Kimonas's Sketchbook

[DK]

Still looks great to me, love the costume design you got going there.

[Kimonas]

Thanks Dennis, appreciate your feedback :)

Just some progress on the back ground and layer organisation.

[Einver]

Your work is lovely! The dynamics and narrative are on point. Your draftsmanship is palpable too.

No crit at the moment, but I can feel something brewing. Once The thought is more fully formed I'll be back.

For now, just anxious to see where that angel piece goes.

[Kimonas]

Einver - Thanks dude, really appreciate it. I have that brewing feeling all the time when im painting, something just aint right! hehe.

Another little update, the position for her sword will change and the magic is just a crappy placeholder for now.

Any feedback appreciated :D

[Archreux]

Cool updates. I like this last one, especially. Very Jana-esque in process.

As for a crit: I think the angle of her back and the way things align with the breastplate are creating a flattened contour/space. In part, it's due to the way the edge of the plate aligns with her sash in value, creating this tangent of sorts. The breastplate would also have a lot more volume around the chest cavity, creating a stronger contour in relation to her hips positioning.

I'm not the best with perspective, but the skewing from the chest down seems a bit forced, and it gives this slight distortion to her proportions/ accessories that feels unnatural. Another thing that seems off with the perspective is that her body is being pushed back into space, as if we're looking at her from a down angle. The sun is setting behind her, which creates a confusing parallel with the sun and herself. I understand being in the sky is already a vague place to position a character in, and it's great thinking to use an anchor point to associate her with, but it doesn't work with the perspectives concept. 

I did a quick paintover to illustrate a few of these points. It's very crude. Haha. But yeah, the legs still don't really look right. Hope this might be helpful. Color and light is on point, everything else aside. :D

[Kimonas]

Archreux - Hey thanks for the paint over buddy! I appreciate the legs not looking 100% right - i suppose im forcing myself to use forshortened poses, rather that perpendicular poses becuase they look more dramatic (if they are pulled off well!)

Here she is, finally finished it. I’m a bit disappointed that this took me a total of 2 months to complete. I feel that I’m coming to the limit of my current workflow, and I feel like I need to get back to line work and probably still lives. Hell maybe just basics in general! I find it’s also difficult to really get into painting despite only working 3 days a week in my real job (12 hours a day). I find that this is harming my muscle memory for developing. In times that I’ve been able to draw and paint every day for more than a week I really feel my skills rocketing. It’s a bit of a catch 22 really because if I drop everything to do art I’ll be in poverty but if I don’t I think it will really slow my progression. Difficult decisions lie ahead.

Also some excellent new – I managed to get an Honorable mention in the Muddy Colours Rising Stars competition! So far my strategy has been to skill up and try and enter at the high end of the market, the down side to this has been not to really get any validation of my efforts until now.

Anyway, happy new year everyone, heres to another year of the pursuit of l33tness.

[Fedodika]

Hey love it man! Reminds me of those old angel paintings Algenpfleger used to do in like 2011.

Yea man, the rendering is pretty sweet on this and I don't really know what you could do better. It's really gonna just take doing composition studies and color studies, learning new tricks from master painters and incorporating that into your work to make it I guess more unified; Yea quick but efficient and focused studies would be great to switch it up for the time being, as well as some experimenting I think.

I think you'll do great things this year m8, lookin forward to more!

[John]

I managed to get an Honorable mention in the Muddy Colours Rising Stars competition!

Oh dude, I saw your work on their blog. Never had a chance to congratulate you on that! Well deserved mention!

[Kimonas]

Hey guys thanks for the kind words!

Fedodika - That  sounds like good advice. Sounds like a good idea to get work to look as unified as possible!

John - Thanks man means a lot.

I posted the piece on reddit recently and Noah Bradley was kind enough to leave his two cents on the piece! :

'Looking sweet, lots of things are working really well here. Biggest thing, though, is making sure your values work at card size. Go stand on the other side of the room and squint your eyes. Does the figure still read? Nope. So always, always, always be thinking about the silhouette and making sure it reads really clearly.
Again: lots of good stuff here. Your rendering and colors and lighting are all looking good. Just work out those values and silhouettes a bit more.'

Fair enough i did mess up the silouhette

anyway for now more sketches :D

[Kimonas]

I forgot how much doodling was! All this time working on portfolio, sometimes you loose a sense of why you started all this in the first place!

