Chevy's sketches.

[chevy28360]

Some wip of the chow this week.

[kjylee]

Really bold colors; I love seeing the different stages in your artwork!

[LtPlissken]

You can boost the contrast and the scan quality of your pencils a bit
with Photoshop. Brightness +3; Contrast +11
Then set a multiply layer of the same drawing, and set
it around 20 or 30 percent.

I was observing this green guy for the chow, and I realized,
colorpicked some parts, and saw that you are using too much
100 percent blacks on the painting. That is not good, cause using
100 percent black is never good, 100 percent black and 100 percent
white does not exist in real life, so it makes the piece less believable.
100 percent black makes the painting to look more flat. When you
mix oil colors with black, it makes the painting look muddy and
dirty. I was observing experienced concept artist paintings, and I
realized that they rarely, and I mean really rarely use hundred percent
blacks. For the darkest parts of their painting they use 90 percent,
or even 80 percent black only. Hope it makes sense and helps you
a bit with your further evolution. Take care and keep rockin.

[ja1307]

Hey buddy thanks for stopping by my sketchbook. You are working hard I can see. Like the master copies from comics ect. You will def learn a lot things this way about different visual styles ect. You have a great control with your pencil. I can see with this latest WIP that you have def been learning from all those copies. Maybe his costume looks a bit restrictive. the shoulder plates look a bit too far jammed up agains his neck, thinking this would restrict movement. Never forget functionality when design. I think that is a major thing that separates the great designers, they always have functionality at the forefront of their mind as opposed to just look. I think you can get away with it a bit more in single illustrations so really depends what you are after. Maybe do some separate armour studies. Think samurai armour would relate quite well to your latest WIP. Anyway nice stuff its good to see the hard work I can tell you are going to be improving at lightning speed. keep it up buddy.

[chevy28360]

@kjylee - I really like the posts in other peoples sketchbooks where they show the wip stuff, so I figured I would follow suit. Thanks for stopping by!

@ltpliskken - You are completely right about the goblin chow. My mother is an artist that deals with mostly oils and watercolor, and she has told me about using pure blacks and whites, but I still find myself going to the pure black without even thinking. Shame on you chev! You know better than that! I when back over it and made sure all the blacks where replaced with a lighter color, and I also toned down the pure whites. I think it looks better now.

@ja1307 - The comic pieces were all from my head, but there is definitely a very strong jim lee influence to my stuff from back then. I always thought I wanted to do comic books. It wasn't until a few years ago I was introduced to the concept art world, and it is definitely a better fit for what I wish I could do! I visit your page whenever you update, and I've seen some definite improvement from you as well! Keep it up!

Here is the final entry for this weeks chow. It's my first attempt at participating with the community activities on this site, and I think it's a great way to try things you wouldn't do normally. I'm definitely game to do more of these. The competition was fierce as well. There are some really great entries this round! If you haven't checked it out, do so.

[jellyswirl]

I really love how you showed the different steps in the drawing since I like how you changed the lighting and added different texture to the drawing.

[chevy28360]

@ jellyswirl - Thanks! The original picture was waaaay too dark. You couldn't really see any of the goblin.


I got the flu this week. So I'm pretty useless! Only scribbles for this update.

Also, I wanted to say thanks to plissken for the advice on using multiply to make the sketches darker.

[chevy28360]

Bleh, still feel like crap. I'm trying to do stuff and not get out of the rhythm, but it is so hard to concentrate on anything. Here's some sort of conan looking guy. Pretty crappy.

[chevy28360]

It's a wolf! Nuff said.

[Dirgeance]

your traditional works are ace, and the digital stuff is catching up nicely! finding those forms is really pushing your dimensionality. Maybe do a few color studies or be more exploratory with it in general, but other than that I'm digging the progress.

P.S. Great shadow shapes!

[chevy28360]

@ dirgeance - Thanks alot dirgeance. Ever since I've gone to doing color, it has proven to be quite a challenge. But in a good way! I took your advice and I think I'm gonna do some studies. Here's one of a pepsi can. Thirsty?

[chevy28360]

Messing around with environment practice.

[chevy28360]

Some updates.

First one is a random space suit thingy.

Second one is a practice sketch for a watercolor piece I want to do in the next week or so.

Third one is a study I did of Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead.

[chevy28360]

Did these two quick thundercats things this weekend. Maybe two hours or so a piece. It was lots of fun, channeling that inner child and drawing something that I would have been drawing in my notebook when I was supposed to be doing multiplication tables way back in the day.

[Elias Leonard]

really cool stuff, I like how i recognize characters from games and series I love
keep it up!

[chevy28360]

Definitely will, and thanks for stopping by!

[chevy28360]

Here's a study of Lumbee River I just finished. It's a sort of famous river for our tribe and there is much history behind it. I'd like to do some more of these.

[chevy28360]

I wanted a coppery colored one to hang in the house.

[chevy28360]

Made my first gifs

[chevy28360]

I've been tightening up the Daryl picture, and I started another photo study of time square. It's from a picture we took last year on our trip to New York. It has a lot of work that still needs to be done. Hopefully I can complete it this weekend, because I have another picture of Baltimore I want to get started on.

[chevy28360]

Finished this time square study.

[chevy28360]

Update on the river picture. I'm finally done with it. I've got to stop posting stuff so early. I end up reposting things like fifty times. Sorry if it makes my pages hard to navigate or boring to look at.

[n1frit]

Cool cityscape! You should made a couple other)

[Flame_Unquenchable]

Dude, looking good over here. I think you're color work has improved drastically in Photoshop. That Darryl picture is rockin. Also, I love those negative space pencil/ink drawings you did earlier in your sketchbook, stuff is kick ass. I don't know what settings you currently use, but it looks like you've managed to get the muddiness out of your paintings. Rock on!

[chevy28360]

Been sick this week and super busy at work, so I haven't had much time or energy for art. I did this quick mess tonight just to have something to post for this week. Hopefully I can get started on another study this weekend if I feel better.

[Cabbage Caterpillar]

Really love this piece. The guy's heads on fire and that is the source of light reflecting on his armor... that's an awesome idea!! Hope to see more... that overexposing quality to your painting looks great!

[HarbingerofIllRepute]

Oh my, it looks like I have stumbled upon a diamond in the rough... Keep it up, I am really liking that cityscape!
And thanks for stopping by!

[chevy28360]

Still been super busy at work. I'm not sick anymore at least. Had a some time to do some really quick thumbs and sketches.

[chevy28360]

Here's some sketches I failed to post from about a week ago.

One is a Skyrim inspired nord character. The other one is pretty random. Although he does look a bit Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-ish. Or maybe Jack the Ripper. Or maybe the monopoly guy before he got his monocle and magnificent mustache.

[chevy28360]

I never really liked the way here legs were positioned, so I revisited this one and I think her pose is a bit more natural now.