SKarr's book

[SKarr]

Hi everybody, I'm a new kid on the forum.

I'm a 25-year old student gamedesign in the Netherlands who wants to get better at conceptart.
I've been drawing for around 3 years now and I started out with manga and anime styles. Those styles really started to nag me, but before I knew it the trick had already gotten into my hands. I've been trying like mad to get it away. So you'll see those influences in my art, but I don't need it anymore and I want to move on.
To cure that, my teachers adviced me to not draw for an entire month so I would be able to start over again with hands that we're not so used to the Asian style that much anymore. It resulted in some horrible figure drawings, but I want to push on. Since then, a month ago, I've been studying the human form, faces and muscles and lighting, as well as environments and speedpaintings to improve on a wider range of skills.
I also am terrible at coloring and I have near to no sense of colors, so I need work on that as well.

Well, enough with the introductions. I'll try to update this as much as I can, but it will be a bit hard for starters since I dont have my own internet connection.

What am I doing here?
I want to improve. I want people to rip whatever I draw to shreds and let me know what I need to work on. Shove me down the toilet, obliterate me and make me get better. I want to become good and I'm willing to do anything for it. I hoped to get mad at myself and disappointed, so I can push on to another level and become good at the art that I want to do and the things I want to show the world.

So, nice to meet you all and um.. well.. make me eat dust (..but please do give me advices and constructive crits Telling me I suck gets me knowhere, but telling me why I suck and how to fix it gets me further)

Things I know about this one (see the manga style? Yurk.. get it off!) is.. I need to fix hands. Badly.


Light and color study in OC3. My first speedpaintish thing.












Yark, I'll leave it at that. I'll scan some more recent stuff soon and post it. This is all at least 4 months old, but I can still use advice.

[Sorknes]

<SKarr> You'll probably know instantly what I need work on. I have this.. rotten style that I need to get out of me. The anime-ish thing.

Yes

As I said, no matter style, and since you said you only want to get better no matter what, I say focus on anatomy. That's what most people get as an advice. That first, then contrast, contrast and contrast, and practice, practice, practice and practice.

However, you look like you have some good contrasts going on in there. So the advice must go to anatomy.

You got some ideas of what I'm talking about, use 'em.

No matter what you end up with in the end, you'll benefit from the exercises and anatomy. Remember that the SB thread is a great place to post your life drawings, and all your exercises. Keep going, want to see more.

[sleep]

hey man, really tight stuff

whats this crap about i'm better than you, when i'm so clearly not? love the first thing by the way, nothing wrong with a bit of manga, as long as it doesnt look utterly retarded, flat and ridiculous etc. the hands are way big though- the higher fist is about the size of his head!!

*bookmarks* i'll be coming back here in a while and i better see you fill this up quickly! life drawings and portaits!

[SKarr]

@Sorkness: Thanks, aye.. practice practice. Sometimes it makes me want to run up and down the walls in anger that I dont make any progress. Just keep on going I guess

@Tie: Well, you are so much more relaxed and lose in your sketches. MAN if only I could get that. And yez.. I knew about those hands, they're terrible! I'm thinking about doing about 100 hands to practice. I do so suck at em. But I'll probably rip the carpet out of the house in frustration I'll scan some stuff tonight. New things.

For now though, sorry.. But I only have two environment practises. Started them out with a ref and then ditched the ref and went on on my own. Like I said, got no sense of color, so half was reffed too. 30 Minutes each..

[dire-musaera]

those landscapes are really quite good, im thinking in regards to anatomy you might have a go at draw a body in the same way to help you see the varying forms rather that going "heres a neck, ill do 2 lines for that, heres are arm ill do another 2 lines for that cept theses are longer and bend.

you know, get at the peculiarities of the body by have a look at the forms.

[ruzkin]

The 3nd last pic you posted before - the sketchy page of the same character? AWESOME. Because it shows you're not just having a single go and moving on, you're working on ideas and refining them until you're happy with the concept. That's the right attitude to have

I think a problem is that you're concentrating too much on giving your characters character. What I mean by that is, instead of thinking first in terms of getting anatomy and perspective correct, you're rather focussing on "must make this guy with outrageous hair look frikkin AWESOME" or "must make this guy slender and spooky." The mood and attitude of a character at the moment seems more important than the technical components. Eg, you're often drawing arms far too long, even for manga standards, because getting an awesome pose is more important than anatomical accuracy. Same as the incredibly uncomfortable and unbalanced pose of the tall fellow in yellow.

Both landscapes = great, I really feel a part of each scene. You've struck a good balance between speed and detail.

[SKarr]

@ Dire: You are right. I started out drawing as watching just lines, and not whats underneath the skin so technically, I started out in reverse and now it's breaking me up. I've been studying on anatomy since January though and it gives me those "oh so thats why it looks like that" moments. It's tough getting the old way out of these weathered hands, but I'm working on it. Thanks

@Ruzkin: I'm glad you were so positive about that scan. It was actually a test to see if I could do the same character and refine it on the same page. I never did that before so I'm kind of proud of it. (even though I got tons of folks telling me it was Wolverine in a fantasy outfit..)
You have a good point in saying I'm focussing too much on bringing out the character too much. I suppose thats also a part from what I started off with. I guess I am very unsure about my sketches so I want to make them all look good instead of focussing on why and how it actually should make it look good. I don't think I need a ton of details to show a character, but use it through the body instead.
I reckon I need a shitload of technical updating, especially since I never did it before.

Speaking of which, new post holds scans from the tiny sketchbook.
1st page: 2nd week of february 2006
2nd page: same
3rd page: 3rd week of february 2006
4th page: 1st week of march (teacher telling me to draw faces since I was terrible at them in class so hence, a face of a friend.)
5th page: last week. Oh looky, my first skull and oh! So thats whats underneath skin and some kitty's from home. For this one, ignore the outer blob of muscle, that was my first try and then fixed with the one closer to the body. Couldnt erase it however, so it looks.. off.

The scans are utter crap, since I hadnt used the scanner for almost half a year. Dont think my computer liked the scanner being hooked up to him, so big stripes covered the scans. I'll re-upload them when the scanner behaves again. Sorry. Hope you guys can see tho.

[SKarr]

Argh, my scanner broke. I've been doing a huge project to improve on my figure drawing, and I can't show diddly-squad.

For the time being, I'm lurking in the Sketcher every day to just draw and get loose. So I'm going to try and update my SB with the things I make in there.