Jon Neimeister's (Andantonius) Sketchbook - Updated Often!

[Andantonius]

I've been lurking around here for quite some time now, and have finally plucked up the courage to start posting.

I've been working on art for about 5 years now, teaching myself with the help of the glorious internet, and am aspiring to one day be a professional concept artist. But I know that though I like my work, I've got a heck of a long way to go.

So I'm posting here in the hopes of attaining some of the awesome critique the amazingly talented people here may have to offer, and also to document whatever improvement I may miraculously manage. I feel it's time to get serious about my art!

So, to start things off, here's a few of my best, more finished works.

[Istmin52]

Awesome post. There is some great stuff in here. I think in the second post with the girl in the green suit, there are some drawing issues with the face. I think it might be because the eye is too much to the right and it might be a little bit to big. With the last post of the frog, there are some parts that feel a bit flat. It could be because it's not finished yet. Don't use highlights everywhere. Maybe just show a few places of highlight. I think if you had more middle tones in it, it would stand out a bit more. Anyway, it's nice to meet you. I also have similar goals as you and hope to achieve them someday. I'll keep checking out your sketchbook.

[Andantonius]

Thanks a bunch for the critique! Sorry it's taken me forever and a half to reply, haha. I'm gonna try and be a lot more active with this thread.

Here's some more stuff to munch on. Some posemaniac gesture drawings, some figure studies, some hands, a lighting exercise, and work-in-progress anatomy study.

[Seage]

Hey there! Nice that you finally jumped on the forums! I remember when I did, I was petrified of getting totally ripped on, haha.

My advice has to do with stroke conservation. I think you're coming along, but theres not much confidence in your strokes. Ive learned that each mark you make should have a meaning. If not, then its a useless stroke. This is hard to do, and Im not even close to being good at it, so im just telling u from a theory standpoint.
Im seeing that you get a little muddy and scratchy when you can really understand what you're seeing. In that case, slow down. On pose maniac's, the 30 second drawings are more for the gesture, the flow and energy of the pose, dont rush yourself to jam pack it with as much info as you can, or everything gets jumbled and hard to read.

Kind of like what i just wrote...>.>

Anyways, great start, really loving those finished pieces at the top. Keep working your anatomy, and keep going towards your goal!

[Andantonius]

Thanks a bunch, Seage!

I definitely agree with you on the strokes. I've always been a bit pampered by digital art's ability to just fix mistakes, and am not terribly confident with my strokes as a result, so that's definitely on my list of things to work on. Gotta simply and put down only what's necessary to convey the idea... easier said than done, haha.

Anyhow, here's an observational study of a bust of Aphrodite. Fooling around in Corel Painter Essentials, which I actually like quite a bit.

[Andantonius]

Here's a figure study I did today, trying to get as much practice in as possible before TAD starts.

Thanks to justmeina on dA for the reference!

[Andantonius]

2-hour painting doodle thing of my character, Calhyra.

Trying to get better at character design and purposeful detail. I'm still pretty terrible at both. 8D

[Andantonius]

Female figure study, focused on using edges to my advantage, as well as using lots of colors in a fairly monochrome looking scheme.

Very, very inspired by Zhanglu. 8D

Thanks to mjranum-stock on dA for the reference. :3

Edit: Made a few corrections.

[Steve G.]

Great work so far, I especially like the first picture you have posted.
And not to forget the one in your signature, the "Sorceress" is just great
Cheers

[Andantonius]

Thanks very much!

And I know, right? That sorceress is so great, it pretty much proves that I'm an art prodigy. Talented since birth, eh?

But regardless of stunning natural skills, here are some eye studies, referenced from Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth (I love the planar-ness of his studies).

Gonna try and spend a day on each feature this week, then on friday attempt a full portrait. I'm also getting used to pencils and pen again cause I've been pampered by photoshop. 8D

[jskotte]

I love the images from the first post and very solid studies. Looking forward to more.

[Andantonius]

Thanks very much!

Here's some more Hogarth studies: noses, lips, and ears. Gonna maybe try and do a bunch of portraity sketches tomorrow, and perhaps a fully rendered one on Friday.

Think I'm finally starting to get used to good ol' pencil and paper again as well. Starting to learn how to control my strokes better.

Edit: Added a landscape speedpainting I did, referenced from a painting by Anton Gutknecht. 30 minutes in photoshop.

[Andantonius]

Here's a painting I finished yesterday for a trade over on dA.

Still lots of room for improvement, but I'm pretty pleased with the overall outcome.

