Crimson Daggers — Art forum

Tygerson: Thanks. Trying to convey more emotion with some of my pieces, kinda forget about that sometimes and just render a shoulderpad or such instead xD

So here's an outdoor study, a sketchy wip of a friend's very orcy roleplay character (might redraw those legs and feet yet again, never quite pleased, more gesture practice for me!), a speedpainty gnome and a finished sci-fi piece. Somewhat finished heh.

Man, I am a fan of your pencils and your water colors. Makin' me pretty jealous over here, haha. They're definitely you're strongest assets, in my opinion.

You've got a really cool style going, you're colors are great as well. I'd definitely consider doing more gestures. In a few of your paintings there's some small proportional issues and whatnot with armor, or the anatomy.

Other than that you're stuff just needs a little bit more of a push in terms of a polish. There's stuff in here that still has that "blocky" look to the strokes where things could be blended a bit more.

Seriously though, your watercolors are damn good. That last one of the page before this is so cool. It'd be nice to see some of that taste in your digital work. :]] Wonderful progress. I'm looking forward to seeing that WIP finished.

Archreux: Thanks for the words man! More gestures certainly cannot hurt, you should see my older work before I even started thinking in a more gestural way when it comes to my characters.
The blocky part is a bit hard for me, I really want to get that sculpted look in my paintings, and maybe that is why some of the blockiness remains. Tho I've heard that that is a side effect when you're studying and thinking about planes xD Think I just have to paint more digitaly to find ways to make it all look nicer and cooler ;D

Been a bit lazy and also on vacation in Denmark (saw some awesome impressionist art!)
But finally managed to get into zbrush a bit again, so here's two faces. Feels a bit rusty but it's fun!

Hey Adzerak the berserker!
Reading Arch's comment I was thinking that if you want to combat the "blockiness" you could try and paint softer in the shadows, blending more colors there. Getting rid of those obvious strokes could help!

Loove that loose orc-lineart in post #121, definitely something you should continue on. Has an awesome gestural feel to it. Do you normally draw before painting, or just dive directly into shapes and such?
And have you heard about the band Grand Magus? Totally fits your style :D

Need more updates <3

Hey there Bjul! Nice tip about the blockiness. A problem I generally have is that I use the same chalky type of brush for the majority of the painting, and it tends to give it sharp edges all around, messing with the flow and contrast. So I guess it could help there as well, blend some more instead of going all aout blockiness. The chunky parts will look all the chunkier if it's contrasted to something less chunky after all xD

The orc is for a friend of mine. Drew lineart first to see if he liked the general look of the charatcer before the values start to fill in. But yea I usually use lines first when it comes to characters at least, but when it comes to those quicker paintings/ones with a broader scope, I tend to want to work zoomed out and with big brushes and just block stuff in.

Hah, Grand magus..well, I remember hearing the song Stone circle back in the day when my ears were usually filled with bands like Rhapsody. Remember not liking it that much, but I guess your recommendation warrants another go at 'em! xD

So that was a long ass reply all right. Here's some moleskine sketchbook things I did on the go, and also two 50 min speedpaints (thanks for linking that group to me there too, Bjulvar!)



from Hundertwasser's exibition in Arken, Denmark. That guy has some cool ideas about incorporating the flow of nature into the blockiness of buildings.






sketched the Nimis structure from southern Sweden. Built by one guy for 35 years by using driftwood. Felt like walking in Blighttown from Dark souls. Check it out. http://caitlinindenmark.files.wordpress....235_o1.jpg





Wave archers. 50 min.


Dangerous route, 50 min.

Really like the atmospheric perspective on the dangerous route, and the apparent hesitation of the soldiers.

Tygerson: Thanks! Really feels like I'm learning something by doing those speedpaints.

Not learning to deviate all that much from my usual depictions tho (huge big guy and some small guys). But anyway, here's a troll king, a very kind dwarfman and an outdoors study!

50 min with this too. Tried to mash in some photos and textures in this one, kinda new to that so it was exciting!


This jolly man might have been an inspiration hah! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2sM7tzILeE


Better do these while it's still kinda hot outside, Winter is Coming.

Here's another update on the dragon demon vs archer pic.
Still have that low horizon big guy vs small guy fantasy stuck in my brain. But I suspect that I'll be in the mood to draw different things after this is done xD



Still a WIP then. Can't really decide if I want it flipped or not, any input on that or anything else for that matter is most welcome ;D
Old version--> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p2cwzaFVT_0/Uy...e_WIP2.png

Aye it's done! And here's a 50 min jedi master for good measure.

50 min Aliens and a plenty o' min forest knight!
Real fun to experiment with water colors!



R.I.P. H.R. Giger.

Hey Adzerak - cool updates. I dig the red blue contast/lighting in post 129.
Your Giger tribute is also nice. The world of surreal and sci-fi art has lost an outstanding visionary.
May the force be with you!

Heya there Constructicon, and thanks for the comment. I feel like those speedpaints are really rewarding. Makes me more daring when I paint. I'm usually afraid of using different brushes and doing broader strokes.

Trying out some different water color techinques. Using more water, making it flowy, and using..not..as much water. The two quick environment studies were a nice practice of getting the right amount of color/water on the brush quickly to save time.


Quick with such nice water flow ;D


Swedish viking dwarf, or possibly an ancient goalkeeper for some hockey team.


20-30 min something


Same-ish time as above


A bit more than 50 min Black Dragon God. Damn dragon, didn't wanna behave.

I like how you gave the dragon such visual superiority, and indicated the followers with runes and robes.

Really like the lady with two red swords, too. The posture really conveys post-battle heaviness of breath.

D: watercolours.. man, props..

Love this last post with the dragon, looks really cool. I think you could push it further though, refine the forms a bit more and see where it takes you. Would be nice to see.

Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see more from you :D

Tygerson: Yea, the idea was him being a dragon god to humans through sheer mind control ;D

Jaik: Might do it. But I try to paint more pieces and switching it up rather than getting stuck rendering and noodling on one image, cause I tend to do that a lot otherwise. But Then again, I don't really have any good well-rendered dragon-pieces heh.

Been to Paris and seen lots of awesome art and architecture, but haven't been drawing that much. Managed to draw some people while riding the metro + some other stuff tho.

You have a real knack for using lighting and perspective to pull together your compositions in those paintings up there, some of the viewpoints you are using are really cool. I agree with with Jaik about pushing it a bit further sometimes though - not on every picture or anything, but maybe when you get something that works well, that you like etc. It would be a good way of practising textures, lighting, materials and the like, as well as developing stamina to push things.

Great people sketches by the way, you're grabbing a lot of information in them.

Clockodile: Thanks man. Yea I hear ya about the rendering ;D I guess I'm worried that i'll overrender stuff and that it becomes flat and not as painterly. Guess I'll just have to work harder on something that I feel has some promise.

Long time posting now, hoping to be more frequent in the future. School's done and I'm on part time work, so can paint to my heart's content between the work runs!


Unstoppable corpse 50 min - "I just wanted to play magic the gatheriiiing!"


Heaven throne 1h


Dr Who 1h.


Started getting some colors on that orc dude from the top of the page.

Nice drawings and the Giger piece is great!
I see you have quite a good understanding of lighting. What I would suggest is to render them further, work on one piece for so long that you can't even stand it anymore and then see how it looks. It may come out awesome! ;)

So good to see your paintings Adzerak!! All of them has a strong composition/light source, with a great storytelling. It would be nice to see what results you can reach staying more time in one painting :)

Rosolino & Nowio: Thanks for your feedback there guys! I agree about rendering a painting more, think I'm gonna work further on some of the ones in this post. Been wanting to do more quick paintings for a while but it's time to focus more on a couple of pieces now I think.


It's kind of liberating to work quick like this and don't worry too much about the end result. I tend to have that problem that when I set out to create something finished or paint something for someone I get bogged down because I think too much about the end result.
It's like an archer who shoots for nothing and has no problem hitting his mark, but when he shoots for a price of gold the shot goes wild. His skill has not changed but the need to win makes him focus more on the prize rather than shooting.

But yea, not an excuse really. Just been feeling more like doing speedpaints and sketches lately. Also been lazy and absent and sick so there's that heh.






Ancient Mecha 1 h. Gonna work more on this!


Watch_Dogs 1 h. This topic was hella hard for me because I've never really painted cars and urban environments before. Ended up kinda crammed. But it felt good to step out of the comfort zone a bit.


Chieftain of the white and red feathers. I like this guy, think I'm gonna polish this a bit!