Slashy Sketchbook

[slashy]

Hello everyone on board ! :)

I've always wanted to start a sketchbook on a cool lookin' forum like this :) and here I am !

I think it would be nice if I would introduce myself in a few words, soo...
My name is Greg and I am from Poland. I love everything related to cg art and even traditional, like sculpting, drawing.
But I think that it's time to specialize myself in one area of cg, instead of learning everything. So I decided that I want to be a character concept artist, because that's what I enjoy the most. No matter if it's 2D or 3D, but I'm more into characters rather than environments, but that's not the case I would ignore environments studies or anything that's not related to characters. No, of course not :). But I want to be more strict about characters than anything else, so anatomy, gestures etc. Anyway I think that my pieces are lacking of everything, and that what I would post here today it's bad in every aspect of art, but I hope it would get better as I progress ! :)

Comments and critique is always welcome and I would reaaally appreciate it ! :)

So, enough talking from my side :), here are the pieces that I've done in past ~2 months. Wasn't serious about pursuing my dream yet, just having fun, so most of them are just weird imaginary pieces. Only the 2nd one that is a fanart of Overwatch character for contest I did a while ago, and the only one I've used ref to paint :)

Regards guys and I really apologize for my English. Trying to improve on that field too :)

[Artloader]

Welcome to Crimson Daggers Greg :).

Nice start to your sketchbook here, I see that you're into character design, I've been focussed on characters myself over the past 6 months or so and I definitely recommend Proko's YouTube channel, it's a great free resource for learning gestures and human anatomy. I've also studied from Michael Hampton's book "Figure Drawing Design And Invention" which I also recommend.

Looking forward to seeing your progress, good luck!

[slashy]

Hello Artloader :)

Thank you for stopping by. I've checked that YT channel you've recommended and I really like it. As you said, alot of free resource, and what's the most important I think - good quality free resources :).

I have already bought Michael Hampton's book and I like the way he proceed on teaching. Right now I'm at the beginning pages of the book but yeah, it's really cool :). I would probably order one of Andrew Loomis books, because just a while ago it was translated to polish - my native language, so it's even cooler for me :)

I've got one piece for today, fresh sketch of a man climbing a mountain. Target was to focus on form and anatomy, but everything from imagination. I wanted to check what I remember and what I don't remember regarding those subjects. I'm not super happy about how it looks, but I thought I would post it, as last piece from 2016. Because by that time I'm writing this post in my country is still 2016, so to those who're already celebrating / celebrated or will be - Happy New Year everyone and let the new year bring to us awesome progress on what we're studying ! :)

Cheers

[NoodleInBox]

Hey Slashy welcome to CD! I really like your use of color in your pieces. Everything looks so lively but just as you said you should also focus on the fundamental structure of the body like anatomy or figure drawing (Quickposes or deviantart are great resources for that if you didnt know already). And if you don't want to spend money on the Loomis books they are online for free yay! Maybe do some traditional pencil drawings too. Otherwise I'm excited what you are going to post next keep it up!

[slashy]

Hi Noodle :)

Thanks for visiting my sketchbook. Yeah I heard about that Loomis books are floatin' around the web, but personally I like more "analog" books. I'm just not a big fan of ebooks :)

I was just getting ready to sketch characters, but I forgot the name of that site. Thankfully you responded and now I remember - Quickposes :)

So, couple of sketches for today. I just realized that I'm super rusty in lineart. Probably I'm going to do alot more of those.



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[slashy]

Another day, another pack of sketches. Today only 11, cause I was really busy and didn't have enough free time :(



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[slashy]

New sketches from today. I think I'm getting faster and more looser with establishing a figure, but I'm still struggling with proportions (sometimes I tend to draw too long leg, but in most cases when I flip a canvas I can see my mistake, but not always it works). My knowledge is still pretty bad, for example, the baseball guy - number 8, was super hard to draw for me, because of alot line shortcuts (that's how you call it ? I apologize if not and please, if you know, tell me the proper word, I would be thankful :) ), and still I think he has so many mistakes, but I can't see where they are :p Anyways, I'm going to continue sketching those until I would be more aware. Probably I would incorporate hands and feet studies, as well portraits and of course pure anatomy :). Cheers. 



