Rev needs to draw more. Posting daily!

[Revidescent]

Hey all, finally getting up the nerve to start one of these. I'm Rev, a.k.a. Kim Sokol, theoretically an illustrator. I finished art school (Sheridan College, Illustration program) a couple of years ago, and after spending ages trying to promote myself in the editorial style I left school with, I've realized that's not really where my heart is. So back to basics, trying to put together a digipaint/fantasy portfolio. That, and I'm suddenly realizing how shaky I actually am at those basics. This needs to change!


EDIT FOR 2012! I'm trying to post something every single day this year. Go to page 3 or 4, especially since I had to get rid of everything in this post to replace the thumb.

[Revidescent]

Still can't be assed to scan and post all my gestures and studies and things (Loomis today!) but here's some other stuff?

10 mins:


Current WIP. Got some crit in the crit section. He will soon be clothed once more.


Photo study. Didn't really count the time, guessing 3 hours-ish. Original photo by Bugidifino, gorgeous stock.

[Revidescent]

Not a lot of time for art today, alas.

The best of today's figure studies:


Photo study in progress. Gotta get up early tomorrow to paint a room, otherwise I'd finish it tonight. Ah well.

[mosishmon]

I am an art noob, but these studies are so neat and clear especially the first one is awesome. I want moreee.

[Revidescent]

Thanks, mosishmon! Aaaaa, my first comment. D:

Not a lot of art time over the past couple of days. Painting - the kind with rollers on a wall - is hard work. But now I have a living room the colour of Kraft Dinner, so all is well.




I thought I'd be done this thing by now. Man, I need to work on eyes. I suck at eyes. Facial proportions, aaargh. What is it about uploading stuff that suddenly makes me notice a million mistakes? Why could I not see this stuff in Photoshop 10 minutes ago?


Progress and reference on the elf.

[Revidescent]

I've never done much in the way of environments - hell, backgrounds - before. I know it's a huge weakness, but it's such a big topic, I haven't really known how to even start with something as simple as studies. I know how to construct a face or a figure, but where do you start with an environment? Today, I watched a couple of Feng Zhu videos - this one and this one - and had a huge moment of OH, OKAY, then went off and did these photo studies. (Ref from National Geographic.)





Requisite figure study and elf progress.

[BlightedArt]

Looking great, I love how you're heavily informing all of your work. Looking forward to more.

[Amarok]

Beautiful stuff so far! Keep it up!

[Nuked Tofu]

Oh, I sympathize with the environments thing. will definitely check out those videos, and can't wait to see more from you.

[Revidescent]

BlightedArt - Thanks! I actually went a really long time hardly ever doing studies, using minimal reference, but the SBs here have inspired me to get going on that. It's working!

Amarok - Thanks!

Nuked Tofu - Thanks a lot, and yeah, the videos are great. His whole channel's pretty awesome, actually, full of great inspiration.

Really wasn't feeling the figure studies yesterday. Fighting them all the way.


And here's the beginnings of a character concept for this week's CHoW. This is the sort of sketchbook stuff I don't normally post anywhere... it's just a brain dump, not really meant for public consumption. But hey, what the hell.

[Revidescent]

Figure study, photo study (still reffed from National Geographic), elf progress, and a design for CHoW. Productive day?





This photo really kicked my ass. So many textures made it super difficult to figure out what the all-over area values could possibly be.

[in2eternity]

Beautiful sketches, espesially I like your gestures ))) Keep posting this great works

[Justyna]

Nice start! I really like those pencil sketches of women

[Nuked Tofu]

That armor is really progressing! Are those textures that you made? Your sketchbook is great, just to see how you think. Is the silhouette thing something they teach in art school? It seems to come up a lot on CA...

[Henrique Ventura]

thanks for passing by my sb, i liked your pencil figure studies, keep going!

[Ironbyte]

Great start to your sketchbook, really like the portrait and the warm flesh tones and feel of the girl in cowboy boots.

Also got to do more studies and work on environments/backgrounds (I suck at these), so will check out those video links too.

