Hawkswift's Sketchbook

[Hawkswift]

I've been at a plateau art wise for a while so I figured I'd start posting here and see what happens. I've been doing at least one sketch per day for a while now. Varying quality, but so it goes. Anyway, I'll be posting them here once per day in the hopes of improvement. Let me know what you think, what I need to work on, and ideally how I should work on that. Or, you know, not. Whichever.

Here's today's:

[Hawkswift]

I need to work on simplifying my figures... but I'm out of time right now.

[Hammed Al-Tamimi]

Nice start! Have you thought about incorperating atmospheric perspective to the second piece? The foreground could use more contrast.

[Hawkswift]

I tried to add a bit more contrast to the foreground then realized that I wasn't sure of my light source. Anyway here's what I've got.

[Hawkswift]

I should probably mock this up in 3d so I can get a better idea of the lighting. I think I should have the figure directly lit for added contrast... I'll try something along those lines tomorrow.

[Hawkswift]

Well, I tried the altered lighting. It's better, but not much better.

[Hawkswift]

another one that needs a lot of work. I've got an idea of what I want to do now though, which is why I did this. Needs a better background too.

[Twan]

Excellent stuff! How long it takes to draw it?
May be your stuff are too much darker

[Hawkswift]

Mostly I spend between one and two hours per session but without timing myself I can't be sure for any given one. Today's was only about half an hour since I didn't have much time today.

I agree about things being too dark in the one I did yesterday. I wasn't satisfied with the figures anyway so a lot is getting changed.

[Hawkswift]

Worked a bit on the background and a very small bit on one of the figures. I need to figure out the foreground. I often find myself having trouble with foregrounds...

[Hawkswift]

Some Sketches from reference trying to figure out the face



And some work on the figure for whom I was trying to figure out the face

[Bagg]

hey man great sketchbook, Your values look great but was wandering if you have any color work or pencil stuff.
I usually find that i improve after hardcore studies and experimentation with style or different media.
Can't wait to see your current WIP finished

[Hawkswift]

I find myself kind of lost when I use color at this point. A lot of it comes from not knowing what value a given color is, I think, but there's a lot about color I don't understand.

I plan to put color to my current WIP once I have the values done though.

As for pencils - well, I sketch in pencil sometimes, but I'm not set up for convenient scanning so I don't put many of those online.

For today I did a little bit of work on the foreground and worked a bit on the two figures on the right. I'm not sure how well the lighting is going to work out over there yet.

[bigus_dickus]

Some nice studies. I see although you use low opacity brush strokes, your work does seem to come together quite well. Have you tried working at 100% opacity, and from really dark to light? I think that would accomplish more contrasts. Overall nice work. Keep posting!!!!

[Hawkswift]

well, now I've tried the 100% opacity thing... It was interesting. Definitely have to be more decisive about the brush strokes that way - which is probably a good idea anyway.

[bharat]

good one...! in b&w.

[Hawkswift]

Thanks! er, which one? the 100% opacity or one of the others?

Some studies from some pictures I found online. I tried changing the angles a bit to make it fit with my ongoing design.


and incorporating it into the design

[Hawkswift]

Still not satisfied with the female figure. I did some sketches playing with the pose:


Then I settled on one and started changing the piece:


I was reminded about the "Kill your darlings" thing when I destroyed the face.

[Janos]

I enjoy the way you go about your images, nice sketches and I think your lighting isn't bad at all.
One thing I noticed though is that you hairlines and hairflow are a little stiff/straight. Hair is affected by all kinds of things, but it takes a real blast of wind to lift so much and so long hair up a lot.Try searching for some reference shots.

Cheers

[Hawkswift]

Your right. I made the mistake of trying to find reference that looked the way I thought it should look... and I had a lot of trouble finding it.

Anyway I did a page of sketches from a bunch of things I found online (really fast and sketchy since I was trying to get a feel for the movement)


And I tried to incorporate what I found:


It still needs a lot of work but it's a start.

[Hawkswift]

A bit more work on the hair and figure. Nothing much to say really.

[Hawkswift]

Still struggling with the hair on the figure turning her head... I can't seem to get the movement quite right.

[Hawkswift]

Still trying to figure out that hair...

[Artangela]

Seeing improvement on this piece, but would like to see more sketches and studies. Also try to vary a little more between sharp edges and soft ones, especially there in the foreground. Good start though and keeping this sb will be a great way for you to continue to progress I think!

[Hawkswift]

More studies certainly can't hurt. I need to think about the hard/soft edges in the foreground some more. Actually I need to make decisions about all of the ground in the foreground.

I did some sketches from reference then tried to extrapolate some poses from that. I think I'm going to change the pose on the figure on the left (it seems like more of a body twist helps the movement)

[Hawkswift]

Some sketches and an attempt to internalize some of the information linked from the Edges! thread.

[Hawkswift]

Still trying to figure out proper edge control. Next one I'll try varying my brushes.

[Hawkswift]

Back to working more directly on the ongoing project.
Some sketches to work out how I want to redo the foreground lower left corner.

[(M) Artist]

really cool progress keep practising ..

keep it up !!

[Hawkswift]

Tried one of those sphere color exercises... I need to work on which value a given color is, basic sphere shading, saturation... I thought about the saturation being lower in the shade but I find myself uncertain now.

Anyway here it is