Tis be my sketchbook

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Sooo. I wanna do this too!
I will start posting some older stuff as well, on the one hand because I hope someone will probably spot general mistakes that I make and also because I plan on coloring a few.

So, I'll start with some older ones (should be about aprilish, I write dates in teeny tiny numbers on my pics, yeah, clever, huh?).

Boy. I'm kinda scared posting here, even if I have already posted stuff in the CHOW and so on.

Also, I couldn't get the paper clip thingy to work but hope in the next post it'll be ok.



Edit: Oh, ok. Works now. Also, added fancy thumbnail.
Edit again: Moved attachments to second post to be aböe to edit thumbnail more easily in future.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

So, I'll start with some older ones (should be about aprilish, I write dates in teeny tiny numbers on my pics, yeah, clever, huh?).















Ok, after fighting some technicalities, here's some more stuff.




And sum fanart.


And the most recent:




Also some color stuff. WIP's (That never seem to end...)


The dude is (obviously) referenced and the background is a reference puzzle. Thought I might add that hint.

More fanart yay! (got up real early on a sunday a few weaks ago, and man was I 12 again!!)


Chow 125


EOW I started with, but didn't finish.

[grenappels]

oh wow, nice big well drawn figures to start off a sketchbook. you're like eons past what i had when i started mine hahaha. you have interesting designs with smart directions going on in the composition of your backgrounds like in http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1222116636

and you knew what the second post had to say before you even saw it but i'll say it anyway: keep posting more!!

[MM Howard]

Very great start to a sketchbook! I am in love ith your sketches, they have a type of old fashion feel to them and detail is beautiful. Some of your drawings lean a little bit to the left in the beginning, but I can tell you have been fixing that, especially with your current CHOW posting.

Nice start! Hope to see more

[Zombunny27]

Your faces are lovely. Your sketches definitely suck me in with the whole scenes you've set up in some of them. Some of the poses seem a little rigid, but others have really nice fluidity which I'm sure will come through in more of your work. So post some more!

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Grenapples: Wow, thanks so much. I've been really trying to to come up with good compositions, thinking a lot about the flow and angles/direction and often erased the whole background to make things work. Glad it shows.

MMHoward: Hehe, do you mean the faces? I have a knack of drawing people facing to the left. But I'm aware of this and have been forcing myself for a while now to draw all kinds of angles and I'm getting more comfortable.

Hadesdream: You are so right about the fluidity. I think it has a lot to do with that nasty habit of going too much into details first. I always have to remind myself to go big and vague, lay down general proportions, even if that means to be less accurate in the beginning, and THEN tightening.
The key is probably to stay loose i think, practice and .. well, just get better! Hopefully!
I sometimes just get insecure and a little lost in what process to take.

I've gotten myself some of these über cute gashapon figures and I'm drawing them in different positions. Helps a lot with my grasp on perspective and how shadows are thrown.

(Oh and file has exactly 66,6 KB. There you go. This is probably the equivalent of playing songs backwards?)

Also, I epically failed on self portraits today.
While I do like how these turned out as portraits, they look nothing like me!
Ok, probably a tiny bit. But, meh!

I did a number of shockingly stiff, moar horrible ones before this one on the backside of the paper. Now I wished I hadn't erased them to show you the difference. But they where shinig through so badly that I ditched them.
Will think of that next time.
I also noticed for the first time today that I have amazingly pointy cheekbones!
Or I've just been staring at the mirror too long, trying to find some characteristics.



I wasn't happy at all with this when I started and I think there are still some thinks off. I posed in front of the mirror, but I didn't get it right. Maybe her torso is too long?


Oh, and I tried doing something for this weeks COW.
My monsters are all happy and/or cute.


And some more. My scanner doesn't pick up the brighter lines... and now it crashed? And is happily blinking... and taking PS down with it.:/ Oh screw you!
Ok. fixed.




And some studies from a few days ago or so.
The poses are vaguely referenced.

I'll get a digicam and hopefully this'll make things easier ( you heard that scanner? Be nice or you're getting replaced!)

I might just as well put this trainwreck up.
Yes, I suck with ink and watercolor.


(Jesus Christ!! I haven't scanned color in ages and this is really messed up.
It's not that bright in real life .)
Ok, that's it for now.
Thanks again for the comments, tear me apart if you want. It all helps.

[Larriva Art]

Nice sketchbook! Your sense of drama is very good.

I particularly like this one


Interesting faces and hands.

