Practice Infinitum

[nphill19]

[img][/img]

Just starting the ole digital sketchbook looking for feedback, community and some accountability while I try desperately to improve. Above is a quick selfie, just playing with brushes and lighting in a portrait.

[img][/img]

I'm working a lot on still-lives recently, and going to start multitasking with figure gestures and perspective.

Really trying to hammer in some good practice while I work on my acceptance portfolio.

[nphill19]

[img][/img]





Desperately trying to fill in the gaps bad drawing classes have left for me. Finding Class work in the mentoring forum is an absolute treat. Well, finding CD has been a treat so far. Feeling very lucky.

This was the first weeks assignments in Isra-ac's perspective class. I'm also going to start working on Sickbrush's fantastic 5 coursework too since it covers a lot of basics/unknown territory for me.

[nphill19]

[img][/img]

This lasso assignment in Sickbrush's class, was absolutely mind blowing. I spent about 2-2.5 hours getting here...and it just feels so bad. I might come back and play with it some more, but for now I'm going to move on to some other stuff.

[Rognoll]

I feel you there, landscapes are extremely difficult! On the other hand, that (self?)Portrait looks so cool!

[nphill19]

I fell you there, landscapes are extremely difficult! On the other hand, that (self?)Portrait looks so cool!

Yeah, prior to that exercise I hadn't thought of doing any landscapes. Sheeesh! Haha. And thank you, it is a self-portrait. I was tinkering around with new brushes and skin tones...and it just kinda happened. I'm happy with it all things considered. =D

[nphill19]

[img][/img]

Sickbrush's faces assignment. This is 3 caucasian female faces. Not supposed to shade or render at all and man...clearly gonna have to work on draftsmanship I believe. I'm happy with them, but not delusional. =D

Getting the rest of the faces done by Sunday! Then on to week 2 assignments!

[nphill19]

More faces incoming. [img][/img]

[nphill19]

[img][/img]
[img][/img]



More faces and gesture poses, kind of glad the mentoring classes aren't ongoing...the homework is taking longer and longer with all these work interruptions. =/ Progress though, really trying to nail down significant landmarks for each race/gender.

Also started trying to learn gesture studying, and after seeing Proko's new stuff, going to need to do some bean torso studies too!

=D Cheers

[nphill19]

School is back in session at Uni, which means project time!

This was a piece originally done by contemporary realist Robert Liberace, and in red chalk. I reproduced as a study in charcoal.

I'm going to make it a goal to upload figure studies from class every week at minimum and maybe snapshots of my painting class W.I.P.

[nphill19]

Assignment for my figure drawing class, meant to creatively display skeletal anatomy and at least half a human figure.
I took the opportunity to push my digital painting skill, and pay a little homage to Pirates of the Carribean with this theme.

Really need to get my digital painting skill up, but every time I go near painting the figure I seem to flub it up. any suggestions daggers?

[Adzerak]

Heya! Nice to see you hard at work and trying on different challenges. I really like the shading on the charcoal guy, the direct light, shadow and reflected light all read very well. Seems like a nice practice.

As for getting better at painting digitally, it's hard to give good general advice. I guess just paint lots of stuff digitaly to get used to the medium, get a feel for how things like value and saturation in your chosen digital art program compare to painting traditionally. What medium you use shouldn't really matter, as long as you can apply what you've learnt about art in general.

Don't really know what you refer to when you say that you flub up the figure. In your latest painting you've succeded in conveying a good expression on the character's face. The values seem a bit odd though, the lighted area is a pretty dark half-tone while the shadows are very dark. A strong light is needed to produce such shadows so the parts of the figure in the light should be brighter and more saturated.
Also the areas before the shadow should have more saturation I think, otherwise it looks kinda dull. And some more reflected light, like that on her hair, on her torso and arms couldn't hurt. Reflected light in another color will make the painting more interesting to look at *breathes*

*exhales* Damn, once i start writing crits i just blurt out lots of stuff, but if anything helps then I'm glad. And if it doesn't help then at least I gave you something to think about and that is one of the keys to development anyhow ;D Keep at it fellow Dagger!

[nphill19]

Heya! Nice to see you hard at work and trying on different challenges. I really like the shading on the charcoal guy, the direct light, shadow and reflected light all read very well. Seems like a nice practice.

As for getting better at painting digitally, it's hard to give good general advice. I guess just paint lots of stuff digitaly to get used to the medium, get a feel for how things like value and saturation in your chosen digital art program compare to painting traditionally. What medium you use shouldn't really matter, as long as you can apply what you've learnt about art in general.

