Thanks A lot guys, Also that Anti RSI look's like a great program Jake, unfortunately it looks like it's only for mac though. I'll search for something like it as you said, It'll definitely help me a ton.
--
Few things, I did recently. Not as much as I'd like, I've been procrastinating way too much lately. In turn I started getting kinda depressed and when I do draw now I feel unfocused Just got to keep drawing through It though, and it should pass soon.
The rendering on the latest character is looking good so far, the only thing I would say is the arms look kind of off, either the upper part is too long or the forearms are too short, might just be my eyes O.o, either way you really applied those studies well to the character!
Egbu - Thanks Man! I'm sure they are off, got a lot of issues with my anatomy still D: I'll have to set up some reference for the arms and legs.
----
Talk about dang procrastination lately. Got to quit making excuses, grab a cup of coffee and just do it. On the bright side I did get my reference folders finally better organized.
Everything in here was done kinda quick, telescope study about 1 hour and 40 minutes and the greyscale portrait study about an hour.
Haha, "Big Ass Hammer" nice one. Sketches and stuff all look good man. I know a lot of them are kinda quick, but you might benefit from trying to be more conservative with your brush strokes. Fewer, bigger strokes can sometimes define a form more clearly than lots of little ones. Not sure if you've done a master study recently, but they can help a ton with that. Also this article from James Gurney helped me to understand brush economy a lot more. Check it out :).
Jake - Hey thanks a lot Jake, Made me realize I put a ridiculous amount of brush strokes into some of those images - Taking more time then I needed to to get a base down - I haven't done any master studies recently, but you've reminded me! got to get back on to those. Also thanks for the James Gurney posting, a fair bit of good info on brush strokes in there.
Ramalooke - Thanks man! I feel like a chump compared to how hard a lot of people are working though. Really inspiring looking through all the sketchbooks and seeing everyone improving, best kick in the ass.
---
Mostly sketches, and a few studies & application sketches.
study
application
Messing around with different ways of sketching
2 ref studies, a few imagination and the last I took the first study and tried to change the lighting wrapping around the forms the best I could.
Yessss, keep up this pace man. Things look like they are coming together for you bit by bit and it is nice to see. Sucks about the wrist pain :( I remember Dave talked about what he does when he gets pains - take a break. And when you think about guys like Daarken and Hannes who have some serious horror stories with carpal tunnel problems, it really isn't worth it to push it when it hurts. Or do what Hannes did and paint with the opposite hand or with your mouth! :) Hopefully you've taken care of the pain already but thought I would add my 2 cents.
pnate - thanks a lot for the comment man, yeah horror stories like those are pretty freakin scary. Luckily I started taking more breaks soon after the pain, I also got a small hand therapy ball pretty cheap, it actually helps quite a bit too.
--
Two things from today, Trying to motor through the rest of Noahs art camp ever since I fell behind, onto materials and edges now.
livestream armor/metal study - Might give it a further push in the morning (recording here if your interested)
Started this before the armor study, and then tried to apply the study the best I could after (Will probably spend longer on it tomorrow - try using some reference for a change)
Last but not least I saw someone post this on a facebook with a comment, and I just have to re post it here.
Another lil' update, went a bit further on the first armor study. Second one I didn't spend too long, I just tried being more accurate with my strokes and using a bigger brush.
Then just random sketching around, lastly I spent longer on the knightess - I was kind of stuck until I tried using the soft brush to blend more and soften up the skin.
Hey nice sketchbook you got here! :D great sense of color and tone!!
a small crit: one thing I noticed is some of your figures (such as the fully colored armored knight dude) seems to not be connected within the illustration. to ground them better in the shot, just place a simple shadow under them and it pulls it together and doesn't look like its floating off the page.
Please keep up the good work, and all those lovely studies!
@marjoriedavis Thank you for the comment & crit, Added a simple shadow, It does make it looks a lot better & more attached!
----
Studies, studies, studies and painful application, Having trouble with how the lighting would reflect on armor shaped like the knightess's. Gonna keep pushing out metal studies and apps though. Also got my cat to sleep in a shoe box for that still life, couldn't find anything furry/fluffy in my house aside from that little guy. He kept switching sides and stretching every little while which was a bit of a pain, but bearable cause he's so damn cute :D
Tightened up the edges on the knight study, especially in the helmet, really helped make it look better. I think overall my edge control is on of the things thats pretty weak in my art, got to put some extra care into them.
finished that other bear/fur study + a sketch I forgot to post from awhile ago. But damn, sketching about to try and apply my studies can be tough, can never seem to stick with any one thing/or decide what to draw.
Nice studies, one thing: Mind your texture lighting, that chainmail on the guy is really flat.. it should follow the lighting and anatomical forms of the body.. that critter is pretty nice, especially the face area :)
Hey man, I think there's a pc version of anti rsi called workrave. Think that's it. If not there's a ton of stuff out there. So so so worth getting something. I was starting to get wrist pain and once I'd been using it for a couple of weeks, it disappeared. I got one of those powerball things as well, not sure how much difference it made, and I always forget to use it, but might be worth a look.
As for work, looking good, you're getting a ton done, always awesome to see. One thing that could help, would be too work on gesture drawing a little bit, or more specifically, silhouette. Atm your figures tend to be stood up straight. Which is fine, but mixing it up with slightly different poses might push them a little further. :). What I found helped a ton was doing gesture studies of magic cards/applibot illustrations, that kinda thing, because they're all crazy dynamic. Just focusing on the overall silhouette and gesture, looking for things like the negative shape made by the arm+torso and how the feet are placed. It doesn't take many before you notice similarities, and cna bring them into your own pieces. I definitely found it was a more fun, more effective way of learning gesture than doing a shit load of posemaniacs drawings, but who knows lol.
Just a thought, keep it up anyway, nice schedule dude. Looking forward to seeing more :)
JakeB - Thanks Man, I'm glad to hear your wrist pain went away, it sure is a pain in the ass. Luckily mine has also gone for the most part, aside from the odd occurrence of some discomfort. I use this one timer program thing while I'm painting, keeps me aware of how long I've been painting so I can remember to take breaks. I also have a little therapy ball thing I recently got, use it whenever I have any hand/wrist discomfort, It seems to have helped quite a bit.
Awesome suggestion on studying the gestures and silhouettes of magic & applibot card illustrations. It sounds like a really great and fun way of studying figures and poses. I really appreciate the suggestion :)
---
Damn Grand Theft Auto Online for being so addicting D: I feel I've got most of it out of my system now though, just had to use a little self control to get some more painting done tonight. starting up on following the schedule in the morning!
Anyway a few imagination sketches. Now off to grab some card illustration art!
Hey man, yeah fuckin computer games are the bane of my life too. Like a love/hate relationship haha.
you've made some sweet progress since I last dropped by here dude, it's cool to see you mixing it up and applying your studies too!
Gotta agree with Jake in regards to a crit. Try pushing those gestures and silhouette man. Here's a couple of awesome links if your having trouble finding lots of refs - http://senshistock.deviantart.com/gallery/
and - http://characterdesigns.com/index.php?si...=photosets
One tip would be not to so much copy the models, but actually try to exaggerate the poses more. They'll probably read much better and it's good practice.
Just got to keep drawing through It though, and it should pass soon.
Just got to keep drawing through It though, and it should pass soon.
![[Image: 7sp2rtn.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/7sp2rtn.gif)
