Practice Like a Madman

[kevin_]

really like your style and i see a lot of creativity in here! keep it up!

[Staal Sander]

Slick stuff! Keep up the hard work!

[SmallPoly]

kevin_ and Staal Sander: Thanks! I will!

A still life during my lunch break of some foil covering an orange. It's been a while since I attempted a still life that deals with metallic surfaces, so I found this pretty challenging and didn't get as much detail as I'd like in the 1h time frame. It still feels like I got the overall value relationships down, so that's nice. The paper is too saturated I think, though it really does have a bit of a blueish/purple hue compared to, say, a paper towel.

I also did some more life drawing over the weekend (people and environments), but I haven't taken photos yet.

[SmallPoly]

This morning I did a couple more still lifes, this time working from a plaster cast of my fist that I made a couple nights ago. I struggled a lot with the first one, but the second one went a lot better. I feel like I could have achieved a lot more detail and realism if I had more time set aside. Each of these were 1 hour.

I also need to work on my casting technique - too many bubbles in both the mold and the cast, and I need to secure the tube I used to the base somehow (clay?).

[Tschayssen]

Thanks for the comment. always prefer some real critisism and a good advise above just kind words. I know I have a lot to learn and I'm always happy to hear from great artists how I could improve my work. I really need to start practising more and and make tons of studies instead of start new concepts over and over again improvising rendering form and values. Thank you and keep up the good work, your enthusiasm is is inspirational.

Cheers

[SmallPoly]

Glad to be of help. It always bugged me that even in an artistic context people will fail to give each other criticism because they're trying too hard to be polite or spare each other's feelings. Your detailing is amazing, and I'm sure your rendering will catch up soon.

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I recently came across Qiang Huang's work again. He does some beautiful still lifes focusing on bold colors and volumetric simplified forms. He's a master at making every stroke count. I really love that style of work. Maybe I should spend some time studying his technique?

I did a couple more still lifes this morning - a rose my girlfriend brought me, and another ball of foil. I tried to borrow Qiang's style a little here - exaggerating colors and making things more angular.

[SmallPoly]

Looks like the mass uploader has now taken out that time-consuming thing where you add all the image details, so that's nice.

Anyways, I'm mainly working on hands right now. The numbers on each page are just how many hand sketches are on there. I'm considering trying for 1000 hand sketches before moving on to something else, but may stop at 500. We'll see how things go.

Also, some paint sketches.

[SmallPoly]

I did some more hand studies this morning. So far this brings me up to #105. It seems like 1000 shouldn't end up being that difficult of a goal. Not sure what I'll do next, but I really need to improve on environment stuff. I might work more on animals though. Everytime I try to draw a dog it comes out terrible, partially because they don't really stay still the way people do.

[Hamorhage]

Impressive sketchbook! Love the dedication! Very inspirational

[SmallPoly]

Thanks! I'll keep at it. I took a look at your life drawing blog - good stuff, especially the charcoal-looking stuff in this post. I need to practice doing more gestures of that style.

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More hands this morning. This brings me up to 135. It's odd painting with only one hand free. It get a bit tiring on the more rendered ones. Normally I use the eydropper tool all the time. For most of these drawings I've been using tool presets that also include color. I think I may work on facial expressions once I'm done with the hand series.

Also, some doodles.

[SmallPoly]

More hand sketches from this morning, and a couple sketches from yesterday. It's starting to feel pretty repetitive since there's only so many hand poses that exist, but I do need the practice. I've neglected hands for way too long. Maybe I should cheat and do some animal paws, or hands with deformations or something. This brings the current total up to 171. At this rate I should hit #500 during the weekend.

[SmallPoly]

Two more sets this morning. First set was around 2 hours total, second set was around 30 minutes.

[SmallPoly]

Did a few more pages after work, putting me just over 260. I'm going to have to work pretty hard this weekend if I'm going to reach 500 on schedule.

[nodeerskulls]

woah, i love those hands
can't wait to see all of the 500 compiled, it'll be impressive

[SmallPoly]

Thanks, nodeerskulls!

I didn't finish before midnight, but I did manage to break 500! I did 12 more pages over the weekend, bringing the total hand sketches up to 505.

[SmallPoly]

Relaxing a bit this week after the big push last time. I did a small test batch of self-portrait studies yesterday - I'd like to do a similar thing with that as I did with the hands, though probably a smaller number of more in-depth paintings.

I also recently picked up a set of Jenga blocks to practice perspective and planar forms with. I may pick up a preschool-style block set as well. I did a couple quick stills with those this morning.

[SmallPoly]

Some self portrait stuff from this morning.

[SmallPoly]

Did some more self-portrait stuff after work today. I hate the little mirror I'm using.. it's around 6" wide. i also have a acryllic one but it gets so much distortion I hate using it. i need to get a 8"x10" square one made of actual glass if I want to make my life a bit easier.

I feel like I'm getting better, but I'm still making a lot of mistakes.

[kevin_]

you really pushed out a lot of work!!!! keep up this work load!

[SmallPoly]

Thanks Kevin! I think I'm going to try another set like that pretty soon. I don't think training at the intensity I did with the hands is something I can do constantly since it's so time consuming, but I liked the results.

I picked up a bigger mirror this morning and spent a couple hours on another self portrait today. This one seems be be more on-model than some of the previous ones. Also here's a gif of the steps since I haven't put up one of those in a while.

