My sketchbook

[florentK]

Hi everyone
it seems i have just deleted my first sketchbook by clicking in the wrong place
ahha well. It's time to start another one.
I took the serious decision to make art for living.
I quit recently my 3D vfx career , we will see what will happen...

you guys are so talented, i almost feel ashamed to post my stuff ..







I m tryin to follow the portrait mentoring class in the mentoring section but i don't really know if i can post these skulls studies there. so i put them here. it's safer.




I m trying to learn how i can use brushes without having a muddy look
it's hard for me..:(

I will try to post very regularly ( ..i hope ) :)

[Wolkenfels]

nice studies! keep going! :)

[florentK]

hey ,
This week was tough i was mainly focus to catch up the mentoring In yo Face from Crimson Daggers. http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-2727.html

here the image i posted there..






and since this it's my sketchbook..
i will post other stuff i did ..some sketches and doodles..

[florentK]

so i was redoing all assignement about skull and other stuff from the mentoring class to be sure i m assimilating more information. The result is so so to show, sorry guys. i will post it anyways because if i m waiting to have something worthy to show , we can wait for months..
i tried to fill the blank without references first like the skull, muscles ect....

anyways..
so here for today




This took me hours ..



some recent sketches




thanks a lot
critics and comment are welcome :)

[Wolkenfels]

wow - good working ehtics!
as for critiques and comments - i have seen that in a few of your pictures the eyes are not on the same level. I wonder if you flip your image from time to time to see watch it with fresh eyes. such misporpotions are easily to detect that way. If you flip already i would suggest to draw a construction line for the eye level.
Else this is a sketchbook - don't hesitate to post all you have. The more the better will be your joy when you revisit your old stuff in a year or more. :)
Keep going - nice stuff already!

[Toxicpanda]

Hello FlorentK,
I saw you following Suzannes classes and ended up on your sketchbook. You are doing a good job already, keep up with it :)
Wolky is already helping you and wrote what I wanted to, so just read coment above again.
Have lots of fun :)

[janvonfrosta]

awesome, these are very nice and creative attempts in studying the anatomy of the head! and i really like that you are so honest to admit if something took you longer, i really hate this trend to just do warmups, quickies and speedies. i often sit hours on stuff that still turns out shitty, but doenst matter, as long as you learn something, and i just learned something by looking at your studies!

otherwise its good to set limits on time in case of training or just for self-control, imho

[florentK]

Wolkenfes : this week i was thinking about your advice..and i realised than it's almost impossible for me to draw right/left eye the same and drawing a frontal face without tilting it..
i suck ^_^ i flipped sometimes my picture but i definetly think it comes from my lack of structure drawing.. i m working on it :) thanks a lot !

ToxicPanda : fun was n't very easy to find previous week. thanks for passing by !

Janvonfrosa : well , stop rushing my work is my inner fight( always scary to not finish in time , scary to be too slow..) .I tried very hard to slow down. Now these time I don't really care than all my skeches looks like retarded of rough even if i spent 2 hours on it..if i m learning i ll take it :)
but i tried to apply your advise about seeting limits on time , i can't thank you enough , it helps me to increase my productivity instead spending my time trying to fix detail or getting lost, thanks!



I got some switching mental issue , you know passing from "superproductive period" to "one i want to go to hell "(procrastination, super tired..)..it s about 2 weeks by 2 weeks..very strange.. i need to fix this mental disorder..

Do you guys have already feel something like that ? it's kinda lame..looks like i m a lunatic guy ..

so here some stuff from my last blast
I posted almost everything i did , good or bad , sorry for the flooding . (yea most of them are bad but , well, i m here to learn.. )

I tried to increase my ability to represent faces , paintings it..It looks like i m learning how to paint with photoshop flike a beginner. Skin tones, shading is very hard for me...and i noticed how making lineart in photoshop is difficult for people like me ..i prefer traditionnal tool.


