Hobitt-hole

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES


@Neopatogen I do like drawing im just not very good at it, but i think it crucial for an artist to be as well rounded as possible because if one relies on style to carry his artwork then it restricts the person and he cant fulfill his full potential.

Alright trying to incorporate this idea into my drawings now and as expected my quality took a nose dive until i get breaking down things into basic forms in my subconscious it will take a bit of time to learn , i think it will pay off.

Gestures and figure drawing using basic shapes (looks horrible)





Finished the iceberg study it turned out worse than i expected but no point in sitting on it for weeks to make it perfect i learned from it what i needed, started a material study (WIP).






Did some more designs for the character and the statue pose idea for the final






And here are some drawings from life and imagination trying to learn these new ideas






Pretty mediocore results today but ohhwell atleast im learning..i think.

[JyonnyNovice]

Even if you don't get where you want doing the primitive construction approach, I think you will gain a lot from it still. That guy with the gas mask is already looking loads better.

From the character design course on Schoolism, Stephen Silver is constantly going back and forth between construction and shapes. He starts with silhouettes, breaks it into cool shapes, gets the construction solid around the shapes (which ends up changing the shapes), then looks at the shapes again, then pushes and edits it, checks construction, looks some more at the shapes etc. Same with drawing from life, I think starting off with primitives then designing the shapes on top is a good way. It's a constant back and forth - shapes make it look cool while the construction makes it look believable / credible. Those artists who look like they are just diving in and drawing shapes have got that primitive construction thinking really intuitive so they kind of don't need to consciously think about it (some of them never built stuff from primitives, they just developed it from hours upon hours of observation drawings from life drawing and such). For us who're still learning, and don't want to spend years doing still life, doing pure primitive based stuff will build that intuition. (sorry that rambled on longer than intended)

By the way, the most recent statue design is looking really cool, maybe play up the curves on his forearm pieces to contrast with all the straights.

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES


@Jyonny yes this is the conclusion im coming to that one need to use both at the same time in order to produce the best kind of work so ill keep going starting to getting the hang of it slowly but surely.And no worries i ramble sometimes too as seen in the previous post's

Alright did some talking today with people trying to figure out what problems my drawing approach has and i think some problem are being solved.

gestures




structure analysis ( ignore its bad)



Material study



Alright these are color roughs trying to find the color scheme i want ( and yes i am aware values are off the purpose of these is to find the combination of color and chroma that looks appealing)



and here i picked one adjusted the values



still not sure which one to pick,ill do more and work out some of these into more correct values to see if they work.

And now the actual structure practice trying to break down things into most basic forms and build on top on them with smaller forms , getting a bit easier but muscle memory is hard to change.










This one is ugly, but i wanted to really concentrate on the shapes not caring about quality.

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES



Still trying to get this construction thing just right, and i think ill start the final.

Gestures




Structure analysis



Another color rough i think ill go for something like this with some adjustments




And construction practice




and something more fun ( from imagination)




not perfect, but at this point its just practice practice.

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES


Alright started the drawing for the final!

Gestures, trying to add more structure to them.



This is a second version got feedback on the first scraped that one and this one is the result ill keep refining the drawing and then start painting so feedback is welcome.

[Artloader]

Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook Hobbit! Yours is pretty cool too. Loads of hard work here, it's inspiring. That primitives approach seems to be really paying off for you, you're putting together some really credible sketches. Keep going dude!

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES
@Artloader thanks!



Alright working on the piece now feedback is appreciated.




Gestures



Copying letters to train accuracy



And compositional studies from masters ill do more these are very useful

[Axrel]

Thanks for looking through my sketchbook! Those gestures look really good, and your painting is coming along nicely. It's really inspiring to see how much planning you're doing for it! I know it's still early on in the painting, but remember to pay attention to your edges. :)

[JyonnyNovice]

The painting is starting to look great! Just be careful of tangents between the flame / nozzle and the statue.

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES


@Axrel Thanks! ill try to watch out for edges but they are tricky
@Jyonny Thanks! thankfuly tangents are fairly easy to fix

The painting itself at this point its just refining refining and refining, will try to bring it to as much of a finished state as i can.







Master studies for composition finding these very helpful



Gestures




More accuracy training

[Hobitt]

I. LIVING STATUES

Alright here it is the final




And i hate it it looks ameteurish and thus i consider this a failure. The plan is this ill stop updating for a bit and study certain stuff that i think will help greatly to improve my art ,i really want to concentrate on getting some stuff just right .I shall return soonish.

gestures

[BenFlores]

Hobbit, I liked the last piece you did, although I think it was better before you put all the snowfall , probably personal taste but it seemed to have more confidence. You really pushed yourself with that one. Just keep doing that and put yourself in situations where you're struggling, that's where you learn the most. Try not to be discouraged that you don't like the image, being honest with where you are at and then doing something about it will get you to that next step. Looking forward to that next update!

[Riprap]

Hey great stuff here, liking your newest one especially. Can't wait to see more : )

[Vornag]

Hey Hobbit, I have some tips that may prove useful when it comes to that painting.

The finished piece, compared to the WIP, is extremely flat value-wise. Having little value variety makes it harder to distinguish shapes in addition to looking boring. In your WIP, the cave behind the statue was darker, allow the statue to pop out that much more, something that was lost in the final piece. A bunch of contrasting value in a single place allows the eye to rest there, giving your image a focal point.

