Pete's Sketchbook (Haven't posted in a few years - see bottom 2nd page)

[Peter Stapleton]

After a multi-year hiatus, I figured I should start posting again. My new stuff is at the bottom of the 2nd page.



***************

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd start a sketchbook to see if it could keep me motivated and improve a lot more. I've been pretty unmotivated past few months but now I think I'll be able to churn out a lot more sketches and paintings.

I welcome critique and comments, so please feel free.

[Jiang.YiFan]

hey,
very solid work!
keep updating man!

[MilesNoctis]

Yeah agree with that comment
give us more =)
your anatomy looks very good and also very interesting... its extremly "Round"
nothing to crit from my side

[Peter Stapleton]

Hey thanks guys!
The rounded anatomy does look pretty silly doesn't it.




























Here's some quick ones I did today -



Didn't use ref for these, seems I've jump into drawing from imagination too early here -

[Creatinity]

Sweet rendering skills...
the anatomy can use a bit more work...
but you are certainly promising...
hope to see more

[ped454]

You definitely understand your colour, values and blending on PS. I don't really know what to say. If you spend time on your stuff it comes out glorious....

All that a few of these really need is touching up and they would be great....

So with that in mind...I think the coolest thing to see would be some imagination stuff right now.

Cheerio

[smuli]

Your values and colours seem to be at a very high level and the non-referenced salad bowl just blows my mind. With the cut out view and all there might be some tiny perspective problems giving away the secret (like the shadow not being as round as the bowl and the bowl seeming like it would have room for more sallad on the top and left) but the colours fool me completely. I think also control of detail makes the referenced paintings about people look so gorgeous. Gotta learn to think about that myself some day.

On the last sheet of figures, I think the pelvis often looks too small and close to the rib cage. Keep those Loomis-mannequins coming and try get some Bridgeman in your hands some day too. His books give the best sense of keeping the overall proportions with the simplified block figures IMO.

[Peter Stapleton]

Thankyou all so much for your kind words and help,really helps me to stay motivated:

Creatinity - Thanks so much

ped454 - Thanks, I've been getting pretty down lately becoz I haven't been able to do some images from imagination, I just sit here trying to think about what I should do and stare at a blank screen for a while. I gotta go about in a different way I think.

smuli - Thanks for the awesome comments! When you said "I think also control of detail makes the referenced paintings about people look so gorgeous" were you referring to my portraits of famous people? Also thanks for the tip about the pelvis', I looked at them again today and realised it myself, it amazing how if you go away from what you've drawn for a while and come back you can see lots of mistakes.

Thought I'd render some of the legs I did -


More Hogarth Studies


From life, might be myself... -


Quick photo study -

[Krist]

whaa love your style but as revered to before, just let your fantasy roll out, man you would make tremendous works. Let loose in the bounds of realism.

Just love your light control

[Peter Stapleton]

Thanks so much for the advice Krist, it's almost like I'm too scared to create from my own imagination. I don't really know why but it's sort of like my paintings wouldn't live up to my expectations and I'm not ready. Don't worry though, that's how I felt with portraits before so I'm sure I'll get out of that mindset with new pieces.

Here's something old from imagination, I didn't like it, too bubbly, he's supposed to be a giant -

[Fayt]

I love this exaggerations!!!!!
and you shading!!!!! you sense of volume is also tremendous!!!!!!!!
hope I get to see more^^

you´re using open canvas I think, is it 1.1 or higher??

[psy33]

wow you really got much talent. i like this HALO picture ^^ nice idea to make the anatomy studies with PC.

[Peter Stapleton]

Fayt - Thanks mate, my most recent post was actually done in photoshop, almost everything else is done in painter.
psy33 - Thanks buddy

I was a bit busy today and didn't get to start drawing until 1am :-|At least I did something right? We had bad thunderstorms with torrential rains and I was busy protecting neighbours houses from flooding all day. That never happens here. It was kinda fun though, only because nothing was damaged

.... I think i'm gonna go sketch some more

Here's some fruit, I ate them after I drew them -

[juxsen]

Boldly !#!* mate... you got quite a SB going on here... great color study and love those quick sketches from life... keep it coming

[SEVANS]

Nothing really to crit, very solid SB. Great studies.

