Fedodika the Koala

[JosephCow]

Wow I like where this last sketch is going! It already looks pretty cool as a drawing actually. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

[Fedodika]

Joseph: Hey thanks very much my dude, i had some busy work today so i will get back to refining it tomorrow. Still managed to squeeze in this little oil painting today, jeez im so tired lol

[Artloader]

Nice oils dude. Did you start with a line drawing?

[Fedodika]

Artloader: Thanks and i did! It got kinda muddled in the initial stain, i guess that's why i need a fixative to lock it down. its a little funky but im glad i can even get it that far lol. But as Jeff watts would say, you draw while you paint, which is very true, because if you lose an edge or shape, ya gotta find it again. 

Alright, so tried some color schemes for tira out today, i really like this design. So i got 4 different ones. After spending hours on the trio, i liked the one i did first the most which is on the image with the 2 grayscale ones. My plan is to go in with lines and tighten up everything dearly, like the hand, the skull shapes, make them have a strong read and design, and just little things i think could be pushed like the exact shapes of the eiserne drossel (hula hoop blade)

And even after that I'll still use photos and what not to get more realism and any cheat i can. And try not to get too tired in the process. Also reading Juliette Astrides book on classical drawing lessons and it is confirming a lot of these concepts on composition ive been learning, laid out very comprehensibly unlike a lot of the older books on the subject are. Not a great book for absolute beginners but anyone trying to grow at an intermediate stage would definitely benefit from it

[darktiste]

2 tone value is good to check silhouette but you still need to make it work with 3 value.Idk why but i have the feeling you don't use dark at all most of the time.Let be honest i am on something or i am just repeating myself?

[Hobitt]

Hey Fedo, making progress but still you have this habit of crunching your value range and not planning your structure so i did a quick paintover

Most realistic art uses the full range don't forget the histogram is a very useful tool





The paintover try to stand back or zoom out to see if the elements read properly, value is where most of this happens color is secondary to this so focus on value




here is a part of lin rans tutorial which i think sums it up




And here is a article from muddy colors which gives a good idea how you can approach this problem.

http://www.muddycolors.com/2017/12/compo...mbnails-2/

Keep it up, don't give up on it yet keep solving these problems until you nail it thats how you learn.

[Fedodika]

Darkiste: ya just gotta make it read, thats the biggest stickin point ;)


Hobbit: i really appreciate you taking the time for paintover my dude, I think my head is coming to terms with what i need to do to make an image read. I spent a few hours on this trying to think of values only and not rendering. I tried to be logical about every value choice, so for instance:


Dark pants, vs smoke
Smoke VS silhouette of blade
light feather necklace vs dark sky
etc. etc.

I cheated a bit for some rim light on the back of the hair, its weird i feel like it almost has a noire feel to it, which i'd assume is a good thing. I had seen that back light trick once like the light im putting behind her, its ominous, i quite like it. I'm gonna start doing crap tons of composition studies in my small sketchbook in pen. I hate doing comp studies digitally, i start zooming in and wasting tons of time, with pen i can stay rough but not get carried away. This histogram thing i think i get it, when i check mine I can see how if stuff clumps up too much it can look bad, but again i havent spent a lot of time using it.

But yea, thanks again for the paintover, i hope this is heading in the right direction, i feel like it is at least.

[darktiste]

I think what is good about pen thumbnail is your stuck with something you will probably try to iterate on it.With a digital thumbnail it like you giving yourself unlimited space for back and forth and you can become to invested in a thumbnail.I just think thumbnail are to be done on paper with pen or marker.It really easy to spend to much time on a thumbnail i think the point of them is to problem solve not to be pretty.Each thumbnail should solve the problem of the previous.

Main thing to use thumbnail for testing frame of action(how big the canva is), mood(aka light and color), ''camera angle'',composition(how object are space out and how they overlap and when everything is in place you can they color combination.

[Fedodika]

Darkiste: Ya i pretty much agree with everything you wrote there :)

So not the most mindblowing update today, was sketching more in my tiny sketchbook in pen of some still lives and some John Asaro studies. He has not only an impeccable taste for the female form, but can compose scenes with just a figure that have fascinating shadow shapes amongst his rather alien color choices. Also gotta get back to figure drawings since im getting rusty and need to do phase 4 on watts for both portraits and figures, then start on the painting series, or reset on the pencil stuff and do them again!

Doing these composition studies, i feel i get more out of them now since i get the prciniples in a written sense. Getting to see them confirmed in pretty much every piece im studying is breaking lots of barriers in my head, which is fantastic. I wanna fill the whole book by the end of the year, shouldnt be too hard. We can only s33 what tomorrow brings xx

[darktiste]

Would be fun to see you inside your own environnement in a photo with all your material with a picture of the setup and how many ton of work was done behind the scene.With also the face behind all this.Just an idea of a project you could work toward when you reach 100 page of sketchbook.I wonder also since you been really consistent have you been exploring the job market or have you yet been approch for commision.Also what are your motivation to keep working so hard etc.

All this in a sort of self biographie photo adventure.

