Bookend's Sketchbook

[Bookend]

Moar swamp studies.

[Punk-A-Cat]

Ohhh swamps :D
(now just make that log into a croc with some beady eyes, ramp up the tension :D )

[lurch]

Rusalka's coming along nicely!

Loving the swamp studies, the reflections in the first one are really working.

Looking forward to seeing these develop.

[Broadway]

Rusalka studies are looking good!

James Gurney's book Color and Light has some good info about painting trees/foliage that you might find helpful (This is just a preview of the page on leaves, but I recommend getting the book if you don't have it, it's awesome!)

https://books.google.com/books?id=Mvddjq...ge&f=false

[Bookend]

Punky: Wootwoot!  Maybe I'll have a croc sneaking around in the final piece just for fun.

lurch: Thanks!  Me too, haha.

Broadway: Thanks very muchly, that's appreciated-- I'm never really certain about how to tackle foliage.  So, this should be helpful!  And awesome books must be perused!

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I figured that I shouldn't try to bring hue to Rusalka until I figure out her background, soo...  

I dunno.  It sucks.  But, hey, you gotta make a lot of stuff that sucks before you end up making stuff that only sucks a little, right?

Any tips or tricks for the direction I'm taking with this would be enormously appreciated!

[Eristhe]

Keep up the hard work! I think what would help you improve most at the moment is basic construction skills. Being able to think of things in 3D form will improve the believability of your paintings. Start with constructing boxes, cylinders etc in 3D then move on to anatomy (Hampton's books are especially good for this) which will help improve all of your pieces. Your figures are lacking a real feel of anatomical form at the moment.

As for your colour studies, they're looking good but a bit murky - have you thought about using a hard brush to stop all those soft edges muddying up the colours?

Keep up the good work! c:

[Bookend]

Keep up the hard work! I think what would help you improve most at the moment is basic construction skills. Being able to think of things in 3D form will improve the believability of your paintings. Start with constructing boxes, cylinders etc in 3D then move on to anatomy (Hampton's books are especially good for this) which will help improve all of your pieces. Your figures are lacking a real feel of anatomical form at the moment.

As for your colour studies, they're looking good but a bit murky - have you thought about using a hard brush to stop all those soft edges muddying up the colours?

Keep up the good work! c:

I agree so much with this, so thanks a lot for reminding me to get back on track. 

Right now I'm working on the CHOW...  Even though I don't really feel like my basic construction skills are on par with that, people have suggested that I do something from imagination because I've been doing all of these studies, so I thought I'd humour them, and maybe I'd get a little something out of it.  Even if it's incredibly painful to see what I actually know, haha.

What I really need to do is to get a good idea about perspective, and seeing/forming shapes (cubes, cylinders, spheres), and understanding how they work with perspective-- You're spot on with that. And, of course, applying them from memory so I know I can actually do it.

I agree that my figures are totally lacking anatomical construction...  Right now my goal is to do 88 arms from reference, and 88 from memory/imagination/application... Buuut, I made this goal before I realized that what I really need to do is work on perspective and basic forms.  Still, I'm going to reach this goal before I make a new one.

Also, will try to use a harder brush for those studies.

My new goal will probably have something to do with shapes/forms in perspective and 3d space, but I'm not sure how to translate that into something to reach for--  I can't exactly do the same thing as I did with the arms and say 88x88... Any ideas how I should construct my next goal/deathline?

Thanks again for your thoughts, very helpful.

[Bookend]

I've mostly been working traditionally, but I was actually not lazy and took pics of my sketchybook.

Working with Steve Huston on NMA, and a few faces from my life drawings on the bus.  I draw loooottss of people on the bus, to try to get my life drawing in.

[iamorim]

Hey man, thanks for the comment. I really appreciate that.

Keep working on the figure stuff. There is a lot of content about it to learn.
Make some perspective exercises. It will help you a lot while drawing. Gives you more structure.

I don't feel like the right person to critique much more. Just this little tip ;)

[Rhasdra]

You have a lot of really nice studies going on! But somehow your studies are way superior to your actual art...

Make sure you're not mindlessly copying the images! Don't worry that much on getting everything absolutely perfect, try doing your own thing but make it make sense in your head! Do more studies in black and white, is way easier to process and understand the lighting!

