I've been lurking around for quite some time.
Never managed to come up with a proper introduction but figured context might not be that important after all for now.
I'm gonna use this as a space to dump sketches, studies, unfinished and WIP stuff to keep a little more track of all my shenanigans.
If you guys ever have any pointers towards what you think would help with learning, don't hold back and feel free to share the wisdom!
Will look through stuff and see what I can gather soon
until then I leave this snippet to pave the way for the quality content ahead ...
So I dug through old stuff for the sake of getting an overview (and sort of morbid curiosity, I suppose)
I used to have a sketchbook over at cA.org before they shut down.
Putting all that online came with a good amount of insecurity and personal cringe but it also helped to at least keep track of what might have helped improving over time - or made one realize how little improvement there is overall leading to reflect on why that is.
Seeing all this at once is both interesting and frustrating at the same time.
I hope that I can find focus and be more efficient about learning going forward!
I'm trying to keep the spam to a minimum by packing a lot together here so sorry the clutter.
Guess there will be a part 2 and after that it's back to a more normal sketchbook schedule :)
I also haven't figured out whether anything 3D is welcome here or not. But that's something I would like to dedicate a good amount of spare time to as well.
A lot of blah for an archival post.
Let's see where this goes :D ...
2012 - 2014
~ 2017-2019
2020
Note: None of this is "the entirety from of that year" - but probably more than enough to get the idea
These studies are awesome, dude! Respect. THere's a crazy amount of improvement, especially in your anatomy and figures between your earlier work and the more recent.
(03-19-2024, 05:13 AM)JosephCow Wrote: These studies are awesome, dude! Respect. THere's a crazy amount of improvement, especially in your anatomy and figures between your earlier work and the more recent.
Yo, that's actually quite relieving! I think right now I'm at a spot where feeling stuck makes me blind to any progress there's been so far - and what is there feels ridiculously slow somehow. Hope I can push myself to learn more efficiently.
(03-23-2024, 12:58 PM)cgmythology Wrote: I agree with JosephCow, great amount of improvement throughout the years! The studies look great and I look forward to seeing more works from you!
Hey man, highly appreciated! Will see to it :)
Here goes part 2, this time more recent stuff.
I'll soon bundle what I have from this year and then it's back to making new things
2021
2022
2023
Problems I can see so far:
- Same poses that look stiff and unexpressive
- Designs often too unimaginative/generic
- Boring lighting, messy values
- Tendency to oversaturate?
- What even is perspective.
- Barely any environments, objects
- No thought-out, full illustrations
I think I'm lacking a lot of basics.
At the moment I would profit the most from learning proper Characterdesign as this would go hand in hand with what I'm trying to achieve in 3D.
However, the old dream of being able to pull off full illustrations some day is still strong and alive.
Either way, getting out of the comfort zone will probably be the only way to improve
and I'm trying to figure out what topics and excercises would be most beneficial right now.
These studies are so good! I think your critiques of yourself show you're really thoughtful about what your work and you really want to make progress. But maybe you're a little hard on yourself. You are doing really nice work, especially your figure drawings. Your studies form reference are solid, really. I don't think you're lacking the basics I think you're like almost there to be honest.
I think if I notice one thing to work on it's honestly just modeling. I think you're like 90% of the way there, and all the paintings read incredibly well at the thumbnail size. But I see little shifts in value that could use that 10% more refinement to get the form to read more smoothly and solidly in both your copies from reference, and imagined work. Not more detail necessarily, just feeling the form a little more and getting those perfect values to show plane changes.
This standing female one looks basically perfect though, damn.
I think you're being a bit too hard on yourself, you've made some great improvements and your work was already solid to begin with. Your figure work in particular is very well done, drawn and painted.
Developing your character designs further should be simple enough for you as you're already solid with your figure works, so I'm sure you can easily come up with some more complex designs if that's the route you'd like to take. Keep up the great work!
(03-25-2024, 07:16 AM)ohnooo Wrote: Problems I can see so far:
- Same poses that look stiff and unexpressive
- Designs often too unimaginative/generic
- Boring lighting, messy values
- Tendency to oversaturate?
