Veneq's journey of self discovery

[Veneq]

Here's a bunch of sketches since the beginning of 2012 to get this started.
Pretty random mix here. 

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I'm pretty new to digital painting and painting in general.  The majority of my freelance work has had a totally different style to it (for the music industry), and I've never painted or studied the correct way.  So here are my 3 first "real" studies. 

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This is my first digital painting that I've ever actually finished and can call my own (not study, not heavily referenced, etc).  The studies in the previous post were to reinforce this piece. This was basically my entry for Bloodsports 4 minus the packaging, logos, graphics, and text. 



And here are some other studies I just uploaded.

[Tooth]

Very nice work, Steve! I think your pencils are great, lovely drawings, characters and style - keep pushing your digital painting so it can catch up and match your great drawings :)

[Veneq]

Tooth - Thanks! That's where the majority of my focus is going now.

Spent some time on Pixelovely.com doing gesture/figure drawings for warmups the past few days. Definitely going to be keeping this up - really gets me into a groove and thinking quickly.

[brenthollowell]

good stuff man, keep postin.

[Veneq]

Brent - Thanks! Shut up and draw is my mantra.

Here's some recent stuff:

Studying asian skin tone


Studying a katana with female hand


Studying silky/satin dress






Hogarth




Whacky anatomy - meet thy manifestation:


Did this base sketch a while ago and was planning on inking it comic-book style (sketch done in Manga Studio 4) - Probably won't continue this one unless I just turn it into a digital paint.


And Venom!

[Veneq]

Bloodsports 5 Studies and comp sketches and a screen grab from the WIP:

[Veneq]

Some recent studies --

Starting with some Loomis




And an armor/metal study with whacky anatomy.

[Tooth]

Nice work, steve, you're working hard, I love it! gogogo

[Veneq]

Tooth Thanks! GoingGoingGoing!

Here's today's study.

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And some sketches/doodles from the other day. The knight guy is roughly referenced from a D&D book I borrowed.

[Veneq]

Today's study, plus some digital doodling.

[Veneq]

Kind of a rough day. I did my daily study and didn't finish it because it was a massive fail. In other news, here are some rough sketches for my character for Bloodsports 6 and a digital speed self portrait that doesn't really look like me. I've been wanting to do some digital speed portraits but have no one to sit for long chunks of time for me. So I just set up a mirror. I'll probably make this a bit of my routine as well.

[brenthollowell]

cool stuff, good to see you are doing personal stuff as well as studies. keep working hard man.

[Veneq]

Brent Thanks for stopping by again and the support! My goal is to supplement all of my Crimson Dagger work with at least one personal piece a month.

Another day, another study. Actually this is the first time I'm seeing that self portrait speed paint since I posted yesterday. It's taking every ounce of will I have to not delete that thing.

So today we have a grayscale portrait study and some progress on my Bloodsports VI character. I've never done character or armor design outside of doodling in sketch books without the thought that I was actually designing anything, so this is a new (and awesome) experience!

[DK]

ewtrwert

Another day, another study. Actually this is the first time I'm seeing that self portrait speed paint since I posted yesterday. It's taking every ounce of will I have to not delete that thing.

Hahaha, I feel like that every time I post something. But hey, don't worry, I know you're gonna push yourself even harder by leaving it up. It's a reminder that you gotta work even harder! Fight the beast within. Some cool works in here man, keep it comin!

[Veneq]

Dennis Yeah that's kind of what I was thinking. It's pretty much the worst thing ever so I can always look at it when I'm bummed about how something is going and think "well, at least it's not that!" Thanks for the encouragement!

Another portrait study - working at skin tone.

[yog joshi]

great work steve! I love your line quality. keep it up man!

[Veneq]

Yog Joshi Thanks! I think you're mainly referring to my pencil stuff - I've always been uncomfortable about how "sketchy" looking it is, but I feel I find the forms and contours pretty well with it. Still tons of room for improvement. Thanks for stopping by!

Yeserday. Quick hand study.

[Veneq]

Soooo here's my study from today (yesterday since it's 5 AM now). This was a quick one to kind of nail down toad skin texture for my next Bloodsports entry.

[mindwrack]

looking good! your pencil sketches are great and it's good to see the transition into digital stuff, keep it up :)

[The Shoethief]

That's one sexy frog.