[Kagemusha22]

Some really interesting work, I really love the attention to detail on the faces in the rough sketchs, and the way you draw them.

[thespianmonsalvo]

There's some good work here. I really like the image of the witch who looks like she's melting. I love how her skin looks so loose and wrinkly. Her shoulders seem too rounded, though.

[bipolaroid]

Your sketchbook is already looking fantastic. You've got a great sense of composition and your concepts flow nicely - However, your anatomy needs some work ... It seems like you tend to draw people oddly short, or looking somehow disproportionate when it comes to their legs. Too, some of your lines seem a little too loose, and kind of meld together, losing some definition. Adding some various line weight will fix your sketches.

Other than that, though, gorgeous stuff so far. (: Keep posting

[Bones Weep Tedium]

I really like your line art; very delicate and sensitive. I think that there are a few issues with anatomy/proportion you need to address (the length of peoples legs I noticed were a but stumpy a coupla times) but your sketches are very nice becasue of the delicacy of your mark making.

I think though that your painted pieces are a bit muddy looking? I think maybe your're darkening the line art, and it's making things a bit black? Maybe if you use the Load Channel method of handling your line art you could colour them a softer colour that would suit the palette of your illo a little closer?

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Thanks so much guys!!
VampireHungerStrike, Kagemusha, thespianmonsalvo: Thanks, I like that Witch piece also. It was something like a breakthrough after a bit of a creative crisis. I needed to get loose again and make more selfconfident lines and get back to what I like in my drawings.
I experiment around a little with how loose is too loose right now. ;P
Wich you might have just answered, bipolaroid.

I realize my heads are too big, and I tend more towards 5 heads, but thanks for pointing the legs out. I guess that's what's off with some of the pictures and what skews the poses, I just really wasn't aware of that!
I need to keep that in mind and go back to doing some studies/gestures. Big time! ;P

I in fact, I was worried that on the tentacle piece her legs where wayy too long. (You see, I'm short. My legs are short, so probably I think everybody should have stumpy little legs too. Hah!)

About the line quality, BonesWeepTedium: I have a crappy, crappy scanner or the wrong settings and I lower the brightness somewhat (-50 too 70) and f**ck around with contrast on most of these scans, especially those on the white paper because there some of the finer lines get really, really bright. I'm working with layer masks to darken some parts and leave others alone to restore how it originally looks like, but it's a pain inthe ass.
What do you mean with the load channel method? Maybe there's hope!!

Painting is definelty what I struggle with the most.
While I had some breakthrough with my pencils lately, I'm still kinda "scared" of color.
Also, I always ended up having altogether rather light pics with very little definition so now I'm pushing values and I feel like I'm doing that kinda wrong too.
I think I haven't really found an approach, or "look" that I like and do not get into the kind of workflow that I have with my pencils.

Any input on that is very, very welcome! (Though I hope it's simply getting better with practice! ...please.

Er, yeah. Writing a novel. I'm doing it.

So, on to todays shtuff.

I noticed the proportional issues on this one as well and fixed some stuff, hope it looks better now.


And I need to work on my rendering. I realized today what I had already guessed, that the basic problem is really about defining forms properly and ultimately about color theory. Bah...
Oh well, an onion a day... (it's referenced btw., photo referenced because my fridge is empty. )


And I wanted to get some more atmospheric pieces right, so I worked from reference with some heavy color picking, to get a clue on how brightness and saturation behaves.


So, there are those characteristic patterns on the ground wich I was trying to get right but blargh!!
So I made a "detail shot", still not so phenomenal.


And, for my personal triumph today!
The lines here look crappy but at least it looks like me!!



Oh and I forgot to post this weeks CHOW.


I think I will go back to this background again, once I've done a few studies.
(haha, I wrote my name wrong in the boarder. ... doh!)

[Xerotin]

Wow just wanted to say i am so impressed by your sketches

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

So. Did some studies today, setting up a grid (Loomis) but... that didn't go so well.




And some gestures.

[HAJiME]

Nice delicate drawings. The colours in the two chow are lovely.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Thanks, hajime.

Small update. Working on the current CHOW.






And something I did this night. Also posted in the WIPs and sketches section.


And another one I did today, inspired by the CHow.
Perspective is yuck but I'll keep this as a thumbnail and rework it.

[Justice Von Brandt]

Hello
I really like your pencils! A lot of line and movement.

