Cosmic Inhabitant's Sketchbook

[CBinnsIllustration]

the additions to the rock guy look great! Love how the arms insinuate him being partially hollow, which suddenly gives him a more brittle feeling. Perhaps you can rock out on his chest a little more and maybe throw in some of that head and back texture you used. You gonna give him some legs? :)

nice update!

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

@CBinnsIllustration - Hey, thanks!
I've added some spiky protruding rock formations to its chest area. It definitely adds some more visual interest than what I had before. Though I still need to do quite a bit more on cleaning it up. Oh and mentioning the legs, that made me think… what would they look like for a rock creature… so I made several sketches of different variants of this type of rock creature. Trying to make each different from each other.

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While working on the rock creature more, I saw that the overall piece looks a bit too bright over the entirety of its body. The main primary light source is coming from the upper left side and more so from behind it as well. So I threw in a quick rough shading layer, adding more darkness to the right side and adding some cast shadows on things like the spikes and protruding rocks. The form seems to show more with this more drastic shading than what I previously had. So I'm for sure going to be adding more dark areas and cast shadows into the mix. I made 2 versions, one without the new shading, and one with it (though it is rough).
 
Also I've noticed I don't really use any references. So that is something I need to start doing more, especially with this current piece I am working on. It would be very beneficial to get some rock photos to help with getting the texture and look. So that'll be something I try to incorporate more and more into my workflow.

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

A couple miscellaneous pieces. The seascape one I tried a bit of a different method with, using only a rectangular hard brush + selection tool + blur brush - doing this seems to have helped a lot. Forcing me to block things in more. Which helps with one of my issues with rendering landscapes (and just in general), which is getting too caught up into detailing some small object or another.

The seascape still needs a little more detailing, mainly in the rocks, then that one will be done. Also the green slime creature is still a WIP.

I've made progress with my rock creature from previous posts, but not enough to warrant a progress post I think, just made a few small changes to it. I get too caught up in making new pieces it takes me forever to finish an old one cause I start so many new pieces then my attention becomes divided among them all! Then I end up never finishing a piece, lol.

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

Finished my rock creature piece up several days ago. Looking at it now, I think the rocky texture doesn't come through that much on it. Perhaps because I only started using references when I was already 90% through the piece, and I'm still kinda a noob at using them. I think it's a bit over blended which takes away from the more rough, jagged, rocky look I was attempting to do. Looks a bit more like soft molded clay, than hard rough rock, lol. Also near the end I did start rushing it a bit as well. Also, adding actual cast shadows on the jagged and spiky rocks was a last second addition which don't seem very noticeable. I maybe should've made them darker and stretched them out more over its body.

But with all that said, hopefully I can bring some of this new knowledge to my next piece! Also, I made a few alternate versions of the rock creature to try out and play around with Krita's filter layers, and cuz I was curious how it would look in a few different colors. Also I finished up the previous seascape piece too...

[darktiste]

Your on a good start practicing self critic is already a good indicator that you are willing to look at your work rather than move on right away an make the same error twice well that atleast in essence the reality is you might not be yet able to shake those habit right away but throught consistent effort the shift will materialize.I would say it better to try to analyse the master first this get you more familiar with the vocabulary necessary to be able to self critic yourself and it give you a point of comparaison.

Personally i find that right now your biggest obstacle is the complexity at which you want to operate.You can always work from simple to complex.I don't know if you are familiar with some of the working technique of master but they do preparatory smaller scale version of the finish product to test the direction they want to take.People now a day leak that patience i would say.They jump straight into something that is already to late to solve and since they don't see most of the preparatory work in tutorial they miss out on what it take.But i think it necessary to hit the wall to reconsider the approch and difficulty of what you attempt.

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

@darktiste - Yoooo, yeah I haven't done it much (self critiquing... or critiquing others art either, lol). But posting stuff online has helped push me to do that more so.

Also on your second point, I definitely need to go through all the basics, and art principles. As of currently I haven't really gone through any of them lol, at least not in any real considerable way (besides the random tutorial, article, or video(s) I come across online). Right now I just kinda loosely take an approach of just seeing or having difficulty with something, then doing a little bit of research and practice of it, then losing 90% of that progress over time. But I do plan on taking a more focused in on approach at some point soon™.

