Joe's Sketchbook

[JoeS]

Syrella- Thanks. No I haven't, not with paint anyway I would like to at some point, but right now its too darn cold.

Istmin52 - Thank you. Yes I'm working on it, I'm doing studies by the batch so I will probably upload some sooner or later.

Generic Knight guy holding a sword outside a cave - something I did before christmas to practice applying some stuff. I don't really practice enough full illustrations and this shows, loads I need to work on

[JoeS]

Value studies, for all of my colourful sins -

[JoeS]

A couple of knight studies from some stock photography online.
I did these sometime during/after the knight piece posted earlier. Learned quite a lot from them and it was good to practice painting all that texture in the background, I had to make a few custom brushes and also played around with the noise filter. I think its pretty good for subtle texture/detail.

[JoeS]

aaand some still lives on my desk. I really need to do more of these.

[JoeS]

More value studies. The planar face was from some photos someone posted on cghub, I can't find the link
The references for the figures are from stock photography artists on Deviantart, the first one is from Mjranum's stock, the next I believe is from Samiguy101 and the third one is from Strobeglow.

[vatteh]

Love the figure studies and how you are sticking with b&w to focus on values. Just keep at it!

[TomSeas]

Really great improvement, and you're still quite young so you got loads of time ahead of you.
I'd like to see more imaginative work from you as it's mostly studies. Show us how you're applying them!

[JoeS]

vatteh - Cheers

TomSeas- Thanks, yea I'm working on it

A couple more value studies, these were done a lot faster.

[Mohzart]

Really liking the studies! Very impressive.

[JoeS]

Thanks Mohzart.

Character sketches -

[llex_paul]

very good black and white studies! how long do you spend on one of those man? look pretty fast but also have the details and stuff.

[JoeS]

llex_paul, thanks man, the last two studies of the men probably took around than 20-30 mins each. I usually lay in a quick sketch underneath to work as a guide then its really just all about grouping the values and painting the edges to be softer or harder as you go. I try to study from photos with very coherent lighting because that sort of lighting allows the form to read a lot better and gives you more definite shadow shapes to work with.

Here's a couple more.

[llex_paul]

This works good to grow, I need to do this kind of fast value sketches also. Looks nice Also thanks for explaining!

[JoeS]

llex - Hey, no problem

Haven't posted in a while, but here's the last batch of these figure studies before I move onto something else.

[JoeS]

Since I haven't uploaded in ages here's a barbarian concept. February flew by, let myself slip and didn't do half as much work as I could've done Going to get back on track this month.
edit: made some revisions to this guys armour, I think it looks a little better.

[JoeS]

Another character, trying out some chromatic aberration,

[JoeS]

some drapery and clothing studies, I don't do enough stuff like this, and I figured its about time I did some studies of everyday clothing too. Last one was the most challenging, didn't exactly like the attire but the lighting looked good to study from. Baggy snowboarding pants are way cool! :D

[Veshkau]

Great studies and improvement. Keep it up

[RissaKay]

Really love the clothing studies; I'd love to see more!

[snatti]

great studies man, really love the softness you get in those figure studies

[JoeS]

Thanks guys,

Just some imaginative work focusing on value -

[JoeS]

Some more Character sketches.

[JoeS]

Fun with the lasso tool! This was a study from a photograph.

[chevy28360]

Really wonderful studies. You've got those proportions down just right, and your value work is excellent. I also really like your character designs. Keep posting!

[JoeS]

Cheers chevy, glad you like them.

Punk girl character design-

[JoeS]

A sketch exploring some different blending modes and colour options -

[chevy28360]

Oooh, nice work there mate. The color is fantastic.

[Sleep.less]

You've come a long way from the start of your sketchbook.
Lovely solid figures!
You're slowly doing more and more designs. Take your time with the fundamentals, because you can't know enough fundamentals.
To give your characters and extra edge you could use a textured brush for the fabric materials, a smooth one for the metal work, another for wood and so on. That way, apart from the specular, the different materials can be easily distinguished.
Keep up the good work.

[TomSeas]

Nice sb! first page and last are so different. Like how you're co,bining studies and imagination work

[JoeS]

Chevy, Sleep and Tom - Thanks! Too true Sleep, and I can see where you're coming from with the materials, I do have a lot of trouble with defining them and I think it has a lot to do with the value ranges of different materials too.
Something from my sketchbook with a layer mask-