Sketch Slow

[raqmo]

Hello people, I'm raqmo. I studied film, animation, and video at art college. I've been working at current video game developer mainly as a character concept artist for more than 5 years...and finally made to an official concept artist position. I never been so good at painting in general...which is a kind of shame for being a professional concept artist. So I decided to start thread here to get feedback from you guys to be better. I assume my weakness is colors and lighting. I'm pretty comfortable in figure drawing, but when it comes to colors and painting I have no clue. Well, I don't know. Let's just start conversations...if you don't mind...

I call this thread Sketch Slow because my concept art mentor suggested to slow down and focus on making "finished" work. I took his advice and started working on slower pace than usual, which is eye opening experience...what a deep world painting is!

[raqmo]

tweaking the dragon after getting feedback. maybe I will have time to fix it foreal.


I need to study color more. Going back to the basics again. I went to art school, but never had a chance to take painting class. Animation major way too crazy and busy...

[Mangix]

Really nice stuff in here! I'm excited to see more. The apples have great form.

[raqmo]

Thanks Mangix! You are the first one commented on my sketchbook! The apples were pretty tasty, actually Fuji (on the right) was surprisingly good this time. FYI

Working on a project I'm doing with my friend. Quick sketches for characters...

[Hunin]

I love the painting of the apples, beautiful colour and sense of form.

As for the character designs, they look a bit squished down, their proportions aren't very attractive, try to aim for 7 1/2 to 8 heads in size and see if it makes a difference.

Strong start, looking forward to seeing more

[CarbonBased]

Thank you for crits!
The feedback on the dragon was spot on. The picture has now proper direction for the viewer. Keep images rolling in.

[raqmo]

Hunin: Thanks, yep, you are right. I tend to over exaggerate forms too much when making thumbnails. I will keep the proportion in mind when I render more detailed study. I'm still trying to figure out the good balance between cartoony and realistic. I'm not going for photo realism for this project, but it's good to keep in mind stylization can't be used as excuse for unsuccessful silhouette.

CarbonBased: Oh hello again! Thanks for stopping by. I hope I will have time to polish the revised dragon. Come back in couple weeks, maybe it's done by then. Sometimes things in my sketchbook are slow... as you can see in the title

[raqmo]

A drawover of photoreference to study facial structure in different gender and race. since I'm asian I tend to render all the characters I draw in asian-ish skull form. It's time to face this and fix this bad habit.

...can you tell which actor's photo I used?

[raqmo]

updated the dragon.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

love your dragon man! you going to push it further?

The only small gripe i have is the focus point, the dragons wing currently is a bit strong and draws the eye away from the figure and dragons head.

sick piece though

[CarbonBased]

^^^^ Agree. Perhaps the dark cloud above the wing is part of the problem as well.
You better post it in the finished section when you are happy with it !

[raqmo]

NyeAlexandaFrayne: yep I'm always open for revisions. that's the cool thing about digital media, there's no expiration date in pigments

CarbonBased: oops right, the corner is too dark. it's hard to fine tune balance at the end...thanks! There's thread for finished work
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=235710
I will update this once I finish this one
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=236088

thanks guys!

[ToddBushman]

Wonderful, love the colors in that piece.

[raqmo]

ToddBushman: thank you! It's encouraging

[raqmo]

started concepting characters and environment more.





the sword installation doesn't look functional to me, but my writer (who practices kung fu himself) says it's possible to fight in this way, so...

[raqmo]

I need to study face more. I had time today so I tried sketching faces around me in sketchbook...I don't have scanner, sorry for the crappy resolution of those photos.

[DNVN]

very cool head studies, i really love the dragon for me it seems like he has a lot of life maybe its the overall illustration that gives him this. keep up the awesome work ~ cheers

[Jaesun-Alin]

Very interesting character designs and concepts.

[CarbonBased]

That is a very interesting concept in post #15. I'm having hard time picturing how exactly the blade would function. She would have to strike with it using her torso to really put force behind it and that is just hard to understand, but at the same time I don't know crap about fighting.. Nevertheless I've never seen an idea like that and it's appealing the way you represented it.

Your work is awesome. I'd like to see some more personal work. You probably don't get much time to do that.

P.S. - I think the dragon pic is at the stage where you just need to decide when to stop. : ) Or you could refine it forever. : D

[raqmo]

Octic: Thanks! Yeah the dragon looks more alive than the first version definitely.

Jaesun-Alin: Glad to know this is at least not so boring I don't get much traffic on this thread so I was starting to get sad.

CarbonBased: Oh hello again! Yeah...the sword...I'm afraid this is one of the points I will have to fight back. Doesn't make sense to me either. I mean, if she is drawing sword straight up, that means her torso is unprotected and open for the moment, right? Comparing to other sword stance like bushido (leaning forward and drawing against enemy, no open spot), this looks too awkward for a master level fighter.

aw, thanks! I guess the dragon is completely personal, but it's more like study for technique. I'm not at the point making complete personal stuff yet I guess...I need to work on sketches more.

About the dragon, my concept art mentor told me to keep pushing. Basically, it's not reaching to the level acceptable as a professional work yet (for his studio). It's fun, I've never done intense details like this before, and I'm starting to get what can change paintings to be more alive from certain point of process. It's fun!

[Jarrad]

it's all so nice! I especially like the way you painted the apples!

[raqmo]

Jarrad: Thank you! It was a fun exercise.

Did some head studies in photoshop today.




I like drawing senior citizens. When I get old I hope I get cool artsy wrinkles like them.

[TFsean]

Hey man nice sketchbook!
You say light but I think your control of lighting is actually pretty good.
The compositions in your illustrations and envs are really nice and your pencil and digi portraits have a lot of movement and character.
Looking forward to seeing character concepts and such develop.
If i had to find something to crit I'd say sometimes you could push your values a little further but more often than not they are good so..

[raqmo]

TFsean: Thanks so much! I try to be as critical as possible when critiquing my own stuff.
...lighting is one of the things I keep pushing further. I'll take a note on values. You are right, often at the end I end up needing to adjust levels. I should be able to finish piece without doing so.

More update about character concepts.
The girl's sword issue is resolved between the writer and I...(maybe)... She wears over-sized coat, and her short blade is sewn inside the sleeve. I should add little stopper around her neck loosely so it's not flying open all the time...

She should be wearing leather protector to prevent cutting herself when drawing the sword.


could be drawing sword like this...

...and another char concept has been going on...


I'm so glad I don't need to do ortho and texture pass on these. It'll be too much work for a side project

[cedule]

those characters are looking cool! i really like the girl in the coat.

looking forward to see more.

[tronrobot]

like this study http://attachments.conceptart.org/fo...6&d=1328568320

great work

[Hunin]

cool character concepts and head studies, I really like the variety of the characters and their differences, really great stuff, post more!!!

[raqmo]

cedule: Oh hi! Thanks for stopping by. She's my favorite too
tronrobot: thank youuu! kind words like this keeps me going!
Hunin: hello! yep, I'm posting more

Update for today...more character stuff. I really want to do some fine art foundation studies, but not enough time...well, yesterday I got to do color pass for storyboard I'm doing for work, so I guess I can call that my color theory training...too bad I can't show it here! (oh NDA!)


revision request from the writer. he needs to be more uh...bling bling...kind of...


a serious hero.


punk former boxer lesbian who's good at cars and things.


char lineup so far.

[CarbonBased]

Did he actually tell you to make him more bling, bling kind of? That slaps me on the knee haha.
Really awesome character designs. I really like how you conceptualized the girl with a sword. It would be awesome to see her in an action scene.
You really know what you are doing, keep us updated.

[raqmo]

CarbonBased: hey thanks! uhhh I think maybe he said that...it's believable he said so...he's such a fun guy to chat with
hopefully I can finalize the drafts I've been working on soon...

Today's update:
Color training, definition of form, light, and depth.
I used reference photo by Marcus Ranum.




I'll be working on the dragon again tonight.