Ville's Sketchbook: C&C greatly apreciated

**lionheartGFX** · November 17th, 2012, 05:53 PM

sweet stuff over here i drooled all over those animal studies, you sure can recognize those big masses plus the intricate little forces at work within the anima figure, i really really really liked that i could learn alot from you and those color pieces are really great too, keep this up man its a great sb!

**Ville_S** · November 18th, 2012, 10:05 AM

LionheartGFX: thanks.

More Sorolla

**Ville_S** · November 18th, 2012, 12:26 PM

And the third Sorolla head:

**BlackDelphin** · November 18th, 2012, 05:06 PM

You have an interesting way of drawing, reminds me a lot of traditional painting.
Great sketchbook so far, thank you for sharing.

**Ville_S** · November 20th, 2012, 10:37 AM

BlackDelphin: Thanks!

Got your PM. I'll get back to you on that.

Environmnet sketch. Neat says I, but I have no idea what to put in it.

Edit: Added another version that came to my mind just after posting the first version.

**Ville_S** · November 20th, 2012, 01:52 PM

Going oldschool. Gladiator screenshot study using only round hard brush.

**Ville_S** · November 21st, 2012, 09:20 AM

yeap, this isn't working...

**kingkostas** · November 21st, 2012, 10:04 AM

working or not my eyes are enjoying it!!!Great mood

**GEB** · November 21st, 2012, 10:10 AM

Love the mode and pallette on that last one

**Ville_S** · November 21st, 2012, 11:38 AM

Kingkostas: The palette and the mood it creates is cool I think, but the basic compostion is lacking.
GEB: Thanks.

So I decided to do some analysis of the composition.
First pic is just abstraction of the original with comments, in the latter two I have applied the changes I pointed out.

Better? worse? Would love to hear some thought and comments if you have some.

**smuli** · November 21st, 2012, 03:38 PM

You did a good job turning what I thought was a good composition into something even better. For me, it needs something on the background for the rider to look at though. The horizontal silhouettes look a bit boring with no point of interest there. On the earlier version, you had a very faint vertical spike under the sun, maybe that could be fleshed out into something. I really like the gesture of the horse and rider, they're a perfect match with the environment! The animal sketches and Whitlatch studies look really good too!

**Ville_S** · November 21st, 2012, 04:19 PM

Smuli: Thanks for the suggestion dude! I tried adding a fellow knight but it sort of felt lame s I put some suggestion of ruins under the sun.

So here's what I got now:

**kingkostas** · November 21st, 2012, 06:55 PM

it went really good. Maybe i would darken a bit the horizontal shape in the background to make it a little more visible, but maybe its my monitors callibration that brings up the need for that.
Great work man, keep sharing

**Ville_S** · November 23rd, 2012, 10:34 AM

Kingkostas: thanks.

I ended chopping up the knight pic even more. HAving that much empty scenery just didn't feel right.

Also random sketch of a beached....thing.

**Saraiva** · November 23rd, 2012, 12:19 PM

Loving your work. A few thoughts on the knight piece:

I personally am not as much of a fan of the newer, cropped version of the painting. I do like the second last one, on post 702. The composition is better. The only suggestion I have is to get rid of the yellow close to the horses face, since its competing with the sun (its actually stronger than the sun, imo).

**Vylla** · November 23rd, 2012, 02:51 PM

I actually kind of like the cropped version more, though if we're nitpicking, I'd push it a smidge more to the right.

Also thank you. That beached... thing is now gonna haunt my nightmares. Though I suppose it could just be really enthusiastically saying hi to those people. And/or wiggling over to eat them.

**Ville_S** · November 23rd, 2012, 04:19 PM

Saraiva & Vylla: Thanks! Hmmm...Divided oppinions. I do like the current composition, but my main problem right now is that the edges on the knight and horse are so sharp that they almost look like cutouts.

Sigh...this knight painting didn't turn out as cool as I thought/hoped it would be.
I feel bummed out.

Streeton study:

**Vylla** · November 23rd, 2012, 07:20 PM

I don't know how realistic the lighting would be, but maybe backlighting that farthest shoulder (and maybe the back legs and strand or two of the tail of the horse) with a yellow rim light might integrate it a bit more? Or maybe pull in a bit more of the peachy yellow from the horse's breath?

It's a subtle drawing, but I do want to say that I love it. Maybe just set it aside for a week or so and come back if it's bothering you?

**Ville_S** · November 24th, 2012, 10:42 AM

Vylla: Agreed on both. it's best to leave it alone for now and come back to it later.

Quick thumb and two Edgar Payne studies.

**TristanFletcher** · November 24th, 2012, 12:25 PM

Oh man love your paintings. I would like to know how you obtained such brushes in these horse drawings above. Is there a video that taught you how to make them or... Thanks mate.

**Ville_S** · November 24th, 2012, 04:46 PM

TristanFletcher: Thanks. Rake brushes are easy to make. All they really are is just either row of dots or row of short lines. To get sort of smoother rake you can add some lines or textures between the dots/lines. Don't need to be anything fancy. Random scribble will do. Playing around with various brush set options (Shape dynamics, texture etc.) wil bring in some neat effects.

Landscape sketch.

**Ville_S** · November 25th, 2012, 02:46 PM

Photo ref study + Jaime Jones study.

**Flaskpost** · November 25th, 2012, 03:10 PM

Aaaaaaah, friggin great work. Love the analysis of the knight comp. I prefer the horizontal composition over the vertical though. I like the storytelling with the him observing the castle ruin to the right.
Anyway, great work in here!

**Juhani Jokinen** · November 26th, 2012, 02:15 AM

Awesome studies and sketches man! Keep on going!

-J

**S Ciaffaglione** · November 26th, 2012, 03:08 AM

Great SB. #702 is looking good, I think you could even go slightly darker down the bottom.

**Ville_S** · November 28th, 2012, 12:52 PM

Flaskpost: Interesting. Thanks for commenting, I really appreciate it.

Juhani: Thanks man.

S Ciaffaglione: Cool, thanks dude.

Thumbs/sketches. Because that's about all I can manage to do at the moment as my battle against sinusitus continues with new set of meds.

**smuli** · November 28th, 2012, 03:12 PM

I like both last versions of the rider piece, I guess it's just about do you want to focus on the rider or environment, but the last one already looks pretty close to a finished painting. I agree with Vylla about the yellow spot on the left though, and the helmet highlight is off.

I really like the last sketch of the giant, epic pose again!

**Hans Mothander** · November 28th, 2012, 03:22 PM

Great stuff! Really enjoy the mood you capture in alot of these, really inspiring!

**warburton** · November 28th, 2012, 03:44 PM

Great sketchbook ville, it's awesome that your posting almost everyday. Your progression might just be the kick in the ass in needed to stay motivated.

Also, i love your brush econemy and your use of colour, you make this shit look easy 0_0

**Suncut** · November 28th, 2012, 04:13 PM

Your landscapes are looking really good! I also loved the anatomy studies of animals higher up. On the knight picture I get this weird sense that he's half inside the horse, I can't imagine his ass fits in there anywhere above the back of the horse. Sorry I don't know the horse anatomy terms in English so I'll just say it in Finnish. Vaikuttaa kun hevonen olis epätasasella maalla ja selkä laskeutuis vähäsen, jollon ritarin sijoitus olis järkevä, mutta satulan jälkeen säkä tulee kuitenkin niin korkeelta, että tuntuu kun selässä olis jotain vialla. Ylipäätään hevonen vaikuttaa sään kohalta jotenkin paksulta. Luulen, että jos säkää vaan madaltais vaikuttaus ratsastaja olevan ihan oikealla kohdalla.