Road to Somewhere: Jdem's sketchbook!

[jdem]

A pretty much completed Earth elemental (tried to fix up the arm and finished the leaf crown and overall colouring) And also the Air elemental (particularly happy with the face!)

Edit: A general overall WIP pic too

[jdem]

More WIP of the final Elemental

[jdem]

And DONE!

[jdem]

In a very doodle-y mood this evening

[Sycra]

Nice work. I feel like something that is missing in your work though are some strong accent darks... I think some well placed darks could really push it to the next level. Great work overall though, keep going!

[jdem]

Thanks Sycra! I will definitely take that into account and give that a go

[jdem]

Here's what I've been painting all evening! Used a reference for the facial structure but otherwise imagined It's my own design of the Marvel character, Rogue. - Obviously not finished yet. but almost there!

[jdem]

Tried to introduce some darker tones, feels very unnatural - but I can see how it would benefit greatly if I were to get it right!

[jdem]

Can you tell who it is yet? :p Reference used for the figure - my attempt at taking an anime character and making it (semi)realistic!

[Zikes]

Hey!
Nice sketchbook, I really like the texturework on your elementals. You seem to have a overall sense of the human anatomy. But I would suggest you do some studies of it. Value, color and form. Got some links, that you might have use of, that helped me. Unless you have a personal model for lifedrawing. http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php and http://artsyposes.com/.

There's also a site, that a very skilled concept artist created and is updating frequently. http://www.ctrlpaint.com/
He's trying to cover the most of artmaking, with tutorialvideos. Personally I think the website awesome and it has helped me alot!

Hope I said anything you could make use of! Keep painting!

[jdem]

Thanks Zikes I've been doing a lot of anatomy/gesture/figure studies and will continue to do so - I already use the pixelovely site a lot, but haven't seen the others before - have checked them out, they seem great, thanks! I also do indeed need to do more value and colour studies particularly, it all comes down to practice - right?

[jdem]

Progress of a tonal figure study - I know there's lots to work on still - it's still in early stages!

[jdem]

The fabric won't be blue eventually ^_^;; It's just so I can separate it from the figure whilst I paint!

[jdem]

So the quick tonal study result - might add colour, or might do a different one for colour study..

[jdem]

Decided to start a (real life) sketchbook just for figure studies/face studies etc. Here's page 1.

[bobmeatbag]

pretty good. Don't have much to suggest, but try drawing with lines of action. Basically means identifying and using the line that the entire or a section that the body follows. Look up preston blair on google images for figure drawing lines of action and look for a book called force dynamics. Really good book to help out on your gesture, it'll affect all your drawing skills. Push your poses it'll create a more dynamic pose. For example if a guys hip is thrust out, exaggerate it. be weary of breaking it though, if you push something to far or push a only a section of the pose without pushing everything else a bit it'll cause you anatomy to look funky or "broken".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmiwGm32dXU

This vid should help. keep it up! Burn your ass until there's nothing left with hardwork and then burn it some more! You're doing great!

[jdem]

Thank you for the advice!! Really helpful and encouraging I'll check out Force Dynamics and Preston Blair! Will also check out the video...Thanks again, Bob!

[jdem]

Ok, so I know it's not exaactly artwork, BUT thought I'd show you what's been keeping me occupied for the last couple of days...

Crocheted from scratch with my own pattern design, garments/details are all sewn up by me also. It's Vivi from Final Fantasy IX.

[jdem]

Couple of one minute gesture sketches (nothing too exciting)! Trying to get some more fluidity in my work.

[jdem]

Just some more gesture studies.

[AllyAlbon]

I like your interpretation of Rogue!

[jdem]

Thank you!

[jdem]

Just a fairly speedy (about 45 mins?) enviro, need a lot more practice, haven't really attempted much in the way of landscapes before!

[jdem]

Super quick speedpaint of a landscape (from photo) just to try and get the colours/general shapes down.

[jdem]

Just some more figure studies, not as happy with the gestures today!

[jdem]

Couple more figures.

[bobmeatbag]

hey hey hey what's this?...could it be?

I see improvement!

Glad to see your working. A good way to get really good at gesture is to do a minimum of 3 hours a day. Do it right and you'll start improving like crazy. Start looking for shapes within the figure. Start out with basic stuff like squares, cones, rectangles etc etc but than move onto other shapes. Ovals, beans, combinations of squares, cones and beans. don't just draw the line of the figure. Doing this will improve appeal.

hope this helps.

[jdem]

Hehe, cheers, Bob! One of my aims for 2012 is definitely to practice more each day! Thanks for the advice - will give it a go

[jdem]

Really inspired by watching some of Sycra's videos on youtube, wanted to try out the 'lightning bolt' skeleton technique - I like! Working on integrating different colours as shadows - trying to make the overall image less flat also! WIP - She is meant to be floating - which is why her feet aren't flat on the ground!

[jdem]

2012 Figure studies, mixture of trying to find shapes/general gesture drawings.