redehlert's renders - it's been a good time!

[redehlert]

[katsgod]

Look good...can't wait to see what you have for year 2.

[Helzon]

I got my popcorn popped, and I'm hangin on the edge of my seat.
Raise the curtain big man..and let the show begin.

[Deselect]

Fresh baked cruellers: $2.00/dozen.

Because no new thread worth while can begin without spam.

[guggemmaneuver]

What, this new thread, but no art?!?! red, you big jerkface killah, get with it. paces around in an antsy way WAITING for red to bust out some art...

joel famed of vintage software afficianado

p.s. just glad i got a post in before any art.

[redehlert]

Spam, spam and egg, spammity spam spamwich!
Hey all, thanks for followin' me over to my new digs. It's a bit empty right now, but I'm sure the images will fill the walls soon and your banter will light the halls with merriment and whatnot.

I start with this simple image - a 2.5 hour study on toned canson - 18x24"-ish size with charcoal pencil, vine charcoal, and white charcoal. This wasn't an easy one to do since I don't work in vine or charcoal pencil, but I'm really trying to find something that translates well with photoshop. I was a smearing king! Hah!
The model, Valerie (I think that was her name) was a bit ill and so she was scowling with the efforts to control her cough....interestingly she has a natural scowl.
At any rate...have at me:



Cheers!
D

[Alday.J]

A new sketchbook ? Geez, it's so true you that you work hard on it... I will bookmarked the first one, for my personal archives. Nice update here. Hope see a ton of it in the future (but you will do fine, I'm sure).
Can't wait to see the next updates !
Cheers, Dave !
Julien.

[Matt Smith]

nice portrait red, the proportions look good, but some things bother me. Some of the structures of the face seem alittle ambigious. I would like to see a highlite on the cheek bone near the eye. Also the way the nose is rendered it looks like its facing in profile rather than 3 quarters view. And the reflected light in the shadow side is competing with the highlights on the light side. hurry and fill you new sketchbook up!

[Deselect]

Great to start it with some traditional work... hope to see much more.

[Smitherines]

map out your shadow mass first...Don't let any of the light values appear in your shadow mass. Your darkest light should not be your lightest dark. Also being a bit more suttle in some of the transitions going on. Too many hard edges going on for a female face.

[redehlert]

Julien, Matt, Deselect and Smitherines - thanks a bunch for the crits and input! Can't tell you how wonderful it is to get great support and advice from my peers. Matt and Smitherines, very valid points(!) that I will put into mantra form. I'm gonna chalk this one up to study and move forward since I only have her presence here and a fleeting one in my mind. But know this - your comments are not in vain.
More to come - I'm just doin' random scribbles now...scan in something tomorrow I think.

Cheers and thanks again!
D

[bdfoster]

Boom! Head shot!

Oh wait....

Nothing to crit, just needed to get a post in here to show my love and kickstart a subscription.

[redehlert]

hahhahhah - i still love that 'boom head shot' thing that asoir did....i wish he would've kept it. held me captivated it did! welcome to the new threadykins, ben!

ok....here's a marker sketch in blue with blue pencil that was scanned in and played with (myself) for about 30 minutes. just adjustment layers, gradients, and fills. kinda fun to do this. i'm calling it a molluskan...go figure. does anyone wanna see process steps?



cheers,
d

[Alday.J]

Nice creature, Dave, very nice ! I'm 500% for seeing a progress !
Force & Honneur !
J.

[redehlert]

Thanks Julien!
I'll get crackin' on the process shots.
Cheers!
D

[Helzon]

HA!...volumes...and more volumes...great solidity bro.
Bring this horrific mutha to life!
I second Julien...process man...process.

[bdfoster]

Sweetness. Sign me up for process shots too!

[redehlert]

ok! popular demand (all three of ya! lol!!) causes me to jump on it and feed you with my process. i'm learning new ways of doing things all the time based on personal journey, lookin' at others work, reading, praying, sacrificing etc.

these are six steps for you to see along with my layer's palette. please refer to the layer palette to see what layer i'm on when showing the steps:



Step 1: this is my marker/pencil scan that has been adjusted using the shadow/hilight default in photoshop cs2 under IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS.
In my layer palette, this is the background layer.


---
Step 2: an adjustment layer has been added to provide something better than stark white to the canvas. i've adjusted all three options (hue, saturation, and brightness) to get this image as shown here. In my layer palette image shown above, this is the hue/sat layer with the big red X in the mask.


