end of sketchbook, come see my new one under the username AlexC

[blanquish]

bumskee; min, that would be sweet it be both could go, you could tell me how to use your brushes!!
cheers
entdroid; haha, here is some colour for you:P
I knew you wouldnt like the head!:D haha
sorry
rodrigo! yeah ill tell you if im going, it would be great to sketch together, I need a job too!
j a k e ; haha, whats more important, a once in a life time oppurtunity or school:P
Man, we gotta cheat and use books that have movies! haha, come to think of it, thats not a bad idea.

armando, too kind mate, its just practice and hard work, and practice:P

this was a 1 hour IRC challenge, i came up with the challenge, octopus magical character
heh 1 hour, OC, Photoshop and painter(gotta multitask

[designboot]

Great skeches!

[Wolfbane]

Oh man i love the smell of improvement! seriously, these last sketches rocks!
love the creativity with those animals/creatures on page 4. Everything's
ggrown better, still need to work slightly ont he facial structure though, in
some very few cases it looks flat. But the expressions are really neat ^__^

Glad to see your working with pencil, though i'd like to see some more
digital work from you. For example you could join the td battle with me ;)

OVERALL: great improvement, alex! cant wait to see more work popping
out!

[Dile_]

yeah, that 1 hour thing is damn fun, If you happen to be on IRC at the time the topic is given, feel free to send me a PM, and yes, for me, I think everything is sorted out ; ) up to you decide how you feel though.
However, uhm, You draw a lot from reference, thats good, really good, but my advice would be to try to get some dynamism in there, cause your stuff looks kinda stiff, Im studying hogarth right now, I think its great stuff about dynamism in there, after all, all his books are focused on how to get stuff look dynamic.

~Dile

[blanquish]

designboot:)
wolfbane;hey thanks mate, nice to have you back. I'm hoping my digis will consistently get better as I figure out the kinks of ps and painter.

Dile; thanks mate:D Yes, 1 hour challenges are great, did one last night with bumskee and idiot apathy, I wont show it, it was pooor, but it was fun, the topic was emo demon:D
I can get hogerth from the library( i dont like staring at a screen to study)
anyway, thanks mate:)

had a couple crappy sketchdays

[Texahol]

your rendering seems to be getting quite nice, but I think you need to think about getting the form right before you try to polish...otherwise you're just polishing bad forms.

[evildisco]

Good improvement, really enjoy the sketches. When you paint in any media, avoid using white as the backdrop, it will alter the way you see color.

Cheers.

[Wolfbane]

Awww! That shark drawing kicks arse! I'm guessing refrence, but hell, your
waaay better than me when it comes to texturing your drawings. Hope we'll
start up to continue on the Pirakha thing soon, looking forward to work with
you bro!

[entdroid]

Cool sketches and studies blanq!
Your SP looks very good and I really like the sharks.
The hands in your drawings could use a bit more attention.
I like the octopus head guy too, though I think you should have used a less saturated blue for the bg to make the octopus pop more.
Keep up the hard work, my friend! Your dedication always makes me realize how lazy I am :P

[blanquish]

hey guys, this will be my last update for a week+, because tomorrow Im going away to the beach with my family, I will be back next wednesday( the 15th) with a large update:P


texahol, hmm, Im a bit confused, isnt the forms the polishing? Ill work harder from now on.
evildisco; what, where has the attractive panda suit women avatar gone?:P, thanks birthday sharing pal, thanks for the tips:)

WolfBane, hee, thanks kjartan, I'm looking foward to the pixels you will be pushing in pirahka, chat to you later, or in a week.

Gleeson, aw thanks, I dont particularly want stars, heh, no idea what percentage they are though, because of my browsers being funky. heh, you deserve it more though, your stuff is looking very nice:)

entdroid; :) thanks, hmm, the SP, doesnt look much like me unfortunately,me and a friend were chopping it about, trying to find the section that looked like me.
With the less saturated blue, would a darker blue, or a lighter blue look better? I will try and fix it before i leave.
yep, you gotta work harder:P thanks Victoria:)

silly graphite Ive been pushing around lately
(Wolfbane, pirahka stuff in the next update, i promise, its just wip atm)

unimaginative imaginative stuff( no ref)

[Gleeson]

Hey Blanquish

Sorry for taking a bit of time to get back to you in your sb. I read what Skief had to say and I know where he is coming from and I think that those kinds of rules are the bread and butter of competent drawing. However in saying that I last looked at your sb about a month ago and since then your work has gone up another notch. It seems to me that you are really starting to gain confidence in your own imagination and ideas and that’s awesome because in my opinion both skill and imagination have to developed and run at parallel for you to really be proud of what you create with your artwork. You have some awesome rendering skills coming along there and your drapery is awesome. Try and take some time with your drawing and work out what works and what doesn’t and have some fun with your ideas.

Gave you some stars aswell

Gleeson

[entdroid]

Re: octopus guy. I think the value is ok really, you just need to makes it less saturated. You know, more "gray-ish", roughly speaking.

