Kitsu's obnoxious title (New 072106)

[Kitsu]

I don't draw or paint nearly enough, and I tend to get distracted from doing either fairly easily. That sucks because I've spent quite a bit of time learning to do both, and I think I'm finally getting halfway decent...
Anyway this is me starting another sketch book that will probably die in a few months just like the last one. Hopefully I can get a little more motivation and experiance out of this one before I crap out again.

Recently I found a couple of comments around here that helped me loosen up and relax when I'm drawing. I had gotten to the point where the premonition of crapiness stopped me before I even put pencil to paper. I'm still not in the habit of saving my horrendously bad sketches, but I am make a lot more of them - and that is a good start.

DIRTY C'S 3 RULES OF PAINTING
Form's post in Hurricane's Sketchbook

Enough blather - here is some recent stuff I've done while I'm not wasting my time on video games:

The most recent thing I've done in color. Done in OpenCanvas, the image links to the wpe. I've posted some other stuff recently in the OC thread.

I've been trying to do the DSGs, but I don't usually post what I come up with.

DSG 1079: Fantasy Tech: LAND VEHICLE UTILIZES LARGE BALLOONS TO EASE PAYLOAD WEIGHT


DSG 1081: Creature: FANTASY RUMINANT HAS SINGLE LARGE, CRESCENT-SHAPED, HORN

I figured out on the last one that I didn't know how to draw cattle so



DSG 1084: Fantasy Scene: PERSON IS CARRIED AWAY BY FLOCK OF BIRDS

I've been interested in anatomy lately (an odd thing for me) and while most of it is throw away here are a few decent things... oops, I forgot to upload some



Self portrait done looking into a dark monitor

Lastly I continue to delude myself into thinking I will enter one of the weeklies. Now that the under-used IDW is two weeks long I have ample opportunity to finish an entry, right? This scan came out terrible btw -

IDW 0012: Peacetime Transport - Sky Yacht (so original right )

[Kitsu]

Okay, I got the stuff I forgot sorted:

some more anatomy stuff.

One morning while I was sitting in my chair drinking coffee I noticed a spot in the neighbor's bushes looked like a face. Oddly enough the face didn't disappear even after I got my sketch pad and pencil. This is what I saw


More evidence of my inability to complete a weekly

Studies for 3CHW 04 - A crying small girl looks at a chicken in the vapor

Lastly while thinking about todays DSG I decided I didn't know what a bird looked like

The wings are all disproportionatly small because the paper was too small for the LOD I wanted. The wing spans on sea birds are really large.

[Cup of Joe]

Zombie!
No, seriously, glad to see you back man! I used to have a bit of drawing fear, but you get over it. it's a little like dangerous sports. If you get too afraid, you pull back and will probably get hurt, so you just have to commit and go through with it. I liked those links! I have my own two rules: 1. Don't stop drawing until your satisfied, 2. Never be satisfied. On to crits!
Aaahhhggg! Video games! I have since broken myself from the addiction. Anyway, nice stuff overall. My favorite was the bush-face. I'm just happy to hear that other people do things like that too! Looking good all around, nice to see some traditional stuff! Try to commit to those weeklies, eh? I admit it's hard (very) but thier a lot of fun too.

Well, not much more to say. Glad to see you back, thanks for stopping by my SB, and keep it up!

[Kitsu]

I was super lazy yesterday and didn't draw a thing! (yes games again) So today at lunch I grabed something from my photo-ref folder and tried to draw it.

It was a decent likeness to begin with, then it went all fat... I managed to pull it back a little while inking.

Here is a shrunken portion to show how things look from further back

For some reason ink looks a lot harsher and uglier after scanning.

The ink rendering was probably a bad Idea, but while trying to decide how to finish the sketch I remembered that everything I do is wrong...
BTW - there is an interesting point to the ugly little line in the corner. After I scanned the drawing and was tweeking in PS I noticed something didn't feel right, so I checked my composition. The eyes in this sketch are the focal point, and also where humans are naturally wont to look. When eyes are looking at something your eyes then want to follow them to see what they are looking at. But these eyes are looking straight off the page, killing the flow. So the ugly PS line is my un-subtle kludge to fix that - it sits in that corner and catches your eyes before they shoot off the page, redirecting them back into the picture!

