stylus sketchbook

[stylus]

Hey, all. Well, trying to improve my art skills, so I figured I'd start a sketchbook to get as many crits as I can. So here are some drawings that I did. Most of these are already posted in another subforum, but I'd like to get more crits on them. Let me know what you think. I'm eager to hear all of them. :yayca:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure001.jpg

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure002.jpg

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure003.jpg

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure004.jpg

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure005.jpg

An attempt to apply what I've learned from the above:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/ana_sketches.jpg

Also, here are some of my more recent technical drawings:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/rep_snub005.jpg

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/rep_flagship001.jpg

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/boomer.jpg

[Ermac]

Nice start for your sketchbook, the sketches are ok, looks like your anatomy is pretty good. You starwars ships are freaking cool, looks like you know what you doing in photoshop. I would like to see more sketches that you've taken time on to show your true drawing powers or something like that.
I'll be back to check on your work. ;)

[stylus]

These are some sketches I did for a priest character design for a short film project I'm helping to make. For these ones, I wanted to practice facial expressions to help give the character some personality.

http://www.chrisluce.com/forums/nfphpbb/files/priest_faces_178.jpg

http://www.chrisluce.com/forums/nfphpbb/files/priest_faces002_986.jpg

Next are the costume studies. I think I'm going to try adding backgrounds to my character sketches from now on. I guess employers would want to see that in a portfolio. Along the way, I thought it was ironic how many professional character concept pieces lacked any backgrounds. One last note about the background I did: it's my first attempt speed-painting. I hope to get better at it. Anyways, please C&C!

http://www.chrisluce.com/forums/nfphpbb/files/priest_costume001_848.jpg

http://www.chrisluce.com/forums/nfphpbb/files/priest_costume002_206.jpg

[stylus]

I was trying to practice shading/markmaking w/ ink with these 2 sketches. I think I overdid it a bit w/ the 2nd one. Control's really hard w/ the pen, too. There were times when I was tilting it at an angle to make lighter shades, but no ink was coming out (this also made me wonder if I was ruining the tip since I was basically rubbing it on a side that apparently had no ink). Then, if I tilt it just slightly, too much comes out. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em! I'm using a Staedtler pigment liner, 0.1 thickness.

References used.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/pen_marks.jpg

[stylus]

Two variations on a monster design. More practice on colour theory and painting. I'd like some crits on it before I do any more changes to them.

[Goodbye..fromthevoid]

Your progress is already amazing. Congratulations, you seem to have been born with talent!

Just keep working at it and you'll improve really fast.

[stylus]

Thanks for the comments, Goodbye. It's a shame that it takes me so long to come up w/ something that I feel is worth putting up on the forum. Hopefully, my progress will continue as well as you say it is. :)

[stylus]

Here's today's attempt at painting. I tried doing something all digitally and set opacity to pen pressure for the first time.

BTW, I can't seem to change the title of my thread. I thought it'd be under Thread Tools, but it isn't. And I couldn't find it anywhere else. Can anyone help?

[aprat]

that marker study up there is great!

To change your title, click edit in your first post in the thread, then click advanced.

[stylus]

Not sure which one you're talking about, aprat, but thanks for your comments (and for answering my q about editing the title)! I hope my work improves as I go along.

[mbetteker]

Hey stylus,
i really enjoyed that pen study of the woman in the bottoms. You seem very comfortable with the pen as opposed to how most people are best with a pencil. hold on to that and use that often! for the paintings, i would really recommend adding some of the atmospheric lighting onto the monsters... the pig with arms needs some of the light fromt he torch on him. u could make the focal point jump out by doing that. also, the snake baby, some cooler colors would make him fit in with his surroundings much better. im not sure if it is the loose backgrounds, but the monsters seem pasted on there. try doing line work for the background also, but keep the outlines tight and details loose for any background work. i think more linework in the background will tie it together better!

keep sketching!

[Listing]

Some nice work. Keep at your anatomy (really fit that into an apparently intuitive dynamism you have going) and don't sacrifice accuracy in value for drama. Your heads seem to be too small, generally. Keep going.

