The big improvement Project!
polycounter
Hello and welcome fellow polycounters (and other lurkers). :poly142:
I am now starting a thread that is all about making myself a better artist. It started when I were concepting for my petrol blood entry. It came to my attention that my concepting skills weren't very strong. It became really obvious when I needed 5 hours just to nail a pose on an imagined animal without using references. So I decided to swallow my pride and leave the petrol blood challenge. So that I instead can focus on becoming a better artist without a deadline. Good luck to everyone on the competition, I will love to see what you all end up with.
So what is this thread about then? The biggest problem for me is that I got an idea in my head, but I can not transfer it to the paper. Simply put I realized that there are 3 really important areas for me to work on in my art.
Firstly is anatomy and visual memory on organic stuff. This has to do with the fact that I have barely painted organic stuff and mostly just painted robots (I love wobots). But as I wish to be a monster and character artist I really need to work on Not robots.
Secondly is that I need to work on dynamics and drama. I need to stop paint static stuff and start to paint with motion and dynamics.
Thirdly is to get a strong line-work. What this means is that I need to be able to create clean line art. What this will accomplish is that I will leave my safe zone. Right now when I paint I use the eraser wayyyy to much. So I will instead learn how to use a marker pen, and in that way find what lines are important to transmit what I want to project.
This will hopefully transfer to that I will become much more confident as an artist.
How I will do this is that I will practice on each of these points every day. 2 hours each day until my school starts (1 sept), and hopefully I will continue then as well. I got applied to a game-art school in malmö (The Game Assembly), so I see this as a headstart for me.
So there will be 3 line art pieces each day, and sometimes some zbrush sculpts, but that depends on if I am home or not. As I have the advantage of always carrying paper on me and now marker-pens I can do 2d practice every day.
So hopefully this will inspire some other people and also I do hope that you guys will critique me to death. As that is the way for me to truly improve.
Lastly, why I do post this here is because this is both a 2d and 3d project, plus more people are on this area of the forum than the sketchbook ones, even though I will post the content of this thread there. So lets do this!
Day 1! C&C Welcome.
Zbrush Sculpt, I used my own hand as a reference for this one.
2d practice
References for 2d:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rd2kipbmSfI/T9V9hU4EvyI/AAAAAAAAB6A/PzxnJw5GZYo/s1600/smiling+man.JPG
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/350/3/5/pose_by_rika_dono-d6y6jvb.jpg
http://ettkolikbarnsbekannelser.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/nakenkatt.jpg
I am now starting a thread that is all about making myself a better artist. It started when I were concepting for my petrol blood entry. It came to my attention that my concepting skills weren't very strong. It became really obvious when I needed 5 hours just to nail a pose on an imagined animal without using references. So I decided to swallow my pride and leave the petrol blood challenge. So that I instead can focus on becoming a better artist without a deadline. Good luck to everyone on the competition, I will love to see what you all end up with.
So what is this thread about then? The biggest problem for me is that I got an idea in my head, but I can not transfer it to the paper. Simply put I realized that there are 3 really important areas for me to work on in my art.
Firstly is anatomy and visual memory on organic stuff. This has to do with the fact that I have barely painted organic stuff and mostly just painted robots (I love wobots). But as I wish to be a monster and character artist I really need to work on Not robots.
Secondly is that I need to work on dynamics and drama. I need to stop paint static stuff and start to paint with motion and dynamics.
Thirdly is to get a strong line-work. What this means is that I need to be able to create clean line art. What this will accomplish is that I will leave my safe zone. Right now when I paint I use the eraser wayyyy to much. So I will instead learn how to use a marker pen, and in that way find what lines are important to transmit what I want to project.
This will hopefully transfer to that I will become much more confident as an artist.
How I will do this is that I will practice on each of these points every day. 2 hours each day until my school starts (1 sept), and hopefully I will continue then as well. I got applied to a game-art school in malmö (The Game Assembly), so I see this as a headstart for me.
So there will be 3 line art pieces each day, and sometimes some zbrush sculpts, but that depends on if I am home or not. As I have the advantage of always carrying paper on me and now marker-pens I can do 2d practice every day.
So hopefully this will inspire some other people and also I do hope that you guys will critique me to death. As that is the way for me to truly improve.
Lastly, why I do post this here is because this is both a 2d and 3d project, plus more people are on this area of the forum than the sketchbook ones, even though I will post the content of this thread there. So lets do this!
Day 1! C&C Welcome.
Zbrush Sculpt, I used my own hand as a reference for this one.
2d practice
References for 2d:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rd2kipbmSfI/T9V9hU4EvyI/AAAAAAAAB6A/PzxnJw5GZYo/s1600/smiling+man.JPG
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/350/3/5/pose_by_rika_dono-d6y6jvb.jpg
http://ettkolikbarnsbekannelser.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/nakenkatt.jpg
Replies
It's a very brave project ! I wish you good luck ! You gonna be busy hehe.
@Suba, haha yea I notice that now, but my hands do not really have noticeable tendons. But for the next hand, lets get an old mans hand, would be fun! Thanks as well for the kind words
@Pyrzern, Thanks, thats what I were going for so that is good that I got the movement in.
I notice now that this is really good for me. And I got a looong way ahead of me, especially people and faces, thats a big one.
Heres Day 2!
Zbrush of a beefier mans arm. Btw, does anyone know a great place to get good human references for sculpting? Or is google my only true friend?
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-male-flexed-arm-image1906351
2d.
My gf is helping me with this and she told me I need to get better flow in my line art, so I were going to paint this tree: http://www.photowall.co.uk/images/products/620x420/46521/japanese-maple-tree.jpg
First draft
Also the mozilla firefox http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news-700/Meet-the-Firefox-OS-Mascot-a-Fox-That-s-on-Fire.png
But I didnt get what she meant until my second try, she insisted I redid it. So here is the tree again second draft. More cartoony, and that is a totally new style and approach to art for me. So yay practice! =D
lastly a portrait, I am not pleased with this one, but I know what I need to do, practice.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iqbFSNYvC6Q/Ur1yUOyDNaI/AAAAAAAAJH0/a9Vv7y4x2Ac/s1600/outdoor+portrait+photography+tip.jpg
Being blunt, aside from the human arm and hand you did in zbrush, none of these really look like much in the way of actual practice. They look cool and nice, but the question is how much did you learn from them? If I look at the arm and hand area of the girl you just drew, which should have been difficult to draw in that pose, its really clean, meaning you likely traced a lot of it--which is fine, but it kind of goes back to my point of it not being very good practice.
What you need to do is get a whole bunch of anatomy references from Google images, pinterest, or whatever site you use--preferably the pictures will be of naked or close to naked subjects so you can see the actual shapes of the body. Put them somewhere where you can see them while you work, and draw basic human shapes. Proportions are really important. I personally use simple shapes like balls, squares and lines to sketch out a skeleton, then once I'm happy with the pose proportions, start putting in volumes.
Keep up the good work and good luck on your journey!
But I took what you said to heart and today I did a portrait and some anatomy stuff and cartoon stuff just to work on lines and forms in the same time. Also in the future there will be many anatomy practices. And also portraits, I really wanna get better at faces.
Sadly there will be no Zbrush sculpt today, didn't find the time. But this thread is mostly aimed towards my 2d and concepting skills. But tomorrow there will be a foot in Zbrush.
So here is Day 3:
OnePortrait
Cartoony:
Anatomy:
And once again if anyone is wondering what this is good for? It is to build up my confidence as an artist, it's also to get a better work-flow for 2d. Build up my visual library, and also more importantly. To actually work on something each day.
Tomorrow I will try to do a face in zbrush and use dat damn marker-pen again.
Day 4:
Zbrush:
2d Studies:
I am also going to take photos of all the paintings together, to keep the thread not as image heavy. Sorry for no scanner yet guys.
Big note for today is that I realized what I need to practice on, just to trace real life photos aint gonna cut it. So there will be some practice doodles joining here as well, on top of the real life studies.
day 6: I made my first Zbrush head! Be critical to it, but there will be more, lets see if I can improve on it. As I am not so happy about it.
2d Studies:
I've noticed you use a lot of long strokes in your sculpts. You also seem to build them up from a pretty high subdiv level, as they're pretty muddy. I'd suggest getting the solid form and as much detail as you can at a much lower subdiv, and only go up as high as you have when you really need it (final detailing, important areas with low mesh density).
But back to the strokes. when you use the Clay Buildup brush, you need to do just that; build up the forms. Long, random strokes just won't cut it.
I usually section off my mesh in my head into different forms or muscle groups, so more like this. Not necessarily the most accurate, but it helps to get the form down solidly.
And applying that to your face sculpt;
Hope that can help you get away from the muddy look a bit faster than you might unassisted.
