AC's Sketchbook - I'm back :>

[bogan]

Cool stuff Andreaaaaaaa, I like the godzilla inspired speed paint. Reminds me of feng zhu's style (which is awesome). This last thing is cool too.

[strangedawn]

Great sketchbook!no crits your coloring and drawings are really nice and i can also see that you are good in concept designing.keep it going.takecare!=)

[AndreaC]

bogan: Thanks man!! ;D Actually Feng Zhu is one of my favourite artists and, even if we live in different galaxies, i hope one day i will be at least half good as he is. (Actually his video tutorials are EPIC and extremely useful, and i highly recommend watching them on his FZD youtube channel).

strangedawn: Thank you! I still have an awful lot to learn though ;D


By the way fixed the princess-like pic i posted before since, like everything i do, was lacking in contrast and balance.

[James Thomas]

wicked post at #45 really sweet stuff mate

[AndreaC]

A Faux: Thank you


Since i have close to 0 knowledge of traditional painting techniques (wich means having tried watercolors when i was maybe 12, leaving the results to your imagination), i decided to stop using photoshop for a while.
Problem is, i have no idea how color blending works, opaque brushes literally scare the crap out of me and i always chicken out ending up using the comfortable opacity set to pen pressure.
SO, even though i perfectly know it would be better to simply start painting with real oils and so on, i'm very lazy, and here comes Artrage. RAWR!
I know Painter is probably way better but it's kinda complex and Artrage works just fine for what i need to do right now.
I always considered this program kinda crappy and not really reliable but i have to admit it's pretty cool, and works way better than i thought if you know how to set brushes parameters.
AH, and you can create awesome textures with it ;D

Anyway, even if you couldn't care less, i will start posting supercrappy stuff for a while, obviously done in AwrtReig.
I would have sex with artrage's watercolors if i could.

[AndreaC]

Ok, i'm kind of surprised.. to be completely honest i'm usually extremely critical of what i do and i rarely like what comes out.
This said, i'm satisfied with this one.
I had such an unexpected good time using Artrage's watercolors and i'm reeeeaaaaaally surprised about it since i don't know how to use the real ones in the first place (honestly i thought i would do something so bad that i would have had AR unistalled within the day).
I consider it finished since i already merged everything and i have no idea how to fix stuff with watercolors.

Final color/curves/levels balancing done in Photoshop of course.

[AndreaC]

Sorry for the double post, i think i might have overdone it with photoshop, i probably prefer something closer to the original version.

[AndreaC]

Gonna play around with oils in AR.. wip of some kind of demon portrait.

Edit. Not happy at all with how is this going, and not happy with oil brushes to be honest. I must be doing something wrong. And i'm pretty sure i'm working on a way too small canvas as usual.
Gonna try another approach, yay.

[AndreaC]

Ok i just realize that i have no clue of what i'm doing.
But i really like the pencil tool, really feels soooo natural, so a couple of face studies from imagination.

[AndreaC]

Wip of some kind of space-headgear.

[AndreaC]

Decided to try developing the whole character since i almost never finish what i start.

[AndreaC]

Speedpaint because i can't sleep.

[AndreaC]

Random wip

[shockowaffel]

This underwater picture needs a focus point a little more contrast and more stuff in the background; right now it looks a little empty.

[AndreaC]

Hey, haven't updated in a while.. the reason is that i just realized i'm going nowhere doing random stuff with no planning at all.
To put it simple right now i lack the basics/knowledge/ability/techniques to realize anything close to a professional level (actually nothing new to me so far since i knew this from the very beginning).
I started drawing for real roughly 2 months ago and i don't think it was wasted time since i was able to see and understand more or less my current level; it's a bit depressing realizing that you're not even close to the goal you have in mind but whatever.

So, got my copy of Gurney's Color and Light, some anatomy and reference stuff and i'm ready to start from the very beginning; the real challenging part starts now.
I will not update very often but i will try to post something weekly if anyone's interested


These are some of the quick things i did before the nervous breakdown which led to the total reset

[AndreaC]

Doing some anatomy studies now while reading some books, practicing hard/soft edges in the meantime while i'm at it.
Here's one

[Magical-Shit]

cool works dude! really like the helmet you made.

[ANtY93]

Your last study is awesome, I wondered for a while which one is the photo and then I noticed that none is, great!

[Izene]

Wow!Your soft/hard curve sydy is insanely awesome!

[Suspect]

Your last study is awesome, I wondered for a while which one is the photo and then I noticed that none is, great!

Lol, took my a while to figure out that too.

Love your sketchbook btw.

[Urötskidoji]

Your presentation of your pieces is really cool, I shall take a lesson from that. All over I like your style as well, you´ve definetly got the values and siluettes really well done. Keep up the good work and I´ll stop by again!

[GEB]

Love that rusty robot dude

[Nibras]

I really like your sketchbook and I think the reason behind it is because you have the passion and creativity, you're just making drawings/paintings and getting your ideas down all the time. Its great to look at.

Don't start getting frustrated because you're not where you want to be, its only been 2 months. Be realistic and give yourself more like 6 months - 1 year before you get frustrated. That's when your improvement will blow your mind. I really don't want you to lose this love for art that you have just because now you want to get amazing and you'll start doing nothing but studies. Remember if your goal is to get better at drawing from imagination you'll still need to draw PURELY from imagination. That's the only way to improve it. Keep enjoying what you're drawing and remember it takes time Just compare your stuff, you're so much better already

[AndreaC]

Magical-Shit: thanks!

ANtY93: hihi :> thank you!

Izene: thanks man

Suspect: thanks for stopping by!

Urötskidoji: hehe thank you for keeping an eye on my sb :>

GEB: thanks man, i love your Sketchbook

Nibras: thanks for your kind words, i'm reeeeally eager to improve as fast i can and it's probably the reason i also get frustrated and discouraged so easily. I'll put everything i have into it and try to still have fun while i'm at it


Well hello everyone.. a freaking long time since my last update. i've been thinking a lot and sketching even more, also a lot on paper but i'm too lazy to scan everything, i apologize for that.. maybe i will in the near future.
I also decided to start all over again, this time focusing on simple lines and shapes and trying to understand better what i'm actually doing instead of always brainfarting random doodles.
Anyway, here is a small update with some fairly quick sketches i did recently.

[MarcSampson]

wooa nice creature man !! badass

[AndreaC]

MarcSampson: Thanks ;>

Small color test update

[AndreaC]

random insect crit wip

[AndreaC]

30 mins angry bird brainfart warmup

[AndreaC]

I'll probably try drawing a series of characters from traditional lore/mythology just for fun.. here some sketches :>

[JesseM]

Mannn, you are harsh on yourself... o__o This stuff is looking awesome. Your characters are charming and energetic, and your studies are killer... I didn't realize the figure studies you posted above were both drawn by you until someone commented it.. XD; That's good work!

Not a lot to say constructive-wise, just good work and keep it up! I guess my one recommendation would be to take more stuff to finish, so you can have records of your awesomeness in a nice portfolio.