Skeffins Sketchbook

[RottenPocket]

Illustration-wise, that little eco-awareness piece in the middle is really cool [but sho shmall] and what I'd expect to see in commercial illustration. Was it for anything? And assignment or job? I don't use instaspam all that much.

[Skeffin]

Illustration-wise, that little eco-awareness piece in the middle is really cool [but sho shmall] and what I'd expect to see in commercial illustration. Was it for anything? And assignment or job? I don't use instaspam all that much.

It's shmall to hide the super gnarly uncleaned edges . It was just for some #slactivism Instagram prompt for saveourplanetweek where we draw thought provoking pictures about  the state of our planet,  on our electricity sucking laptops that were made in China, spewed out harmful waste products, and flown by plane to our doors.

Also ahahaahahah i wish I worked on the art industry or had an illustration job ;___; but I've been signed up to linkedin notifications for them for a while and holy shit it's depressing how little is available in the UK, and when one does finally pop up it pays like fuck all, and /or sounds like the most boring dull shit you could spend your time drawing. Conceptart seems more viable at least (relatively). And Freelance lacks too much job security for my liking. 

So I find instagram useful as a drive for improvement, plus you can save other people's posts to different categories meaning I have a whole host of stuff like "nice colours " , "paintings at different times of day ", "examples of good composition " which would be useful once I finally dig them out to do studies on. Its good if you only follow stuff you want to see.

[RottenPocket]

Illustration-wise, that little eco-awareness piece in the middle is really cool [but sho shmall] and what I'd expect to see in commercial illustration. Was it for anything? And assignment or job? I don't use instaspam all that much.

It's shmall to hide the super gnarly uncleaned edges . It was just for some #slactivism Instagram prompt for saveourplanetweek where we draw thought provoking pictures about  the state of our planet,  on our electricity sucking laptops that were made in China, spewed out harmful waste products, and flown by plane to our doors.

Also ahahaahahah i wish I worked on the art industry or had an illustration job ;___; but I've been signed up to linkedin notifications for them for a while and holy shit it's depressing how little is available in the UK, and when one does finally pop up it pays like fuck all, and /or sounds like the most boring dull shit you could spend your time drawing. Conceptart seems more viable at least (relatively). And Freelance lacks too much job security for my liking. 

So I find instagram useful as a drive for improvement, plus you can save other people's posts to different categories meaning I have a whole host of stuff like "nice colours " , "paintings at different times of day ", "examples of good composition " which would be useful once I finally dig them out to do studies on. Its good if you only follow stuff you want to see.

I'm serious tho', I mean the whole point of illustration is to convey a story, message or idea, and your image succeeds. Tbh there is not a lot of illustration here and it bums me out so seeing a bit of it here and there - I'm gonna remark on it. Even if you think it's rough! :D

I feel like there's an abundance of opportunities out there but we all find ourselves aligned with a specific role or taste and it will limit options. Concept art is great but I've always felt like it's a spin-off role not a full-time career and before anyone bites I think celebrating your strengths even if it's not what you want or prioritise - is important. I think illustration is the job that opens a lot more doors than people think and allows you to refine skills that are essential for all other roles. Don't rule out those jobs just yet. Or do. You do you. 

[Skeffin]

I'm serious tho', I mean the whole point of illustration is to convey a story, message or idea, and your image succeeds. Tbh there is not a lot of illustration here and it bums me out so seeing a bit of it here and there - I'm gonna remark on it. Even if you think it's rough! :D

I feel like there's an abundance of opportunities out there but we all find ourselves aligned with a specific role or taste and it will limit options. Concept art is great but I've always felt like it's a spin-off role not a full-time career and before anyone bites I think celebrating your strengths even if it's not what you want or prioritise - is important. I think illustration is the job that opens a lot more doors than people think and allows you to refine skills that are essential for all other roles. Don't rule out those jobs just yet. Or do. You do you. 

hmm yeah I guess I'd have a slight preference to do more visual development stuff over conceptart, although I definitely like the design aspect of concept art.  How did you get illustration opportunities popping up for you ( sounds like you speak from experience), was it from contacts you made doing freelance stuff or from uni ? Or just working your way up from a less interesting starter job into better roles ? So far the only viable full time ones I've seen are childrens book illustration openings , which would be pretty cool but I'd have to severely revamp my art style for that. The rest seem to be geared more towards vector icons, UI, graphic design and I haven't invested any of my limited time in those skillsets, as well as not finding them that interesting, unless this is the sort of thing you were talking about when you said I shouldn't rule things out.  

Also curious why you find conceptart to be a spin off role ? Is it because for conceptart art is more the method to get the design idea across, vs focusing on stuff that makes art art in the traditional sense? Either way it would still feel more like an actual career to me compared to my current job that I'm just plodding through.

100% agree on the transferrable skills part - when I dabbled in a bit of illustration for funsies I realised I reaallly needed to work on my colours

[RottenPocket]

hmm yeah I guess I'd have a slight preference to do more visual development stuff over conceptart, although I definitely like the design aspect of concept art.  How did you get illustration opportunities popping up for you ( sounds like you speak from experience), was it from contacts you made doing freelance stuff or from uni ? Or just working your way up from a less interesting starter job into better roles ? So far the only viable full time ones I've seen are childrens book illustration openings , which would be pretty cool but I'd have to severely revamp my art style for that. The rest seem to be geared more towards vector icons, UI, graphic design and I haven't invested any of my limited time in those skillsets, as well as not finding them that interesting, unless this is the sort of thing you were talking about when you said I shouldn't rule things out.  

Also curious why you find conceptart to be a spin off role ? Is it because for conceptart art is more the method to get the design idea across, vs focusing on stuff that makes art art in the traditional sense? Either way it would still feel more like an actual career to me compared to my current job that I'm just plodding through.

100% agree on the transferrable skills part - when I dabbled in a bit of illustration for funsies I realised I reaallly needed to work on my colours

Children's books are a big challenge, but a lot of fun. I did some for a uni grad who was writing an allegorical children's book. The challenge is being simple while being readable so the story can be followed easily and you know, obviously appeal to tiny humans. It was about truth and lies and if you feed the lie it becomes a monster, so it was somewhat up my alley.

Ignoring all the indie projects and friend's favours -  I ended up with three local publishers with me on their books for gothic/horror art. One had me collaborate with another artist and the linework is pretty much in limbo until they decide what to do with it. But, it made me about two weeks rent worth. Lucrative, I know. The others I worked so hard to get, before pulling out myself because the offers were starting to become scifi-oriented or I kept being asked to do things I had no evidence of being able to do in my sample work. Probably was a test, but like I said, the opportunity was there but I limited myself. I could find work, and if I cut a lot of strings I would just be doing illustration.

 Currently I work in sales and am very much a Jill-of-all-trades after redesigning and launching several ecommerce sites for my Boss and doing a lot of merchandising for our own imported products. So graphic design and advertising, mostly. It's been crazy because there's a lot of competition and I would much rather be putting that energy into illustration so I am forever telling myself make up your mind!  It's weird, I would pick up a job any day doing ecommerce, social media management and sales, but I hesitate when it comes to whether or not I think an illustration job is worth while. 

I think there's a lot of value in graphic design education because it contains knowledge that applies to a lot of artwork commercially and that's where you can really build a business for yourself while supporting your independent or preferred work. 

There's a ba-jillion ways to get from point A to point B so I don't dictate the how to's on getting work, but just know there is always work there. I'm just a picky bish. 

Is it because for conceptart art is more the method to get the design idea across, vs focusing on stuff that makes art art in the traditional sense?

 Yeees. I think. Concept Art is a fast paced job that relies on listening to your client, your skills in design, your proficiency to convey an idea quickly, no matter the level of finish, and to produce produce produce. I don't think that's the place to start as that's more of a -what you're able to do- job once you have proficiency, competency and I guess comfort in illustration and design. So it's like, be an artist first then concept art is the role, not 'be a concept artist'.

I'm totally in the right place to be saying such things. It's been a long day. I'm pooped. I hope that made sense and thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[Skeffin]

Children's books are a big challenge, but a lot of fun. I did some for a uni grad who was writing an allegorical children's book. The challenge is being simple while being readable so the story can be followed easily and you know, obviously appeal to tiny humans. It was about truth and lies and if you feed the lie it becomes a monster, so it was somewhat up my alley.

Ignoring all the indie projects and friend's favours -  I ended up with three local publishers with me on their books for gothic/horror art. One had me collaborate with another artist and the linework is pretty much in limbo until they decide what to do with it. But, it made me about two weeks rent worth. Lucrative, I know. The others I worked so hard to get, before pulling out myself because the offers were starting to become scifi-oriented or I kept being asked to do things I had no evidence of being able to do in my sample work. Probably was a test, but like I said, the opportunity was there but I limited myself. I could find work, and if I cut a lot of strings I would just be doing illustration.

