Dan Needs to Learn

[Brainfruit]

I deleted my previous sketchbook. It's time to improve. I like to experiment, and I respond well to criticism.

I'm starting with Istebrak's 14 day face challenge. I've decided to do mine without reference for an added challenge. Details here: http://fav.me/d5q1dh1

Day 1:


Day 2:


Day 3:


Day 4:

[Demon Lizardman]

Like the studies so far, try using harder brushes and lay off the soft brushes for now. I think that will help a bit.

[Brainfruit]

Like the studies so far, try using harder brushes and lay off the soft brushes for now. I think that will help a bit.

Thanks a lot, you're right, I'm going to crack out the hard brushes today. We'll see how it turns out! By the way they aren't studies, they're original pieces from my imagination. There is no reference.

[Brainfruit]

I am angry about this one. I need to do some studies to increase my understanding of face structure. Anyway, here is day 5, again painted from my imagination, without reference.

[Michael Blackbear Uwandi]

DUDE these are pretty nice. I do agree with the critique lizardman stated about the laying off of the soft brush but your actual understanding of the face is there it seems.

[Brainfruit]

DUDE these are pretty nice. I do agree with the critique lizardman stated about the laying off of the soft brush but your actual understanding of the face is there it seems.

Thanks Michael. I'm all over that hard brush now. I guess it's more comfortable to use the soft brush because you don't have to commit to forms. Hard brushes create a much more interesting range of edges.

[Brainfruit]

Day 6 No ref
Enjoying this style.

[Brainfruit]

Face Study using these brushes: link

[Brainfruit]

Face 7. Really starting to feel out the little details. Again, no reference used, painted from my imagination.

[Brainfruit]

Can we just pretend this one didn't happen??

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[EduardoGaray]

good practice, my only suggestion is, once you have blocked in the values, focus on the edges.

[Brainfruit]

good practice, my only suggestion is, once you have blocked in the values, focus on the edges.

Thanks I see what you mean. It's probably because I'm afraid to commit to hard edges because I don't have a complete understanding of the way light acts on skin. Painting a realistic face without reference is incredibly difficult and a worthy challenge for anyone. I assumed I would be good at it until I tried it. I would encourage everybody to try it. So my next challenge for improvement is FOCUS ON EDGES.

[Eyecager]

I would suggest working on shadow mapping and blocking out portraits in 2 values before introducing new values. Example here and an explaination here. And some do's and don'ts from the Famous Artist Course. I have this printed on my wall myself as my checklist with faces. But your proportions and feeling of the mass of the head and how it occupies space is really good.

Learning about edges helps a lot, but right now the way your doing faces the shading comes off sort of patchy. Finding some good portraits with dynamic lighting and studying them, breaking them down in 2 values will help you a long way with solid form reads.

But your progressing really well and with every picture you can really see yourself push yourself to the next level. Keep up the great work!!

[Brainfruit]

I would suggest working on shadow mapping and blocking out portraits in 2 values before introducing new values [cropped]

Thanks I think dynamic lighting will help to describe forms better, although personally I find that strong lighting is easier to paint that subtle lighting, because the values are more blatant. I'm keeping the light source the same in these paintings (top centre) because it's easier to track progress. I'll paint something a little more punchy soon and impress you :-) Thanks a lot for those links, I've read them and I'll keep them for future reference. I see what you mean by patchy now

[Brainfruit]

So I've taken into account a lot of the advice I've been given recently. Here's another study, myself this time. Sorry about the snooty face, someone shoved the camera in my face.

[Brainfruit]

Bored of shitty faces. Going to do some more studies instead of trying to run before I can walk. http://fav.me/d5r3lbn
Girlfriend's face

[CKL]

Getting better! The self portrait is especially strong. Eyecager had some really good advice, maybe you can start pushing out for the full figure and use what you learned with these portraits.

[Brainfruit]

Getting better! The self portrait is especially strong. Eyecager had some really good advice, maybe you can start pushing out for the full figure and use what you learned with these portraits.

Thanks a lot! :-) I've really taken Eyecager's advice and I start every painting by establishing 2 or 3 main blocks of value.

Another Study. I enjoyed picking out the meaty tones. It reminds me that I'm an animal.

Oval brush, 90% hardness. No colour picking. No line drawing. One layer.
Used 'liquify' tool to correct positioning.

[Lumens]

With the last one i think you could do with increased brush size.
fun exercise, force yourself to paint with a 200 hard brush, no decreasing..how far can you get?

color: since your not color picking why not try out some of the sliders?
Linran on how to use RGB slider correctly - http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread....G-download! ( scroll down a bit)
I'm currently using the HSB slider.

Consider a different ''underpainting'' than near black, this is currently leaving very unapealing heavy and dark area's all over the place.
Temperature is most important for color as far as im concerned, after values.

[Brainfruit]

Thanks I know what you mean about the black. I chose a dark purple and slapped it on. I think the wine I was drinking didn't help haha! It looks like the face is detached from the skull. The sliders sound like a good idea, that's more akin to the way I mix paint on canvas: Mixing different amounts of pigment to reach the right colour. I'll give it a go, thanks :-)