Operation "Sketchbook"

[krysjez]

I love what you're doing with the face studies - and the scribbles ^ have such a nice feel to them. will be subscribing.

[kabewu]

krysjez: Thanks, I'm happy you like them



For starters:
(surprise, surprise..)
female faces!
Well, i couldn't keep my focus. their eyes kept swimming around their faces and i gave up on those for today =__= Even though i dislike the result a lot. But i don't have it in me to finish them up....



Then i moved to the lovecastle.org's athletes. (Again, it was difficult to stay concentrated)

Quickies from screenshots were rather fun. Maybe because by then i couldn't care less about the results XD



I think i need a break...

[kabewu]

(Turns out i don't need a break, only some cold medicine XD )

So..

Practice scribbles from references.


And some rather terrible attempt at painting from imagination.
(i need a refresher course on hands.. )

[Greenhouse]

Good work with the doodling! Thanks for writing the ‘athletes web page’, I was just about to ask where to find that study.
I hope that the medicine will get rid of the cold! One apple a day…..... you know!

[kabewu]

Greenhouse: Thank you ^^ And those athletes are fun to draw, mostly because they have socks (it reads so weird when written haha). I always get baffled by the diagrams of legs- how the muscles and bones twist changing directions in unexpected ways. So i find socks' and shorts' outlines helpful in understanding what actually happens. And medicine has indeed caught the cold while it seemed to be on a verge of becoming something nasty, so i got away with headache and a bit of a runny nose ^^



Some practice:



And some stuff for a webpage, that i promised to a friend.
Every time I try working on those i feel that my skill level is absolutely inadequate
I have been at it, on and off, for about a month now.
I finished up the first one up in hopes that maybe it's just the messiness that makes it look so bad, but at this point i have no clue what's what anymore. (feels like i have worked myself into a corner with worrying..)

Should i add stuff? move stuff? add colors? (for now the first one is a shameless teal and orange DX )
Any input on those would be highly appreciated!

[kabewu]

a color study. 2h+
from a reference.
I went overboard with contrast somewhat..

[Greenhouse]

I think you got the perspective right here. The contrast is as you self said too much, but it doesn’t matter as long as you got the shadows and shading right. Many times it can be a nice effect to go overboard with the colors and contrast. I like how you get your images so good and realistic with so few pen strokes…hmm, it must have something to do with those magic brushes!

About the update before I cannot help much. But I see you’re working in the blue-green-ish color palette and it makes the three of them cohesive and fit together. If you want you can add some warm skin tone to the face in the first image (the guy who’s looking out) He’s face looks a little flat, I don’t know. Maybe the nose is too small.
In the two last images I get an adventurous feeling, the light and color are also great. But in the first one I don’t get the same feeling. The landscape the man is looking upon doesn’t give me any exciting feeling. Maybe with some cool horizon or some little hint of excitement outside would bring the feeling of “I really want to take off from this landing strip”.
Anyhow I think you have done a great work with all of the images. The details with the equipment, in the first are very creative and cool.
One little thing I was wondering about is in the second image. The girl in the back is doing something, holding a map? Pointing with the hand? Or holding a goat? I know I’m silly, but when I saw the goat I couldn’t get it out of my mind! Haha!

Keep it up, I love your work!

[kabewu]

Greenhouse: THANKS!! That's an amazing advice!! I came back from a weekend worried about that pic, but once i read your crit it gave me a jolt of energy and i was like: "Of course!" I decided to make a short warm-up study and proceed with puting your advice to work.. but stuff happened and i got distracted and kept making studies instead =__=;
as for the girl holding what was intended to be a map- what has been seen, can't be unseen- i looked at it searching for a goat and now what i see instead of a map a little lamb XD
And once again: thanks for the comment! i'm gonna use it to its fullest very soon!


In today's menu we have a fruit flavored skull, straight from catacombs underneath Paris


and because the last one might have not looked anatomically correct, here are two more:
(with a lemon, although now i'm thinking it might have not been a lemon in the photo...)


Then i wanted to make a short study of rocks.
As you can guess i got a tiny little bit obsessed with how badly they kept turning out...




..so i temporarily gave up on the rocks, found a photo of an old Scottish bridge and worked with it, till it actually resembled something man-made:


then a wild doodling-from-imagination session appeared!
(It was supposed to take 40 minutes or so, but it used "loose track of time" attack and it was super effective!)

i rather like how it turned out

Anyways, it seems making photo referenced studies became my new drug of choice, so i'm not gonna make any for the next two weeks and try to use that time to come up with something imaginative! (and check if i maybe have learnt something)
(hopefully it will work out well.. )

[kabewu]

Hell yeah!
Finally!
It's sort of finished!