[Phoenix-09]

Hey there! I love the start to this sketchbook - your drawing is very advanced *nods* =)

One thing I noticed with your paintings however is that everything out of focus has a really soft and under-defined edge to it. All good to have a blurry, unfocused background, but that's different from definition I think.

Anyways, that's my two cents. Hope to see more!

~Phoenix

[stylus]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I just got off school not too long ago, so aside from looking for a job, I'm dedicating time to doing a lot of drawing and painting. By September, when I get back, I want to be "good."

So here are some of my latest attempts at painting. These are all costume designs for a film project I've signed on as an artist to work on. They're in chronological order, so oldest to newest as you go down.

First one's this "superhero" who's costume is made up of a fencing mask, motorcycle suit, and a trench coat. 2nd one is a teenybopper superhero. 3rd one is a burn victim's face. 4th is a corporate sell-out of a superhero.

Please C&C! Pick it apart as much as you want so that I know exactly what I need to work on.

P.S. Does anyone know how to add a pic beside my thread name when I view it in the sketchbook forums? Is there a size requirement before it'll show? Thanks!

[alesoun]

You asked how to use a technical drawing pen. I find I have to hold it upright to make it work properly, but the joy of that is that you get a line that doesn't vary in thickness.

There are ways of making it look as if the line varies, and you'll find those with practice....

[stylus]

OK. Thanks, alesoun. I'll work on that.

I was just doing some basic painting practice, so here's an umbrella that I'm pitching to that film project. I'd like to push this further, but I'd like to get some crits on how I'm doing so far before I go on. Because it's such a simple object, I gave it a simpler paint job.

[MeTaL-Mike]

Thanks for the comment man. You stuff's cool too. like the color work.

Keep it up.

[stylus]

A few paintings I did today w/ photo refs. I think I learned after doing these that my above digital paintings pretty much show me to be really amateur, which is a shame because I really thought I was going somewhere. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to rationalize what will improve my art and what won't.

The first one took about 30-40 min to do each face. The second one was about 20-30 min. And the coloured one was approx. 1.5-2 hr.

All the same, please CC!

[stylus]

Face study today. Took longer than I thought it would (2+ hr, I think... including screw-ups and starting from scratch), but worth learning how to do skin tones and highlights.

[stylus]

I botched this up so badly that I think I should just start a new piece. Will probably get that up tomorrow.

[stylus]

Pencil practice (well, ok, technically Wacom practice, but I used it like a pencil)... ~1hr

[Hurley]

Hello,
Your digital paintings have come on along way, your lighting seems to have improved alot! Your on the right track definatly, keep up the good work.

[minjarr]

i like how you lay in your local colors right away, a thing though, I would first try to lay in the proportions first and make sure those are tight before moving on. I get confused with all that stuff also, but I found that bridgeman really helped me . I hope I helped a little?! <{

[stylus]

Hurley: Thx, man! Right now, though, I have a lot of trouble getting my concept art pics to be as realistic as my photo-referenced paintings. But, hopefully, I'll start catching on. ;)

minjarr: Good point. It's something I also have trouble with, laying down a correct shape before going in with paint.

Case in point: Here are two new paintings. One is a costume concept and the other is another anatomical study (with ref, of course). I tried something different w/ the anatomical study: I painted it all on one layer and tried to force myself to get the shape/proportions/anatomy correct w/o needing to draw it. So I painted in blobs of skin-tone and refined from there. I think the other good thing that comes out of it is that, when I paint the object and the background all on one layer, they'll look more unified... the object would look like it belongs there more. Whatever. Just an experiment.

[stylus]

This time for my anatomical studies, I'd thought I'd do an old paper effect.

[Nyx702]

Studies are looking good. The hatching bothers me some...I know these are quick but I think you are trying to cover a large area with one value too much. Like in the torso of the woman, the straight lines tell me that there is no gradation in the shadows. Maybe there isn't...but maybe near the edges add another value? It still can be quick.

More than that though...that paper is not working. Sorry man..I think it's way too orange. Just use real paper. Did you dodge and burn the edges? Maybe if you just turned down the opacity?

