=experiments, failures, triumphs=

[Zweit]

It took me a while to pinpoint what exactly didn't sit right with me regarding the sci-fi one in post 238 but I finally figured it out: the floating station thing appears completely flat. The windows on the side aren't abiding by the laws of perspective and go straight from one side to the other.

Other than that your environments are looking great. Post 236 especially.

[Leo Ki]

I especially like the somewhat nightmarish rustplanet.jpg. Putting something on the long empty bridge would be a strong narrative trick, but maybe that's something you want to avoid.

[wilkerson]

valust: thanks
pyroclasm: yes, actually i agree. am working on it...

zweit: I am struggling to understand exactly what you mean. If you wouldn't mind, could you do a paintover to explain please?

leo: I thought about it but couldn't think of what to put there. It does need to be broken up however.

[Zweit]

zweit: I am struggling to understand exactly what you mean. If you wouldn't mind, could you do a paintover to explain please?

Certainly. It's always easier to explain perspective visually anyway.

[wilkerson]

thanks zweit, I understand now. before I post an update allow me to post something different:

This is my copy of Degas "Portraits at the Stock Exchange"
all digital.


To Americans especially: be aware that a private bank issues your currency.
I encourage you to do some research on the subject as it is more relevant than ever.

[wilkerson]

[wheezy]

Awesome environments W. The underwater one is great.

[wilkerson]

[wilkerson]

thanks wheezy

here is a new one

[wilkerson]

It seems like I have a difficult time getting anyone but my sketchgroup buds to comment on my thread

[phoenicorn]

just stumbbled on this by accident. epic environment work. don't be dishartened by lack of replies just keep positng. keep up the great work

[Lyno]

Hey wilkerson. I really like your environments and that last spaceship is just wow .
I know sometimes it's a pity no one reply's but you just have to keep going. It also may help if you often visit other sketchbooks, most of the times they will return the favor by posting in yours.

Anyway, just keep posting man, people will come visiting when you post often

[ParanoiaArtist]

Your environments are really great. And your improvement as you go along really shows in your sketchbook Way to go -

[Zweit]

I wouldn't sweat it, the sketchgroup is just having a down period. Only three of us are updating regularly and the rest are all but MIA. Probably the holidays or something.

Your work is really shining the last few updates so that's not it. Sometimes people just can't think of anything useful to say. That's not good or bad, just something you gotta get used to.

[MathiasDK]

Hi, I'm new here so maybe my opinion doesn't count much but here goes:
I must say; I'm so jealous of your insanely great artistic skills! It's great to see how your knowledge of the human anatomy has evolved through your sketchbook. I'm also very thrilled about your environmental pieces with concept design and such. you have such fine detail in your pieces(I'm especially thinking about your "underwater station"). I've got one question: When you draw digital pieces, have you got a default "paper" size(pixels)? If so, what is it? (these questions are just personal interest)
Site note: your last piece of a spaceship somehow reminds me of some of Chris Foss' paintings. Which is very cool.

[wilkerson]

Alright, thanks guys. I was just trying to understand...I appreciate the posts.

mat I often start at 1480 x 760 but 2000 x 1000 is good, 2350 x 1000 aproximates film ratio. bigger is better if your computer is fast.








speedpaints

[wilkerson]

I guess you could call this something more like a matte painting using my own paintings as elements. Or you could call it a remix.




I've been working hard on this one, would love any crits.

[Leo Ki]

Am I off base? Do I need to have a blinking gif avatar or advertize "boobiez" in my thread?

Boobiez might get you more visits but people are lazy to comment anyway. As for me I'm getting out of my depth to give really useful critiques on your work. I think you could try the Finished section or the Critique center because you're tackling really advanced stuff. The only critique I can think of is that sometimes the 3D shapes are not described by enough contrasts, or the contrasts are not quite at the right place, which makes the shapes flatter than they really are. This happens in the latest painting on the round shapes, but I can't exactly point to the why. I'll try to find thorougher critiques in the next days.

[wilkerson]

thanks leo, ya know I think anyone can comment or have an opinion and if they can comment on others work then I think mine is deserving. Sure, a lot of threads are better so they will get more replies but honestly, theres some shit work on here that gets too much attention. So I'd rather have someone say "this is boring", etc than nothing. But maybe things will pick up and this argument will be invalid. I understand that sometimes people dont know what to say and I'm fine with that so no more complaining from me.

A lot of people say my work looks flat so I have to address that, although I'm not entirely sure why. I promise to really start tackling rendering techniques to give my work my more depth because the adjustment layers I'm using are not doing the trick. perhaps 3d renders?










so heres a wip. been strugling





UPDATE finished?











go easy on me, I still learning industrial design. :p

[Zweit]

Posts 256 and 257 are so great dude. And I hear that matte painters can make a really good living.

The depth problem you seem to have trouble with could probably be solved with a little more attention paid to the overall values of the pieces. Make sure that they always read as clearly in monochrome as they do in color.

Also I'd suggest a sharper brush to paint the stripes on that ship thing. The soft brush looks like it got tagged by graffiti artists.

[t11]

Holy crap we have the same last name! Crazy! I wonder if we're distant cousins... hmm...
Just went through your sketchbook and the improvement shows itself and beats you over the head... with... itself... articulate right?
That Lawrence copy from August kicks major buttocks.
The Degas copy, no easy feat what with those crazy impressionistic scrubbed brush strokes, and perhaps some color issues but I can't find enough consistent copies of it to make an educated comparison and I've never seen it in person... but considering that it works quite well and has a beautiful aged quality to it.
Your architectural concepts have also grown quite a bit. There was one a few pages back that was all greys of varying opacities but I quite liked it. Inferred depth.
Really like this latest wip of the soldiers in combat as well.
In addition to the apparent modeling of form you've improved upon don't forget about composition and perspective. Lead us through the space you're creating, let us interact with it, like from a bird, or a bug's eye. A lot of your work seems to have the same vantage points. The scene from 10/8 shows the beginnings of it like you're innately trying to break up the formula. I'm tryin' to find some of the better perspective tuts that I know are somewhere around this site for myself, when I do I'll post 'em here for you too.
Great work, keep pluggin' away man. And don't worry about not getting traffic, hell I don't either lol Thanks for sharing!
If you draw it. They will come.

[wilkerson]

hey I dont run into too many wilkersons. funny thing, theres a guy from new york named eric wilkerson who does sci-fi illustrations.
thanks for stopping by, I think you're the first person to mention the lawrence copy and I will think about what you said about vantage point.
take it easy

[xelby]

It seems like I have a difficult time getting anyone but my sketchgroup buds to comment on my thread. I don't understand really. Dont get me wrong, I value my sketchgroup a lot but there are rarely any new visitors. Did I do something to piss people off, or is my work not interesting enough? Please someone inform me. Thats six images in a row. I worked really hard on them, and I thought they were good. If I'm wrong someone tear me up. As I mentioned before I have aspergers, I cant understand people. Am I off base? Do I need to have a blinking gif avatar or advertize "boobiez" in my thread? just trying to understand.
Dialogue welcome.

Yo man, your sketchbook is great and I can only give my reasons why I dont comment on them so much. Im just a beginner and I dont really know how to crit any drawings that you've done or anyone else. I just come in sketchbooks for inspiration and to see how other peeps get on.

Your work is excellent and you can see a big improvement from your early landscape work to your stuff now. Specially all that futuristic landscapes a la Blade Runner et all. So maybe a lack of critique means your doing just fine?

I think so. Just keep on keeping on.

[My57]

Hey! I really like your environments!

I just wanna reply to your comment on my SB. It wasn't suppose to be anatomically correct. Twas a fantasy creature. It was really just a painting exercise I suppose then me remembering anatomy.

Your right about my sketches though. I should use a smaller brush but big ones make me feel like I have more freedom

You've done great improvement in this thread though! Its quite good.

PS: DONT USE BIG WORDS T_T - lol no just kidding.

[wilkerson]

alright

finished Rembrandt:



















inspired by Ryan Church

[wilkerson]

[Porg]

Think this is the first time I've visited your book, unsure though.

Really nice to see your progress and some of your environments are excellent, that large, grey spaceship; that one on a volcano; the one with a bloke in a hole with a bit of water on it is fantastic, how did you get that rock effect? Actually, all your rock faces work really well.

Those colours remind me I've got to do some more colour theory, it really helps.

As for what you said above about no one looking at your book, well you've got to realise that they're SO many people adding to the sketchbook section alone that your thread can disappear under a load of posts in a matter of minutes.

People are more likely to click on the 5 star ratings anyway, you've got four and get a fair load of comments so be thankful. Just for a comparison look at my sketchbook.

[digitalinkrod]

Awesome stuff!Great style

[Leo Ki]

The latest two paintings are really interesting, I think you should do more of that kind to explore colors and composition.
Is it made with Painter? Or maybe the latest Artrage (version 3)? Or some custom Photoshop brushes?

Renderings, indeed they could help to block the values that describe complex shapes,
although hand made training should be equally interesting.

I like the mood in Swamp Search.

In Rembrandt's Lazarus I think you could refine the facial features a bit more
with a thin brush to match the original.

[wilkerson]

work in progress







p.s. fuck christmas
humbug.