Stuff and...stuff

[Setherial]

Hey guys


I've never really found a correct place to post stuff, where my works fits in (I'm somewhat of a loose portrait sketching freak to give it a name). These days facebook isn't bad but well maybe starting a sketchbook here isn't a bad idea...motivation wise... I hope . There might be some concept art comming as I'm interested in the concept but thus far it's not really my focus and I have little experience in working without reference. I am however hoping to learn landscape painting and I think I'll start here, with some digital speedpainting before jumping into oils.

For the time being I'm just going to dump some recent stuff here to get this sketchbook started. I'll post more once I get around to taking photos of my larger traditional (academic) works.



some speedpaints I did for a workshop on painting



more comming

[Kjesta]

Wow, you're so good at caricature! Very nice-looking. I also really like the colour in the portrait that says "Brooke Fraser", the use of colour temperatures and bold contrasts works very well.

I'd be very interested in seeing something other than portraits though.

[SteffenBrand]

I really like especially your pencil work! Nice strokes imo. Welcome at CA!

[Setherial]

I'd be very interested in seeing something other than portraits though.

Yeah, I'm about to start learning how to do fantasy landscapes and I intend to put my progress here. It's going to be a long process though but this is definitely the place for that. That said I do see a lot of people posting academic stuff on the board as well so I hope I can post some of that here as I don't really have anyone to criticize my work/progress right now. There are many great traditional painters here so I hope I'll be getting some good crits here.
It's difficult wanting to do it all, although I am starting to realize that being an allround artist is very important if I want to one day do this for a living, which is something I want very much.

[Gpozzo]

Nice start man, great stuff... I'm loving these and i definitely agree with Steffen, very nice strokes, Welcome

[Setherial]

Thanks guys, for the warm welcome!!!


ok here's my first landscape attempt



way to busy and colors were a nightmare, I have to block out large shapes, keep it simple. More will follow when I get more time.

here's a sketch I did today

[stan-c]

Hi!
Your pencil drawings are remarkable! I love they are so rough and elegant at the same time.
Good work!
What about drawing some environment in this style?

By the way: how do you make your drawings digital? Are you scanning them or making a photo?

Cheers,
Stan

[Setherial]

Hi!
Your pencil drawings are remarkable! I love they are so rough and elegant at the same time.
Good work!
What about drawing some environment in this style?

By the way: how do you make your drawings digital? Are you scanning them or making a photo?

Cheers,
Stan

Thanks man. I think I'll practise drawing thumbs in either ballpoint or pencil to get ideas for landscape composition. But I prefer painting to drawing by far, my mind works better with masses then it does with lines. The only reason I'm any good at drawing is because I've been doing it for a long time where as for painting it's all still very new to me. But I love painting live model in watercolors or oils more then anything. Thats what I do most of the time.

I always photograph my drawings. That last one was shot using my Ipad. For drawings taking photo's is fine, for paintings I feel like it looses a lot in the process. My drawings are always done on A3 or bigger so scanning isn't an option.

[Kjesta]

I'm not very good at landscapes so you may take my advice with a grain of salt, but here's some things I'd pay attention to.

1. Watch the tip of the big mountain. It almost touches the frame, it's very ambiguous with the clouds if it does or not. Maybe take away that small lighter patch directly above the tip? It looks weird.
2. The colours seem to be very saturated, I'd desaturate either the blues or the purplish reds (probably the latter). The really strong bright blue on the mountains by the horizon is also too saturated, things get more blue and more faded as they recede towards the horiazon.
3. Watch you edge control. Right now all edges seem to be the same amount of blurry/messy, but in the front they would be clearer and sharper, softening more towards the horizon.

I quite like the lighting though! As for the portrait, I'd define the mouth area a little more. Very nice otherwise, you're really good at portraits.

