Hello there! I have recently taken up painting/rendering and am looking to improve. Just as well, I want to do more studies, more regularly. I hope that posting here might help with that. I'm currently a student in drawing and my goal is to become a comic book artist. I will definitely post some pages from time to time, but for now I want to focus on painting and studying the fundamentals. Here is some recent work, a few studies and a bit of personal work. I have a bad habit of not applying the studies as much as I should. I'm getting better, but still need a lot of work with that.
Okay, so I must admit I'm a bit embarrassed to show my face around here. I had never intended to stay away for so long. In retrospect, I had been in my own space for too long, so I shied away when seeing some of the sketchbooks around here, and how good everyone seems to be. The intimidation got to me. I forgot the point was to track personal progress, and get some input here and there. Anyhow, I have been really struggling on my own, and am hoping that getting back to posting will change that. My goals have definitely changed a bit. At this point I'm trying to put something of a portfolio together, to get some commissions going, all while working on my fundamentals of course. I had been working on some comic pages for a personal project, but decided to put it on hold and focus on doing some illustration work. So that's where I'm at now.
In focusing so much on my painting abilities, I have definitely improved at rendering, but my drawing and structure abilities have diminished a bit. I didn't actually realize the extent of this until I had to face it when finishing my work. As you'll see everything is just muddy. Certain areas hold together while others are just a mess. This is especially apparent in the second image, the more recent one. I didn't preserve my under drawing, so it's basically just guesswork at this point. I'm gonna keep refining the focal points and get back to doing some structure and form studies. But in the meantime, here are two of the more finished pieces I have, and some supplemental studies to go with them.
Being intimidated is not a fun head space to be in. I do feel that way at times when I see, say, Jonesoda or walent, do their art dump and just be totally embarrassed to have my work be placed beside theirs. But at the same time it's inspiring to have their art around. To think they started from page 1 looking like a different animal to what they have on their current pages. Them banging out pages is a testament to being consistent with work and fine tuning their craft will produce results.
Fear is the mind killer! Don't stop drawing!
Quote:As you'll see everything is just muddy. Certain areas hold together while others are just a mess. This is especially apparent in the second image, the more recent one. I didn't preserve my under drawing, so it's basically just guesswork at this point
If you're lost on what you should look for, try researching on warm cool color relationships. (http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2014/1...reads.html) It's also a thing I'm currently working out on, but I think we have that same problem of paintings looking a bit dull or lackluster in color.
That said, good luck with your findings!
If you are reading this, I most likely just gave you a crappy crit! What I'm basically trying to say is, don't give up! ---- IG: @thatpuddinhead
John: Much thanks for the advice, dude ;). I have started to come around as far as being inspired by everyone, and not so much intimidated.
Lots of WIP stuff. Nothing quite finished, much less very close. I'm gonna have to force myself to just pick one, find the necessary references and finish it. Gotta beat the habit. Anyhow, I've realized in looking over these images just how picky I can be, and yet still sloppy. I will have to make sure so as not to become too precious or careless in the future, and so as not to keep skipping steps so much. Must. Resist. The urge. Need to strike some balance.
