Bjork's Journey with her Sketchbook :)

[miracoly]

Really cool sketchbook BjorkJT! I like your master studies, what masters are you studying from? Any favourites?

[BjorkJT]

"I really like the witch painting, the angle is nice. Thing that is bothering me a little is the space the kettle and the steam takes, composition wise it is nearly half your painting, while I would want to see more focus on the witch. The steam is also very bright, which attracts more attention as well. Otherwise, I love it. Like the way you paint :)."

Thank you! I worked on it some more and tried to make the fire take up less space and not be as bright. If it's still too much then just tell me and I'll work on it some more :)

Miracoly:
"Really cool sketchbook BjorkJT! I like your master studies, what masters are you studying from? Any favourites?"

Thanks for looking :D Hmm my favourites? I have a couple and it changes a bit from time to time, but John Singer Sargent is always one of my go to's. I also like Jean leon gerome, Leyendecker, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.. Those are a few I can think onf atm, I'm going to be doing some master studies again soon, so I'll make sure to write down some more names then ;)


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Been pretty busy this week with a school project, so I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted, but oh well so is life!

[BjorkJT]

Going back to the basics with some perspective! I have some studies in my sketchbook as well but unfortunately I don't have a scanner at the moment :( 
Aaaand I finally finished my 3D school project.

[Mechanizoid]

Hey Bjork, awesome stuff here, loving the progress you've made since your first posts. You sure are putting a lot of hours into improving your skills.

You mentioned wanting to be more confident with your brush and pencil strokes. I recommend drawing with a pen, particularly felt tip, for improving your confidence with your strokes. Right now I'm going through the Dynamic Sketching course at Draw a Box, which make me use a felt-tip pen. Using a felt-tip pen has REALLY improved my line economy, since, well, I can't erase it and everything I do adds more ink. I have to think out every mark. That improves confidence. Also, I had to learn how to control pen pressure well. I love these pens now. <3

Eagerly awaiting your next post! :)

[PurpleScissors]

Hi there! Really great works. I especially like the witch, only thing I have noticed is that it seems a bit textureless(?).
Your indoor/outdoor drawings are also good. I'm trying to draw boxes in perspective and it's hard :D

[BjorkJT]

Sagittarius-A-Star:
Thanks so much!  I'm definitely trying although lately I've been feeling like I'm such a slow learner X.X
I've been doing a lot more sketches with pen, I haven't gotten around to uploading them yet, but I'll make sure to do that later today! Thanks for the tip ^^

PurpleScissors:
Thanks mate! You're totally right, I think it's something I struggle with generally so I'll definitely make sure to work on that, thanks for the feedback! :D  And thank you, it's not my strongest asset so it something I need to put more effort into. And yup something as simple as boxes sometimes just kicks you in the butt.

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This was my entry for the crimson crucible challenge. Not my best work, I somehow screwed it up a lot with the rendering and my idea was pretty cliché. But boy did I learn a lot! It was also great seeing the forum sort of coming to life. Can't wait for the next challenge !

On another note. I think I'm hitting a low point with my art. You know that feeling when everything you do just kind of looks like poop to you? Yeah I'm there. ( http://nbaxter.com/wp-content/uploads/20...9550_n.jpg) 
I'll take that as a sign to just keep pushing harder and fix all the mistakes I see myself repeating. 

I'll update later with older stuff I've been working on since my last update :)

I send Love to you all!

[Piotr Jasielski]

This was my entry for the crimson crucible challenge. Not my best work, I somehow screwed it up a lot with the rendering and my idea was pretty cliché. But boy did I learn a lot! It was also great seeing the forum sort of coming to life. Can't wait for the next challenge !

On another note. I think I'm hitting a low point with my art. You know that feeling when everything you do just kind of looks like poop to you? Yeah I'm there. ( http://nbaxter.com/wp-content/uploads/20...9550_n.jpg) 
I'll take that as a sign to just keep pushing harder and fix all the mistakes I see myself repeating. 

