Journey through a thousands of sketches.

[kimozabbi]

from life

[SmallPoly]

Hi Kimozabbi,

The skulls and gestures are looking great, but your painting could use a lot of improvement. It seems your main problems there are edge control, value control, and blending.

Edge control: focus on getting a good silhouette. You can get away with a lot less detail if the "outline" of the object is correct. Having it be blurry and blobby, on the other hand, can make things look terrible.

Value control: you need more practice with value, and to be able to see how light actually interacts with a surface. Reproducing the planar head in this link should help you get better control over this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garysev...th/1676076449/

Blending: a lot of things are improperly blended at the moment - the blends aren't very smooth and have lots of visible "steps" to them. Are you using a tablet? If you are, are you using pressure sensitivity? If not, even the cheapest Wacom Bamboo tablet is leagues better than using a mouse.

For your still lifes, try the method shown in this thread:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47859

You may also find this website useful:
http://www.ctrlpaint.com

Other than that, right now you'd probably benefit more from still lifes than continuing with photographs. If you do keep it up with photographs, find some simpler subjects and spend more time perfecting them. Instead of a whole body, try just an eye. Instead of a mountain, try just a rock or leaf. Get it as close as possible, then build up to more complexity.

Good luck!

[kimozabbi]

SmallPoly hey man, thank you for your time on taking to look at my SB and critiquing it. I appreciated it man. Yea, I'm still trying to get a really good grasp on blending. I shall take a look at the links you gave me. Again thank you!

[Kvetch]

Hi mate,

Thanks for your comment You've improved a lot since you started this sketchbook, especially the still life paintings. Those bananas at the top of the page look great!
I think you might benefit from thinking a bit more about head structure when you do your photostudies. You've done pages of construction heads and skulls that look great, but many heads in your photostudies have dodgy structure.
As they say, don't copy - analyse!

Keep at it

[Revidescent]

Looking good! You've got a lot of stuff you need to work on, but you seem to know that, and be working on it. SmallPoly has some great tips. =) One specific crit - work on eyes. The eyes in your portraits are a major weakness; they look flat and pasted on compared to the rest of the face. Two major issues are that you're not constructing the area around them properly or at all, and the big black outlines. Even if you're painting somebody wearing eyeliner, try to avoid that.

In fact, avoid pure black wherever you can, especially in your full colour images. The still life at the top of the page with the phone - there is no way that phone was a void of darkness. Pay more attention to the colours you're actually seeing, rather than the local colour you know is there. =)

[kimozabbi]

Kvetch Thanks bro! I go to your SB to get inspired, hahha. Yea, im still trying to apply my head study structure to my photo study paintings. Its really hard to apply them, LOL. I'll try to keep that word the next time I do my head studies. Thanks again for stopping by.

Revidescent hahaha, thanks. I kinda loled about the eyes being pasted on, hahha. Yea, thanks for seeing that error. Ill work on it next time. Ill try to do better next time. Most of the time when I paint is the location of the window is on the opposite side of where I actually paint so the light seems kinda a defused. Im gonna change that from now on. Thanks for stopping by.

Some life painting 45 mins each, i think.

[SmallPoly]

Avoid pure black wherever you can, especially in your full colour images.

I agree with most of what you said, but I'd disagree with this bit. Black can work very well when used intelligently. The chiaroscuro painting style is based entirely around using black and near-black for high-contrast images.

[poetry man]

Hey man, you know there should be a mental checklist when you're painting right?
This is just a general idea though:

-underpainting/background block-in to suit the overall page and subject composition before you begin
-overall shapes block in using big brushes (preferably no blending here) This one is hard to get used to. But try it!
^during your overall shape block in for your subject you have to check a few things simultaneously...
-values check/color check (you're good a finding the local tone/color- keep that up)
-proportion check (someone mentioned silhouettes- use that strategy!)
-lighting check (I suck at this one- you basically have to establish this in the beginning, during this block-in stage-- so the lighting and value must agree from a distinct-contrast perspective)
-form (this happens when you use the right brush strokes [I call it stroke precision: using accurate strokes in the right places]- this will define your subject form. But this has to work subconsciously as you focus on the other three things during this block-in stage: value, lighting, and proportion.

So.. to sum it all up, If I can...

