Pavel Sokov's Sketchbook

[Velocity Kendall]

its still in the same awkward pose and composition as before..?

[Pavel Sokov]

Dierat
Well as they say, practice makes perfect, and I never practice composition. I just make the initial sketch and launch into it without exploring other options. That means I may be missing the best opportunities when it comes to my works and they could of easily been much better. Scary thought!

Yea, sorry Velocity. It just isn't really important other then mixing it up for me with a sci-fi piece with no references, so I probably won't be interested in finishing it either. All I wanted was to try and flex my sci-fi muscles again which I haven't touched in so long. I used to be all about drawing monsters and fantasy and whatnot. Lately though, I haven't touched anything without reference, and it was mostly portraiture. I am just a bit scared that I am forgetting how to draw from my mind. Which it turns out, I am forgetting how.

Here are some photos I took of people at a circus themed party at a friend's house saturday. I am hoping to learn to take proper reference photos for portrait making in the future.

[Pavel Sokov]

Hey, I started the portrait of my friend (remember the blue/red pictures I took a while ago?) using the photo I took from the circus party.

I am also trying a completely unusual sketching style for me. I am trying with no lines, to paint stuff in right away. Just want to see if this makes it easier or harder to get the right proportions.

[Velocity Kendall]

this is by peleng and reminded me of your war walker.

[Lhune]

That thing is creepy VK. Awesome, but creepy.

Pavel, I still think you need to use bigger brushes. Also closely compare your painting to the reference in terms of color; there really isn't as much black in that face as you painted in. I also noticed the eyes being a bit big and the whole face seems to be turned slightly to the left.

[vineris]

Composition issues:



Slightly better composition:



The war walker is looking at 2nd war walker, which is looking at hay, which leads the eye back to city.

If you don't want a 2nd war walker, you can probably put the big egg thingy there tilted so as to stop the eye before the corner and lead it back into the pic. Or you could have the center war walker looking towards the hay and crop some (but not all) of the empty space out. Cropping all the empty space will make the picture look claustrophobic. Having all the interesting elements on one side might look good but only if they seem like a unified group, which the city, hay and war walker are not.

Important points
- the eye looks where things in the picture are looking
- the eye follows lines
- the eye is drawn to detail and contrast

So in general,
- don't have things look someplace you don't want the viewer to look
- don't have lines leading off to uninteresting places
- put detail and contrast where you want the viewer to look

[Velocity Kendall]

the whole time i thought they were like big stone blocks from an old building. i didnt realise it was hay.

[Pavel Sokov]

That is a gorgeous Peleng painting. Where did you find it? The use of texture is really inspirational, wish I could pull that style off.

Vineris, that is actually a very good explanation of some of the issues in composition. I have used them here in this painting called "A matter of CLASSE".

CLASSE is an organization of student protesters in Montreal that are embarrassing the city, causing violence, vandalizing, skipping class, not going to exams, preventing others from going to exams, all because the tuition will be raised by 300$. If they spend the time they used to be lawless gorillas to pick up a shift at work or two, they would have had weeks of full time pay already.

THEIR LOGO IS A RED SQUARE.

I hope it is a compositionally pleasant image.

[Velocity Kendall]

WOW DUDE thats a great image. compositionallu.. its kind of awkward but in a cool way.. like, you want the image to sort of hurt a bit to make the political point.
love the colours and everything too. well done!

[Pavel Sokov]

Thanks man!

Also, I relaunched my website completely: www.pavelsokov.com Check it out, it is much better now!

[Logan Turner]

Thats a really great image Pavel! I really admire your dedication and determination, I can see its paying off!

Plus I agree completely with your view of the student protests.

[Black Spot]

You did something right. Someone crack out the champagne.

Now back to your friend. When painting without lines start with a middle tone and work your way to the darks and lights. Currently the black is killing it. See how little is on the picture you got right.

[Pavel Sokov]

Great job Montreal! We are just a bunch of scholarly lads aren't we?




Louis Ck progress.

[Pavel Sokov]

Update on Louis.

He is doing another AMA on Reddit right now, and I did not know. so I posted this unfinished progress shot and am currently the 1st most popular post in the AMA with over 2000 upvotes. That was my first post on Reddit too.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment...uis_ck_reddit/

[Velocity Kendall]

jesus fucking christ Montreal, youre a factory for churning out the most useless life-wasting live at home sons in the entire universe. i hope youre proud of yourself.

