Umbravita's Little Thread of Progress

[Umbravita]

Thank you, Vertical. I think boxes and cylinders would help with shading as well. I'll do a few of those!

Some stuff I did yesterday. Was too tired to upload them.

1. Some more faily eyes. I was experimenting here a bit to see which lines I could get away with not-drawing, and whatnot. Still using trial and error, so it'll get better.

2 & 3. Gestures. I'd realised I was drawing what I saw again rather than what the pose was doing and tried to fix it a bit here. Still a long way to go! I'll keep what Vertical said in mind next time I do gestures.

[Umbravita]

CA seems to have eaten my last post? It was on the notifications but I can't see it for some reason. I hope it shows up soon.

Below - did some gestures, did some cylinder people, then realised, "Hey, I have a vetruvian man!" (My friend called the wooden models "vetruvian men", and I can't call them anything else now.) So I ended up doing a couple of him, before getting distracted by my hands and doing some hand studies. Whoops.

[Samszym]

The gestures are looking a lot better now! The 3D shapes can be applied everywhere. Try doing those with your hands! Hands are basically flattened boxes with five chains of cylinders coming out of them.

[Umbravita]

I see what you mean, Vertical - I've started seeing shapes in a lot of things now. Did a couple of those hands, will do some more tomorrow as well. Thank you!



I feel really inspired by the EOW pieces I've seen. I've always been easily inspired by backgrounds and pictures - but I've only ever painted one scene in my life and it ended horribly. That was in March last year. I realised I have no idea how to start.

And - how can I start? I don't even know how to draw a decent tree. Looking at those spectacular environments, while inspiring, has me feeling a bit overwhelmed. I want to paint something like that one day, but I don't know what the first step is. Does anybody have any advice at all? What's the process?



A few more vetruvian men, some posemaniacs again, ten second gestures, and a few random doodles.

And now, bed.

[Umbravita]

No reference. Blood elf in odd clothing plus a pose I may or may not expand on.

Would appreciate lots of crit on the blue pose.

[tronrobot]

your figures are looking real good man!

[Umbravita]

Thanks, Tron!

I should be doing more studies but what the hell, I missed doing bigger pieces so here's a WIP. I'll work on my hands when this is done.

Uhh, question - what do you categorise attachments as if they're a combination of imagination AND reference? 'Cause I used the in-game reference to get the clothing and so on right, but I'm barely using it past there. Meep.

[Umbravita]

Ridiculously proud of this.

Hate the lips, though, I think I'll shift the cowl to hide those.

Not looking forward to doing the hair. The way I do hair is out of date compared to how I do everything else, but I don't know how else to do it.

[James Thomas]

cool stuff, wish i cud study as much as you but i dont have it in me. haha

[Umbravita]

Haven't drawn the last couple of days. Crap. Seems like that happens every time I spend too long in photoshop. About to head off and continue Zuka. I'm bored of her but I need to finish what I start.

For now: my first environment! Done in an hour. At a bit of a loss but practice is good for the soul!

Reference.

[Domaz]

simple shapes indeed are the way to begin with. Square, triangle, circle and tubes are the most used shapes to create any type of form. You are to stiff still, you need to get lose, don't worry about how the piece is gonna come out, get lose!! Most important thing is not to bounder yourself. I would get the anatomy down first before doing any digital painting, or at least practice more on paper and traditional painting before you step digitally. I like your last reference work but reference is different then off the top of your head work. But keep it up, draw, paint everyday and you will get better!

[Umbravita]

Thanks Domaz! I don't think I can give up digital painting but I am doing more traditional stuff.

Have done a bunch of gestures and more blockmen (thanks to the reference from this thread), some of which are referenced from posemaniacs. Mostly torsos.

I didn't upload a page of the gestures because they came out badly (read: worse than usual) after taking a pic and I'm too lazy to take another.

[Domaz]

Wel i didn't ment to give up(my bad if i came across that way) but i would do more traditional so that you could feel the paint and what it is to paint with real paint so that when you do digital you have totally different view and state of mind once you do it But keep up the practice good stuff coming

[Umbravita]

Ooh, I see what you mean, Domaz. Thanks for clarifying!


No update - I go in fits and starts, I realise. A week of drawing madly, a week of not touching the stylus. Oops.

Just here to say that starting on the 13th I'm doing a 26 day challenge - every day I'll draw a character of mine whose name starts with a corresponding letter of the alphabet. So expect to see lots of imagination work and maybe a few quick studies to help with that. I'm worried about keeping my imagination up with stuff I do from reference.

