Victor B's skbk 1-3-11

[Victor B]

speedpaint..

[Victor B]

hope everyone had a good weekend, here's another speedpaint

no ref for these little speedpaints

[Victor B]

anootherrr wip , edit slight , update

[Victor B]

just another quick updt edit: paintjob

[Victor B]

quick sketch , I'll try and scan some sketches later

[Victor B]

another quick sketch

[Victor B]

here's a quick comic test ,trying to find efficient comic style working completely in PS. so this would be like a test panel, not bad

[Victor B]

oy' sorrrrrry for not posting , I have been drawing, mostly on paper! Did download demo for new PS did this doodle mostly on it sorta Gears 2 inspired.

will try and upload some more stuff.. Later..

[MattGamer]

nice gears 2 inspired piece.
though nothing pops out to me or is eye catching.
it seems to me a little flat for some reason.

[Victor B]

Matt!!! thanks for stopping by! straight on all the crits,

Arghh I haven't been updating, although I have been drawing, been working on some comic stuff lately , will try and do a longer post on that.... Monday! I just wanted to do an update on a WIP. STAR WARS
Where I actually saved some of the separate steps so you can see how I'm currently working. I start out just doodling straight in Ps cs4 (free 30 trial) you see me add more values, little color/texture, then washes of color, Work on the backround and finaly start refining painting the characters opaquely. I will go into more detail if anyones interested when I post the finished piece. OH the intial sketch was done with no ref But I did google some ref once I started to get into the characters and found a photo that looks quiet simlar to mine i.e the cast on the Endor Moon.

Hope everyone has a fun weekend.

[Victor B]

Quick update, Just two landscape studies, I actually really like the 2nd painted straight in color no b&W , and updt on the STAR WARS piece, R2D2 is pretty much finished, making my way across

[Jakers]

Some of the texturing work you are getting into the star wars image is coming out great...for depth, make sure the most detailed areas of foliage are closer to us. R2 came out nice! One thing that bugs me a bit about him is the perspective of the dome on top, it feels like it doesnt curve backwards quite enough, or its slanted a tiny bit to the right. its pretty minor but see what you think - try flipping the image.

The speed paintings are a good thing to practive - one thing I'm wondering though, is if you dont feel you have appropriately captured the image, that you should spend even more time on them. Speed paintings should accurately describe what is happening, and there is nothing wrong with extra practice to gain a better understanding before you can whip something out in 20 minutes.

[Victor B]

Great Points Jakers , I'll definetly look into it,thanks for stopping by, I'll have to swing by your skbk later!

[Dile_]

man this sketchbook has taught me so much new digital techniques already.. I love your work man.. I hope you keep posting.. you have good self-observation which is good and you improve very quickly .. keep it up!

[Victor B]

Wow, Dile that's one of the nicest things anyone's said to me! Thanks for the encouragement.

[MattGamer]

keep it up. like william (dile) said. you got some good
painting styles. i'm always a sucker for fan art! there's not
enough of it on the forums! i wish i could do more, but need
to study moar and less play. :]

keep up the studies. how is CS4? is is better than CS3? i like
my CS3 it's comfy.

[Victor B]

Jakers/Dile_ /Matt- Thanks for stopping bye giving crits and leaving comments, its really appreciated!

Well First let me just say I was really enjoying the Star Wars piece as I was posting, but immediately after began to Hate IT! I just see way to many problems, I realize by not planing out further by just flying by the seat of my pants I set myself up to have some harder problems to solve in the later stages. I should have worked out the characters in B&W at least a lot more , especially if I was hoping for any type of likeness. I haven't painted characters in Ps in a while. Also should have done thumbs , I just sorta started doodling and kept going , but I've really lost interest in finishing the piece. I may Start another SW piece (with the aforementioned MORE planning ) sometime soon. I do felt I streched and learned some tricks doing the image so its not all doom and gloom.
Ok SOooooooo Here's some of the type of things I have been doing but not posting cause its a pain to scan and upload. Excuse me if I ramble a bit I'll try and focus. This all has to do with "what do you want to DO? question. I seem to have loads of trouble answering lately. I love storytelling and I love art. Even on just the pure art side of things I'm frequently bouncing around. I feel like I see some awesome concept art for movie or game and say "Thats it thats bloody genius, that is what I want to do" . .. Then I'll see an article on article on Jeremy Lipking or Sean Cheetham, and I'll say "Now this this is what I want to do" apply to illustration/cover artists/Storyboarding etc. so on and so forth, And of coarse my ever present LOVE Comics. So to make along story short I set about asking myself a big load of questions, to figure what is more/most important to me. It is clear to me that I love all these aspects of art. But which do I love the Most....

