Back to the basics! Updated daily

[oren90]

awasome work man, just her head looks a bit bigger than it should, it has a cool composition.
can't wait to see it in color

[Istmin52]

Great sketchbook. I agree with the last comment though. The head does look a little big on her. When you start out painting, do you always paint in black and white first and then go into it with color? Whenever I try and do a black and white painting and add some color to it, it always turns into a mess. What is your general process?

[matt kohr]

istmin: It's hard to give a simple answer to the b/w > color question. Recently I've been doing more challenging compositions, and so I've started with greyscale. It eliminates a variable for me up front. I'm finding, though, that I have trouble with certain materials in b/w, and end up essentially repainting them when I go to color. This makes me wonder if I should just man up and start with color straight away.

another technique that I use sometimes is to keep a hue/saturation adjustment layer on the top of my layer stack, and toggle it on (saturation = 0%) to spot check my values. This allows me to work in color, but to toggle greyscale when I need confirmation.

Short answer: I don't have a single process. Maybe i will someday

progress:

[alexson]

Wonderfull works in here! Keep up your good work!

[matt kohr]

progress:

[kidult]

Nice progress...somehow I feel the fingers need to be bigger? They are coming at the viewer

[Mr Man]

I'm struggling to understand the scale of the troll. Is he 20 feet below or is he quite close? I don't get why he wouldn't be able to just grab the dude, he just seems a bit too passive. He is angry yet he's not even trying to grab the main character. What you could do is give him an outstretched arm, tighten that up, and then push his body back into the cave, this might give the scene a better sense of depth. I'd also suggest giving the troll some interesting trait, right now he is a bit generic and doesnt really hold that ominous presence yet.

Looking good though. Love the blue mushroomy plant things btw

[Istmin52]

thanks for answering my question. I actually have a similar problem when doing grayscale paintings too. But the hue/saturation adjustment layer sounds like a good idea. I sort of understand what Mr Man is saying but I feel like it's the moment where it's about to grab the character. I guess adjusting the scale would help a little. It's looking good so far though.

[Benjie]

hands look real sweet man! the lighting's looking pretty good as well, hope you get it finished!

[surus]

Please post more pencils like the last pencil-dragonstep!

[Harmageddon]

Very nice sketchbook, glad I stumbled into it.
Great use of coloring, atmosphere and beautiful environments.
I like the studies too, very nice work.
Your characters should go to the same level. That would make it epic!
Thanks for sharing your work.

[Lateman]

awesome works man! love it ... keep it blizzard maaan

[matt kohr]

Thanks, guys!

mr.Man: you're right. I think i will do some overlapping forms -- maybe a falling shield? and then also knock the troll back with some cooler colors. thanks for the feedback

a different one ive been working on - with progresS:

[oren90]

he's got a bomb look out!!, cool work man

[Trashy]

Hey there Matt just wanted to stop on by, those studies on the first page were seriously great and nice current updates also. Nice work!

[matt kohr]

rocks! Each has the same silhouette, so it's essentially a texture swap. No photo overlays were used, just a variety of brushes.

I realized that I paint a lot of rocks, though don't really paint specific rocks... ever. So this is an attempt at seeing some real rocks, and painting them.

[NickyBeats]

dude that last one ROCKS! HA! oh my god...ive become that guy...

a hem, anyways i love your work man! some wicked good stuff in here! that painting with the troll and the guy reaching up looks awesome so far! did you finish it?

[matt kohr]

nickybeats: lol, thanks not finished with the troll -- soon, hopefully.

I made reference to some "unorthodox tools" the other day -- here's a sneak peak. I don't like to update the thread image-free posts, but think of this button layout as it's own sort of artwork.

I'm really big on workflow / ergonomics / keyboard shortcuts. What you see here is the current layout of my photoshop controller -- I'll take photos as soon as I can. The major goal is to eliminate multi-key shortcuts, and move my left hand as little as possible. of course my right hand never leaves the stylus.

the layout is still in flux because i've added in a new device, so there are still some blank keys. I'll find something to put there.. don't worry

photos to come, stay tuned.

[Beelow]

Matt I am loving what you doing. I need to brush up on my studies as well. Rocks are looking sexy. Lovely moods and action going on in you're work. I love it!

[jcaffoe]

Nice work as always, my bro!

A couple suggestions -- for the troll piece, I would definitely knock him back with cool colors. Having him so warm makes him pop way more than you probably intended. I think that should solve the composition issues without worrying about adding any new elements.

For the goblins, I'd look at some of the more recent work blizzard has done for them now that they're a new WoW race, since I'm sure that's going to be a portfolio piece for an Upper Deck submission. They tend to be sticklers for little anatomy details

[dleoblack]

Hey Matt, great works here! I like in particular as you manage the lights/colors in the environments pieces!! Cheers

[Bing!]

Heyya Matt, Im new on conceptart.org and i love your still lifes and the enironments are pretty awesome too...im just started to set up my own sketchbook thread right now...so maybe u can drop by and take a look when im done. Cheers.

[matt kohr]

forcing myself to draw what I'm no good at drawing...

[Krato]

last post looks good!

[PHATandy]

Man stuff is looking super awesome lately, your improving a lot, good to see you tackling new stuff.

Im REALLY intrigued by your photoshop controller though. I see youve got like a spin wheel on it and other keys, so you completely lost me as to what it actually is! Im baffled. Is it like a touch screen youve got all these shortcuts running on or those keyboards where u can move the keys around on a surface? Crazy.

I neeed to knooww!!!

Keep up the good work as always!

[LAL]

Nice works here ,How rich imagination works!

[matt kohr]

Phatandy: thanks! I'll tell you this much: it's not a touch screen. photos on the way...

progress:

[Untouched24]

Hey man you have some really awesome stuff going on here. Those still life paintings on the first page are fantastic. You're working hard. That piece with the ogre and the human trying to escape is looking very nice. Great stuff, keep going.

[Istmin52]

Nice progress on the goblin piece.

[matt kohr]

Thanks, guys! here's some progress with the ogre -- I tried some overlapping and cooler colors to clarify the spacial issues.