ThereIsNoJustice's Sketchbook

[tinDeer]

I don't know the scene, but it really seems nice from your takes on it! I like the brushwork in the first one a lot, and the reflection of light in the second one.
As I haven't seen the movie I don't know what that scene is about, but I suppose it has a calm mood? If I'm right, maybe those diagonal reflections are a bit distracting, because they imply action. And also generelly, because I wouldn't know why some of the reflections are vertical, and some diagonal. And there seem to be two light sources, but every object only has one shadow, which is a bit confusing.
If I want to focus on clarity and simplifiying I like to draw a scene quickly and then ask someone who didn't know it what it's about. I felt that really helped me personally.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

TinDeer, thanks for stopping by. You're right about the lighting and water problems. I'm planning to redo something with that image again sometime. I got overwhelmed because I didn't have the right tools at the time. Some helpful artlord on the discord pointed me toward notan and I've done some thumbnail practice to get a better idea on environments. 





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Study off a statue, with the help of some CD discord crits. Focus here is mainly on forms and simplification, looseness in some areas that don't need all the detail. 

Need to study mouths.





And lastly a study off one of Greg Rutkowsky's incredible paintings. He seems to use a lot of textured brushes in his work, so I tried that, and in addition used the dissolve layer blend mode for a majority of it. Personally, I liked the effect, but obviously it looks digital as soon as you give it a close look. 

[ThereIsNoJustice]

I've been getting back into 3D. More determined this time to get into it. Using blender. 

I may make some more Hampton simplified constructions like this foot. Or Bridgman or whatever. Maybe even do requests if one of my friends gets stuck or something. There are some great models of complicated and realistic anatomy out there but fewer simplified ones. 



This was supposed to be the Hound from GoT, but it doesn't look much like him. Fine for a first sculpt. 

The basic mesh in gray, then a textured version. There is some variation in the skin, the color zones of the face, but they seem overpowered by the light source looking at it now. 

To do on next face model: Separating meshes out for hair, eyes, and for inside the mouth. 

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Learned how to make a no-ref head (or other solid mass) that never has broken construction: Build off a cylinder. Cylinders can be squared off, turned into cubes, with all the advantages of cubes. Cylinders also avoid the total unpredictability of spheres or egg shapes, which cylinders can also be modified into. A nice middle ground to begin construction with.

Been thinking about and figuring out a fully repeatable process to get to a finish with an image. We'll see soon!


I was figuring this out below, which is why a lot of these heads were attempted with other methods and turned out awful.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Using more abstractions/2d shapes to set up drawings, along with ellipses. And trying direct to color, which makes me feel quite lost. I need to simplify things much more.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Texture+blend build up.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Another

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Lighting makes this one kinda hideous, but the shapes are mostly accurate.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Mostly construction lately.

[NoodleInBox]

Sweet <3 reminds me so much of krez cushart(?)s studies which is awesome!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Hi there. I think almost 3 weeks ago you PM'd me your elaboration and critiques about my work and I replied but I don't think you got it back. So I am here to say thank you for your kind words and help with everything. I'll make sure I will watch my figures in perspective next time :)

You have so much rough studies and yet they still work somehow. I like that. You aren't afraid of shitty sketches and doing something over and over again until you get it. That's admirable bro (at least to me).

Thank you!

[ThereIsNoJustice]

@AfricanVoodoo: Glad to hear it helped you some. Also, yeah, my studies tend to be messy, which is something I will work on fixing.

Currently in one of these mixed feelings of pressure and ambition, wanting to push further.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Just a couple things to post. 

I've done a lot of drawing from imagination, drawing from ref, trying different things and generally being dissatisfied with those approaches. I think the boring truth is that my hope to pull a figure out of my mind is very unrealistic, and that sketching figures from imagination is a waste. Not a total waste. I certainly see an improvement in the imagination figures below, but these couldn't be used in a process that leads to a finished piece in my opinion.

I know comic artists do figures and heads entirely from imagination but I also see the mistakes in their work to a lesser extent that I see myself making. Weird heads, weird figures, weird anatomy. Same face, same body. But they have to ship something, on a deadline, etc. and that means they lower their standards a bit, and reasonably so.

Drawing from imagination is good because you're unlimited, anything your mind or pencil can create, but it has also an aspect of being a trap. We're used to hearing that about reference drawing, how people fall into mindless copying and not analyzing things, skipping constructive drawing, not simplifying, the drawing/painting that may as well be a photo. Obviously reference has all those potential traps. But imaginative drawing has crappy aspects too. You can waste a lot of time trying to fix something without knowing how to fix it, your memorized simplification may not be what you want to draw, never knowing how right/wrong a drawing is.

Probably this is a temporary disillusionment with my results from pure imagination, maybe some perfectionism going on, and not being able to lower my expectations and standards in results enough to just take something to a finish.

All this is to say, from now at least for a good amount of time, maybe it should be a 2018 thing, to stick to altering reference at most. I'll still do imagination drawing for fun but for now I will stick to construction with ref. Definitely not going to post imagination for quite a while.

[John]

Probably this is a temporary disillusionment with my results from pure imagination, maybe some perfectionism going on, and not being able to lower my expectations and standards in results enough to just take something to a finish.

I assumed you got finished works outside this forum..

If I may, I don't think perfectionism or lowering your standards has anything to do with you finishing a piece. All artists have that nagging voice inside their heads. Despite of that feeling of need to achieve perfectionism, all it takes is one to be aware it's a fools errand to reach for something 'perfect' to begin with. We don't know what perfection really means if we're really going to be honest with ourselves. Going by what I see in your thread, I think you don't have it in you to 'fail' at a finished piece. Maybe that's probably why you haven't churned one out in almost a year.

Not that there's anything wrong with just sticking with studies. But if your aim is to finish a piece, you know you're spinning your wheels if you don't step out of that phase. I think you already got enough knowledge to create something. Anything.

Like what realized you about comic artists and their perceived failures in their craft, I hope you can find it in you to not be hard on yourself too.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

[HIRVIOS]

I praise you for your dedication to Study the figure,
but I'd like to see personal works here too!
Maybe It's just me, but I think the feeling of "Fun" is a bit lacking in many of these...

What's your ultimate goal with art?

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Hirvios: I suppose it doesn't look like it, but there's as much fun for me in studies as anything else. Which could be interpreted positively or negatively. I have some stuff I will work on for a game with friends soon, so maybe I will be able to put that up here. I've already done some but I haven't asked if it's ok to share, and I suppose I would only show it if it's further along.

As for ultimate goal, that sounds pretty heavy. Right now my aim is on illustration and a little bit of character concepting for this game.

One of the guys I follow and admire posted this: https://funkymonkey1945.deviantart.com/a...-728330095

Seemed like a good challenge. The purpose here is to simplify as much as possible while still ringing true.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Areas to focus on:
Gesture - curve reflected in whole form
Structure - building out of shapes instead of copying, trying different shape metaphors until something seems right. Bulging box torso, etc. 
Cross contour - sparingly use to reinforce structure.
Interlocking shapes - emphasize the way the forms fit together.
Shadow - use shadow to emphasize form. Notice the form shadow->cast shadow->form shadow which often creates a Z shape. Extra attention to what's in front, behind, how the shadow is effected.
Simple light and shadow - separate light, dark, and core shadow. Then add halftones. Finish with speculars and occlusion.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Stuff

[Tygerson]

I love the expressions on the faces you've drawn. Smiles are so hard to get right! Also, I like how you broke down shading in a simpler way, starting with the boundaries between light and dark.