Spiffy's sketchbook - UPDATE: 05/16/2009

[spiffiness]

I'm gonna try and draw as much as I can, so I don't feel like a complete incompetent at the workshop! (And improve my skills for posterity, of course! ) So here's my sketch thread, hopefully it'll help push me to draw regularly.

Couple doodles from my head



Went to a drop-in life drawing session today (or yesterday now I guess).
I'm very out of practice, but it was fun! The drawings go from short poses (~1 min) to long ones (~20-30 min?).



















Yeah... totally messed up on the foreshortening, and now she's got shrivelled legs... T_T

Attachment 153237

[spiffiness]

More figure drawing, from 1 min to 30 min poses

















20 min:




30 min:


Quick paint sketch from my mind:

[spiffiness]

Another figure:


Random drawings & some DSG thumbnails:

[Ashrumm]

Those figures are really nice, its great you are starting fromt he figure!! there is no better way to practice drawing than starting with the human figure. Bravo i can already see improvement from you first posts to now. Keep it up. I cannot wait to see what comes up next.

Oh yeah i forgot to welcome you to the Conceptart!!

[spiffiness]

Thanks! Hopefully I can keep it up!

[spiffiness]

Haven't posted in quite awhile...


Photoshop doodles, no references.

[gmags]

Hey Spiffy, nice work on the eyes! Those figure drawings are coming along nicely. Try and get a copy of Andrew Loomis' books online. They help alot. Hope this helps you. Keep em coming bro!

[spiffiness]

Thanks for the comments, gmags! (And I'm a sis, not a bro )

Got back from Montreal on Monday night, and I must say, it was totally awesome!

But anyways, here are more drawings, mostly from the workshop itself.

First drawing in Montreal - hostel Thunderdome: masked warrior


Some doodles and notes from the first 2 workshop sessions.


1 workshop model drawing, and some doodles. The notes on the nose I got from observing Jason Chan's painting.


Doodle


Trying to draw the model on the 2nd day, but not being very successful...


Trying some more


More notes and some doodles.


Figure drawing on the 3rd day


The model on the last day, and the leg of someone I was covertly drawing at the airport in Montreal.


Sesshoumaru fanart from a month or so ago...


Here's some older paintings from my acrylic painting class last fall:
2 self portraits, one in complementary colours:



3'x4' landscape


uhh... 2x3 interior study


small canvas panel imaginary landscape paintings

[darkchild]

Beautiful studies! I really like all the time spent with the life studies. The non ref eye is very nice and awesome job on the self portraits. Keep up the studies.

[hp]

yay! you started a sketchbook! thanks for hanging out in montreal, we had great fun ^^

i love the self portraits, but it seems that the realism goes down just a bit in the landscapes...but prolly you don't want to do landscapes as a living, so...*shrugs*

post all your OTHER art here too....*hint hint*

[Darktwin]

wonderful figure drawing sketches, your really coming along, great self portraits also, looking damn good. looking forward to seeing more

[hp]

update!!!!!!!!!

[spiffiness]

darkchild: Thanks! I find life studies the hardest to do because things keep changing, but I'll keep working at it hopefully, once the figure drawing classes start up again. In the meantime, I'll dig out my figure drawing books and try to understand what lies beneath the surface .

hp/luvr: Yeah, I really wish I went to the gay bar... darnit! Oh well, the Bioware guys were cool, too! About the landscapes... yeah, not much practice with them, which means that drawing them out of my head won't work so well . And the 3'x4' was done on the night before my portfolio was due! LOL that was a doozy! But I DO want to improve on them, so I'll try to remember to dig out some landscape photos and paint them for practice. Remind me later if I forget, k? XD

Darktwin: Thanks! I'll try to keep working at it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So here's some new stuff, comments and critiques are greatly appreciated.

A costume design based on a dream I had about a world where women held all the power ehehe... The politics were based heavily on the game of houses, sort of like Dune, or Cairhien in The Wheel of Time, but the dress is more like Star Wars with heavy Japanese influences.




Here's what I'm working on now - more Sesshoumaru fanart! I'm trying to use a different method of digital painting, more along the lines of what I saw at the workshop with fewer layers and less airbrushing, and looser brush strokes. I'm also trying to work in other tones besides the basic shades of a single colour.




HP/luvr told me to post some of my other stuff here, so here are some older portraits that I've done from photo refs.


Chiaki Kuriyama (Go Go Yubari from Kill Bill Vol.1)




Nicole Kidman




Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers, Returner, Onimusha 1 & 3)

[hp]

that's a cool idea for the costume on the first char. i'm trying to work on costume design bleh

i forgot if i commented on your fanart painting but i would block in the whole bg and stuff before finishing the character.

and about copying photos, i would try and render out more of the parts that were contrasty...it looks too much like a photo if it has a lot of white in it. this is mostly a crit for the kill bill one (which looks absolutely great btw)...esp on the arm and maybe rendering out some darks in the nose a little bit more.

join a sketch group! update more! =P

[spiffiness]

K, so world of warcraft hasn't eaten ALL my time XD and I have some updates...

