Marker Concepts

[nickmarshallvfx]

Just a page out of my sketchpad. Stayed up way too late doing these. You know, once you get started you can't leave half finished! About 3 hours work here from start to finish.
Like to hear your thoughts.

Nick

[Seedling]

Have you spotted the error in the bottom-left one?

Looking good. Do more!

[nickmarshallvfx]

Thanks Seedling :)
I intend to do more... plenty more actually, within the next few weeks and months. Once I have got a selection of the larger drawings (roughly A4 size in real life coz I was working on an A3 marker pad), I will probably pick one or two of the better ones and colour them in PS to build up my concept art portfolio.
As for your question, I felt there was something not quite right about the bottom left sketch which is why I decided against it, but can you tell me the error you spotted?

Thanks for the response, I was worried this might get buried as quickly as my sketchbook did, and not get any replies, coz it was falling fast, lol.

Take care

Nick

[Ezidof]

hey, you could limit yourself to say only spending 3 to 5mins on each one make them small, and concentrate on great composition, add more dynamism - dynamic perspective, push them as far as you can go, make them really appealing to look at, - you can do that just even using a few basic shapes together. After say an hour doing thumbnails take a few that you think work well and make some larger versions, adding more information, say four or so, then use the one you like the most and scan it in or photocopy it larger and start adding the detail to it, you will already have the neccesary underlying information there from developing it from a thumbnail so you should be more confident in putting in the finishing touches to your drawing. you may turn out with lots of thumbnails that you would like to take further, which is great or you may just find one out of 20 that you like, but its the process of learning thats important and devolping your skills, thumbnailing is great fun though! keep up the good work - o remeber to keep a 3dimensional feel to this kinda work, i just saw on you more finished design that the connected pathway going across the centre is flat and has no sides to it!, unless its a piece of paper or card? i could point out some more, but im just making you aware of it

[nickmarshallvfx]

Thanks Ezidof. Yea I do a whole lot of the smaller thumbnails. These ones took about 10 - 15 mins each. I might try out the little 3-5 mins idea though coz i could do with more :)
I see what you mean about the drawing being a bit flat. I do find it a lit difficult to keep depth when im refining a drawing. I tend to make it too tight and lose the sense of depth, but I am aware of it now and will work on that. I think if you look closesly there is actually some depth to the connecting bridges, but at that size it is difficult to see. I understand your point though, and there are other places that it is very valid so Ill keep working on it. This is actually my first go at this, so i've still got a long way to go :)

Thanks for the comments

Nick

[Seedling]

As for your question, I felt there was something not quite right about the bottom left sketch which is why I decided against it, but can you tell me the error you spotted?


The upper left corner, where the roof meets the wall. That edge needs to be aimed at the vanishing point.

[nickmarshallvfx]

Oh wow yea!! Thats a hideous error too! I can't believe I overlooked that! I got no idea where I thought it was going either, coz I aimed the line somewhere? :S

Nick

[Ezidof]

it just takes practice man, if you did 50 thumbnails a day for a month, you will definetly see the difference, keep it up tho :-)

[Seedling]

You're doing fine. :-) Learning involves making mistakes. Now go start a sketchbook!

[edit] oh, silly me, you've already got one. :-)

[Beelow]

Hehe you live and you learn dude. I caught that one as well. Keep posting here, you will grow, promise welcome to CA! I'll visit your sketchbook.

[nickmarshallvfx]

Ezidof - I will definitely keep it up, no worries there :)

Seedling - lol, yea I do have one. I need to update more, but at the moment I am doing lots of very specific drawings for my university course and not stuff that I really am enjoying as much. Of course all drawing is good, but I like to go in my own direction too :)
As it happens I was considering starting the Concept Art 101 just as you left your first relpy to this thread. I was looking at all the help you have been giving people and thinking how great it is, and then I checked back on this thread and had some help from you too :D

Beelow - Thank you very much. I appreciate the support, and you being willing to visit my sketchbook. Ill keep practicing, and hold you to that promise ;)

Nick

[Jonas Heirwegh]

I see that you watched the gnomon dvd from James Clyne;)

good thumbs but indeed some errors. I suggest to do some basic perspective things first. cubes, etc...

And I also recommend the shot design dvd from Feng Zhu, thats imo the best dvd to learn environments.

I'm actually doing the same thing right now.
check my sketcbook last post;)

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93016

[Penabled]

The upper left corner, where the roof meets the wall. That edge needs to be aimed at the vanishing point.

Actually it's not just that....the building on the right is not correct but it's because the perspective lines are off....many of them are not meeting at the same point.

In fact, after looking more closely at them all....I noticed similar problems in each of them. Perspective lines don't help a bit if they are not correct to begin with. The sketches themselves look fine.

[nickmarshallvfx]

Thanks for the comments guys.
Epias - Yea I have just got the James Clyne dvd, and its a new way of working to me so Im goin to give it a good try and keep doing these and see how it goes. I actually have the Feng Shot Design dvd too, but i haven't watched it in a loing time, so I will go and have another look and see if I can apply James Clyane AND Feng Zhu into my next ones. Ill check out your sketchbook now too.
Penabled - Thanks. Yes the perspective on the thumbnails is very loose. I was trying not to let the perspective stop me producing a good composition, so I wasn't being very accurate. The strange roofline on the left was just a big mistake though coz I wasn't even close to the perspective lines. The secondary larger sketch should be much more accurate on the perspective though, coz I used a ruler. The thumbnails were just freehand.

Thanks guys, Ill work on the things you have highlighted. Appreciate the help.

Nick