Sketchbook: TeaAndCigarettes

teaandcigarettes

Ok guys, after years of torturing myself over the fact that I can't draw anything more complex than a dot, I've decided to man up, stop complaining and get better.

I will be posting my horrible sketches at least once every two days and I hope that you will be able to offer me some help. I've been always struggling the most with the basics; perspective and lighting. I had thought that working with 3D would make my understanding of those issues better, but I'm still having massive problems with getting things onto the canvas. I guess the only thing I can do is practice.

So here's the first one; a quick sketch that took me much longer than it should have. Somewhat based on a random photo I found.



Tear it apart please :poly142: I'm hoping to gradually improve it, while making some other doodles.

teaandcigarettes

Made some doodles today. Note to self: I need to work more on my perspective and shading. I guess making my strokes more steady could help.

Sean VanGorder

Cool stuff man I really need to start doing the same. My stick figures just aren't cutting it anymore.

teaandcigarettes

Hehe, thanks Sean. Yeah, I figured that if I am to get better at 3D I will have to refresh my traditional skills too. I feel that being able to draw quick concepts would make my work a lot faster.

teaandcigarettes

Still going Tomorrow I will work on the background a bit more.

Joseph Silverman

Your rendering is overcomplicated on the sphere/box study! Too many strokes doing too much. Simplify. This last scene is cool, pleasing to look at. Keep it up! You have super rad 3d work, getting to a similar level of skill with painting is just a matter of making careful, clear observations.

( http://www.boxesdelivered.com.au/shop/images/uploads/cb300.jpg !)

teaandcigarettes

Thanks Joseph I completely agree about that box/sphere. With the last piece I've been trying to rely more on well-defined planar surfaces and that seems to work a lot better. I will give it another go.

On a side note, I wonder if someone could point me out to what would be the best approach to blocking out the major forms. At the moment, I tend to screw around with round and flat brushes set to low opacity and overlay multiple strokes until I get shapes that look somewhat decent. Next I try to flatten them up a bit, using the color picker and stronger strokes. This however is quite time consuming. I've been trying to use the Blur tool to simplify the shapes (similarily to how I would work in Zbrush/Mudbox with the Smooth/Flatten brushes), but that doesn't seem to work so well. Photoshop's Blur tool seems extremely weak in comparison and has barely any effect.

Jeff Parrott

Damian have you gone through all the videos at http://www.ctrlpaint.com/archive/ yet? Matt has a great way of putting things pretty straight forward. They helped me a ton. Love the progress. Can't wait till this is on page 5 and you're a master at painting.

teaandcigarettes

Thanks for the link Jeffro I've been going through these videos, but I have not realized they were so nicely organised (I never clicked on the "Archive" button and tried to go through them chronologically instead :poly142:). Guess I will get some popcorn ready.

I will do my best to take it to page 5 and beyond! I've always found painting/drawing intimidating, but I finally understand what people mean when they say that 3D artists should practice their traditional skills. Just making these few shoddy doodles and getting out of my comfort zone gave me a few ideas on how to improve my sculpting and texturing skills.

Jeff Parrott

Glad it helped. Yeah it took me years to finally get into doing traditional stuff. One thing I did years ago was start taking art classes at the community art center. I did a painting on location class around the Los Angeles area. It was awesome to get out from a monitor for a few hours. It also made my texturing skill amp up a ton at the time. Maybe look into something like that.

fearian

whoop! Psyched to see this thread! I know exactly where you're coming from, good luck with the 2d side of art!

teaandcigarettes

jeffro: Yeah, I was thinking of taling some classes when I graduate. I've been meaning to do that for a while now, but constant travelling between the UK and my home country always got in the way. Getting some face to face feedback would definitely help me a lot, especially at this stage.

fearian: Thanks mate Gonna keep going no matter what.



Here's another quicky doodle. Nothing special but I'm posting it anyway just to keep up my routine. I've been mostly trying to clean up my rendering a bit. I think it's somewhat better though I'm still spending way too much time fiddling around with the strokes.

Blaisoid

looks much cleaner now. cube looks like it has worn edges though, highlight seems too long.

xk0be

teaandcigarettes wrote: »

jeffro: Yeah, I was thinking of taling some classes when I graduate. I've been meaning to do that for a while now, but constant travelling between the UK and my home country always got in the way. Getting some face to face feedback would definitely help me a lot, especially at this stage.

fearian: Thanks mate Gonna keep going no matter what.



Here's another quicky doodle. Nothing special but I'm posting it anyway just to keep up my routine. I've been mostly trying to clean up my rendering a bit. I think it's somewhat better though I'm still spending way too much time fiddling around with the strokes.

Looks nice. Try and work on contrast a bit... More variation between planes would help, push the values more.

teaandcigarettes

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys! I will be sure to pay more attention to that with my next pieces. :thumbup:

teaandcigarettes

Here's another doodle. I've been trying to simplify things a little bit more and understand colour and values a little better. I will try to add a focal point or something later :poly142: