Grinning Through

[Mr. Smile]

Hello there!
I actually wanted to say some cheesy stuff how CA is a great art community and how I love you, but everybody knows it, I guess.
So I´m 21, have a SB here for over two years and CA helped me to improve tremendously. I´m selftaught and I like coffee. *duh*
I try to equally split my time in drawing from mind and from reference, drawing on paper and painting on PC.

If you´re willing to sacrifice some of your time, I´ll appreciate any critique you can give me, and of course comment on your SB as well.

[Mr. Smile]

These are posemaniacs.com 30 seconds poses.
I aim for 1001 bodycount. Here is the first sheet. :teeth:

[Mr. Smile]

I´m having a little idea on a few pictures from detective / police enviroment. I was shocked when I realised this is my first project from realistic enviroment (you know, drawing all kinds of sci-fi and fanstasy, but never done anything this-world). Also, I´ve always had problems with making concept art that is understandable.

Anyway, this is a first concept for title character, Sergeant Samantha R. Levine. As I´ve said before, any crits or insights will be helpfull and apreciated. (whether its anatomy-wise, concept-wise, or idea-wise). Make me smile =).

[Mr. Smile]

Another posemania!
I´m feelin so funky and wonder why she is so bored.

[SkullClutter]

Nice start! Love the gestures, but don't forget more detailed anatomy studies too, from time to time.

[Mr. Smile]

bitjockey: Thanks! I´ll be throwing in a few for sure!

...more!

[Kasper_P]

Well as far as I can see you need to push yourself a little more! The poses are great (I'm doing them too), but you need to strive to do more - even if it isn't every day.. From life is damn important! You can't hear that enough. Just draw what you see around you..

[Mr. Smile]

Kasper_P: You actually moved me to quickpaint my glass of juice. First thing I saw after reading *YOUR* comment. And you are responsible for my dehytratation now, cause I couldn´t touch it :teeth:.

Nah, I´m just kidding, It was fun, so thanks for comment! You made my todays smile!

[Mr. Smile]

...more concepts

[Mr. Smile]

...and more gestures :teeth:

By the way, is there anyone knowing if Toshiba Portege M700 is wacom penabled? I´m definitely getting this baby soon, but nobody can give a clear confirmation if it even supports pressure levels! Even the internet is blind to this subject. Make me smile!

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

pretty good start here mate. Just keep working, keep studying and I'll be back:)

-E

[Mr. Smile]

Mischeviouslittleelf: Oh, great, you´ve been to my sketchbook! Makes me smile! Thanks, I´ll keep working hard to see you here again, trust me!

Just a quick timefiller, I´ll go to the pub, but my friend moved our little appoinment for an hour. So, like thirty minutes on this speedpaint. An no, I don´t draw manga (well didn´t for about four years now anyway).
And yes, the hand is cut cause I fucked it up :teeth: Smile.

[Kasper_P]

Yes okay - before you can even begin to make something that resembles what you were going for you need to have the basics down. Good effort tho. Draw from life!!!

[zhonked]

Very nice start to your sb :) And hooray for PM marathon gestures! For crits I think you need to watch out for how you are rendering the wrinkles in your clothing. You're using a lot of hatching across the fold lines which gives the material a rougher look. Also watch out for the balance and position of the feet on your characters. In the first set on the left she looks like she's tipping over a little and the second one in that same image she's tipping forward and on her toes. The first one in the second set has her right leg twisted outwards while her hip is cocked in the same direction. I think that would torque the knee quite a bit. But otherwise the concept is looking good! I can't wait to see the other characters. After all a detective story is all about the villian that needs to be caught :) Keep it up!

[Mr. Smile]

Kasper_P: Thanks! I´ll be sure to make more stills as soon as time allows.
zhonked: Thanks very much! :teeth: Yeah, Posemaniacs are like the best invention since pencil. Makes my coffee breaks so much more usefull!
I have to admit I rushed the first concept, and out of lazyness I left it as it was. And that is the mistake! I´ll do it again and do it right this time.
Thanks a bunch for help in the second one though! I knew something was wrong, and it felt somehow stiff, but I couldn´t put my finger on it.
Oh and I´ll try to find diffirent way to highlight folds. Thanks for a suggestion mate!

For everybody poppin´ in, you really make me smile :)
Oh aaaaand.... is there anybody knowing anything about the tablet pc from the earlier post? I really want to be sure before buying something this expensive...

[Mr. Smile]

I´m not much of a Star wars fan, but I´ve seen the original trilogy today (after a few years). And man, I didn´t know the Bobba survived that snack-fest. (I checked the net).

So I´ve found the nerd inside me, and did a quickpaint to celebrate his survival :teeth:
And I tried it without a ref, so there might be some inconsistencies with the char. Sorry about the background.

[Meilin]

nice start to your sketchbook, I especially like the shading in post #9, it's so simple and still provides so much information. keep on smiling:drinkup:

[Mr. Smile]

Meilin: Well I am using this technique quite frequently to quickshade (mainly when doing concepts and doodles), but as zhonked pointed out, it should be used only on rougher materials as it gives the hint of texture. Still, thanks for kind words :teeth:.
Thanks for stopping by! I surely won´t stop smiling now (the grin won´t come down anyway). In fact, your gallery is making me smile right now. Those color studies of streets at night are awesome! I´ll be sure to drop by sometime.

Right now I am grinning into Jack Hamms "Drawing head and figure" book. Very similiar to Loomis, but hes got something new here and there. Here are some hand studies that caught my eye and study of a sketch by Ron Tiner.

