► beautiful liar

[DanielC]

well... i dunno what to suggest about the oil since i've done any myself, but i think you could go further with the colours. Add some different colours...like you usually do on digital stuff.
The construction lines are interesting to see. But i think the arm pitt areas are a could use a bit more attention =)...
The second and third pics are good...but strangely blurry. I'm sure you can add some nice solid planes and details.
And to finish, the pencil one is cool. Maybe smooth the lips a bit more like you did on the guy at the top left corner.

[oma]

that girl is pretty dark in the oils.
but what the hell, it doesn't matter. oils are wonder full > it dry's and you can paint over it again. if 'you' think it suck, but i doesn't. it's your first, so don't expect something outstanding, learn from the mistakes.

just got me photoshop cs 3 , never used PS, maybe i will in the furture.

nice gesture's from mind, have to do them to.
nice pencils like allway's.

[asoir]

That 20mn speedy a while back is great man.
Great first oils! Keep at it.

[Justin.]

Your values and form rendering is great in drawings, but I think you need to work on constructive anatomy on the face just a bit.

You do great Serratus muscles

[Kronos]

Hey man, i've seen a bunch of your stuff before, and i've actually looked through your sketchbook before too but i finally decided to say hi.

first off this dude is freakin awesome! really nice lighting and colours, and it looks like thick paint too which is really nice. i know its from photo ref, but damn cool all the same.

this one's nice too, but kinda confusing, the face reads great and thats where your eye goes, but the rest you really have to study to pic out what everything is.... if you know what i mean.

nice start on the oil, the skin colour is quite orangy and quite similar all over, and the structure of the head is really wonky at the moment, but i know your still just at the early stages. just a reminder, don't get too bitsy too early on in the piece, it look like your fiddling with the back a lot but you haven't blocked in everything else yet.

the plastic wrap man is cool, his hand looks like its being twisted a little funny and the face isn't quite doing it for me but the body is really nice and the its a really cool experimentational piece. his torso is quite rigid though, like hes got a pole running up his back.

anywayz, just saying hi and trying my best to give some critiques

and yay for the southern hemisphere

[Coinpurse]

where you at Strut? haven't seen you on messenger since the last time we OC'd ;P

[AztcFireFlower]

Pencils looking good. Keep developing these. The digi speeds have that energy that I admire in alot of great works. The profile reffed in post #158 makes good use of brushwork, the tiling of color in your strokes. Keeps it lively. GOOD JOB.

Kronos makes some good points about this piece and your oil.

Girl in Mask - What attracts is the variation in pattern in this pic. I think that adding a glaze of alizaren to the darkest dark would add depth, in areas around her face, allowing her face to rise out of Bg a bit while setting BG back. If you did add color to the black BG areas, then my screen may not be picking it up. The black, grey areas feel monchromatic. I see it has red influence in the mix, but it feels like a reddish black monochrome. In a color environment, even black will pick up surrounding color( color reflected from off camera?) and is far from just grey values. Think of using a little complementary color and reflected color to turn form in the red areas.

To help her face pop, maybe toning down the white stripe in BG, so it doesn't compete with her. Remember the purer the chroma the more the eye will pull towards it. Maybe applying richer red to her mask can make it come forward. Use color to selectively recede (greyer/neutralized) and bring out (purer) focus points.
Mask - I am constantly wanting to straighten out the eye hole on the right. IMO It detracts from her eye within or attracts for the wrong shape reason. My particular thought here, of course, but my idea is manufactured versus organic, unless the mask is hand made, the sameness of the mask holes will allow the organic shapes of her irises, parts of lid showing, to have more life. Anyway, just my 2 1/2 cents worth, could be wrong.

On the oil. Good entry into this fascinating medium. So many things to juggle, value, value with color in halftones, shadows, cool vs warm. But, one thing that my teachers beat into me first is that flesh tone is greyer than we think. Once again complementaries come to the rescue. Reason why blue and greens are often used in mixes of skin tones; to offset the orange of initial mixes. For this, you must do paintings from a live model, 'cause cameras will add there own, not necessarily accurate adjustments. This is the best way to learn to see color. Also, guidance from an experienced observer helps tremendously.

Overall, a nice go. I hope I wasn't too harsh. Now I'm a little worried about putting up my oil studies after all this blathering.

[bhanu]

hey man,
Well eveything sucks in the beginning, dont hesitate . People can crit only when you post ya shit dawg.Hehe.
now the update, nice stuff mate.the last one is oilly. its looking good mate. better then my first attempts. the good thing is that its standing out thats good .the sketches look flowy , amking progress eh?
Good update brother.
Take care.

