-QUID PRO QUO-

[lennon]

((ºLº))

Scroll down for the last update,
and judge the progress.

[Orifice]

Hey Lennon, a very smart move starting a sketchbook here, you will learn alot no doubt.
First of all I'd like to say that this probably aint as bad as you seem to think. For a mous painting it aint bad! If you are serious about digital painting I say that a tablet is the only way to go. Mouse-ing quality paintings kinda doesn't happen. I have never heard of it anyways! So if you are very serious 'bout digital art you should look in to tablets.
Now to some tips.

Mistakes I have already seen:
-The head doesn't mach with the rest of the body (color)
-Some shadows show a confused light source
-Some anatomy dosen't go to well, but I'm not sure what it is
-Wickedly assymetric
-Too redish

The 1'st point-out, that aint no big problem,things like that can be fixed in PhotoShop with ease.
2'nd, Light. That seems like a thing you should practise on. To paint hard shadows has been a great way of learning for me atleast, so to settle a lightsource and doing strong light is great. I have looked at alot of Phil Hale paintings, because of his use of light. That has really taught me alot. One small easy tip to getting shadows more realistic is to go by the rule that the place that the shadow is casted from is a bit gradient and where it lands the edge is hard. So for an example the place where the shadow lands benieth his manboob should be hard, and the boob itself left as it is. Try it out.
The 3'd, anatomy aint your biggest issue, but some work could be done. His neck-mussles for example are huge. Look at photos and use ref. plus ofcource anatomy books, the bible of ConceptArt.
4'th, No big problem here eighter. Just a bit to small in the right of the picture.
5'th, Again, no big prob. Though it is a good idea to get it right from the beginning, saturation can change when you fix color afterwards.

My recomendations: Look at pictures and for example Phil Hale paintings to practise shadows. Pencils and paper is a good medium for that. Well for most things really. Sketchin up figures and anatomy in pencil could be good too. With photo reference or with an anatomy book. now DRAW! Btw do not listen TO much on what I say, I'm not a pro at all. But I do think this should help.

[lennon]

Thanks for the crit, will get into that soon.
I will try to put more, in orther to get more comunication here. For now I'll only post a doodle, it's not very much (a tiny one indeed). Those eyes very Jim Henson like or Never Ending story, I was watching the Storyteller, so you never know

[lennon]

5 characters

[lennon]

Things to know:
-It's inmerse in a pool, seen from above.
-The eyes ar not portrait to create an effect (also because I didn't want to get into more things than I could handle)
-have no interest in goinng farther with this one, I look for hints for other ones.

Mistakes I have already seen:
-need a wacom tablet, and to use the scanner
-have to learn to draw first, have to learn to paint after
-The head doesn't mach with the rest of the body (color)
-Some shadows show a confused light source
-Some anatomy dosen't go to well, but I'm not sure what it is
-Wickedly assymetric
-Too redish

[Mike Dutton]

Hey Lennon, thanks for commenting in my sketchbook. The thing I'm noticing in your drawings is that you have the ability to draw the details you're observing, such as the ways to shade and draw human anatomy, but as a whole, the figure is not working. Proportions don't match up, or various structures in the poses seem like jigsaw pieces trying to fit in places they're not supposed to. The main reason for this is you're not nailing the gesture of the figure in the first few seconds. While it's good to study master drawings and long drawings, try to draw more from life, or if you need to use photo references, limit your self to one to three minutes. Do this thousands upon thousands of times. Most important is the head, then the two points of the shoulders, then the curve of the spine into the hips, the two points of the hips (one end to the other), then the weight bearing leg to the foot. This initial gesture should take a few seconds. Indicate the movement of the other leg and the arms, then go back and fill in the details, such as the contour of the torso, folds in clothing if there are any.
This will help you draw a more believable figure more than focusing in on the details from the very start. Think in terms of architecture. You need a strong foundation and framework before you choose colors and window treatments.

Hope that helps.

[lennon]

Wow, that was awsome, thank you pal. I'll get into a stonger fundation in the gesture.

[lennon]

I'm getting my Villpu at the same time that I'm scanning.
About the lack of proportion in some drawings, I belive that I may have lose some while learning anatomy. I think sometimes it's hard to place the muscles correctly. It seems like one should not only learn the muscles and their actions, but also their proportions. That's way may be so important to know were they end, and were they start.
Here is a proportion study that I made some time ago. Must stick more into it. Sometimes it's hard when some member goes toward the eye of the spectator or leaves it. When the picture is in perspective I also have troubles, I'm studyng filmmaking, so the different lents may "varay" (don't know how the right word is) the position. Anyway, no excuses thought.


-So, right now I'll work on the gesture and proportions till I get it automatically.
-Then I'll try to incorporate the muscles more succesfully. I'll prove one great excercise that I found out in MENTLER'S thread, were you portrait the same figure, from three other points of view.
-After that I'll go grasp more anatomy to move more freely.
-Finnaly I will look farther on lighting.
Anny improvment to this scheem, will be regarded. It may take same time to get there.

