Drin's sketchbook - road to professionalism

[Drin]

Hey guys, I'm 19 and interested in getting into the concept art field as I'm sure many of you are. I'm excited to work with art in any way as a career, whether it be illustrator or book artist, but I think concept art is probably my best bet. We'll see though, as long as I can do something.

To that end, I feel I need to evolve from my years of doodling into a more disciplined study of all aspects of art. I haven't decided on a school to attend yet, but I'm looking for something in Canada (I live in Winnipeg). If anyone has any experience or suggestions in that matter, please let me know.

Here's my own crits of my art:

- Anatomy anatomy anatomy, I need to work on it. Proportions, movement and expression (facial and body) are what is most important to me right now. This is definitely the biggest flaw in my work.

- Composition is something I need to study more, I'm interested in the classic painters in this respect.

- More traditional work! I love my wacom but I really really want to do more with graphite and oil paints, it's an exciting idea for me.

+ I feel my strength right now lies in my rendering and palette selections, I want to bring the rest of the elements up in line with this.

Cheers for any C&C! I'd particularly like feedback on my weak areas as I've explained above.

My previous sketchbook can be viewed here.

[Drin]

The art.

[olivepalm]

amazing! how do I agree that your anatomy is off a bit.. but... jeez. great job! It seems you have a lot of contrast in your paintings. The darks are really dark and the lights are really light. Also, you have really nice field of depth of field. Are you using any finished brushes? or are you using just like the round brush.. cause' you have a lot of dedication put in to each particular piece. I'd really like to see your process. Post like a chronology of a painting.

Anyway.. Thanks for sharing! It was totally awesome. I think I will subscribe to this one.

[Drin]

Ahh thank you for such kind words. I appreciate it. For some of the pieces, like the second one and the portrait, only an oval brush was used. Other ones I used a few textured brushes and on a couple of pieces I used some texture overlays for added pop. Mostly I use textures like that for the preliminary and finishing jobs, I like the classic oval for the bulk of the rendering.

I do have a step-by-step of one of the commissioned pieces, actually, and if anyone wants to critique my process I would love it!

[Drin]

Anatomy/value study.

[Drin]

Speedpaint. Photo ref'd.

[jackpot_anjr90]

Nice start here! I can already tell how self motivated you are
There isn't much for me to say that you're not already aware of. Your anatomy needs more work and your gestures, though not bad, could be pushed more too. Bring a greater sense of weight to them, you know?
I like your choice of colors here but your values could be pushed better. In the second picture of post #2 especially...there's a lot of color range but not enough value range to separate foreground, middle ground, and background. Add some atmospheric perspective. By that I mean the background should have less contrast and saturation than the foreground. The houses and vehicles have the same amount of detail and contrast as the man and animal in the foreground even though they're far back. Bring down the contrast on those objects and you'll push the depth more effectively. I think doing some black and white studies of environments may help you figure this out. Value studies would be good for you too.
But again, great work man, keep it up

[Drin]

Thanks a ton! I see what you mean, especially about the gestures and depth. Definitely things I'll keep in mind.

Two more speed paints, faster this time. I wasn't happy with the last one, so I tried to do these faster and with conveying more information in each brushstroke. Warming up with these. Photo ref'd.

[Drin]

More landscape studies based on photos from the Chernobyl area.

[Drin]

A couple of bust studies. Critiques on my work would be much appreciated.

[Jonathan C]

Good work! those 3 studies on #9 have great color and looseness. Keep em coming!

[Red Fortune]

Interesting stuff!

Something I'd like to add is that you may need to express colour with depth a little more effectively (relates to composition, too), some of your pieces are a bit confusing, because the main focus is just as colourful as the rest of the scene. Try to keep with more basic colour themes (the ones with which you have done this are fantastic, by the way!)

I love that you painted a rat-man, they're awesome.

[Drin]

Thanks a lot guys, critiques are noted. I agree about trying to define a focal point through tone and value.

Here's a couple more for bed. Painted from photos by Blair Mezibov. The focus of these speedpaints was the simplicity of a piece, trying to find the gesture and composition of art including dynamic poses and colours.

[Drin]

Only had the heart for one speed painting today, but I think it's important to draw every day.

Original photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmcneal/2963057062/

[knut-]

Really nie studies. I think on the last one the mountains are a little bit blurry. Keep it up.

[Twan]

really nice thread man, your skills are already good and you'll improve it quickly
keep it up, don't forget to draw everyday

[Drin]

Thanks a lot for the crits.

Here are two studies. The one on the left was done by eyeballing to the best of my ability. The one on the right was adjusted after tracing some basic gesture lines over the original photo. I hope to be able to get more accurate by practicing with this method and learning where my mistakes lie.

Original photo here: http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/4...ameshomoto.jpg

[Drin]

Messing around digitally. Been drawing every day but its in my sketchbook and I don't have a decent way of posting them.

[Drin]

Been busy, falling behind. Also trying to get my hands more dirty with traditional but again I have no decent way of posting it.

I did colour a friend's lines recently though:

[Drin]

Working on a new WIP. Suggestions appreciated.

[Drin]

Progress.

[Drin]

Finished.

[Drin]

I painted something new.

[Drin]

Personal concept piece.