Shen's Deathbook

[U-3C]

Hey guys, I'm Shen Jia.

I just graduated from secondary school, so I finally decided, after all the procrastination, to create a sketchbook thread. I'll try to keep posting new stuff, and I hope you guys will enjoy them...someday. ﹏⊙︿⊙

I'm looking to work in the entertainment industry as an illustrator or concept designer...or something...not sure how that will work out...

But anyways, I'm a complete newbie, so I really appreciate all comments and critiques! Thanks in advance.

Here's some gesture drawings that I did today.

[Adrian]

Nice , keep going bro :)

[U-3C]

I realized that I have been doing only 2 minute gestures for a long time and decided to try more 30 second gestures (I usually do 20 2 minute gestures, get bored, and then do something else). Kinda have a hard time making the time limit (don't even have time to flip pages when the paper is filled). However, it is a bit more enjoyable. I have a hard time indicating the form, so I tried doing some exercises from Vilpuu (using pens was not a good idea...) as well as drawing some "beans" that I saw Proko do. It seems that I need wwayyyyy more practice.


Any advice on these thingy-a-ma-jigs?

[BroCoffee]

Nice. You should check out some anatomy and use it in the pose study you're doing. You could check out "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist". It's a very good book (guide) of anatomy you could learn a ton from it.

[U-3C]

Nice. You should check out some anatomy and use it in the pose study you're doing. You could check out "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist". It's a very good book (guide) of anatomy you could learn a ton from it.

I am currently following Vilppu's and Proko's figure drawing series. I try to learn a bit of anatomy once in a while, but I am planning to get an anatomy book after I am more comfortable drawing. Thanks for the recommendation!

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A random page of sketching I did while I was bored to death waiting for my next class. Did a quick study of my college's architecture and made a little drawing on how I feel every morning when I go to school. Drawing while sitting on the floor feels terrible...(┬＿┬)

[U-3C]

So...it's been about a year since my last post. 0.0
School is about to start again, so I guess I'll post some of the (few) stuff I've done.

No excuses. I just love procrastinating.

This is for an animal design project. I liked my original sketch, but my instructor kept telling me to add more texture...because the whole point of the project was to practice texture. >_< So it went from an aqua crab to a giant desert crab that's got wood plates nailed on its back.

(These were pictures taken in-class or the night before it was originally due, so the quality was poor. Can't find it now so I can't get a better pic. The instructor gave everyone a month and a half extension afterwards but I handed it in anyways so I had all that extra time to do whatever I want in class \(^o^)/)










There were other basic exercises and projects that I threw out, so nothing to show. :P



These were some of the paintings (that I can find) that I've done during the school year. The instructor didn't really "teach" anything, so I didn't learn much. I wanted to paint a bit more in acrylics this summer, but I got lazy again so nothing happened. ToT//



I forgot my palette during one class so I painted and mixed my paint on a canvas of a past painting. I got bored of waiting for paint to dry so this happened...



I clearly had a Bob Ross moment so I painted a happy little house with paint that was stuck on my palette knife...





It was mainly a practice run for this, which I bullshitted (I keep smudging the parts that I finished because I'm too impatient to wait for the paint to dry >.<) :



I took this pic the night before it was due, and I can't find it anymore. The glare was suppose to help hide some mistakes in order for me to show it off to other classmates (who were also finishing their projects at 4:00 am in the morning o(0v0)b )

The rest are just studies and crap. I'll see if I can find them and post some tomorrow.

[U-3C]

Right now I'm going through Scott Robertson's book, so there's really nothing much to show. My process is super slow, so I don't know when I will finish it. (ˉ﹃ˉ)

[Amit Dutta]

Good to see this stuff Shen! :) Just keep working and keep posting as you do. I second the vote to delve into anatomy more at some point. Gestures and simplified methods are great for boiling down the complex to the simple, but without that complex knowledge you are essentially "faking it" to some degree. I love Villippu so you are in good hands there, but he always assumes a level of understanding of anatomy, that you have to do your own study for to really get.
Do some anatomy study focusing on muscle groups, skeletal landmarks, attachment points etc and your gestures will make way more sense as well. The crimson cadavers group on here has some nice resources and ways of approaching things!

[Rhasdra]

I'm a sucker for insects, and I loved your concept!

