Sork's New SB

[Sorknes]

Well, starting anew since I've been long gone, and the old one just have a bunch of red x's.... Guess the attachment thing isn't a bad idea at all. ;)

Just starting out with my CHOW entry this week. I know it's full of faults and horrible mistakes, so you're welcome to totally destroy it for me, evilly even, so I can find even more faults with it, hehe. Didn't have the time to fix the ones I know is there, and other things keeps making it wrong, but I just can't seem to focus right on the details so I find what's really the cause of the major "ick'ies". Also, it's not how I usually paint on digital, went for something new, that might be why I have trouble finding the "hot" spots, heh.

[Sorknes]

Thought I'dd add five of my old ones, from the old SB thread, that still has some valid value for me. Value because they learn me a LOT in the process. And because I got great help from CA members both in creating and serious C&C on them later.

[Stark]

I like the gun...if only it was real and you could go shoot yourself for being better than me. lol Uh, I like th CHOW and the hands (though they look a bit skinny and the fingernails are iffy). The animals are good though...Is that a kangalope or something? :P The values are good, decent contrast, though that can be pushed more.

Keep at it

[Sorknes]

My fingernails had nailpolish. :p Hard to get them natural then, hehe.

Yeah, everything needs to be pushed more.... Messed around in PS today, and just got two doodles out of it. Meh. Well, it's a sketch book.

[Sorknes]

Did some half assed work on the original sketches. Just to get the darn gals out of my system.

[guggemmaneuver]

I like the gun...if only it was real and you could go shoot yourself for being better than me. lol Uh,
wtf

weirdest compliment ever—don't touch any guns! your rendering skills are a delight! You've got a lot to learn about light, but the potential for greatness is definitely there. Keep pushing yourself constantly to get better with your artwork, breaking bad habits and acquiring good ones and you'll do fine for yourself :) to make things immediately better, practice head anatomy and expressions, and trying to "capture a likeness" on the quick. Speaking of quick, try quick studies of people or animals maybe 7-10 minute drawings and free your heavy hand from that tendency to explore every part of the surface. obviously you're very creative--> you will have more fun with your creativity after you've developed your "chops" a little more

all the best
gug

[Sorknes]

Thanks a lot for your comment :)

Yeah, I really should. Good advice. I've been slacking a lot lately, and life drawings has been the thing that got chopped out first. Tend to get too hung up when doing them too, and end up using WAY too much time on each. I guess my cat better have to be inside tonight, I'm gonna draw its positions, heh. And light is my great pain, so I know I definitly need to get that straightened out. :nohope:

Another pain with pencil is water. I never EVER get it like I want it to. So I'm having a go in PS to see if I can learn something about it there. Started out with this, hopefully gonna get some more done on it later.

[Shin-Akuma]

Du verden, du verden! :O

Someone has improved a lot the last year, and that someone is you! :)
Sorry for the lack of crits, but I'm just too darn impressed!

[Sorknes]

Shin! How's your 3d stuff going?

How's it going? :) Morae and I've gotten married. :D And he's moving here now this month!

Here's some portraits from the project just for you that I did last month (yeah, still in it, but slacking like hell......heh....) They were made for 100x80, so I'll keep them that way, no great details, hehe....

And also an update from the pic above for now, got some more time with it now after work.

[Shin-Akuma]

3D stuff is going slow but steady! :) I'm working my behind off on something Dcept kindly prepeared for me, but it's difficult... Modelling a samurai. :)
That's my main project nowadays, anyway!

And... married? :O Wow! Congratulations! You two have been really busy lately, haven't you? Married.. and now he's coming to stay.. That's excellent! I'm happy for you. :)

as for me I only have three months left of school, and then I need to find somewhere to study 3D, finally. Time is surprisingly enough moving fast!

ah! :) Portraits! How's the project doing nowadays anyway? The portraits are looking good!

[Sorknes]

We're getting there. Slow, but steady, that too, hehe.

Another update on the landscape....

[Longxiang]

We're getting there. Slow, but steady, that too, hehe.

Another update on the landscape....

That's some spiffarino water in the front there.

[dCepT]

Hey! Det var en stund siden! Skjønner det, i og med at du har blitt gift og greier! Gratulerer!

Gonna switch to english... hehe

You've definately improved from what I remember! The digistuff is what looks best IMO... maybe bacause you're not nervous about making mistakes the same way as with the traditional stuff? I know I feel a lot more free in a digital enviroment...

crit time (you asked for it... hehe ;) ) : The dude at the top looks good... but everything is treated like it's the same material... the light strikes exactly the same all over... You could create a lot more focus in the areas you want the viewer to see if you gave some areas a bit more punch with a hard brush (varying the edges... soft vs. hard) and a bit more contrast in some areas... like metal bits and pieces would be more shiny than the suit he's wearing... makes for a more interesting "rhythm".. One more crit: Have a look at the facial structure of your characters... they far cheekbone seems to be pushed too far forward on a lot of the 3/4 views... after you scan, flip 'em in PS, and you'll see.

The enviro is looking pretty solid! You're using a lot more difference in brushes and strokes here, and that sells the image a lot better! Water is looking a lot better in the last update! The atmospheric perspective is looking good as well!

Keep 'em coming! And thanks for dropping by my SB!!

d-C

[Sorknes]

Longxiang: Thanks. :) Still needs to get better :)

dCepT : Yeah, all is great. :) Thanks a bunch for the crit, gonna try to follow it. :) Definitly to learn brushstrokes and push facials. I feel a lot more comfy with pencil than with PS, actually.

Which these two probably shows. Did three masterstudies. Didn't use too much time on them, but enough to get some details right, the first is from Leda, the second from a pretty rough naked study of San Sebastian, the last from Doni Tondo. All hanging in Uffizi, I love that gallery book of mine. The last one does NOT have three arms, he's taken out of context, it's another guys arm, heh.

I did these mostly for the lights. I need to nail that stuff.

Edit: found just two links, for Leda and the Doni Tondo.... The San Sebastian I couldn't find... Leda (http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/gallery/leda.jpg) Doni Tondo (http://www.wga.hu/art/m/michelan/2paintin/1doniton.jpg). On Doni Tondo, it's the guy in the back on our right.

[Stark]

Lot of curves! Great curves though. Shading looks really good, but could use more contrast (I like contrast).

Keep at it.

[Sorknes]

Thankie Stark. :)

Been practising several things, but for now I'm posting this. Spent some time on it, and want to finish it, but dang....... Yeah.

Crits WELCOME!

[Sorknes]

Yes. It's apples.

I needed colour practise. And a warm up.

Actually, the first one is done in friggin M$ Paint, standard edition, at work, with standard mouse, since I was bored. Can you believe it? :P

The other two are my current warm ups.

[Sorknes]

Yes. I know. WIP. Kill it. Working on the frame now, needed a rest.

[DARAF]

Dude, I love the rendering of the gun up top.

[Sorknes]

I can't be bothered to do anything more with this, methinks. Starting to tire of it. So posting.

[Sorknes]

This is a picture that I've been working on for weeks. You know... The kind that you take out and work on for ten minutes before you move on to whatever you really *have* to do.... I don't know what I feel about it. I really like the idea and concept, but it kinda lost some of the "stuff" on the way, methinks.

It's based on a pencil drawing, and right now it's kinda dull and grey, but I still have the original screaming colours from when I started out bright light, but atm I'm not really sure where I'm going with it. I just love tinkering with it every now and then though. Keeps changing whenever I bring it out.

Whereever it may end up, I like it for the breaks it's given me so far inbetween drawing all the other stuff. But I'd really like some C&C, since I think I've stared myself blind on it. And it's started to go bland comparing to all the other stuff I've done to it.

[chaosrocks]

actually the color has a subtlety and grace that I find very attractive and faintly creepy. Th ejewelry is verycool. I love big Japanesse combs but I always end up bumping them into things... tooo tall
anyway

she looks like she is made of paper mache... I use dto have japanese dolls
perhaps some hint of lifelike skin tone creeping through. or translucency. unless your intention is for it to be a mask. just an idea

chaos

[guggemmaneuver]

i'm gonna step out on this very sturdy limb here along with chaos rocks and disagree with your "too grey" analysis: We're right... The subtlety of that image is quite impressive. the colors are harmonious, and honestly there isn't enough of that in much of the work that i see. If you do anything be very careful... right now i'd say this mask is the strongest digital piece in your book.

Thanks for dropping by the bwst, too! glad to see you've been busy. show us a wip on the 3D samurai! Congratulations on your marriage!

Woo hoo!

guggen

[Kamikazebob]

Well, since I cant put it as eloquently as the two previous posts lets just say its beautiful. Great SB!
~Bob

[deadred]

nice start, fun ideas and shading technique. in almost all your pieces, you seem to be avoiding more-defined lighting, and contrast goes with lighting.. i like your latest piece tho, good WIP :) keep posting!

[Sorknes]

Thank you all four of you :)

I've let that thing rest for a little while, to get fresh eyes on it later, I promise to try to keep going in about the same direction as it's currently in.... I want to put more details and such in it later though. :)

These two I've just made for the fun of it.... I needed something without colours, as they're bugging the life out of me.... No references, so they're a bit off.

[TheButterflied]

Stick with more pencil rendering - its so amazing. Do you have a waccon drawing tablet? That might be a good investment since you are so adapt with your pencils, it will help you make the transition over to computer rendering much easier.
And for your finished coloring - try using splash brushes instead of circular ones - it helps blending.

Wow, those pencil renderings are good. ...

My sketchbook: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1323076#post1323076 (http://http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1323076#post1323076)

[dCepT]

Nice updates! I agree with Chaos and guggenmaneuver on the japanese inspired girl! Some subtle hints of a more natural skintone would be cool, but not too much... just to bring out the creepiness :)

Keep rockin'!

d-C

[Listing]

Try to break from the preconceptions you have of the human form. You're rendering pretty well, but the forms are severely rounded and quite static. You have to do more from life. You're obviously very capable.

[gmags]

Hey Sorknes, great stuff you got here girl!!! Awesome shading skillz you got!! Love the geisha and castle pieces you did. Keep postin more great stuff. :p

[Sorknes]

Thanks for the feedback :) Yeah, I need to do more life indeed. I'm trying to find a way to fix that now. Even if I have to drink kaffe moccha for hours ;)

TFinally got inet. Here's a random dump of some of the stuff I've been doing. See if I can find more later :)

[Sorknes]

Eeeh, forgot to post my latest commercial project.

This is as sold out art as it comes. The client decided everything, even the size and colours at times. Also, of course, the subject. Got well paid though. A beautifully homemade plastic bracelet. The client was my four years old niece, and it's a painting made with friggin wall painting on her bedroom wall :)

And the other one is a "maybe WIP" for the miners daugther in CHOW.

