No Excuses Just Draw

[Tides]

Hello ConceptArt. Been drawing for as long as I can remember, but have only just begun to take it seriously. I've always spent many hours looking through all the many amazing sketcbooks on here. All very inspiring. I'm hoping in the presence of you that my art steps up to the next level.


Digital paintings of nebulae.
A Fechin copy.
...and poses and hands.

[Tides]

Been having trouble with hands lately so I decided to hunker down and tackle them a bit today.

First a page of my left hand, and the rest after Bridgman.

[Mila]

Hey there and welcome to CA. I'm sure you'll step up the next level and beyond before you know it. Dedication and being creative is all you need; you've certainly got it.

( I really like your nebula paintings )

Your studies seem really good, but the pictures are somewhat tiny. Love to see what else you have up your sleeve! Keep posting !

[Rhubix]

fun paintings! looking forward to more updates.

[Tides]

@Mila Thanks for the wecome! I'm trying to work on my work ethic. It hasn't always been the best. Still trying to conquer my scanner!

@Rhubix Glad you stopped by



Very frustrating drawing today. Trying to be more present while drawing. Trying to be more purposeful. Bunch of hands and bw digital portrait of Werner Herzog (obsessed with his work!)

[Tides]

Portrait of Emily Watson. Was quite a challenge. Will try and push it a little further.

More hands. Did a page with my left hand as a model and a couple pages of hands from imagination. I'm not posting those haha! Some reason it's not clicking. More practice.

[Tides]

Hour and half after a photograph. Struggle struggle struggle. Skin tones killed me.

[Grzessnik]

I'm suprised with nebulas paintings. I didn't think about painting them. I like your drawings. Hands are great. From model or reference?
Waiting for more

[Tides]

Grzessnik: I love painting nebulae. Challenging and I think they're helping me with my colors. Hands are from mostly reference. George Bridgman.



Tom Waits portrait. Much smoother than the last one. Had a lot of fun with it. A few heads from imagination and some more studies from Bridgman.

[raminafshari]

nice studies , keep them coming .

[Saara_]

Hehe - it's funny how you can see how you felt while painting... At least that's what it looks like to me. On the last digi portrait especially, it really does look like you were enjoying it. I think it shows on your lines also.

I don't have much to crit at my skill level, at least nothing you wouldn't be likely to be aware of already. Really cool stuff. I love the attitude in your SB's title as well.

[Voodoo_Mama]

Pretty cool studies.
I love the hands and how clean and fluid the lines are.

[Tides]

raminafshari: Thanks! Will do!
Saara_: I've been noticing that my mood effects painting soo much. Which is crazy because I've never noticed my mood effecting anything else at that level. I think if I get that frustrated it's time to take a break and come back to it.
Voodoo_Mama: Thanks for stopping by. I've been working on my lines.



Natalie Portman portrait. Had a lot of trouble with the crazy lighting. I think it came around in the end. Dug her hair.

Arm studies and a page of figures from head.

[KEM720]

Nice studies Tides, keep them up!
I really like the mood set in the nebulae paintings, it would be cool to see some of that in an illustration. (:

[kitana_mk]

Nice anatomy studies and characters. I can't say I like the purple lady But overall they are all good

[Mister Butterfield]

Your anatomy studies are beautiful, they give a sense of form with no excessive lines and i find that really inspiring to see, also i like how you compose your pages, they're very pleasing to look at even though they're just studies. Can't wait to see more~

[Tides]

Mister Butterfield:Thank you I'm sure that's mostly on accident though!

kitana_mk: Bhahaha @Purple Lady! She's got a skin condition! She doesn't like to talk about it. Man one of these days I'll tame those crazy lighting pictures.

KEM720:That's a great idea! There's a nebula called the horse nebula. Ever since seeing that I've wanted to create my own with a animal of my choosing. I think it would be a blast.


Didn't get much drawing in yesterday but knocked out a few figures from head (their hands are atrocious weird monster hands!) and a landscape painting from ref. Need to do way more of these. A lot of things didn't read well but overall I'm glad I shot for it.