:^^:

[stylus]

Thanks, Nyx! Just wondering, did you mean that they were one value too little, as opposed to one value too much? Because you suggested that I add another value and I got confused. :S

Yeah, that background was just an experiment. But now that I know it doesn't work, I'll try and do better next time. Actually, I used gradation for that, messed with the transparency settings. I don't touch the dodge and burn tools.

Well, here's a WIP for today.

[stylus]

Just two 20-min sketches I did while I was waiting for someone in the parking lot.

[Piranha Clan]

Good start. You need to study anatomy more. Keep at it!

[stylus]

Thx, Piranha Clan. I'm working on it as best as I know how. :)

Still, I thought I'd show these 2, anatomy problems and all. The first is just an update of the last piece (yeah, I know, the torso's too thin). For the second, I tried a more downplayed pose. Hope it's an improvement over... any problems I have (though, somehow one arm wound up being longer than the other.... uh, I mean, that's his superpower :) ). Though, there's something rather weird about the painting style of the second one... but I can't put my finger on it....

[Yacob]

You've got some really awesome stuff in here. I really like the digital stuff you've done. Good colors.

[stylus]

Thanks, Yacob! Hope I can keep it up!

It's been a HECTIC two weeks! I barely had time to draw! But at least I got 2 pages of sketches in. Just some really quick exploratory sketches/poses. Also, thanks to Machineabuse: your work made me impressed with the power of the pen again!

[Nyx702]

Man...that robot in the corner with the wash on it is really awesome. I dig it. The others I am kind-of impartial about, no offense. The robot really sticks out though. I would try to add more value in you hatching. Most of these do not have much but the ones that do the hatching is falling flat. Try making some denser lines to add depth.

The pervious paintings are coming along well! How much reference are you using? The knee on the blue guy could use a double check if you ever go back to it. I have that problem of never going back to thing I post because I get board with them :(

[(c)]

hey stylus.. long time no see

like the last drawings. on the good sight of beeing finished. just as Nyx already said: try to play with line strenges and check on your arms. they look a bit off to me.

and jipp the robo is awesome. lot of dynamic there

keep it up dude :D

[Juhani Jokinen]

Nice work you've got here. I like your last drawings although there's some anatomy errors.. Overall nice progress though!

And welcome to the group and sorry for my absence lately.

-Juhani

[Flipnastywebby]

Improving with every post!


try to think of your humans as you do the machines.....youre machines look great. I'm just thinking that if you d that you'll see the structure of the body better if its broken down into parts, like a machine




Slainte!
keep up the good work

[Nyx702]

Looks like somebody is overdue for an update! :P

[stylus]

sketchgroup: *sigh* *grunt* Sorry, guys. It hasn't been a very good month for art stuff. But I will start getting back into it now that it's the last few weeks before school.

Flipnastywebby: You know, I was just thinking of trying that too. I think I will. Thx for the advice!

Nyx, I've been trying to see what made that little robot so dynamic compared to everything else. I'm not sure I've found it yet, since it doesn't really use any varying line weights. But I have started trying to use more varying line weights and also more markers, so I'm not just spewing out line-art. But, since I'm going through a Disney binge right now XD, I'm looking at how Glen Keane does his work.

I think I screwed up the proportions for Spidey's arms and his left leg :(.

That girl I coloured is my fav, though. I came up w/ her in a sketch session w/ a friend and I thought of her as this really young priestess type of character. And I thought it'd be cool that if that blue orb ever fell on the plate over her head, something terrible would happen.

[stylus]

Wanted to get a coloured piece up today, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it. So here're just some really quick/small gesture drawings and a guy who was supposed to be running but wound up being rotated and turned into a kicker sniffing his wrist.

[stylus]

This latest painting took too fricking long. The original version of the girl was very washed out and I had to adjust the fricking levels before resuming painting... which I always do!!!! URRRRRRGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! :frustrated:

[Nyx702]

Great to see an update! I think I can see a big difference in your drawing when you are "on" and when you are "off." Some of these look solid and like they could go some where and then some...not so much :P Do you warm up much before drawing? I noticed this inconsistency within my own art and i think that warming up really helps with making every thing "on" if you know what I mean? Like that tree! It has so much life and interest to it! I really like that sketch but I don't think that most of the figure work has the same interest in it.

