Alchemicals's journey (to improving)
polycounter lvl 6
Hey everyone, Im a bit of a lurker that's made a post now and then asking some questions and issues with software, but I haven't ever put up any posts for critique. I hope with this thread to get some feedback and critiques from the community and hopefully that will feed into the pressure I feel whipping me to stay on track. 
So I will upload any painting or drawing I do onto this thread and l would greatly appreciate any critique I can get! Here we go:
A recurring problem of mine is I can't wrap a painting up. There is an entire graveyard of .PSDs and pages in my sketchbook that I've started out but cant finish. The main worry is that I never can seem to get it right and keep getting frustrated early on. So I close it down and move on, promising to come back to that later... but I never do. I even made a post about this long ago, Im scared to bump a dead thread but if any of them see this Im grateful for the advice I got. On top of that, I blend WAY too much, I can sit for hours just blending things up until my art teacher recently pointed it out
The premise of this little study-project I've been doing is simple, Im gonna do a bunch of 1-hour still life-paintings of different objects I place on my desk once every day. What I hope is that most of my flaws will hopefully be apparent as I go along and what to work on next. The time limit will also force me to manage the process from start to finish, hopefully improving my workflow and stop me from wasting time with unneccessary blending.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
So I will upload any painting or drawing I do onto this thread and l would greatly appreciate any critique I can get! Here we go:
A recurring problem of mine is I can't wrap a painting up. There is an entire graveyard of .PSDs and pages in my sketchbook that I've started out but cant finish. The main worry is that I never can seem to get it right and keep getting frustrated early on. So I close it down and move on, promising to come back to that later... but I never do. I even made a post about this long ago, Im scared to bump a dead thread but if any of them see this Im grateful for the advice I got. On top of that, I blend WAY too much, I can sit for hours just blending things up until my art teacher recently pointed it out
The premise of this little study-project I've been doing is simple, Im gonna do a bunch of 1-hour still life-paintings of different objects I place on my desk once every day. What I hope is that most of my flaws will hopefully be apparent as I go along and what to work on next. The time limit will also force me to manage the process from start to finish, hopefully improving my workflow and stop me from wasting time with unneccessary blending.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Replies
And Im happy I did, it forced me to look at the objects differently and I feel as if I got a better understanding of volume. Not too pleased how it came out however; so I'll take another crack at it tomorrow!
To be honest, I have no solid understanding of perspective, most of it is guess-work. I recently bought both of Scott Robertson's How to Draw Any Object and How to Render aswell as following the exercises on DrawABox, both very focused on perspective. So hopefully putting focus into that will get that in check.
Im also required to start working on a figure drawing portfolio for school. Here is the first piece I've finished. I had my teacher critique it so I need to work on proportion aswell as faces. Majority is from reference but the head, club and loincloth is from imagination.
Once again I did it in greyscale, it worked alright, Im not thrilled with the results but it was decent.
I decided after this to challenge myself and did another one in colour. A bit better perspective-wise, but the values look all off to me, aswell as the colour just looks like a right mess.
So I pushed on. I did a bit of an experiment, I took a photo of my set-up and colour-picked the colours from it and painted it over with the "correct values" (since it was a camera it probably wasn't a 100% accurate). Here's the result:
Made the entire thing get some very much well needed contrast, have to keep that in mind going forward.
It feels as if my approach to painting is changing, aswell as the look and feel of them. While I dont like the quality of the results from these 1-hours, I hope I can refine it in the coming week.
Other than that Im working forward on my figure drawing portfolio.
@Dezzipixels Cheers, I know of them but haven't watched them extensively, I'll make sure to give their video a watch through (and work on those ellipses.)
Day 8. It's okay, I still cant keep my ellipses under control and it really shows but atleast the shadow and light is a bit more pronounced.
Day 9. Quite happy with it, values could have been pushed more and the cork on the bottle could have used a lot more detail.
Ultimately however, I feel like Im stagnating in terms of the results I get out of these exercises. I may have to start considering my next move on how to progress further.
Hope the weekend's been good for you all!
