Concepts and sketches

[Mindbendermind]

That's great - that's the main reason I do it ;-)

Thanks for encouragement. Have tried the recommended "ink pen drawing from life". Hard but fun, some gestures turned out better than others:

[Mindbendermind]

Ink pen sketch of an elephant from photo ref:

[Swampdigger]

Hey, those ink drawings look nice. I really like the elephant.

Sorry about being absent for the last month or two. I'm finishing up school and should be back after the holidays. We'll see what happens, but my plan is to start hardcore on art the week after Christmas.

So, I can't really talk, but I'd like to see some more.

[Mindbendermind]

Well, I'm sorry as well. Been busy over at IFX and blogging. Have kept drawing daily however.
Here's a pencil drawing I finished last night (no ref.). Call it "Seasight":

[Swampdigger]

Looking good, I'd try to watch your values though. It seems like most of the values in this last one are mid-tones, it makes it feel a little bit murky. Maybe limit yourself to five main values so you make sure you get a pretty full range of them, plus it should simplify and help unite your piece. Keep at it.

[DeJakhalz]

Loving the elephant sketch man! Damn you are improving fast.

Like already stated, you could do some training on your values, I have trouble with it too because I have underrestimated the importance of it. It is really important.

Another advice, I would suggest you draw a piece that takes longer. I see a lot of sketching and doodling (it is a sketchbook ofcourse) but you gain more experience by doing something that takes more effort. You will gain experience in almost every aspect when it comes to a full coloured drawing. I would also try to focus on your linework more if I was you. Maybe drawing a bit slower could do the trick.

Oh and I love your ballpen work! It is probably because you can't erase your lines that you become more carefull and thats why more accurate with your linework. Loving the wizard drawing and the mountain drawings you made with ballpen is great too.

Cheers,

JoostK

[Mindbendermind]

Hi and thanks for feedback. Your wish is my command , here is another finished for a monthly art challenge. Turned out to be an experiment, but anyway. Call it "Naiad" (ArtRage3 and Photoshop)

[Swampdigger]

Sweeetttt, last one is looking nice. The bird has a good feel to it. One point of critique, it's kind of hard to tell what the lady is doing in the reflection in the water, I'm not really sure what's going on there.

[Mindbendermind]

Thanks for the feedback. The theme of the challenge was "Hidden in plain sight". My idea was a Naiad (waternymph) that is almost a part of the water. Rather difficult to paint convincingly.

Since then I have done three more challenge pieces:

Sunrise Kata - A One-week challenge on the theme "The far east", where I experimented with a more line-based, simplified and totally unreferenced style. Also wanted to try to work completely without reference.



Battle Tide - Two-week challenge where the task was to depict a hero the moment he realizes he is about to lose a battle. Tried painting a fantasy portrait without ref for this one.



Eyes in the deep - Trad fantasy dungeon scene for the monthly challenge theme "An illustration for a RPG". The one I like best of these three. Also learned better ways to postadjust in Photoshop when doing this one.



Currently I'm working on a two-week challenge on the theme "When harpies attack". The brief says that the image should include 2 harpies, at least one human being attacked and it should take place indoors. Really challenging but soo fun!

[Swampdigger]

Sweet looking stuff. It's awesome that you're doing finished stuff like this. One suggestion: try using bigger brushes or bigger brush strokes, your stuff looks a little bit "stroked" or messy. I dunno. Just keep it up.