Looking for Help to Improve

[Adam Schumpert]

Ok well so far I have been agonizing about whether to post a Sketchbook or not. There are so many talented artists here and so many wonderful sketchbooks to enjoy that the idea of adding my own work up here is a little intimidating. Still my desire to improve as an artist and connect with fellow artist has finally pushed me beyond my insecurity. So anyway on with the art. Hope you like what you see, If you do and if you don't please let me know. I'm somewhat of a feedback junkie .


Adam Schumpert

This is one of my personal favorites I can't really say why. It started out as a simple object study of an old gas mask and then kind of took off with a life of its own.



Update: Dec. 2 2008... Ok so I wanted to post a picture at least once a day well that went out the window... So lets try again shall we.

[Adam Schumpert]

These are some more traditional "fine art" type pieces some figure drawings and color studies.

[Adam Schumpert]

Ok for the next installment I guess it would be good to explain a couple of things. I'm a pretty avid gamer. I've played rpgs for quite a long time. When I sit down to sketch, a lot of times what I end up drawing are character pictures, villains, or supporting cast for the games that I play in. Recently I've been playing a game based in Warhammer 40k setting, so a lot of my most recent sketches tend to be based around that game. Anyway enough explaining for now.













After coloring this one I decided that I should start pushing my pictures more. Mostly what I've produced so far is kind of a portrait gallery, but I wanted to add more interest in the pictures. So I've started playing around with more interesting angles and different details.





This is the Space ork pic I posted in the Critique threads got lots of good advice on this it helped a lot.



and last for now is a picture that was inspired by a thread on a roleplaying game forum. The thread was titled "What would you look like as a WH40k rp character?" Everyone posted up statlines and skill lists mostly as a joke. I decided to take the title a little more literal and produced my first self portrait in years.

[Adam Schumpert]

A few months ago I started using Photoshop to color my artwork. I'm dieing to get a tablet but at the moment I don't have the monetary funds to do so. So for now I'm using my mouse trying to learn as much as I can about the program. For a long time it seems I never really finished any of my art I would start a drawing but would have an idea part of the way through or get stuck on some part. Then I would move on to the next thing. So recently I have been forcing myself to go back and finish pieces, try coloring them, or reworking them to get past whatever hang ups I had. Here are some of the colors I done so far.





Later

[Adam Schumpert]

Ok these are some doodles and WIPs. I going to try to keep posting something at least once a day. Its a pretty loffty goal at the moment seeing as time is at a premium for me. I get about 30-45 mins durring my lunch break each day to draw if I'm lucky. To be quite honest its driving me nuts, but anyway.

this first pic is actually meant to be an underpainting for a group shot of characters. I was trying to make sure I got thier sizes correct as well as the lighting consitant. The plan is to blow up the figures a bit and trace over them.



These are some head shots of the 2nd and 4th character from the left in the group shot above.



This is a good fairy and bad fairy I'm working on for a friend who is planning on having them tattooed on her shoulders. Kind of a fairy version of the angel and devil on the shoulder conscience type thing.



Well thats it for now I'll post some more up later.

Take care
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Working on CHOW 124



detail



Later

Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

CHOW 124 update... I had the idea for her sidekick while I was at work today and I just couldn't help myself.



Then again who really would be a better space-smuggler sidekick than a mini space-thulhu?

Later,
Adam

[Leper]

I like the group shot... nice and diverse set of characters... I would be happy to follow their story.

[the ANGRY filipino]

Yep, the group shot is nice. You can draw nice faces with characters,
however, the proportion in your human bodies can be off at times.
The anatomy studies you did are really good, hope to see you post more of those in the future!

[R&F]

You got some nice Warhammer concepts I really like them

[Adam Schumpert]

Ok so life has a way of getting in the way of what you really want to do, but anyway. Maybe my goal of one post a day was a bit ambitious, but then again I've always believed the best way to get to where you want was to push yourself as far as you could go. I find that I always produce my best work when I remind myself to push it further than I would normally go.
Anyway got a new computer and finally got a tablet YAY!!!
Anyway so for my first digital painting I decided to take part in CHOW 136 goblin gunslinger. I feel like I am trudging through waist deep snow as far as getting used to the digital painting goes. I know I'm only barely scratching the surface of the potential of the process, but for a first attempt I'm pretty happy with it.





Take care and thanks for taking a look at my sketchbook,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Well I didn't get CHOW 137 Goblin Boss done, life strikes again . Ah well its not a big deal. This is what I got done.

He doesn't quite say Boss to me though. High ranking thug sure but not Boss. Maybe a lvl boss if we were talking a video game but not the end boss.

