Lychee's sketchbook

[Lychee]

Hey all :)

I used to have a sketchbook on conceptart.org

But after some issues (virus-stuff, going offline all the time, other stuff) I stopped updating it (aka. got too lazy)
SO I thought why not start anew in here :)

I also have a cghub page

Aaand here's some spitpaints I did today.

I need to improve at portraits (even with reference) :(
I love the loose, quick, expressive way some artists paint their portraits.
But I can't seem to get it down yet.


Well, I'll try to do some of these everyday (or at least several times a week) and see how much I can improve :)


If anyone has any tips or feedback it's always welcome!

[Lychee]

Spitpainting group - Ultrasonic

[Lychee]

No time to paint today, but still did a quick self portrait! from a mirror :)
Way more difficult than using a picture for reference..

[kikindaface]

WELCOM ON CRIMSON DAGGERS ! Yeah, painting from life is way harder and more complicated than photo, but you'll learn so much ! Anyway, the quick and loose feeling of some portrait paintings comes mainly from the understanding of edges ! The use of soft and hard edges in an appealing way can make some painting gorgeous ! Hope it helps ! Concerning your selfportrait, you really should learn to simplify, because in an odd way, it'll make your portrait more realistic ! no need to render all thos hair, but simplifying the volume of hair and only drawing the ones that bring something more to the painting are useful( usually the ones of the silhouette of the hair, and the wild hair on the forehead !) keep it up !

[Lychee]

Thanks :)
Also thanks for the advice, I looked up some info about soft/hard edges and I just think I need to do some studies focussing on that to get better at it. I'll try to pay more attention to it while I paint, too.

Love your style of portrait painting btw :)

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Did some character designing for Concept Art class today :)
Started with a character description. I chose to paint one of 25 thumbnails I did, here's the result!



I'll paint the description and thumbnails later!

[BenFlores]

"I love the loose, quick, expressive way some artists paint their portraits.
But I can't seem to get it down yet."
im also trying to get that myself, try to loosen up and have fun. don't get too attached to any details, you can usually tell when someone is .

[Lychee]

I try to, it's difficult though. I guess I just have to do many more studies and then after some time discover it for myself :)




My tablet stopped working so did a 60 minute speedpaint in acrylics. I never paint traditionally so this was a challenge. It's way less time-efficient than digital painting is, that's for sure (and messier...)




Also this ugly thing

[wim]

hey you have some pretty pretty cool stuff in here, also some traditional painting helps to get a fresh perspective on painting, as far as edges go, I am far from being a pro myself, but these inspiring words from linran help me sometimes, if you have not already read it yourself :) i am especially referring to the last part http://cghub.com/images/view/516441/

[Lychee]

First thing I made after being WAY too busy to paint for a while...

Life study of some candles.

Next up is some more studies, spitpaints, and maybe something else if I got the time?


Also, just something I'm wondering... Sometimes I'm too busy with schoolwork (i.e. painting textures, conceptart sketches for projects) to paint anything for myself.. should I post schoolwork(the interesting ones) here or is that a bad idea, and why do you think so?

[Lychee]

Study of a panel in STORM :D (by Don Lawrence)

Actually found it online here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/103142721...banner=pwa

This christmas I discovered that my dad had a collection of almost all Storm comics. (also discovered they're awesome)
So that's what I've been doing in my free time these few days.

Edit: Added some roodhaar-themed studies

[Egbu]

Pretty good start to this sketchbook :D! The candles came out really well, but the acrylic portrait, even though it was only 60 minutes, still has quite a few problems with proportions and structure, maybe when you have spare time you can try reading and drawing from Loomis' head and hands, it will really help with learning how to paint and draw them better.

[Lychee]

Thanks a lot! Yeah I still have a lot of problems with anatomy and portraits..

need to do more studies. Loomis looks interesting, only practiced from a few pages before (was required for school)

For today, this study of a random magazine page.
It got kinda out of hand and so it turned out to be a cyborg. (I'm not good at scifi stuff, need to do it more!)



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EDIT: Aaand for today did a magazine photo study (took way too long). Focused on the details. Turned out ok


More detail



P.S.... how do you resize images in here?

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Extra- forgot to post this earlier:

(think the other 2 look better... seems ive improved?)

[Lychee]

Did a study of my hand. More diffiult than I expected.

Tried doing something of an underpainting with a green/blueish hue... to increase speed and get a more realistic effect.

I failed.

Still fucking with the settings of the regular round brush... my (rough) brushwork still looks shitty as hell.

[kidult]

Keep working at it and all the stuff you want to improve on you will! Remember to apply those studies!

[Lychee]

Thanks! I hope so :P

Another hand. Went better than the last but I still don't like it T_T
Detail phase was like 3x as long as rough sketch phase

SKETCH



Final

[Lychee]

Started Dynamic Sketching seminar today.

Here's some of the sketches I did:


Line&Circle muscle memory practice..
A study of a Norm H sketch




This seminar leaves me a bit of free time to continue this stuff:
Another hand (done a bit faster)




And a step by step sketch progress thing of thranduil (no ref, testing out knowledge)



I actually googled him just now and now I feel stupid. Antlers!

[Lychee]

quick hand study before going to sleep... looks shitty and it went shitty.. brushwork was awkward and colors wrong.


and did these for Dynamic Sketching (studies of Norm Schureman sketches)

[Lychee]

shitty study of my face. I look terrible today, but messed it up even worse... My face isn't right :')

I think I was too impatient.





EDIT:

Did a portrait from imagination, with the underpainting technique. To see how far I've gotten.
Well I still suck at it so gotta do more studies lol


I also like step 3 the best, after that I ruin it somehow?

Also, super quick study of cupid by caravaggio.

[Angel_Intheuk]

Great sketchbook! :D you use light and colour really well, it's just form and proportions that stand out to me as stuff you need to work on a bit more (but don't we all lol) Loomis is a great suggestion, just keep going back to it to reinforce your studies.

In regards to painting technique you might want to check out Jason Seiler. He mainly does caricature but he tries to focus on a more painterly style in his digital work and it looks very traditional.

Anyway great work, keep it up, it's very inspiring. :)

[Lychee]

thanks!

I just had a seminar (dynamic sketching) that also focuses on form and 3D shapes, and at drawing class we do studies of hands/feet etc, focussing on proportion.

But I discovered again how important 3D thinking is and building up your painting when I did this study of Caravaggio's 'Judith Beheading Holofernes'.

This is how I started, just painting what I saw mindlessly


But this is what happened when I tried to focus on the 3D shape all the time


I KNOW RIGHT?! Damn! Much less awful! :D

Also, brushstrokes look a bit looser, more natural, but I'm still not there yet :P


I've done some studies of Loomis before, and it's interesting, and I KNOW it's a REALLY good book for artists, but sorry I almost fall asleep looking at it :')
I'll try again soon, shouldn't be complaining haha.

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/501782/Andrew-...-and-Hands

Hmmm must've picked up the wrong book back then but this looks ok :)