Tristan's sketchbook

[rafa zanchetin]

Yes, they are. Loving that brush work on the last one, you got something going on there.

[Tristan Berndt]

Thanks, man. I'm trying to better wrap my head around how to more efficiently paint in the digital medium and to find a way to work with brushes that I both enjoy while still giving me the results I'm looking for. I've had decent success with a certain square brush but I want to find a way to work better with the diagonal chalk brush I've often used.

In the future I will be trying to better develop a step by step process that I can have as a basis for creating images. I don't really have a process that I am comfortable with and while being out of the comfort zone is good, I do still want to have a foot in some form of secure process that I can then later branch out from.

I've been impatient so this sucks

[LaleAnn]

Your studies are getting better and better Trist! :D Keep it up!

[Tristan Berndt]

Thanks Lâle :3

So as I said in my previous post, I'm trying to develop a process of working and I suppose sketching is the first step. I like this method of only using pure black and white in my colors and sketching from that. I find that the way Rapoza works with his painterly style to be very attractive and I wish to incorporate some of it into my own process. I've also been a fan of the diagonal chalk brush that he and many others use to sketch out their images. For me it takes away the digital feel and the different shape of the brush feels very nice to use.

So here are my sketch studies

[Tristan Berndt]

I think I'd benefit if I adopted the Bridgman method of figure drawing and gesture drawing. So I'll maybe do some of that in the future.

Here are a few gestures from the past week.

[Tristan Berndt]

Just noodling around. Not really getting what I want

[Tristan Berndt]

Gonna do my best to fix this painting tomorrow. I'm too tired to think straight so lets hope future me is better suited to work on this.

[LaleAnn]

Good job on the last painting tristan! Really love the texture and the color scheme in there! Well done!!

[Tristan Berndt]

Done with this. Gonna do better on the next one.

[Kaffer]

That hand study is sexy as hell! Nice and loose.. Also, nice job on the Cthulhu piece. One crit: maybe positioning him somewhere to the side would benefit the composition..

[Tristan Berndt]

Hey thanks. Yeee moving him might work but I wanted the tempo to differ so the rock, Cthulhu, and the two guys aren't evenly spaced along the horizon. I feel like that would kill the image some.

Spitpaint that I'm not too happy with. It's okay for 30 minutes I guess. Gotta do more. Gotta get good!

[LaleAnn]

I looove that Cthulhu piece so much (you know it already but I'm saying it AGAIN I'm such a nice girl XD), very inspiring. Also great to see you using some different color palettes and trying out new compositions! :) Always a fan ;)

[Tristan Berndt]

Thanks Lâle! ^^ all credit for the 14K+ views on dA goes to you for telling me to flip it ;)

Here's another 30 minute spitpainting.
Trying to get out of my comfort zone with these

[RenatoCaria]

holy crap dude, those animal studies are awesome o.o

[Tristan Berndt]

Thanks, buddy!

Gonna be working for the rest of the day. Maybe do some more on that butterfly girl.

Spitpaint

[Tristan Berndt]

Did a bunch of super secret client work today but I got in some time painting the butterfly girl. Feel free to leave some crits and tits on that image. I'm currently thinking of adding suer pipes with the green/blue ooze coming out and what parts to render and what to make painterly. Also I might make the round things by her head a different color to pull the eye but it might compete with how strong all the colors already are. I don't want it to be too much "stuff". All the effects like smoke and sparkles are on individual layers so I can paint and mess with them later once everything is looking good without them.

[Tristan Berndt]

Didn't have time to do much studying today. I did however do some warm up doodles over photos before getting into client work. Nothing serious, just messing around for fun

[LaleAnn]

Very inspiring stuff Tristan! I'm gonna go ahead this week and try to work a bit more like you, more loosely, work on composition and color. :)

[Suira]

Woah man, you got a seriously awesome SB going in here. I'm loving these las speed paintings, you're really getting the mood down fast and eficient, I really admire that because I'm slow as fuck http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/newreply...id=3081and I eventually wanna be able to do stuff like that, so kudos tu you sir!

Studies are beast too, and great value control My only crit ( very nitpicky I guess) is for your environment pieces.

Generally your figures in those are not really conveying anything meaningfull, sometimes it's that the silouhettes aren't all that strong to reflect any convincing storytelling. The piece with the giant coming out of the see for example, there's a guy just standing like a regular day and making a tangent with the horizon line, and the other one is taking a picture of the giant like if he's gonna show a cool t-shirt he just bought to his facebook pals .( still you did good showing he's taking a pic, but he would need some more action to really convey a sense of fear) This creates a distrophy between a monster with an obvious design going for a scary/creepy feeling against two guys checking it out like a curiosity, since both contradict it kills the potential the piece could have. So maybe my advise would be to focus on the storytelling on those too. You do great when the subjects are the focus and you're really good at conveying mood, so just try to translate that into your enviros and they'll be freaking awesome too.

Hope I didn't come out too douchy, I really like your work man, i'm just a bit blunt with the crits, because that's what I find is most usefull. Keep up the amazing work! ;D

[Tristan Berndt]

Yup you're right. All of this stuff is me preparing for scene storytelling so I'm currently trying to get better at landscapes and starting images. So I'll excuse myself a little if the story/narrative is a little weak and maybe not pushed. It is mostly just studies with added imaginary stuff (but that's no excuse so I'll be working on that!)

And don't worry about sounding douchy... I'm a douchebag too... <3


Trying to do a quick study with 100% opacity and only one brush.
Gonna watch some James Paick stuff and try out some of his methods for landscapes.