The answer for me is Comics , telling stories with pictures and words... SOoo I'm set re organizing myself to start Producing comics. I've got a container full of folders with story ideas I've been developing for the last couple years soo I'm diving in.. As a result I may not be posting a ton of oil paintings or even photoshop landscape studies. Things I would love to do. I mean who wouldn't want to produce a lavishly illustrated ps comic. But I'm also keenly aware of the economics of Comic Production. MONEY i needs some. So I am experimenting with different production pipelines to see the most time efficient method for me to currently successfully produce comics. Weather black and white or full color ps we will see. But I'm tired of having a cool drawing .... without a cool story... a cool drawing that takes place in a cool story is doubly cool. Frankly I'm not ready, but many have said you just have to start, learn thru doing. Many say your first 10,000 pages ( in whatever drawing,writing) are garbage so you just have to write/draw thru it. SOoo here's me deciding to go on that journey. If its of any interest to anyone I can try and post things i'm working on.

-this post starts with some toned paper sketches something I hadn't done in along time , its sooo fun. Then jumps to studies of a Tv show , how they frame a scene how they do group shots , I highly recommend this you come to soo many realizations simply doing this . Originally done as practice for comicking, I realized that is very informative but still extremely different in that they don't have to worry about WORD Balloons placement and Panel/page comp. That is each frame of movie/tv. is worked out comp but doesnt have to worrry about laying/sitting next the next scene/panel as Comics do have to worry panels have to flow into the next panel and comp have to work as individual panels but also as Pages and as Pages facing opposite pages.whew! SO i started doing comic studies, also highly recommended.Following those are just some of my own panel practice as well as (inspired by mattgamer) some figure practice courtesy of my "fruits" book ( I hope to do some daily) anddddd Thumbnails from an older story I'd been working on in different formats: tradional comic page and 4:3 format. Ok well that was a lot of typing/uploading I have ps sketch I'll upload tommorow

[MattGamer]

FRUiTS books are so fun to look at and learn about
different styles. they mix up so much in their clothing! i wish
i could dress like that here and not be looked at like i'm some
kind of weirdo.

greatt yeesss do what you love... what inspires you and what
further progresses wherever you're going. i'm learning that
all forms of art progress me in ways that i couldn't progress if
i were working on just one medium (ex. just pencil, or just ink mediums).
if i work in 3d, clay, watercolors, coloring books, anything that pertains
to art, i really further my appreciation and art library for future projects.

there is a lot of hours in a day, it's all up to you how you will
use those hours to benefit your skills even more. if you want
to up your comic perks, it looks like your doing what you should.
check out storyboard tutorials, videos, dvds and how those
instructors tell you how to convey an action through visual
demonstration.

coro's massive black storyboard video is a good one to check out
if you don't have it. he explains that you have limited time most
of the time and have to churn out believable storyboards very
quickly. this is the same for comics... they are almost one and
the same. you got to work fast! :] knowing just about everything
can help you (ie. how to draw cars, planes, hands, feet, etc) can
help you speed up your process rather than restrict you.

hmm what i'm trying to say... study everything you can on the side
of studying stills from film and tv. keep an open mind and sketch
everywhere, anywhere, anytime! :] keep drawing and thanks for
the motivation!!

[Clochette]

Good work! Thanks for yur comment too!
I like when you use brushes like for this one : http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1226520987

[Victor B]

Matt-Big thanks for the post,yeah I own both coro's demo's and love them I still re-watch them as theirs things I learn everytime I watch them.Thanks for the encouragement. I will definetly try to continue posting.
Clochette-Thanks for stopping by! You're so unique and productive, you're definetely a large inspiration. I'm glad you liked that experiment I may do some comic studies/test with it.

