LoTekK's Digital Sketchbook

**LoTekK** · March 1st, 2006, 05:57 PM

Been lurking here for a looong time. And I know I need mucho improvement, and this section has always been quite the inspiration. These are all done in Sketchbook Pro on my TabletPC.

Some gestures and value studies from photoref (over on the CGTalk anatomy forum). My gestures need a lot of work, as far as line confidence goes, that's for sure.

And a self portrait I knocked up tonight (this one's from life, not photoref).

Cheers, and tear me a new one!

**Sybo** · March 1st, 2006, 06:03 PM

awesome bro, nice figures. The runner sketch has a good sense of depth.Also the nude portrait.

off to paint now.

**gmags** · March 1st, 2006, 06:13 PM

Good start there Lotekk! Especially like that digital sp. Keep em comin dude. Welcome to CA!

**LoTekK** · March 3rd, 2006, 04:26 PM

If there's one thing I hate about working in Sketchbook Pro, it's that I can't have hard-edged and translucent brushes. They're either translucent and feathered, or hard-edged and opaque, due to the way the brush stamping works.

Anyways, value study from photoref. Unfortunately, my chick looks nothing like the ref.

I feel like such a slacker compared to everyone else. Need to put in more time.

**InkChick31** · March 4th, 2006, 08:24 AM

You've definantly got the conepts down, I'de love to see what you'de do with these pieces past the basics. I think your work would be very impressive!

**Blaise** · March 4th, 2006, 09:43 AM

I agree. Plus, your values are pretty much dead on (thanks for posting your ref along with the value studies).

**seansea** · March 4th, 2006, 12:11 PM

Wow LoTekk! These are great. Need more please.

seansea

**Sepulverture** · March 4th, 2006, 12:29 PM

Hey, man. Just thought I'd drop by and check out your book. Looks pretty nice. keep up the good work. Only crit I can really offer you is on your value study painting of the girl form photo ref, you may find htat smoothing out all the blotchy spots on her forehead for example may produce a better texture.

**LoTekK** · March 4th, 2006, 05:55 PM

Inkchick, Blaise, seansea, Sepulverture, thanks!

Sepulverture: Yeah, I'm still trying to get used to the way Sketchbook Pro handles its brushes (the stamping is very different from Photoshop's brushes, which is what I've been used to since I first started digital work). I definitely need to work on that some.

Here's another sketch and value study I did tonight. Idiot that I am, I went off and turned on the power saving features in my display driver, which has the effect of making stuff seem more contrasty while on battery. Which is my lame excuse for why the values aren't as pushed as they could be.

**Sepulverture** · March 5th, 2006, 02:50 AM

Nice studies, and thanks for the comment in my book. Your big boobed babe looks pretty good, but could handle some sharpening up crisper edges in particular in the appropriate areas, and adding detail to her hands and face will help a lot (assuming you haven't already started to do that).

**Ned** · March 5th, 2006, 03:17 AM

you're picking some fairly tough subjects to draw, Although I guess it's better to throw yourself in the deep end if you say you need alot of improvement. Good tones as well keep up the momentum, brother.

**LoTekK** · March 5th, 2006, 04:24 AM

Sepulverture: Yeah, if there's one huuuge weakness I appear to have developed in the last year or so, it's my seeming reluctance to push my stuff past the blocking out, and into the sharpening up and detailing. I don't think I'll be working the big boobed chick, and am gonna jump into some others. Right now I want to work more on getting my basics down, like values, as well as figures. I figure I can jump into the rest in a bit.

Ned: Yeah, I popped open my "Chicks" reference folder and grabbed a pic with foreshortening and a funky pose so I could work on constructing the figure properly. I have a knack for doing that, throwing myself into the deep end, as it were.

Thanks for the comments.

**LoTekK** · March 5th, 2006, 05:41 AM

It seems evident to me that faces and hands (especially of the female variety) terrify me. Might be worth doing a bunch of studies of the two.

I realized as I posted that I made her legs way short. o_O

**Erilaz** · March 5th, 2006, 06:40 AM

Hey, great to see you over here Teck! I just commented on your other book!

**Gridur** · March 5th, 2006, 06:59 AM

Hey there! you got some nice studies, great gray scales and shadeing. would be nice to see some more details though! try to really get into a piece, maybe try out some colors to!

Keep it up!

**LoTekK** · March 6th, 2006, 03:09 PM

Okay, did a few noses from photoref. Decided to go with hatching, since it's been a while since I've done any of that. Hatching onto a mid-value background proved interesting... I've always hatched on white paper, never grey, and having a mid-value background made it a little tougher for me to decide where to hatch. Anyways, I'm kinda happy with the first two, not so much with the next two.

Got a few more nose refs, and a bunch of eye refs. Tomorrow. :p

edit: Couldn't sleep, added an eye, also photoref'd.

