that you should finish the fat guy.

[elisa]

great stuff! I love your style, and your colored works. Keep it up and post some more stuff!

[rogfa]

Wow. Thanks for all the comments. I have lots of sketchbooks to check out at work. Here's another one I did today. About an hour which is pretty fast for me. I used PhotoShop after viewing some of Coro's PSD files in the exclusive thread. Very cool use of the blending modes and layers. This is the actual resolutions I used. Probably should have increased that before I started to detail but PhotoShop will just chug at print size.

*EDIT - I decided to work this one over some more.

[rogfa]

I'm really loving the sketchbook thread. No pressure for Finished art, just draw. I can't leave this one alone, I brought it into Painter to finish it up. Still a wip but it's coming along good.

[Coen]

Hey Rogfa I'm in love with your stuff man seriously, it's just so atmospheric and alive.. I love the alien (3rd pic) and the gestures. Got any tips on how you're studying/learning, or how you've been learning? Eh kind of a weird question but I'm curious :D

[rogfa]

Hi Coen, thanks for the kind words. I've been learning on my own with the help of CA and a lot of books and dvds. Along with that, referencing master works and just good ole observation. But I'm still a long ways away from where I want to be. I wish I had went to school or just have classes in my area. I think I would be further ahead if I had someone to study from.

For anatomy, it was recommended that I check out George Bridgman and his books have been excellent (I have Constructive Anatomy and Life Drawing) and they are very inexpensive too. Andrew Loomis is a really popular recommendation and his books are great but there is a lot of information in them and as a beginner I didn't know where to start with them.

For the gestures, I'm a huge fan of Bruce Timm (Batman and justice League cartoons). His figures have weight, they are grounded. Look for that single line of action that goes through the spine. I posted some things about that on another thread (LINK (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73220&highlight=batman)).

I'd recommend drawing as much as you can. Draw everyday. I personally don't like using sketchbooks, there's this pressure that I feel that there has to be good work on all the pages and fear of messing up an expensive book, get a sketchbook that you can tear sheets out of or just take some copy paper and put it in a clipboard.

good luck!

[Ryan DeMita]

Wow. some really nice renders in here.
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7570&stc=1&d=1153744421

im really diggin ^
everything about it is really well handled,especially the colors. keep posting!

-ryan

[rogfa]

Thanks Ryan, I want to experiment with just lighting on that piece. Everything else was secondary. Here is one I did at work today on my lappy 386. I'm not 100% sold on the body, it's a little too dinosaur, and I might take it in another direction but I like the wrinkles around the eyes, ergo the close up.

[Coen]

Hey Rogfa thanks for the link, seems like a nice system to build a gesture. What kinda brush settings do you use? I just got started and only use a default brush with 100% opacity and opacity set to pen pressure, works nice in some ways but often gets kinda weird too..
I'll check out these books, got Loomis now but I'm not really into his approach or something.

Nice creature sketch you got there, I think the wings should be some bigger to lift his weight, keep it up :D

[rogfa]

I really fought getting PhotoShop setup so I could actually paint in it. I still do 99% of my work in Painter but learned a few setting tricks from the Montreal workshop. Pretty much everyone that demoed with Photoshop had their opacity set to 100%, Flow set to 75% and both set to pen pressure.

For my main painting brush, I lower the spacing to 20% and set hardness to 85%. Here's a screen shot and also a zip file with all my brushes, actions, swaches and tool presets. I use PhotoShop CS so I'm not sure if this is all compatible with other versions. Have fun!

Note that my brushes may include other people's brushes that I've added to my library, apologizes to anyone who I've nabbed from but I really can't remember who I've got them all from.

EDIT: I forgot to explain my wacom settings, I set it just below the default pressure sensitivity, just to to prevent having to press too hard on my tablet, but experiment with this. Also, set the stylus buttons to keystrokes "[ and ]" for brush size, nothing unique there. But the best tip I can give is create an action to flip the entire canvas horizontal. I'm left handed and all my strokes start leaning in that direction, keep flipping to straighten it out.

