What am I doing...

[Sleep.less]

Had way too much fun doing this one
I like his smirk. You never know what he's planning.

Ragnar Lothbrok from 'Vikings'


Sai has some really good brush capabilities.

[Npc Rebellion]

Man, your work is stellar! I love your style, and your life drawings are so sensitive and solid. You have real talent, mate, hope I can be near as good as you by the time I'm your age haha! Very very strong. Love it!

[dumbnudge]

Hello! I just browsed through your sketchbook and found it truly inspiring. I love the cartoony stuff and the life drawings specifically. I figured you work for Disney, Dreamworks or something similiar. Then I saw that you are my age. Damn This is both utterly depressing and motivating at the same time. Keep it up!

[a la bapsi]

it was a real treat to look through your sketchbook so far!
this study i especially love~
i hope you post more in the future, i'd love to see how much you improve.

[BlackDelphin]

To answer your question, yes I can see the reference image you posted in that post of yours a while back.
The one you couldn't see, because of cA moving or a bug. Hope you can see it now.

As for the hands studies you said "I'm at the point where I can envision how I want them to be and literally can't draw them well."
I sometimes find myself saying the same thing as you. And what I came to discover is that now I can draw feet even from imagination!
I can imagine them, and draw them from any angle (well, not really all angles, but some common ones) without much problem.
It all came down to the fact that I construct them a bit more first. In my mind or/and on paper. The basic box, set in perspective
helps a lot. So my guess would be, do more anatomy studies of the hand, construct more.

Nice job on the viking, I like his smirk as well. His upper body is cool.
The knees seem a bit off though. Op perhaps yet again, the lower part of the leg seems to thick for the thin upper part of the leg.

Cheers!

[NeonPoweredFirefly]

Those hands look amazing! The Iron Giant is great, and I also like Atlantis' hands quite a bit--they're more geometric, so that could spice things up a bit if you study them also. Oh and the viking look great I use to draw in SAI, but I found that if you make the right brushes in PS, there's nothing SAI can do that PS can't, and PS's shortcuts make my workflow sooo much better. Still the learning curve for line drawing in PS is STEEP; SAI and SketchBook Pro are better in that sense.

[Sleep.less]

@Npc Rebellion: Thanks man . Anybody can train to do something, the key is to put your soul into it. Have fun doing it, because without fun, it's unbearable.
@dumbnudge: Thank you for the compliment haha, but no, my skill level is really shallow compared to the people from those studios . Let this fuel your motivation to improve. That's how I do it. Find an artist that you like and thouroughly study his work. Never stop drawing.
@a la bapsi : Thank you . That reminds me, I've been neglecting my life drawing as of late. Too bad my only chance to attend a real life drawing class is to go out of the country lol (apparently Romania hasn't heard of life drawing studios.) I will post here forever .
@BlackDelphin : I've been going more in depth concerning hands and yes, constructing them from the inside out is the best way to learn . Untill now I've been eyeballing them untill they 'felt right.
I aimed for a more cartoony look for the viking. Turned out too realistic for my tastes. They have very big woolen shoes tied with strings, that's why his calves seem big.
@NeonPoweredFirefly : Thanks man. Milt Kahl's style is really cool concerning a more geometric style. He manages to use a lot of straight lines without making the drawings seem stiff. I like Sai's brushes for sketching and lineart. I use the stabilizer there set on about 5-6 because my tablet is not that good and my cursor jilters. I set it to the line quality that I normally achieve with a pencil in real life. I don't wanna cheat things. Photoshop is irreplaceable to me when it comes to coloring and the textured brushes and yes, the shortcuts are far better here.

Feeling out of it. Maybe it's from the angsty cloudy weather. Here's a quick piece after watching 'Tales from Earthsea'. I try to avoid fan-arts because I feel stuck in a rut when doing them, but when I see something really really cool, I have to make at least a drawing to get it out of my system haha. Also, new batch of hand drawings.

[Sleep.less]

Traditional sketches for a change. Tried out normal pencils for the first time in months. Still like the red pencils better, not just for the color, but for the texture and softness of the lead. Disclaimer: I'm a messy sketcher.

