Penumbra's Spellbook

[Twisted Synapses]

Wow... what can I say? From concept to finish your stuff is amazing!

[GriNGo]

About the making a drawing believable without ref. I think it's all in the lighting...this is something that I am constantly wrestling with. I think you are doing what you need to. The other thing is contrast, smooth areas vs rough, shiny vs flat, brilliant color(usually forground) vs compressed range(usually background) sharp edges vs soft or lost edges ...and you can usually find all these and more in a single piece.

Even dramatically stylized characters become believable if you nail the lighting. I guess if you can figure how the light falls on your character then their volume, their essential shape becomes more understandable and believable. Its why you see a lot of classical portrait artists and others indulge in the "egg" application of light. Its the easiest lighting scenario to figure out and it looks like this(I think you already get this but I will put it up in case someone else is interested):

Take a drawing and put a layer over it with an egg shaped gradation. Then use that for a simple direction when playing with your forms. Its a good place to start anyway, then you can add other light sorces the same way. Keep in mind, you don't apply the layer just use it as a guide.

I was reading youre whole thread and this tip got my attention. Very, very useful. Thanks for sharing! I just had to print out your words of wisdom to remind myself everytime...

[Penumbra]

Thanks gringo I'm glad it was helpful.
Twisted Synapses-much appreciated.


Here is a detail from a pencil study for a painting.

[Carnifex]

whew,if that's only the study,i'll sure be interested how the finished painting looks.

[IanE]

Absolute pleasure to look through this sketchbook again. Thank you!

[DeKal]

soooo great man. just stoppin through

[Hexokinase]

That latest study is absolutely phenomenal! Can't wait to see more

[sipher]

your paintings are amazing, its always wonderful to see fantasy art of this caliber

[Grendel Grack]

Hey Penumbra, beautiful work as always! Will you be at DragonCon this year? A bunch of the CA Atlanta sketch group will be in attendance.

[Verehin]

!
Another super-duper SB!
Im happy

[ccsears]

Haven't been in here before, but....WOW! 5*s, no doubt about it.

How do you get these large graphite images scanned? And how much does it usually cost to do that where you are? (I have to risk using Kinko's, and they keep giving me bitmaps instead of grayscale...)

Anyway, really great work in here!

[Penumbra]

ccsears-Hey thanks. i scan them myself on a microtek 9800xl 12 by 17 scanner then merge them in cs. A good pro scan can run from 50 bucks upwards of 200 per image. I just purchased a pro pre press scanner. The difference being that consumer grade scanners including the ones at kinkos only give you full resolution down the center of the scanner. Roughly a strip around 2 or 3 inches wide. You might not know the difference unless you have a real pre press scan to compare it to. For general puposes and for pieces to be finished digitally a consumer grade scanner is usually fine.

Another option is to compile shots witha digital camera and then clean it up in cs. Some imaging houses use high res medium format cameras that shoot upwards of 32 mega pixels. The images that I've gotten from these kind are usually really good. Color Q in Dayton does a good job.

[sourgasm]

your pencils just hurt ;P

[soros]

Outstanding pencil artwork! Amazing ideas (the horse is one of the most "in itself working" morphing figures I ever saw)!

[Penumbra]

This my submission for Microvisions, which is a charity exhibit and auction organized by Irene Gallo and Dan Dosantos. There are some incredible artists involved and I feel amazed and humbled to be able to show(virtual and actual-the pieces will be displayed in a mini gallery exhibit) with them. The proceeds from the auction of the art goes for scholarships awarded to student artists. If you haven't, check out Irene's blog as the images come in, pick someones work and bid away when the auction opens on ebay!
Link to Irene's blog:http://igallo.blogspot.com/

sourgasm-Thanks
soros-Thanks, I do love to work in graphite.

[bill618]

Fantastic work here and on your home site.

I’ve always liked the ‘Love Lost’ piece, and was pleasantly surprised to see the original in the ‘At The Edge: Art of the Fantastic’ exhibition at the Allentown Art Museum, this past summer (went twice).

[David79]

thats refreshing to see good pencil drawing thx to share it

[Giorge]

the drawing at #183 is really really nice

[nmx009]

Jesus! THe Warrior with the lion shield is F**kin cool man