[Edit]: Oh yeah, codakromek and Artguy kick ass!

[Kitsu]

Yay! I finished something that has been clogging up my home computer for nearly a month
I started this thing as a quick study, but it was going okay so I decided I'd work on it some more the next day. I workied on it off and on for a few days, then I got interupted, but I didn't want to close OC (because then I could forget about it) so I just made my computer hibernate. So last night I decided to sit down and finish the damn thing.

Here is the thing at an earlier stage.

Most of my paintings pass through a stage like this, and I really like the look of this. In the end though I always decide to push myself to a higher level of finish/detail.

Here is the final thing (slightly tweeked in PS)

This was all done in OpenCanvas and you can get the wpe by clicking on the picture. I definatly worked too small on this one, especially considering the large canvas size I started with. I think I was going to do several heads on this sheet? Guess that didn't work out Its just a relief to have my computer free again, and not to see this thing everytime I turn it on.

[Cup of Joe]

Hey Kitsu! I actually really like that ink rendering. Nice job on the face too, but the eyes look a little uneven. Not much else to say, just keep it up and thanks for stopping by my SB!

[Kitsu]

I spent all weekend fighting with one stupid sketch. I must have re-painted the thing five or six times, I even replayed the event file to get to an un-screwed-up version once. It was a battle and I'm not very fond of the result, but here it is


Then Sunday night I started another and last night I slapped some value on it. I think I managed to avoid some of the problems that made the last so painful


I've been stumped by the last few DSG topics. I haven't gotten anywhere with them. Luckily there are a couple of days between topics now though So I can sleep on it and maybe actually come up with something? I'm thinking about the current COW and IDW too, which BTW I think is my main problem with these - I think to much. I try to use the same kind of problem solving I use when I'm programming, and it just doesn't work. I need to figure out a way to engage some part of my brain other than the logical bit, 'cause it sucks at drawing!

[Kitsu]

Retch! Those last couple of OC's look really terrible to me now? Oh well, I going to try to do a few more of them this weekend!

Not much movement this week. My friend Soo at work said she knows some people who are trying to start a hair clip business? Anyway she asked me to try to do a "super cute fairy" for them (their planned logo?). I put it off for a couple of days, but last night I started skribling around on it.
BTW Soo, and the company I think, is/are Korean. She is looking for something anime-ish, and I'm going to try to push it closer to the Korean asthetic... I hope. So I started sketching and I quickly realized I didn't have enough information to actually get anywhere. I took some notes on the sketch on things to ask about design-wise. I'm going to see what she thinks today and try to get some of the details sorted.

Oh! This may look better than my recent scans -> I just figured out my scanner is doing odd things in greyscale mode. Switched to color and poof I get all my nice light lines back

Also last night I did some draw-overs on one of Cup-of-Joe's SB pages
The origonal

These are in the order Notes -> Overpaint



I think I learned a few things, and found a few places where I'm still weak. By the third one I was really tired and having troubles drawing what I wanted -

[Cup of Joe]

Doh! Stupid mistakes...
Thanks alot by the way! Looking good to me. I'll keep this stuff in mind.

Also, I PMed Ryn about the SSG. White Rose is in too, right?

[Kitsu]

This weekend featured the first really hot days of summer, which means I melted by noon and didn't recover until it got dark (around 10pm!). I still managed to get a little done - Only one torso, one over-drawing for Joe, and one crappy fairy sketch I didn't bother to bring. Oh yeah, I also found some old thread for beginning drawists on Friday and decided to do the first exercise.
Crappy work scanner


screwing around in PhotoShop


Torso

This one was fairly challenging. I couldn't get the colors how I wanted them, they look really desaturated, and I couldn't find the reds/oranges I wanted. Now though I open it at work and the thing is blazing hot colors so bad I needed to tweak it in PS. I don't know if it's my monitor or OpenCanvas or what...