[Mr. Smile]

Aaand another timefiller! This time done in work... (so I had more time to polish it).

I was thinking of steampunk something girl, but in the end I decided to remove flying goggles and toolbox =). Oh, again its non-ref. And yes, I'll study some hands, because this is *BAD*. Smile :teeth:

[Mr. Smile]

One more...

[FightingSeraph]

Keep going, you're doing great.

[Kasper_P]

About the poses, did you read what it says below the 30 second drawing application?

"10. Observe your result, and analyse the good point and bad point. Change the style and find the way to conquer your weakness. IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT"

Now, your poses are almost exactly the same. DON'T just mindlessly do the same thing all over again - consider what could be done differently to gain more gesture, movement, dynamics and line!! The tip that says that you should try to keep the pencil on the paper is good - it forces you to think in forms in stead of lines.. Experiment!

[Mr. Smile]

Well, this is work assigment (for company's T-shirt). My supervizor said to me it's more like for 7-year olds and that she won't use it. It's a bit stylized yeah, but she sounded more like it's ugly :D. Ya'll be the judge.

I'll respond later, got to leave this shithole. Smile anyways :teeth:

[Mr. Smile]

FightingSeraph: Thanks man!
I´ll keep going... maybe even speed up a bit. Been slacking too much lately.
Kasper_P: Thanks for a suggestion! I´ve been thinking about more indepth gestures already (three minute ones, outline and shading). I´ll try out that trick. Seems more messy though.
Oh and thanks for repeated visits, I appreciate it!

Today I was doing some anatomy from mind, to see what to focus on. Yup, it pretty much sucks all :teeth:. I guess what I need to train most are hands, feet and overall energy of the sketches (do you know of any tutorials on this subject?). I also found out that my torsos tend to be somewhat stretched, got to watch this.

Thick rimmed glasses rule.

[zhonked]

Nice new posts :) I'm glad you are doing personal evaluations and seeing that there are some proportion issues with the figure. Critiquing yourself is the best way to improve in my opinion. Take the same exact drawing and do it again and don't leave it until you get it right. There's no time like as you're drawing to correct yourself and learn. As for tutorials on hand and feet or any anatomy details, I'd suggest the usual set of people: Bridgeman, Loomis, Vilppu, and just plain old drawing from life and photos :) Vilppu, who was an animator as well, has a real strong emphasis on the gesture and his stuff may offer you some good insight in capturing the energy of a figure. You may want to try some really exaggerated stuff like cartooning or comics to really get the feel for big poses before going back to the really subtle stuff too. The colors on that squirrel are looking good! He looks a bit angry though :) Too bad she didn't want to use it! You should find out why and then make another version that suits what they want more and try again. The reward would be the awesome feeling of seeing your stuff printed on a t-shirt! Keep up the energy level man! You're doing really good!

[Imaginary]

The squirell ain't ugly! He looks a bit pissed though like "What are you looking at?"

If you wanna get better at gesture i'd suggest posemaniacs (http://posemaniacs.com/?pagename=thirtysecond) and if you don't like that you could always go out and just draw people in a coffe shop, mcdonalds or whatever place suits you really. :D

Here's a process vid of Vilppu btw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8AoShEHu4

[Mr. Smile]

zhonked & Imaginary: Thanks guys! I can´t wait to look into this Vilppu guy. Unfortunately I caught flu (what a great time to get sick! Damn.) so I´m pretty much wasting my time laying in bed and watching television. I´m glad you like the squirell. I think he looks pissed, cause I was pissed at a time... picture with a message, you know :teeth:

Anyway, as I said, I´m sick, my head hurts, and I watched too many chritmas movies from the horizontal position... so I got all pissed about not doing anything and did this portrait of my friend. No-brainer really, just what I need right now.

Anyway, have a nice christmas and SMILE!

[Mr. Smile]

Screw the flu :teeth:

Loomis study

[Vickie B]

Thanks very much for visiting my sketchbook, Mr. Smile!

I'm loving the huge amount of figure drawings you have here. Wow. That must help a lot when it actually comes down to drawing completed figures. I have to say, though, my favorite pieces so far are that glass, and Boba Fett. Way to go!

Keep it up! I'll definitely keep visiting.

[Mr. Smile]

Vickie B: Yeah, they will definitely help when I´ll beat 1001th pose. Right now? Dunno :teeth:.
You´re gonna keep visiting? I should really work on myself now!! And I must thank you back again, because that rancor piece you´re working on right now inspired me to do this. I love CA, the deepest pool of imagination and creativity!

Anyway, it doesn´t matter if you´re good guy or a bad guy person, still, everyone knows that sith just have more style :teeth:.

SMILE

[Mr. Smile]

I wasn´t updating much since christmas.
You see, I´ve obtained a Portege M700 tablet pc, and so I was calibrating it, and getting used to it. Its kinda tricky to use it, when you´re regular tablet user. I´ve done plenty of sketches using the M700, only to delete them right after. I know exactly what I want to do, but it somehow just don´t happen.
Anyway, after I´ll get confortable using it, I´ll be able to update much more! :teeth:

todays light studies

[Mr. Smile]

tablet pc sketchdump

[Kai_Black]

1001 posimaniacs..that would take nine hours! and a lot of paper. Good luck to you. And cool rendering style.

[Mr. Smile]

Long time no post. School just went hardcore on me, and I invest all of my free time to harness the power of tablet pc (still unsuccesfully, but It´s just a matter of time now).

I think I´ll be practicing in monochrome for a little while, cause proper colouring on tablet pc is just balls...

[xobgob]

thanks for stopping by at my SC and for the advices. Your work is great, post #31 made my day :) . Hoping to see more.

[Mr. Smile]

xobgob: No problem man, I´m glad you like it :teeth:.

Yeah, I´m lazy. Plus, Mirrors Edge is too good not to be played. Or is it.

Anyway, I kinda rolled back to the original project, this time doing a enviro concept of a morgue.
I´m not good at enviros, and this subject is harder to find than character tutorials for example. So if you have anything (suggestions, links on tutorials or something), I´ll apreciate it greatly!
(plus, everybody knows CA is full of artists creating enviros that make me jizz)

[Lotta]

hi! thanks a lot for dropping into my SB :D

you have a nice positive attitude towards drawing... the 1001 poses thingy reminds me a bit of the great Android's daily self portraits. thanks for giving me the link to posemaniacs, I didn't even know the site existed! o_o'

as for your work, I recommend you focus more on values. different shades of gray, almost black, almost white and so on. try using a bigger brush to get down big chunks of shadow and such, and try to avoid excess scribbliness. and as boring as it is, draw a lot from life, it really helps getting the shapes and volumes right. Keep it up, nice work so far :D
//Lotta

[Imaginary]

Hey, thought you had quit or something, glad you haven't. :D

About the enviros; you could always look at other peoples work and try to figure out how the hell they created the piece... or just do enviro studies, that'll probably make you improve a lot. Anyway, keep it up! :D

[sageguy]

I think it's so cool that you're drawing so much. KEEP GOING!!! My favorite that you've posted so far is the light study. It's proportionally correct and it reflects the lighting pretty darn well. I think one thing that might help you with proportions on your other characters and your gestures is to start with the core of the subject, beginning with the action line, or the swoop of the spine, and then the rib cage(circle) and the pelvis(also a circle) and fluid lines going throughout the rest of the figure for the major bones.

When you take the time to work on something, you seem to do things really well,like when you're mad at being sick and watching Christmas movies all day so you draw your friend. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

[Mr. Smile]

lAhlbeck: No problem, I love to help when I can. Thanks! I´ll try to be more aware of values. My biggest problem is the routine of painting. I should focus more on this. Create a plan or something.

Imaginary: Nope, I am creating something nearly everyday. Most of those things are horrible however. It should be better from now on, I think, as I am now capable of creating better quality works on my tablet pc (read: They´re not as lame as they were month ago). Thanks for stopping by!

sageguy: Well, not so much as I want, but that would be the problem even if I´d painted 20hrs a day. Yeah, I am right in the middle of reorganizing my drawing procedures, including simplifying the anatomy I know right now (well not much actually), to better depict movement and still poses. I hope it´ll get better with every image. Oh and thanks a bunch for your kind words man, I really apreciate it.


Well, as I said, I should post more from now on. I had a real problem adjusting to the tablet pc, but I think I am getting a hang of it (or things are slightly less crappy, if I noticed right). So now I am able to work 6+ hours in school, then come home and work for another 8+ hours on my regular graphire. Hopefully this will make me better, lol.

I have also dropped my last project if it could be called as one. It was maybe too ambicious for my actual skill or/and time. I remembered however, that when I was younger, I had a few ideas going in my head. So I began to harvest them from my memories. Note that I was kinda young then, and I was an anime fan. Its really fun to compare my concepts of the same characters having their creation interval five or more years. Both skill-wise and idea-wise.

1) a) Five or more years old concept of a main character. Heh, she comes a long way baby! :teeth: Pay special attention to the "shading" done by a photoshop light and single textured coat.
b) Finished concept art done now. Thought of a bit more matured young woman, removed all those boring and overused things like katanas, gave her that professional look, and of course added my signature converse shoes!

2) A quick photoshoppery to discover ways I could present, lets say a book cover, or somehow representative image of a main character. Just for fun.

3) An alien villaineous character. I am not so sure about the overall concept yet, hence I didn´t finish it yet. I wish I could show you his concept from way back, but I had lost it. Lets just say that he was looking really peacefully, was really thin, and had no guns. (no guns?!? lol)

4) And a quick coffee portrait of my classmate, done on tablet pc. I plan to do much, much more of those. Probably all my classmates to start with. It was so much fun picking her features, while she was covering herself behind a magazine, laughing :teeth:

[Imaginary]

Sweet stuff! Just noticed there's only digital stuff here, maybe you could practice a bit with a pencil a bit now and then too, hm? :D

[Mr. Smile]

Imaginary: I hear you. Few last months I was working hard on understanding all those expensive digital toys I got, that I nearly forgot what paper is :teeth:.
I´ll look into it as soon as possible.

This is a portraiture of me and my girlfriend, to which I thank for letting me do this.
I had really good time doing this one, even though it was rather time consuming. Strangely enough the portrait went smooth on technical aspect,
however it was a pain to get the feeling right. I might polish it some more, maybe smooth out the shadows on some places, and/or adjust contrast.

[Mr. Smile]

1) Pre-concept of another character, backlight is fun
2) Random sketchdump
3) Random sketchdump
4) Another coffee portrait of my classmate

[sageguy]

ooOOOoo. I like the very last drawing you posted. Best in your thread so far. It seems to get a little flat around the mouth area though, especially on the person's right side. Try getting the subtle shadowing in there, then it will be BEAUTIFUL! :D

[jatherip]

Wow, great improvement since the beginning! amazing!

