Improve or perish! Dennis Sketchbook

[DennisH-Art]

Forgot one study ...

[Pauzel]

Thanks for visiting my SB! I like your anatomy studies, looks like you are really thinking about what you draw when you do them, which also shows in your imaginative stuff. The detail in some of your photo studies is quite amazing, however, here is also the point where I would have some critique: it appears to me that often the high contrast details dominate the large scale value relationships in your studies/paintings, which makes them look a little flat. I would therefore suggest to concentrate more on the big forms and the way light affects them while subordinating the details a little. Not that I am in the position to critisize your stuff ;-).

[DennisH-Art]

@ Pauzel:

Thanks for the crits! Don't worry about telling me, I ALWAYS appreciate any crit or suggestions I can get! Keep up the good work!

I just came back from hell on earth, guys ... I've been moving to a new apartment (With great pains) and i've also started school again. I had to spend about 5-6 days just cleaning, packing my stuff and moving, and even after all that, I was really to tired to draw much for several days. Im getting back into everything again now tho.

Also, my school is really awesome as well! I was afraid that I wouldn't learn anything, but we have allready had several awesome classes on perspective and similar. Finally gonna get to try out some traditional stuff such as Acrylic painting, Oil painting and similar. Really hope to improve a lot during this year!

Here's a lil bit of stuff I've been working on, some random studies, as well as some basic comic concept art for a possible personal comic project I may or may not do. (got a lot of unscanned sketches and similar as well). More to come soon!

Edit: Higher res Dante's Inferno pic: http://oi49.tinypic.com/2hnynua.jpg

[DennisH-Art]

Been a while since I got on here. First Ca was down for a while, and then my damn computer broke completely for several weeks! I had saved most of my stuff in my external HDD, but it got mixed up with my old work, so sorry if i post some old stuff as well.

Just getting back to digital art after a long hiatus. Hopefully, this will be the start of daily updates with both digital and traditional work.

Here are some stuff, just getting back to digital art again. Lets see if CAs new upload system works well:

[DennisH-Art]

Some stuff from imagination and studies. More to come in a week or so, working on a bunch of stuff!

[DennisH-Art]

Why not update? Here is a personal piece and some studies. A lot more stuff is in the works. Might update again in a few days.

[kevin_]

nice sb, really like all the gesture and anatomy practices! make sure to keep busting out those studies and keep posting!

[DennisH-Art]

Quick update. Doing some specific studies atm. I started this week with face studies, because I can honestly still find a lot of ugly stuff in the faces I draw.

Update soon again!

[LeaderOfZombies]

Nice studies! For critiques I would say that you should try to add more action into your personal figure drawings. They seem somewhat stiff.

[Matthias Kinnigkeit]

Hey Dennis! I can just agree with everybody else about the studys. They are great! Make sure to keep on doing them in this quantity. When you do painting studys or personal work watch your edges! The images seem to be kind of blured by the overuse of the softbrush. You can of course also make hard edges with a small softbrush. Maybe you could give a look into the theory behind edge control and the next time you do a study try really to look carefully to find the variety of edges. I dont know how much time you spend on one study but you maybe could spend more. I think its very important to take much time to do these so that you can try as hard as you can to capture the subject. I started to do serious painting and value studys just some days ago (A huge mistake to start so late!) and so im still very slow. I spend up to 8/9 houres on one for example. Of course this is just my personal time and it varies for everybody. About your Dante Pice. You should think about focus and Dynamic poses. The Pose you painted him in is pretty stiff and boring. Put more energy in his pose and may give it some context. what is he doing in the cave right now? Is he facing some Demons? Is he marching on? sth like that. Furthermore every area of his armor has the same amount of detail. Our eyes dont work like that. The area that we focus with our eyes is the most detailed one. beyond that focus everything becomes way more blured. This is really important to achive a more realistic look in your illustrations. Think about making basic shape studys to learn to understand the 3D shape of the Body for example. The more complex anatomy like musculature shouldnt have your main attention. I didnt go through your whole SB so if you do them than ignore the last sentence. Keep pumping out this studys and you ll keep making progress. Thx for the DA watch! If you still do (cos I read it in your first SB page) quite playing computergames Keep it up man!

