Spats' sketchbook - feel free to drop by!

[Tigermilk]

hey man, went through your SB and I like what I see, It's good you're doing those anatomy studies, always helps!
My suggestion would prolly be you doing some ref portraits + few studies of face proportions.

Keep it up!
tiger

[jkior]

hey man thanks for stopping by. . .hmmm first of all, VERY good sb - you're studying the right stuff and the texture in your digital stuff is awesome. In fact, I might as well just ask - how do you do it? I'm trying to work more like that in my digital work and am having a lot of trouble. . .so thanks in advance if you have any advice!

if I had a suggestion it would be to throw in some studies from life along with everything else. Start out simple - white cubes and spheres if you can - and I think you'll find that it'll help you tremendously. There's just things you learn when working from life that I don't think it's possible to learn any other way.

anyway man don't slow down

[Mag-Neo]

-Thanks a million for stopping my sketchbook friend..... I like all of your sketches are too..... They're looks very very interesting & quite good imagination..... Keep posting & Good luck man..... STAY COOL.............................................. ......

[Spats]

rocko - Hey there mate! Nothing wrong with your english - I know it's not good jumping all over the place. I guess I have a very short attention span haha
fooxoo - Hehe thanks for the compliment. I will :
Tigermilk - What's up fellow artist. I'll do my best and thanks for stopping by.
Mag-Neo - Thanks for your words mate
jkior - Hey there! Many thanks for your kind words. Very good advice there, I'll be sure to put it to use.

Now concerning the textures:

I presume that you're working under photoshop so you can create your own texture brushes like this: 1. Open a new medium sized canvas. 2. Start making a hellova mess with all the brushes you have, both hard- and softedged ones(best if you keep the color black though I think o.o) 3. When you're done open the edit drop down menu and choose "define brush preset". That'll save whatever you were doing as a brush which you can then fiddle around even further with the brush options.

I have a crapload of brushes I made myself but also for instance m@'s brushes which you can find from his exclusive sketchbook section, I think. Just dl'd them recently so haven't really gotten myself around them yet.

Well couldn't post without some pics so here goes...


very self-explanatory. Poo.

I tried copying the juice can I had next to my wacom - failed horribly obviously. Means I have to do more of this

Here's my first ever attempt to try and copy a portrait. It's supposed to represent the dude on the cover of red alert 2.. http://www.criticalmassinteractive.c...0Alert%202.jpg I hope the link works so you can get some sort of idea of what I was trying to do. Doesn't look anything like him but was fun

edit:fixed a typo

[Ive]

Your landscapes look better than your characters, you have a feeling for mood. Practice!
See ya 'round

[dave from wyoming]

I like yore mechanical knight stuff. you have some very interesting ideas. but to get those across to your viewer you have to grab them. I suggest you ask your mom for 60 bucks and order Bridgman's anatomy no other anatomy book will do. and practice life drawing like three or more hours a day. bring a small pad of paper with you every ware you go and if your not doing anything draw whatever in front of you it doesn't even have to look good as long as your drawing something this over time creates the right kind of connections in your brain so you can easily draft anything quickly. find some artists you really like and copy their work when you do this you can learn some of their tecneques. lastly believe that you can accomplish anything. never say that artist is way better than me I can never do that" you can. people who don't understand art will tell you its a magical thing called talent. its not its practice, knowledge, patience and heart and if you work at it you will be greatly rewarded. I wish someone would have told me this when I was in high school.

peace Dave

peace dave

[dave from wyoming]

ps dont read how to draw anime, pick up a copy of the comic book akira by katsuhiro otomo and copy some pages of it. you will learn better stuff

[Fishspawn]

hey, thanks for dropping by my sketchbook. Your recent stuff is showing improvement. If you can't afford a life drawing class, have your friends/familiy model, go to a zoo or a park and draw people and animals. Life drawing is THE best way to improve as an artist, i reccomend it! Keep up the good work.

[Listing]

You show some really interesting expression. Keep tightening your fundamentals. I'm looking forward to the results.

[jkior]

awesome dude yeah! Just wanted to drop by and say that juice bottle study was exactly what I was talking about. Thanks for the tip too, I'll give it a go. . .