[grenappels]

im liking http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=626517&stc=1&d=1237767556 this face a lot. i love the hazy feel you get. lots of brushstrokes in there i guess :)

[Mr. Smile]

sageguy & grenappels: Man, thats suprising for sure, as I said its just a quick portrait I´ve done while drinking coffee on a school brake. But I´m glad of course, thanks for letting me know! As for the brushstrokes, I tend to do things really messy especially when I´m under pressure of time and distracted by other people. But I´m still learning my process so I hope this problem passes by time and I won´t go psycho with small brushes (read: not big enough). Actually it bothers me quite alot.
jatherip: Thanks man! I can never hear enough of this. I must work more however, I´m such a lazy bastard.

Yesterdays Woody. Been a big fan of his movies for some time now. I tried more stylised aproach with desaturated colors.

[Philipp Scherer]

great progress.really!keep it up :)

[Mr. Smile]

HerrleerzeichenS: Hey thanks man, I´ll never get tired of this sentence! :teeth:

Been listening to Bobby Chiu alot lately. Actually I don´t listen to music while I´m drawing anymore, just hearing it from the man! Anyone who didn´t happen to bump into this guy, you can check him out on youtube. Motivating stuff!

[Imaginary]

Female hips, what's not to like? lol Love the lines, they seem confident.

And ye Bobby is pretty much awesomness defined... i should really listen to his advice, damn net trying to distract me from drawing!

Anyway, keep drawing dude!

[Mr. Smile]

Imaginary: Thanks man! Thanks for checking me out regulary.
Yup, Bobby should start a new religion. Order of Drawing Your Ass Up, or something like that. I know I´d join.

[maeshanne]

nice sketchbook, I see a lot of improvement
and impressive body count :D

[Keeviin]

I wish I could paint like this! Oh well.
Your paintings seem sort of blurry though... safe them differently or maybe use sharper brushes?

[Mr. Smile]

maeshanne: thx man! Well, the bodycount could be higher... I must get back to it.

Keeviin: Thats really flattering, but you should aim higher. I saw your sketchbook and you have the power to be 10 times better than me. Just work.
I´m aware of the blurryness in my paintings, but I´m also pretty sure its not a brush problem. My working process incorporates a few things that could be behind this. Luckily enough, I´m just rethinking my approach so it won´t be a problem much longer (or I hope so anyway).

I found these few older works on my disk. They were critiqued already, but feel free to comment anyway.

Oh god, now I remember how much fun was doing the still life. I will do some more. And (hopefully) better.

[Mr. Smile]

Back to non-refs...

[Mr. Smile]

and more

[Mr. Smile]

another portrait of a friend

[Mr. Smile]

I just started teaching one of my friends few absolute basics. Perfect chillout with coffee, jazz and drawing once a week, you know.

And I used the time she was practicing to getting back to some traditional pencil sketches as I forgot to doing them at all. Which was the worst thing I could do.
There goes big thanks to Imaginary who pointed that out.

So for today its a short timed study of my talented listener while she was drawing and a portrait. Sorry for the crappy quality, I´ll try to find someone with a scanner right away!

[Imaginary]

Weeeeelll the already cced digital studies look solid, you should, as u said, do more of em! :D And hey, pencil stuff! The one on the right is super, feels like i've seen him before somewhere.... hmm.

[Mr. Smile]

Been busy with school lately...

Anyway, here is the sketch dump mix of observational and imaginative, something failed, something unfinished, some studies.

Also 3 pre-concepts of my long time characters... which I hope to draw much more in the upcoming days, and some day maybe try to do a few comic pages as I promised myself like a seven years ago when I first started to dream up the idea for these characters.

And to the top of that, I started working on a web-based strategy game (more specifically I´m working on graphics and illustrations for its troops, heck even webdesigning the whole thing), which looks like a real fun to do, and I think it will (finally) lead to my improvement. I´ll be sure to post some of the illustrations here as the project continues.

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[NicG]

Good stuff here! Thanks for checking out my sketchbook. Advice is always appreciated!

[towy]

nice sketchbook, with the last update it begin really interesting with some situation
continue, take care about anatomy too can be little strange sometime (in the last update the first draw the heads look little smal for me)
keep up, thanks for drop on my sketchbook too : >

[Darkside]

hey, you are doing the right stuff to bring you forward :) it takes time...
do some longer and more detailed studies too, they help you to actually see more of what you need to bring a convincing touch of reality to your drawings.

[W1r3d]

Hi, you have some real progress going on here. I took the time to look through the thread from start to finish. and you can really tell the difference. I'd like to point something out though. A lot of your poses looks really stiff. As if the they are trying to strech their legs out to the max.

The last update i find very dynamic. However i'm kinda puzzled about the foot. I get the feeling it's her right leg(i might be wrong) and it looks like she has a left foot instead of a right foot.