My PhotoShop Junk (http://www.roger-adams.com/RogfaPhotoShopStuff.zip)

[sonboss]

i love your gesture drawing...how u draw them in perspective...and the cool hair design ...look forward to see more

[Coen]

Wow Rogfa thanks alot for that, I'm gonna check it all out in an hour or so, I really appreciate the help! Oh btw I ordered those 2 Bridgman books today, they're so cheap too.
Nice alien monkey damnit I can't wait to get proper skills! Think I gotta sharpen my drawing skills first before getting on to painting, alltho I like to paint too.

Gotta get some food and a shower now, thanks alot.

Edit: I like these brush settings, I used to have brush size set to pen pressure too which was one of the things that made my settings so annoying. I love sketching like this, it's very intuitive. Gotta go drawing again now, thanks again :D

[rogfa]

Thanks sonboss, I did a quick demo of how I paint hair. Hair is no different than painting clouds, trees, cars or tanks. All these objects have form. I hope this makes sense.

Hey Coen, glad they are working out for you. Can't wait to see what you come up with. Here's an update to my cigar guy.

[rogfa]

I'm actually getting pretty tired of this one but I am not going to give up yet. It's finally starting to feel right. I've got that bad habit of just placing my figures standing straight up. I tried to put him standing more in space.

[Pixeldragoon]

He needs slightly longer arms :D


Keep it up!

[rogfa]

Thanks Pixeldragon, I lengthend the arms a bit more and I'll calling this one done. Time to move on.

[gaijin]

Wow, that alien is sweet, dude. This last guy's head seems a little off, size-wise... can't quite place it. Greate textures though. Can't wait to see some more character concepts!

[Frank Wade]

Damn dude, some smooth renders here. I like your characters a lot! Please post more stuff.

[rogfa]

Hi gaijin, I know what you mean, this piece is very stiff. I started with just a head and I detailed that out, then I drew the body in afterwards and it just never really flowed well. I won't make that same mistake again.

Thanks Frank, here's another one. I wanted to see how photoreal or hyper-real I can get. Still a long ways off....

[rogfa]

Another WIP. Something like a science fiction character. I want his costume to be like a solider uniform.

[marco nelor]

wtf dude, i aint seen you in ages!! good stuff here, good work. those female faces still look too developed. try slacking off on the detail. female face is nothing but color, and lips, and eyes. add too much jaw line wrinkles, and nose wrinkles and whatnot....and it looks like a guy

[rogfa]

hey man, thanks. yeah, it's hard habit to break.

[OBX]

Hey Rodger, Joel here. yeah that tall dude from winnipeg u had to spend the whole plane ride to montreal with.

finally got a sketchbook thread. great stuff. not much to say. just keep pumping away. one suggestion, try exploreing a bit, do some zany works and dont give a shit about how they turn out. focus on... nothing. your doing a lot of characters and people stuff. try doing some landscapes and stuff, or even tackle a mech drawing, i thought a say one in ur portfolio. dude post some of ur 3d work too.

Im just one of those bums who never leaves the sketch book section. never check the other sections on CA veryoften, so i wont see if u post other shit. im just trying to say u should dump everthing in hear. and if its crappy... no fear post it here! thats wat sketchbook threads are all about, expose ur self my friend and the comments... and crits will come. peace.

your pal, Joel.

[rogfa]

Joel! How's it going man? I'm loving this sketchbook thread, absolutley no pressure but you're right I need to loosen up more and just draw. I'll scan in some of my sketchbook pages soon and get some of my 3d stuff up here too, I've been doing lots of that. I'll stop by your sketchbook soon.

Thanks man!

[asoir]

Ya man keep it relaxed! Just sketch and forget about pressure, learning can be fun! =D
Keep cranking it up!

[Coen]

Hey Rogfa great stuff man, I like how you painted the face in #23, and the smile on the second one. I always mess my smiles up :D
The last wip really is pretty creepy from some other world, love to see how that one will turn out.
Keep goinng :)

[rogfa]

Thanks for the encourgement Asoir and Cohen!

Hey Cohen, try getting a cheap mirror to put next to you when drawing. I use a bathroom mirror and I picked up at the supermarket. A quick glance at it every so often can really help.

[rogfa]

I did some more detail work on my alien character and a quick space ship.

[rogfa]

A couple more today. The redhead is from following Hong Ly's head walkthrough. That guy is amazing. I think I learned that it's ok to put down a heavy saturated color, you can always dial it back. The sketches are from a online class I did this morning.

