Elderscrollers Sketchy Stuff

[Elderscroller]

Here´s some more sketches and Bargues as they are really relaxing to draw

[Elderscroller]

And face practice this time:

[Elderscroller]

Not too happy with those new sketches, meh

[cgmythology]

Wow, love your last painting, it just pops! Can't wait to see more like it.

Really enjoyed browsing your sketchbook, very inspiring work all around. Your figure drawings in particular are nicely done, keep it up!

[Elderscroller]

@cgmythology: Thanks! I will!

[Elderscroller]

Here´s a character commission I did recently for a RPG character. She is a sort of arabian influenced snake shaman, short, a bit overweighed, but beautiful and charismatic

[Elderscroller]

These are a couple of sketches and studies from photos or other artists work I really admire (e.g. Anna Steinbauer, Marko Djurdjevic; not trying to steal copyrights here, these are purely for studying purpose) trying out  some new way to study digitally. First of all, I try to focus on what is important to me, what do I want to learn from the study (here it mostly was color and lighting on faces and somewhat values) and ignore what is not important (here it was accuracy and getting a likeness). Next, I completely ignore lineart and just put an opaque blob of paint onto the canvas with a somewhat average color of the main areas (e.g. face, hair) that has roughly the shape of the subject (really ignore accuracy and detail here as they distract from the main focus). Next, I go back and forth between eraser and brush to sculpt out a more refined shape. The liquify tool is also a great help here, you can really mold the shape. Once that base blob is established, I go in with a chalk brush and paint the rest going from big general shapes to refining more details (like a dark blob for the eyes that is refined into an eye)

The benefit here is to learn to focus on what is important (and learn that of course) and to learn to speed up the painting process somewhat (leading to more studies of course). Besides it is really fun to be loose and forget about lines for a change :) Also try to apply what you learned on your own stuff!

[Elderscroller]

I don´t have much time lately to do pencil sketches, so sometimes I feel a loss of quality in my pencils, like these below. Got to get myself together and start drawing something more decent and take my time with it....Anyway the sketches below are more like doodles, especially the fightscene which was an event in my last RPG session. At a tournament people where playing "barrelball". Brutal, dirty, no rules, just get that piece of clothball into the barrel of the opposing team....naturally we participated...

[Elderscroller]

I put together a short step by step for the study process I mentioned two posts earlier. reference image by faestock.deviantart.com

1. Put rough opaque blobs of the main shapes with local colours onto the canvas, no line. Adjust with brush and eraser to correct the shapes, doesn´t have to be perfect.
2. Start with some basic shadows, manually picking colour variations and make the colour of shadows depend on the main local colour. Don´t just pick a darker tone of the local colour.
3. Start with some basic details and deepen the shadows (occlusion shadows, darkest darks)
4. Add lighter values to the lit portions of the form. You can also use the smudge tool to make a basic blend. Just watch the edges of value transitions and make them hard or soft as needed.
5. With everything in place, work out the form and add details. With this the study is actually finished. You could spend quite some time working on it to make a real photolike study from this point on, but I find, I don´t learn anything from that anymore and do those just for fun.
6. You could also go and completely change the lighting. Here, I darkened all with a multiply layer except for the parts that are lit. Added a rim light on the right side and bit of a bounce light from below on the left.

[Elderscroller]

So here are some more quick studies from fabulous artists (like the great Anthony Jones, whose style always is instantly recognizable...the alien head here or from Ethicallychallenged) and a sketch (Elf head)

[BrushNoir]

The step by step you just mentioned would come really handy for me, thank you!

[Eristhe]

Hey man, some really nice studies, don't forget to apply them with imagination stuff afterwards! :) Lookin forward to seeing more!

[Elderscroller]

@BrushNoir: Glad it helped someone! by the way, your portrait tool on your blog is really useful! Thanks for that

@Eristhe: Thanks! Yes, I try to apply them in my pencils and doing digital sketches next to the studies as above

Some more sketches and an experiment in trying to do quick portraits, simplifying and stylizing them (the first 2 are studies from drawings I found just to get a feel for stylization). Never done that before, it was fun and kind of forces you to focus on the essential features of a face, although I didn´t really get the likeness

[Elderscroller]

Some more sketches:

[Elderscroller]

Some study and a lineart sketch for a competition I´m entering:

[Elderscroller]

Sketches and studies for a competition on the Crimson Daggers forum. Task is to reimagine a Game of Thrones character into another era or genre. I decided to but Tyrion into an 80s setting with a Battle of the Bands theme as a member of a metal hair band. Still got 24 h to finish it :)

[crackedskull]

Props to you for going out of your comfort zone for the crucible challenge, also those are some neat character sketches.

[Jan Kloidt]

Love your entry! Really fun design, and well executed!

[Elderscroller]

@crackedskull and Jan Kloidt: Thanks guys! It really was a bit weird deviating from fantasy, but lots of fun :)

The final image for the contest:

[Jamesxwu]

props on the illustration, rock on!