N D Hill's paint/sketch dump

**N D Hill** · October 24th, 2004, 11:06 AM

Hey

As most of my time in college as been like, this past few months have been extremely hectic. For a long time, I've been constantly disappointed in myself for not being able to devote the ammount of time to my art work as I know I should. Over the past summer, and this fall, I've really started to crack down on myself when it comes to this. This semester, I was able to enroll in a full-time schedule of art classes and I'm really doing what I can to devote time to any artistic puruits that are sepperate from school. Anyway, one of the few things I wanted to start was a regular sketch/speed-painting commitment. I can't promise that I'll update this daily but I will try damn hard to keep it updated with new art at least once a week, no matter what.

I guess I'll start by including some recent speed-paintings and a few speed-touch-ups of older work. Expect new stuff tonight before 5:00PM.

Edit: for thumnail's sake.

**hurricane** · October 24th, 2004, 09:11 PM

great pics exo !!
very unique style !

the dinosaur pic is my fav ! but watch out for the BG in that one, its kinda flat... maybe try to give it volume fog perspective thingy... think of the bg as card board, some trees are on a cardboard further back, so it should be faded more etc etc... killer stuff and post more !!

**JackSparrow** · October 24th, 2004, 10:25 PM

Exo these rock, I need to get into digital painting more. Good luck with updates I'm going to keep a eye on this sketch book.

later

**N D Hill** · October 27th, 2004, 01:09 PM

Thanks.

I'll have some more stuff up Friday. My goal is to really really post as much as I can on a regular basis, even if I don't feel what I've done is up to snuff. I don't like posting art that I don't see as 'display-worthy' so maybe that'll be good incentive for me to work hard all week.

On another note, I'd appreciate any honest feedback I could get along the way. Conceptart.org is really the only place I have to go to for honest critique when it comes to the conceptual design/illustration genre. The art program here at USM is pretty varried but (which is good) but excludes this genre (which is bad). Don't get me wrong, I love it here and I think the instructors are amazing, but they wouldn't know where or how to begin here. I think it's mostly a matter of getting past the "adolescent eye-candy" genre hang-up and the whole question as to the validity of digital mediums.

here are a few updated versions of my two challenge pieces. These were each done on the last two weekends as design challenges against Rook. I'm really trying to nail down a strong instinct when it comes to lighting depth...Mixed results I'm afraid.

Here's an update. This was for a challenge where the object was to redesign mythical creature. I chose the Griffin. I wanted to REALLY redesign it.

**gasmask** · November 1st, 2004, 05:44 AM

pretty cool ideas, i like the giger influence but honestly you should leave the paint alot for awhile until you get better at overall drawing and design, focusing on paint is really holding you back from getting better, you should have a strong foundation before going into paints because its more advanced and most painting relies on solid drawing ability as most of the old masters have really sweet underdrawings they use to guide them, so stick with a pencil for awhile and get good with that, you will make alot more progress.

**N D Hill** · November 1st, 2004, 08:25 AM

Thanks but I have to disagree with the advice to lay off painting. As I said, these are speedpaintings. None of them exceeded two and a half hours. They were done simply out of a need to paint more often. If you want to see more sketches and developed stuff, fine, I can see that. Believe me though, when it comes to painting, I have the exact opposite problem as I don't do it enough and I really want to develop a strong sense of compositional strength, good pallet choice and brush technique.

**gasmask** · November 1st, 2004, 03:16 PM

kinda like learning how to run before walking eh

**hurricane** · November 1st, 2004, 08:20 PM

cool stuff !!

the only one i dont like is the last alien head... too "heavy" in colors and lines (IMO)

sweet shit bro, keep on drawing!! dont stop p!!! P!P !P

**N D Hill** · November 7th, 2004, 08:35 AM

Update time. I just finished this. My very first digital self-portrait. I figured I've been here almost three years so it's about time I inflict my ugly mug on the conceptart.org community...And yes, ladies, I'm single. Can you believe it?

20-40 minutes in painter. Something like that. I wasn't really keeping track.

**jetpack42** · November 7th, 2004, 01:59 PM

i dont know what you really look like...so take these crits with a giant grain of salt...

The eyes and nose are working for me. I'm looking back and forth between the 2 portraits, to see which things look consistant. I wonder if the eyes are too big though, I think they are. The mouth got smaller in the straight on view..I'm not sure what that means. The one feature that doesn't seem to translate well for me is the chin. it looks overly bulbous in the 3/4th view. also watch how things carry over. the bottom hollow of your eye looks bigger in one then in the other on the 3/4th view too. pretty solid paints though, if a little messy for my taste. you should bring a little more focus to a focal point, and watch the features a little more carefully, and they'd be pretty solid.

**cotron** · November 7th, 2004, 02:45 PM

hey man, no worries about whether you should be painting or drawing or not...painting IS drawing, just a little different approach. Painting is drawing w/ colors, values and shapes, not than just line. I think both methods of painting and draughtsmanship help eachother out. I would say to paint a lot from life to get a better sense of what really happens in real life lighting situations, etc... and looking at painters helps a ton too. See how they did it, learn from them. That being said, I like a lot of what I see in here. A crit on the alien head painting- try neutralize some of your colors by mixing compliments witht them, and then using pure color for the areas that you want to stand out... like the red areas, mix some green to knock back the intensity a bit. Also, white is usually a no-no for highlights, it ends to make things look dead and somewhat flat. try using a warm color with a high value for the highlights.

anyway hope the crit helped, keep it up, like to see some more stuff!

**N D Hill** · November 12th, 2004, 05:23 PM

Thanks for the crits, guys. I'll definitely keep them in mind.

Update time. I did this today. It started as a self portrait but somewhere along the line I decided to just mess around.

one more sp

**demeter_luna** · November 12th, 2004, 08:37 PM

Cool stuff Exo, I realy like the style of your first paintings, how they seem to be painted with a very small brush and you can see each individual stroke.
Your have plenty of imagination to boot, but just like post more!!!! no wonder no one comments!! just kidding.....

**N D Hill** · November 15th, 2004, 12:23 PM

thanks. Yeah, I'm trying to bump up my frequency to about to about two updates a week. I've been doing one a week pretty consistantly and I have to admit it surprised me that I actually stuck to that.

**Crunch** · November 15th, 2004, 12:40 PM

you have some pretty decent stuff going on here. heavy in imagination...but a bit weak in technical execution. the black and white self portraits are the strongest...i think because with lack of colour your forced to look more at shape and form, value etc. also because it seems your blocking in your big shapes first...so those are the most sucessful.

your traditional media seems a bit slapdashed and too agressive and has a lack of focus. because of all the heavy markmaking and similar strokes those pieces look way too flat. use what you know with using your digital media in your traditional and you will improve greatly..your doing good you just need to be more thoughtful in your approach and gain more focus...hope this helps man. check out my thread sometime.

peace.

crunch.

**N D Hill** · November 20th, 2004, 12:42 AM

Cruch: I appreciate the comments, man. I'll definitely take that into consideration.

Here's a quick SP that I just finished. I just got home from my first night at my new job at the Chinese Take-out resteraunt. Gotta unwind somehow.

**jetpack42** · November 20th, 2004, 01:26 AM

sup dude. That SP is pretty nice, 2 things though. I like how you used the green in the shadows...use it in the neck too to tie it all together. Also, your eyes are HUGE! you got the rendering down pretty well though, and the rest of the features seem pretty good. careful with the balance of the nose. Good lookin out.

**N D Hill** · November 20th, 2004, 12:23 PM

thanks. Yeah, I noticed the eyes too, right after I uploaded this to my server. I it may be a little confusing because I made the iris and pupil all solid black is they appeared in the mirror with my lighting here for some reason. What people are seeing as the irises are actually supposed to be the whites. whoops.

**Nike** · November 20th, 2004, 12:57 PM

Hi Exo
Nice sketchbook

I like your dynamic style in your digital paintings, my favourite are the creature for the challenge and the sp with the red eyes, which seems to be the most "plastic" one of the sps to me.
keep them coming

**N D Hill** · January 7th, 2005, 06:41 PM

It's been a hell of a long time since my last update! My ass has been thoroughly kicked by finals, a hectic holiday, and general laziness.

Anyway, here's some stuff I've done in the few brief breaks in my chaotic life.

Here's an old character that I did way back for TD7. In all that time since, I've never liked the original colors to I reworked them.

That's it for now. I'll do my best to get back on track.
-Noel

**hurricane** · January 14th, 2005, 12:34 PM

very nice pics !

i like em all, you got a unique style

cheers !

**Lake** · February 24th, 2005, 05:10 PM

cool!

-I've always loved WIP....

**IanE** · February 24th, 2005, 05:41 PM

Creepiest, most informative self portrait ever.

3 points.

Ian

**N D Hill** · March 9th, 2005, 05:18 PM

IanE and panda; Thanks guys!

Here's my latest.

**Lake** · March 9th, 2005, 06:09 PM

uhm....
creeeeepy.

**Icey** · March 9th, 2005, 06:49 PM

you don't have a study behind for experience, and this can be seen in your drowings... you have the ideas, but no base to make them look great!...

you should do more of those gestures... it's a good practice. Try to realize how the flash sticks to the bone... how the muscles work in movement... You'll see a huge diffrence...

**N D Hill** · March 20th, 2005, 06:30 PM

Panda: Thanks.

Icey: Thanks. Yeah, I know what you mean. I agree 100% and I definitely make no claims to be an expert. There's always that huge gap between what you think something should look like and what it actually does look like. If you aren't observing relationships between muscles, bone, and the effect of gravity on flesh than you're merely arranging parts that make an incoherrent whole. I'll keep at it. Lately I've been drawing my own hands a lot since I'm currently not enrolled in a life drawing course.

I've been checking out your thread too, by the way. You've definitely made some big strides! Keep up the good work!

I just finished this after about 2 days of work on it. About 4 hours cumulative, probably. Let me know what you think. The ground plain and background are bugging me but so far everything I've tried has only made it worse.

Crit week may be over but that doesn't mean you can't go to town.

**Keepiru** · March 20th, 2005, 07:00 PM

Some of these creatures are wicked, Exo. I really see a lot of potential in those pencil drawings, those first couple of figure sketchs are just great, I think you could really dominate if you incorporated the pencil with the digital painting. Digital painting is a great skill, but mastery of traditional drawing techniques is also essential and should not be put on the back burner.
Those last two creatures you posted are my personal favorites. I think that the last one particlularly is really convincing...especially in the bottom half where you hove those tiny glistening highlights...it makes it look totally slimy and gross.
Keep it up yo!

-Keeps

**N D Hill** · May 17th, 2005, 10:31 PM

This was done for a design class. The only real parameters were that it had to be political. Hopefully that's apparent. This was done a while ago but I neglected to post it because it had some more glaring issues with it. Lately my wrist has been killing me after using my graphire for extended periods so I couldn't really get back to it or anything else. I have a whole hard drive full of half finished shit because of it. It's really pissing me off I hope to God it can be treated. If not I'm up shit creek until I can figure something out.