Eärendil's Sketchbook - Cast studies!

[Googolplex]

Love the wood scenes, particularly the last one, it really gives a feeling of the place, and love the whole fantasy'ish setting.
The last one looks good.. but theres something i dislike about the colors ;/ i really don't know what it is tho.
Anyway its awesome to see your progress, keep on drawing!!

[Earendil]

Here's me playing around with Baronteri's brushset after 60 minutes.

1.


2.


If anything, I think the spackle brushes are going to make good blenders, but I'm liking the textures. But like most things, they're tools, and if you can't draw well, then no tool is gunna hep yew.

[Earendil]

Here is Week 5 of the Environmentoring Class. This week, we took what we finished in week 4, and changed the piece to a nighttime shot, a heavy weather shot, and a "destroyed" shot. Being in class has been a great, with tons of people giving their critiques and pushing you further. So many things to improve! Moar studies!

Original:


Night:


Heavy Weather:


Destroyed:

[Marjolein]

wow! how did you progress that fast?!?!

[dan.man.86]

Wow nice stuff, but I'm really digging that last study. Seems like a great way to try multiple approaches to one sketch. I just might have to try that....

What are you currently studying that involves these cool classes?

I'll be sure to be lurking around.....

[626elemental]

You're improving so fast... keep it up!

[smugbug]

Hey! Found your sb and thought I should post a, "HEY!" Great meeting you at the workshop!

Hope your trip back home was smoother than the trip to the workshop!

[gedankenfrei]

Wow, the latest pic are really cool. Love them. And I'm glad you posted your progress, it helps me with learning how to best start with a digital painting. Thanks a lot!

Hope you'll keep up the good work.

[PerinGalitte]

Wow, your painting is very very good. Far superior to your linework. Nice style. Keep it up.

[Earendil]

Some Revelations and LMS process updates.

My first oil painting. Thanks to Shawn Barber for recommending to go b/w first time for sanity's sake. Nothing like jumping in and doing something, I learned so much of what to do, and not do with oil paints.



It was great to sit and pick Konig's brain, The Black Frog, and just tons others. Noxizmad you rock! (You're doing it!)

Below, the beginning and end of my LMS experience. Kinda knew already that I wanted to try making symmetry "work". Not sure if it did. Would love some feedback on it.

It's very weird, when you're about 1/3 of the way through, and your subconscious just says "LET ME DRIVE" and you just kind of get out of the way of yourself...if that makes any sense.

[Jorge Gecov]

Hey, you did a great job with the enviros!

Cheers,

[satori]

thanks for the feedback on my picture
quite impressive progress your making here, gotta agre with the others, fun to watch this kind of process
good to see you got away from the soft brushes, theyre evil I tell you. for some reason it just doesnt loke good.
I like the last peace a lot, cool concept. one can tell that you put some work in to it. keep it up with the drawings from life and photos, its really doing a lot for the quality of your pictures.

[BludHund]

Hey man, I ran into you in Seattle. Stuffs looking good here.

[Earendil]

Jorge Gecov> Thanks man!

Satori> Thanks, and you keep drawing too. I liked hearing your story about how you were inspired and came up with that imp creature.

Bludhund> Good running into you too! Thanks, and it's going to get better! Hopefully I can make it to the next workshop too!

And here are some images from my latest environment.

I did some thumbs before, but liked this one I came up with at work. At this point, all I knew I wanted was...large scale view, big structure, conveyor belts, and somehow humans dying. Overall design...overall picture...mood? No clue.



I read Harvey Dunn's lecture notes. I liked this quote: "An idea is not something you "cook up". It comes to you when your consciousness is open and receptive. It presents itself. If it is a true idea it has always been true. There is no such thing as a creative artist. An artist merely expresses that which has always been"

I'm not sure if I agree with the last bit, but I paid attention to the idea of a receptive mind, and moved forward. Threw down more texture...Also moved the whole thing away from the center.



At this point I realize I'm just adamant about conveyor belts for the sake of conveyor belts, and try to look for other options. The boney finger forms at the top looked creepy. Boney fingers/legs...legs...spider legs...Spiders are creepy. *ding!*



Pushing it further.



Atmospherics/mood pass.



Basic color pass. Going for sickly greens, yellows, pinks, browns. Somewhere along the line I notice something that looks like a leg coming out of the main structure, and some edges/vectors that create a spider form, so on the next pass I try to accentuate that and frame the picture as well.



Stage is set, get the actors in here. You can't draw them fast? Google image cutout-fill-paintovers. Must workout foundations.



Several detailing passes, shadow details, color niggles, action niggles, 10 layers later...the final. I liked the eye ending in darkness, rather than light so I flipped it.



It's weird. This is the best enviro I've done to date, but I've discovered so many things that I could be doing way better, and things that I should know better but don't. Lot of time wasted "fixing" things on this. I'm glad it turned out "ok", but I'm not really satisfied...

So here's a study of my fuzzy pull vibrating duck IAN! Moar studies! It says "Stoke confidence does not mean 100% black". Meaning, if you're going for realism, a big bold graphic line around the outline of an object doesn't really help.

[Earendil]

Crisis at work. Tired as hell. I'm beginning to understand how clients can be so frustrating at times, but learn how to keep a good attitude and be professional about it. More bus-ride sketches from the last two days. Sorry for the quality, I'm saving up monies for a real scanner.