Ragnar action pose and a character study for the 'girl closing shop' painting posted earlier.


Browsed through some of Glen Keane's work and got the mood for some characters. A generic pirate and a try at Tarzan. Didn't use reference at all on him (which you can see at how many times I erased his left hand haha).


Random stuff and my take on Marcus Crassus from 'Spartacus'. Also, if any of you play Assassin's Creed Brotherhood or Revelations on PS3, add iosif8xander and let's play some multiplayer .


Work in progress sketches for the piece I'm currently working on, a pencil sketch and a digital value sketch.

[ivan4oto]

Amazing stuff ! Your characters are so lively and emotive ! I am really impressed by your work.
I too want to study in the animation workshop in Denmark ( CGA program ) but seeing your stuff i get so discouraged, because you're way over my level. For this reason i can't give any critique on your art. I can just say it's amazing and you definitely have the ability to speak through the paper.
I would appreciate any advice that you can give me.

[Sleep.less]

@ivan4oto:Thanks man. As I've said in those messages, never give up .

Finished version of the sketch posted yesterday . Had some trouble with the color palette because I didn't have one in mind when I drew it.

You don't mess with demon powered shamans!

[NeonPoweredFirefly]

Great work! I really like the last illo, especially how the crystal/magic ball is kind of squashed What I sometimes do when out of colour ideas is pick an image randomly and pixelate-crystallize it in photoshop and then use the cells as colour swatches; what's cool about it is that (professionally done) paintings or photos come with nice colour&value relations and balance; of course, later you can change it to anything you like, but having something on there is better than nothing, like how starting from a toned and subtly textured surface is less intimidating than starting from a plain white surface. You can always scrap it later, but seeing some colour on your picture can help you figure out more easily what other colours you could use for it. I dunno, it's just an idea [= Again, really cool stuff!

[yousoist]

Such a solid style!

I really enjoy your traditional, animationesque works, e.g. the storyboard work from the last page. Not to say the digital would be any lesser.

[deputyballer]

oh man, those hands are coming up incredible.
learning expressive hands are definitely a challenge

[BlackDelphin]

Those hands from post 97 are really awesome, love them!
I like the forms, very good.

And I'm also liking those red pencil drawings, you have nice traditional drawings. I would like to see more of those.
I like how the red is giving the drawing more personality, and cheerfulness in a way.

The value study of that last peace looks very good. The coloured version could be pushed a bit further. The pallet as well.
But in any case, it reads clearly. So good work with that.

Good to see you active in here, chya!

[vayne108]

Beautiful works and very gestural with a nice cartoon style ! Keep up the good work !

[Sleep.less]

@NeonPoweredFirefly: Thank you for the advice . I have a special folder with images that have color palettes that I like. From those and from experimenting, I made kind of a color chart thingy. Thanks for always stopping by man.
@yousoist: Thank you . The key is to be very careful of what happens underneath all the eye candy; fundamentals and whatnot.
@deputyballer: Thank you . Yes, hands are a very important part of a character, especially in animaton.
@BlackDelphin: Thanks . I try to keep a balance between digital and traditional. As for my last piece, I didn't put much thought into it, it just 'happened' haha.
@vayne108: Thank you . Sure will!

Didn't have much time to draw these days. I experimented with the brush and ink some more and I'm loving it more and more . The following two pieces were inked traditionally with a brush and then colored digitally.

Random female warrior with enchanted swords and a cool man I saw on the street the other day.

[Sleep.less]

Testing out some new brushes
I struggled on making his arm appear to be coming towards you at an angle....Really hope CA gets straightened out soon.

[dumbnudge]

Thanks for stopping my sketchbook, your advice helped a lot.

I really enjoy your latest pieces, you're being very bold with perspective and lighting. To me, the shaman lady seems quite a bit skewed. I think this is due to your format choice and the ball being oval rather than round. But it's a nice effect, if you did that deliberately

[Sleep.less]

@dumbnudge: No problem . Thanks! I drew the shaman lady with normal proportions, she just has her arms in a dynamic position. I didn't want the orb to be a perfect circle but to actually be squished by her to show that she clearly has control over her magic.