 Currently I work in sales and am very much a Jill-of-all-trades after redesigning and launching several ecommerce sites for my Boss and doing a lot of merchandising for our own imported products. So graphic design and advertising, mostly. It's been crazy because there's a lot of competition and I would much rather be putting that energy into illustration so I am forever telling myself make up your mind!  It's weird, I would pick up a job any day doing ecommerce, social media management and sales, but I hesitate when it comes to whether or not I think an illustration job is worth while. 

I think there's a lot of value in graphic design education because it contains knowledge that applies to a lot of artwork commercially and that's where you can really build a business for yourself while supporting your independent or preferred work. 

There's a ba-jillion ways to get from point A to point B so I don't dictate the how to's on getting work, but just know there is always work there. I'm just a picky bish. 

Is it because for conceptart art is more the method to get the design idea across, vs focusing on stuff that makes art art in the traditional sense?

 Yeees. I think. Concept Art is a fast paced job that relies on listening to your client, your skills in design, your proficiency to convey an idea quickly, no matter the level of finish, and to produce produce produce. I don't think that's the place to start as that's more of a -what you're able to do- job once you have proficiency, competency and I guess comfort in illustration and design. So it's like, be an artist first then concept art is the role, not 'be a concept artist'.

I'm totally in the right place to be saying such things. It's been a long day. I'm pooped. I hope that made sense and thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Hey I appreciate the long reply, cheers for taking the time! It's good to hear how other people went about getting openings and stuff. The childrens book/gothic horror art you mentioned sounds like it was pretty cool to illustrate.

I don't think it's weird at all to hesitate about illustration as a career. If someones doing a job that's not like,  their lifes greatest passion or whatever, then you're more willing to accept the usual frustrations that come with any job. I think it would sting more if you were doing art but the subject matter itself didn't appeal, because well, you love drawing, and you don't want it reduced to something that bores you. Plus all that stuff about "don't make your hobby your job unless you want to end up hating it" etc is something you hear a fair amount.

What you're saying about conceptart makes sense though. I do want to focus on some areas I'm lacking in for the rest of this year, but maybe after that I should try hustling for some commisions or something I know I'm not ready for them yet because I did one for a friend semi recently and I was having a shit time with it.  I'm a picky bish too, given I've only ever had to draw stuff I actually have some sort of interest in, short of studies.

[Skeffin]

Just plopping some quickposes.com lifedrawings here, as well as some copies of cyborgs arm and one of the portal robots, trynna get some scifi/mech stuff under my belt
also goddamn how do line artists/comic artists have the patience to do so much detail all the time
oh and started my much neglected schoolism assignments again

[Skeffin]

some robot and jet studies, cos never attempted to design my own before so need something to get me started. I thought I hated mechs but once I stopped doing all the over the top details you see on those cheesy 80 anime mechs and just focused on the larger forms they became a lot more bearable.

and below are some of my own, far more simplistic designs. The octopus thing ( with 3 legs because I'm lazy ) was loosely based off the emerging field of soft robotics. Might be already emerged by now though.

edit: add some gesture/figure drawing

[Skeffin]

more gestures, 
and got new honking large tablet and this thing is sooooooo nice, totally worth the $$$
conked out an elf to test it out

[Anomily]

ah cheers jana  

late new years resolution - try and do 15 -30 mins of figure drawing per day. Drawing skills have been severely neglected

art dump (cow, chow, some enviromental awareness stuff for instagram, some super quick ~3 mins each coral studies from several weeks back)

and some sketches from quickposes, just noodling around for fun rather than focusing on anything

I love your gestures; I wish mine were half as lovely.

I feel that the pieces with a strong light running diagonally across the page isn't the best composition. It leads my eye directly off the page instead of around it to focus on the other details.

[dimensional-knight]

I really like the line flow of your gestures and stylized work!

Are you up for paintover critiques? I've got a few tips for portraits from imagination about structuring the face to place features and approaching volume and light, and I know myself well enough to know I tend to take anything about volume waaaay too far so better ask first.

[Farvus]

Nice work. I love how you got this very vibrant approach to almost every aspect of drawing/painting. Things have vibrant colors, designs are rich in shapes and gestures are very dynamic. There's really lots of potential here.

My main suggestion would be to learn to really slow down both in blocking stage and refining stage. Loose is good but when some things are unreadable or misaligned it's wrong type of loose. For refining it's good to focus specially on the areas especially where there is high level of contrast. For example eyes, silhouette, edge between shadow and light.

Great stuff. Keep going :)

[Bralves]

I loved your Designs!
@Skeffins u have a solid way to do your studies and your brushwork are amazing too 

[Skeffin]

I really like the line flow of your gestures and stylized work!

