Sketchbook: Havok

Havok

Hey, I thought I would start a thread to help me get better with my tablet. This first one is a sketch based off of this image: http://www.mae.ncsu.edu/homepages/silverberg/santa/science%20of%20santa%20academic%20santa%208X10.jpg



This next one is a concept for my next modeling project (hopefully )

WARNING: Huge fucking image.



Please tell me what you think and how I can improve. Also, I am looking for any tips on actual digital painting, aswell. Both were done with a 4x5 (I think it's a 4x5)

Two Listen

Hmm. Well, I suppose first I'll just say this. A drawing tablet is not a pencil, and using it as such won't help you improve very much.

Secondly, I recommend getting to know your brushes. The basic round brush has an infinite number of possibilities if you use it right, but I'd definately scope out the presets and learn what you can do with your pen in relation to size, shape, direction, opacity, etc. Dual brushes, airbrush, spacing, scattering, texture, etc. Learning the presets, and using/making custom brushes has helped me excel immensely in my digital painting endeavors.

Lastly...and this is something that will help you in more than just digital painting but is still just as relevant as anything else...

Study! Even if your studies aren't exact copies of your references, you should always be looking out for things in the world that can help you in your artwork. And for digital painting --- I find that other people's paintings have helped me learn just as much as real-life references have.

Cheers.

konstruct

Not bad! its a good start, one thing I`d say (and I dont mean to bag on the santa artist) but trying to draw from other drawings might work your observation skills, but you run the risk of picking up other artists bad habits and this something you want to steer clear of. draw from life.

This doesnt mean to not be inspired by other artists.

A lot can be learned from other artist as far as style and technique go, but learning how to construct the human form is something you should leave to real life.

Havok

Thanks. guys. When you say that the tablet isn't a pencil, Two Listen, what do you mean? I plan to try a digital painting today so we'll see how that goes.

Also, konstruct, I just asked my friend what I should draw and he sent me that, so I drew it. I don't do that often so I should be safe.

Two Listen

Hey there Havok. When I say a tablet isn't a pencil, I mean to say that you're dealing with a lot more than just one type of utencil, really. You shouldn't treat it as just one simple point on a screen, one tool, because in reality it is many more. You can't use a pencil to loosely airbrush in base colors at the start of a painting, you can't manipulate a pencil to give texture and contrast to an entire cliffside in one or two strokes. And obviously the fact that you're working in color, and a lot of it, you have a lot more to take into consideration than your average pencil or set of color pencils.

And that's one of the great things about tablets to me, you get to use what you know about pencil, watercolor, charcoal, pastels, and your other traditional mediums and various types of paint as well. You can find relevance for almost all of it, and combining your knowledge can help you a lot with your digital paintings. Or even work directly with your digital paintings by combining them.

The same can also be said for the other way around, just as all sorts of real mediums can assist you in understanding some mechanics of digital painting, so too can digital painting help you out in other types of artwork.

---

And Konstruct, THAT is a wonderful point. I hadn't even considered that myself, picking up other people's bad habits. Thankfully, I have never used other people's work as references for lighting, form, or the construction of things. What I meant was that let's say you have a good understanding of the human form but aren't sure how to portray it in digital. You can look at other people's paintings of any type of decipher as you said, techniques and methods that might help you get the results you want. By learning about a new type of brush, or blending technique.

Cheers.