DefiledVisions Sketchbook 2.0 | Back to the basics | apr15

[JustinBeckett]

Dude, killer work!!! Soooo good!! Your studies are rocking and your finished pieces and your pencil rendering, aannnnnnnd imagination! Keep it up!

[Pixie Trick]

The studies...
.
.
.
...so much work it makes my hand hurt just to think about it. Awesomeness.

I have one isty, bitsy crit. You seem to have a very good understanding of the form of the back lower part of the arm, but the way your biceps look in a couple of the studies is bothering me a bit. Eg. -> Like this one. Forgive me if I'm going over something you've realized and fixed ( it looks like you might have). Because the bicep is kinda long and heavy, and has less attachments to the bone than the triceps for example, it tends to sag inwards and down towards gravity a bit more than average when not tensed. In the example I chose, the pose of the arm does not cause the bicep to tense overly much. In addition, the bicep heads a bit more towards the end of the collarbone, which would cause more of an inward tilted shape that you have shown.

Keep rocking.

[DefiledVisions]

Kan Muftic -

Umpa Art - Yeah I figured, i should be less here too, maybe I'll be able to work more. I hope you'll come and own me ! looking forward to it, I'm not going to slow down one bit. pipipipppippiikachu.

Witcrack - hehe, I'll be working them all. Thanks!

MetalFingers - Hell yes was planning on bringin them further. I hear you, I loose an hour a day by just scanning and editing pictures. It's waaaaaaste. Thanks for the drawing tip, I'll try it out.

midknight523 - haha, thanks

Man Made God - Yeah I know haha.. (now I do ) always good to see you, will have to catch up on msn but right now I try to avoid it cause I can't get any drawing done while on msn. Thanks for the crit, you're right too. I have to do more figures and learn to do them right.

JustinBecket - Thanks! will do!

Pixie Trick - Thank you! you know, that's a problem with bridgman. His work is more of a guideline on how to construct the body and not reference for actual anatomy at all. I do however think that this is partially due to the angle of the paper while drawing. I tend to draw things too long, biceps being one of them
Thanks for the solid input! I'll try to be more careful.



Some crappy lifedrawings from yesterday. I couldn't focus at all.. my mind was like melting cheese.. everywhere.
I need to make more mistakes. I have to draw without caring about failure.. take shading for instance, I've been reluctant to really push the values because fear of it messing up the piece. But how will I ever learn if I draw the same strokes again and again? I tried to do that with the last piece here, sure it looks crap. But after 10 pages of crap you will have picked up one thing about it that makes it crap and when you stop doing that thing it will be less crap.
Off to draw crap, laters!

[Lotet]

awezome stuff!

[Metal Fingers]

man I wish I could use pencil every once and a while in my life drawing. Good lines!

[Ian Barker]

dang son, you've gotten really good! keep up the awesome work

[Man Made God]

Good attitude mate. I wouldn't worry too much about the life drawings, looking good anyway. Some of the scans could use some value adjusting, just for the really light stuff.

I know what you mean about laying down heavy tones, just look for the really easy parts first imo... like creases between the arm and inner torso, if you start with the high contrast areas and use the tone in a way that supports the underlying line work, it looks less jarring and then you can gradually get into the smoother transitions and more towards rendering. I've been trying to define the shadows and value changes like that before going into heavy rendering, by finding the contrasts and planning out "blocks" of tone, its a lot easier to stay on track. Does that make sense? Kinda hard to explain lol.

Keep it sexy 8).

[kingkostas]

your dedication and self critisism is something really great mate.I love the loose natural lines in a lot of the figures.Keep up the shading training
try different approaches and gather the understandings you will get from each one(maybe for example soft shadow rendering, hatching(you do), flat(no graduations just indication of shadow and strong shadow(the one near the region where shadow meets the light) etc etc etc)

keep up the good work

[DefiledVisions]

Lotet - Thanks man!

Metal Fingers - Thanks! how come you're not using pencil than? or, might I add, what do you use instead?

Liffey - Hey, thanks you!

Man Made God - mate.. your name always rings to the tune of the In Flames song with the same name good song! Yeah scan is really bugging me, and I even multiply the damn thing! they're close to translucent otherwise.
Yes I hear you, I've been trying to do that earlier, but then again, I never pushed them really. What used to be my 'shadow' value should be the midtone actually.. I was that careful. I'll have to feel my way through, words taken to heart though. Thanks.
</sexy>

Kingkostas - Yeah, I like crosshatching, but haven't really tried other. Flat rendering is also something I've been trying lately. Not much though, I'll keep on trying!
thanks!


Hey, thank you so much for all the kind words! really great to hear I found out about a Scandinavian Conceptart challenge currently held. Here's the link - http://conceptartchallenge.com/
Deadline is in 24 hours lol! but I will finish, and ofcourse win.
Here's my wip so far, the theme is "perspective - good/bad, yin/yang, etc." Ponder this piece for a while, and I'll tell you about it when it's finished tomorrow! *hint* what happens if turned upside down?

