"Create like a god, command like a king, and work like a slave"

**Syle** · December 21st, 2009, 11:13 PM

Check the last page for the most recent stuff.

I'm a 29 year old musician living in Seattle WA. Just looking to progress my understanding of art and illustration for my own personal enjoyment.

Much love and respect to all here! This is, hands down, one of the best communities on the web!

**Syle** · December 22nd, 2009, 03:03 AM

More.

**jordyskateboardy** · December 22nd, 2009, 03:57 AM

Hey man. Welcome to Ca!

Cool use of texture in those balls be sure to not forgot the cast shadow underneath the balls. Now they're kinda lacking that. And you also wanna make sure you're not gonna show us but those balls. Upload some more stuff. Dunno characters and the like or environments.

Keep 'em coming.

**Syle** · December 22nd, 2009, 09:47 AM

Thanks for the feedback jordy. For sure on the cast shadows, I won't be forgetting those from now on. I will be posting actual sketches/figures/etc soon, I just wanted to start slow and work on some basic fundies for a month or so; I am not sure how long I can do just value balls

so I am sure I will be posting something else soon! Thanks again.

**Syle** · December 23rd, 2009, 02:47 AM

Another sphere exercise. I can't figure out the proper method of diagnosing the proper intensity of color to match an appropriate grayscale value...any tips?

Also, I found myself a paper sketch pad that I am going to start carrying around with me so that I can start posting some real-life doodles and exercises. *WARNING* I am terrible! But, this is all for getting better, and I hope that the feedback I receive from this fantastic community will help me get better. Thanks for looking.

**Syle** · December 23rd, 2009, 08:35 PM

This one took me an overall 15 min to do. The other studies posted took me 30+ min each, so I am making progress in my sense of fluidity with the program. I am going to start doing these once a day now, along with Idiom's next exercise. Trying to get a regiment down. I will be sketching throughout the day now in my drawing pad whenever I can, so I will soon be posting those sketches.

**Syle** · December 27th, 2009, 03:26 PM

The few sketches/exercises I was able to do accomplish over the last few busy days.

**Syle** · April 7th, 2010, 11:11 PM

Been gone awhile.

I am going to just upload anything and everything I make from now on. Getting embarrassed about how terrible I am just makes no sense if I want to grow as an artist. From hence forth I hold nothing back.

This update consists of an original pencil doodle. Then I tossed it into PS and "symmetrized" it. It's something I like to do (but am slowly trying to work my way away from).

**Syle** · April 7th, 2010, 11:31 PM

A loose hand gestural thing that I manipulated in PS.

**Syle** · April 7th, 2010, 11:32 PM

Charcoal. Then PS again.

**Syle** · April 7th, 2010, 11:35 PM

Started with a pencil sketch up. Then PSed it. Then churned it into a 54"x48" acrylic painting. (Order of pictures here is: PS, painting, ball point pen)

**Syle** · April 11th, 2010, 01:47 PM

*Update*

**Syle** · April 11th, 2010, 01:50 PM

*Update 2*

**Syle** · April 11th, 2010, 01:54 PM

Looking for some feedback on my gestural sketches. I was doing 60 sec posemaniac sets. It looks terrible to me, but will keep it up. Trying to do 3-4 10 min posemaniac sessions a day on top of perspective studies.

**Syle** · April 11th, 2010, 10:05 PM

Still hoping for some help/feedback on the gestural stuff. Is there a right and wrong way to do it?

**Syle** · April 12th, 2010, 09:47 AM

*bump*

**Lyno** · April 14th, 2010, 04:26 PM

Hi Syle, I don't really often do those posemaniacs gestures things

, but I think they're mainly used to warm up. On the other hand, I can recommend this pdf, quite much to read but it's so great and changed my way of thinking about anatomy/gesture.
"Gesture Drawing for Animation" (the link is a pdf!), it's a collection of the handouts of Walt Stanchfield. I should print it out and take your time read it.

Good luck

.

**Syle** · April 15th, 2010, 09:45 AM

Thank you Lyno! I really appreciate it!

**Syle** · April 20th, 2010, 01:25 AM

The pear was the first DP I did. The nectarine followed. And then I did the blue bottle/apple today. They each took me 1+ hours.

**Syle** · August 14th, 2010, 08:20 PM

update: in the market for a scanner to upload pencil studies, in the mean time, trying to get back into the digital realm.

**Syle** · November 24th, 2010, 01:58 AM

just an update. hoping to be consistent.

**Syle** · November 27th, 2010, 02:40 PM

11-27-2010 update:

**Syle** · November 28th, 2010, 11:18 PM

Update, going through Loomis and Bridgeman.

**Syle** · December 1st, 2010, 01:45 AM

Update 11-30-2010:

**karmiclychee** · December 2nd, 2010, 11:05 PM

That is some trippy shit. Dude, I see some excellent progress here. Your lines are getting more refined and confident. Mix up your pencils, push your lights and darks!

**Syle** · December 3rd, 2010, 01:43 AM

Thanks for passing through here Karmiclychee. I appreciate the feedback. I will totally pay attention to pushing my darks and lights. More contrast!

Also, I really dig your website. Those renderings that you did of the bananas were top notch! The first one I thought was photograph! Until I did a double-take I didn't realize it was digital. Very cool.

I saw that you were moving to Seattle soon; I'm in Seattle myself. I would be curious to know which Futurepoly classes and Gage classes you take. I took the Concept Design course at Futurepoly. It was a good course and very loosely (but also very educational) structured.

**OnceDaily** · December 3rd, 2010, 02:02 AM

Hey dude.

Keep it up. Some of your abstract stuff is really neat; I especially like the stuff in post #9. Also, you seem to have a very good eye for detail.

As far as your posemaniacs gestures go, I've just started doing some myself, but I find that the looser my strokes, the more success I have. You're going for feeling, not 100% anatomical accuracy in those 30/60 seconds. Just my amateur opinion on the matter.

**Syle** · December 3rd, 2010, 03:06 AM

This one gave me some trouble. Some of the shadows I feel good about, and the ones I marked with a (?) I wasn't sure about....

Anyways, this was just a quick perspective/light-value study. Going to hammer on these basics for a while; I'll stick with basic geometric shapes.

**Rhoades** · December 3rd, 2010, 03:17 AM

First of all, post #11 is amazing! As far as your figure studies, they are looking pretty good! Hand studies are are also well done. Keep up the good work!

**karmiclychee** · December 3rd, 2010, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by Syle

Thanks for passing through here Karmiclychee. I appreciate the feedback. I will totally pay attention to pushing my darks and lights. More contrast!

Also, I really dig your website. Those renderings that you did of the bananas were top notch! The first one I thought was photograph! Until I did a double-take I didn't realize it was digital. Very cool.

I saw that you were moving to Seattle soon; I'm in Seattle myself. I would be curious to know which Futurepoly classes and Gage classes you take. I took the Concept Design course at Futurepoly. It was a good course and very loosely (but also very educational) structured.

Haha, those bananas. Everyone loves the bananas. They're actually both photographs of a banana that I etched with the tip of my pocket knife (like a dot painting).

I'm definitely interested in doing the drawing and painting Atelier, I just have to make it work somehow since it's full time, 7000 bucks, and I'm pretty much broke. I'm not sure when I'll do it (at the same time as Gage or after I've learned the foundations from Gage), but I want to at least take the Digital Art Core classes at Future Poly - digital painting, texturing, and concept design. I might just pick and choose after starting with digital painting.

I suspect that I'd be better off doing Gage first, getting some really solid fundamentals in classical skills, and then veering off into concept design with a good technical foundation.