Anyway I am having a blast with the tablet. Learning a lot even though I've only got 2 digital paintings, with the tablet, under my belt so far. I've got to get faster, but I know speed will come with time.

Take care,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Well this weeks CHOW 138: Countess Elizabeth Báthory is going really well so far. I was able to actually start on Mon. night and I had this Wed. off from work. So I've gotten to put in some real time, which has been wonderful.

I was a little intimidated by this CHOW. I'm still learning to use my tablet and I'm learning PS CS3 also. However, worse than that I haven't painted a person in any media since Highschool, and back then I was never happy with any of the paintings I did of people. I had colored some of my line drawings with photoshop 7 but for me coloring linework is much different than painting. So I was a little worried that I would get frustrated by not being able to digitally paint with the same lvl of compentacy that I wanted. The goblins where easier. You don't have to worry about weather or not something looks realilistic when you are dealing with Fantasy creatures after all. Anyway long story short I have been pleasently surprised with what I've been able to accomplish so far. Its been a lot of fun.

Anyway enough chit-chat here's my WIP for CHOW 138: Countess Elizabeth Báthory.





Thanks for taking the time to look over my sketch book.

Take Care,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Well I think I'm almost finished with the countess. Just maybe a few nit picky changes in the details.







Not bad for my third painting with my tablet if I do say so myself.

This has been one hell of a learning experience, but it has also been a lot of fun.
I really wish I could spend as much time as I have on this piece on all my artwork.
It is so therapeutic. I've had a great week working on this it was so much fun.
Well... except maybe for the lack of sleep, but it was definitely worth it.

Thanks for taking a look at my work.

Take care,
Adam

[Hive_minD]

Dude, your stuff is wicked. You are improving much!
Keep it going mate. Totally awesome!

Chris

[Adam Schumpert]

Hive_minD - thank you very much for the encouragement!

This post is just a Photobucket test. I'll post a real update when I get some more time.

Update: Ok so photobucket didn't kick my picture off which is a good thing but I've decided to swap this version out for the final version I posted for the CHOW seeing as I already have plenty of versions of this picture on my SB.


Take care,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Ok quick update... I've worked on the last 2 CHOWs tried to crit the countess CHOW haven't quite crited all of the entires but now the its almost Christmas as a jeweler my job takes even more of my time than usual so I probably won't get them done. I'm having a great time working on CHOW 140 the Bettie Page tribute. Anyway on with the images.

Images for CHOW 139 I'm not really happy with my final piece but the comic that went with it was a lot of fun.




This is what I've got for CHOW 140 Bettie so far I'm really going to have to push myself to get this one done. Looks like long nights ahead for me... but at least they will be long nights working on art It's going to be awesome fun!

[Adam Schumpert]

Quick update on Bettie

Steady as she goes.



Later,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Well, I pulled some crazy hours and worked so long into the night that my hand started to cramp up, but I can't express how much better I have felt mentally being able to work on my art. Forcing myself to make time for the past few CHOWs has been a blast, and the lack of sleep has definitely be worth the amount I've learned.

Anyway, here she is...


Having stolen the hearts and coin-purses of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, Blackheart Bettie sailed over the horizon and into the setting sun. She will be missed.

I'll post up some details and close-ups when I get a chance.
Thanks for taking a look at SB.

Take care,
Adam

[Swampdigger]

Hey, it's starting to look nice in here. Seems like your colors are getting better. I had to drop a comment when I saw the comic for Chow 139. I love the lines in that one. A lot of the Warhammer stuff was strong too. On your latest Chow, I would take a look at her hips and how they connect to her legs. Maybe it's just me, but it looks like her midriff should twist to the left a bit more before the legs. Hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

Keep at it, there's some cool stuff in here.

[shannanigan]

Having stolen the hearts and coin-purses of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, Blackheart Bettie sailed over the horizon and into the setting sun. She will be missed.

I was going to post in the Final Burning thread but thought it might get lost..... LOVE the Pirate Bettie!! I think it turned out fantastic...

[Adam Schumpert]

Swampdigger - Thank you very much for the compliment and the crit. I knew there was something a little funky about her leg, and sure enough when I looked back at the reference I was using I could tell what I did. I actually have turned her right leg not quite 90 degrees I should have drawn it almost profile to match the very top of her hip. I'll try to find time to fix it as soon as I can.

Shannaigan - Thank you very much for posting here. Comments do sometimes get lost in the high traffic of the CHOW threads. I was pleased with how Pirate Betty turned out and I'm glad you liked her too.

I'm trying to get some more action in my work and also looking through some other artists' SBs and such I realize just how much painting practice I need. so...
Here are a few sketches and a little digital painting practice as well as my current CHOW Knights of the Round Table wip.

[Adam Schumpert]

Quick update working on Lancelot. Really hoping that I have time to finish all of my knights... might have to cut one or two... but which ones...I like them all ah well I'm going to see what I can get done, I just have to decide to really challenge myself to finish them all. Anyway talking to much... update wip instead...



Later

[Adam Schumpert]

ok don't laugh this is a horribly rough doodle I've been working on while I was at work today. I decided I wanted to do a more interesting conposition in a portrait format rather than landscape. So that it will lose less detail when reduced to 400-300 pixels wide for the CHOW poll. Sorry also about the size of this one I'll post up a tighter version when I get a chance to work on it at home.

Take care,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Ok as promised an updated version of the crappy comp thumbnail above.

Knights WIPs


Now back to work!

Later,

[Adam Schumpert]

OK well here is the final verison that I posted up in the CHOW thread. This really didn't turn out the way I had envisioned it, but there are things that I like. I really feel like I'm working harder not smarter and I need to change that. I ended up runing out of time and so I took a lot of short cuts on this one at the end and it really shows. Ah well.


As always thanks for looking over my SB.

Take care,
Adam

[Adam Schumpert]

Well I wasn't originally planning on taking part in this weeks CHOW. I thought I would take a break and work on some other stuff, but I liked my idea to much to pass it up. I thought it might be neat to turn Wonderland into a Cyber-punk (Bladerunnerish) city and draw the Cheshire Cat and Caterpillar from that angle. I left the background kind of loose for the CHOW because I'm going out of town this weekend, and so I had to go ahead and finish it up. I do have some ideas to try and tie the environment back into the Wonderland theme that I want to work on. Maybe next week after I get back home I'll give it a shot.

I need to work on broadening my work. Spread myself out, challenge myself to do some environments, creatures, and action scenes, learn to work faster, and learn better techniques for digital painting. I know I've got a long way to go but I really have a burning desire to learn as much as I can. I'm seriously looking at going back to school. To get back to a point where I can be in an environment centered around art is the dream I'm striving for. Its funny how true the statement "hindsight is 20/20" is I wish I had this desire, this hunger to learn all I can about art while I was in school the first time. I just wasn't ready at the time, but at least I realize that now instead of later.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough here are the finals that I submitted for this weeks CHOW. Hope you like them.





Later,
Adam

[a la bapsi]

that's a take on the two alice in wonderland characters that i've definitely never seen before.
great job. O___O

[Adam Schumpert]

Wow I've neglected my sketchbook for far to long.

Well let me start by saying thank you a la bapsi! Thank you for the comment and for stopping by my sketchbook.
I’m glad you liked my Caterpillar and Cheshire cat. I really liked working on the Wonderland characters especially the caterpillar
(I need to make a coat like that and I need to learn how to blow smoke skulls. I'm not a smoker but that would just be awesome ).
I really need to go ahead and work back into the rest of the picture and tighten this one up a bit
I feel like it could be a pretty good portfolio piece with a little more attention.

Well even though I haven't been showing my SB thread any love recently I have been working,
trying to keep up with the CHOWs and such. Still trying to find more time wherever I can.

Ok I did work on twins a bit but couldn’t find the time to finish didn’t really like where it was going
I did like the faces but everything else seemed a little blah. (I don’t have the images for this one on the computer
that I’m using right now but I will edit this post later when I get home)

Next was Super villain self-portrait, which was a lot of fun. I had a few different ideas some of which I’m still trying to work on
but here is the final post for the CHOW. I really was able to start adding and messing with overlaying textures in this one learning
some nifty tricks and such.




As I was working on this one I sent the image to a friend of mine who responded with just the two following lines.
I thought they where funny enough to spark their own little illustration so I threw this together just for fun.


I didn’t get enough time to work on Titania. I wish I had. I really liked where this one was going.
Now it’s gone to the stack of work that I will finish up when I find time. (I really need to learn how to survive without sleep ;P )


Baba Yaga was a lot of fun. I had such a hard time deciding which way to take this one I had several different ideas.
Here what I sent to final.




Ok last but not least is what I’m working on for this weeks CHOW (I still need to expand to working on different things
environments and such but chows are so addictive for me). I havn’t gotten very far just basic sketch
and laying down some value. I’m going to try to keep this one simple and tight on the character to give me more time.
We’ll see how that goes I guess.



Well that’s it for now I will be posting up some more wips of other stuff I’m working on when I get home,
and I’ll try to be a little more regular in my updates.

Take care,
Adam

[Joey-b]

this one is gonna look great again, full of action
nice book, impressive progress here