Kimonas's Sketchbook

[Kimonas]

was meant to draw lots of sad faces today but then dragons.
the first one looks naff but i like the second one.

[Kimonas]

some dragons from imagination.

[Kimonas]

Phew long shift today - an after work DRAGAIN.

[Kimonas]

So this weekend did quite a lot of real life stuff, including a 30 km hike in the Cairngorms, that shit was carnage.

Also I'm getting bored of doing line drawings quite a lot, but i know they are important. I feel ive made massive progress with them - basically i have never been able to draw good looking people and stuff in perspective with imagination consistently - i bet there is still so much to learn, but i feel ive stagnated with it, and ive achieved what i set out to do (for the time being). I have a little bit of expression left to do (theory wise). Im not kidding myself though, there is a difference between knowing the theory, and doing it, but i feel like i've learnt shit loads with it.

So hopefully now i can be a bit more confident with knowing what people look like off the top of my head, and it will show up when i start doing illustrations again.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttt..... I now have to put all this proportion, gesture, perspective, anatomy and expression and combine it with form-building.

I've basically got two things in mind to focus with now - either do loads of colour/tonal portraits and figure drawing - which ive done quite a lot of before.

OR

I study composition for a while, so i can bring something back to my workflow in anatomy and portraiture.

Either way i'm now attending an evening weekly figure drawing class and brought shit loads of equipment.

Any thoughts y'all?

And still have more design, more environments (shoddy work previously) and more still lives to study and waaaahhh...

Ok so not a huge amount this weekend - its been busy, but hopefully whatever i do, it will re-invigorate me into the beast i was 1-2 months ago.

Just a wee portrait from imagination in charcoal - which is LAME - but helps me with stroke economy. That ctrl Z button is addictive.

[Othrandir]

Lovely sketches man! I think you're definitely going in the right direction. Considering your latest post, I think you should go for composition instead of tonal exercises. It will make you more rounded skillwise and it'll be more interesting for you. Afterwards you can come back to the light and color exercises which we need to do all the time anyway. I just recently started to delve into composition properly and I have to say that its been a blast. Keep at it man! Good luck! :)

[Kimonas]

Thanks Othrandir! Ive had a long think and will do a little composition reading as i do more figures and portraits.
Did this image from ref today, took 6 hours - i think the work flow im using seems to help a lot - ive been thinking about it over the past few months and trying to think how i could make short cuts. Having a solid drawing says SO MUCH pain, so ill never skimp on that again. I picked this ref for the expression and the mid tones - ive neglected thema lot. Sorry about the shitty back ground - a waekness is that the lighting is deff off, but happy how it turned out. Not painted much in a while. Still have a few hours worth of that faigin book to read, but will do lots of figures and portraits. Another weakness is hair rendering - I really have to sit down one day and figure a work flow with that, its always such a struggle.

ref i used (CathleenTarawhiti): http://cathleentarawhiti.deviantart....or-5-423771063

[Kimonas]

Blah today experimented, work flow broke down when started painting on the wrong layer for ages.

fit a mess.

Painting boobs is the hardest thing ive ever had to do ever.

[Adam Lina]

Hey, thanks for stopping by my sketch book. Hamptons book is a good one. I did some studies from it last year but I may revisit it again. I love those dragon sketches. It'd be cool to see them rendered.

[Kimonas]

Adam Lina - Thanks man - some dragons shall be rendered at some point - its a promise!

Another 6 hour study....Tried to keep the tones tight but went all over the place. textures also a bit funky it looks like shes been rolling about in the sand hehe

[Kimonas]

Another lady, poop.

[Kimonas]

An ork from today - was happy with the sketch, but got lost along the way.

Will have to get more practice at this. I think i need to get better at predicting how forms are lit.

I thought it would be easier thana female portrait - boy was i wrong!

Part of the problem is that i don't think i got rid of my sketch early enough. - will try again soon, maybe witha dragin!

Bout 6 hours including sketch.

[Othrandir]

Really cool stuff dude! I like that when you do studies, you don't just blindly copy the photo, but you consciously change it a bit. I think that's very good practice. About the hair, James Gurney has a very cool article that talks about that - http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.co.uk/2008...ecret.html

I really like your last wip and hope to see it finished. Keep it up man! Loving your stuff :)

[Kimonas]

Really cool stuff dude! I like that when you do studies, you don't just blindly copy the photo, but you consciously change it a bit. I think that's very good practice. About the hair, James Gurney has a very cool article that talks about that - http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.co.uk/2008...ecret.html

I really like your last wip and hope to see it finished. Keep it up man! Loving your stuff :)

Im not really sure how you are 'supposed' to do studies - a lot of people go for likeness - but i just try and make the forms 'make sense' on the study. For the time being thats all that matters to me.

So been working on colour/tones more. Had lots of fun today, 2 studies and a DRAGIN!

Who knew the tree branch brush would be handy for rendering a dudes beard?

[Kimonas]

So not a massively productive week so far, but ive been reading that Loomis creative illustration book - man its got some tasty nuggets! I like to have a book to read in the side lines, that way you are constantly looking out for ways to refine techniques. Some work and some fail.

So today a 5 hour study - was a figure study partially, but also trying out some tonal composition and working within the tonal limits of a given object, so trying to treat this whole thing like a still life. Essentially im trying not to go all over the place with the values and trying to use more greys!

I'm partially satisfied with this one, but it was more of a struggle than i wanted. I'm not sure where the ref is from

[Kimonas]

So im up for doing another composition - im going to try my hardest to make this my first portfolio piece - with a view to mtg cards. We'll see though!

So i had an idea i wanted to render - this is the result of multiple thumbs, then a focused drawing without any references in perspective.

Any criticism welcome.

Next step is thinking about tones, will do some colour roughs then get stuck in with the final thing. Im going to sink quite a lot of time on this, and wanted to get into a good habit of preparation for illustrations - like Loomis suggests. Im thinking of doing some photobashing also, which should be fun!

[LaleAnn]

Very confident lines man! Keep em coming! Only piece of advice I might want to give you is to keep an eye on your skin rendering.
I know it is tricky and I'm faaaaar from being goo dat it, but always bare in mind it's somewhat "translucent" and that light won't just hit it and bounce on it but it will also be absorbed by the skin and refract inside (which can be best seen when holding your fingertips against a strong light source and see the blood and flesh being lit from inside) although Im guessing you already know this stuff pretty well. :)

Keep it up, impressive sketchbook! ^^

[Kimonas]

LaneAnn - Will try more with the subscatter - its hard not to over saturate with that! Will try my best!

Here is a tonal plan - seemed to be the best of a few plans

Any observations or paint overs welcome.

[Kimonas]

a rough colour plan, will have to work on it me thinks.

[StardustLarva]

Wow, I really like your animal studies, they're very vibrant and full of life. Great stuff!

[Kimonas]

So much more work to do on this piece - its very far from finished - I cant believe how much colours can affect eachother - ive been working with very dull colours until now and just realised that putting together all that anatomy, perspective and still life practice is going to be tough.

The skin is almost finished abut need to add some texture it, and work on the face more.

Any suggestions welcome!