Escape From The Land Of The Suck

[MT-Mystic]

How I feel most of the time. Especially when I'm on CA.

[MT-Mystic]

Cover for my book. One of the few things I've done in recent years that I think somehow turned out okay.

[MT-Mystic]

Some portraits based on some photos of a photographer friend of mine.

[MT-Mystic]

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[kimozabbi]

And for the sake of posterity, Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life... I certainly hope this wasn't a waste of time. Of course, Frazetta did it in a day...

was browsing around your sketchbook, damn son, it looks awesome! anyway Frazetta did it in a day?who's frazetta? and WHAT A DAY?!

[Shahan]

your skills ARE SO GOOD that once you practice enough your drawings from imagination are going to be fucking SUPREME!!! your bridgman stuff looked like exact replicas!!!! AWESOME!! and just amazing! man good stuff
keep at it i have no advice... your ability to render and do studies... its really just a matter of time and practice until you make some amazing amazing things from your mind. keep at it and hang in there.
persue an onslaught of a marathon of unrelenting drawing from imagination.


EDIT: we differ in skill level and expierience, but i think i have the opposite problem ... i draw terrible from life and photo, but i think my drawings from imagination are ..not good.. but better than my lifes at least. my sketchbook is mostly imagination stuff.

[Aondê]

very nice study sculpture with drawings
portraits are very interesting

[Ifat Glassman]

So have I improved over the last 2 years? Not sure. Feels like a lost cause. But there's nothing left to do but keep fighting.

I love love love love love your devil dude.

[MT-Mystic]

kimozabbi: Yeah, it's sort of a myth, but supposedly he copied the whole book in a day. Considering the kind of person Frazetta was, it's believable.

Sporus: Yeah, it's not hard to do replicas of Bridgman if you just pay attention to the strokes - the hard part is learning anything from it, which is where I feel I really failed. I appreciate your enthusiasm - I wish I could share it. I actually haven't been producing much art in the last 6 months, mostly because of my own insecurities and steadily waning interest. I have a lot of half finished projects that I can't seem to complete. But thanks for the encouragement.

Aondê: Thanks.

Ifat Glassman: Thanks. That painting is highly problematic - there's so much I didn't fix as I got sick of it. Sometimes it ends up feeling like a painting is a lost cause and it's better to just dump it and cut your losses. But I'm glad you like it.

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Some characters that took me far too long and are still problematic.

[Shahan]

well i love this 6feet down under thing... but uhh as for the post before...

i can totally relate.. everyone tells you your stuff is good but it doesnt sink in or click at all... youre your own toughest critic.
idk if theres anything i can say except for that im on the outside looking in and from where i stand youre a really great artist.... but your in the thick of it and its positive in a way if u use it as motivation.

adios!

[MT-Mystic]

Sporus: Thanks. That's probably the only time anyone will ever call me a great artist

I was working on another portrait and I got so angry at myself that I actually hurled my Intuos 3 at the floor while it was still plugged in. I didn't even realize how frustrated I had gotten. Gave it a big ol' crack down the side. I was really scared I might have broken it cause I couldn't afford to replace it, but thankfully it still worked. Thank you, Wacom, for making such a sturdy product! So stupid though. It's not like it was the tablet's fault. It was my own fault for being such a shitty artist. I should've been hurling myself at the floor in frustration instead. But that was about when I gave it up - I think I forfeited my right to paint for the night by being a moron.

I do really hope some day I can enjoy making art again. I really hope some day before I die I'll be able to make the art I've wanted to make my whole life.

I'm afraid one day I'll finally get good, and then the next day I'll get hit by a bus.

[MT-Mystic]

Spending way too much time on these silly photo studies, but still having a hard time working from imagination, and I'm out of ideas for alternatives

[Sebastian Wagner]

super sketchbook. You are really improving man!

