Sid's Sketchbook

[hummel1dane]

Always remember to use sandpaper sharp pencils in the rendering stage.
Mechanical pencils saves a lot of time - you don't have to cut them, only sharpen with sandpaper. And you can control the length of the graphite.
If you tilt the pencil too much, draw flat, then it won't give up so precice tone. If you hold it closer to 90 degree angle to the paper it goes into the paper much better.
Some use long-haired brushes a lot. But it's not that necessary to use brush in the lights if rendering the lights with the 2H(you did the rendering great btw).

What they do(personally I don't like that way) is that they kinda draw with the brush - dip the brush in a bit of graphite and just draw with that on the paper! It's very fast when you're good at it, but I find it too imprecise to even start working like that.
Just experiment and you'd find your own way!
I'm sure you've been through Dorian's excellent Bargue tutorials?

[mariusz]

very cool paintings

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Hummel1dane: Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I've combed all of dorian's threads, there's so much good info in those. And I'm using a sharp tip, always.

mariusz: Thanks!

Some more progress on the story tellers painting. I was ready to call it done, but I've got another 4 days and want to polish it up as much as possible.

[Nettle_Mountain]

Hey that storytellers painting is going along fine, tube behind characters is not on the same air perspective than character, you should make it more black on the shadow according planes going bacwards from viewer

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Nettle_Mountain: Thanks for the feedback!

Here's the final image. I'm also posting what it looks like inside of the template that it's supposed to ft.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Quick sketch of a character design for an animation demo.

[Inishmore]

That storyteller design turned out incredible Though it seems in the template as if the top of back of the chair would be on the spine of the book. I think that may be a bit awkward but I'm sure it's just a minor thing in an overall great painting.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Inishmore: Thanks!

I've been re-planning my old shipwreck painting for a few weeks and finally shot some reference photos this morning. Today I did my final drawing plan to do the final painting from. I basically used everything I had on hand for it- pencil, ballpoint, color pencils and crayons .

[hummel1dane]

Wow that looks great! Cool angle of the boat.
If you need reference, the situation reminds me a bit of those - carrying christ from the cross, kinda biblical paintings.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Wow that looks great! Cool angle of the boat.
If you need reference, the situation reminds me a bit of those - carrying christ from the cross, kinda biblical paintings.

Hehehe, sharp eye . I actually lifted the pose right out of Caravaggio's "Entombment", then tweaked and did the pose myself for photo reference.

[bharat]

cool one... keep up...!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Hey Sid, great progress here! Portrait of Kristen is looking stunning! You are working so hard and it is and will pay off. Would love to see more figure drawings to get a good flow for proportions and also more anatomy and form studies. I guess those are the hardest things and the most important foundations and I am certain that you are already working on those.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Bharat: Thanks!
Jessi: Thanks! I do continue to do the figure and anatomy studies, I'll be sure to take some photos of my sketchbook once I get a new memory card .

Here's a sketch for the second Story Tellers challenge at CGHub, for The Hobbit.

[Janos]

I love how you draw whole scenes. Very nice ideas and execution!

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Janos: Thanks!

I thought that the old composition for the shipwreck painting looked too calm and balanced, so I changed it from landscape to vertical and only focused on the lifeboat scene. Here's a color study, and the progress on the actual painting. It's on a 24X30" masonite panel. The drawing was done in graphite and then I put a yellow acrylic wash over it and painted the background.

I've also attached the progress on the Bargue drawing.

[hummel1dane]

That's a beautiful composition!
genious in a way - the weight of the person is felt in that the boat is tilting in that direction. You actually feel the movement.

The Bargue is looking ok, push the dark values under the chin.

[hummel1dane]

"I am sure some of you have thought about this also. When copying Bargue line drawings you need a way to judge accuracy. And normally your teacher can look over your work. But what do you do if you do not have a teacher. Well work 1 to 1 with your examples. Then copy the original on tracing paper or clear plastic and overlay it on your version. This way you can quickly tell if you are being accurate or not."

Got this from rationalpainting.org, good advise don't you think?

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Thanks, hummel1dane! Great advice as always .

Here's a sketch for a painting I want to start at some point.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Progress on the Hobbit painting.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

More on the hobbit painting.

[hummel1dane]

nice composition.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Progress on the shipwreck painting.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Progress on the shipwreck. I worked on the clothes a bit and darkened the whole boat.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Finished the shipwreck illustration. Oil on a 24X30" masonite panel.

I also had my first landscape class today. This is from a photograph.

[hummel1dane]

Very nice painting!

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

hummel1dane: Thanks man!

Here's the Hobbit painting.

[Movenski]

nice work here.
my only crit would be, in the shipwreck painting, i think your dead/KO guy needs a bit more exaggeration in his pose, everyone else in the image is so dynamic that it made him stand out and look very posed. for instance, that top guy is the winner, and the expression on the guy on the right, holding his legs, awesome. i think maybe just making him a bit more ragdoll-ish would unify the drama image; perhaps letting his head tilt/drop back a bit more, curving his spine around the guys arm, and maybe even suggesting some sort of injury somewhere on the body. i think the image is headed somewhere really nice and its got a lot of potential. i hope i was helpful in getting you there.
RM

[Peetaer]

Awesome work man. Dig that Hobbit piece you did. The Bargue drawing is an almost 100% copy of the original. Congratulations! It's so hard to even get THAT close

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Movenski - Oh man, I wish someone had told me that weeks ago, I totally see the stiffness now. Thanks so much for the crit!
Peetaer - Thanks man! Haha, the Bargue probably isn't as accurate as you think, there are probably tons of little problems that I haven't noticed yet.

Here's a landscape from this week, a figure drawing, and the beginnings of a sight size cast drawing. The cast is actually farther along than what's in the photo and the cartoon part is almost done, although it still needs corrections that I could for the life of me make properly in the last session. I may be restarting it altogether though, next week I'm having a workshop with Andrew Ameral and he's going to show a buddy of mine and I how to properly go about sight-sizing.

[Jasper_]

Nice work man, love the last figure you posted, and the studies your doing look great. Some of your figures and faces in the hobbit painting look a little flat, and that bundle of leaves in the bottom left seems out of place though. The lighting coming in through the trees is working really well however and brings out a great atmosphere.