I know it sound crazy i just want to inspire you to share the behind of the scene and the struggle of everyday art life with other people to maybe also follow there passion

[Fedodika]

Well I appreciate the interest Darkiste: Here's a pic of me recently, i used to have shoulder length balding old man hair but i shaved it all off. These are two crates that probably weigh at least 50 pounds each that are filled to the top with sketches front and back. In hindsight i think these were a complete waste of time as i wasnt paying any heed to proper line quality/perspective etc. It was just tons of bullshit, just indecipherable bullshit that spun them wheels for about 3 years while i painted 8 hrs a day and got slightly better at using corel painter.. alot of that stuff in that crate was never even posted even when i was active back then and i shudder to think about them. Id rather have a stack a tenth that size of newsprint just doing watts atelier style exercises carefully and methodically.

As far as work i get maybe 1 commission for 100$  once a month, and I make whatever peanut money i can get each saturday from caricature which ive done for about a year and a half. As far as work online goes, i get maybe 3 commissions a year via email from people i have not met IRL. I do some cartoon avatars for some friends occasionally but those are close to free.  I've emailed MANY companies for work, in the hundreds, and i promise you no one is interested in my work. But its been about a year since i tried that, but id rather people solicit me. I've heard from most professionals that when you "make it" people contact you for work, and your work markets itself. My work currently isnt doing that and im lucky to break over 10 likes on most social media posts (even with fanart.) 

I think the reason for that being several things:
1. Most of my work was just portraiture from a reference. (companies want designs.)
2. The designs i did do had drawing and compositional errors that were too steep to pass up.
3. My work is inconsistent in style and its unclear the extent of my skills.

But i think its mostly 2^ cuz if youre very good at portraits or even if you have a wildly inconsistent style, people see the value in your work anyways. 

What inspires me to work very hard is many things, basically my desire to get some kind of work so i can have some kind of house, some kind of girlfriend, some kind of income. I also want to make an expansive graphic novel, which i will need a very high level of skill to execute, but i'd rather show and dont tell when i get to that point, since i know first hand how boring it is to listen to someone talk about their "great ideas" they cant execute on. I also have many deep philisophical and political views that i don't feel like disclosing until later; when im good and people actually want to know what i think. I spend all day on a philosophy server, and am even a moderator, so that's a big part of my life.

I also grew up poor and always wanted to be rich and powerful, so that can motivate you alot. If i had a Yacht and an endless supply of drugs, I probably wouldnt draw 8+ hrs a day. I deeply want to leave my hometown since very few people here share my philosophical and political views; I meet hundreds of people doing caricature and i have not met one! And yes i do prod... But i know plenty on the internet!

But yea i could be mopey and negative n shit about all this, but i choose not to because its a useless  state of mind that only I can change. You know even though i only make less than five thousand from art this year, that's still something, and it's more than I made two or three years ago, where my annual income was like barely five hundred. So yea, the goal is to get that number over ten thousand and that's not gonna happen by sitting around hoping for it to happen. I dont have time to not work hard, and its taken a toll on my health for sure with that recent hospital visit. But i will die at the fucking computer trying to get some shitty deviantart commissions, and even if i never get those shitty deviantart commissions for my entire life and just spin my wheels like a monkey, at least I tried and that's much more honorable to me than not trying and being a wagecuck (cuz i tried that.) 

Sooooo on a lighter note, life drawing was fun and i noticed this thing i do with the lines that is completely dumb, where i just put these hard lines on and that is not conducive to good edge work. Need to use that side of the pencil more. Also vine charcoal is fun as fuck!

Also working up this Tira piece, just designing the smaller shapes more,  and adding that cool terminator line or whatever its called. Just working it up super slow, I'll have so many process shots of this lol.

[darktiste]

I completely agree art is just way more enjoyable than a 9 to 5 job even if it kill us.Totally agree that at one point the work overwrite the need of argument.Sure would be good if you had experience but there not there to give people experience there looking for people for solution.

It just seem hopeless sometime the grind is intimidating for sure.But that just because it doesn't become easier it just complexify all the fundamental you have to put to create an image can't be under estimate.

There people who have easy have 5+ years of experience and you gotta take that inconsideration that you go against the best not just those ''rookie''.The problem with art is that people seem to understand it a passion and that people can work for peanut in this field and some people low ball so much there commision that sometime it not worth creating if someone will do the same as you for for less cash than you.
Raw talent is enought but being known atleast by name can land you a job if anyone know you there or if you know someone working there.It sure help to have contact in the industry.

[Fedodika]

Darkiste: Yesh yesh yesh <3

Alrightey, i enjoyed making what i did of this tira piece but its not blowing my mind as i render it and im not having the "Man i want this in my porfolio" feeling so im probably gonna scrap it. It was a great effort and I learned a lot about the process of thumbnailing but i feel i know a lot more about composition now than when i started this and its driving me nuts!

I will sleep on it, but odds are i dont think ill wanna finish it. And theres this longer figure drawing, gotta put one more video lesson before i finish that up. Im still doing lots of little gouache and pen thumbnail studies to learn about composition and color mixing, very frustrating stuff!

