Handsome Korean's Sketchbook

[handsomekorean]

Hi,
Been a long time fan of Dave Rapoza and didn't know crismon daggers is still going on.

Decided last january that I would start taking art seriously and try to take my skill to the professional level by end of this year. 

Been doing art on and off since 2014, but quit 2015. Hopefully this sketchbook keeps me accountable to do daily studies everyday

Some studies done  January + February

[Artloader]

Welcome to the forum dude :).

Nice studies - skillful rendering here. Did you use references for these studies or did you study from imagination?

Also what did you want to do with our art eventually?

Good luck and keep going!

[handsomekorean]

Welcome to the forum dude :).

Nice studies - skillful rendering here.  Did you use references for these studies or did you study from imagination?

Also what did you want to do with our art eventually?

Good luck and keep going!

hey ArtLoader, thanks for the reply. I always use reference for everything I do because I am not good enough yet to create things out of imagination. The first piece for example, I used reference for the face and had to look at bunch of pictures of metal and gold to see how they reflect against the light, but I still don't think I got it right

The second piece, i used reference for the back muscles
the third piece, I took a picture of myself wearing a hoodie for the lighting. I think using reference is essential if you want to learn and get better

As for what I want to do eventually, I want to start working for a small game company to create illustrations for them. Doing cards for magic is my main goal right now. Any idea  how I can get noticed by them?

[handsomekorean]

new painting

tried to tackle so many different things here without doing real studies, endeed up failing

need to work on drawing in perspective, drawing proper backgrounds with atmosphere, rendering hair, and expressions

im getting really exhausted by my own rendering process. takes literally forver trying to render every nook and cranny of the painting, rlly want to learn something looser. any recommendations?

[darktiste]

Major misallignment of the spear head compare to the stick.

[handsomekorean]

think im pretty happy with the way this one came out. Drawing monsters and ugly things seems to be a really good practice for painting anatomy in general without having to worry about proportions all the time. Blocking in all the right values and colors from the start definitely seems to make a difference in the process. makes it way easier and saves a lot of time,and makes painting more enjoyable. Struggled the most on the perspective of the piece. Need to work on drawing both anatomy and backgrounds in perspective.

[handsomekorean]

Friend asked me to draw him a portrait
ended him turning him into a generic barbarian

[handsomekorean]

woman portrait study

[handsomekorean]

not sure what to draw, so just doing some girl portraits

[darktiste]

If you don't know what to draw and you want a challenge try to go on https://www.fiverr.com and offer your service there not only will you get paid you will expand your expertise.

[Pubic Enemy]

As for what I want to do eventually, I want to start working for a small game company to create illustrations for them. Doing cards for magic is my main goal right now. Any idea  how I can get noticed by them?

I have no advice to give on this subject myself, but you may find it illuminating to listen to videos by Pete Mohrbacher (I.E onevox on deviantart), who has painted several cards for MTG. It has been a while since I listened to this video, but I believe he talks a bit about Magic in this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6MKqdUh6xo

Regarding your post about wanting a looser rendering practice. You probably figured this out already, but a good thing to do is make practice pictures where you avoid zooming in for most of the process, and make sure you zoom out and check yourself frequently when you start detailing. It's very easy to lose any qualities your block-in had when you get lost in detailing things. Since you want to draw cards for Magic, you must keep in mind that it's gonna be printed on a tiny card, and people need to know exactly what it is from far away. This is something I still need to work on myself.

Regarding the perspective on the image of a red monster in the dungeon. The only problem I can see is that it seems like we (the viewer) are about level with the eyes of the red monster, but the perspective lines of the bricks converge to a lower point than that. I don't know if it was intentional or not (like to indicate that the hallway is ramping downward). The bricks also don't decrease in size with distance quite as much as they should. Apart from that, I have no specific crits to give you. Your images are definitely above average, and you seem like you're good at motivating and teaching yourself. The last portrait you posted is very striking and pretty.

[Pubic Enemy]

Regarding the perspective on the image of a red monster in the dungeon. The only problem I can see is that it seems like we (the viewer) are about level with the eyes of the red monster, but the perspective lines of the bricks converge to a lower point than that. I don't know if it was intentional or not (like to indicate that the hallway is ramping downward). The bricks also don't decrease in size with distance quite as much as they should. Apart from that, I have no specific crits to give you.

Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted to add a clarification since I made the previous post while half asleep.

I'm not telling you to grid out the whole scene to make the perspective perfect (I sure don't, LOL!). You can find videos of professionals like Ruan Jia working where they either use no grid or only put down some general lines (when they're not using 3D models, anyway). I was commenting on it mainly since you mentioned having a lot of trouble with perspective, and learning more about it can only make drawing easier for you, even if you don't grid out everything every time.

Keep on truckin'!

[handsomekorean]

If you don't know what to draw and you want a challenge try to go on https://www.fiverr.com and offer your service there not only will you get paid you will expand your expertise.

I think I know what do draw. Too many ideas and too little skill to implement them, so I am just resorting to doing studies to gain confidence again to do a real good illustration.

As for what I want to do eventually, I want to start working for a small game company to create illustrations for them. Doing cards for magic is my main goal right now. Any idea  how I can get noticed by them?

I have no advice to give on this subject myself, but you may find it illuminating to listen to videos by Pete Mohrbacher (I.E onevox on deviantart), who has painted several cards for MTG. It has been a while since I listened to this video, but I believe he talks a bit about Magic in this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6MKqdUh6xo

Regarding your post about wanting a looser rendering practice. You probably figured this out already, but a good thing to do is make practice pictures where you avoid zooming in for most of the process, and make sure you zoom out and check yourself frequently when you start detailing. It's very easy to lose any qualities your block-in had when you get lost in detailing things. Since you want to draw cards for Magic, you must keep in mind that it's gonna be printed on a tiny card, and people need to know exactly what it is from far away. This is something I still need to work on myself.

Regarding the perspective on the image of a red monster in the dungeon. The only problem I can see is that it seems like we (the viewer) are about level with the eyes of the red monster, but the perspective lines of the bricks converge to a lower point than that. I don't know if it was intentional or not (like to indicate that the hallway is ramping downward). The bricks also don't decrease in size with distance quite as much as they should. Apart from that, I have no specific crits to give you. Your images are definitely above average, and you seem like you're good at motivating and teaching yourself. The last portrait you posted is very striking and pretty.

Thanks, checked out the video and found it useful. I decided to watch a bunch of videos for painting both traditionally and digitally on youtube by artists and I admire and tried to learn their process. My probelm has been that I've been trying to lay all the rgiht colors and values from the start intead of painting by babysteps, which always led to atrocious results and with precious hours wasted. 

Regarding the perspective on the image of a red monster in the dungeon. The only problem I can see is that it seems like we (the viewer) are about level with the eyes of the red monster, but the perspective lines of the bricks converge to a lower point than that. I don't know if it was intentional or not (like to indicate that the hallway is ramping downward). The bricks also don't decrease in size with distance quite as much as they should. Apart from that, I have no specific crits to give you.

Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted to add a clarification since I made the previous post while half asleep.

I'm not telling you to grid out the whole scene to make the perspective perfect (I sure don't, LOL!). You can find videos of professionals like Ruan Jia working where they either use no grid or only put down some general lines (when they're not using 3D models, anyway). I was commenting on it mainly since you mentioned having a lot of trouble with perspective, and learning more about it can only make drawing easier for you, even if you don't grid out everything every time.

Keep on truckin'!

the perspective is definitely off. I am still at a loss when it comes to drawing  in perspective and drawing grids to make convincing backgrounds

Here is my latest study with new strategies for painting. basically spent a lot of time trying to get the proprtions right at the sketch level so I would have to spend lesss tiime correcting proportions in the later stages of painting. definitely helped a lot. highly recommedn eric anthony's videos on youtube for portrait painting. 
[url=https://i.imgur.com/OZjj8f5.jpg][/url]

[Pubic Enemy]

If you think you're not grasping basic principles of linear perspective, you may need to try a different resource. I usually need to go through multiple sources on the same subject, since some explain certain concepts better than others, or contain nuggets of information that others do not. Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling is a practical book to start with. Or, if you are feeling very brave, you could try this one on for size: https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/tech10.html

It's also worth mentioning that some people seem to develop a good handle on perspective primarily or solely through observation of life and photos, Kim Jung Gi and Frank Frazetta being the most noteworthy. (That's based on a slightly fumbling translator's interpretation of something KJG said, but I don't find it hard to believe).