[Goodbye..fromthevoid]

I can't really see into the unfinished stuff enough to comment on it, but the stuff that you posted that looked more finished I thought all looked kind of the same. How about you try illustrating a full scene, just in pencil making it as tight as possible? I think something like that may better display your strengths and especially your weaknesses. And once we see what you have trouble with then we can give you more specific advice on how to improve.

[Sybo]

hey you are real onto it with your valuea etc my friend! now get intosome detailed pieces? I can see you have it in you...great skills, like your charactes faces especially...

[Coen]

Man these online class sketches are great, are these online classes something general on the internet or is it something internal, if I may ask :D
The alien guy turned out totally cool too, I wish I could help with some useful crits but for now I can online enjoy your art :)

[rogfa]

Goodbye..fromthevoid - I'm not much of an illustrator but I should do some more complex work.

Sybo - thanks man, I got some advice from Jason Manley a few months ago and it really helped alot. He said my head painting was amatuerish and to paint more from reference. I took his advice to heart and this is the result after several months of practice.

Coen - Thanks, if I can only create some interesting costumes the alien would be done by now :) I took an online class that was advertised in the Painter forum from Entertainment Art Academy (link (http://www.enterartacad.com)), it was $65 for about 5 hours of lecture time from Robh Ruppel drawing digitally from life. They use a pretty interesting Web Conferencing application from webex.com. You actually load a Java app and can see Robh's desktop and him painting. Then you dial an 800 number to hear Rob speaking and can ask any questions. I didn't really like tying up my phone line for that long but hopefully they can push the audio through the application over the net or use Skype. I enjoyed it and picked up some good tips and felt it reinforced the foundations that I somtimes forget about. I'd recommend it to anyone in the future. It being live and having the abililty to ask the instructor questions makes it really feel like a class and not just a video demo.

[rogfa]

Did some robot sketches today after work. Too tired to do anything else. This is a fun way to start. Just put down blobs of black and come in after with white and a softer brush.

[rogfa]

I like how this one turned out. I think I could easily transform him into Wolverine but I might go in another direction with him.

[rogfa]

Well, I'm weak. I'm going to turn this into a Wolverine pinup. I used the Liquify filter in PhotoShop to give him a snear and laid in a rough Juggernaut for him to throw down with. Oh, gotta give credit for the font too, free from Blambot.com.

[seth1]

Really loving all the syles of hair you got going on.. Your charachters are really pushing through... Keep her going..

Seth.n

[sabe2003]

Love this one. and the one above it!
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12597&stc=1&d=1155841328

[rogfa]

Thanks guys, you two have some serious skills you are showing off in your threads.

I'm going to have to put the Wolverine pic on the backburner for a while. The Blizzard deadline is going to creep up pretty fast if I don't get started. I'm not going to share too much with my entry, it's nothing spectacular but I think it has been thought of yet. I'm going to enter a StarCraft 2D Character Concept and a Low Poly Model of the same thing.

This is a hand I modeled using Silo 2.0a beta which got released yesterday to previous owners of 1.4. It has some cool displacement painting tools and having the ability to jump back and forth from poly modeling to displacement painting with just a key press puts it in a class of it's own. The full release is going to be a monster.

Modeled in Silo -> UV Mapped in Modo -> Painted in Zbrush using ZapLink plugin to PhotoShop -> Back into Modo to render. It's still pretty rough but I'm happy with the results so far.

[Coen]

Hey Rogfa great character you painted, very appealing. Thanks for the info on the online lessons, I see there are some more coming up, I'm considering to do some of these since I won't get any other education unfortunately :)

[rogfa]

I hear ya man, there is nothing in my area in terms of art instruction or even just life drawing classes. I've learned everything from the forums and books and dvds and a ton of trial and error.

I think I'm done my alien character. I was really stuck on the clothing and I think if I did more studies of drapery it would speed me up. I'm going to post it in the finished section too. Hopefully, I won't get booed out :)

[rogfa]

This is some stuff from taking breaks from working on my blizzard entries.

[rogfa]

Another character head. This one came around pretty fast, about 20 minutes. If I don't follow my method of painting I can get frustrated very easily and end up working and re-working the same painting for a long time.

