No more excuses

[I.N.K.]

Hey everyone.
I lurked for a long time and told myself that I'll start posting tomorrow, but never did until now. From now on, I want to focus a great deal more on improving and I would appreciate any help and feedback!

I'll start with some recent stuff.
The first was done from life, the others from photo reference.
Please pardon the bad quality, I'm still figuring out how I can get my scanner to work properly.

[TheApprentice]

The colors on that pear make me fucking hungry, but its shape looks off. As for the poses.... i'm novice when it comes to that at best, so looking gewd!

[I.N.K.]

@TheApprentice: Thanks for your comment! You are right, I guess with the pear I was focusing too much on color and forgot everything else.

First one is a quick study I did the other day. The other is a character I want to practise digital painting on in the next days. Probably overdid the rendering on this one.

[Heyriel]

Niiice! I really like the mermaid, something about the flow of the hair and the angle of her head give her a very thoughtful look (maybe even a bit sad).

[I.N.K.]

@Heyriel: Thank you so much! I was aiming for dreamy with the mermaid, good to know I came close.

First 3 are lifedrawings, last one was from photos in preparation for another piece.
Struggled a great deal with the reflection on the spoon. Now the form looks off.
In the second one I added the values (?) later from memory because I forgot to note them down when I was there. They are very likely wrong.
And the third looks especially crappy cause I'm a slowpoke. I redid parts of them so often that in the end even the sleeping guy noticed I was staring at him...

[Psychobuddy]

Hey really great start! That mermaid is awesome. I'm looking forward to more from you.

[I.N.K.]

Played around with photoshop all day and got a lot done.
The mermaid and the outdoor sketch are more or less finished for now. Might redo them when I get the hang of adding textures.
Last one is a creature inspired by todays lunch. Expect more of those, it was fun .

[Raiderukkus]

I like that picture with swing, it has a bit of dephs and atmosphere. Good luck!

[I.N.K.]

Recent stuff. Have been neglecting lifestudies a bit lately...

First three are kinda thumbnailes for something I work on. The three after the colored stuff are quick studies from photos and the last is a current wip. Rest is random blabla.

[I.N.K.]

Can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. At least I only have to feel guilty of not uploading, because I did practise when I could. I'm trying to get into perspective as I have kind of avoided that particular topic forever, and it's actually not that bad...yet. Did a lot more than two, but I'm not gonna bother showing them all, since they are rather boring to look at. Two are enough to remind me that I did them later anyway.
Also I wanted to get more into digital painting, but my pc decides to power off randomly lately, so that's that.

[I.N.K.]

Small update. I think I'm making progress at painting digitally...maybe? If anything, I'm at least getting more used to photoshop. I wish could draw more loosely though. I can't really make my subjects recognizable without adding details....:/

[I.N.K.]

More sloppy drawings, because one can never have too much of them.
The study of the teapot took my several days. It's unbelievable to me how I can be that slow...And the scanner seems to be exposing quite a few flaws already. Oh well.
Also I noticed that I'm really unstructured, especially when it comes to scenery. So for the next time I will think about the steps I need to take before I begin. Maybe that'll help a bit.

[I.N.K.]

Todays stuff. Not much to say really. Still strugging with scenery, especially when straight lines are involed. I can't seem to be precise, even when using a ruler.
Aside from that, I want to focus more on painting for a bit.

[JesseM]

That mermaid in #7 made me say "oh wow" out loud. That's strikingly beautiful. I was surprised to discover you did it in photoshop - leaving in that pencil texture from the scan was a smart, smart move. That's the great flaw with many of your other digital paintings; too much digital texture.

You've got a great variety of studies; the colors on that pear in the first post are beautiful, and I enjoy how you used angular lines in the gesture drawings below it. Your figures' proportions are great.

But digital painting and gestures/movement lag behind your drawing ability. ctrlpaint is a good resource; has a lot of short videos about digital painting. But really, I'd just play with brush settings and multiplying/overlaying/etc textures at the end. You're doing good stuff in those last two paintings you posted. As for the movement thing--just do more gestures! 30sec, 10sec, for 5 minutes a day. Or that's my advice, anyway, for what it's worth. But you're definitely on the right road regardless. :P
Keep at it!

[I.N.K.]

@JesseM: Thanks! You are right about the texture. I looked through a couple videos and tried a few things out with the cup, but I guess I overdid it.

Also I think I do the short gestures every day from now on, since they are very hard to do. I wasn't even aware that I can't draw straight lines without an eraser...
And the cherry was from a painting tutorial that I kinda abandoned halfway to do my own thing. It scanned like crap though. While it is very dark it's not as black as it looks on my monitor.

[Fallenangel]

Great work so far!

keep up doing those studies!

Cheers,
Fallen.

