Dani's Sketchbook

[andrea w]

Hey, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!

I love the whole sc-fi+inca culture project idea and you're dishing out some sweet concepts for it! Among all of them the stripey llama creature really pops out (because it's fuzzy and slightly grumpy looking with lovely, natural colours and great brushwork), along with the third vehicle (because the design kind of makes it look like this giant insect, and because the metal is so beautifully rendered). One thing that hits me about the environment WIP is the perspective of the face on the arch. You might wish to turn it somewhat away from us to the right in order to make it line up with its foundation; the viewer seems to be standing slightly to the left of the arch while the face is turned directly towards us. Great work though, can't wait to see it finished!

[thespianmonsalvo]

Andrea w - thanks for the crit! I didn't notice the face in the gateway before but now that you mention it, you're right. I'll shift in when I work on the piece this weekend.

[M0RS]

Your concepts are so crisp and sexy!
I also really enjoy where your environment is headed. Some things I think might help.
Keep in mind, detail in the foreground and limited information in the background helps imply space. Also possibly exaggerating the atmospheric perspective a bit, behind the arch might help those mountains recede even more.
Your figures do a great job of suggesting scale but they don't seem to be doing anything specific. A minor quibble.
Hope I don't come off as too critical because I dig the work.

[Nightblue]

Great SB! Your character concepts are very fresh. Loving the creature silhouette designs and the weapon designs for your DFS also. Watch out for muddy colors when you are using soft brushes. I love the geometric graphic feel and cleanliness of some of your pieces. Keep up the good work!

[thespianmonsalvo]

NightBlue - Thanks for checking out my SB and for the feeback.

M0RS - Thanks for the crit - I'll try what you suggested with the atmospheric perspective.

[thespianmonsalvo]

Here's some older stuff that I never uploaded before.

[basementPicasso]

Nice colour sense - particularly in that last piece - some beautiful colours in there. Look forward to seeing more.

[Chermilla]

Hi there.
You've got some nice pieces amongst this lot so far, I think your weapon design piece is really good. Also, the strongest images for me were of the vibrant costume designs on page 1. The guys with the bird like masks, really nice work, keep it up!

C

[thespianmonsalvo]

Here's an update on the environment I'm working on. There's been a ton of changes in these last few days. I'm adding skyscrapers in the city and more detail on the gate and huge ground tiles underneath the gate. There will be a river and bridges crossing it. Lots of stuff. I want it to look busy but not too metropolitan.

[Novbert]

Thanx for visiting my sketchbook. Some really nice things are going on here too.
I really dig the life drawing figure studies, that 200 hours photoreal suff (man, you must be crazy ), and the weapon concepts - the designs are really solid. Creature concepts are also nice.
Some suggestions: When using photoshop use LARGE and hard bruses first, and refine the picture as you progress. (It is said that one should set the brush size to the largest one can imagine, then one should double the size before working with it ).

[remmy]

Thanks for visiting my sketchbook, some solid work here. Great ideas and I really like your studies as well. At the moment your should focus on getting those proportions steady and maybe look at doing some prospective studies, they'll really boost your environments.
Keep up the good work, I'll keep an eye on you

[duck_king]

Hi Dani, thanks for visiting my SB and for the comments.
You are right my anatomy is weak, I've been learning from reference photos as of late, but I've foudn that I've really noticed anatomy more since I've been learning to paint digitally.
N e ways cool sketchbook u gots man, love the concepts and your life drawing stuff is right on track too. I think it's great that you know what you are aiming for, as I am also doing a games course, however I'm still a bit unsure of what I will be aiming to be once I graduate.
Keep up the good work.
duck_king

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Hey, hey, hey! These last ones show much improvement, wonderful atmosphere and they get tighter. Your figures are coming along quite well too but your faces semm to need more life.
200 hours!
Wow. While the result looks good and I'm sounding like an asshole now I actually think that 200 1 hour portraits might have helped more too grasp the anatomy and skintone variances, etc. better.
I know, it was for a school project, so there probably wasn't much choice.

It just seems you rather hide faces alittle. Go! Conquer them!

