Rev needs to draw more. Posting daily!

[Revidescent]

Figure study. Trying out a wee bit of hatching in the finish, just for kicks.

[REF] (Photoset 34)

[Revidescent]

Super quick head study (like 20 minutes?) because we played D&D 'til like 4 AM, oh man. Bedtime now.

I've been in values!mode lately, while I play around with painting technique. Need to do something in colour soon.

[REF]

[MeteorCat]

You draw so much and so well. Keep going and thanks for staying in touch

[Zauselbart]

man - really cool stuff
the last portrait is great - i love the light situation
keep pushing - amazing sb

thanks for uploading

[Revidescent]

MeteorCat - Thanks, and no problem. =) I honestly don't draw as much as I should. Can always do more!

Zauselbart - Thanks a bunch!

Some colour on that study from a couple of days ago, because I always have trouble colourizing fully rendered greyscale, and this looked like a fairly straightforward example. Not sure if I like it or not, but not sure if I liked the original study or not, so...

[lionheartGFX]

wow that figure its amazing! how long did it take you overall? keep up the awesome work man!

cheers

[MrFrenik]

I need to draw more too Great stuff here.

[Revidescent]

lionheartGFX - Thanks! I... have no idea how long it took. Maybe hour to an hour and a half total?

MrFrenik - I think most of us here could stand to draw more than we do. All in this together. =D

Handful of tiny colour studies.

[Revidescent]

Head study!

[REF]

[MeteorCat]

What beautiful, soft brush strokes. Great job.

[PeteJ]

your stuff is great as always. and only an hour and a half to do those?

[Mr. Corlan]

Revidescent, great sketchbook. Love that finished piece with the fire birds on the last page, and the studies are all very nice. I need to start posting daily myself.

[n1frit]

Nice works, soft light.

[Revidescent]

MeteorCat - Thanks, working on brushwork. =)

PeteJ - Thanks, yeah, most of the studies in here took somewhere from 45 mins to 1.5 hrs. I try not to overwork studies, since I tend to overwork my finals...

Mr. Corlan - Thanks a lot! Daily posting is good. =D

n1frit - Thank you!

Some thoughts for this week's CHoW. Not sure yet if I'm going to do a final or not, because there's other things I really should be working on, but I've been doodling goblins since I saw the topic.



Edit: Goblinface

[MeteorCat]

What a cool goblin Rev. Hope to see it finished even if you don't end up joining in on the CHOW. I also can't stop doodling goblins since seeing the topic although I don't think I will enter the competition.

[Revidescent]

MeteorCat - Thanks, not looking like it's likely to be finished, OH WELL. There's something addictive about goblins, though. =D


Some not-great Drawing Script 60s before bed, not really feeling it today.

[PeteJ]

Too guud as always.
Love ur gestures.

[KateyParr]

The gestures are really good! They all look well proportioned to me and you have a nice style.

Your paintings are even better, I think your use of colour is good! Looks like you're really looking at what your studying to understand the colours. I think you have a lovely natural style with the digital painting too, there's definately something special going on and I think you should be proud of yourself

[ja1307]

Its great to see the way you have ben so consistent over the years and your style and ideas have matured. Really like the competition illustration from the beginning of this month was a very sophisticated composition. Think maybe you could pay a bit more attention to under the skin anatomy in terms of plan shift and how that effects value and light and that would help give a bit more form to some of your work. But you are def on a great path and doing good work and clearly have a great imagination and a cinematic brain which will never hurt. Keep up all the good work.

[lionheartGFX]

wow, just WOW i looked 3 times over your sketchbook betweet yesterday and tody, its just so many awesome things going on! you are an example on how to get better through pure hard work, and actually your sketchbook (among other great ones in here) please do keep up the hard work, id love to see even more of it! cant wait to see where do you improve first good luck!

cheers

[Hyunjae]

your works are improving so much, keep up the great work man

[PollyBoffin]

Wonderfully inspiring SB you've got here. Makes me wanna practice more myself. You mentioned that you hate your style, and since I love it I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit?

Anyway, keep up the great work!

[Revidescent]

PeteJ - Thanks!

KateyParr - Thank you very much! Working hard. =)

ja1307 - Thanks a ton, I really appreciate the compliment on the one illo's composition, I really struggle with composition. Planes/underlying anatomy are kind of an ongoing thing, you're right, I need to work on those more.

lionheartGFX - Thanks a lot! It's hard to feel like there's any progress being made sometimes, your comment's really appreciated.

Hyunjae - Thank you!

PollyBoffin - Thanks! On the style thing - I don't hate my style exactly, but it's not where I want it to be, and I often manage things in studies that never quite translate to finished work. Two things I really love - that all of my favourite artists have one or both of - are energetic brushwork, and a strong sense of planes. I've got a very good handle on neither, at least in final illustrations. I find my own stuff both overly stiff, and kind of over-rendered in a way that loses the planes. These are things I'm trying to work on!


Blarg, I keep slipping on daily posting, but thanks again to everybody for leaving such nice comments. =D


Skyfall is easily the prettiest movie I've seen this year, really wanted to do some studies. Since it's still in theatres, I had to settle for the trailer as a source. (Still managed to take about 70 caps from a 3 minute trailer. I REALLY LIKE THIS MOVIE, YOU SHOULD ALL GO SEE IT.)

[PollyBoffin]

Well, it's really good that you know where you want to be. ^^ I love energetic brushwork, but at the same time, I love hyper-realism, and I've no idea what my aim is (except to improve). I suffer from the same problems with my work (stiff and over-rendered, or over-done in general), but on a much lower scale than yours. I hope I'll be able to get away from the stiffness somehow, and that one day I'll be able to learn how to use colours! That would be awesome, and I wish I had more talent, so I wouldn't have to put so much effort into practicing.

