Zebz's Sketchbook: One more update for the road... 1/8/09

[guggemmaneuver]

For the refresher course on good olde fashioned american values!!! You are rendering me very impressed! I've, as a matter of fact, been also having some problems with the cylinder that goes through my head; I guess decrapitation is the only solution. One thing that i might crit with the conceptual side of it is that the cast shadow, though it may seem that dark in life, usually shouldn't be rendered as 100% black. Only use this tone in some area where it is nearly impossible that light could not reach--i.e., the tiny area where the ball contacts the table, but in this case only a dark line kind of form... Otherwise the shadow will tend to dominate the composition over the subject. & Once you go black you never go back. -joel

[kingcoyote]

Man! I just posted a reply, and it got lost! I really hate that!

Hey, man! I really enjoyed the tutorial, and think you did a great job on it. I printed it out to use as a reference in working on my own rendering of form. You're totally right that I need to work on that, and I intend to follow through on that... So, thanks, man!

Okay... on to stuff that I know more about. Color, and printmaking (I secretly blame the fact that I concentrated on printmaking in school for the fact that I'm not as good a drawer as I ought to be... well... That and I wasn't really ready to listen to the stuff that I was told, and as a result missed out on a lot of learning oppourtunities...) any way. Color. I think that a scheme of warm colors would look awesome. A base of red (and by red I mean RED, as in the fire truck kind) with accents of orange and gold highlights.

The reason I brought up printmaking, is that there is NO reason that this image couldn't be screen printed (even by hand with more traditional means) while keeping the subtle gradations of your graphite drawing. I'm going to explain this like a photoshop drawing, but the principles are the same... You start with the colors, layering them on top of each other, with hard edges. Don't even try to blend them because it's not necessary. After the colors are layed out, you put the pencil drawing on top, in a multiply layer (this works the same as a transparency... the lines are visible, but the background is clear.) This will look pretty much the same as a screen print, and will (I think) look much cooler than a mere painting. The flatness of the colors will allow the image to really "pop" off the background.

I hope that made sense... Anyway, I always look forward to your updates.
Later.
KC

[mentler]

Writing notes on your sketchbook pages is like talking to yourself <> watch out or you will end up as nutty as me LOL.

Actually I love to see it <> part of the learning curve

Thanks of occasionally feeding veracious monkey on my back!

[Zebz]

AldayJ: Thanks! I love when the little boys come off well. I think cutesy cartoon kids are harder to do than you'd think! Ha! I'm glad you like the toony style. I seem to do best at it. Maybe I'm starting to find myself a bit, y'think?

Flaskpost: He was my fav of that batch. Perhaps I'll do a paint over. I'm trying to up my tablet skills anyhow. I suck with a tablet pretty hard so I need the practice. Thanks for the post, bro!

XSFXX2000 (Your name is a tongue twister! lol I don't even care if I get it right anymore. lol): I tried a bit of your idea. I actually had considered that but was afraid it made him look more like Beast from Xmen. Take a look.

Seth1: Man, all I can do is think about the workshop. Should be awesome! I gotta get good by then! lol

Qxzi: Like I said, when I get some time I'll try and explain some of that stuff better. Keep up the hard work, bro. Thining 3D is the really big key and understanding basic value. Than we have to work on our line quality... which I still blow at. Err...

ThatFatKid: Hey, man! Yea, the workshop is always at the tip of my brain. I'm so pumped about it I'm crapping Candy Corn... Or something... random. You think this is a style flowin' outta me?! I hope I'm starting to find my own. I'm getting ready to graduate man so I have to feel like I'm my own person now. lol I'm still continually reminded by my work that I have to keep workin' at those basics tho. Anyways, keep at your thread too!!!

Hyver: Thanks a ton for the 5 stars! I was a 3.89 forever! lol I'm finally at the 4.00 mark!! Heck yes! Much appreciated, mate. I love how you refered to my sketchbook as a yummy journey. lol

Guggen: You're right, but I tend to think that in the illustration arena, contrast is king. Plus I'm a big fan of those sort of works, like Carravagio's stuff, etc. If you do play up those dark cast shadows then you'll make that image pop a bit more. Doesn't have to be jet black but it should be considerably darker. But this should be noted that you should only play up these values if you're wanting to make an area more 3D or more of a focal point. I mean, I've used it alot on my life drawings. Like I'll render one area like that and others I'll leave less described. Whatev. I love cylinders in my head. That's why I included it! lol You goin' to Montreal?

