Insatiable Curiosity

[{CKL}]

Brilliant landscape work! You're spot on about value being key. I am in sore need of some environment work myself, and you've really inspired me! I think I'll push out a study now!

[ThomasM]

I have been reading a little today, and analysing a few of my digital landscape CA'ers.

Anyway, these are Jama imitations (i.e. not a copy, I just wanted to try doing something in his style) in order to learn and analyse some new points. - needless to say, through this sort of analytical-learning process I generally learn a LOT and today was no exception. Value values values... (murmurs to self) .. values... edges.. values.. etc

[ThomasM]

CKLamb - thanks amigo, appreciate it! I'll just keep slugging away at these landscapes until I am able to do them. I've just got back from being abroad and Im spending night and day doing them. I think sometimes you juts need to pursue something doggedly to make the necessary progress, and I feel like thats whats needed now!

MORE!

[knut-]

Great enviro studies with lots of personality on those abstract kind of strokes.
Also nice values and depth of field on the one with the water on the grass
CHeers!

[ThomasM]

Still working heavily under the influences of others to analyse their techinques.

Quick Question for anybody out there that knows:

Once youve painted an environment, what is the most efficient way of colouring it, so that you retain values and lay colour over the top? If thats even possible! (I really hope so)








Note: James Paick (this is just to remind myself later on)

[Mila]

Nice! I love the composition in the first thumbnail.

About the coloring. I always doodled around in multiply and overlay levels over my black and white layer.

You can use the Color level on your layer to keep values too, I believe.


Actually, try this site too
Matt Kohr has taught me a lot :]

keep up the great work. I'm curious how your colored environments will turn out.

[MacTire]

As I was scrolling through I was going to make some suggestions about value control with regards to the first batch of enviros, but then I realised you seem to have that sorted very well! Really impressive stuff, man I really want to do some enviro studies now myself!

Wonderful sketches on the previous pages too.

Thanks for sharing!

[ThomasM]

Mac Tire - Thanks for the useful comment, as youve probably seen now, I visited your SB a few days ago and everything looks great there

Mila - wow you really helped me out there, thanks a lot. Actually you can get three great brushes from that site (I checked it out after you posted it) which are BASIC but proved to me the importance of value. Just a hard round, soft round and a flat. With those three I have hugely improved, rather than wasting time with multiple texture brushes and effects



RIGHT! incoming massive update.. but for now I'll just show something to prove I'm alive.. Been playing around with all sorts of new tricks as well as good old fashioned value work.

I'm really starting to feel like I could be on to something good with all this landscape work, after all there are few on these forums who can do them well, and I'm in desperate need of something interesting to distinguish my portfolio from others.

Something small:

[ThomasM]

..*CRAWLS TO DESK*... eurgh... done.. finally. 100 thumbs.. with some enviro studies and analysis





.. and a 40 minute still life I did today, but then the light changed too much to continue until tomorrow. As I had a portrait of some guy on there, I decided to leave it as the underpainting.

[Velocity Kendall]

damn lovely thumbs in that last post. id love to have a play with some of them, theres loads of depth and interest in many of them!

[marko markovic]

YOU ARE NUTS!

[MacTire]

yummy thumbs!

Looking forward to where you go next with the enviros, whether working up some of these or taking what you've learned further.

[ThomasM]

Velocity Kendall - well seeing as you mentioned it, youre welcome to have a play around with them if you like - don't let them go to waste!

MacTire - thanks amigo, and thanks for stopping by again. I'll be working everyday to get some of these enviro's up and running on a big scale. I'd like to have 3-4 minimum for my portfolio by the end of next month.

marko markovic......... yeah true. I did 100 in 3 days. Each one took about 15 mins.... I guess thats 25 hours in 3 days.. not much time for anything other than art at the moment!

One of my application pieces (of the 10) will be a TAD poster...