I think you need to be a bit more conscious about laying basics shapes, specially when working from the mind. You stuff from imagination is very noticeable less consistent than your reffed stuff... maybe some loose gestures could help.

And I'm trying to work harder... I just get frustrated sometimes...
Keep it up blanq!

[Qxzi]

Hey,

those are some good sketchs there, i really liek those faces, the shading is ace! Well done! The octopus is funny, i think its body is too small for its neck

Keep it up

Qxzi

[blanquish]

hi guys, pit stop on the vacation, we had to return for my next door newighbours funeral =(
filled my sketchbook, need to buy a second.
mostly done life crap in my old white sketchbook, but its boring as hell to see, so i wont scsan it

random crap
gleeson; thanks mate, yeah, I feel Im trying to develop those ideas further than I used to. I dunno, before I seemed to just be doing the same thing, and it didnt bring as much satisfaction.
As an artist, you often question whether 1;your drawing enough, 2, your improving, and 3, people like your work. Sometimes you forget what brings you satisfaction in work.
thanks for your comment =)

entdroid; yeah I get what your saying about the octopus.
I hope your working harder:D you are a top gun illustrator , you should be making mega bucks!:)

qxzi, :) If you wanna see the kings of rendering, look for sketchbooks by Wes, Lukias, rodrigo and skeif, to name a few! rendering pals unite!
hehe thanks

meh..
some crap from life(the rocks), found a pinecone, made it somewhat into a character
meh
Im thinking of buying some guache paints and do some painting..

[entdroid]

Liking the studies there blanq! Nice pinecone!
I like the first image too... seems a bit surreal.
Thanks for the compliments :bashful: I updated yesterday, so you see I'm working, I'm working! :)

[Dile_]

hehehe, great to hear you filled your sketchbook ;) although, that means you have tons to scan (if its a 100 page moleskine?) right ? :P
oh well man, you doing alright, just one thing i've noticed is that all your stuff (almost at least) kinda leans to the left, maybe your are sitting in some special way ? I know that
when I'm twisting my body to the left, and kinda look down at the paper, I automatically write like that after a while, maybe you are doing the same thing ? :P just an assumption , keep it up man :)

~Dile

[blanquish]

hey guys, back again from vacation feeling burnt and tired.
Been sketching like hell lately, drawing most of the day.
Filled a book of math paper(lol), which is sorta fun, and is where all my pre lim drawings/ life studies and other studies have been going.
Ill show you 1 page of some quick poses of my sister.

entdroid; thanks Im glad you like the pine cone, here another for you( milking the same idea twice:D )
I saw your updates, good to see your working !:D

Dile: I think you misread that, I finished my old molekine, which is the work you have been seeing above+last page.
Bought a new one though
Nope, my drawings arent leaning over, its just the way I have been scanning them( its an a5 sketchbook on an a4 scanner, unless I match the edges up its crooked) should be better in this post becaue i lined it up

1 channeling Wes self portrait:P( really freaky though, i was drawing this and looked out the window at a car parked on the street, and the number plate was WES, hehe, freaky!
2pine cone dude( pinecone from life)
3 mixing animals (ref +life)
4 chair +girl from life
5 backwards legs +sketches, all from imagination

[character]

nice sketchbook! watch the slant. alot of your stuff is crooked. flip your moleskin upside down while you're drawing and it'll be a bit more obvious to catch from the begining!

[Dile_]

nice sketchbook! watch the slant. alot of your stuff is crooked. flip your moleskin upside down while you're drawing and it'll be a bit more obvious to catch from the begining!

Well, yeah, your stuff is leaning to the left slightly, even in the new update.

Great stuff though, keep it up and keep posting!

btw, you bought a new moleskine from where ? (Website ?) You have a store
close to you , cause it took me (ordering from a swedish company) more then 1 week to receive it ;( Oh well, great to hear you have a new one :)

~Dile

[hurricane]

nice sketches!

i like that dog thing :D

cheers!

[TheGnoll]

you're doing GREAT ;)

keep 'em coming like this, all looks good to me, and improvement is really there :D

keep sharinG!

ciao

[asoir]

kewlio! looks a lot more solid! sp is a big step up.
seeing the progress :]

[blanquish]

thanks guys:D
Lately been listening to a band called Sigur Ros, very relaxing music and good to draw to.:)
Character; yeh thanks, I see it now, not on everything, but its noticable.

Dile; thanks, yeah you can buy them from local artsores but they sell like hot cakes, I had to look in a few places to find a place that had them in stock :nohope:
hurricane: the dog thing? haha, what dog?
thanks mate:) I am honoured

The Gnoll; thanks Ryan, thanks for the compliment:)

asoirl kewlio!:D back at ya:P

ugh, shody drawings
Im dying to buy some guache

the portrait is from some photos I took of a homeless person, he had an unuaual faces and amazing hands.
I saw him on my bike, ran home, grabbed the camera and asked him If i could take some pics:0

crappy scans, non ref 'xept for the homeless dude

[Grooveholmes]

they've got asparagus for legs! (top left)

[Sirio_Brozzi]

really enjoying the immaginative stuff on this page. That bird with legs, sawfish rider and croc bird are quite an eyeful. : I Keep it comin.