Draw some insects with the knowledge you're getting from the book. It's a great exercise, and it'll be entertaining to watch! :D

Keep the studies up!

[art44]

great studies ! the last landscape looking awesome ! keep it up :)

[U-3C]

Managed to find some digital stuff that I've done over the past year (most that I have done are study sketches that were never made for presenting, so they look terrible. I got into the horrible habit of deleting everything after I'm done. This is why most of the pics I share are low res screenshots or WIP. I share them on Facebook to show them off, but I hate the result at the end so there goes the original files. <(;-;<) All that I can find are stuff that I kept on Facebook.)

-----------Random Divider----------

So this is a photo study I did last year, based on Matt Khor's (ctrlpaint.com) Basic Rendering. The original line drawing is by Matt, and I didn't bother to fix it because I was still not used to drawing lines in Photoshop. I just played around with the values and edges with what I've learnt and tried to make it look convincing. Painting in the occlusion shadows was such a pain >.<



These are some photo studies I've done, trying to understand colour better (I've never done colour before). I tried to only use 30 min on each, but I always forget to set the timer, so they all ended up taking about 40 min.











Here's one that I've done when my tablet driver died. I didn't feel like restarting my computer so I tried to paint with no pressure sensitivity, using only a round brush. It wasn't too bad, but there is a terrible lag issue with the brush when the driver isn't working, so I eventually gave up....Okay, never mind, it was pretty bad (┬＿┬)



Also, my screen is very poor, giving everything a strong blue tint, so I didn't even notice some of the warmth until I saw it on my phone. But hey, I tried, right? 10/10 for effort!



Imgur seems to be having problems. I'll see if I can get some more recent works up after I solve the issue.

[U-3C]

Uploading keeps failing on Imgur on all the browsers I've tried. Strange.

Here's some crap follow up of some other stuff I've done (also screenshots of WIP that survived on social media. Original files gone :P)

I've painted a bit in acrylics by now so I tried to experiment with texture a bit to get a traditional feel:







Also...I was hungry and sad once, so I painted food...then I was fed, so I didn't want to finish it anymore...





(┬＿┬)

[Amit Dutta]

Your studies are good dude. Pretty accurate colour wise and overall to the ref. You're doing well, and keep it up with the paints too, don't let them slide, it looks like so much fun!

[U-3C]

Your studies are good dude. Pretty accurate colour wise and overall to the ref. You're doing well, and keep it up with the paints too, don't let them slide, it looks like so much fun!

Thank you for the support! (>;v;)>

[U-3C]

I'm a sucker for insects, and I loved your concept!

Draw some insects with the knowledge you're getting from the book. It's a great exercise, and it'll be entertaining to watch! :D

Keep the studies up!

Will do! I actually tried to use perspective tricks (I don't think I had the book at that time, but I managed to learn a bit on the web) to figure out the other half of the insect, but it was the first time drawing that big, so I messed up my freehand verticals yet I didn't notice until the next day 'cause I'm an idiot (┬＿┬).

So I just gave up and decided to freehand everything. (っ꒪д꒪ )っ. 

I hope I'm better now...

[U-3C]

great studies  ! the last landscape looking awesome ! keep it up :)

Thank you!
(>;v;)>

[U-3C]

An insect thing I did for a final project. I rushed due to the deadline because apparently what I originally did does not fit the marking criteria... qwq

I actually did a whole bunch of these but this one turned out the best (aka I managed to stop before I ruined it (┬＿┬) )

I did this like half a year ago? o(0_0)o?

[Bookend]

Nice work! Am seeing some pretty rapid improvement, so I think you're doing this the right way. Keep it up!

[Amit Dutta]

Love that bot. Awesome design. If anything the wings look a bit small and flimsy for the body and the perspective on them is a little off, as well as the head. Also the body segments could probably do with a bit more form suggestion across them, but great work man! If you could fix up some problems you could totally put this in your folio

[U-3C]

Love that bot. Awesome design. If anything the wings look a bit small and flimsy for the body and the perspective on them is a little off, as well as the head. Also the body segments could probably do with a bit more form suggestion across them, but great work man! If you could fix up some problems you could totally put this in your folio

Thanks for the crit! (>;v;)>

I never thought it would ever be good enough to count as a portfolio piece. I'll definitely fix it when I have time!

Cheers!