Sketchbook 2011-!!!2011 HERE we go (page 91 COLOSSAL UPDATE) :) --->

[Spellsword95]

Badass guardian! Digging through your posts is always a pleasure.

[LORD M]

Oh you wonderful BEAST, so much ART! I love everything you do nowadays haha! TAnd man, the guardian is amazing!

[Biomecha_wolf]

superb work as always!
+1 for the kinght-warrior! I liked the resources you combined to create his armor!

[kingkostas]

Call0ps-Thank you very much mate , glad you can find something useful. I will try to provide better.
Spellsword95-Thanks very much mate !!!
LORD M-Markus thank you very much mate !!! I am trying to do something, drawing related and i am gonna explode my brain because i am missing something hahaha. Lets keep up
Biomecha_wolf-kabbb!!! Thanks man, yep i wanted to approach that one with some more research on the topic.Pame dunamika !!!

ok i said i am gonna try to update everyday to force me into rythm. Some crappy things i did while experimenting and trying to do somethings.

[Izzual]

Man you are a true inspiration, thanks for uploading so much ! Keep posting !

[Kungfoowiz]

Good sketches man, the last page.. =)

[Lucarky]

Hi mate! Thank you for spending your time to teach me something on values and for compliments. It means a lot to me. I will surely follow what you said and do more studies on simple forms and concentrate more on values. Or at least I'll try... Your new posts are always good and can learn a lot look at them.

[Spudonkey]

wow, epic sketchbook!
love the progression, makes me inspired to keep going
ast thumbnails look great too!

[kingkostas]

Izzual-Thanks you very much mate, thats encouraging!!! I will try to keep up
Kungfoowiz-Thank you very much Edward !!!
Lucarky-No problem mate , thank you very much!!! Lets both keep up
Spudonkey-Thankieees mate, i am glad you find it interesting. Thats encouraging.

Ok here something for today. Good night mates and thanks for supporting!!!

[DefiledVisions]

Good stuff mate! daily updates can really be a motivation do kick yourself into action keep on going!

[Seraph Fawkes]

"Blowing out contrast, because I don't want to paint details" Hahaha!! True, true!

[Colepoopface]

Cool stuff man! I would maybe try playing around with some more lost edges. Great stuff, keep it up.

[Baconstrap]

Dear Mr Kostas, I don't really know I haven't checked out your sb before(even tho I didn't check all pages now, but fear not I will come back). I've always thought you would be good since you have like "king" in your name, but honestly I didn't imagine this awesomeness. You just got another fanboy.
Stay bacon.

[kingkostas]

DefiledVisions-Thanks very much mate . Yes it seems to be helping, i will hopefully build momentum
Seraph Fawkes-heheheh true right? i know but sometimes its good to know how to cover up some things
Colepoopface-Mate thank you very much for encouraging!!!Your work is an inspiration. I am really glad to see you back . Will try to work more on the edges, and overally
Baconstrap-hahaha thank you very much for encouraging mate, although the story behind the "king" in front of the kostas is probably not that great ahahah, it was a fitting playername when i was playing Age of Empires as a child. Thanks a lot, i will try to not let you down. Lets both keep up !!!

Ok i didnt do a lot today, had some bureaucratic stuff to take care and then i got absorbed in some other stuff. Here is something i sketched in about an hour. I will continue it tommorow, i will also have to work on that older spider char piece and see if i can find something interesting.
Thanks for supporting mates!!! Steps of it when i will have more. I mostly worked it on limited layers with minor changes so far.

[ForScience]

Thanks so much for breaking down your process back there. I am going to go value first in my next painting.

[Fetsch]

impressive updates mate, love your tutorials, thanks for the effort you put in to show your thoughts! we should do some collab someday!

[Overtoom]

Nice work kostas, and as always appreciate your step by steps with comments, really helpful.
Very cool poses in the bottom row in post 3454, very strong and convincing ones. Really need to practice those, any suggestions?