[Texahol]

I think it's time to do some hand and feet studies ^^

what I meant by "bad forms" is if your initial line drawing is off, then no matter how much you render it, the initial drawing will still be off...and you end up with this rendered image that has bad form.

I enjoy the asparagus feet and the fish/shark riders. keep up the good work!

[entdroid]

Nice updates blanq. I like the old guy on the right sheet of the second image.
Your hands need some work, but everything else is looking nifty :)
Cheers!

[Jakian]

Wow
Such an improvement! o.o

Only think I see is that sometimes it seems like you're guessing when it comes to joints and muscles-when drawing for imagination that is.

[information_high]

ok, ive come to a stage where Im not sure where to go with my art. I think I would like to do more portrait work, and more industrial design bots and ships. I would like some indepth crits on what is my weakest stuff( dont hold back, if its shite, tell me its shite) If there is something you would like me to do more of, holla, k?.
I know I far from perfect and have a huge journey ahead of me, in a few weeks I have long holidays(6 weeks) and i want to knock off a ton of work and improve a lot,

Ok this is really late, and I've only seen your work up to this post from the last page... I think you need to try some more finished and refined pieces. Basically everything is in that half done/nearly finished stage. A lot of your figures are strong-you have a natural affinity for it. I don't see much work of environments, that is-spaces your figures will occupy. Try doing some interior/exterior landscapes that show good examples of perspective and distance. This is important because if you don't understand the world the figures occupy on that level, how can you expect to render it well? Try doing some 'real' paintings in acrylic or watercolor in color of figures in landscapes. Full body figures as well-no cut off hands and feet.

That's my two cents... hope it helps.

[blanquish]

sorry for the short absense, couldnt be bothered scanning;/
had a few 10 hour drawing days which was good.
bought some gouche which I love

anyway..
grooveholmes; thanks bud, asparagus? I was going for tentacles:P
sirio brozzi; hmm, thanks mate
texahol; I get what you mean, thanks for your imput:)

entdroid;thanks Victoria, and thanks for your constant encouragement
Jakian; youre my age right? thanks, yeah, anatomy=poo

Information High; hah, yeah, never late than never. Thanks for the imput; got some real paint for you as well.
Expect some guache landscapes in the not too distant future
thanks

[chaosrocks]

more art faster

get a white pencil
use it

wonderful progress
chaos

[blanquish]

chaos ^^ thanks:D
white pencils dont really show up well, barely visible infact
churs
some paintings from today
experimenting;/ cols are a bit off from the scan.
guache+watercolour=win
Im still learning, crits would be nice
clouds, doodle, octopus

[asoir]

niice, do more paints, they rock!
keep it up my kangaroo friend ;)

[blanquish]

asoir; thanks my pommy friend:P

colours are way off, +scan terrible
playing with styling the clouds, gonna keep experimenting with pen, waterclour and gouche

drawings scanned soon, i cant be stuffed lol
going for another 10hour day today, wish me luck

edit/ the scan makes it looks horrible! Avert your eyes!

[Lee W]

great stuff as usual :) good to see some color experiments. oh white color pencils don't work too well ... try using white pastel or conte, they should show up better.

[blanquish]

thanks Lee, Ill look into it
10 hour day+7-8 hour day
some studies( done on cheap printing paper) and experiments in my sketchbook.
the chic ir ref'd, the tech enviros arent, and the faces are unreffed, costume ref'd..
I have to go to school this monday..:(, holidays are never long enough

[blanquish]

It seems my ssg is officially dead:(
If your interested in staring a brand spanking new one with me, or let me in yours, let me know.
Seems like its just Me and Ent' anyways

shameless bump
30 secons dog sketches:davi: :davi:

[Craig Houghton]

I'm loving the updates, but I'll start out with a crit. I think you need more depth on the painted pieces. Squint more. I think in some cases the competing colors are flattening your painting. To use a recent example, the bg in the octopus-head piece is too saturated (not darker or lighter, but less color intensity as in more gray). The intensity it pulling that right forward, making it on an even plane with the foreground instead of pushed back. If you keep your palette muted throughout, you can pull in saturated colors where desired and make them pop by contrast.

love the pencil portraits - the men are very well handled - usually I only see a lot of female portraits around in other sb's, but you make the male portraits actually worth looking at. Oh, and it's great to see the birds in there. :)

-Craig

[Lee W]

I think my SB is one of those Craig is referring to with all the female portraits :D

good faces and figures, though I wish you would do more in depth studies. Also, try using tonal rendering occasionally instead of hatching.

And if you don't mind, I would like to be in the SSG

[Craig Houghton]

I think I was writing while you were doing your most recent post. I like the pen dogs. I want a French Bulldog. I spent most of the evening learning about them. I think I'm going to go draw a dog.

sorry about the lack of regular ssg crits. It's hard to break my posting patterns. I tend to horde and dump and crit around the same time.

-Craig

[Justin.]

Pen dogs are great.

If I could have any dog though, it'd be... a Corgi... they rock!

