You don't use it you lose it, gonna try to get it back.

[JFierce]

Hit page 6 apparently. Main goal is to get better at comics.

Back to regular values, maybe expand them with color later since I've wanted to learn gray scale to color anyways, then trying to simplify, and hopefully maintain complexity since I over render a lot.




@Rain Walker:

Thanks man! Your oils are great!


------------------------------------------------

Doodling while watching Breaking Bad.
Didn't get the disappearing into the sky effect I wanted.
Need to make the tail fade slower and appear longer to have gotten that.
But it went further than I was expecting when just putting stuff down.

[Meps]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!

Wow, the improvement since page 1 is absolutely stunning--you've come a long way!

I'm loving your linework, especially the really sharp, energetic sketches from post 144 and your most recent post--PLEASE do more work like that--that stuff is fantastic. Also, your backgrounds are looking great--the street scene from post 122 (was that really done with a mouse?) and the city in post 132. You have a good sense of both linear and atmospheric perspective.

You do have some minor errors in body proportions from time to time--limbs too long, awkward positioning, etc. (the man's arm in post 139, for instance). It might help to do some figure drawings from photos or, preferably, from life if you have the opportunity.

Definitely subscribing to this; can't wait to see more

[ThomasM]

great sketchbook so far. No real crits from me, other than let us see a few more pencils please!

[JFierce]

@meps

Thanks very much! The street was a pencil to start the rendering I was attempting was with a mouse lol.

Yeah my anatomy can be wonky, especially without a reference which the comic is mostly. I do need to do some more figure drawings, I haven't cracked any of those out in awhile.


@ThomasM
Thanks! I haven't done any pencil in awhile, I'll try to see if I can find my scanner because too much digital can make you rusty I'm betting.



----------------------------------


Ok my other armor studies were just messing around with Alchemy but I realized I've been doing so much work in Alchemy that I need to do some the regular way too. Alchemy is fun but it's a very different process and set of tools.

Not taking it any further than this despite some more things I could push, but don't have time.

[JFierce]

Did another panel of the comic, still far from done though. But took some of the above suggestions into consideration.



First a quick page of pencils. Where I realize I am VERY rusty with pencils.
Also realized why I enjoy digital so much. The freedom to edit.
When I'm doing pencils I can't get as clear of a picture, I get zoned out.
When digital I'll just zoom out a ton and spot things I miss.

Then when I zone back in I realize I fucked up some stuff then it's a pain to erase, redraw, rescan, to fix.


But anyways more or less doodles.
The females lower half isn't in proportion to the upper half, need to widen it out more but once again, have to erase, redraw, rescan, reupload, which takes a lot of time.



Also after trying to do a study with just line, I realized how off digital was compared to pencil ironically. With my pencils my lines could be varied much more. Then I finally took the initiative to fix the tablet pressure recognition with my shitty photohop elements 7
(oh yeah high tech stuff lol -_-)

So this one is digital trying to capture some feeling of graphite.


Going to try to do more figure studies, they were surprisingly fun.





Then this was just a 5 min joke I did late at night because I always feel the internet keeps me away from my bed and sleep.

[RoboMat]

Great Sketchbook. I really love your armor-studies esp. the last one!

[Sushy]

wow how do you get that graphite effect in photoshop? Really cool

That armor study looks good, the more fully rendered part really looks like metal!

[JFierce]

@RoboMat

Thanks!

@Sushy

Looked up pencil brushes then came across some and experimented. Basically drew my lines kinda like I think I do on regular paper, then there were brushes in there for rendering and I mix and match as I go.


Though it's weird. There's 2 thought processes I'm realizing. For my comic I think in outline, when I'm working from imagination and laying in my figure, thinking from outline, composing what I make first with the basic shapes and line, then building up. With these figure drawings though that I'm practicing, the less I find myself placing emphasis on line.



------------------------------------------------


Ok not much done today, yesterday I did some quick figure studies, more so working on a kind of gestural type thing. I find basically I look at something, then focus on details and enlarge it unconsciously. Going to start working on that more to fix it.

But anyways did some quick sketches but didn't save them, wasn't really focused on recording as much as just practicing.

The only one I saved was just this little thing. Which it wasn't even done. There's things off here and there. Ignore the lack of face and the censoring I put there for Facebook to show friends, but they have kids so ya know. Kind of found it funny though. Might censor my figure drawings more like that. Just for the quirkyness.






Once again I'm trying to spark my comic interest more though. But it's just a long and tiring process doing it alone.

Then I decided I'm going to do little mini frame comics of my favorite video game deaths. Maybe apply some of my practice with laying out lines quickly. So this is the start of the lines for the first frame I'm doing for the death of Melfice in Grandia 2. An old Dreamcast game I loved.

[adamsimons]

Good work on the studies, keep it up

[Black Spot]

When you talk about being rusty with pencils, I find that the more traditional stuff I do the better my digital stuff gets. You have to think harder.

Nice armour.

[JFierce]

@ adamsimmons
Thanks!

