Mat Kaminski Sketchybewk

[matkaminski]

----- REPLIES -----
-------------------

ReneAigner:

Hey mat, I'm not a big one for general advice in sketchbooks, so I picked this quote from you because I think I might be more helpful in this regard:

(01-14-2014 12:05 PM)matkaminski Wrote:
This whole edges thing is something that I have been struggling with for awhile. I think maybe I should try and do just a bunch of cloth drape studies to really start to use that whole lost edge thing. Maybe there are some other things that I can use for good study material. One thing that is definitely fun to do is still lives, but they are hard to do because of the timing for them. The lighting has to be just right or it doesn't work very well.

Edge variation doesn't really exist in reality. There are no soft/lost edges, except in unusual situations (fog/mist etc.).Edges have to be designed. That's why you won't be able to really practice edge control with any specific subject, be it still life or portrait. They cannot be observed. Look to masters of edge control (Sargent, Zorn etc.) and analyze what they do with edges and why they do it. Stapleton Kearns has a nice series of blog-posts on edge control:
http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.de/2010/...rgent.html

Also, about changing light in a still life, you might want to try building a shadow box. One simple artificial lightsource, eliminating most if not all indirect light affords you the opportunity to work on a still life whenever and as long as you want.

Thanks for the advice!

Yeah, usually when I deal with lost edges, I'm just trying to make my digital work look more 'painterly'. I ideally want to make my digital work look more like oil painting in the long run, so I think it's really important to start dealing with smaller techniques like lost edges and blurred lines.

That Stapleton blog entry is really damn helpful! Couple that type of thing with continuing on doing master studies (which I have been neglecting lately) and I think I'll be on a new path. It's funny how the path of finding your voice in art has so many side-roads.

A shadow box could be really smart to make in the future, but as of right now, I don't exactly have the room for one mainly because I don't have much space. BUT that will be something that I do in the future!

NumberAlone:

i like it.. i would suggest you to use smooth brush to blend in tones

I think I prefer the chunkiness of the painters of yore when it comes to blending. Although... I am a fan of Bouguereau's work. But, his blending and smoothness makes no sense... :P

Ursula Dorada:

What pnate said :)
Not only saturation, but there is a lot of hue shifts on skin tones too! Try working on them, they will add a lot of richness to your paintings.

For sure! Skin tones are so dumb in the fact of how many tones there are inside of the skin. I'm trying to mimic how Larriva does his skin. But I think to do that, I would be better served to step out of the digital realm for a bit and try more oil painting.

pnate:

Heyyy, nice studies going on here matkaminski! As a crit, I'd recommend watching some of the saturation in those skin tones, because they seem a little flat at the moment. It may be the sources you are pulling your refs from, in which case I'd suggest trying to get the most "natural" photos possible (that don't look super color-corrected or "professional"). For instance, in that oil paint video you posted, you can see how rich the artist's warms are and all of the interesting cools that are there as well. Something that may help is laying down the most saturated colors first as a base, then layering on top (or an extra color, soft light, or saturation layer on top may do the job).

As of right now, I tend to work from dark to light. Meaning that I'll try to find the darkest tone to lay as a base, and then work upward from there to the lightest light. Is that the 'right way'? Or is there no right way...?
Usually right at the end though, I tend to make a new layer with a warming photo filter to really bring the skin tones back to that warmness instead of that dead color that I tend to paint them in. Hmmm maybe if I paint on top of that too perhaps? Stuff to think about...

-------------------
-------------------

Flight

Title: Flight
Medium: Oils
Scale: Original image is around 4ft x 2ft

Notes: No joke... this is the biggest painting I've ever done.
For some reason I had this in my head early on. Before I even started painting it I kind of knew exactly what I wanted to paint. Not only that, but this was one of the first real attempts at doing anything in oil that was more than just black and white. Oh this was so exciting to me and I definitely DEFINITELY want to do more of this.