Keep up the nice work. :D

[hedwordup]

I would really suggest a life drawing class do one for a year and you will notice the improvement is massive. Its easier said than done but at the moment it looks like your observation could be better, look at the subject more than your sheet of paper ( abit of a cliche I know). good luck getting to 1001

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159181

[DStraX]

thanks for commenting:) your paitings look great! but some of your caracthers looks abit unbalanced. do some figure studies and try to look at the way there weight is balanced ;)

Tim

[Mr. Smile]

NicG: No problem
towy: Thanks man! I´m trying a few new aproaches to my paintings, and finally I feel like I´m going forward again. With the anatomy, its a long and hard way for me, but I´m trying to get there.
Darkside: Thanks, just the thing I wanted to hear! I´m gonna do more detailed studies from now on then.
W1r3d: Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate that! Yeah, I also noticed the foot is weird somehow, but since it was really quick painting aimed at the movement (or as you say, I´m trying really hard to show some action, loose the stiffness), I didn´t really feel like correcting it. But thats just my lazyness, I´m the worst :teeth:.
hedwordup: Yeah I know, the most comes from real life experience with the subject. Sadly I´m just not in the situation to make it to the life drawing class on the regular basis, but I´m trying to compensate that by scribbling in the buses, and on the street. Yeah and I should definitely get back on the PM´s 1001 poses! :teeth:
DStraX: I´ll watch for it! Thanks for commenting.

Oh my god, the Attachement editor is pain in the ass.

Here we go:
1) Some unfinished caricatures of few of my friends. Trying diffirent style, diffirent aproach. Its also somewhat longer project, because I want to do roughly 60 of these (read, all my closer friends and including myself), and then making it into the poster, which I´ll offer them.
2) Sargent study, hour and half.
3) Another concept for my comic, this time in color, yay!
4) A painting of one of my friends.
5) Lets say I have a soft spot for her... so, I did one more.

[Mr. Smile]

Chow.

[Mr. Smile]

Fixed the last one a little.

[Philipp Scherer]

hey man, where are your updates? keep them comin´!
you really improved!the Chow looks awesome, nice idea, too!
i´ll add more after you next update :)

[miycko]

cool stuff in here, a BIG improvement from page 1, i love post #49 and that car looks really good, i just can't draw cars :P your chow entry REALLY IS SUPERCUTE :D

[007-r0b3r7]

awesome work! post 69 looks great, keep the updates coming!
try to refine some of your speedpaints and make them a little more finished.
love it, awesome job!

[Mr. Smile]

HerrleerzeichenS: Thanks man! I almost forgot what is my biggest love in the world, but now I´m back! I´ll find all the scribbles I did in the past two months and I´ll update them here as quickly as possible. God, I am such a douche. Lets work.

miycko: Thanks alot! Yeah, the Supercute CHOW was really fun. Oh, the cars are... really complicated. I always liked the idea of doing something close to a Mad Max, post nuclear / fuel injected comic, bud damn, cars are pain in the ass. I should do more studies of ´em.

007-r0b3r7: Thanks mate! I´ll see what I can do with the speedpaints. I have really big holes in the knowledge of practically everything in the process and I try as hard as I can to fill them out and eventually to keep up with all those beautifull characters and landscapes I see all around me on CA.

Thank you all for support you´re giving me, I´ll try to use all that positive energy to learn more and more.
This is a painting I´m doing for Starving Moth´s Fight for Eternity, a web based strategy game. There will be plenty of your classic fantasy guys and gals with swords and other hacking and slashing instruments. Right now I´m trying to establish a design style, so this is something more of a teaser than anything else. I´ll be back soon with more updates.

[Mr. Smile]

A few doodles I did during boring classes in school. I was doodling directly into school workbooks, so there are letters popping from the other side here and there, sorry for that.
More on the way.

[Mr. Smile]

quick limited palette study

[Mr. Smile]

Failed. Out of proportion, so it doesn´t resemble the person.
I´ve done worse, but still, I need to focus on this in my learning process.

Weird thing is that sometimes I draw all day and I have no problems with proportions and other day I fuck up portraits of people I know for years.
Does this happen to professionals, or am I just so lame I can´t trust my (already lame enough) skill?

[Undeadartist]

great stuff hey and thanks for that link will help alot! :D

[Mr. Smile]

More on the project.

[jatherip]

i just went through my sketchbook and on page 1 i found a really long critique by you...i read through it and got that youre totally right! and my ego was soooooo fuckiiiiinnggg biiiiigg back then....if i had listened to your words, i might have been waaay better by now :(
well, im just wanted to thank you for that....youre awesome :)
concerning your work....well! studies on skin tones and loomis for facial structure ;)
keep goin!

[Mr. Smile]

Boo !

[Mr. Smile]

Oh yeah, this is my... speaker I guess. Also trying out the three-point perspective. Any tips, and crits on enviros are greatly appreciated!

[Mr. Smile]

Another autoportrait. Usually I´m not so serious :teeth:

[miycko]

great updates dude :D cool speaker but it would have to be right at eye level for you to be able to see it from that perspective, which i find kind of odd. the environment's cool, sky needs a bit more saturation though & maybe try out a harder brush, your edges are kinda mushy - just like mine :P the SP looks really good, your eye's are a little small but that might just be me. how long did it take?

[Janos]

Hi there!
I see you really enjoy your digitals, how about doing some more traditional studies to enhance your skills with proportions, values etc. I would also say, that most of your digitals are in need of stronger values, more contrast and the colours look a little washed out. I know that using the super bright ones makes the image look stupid, and the washed out palette is a lot easier on the eyes, but to add depth and so forth to an image you need the bright shades. Try experimating with them, it'll take a while but I'm confident that it'll work.

Cheers

[Mr. Smile]

miycko: now when time has passed I find the perspective kinda odd too. Seems like I was eyeing it from a real uncomfortable position (which I didn´t). I suck with enviros really, but I´ll try to improve. And about that SP... I sadly don´t really remember now. Anywhere between 6 - 10 hours I guess. I remember it took longer, because I had a hard time creating convincing shadow on the left side of the face. Thanks for comment!