[JiR]

the value of light and shadows are very good
would like to see more

[Pixie Trick]

Ooooooo!!!!! I love it! Completely and totally love it! (of course you'll win!...hehehe )

Why must you make me feel so lazy....

[Metal Fingers]

ohh la la la, man FUCK I sat around on campus all day waiting to use the large bed scanner, the class ends, I go in, and its fucking broken a;skdhflajsdhfa;sjdhfa, anyways, this means I'm gonna have extra character designs to dump into my sb, even though I should be practicing renders. Ooops, haha I should have added class at the end of that, my teacher doesn't believe in pencil or any of that graphite jazz so we draw in super expensive conte crayon, which is alright. Watch those light shades on the Wurm though, I think it needs more lighter lights, those bright shades are too similar all around that top curve. I should watch redundant word use and run on sentences.

[DefiledVisions]

JiR - Thanks! more to come

Pixie Trick - hehe, I'm sorry. I guess the only thing you can do to stop feeling lazy is draw some more

Metal Fingers - Haha shit, you gotta be kidding.. that sucks! just hang in there, you'll bring white goodness soon, I know you will.
Your teacher seems like a fun person I'd spend my days going against. Really though, you can do amazing stuff with conte crayons but first you must know how to draw.
No worries, I noticed that about shading too.




Hey, so here's another wip. Still far from finished, and deadline in 13 hours. interesting.
I've been thinking of one thing that's been bugging me. It's when I enter flow. When I paint, I usually get to a point where everything feels good, you know. Everything becomes lighter, music becomes more enjoyable, the world becomes a better place.
When this happens, I suddenly stop working. I don't know why.. but when I get that feeling a sudden urge to put things aside and just 'be' surfaces. It's a bit frustrating because I expect that if I were able to give a piece my full attention in that state of flow, good things would happen. Instead I sink back into a normal state
Anyone else experience this?

[Abrodos]

That last piece is cool. Right now, the tree trunk grabs a lot more attention than the black snake. I'd suggest to brighten the grass in order to make the black one contrast more against it. Also, on rendering shadows with a pencil, I'd suggest to cover bigger areas each time. Right now you've covered small patches, and when they overlap, they create darker areas in the middle which don't make sense.
Anyway, great work as usual! Keep it up!

[Genius_Malignus]

Your productivity is humbling - as is the thoroughness with which you approach your studies. Very inspirational and motivating! Keep up the good work - I am sure it is going to pay off in the future.

[Emil_]

So much great studies and your digital stuff is strong too, awesome sketchbook.

[witcrack]

Hey, so here's another wip. Still far from finished, and deadline in 13 hours. interesting.
I've been thinking of one thing that's been bugging me. It's when I enter flow. When I paint, I usually get to a point where everything feels good, you know. Everything becomes lighter, music becomes more enjoyable, the world becomes a better place.
When this happens, I suddenly stop working. I don't know why.. but when I get that feeling a sudden urge to put things aside and just 'be' surfaces. It's a bit frustrating because I expect that if I were able to give a piece my full attention in that state of flow, good things would happen. Instead I sink back into a normal state
Anyone else experience this?

For a moment there, i thought you were talking about me Yeah, i experienced it too sometimes. Still not figured out how to ... well... figure it out. Heheh. What usually happen to me after that 'flow' is i get off my work(s), prepare some coffee, pulled out a cigarette and poof... it's all gone. After that i can still finished my work but with that old deadline rush feeling... no fun Alcohol can sometimes help, but noooo, better not making it a habit. It's somewhat good to know now that someone else is also experience it. But we have to fix that ASAP!

As for your latest WIP, unless it is restricted in the brief, i think the composition will be better if you extend the canvas a bit more vertically, imo.

[DefiledVisions]

Abrodos - Thanks so much! followed your advice

Genius_Malignus - Tusind tak! det er ikke hver dag jeg får lov til at skrive lidt dansk (jeg er halv dansk)
Thanks for the kind words.

Emil_ - Thanks man!

Witcrack - First off, thanks for the tip! I lengthened the canvas, now both snakes are roughly equally far from the border.
Regarding flow.. hrm, yeah, I know. Alcohol gets me in the mood too, especially when I'm listening to some really good hardstyle/trance. But still, no good relying on that poison besides. We should be able to harness the powers of flow without any mind-altering substances. I don't know.. when in flow you can't force it either, but it's like this feeling of "Allright, now I've done something good - time to put it aside" when I just got started haha. sucks.




Thanks so much for the inputs and advice, repainted it a bit. You guys are awesome!
More WIP .. deadline in 7 hours oh the tension. Oh the excitement! will he make it.. stay tuned. I don't think I can render it as much as I want to, I have to focus on impact now. I'm planning on really refining the contrast around the snakes so they become solid focal points, then I'm going to work a lot more with the atmosphere to push the tree back and blend it in with the sky.. And for the sake of impact, refine lighting and shadows so the piece gets solid. If I nail that foundation I can go into rendering without fear, for now though I have to nail that first or else the piece will completely suck no matter how much I render.