@Black Spot
Yes, I can definitely agree with that.
Mainly it's just working up the drive to get out the scanner
Then I'm less likely to go back and fix mistakes. But I am trying to think more beforehand and get my gestures and lines right the first time around more, so pencils may be the right route for that.



--------------------------------------------------

Ok, I don't have much to update, because there has been a shit storm recently. Almost lost our house (still might at some point), had stuff with sisters health to deal with, thought I got bit by a tick and was worrying about if I was going to get lymes or not. (A simple tick is why my sister has been in a bed for over a year, even worse there is so much corruption regarding lymes, the insurance company is barely covering anything, so it's costing a fortune)

Not exactly an environment you want to draw in. Been one of the most stressful weeks in a long time.


I guess this quick doodle is fairly reflective towards those feelings. I like to vent when drawing at times. I'll just call it the Hulk or something, because I don't know I just was jotting lines down quick without thought listening to music trying to relax.



Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things, since things are semi stable at the moment, but things are still feeling a bit shaky. So might not get back into any sort of serious stuff for a bit.

[JFierce]

Things are still pretty tense, but I'm going to try to at least do something every day even if it's just from imagination and I don't have the drive to think/study.



Quickie for the night. I'll call it leaving the cave or something. Friend said maybe he's entering the cave since there isn't really a sky, that it's just white inside.

Hell if I know lol. Though realize the way I cropped it, it didn't show the circle in the entrance so it looks like the world is slanted.

[JFierce]

Going to submit todays practice a bit early.
Trying to force myself to do some studies, need to fix a huge weakness.

I have a bad bad habit of when doing something, to draw without organization and my figures go out of the boundaries and enlarge more than I want. So working on constructing boundaries then quickly building what I see properly inside those borders.

Not really focusing on anything else besides getting the proportions generally right and keeping scribbles down to a minimum.

[Rhubix]

Going to submit todays practice a bit early.
Trying to force myself to do some studies, need to fix a huge weakness.

I have a bad bad habit of when doing something, to draw without organization and my figures go out of the boundaries and enlarge more than I want. So working on constructing boundaries then quickly building what I see properly inside those borders.

Not really focusing on anything else besides getting the proportions generally right and keeping scribbles down to a minimum.

This is a great idea, though I think you should scribble as much as is necessary to get the job done. Lots of artsts work from super rough first drafts, or go through an endless number of thumbnail drawings before they ever get down to doing their first draft.
Glen Keane is awesome for that- some of his roughs are look like they were done with a 4 inch house brush - but his final drawings (like the transformation sequence from Beauty and the Beast) are perfect.



In your earlier posts, like the illustrator stuff, your stuff has a much more finished quality than your rendered stuff- because it's quite polished.
Your rendered work is currently a bit muddy. If you can get your hands on some Scott Robertson dvd's I found them super helpful for cleaning up my rendering. (still working on it lol)
All your sequential stuff is looking great- Storyboarding was one of my worst subjects so I have a tonne of respect for people with an eye for it. I think it's just a matter of your technical skills catching up so keep up those studies
& happy sketching.

[Black Spot]

I know what it's like when other matters get in the way of drawing. Keep strong - family is more important than art, although some of the greats would argue about that. Being human is a strength, not a weakness. Draw to entertain your family if nothing else.

[JFierce]

@Rhubix

Thanks for pointing out the muddyness. I tell other people to simplify and flatten a lot but I still need to myself. I think I get caught in trying to give as much detail as I can that I ignore the overall balance and over render things which gets messy.

Going to try to simplify and clean stuff up a bit. The scribbling thing was mainly practice because often I find I don't make my lines count and meaningful. Doing minimum I figured would help narrow my focus more. Yeah I do see a lot of people that scribble and it looks fine, that's true.

@Black Spot

Thanks, really. In a weird situation where taking care of family and I have time on my hands, just a lot of stress with stacking issues. But we'll keep pushing through, and I'll still keep doodling when I'm able to, it won't be constant with everything going on. But when I have time on my hands in the day or night I'll doodle away.


-------------------------------------------------------

Today I tried something I've always thought about but never tried it.
Mixing Alchemy and other programs.

Trying to simplify yet get detailed. It's difficult, I over render a lot.
This is pretty much from imagination obviously except for the color scheme of the sky which was generally referenced. It was fun though.

The original idea was a junkyard of sorts or something.



Edit: Almost forgot I was going to include the gray scale.
Usually helps to check the values.




Also recorded the general process over time a bit.

[JFierce]

Been contemplating for awhile what's the best way to improve at comics. Doing general studies that are important would probably be the best way, and of course actually practicing comics.

So going to work on figure studies more and comic pages.
Reverting to black and white, only values, maybe a few colors like red here and there for dramatic effect.
Still not sure how to go about achieving that simple complexity comics attain. I have a horrible habit of over rendering so trying to limit the values of at least the characters and not making it look too cartoony is going to bug me.....



Almost forgetting how hard it is creating a specific environment since I haven't done it in so long.

Definitely issues with anatomy and some perspective issues with the gun, need to do more studies with people actually wearing clothes, how the folds move, etc etc...



