DragonSnail's doodle-inis

[DragonSnail]

I finally worked up the courage to start my own sketchbook - there are so many amazing talents around here, it's really tough to post your own work and see the horrible distance I have yet to go. But I believe this is the best way for me to progress - letting people see and give crits. So please, feel free to point out any errors you might discover (though I know there's a lot of errors...). Most of this is older work. I hope there will be more recent images to post soon soon!

First, an image I'm still working on... No, it's got nothing to do with the statue of liberty, though you can very well imagine her with a blindfold, these days.



An image I started long ago and never finished... can't really put my finger on what I dislike, but I think I'm forever stuck with the project. Photo ref.



A couple of armor design sketches:





Here I tried to capture Jack Elam's very special face on paper, with various results.... photo refs.





And a color test for an image I had in mind to give my sister as wedding present. She loves horses.

[Envisor]

Welcome to CA. Very nice studies, and Jack Elem turned out pretty well. keep up the good work.

[DragonSnail]

Thank you Envisor!

I guess I should have introduced myself better: I'm 32 years old, female, born in Sweden and living in Germany with my fiancee and cat. Before I met my fiancee I drew and painted aquarelles as a hobby - he was the one encouraging me to go freelancing fulltime. Since 5 years back I have made player character portraits for people, mostly for MMOs like Everquest and WoW, but also from textbased games like Dungeons and Dragons or out of books. This has presented me with the opportunity to learn Photoshop, but I figure now it's time to hone my real skills! I have no education at all in art, but the internet has proved amazing at digging up tutorials and material for the one who wants to improve. Lately I have also started learning 3D modeling, texturing and animation. Fun!

Here's a sketch where I tried to come up with a good standing idle pose for a 3D model.



Gryphon face... isn't he cute?



And an older image, before I knew you could actually make custom brushes in Photoshop... you can imagine the hazzle I had before I realised that!



Another image around the same time...



Here I had figured out the brush making thing! Eureka!



More recent sketches, anatomy practise.

[Shpow.Iain]

If YOU'RE scared. What the hell should I be >_>/

Awesome.

[DragonSnail]

Couple of recent sketches I hope I will have the time to do something with in the not-too-distant future... I just wish the lines didn't blur out so much. It's making big grey blotches all over the sketch.

[Yautja892]

Welcome to CA, Cool stuff you have here. Really like the concept in your first image. What will you be adding for the background ? I think my favorites are the gryphon, and Elam portaits. Good to see your doing the anatomy studies as well. Keep pushing, curious to see the first painting finished.

[markey2d]

hi dragonsnail, i think your art is brilliant,and i see know reason for you to be shy, espesially since we are all learning and you have one the better lookin sketch books around.

good luck

[markey2d]

hi dragonsnail, i think your art is brilliant,and i see know reason for you to be shy, espesially since we are all learning and you have one the better lookin sketch books around.

good luck

[kingkostas]

Hi Dragonsnail I also like your sketches and ofcourse your colorworks!!!Keep drawing and you will soon become better. Keep posting

(about the blindfold project i think that there is a little problem with the hands)

see ya

[DragonSnail]

Yautja892: Thanks! I'm not sure yet what kind of background that picture will get, but I'm sure I will eventually find the perfect one.

Markey2d: Why thanks! Very flattering, and a blatant lie to boot... But I forgive you - and I promise I'll work until my fingers bleed!

Kingkostas: Thanks! Yes, those hands have been bugging me as well - so I started something that will hopefully give better results in the future, hand sketches. If this doesn't help... I guess I'll do more, and more and more!

The second sketch is a portrait of my fiancee, despite him insisting on falling asleep during the process...

[DragonSnail]

Seeing if my anatomy studies has actually improved something... they sure have, but there's still a lot of areas I'm vague about, so I'm sticking to it.

[DragonSnail]

And another one... what's that left arm doing anyway?

[DragonSnail]

It's easy to see my males aren't as good as my females. Having a female model my whole life (the mirror ) surely pays of! True, now I have to practise drawing males twice as much, but that's ok... can't say I dislike it!