[lemming-clone-]

Nice progress! You have some great observational skills and you have a very naturalistic way of defining color. Definitely keep at it! Looking back through your sb and the amount of studies you've done, you've got a ton of knowledge built up.
As far as working from imagination goes, I think setting up maquettes would be something that plays to your strengths. It looked like it helped you out a lot in some of the posts on the first page.
If you're not familiar with James Gurney, start learning from him. He's done a lot of this.
I mean a lot.
He's written a few books about it which are definitely worth it if you have 20 bucks to throw around. Particularly Imaginative Realism.
That's my 2 cents anyways. Keep it up, though!

[Cyberman]

really great studies, enjoy watching your progression a lot. that last environment on page one is my fave! have a great weekend.

[MT-Mystic]

Noro: Thanks, that's great to hear; often it feels like I haven't improved at all, but it seems I just haven't improved as much as I would have liked.

lemming-clone-: Yeah, it feels most days like I am a complete beginner, but when I go back I realize I've done more work than I thought. James Gurney is amazing, and yeah, I've read Imaginative Realism. It has a lot of great pointers, but I found Color and Light to be more useful. But you do make a good point - maybe I should get back to maquettes...

Sean McClain: Thanks! That's why I like the sketchbooks on CA the most, cause you actually get to see people progress through time.

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Some more photo studies. Could obviously use a lot more work, but for these kind of studies I want to finish them quickly, as I have a habit of spending way too much time for way too little returns.

[Trixtar]

Wow you have some great stuff here!
I can't spot any un-great about it... really! Even though I am at the beginning stages of learning, I do know when I see something I like, and I like yours
-The Six Feet Down Under is a great idea, especially "the Backup Plan"... Totally made my day xD

[MT-Mystic]

Trixtar: Thanks - I'm glad you liked Kero - I think he came out best. It took me like a year to eventually come around and finish those designs.

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In other news, f#$% noses.

[MT-Mystic]

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[MT-Mystic]

So I work pretty hard, and then I get depressed, and then I stop for a long time, and then I come back because it eats me alive.

Repeat ad infinitum.

[TFsean]

Hey man, your photostudies are really really sick, the reason your still having issues with imagination work despite these is because you are spending a lot of time colouring, rendering, texturing portraits and stuff. That doesnt teach you anything about how the body functions.
Spend time looking at the loomis and bridgman anatomy books and thinking about how the body is pieced together and working on that, lots of studies, quality studies yes not rushed but it gets to a point the "educational value" of the piece then gets very low and making the piece very refined doesnt teach you much about what youre looking for.

Hope this helps, I understand your frustration but there is a lot of good in your work and the studies are just sick.

[MT-Mystic]

TFsean: Thanks. Yeah, I did a ton of Bridgman studies earlier in this sketchbook, but copying all of Bridgman's anatomy doesn't guarantee the necessary knowledge. I do agree a lot of time the educational value of the studies I've been doing degrade the longer I work on them. I try to push myself to get the study right by focusing on every tiny little detail, but even still, what I end up with isn't particularly compelling. I still don't know how artists like Sargent do it, capturing the whole thing in just a few strokes.

[MT-Mystic]

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[AKID]

keep on fighting dude : ) there's improvement for sure!

[MT-Mystic]

AKID: Thanks - glad to hear it.

[MT-Mystic]

Failed environment. Was trying pretty hard to finish this one, but it was going nowhere. I really need to work on my environment development process, and solve serious compositional issues early on.

[MT-Mystic]

So I heard about Adam Adamowicz and I got... scared.

I used to keep sketchbooks when I was younger. Now I... don't. I'm rigid. Studious. But I think in the process of trying to become a "professional," I've lost track of the reasons I got into this in the first place.

So here's something I haven't done in years: a shitty spontaneous painting. Behold! It sucks! And I don't care! Because it was fun!

[MT-Mystic]

Trying my hand at speedpainting instead of spending 10,000 years per piece.

[MT-Mystic]

Some more throwaway speeds.

[thebigchild293]

Your rendering are so awesome. I love your works