[Revidescent]

PollyBoffin - First off, talent is overrated. I'm not sure I 100% agree that it doesn't exist at all, because just anecdotally, going through art school, some people take to certain things much more quickly than others. It's definitely possible to have a knack for, maybe not art as a whole, but certain specifics of it. However, it's arguable whether that's something innate, or whether that's influenced by your focus up to that point, or just the sorts of things you look at and have interest in... I dunno. The point is, talent probably doesn't exist, and even if it does, art still requires an insane amount of effort. That's just the nature of it. =) Willpower and the ability to stick to it and put it the hours is way more important. Some people are impressed by the fact I put up something every day, while I feel like a lazy bum compared to those guys who have strict study schedules and put in 14-hour art days. It's all relative. The fact of the matter is, though, if you keep working and you put thought into your study, you will get better! It's inevitable.

Second, I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but something I did a while back - I grabbed a whole bunch of my favourite pictures by my favourite artists, dumped them in a folder, then sat down, studied them, and made a list of what specifically it was about these images that resonated with me. Style is a hard thing to cultivate intentionally, because it's as much a sum of our mistakes as it is our intentional choices. Knowing where you want to be helps to lay down a bit of a mental roadmap, and provides structure to your practice. (Disclaimer: this may all be bad advice, I have no idea what I'm talking about.)



Another Skyfall trailer cap. I know I focus too much on heads! I just really wanted to do this one after the last one, because I found the contrast super interesting... they both have similar head angles and crops, but are wildly opposite in terms of lightness, saturation, contrast, warm/cool, even the age/facial structure of the subject... not to mention some really interesting local colour shifts made obvious by the soft light.

[lionheartGFX]

not only is it great to see your execution but its awesome to read that we have so many opinions in common, spot on likeness with Q i must say, and a quick question for you rev, have you found an easy way to archieve a likeness? or is it always gonna be that terrible struggle with measuring and getting the placing fucking perfect? thanks in advance and i would love to see you try some schedules too yknow not 14 hours a day but maybe 3hrs? hahaha anyways what im saying is id love to see more work from you keep it up!

[Zauselbart]

man the last piece
keep up the work
and thanks for uploading

[MeteorCat]

Excellent words and excellent work Rev. What you speak of reminds me of what Bobby Chui says. It's something like (paraphrasing) study from life & nature and you will invent your own style because we all see things a little different and we each may have different experiences and impressions of things, be it the most daily, mundane habits.

[PollyBoffin]

PollyBoffin - First off, talent is overrated. I'm not sure I 100% agree that it doesn't exist at all, because just anecdotally, going through art school, some people take to certain things much more quickly than others. It's definitely possible to have a knack for, maybe not art as a whole, but certain specifics of it. However, it's arguable whether that's something innate, or whether that's influenced by your focus up to that point, or just the sorts of things you look at and have interest in... I dunno. The point is, talent probably doesn't exist, and even if it does, art still requires an insane amount of effort. That's just the nature of it. =) Willpower and the ability to stick to it and put it the hours is way more important. Some people are impressed by the fact I put up something every day, while I feel like a lazy bum compared to those guys who have strict study schedules and put in 14-hour art days. It's all relative. The fact of the matter is, though, if you keep working and you put thought into your study, you will get better! It's inevitable.

Second, I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but something I did a while back - I grabbed a whole bunch of my favourite pictures by my favourite artists, dumped them in a folder, then sat down, studied them, and made a list of what specifically it was about these images that resonated with me. Style is a hard thing to cultivate intentionally, because it's as much a sum of our mistakes as it is our intentional choices. Knowing where you want to be helps to lay down a bit of a mental roadmap, and provides structure to your practice. (Disclaimer: this may all be bad advice, I have no idea what I'm talking about.)

God, I want to apologize for my previous post where I wrote "but on a much lower scale than yours" which sounds like I'm better than you are. What I meant, however, is that my art is not on the same level as yours, it's on a much lower level, gazing longingly upwards. I hate when my sentences goes Swenglish...

Well, I DO believe in talent. Talent for singing, talent for music, talent for playing football (what Americans refer to as soccer) etc. But I don't consider talent as something magical or mysterious. I think it's all different kinds of physical capabilities that make up "talent". One may have the perfect placement of vocal cords, combined with an ear for notes, or one may have the skeleton perfectly built and the muscles placed in the most fitting places to become a technique wizard at football (combined with perfect muscle control etc. etc.). I think that whatever physical attributes that make up "the perfect artist" we all have them in some degree and we can all develop them through work, work, and more work. BUT I think that if a person with all the physical attributes to become a superb artist (Picasso was one such person I think), puts in the same amount of work as one that is not as optimally suited to be an artist, the one with the "talent" will always be at least one step ahead. It's like they are an extra step ahead the rest of us (I'm talking about me now, no one else) and always will be, unless they stop trying.

This is my very own homemade theory regarding talent, but, as you say, whether one believes in talent or not, the thing that really makes you a better artist, is hard work and no shortcuts. Although I wish there were shortcuts...

I have such problems with the title on that movie! "Skyfall" meas downpour in Swedish, but what does it stand for in this context? Does it rain a lot in the movie?

Like the picture however, although it feels a bit flat? Maybe?

[Ana Caspão]

Great work potential here, since I am a gesture affictionado I gotta say lovely gestures