RBA Sketchbook

[will123will]

Great stuff man, love the still life paintings and the figures in #251, looking forward to seeing more

[Benedikt]

Thank you will123will!

[Naonik]

Very inspiring work! Awesome art!

[Naonik]

Extremely sorry for the double post, but i just had to rectify my meager 5 word comment which in no way at all does your sketchbook justice.

I have just browsed through your sketchbook properly this time, i am ashamed to say i only went through your last 3 pages previously. And i am absolutely awestruck at how amazing and inspiring your art it. I absolutely love your portrait studies and am very eager to try some out myself (by any chance do you know any good free online providers of decent heads? besides google search that is), I love your perspective work, you make it look like so much fun, and i love your painting style ( I am looking forward to watching your digital painting tutorials on youtube), and I can see how much hard work you put in to your art and your dedication to studies.

You have provided me with an inspiring quote that jumped out at me when reading one of your replies "Everything is difficult until it becomes easy" And as simple and straight forward as it is, it is so true and has really motivated me.

Thank you so much

[CarmenJudy]

Ooo so inspiring your portraits are beautiful. what instructional materials are your favorite/ most useful to you. I wana check that stuff out. Thank you for sharing you work.

[LastGen]

Nice heads and great pencil strokes, Benedikt. Colors pencils always look sweet!

Can you tell me where that construction approach comes from - any reference?

[Benedikt]

@Naoik
Thank you for your kind words. Unfortunately it really is very difficult to get good portrait refs off the web. Usually the light is crappy and too complicated which makes the forms hard to read. And you don't want to work from a ref which is actually working against you from the beginning. It's hard enough without that. The only "trick" I have found is that when you limit a search for eg "Person X portrait" or just "male portrait" to B/W or greyscale, you sually get simpler light setups with better shadows and better form. Apart from that the best way is to shoot your refs for yourself.

@CarmenJudy
Thank you for dropping by. Instruction material, let me see. I guess what I've found most useful are these materials/resources:

Anatomy/Portraits:
- Every online article you can find on the Reilly Method/Abstraction
- The Asaro Head/ Asaro Planes (also available online)
- Loomis: Drawing the Head and Hands for the basic construction (I find his planes confusing though, Reilly is much better there imho)
- Glen Vilppus DVDs on anatomy for in-depth knowledge (you can preview them on yt)
Authors that did not at all speak to me are Bridgman and Hogarth. I find the first confusing most of the time and the latter to be vague/inaccurate/ambiguous/incomplete. I think for Bridgman I'm simply not good enough yet. Hogarth is not everyone's cup of tea from the word go.

Other areas:
- James Gurney's "Color and Light" and "Imaginative Realism"
- Jack Hamms book on Landscapes and Seascapes is golden when it comes to composition
- Scott Robertson's DVDs on technical perspective/construction

Hope that is helpful =)

@LastGen
Thanks! Those are a simplified version of the Asaro head (just run that through google, there are plenty of resources online). You can actually order a physical asaro head (plastic I think), but they're located in the US and my email inquiring about shipping to Europe was never answered: www.planesofthehead.com

[Benedikt]

[Benedikt]

Was too lazy for scanning yesterday, sorry:

[ezekrialase]

Very nice work, love the asaro head studies!

[GrayPersona]

great heads man,I am dying to get my hands on an asaro cast ,seem like such a great tool,guess photos will do for now.

[lionheartGFX]

wow...just wow dude really nice hard work and progress you really are learning from the strokes of your masters and books, i would love if you could come by my sb and share your thoughts since i dont have any sort of critique towards your work other than post more so i can look at more! hahaha anyways im subscribed keep them coming!

[Benedikt]

ezekrialase, thanks man =)

GreyPersona, thanks again! I work from photos as well (there's also a very nice sketchup model of the asaro head here on conceptart: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...-Head-sketchup Very useful!)

lionheartGFX, thanks a lot for those kind words. I will be sure to have a look at your SB and drop you a few lines =)

A few gestures/quicksketch stuff from today:

[M.Calza]

Wow, impressive sb man, love your lines, no critiques really

[Benedikt]

Thanks M.Calza =)

[Benedikt]

WIP:

[Benedikt]

One hour more work:


Still WIP of course.

[V3T]

I hope you don't mind me saying, but her arms don't look like they are resting on her legs, look like they are kind of floating.

[Benedikt]

Thanks for the observation, I think it's the cast shadows beneath the arms. Need to move them closer to the elbow/ulna.

[Benedikt]

still wip:


A few shots from earlier in the process:

[GrayPersona]

great wip man,I actually like her face more in the second page of the construction process,
in the latest one the hair seems to be covering the eye in a way that makes the eye socket look very shallow and the side of her face very long,I guees it depends though on what proportions you were going for.

[Benedikt]

Thanks man, great hint. I'll see what I can do.
The daily sketchdump for today:

[Benedikt]

[Benedikt]

still WIP:

[Benedikt]

Just realized I haven't posted this on here yet;
I've ben collaborating with a composer, Matthew Morgan, whose tracks are simply wonderful, for a while now.
Here's a link to the pieces:
http://www.matthewmorgansmusic.com/i...ne-aigner.html
I think the fusion of music and artwork is quite wonderful. I don't exactly like my own work (I guess hardly anyone does), but in this form, with Matthew's great tracks, it moves something in me as well. There's also a few collabrations with Robert Copu here:
http://www.matthewmorgansmusic.com/i...bert-copu.html
Be sure to check those out as well. Very inspirational artwork and music.

[Benedikt]

final, kind of fed up with this one:

[Benedikt]

WIP (practising architecture/ down shots without reference):

[hallowtreez]

wow very very cool. those landscapes are beautiful!

[Benedikt]

Thank you hallowtreez! =)

I'm done with this one:

[Charles Ratteray]

wonderful studies here...!