KingCoyote: Love the ideas, man! Thanks for taking the time to type all of that. I tried the Red thing and thought that maybe if I used that cool blue to make the ox pop more it might do something. I experminted with it for quite a bit. I think what I came up with is pretty successful, based on your advice as well, man! Thanks a ton!! Let me know what you think.

Mentler: I'm freakin' outta my mind!!!! Thanks for comin' back around, sir.

And now this wee little update on my Ox. This isn't clean or anything. I just Photoshoped the lines and started tweaking some swatches of color in area to see what schemes I liked. So this is more like a color sketch. Hence the rough areas where it doesn't really match the form or lines, etc. It's just to get a basic idea of what I might be lookin' for. I tried to keep my colors flat but I want to do the comic book thing so I can get some variety out of what I do have. So here's the basic idea. Again, this isn't a final image, just a rough idea of what I was thinking. Plus, I think I'm gonna have to do this bastard by hand with actual paint. Ick. But I think I might scan this, paint it up in Photoshop really nice and actually it would look pretty slick on shirts and stuff. What do ya'll think?? Definately want some feedback. Thanks in advance!! More sketches coming in the days to come!

EDIT** Greensock: I changed the horns... I really agree with that comment on the warm tones. Hopefully this is better.

[SirGreenSock]

Ooh went in a nice direction with the blue! Maybe try a slightly deeper blue, like ultramarine, to see how it goes with the orange.
Also, I'd prefer if his horns werent such a warm tone, they seem to belong more to the background than to the character.

[brokk]

Hey man! So much new stuff, you've made awesome progress. Your forms are looking really solid, I especially like the guy on the top left corner of sb119.jpg. Lots of personality. I also love the ox movement sketches. The only crit on the colored ox is maybe to try some more slight hue variation, the blue looks a bit monotonous. Maybe introducing a bit of the surrounding color to some of the figure areas, subtlely. I dunno. You are doing awesome. I don't think I'm going to be able to go to the workshop... : (
But its gonna be an awesome experience, can wait to see the pictures! : P

Cheers

[max1975]

Really nice job on the long-awaited tutorial will be a handy reference for lots of us.

Love the fat boyz, and the colors on the ox are very striking, well done...

[MrBobMarley]

You're really good man. I love the expessions on some of these. Nice pencil work too, very impressive. Looking forward to more.

[Qxzi]

Hey,

oooooo, colour Really good thinking with the blue. I like the bleams( the orange stuff on the yellow wall). Overall I really like it.

Ill be back, so keep on posting and drawing!

Qxzi

[Zebz]

Thanks for the comments, I'll reply when I get s'more time. It's nearly 4AM and I just finished this Kite illustration for my Illustration class tomorrow. I'm not entirely happy. I left some bleed room for text if I wanted and for trimming purposes when cropping for the Kit. If I had it my way as far as an illustration, I'd put the hole and the ox off to the side more and let the yellow and orange radiate out at an angle, like speedlines in a manga almost. And I'd make more debris flying out at us, not just close to the hole. But because of the Kite design I kept it as is. We can discuss it more later, it's good enough to turn in. I don't know if it's really good enough to bother to continue working on for portfolio material. What do you guys think? My tablet skills are seriously lacking. Being sleepy and overworked doesn't help. But it's color and that's something coming from me. lol Crit and comment, please! Again, sorry I can't get to the replies. Bed time for now. I'll get some replies tomorrow evening. I have sketches too... just haven't had time to scan. Later... later... lol

[wi_2]

hey there,

i like that newer stuff better the guy with the head,
he has noce contrast in value ,i see in your earlier stuff that your shading turns out very flat.
its lost of humps and bumps but very symetrical it seems.
you define every muscle (hump) with a hint of highlight and surround it with darker.
think more about the direction the light in comming from and where it would hit the shapes.. you'll see that mostly the lit/shaded areas are much larger.
there is far more contrast beweeen them.
There is the lit side with its subtle shades and the dark shadow side with its dark shades.
your shadows and highlights are the same value all over the characters.
making them look so flat.

also keep the noise down al little.. you have lots of light bumps in the shadow sections that destroy the overall value.
keep it up
i see cool stuff here

[Flaskpost]

that last one looks great man!
but with that big orange and yellow background, there should be some orange and yellow light bouncing around.