- What even is perspective.
- Barely any environments, objects
- No thought-out, full illustrations
I think I'm lacking a lot of basics.
At the moment I would profit the most from learning proper Characterdesign as this would go hand in hand with what I'm trying to achieve in 3D.
However, the old dream of being able to pull off full illustrations some day is still strong and alive.
Either way, getting out of the comfort zone will probably be the only way to improve
and I'm trying to figure out what topics and excercises would be most beneficial right now.
You've made some nice progress over the years, and you're doing the right things with your studies.
As for your problems, they are very common in artists roughly around the same phase as your current artistic development, and I've seen these same problems many times in the students I've taught. Here's a suggestion that will help you target your weaknesses and work towards leveling up in those areas:
The thing I'll suggest--and this is what I rarely see people talk about when it comes to artistic development as a visual artist doing narrative work--is to start developing as a storyteller. I think the reason why you almost never see this advice is because the vast majority of serious artists aren't also serious storytellers who actually write novels and screenplays and short stories. Yes, they might develop their own IPs and do concept art and illustration for their own projects, but a lot of it is quite shallow because it's all surface stuff without having a well-thought-out worldbuilding and dramatic structures that will stand up to scrutiny by any serious storyteller.
The reason why you're disappointed in a lot of the stuff you draw and paint and design, is because there is no compelling creative vision driving them. Imagine if you had a fictional world that you created, full of interesting characters and fascinating places, with an engrossing plot and profound themes, and emotionally resonant character developments and dynamic relationships. Imagine how inspired you'd be to create concept art and illustrations for it.
And because you have a compelling creative vision driving your work, you'll want to create dynamic perspectives to really convey the exciting action scenes, or atmospheric scenes conveyed by effective lighting and color palette to portray the emotions the characters feel in dramatic scenes of heartbreak, joy, and rage. And with interesting locations in the story that you can't wait to show off to an audience, you'll be motivated to portray them in your illustrations and concept art. If your original idea takes place in exotic fantasy worlds or in futuristic settings, you'll be motivated to do cool concept art for the characters, costumes, props, weapons, vehicles, environments, creatures, etc.
With this one single shift in mentality, you can address all of the problems you have in your current artistic development. The amount of progress you've made so far, you already have the technical proficiency, and what's lacking is the creative vision. So if you start to think like a storyteller or film director or game designer, those higher levels of creative decision will become the driving force behind your art and make your work a lot more interesting.
Nice to see another CA.org user here! Man, it was super intimidating to see the level of work over there, but seeing a person going from beginner to pro in a few short years was eye-opening. It really dispelled the myth that talent is ‘innate’, rather than a skill that’s ‘acquired’. The initial Inspiration is intrinsic, but the graft is extrinsic. My insecurity was pretty great back then and it really stopped me pursuing something that I wanted to. But, good you didn’t stop, because, Wow, there’s been a shit ton of improvement! I regret not having much juvenilia to look back on, if only to see how much I improved.
This forum mostly focuses on the 2-D, however people do post their 3-D. I think people also post 3-D work on Cubebrush. Their threads are pretty active, but I hate the UI. You have to continuously scroll and can’t just skip to a page (or at least I haven’t found out a way to).
Your rendering has come a really long way, those studies have really paid off! I really love the mood of the girl at the bottom left in the first 2020 compilation. I'm curious how long does a completed rendered illustration take (especially at the beginning of your art journey)?
Art is frustrating, especially when you are so focused on ‘the craft’, sometimes it’s hard to see the trees for the wood. Your recent studies/renders are /supar/ clean. Curious, did you look towards Jens Claessens during this era? Nice to see you try out more loose cartoon sketches. You could really try pushing the shapes.
You’ve caught your characters (outside of the aforementioned ‘cartoony’ sketches) looking rather rigid. I would recommend you practice gaining a hold of gestures and trying to draw the ‘lines of action’.
I echo Lunatique, you’re pretty much there, you just need to add the narrative element and you’re blazing away.
