From NOOB to PRO: an underdog story!

[ChrisTwaitees]

Hey thanks for dropping in! I'm really bad at this sort of thing so I'm just gonna wing it!

HI! My name's Chris and I'm a 19 year old animation student in South Africa (Shout out to any others of us out there ) and I've pretty much decided that one day I'm going to work as a professional illustrator/concept artist! But I've got a loong way to go before that happens!

So to get the ball rolling, here's my sketchbook! Which I plan to update as often as possible, to keep ya'll entertained AND learn as much as possible; I can't emphasize enough how much I would appreciate CRITS/SUGGESTIONS/QUESTIONS or just generally pointing what don't look right, how it could look cooler, what you like/don't like cause I'm here to learn as much as possible!

And I promise that I will make the utmost effort to do the same on your page since I'm guessing we're all here to improve!

Thanks again for checking this out and here we go! Onto the sketches!

[ChrisTwaitees]

Right, I have no idea if I'm doing this right! But here's a little something out of my sexy as heck red Moleskine, please let me know if you dig it and I'll attempt to render the crap out of it

[ChrisTwaitees]

Just Some female torso studies done from this year's FHM calendar December's a South African, *represent! Excuse the random comments- was really late and didn't think I'd remember anything I'd learned so I wrote them down



Praise Baby Jesus for Andrew Loomis! Here's some head practise using his technique, a portrait study and random doodles at the bottom



Did a whole bunch of 30 second gestures which made my head explode so decided to chill for a bit over a 20-30 min tonal study. WOAH so that torso.. that aint right my bad, please let's focus on the tones, shall we?

[ChrisTwaitees]

Loomis proportion studies GUYS-FOUND THIS SO HELPFUL- you don't have to follow this strictly but the positioning of the body's landmarks in relation to one another is described flipping well- I'd take the time to check it out if you wanna take your figures to the next level- from Andrew Loomis' "Figure drawing for all it's worth" I found it free through Google



1st ever portrait study in Photoshop, tryna figure this digital painting thing out- please feel free to suggest ways to improve on it!!


The face is out of imagination bit the shading is heavily influenced from Charlie Bowater's style of rendering faces- again! Any crits are greatly appreciated

[herionz]

I like your penciles, I have so much troubles to do tone drawings with them (started with digital from day 1 and I just pick pencils from time to time, should work more with them).

On your digital painting portraits you might want to consider, not using black outlines, it flattens your paintings (paintings shouldn't have outlines, just masses of tone/color, but you probably already know that). And you might want to check your values, it looks darky and dull, even if the reference image looks like that, it's sometimes interesting to play a little bit with the values to give better volume and guide the eye.

And I really dig your passion , cheers and work hard.

[herionz]

Hey Chris, thanks for your amazing reply. Don't worry, I'm not skilled at all, all the paintings I've done are with reference, which I find not as challenging as doing that on your own without the reference (which is what I would like to aim for, but probably is going to be too much).

Thanks also for the tip with the pencils, so at the end it's doing a couple of passes over the drawing, I get it. My problem is more about not actually knowing how to do the strokes or get smooth transitions, probably I might have to start considering copying other people techniques, because can't figure out one on my own that I like so far xD.

Also I forgot to tell you, when you paint hair, try to paint masses of hair and add later some variation for the texture and the strands, don't try to paint every strand because it looses definition, becomes very messy. At some point on Loomis books you will read about this. Cheers and thanks again!

[crisimikiwiki]

Great start Chris, you show decent skills already. The rest is just passion, patience, and practise. Keep keep keep drawing. I'll keep an eye on your SB and i'm sure i'll see you getting better and better.

[ChrisTwaitees]

Hey thanks man! Too true, just checked your sb out, I'll be doing the same man! Amped for your next post

[element1988]

I think you should change your title to: "Very good to pro" lol If your a noob then I dont know what I am XD Anyway, if you keep pushing I cant see it taking more then a few years to get pro.

[ChrisTwaitees]

haha! thanks dude! tbh I've been drawing since I could hold a drawing stick, so don't be discouraged I'll be right over to subscribe to your sketchbook and watch both our journeys out of noob-ness

[ChrisTwaitees]

dangit sorry for the double post there folks, tryed to reply herionz, one last try :

@herionz: Already replied on your sb, but haha yeh you got it! I say basically give it a few passes- but lol now I know what you mean all I can say is stroke gently in the shape of the form you're trying to render eventually the transitions will be come smooth. but yeah good idea studying others' technoques that you dig man I'm taking this shading thing far too seriously lol.
And yes! thats excellent advice! outlining the face and drawing hair strand by strand is a curse of drawing too much and not painting enough- keep the critiques coming man- you really know your stuff

[ChrisTwaitees]

NO REF- just spent the last hour rearranging her face with the Lasso tool, so addicting! just wanted to know if you guys dig her face, anything bugs you, don't hesitate to share. Thanks for the help guys gonna go die now- it 3am in SA right now -.-

[Renart]

Wow! You're on a really good start! I'm almost in the same situation then you but (animation student, 20, wants to do some k0ol illustrations and designs)! I really like the B&W girl with strechy ears you did. It's really beautiful So keep going! I'm stoked to see more of these! ^^

My first Sketchbook -

[herionz]

Hey Chris! Thanks again for the encouragement! I'm glad that the advice was useful! The values are fine, I usually see that the values of skin don't have that much range, but best is that you check the image in photoshop after you have tried to paint it, see if your values have a similar relation or are the same as in the reference . The face of the last one looks great, but the drapery looks a little bit too much for her head XD, maybe she has a lot of hair under there!

Answering your call, I'm by no means ready yet, think that still will take me 6 months to get a good grasp of how to work with paint, every time I try without reference I end up messing around, guessing, and not getting things right. Since I started to draw I always used lines, so my drawing skills are way ahead from my mass drawings skills right now, I have troubles imagining the form in shapes, but I'm confident that if I keep pushing I will nail it at some point. Cheers again!

[ChrisTwaitees]

Wow! You're on a really good start! I'm almost in the same situation then you but (animation student, 20, wants to do some k0ol illustrations and designs)! I really like the B&W girl with strechy ears you did. It's really beautiful So keep going! I'm stoked to see more of these! ^^

My first Sketchbook -

Hey Thanks renart! noway dude! Animation students ftw! I'll be posting stuff from school will be awesome to compare curriculums, where u studying? haha cheers man, will do!

[ChrisTwaitees]

Hey Chris! Thanks again for the encouragement! I'm glad that the advice was useful! The values are fine, I usually see that the values of skin don't have that much range, but best is that you check the image in photoshop after you have tried to paint it, see if your values have a similar relation or are the same as in the reference . The face of the last one looks great, but the drapery looks a little bit too much for her head XD, maybe she has a lot of hair under there!

Answering your call, I'm by no means ready yet, think that still will take me 6 months to get a good grasp of how to work with paint, every time I try without reference I end up messing around, guessing, and not getting things right. Since I started to draw I always used lines, so my drawing skills are way ahead from my mass drawings skills right now, I have troubles imagining the form in shapes, but I'm confident that if I keep pushing I will nail it at some point. Cheers again!

hahaha I know right dude, epic amy whineouse- do going on there will lasso that shit as soon as I get a chance yeah good point, i never bothered checking the values after completing the portrait, will do so next time

haha fair enough! yeah man at the rate your improving you'll be painting with the best of them in six months - apologies for unhelpful comment- half asleep here, will be more useful in the morning

[Renart]

Hey Thanks renart! noway dude! Animation students ftw! I'll be posting stuff from school will be awesome to compare curriculums, where u studying? haha cheers man, will do!

I'm studying in Canada, in a little city far away in the province of Quebec :p A small College, but it's fun It would be really awesome to compare stuff and exchance some knowledges! I'll be pleased!

[herionz]

Hey Cris! I decided to try it out and see if I could put some of what I learned trying to do a paintover. Not yet good enough but it was fun (some desaturated yellows might had come in handy).



Think the problem with your values is that are evenly distributed, and might not be how it should (can't really tell yet, but it's how I feel about it).

[Philipopotamus]

Hey Chris awesome stuff man. finally someone from SA! If you don't mind me asking; where are you studying animation? Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff here!

[ChrisTwaitees]

Hey Chris awesome stuff man. finally someone from SA! If you don't mind me asking; where are you studying animation? Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff here!

Haha no freaking way!! what are the chances!? Dude I'm in the Res at TAS, ! i'm in the 1st year afternoon class, check you at college Are there any more of us on here? shot by the way! your sketchbook's AWESOME, love the octopus chracter