[Brendan N]

Hey Alex, thanks for stopping by my sb mate.

Some really good stuff happening here - keep doing the face studies, the more you do the more variation you'll be able to put into your own faces from imagination. Watch your line too - you need to put more variation and energy into it, go reckless with it if you need to loosen up!

Overall very impressive my friend - added some stars to boost your rating. you deserve it mate.

ciao!

- d.

[asoir]

love the gugg-looking stuff, awesome. maybe we could make our own mini ssg? peace

[j a k e]

Top sketch pages dude. So many anatomy studies! Great work and awesome progress brother!
5* for freakin effort man!

[entdroid]

blanq!!!! those two images on post #286 are AWESOME!!! :D
I love the textures in the right page of... well, the one that's a double page.
You went a bit overboard with the quantity of colors on the last one but nothing too bad really, looks great anyway. You're getting a great feel with those, love 'em :)
Anatomy pencils look nice too, but the head on some doesn't look right on the body, and doesn't have the same rendering so in adds to that feel.
I like the dog sketches, head looks a bit wonky in the second one though. I like the looseness you're getting there :)
So... keep it up mate! :D

[smuli]

I'm dumbstruck by your progress every time I visit here... The lines are looking great and you seem to be quickly getting the hang of colours. The improvement with values is another thing that makes me amazed, especially onthis one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=81717&stc=1&d=1169519015) and the turtle sheet in the same post. You seem to still leave the edges between different values very crisp though. I don't know if it can be said to be a bad thing but when you do, try to think about those edges as equally important lines as the contours. You could try some nose studies too, it seems like you often exaggerate the effect of nostrils. But awesome work, as I said. Keep that coming.

[Dile_]

ok, hehe you asked for it :) I just want to start of by saying - YAY GIRLS!! finnaly! I thought you'd be stuck with guys for the rest of your life or something... :P
You wanted general crits so here we go.
-Work on proportions, in some of your stuff, its clear that you have worked on the figure a lot, but in some, where I have no clue if you are just "having fun" or if your are serious about the proportions. Try to stick to "real proportions" for now, and when you've learned it, and can "deal" with it, you can start to "having fun" and doing stuff that looks wierd/funny, you know what I mean.
-Work on anatomy, and try to get your stuff more dynamic, its pretty straight figures in your book, and its always been like that, so i guess its a habit.
-Most of your colour stuff is kinda flat, I know your new to colours, and I belive that if you do a few master studies or something like that, Im sure this could change, cause some of your pencil stuff shows some understanding of form, which is very good :)
- http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=83561&stc=1&d=1169854690
This is a good example of what I mean about the proportions, why are you doing that ??? The faces looks very good though :)
-Theres a lot of white areas in your stuff, you shade, and suddenly its white.. I remember you telling me something like - You should only leave white areas on the places that is completely white.-
-*Side note* Don't blame the scanner :P You have all time in the world to adjust the picture :) *Something i need to think of...lol*

Thats it for now :) keep it up, you have improved a lot!

~Dile

[rodrigo!]

cool stuff man! yes i like sigur ros as well!
i like the sketches they are coming along smoothly, and its good to see a lot of varied stuff too! keep up the hard hard work man!
p.s what size is your moleskin , can you get one in A4 size or is A5 the largest? hit me up with a pm if u can.

[blanquish]

whoa, so many comments, I am truly flattered!:)

quick news
1; back to school, teachers and subjects are OK, most teachers couldnt care less how much I draw lol.
2; got my braces off:P yay


havent updated in yonks because its a real bother scanning, so I think Ill update it weekly with a dump.
done a butt load of anatomy, and figure stuff
I get about 40 mins of bus drawing done.
1 hour and thirty mins of drawing my pals in school
30 mins self study in mirror stuffs
and 30 mins book stuff, and often another hour of female figures.
So hopefully in a month or so, we will see some improvement.


showing about 30% of stuff, lots of turds i wont show, and all the other studies not worth posting.


again, thanks for the comments

Craig Houghton; thanks very much for the critique:D
I get exactly what you mean about the colour saturation, thanks for pointing it out!

lee; thanks bud, yeah, do you wanna organise the ssg? I suck at the codes and stuff, me dile and asoir's sbs links and a banner or something, im kinda tied up at other stuff.
thanks =)

craig again! thanks, dogs are great companions, very loyal and loving. Its funny when my dog follows me around and sits next to me when I am drawing, and when I get up and move, she comes and moves closer to me.