My ability to draw what I see is crap. The object I was drawing must've had an overall form that was twice as long as it was wide, but I shortened it...argh!



Also trying to work on stroke confidence. I ran into Lake at Revelations, and he said to ditch the scribble-scribble, and go for accurate lines that are confident. I think this will be key in furthering the development of my drawing. Just gotta keep things accurate.

[dadushin]

hey man, nice progress! that last one shows a lot of improvement!
i guess i would suggest working with larger brushes and studying color theory a bit more
keep this up thought and youll be great

[Tiberiu]

hi earindil i like u'r frst color environment ! u'r getting better or maybe u'r not constant ! regarding the piece in #33 i like those black and whites u made earlier better , i guess that the huge silvery circle it's a symbol for the inhabitants of the castle ( or of the complex if it's not a castle) anyway that symbol doesn't fit in ! keep posting u'r best and not every single sketch u make, because there is no point in uploading new stuff if it's not at least as good as the last one anyway keep it up and have fun !

[Steven W.]

I love your style great stuff

5 stars on your creepy cave pictures

[Sceptyr]

Glad i discovered this sb. Your enviros are amazing man, especially that last one. My two cents is just to work on your anatomy and drawing from life some more. Ill definetly be back to check this out later

[Earendil]

dadushin> Thanks, that's what I'm working on. Values, and color and hue, oh my!

hi earindil...keep posting u'r best and not every single sketch u make, because there is no point in uploading new stuff if it's not at least as good as the last one anyway keep it up and have fun !

There's a difference between a finished gallery, and a sketchbook. As long as the overall trend (graph) is upward, then little dips are fine. Since it's impossible to draw every day and not get better, the trend will be up!

Steven> Thanks! Just gotta keep "pushing it".

Sceptyr> Anatomy and life drawing? Yep! Moar studies!

More coming.

[Earendil]

Busstop, bus ride sketches. I like using the pen because it forces me to really think about my lines. Gotta keep simplifying. I realized after the fact that the dude's ear was way too far back on his head.

My ability to see spatial relationships and proportions blows. I'll keep sketching and try to pay attention to this.

[Earendil]

More bus ride sketches. I always thought I had a good attitude but there were times when if I wasn't satisfied within 10 strokes, I'd want to stop the whole thing. That's a no-no! Ego...begone!







We've also been having some really beautiful winter sunsets, and while I was at the park I tried to memorize the colors I was seeing so I could go home and paint them. I also tried Painter again for these.

[Earendil]

Another winter sunset color study. I was trying to be very gestural with the tree silhouette, as I've noticed each kind of tree while fractal in nature, has a different "gesture" to it's fractal...equation. Not sure if that makes sense. I'm going to try and capture these "tree gestures".



And my first Bridgeman study. I've been avoiding Bridgeman partly in fear of my shortcomings (dealt with), and partly because I didn't like the chunky-ness of his figures. Then I realized that it's more of a way of conceptualizing the figure in order to draw it, and not how the final product should necessarily look. That being said, I'm going to draw over and over again until it's closer. Still losing a lot due to inability to relate parts to a whole/spatial relationships. Always ends up looking "wobbly".

[Earendil]

More Bridgeman. Copying lines fine, but making sure they relate to the overall form is a much bigger challenge. It's interesting how a few lines can denote a plane, or a fold, or a volume.

[crisis]

Thanks for stopping by my SB. You're improving really fast.. so just keep at it and do some life drawing as you mentioned, it's really fun.

[Earendil]

Dump! Annnd my current project is on the bottom. I'm currently figuring out what's wrong with the light/shadow system. I've decided to stick with what I enjoy most in order to learn. No figure stuff for a while.

Some photo studies, value, color, the usual.














I think I've got cools in areas that should be warm, and vis-a-versa. Among other things. Hmmmm...

[Gundersen]

Hey Earendil

You seem to be working hard Keep on man, looks cool

[Earendil]

Here's the latest on the landscape and some recent color studies. Anyone know of a way to use posemaniacs and CS2 at the same time? I'm having trouble getting everything to fit onscreen.

[sageguy]

You definitely have gotten a lot better over this past year. You're strength lies in environments, that's for sure. You don't seem to be having this problem as much with your other paintings, but on your lighthouse, the picture is suffering from too much detail. I must say, however, I'm impressed with what you do.
Like others have said, Life Drawing is your friend. Try to do some other studies, too. Check out some anatomy books. It's something I definitely have to work on. I wish you all the best.

[Earendil]

Relationship strife, resolution, and a move to Seattle later, the sky is no longer falling.

Quick fun for the the 4th.


Another attempt at evocative skies.


The beginning of another exploratory (read: "until it looks right") painting.








"The water doesn't look like water, 4 competing focal points bad, work on value hierarchy." - Form


The current state. I'm going to look up water reference and make sure that beach has waves. I keep coming back to the countryside, wondering what to put there. I'm thinking farmlands. I'm trying to make it look like the landscape slopes up slightly, otherwise it looks weird to have the ground dip and the slope up above the water level, then back down again.


My next goal is to not use 38 layers to get this far.

And some character gestures.

Just trying to think of various poses, situations, archetypes, etc. This is in preparation for the Seattle sketchgroup Final Fantasy-esque female character thunderdome!

Feedback is welcome. I've gotta get better. Moar!