I think there is an obvious weakness with glass, I'll focus the coming days on having glass and its ilk in my still life's. Aswell as that, I had quite the difficulty with the bristles. Small details like that really stumped me and I want to correct that for next time. Do you guys have any advice?
I think you could use a lot more defined hard edges and straight lines in your objects though, a lot of the time you have wobbly shapes and things not aligning properly even though they should. looking at day 1 and 2 you had way better edge control then you do in the more recent pieces.
anyways, keep it up!
You're right, I was stressed out about keeping the edges pronounced at first, shortening the time to render it proper. Now that Im a lot less tense, Im attempting to reel it back in for day 11 and 12.
Day 11. Practising more glass, trying to get that stuff hammered into that thick skull of mine. Overall quite happy with it. But with 10 minutes left, I was struggling to keep going, I didn't know where else to take it, with the alotted time I had left I just felt done. Decided to raise the bar for the next day.
Day 12. Oh boy. There's a lot of issues with this one but I feel I learned a lot from it too. For one, I upped it way too far, the bottle was a complex object and I think it warrants its own study, the shapes and perspective suffered for it. I ran into the same problem here of having a considerable amount of time left but not knowing what to do. Is this a common thing?
I also decided that I try to keep it imaginative with a small little concept project going on the side. Im designing a coffee cup atm. Here are some quick thumbnail. Definitely expanding on 3 and 4.
So, Im already on top of what Im doing next.
1. Im currently reading through Scott Robertson's books, teaching myself about perspective and construction drawing. On top of that Im doing DrawABox on the side, currently doing the 250 Box Challenge. Im not sure posting sketch-exercises is a good idea but maybe you guys can tell me where it's all headed from these.
And 2nd Im gonna be concepting an asset aswell as working on getting a full illustration done using the skills I've learned.
Sorry for the long post! Hope you all have a great weekend!
@Dezzipixels I think you double-posted a couple of post-drafts
WIP
More on its way! I want to push myself more into enviroments and such now that I've worked so long on singular objects.
Here's also a WIP, I feel like I can keep going, clouds could use some work and add general details... fix those horrid foot prints haha. But the more I go, I feel like Im messing stuff up. Maybe its normal? Who knows
Submission on Monday for Life Drawings, here's what I think are the top ones. I think its solid so far, cept I can't put decent faces on top of them. Doing a portrait on its own is fine, but a full body is really uncomfortable.
In other news, Im working out on finalizing the concept for the LaserGun,
Sideview:
3/4 Frog view, can't decide what kind of frame would be better suited, a straight or a round one... Would love some feedback on this!
For the weapon design, I might recommend focusing more on the design and perspective more than the lighting and rendering. I like the previous page of sketches and thumbnails more because it is very clear and shows several iterations of the same design.
In my opinion, a front 3/4 frog's view usually is not the best way to display a design such as a weapon, because it does not do a great job showing us the important details. A "looking-down" 3/4 side-view is often the most effective way to show how an object exists in 3d space.
Also, I think you can apply some more of the perspective knowledge you have been learning. The front of the barrel on your 3/4 view is very close to being a full 90-degree circle rather than an ellipse.
Keep it up, I hope to see more iterations.
I hear what you're saying and I left it as it is for now, if anything Im happy I got to atleast explore the perspective for future pieces. Doing the perspective you adviced proved to be a tad difficult for me, Im still trying to figure it out. Im gonna read some Scott Robertson and come back to it.
Here's a WIP Im working on for fun, Im a bit stuck on this too but quite enjoying painting it nonetheless.
To break the trend of unfinished pieces and to combat me being discouraged of being stuck on a lot of things right now, I did a study based on a Still Life-Photo, author unknown...
and then using what I learned from these to make a portrait of a character completely from imagination.
Sketch:
Finished, I absolutely promise I did not use any reference of Sean Connery ;p
Im quite happy with it, so happy Im afraid we're gonna have to say goodbye to Templar-man
Wanted to do an enviroment piece, I've always avoided these, but no more! Here were the thumbnails.
