Coinhero's sketchbook

[Coinhero]

You don't test the value before going in color?I believe a concept that is good to put in practice is strong silhouette.

I do a values sketch before colors and check the values all the time I just don't want to go super heavy contrast from the start because that's one of the things that messes up my paintings.
I think it looks fine as it is now maybe just a bit more contrast but I think it's more that the edges are so soft everywhere

[Coinhero]

spend all day with my dad fixing my cars handbreak and then cleaning and waxing the car. Too exhausted to work on stuff from imagination. Richard Schmid study, greens are too cold sky is too warm

[Fedodika]

i think the greens are too green, the rest of the colors are pretty accurate, or at least good :)

[Coinhero]

@Fedodika Yea I wanted to copy that painting just because I really like the greens in the original but its so hard to get it right -,-

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trying to make this look at least ok. I'm mainly focused on just not going too crazy with saturation and contrast but also trying to make everything colorful and vibrant. Moved the leg down because I just can't figure out how to do the previous pose and the tail is bugging me how its getting very close to the edge of the canvas.

[Fedodika]

your dragon doesnt have an interesting silhouette, its just like a tapering tube with a little point of the side, i'll provide you some examples of cool dragons that read as purely silhouettes

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1443927951
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1457950674
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1443927877

Here's a buncha cool dragon designs

https://www.artstation.com/search?q=drag...ting=likes


You could do a similar idea to what you have, just have the dragon have a cool or spikey shape that is appealing. His wings look floppy, and lack anatomy and function, the form of the spikes are not following the edge of the back, the rider looks cool, reminds me of fenghua zhong a bit. Take a page out of his book, he has great designs too, the whole image has to be top notch

Again its just drawing thats gonna hold you up the most; all the color and composition wont make up for a lack of design and foundation; Think, is this the coolest silhouette shape for a dragon i can concieve of right now? if no, spend that time banging out one with the most primitive shapes and values you can until that alone is inspiring :)

[Coinhero]

your dragon doesnt have an interesting silhouette, its just like a tapering tube with a little point of the side, i'll provide you some examples of cool dragons that read as purely silhouettes

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1443927951
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1457950674
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1443927877

Here's a buncha cool dragon designs

https://www.artstation.com/search?q=drag...ting=likes


You could do a similar idea to what you have, just have the dragon have a cool or spikey shape that is appealing. His wings look floppy, and lack anatomy and function, the form of the spikes are not following the edge of the back, the rider looks cool, reminds me of fenghua zhong a bit. Take a page out of his book, he has great designs too, the whole image has to be top notch

Again its just drawing thats gonna hold you up the most; all the color and composition wont make up for a lack of design and foundation; Think, is this the coolest silhouette shape for a dragon i can concieve of right now? if no, spend that time banging out one with the most primitive shapes and values you can until that alone is inspiring :)

Yea the dragon sucks I'll try to do something about it today. Problem is I don't want it to be a badass, spikes everywhere, ready for war type of dragon but more "graceful" I don't know how to explain it but that's why the wings are so mushy. Maybe I'll change it to something other than a dragon, design is not something I like doing all that much.

[Coinhero]

[Coinhero]

did small things on this and probably wont work on it anymore



I haven't done mapcrunch studies in a very long time, goal was to keep the technique as simple as possible and just focus on making deliberate choices and to freely make changes that I feel would make the image more interesting even if I'm not trying to make it look pretty.



lines for another study I'll do tomorrow. This one is much more complex, maybe I'll lasso tool this a lot and try to get more sharp/flat shapes

[Fedodika]

now that is a lot cooler design!

[Coinhero]

@Fedodika thanks, I think it captures the feeling I'm going for much better.

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colored this study, I stuck to the reference a bit close when it comes to shapes and where everything is but did some weird stuff with color and values to make it more interesting. I really like painting like this, it feels natural to me and it's a lot of fun.

also made a lot of idea sketches, here are two that I'm thinking about pushing further.

 


I don't like either of them as they are now but it's at least giving me a starting point. I'll figure something out tomorrow

[darktiste]

Here some idea for to reinforce the principle of rythem and direction.

[Coinhero]

I played around with the sketches from yesterday but eventually ended up changing everything.



