sketcheth book o learning 072410

[UpDownTurnAround]

yay for travis touchdown and ~sexy mermaid! they look really good!

[kingcoyote]

Way nice updates dude!

It's my understanding that yeah, complimentary colors in the shadowed areas really make them pop, and give the whole thing a certain volumeness... If that makes any sense. There is a science to it, but I'm not fluent in it. I think Android did a video on it... like ten or fourteen bucks from massive dvd, but there's also probably some color theory tutorials around here if you dig a bit.

Actually, as I thought about it for a minute, I remembered a pretty good article about it HERE . Hope this helps! Keep up the great work!

KC

[Augmenton]

I thought you were good when I first found your book a while back, but boy have you improved. I'm liking the new direction your characters are going, they're not so stumpy looking. In general, I think you are getting much better at making your characters flow and look loose. Your painting and color skills are improving as well. Keep up the great work, I want to see more.

[sketcheth]

Hey guys. The response from my last bit of posting was absolutely awesome, I'm ashamed I haven't posted in so long, but here goes again with a mass update.
DanielC: Aww thanks! I'll try to keep all of that in mind. I should definitely do some more studies when I get frustrated with things like that. I should post a pic of my progress on that particular work, as well...it needs it. Thanks again!

Updownturnaround: Thank you!

kingcoyote: Aweomse, I'm glad I'm at least on the right track...theoretically anyways. I guess it really just takes experimentation to really get a grasp and understandign of it. Awesome, thank you for the tutorial. I'll keep this one in mind on my next piece. Thank you!

Augmenton: Hey thanks a bunch. It's really cool to hear that I'm improving from other people every once in a while, becuase sometimes I don't feel that way about my own work. I keep trying. Thanks for commenting, bro.

[ASVogel]

Enjoyed the gestures in your last update. You make it look easy.

[UpDownTurnAround]

the whale rider looks fantastic.

[sketcheth]

Brief update, more later probably. I finished that No More Heroes fanart...but still...it ends up looking kind of crappy. I lost a ton of resolution somewhere along the way, but didn't want to start over...well...it was color theory practice I think...
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AikidoAl: Thanks! I do my best.
UpDownTurnAround: Thanks!
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[UpDownTurnAround]

travis touchdown looks much better in his completed form, though the upper left part of the background distracts me with the big white squiggle. maybe a continuation of the clouds upward, or even just to blend the white area with the color around it would be better. mr. touchdown himself turned out very well.

[sketcheth]

another massive update...this time with my sketches for the CHoW last week...some unfinished digital painting works...the final pages of my most recent sketchbook...time to start a new one. This last one was 176 acid-free pages. It lasted me from February 6th, to May 5th, almost exactly 3 months...convenient length. Maybe I can finish this one a little quicker...

UpDownTurnAround: Yeah, I think I'll refine the background a little bit more before I do anything with it. Thanks for critiquing, it's nice.

[a la bapsi]

Your style's....graceful and pretty.
Extremely inspiring.
I love those expressive faces you gave those girls! x]
Subscribing you for sure.
Thanks for helping me with my digital painting.

[sketcheth]

happy mothers day. I'm celebrating by drawing demonic creatures. God bless my mom for being so tolerant of me. I'm working on the CHoW 116, the Host. Quite a challenge...here are my sketches anyways. I don't know why I always wait until Sunday to really start the final product...at least I have my idea pretty much down at this point, now it's only executing. Whee.

So sketchbook pages and a crop of a digital painting that I have been working on. I also just got a digital camera for really cheap, so I'm going to be photographing some of my oil paintings from this semester and posting those up real soon.
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aifolx: Hey man, I appreciate thae kind words. I'll keep helping you if you give me crits too. Thanks for stopping by!


CRITIQUES. PLEASE! I think I'm in dire need of some hard core anatomy studies. But I just end up watching FLCL instead, somehow...odd.

[sketcheth]

Hey, finished my chow, here's the sketch and the final. Whee. Also, here are some charcoal drawings I did on the wall in my room...it was just plain white so I took advantage of that.

[paperX]

holy **** dude!!! slow down with the awesomeness

its getting really hard to give you crits cuz all i wanna do is just asspat haha

your digi-colouring is getting more and more awesome, i'm in love with pretty much all the ones you've posted recently! i know i've said this before...but i think if you try adding some complementary/ opposite hues to the shadows (or the try colour picking some colours from the background and add into it) it would make it look even better

not much more i can say....you get 5 stars from me for all the hard work and continuing self-improvement, no bias here at all i promise

PS: i'm gonna update my thread now! thanks for the asskicking

[zeal]

Some of your work is amazing and some is not up to par
for your skill level. My critique would be that some of your figures legs look too short and their center of gravity is off. I also find the elf ears distracting, they kind of pigeon hole your work into the fairy realm. Your human characters are much more impressive. Overall I'd say you have a lot of skill and I hope my comments help in someway. Enjoyed viewing your book.

[kinjark]

nice work. post again. soon.

[sketcheth]

Another update. Hooray. I hope to do some paintings over this weekend. Maybe speedpaints...

zeal:Yes, thank you very, very much for commenting. I'll try to keep some of these things in mind. Thanks for stopping by.

kinjark: Done.

[drd]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...2&d=1210652597

Very cool.

I know I love asspats but I know they're not good for me either, it's just I'm not good at giving critique. =/

So, at risk of giving you degenerative and unhelpful advice, asspats instead!

[TotesHerz]

Your figures are freaking amazing. Any advice for someone wanting to improve theirs?
Blah, enough asking for shameless help on my part. You're wanting crits? Hmm...I'll toss in my two cents.

Your portraits 'n variations on facial structure have improved since the start of the sketchbook, but often you still seem to use the same lips/nose. Try pushing it and making some really crazy faces, see what happens.