---
Step 3: in my layer palette shown above, you'll note that the hue/sat layer is duplicated. I did this to show you how the image looks in step 2 versus this image in step three with a simple radial gradient mask applied to the mask of this layer. Make sense? Now, I have a quick focal point going to the white of the page to add a touch of drama...nothing major, just playin' around. If I don't like it, I can delete the mask and keep working.


---
Step 4: some overpaint work is being done with a med/hard round brush and comb brushes. Just quick block in work.

---
Step 5: don't ask me why, but I put the blue eye on it's own layer. I usually don't work in several layers, but I was playing, so there. Maybe it's because I usually work in grayscale and then go to color, so I'm a bit explorative, but safe, ya dig?

---
Step 6: the last step bringing you current to where I'm at is a layer called Color Dodge. The layer is actually set to color dodge and it's here that I'm adding some luminous touches here and there to add a glow or two and to start makin' things look either wet or transparent.

---

That's it! I'll keep on playin', but am always happy to share. Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers!
D

[Rebeccak]

Hey, you've got a new Sketchbook up! Great to see! I'd subscribe, but then my mailbox would overflow. Will be checking back for sure though!

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[redehlert]

Thanks Rebecca,
Yep - one full year of sketch book posting on this site. Time for year two!
Always a treat to have you here.
Cheers!
D

[Alday.J]

Nice to see that little tuto, Dave ! I'm always curious to see how's other artists work. So you use setting layers too ? Interesting.
Cheers, my Friend.
J.
P.S: Björn will be mine ! mouhahahaha !

[bwkeough]

so this is where the updates are... I was about to accuse the West side of snoozing! (sheeh, now I need to update my signature and stuff..)

I like mr. molluscular, but I think a few warms are needed to pop the cools out.

[Helzon]

Hey Dave,
Wow..man..great process. Are we gonna get the Ehlert final draft of this beast? The sum total of all your genious in one pretty package? Please?
Right now it's like seeing the movie right up to the last fifteen then walking out.
Also I second Brendan's idea of working a warm against those greens and blues..would make things really pop.
Salut!

[redehlert]

Will do!
I promise....just been über busy with work the past week. Sigh. Pays the bills though!
Cheers and thanks for the support and advice, amigos!
D

[guggemmaneuver]

if, good sir,
Ye can forgive my constant transparent kidney badgering---> (haha, speaking of which, i saw this plastination bodies exhibit here in atlanta and was TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY by how INSANELY vascular the kidney tissue is [of course, it needs to be ]... the vessels alone in them look like some kind of insane sponge of the phylum porifera ---> i heart that exhibit <END geekout transmition>) Did you make these photoshop brushes yourself, and if so, what do the rake brushes look like? after seeing your demo here (thanks!!!) i tried making a few rakes (was hoping they'd work like the ones in painter, but no dice ) that would be pressure / rotation sensitive but i think i'm too wet behind the ears on digital painting tip to really understand things fully just yet. i'm ramblin so i'll cut this short--> GIVE US MORE, DAVE!

Joel

p.s. meant to mention my assumption that you will be rocking a sinister, sinster monacle in montreal? hehe

[Helzon]

Hey Joel...sorry to horn in here Dave...but with PS..did you load in the brush set from the "presets>brushes" folder containing the rakes? In said folder, there are a freak load of brushes I never knew existed...until I scoped the Dixon tut..and then figured it from there. This might sound naieve..but I think in those brushes are the rakes that homie here uses..but has bound them to hot keys to switch back and forth directions.
Hope this helps..and if I'm totally off base...I stand humbly and thankfully corrected.

[redehlert]

that's it, mike! them be da brushes ya seek joel.
and sorry i haven't posted for a while. just busy.
cheers!
d

[Dose206]

D (or Dave, whichever you prefer.. maybe just redehlert)

I like the molluscular, and definitely excited to see it finished. Congrats on year two... keep it up, and tanks for the process shots.

Chris

and of course, good job on living in Seattle

[redehlert]

thanks dose206 - appreciate the feedback.
i'll get to that molluscan someday.
i've got a few projects to push in here and will try to do so later on today.
for now, have at this breast.

[Alday.J]

Thanks for share with us this particular aspect of female anatomy, Dave !
how's things, dude ?
J.