*Edit: some more refinements

[Coen]

Nice stuff Rogfa, the alien turned out cool! I like the red guy too, I think that one would be nice to refine. Do you actually paint traditionally too or did you just immediately start painting digital?

[Dreamworker]

Great technique and nice works!! This is my favorite
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12597&stc=1&d=1155841328

ciao :)

[rogfa]

Thanks Coen, I started digital but didn't know what I was doing. I was just copying my favorite artists, Carlos Huante in particular. So, I started learning about traditional techniques from books like Alla Prima by Richard Schmidt and the Bob Kato dvds. And using the computer as my medium. The Kato ones are probably the best investment any student can make. But in the last year or so I've started to teach myself oils and gouache. There is a huge difference in selecting color on screen and mixing it. I want to have that knowledge. I have my easel and paint I just need to find more time to use them ;)

Thanks Dreamworker, lol, I think everyones likes that one. I really wanted to focus on just dramatic lighting everything else was secondary.

[asoir]

The noses are looking quite similar, but really, really lovely work. Keep rolling!

[rogfa]

I thought it would fun to try another side view. Orthos can seem like a pain in the neck but they are actually pretty fun and challenging.

Thanks Asoir, I'll keep working on my faces, that's the result of not working enough from life. :)

[rogfa]

Had a horrible day at work yesterday. This came out of it. I don't think I'm going to stop at three hands. Maybe thirty.

[shadoman]

Roger your stuff seems to be coming around nicely.

[max xiantu]

Thanks for your help on the anatomy book question.
I like your painting style alot. It has a very clay-sculptured, tactile feel to it.
And those gesture drawings are dope.

nice work:.

[rogfa]

Thanks Shawn, congrats on your last man standing 2 win. Good luck in the next round!

Thanks, max xiantu. It's cool that you saw sculpture in my work. I actually sculpt quite a bit in Zbrush and now Silo 2 and I do a little with Super Sculpty. It can really help your 2D skills.

Here's a small update to where this guy is heading.

[Ferg]

beautiful colors and shading! I'm going to try binding one of my tablet buttons to the horizontal image flip, that's a great idea. Only crit would be to try loosening up your initial shape-blocking a bit, likewise with your painted details. This last painting though seems to be better on both those fronts.

Thanks for the inspiration and tips :)

[rogfa]

Thanks Ferg, flipping your work shows you all your mistakes. Be sure to do it often, especially at the start.

Here's a new head sketch and an update on my thirty arm guy. This is a great way to practice hands.

[Listing]

Interesting work. You have a very nice palette. Let's see more.

[rogfa]

Thanks, Listing.

Here's a head study I did tonight from reference. I think I'm going to try and do one every night or as many as I can with an hour timeframe. Following Steve James (http://www.fridayeve.com/) who creates these amazing head studies, I want to get to where my characters are less alike, work on skin tones, and likeness. I'm experimenting more with Painter IX's brushes. I actually use my Painter 6 brushes imported into P9 but I'm starting to warm up to the Artist Oils, especially the blenders in that category.

[artmessiah]

Nice stuff man. I can see the refinement coming along with your painting. Keep it going

[Cam Sykes]

Hey Rogfa, I love your stuff and really aspire to getting to your level.

Thanks for the colour swatches too, but the brushes won't load in PS 7 :(

[OleOlsen]

nice sb...the last one is really lovely...

[abyss103]

hey rogfa!

great sketches and colors.
that "thirty arm guy" is very cool.

-r

[rogfa]

artmessiah - thanks, I really like your still life's on your thread. Awesome stuff.

CamSyko - Thanks man, that's nice of you to say. I'll take some screen shots of the settings of some of my most used brushes in PhotoShop. You should be able to replicate them in PS7.

OleOlsen - Thanks, I like you pen and ink stuff. Very fluid.

abyss103 - Thanks, I'm going to actually try and put thirty arms on him. Maybe more :)

[TheGnoll]

wonderful sense of volume in your stuff, and it reminds m of Carlos Huante's work.I hope to see this sketchbook grow page after page...meanwhile, have some stars ;)

ciao

[rogfa]

As I promised here are some of the settings for my most used PS brushes. Hope that helps.

http://www.roger-adams.com/images/BrushesTH.jpg (http://www.roger-adams.com/images/Brushes.jpg)

[rogfa]

Some figures from imagination. I wanted to practice warm and cool colors.