Justin Oaksford; dogs are great, fyi, my dog is an irish coated weatern terrier, beautiful breed and temperment, rarely barks or digs and never sheds hair.thanks bro


brendan, yeah Ive been doing lots of studies from life and the newspaper so it should show in the near future.
I do lots of loose stuff, but i dont show it. so yeh..
thanks for the stars, lol
couldnt care less though


asoirl thanks Marco, Lmao@the Poms winning a game of cricket.
Gugg? what or who is that? link plz
thanks Marco, you still owe me that big sloppy kiss from the link I gave you:P jk

jake; thanks friend, and good luck for year 12! I assume youre back already? or back this monday

Entdroid; thanks Victoria, I have another one for you:)
yeh, i couldnt make up my mind about the colour and stuffed it in the end lol.
The heads were really lacklusture, because most of the pics had lots of hair, i was concentrating on the figure more, and they were super quick, about a minute or 2 each if that makes a difference

smuli; hey thanks for dropping by,
thxu for the imput, greatly appreciated:)

Dile; lmao @finally being stuck with boys, that sounds hilarious

1; sometimes i just screw around with proportions, y know, just to get some different results; "just for fun" is the answer
2; working on it
3;yeah, its the saturation of the bg that Craig mentioned, I kbow better now
4; its my scanner dile, it sucks:P :P
thanks for the imput dile
ps, when your bday coming up? its pretty soon rite?

rodrigo!
thanks, sigur ros are good to listen to while drawing, very unusual interesting sound.
I sent you a pm about the moleskin:)
thanks dudes and dudettes :yayca:

stuff i am not very proud of
bout 30 or so % of all stuffs
the dino skeletons were from life at the museum, rest ref/life/imagination
next dump 1 weeks time

[blanquish]

done on printing paper( my new best friend)
folded over, so its 15 in size

like I said to a friend of mine, I think i must have asburgers or obsessive and compolsive disorder(they are the same thing, or am i thinking of something different)...because i cant stop drawing, lol

all really quick fyi

[Dile_]

<3 Nice *last* update dude ;) and thanks for sharing the links while back :)
I really like this one, it reminds me of an excercise in "Drawing on the right side of the brain" negative shapes.. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=87220&stc=1&d=1170487359
Cool stuff , keep it up!

~Dile

[Lee W]

very good figure gestures :) but still looking for that long study :D oh, doing good with the colors too.

[asoir]

dude guggenmaneuver. you obv. STOLE HIS STUFFZ.
hah, nice updates man, you wore braces?
*tries to hold back snorts*
;)
peace

[blanquish]

thanks guys
dile; heh, not negative shapes, just the shadows. going for style over anything.
thanks Lee
Asoir; aw man, you make me feel bad:( , im a hack and i didnt even know it..
shoot me a link to his stuff please, im gonna teach him a lesson, in ..erm, physics?

stfu about the braces..:P
some stuff from school life/ref/imagination, the usual
would love some crits.
Been working on my figures but they suck.
they are fine from life, but i dont feel like i am retaining the information, any crits would be nice.
I really want to do life drawing, i really want to go to art school, I really want to not go to school.

I feel depressed.
Is it natural for an artist to hate the work they do?
I mean, i look at these amazingly talented artists who come up with these original creative ideas, and to a lesser extent, the people who have a really fresh and original style.
i dunno, i think my biggest stumbling block is anatomy. gotta keep studying, hoping one day it will all click together.

i would love some general critiques on the pencils
shoddy scans btw

[Chermilla]

Nice stuff, one crit about the first one, the nude woman...I think her breasts are spaced slightly too far apart.

I really like the fifth image you've posted (on the left hand page especially).
Nice sense of mood in that one. :)

[entdroid]

I feel depressed.
Is it natural for an artist to hate the work they do?
I mean, i look at these amazingly talented artists who come up with these original creative ideas, and to a lesser extent, the people who have a really fresh and original style.
i dunno, i think my biggest stumbling block is anatomy. gotta keep studying, hoping one day it will all click together.


Blanq, you're only 15!!! It would be really weird that you had all those things sorted out by now. Some things just come with mileage and, yes, age. You already are really good and have a really strong idea of where you're heading for your age. You just have to maintain that strong dedication of yours, but you need to have fun!! If it's torture, it's not worth it. So just let go, enjoy the process and try new things, experiment, do what you like! Keep working, but don't put so much pressure on yourself ;) And don't forget to also enjoy this stage of your life and hang with your friends and do silly stuff, cause you'll regret it later otherwise!

Now, to crits: on the anatomy issue, I found that the most useful method for myself (not that I'm great at anatomy or anything, but it helped anyway :P) was Vilppu's gestures: you just need to do some curves that describe the body's flow, its torsion, it's tensions, not it's contour. This really helps you a lot more to really understand how is the body working, not just copying the outlines and shapes.
I do see a lot of improvement in your figures though, but I think it's one of the most difficult things to learn, and it takes a HUGE amount of time to grasp IMO (I dunno for sure cause I haven't grasped it yet myself :D).

I can't really crit you work with pencils cause I suck at pencils and don't know much about it. So to me your stuff in this medium is always great. Specially the objects from ref on the last image :)

Anyway... have fun! :D
Cheers!

[Texahol]

Your figures are getting quite a bit better. There are some really interesting distortions, that work quite nicely on this page (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89047&stc=1&d=1170851613) and I think it's time for you to push your dark values a bit darker. Get a greater range in tones.
looks like you're improving your form before busting out the rendering, esp on those still life studies.

as far as hating the work you do...I had a talk about self-hating with dan milligan at the SF workshop. basically he said that you don't get anywhere by being happy with what you've done. You always have to strive to make something better. If you're happy with where you are, you're just not going to improve. Where is the drive to improve? So don't get too depressed. Your work is getting better, keep working through it. So figure out what you don't like about your work, and change it.