[Vaejoun]

Nice thumbnails and studys. And the foxes have a really nice flowing line. Very nice

[Revidescent]

in2eternity - Thanks! I guess they technically are gestures, I don't tend to post my quicker (30 sec, 1 min) gestures, since there's just so many and I'm a lazy scanner. D:

Justyna - Thank you!

Nuked Tofu - Thanks, not sure what textures you mean? If it's on that photo study, it's all just textured brushes, some of which are mine and most of which come off the net... if it's on the armor, there're a couple of texture overlays from photos just for a little colour and tone variation, but they're mostly painted over already with the aforementioned textured brushes. As for the silhouettes, I think it's something they teach in more concept art/industrial design type schools perhaps, but certainly not where I went. That was actually my first serious attempt at silhouettes - I normally do start with a brain dump of a bunch of tiny doodles, but not filled in. Turns out it really is a nice way to focus on the shape.

Henrique Ventura - Thanks and no prob!

Ironbyte - Thanks! Am I going crazy or did you change your username? D: Yeah, check out the videos, they're a good kick in the butt.

Vaejoun - Thank you! I think I'm a little bit in love with foxes now, they're so naturally gestural, practically liquid.

I've spent the last week couchsurfing my way around Toronto, hence the sketchbook abandonment. I did get a couple of opportunities to do lifedrawing, though, as well as a lot of sketching on the subway and in coffee shops, so here's the first of a couple of catchup updates!

I went to Dr Sketchy's for the first time, and had a blast. How many lifedrawing sessions feature an attractive man in 6-inch heels? (Only scanned a couple of images, I wish I had more good drawings of his first costume with the eyepatch. It was kind of amazing.)


A couple of days later, I went to open lifedrawing at OCAD. (Not a lot of lifedrawing in Kingston, so had to take advantage of every chance I got in TO!)


Really loved the model, even though she seemed to have her hand on her hip every other pose.

[Revidescent]

Aaaand here's the rest of my Toronto week. Partly imagination and partly observation, but it's pretty obvious which is which. THRILL at the stupid stuff I drew while chilling in Polaris panels, CHILL at people standing in line at Tim Hortons, and BE AMAZED by random note-taking.

This particular sketchbook is ink-only, because I use both pages and don't like when graphite pages rub together? IDK.

[Revidescent]

Man, I started off so strong, and then posting just... dropped off. I AM GOOD AT THIS.

Here's an image from a few months back that I spent a couple of hours fixing up and repainting. She looks much better than she used to, believe me. (It's a roleplay character of mine, and yes, she's a skinny, elven barbarian. I tend to refer to her as Barbarian Barbie.)



The latest "lifedrawing" from photos. One of these days I'll scan my gestures, and you'll see why I don't scan my gestures. I tend to cram stuff into every space I can fit it, so half of them end up upside down and sideways and overlapping.



My latest finished CHoW. There's a HUGE process dump over at my blog, but as it's like 9 separate image files, I don't really feeling like uploading it here all over again.



Crappy late-night 20-minute doodle of a new D&D character, because I have no idea how to roleplay somebody I haven't drawn.



Eye studies. Of eyes. I'm gonna do more of these.



The reason for the eye studies. After watching the Zhang Lu tutorial download, I figured I'd take the suggestion of doing a bunch of heads from imagination, and... man, I need to work on that more. This one's not done yet.

[mitchoo]

Wow you're work is impressive and inspirational. I really admire how you render you're drawings. Thanks for sharing.

[Revidescent]

Thanks a bunch, mitchoo!

I haven't had much time of late for the sort of intense study stuff I was doing at the beginning of the SB, but still, here's a few studies and some random WIP type stuff.

NOSES.


Here's a head exercise, for shits, giggles, and learnings. The first two in each row are traced from photos, the second two are referenced from photos, and the third two are from imagination. Good way to figure out things I'm consistently doing wrong.


I started this yesterday - took reference and everything (a lamp without a lampshade makes a pretty good glowy ball of magic!) but I'm undecided as to whether I'll continue or not... I do like it, but it feels a bit too Kamehameha rather than fantasy magic. Also, the hands are messed up, if I do continue that'll be the first order of business.

[Revidescent]

In lieu of anything better to post (stressful month means slacking on studies, about which I am NOT HAPPY) here's today's warmup doodle, one of my current D&D characters. Revenant represent.