[Spats]

Ive - Thanks mate I will.
dave from wyoming - Hey Dave! Thanks for the awesome tips! I'll try to look up the book you recommended. The idea of carrying a small sketch pad with me sounds like a cool idea. I'll be sure to get one(need some better pencils too. All I got is really crappy ones that just fall apart when they touch the paper...) ps. I love Akira
Fishspawn - It was my pleasure - yup, I'll try to get the budget-version life drawing thing going. Thanks again!
Listing - Thanks for your words! I will.
jkior - Hehe thanks for stopping by again.


my headset. It's a bit wonky and off perspective but I can really see how doing a lot of this shit improves your ability to "see" the shapes. I dunno what I'm even talking about


gonna start studying some William Turner paintings when I find the time. He was awesome at creating moods... my enviros are just horrible at the moment but painting them is pretty relaxing. The perspective is way off in this one btw


more doodling

[sith]

you got some really nice texture going on in a lot of your paintings. keep exploring that stuff. keep it up

[Spats]

sith - Thanks for your words - I will.


attempt to copy a turner painting. I can imagine him turning in his grave as I'm posting this o.0


(the torso on the troll isn't done by me. Bloody art thieves )


http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i8...etuncollab.jpg
something my mate insisted me on posting here - was done when I had just acquired my wacom. I did maybe 30% of it whereas he did the rest. Crits most welcome.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i8...zl/oldcrap.jpgold pencil
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i8...l/oldcrap2.jpgvery old pencil :/
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i8...scarnivora.jpg
just a silly idea by a weird bloke.

ps. yes, the [url]'s were intentional - and sorry for the crappy updates lately. School and all that is taking up most of my time. Once I'm done with all that I can devote myself to my 2 fav. things: drawing and world of warcraft, lol. I'll have a short breather in a couple of weeks so you can expect ENDLESS PAGES of studies then. Gonna damn well make sure I'll make noticeable improvement.

thanks again for you all kind viewers.

[Lee W]

nice sketches (didn't click on the links tho) but I want to see anatomy studies

[mechp]

Spats, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook! I appreciate it.

Let me start by saying that you have a solid start and it's good to see that you are doing a lot of greyscale stuff, it will certainly help your ability to convey volume. If I may offer some advice: It seems you have a tendency to let your work get a little muddy with too many dark greys...don't be afraid of highlights! You've gotten some nice highlights on a couple of these, but most are pretty muddy. It also seems that most of you color work is moncromatic, meaning shades of the same color...changing the heat of your color will really help you to develop volume. It looks like you are starting to grasp that concept in the greens of the last landscape's trees.

Keep up the good work!

[mechp]

ok...well i guess muddy is not exactly specific...i meant to say they get caught in the middle of the value range...push the lights and darks!

I have the same problem!

[surfacemonkey]

Thanks for posting in my SB!

One idea i would consider for your training, is to get some really cheap, larger paper (A roll of painters paper from Home Depot costs only $2.) and draw bigger pictures for a bit. try to practice ellipses and lines, and draw as large as you can with a ball-point pen.
Any sketches that you like on the painters paper, hit them with white and black prismacolor pencils, and possibly a sharpie marker. It's really really relaxing for your hand and elbow, and i try to do that before using the wacom.

I know that if i just draw on the wacom, it's sorta constricting in a way. Forcing myself to go both large and small was good advice for me, and it really helped me with my lines.

Hope that helps you. keep at it!

[Banshax]

V. nice landscape, cool warrior and seriously, finish the fatdude with some proper ink pls. he looks quite cool. Looking good Spats, keep it up. Btw if you cant afford lifedrawing, just go draw people outside. quick loose scetches. At first you`ll see you dont understand much. practice those side by side with anatomy and you`ll make up a lot for not studying nudes

[Spats]

OldNoobie - Thanks for stopping by again mate. As I mentioned earlier, I've simply had too much on my mind to put all my effort into drawing. I'm actually really looking forward to getting some time for drawing ^^.

mechp - It was my pleasure and thanks for taking a peek in mine! Thanks for the great advice. I'll be sure to write it down and think about it the next time I'm messing with colour.

surfacemonkey - Thanks for stopping by! Good advice. Not sure about the prismacolors, can't really find them around here - thanks for the tip though, I'll be sure to try it out!

Banshax - I really appreciate your kind words mate. Sounds like a sweet idea, actually it's perfect for an impatient person like me haha.

I don't even know how to thank all of you for this great help you've offered me. I hope I can repay you some day




tried following chuck.mate's awesome colouring tutorial. I stress the word 'tried' :]


^
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crappy freehand excersises
|
v


ps. I can defend myself with the fact that I had a high temperature and a nasty flu over the past few days. Well I'm still sneezing as I'm writing this o.0

[walnut]

Okay stuff in here, but i suggest you lay off the wacom and stick to traditional sketching methods for a while. And, like the other guys said, get the basics down first. It's boring grunt a lot of the time, but you'll see it pays off tremendously. So now i wanna see lots of pencils okay? Maybe it's also a good idea to try some other media like ink and charcoal too.

[Jho]

Some good stuff here. I like your digi paintings, nice use of grayscale and colors too.

[Spats]

walnut - Hey there and thanks for taking a peek! Also thanks for the great tips. I don't have many analog drawing tools except cheap crappy pencils that fall apart. Inking always sounded like so much fun. I'll try to get hold of some brushes and ink, not many shops around here that specialize in art thingies
Jho - Thanks for your kind words mate.











most of this stuff is scanned from my notebooks 'cept the robo and the last "studies". Had to throw in some weeks old stuff in there just to fill up the pages, sorry :]

[Zynic]

Those are some niiiice pencil-studies Spats
Keep that up, and you'll soar all the way up to artist-heaven, where the pros reside

[Lee W]

doing traditional sketching doesn't require special drawing tools though they do come out nicer, but a crappy #2 pencil can create a vast range of values or even using an ordinary cheap papermate pen for quick pen doodles that probably won't be saved. (hence you can tell, I am financially challenged)

anyhow, those facial studies are going good .. keep it up

[Spats]

Zynic - Haha thanks for your kind words mate! Gave me a good laugh, I needed that :]

OldNoobie - Yep I suppose you're right about that. I'm horribly cheap myself >.> - thanks for your words mate, always appreciated.


forgot to add this to my previous post. Some lame doodlings I made when I had a relatively high fever - dunno why I even was sitting next to the computer o.0


MEOW!*scratch*

[Rookie80]

Thanks for posting in my Sketchbook.
Your Pics lookin good, but i think your Pictures lookin to strange for me. drawin more with your pencile, everytime, everywhere your are.

[Meatsworthy]

Good pencil work. Looks like you also have a good idea on lighting, to really get it solid will take a lot of studies. Some general things I find useful:

- Decompose everything to basic shapes (boxes, sheres & cones)
- Use a big brush for blocking color. By big I mean if you want to paint a head, the first stroke should be the size of the head.
- For a full value range highlights and accents are also required, but they actually occupy only a very small portion of the canvas. Midtones are where a lot of paintings come alive.
- Keep zooming out/looking at thumbnails. If it reads as a thumb, it'll read at full rez. To begin, I usually paint at 2% zoom.

[weggebrecht]

Nice stuff!!! Loving it. I am trying to go digital so I love seeing the different ways everyone approaches it. Keep it up.

[anymale]

hi,

u have a good sense of light and the enviroment thumbnails looking nice.
so cu

[Spats]

Rookie80 - It was my pleasure :> Yep, I guess most of em are still a bit 'wonky' so I'll just have to keep drawing to get rid of it. Thanks for stopping by!

Meatsworthy - Wow, I'm honored by you taking a peek in here - thanks for the fantastic advice, I'll be sure to put it to use.

weggebrecht - Thanks for your words mate, I love your work aswell

anymale - Hey there and thanks for stopping by!


I saw 'Silent Hill' yesterday and got inspired by the insane monster designs in it. This one doesn't vomit acid though, it just nibs at your feet





just playing around with one of the cow topics






just messing around

Thanks for looking!