DmnSpawn's Digi Sketchbook

[DmnSpawn]

Hello, I've been creeping in the back round checking out others peoples works and I think I'm starting to get to the point I can actually see on the "paper" what I see in my head.
My forms are getting strong enough to at least tell what I was going for ha ha.
So I have decided to share my Sketches or WIP's as I work on them.

***Forum RULES!***
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Say what you want within reason, don't start fights or troll others in my thread.
You can say what ever you want to me though as I can handle it.
I would prefer however if you do say "that sucks" Tell me why and what you think I could do to improve it.
But no need to beat around the bush trying not to hurt my feelings.
I'm here to learn from those whom already experienced what I'm doing.

If you can suggest a book or works/tutorial I should check out (example: you notice my hands are crappy, show me to a mind blowing hand tutorial, I am willing to do them and show you the results.
I just have a hard time deciding my learning priorities.
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[Metal Fingers]

Hey man, welcome to CA. Its good that you recognized the lighting situation on the face, I think it would really help strengthen the piece, don't be afraid to obscure things in shadows either, it can really help add some mood and atmosphere to a painting. Only other thing I could recommend is draw from life as much as possible, just draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw.

[heix33]

Welcome to CA DwnSpawn.
In order to draw from life properly, i think knowing anatomy is essential, my personal favorite is George Bridgman's books, i totally recommend you to check out his books and pictures, because in life you dont really see muscles so precisely.
And my second humble suggestion is learn how to draw different materials and stuff with pencil, before doing more digital stuff.
But to answer your question, draw as much as you can, really, not quite lot, but massively.

[Natzuur-JK]

I thought I might do a very quick paintover for you on a piece to hopefully help ya out a bit, hope that is ok... I think most of my help will be from what i write.

I know this piece is just a sketch, and it shows potential, but most of the problem solving should be done in the sketch/thumbnail phase, this means really nailing the pose, and compisition as well as establishing value early on. As a general thought too don't sketch at 300 ppi 75 or 72 is great to start at, no need to go big right away. Another thing I see here is burn and dodge (or maybe just too extreme use of light and dark) Burn and dodge have there place ( many people will tell you this is not true) but should not be used to establish value (range of light and dark). Values as a very general rule should start at darkest (saturated for color) in front to lightest (desaturated) in back. with the most contrast (light and darks) being right next to each other, this creates focus for the viewer eye.

I've noticed you like to start the paintings with some color or tone to the background, great this is a good way to work. The reason for this is the fact that if you start at a nice mid gray (probably darker then the latest piece (first rendition) and lighter then the dark valkryie piece) you can add light and dark values easily to it.

as a last thought, study anatomy more, it really helps, hell i need to do this more. People aren't my strong point so don't think this paintover is entirely accurate. But hopefully it shows some basic concepts

Oh and is it indiana jones?

[DmnSpawn]

@ Natzuur-JK
- It's fine that you did it, I appreciate it, I love input. I don't use burn or doge, I just never got to the value stage so it looks like crap, you are correct that it is just a sketch.
You so got me on the 300dpi thing, I had it set that way after doing a tutorial a friend showed me and I never reset it, glad you pointed it out tho, my files are like 14MB each b/c of it ha ha.

And it IS Indiana jones!!! Winner!

[ColorExcursion]

I would really recommend you start at a higher time limit like 90 secs and then once you can do those, go lower with the time. because if you dont have enough time to even get to the torso, like on a lot of these you dont, then what is the point of even trying to do the gesture..when it isnt even a gesture at all?

[FrankPomes]

You should definitely put more time on the gestures. Try drawing a figure off until it looks right to you. Gestures are good for learning to find the rhythm in the figure, but you have to apply what you're learning. So find the rhythm in some figures you spend more time on.

[DmnSpawn]

[DmnSpawn]

My first cow! Enjoy!
3 days, couple hours here and there.

[DmnSpawn]

Here is a Value Study I did from a wallpaper that I had. about 20 min.

[DmnSpawn]

Here is another one I just did, about 30 min.

[DmnSpawn]

another one, this one was SUPER rushed and I don't like the way it turned out. Oh well practice is practice.

[DmnSpawn]

Here is a Sketch Dump of all my older work, from a few years ago, mostly when I was still playing with a wacom rather then using it. However this will bring my sketchpad forum up to speed on pretty much everything even kinda worth showing.

[DmnSpawn]

Some stuff from Cow and Enviro 209 X-over!

[DmnSpawn]

Finished!

[DmnSpawn]

This is a 1 hour painting that I did, I REC with live stream so you can watch if you want. From ref. I don't own the photo I got from google images.
Also in color this time, cause the pic is too cool to put into B&W.

To watch the vid or watch me draw live. Look here! http://www.livestream.com/dmnspawnsketchcorner?t=377594

[DmnSpawn]

First off I have a 20 min Horse Silhouette that I did as a warm up and REC it on live-steam So you can watch here!
http://www.livestream.com/dmnspawnsk...edium=ui-thumb

Next I have 2 Female torso pics. The first is the first hour I worked on it and managed to REC. The second is the Fin product after another hour.
Forgot to REC the rest though, however you can watch what I did rec HERE!
http://www.livestream.com/dmnspawnsk...edium=ui-thumb

[DmnSpawn]

I reorganized my Sketchbook, I had a bunch of huge files that made the eyes bleed.
I re-sized, clean out my more sketchy crap. Going to only posts WIP's or Quality works from now on, Hoping to get some more traffic through here with some Feedback!

[DmnSpawn]

This weeks Cow that I did. Concept was golden familiar.

[jedininjaman]

Hey man, thanks for sharing! Welcome to ca

[tsabu]

Hey mate, like your latest COW entry. Not perfectly executed, but idea is good + imo its nice improvement in your sketchbook.
Golden thread gives a lot! Its building nice contrast - light line, and heavy (compared to these line) creature. You could even focus to grow up these contrast a bit more. These line\thread is also good, because its painted with more feeling than for example lines in these storm cloudy painting you did two posts above (lines there are a bit to raw imo).

I think your skills with using bigger brushes are ok for now, and you could focus a bit more on line improvement. Not sure you like these kind of stuff, but these draws shows some nice lines usage:

http://www.google.pl/imgres?q=tomasz...RqZXHBw&zoom=1

http://www.google.pl/imgres?q=tomasz...RqZXHBw&zoom=1

http://www.google.pl/imgres?q=tomasz...RqZXHBw&zoom=1

Hope it helps! And sorry for my cough, cough not perfectly English usage

[DmnSpawn]

@ - jedininjaman - Thanks for the welcome.
@ - tsabu - Hey, thanks for the crits, always welcome here. I liked looking at those links and I see what you mean, I keep my line very machine like with no difference in weight or feeling. And I am really glad that this piece everyone said they saw a difference in my quality, so hopefully some things are starting to "click" in my brain.