-The block in stage is the most important part of the painting. A good beginning will mean a good ending, vice versa.
-during your block in stage focus on overall composition- so choose a background color/tone (with whatever appropriate patterns or textures it has, it's just to avoid a blank screen, don't worry about a perfect background, it's getting painted over! --I learned that the hard way)
-after overall composition in mind, establish a silhouette (proportion), that will block in your subject
-then establish lighting (a strong contrast between the subject and the background, as well as parts of the subject that are seen vs. unseen to the viewer).
-after lighting is positioned, use big strokes to get basic values in to define form-- lighting will change and composition will change a bit, but you have to know what you're aiming for in the beginning anyhow.

I guess that makes sense. Bye!

p.s- I'm still learning all this myself lol

[Kvetch]

It's weird, we have the same scissors and flash drives o.O
I can only presume that means we both have awesome taste.

Keep pushing, remember every study should answer a question

[kimozabbi]

poetry man Thanks puwet boy!Yea when i paint most of the time my brain just wonder off, lol. Its hard for me to focus, thats why I do alot of quick paintings. Thanks for the advice man, Ill try and keep that up when I paint.

Kvetch Sweet that means im going to be awesome too.

Well, been busy as usual but starting next week Ill be working 7 days, hahaha. Thats bad coz I wont have time to draw/paint. Because I have plenty of master studies that are unfinished.

[kimozabbi]

from life

[kimozabbi]

stuff from today

[kimozabbi]

stuff from past couple of days

[PNate]

Good to see you working it man. Maybe try going through some Loomis books for the anatomy. I always learn something new every time I go back to em and theyre a great way to build up your fundamentals Also, I know what it's like to have a full-time job and have painting on the side (my current situation), its tough but keep on pushinnnnn

[kimozabbi]

PNate: Yea, it sucks to have that schedule, ahhaha. I do have loomis/bridgemann, hamptons studies on my sketchpad, I just dont post them. Ill post them up when get around.

Fukkkin CA someone keeps deleting my uploads while Im uploading them wtf, damn you to hell.

[skMOP]

Hey I know you said it's hard for you to concentrate on one study but really try it! A lot of the studies are looking rushed and messy and I really think you could benefit from doing a solid 3-4 hour study. You don't have to do it all at once, you can spread it out over a couple of days.

Keep it up man!

[p sage]

Observational skills. Good. You're working on them.

You need to learn how to draw precisely... meaning precisely what is there. The reason is so that you can get your mind away from 'filling in the gaps'. You need to know what is there (all of it) so that later, when you have the proper skill, you can decide what to 'leave out'.

At that point you will have control over your composition, your colors, the details... everything. You won't be forced to draw every little hair on someone's head... you'll be able to decide what is important in *your* painting, and you will have command of it.

But to do that, first you need accurate observation. Measure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx2zEaVh1Zg

Get accurate. Draw easy stuff, like simple shapes painted while (the pyramids and other little shapes you were drawing are good). But nail that stuff.

Again... once you know what is there, it is yours to command, to alter, to edit, to twist and disfigure. Just make sure you are doing it consciously and not by accident, and you will have a ball doing it.

Good luck.

[kimozabbi]

stuff from last month. I'll post some new soon!



p sage: Thanks bro. I've been practicing that alot lately. Hopefully it'll pay off.
skMOP: Yea, ive been trying to do that, but sometimes the flow just disappear, lol. But thanks!

[kimozabbi]

Still trying to figure out how man files I can upload at the same time.

[kimozabbi]

Study time. stuff from last couple of weeks while CA was down.

[kimozabbi]

some studies

[kimozabbi]

study time

[kimozabbi]

from life study

[poetry man]

yo post your storyboard images man. I told u no one wanted to read a whole chapter lol. At least I did it. Where's yours?

Concerning these new updates, you should remember to "blend". Also you should focus on planes, your not using planes man.

[kimozabbi]

some master study!seems that my draftsmanship is declining.

[kimozabbi]

some stuff this week.

[kimozabbi]

studies and from life

[kimozabbi]

today

[skMOP]

I might have posted this before but slow down! Or spend more time on the studies. Instead of using 1 or 2 hours on 4 different master copies. Use 4 hours on 2 or 8 hours on 1! You'll be a lot happier with the result and you'll get faster (imo) that way too.

[kimozabbi]

skMOP: Yea, I think you have. The master studies are 2-3 hours each, lol. Sorry to disappoint ya man =)

from life