The snow is a neat idea, but it's extremely risky in that it adds so much visual noise to your image. Unless you establish a super solid focal point, it'll just further distract the viewer. It's a burst of detail that draws the eye, so you should optimally place it at your focal point.

"Framing" the image with a bunch of dark value looks pretty and draws the viewer's eye away from the edges. You should avoid having stuff pointing towards edges since it leads the eye out of the image. Redirect it towards the focal point or have it point to something that points towards the focal point. The back and forth between the figure and the statue looking at eachother is really nice.

A difference in size further helps to define a focal point.




Aside from that, your sketchbook is looking super neato. Constructive drawing is one of the best things you can do for yourself and it'll better you in every way.

Keep going and have fun.

[Hobitt]

@Vornag Thanks for the overpaint, really appreciate it
@Riprap Thanks!
@zoylster Doesent sound negative at all, i really appreciate any feedback i recieve
@BenFlores  Thanks, indeed pushing yourself is crucial

IM BACK! So what ive been up to, studied a bunch of things including how to do actual studies ( and not just copying), but mostly value, did a bunch of grayscale sketches trying to understand the principles so here are the last 3  i did and i think they succeed in conveying a sense of light which ive been trying to do for a while, so now that i learned this things i think im ready to tackle another bloodsport and hopefully it wont be a dissapointment like last time. ( side note i started having a much lighter grip when sketching with pencil and sadly my scanner doesent like that so i think ill skip posting gestures ill try to photograph them and see how that goes, but whatever i mostly do digital anyway.

And the bloodsport i picked this time is MONSTER HUNTER CHALLENGE












And a random photo copy not a study from earlier

[Hobitt]

MONSTER HUNTER CHALLENGE

Alright here are the first few attempts and studies. Starting to have doubts again not good.









This guy turned out to be too much 17th century ill try a more sci fi version tommorow



This... not much to say here its crap



And a quick  still life pretty bad also.

[Hobitt]

Ohh great for some reason yesterday typed a bunch of text but then the forum died on me and everything got deleted so... TAKE 2

Yesterday was not productive. I kept deleting every attempt at drawing from imagination over and over because it looked bad.So i started questioning why , and i think i came to a logical conclusion, its quite simple almost too simple. I just don't draw from imagination enough, i did some math and in these 4 years i on average made 25 pieces from imagination thats not a lot meanwhile i did probably up to hundreds of "studies" and it shows they actually improved because i invested so much time doing it. It makes sense right? if you keep doing something you will get better, and i haven't been drawing from imagination almost at all, a good example would be i studied anatomy quite a lot ( even studying some right now) and in theory i know all the muscles and proportion and can even draw decent gestures and studies, but when i sit down to draw a figure from my head that knowledge suddenly is not there and everything looks off, and i think the reason for this is that i haven't draw enough figures from imagination and there are countless examples of this. So i think its time to change my artistic diet, instead of doing gesture i will mostly do figures from my head instead and shift my focus towards imagination drawing which i want to be good at and if ill see a gap in knowledge ill fill it up quickly with a study and carry on. IF IM HAVING THE WRONG IDEAS DO LET ME KNOW. But at this point im running out of ideas. I will continue studying anatomy since i want to finish the book im going through and ill do quick still lives those are always good.Also i think i need to abandon the idea of these bloodsports being potential portfolio pieces they won't be since i dont have enough experience to make them good enough i just need to do the best that i can and after doing a bunch of stuff from imagination over and over i will get better? So expect a tidal wave of shitty imagination drawings and i already feel uncomfortable about drawing from imagination which is good, as it was once sed the thing you are most uncomfortable about you should do the most. ( side note started learning a bit of zbrush very nice software  its a good learning tool and just fun )

MONSTER HUNTER CHALLENGE
Actual quick study



Pathetic attempt at a sketch after messing about with zbrush

[cesartalves]

Try to give your figures some kind of gesture or attitude. The last guy has kinda of an interesting design but his limbs are stiff and his pose is very generic.
And just keep working, you'll certainly keep improving :) I'd advise you to focus a lot on drawing, proportions and perspective.

[Hobitt]

@cesartalves  Thanks these are more design explorations so i concentrate on that.

Well the CRIMSON CRUCIBLE  is a thing now so i guess no point in doing the bloodsports cause now there is a real thing now! Im gonna finish this one and when it starts ill do that. Also instead of drawing gestures as i always do i drew figures from my head and they were bad real bad. So i will continue doing that going to shift my focus on imaginative drawing and painting as mentioned in detail in my previous post, and also im actually having fun for the first time in a long while which is very refreshing!

This is difficult i had a design in mind this is close but not close enough i shall attempt again tommorow ( excuse me for the terrible drawing but this is way outside my comfort zone)



and this abomination i tried to sculpt in zbrush and then overpaint it its interesting software still need to practice

[Hobitt]

Alright i think im starting to get into the flow of this but im still falling on my face when drawing from imagination, and i have to ask should i bother uploading these attempts? Im sure no one is interested in seeing someone fail over and over because this what has to happen just lack of experience.

This looks like something i drew 3 years ago which makes sense that is the time i stopped drawing from imagination a lot and went into that whole study hard idea. The design is closer what i had in mind but its still not there so ill make a third pass tommorow and go for the finished version then.





Still life



And a study of feathers since the creature i will do changed a bit which i think will be a cooler design.