Thank you man! Haha me too, I don't feel like one of them!
Was thinking about that one too for the same reasons! Having a really hard time settling on one right now. Trying to include that same feeling in some newer ones. So thanks for the input!
Here's some Doré studies. Genius man, master of compositions and value. Starting to notice how he was so subtle and skilled when it comes to countering values with each other. It just feels so believable.
So here's my sorry attempt at observing it :p
Applied the helmet from yesterday, tried to move it slightly ( I wanted to move it more but I'm a coward) just to challenge my mind. I think that I mostly retained how the colors worked.
Love how good Hampton is at explaining everything and it's practical use. I studied Vilppu before and this feels like a continuation of his thoughts and methods.
How it's important to understand the inside of things and not just the outside. It's becoming very obvious to me that older masters, and new masters know this.(duh)
So now I'm trying to remember all the randmarks and anti-landmarks.
Anatomy is fun.
Playing around with what I learned about structuring above the gesture. Counter-balance and direction of limbs. This was really helpful I think, to challenge the mind for a while.
Here's the rest of the Godfather Death compositions. I like the third one the most right now. But I still can't decide. Might make some more and mix different aspects.
Oh. Oh yea. Soon time to get going at some anatomy again. Thanks for inadvertenly reminding me ;D Really liked that bony helm mage on the other page, a real good quick one. He looks so crisp contrasted to the blurrier background and the shapes come out real nice on him as well.
Ye have to tell me if the prince of thorns was worth it when you´re done, never hurts to have more awesome inspiration from imagination.
Yeaah anatomy is the shit! Haha no problem. I recommend doing Hampton and Vilppu, they both complement each other a lot it seems. Gives you a broad understanding on how to go from gestures to anatomically correct models.
Thanks, happy that you liked it, gotta experiment with contrasts such as those more :D
Haha to be honest, it starts out really bad. I couldn't visualize the characters at all, they seemed so bland and boring. Towards the middle it gets progressively better, but still nothing to cheer about. Trying so hard to make the main-character feel badass and dark, feels corny :P
Continuing the Hampton studies. I think that these were a lot more fun, though I forget all the parts of the process sometimes and skip some. Still does the trick!
Bored overlord spitpaint
Here's the composition I picked out for Godfather Death. Feels like this comp would be the most challenge for me while still presenting a cool scenario. Since what I gathered from the "Do not wants" of the posters was the "posing" part. At least a small part of it! So this is when Death telepathically and magically becomes the mental and supreme godfather of the little baby physician.
Skullstudies done for death
Sketching some silhouettes for death, just want to see if I can squeeze in a cool design
And movie still study, from the dark knight rises. Just to get some atmosphere, though during the study I found some other pieces with nicer atmosphere. So we'll see if I use it
Finally finishing up the last part of the applications for school. Almooost there, feels like I've received a new set of lungs.
Anyway, here's some progress on Godfather Death. Dropping in some color. Still not entirely sure about the composition so I'll probs change the foreground to increase the sense of scale. Digging it so far!
That old dude needs some nice flowing hair, so here's a study of some nice flowing hair. Going to give him a beautiful beethoven mane
Yoooo, thanks for the comment! Nice studies and hussle, on the right track for sure! Nice to see some dore studies, I definitely a treasure trove of information in that dude's work.
godfather of death illustration is on its way to being nice and creepy, few ideas I suggest trying int he image to help with the composition:
Editing the values of the middle ground and foreground so they're very distinct and you get a clear overlap
Shrinking the guy, enlarging the skeleton to make it seem more powerful
Overlapping one of the guy's feet with the foreground and to add some more overlap and depth
make the forest in the back darker and let the skeleton's silhouette fade into it, losing his definite shape will make the viewer not be able to tell how big he is, more mystery is scarier!
Moving the skeleton so his top isn't so precariously close to the top edge of the canvas, that almost-tangent is creating a lot of tension.
Samszym
Hey Sam,
No worries man, thanks that means a lot! Doré is a king of his trade, just saw one of his exhibitions in Paris. It was mindblowing!
Thaaanks a bunch for the critique on the piece! I took to heart everything that you said about it (Almost!). I'm not too sure if I was able to carry it out as well though. Ended up stress painting it all night before the deadline, so might not have made some good decisions haha!
Happy that I did something though!
Sorry haven't posted in a while, got caught up in more applications for another school. Took a lot of time out of my painting schedule! I'm back now though contemplating on how I should spend the upcoming weeks/months/years. Need to build a better portfolio and need to build up my skill.
I've been unsure about if I'm progressing at all lately and that has led to more annoying thoughts about my future.
