Crimson Daggers — Art forum

Uh OH! Some SCI FI SCHIZ!!

Fedodika - haha yup. Was inspired by Edge of Tomorrow! Watch it ya'lllll

Whole sketchbook is a pleasure to go through man. Skintones are really interesting. any more "advanced" ideas behind the colours? I know the basic ideas of skintones, and I often try to sneak in crazy colours like you do -- but they don't seem to work so harmoniously. Tips would be great :)

Thanks Jordy! Skintones are real tough to get right and I always end up struggling with them at some point. When they aren't working, a lot of times I find that it's really my values that are off and I'll probably go hunting for some reference. Another thing I noticed is that skintones in general are nearly monochromatic. For things like portraits, I used to put in way too much green, blue and purple into the "cool zones" thinking it would make it more painterly, but if you look at guys like Sargent, even though you can see the different hues in there, it's actually very subtle and was probably done with one small brushstroke. Hope that's helpful! I'm always trying to get a better handle on that :)

The loose painterliness in your stuff is pure awesome. Is there a way to exercise this (like using a timer or something) or is it just the mileage? :)

I get horribly jealous looking through your sketchbook. It's quite awesome.

Really like how you do faces, especially women. Very cool.

I think I'd like it if there were more places where I could stalk your work, you on Facebook, Tumblr?

oh man that last study looks delicious. So many nice studies going on. You have really been killing it lately, nice job :) I really like the trio of female faces at the top of this page.

I could look through this sketchbook for hours.. or I could work... I should work, your sketchbook lights a fire under my ass.

Kaffer - Thanks! I think it's partly about thinking about the brushstrokes and also letting the brushes do some of the texture and edgework. At least that's what I've been trying to do more of these days :) Master studies of guys like zorn or sargent are definitely helpful!

Craig Paton - Thanks Craig! You've got a sweet body of work as well. I actually really only have deviantart and a blog...maybe a tumblr soon, I don't know :)

Jaik - Thanks man. Gotta get betterrrrrr





WIP commission

Sweet! hope you got lots more commissh comin down the pipe bro!

Thanks mannnn :)

Thanks Mariyan!

Another commission, evil reverend haaa

haha awesome! he looks like every kid i went to catholic school with lol!

hmm i noticed a little nitpicky thing maybe you could look at, but it's very tiny. On a good bit of your portraits, you tend to make one side of the jaw skew out a tad more than the other side? It doesn't really hurt the piece imo, just something i noticed :)

sweet, really love your updates, colors looks amazing, love how you use textured/undefined brushes, limiting details to only focus point. Awesome!

Keep being awesome dude. Maybe you could work on your materials a bit though? Haven't really got anything else to say xD.

Fedodika - Thanks man, you are totally right about the face thing too btw. I have to study face shapes a little better for the next one! 3/4 view can be a tricky beast

Madzia - Thank you! Good to see you around again :)

ImSkeptical - Spot on crit, thanks my friend. Cloth is my worst enemy grrr

WIP - I think this image was doomed from the beginning, but may finish it

well the good news is i sometimes can't tell if your portraits used reference or not haha; maybe for the next illustration you do you can try like a wide or longscreen composition, like many more dimensions one direction than the previous one. just don't like box it in too much, and i'm freakin guilty too! you prolly already know this stuff tho lol

Thanks for the crit mister! Yeah, I think that one is going in the can, there is just way too much stuff that doesn't work in it.

experiments and imagination poses

Awesome updates man <3

Your new illustration look so beautiful!!
Excited to see what you are coming up with the new update :D