[Flipnastywebby]

this is my favorite
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=122322&stc=1&d=1176496261

all your stuff is so creapy and i love it :pirate:

[demeter_luna]

Cool stuff Sork! I like the colors you use :)

I wish you would do more sketches on paper though

take care!

[cmoreland]

Very nice classical touch to your paintings! Don't think I've seen that yet here on this site...almost medieval.

[Sorknes]

Thanks a lot guys :)

Got some feedback on this yesterday and got a little worked up about it before I went to bed. But now I'm kinda back to bleh.

[Sorknes]

Still mèh.

[dCepT]

Hey Sork! The miner chick looks good :) Dig the designs in total black and white on top of the page! Really clean! :)

Crit: Your colors/rendering looks a little muddy... try to go in and block colors real rough... like planes of colors if that makes sense forst, and then detail... looks a little haphazard as it is now..

dC

[Sorknes]

Thanks :)

Yeah, I need to block more. Guess that's pri #2 after my lifes.... I suck at colour , heh. I've been trying to mend a little of that total lack of skill there. Blocking it is!

Just wanted to throw in my CHOW. Ended up entering it, but have NO idea if it'll make it to the poll or not.
The two other ones are some old ballpen drawings I did a year ago that I wanted to throw in for good measure...

[Sorknes]

Started to make a thingy out of my current RYL 2 character....

Not my design, Risk Your Life game. Not done, of course, have to figure out the darn legs and a bunch more.

[Sorknes]

Except for that poor excuse of a girl, it's been colour speedies all day, just basically fooling around with colours, trying to get a feel of them.

I have a ton, but posting just three of those here. Since, as you can see, I'm going nowhere.

Grrr.

[jenzi]

man I really like that girl with the weird growth under her! and I like chow #92 also nice mood and light!

[Hyver]

watch out for muddy colors (eyedropper tool is handy, but also dangerous)
maybe it's a good idea to do some paints where you only pick colors from the colorwheel.. think before you apply... might result in fresher looking pieces

keep it up!

[Sorknes]

Jenzi: Thanks a lot :)

Hyver: Yeah, you're definitly on to something there. I think I hate colours. I just need to get better.

Here's a "will be nothing" sketch, I guess. Sigh.

[Justin.]

I can see where your studies play a part in your work, but you try too hard to render things perfectly, and areas such as your gaps between muscles get too much contrast, and turn from being muscles into lobbed masses. The biggest thing I think you are lacking is a concern for the forms, and where the body is in space. You do care very much about value, but IMO you are thinking too much in "how dark is this" and not enough in "How far does this recede" or "how soft is the shadow transition". Detailing all the muscles in the fashion that you do also creates a very stiff, static image of your characters; Very rigid and very flat, instead of letting devices like cast shadows or rim lighting help show form and depth, you sort of push it down on the priority list. I would really recommend that you do alot more contour studies, studying forms and 3d shapes, and then move on to 2 tone shading. a line drawing, with the very darkest darkest hatched in. Then move from 2 tones to 4. Make sure you are hatching along the forms. For example, say you have a perfectly upright cylinder. You would not cross hatch it diagonally like a metal fence, you would hatch it horizontally and vertically like with a volleyball or tennis net. All you really must do is imagine everything as a 3d model.. imagine the wire frames, and just shade parallel and perpendicular to the wires!

Good luck! and keep going =) (and stay away from irc :X)

[deadred]

heya, cool updates! that tree house is off to a great start, and the Miner's Daughter is an improvement to your character works!
try doing more blocking-in of the shape/silhouettes of your characters to establish lighting/form first before rendering in the details maybe? i like your details/pattern/etching work, keep it up, it's all about practice :)

[dCepT]

Hey, Sorky! Keep crankin' out stuff! I think a lot of your stuff looks kinda... too smooth rendered and "round"... try using some hard ass brushes as well... ;) And Justin O had some very good points! Keep pushing!

d-C

[Dandilion]

I just love your curvy lady on the top of the page! :)

Nice stuff!

~Em

[Sorknes]

Justin: Thanks for posting it here too, sorry to run away in the middle of the crit'ing, heh. Recieved and understood, sir!

Deadred: Yeah, been trying to do some blocking lately. Don't know if it even shows though >.<

dCept: Brushes and I haven't gone along too well lately, but I've managed to get me a good set now. So, working on that too! *lol*

Dandilion: Thanks. The lady is Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau though, should've mentioned that when I posted the dump. Part of a master study I was playing around with.

I've had trouble focusing on the drawing for a little while now, with too much on my plate at the moment. Among other things trying to get a slight stand within the gameworld. At the moment it has nothing to do with conceptart, design or other artistic bits and pieces, but it seems there might be a slight possibility for that in not so distant future.

I started to go really, really tired of it too, almost dreading to open up PS. So now I decided to do some more fun stuff. The face/mask/whatever they are is related to the one I posted earlier, just a lot earlier stage. Seems like I might end up doing a series of them, since they're the kind of work I like to do, it relaxes me, and I just do what I feel good about on them.
The other one is another RYL2 char, so again, it's not my concept or anything, it's from an already existing game, with a slight touch of Sork on it.

None of them is done. Of course. I need to start to bloody finish my work.

[Alzorath]

The major issue I'm seeing is an issue of depth - the characters forms read fairly flat to me - try thinking of them in terms of basic shapes - if the nose was instead a wedge of cheese - what kind of shadow would it cast?

Also be sure to keep studying anatomy for key-note areas - the ridge on the upper lip (between the nose and upper lip) is one of these key-note areas once you get to a certain detail and should definitely be watched for. Watching shadows will help greatly with depth.

Another area that will help with depth is introducing foreshortening and deep-space into your characters and compositions - have an arm or leg or the entire torso if you want - move towards or away from the viewer. This will be very difficult at first (and regardless of how well you do it - there will be times you get hurt by it) - but it will get easier.

Also watch the orientation of the character in the composition - your characters in the few posts that finished loading for me (crappy dialup - many just dud out after a bit) seem to lean to the left, when they start being placed on the ground this will prove troublesome.

[Sorknes]

Alzorath - Thanks a bunch. We've already been through this, so I won't bother to go in details, but thanks a lot!


More stuff. I'm bored. I can't do anythng good lately. So here goes some of the lates shitz

[dCepT]

The masks are good.. you get depth in 'em, 'cause of the tubes and stuff running back.. the face parts still read a little flat... try going for some colorvariations from the protruding parts of the face to the receding parts...

Oh... cool to see thumbs on characters as well... you could punch those up as well using the standard round hard brush with size set to pressure to give you stronger focal points in 'em... real quick... just a dab here and there ;)

All that crit outta the way... I like the masks/headdresses! Cool designs! Keep pushin' Sork!

d-C

[Sorknes]

Just to show you I'm still working. Still working. Not done yet, hope to be done before Christmas.

I'm starting to get to the point where I had a lot of achievement really fast, and then it stopped up. I've spent more hours with the tablet the last weeks than I have with my husband. Not his fault. Whipping myself. Trying to see where the f*ck I go so wrong at times. It's stuff I should really, really *know* and suddenly I fail miserably at it. SO FRUSTRATING. The worst is that I can't find my bloody scanner anywhere. And I've been doing tons of paperstuff.

Oh well. I'll make a digital dump later on all the stuff I've been doing. And hopefully I'll get a new scanner for Christmas. *crosses fingers*

Edit: maybe adding the pic as well was a good idea....

[deadred]

cool updates on the masks, and enviro! the new girl with the banner looks cool too, but there's some lighting issues, but it's still wip so you'll probably get to that later :)

btw have you tried experimenting with different brush settings in Photoshop? when i first used PS, i took almost a whole day doing nothing but trying to create/setup the brushes that feels "right" to paint with, and that helped me alot in digital stuff. I can't help but notice your brush strokes appear rather rigid especially around flowing edges, and maybe different brushes might help?

edit: i find that min's brushes are especially great to start out with and you can find them here (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1469818&postcount=1).

[alesoun]

Jeez, Sorknes! A friend of mine has a little girl who looks exactly like this
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=238884&stc=1&d=1194998514

You sure you've never been to Scotland?

[Sorknes]

Deadred: Thanks! I'll check them out! And light issues ineed, I'll try to fix them.

Alesoun: If your friends daughter looks like that, there's something wrong in the genes in the family... Sure you linked the right one? *lol*

Since I'm just updating this since I showed my hillarious shortcomings in the ChoW thread.... I'm copying and pasting.

"I have a medusa going. My basic idea is the tarot deck.

Here you go. I'm kinda sad it hasn't gotten better when comparing to the time I put into, but, oh well. Maybe I'll finish it.

I've gotten some nice feedback on IRC, but I'd like some more if you got it. The hands are off, the wings are in a too tilted angle, I haven't managed to put in the scales yet, and I'm struggling with the dress and the staff. Among a bunch of other stuff."

I started to work on the one over this, the heraldish one... I f*cked it all up. So that one is back to what I posted. Meh.

Edit: Oh, and in good news. I've gotten into a lifedrawing group. From January on I will have three hours every tuesday with naked people! :D

[dCepT]

Hey Sork! Thanks for the kick in the ass in my SB! :) I dig what you've got going there on the Medusa.. looks like a step up so far! The upper body in particular seems like it's less muddy and more shape-y..hehe.. Keep an eye on her hands, though ;) They're kinda tiny and the one holding the small scepter is at a different angle that the sceptre.. But I know it's a WIP... so I won't nag too much..heh... Gonna be cool to see the finished one for sure!

d-C

[Sorknes]

Thanks, dCept. :) Yeah, I've deleted and remade the hands and arms about 20 times now. And they all come out like whale flippers, so I'm basically at where I was with them.....

I've gotten a scanner that's also a photorealistic printer and a copymachine for Christmas. So I hope to get some of those pencils drawings up again. And I have a digi dump ready at some point too.... it's a learning curve. *lol*

And I just landed a freelance illustrator job for a childrens book. It's all nepotism since it's my mother in law that's written the book, but the publishers like what we have going so..... :D

Here's the last update....

http://www.reign.dk/sorknes/forshow/medusa006v.jpg

[Cookiedough]

I see quite some improvement compared to your old sb, Sorky. Overall, your colors tend to be too muddy though. Even your brightest colors aren't saturated enough, greying out the whole picture in the end.

Medusa is looking better, but her arms still need help. :) I love her brassiere though, great design!

