|| Cold Coffe || Getting serious with caffeine in my system

[Adrian]

Haai !

Seems like you had a wonderful experience with that course. Hope to see more stuffz from ya !

Good decision on dumpin the gaem haha.

Oh and if you feel it helps stayin away from wasting a whole day on games (it certainly helps me). Join teh CD hangouut

If you're in Spain now . you're likleh to find me, Angelique there throughout the day.

[Caisne]

Hey, thats a solid sketchbook man! very inspiring stuff! Agree with that game addiction, I had to sip my ps3 to mys parents to actually start doing the job. Keep rocking man!

[Kimonas]

Damn thats a great SB man, i think you have a great grasp of values and gestures.

I try and have any gaming devices in another room actually, but i think its sometimes good to play a little - sometimes its good to do something air headed, even with hard work.

All the best!

[Archreux]

Hey! Great to see ya back on here, man.

Happy to hear the course was really worth it and that you were able to take away some good knowledge! The level up is really apparent in these last couple of posts, and I'm really liking your use of texture. It's all looking like your stuff is moving in a great direction.

I'm sure things will work out perfectly! Life can be a real big hassle. However, it's very good to see that art flowing and that progress.

Looking forward to the next post. :]

[Cyprinus]

So great to see new stuff from you, very inspiring! Still love your portraits so much. The course sounds really really good, I'd totally like to do it (when I'm at a stage where I could tackle it) so thanks for taking your time and giving such a detailed description and review of it!

I hope your move goes smoothly and that you'll find a nice place to settle down in Spain! Looking forward to seeing your new stuff then!

[Suira]

Hmkay, so I wrote a long ass motherfucking post with replies for everybody and shit, and I closed the window with it, so I'ma be brief: ( will I be able to do such a thing??)

I finally came back to Spain, I'm very happy. I've been bussy as fuck moving here and most my shit is still packed, I don't have internet at home yet and my computer needs a screen. Plus I just moved in, meaning I've been really bussy doing papers and such ( and I still will be a for a while), so all I could do was a quick digi and a lotta pencil and pen sketches, without ref. On buses sitting somewhere or on an unexpected spare time bubble.

They're shit, but I just don't wanna be rusty when I get to setup the studio ( meaning buy a chair and a table...and a screen and get internet). I hope you like a few of them. At least I feel I'm getting there when it comes to faces, still a lot to do, but I'm....kinda finding a method, or something, idk, shut up. Anyway, there we go.

20 min experiment in my laptop:


Pencil Stuff: ( click to enlarge the loooong ass ones)






Ink:



And to top it off, a marketing idea I made during one of Caisne streams to promote his art , hope he doesn't get mad at me HAHAHAHAHAH:




There's a lot more than this, but as I said I can't access my desktop computer, so I'll bring more someday soon. Updates will be slow till I get internet. Hope you're all doing great, well, you are, cause I checked your sketchbooks and fuck me if that's not some awesome progress.

Anyway cya.

[Kimonas]

Hey dude great work and commitment here! Keep trying with those still lives - i'm guessing you sometimes find them boring as fuck to do. Maybe try on focusing on one object - like something you always have put off - like a tea pot or a pepper shaker - that way you can study them in small portions that wont be as brain numbingly boring. Next when you are more confident at doing individual things, put more stuff together like skullz and pokemon clocks and sake bottles and shit. Who doesn't like skullz?

Sometimes i think that the reason some people get really good is that they have a massive tolerance for boring stuff.

Great work though man, just keep pushing!

---

Also your little portraits are lookin sick man, well done

[Adam Lina]

Nice sketches, man. Did you use reference for that cock? :D

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey man, welcome back! Faces are looking great! You got a whole style thing going on with the pointy down noses and stuff, I love it, reminds me of villains from Gotham city ^^ Just men though? Where are the chica's at?

[Caisne]

Yo man I thought you died somewhere at the middle of your moving journey. Glad to see you're cool and happy!

And thank for that ad bro!

[Archreux]

Damn, dude. Even with all the life happening you've still been able to keep up and get some cool shit out, which is really looking great by the way, and I am so jealous of those pencil sketches. Your poses have so much life and action in them!

