Katastrophi's Sketchbook

[Katastrophi]

-------Please click Last to see my latest work! -------

[Katastrophi]

(original first post)

Hey CA,

I'm Matt McCherry, a student whom would love to work within the games industry. I'm in my first year of university and i guess now is probably the best time to get cracking out some awesome work but that's a long haul away yet! I've recently transitioned into digital painting (still not quite used to the techniques!). I've been drawing traditionally for around 6 months, with very minimal experience before that! I don't specifically want to work within concept art but being able to draw proficiently enough to be paid for it is my goal more or less but it's more recreational and i enjoy it a great deal!

Here is some of my most recent and in my opinion best work.





If you would like more of a reference of what level i'm at please check out my blog, which is updated weekly (as will this sketchbook if not more often!).
http://katamatt.blogspot.co.uk/

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Had a go at some poses today then fleshed one of them out (from a photo reference). Rendering skin is difficult. I did this straight to colour which is probably something i shouldn't of done!

[ReedyProduction]

i like the aircraft one that really good. the insects ones are really nice too but i think it could be improved with some more definition in certain areas. love the use of colours. the proportions on the woman are really good and the flesh tones are spot on, maybe darken the arm on the right and on the back of the neck. The hair needs some work. fruit colours are really nice, maybe a review of the lighting and shadows may improve it. also the fruit edges are very angular smoothing them off may help improve it. Overall youre sketch book is impressive. Definitely a better start than some people. keep up the good work!

[Katastrophi]

@ReedyProduction

Cheers, man yeah i'm working on my shading and trying to make things look more 3D and pop a bit more, i'll get it eventually just need to do more studies. I don't personally think the tones are correct, i tried not using the colour picker but i've got a long way to go yet to get it right.

Had a little warmup with Robots for some uni work they turned out not too bad, probably spent about 30 mins on these 3.

[Katastrophi]

Had a go at a Steven Fry portrait. Didn't turn out good urg :/ really doesnt look like him but i guess i'm getting the hang of colour - this is a portrait of him i did 2 months ago for comparision.



Might try and fix my newest one get his proportions better and stuff tonight! Wish me luck haha!

[Katastrophi]

Just a little portrait from yesterday, sorry im home from uni and dont have a scanner here!

Think i'm gonna try and keep up posting daily sketchs on here! And do weekly on my blog. Seems like a good idea.

[Eternal Apprentice]

Thanks for stoping by! Nice Sketchbook! Keep working hard!

[owlies]

Do you know of ctrlpaint.com? It's a really great resource for learning digital painting, it really helped me! Posting daily sketches is a really great idea. I really like your figure drawing, the rendering on the legs looks good, but I think doing some more anatomy studies before focusing on rendering would really tighten it (mostly because of the feet).
Keep up the good work and have a nice day. (:

[Katastrophi]

@ Eternal Apprentice - Thanks very much! I was just browsing, i'll keep a look out for your Sketchbook like your work man!
@owlies - Yeah i know of ctrlpaint.com, just i need to get around to actually learning the techniques been very busy, but i'll take note from it, i need to improve my digital a lot! Yeah, i hate feet aha... I spent a long time on that image and it didn't turn out as i hoped! Just need to do individual studies of parts of the body and anatomy like you said!

Also, i've not been able to use my pc past few days so not done any digital work and my scanner is currently out of order >.< So i'm going out today to get it sorted but i should be updating this later with more work! Fingers crossed!

Thanks again for the comments!

[Katastrophi]

Just quick environment i've done tonight, no colour picking! Trying to get better with my colours Not really had time for much recently (Uni essays & module hand ins!) I'll get back on it, environments and anatomy is what i'll be doing next few posts.

Photo ref for env:http://browse.deviantart.com/photography/#/d5lgyij

Bonus because the above pencil sketches are bad... aha!

[Katastrophi]

Some more environment practice this morning along with some figure drawings and what not. Really trying to improve my use of colour i think both of these are out from their respective references (linked at bottom). The figure drawings are between 2-5minutes each one.




I've got some website design to do for the rest of the day (need the cash!). I'll update tomorrow though with more figure drawings and studies!

Sunset ref:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kvGqfSodsG...0/9_sunset.jpg
Luoping, Yunnan Province, China (ref): http://i.imgur.com/WOOQ2.jpg

[lionheartGFX]

so great to see you are enjoying your journey, when you ahve the spare time, do some structure studies, i think your portraits would greatly benefit from that, other than that keep it coming, i like the color quickies do lots and lots of those!

[Katastrophi]

Thanks Lionheart,

Yeah i definitely am, i enjoy painting and drawing a whole lot if i could make it doing it that would be awesome By structure studies do you mean breaking down the face into the simpler shapes and stuff like that?