[Matsign]

These recent digitals are very tightly rendered. Your penciling skills are having their effect on your digis. I really enjoy the queen of wands. :assspank:

[Lege1]

Sorknes: I had been wanting to stop by and drop you a line for awhile now and let you know that I really thought you did a great job on the Medusa. I know you put in a lot of hard work and I think that the end result came out great. I had a peep at your sketch book here and was very impressed. I really enjoyed the image of the gun and the landscape study that you did. That panda bear came out super duper fresh also. Big ups and keep up the good work. I just wanted to tell you that. =)

[Lege1]

Sorknes: Thanks for hitting me back and if you thought you viewed half my life of art you probably viewed only 1/16 of it,lol. I got a lot more stuff to come that I would love to share with everyone here, so stay tuned and check out the new eye candy to be posted soon. American styles are very different than European styles and just for the record the most of us over here in the states sweat the hell out of you all over there in Europe. We look up to all over there alot. There seems to be more acceptance and appreciation to art over there across the pond and you all seem to be better schooled and disciplined with a higher percentage of having parents who are artists as well. I look forward to floating over there and getting my mind blown out for real. Just the graffiti artist in Europe are smashing. Well much love and keep up the good work. Drop a line anytime alright?
-=Lege

[Duq]

This looks way better then what I can remember from your old sketchbook Sork :D

Two crits though, I will echo cookie and say that your colors are a bit muddy. So try to get some more saturation in there. And second, some parts in your medusa is very sharp some parts very blurry. But it seems random and making the piece more flat then it could be

Keep it up!

[Sorknes]

Cookie: Thanks. :) And you're right. I'm trying to get myself out of the muddy pit. Working with colours again right now in fact. :p

Mat: Thanks :)

Lege1: Thanks again. :) Yeah, didn't know there was such a difference between the continents. :) Thanks for the thumbs up!

Duq: Again thanks! :) As said, trying to get meself outta the mudpit, heh. And I've noticed those blurry and sharp things, and you're absolutely right, they're totally random. I'll try to keep an eye on that as well.

Thanks for the nice words, guys. :bashful:

Here's the "finished" medusa. I'd really like to get that cat that's supposed to be in the queen of wands cards in there, and fix all the stuff that's not all there. But I think I'll let her lay down for a while now, I've had my share of her for a while, heh. I might go back to her later or do another version though, I liked doing this, and felt that I progressed doing it. Also throwing in the herald that never ended up finished, thought I had posted it before. And two WIPs I tinkered with before the medusa. I'd like to get the one with the headgear and waterbowls done at some point, liked getting out the idead roughly.

[Sorknes]

This was my "having fun with colours"-day.

Christmas tree balls makes for great form and light and all the other stuff exercises.... one of my really fast "throw in as many colours as you can" sketches is possibly becoming my IDoW entry. Totally out of my box both design wise and colour wise. The girl started out as a ref from a photo I can't remember where I got, a japanese acrtress or something.. and I went a bit nuts on it. The cats is just one of the other random fast ones. Fun day. :)

[Slash]

Nice progress! Your figures are getting better, your studies too!

[dCepT]

Good work on the Medusa, Sorky! I agree with Slash! You're getting a lot better now! Keep pushin'!!!!! ;)

d-C

[ACRO]

very cool man practice is making your art better... my fav is your medusa and environments... keep it up brother

[Lege1]

Big congrats on making it to the finals for the "Queen Medusa" and thank you bunches for your input. Much love!

[funfetus]

Good work! Keep working on your anatomy, and I'd like to see you push the values in your drawings more, to get more separation between light and shadow. Your dedication to the fine detail rendering is impressive, but it's the big overall forms that give your drawings mass. Keep it up!

[Dan!]

nice SB - the sewn up geisha head is crazy lookin I'd love to see it fully ornamented out but I know how it is with those pieces- never finished.. I liked your take on the medusa chow as well the border and staff were nice additions and she has a very natural pose. see ya

[Sorknes]

Slash Thanks :)

dcepT Thanks again :)

ACRO And a third thanks :)

Lege1 Thanks for your input as well :)

funfetus Thanks, helpful advice there. :) I'll try :)

DECYPL One of my favourites too. :) I might finish one day in the future ;)

Haven't done much worthwhile lately, but here's a random dress thingy and my god of leaves for the art crusade so far. And as I worked a lil bit on the pic earlier, I'm putting the updated not so photoref here as well. Also, I just randomly put in the dragon I never finished for my COW. No, it's not a spewm dwagon, I was gonna change that into mud.

Sorry for not putting in the architectural stuff I've been blabbering about, nor the kids books illustrations. To be honest, I'm too bloody embarrased to do so. I'll post when I get close to something that can be called worthwhile.

I know I promised to scan some of the life drawings siince I was pretty proud of them.... but scanner so far just prints, and doesn't scan. Working on it. :P POst as soon as I get it working :)

[Texahol]

sork sork sork sork sork sork sork sork sork weeee

something I'm noticing is a tendancy to go into details before you banging out large forms. and there are all these large forms that are noodled in with a very small brush. Something that would be good for you to try is blocking out the large forms of whatever you are drawing, before you go into details. use a BIG brush and block out BIG shapes, then slowly get smaller *when you need it*
Something that helped me was to not go smaller than a certain size, and use overlapping brushstrokes to accomplish what I needed. You can do a surprising amount even with a large brush. also just blocking out your forms with hard edged everything. and then blending in your edges where they should be soft. You seem to have a tendancy to make everythig soft and noodly :P

also, get away from those browns >:| brown character in a brown environment = brooooowwwwnnnn

;)

[Lege1]

Sorknes,

I definitely agree with you and have been working hard on the necessary adjustments. It’s nevere easy to tear yourself completely apart and then rebuild, but that is exactly what I had to do. I suffered a medium range depression because of it all and am glad I put myelf through what I did and followed through with my rebuild as an artist. I feel that things I do from here on out are really going to reflect in a much stronger way.
The idea of using the soft brushes was definitely hurting me. I found out that the reason I was so drawn to the soft brushes was more or less because of my traditional back round of atomized paint forms but also because when I first started working digitally on the computer that I picked up on using the soft brushes and kind of just stuck with it. I realize the absolute value and importance of using the hard brushes now for line and form relationship in ones piece.
I really appreciate your compliments on my can work. Working from the can in traditional spray paint medium is never an easy task. I have been almost forced to make it happen with the way that I was brought up in the art game. I did the best I could with what and who I had to do with. The guys in the street a very secretive about techniques of spray paint and how the construction of things go. Basically in short, the graffiti world is very competitive and realize does not contain people that want to help you get better unless of course it’s home crew. This is of course bad because you are only getting critiques and knowledge from a select few. I am just glad you can see some goodness in it.
I definitely have had a huge problem with the coloring of things especially in the digital world. I have come to realize that I lacked something huge as an artist and I sometimes don’t know how I’ve done as much and gotten as far as I did in my field of work. That lacking of something was “Color Theory” and a few minor fundamentals, like using the hard brushes in the programs. I actually picked up a great book on color theory and it I felt it really translated on a scale of things that I could understand being so primitive in my ways. That book just you know is called “Mastering Color” by Vicki Mcmurray. What an awesome book and I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned. It should absolutely show in my new illustrations here.
Your color tip on keeping a limited palette and resorting to a “Corner Color Check Method” really helped me a lot. I am using that now and feel it works great! Thank you so much. I also got what Mike Jaecks was telling me about the shadows and how a warm light source will make for a cool shadow and so forth….Priceless advice indeed and I am very grateful that he was willing to share that. I fully understand his ideas towards things now after reading that book on color theory and studying every page to all the little details and ideas of things.
I am definitely with you on the incorporating color from the back round in to the foreground. That really makes all the difference in the world. Ok so I wrote you a story here and that’s more or less to verify that I am really feeling where you are coming from and that I agree with what you are talking about. I guess I could of said that from the get go right,lol. Oh well, much love always and keep doing your thing. I’ll be making my way back to the forums shortly here. I am battling algebra monsters. =/
-=Lege

[ACRO]

heyo i really like your use of pencil forreal.... ... the environments are pretty cool 2 yo ... i know what you mean with shadows n stuff ... it does create depth in still images... keep up the good work...

[Writerof]

Niced nice nice :P)

Thanx for the talk lat night,

Ta-ta!

Writero

[Sorknes]

texahol: tex tex tex tex tex wee!!!!!!!! *lol* As normally you're right about everything. Damn you. :P I'm trying to keep away from browns now... as you can see from my crusade pic it's not really that succesful....>.< And I've been practising blocking even larger areas and values before starting with my very anoying noodling habit...

Lege1: Good. :) I'll try to keep an eye on your SB further on as well. :) And colours is one of my big problems as well. *lol*

ACRO: Thanks :)

Writerof: Yeah, was fun :)

Ok, silly things. My art crusade thingy which I thought was due this Sunday and not next, for some reason. That means I can try to fix it. Tried to keep away from my browns, but tried so hard I'm starting to disklike the picture in itself.... And also, another which I was just having fun with tonight, after reading how bluefooted did it as well as trying to concentrate on forms and not so darn many colours... Just needed to do something just for fun.

[dCepT]

Hey Sork! Glad to see ya drop by my SB as always!

Nice stuff lately!
Good to read that you're thinking about your colorschemes! If you find it hard to stay away from muddy browns, try to lay out some colorswatches and colorpick from them... that way you'll be forced to use the colors you set out to use in the beginning.

Oh... and the dragon... try dumping some shade under the wing and behind its head to make that head pop a bit more... right now it's almost reading as part of the bulk of the body..

The Lord of the Leaves for the Art Crusade is nice! Cool to see you use that turqoise/green for light!

Keep 'em comin'!

d

[Sorknes]

Thank you dCepT :) Yeah, I never did anymore on the dragon... regretably. I did have tons of fun with the god of leaves though, a lot because I tried to do a little different colours, and actually succeded, even though the drawing itself could've been better. :)

Alright. New dump. For starters, I'm posting a picture that some of you might remember. It's actually one of the very first digital drawings I did, based on a photo series I did myself at some ruins of an old church a ways from here. I just looked at it again, and I realised that the drawing was better than most of the stuff I produce today. *shakes head* So the next one is me trying to get back to that pure joy. I based it on the earlier drawing instead of the photos. It's not done yet, but I did it in like 1/10th of the time I used on the first though... *lol*

The next one after that is just an early sketch of me trying out some of the same in another setting. Then there's the riverguardian for the art crusades, which I totally screwed up. I started out trying to get the same kind of revelation in colours as I did with the god of leaves that I posted earlier, but I failed miserably, and at some point I just had to move on.

The one after that is the never finished Amaterasu for an earlier ChoW. I didn't have the time to finish it, but I hope I'll have time to get back to it. The one after that was my entry for this last ChoW, the hot male vampire pinup. I might go back to get the skin tones and all that right on it later, it was fun to do it, and I haven't done many males lately. I ran out of time before I could define colours and highlight better though. Last is a vampire I did today between working on the next ChoW (which I won't post since I've screwed up the colours... as usual... ), I totally stole the pose from a photo in my ref folder which I have no idea where I found, but the rest is mine. :) And yes. I forgot about her ears. *rofl*

[Lege1]

Chow 108 came out great and thanks much for stopping by. I really have been putting in some work and Iam glad that you noticed. You're awsome indeed ;) I'll def be putting in more work on the anatomy.

much ♥,
-=Lege

[Smoke]

The semen dragon is badass.