[Brendan N]

Hey guys, sorry for not updating, and sorry for not replying to all of you now,. I'm simply too tired to make enough sense. Thanks for all the help and crits, replies and return visits first thing in the morning, promise!

The truth is apart from being a mediocre cliche artist I'm also a casual (well, not casual) gamer, and I got my new graphics card that I've been waiting for. So right now I'm playing all the games I never could, and that's taking the toll on art....

Anycase, I am still trying to keep up the studies and exercises. So here are two - hogarth studies, and another speed. With the speed I was focusing a lot more on the general design and balance and playing of with the edge/contrasts. It's not really successful, too blocky, but it's a start.

I'm going to shut up now. Again.

- d.

[Brendan N]

Reply time - I know I said early this morning, but the site has been down (here at least) and I haven't been able to reply...

Daniel: Yo dude, wasup? I'd like to add some more real colour with the oil, but I'm forcing myself to work with only four colours. Guess I'll have to play around with the saturation and good juxtaposition to create some cooler tone.

oma: thanks dude, all the highlights still need to be added, which If I pull it off correctly will make it all pop out. Thanks for the kind words my friend and keep sky-rocketing!

asoir: thanks dude, cheers for dropping in mate!

Justin: Thanks homes, I think with my faces I need to do more life drawings and really get round to getting comfortable with the features in perspective, but you're right they do need work. Thanks for the kind words, truth be told I'm still quite uncomfortable with the Serratus and oblique muscle areas lol.

Kronos: Wow, thanks so much for that post! I'm taking everything into account! With the oil, I still need to add the highlights, want to make it warm and fuzzy, but I'll also work out some colour harmony once I finally get time to give it attention. Good points on the other paintings, will try to work on these errors! And yay for the southern hemisphere! And yay for atheism!

Thestjester: Heya Mickey. Mouse. right here, and updating. but predominantly just chilling out lol.

AztcFireflower: Awesome! Thanks so much for that, I truly appreciate it! And no, you were by no means too harsh lol. I see what you are saying about the masked woman. Looking back I feel it is definitely too confusing and lacking of a strong focal point apart from the eyes. Working red into the black would definitely help to create unity in colour, and adding some subtly complementaries would definitely have made it pop out.. Will keep these things in mind for the future! On the oils - the skin tone is something else lol. I was torn between a saturated fuzzy piece, and a pale "gothic" piece. I went with the saturated line, bigger challenge. So the idea is like candle light, but I'm having difficulty with it, think it should be resolved in the background. I'll try to get some different colours flowing by toying with the saturation and temperature! Thanks for the reply and help, really appreciate it!

bhanu: You think I'm making progress bro? I hardly feel it hehe. Want to give up art for a lifetime career as the laundry guy at the local house haha. j/k, whilst I'm in an art low, I'll occupy myself with studies! Thanks for stopping in man, glad to hear my things are flowing better!

Brendan: Get the fuck out of here, shit head.

-----
And for your entertainment and delight, here is a little experiment gone wrong

ciao peeps!

- d.

[oma]

are you doing some photo shop adjustments on your pencils ? because the color's looking just awesome.

Really love that hogarth study....

and don't game to much, i played a lot of counterstrike and cod.
i was really good at it. but it really time killing.
so iam stopped now. only plaining now and then .

what game's are you playing ?

[j a k e]

Pencil anatomy is great as usual. Really top stuff. Very solid stuff all in all mate.

[Kronos]

yay for the southern hemisphere! And yay for atheism!

HAHA! hell yeah yay for atheism, things would be a lot more simplistic around the world if everyone thought like that (not at all stirring if anyone else reads this)

i like the recent hogarths, after seeing your and daniel C's recent ones i'm feeling awfully tempted to do some too... my anatomy from memory its really terrible. anyway, back to your studies. they look really good, perhaps on the shaded one, around the other side of the elbow is a little funny, like the arm turns to rubber??? also the part going from the neck to the shoulder on the same side is possibly too low, it makes the arm look disjointed or something.

the speed paint is cool, although very unclear but i don' think you were focusing on that... is it a mech firing something off to the left? cool feel to the piece though with the colours and texture, feels warish.

the last piece, as you say aint the best but gold star for effort ..... nah just kidding, the eye is quite cool, i like seeing the direction of your strokes and stuff. i also really like the way her leg curves too, i spose its almost exaggerated, but really elegant and cool... i don't know that just caught my eye

cool man keep at it!

[Coinpurse]

heyas, getting better with form. The line anatomy was great, but it seems every time you attempt a gray scale, the lines turn into smoosh. Still enjoying these, the eye looks decent (maybe concentrate more on values?) but strengthen up your figures a bit more. Keep it up brah!

