Did you draw today? ❒ Yes ❒ No

[kingkostas]

your handling of values with the pencil really got very far my friend . You are really working hard and thats great!!Keep it up

[ThomasM]

hoho! Nice pencils amigo, as someone already said above, your handling of values has improved loads. No crits from me, just keep on killing it

[PaintMyBrain]

I really like the last charcoal pieces just keep that up!

[AllyAlbon]

Great stuff, especially your pencils - you have a way of shading that just kills me ! Keep it up and good luck with school - plod on, there will be an end...

[teapo]

life+sketch (sketches mostly from observing people in the student union building where everyone was chilling and watching the EURO UEFA 2012 games and etc.)






life+zoo trip (zoo trip w/ life drawing class-- these are done w/ the left over time we had and so i chose to do it with something i was comfortable with-- mechanical pencil! the other drawings are in charcoal but are at school XD)

another thing to note about the zoo-- that trip was a big fucking ego boost because there were a lot of kids saying how well we draw and i know that my drawings are shit but i just took it anyway HAHA... i'm not really getting any better





life drawing (sketches on canson with mechanical pencil that i managed to get with some spare time-- the actual drawings we had to do are done with charcoal D:")

(magdalena- our pregnant model, fun )


(anastasia- petite girl :3 )


(forget these two's names-- but first one was a pretty heavy set girl; fun but challenging body shape to draw; and second one is a girl who is sitting in this whole week for a painting session-- can't believe i forget her name but apparently she is a geologist / art major in photography + modeling?)



i'll try to get some scans of charcoal gestures... this is the last week of life drawing also, i've been uber slacking... i've invested 250+ hours into Diablo 3 which is fucking lame of me right? i'm just wasting my time... ffffuuu... time to write a 5 page paper for cult film class due this friday D:< should be no probs though!

EDIT: forgot to throw in this Golucho study on bristol D:

[JakehC]

You should start putting things into a context. Interiors and outdoor enviornments. Think about props, costume design, and personality. Also you should start doing character sheets that show your design process. So that you begin to break away from the arbitrary design choices.

Take it to the next level. Lets start seeing some compositions. Cause right now its just a bunch of disassociated render studies, and that is great for fine art. But you gotta start producing something more inline with your goals of fantasy art.

[orochigenocide]

Yay! You are finally back.

I agree with Aryeh. It's something you'll need to push for even if the process is painful. (And believe me, it can be hard to get the ball rolling when you're trying to push to the edge of your confort zone).

[teapo]

thanks guys. yeah i definitely need to start grinding some design stuff... i just don't know where to start? D:"

-some imaginary poses/ waist-up sketch




-grayscale photo studies

[Nele Klumpe]

Hey there! Wow, it's been some time since I last posted here. I'm kind of impressed by your progress! Your figures have become a lot better. I especially like the poses in you last post. Great lines, good balance.
Keep it up

[kingkostas]

Great improvement mate!!! Both digital and trad rendering of values looks very good. Edge play needed now. In lighted areas, try to add some crisp limited strokes of the value that exist there (in the lighted areas) and check if it pops out some more.
keep up the great work

[teapo]

thank you Nele and King. there is much to learn isn't there?

-photo studies




-my legs from the mirror lol


-a small set of charcoal gestures that i liked from that last drawing class i mentioned


-figures/gestures from imagination




-some things from imagination



gotta do more ref'd studies again. anyone have any pointers or any books to reference some basic design principles? D:" the journey of becoming better is never-ending isn't it? nothing to do but to keep going ":3

[rinnikirun]

!Swag!

xD Awesome stuff man, keep it up!

[CrookedHorn]

you last round of studies are wonderful.

[Mr.Ebony]

Damn you make me want to draw! Nice study on the human form! I'll be keeping an eye out!

[teapo]

hehe thanks you guys! and sooyoung (kǒu​ jiāo LOL!!! jkjk) :3

moleskine sketch


starting another set of characters who will be counterparts to the previous ones and a rough study previously done of a mechanical arm for this guy~


1pt perspective studies (yeah, i can't believe i'm actually doing something non -figurative for once-- but i'm really enjoying these perspective studies...)





2pt perspective studies (...just have to apply it to some imaginative stuff after a bit more understanding!)

[Lumens]

The title, i see what you did there.

You're entering a brave new world by overcoming perspective.
Hope to see some environments soon.

[rinnikirun]

傻屄 ....

[teapo]

thanks Lumens and ven. i'm having a lot of fun doing these perspective studies so far , and ven i translated that-- freaking lolz.

[kevin_]

great values and lighting! really like your rendering!

[Alex Eh]

niiice stuff keep it up!

[Pete Hidalgo]

Wonderful book! Like the creatures you do and that last batman sketch is pretty powerfil. (Emotionally)

[JakehC]

*variety of mark making.

good work keep it up. your grinding like the stud you are.

[teapo]

thanks guys!

sorry for spamming these ones

[JakehC]

You mentioned that you needed dome design principle books: Check out the force books/videos by Mike Mattessi. He covers a lot about how to do dynamic drawing/ideation for animation.