It took me an embarrassing amount of tries to get the guy in the foreground to look like acceptable, changed the pose like a million times and now my phone is full of weird half naked pictures of myself :D



did some basic color stuff to just to have a base to get going, also did a black and white sketch to have a more clear idea of where to place stuff. I'll probably do something with the sketches from yesterday some time in the future

[xelfereht]

dragon looks much nicer after you added the other wings, the other dragon in the distance is getting a bit lost and maybe looking like a bit of fluff on the main dragon
as far as the composition my eye goes from the dragons head and up the ridge of the mountain off the page
the cliff shapes are pretty uninteresting
could be a nice piece if worked up even further.
i feel that way about allot of your work.
its just my view but commonly i think you dont have a good visual read in allot of your pieces, theres often eye catching spots of high chroma/ value contrast where theres nothing really going on.
you wanna let people know where to look usually
the contrast of colour value and soft hard edges is too evenly distributed that areas of focus are vague
some pieces definately better than others, the snake head was nice and the frog pretty good.
if you tighten up the edges and up the contrast in places you want the eye to focus on it will instantly up the quality of your images.
i tihnk you should also work on pushing back parts that are more eye catching than you want.
try looking away from your image, look back at it and see where your eye naturally goes in the first second you look at it. as much as possible try not to have a conscious bias because you are aware already of whats going on in the image.
you have allot of good things going on but a look thats lacking finish and control over the read

hope that helps and its not intended to get you down
i just think you can learn allot from wracking your brain trying to work something up to a higher finish
but its just from my view. if you disagree thats all good
peace brother

[xelfereht]

I dont wanna just be all talk
Had a 15 minute play around with one of your imagaes to try and show what i mean


I started with a few photo filters to unify the colors towards orange because of the sunset
youve got like every color in there which undermines the effect of the sunset
those strong greens and cyans in te crowd are so out of place then the light source is a warm sunlight
washed out allot of the contrast of the distant objects make them feel more distant and not be as much an area that catches the eye.
I want the read to to be about the guy then the girl then the sun
the guy is more outstanding in his gesture and has his face showing so he grabs attention first
the girl is close and of similar contrast level so she becomes the 2nd point, the sun is bright but less of a contrasted area value wise so comes in 3rd and the 3 things make a nice triangle to keep the attention where you want it
Hope that helps!

[darktiste]

I think you could reinforce the overlapping by adding the arm behind because atm it hidden and it could be pointing toward the figure in the distance to add a bit more direction.Also try to remember to use the rule of third for extra point of focal point.I also have added some framing element with smoke to add more drama and i also putted a magic effect going into the foreground to bring back the viewer eye.

[Coinhero]

I dont wanna just be all talk
Had a 15 minute play around with one of your imagaes to try and show what i mean


I started with a few photo filters to unify the colors towards orange because of the sunset
youve got like every color in there which undermines the effect of the sunset
those strong greens and cyans in te crowd are so out of place then the light source is a warm sunlight
washed out allot of the contrast of the distant objects make them feel more distant and not be as much an area that catches the eye.
I want the read to to be about the guy then the girl then the sun
the guy is more outstanding in his gesture and has his face showing so he grabs attention first
the girl is close and of similar contrast level so she becomes the 2nd point, the sun is bright but less of a contrasted area value wise so comes in 3rd and the 3 things make a nice triangle to keep the attention where you want it
Hope that helps!

I think with that image it was looking good up to this point


and after that I messed everything up big time and instead of going back to what I had in mind at the start I just doubled down and kept making it a bigger mess. I haven't uploaded that image anywhere and I think it can be good so maybe I'll repaint it and try to get it right the second time but I'll start from an earlier sketch. I should have just limited my colors and instead of getting in to details I should have just gone back a step and look at it with fresh eyes idk
a quick paintover I did of the above image


With the dragon painting I wanted the eye to go from the guy to the dragon head to the building in the distance and the rocks on the side were supposed to lead the eye in that direction. Right now the way I see it is everything is pointing at the dragons head then I notice the guy because he's the darker and sharper and after that my eyes wander around aimlessly. I'm not sure what to change to make it better 


got rid of the white around the dragon's head and made it a bit darker so it doesnt stick out as much, more contrast on the building and some sharper edges here and there.

[Coinhero]

I think you could reinforce the overlapping by adding the arm behind because atm it hidden and it could be pointing toward the figure in the distance to add a bit more direction.Also try to remember to use the rule of third for extra point of focal point.I also have added some framing element with smoke to add more drama and i also putted a magic effect going into the foreground to bring back the viewer eye.