[smuli]

On my last comment, I had mainly this and this in mind. I like how the focus is clearly on the head of the fire fighter and on the soldier's helmet and jacket and lower the brushwork gets looser. It makes them easy to look at IMO.

Nice limb studies and I don't know what it is I like so much about the giant's colouring but it looks very appealing. The fruits' bounce lightings seem a bit heavy to me though. Keep them coming!

[berf]

Your really skilled with cging nice stuff

[UnSharpened]

Love your work! They are so realistic.
The use of light is veteran..... as the Halo one you did, of course, the rest of them are awesome as well. Will you draw some female? Though I don't hate chunky guy, it just that girls appeal me more .

Keep updating!

[FlameDragon]

Really great works!

[Peter Stapleton]

juxsen - Thanks for the kind words
SEVANS - Cheers, mate
smuli - Thanks mate, yeah I like how the fireman turned out considering it was done relatively quickly. You seem to be right about the bounce light issue, it seems I placed the fruits on a white piece of paper but didn't have the right value in the painting.
berf - Thanks buddy
Unsharpened - Yes, yes I will.... my sketchbook is a bit sexcist atm... I feel like an arsehole. It will be fixed.
Flamedragon - Top bloke

Dunno what this is about, needed something interesting to add in there and look at and thought of mcdonalds, mmm big mac -


These are shit -


Here's some heads, no ref -


Character from Discworld based on Paul Kidby's drawing, I think I like the 'pencils' better. Any advice about what I can do or missed in the painted piece that would make it pop more? I'm trying to get a good technique for my paintings -


Some quick sketches -

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

NIce stuff! You really seem to have the idea down so just work on developing your own lines

[Peter Stapleton]

I've been away a while, but I'm back and I'm gonna get my act together

Here's some sketches -





Has anybody read 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy? It was so good that I decided to draw something from it. it's about a man and his son trying to survive in a nuclear winter -

[Colepoopface]

Your studies are great. You're going to take off in no time if you keep this up.

Cheers

[Hive_minD]

Lots of great stuff here. Some of your studies are extremely good. I enjoyed looking over your stuff, and hope you keep them coming!


btw. thanks for popping by my sketchbook. Your advice is highly appreciated!
Oh, and. Do you use Painter or PS for your art?

Take care,
Chris

[Tmza]

Great sb. Really awesome value work here.
I´d love to see that Night Watch member finished (Im also a discworld fan).
I was wondering what kind of brushes and settings did you use in those tank and helicopter pics???

[Peter Stapleton]

Hey thanks for the nice comments guys,

Hive mind - I use both programs, painter more than photoshop though. Sometimes I use both on the same pic. For example in my last post the last two pics were done in photoshop and the other four were done in painter. I suppose I use painter when I want a more organic, natural, painterly type piece.

Tmza - I think I will finish it now, you've given me some motivation.
I used photoshop as you probably guessed and I basically used only one brush which I've never done before (I used a different brush to make the smoke in the tank pic). I made my own palette knife style brush and I kept the orientation horizontal and set the opacity and flow settings to pen pressure, that's it. I changed the orientation to vertical when i needed but that was rarely. I did the whole pic in grayscale and then put a colour layer over the top. Here's the brush:



Here's some sketches I did today:

[Tmza]

Thank you so much for that brush tip.
Simple, but vey effective and fast to paint.
I´ve been looking really long time that type of brush.
I guess it was too obvious for me to create a custom one

[thesadpencil]

really great stuff here. love your use of color, its really stunning. your linework is also really well done. your anatomy is good but it seems like some of the non-ref'd stuff could use a little work. i definitely wanna see some more though so keep on posting.

[vimmel]

great stuff man! your very talented, keep up the studys

[Peter Stapleton]

Thanks for the comments guys, helps me to keep motivated, which I've been struggling with lately. If anyone has any tips or suggestions or comments, like what bad habits I have or what not, they would be greatly appreciated.

Tmza - Glad I could help, mate. Now I wanna see what you create with it.

thesadpencil - Thanks buddy, I got a long way to go with my anatomy, frustrates the shit out of me sometimes, I feel like I'm not improving at all.

vimmel - thanks mate.

Nothings working for me these days: