Crackbook

[Abnormal]

Yes !!! Kim Jun gi once said you have to be a master building cubes in perspective .

Understanding the principles of cube is a big help. ^^

[crackedskull]

Piotr - Agreed with you on that, theres not only a personal pressure, but also work standard pressure that comes from the higly competetive industry.

Abnormal - can be surprisingly hard, I remember reading that mullins had a mentorship in sijun forums(really old art forum) about working with cubes, having it in perspective and correctly lit and colored.


In addition to drawing the study I also invented a light scenario in the 3rd one and played with colors in the 1st. Also used a photo underlay and made some red markings to fix proportions in the 2nd one.

[Abnormal]

yep!!! I have all these post in a pdf ^^ Many things to learn from the master Mullins .

[crackedskull]

Cool.


Did some laughing skulls, lower left was the only one with direct reference the rest were mostly from head while looking at skulls in front/side view and imagining the forms moving.

[ZandraDragon]

I am also feeling the art depression and having no motivation to do personal work. I find it helps to do studies and just power through. Just try to learn. I feel like there is a huge gap between where I want to be. There are days when I think I will never reach the skill level I want to even get a job. It is insanely frustrating because you want to bridge the gap but it feels like a chasm. It helps to look at older art and artist improvement. It helps to realize others have been there and you can get through it too. Look up mindcandyman. He improved a lot but he was a complete beginner. I would suggest only posting here and avoiding the rest of the internet.

Don't relate your self-worth to art. It is easier said than done because art is a huge part of who we are and the self. negativity often comes from feeling we are not enough. Believe in yourself. I often fake it till I make it by pretending I feel confident. I really hope this helps you in some way.

Don't give up. I really want to see your progress and I really enjoy seeing people who kept up with their sketchbooks
. If you ever want someone to rant to or even need some reassurance or anything just send me a pm. I found it helps alot from art school to get feedback and support from freinds to realize you are not alone.

[crackedskull]

Thank you for the encouragement Zandra, I agree on not relating self worth with art, since it has so many downsides. Not only can it bring you down, but it can also hamper improvement, since your not viewing your art objectively.
This article goes into the same topic and I recommend you read it http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html


I have contemplated just posting here, or still using hangouts to hang with friends while not using other internet. The main reasons for this is less loneliness, interacting with ppl interested in art boosts my interest aswell. Can ask for critiques/advice. Same with keeping internet for finding reference.
And yet, I will still go without internet, because I believe changing a setting that I constantly use/rely on in my life will help me grow as a person. I will have to find other activities, I will have scarce resources instead of nearly unlimited ones.
Theres a curiosity about how will this experience change me, if at all. For example, now if I want to socialize I gotta call up old friends and hang out in real life. The scarcity of resources will, perhaps, make me value them more and it will carry on to when I return. I will return to unfinished books and toturials that are in the dust to pass the time instead of going on the internet for entertainment.

[crackedskull]

Hey Im back.

Did some accuracy and form construction stuff and still lives while I was gone, also finished the dwarf illustration.
Im happy with how it turned out, but my ambitions lie much higher :D



Another thing I did was to do an accurate copy of a photo and then dissect and try to understand forms.



On this exercise I drew a basic front and site orthopetic view of the basic masses and then used the distort tool to place them in the perspective. after that I tried to draw the figure base on those 2 views. Then I added some other figures without the ortho guides to test my knowledge.



And finally one of the accuracy studies, lately Im using a 4 or 6 grid system to check for accuracy and a photo underlay aswell. I start with no guides, then turn on the grid to check for mistakes, try to fix them and measure by hand a bit. Eventually I turn on the photo underlay and check the mistakes that way. Rinse and repeat, this requires quite a bit of persistance to get right.

[Artloader]

Welcome back dude!

I love the dwarf - the values in his eyes are really nice especially.

And I really like the way you're breaking down forms - looks like a good study habit. You've been around here a while so you must have heard of Hampton but I'll mention him to you anyway - I'm going through his "Figure Drawing: Design and Invention" book at the moment - his figure construction techniques are pretty awesome! Could be worth you having a look if you fancy it.

The japanese lady is looking pretty good too.

Keep going man - looking good!

[Amit Dutta]

Hey dude, You survived the knifing! Welcome back to the land of destraction! Awesome solidity to that dwarf...really really cool, and great structural studies. Power on!

[crackedskull]

Thanks artloader, discovered another interesting form from todays construction exercise. The "Backwards classes" formed by the cheekbones and bones surrounding the eyes.

Amit - Overwhelming disctraction, sooo much info and I love it. Truly makes you appreciate the age of information. Good to know Im doing good from a pro, thanks man :D

More construction, this helped a lot, I was also inspired to create once I finished it and went to sketching heads and fixing the head in the newest illustration im working on.


accuracy study.

[Zipfelzeus]

I'm a bit late to the party but that dwarf turned out really nice! Good dedication to go back and forth to really get things right!

Also great to see you're really pushing yourself with those studies. I'm really looking foward to new pieces you do! :D

[crackedskull]

Thank you Zipfelzeus!


Did some head sketches. Also tried to lay a face ontop of the skull orthos I did earlier and failed, but I felt amused by it and turned it into a character lol




Right now I've started with putting some actual faces based on front/side reference into space. Doing good.
Theres also this still life I've been working on for a while of an ornamental box, gonna show it once the lineart stage is ready :D

[crackedskull]

[crackedskull]

Finally finished this jewel box.

[Adam Lina]

That chicks head in 3 quarters is shaped like a football. Maybe you should study more the structure of the cranium by itself. Like the different bones and connection points.

[crackedskull]

Thanks for pointing it out, got me to focus on craniums more.

Heres some more stuff. Also I am working on my CC5 project here: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7715.html




Edit: lol that eye on that one dude is so wrong, I gotta put more effcort in the future sketches.

[crackedskull]

Well then It seems I will be returning to the goal system I used some time ago.

From my collected data that was when  I was most productive. And back then I didnt even use other techniques like visualization. It just plain works for me, because it forces me to get to work. It's like an art job with a short deadline.

When I dont use this method.I end up doing some art, but it just isn't enough. I rarely use visualization techniques or restructures. I dont have any resulution to push myself since life is currently easy and carefree. So, I need to create artificial causes to get me to work. Although lately I have gotten a few jobs so there are actual causes too, but the deadlines are gentle so It still isn't enough.

I think it works so well is because even if theres an external motivation to get me to do art I still revert to my intrinsic pleasure I get from it after a few minutes.

Goal: Do atleast 70h of art in the next 10 days.
Punishment: No internet for a month exept job related stuff.
Every day you are behind progress on your goal take a 5 min cold shower.
No more than 2 hours per day on games/movies etc unless 5h ahead of goal.

Goal starts tomorrow.


This reminds me of those "working joes" from alien isolation, creepy fella.

[crackedskull]

Thanks man.

Day 1: 7h done

Did client work most of the time, heres some sketches.

[crackedskull]

Day 2: 7h done


Heres some sketches.

[crackedskull]

Day 3: 4.5h
Day 4: 7h done
Day 5: 8.5h

1h behind schedule.