15 mins-ish per head.

[TheOneAndOnlySteve]

This is all really impressive.

As a beginner, I can't wait to try that technique of tracing and then drawing from imagination side by side. I expect that'll help me a lot.

[Seage]

Augh...you make me want to get back into CHOW!! I miss it so bad!
Great work and nice to see so many studies! Reminds me of what my lazy arse needs to do >.>...

Keep it up!!

[Revidescent]

TheOneAndOnlySteve - Thanks! Yeah, I've found it to be a helpful exercise... so long as you remember to look for the structure while tracing, constructing from rhythms and forms. =)

Seage - Thanksss, I don't do nearly enough studies, really. Man, I love CHoW. It's what finally got me off my butt and joining the forum after lurking for... man, since high school. 6 years? 7? How long has CA been around?

I started this thing as a late-night can't-sleep doodle a few nights ago, and found it today under the filename "AwfulFace.psd". After a little more work and some soul searching, I've decided to upgrade it to "SubparFace". This one's from imagination. NEED MOAR STUDIES.


Speaking of studies, here's a WIP next to the facial reference and studies from that facial reference. I'm doing a couple of pieces of fan art for Fan Expo; this'll be of the 3 main characters of Supernatural. Weirdly, I think I got the likeness better on the face NOT directly referenced - those 3 Misha Collins face studies are terrible. The first one is recognizeably him, but with severely messed up eyes. The second is a passable John Barrowman. The 3rd... I'm gonna go with Ewan McGregor.


And my other fanart WIP. I spent most of last night redrawing that face over and over, and it's still wrong. (If there's a theme to this post, it's that despite years of practice, I still lack a very basic understanding of head and face structure. On the plus side, I, uh, know this.) I've been doing these Art Nouveau Sandman pieces every year - two years ago was Death, last year was Delirium. This year, I'm going to have to branch out my Art Nouveau influences - not a lot in Mucha that feels quite right, but Aubrey Beardsley does dark, flowing shapes so very well. The challenge will be to make this one gel with the previous two.

[Luke Flerin]

Your figure drawing is incredible! That's all I'm focusing on at the moment Posemaniacs is all I'm spending my time on haha.

Looking at your work makes me excited for what level of art I'll be at someday!.

[Revidescent]

Luke Flerin: Thanks! Posemaniacs can be good for figure drawing, but The Drawing Script and Pixelovely are even better, because while you may not find as many weird poses and angles, actual skin, muscle and bone work a bit differently than Posemaniacs portrays them. (And of course working from life is better than all of those, but not always available!)

I've spent too much time bitching about how I'm not doing enough studies, and not enough time actually doing said studies. Here're a couple of studies.

First, finally finished that one from weeks ago. I'd all but forgotten about it. (Ref)


Enviro photo study. Playing with a couple of new brushes. (Ref)

[Revidescent]

Kay, a couple more for tonight. (I was actually planning to sleep after the last post, then kept working for... 5 more hours? Geez.)

Tried that thing I see people do sometimes, working up a character from a random, scribbled silhouette. Both the character design and the painting itself are painfully weak, but it was both quick and fun, and I'll do it again. (Although even for a sketch, man, I'm just now seeing JUST HOW BAD that anatomy is. It's... ow. What are his legs even attached to? Are there hips under there?)


My process, less because I think it'll be of use to others, and more of a "Guyyyys, am I doing this riiiiight."


Aaaand some more work on that Supernatural fanart. Haven't got the likeness on the main piece yet, but the studies aren't terrible. (I like the first one. That's a total Zoolander face.)

[glaudarien]

Hi there thanks for the comment on my SB.
I love how you do various facial studies before committing to a face for a new painting, i imagine it helps a load!

I think the problem with your sihlouette process here is that you've stuck with the sihlouette throughout the whole peice despite its flaws. What i mean is that your orignal sihloette scribble is to get some interesting shapes and 'happy mistakes' for the design direction. But then as you refine the sihlouette more you need to fix any anatomical errors whilst trying to keep the original design idea in tact and still always checking to see if the sihloeutte is interesting. Thats my 2 cents anyway hope it helps