Eric's sketchbook

**Numenorian9** · November 11th, 2012, 06:43 PM

Hi, I'm Eric. I'm starting my first digital sketchbook on the internet and I decided to go with this site because of the huge community of talented pros and students that can be found here; makes for an awesome resource for everyone involved.

So this painting here is my first foray into the world of digital painting and so I wanted to start light and easy with a video tutorial I found online to draw inspiration from.

About this painting: about 2 hours to complete.

-Eric

**johnny24** · November 11th, 2012, 06:56 PM

VERY GOOD WORK! when i see a landscape im painting i just wanna cry... but with time i will get better!

**Fisharto** · November 11th, 2012, 07:10 PM

Great landscape Eric. Even if it was a tutorial it truly shows the details in the landscape. Keep up the good work.

**Numenorian9** · November 13th, 2012, 05:07 AM

Here's another piece I just finished an hour ago. It was supposed to be a speed painting but I got lost in the details and spent over an hour painting this one. Again, I was following another tutorial from a magazine because it offered a file with 3 custom brushes that looked promising. Well, the resultant effect with the new brushes wasn't the most desirable in my opinion but I still had fun working on this.

-Eric

**Numenorian9** · November 13th, 2012, 05:10 AM

Now how come my dragon painting came out in a mega jumbo size as compared to my first painting? The files are roughly the same size (500 kilobytes) and I know my landscape painting was huge when I was done with it. I had it up to 6000 pixels wide! I really don't understand why my dragon sketch is so massive!!!

**MaverickGirl777** · November 13th, 2012, 06:08 AM

Hey Eric! Looks like it was the method you attached them with; in the first one you simply attached it to the post, and in the second I'm guessing you chose the 'insert in line' feature.

Also, I've totally seen your youtube channel, and I really enjoy watching you work. You've got a gift for fabricating plausible scenery out of seemingly nothing. Definitely envy your method, and it's one I'd like to emulate for sure.

**Numenorian9** · November 13th, 2012, 06:22 AM

Sorry Maverick, that would be Feng Zhu. I followed one of this YT tutorials when I did the first painting in this thread.

**Numenorian9** · November 13th, 2012, 10:59 AM

redundancy

**Taha-023** · November 13th, 2012, 11:11 AM

Hi Eric,

I really like the first dragon (not the original one) a lot more man. It has more dept to it and a warmer feeling.

Per layer you can try using ctrl+b or ctrl+u to easily adjust color balance and hue settings, or add them as an adjustment layer on top of other layers.
Hope that helps man, nice one.

gr, Taha

**Numenorian9** · November 13th, 2012, 11:22 AM

Thanks for the tip Taha. I don't know many keyboard shortcuts in PS apart from brush size and canvas rotation. This is the first time I worked on 2 layers as well! And I had to learn how to use the 'Magic Wand' tool with the 'Quick Select' tool to cut the outline of the dragon creature so my painted background would show through to the top layer...

**a sleepy goat** · November 13th, 2012, 11:26 AM

do you have any oils you could show us?

**Numenorian9** · November 13th, 2012, 07:33 PM

You mean like traditional media oils? Unfortunately, I have nothing recent to show on this site.

**-Helio-** · November 13th, 2012, 08:06 PM

Eric, try to resize your pics in photoshop for something more forum friendly like 800 pixels high or something like this before posting.

From what i can see you seem to have a decent sense of color, would like to see some more original stuff from you

**Churchx** · November 15th, 2012, 05:27 AM

Wait i've seen this before by a guy Called feng zhu, infact its the same image, but you've only edited it slightly, whats going on here? and if this Guy posting images says other wise Zhu posted a video of him painting these! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCmz3XuS6TI&feature=plcp don't believe this guy! here's the real genius http://www.fengzhudesign.com/
Name: gallery_image_265.jpg
Views: 213
Size: 236.6 KB

Name: gallery_image_265.jpg
Views: 213
Size: 236.6 KB

Name: gallery_image_266.jpg
Views: 220
Size: 189.3 KB

**bubba** · November 15th, 2012, 05:43 AM

start to get your own style. By copying other famous artists doesnt help you get far. I learnt that from other senior artists. And feng is one of my fav artists. Had Feng told you could post up his stuff?

**Flaskpost** · November 15th, 2012, 09:29 AM

ChurchX and bubba, what´s the problem? doing master copies is a great way to improve. the first one Numenorian said that he was following a video tutorial, and it is clear that he did with the second one as well.
i don´t think he´s trying to pass off these paintings as his own. so chill a bit will you?

Numenorian, maybe you should clearly state where you did the study from etc, and give credit to the original artist a bit more obvious, to avoid these missunderstandings.
anyway, great studies! keep up the good work!

**kevin_** · November 16th, 2012, 12:30 PM

well as long as these are studies and you are not claiming them to be yours. if they are studies then i would say they are tpretty top notch!

**Alex Eh** · November 16th, 2012, 12:46 PM

Copying other artists is a great way to learn, especially if they are pretty damn good artists... don't listen to them. Keep it up dude!!!