Your creatures and weapons look fab though. Just a little blackish?
Also, I think Elwell's edges tutorials in th tutorials tips and tricks section is a must read, if you haven't already.

[thespianmonsalvo]

Some quick sketches - some birds from a trip to the aviary, a weird cherub/buddha character, and a quick pose of the character for my DFS project I'm working on.

[thespianmonsalvo]

Some older stuff.













Thanks for looking!

[thespianmonsalvo]

Sorry those files are gigantic! Oops.

[DragonSnail]

Nice SB, good improvements from first post to last! That 200+ hour portrait really stood out (I would have given up long ago), and the city portal image is coming along really nicely. These last sketches are really nice too - did you use refs for them? Oh and those angel sketches reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion; I think its the third eye on the forehead that does it. Anyway, good work, keep it up!

[Nightblue]

The life drawings are very nice, especially the first one. The varying yet fluid lines really give the skin life. The drawing would be even better if you take the same sensitivity to the hair and the fabric.

[Gliederpuppe]

Thank you for your contribution, I hope I will fast experienced.
your sketches are very good I liked best at the beginning =)


mfg Gliederpuppe

[The Ham]

love the last piece the environment one. strange picture obviously has a cool story too it. love the hiro sketch too . spot on!

[thespianmonsalvo]

DragonSnail - Thank you! I used references for some of the images - most were from imagination, though.

Nightblue - Yeah, faces are my weak point. I'll try to keep what you've said in mind.

Gliederpuppe - You're welcome and thank you, too!

The Ham - Thank you!

[the ANGRY filipino]

200+ hours! wow! thats dedication man!Respect!
That portrait looks really good!
And I agree, definitely some inspiring improvement here!
keep on drawing and posting!

[thespianmonsalvo]

Here's the modelsheet for my character for my DFS project. Got most of the linework done today - I noticed a couple things that need changing, but now I mostly just need to render out the views in color.

[Darlene]

Cheeee!!!

Thanks so much for visiting my sketchbook! In gratitude I have come to visit yours as well. You have so many ideas and concepts, plus a great quality of work! Don't give up, you're doing so good. Just be persistent!

[Jacfat]

Hey thanks so much for the words of encouragement and for stopping by my sketchbook. Your drawing is getting better and better so keep it up. Can I suggest you work on having a greater range of contrast in the pencil work to give your work more depth. And have you seen markos dvd its an awesome help for pencil work and really wise words of encouragement.

[thespianmonsalvo]

Darlene - Thank you so much for checking our my sketchbook and for the words of encouragement!

Jacfat - Thank you! I've been meaning to check out Marko's DVD, I'll probably order in in these next couple weeks. I keep hearing great things about it.

[SaiVix]

Hey thanks for the crits man! You were the only one to point out that I draw big arms. I didn't even realize it, until you said it. I will always continue practicing my tonal and anatomy studies... Unfortunately, those are harder than I thought it would be. But, the stomachs are stylized... I was told not to stylize when I am studying, but I just don't like the tummies on these models, and references.. I like a little roundness to them. But, if it is really throwing people off, then I might as well not do that anymore..

Anyways. Your concepts are amazing. I especially like your weapon designs. The visual art in this project is really nice to look at. What is the end result of all this?

[The Whistler]

Hey

Improvement from the first page but watch that character modelsheet, in your profiles the head seems to be wider than her butt, and the legs seem a bit short.

I think you should do more pencil sketches since it seems to me like that's working out the for you at the time, and once you ace the pencils it'll be easier to color since you won't have to fix things later on. Anyways, keep up the good work!

[thespianmonsalvo]

SaiVix - Thank you very much!

The Whistler - thank you for the crit. I double-checked my modelsheet and changed some of the issues that you mentioned.

So here's an updated modelsheet of my character as well as the "final" of the exterior environment. I still want to do some more detail in it during the week break I get after this term, but this will have to do for now as far as the class grade is concerned.





Thank you for looking!

[thespianmonsalvo]

Another enviro piece for my DFS project. This is in a very early stage still. I plan on getting it closer to finished this weekend.