Yeah the hand didn't used to be going back but it was making a nasty tangent with the sword so I just kind of got rid of it and told myself I'll figure it out later. I did have it kind of pointing in the way you repainted at one point but I like how his face is aimed up at the jumping dude. With the hand and the magic stuff its maybe pointing a little too much but I'll give it a go and see whats happens. Thanks

[xelfereht]

ok not the best paint over but a few things i think would help.
you can up the effect of the lighting to be a bit more dramatic
you can use the bounce light from the walls to pull a bit of detail and conrast into the character, doesnt have to be super bright or look rim lit, but having some warm on the cool colors will already grab more attention
the dragon kinda looks like hes looking back at the rider which take it in a loop between the riders head and the dragon, can maybe change the angle if you wannt push it to the castle
theres a lot of same mass shapes, the lit wall and the gaps in the wall are like the same size in shape as the wings and the lack of contrast in shape is kinda boring.
you can use more light on dark and dark on light to pop things to looking a bit more 3d
and you can use things like clouds as eye leading elements hopefully in a subtle enough way it doesnt look forced
again its not a great paint over but hopefully theres something in it.

witht he crowd in the sunset painting i actually like the warmer version you did
it feels like it fits the narrative, at least as i imagine it. more so than the cooler pallet one.
i would just say remember paintings like a constant push pull of everything, value, contrast and hardness
if your crowd is pulling too much attention reduce the contrast in one way or another untill the things you want to stand out do. its a nice painting, i really think you should choose one you really like to see at a high finish and work on it till you are satisfied, even if it takes years.

i have several paintings ive been painting once in a while for years. as i learn i just keep pushing them
just like study sickness, dont get stuck in a rough look is good enough stage
but thats how i feel about it
what makes you happy you will know better.
peace!

[xelfereht]

with the scorpion beetle, he doesnt look like hes ready to attack the dude
the guy looks like hes surprised the beetle so there doesnt feel like much tension
it just looks like hey hes jumping on a beetle
beetle looks cool though, just lacks a bit of umph in the scenario.

foreground samurai selfie looks dope ;)

[Coinhero]

ok not the best paint over but a few things i think would help.
you can up the effect of the lighting to be a bit more dramatic
you can use the bounce light from the walls to pull a bit of detail and conrast into the character, doesnt have to be super bright or look rim lit, but having some warm on the cool colors will already grab more attention
the dragon kinda looks like hes looking back at the rider which take it in a loop between the riders head and the dragon, can maybe change the angle if you wannt push it to the castle
theres a lot of same mass shapes, the lit wall and the gaps in the wall are like the same size in shape as the wings and the lack of contrast in shape is kinda boring.
you can use more light on dark and dark on light to pop things to looking a bit more 3d
and you can use things like clouds as eye leading elements hopefully in a subtle enough way it doesnt look forced
again its not a great paint over but hopefully theres something in it.

witht he crowd in the sunset painting i actually like the warmer version you did
it feels like it fits the narrative, at least as i imagine it. more so than the cooler pallet one.
i would just say remember paintings like a constant push pull of everything, value, contrast and hardness
if your crowd is pulling too much attention reduce the contrast in one way or another untill the things you want to stand out do. its a nice painting, i really think you should choose one you really like to see at a high finish and work on it till you are satisfied, even if it takes years.

i have several paintings ive been painting once in a while for years. as i learn i just keep pushing them
just like study sickness, dont get stuck in a rough look is good enough stage
but thats how i feel about it
what makes you happy you will know better.
peace!

Here's what I did


I originally had the dragon head painted like this, I don't even remember why I changed it but it really doesn't force your eye too look there anymore also making the clouds just a bit sharper really made a big difference and I pushed some of the light that would be coming from the rocks a bit.
My intentions with this image were to make it very soft and subtle and to have just one place with a hard edge and high contrast so that's why I don't just go crazy with orange light coming from the rocks or why I don't paint anything for the ground level but I think just a few small changes make a big difference.

I think I would go insane if I work on an image on and off for a year :D I get bored of painting super fast and constantly want to start new images even tho I have no ideas.
Thanks for the help I'll do some more little things on this image tomorrow and call it finished