I sorta like the new minimalistic theme but it's not that practical. It's hard to 'read'.

Didn't have time to draw that much these days. It's becoming harder and harder to maintain a positive mood while drawing with me and my family going through some problems (not in a shallow 'first world problems' kind of way). I haven't drawn a single figure study since the last one I posted here, been caught up with characters and all. I gave it a shot again on some a4 paper. The first one was done late at night and I got frustrated with the ambiguous lighting of the reference. The last one was after a reference from BlackDelphin's sketchbook, I hope that's ok.

Yesterday I was thinking of ideas for a new piece but didn't get one untill night at 11 ha. Finished it today. I really like how it ended up.

[Overtoom]

You are becoming so incredibly awesome.

[kiichi]

Sorry to hear about the family problems, and I hope it clears up soon. On a lighter note though I am loving your progress! Those figure drawings are really nice too. Keep it up

[NeonPoweredFirefly]

This^ Take care man

[Kambei Shimada]

Oh dang, these are sweet!

[redidge]

Hey I've visited your sketchbook before, I remember your drawing of the Earthsea dude (not one of my favourite Miyazaki movies but still beautiful *_*) Hmm I agree with what you said in a reply to a guy there, which is, "without fun it's unbearable" - this is great advice, we have to remember to always put our mentality first, I know I sure get stressed out by how much there is to learn sometimes. Anyhow, it's nice to see what you are doing because I'm interested in animation too. Your sketchbook is real fun to look through, nice and colorful, I like how well your figures read I don't know if you've had a look at this book but it's called Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, I found it recently and learnt a lot from it. I will keep an eye on your work.

[bouroune]

hi steep, really nice animated-like character style, i like your colors choice also, i would suggest you to work a bit on background and character clothes/details/attribute
to add more story telling in your illustrations which would be what you are in lack of a bit to me. anyway really nice stuff, keep sharing!

[Sleep.less]

@Overtoom: Thanks man . Let's see some awesome updates from you!
@kiichi: Thank you
@NeonPoweredFirefly: Thanks man, everything's fine now.
@Kambei Shimada: Thank you
@redidge: Miazaki's movies are true to my heart's favorite thing, epic adventures. Thank you haha, my figures are a long way from proper looking. Yes, I know that book, it's my personal favorite out of others out there. Thanks for the info nevertheless.
@bouroune: Hello! Thank you . Yes, I do need to work on the story elements of my characters.

I'm sorry for the sad vibe of my last post. Everything got better. Excelent even! If you never give up, you'll surely get where you want! Gonna start things really positive! Don't loose hope people!

This started as an afternoon sketch and ended up a full piece. Spent a few days on it trying to get the composition/lighting right.

'What are you doing in my woods?'

[dumbnudge]

Hey, this one is really cool! I love the expression on both of them. And the shadows on her trousers are actually purple, great .
Are these paintings part of one larger project? They seem to be in the same fable-ish setting. Looks intriguing!

[jorvaa]

Hope you and your family are doing better. I know what it is like to have to try and hold on to art while going through a tough time.
Just wanted to say though, that I instantly fell in love with your art. Like, I literally squealed as I went through your sketchbook. Your figures are SO smooth and dynamic. I love how you cartoon, but keep it believable (something I really wish I could do better).

[Sleep.less]

@dumbnudge: Thanks man . My works are not part of a big project, just things that come up in my mind. Their connection is that I like the visual elements from the medieval and renaissance eras more than anything.
@jorvaa: Thank you . I'm glad my art could evoke such reactions haha, my cartoon stuff isn't at a level I'm pleased with though. It's been said to the point of dilluting but, with a lot of practice and will you can do anything!

I wish CA stuck with the old theme. Hope they clear the server problems.

Taking a break from big pieces. I plan on improving my character design skills next.
Here are two quick pieces done because I felt like it.

[NeonPoweredFirefly]

MAN! Them clouds! I'm salivating! srsly tho, both are great! you are great! everything's great! 'cept for CA's unstable new makeover... Nice work man, nice work