"style" is derived from how you interpret the world around you and draw it. Sounds like you've hit an inspiration plateau.Fresh Ideas, well...I dunno people tell me I'm imaginative, and I think all my ideas are crap. :)

[Lee W]

Don't feel depressed, most artists don't think their work is good and that is what drives us. And you're still a teenager :shrug: barely done any serious studying.

Anatomy is hard to learn, it takes a lot of studying. To increase your knowledge and skills in anatomy, a lot of studies from anatomy books (bones and muscles,not just the surface), and not just human anatomy, but animal anatomy also. Sketching from life is more for learning motion and form.

Some general crits, the line economy is good and you already know how I feel about hatching :D But sketches, to me personally, are hard to crit since they aren't always meant to serious, accurate, neat, tight or finished.

Style is something you shouldn't be thinking about, it isn't something you can learn. it comes from experience and your interpretation of things around you. And imagination stems from that interpretation.

[blanquish]

half assed bump
chermilla
what first one?/deletes:p
yes, your spot on, i noticed it too half way through drawing it.
thanks for the crit, yeah, plenty of flaws everywhere.

entdroid; heh,dont worry, I am having fun drawing, and I feel horrible if I havn't drawn much.
Do you know where I can download a vilpu pdf?
btw, the last stuff wasnt ref'd, it was from life, had nothing else better to draw
:), thanks, that cheered me up

texahol
yeah I guess there is to the drive to improve, especially when youre unhappy about something.
thanks for that, youre very nice!

: Lee
yeah, i understand you.
Dont worry, im not turning emo, or slitting my wrists:P
its just afterwards that I feel bad about the piece, and what kills me is knowing there are tons of flaws, but i dont realise it.

thanks a ton guys:D, ill get back to you all

Also, check out Lukias' last update!:D,
so bloody incredible

ref's from characterdesigns.com
great site for anatomy, poses, and costumes, a5

[Craig Houghton]

I love the girl in the tree -- you already create art that can spark imagination and hold interest, and your figures are fine. There's nothing for you to be down about, at all, but it's absolutely expected that you're going to go through a lifetime with an up and down love it hate relationship with your work. It's just how it goes.

As you learn, you see the flaws, by the time the technical skills catch back up, you've learned to see even more, and then your hands have to catch back up again, and by then, you've already seen past that new point. Your ability to see flaws and recognize the good stuff is always going to be two steps ahead of what you're able to actually do, and that's always going to be depressing.

Leave the enjoyment of your art to others -- your share of the fun is in the creation of the work.

-Craig

[entdroid]

blanq, here's a good resource on Vilppu with a whole bunch of articles: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=vilppu&offset=10

This one is specifically on gestures: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=vilppu&article_no=573

I'm glad I could cheer you up! :D
Keep working! You're doing just great! ;)

[Lee W]

Every artist notices flaws in their work, its just not that noticeable to other people. It's good that you can see flaws in your work, shows that you are learning and it shows you what areas need work in. You mentioned that your figures is your main weak point, then do studies of isolated sections of the body. Don't just copy what you see in the book but also mentally visualize it, that way you will also train your brain to retain the image. Also do sketches of it in different views to make the brain do some work so the eyes can take a rest :D

[Lukias]

sheesh man, don't get yourself down. Your a spring chicken and you(already are) are going to be insanely good. Hats off to you!.

[asoir]

no wonder you're depressed, this stuff is terrible, TERRIBLE!

of course im joking, http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89050&stc=1&d=1170851651 come on! look at that one on the left! i wouldnt be able to do that in years ya freakin genius. keep up.

[Craig Houghton]

Looking forward to another update... You're usually so quick with them that I've taken it for granted. Now, post! :)

-Craig

[blanquish]

craig houghton; yeah, thats a good philosophy, speaks particularly true for a fine artist, doesnt matter what you really think of your work, its what others think(and are willing to spend) that is really important
thanks very much:)

entdroid; thanks very much for the links, I'll check it out when I have a spare minute.
thanks:)

Lee; its not so much I can always see the flaws, its the fact that I know that there are flaws, and dont know where they are.
I guess a critical eye is important for an artist, figuring out what works/doesn't.
thanks

Lukias: whoa, Im stoked you think that! Means a helluva lot coming from you. your comment made my week:D

asoir; hah, (just noticed the post count) lol, It was only a few moths ago that you were at 3000 posts, sheesh, man
danks

craig Houghton; you again! Im under the philosophy, draw more, post less

been doing a ton of anatomy studies, and my imagination has sorta suffered.

[j a k e]

Digging those black marker sketches duder!

[Lee W]

If you can't figure out where the flaws are then I suggest drawing from refs for a while, that way you can compare your sketch against the ref to locate those flaws. But I don't mean just doing a quick 10-15 minute sketch, I mean do a full study. It doesn't mean you have to do it every day, but maybe once a week or two.