It's good to hear that things seem like they're going well for you, man. Doing all that paperwork can really be troublesome at times. I can't wait to see what comes out when you've got yourself settled into your new place! :]

[Suira]

Kimonas You're right about the still lives, I gotta get back to doing them....again. I did quite a few in summer, and now I'ma start doing the real boring ones , gotta get all that rendering juice! But my solution to the boredom of still lives is sculpting shit and painting it after that hehe.

Adam Lina Thanks! Hahaha, I don't need reference ( puts on gayest voice) I've seen too many of them up close...real close, and that's why it's so photorealistic xD!

JyonnyNovice Thanks man, funny thing that you bring up the lack of girls, since I'ma switch to chicks for the next stage of ma studies, now that I (more or less) do wrinkly men and tough guys convincingly it's time for a lotta porn and hot chicks....for reference....yeah ..yeah for studies xD I think the hardest part is gonna be faces since I've studied my fare share of boobies but you never know.

Caisne I'm not dead yet, but I almost died when I saw your new stuff, it's too cool to live. Missin the streams man. Oh, and 'm glad you like the add, I'm thinkin of another one portraying a scrotum, with a text that reads: " you need BALLS to let this oportunity past you, HIRE CAISNE" xD

Archreux Thanks man, it's not much, but I think it's important to keep the engine up so you can keep going when you can without losing (too much) time. I still gotta work on my anatomy and my pov's and on chicks, comp , edges, and values, oh and most importantly on JUICE. So much to work on! Can't wait, in theory I'll have internet by the end of this week so it's gonna be awesome. For now I'm still doodling and shit hehe.

Ok, so I got 90% of my studio setup, with a chair and a table a everythang! Turns out there where second hand furniture stores in the hood, where I got a desktop of fine wood for 20$!

Well, I have started sculpting shit, like faces, to have a few models for still lives, and also to see what do I really know about face structure, it's proving t be a both time consuming and fascinating exercise, really recommend it, specially for people like me who are lame as fuck in 3D, cause clay doesn't need you to know the IU to get it going.

I have also been doodling kind of the same shit I uploaded in the previous post, some faces, some characters, and some outright brainfarts, so I didn't bother scanning all that shit.

On the other hand I've started doing some juice studies on the laptop, by juice studies I mean getting stuff in the painting that might not be scientifically real but that our eye recognizes in a painting as possible and which makes it be more pleasant to look at I guess.

Here's what I've done:




Oh, here's an idea for a female character, super cliché but I kinda like it:



This fail made up my mind to get back to studying faces WITH REF xD:


And the first still live from one of the sculpts I did, looks like crap, but whatevs:


That's about it for the day my frands I will start to study somewhat more intensely this week since I only need the internet and a computer screen to be fully setup. Regarding the screen I wanted to as you guys: I'ma spend 120$ tops, do you have advice on what to get or what NOT to get?

In the computer of the cyber my paintings look oversaturated but in the laptop they look fine. Do I need to calibrate? How do you guys see it?

Anyway take care and hopefully see ya soon!

[Archreux]

Hey, man. These blocks are looking great! I like the green and yellow face guy a lot.

I spent about $100 on my monitor, and it's a Dell. It's not the best, but it gets the job done and it hasn't had too many problems with the color. My laptop tends to wash out colors and value, so when I go to look at things on my computer monitor there's a big bump of saturation/contrast because of that transition.

Your colors look fine, also. Have fun breaking in that new studio! :]

[Caisne]

Love the latest sketches man. Streams will be back shortly, i was moving myself =)

[JyonnyNovice]

I use a Samsung Syncmaster 2333HD, I bought it for about $60 second hand, new it's more like $150 but they do another one S22d300HY that's around $100 - $120 brand new. Both 22 inch, plenty big enough and there is a lot of settings so you can calibrate it through the screen instead of the PC. Samsung pretty established brand in screens, can't go wrong I think.

[pindurski]

Nice work. Your most recent posts remind me of Lane Brown's brush stroke style... something I can't do for the life of me... keep working hard:)

[Suira]

Archreux Thanks man, always nice to see ya around the SB :D and thanks for the advice! ;)

Caisne Aww dude, moving is a PAIN, let's hope we'll both be settled soon enough.

