Elderscrollers Sketchy Stuff

[Elderscroller]

@Hypnagogic_Haze: Thanks for bringing that issue to my attention! I know, I sometimes make that mistake when drawing from imagination. Sometimes it´s hard to tell for me, if the distance from eye to eye is really correct for a certain angle, especially when looking so long at a drawing and you get used to it :)

Here are some digital doodles just for fun (anatomy has some issues, especially the sitting figure....:)

[Elderscroller]

Trying to draw some dynamic poses from imagination and starting to think more in values than in line on some portrait sketches

[Elderscroller]

Some face doodles

[Elderscroller]

Pencil practice

[Elderscroller]

Pencils from the last RPG session

[Elderscroller]

Sketch of a guard officer and an ambient occlusion study. For the study, you basically assume, all of the object is equally lit by ambient light (no direct light sources!) and then you only insert occlusion shadows, no cast shadows, form shadows etc.
Occlusion shadow occurs only, where 2 surfaces come near to each other as some of the ambient light is blocked (best example: shoes touching the ground: almost all light is blocked, resulting in a dark occlusion shadow) The nearer the surfaces, the darker the occlusion shadow.

[Elderscroller]

Small update with a pencil drawing

[Kaycee]

Nice stuff, but the upper body of the last drawing bothers me a bit

[Elderscroller]

@Kaycee: Thanks! But it would be helpful, if you´d tell me what bothers you

Some more pencil updates with a bit more shading now:

[Wolkenfels]

Sketch of a guard officer and an ambient occlusion study. For the study, you basically assume, all of the object is equally lit by ambient light (no direct light sources!) and then you only insert occlusion shadows, no cast shadows, form shadows etc.
Occlusion shadow occurs only, where 2 surfaces come near to each other as some of the ambient light is blocked (best example: shoes touching the ground: almost all light is blocked, resulting in a dark occlusion shadow) The nearer the surfaces, the darker the occlusion shadow.

Finally someone explains it in words i can understand! Thanks for that!
How do you add the ao? overlay layer?

[Elderscroller]

@Wolkenfels: To create the AO study, I copied the image and turned it to B&W and with levels in PS almost blow it out towards white. Next I painted directly onto the layer in greyscale values. So white means no occlusion shadow and the darker the tone, the more occlusion shadow obviously. Also occlusion shadows are mostly a gradient and soft.

Here is another way to check, if there is occlusion shadow:
Pick a spot anywhere on the object and trace straight lines into all directions from it. If it hits a surface, there is going to be occlusion shadows. The shorter the line, the stronger the occlusion shadow. E.g. on top of a bald head, there would be no occlusion shadow, because all lines going out from that point don´t hit anything.

Also remember, when you would add a direct light source, the occlusion shadows diminish or vanish in the lit areas!

Here is an assignment from my TAD course. It´s rendering out a blockhead model in b&w. There are 6 steps to the final result:
1. Halfway to black: establish a basic lighting with the halfway to black method (google it)
2. Insert cast shadow and form shadow (you loose some form here as the values on the object are of course identical)
3. Slightly correct the halftone side (depending on light direction/angle)
4. Add occlusion shadows (these bring back form in the shadow side)
5. Add reflected light as it bounces into the shadows from the surrounding
6. Polish and refine

[Elderscroller]

Character pencil practice:

[crackedskull]

Keep up the dynamic poses, they are good for learning.

[Elderscroller]

@crackedskull: Thanks! I´ll try my best! In fact. I´m planning to incorporate more foreshortening into my figure drawing. I think it really adds to a pose when done right.

Some more simple characters, something more modern instead of my usual fantasy

[Elderscroller]

Something a bit more colorful today. Here are two character sketches for a world I´m creating as practice for my design skills. One is a half-orc pit fighter, the other a temple priestess. It´s the first try, so I might redesign stuff for a final image.

[Elderscroller]

Dwarven girl finding some nice shiny gem :)

[Elderscroller]

Wanted to do a speedpainting again:

[Archreux]

Hey, these last few pages are really a great step forward. I'm liking those AO paintings you've got, I seriously nearly mistook them for 3D renders, haha.

Your construction of things has definitely gone up another level. Consider doing a few color studies, what you've got so far looks solid, there's just a few paintings in which some of the colors used don't read super well. I think it's mostly just your skin tones, the skin on your half-orc and priestess look as if they were painted and shaded with the same color tone.

Your environments are a really great example of how you nail this stuff. This last one is really nice, especially. :]]

[Elderscroller]

@Archreux: Thanks very much! I should definitely do more studies, you are right about the skin tones. I´m almost never satisfied with them myself when painting without reference. I actually included a variety of hues into the halforc - priestess skin tones, some purples, blues and even greens, but I think it is way too subtle.
Environments are sooo much easier regarding colors than characters :)

As I try to do more foreshortening on characters and get a feel for it, I tried to ascertain where my understanding of it lies by drawing some anatomy with foreshortening (not too extreme at first) I think I failed miserably here. The jumping dwarf was actually not planned as a dwarf, but a normalsized human. It ended up too unproportionate so I turned him into a dwarf and that didn´t work out :D Oh well, you need to know when to save a drawing and when not...the sitting one turned out ok.




And here are some quick studies from reference:

[JacobJanerka]

Ahh man, I know how foreshortening can feel. you could check out the famous artist course book (you can find it in pdf form somewhere ;P) It really helped me think in form when drawing. Really breaks down the 'cylinders' method into something a little more practical.

Keep it up!