[Valyavande]

Nice variety of studies around here! I like the mixture.
Maybe, if you do coloured studies of screenshots and photos, think more about what you see and paint. Try to get a feeling how the colours and light work together and influence each other. Because that is something your personal work lacks. Your characters don't blend into the backgrounds. Many of the shadows tend to look muddy. That's not too nice. Shadows are much more than just darker versions of your hues, with more black or grey. Maybe these tutorials can help you, to develop a better understanding:
http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm
http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm
and of course, "color and light - a guide for the realist painter" by James Gurney.

Besides that, I think you're on a good way! Keep it up!

[MrFrenik]

I like the studies and think you should throw some perspective/construction studies into the mix as well. Those alone will help your drawings more than anything.

[Hearthling]

WOWOWOW the amount of figure drawings you did is amazing! GOOD JOB! I think just keep practicing the stuff you're bad at, dude, and I'm sure you'll be great in no time.

[DennisH-Art]

WOW! Thank you guys so much! It was amazing to see all theese amazing crits! I swear to the gods that I will do everything in my power to apply every single crit to my art!

LeaderOfZombies: Thanks! I will focus on figure studies and better "action" or what to say this week. I know I need to work on this!

Matelo: Thanks a bunch dude! Your stuff is awesome! I am focusing a lot on studies atm, and especially on applying theese studies to my work. The edges are a huge problem of mine. I did a photostudy today where I tried to focus a bit on the edges, but dunno if i succeded .

Also, thanks for the crit on the Dante pic. Part of the purpose with that one was to learn to render diffirent materials (Such as metal, skin etc) better. Im gonna try to do the other method next time where i try to lead the viewers eye. Thanks again for the awesome crits!

Valyavande: Thanks for the AWESOME tutorials! I will really read them through carefully and try to apply as much as possible to my work. It's amazing what light can do for ones painting!

MrFrenik: Thanks man! Perspective studies and construction studies are in the works! Maybe in a couple of days!

Hearthling: Thanks a bunch dude! Keep on rocking!

Stauf: Face studies and a whole bunch from imagionation whitout refs!

[DennisH-Art]

Might as well update. I tried to get more action and such into my work this week, soo ... lots of pose studies and similar! Also some very quick color studies as well as some wip personal work.

Gonna try to update again as soon as possible. Soon holidays!

[DennisH-Art]

Here is an update before christmas. Im gonna be whitout a computer for a few days while celebrating christmas. But once I get back, I have 10 days off from school where im gonna work my damn butt off : D

I hope to do daily updates during theese days! Just wish I had a scanner or camera so that I could show my traditional work as well .. Been doing a lot of watercolors and pencils lately ... Anyway, heres some stuff such as studies, imagination stuff and sketches that im working on now and then. Not all is finished obviously.

[DennisH-Art]

Erhemrgard! Ca.org is back online!!

So anyway, time for updates. I was home between the 24th-30th of december celebrating christmas with my family, and holy shit, I really needed it! It was a great week of watching movies, meeting old friends and just relaxing!
I have been stuck for a while, whitout knowing how to improve or push forward. Basically, it felt as if I was banging my head against the wall. But theese few days of rest and relaxed sketching/water color painting has really helped me to get back into this! My batteries are 100% recharged, and my body is ready to tackle the new year! Im gonna push my mind and body to the absolute limit this year in order to improve my artwork!
Each week, I will study a new weak area of my art. This week, this area is enviroments and perspective! I am reading up on a lot of tutorials atm on how to tackle this, and it allready feels like i've learnt a lot! I might actually continue to study this next week as well and try to improve extra much.
Also, im hoping to finish atleast one good painting each week from now on. Wheter it be personal work or something like crimson daggers bloodsport. I hope I can keep this up! 50 something good pieces at the end of 2013 would be real good!

