KT Bites off more than She can Chew

[keeptime]

Short version: I need to get a new painting done by the end of the month, any help on this would be awesome.
Long version: Back in September I agreed to do a small show at a cafe for March. Time flew by and a week ago it hit me I have absolutely nothing to show except a handful of stuff I did over twelve months ago and a rushed painting from October. The last few months I've realized I'm way too much of a beginner to have any business showing my stuff in public, but I can't bail on this now so I at least want something representative of my current skill level. Any help on this would be awesome.

I'm trying to keep the painting relatively simple. The lines are just a placeholder right now, as are the values on the blankets until I get some more reference for them. Still undecided if I'm going to put something in the top part of the painting, but at the moment I like the negative space.

[Velocity Kendall]

I think youre right to keep it simple, but youve picked a highly complex thing to paint. biting off more than you can chew for an important thing like a show is a good way to ensure you fuck up. fail to plan and plan to fail, and all that. instead, small bites..

why not do some nice line drawings, collages, cartoons, photos or other type of work that is less reliant on painting for the cafe show?
maybe get some pieces of wood and laser cut cool designs onto them.. etc.

this might help

http://ffffound.com/

[keeptime]

Yeah, you make a good point. All I have to show right now are these, and they have the same boring "object + plain background" theme going on. I wanted to have something that pops a bit more and was a bit more "artsy", haha. I suppose I could take a look through my sketches and see what I might be able to turn into a strong line drawing. I actually have until March 5th before I have to bring stuff in, there's quite a bit of time to screw up.

Thanks for sharing the website! There's some really neat stuff on there.

[Velocity Kendall]

one other thing; huge brushes at first, then gradually work down to tiny details. important that.

[keeptime]

Decided to try out VK's suggestion of a line drawing after seeing Adams Carvalho's art. Drew this sketch tonight and went over it in Photoshop so you guys could actually tell what it is. I know the lines aren't the best, particularly in the hair. It was too weird in my original sketch, so I played around with it in photoshop until I got something that (I think) kind of makes sense.

This is a super cliche idea, isn't it?

[keeptime]

First pass on the hair. I think I'm going to erase it all and redo it. I wasn't really thinking about the lighting or the hair as a whole. Also going to use bigger brushes next time and work down. All those small lines nearly killed me.

[Velocity Kendall]

First pass on the hair. I think I'm going to erase it all and redo it. I wasn't really thinking about the lighting or the hair as a whole. Also going to use bigger brushes next time and work down. All those small lines nearly killed me.

Rather than erase it, why not make a new layer and paint the corrections over the top. i find this helpful because i can flick the layer on and off and compare before , and after. Sometimes my corrections actually make things worse, other times i like the new stuff. eventually ill make a hybrid of the best of both, crush the layers, rinse, repeat.

I think its totally fine to bend and distort proportions in this more editorial style of art, but make sure your choices are all working in the same direction. For example, her head seems rather short, judging by the eyes normally being at more or less half way up. like i say, you can bend the rules, but be aware youre doing it. Is it going to make her attractive, or look weird?

And one other thing, all these tiny little lines, you mention they were hard work. if you have to redo them, thats time down the drain. make sure the big stuff is right FIRST before doing all the tiny details, or youll spend 3 days on a drawing that should take an afternoon. trust me, been there done that.

Ah, haha, ok ONE more thing; storytelling trumps design every time; many many films with great CGi and bad stories have sunk without a trace, but a bit of wit and heart makes the shittiest drawing come alive; check cher check check checka check it out!

[keeptime]

Thanks so much for pointing out that her head was short! Every single time I flipped the image, something in that area would catch my eye as "off" but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Just did some quick photoshopping to fix the problem. I definitely wasn't trying to distort proportions for the sake of style, I'm just bad

I went back in with a thick brush and did all the solid black areas of hair, branching out from there. Still not done with it, but I think it's too dark in some areas now. Looks like I accidently spilled some ink on it.


