Sketchbook: GED
interpolator
I think its about time I start a sketchbook here
**Critique is welcome on any of my work as I am looking to improve but dont go off on too much of a tangeant please.
This marks a good occasion too because Ive actually done sketches using nothing but my wacom for the first time! I usually do them in pencil or pen and then scan them. Anyway heres my first set of random unplanned sketches.
I painted these in an attempt to get better at rendering shadows and tones.
**Critique is welcome on any of my work as I am looking to improve but dont go off on too much of a tangeant please.
This marks a good occasion too because Ive actually done sketches using nothing but my wacom for the first time! I usually do them in pencil or pen and then scan them. Anyway heres my first set of random unplanned sketches.
I painted these in an attempt to get better at rendering shadows and tones.
Replies
I started this one as a sketch then dark grayscale an lighting on top then did the colours, this is a new way of doing things for me but I think its helping me get a grip on lighting and shadow and tone.
hmm cant seem to get my art to show up in img tags unless I upload it to deviantart
Does kinda make sense, this was an exercise in texturing and lighting my concepts, this started as a tiny pen sketch about 4cmx4cm which was just outlines. I guess I need to work more on my tones and how the light reads, its supposed to be over the top but a little bit in front of the character, as the shine on his forehead shows, with bounced light making the rest of him fairly lit up too.
:edited out pic cause it was rubbish:
Her head seems a little small too
Keep going man!
NOOOoooo LOL I tried to draw a woman in a similar style to the way frank frazetta draws them...not frank as a woman arrrgh
But yes those are some good points, I was reading about tones and lighting in imaginefx and the artist of dinotopia James Gurney says that the area which you want to bring focus to should be lit well and the areas between the light and the dark are the areas that should have the most detail in order to get more realism. I know youve come along way Eric, I remember seeing your older concepts, your newer stuff is great. I will look forward to doing more studys and try to get this all to work together when I draw.
Good studies on feet and hands. I must to do something like this too :P
Thanks Amuari, I had a problem in the past that I used to paint everything with too much colour because I was inspired by comic books etc but now Im trying to work it up from neutral colours or from grayscale sketches. I only just started doing grayscale sketches lately which is why alot of my stuff on this thread has gray and black in it.
Heres a little sketch from today, trying to get back into using painter instead of always PS.
I just wanted a challenge today so I decided to join conceptart.org and take part, its a mix between a grey snow wolf and a red eyed tree frog
Good point Johny, I worked on it a little more and updated to the original post
It looks like you're dealing with an issue that I'm trying to clear up as well -- your brushwork looks overly fussy. With the wolf frog the fringe looks a little uptight / busy and it clashes with the loose background. The background is communicating as a defocused forest, but there is something in the edge contrast of the light / dark strokes, and level of saturation, that spot on. The frog's left wrist transition could be a bit more clearly articulated. Nice overall, looks like it could shine if it were a bit more unified.
The pencil anatomy studies are good. Not completely even, but there are a few extremely well rendered / realized segments in there. The male figure is in a really tough perspective there. The zombie birthday party and 'toon on the stationary bike are a great touch
Thanks alot Kary. Just to clarify do you mean fussy as in overly complicated or fussy as in blurry and messy? Im enjoying this stuff, I do 3D all day at work and then I relax by painting or sketching stuff when Ive got some free time
I'm about as far from qualified to comment as you can get to crit brushwork, but from what I can see it was a little bit of both. Looking at this robot: http://www.gd3dart.com/images/random_stuff13.jpg the character right shoulder is harder to read than the other. On the left you have a simple stroke for the highlight (running the length of the large piece beside the head), that sets up that shoulder, has it reading as metalic, as a machined surface, etc. The other side has a lot more strokes and is harder to read because of them. Digression: A fast / fun way to work in painter is to lay things in very quick with a scratchboard pen, and drop in the lighting with the glowfx brush. Very quick, reasonably palletable results.
Wolffrog: The saturation seems even throughout. Looking at this http://www.nicewallpapers.info/pics/Photography/Macro/Macro_000.jpg the forground will be 70-100% saturated, and the back in the 30-40% range. That might be what was pulling me out of it more then brushwork. You're doing a dramatic, and fairly well known, optical effect -- so the wolffrog and branch don't pop out as they could. That had me looking for a painting technique reason when it was an optical effect throwing me. Take it with a large dose of salt. :poly129:
Some more anatomy studys, mostly from Glenn Fabrys book
now Im going ou side because Im in england and its actually sunny for once!
Did this concept for the gameartisans challenge, probably wont get the time to make him in 3D though.
I got a bridgman book yesterday, full of crazy anatomy stuff that I dont understand but also alot of pictures that make some sense of things for me so I draw them.
its still a little bit WIP so if anyone has some crits please say them now
In the original shes pulling on a tie/rope which attaches to her neck collar but I didnt like that much so I removed it but now her hand looks a bit odd so I tried to make it look like shes holding a pen or something :P has it worked or am I just going to have to change her hand entirely?
I wanted to use the stuff Ive learnt from doing that lighting study so I started a character for conceptart.org character of the week topic DEEP. Its an underwater utopia topic. I was wondering wether this composition looks better with or without the blue flame from the weapon?
Im trying to add detail without loosing the forms and making it flat, any tips?
also I want to work on the mood and atmosphere of this alot more and make it more realistic and gritty and less clean cartoony looking.
So for texture or detail you are going for variations in hue, sat, and brightness in smaller expanses with crisper edges. But the trick is to manage the amount of contrast and sharpness of edge along the whole image, because the more contrast and sharper the detail, the more you will draw the eye. Sometimes I'll paint an overlay or multiply layer (don't just drop in a photo and call it good, remember to be mindful to lead the eye to the most important areas) I like multiply layers because they don't jack up your tones too much, and you can get some nice brightness transitions.
For texture, I like to use hard brushes (high opacity + sharp edges) with a touch of scatter and some distance in spacing.
Another technique is to use Alt+smudge with a very hard opaque brush. What you do is create a smudge brush that has a good amount of space between marks, you would need to set the strength fade to like 200 - 300. Then if you hold Alt as you take strokes, it dabs the color down and completes the stroke with smudge. With a hard spaced brush you get a choppy edge, but nice gradations. For example, I used it a bit on this piece to get the choppy edge on the rope and texture in the BG. The texture on the arm is just an opaque square brush. Here's a lengthier post on it at ConceptArt.org
They are a collection of my favorite brushes from other peoples brush collections, the round one I use alot is from this collection and varies in opacity with pressure.
http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754332606896693/the-custom-brush-guide-skin-and-hair.html
and some from the standard brush set and a scratches brush
Things seem to be pushed to the frame left. Particularly the head and neck, but with the chest (on a smaller scale). If I connected those points correctly the centre line of the chest is too far to the left. I could be misreading things, but I thought I'd point those out. Interesting ideas, good sense of atmosphere within the water, you seem to be communicating more clearly with each piece
thanks for the crits and complements kary, I see what your getting at, for some reason I aligned that centre line to the spine of his body rather than the centre of his body so when it doesnt line up with the centre of the chest thats because at this camera angle the spine would be slightly to the right to account for the body mass between spine and chest. But I can see his head could be pushed back a little and that would definitely be more accurate and probably more regal.
Heres another experiment for the cow deep topic on conceptart.org, have I pushed the brightness and contrast too much? I can always tone it down a bit.
reference image
is the last image the base mesh? if not, it needs knee/elbow geometry.
No its the low poly but it still needs optimising for animation/rigging, hopefully I can rig it quickly with biped or maybe I will be stuck with rubbish zbrush traspose. The base mesh for deadpool was only like 64 polys or something lol.