Nae´s sketchbook

[Naevea]

[Tristan Berndt]

Looks good so far. You've got some cool and creative ideas here.

I'd recommend to watch out for muddy colors and values, especially in skin. You can often see in your studies that you see each and every scratchy brush stroke and it doesn't really read like smooth skin. Big soft brushes are often your friend when working with skin.

I looked at some of your gestures on the previous page and if you can you should try and get your hands on a Glenn Vilppu book or video series. He breaks down how to analyse and abstract the human figure very well and I think you'd benefit a lot from that. It really improves the overall way you sketch/draw/paint.

Anyway. Keep studying and working hard.

[Naevea]

Some recent studies



I also updated my blog

[Naevea]

Boy, I always forget to post here, I´ve really got to fix that...
Anyways my progress with the studies:

And two new illustrations:
Lada

Perun

The exams time is halfway through, I just might get a little more time to work more again... I just need to really get back on the line and remember how to study to get better...

[Naevea]

[Naevea]

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

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a quick face just to see how far I´ve gotten... I just still can´t get around to make them smooth and nice like i want...
[img][/img]

[Naevea]

It´s been ages since I´ve done any morning studies at all.... so just a few quick ones to get warmed up... around an hour or so...
[img][/img]
male faces are hard....

[Naevea]

So I was getting back and trying the silhouette technique (scifi) and decided to dive into the Bloodsports once again starting with the number 6 - Monster hunter... I did 3 silh. sketches for that, did a study of an armor and went a bit further. Then I tried to sketch a monster and I realized that I suck. So onwards to animal studies it is....



monster hunter sk. 1

[img][/img]

[BenFlores]

Hey cool work, the faces look great. I think some more environment studies will push you further. There is a lot of attention focused on the figure that you almost neglected the background. The negative space around the figure is just as much a part of the figure as the figure itself. Keep on studying and sorry for the lack of critiques in here, hopefully that will change.

[Naevea]

@BenFlores: Thank you for the comment... I´ll take note of that in my studies ^_^

Anyways for the updates.... I realized I tend to forget the really basic basics, like that reflection of light means not only light itself, but reflection of image... or that if you are sketching four legged monster silhouettes, you´d better do it from profile... I guess I´ve been out of it for way too long... So I need to tackle lots of little things alongside the big ones and remember/figure them out once again....

Anyways i was studying a bit of feline and rat looks and anatomy (on paper, I REALLY need to get a scanner soon ^^;) and came up with a few silhouettes for the base of the monster. I think I will derive from the last two.

[Naevea]

and now to chose which one to go through with...

[Naevea]

So while I´m working on the hunter, I did the material studies challenge...
so here are my first really material focused studies (I think ever)

[Naevea]

So here´s the monster hunter thing :)





I kind of framed it, not sure about that, I really need to figure out the whole presentation thing...

[Naevea]

Based on E.O.W. challenge topic - Frontier Savings & Loans

[Naevea]

One question to all daggers: how do you go about your studying, study plans, goals and such?

[Patrick Gaumond]

One question to all daggers: how do you go about your studying, study plans, goals and such?

It sounds basic, but really, focus on the things you like. Choose something you love and become really good at it and someone will want to hire you for it, or someone will want to look at it and follow your work. You seem to already be doing that with figures/anatomy/characters so keep on pushin!

When it comes to actually studying, that's also up to you. Everyone studies differently, in different amounts and with different objectives in mind. I would suggest having a weekly number of hours that you meet based on how much freetime you have, maybe something like 50% of your free time should be devoted to art or whatever, pick something that suits you and go for it. I shoot for 40 hrs a week, which is enough for me personally and keeps me happy and interested, but I never try to meet a daily quota. In my experience that doesn't help me, but having it weekly is ok because then I can balance out less productive days with more work the next few days.

This is largely opinion based, but I think the most important thing in studying is actually, you know, studying the thing. You can do 1000s of drawings/studies everyweek, but if you're just constantly making the same mistakes over and over you won't learn too much. So if you're studying something, spend some time on it to resolve the issues and try to figure out where you're going wrong. Every so often do some things either from memory immediately afterwards or completely from imagination to see if you're actually breaking ground. If not, then do a few more studies. Pretty usual advice, but its very effective in my opinion.

I personally never really liked plans. I used to follow Dave's old livestream schedule when he started CD initially but I found I never stuck to it, and when I did I got so bored doing the same thing every day like that. I learned that I prefer and work better simply going with the flow and doing whatever was necessary at the time, either because I felt like it or because the piece I was working on required it. I suggest trying both, and if you like both, do both. Use a schedule, but also be fluid in your thinking. It's very beneficial to be fluid in thought as well as in technique.

Lastly, I recently wrote a bit about goals in the deathline section of the forums. It's not super in depth or anything, but maybe go read that if you want to (it's called 18 month goal). Basically, 18 months appears to be a very reasonable timeframe to set a goal or deadline for an experiment. Take into account the previous 18 months, what you've accomplished, how you've accomplished it, how you've improved or regressed, assess all that and set a new 18 month goal, taking into account potential growth spurts, and also allowing for unforseen circumstances, such as serious health issues, family issues etc that may arise in the time span. Instead of working towards a 25 year goal or even a 5 year goal like most would, which can be extremely daunting and seemingly impossible without smaller goals in the meantime, set something more middle ranged and work towards that. You can still have an endgame plan, the big picture thing that you want to accomplish, but you should have middle ranged goals that are still fairly complex and demanding that also build up to that. Then make every single day of work you do revolve in some way or another around the 18 month goal, work on things that are preventing you from achieving that goal today and eventually if you are persistent enough you will have achieved it.

[Naevea]

One question to all daggers: how do you go about your studying, study plans, goals and such?

It sounds basic, but really, focus on the things you like. Choose something you love and become really good at it and someone will want to hire you for it, or someone will want to look at it and follow your work. You seem to already be doing that with figures/anatomy/characters so keep on pushin!

When it comes to actually studying, that's also up to you. Everyone studies differently, in different amounts and with different objectives in mind. I would suggest having a weekly number of hours that you meet based on how much freetime you have, maybe something like 50% of your free time should be devoted to art or whatever, pick something that suits you and go for it. I shoot for 40 hrs a week, which is enough for me personally and keeps me happy and interested, but I never try to meet a daily quota. In my experience that doesn't help me, but having it weekly is ok because then I can balance out less productive days with more work the next few days.

This is largely opinion based, but I think the most important thing in studying is actually, you know, studying the thing. You can do 1000s of drawings/studies everyweek, but if you're just constantly making the same mistakes over and over you won't learn too much. So if you're studying something, spend some time on it to resolve the issues and try to figure out where you're going wrong. Every so often do some things either from memory immediately afterwards or completely from imagination to see if you're actually breaking ground. If not, then do a few more studies. Pretty usual advice, but its very effective in my opinion.

I personally never really liked plans. I used to follow Dave's old livestream schedule when he started CD initially but I found I never stuck to it, and when I did I got so bored doing the same thing every day like that. I learned that I prefer and work better simply going with the flow and doing whatever was necessary at the time, either because I felt like it or because the piece I was working on required it. I suggest trying both, and if you like both, do both. Use a schedule, but also be fluid in your thinking. It's very beneficial to be fluid in thought as well as in technique.

Lastly, I recently wrote a bit about goals in the deathline section of the forums. It's not super in depth or anything, but maybe go read that if you want to (it's called 18 month goal). Basically, 18 months appears to be a very reasonable timeframe to set a goal or deadline for an experiment. Take into account the previous 18 months, what you've accomplished, how you've accomplished it, how you've improved or regressed, assess all that and set a new 18 month goal, taking into account potential growth spurts, and also allowing for unforseen circumstances, such as serious health issues, family issues etc that may arise in the time span. Instead of working towards a 25 year goal or even a 5 year goal like most would, which can be extremely daunting and seemingly impossible without smaller goals in the meantime, set something more middle ranged and work towards that. You can still have an endgame plan, the big picture thing that you want to accomplish, but you should have middle ranged goals that are still fairly complex and demanding that also build up to that. Then make every single day of work you do revolve in some way or another around the 18 month goal, work on things that are preventing you from achieving that goal today and eventually if you are persistent enough you will have achieved it.

Thank you for the response.. I asked that when I was kind of in a low mood from not feeling creative at all.. It´s pretty hard to not get overwhelmed by the originality or creativity of people around you if you are just learning to express yourself freely ^_^
Anyway I agree on the problem with schedules - they are just too strict and once you break them due to anything, they lose their point...

The 18 months plan sounds interesting, though... It´s just pretty hard to pinpoint what goals to set if you see way too many things that need improving... I´m just glad I´m not the only one still fighting here... ^_^

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[Naevea]

So I continued on my little dryad illustration, here´s where I came so far... I guess I´ll just adjust the foliage a bit and call it quits... probably, not sure...



Other thingie I´m working on these days... trying to figure out the whole light contrast stuff happening thing...



Here I tried to do a few poses for my next thing first. Thing is I kinda like all of them and have hard time deciding... I´d appreciate any help with deciding before I move further...

[Naevea]

Alrighty, long time no post.
There have been reasons, of course, both big and small. I had to kind of pause my art struggle for a while and that will continue a little while longer (but not that long), but I'm planning to be in as much as I can as soon as possible and I hope these forums are still active, too.

Anyway, I decided to get a little bit into it however I can, so here's a thing I worked on today and as always, crits are highly appreciated.

[neopatogen]

Good to see Daggers coming back :) As for the image, looks promising.I sould suggest making the top hole in the sky point at the building (the focal point), and the triangular shape at the end of the stairs to the building looks weird, not sure what it is, also the back of the cloth covering the roof looks not same rounded to me as the front one, you might check the values. And what I always find good is looking at master art for color and rendering approaches. Good luck, hope to see this piece finished :)