As a personal piece of advice. Ide say that your weakness doesnt lie in your lack of understanding about the principles of design and color. i think you just havnt quiet worked out a design language that is your own. And this, in my opinion, comes from having an overly emphasized of photo studies and master studies.

i think master studies and referenced studies are great. But its really really important to spend time away from these things and spend some decent time investigating your own design sensibilities.
The problem with studies is that it is easy to just do them without understanding the reasons behind why things are they way they appear in pictures (whether its the properties or light/color or just the effects of the camera lense). If/When you do master studies and work from photos be sure to think about painting as a "building" process. If you "build" your painting in an easy to deconstruct process, then you will be able to mimic that same process when you construct something from your imagination. Think about the spatial relationships between objects and how that can be divided into different rendering layers in Photoshop. Not only does it make it easier to have more articulate work, but also its a more savy way to approach controlling value/color relationships. In this scenario construction>painting. because when you approach your studies like this you are more likely to retain and implement what you are doing.

I also tweeted you in regards to color. I think what you should do is simplify your use of color. It is easy to be jaded by the plethora of colors that we mimic in our photo studies, ect. But realistically most color in original art depends on a limited palette of colors. So i just suggest playing with color palettes or sampling color from photos (using the mosaic filter in Photoshop to create a more condensed color library).

Most designers have a standard palette they play with, either naturally or explicitly. And even though you will be asked to work professionally with different palettes and schemes, it does behoove you to start of basic.

As far as an actual critique i would say that your biggest problem is not your color. Personally i think you lack a lot of exposure to hard surface design/rendering. Also i think a big error you make is focusing to much on the rendering process in the early phases of a drawing pass. As an illustrator the idea comes first, and without a clear concept of what you plan to achieve in a piece everything else will fall through. I suggest doing 3-4 detail passes on a drawing before taking it to value/color.

I know that you could probably nail a drawing in 1 or 2 passes. but the purpose of the 3/4th pass is not to have a better drawing, but to grain familiarity with the drawing.

Also, Study some Frank Frazetta drawings. And do studies of those drawings and understand that rendering is a tool of communication not just about lighting but about form and composition as well. Spend more time PLANNING your mark making and using it in a way that further communicates the forms you are depicting.

Lastly, as ive mentioned several times before. Always put your sketches in a frame. This is advice from people like John English and Jason. The reason is because it will provoke you to think about context. Even if you are framing your drawings with abstract shapes and patters, you are going to be more focused on what the drawing is actually communicating versus a simply aesthetic drawing.

If you begin to do more fore0shortened drawings of the figure you will gain a better spatial awareness of the figure. This should improve your over all figure drawing.design.

Spend more time doing your own work, and a lot of these problems will work themselves out over time. Just dont get caught in that "practice loop"...

[teapo]

big thank you for that helpful critique Aryeh. hmm.. i don't really know how to respond because i pretty much agree with what you said haha :3

did some things in color so i can feel more comfortable with approaching things non-grayscale.








(this is probably only understandable if you've seen rocky horror lol...)






trying to put perspective into simple practices at the moment D:"



anyway, 6 more days til i leave for that Massive Black Workshop in San Francisco! hopefully i will see some of you there? :3

[orochigenocide]

Hey teapo, I see you've been working hard!

Expanding on Aryeh's advice a bit, have you thought of making a sketchbook or collection of abstract designs you like? I think by doing this, you will have the first step of figuring out what kinds of designs you want to use. Then when you've gathered a substantial about of design, then you can start grouping them and see how you can use them in your illustration/concept art to emphasize your idea.

Fine artists like Mughal court painters did something like this by gathering designs and master studies that they liked, and then, they nailed their design sensibilities in their original works: Mughal Miniatures, Imperial Paintings, Muraqqa'

[luthertaylor]

Really liking your sketchbook and progress. I think I've managed to glean some stuff from your approach to studies and work in general. I always seem to learn more when I render with my pencil compared to digital grayscale studies.
I think it's because of my process with digital, when doing studies in grayscale I become split between whether to line up the drawing first or just dive straight in with large brushes and lay in values. still don't know xD just whatever I feel like doing. However I like your lines, bold smooth strokes and it looks like the process flows. Think I will follow suit and give it a try.

what are your current topics of study?
best of luck

[snatti]

great to see you work hard old friend , like metioned earlier mabye combine all those studies with some designs of your own, will make it more fun and feel less like pure labor work.

[Fetsch]

Ooooh alot of improved in here. Stay dedicated and keep up the good work mate!

[teapo]

thanks guys! orochigenocide that's actually my problem-- i don't thumbnail anything. i sort of just let the design be 'spontaneous' but then i think it suffers in the end so that will be something i need to practice on.

thanks luthertaylor! i also think i learn more when i render in pencil :3 i haven't done much graphite things lately but i may be doing more of it again when school starts. currently studying perspective stuffs and trying to learn more about design XD

thank you atey. that is the idea for sure :B just need to put it into more practice

thank you Fetsch :3 means a lot~
















...yeah i dunno LOL :3