Caturtles Sketchbook - Critique Please!

[Caturtle]

Hello everybody!
I have been lurking in the shadows of the forum for a quite a while, but decided to post just now ^^

I'm here because I want to improve.
My goal is to become a concept artist.
Now I'm pretty far from it. I have much to learn, but no one to teach me. Art education in my country is very crappy as well.
I am starting a course in concept art in January, but I feel there's still much base stuff I need to figure out in order to be a good artist.

I hope to get a LOT of critique from all of you guys! And some good advice, if I may.. Though I already learned a lot from this forum.

Here I go:

A fun piece I made with color pencils on toned paper.
The skulls name is Harry, though it's a real persons skull - but I only found that out after I already deliberately named it XD


A tattoo design for my friend. She requested it based on a monster from Silent Hill, who is based on Baphomet.


Part of glass study.


Some figure study. It is from photos, but I tried to figure out the balance of the figure in every one of these.


Recently I found out that I just don't get how noses work! I found a nice tutorial on proko.com So - NOSES! ..and Harry again.


Just a color work - my shoes. I can't get the values right with color...


Recent work - "Depression" - and it's sketch. I think I like the sketch more...
First time since long ago that I touched ink.

[Zauselbart]

hi Caturtles
nice start and harry is very cool
the nose study is very nice - you capture them -> make more of these studies and you will learn a lot.
for figure drawing is gottfried bammes a really good artist

keep up the good work

[Caturtle]

Thank you Zauselbart for commenting, I'll definitely check out Bammes.

Here are some more doodles from my sketchbook. Some objects and people from life - training my eye to get the form right without building everything.
I also begun to work on human figure with Loomises books. Will post results soon =)

[Freshfool]

Hey, cool stuff you got here, your on the right track i like the renderings you did of the skull and noses it seems you have a somewhat firm gasp on values keep it up!!

[Purim]

Hey!

Your color works are great, you have a good feeling for mixing colors. You're at a good level already and I agree with zauselbart, try some Bammes, especially try to find some references on proportions, e.g. 7 Head characters (1 Head, 2 Heads to the nipples, 3 heads to the belly button, 4 heads to the pelvic bone...etc). I tried to look up the picture I mean from the book, but meh can't find it. Here's something that might already help though. So~ I hope this can help you somehow and I'm waiting to see more from you!

[Caturtle]

Thank you guys! Purim - thanks for the link, I'm currently studying these themes =)

So here is the update of what I did for the past few days.
There are a huge lot of things that I still need to learn, and when I think of that I feel kind of lost, and end up doing nothing. So I decided to focus on one main theme now – the human figure.
I downloaded all of Loomises books and begun with “Figure Drawing for all it’s worth”.
First I did the proportion sketch of both male and female figures, and played with it a bit:




(The female proportions went a bit off, I have to admit…)

Then I tried out the funny “skeleton” model suggested in the book, doing my best to put it in some pose from imagination.





The results weren’t that good.
Then I thought that it might be a good idea to do some life/photo sketching in between, and so I did: (I’m not posting all of the sketches, only the first and the last few pages)




…and back to Loomis.



After doing the muscle mapping I really wanted to continue to the detailed anatomy, but I had some difficulties with putting the figure in perspective, so I decided to do some simple models in different points of view: (Some went really bad…) Perhaps I should go over base perspective again?



And then I did some more photo studies:
I end up trying to make it “look good” and not to just catch the pose, and then it takes me up to 10 minutes instead of 2-3.




Then I went back to “building” figures, trying to combine what I’ve learned so far:



I think I should make a habit of making at least one finished piece per week, aside from the studies. This week I’ll go for an illustrative color piece. Once I’m done with the thumbnails (another thing I’m trying to turn into a habit), I’ll post it here.

[Zauselbart]

great studies - keep pushing!

[Olooriel]

There are a huge lot of things that I still need to learn, and when I think of that I feel kind of lost, and end up doing nothing.

Heh, that sounds familiar. You seem to be on a good track with your studies, though. Don't give up, I'd love to see more of your work!

[Caturtle]

Zauselbart, Olooriel - thanks for stopping by!

Small update: Trying to get used to Photoshop before my course begins.

1: PAINTOVER! It was only to train some line drawing with a tablet.


2: It's more confusing for me to do it digitaly, but if I need to get used to it anyway, so why not start now?
At first I made her legs too long, then "corrected" them too short... It looks like she's falling.


3: Some color try. I used hard edge brush with pen pressure controlled 'flow'.

[Caturtle]

The forum was down ( I don't even know when it came back) and I haven't done much it he past few weeks or so. And My scanner is crap.
Here is a study I did in PS. It took few days, though I couldn't work on it much because we hadn't had any electricity for like two days... Still it's taking me hell of a long time and it isn't finished, so I'm going to leave it as it is for now, because I did the thing that was most important - the metal and the reflection - and I want to go on. I can't figure out how to bring it to finish anyway.

I tried to do some environments and landscape photo studies, but failed miserably... Thinking about doing some character/creatures and taking a brake from studies.

[Caturtle]

I've started to work on my first concept assignment! ^^
We are to design either a female hero or a male antihero based on a short description. So I'm doing a short, evil Maya priest...
I figured that the face is more important for me than the dressing and accessories, so I've begun with some face "research" and a bit of body posture.
If you have any comments or suggestions - I'm all ears!

[Caturtle]

Made some changes to the face, and now working on the outfit:

[Caturtle]

Some detailing. The headdress came out in a different angle because I drew it separately - it will be fixed.
Now I'm stuck with his staff...

[Caturtle]

[Caturtle]

Finished! My first "more-than-less" finished digital work, and a first character design =)


...and I figured that my screen had 100% brightness setting.

[Caturtle]

Some homework - simplified objects and a play with geometrical figures.

[V3T]

Your progress since you started is really good! I'm digging that simplified geometric shape exercise you done. Keep posting!

[Caturtle]

Some thumbnails for Red Riding Hood, for my classes. This is not according to the original version - in this one' the Red Riding Hood is a tomboyish girl who lives with the grandmother and her doggy-wolf in the woods, and the hunter is a not very successful evil and clumsy guy, who wants to hunt all the animals in the forest to prove himself.
The thumbs were hard for me, and perhaps I'll work some more on them later.


And the final lineup: