Insatiable Curiosity

[element1988]

[QUOTE=Sean McClain;2731151]

Not very happy with it to be honest... any tips on how to achieve that rough look? I'm using GIMP at the moment to do these but wanting to branch into proper painting as soon as possible!
/QUOTE]

I Cant Believe nobody responded to this?!?... well if your using gimp stay zoomed out
and use big brushes, try to find some good Brushy brush downloads if you can,
one thing one of Sargent's apprentices said is that watching one of his pieces start to finish was like watching a blurry image slowly come into focus, but if I am in oils is I
will squint my eyes when I look at the subject, if your looking at an image on the screen
well then what I do is just shrink it down small and keep my image big and and zoom in the original more and more as I come along while keeping mine zoomed out. use big brushes...as big as you can possibly go even if its the pupil of the eye.
there is a pdf download of Sargent notes on Craig Mullins site in the Miscellaneous/how I work section here is the link www.goodbrush.com ...oh and do get some oils and do some studies because its sooooooo fuuunn
Cheers!

lol i was just going to reply to that and was looking to see if anyone else did lol. But to add to this i would just say make sure you always use 100% hard brushes, soft brushes are the devil!!! they make everything all airbrushy and blurry, if you don't know how to use them that is. Instead just block in your big shapes and then get a lower opacity and paint in between for a softer edge.

[ThomasM]

Jakers - Thanks for the comment man, really appreciate it. Its comments from people like yourself that really keep me going in what feels like an epic struggle against being crap at art :p

BlackDelphin - Thanks dude, yeah I think you are right about the shadow, I looked at it loads but it just seemed so odd. Right, I think I'm gonna agree with you and call it finished and move on. I have learnt loads from painting the last few days. The most important thing I have learned is that handling the paint, brushes and mixing paints is not as easy as some people make it look!

element1988 - Thanks for the advice, really appreciate that. I think I will try a landscape tonight on photoshop and just see how it turns out. I generally used only soft brushes for all the PS stuff I've done so far, so hopefully itll help me out a bit! cheers :p

Will post more either this evening or tomorrow, but for now nothing as I am cleaning my house and moving out tomorrow!

[ryan mcshane]

awesome work man! thanks for stopping by appreciated
keep drawing!
ryan

[kingkostas]

very nice studies mate.Specially the landscape studies, with these lovely tree sketches!!!
You already have very nice lines.Keep up improving mate!!you are on the right track

[ThomasM]

r y a n o i r - Thanks very much dude, and no worries I love browsing the sketchbooks of other people, looking for inspiration and to see how other people improve!

Kingkostas - Thankyou I really appreciate the kind words, especially from someone so much more advanced than myself! I will keep on posting! More trees and rocks guaranteed!

It has been three months since I started this sketchbook. Posting every single day excluding when I was either away from a computer or couldn't. In these three months I feel I've learnt LOADS and hopefully will continue to do so from studying more texts.

I hereby swear to continue uploading every day I can! I will be an artist if I have to dedicate three hours a day of my life (What I'm currently averaging lol)

(excluding today I'm afraid because I am currently moving house and am staying at a friends with no camera or scanner. I'll still be drawing though!)

Thanks to all who have helped me improve and given kind words of encouragement!

[N E X T]

hey man, thanks for the comment

nice paintings so far ! i like the still lifes

one question: you reading Jack Hamm - as i see you are copying "pretty much" from his book - is it wise to do that ? ( takes a lot of time? )

but probably it's easier to remember the things that way

anyway keep it up

[ThomasM]

N E X T - No problem dude, and thanks for the comment. Yeah I am reading his book on landscapes and seascapes, I mentioned it on the last page once or twice. It isnt very fast to do so many copies but it is extremely useful for me at the moment. I am also doing some of my own works based around what I have learnt (not all posted). Making the copies isnt essential no, but then if I draw the points that he suggests as I read them then it really helps me remember his key suggestions.

I wouldn't advocate copying exclusively, but in combination with works from imagination I am learning fast!

[TheGnoll]

nice studies man!
you've already improved tons since you opened this sketchbook! kudos for studying from a book a nd keeping at it, jack hamm's book is awesome.
About the latest car, keep in mind its mostly about what is under all the bits and patterns and things that counts-dressing up a wonky base will not make it work, so and the jack hamm book shows as well, get the 3d shapes right, and only then dress them up! second-especially if you decided on going for concept art, its really important to think about the bits and pieces you put on top of stuff, form and fuction must be linked, and any bit i could point out must have a meaning, a reason to be there, even if its simple ("cause it looks cool" only works to a certain point).
Keep hammering the basics as much as you can, as skills slowly build up they will unlock a shitload of possibilities, just keep in mind mileage counts as well as effort, and keep at it!