Right now the entire black snake feels a bit off, his body doesn't work well with the flowing motion of the white snake, it's like stiff versus flow.. somehow I'll have to fix that. Maybe have the body slither in between massive roots?

Any other thoughts coming to mind? criticism more than welcome! it's all in now point of no return muahaha.

[canadair]

amazing sketchbook, amazing dragons especially.

keep up!!!

[witcrack]

Good luck on the deadline, curious to see it finished. GO GO GO!!! If you're reading this, then don't! Back to painting, immediately!

[Metal Fingers]

yea the teacher is pretty old school, I think its funny though that I'm the only person in a life drawing class who draws every day, the teacher was like, now I know its after spring break and most of you haven't drawn for a couple weeks.....wtf? Going to a UNI for art where no one takes it seriously can be disheartening. but yea, drawing with conte is only fun if you know proportions and have some basic drawing skills, my teacher made a chick cry last term because she said her proportions were bad and she should start over, really bluntly, pretty much telling her she sucked. lol. you should put a mouth on that bottom dark dragon tail, to emphasize the whole double sided thing. or, if you felt extra ambitious, the island could be resting on water and the dark dragon could just be a reflection, not sure if you have enough time for that though. And about the flow, I've found that most of the times, when you hit that spot, you really gotta dig down and think, what was it that got me so stoked to paint this? Why did I want to see this fully rendered? Then you just gotta grab that inspiration by the balls and ride it to completion.

[DefiledVisions]

Canadair - Thanksss!

Witcrack - Haha, very thoughtful of you thanks!

Metal Fingers - Wtf, why even bother studying art at uni if you're not going to do it? hehe.. mouth was already part of the plan from the very beginning. Thanks man, I actually did ride the river by the balls this time.




Hey, so I finished the piece to the limit of my time.. woa, was close. 15 minutes left when I sent it in hehe. Regretfully I didn't get to work the upper branches.. I'm not pleased with it, sure it looks good. But it looks so much like my other work, the colouring.. the shading.. the atmosphere. It feels like I'm stagnating.
Arh.. I'll just shut up and congratulate me for finishing in time! and over such short time. Good work me!
As soon as I round up some of my other pictures I have laying around I won't touch personal pieces for a long while.. and instead get into studies thoroughly. I have soooo much to learn yet

The piece is called 'Part of the same tree'
the theme was "Yin and yang, good and evil, black and white. Snap, snap, freeze, pose, look back. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder. PERSPECTIVES is the theme, which you are to visualize, for this year's Concept Art Challenge."

So yeah.. I kinda followed brief trying to show that good and bad are meaningless words. In our ignorance we give them meaning.. we're really quick to judge people by their actions, heritage etc. without putting things into perspective and seeing the whole of it. The more aware you become of this world, the more you will start to see that everything is balanced. Good.. bad.. those words will have little meaning because you see the underlying reasons for actions deemed as good or evil. You will always find good with evil, they cannot exist without each other.
Also, playing around with the perspective idea behind this piece.. turn it upside-down and it works just as fine (given the exception of the snake's heads)

[PieMonster]

Looking at the concept art challenge page it looks like the deadline was pushed until midnight tomorrow, not sure if that allows you to work more on it though.

As of now it looks really good man, sure it could've done with some more polish on the upper branches, but it gets the idea across. And it's better than most of the other contestants entries by far. Good luck!

[kingkostas]

thats a beautiful work mate.i like the mood created by the colors.
Keep up the good work

[oren90]

wow amazing work you've got here

[artozi]

Last piece is getting very well!! Strong lighting and colours. But as for my personal taste I'd prefer more clear composition. I'm kinda lost, because bendy bodies of snakes doesn't give smooth movement (in my feeling). It is a matter of clarity in composition which you may want to think more next time. You have beautiful suggestive line in traditional sketches. Keep it up! You're doing great

[DefiledVisions]

Piemonster - Thanks man! turns out the extension was just to get people's entries in. It lasted an hour or so

KingKostas - Thanks mate!

Oren90 - thank you

Artozi - Yeah, I hear you. I think the black snake is off a lot, I didn't really think the piece. Just went with the first random scribble hehe, if time allows next time I'll be more careful for sure. Thanks!



Thank you for your kindness everyone. I'm not dead.. yet. Here's just a small piece of crap (wip) to update the sketchbook.
Will get back into art again, it's funny how we can be on the top of the world one day just to fall all the way down again the next.
I know what's been bugging me so it's cool, something I have to deal with privately.
Other than that, my entry didn't win, oh well

[Eiki]

'Part of the same tree' is awesome!!!! love that!

[LORD M]

Oh man, I really like those Pikachu's, should have been in the show.

The snake-piece is really nice, freakin great rendering! Although I think that on the black snake, the jaw is looking bigger and thicker then the cranial part of the head, gives it a bit disorted appearence.


Skitsnyggt jobbat!

[Metal Fingers]

Keep drawing, I demand it.