Other then that, not much to say! I got holidays until the 9th, so expect daily updates until then! Any crits are as usual most welcome!
Here is some work. Some of theese studies where done in 10-15 minutes. Dont remember the time for all of them ...

[kevin_]

you have a lot of well done studies! keep up the studies and practices!

[DvrJeroen]

What an insane amount of studies!!
You're doing good with those last enviro's , I think they just miss a wider range of colors.
If you're drawing from reference, try to get the colors as accurate as possible.
I also think your colors are sometimes too saturated or too desaturated, just try to find a balance between them.
Your anatomy is getting pretty solid with all these studies. Keep doing them!
cheers!

[DennisH-Art]

kevin_: I sure will! Atleast until im a super artist!

Jarkuzy: Thanks man. Im spending a lot of time with colors atm, but maybe I could try harder. Gonna see what I can do.

Here is yesterdays update. CA was down again, so I couldnt post it:

[DennisH-Art]

*BONUS CONTENT* I just remembered that I found my old sketchbook from 2011 with a diffirent user. This was me when I was just starting out. Sadly, I quickly abandoned it due to butthurt (nobodies sending me any replies, baaaw!). It doesnt represent my skills today or anything, but it's atleast fun to check my progress:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...-(NSFW-nudity)

[Beartankmaster]

I'm pretty jealous of your painting skills lol. that's a lot of high quality work in a short amount of time. This sketchbook motivates me to work harder thanks

[DennisH-Art]

Dichotomy: Thanks a lot man! Happy to hear that!

Nice, so CA.org is back online! I hope all this shit about virus and malware on the site is all behind us now ... Only time will tell!

I wrote up some of my goals on the Crimson Daggers forum. I was thinking i'd share them here as well:

Ok, so heres where im at ... The years are running away from me, soon I will be to old to make a career in art, and I have been stuck at the old, shitty level for far to long now. 2013 will be the year that either makes it or breaks it for me! Improve or die more or less!

This year, im planning on doing the following things:

1. 1 full illustration EACH week. No excuses!

2. 1 sketchpage made every day! No excuses!

3. Atleast 1 hour of studies every day. More if needed. All studies must be applied to work.

4. Get out of my comfort zone! Try to draw all kinds of things such as vehicles, monsters, animals, epic enviroments etc etc that im not rly good at.

5. Update CA.org, Crimson Daggers and my Facepunch thread every day, starting from now.

6. Fight to get the Daily Deviation on DA atleast once this year.

7. Go back and do ALL the bloodsports. If new ones start this year, I will always take part in them. I will also take part in as many challenges as possible on CA and CGhub.

Buisness-wise, the goal is pretty simple:

* Start earning money with art at some point during the year.

Well, theese are my goals I guess ... Cya in 1 year to see how I succeeded in reaching them... >=[

Im gonna push myself to the absolute limit to keep theese goals. I will probably upload the sketches from one week in one single post on some week day. Easier to scan all at once ...

Anyway, heres some studies and personal work:

Studies:

[DennisH-Art]

Personal work, all from imagination:

[DennisH-Art]

Some stuff from today. Studies and then a speedpaint to apply studies. Cya tomorrow.

[DennisH-Art]

Not so much stuff today ... Been busy with some errands and stuff.

Here's a half-finished study and a half-finished speedpaint. I will continue on both tomorrow when I start on the hair.

[DennisH-Art]

From a crimson daggers class. Personal stuff tomorrow y'all.

Sorry for missing the update yesterday, had a guest that I tried (and failed) to entertain ... :/

[DennisH-Art]

Stuff from today after school. Two studies and refless speedie.

[johnny24]

wow! amazing work!! love you portraits man!!

[DennisH-Art]

johnny24: Thanks a lot man! =,D

Here's some recent stuff. Didn't feel like doing daily updates for a while, so I just gathered all the stuff in a big pile ...

Studies: