Adzerak's book o' sketches

[Adzerak]

Aaaaa-ha-haaaalrighty then! Some more stuff!
Soon done with that orc I think. Been some struggling with it since I'm not used to paint stuff with that mood of lighting, usually paint sunny-ish stuff. Also wet skin is hard so, have to work on that heh. Any input on that orc, and anything else of course, is most welcome!


1h Death by Dungeon trap. Very hit and miss with speedpainting for me. Think I should spend more time on composition and trying to simplify and indicate detail rather than try to render stuff fast xD



1h Master of Golems. I like this one, then again, it's super comfort zone for me heh.



A face study I did of my gf with a photo as reference, the hunky dude is obviously me xD



30 sec gestures. Tried doing sthese with strictly one line in order to feel the flow and shapes better, also to help me simplify in such a short time.


30 sec


and 60 sec.



Current version of the bulky ol' orc. Just re-did the face so there's a bunch more work to be done in that ugly ass mug area. And the wet skin and that damn mace/morningstar thing he has, hard to get right.

[clockodile]

Man that golem picture looks awesome, the scale and the camera angle ramp up the drama really well. I think you could take it pretty far if you were so inclined.

Wet skin is tough to paint. Usually there is some form of strong highlight from the reflective water, and because the skin is greasy, droplets tend to separate out a bit and cling on, creating dots. I recommend looking at lots of photo reference, because the result is rather variable, and as it is overcast, the reflections would be softer than usual. You can get some fun effects with this sort of light though - like occasionally the raindrops splashing on a surface will create a subtle glow where the light scatters through them as they break up and bounce off.

With regard to the rest of the picture, you might want to ramp up the ambient light intensity somewhat, since those clouds would be scattering a lot of cool light all over the place - you already have the colour temperature working well though. The colour scheme on the whole has a nice natural feel to it, well done on being brave with the reflections in the puddles too.

[Adzerak]

Clockodile: Thanks man, I think I will continue a bit on that golem piece, will be fun to experiment with it further. As for the orc, thanks a bunch for the input on the wet skin part, even though the orc has gotten a bit more of armor since last WIP, the wet skin approach is still applicable.
The background has gone back and forth between cloudy, not so cloudy and darker vs lighter. Will try to get some spills of light through the clouds on the environment, could look cool!


Here's a bunch of graphite drawings from my small moleskin sketchbook. Really like to carry that around and sketch about when I'm at work, retains my sanity somewhat.

[Tygerson]

That master of golems painting is cool! I like the hugeness you convey, and the mobility of the rocks powered by a heated core.

I like the green gas blasting off flesh in the death by dungeon trap. For that sort of disaster, rather than having him lean forward holding the lever, I might have him be hunched and twisted so his shoulder is trying to take the brunt of it. Or have an ineffectual arm thrown up to try and block. Or a hand over his face. Whatever you would do if something were suddenly sprayed at you.

It's a one hour sketch, so it's not like you'll be making changes, but maybe next time you do a story scene, maybe walk around the room and try and feel and act out what you'd do.

[Adzerak]

Tygerson: I like to attempt those conveying hugeness-pieces every once in a while. Might continue on it as Clockodile suggested.
And thanks! That is great advice indeed, I very often forget to do/think about that, especially with these kinds of speedpaints. Need to stop and think about stuff instead of just rushing ahead and rendering on all the time ;D

Orc is done, scans are scanned and also another speedpaint thrown in the mix for good measure.


Man is this stiffly drawn, but at least he doesn't have a stiffie.



Just sketching random faces on the go is fun alright



He doesn't have one either, thankfully.



Doodling around, undead walker dude.



Felt the need to draw something with a gas mask...



Aaaaand shading around, as usual xD



A rather charming orc who somehow managed to earn the nickname "Ryggradsknäckarn'", Which means Spinecracker or some such in the common tongue heh. This piece was interesting to do since I seldom attempt to draw rain or more overcast environments.



1,5 h speedpaint: Swamp Encounter. Trying to encorporate photos into it and then painting over them. Tricky. But feels nice to try some new approaches to help one evolve.

[Adzerak]

A speedpaint and some more polish on another speedpaint..ing.



1,5 h. Like this idea, was kind of hard to convey for me. To bad that guard got a bit abused by the distort tool by the end lol




Put some more hours into the Chieftain of the White and Red Feathers.