**LoTekK** · March 7th, 2006, 02:23 PM

Eye studies. I learned today that Ariel Sharon (top right) has no bloody eyebrows. Kinda creepy. Well, he does, but they're barely there.

edit: Looking at the ref again, he appears to have no eyelashes either. o_O

**MissCeleste** · March 7th, 2006, 02:30 PM

ohhhh....

*grin*

Your self portrait is quite handsome... The hair on the red head you sketched didn't translate well into grey tones... It just looks like a lump of grey really... maybe some very tiny light whisps of light on the end to portray those strands of hair that are really hard to see but are deff. there in the original pic. everything else looks so nice... even in its rawest form.. you have a good feel of what makes the human body appealing.. all of your drawings are easy on the eye even with slight innaccurcies... none of them are glaring.. Will be keeping an eye out for future works from you.

**Mitchell** · March 7th, 2006, 02:34 PM

Cool stuff man, I'd like to see some actual pencil work. Keep it up though!

**Chisa** · March 8th, 2006, 06:49 PM

Very nice value studies and eye studies. I really like the way that you shade (cross hatching?) I gotta learn how to do that.

**LoTekK** · March 9th, 2006, 09:43 AM

MissCeleste: Aw, shucks.

About the chick (Amy Acker

), yeah, I kinda slacked off on the hair. Put the highlights on the wrong place, too.

Skeiff: Yeah, I should really hit the pencils (and charcoal+conte... god how I miss working with those) sometime. I've gotten kinda spoiled with my TabletPC, though. :p
Chisa: Thanks, it's been a while since I've done any hatching, but it's something that's always fun (though bloody time consuming to do nicely

).

Anyways, this update's pretty random. Managed another eye during class last night (woulda done more, but the lesson was pretty hands on), and then did a bunch of really random stuff today sans reference.

Also touched up the self-portrait some.

And found some random stuff from earlier this year. Real random brainstorming concepting for a 2D game I had in mind.

**comixnut** · March 9th, 2006, 10:36 AM

i like what i see so far man (sorry, i'm on the way to bed or unconciousness, so it's short this time).

**LoTekK** · March 9th, 2006, 02:15 PM

Thanks comixnut.

Couldn't sleep, so here's another page of randomness. Not quite sure what I was doing when I did the crouching guy. I started off with a funky skull, built a head around that, then sorta went with it. Or something. The lighter was ref'd, the rest were not, including the eye study.

**MissCeleste** · March 9th, 2006, 02:56 PM

ohhhhh Pi-rat! hehehehe.. I love it. So cute.

Digging the first eye with the cross hatching. Looks good.

Critique wise you need to stop being sloppy with hair!

I keep seeing again and again from you hair that isn't as in depth or realistic looking as the rest of your awesome work.

**LoTekK** · March 9th, 2006, 04:03 PM

Guilty as charged. Been copping out on the hair somewhat. I think I got spoiled with the ability to create custom brushes in PS. Don't have that in Sketchbook Pro, which means doing it the old fashioned way.

Will fix up the hair in the SP. Thanks for stopping by again, and for the honest crits.

And, since I can't bloody seem to sleep, here's another value study, 'bout 20-30 minutes or thereabouts.

Proportions are a little botched, but I'm vaguely happy with the values, I think.

**LoTekK** · March 10th, 2006, 02:18 AM

Decided to start up a Caravaggio copy. Initial sketch plus value dump, about 15 minutes:

**LoTekK** · March 10th, 2006, 03:40 AM

'nother half hour. I guess I should be calling this a value study rather than a master copy.

I've realized since posting that I dipped David's left arm a little low. Will have to fix that in the next update.

**stine** · March 10th, 2006, 06:31 AM

hi! thanks for stopping by at my sketchbook and the nice words...

so i thought i return the favour, althought as a newbie i can't crit much. i really like the motion-studies, very dynamic.
and you've done all of that with your wacom? i went back to "traditional" material, because my tablet is rather small and sometimes it's just fun moving your whole arm not only the hand...

your last project is great, too. i think copying the masters is always a good thing to do. it doesn't have to be a photorealistic copy in the end -- understanding the values and composition is a major thing...

again, thanks for visiting, i'm really looking forward to see some updates here!

p.s.: that pirate is hilarious!

**LoTekK** · March 10th, 2006, 01:56 PM

Nursing one hell of a headache tonight, so not much progress. I don't think switching between math and the copy during tutorial helped that any.

The drapery is really pissing me off.

**JLC** · March 12th, 2006, 07:39 PM

Wow! I really like the eye studies you've been doing. I agree about the hatching - if you have the patience it can look just beautiful. The value studies are looking great too. Both types of sketches are showing a good amount of depth. Nice work.