[dCepT]

Church ruins? Wouldn't happen to be Nes Kirkeruiner? Hehehe... if so; I've been up there myself with a couple og photographers I work with... hehe... did some lightpainting and b/w stuff :D I've been thinking about doing some stuff from there some time... so regardless if it was the same ruins; thanks for the inspiration!

You're aware of the color-thing (as should I be.. haha.. apparently I've been down mud city too long lately... :P ) So you know... crit: colors... yeah... hehe

Looking at the latest vamp-CHoW... I think you could still benefit from user bigger brushes... There's a whole lot of small, low opacity strokes there... Try to go bolder from the get go and hold back on refining as long as you can.. hehe... excercise in self restraint..

[kelly x]

Your mask rocks... I lived in Japan and never saw anything this cool!! Hey just a little highlight on the jade head piece and bring the pearls out a tiny bit... you have mad skills... I am very new but, as they all said almost nothing at all, at all!! creepy is the way to live!! Kelly

[AsaB]

Greetings from a fellow Nordic country member! Impressive sb :) Your colour studies and speedpaints are looking better and better. Great job with that, non-stop studies is pretty crucial if one wants to improve (something I should pay heed to :/) But your finished pieces are good too, esp.all those CHOWs :) I really liked your Amaterasu and the Vampire one was just too funny! Keep it on, man, looking good.

[Sorknes]

Ok, just because it's today, I decided to post my masterpiece. This is the best I've ever done. I got inspired by Dished's sketchbook, and wanted to overdo her.

Anyway...

Here it is...

I'll come back to you guys later....

[Dished]

Oh my god! Youre awesome! thats wayy better than my masterpeice! :asspat: damn i wish we could be as good as snape snogger one day...

[Sorknes]

Alright, for you who sees that pic up there later, and to secure my ass getting kicked, that was one of Andy Warhols Marilyns, and check the date, and you'll see why.

Alrighty....

Lege1: thanks a lot. And keep working that anatomy indeed. :)

Smoke: Thanks. :) Maybe I'll finish it at some point, lol.

dCepT: Nope, it's ruins in Bamble. Good idea on Nes, I keep passing by there on my way to my family, so I really should stop there and take some pictures. :) And yeah, I tend to start going into details WAAAY too early. It's a really bad habit, but sometimes I just forget, heh.

kelly x: Thanks lot :) Yeah, I love these mask kinda thingies that I started with, whenever I relax, I go back and work on one of them or start a new. :)

AsaB: Hello there :) Yeah, I try, but at times I don't have much time. These days I just have to since I got a couple of jobs though. :)

Dished: Doesn't beat your Mona Lisa though :P

Ok, I can't be bothered to upload every darn thing I've doing for studying.... Today I've had roughly eight hours of trying to nail reds, orange and stuff like that. Bleh. So I'll post one of the ones I did today. I found this really saturated pic from The Descent, and decided to have it around trying to match my colours. I don't know how many pictures I've worked on, but most of them I don't even wanna show my mum... *lol* The one I'm posting is stealing the girl from picture as well though, and at some point I just forgot about my studies and kept rendering her. Never mind the background, did that one just to have colours around... Need to do something with those floaties, added them to see if I could make that movie billboard thingy through the image, but haven't really gotten around to try to nail colours on them just yet...

[eskanto]

Sorknes, perhaps it's just my preference, but I think that the japanese woman a few posts above is one of the better works in sketchbook. I think it's because of the bright colors. THE best work you have however, is the masks you've done. My critique is one that I think has been mentioned before. Make sure the general shapes and anatomy are correct before you start laying in details like musculature. Do not begin to render until you've got the bare bones of your artwork worked out.
For instance, the study you did of the pic from Descent, you should have worked out the anatomy and composition before you got caught up in rendering details. In this pic, the arms are too short and you've already got all the details put in. The texture of the shirt looks good though.

[dCepT]

Nice one! Putting your own spin on a study is good! Face is skewed, though.. flip it and see ;) Is that a scene from The Descent? Just looked like it... not too good a horror flick, but the creatures are cool though! :D

dC

[Lege1]

Thanks for the compliments on the Sound Creature. I have been experimenting a lot. I've been having a hell of a time adapting to the world of digital and doing more realistic subject matter, but that's what makes it fun =) Much love and hope you're doing good. hit me up whenevers.

-=Lege

[Sorknes]

eskanto: Thanks :) Yeah, I'm still struggling with shape and form as well as light. I've started to kinda break it down now, so that even if I do it all in every picture, I concentrate more on shape and form in one, light in another and colour in a third, etc. I love my masks, glad they look better than the rest *lol*

dCepT: Yeah, it is, as mentioned a couple of times *lol* Yeah, I should've flipped and also made the forms better before rendering (like eskanto said), but I got kinda slack after eight hours of different studies... (bad me) :bashful:

Lege1: Adapting to digital has been really hard for me as well, and I'm still struggling *lol* You're way faster with that than I've ever been, hehe.

Well, been messing around today. I decided to let studies be studies and just have fun. So I've made a lot of weird shit today, but I'll upload three. The first two were just relaxing stuff. The last one I just started with for fun, and whaddya know, I think it came out better than most of my studies lately... Duh. I'm gonna try to finish that one, I like the feel of it. :)

[chaosrocks]

indeed the goaty thing has great potentioal
it seems less laboured than other things of yours I ve seen lately. I t is falling of the page a bit .you might want to flip it and check composition
:P

good work

[deadred]

yeah that goat piece turned out really well, looks loose yet with good values and detail. maybe more canvas space above or at the bottom of the image might help the composition not look a tad sqooshed, keep up the good work, love those red designs too :)

[dCepT]

Yup! Goat is definately a step up! :) Seems you're using harder brushes? The rendering looks a lot sharper than some of your earlier stuff! Great to see you progressing, Sorky!!

I'm with ya on finishing that one up!

Looking forward to updates :)

dC

[dCepT]

Check yo PM's! ;) (Sorry for the non-related bump guys and gals!) :P

[mentler]

Keep Em'
Comin'

[Wasker]

The last image with the goat have some potential Sork :) You should check out some references and bring it to a finished state.

[Sorknes]

Thanks guys, I'll just put you together in one group... I've been trying to fix some of the goat, and I'm glad you like it. I haven't gotten around to fix the canvas size and the focus point is still not good enough. And I need to think properly about the values. Gotten loads of good stuff from you guys, and IRC.

Alright, I'm gonna show that I've really learned something from my lifedrawing. I started attending kroki drawing, which is fast paced drawing, where we start with 1 min poses, then go up to 2 min, then 3 min, and at the end of the session we'll have four or five 5 min poses. We go on for three hours, but with breaks, and there is no teacher or anything, we have models, and we're a bunch of people just coming there to draw, without getting any tutoring whatsoever, once a week. Some of the models comes several times, as you might be able to see. I've been somewhat unlucky with the males being there when I can't attend.

The first one is from late January, the last ones are from last week. There's several weeks I haven't been able to attend because of my so called "day job", but I think I can say that I've progressed anyway. :) I've put the amount of minutes on the pages. I had to autocontrast the last ones, as they were different paper and pencil, and they didn't come out too readable when scanning them.

The very last picture is an update of the goat, I haven't worked too much on it, I should get back to that one :) Some of you have already seen this on IRC, I guess. :)

Hope you enjoy :)

[Smoke]

Hey Sorkeh, thanks for the feedback in my thread.

You've got some nice as hell figures going on here, I'd like to see a few more with more time spent on them.

And that goat thing is looking badass.

[AsaB]

Hi Sork, many thanks for visiting and for the crit :)

Your figure drawings have so much potential, and you seem to have a good eye for their form, but you need bolder and more confident strokes. Something I'm working on myself, but I'm sure you make little progress daily if you do these each day, at least I feel that's doing me good!

I really dig that huge goat :D Very atmospheric, it actually feels kinda cold. A little contrast might help it, especially the bg, but maybe that's not the look you're going for. Sweet work, all in all :)

[Trashy]

hey Sorknes,

Thanks for swinging by my sb. I think you do got alot of cool things happening here. Good job mostly on those anatomy studies. At first the lines were pretty scribbly but your lines look more confidant in the studies
below them. Like that goat man! I think the bg needs some loving though.

Keep at it man and keep posting:)

[Sorknes]

Smoke: Thanks a lot. :) I don't have any kind of life drawing where I can spend more time on the subject though. The longest poses in the kroki is 5 mins... Maybe I can talk my hubby into it *lol*

AsaB: Yeah, working on the lines, I think I can say I at least progressed from the first ones there from Jan to the last ones done in May. During the autumn I hope to get them even more confident. :)

Trashy: Thanks :) Yeah, the bg needs some loving. Haven't done anything with it since I posted. That irks me a bit since I'd really like to finish that one...

Ok, time to update, I guess. I've been working on the DEEP thing, but mostly it's so unfinished I don't want anyone near it, or I've been rethinking my ideas so they're all a mess. I have some of the persons for my persongallery at the human scientist part of DEEP though. So that's the first one. The second is a really fast enviro thing I did while looking a at a photo, trying to do something that wasn't just straight up when it came to lines. Was really fast though. I'll do more of those I think. The last is an angel thing I did last night, no idea where I'm going with it or if I'll finish it....

[kelly x]

very impressive quick sketch -- I envy a good sketch from life... also the huge goat is looking great and your crazy tunnel perspective is way cool...

[Sorknes]

Thanks Kelly :)

Alright... long time since an update. I *have* been drawing every now and then even if I'm preggzors and am now confined to the sofa/bed....

I'm adding some from the time I haven't updated, a good mishmash from both good and bad, I hope. None of them are done... this is a sketchbook after all, hehe. There's a Courtney Love ref there, the one in the big red dress. There was a photo ref for the bridge thingy too, but darn if I can find it again, no idea where I got it from. Used myself for the tongue thing, even though I look butch as hell there. :P

I'll see if I can get around to post some of my new speeddrawings from the lifesessions as well later. Maybe I can find some more from the time up to now. :)

[Cookiedough]

Hey, Sorky

Sorry to hear about your couch-situation, but i'm sure if you take it easy, everything will be ok.

Regarding your paintings: Use more saturated colors. It's like you're stuck in Brownville, all your paintings have that same brownish grouchy look. Are you afraid of colors? Are desatured greyish browns your favourite colors?

Don't be afraid of some bright tones, they can warm up things oh so nicely in a painting. Variating in the saturation of different colors will also make your paintings look less muddy.

Now, since you're still stuck in that sofa: moar paints!

