nat's sketchbook

[Elias Leonard]

awesome studies and portraits
#195 the eyes are too close together I think... I'm not sure :s
#207 A lot of great stuff, epsecially the woman with the red

[AdrienneRose]

I think your stuff is very good e-nat! I am loving your little girls in dresses, super cute! And very good as well. I wish my memory and imagination was so good. lol. It'll get there! I hope.

I especially love your snow leopard. They're such gorgeous creatures!

[Magentis]

Great improvement in your sketchbook, especially the figures. Keep doing what you're doing

[Yemi775]

somebody has been improving. i like the show sketch, it show you are applying what you have learn. keep it up.

[- nat -]

Elias Leonard, now that you mentioned it, something has been bothering me about the snow leopard. I thought he was crosseyed, but you're right. In the photo there is more space between the eyes. Thanks for the critique!

Magentis, Thanks!

AdrienneRose, you too are doing great in the spartan camp. I'm sure you'll be doing better than me soon Thanks!

Yemi775, Thank you!

What I've been doing in the past few days.

5 mins


30 seconds


not timed- from fashion magazines


imagination

[- nat -]

5 and 8 minutes

[NateMiller]

E-nat,

Your rendering and color skills are coming along nicely. For your figure drawing, I'd suggest getting Vilppu's video series. It's not cheap, but your ability to define form in 3D will improve exponentially. You've been drawing the contour, and your figures look a little flat because of it. Vilppu advocates for building the form up from simple shapes. I'm new here an I've been doing pencil drawings instead of digital so I don't have much to show yet, but trust me, my work has improved a lot since I started this method. Hope that helps and keep the art coming!

[- nat -]

Thank you Nate for the critique! I agree with you, looking back at the gestures especially the painted ones, They are rather stiff. I have a copy of Vilppu's drawing manual, I will study it seriously now while trying to find a link to buy the DVDs (or as many as I can afford).




Source: http://armstreet.com/store/womens-costumes/

[NateMiller]

e-nat,

The gestures above definitely show more volume and look 3D! Your line work is very clean (as always) on the costume drawings. Having gone through about half of the Vilppu series, I thought I'd offer a suggestion for a particular DVD if you're interested. You're starting from a good base, so I would suggest looking at the chapter 6 videos, since you see him draw several 20 minute poses while discussing boxes, spheres, ellipses, placing landmarks, etc. The difference between reading his book and watching him draw was huge for me (maybe I should quit and go into marketing :-) Anyway.... looking forward to seeing your progress!

[- nat -]

Awesome! I did see like lots of books and 16+ DVDs on the Vilppu site. Thank you for narrowing down the search!




WIP (~30 minutes)


Poses from imagination and trying to think in terms or gesture and 3D instead of contour




random character applications

[- nat -]

30 sec


no timed


From imagination

[- nat -]

1.5 hours

[kingkostas]

Great amount of studies!!!You are on the right track, definitely keep it up. I dont want to say anything particular at this point. Ah lets see, when you render something with light and shadow[and not cell shading] line doesnt exist as a separate element, in that case line should be perceived by separation of shapes [in transitions of value etc. if you put a white paper next to a black paper we think that there is a line at the place where they connect] Putting lines while having light and shadow relations in the last female, flattens her out. Keep it up, you are doing great!!!

[BryceFrits]

I really like your anatomy studies.

[- nat -]

@ kingkostas, it's an honor to have you in my sketchbook thank you for the critique! I definitely agree about the lines, since I did most of the painting work, might as well go all the way and remove the lines. I continued working on the pic a bit more to define borders (still needs more work tho ^^).

@ BryceFrits, Thank you!



For Spartan camp- Shoulder studies


mountain goat

[Hamorhage]

e-nat! You're doing incredible work! Totally jealous of your imaginary gestures! WOW!

[nickbernstein]

very cool stuff, I like the way you study then do something bigger, then jump back to studying. Very nice work overall.

[- nat -]

Thank you Hamorhage!

@ nickbernstein, Thanks! I try to do a bit of everything when I can.


A quick doodle (1 hour or so)




Spartan camp drawings

[Rhubix]

thanks for the link to the costume website- it's exactly what I need right now because I'm trying to expand my brain's costume library!

I think your shift from contour gestures to formy- gestures had a really good effect. post 221 and the gestures in 228 have a really great life to them.

I suggest taking a similar shift to your rendering- do some simple form studies focused on light source with spheres and simple shapes. When you combine the render stuff with the form stuff your work will be all ka-pow!

Happy sketching.

[Laggtastic]

Very nice gallery you have here, both the sketches as your more completed works look awesome Keep up the good work

[- nat -]

@ Laggtastic, thank you for stopping by!

@ Rhubix, that's great advice, thank you! I started with the sphere and application. Though the gym ball surface is shinier than the model study (from James Gurney's Color and Light). Will look for cube and cylinder

[- nat -]

From imagination (Was watching Fringe at the time). I was not able to translate the dynamic lines from the sketch but the face looks really good

[- nat -]

A cylinder! (Still life) Don't think I can study a lot today, my right eye hurts.



I don't like this anymore ( waist is too flat)

[- nat -]

Time to work on head construction and structure. At first I was following the external lines and proportion which almost made the study useless. Then I switched pencil grip and focused on the planes/shape of planes. The construction did not click completely, but I think I have an idea on how it works.

+ I bough a couple of Vilppu DVDs and should start studying them soon.

[Killer Napkins]

The gesture studies are looking great!

[- nat -]

Thank you Killer Napkins!

[- nat -]

Still life (no photo ref, I'm proud of myself)

[ForScience]

Beautiful studies, That last one is fantastic. You captures a lot of subtlety in hue shifts in the white box.

[- nat -]

Thank you ForScience! It was quite the challenge to see the real color, nothing is what it seems. At first I painted it real white then had to scrap and restart from scratch.

some imagination drawings for fun/application.

[ForScience]

Good job balancing studies and imaginative work. Remember that the job of a concept artist is ideas, Don't lose your imagination in the pursuit of rendering!