[Zord]

Sup Zebz. I like what you've done with the ox. I was impressed when I first saw the colored version, but even more impressed after you changed things around a bit. Sock's crit was dead on about the color of the horns, and i'm liking how the ox itself isn't as flashy, almost like it's done in colored pencil. I see what you're saying about putting the ox offcenter too, it'd be interesting to see a mock version of that. The speedlines would be a nice touch. Cheers!

[guggemmaneuver]

in the illustration arena, contrast is king.

rightly spoken good sir!!!

that ox illustration is Babe-o-licious! (yeah i realize that it's zodiac ) go Zebz go! the design reminds me of the kind of high-key color schemes like you see on like cereal boxes or laundry detergent--they're like pop songs for the eyes! only "Ass-pat to the bone" this time!

joel

[armando]

Hello there! Yeah, I learned some new tricks from the toot and the closeups. Ox crits: The main thing detracting from the impact of the pic is that you didn't take advantage of size differences caused by perspective. The shoulders are the same size, the hooves are the same size. Overlapping the background is really all that's preojecting him forward. Oo. <-- look at my cool receding os. Size difference can accomplish a sense of space without overlapping, overlap takes it to the next level.

[Qxzi]

Hey,
Like the overall product zebz. Good Job. Hope you get a good mark A star all the way!

Qxzi

[loomer]

damn- you are getting better all the time.
Lots of energy and life in your drawings. I especially love the sketch turned random drawing - especially the lazy looking guy with horns. Awesome!

[max1975]

Nice job!

[Main Loop]

introduce some orange reflected lights into the blue and warm up the core shadow, making it more brown. just that much will make the color 10x better

[HEROIC]

why didnt i check ur stuff before
great stuff man, *slap slap* for me that didnt checked ur stuff.
Soon ill be goin through ur stuff, gotta learn stuff from yaaaa
Love this little page

oy oy oy, gotta start going through this one, FOR SURE , holy i cant point out all the stuff here man, JUST like, I CANTT they are all great. THis one my fav, love the exp


want to seee moreeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ur a
Mind checkin my little sb, gimme some critiues

[Zebz]

SirGreenSock: Thanks, man. I actually printed out that sample sketch of color for my instructor and he told me to go with warmer ones. Odd, eh? I tried a middle ground. I'll probably be revisiting this so I'll definately keep your advice in mind. Thanks!

ThatFatKid: I know, man. I need to get a body of work like NOW. lol I think I have the skills to produce some decent stuff but I just never push myself into the completed, finished, realm. That's going to have to change fast. I'm struggling with what to finish and do tho. I find myself just doodling in my SB and not really moving all of these sketches into finished works. Please be on my ass about it. I'm glad you're starting to see a style form outta these. Hopefully it continues to develop!!

Brok3ken Spirit: Thanks, mate. I was going to put some of the oranges and stuff in there with the blues but it's a kite design and I already got nit picked in class for the complex lines and details. AKA, wouldn't be visible from the sky. I was thinking more portfolio than in class assignment. lol It's ok, tho. I'm going to rework the illustration. More info later.

Max1975: Long awaited... heh. Hope it helped a bit at least. I'm no pro or anything but I think I've grasped a little at least. Glad you liked the colors.

MrBobMarley: Thanks. I'm tryin'! Hope you enjoyed your browse.