[Black Spot]

I actually think brown is good to use as an alternate to black and white because you don’t have that ultimate dark that never existed in the first place. I like the way you’re doing the horror genre.

Make the most of the time while you’re pregnant because there won’t be much time afterwards.

[Clochette]

Hey there! :P
I like your drawings and the creepy subjects!
Also I wish you the best for your mummy work :^^:

[kelly x]

so creepy is right I love these new one's thanks for coming over to my book too!! Breath and relax, one two three breath, three two one ... breath. whew all of this heavy breathing is making me tired!! So cool you are and oh yeah, breath. Kelly

[Sorknes]

Cookie: Thanks, and I know. *lol* Brown is as brown is. I've tried to do some more colour stuff, but the days has been busy up to now... I'll try to get back to mastering it again. :)

Black Spot: I know there won't be much time later, so I'm trying to ;) And I guess that's why I stay with brown and not grey, as it's a little more warm, and not those total black parts. :)

Clochette: Thanks :) I think mummy work will be harder than this. *lol*

Kelly X: I'm breathing, I'm breathing! :D

I did the ChoW this round, and this is what I submitted. I tried doing it in different versions, and clothe it so it was less "Jetsons" but those mostly sucked. :P So I ended up going with my original thing.... Didn't have time to colour it either, so sepia-ish it stayed.

[dCepT]

Lifedrawings :D Mmmmm.... definate favourite of that bunch; the 3minute one where the model has extended her leg! I like the lines, and the pose!

I'm with people on the brown/muddy thing... have you tried like doing pallette studies? Just to change it up :) Not color picking of course, but looking at a photo, or a painting or whatever where you like the colors, and try to bring them into your own work?

Thanks for stopping by, btw :)

dC

[Sorknes]

Heya dCepT :D Yeah, I did before I didn't do too much drawing for a while, heh. I'm trying to get back to it now, colours and me really doesn't go well together, I'm clearly lacking some kind of understanding and can't see it right *lol*

Here's a couple more. The first I started doing as my own thing, didn't get any further when getting too hung up in this weeks ChoW. The goblin ortho thing was as far as I got on an earlier ChoW, just couldn't dress it properly. And the last stuff is this weeks ChoW, where I finally managed to put it some colours, with good help from RobertB, Kenjitsu and Texahol on IRC :D I stopped working on it when I realised whatever I tried to fix I made worse. *lol*

[Sorknes]

Doodled.

[Black Spot]

Good update. That doodle is spooky and rather nice; the frame is a wonderful distraction so the face isn't noticed straight away.

[Sorknes]

Thanks, didn't think much about that, just doodled. ^^

Here's another doodle for today... No idea, don't even ask. :P

[Cookiedough]

Good stuff, Sorky. You have color! Nice improvements. Imo, you're still loving the browns too much, but at least you're warming up now to the rest of the spectrum. Keep it up!

[Clochette]

It starts good! The design of her hat is nice! :D Keep it up!

[petitemistress]

great work sork, i especially like your progress shots on the agatha CHOW, shd rly get bk into those as well... on your last effort id say check the connection between nose/upper lip, someting seems to be going astray there...

thx for the visit <3 and i hope all is going well with you!

[dCepT]

The CHoW is looking way better in the color department! Good work! You could try to throw a color layer on a b/w piece and just throw colors you wouldn't normally use on there to see how they work... push yourself out of your comfort zones :) Like... make a piece that is predominantly a bold blue with pink as a kicker :D

dC

[Sorknes]

Cookie: Yeah, still love my browns, but I got a lot of good help on that one. *lol*

Clochette: Thanks! We'll see if she ever ends up getting done, heh. :D

Petite: Yeah, I think it's the usual nose/mouth thing I have going on that goes off there.... I was thinking about doing something else with that Agetha Chow, but I don't know if I'll have time! And all is good! :)

dCepT: Yeah, keeping my colours of different layers so I don't fuck up too much, hehe! Got tons of help on that one though. :) I'll try to go more wild on something in the near future. ;)

I'm doing the Bettie Page tribute thingy... I'm leaning heavily on photos on this one to get a likeness, two a lot, two others as supplement. So here's the WIP so far, gonna try to colour it as soon as I'm done in BW. Hopefully I'll manage to get it done between family and pregnancy stuff. *lol*

[Sorknes]

A lil update....... Hopefully I'll manage to finish before the family comes... :)

Edit: Another update...Really running out of time, trying to get the colours right... Hopefully I'll manage to do more colours and fleshing out the rest of the details this evening or in silent spells during the weekend (if there'll be any :P )

[dCepT]

Flip the image :) The face is skewed a bit :P

However, I do like it! You're pushing color more! The completely folded leg is looking good as well!

dC

[Sorknes]

Wee! Page five!

Thanks! :D

I knew there should've been done more on the face, still as skewed as it was, but between half a ton of family here and third a ton of Christmas I just had to rush through some details to call it somewhat finished though... At night. :P

Here's my final burning one and the progress shot... God knows when I'll have time to draw next... :P Used photoreferences a lot. :)

[MJ_Alcazar]

Thanks for stopping by my SB. Bettie's face turned out better than it was. Loved the colors.
Enjoy the Holidays!

[Sorknes]

I am enjoying them indeed. :) Glad the face got a lil better at least :)

I won't have time to finish the next ChoW, but I had a go at the first of the Christmas spirits... Somewhere along the road I forgot all about the candle thing, though. Wanted to play with symmetry today, so that's what I did. :)

[Sorknes]

Some more symmetry playing...

556333 556336

Then I've done some speed paintings for colour training...

556338 556341 556343
556351
556450

[JailHouseRock2]

Great colours Sorknes.
Love the Bettie Page, and the last evo.

keep up the good work, looking forward to more updates!

matt

[dCepT]

Bettie turned out great! Good to see you pushed it that far!

Keep speedpainting! Looks like you're getting some new ideas there... moving outta monochrome brown land ;)

dC

[Sorknes]

Thanks guys :) I'm glad I managed to get as far as I did on Bettie at the circumstances, and I like the last enviro best myself. :) Trying to get out of muddy land :P

I know this technically doesn't belong in an SB thread or is considered an update.... But I'll link it here anyway....

The biggest piece of art I'll ever produce, with pics........ (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2081966#post2081966)

[Sorknes]

Alright, time for an update, I guess. :P

I did try to get something going for the siamese twin ChOW, but the idea lacked and I didn't have time to neither refine nor getting better ideas....

592880

Then I tried to get something going for the selfportrait as a supervillain ChOW, but I didn't have enough time before going on a long trip... And yes, yes I know... The face is nowhere near being evil and supervillainous :P

592879

Finally I managed to get one done for the Titania ChOW though... :P

592881

[Sorknes]

My Battle of the Sexes TD piece, I completely ran out of time for this one after screwing up my saves.... :(

[Sorknes]

Started on both IDW and ChOW.... Better get my butt in gear for the IDW.... Both early WIP's.

[JailHouseRock2]

Hay there Sorknes, thanks for dropping by my SB before.\

Really enjoying all the CHOW's and loved your TD, good dynamic lighting!

thanks again,
matt

[My57]

more face studies are needed, basically on the nose... hmmm colouring could use a bit of work. Like having those tiny lines scratched in isn't very good if your going for a realistic look. But you seem to be making good progress.

this is what i mean with the liness:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=556450&d=1231183200

but i presume that it isn't actually done then right?

oh btw i saw that animal you did on the 4th page, looks nice, buuuut the fur is all scratchy so try thinking of fur as clumps rather then singular hair. Although it still looks pretty good none the less. All in all i'd say your probably a better painter then me xD since i can't do anything from my head with painting...

[Sorknes]

Matt: Thanks a lot. :)

My57: The stripes is because it's a speedpaint, heh. When I do those I just try to do as much as possible within a short time, and stop before I start polishing stuff, since that's what takes time. ;) Spot on when it comes to noses though, I've been doing studies, but I seem to forget them the moment I start doing something off my head....

Managed to finished the IDW piece. I guess that was a hairbreadth of being too late... Totally wanted to render out more, and get my idea a little clearer here about the pieces that's changeable, but that has to wait for a later date. I ended up being so short of time I took a bunch of shortcuts and just sped through the process.... :/

[dCepT]

Nice IDW :) I like the idea of modern thinking space saving applied to oldschool stuff!

The battle of the sexes piece looks cool as well :)

Try to do a monochromatic piece in like... green or something with a bright red color for a kicker ;) You're drifting into brownville again...hehe

dC

[Pixie Trick]

Nice to see you at the IDW. Since the finals thread isn't up yet (and might not be because of lack of entries), and I have some time at the moment, I though I'd pop by here to do a crit or two.

You did a very nice job rendering the wood grain on all of the pieces. The one main problem about your set, is that the tankard doesn't match the rest of the pieces of the other pieces. If it were to match, you would have metal banding on all of the pieces, or at least metal handles. Also on the tankard, you might want to watch the 'corners' of the elipses.

The second main problem, would be in the interchangeable nature of the decorative pieces. The weekly being IDW, I would have gone for a closeup of the mechanism of how the pieces atach. I know it doesn't seem like it a lot of the time, but showing a really neat idea, even if not amazingly rendered will get people's attention. (If you look up the IDW for a harvesting machine, there is a person who didn't make it to poll, but had an awesome design) Is is a plug like mechanism? A screw and washer type of thing? This means that you have to do make a new image, but you might get away with less of them because they are not copied. (everyone who is familiar with photoshop can spot most tricks right off anyway) the figure eight/chain design sticks out in particular. This is partialy becuase it is so much more precise and clean looking than the crockery itself as well as the decorations. I think a closer-up of each of the decorative designs would have been worked, and maybe one example of only one of the decorative designs would have been fine.

(...and congratz on post 128 :) )

[Sorknes]

dCepT - Thanks :) Yeah, I know, I know... it's "safe country" kinda when I end up with too little time. Using crouches that doesn't work won't heal the leg, I guess. :P

Pixie Trick - Thanks for the advice, I'll definitly try to show the details next time as you suggested, it didn't even cross my mind that I should, heh. It's supposed to be wood plugs, but I guess it's open for interpretation now... ;) I totally ran out of time, I was hoping to have it a bit more rendered and the adornments better looking and bigger in size, but oh well. Believe it or not, I did the tankard first, then I had to go simple to get anywhere close to finished. Hopefully I'll manage to connect the elements of the design better together next time. Advice greatly appreciated. :)

I started on the female Sith Lord, and she's changed a few times, but RL came in the way during the weekend, so I have no idea if I'll manage to finish this ChOW either... If I'm lucky enough to get some time tomorrow, I'll try to tweak some details and throw on some colour. :)

[Sorknes]

Grah, I totally ran out of time again... But here's this weeks ChOW...