Portrait with references
here i was focused mainly on overall shape and very basic skin tones . nothing too deep.just to understand (or trying to begin seeing something i can call understanding..)









a little bit more loose study ( i prefer this approach but i think i m learning fewer things )



and this picture is a WORK IN PROGRESS , it's just a painting about face with a reference but here i don't put extra effort on it, it s mainly for relaxing .I m not looking to finish it in a particular time , i know here the colors a little bit off. ( i mean ...i m wrong but i will modify them when the time will come :)




i don't think i can draw good faces without better drawing skills ( i mean it may be easier..i think about jana schirmer, wesleyburt, or everyone else ..)

here attempts i did all along these day to be able to make something i can call "lineart" in photoshop..
basic warmup ( i got 4 layers but one is enough painful for your eyes i guess :p )



lines face with the main layer on TOP of the references. To practice my lines flow..nothing else . i hate photoshop when it comes for lineart...




After that i did this still life study ( about geometry , it's a belt bag for harp)
it looks like i feel better with a big fat brush rather than 3 pixels width to do my lineart.



( i know colors are horrible..)

speedsketching session , doodling without ref. (which is bad for learning ..i know)
here some of the most interesting doodles i ve done




I tried to paint on one of my sketch , just for fun ..it looks a little bit "ambigous"..yea painting is not my strength..



This one is entirely without references just to see how my studies are going
looks weird ..



one hellboy fan art i did yesterday to warm up ,



and now one of the most boring study you will ever see..
I color pick once some colors from the painitng and after i tried to match by sight the color..ahah , no kidding this is hard ! ( at least for me )..



right now, i m actually get back to my drawing board revising my dynamic sketching . i love traditional pencil...

thanks for watching ! :D and sorry for the massive flooding update..

[mindwrack]

nice studies, you have a great sense of form! look forward to seeing more :)

[Flo]

Hey florent.

I like your sketchbook, you are doing interesting studies and you work hard. both is great. Also your approach to "learning over quality" is great imho.

your hellboy fanart sketch is really cool, you could try to use those cross-hatching-skills digitally.
I saw that you cross-hatched in the skull studies that are in your first entry and I really like the result.

also your still lifes look good. I like the onion more than the apple, because it's shape is cleaner.

I don't know if you know ctrl+paint, but over there are some great tips on lines, doing studies etc.

just browse through the videos and check out what ever interests you. It helped me a lot.

for the mental-thing. It is hard to do diagnosis and to help from afar, but often it is just an imbalance of resting/working out. your body need to use its energy in order to get new energy. that counts for mental as for physical. the mental exercise can be the painting/studying but don't forget to take breaks and move. there is a great subforum here on crimson daggers, it is called gyms and daggers. head over there and get some inspiration, post up a goal and stick to it.

to me it sounds totally natural if you are super-productive for 2 weeks, that your body and brain get tired and keep you from overdoing it. therefore you are in a "i want to go to hell" mood and don't do stuff. after that you have re-energized enough to start over again.

try for a month to build in breaks in your study routine. for example start the day with a 30 minute workout. eat breakfast. then do studies for 2 hours. get up and stretch. do 1 hour more of studies. eat lunch. rest for 30 min. do 2 hour more studies. get up and stretch. do 2 hour more of studies. take a break. if you are hungry, eat something. and then do some personal work from imagination.

this is not a super finished plan. but it might give you inspiration to plan out your day more in order to get some routine and not over work your body and brain. there are schedules flying around the internet i.e. by dave (rapoza) on how he used to plan his studying. look for those and check them out.

that is all i can say for now. :)

[smrr]

Some really nice studies up in 'ere, up in 'ere :3
I know that feel when it comes to painting... I myself just love traditional sketching. Pencil to paper, pen to paper - it's soothing. Plus I suck at painting
you however definitely have more of a knack for it!
Keep it up c: !

[TNiznet]

Keep up the hard work, It will pay off!

[I STRaY I]

FlorentK, wassup. Nice start here, you have some good pace going and appear to be studying hard. I like those master studies you've done. I really like that Hellboy traditional sketch you did as well. I do agree, you should bring a bit more of that to the tablet.