[Envisor]

Great updates. Nice character design and figure and anatomy studies. I suggest to put more contrast into your pieces, Ive got to work on that too.
WOuldnt mind seeing more expressions in your chacaters faces. Most of them have the same expression. Critting you has made me realze that Ive got to do the same things. Keep it up.

[DragonSnail]

As soon as I have practised anatomy a bit more I will probably go for faces, including face expressions. I guess I usually save the facial expressions for the comic project, which is nothing I show off all that much - it's still in the layout state.

But here's a couple for you, with plenty of expression! An old picture depicting a rogue in a dangerous predicament and a more recent picture I had up in the crit section a while ago. Plus, a tone practise I did from a Penthouse mag photo, a firejuggler, or whatever you want to call it... you know, swinging those little burning balls on chains? Great shot, awsome pose, tomorrow I'll try to figure out how the muscles go all over that back. Very nice muscles, it is... yum! Still trying to figure out how to work with my scanner to get the best out of it. Feels like it's swallowing some of the shading every time.

[Odyism]

I like what I see thus far. I think you should continue with life drawings for a strong foundation.
With alot of your colored pieces parts seem to be in conflict with each other. It's nothing huge, but mostly subtle changes that take away from atmosphere of the whole picture.

[Vorace]

really good drawings here!
I especially like this one : http://www.dragonsnail.com/CA_sketchbook/blindfold.jpg and this one is amazing : http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1176414173
It reminds me Brom's art.

Keep it up!

[DragonSnail]

No wonder, Vorace - Brom is one of my greatest inspirations right now! Though I don't really have his amazing fantasy to put behind... it takes a very special mind to conjure up images like his!

Odyism: Thanks for the crits! Yes, I will go on to life drawings soonish, I just want to make sure I know what muscles I am drawing before I go for the skin-clad versions. As for what things seems to be in conflict in my colored pieces, I'm hoping a bit greater knowledge about colors, composition etc will help that for me. I have no art education whatsoever to fall back on, so I'm learning as I go! If you would like to point out more exactly which parts you mean, that would probably be a great help to me. Crits is, after all, what I'm here for!

Here I tried to block in the muscles of that firejuggling guy, plus a pic of a bodybuilder from a mag, together with a try at blocking in the arm muscles of the guy. Fun excercises, but the firejuggler was tough! pld:

Also, started coloring the dancer sketch, since my fiancee insisted he wanted to see it colored. I always try to keep my partner happy...

[Marty666]

Nice work... great stuff on the anatomy. I love the way you shaded the pencil ones... What pencils do you use?
About the digital work... You might want to add more contrast and define shapes a bit more by using darker or differently colored shadows and cast shadows (like the chick in the older work, i love it!). Other than that, very nice work and great anatomy skills!

[OleOlsen]

great! i love it! your anatomy drawings are so very accurate. good work!!!

[Odyism]

Wow! Your newest colored piece ( #18) looks soooooooo promising. I can already see leaps and bounds of improvement in color choices and rendering with this piece. I love it

[b.one]

Great work! love you pencil and your diversity. Great anatomy studies!!
sometimes i find your paintings too smooth - but that may be just me!
About smudging with pencil try using a harder pencil h2 or hb. you can either apply pressure to gain depth variety, or go after with a b2 for the same end.
But you are doing great and if you keep practicing you will become truly skilled!!!

Now I will leave to practice my own advice (otherwise it'll be me that's ashamed to show my stuff here)

[DragonSnail]

Marty666: Thank you! I usually use a mix of HB, 2B, F and 5H, though sometimes I get lazy and only use HB... I'm hoping that my digi skills will get a push as well while working with BW only. I have mainly workied only digi for 5 years now, trying to build up my Photoshop skills, getting food on the table and neglecting all else. I'm really trying my best to soak up knowledge now, so thanks for the crits!

OleOlsen: Thanks! I have really gone all out on the anatomy recently, I hope it shows!

Odyism: Thank you - I will continue working on that one as soon as I can, I'm just waiting for that little "Aha!" moment when I know exactly what is missing in it right now.

b.one: Thanks - pencil is such a nice medium to work with! And yes, it took me quite a while to find the "Define brush" option in Photoshop so I could make custom brushes, before that I only used the smooth edged ones - thats why most of my pictures look so smooth. I do try a rougher, more painterly style every now and then, but in the end I tend to nitpick over details and smoothness, and there I go again.. smooth as a babys butt!