[lennon]

The image in the upper left is death wrong, but I'm posting pretty much whatever I get in the sketchbook

[beetleboy]

hi lennon

thanks for posting in my thread it was nice to have at least one reply. I like your studies and anatomy seems to be coming along. Do you study Loomis i found that helps with anatomy stuff and pencil renderings.

anyway peace out and keep em coming

[lennon]

Yes, thank you. I'm studying with many books (perhaps focusing in just one would be better). Anyway, as a matter of fact, when approaching gesture (at the bottom), I remembered Loomis, and take his structure to build this guys.
I'm filling lots of pages, but I don't know whether I'm getting anywhere or not. Don't know if I'm really diggin the gesture out. Gesture seems quite hard, and every author seems to explainit different. So I'm not sure if I'm doinng it ok. I hope so. If not, please tell me!
This ones are not from life, in fact not even from photographs. I'm sorry for that, I know how important everyone says that it is, to portrait from life. Anyway, I just needed to practice more, and run out of pictures, so I took my Divine Comedy. Hope not to disturb Da Vinci's ghost (!)
Salud.

[Nunch]

Hey, cool work you got here. The sketches are AWESOME! Lotsa life and movement in them. I can never seem to get that into mine...
Sorry, if you were looking for critques... I don't have any!
All very good!

[Maestro Andres]

After looking at these studies, they seem pretty good so far. There is a great amount of dedication put into making these. One thing I would suggest is to as much as you heard try to use reference because at least in the last there seems to be some proportion problems. A nice exercise you can try is to use pictures and sketch how the skeleton is looking inside them. That way you can get proportions right and it will be extremely helpful when you try doing foreshortening, which is a hard thing to do.
I like a lot the creature sketch in post #3, very stylish. I'll keep checking this thread out.

P.D: Soy de Guayaquil y vos?

[lennon]

Soy de Buenos Aires, sorry por tardar tanto en responder. Tengo que actualizar cuanto antes.
I'm begginig to notice (after all the time that have passed) about the subject of the desproportions that you people mentioned. It's funny how it's more about trainning the eye than the hand. Huge ones indeed. So, I'll hope to show some improvements in future drawings.

[lennon]

Peer proyect, part 6

[DeJakhalz]

Hey this looks sweet, I defenitly see improvement here. Just keep studying perspective and anatomy and you can come very far I think.

Keep drawing and Ill come back

[lennon]

Cool, thanks!

I'm beggining to paint

[lennon]

This one is a copy, the artist is of this very forum

[lennon]

This one is older than the last 2
I'm getting better proportion and gesture issues.
And then zbrush sculptures. I belive now that I have a stronger foundation, I can express myself better.

[lennon]

zbrus is a 3d application

[armetage]

woho lovely zbrush work like it very much

[lennon]

This year I begin to study 3d. This images are rendered in mentalray. This are preliminary tests to see how real it could get. And it can get way more, but I haven't started to use hdri technology

[Maestro Andres]

(Te hago el reply en Ingles para q todos puedan leerlo)
Nice update man! It's been a while, and I also see improvement in your paintings, the color studies work well. The 3d work is a good start, I have done some of that since last semester. Regarding the dinning table scene, one thing that my professor warned me is to be careful about the reflectivity of the materials. He said: "Making materials too reflective is the common mistake of the newbie." Once said that, even if it is a test, in that scene, the chairs are way too reflective, just turned down a bit.
The Zbrush works are crazy, I heard about the program but never used. I bet it is fun doing all weird stuff when sculpting. Keep it up!

[lennon]

That´s totally true, and yeah, working with zbrush is the funniest thing ever! Thanks for stopping by.

[lennon]

I'm still studying the human figure. I made this to keep going, I was a little bored, so I add some elements to the naked body and I came up with this. Also I wanted to give color another shot, so I made the black and withe and I'll start applying color in the next days. let's see what happens...

[lennon]

color on him

[Maestro Andres]

Hey Lennon, this looks like a very good practice. Your color palette looks well in overall, although I am new to colors myself. In regards to anatomy, I think his left arm and leg (the one further in the back) are way thinner than the ones closer to the viewer. Perspective depth wise (if that is how it is called), they should be thinner but in this case they are just too thin. Just a small critique for this. I would like to see the shield rendered since the helmet looks good.

Just keep practicing man!

P.D: A small suggestion for your thread, I think it is time you change the title of this thread to something more adequate and also, of what I learn in this forum, it is a good idea to include the date of your recent update so people know when was the last time you have upload new artwork.

[lennon]

Thanks Andrés, as you can see I followed your advice.
I'm still learning how to paint.

[lennon]

And another one, I did this one from a crappy drawing that is at the begging of this thread.
I think I'm getting better, hope it shows. I been drawing a lot lately.

[MarkBehm]

Nice rendering on this one!

I think that 3rd tier on the head that's cast in shadow feels like key light rather than the fill I think you're going for. It'd probably work either way, but I'd be decisive about which you want. That occipital ridge is a bit evently lit and shaped as well.


Love that zbr head too!