Nathan's speed paintings(updated 12/2)

[CircusRobot]

Hi everyone,
I've only been here a week and the main reason I joined was to get feedback on and improve my speedpainting/conceting skills. I plan on making this an ongoing thread where I post at least one new painting a week. Please comment and critique as you wish.

I'm going to start off with two that I just did today, a little over two hours each.




Thanks!

[ScaryPotato]

I really like the textures in the rusted jungle picture. The forms are interesting and the colours work nicely with each other, the only thing is that I'm not too sure what the rusted thing actually is. It looks vaguely robotic, but only because of the head/neck thing. They style itself reminds me of Samurai Jack!

With the furnace image, you're playing around with depth perception, but that snake creature is blurrier than the pillars to the side. Right now, the first thing I see is the glowing furnace, then my eye is drawn to the second column in on the left, the notch in it more specifically, as the edges for that are very crisp. I think there should be some harder and lighter highlights on those snake things from their glowing eyes, and some more highlights from the intense light of the furnace.

That said, to get those pieces done in a couple hours apiece is impressive. Good job!

[CircusRobot]

Thanks for the reply! Going forward I'm going to consider clarity of the viewer more closely when pushing myself to complete these. Looking back I think I pushed to try to get as much done as possible over just relaying a concept.
Btw, on the first one it's supposed to be a rusting robot wreckage but thats not very clear. And the second one I shouldn't have tried the depth of field at the last second, plus the snake things were supposed to be extensions of the shadow on the ground and somewhat wispy, also not very clear do to the brushwork.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback and I might try repainting these and posting them again and see if I improve.

[CircusRobot]

Here's a new one. I started out with some thumbnails first thinking that would give me some better direction. It did, but when I started painting I realized I was going about it the same way I would a longer illustraion. In the end time got away from me and I ended up spending five hours on it...

[Spiralingvortex]

I like these, specially the textures. Though, why so much black in the foreground?

[CircusRobot]

spiralingvortex, good question. For some reason I set up all the light sources behind the scene making all the stuff facing you darker. Not done on purpose, plus I need to work on more subtle shadowing as well.

Anyway, I spent about another thirty minutes on the first two fixing some things and making it (hopefully) clearer.

[CircusRobot]

New speed paint, I got a hold of some new photoshop brushes and I'm really enjoying them. The first one is a quick 20 min sketch and the second one I spent about six hours on it.

[JeffX99]

Hey CircusRobot - you're putting in some good effort but you're getting a little ahead of yourself. The two main issues I see in your work are poor composition and poor value structure/lighting. These two things are critical to creating more effective pieces. Your work has to be clear and focused in order to communicate your ideas/concepts well.

I have three books to recommend that will help - a lot:
For composition - Jack Hamm "Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes"
General drawing - Deborah Rockman "Drawing Essentials"
General professional illustration - Jim Gurney "Imaginitive Realism"

I think you need to get away from the digital for awhile until you have a little better handle on drawing fundamentals - that will make your digital much stronger.

[CircusRobot]

Thanks for the response, I'll try to pick up those books online if I can. Until then, could you offer some specifics like on the last image for instance? Also, could you check out my portfolio to see if I have some of the same issues there? The reason I ask is because I put more planning into those finished pieces and now I realize I hadn't been doing that much with these.

Thanks again