JyonnyNovice Thanks about the advice man, I'll check all that out, I also heard there's a pretty awesome site that sells really good monitors for super low prices, so I got a lotta screens to check out haha.

pindurski Hahaha I didn't know that artist, but I think it's all about using the chalk brush with little pressure so it leaves behind that kind of "ghost" effect that look kinda spontaneous ;) I dig your stuff a lot, glad you dropped by!

Wall of text for those who give a fuck ( it's mostly about technical shit I guess):


Ok guys, I'ma make an effort to not be overexcited, BUT, I think I'm starting to "get it", like I know I suck and shit, but for some reason these days I percieve the process of painting very diferently from how I did before. I think part of this has to do with the fact that I have started using what I used to consider "fake" effects , simple things like not rendering parts or being specially conscious on the key of stuff you're gonna render, contrast relationships, exposition, story telling and MOST IMPORTANTLY: strong silouhuettes and subtle value/hue/gradients.

All this plus being mindfull of structure and gesture and all that shit, but overall I started to try and fake it, to focus on tricking the eye in order to convey the image in my head, since to some extent, the way I visualize a scene or a character is fairly abstract, meaning that, even if I clearly can visualize shapes, colors, mood, etc. I can't really point them all out from my head in an ordered fashion, the best way I have found to translate what I visualize to what I paint is an extended use of abstraction in many parts of the painting so the brain makes up what the fuck that is, and I found it kinda works, I'll wait for your opinions on it but, I'm fairly sure this was a major factor.

Overall I think it's key to understand at which stage of a painting it goes from "promising" to "shamefull" and I am fairly certain of where the issue is as of now:

Rendering stage, that's where. If we're talking about comps or loose shit I manage to more or less convey what I'm imagining, but the moment I start detailing I generally start thinking in a "drawing" mentality and generally fuck the whole thing up, so I'll focus on trying to mantain the original mood of a painting or an image while detailing, I don't really know how I'll do it other, than paint people's faces and shit and focus on how to convey complex shapes in simple, abstract brushstrokes ( I bet it sounds a lot easier than it's gonna be).

END ( kinda) OF WALL OF TEXT

Ok, so I mostly have been doing experiments and shit, did just a couple studies, a lotta thinking and little painting or drawing.

For the studies:

A) Trying to simplify tones and shit, mostly focusing on silouhuettes:


B)I have this book called The Compendium of Weapons Armour and Castles and it's awesome, specially cause it depicts historical weapons, armors and its uses and designs, it's filled with simple and very descriptive lineart and I decided I'ma do 2 or 3 simple armor studies every day to engrain the shapes in ma head, also material use and blah blah blah:


Now a couple of thumbnails:



And finally the painting that opened my eyes to what I need to focus on for the next few months, and the first one I post ever that I oficially like xD:



Any crits, comments or whatever you think about the topic or the flaws you see is wellcome, as usual!
I will post on your sb's soon, not today cause I gotta go running, take care peoples!

[Suira]

Sup guys. Had a pretty slow week, still wrapping up all the stuff that needs doing in RL. Anyway, most of what I've done this week has been experiments that turned out really wrong, fails, brainfarts, etc.

More than half of my stuff has been pages in the sketchbook, which I ain't gonna scan cause it's more of the same shit I use to put up and it's boring, so here you go with a study and some crap:






Oh, also, here's my last assignment for Sam's course, I was supossed to turn it in more than a month ago, but he was kind enough to allow me to turn it in after moving. I initially did a quick comp and idea with the theme and everythang, but it was lame as fuck in every way, also this was before I realised how to use "fake effects" so to speak:



And here's the revised final, which I honestly quite happy with ( specially the comp) it obviously has a lotta flaws and is very improvable, but it's the first painting I do where I feel I have been able to translate the idea from my brain with accuracy:



Anyway, being honest I could and should have worked harder this week, but hopefully i'll recuperate my workflow soon enough. Hope y'all are doing great and learning a lot, hmkay bye! :D

[pindurski]

Failures are just as important:) Keep working hard.

[meat]

Your pencil stuff are really, really nice.....!