Crimson Daggers — Art forum

just noticed all three of those last comments called me man. Which suddenly had me thinking about the nature of adulthood. My age is an adulty number now but I think I still consider myself a kid. I guess because I'm not supporting my own life yet? hmm.

It's too late for thinking! gotta get back to homework ._.
Here's some stuff form character design and some gestures and character sketches and a Rubens copy. My graphite rendering technique needs an overhaul

Did a handful of little oil paintings this week to force myself to get used to the medium, now I know what all the fuss is about. In oils if you get into painting before you decide on your value plan and correctly mix your pallet, you're screwed. I hit a process I like for these, first decide what the values are for: the background, the light of the figure, and the shadow of the figure. Then lay those in as flat shapes, making them more accurate as you go along. Then work in occlusion shadows and reflected light and then worry about halftones and blending and finishing. When I first started these I was in tears over how much I hated painting, but now I find it sort of fun and relaxing and it's definitely going to influence how I approach working form imagination.

These photos are crap, my camera is dying on me :/

next step: figuring out how to mix colors. nervous gulp.

Dude I really like your sketchbook! really awesome stuff. I read that you were (or still at) at TAD? How is that experience? I'm thinking of attending the Illustration Academy program when it opens soon.

keep it up!

Loving the new study work. Sorry it's been a while since my last visit. But loving your construction and such. Really enjoying your progressive journey. Keep it up ~mii

Thanks guys!
@Justics TAD has been a good experience for me and I'm still getting a lot out of my classes! Like any art school, you get out of it what you put into it. If you're willing to make the effort to succeed the teachers at TAD will be able to give you the tools you need.

Here's some stuff, this week hasn't been as productive as I'd like so far :/

Sooo my email decided messages from the daggers were spam and I kinda lot touch, been a while since my last post huh :O
nothing much to report. Started doing inktober, a challenge where you make an ink drawing every day, and that's been a fun way to jumpstart my imagination muscles. Gotta start building up an illustration portfolio and everything.

Nice work, Sam. Really like the boy getting onto the dragon creature! Doing a great job with the studies. You should throw some color studies into the mix! Keep it up, can't wait for the next update.

Good work load, I like!
It's also really nice that you're working towards an illustration portfolio.
The head/skull constructions are looking good too, I'll have to put more work into those.
As Atrenr says, some colour studies would be nice, to get even more versatility going.

Thanks guys! I hear you about the color studies, it's not an area I want to focus on much right now with so many other fundamentals to learn, but a little variety never hurt. I've been wanting to bring some landscape studies into my daily habit...
well here's today's ink, a sphinx girl stretching. Not totally sure the pose reads and I still don't know what to do with line weight XD

Spinx looks like she is trying to break her arm not much like stretching. I think you lost on some point the action line and it's not readable any more as a stretch. But I totally love earlier monster designs (mantricora etc.) highly stylized they had great potential!

looking good man! deff a sketchbook im looking foreward to now!

Dang, I totally see what you mean Madzia! Guess I pushed the pose too far. Readability is so tough to get right! That and line quality are the biggest challenges with these inks, both things I really need to work on. Glad you liked the monsters, those were fun! I gotta get back to the place I was when I did those. Thanks for the crit!

And thanks Danar, glad to hear it :D

pig wizard and some Jeff Jones studies

I just spent all day playing pokemon but here are some things I drew before that happened

Aaaaaaaaaaaah! Epic! Update! Is! Epic!

Awesome update Sam, your anatomy still blows me away and that sketch you inked before playin' Pokémon?! Whoa!

Lovin your studies and gestures as usual, keep it up man! ^ ^

that pokemon mini-comic was moving.

More great stuff, I like that lil' punk :D

Thanks guys! Some figure drawing stuff, no personal work to show right now.

I'm a fan of Yours stylized characters. Great that You have the unique style

Big plus for using many medias.

Good studies also.

Thanks Mannequin! I'm still trying to arrive at a really solid personal style, so far I baically just know I really like cartoons XD

Here's some recent classwork, still not as much personal stuff as I wish I'd had done, been busy moving to a new house...and playing pokemon. (anybody wanna swap friend codes?)
http://i.imgur.com/W6oACCG.jpg

Nice updates, Sam! Really glad you realize the importance of fundamentals! Lotta cartoonists think they aren't important but don't realize what they are doing is impressionism, which still needs those bases. Personally, I've always thought that personal styles also come from knowledge of fundamentals(and of course exploration and practice.) You never see someone who has a insanely good personal style that has no clue how anything works, right? Either way, you have got something really cool going on now and it's only going to get better as you grow!

(ps. If I had X or Y I'd totally swap codes )