[lionheartGFX]

amazing hand studies, its clear that you managed to up the level of refinement in your work keep it up! and your storyboards are looking pretty good too, id love to see some more character design from you!

Cheers

[sony]

wooaa these are niceee

[SmallPoly]

LionheartGFX: Thank you! I was struggling with hands a lot before then and now I feel much more comfortable with them. More character design, and comics/storyboards in general, would be a good idea. Comic-making was what got me into drawing (as a possible career) in the first place, but it's been awhile since I've done a finished comic. It would probably help a lot with storytelling.

Sony: Thanks!

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Did some more face stuff this morning. I'm loving this new mirror. I ended up getting a round one again (but with a larger radius) because apparently no one around here sells a letter paper sized rectangular one around here that isn't surrounded by 3 feet of gaudy embellishment.

These ones are coming out better. I'm starting with a framework sketch this time around, which I really should have been doing in the other ones. It's helping a lot with proportions and keeping everything in place.

[jdavisillustration]

Thanks for the great motivation to do hand studies! Full range of motion!

[jkustan]

Wow I love your hand sketches! Just out of curiosity, how long do you think you're spending on each one? I've been considering a similar challenge and your sketchbook is a real inspiration

[SmallPoly]

JVDavis: :-) Glad I could be motivational.
jkustan: Thanks. Depending on the complexity most of them varied between 2 minutes and 10 minutes. I did a few things that helped with efficiency:
- Picked out most of the colors beforehand
- Worked in this order: Linework, Shadow Dark, Brightest non-highlight, Shadow light, Midtone light & dark, highlight.
- Used Tool Presets (in photoshop) to put together a set of specific brushes for the different tasks (sketch, shadow/midtone, highlight, etc.). The brushes were also set to store the colors.
- Had all the shadow/midtone brushes set to "behind" mode, so wouldn't have to mess with layers to get things behind the linework. (only paints in empty parts of a layer) This also helps prevent you from getting stuck constantly reworking the same drawing.
- Created Patterns for the background and grid and added them with fill layers. Also used adjustment layers to modify the background color.

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Some sketches from last night:

[Turpentine]

Can I just say? Your devotion to study is inspirational and puts new meaning to the entire concept of being "thorough"

Fantastic work

[Joe777k7]

Wow! This sketchbook is crazy good! Its awesome to see your dedication with drawing and wanting to get better. Really impressive! Keep going!!

[SmallPoly]

Turpentine and Joe777k7: Thanks to both of you. I'll keep it up.
_____

I did something a little different this morning - I need some more practice with storytelling, so I used the results of a random sentence generator as a basis. The sentences themselves are generally nonsense, but with a little creative interpretation (eg. treating things as slang) you can often milk a bit of story out of them.

The annual leisure rots beneath our bitter taste.
An annual party for the rich. All attend but none enjoy it. The times are changing. Their corruption is showing. The beast is decaying from it's head. The annual leisure rots beneath our bitter taste.

Can the wild reactionary bubble beneath the socialist?
A reactionary could be a person. Perhaps he's aiming to draw support to overthrow the socialist, right under his nose. Bubbling, in this case, is growing, expanding, gathering up others. Bubbling with rage. Coming to a boil. But it's dangerous. He could get caught. Can this wild man, the rebel, the reactionary cause support to bubble beneath the watchful eye of the socialist?

The hypothetical fame strains the cuckoo poster.
On the internet, he sees himself as a god. His view is carefully crafted, like his image. So much time she spends building his lie. He draws followers. Gains upvotes, but also down. It's hard to keep up, and read people. How can you read people when all you see is their words? Everyone else does the same. In the end, the hypothetical fame strains the cuckoo poster. He leaves for the real world to do the same.

An inter jacket flashes the sunlight.
A tall man makes his way into the old abandoned building. Derelict rockets line the walls, and pieces of only god knows what else. He's looking for his catch: the man with the silver lining. A clatter, to the left, as old metal falls to the ground. As a dusty ray slides through the ceiling the silouhette of a man stands silently cursing the world. And inter jacket flashes the sunlight informing the tall man that his target has arrived.

Can the binding eyesight decay?
Mark was born into darkness. A revolutionary new treatment brought new possibilities to light. But technology like this always comes at a price. Mark's was to be th eyes, and ears, of the Company. Everywhere he went. Everything he saw. His friends. His enemies. Everyone he talked to. All market research, whether he wanted it to be or not. All transmitted instantly, and efficiently, by the technology that gave him sight.

Later on in his life, he grew to distrust his keepers. He thought of how he might ruin their data. Looking at things he wasn't meant to look at. Going places he wasn't meant to go. He was instructed to live a normal life but he didn't want to be normal anymore. He wanted to be free. What can you do with such unwanted Company.

As he thought this, his vision blurred, and he became afraid. Just how much can they hear? is it just sight and sound that gets transmitted, or do the wires that transmit the vision to his mind take something else in return? His eyes blur even more, and start to dim. Could they have access to his thoughts, or can the binding eyesight decay?

[SmallPoly]

A few misc things, including a chart of various ways characters can be differentiated. I think I do want to work more on character design. I also want to try doing some more exercises where you combine two or more different creatures. I found a random animal generator recently, which should help with that: http://spipes.deviantart.com/art/The...ator-190882155