digital sketchbook

[James Thomas]

Hello my fellow internet chums.
I am James, I am not very good, ive always wanted to sketch well, but ive lost my love for sketching and want to move more into the digital world of things, Photoshop, 3d modelling and such.
Ive always been told to beleive such methods are frowned upon by the fine artists, but im having doubts and am not going to worry and just have fun :]
So i hope i can stick around and go from noob to less-noob over the years and yeah.
i want to work in the games industry or movie, watever is always good.
I will be posting various works of art and experiments in ALL media's i should hope . ENjoy!

[n1frit]

Hi and welcome! Great that you decide to start SB)
Looking at your first picture I can say that you need to do a lot of work. But dont upset. All of us learn all of time)
First I can tell you: don use black to define shadows, different shades of color is better for this.
Study anatomy and colour. Do more sketches. And all will be good))

[masterpug]

Heya! Thanks for dropping by my SB. To answer your question, I use a Cintiqu but I started on a Wacom. If you haven't checked it out, find Feng Zhu on YouTube. Great stuff for the aspiring artist.

But on to more important things - you! n1frit is right, you don't really wanna use blacks too much to define shadow and light. What I suggest trying is using an overlay layer to do your lighting starting out. Get all your colors in and then use a large soft brush combine with a mask (to keep inside the lines) to build up lights and darks. It really just tweaks the values and then you can go in and color select away to paint right on top. just use a low percentage and try it out.

And remember to keep posting. You will only get better. Draw once a day, for an hour or more and you will get there. Keep the faith!

[James Thomas]

Master -> Thanks for your feedback, very thorough! ;D
i will try that out tomorro for sure! it sounds alot easier that getting these muddy colours ive been stuck for a while, i will definently look up that Yootube video

Todays post is just some anatomy, very slow work- feeling ill today
i will keep posting thanks ;D

[Alex Eh]

Omg your thread gif ><

Your off to a good start keep up the good work.

[Clur]

Heya! I think you're off to a good start, just keep at it and you'll start to see improvement pretty quick.

Regarding your last post: when drawing features like eyes and mouths, it's often a good idea to leave a bit of a gap in the lines. It helps give a sense of realism, and that the feature is actually part of the face and not just pasted on top.

If - as I suspect - that didn't make any sense, here is a drawing demonstrating what I mean.

[Robodrey]

Hey A Faux, thanks for dropping by my sketchbook! I second what Clur and masterpug said, and I also think you're off to a good start. I'd suggest doing traditional studies in grayscale (or color, whichever you like) to improve your understanding of lighting and form. It's a little hard to tell where the light is coming from in your painting, and it seem to be hitting every part of her body equally, so that could help.

I hope you feel better soon and hope to see more from you!

[yogeshj25]

hey a faux, congrats on the new sketchbook! you have a nice start! Much better than I started off. I would suggest that you look through some Loomis for head proportions and structure. Also I would highly recommend doing value studies in black in white or monochromatic colors. When you get down to doing paintings in color, it will really help! Other than that, I would suggest do gesture drawings. Keep it up!

[jiina]

Hey A Faux

You need to get the basics down first instead of focusing on getting a finished drawing done. Do some loose sketches.
Try using this tool to do figure studies Start with 30 second studies and remember to get the basic shapes and movements down first. If you can do that you'll see that the form just sort of falls on top that.

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php

Hope this helps
Keep posting!

[James Thomas]

Edited a few posts above for Personal reasons, though i kept my pretty girls up the top for nostelgic reasons, Thanks for all those who did post comments though)
i will be starting this "Sketchbook" Fresh. Starting from tonite. Thx

[James Thomas]

Magician girl sketch for my game i want to make, i find it a funny picture really, and i didnt want to make use of the watercolor pencil so its a little grainy but i still find it fun

[James Thomas]

Magician concept #2, this one is a little more normal, and more street.
shes more of a Gold-digger street performer, but she also can do some "real magic"..cough. hope u like.