Also, I've been very surprised at how many artists have blogs nowadays. It seems like a fast way for them to post sketches. Ashley Wood, Dermot Power, Sparth, Francis Tsai (http://francistsai.blogspot.com/) has a cool blog with a ton of links. Worth checking out.

[Coen]

Nice stuff Rogfa I like the figure drawings, thanks for the brush settings too. Oh and for the blogs :P

[rogfa]

Sorry I missed your post Gnoll, I must have been blind. Thanks!

Thanks Coen, I think I went through Ashley Wood's blog and saved almost everything. I've got three days off work so I think I'm going to break out my oils.

Here's another one I'm working on. I jumped back to Painter 6 for this. No matter how much I love Painter 9 the key mapped to CTRL for the Eye Dropper in Painter 6 allows me to do everything I need with just my stylus and spacebar. It's stupid but I wish Corel would make that changeable in P9.

[Meatsworthy]

Nice paintings, the recent color study looks really good.

[rogfa]

Thanks Meatsworthy, I'm a fan of yours.

I changed the direction of this one. I think it would have been humorous with the very long legs etc but maybe for next time.

[rogfa]

Ahh, I gave up on this one. Just filled up the page with some sketching.

[OBX]

hey rodger, you should change thos backgrounds up a bit. the paintings get lost in them. I feel like u just gotta add some more pop to ur peices.

good stuff tho, keep it up.

[Cam Sykes]

Thanks for shwoign me your brush settings.. now all I need is a wacom :)

[rogfa]

That is so true, Joel. I like to start dark and bring the forms out but I should start changing it up more.

[Richorb]

your skill and eye for lighting are very evedent. Good stuff. Keep posting.

Chorbs book~! (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=77188)

[OBX]

nah, its actually good that u start from dark to light. u should either start from dark to light, or light to dark. or u could go midway with toned paper. but my point is that u should just change the backgrounds up a bit. use a cooler color on the other side of the whee;. and just cut ur drawing out. then use the background color and reflect a bit of it into ur stuff. will really make the forms peel off the page.... if u study wat marco is doing in some of his paints. he's good some good background painting happening. they really make his characters crunch.

any how rodger, keep it up, and update mooore!

P.S. Im a lil sad that u havent checked my book out yet... lol only brendan and marco have checked it out, ned nor shawn have seen it. sob sob :nohope:

Overpaint: 23948

ill delete this after awhile so it doesnt litter ur book.

[rogfa]

Sorry man, that's my bad. I always check out the sketchbooks at work and Websense keeps blocking some of the image hosts on the earlier pages. I'm enjoying the goodness at home now. Will post some comments soon.

Oh, the paint over link didn't work.

[-ThePenciler-]

Very interesting stuff here. I see so many people here at CA doing almost all of thier work on the tablet. I feel so out of the loop. I only use photoshop about once a week.

[rogfa]

I see what you mean Joel. I'll experiment more with my backgrounds.

Thanks Penciler, don't worry about not going digital, it will actually slow you down. If you know how to do this stuff traditionally you will just fly once you go digital.

Anyway, I've ignored my sketchbook for a very long time. I kinda fell in love with my blog. I started my cgtalk workshop on concept environments with Phil Straub. He's a great teacher and his lesson plans are very well laid out. Here are some of my work from that. There is so much to consider when doing an enviroment, composition, perspective, focal point. I have a new found appreciation to those who make it look easy.

[rogfa]

And I had my first day of life drawing at our local art museum. We did 1 minute, 3 minute, 10 and 15 minute poses. It was a lot of fun. Sorry for the pink paper. It's supposed to be beige newsprint. That's how bad my scanner is at color...

[rogfa]

Some of the attachments got messed up. Separating the posts seemed to have fixed it up.

[JesArt]

Rogfa did you use Photoshop for all of your paintings

[rogfa]

No, the majority of my work is done in Painter. Pretty much everthing on page 2 is done with painter except the environments, I like PhotoShop's line tool to quickly create shapes. Stuff on page 1 is mostly painter again but I started to experiment more with PS's brushes, these posts are with PhotoShop (18 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=962343&postcount=18), 23 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=963265&postcount=23), 29 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=964668&postcount=29), 45 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=979555&postcount=45), 51 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=984703&postcount=51)). But I switch back and forth but mostly work in Painter.

