NB's SB (update: sketches and CHOW entries)

hp · September 3rd, 2008, 09:33 AM

awesome portrait and creature! the texture is really nice. do you have a step by step of it?

**Mat Kaminski** · September 3rd, 2008, 11:57 AM

OH WOWZA! Your skill is immensely improving! Wanna tutor me in digital coloring when your time isn't so stressed?

**Maestro Andres** · September 3rd, 2008, 08:44 PM

Hey Nightblue, those self portraits are getting better. The last shows a lot of progress from the earlier ones. Seems you are time limiting yourself with them but if you want to take them further, you can push the values further, more edge variation, and give the same treatment of the face to other unfinished areas such as the hair. Still, lovely colors in the last one, especially those cold ones in the shadow areas.

Nice job with the beast as well and progress with the Chow. Look forward to that. Keep up the hard work!

**Maestro Andres** · September 3rd, 2008, 08:45 PM

Oops, double post... Nevermind this one

**Nightblue** · September 4th, 2008, 01:54 AM

hp: Thanks! Well, I made a quick step-by-step... it's really not all that great, mostly me trying things out. I adjusted opacity of the layers too.

Malakai: you are too kind

I'll be glad to help you if you ever need it.

Maestro Andres: thanks! I'd love to do some longer studies, but my schedule is strained as is. Once I graduate I'll hopefully be able to actually properly do studies and cast drawings. Appreciate your encouragement

===========

Today's stuff:

Team game unit concepts, rushed out as usual. These are 2 of the units from the Techno fashion for our music RTS.

Fort concept for my master's project. Need 2 more buildings to meet tomorrow's deadline :|

One-hour portrait study of a classmate.

lastly, the step-by-step for the texture of my monster. There's gotta be a better way... I was really just messing around till I was happy with it.

**Nightblue** · September 5th, 2008, 01:30 AM

quick stage concepts for the team music RTS game, buildings for my master's project, struggled with posing my characters for the next bit of my master's project, and a daily study.

Finally moving on to the actual part of my master's project

I learned a lot from the prep work though!

**cout<mecha** · September 5th, 2008, 08:47 PM

Looking good NB, hope you will drop by sometime!

**Nightblue** · September 7th, 2008, 01:44 AM

cout: thanks! I'll be sure to drop by your SB once I have enough time to leave some decent comments.

====

Had to crunch out more team game concept today, didn't have anything I'd be proud to show

2 daily exercises from yesterday and today.

**Nightblue** · September 10th, 2008, 01:14 AM

Several daily sketches - found out it is very weird trying to paint with one hand when i did the self-portrait.

Master's project thumbnails, trying to create different moods using just one variable. The two groups here are color and lighting.

**My57** · September 10th, 2008, 08:18 PM

im enjoying your latest pics, keep it up.

**Nightblue** · September 11th, 2008, 01:48 AM

My57: thanks for the encouragement

====

Today's stuff:

Model for team game, only got to diffuse map so far, no other maps yet.

One-hour study of outside of my school. It was raining lightly, so I had to stay close to the gate.

2 more groups of thumbnails for my master's project, trying to create different moods by means of composition and mark-making, respectively.

**Nightblue** · September 13th, 2008, 11:45 PM

Started working on the first final illustration of my master's project. I had to scramble my timeline a bit because I needed to have something to show very, very soon for Austin Game Design Conference coming Monday through Wednesday.

Also, 3 daily one-hour studies.

**Mat Kaminski** · September 14th, 2008, 04:30 AM

I'm going to take a cue from your book and start working alot harder on my painting

I really like your lighting in alot of your shots. You're getting that down for sure. As time goes on, you'll be a master

Anyway, good luck and keep going!

**Keenir** · September 15th, 2008, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by Nightblue

Had to crunch out more team game concept today, didn't have anything I'd be proud to show

2 daily exercises from yesterday and today.

fascinating - I saw something very like this (the first image in post #338) at I think it was the Medici residence in Italy - only it was made of stone.
(which proves that your genius is immortal)

seriously, I like your art.

**kidult** · September 15th, 2008, 02:53 AM

Wow great amount of work and study! Super!! Do you use photoshop, cos my only crit would be that you seem to be getting that chalky photoshop look when you paint.Do you work up in opacity the whole time (or have it set to pressure)?
Maybe try less opacity settings. Bumskee has a cool thread going 'bout how to work in photoshop. Try search for it.....

**cout<mecha** · September 16th, 2008, 12:30 PM

Nice going on those panels. There's real emotion there.

Did you use radiosity on that last render? Woo woo!

**Nightblue** · September 19th, 2008, 10:07 AM

Matte_Art: Thank you! The daily exercises seem to be helping me in many ways, and I have a lot of fun doing them

Keenir: Thanks! Finding that cast made my day better. I have it handy in case I get confused with faces, which happens all the time still.

kidult: Thanks! I'm still swinging between different brushes and opacities, especially trying to learn digital air brushes and struggling with edges.

cout<mecha: Thanks! If you meant the stage render, it was just a sky light. I need to make more 3d assets and brush up on lighitng/rendering tricks before graduation.

====

Came back from Austin Game Developers' Conference, and finished rushing to meet my weekly deadline for this week. Time to dump more art into this SB.