Drawing more doesn't necessarily help improve your skills if it is done without a purpose. Drawing less with more quality will teach you faster than quantity with less quality.

[Craig Houghton]

He has a steak shoulder and a beef shoulder.

I like the white beard on the old man. You went for the less is more approach and it works well there. I hate drawing beards.

-Craig

[entdroid]

I love the steak/beef/zing green dude. It's really cool.

I think it's important to draw from imagination every once in a while, 'cause creativity needs to be exercised too, and also, you can't learn stuff like composition and storytelling from anatomy studies, so it's important to try doing a finished illo every now and then, 'cause it also makes you face more concrete problems regarding technical stuff like anatomy or perspective, and I think you're more able to analyze it in that context and see how it's really working. At least imho.

Cheers! :)

[asoir]

every post is for a good cause man ;P
steak beef gu's cool but his hands are tiinny winy! keep up

[blanquish]

jake; thanks for your support dood
Oldnoobie; yeah, I guess drawing 10 hours of stickfigures isnt gonne really do anything. hard work is the answer, so telling yourself "this will help me more, therefore do less, isnt a good idea...just rambling.

Craig; beards are stubborn features, to be honest I just got lazy and quit..

ent; yes you are correct. If you have a look through some of the older pages you will see I go through different periods. Usually one is a study period, followed by a concept period.
Its just how I work I guess, sometimes more adventurous , sometimes I want to draw just for the sake of satisfaction. gracias

btw, your recent vector, and other stuff is looking great! Vampire dog was a favourite
ass wire; danke bro

dont wanna scan sketchbook stuff yet
quick smoking ape painting inspired by Cotron www.codymiles.com
hope ya like

[asoir]

haha, thats actually pretty awesome. you painted them damn well.
peace mah brudda

[rodrigo!]

I feel depressed.
Is it natural for an artist to hate the work they do?
I mean, i look at these amazingly talented artists who come up with these original creative ideas, and to a lesser extent, the people who have a really fresh and original style.
i dunno, i think my biggest stumbling block is anatomy. gotta keep studying, hoping one day it will all click together.

yes! ive been struggling with exactly the same issues man! keep the fuck at it because youre going strong! and getting better. i feel exactly that way and its supressing me, i hope it doesnt do that to you!
keep up the hard work.

[Craig Houghton]

Really, I just want to know what it is they're both looking at. :)

-Craig

[entdroid]

blanq, love those smoking apes!!!! They're so damn cool :D

[blanquish]

thanks
ass wire, the scan kinda ruined it(lame excuse)
a lot of texture from the brushes is lost..

rodrigo!
thanks.
you have nothing to worry about mate, your insanely good!
thanks, and i hope the kessan weekend is rad.

craig; um, you tell me..

ent; haha, certainly a killer combo, monkies and smokes, thanks

some digital stuff
self portrait(I call it "black eye" and a speedpaint(from a small ref in a book, roughly 300 pixels square Id say)
scans soon

[blanquish]

I just realised how crap the last ones were:(
actually, they were very worthwhile in building up my confidence with the programs, I feel Im achieving a better grasp of brushes and the programs the more I mess around with textures and brushes

some doodles before I start the trad. stuff

[asoir]

awesome doodles, ben olsen esque- painting in the last two

[Craig Houghton]

That water looks great on that land/seascape and I love the cloud expression. Black eye is like a study in neutrals, but that gray skin looks funky to me.

-Craig

[TheGnoll]

i actually like the second pic in post 327 a lot ;) :D

my my fav is definately the smokin gorilla piece, i love the rought technique and the different mediums mixed together...and the overal nice idea :D

keep pushing, don't slow down! ;)

ciao

[blanquish]

took the day off from school because I feel horrible :sick

asoir; thats pretty much the best compliment I could get, gracias!
Craig houghton; danke, actually I thought the clouds were weak..

thegnoll; thanks ryan!
If youre wondering, its mostly gouche(watered down a fair bit), a tad watercolour and a bit of brushpen for the blacks(black paint doesnt look very good when it dries)

trying something a bit different../m\
abstract inspired to mr blonde:)

you can look at his sketchbook here http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40303&page=17
probably a million things I could do to it, but I'll leave it for the time being.
really good practice for texture, trying out brushes and composition

[Dile_]

hi blanquish!

To be very honest with you, this http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=95986&stc=1&d=1171875409
is the first thing on your book that really attracts my eyes! you have a lot of cool stuff, and yes you've made a great progression that you should be proud of, but that picture, what ever its from ref or not have so great colours, and its technically good executed which is pretty 'not so often to be seen' on your digitals. As I said, you have some really cool stuff so don't get angry at me for being honest, after all its just my opinion , you choose whatever to listen or not :)

Whatever man, you are doing great and i can see improvement by every post, I just had to tell you how much i liked the speedy.. Now im gonna pack some stuff.. Cya in a week :D

keep it up!

~Dile

[Craig Houghton]

I like the colors (although a bit more of something more saturated here and there would be good) and the texture in the abstract, but I'm not so sure about the comp. The value pattern doesn't really draw me in, it leads me away and out through the corner.

