lemdiozy's sketchbook

[lemdiozy]

Hello CA,
I've been lurking here for some time, but now decided (eventually) to start posting my stuff. I am a graphic designer (graduated Art Academy seven years ago) and am pretty frustrated with my curent full time ocupation (I'm a print designer in a big sports retail company, and my level of creativity at work equels zero...). I've been drawing since I've been able to hold a pencil in my hand, but I realy lack the fundamental skills of art technics - anatomy, color blending, perspective, composition etc. Yes, I'm familiar with the theoretical stuff (after all, I've learned it in the Academy...) but somehow it just didn't sink
I hope to get here on CA a constractive critics (not ass-pating) that will help me to evaluate my works and to help me in making a carrier change - I dream to be a book illustrator.
Hope to here from you, guys!

OK - here my first contribution to this sketchbook -
I'm a HUGE fan of ASOIAF book series, so I really wanted to visualize the key characters in my own way - this is Ramsey Snow - a Bastard of Bolton.

[lemdiozy]

hmm... guys? Some feedback would be really appreciated!

[Master-of-Art]

hey , nice drawing and colors , but i think you need to practice more on the portrait drawing , also you need to add depth and weight to your characters ,
the proportion looks really fine ,
keep up the good work

[lemdiozy]

Thank you kindly, Master-of-Art!
I know, I have a lot of practice ahead of me - the issue that buggers me the most is my brush strocks and my colour blending. I'm just keep on going in circles with this problem...

[Master-of-Art]

for the brush storks , you can download photoshop brush set for digital painting with skin texture brush i think it might help
and for choosing the right colors for the skin it come with practice and drawing from life or from photo reference

this site have a lot of photo reference :
http://www.portrait-photos.org/

[lemdiozy]

Thanks again, Master-of-Art!
The link you provided me is very usefull!
About the brushes...
I use only hard round brush and ocasionaly heavy smear wax crayon brash. Isn't using someone elses pre-made brushes is a bit of short-cut cheating?

[Hitsu//San]

Thanks again, Master-of-Art!
Isn't using someone elses pre-made brushes is a bit of short-cut cheating?

Uhm... ehm... erh... this technique is called "saving time" in concept art and illustration, you didn't know?

Ok with no jokes, if you know how brushes works and you're able to do a brush that do exactly what you need in a very fast and short way then why bother? I use brushes for trees, smokes and dust in many occasions but it's not that i don't know how to render a leaf or something, in fact i made my brush by myself. It's very rare that i find a brush that someone else made that i like 100% but you could always take the idea underneath and make your brush with that idea.

Anyway working hard aren't you? You must because as i can see you're really struck in a very sterile environment at the moment. I can see clearly as the sun that you cannot exit from your spot, you're doing lines and strokes that are not confident because you know if you're allowed to do them or if they are good or not. It's typical from someone who has worked in a certain way that was good for too long. I know the feeling cause i had to overcome the same problem. You need to take your time, relax when you're drawing and don't care if it's good or not, learn how it works, learn how you must look like if you want to break into the cover market and aim to that.

I have a question anyway: why are you not blending your colors?

[Master-of-Art]

Thanks again, Master-of-Art!
The link you provided me is very usefull!
About the brushes...
I use only hard round brush and ocasionaly heavy smear wax crayon brash. Isn't using someone elses pre-made brushes is a bit of short-cut cheating?

thanks lemdiozy , for the brushes mmmm i don`t consider it cheating some artists put their brushes for free to help other artists so why not using the brushes , for me i did a mix of different brushes sets and it works very fine , maybe sometime in the future i will make my own brushes .

[lemdiozy]

Hitsu//San, Master-of-Art - thanks for the input guys. This kind of critics was exactly the reason why I've started this sketchbook on CA.
Well, I'm never blending because... I don't really know why. I have the same problem with my traditional media works. I can get the form, the posture, I'm not THAT bad with proportions, but the color blending... it's as if I have some kind of estetic "disorder" that prevents me from mixing the colours, as if I am afraid to get my brushes (real and digital) "dirty". I remember having the same issue in the academy years back. Well, when you are a graphic designer with enought skill and experience, you can allow yourself to skip certain gaps in your technic, while compensating their lack with your other strong professional sides. But that won't help me on my path to become an illustrator .
About the envyro's - I was allways trying to improve my portraits/characters, so I must have been neglecting this area (literally - background) in my works.
About the brushes - I understand you oppinion on the subject guys, but I think I should perfect myself with mostly basic "equipment" before moving into the allways shiny land of custom brushes.
Side note - where can I see you works on CA guys, I don't think I'd spotted your sketchbooks here?

[Master-of-Art]

lemdiozy keep on the good work , drawing is a lifelong learning
for the sketch book i didn`t start sketch book on CA maybe because i`m little shy ....lol
but i`m thinking in start SB soon because i still need a lot of practice on the proportions , anatomy , gesture ... etc

this is link to my gallery on DA
http://master-of-the-arts.deviantart.com/gallery/

[Hitsu//San]

The reason why you're not blending colors as i told you is because you're in your safe zone doing that. And i could have spotted another problem for your future career that can be tough to overcome, i'm talking about your visual library. Feng Zhu made an entire video about this, you'll find it very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnflB...ature=g-user-u

[lemdiozy]

OK. I watched the Fengh Zhu episode that you provided me, and while I agree that this was very insightful in general, I don't really understand why you decided that my visual libraries are poor (correct me if I'd got you wrong)?
I definitely agree that my skills in illustration are in desperate need of honing and improvement, but on a subject of observation... dude, I'd been refining all of this videos build up stages since I can remember myself (and that's awhile).
If you get to that conclusion after seeing the doodles that I'd posted last time, well - that what they are - just doodles.
I believe, that you are talking about the subject as a man of the industry, so I respect your opinion, but as far as I can see, my problem is not a lack of visual knowledge of how the world components work/look, but rather a disability to express the stuff on canvas as it is in reality, and not as I remember it.
I do not imply that I need not get more visual baggage every now and again - I'm just saying, that to classify me as student "B" from the video's example would be at least incorrect.
I'll be glad to continue this conversation with you, if you're interested!

[Hitsu//San]

Sure man, i'll explain myself better. I don't think you're a or b or whatever, i don't know how well you know stuff like that obviously but since you're approaching to the entertainment industry i believe you might want to catch up as fast as you can with the kind of visual feeds a person who's working in this side is observing for much more time, am i right? If i am then that video have provided you all the knowledge you need to do so I don't like to judge the works, i like to discuss with the artist you know.

So how about your painting? How's going?

[Master-of-Art]

Master-of-Arts: I've seen your DA works - you have nothing to be shy of. I'd used to work on comics novels after graduating from Academy, for a while, and as far as I can see - your line art is fine. Common, bring your art to CA - you worth it!

And now for some doodling:
1) Loomis's Blooks - they will never fail you!
2) some tenticles
3) another atempt on captain Nemo - this time no reference whatsoever
4,5,6) random monstrosities

Thanks lemdiozy , i think i will start a SB soon , i`m studying now from Bridgaman , this book is really awesome and it explain anatomy and forms in very simple way you should try this book ,
also posemaniacs 60 second is very good practice
http://www.posemaniacs.com/

[Master-of-Art]

nice work , the hands of the character looks really nice and the fabric as well ,
but the head don`t look good it`s big and the skin color on the face don`t look the same for the hands ,
also the background don`t match with the character

important thing when you are practicing try to decrease the time you spend in each painting by decreasing the amount of details , try to focus on the pose of the character and the proportions and don`t get so deep in details ,
draw a lot of sketches every day and by time you will be faster .

[lemdiozy]

Hey Master-of-Arts, thanks for your feedback!
Yep, now that you'd mentioned it, I realize, that most of my characters has an overgrown head... It must has happened because I'm too eager to deal with the details of the face, so I'd maybe lost the proportions there... I always start to draw the head first, then the hands, then the clothes and afterwards the accessories and the additional details.
About speeding the process on behalf of loosening the details - I would be really sorry to make my characters less detailed - that's the way I'm adding a volume to them, at least now. I need to learn to do a proper shading and color blending, so they would look more three-dimensional, without being so heavily "patched". But at least on my ASOIAF series I'll stick to my "improper method", to keep the style of all of the characters consistent.
I would improve in other works, thou. I promise!

[Master-of-Art]

hey , i`m sure after you fix the head problem the characters will be really amazing ,
about decreasing the details to speed the process , what i mean you should differentiate between if you were practicing or drawing actual painting for project or some thing ,

if you are drawing a sketch or digital painting to practice and improve your self you should finish it very fast and don`t spend too much time in drawing and decrease the amount of details , because you need to finish a lot of sketches every day to improve fast,

but if you were drawing a painting for a project or something important you have all the time you need 10 or 20 hours or more , and you can add all the details you want ,
i hope you get my point .