[Mag-Neo]

-Interesting characters & stuffs..... Especially last trifle environments are most impressive......... I like them....... Keep em up..... CHEERS!...... :yayca:

[Coen]

Cool environments Rogfa, I should attend to some of these workshops too sometime, seems great. I'm really curious to see more of your traditional stuff too, keep it up :)

[OBX]

alright way to go with the figure work. i remember u telling me u were thinking of hireing ur own model wen u got back home. good u found a place that has them. keep it up dude. nice enviroment practices too! peace.

[rogfa]

Mag-Neo - Thanks man!

Coen - Thanks Coen. I'm just terrible at environments. I was a little hesitant to do a cgtalk workshop because the cost was pretty high. But I'm really glad I did it. Phil Straub created a great lesson plan and he's always posting critiques and suggestions, doing paintovers etc.

OBX - Thanks Joel. The instructor that setup the class said the hardest part was finding a nude model. Here are this weeks drawings. I brought my large newsprint pad this time. 18 by 24 inches. My arm was just killing me near the end. I've never drawn that big before.

Cheers guys!

[rogfa]

Here's a spooky dude I did yesterday after work. Check out Avalanche Software Blog. It's a very active blog by their art team. They just choose topics and draw. It's really inspiring.

http://avalanchesoftware.blogspot.com/

[OBX]

nice stuff. Hey rodger, are u going to the san fran workshop? Im contemplating going, and am just checking around to see if any other peeps from montreal are gonna be going too. So far i think nick, marco and ned are going. still undecided myself.

wat are u using on the newsprint? is that one of those ebony pencils u got in montreal? i know my arm gets tired too. i end up slanting the slate so is almost horizontal. i dont really care if it takes longer to look back and forth, i just need the elbow suport for more confident lines. its the draftman in me. owell peace.

[rogfa]

Nahhh, no San Fran for me. I can't afford it right now. It would be cool seeing everyone again. I wonder if Dillon is going? I remember he's from California, can't remember exactly where though. That guy was a hoot. I remember him walking in to McDonald's with those biker boots he bought off some guy on the street for $20 bucks. Too funny.

I'm using Conte on that newsprint. It goes down pretty smooth and dark. They provide us with these upright easels at almost 90 degrees so my arm isn't resting on anything. I think I'll bring a big board next time and slant like you said.

[-ThePenciler-]

Nice work on the figure drawings Rodger! Keep going. I've been going on Saturdays and i think it's helping alot!!

[OBX]

lol yah, dillion, he was the man. i didnt get his email tho, coz on the last night him and marco disapeared. owell. ill see u again sometime at another workshop. peace.

[rogfa]

Created a brush with some heavy texture to it in PS and had some fun with it. I like where this guy is heading so I hope to finish him out when I have some more free time.

[Pesmerga]

Cool stuff man. I like your style a lot. Nice colors, nice rendering, nice sketchbook :)

Hey is that Motaro??

[rogfa]

Thanks Pesmerga. No, I wasn't thinking of Motaro. I actually had to look him up. :)

[TheGnoll]

c mon dude, update more!

i really liked the way you handled those enviroments, nice volumes again.And very nice life drawings too ;)

keep 'em coming ;)

ciao

[Doudou]

rogfa these stuff are soo brilliant, i like the fading technique of urs, and thanx for postnin the brush setup in photoshop:hatsoff: , here is my first adobe selfportrait, it took nearly 2 hrs or less, want to hear ur critic yall. and to every1 in the thread gr8 work keep it up:wink:

[rogfa]

Thanks TheGnoll! I've learned that it's all about composition when it comes to environments and illustration for that matter...

Thanks, Doudou. Cool SP too. Did you post that in the SP event a couple days ago? One thing I learned recently is to try incorporating the background color into the shadows. Just a little. It seems to make things more unified.

[rogfa]

More life drawings from today. We only have one more session left. :(

And an environment from my other class. I really suck at environments.

[shadoman]

Roger, Your sketches are coming out nice. A lot of life and good line quality. That big headed dude looks creepy but cool. Yeah, I didn't really like doing environments, but I actually have a craving to do them now. They are fun. Just think of it as that.