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Been a little bit since my last post, gonna start it back on up tho!

[darktiste]

Just the fact alone that you play with lightning show that you understand a few fundamental such as volume and value but i think what really hold alot of artist is a leak of understand of perspective it rare to find people who teach perspective in a practical and easy to understand fashion in the free format and it somewhat lenghtly subject and it by far the most technical can't fake it fundamental i personally refer as the wall.

For as to when you should think of going more academic well that really to your own discretion with all the free content online i don't believe there is as before a barrier to your progress might it be financial or time since it so fast and acessible now a day it really up to your drive and the time you want to invest in improving your craft

[cgmythology]

Really nice updates here. Love how you tackle so much different subject matter, and you came up with some very interesting character designs as well. Keep it up!

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

@darktiste - Yeah, I am go to go through it all 100%. The only thing is right now I am just getting all my stuff in order before I start going in. Some of the basic (and not so basic) prerequisites, like organizing my PC and setting up my note taking system, making a schedule, figuring out where I wanna go with my art, and a few other things so that when I do start I'll have no (or at least minimal) external issues impeding me. But yeah, to an extent I kinda have already started, but I just want to have all my ducks in a row (or as best as possible) before I really dig into it so that I am as efficient as possible.

@cgmythology - Hey, thanks a lot! Yeah, I try to switch things up as much as possible.

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I've been focusing on making good clean line work lately, and I think it's at a decent state. Though I still have a bit of an issue making compound curved lines and just large curves, I have to bump up the stabilization for those a lot of the time lol. Also the line weight still needs work.

[darktiste]

I know what you mean nothing more frustrating than a messy work space to start a project it ok to be messy during the project on the other hand but there still a limit

[Leo Ki]

You like to put all kinds of shapes together, or grow them from another, into bizarre creatures, and this works well! However sometimes I think that you lose track of the overall shape, especially when drawing people. But maybe this is an intentional lens that you pass them through?

[cgmythology]

That line work is fire! Loving the style of the painting as well, you have quite a unique style. Keep it up!

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

@darktiste - Yeah, so that is the initial plan on that front. Once I'm done with getting all my stuff organized and set in place hopefully it will help speed up the process when I do start to studying art fundamentals in a more rigorous manner.

@Leo Ki - Hey, thanks. Yeah, there are times I struggle with rendering stuff quite a bit, as to where exactly the shadows should be, the rim lighting, cast shadows, ect., especially on faces. Though perhaps that can be chalked up to not having gone through the fundamentals as of yet.

@cgmythology - Hi, thank you very much! You can definitely expect to see more of it down the line!

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So I've gone back over some previous pieces I never finished. The thing coming from the tall grass piece, i wasn't quite sure what was off with it and decided to make a new group of layers and do a rough paint over of it, just trying stuff out. After doing that it looked a ton better (to me at least, lol)! What I did was pretty much just exaggerate the lighting, making the dark areas darker and light areas brighter. Though it was just a rough paint over, so my plan is to just polish it up and fix up a few areas and call that piece done afterwards.

Also I made a few line art pieces, trying to experiment a bit with this one. I used a different brush for the line work on each character, and rendered them each in a different way too. The color kinda distracts from the line art, so I made 1 with and 1 without color.

Oh, and also the lizard creature piece is still a WIP...

[Leo Ki]

I'm glad to see the green bubble guy back! It looks like it has a few words to say to its creator or someone.
The crawling robot is more dramatic now indeed. Did you intentionally remove the flashlight cone to make it look like the light comes from a mysterious origin?

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

It's been a while since my last post on here. It's also been a while since I've actually drawn at all too, pretty much since my last post. But I've started back up again since about the start of September-ish. Spent that time away from drawing mostly getting some basic life stuff (organizing my PC folders and files, organizing all of my notes and moving to a new note taking app, setting up a time management system, figuring out my goals, etc.) in order to hopefully make things going forward a bit easier. I wouldn't even say I am 100% done with all that stuff either, but it's close enough to a point where it's all now usable and the majority of it is complete.

