DB's Sketchbook! Yay!

[blaaaaaakman]

Hiya, everyone! I figured it was about time for me to start one of these up and get some feedback on my work. I'm currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Set Design for theatre, so much of what I post here will likely be environments, architecture, and landscapes, but there may be the occasional oddball character piece or two.

Take a look around, and please speak up if you have anything to say! Thanks for dropping by!

[blaaaaaakman]

EDIT: transferred artwork from first post to this one.

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This first post of stuff is all done digitally. Usually, I'm one for watercolors and pencil sketches and some acrylics and charcoal, but I just got a Wacom and I'm thrilled about it.

These first two were done pre-Wacom for me, which means all I had to point my cursor with was the Lenovo Thinkpad red dot mouse-thing. Not fun. The owl was based on a piece of concept art for the upcoming Harry Potter theme park; the hills took much more effort (clearly) and had a photo reference.




These next four were all done just today, with the tablet (thank god!). The tree, hill-silhouette thing, and lake/sky piece were just quick exercises in color and depth and whatnot; the portrait (of CA member Liz Edwards) was done for the thread Draw From "What Does Everyone Look Like?"






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Oh, hey, another owl!

[Liz Edwards]

These are nice, especially if you're new to digital painting. Keep it up! At this rate you'll get the feel of Photoshop in no time. Then experiment! And get some traditional stuff up here sometime!

Thanks again for the portrait ^_^

[blaaaaaakman]

Thanks a bunch for your encouragement! It's so nice to hear.
I think today (after I get some sleep; I've been awake for a full 24 hours, yuck!) I'll tackle some of the hand-drawing projects on my to-do list. And they stand a good chance of becoming watercolors, too. Exciting!

[blaaaaaakman]

Here's the latest work in progress - a front elevation of Tolkien's Édoras. The original work is by Alan Lee, of course; I've taken his design, drafted it by hand (this piece), and will follow up soon with a watercolor version.

My apologies for a really boring update. I tried to make it a little more exciting by including a rough color palate, but I don't think it did much, haha.

[blaaaaaakman]

I'm working on that watercolor! Expect it... Sunday, maybe.

In the meantime, here are some of my older pieces, mostly from the end of Fall semester. First up: figure studies! One from life, two from famous masterpieces, all with time constraints (though I can't remember what the limits were). Charcoal on newsprint.





Next up: Watercolors! I don't claim credit for these designs; they were drawn by one of my professors. The assignments were basically pages from a coloring book. (Because my scanner is MUCH smaller than I'd like it to be, these scans are only portions of the actual piece. I'll have access to a bigger one on Monday and will probably post them in their entirety sometime thereafter.)

[corza334]

Hey, good digitals for a first time.
I like the last watercolours too

[blaaaaaakman]

Thank you so much!

[blaaaaaakman]

Bored at work once more, and still over four hours to go. Expect a few more updates.

These are just a couple quick sketches. For the second one, I was experimenting with brushes. I'm not sure if the settings I chose really lent anything to the piece, but I had fun and I think it came out pretty decent.

[blaaaaaakman]

Quick update! Just wanted to post this quick landscape I did this morning. It was mostly an exercise in color theory. While it wasn't much of a challenge, it was good practice in not choosing colors arbitrarily, which is a bad habit I noticed in my work. I'm considering taking this to the next level of difficulty: painting the same landscape with a different light source (i.e. moonlight, or at sunset). Thoughts?

[blaaaaaakman]

Quick-ass apple. More color study.

[ruuhkis]

cool sketches! don't be afraid to use the biggest brush possible and make bold decisions in your paintings. big brushes keep things simple, and a simple statement tends to be the strongest one. keep going!

[blaaaaaakman]

Awesome advice, ruuhkis! I'll definitely bear it in mind. Thank you so much.

[ImaGEEnation]

Hey man, keep doing those studies! You're doing great! I do think that you're using the 'obvious' color choices though to paint things. Like, green is grass etc... throw in some tints in there and it'll look more effective! Keep it up, buddy!

[corza334]

Keep updating, and Ruukis is definetly right about the brush size - I've been told the same thing a lot about my work. Since I started using bigger brushes, I can see a lot of improvement - it will be the same for you!

[blaaaaaakman]

Sorry for my hiatus, everyone - my brother popped in town for a visit and we've been on our feet all weekend. He takes off again tomorrow morning, though, so I'll get back on track.

ImaGEEnation: thanks bunches! I wish I had a reason to explain why haven't been experimenting with hue at all, but I can't find one. I'm so glad you brought this to my attention: color is one of the most exciting aspects of art to me, and I can't believe now that I ignored such a huge use of it. I will definitely bear this in mind from here on out, cross my heart hop to die. Thank you so much!

Corza: thanks again for the comment! I'm glad two people now have said this to me. Although I can't say I took advantage of that tip in this latest piece, I'm really looking forward to seeing where it will take me.

I think I need to tape a post-it note of reminders next to my tablet. It's so easy for me to let them escape my mind and to slip back into bad habits.


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Semi-quick concept: the entrance to the Wood-Elf Palace in Tolkien's Mirkwood. I was suddenly inspired to draw my imagined version of the settings in The Hobbit before the films come out in a couple years; this is the result.

Some aspects of this could have used a little more time, but in the end I'm satisfied with it. The biggest error is kind-of an important one: I forgot to put any trees in this landscape, but I like this piece too much to not fix that. On top of making this setting actually look like it's in a forest, trees will provide a sense of scale that isn't present yet.

Parts of this piece that I am satisfied with:
- the sky and stars.
- the color scheme.
- the appearance of depth.

Give me your feedback! Gimmeh gimmeh gimmeh! (Plx?)

[blaaaaaakman]

Another unusually long hiatus; this time for no particular reason.

Projects I've been working on:
- The Elf-Palace. I was VERY dissatisfied with the composition of that piece up there; I can't believe I chose such an uninteresting angle to view this thing from. Hence, I've been doing a few studies. (a) I mapped out a ground plan and used it to draw the door and cliffs in mechanical perspective from a much different angle. (b) I made a plasticine model to gain a complete, 360-degree understanding of its form. Hopefully these will allow me to crank out a more interesting version in the near future.
- Phoenix! I've taken a sudden liking to hummingbirds, and now I'm drawn to the idea of painting a hummingbird-phoenix. Here are a couple quick sketches - for color and for pose. The second, non-colored one is, I think, the pose I will choose for the final painting. I clearly need to draw a bunch of hummingbirds first to get a sense of their anatomy. References are abundant!

EDIT: Oh, and happy Independence Day to all you fellow Americans!