[Brendan N]

Hey guys, big thanks for the support, I truly appreciate it!

oma: Thanks dude, yeah I fix them up in photoshop otherwise you can't make anything out. Odd how photoshop can seemingly pick up such subtle difference in value... and my camera. I know I should play less, but I have been slaving away most of the holiday, and diverting attention and chilling will get me out of this horrid art slump. I'm playing the newest Rainbow 6 - Vegas - and some Neverwinter Nights 2, both of which are great games in there own right. btw, counterstrike and cod are for the losers who cannot play quake .

jake: look who the hell is talking. Thanks man, I really appreciate that coming from you. had a glance at those portrait studies of yours - unbelievable man, really. I tried one similar and after an afternoon of trying I just got pissed off and gave up (for now ). Kudos mate.

Kronos: once again many thanks for your considerate post man. I see your points on the anatomy studies, though I'm not sure what you mean by "rubbery" ... is it the rendering or is it curving (wobbly?) The arm doesn't look quite right, just wanna know what you think is exactly wrong . On the speed - yeah, I'm going to have a few more of those unclear ones, just to get loose enough. And finally, yeah the last one sucked... interesting you note the curvature on the leg, that slight exaggeration is something I like and I intend to incorporate it into my style some. Glad to hear it was well received!

TheST: Heya Mickey name-changing Mouse lol. Thanks man, yeah I really do need to work on my b&w shaded and my figures, so here's to a year's worth of practice! lol. Thanks for stopping man, always aooreciate it. Oh yeah, UPDATE your SB mofo!

----
Two shits, the first is one ("five years old") of the rare cases where the figure is intentionally deformed, not accidentally lol, so don't mind the hunchback, but there are still anatomy errors... the second is just a crap, playing around.... not sure why I want to post it but here goes lol

c+c welcome!
ciao!

- d.

[DanielC]

Yo brendan, nice stdies goind on. Show us some more of these !
The digies are looking good too. But I can't figure out the planes on the eye on the digi in the 190th post.
Don't forget to keep things clean and readable.
Keep it up !!

Edit: oops...posted the same time you did
Nice colours. I like the mood of the first one....even if it's old =)

[oma]

i cannot play quake ?

what quake do you mean ?
quake 1 ? ---> played quake 1 before counterstrike .

quake 4 isn't that good. quake 3 either.
but i have quake 4 still on my computer. don't like it that much. it's to slow. and i don't like the feeling.

i really love quake 1, but it died, only the ultimate die hards are playing quake in Europe. so i went over to counterstrike . tryed quake 4 wen it came out. but it had a different feeling than quake 1 .
conclusion : i can play quake .

but that second looks nice... but it looks like there are some perspective error's. it doesn't feel right. but i can't tell the errors --- LOL.

[bhanu]

I am loving the use of highlights in your digis sweet, reminds me of tuchtens work . But one thing I would say is do something to pop the foreground out. Hey how did thestchange his name man. Magic?
And whats up with everyone doing hogarth ? SO many question ?
the truth is out there.
and and dude check this out
http://www.gnosis.art.pl/iluminatorn...eksinski04.htm
I shit my pants watching this.

[geldslaw]

i love your work, and the sense of freedom and openess in your work, obviousy your not afraid to explore and I although I'm no art critic, as a punter I know what I like and I like what I see. the very first image of the man in the business suit and being half demon is one I like very much, made me think of the number of grey or black suits you see people wearing to work every day as though they're off to a funeral, lol and their alter ego trying to get outside, a sort of 'Dr Jekyle and Mr Hyde' thingy going on lol

fantastic stuff, thank you for letting me look

[Coinpurse]

Gasp! what is this? could this be the beginning of a new Brendan N? what the phuck is this!?!?

I sense something great approaching....




lol ok seriously though, digging these last two.
The second one because of the gloomy perspective,
and the first one because...well, its phuckin' weird.
You got something good going on here, but that........
.....things ....arm is a bit "woogly"

apologies if I'm not making any sense, I'm so high right now.

[Wysocki]

Grate works here , I like Your speed's.

[JERI]

Hey Brendan

Light/shadow great as usual.

About this one http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1168288381
I'm wondering if her face should be darker given the apparent location of the light source, I can't be sure. Other than that I think her should should be shifted a little bit to the left, closer to her head.

Just my two cents, not sure if it's the type of crit you're looking for.

[Brendan N]

Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated in a while ... been in a bit of a slump lately.

Daniel: Thanks man, really glad ya like! Right now things might not turn out as clean and readable as you or I would like, but this is because I'm trying to loosen up some more. I think if I loosen up everywhere my figures will also start to look better. Thanks for the props man, your advice is always appreciated!