LCK is looking great, i like the strange greenish tones, and the way the detail gets tighter on the bits you look at immeditaly like his face and round his eyes. my advice would be continue detailing only that area; you did a great job with the mum in the family pic, capturing the lines that gave her facce character.
get those in there, so the face and eyes have a spark of life, in this case his sad, bemused, crushed clown expression and youll be cookig on gas.

also his arm looks kind of doughy like the bones are a bit melted. Javier and Giocomo will be able to help there more than me, but it looks kind of melty. and down on right where your sig is is empty. maybe show a blurred bit of his upper forearm down there to balance it up.

shits definitely getting real now. id love to see how you handle a big crazy sci fi scene or something. like go fucking crazy on the design in the thumbs, then render the crap out of it.

[Pavel Sokov]

Thanks Velocity! Moscow raised me though.

And I would usually defend myself as an employed marketing professional, but my intern ship is over and I'm useless again.

So Louis Ck left the AMA and did not comment on my portrait, that pig fucker.

My post is currently the most popular post on reddit seeing as the thread is the most popular thread right now.

[Pavel Sokov]

So I haven't been on Ca lately because I have been very busy.

I was working on printing out and framing some of my old art for some people, and also working on a commission of 13 B/W panels for somebody's short story. I will show you my favourites among them. Right now I am working on a portrait for an Australian couple that found me on Reddit. Prepaid.

Here are my favourite panels among the bunch:

[Velocity Kendall]

love this one
maybe look at how the trees are arranged, the big white one is lined up with his head which could be eliminated by more careful positioning. overall though nice work.

[vineris]

Great job Montreal! We are just a bunch of scholarly lads aren't we?

Looks entertaining.

You don't appreciate the value of people doing stupid things until you spend a couple decades on the prairies. The last time I saw a guy wearing something brightly-coloured it was a reflective safety vest.

[Pavel Sokov]

Velocity,
Yea the dog looks like it is wearing the tree

Ok so for something completely different. I am going to be working on a cartoon styled project with a friend soon, involving forest animals.

Here is my first sketch of the wolf. I don't know anything about cartooning so I am nervous.



Update:

[Lightship69]

No crits to offer just my continued support for your efforts mate! Oh and a well done with the dog and horse sketch by the way that one was brilliant you really caught the movement in both of them.

all the best old chap

[Kauil]

The head of the wolf is really big while the body and the back legs are short. Was that your intention?

[Pavel Sokov]

Thanks Lightship, always a pleasure seeing you here.

Kauil, that was the intention. I was trying to make a cartoon for the first time for a certain project. I am not sure how it is done, but I chose to exaggerate the body that way. I am no cartoonist, so I may be completely off-track...

Here is a commission I finished last week for an Australian couple on Reddit.

[Pavel Sokov]

Here is the sketch of a cartoon style bear. I am very self conscious about my cartooning as I have never done it before.

[Pavel Sokov]

Update on the bear

[Pavel Sokov]

Guys I need all sorts of help with the above cartoon.

I also wanted to make a quick sketch based on something my friend told me; He said he watched a documentary about a 2 month long Rave in Kiev, Ukraine. It is on a beach apparently (I didn't know Ukraine had beaches). Anyway there are some Russians obviously Mafia characters, with jail tattoos. They are fat and wearing their swim trunks and Rolexes. The reporter asked them jokingly what they do and they replied with "Important/Export" and as well as "Consulting". I loved it, although I never saw the documentary. I wanted to illustrate what I imagined in a cartoonish sort of way, but my composition looks awful. Any ideas?

[vineris]

Guys I need all sorts of help with the above cartoon.

The proportions on the bear are good. The eyes look like they're not on the same level and the yellow irises don't work at all. Why is the beehive on an angle? The contrast between the warm bear and the blue background is good.

Other than that it's just a design. The bear is nice enough and it's very bear-like but it's blank. No expression, no action, no nothin'.

[Pavel Sokov]

Hi vineris.

The beehive is weird like that because at one point I selected that side of the canvas and simply stretched it out to escape the square aspect ratio. I will fix it.

So addressing some of the things here is a major design update. I hope he has some sort of facial expression now?

[vineris]

Yes, that's an improvement. He looks interested now. I'd even exaggerate it a little bit by perking the ears and eyebrows up. Also, if he's looking at the beehive (and it's likely that he is) make sure that it's clear that the beehive is in front of him where he can see it.

[Pavel Sokov]

I will try to give him even more of an expression next time!

So here is my sketch of the owl cartoon. He has really poor eyesight.