A quick DSG doodle, a bunch of daily exercises, a master study I've so far spent 2 hours on, and... first-pass of my master's project illustrations. More, Moaarrrr...

I also shifted the schedule of my master's project, so I will be able to redesign the characters just a bit more with all the feedback I got from AGC.

**NFECT** · September 19th, 2008, 10:16 AM

Ugh, I'm extremely jealous. No critique here.
Just keep it up!

**DefiledVisions** · September 19th, 2008, 07:39 PM

Hey Nightblue! nice to see you again - and nice to see that you've filled up with all these goodies! damn.
I see a lot of great experimentation, which is great! the different lights really shows how light sets the mood.
Like these latest pieces - especially the study of the lady.

Cheers
-DV

**thespianmonsalvo** · September 19th, 2008, 08:29 PM

Wow, Grace, simply beautiful work here. The self portraits are amazing and I really love the warmth of the classroom painting. Always a pleasure looking browsing through your SB.

**Mat Kaminski** · September 20th, 2008, 02:44 AM

Ugh, I'll be scared of people with talent like you have when I come down to that school (if I make it in later on) :0

The classroom painting I thought was almost a photo when I first saw it, I was like :-0
Your MIT paintings are almost reaching perfection. You'll have them so well done in no time! I think by the end of it, your portfolio will swell so greatly that the recruiters will just give you the job out of sheer volume

I can't wait to see the final result! You are growing way beyond what you were when I first started looking...

**cout<mecha** · September 20th, 2008, 02:52 PM

About the lighting, now that I look at it I guess it you just did a really good job texturing.

These last paintings seem a bit heavy in the ambient lighting. You also dropped all your shadows.

I'm enjoying the narrative between the two figures. Perhaps you can turn it into a sequence and repost it in its entirety.

**Keenir** · September 21st, 2008, 02:21 AM

Originally Posted by Nightblue

Keenir: Thanks!

welcome.

Finding that cast made my day better. I have it handy in case I get confused with faces, which happens all the time still.

sorry about that.

my favorites in this post are the Edwardian woman (Victorian? regency?) for sheer realism while not hiding - and being proud of - it being a painting....and the one to the right of it {illu pv3 I think - the "medieval" librarian looking behind her and her warrior companion} for could-easily-be-a-photograph.

**Vimerge** · September 21st, 2008, 02:32 AM

I really like your work

, keep it up!

**Nightblue** · September 24th, 2008, 03:56 AM

NFECT: Thanks! Don't be jealous, lol... I'm jealous of a lot of other people who are much, much, much better.

DefiledVisions: Thanks for the encouragement! Hopefully the exercises I've been doing will breath life into my illustrations at some point.

thespianmonsalvo: Thanks! It was pretty weird trying to get the classroom's colors right. I'm happy it's recognizable

Matte_Art: Thanks for the continuous support! When I feel doubts in myself you are always picking me up.

cout<mecha: Thanks for the crits on shadows! The drop shadow in the darker painting gets cropped out, and the purple one is missing definitive shadows on purpose, although I should maybe add some soft shadows anyways. I'm very unhappy with the "happy" blue one (ironically), so I'll probably scrap it and restart in the final tweaking weeks and be sure to get shadows right. I've been doing studies from a figurine, and that may help me understand how light works on a human body.

Keenir: Thanks! well, the lady is a study from Sargent. What I wouldn't give to have his level of skills

Vimerge: Thanks!

====

Update: A bunch of studies. Called the master study done after spending about 6 hours on it - it still doesn't look like the original (left), but my purpose for doing the study is mostly trying to learn brush strokes, and I want to move to a new piece trying to understand how the initial strokes are laid down before obsessing over details. Lastly, a modeling/texturing exercise a kindly industry professional gave me. I spent a lot of time on the texture, possibly did a lot of things that were not necessary, but hopefully I can get faster as I do more. The texture is 100% hand-painted with no photo overlay.

**cout<mecha** · September 25th, 2008, 04:57 PM

Nice going on those NB. I especially like the new warrior character. You have a knack for conventional painting methods. Speaking of conventions, did you ever get over to the Austin GDC?

**humanNature6115** · September 25th, 2008, 05:04 PM

Nice progression.

=================================

Sketchbook

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761

**oalexis** · September 25th, 2008, 06:16 PM

that texture is awesome! the colours on your master study are well done even if every detail doesn't match exactly

hp · September 26th, 2008, 05:50 PM

the last texture is super cool!!!!

and great poses for your chars.

**Nightblue** · September 27th, 2008, 08:15 PM

cout<mecha: yup yup, I made it to Austin GDC all right. Got to talk to many people and learn some new stuff, attended a couple of parties afterwards. Sadly I couldn't make use of the free drink cupons I got because I somehow got the buzz after just 1 beer

humanNature6115: Thanks!

oalexis: Thanks! I'm still messing around with the design, so they may continue to change.

hp: Thanks! Those are actually studies from an action figure

One of these days I'll be able to freehand good poses... one of these days...

======

Starting another master's study, also a Sargent, 3 hours so far. A quick warpig concept for school team game. Redesigning Marcus and Jenna again per comments from AGC.