Janos: Thanks man! I´m trying to improve my values and colors for some time now. It kinda comes hard to me, but hopefully I´ll make it.

[Mr. Smile]

Whoa, I kinda stopped updating huh? Lets correct that.

So here is a few funny little concepts for my comic which will probably never exist. Still I´m having fun doing them, anyway.
Also corrected one of the earlier concepts and tried to make it little bit more Payne-like. Yup, just for fun.

[Mr. Smile]

...some gestures and a random scan I found laying around .

[Mr. Smile]

Now, I´m going in circles and I need some advice.

There seems to be common mistake I´m doing when I dare to touch colors. Here is the latest example on a WIP. Something is wrong with my coloring. But I can´t put my finger on it.

Could somebody point me in the right direction? Pretty please?

[jefflarose]

Awesome sketchbook man You have improved a lot since the first page keep up the good work. I would critique your work but I consider myself a noobie. But I can say post 47, 75 and 84. Keep up the great work!

[Mr. Smile]

jefflarose: Thanks man, I appreciate the comment anyway.

[Mr. Smile]

Yipee-ka-yay! I should really do more of these.

[Mr. Smile]

Another WIP for the project.

[Mr. Smile]

The life is full of unexpected things. To name one, my friend installed one of those wi-fi things in her cottage in the woods, where I just happen to chill out for this whole week. So here is a little study from imagination, done on my tiny toshiba Portege.

[zhonked]

Nice paintings man! That warrior one is great, the use of a hard edge brush looks really good. Hopefully you'll post the finished version soon?

[Mr. Smile]

zhonked: Hey man! Glad you dropped by. Well, it looks like the real plan is more close to: make so much wip´s till my head spins and then I´ll maybe have the time to clean them up. Maybe.

So I´m posting the brand new WIP. This time its your classic female mage character. I played with some new brushes on the tip of the staff. The hand will be glowing with some type of magical effect, once I´ll figure out how the magic even looks like.
I´m painting for a few years now and I never painted magic. Weird. I guess I was always more of a gun nut.

So. The colors are off again. But I think its something about light/color + skintones right? Any suggestions?

[ancientdrake]

Yo, just read your post on my sketchbook. Thanks for the comment. Yeah for some reason I really like desaturated images so it was kind of done on purpose, but I'm still experimenting and such and yeah, skintones are a pain. I don't know exactly if it's leather but it could be, maybe one of those elastic kind of suits, don't know what you call the material.

I really dig your sketchbook too. Really like the police woman and the studies are really good. Makes me want to improve again more. Right, see ya around.

[Mr. Smile]

ancientdrake: Thanks man, I apreaciate it. (even though I don´t really know about what police woman you´re talking about =).

Lighting study (also autoportrait). Multitasking! :teeth:

[ancientdrake]

Your concept art of the short haired woman :)

[Mr. Smile]

ancientdrake: Well she´s supposed to be more of a professional hitman, but thats all the same anyways. Character can be a cop, or a killer, but the main thing is that they kick ass :teeth:

Thanks for your comments man.

[Revelationship]

Your painting and posing are getting so much better! I want to congratulate you on your perseverance! Try to keep away from drawing your people straight up and down, your poses on a few of the gestures and drawings look uncomfortably vertical. Keep up the good work though!

[Mr. Smile]

Revelationship: Thanks for kind words man! I´ll try to loosen up my figures, I know they´re still pretty stiff.

Okay, quick study of the last piece with a different lighting.

[JakehC]

great studies! beautiful work!

[Mr. Smile]

lolbbq: Thanks man, it means alot from a hard-worker like you!

Some quicker skull studies of clasical still-life paintings.

[Mr. Smile]

Another WIP for the game.

[Mr. Smile]

And another one. The idea was he should be somehow older spy / thief character, and of course he ended up looking kinda connery-ish. I should really avoid any more stereotypes.

[Mr. Smile]

Another one for the game.
Supposed to be some kind of a highlander berserker. Maybe a little mad and probably a bit drunk.

[torstan]

Looking good. On your two hooded characters (mage and older Connery-thief) the faces are very bright compared to the rest of the piece - which is counter intuitive as they are inside the hood. You need at least a strong cast shadow on the face (from your top left lighting) and the non-face areas need to have brighter values. On the highlander character the left arm looks off (his left, not ours). The upper arm is shorter than the lower arm in your piece, but it looks like the lower arm should be the one to be foreshortened. If the elbow is behind him (which would explain the foreshortening of the upper arm) then you need to push it back into the shadows.

I like the expressions - your faces are great! The berserker has got exactly the right kind of crazy twinkle. Good stuff!

[Mr. Smile]

torstan: Thats precisely the type of things I tend to overlook! Thanks man, I´ll try to fix em´ when I´ll find the time.

[Mr. Smile]

1. Added some details to the Willis painting
2. Pencil portrait of one of my friends. Had to work really small to fit the birthday card, so no details there.
3. Me trying to learn the perspective. *WIP*

[Mr. Smile]

Another update. This is a study of a painting by Jama.
I love everything he does, but this one just made me go nuts.

To see the real deal, check out his SB: (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=158524&page=14).

[chora]

Zdravim :)

I miss more brighter colours
I really like the picture where is man with cane and thief character ;)

btw: thx for Your comment in my SB.

[Mr. Smile]

chora: I´ll study colors more then =)

This update is a master study of Manets "Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets" painting.
The hardest thing for me to do are the subtle color variations. I wasn´t using the eyedropper tool (with the exeption of mixing my own colors) and man, its hard.