Here's something i've managed to get time to work on. My own gun concept, trying to get better at perspective. -WIP i'll finish it tomorrow but i think it's bed time for me now! Any crits are highly welcomed!

[Eternal Apprentice]

Look at that perspective stuff! It seems like you have been drawing more mechanical hard-edged objects in your drawing journey.

[Katastrophi]

Done this for today, got lots of work to do though for the rest of the day. gonna try fit in some figure drawing with edit this post and stick it in if i do!

Haven't quite finished with the gun yet either unfortunately. I dont really like the shading with it

REF:http://browse.deviantart.com/photogr...ture/#/d5bibcf

[n1frit]

Nice start, keep working!

[Katastrophi]

Another landscape, need to keep up with these. Gonna try another one tonight. I've been developing a game for IOS past few days thats coming together nicely but its under wraps atm!
I'm definitely getting better at colours! lovely

Reference:http://klapouch.deviantart.com/galle...et=48#/d5ilf1t

[Ana Caspão]

Gesture Drawing
Sites like these are a great resource for everyday drawing or maybe you know everything you see around you.
Keep going!

[Katastrophi]

@Ana Caspao, Yeah i always use that website for my figure drawing i like the feature that changes the image every few minutes pretty sweet!

Happy with this, off to bed now so tired!



Oh also, any advice for wheels in perspective?? Not even for cars just circles in general?

[Katastrophi]

Owl from Team Awesome hangout session, spent about 3 hours on this, not too bad got a lot of good tips i guess although i was supposed to be concentrating on rendering the fog behind the owl (my main goal of this image) i ended up doing lots on the owl aha. hope you like it.

Ref: http://i.imgur.com/uqE6N.jpg

Worked on my owl a little bit more tonight aswell! Here's the update:

[Lucarky]

Hi mate, and thank you for your visit to my SB and your advices. Indeed eyeballs are one of the most challenging part to do. Like you said I have some difficulty to draw the eye, maybe I forget the principles that an eye, like you said, it's a ball, and above and below it's covered by skin that take the form of the eyeball.
I think I have to improve in single body parts, and make more drawing from real life.
For now I thank you, and wish you a Merry Christmas!
PS: I see that you are improved, mostly in environment, and in a short time. Go on man! You are doing better!

[Katastrophi]

Couple studies, first one black and white from reference (lost the link sorry!). The cola can was from life, not done colour life studies before but it looks alright i guess, took about 20 minutes.



Some gesture studies done today as well, wanna get better and put characters in my environments as well as being able to draw them! I'm happy that i'm noticeably progressing though! Brilliant Just gotta keep it up. Got some website design to do tonight so not sure if i'll get any more studies done but if i do i will edit this post like always!

[Katastrophi]

Spent a few hours doing this study ended up really quite nice i think, any crits are very welcome!



Did some more gestures because that's what i need to work on because i tried to do some environments with people in it and they kinda failed really badly

[AJM]

That latest landscape is nice. Good contrast.

[Lucarky]

Spent a few hours doing this study ended up really quite nice i think, any crits are very welcome!



Did some more gestures because that's what i need to work on because i tried to do some environments with people in it and they kinda failed really badly

Really good environment mate. Soft coated colors and balanced contrast of colors. If I where you I'll take this drawing in the future and continue it or modify it. Will be a good study. Good works man.

[Katastrophi]

Done a ton of animal studies past week or so and many many pages in my sketchbook if i get time i will scan them in and upload them but not sure! I did some studies on creating my own lighting conditions from references. The animal studies also are colour studies still getting used to percieving colour, they took around an hour each so they aren't all to accurate in terms of anatomy.

Also the Owl i spent a few more hours on looks kinda nice

[Katastrophi]

Maybe the website is fixed now from the malware attacks, so i'll update this!









I've been loving doing animals but i need to get back on my anatomy studies and stuff! Will be updating this consistently over the next 4 weeks so keep a watch out!

[Katastrophi]

Some studies from today, i did some more quick gesture studies (1 min each) but they're not worth showing really! Spent about a hour or so on the cabin landscape and maybe like 30 minutes on each model possibly slighty more!

[Katastrophi]

Need to do portraits and anatomy more than these colour/bird studies. But i'm enjoying them loads! Will have to try some more animals. Spent about 40 minutes on each!



90 Seconds each, did around 200 since after my last post.

[Katastrophi]

Been trying to do a master study for anatomical reasons, im trying to learn how to get the accuracy of the portrait to make it look like the person it is. But i can see already about a hour or so in it's not working :| Gonna have to do a ton of these i guess, portraits in general that is. Any advice would be awesome.