I some problems with space between the ears and the shoulders...ha! I guess that is called a neck?!(Dur...) Particularity on the most current painting it's very strait, like a tube. I think the neck is to long maybe? It seems to be a consistent way you draw the neck. You may want to brush up on that area! :)

My advice on the last update is to kill that color first off. Don't confuse your self with having to deal with color and value at the same time...way to much to think about IMO. Then, from my experience, colorizing grayscale works best if most of your values are dark and you save your highlights for a normal layer after you have colorized it. I think it looks washed out because there IS too much white in it...spread your darks across the forums more?

Good luck and thanks for keeping us updated!

[stylus]

Thanks for the comments, Nyx! Could you be more specific about what I need to work on, which ones look solid, which ones don't, why they look that way, etc? I'm have trouble learning things when I have too general of a sense of things.

Here're just some quick 10-25 min sketches while I try to glean something from your crits. :)

[Nyx702]

Sure! Sure! I will try to be more specific on these ones.

Going from left to right on these new uploads: I think the lines and features are accurate and look good on the left side...but as we move to the right things go downhill :P The ear is way off it seems to me. I think it should be higher on the head and more in the center of the head. The jawline maybe accurate but it just "looks" bad to me? Ya know aesthetically? What I think it is hurting it is the hap-hazard hatching. I would kill it or do a better job. Maybe just try a flat tone instead of "scribbles?"

I would say the same thing about the hatching for the next one, it really hurts. I think the line work is really good and the features look placed well over all! My one nit-picky comment would be that the shadow in the nostril is off. It should be on the other side if the neck shadow is right. I think i like this one the best! She has a nice expression.

I don't have really anything to say about the next two other than the hatching...They look good to me other than that!

The last one, I can't quite put my finger on. It's a bunch of small things that doesn't make it look as pretty as the others. A few things I think are throwing it off. The upper eyelids are too thick and it makes it seem like the eyes are too big? Then the nose looks too pointy because of the shadow near the tip. I don't think you gave enough "ball" on the tip. Next the lip, since this is more of the downwards angle i think you are showing too much of the lower lip? Next the neck. I think this is a case of what was talking about in the last post. The neck seems to thin at the base and maybe too long?

These are very specific but what I really think would really make your drawing step up is: Improve your rendering...or kill it and study the neck more. Those seem to be the weakest point right now to me. I really seem some improvement in your facial features! Those have really stepped up in the last couple of posts!

Woo...that was a mouth full...

[stylus]

Thanks for the in-depth crits, Nyx! They really help and I appreciate it a lot! I think, on my part, I mix up some of the terminology, which unfortunately comes out in the sketches. Like, when you say "linework" and "hatching", I see the two as the same since hatching is made up of lines. How would you suggest to go about hatching?

[Smarty]

good stuff, does yuor local college run some life drawing? if so, i would sign up becasue you have a basic understandnig of human form but some things are just a little off and arn't very 'rythmic?'

your woman a couple of posts ago is abit stiff and the hips look a little too high, may i ask how old you are? i say because the boobs and crotch get a little vague... study from referance and tell your parents it isnt porn!

the tree on a cliff is visually very good though, my fav piece here.

[stylus]

It's been a while. School's been busy.

smartkyle: Shamefully, I'm about to graduate with a University degree in Design. Our Faculty of Arts does have life drawing courses, but they try to steer us more into abstraction. Most students who aren't interested in abstraction don't like the Faculty because of this. And coming from Design, the profs usually judge our work based on the idea rather than actual knowledge/technique. Thx for the comments, all the same! Hoping to improve.

Hoping I did...

[Nyx702]

Jesus it has been a while! and this is a great improvement! I love the way the rendering on the armor turned out. I have three crits: One, the skin tones are muddy...they are tough. I am no good at them either...but the shadows have too much gray in them I believe. Two, the hand appears to be too tiny. And three, The dress could use a some harder edges. I think you could get away with just doing it one side but overall the edges are hard and then you have a softer dress which makes it look sloppy/unfinished.