[darktiste]

I think you might want to do some texture study to create a noticeable difference between a skin texture and a cloth texture.The key is to understand the reflectivity of the surface.

[RickRichards]

Hey Fedodika! I truly feel that that Tira piece may be a fantastic addition to your portfolio, i think it just needs a few tweaks. The pose sells and you´ve caught the character maneirisms. It may be a shame if you allow such a piece with potential to go to the shelve haha.
I love your Sophitia piece, maybe it would need a better transition to colour and perharps a bit more horizontal space so the composition may breathe and that piece with this Tira piece could be a fantastic duo. A vertical comp and a horizontal comp.
Hope you don´t mind my quick value paintover, showing my main suggestions regarding the painting:




1- Proportion; I would push her hips a little bit to emphasize her femininity, reduce her breasts a little and push their form in a realistic lower gravitational manner, mess her hair, the character has messy yet stylish hair
Her legs should be a bit longer and her arch should pushe the viewer´s eyes to Tira.

2- Colour; In the colour department i have only but praises to say, you´ve nailed the colour schemme, it reads well, good choice of colours. I would but add specs of brownish yellow to her arch and pop her highlights a bit more, not too much though.

3- Value; Your values are almost there, i would just bring more atmosphere and it with the mid ground and froground, merge the skulls except the one she holds. The skulls aren´t the focus, she is. Perharps bring a few lost edges to her right side.
Don´t be afraid to use the lost edges in your advantage.

PS: I think you would benefit from a few Soul Calibur 6 model screenshots value studies.

Hope it helps ma man!

[Fedodika]

Darkiste: Swhat i did. I think adding a nice feather texture helped a lot really, i was surprised to be honest!

Rick: Hey i wanted to thank you for the big writeup, and no I didn't give up on it. What was irking me was the face, and how i had gotten off track with the original cocky but sinister look. I increased the length of a leg but im afraid i cant make her hips as big as youve indicated that'd be waaay too big lol. Im surprised i changed my own mind on liking the piece. Gonna definitely filddle with it some more tomorrow, i think the feathers on the leg arent designed very well and i have a few rendering things to take care of.

Wanna thank everyone for all the feedback and guidance on this piece, it really made a difference. I have still weird mixed feelings about it but when i look at it, i like what i see. Cant quit them studies, you gotta bring it all up

[Fedodika]

sometimes pulling things out is what an image needs

[darktiste]

I think you should separate your study in category for example reflective vs none reflective// transparent vs opaque that absorb light you can than compare and adjust the element to reflect how those thing really behave if you study all in one you might miss the point and just copy and not think about the reflectivty of the surface.When you pratice get rid of the complexity and go straight into the concept to distill it down.For example instead of drawing a full armor try to draw a cube made out of metal if you can draw a cube made of a material you can pretty much apply the concept you learn to a more complex object.

For a quick run down of what i did on my critic of the last piece.
I choose to desaturate the color and increase the contrast.
I Think you might want to introduce abit of green in the face and hair but not to much since feather are not that much reflective.

[-echo-]

Hey Fedodika, I really like this last painting, it got great character and colors! And the feathers is awesome. However I see some issues with it, so I did a quick paintover, hope you dont mind :-)




• Color: It has a bit of a magenta tone over the whole picture, I dont know if this was intentional (sometimes - like in yours - it works!) I did some color correction and also put some (small amounts of) oranges/yellows to give it some extra push colorwise.

• Form/shapes: Simplify the shapes and it will read better, especially in her hair, it is too much details and a bit to spiky and didnt have an overall shape. I gave her a bit of a diamond-shape for example, but this can be pushed even more. A great tool for simplifying is the mixer brush:




Also you want to show form, especially in the face, Her left half of the face is a big smudge of purple, but there should be bounce light that will emphasize the form of her face (with a hint of green).

• Values: It was a bit oversaturated, specially in the highlights, almost white, so I toned it back just a bit (it is still to bright in some areas). 

• Anatomy: Her eyes seemed a bit off-centered, so i did draw some lines from the edge of her lips (they should align with her pupils). Overall i moved her eyes a bit to the right side of her face (our left). Added eyebrows and the rest of her lips, still with that sinister, crooked smile of hers.

Also to give it a bit more depth i blurred out the background, it had too harsh edges. now the girl is more in focus, you could probably push this even more.

I hope you get something out of this, it is a really nice painting, keep going you are on the right path!

[Fedodika]

Echo/Darkiste: Big thanks for the writeups again, i really like the color in the background you added echo, the red really was something i didnt consider. I tried to add in the things i agreed with in your critiques and i think ive taken this piece as far as i can and i think its time to move on. I lit the side of her face a little with reflected light, though i wasnt too sure about the anatomical changes you did, i want her to look more psychotic and less of the kinda cutey girley look you gave. yea love that red tho, lots of little things, bumped the contrast, and thanks again for all the crits on this I think im bout tired of looking at it lol