But that's it for today.
Not going to bump my thread with another post but I made another little bit
towards the next page so guess I'll throw that in here for now. Needs work but it's obviously the rough forms. Note to self to shrink the form on the left more.



Gnight.

[JFierce]

For today 2nd page.



This was weird, the scene and environment for a first time was easier than a face. Haven't done a face from imagination in black and white in ages. Definitely didn't do a hat. Adding hat studies to my list, how a hat sits on someones head right is a bit difficult especially when tilting it at an angle. it was the hardest part.

[Sebastian Wagner]

good studies. keep em coming man

[JFierce]

@ Noro
Thanks, I need to do more studies like in your SB, amazing stuff there.

-----------------

Have friends coming over for the first time in awhile.
So just going to submit a simple page of sketches and leave it at that for today, at least something every day that's the goal.



The chicks got a hump I realize now but the point was quick practice on hats laying on the head, so not too worried about it.



(and yes it's in the CA.org color format, I wanted to try sketching on a different color than white so I can use white like a toned SB figured it would be interesting if the page blended in)

[Black Spot]

CA colour is cool. Anything than white or grey is cool. Love the scrapyard picture - a load of witches cauldrons off to be smelted.

[Veneq]

Hey Fierce! That bone junkyard environment thing is pretty cool - if you are going to push that any further, I'm not sure the shadows from the tube/spine thing make perfect sense mainly because the positioning of the light source. But those shadows look awesome so maybe add another light source or move the main one? But then you'd probably kill that silhouette. Either way it's a cool piece.

[JFierce]

@Black Spot
Haha yeah I think I'm going to do my sketches on interesting colors whenever I do them. It's interesting to try.


@Crazy Pills
Thanks! Yeah the lighting was an issue. I was trying to give some kind of way to sort out the silhoette in the fore ground to look like something. Then I ended up making the background and it looked kind of like lava/fireish. So I thought if it was lava or something it would add a little light from that. But I overshot and it doesn't make complete sense lol



------------------------------------------------------

Long time no update and nothing big.
I picked up an old RPG maker game I worked at on and off over several years
and I still laughed/enjoyed it. So I got the drive to work on that again.
Went from art to so much algebra it's crazy.

Complete opposites. Art I let my mind go and draw whatever, Math you have to make sure everything is perfect and logical or it doesn't work.


But anyways I've been doing pages and pages of just logical math
So I had to exaggerate and just vent.





Probably not going to be updating that much in the near future, this game has my full attention. Have to do everything from editing sprites, to dialogue, story, voice acting, all by myself. Fun fun.

[Black Spot]

Nice bit of movement. Cleaning it up might make it better or worse.

Maths can be fun too. Solving problems logically is always satisfying.

[Temjin]

Cool sketches, I really like the render on the Armour!

[JFierce]

@Black Spot
Haha yeah, it's fun it can just be really frustrating, because it's just pages of logical word problems, focused on a grid. The math isn't hard really, it's just you lose track of things and one variable off can mess things up and take hours to figure out lol.

@Temjin
Thanks!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Not much done recently, more so compiling sprites into sheets to use in my Old Rpg Maker game I picked back up. It's just for fun but there's copyrighted stuff since I'm not making everything in the game from scratch. So I don't know if I can show anything here. Just a pet project for fun.

But I guess I can show little doodles I'm trying to do for the game.


These are a different challenge though. The screen resolution for pictures has to be really low...... ... REALLY low. It's basically old 16-32 bit type graphics. So obviously gets pixellated. Alchemy it was too small, Photoshop it's very pixellated I can't even do anything with it to first create something

So I had to pick up painter which I've only used a couple times.
Still can't draw a simple line without it being pixellated but trying to bypass that issue with just values and effects in Painter. But still difficult with a 256 color range, no opacities allowed and a small resolution. Doing a small face/character on a small resolution is a biiiitch.


Eh it was fun either way.

[KONM]

I really like this one. Awesome style.

[zathraya]

Nice progression over time you've got going here. I really enjoy your most recent pics especially the junkyard one. I love the lighting and composition of that. I enjoy your comics as well, very interesting stories. Keep up the good work!

[ThomasM]

Nice updates recently. One criticism would be to try and work on your shapes and form a little more. For this I would really recommend using Glen Vilppu's drawing manual. Ive been doing it myself pretty religiously for the last week and its having a huge effect on my understanding of shapes in space, which is in turn helping every other aspect of my drawing and design.

Anyway, I hope that helps!

[teapo]

hmm... that small game project you got going on sounds challenging! but i'm sure you are learning lots from it i think one thing you can turn your focus to is to study placing objects in space-- your characters in perspective and such. Thomas already provided a great study resource for that type of thing and i as well need to do that stuff! hehe.. my perspective is horrible so that's definitely something i need to dive into.

another thing you could study on is more color-focused pieces. the study in #154 shows much promise and potential both in color and surface rendering... so, more of that too

well, that's all i can say for now! keep practicing mate~