Sketchbook: justjake
polycounter lvl 11
Hi there. I call myself a "digital artist in training". My goal is to be able to draw and paint any character I can imagine in 2D, and in 3D to be able to model and render anything I can imagine. These first couple of posts are my last efforts in the 3D world before I went on a sabbatical to learn traditional art, properly. Please be harsh in your critique.
Two projects I have been working on recently:
This is an enchanted Dwarven axe used to kill a Balrog, set in a Lord of the Rings universe.
I'm not very happy with the normal map for this or the outlines I made for the gold on the diffuse.
Comments and Critique welcome.
Replies
The Jaffa Cake on the right is the one without the gloss map applied. I have never used a gloss map before and I had no real clue what I was doing.
Much work needs to be done to get the sponge, biscuit and cracked chocolate looking right. The plain chocolate looks alright but on an animated render it doesn't look that good. The shine doesn't move across it in the right way.
Traditional and digital, rip them to pieces.
Trying to get back into the roll of things now.
Still haven't nailed hair that well and sometimes I just don't bother with hair or ears...yet. I'm liking where it's going (still miles to go of course).
I wasted a lot of time on the second to last one (dragged it on over 3 days) but the last one took one and a half hours. I hope to get to doing about 3 per day, depending on my schedule.
Please leave comments, tell me where I'm going right/wrong.
Thanks for the feedback.
Was too lazy on this one, his left eye is a bit flat. Not saying this as an excuse but the source image wasn't fantastic either. Seeing as I am working in grey scale I think I might find it easier when I draw statues.
Nice to try using colour, liked the skin texture I got even if it did look a little wet. Didn't realise I was pulling a duck face untill I had nearly finished
Again I enjoyed using colour on this piece, and the subject matter. Didn't focus on the texture here either.
Digital
Spend some time doing line drawings and getting the initial shapes right. I always think of the head as an egg shape rather than a sphere. A good artists to look at might be Andrew Loomis, his books have helped me out alot.
Keep up the good work.
I get a Polycount message saying I don't have permission to view your images that you linked. Not sure what that's about
What exactly do you mean by not having permission to see my linked images? Are there any problems with seeing my work in this thread?
Sketch. Tried drawing a mirror image of an earlier piece. Not fun, but challenging.
The digital piece you made, (above the hand piece) is really nice. The face looks like an old Flemish portrait painting.
Sloppier than it could have been. No eyebrows or ear, hell I even traced the line art. On the plus, I think I'm getting better at doing lips.
Digital colour study of rear of hand. I wanted a picture of the hand where the tendons over the knuckles were clear and of an older persons hand. Images weren't easy to obtain.
This looks all right,the colour looks ok but not as it was in the source image. Tendons and wrinkles were hard to reproduce.
Digital, black and white. Numerous thing's I got wrong, the eyes are off shape and position and the nose is too flat. I also have this thing where the mouth and chin don't quite ever both look right in relation to each other.
Other than that I am relatively pleased with it. Added freckles to the face because it worked well in a previous piece and wanted to use it again, despite not being in the source.
So I turned to doing 3D work for a while, followed some tutorials, revived some older projects and started one project I have been eager to start for a while.
First off I did a small jaffa cake project a while ago and got these results:
Could be better, but this was pre-rendered and I wanted to throw it into marmoset and re-jig the textures using Knald.
Not so happy with the biscuit texture (what spec would it have?) and I think the edge of the chocolate could be more bubley and wavey.
Second project. I got an irresistible urge to make a hand rig, without looking at too much research I kind of went off in my own direction. I'll have to do more research next time on how to model a hand.
Step one:
Step two:
Knitted together:
Here is where I realised I'd have to spend too long dragging vert's around for it to be worth it. I will make an awesome hand rig another day!
Most certainly back to photoshop for my next upload.
Took a couple of hours. Really like some parts, some parts I skimped on and others, like the forearm I just couldn't get right.
Working through the Andrew Loomis books. Wrestling with how the examples don't always match up with the formula's he states about thirds, and how this early on in the books, the placement of the features in the right place is more important than drawing them right.
People's heads and faces are all in different proportions and slightly different positions, right? I find it difficult applying this to the various heads I encounter, but I guess time and moving through these books will help me.
And because I was eager to shade something...
They're not in chronological order there
I've been getting too caught up in shading and getting things looking perfect at the expense of following the Loomis books, because I enjoy shading so much!
I find studies much more enjoyable and rewarding compared to studying the Loomis books which I feel want you to perfect every step before moving to the next, making progress hard and slow.
I have started a life drawing course at a local college to go along with my sketchbook work.
52 images to follow!
That should teach me to leave it so long again.
Nearly TWO YEARS ago I started this challenge and although it started off a bit patchy, this year I've nailed down the habit of drawing nearly every day.
Evan though I don't talk much if anybody could comment on my work that would be much appreciated.
I do wish I engaged more but every time I come here my mind goes blank.
Anyway I will carry on drawing (almost) every day, forever!
I have resumed life drawing classes, which makes me happy.
The arm on the study below was horrible, I only managed to "save" it with shading away the inaccuracies :poly136:.
For a long time I had wanted to try using graphite powder for my drawings, and I finally have.
What a horrible mistake! This stuff is as fine as talc powder. You open the tub, it goes everywhere. You pick it up, a cloud of graphite erupts from the surface. You lay it down, more clouds, more graphite falling off the sides. I'm scared of the day I will inevitably exhale over the uncovered pot and it will cover my face, my clothes, my desk, computer walls bed books everything!
As for drawing with the stuff, I dipped a small flat headed brush into the powder and a clump stuck half way up the bristles. This stuff is weightless! One small brush full will cover one quarter to a whole half an A4 page in graphite powder, that's how much surface it takes to rub it all in. When I figure out how to use this it will be very effective when it comes to fine shading.