Sketchbook: GCMax

System

About time I started one of these and try to improve my painting skills. Most of these will be works in progress as I rarely consider anything finished.


Latest

Waiting for an ao render to finish in max so I decided to paint this face, used reference photograph but it's all painting, no tracing, 30 mins so far...


A light study ball or maybe it's an apple, I'm not so sure, 15 mins...



Older

Photo mix and painting for this matte, 7 solid hours so far...




Will try to fill this up with stuff, it's gonna be pretty random as I want to cover all areas, might do some buildings next.

Ged

nice start, the matte is a bit confusing, get less going on and a better composition and it would be an improvement, nothing wrong with the technical details it all looks good in its seperate parts but as a whole its just too much

System

Cheers Ged, I know it's been a bumpy ride with that one <insert profuse swearing here> I will try a little experiment with it: darkening the top and a bit of the ground around the church to try and make more of a focal point with those windows.

JaySmitt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

System

JaySmitt, had a look, not a specific term I'm familiar with, guess you can tell looking from the work here:poly121: This sounds similar to having 3 main layers: foreground, middleground and background which is how I play anyway, thanks though

Update, trying some new brush effects and still going...

bounchfx

hey man, good start. a couple things I'd say that might push it further is: 1) pay attention to your proportions, 2) try using more contrast between your lights and darks.

that being said, I look forward to seeing your progress!

System

Cheers bounchfx Not too long ago I was absolutely hopeless at painting in anything other than uv's with ao to guide me. Progress was probably due to painting more and more in diffuse maps, consider me hooked

System

Revisited the chuch scene and revamped it a bit, not finished yet as the area where the water meets the sky is giving me quite a bit of hassle, still...

System

Back on the head again after fixing some glaring errors with anatomy which were invisible to me until now, to fix I had to copy and paste half of the head so all asymmetrical details have gone. Somehow now I'm getting a Monica Bellucci vibe, that can't be bad right?

System

Still on the head, redoing the ears as they were too big and strange looking.

System

Another update, painting ears next then on to refining the hair. Does anyone know of any good hair painting tutorials?



Thanks

System

Did a bit more work on this young lady...



The background is a modified photo of an airport for theme ideas, it's not staying.

ENODMI

Church scene looks like a Metal alblum cover! just the perfect space in the sky for a band name...:) :thumbup:

marlfox8

nice the womans eyelids look heavy

System

ENODMI, thanks, that could be a cool way to advertise After feedback I made some alterations to the scene, removing the lava and grimmy. I might replace the lightning with fog to give it some depth, not sure.

marlfox8, thanks, it's been a slow process I think because of trying to fill in too much detail at one time, I found when I slowed down and concentrated more on individual features they started looking better.

Revised the lady, she looks a bit scary now! Still a wip of course...

marlfox8

hah she looks so creepy me gonna have nightmares:D

System

Yeh, creeeepy!
Still working her, hoping to conclude this soon because god damn I need to hurry up and get a portfolio up asap!

DrunkShaman

I liked your church work...Its amazing!

System

Thanks Nitewalkr, I did some more work on the church, I'm considering this (below) as final but may make some more changes later;



Bit more work on the lady;



Crits?

ps: I know this is looking very repetetive so I will try to post some new things soon!

Ged

what reference are you using for this lady? the most natural looking part of the picture is the collar of the shirt and the neck and chin and the way the shadows work there is great but the rest looks like youve been using brushes that are too small and focusing too much on lines and shapes instead of on light and shadow and using those to define your shapes

System

Ged, thanks for your comment. The only part you mentioned which was painted with shadows was the clothing, the rest of the shadows were over painted.
I'm currently trying to build up the shadows on the upper face to something natural, I've only just started that today.

The ref is here which was used for positioning of facial features and some shaping. It's been a bit of a nightmare because of changing the shape of some features later on and totally repainting some areas, it's a touch and go kind of thing.

System

This lady is definately dragging on now, so I'm trying to move on more quickly. Clothes have been worked on a little and the earrings are being redone, apart from that little touches...



O and a background o_O!

marlfox8

hmm... maybe you should stray a little from the ref and add more bangs. the forehead seems a bit big

System

marlfox8 cheers buddy, the forehead was an area that got addressed, among other things.

[UPDATED]

Thanks to everyone that helped during the process, it's been fun learning!

System

Ok, so final presentation for the "Church of the Damned" and "Portrait of a Woman". I promise it's now time to move on





website up v soon http://www.gcmax.co.uk

System

A new from an old one

System

System

Meet Worm Baby!



Nice, right? lol

System

Another Illustration

System