[ThomasM]

TheGnoll - Thanks dude, really appreciate the comment and support! I'm glad you can see some improvement too! You are so right about that concept car thing I did. It was really rushed and I gave almost no thought to the practical applications of things I was adding. For the future I will always bear that in mind!

p.s. I didn't really understand what you meant by "mileage counts as well as effort"? Thanks!

Here are some sketches I've been doing the last few days. The first three pages are stuff from Jack Hamm's book (with the odd modification and addition of my own) and then there are two pages from a new sketchbook I bought the other day. I am going to try and fill that one within a month, but for now it has two tree-sketches I did on southampton common the other day....

[Blizzard5291]

So much hard work, and it's really paying off!

[ThomasM]

Blizzard5291 - Thanks buddy, I appreciate the comment.

Here is todays stuff. I have been working on a painting of Jackie Chan (Quite big) in acrylic as usual and I am loving it so far. I have reviewed my style of painting a little after some useful tips from a friend, although unfortunately they came after I had begun painting so were a bit late!

There is a sketch of a tree by a river, and two attached WIP's that are still in the process of being refined and modified quite a lot!

I was also thinking of adding a sort of maroon background colour but not sure yet.

P.S. I have also uploaded a photo of a table-easel that I made after sawing up a broken chair that belonged to my housemate. If you can think of any additions I could make to it please comment

[ThomasM]

The Jackie Chan further painting and a sketch from yesterday (Day 93 since the start of my official drawing career!)

Here it is! (Oh and a speedpaint done this evening) Took about 30mins (not sure exactly but about that)

[Black Spot]

I think you've nailed trees. Great to see the progress.

I would have left the characters off the Jackie Chan study and concentrated more on getting the shape of the coat with its folds looking right first. Face is coming on well.

My post count is high because I tend to natter a fair bit.

[ThomasM]

Blackspot - thanks for the comment. I took your advice and did a few grays on jackie's jacket before I did any characters over it. To be honest though the photo I'm working from has very little to suggest that jacket is anything other than flat (Its basically all black in the photo). More work to be done on that another day.

Here are today's offerings to the gods of Art! My little sketchbook is becoming something of an obsession to me these days, and I have to say I might have just graduated with a zoology degree but I know that something to do with Art is the field I really want to be working in! (druels at the thought of it..)

I have been working today on more of the painting of Jackie and comparing angles (something I heard I should be working on in a download I paid for earlier by Daarken. Anyway its starting to look a lot more like him I feel!

And here are yesterday's drawings (and today's). I am really trying to get some differing line width and darkness in my drawings in order to break away from the current amateur style of mine!

[Joystx_]

nice sketch.

[Exon-Ion]

Hey dude, your sketchbooks going strong! Love the painting of Jackie you've done in acrylics, I've never touched that stuff. Keep it up, oh and that little table/easle you've constructed out a broken chair? pretty ingenius.

[cgaddict]

Excellent work. I really like your sketches in particular, those Loomis studies are A C E!

[ThomasM]

Joystx - Thanks amigo

Exon-ion - Haha thank you man, yeah I was pretty pleased with it in the end!

cgaddict - Thanks and I appreciate the comment and encouragement. I am concentrating a little on hands for now as I have never tried them before. I'm finding them great fun!

Here is a sketch from last night: we were watching Hellboy! The film is alright but I love the character designs, particularly hellboy himself. Anyway tried out some colouring pencils today. They pretty much blew my mind... soo great to work with! I'm definitely going to head into town tomorrow and buy a decent set (not my woolworth's ones which I've just worn out in one night!)

Here are today's things. I've been sketching my own left hand for reference and its been fun. Also did some jack hamm wave studies but they look awful lol

Art day tomorrow!

[ThomasM]

Joystx - Thanks amigo

Exon-ion - Haha thank you man, yeah I was pretty pleased with it in the end!

cgaddict - Thanks and I appreciate the comment and encouragement. I am concentrating a little on hands for now as I have never tried them before. I'm finding them great fun!

Here is a sketch from last night: we were watching Hellboy! The film is alright but I love the character designs, particularly hellboy himself. Anyway tried out some colouring pencils today. They pretty much blew my mind... soo great to work with! I'm definitely going to head into town tomorrow and buy a decent set (not my woolworth's ones which I've just worn out in one night!)

Here are today's things. I've been sketching my own left hand for reference and its been fun. Also did some jack hamm wave studies but they look awful lol

Art day tomorrow!