As for the storytelling, you're absolutely right. I know I skimped on it a lot for this drawing. The canvas is actually wider than what I've been showing, with the plan of filling in a simple background to make it a little less boring if I have the time. The next two weeks are going to be pretty hectic for me school-wise, so unfortunately this is getting bumped low on the priority list.

[Velocity Kendall]

heads and hair are pretty damn tough.

heres some loomis

also try using a ridiculously humungous brush. youre still using a tiny pen nib sized brush, but a good penny-sized pressure sensitive soft round is the swiss army knife of brushes. youd be amazed how much it makes things easier.

[Velocity Kendall]

this might be up your street



http://[[[cghub.]]com]]]/images/view/425083/ [remove the ]]][[[

[keeptime]

Hey, cool, thanks! I took another look at my proportions but I couldn't find anything obviously off. I noodled around a bit more with the hair. The darkness grew on me, so I just got rid of all the spindly lines and made it solid black shapes. Not sure about the colour. I think I'm suffering from a total lack of planning.

[keeptime]

Tried moving on to the jacket, made the same damn mistakes as I did with the hair. Wanted to do a leather shine to it and completely overshot to tiger stripes. Still too caught up in details and small brushes. My brain just can't get it together lately.

[keeptime]

Took a look at some of Frank Miller's work and realized things communicate much better in larger chunks. I think works a lot better than before, but something about the left side still seems really lacking.

I should probably stop updating this thread every time I sneeze.

[keeptime]

Spent all evening racking my brain over what to do with this. I tried a whole bunch of different colour schemes and different levels of shading, but nothing I do seems to give this the oomph it so badly needs so I'm thinking it must be an issue with the drawing itself. Here is where I left it off, including a few of the palettes I tried out. I'd love it if someone could help point me in the right direction.

[vineris]

Spent all evening racking my brain over what to do with this. I tried a whole bunch of different colour schemes and different levels of shading, but nothing I do seems to give this the oomph it so badly needs so I'm thinking it must be an issue with the drawing itself. Here is where I left it off, including a few of the palettes I tried out. I'd love it if someone could help point me in the right direction.

Is this a digital painting you're going to print out, or are you just testing stuff before you do a physical painting?

[keeptime]

It's a digital painting I'm going to print out. Oh, shoot, is this going to be a CYMK/RGB thing? I didn't even think about that.

[Velocity Kendall]

quick question, why do you posertize it, ie reduce graded changes in value into two or three steps?

heres some possible inspiration. i think richard grey is awesome, and kareem ilya..

http://www.illustrationdivision.com/

[LaCan]

It seems to me that this drawing would work best if it stays in the world of shapes. Going for the illusion of volume may be a bit ambitious. Why don't you play on your strengths and treat the drawing in some sort of flat, coloring-book, pop-arty-patterny way?

Something like this (Adjust colors and patterns to taste ):

[keeptime]

quick question, why do you posertize it, ie reduce graded changes in value into two or three steps?

heres some possible inspiration. i think richard grey is awesome, and kareem ilya..

http://www.illustrationdivision.com/

I honestly can't tell you why. I think it's because I was so strongly inspired by Adams Carvalho that I was terrified I was directly ripping off his style and needed to change something (in this case, adding values). I'm starting to see that subtle values are irrelevant for a lot of the artists you linked, and that their work looks good because of the shapes and contrasts. LaCan's paintover helped a lot too. I think I'm going to try to peel away from the idea that everything has to be realistically lit and just try to make those shapes work on their own. Thanks everyone for being so patient with me, and thanks VK for posting so many different sources of inspiration.

Anyways, I promise the next time I post there will be artwork attached to it!

[Velocity Kendall]

no probs!

[keeptime]

Update! I like it a lot more than all the last versions. Seems to have a lot more personality.

[LaCan]

Think that's the right direction to go with it.

[justa]

I agree. This one looks deliberately primitive vs poorly rendered, the orange and the zzrt bring something nicely cool to it.

D'Arcy

[keeptime]

Reduced the shading on the face because I thought she looked a little bit too masculine, plus some minor pixel cleaning up. Otherwise I think I'm going to call it done. Thanks again, everyone! Certainly would have never gotten to this point without your help