Another over for Joe. I think these are really helping me. Of course they would help more if I would do some studies when I find a weak spot

I still need to work on: Feet, hands, major joints, heads/faces, ... people

Also we've put together a little SSG for people who want to learn. It is mainly just for encouragement to draw more - comment more - and think more.
ProtoSSG: Cup-of-Joe ~ Kitsu ~ White Rose

[Cernew]

Nice paintings!

[blexarady]

I think to much. I try to use the same kind of problem solving I use when I'm programming, and it just doesn't work. I need to figure out a way to engage some part of my brain other than the logical bit, 'cause it sucks at drawing!

I think you should definitely attempt all the set briefs in the COW etc because your style of analytical process can be really useful. In my personal experience at work, about 50% of my time is concerned with presentation techniques; sketching, drawing, rendering etc, and the other half is organisation, research and information sorting. Your notes show you are good at this. Without good planning at the start the work will probably be rubbish. As Dogfood says, a reasonable rendering of a good sketch will always be better than an amazing rendering of a poor one.
Your drawings are full of annotations where you pick out errors in your work; my advice would be rather than wordily going on about here do the drawing again fixing the errors. Theres no need to write "LOL! Need to work on the feet," just fix the problem on a new page and chuck the original in the bin.
Good luck man!

[Cup of Joe]

Thanks again! Actually blexarady, those are my mistakes that he paints over for practice and to help me. Looking good. The paint of the torso looks odd though. It might be because his abs are flexed when they don't seem to be doing anything.
Thanks again, I'll keep that stuff in mind. Keep it up!

Edit- Oh, and for the begginer project piece, remember that shadows are only additive if there is more than one light source.

[blexarady]

I see. Good idea.

[thalan]

Very nice! Love the cows.

[Kitsu]

blexarady: I agree that the analytical side is useful, I'm just saying I would like to let more of the random into my proccess (check out Hurricane's pages full o' bots for instance). I definatly should make a habit of re-doing things when I see they are wrong, but I have so little time to spend on this stuff. So instead of holding onto each sketch I just let it go and move on to the next study!

Good eye Joe - there is a bit too much contrast in the abdominal area! The differance between light and dark is what makes the muscles look rounder = more tense. I find that with anything tonal/colored I usually blow out the contrast. I don't have a very subtle hand

White Rose: Tear me apart! It will help you as much as it helps me

More do-overs




Some much needed foot studies (not enough)


and part of the second exercise in that thread I found

This thing must be the hardest shape ever! Tonight I'll fix it a bit, add some value, and take a photo so you can see the wierdness

[White Rose]

ooh.. your anatomy is looking good... :3

one thing i do need to say....when all is said it done... try to render out some of your peices.. adding in some shading...

when i get home.. il'll look through the entire thread again

...umm just a thought...on this page.. im noticing you leave out the hands...
why ? >:3

[Kitsu]

Got a few hours in last night.
Another over for Joe, though this one didn't need much


And a couple for White-Rose

This one I had trouble with, so I made a new layer (reduced the opacity on Rose's sketch), and re-did it my way...

It was getting too late - everything started falling apart

Last thing I did was some quick values over the project thing

Pretty shoddy. I want to do a detail of the dial area...

I'm going to take a break from working over other peoples figures and do some of my own. I also need to do some joint studies and a lot of hand and foot studies - especially hand/foot proportion (I suffer from bigfoot )

[White Rose]

wow.. thank you for the paintovers, just seeing this gives me confidence, that i'll be able to do more in my human figures.
:3
oh and about that.. picture with the video game..controller..uh..exactly..what is that...
do you have a wip.?

[Dile_]

Nice stuff kitsu, Im loveing your anatomy stuff! so just keep it up!

[Chrisbro]

great stuff

[Cup of Joe]

Thanks as always man! Getting better, eh?
Paintovers seem like good practice, maybe I'll try it. You suffer from big feet? I suffer from tiny, tiny feet. The stuff for the beginner's thread is good, post it there tto if you haven't! It's a good thread that could use a bump.
Keep it up man!