[Marian Rowling]

ha ha Tom it's great to see you throwing yourself into these landscapes, I always think idea generation really is so important to a good piece of art. I also really like the coke can still life, I can't actually tell if it's traditional media or digital but it looks very painterly.

[ThomasM]

Marian - yeah its oil paints actually. Ive done so much digital work recently I thought I'd stretch my oily wings a little and try something physical. I'm hoping to work up a few still life's over the coming week or so, and hopefully put in something in oil in my application. I love the idea of painting in oil, it seems like the most incredible medium

Finally finished. These two have taken all day, and I'm still not sure which I like more.... the foreground values have been done now though, and I think the fire is looking interesting, which was something I was really striving for.

[Marian Rowling]

Hey Tom I think the values are stronger in the red one. Assuming the fire is the main focal point have you thought of using the blues to cool down and push back the areas to the top and sides as they travel further away from the fire? I just wonder if that might make the fire glow even more.

[ThomasM]

Marian - Yeah, that was an intentional thing, I liked the effect of a smaller value range in the right one, as it was flatter generally because of the single colour. You're right about the blues, I've kind of attempted that with purples, although I'm pretty sure my monitor isnt calibrated properly at the moment because I keep getting messages about it. Thanks for the useful crit though, and I'll change that when I come back to this piece in a few weeks!

Just saw and advert for this while I was practicing my values from imagination...

[strange purple]

those thumbs are so nice!holy fuck.

[FROZ3N]

Apple frog butler.
wtf.
that is awesome man. the whole book rocks.

[ThomasM]

strange purple - thanks man, I checked your sketchbook out and its looking great. I'll stop by again soon and leave something constructive.

PITCHBLACK - haha yeah, I don't know what I was thinking then, but I'm glad you like it.


Some ideation and thumbnails that I did for that last piece (I forgot to upload).. and something I saw online which really made me laugh. And two thumbnails that I worked up a little, used some custom shapes on (the first time I've tried that and its great) and slapped some colour over (I really have no idea how to go about "colouring" a value paint, but Im assuming people just kind of go for it)

[I-Bomb]

The sketches are strong in this book

[Artezianin]

Your black&white landscapes and pensil drawings are AWESOME!! I dont know why u drawing in grayscale but its cool)

[Kaihartj]

Wow man, youare amazing! I'm in love with your sketchbook! Very inspiring indeed! I love your thumbnails! They're simple yet striking! very very insipiring! keep it up"!

[strange purple]

nice post, a crit from you would be sweet, thanks for checking out my book!

[ThomasM]

udon head - cheers

Artezianin - Im drawing and painting in value alone rather than colour because Im trying to establish the basics of image making. Adding colour can be such a complex subject in itself that I like to break the image down into stages.

KairhartJ - Thanks, much appreciated!

strange purple - yeah no worries I'll swing by today and leave something useful (I hope)

Nothing very exciting.. just something from this morning and some studies and notes from Kekai Kotaki

[ThomasM]

Some more Jama analysis... I just love that guy's work! He said it himself somewhere in his sketchbook (which I've been through several times in its entirety) that he wants to make each piece look like the still of a movie frame. Although that's not always my intention, it is very interesting and I've learnt a lot about how he does this through my "analysis" of his pieces over the past few weeks.

Anyway.. something more exciting next time I promise.

[Black Sun S.]

Amazing work and making-of!!!
Congratulations!!
Keep it up!

[wilkerson]

Thanks for these.
I just wish I could read all of your writing.

[Mila]

Nice, I like how you evaluated your own studies by sharing your own notes on them.

[Cyberman]

cool studies from south america!! would like to go there now and do some too. Those thumbnail exercises look really good for the chops too. I do something similar to what you do with your analysis of other artists work myself actually:/ I would find one of my favorite paintings and mentally break it down top to bottom, focal point, eye flow, balance, color pallet, and ask myself why they made all of those decisions...Anyways def subscribed, Cheers
Sean.