Great job overall! I didn't think you were still alive! I think a few of our now defunct SSG has updated...i guess it's my turn.

[stylus]

More defined edges, less gray skin tones, and proportions. Got it. I read up on a lot of light stuff and, together with your crits, I tried following all that with this painting. It's for a school project where we're animating Little Red Riding Hood. Group of four; I'm doing all the drawings/paintings and hoping they'll be portfolio-worthy. I gave the idea to have Red as a forest being, which developed into a sort of forest elf. And since it's due in a little over a month, I'll be doing a LOT of drawing/painting!

[Nyx702]

Long time no post aye? Nice seeing you again in my SB!

Really cool idea. I like it. Your painting skills seem to constantly be getting better and better. My only comment about the concept you have is the little ball thingie on her hat/head. You have a lot of sharper edges throughout her body and the ball thing is very playful...almost childish and I am not sure if it matches 100%. It's a small thing really, just don't know if it's as cohesive as it could be!

PS...her legs make me hungry for lettuce wraps!

[stylus]

Your painting skills seem to constantly be getting better and better.

No, I think you still have me beat here. I have to continually resort to using Levels and Color Balance to correct stuff because, otherwise, I don't know what colours to use. I don't like doing it because it seems like cheating to me. Is that generally frowned upon?

In any case, I hope my "colour sense" has improved. I did my next painting completely pure (no Levels, no manipulation, no nothing... all hand-picked colours).

PS...her legs make me hungry for lettuce wraps!

Wolf!

[pior]

Hey stylus you might not agree with me but I think that this one

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure003.jpg

is by far your most powerful image. The more rendered ones are obviously technically superior but that one life study has something very elegant that I like. Lautrec-like in a way? I know it's not a very constructive crit but why not pushing in that direction...

Anyways, saved to ref folder ;)

[stylus]

Hey stylus you might not agree with me but I think that this one

http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/figure003.jpg

is by far your most powerful image. The more rendered ones are obviously technically superior but that one life study has something very elegant that I like. Lautrec-like in a way? I know it's not a very constructive crit but why not pushing in that direction...

Anyways, saved to ref folder ;)

You're totally not alone. I loved doing that one and I still love it. But the thing is... I don't know how I did it! :wtf: Seriously, the best stuff I do, I honestly don't know how I did it. Although, now that you mention it, I think I'll try the Art Deco/Nouveau thing. I've actually always been a fan of Mucha. His stuff's amazing in its simplicity. Thanks for the suggestion!

The Red Riding Hood project's eating up a lot of time. I managed to convince my teammates that we could do the whole thing w/ just one painted backdrop and change it by moving things around, changing colours, etc. It's pretty theatrical, I think. So it would go from a sunlit forest to a dense forest (where she meets the Wolf) to the Grandmother Tree. I've never done environments before, and I'm still struggling w/ colour, but here's the result of one day.

[stylus]

I decided to update an old painting from 2006. Been bugging me for a while.

Before (2006)
http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/illustration/dig_reapus.jpg

After (2009)
http://www.ualberta.ca/~ansun/images/illustration/dig_carnus.jpg

[stylus]

Posted in this Critique, but not sure if it belongs there, so posting it here too :)

OK, personal project. Monkey King is my favourite fictional character, and I've always wanted to interpret what he would look like for real. I've been looking at a lot of reference photos and drawing monkeys. These are just some really quick sketches to sort of... test some poses out. See what I like. Thing is, I think I've scrutinized these so much that I need some fresh pairs of eyes to help me see where my mistakes are. I'm particularly concerned about the bottom 2 images. The others are just there for, um, comparison If maybe I did something right in one of them that I didn't do in the bottom 2...

I've based it off a rhesus macaque, which seems to be the most populous species around the historical location of Monkey King's home (yes, I know... technically his species is a stone monkey... i guess). I've attached some of the reference photos I've been looking at.

I'm hoping to get some good crits. I really want to do a good job on this!

Oh, and is anybody here pretty familiar with Chinese art history? Might ask questions about that later on if there is...