[Bjulvar]

Dude that chieftain is going right into my inspiration folder! Really nice handling of design with the feather being a röd tråd. I'd totally play him in a game.

I like Ryggradsknäckaren, but I think you can amp up the highlights even more. It seems as if it's a rather strong light coming from the right, I believe that it would hit his hair with a lot of intensity. Might be wrong though. Overcast weather usually have weaker contrast.

Doing great dude, looks like you're getting better at portraits!

[Adzerak]

Bjulvar: Cool that he inspires you, makes me proud ye kno. Started out with a two value sketch of the guy, felt real good to block in the light and try out general readability so early on.
As for the orc, that light intensity got kind of messed up as I worked on him. Not that used to working in overcast conditions and I wanted light to hit him to make him pop and show of some details. Guess I have to do some studies of different environments sooner or later!

Here's a still life, about 2,5 hours I think. Been a long time since I attempted one and it was cool. Must spend more time on the future ones. Quite challenging.

The black and white things are inspired by Cole "Poopface" Eastburns style of rendering. At least they try to be, it's hard but I really like his style. I've practiced a lot of light, color and drawing from life lately. But along the line I forgot to focus on brush work and think about building up shapes. Miss that. Used to get so inspired by just seeing this guys' work. Like that Archer he did..uhuhu...*drools about* Check out some of his work at http://thecolehole.blogspot.se/search?up...date=false





Been a long time working solely in greyscale. This didn't turn out so good xD



I like his body.



Tried adding some color with color-layers on this. Kinda like it sometimes, especially if one compensates by painting over it a bit on a normal layer, to get rid of some of that "washyness".

[clockodile]

Awesome, lots of stuff up since I last dropped in here!

Interesting experiment with that greyscale rendering, I've not seen Cole's work before. Definitely can see that sense of looseness transferring over in your work though, especially on that second monster. (Sweet design by the way, aside from the odd body shape that looks quite distinctive, the head has a creepy parasitic feel to it.) Good job with managing the details and contrast to make focal points too. What might be bothering you is that the value range is pretty limited on them though, so it could help to just push that and add in some darker and light tones to boost the sense of contrast.

Really liking the design of that chieftian too, the costume is distinctive and somehow the colour scheme on it just clicks well. Maybe how the white-red busy areas contrast with the more drab leather elements - they have a pleasing visual balance the more I look at him.

[Adzerak]

Good point there about the values, Clockodile! Guess that practice was mostly about blending those lighter mid values and getting some form in there. No excuse not to use the whole scale and making it interesting however xD




Dear Sketchbook-sneaker and potential new or returning commenter and feedbacker. If you haven't heard of the First law trilogy, or any other of Joe Abercrombies book for that matter, do your inspiration a favor and give them a good read! Feels like I've mentioned these books on several occasions now, not getting paid for it mind you!
So..Some quick two-value sketches of some of the northmen from said books. Might continue on some of them, get some half tones in there and start rendering about.



Another speedpaint. Don't like this so much, think I'm gonna focus more other things in the coming weeks since my temp work is over soon. Wanna sit down and take some time with my paintings gods dammit!



Here's a bunch of sketches from life and from imagination while I'm about.

[Adzerak]

Howdy Daggerinos! *ned flanders voice*
Time for some more updates, had a day off and wanted to get some stuff done.
Work as a temp on a home care service, I think it's called, and earning a living for now but not as much drawing gets done as I'd like. But only two weeks of that left and then it's study, and hopefully some portfolio building time!




Think I'm getting a bit better at creating form by shading. Love doing it at least xD




But this one's just a bit..weird.




Wanted to paint something and play around with lighting and harder vs softer edges and such. Feels like I'm learning ah yeah! *motivational barbarian party-buff shout*




A WIP of the Golem piece. Think It's about done soon? xD I think this might be my best work so far when it comes to rendering at least heh. Think it might go for a portfolio piece, so any crits and comments about it is doubly appreciated you guys!

[Adzerak]

Continuing with grayscale. Feels good to focus on value and form more once again.
Have some paintings I want to finish and studies I want to do. Just one more week of unrelated work. Soon the time will come for more drawing ;D



This was nice. Gonna do more grayscale photostudies, especially of gear and creatures and such!




Co-workers get drawn quickly when they least expect it...



Some helms from imagination. I suck at 'em so I want to practice more!