Yesterday I went downtown to sketch people... only, it ended up being 10 second sketches and not much more, since people where milling about too much. I got lucky and caught a couple of people sitting for quite long, but they where too far away to really get any details from... so in the end I concluded:

1. I'm too unskilled to sketch this fast.

I did learn a few things anyway - to burn an image into my mind so I can put it down on paper during the next minute or two - rough shapes, light and shadows. It was a bright sunny day and very sharp shadows all around, so after all, it wasn't entirely wasted. But there's nothing that I want to show off - actually, nothing WORTH showing off. So you will have to be content with the usual stuff - anatomy. I swear I will do anatomy every day until I can name every damn muscle in the body, awake or sleeping!

First image is just random stuff, grind grind, the next one is things I felt I had to sketch down looking at SOFA, with master Mentlers amazing art. Credit where credit is due... all "Ohh"s and "Ahhs"s is Mentlers work, I just copied for my own sake. Those skull formulas where sure interesting - I have a hard time using formulas for anything, I tend to draw what I see. Using formulas feels so... un-creative, if you know what I mean? But I know it helps a lot of artists starting out, before they feel sure enough of their skills that they can draw the subject without formulas of any kind. It would probably help me too.. if I could just spank them into my head.

[Nanzotaro]

Smooth art dude!....i like the orcs lady hehe....the horses are awesome.You got good lighting sense dude.I can see you re developing very fast...you re goin to be somebody in the art scene,dude...

[Pixel Dust]

Great work here. Am Super jealous of your skills.

[DragonSnail]

Nanzotaro: Thanks for the possitive comments! I sure hope you are right!

Pixel Dust: Great to see you stop by! I had a look at your stuff, and I don't think you got anything to be jealous about. You have a certain... something... in your pictures - a pinch of that magic fairydust that is so hard to achieve. Keep on practising, but never lose that feeling!

Not much finished lately, been working on old stuff, plus struggling with some 3D models that just take wayyy too much time! Anyway, got a small update on the horse piccy for my sister (wonder if I actually manage to finish it in time ), finished the blindfold picture from my first post (at least I think so... not much response in the crit section, so I HOPE that means there's not much to improve on it), plus, working on a small project of mine... upper body anatomy in different layers.

It started as a mere sketch, then I decided to take it into Photoshop and color the muscles for once, and then I thought... what if I painted the muscles underneath the visible ones on a different layer? Just as a ref for myself, so I can go into my little file, start from the skeleton and click myself upwards, seeing what muscles are underneath the visible ones... ok, tough to explain, but look at the examples and you will see what I mean!

[novenus]

haha! I found your sketchbook! Your coloring is very nice... but it still seems a bit flat in some pieces. I forgot to mention in the anatomy thread about your man posing (thin one, not the smiley bodybuilder) that his left upper arm (both biceps and triceps) are too small and disproportionate to the right, especially in relation to the angle the man is posing, the left should be slightly bigger, no?

great stuff overall, dragonsnail! continue working on these and make your fiancee proud!

[DragonSnail]

Novenius! Great to have you here, my most active crit-er ever! Yes, logically you ought to be right about the arm, but the photo says differently... here's a link to the photo ref, judge for yourself. I found it a bit odd myself, but I'm not sure enough of my anatomy to be able to correct things like that. So I simply copied the photo straight out, with the arms as they are. Thanks for the crits, btw - I'm working on the flatness issue!

Here's something I have been working on for a while now and god only knows when I will be able to finish it...

[Pigeonkill]

You have a some nice airbrush skills. I like the lush green backgrounds you have of the forest. Some of your work reminds me of Brom.

[DragonSnail]

Pigeonkill: Thanks! I have grown up with nature all around me and I always loved lush forests, but they can be damn hard to catch on an image.

Here's a bit of a moody picture I did the other day, trying out a bit more painterly style: Imagine if one of the angels got thrown down to earth as a punishment, doomed to live in a human body... how would he/she feel with all the petty human jealousy, greed, lies and power hunger all around, the rapes, killings and torture going on? Wouldn't he/she in the end, break down in tears and utter sorrow for the pain we cause one another...