Danny's First Sketchbook (Learning to draw)

[Danny_K]

color practice
around 20-25 min each

[Icecold]

Hey hey!

Good that you've started those color studies, but look at this picture:



Palm tree's leaves usually have some yellow-green color to them. Also take a look how much blue of the sky is in the shadows, it's an important thing to know ( how blue light of the sky affect the surroundings). Plus like i said before try to look at your work on a different monitor, it;s abit pale right now. Maybe you simply need to adjust some stuff, try out this site:
http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

P.S The quick, easy effective and good looking way to create a sky fast is to lay in a gradient.

*Thumbs up*

[Danny_K]

Thanks man I changed my gamma a bit hope it will help.
now about the palm tree you are right man I was just too tired and lazy to add more colors in 1AM at night haha

some more of the same, trying to experiment with the knowledge I gained from the manikin frame.

And some epic music for drawing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlcUw...EBD5E&index=16

[Danny_K]

Listening to Battlestar Galactica soundtrack and painting for hours is truly just an amazing experience, it sucks you in and after few hours you wake up and suddenly you have something finished in front of you and you ask yourself did I do that?

These are all from Imagination no refs used, and it tells unfortunately :/

[Danny_K]

movie still, tried to do a speed painting but found myself caught up in detailing the background LOL so their faces look like hippos anus.
around 2 hours

[Danny_K]

rough one from this morning, felt like doing one more star wars theme.

[Danny_K]

more studies, it's ridiculous how small my monitor is T_T

[Icecold]

Hey, can you share the site with such sexy shadows to draw? i love this type of lightning, it produces very interresting shadows.

Now i've a feeling that you are using the wrong brush all the time, i remmember i was using it thinking it was the hard round one with other dynamics when i was starting the whole digital stuff like an year ago.

Now the second thing is that you persist in using very dark values too much, actually abusing it. Do some more gradiation studies. And keep working with only few earlier established values, like you did with the naked lady on the very last pictures.

I'm also very happy that you've actually started to paint more often, i remmember the two of us starting out in bumskee's thread and it's making me happy that my mate is constantly improving, it's like a journey that we're on.

As for the neeed a hand pic, i'd rather pick a large soft brush to creata that glow and tweak it abit later, all of this on hard or soft light layers.
Advice for that particular picture, or rather a how light and shadow works theory. Warm lights are warm, then analogously to that shadows will be cool. When you have cool lights the shadows will be warmer.
Also study how light reflects from different srfaces. Will help a ton!

Yet another thing, you need to blend stuff better, it all looks choppy now, perhaps it's the fault of the brush which i think it might be in some way.

On the space thingie there's actually no focal point my eyes were running all over the image looking for that particular spot to hang 'em on.
I'll try to help you with a small overpaint later, will post it here.
I will try to analyse your picture and use my weak knowledge trying to aid you in your journey.

Last but not least, i think you actually need to know why you are doing those mannikins.
It has one purpose (altho i think bridgeman explains it way better in his work than loomis does)
To learn how to cinstruct things, you neeed to lear how to think like an architect. Bring down every object to simple understandable forms, making them fit in one piece and after that shaping them for realistic look. Drawing them by only drawing will teach you nothing, this rules apply for many aspects of life.

Now that was abit of constructive crits, it was only to help you, not to make you sad or angry just to mention. Now how could ever say samoething bad about my bud

P.S Here's what set of settings you should use for the brush, I personally have the shape dynamics turned off.
http://daverapoza.wordpress.com/2009...skype-reviews/



EDIT: ok Here is the overpaint of that gal. i went thru it really quick just to show you how much better it looks like, when the choppyness is gone. smooth=sexy
Ah i think that you should also work out your lines, make them less shaky, more stable and smooth.



And here's also a quick paintover your battle ship, abit balanced out composition, did some variations to the planet herself. I've enlarged the battle ship by simply adding some smaller space ships around it. They show the scale between them and the large cruiser. Now what's also very important is the story factor. Every good art piece should have some story telling, not too much tho first is the painting not the tex, get it?
I've played abit with the colors also to give this piece more depth, even tho it took me only few minutes to do those adjustments you should get the idea of what i meant to achieve.
Hope that helps you, and either you should change your monitor or pay more attention to values, as most of your darks are really dark or "pale black".

In matter of fact, the glow around this planet should be even less saturated.

[Danny_K]

As always thanks again for the critique, after I red it I just realized how much I suck!
For some reason these last pieces I totally ignored almost everything I learned so far, most of the things you mentioned, and that is just stupid I gotta think think think! instead of just letting it all go and see what happens.

thanks again for the link too buddy

the Planet with the space ship kicks ass!!! I gotta revise it!

more crap

[Icecold]

Ah i forgot to mention one thing, you do a common mistake of shading with black and brightening with white. Now select this line in your brain and press shift+delete for perma erase ;D

Now learn abit about color harmonies and such thing, and exchange black with darker ( not always very dark ) values of other colors.
Take a look how darker areas are handled here:

[Fallenangel]

Hey! I just looked again through your first sketch book pages and i can say without any doubt that you made a huge progress- congrats!
Keep up with the anatomy study and with the painting studies- you're getting better and better with every page that you produce.

One advice though, try maybe to finish a picture from start and till the end (i don't do it often either) but try to make more finished pictures (like the spaceship pic), it's hard to draw/paint something but it's way harder to start something from a lil sketch and work on it till it becomes a finished picture.