Oxzi: Glad you liked it too!! I'll keep at it, you do the same!

wi_2: Thanks a ton for that reply, although it was tough for me to read and understand. I think I get what you're saying. I appreciate you pointing that out to me. Sometimes we just work with what we know and we forget some basic things. You're right. I should use definately play up certain areas and make them pop (AKA focal points) and then let other values wash out without highlights and stuff. I think that's somewhat of what you were saying. Like the whole figures isn't meant to have every element of the value scale. Thanks a lot. That crit really helped my eye recognize some things. Much appreciated. Hope you'll be back!!

Flaskpost: Thanks, bro. See my reply to Bro3ken Spirit regarding the bouncing light.

Zord: Thanks. It's funny how many people in class (including the instructor) thought I did it with colored pencils. lol You'll prolly see a mock up in the future. I have another idea for this ox thing, not really happy with this one.

Guggen: High key, yep. That was the idea. To get it to attract the eyez. I think it worked. We posted all the work on the board and that orange/blue combo really pulled my eye to it a lot. Thanks for the repeated postingz mate. It'll be great to meet you in Montreal!!

Armando: Glad you liked and learned from some of that stuff. I agree with your comments completely and that's why I'm gonna have to redo this mutha. I have an image in my head that's just begging for creation. I'll try and fit it in and hopefully this crappy image will turn into a nice portfolio piece.

Qxzi: I think it went over decently well. We'll find out when the grade comes back!

Loomer: Hey, that means a lot coming from you, Loomer! I'm really trying to kick up the work a notch or two. I think it's showing based on the comments I'm getting. I hope you're comin' to Montreal!! I'd love to meet the LOOM!

Max1975: Thanks.

MainLoop: The Loop posted in my thread! ALRIGHT! Thanks for the critz, man. I'll definately take that into account when I revisit this guy. He's just not up to a level I'm really happy with right now.

HEROIC: LoL Thanks a lot, man. I'm a bomb. lol Well, that was a lot of love, much appreciated. I'll definately take a look at your SB when I get some time. Hope you'll be around again some day.


Okay. Thanks to everyone, again, for all of the commentary and critz on the Ox. I think I'm going to redo the entire thing as I'm not really happy with teh drawing as an illustration. It works as an icon on a Kite, I think, simple enough. But for an illustration there needs to be more of a dynamic and movement. I also hope to incorporate all of the critz you guys we're dishin' out at me so thanks a ton! I'm gonna try and get this done in the near future.

'Till then here are a couple images from my SB. The first just sort of started happening because of random lines and stuff and it's a bit different from the toons I've been doin'. I'm hopefully gonna slap a full render on this page so look out! The second is a blue pencil sketch that I'm gonna try and paint up into a nice illustration. I had to adjust levels to get the blue to show up so that's why it looks kinda crappy. Sorry. These are also cropped off due to my crap scanner so I apologize. I've got loads more I could post but I really need to get some work done first. I'll get some sketches to you guys this week tho. More to come. Hope you like. Also, my nice hatching is lost in these scans again... dang it. lol

BTW, I REALLY need some help developin' some portfolio pieces like to bring with me to Montreal and to try and get work in another avenues possibly. So be on me about it and try and help me get some stuff rollin'!! If you could think of good things for me to include, let me know. I've been really lookin' around to see what others have. I think I need to get crackin'. Just wanted to put out the offer for help. Thanks all.

Ryan





Almost forgot... here's a life drawing from class this week. Charcoal. I rarely bring these home anymore. Most of 'em a trash. What am I gonna do with 'em? lol Still a little rusty but I'm tryin. Sorry for the bad photo. It kind blurs a bit.

[fooxoo]

Hiyaa! Cool latest updates, really like the guys nose in the first sketch, and the 2nd one is absolutely cute! The creature has got really nice feet, and the overall image is good to look at, gonna finish it??

Cheers.

[kingcoyote]

Hey Zebs!

The "blue line" drawing really could turn into a solid portfolio piece, I think. It's got a nice off-center, vertical design, and leads the eye around well... I don't know, It's a good pic, Okay?! Jeez...

Anyway, maybe if it had a companion piece, or two to kind of give it some context (rather than being "just" a fun one-off work) it could easily be memorable. My brain's not working well today, I just don't feel like I'm saying what I want to. At any rate, I hope that some of this made sense.

