Stichmouth's Sketchbook

[matkaminski]

I would highly suggest that you continue on 100% with the more constructive posts that you've been doing. Like the anatomy deconstruction using shapes.

It would benefit you greatly in the long run to continue doing a bunch of gestural drawing, and construction as well as learning to break the forms down into simple shapes.

One thing that helped me a bunch of course was Loomis and Bridgman, but also it is very beneficial to just look at art. Just look at art you enjoy, save it, make folders of references, artists, etc. Just exposure to art, especially art that you specifically enjoy (and I know this will change constantly) can help greatly.

Once you've established what type of art you are striving for, I would actually suggest you try to either copy it right out, or copy for a bit, and then start to do something using the same techniques. This seems to have helped me quite a bit.

Also, drawing from life helps a bunch too because it helps you to see the forms in 3D space.
Other than that, I would suggest you to stray (at least in the beginning) away from heavily textured brushes when painting in Photoshop because it can muddy up your painting really fast. I would suggest to start with either a simple round or simple square just to learn the tools a bit better before diving into heavily textured brushes.

Other than that, just keep on experimenting. Try vine charcoal, try paint, try ink, try pencils. Just play with it all, mix them, etc. Whatever it takes to get your creativity out.

To sum up: Continue studying proper anatomy before you can break the rules. Experiment with media.

Here's literally the way I got to where I am now:

http://youtu.be/g4qZCTrBoIo start here so that you know what a gesture is (if you didn't already)
http://www.posemaniacs.com/ apply the gesture idea here. I would suggest to start with the longest time you can (2-minutes I think?) and try and capture the essence of the figure as fast as possible.

From there I would try out the challenge modes here: http://quickposes.com/

Next you can do real models here: http://artists.pixelovely.com/

And finally, when you get comfortable being able to slap out gesture and even longer pose studies, I would suggest you do full-renders from here:

http://characterdesigns.com/
http://hel-looks.com/
http://www.scott-eaton.com/category/bodies-in-motion

Of course, these are just for character design by the way.

Other helpful tutorials are here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NygkJEc3yu4
http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/
http://bluefley.blogspot.com/

Other than that do Master Studies. Look to old masters like these:
http://greatilluminators.blogspot.com/ and try your damndest to copy them.

Here's the brush pack I use as well as a tutorial on how to make your own:
http://matkaminski.blogspot.com/2013/10/...i-use.html
also... http://bluefley.blogspot.com/2013/11/how...brush.html

Hope this helps, and good luck!