Here are a mix of things from the last couple of days. Had to stress the Godfather piece so I didn't apply or study as much as I wanted to. Kinda depressing actually, because that's what I need to do. I managed to produce some observational things though.
A damned king for my Fjord project, made it a while ago but forgot to post. I kinda like him.
A quick elemental piece, wanted to apply the tree study I made some days ago. But didn't have time because of applications and all that. SO I left it simple
A quick dragonknight sketch based on something from my traditional sketchbook.
Another knight sketch, inspired by dark souls. What a wonderful and challenging game. Feels so unlike all the other games on the mainstream market, I've never died this much yet felt like I've had so much fun at the same time. It also gives your imagination more space than usual.
And my crowning moment, this is a WIP of my repainting/updating my old Cake-Orc piece from 2012. This time he has reached the title of Prince Lord Sweetlips and we will follow his ruthless campaign over the sugar-sweet plains of his ancestors.
Yeaah totally in love with it! The OST does an awesome job of portraying the atmosphere of the game. Have you checked out the design works book? They have an awesome philosophy of having a NPC's armor set as the main characteristic, instead of having a unique face with common looking armor.
Haha that's the point I guess! Something stupid/serious is always funny :D
So since the Khans of Tarkir expansion for MGT was announced I'm very tempted to do a portfolio/fanart piece more geared towards it. I have been wanting to do a MGT-inspired piece for a while now (Spellsword Barbarian was a test if I could do something cool with the card dimensions)
Starting with studies on mongolian armors and applying them directly with different designs. Big thanks to Forrest Imel for his video about studying habits. Needed to hear that.
A smaller study on a rock
Morning gestures, soon moving on to more Hampton
Virtual plein air, though I didn't use google maps for it. Just and old mobile phone picture I wanted to paint. Still not used to clouds, sooo more of those!
Yo guys, mix of stuff this time. Trying to figure out how to start freelancing, reading up on resource, but there's still a fear factor in it all that I can't get over.
Atleast I got my first small commission to paint an album cover. Really happy with that. I'll post some WiP's when I've decided on a thumbnail, since I got pretty free hands.
Going to start with another portfolio-piece that's more aimed toward MGT and similar games.
Here's some thumbnail sketches for a Khans of Tarkir inspired piece. Tried coming up with a little story to help with the character and intention of the picture. I think it helps at this stage, because it can be hard to start from nothing.
Movie study
Virtual plein air number 2, always notice that vegetation is the hardest thing for me to paint when it comes to environments! Next to rocks and everything else of course. Trying to sharpen things up because it tends to get muddy.
Portrait plane study
Skintone/modell study, applied it in various ways, but they all ended up really bad
Quick things for the imagination. I've ended up stuying most of the days now, so gotta wind down with creative outbursts on the canvas!
This one kind of turned out to be a application of the movie-study from a couple of days ago. I guess mostly the composition though. Haven't done a character design like this in a while, so that felt fun!
I totally agree, and just for curious, wich are the anti-landmarks??
(05-06-2014, 08:12 AM)Bjulvar Wrote: Thank you man! Haha me too, I don't feel like one of them!
Was thinking about that one too for the same reasons! Having a really hard time settling on one right now. Trying to include that same feeling in some newer ones. So thanks for the input!
Here's some Doré studies. Genius man, master of compositions and value. Starting to notice how he was so subtle and skilled when it comes to countering values with each other. It just feels so believable.
So here's my sorry attempt at observing it :p
Applied the helmet from yesterday, tried to move it slightly ( I wanted to move it more but I'm a coward) just to challenge my mind. I think that I mostly retained how the colors worked.
Love how good Hampton is at explaining everything and it's practical use. I studied Vilppu before and this feels like a continuation of his thoughts and methods.
How it's important to understand the inside of things and not just the outside. It's becoming very obvious to me that older masters, and new masters know this.(duh)
So now I'm trying to remember all the randmarks and anti-landmarks.
Anatomy is fun.
Playing around with what I learned about structuring above the gesture. Counter-balance and direction of limbs. This was really helpful I think, to challenge the mind for a while.
Here's the rest of the Godfather Death compositions. I like the third one the most right now. But I still can't decide. Might make some more and mix different aspects.
I´m a painter man, and i paint my cock the size that i want!!
-Alberto Mielgo
Hey man, one of them is the pit between the clavicle. Basically the landmarks are visible bone and the anti-landmarks are the opposite!
Aah slow updates, sorry. The past few days have been full of headaches and migraines. So I've lost a lot of focus and motivation because of it.
Bought some clay to play around and experiment with. Haven't sculpted anything yet, but I'm thinking of doing a reference for a larger painting. Could be fun to try out!
Here's a new piece, not very far in but I'm already feeling some roadbumps haha.