15 hours went into it and i probably learnt a lot.
here's a bigger version without text:



here's the end resolution with the caption:

haha, funny thing, now when it got better (many thanks again, Greenhouse!) i actually itch to change some things, but i guess i should finish up the other two and see how the set works together.



oh, and here are the doodles from yesterday. Wanted to illustrate the first scene from the book i'm currently reading.
since i tend to go ahead with the first idea that comes to my mind, i tried to make several versions this time. well, i managed only two, but what a difference there is between 1st and 2nd try! The guy's face and (his left) hand need a complete repaint, but other than that , i really like it. So i'm calling it a WIP and i'm going to finish it soon (i'm pretty lousy at finishing stuff, i need to work on that too). Hopefully you guys like it as well

[Ian Barker]

great sketchbook! very inspiring to see all these studies one thing i think you can work on is using references to inform your pieces that came from imagination, since i see a gap between the studies and the imagination drawings. also try mixing in some color variation to the environments so that they don't look washed out. be careful about using too much black/white for shadow/light. keep up the good work, you are doing great

[Psychobuddy]

Whew! Really awesome work. I don't have any real advice or crits or anything, just keep it up!

[AdamDilley]

Really nice work. I particularly like the style of the stuff you made for a website.

[Greenhouse]

You’re welcome, anytime! Yeah, great work! You’re productive even if you don’t think that yourself I also often start out hard thinking I’m going to work on something specific. But I find myself ending up with some other doodling. A mix between fun and serious is necessary I think. Otherwise I’ll get bored and just get stressed during the drawing studies.

Great work with the webpage image! I like the new interesting elements you put to the enviro! Yeah, it feels like portals or some kind of electrical fields ready to be explored! Nice work with the rendering of his face! Your friend must be happy for the work you’ve done! Let me know when everything is finished, I would love to see the result.

Now , about the #38. Those skulls are Awesome! The one with the green tone is my favorite. Love how you work with the light and the lime (I think it is, sorry if it’s not a lime. You know how my mind sometimes twists everything ^^) is just great! I think that this image would be great on a canvas. You should do more of this kind of still work and also from life.
Nice job with the envios! You’re giving me a lot of inspiration again, thanks!
I look forward to the imagination studies, keep up the good work!

OMG, this is so funny! I wasn’t reading the text above the “lemon-skulls”, therefore I wrote the silly thought I had. Now I see you had the same thought and what’s even funnier is that I just (for some strange reason) saw a photo from Paris catacombs. And I just, whaaat! That is not a lemon! Haha, this is hilarious I must say! The photo I saw was shot from another angle, but I think it’s the same skulls as in your drawing. From this angle the skull to the left has a scar like Harry Potter, and I am thinking of if it’s actually Voldemort laying there! Yeah, those “lemon skulls” made my morning!

[kevin_]

studies and sketches looking amazing! really like your brushstrokes!

[kabewu]

Ian Barker: I'm glad you like it =D As for using references- that's a good point, i should definitely develop a method for that. however, what i'm aiming for atm is a skillset applicable to a narrative art (preferably a graphic novel, illustrations and storyboards would be cool too), so i'm seeking to build a mental library that would let me proceed with ease with 80 or 90% of the most common/useful graphic "phrases". But indeed that would still require for the rest to be (creatively) referenced, so i'll try to add it to my practice too! And thanks for tips on the environments- i will pay attention to that!

Psychobuddy:Thanks! I'll do my best!


AdamDilley: I'm really happy to hear that- i was worried that those pics for web are too focused on objects instead of a whole, so i'm glad to hear that that style is likeable. Thank you

Greenhouse:

You’re welcome, anytime!

You know, i might take you up on that offer XD You should be proud for not letting that pic stumble into the Void Of Eternal Suckiness ^^
And haha the "lemon skulls" are my favorite too! With easily determinable light source, consistent materials and only few object they were a blast to make! ah..simple stuff is the best And there has to be something otherworldly about them, seeing as everybody seems to be compelled to take a photo of them XD (when i was searching for reference pics i kept stumbling onto those two, shot from different angles)

kevin_: Happy to hear that! Thanks for looking


Ok, for starters: a small update on the stuff for the webpage. Needed to rework characters, so they'd fit a more fantasy-oriented setting:

something weird happened to the mage guy's head on the way =__o


I also prodded at an old comic idea of mine. I always considered it a story with three, maybe four main characters, but once i started drawing, i realized there is quite a number of characters that have their own subplots and backstories 0_0 (and i still left out some of the bad guys..). I stopped myself after the basic silhouettes stage, otherwise i would be working on this for a week at least...


Than i made two experiments (tried painting everything with a brush set too extremely low opacity) (gave each of them 2h) , but they turned out pretty horrible...
I was thinking about letting them out, but it caused me to doubt the quality of everything else from this batch.. and i know how it would go from there- once i allow myself chicken out, i would than let this sketchbook waste away and die. So here:

Have some very small uglies:


0_______________________0

After this i just wanted to have some fun with a concept art illustration:

(if it's fun, who needs anatomy, perspective and haha laws of physics )

[erdbeerfeldheld]

Awesome sketchbook, very inspiring! Those banners for the RPG turned out great.

