Sketchbook of a Late Bloomer

**B_h_bloomer** · February 26th, 2012, 11:05 AM

Hello CA community! I am a 26 year old colorblind American male who has long been a lurker on these boards, and the progress and talent on display here have motivated me to start my own (pitifully poor) sketchbook.

While I've doodled all my life, I have never taken a formal art class, and never really taken developing my talent seriously. I realize at 26 years of age that I'm significantly behind the curve, but hopefully I will someday become living proof that it's never too late to become an artist!

My goal, like many people on these boards, is to one day work in the games and/or film industry as a concept artist or designer.

1. Playing around with brushes in Photoshop
2. Jaguar shaman guy I did in Alchemy (I love that program)
3. My first attempt at using Sculptris
4. Quick basic paint of the sculpt.
5. WIP orc type guy
6. WIP mech suit thingy

PLEASE CRITIQUE!!!

**B_h_bloomer** · February 27th, 2012, 05:33 PM

Tried out some 1 minute gesture drawings... and came to the conclusion that I kind of don't know what I'm doing. Must do more of these...

**luferndes** · February 27th, 2012, 07:28 PM

Good stuff, I'd love to see that robot thing finished, it's looking pretty hot, that first one is amazing too.

Also, I like your gestures more than mine, I don't even want to upload them lol

**B_h_bloomer** · February 27th, 2012, 07:36 PM

@ luferndes - Thanks! Here's a little progress on the mech.

**BickeringDog** · February 27th, 2012, 07:39 PM

Cool stuff! I quite like the first one and the robot gorilla myself!

**B_h_bloomer** · February 28th, 2012, 03:13 AM

Late night Alchemy session. I tried to preserve as much movement within the figure as possible. I guess it came out okay. The right arm looks a bit wonky to me.

**yogeshj25** · February 28th, 2012, 03:16 AM

great work here! you have a nice grasp on design! you should do some anatomy studies if u havent considered it. keep it up!

**B_h_bloomer** · March 6th, 2012, 11:58 PM

So my free trial of Photoshop expired, and rather than dropping the money to purchase the full program, I decided to give GIMP a try. Here's my first efforts, a WIP.

**faetea** · March 7th, 2012, 12:09 AM

I really love the shaman.

**B_h_bloomer** · March 7th, 2012, 06:06 PM

Small progress... it's difficult to "feel" the forms of the rock, and know where the shadows will fall.

**ArulaSky** · March 7th, 2012, 06:49 PM

I really like the first stage of your green/cave scene. I cant say too much though because I'm rubbish at drawing them but its looking good!

Also the figure drawings are coming on nicely, I like how fluid they are. You really get a sense of movement when looking at them.

**blazingdimensions** · March 7th, 2012, 07:19 PM

I agree with ArulaSky, everything feels more fluid and alive, the feeling of movement in them which is pretty cool, i like the use of light coming from the entrance and hard edges in that last piece, awesome mechs btw need to start doing those myself. btw ur not the latest of bloomers- cryptcrawler was about 35 or something before he started getting serious with art, and 26 is still pretty young- just my 2 cents.

**Cyberman** · March 7th, 2012, 10:54 PM

nice start, post six is Hawt. Cheers!

**B_h_bloomer** · March 7th, 2012, 11:15 PM

I'm calling this one done. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out, although I wish it was less "fuzzy". Ah, well... on to something else

**Aaron_** · March 8th, 2012, 10:18 AM

Nice sketchbook you have here, I love the Alchemy fighter picture, lots of energy in it. The right arm looks weird because you flex the hand way too much. Do that yourself and you'll see it's quite uncomfortable, and generally only double-jointed people like me can even twist that far >___>. Rotate it 180 degrees and it'll be perfect.

I love the composition in the cave/shaman picture, but the color could be better I think. Why is it green? Is it the light source(in which case, things should be greener in light and reddish/purplish in shadows, and things should turn greener the further away they are)? Or is it the local color of the rocks(it looks like they're brown right now)? Or it could totally be another light source from within the cavern. It looks like the rocks are transitioning from bright yellow to brown to green and then to neutral dark, and it doesn't completely make sense in terms of color theory.

But anyway, unless you intend the colors to be decorative(like let's say, Picasso or Rothko), it's better to explain why the colors are the way they are.

Here are some references I found.

http://www.turbophoto.com/Free-Stock...ions%20(2).jpg

**greyskill** · March 8th, 2012, 11:32 AM

Cool start!

Are you actually color blind? Because your color choices are pretty good!

