Alekina's Sketchbook

[Alekina]

It's me, 20 and starting the journey of the concept artist, critiques and help welcomed.

Figured I should start one of these to keep track of my improvement and start being serious about art.

Anyway, quick studies that I've been doing this week, finally getting into environments (one of my biggest fears) and I find it more than enjoyable.

I'll do better next time.

[PScissors]

colors you used fit well together and i also like your portrait
post more

[Alekina]

Thanks PScissors!

Sketch of the day, I had a really cool dream about a boy that was a blackhole and I wanted to do something about it. But I don't really like it, so I'll have to do more sketches till I find the right one. Suggestions welcomed!

I'll go do some photo studies now...

[Kapil]

Nice start. Im diggin those landscape studies. I don't know if you're going to take that last blackhole piece farther, but it would sure look cool. One suggestion would be to use warmer colors in that piece, it'll complement your purple and blue shadows.

[Alekina]

(Thanks for the rec Kapil, I'll keep it in mind If I decide to do it again)

Light play study before going to sleep. A bit shitty because I’m tired as fuck, I can’t barely keep my eyes open, this week has been tough what with my 12 till 12 shifts. Hopefully I'll quit life and become a mime or whatever

[Psychobuddy]

Awesome stuff, I love your colours. They are so accurate, keep up the good work! ^_^

[Alekina]

(Thanks Psychobuddy, color may be the strongest feature on everything I do)

It’s amazing what proper sleep can do for your art, my eye was capturing more stuff today. I should try it more often.

This was supposed to be just a quick light study, but I got exited with the rendering. Ups.

Technique: Literally blurring tools and texturized/hard brushes, over and over, no pen pressure but playing with the opacity of the layers.

Enjoy the ugly steps

[PScissors]

woow you're using colors very well and i love the last one.

[RaWIII]

wow, these are great!

[Alekina]

Got to play with ArtRage , to try and see for myself how realistic the oil-paint was. What a fine program this is, intuitive, messy, unpredictable, quick. I think I’ve fallen in love, it feels like it’s working with me at my level, surprising me with it’s personalty and flavor, instead of being passive like photoshop where you have to tell him exactly what to do an how to react.

I recommend everyone to try and mess around, Its an expressive, realistic and overall a really FUN platform. In fact I think that as I get more familiarized with it I’ll start doing my roughs and speeds on it and leave photoshop for the final stages of painting.

[Alekina]

should I finish it or seek better ideas? its kind of meh but I don't know why...

[ceddo]

Your studies with color and light are so striking, this all looks very promising. Thank you for the Artrage recommendation, the piece does show that you had a lot of fun with the process! I will have to try it out

The last piece looks great. The composition and colors work very well, and it does the job it was intended to do. If you wanted to fiddle more with it, I would suggest experimenting with texture around the focal point (is he scaly?) and overall rendering on the character. Might be worth trying out, but it's not necessary.

Keep working hard, best of luck!

.c

[yogeshj25]

lovely studies! i like you choice of color. keep it up!

[Pundt]

I really like your use of color. I would like to see that last one flushed out a bit more, but that's just because I'm a render addict. Keep going!

[Alekina]

Thanks for your comments guys, you're far too kind! I have way to much fun with color, glad that is coming across

The composition is really bothering me, I could hear my brain screaming "what about the background you lazy ass!" "I want to see the hand, give me more information!" so um, I manage to make some changes. Still looks boring as hell so any suggestion welcomed!

[Alekina]

Have an early sketch of a concept. Critique welcomed!

[Alekina]

(It's been a while since I've done something worth posting)

Study of a Sphinx or -most beautiful cat in the history of cats- if you ask me

Elegant lines and eccentric features make this a fantastic subject to paint

[Gpozzo]

Nice sketchbook, i really like this one: http://bit.ly/SpxULa and that Artrage experimentation as well, the sphinx studie is very nice as well, keep at it, i'll keep an eye

[kevin_]

you have some very nice studies! and i like the couple of sketches! keep at it!

[Alekina]

I forgot to post this photo study from the movie Carriers. No matter how much people seem to dislike this movie, slow-drama with apocalyptic setting: immediate fave for me.

[Alekina]

So today I just wanted to do fun stuff for my own amusement, I try not to indulge in fanart too much but well...

[Alekina]

Quick beforebed study that morphed into some trippy stuff

[Alekina]

[Alekina]

trying some interesting angles with the female form

[Hayden_Zammit]

Like the digital portraits.

[Guan]

like your 1st of the screen shot, the movie of "Hero"... you watch that movie also?

[Alekina]

Thanks Hayden!
Guan: yes! hero is one of my all time faves (the photography!)

so, a small pencil portrait (sorry the quality is not the best)



and digital studies (I got too exited with the first one apparently and it no longer resembles the original)



I need to work more

[Setherial]

awesome stuff. I like the figur sketches a lot, very loose and dynamic.

[Alekina]

Thanks Setherial

Ok digital sketches:



trying to sketch with my nintendo 3ds:



and a self portrait that was a huge masturbation exercise:



yes, apparently I am a conceited bastard (minus the awesome red eyes/scars/tattoos)

[vlad74]

Really good work. Colourful and expressive...