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[slashy]

Yesterday for me was one of these days that anything you do related to art - you fail. I just couldn't draw accurate, so I've decided that after portrait which I did using photo, I will draw one character sketch from imagination and I'll make a break for the rest of the day. I've had to think about what I want this character to be, so I thought hmm... maybe a man from the jungle with wooden staff or something. I didn't think too much and started drawing and in result I got static pose. I forgot to think about how do I want to pose him, that's not good. So I've decided that today I'll draw some of the sketches more loose and exaggerate the lines (as Proko said in one of his YT videos about gestures, that if you exaggerate the lines in gesture there is a reason behind it - to not let the final sketch turn into static pose), also some of them I keep as I sketch usually and some of the rest I'll mix those two techniques - more precise with a little bit of loose accents here and there.

Today sketches:



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Yesterday sketches:

[slashy]

As for weekend I've decided to take a break from gestures, and just chill out reading Michael Hampton's book.
I had an idea to better preserve knowledge from the book with studying sketches by Mr. Hampton, so I did couple of them :).
Probably tomorrow I'm going to do more, and then from Monday back to gestures :)



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[slashy]

Today again I did couple of sketches after Mr. Hampton, but nothing too fancy this time, just a quick ones with alot of errors :). Sometimes I'm getting really blind on those proportions. Anyway, I need to keep working hard and hopefully this issue will be fixed sooner or later.

And tomorrow - back to timed gestures :)



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[slashy]

I didn't have much free time with last few days, but today I found a little bit, and I did few sketches :) Only 5 but better than nothing.



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[NoodleInBox]

Fancy new update you have here xd is it just me or are you getting bolder with your lines and nice to see you doing some anatomy and figure studies. And don't worry about proportions that will happen eventually. Just keep drawiiinngg!

[slashy]

@NoodleInBox

Thanks for visit :) Maybe you're right with that bolder lines, but I'm not sure, cause I'm just trying to do every sketch better than the last one. Of course it never works like that :D. For now it's a roulette for me, once I can get proportions and lines pretty easily and on the other hand sometimes I'm struggling. I think I'm just not good enough with it yet to be great in every pose scenario :)

But for now what I'm struggling the most is the amount of free time, that's tough, but today I did 10 sketches, cause I had this feeling that I would get super rusty If I won't draw too often. And it's true for me, I'm feeling rusty and not precise enough. Well, I hope so I would have more free time in few days.



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[DunkSlammins]

Great stuff, Slashy! Love that Roadhog! I find that i get rusty if I skip a day too. So good on you for finding time even if you feel you dont have it. Keep pushing :)

[slashy]

@DunkSlammins

Thank you, glad you like it. And thanks for visiting my sketchbook :)

New sketches of today


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[slashy]

Hello after a while :) I wasn't posting due to commissions and lack of time related to start of new semester on my university, but I'm back with few pieces :)

Portraits (commissions):





Portrait for my friend, as birthday gift:



Bigger commission (including four portraits). I will post final piece, steps in GIF and photo of printed piece on canvas using giclee technology (adding those words wasn't my idea).



Steps (GIF)




Canvas print (giclee):

[tinDeer]

those commissions look great! :)
And I also like the figure drawing, it's nice to recognize some of them. It seems you focus a lot on the outlines of the figures, tough. Do you know/have you tried "Draw a Box"? It helps a lot to understand things in terms of their underlying masses. And if you learn how to construct one thing, you quickly understand how to construct everything.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Your stuff is looking good! I especially like all the really juicy figure drawings you've been doing. Are you doing them from imagination, too, to make sure the info is sticking? Keep working!