[sin eater]

hey good start you got there . i see you are trying out difficult poses from imagination . but i suggest you should do some anatomy studies which will strengthen your basics and it will sure help in the long run. it kind of is boring at first but you will see yourself getting hooked into anatomy once you start doing the studies. and keep doing more and more drawing,, each line you put on the paper counts and improves your line quality. so keep them coming . good luck

[James Thomas]

One of my older favourites, a 'fanart' of Blech . umm just had fun rendering this one and i think it has alot of character and mood to it because of its dark rendering reflects his inner evil. hope you like it.

[James Thomas]

just 2 quick 25 minute sketches on photoshop for my animation that was due for class today, i just found them interesting, not really impressive but i wanted to share =]
Oh and in other news, i will be mainly doing digital artworks for my own personal reasons, so if u can try to hold back the "please do some anatomy"
that wud be good, but i will try digitally if i ever do. thankyou

[James Thomas]

Just a picture i did, sposed to be like a blend of monster/aquatic beast..
errr.. yeah, hope you like it =] i still havent been posting as much as i should, been a hell of a week for me.

[James Thomas]

Studies - quick 5-10 minutes on train.

[James Thomas]

||| GOAL ||| ->

Day 1 - Today is the first day i will be working consequtively- After analysing my old work i have decided i need to do ALOT more art and focus on doing it and not thinking about it!!

Ud be suprised how much time you can waste on procrastinating!
Wish me luck, i am aiming from now till Christmas without skipping a day

[Kapri]

Nice start. Try to draw the "building blocks" that a figure consists of a little more, isntead of just the outlines.

It might be a good idea to break your figures down into simple shapes that define the structure. For instance, the way Michael Hampton
does with a head here: http://figuredrawing.info/images/head/h06.jpg.
There are allot of good books on this subject: Hampton's "Figure drawing: design and invention", Loomis' "Figure Drawing for All It's
Worth", the books by Bridgeman etc. Also, Villpu has some great DvDs on structure / anatomy.

Draw from life, copy photo's and other artists to study. Drawing from life, however, seems a little better for training the eye than the
others. So make sure to do it allot. Join a local sketchgroup, take a life drawing class or just sketch people / objects at
a local cafe / public place.

[James Thomas]

Karpi - Thanks, sometimes i just like to draw and not work things out, but yeah i should do more studies, but they is no fun!! ... one day when i have spare time i will get some strong fundementals down

Thanks for your advice though

[James Thomas]

Another one for the day, i want to stay on a role for aslong as i can
did this quickie after HOURS of homework. so youve got to give me a pat on the back for this one!
Been level desinging for a basic game for university. nothing special. its so good to be able to just sit back and draw a bit, even if it is going into my sleep hours !

[James Thomas]

[Day 2]
Random fun, i like shorts..so yeah, wanted to try a more complex drawing position. i enjoyed doing linework, but i still prefer to heavy render as seen above. cant win em all, its 4:30am God i hate taking photos of my work.

[James Thomas]

[day 3]

bit rushed, had commitments =<

[James Thomas]

[ day 4 ]
Gauntlet concept, didnt get to finish due to being Very much in pain and ill
woulda been sweet as finished and maybe colored. but o well, was good learning curve

[James Thomas]

[Day 5]
my patience is wearing thing, i can only find 1 or 2 things i like about this one i did rush it though

[Kerah]

Trying to figure out how to hold the bow on the right (from post #21), I think I failed there
Faux, you're doing it right. The sketches you showed here look fun, and it also seems to me that you have almost no problem with shading your works correctly. However when it comes down to the figure, some of the characters seem to be slightly inclined towards one direction. Let's take the girl here -
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1316025173
Look at how some of her face features just incline towards one side and not maintain the right proportions.
Anyway, seems like you're up with a great start - I wish you good luck and derive joy from your works
Cheerios

[James Thomas]

@Kerah Thanks for the input, i sorta see what you mean, but i do kinda suck so yeah...

[Day 6] didnt get anything new done, just finished this old piece, i am really depressed about my work, and im not sure if im the type of person who has a great level of patience...i dunno..

[James Thomas]

Ok posting junk once a day is a bad idea, balanced with University i can't handle it.
id rather do work i am proud of. I dont know why i made it such a big deal.
i guess i was scared of not producing enough work. but i think i can just do as much work when i can, and when i cant, i wont.

I am here to Learn and increase my work output. Trying different methods is part of the Artists journey So i will be drawing MORE not less forever increasing till i reach my goals.