Keep pushing it...

[rogfa]

Hey, thanks Shawn. I'm starting to enjoy doing tiny environments in my sketchbook (which I'll scan in soon). They really are fun.

Here's another character I started tonight. Spent more time messing with PhotoShop's brushes than actually painting.

[DARAF]

Great stuff man, you make it look easy. Keep it up.

[Cup of Joe]

Missed a bunch!
Great job on these, love the pose on that last one. I just went through my PS brushes a little while ago, so I definitley understand how much fun it is to mess around with those things.
Keep it up!

[rogfa]

Hey, thanks guys! It means a lot.

Here's another sketch.

[rogfa]

Here's something I'm working on. I'm trying to keep my value range closer together to get a more realistic lighting feel. I think I still went a little too dark for the shadows under the eyes and nose.

I also sampled a couple colors off a photo to get started. There's this tendency to pick your "favorite" colors from the swatches or color wheel in digital apps. Picking some colors off a photo forces me to start with something I might not have selected.

[rogfa]

A sketch from last night. I might take this further. I say that with everything but I like this guy.

[Oddo]

Good stuff, good understanding of flesh tones, lighting and face features, but don't forget about the bodies, must not neglect them :).

cheers

[rogfa]

I have sorely neglected my sketchbook and I wanted to try adding my images inline with the attachment manager.

Here's a sketch I painting out of my sketchbook. Used gouache, Photo ref was used.
66649

Here's an actual page out of my sketchbook. I painted a little color sketch at the top in PS.
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Here's s faux stamp I made to add to the contact form on my website. Cheesy yes. But it was fun.
66650

And this guy is just grumpy.
66648

[OBX]

hey rodger, how does you moleskine handle gouach? do the pages warp? i just ordered a one and im curoius if ill be able to paint in it.

[rogfa]

Hey Joel, they hold up really well. I even did an under painting on this one and there was very little warping at all.

[Gspot]

hahahah that last ones funny...your life studies are awesome man, as well as everything else.keep this goodness up.

[OBX]

yes, post rodger. Did u survive the new year?

[rogfa]

Thanks Gspot! (nice username btw)

Hey Joel, yup. I survived. Working hard on some illustration stuff. I don't have what it takes to do concept work. But illustration is something I'm getting into. Hey, are you on msn or anything?, pm me with the info sometime.

Here's some recent stuff.

I painted this sketch out of my sketchbook (imagine that?). Went way too dark, I guess I could bring it back into the light but I'm just going to move on.

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These two are starts for an illustration. I want the woman one to be like a queen, alien or something and be surrounded by creatures and plants near the bottom. Still working on the composition on this one.

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This guys is going to be some sort of demon persona, I want to design some armor and stuff for him.

75116

This is a Chinese Box from life, first time worked from life on my computer. Pretty terrible, I'm so bad at selecting my values, I constantly kept working over the whole imagine, I'd put down a value and it'd end up messing all the other values, adjust and it would repeat on and on until I think I got the right ones. I started with four values to begin with, two darks and two lights. hopefully it will get better with practice.

75117

And this last one was for a charity at work. The Pioneers do charity work around the city and they had asked me to a banner for a bulletin board at work. I got it printed around 10 by 24 inches. I joked around with the guy who asked me for it, he wanted chicks and demons and sex and death etc. So I went to total opposite direction, something Disney like.

75113

Here's a breakdown. The funny thing is that picking that font started the idea of it being set in trees. It's some free font I picked up and wrote the letters up and down like that.

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[OBX]

sup. yah i got msn, but i never use it. i check my email every other day tho. and ive kinda quite posting on CA for the time being coz ive been working traditional a lot. to lazy to scan or take pictures. The moleskine sb rocks. i cant believe how it handles gouache. as far as loosing ur value scale i think that happens to even the best. fortuantly on computer u can correct the brightness and contrast with levels. I made a palette of only gray scale from 0 10% 30% to 70% 90%.. etc. so ive i find im blending to much ill be able to grab an average value quickly. also other ppl do value studies by just using 2 values and work into a 30rd value background. easier to make judgments.

good work. id suggest working on ur edges tho. i have the same weakness. i feel like u lose some features in ur paints by making them so soft. watever, just paint. keep on pushing and best of luck with ur illustration. you should try and get a portfolio together and apply to sheridan. u'd get in no problem.

