The Benihana Book (update 4/27/07) Painter Tutorial

**redehlert** · June 20th, 2006, 11:55 AM

I'm good.....but I can be bad.... lol.
Post! Post! Post!
I'm workin' on my tdome too....hitting walls left and right.

Cheers!
D

**D.Labruyere** · June 20th, 2006, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by bdfoster

Help me with your crits a bit? With the copntrast comment, do you mean more value contrast or more color contrast?

I mean more value contrast, sorry for not being precise enough, but I think this would also go for your pencils, though I had the feeling you more concentrated on lines and such with your pencils, so the contrast crit is less important then. So that's why I adressed my value crit towards the colored ones instead of the pencils

**Sartell** · June 20th, 2006, 05:08 PM

Cool sketches I hope its the first of many posts this summer. If anything I would say you're only putting a "hint" of tone in your drawings, linework plus a little shading. I would like to see like shadow shapes and a definitive lightsource (I know they're quick sketches

) Great stuff, I wanna see you draw crazy aliens w/ a shirt and tie~* Take care.

**Number_6** · June 20th, 2006, 06:57 PM

You have skills. I'd just suggest that you pay attention to foreshortening. In you vehicle pictures, it looks like the arms furthest away from the viewer are longer than the closer ones.

**bdfoster** · June 21st, 2006, 08:46 AM

Dave Let me know if you need another eye on it.

Daniel got it. Will try to push the values a bit more.

Joel Will do, bro. I try to get out of really shading because a) I'm already slow, and that will make me slower. b) I suck at truly defining a light source realistically without reference.

#6 (Why don't I know your real name? Oh well...) Fantastic point. I knew something was looking off on it, but I wasn't sure what. That's not something that I do well on instinct.

**redehlert** · June 21st, 2006, 11:26 AM

Thanks Ben! I will!!!
Cheers!
D

**Gloominati** · June 22nd, 2006, 07:36 AM

nice new stuff, dude! Great to see you updating again!
Anatomy seems to become nicer and nicer, good work on that. Try to push the values more in your portraits so that yo get a better feel of forms in there.

Good stuff, more of that!

**koshime** · June 22nd, 2006, 04:17 PM

Hey. great new stuff. What would probably pop your images to life could be a dash of contrast in a foreground object like a finger...or head....

**bwkeough** · June 22nd, 2006, 07:58 PM

hey ben, good to see you getting some mileage out of that photo portrait book. when are you getting back to the diner? I understand I missed you the other week.

**bdfoster** · July 12th, 2006, 09:51 AM

replies:

Christof Thanks man. I'll have to bust out some 4b leads or something, since "Contrast" seems to be a common crit these days.

Koshi More contrast it is. Sounds like your thinking in terms of atmospheric perspective and photographic focus... I love both ideas. Will do!

Brendan I'll continue to make some appearances when I can. You know the story. Oh, and I think MikeL now has the photo book. I hope you knew that.

**bdfoster** · July 12th, 2006, 09:57 AM

OK, I'll start off with the apology. This is not really a "new" post. Photobucket has been giving me some trouble, and between LMSTD2 and some other projects I've got going on right now, I need to update my CA 3.0 profile. So with that said, I need to dump some paintings somewhere, and since my computer at home (read: scanner) has made it clear to me that I will get no reliability from it, I figured this would be some kind of an "update" for those who haven't seen them before. These all date back at least a year, some more like 4. But you should see some new paint from me soon, I promise.

We'll start with the real crap--

**bdfoster** · July 12th, 2006, 09:59 AM

And here's some of the more "recent" and/or better stuff.

**Gloominati** · July 12th, 2006, 10:04 AM

hmmm although they are pretty old, some of them are the best paintings I have ever seen from you! unfortunately the colors seem to suffer from the scanning a bit, but I can imagine how they might look like in reality

Really cool I am really excited to see some more recent paintings, man!

**koshime** · July 12th, 2006, 12:56 PM

hmm. greally great diversity and colour control. I second glooms comments. lets see soem fresh paintings (with its natural colours)

are these game card pics by chance?

**bdfoster** · July 12th, 2006, 06:03 PM

Christof Thanks man. Not sure if it's monitor settings, or what, but the colors look fairly close to me other than some loss of darks due to glare in the photo or scanning process and some slight desaturation (which gets really weird when I try to fix in PS). Is there a specific one there's an issue on?

Koshi Thanks for the support. They were all done for either old school assignments or promo pieces. no paying jobs for me yet. What's "off" in the colors for you guys? I'm starting to think my monitor is off.

The T-Dome piece became my first true oil painting, but I doctored it in PS to make it read better. The landscape mentioned in an earlier post should go up soon, as well as finishing some of the other 1/2 finished projects laying around. Hopefully in the next week to two you should see a deluge come in here. Sadly, the home PC is not fixed like I thought it was, so we'll see how I get them up here.