Iron vampire speedie, threw in a photo for the breastplate. Trying to work it in.
Started doing some quicker hand studies. Nothing fancy, just capturing the gesture with these.
And older version of Toon link from Wind Waker! Not exactly the same style. But it was fun trying to make him looker older. Also tried using brush modes more here.
Study
I can never get enough cliff studies into my visual library
Cracking sketchbook, all these studies show loads of improvement. Great rock studies too, really liking the little colour variations you are homing in on with them.
Regarding your new piece at the top, I have a few suggestions - mainly just addressing composition and lighting. Try to use values to break up the foreground/midground/background a bit more, since everything looks rather compressed in space at the moment - if you view the image in greyscale, they don't really stand out from each other. It is already on the right tracks with how you have used the pale sky to silhouette the bowman. So perhaps use atmospheric perspective to push those rocks back on the right of the picture, and a tiny bit with the ground and the dragon's tail too.
Try experimenting with designing the light/shadows on the tail and the shape of the clouds as well - they're pretty flexible elements. (Possible example: pulling the clouds into shapes that leave the highlights framing his face).
The overlaps of the arms and bow with the rest of the picture are serving it pretty well, they introduce a nice contrast of diagonals, but watch out for the tangent his ponytail is making with that rock.
Good luck with it though, I really like where you are going with his costume. The way you have framed him with the bow and have those diagonals pointing in is working well too.
Hey man, I feel like such a bum in that ive not replied in here in so long D: It's awesome to catch up and see all your work you've been doing though. Still love seeing all your designs and ideas, they get me all inspired and excited.
You've developed a painting style which reminds me a lot of alex konstads stuff - http://alexkonstad.tumblr.com/ His stuff is so awesome 0_0
"Trying to figure out how to start freelancing, reading up on resource, but there's still a fear factor in it all that I can't get over. "
Your stuff has come a long way man and I always love seeing your updates dude. If I could offer any helpful feedback based on the last few pages ive seen I would perhaps dedicate some time into focusing on your edges and structure. In fairness that latest planes face study and the 5th element film cap study both have nice edge control so its clear your focusing on that. But sometimes the edges and transitions between values can all seem very similar and there's little variety between hard and softs. A possible idea might be to take a figure study, like the one you did next to the plane face study piece and push it to a point where it looks really close to the photo, and try to nail the soft and hard transitions between values, structure and edges.
Sorry if that comes across as me bein a dick or isn't much help, I know its hard sometimes to give helpful feedback when you yourself ultimately know whats best and what you need to do to improve :p
All the best mate, looking forward to seeing more updates!
Definitely a good crit. I really tried pushing the values away from each other, but found it really hard to bring it all together after a while! I've put the image on hold for a couple of days to see if I can start fresh later. Used a lot of what you wrote and while it made all the core aspects better I just couldn't handle it haha.
Thanks for stopping by and for the wicked feedback man!
Warburton
Yo man! Don't worry, I feel the same way! So nice of you dude, makes me really happy knowing you enjoy my sketches and silly things. Really making me blush comparing me to Alex, suuuper influenced by him. But I'm sooo far from his skill haha.
Yeah weird how that works. It's not something we all go deep into. We're into the visuals and not the marketing side. Good reminder that it's something you have to constantly get better at on the side.
THanks a bunch for all these links, started reading them, some seem broken though. Finding them very useful anyway :)
You're never being a dick when it comes to critique hihi, it's really appreciated! Edges haunt me for life, when I study I really try to be aware of them and focus on the image as a whole. Doesn't get carried over to my paintings and applications. Maybe I should do as you say and just have it as a study-assignment, focus only on it.
Thanks again, you'll see some more :D
Here I am back again. That was a big leap between posts! Feels like I'm in a limbo of distractions and procrastination. Looking back on the week, I've done a couple of things at least. But i'm not finishing portfolio work or applying studies very good. Might be because there's this weird juxtaposition between havig your head filled with ideas and trying to get them all out, versus having nothing of substance to paint.
I really like doing quicker sketches and such, but then again I need to do longer paintings for my portfolio.
And it sucks since I had such a boost of motivation and creative energy a year / two years ago. Felt like nothing could stop me, now it seems that I have stopped myself somehow.
Damned me!
I got work on an album cover for an indie underground band, so that's a plus atleast. Basically my first commission work that isn't from friends :P
And I'm going for an interview at a game art school. I went there last year and failed. But I feel way more prepared this year, this fear is nagging me in the neck.
Totally negative post, but damn if I'm not feeling it. Gotta pop some epic music and get going again.
Here's the initial sketch for the album cover, it will feature Gaia!