And also choose wisely the things you're studying from... It's best to get an image with a 3/4 lighting, sou you can see volumes better, and also don't even worry about those complex landscapes like the swamp... take it easy, slow down. It's better to make a simple silly painting that makes sense for you, because if you can't understand something, it's natural that you're going to mindless copy it.

Keep up the great volume of work! And have fun sir :DD

[Piotr Jasielski]

You have some very good study ethics. Keep that up! I'm glad you do environments.

My small piece of advice would be to focus first on basic elements before you do a study of a full photo/painting. I found that it is a way easier, more enjoyable and way more effective approach. Doing a full study is usually to big of a challenge for a brain to chew on, you struggle to get similarity of the original, while neglecting the actual purpose of attaining the understanding.

So in simple words what I mean is to, for example, before you do a full study of a face do 5 line sketeches, 5 value sketeches and 5 color studies of a nose, the same with eyes, lips, hair, head structure (loomis or such). Do a value study of a skull. Only after doing that approach the full piece.

Similarly with any environment - firstly do studies of some particular elements such as a stone, tree, leaves, color tonation etc.

When you build that visual library it becomes much easier to assemble all these elements in a single painting.

Hope that helps. Keep up the good work :)

[lurch]

sounds like good advice, from Piotr.

Good work with the chow, I think it would have benefitted from you bringing more of your study work into it, like the reflections in the first swamp study would have been well applied to the reflection of the tree in the finished piece.

One thing to watch with reflections is that you don't always just get a mirror image of the reflected object, day for example you put a chair on a mirror and stande back, you see the underside of the chair in the reflection, rather than just a flipped version of the chair. Extreme example I know, but it's worth considering that stuff. Also water will distort and mess things up with light and movement on the surface, but you can see that in your studies so you've definitely noticed it.

Good stuff though, keep at it.

[Bookend]

iamorim : No worries, man.  We're here to learn together and try to help each other out, right?

Thanks, I will.  My next goal is going to be perspective related, mwa hahaha.

Rhasdra: Yep-- This is why I do a lot of application studies nowadays.  But, I used to have a terrible habit of just copying.  I'll still do some of those for when I reeeally need to be in my comfort zone.  I'll try more black and white studies, but honestly, I've done so many of those that I think I should go back and forth between colour studies.  Maybe do a black and white study, then a colour study of the same subject.  I think the black and white would be great for composition understanding.

Thanks so much, and I will!

Piotr Jasielski: Great advice!  I'll definitely try this method next time I'm doing a big ol' study.  Thanks so much!

lurch: I kinda got frustrated with the CHOW.  I'm still proud of it, but I really wasn't sure where to take it, especially with colour values.


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WOOO. Finaallyy finished my goal!  88x88.  More references than 88, but I didn't count 'em.

I'm guessing I'm at 40 hours/10,000.  We'll say that, and I'll start timing again.

Also did a little comic strip.  I dunno if you guys saw 'The magic school bus' when you were kids, but I did.  So the strip is based on that.

Annnd...  I'm gonna make a goal about perspectives/environments.  I've been neglecting perspective for far too long.  Amit's mentorship couldn't have come at a better time.  I'm psyched. 

So, yeah.

[Rhasdra]

I really enjoy seeing anatomy studies (but I hate doing them), you got some really good stuff going on! The forearm is absolute nightmare to me, I liked how you've simplified it.. I might copy it in the future hohoho

What does that "SNE ~number~" mean? I guess I've seen it in other sketchbooks too

[Bookend]

I really enjoy seeing anatomy studies (but I hate doing them), you got some really good stuff going on! The forearm is absolute nightmare to me, I liked how you've simplified it.. I might copy it in the future hohoho

What does that "SNE ~number~" mean? I guess I've seen it in other sketchbooks too

Thanks!  They're from Michael Hampton's book, so if you're more interested in the way he simplified it, totally recommended.

SNE is something I made up when I started the challenge--  "See No Evil" it stands for.  Kinda goofy, I know.  Just means that it's from memory.


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So here's my progress from the Environment mentorship.  I'm already really far. :

And it means that I'll be finished my memory/application/imagination section a lot quicker than I thought I would be, haha.

