Erilaz's Sketchiness. Alphabet sketching. 15/02/09

[Erilaz]

Ta guys. I need to start working AWAY from reference more, but I think the master studies are helping.
rodrigo, thanks for the tips. I'll investigate thoroughly and see what you think!

Meh:


I'll put the close ups later

[crazy3dman]

You say Meh, but I say Wow. I wish I could give a crit, but you seem to be improving fast. The proportions are pretty solid on these compared to your first batch. Cool!

[Erilaz]

Thanks crazy! Glad you can see some improvement!

A lil phone doodle:

[j a k e]

Awesome work with the figures man. Oh and nice cloud

[Erilaz]

Thanks Jake. Looks familiar I guess.

Been getting into some environment study. Dylan Cole is awesome. I'm still trying to get my head around atmospheric perspective and colour etc, but with practice and more learning it can only get better.

[hp]

ooooh you're getting a lot better on your environ paintings and figures. maybe desaturate some of the colors a bit, but you already said you're working on your atmospheric perspective.

[Meatsworthy]

Time for a long overdue post!

The thing that strikes me in the gestures is you really got the opposing curves thing going! Good stuff.

From my notes: Atmospheric perspective is mainly due to haze/fog. This haze is what causes the darks in the distance to get lighter and contrast + saturation to decrease - so the lighter the darkest value of something is, the further away it looks. This haze is lit by sky light, which causes the tind towards blue in the distance. It also can be lig by sunlight, which causes orange glows or streaks of sunlight. Well, these are pretty much just the rules and reasons I made up for myself so they could be completely wrong . But I hope it proves to be helpful anyway!

That said, you did a good job. I'd only suggest to be mindful of your lightsource and exposure. This may not apply directly to that piece, but generally putting a bright light into frame can make everything else go really dark... photographically speaking.

Keep it up!

[Erilaz]

Emily: Thanks! Yeah, the contrast and saturation was WAY too high in the background on that one. I'm endeavouring to become much better than I am now, so i'm glad you're seeing improvements!

Meatsworthy: Thanks for the kind words and good tips. I'm learning from Dylan Cole's matte DVDs at the moment, and your comments have reinforced what he described. It's hard to get my head around it sometimes, but i'll investigate thoroughly!

Here's a (albeit rough) version exporing those ideas (used ref to get the idea behind the tones and saturation):

[hp]

use sharper edges, shadows and highlights, and thennnnn add in a few smooth surfaces here and there. i might overlay a texture on top too. maybe add some vegetation or animals in the sky/on mt....to break up the monotony.

nice colors

[crazy3dman]

Hey man, the atmospheric perspective is working nice in that last one.

[Erilaz]

Thanks for the comments and observations guys.

I've been working off Dylan Cole's gnomon dvds this week. Here's a few outputs from those sessions. Some bad, some really really bad. Saturation and edges are my enemy!





This one is started with a photographic plate (duh):

[Niva.]

Hi Erilaz, neat to see you posting here rather than on cgtalk? I've now almost fully moved my sad butt here hehe.

The very last drawing, there's a loss of perspective of that canal going into the horizon, it's too wide, consider blocking it from view by a building entirely cause it's not working right now. I think your works are definitely showing some spacial improvement in the last couple.

Lastly, is that a turd as your icon?

Keep them up man, fun seeing this.

[Erilaz]

Thanks n1va... Yeah, i should have panned off that river end, but I probably could have at least hazed it out. Hmmm... things to think on.
The turd icon is my punishment for being slack. See the 200 gestures thunderdome thread.

Here's a quicky that just started by playing around with a sky study. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but i'll push on.

[hp]

nice last one...maybe make the water a little more reflective in some areas.

in the city with all the lights...looks too repetitive. break up the structures more.

the hills still look too green to me. like the sheep

best one was prolly that one with the sun and the river.

[fionkell]

Great gestures, they've got a lot of variety and character to them. I don't have much experience with enviro stuff, but I guess try some harder edged brushes and maybe experiment with blocking in areas of colour, instead of brushing them in on low opacity? I do like the one on the photo plate, you've caught the colours of the scene really well there

[Erilaz]

Thanks for the comments guys. Duly noted. The support keeps me going! i've been entirely disenchanted with doing these studies right now... not getting much right at all.

Anyhoo... here's a life drawing session I went to last night:

[bumskee]

you you you went to life drawing without me!??!?!?! :0 *falls dead & rots"

hehe, I get the feeling you quite enjoyed the life drawings, there's bit more expressions on the lines, seems kinda more free. A little messy in places but I think you are heading in the right direction! what's those round button things on her spine?

talk soon! cheers, Min

[crazy3dman]

OH yeah! You're on a roll man. Nice enviros.

[Erilaz]

Thanks.

Here's a Sargent Value study. It doesn't look anything like her, but it was relaxing.



This will be my last post for a while. It's become clear to me that I have no real focus or direction, and that lack is making my work flakey and useless. This is a reality I have to face, and I must start thinking seriously about where I want to take my art and my career. I have too many interests in too many areas. I work as a 3D modeller, but I do not find it as stimulating or engrossing as I do 2d. I cannot keep jumping around from characters to environments to 3d to 2d and back again. I can't even focus on foundation properly.

Regardless of any improvement I make there is a running theme to most of the comments made here. I must take those on board now and fix the problems before it's too late. When I feel confident in myself once again I will hopefully return with something worthwhile to show.

[Erilaz]

And so forth.

[crazy3dman]

Hey man, I like these faces. There's something I really like about the eyes. Some nice details.
You should really try laying down more graphite on those faces. Not just shading around the features, but on the entire face. Take a look at Hurricane's latest page (Pg 56) in his sketchbook. When he does pencils, there's hardly any paper showing through. Only for the lightest lights. It really adds to the richness and depth.

[hp]

nice faces! i like the shading on the nose on the cyclops ^^

um, and i don't know why i didn't say before but i loveeeeeee the first three life drawings you posted a few posts back. SO GOOD...the movement...everything

[Erilaz]

Thanks crazy, I gave that a whirl. Kinda nice! Thanks for comments.

Hey Emily, that's for keeping the support up! Life drawing was fun... I should do it more often!

Here's another page from today. The guy in the top left is a continuation of last post, and the bottom left was a quick sketch for this weeks CHOW.

[hp]

the bottom half of the girl is really nice...

and the one on the top right, the eyes are really standing out, nice shading.

what's the chow topic? *too lazy to check now*

[Interceptor]

Great set of gestures at the top of the page, Erilaz. And your enviros are coming nicely.

[Ian Mack]

Tons of improvement Erilaz! I'm glad to see that you've kept on plugging away. I see that I have some catching up to do!

Those enviros of yours are def. looking good. That one from the photograph looked good 'cept for the perspective issues. What do you think about as you do those?

[Erilaz]

Thanks everyone!

It's been a long time... shows huh?



I'll get back into the swing.

[crazy3dman]

Hey man, welcome back. I was looking back at your sketchbook, and read your post from the 27th of October. So, have you come to any grand decisions on where you're going? I'm curious because as I read it, it really hit home. I'm feeling very much the same way.

[digi]

Hi Erilaz, I like the Sargent Value study!

[Rebeccak]

*chucks some hugs at Mawtin*

What say ye? Updates!!!!