**Helzon** · July 12th, 2006, 06:28 PM

Hey ben,
Diggin the DarkTower painting. Nicely handled.
The opened chest and underwater creature (your avatar) are more polished.

The couple kissing..I was wondering if you had a more blue/green light on them if that would make them really jump off the canvas and detach them more from the background.
Other than that, some suffer from anatomy issues, contrast issues but the subject matter is pretty damn spiffy.
Look forward to seein more when you get the chance.
Cheers!

**Idiot Apathy** · July 12th, 2006, 06:30 PM

DaDAYMN. And you lack confidence for the TD? Shaaadup.

Which brings me to my next point, en guarde foo ! To the death!

**bwkeough** · July 12th, 2006, 08:24 PM

was the self-portrait with angel/devil monkeys on your back used as your postcard at SU? I know I've seen it before...

Oh, mikel gave the book back to me that same night. I keep it in my backpack, lemme know if you weren't done with it the next time we're both there.

**bdfoster** · July 13th, 2006, 08:20 AM

Helzmike Agreed on the polish-- those are definitely my 2 strongest pieces portfolio wise. Agreed on the anatomy issues (though I'm curious which ones you have issue with, since I don't always see my mistakes. We can chat off board about it I suppose). I did make a conscious choice in "The Kiss" to go all warm tones on it-- trying to keep that subconscious element of "romance" in it, and I was afraid cool tones would detract a bit from that.

Apathy Hahahaha. Foo? You're so done for. And lack confidence? Sure I do. Have you seen the contenders in this thing? Hurricane? Manley? Marko? MikeyAllCaps? Nicolas? El Coro? Those guys could paint me into a corner with their eyes closed. And that's just the quicklist off the top of my head. But I'm looking forward to round 1.....

Brendan You are correct sir, that was in fact my postcard. I had a bigger piece that should have been my card, since the Bad Monkey piece is the first and I've decided only piece I've ever tried to do in guache. I hated it-- I never was able to get the hands to look good in that piece. But the bigger piece got f'd up at the photographers, and so I was left scrambling to find a piece that I could fit on a scanner, and that one fit the bill. As for the book-- I could spend a lifetime with it, but I won't be doing a whole lot of misc doodles in the near future, contingent on how I do in T-Dome....

**Idiot Apathy** · July 14th, 2006, 04:00 AM

Ack shit!

Just saw your TD - bloody nice man. (Where's that white flag, it was here just a minute ago... hmm)

(God, I was already in a bit of a slump right now, after looking at all those awesome entries it's down right art depression now!)

**bdfoster** · July 14th, 2006, 08:37 AM

Idiot-- (And now I feel safe calling you that based on your comments). You absolutely cranked out the best pic I've ever seen from you, and I'd have a tough time calling our round. You killed bro, so I'm not sure what you're worried about.

**bdfoster** · July 14th, 2006, 08:49 AM

Oh, and since the T-Dome is now up, here's the Original Pencil Sketch, a bad process shot of the oils in process, and the final image:

**D.Labruyere** · July 14th, 2006, 02:36 PM

bdfoster,

beautifull thunderdome pic! I think it is one of the best you have done by now

maybe you could have put a bit of extra yellow/orange light on the green dress, but I like the balance you have now also. realy nice piece, and I'm curious to see if you get to the next round

**SirGreenSock** · July 14th, 2006, 02:41 PM

Loved your TD piece, the idea and execution both turned out beautifully! Hope you make it far in the td!
How large is the original?

**bdfoster** · July 14th, 2006, 02:52 PM

Haldor Thank you. I agree on all counts! It's my first attempt at oils that I've actually finished. Loved it. I did a bit of tweaking in photoshop afterwards, so I need to go back to the original painting and tweak it in the oils. I'll definitely try to make the orange lighting on the dress a little broader and cleaner.

SirGreenSocks Thank you very much! the original oil painting is approx 30" x 32", which is pretty big for illustration stuff. It made it a bitch to light for photos!!

**strych9ine** · July 14th, 2006, 02:54 PM

BD, your entry turning out gorgeous man. Thanks for showing the process...

**bdfoster** · July 14th, 2006, 03:07 PM

Cody Thanks man. It means a lot coming from you, since you've seen a hella ton of killer art running the LMSTD. Anxiously awaiting round 2!!

**dCepT** · July 14th, 2006, 04:04 PM

Lovely TD-piece! I got a Dark Tower-feel from it... hehe... downloaded it to my inspirationfolder! Good lookin' out! Thanks for dropping by my SB!

d-C

**Idiot Apathy** · July 14th, 2006, 04:58 PM

Haha... you feel safe calling me idiot now... HAHA!

Anyways dude, bloody gorgeous piece - wish it was mine. I would perhaps, and this is probably just personal taste, like to see some more value contrast - perhaps not in general, but maybe some larger shapes to give contrast as a whole. Wonder if that made sense... cheers mate!