Alex.

[Danny_K]

Ah i forgot to mention one thing, you do a common mistake of shading with black and brightening with white. Now select this line in your brain and press shift+delete for perma erase ;D

Now learn abit about color harmonies and such thing, and exchange black with darker ( not always very dark ) values of other colors.
Take a look how darker areas are handled here:

Thanks for the kick in the butt I needed that... 5 points for you.
Icecold - 5 Danny - 0

One advice though, try maybe to finish a picture from start and till the end (i don't do it often either) but try to make more finished pictures (like the spaceship pic), it's hard to draw/paint something but it's way harder to start something from a lil sketch and work on it till it becomes a finished picture.

Alex.

For you Alex
here's a revision of the battleship

[Danny_K]

still life painting 1 hour 40 min
and a quick value practice
critique and suggestions are very welcome

[Icecold]

Now this bottle rocks! You should bomb us with more of these! tehee
There are some construction problems however, i described whats wrong on this picture:


As for the value study, it may sound obvious but you won't learn anything if working from head. To learn you must observe nature and mimic it, the best way is to simply draw from life like you did with this bottle.

P.S thanks for those pics, there are so many of them! \^^/

[Danny_K]

it's not the bottle who rocks here, its you!
thanks for the tips bro

[Royzy]

I'd say the bottle AND the feedback you got both rock.

Great sketchbook! I can see loads of progress in it already.

[Danny_K]

Royzy thanks man I am really trying to improve.

I am always feeling intimidated by trying to paint new things, especially landscapes and complex pictures, at first it all seems too much and I get discouraged even before starting, I guess after the first few strokes are down it doesnt seem so bad any more, the problem is making that first step into the chilly water the rest of the swimming is fun.
I decided to change my attitude towards art thanks to "Icecold" and "Bobby chiu's" influential and totally inspiring broadcasts thanks guys!


and a quick forest speed painting

Mushrooms done from a ref photo, about hour and a half

[Rune Rask]

Awesome progression, especially in your last images! The bottle is awesome!

Just keep practising, and watch out, with softening everything to much, go crisp and go soft, but make it a conscious decision.

And icecold, awesome feedback, wish i had the skills to point stuff like that out!

- Rune

[BlackDelphin]

Very nice, very nice indeed!
I really like your studies, especially that little bottle of yours from real life!! the colours are really nice, and even though the angle wasn't perfect or stuff like that, i consider that it is a very good study!

Good luck onwards

[Danny_K]

Values practice still WIP

[Icecold]

Mr. Ice is back with another (hopefully usefull hint)

To avoid choppyness, place a wash layer under your sketch and fill it with a huge sized brush, don't worry of going outside the lines, you will fix it later.
After that wash simply create a layer above your lineart and start from there.
And try working with as big brush, as possible, you'll get used to it eventually.
Now, another important thing, background around bright areas ought to be darker, and vice versa, this helps things to pop.

Now as for your previous 2 pieces, i really see the improvement in the use of colors, you have one word tatooed on your forehead " PROGRESSION" ;D

P.S What's she waiting for, hmm? haha

[Danny_K]

Welcome back Mr.Ice
Can you show an example of what you mean? you can use this sketch:
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n.../Art/girl1.jpg

What basically I am trying to do is think in big shapes at the beginning and just lay the basic values.

P.S What's she waiting for, hmm? haha

She's Waiting for you to show her some of that sweet lovin' of yours ^_^

[Danny_K]

Update on the Asian girl
critique and suggestions are always welcome

[ryan mcshane]

haha that last post is funny
your improvement is great! the face on the asian girl is very smooth and blended nicely, good job!

[Incinerated]

Hey man totally awesome you dropping by my sketchbook, I was just looking for reference.
Anyway nice stuff here!

[android411]

hey man, great progress, especially on color and form, I would suggest you could work on your values a it more, keep it up man

[Icecold]

Now i must say that you definitely have improved in using colours and values, no more milky white blacks, and more juicy blackness and shiny colourz.
Glad, that i could also help with the edge sharpness , anyway it's always cool to see how you evolve, cheers.

As for the lady, actually you could give me the sketch alone on in a transparent format like png, but no worries i'll handle. Will Update in few minutes.
P.S Ohhhh She thinks of me!! How sweet, wish she was real ;<

EDIT: Ok here's what i meant, you simply wash in some tones and go from there, it can be done on a multiply layer( don't worry about going out of the lines you can fix that later on, or put directly under your sketch layer and filled with paint on a no blending mode on layer. The you simply create a layer on top and paint over it, enjoy
Ah, also keep working on those long str8 smooth lines, it improves overaal visual appearance.


PS'2. Sign up for lifedrawing classes, it will help you a ton! i plan on doing it myself.

[Danny_K]

Pandah Thanks
Incinerated Anytime mate and thanks
Icey Thanks a lot for the explanation, it makes sense start with big shapes and go detail thanks again for putting this out for me your help is worth gold

Sketches and more update on the Asian girl, Almost there...

[Danny_K]

Alright! finally done with this gal, I must say It wasnt easy but I learned a lot, really tried to push the rendering here and it took around 6 hours.
added the process as well.

[jedininjaman]

reagarding the colrs:
the jewel tone scheme thing you do is hard on the eyes, knocking down the contrast and finding a unifying color scheme would help a lot.
That said, the last render you did turned out great!
Keep it up man, you are improving and that is what is most important