[RaphaelLuebke]

if your going on with working that hard you will become a succesful and very good artist/graphican im sure - just dont let anything hold you off from continuing this way

very promising thread!

just dont let those sudies keep you to far away from some more imaginative/fantasy/fun stuff, i think creativity is as important as technical skills (yes, their both important )

[ThomasM]

xbert - gracias amigo! I will definitely continue working this hard and I really intend to be an artist no matter how much work it takes for me to get there!

You are right about working on my imaginative stuff too, and I will work on that in my next few posts hopefully to show Im not just about studies and sketching whats in front of me!

I have just received three new books today, all of which are amazing. One on perspective, another Jack Hamm on drawing animals and finally one about drawing fantasy robots and creatures (I wanted tips on more conceptual designing). I am really pleased with these three so have posted a picture if anyone fancies giving them a try (I really recommend them!)

Also I recently bought a Daarken video tutorial and I have started to work through that today in order to get some much needed knowledge of the workings of photoshop...

[ThomasM]

Tonight and yesterday's stuff (Been very busy I'm sorry). Very drunk now so won't type more

[ThomasM]

something more from this morning...

I have taken a sketch from earlier and coloured it with markers into gray and then added a tint and color dodge/burn etc to give it some colour. It is a sort of energy/tesla-tank and this time I have attempted at least some "feasible" explanations of why things are where they are. For example, there is thick rubber-tarpaulin on top of the cabin in order to shield the driver in the event of emergency, as well as to limit the blinding power of the tesla above. I really need to incorporate more "why is that there" questions into my design process...

Not particularly happy with the design but learnt a lot about photoshop this morning and using mixed mediums (markers/pencil/PS) which was fun!

[ThomasM]

Went to town today in my hungover state and bought a cheap set of oils. Tried them out on a still-life of a tomato and to be honest I fell in love with them! So much better than acrylics. Anyway here it is!

[Seraph Fawkes]

Hi there ) You are hardworker and this is great. You making quite progress and I have no doubt that soon you'll do serious stuff. Keep on those anatomy studies (actually you should never stop practicing). And filling up your art vocabulary is a great decision. I'm quite lazy to do alot of landscape studies, and sometimes it hits me back. And a quick tip (I don't know do you know it or not) - when you painting with classic materials use mirrors to check if your painting not skewed.

Cheers, and keep it up!

[ThomasM]

Seraph fawkes - Thanks very much man, nice of you to stop by! Yeah I'm really working hard every day to be the best artist I can be! I am starting a self portrait in oils today (and hopefully finishing) so thanks for the tip, I will use mirrors for it!

[Black Spot]

Nice vehicle design - looks a lot of fun. Oils are great to use; wish I had a space without pesky kids around to indulge, I'm very envious.

Sometimes if you desaturate a photo more details will emerge to give you a better idea of what's actually there.

[ThomasM]

Black Spot - ha yeah I have to say in the 24 hours that I've tried out oil paints I have learnt two things from them:

1/ they are incredibly versatile and fun
2/ they are incredibly difficult to clean from anything and involve a lot of setting up and packing away time.

RIGHT THEN - BIG UPDATE TIME!

Anyway, I woke up and grabbed a massive mirror and my oil paints. Went out into the garden and started my first self portrait. About 5 hours later and Here it is. First a sketch then a burnt umber tone marking. Then work in progress and finally the finished thing. I don't really know how to photograph it to do it justice (the real thing seems so much better in terms of colours and contrasts). Painted outdoors in the garden so I gave it a generic outdoor background. Really happy with it considering it took 1/3 of the time as jackie chan and looks about twice as good...Probably about 5 hours in total (including sketch time)

Also there is posemaniacs stuff (30 seconds each) and a few bear doodles I did from Jack Hamm's book on drawing animals. The oil painting and the 9 pages of posemaniacs were all done today (ive been busy!). I have to admit I found sketching an entire figure in 30 seconds REALLY difficult so some of them barely look like figures. But then I guess the point of gesture drawing is to put yourself in a situation where you aren't working at a comfortable pace, to improve. I have also done some 45 second ones and a couple of pages of using pigment liners because I think they help me gain the confidence to just throw down a line and not worry about it (because they are so permanent)

edit: I have NO idea why I'm making that stupid face, its just that I was consciously trying not to get the teeth involved in the painting!

[equilerex]

This thread was fun to go through! ^^
lots of different mediums and constant progress... the nature/environment drawings are my favorite

The poses are great btw! i never last over 3 of them, i start taking more and more time with each round and some of those figures are really twisted!

[Exon-Ion]

Your oils are coming along nicely, keep going....and i like your beard!