Wretched's Sketches

[Wretched]

Creepy faces. Realizing I need to work on portraiture, facial structure in perspective and expression. So I did this.

These are from imagination. Next I should probably do some from ref or life to see which areas need the most work specifically and where I am most accurate.
Edit: FINALLY turned a page, good hell. I am absolutely astounded by those artists with pages numbering into the 3 digits.

[Wretched]

Figure-ing.

[Wretched]

I had some Frazetta-esque fantasy today about riding a giant leopard across the snowy mountains.... It will happen one day I swear, by the power of Grayskull

Not totally sure about my values here. I wanted to separate the foreground to create some obvious scale, hope that came across. Its rough, but I wanted to try and establish a believable environment in a short time, as an exercise. Really want to work more, generally, on landscape.

[Wretched]

Couldn't resist.

Feline anatomy.. need to get some reference. Though I have to say, being from imagination, he might actually have a decent likeness to a big cat.. a really big cat.

One of the big attractions to digital art for me is its approachability and translatable traditional techniques. Oil is what I want to do and I hope what I explore digitally can one day contribute to that medium. I grew up watching Bob Ross and have always had a love of oils, then when I was a teenager I discovered Frazetta and that just magnified the appeal. Now that art has become a focus, the more I learn, the farther I see I have to go to get there.

[Wretched]

Representational of my relationship with art lately.

[Wretched]

Bridgman. Going through Constructive Anatomy and I really like the method. My digital lines look so lifeless next to his though, I really have to dedicate some time to the pencil. Also, started reading Art & Fear, read half of it in one sitting totally spellbound. That is a potent book.

Of no less seriousness is my intense nerd-love for Fist Of The North Star - as illustrated by my Kenshiro action-figure-study below. I won't apologize........and No, my being a bachelor is simply mere coincidence.

[Wretched]

From imagination. Amazing how just having this Bridgman book in my presence has helped me. btw-This guy is supposed to be wearing a jacket and hes pulling the collar up and has his other hand in a pocket, and thats why his pose is weird. The end.

[Wretched]

Pushing for some ideas, trying to use thumbnails more effectively.

[Wretched]

[Wretched]

People love visual effects, I am one of them. But, I go back and forth between schools of thought in their regard. On the one hand they often come off as "Gimmicky", a veneer of glamorous, sparkly distraction to compensate for other shortcomings. While from a utilitarian perspective, optical phenomena can add immense depth, believability and movement typically experienced in only life, film and photography. Employing the later is difficult. I admire artists who find that balance in their work and can successfully use DOF, Gaussian, motion blur, ect. They have huge potential to strengthen an illustration when used sparingly. I would like to reach that point. Here is the rough product of this evaluation.

[LtPlissken]

The true Bridgman spirit has really started to rose within you,
I like those sketches. And the short route for the gunman on this
last painting, came out not to be so short. He will have a tough night,
especially if he becomes a dinner meat for one of those abominations.
Spicy good things happened lately in your intellectual library.

[Incinerated]

I admire artists who find that balance in their work and can successfully use DOF, Gaussian, motion blur, ect. They have huge potential to strengthen an illustration when used sparingly. I would like to reach that point. Here is the rough product of this evaluation.

well, dont we all? Like all things in art it requires practice, and not being affraid to mess something up. Motion blur has a lining effect, so theres a directional element to it. that last piece of yours would probably only benefit from motion blur in a 90 degree angle, because of the movement of the zombies and all the vertical lines, the easiest way to handle blur effects is with a large soft brush.

I did a quick layer by copy, motion blur about 50px at 90 degrees, then simply erased the stuff i didn't want blurred.



You just have to remember to ask yourself: "does it help the composition?"

[Wretched]

Experimenting with more things... thinking a lot about my old friends and bands and all the music I should be making.

[kamikazel33t]

Man, the way you light you scenes are pretty cool and your ability to remember all those anatomical muscle structures is just remarkable! One of the things which happens as we develop as an artist is the fear of making mistakes becomes stronger so you try and experiment less and that way you would have less mistakes to learn from. I see were thinking of returning to learning to use a pencil and I say you should not fear or hesitate on doing that. Learning to do something your not currently good at is not going to make you any less of an artist instead it is going to strengthen the foundation you stand weak on. Keep up the good work and keep on sketching!