Oma: nah, I was just kidding with ya! I mean all the quakes, and I like all of them really, esp. 3. Q4 had a disappointing multiplayer, but the singleplayer was very entertaining, top notch old school shooter. Q3 is for me today still the definitive Deathmatch game. Q2 had an awesome singleplayer, finished it the other day again - still entertaining! and Q1's deathmatch is the most fun you can have with your clothes on whilst at school. Conclusion: Quake rocks! (pun intended) Thanks for the props man, really appreciate it!

bhanu: Thanks bro! Yeah, foreground is a bit wonky hehe. TheST probably asked one of the admins to change his name ... who knows... it's a conspiracy ... and the truth is out there. That link you gave me is also a conspiracy - no man can do that! shat myself all over looking through it, thanks for the link bro!

geldslaw: wow, thanks so much! I'm really glad you like what you see, not entirely sure I deserve such gracious compliments hehe. You hit the nail with the "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" comment, the piece was done for a "Bi-polar Man" themed topic. Thanks for your dropping by bud!

TheST: My original postulate would have implied: "you must be high because you like that picture." I am however forced to abandon such a notion as you have supplied me with another, indisputably more true, version of the theory: "you must like that picture because you are high." lol. Thanks bro, and yeah I'm definitely going to explore more down this avenue! muchas gracias for stoppin by man!

Wysocki: Thanks!

JERI: Thanks dude! Darkening her face would be cool for the composition besides being more accurate, should've thought of that lol! Yeah her arm is too far behind, but then she *is* a hunchback hehe. thanks for dropping by man!

-----

Just some sketches, incl. a would-be CHOW entry (Cowboy theme). Might end up colourin it in anycase, might not.

hope ya like! ciao!

- d.

[Shinryu]

Hello mate, how's it going? Nice updates, would really like to see more line only studies. Paints are looking good also.

cheers

[oma]

i don't know what that first guy doing ? is he lying around ? is he standing ? wtf?

i like that second page. specifically that fat guy on the bottom. has he just killed someone? is he hiding his face because of shame!?, who knows. but i like him a lot. the other gesture's are nice to. but your line's are not as good as before. i mean, very chunky. fast sketches ?

and then you cow.
i like the background .
and i like the body. but i dislike that face. i think because something is bothering me there. don't know what exactly. but it's something. yeah i know, i told something like this before, but that is what i thinking.

so lot of work on the chow, and it will look awesome.
now it's a peace with potential .

keep it up.. Grtz, Rob.

[DanielC]

Alo brendan!
Cool pencils! The shading's a bit messy sometimes though.
But as long as you're practicing... hehe
Something that you might like is not outlinning too much the figures and add a rather light value so we can read the shape without an outline.. which would make the render more realistic =).
Keep it up monseigneur !

[Brendan N]

Just to clarify, oma - the CHOW is in fact the first pic of the cowboy leaping through midair and shooting stuff, the digi is just a sketch I did in Painter and PS.

- d.

[bhanu]

hiiyya, cool eh updates man,
The pencils look but a central source of light seems to be missing. Doing some experimenting, and somewhere looks smudged like daniel said. hmm they look like you were inspired by ben olsen. the same feel oozes out of the chow really slick stuff the forms are well defined. looking good mate.

[Coinpurse]

oy, that last one is sick man!
Think that the cowboy is looking a little stiff in the air.
Also doesnt look like he's "freefalling" but that comes with the stiffness lol.
Keep going man!

[Brendan N]

Hey guys!

Shinryu: Hey mate, fine and self? Thanks, will do some more line only studies, my line's been sagging really need to practice it... thanks for stoppin in man, cya round!

oma: he's leaping through the air. these are fast sketches, loosening up some so yes they will be messy. the digi is not the cow or the chow, it's just a sketch trying to get something down as fast as I possibly can! won't get more work though. thx for dropping by man.

Daniel: Merci! yes the shading is far too messy, but it will clear up once I start doing tighter rendering again. I'll also do some more realistic stuff and drop the hard outline... think I need to vary the weight of my line more too.... thanx for stopping in bro, man need to hop over to your book!

bhanu: thanks bro, I'll try to clear things up and get away from the smudgyness. Central light source missing? These are just sketches, do they need a central light source? Nobody told me! lol, thanks for stoppin by man!

TheST: Yo bro, thanks man. Stiffnesssssssss...... sucksssssssssss. will look into it ..... this one was intended for colouring and usually thing come on better in that department, but it still doesn't excuse a bad thumb does it? lol, thanks bro, glad you stopped by!

-----
updates - 2. Pencils, more looseness, very messy - will clean it up once I've got this stiffness out of my hand. and painter/ps doodle. bout 95% painter, 5% PS.... c+c welcome!

ciao!

- d.