I didn't have time to get details fixed nor get the colours get together a bit more... And the stuff on her arms got totally neglected. :/

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[dCepT]

Glad you punched some blue in the last CHoW :) Made it pop a lot more!

[Sorknes]

dCepT - Yeah, it did, didn't it? :) Looking at the stuff afterwards I'm kinda sad I didn't submit the greyscale instead though, that colouring was so rushed and bad....

Managed another ChoW..... This one was colour all the way. And not that brown? :P

[dCepT]

Hehehe... definately better colorwise! :)

The folds aren't convincing me entirely though.. The cloth hanging from his shoulder is at an angle... I imagine the lines would be pointing at least partly stright down... And the wrinkles going from the belt and up over his chest are very repetetive..
Maybe a drapery study would do the trick? There's also some good literature on the subject :) Bridgman's "Drawing the Draped Figure" kinda breaks it down into categories that I thought was a kinda clever way of looking at it.

dC

[Sorknes]

Thanks, I was actually thinking it was about time to get into drapery. I've pulled it off half convincingly at times, but mostly I fail on cloth, hehe. :)

Here's my third, fourth and fifth try on Mary of the Blue Lights, this weeks ChOW....

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I also tried nine times to make a dragon for last weeks COW, but this is the only one I'm even contemplating showing, none of them fit the brief at all, they looked like dogs with wings, giant lizards from hell and god knows what else..... I think I managed to ruin parts of every single dragon lore out there... :P

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Random face

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And something I did while relaxing, playing with symmetry again...

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[alesoun]

Sork, lose the grooves on either side of the mouth on Mary; they're adding years to her.... I like the middle image best; it looks playful.

You rock at symmetry. I love the last pic. ;)

[JailHouseRock2]

Hay Sorknes, Really pleased that you've found the time to do all those CHOW's, great work.
female Sith Lord is my fav, and awesome work on the COW too!

Looking good, hope to see more!
matt

[spaztastic]

sorky, you are progressing really well.
I have to say the symmetry pic you did... I have mixed feelings about it, I love it and hate it at the same time, maybe because it's sooo different from the human face, yet so close. hmmm I do have to say it's growing on me though. I am going to have to try some of those practices myself.

Please keep posting I love your style.

[dCepT]

Moar studies. ;)

All of your faces share a bunch of attributes... like they're all related :P The grooves from the side of the nostrils following the cheek down to the edge of the mouth and beyond like alesoun mentioned is on of those attributes.

Keep crankin'!

dC

[Sorknes]

Alesoun: Already said it, but thanks. :) I think it helped :)

Matt: Thanks a lot. Long way to go to your speed of getting out things though, heh. :)

Spaz: Glad you think so, it's hard to see if one progress oneself... I like the symmetrical thing because it helps me go loose from "real", heh, I find it useful but most of all fun - you might too. :)

dCepT: You're totally right, they do, don't they? lol... Will do, boss! ;)

Didn't have as much time (again) as I hoped for this, got pretty far early in the week, then the rest of it disappeared. I really liked where it was going, I might go back to do this one better later on. :)

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[Sorknes]

Started this to play with colours again..... And to do a face not too related to the others (dCepT! :P ) No idea what to do with the background really, but I want it psychedelic-ish with some of those colours.

We'll see where she ends up. :)

[dCepT]

Yay! Yeah, she's definately not related to the others ;) Hehe.. Very good to see you go for such a harsh blue/red contrast as well!

Gonna be cool to see where this one ends up!

dC

[Sorknes]

Thanks :)

Haven't been doing much on that one, but I started on a thingie that I'm reffing on a series of photos I took at some church ruins a good while back. (There's another doorway somewhere else in the SB... )

[alesoun]

Mary is looking good! Maybe some blue reflected light?
Middle church wip caught my eye first. Reminds me of one in Laggan.

[Sorknes]

Yeah, that blue light was a problem for me... lol! I still wanna go back on that one later. :) The ruins are not far from me, they're beautiful :)

So, I wanted to draw Sadetar and post in the thread where we draw people from the forums if we're allowed... This is what I've managed today, I might go back and try to get this one better. :)

[GDonaldson]

nice work, one thing, youve turned her face toward the viewer just a little but the rest of the head still matches the photo maybe just quickly liquify some areas across to match her face up.

[Pixie Trick]

I saw that thread once. It looked really neat. I'm going to agree with GDonaldson. If you compare how far away different points of the features are from the edge of her face you can tell they've been a little stretched to the right. Her entire face is a bit wider than in the photo as well. Maybe if you but the photo as a semi opaque layer on top you can see a few places to tweak. You might want to look at crisping some edges. You've done a very good job of getting the colour down.

[Sorknes]

GDonaldson: Yeah, I remembered to keep track of the height of the eyes and the nose, etc, but I totally forgot about the width. :basful:

Pixie Trick: Same as above. :bashful:

It was good learning though, better luck next time!

I'm cross posting some of the thumbs and stuff I've done for the Team Chow, I don't want my own SB to be all loveless.... Heh. We have a good start and posts all over the place, but apart from it being cyberpunk I'm still kind of lost as in what direction of cyberpunk we're actually going, heh. Well, anyways, some of my stuff from there.

These were thumbs to get into the 70's and 80's punk with cybernetics, which were quick thumbs done by cheating a bit and sketching the outlines from a photo and just play paperdoll dress up.

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Then I got told to get a bit more raunchy, techno and electronic, so I did these faces trying to get another mind set.

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And then I did this later after looking more closely at the mood board, the first is kind of bleh, the other was a weird attempt at the sage.

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I'm sure we're clarifying the style soon. Until then I'm drawing like a headless chicken. lol!

[jatherip]

nice sketchbook!
these concepts show that you have a lot of ideas!!!
keep rolling!

[dCepT]

What the heck happened in here? :D The portrait is a big jump up! TTFaces02 is cool as well! I've totally missed the team CHoW thing.. I'mma have to pay closer attention :P

dC

[Mat Kaminski]

YaY for SORK :D

[Sorknes]

jatherip: Thanks a lot :)

dCepT: Hehe, thankies. You should've entered the Team ChOW! Not to late yet though, just a lot less time. :) And I think there might be more of them, unless it turns out the workload for Daestwen becomes too much....

Matte_Art: :bashful:

Did some more for the TT team, but I don't think it came out too well.

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Then I was playing around this morning and ended up with this. Kinda like it.

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[Sorknes]

Chess... something. Heh.

[Sorknes]

Made another one. This is easily the most relaxing thing I've done in a while, heh.

[Chompo]

You'r chess things are awasom!
I wonder if you made a half and then copied the other..?

[Mat Kaminski]

Those are really interesting. They have this detailed yet vague feel about them. It's neat how you maintain shapes inside there, but it's almost like a rosarch test lol, you see what kind of face you want to see.

I'm glad you're having fun! :)

[Pixie Trick]

Cooool. I really like those chess faces. They seem to be forcing their way out of their surroundings. Very neat.

[alesoun]

Love the chess pieces. What fun you could have with stained glass!

Where are the drawings of Rain, though, huh? ;)

[Sorknes]

Chompo: Yes, I do indeed flick the image over and mirror it. :) The only thing that I really have to keep in mind when working on it like this on the chess pieces is that I keep track of where there's open lines in the middle of the picture so I can connect them after flipping :)

Matte_Art: Thanks. And I'm indeed having fun!

Pixie Trick: I can't see them forcing too much, but then again I've been working on them and prolly ended up a bit blind hehe.

Alesoun: Playing with glasswindows has been one of my secret wishes for a very long time! Since I was a kid I would make stuff that would be easily transformed into glasswindows, heh. I actually have some of Rain, but I'll have to dig to find them. Then again maybe I can post one that's made by Rain later instead :P

Made another one, but I fear this one ended up just too much detailed for its own good, things disappear. This it total art therapy though, I lose track of time and what I'm really doing with these....

[courtyard]

I'll echo the others and say the chess faces are really strong. This one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=648079&stc=1&d=1239873091) is particularly striking. Really cool ChoW studies, too...can't wait to see what you guys produce!

[Sorknes]

Thanks. I like that one the best one myself as well. Dunno how the Team ChOW thing will end up going.... Heh.

Did a random enviro while just playing around earlier, actually trying to make chars for that Team thing.. and ended with a enviro....

[alesoun]

I like the enviro. Maybe you were thinking about where the chars could live/hang out? Odd how some things lead into others.....

[JailHouseRock2]

Hi Sorknes,
Hay I've missed alot, I need to drop by more often...

I really like how your team CHOW works going, great concepts. Love the painting of Sadetar too, and then there's these cool "chess faces" (and are they done in PS or Alchemy?), awesome stuff!

Likin the latest evo too, great mood, though I wish some of the strokes weren't so scratchy. try to keep doing those evos though, and I think you'll improve alot with them:)

And thanks again for your ever so kind comments in my SB, cheers!

Keep well
matt

[Artangela]

Hi there Sorknes :) Just browsing through and I really like your studies from photo reference, definitely see leaps and bounds happening with those. On some of your paintings it might help to try a little more texture and not try for too much smoothness or detail. Also maybe start with a sketch that is not quite so defined and a little more loose and flexible to begin with. I like where you're going with these though!!

[Giorge]

waw , interesting progress and exercises , are those chess faces as you might call them made using al.chemy?

I noticed a thing that you could try to take care in your painting , the line seems to be shrug and shaky and the anatomy is very damaged , if you take care of those 2 things , i think it wold look much much better

[Sorknes]

Alesoun: Maybe I was indeed, heh. At least I did an enviro for once again ;)

Matt: Team ChOW is wussing out, we got hit by RL every single one of us, heh. It's all PS, actually, that's what I use when doing digital. I'll try to get less scratchy, I was not planning to an enviro at all on that one, hehe. Thanks :)

Artangela: Yeah, I have a tendency to smoothe out things when doing photorefs, thanks for catching me in the act ;) Thanks :)

Giorge: No, as said here and earlier, it's all PS :) And yep, still working on my anatomy, and sometimes I do indeed shake when drawing my lines, for some reason it's worse digi than trad, heh. Thanks :)

Maybe you can see easier that it's not al.chemy when I show what I'm currently working on right now... Don't ask, I dunno what it is, heh.

[JailHouseRock2]

Hay I really like how you play with symmetry tho, Maybe you should try Al.chemy, its free and great fun to use!

Heres a link -http://al.chemy.org/

Shame the Team CHOW didn't work out, maybe next time!

Have a good weekend,
matt

[alesoun]

You don't have the friction on digi that you do on trad (that's my excuse. anyways)

[Sorknes]

Matt: Thanks, I've downloaded it, I might have time to play with it tomorrow :D

Alesoun: That might be it, hehe ;)

Okies, a step forward on the one I was working on, and an initial sketch for this weeks ChOW, which is picking one of The Endless from Sandman. I'm trying for Delirium, but not sure if I'm making her different enough.

