To Cyan Sky

[Cyaneink]

I am new to digitalart and drawing from imagination. I study at university mechanical engineering, but I want to be concept artist... I have been drawing 3 years actively, but is it mostly traditional from reference. And I feel that I haven't learn anything from it. So here I am, to learn draw. Critique is welcome!

[xiemogui]

Hi! Welcome to cm!

Before i even advice you i think as a beginner what i learned was to get rid of my pride. Listen to advices even if its not solid. you can either take it or leave it. 

The reason why you havent learn anything is because you are not applying much of what you learn to your own stuff. I started out just doing master copies, studies and little imaginative work till i got adviced to do more. Your imaginative work might not be what you want it to be  now but keep up the mileage and overtime with patience and hardwork, you'll attain it.

Learn to use reference the smart way. Reference is where you look and take the essence of the photo to your drawing not directly copy them. You have to feel it! If you are just copying what you see then its just gonna be another replication of it. Observation and applying is key here. Observation, to know it. Applying ,to feel it. Both combine = contain in memory. Go life if possible dont be restricted to photos. If you took your phone out and compare it to the actual, you'll see that the one on the phone has different, contrasting colors. Its not even the actual colors on a few parts.

And before even doing a piece make studies nomatter how small the thing is, you want to build up the visual library with the correct stuff mindless repeitition with no correct application is just a waste of time.

Oh another thing use basic brushes or just brushes that doesnt seep through much or make your piece muddy. You can practice using high opacity on a still life to improve brush works! Learn to be efficient with your strokes. Try waiting a few seconds or what i like to do now lift my brush for a few milliseconds? And put it down. Too much brushstroke will make it look too muddy. Im also trying to work on that :)


Thats all i can advice you on. Though it might not be convincing coming from me i just thought id help out a fellow dagger. I myself am a beginner and concept art is something i might jump onto. Lets help each other out shall we?

Some stuff i'll leave here before going off.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pbF8T69oz5A

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zG83bFz5hXk ( this is just a basic gist of a painting whats actually underneath is a whole lot! Try painting traditionally you'll learn all kinds of thing and facet of a traditional piece. Get alla prima if possible.)

Tyler's other videos are also gold.

Remember if you dont understand something observe, research get it down dont move on untill you know it.

Ok im gonna on now. Good luck to you! Hope your journey will be a succesful one!

[Cyaneink]

Thanks xiemogui! You critique is spot on. I  really have to reference more and do studies. I paint with watercolors, so using something opaque feels weird, but I have to try it. Thanks for link, those Tyler videos seems perfect. I think I will watch them all!

I did some landscape studies today. I tried to match colors and general shapes. I think I have to make list of things to study... I really need more practice.


edit: Ou, that last study went way of. I think I should have zoomed out some point.

[xiemogui]

Yup you are on the right track. Its great that you are specifying on a subject, mountains? But the thing is i dont see any of your personal work apply to them. Dont make a list of studies. But instead make a list of personal work that you really wanna do. Doesnt mean you copied mountains you are going to remember them in a day. You can focus on a subject for a few weeks. Or better still a few days but with an accompaniment of personal works or maybe just doing small thumbnails or even better still thumbnails then personal works, the possibilities are endless, afterall each are individuals. The reason why doing your own works is good is because your imagination changes every single time on whatever single piece you wants to do. With that your subject matter also changes, thus you will have to do research and studies on em. Its much more structural but effective. If you are doing countless studies you'll eventually lose sight. But you are an individual so whatever suit your style do it, but somethings just have to change, for the best, if its not working out find the right way till you are definitely happy with it.

Your copies colors are spot on but its all over the place for the perspective. 

Accuracy will get better after awhile 
If you wanna do direct copies, copy from masters not photo, i personally direct copy to only work on brushworks. Studies are a different thing though.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nSJmcUPjIcY
 Watch this 2 part video to learn a technique called enveloping(i think thats what its called) its to capture the form of the subject matter 


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pYXr7LATbws
 Heres a video of mark lague painting, you can see how his doing this dab dab dab to capture the subject placement. Dont just watch the start tho  finish it. Look at how he paints.

You are definitely on the right track but i feel that your works are too little, go crazy but not so van gogh crazy. Though if life forbids you its fine as long as you have a clear and passionate goal to reach. Do your best!

P.s believe it or not i typed this within a few mins, i type too much. But I really hope you find this useful and are going on the right track. Good luck.

[Cyaneink]

Thanks again! I think I have to do value studies too.  I picked mountains because I really like paint that wilderness. I really have to do some personal projects.

I have to admit, that I rarely leave my comfort zone when drawing. I know I should, but every time I pick pencil or pen, I tend to draw something that is familiar to me. But for preventing to make it happen in future, I set weekly goals for myself and hopefully stick with them.

Here is todays perspective studies and some drawings from life. My current sketchbook is small, so these pictures are more like miniatures.






And this is my weekly goals thingy. First colum is general rules, second is for smaller tasks. I try do almost all of these. And last is for more time consuming things, which I try to do at least one. And sorry for all the misspelling, I have dyslexia and english isn't my first language, so my output may be little messy.

[neopatogen]

Hi there!
@xiemogui I'll use your advices, too! Thank you for sharing.
@Cyaneink keep up good work! I'm a beginner and I'm learning on my own, too.

[Cyaneink]

Thanks, neopatogen!

Doing some design work for project! Some fast sketches for diffrent designs.


And one sketch got picked and I started working with it. This time I tried to first make black and white version. Still in WIP state. I have problems with that "turning" part. Maybe I make small statue of this, to get it look right.

[Cyaneink]

I wasn't feeling well today, so I didn't do much. I continued working with "vacuum monster." I fixed it's tail and added some color. I don't like current coloring. I colored over the grayscale picture, but color become flat and dead. I have to color this again.  But here is new WIP.