Joel.

[mrgrumble]

amazing mate! such a fluidity to your work, really organic feela and interesting designs to boot. i have found my inspiration!
timmy

[rogfa]

Hey Joel, thanks, that's some good advice. I was looking through my Alla Prima book again and it said Sargent used 3 values in the light and 2 in the dark and then an extra light and dark for accents, so I'm going to try messing around with that.

Thanks mrgrumble, you're stuff is great. amazing detail you add to your stuff.

I finally got my painter ix going again. The artists oils are just a lot of fun to mess around with.

82287

[rogfa]

Tried changing up my style a bit.

84659

[Coen]

Hey Rogfa what's up! Great to see your updates man, I love the pencil portrait at the top of this page, looks really good. I see you have exactly the same problems with values as I do, it can get really frustrating. How's the alla prima book? I'm finding it hard to get (can't seem to get it to this country for a reasonable price), but I'd really like to know a bit more about what's in the book, since it will cost me pretty much. :D

This one here (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47529&stc=1&d=1163149801) is just awesome man, don't really know what I like about it so much.. Somehow it just looks like a classical painting, but a revolutionairy one :D

Oh and by the way, great atmosphere in the banner :D
Keep going man!

[marioucci]

this is like francis bacon man:
ttp://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17831&stc=1&d=1157048215

stunning stuff. loved your style and your painting. hats off

Mario

[Coen]

[edit] oops double post, my mistake!

[rogfa]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Sorry for the late reply I've been taking a break from the forums and just popping in every so often.

About the book, Coen, it's a really good book. One that you would re-read as the years go on. But it is pretty expensive. I bought the paperback version for $50US and it went up to near $100 when it got through customs. But I'm glad I got my hands on it.

With that said, there are a lot of books out there with just as much information. Loomis is thrown out there a lot and he deserves all the credit. But if you're like me, I downloaded all his books but never really took the time to read through them fully. I've changed that and have been reading Creative Illustration and I'm loving it a lot. It's an amazing book.

Also, I've been re-reading Ron Leman's Color Theory lessons (link (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=84105), link (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17837)) I read them years ago but wasn't mature enough as an artist to understand them. I still don't think I fully understand but his stuff has really helped me (thanks Ron!). So, I think if you can't get Alla Prima just yet, don't worry about it. There's a ton of free stuff out there to fill in for it.

[rogfa]

Here's something I'm working on. I'm trying to diversify my portfolio and consider this an animation style but I should probably work harder to exaggerate it more.

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[Coen]

Hey Rogfa, nice one! I'd love to see some more values on that one. Where did you get the Alla Prima book for $50, is it some place that ships to europe as well? I found it on BudPlant (http://budplant.com/product.asp?pn=ALLH&bhcd2=1171372758) ($150 :() and on Ecampus (http://www.ecampus.com/book/0966211731) but I really don't know these stores. So far I only bought stuff via Amazon..

By the way, another book on drawing and painting I like is Harley Brown's Eternal Truths for Every Artist (http://www.amazon.com/Harley-Browns-Eternal-Truths-Artist/dp/1929834314/sr=8-1/qid=1171373065/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-6020172-0369622?ie=UTF8&s=books)

[rogfa]

Ouch, that hardcover BudPlant is selling is really expensive. I bought the softcover directly from Richard Schmid's website. (http://www.richardschmid.com/book.html) I bought it a few years ago so I can't remember what I paid for shipping. I'd shoot them an email to see what the shipping would cost. Good luck with that!

[OBX]

i second harley brown. his use of the munsil color wheel is soo sweet. and he makes u want to paint really badly. very positive... o and he hails from moose jaw! same place as u! crazy. owell.

[rogfa]

That is crazy! I thought all we were known for was our fake al capone tunnels and our 40 foot metal moose jaw. imagine that!

Thanks for the book recommend guys.

[DARAF]

Looking good bro.

[RogerAdams]

I appreciate it, Daraf. Thanks. I don't use this username anymore or this sketchbook. I've got more current work on my website and blog.

[iceman478]

your so lucky u have a tablet i still use my mouse :(
but very cool stuff u got hear NICE NICE