[Sadetar]

Maybe you can see easier that it's not al.chemy when I show what I'm currently working on right now... Don't ask, I dunno what it is, heh.

What ever it is, it's coming along quite nicely. I really love your colour choices.. the blue, the green, the gold... I can't wait to see it done.

And I have thing for Delirium. Gotta love her fishes. Nice sketch this far. :)

Waiting new posts! :^^:

[GRMC]

great nice SB yo! nice designs on charakters, keep going :)

[Sorknes]

Sadetar: Thank you :) I've worked a bit more on it, but I'll post that when I've done more on it :)

GRMC: Thank you :)

Okies, I never finished that Delirium one. Here's another that I started on trying to not make her so much alike the original one. I just started with colours instead of working on the anatomy and stuff, so it's pretty botched, heh. I got some neat feedback in IRC, but I haven't gotten around working more on it. The plan was to start anew on it and fix the anatomy and all that stuff. Maybe later. Maybe not. lol.

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This is what I've done the last couple of days, life's been pretty busy so I haven't gotten far, heh. And those ears bug the hell out of me, I have to find out another way to do those.

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[SMILEFACE]

wow your SB RRROOOCCKKSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i really luv the expressions of your characters an the moods you set your a great story teller!

[kelly x]

Hi Sork you have been doing tons of work!!!! I love this kind of King purple one (mirror image) very zen... looks tarot?? Your team Chow is great and the face of that girl alone is beautiful... all I can say is what Granny just did your sb ROCKSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! and of course Hello Sork!!!! ;)

[Sadetar]

Gods, that last one is stunning. I love it: the skin colour is suberb, and the eyes are haunting and I overall really like her expression. And what kind of ears are you trying to do? Those don't bug me at all, so I'm just wandering what are you heading. :)

And the new Delirium looks really nice. Even graceful in its own way. The athposphere it that pic is so wonderful. Of course there some little bugs here and there (hands, eyes), but overall I do love it. The colour choices are smashing.

I just can't wait to see progress of that one that I drooled here before. So more post darling. :^^:

[courtyard]

That last one is fantastic!! Her expression reads so well...really powerful. LOVE the coloring. I see what you mean about the ears...perhaps they could be a lot shorter and just pointed? Or you could keep the length and have them match her expression more--less flaccid/casual and more tense/focused, perhaps pointing away from the viewer more and mimicking her hair style(?)

[Flashback]

You have some great characters, and environment paintings.

[AsaB]

Hi Sork! Lovely recent work! I'm truly bedazzled by those chess faces (that the right term..?). Must've taken you some sweet time! I've done very similar work to this and I just got into this sort of quiet trance when filling in all the spots. That was done traditionally, but I loved it. Glad you're liking it, I'd love to some more of that, it's full of character.

As for the other more 'conventional' stuff, I'm liking it! I especially love that latest portrait you were working on, the green alienesque one. Wonderful texture on the skin! I hope you'll figure out those ears and keep on going with that!

[Giorge]

hey you shouldn't leave lots of your stuff unfinished like that , you could get a habit out of it , and some of them look nice , should try finishing a couple

cheers

[Sorknes]

Grandmassa: Thanks :)

Kelly: Hello and thanks :)

Sadetar: Still trying to figure out those ears, hehe. No idea what I want, really... Thanks a lot :)

courtyard: Yeah, I haven't had time to work on them too much at all, so I thought I'd sit down and experiment with them tonight :)

Flashback: Thanks :)

AsaB: Yeah, getting into a trance myself when doing those, just keeping at it, hehe. I started with this kind of thing traditionally years ago (in my schoolbooks when bored at school :P ) and I thought why not try them out digital :D

Giorge: Thanks :) I'm bad at finishing things, that's why I try to do the ChOWs and such.. They *have* to be finished then. :bashful: Sometimes I just lose interest because I start working on something else that pickles my interest though..

Ok, first my first try for the NEWBORN contest, not sure if it'll be what I end up with. Meet grandma on my mothers side, hehe. Gonna cut some canvass on the left and make it longer on the right and such, but need some more thumbnailing and thinking about getting things together there. If it doesn't end up being the contest piece, it's at least starting to become a somewhat decent portrait of my grandma, hehe!

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And here's the thing with the ears, I don't think I worked more than a few minutes on it after the one posted earlier.. But throwing it in anyway. I'll see if I can get something done with this one later tonight :)

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[SMILEFACE]

WOW your grandma's look'n BEAUTIFUL' an the last one is FIERCE'
Sorknes ROCK'N colors all around'

[guggemmaneuver]

hiya sork! OOOH... you know... i love a good gold to greenish to yellows to oranges kind of color scheme. it's so intense! and that one sick shade of yellow... it tiptoes along the edge of green but never quite steps into it. It's such a powerful combo though! the lighting here on the girl's face in particular... it seems to give it like a hogarth kind of depth. that is to say... perimeter of form dark and gradating inward to really give it some punch in the face this form is here. Oh hey and you can help yourself to any pictures you find! I actually saved the one of you from WDELL that has all the different shots from your different ages. creepy huh? Some weird lady in america has your baby picture on her computer.

And i love the grandma picture... there's so much life and care in that rendering! great work girl! keep it up!

[danlambert]

Your rendering seems to improve with every post. Some great work, I especially liked the timed sketches on page 4, I find them very difficult and yours are great, great sense of form.
Those pattern/symmetrical pieces on pg6 kick ass!
Peace!

[Pixie Trick]

Your grandmother is looking amazing. You have some really subtle stuff going on.

[courtyard]

Yes, I agree with everyone--your skill is improving with each post. :) Lovely start with your grandmother. I know it's early days, but perhaps play with different techniques to help define her form so that she seems less like a photograph copy... Looking forward to seeing where you take this theme...

[dCepT]

Yeah, you're really takin' steps now, Sork! Good updates! Will get back to you with a better crit :) Keep updating!

dC

[AsaB]

Hey Sork, nice update!

So you're in the Newborn contest, fun stuff. What you have so far is really interesting and well done! I agree though that you should try to implant some more artistic/graphic strokes to it, she looks a bit static as of now. I'd definitely encourage you to finish your grandmother, if you decide to take the Newborn in another direction :)

[Sadetar]

Oh, Gods, both of the pics are so lovely. I really love the last female. Perhaps you could add some little hair locks here and there to give it a little more free feeling, but of course it's adorable as it is now.

And your grandma can be broud of you! :)

[Sorknes]

All of you: thanks a lot :) I'll try to get it look less like a photo, thanks for pointing that out, courtyard. :)

I'm in a bit of a rush right now, so I'll just post the one and only thing I've been able to work on since the last time, things has been a bit crazy on my end. Hopefully I'll have time to get more done on everything this week.

This was another go for the contest, but it kinda ended up as something else. If you wonder about that awkward thing going on with her shirt and upper body together with the blue space it's because I took out parts of the picture and it all ended up a bit weird, heh. Gonna try to find a way to implement what I want in there.

[SMILEFACE]

the girl is ADOABLE! ssoooo CUTE'

[Sorknes]

Thank you Grandmassa, I used my niece as a kind of reference there :)

I didn't continue on anything today, I started on scratch. So here's today result, I've been at it for a few hours, so I'm kinda blind on it now :P

[SMILEFACE]

WOW that RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCKKKKKSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!:D: D:D

[alesoun]

I love the way you've handled the different textures, Sork. Keep 'em coming!

[courtyard]

Wow...what a great marathon session you had if that's the end result! This piece is so rich and mysterious. You've managed to juggle lots of interesting, unique surface details while maintaining a really strong sense of her character. Beautiful work!

[Sorknes]

Thanks a lot, all three of you :)

I did another one, not sitting in one session for this though, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to do any more with it, several things screams at me here... I'm sure you can see a bit of Keira Knightly in it too :P (There's really a mountain of other things I *should* do, but I really just need a time out these days, heh)

Edit: Oops, kind of posted the wrong image lol

[Cacodaemonia]

Hey, great stuff in your sb. :) I really love the skin tones here (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=696559&d=1244903727). :)

[SMILEFACE]

i really DIGS' all the accesries(spellcheckerz) you add the hats an necklesses sssooooo COOL!

[JailHouseRock2]

Oh wow Sorknes, these are looking great!!

So much more 3D and solid... like sculpture. Lovin' it:P

Theres a great sense of light in all of these as well!

Just keep painting and keep posting!
Hope your well,
matt

[AsaB]

I love the latest portraits, they've got this surreal vibe to them. Really original. The expression in the first 'feather lady' is especially striking.

Only thing I can nitpick on now is about your edges. In the latest portrait, you could make harder edges on her nose and mouth, while I actually think you could soften the eye area a bit, the makeup looks very harsh. But I like your use of colours, so keep this up and you'll get it in no time!

[dCepT]

You're doin' it! :) These last ones are definately moving in the right direction! Be sure to flip your images every now and then.. seems like the underlying structure is a bit off here and there..

Lotsa improvement! Keep crankin'!

dC

[Pixie Trick]

Love the first feather lady!

[Sorknes]

Cacodaemonia: thanks! I like that one too :)

Grandmassa: Hehe, yeah, well, just trying to add something, but sometimes it kinda screws up ;)

Jailhouserock/Matt: Thanks lots and lots, trying to get to the 3D point eventually, but needs a lot of work still, hehe.

AsaB: Yeah, I like the first one of them, not so happy about the second, heh. Thanks for the input, and I have to say that the reason for doing these is colours, colours and colours, so thanks a lot for mentioning that, I really suck at that, lol.

dCepT: Heh, yeah, should've flipped them, just totally forgot. Bad me. Sometimes I just run with it, and these were kinda that kind of pics... Agree with the underlaying structure!

Pixie Trick: Thanks a bunch! :)

Barely had time to draw or even breathe these days, but I had severe withdrawals except for the girly TD that I did miserably bad (it's still up for voting in Finally Finished forum, so I can't post it yet in here), so I did this one tonight just to feel I've done SOMETHING. :)

[Sorknes]

Another superquick one.

Didn't bother finishing the hair and earrings and such.

[Sorknes]

Did this weeks ChoW, really wish I had more time to finish this one, but oh well. Tribute to "Where the wild things are" childrens book this time.

[Black Spot]

I'm so sorry that you didn't finish your Newborn piece as I thought it was charming. I got to the stage where I didn't want to post in the NB WIP thread, but preferred the honest opinions of my friends. You're doing swell with the handicap of a young child who won't understand 'It's Mummy's time now'. I really like your last chow - definitely children's illustrator.

[alesoun]

I haven't read the book, but that's a sweet illustration, Sork.

