Scribblebook

[Alexanderjr]

More trees...boring i know. no ref. photoshop.

[Alexanderjr]

Speedpaint from today, just over 3 Hrs start to finish. and then i did a quick dinosaur with the skeleton riding it.

[Alexanderjr]

Landscape i did today for practise. just making it up as i go. this one was a challenge for me because i didn't let myself use any textures or ref, and these are all things i usually use textures for.

so now i know how much study i need to do. a lot

[LePush]

damn, man, youre talented as hell! definitely gonna get ahead of alot of people!

[Saraiva]

Just a quick comment about thie giant on the last page. I like the painting itself, but I do not like the composition. It isnt interesting! If you simplify it, you can see its two static verticals, parallel lines. Try being more dynamic with your shots, perspective and composition. give more force to your work.

Look at these Frazettas, for example:




Notice how the figures are placed in order to create movement and flow in the canvas.

Good luck!

[Alexanderjr]

LePush - Thank you so much for the compliment! I can't believe you think that! haha it makes me want to work harder to not let you down.

Alternative - Thank you for the crit! you're so right and i kinda knew it when i was making that image. i just didn't want to deal with it but i really should have. i did a few thumbnails with slight variations in the composition and poses of the figures after you gave me that crit, i think the bottom left one has the most potential but i really need to study some composition to understand it better. i'm mostly using intuition. Thanks a ton!

Heres the quick thumbnails i did, a coloured pencil doodle and a photoshop doodle.

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

Nice finish on the last pieces, now let's get some movement in the compositions!

[rinnikirun]

Oh wow, those pencils! I am inspired!

[Mariusz Kornatka]

Nice B&W thumbs in last post

[Alexanderjr]

The_Flying_Dutchman - Thanks for your comment! I agree! I'm definitely going to work on composition more

rinnikirun - Hey thank you very much

Mariusz Kornatka - Cheers man, i have some more black and white scribbles here, actually.. brownish and white :p

Here are some photoshop sketchbook pages

[DKHutcheson]

Your last picture... oh god, just cracked me up.

That's a really cool idea, just painting the trees in photoshop. I might try that, god knows I need the practice.

[MacTire]

Alex, great work since I last visited. Been doing a spot of enviro grinding myself so I've been taking a good look at what you've been up to, great work spotlighting the trees.

You mentioned over adubsinng the lasso tool, have you considered softening the selections? I used to do it all the time for my arch-vis mattes, it instanly helps photo elements blend and in your case could really help reduce the harsh crispness of the lines. Matt Kohr has a great tutorial on it here, he also shows how to make it into a single action to make things ever smoother (excuse the pun!): Here!

[phiq]

Hey, great sb. Looking forward to more updates. Regarding those giant fight thumbs; have you tried placing the focus against its tonal opposite? You'll notice this in those Frazetta examples above, and it's been a safe bet for Realists for years...

Also, your single-line figurative thumbs from a couple of pages back were GREAT yet somehow you didn't appear too happy with them...! They showed an eye for design as well as solid draughtsmanship.

You're a fan of Arne/Niklas Jansson...?

[Alexanderjr]

DKHutcheson - Haha thank you! yeah that was a bit of fun. the rainbow was my classmates idea, they are hilarious. they always come up with awesome stuff to draw haha

MacTire - Cheers! and thanks to you I have been doing more soft selections. I also just leave the sharp edges till after the sketch is finished then I go in and soften some of them. it's definitely something i'm trying to work on.

phiq - Thanks! I know that I should pay attention to stuff like that, but for some reason it just gets lost when i'm concentrating so hard on getting the forms and lighting correct and I forget about it. Composition is not my strong point and i dont really know where to begin to study it well. I am a fan of Niklas Jansson haha how could you tell? his work is awesome!

Here are a few doodles and things all done in photoshop.

[Mat Kaminski]

Incredible!

(subscribed)

[Alexanderjr]

Mat Kaminski - Thanks a lot! I love hearing that people enjoy my stuff!

I also love crits so rip me apart please. otherwise i'll just keep doodling along and might not improve!

Couple things here, sillhouettes (Which i have been enjoying a lot lately) and some doodles and hands. the creepy guy coming through the iron gate was going to be for the CHoW comp but i lost interest in it.

[Alexanderjr]

Thuuuummmbbnaaaiiilllsss. Some quick thumbnails here, the hydra is just a random one but the other four are because I intend to do a dragon piece soon. I'm not sure what I want to show in it yet (Besides the dragon) I'm thinking I wanted to have it interacting with a man-made dragon sculpture. Showing the dragon not kicking ass but being curious. I'd like to do something a little different like that. Feedback would be awesome on these becauseI'd actually like to try to make this illustration a good one any comments or ideas on dragon scenes, composition advice or these thumbnails would make me an extremely happy chappy.

