Sean's Sketchbewk

[Veneq]

Last couple posts are showing some nice improvement. Keep pushing!

[TFsean]

Thanks Crazy Pills I'm glad it shows cuz I'm not seeing it myself just now, always pushing

ART:
Ye so today was weird. did some concept design guys in a very clean and structured way, feels weird and takes forever, bleh. Started my daily self portrait and ended up working on and off it all day because it sucked really hard and couldnt leave it. It still sucks hard its embarrassing and I dont feel I'm learning much from these so maybe I'll start the idea another time. Some sketch pages including another self portrait which sucked too. Frustrating day.

[Philosiflo]

Okay, since you stopped by the sketchbook I will critique a couple pieces for you if you want it. be warned. I will critique the shit out of them but be extremely constructive. There is a lot to say about any particular piece but o want you to choose one that you think you need a lot of help with.

The first peice of advice I will give you is this, and hopefully it will answer a few of your questions like,"why do my imagination drawings suck...etc.". Stop working from imagination. Its good for generating ideas., but you need a lot more observation before your paintings from imagination don't suck. Unless you want to be an abstract expressionist. At this stage in your learning you need to be more concerned with observational study. Once you finish that study, of figures, landscapes or whateverthen go and redo that exact same study from imagination. You are working the same brain muscles that you will need to use when you are good enough to draw from imagination. I skipped around a lot. Are you still using a mouse? Save up and get that wacom intuos or beg for it. Painting with a mouse is just well....a waste of time.

You are getting better. You need to know that solidarity in paintings and figures and anything with form comes from values. Solid recognition of value weight in composition and relationships. I hate telling people to read loomis but read loomis I didn't like being told that, just the other week when I asked a very amazing well known painterhow he thinks of Color he told me to read loomis creative illustration. Its like the Bible for fundamentals. If you have questions seek out people you like and ask them, they may never find the questions in your thread.

[ebonysmith]

Your environments are great. Work on the figures as you know and you will be set. the self portrait in 164 and environments in 179 and 180 are very good.

[TFsean]

Philosiflo - Thanks for stopping by and giving your advice. I think you are right in that I need to study in a way in which I learn the correct forms and apply them short after. I'm going to begin a more structured study for this to work better. For help i'd probably say 2nd piece in #180. But it's more of a general thing, my pieces get kind of blurry and I find it difficult creating good textures without custom brushes, and lighting is often ambient instead of a real directional thing. Without even getting into composition.
Thanks, I will take a greater look at Loomis, ive learned from his anatomy books but I think I need to make it more indepth. Also Ive had a tablet since about 2nd page, wacom bamboo, works great

Ebonysmith - Thanks very much man, ye I'm going to try and lean back towards figures now, break out of the comfort zone and take a step back from envs which seem to be stuck anyway

ART:
Today was better I guess. some random photostudies and drawing my shoulders from life. Figure was from imagination but used own body to fix anatomy errors although he turned it crap in terms of render.
Quick env I did this morning which started going blurry and lame when I tried to take it further so left it and today had felt like lil breakthrough. Went looking through all of Tom Scholes old posts and tutorials on the forums and found an old figure he did entirely with softbrush. So I did the same, roughly followed his figure in terms of lighting but 50% imagination. Took a while but I think I learn some good stuff in terms of edges and render.
Enough talking, this is for documentational purposes.

[ezekrialase]

Good updates!

[Creusa]

Rolled some pages
U need to minimize the amount of your strokes. 5 min gestures would help. u're doin too much of little strokes all over - they're stealing your time away and not helping much

[TFsean]

ezekrialase - Thanks man

Creusa - Do you mean pencil or digital? I plan to start working with pen in my sketchbook for my line, thanks for crit

ART:
All sketchbook today. Always trying to work on my render cuz it sucks. Today was doing some anatomy and face stuff cuz they suck. Did some portraits from photo and then a bunch of quick gestures. I get carried away and want to practice my render but tried to keep them short, made them smaller so i had to force myself not to. 3rd page is imagination, tried to do some figures with with some fixes to my previous understanding I think they came out alright. Portrait didnt go so well, really struggling to figure out the shape of the face that makes it legit, other stuff is for lulz and render shape practice stuff.
Kbye

[Vilhelmina]

Hey hey ~
I really like the second page in your latest pose - especially the figure who's sitting leaning down with her hair falling forward. I can't explain exactly why but that one just appeals to me the most out of these.

[TFsean]

Today was a positive day. I finally got round to doing a sargent study and yes he is the man. I think I will be doing quite a few more he has so much to teach and it's good opportunity to practice my strokes.
Some sketches, anatomy and poses and stuff were working quite nicely today compared to usual, happy with the face, getting more realistic from imagination. Scanner sucks.

[hunchback]

sargent piece may not be a whole lot like the original but it feels good. keep it up man!

[TFsean]

Hunchback - Thanks, ive learned to focus on the purpose of studies and not worry too much about a perfect likeness unless that is the focus.

ART:
This, have some sketches but cant scan tonight + they suck anyway.

