Signs Sketchbook – 1st Update Since Hiatussssss

[Matsign]

Thanks nolarc! I'll fix that after some sleep lol. I'm heading to your sb right now.

Crappy thumbs. Kinda alternate Napoleon era character uniforms?

[Davio]

nice sketchbook, I especially like the robot work on top of page 5, it would be cool to see a finished piece with one of those kind of character designs.

[Abee]

Nice progress! would like to see some more finished digital art though. That would be awesome

[iceman478]

post 149 is very good ...good stuff

[Sorknes]

Some nice work in here, but I wish you'd do more with anatomy references. The most obvious thing to dive head first into from what I see is foreshortening and anatomy.

The Napoleonic thumbs area great.

[Matsign]

Sork Thanks for leaving that crit, really helped me get motivated later today.

This evolved from a thumbnail. I just picked one to do. Lines on illustration board. Now a work in progress digitally.

[Matsign]

mooore pages!

I got some books from the library on uniforms and armor and a book on the stormtrooper of Germany

Plus some environments, included is one I used for the above, oriental castle scene.

Thanks for looking! you guys are great.

[IanE]

Great bunch of thumbs, matsign. The last 2 enviro thumbs and the Napoleon ones are rockin'. Gonna take them further or just quick little studies?

Good, good sketchbook, mhm.

[strybjorn]

theres lots of nice stuff here, lots of really good progression. i particularly love the napoleonic thumbs and the environment thumbs - obviously the next stage is to take some of them on into fully finished paintings! its hard work, but definately worth doing as you learn so much from the process... would be cool to see the napoleonic characters taken further...

oh yeah, and draw more from life, it really helps too

[Gardener]

your great progress shaked me! espacially the environment~
cheers~ keep it up, i 'm eager to see more~

[Pixeltuner]

Very nice progression indeed! Like others said, keep hammering your anatomy and there'll be some goodness on your way

[daveskogstad]

Hey Matsign, Bridgman does make me happy! its helped me inprove alot so far im just going 2 keep at it! no crits from me at the mo just asspats! love the character thumbs! keep it up

[RipNroaR]

Hey Sign, if I check how your art evolved from your first post up to now it gives me hope for my own art!
Thanks for the crit on my sb, keep posting!

[Bard]

WOWza!
Great progress man!
I feel like a proud parent hehe...

Those Napoleon thumbs are awesome

I gots no crit at this point but continue this progress....

[Bard]

Oh yeah Great thumbs on the environments!

Take your time on each lessons man you wouldn't want to rush with the gritty stuff while your fundamentals is lagging.

[kenjitsu]

Oh cool stuff, Nice progress and variation in your studies even thou you maybe should take some extra care on (muscle and movement) anatomy and in some cases perspective too. I Like the sketches. The thumbs are really nice, I love them. I want to make thumbs now. Keep on sketching. I'm learning anatomy too, it's not easy, haha.

[UnSharpened]

Definitely like your environment thumbnail~. Actually I was trying to practice some of them yesterday after I saw your work, but wheeee.. that's really difficult. Maybe I'll update them today. BTW, do you have any tips of drawing ground and rocks? It attracts me especially in those environment thumbnail. Those army study are nice, only one thing I wish is the line of cloth can be more clear, but never mind

Cheers!

[Shin-Kensou]

hey thanks for the tips in my sketchbook man, figured i'd head on to your sketchbook and wander around. seeing your progression is really neat. also, i'm liking the environments your doing right now, really sharp.

likewise keep'em commin!

[Matsign]

Kensou No problem and thanks dude! I put a lot of work into those thumbnail environments. I think I'm defeating my purpose

Unsharpened I've gotten some pretty good help with the environments. They are nothing amazing but its all about doing a lot of them. I was taught to do thumbnails for layouts for graphic design and its just stuck with me. THUMBIES!

Rocks, hm... It really depends on what kind of rock. I just try to follow a flow of the rocks. I try to think contours then give it my own twist on which way it develops.
I think planes. Big planes seem to happen when theres nothing around to break up that large area. Small ones around foots of cliffs and stuff. Use persepective and use the rocks as graphical device to guide the eye. They aren't usually important but they can certainly look cool.

I'll have more patience on the army studies. 15 more to go.

Imagolith Thanks for coming by! I've been working on movement some, but I have nothing to show for it lol. All my good sketches are usually on some scrap paper or a sheet of something from work. It's really fun to break down form and build it back up again. Yes! Do thumbs! A shit ton!

Bard Hey thanks so much, it made my day haha. I really like those char thumbs and I'm itching to do more. Whenever I think I'm doing good I think, 'BARD' 'FUNDAMENTALS' and I hear a whiplash You've helped me so much. I hope to return the favor somehow.

Rip Cheers man, and keep drawing! I can't see the progression myself, but its apparent from others something is going on here...

DAVE For you too.

Pixel Thanks matey. The only time I stop drawing is when I'm so tired I stop looking at what I draw lol... sometimes it can be cool, mostly it looks like a pile of poo.

GardenerWow thanks! You're really skilled, I'm honored friend.

styrborn Thanks and cheers to ya! Its been too long since I've done live drawing

IanE You're awesome, yayaya.


Robot front-liner that fell out of my head!


thumbnails for CHOW. 19 effin thumbnails. damn.

[Rist]

Keep up the drawing I can see vast improvements!

Lets see if I can make some logical critiques.

This

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...3&d=1199368523

I think an important factor when painting in digital is its brush use. For painting soft edges and transitions it is best to use a HARD edged brush and a very low flow such as 10% or 20%. Personally I have started using my own custom brushes. Even though these are great I do need to look at if they are worth using. I might give you the resources to make the same brush I use when I get time.

With this painting I see two separate styles. A cell shaded outline style and a tonal gradient style. This can work, but for studies I think you need to choose one or the other. For me I would use the tonal style so that I can make as much detail as I can to learn as much as possible. If I was using the sketch as reference, i would use the sketch layer as a multiply layer, use it at around 40% and when working on something I would hide and show that layer once in a while to see the overall line effect. Remember, with tonal style you are looking for a non-outline finish.

As for the colours; I would say the lips are only slightly too saturated; the hair, which might not be that important, would be a chromatic grey, so less saturation than now; I would say overall he seems too flushed. He needs to be less saturated, less red, more beige. Also take into consideration the colour of the light source and the intensity; this can play a vital role in skin colour. Next think about WHY certain places show up that colour; you have set the bridge of the nose much redder than the bud, now from all accounts the bug would be rosy due to blood cells under the skin, while the bridge would be pale, much paler as it would have an highlight. I would say the eyes are too sharp in edge; you have to think of the eye as one organ, even more a ball. As a ball it has no hard edges, so the edges around the iris would be slightly blurred and broken up.

I see right now Digital painting being your major weakness. This is no bad thing, I too have that weakness. This is because I studied in traditional way longer than I have digital. To fix this start studying master works. Start by painting heads.

Hope this helps. Your drawings, as said, are coming along; you just need to keep practising and sooner or later you will pass that invisible boundary than lets you drawing anything, anytime, from the mind.

As you know, we have been watching DVD's. I also did this a few months back. I believe most of these are too advanced. I believe they are more for reference for those already very very good at art. There are exceptions, like the ones that teach you how to shade, those that show perspective, or those that show anatomy. But any like Ryan Churches seem more for intermediate painters. So would it be best to use the 2 hours watching dvd's you do not need yet for drawing more of what you like, or even studying anatomy? Like mentioned, if you do watch DVD's like Gnomeman, make sure its your skill level. Also if you can, watch the Vilpuu first as they will get you to draw the things you need and keep you away from things that seem too much yet.

From what i have seen you still need improvements with line work, observation, and anatomy. I can see you are very determined that is why i want to point these out so that you will focus on rectifying these. If you bring in harder subjects like colour, tones, composition, and perspective; it will make life really hard as it will make you neglect the foundation level in art.

I hope some of this helps. I did not proof read because I am lazy and busy. Thanks for reading this crap.

[UnSharpened]

Yeh, I agree with you.. the perspective guide does look cool!! haha
Thanks for you answering. Indeed, the only truth is the more you practice on it, the more naturally those ideas will come out.
And those thumbnail you got are the best evidence of what you claim. Plus you've gotten a lot of help, I think it's just like Rist said, you'll be able to break the boundary soon.

Cheers!!

[Trashy]

Great sb Matsign! I think a lot of your sketches are full of good imagination and all you pencil strokes are loose and confidant in my opinion. Really like those thumbnail sketches you've got.

okay, as for painting digitally the biggest thing that always helped me out was studying from real life. You know those apple studies I did in my sb, you get a ton of information out of those. The main thing is to get just a apple or a simple shape and really study the living hell out of it. It takes hours and a lot of patience but you seriously can improve tenfold by doing those. Another thing is to check your values. Turn your pieces in b&w often. The idea is to create something that is more then just one dimensional. If you can't get your values right everything will fall flat. Value is just important as color and this is something I struggled with for awhile, still do sometimes. Idiot Apathy pointed that out to me so remember to check for that.

Anyway, judging from your sb I think you are working very hard at improving and from page 1 to page 6 there is a big difference. Keep it coming and you'll get there in no time.

[Matsign]

Hey I'll get some crits to you two when I get home tonight. I'll throw in a master head I tried. I spent like 800 hours on it and it still doesn't get anything across to me. I'm going to keep trying these. I want to do the majority of them digitally.


original:



Minor update on self portrait.

[sweet_sorrow]

These look great! The only thing that stands out a lot in your last work are his lips, they are a tad too red, versus a blushed nudish color.

[wookiedabo]

lovely lil ink and pencil sketches further up, nice stuff. the lips on ya portrait are facing in a different direction to the rest of the face, and the blocked in tonal values so far make the cheeks look a lil uneven. nice colours tho, try working more of that cool blue shadow youve got goin below the chin into the rest.

[Matsign]

sweet_sorrow Thanks! I tried to fix the lips tonight.

wookie I tried some more of that blue. I always wanted to push it more and be brave with that ultramarine kinda color. I like full spectrum portraits. I dunno how the cheeks look. I may have to abandon this self portrait and just start another.
I'm not even looking at myself anymore.

More time. About time to put it down and behind me.

[Matsign]

it feels like time is tapping on my shoulder.




15-20 min

[Rist]

I hope I am not offending, but I feel the line work on those paintings are A: putting you at a disadvantage while painting, B: makes the painting look more rough than it is.

Now what I do is I have the sketch on a separate layer and set it to multiply. If you are working dark to light, at least have the darkest point around 75% - 80%, and have the sketch layer 100% (layer opacity). Then while painting, keep turning on and off the sketch layer to see how far the piece is coming along and if you are making any mistakes. Also from time to time, flip the canvas horizontally and LOOK at your work, try and see mistakes, then start painting in that view for a little while, then flip back and LOOK again, then paint again; this will keep your vision clear while painting.

If you feel your work is too saturated, while through intuition or analysed at the side of the original; then press ctrl + U and turn down the opacity. If you feel the overall piece is too warm, cool, or anything to do with temperature; the fastest way is to use colour balance, but careful with this.

What brushes are you using? Custom make ones can easily make your strokes look more natural. Making a brush specific for hair can drastically improve both workflow and quality.

[Rist]

From looking at your sketches I am convinced you are drawing straight from the mind. From now on could you add some more thoughts into the process;

1. How does that fabric fold when that item is touching it?

2. How is the fabric creasing at the edges? REALLY why does it crease like that? Think of pressure, gravity, and the thickness of the material.

3. Shading. Why would i shade that part of the drawing that much darker than that part? To emphasis? Or is the object naturally that value? If so how much contrast has it developed because I shaded it in while the other parts are left paper colour?

4. I would also like to refine my drawings once I have scribbled in an idea. I would like to start going over the pencil with a Rotary Pen, or at least a black fine tipped technical pen. Once I am happy with my results I will erase the pencil marks to make my image pretty!

5. Perspective. Why will I show that object at that angle? What am I showing to the viewer? That weapon and the sleeve? But WHY? Is it important to the narrative? I will not be afraid of difficult perspective drawing, with rules I can accomplish it! If it is so hard I will use Vanishing points and Horizon lines!

6. In my sketches I am overlapping drawings! But why? Is it like a brainstorm where I am putting down on paper what I am thinking? If so, does the way I am placing them effect my thinking? Will overlapping hide key parts of the drawing? What about the angle of the drawings, all parallel, or random? Why make them like that!

7. When at the very basics of designing characters; the thumbnails. Why would I make the poses dynamic? Would it be more logical to make them static and up straight so that I can put all my imagination into the designs? Once I am happy with a design, then I give my creation a characters, like a pose to tell the story of this characters personality.

Those are the thoughts I would have, plus more depending on what I am making.

[copperfire]

It was fun to go through this sketchbook and see your progress, very nice work here, keep working on proportion and let me say your line variation is great! Keep it up!