Applied some gestures and put an armor on it. That's how you save a pose.
A djinn-dude
Gul'dan, next warcraft orc portrait. Some guys over at reddit suggested it and damn if I don't want to please two random dudes on the internet!11
Some handstudies in preparation for the school interview. Doing a bunch like gestures.
A longer modelstudy trying to get it more like the photo, recommended by Warburton! Triiied my best. I don't usually mix hard and soft brushes this much, there needs to be more overlapping when I do it. Need to paint more confident areas, pay more attention to what I'm doing.
A phallic head, don't judge
The redlands sketch, playing around, comfort zone is hell
Big trouble in little movies study, applying and study. It's so weird that I find it fund painting the backgrounds in studies but not in my own work. Why is that? :P
Found out that I could use more hard brushes for these sort of settings, and not mush it around too much.
Have a nice one Daggers, feels nice now that I've vented here haha.
Stay focused and profilic! <3
The model study is starting to show improvement to the form rendering I think - it looks 'weighter' than some of the earlier studies you have. Crits-wise, again, just keep working at those edges and how the shadows show the form turning near the boundaries of the figure - the transitions are looking better on your bigger forms (especially the legs) and I can see more of a read of hard edges vs soft (like on the wrists vs forearms), so just keep going.
Regarding backgrounds in studies versus you own work, I'm not sure, but the same here. Perhaps it is because there is a certain amount of complexity (in terms of unfamiliar subject, textures, etc) that makes it intimidating for people who are more focused on characters/creatures.
I'm working on building a portfolio too, it is a big job haha. I just try to do a little bit of work each day, since it is such a big task. With regards to applying studies, perhaps you could do some studies as you encounter the challenge in portfolio pieces? For instance, when you need to do something (lighting conditions, materials/texture, anatomy, props, animals, etc.), you go out and find reference, do a study from that, then go back to the piece and apply it. It isn't the only way to study, but it pretty helpful in terms of retention and application (and totally kills two birds with one stone).
Good luck with your interview as well, I hope it goes better for you this time!
clockodile
Thanks again man!
Ah that's nice to hear, I'm trying to get it into a routine to think about hard versus soft and all the edges. Still, they seem better in my studies, maybe not my imginative work just yet. I found some really nice references for what you're talking about, so I'll se if I can study it later on and analyze it. Awesome to get the problem into my spectrum though :)
Yeah sounds about right! Atleast it's helping to introduce environments next to the characters that I paint, doesn't feel as intimidating then.
Aah great advice once again! That seems to be a really effective way to learn aswell. Since It's so easy to get caught up in a study-fest where you just study something you have no need of using. Atleast in the near future. Will have to try it out for a painting or two and see if I can do it!
Thanks a lot! I'm sure it will go better this time :D
Haha just wanted to show where the mongolian piece was heading before I changed it. Just couldn't get it to work, there was a lot of faults with it too. Listened to the Marek Okon session of levelup and loved how passionate the guy is. Really inspired me to just change the thing if I didn't like it.
One huge thing with this sketch is that it feels very stale. I settled for a bunch of decissions and lost all interest in a way. You just have to decide what you want to do with painting of course, but there needs to be freedom and passion when it moves along and becomes more polished. This didn't happen here, composition was weird from the get go.
And here is what it looks like now instead. I abandoned a lot of the "wants" I had and went with more of what the pieces needed. Not always good to want too much, it will cloud you.
Atleast this is way more fun to paint, still not completely done with the "base", but liking it!
A quick environment inbetween stuff, feels like i'm subconciously inspired by banner saga. Love the compositions in that game.
Hyped up before Nintendos E3 conference, wonky eyes and everything. I still liked painting it.
Cliiiffs! Need more cliffs!
Value study, going to start up a painting.
A quick assassin's creed sketch, started playing Black Flag and it's so much greater than the third game that I almost find it the best in the series.
Wow, what an about turn with the mongolian painting! The new composition is big change, but it is definitely more interesting. The use of negative space is much better, as are the shapes pointing to him and the counterchange of values around his head.
Great values and silhouettes on that Assassin's Creed sketch too, it looks really dynamic.
Going to go watch that Level Up! stream on youtube now! Just recently found out about them, they're fantastic.
Oh yes that archer's gonna look cool man! Also like the new take more, feels like the rendering will be real sweet when the base is that good. You have a nice way of mixing in different hues into faces while still maintaining nice shapes and edges. Must practice more of that myself ^^
AC4 is real nice. The whole sailing and sea combat + boarding is a fresh breeze from the usual counterkill combat. The pic you've done is real nice too heh. Seems like those value studies you did really paid of cause you've applied it real good here. Please continue on it yes!