[towy]

good line here i like really, learn more the anatomy... i think really good for after

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Thanks guys.
Urgh, this was supposed to be a larger update, but PS crashed and took my scans with it.
But, I've ordered a digicam yesterday. Yay!
So, that will make things a little easier in the future

So, what little I have goes here:
Not too happy with this, didn't really think enough about the light source and my lines got so "hard" .
Also has llots of mystery-muscle placement going on. Some of it intentional to create tonal differences, others...not so much.(and yes, if you look closely she has a third breast+nipple, imagine the poor girl trying to find a suitable bra. )

Edit: OOOHH! I can't believe it, I did the thumb-thing!1!! Will fix right away.
Edit2: Ok, fixed. No wonder I felt her hand was postured oddly. ;P

And my CHOW for this week:



And some more tinkering with the idea of a few pics up:

[SirJogs]

i really like your pencil drawings, such a classical feel to them. keep it up *big thumbs up*

[dierat]

Zomg I'm totally envious of your pencilwork ^^ It seems to be your best medium atm and comes quite naturally to you, or else you have a ton of practice with it and it's showing In any case, I think one thing that could make it even better is a little more attention to lineweight. For instance in the drawing of the boy and the girl surrounded by crazy tree things in post #2, there it a lot of spacial changes happening in the image that are not being demonstrated by your lines. By making the objects that are closer to us darker and the objects that are farther away lighter, you could bring more volumetric presence to your linear imagery.

For your digital work, so far the onion and the mermaid pieces both really strike me. The other images that I find to be less successful seem to be very blurry, as if you were using a lot of airbrush or a really soft brush. Unless you're doing a background gradiency, I would suggest on holding off on those brushes until the latter stages of the painting, when you have everything worked out and you want to smooth out and render tonal areas. Other than that I don't have any real crits, just keep up the practice and keep up with the sketchbook updates ^^

[kidult]

Just keep pushing it - your didgtal work looks like its gonna rock socks offf!

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Thanks Kidult.
Dierat: Aw, thanks. Yeah, I went back to pencils for the past half year and I got mucho in the groove with them.
Unfortunately, color still feels sooo much more unnatural to me. I've got fun and a nice workflow with pencils and the lines come easily and I'm much more confident in my strokes. With color I still feel like a seven yearold clutching the crayon too tightly.
I know it sounds retarted but I AM using hard round brushes and I really don't have a clue how in the world I always end up with these mushy colors and fuzzy edges.
I think my block ins are already a mess, much! So coloring on top of it is a pain.
It's weird, with pencils I can imagine the form of an object and convey it but with color I think I'm not definite enough with how I carve out my shapes.
And you're right about the atmospheric flatness. I shy away from hatching because I feel it intereferes with the crinkly lines but I need to get over that. ;P
In the tentacle piece I hope it's a bit better.
But probably you mean I could make the "outline" of the tree thingy thicker to achieve a better separation from the focal area?

I've added some process shots for a refd study.
Any pointers are much, much appreciated!





And I hope I don't harm any copyright laws but here is the ref:



Uh, and also some legs I did today. I hate feet. Grrr.



And a small update for the summoner piece:

[LisandroG]

Those leg studies are good

you have some beautiful lines in your drawings

I'd love to see more studies like that, and looking forward to seeing more of the summoner piece - nice work

[dierat]

Dierat: Aw, thanks. Yeah, I went back to pencils for the past half year and I got mucho in the groove with them.
Unfortunately, color still feels sooo much more unnatural to me. I've got fun and a nice workflow with pencils and the lines come easily and I'm much more confident in my strokes. With color I still feel like a seven yearold clutching the crayon too tightly.
I know it sounds retarted but I AM using hard round brushes and I really don't have a clue how in the world I always end up with these mushy colors and fuzzy edges.
I think my block ins are already a mess, much! So coloring on top of it is a pain.
It's weird, with pencils I can imagine the form of an object and convey it but with color I think I'm not definite enough with how I carve out my shapes.
And you're right about the atmospheric flatness. I shy away from hatching because I feel it intereferes with the crinkly lines but I need to get over that. ;P
In the tentacle piece I hope it's a bit better.
But probably you mean I could make the "outline" of the tree thingy thicker to achieve a better separation from the focal area?

Yeah I'm talking about the weight of your outlines and the lines that are describing the shape and texture of surfaces. By varying the weight of your lines, you can describe volume as well as tonal variations. I'm not talking about hatching or any kind of shading. If an object exists very close to the viewer, it should have more variance in the lineweight versus objects or scenery that are very far away. It follows the basic principles of atmospheric perspective, basically. High variation in lineweight suggests high contrast, and light, whispy lines suggest low contrast, etc. In following this idea, an oject that is sitting in bright sunlight will have very high contrast and should be described with both very heavy and very light lines to suggest this, whereas an object that is resting in the shadows would have much less variation in its lines. Etc.

Using curves and and a large eraser at 15% opacity, I fiddled with your Resting img as a quick example. It's not a great example but I didn't want to spend too much time on it.

I think in the original resting you were already using lineweight variation to describe space, but by taking a conscious decision to push that element of your drawings, you will only improve the level of polish in your linear work.


For your digital work, perhaps you are using low opacity brushes when blocking in your figures? I would suggest James Kei's figure drawing demo, but from your comment in my sb, it sounds like you already have it ^^ I'm not a great example, but when I first start to block in a figure, I usually use about 60% opacity on my brush. In the beginning, I just set in the basic tonal structure that the figure will be based on. Then I go around and start fixing my original sketch at about 40% opacity, and I stay there well into the end of the img. When I go in for final render for detailing and smoothing, I lower it to about 25%.

So far the referenced painting is looking really good; just try not to get bogged down with details too early. Simplify it into general areas of light and dark first, and get more detailed as you go along. I think it helps if you start with a very small canvas, which forces you to get the thumbnail down first. Then enlarge your canvas in steps as you get further and further into the img.

Eh hope some of that's helpful ^^

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

LeSeraph: Thanks, yeah, I've pulled my Rogers Peck back out and do some muscle studies again.
Ah, Dierat, that's super helpful! I really wasn't sure how to translate the fuzziness of edges and high contrast other than detailing , your version looks so much better! I think I did some of that intuitively, but now that I'm aware I can really solve such problems. Thank you so much.

For the digital, funny, but I've never really lowered opacity but just set it to pen pressure. (while still at 100%) I tried that today along with the chalk brush. (lol, to emphasize his manliness. )
I actually like the chalk brush somewhat, adds some slight texture and nice edges. The lowered opacity I felt, actually gave me better control in some places, especially when warming up areas and such.
I also dissabled the flow and size jitter, I think that somewhat helps with accurate edges.
Hm, I do put in details way to early. I'm still utterly confused about when to do what but it makes sense that early detailing just muddys things up and I'll go over them to adjust value and form on a larger scale anyway, and so I try to work around the details and end up with somewhat disjointed strokes.

Anyway, so here's my update on the guy. I lost some likeness and messed up the eye.


I need so much more practice! I'll watch James Kei for the 3rd time now.
I see what he's doing, and as soon as I fire up PS, it's all gone and I start messing again.

Some quick muscle study, mainly because I've got trouble with knees and everything downwards.


Some more update. I think going muddy again.
But I've got a hard edge on the nose. Yay.


And some poses. (posemaniacs. The kneeling guy was a pain to get right :X)

[RandAlThor]

Nice sketches dude, your figure-creature comps really caught my eye, would like to see some of these rendered up ;-)

[The Whistler]

Hey!

First of all, you've been giving me these helpful comments all over the CHOW forum and I never manage to thank you properly, last time I critted everyone you snuck in before I could see you so I feel like I'm unintentionally avoiding you. Sorry for that

Now for the SB, I really like the fluidity of your pencil sketches, they look really good, especially this one

However, they seem to suffer when you color because the coloring seems kind of sloppy, and it's really a shame 'cause you have some really lovely sketches. This one (the face) and the onion are exceptions from what I said about coloring (and they look awesome), and I believe that comes from spending more time on a piece when you color, so maybe you should spend more time on that.

I'm guilty of the same thing BTW so maybe I should keep my mouth shut ...

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

RandAlThor: Thank you.

TeWhistler: Aw, no problem.
Like I wrote a few posts up that I really get lost colour theory wise on not referenced pieces.
I think I'm so I'm having a hard time pulling through and establishing form properly. I'll just need to study more! YAY! Oh...

Also I'm a huge retard! I managed to save over my hi-res ... again.
So, this is my last update for the portrait, stuck with a 400 px wide version.


(Yes, poopy update. Meh.)

[ForScience]

You have such a delicate and interesting drawing style, really sensitive feeling. Your initial layout is really strong but you lose some of that spontaneity as you render your drawings out. I wish I had a suggestion on how to fix that, but I have the same issue.