RBA Sketchbook

[Benedikt]

And another WIP:

[GrayPersona]

geesh you are kicking it man!that iow piece on the last page blew my mind.I also liked the last one in terms of atmosphere and values but i think that shrinking that mountain\castle down could give it a more focused
focal point and also prevent those peaks looking like they touch the upper picture frame.
please post more this thread inspires the heck out me.

[Benedikt]

Thanks so much grey persona! The suggestion about the last one is absolutely spot on. I was unsatisfied with the compoisition and the sense of scale myself, but it would've taken me some time fooling around with it until I would've narrowed it down to those specific changes. Thanks a lot!

[Benedikt]

still WIP:

[Benedikt]

Final:

[Benedikt]

[kevin_]

environments are crazy good, alot of depth and stmosphere in them!

[Benedikt]

Thanks kevin!

[Benedikt]

This was a commissioned piece:

[Suira]

Amazing enviros man, just AMAZING. Wish I could come with something more than compliments but I really feel like saying this is great, keep it up and nothing more.

[Benedikt]

Thanks a lot Suira!

[n1frit]

Great portrait! Only two notes: flip image during painting to see and fix proportions missing and other - you can colorize your stroke sketch, it help to avoid dirty and ambient colors in the next stages.

[Revidescent]

Man, your enviro work is seriously inspiring.

[Tea of Doom]

Wow wow wow,

You are nailing those environments. You definitely know how to use atmospheric perspective to your advantage, the focal areas are so sharp and well defined. I'm currently working on mine, would love it if you could drop by my sketchbook and leave a critique.

My only critique would be that some of the proportions on your life drawings look slightly off, but you seem to be on the right track so i'm shure you'll sort it out eventually.

Otherwise...good work, I'm subscribed.

[Tea of Doom]

duplicate post please ignore

[Belette666]

That portrait of Di Caprio is simply amazing...

[Benedikt]

n1frit, thanks for the hint about the flipping. I try to do this regularily, but not as often as I should.

Revidescent, thanks a lot!

Tea of Doom, thanks, I'll try to drop you a few lines soon!

Belette, thank you =)

---

This is final... mainly because I'm fed up with it.

[Benedikt]

Sargent Study:

[Benedikt]

More Sargent:

[Benedikt]

These were done from life:

[Benedikt]

These are very early sketches for a movie poster I got commissioned for:


We're going with #1 it seems.

[GrayPersona]

hey benedikt I really like all of those studies from landscapes to portraits they are all killer stuff.
I think though there is something about your blending method which particuarly is seen in the portraits which creates overlapping sharp lines that break edge smoothness(i think i commented about this before thinkning you were not paying attention to edges but I think it a more technical thing).
maybe you should try some different blending techniques to see if you like it better differently(there are great tutorials on ctrl.paint about reducing flow or using temp layes for blending).
keep posting and inspiring.

[smael]

hi benedikt, yours landscapes are realyyyy coool, very beautyfull and your study' s portrait are really cool too

[Benedikt]

GreyPersona,
thanks man for dropping by so frequently and offering your help. Do you see those overlapping shapes in the Di Caprio portrait as well as the studies? The thing is, when I study Sargent I try to really suck in all the gorgeous planes that he finds, so my focus is much more on those individual blocks of colour then on blending. The Sargent studies are each one to two hours maximum, for a finished portrait I'd spend a lot longer on blending obviously. That might be why you see the edges in those studies. but as I said, if you see those things in the DiCaprio portrait as well my point is moot.

Thanks smael!

Just some crappy technical doodles for today:

[Benedikt]

Just fooling around a little bit:

[brian604]

Nice stuff,
Eyes pop out real good.
What kinda work are you getting with these skills?

[Benedikt]

brian,
thanks!
Not a lot unfortunately. I do the occasional commission, usually something to do with illustration. I've done a bit advertising for jewelry (background illustrations), illustrations for an independent online rpg called Sacred Fire (afaik not released yet) and some ebook-covers for independent authors mostly.
I'm not good enough yet to make any meaningful contribution I guess. Still a long way to go =)



This is still wip:

[GrayPersona]

nice loomis studies,i like how you try to mimick his stroke economy(espesically those strokes with the side of the pencil) as i have trouble doing that.

about the edges thing,I tried hard to write something explaining myself without feeling like an officious little twerp but I just couldnt do it-here are 2 videos from ctral.paint(they are each only 5 minutes)
explaining it better than i ever could.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/opacity-vs-flow/

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/brush-control-pt-1/

[maths82]

Cool environments, solid colours and subtle textures. Plus your flesh tones / portraits look really solid, I like the loose brush work.

And you study linguistics. : )

[darwinwin]

awesome stuff