[kingkostas]

ForScience-No problem mate, i also thank you for the great info you share in your sb. Lets keep up !!!
Fetsch-Thanks very much mate!!!Glad you like them. Yeah man that would be great, i would love to!!!
Overtoom-Thank you very mucchhhh mate !!! Well i also strugle with these so lets both keep up . For stuff like that i used to do animation mini studies. By trying to make frame by frame an action you are somehow forced to reach a key frame where the action is on its peak. Dunno, probably it help me somehow, although i may go back to it and do some more of these animation studies. But you need to find a simplified structure [so if we consider that it also forces you to simplify the human form, i guess animation really should be a great training for human anatomy ]. My main weakness is that i havent done any life model drawing. If you can do some, do it, you will be able to see some realistic balancing of the human masses. But in overall you should try to simplify the figure, trying to exagerrate the movement of its parts and then calming down that motion. Lets keep up !!!

Ok here i worked some more on the piece. I wanted to do more but had some work to deliver.
Good night

[jakubvavrik]

Holy bovine you are impossible! Love your instructional wips and I would sell my left testicle to create compositions like yours ! I will visit more often for sure

[Mr.Pryminista]

Thanks for the excellent feedback in my SB!

Always a pleasure to look at your studies and process. It gives me a better idea of how I can expand upon my own process. You seem to mainly do fantasy work. Is it mainly for clients or is it your passion? Both? My guess is both. Haha, anyways, cheers mate!

[RyanRyan]

Dang.

[ForScience]

I love the way this tutorial is shaping up. I learn something new every time I look at your sketchbook.

[Overtoom]

Well i also strugle with these so lets both keep up . For stuff like that i used to do animation mini studies. By trying to make frame by frame an action you are somehow forced to reach a key frame where the action is on its peak. Dunno, probably it help me somehow, although i may go back to it and do some more of these animation studies. But you need to find a simplified structure [so if we consider that it also forces you to simplify the human form, i guess animation really should be a great training for human anatomy ]. My main weakness is that i havent done any life model drawing. If you can do some, do it, you will be able to see some realistic balancing of the human masses. But in overall you should try to simplify the figure, trying to exagerrate the movement of its parts and then calming down that motion. Lets keep up !!!

Thanks, never thought of that, but seems like a very smart idea! Really enables you to choose the best part of the movement. Smart, smart, smart!
And nice painting again, you got great sense for dramatic values. Great!

[Ville_S]

Holy hell I love this sketchbook! Not only are the works really varied and interesting (not to mention the immense number of works in this sb), but there's some really interesting discussion and nuggets of information all over. This thing is a gold mine and I'm enjoying every damn page. I find the progress in the last ten pages really really interesting.IIt seems to me you have made a serious jump in your value skills. All of your latest B&W paintings are just brilliant, and I have to just wonder what exactly you figured out that prompted this change.

Whatever it is, I hope I figure it out soon or the values are going to drive me insane. It's something I have been really trying to hammer out recently and I'm making progress (I think) but something feels a bit off. It feels like I'm just not getting something, or on occasion I am but only accidentally. Would love it if you could drop by my sketchbook and perhaps give some comments and critiques on value stuff.

Again, great sketchbook! Keep it up!

[lionheartGFX]

dude your thought process its so amazing, THAT is whats gonna take you to the next level, im lovning freaking everything dude keep this up! i think you should incorporate a bigger story in your drawings, making a statement thorugh shape language and composition its very, very good but if there is a bigger story then us the viewers will get even more absorbed in your stuff, work hard man!

