Flo's sketchbook

[Flo]

a bit Loomis

[Flo]

If you don't already feel flooded with tutorials (I know I do) then here is another one, by an industry professional. http://autodestructdigital.blogspot.de/2...9599e3aa97

He is big into constructional drawing and talks about his thought process to get into it more easy.

I did his exercise on mirroring splines, which can be perfectly attached to doing wavy lines. Do a wavy line, trace it a couple of times, draw a plane next to it and mirror that s.o.b. Doesn't have to be perfect. When I do it, I can almost feel my braincell connecting because I have to think about it A LOT haha

here are some sketchbook pages from my daughter, who finally allowed us to put her some shoes and walk outside (she is 1 y o). of course we emidiatly went to the zoo :D

[Flo]

work from today and yesterday and studies. The 3D models was not done by me, I did the overpaint.

[Flo]

testing out my wacom companion. I think I like it. It feels easier to have interesting brushwork.

[Adzerak]

Such sweet progress in here! And nice to see someone else doing those Bobby Chiu line filling exercises. Have you felt the effects of them yet? I found that they helped quite a lot with hand steadyness and improved my line quality.

[Flo]

Adzerak Hi man, thanks a lot. It does actually feel like I am doing progress at the moment, as weird as that is to say. I guess it was good, to honestly evaluate my work, get rid of pride and admit how much I sucked and then try to get better by doing studies and drills. Those line exercises aren't by Bobby Chiu though, they are from a site called:

Drawabox.com

I really recommend having a look and doing some (if not all) of the drills. I think they help a lot and it just feels right to do them somehow.

Here some sketchbook pages and studies I did. The one with the box turning and tilting and building that sphere like thing was hard as fuck haha

[Flo]

starting the Micheal Hampton book on anatomy. Hopefully I get better at drawing gestures and poses more easily which is something I suck at

[Flo]

Finally a personal piece. Took the whole friday evening, but I actually quite like it (for now). I tried to apply what I learned about form, breaking it up into smaller forms, without loosing the overall big form, color temperatur, patience while painting, etc.

I watched a great tutorial this week by Oxan studio. I have to say, that I love his tutorials. He has a really big knowledge about painting and it totally shows in his work. Also his way of working resonates with me a lot. I really recommend his tutorials for learning more about painting, composition, art-philosophy. He doesn't talk a lot about drawing though, so maybe check out drawabox or this here, for learning more about it.

This was done for the children's - game I am working on with my dad and my brother. The game will be used for a clinical study in 2 weeks from now, which is super exciting. The image was heavily inspired by the great, great Sam Nielson.

[Flo]

today's work

finishing up a page of ribbons in space for training plane-turning in space

concept sketches for some buildings

a color sketch for a log-in screen

on the week-end I started the 250 boxes challange from drawabox.com. I am at 75 ish right now

[Flo]

today's work

concepts for the "nexus" in our game

and a study for the mentorship

[Flo]

Can't show today's work, so here is a quick still life

[StardustLarva]

Ah, I see you too are studying from the DrawaBox website. You look like you're getting a pretty good grasp at what is being taught, so great job with that.

[Flo]

Larva hey man, thanks a lot. I really like those exercises and I feel like, I should've done them earlier. Doing more architecture now, I really feel like, they are paying off.

[Flo]

I started to read Michael Hampton again to help me with gestures. I did some, trying to be more concious of C and S curves and wrapping lines.

Also I did a study of an ant

[Flo]

I painted the concepts for the nexus and the shield - generators. It seems like I have trouble painting stone, so more studies will be needed.

[KurtJeremy]

Outstanding work! so much variety!
what mentorship are you on? do you get feedbacks from it?
do you have any tips for drawing accurately when doing still life?

[Flo]

Hey Kurt, thanks a lot, still not thinking of it as outstanding. haha Yeah, variety is kinda my thing, although I fear that it bites me in the ass soon. I think it is easier to land a big job, being a specialist, not a generalist.
I am taking the mentorship by Mike "Daarken" Lim, you can find it by googling his name. So far it is good, but not mindblowing. He does paint-overs of studies that I am doing and sharing some knowledge through video-lectures. I learned a thing or two so far, but I am sure he won't make me super-awesome by himself, I have to work hard myself to achieve that. Although I actually enjoy the state I am so far. Of course I can improve, and I am working on it, but I started to enjoy what I do more and not beat me up for all the mistakes I am doing, since that makes it all impossible to bear. Being honest and modest are far better ways to grow, than being negative and dramatic.

For accurate drawing, I guess you have to measure the stuff. Allinging things along vertical and horizontal lines also is a good way to get things more accurate. Don't use diagonals. Measuring can be achieved by holding your pen or pencil at full-arms-length (important) and checking the size of things on your pen. Than you compare it to other things in the drawing. For example, when drawing a house, you measure the door, and then see how many times it fits into the house. Say the door is half your pen, then you see how many times, half of your pen fits into the house. That relationship has to be in your drawing too.

Another thing is doing contour drawings for practise. I usually eyeball if for still lifes, since none of the things I paint are supposed to be super accurate. For a portrait you have to do it though. I once did a study of a Winterhalther - painting over a course of 4 hours. Most of the times was spend doing measurements and comparisons, only the last hour was doing values and shadows and stuff. It was actually one of those moments, I will never forget, because it was totally different to how I usually approach stuff. You know those moments right? Where you get out of your comfort zone and really struggle and want to quit the whole time but you don't. and after it, you have grown a little.

So yeah, do that hard work, after it, it will become easier and easier. And pick your battles. If a study is about perfect proportional relationship, do it for that and not for the light, shadow or texture, or edges. Make it easy for yourself, by studying only one thing at a time.

This is the last study for the 3rd assignment for the mentorship.

What did I learn:
- metal has a full value rand from white to black going on
- most of it is quite dark
- only the planes that are directly turned towards the light source, become light
- it falls of very quickly from light to dark
- even in this picture, the grey has a bit of temperatur change going on. The the left the planes were a bit warmer and I added a bit brown to the grey, to the right the planes got a bit cooler, so I added a bit blue
- the cone was the hardest to paint, because of the tapering light and shadow shapes
- the sphere was second hardest
- maybe that is why organic stuff is harder to render correctly?

[Flo]

hey guys,

this will be the last digital upload for a week. I am going on holiday to mallorca. I hope you have a nice time!

[Eyliana]

Really nice metal studies, although I do miss the metallic a bit in the study you did of the music box. It could be more matte metal, but I think the casing could show a bit more of metallic properties.

[Flo]

Eyliana thanks for the comment, I really appreciate it. I think now, that I did mess up some values, especially on the shadow-side of the casing. It seems quite light, although it should be darker then the side next to it. Maybe I can recreate it and see if I overlooked it. As for the casing, it actually is quite matte a material and I tried to stay as close to what I saw as I could. The super-shiny-metal is in the handle :)

today's watercolor. I am spending a week with my family on Mallorca. Currently we are staying in the capital, Palma. I painted this while my daughter slept.

I think I am getting better with values, but still a lot to learn. Brushwork is clumsy and not nice to look at, to many ugly forms, but I don't know how to get them more lovely. Any suggestions?

I photographed it inside with warm light on, so I had to color-correct it digitally. I think this comes pretty close to the original.