My Mind's Depth To Beyond [Updated 16th may]

[Dm7]

Hello people,

I finally worked up my courage to finally become more active in this forum rather than being an usual mysterious lurker hanging around. This forum holds so much high quality standard that I don't want to plague it with my ... so-called artworks, but after I started mentoring on color theory, I got to know the forum some more. It has a great atomsphere feeling, so many people want to help each other, celebrate with each other or whatever that is with the artwork. Now that IS great!

My mission: To do sketches, both in drawing and coloring, to study anatomy (Loomis) and to work on all weaknesses that I have in drawing form. Improve my ability to do details and textures... both manually and by custom brushes (I want to learn how to do it manually first though so I can export that knowledge to oil painting someday).

My future: I want to become a flexible artist who can switch between production/concept artist to illustration and fine artist (flexible freelancer? lol). I absolutely enjoy the speed and final finished stage equally and I'm confident that with my color skill I'd be able to make it there.

Weaknesses: Anatomy, 3D spacing and perspective (I know the basic, but I get confused especially when anatomy comes in the place), and especially complicated shapes in extreme perspective. Composition (perspective and tile for dramatic feeling). Daytime or normal rendering of colors (I can do crazy colors and mystic colors to it, but I don't think I have quite touched the realism range yet... I'm getting closer though).

Strengths: Lighting, shadows (I still can get confused on that one though), reflected light, color theory, expression of feeling by color, and maybe dream-like, surreal-like quality (I like that).

Goal: Be able to draw detailed characters, creatures, or technological/natural objects with extreme or normal perspective easily because of the strong sense/experience of 3D spiral space on 2D paper. I know I had this with few artworks... it was one of those super-high I had on artwork, I can't seem to get that back though. At least I know it IS possible.

And finally, you: Feel free to crit me to death if needed. I want to learn! I want to be your student! Give me some assignments if you want if you think that would help me improve my ability. Basically, this space is for anybody to jump in and be my mentor... maybe just for one post, that's ok with me! No contract or whatever required. Well, you get the idea.

Ok... now for the real show, I'll include four sketches I did. I only really like two though (the ship and creature with some blood). I really, absolutely hate my green grinning pilot sketches though. I did them twice because I was so frustrated with first try that I gave it 2nd try which also failed too. How embarrassing, but ok, I post them so people can see my weakness too not just my strength. Enjoy!

[daestwen]

I would agree with you, I think the bottom two are definitely the stronger pieces, especially the last one.

As for the upper two, I think the main problem is giving your characters volume and shape - right now they look pretty flat (though the second one is getting better).

Since you're pretty good at lighting, here's an easier way to think about how to give anatomy volume. We all know what each piece looks like, but thinking about the body as a body can get really confusing, so try to think about it as a series of boxes, or planes. Draw the figure out in cubes, and light it first, and then draw the shape from that. (Does that make sense?)

I think you might be freaking yourself out a little bit when it comes to anatomy. The easiest way to get used to it is to allow yourself to see it as something other than anatomy, and get used to just the shape and volume, and refine from there. (Basically I just repeated what I just said, but. yeah.)

okay, i'm out. >>;

[Dm7]

Thank you! Yes, you're right, I think I'm freaking myself... BIG time when it comes to anatomy. lol :/ I'm familiar with boxes/shapes thing, just that I can't seem to master that with anatomy yet. It's so tricky. Plus, I'm sure that I'm not good at anatomy lighting because I'm not that familiar with skeleton, muscles, and all that makes up for shapes. I'm slowly getting hang of it though, just that I'm still freaking out on studying Loomis and related subjects. That's why I started my sketchbook here in the first place so I can gently push myself to do it. For now, speedpainting will do until I gather enough courage to get started.

Thank you man for commenting! I appreciate it!

Now, here's my show again. I made a speedpainting for DSG 1037: Sci-Fantasy: ROBOT GHOSTS
Made in Photoshop, but with a lot of crashes! I wrote 22:10 as a start time, but when it froze, I was pissed off so I didn't come back to it after 30 min of work (1 hour) then I attempted to save it then redo it with some top cut off, but with a concidence, it actually gave me a better composition. I don't know how long I have spent on this since Photoshop didn't like me today. At least I beat it and have something presentable to show. As you can see, I have been experimenting with different brushes for textures because I was in mood for something different than the usual cheap sketch. LOL. I think it came out quite nice especially that it was my first time trying to do extreme perspective after a long "gave up" period. I don't know if that worked out so well, everything seems to be tilted. Someday when I'm more familiar, I'll try doing those camera tilt to give it more dramatic feeling, but right now, it's confusing me enough already. Need more practice.

Good night people!

[Dm7]

More sketches from me Was focusing on drawing.. I think I have played around with color theory too much that my drawing has no foundation compared to colors side... so more sketches from me!


