Please critique my skills

[aDinoSupremacist]

Hello there, I'm Josh Gregory. I am a concept artist attending UH for Digital Media/Photography since I can't find a public TX college that has a major that involves digital art.
I didn't really start digital art until about December 2010 when I got my first tablet. For over a year I used GIMP and Paint.net to do my art. It wasn't until December of last year that I got Photoshop Elements then upgraded to Photoshop CS5 a month ago.
I have less than 2 years left of college so I need to improve my skills. I know my skills are not that great. I want anybody that replies to give me a good honest response, I don't care how harsh it is.

[Hitsu//San]

You've never drawn from life haven't you? You must start with classic media, a pencil, a piece of paper and a subject. Digital media can be really cold if you don't know how to use it properly and you drawings are so cold cause you don't know how surface and lines work (yet).

[Ameza]

I agree with Hitsu-san, drawing from life is really important foundation.
I have been doing a lot of that this year and the improvement in this short time is amazing.

I was also wondering, do you work in layers are just on one? Using many layers can really help out.
So far your digital works are rather rough, I know a lot of concept artist tend to work roughly, but it feels like you need more filling, more of a paint-like style in your digital works. I think you just need to experiment with different styles of digital art

Best of luck.

[aDinoSupremacist]

I was also wondering, do you work in layers are just on one? Using many layers can really help out.

Yes I do use layers. Funny thing is that for the longest time I never did then finally one day I was like "OMG what if I use layers?!"

You've never drawn from life haven't you? You must start with classic media, a pencil, a piece of paper and a subject. Digital media can be really cold if you don't know how to use it properly and you drawings are so cold cause you don't know how surface and lines work (yet).

I've been using classic media all my life up until about 2 years ago. The piece of the naked pregnant woman and the back of the naked guy (3 versions) were all drawn live from my Life Drawing class this semester.

[ct2ulao]

As Hitsu/ / San has stated, keep practicing with pencil on paper before moving on to digital. Your sketches of the pregnant woman and the back of the naked guy show me that you aren't really analyzing the human figure to the extent that you need to. It looks like you're just copying what you think you see. Do more studies of figures, perspective, and photo studies of various objects and environments. Going back to the basics will be good.

If you want to be a concept artist, make sure you are very strong with your fundamentals and original designs.

[Hitsu//San]

Ok then your problem is simple: You can't see 3D shapes.

Actually you're drawing by contour but this is not the path you need, eventually every concept artist will learn how to see and draw 3d shapes because it's impossible to design or create a composition in perspective if you don't know how focal point and threshold works. This will lead you toward another problem which is shadowing and lighting. If you don't know ho shadow and light works on a 3d surface you'll never learn and understand how to draw properly a complex surface like a human body or whatever you like. The best thing you can do is to catch a paper (do not do this with digital medium, it's a waste of time) find a tutorial about shading 3d shapes (you can find a great one here in ca.org) and practice a lot until you're able to remember without thinking about how it works.

Quick tip: every complex shape in nature can be simplified with a bunch of 3d shapes which are: cube, pyramid, cylinder, sphere. If you can draw and shade those in perspective with every angle you will be able draw whatever you want in any position whenever you like.

[aDinoSupremacist]

If you want to, you can check out my other work on my deviantart. I do have some work from my Life Drawing class on a classic medium (pencil and newsprint.)
Here's a link:
http://adinosupremacist.deviantart.com/

[Hitsu//San]

Yeah, i confirm that the problem is the same.

[aDinoSupremacist]

Thanks everybody for the critiques. I don't quite yet understand what you mean though by that I can't see 3D shapes. What practices should I do? Or more specifically, what should I draw as practice?

[Hitsu//San]

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/home/2011/6/7/perspective.html

Thanks to Matt Kohr for his work.