[Vicianus]

Hey book! Nice studies! n___n Because you mentioned about sketch structure on my page, I just wanted to pop by and say, the anatomy sketches you do have lots of good structure. As long as you apply what you're learning in those studies and maintain the draw-through structures on your other sketches, they'll always look solid. c:
There's little lineweight tricks that help to make it feel constructed, too, like darkening it at the connection + bottom. It's stuff that comes naturally when you're working from reference, but really sells imaginative work!

Also, on your hands... you seem to have a tendency to make all of your fingers the same length, especially when they're in perspective against each other. try to be mindful of their variant lengths. Also, pay attention to the slight curve in the construction of the hand - even at the top. Right now you're using primarily a flat box, so the top of your hands are losing some of the anatomical feeling of a hand.
Something that's helpful to think about for the "gesture" of the hand is that the fingers always move in arcs - try to notice how the joints form arcs as they go across the knuckles; this will give your hands a lot of beauty. Also, just play around with your own hand and watch how as your hand moves, you will tend to move your whole hand in gradient "arcs" while changing positions, so this is a really definitive point to hand gesture in general.

I don't see any forward fist drawings in this set, so just as an additional note I'll put in that because of how the tendons come in and meet at the wrist, when the forearm "flexes" and the fingers come inward, they come in to angle towards the middle finger (because the middle finger has the only tendon that goes straight up, and the rest branch to meet the fingers.) So when we close our hand, the fingers draw in to the center of the middle finger, and when they extend, the middle finger goes straight and the other fingers flay out.

The thumb is the only digit that has free movement that does not effect the other fingers, so while doing a hand "gesture" you can basically do the palm, draw in the thumb, and then make the arcs that indicate how the other fingers are moving; because they will always move in connected arcs.

I hope that helps! These are some of the things I find helpful when thinking about hands. n_n Keep up the good work, like Rhasda said the arm breakdowns you have going are quite nice.

[PurpleScissors]

I really like the environment thumbnails. The castle would look amazing if you painted it.
I agree with Vicionus about the hands but the arm studies seems cool. Keep working :)

[meat]

Good composition studies :) Did you pick out the ones you like the most, and analyze why you like those, what made them work, and what made the others not work?

[Bookend]

Vicianus: Wow!  I couldn't ask for a better crit than that-- I thank you from the bottom of my soul.  I will pay close attention to all details you've written about the hand.  I'm wondering what you mean by 'connection + bottom'?  I wanna sell my work! haha.   Thanks again!

Purplescissors: Thanks a billion, Purple. I will!

meat: Thanks!  And, yeah, definitely.  I found that when I simplified shapes more without trying to be too detailed, it looked better.  I think when it comes to detail, it seems like less is more.  I'm still unsure how to tackle those trees though-- Tricky.

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WAaAAiIiii I'm so exciiteeedd..  I worked really hard for two days straight and was the first one done the mentorship assignment.

Maybe this seems like I'm rushing or am sloppy, but it's just ADHD hyper-focus.  Comes in handy sometimes.  Usually when I'm interested in something.  Can be kind of obsessive.  Just hope that it's the same for the next assignment.  Problem with me is, if I don't get it done right away, then I'll get it done last minute.

[ari]

hey!

i really like your thumbnails, especially the abstracted/imagined smaller black and white ones at the bottom. you've got a good eye for composition, a lot of them are well weighted and i am excited to see you apply that to more finished pieces.

i think that your colour matching could use some practice, it's close but not entirely convincing! watch out for yellow undertones in your green, and reflection colours.

in your swamp paintings i am really distracted by the direction and size of your brush strokes, they really flatten the image and make the perspective seem unrealistic. it seems like a flat plane of colour that hangs down, and i think that's an area that you lose a lot of depth. in perspective it is just as important to know how to lay lights and darks according to distance, as well as which colours are more prominent in the foreground but are dropped by the eye as you get further back.

i think that in some aspects you are putting the cart before the horse, rendering before you have your forms laid down correctly for instance. you clearly have a good work ethic though, and your studies are intentional and plentiful, so i am excited to see what you do in the future!

keep it up!