Number 3 is my favorite! This sketch has been produced by a tutorial around here suggesting to make faces from completely random abstract shapes (too tired to look where it was, but fun exercise!)


Anatomy practice.. getting the feeling!


2nd practice, I think it flows a lot better already compared to last one.

[Dm7]

DSG... FU Lion! Woohoo! I think this is one of my best so far!

Some perspective errors like on the right, leg/arm are too long... any tips on how to keep that error-free? It's my biggest weakness when it comes to perspective and anatomy.. ouch!

[silvestri99]

I would definatly agree that your painting is your stronger skill. Keep working on those reference drawings and just pile them on. Also recommended to find a good book to work/study from like Bridgeman or Villupu or Loomis.

[Dm7]

Having some color/value breakthrough here. I'm really happy!

Here's a journal entry I have posted at Deviantart which I believe should also be "posted" in the moment here too for 2008 goals.

As of lately, I have been a mentor to two mentees at ConcentArt on color theory. Somehow, this experience is helping me huge time in making some breaththroughs with colors and values. I'm able to dare more now and feel that my arts have more balanced feeling to it now than before the breakthrough. It is like I suddenly realize the key of the saturation and desaturation balance as well as the values. The key is to get people's attention into the artwork and keep them "trapped" in it for the longest time possible. Right? I believe I'm getting hang of that. Watch out people, world domination is coming! Muhahaha! Just kidding! Obviously, I'm pretty thrilled with my progress and wish to share that to everybody in my journal. Not to mention that I'm even more thrilled to work as a colorist at [link] and [link] I'll get started working after the new year. In the meaning time, I'm working on other two job projects that I still need to finish. Holidays made it so hard to complete anything!

My 2008 goals:
- Improve creature, humanoid, animial, and alien anatomy
- Perspective practice/improvement... tilted/rotated camera for a more dramatic feeling.
- Master of realism in both speed painting and fine art style
- Realistic textures in both speed painting and fine art style
- More patience for details
- Breakthrough into professional field level (maybe too huge goal for me now, but eh... gotta try!)

---------

And finally, here are two new entries for you to get lost in!

[Dm7]

Alright, here's mine, I didn't spend much time on it and to be frank, it's a failed sketch. I was reading about Linda Bergkvist, the famous CGtalk artist whom disappeared since Jan. 2006, and her method of painting. She used soft edged brushes so I was thinking, to achieve a smooth blend, why not give it a try? Hence, the blurry and awfully-done work... not something I'd be proud of showing.

[Jakers]

Your painting is getting better. Try painting with larger, more opaque brushes to get everything blocked in and in place. Using a very low opacity will give a soft and blurry result...where as using too small of brushes right away a noisy result. Try it a few times and see if it works with you.

One of the largest things I also see affecting your work on a negative level is perspective...dont be afraid to throw down some lines on a layer above your painting, and sketching things out to make sure the angles are solid before going too far!

[Dm7]

Hello people.. here's mine... it took me exactly 1 hour to do it. Both drawing and coloring. Hope you like it.... I think it's one of my best for color wise... *shrugs* ... made for DSG 1321 I'm getting more confident with colors and values now... now I need to get my butt kicked for avoiding studying loomis and anatomy related subjects...

[Dm7]

Hi! Long time no see... dunno if any one of ya remember me, but I'm back to practice!

This one took forever since I'm out of practice. I used photo filter to achieve a more realistic color, but I promise I'll not use that next time, I learned a lot from it.. i kept on forgetting to really use color wheel and use limited color scheme to achieve realism... I do understand how it works, but it seems like a lot of work.. any tips?

Anyways here's my sketch! I have had a lot of fun with this one! Made in Photoshop of course with goro's brushes set.


Made for DSG 1370 here.

Edit:

Other one for DSG 1373 here... less color adjustment due to me trying to use color wheel more. Now I know better what I need to do.


Other one had fun lol

[Dm7]

Did it in Photoshop.. just exactly 60 min... any tips on getting dark values right (I had to do minor contrast adjustment here). I understand how light works, just that I am too afraid to use very dark values. I'm weird. :cry: Anyways, here it is...

[Dm7]

As one suggested, I did it in black and white to see values first and colored it afterward (not my favorite method, but I thought I'd give it a try, different approaches can be good for practicing!)...

One bad side is that I still use dark values weakily. Moving one arrow in level for dark value until I got to the darkest value I had so that it gets full range of values. Somehow, I don't use full range of dark values because I was afraid it'd be too dark. Any tips? I like how it turned out in this one, but what about daytime? What about one with high white exposure? I don't see any dark values there hence there's no full ranged values...

Are there any exceptions in this?

Anyways here it is.. about 1 hour sketch for DSG...

[Dm7]

Whew, here's mine... I took about 2 hours or so on it. I had fun doing it! The main focus was again on colors, but this time with more challenging perspective since I suck at it. It was a learning experience, I can definitely see a huge leap in my improvement - thanks to DSG. This one was for DSG 1375.