[visoutre]

The nebulae are cool! As for the portraits and figures they have nice flow in terms on gesture, however I get the feeling you need to work on solid structure. On some of the portraits the faces are skewed like the Natalie Portman study. Also your recent figures show odd proportions like the arm is too long. It's nice that you can capture the pose with few lines, but try to be more aware of structure and proportion because these are really significant factors.

[Tides]

visoutre: Very well said. I didn't see how wonky those arms were until you mentioned it. I'll definitely keep an eye on it. I'll work on my head structure as well. Thanks!

A Bill The Butcher. Amazing character as well as actor. To mirror the character of course I butchered his face a bit D:

More figures from imagination. Wonky as well.

Tomorrow I draw upside down.

[shambok]

Absolutely love your anatomy sketches! keep up the great work!

[joe`]

Hey thanks for commenting on my sketchbook!

I love your first few digital paintings of space, they have a great flow to them. Also, your portrait studies have a lovely line quality, very nice!

As far as ways to improve your work; your portraits are good however, i feel that the proportions are a little off, try making sure that your initial sketch is as good a match to the subject as you can possibly manage before adding colour.

Overall, great work, keep it up!

[Tides]

shambok: Thanks
joe: Thanks for the advice. I'm really working on proportions, but something isn't clicking quite right yet. Gotta keep on working. Also I haven't been making an initial sketch. I just kind of blob big colors in and try to knock out the portrait from there. Maybe that hasn't been the best way to paint them.


Another portrait. I lost count of how long I worked on it. Over 5 hours. Again something just isn't clicking quite yet. I even made a grid over the face to try and fix things but that seemed to make it worse. The face is all blotchy too. Oh well, another failure but maybe I'll figure it out in the next one.

Some figures after Mentler! Love his drawings.

Some arms after Bridgman.

[Zipfelzeus]

I remember when I was not participating in the fourm but looking at the sketchbooks I saw your title, which was a bit different then and thinking yeah that's it! Haha.

Nice studies, awesome lines on the anatomy stuff!

[Tides]

Zipfelzeus: Ha! It's a bit of a play on Stanley Kubrick, the title Thanks




Just a little something something to get back into the swing of things. The Monster!

[Tides]

Beautiful weather out. Did a few quick environment digitals but they didn't pan out so well. Got these nifty sharpie fine pens that are smooth. Started playing with them for a little. They got a little out of control!

Branch, sp, and some Mentler studies.

[rupuni]

Wow, cool Studies, I like your hard, clear lines
Have you ever tried to paint/scribble softer? Just for try?

[Tides]

yphiel: I've been drawing really lightly with the pens I've been using. If that's what you mean. Maybe you mean trying to blend more in my paintings?

Some arm studies and a bw head from imagination.

[Kiwee]

Your pencils are really cool, your have a clear line. For the photoshop study, i think the colors are a little bit too saturated, so the image is too bright at the end and less easy to watch. But i see a progress between the first study and the last !

[Saara_]

Haven't commented here in a while .

I think the last portrait would benefit from studying structure - the jaw, for example. I think some Hogarth would be great if you wish to learn how to draw solid-looking heads - I learned A LOT just by drawing the first two pages of his book (on Scribd.com, just search for Hogarth). His drawings might not be the most anatomically accurate - the eyes are often too large, for one, but that is not the point - the technique is. His method helps especially when trying to draw heads from odd angles.

Also, most importantly, repetition from imagination and then applying what you've learned helps a lot when trying to get the things you've been practising to really sink in your head. It forces you to think and try to get a deep understanding of the subject you're studying - and you remember it way better if you do it yourself! Afterwards, look at what mistakes you have in there and take extra note of those points when you use reference next time. It works wonders .

But hey, keep going. Practice and more practice is the way to go.

[RokasButkys]

The third nebula looks stunning! also great lines in your sketchbook enjoying them a lot. Youre on a great track, keep doing what you need to do
goodluck