P.S- Do you remember Serpian from my sketchbook? I was thinking we could invite him into our SSG when he gets back.

[Kitsu]

Joe: Go ahead and go over my sketches (once I make some :p). I want to go over my last beginner exercises one last time before I post stuff - IMO one of the most important points in that thread is that you should push for perfection in every single thing you do. I haven't done the exercises as well as I know I can, so I'm not done! Also go ahead and try to contact Serpian! I don't think we want too many people - then crits would become a chore. But five or six should be good.

Rose: The oddly shaped thing is my mp3-player, there are some attempts above on the same page as my first foot studies. I'll take a picture of it so you can see it in all its oddness

Dile: Your doind some nice stuff yourself! Lots of nice paints. Thanks for the support.

I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I think it was helpful. These are all working from Mentler's notes - mainly from the Muscles * Bones * Flesh thread.




I think next I'm going to do a quick review of my Kchen collection to nail down the forms around Mentler's muscles. Then hopefully I'll have time to do some gestures and full figures

[White Rose]

oooh.. i see your working hard...
^^;;; hmmm im at work now..
soo so tired.. and i think im somewhat slacking... but i am still drawing mini gestures at work... and everywhere i go... i guess i'll post it up when i get a chance....

but kitsu..the hands ;-;
at the end of the arms... come on man... dont go half -asses :3

[Cup of Joe]

Hey man, good studies! Some of your feet are a little squished though. The no-finger-hands are a bit of a cop-out too. That hand on the right of the second page is short by the last knunckle too. Keep it up man!

P.S- Can't contact Serpian yet. He's in Kenya for a while( about July).

[Kitsu]

Lol, I was expecting comments on how I haven't done any full figures - and here everyone is worried about my hands! And I thought they where pretty good for the size they were at too... Okay, I'll move hand studies back to the top of my study list.

Joe: I see what you mean about the squished feet, but how to fix it? Anyway after today I'm done studing how other people build feet - I'm going to do some photo-ref stidies instead. Drawing a drawing removes a lot of the thinking from the equation - but also introduces a lot of distortion.

Grrr, I wanted to get so much done last night, but I only finished most of two of my tiny pages. I also started looking at how Kchen and the new guy EM Gist render their anatomy - it's probably easier to do with the media the're using, but the purpose is the same - showing the form by how light wraps around it. Meh, I go to dark and solid with my outlines, am I affraid the'll get away?


Some half-assed attempts at little figure poses on the last sheet. I vow that I will complete some larger sized full figure poses by the end of the day (easy to promise on Friday because I can stay up 'till midnight no worries )

[Cup of Joe]

Bumped.
I think the main problem with your feet is that you make the bridge(name?) of the foot too high, which gives it a look like it's been squashed. Also, I heard you say Kchan collection. Mind hooking me up with that? Most of his stuff on the site is red X's. Looking good besides what I said!
Oh, and

I vow that I will complete some larger sized full figure poses by the end of the day

Tsk tsk tsk.

[Kitsu]

Joe: What? I kept my vow, I just couldn't post. Actually I threw some away though It's just too easy to do with digital media...

Grrr, I got a lot done for all the stuff I had going on in the last four days, but I wanted to do so much more. My motivation is at an all time high, but I can't push myself hard enough! I'm going to try to double my output and see how long it takes me to return to my current skill level!

Okay, here's a dump. I promise there will be more to see in the next four days than in the last!






Gotta train harder!

[RNS]

You've got some really good digital paintings going on, and your anatomy studies are getting better and better. My only suggestion is perhaps when you sketch wiht a pencil to watch your lines and don't be afraid to use long single lines. Also with your computer work, because sometimes the figures look a little choppy. I know their just sketches but don't be afraid. You do it on some pieces like the cow and the chicken. Its really cool how you work and can see your mistakes. But if you see em you can fix em! Haha, keep up the great work.

[Cup of Joe]

Oh, never mind on 'tsk's then. I'll be waiting for the update!
Also, points to you for reviving the SSG.