Ben Nissen's SKETCHBOOK

[Ben Nissen]

@Midnight Rambler
Thanks! I will definitely keep that in mind moving forward. It helps to know that since I'm trying to focus on brushwork/mark-making.

@darktiste
Thanks! gonna focus more on defining my anatomy and I'll try to start working on expressions soon. Appreciate it!

@Zorrentos
Thanks!

Appreciate all the crits everyone, gonna try to apply it to my future work/studies. I'll try to upload some more stuff soon.


Here's a more recent study of Ruan Jia's color/value/brushwork where I was mostly focusing on form and color. I'm trying to get a 3D feel to my work and also have the brushwork show through, even in more soft areas. It's a bit confusing to me still on how to approach it all, as far as rendering, but I think it was starting to make more sense with this one. I realized starting out with a monochromatic color (local color) then after rendering enough values I added thin glazes of color for the skin tones to get more variety and vibrance. For this portrait I didn't really try to have the proportions be that accurate (the head looks inflated lol) I just wanted it in basic 3/4 perspective so I could have that structure to paint on. I know that sounds like an excuse for the proportions/anatomy being off, but I mention it because I intentionally didn't mean to make it accurate, since I wanted to focus on rendering and color for this study. Maybe that's cause it was late and I just wanted to paint lol... anyways thanks again everyone!

[darktiste]

I personally find that rendering can be done and experimented on cube and sphere to get fast millage on specific texture without it being necessarly in context. You can find example of what i mean in my sketchbook http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3...#pid130056

Working toward the focus on your attention will removing the distraction and extra work seem like the best course of action that just how i roll you can than test what you learned in those quick study in longer format painting.

I would advise you try to spend a bit more time to learn how to give the hair texture a bit more love but that ultimately up to you.

Looking foward to more post from you.

[_spec]

Great work dude! I'm also a fan of Ruan :) looks like you're breaking down and understanding the style pretty well so far.

[Ben Nissen]

@darktiste Thanks for the suggestions. I can see what you mean with a more focused study to spend the optimal amount of time on what's most needed. And yea, hair texture/rendering is something I still am trying to better understand, gotta practice more!

@_spec Thanks dude! appreciate it! I think my main thing that I struggle with in regards to Ruan Jia's rendering is the way he builds up color and brushstrokes.


Here is a sketch from imagination. Started out on an iPad, then brought it into Photoshop to fix up values/cropping. I did a quick color pass over it also to see where I may take this in the future.

I'm still unsure if I should do the grayscale to color technique, or start in full color. I guess I just need to experiment and paint more to see what works best, but let me what any of you think, thanks!

[Ben Nissen]

This was a portrait study that me and a friend worked from the same photo reference, and mine turned into a sketch of Superman...somewhat. It was really enjoyable to make a portrait study into something more unique. Also, I learned a bit more on how to mix the grayscale technique into painting with full color towards the end. Still searching for the overall color tone and palette that is similar to Ruan Jia, Piotr Jabłoński and Huang Guangjian. See y'all on the next post!

[Ben Nissen]

Process:

[Ben Nissen]

Photo reference:
(mini Torino sculpture, "Caesar")

[JosephCow]

Nice painting! Cool to see the process. You do get kind of a ruan jia quality with the colors. I might have to steal that bust reference it looks really great to paint.

If I may, Just looking the process, the one flaw i see with it is that every stage kind of waffles a bit on the specifics, like you kind of go back and forth on where those shadows are, and in the end I think the form could be clearer on the jaw and cheekbone where it ends up less distinct than in the ref. A bigger color temp contrast in the shadow might look good, too. It's something Ruan Jia seems to do a fairly often, like a bluish light and reddish shadow. But looks cool!

[Ben Nissen]

Nice painting! Cool to see the process. You do get kind of a ruan jia quality with the colors. I might have to steal that bust reference it looks really great to paint.

If I may, Just looking the process, the one flaw i see with it is that every stage kind of waffles a bit on the specifics, like you kind of go back and forth on where those shadows are, and in the end I think the form could be clearer on the jaw and cheekbone where it ends up less distinct than in the ref. A bigger color temp contrast in the shadow might look good, too. It's something Ruan Jia seems to do a fairly often, like a bluish light and reddish shadow. But looks cool!

Thanks Joseph! And yea, go for it with the reference, I figured other people could get use out of it, I'll try to make sure to post more reference with this in mind.

This was really helpful to know, and I didn't have to clearest focus on the process with this study, just kind of progressed, but that is good to know I should concentrate more on mapping my shadows early on and making sure to keep the structure of the forms as I paint. Really appreciate the specific comments, those I find to be the most useful when possible.

[Dominicque]

The way you do studies and sketch is so dynamic. And, I think I'm going to have to get tips on your painting process, because that ogre is gorgeous (ironically). There is something very atmospheric about your work.