[dierat]

Love the Wild Things tribute! Your portraits are looking great; I particularly enjoy the details you take the time to work in, like the horns and the jewelry and the make-up. For a crit, I think the necks in general look a little off; I think developing the necks a bit better would really add to their realism. Keep up the good work! ;)

[Sorknes]

Thanks all three of you :) And yeah, amazed I have any time to draw at all ;) And necks is absolutely a must do on my list, but Ive been focusing on getting the faces there, so neck and shoulder area really need a brush up and some anatomy excersize now.

Getting back to people later, have to run :)

I made this one for Davi's birthday...

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Looks like the girly TD poll is closed, so I'll put up my image now. It was a bit rushed, made it in an evening and a half, really wish I'd have some more time to get it done, but since we had like three months before the deadline to get started, I shouldn't blame any others than myself...

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[ASVogel]

I really like the golds in the latter piece. The Davi Birthday card is classic!

[Giorge]

nice stuff , need more work on the volumes , keep it up!

[Sorknes]

Thanks guys :)

Been doodling a bit. The first I did because I just wanted to do something totally different from what I usually do. I stil have a few obstacles to tackle in it...

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The second is a mermaid where I pretty much screwed up the lower body, so I have to redo that...

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[shamandalie]

Looking great Sork! I really like the mermaid render, esp. the area around the neck and shoulders. Keep it going! :)

[nancy_kelpie]

Nice! I especially like your fantasy work :D

[Cacodaemonia]

The enviro is coming along really well! I have a few suggestions (and these are things I always have trouble with...):

Pick a particular depth of field to bring into focus, and let the things closer and farther away be a little out of focus.

The city and the far hills seem a bit too dark and high contrast to me, making them look closer than they are.

Lastly, try to vary the size of your marks with regard to distance. For example, the bases of those formations in the foreground might have larger marks and textures, whereas the hills in the distance would have a few very small details on them.

Hope that helps!

[jatherip]

awesome improvement since ive been here last time!
i think youre ready for this:
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/index.php

[Black Spot]

The top half is awesome. Does she have a slight cast in her eyes? It's not unattractive, my husband has it.

[SMILEFACE]

i luvz post 209 sssssssSSSOOOOOOOOO COOL OF COURSE I LUVS EM ALL AN YER NEW AVATAR IS HHOOOTTTT!!!

[Pixie Trick]

Oooooo, I love your avatar picture! The shoulder/chest area is lovely. I love the swirl her hair makes. Great updates.

[Sadetar]

Aww. Awesome updates dearie! I especially like the "Where the wild things are"-chow. And that mermaid, her face and upper body are just stunning.

You are really good at rendering metal. Brilliant!

And I am very pleased. Splendid thing, that the stuff actually reached you. :teeth:

Oh, and thank you. I always get motivation from your sb. :rendered: Perhaps even I actually draw and paint something...

[dCepT]

The CHoW is something new.. cool to see something so radically different from what you usually do :)

You're taking steps for sure! The mermaid still has some of the.. "bollekinn"-tendencies a lot of your characters have.. moar underlying structure! :)

dC

[AsaB]

Hi Sork!
I finally got around to check what you've been up to after I noticed your avatar change.
The mermaid is absolutely stunning! <3 I hope you'll try to finish her lower body soon!
I think the enviro is also damn good :) I know you haven't done a lot of these, so it's mighty impressive! Do more of these, I think you have a knack for it.
And of course, Davi's present is awesome! It makes me chuckle.

[Sorknes]

Thank you guys! <3

And all suggestions and advice are getting digested. :)

For it being my own suggestion for a topic in ChOW this week, I seem to wander a bit weird ways... but hoping to finish within the weekend. Would kind of be embarrasing if I can't even finish stuff I've suggested myself, heh.

I started out with these, they were a bit stiff and not what I wanted.. but not able to get out of that idea, appearantly.

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This is the one I've decided to keep working on. Never mind the big hole behind her head, that thing was solid, but I kinda decided to make it open instead, just haven't gotten as far as deciding how to do that quite yet. And I chopped her hands off, they looked horrible. Have to have another try there too. Heh. :bashful:

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[Sadetar]

Aww. Those headthingies are so awesome.

I can't wait to see that ready! :D

[Sorknes]

Thank you :D

And here it is... It was tight, but I managed to finish it. Again waaay too little time, heh. Busy days makes tight deadlines, I guess, hehe.

*stretches arms*

Ready for next ChOW from tomorrow and the battle of the sexes piece!

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[Cacodaemonia]

Definitely fits the CHOW description! She has sort of a Princess Amidala (sp?) thing going. :) Something to think about for next time: with all the blue and grey in her surroundings, there should be more of that in her skin and clothing,

[Sorknes]

Thanks :) Yeah, I totally didn't have time to work more on the colours, I usually need some extra time to get things together.. .not that good at it, heh.

Ok, here's the new Chow as I just posted it. As usually not enough time, I screwed up totally and lost work, but manage to get these six somewhat ready for final burning. Even posted in the ten minute grace period, so that was by a hair...

Anyone with half a Norwegian eye can see that these are based on Norwegian national/folk dresses, but not actually being one. They're all based on it, but not following any of the regions rules or anything, so they're all fantasy in my mind.

[Pixie Trick]

Very nice! The costumes are beautiful!!!!

[Cacodaemonia]

Yeah, those costumes are really pretty. I especially like the first merchant's. :)

[SMILEFACE]

YOUR NPC DESIGN is HHHOTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! = SUP AWESOME MEGA RRRRRROOCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!! all YOUR CHOWS ARE AWESOME YOUR A CHOW MACHEEN' OF ROCK!

[jigje]

Very cool book Sork. You do gold and jewellry soooo well and your characters are fantastic. Im a begginer so I have no crits, it all just looks very nice to me!!

[dierat]

Lovely work in here Sork! I hope you get a chance to work on the mermaid image soon; that one looks great so far and I'm curious to see it finished! Keep up the good work! ;)

[Black Spot]

So many pretty costumes. When you said about the CHOW being stiff, some of it comes from the lack of movement in the folds in the skirts. Just putting a couple off vertical would help.

[jatherip]

looks like you could use some studies on skintones, great work on the alien queen, though^^

[Giorge]

waw nice set of costumes on thos npc's m8, what's next what's next?

[Sorknes]

Thanks guys! <3 And thanks for the crits, as always noting them. :)

'Nother ChOW, just posted it in the thread over there, so just quoting myself:

So many awsome entries! :D

I don't think I've ever made as many sketches for different chars that I have now for ChOW ever... But after trying out several things for all of the songs, I've landed on doing two in one image instead.

Soo.. Twisted Sisters, I guess. Need more work in B&W before colours. Thankful for all crits. And I don't look forward to trying to get the colours in my head onto the greyscale at all..

[Sorknes]

Getting closer. At least I'm not at this stage an hour before deadline, for once. :P

Still having some trouble, but I have a couple of days to find time to fix stuff. :)

[Cookiedough]

Hi there Sorky,

I must say, i haven't looked further back than this last picture, so i'm not sure what it's for. I think you're making quite some progress these days, you're starting to use more than brown! Good job. :D

So, here's what i think of your pic:
- Overpaint: This time, you seemed to have picked pink and blue as main colors. It's cool, but you've also repeated the same tints in the bg. Now, that's a good way to go, but you can stray there a li'l bit with the tones. At the moment, the heavy blues in the bg seem to make the whole pic a lot darker. Your pinks start looking purplish overall too. Making it a piece that's mainly pink and blue, without something that they share. You have some gorgeous yellows in the bg clouds, but so far, those aren't on the chars.

What i did was very simple cop out, i'm sure you'll take the more thought through process. Also, i'm on a crt, so maybe my colors are a bit off. I made a new layer, filled it with a greenish/ yellow tone and put it on overlay. Not only will it make the whole pic less dark, but the lightning is now a bit more neutral, without heading to the extremes of pinks and blues. Your chars still have those, but it's less overwhelming now.

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- Anatomy: Check the hands again, they seem a li'l clawish (especially the left girls right hand / our left. What's problematic with at least 3 of the hands, is how they connect at the wrist. Yours seem to forget that li'l joint there, and kinda are stuck immediately to the arm. This same problem returns at the anklejoints. It gives them a bit of a stumpy look.
- Other: Maybe it's the compression, but certain areas of the painting still need some love/ seem rather blurry, like the girl on our right face, the feet, the ribbons on the outfits and the eyes on the girl on the left. They seem a li'l beady, like there's too much info in too little space. Try not to paint what you know is there. Think of it more as only including necessary info, and thus being more reluctant with adding strokes. Economy of information and effort. You can just take a big brush and add some bold strokes to eliminate li'l lines.

Now, i've been strict enough. I dig the outfits a lot, very rich and sexy. I'm secretly wondering about the view from underneath them. :P The poses are cool too. Good luck finishing, hope this helped.

[ASVogel]

I'm going to echo Cookiedough's sentiments. The hands and feet look roughly rendered when there is a lot of promise in communicating the characters' personality by their hands. I would look at Indian and Polynesian dancers' hands to get an idea. Paul Dini (animator for the Justice League, the 90s Batman animated series, etc) also puts a lot of focus on character hands and he has to deal with masked figures as well.

[Sorknes]

Thanks a lot you two, and thanks a ton again Cookie! :D Helped me a LOT!

So, here's what ended up in the finals thread:

Yulunga/Dead Can Dance to the left (covered face) and Marco Polo/Laureena McKennit (uncovered face) to the right. :)

[Trashy]

Hi Sorknes,

Not sure if I've been to your sb before. You got some good studies in here. I think you could maybe do some more studies from life and the the values could be pushed further in many of your pieces. I like the character piece your currently working on. I absolutely agree when it comes to those hands...hands are tough but those really need some work. Honestly I would try taking some photos of your hands or somebody else in those positions. I know I myself couldn't draw those off the top of my head like that. Watch the colors of those feet also and hands, right now they actually look like these gory bloody stumps and I don't think that was intended either.

I did a paint over to illustrate some points also. I think you can to simplify this.

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Think less is more Sorknes. I see you made it a point to really get into the details in the skirts, helmets and all those areas . The problem is all these little points are distracting from the overall piece. When you go in there with all those points the whole piece might fall flat. You can communicate what your going for with fewer strokes and details. I actually literally took out some parts. Also I added a glow to those two hands, it still can be done better but it shows you that you can work around some parts and not go crazy with all the hands. But just watch those values, maybe use some softer brushes. Anyway man good luck with the piece. I hope this helps, hope I wasn't being too critical there.

[guggemmaneuver]

sork, this is spectacular and inspiring, and i wanted to thank you for putting a link up on fb to it!

Really stellar work!

INSPIRED!
M

[dCepT]

Wow! Level up ahoy! Dig the "bunad" designs.. hehe.. and the twisted sisters look really good! Keep goin!!!

dC

[Cacodaemonia]

Very nice progress with this piece, and you've already gotten some awesome crits. :)