Jesi's Sketchbook of practice, practice, practice...

[Estrella]

Thank you for checking out my sketchbook!


This is a project I'll be doing till October 7th for my drawing class in school (Guildhall at SMU). I’m working on my first major ‘practice’ piece in digital painting using Photoshop. The basic rule of the assignment is to paint the picture to a photo real state only using the eye dropper tool to get color picks.

Feel free to leave comments and critiques.

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Project Outline:

1. Find a Subject (Photo) of a person with a high level of detail in it (I got mine from deviantart.com)

2. Pencils – Define the details, features and proportions of the subject

3. Values – Work up a black/white version of the subject

4. Colors – Work up colors and skin details to high level of realism

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Current Progress:

We did a pencil sketch to start off with, then progressed into a value 'sketch' (focused on catching light) I made some corrections on features while going through my value sketch, I still have a lot of work to do on getting the values spot on, but this is where I am so far. Thanks!

[Estrella]

Here is the original reference photo and my first 'pencil' sketch done in Adobe Photoshop.




*ref material from stock photography ~ http://katanaz-stock.deviantart.com/...ck-63-81859771

[Estrella]

Here is the value sketch I completed next, still need some work on the hair and other areas. Comments are appreciated as always! ^_^

[Estrella]

More on value, trying to get realistically correct on values and features. Any help is appreciated! ^_^

[Nrx]

Hey great stuff, a couple of points on the right edge of her forehead i think you have the skin too bright, it seems to me to darken slightly as the forhead curves away. also your not showing enough of the hair in the top left this makes the head seem to have part of the skull cut off.

Other than that your works great, only advice i can offer you really is to do lots of drawings dont focus on one for too long.


Keep it up!

[Clochette]

Cool, I'm waiting to see more.

[danishaagha1986]

This is very nice... keep it up...!!!

[destinyapocalypse]

nice job keep it up!and u should try paint this job

[M0RS]

Lookin' good. I'd like to see more stuff.

[Estrella]

Nrx: Thank you for replying! I think you are definitely right about the hair, as I knew there was soooomething off but I could'nt tell and that may very well be it! I will take a closer look at the values on the side of the face, it might give her face more depth too, thanks for the advice!

Clochette
Thanks for stopping in, I will be working on this and posting some other stuff up soon. ^_^

danishaagha1986: Thank you for the kind words! I'll stop in some time to check out some of your work, thanks again.

destinyapocalypse: Thank you for the kind words as well! If by paint you mean give it color, that is the next step in the process (eek!). First we have to get the values and features pretty dead on so I'm trying... Thanks!

MORS: Thanks for stopping in, I would like to place more stuff up I'm just afraid it won't be "worthy" haha. But soon I will have an update on this and some other work. Check back! ^_^

Thanks again everyone


Jesi

[Estrella]

We are working on a team game (tgp) and I am the sole artist on a team of three. The other two are a Level Designer and a Programmer. I wanted to place some of the beginning concept art that I've drawn up over the past week. Since it's my sketchbook I'll place some finished stuff and unfinished sketches. Hope you enjoy, comments are always welcome! ^_^.

P.S. working on my previous portrait still I'll have an update soon.

The story is based on the Russian-U.S. Space race and is told from the perspective of a Russian farmer turned cosmonaut (Flipsky) he must fight against the Capitalist Pigs and rescue his farmer comrades that went up into space with him to bring home pride to the Motherland. That's it in a nutshell!

[jedininjaman]

haha charming on tip with the digitals try not to do a bunch of little strokes, it tends to make the work look messy, values are close though
and I like the cartoons keep it up and stop by sometime
-jedi

[mik.c]

I'm loving the cosmonauts story Your cosmonaut, though, appears to have the body shape of a jellybean-don't know if that was intentional or not. Also, on your painting, watch the reflected light on the chin and jawbone area; it's slightly more defined in the photo than in your drawing at the moment.
Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see updates!

[Estrella]

Jedi: Thanks for the comments, the story was all my Level Designers idea but I really enjoy it as well so I'm having a blast designing the art. Thanks for the advice on the line art, I'm having a hard time using photoshop to do stuff, I might switch to the pen tool to make things smoother. Great advice!

mik. c - haha yeah the jelly bean body is intentional, I actually looked at Spumco's Ren & Stimpy style for influence and his body is basically Stimpy's body reworked. And thank you for pointing out the jawline in that photo I am having trouble figuring out how to effectively use brushes to make skin look smooth, transition well and still not look so smooth it looks like someone waxed her face lol.

Ty for the comments! ^_^

[Estrella]

I've gone through the first pass on color. I am finding myself making corrections as I go along to features, so far I have poured the most work into the eyes and the skin and other attributes have been mostly just blocked in with color. If anyone can give me any tips and tricks for textures on skin or hair it would be awesome! As that's what I'm most worried about making realistic. I have to have this finished by Tuesday and as realistic as possible, I'll be working through the weekend on it (as well as a bunch of other unrelated projects, oh lord! @_@)

P.S. Yes I know her brow is missing, all those little hairs scare me but I'll get there eventually. lol

P.P.S I attached the eyes for further scrutiny...even I can see a few mistakes but I'd like to hear what 'fresher eyes' (pun intended?) see as well.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Hey, sweet sketchbook.
Your cartoony figures are totally awesome.
For the portrait: YOu need to warm up certain areas.
Skin gets more saturated in dark areas (red, saturated).
Your shadows tend to be grey.
Unfortunately, the ref is really too bright in areas and the blue and orange streaks don't help either. :/
I'd really recommend next time to find a ref that's more readable, has stronger contrasts to shows you the actual form of things better.
You can push your values here some more. The area above the eye for example is darker than the area below it, while in your pic it's pretty much the same.
Hope that helps.

[Socks]

I don't have much experience on digital painting (or any painting, for that matter), but I think you did a fairly good job on the eyes. Most of the time, I feel that a lot of paintings tend to fail mainly because the eyes seem dead or unorganic. I feel as if the eyes you have painted seem natural and well done.

[Estrella]

Still working on it, this is tough! I'm unsatisfied with my features completely, but they seem okay for now. If I have time I'll go back and polish them.

I'm still having trouble with textures, like skin texture. I think the jawline is off too but I can't quite tell... Any comments would be awesome! Thanks everyone! ^_^

P.S. Reference photo is at the top if you missed it.

[algenpfleger]

Hmmm this is coming along nicely, make sure you don't pour too much orange there around the eyes, what works on photos may not always work on paintings. Use some greens, purples and reds as well for good balance

I suspect you already know these, but if not you should have a look at Linda Berkvist's tutorials. http://www.furiae.com/index.php These are rad.

[Estrella]

Oo Thanks, great advice. I noticed I used the "color picker" tool occasionally and it conflicted with what i traditionally thought I should use...like you said it picked browns when i saw hints of purple or green... Thanks for reminding me..

I have not looked at that website before, it is AWESOME. I love it, thanks so much for sharing! I'll be sure to learn from her stuff...

[Pan2]

Astounding work on the eyes...I can't wait to see it finished!

I wish photoshop had a friggin color wheel -_-;

[Estrella]

Working at it but this is reaaally tough. I'm still having trouble with the left side of the cheek especially with the colors. There are tiny hairs that line the left side of her cheek that I don't really know how to replicate... Any tips would be awesome. Thanks!

[artist_essam]

Great work

and thank you for your advice

[Estrella]

Well, I turned in my portrait still probably only at 70% completion to my own standards (not that I really have standards on this sort of thing since it's my first digital portrait hehe). I also posted the "box art" for our Cosmonuts game, really kind of tongue and cheek art that balances out my hyper realistic and some what boring to look at portrait haha. Hopefully over break I'll have some more interesting things up (we have a fall break next week).

Thanks for all your comments

[Estrella]

here's the cover, first pass on it, still wondering what to do for the background red image since it's just overlaid over a something else... and I need to make the silhouettes blend better into the bottom area, but asides from that, what do you think about the design? Is there too much going on?

[Killer-arts]

Awsome work on the portrait love it colors are very good
looking forward too more.

[Estrella]

Some stuff from school, the gun concept and some gun concepts based on household items ...kinda fun. The more rendered out one we are making in 3ds max currently. I'm working on the unwrap right now, it's pretty difficult. Some studies are there as well.

Lastly the black/red piece was a reactionary piece to my boyfriend's apartment (and my old apartment before I moved for school) got broken into, $2K worth of things were stolen.