I really like the way you layed out the depth of the cave in your initial stage.
It came out pretty well in the end too.
If you want to get things to be less fuzzy, use a hard brush for most of your painting,
and only really use a soft brush for the blending and for soft transitions.

It really takes some time to get the hang of hard and soft, I'm still working on it too!

Oh, the robot is nice too!

Hey, keep up the good work and keep updating!

**Ravendell** · March 8th, 2012, 12:04 PM

Its great how you have variety in your work, taking things in a wide perspective is surely a challenge and you seem to be kicking his ass. I'll check out the alchemy though looks very interesting. Also when doing figures its important to take your time, one minute studies in my opinion are best for rhythm and form. Liking the cave painting alot, the greens definitely set the mood. But, be very careful when using the airbrush it easily ruins solid forms and structure. Don't get caught in its illusion of aesthetics.

Keep it up!

**Prototypt'** · March 8th, 2012, 01:00 PM

Like Ravendell said, great variety!! I try very much different styles too, but I'm not even close to your level

I really like the first picture and the alchemy figure. Also the cave you made with GIMP - was nice to see how it progressed.
I personally dislike GIMP, but that's probably cause I'm spoiled and used to Photoshop. However if people can use it I don't see any problems with that

I subscribed for the variety! I'd like to see many different ways of art to get an idea of what exactly fits the most to myself. Thanks for your posts

**mrsaforcer** · March 8th, 2012, 01:06 PM

Good colours and composition on that last one, I just wish it had a little more clarity to give it that sense of being rocky and solid, y'know? I feel like it needs more hard edged strokes to contrast the soft edged strokes... ahh, but I guess someone has already said that. Right now it's coming off as a little blurry. Also, it seems a little odd to me to have some of those more saturated greens in the shadows of the cave. I'd imagine the colours would be getting more saturated towards that light source and more grey and muddy towards the shadows.

**benny nihil** · March 8th, 2012, 10:14 PM

Nice stuff!

I dig your linework and vectors. The fighter looks really dynamic indeed. And yeah, the right hand could've been a little bit raised/bent at the elbow to give it even more punch. But it looks real good anyway.

If you want to avoid fuzziness in your colors/landscapes, maybe you could try blocking out some major foreground shapes with a polygonal lasso, fill the selection and then add a bit of soft light, but not enough to blur the edges.

**B_h_bloomer** · March 14th, 2012, 05:02 PM

Thanks for all the advice on using the hard brush and lasso tool. I'll have to give that a try on my next enviro. In the meantime, here's a WIP for a tattoo design. It's going to be a mother walking with her little boy.

**alisn** · March 16th, 2012, 02:41 AM

hi , good stuff , your sketchbook is really nice and varied

**Elkishly** · March 16th, 2012, 02:48 AM

you are starting out really nicely~ i dont see 26 as very old though lol.
I am really liking your black n white line works. cant wait to see more. c:
btw, keep working from photos and references!

**Trixtar** · March 16th, 2012, 06:30 AM

You are colorblind as in green/red colorblind!?

It sure as hell doesn't stop you from creating great stuff, the first one is so beautiful!
And your sculpture is really cool, so is the cave painting

Eh, and I'm 30, starting being serious about art 8 months ago when I was 29 so just imagine where you'll be at my age if you keep it up this great

**B_h_bloomer** · March 20th, 2012, 07:32 PM

Quick zombie speedpaint.

**B_h_bloomer** · March 28th, 2012, 11:38 AM

thanks for the responses, everyone. my life has been kinda hectic lately and I'm finding it hard to find time to draw. Anyways, here's a new preliminary sketch for the tattoo. Ended up scrapping the original design. This one is probably going to go through some changes before I'm happy with it.

**B_h_bloomer** · May 20th, 2012, 11:15 PM

Haven't really done any drawing/painting in a while, but I did whip this out in pencil during a slow day at work. Might paint it later.

**Aaron_** · May 21st, 2012, 03:58 PM

Recent drawings are very nice. Great dynamics and linework!

**AllyAlbon** · May 21st, 2012, 04:09 PM

Looking good! Great start, especially your first environment.

And you are never too old. That's the great thing about art - you can only get better with time, and there is no limit!

**Duplicitious** · May 21st, 2012, 04:43 PM

the design for the face (?) on your first post looks great and so does the scenary/type thing the colors look great to me!

definitely as you could probably already tell from your gesture drawings, try to get some more studies done with anatomy, learning some of the basics will help you a lot when it comes to gestures as you really need to understand the proportions/balancing of weight before it can be rendered quickly

all the best!