You have a nice clean painting style going. I like the use of a textured brush in the midtones.

[handsomekorean]

If you think you're not grasping basic principles of linear perspective, you may need to try a different resource. I usually need to go through multiple sources on the same subject, since some explain certain concepts better than others, or contain nuggets of information that others do not. Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling is a practical book to start with. Or, if you are feeling very brave, you could try this one on for size: https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/tech10.html

It's also worth mentioning that some people seem to develop a good handle on perspective primarily or solely through observation of life and photos, Kim Jung Gi and Frank Frazetta being the most noteworthy. (That's based on a slightly fumbling translator's interpretation of something KJG said, but I don't find it hard to believe).

You have a nice clean painting style going. I like the use of a textured brush in the midtones.

Going to check that out, thanks. I think I am at a point where I am just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things I need to learn to get my art to the next level, Just don't know where to start. I feel like I need to get some good lighting equipment to take photos of my face in different lighting & angles to make any kind of serious progresss with my art but I dont have access to do that.

Did some more portrait practice and other doodles. Hopefully I can practice a lot more and make some illustration pieces for my portfolio soon.

[handsomekorean]

I seem to be obsessed with drawing just faces, and not learning to draw anytning else. how do i get out of this comfort zone

[darktiste]

By not drawing face would be the answers honestly.The question is more how do you expand your comfort zone.The idea of comfort zone is that you do not feel at ease trying new thing by realizing that if you don't try new thing you will never expand that comfort zone you confront the possibility of stagnation.Is stagnation what you want?Do want to be just that a portraitist? Not saying there something wrong about that in fact it might be your strong point the question is what do you want to do outside of your comfort zone and why you didn't do it yet.Most likely it the fears of the unknown but it could be the fears of failing at something to.But let say that if you don't fail your not really trying either...

[handsomekorean]

By not drawing face would be the answers honestly.The question is more how do you expand your comfort zone.The idea of comfort zone is that you do not feel at ease trying new thing by realizing that if you don't try new thing you will never expand that comfort zone you confront the possibility of stagnation.Is stagnation what you want?Do want to be just that a portraitist?Not saying there something wrong about that in fact it might be your strong point the question is what do you want to do outside of your comfort zone and why you didn't do it yet.Most likely it the fears of the unknown but it could be the fears of failing at something to.But let say that if you don't fail your not really trying either...

You're right. But I cant help myself from drawing faces. i feel like any paintign without a face is incomplete, but i end up spending all my energy into the face that by the time im painting other parts of the painting, im already bored or tired of it to go on.
I suppose I just need to soldier through painting the rest of the piece.

Some more random portrait practice . this time an indian gentleman

[darktiste]

I think you need to simplify maybe your brush stroke drawing bigger brush and move around the piece more to avoid over rendering and balance your scene.But it a good thing to spend a good amount of time on the face since it normally where the viewer will look by default.Since most of what you shown so far is half body and portrait with sometime little to no background there little to nothing to counter balance the detail of that character so all the focus is on the character.There also your style to consider i would say it semi realistic so it take more time to render.But i also understand your struggle but i think overtime your comfort zone will expend if you let yourself be aware of how you work so maybe record yourself and watch yourself and be honest to yourself.

[chubby_cat]

Just a couple of ideas:
- Try leaving the face until last. The whole concept of 'saving the best for last' where you do all the "boring" things before the exciting part in hopes it keeps you motivated.
- Experiment with using masks to cover the faces. Your sketchbook has a medieval/fantasy theme, so there's so many cool design things you could do with masks (you could also look at making masks as doing material studies of sorts).
- Draw more full body images. Everything is cut off at the waist/chest or is a bust. If you want to stop focusing on the faces, you need to stop doing portrait style compositions.

Hope that helps. Looking forward to seeing more!! :)