Are you up for paintover critiques? I've got a few tips for portraits from imagination about structuring the face to place features and approaching volume and light, and I know myself well enough to know I tend to take anything about volume waaaay too far so better ask first.

oooo! yes I would love critique and definitely a paintover one! Plus when you can see there's been a lot of consideration for volume in a painting, I really like it. I know it's a late reply, I've been taking a long break from art stuff, so no worries if that offer is no longer available. Would love to get your tips on structuring the face from imagination tho

[Skeffin]

@anomily ah thanks! Just keep cranking them gestures out, I used to do loads of them as they were the only thing I had energy for at uni. And thanks for the critique too - if I wanted to keep the light beam in then I probably should have something of interest where it shines on to lead things back into the frame.

@farvus The advice is helpful, you're right in that I rush past the block in stage and pay dearly later for it. And thanks for the tips on refining stuff, it's something I'm not well vested in so it definitely helps to know where to focus on.

@bralves thanks dude!

@dimensional-knight replied directly to you above,  but yes critique is always welcome, paintovers even more so


took a long break, here's some stuff from before and after said break. faces from line of action, cow & chow stuff, random shitty thumbnail of a desert area I blocked out before realising there was nothing interesting in it so stopped.
I'm not keen on the shiny highlights on the mushrooms guys sleeves and torso, it was supposed to represent dappled sunlight but I think I should have just added a multiply shadow layer instead of using dodge on his already light valued body.

[Skeffin]

some colour studies of other artists work/photos, more gesture/ figure drawings. The more detailed ones at the end are ~20-30 mins. Trying to slow down and be more accurate, as well as make things read better and look less sloppy(unlike the gnarly col studies where the only goal was the colour relations). Found a brush I really like using for figure drawings too

[Toxicpanda]

Those color studies really look great- it feels that you are getting more comfortable with big strokes and less details focusing on colors alone. I loove the mushroom character and the idea of sleeves. Is that a finished painting or are you going to work more on it? The light on the grass is so soft and warm

[cgmythology]

You have some great linework and colors here, really solid, confident strokes. No critiques on my part, hope to see more works from you soon!

[dimensional-knight]

Oooh I really like your latest color studies and figures. Beautiful brushwork, full of energy!


So, about that paintover. You're learning fast, but hopefully the tips are still of help in building imaginary faces.

Skull and Ears

The ears placement stood out for me in the elf portrait. Ears are hard to place, and most construction methods try to shoehorn the entire ear onto a random location based on eyebrows height or something that falls apart as soon as you have a head with a different ratio or exotic-shaped ears. These methods don't make sense because they're based on coincidental alignments of idealized facial features, not actual anatomy. Like, ears aren't all the same size for a start.

The ear holes, on the other hand, can be reliably found if you know what you're looking for, and you can easily build entire ears of any shape and size around them.

So first tip: Find the ear hole. To do so locate the line coming from the bottom of the eye socket/top of cheekbone, then find the middle of the skull. The ear hole will be around there, usually behind the vertical line dividing the skull when you have flesh on the face since faces are rather thick (5mm+).




Volume then light

The second tip is to try to figure out the planes of the face to then do the lighting you want. That's because how the light and shadows will be distributed depends directly on these planes. Avoid getting hung up on features for as long as you can. Imagine the masses of the head instead, try to see the surface of the face:




As a demo here's some sloppy volume work. Ignore style and proportions shift.




1-3 - Minor eye and ears placement correction
4 - Volume work. Imagine there's a soft light slightly in front of the character and work from there. If the final lighting is similarly positioned you can try to go for it already; if it's something bold and complicated it's better to stick to this neutral fill light first.
5-7 - Even if you don't intend to draw the rest of the body knowing where the shoulders would be helps with the neck and the bits of clothing you're showing. I like to know where the sternocleidomastoid is even if I'm not detailing it because it's a handy muscle and pretty easy to locate: It connects to the clavicle and that bone protrusion under and behind the ear canal. Also, don't be afraid of merging layers and moving things if necessary.


After a quick volume rendering it gets easier to cast different lights on the subject—just follow the surface. More sloppy examples:




That's it. Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to see more lovely studies from you!

[Skeffin]

@toxicpanda Thanks! yeah I'm not going to work on the mushroom dude anymore. He's actually like, the most I've rendered anything, hoping to up my standard level of rendering

@cgmythology thanks!

@dimensional-knight damn those explanations and paintovers made me well happy, this is so incredibly useful to see. Like I know there's something a bit "off" about my stuff but I can't pinpoint exactly what - so seeing the paintover where she's fixed is like a lightbulb moment.

The bit about doing the first pass in indirect light then doing the lighting is also something that never would have occured to me. Going to try to apply these pointers to my next portrait.