Art is like swimming on waves - up and down, up and down. You did some amazing exploration and studies. Great idea. I must admit we were a little disappointed at the final result, but it's mostly because of stuff you can easily fix and make this piece way better. You can check our crit stream today evening :)

[BjorkJT]

Art is like swimming on waves - up and down, up and down. You did some amazing exploration and studies. Great idea. I must admit we were a little disappointed at the final result, but it's mostly because of stuff you can easily fix and make this piece way better. You can check our crit stream today evening :)

It really is! It's also what makes it so exciting since you're always learning more. 
Thank you! exploring is always one of the most fun parts, but yup I was disappointed, too, especially since I know I could've done better
Can't wait for the stream, I'll make sure to be there! :D

[BjorkJT]

Some anatomy studies, going to be working more on doing poses from imagination seeing as that is definitely one of my weaknesses
















These were some different designs for the Hermit character I made, I have a lot more experimentation drawings laying around but I don't know if they're all that interesting









 
Annnd then turned him into a 3D model  which was really fun to experiment with. He ended up looking a lot more calm in 3D, Probably because I struggled to make him look more "rough"






Link to the turnaround:
http://bjorkjt.tumblr.com/post/141245679...is-project


Annnd random colour thumbs..





On another note, I've been thinking about starting a little morning stream, where I get up at 6AM (GMT +1) in the morning and paint. I'm planning on doing it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. I'll update with more info regarding this :)

[iJeffrey]

Which 3D program do you use?

[BjorkJT]

Which 3D program do you use?

Maya and Zbrush :)

[smrr]

Woah, Bjork! Seems like you're really getting a handle on structure and rhythm in figures! That old dude looks balanced and real af!

Really great stuff <3 the finished piece turned out great too - love the story elements aaah ~

Keep it up!

[Farvus]

Fantastic sketchbook. It's good that you try everything.

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/attachme...?aid=77016 - This is a gem. Really nice lines.

Keep it up! :)

[BjorkJT]

Smrr: Thank you Smrr <3! 


Farvus: Haha I think I tend to stay in my safety zone most of the time though, so I have to start breaking that habit! But thank you! :D  

Alrighty! Some stuff from today and yesterday. It's landscape time! I'm trying to do a study and thereafter do it again from memory to incorporate what I've learned. 

So far I've just made really quick once so it's nothing too fancy yet, but I'll definitely make some longer memory/imaginative once.

Also made  a couple of colour studies and then some thumbs to see what stuff I can remember.






Study:


Memory:







Oh yeah and then I'm working on Shaddy Safadi's tutorial, any of you guys familiar with this? It's pretty difficult atm, but I think once I get used to it it's going to be a really nice workflow. It's really great how it forces you to think about one thing at a time.





Aaand then also some figure drawings from today's croquis session.

[BjorkJT]

Boop!

Which landscape artists would you guys recommend I study?

[Amit Dutta]

Shaddy's vid series is the best. An awesome workflow, I still use elements of it, 2 years after watching it! Great 3d work. Next time try and go the other way...3d to 2d, and you will have stronger work all around :)

Any landscape painter you enjoy is worth studying...here are some:
Dead
Any of the hudson river school ( thomas cole, frederic edwin church, albert bierstadt, asher durand, thomas moran).
Edgar payne (nathan fowkes studied every single painting in his book in college)
Sargent (he was more into landscapes first, the light and colour is stunning)
Winslow homer (not strictly landscapes, but amazing master painter)
Yuri Vasendin
Stepan kolesnikov
Many many dutch golden age artists

Not dead yet.
Ruo li
Jospeh zbucvic (watercolour and atmo perspective master)
I love Tibor Nagy, but he is more impressionistic, so not an easy or typical study suggestion. You just fall in love with his edges.
Jeremy mann for cityscapes.
Richard schmid


I will edit this post if I remember some obvious ones I missed.

[BjorkJT]

Thanks Amit :D! I've tried using 3D to 2D and it's definitely one of my favourite workflows so far, so I'm going to go back to that.
Regarding the Shaddy Safadi workflow, although it's super useful I feel it can be little slow at time so I'm going to be doing it his way for a while, but then I also want to find my own way around it.

And thank you for the list <33

[Artloader]

Awesome sketchbook BjorkJT! You have some really great study techniques - your anatomy work is pretty fantastic. Keep going :).

[BjorkJT]

Artloader: Thanks :D And thank you for having a look at my sketchbook

just a little update here. My hand is starting to bug me a little so I'm probably going to relax a bit until my hand is better and maybe do some left handed stuff instead since that's always fun!

[Piotr Jasielski]

Take care of your hand, certainly don't overwork it. I did a left handed self portrait on the stream today and I think it'll probably better if you watched some tutorials or some color studies that don't need any precise movements instead.

And your colors are great! You should work on the value aspect a little though, you leave some places too dark. Think about the bounce and dispersed light form atmosphere. Even if something is in shadow, there is always some light reaching it that bounced from other objects.