[Setherial]

Thanks man, I totally agree and I appreciate the input A LOT. I'll clean up that landscape. It's fun to just stick with it and push it as far as I can but I should probably do more and faster composition sketches so that I gain experience in that area. I want that sense of scale and I think I screwed a bunch of things up in that regard.

for now here's another portrait I just did




I'll get back to that landscape now.

[80vain08]

whoa, your pencil sketches are amazing! its really a treat looking at them keep it up!

[Setherial]

80vain08: Thanks man

here's a bit more on the landscape



The reds are still to much I take it? I tried to tone down the blue in the shade near us but it quickly felt dull and to grey. I should do some research. How should I improve the sense of scale? The big mountain looks a bit silly and puny right now.

[melman]

I like your portraits man) All of them have really nice readable form, not sure about the landscape though. I think that with your understanding of foer and value a couple of reference paintings will solve all problems=)

[Setherial]

conclusion of the last hour ... portrait = easy, caricatures = hard

Rosario Dawson sketch, likeness still sucks.

[Setherial]

finished it

[Setherial]

Some watercolor studies I did from live model the last couple of weeks

[Setherial]

some doodles from work, I do tons of these but there's scattered all over my notes. Just got an IPad3 so I can photograph the ones I like.

[Setherial]

[Ty Dawg]

You've got some mean hatching skills.

Love the water color studies as well

[Setherial]

Started up a daily sketch again. Trying out charcoal pencils, not that satisfied with them yet but getting there...slowly, it takes getting used to. They don't glide over the paper like regular pencils, so drawing with them isn't as lose as I would like. They also make darker marks even when barely touching the paper. I prefer pencils and above all ballpoint but I'm looking for something that I can use to do very fast live portraits/caricatures that gives me good darks fast and nice soft areas. Markers are an option but I don't like markers all that much + they are expensive and require glossy paper. Charcoal pencils seem to have potential, although I do have to spray the result to fix/attach it (don't know the correct english term).

day 1 (friday)



day 2 (saturday)



day 3 (sunday/yesterday)

[vlad74]

I really like you sketches and paintings.

[kevin_]

amazing stuff! your portraits and caricatures look great! nice figures as well, keep posting!

[Cryptid-Creations]

Awesome stuff, man! Love your pencilwork, the shading is fantastic.

[kjylee]

Lovely portraits here; it's refreshing to see every pencil mark/brush stroke! Great handling of the shading!

[Setherial]

thanks guys, much appreciated.

kjylee: yeah I know what you mean, in both paintings as well as drawings I love seeing the marks, the decisions. It's the character of the work, it's what gives it life. I hope I can one day sculpt lines like the great ones like Jan op De Beeck for instance.

I did this sketch of John Amos yesterday evening. The hatching started out ok and then became a mess. There's so much I don't like about it but I'm happy the likeness turned out ok.

[Erikly]

Dang.. seeing you just keeps reminding me I gotta improve on my faces! That is some nice pencil technique you got going on! I'm glad you decided to post here :] keep it up!

[hücumkedi]

nice faces here man, i wanna see some moarr landscapes

[Setherial]

Erikly: Thanks man, appreciate it!

hücumkedi: Yeah you and me both brother I need to free up time to school myself in a wider veriaty of stuff. At the moment I feel I need to jump into perspective and construction sketches, dig up those Scott Robertson dvds and get some milage. It should have an impact on my character work as well, maybe not as much in terms of portraiture but for my academic full model poses I feel like I can definatly use some exercise. That and drawing concept vehicules seems like fun (difficulty aside).

Here's a Tom Hardy sketch I just finished

[n1frit]

Awesome traditional! Watercolor just great) I think you should put attention on eges of surface and forms. This will made works more professional and accurate.

[Setherial]

Awesome traditional! Watercolor just great) I think you should put attention on eges of surface and forms. This will made works more professional and accurate.

thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. About the edges do I have to make them sharper or the opposite make them blend more into the background? Or just clean it up more? I think I know what you mean and I'll pay attention to that, I agree I need to get a more professional cleaner result if I want to ever make a living of portreture.