Nymx's Sketchbook

[Nymx]

Hi, my name is Nicholas Yu, this is my first time here, and i can't wait to get better.
My dream is to become a decent professional concept artist/illustrator by the age of 30 (will be 20 in a week.)

I've been wanting to improve my work for a long time, and figured that having a place where people see the work i do and can give me advice will greatly help progress.

This thread is not one that will likely have a daily update sort of thing due to personal issues, but i will attempt to keep up a relatively steady flow, and hopefully have some new updates each weekend - updates in the sense that i won't just upload one singular sketch - unless it's a painting, in which case hopefully i will also have a process for you to look at.

In this sketchbook thread likely you will find a lot of fundamental practice and studies, as I have figured out that is my biggest weakness in my path to becoming a professional illustrator/concept artist.

TL;DR I'm a newbie pls halp

If you're interested in looking at some of my existing works (assorted 2D and 3D), you can find my up to date portfolio linked in my signature, or here.

I welcome any feedback and hope you like my work. If you don't like it/see issues with my work, please dont hesitate tell me what i'm doing wrong, i'm here to learn and better myself at this.


With that, here are a bunch of sketches i've done recently.
They are currently hosted on imgur as i have no idea how to upload multiple images onto this site.

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[18/11/2014] Update 01
Click HERE for the images .

The first 12 images were done for a tutorial i'm currently following on mech design. It's a lengthy tutorial, so expect to see it as part of my updates for a while. The first image was done before said tutorial, and is what made me want to start studying a better way in approaching it as i wasnt happy with all the mech designs ive ever done. Following that first image is a bunch of silhouettes and joint studies in preparation for the later parts of the tutorial.

The next five images are random sketches, the next three being copied anatomy for personal reference. It's not entirely perfect, but it's a start. Finally the last few images are from the exercises found in the Subreddit /r/ArtFundamentals. It was frustrating at first because it looked so bad and sketchy, completely what it shouldnt be, but then i got a little more used to the shoulder movement and also remembered such failure is to be expected when first starting out. I don't intend to stop trying to improve though.

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Thanks for looking at my sketchbook. I hope to have more new and better work to show you at the end of each week.

[AliceChopper]

Hi Nymx, nice studies,liked the thumbnails.
I just wanted to say untill you get confident with your line , use a lighter toned (or a harder lead) pencil for the drawing and then try to get more fluid lines with a darker pencil or ink , and every now and then try to go for single line drawings that you make by one single continuous line (you just keep on drawing by not lifting the pencil off the paper).
And for your portfolio pieces, you need to make edges clearer, studying some basics forms from life should help a lot, also lasso tool, and locking layer transperancy helps.
Also for adding pics to your post, you should click this icon , and paste the url link of your image.

Hope this helps.
See you :)

[Nymx]

Hi Nymx, nice studies,liked the thumbnails.
I just wanted to say untill you get confident with your line , use a lighter toned (or a harder lead) pencil for the drawing and then try to get more fluid lines with a darker pencil or ink , and every now and then try to go for single line drawings that you make by one single continuous line (you just keep on drawing by not lifting the pencil off the paper).
And for your portfolio pieces, you need to make edges clearer, studying some basics forms from life should help a lot, also lasso tool, and locking layer transperancy helps.
Also for adding pics to your post, you should click this icon , and paste the url link of your image.

Hope this helps.
See you :)

Hi, thanks. Could i get clarification on your advice?
Harder pencil: actually i'm doing that. Not doing too well though it seems :x
Single-Line Drawing: For what exercises should i do this? Ive only done this for gesture drawing with conte sticks and charcoal?
Making edges clearer + layer transparency locking: could you explain what you mean by that + point out which pieces in my portfolio does it stand out the most?
Images: ah, so i have to link each individual image in this forum?

[Nymx]

Paltry update this round, been really burned out by my part time job. I'm changing to something different in a week or two as my stint there is ending anyway.

IMGUR ALBUM LINK







I only have three images i forgot to include with one of my earlier updates, and a painting sketch that i'm likely not going to continue.



I started out on it inspired by the upcoming Witcher 3 and recently released DA : I (God i want to play that game), but halfway through my initial vision of what the painting was meant to be wasn't there and ditched it. It probably didn't help that i didn't sketch up at least a thumbnail to figure out what i really wanted and got lost in the process.


It also probably doesn't help that ever since i felt my work had begun to stagnate (about a year now) i've been feeling mighty discouraged. Granted i've found short bursts of encouragement, but something feels different. I no longer have the same desire that i had initially to paint daily, to have something cool to show, that i always end up feeling like the work will end up trash. Anyone have/had the same issue?

In any case since work is ending at the end of the next week, i reckon potentially i'll have more time for myself AND practicing work. My next job might be a little more relaxed too.

Again, thanks for looking at my sketchbook. Any advice is always appreciated.

[Nymx]

Another paltry update, because i suddenly had to prepare for an interview i wasn't expecting to get.
Just a quick photobash, because the lack of practice was starting to bug me. Roughly two hours worth of work. Not too pleased with how it turned out, but it was worth a shot. Included the version from the first hour, because i couldnt figure out what worked better.

Thanks for dropping by.

7-12-2014 Edit
No update. I've been doing actually quite a number of sketches, but i've decided some of these i'll keep to myself for now, figure out how to work them out as paintings, then render and post em up. I'm also still trying to figure out the joint practice exercise thing - I think i'm missing something about the point of the exercise, still figuring out what other joint variations exist for me to draw.


6-1-2015 Edit
Will no longer but updating this thread, moving over to conceptart.org - unable to keep up a regular schedule with conscription looming around the corner.