Don't really know what you refer to when you say that you flub up the figure. In your latest painting you've succeded in conveying a good expression on the character's face. The values seem a bit odd though, the lighted area is a pretty dark half-tone while the shadows are very dark. A strong light is needed to produce such shadows so the parts of the figure in the light should be brighter and more saturated.
Also the areas before the shadow should have more saturation I think, otherwise it looks kinda dull. And some more reflected light, like that on her hair, on her torso and arms couldn't hurt. Reflected light in another color will make the painting more interesting to look at *breathes*

*exhales* Damn, once i start writing crits i just blurt out lots of stuff, but if anything helps then I'm glad. And if it doesn't help then at least I gave you something to think about and that is one of the keys to development anyhow ;D Keep at it fellow Dagger!

Let me just say thank you. Any crit is exactly what I'm looking for. I really don't have a lot of access to people telling me "hey, this looks kinda off, think about this" The school I'm in is full of students who pat each other on the ass. So thank you.

Do you think taking a traditional approach would help me over all in digital? Like focusing on things like still-lives? Or should i just act like a shotgun and continually study everything same time?

[nphill19]

I stumbled on spit paint tumblr and facebook page, where they announce a theme and you have 30 mins to crank something out. I decided to try my hand at it because it is so different from what i normally do. I chose yesterday's topic of a fire elemental, since today's topics haven't been released.

[Vandall]

Looking great mate keep painting, but I will suggest that you watch Stan Prokopenkos videos if you havent already, they offer some awesome insight into figure and portait drawing

[nphill19]

Looking great mate keep painting, but I will suggest that you watch Stan Prokopenkos videos if you havent already, they offer some awesome insight into figure and portait drawing

Hey thanks! Thats a good suggestion. I've recently discovered them, but I need to keep watching them lol. All about the practice right?

[Raedrob]

Hey, great SB you got here!
I like the still life in your first post and that charcoal dude.
I'm relatively new to doing art seriously, but I'll stick around and see if
I'm able to help you out sometime =)

[nphill19]

Hey Raedrob, thanks. I checked out your sketchbook and I'd love to have your eyes on my stuff.

Here's another daily speedpaint to get me on track with the rest of the group.

And this is what we did in my figure drawing class after we had a critique!

[Adzerak]

No probs man! ;D

"Do you think taking a traditional approach would help me over all in digital? Like focusing on things like still-lives? Or should i just act like a shotgun and continually study everything same time? "

Yes I do think so! It's always nice to freshen up a bit with different mediums and techiniques so you don't grow stale and get stuck in a comfort zone.
Study what you feel is most relevant to you, but you can't go wrong with basic shapes, human anatomy and perspective.
But most important is to practice your obeservation skills, no matter what you draw. So if you're painting a still life, don't just copy the shapes without analyzing the subject (it's easy to get stuck doing that). Think about why it looks the way it does. Where does the light come from, how does the materials differ from one another in the light and why, think about how the environment around the piece affects it etc. The observations you do will stay with you no matter what medium you use when you paint!

Studying without really analyzing and reading up on some theory is kinda like copying the answer to a math problem. It looks right and might appear correct to others, but you have no idea how to come up with the right answer yourself.

[nphill19]

No probs man! ;D

"Do you think taking a traditional approach would help me over all in digital? Like focusing on things like still-lives? Or should i just act like a shotgun and continually study everything same time? "

Yes I do think so! It's always nice to freshen up a bit with different mediums and techiniques so you don't grow stale and get stuck in a comfort zone.
Study what you feel is most relevant to you, but you can't go wrong with basic shapes, human anatomy and perspective.
But most important is to practice your obeservation skills, no matter what you draw. So if you're painting a still life, don't just copy the shapes without analyzing the subject (it's easy to get stuck doing that). Think about why it looks the way it does. Where does the light come from, how does the materials differ from one another in the light and why, think about how the environment around the piece affects it etc. The observations you do will stay with you no matter what medium you use when you paint!

Studying without really analyzing and reading up on some theory is kinda like copying the answer to a math problem. It looks right and might appear correct to others, but you have no idea how to come up with the right answer yourself.

That is without a doubt one of the better arguments I have heard for the need of good observational development. You sound like my current painting professor, which is awesome.


Here's my daily spitpaint, more detailed stuff incoming tomorrow.

[Prabu]

The lasso assignment painting looks awesome. Keep it up man. :)