Dust Sprites

Title: Dust Sprites
Date: February 14, 2013
Medium: Gouache
Scale: Original image is 15" x 20"

Notes: This was a birthday present for my special lady friend. She loves these little guys! I wish I could be as happy as they are all the time! They are from Miyazaki films such as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

Serious Face

Title: Serious Face
Medium: Oils
Scale: Original is 9" x 12"

Notes: This was my first attempt at oil paints ever. I think it turned out okay, but those eyes are still wonky. From what I hear you can just go right over oil paints with more oil paints. OOHHH I'm so excited about Oil painting!

Sketchin' the Night Away

Title: Sketchin' the Night Away
Medium: Graphite
Scale: Each 'page' is 9" x 12"

Notes: These are all just various things that pop into my head while relaxing as well as doing sketches for different assignments. Just a small sampling really, but I thought I would share.

Comics 2: Characters 1 - 5

Title: Comics 2: Characters 1 - 5
Medium: Graphite
Scale: Each 'page' is 9" x 12"

Notes: The characters that we've had to flesh out so far for comics 2. From the top: Cora, Aleksi, Cora (alternate), Mr. Johnson, and the Journal. I can't really talk much about the overall character descriptions at the moment, but each one has about 1000 words talking about their past, their attitudes, why they exist, etc.

Characters are so damn fun... makes me more and more want to study Wes Burt and Marko Djurdjevic's character design!

Comics 2: Cora's Awakening

Title: Comics 2: Cora's Awakening
Medium: Graphite
Scale: Each 'page' is 9" x 12"

Notes: The second comic for comics 2 was to create a comic in which your main character and two side character get into a heated argument.
Hopefully this actually makes sense to people... this has been an insane day so far!

False Starts

Title: False Starts
Medium: Photoshop CS3 & CS6
Scale: Varies

Notes: I think the most important thing to realize here, is that this happens to everyone. The sketching. I used to think this was a bad thing to not finish what you start. And I still think it sometimes. The point though, is to realize that sometimes the process is just as important as what you ultimately get out of the final piece.

John Lee goes on about this type of thing over and over here. I would honestly suggest that you read a bunch of this to really get some good advice!

More pretty sound advice from Jeff Simpson at the Collective here. (thanks Erica!)

All-in-all, the point I'm trying to make is two-fold:

1) Do whatever it takes to get your final piece out. I mean, WHATEVER it takes. The industry from what I understand has such a huge turnaround rate that I think it's important to note that you might have to make finalized pieces in a day. I once read an article (can't find it at the moment) that talked about if you have a week to finish a piece, it better be a damn good piece. If you have an hour, then you give them your very best in an hour. Point being, always try your damn best!

2) Sometimes just purely sketching is just as important as finalized pieces. Just make sure that all of your sketching is actively pushing you towards some goal or you are just sketching for the sake of sketching. While this may work for certain artists (mainly because they lack a specific end-goal) you should always be actively researching things, making them look representational (and I could start a whole rant about how stylized and abstraction should be first influenced by correct basics, such as proper anatomy, proper color theory, etc.), and overall, making them appealing. Not specifically to everyone else, make sure that YOU enjoy your output. If you can't love your own work, how do you expect anyone else to?

ANYWAY... just some thoughts I had while sketching.

Finally... more advice on exposure from Gregory Manchess.

Logo Final 1: Origin Entertainment

Title: Logo Final 1: Origin Entertainment
Medium: Illustrator CS3

Notes: The final logo that I came up with for Origin Entertainment. One day this will hopefully become a reality... one day.

Logo Final 2: Cannonball Cakes

Title: Logo Final 2: Cannonball Cakes
Medium: Photoshop CS3

Notes: As a continuation of the logo design project, we were to take someone else's logo in the class, and then redesign it to fit around our own personal style. Of course there was someone in the middle that served as our art director and they would hand off their sketch and then we were to finalize it.