Later.
KC

[Zebz]

Fooxoo: Thanks! Glad you like! I am actually finishing it. See below...

KingCoyote: I got ya, man, I got ya. I'm workin' up some digi paints on it now. Thanks for stoppin' in! I'm glad you like the stuffz. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Ok... so it took me a few hours today to get a handle on this painting thing. The big thing that has turned me off to digital painting (besides my lack of knowledge regarding color) is that I've never really understood how to attack it. There was never a process that I could develop. Today I noodled around in Photoshop, crappily painting for quite a while. I took a break and then tried something a bit new for me and it's been workin' like a charm. I'm quite excited about it actually! I've taken a break on the image to work on some school work that I need to finish but I though I'd post a detail of the image I' workin' on. Again, this is still in the starting stages and I'm still workin' lots of it out but it's cool to see things starting to form in areas. Thought you might like a look. Maybe some color stuff will up my rating in the threads! lol People love color!

[Hazamataz]

Wow, humour and energy all packed into a thread. "Craptacular"!, no chance!
Don't slate yourself!! . If you keep up the improvement, and can keep getting across all that enthusiasm, (that could be the most exciting study I have ever seen)

Yes!!

[rodrigo!]

cool stuff, but i think that the colours there are overall too saturated, i think you should look into colour theory and stuff more..i really dig the original pencils though.

[max1975]

Hey there. I wanted to give you some comments earlier in the day but I was wrapped up in my robot and couldn't spare the time this stuff deserves..

First off, I really like that life drawing.

Now on this one: http://ryanbowlin.com/Sketchbook/sb132.gif
The big head is great, and I love the sort of random shapes and that big black mass that extends from the cheek (I'm a sucker for that kinda stuff). The smaller figure, though, has some problems compositionally. The central curve is good, definitely a step up from some of your earlier work. But the arms are forming a sort of rectangle, and, well, rectangles are kinda boring. Now, if you brought the one hand up a bit so it was more of a triangle, <i>that</i> would be exciting (I have no clue why triangles are more exciting than rectangles, but in this case at least, I think it's true.) Also the figure seems to exist (and I've noticed this in some other things of yours) entirely on one plane. You're awesome at giving 2-dimensionality to a single mass with your rendering, but the 3D relationship between multiple masses needs some work.

(That dude's really not bad the way he is, I'm just lookin' for ways he could be better).

Ok, now that fat goblin dude in the tree. GREAT job on the face, again, you've got mad charicature skillz. And the fat, the way the fat droops between his legs, that's awesome. Don't wanna say too much about the colors, I know how dramatically those can change throughout the process. I will say the blue you're using as a background right now doesn't work for me, but I kinda doubt you intend for that to be the final color anyway. On the blue pencil version, there's some really nice, delicate linework in that swooshy grassy stuff. That can be one of the hardest things to paint digitally, though, so I'll be interested to see how you handle it. (If it does happen to give you trouble, let me know, I may remember a few tricks that could help).

Good to see you updating more, your stuff's always a joy to look at.

[Mr.Blonde]

hey zebs. I see you are striving to achieve, you're doing some nice studies. If you want to really improve your knowledge of drawing the head, i strongly suggest some skull studies. You'll be surprised how much it helps you, because the skull is a weird and complicated system, the more you know about it the better. It will allow you to start mastering the expressive qualities of the human face/head, which is something all artists must struggle with. bone>muscle>skin. mmm. (i need to do more skull/muscle studies myself) Keep up the good work.

[kingcoyote]

That color rough is shaping up. I know it's not finished or anything, but it seems to have lost a portion of its... (charm? vitality?) I don't know what, in the painting process.

Maybe it's just because it's only a portion of the image. Could we maybe see an overlay of the original drawing on the painting?

I look forward to seeing this piece finished, sometimes it's seeing something partway through that makes it look wierd... Keep up the good work!

Later.
KC

[Odds]

cool zebz. when you're sketching a pose in life drawing, try not to outline everything- instead, establish edges with values instead of lines. this will make your figure pop, therefore creating a much more realistic illusion.
keep it up!