Raphire's Sketchbook

[warburton]

Nice sketchbook man, your studys are looking really good. I would say that your studys are much stronger than your imagination stuff, which would suggest to me that you should focus on doing more stuff from imagination now.
I recon that at this point you would probably learn more from imagination stuff than from your studys. Keep up the great work regardless, you've improved alot throughout this sketchbook

[Raphire]

Finally I sat down to do a still life-- of my Motoko figure. Man this was hard. Changed the face and hair.
The lighting in my room sucks. About time to get some lamps or something.

Might change the background and make it into something for fun in the future.

[Raphire]

some weird ass shit from imagination. Man looking at it makes me hungry

I'd say it's a WIP for now

[shiNIN]

I'm quite sure composition could be better in your last piece. It's a bit random, things are just there, I'm confused about what's going on, what about the figure, she looks midly interested and looks like a surfer who tries to fly off from the water using the board tyed on her back. Or something. There are element to create some nice dynamic/dramatic atmosphere, epic wave, tilted horizon, but something is missing. I'm not good with composition, I just feel/think these somehow

[Raphire]

shiNIN: You're definitely right about the composition-- it is one thing that I'm absolutely clueless about. I know the bvasics-like the rule of thirds and stuff but apart from such typical bromides I know nothing about it. What I know for certain is that I have no knack for it and I have no idea how to go about improving it.

It feels different fro drawing or painting in that there doesn't seem to be an exercise to help with it.

Well, the fault also lies in the way i approached this sketch thingy-- I decided it was a day for some waves but then i also realised I did other wave/sea studies before and I decided to test out what i already knew. Then as usual I started to test my knowledge by throwing in some random shit without regard for design. hhahahah

[Creusa]

raphi, check out jama's sb for composition studs. he does them really quickly but there's a huge profit in them QvQ

[shiNIN]

I've found some useful tips in Jack Hamm's book, Drawing scenery. There's a lot about how to lead the spectators's eyes. I'm sure I could go a long way if I actually practiced.

[Raphire]

gaaaah yesterday's reply wasn't posted! posting it now. Study of John Singer Sargent's On His Holidays. Taught me a bunch about varying brushes and strokes and color constantly during the process of painting.
All those edges.... tough work.

[Raphire]

something for fun for once

[shiNIN]

Taught me a bunch about varying brushes and strokes and color constantly during the process of painting.

I wonder if I can used to changing my brushes all the time, it's kinda tiring to me. Colors are okay, I have a tablet button set as eyedrop, I use it a lot Browsing in my brush list took a lot of time, I guess it can be done more efficiently, but I rarely change them much...

The boy's face is a bit stiff(?) and the water is different from the original, I like the rest pretty much. It must be quite some work...

The fun stuff is nice but it's so tight crop, I can't help to wish I could see the whole thing.

[bdouah]

nice stuff you've got here man i realy liked the way how you developed you colorisation technique keeep working

[Raphire]

shiNIN: Heyyy your eyes never fail to amazae me... You spot every single thing! Yea I sort of screwed up the face and ended up overworking it... i tried to fix it by zooming in to push pixels around but of course that wouldn't work, so it turned out the way it did. I guess the rocks took too much energy out of me... I like to do studies in one sittong so... hahaha.

The tight crop robot thingy ... Is to hide my lack of ability!!(but ends up showing it. haha)This piece was the first time I lost work by computer crashing... I've been either very lucky or cautious hahaha.

bdouah: Hey thanks! If I could start over i would have worked on structure and form first. but I started out knowing nothing and worked mostly on colour. I'm aware my colours are not good still, though which is why I am still working on it instead of focusing on my weakness with form and structure.

Today's photo study: failed to capture the original model's wholesomeness. I have a great weakness with faces.

[shiNIN]

I actually felt a bit bad to criticize you last time, all about things I can understand too well...
Hmmm your new stuff is maybe a bit too soft here and there but my main problem is the skin coloring. She looks burned at some places and maybe even flat (her right arm).

[Ludic]

Hey man, pretty nice work in your Sketchbook.
Have to agree with Shinin on the last one, it's a bit soft.

[Raphire]

shiNIN and ludic I'll admit I rushed the previous photo study at the end because i realised I wasn't really learning anything beyond the blocking in and blending. I shouldn't do that, who knows what I might learn if I focus all the way.

Today's stuff:

A female steampunkish Voldo(from Soul Calibur) wannabe. No ref(for practice)

[Raphire]

This. took. far. too. long. Mostly because drapery is such a bitch!!!!!!!!! And it was really boring to render. lawl. still rough around the edges but I am not gonna continue, I've learnt what I can. Study of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's Ask Me No More

[Raphire]

quick study of motion blur and composition from a screenshot from Legend of The Seeker. Working faster like this for a change was refreshing

[Egg0]

Niiiice, I like specially your lasts studies, as you say drappery is such a bitch, but you solve it well, your first updates (on this page) are just like 3d renders, I like it, I think that are a little bit "plastic" but practicing you gonna solve that too, keep working mate!

[Raphire]

Egg0: Hey thanks! about the plastic look... I need to learn how to do stuff in a more painterly way lol

called it quits on this one a bit early, but I think I got what I needed from this photo study. snagged the ref off the US Military site. lol

school starts today for me btw.... well.

[Raphire]

quick doodle poop while doing a school project

[hu-ha]

So much updates, man you've worked so hard. Only thing I agree with Cre - some life drawing would be good for You, also it would be nice to see some traditional media. Master studies are first class but I'd rather avoid photos - life ist best reference. Only thing that I think You could work on is plastic skin, shiny and very cg-looking - like in #182 - in my opinion it's unnatural. Keep grinding... and maybe someday You'll set up a stream?

[Creusa]

gimme gimme the update, u mad grinder

[n1frit]

Great studies! Come one do more!)

[Raphire]

Ok... School killed me again.
I'm back though.

here's some stuff I did for school, plus my first study in a long time:

[shiNIN]

Yay you are back!
I like the first the most, colors, texture, atmosphere - it's just anatomy could be better and the sleeveless shirt seems assymmetric too. The sky is a bit empty for me, unless if it's intentional, I'd put at least some subtle clouds on it.

[Raphire]

I'm still alive! Just found uploading images here to be a real pain. Will get round to it soon though. for now, check out my deviantart! Raphire.deviantart.com

[Creusa]

Good news bro

[Raphire]

OK so I haven't dropped by since forever! Been working at it though. Well I'll post the stuff now, nothing much to say. Some of this stuff is really old though. haha
some are studies and some aren't.