"actually I thought the clouds were weak.." - the pattern there, the uplift (especially in the cloud on the left), mimicks the unique rock shapes and that helps the comp work. as long as a strong fundamental like that is in place, it doesn't matter if they're more unfinished or such.

-Craig

[asoir]

niiice abstract, great colours. keep up

[entdroid]

I like the color choices in that abstract, but I think, given its nature, that you should be more assertive and conscious with your strokes. I agree with Craig in the comp issue as well.

Landscape on post #327 looks really good!!! Great job on that one :)

[Lee W]

nice colors and comp on this one (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=95986&stc=1&d=1171875409)

the abstract doesn't do a thing for me :shrug: though it's probably cause I don't really care for abstract stuff. But I think it could use some saturation and stronger contrast.

[blanquish]

dile; hey no issues there, no need to apologise for not saying anything insulting I respect your opinion, if you say its good, then I'm happy, even if i think its a really old dog turd( like the ones that turn white and powdery, the best kind)

craig houghton
thanks for the insight, yes the abstract isnt exactly precious milk, but hey, there is a first for everything, getting feedback is far more important than anything else; thanks:)

marcoo; thanks for your spamming asspats:P
entdroid; thanks, it was more of a learning exercise, the method was more important than the final result, if that makes sense.

Lee, I understannd the general bias people have towards abstracts, but i urge you all to be open minded about all aspects in art.
mine was admittedly, a crappy abstract, but look at Mr blonde's abstracts, they are really great!

some really dodgy sketchbook pages, some totally unreffed, some from life, some from ref( fairly manipulated tho), the same old drill

also, I bought some high quality bristol paper( paper of the gods:D)
and I am working on some finished drawings.
They are turning out really nice, and I may end up posting them in finally finished.. we'll see:)
I was thinking of buying a whole lot of bristol and binding it up into a sketchbook, that would be sweet!

[Lee W]

oh I'm not bias toward abstract art, there are some that I do like. It's just that abstract art doesn't fill me with awe.

Anyhow, I like that smoking camel and the one with the desk. I'll wait for the finished pieces on the bristol paper to give crits :)

[Dile_]

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=98862&stc=1&d=1172387297

this and your green pages are really cool man! Keep those up, i think you learn tons from drawing life-stuff , keep it up man!

~Dile

[blanquish]

lee
yes i understand you, and your right, the majority of abstract art(mine included is rubbish)
I find abstract methods are found in all good designs, and illustrations.
Have a look at andrew jones and Targete for example.
anyway, crit away

Dennis the menace!:P
thanks brother!

this last week has been an odd one.
School has been stressing me out big time

other news i did a painting course on saturday "painting for beginners" and it was tons of fun and inspiring.
we did a 1 hour still life which ill show.(wip)

hope you like the still lifes
also, i was thinking of dropping these into finally finished, is that a bad idea?

[Craig Houghton]

I'm very impressed with the still life drawings. There's a patient appreciation of the values in all three, and you kept things interesting with the choice of objects.

You're already doing it to a degree, but I'd suggest stepping up the difference in level of attention, value, and contrast between objects in the fore and backgrounds even more. This is especially true in any piece where the still life arrangement moves back in space (as with 1 and 2). If I recall correctly David Leffel (awesome oil painter) always made the distinction between a still life work where things move back in space and those that stretch across the canvas vertically. In the latter he concentrated more on the rhythm and intensity of the light as it moves across the piece from l to r or so on.

Anyhow, you're already doing it to a degree, but if you play up the differences between the fore and the background objects more you'll avoid any flattening and the viewer should find it fun to move across the space, whether they realize it or not.

Great work!

-Craig

[archipelago]

those are some ace still lifes dude! especially for your age! the darks could be pushed just a little bit more though but whatever... your other stuff is nice too man! keep doing what you are doing because its obviously working! it will definitely be interesting to see where you are at in a couple of years!

[Lee W]

okie, the finish pieces ... great concentration on form, details and rendering, however, the values are too close to each other, the darks needs to be pushed more. This will also help separate one object from another and add depth.

[asoir]

lolololo inks are rully nice.
and nice one on using that picture from my thread as reference.
great snap eh? :)

edit- fuck me! those still lifes are lovely man

[Tigermilk]

omg, blanquish, this one is so incredibly rad - http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=98858&stc=1&d=1172387134
there's no way of getting it in a larger size?
That bristol-paper-sketchbook-thing seems very nice, I think you should do it :)

Keep it up, mate!
tiger

[entdroid]

Blanq, I missed a lot here!!!
Great still lives, really really cool! :)

[AlexC]

craig houghton;
thanks :D
I appreciate the crit , thanks a ton, and thanks for the inspiration in your sketchbook^^
archipelago; thanks bro!
Lee; you're spot on, i really need to pick objects with darker values as well.
thanks for the tip:)
marco
thanks bud lol

tigermilk
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8799/tigermilklp8.jpg
thats a larger version
thanks

entdroid; thankyou!


ok, new username, new sketchbook

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1246703