[kingkostas]

jakubvavrik-Hahahaha thanks mate, no no it will be less painful with some more training .Thanks , lets both keep up
Mr.Pryminista-No problem mate, thank you very much!!! . Well actually my client work is post apocalyptic theme, and the other work we are doing at mountainwheel is stylized humorous/cartoony stuff, so i guess i find my relaxation in fantasy in personal work . The good is that simultaneously i am working on more than one themes and keeping my horizon balanced
RyanRyan-!!!
ForScience-Thanks you very much mate!!!I am glad ,i also learn from you so lets keep up
Overtoom-Thank you very much mate , hehe glad you find it interesting
Ville_S-Mate thanks very much for encouraging !!!!Ofcourse i will visit mate we will talk on it and we will find something.Well i had to analyze thing and i was maniac as to the relations of color to value and value to color. To go deeper i had to limit the value range, i think that was one of the important steps. You can't let yourself be lost in non-essensial values, at least in the beginning. You have to arrange your composition with these limited value range [2?, 3?, 4?, 5?, 6? keep only the basic ones, you want a black, a reflected light, a half-light, a light and a highlight. [[i think these are more than enough for the first stages]]. If you would go with 2 values you would be drawing light and shadow shapes [b/w extremes], its the hardest kind but the ones who master it do awesome compos. Ok now what else does limited values help us with? You can turn a form with just a few strokes, you dont need to go blending like crazy in the beginning. The form will look like low polygon but that will improve your sense of 3d/bulk. Ah forgot to say this was going to be a crappy text . Here some more, the other important thing i looked and researched is composition. There is a reason why something inside a frame looks good. When we look with our eyes we dont have such a strict frame, our eyes focus on an area and everything else is subordinate to that area so it becomes composed somehow [these are crazy things but i encourage you to check the principles of composition and try to understand why whatever you see around you is somehow perfectly composed]. An example, outside the window the buildings have the vertical characteristic |||| and behind them the mountain ridge has a horizontal characteristic ----- , so these in these 2 we have the principle of opposition. But even if in your fantasy world the mountains have the vertical characteristic then that means you would have to harmonize it with something more horizontal in the foreground. It gives you the ability to predict somethings. All these are important to values even if it doesnt seem so. Your values will look good if well composed. Also edges are very very important. Well i am becoming tiring i guess so i will stop the text here and we will check on them again. I hope there can be something good for brainstorming in this text and i hope i can help you more with some feedback or something later. Thanks again very much for encouraging , lets keep improving!!!
lionheartGFX-Thanks very much mate , thats interesting, i will have to try some things with that in mind!!!

Ok i didnt work that much, did some quick random stuff and worked some more on the piece, although i rushed it a little and i have to fix somethings.
Thanks for supporting !!!! LETS ALL KEEP UP!!!!
Good night

[Izzual]

Man your explanation about values was sooooo interesting ! And your knight is going really good Can't wait to see it finished !!!

And again : you are a true inspiration, thank you !

[kingkostas]

Izzual-Thankieees very much mate !!! Well i will struggle a little with that piece, i had to solve some more things from the very beginning, but we will see
Lets keep up

here somethings i did today + some more work on that piece. The demon is from an older assbook sketch.

[DefiledVisions]

Ahhh! shit, the compisiton and action in the latest one! Small crit and perhaps just a personal opinion, but I feel it's a bit too symmetrical and 'expected'. I love the energy in it, but I feel I'm leaving the picture too quickly after I enter it. Something I would really like to see that would actually break som rules would be this:

The main figure actually not pointing to the dragon in the distance and a confident pose, but rather looking behind himself (towards us) and up towards something, in a pose that's defensive in a crouching sort of way, as if he was surprised and startled by something above/behind him. Story behind this new action? a dragon's tail is breaking the symmetry by falling down from the top of the border, arching in and out of the picture in a 'U' shape. At the same time the shadow silhuette is pointing towards the dragon in the distance.

I don't know if this means anything, but I think it would break up the picture a bit and make the story that's going on more unexpected and engaging for the viewer. And again, this is just my opinion I think the picture alreadys is really solid and strong. Damn man, really good job. Just playing around with how I can break it for you

As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts man! so much good stuff in here!

[aargh!]

the rain texture on that last piece is blowing my mind! great use of it man, you're awesome at creating moods.. good on ya