MrFrenik's Sketchbook

[Wheeljack18]

Sounds like you are on track with being organized. Good Luck! and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. As for a crit on the portrait, I don't have much to add at this time. It appears to be coming along nicely and not much can be said until you've brought it to completion.

[MrFrenik]

Ha, thanks, wheeljack, and I didn't take anything sarcastically. I plan on finishing the portrait tomorrow and then starting my routine on monday.

[Vins_2011]

hey there! thanks for coming by my SB, you got some really neat stuff here,, like your figure drawings ..btw how the hell did you do your friend's portrait with mouse ?? it looks amazing

[David Keen]

I really like your plan to get into a schedule with practising. It's inspired me to come up with a similar regime for myself, it's so hard to practise without structure! If you're interested maybe we could do some kind of a sketch group thing? It would be a pretty great way to keep each other motivated by working on a topic each day and posting the work to a collected thread.

As far as the last few pieces have gone you've clearly upped the ante on the portrait of your girlfriend. It's looking really solid, great tone and colour depth. The only thing I'd like to see is rough placement of the other parts of the figure just to get an idea of how the whole image will look when it's finished.

The last few posts have been great, keep up the good work mate!

[MrFrenik]

Figure Studies/Anatomy Practice: Hands 12/05/11

Alright, so here's the first set of studies from yesterday, all from referencing either Bridgman and the digital hands on Posemaniacs.com. I learned A LOT from doing these and can already tell that this routine is going to keep me focused and progressing steadily. I also learned that I might have set the bar a little too high from the start, not giving myself enough room to really grow. This routine was set up much like a workout routine, and as far as lifting weights goes, you really can overdo how much you bench when you're just starting out cold as I have been. Thus I'm going to adjust my numbers for the following exercises and weeks to come, gradually adding more and more as I progress and feel that I can finish with confidence. Without further adou, 30 hands studies:

[MrFrenik]

Finished the portrait for the girlfriend. The clothing took the longest time, which I figured it would. I'm not completely happy with that, but the face was my main concern for this which I like the way it came out. So I called it done after a day or two of final tweakings.

[liquorbleu]

It's great you have set up such a tight schedule for yourself! I'd love to see more
Only crit I have is a suggestion I heard from an art director. He said that while having technically solid anatomy, form, etc, is exceptionally important: he also has encountered many artists that haven't exercised their imagination- sense of spark- equally.

Obviously I'm guilty of the other end of the spectrum, but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

[MrFrenik]

Painting from Nature 12-06-12

[MrFrenik]

Thanks for stopping by, liquorbleu. I totally agree with you, which I'm trying hard to balance all my studies with doing more and more drawings/paintings from imagination. Just hard to find the time, eh?

[MrFrenik]

Had an interesting conversation with a coworker yesterday about the "validity" of digital medium versus traditional after showing him a print of a recent work. It's a beaten, rotting dead horse, really, this topic, but it's still very interesting and almost hard not to feel like my work isn't being attacked in a way when someone states that what I've done is "easy" and "not art" because it was simply done on the computer. New tools to paint don't make more Picassos.

[Karonno]

That's awesome some of the reference you get your work from such as Anatomy for the Artist.

[andres333]

Great stuff, andres. To further what Dug was saying, I'd say the biggest thing is work on perspective in your drawings. Certain things seem to not line up correctly in space and relation to other parts in your drawings and it would really benefit you to study as much perspective as you can in conjunction with your anatomy. Keep it up!

Yea you're right I just wish perspective were my only issue..I couldn't agree more with you..I sort of freestyled some of my stuff...As for critiques I'd recommend studying basic forms deeply..getting a good grasp of them at the same time that you extrapolate your knowledge to more organic forms...for instance anatomy

[MrFrenik]

Sorry for such a long delay in an ACTUAL post, everyone. I've been having money issues lately so work has consumed me a bit. But I thought I'd share the latest thing I've been working on at least. Another portrait. WIP.

[MrFrenik]

More progress. This one's harder just because the photo reference I'm working from isn't the best, so I'm having to improvise on some color/value choices. So far it's going in the right direction, I feel, but it's just taking more time.

[MrFrenik]

Update - done with stepdad's face, time to move onto mom's.

[MrFrenik]

update - basic lay-in for mom's face done. Her face is a bit harder at the moment, but I have faith that I'll get it done before christmas.

[MrFrenik]

Update - mom's face just about finished, other than a few small finalizing details that I'll do at the very end and the ear. Tomorrow I have a LOT to do, including the hair, hat, and starting the rest of the smaller parts such as clothing and hands. All in all, however, the faces are done and that's what was most important. Everything else won't necessarily need to be as detailed or time consuming.

[Jarrad]

Damn yo! Your new schedule was a great idea. Your stuff is looking great!

[MrFrenik]

Thanks, Jarrad. The new schedule is helping out a lot and really keeping me on track, I feel. As always, I appreciate the feedback.

[MrFrenik]

Finished the portrait. And for comparison, I'll post the picture I used as reference. Oh, and Merry Christmas, everyone.

[MrFrenik]

Just a quick idea thrown down tonight, inspired by Alexander the Great. Worked on it for a few hours.

[shockowaffel]

On that last piece:
Nice idea, but you shoudl definetely work more on the layout and especially on the animals anatomy. Horse's front legs bow to the back side, not to the front. Most of the time they're straight though. The body of the elephant is much too small, or the head is too big.
Make the foreground darker and dont put the sun on the elephants trunk, it looks like he's holding some shining ball.
I'd be curious in how this turns out.

[MrFrenik]

Whoa-hoa, so it's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy working on some logo design for a client. The order called for a logo/branding design for a car repair and servicing business. The client wanted something that had a bold style yet still appeared professional and trustworthy. After MUCH delineation and prodding around with ideas, we arrived at this final design. I might even post the progressing steps, as it was an interesting journey, if I may. This project gave me a great excuse to learn Illustrator at a much better level and to further my interest and prospective career at logo/website/mascot design.

[MrFrenik]

Finished a character that I started around Halloween. Inked in Photoshop, colored in Illustrator.

[liquorbleu]

Hey MrFrenik! That logo looks killer - really clean stuff. I'm also loving the values on #51 - but as someone else said - the anatomy needs a bit of a touch up.

I thought I might suggest in your portrait photo it looks like you are rendering them a bit too tightly. Maybe next time let loose a little and get all the forms down and then move into the tough face parts.

I've been using this method recently where if I start to get frustrated on one part of the painting I'll move on to one that makes me more at ease and then come back so I'm less emotionally frustrated.

Hope you are still drawing! Cheers

[MrFrenik]

Hey, thanks for the post, liquorbleu. I agree, the anatomy on that was very rough and if I ever intend on coming back to it, I'll be sure to correct that and tighten things up much more. Right now, however, I'm in the process of moving into design and illustration aimed mainly at branding for businesses. Once I get my site up, I'll post a link for everyone to check out some of the work I'll be doing.

[MrFrenik]

Logo idea for my design company, Ink&color, featuring a possible mascot - Ink, the squid.

[MrFrenik]

Final design for Ink&Color™. This is going on my business cards, as well.

[MrFrenik]

Tattoo of a fairy I've recently completed.

[MrFrenik]

Rockabilly girl design, probably going to design a logotype around her as well.