Oh, and if you ever want to do a little more study on that cartoony style, I must recommend Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961"]Volume 1[/ame]/[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240811070/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y"]Volume 2[/ame] (In that order). It really helps when it comes to conveying gesture and making everything feel alive. It's also just a great read.
Keep up the good work!
@Stirls, I tried out the clay tube brush and damn that was something I had missed. Thanks
This project will take loads of time. But today I do not have so much to give to it. So I ended up doing some face doodles and a face in Zbrush. Tomorrow I will do an ear and anatomy studies again. because I need it. My proportions are usually shit.
Day 7. (A week already!)
Zbrush, 1 hour:
Painting for today, facial studies, barely had time, around 20 min:
Here goes day 8!
Zbrush:
Studies and 2d: (The mooe visual things are from a marker-pen, I do it on the anatomy pieces to practice the lines of the body.)
Keep it up, can't wait to see more. If this is what you can do in a few days of applying yourself, imagine yourself 6 months down the line!
And in 6 months I will look back to this thread and see the worth of hard effort. And thank you again for your help and also for coming back to this thread ^^
So here goes Day 9:
Day 10:
Day 11:
Zbrush:
2d Studies:
Here goes day 12:
One thing I noticed in your line drawings is almost all of the line work has the same thickness/weight. Alternating the thickness of your strokes can add a lot more dynamism to your drawings. Don't be afraid to experiment with some more gestural and quick strokes, you can lose a lot of energy in your drawings if you're too precious with your marks.
General rule of thumb in line weight being the closer an object is to you in perspective the thicker the weight.
Keep it up!
Today I did a Face and some more 2d studies and practice.
Day 13:
Zbrush:
2D Studies:
Day 14:
2d:
Day 15:
2D Studies:
Day 16:
Zbrush:
2D doodles:
Day 17:
2D:
Day 18:
2d Studies:
And the painting of today:
Day 20: (As there were no day 19 work.)
Zbrush:
2D Studies:
Keep practicing, then. I can see your figure drawings limbering up a little and getting better, and those faces on the last image are looking promising, too!
And I think, if you want to get more dynamics in there, focus on gesture.
Other links:
http://www.makingcomics.com/2014/02/22/elements-gesture/
http://sevencamels.blogspot.com.au/2006/04/more-on-line-of-action.html
I actually think I need to do some more studies like this myself, it's been a while...!
And If I can inspire you to do more studies its all the more awesome! ^^
Have a great day.
Day 21:
2D Studies:
Day 22:
2D Studies:
Day 23:
2D Studies:
Day 24:
Zbrush:
2D Studies:
Day 25-26:
2D Studies:
Noticed the perspective of the windows are off they need to be a little bigger also the wall is straying out a smidge to the right instead of downwards.You have the basics of the hand laid out but not the feet. Shadows from the post on the wall are in wrong direction also and you have no shadow from the flags.
Your lips often look stuck on - its the mouth corners that betray this. The lips twist at the corner into the mouth - go and look at yourself in the mirror.
Are you posting the sculpts in perspective or ortho?
@Rick Stirling: Thanks for the feedback. I will enlarge the ears, and also find a good proportional reference so that I can get it right on the first try with ears. Also I have not paid attention to this so thanks for pointing it out about the lip corners. Also the sculpts are in perspective.
I am today tugging away at packing some stuff that I will move down to my new apartment. So I have not drawn anything today. I will have to compensate tomorrow.
So starting today I will post all that I have done during the day. But I will not post anything during Saturday Sunday, as I need some resting time now as I work with art from 09.00 to 17.00.
So here goes my latest stuff from the 56 days I have not posted.
(The Major stuff of) Day 27 - 82
I will post todays work when I get home, so that todays stuff get its own post. Until then I hope you guys see an improvement. I sure am feeling it.
Day 83:
Day 84:
Keep it up!
p.s: nice dragons
Right now I am only painting my hand (an homework assignment for school, to draw my hand every working day for 8 weeks), plus I did a demon thing. Trying to improve my line art, but the maya course and the schools first game project (a text adventure game) we have now, is eating my time. so for today a quick hand study, only drawn with ink, and a demon.
Day 85:
Also here is my first sort of finished model from maya. I did it for two weeks ago but I forgot to post it with the what I have done before post.
Day 86:
2D Study:
One room in our text adventure that I painted today on top of a 3d base:
So here goes day 87 (delayed a bit):
Day 88:
Day 89:
Today i did a mech study and also looked in to mech-legs, I also did my homework (another hand).
Day 90: