Ricardo´s Art Journey

[RickRichards]

Hello Daggers! This is my first post in the Crimson Daggers forum. I´ve been visiting CD since it was in CA, and have learned a ton.



For a few years now i´ve been working my tail off, trying to understand the fundamentals, push my art to work as a professional illustrator/ concept artist and also to work on personal projects.







Hope i can learn from fellow artists as well as help on what i can!









Ricardo






Cheers!

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Some sketchbook pages







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Studies of the late comics artist Delaby







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Rurouni Kenshin studies







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To be honest i don´t know much about Frazetta´s work but found a few pictures and studied them







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Some digital studies, some a bit older some a bit more fresh







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Studying from the awesome artist Dice Tsutsumi







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And a sketch of an Sonic 2 unused level done a while back











Cheers!

[T. Freitas]

"Desenho De Algibeira" - Spread the Portuguese sayings! :)
Diging your traditionals. The tickness of your lines is really special. Save this words!
Keep it updated, want to see more!

[Vicianus]

Nice work. Keep it up, I look forward to seeing more!

[RickRichards]

T.Freitas- Ahaha. Surely a typical portuguese saying.
Thanks man!

Vicianus- Thanks man!

[pnate]

Oooo love your sketches man!

[RickRichards]

Pnate- Thanks Nathan!! Your work is very inspiring, and your sketchbook is an inspiration because of your skill and dedication. Cheers!

[RickRichards]

Wow, it´s been a while since i´ve updated this.
Here´s a few studies and pieces i´ve been working on. Crits and feedback are welcome :)

[AngeliquevdMee]

What else can you say to this sb other than good job? It's great!

[Chris Rob]

Wow awesome Sketchbook, love those Carricature :0

[Piotr Jasielski]

Awesome! Keep this up and visit us more often!

[BenFlores]

Love your drawings! You've got a good sense of form and shape going on.

As for your question about edges in between forms, take a look at this painting by Harold Speed.

Spoiler

Try to overlap your brush strokes rather than painting them side by side until they meet. He gets hard edges by painting a loaded brush over the bottom layer(for example, the hard edge in the middle of the nose). In digital you can get a hard edge like this a number of ways. Hard edged brush stroke (explained above), selection/lasso tools , smudge, mixer brush, sharpen, etc. So try all those things and also try to lower the spacing on your brush settings under the "brush tip shape" tab.

When it comes to where to decide where to put hard and soft edges, follow the contours of the Harold speed painting or Sargent's portrait painting.Basically when you get an intersection of lines you want to keep the most important edge (in your opinion) hard and the one next to it soft. For example look at the middle of the neck of this girl in that painting. The edge is hard along the shadow casted from the chin and then soft to show the rounded form of the neck; then back to a hard edge at the sternocleidomastoid muscle. Also notice how the left muscle is a harder edge than the right one. The theory is that you do not want 2 hard edges competing for attention.

One more thing that I'm not really sure about but noticed in one of Sargent's paintings. If you alternate soft and hard edges in bigger gaps, the eye will move faster. So in your focal points, you want to vary your edges a lot to keep the eye in place. The eye is attracted to those hard edges and if you can lead the eye around by playing with lost and found edges, you can improve your compositions as well. These aren't rules or anything but it may help you out.

Hopefully that made sense :D Looking forward to more updates from you.

[RickRichards]

AngeliquevdMee: Thanks for the kind words Angelique!

Chris Rob: Thanks man!!!

Piotr Jasielski - Thanks Piotr! I want to post more regularly and be more active on the forum.

BenFlores:Wow. Thank you very much for your answer Ben. So, a juxtaposition of hard and soft edges to accentuate the contrast/importance on the comp?
I have to work more on that department haha, i tend to either make a painting too sharp or the opposite, soft, i´ll try to find the harmony in between.
May i ask which brushes do you use more often, regarding a soft (or lost edge) and for a firm and hard edge?

Now, i´m trying to nail the values and edges by making many studies of artists such as Brad Rigney, Mitchel Morhrhauser,Dustplay or Ryan Lang.

Thanks!!!

[Eristhe]

Hey man! Great stuff, love the cariactures. Looking at your most recent study, I think you need to work with the form and structure underlying your paintings. The soft edges in the arms and hand especially show a weakness with your anatomical knowledge. They're looking a bit doughy and only by concentrating study on the 3D structure of that area, landmarks and anatomy will you learn how to fix that.

Keep up the great work!

[BenFlores]

I can't really say which brushes I use most often , I try to change my brushes all the time. Sometimes a combination of brushes will get you a certain look so I'll limit myself to a certain set and switch between those. Let me know if you'd like to try out my brush set and I can upload it for you.

Most of the time I use the smudge tool with different brushes,settings, and strengths to push and pull edges around. Try all the ways you can think of and see what works for you.

Looking forward to seeing those studies!

[RickRichards]

Update on the WIP. Crits are welcome fellas
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[RickRichards]

This time i´m trying to go back on colour, studying landscapes and hues. I´ve used only personal references to create the habit of taking much more personal refs.

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[RickRichards]

Trying to delve again into the colour studies. Loved that asian man reference, the colour is just perfect, rim light, the complementary temperature of the colours makes the volume gain more momentum.
Maybe i´m gonna do a few more studies from the same ref.
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[RickRichards]

Firstly a value study of Brad Rigney´s work, then going from grasycale to colour, just seeing how the technique works on catching the flavour of the original piece.
Applying that study to make a character design portfolio piece. The first version was too stiff, muddy and boring, so i´ve tried a second variation, which was better but still  i wasn´t satisfied with it, then i´ve tried to make a final attempt, changing the face, the body parts and added some elements.
I´ll try to render the best i can this character. I need to seriouslly practice and delve into deep rendering.
Not sure still if i maintain the original background. I find it fine but maybe it´s creating tome noise for the readbility of the character.
Version 1
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Version 2
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Final version (unfinished)
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[RickRichards]

The final grayscale. Now begins the worst part, the grayscale-colour transition.
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[RickRichards]

Final and close up.
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