[Greenhouse]

I totally agree, “Who needs anatomy, perspective and laws of physics”. That image shows you’ve enjoying yourself. It’s good to loosen up sometimes. I can see your having a comic style as well.
As for the web page image, let me know if you want any advice or second pair of eyes. I could easily say my opinion but I don’t want to gag and troll in here, unless you want it.
Keep posting more cool stuff!

[Kinhe]

Gosh your works are really inspiring! And I really like the small comics that you make!

[kabewu]

erdbeerfeldheld: Thank you Although i still need to finish up those banners- i hope i won't destroy their appeal in the process ^^

Greenhouse: it's indeed good to loosen up sometimes.. "sometimes" being the key word At least for now. Someday in the future, i hope i'm gonna see stuff like anatomy and perspective less in terms of "obstacle" and more as "tools" can't wait!

Kinhe: Thank you! I'm gonna work on putting them together into one story, so please check it out once it's done


The last few days i was busy with painting pictures of..uh.. lawn mowers and hmm.. i guess those others might be snowplows? anyway, a job is a job, i can make them look nice without knowing what they are...

However i managed to work on a comic a bit. No way, i will be able to have three complete pages before POW's deadline is up(also, i might have sorta swerved away from the challenge's topic..ah well..) Still, i'm gonna finish it!
Most pages are in early sketch phase- with misshapen panel and squiggly lines, that don't look like anything in particular just yet. One page is nearly finished- probably cause half of the panels are quick screenshots studies.. but hey! they are part of the story


I was also checking out Krita. Playing with new software is always fun ^^
But i dislike (=suck at) working with all the smudgy wet stuffs (watercolor, oils, painter) in general, so the only presentable thing is a weird-ass doodle


Also, the "impossible wall" and insubstantial background from last post's last picture were gnawing on me somewhat badly. So i resigned myself to include determining-the-perspective stage in the working process.. I have basic grasp of the rules, but the technical aspect of setting up the vanishing points and guide lines and grids always seemed like such a bother
Fortunately, i remembered that Opencanvas was supposed to have some perspective rulers in last upgrade.
Aaand..They work!

[lionheartGFX]

great figures great screenshots great everything man, very inspiring hard work those portraits you did are really great i want to draw now! hahaha

keep posting im suscribed baby!

[kabewu]

lionheartGFX: thanks, i really appreciate your words ^^ they actually make me wanna draw more now haha XD



i couldn't keep it up with two weeks of no screenshots/100%referenced studies

[kabewu]

some practice faces from refs




I finally feel that the practice is paying off
It may not be that obvious in the pics, but when i draw i'm no longer utterly confused, as to where each feature goes. It feels much more natural now. It feels as if i gained first foothold in a long battle


i noticed the progress when i worked on those and out of sudden they turned out... satisfactory. (I know they still suck, but now it is easier to get them to that level than ever before)


..hands stopped me in my tracks though.. gotta practice drawing hands now..

[ja1307]

Wow wow great work, some of your digi paintings are great the colors your using and your values are spot on, you painting in photoshop? Be good if you can keep your painterly approach whilst refining your skills it looks shit hot. Don't be so down on yourself about your imaginative stuff its looking pretty strong some good ideas and story telling which will get you you far, keep working its all looking pretty sweet at the mo.

[kabewu]

ja1307: wow, thanks, that is one uplifting coment! I'll probably stick with painterly approach (as far as painting in patches of broken colors and differentiating of the edges goes), because i like it better than slickness anyway And i'm using Gimp - it's free and has capabilities similar to photoshop (and since 2.8 it has become much more user friendly).


some hands. they aren't even half as fun as faces... I used references from here, because trying to use my own hand as model proved to be far too annoying and distracting.


And some landscape photo studies. I have nearly no experience with landscapes and i still don't really know what i'm doing haha. But i also feel, that i'm warming up to topic, so with time i might actually have a revelation or something.
Hopefully.

[kabewu]

[kabewu]

more..

[Blue Banks (Rams)]

I'm really digging your environments. And your film studies. And your sketches! Super inspiring stuff dude. Keep it up!

[kabewu]

Blue Banks (Rams): Thanks


Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnd......

I finally did it!

my first 90 seconds gestures! WOOOHOO!!

i started with 20 to 10 minutes studies and worked down from there. Once i got a hang of it it proved to be super fun!
haha, so it is possible to draw something in such a short time after all.. who would have guessed

[Shadow Stalker]

Really cool sketchbook, and excellent studies! Very inspirational. Subscribed.

[Greenhouse]

Holy smoke! Your doodles are taking quick jumps!! Great working spirit in here! The 50 hands look good! Thanks for that very helpful site you showed. I also digged in and tried it out. Wish mine was as good as yours!
Those enviros are awesome! It seems you got the colors right. My favorite is the winter, love it!
#55 haha! Thanks for sharing your thoughts…very accurate!
Those 90 gestures are most inspiring, I have to do that as well! Very good work!