Thanks for the comments, HPslashluvr! Costumes/clothes are hard for me... especially men's clothing. I need to dig through my Vanity Fair mags and do some clothing studies. I'll try to keep your other tips in mind, too!



More costume attempts


Miscellaneous doodles/studies



Hand studies cuz i can't draw/paint hands


More of my WIP:

[(c)]

wow the last portraits are really cool! you improve really fast! keep it up

[Nyx702]

The self portraits are smooth. Much better than I could do with acrylics!
The portrait of Nicole Kidman seems to have too much black in the shadows? The right (my right) nostril is pretty wonky…does Nicole Kidman really have a nostril like that??? Her hair is awesome, especially her sideburn above the right ear…the color is right on.

I think that if you want to do anime that it could be greatly improved if you apply some of your life-drawing skill to it.

[spiffiness]

(c): The portraits are old, actually, from 1-2 years ago ^__^. Thanks for commenting!

Nyx: Yeah, I had to use 2 brushes at once, one with paint and the other was rough and dry to blend. In the source picture, Nicole Kidman's nostrils are different sized... Ref at the bottom.

Erm, I actually want to move away from anime style, but I'm not sure how... I should try Loomis maybe? I also have this huge disconnect between my observational drawings and stuff from my head, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. Um about the hand, I don't really get your draw over. There's a foreshortened forearm there. There's a reference photo for that, too.

[Nyx702]

Ohh..... I didn't know that was a forshortened arm. Well anyways, that bone is too low don't you think?

I am glad you are trying to progress away from anime. I comend you for your decision! Loomis is a great choice. I would highly recomend him; thats who I use. What I do/did is draw exacty from his images and then after a couple of drawing I would test my self by seeing how much I could remember without looking at the book. Maybe this will help you?

[Crane]

Hey there spiffy, I have to say, your portraits are very strong, especially the nicole kidman one. I'm a sucker for anime myself, i just love stuff like hyung tae kim's, but I agree with Nyx, glad your working away from it, i tend to use hogarth more than loomis since i have some of his books, i'd also recommand him alot.
btw check your PMs, i made a sig for everyone, with all the members of ssg33

[spiffiness]

Nyx: Ooo sounds like a good idea! I really want to try working with a ground so i can put in darks and lights. It's more painterly that way. And yeah, I made the arm curve down too much T__T.

Madcat: Thanks! I've been working on portraits the longest...which means everything else is pretty crappy. I've borrowed a book from the library that has some wonderful figure drawings in the classical style. I hope that will help, too.

Here's another portrait painting I'm working on. The mouth is messed up. I'm also trying to make it look a bit more painterly than I've been doing before.

[Goodbye..fromthevoid]

Well I can tell you really want me to post in your sketchbook so I will.

No on second thought I don't think I will.

[Nyx702]

The portrait does look more painterly. Good job! what brushes were/are you using?

I think the mouth is odd because it looks like a front view mouth on a slight 3/4 face. If you get the right (my right) side of the lips to bend around the face more it may fix it. This is one of my problems....it's so awkward.

[Ostrander]

Hi Spiffy,
Nice sketchbook! I like your studies and the progress you are making. Keep posting!

[viramz]

Nice work your doing spiffy, i realy love your paintings.
Hey thats Seshoumaru from Inuyasha, ha, cool!

[Crane]

of course, makes sense then, protraits scare me i never know how to start them. glad you found the book, now you need to study your heart out haha. good luck

[hp]

interesting portrait...it is looking more painterly. the hand studies are nice,i think the foreshortened arm looks off cuz the shadow is too strong on the forearm.

[frostsnake]

INuyasha!!
just wanna say that i think your portraits are sweet,
keep on doing studies,to improve!

[Juhani Jokinen]

Hi!

I like your work You've got the anatomy of the human body pretty much covered and there's only minor crits here and there. But for now on I'd really like to see some more bolder statement in your work. In terms of drawing linedrawings of human anatomy I'd really like to see bolder lines in the key spots of the pose. It brings great attitude to the drawing Look at for example my Piéta master copy, I've reinforced the important lines such as in the armpit to really kick off the pose to the viewer. Same goes to your portrait paintings, technically they are great, good use of the brush and so on. The thing needed again though is bolder statement To really kick off the color in key spots takes experience and training.

Just my two cents Keep up the good work.

-Juhani

[Tigermilk]

great sence of color! Love the SP:s and Nicole looks good too. Don't forget aboot the drawings tho.
more more!

tiger