So basically the following is the collection of the thing that I do...
I'm very story-oriented, so I find myself doing a lot more concepts than full illustrations. I've only recently taken on a more motivated interest in art so exactly where I'll end up I don't know, but I essentially want to produce art for fiction, in games and literature.
I've never been fond of digital painting, I just found it too synthetic to resemble what I imagined. When I do I still use my original sketches and go crazy with textures. Sometimes I think it means my work is too much of a dinosaur for any modern industry.
I'm self-taught. I've never been in a situation where I had real feedback or guidance. I'm kind of wandering in the dark for most of it.
This is part of a piece I did this past week. It's a commission of a nice young lady's WoW RP character. Freelance is foreign ground and I'm only starting out; my top price is $20 but at the moment I'm only offering up to colour character drawings like this, so I tried to manage my time well. The entire drawing was done in bursts but I'd say amounted to only an hour of work, while about two were spent on the digital editing. The main thing I'm happy with is the hair. I normally stylize quite a bit but it used to take me forever to paint or shade realistic or just better hair. I learnt a useful bit of info about putting shadows first, and only painting strokes where there are highlights that make the hair strands stand out. This is basically filed under a fun little practice at being efficient.
This is an example of when I correct mistakes late in the drawing. With digital painting it's easy to flip the canvas every so often or change the size of certain features. With traditional art it's a little harder because if you don't train yourself enough you get swallowed up with the detail. I make sure when I scan them to edit any odd proportions - zooming in and out is a great way of spotting things I just couldn't see before. Is it cheating? maybe. Do I care? nope.
Well I wasn't going to shade this sketch but I wanted to practice. I used to leave the pencil lines as is, just a bit of a cleanup but I'm starting to transition into digital line work and using flat colours before I shade. Something faster and simpler than what I did before, and overall a lot cleaner (without sacrificing the feel of the original), which is what I want to achieve if I ever want to illustrate a graphic novel.
Hey Rotten, Nice start to your sketchbook! I like your pencil sketches and design sense. You have a decent understanding of anatomy and gesture but I would say that you should watch how much you overemphasize the neck anatomy for all your characters and how the neck connects to the head and the length of the neck (all seem overly long). Some study in that area will polish that right up.\I think you can also pay more attention to skull structure, and form in general, as some of your forms don't turn around in the space enough or end up looking a little flat.
Digital work takes a while to get over the fact that you can't get the same control with your lines that you can with trad, but you do get used to it.
Lighting. All your pieces are ambiently lit. Very few examples of trying different lighting scenarios or in different keys. Lighting can be a huge part of implying character and impact, even for concept pieces. I think you have fallen into a comfort zone there, so maybe try some new things in the coming pieces.
Thank you! I've noticed a lot of people frown on posting old work but if something from ten months ago gives someone something to critique I'll cram it in there. I do like drawing those long necks, but I see what you're saying and understand your comments on form and lighting - That'll give me something to work on and maybe set a goal. I agree, I have set myself up for comfort - I'm in need to a change up...
This week's CHOW, which I think I had more a focus on than others. What started as an opulent woman turned into an immortal Mesopotamian witch which after choosing feathers for costume made me think of Quetzalcoatl...
Internet's back on a new cycle so I can finally load everything instead of maxxing out my phone data
Buuutt also behind on a few things and have limited time between jobs. I really want a time-out from life right about now.
Nice style dude! I loved that Cthulhu sketch, you should finish it :'D
I see you got a set of like... 3 torsos in your head, and you just kind of do them over and over. They're always on the same angle with the same gesture. Also some of your figures seems pretty stiff.
So I think a good exercise for you would be doing some gesture sketches, and really really exaggerate them. That will help you a lot on breaking the pattern I mentioned, and also will make your figures more interesting!
You have great potential, I want to see you working hard sir! Keep the awesome up, and good luck! :DD
Thanks Irish, I appreciate it. I do hear that general response about my style: dark-beautiful or gothic-nerveau as you said. I don't know where it comes from but I can work with it.
@Rhasdra Aaah, sorry I didn't see your post before, thanks for stopping by!
I see what you mean about torsos from the selection I have here. Normally I pride myself in making characters Unique in body type, features and so on but i do stay within a small margin when it comes to poses. They end up being a simple poster and in concept design 3/4 view is a better angle than front on. I'd like to do Amit's environment workshop and start doing scenes. drawing characters on their own in backbreaking poses doesn't make sense to me, but there are dynamics i should work on.
Thanks for the input!
@Bookend
I know! I haven't really done studies for my end works. Some anatomy doodles around here but usually any significant study is underneath the final drawing. I see something so I carry it through to the end. Good because it means I can focus on one idea. Bad because there is literally only focus on that idea. It's a problem :B
@Crackedskull
Aaaaages ago. Things like the Russian Sleep Experiment and a few historical horrors. This was way before slenderman was a thing and crazy fans made rp characters and I veered away from it forever.
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