PLAYTIME W/ JAKTRAYTER

[devinn]

I appreciate the suggestion.

[devinn]

I painted my father.

[devinn]

Arm Study and Character WIP from my imagination, the pose isn't too dynamic, so it was relatively easy.

[devinn]

Kusanaaaaaaa

[devinn]

WIP of another Illustration of my character Kusana.

[EduardoGaray]

i really like all the effort you are putting on this, but my personal suggestion is, before you fully focus on rendering, go back to the basics, do gesture studies, a lot. I mean, not 3 or 4, but 50.
Then go back to this character, you will see... xD

[devinn]

I appreciate the suggestion : )

[devinn]

Optimus sketch, studies, Kusana sketch WIP.

[devinn]

Poses and gestures

[Tygerson]

Great to see the muscle studies, then how you transfer that practice straight into your personal work.

Really great painting of your father, especially on the face!

[devinn]

Thank you! I've learned that practice through application is very important, instead of studying blindly...plus that just gets boring and unbearably tedious.

[devinn]

The week of gestures and poses continues...

I have no personality. I have no friends. I broke up with my girlfriend last week.

The struggle continues...

[devinn]

Ahhhhhhhhhh hello.

I hate working at Steak n Shake.

Just posting a few gestures, poses, color study, and some booboo knight designs.

ahhh....dem booboo knight designs.

[Tygerson]

Somewhere you had asked about blending. You've probably figured it out since then.

But this tutorial talks about one way to blend with a hard brush (you have to go to the written tutorial she posted underneath at DA).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTQnrRiC5lA

Basically you use not 100% opacity hard brush (it doesn't even have to be low opacity), then color pick between the two colors and brush. The rhythm is like brush, alt+tap, brush, brush, alt+tap, brush, brush...

These were done with a hard round brush (Marta Dahlig's ragged hard round, not that it really matters):




Also this:




When doing new blending techniques, I like to try an easy subject, like a flower, so I'm not struggling with the subject AND the tool.

[devinn]

@Tygerson oh yeah, that was a long while ago, though, it is still nice to be refreshed of the method. Thanks

[EduardoGaray]

Hey man, its awesome all the practice you are doing, but beware, looks like you are focusing on form and what you see, and you should be focusing on structure and how to construct the figure.
My suggestion is, try to reduce the figure to basic 3d shapes, cilinders, spheres, etc... and try to construct the figure that way.

[devinn]

@eduardogaray oh sweet good idea. I was initially focused on poses and gestures, like you suggested previously haha. anything that could break me out of my comfortable stationary positions. I appreciate the suggestion ( :

I like your new sketch for the sacred flame. gorgeous

[EduardoGaray]

but everything is related xD focusing on gestures and poses also means to focus on shapes and construction. (Now that i think about it, i should have told you that from the start. :P)
Also, thanks! glad you like it, i really want to get some time free to start painting it.

[devinn]

Some head, some eggs, and a knight.

A knight with a small egg-head.

[pnate]

Eduardo's advice is gold! Also if you are having trouble with anatomy I highly recommend Vilppu's anatomy videos, they really helped me understand things I never considered before. It's incredible how important the initial structure is to the final painting. We all struggle with it, but try your best to visualize what you're drawing in your head in 3d space, it'll show in the finished drawing. Keep going! Good to see you working so hard and hope to see more