[Dm7]

Retouched this utility vessel sketch I did a long time ago because I felt it was a little too bland and it didn't express what I wanted so I used my development as my strength and see if I could acheive something even better with more depth and powerful light. I definitely had fun doing this one, too bad it was sharpened so much before due to me using blurry fade brushes; hence, there are some sharpening errors, but it doesn't interrupt the color value I had in the picture so it is not a distracting error. I hope you find it the same.

Enjoy!

[Dm7]

Haha I have to laugh, I couldn't help it but to turn her into a borg! Inspired by my favorite show, Star Trek and my favorite actress, Jeri Ryan.

She's a cyber after all! Why can't an elderly woman be one too? For DSG 1413.

I think I'm getting hang of color and value now.. woohoo! Doing sketches in my sketchbook helped too! I'll keep up with that method since it seems to be working very well.

[Dm7]

Made for DSG 1421:
Wow great sketches out there lol it inspired me to keep on trying so I could improve my skill.. thank you so much for the motivation!

Made in Photoshop

[Dm7]

Geez I'm telling ya, this topic, DSG 1422: Character * Human Host's Alien Off-Growth Has Its Own Environmental "Suit", is awesome! It got me hooked for 3 whole hours with my sketch!



I'm quite excited about my color/value improvement!!! Woohoo! Getting my monitor calibrated and my better understanding of the color wheel helped (I was pondering on it pretty deeply for days now). My intention is to let viewers like you experience the intensity. I hope I succeeded in that!

[sandeepbarot]

great!

[Dm7]

Sandeepbarot: Thanks!

Here's my new one,



Just expressing how I feel. Used Painter this time. It's a nice change for me.

[Dm7]

Made for DSG 1425 -
My main focus was on lighting....

The story I imagine is that the ancient mousemanbots dwell in the dense forest, protecting the forest with three pre-programmed cores.

1) Protect the forest
2) Keep Nature Balanced
3) Protect the sacred place inside the forest

Photoshop... experimented more with texture brushes...

[Dm7]

[DSG 1426: Sci-Fi • LARGE, GREENISH-GLOWING, TECH-WELL CONTRASTS W/ SURROUNDING ENVIRO]

Here's mine, inspired by merl1n, I love his style so I tried to do the same. I probably have failed, but the result came out better than I thought it would be so I'm happy with it overall. Big smile for everybody! Great sketches! Sorry, no time to critique like I did before. I gotta practice too, you know.

PHOTOSHOP

[Dm7]

I had a sponteneous insight to do thumbnail sketches, that way I can do more in less time; therefore, it is perfect for experimenting and getting more familiar with color and value. Also I worked on trying to really look at the paper as 3d portal instead of 3d on 2d paper to improve my perspective. I want to include the depth feeling. I hope I succeeded. I think I'll do more thumbnail sketches like that.. it has been fun. Who knows if it gives me some better ideas later on when I paint for real?

[kidult]

Nice thumbs and colours. Try some life paintings or some photo studies. You lack form in alot of the work. Maybe try pay attention to edges too, try define them a bit more.

keep up the good work

[Nightblue]

I remember seeing your work in the daily sketch group I've always loved your grasp of mood, lighting, and colors. I love the new batch of thumbnails. Some straight lines may benefit your images, especially ones depicting man-made structures. Keep up the great work!

[Dm7]

kidult: Thank you very much for your crit! It helps a lot. I'll try to do more photo reference studies then. I'll be bringiing my sketchbook on my trip tomorrow as well.

Nightblue: Same here, I have seen you quite often in DSG. Im also surprised that you dropped by as well. Thank you as well for your crit! I have visited your sketchbook, and will post my crit/comment when I got some more time. Smile!

Now, here's my next thumbnail sketches.

[Dm7]

[DSG 1427: Sci-Fi Character • 10-YR. OLD GIRL ON HER LOW-ALTITUDE SCOOTER ]

Here's mine.. I worked very long lol I wanted to make a natural painting feeling in Photoshop.. so far I think it's going good...

I can't seem to do clean strokes though... more practices...



I think it's more like a racer than a scooter though.. hehe, but I guess I could claim it as a scooter racer. lol!

[Goog]

fantastic stuff here, love your color choices. One thing I think you'll hear people here say alot is draw from life! I can't emphasize how much doing a few detailed sp's will help you.

[Dm7]

fantastic stuff here, love your color choices. One thing I think you'll hear people here say alot is draw from life! I can't emphasize how much doing a few detailed sp's will help you.

Thanks! I'm listening to you...

Here's my first life study for this sketchbook.... any recommendations or suggestions for life study?

[Dm7]

Color/art warm up. Tried to use what I have learned today about life study in this one.

I'll have to do more life study.... hehe.. at least drawing part feels slightly more comfortable. I know I have to be more confident with one stroke instead of repeating it to get it right.