[Xcarbon]

nice work i really like the fruits study
your figure study is quite good
also i love the mermaid on your 3rd post
keep up the good work!!

[I.N.K.]

@ Fallen & Xcarbon: Your kind words are much appreciated!
I forgot to post these two characters. First one is from imagination, what with the exciting, super-creative pose and all...
Second one is from a photo study. I kind of get a bit sick of working from photos...I want to draw people, but that's just hard to do right now.
And the last is a almost finished wip - I guess. I hit the wall with it though. I don't really know what I should do with it. I'm second-guessing myself about the lighting and the composition and stuff.
Guess I just have to come back to it later. Any advice, especially on this one, would be greatly appreciated though!

[I.N.K.]

Small update. I'm feeling very tired the last couple of days and I can't really concentrate on anything for very long. I hope this will pass soon...

[I.N.K.]

I finished the painting from before! I can not remember when I last finished something original. Although I'm not satisfied how it turned out, I learned quite a bit. Especially what I need to work on, which is aside from gestures and expressions also composition. I also want to check out visual storytelling (I think that's how it's called...?) next, because I'm pretty sure no one except me can tell what's going on really.

The second one was a spontaneous thing. I was just in the mood for something creepy and I tried out brushes and masks like a crazy person. When I look at this later I'll probably cringe a lot because I overdid the textures (again).

I'm always happy about critiques!

[I.N.K.]

I visited my parents over the holidays and barely got anything done. I want to apply for a couple apprenticeships, but now I'm waaaay behind my schedule.
I think I can still manage to make it somehow, although it might be close. Actually I'd rather work on something else, but there's no time right now. Dx

Anyway, first is done from a photo I got randomly on artsyposes or somewhere. Second one started as a photostudy, but I changed quite a bit in the end. I think I will use these two for the application.
Last one is just a random doodle.

[syrella]

You've definitely got what I'd call pockets of excellence. The mermaid one is pretty and there are some striking and visually interesting pieces from what you've uploaded. You have an aesthetic to your work that is really nice and it shows a lot of promise! Combined with more technical study, I think you are well on your way...

Good luck applying to the apprenticeships and things! I hope to see more work from you in the future.

[I.N.K.]

The fold study didn't turn out incredibly well. Using colored pencils for the darker cloth wasn't my best idea.
I plan to use the arm from the second one in a piece later, but I think the hand might be too small?
The third was just a doodle and the last are a couple of sketches of me but...well...
They all look completely different and not really like me. I think I need a few more tries.

[I.N.K.]

A few gestures. And then some more, just because I like drawing people.
Somehow scanning and resizing all of those took more time than making them and most still look like crap on my monitor. My scanner is just way too bright sometimes.
Oh yeah, I also did a crappy portrait today. I think I should scan all of my stuff in, the mistakes are just sooo much more apparent.

[I.N.K.]

Since my PC is still hardly usable, I'm concentrating more on traditional painting for now, but using a brush is still very hard for me. I kind of like my pencils and pens because they are so precise, brushes feel so inaccurate to me. On the other hand, this is probably the reason that my drawings look rather stiff...?
I tried a self-portrait in acrylics and I think I'm getting closer to how I want it to be. Could be wishful thinking though, I'm tired. *lol*
Aaaand a random scribble page from my sketchbook. I was fooling around with silly poses.

[I.N.K.]

I made the application deadlines, the next ones are due the end of this and the next month so I got a little time to spare for a personal work. The sketch is ok for now I think, but I ran into some trouble when I wanted to turn it into a painting. I feel as if I made step backwards with my painting skills somehow :/
I think the problem is my inadequate painting skill and also the fact that I'm not so good with choosing colors, so I tried out painting the two spheres and practiced blending a bit.
But that got boring rather fast so I wanted to paint my hand without using much blending and stuff but...yeah...it went horribly wrong.
The ipod is more recognizable, but still turned out rather bad.
I'll try the blending excercise with acrylics tomorrow, see if it that helps.

[I.N.K.]

Sit down, have some tea, laugh at my drawings!

[mdog]

Wow, I can see so much improvement! Nice, I think I'll follow your thread!

[ezekrialase]

Nice work so far, you're definitely moving in the right direction! I'd say the thing you need to work on the most now is your figure drawing, you're digital painting skills are at a good point now but proportion and figure construction-wise you have some catching up to do. You're doing awesome, keep up the hard work!

[I.N.K.]

@mdog: That's so nice of you to say! I can never tell if I'm progressing or not.
@ezekrialase: I totally agree, although I think that I still have a loooong way with my digital stuff. With figures I struggle especially when I'm doing the 60-90s gestures. I just can never keep up.

Aaand todays blargh...
(Also, why is my scanner adding a yellow line? Who the banana thought that up?)