Cheers

[Fetsch]

nice updates, great values on those black and white works.

[Shadow Stalker]

Dude! Awesome freakin' updates. The silhouettes on post #164 are really inspiring. I like the one with the bow the most. Then again, I'm partial to archery, so...

[Chris Sanders]

Alex you crazy. Love those trees, i suck at painting trees so i admire that you have put in a lot of time, and or enjoy it aswell. Also the fact that you paint the studies on a plain background so you can't hide away any imperfections, which is brave lol. Love the piece with the warrior in the snow with the sword, all kindsa cool. And the hooded guy/monster thing is great. keep on truck'n brah!

[Abee]

COOL STUFF!! Like waayy cool stuff!

Try a 10hour+ piece, would be really cool to see something that you refined alot!

Arvid

[Ludic]

Love those last thumbnails and pretty much all your art, you have a really nice grasp
on form and mood, NICE!

[NickyBeats]

great work in here man!! really realistic lighting, even in your loose sketches!

[Eternal Apprentice]

Bless me please! You must have done countless studies of anatomy and hands and heads and the like to be at this level.

Do you find that you do more sketchbook work than digital? Did you do a lot of sketchbook before going to digital?

Wickedness x10 man. Hope to get there soon.

[Alexanderjr]

Fetsch - Thanks man!! I appreciate the comment! going to go look at your updates in a sec too :p thanks for visiting and posting some encouragement! (
big fan)

Shadow Stalker - Thank you, I liked that one too. those were the first silhouettes I did that i realised how well they could work. just changing the silhouette a little changes so many possibilities for what's inside! I think they are really exciting, and archery rocks! they're like medieval snipers

Chris Sanders - Cheers! I remember thinking that I would like to find a way to make trees with many branches and details quickly to help with my environments and backgrounds so that's when I started using the lasso tool heavily, now I'm pretty much hooked on the thing. Thanks and YOU keep on truck'n too!

Abee - Thanks, and as for spending lots of time on a piece I think i'm a little too impatient haha i always want things done quickly. But i intend to spend as much time as it takes to get this dragon piece looking good so maybe i will end up spending 10+ hours on it.

Ludic - Thank you, I like that you think that but I think my stuff needs more mood in it i sometimes feel it's a bit stale. Mood and emotion definitely something i'm aiming to show. hopefully i can get some more into my next piece, thanks

NickyBeats - Thanks heaps man! definitely trying to get that across all the time. I saw a fan art piece of yours on facebook for Joe Vriens and it was awesome btw, always appreciate you stopping by

Eternal Apprentice - haha I guess i have done a wee bit of study(BUT NEVER ENOUGH ). I find my main problem though is that i don't rack my brain enough to use all the info i'm learning. So for every study I try to make sure i really stress my head to use what i learned.
As for sketchbook stuff, I do both really, but all my pencil sketches now are just quick scribbles to try to understand something better like studies. Thanks for the comment


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I did four more small B/W thumbnails for this dragon piece and really liked the last one i did. so I think i'm going to go for that one. I took it away seperately and started to refine it. still lots of things to decide on and change before i the final thumbnail though i think.

I want this dragon to still look powerful but i'm trying to make him look curious. he's checking out this dragon statue like he can't tell what it is

Do you guys agree on this thumbnail? Or am i being silly? Crits mucho appreciated.

[wreck]

love your stuff man, such perfectly described form with minimal effort it seems. really inspiring, man!

[Jonesoda]

I was locked looking at your art in the last two pages, enjoyed looking through them all. I especially like your thumbnails. I have to try some thumbnails out, I haven't tried any yet. Mind you I'm in my learning stages.

Hope to see more, because I'll definitely be back. inspiring stuff here.

[ajtabril]

Love your sketchbook, really inspiring.... subscribed!!!!

[Alexanderjr]

wreck - Thank you! and I could give you the exact same compliment man! Thanks for coming by!

Jonesoda - Thanks for the comment! yep definitely try thumbnails! they're actually really fun, you don't have to get really pedantic about them and they don't take long, it's nice They can teach you a lot about composition if you really analyse what works in them too!

ajtabril - Thank ye, It helps me keep a bit of motivation hearing you say that so thanks!

Here are a few doodles, and some progress on the dragon in the dragon piece. Any comments so far? it's not too late to change anything

[kevin_]

like this blocked in color style, great sb!