Studies of Light and Value on Figures...

[Geist02]

Hey CA, I've been on here for a while and this place is soo inspirational, I wanna be a part of it. Here's a big dump of studies I've been doing from pixelovely.com for the past 5 months. I've been doing them everyday or so to really improve my knowledge of light, values, form and anatomy so I can use references less and less, but still maintain a realistic look when I work from imagination. For now I'm aiming to make it through 1 year of posting work everyday. Com and Crit away!



















messed around with this one as far as the background goes...the pose reminded me of some scene from "Layer Cake" and I wanted to create a movie esque shot or poster like thing.




Todays quick study of mainly the chest and how the light reveals its form. I tried to use less brush strokes to help me really focus on those things rather than details. I'll post more sketches tomorrow or err today...

[Geist02]

Another Light study. Sorry for the large images still trying to figure out how to post properly...

[Swamp Thing]

Most of the pictures I recognize are perfect copies of artsyposes.com photographs. They're good, but if you want to move away from copying reference 1:1, why not starting to learn it by doing so?

[Geist02]

Thanks, lovecastle.org is another place that shares the same images. I like pixelovely.com more though since they have class settings. As for future posts, I'm gonna be posting a mix of studies and things from imagination to track progress.

[dpaint]

The problem with doing too many of these photo studies is you are training your eye to make decisions like a camera which is about the worst thing you can do for your art. Work from life to see better color and value and make more interesting choices for your color.

[Geist02]

Thanks for the input dpaint. When you say decisions like a camera, can you give me an example of what you mean?

[Oceanic]

I think what he's getting at is that cameras simplify and distort values & hues, take away depth, flatten form, and otherwise make a lot of other distortions to real life that your own eyes would not.

[Geist02]

another quick study of values, lighting and the forum of the skull. It helps me understand where light would hit the most on the face knowing that a bone sticks out from this point or that and where the more flat planes are on the head. Most of all just had fun rendering this image.

[sone_one]

Thanks for the input dpaint. When you say decisions like a camera, can you give me an example of what you mean?

left vs right basically (painting vs photo)

[dpaint]

Thanks for the input dpaint. When you say decisions like a camera, can you give me an example of what you mean?

Sorry I was off line while we had a big thunder storm pass throgh here. Cameras make lousy substitutes for human eyes. I think the studies are fine and they freeze action and make it easy to copy things but eventually you will want to learn to translate not copy what you see. Photos have terrible color and values and all the other things that have been mentioned.

Working from life you will see more color and values, so many you will have to decide which ones to use and organise into a statement; this is where you really learn to paint. So keep doing the studies but mix them up with working from real objects either indoors or outdoors to get you to the next level.

[Danilo]

hi, nice work.
i think it need more higlights

[Geist02]

Thanks Danilo, you're definitely right, they do miss that icing on the cake.

[Geist02]

A quick piece before i go to work. Definitely over rendered this one, her skin tone and values were driving me nuts. I'm still getting used to using the Intous5, the texture is pretty different to the bamboo fun, yea i know ...excuses excuses, It'll get better though. I'll post some more work later today from the days I haven't, gotta keep the ball rollin!

[Geist02]

Some quick face studies and more light and value studies from the past 2 days.

[jinny]

I like your determination. Another site to try if you haven't is http://www.lovecastle.org/draw/

[Geist02]

Thanks Jinny, appreciate the support. If the idea is that we only get to live once, it would suck for me to think, when I'm just an old wrinkly sack of balls, that I didn't achieve my goals. I'm still kicking myself in the ass for not putting more effort when I was in my teens.
That site is also awesome, some of these are from it when pixelovely went down for a day.

[Geist02]

Couple of more quick studies light value studies from the past 2 days. I try to do these as warm up until I start working on that cyber punk character. I'm gonna post it soon since I'm really having issues with the pose.

[Geist02]

Spent a couple of hours on this one today...was fun rendering her. The values were easier on her than the tanned model, something about those colors I couldn't grasp.

[Geist02]

Quick 30min value study... feel like such a shit for not doing more, but I'll upload more later tonight.

[Geist02]

Unlike the previous 30min sketch, this one was overworked and took me longer , oh well, work and get better. I also uploaded a cyber punk character that I worked on along with 1 that's been giving me issues. Any crit, especially with the double headed character, would really help. I'm definitely gonna start from scratch with him, just way too many thing about that character i dont like, the pose especially, looks kinda boring.

[MikelHochst]

Thanks for the input dpaint. When you say decisions like a camera

[Geist02]

Another study before bed. Mainly wanted to study skin tones in mid darkness. The highlights were a blast, really is icing on the cake. Still struggling with the double headed dude though :/.

[Geist02]

It's been a while since the site has been down. I've been doing some line studies in my sketchbook instead, figured I needed to brush up on that since I've been mainly painting planes. I also finished another character concept that I chose to work on instead of the one I've posted here as "trouble". Just had to drop that one to get some breathing room. I posted it in "It's finally finished", but it got moved since my work isn't qualified to be there yet . You can check it out "Here". Also did a quick study a few hours ago and started playing around with some background. I really like the pose, colors and expression, gonna try finishing it tomorrow.

[Geist02]

sorry for the lack of updates, just got lost in my own thoughts for a couple of days, gonna try to get back on track of posting regularly. Here's a face study for the day.

[Geist02]

Work in progress...wanted to add some background elements to this sketchbook.

[Geist02]

[Geist02]

Some quick 30 sec sketches and a doodle I did just for fun, messed around with it for a bit.

[Geist02]

Watched the Underworld Trilogy and got inspired to do this piece. I remember I was disappointed when i saw the first one in theaters, but i decided to give it another chance and really enjoyed the story. The cinematography and graphics were pretty cool too. Also here's a piece I tried posting in finally finished but it got redirected to sketchbook so i'm just adding it to this one. Hope y'all enjoy, and as always, crits are welcome!

[johnny24]

nice studys!

[WRappiii]

Those photo studies of the figures are down right inspiring. Im gonna come back here next time I do one so I can see what to aim for!