**Numenorian9** · November 16th, 2012, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by Alex Eh

Copying other artists is a great way to learn, especially if they are pretty damn good artists... don't listen to them. Keep it up dude!!!

Well said, Alex.

**Numenorian9** · November 16th, 2012, 03:24 PM

Sorry, it's been a while since I uploaded anything on here. I'll try to do better in the future.

**Reject-D** · March 29th, 2013, 04:59 AM

Hey Eric although copying from digital masters is considered okay what is not okay is painting OVER their art and calling it your own. that is exactly what you did with feng zhu the brustrokes are exactly the same in the same spots from fengs work. I recommend you take those down if you dont want to have your reputation be tarnished as you pursue your skills.

also I recommend not copying other artists paintings such as your dragon one from Jaime Jones. I recommend you work on creating your own pieces and design your own compositions unless you want to always be known as a knock off artist. Its fine to do master studies and learn from how they broke down an image but not to basically copy their ideas and change it up slightly so that it doesnt look like their art. look at finding your inspiration elsewhere such as film photography fine art etc. to bring something fresh to your concepts. because if you copy concepts from other concept artists you will always be known as a knock off.

Sometimes you may not be caught but one day if you become a respected artist and someone finds out that your art is a knock off of someone elses you can kiss your chances of working for major corporations good bye.

a word of caution from a professional artist to another.

love the anatomy studies

**Numenorian9** · March 30th, 2013, 11:11 PM

Originally Posted by Reject-D

Hey Eric although copying from digital masters is considered okay what is not okay is painting OVER their art and calling it your own. that is exactly what you did with feng zhu the brustrokes are exactly the same in the same spots from fengs work. I recommend you take those down if you dont want to have your reputation be tarnished as you pursue your skills.

also I recommend not copying other artists paintings such as your dragon one from Jaime Jones. I recommend you work on creating your own pieces and design your own compositions unless you want to always be known as a knock off artist. Its fine to do master studies and learn from how they broke down an image but not to basically copy their ideas and change it up slightly so that it doesnt look like their art. look at finding your inspiration elsewhere such as film photography fine art etc. to bring something fresh to your concepts. because if you copy concepts from other concept artists you will always be known as a knock off.

Sometimes you may not be caught but one day if you become a respected artist and someone finds out that your art is a knock off of someone elses you can kiss your chances of working for major corporations good bye.

a word of caution from a professional artist to another.

love the anatomy studies

Let's talk about the dragon sketch. First, I would like to mention that I wasn't very satisfied with my end result and it was painted strictly for learning purposes--that is the whole point of anyone's sketchbook on ConceptArt. You attributed the work to an artist named Jaime Jones. I have no clue who Jaime Jones is, but I am quite certain I know who Maciej Kuciara is. He is a concept artist from Poland with a strong foundation in the fundamentals and he is the artist I was copying from. As I've mentioned earlier, I was following a tutorial I found in a magazine to learn his workflow in Photoshop. It should be very clear that I didn't paint over his work, as you claim, but instead copied from sight without tracing his work. Let the photographic evidence prove my claim. Your powers of observation are lacking, my friend. Are you sure you're a professional artist? I think you might be lying about that. Btw, a pro wouldn't take the time out of his busy day to try to engage someone in a pointless argument.

You're also wrong about saying that I painted over someone else's work--that is not a very good way to learn how to paint. I'm all about taking the shortest route possible to master this craft and I certainly don't want to waste my time. And again, you're wrong about claiming that I called those landscape paintings my own original art. I mentioned that it was a tutorial video that I found online when I made the post. That's all I need to say about that.

The one thing I regret about this whole experience on ConceptArt is that I actually took the time out of my busy schedule to respond to your shenanigans. It's a bit embarrassing as a serious artist but I'll get over it.

Name: ImagineFX_contents.jpg
Views: 69
Size: 229.2 KB

Name: ImagineFX_contents.jpg
Views: 69
Size: 229.2 KB

Name: ImagineFX_Mac.jpg
Views: 67
Size: 188.9 KB

**wilkerson** · March 31st, 2013, 01:43 AM

If you look closely at the clouds in the upper left of both images you can see they are the exact same.

http://www.fengzhudesign.com/images/..._image_265.jpg
from:
http://www.fengzhudesign.com/gallery_page_03.htm

So basically you're painting over top of some one else's work. Does that seem like the best way to learn how to create art?

Btw you can edit the post with the giant page-stretcher now that someone has told you to resize the pic. geez...

**Numenorian9** · March 31st, 2013, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by wilkerson

If you look closely at the clouds in the upper left of both images you can see they are the exact same.

http://www.fengzhudesign.com/images/..._image_265.jpg
from:
http://www.fengzhudesign.com/gallery_page_03.htm

So basically you're painting over top of some one else's work. Does that seem like the best way to learn how to create art?

Btw you can edit the post with the giant page-stretcher now that someone has told you to resize the pic. geez...

More drivel from the peanut gallery; I'm not surprised.

You're ridiculous. That's it, I'm done with ConceptArt.org. This place appears to be a breeding ground for art school dropouts and amateurs.