[Andantonius]

Aaand here's my finished realism portrait, of Dick Van Dyke! I at least started it on Friday, obviously took me a few days to finish though.

Definitely pleased with the outcome though, especially as I didn't use any graphs or guidelines. My observational skills are slowly improving. xD

Tra la la, practice practice practice.

[Andantonius]

Speedpaint portrait to make up for a rather unproductive day.

I'm still pretty terrible at drawing attractive faces, but I'll get there... someday. xD

Photoshop and about 1 hour.

[Lightmode108]

hey great work man keep it up

if your having trouble drawing attractive faces then draw from life or like google images some hot celebrity and use them as reference. like i would keep drawing what i considered to be "perfect" chicks according to the facial proportion distances, but they never looks correct cause it takes time to pick up on how faces actually look.

[Lightmode108]

o and i like the tauren one =D alterac valley ftw

[maeshanne]

cool work, you'r improving

[Andantonius]

Thanks very much!

And, Lightmode108, references would definitely help. Though it's not so much that I want supermodel faces, it's that my facial anatomy in general is pretty bad so they end up just looking distorted and weird.

But, I'm sure I shall improve with more practice.

And speaking of improvement, I remade a really, really, reaalllly old drawing, which you can see here

Despite not totally liking my work right now, if this is the improvement I can manage in four years by myself, I can't wait to see what the next few years of TAD will bring with some of the awesomest artists ever guiding me along. 8D

[slimin112]

love the female figure study above. also liking the most recent mer-man ha.

A couple things you may want to look at that i think look off are:

the hair seems.....off. idk how else to put it. it doesnt feel natural with sitting on his head.

his left arm seems off. i feel like the buldge is slightly too large on the top of his forearm.

last, i feel like under his armpit on his right arm we ar missing a little bit of the lat muscle or armpit. his arm is sticking out which makes me think his lat would stretch slightly so you would see it. just a little bit more body there.

hope that helps...!

[Andantonius]

Thanks very much!

I agree with your critiques as well. I noticed the hair, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was either. It's kind of a recurring problem of mine, guess I need to study it closer. xD


Aaand practicing portraits, cause faces are definitely my weakest point. Went face-searching, and end up going with the ever-awesome Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. 8D

[Ninjac]

Great start your sb Andantonius! I look forward to seeing/ meeting you in TAD.

[Andantonius]

Thanks, Ninjac! Can't wait for things to get started, I hope you can make it to the workshop!


Aaand here's some more portrait practice, referenced from the music video Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. One of my favorite songs, and a beautifully done video as well. :3

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. Partly because I conquered a nasty art block I was having all day, and partly because I finally managed to do an open mouth without making a horrific brain-eating zombie monster (seriously, I tried to do a portrait of Chloe Agnew the other day... it was a nightmare).

[Andantonius]

Moar portrait practice.

This one was from a series on drawing portraits and drawing in general on youtube. It's most informative if you have a few hours to spare, check it out: [Link]

The basic gist of the series is training your eye to see abstract shapes rather than trying to find outlines of things to avoid symbolism. I kinda knew that already, but am still pretty bad at actually doing it, so I followed the exercise to get in some practice.

He began by splitting the image in to four pieces and flipping them around, then doing blurry indistinct values and gradually adding in indistinct shapes until it reached a recognizable level. Here was where I ended up at after doing just the value shapes: [Link]

So obviously my observation needs work still, but I'm a getting there. Each drawing is slightly better than the last, and that's all I need. xD

[Andantonius]

Another figure study!

Thanks to felixdeon on dA for the stock: [Link]

[Martell.Joshua]

Post 8 looks great.

[Andantonius]

Thanks very much!


Here's a quick little freehand portrait I did of my DnD character. I think I've made decent improvement over my previous freehand portraits. Just gotta keep on working.

[Andantonius]

Finally finished that anatomy study I started a while back, following along with the video series The Structure of Man.

I did the whole thing reasonably high-res with each muscle on its own layer, so I'm going to back and do it one more time and pay really, really close attention to proportions so it can be used for a convenient anatomy reference.

[Andantonius]

And here's another portrait; done half for practice, half for fun.

It's referenced from Beyoncé's music video for the song Video Phone. I always thought the makeup in this shot was really cool, so it was lots of fun to paint.

Still have some issues with facial construction, but I'll get there.

[Andantonius]

Tralala, more portrait practice.

This one's of Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent, portrayed by Anjelica Huston in the movie Ever After.

I think the skintones turned out pretty well, I've just gotta get the hang of perspective on the facial features.