Though, if I can learn to use my *imagination* as reference that would be just as good!

Let's see if I have the discipline to pull this off!

[Umbravita]

Quick study. I believe this is called a values study? Not sure if the terminology is right.

I did fifty (!) hand gestures the other day. (X_X) I saw improvement as I did them but I'm too lazy to stick 'em up now. Been doing posemaniacs as well, but aside from that I've been a bit slack.

And tomorrow the fun begins...

-ETA- Forgot to say, reference: http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/...-C-12-79372186

[Umbravita]

Day 1 - A: Alimaera, my Redguard.

Tried a new colouring method but it just looks flat. :/ Still, rendering is boring as heck. I want to find a colouring method that is fun to do and looks good but I'm not having much luck. I like the painty look I've seen before, but can't pull that off. Aargh.

ETA: Goddammit, CA ate my attachment AGAIN.

[Domaz]

What software did you use on the last piece? Kinda looks like illustrator but yeah indeed it does look flat, it needs more depth. I would advice to work on the face proportions. But your coming along step by step. Keep practicing and droppin em keep up the work

[Umbravita]

Domaz - Thanks! I used photoshop CS2 for that.

And aye, I need to do some face studies when this challenge is over. Or maybe I'll do some self portraits in the meantime. I know the face proportions for this piece is a bit off too. I'll get it eventually!

B for Blaise - another Oblivion character. Almost didn't finish this - my tablet suddenly seemed to die! Well, not die, it just got stuck - it was always drawing even if the stylus wasn't touching the tablet. It's glitched like that before but it was stuck and nothing was working.

Spent hours googling for fixes, reinstalled drivers twice, restarted comp twice, unplugged and replugged innumerable times, contacted tech support who told me to do all that all over again, did so, no luck, then -

Happened to come across an internet page that said, "Whack the stylus." So I whacked the stylus. Voila, my tablet is working again. *Dies*

[icelandkid]

gesture drawings are best drawn as silhouette not as the outer forms. This is what's stopping your progress. Look for books by George Bridgeman, Burne Hogarth and old timer Jack Hamm. Think of drawings as buildings that have a structure and the colour or paint is the last thing you do. Hope this helps.

[Sushy]

That quick study in post #45 looks very promising, finish it

[tronrobot]

i love that portrait

[Umbravita]

So, it seems my motivation for art pretty much died after a week of intense drawing. Oops. Should've kept going at least with studies, but noooo, I stopped drawing completely for two months. ARGH, self.

Never mind, better late than never, here's some warm-up gestures.

Really sick of being a mediocre artist because I don't practice enough. I want to get at *least* to a level where drawing from imagination is not a struggle. Going to start with a crapload of gestures and quick sketches of the human form, as always.

Off to do more!

[Umbravita]

WIP. Human GLaDOS, from Portal.

[Umbravita]

Finished GLaDOS, and a study of a movie still from Star Trek '09.

Yay Uhura. Need to fix her lips and a bit of her hair though.

[Umbravita]

Coloured version, plus a Sulu speedpaint. Learning more about colour here. It's difficult as hell not using the colour dropper but I think that will pay off later. Colours are hard to nail.

I really have to wonder, though, is it usual to have such a gap between imagination ability and reference ability? Because my stuff from imagination is SO behind, ugh!

[Umbravita]

Another movie still study and something from imagination. Yay, Portal.

[Samszym]

Thanks a lot for the comment! Your last four posts have been basically the same thing, a head looking to the left. Vary it up and study individual facial features some more, especially mouths. You did a really nice job with most of the other parts the Uhara drawing, but her mouth is small and flat.
It's good to practice drawing from imagination, but it's not like a piece you make is invalidated because you used a reference. It's not cheating, most people can't just make up a perfect picture.
check out the links in my signature and keep up the good work!

[tronrobot]

Hey bro thanks for visiting my sketchbook again! Keep posting bro!

[Umbravita]

Thanks all.

I need to do lip studies. I tried extra hard on the lips here (look! He faces the right! WATCH ME VARY STUFF.) but... yeeah. Ew.

Christopher Pike, Star Trek '09. Hour and a half. Think I should put more detail into it or leave as is?

[Umbravita]

WIP. Martin Iceworth, my undead priest on WoW. Used the character model as reference, which is a terrible practice, I know.

I need to make his hair lighter, some of the background lighter.

Should work on doing facial studies rather than busts. Managed to get a hold of a Bridgmann book, too. Yay.

ETA: And I just realised... lol, another character facing the left. *Facepalm*