In a few of your digital stuff it looks like you're using a small brush and 'hatching'. It's hard to explain, but it makes some spots look sort of muddy, colorwise. I'd suggest using a larger brush and working with that, finding some sort of middle ground. Though this crit may be a more personal preference on my part, to be honest.

But...Awesome stuff in general. I'm still drooling over your figures and faces, they have tons of personality to them.

[sketcheth]

Just another update. Real quick before bed. I'll respond to comments next post, guys. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RESPONSES. It's awesome. I love you guys.
I worked on some greyscale painting, messing with PainterX brushes? I need to customize things.

[DARAF]

cool sketches dude. Rock on.

[sketcheth]

drd: Haha, thanks man. I appreciate the pat.

TotesHerz: Thanks for the props, I'm glad you kind of picked up on those things because I pride myself on having personality in my character faces and things. But you're definitely right about the reoccurring facial structure...I'm a slave to the generic it seems. I'll try to mix it up as much as I can in my next few posts, just to try to break that habit.

The hatching coloring style is another thing I noticed about myself...I love hatching with drawings, so it's only kind of appropriate that I'd find myself doing it in a painting... I'll do my best to really try to use some larger brushes as well, then, just to avoid that some more. Thanks for the critique! Sometimes you really just don't realize that you're getting in a rut until someone else points it out.

As far as tips go, look at my post. Posemaniacs drawings. I love em, they help loads. www.posemaniacs.com/blog

DARAF: Thank you, my friend.
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Well here's an update today. Special thanks to Algenpfleger for giving me some awesome productivity advice and general direction for my sketching. Check out the link, that man's sketchbook is amazing. He is a beast. Always drawing, I say. It's unreal.

So here's the post. A cicada study from reference. About 30 minutes in Painter X, I was also trying to learn custom brushes and captured brushes...anyone have any advice on what makes the best kind of captured brushes? I'm a bit confused by it all...anyways. And then there are these posemanic 30 second drawings from my sketchbook.

Maybe a few more drawings later, thanks for all of you that are commenting, it keeps me going.

[Jasper_]

great stuff dude. i love the gestural quality that your lines have. it really allows you to pull some awesome stuff from you imagination. keep it up man, i enjoyed looking through your stuff.

[sketcheth]

Pyroclasm00: Thanks man, I try to keep my work loose. Thanks for stopping by!

Here's a small update to start the day...a digital painting I did last night kind of running with the current ChoW theme, but ultimately I just wanted to figure out how to use Painter X's brush creator. Wow. What a great tool. I now have a couple of custom brushes that I like and I feel special.

Please give all the critiques you like. I'd particularly like critiques on how effect my use of texture is in this piece? Do you think there could be more? Or maybe there are better textures I could be using for my brushes? In any case, thanks for your continued comments and support.

[sketcheth]

Here you go guys. Posemaniacs sketches from earlier. A fifty figures project from the community section of the forums. A little monkey/cat creature from an OC I had with a buddy earlier today. Whoo. Long day. More tomorrow! Huzzah!

Comments and critiques, PLEASE!

[algenpfleger]

Dude, your egstures honestly put me to shame. I mean... seriously. They're so fluid, vivid, everything, along with your character faces... awesome. So posemaniacs helps to improve that? Cause I seriously need to work on that part.

Thanks for mentioning me up there man, you're being too kind!

Hmm I think you should get into pencil rendering now, instead of hatching... hmm, actually it's the same thing, just without the white spots in between. Let your hatching follow the form! No, you already do that haha You rock man.

About those digis, err... I don't know. Just do more of em Paint from life, yeah. Like basic stuff, fruit and such. Helps you understand light much better.

I need to drop by this book more often. Keep it up man

[sketcheth]

algenpfleger: I think posemaniacs is really good for helping with line quality, after a bit of working the 30 second poses, you have to draw so quickly you're just trying to use as few strokes as possible, but at the same time, trying to really make them count. So I try to always keep that in mind as I'm working, my lines should have varying width and stuff like that...
Hey it's no problem, you've really helped me a lot.
I usually only hatch because it's convenient and it shows form. Actual rendering means I need a larger range of hardness in my pencils. So I guess basically I don't render because I'm too lazy to go out and by an assortment.
I noticed that with your speedpaints of the fruit you seem to have a very natural light source, or is that just a lamp? Because it really looks like daylight sometimes. I'll definitely try that.
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Here's some additional stuff...sketches from my sketchbook and a speedpainting that took me about 60 minutes...wasn't really counting too precisely.

[algenpfleger]

Whoooo colors are getting better!

Ah, so that's it. Hmm, definitely have to get into posemaniacs again.
About the rendering, I believe Wes uses only some standard HB pencil, so that should suffice completely.

And yeah, it's daylight. It's really hard to capture, but also much more interesting. Give it a try

Hmmmmmm your figures are great.

[sketcheth]

Algenpfleger - Thanks man, things are definitely improving, and at quite a rate, too, like I can feel it, haha.

So it's just HB? Well I guess I have no excuse then. I'll try to get into that, or maybe at least combing the two techniques for added texture or something...I guess it's just all in the contrast, huh?

It's a shame that I have to live in a basement with no windows near my pc, haha.
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Today's stuff...just some posemaniacs to start off the day, along with things I didn't scan yesterday...a lot of posemaniacs. I think maybe I should take a break from posemaniacs to do some anatomy studies...

[TotesHerz]

Mm, such fluid poses and gestures. I love it.
Your paintings are looking really great too, I'm digging the 'seaguy' one, and the nice, large and easy-to-read brushstrokes you've got, without compromising on any detail. Looks great.

[Kan Muftić]

very visable and obvious progress with every new piece.
nice!