6 years of concept art SB in june! Oo!

[Leo Ki]

Yep, come back soon! I need my story fix. Can't wait to see Red in action.
On your big foot illo I'd push the contrast so as to dramatize the red light
- but you know I always overdo colors so don't trust my advices

[ashess]

ok.. Got my internet working. My scanner not quite right yet... but I got a work-around. I think it’s due to vista and the hp software conflicting. I can’t get into the old twain dialogue to work so I can tweak my scan and have to do a scan to file and just guess the settings... but, at least I got something scanned.
2 cats -yes I always draw cats when I can’t get my gears up ^^
A3 size.
Meanwhile, there's a lot I want to work on... and I'm having trouble deciding.
I was thinking of maybe making a classic card set -only with 'fantasy style' characters on them depicting the numbers queens and stuff. Do them in Photoshop, practice lighting and colors a bit.
Then, there's the storyboard. I've started on a sequence I think would look great as a rough animation.
Also, what's been lying around as just an idea for a long time now; make a sequence of running horses or something. Make it fit as a loop, and present it as a moving painting. You know, in one of those new digital photolists they have. Got a list and already tried playing film in it... it should work.
I’m also a little distracted by... live I guess. Particularly this pregnancy thing... I don’t know maybe I should just draw about that. Can’t keep my mind off it by now anyway OO!

[Leo Ki]

I love the way you announce the news casually at the very end of your post, LOL
Are we going to see smiling Bambis and butterflies under the blue sky? ^^
OK, back to work:
I like the idea of the running horses animation, but I don't quite understand what rendering you want.
Which part did you pick for Red?
Your sleeping cat sketches make my eyelids heavy. It works!

[Mock]

Whoooooa, you're preggers? Isn't that a good thing? =P Remember to balance art and life. There will be times when your life is so hectic that trying to draw becomes a chore rather than an escape. When that becomes the case, don't push yourself too much. We all need a break now and then. =)

[ashess]

@ Leo: yeah kind of feel like I'm spacing out half the time.. I could keep my mind off it before. but now I'm beginning to feel something now and then.. its very absorbing ^^
oh and I see I'm not making any sense again ^^ the animation sequence (f which i've drawn 2 rough storyboard panels so far Oo; posting some when I'm farther) was to be for project redz.
the running horsers would charcoal or aquarel of both.. might need some computer work to pull it together at the end.
and ye cats. they can sleep in a way that just makes you jealous doesnt it? I think they practise looking happy while sleeping.. that must be why they do it so much.
@MOck: well, dont know if it's a good thing, but me and my bf had decided on it, and we're both very excited aubout it. Excempting moments of silly 'oh my god we're not ready' stuff ^^. meh if we wait much longer we'll be too old :p. And woa, sounds like you know what you're talking about. well, I hope to at least keep my sketch diary (just a drawing about that day).. its not that much work; and I have some of 5-10 years ago. its fun to just leaf through.

and, look. self portraits. what a brilliant idea. wonder where I came up with that 00

[ashess]

got the morning off, and noticed this great idea in Mock's thread..
so playing around with colors some.

[Genome]

Super honored that you wanted me of all people to crit your work i am more than happy to do it. but first i wanna adress this

I’m also a little distracted by... live I guess. Particularly this pregnancy thing... I don’t know maybe I should just draw about that. Can’t keep my mind off it by now anyway OO!

Always always draw about it. Even if you have to make yourself. The reason to do this is cause you can start to work out the problem because you have to focus on it objectively to produce an image that is provoking and one that makes sense. Plus these later usually turn out to be milestones in your life. Or something nice to hang in the babies room if it turns out nice So you end up with free therapy and a present. Oh art how i love you.

Crits

figures- What you really need to start to do is learn proportions. Anatomy is nice but what allows us to see that difference between humans and an ape is the proportions of that anatomy. I understand that you are going for an anime style for your main project but notice how Cheeks-74 uses proportion and style to make his characters have personality but be human at the same time, even though they don't have perfect human proportion.


|To learn some awesome proportion stuff hit up - Andrew Loomis

( Your looking for" Figure drawing for all its worth", but everything else is gold too)

Anatomy shouldn't be ignored either (not that you are doing that) but it is only good for creating the human figure if it can be placed in the right place. This leads to my next point.

The carpenters rule- measure twice, cut once! if you are asking what i mean by that, well Ill tell ya. You need to measure everything; art is a science that involves expression and a large amount of that science is proper measurement. Also what I mean by cut once is use a single line (or try too). nice lines is like the words that flow within poetry. You pet your lines too much ( I do this all the time) just experiment to see the difference.

-Also Ive noticed that your figures are many lines. What I mean is that in life there are no lines. We don't view people or anything as lines, everything is a 3d object that merely has edges. When drawing because we are working in 2d we need to express that 3d with lines. But never ever forget about that 3d aspect.

What I am getting at is that the body is made up of basic shapes that exist in space. A good way to add volume is to master the basic shapes. Do this by studying perspective, but apply it to everything. The nose is nothing but a ball on a tube with two half spheres that act as nostrils. Simplify everything you see and you will control what we see.

