Hello and thanks for looking at my sketchbook :)
If you feel like it, I'd immensely appreciate any feedback, C&C are most welcome :)
I'd like to start with a 1-hour study I did today. I'm working hard on loosing my manga-style to achieve a more natural and realistic look....I struggle so much with shading. Any tipps and tricks on how to shade correctly would be greatly appreciated! I tried to do everything within an hour and to not color pick...Still a long way to go :(
Good job on the study, especially for 1 hour. If you want to achieve a good sense of realism, I think it would be helpful if you stopped thinking of it as "shading" and started thinking of it as "forms" or "lighting". I know its a matter of semantics, but a strong sense of lighting really is the key to higher realism, especially in work like Dave's. In digital work you have a lot of freedom in how you work. For instance in pencil or in watercolours, it's a lot easier to get darker than it is to add light. In paint, and also digital paint, you can go either way. In my opinion it's easier and more natural to start with darks and add lights on top, since that's the way light works in the real world and I think it's more helpful to define a form that way, by adding light to it rather than by thinking of it as shading
Other things you can do is to practice studying in grayscale as well colour. You've done a good job avoiding the anime proportions for the most part, however I can still see the anime influence when it comes to lighting and values. Studying real things in grayscale will help you understand how those forms really look. So if you like doing portraits find some well-lit grayscale portraits online and study those! Also if you want to get better at lighting i think it's also a good idea to practice not using lines, or using lines only for the biggest shapes (outlines of major forms like the head, clothes and so on). Lines tend to hold the form and can cause misjudgements in choosing values, and so when you remove them towards the end it might not look accurate anymore. Working without lines from the beginning can be intimidating if it's the first time but it's a good exercise regardless!
And last thing, add in some longer studies! Being on a timer can make you more efficient in mark making, but I think you don't learn as much about the small variations and subtleties as when you spend several hours trying to get as much information as you can out of 1 study. Not saying not to do quicker studies, they are useful but make sure it's not all you do. Quality is as important as quantity when it comes to art
Thank you very much for your feedback, it really helped a lot! I will take what you said to heart and start both longer studies and greyscale studies from now on! Thank you very much about the feedback about lightning and form, I'll try to change mindset and see the form below rather than only shades!
2 hours Hand Study. A mix between learning to draw hands (ugh) and learning how to render. Hands are maybe even more difficult than faces....So many plane changes ><"
(08-15-2015, 08:52 AM)Bookend Wrote: Looks great, but I'd suggest sticking with gray scale values for awhile. Push those value studies.
You'll figure your way to a style, no rush.
Thanks for the feedback! :D What do you feel is wrong about my colors? Do you feel the value relations are wrong? Does the color feel too dull/ too saturated?
(08-15-2015, 08:52 AM)Bookend Wrote: Looks great, but I'd suggest sticking with gray scale values for awhile. Push those value studies.
You'll figure your way to a style, no rush.
Thanks for the feedback! :D What do you feel is wrong about my colors? Do you feel the value relations are wrong? Does the color feel too dull/ too saturated?
Not necessarily 'wrong', because you're going in the right direction! I just think that there isn't a lot of differentiation/variation in your values. Allow yourself to go darker in the darkest places, and bring out those medium tones. From what I can see, there isn't enough contrast here. That's why I think you should work in gray scale a bit, so you can see it better.
(08-15-2015, 08:52 AM)Bookend Wrote: Looks great, but I'd suggest sticking with gray scale values for awhile. Push those value studies.
You'll figure your way to a style, no rush.
Thanks for the feedback! :D What do you feel is wrong about my colors? Do you feel the value relations are wrong? Does the color feel too dull/ too saturated?
Not necessarily 'wrong', because you're going in the right direction! I just think that there isn't a lot of differentiation/variation in your values. Allow yourself to go darker in the darkest places, and bring out those medium tones. From what I can see, there isn't enough contrast here. That's why I think you should work in gray scale a bit, so you can see it better.
-----------------------------------------
That's a great explanation, I absolutely see your point there, I will pay attention to those things and will do more value studies! Thank you for taking your time for the explanation, I am very greatful for your comments!
Keep it up!