Lane's Sketchbook

[ThomasM]

ok now I need a snickers bar. Great work - my only crit would be that although your use of texture is interesting in finished pieces, for that construction of an enviro like that it can lead to a bit of confusion! anyway just wanted to throw in my two cents - more please!

[obier]

simply wow!

[Rob Powell]

Amazing work Lane! A nice study of Frazetta's work you def did it justice! Gonna be stalking this thread for a while!

[dizzynation]

Lane = Amazing

[Lane.]

This latest illustration has kept me very busy. I had no idea from the start it would require 40ish+ hours. Though mostly that's due to my redrawing elements over and over, never fully satisfied. (Not to mention a corrupted PSD file which erased 8 hours of work >.<)

This was a private commission. I was given a description of a city in a fantasy story. To sum it up: "Aqueos is a port city surrounded and entangled by an overgrowing forest. Though once pristine, it has now become a refuge for pirates, smugglers, and invasive tree growth. "

I first provided the client with 4 rough sketches. The focus of an entire city is very broad, so I needed to find out which perspective the client preferred. I could try to capture the entire city, sacrificing the smaller details, or I could focus more intimately on a street-level view. The later option would leave the full scope of the city to the imagination, but potentially capture more life and energy.

She chose option #3, indicating that the building could become an inn which is prominent in the story.

I struggled with this one, but I suppose that's a sign of learning and, hopefully, improving.

Fun fact: For this single image, I have 9 progressive (backup) PSD files. adding up to 1.4GB of hard drive space. Time to reduce that..

[wilkerson]

Hey, good studies.
I like this one a lot:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1327788753

[halkure]

I adore the first painting you posted. The gesture gives me Princess Mononoke vibes. (:

Aqueos looks excellent! I just noticed the two cloaked fellows by the inn on my fourth view.. well played. Your palette is really successful too. I rarely see secondary colors working so well together. (It's the green and orange that don't get along in my mind - I think the boats do a great job of creating a transition between those colors here). If anything can be added I think it's a bit of atmospheric perspective. You have a ton of depth set up already through overlaps, value, and lost detail, but the edges of the castle and the mountain texture are pretty similar to the foreground. Apply that blueberry study..!

Damn good work all around. Everybody loves your color but your values are real solid too. And I see you putting a lot of light/warm areas in the middle ground with shadow forms in the foreground of your environments. N C Wyeth did that a lot. Conscious decision?

[n1frit]

Amazing, beautiful art!

[sony]

Really interesting stuff, very nice portfolio too, very diverse, efficient use of colors

[bish0p2004]

One of my favorite sketchbooks here. Thanks for sharing, man.

[tehmeh]

I'm in love with your enviros, they're teaching me so much. Definitely one of my favourite SB's here!

[GEB]

Very cool! I really like your style and values

[MPaar]

Gorgeous work, man! Love the colors. I knew after seeing the first set of images that I wanted to subscribe to this thread. Thanks for posting!

[dirksteele]

I'm a new user who just stumbled into the sketchbook area, and I found your work - incredible! That pirates piece is just fantastic, I love the composition.

[Bakker]

Great range of colors in your pieces. Also impressive grapes.

[Smaragdia]

This landscape you created is amazing! Really great work!!!

[Uche Achonu]

Awesome work, love the fortune cookies.

[PS Zant]

Sketchbook of awesomeness! I'm so in love with your colors and textures.

[shyamshriram]

Beautiful works

[Meps]

Holy crap your work is beautiful. Amazing energy and looseness in your brushstrokes, and the color vibrancy is blowing me away. I'd love any tips you could give on keeping that kind of energy in a painting from start to finish--you make it look easy.

On a separate note, I'm not working in the industry quite yet, so I can't say this with 100% certainty, but with regard to your question about specializing versus not, I think one thing that will help you there is that you have a really nice, clearly-defined style of painting. I'd imagine that will go a long way, if no matter what the subject matter, you very clearly bring your own style to it. Just a thought

Anyway, you have some really inspiring stuff here, and I can't wait for more!

[Velocity Kendall]

i agree, fabulous work!!

[Justyna]

Wow, that last piece is just amazing!

[Lane.]

Sorry for such a late reply, my graphics card died so I figured I would use that as an excuse for a much needed PC upgrade. This has left me somewhat unproductive for a few weeks. So far my new build is much faster and more stable though .

wilkerson- thanks!

halkure-Thanks for such a thorough comment! Yes, I did have Mononoke in the back of my mind while painting that image. They are similar characters. You can read my story for her here: http://lanebrownart.blogspot.com/201...ng-dagger.html

I think you're right about the green color in Aqueos. I probably should have mixed it in to other areas so it doesn't seem so out of place.

I do like to put shadows in the foreground, because I think they help frame the image and create depth. I actually read of N C Wyeth using that technique, maybe that's where I picked it up.

n1frit- thank you!

sony- thanks a lot!

bish0p2004- thanks!!

tehmeh- thanks, that's good to hear!

GEB- Thank you!

MPaar- Thanks a bunch!

dirksteele- Well thanks! and welcome to CA!

Bakker- thanks!

Smaragdia- thank you!

Uche Achonu- thanks!

PS Zant- I feel the love, thanks!

shyamshriram- Why thanks!

Meps- I'm very grateful thank you! As far as advice on looseness, i'm always thinking about my brush economy and getting by with the least amount of detail necessary. A lot of it too, is kind of an illusion. There are a lot of painstaking brush strokes that I clean up to look more clean and precise. Or to put it better: "Looseness describes how a painting looks, not how it was made." - Richard Schmid

Velocity Kendall- thanks!!

Justyna- Thank you!


Okay, now for something new:

The Blind Follower

The blind follower suffers the fate of their master. Be wary, lest you confuse a jester for a king.

Link to a higher res on my blog

[limsh]

Great paintings!

[faetea]

I love these paintings. The first has excellent motion.

[mehran]

Love the colors man..

[Vielmond]

When I think I'm getting used to your work you come up with something like this... Good job on her expression, it's intense without being exaggerated!

[Waikien]

Your latest work is great!

[Falchion]

I'm finding your painting style highly inspirational. Any chance of seeing some more sketches from you? They seem to translate very well to digital.

[GEB]

Oh man I love that last one! I just want to be able to save her! What a beauty!