And here is the current WIP, I feel like the image itself is a bit boring, Im gonna see if I can add some more interesting stuff to it. I was thinking of having the castle be a lot more ancient.
However, there were some problems and that was that I had trouble with the lighting and my experience in vegetation/trees was lacking. So I whipped up some studies:
Saw someone else doing theses and figured it'd be good practise
Individual sets for now, working on a couple of more packed in like bushes and live trees atm.
So a bit lost on where to go from here, school again is definitely in the cards but not for a year or two methinks. But here I am, the choice was made four months ago, gotta make the good times come back with what I got.
Anywho, depressing rant aside.
Here are some of the stuff I've made in the gap, all of it traditional.
Bright side: I feel like the gap has given me better understanding, a bit like leaving wine in the cellar or something like that...
Mate tipped me off to FZD recently recommending drawing rocks, witnessed someone else doing it so I figured I take a stab at it too.
Rough first attempt, confidence at an all time low.
Second attempt, loosened up a bit, not drawing random lines to express texture but shadow instead.
I then tried doing some plants again. After doing the rose, I tried framing the studies a bit to make it less scary to "make an image out of it."
Gonna do a paint study of a rock or plant next. Then using that to ease me into making an actual full illustration afterwards.
So far the sketch is going alright, though I botched the legs and have been re-drawing them for ages. I can't seem to nail a balanced stance for the guy.
A quick portrait made for use as reference
Continued my sketch on my Orcie boi, not sure where to go next from here. I think ironically my painting skills have taken a hit since the move and my drawing skills are a lot more caught up. Letting this one simmer for a bit.
I decided to do a couple of quick paintings to get back into the flow.
On top of that, I saw the actual FZD video and figured I'd do some studies.
It's still a bit fuzzy on where I want to focus my learning on but Im just happy to be working again.
Toodles!
And some hands for good measure
Feeling a lot more confident again, perhaps time to do something bigger
Toodles!
Yo yo, back at it again with a bunch of studies, I've decided to do a few master studies too. First one being by John Singer Sargent. Not doing these for any anatomical or observational reason, just trying to find the techniques, strokes and use of colour that they used.
One thing Im really bothered by is that I've been doing a lot of studies to the point that doing anything imaginative is scary now. The brain is chugging with ideas just fine, the thought of applying them to a painting is just real intimidating.
On top of that I started working on rendering materials aswell.
I started trying to learn to tighten up my painting skills a lot more aswell as practicing a tad of bouncelight. Not thrilled at where this started out but happy at where it ended. Main lesson learned is that I need to work on my bubble-game.
I think those materials are coming along nicely- one thing that would really help them is looking at the specularity of materials. That crystal one would probably have a very well defined spec.
Also I would look at your edge control. If you are in photoshop clipping masks really help with that. But overall being decisive of when to have lost edges over hard. for example your jean material is hitting pretty close imo, while the scales one on the top middle seems to feel a bit muddy.
Like this *RADICAL* eXtreme snapback I did today. I tried applying some of that edge control you were talking about. I prefer doing as much of a traditional approach as possible in my learning stages but I'll read up on how to apply clipping masks too.
Thank you for the feedback
Scrolling through your thread as well I notice you have a big problem with human legs. In almost all of your drawings you make the legs too short over all, especially the bottom part of the leg between the knee and foot. I think you should maybe do some copies of the idealised proportions because its a pretty consistent issue. I also notice with the pec muscles you are often mis placing the insertion points and making it looks too rounded as a result.
Well done on doing lots of studies though. Keep it up!
I've been trying to just paint, trying to get some confidence up on imaginative pieces.
Hello everyone, I'm back.
I considered making a new thread due to this ones age, but I feel it would defeat the point if you couldn't follow from where it all began. So here we go:
2019 was a hard year where not a lot of work was produced. I decided to share a few highlights to show where I was at. Im glad I got into some more mechanical stuff.
2020 Continued in the next post.
SORRY FOR THE BIG POST, I'LL DIVVY IT UP BETWEEN POSTS AFTER THIS
And to make sure I got some goals, I started working on a bigger project. At the moment the brief is that I will design a slightly anthro-rat medieval squire. Before I go ahead and design however, I need to know how to draw a rat. Judging from these attempts I need to study that some more.
Hello again!
Just a small update on the general goings on and the Rat-squire design I am working on.
I rarely study cloth or any type of attire; I really do need to make more of these just for pure learning.
First off: some portraits. Im making a smaller collection of work to send to an old contact of mine to recieve some feedback.
I decided that a Rat Knight's Squire wasn't a fun idea for the type of character design that I had in mind and I decided to go for a more fantasy-merc direction. Think some MGS, mix it with Secret of Nimh and DnD and there we go. So I set up a reference sheet.
And with that I did some designs.
First off: Taking a chill pill on the drawing to do some painting, I felt I had been neglecting it for far too long and as of this post I feel I have a steady flow on both disciplines.
So here's two studies:
The other one was created doubly to wrap my head around CSP. I know of course that photoshop is the industry standard but since I don't work in the industry I can't justify it's cost anymore. If I ever do work proper professionally I'll revert.
I tried to take my "reintroduction" to painting by doing something simple but still jog the creative muscles, so I did fan art; something I rarely do.
I did two sets:
Them did some quick sketch variations. It's alright but I think Im relying too hard on the gambeson with a plate piece on the torso. I should probably explore some more options here.
That'll be all for today. Like always: feedback is greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
You will get quicker with ideas and thumbnailing with more experience in a few years, so concentrate on finishing what you like right now.
I think you have improved a lot, you're getting a bit better with drawing.
Perspective was one issue constantly in your work. And in my opinion, the feel of a lot of the paintings is too "pastel" and "soft".
I would try using different brushes for different things like blending, textures and edges, and try exploring value and contrast and lighting a little more next. So... perspective, values and lighting i.e. your shading (and it involves brushes and edges/texture/blending), and then some anatomy.
Use these free Loomis books also, they are great for drawing out of your head in the end... Book 1, Book 2.
Hope this helps you. Keep on.
I've decided to avoid clutter by compiling some work to one image where applicable.
All of this practise culminated in two final bigger drawings/paintings:
Style is the natural consequence of repeatedly drawing the things you enjoy and are good at, so if you like this style you should consider deliberately honing it because this is a strong point in your work.
Be careful with this. It's a crutch.
Thick lines hide trembling and uncertain lineart and also distract from mismatched silhouettes and proportions. Thin or absent lines make such issues obvious, hence the discomfort.
Speaking of confidence, I feel you're not fully confident in your colors yet. There's nothing wrong with a rougher shading with evident brushwork—I'm a sucker for brushwork!—but you're barely softening and blending anything. You're also focusing your brushstrokes on color and light gradation at expense of volume. You should use them to describe volume first and foremost then throw extra painterly details on top of the volume work. I can make a quick overpaint of an element in one of your works to show how what happens when doing this with rougher brushes if you're okay with it.
Also keep in mind that rougher shading is a way of calling attention to a specific detail. When everything is in focus (rough), nothing is.
That's it! You're on the right path with your studies. Keep them coming and make sure to throw in a piece from mind between them with a similar subject to what you're studying to really set what you're learning on stone.
So, for the overpaint I picked something you painted from mind. Buckle up for the long ride! I wish there was a way to pause gifs here because the superposition is important to highlight how the changes affect the painting. Slowing it down too much would lose this.
Volume Rendering
01
If you're heavy-handed in your brushwork the painting starts to get confusing and fall apart in a literal way as the layers of colors in the object could be easily separated, making it no longer look like a single object nor something that's just part of a scene.
In this work keeping all color transitions harsh costs the shape of the object. The shield doesn't read a half cylinder, it reads as a succession of colors overlaid on top of each other. Also, think of brushstrokes as a finite resource. Pick your battles here and reserve their most harsh transitions for important things.
In that stage nailing down the volume—the perception of the object in a 3D space—is a good idea. You can oomp it later.