[Christoffer]

Hey, man. Been busy, I see. Loving the new approach on the latest stuff.
Great job that gunslinger and the silhouette on that guitarist is awesome. Metal all the way!

[Wretched]

Christoffer - Yes, art energy! Crazy ideas lately, happy you like the guitar piece. HEY not to be weird, but I really want to talk to you about music sometime. I have this infatuation with Scandinavian metal... You must share your secrets.


kamikazel33t - Agreed, I gotta break away from the tablet more. Need pencil hours. I try to experiment, but at my level just about everything is exploratory. Anyway, thanks for coming by!

_______

Muddy environment sketch.

[maths82]

Post #39 looks great, more stuff like this please ... and the anatomy in 37# is coming great, love the fluid lines

[Wretched]

maths82 - Thanks for coming by! I'll try to do some more like that, I wanted to elaborate on 39 more, just haven't had much time or inspiration. And i'm glad to hear my linework is improving, though it really needs a lot more control and forethought.. Yours is amazing btw, I'd like to get to that level of affinity.

Messin around with stuff, totally out of practice. Need to get back in a groove.

[Wretched]

This is an original Fantasy character of mine. Built from silhouette. Definitely need to use reference for wings and feathers next time, but still very pleased with the image overall.
Need to find a better approach for soft color blending, I always get stuck in the low value range and my transitions end up looking super rough. I just love the evocative, dramatic nature of dark shadowing on the form.

[Wretched]

Piece for someone, elsewhere. Pretty heavy stylization for the sake of design conformity.

[Colour Coded]

I love your imagination! Work on that anatomy though. Keep up the good work!

[Wretched]

Having issues with dark pieces, losing a lot of subtlety in the low value transitions outside photoshop, must be my format, always use .png because I thought it had the best quality for size ratio but maybe I need to try something else. Or paint brighter.

Anyway, something new, another off-site trade for someone. And a sketch.

[lupre]

hey man. some pretty nice stuff going on here. especially post 39, 40 n 43 with those gradually changing backgrounds struck me. and the last one. good shapes.
peace, l.

[Wretched]

Experimenting with design, composition, lighting. Trying to tighten up. If anyone has feedback on the scene setup, I'd be glad to hear it. Not finished, just stalling.

[maths82]

hey man,
yellow robot is a cool start.... he just goes to black waaay too quick : ) I understand the lighting set up, and the drama of the extreme light/shadow, but there's lots of value space in those shadows for subtle fun with hues, reflected light from the ground etc. It will make him a little less flat. I wanna see you level up on this piece !

feel free to tell me to get lost of course : )

[Wretched]

Maths82 -- I consider your feedback high priority, lol, serious man. Always glad to see it. Totally agreed on the values of this robot. Its becoming a re-occuring issue in my work i think, going too quickly to black. I do really try to use that contrast as a dramatic visual element, like you say, but i need to balance it far better. I think some of the issue originates at the design stage where I'm using silhouette. I get so deep in that implied detail mode and looking at forms and then dont spend the time properly visually explaining them.

Some of it is also a poor understanding of Windows Color Management and correctly syncronizing color profiles system wide. My problem is that PS looks dramatically different than Windows Photoviewer (which is the way I view all images by default), the contrast is SUPER dark in windows by compairison. Here is an example of what I mean (which is still about 25% darker than it should be). I've done a software calibration of my brand new 24" Samsung LED and tried to use the same profile for WCM as is used in PS CS5 but there has been no clear improvement. Having this issue with my 2nd monitor (22" HP LCD) as well but being a LCD its even more dark.



Here is my latest work(s)-in-progress. Doing thumbnails and then deciding I like all of them...



Study.



And my Bloodsports 13 final, yep, its a viking riding a rocket-powered Cyber-horse. And there's lasers.

[Christoffer]

Dude! You're leveling up fast. Colors are sharp but I agree with maths, your paintings are way too dark.
Try to stay away from going completely black. Use the levels option to balance your values.

The viking is awesome and so is the canine commando.

PM me if you want suggestions on Swedish metal bands. I assume you're into death and melodic death?

Keep it up, man.