Okay here's that sketch I said I'd post what yesterday?! I even saved step by step incase anyone's interested.
Actually didn't save the first couple steps as this was me just using a new custom brush trying to get the settings where I liked it. I started just making marks an building and environment. Then remembered my rant about how I don't paint characters in Ps enough so used CS4 -rotate canvas- feature till I found something interesting. Started bringing out a face then. start the steps
1-start pulling out a face backround looks like clouds , I like Thor start going in that direction.
2-refine, try and control values, think ahead see some possibilities to arrange light sky next to his dark skin and dark sky next to his light hair
3-add texture before starting color
4-overlay layers green-ish cool clouds to contrast with a relatively warm Thor. Paint in transparent washes (overlay) add a couple details in opaque/semi/opaque "regular" layers.

fun sketch get back to work....

hope someone found it usefull

[Victor B]

small update, I did some more testing out making layouts in ps, then spent a while trying to make a "inking" brush something that would simulate inking with a Brush try'd a few different things but had to abandon the idea for now...did this image as fun break and also to try "wet edges" brush setting.

[Victor B]

a tiny update...

its snowing...


did a bit more sketching I'll try and post tomorrow

[Victor B]

quicksketch done while watching topchef inked with little brush-pen.

[Victor B]

Here are some style test pure ps comicking, I did some more, but I'm keeping some close to the chest. I did draw one of the thumbnails(from above) into P.S seeing how it goes , I drew every panel in a separate layer and each element in a different color as if I was working on paper with my col-rease pencils. I even saved it as Gif. So could walk you thru my thought process

I put down my panel layout, then start laying out each panel, if I need to I even make another layer over the panel such as in 4&5 to make sure something doesn't get lost in the marks. I'm working really zoomed out with a reg. round opacity and size (70%) set to pen pressure. Thought is given to sending the viewers eye to the next panel/page. You then see me aproximate where I'll be putting the Caption Boxes and lastly How I want the viewers eye to move on the page. Ok well back to the drawing board

[Jakers]

I feel a lot of dedication brewing, so its important to not let that die! its good to see the painting as well as the panels, because it will all come together in a nice package some day right? And I noticed a lot of typos in each of my posts, so I will try and slow down

Its unfortunate that not enough people stop to comment here. One minor thing flipping through again, is that you have some great brushes you've developed, though be carefuly of making your skies too grainy...clouds can get a little crazy but the atmosphere itself is smooth even in hazy conditions correct?

I would suggest doing a bunch of inking studies from an artist whom you are a big fan of since you are leaning towards comics. Get more familiar with how to balance the tones in lighting conditions and I bet you will find your own style more easily

A couple longer portrait studies might go a long way as well - if you can pick some with intersting lighting you might be able to studie the planes and curves more easily...take care

[Victor B]

Thanks for the comment Jakers! I'm going to be out of town for like a week or so , I won't be posting but I'll be back on the 15th or so to continue right where I left off. Oh and don't worry about spelling and grammar We're Artists!lol

[Victor B]

just wanted to load a quick landscape study will try and post more later

[Victor B]

Here is the "Script" for those five pages I've shown thumbnails of above.
Dreamers is ©Victor Bonilla 2008
I don't usually write it out like this since I'm the one drawing it. I can usually just do dialogue and have the images in my head or work them out in thumbs. But since I'm doing more Writing I wanted to try and see what it would look like.
Apologies for not uploading stuff I have been drawing but also busy , lots of snow/ice , friends and family have had accidents (nothing serious) just time consuming.

I'm currently working on (a "bunch" of stories) 1 or 2 really fleshed out longer narratives. That I'm currently getting ready to submit . Looking for a steady Paying gig ( I need). So I don't know how much I should/could show of that work. But this is a story I've had jotted down for years never got around to so I'll try and post my experiments concerning "Storytelling" i.e. writing and drawing a comic . Also I may try and post little humor strips (I've a bunch written ) which would serve as practice in sequential art. I'll try and write a little bit with each post. Explaining my motives and thought process, although I'm not sure how "deep" I want to show process. Not sure how interested anyone would be in the decisions/thoughts going into story especially before reading/seeing final product. I don't assume to be an expert (on Anything!) just someone with a very HIGH level of interest. I've done quite a bit of reading/and thinking on comics.So hopefully someone finds this usefull.I'll try and post some drawings later tommorow..wait its actually 6am .. umm later today I guess.
cheers.

[Victor B]

tiny update, i'm busy as we all are will try to post reg in 09! umm excited about new Massive Black artbook vol 1! coming out. Here is me still trying to make a custom brush this time more to imitate Erik Tiemen's awesome Gouache sketches.. think I'm getting there did a small doodle with this one that may serve as a quick ps inkbrush as well, inspiration also from the inimitable Black Frog

[Victor B]

don't you love it when you're working on something in Photoshop and your POWER goes out! then right back on! arghhhh