Color Blending
02
You might not want to fully socially distance the color of different objects. This is a useful trick to reduce the focus on an element and ground it better in the scene.
Value Correction + Dirty Layer
03
Hue is only part of blending an element into its surroundings, with value (and saturation) being the other. I also added a layer of dirt here. It makes sense and makes the area interesting; if it were too empty the negative space might steal the focus.
Take note of how the more evident brushstrokes are starting to come back at this stage.
I'd also like to point out that you seem a bit reluctant to bring your colors all way to the edges of an object. Don't be. Keep a copy of the original sketch in a separate layer for sanity checks then go all way in. And painting over the lines can be a useful accident! That's bouncing light and color blending for free.
Painterly Detailing
05
Hello brushwork! That's the moment I felt the basic shape was solid enough to bring evident brushstrokes and harsher transitions back. They're not laid at random, they have specific roles in there such as:
Most of those strokes were laid after the initial color pass. Making something look like an effortless improvisation takes a lot of effort!
Once you're done reading this post go look at the artworks of the artists you admire and ask yourself what's the purpose behind their brushwork. What were they trying to communicate with each stroke? Volume, color change, tactile texture? Are they using it to fade a detail or bring attention to it?
Value fix - Light bounces and color bleeding in shadows
06-08
Light loves to bounce around. It doesn't appear only as well defined reflections, it's also very fuzzy, bleeding into the colors because ambient/fill light isn't made of a single well defined color, it's a sum of all of these bounces. It shifts in hue and intensity. I basically used 5-20% radial gradients with overlay/color dodge/multiply to do this.
This "atmospheric" effect adds a lot of depth to the entire scene. The better you get at capturing this color bleeding more grounded the scene will look.
Painterly Detailing strikes back
09-14
I purposely noodled around here a bit more than necessary to show you something: It's okay to keep trying. When you're working from mind with no references at all sometimes you'll find yourself wrestling details out of the canvas and that's fine! That's expected, you're raytracing in your head. Experience will reduce the amount of energy spent on it, but to acquire it you have to keep moving.
~~ Bonus ~~
Painting over your own work
15
What if an element looks good but the wrong material, or it's sponging off undue attention? You paint over it. Don't be afraid of throwing more paint over you work.
Lineart
16
So you found yourself wanting a more subdued old school vibe or something. Just like brush strokes you can also add lineart on top of the painting after finishing it.
Color Correction
17
Same is true for colors. You don't have to pick all the right colors during the painting process. I wanted the shield to pop out more, so I used a masked color correction layer to make it more magenta, increasing (color wheel) distance between it and the yellow-green surrounding it.
The key point of this bonus section is: Don't be too precious about your work. I know it's tiring and you fought all the way to bring a painting to a certain point but if you feel it could be taken further with destructive changes, add a new layer and do it. If it doesn't work out just delete the new layers.
And a misc tip: Try to paint in a canvas larger enough it could be printed out in A4 size. Colors and textures naturally blend in when you resize an artwork down, + you'll get used to working on pieces that could be sold as art prints for some coffee buck and if someone interested in licensing your personal work appears (this happens) you'll have something suitable for books and mostly anything they could need it for.
To add some confidence while drawing I also started to learn how to sketch in brushpen and fineliner, here's two pages I feel showed the most progress.
And finally: The painting and design.
I then tried to take those skills back into my digital work. Keeping @birb 's advice of process I produced some quick studies for a larger project and a self-portrait.
It's been much to do, I've got a mentorship that's been taking up a lot of my time. New job and all that jazz.
Outside of that I've been trying to get going on some more original pieces and just overall trying to be the best I can be.
Here's a fine fellow from 2020:
And a couple of bigger pieces from Jan this year.
And some misc. studies'n'sketches
Had the idea to supplement my learning by giving me some design prompts. Doing illustrations is cool but designs are cooler! First prompt: re-design the Pokémon POTION for a game set in a huge city instead of a region. Might have been done before, I wouldn't know. I wanted the challenge of designing for something I am not comfortably familiar with.