So now that everything is pretty much in order, I plan to start up with my art studies. Though I am still thinking how to best go through it all. I am currently thinking of a sorta two-pronged approach of going through it all in a logical/strategic order, and also jumping around to specific areas that I need improvement in or that are of interest. That way, using both strategies, I get the best of both worlds. But I have just started thinking this through for only a few days, it still needs some fleshing out. In the mean time while I get a plan in order, I'm going to get through the book The Natural Way to Draw, since I am pretty close to finishing that up.

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@Leo Ki - Thanks! It do look like it has some attitude, huh, lol. For the robot/skeleton/brick creature I was never 100% sure which lighting method to use. I was actually deliberating both of those options, either a scenario where someone is stumbling upon it, or something from above is shining down on it.

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Here are some pieces, most are from several months ago since I haven't drawn much in the last couple months. Though I did polish most of them up a bit.

[cgmythology]

Nice updates here, your figure work is as stunning as ever. Hope to see the last one developed into a painting as well, very dynamic!

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

@cgmythology - Yooo, thanks a lot! Hmmmm I might have to do that then. Maybe I'll do a rough paint over of it, and see where it goes from there.

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☠ Happy Halloween! ☠

Made some spooky character designs of some classic Halloween monsters/things and a spooOoOoky hallway (which definitely doesn't have anything at the end of it) which was a bit more of a test/experiment trying out filters in Krita to add a bit of static, blur, and artifacts to give it a bit more of a low quality camera look.

Also throwing some gesture draws in too, which I haven't done in a while.

[darktiste]

30sec gesture are really the basis of finding the line of action and i don't see any of that.The line of action doesn't describe a volume nor does it separate the body into two equal part.I would say it more related to weight balance and the action of the spine to some extent not that it a line that strictly stick to it.I recommend looking at artist demo to get an idea it surely abstract to an extend when you don't understand balance yet.Like for example which leg act as the weight supporting leg.Think of it as an observation of momentum and weight distribution observe how every limb act to find the ''equilibrium'' or center the more weight shift to one side the more bending you will observe to support ''pull back that weight'' or if you prefer tension.

Edit* also don't forget that if the figure is sitted or on the ground or using an support like a cane or resting against a wall those principle still apply but now some of the weight is supported by a surface which mean less of the weight is active in the gesture it hard to simplify to a formule but it really a question of observing what on one side of that action line and what on the other.Asking question like is the foot anchor down or is it only partially in contact with a surface or is the foot lifted from the ground by answering those question you then ask yourself what is countering that new finding you made.The answers is generally not a simple straight foward this limb counter act this limb since it more like stacking a bunch of ''sack'' pull by rope if i can use that image.

In the longer gesture you are looking for that stretching and bending indication and the overlapping the form i personally would not call anything beyond 5min gesture anymore specially if you start to introduce value or basic form it can become confusion as to what where the initial intent.

Here a video suggestion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca32fpXjFTw

But if you need some real advise on gesture i guess you can really dive into thise crimson daggers sketchbook it not really that he share is process that much but you get example and you can probably ask him about it anyways so why not https://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-8751.html

[cgmythology]

Very spooky work with your latest! Those gesture lines are ace, love how dynamic and clean they look as always. Keep it up!

[Cosmic Inhabitant]

@darktiste - Yeah, I kinda slowly shifted away from adding a line of action into my gesture drawings. I still do add one, but only for particular parts of the body (mainly just the torso). I should try to add full lines of action, showing the overall movement, direction, weight, and position of the figure or really for anything.

Also, going through the book The Natural Way to Draw for awhile had me doing very loose gesture drawing, almost like scribbling or squirkling. Which I did for a while, then started transitioning to other methods.

Thanks for the insight, and sources!

@cgmythology - Aawwwh yeeehhh, thanks!

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Back with some more stuff! Some of it being The Natural Way to Draw exercises and a few original pieces. A lot of it is actually finishing up previous pieces, or at least bringing them all to an acceptable quality.

The creature from the tall grass has finally been completed, though I still think the perspective is a little off on it (the foreshortening on the creature, or the background? not sure...). For the desert lizard I mainly wanted to focus on the head, and attempt to see how quickly I could get a piece to a reasonable quality level. Then for the tail-whippin' Ancient Egyptian-esque gator, I planned to just do a rough paint over of it, but I spent quite a bit more time on it than expected lol.