Studies

-Make notes about what you learn, or what you have done wrong. We all have bad memories and cant remember every little thing. So record it. Put down what you learned because it helps reinforce it.

- Be careful about how you draw bridgeman, I can tell you are more so copying it out ( at least a little) because of some distortion. No this distortion isn't really your fault, its cause bridgeman's drawings were originally done on huge slides for university courses and copied and resized to fit in a small book. This lead to some distortion, the way to get around this is to try and match the amount of lines he uses (usually one per muscle) and break it down visually.

What is this? why is it there, why does it look like this. Observe, and analyze and Learn. If you use this everyday alll day you will become an amazing artist.

- work hands and feet to death, there is an old saying " if you can do hands and feet well, you can get away with anything".

- You really need to do some long studies, mix them in with the short of course. But long studies develop patience and knowledge. Once you've come away from a 40 hour piece of work, you feel like a brand new artist. Long studies are like battle for an artist, its back and forth and sometimes you don't win. But you come away (haha hopefully) with something new.

Well i hope I helped you out a bit, and I am truly impressed with your efforts in this book. You've got ideas and good ones at that. This is more precious than a pile of diamonds, because even though some people can find technical skills faster than the rest of us, they might just draw nice pictures. You have ideas and are going for them right away, I wish i was as brave as you.

~Genome

[ashess]

hello there Genome!
thank you very much from taking the time to view and crit my work. it is grately appreciated.
there's a lot of info in your post. some points you mention I though I'd already adressed in the past.. some are completely new to me. I'm gonna mull this over a bit and see if I can put it into practice; again, thanks a lot!

[ashess]

ok well, I have been sorta busy. and reasonably happy with the results.
@ Genome: I leafed through 'figure drawing for all its worth" yesterday. I really liked the part about putting figures in space and getting their relative sizes right. I didnt get much farther then that yet.
also, what you mentioned about a 40 hour work.. is both intimidating and comforting. intimidating because the thought of putting 40 hours into one piece is an alien concept to me.. comforting because something like the yeti from last month had about 6 hours in it, and I was getting very frustrated and confused that it wasnt finished yet.
here 's a little anatomy; and a hand..

the rest is all about my day I guess ^^
all of us in bed:

notice the little foot in my tummy; drawing this was really fun and made me happy glad I took the advice to put this down.
the rest is my afternoon @ the horses. it was a beatifull day yesterday; warm enough to draw outside without freezing my fingers off. so I took half an hour at feeding time to draw my horse, Ro:

and his mother:

ps, I also kept a consqious lookout for the number of lines I used, and their use for shape. sometimes this went well, sometimes it was a little harder.

[Fitzin]

Excellent, your doing self portraits! And I see some gestures, wha hey.

I suggest adding more variety to those self portraits, like a longer study (you can keep it to the head to keep it simple.) To help understand values, planes and edges.

To help get a understanding of the general gist of what you have to do. Look at the paintovers by Greg Pro. He has general principles you should learn that are pure gold. I love it cause its right to the point.

Here are some, Like THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS Also this one if you observe in those sentences especially the last >>> lookie

Use these as refernce for princples, I can stress this enough because we forget, even if its so simple. (I know I do )

Also look up Loomis Drawing the head and hands. Also all his other books, theres tons of helpful info that you chould take note and reference. Heres some downloads of all his books and more for you to unzip >>> Here.

[FightingSeraph]

It's been a long time since I first posted in your thread, and what do I find...
Great stuff. Here's a tip: variate your subjects a bit.

[Leo Ki]

Yeah keep at these daily sketches, don't be lazy as I am
The horses are great and lively, and the cats roaming around you are funny.
As was said already, do try to use less strokes, either by making big curves animation-style, or slow thorough lines.
The color thumbnails are interesting. I should do some again.
Update! Update!

[cdejong]

Hiya ashess, I like those color studies a lot, as well as your linework.

Whoa, you're pregnant. I didn't even know you were a girl That's two in a row in one day. First Mock, now you... and both in my SB group. I can't believe that I have talked to both of you guys for the last months and I still had no idea you were girls. Not that it matters, but god I'm stupid.

Anyways, big congratz are due. Ik wil dat alles gaat goed voor jullie.

Also some new storyboards would be nice to gawk at .

[ashess]

ah ^^ thanks for all the kind words ppl. ouch, daily updates. its more like weekly now. oh, I'm also trying to learn a little italian now for our trip next month. did the same for our japan last year. it was fun to be able to exchange a few words with the locals at least.
oh. dont think I showed off my work from that trip here at all. I'll make another post on that later.
@fitzin: thanks for those links; they're really nice!
having a bit of trouble doing anyting more then 5 min right now; but I'll just try I guess ^^ << short attention syndrome?
@Leo: glad you like. not sure how much I can tone down on lines. the one I use @ the side now are more like crosshatching. but maybe not different enough?
@Seraph: thanks ^^ ill visit you again sometime too. going to Rome soon so that should help with the subjects
@sebbon: I'm just assuming you're a guy too. funny huh? I kinda guessed Mock was a girl. but you do kinda assume its all guys out there.. I wonder why. Dank je wel;
and ye ^^ I am working on some stroyboards. but not really happy with the shots yet so gonna re-run m I guess.

