Carni's Corner (upd.Mar18)

[Carnifex]

speedpaint to test out the new laptop and photoshop.
the verdict: cool. i can work double the size and have the same speed...nice! custom hotkeys,check. the rest i have yet to discover.
cheerio.

[JustinBeckett]

Dude, you have a cool imagination, but I think it would benefit you if you finished more work...looking at some stuff that you took the time to finish is a lot better then some of your other work. Keep it up.

[Carnifex]

thanks justin. i usually hate rendering for the most part because i get the feeling my pictures go stale and lifeless in this phase.

so this is where i'd normally post art,but i'm really frustrated right now,so i'll rant instead.
how the fuck come i again only get 1,max. 2 votes on the activities? wtf am i doing wrong; are my concepts so boring,my rendering that bad?
on this last chow i put in rendering and time like i haven't in a long time,yet the one before that,where i whipped up the whole picture in less than a day gets 20 times the votes?
what is it? what seperates the two? how the fuck do i get any more popular with my pictures,or my sketchbook,or anything? why does it feel totally empty when someone casually says "i like it"?
goddamnit i hate people. and now you'll probably go on about how i should better my designs,but here's the thing: i have no fucking clue how! some people seem to be able to whip it out of their ass,but i am lost!
i tend to make a quasi-scientific approach to my stuff in that i want to understand how things work,or why they work the way the do before i start. does that hinder me in creativeness? apparently?
*sigh* i just don't know anymore. and what irks me most, i don't know wtf to do with my art irl. i have no clue whether i should pursue to become an illustrator,or a concept artists,or a comic artist,or wtfing ever.
also i just got two blue screens of death in a row,for the first time in my life ever,so i'm double pissed.

[Andrew Sonea]

Well, when I feel that I am not doing well enough artwise (almost always it seems), I find my weakspots and DESTROY them. Or try anyways. Basically it means that I try to study the fuck out of it. Like research everything about it, and draw pages of studies. And then try drawing pages from my imagination. Rinse and repeat. It is easier said than done, as it takes a lot of time and effort, and isn't always the most interesting, but it always pays off in the end.

Seeing as you feel in the dark on your last CHOW, I will leave as detailed a critique as I can (although it may seem a bit harsh). A few things immediately jump out at me. First off, despite your comment on having put in lots of time into it, it simply does not look finished to me. The rock especially is very rough, and shows little understanding of the actual forms of rocks, or the textures. Part of what makes it look unfinished is the fact you used a brush with low opacity. This makes it seem like maybe an initial block-in you haven't finished. In fact, no part of the painting looks really and fully rendered out to me. The fact that you used a tiny brush and went over it (like on the lion's back) does not mean it is finished. I want to see some nice smooth renderings, or some nice details that are fully fleshed out. Next thing, I don't really understand the concept. They each are cool characters on their own (I really like the tin man), but I do not see much of a connection between them. I don't really get what they are doing (although am not very familiar with the story, so if this is a key scene or something, ignore this part). They appear to be climbing some rocks, while the scarecrow is randomly staring off the page. Next, the colours don't cut it for me. They seem last minute and aren't really unified or interesting. It looks still to gray all over right now with just a couple splotches of colour. I actually much prefer it entirely in grayscale. The colours you do use are all the same hue but just different values. This is most noticeable on the lion. try getting some different yellows and oranges in different parts of his fur, and playing with the saturation in the lights and shadows. And speaking of lighting, I feel it could be more interesting and consistent. The lion looks flat right nwo as though he were taken with flash-photography, while the tin man has parts that are reflecting the orange light that shouldn't be based on their planes.

So to sum it up, the concept is decent, but a little disorganized. The whole piece needs to be unified more in terms of composition and colours. The rendering needs to be done at a little higher level. All these things add up to not a bad piece, just not something I find terribly interesting.

I hope this wasn't too harsh, I just wanted to point out where I can see you have room to improve as you said that you are feeling a little lost on where to go.

Anyways, good luck and I hope to see you kicking ass sometime very soon.

[Carnifex]

andrew - you're raising some very interesting and highly valid points. admittedly it's a different response than i'd expected,but that's pretty much always the case. to adress some things: the light is supposed to be coming from a flash of lightning,i guess it's too hard to pull off convincingly. i suppose i could have worked more on the rendering,though deadline was one week. it's no key scene in the story,since i don't remember it too well either,but as a re-imagination i thought they'd be ascending some mountain just before the winged monkeys capture them - which is what the scarecrow is staring at. the colours...well,i'm bad with colours lame excuse,i know. wanted to get that feeling of electrified air just before storm.
so all in all,you are right,and i should get my ass in gear.
EDIT 17.5.10 : you are right on all your points, but infact,i don't want to work on it anymore.
though the fact remains that i don't know what to do with my life,which is severly throwing me off-balance currently.

some nonsense.

[Jason Scanlon]

The aliens are looking nice! dont sweat the comments. anything to get your motivation up is good but dont let it get in your way. keep up the good work buddy

[Carnifex]

jason - hey,thanks alot. guess you sometimes need people to remind you

testing out a custom brush by moai,i really like it. gotta figure out how to get my scanner working on the new system,bought a new sketchbook...

[Carnifex]

sketchdump.
i've come to the conclusion (again) that it isn't good when you stay inside all the time and don't show anybody your stuff,except for other artists here on the forums. you tend to get overly critical of your stuff,instead of the actual spontaneous feedback by the general population. the reactions to your stuff is quite different from what you expect most of the time,and sometimes you get pleasant surprises.
oh,and i've totally fallen in love with a new medium: markers. i should have tried those much earlier.

[soros]

The last one is funny!

[thirdeye]

Nice sketches Carni - keep it up

[Carnifex]

soros,thirdeye - cheers


SO...i managed to crash my new computer.
here's some stuff from the last two weeks.

[matejkovacic]

That last sketch in #1090 reminds me of Gullivera by Milo Manara if you maybe know it.

Good progress. Your hard work shows. Though maybe, you could do some more
studies. But nice sketchbook anyway.

Keep it up!

[Carnifex]

matej - ah,yes.i think i even have that story on my pc somewhere. though for that pic in particular,i moreso had this guy as inspiration. cheers. (yes,i should do more studies. i fail )


so,as usual while struggling with rendering i,at some point, started to play around with filters and layer modes,and stumbled upon this powerful,more abstract representation. gotta love happy accidents!
p.s.: got the new lappy working again

[Carnifex]

second one's fooling around with the cutout filter. i like the look.

[Carnifex]

w.i.p.

[Carnifex]

not much art lately...met a new girl...
sceere doodle

[draw]

Like what you are doing (you have an amazing imagination) and think you could separate your 4 tones more when shading and make more of what the Major planes are i.e. side plane of ribs/chest/torso vs front plane, really consider it as a block in space as with head, pelvis etc. Thinking about shading more eggs, cylinders and blocks

[draw]

Then add the details to the major planes so they are in context

[Carnifex]

draw - ohh yeah,completely forgotten about that. really helpful reminder,thanks! gonna put it into effect asap.

for now,cartoon figures:

[Jesus Food]

lol this sketchbook is so cool and rapey i love it! im officially a fan man i like ur stuff more and more keep it up

[Starr]

Its great to see so much work in here! Keep up the great work, you have a funny and creative imagination!

Starr

[Carnifex]

jesus food,starr - cheers!


more cartoons. i love playing morrowind inbetween...i fucking hate those cliffcrawlers though,hence pic nr.2.

[TheGnoll]

the new cartoony work is looking good man!
you should keep refining it!

[the ANGRY filipino]

Hello carnifex,

I've been dropping in here silently for a while..first time to comment though.

Re: Getting frustrated at level of artistic improvement:
Everyone goes through it..when I get it really bad..I just usually take a break from art for a day or two ( 2 days tops). I spend this time whining and bitching about my lack of skill..how other artists have it better than me. they can afford art education etc..,and usually drink beer and "mingle" with chicks. THEN, I look at how other people earn their living and think about doing that instead of art...then I think about doing what they do for a loving day in and day out...and within 5 minutes after analyzing that..I'm back at the drawing board, knowing that this is what I want to do, that this is how I plan to support myself and my family..through art. And no unfavorable circumstance will stop me.

Now, regarding your art:
Your cartoony stuff are gold man! They have a lot more power and confidence than the realistic ones. Though I do need to point out something that I noticed in your posted art..there are some areas that suddenly "flatten out"..for example in post 1087..the Native American girl.. if you look at the area where her skirt meets her legs..that looks flat and without form. Her thighs look flat too..but her knees have volume..her face and shoulders are ok too..its just these little flat looking ares that give some images a "i'ts wrong but I don't know why" kind of feel.
Hope that helps a bit man. I'm guilty of doing that myself too.

[~KJK~]

oh yesh, the one with the lurker over the bed with the sleeping girl, is just awesome! have you finished it?

[danlucas]

hey man!
your work has some excitement in it!

[Carnifex]

replies later on/tomorrow...just one now: parsakoira: D'oh! i'd completely ignored it lately,thanks for reminding me!
...
so here's today's noodling. tried a colour overlay aswell. i like how that suggests there's a window nearby;i had actually planned the desklamp to be the only light,but that might be hard to pull off.

[Carnifex]

alright!
gnoll - cheers!
danlucas - thanks!
angry philipino - hey,thanks alot for stopping by and speaking up. yeah,i've come to the conclusion that when i'm supposed to do something else,i'm more likely to start drawing,but when i have free time,i usually stare blankly for a time before anything comes into my head. sometimes the will is there,sometimes not.
about the cartoony stuff. i see what you mean on that picture,but i'm not sure how to fix it. far as i remember,i also lost the original psd file in a pc crash,that sucks. trying to find a way to combine the confidence of the cartoon pictures with my liking to noodle around endlessly on some pictures. usually when i have no idea what to do,i start with a face,which turns out really detailed,but isn't very well constructed. on the cartoony stuff,it's well constructed,but sometimes too simple for my taste.
damn,i'm kinda losing my train of thought all throughout this text,hope anything makes sense.

new picture! this week's chow. felt good to do. i actually started to paint directly over the sketch,but finally decided that i'd need a solid foundation if i were to continue this properly. i think my lines need to be there properly to carry the rest of the picture. painting over them later proves fruitful though,but they need to be there. the seamonster came in later because i had forgotten that the brief stated it needs to be there.
until next time!

[thirdeye]

Nice one Carni Love the mood...

[Carnifex]

thirdeye - cheers.


wooooha,wow,it's been quite some time. didn't do too much,but here are some pics.