I would also love to see some construction lines, especially for the head. I see you line art, and assume it's a few passes later. But would be cool to see how you got to these lines. Sort of like early in post #8, those sketches. Loomis is the obvious favorite for head construction, I recommend Sycra vids for the quick learn and quicker study application. I think it'll really help you out.

Also, lastly I read how you feel about the time you took/take on pieces. I often have this fear too. But have began to abandon it. Maybe not a good advice on me, but even as recent as episode 58, Feng addresses this and also recommends to just ignore the idea of speed and realize it'll come with experience alone. He actually says something like for every year you work you'll eliminate an hour on a piece. Thats a bit daunting. I'll admit =) Take your time and make the best picture you can. You'll be all the better for it.

You should never feel ashamed to post your stuff man. Doing so is the best way to get better, especially when others come and give you some good crits to get better. Or in my case something to consider atleast. Keep grinding man!

[florentK]

@mindwrack , i struggled so much to get some sense of form in my sketching. dynamic sketching helped me a lot :). Thnks for your comment ! :)

@Flo : thx for the cross hatching will do it more just for you :). and for sake of practice :)
i went thourght Ctrl+ Paint.. i knew it , but sometimes i forgot to get back where the information is. thx for remind me this amazing website. it helps me too b!
Thanks a lot for the mental-thing , i try to get a schedule look a like , this is efficient. In a period i was in "schedules period too much" ..need to be a little bit modest in my daily objective :). thanks,

@smrrfette : normally traditionnal skills should helps us in digital art..but omg wacom penci is definitely NOT a woodpencil.

@Tnizet : thx !

@IStray 1 : here what i said for the portraits you described : "lines face with the main layer on TOP of the references." = Trace ( i guess, sorry i have just found out this word in english this week :) It was just an exercice to warm up. thanks for the idea of speed with F.Zhu.Thanks for your comment , i have learnt new english words i didn't know yet :p


thx all for passing by and commenting ! :)
it inspires me so much.

so here are some traditionnal , sorry i sold my scan so i took the pics with my Ipad but the light was terrible..the quality sucks a bit..will try to fix it for the next update.
thanks !


still life done few weeks ago ( i love still life )





warm up in order to remember perspective and work with my lines
i took an object and draw them ten times about in different views ,
after i tried to deal with my mind without watching the orignal object...
great exercise ! ( i think )






quick Portraits studies.

[Tygerson]

Great sketchbook--I like the exercises where you twisted stuff around in your head and drew them. We can really see your thought process as you sketch "through" the objects. And the facial muscle and bone studies.

[florentK]

hey thanks , i m actually doing more of these :p. That s not very easy ..:(

[Matthias Kinnigkeit]

Hey florentK! I really like what I see. Lots of good studys and nice drawings! The Hellboy fanart pice is pretty cool! You have a nice solidity in your drawings. For me, relating to solidity, it helped really a lot to spend a bit of time with the planes of the face. These studys made me understand more of the perspective affecting the face and the forms. So maybe you could squeeze some of these between the rest of your studys. All in all very nice SB! Keep it up!

[florentK]

@Matthias : thanks ! i m currently pushing more about getting more solidity through planes and different approach. i love it but in the first sketches looks like crapp ( like the one i m uploading..)

I wanted to post them next week , but i m leaving for a short trip to Paris. Lot of fun expected ( i wish..) so i upload what i have now.
Currently I m learning ( trying to remember ) the Reilly's approach.
..) took me at least 1-2hr just to remember where the lines are (just for the front view..)
I m alternating with reference and trying from my mind.
in the first page (the one below is the first structured head done from my mind )







some lineart / grid study to get more in my Wacom control ( still learning the basics )




old sketches just found. (2009 i guess i stopped drawing after 'cause my vfx job)



thanks everyone !

[donnguyenart]

Hi florentK, awesome studies I can tell you work really hard, keep it up, I hope to see some more of your original stuff other than just the studies.

[Craig Paton]

Nice studies Florent, looking good and making progress. :)