--
this is some freeze frames from the muxic channels a few days ago:

[ashess]

ok. this is almost a year old; but wanted to sharet it anyway
cityviews with a lot of sakura (we timed our trip ^^) 2 in kurashiki:

2 in kyoto. ye I like urban life better then a lot of old sanctuaries. sorry


here's our trip to the oceanium;






1 more Kyoto from our hotel:



and 2 in a Tokyo park:



it was a planned trip, so I was always short on time to finish these bigger pieces (40x70cm). got some more sketches in my book too. but these are my favourite I think. our Rome trip's gonna be unplanned. but I wont be going alone so I bet I wont get away with just sitting in 1 spot all day either ^^ still looking forward to in though!

[Leo Ki]

Wow, a big thank for sharing your watercolors and sketches from the trip.
The laid-back and interpretive style, along with the topics chosen, makes them one of the most relaxing things I've seen, really.
Another facet of your skills discovered

[ashess]

glad you like m too leo; I love making stuff like this on my trips. photos are nice too; but these give me more memory ^^

here's my cat. started drawing m digitally yesterday. because he looked so sweet basking in the sun. of course he moved halfway through so finished today from memory.

[ashess]

half hour color practise/ fantasy landscape.
I really mean to take the longer study advice to heart. just having a bit of trouble comitting myself to one
.

[ashess]

some eyes. bm's from bridgman. others are from life. dont really get this '3 planes' part he talk about though.

[ashess]

so I was just pointing out to la baspi how structured ruben's pencils were. then I kinda noticed he went about things a lot like the bridgman studies.
anyway, had to try my hand on a sketch.


original:
http://www.fineart-china.com/upload1...ens-336297.jpg

[ashess]

storyboard; to make it somewhat easy to follow, here are the older pieces:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...0&postcount=33
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...2&postcount=35
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...5&postcount=37
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...6&postcount=40
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...9&postcount=67
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...&postcount=101
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...&postcount=104
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...&postcount=123

[ashess]

things allways seem to turn quiet when I update daily..
this is a ani test from a while back. was trying to import it toyoutube and upload here. but for some reason I can get it to play right in youtube. prolly need to get some codecs.

[badass]

I really like your style ashess. Especially the water color stuff!

It looks like your going straight into drawing your figures, without laying down the basic shapes/forms first to work out the proportions. I would recommend sketching the basic layout of your figures (essentially a basic gesture drawing) before you go into details like the fingers or facial features. If your already doing this, maybe just spend more time getting the proportions right before adding the details.

[Aaron Death]

I love those Tokyo city scenes. They have a very nice style.

[tobbA]

Cool sketchbook

I like the water colors. They look pretty japanese actually

[ashess]

tnx for stopping by ppl ^^ its greatly appreciated. and yay its my day off again.. too bad I already spend most of the time I had reserved for drawing.. not drawing :/
but here's an hour sketch from a few days back.

maybe I'll put some more work into this. see if it goes anywhere. though it feels finished to me in some respects.
@Buddha: hmm I usually do draw basic shapes; though the latest ones from life I might not have. good point.
@Aaron. tnx. they were great fun to do. prolly wont have a chance to go back soon. but maybe in Rome ^^
@tobbA: they're dutch though aint that something? I think its the use of indian ink with watercolors.

[ashess]

well, first ani test 4 the storyboard (playing somewhat later then what I've shown until now).
Red trying to sneak around unnoticed. I havent finished the guard on the left yet; he's ony in 2 frames.. just so you knida get what she's doing

[ashess]

quick sketch for aza; with tries on clothing. pretty satisfied as I seem to be getting her character down pretty easy now.

she's a bit of a moody 'doom-thinker'; smart but protective & guarded

[Pixie Trick]

You've definitely progressed. My favorites are the kyoto paintings. I really do think the personality of the latest character is showing through. Can you do it a second time, first try?

I think a long study would do you good. Maybe think of the longest you've ever spent on a piece and add an hour or two.

Keep up the work and congratz.

[Fitzin]

Hey, Here are some thoughts.

That painting of that cat chould use with some help. I suggest following the the blast rule. - Bookmark it, Print it, >>> http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/20...last-rule.html

I can give you suggestions for longer studys, Heres a great example of refinement by David Kassan >>>http://www.davidkassan.com/foot_demo.html Look at how the strokes follow the form, higlights handled with a pointed eraser and other things.

I suggest you work on highly durable paper, like bristol board. It can take a lot of eraseing.

Thats a quite a acedemic example, feel free to explore different examples. Like the Kchen method of starting loose to tight. Like this >here Got that from Here. Nice stuff in the blog.