Kimonas's Sketchbook

[Kimonas]

So here is a sketch of a dragon. It was one of many sketches i decided worked well and took further. Any advice greatly welcome!

[Kimonas]

Progress on the dragonny

[Fedodika]

dat booty tho ^.^

[Kimonas]

Fedodike hehe yes. quite, i still have to work on her quite a bit!

Another update :D

[Bookend]

Ah wow, awesome dragon, Kimonas. Great to see how much you've improved! Keep it up man.

[Agerkvist]

Yeah dude, really nice sense of form already. Take it home! :)

Touch of highlight on the beak to bring it a little closer to us.

See ya on skype later perhaps? Hangouts maybe?

Looking good.

[Kimonas]

bookend: thanks for your kind comment :D
Ager: THanks buddy, will twaek it :D

So here is the finished dragon, a mix of photobashing/paintover.

[Agerkvist]

The dragon looks fierce - I think the horns and spikes could've used a little more loved tho. They look a little bit too plasticy compared to the rest.

Also perhaps you could have defined the character a bit more. Right now she looks a bit generic. Who is she and why does she think she can tame a dragon? Perhaps they're old friends?

Well done buddy.

[Archreux]

Hey, really loving the sketchbook! Since page one you've really made a ton of progress!

These paintings are all really, really great. Your rendering, lighting, and color are all spot on for the most part. It reminds me a lot of Brad Rigney's (Cryptcrawler's) work and how he renders his paintings.

All of the drawings and notes that you've been taking are great as it really looks like it's having an immediate effect on your work. As an overall critique, I think this is the area that can be improved upon the most. As I mentioned, the paint itself is fantastic, but most of the problems in these paintings are drawing related.

Mostly, there are some leftover anatomical issues that can be ironed out in the drawing, and some of the poses seem to get stiff by the time the paint is laid on. Other than that, in terms of painting, there are some areas in these finished pieces that look as if they could be rendered out more and are oversimplified, being left as gradient fills. Some examples being the snake-hair on the spell caster, and the armor on the angel. I'm not suggesting to over-render the living hell out of everything, and for the most part things are really clean. These elements just need a little more attention then they've been getting, and to hide the techniques that were used to create them.

Hope that helps in some way and that I didn't go overboard. Haha.
You're stuff is really awesome, and keep up the great work! :]

[Kimonas]

thanks for the feedback Ager and Archreux! Yep agree, the image has many shortcomings. I do consider it a bit of a failure, but i learnt a lot from it. I started photobashing a bit, i feel im better at controlling the tonal composition than previously, it was one of my few attempts at something non human and its my first real attempt at a landscape in some time. Major weaknessess it uncovered - gestures and figures which are small on the canvas (im so used to doing big stuff), landscapes, texture and detail control. To put it briefly i jumped right out of my comfort zone, and now i've got to get my head down and study those weaknessess.

So over the next 6 months ive got a study plan sorted in an attempt to get me to the next level, it will include landscapes, master studies and film studies. Also gestures and figures, peppered with some fan art for a reward!

So ive decided to do copies of Karl Kopinski's sketches to keep gestures more interesting. I'm basically copying his design, but using my OWN construction and using his 'short hand' to help develop my hands/heads.I dont want to just be blindly 'copying' his work using angles and distances.

So here, goes!

[Bookend]

Nice! Keep working at it man. These latest look clean and well-constructed-- Just a bit stiff. Maybe put more work into the initial gesture next time, and see if that helps?

[Kimonas]

Bookend - I will try to be looser :D

More Kopinski

[Bookend]

These latest ones look a lot more looser-- Good job! Maybe take in the values next? Are you gonna push it to the next level, or is it just fun sketches?

Keep going man!

[Janos]

dude nice portraits !!!! really like them!

maybe you could ask yourself what is your goal ojn your latest piece. 

then make a study and capture the essence and than you know what to do!

keep this up man !!!

[Kimonas]

Bookend - Thanks! Well no values for a while. Trying to practice one thing at a time :D Im trying to practice my drawing skills. Perspective mostly and clothes design.

Janoe: Thanks dude! Since my latest piece, its to practice more drawing and gestures. My last painting felt laaaame.

More Kopinski copies

[lurch]

that bike thing is cool - i'm just curious, (struggling with stuff like this atm) how much are you working the perspective in for stuff like this? do you just bear the vanishing points in mind as you go, loose sketch and then refine or are you really constructing things?

your sketches are looking great, especially your females.

[Kimonas]

Lurch - Hey dude! For these i am obeying perspective rules, i worked with two perspective points, but they are so far off the page. The lines from each point were almost parallel on the page. There was no precise form building, i just copied Mr Kopinskis shapes roughly in perspective, and seemed to come out ok :D I have previously studied form building quit intensely. Working through scott robertsons book really helped, then went on to draw real life complex objects like jet planes and tanks in perspective, using the paths tool to accurately put in all the details.  Hope that helps!

Only one for today, had the sleepy virus. This is a copy or one of Karl Kopinskis biker babes. Tryna still steal his juice.

[Jonas Jerde]

Cool composition with the dragon piece. The thing that bothers me is that the layers of the image are way to obvious, there's no transition between them. This is mostly a problem with the edges you are using. Most of the edges are overly hard which kind of makes everything feel separated form each other. Incorporating some soft edges and even some lost edges will help give it a lot more depth I think.

here's a good article on edges if you are interested. http://muddycolors.blogspot.com.br/2015/...s.html?m=0

Good luck :)

[Kimonas]

JJ Aaron - Yeah i TOTALLY agree. Im in this trap where i need the control of lots of layers and it making my work too sharp and stiff. Im going to try a different technique where i lay down edges and silhouettes very quickly and then lock layers when im happy with edge control.

But for now more Kopinski - not even close to his awesomuity.

Also yesterday i copied this Kopinski sktch PERFECTLY, but i deleted it by accident. So you have to trust me on this, it was awesome...

[Bart]

Cool designs!