stylus sketchbook

**stylus** · July 27th, 2006, 01:24 PM

Hey, all. Well, trying to improve my art skills, so I figured I'd start a sketchbook to get as many crits as I can. So here are some drawings that I did. Most of these are already posted in another subforum, but I'd like to get more crits on them. Let me know what you think. I'm eager to hear all of them.

An attempt to apply what I've learned from the above:

Also, here are some of my more recent technical drawings:

**Ermac** · July 27th, 2006, 02:37 PM

Nice start for your sketchbook, the sketches are ok, looks like your anatomy is pretty good. You starwars ships are freaking cool, looks like you know what you doing in photoshop. I would like to see more sketches that you've taken time on to show your true drawing powers or something like that.
I'll be back to check on your work.

**stylus** · August 3rd, 2006, 09:41 PM

These are some sketches I did for a priest character design for a short film project I'm helping to make. For these ones, I wanted to practice facial expressions to help give the character some personality.

Next are the costume studies. I think I'm going to try adding backgrounds to my character sketches from now on. I guess employers would want to see that in a portfolio. Along the way, I thought it was ironic how many professional character concept pieces lacked any backgrounds. One last note about the background I did: it's my first attempt speed-painting. I hope to get better at it. Anyways, please C&C!

**stylus** · August 6th, 2006, 08:38 PM

I was trying to practice shading/markmaking w/ ink with these 2 sketches. I think I overdid it a bit w/ the 2nd one. Control's really hard w/ the pen, too. There were times when I was tilting it at an angle to make lighter shades, but no ink was coming out (this also made me wonder if I was ruining the tip since I was basically rubbing it on a side that apparently had no ink). Then, if I tilt it just slightly, too much comes out. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em! I'm using a Staedtler pigment liner, 0.1 thickness.

References used.

**stylus** · August 13th, 2006, 07:45 PM

Two variations on a monster design. More practice on colour theory and painting. I'd like some crits on it before I do any more changes to them.

**Goodbye..fromthevoid** · August 13th, 2006, 08:30 PM

Your progress is already amazing. Congratulations, you seem to have been born with talent!

Just keep working at it and you'll improve really fast.

**stylus** · August 15th, 2006, 12:49 AM

Thanks for the comments, Goodbye. It's a shame that it takes me so long to come up w/ something that I feel is worth putting up on the forum. Hopefully, my progress will continue as well as you say it is.

**stylus** · August 15th, 2006, 06:04 PM

Here's today's attempt at painting. I tried doing something all digitally and set opacity to pen pressure for the first time.

BTW, I can't seem to change the title of my thread. I thought it'd be under Thread Tools, but it isn't. And I couldn't find it anywhere else. Can anyone help?

**aprat** · August 15th, 2006, 09:35 PM

that marker study up there is great!

To change your title, click edit in your first post in the thread, then click advanced.

**stylus** · August 16th, 2006, 12:29 AM

Not sure which one you're talking about, aprat, but thanks for your comments (and for answering my q about editing the title)! I hope my work improves as I go along.

**mbetteker** · August 16th, 2006, 02:16 AM

Hey stylus,
i really enjoyed that pen study of the woman in the bottoms. You seem very comfortable with the pen as opposed to how most people are best with a pencil. hold on to that and use that often! for the paintings, i would really recommend adding some of the atmospheric lighting onto the monsters... the pig with arms needs some of the light fromt he torch on him. u could make the focal point jump out by doing that. also, the snake baby, some cooler colors would make him fit in with his surroundings much better. im not sure if it is the loose backgrounds, but the monsters seem pasted on there. try doing line work for the background also, but keep the outlines tight and details loose for any background work. i think more linework in the background will tie it together better!

keep sketching!

**Listing** · August 17th, 2006, 01:37 AM

Some nice work. Keep at your anatomy (really fit that into an apparently intuitive dynamism you have going) and don't sacrifice accuracy in value for drama. Your heads seem to be too small, generally. Keep going.

**Phoenix-09** · February 3rd, 2007, 04:57 PM

Hey there! I love the start to this sketchbook - your drawing is very advanced *nods* =)

One thing I noticed with your paintings however is that everything out of focus has a really soft and under-defined edge to it. All good to have a blurry, unfocused background, but that's different from definition I think.

Anyways, that's my two cents. Hope to see more!

~Phoenix

**stylus** · May 3rd, 2007, 03:02 PM

Thanks for the comments, guys. I just got off school not too long ago, so aside from looking for a job, I'm dedicating time to doing a lot of drawing and painting. By September, when I get back, I want to be "good."

So here are some of my latest attempts at painting. These are all costume designs for a film project I've signed on as an artist to work on. They're in chronological order, so oldest to newest as you go down.

First one's this "superhero" who's costume is made up of a fencing mask, motorcycle suit, and a trench coat. 2nd one is a teenybopper superhero. 3rd one is a burn victim's face. 4th is a corporate sell-out of a superhero.

