Finished Paintings - UPDATED 05/14/13 on last page

[Greenhouse]

Amazing work! I like that every image tells its own story. You are very talented.

[Incinerated]

beutiful works thanks for posting

[Murr]

Wow, this is all really inspiring! I really loved that mural on the side of the building; You don't really see too many sci-fi murals around these days haha. Great body of work!

[Jeff Lafferty]

Looking good!
Jeff

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Thanks a lot, everyone !

Some recent work. A personal piece in oils, 2 digital paintings for the facebook game Mob Wars, and 2 oil portraits that I did for Livestream.

[Chris Bennett]

Liking that Samurai battle scene a great deal. Strong composition relevant to the action taking place. Good stuff!
Like those heads too. Although they lack a bit of 'bite', their strength lies in how the image is contained in a flux of brush stokes - you achieve the same thing in the Samurai scene.
This 'bite' I'm talking about doesn't have anything to do with sharper edges though, since the first digital painting has the same problem for me, despite it being 'sharper'. It's to do with the grip on the way the forms co-relate and connect one with another; something that you achieve so well in the battle painting, and why it is my favourite.
Anyways, just a few little observational feedbacks that may be of use.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Liking that Samurai battle scene a great deal. Strong composition relevant to the action taking place. Good stuff!
Like those heads too. Although they lack a bit of 'bite', their strength lies in how the image is contained in a flux of brush stokes - you achieve the same thing in the Samurai scene.
This 'bite' I'm talking about doesn't have anything to do with sharper edges though, since the first digital painting has the same problem for me, despite it being 'sharper'. It's to do with the grip on the way the forms co-relate and connect one with another; something that you achieve so well in the battle painting, and why it is my favourite.
Anyways, just a few little observational feedbacks that may be of use.

Thanks a lot, Chris. You're hitting on things that I'm trying to learn how to do in my work, but right now it really feels like I'm flying blind, so your feedback is really, really valuable. It's giving me at least some idea of what I need to keep doing, and what not to.

I'd wanted to respond sooner, but I had to think about what you'd said for a few days. I've been trying to accomplish what you've talked about in other threads and in our PMs a few months back, with painting forms/shapes/strokes that connect and speak to each other. I feel like I'm only able to approach that indirectly though, since I have no idea what I'm actually doing. That you think the samurai piece is the strongest does tell me a lot- it's probably the first thing I've done where I felt that I was able to hold on to my first and central idea throughout the painting process, so my guess now is that it worked its way into the strokes without my having to think about it. With both of the heads I fell back into my old habit of zooming in and thinking about likeness, anatomy etc, and not so much about the whole picture. Does that seem like a fair analysis of what I'm doing right or wrong?

The digital stuff has been frustrating... not being able to put a stroke down correctly the first time forces me into that same problem, of zooming in and noodling to fix everything. I'm still experimenting though.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the feedback!

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Another mob boss, 2 scifi paintings for a client's film pitch, and a figure study done in Painter 11. I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the way I tend to paint in Photoshop lately, so I'm experimenting with Painter and seeing what I can do with brushwork in it. I didn't feel the need to zoom in and start rendering things at any point, so it definitely feels more natural. Still a bit too unpredictable right now, so it'll take more practice.

[Chris Bennett]

With both of the heads I fell back into my old habit of zooming in and thinking about likeness, anatomy etc, and not so much about the whole picture. Does that seem like a fair analysis of what I'm doing right or wrong?

Kind of.
It's a question of trying to keep the whole in mind when executing the parts - even when you are zooming in and can't see the other stuff. (which is a macro version the linking of shapes at a brush stroke level.)

The digital nude you have just painted is working well at this linking of stokes business (which is, deep down, really about linking shapes) and is beginning to happen in this image.
Remember, this has nothing to do with 'loosnes' and everything to do with 'connections'. All that the painterly marks do is encourage and help you to think in this way - that's the only reason the other digital things are a little dead. Connections cause the eye to be propelled around the image rather than listlessly moving from part to part. Hence the nude is alive and hence the Samurai painting has the edge over the portraits.

If you keep at this, I promise the penny will drop!- and it'll be yours to keep and share forever.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

A few somewhat new pieces. Another boss illustration for Mob Wars; a cover piece for Jared Sandman's new novel, "Blackstone"; and a portrait of Christopher Hitchens for an upcoming group show at the Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, "Notorious."

[Chris Bennett]

Liking that lightening bolt on the tower picture.
And looking at those two space station pics again, I'm very impressed with your visualisation of the mise en scene. The second in particular. I should have mentioned that in my last post.
A good likeness of Chris Hitchens too!

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Thanks so much, Chris!

A painting of an orc cook that I did for the D&D art test. I've rediscovered my love of lead white recently.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

A personal/portfolio piece, self portrait and a portrait of my uncle.

[bish0p2004]

That orc cook looks great as do your latest painting and charcoal drawings. I'm really impressed with that self portrait.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Thanks, bishop!

A mix of some recent personal pieces and illustration work. The first one is a piece from back in Feb that I decided to revisit and do some major surgery on.

[danlambert]

Absolutely fantastic work, I really enjoyed your colour palettes and compositions, great stuff. I have but one request...http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1343807112

On that wip, it really looks like you're using the same snarling wolf ref image from google that's been used 100 times before, it really stands out so might want to find another ref or change it considerably.

[Saraiva]

Wow! Really impressed with your work. I love your oils in particular, but you can see a lot of evolution on your digital paintings . Keep at it! 5 stars from me!

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Saraiva and Dan, thanks a lot! Dan, you're totally right about that, no argument from me.

Here's a whole bunch of recent illustrations and concept art. Not even the tip of the iceberg, but almost everything else is still under NDA, so I'll still be sitting on it for a while.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Well, it's been a while. The first painting is a personal piece from very recently, followed by 2 older digital paintings for Fantasy Flight Games, which the NDAs just dropped on. Then, a whole lot of vector art, and finally a portrait.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Some paintings from the last few months. Got a mix of oils and digital in here.

[fersteger2]

Wow! You've got so much great work and a variety of techniques! What do you like working in the most? Do you find traditional or digital techniques produce different results? It'll be wild when someday working digitally will be referred to as traditional, ha. Great stuff!!

[Baconstrap]

Most of your paintings makes me really happy, thanks alot for sharing.

[Vaejoun]

Very inspirational.

If you might excuse me now, I have to start a new oil painting XD

[DefiledVisions]

Beautiful paintings! I love the starwars piece and the girl lying by the water. The cellshaded orcs are also really cool! Thanks for sharing!

[Candra H]

Beautiful work all round, but I'm particularly blown away by your oils. Your use of colour and the way you put your marks down is wonderful, and is a real inspiration. When I grow up, I want to paint like you, lol.

Also, really inspiring and informative reading your conversations with Chris Bennet.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! The site seems to be having a rare moment of actually functioning, so figure it's time for an update. Here's some work from the last few months, as usual a mix of digital and oils.

fersteger2: They're absolutely different for me. I like the results I get digitally, and for most jobs its indispensable because of the changes needed, and the deadlines. But, I much prefer the control over your marks that traditional gives you. There isn't that layer of separation between you and the medium, so you almost have to work to stop the paint from recording what's going through your mind as you work. It's often the reverse in digital, where you need to take great pains to make your marks look the way you want them to.

Candra H: Thanks! I've learned an incredible amount from Chris, and from Kev Ferrara, even though I've had very few exchanges with them. They're both treasure troves of information, and lovely people, that I'm extremely grateful to get to talk to now and then.