[Mr. Smile]

So, while I´ve been piling up pencil sketches and doodles, more than a year has passed since I´ve updated some. One of my friends is kind enough to scan them one by one for me, so here is the first (meaning the oldest) bunch. Hopefully the next updates will look better, I got quite scared seeing these again. :teeth:

Sketchdump 1:

[iven]

WOW serious concept art here, I find the colors a bit to dark in
# 106- 108 where are the Highlights ?!
But I love the first shot with the guy and the lighter and
# 103 is awesome.

Good stuff here, would like to have your PS skills in painting.

[Mr. Smile]

iven: Thanks for the comment man!
# 106 - 108 are WIPs. I´m still not entirely sure in what style its going to be done and if the color palette will have some significance for the game itself. So I kept them unfinished for the time being. The project has been put on hold, but I hope I´ll be able to present some finished pieces from the project soon.

And now, more crap thats been laying in my desk for too long!
Sketchdump 2:

[Mr. Smile]

Sketchdump 3:

[Mr. Smile]

Sketchdump 4:

[Mr. Smile]

Sketchdump 5: And even more old crap....

[Mr. Smile]

One hour quickie.

[Jamie Romoser]

nice studies man! :D
keep it up and looking forward to seeing more
till next time
-Jamie

[Mr. Smile]

OmertA: Thanks! Means alot for me, coming from such a hard worker like you!

Sketchdump 6: More dump.

[ThomasM]

keep up the good work, there is a lot of improvement to be seen in this sketchbook. I particularly like the lighting studies done of the skulls and your self portrait of course. Keep working away and dishing out these pencils too.

[Mr. Smile]

ThomasM: Thank you man, glad you like the studies!

:wip: Sketchdump 7 :wip: :

[Bl1zZ]

love that one hour quickie, man ;D
Keep posting, luv your works ;)

[Mr. Smile]

Bl1zZ: Thank you mate! I want to do at least three speedies a week, really, really great relaxation and hopefully enlightening as well!

Speaking of the devil, todays one hour speedie.

[Mr. Smile]

Sketchdump 8: More stuff

[Mr. Smile]

Another one-hour speedie.
These really help me to unatach myself from the paintings, just taking them as the process, not focusing on textures, or tiny details, and it is a wonderfull exercise!

[Mr. Smile]

Bethany K.: Glad you like those! More coming.

Todays quickie. Had to work smaller to hit the one-hour limit, as it is a bit more complex scene. Messed up perspective, hopefully the next one will be better.

[tomskie]

hey man like your studies and coloring

lol i need to study alot more in coloring i suck XD

Well good luck and keep going man

Cheers Tom

[Mr.Pryminista]

Loads of improvement. Congratulations! Watch your line work though; you still have a lot of wobbly/scratchy lines. Exercise patience and focus on what the next line is going to be.

Good luck!

[Mr. Smile]

tomskie: Thanks man!

Mr.Pryminista: Thanks for pointing this out, I´ll try my best!


Another speedie.

[Mr. Smile]

Trying to push more colors and more interesting lighting into my imaginative stuff.

Bottom right is my normal way (I guess) to color something. Naturally, I´m not satisfied with that, so I´m trying to push more colors and lighting into it (the biggest one on the left).

Could somebody crit this and give some pointers maybe? Pretty please.

[Mr. Smile]

Another one from imagination, tried more painterly approach and also using RGB sliders for picking colors, instead of HSV.
I am kinda pleased with this one, can´t wait to try it out on some reffed stuff.

[hücumkedi]

love them...i think you need some bold, colorful digis...keep practicing and learning

[poetry man]

good progress!

[Istmin52]

I really love post #127. The colors you captured in her face look great. I also think you are getting a better handle on proportion in your figures. I'm curious to see some more finished work from you.

[Mr. Smile]

hücumkedi: Yeah, trying to aim in that direction, but still my paintings lack something. I´ll study, study, study!
poetry man: Thanks mate!
Istmin52: Yeah, thats probably hottest one of the quickies. I´ll refine it sometime. Thanks for visiting, I´ll try to actually finish a painting =).

I love the smell of study in the morning.

[Mr. Smile]

Some MMA Kimbo action.

[Mr. Smile]

Finished study/portrait.

[Mr. Smile]

Another study, this time about warmth.

[Mr. Smile]

Been playing with basic shapes, wanted to construct something, then... this happened. I don´t even know what it is. Cartoonish ice-cream van / dragster?

[Naidy]

Hello there! Looking through your sketchpad's given me the urge to do some figure studies. :P

Anyways, really love the characters you've been coming up with and there's an notable improvement in your digital works, so keep up the good work!

[Mr. Smile]

Naidy: You´re really kind. There is never enough figure studies right? :teeth:

Just some doodles before sleep.

[chora]

I like girls number 143 and 144.
I think there is bad perspective at rear left wheel (number 145)
Keep working man

[Mr. Smile]

chora: Yeah, I know, still having problems with perspective sometimes. Glad you like the girls though :teeth:.

Dunno if this one works. Had fun though.

[chora]

When I saw it for the first time I thought it is really coool, but there is something what I miss there meybe it is contrast (but Grey is better then getting kicked in the head)
And second problem I saw here is that she looks to the right and her target is little bit on the left

sry for my english

[Mr. Smile]

chora: Yeah, I agree. Contrast is a real pain for me, and I´ll try to think about it more in the future.