Project need more monsters, so I do quick sketchsheet. This was first time to do straight to digital to me. I really wasn't feeling well, so I went to easy route and do stylised sketches, cartoony I should say. Shading etc is off... But some of these look promising. 



And I noticed that my wacom stylys nib is really wear off, it's now more like chisel nib! And scratchy... I like that nib which have that grey thing on tip, but my tablet came with only one of those. And because I live in land of nothingness, I haven't find replacment yet. I think I have to get used to use other nibs, even if I hate default slipery black nib. Or order somewhere online.

[Cyaneink]

I haven't much time to draw, finished this monster and some quick sketches. Started play World of Warcraft again, which is never good thing...

[AlfonsoX]

uninstall it,
you wont regret it

[Cyaneink]

AlfonsoX  :D
Not much to show here. I did one master study, but it just failed horrible. I just got new traditional art supplies, so there may be more of traditional work. I did couple landscape studies in pastel, which was really... messy. I ended smudging my whole painting to one muddy puddle of dust.
I have to draw more monsters for project, so I studied animal anatomy. I have never draw nor seen big cats, like lions etc, so I decided to study them. Here is my study from photographs. I didn't include photos, because I have no rights to them...




Somehow I managed to complete my weekly schedule! Hope that I can keep this up. I have really nasty cough right now and I should write my bachelor's thesis, which I have been avoiding for years, so this week going to be hard to keep up.

[Cyaneink]

Second masterstudy. I have to admit, that I really hate making these master studies. I really isn't feeling how these are going to take me forward. Seriously lacking in weekly shcedule. I have not feeling well, cough and tired all the time.

[Cyaneink]

Last week was totally chaos. I was sick and school started.  I just can't skip first lessons on university. But now I'm feeling better. Now I know my courses etc. so I can make time to draw.
Today I did some perspective studies. I have How to Draw book by Scott Robertson and I'm half way thought. I still have problems with perspective. It just take so much time and I end with drawing with thousand lines... I'm stereoblind by the way, but I don't think that matters at all. All I need is just more practise and hardwork.
Here is my sketches.

[Pax]

Imho what helped me a lot with perspective was studying from life when I understood the topic within the text I was reading. When I learned the most from my perspective studies, I would usually end up attempting to replicate and incorporate the concept I learned until I could execute it from memory without really thinking about it, and that process was sped up considerably as I studied from life. What also really helped me was taking a glance at an object or scene from life then trying to replicate it as best as I could from memory, taking trips back to see the object or scene only if I couldn't remember rough placement of the forms/elements of the scene. Actually seeing the concepts put into action in real life helped me notice these things more in daily life and within nature, helping me indirectly understand a little bit more about construction and forms without much conscious effort on my part.

Good luck and be sure to do some stuff from life and from your imagination!

[Cyaneink]

Thanks for advice Pax! I really have to draw from life more. I just don't like it much...  But I will try it.

First, the good news, my WoW subscription ended and I will not renew it in near future! I feel like I suddenly have more time in my hands. So, I hopefully use it on drawing and school things, not to games.  I'm not yet sure how much time I can but in drawing. But I try target something like 2h every day.

Perspective, more perspective. I'm fell love with  colored pencil lead, have to buy more colors. I tried inking, which turned out surprisingly good, other things not so good.

[Cyaneink]

I feel unmotivated to draw. So I decided to challenge myself to draw more. Last September I take fill sketchbook in a month challenge and succeed. Now I challenge myself to draw only from life for February. I have been lately falling to straight copying from photo reference. I try to target drawing every day.

And today's WIP. Still-life from view next to my computer. This is still in sketch phase, have to transform and tweak things to right shapes. Photo is just for you to see what I try to paint, I don't use it as my reference.  I also try to work this piece to finish, not to some half-finish state that I usually leave my digital pieces. I have to take habit to zoom out, it's so easy to spot mistakes in smaller image.

[Cyaneink]

More still-life studies. I try more painterly approach on headphones. Still consider these both in WIP state. Also I did some traditional still lifes.

[Hobitt]

Great studies keep up the good work! I can suggest to paint some basic grayscale images really try to understand how values are affected by light and how to turn form with value.

[Cyaneink]

Thanks, Hobitt! I try do some grayscale images in the future. I'm big fan of color, so I rarely try paint anything grayscale. Value is still quite mysterious thing to me. 

Cough and migraine really get me last couple of  weeks. I failed at my still-life challenge. Haven't drew much.  But I got two personal project to work on! I am taking part to CampNano on April. Nano is 50 000 words in one month. I have made it like ten times? Maybe? Lost count already. But now I have really cool plot and world waiting to come alive, so I decided to make concept art for my novel. There is one serious lack in my artistic skill set. I really suck at drawing humans. And now it's time to practice humans.  Here is my failed digital piece of main character. After that, I taken "learn to draw human" - book from my shelf and  started read it. This book looks quite promising and perfect for beginner. The graphite work is made with book step-by-step instruction.







The other project is sims 2 custom content project, which have little to do with concept art. But maybe I share when I get something done.

[smrr]

Hey man,

Good to read you're here to really bust your ass and improve!

I was gonna give so many suggestions about what to study and everything, but damn, you had it all planned out already

Spoiler

Something I would note however, where you have "Anatomy!!!" written below perspective -- perspective is a fundamental we should all master first. I learned the hard way. I dived straight into anatomy studies when I started out and almost completely let perspective slide undetected... only until about 4 months ago. -_-

Don't make the same mistake I did.

Anatomy studies won't sink in without solid understanding of perspective.

Anyways, keep it up! <3

I'll you 'round!

o/