[AlexTooth]

Nice pencils, that's some good figure practice, good to see!

Digi portrait study looking really nice!

I really like the latest painting!

However I'm not tooo keen on her facial proportions, quite a masculine face, eyes seem too high up in the head - I actually noticed this on your pencil faces too, they feel a bit "long"

I can recommend drawing the loomis head proportion diagrams, about 20 times from ref and 20 times from memory should be a good start!

[Evan Kitson]

I'm lovin' that last portrait- great stuff =)

[TFsean]

Alex - Thanks! Yes her face isnt quite right and the eyes is something I hadnt noticed thanks for pointing it out, couldnt figure out why some of my faces were long

Evan - Thanks man

ART:
Working on figures mainly
Sketch pages, in order
1. imagination
2. imagination
3. ref
4. ref
5. ref
6. imagination

[PontusEuxinus]

Awesome dynamic in these figures!

[TFsean]

Pontus - Thanks man glad you feel that, been trying to get gestures more dynamic

ART:
Spent all day working on this piece, still not done but posting what I have just now. I'm happy with this, no reference at all and probably longest I've spent on a piece, not because I was lazy with the others but I feel that there are things to be done here so I guess that means something.
Would appreciate peoples thoughts on this. Mainly the face and hair to be done.

[cedule]

looks good! really nice mood.
you asked for opinions on it: the edges in the shadows are super sharp, i would try to soften them a little bit. her shoulder looks a little bit off and the torso, stomach looks a little bit flat. i don't know, but i think it also would work better if the arm that goes out of the image would be more relaxed and in the image. atm the arm postion doesn't make too much sense to me, especially since the mood is kinda chilled.

i know...but you asked for opinions

[TFsean]

Hey Cedule thanks for your thoughts. I agree what you say about the arm and the shadows. Quickly fixed the shadows. Finished it now though and dont want to start messing with it again but it's things to think of for the next one, appreciated

ART:
A sketchsheet. I dont like leaving part of it blank and end up ruining the page with some random crap but oh well. From imagination except top right, trying more difficult poses.
Finished the girl off, spent ages on her nose.

[l'Aria]

I like your most recent imagination piece so far (the tattoos are a nice touch)! Like cedule said, the arm doesn't fit the mood and kind of leads you off the page, so it would suit your picture better to have her arm at her side or perhaps her hand lifted in front of her, holding something. You did a good job transitioning from the shadow to the light, but within those two extremities, the values are a bit flat. A few things you need to work out, but overall, it's looking pretty awesome

[TFsean]

Tempest - Thanks tempest. Ye it seems the arm is definitely not working for the piece, composition is something I need to work on more now, create more successful pieces on a whole. Thanks for your input

Hai guise.
Did some stuff today but will post at a later date, here is a quick forest study to keep the daily updates going. Havent done any environment studies in PS for ages and felt like I learnt quite a lot from this for the time I spent on it. Need to do way more of these, my understanding of the world is lacking muchly.
kbye x

[TFsean]

Missed a day posting but not cause I didnt do art so I'm cool with that, here is a sketch page. Have other stuff but not posting yet Kbye

[Kungfoowiz]

Great work on this piece, the light is really convincing =) Maybe a bit more falloff on her tattoo, is a bit flat atm, otherwise rocken! =)

[ezekrialase]

Awesome work, love the tattooed woman!

[TFsean]

Kungfoowiz - Thanks for the crit man, always appreciated

Ezekrialase - Thanks man

ART:
Have not posted in a while but I have been artsing it up erry day. Here are some envs and sketch pages. All from imagination apart from that lame ass bus sketch.
Hopefully have something cooler to show soon kbye.

[Greenhouse]

Hi TFsean! I really like your sb, it's so diversity. The pencil sketches are very good. I think that what I like the most are the big landscapes with small people. I'm much in to that myself. Thanks for inspire me!

[TFsean]

Greenhouse - Thanks a lot man!

ART:
I have more but only posting this for today, from imagination. Trying to work with initial line drawing to figure out the figure and working from that as its more of a standard practice and im not great at it. I should probably dress some of these eventually.

[TFsean]

Couple things for today. Finished off this env Ive spent couple days working on and off. More complex in terms of subject than some of my other stuff, I think my values worked out alright too. It is isnt realistic though excluding the figures and thats the goal so need to figure out what knowledge im lacking, need to do some studies its been ages.
Second piece is a quick speedy thing, about 45 mins, felt good to do something quick and rough again.

[TFsean]

Doing something different compositionally today, bit more of an actual illustration. Finding it pretty hard going though, spent most of day tinkering with it and only got this far and her body still isnt right and i just cant figure it out. Playing with an armoured guy in the foreground coming to her but then I lose then I lose quite a lot of whats there in terms of light but maybe im being precious.

[TFsean]

Hi guys. I struggled to get this piece somewhere but I am trying to make more of an effort to push things if it isnt working and see what I can get. Getting anatomy digitally is much harder for some reason, I need to do more studies and quick sketches of figures digitally. Anyway, larger quantities of stuff coming from me soon need to step up, had a little lul.