Just..a thing...

[Kaffer]

Nice studies man! I like the way you experiment with form in your helmets!
Your golem piece is really awesome, a couple of ideas:
I'd try to push the focus to the golem's head, that's what we're supposed to look at first after all, but the design, colors, camera angle etc are spot on!
I get the feeling he's emerging from the ground, so I'd put a lot of rubble, dust & falling ground pieces to his leg, both to enhance motion and it gives a nice opportunity for some sexy loose edges which push the view back to the golem :)
Thumbs up man, great SB! \m/

[Jaik]

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

This page has kicked arse. So many nice things to mention. Your colours are better, your ideas a nicer, your values are stronger, THOSE SKETCHBOOK PAGES.



Your metal is still a wee bit off. I.e. that last dude-freind in the last pose. Since its a white background (I know.. there would never be a real white environment BUT SH) there would be a crap tonne of reflected light on the shadow side. Since metal is basically just the environment projected onto a simple form. When you do your studies I would recommend blocking in a couple of lines (horizon, some sky colour and some ground) in different values, so that you aren't just copying your reference, you are using the images - parsing the information - then translating how it would fit on to the little environment you made.
That was just an idea I literally thought up while reply to your sketchbook.. so now I need to go and do that exercise because it sounds like a good thing to do...

Anyway, keep fighting the good fight!

[Adzerak]

Kaffer: Thanks for the words! Nice tips concerning the golem-piece there. Getting the head more into focus without sacrificing the stmospheric perspective could be hard, less contrast and saturation and all that.. But It could still be more defined I guess. Will experiment further!

Jaik: Sweet study tip there man! Always nice when advice is so good that you can't keep yourself from getting straight into it on the fly xD I focus on grayscale pretty much at the moment, but I have been building up a want to do more metal studies...IN COLOR! Those studies and ideas just keep queueing up, hard to know when to tackle 'em!


Sooo. Tomorrow is my last day of temp work. And then it's off to gf for a coulpe of days and then home for some serious-like painting business ;D So hopefully I can keep myself focused on more digital studies and imagination pieces, and some watercolor here and there of course!



Nooorthmen! Some poses are wonky but hey, gotta fail some to learn some.





some WIPs of a watercolor I'm fiddling with at the moment, if someone is interested in some steps. Just gotta keep getting contrast and colors in there without overdoing it.



A sketchy thing xD



Shading about in the moleskin as usual heh

[Adzerak]

Been away over in Girlfriendtown for almost a week now and near the end my fingers gor real itchy, just had to paint something! Luckily she had a cute little tablet I could borrow! So I started on this knight which I finished when I got home. I like that I managed ther saturation better this time, saved it for those tiny sweetspots near the terminator/bedbug-line and some in the armor highlights. I kinda like it when there's not too much saturation going on.



If he reminds you of a young and not that fat Robert Baratheon, it's because..well..yeah




A quick little thing. Playing around with new brushes.

[Adzerak]

Think this one might be done now. Have to study hard vs soft edges more, this piece made me think more about it so that much be a good thing xD

[Adzerak]

Long time since I've posted something. Been away at my folks home and meeting some old friends. Only got some time for painting and finished this water color thing. Now it's time to get more focused, not as bogged down by other stuff so..more art!







Like how the characters cloth turned out, feels like a balanced saturation.

[Adzerak]

Ho!
Trying to work on more than one piece at once. Switch between them every now and then so the flow from one gets carried over to another. And maybe I wont get bored with a piece as easily heh.

Note to self: Do more environments, it's fun!




When I started painting digitally I had no clue how pen pressure worked, so I had it off on the pen and changed it manually with hotkeys. At the time I had absolutely no clue how to work edges and my values sucked. But now when I'm a bit more confident at what I'm doing it was kinda nice to go back trixing with pen pressure with the numpad. Helps me blend stuff more at least xD
Will finish and color this...I think.



Adding color to one of those silhouettes I did. Fucking ginger Tom Cruise going on in there heh.
Will continue on this and see what I can do with it, don't like it much right now expect for the chest area.



One-line 20 sec gestures.




Boxer skin study. Might spend more time on the next one ;)

[Adzerak]

Adding colors to the demonic alien guys and trying to not overdo the saturation, saving it for those sweet spots later on.



Sketches and a WIP for my first ever CHOW!....Ahhh ye son!