This is part of a longstanding idea I have for a graphic novel. I wrote a script out a few years ago but it needs a total overhaul. I think I might play around with some of the characters. They aren’t part of the story but part of the lore of the world. I don’t have the story nailed down but I have a good beginning/middle and end. I want to play around with more drawing and perhaps world building before attacking the main characters.

This gang was set up by a mysterious benefactor. Armed with a stolen stash of rail guns, they execute Robin Hood type gigs on financial institutions. They call it ‘redistribution of wealth at gunpoint’. They are eventually hunted all down by mercenaries, only one gang member evaded capture and is still at large.

[Fedodika]

hahah getting some nice elipses in there bro, I like the plot, kinda like some communist thugs in theory? This sketch gotta lot of personality and good weight distribution, I'd think about colorin that one some time, it has potential!

[Kimonas]

Thanks Fedodika!

Will probably take things forwards with the whole thing at some point, but i have to scratch an itch, i want to paint a dragon! This is the thumb that looked best i think. After the angel i wanted to focus on getting good readability.

A bit directionless these days, i'll get back to the cyberpunk thing - its still brewing. I think i feel a bit in limbo - i recently submitted to spectrum and WOTC to try and get MTG work. I want to believe i have a chance. I just feel i need to see what happens with these and then i can carry on living my life! I'm a big planner, and i can't plan without knowing whats happening.

[Kimonas]

Moar of Dragony

Feedback welcome! :D

[Fedodika]

the way his foot is planted makes it looks like he's walking on snow, could just be the colors you layed in tho. Make sure you get lots of depth in that background!

[Kimonas]

Fedodika: Thats ok, cos its supposed to be snow :D Thanks for dropping by :)

[Kimonas]

Little update, hopefully not its clearer that the dragon isnt in the skies! :D

[Fedodika]

Hmm, this is just what i think at first glance; I think the like spikes on him are too neat, like on his back they kinda look like a toy, maybe make them a little more jagged or roughed up. The white horns in the back of his head look kinda cartooney, and like they weigh his head down a lot, that and they don't really add to the silhouette, considering where they're placed. I'd either change their design, or make them smaller or just drop them completely.

Also, the scene seems like it's hard to tell the narrative; the dragon seems very friendly, judging by his expression, that and his head is quite big compared to his body making him look kind of cute. The pose of the figure however, seems like it's intimidated or stunned or preparing to fight this very docile creature. I'd also reccomend cutting down some of the end of his tail to vary the kind of big small dynamic you could have there, the size is too constant and unchanging. The back leg kind of bugs me, I'm not sure how to fix it, it just seems weird how it connects to the body.

I like all these overlaps on the rocks however, good you're challenging yourself!

[Jeffrey]

Hello Kimonas! I remember your sister of battle drawing from way back, I think I found it on Deviantart once, is that possible? Really like the newest angel and the Centaur drawing, I'll have to glean some tricks from you on how to manage a color scheme while painting :p. On the dragon one, I agree with Fedodika about the design, although the dragon doesn't seem particularly friendly to me. Anyhow, I feel like the cast shadow from the dragon should be darker, about equal in color value to the shadow side of the beast. I think that will make it feel like more of a part with the painting.

Hope to be of help! And nice to see you here!

[Abnormal]

It is a great idea I had a lot of fun exploring different scenarios but my skills are almost null, for sure you can do it a lot better.:)

The characters are aligned but they are not interacting, this gives the sensation as if they were in the same space and the image looks flat plus that point of view does not help.

Always remember the most basic about design and composition, overlapping objects, scale, repeating shapes, dominant-subdominant shapes etc.

Amazing sketchbook ^^.

[Zipfelzeus]

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party. I just wanted to come in here to say that I really enjoyed the latest pieces you did! The one with the centaurs is just so cool. Great job on the horse anatomy that's usually were most people fail haha. But also the whole forrest scene and the action works so well. Really great piece!

Regarding your latest piece with the dragon. I have the feeling the fiigure in the bottom right corner is to far to the edge od the paintings and it throws the painting out of balance by pulling it to right corner.
Maybe you could try putting the figure closer to the dragon. It might even make the painting a bit more dramatic if the two are in so close proximity.

That is all from my end.