Been out for months and I´m terribly sorry about it. Life got a bit tougher and made my pasttime a bit lazier. Still, thats no real excuse, so I´ll try to update regularly from now on.

So here is a... huh. Some kind of weird superhero I guess.

[Mr. Smile]

Okay, so I´ve been looking up all of my drawings. It seems I´ve indeed moved somewhat forward (thank god), but three main issues seem to repeat itself.

My paintings get really hazy sometimes, and most of the time they lack contrast. Third one is that i don´t really have so big "library" in my head, expecially concerning poses and clothing (these are minor issues, I´m not going to comment on colors, anatomy and perspective which I´ll continue to study, but you´ll probably agree that these need few years, or maybe decades to be learned properly)

First issue seems to somewhat correct itself. You see, I´ve been painting on my samsung HDTV lately. Everything seemed allright, but I´ve discovered it has some kind of sharpening going on, which messed up my judgement. So the solution is kinda simple and it involves me sitting painfully in my chair instead of a comfortable couch.

Second issue is caused probably by not investing enough time to finish paintings to satisfactory level or my poor judgement of where this level of completion is. Solution being that I´ll post less and I´ll try to correct my approach.

Third issue should be hopefully corrected by my new project I´ve been thinking about for some time.

You see, every day I see a at least one person which I would love to paint. But its often on a bus or somewhere where I can´t really do anything about it.
So I´ll try to remember everything I can about his person, be it its face, clothing, expression, or just plain mood that made me notice.
Then when I come home, I´ll doodle whatever I remember in black&white. And because art is about imagination, I´ll then sketch / paint this person again in different style including fun things like guns and skeletons and maybe, just maybe, pink elephants. This time in color.
I´d of course be glad if it was a daily thing for me, but I just don´t really believe it. At least I´ll try.

Here is a first, somewhat boring reimagination. I´ll try to improve.

[Nemome]

Hey! :)

Nice work in here.
Watch out for your blending.
Sometimes not as smooth as it could be ;D
Care.

Beside of that i would like to see some finished piece.

Greetings, Sil

[adamsimons]

good work! self analysis is key to self teaching.

[Mr. Smile]

adamsimons: Thats what I figured, lets hope it helps :teeth:

Silwynar: Yeah, well, I´ll try to watch my blending.
Also, I made something more finished, or as much as I can anyway. Hope you guys like it. Cheers!

[Bishop.]

Excellent work, I like your latest study. Keep up the great art. :)

[Velocity Kendall]

yeah impressive work, great sunlight !

[Mr. Smile]

Bishop.: I´ll try mate, thanks!
Velocity Kendall: Glad you like it!

Just some quick values, I´ll try to finish it tomorrow.

[Mr. Smile]

Okay, here it is.

[Mr. Smile]

WIP again, for the game this time.

[Mr. Smile]

Here´s the finished piece.

[Mr. Smile]

Snake's comin' for yo ass.

[LtPlissken]

Snake's comin' for yo ass.

You said that right.
So, here I am.

[Mr. Smile]

LtPlissken: Certainly appreciated Snake! :teeth:

Some quickie portraits.

[Mr. Smile]

Some landscapes for today. Keeping it quick, need to learn alot about enviroments because I don´t know anything!
Okay, moving on.

[raminafshari]

post #161 is really good .

[Mr. Smile]

raminafshari: Thanks mate, glad you like it. Always could be better though!

More quick thumbnails (well in this case thumbnail), really trying to scavenge more time for painting. With not much success unfortunately.

[Mr. Smile]

:er: Back to the pencil land....

[Mr. Smile]

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[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[julianR]

nice cb keep up those studies and you will be awesome :D

[Mr. Smile]

julianR: Thanks for believing in me mate! :teeth:

[shambok]

I really like how you use texture in your work. Nice mix of smoothness for finish and roughness for an awesome fresh look! Nice nice nice!

[Mr. Smile]

shambok: Thank you, you're really kind. I started working in closer detail only recently, so we'll see where it takes me!

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

Some WIP stuff for the game.

[Mr. Smile]

Study of the Blue Man Reject painting by Twitchfinger.
Check out his more than awesome sketchbook here (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=138038).

Pretty amazing stuff!

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

A quick study of a jerboa (if I translate it correctly). Funny little thing :teeth:

[Mr. Smile]

.....

[Mr. Smile]

Todays study

[A-May]

Oh. Wow. This is fantastic :) You've improved so much! It's really inspiring! Your digital painting is getting better every time! I particularly loved post 154! I aspire to be as good as you :D keep up the fantastic work!

[Chris Sanders]

got some nice values and skin tones pal. keep it up. oh and your structure is getting really good!

[Mr. Smile]

Structure study. Its kinda off. Now I'm sad.

dog-faced: Thanks mate, I appreciate it!

A-May: Thanks, you really flatter me with your kind words. I think you should aim higher though. :teeth:

[Mr. Smile]

Some gestures

[Mr. Smile]

winter study to cool me off a little, heh

[Mr. Smile]

Hello again CA, been working too much lately, and had virtually no time to draw. What a shame.
I aim to correct that correct that of course.

A new hero painting for the game and caricatures of me and my co-workers from the webdesign company I work in.

16245921624593

[iven]

I really like your thumbnails, specially the one with the winter
szene. Your work kinda reminds me on street art, with the stylized
slim legs. Good stuff in here, nice prof. picture by the way :) !

[V3T]

I really like that life study in post #185, keep it up =]