Please C&C! Pick it apart as much as you want so that I know exactly what I need to work on.

P.S. Does anyone know how to add a pic beside my thread name when I view it in the sketchbook forums? Is there a size requirement before it'll show? Thanks!

**alesoun** · May 3rd, 2007, 06:28 PM

You asked how to use a technical drawing pen. I find I have to hold it upright to make it work properly, but the joy of that is that you get a line that doesn't vary in thickness.

There are ways of making it look as if the line varies, and you'll find those with practice....

**stylus** · May 6th, 2007, 07:33 PM

OK. Thanks, alesoun. I'll work on that.

I was just doing some basic painting practice, so here's an umbrella that I'm pitching to that film project. I'd like to push this further, but I'd like to get some crits on how I'm doing so far before I go on. Because it's such a simple object, I gave it a simpler paint job.

**MeTaL-Mike** · May 7th, 2007, 12:40 PM

Thanks for the comment man. You stuff's cool too. like the color work.

Keep it up.

**stylus** · May 7th, 2007, 10:42 PM

A few paintings I did today w/ photo refs. I think I learned after doing these that my above digital paintings pretty much show me to be really amateur, which is a shame because I really thought I was going somewhere. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to rationalize what will improve my art and what won't.

The first one took about 30-40 min to do each face. The second one was about 20-30 min. And the coloured one was approx. 1.5-2 hr.

All the same, please CC!

**stylus** · May 8th, 2007, 08:22 PM

Face study today. Took longer than I thought it would (2+ hr, I think... including screw-ups and starting from scratch), but worth learning how to do skin tones and highlights.

**stylus** · May 9th, 2007, 11:29 PM

I botched this up so badly that I think I should just start a new piece. Will probably get that up tomorrow.

**stylus** · May 10th, 2007, 01:00 PM

Pencil practice (well, ok, technically Wacom practice, but I used it like a pencil)... ~1hr

**Hurley** · May 10th, 2007, 02:18 PM

Hello,
Your digital paintings have come on along way, your lighting seems to have improved alot! Your on the right track definatly, keep up the good work.

**minjarr** · May 23rd, 2007, 07:30 AM

i like how you lay in your local colors right away, a thing though, I would first try to lay in the proportions first and make sure those are tight before moving on. I get confused with all that stuff also, but I found that bridgeman really helped me . I hope I helped a little?! <{

**stylus** · May 31st, 2007, 06:21 PM

Hurley: Thx, man! Right now, though, I have a lot of trouble getting my concept art pics to be as realistic as my photo-referenced paintings. But, hopefully, I'll start catching on.

minjarr: Good point. It's something I also have trouble with, laying down a correct shape before going in with paint.

Case in point: Here are two new paintings. One is a costume concept and the other is another anatomical study (with ref, of course). I tried something different w/ the anatomical study: I painted it all on one layer and tried to force myself to get the shape/proportions/anatomy correct w/o needing to draw it. So I painted in blobs of skin-tone and refined from there. I think the other good thing that comes out of it is that, when I paint the object and the background all on one layer, they'll look more unified... the object would look like it belongs there more. Whatever. Just an experiment.

**stylus** · June 14th, 2007, 06:45 PM

This time for my anatomical studies, I'd thought I'd do an old paper effect.

**Nyx702** · June 15th, 2007, 08:57 AM

Studies are looking good. The hatching bothers me some...I know these are quick but I think you are trying to cover a large area with one value too much. Like in the torso of the woman, the straight lines tell me that there is no gradation in the shadows. Maybe there isn't...but maybe near the edges add another value? It still can be quick.

More than that though...that paper is not working. Sorry man..I think it's way too orange. Just use real paper. Did you dodge and burn the edges? Maybe if you just turned down the opacity?

**stylus** · June 15th, 2007, 07:52 PM

Thanks, Nyx! Just wondering, did you mean that they were one value too little, as opposed to one value too much? Because you suggested that I add another value and I got confused.

Yeah, that background was just an experiment. But now that I know it doesn't work, I'll try and do better next time. Actually, I used gradation for that, messed with the transparency settings. I don't touch the dodge and burn tools.

Well, here's a WIP for today.

**stylus** · June 18th, 2007, 06:02 PM

Just two 20-min sketches I did while I was waiting for someone in the parking lot.

**Piranha Clan** · June 18th, 2007, 06:09 PM

Good start. You need to study anatomy more. Keep at it!

**stylus** · June 21st, 2007, 09:38 PM

Thx, Piranha Clan. I'm working on it as best as I know how.

Still, I thought I'd show these 2, anatomy problems and all. The first is just an update of the last piece (yeah, I know, the torso's too thin). For the second, I tried a more downplayed pose. Hope it's an improvement over... any problems I have (though, somehow one arm wound up being longer than the other.... uh, I mean, that's his superpower

). Though, there's something rather weird about the painting style of the second one... but I can't put my finger on it....