AMircea's sketchbook

[AMircea]

Hey daggers,
I've decided to start a sketchbook to keep an eye on my progress, get some feedback (hopefully) and to keep me motivated. My goal is to kick ass by the end of the year.

I'll start with some stuff I did this week, some water studies and a fan-art of an Overlord from the "Falling Skies" TV series (it's not finished, but I don't think I'll spend any more time working on it):

[Nikt]

Nice water studies. It looks like you waste less time on Overlord then on water. I mean it looks like you can much better) And ofcourse, nice start ))

[AMircea]

Thanks, Nikt. Actually I didn't spend to much on the water, 30min or less for each piece. The overlord took me much more because I suck at anatomy and value so I kept erasing everything. Eventually I gave up on the piece. X_x That's basically my level I guess, but only at the moment.

So, today I've done my first ever environment. yeey!
Yesterday evening, about 10pm, I started some lava study but 2 minutes in and I got really sleepy so I went to bed. Today around 2pm I restarted and again, 2 minutes in I got sleepy and took a 3 hour sleep. ;D. I woke up pissed off and decided to screw the lava studies and to work on my first environment. Was I excited? Yes, sir. I am excited about the end result? F*ck no!
And it took me around 5 freaking hours...

[unlimitedbacon]

Nice stuff!

[Toxicpanda]

Oh my...water studies are amazing. Specially the waves and rain on the window-gorgeous. I really like how your colors are clean and realistic. I think I should do some of the studies myself.
Great work and can't wait to see more :D

[AMircea]

@unlimitedbacon, thanks!

@Toxicpanda, thank you! You should definitely do some water studies, you'll see it's a lot simpler than it looks. :)

Update:
Today was very frustrating because Photoshop gave me a great deal of trouble. It ran slow and it got stuck when I tried to save my file. All the waiting/searching/finding solutions/cleaning my comp for memory and whatnot got me wasting around 2-3 hours... But at least I got to finish something (forgot to eat though). Took me about 5-6 hours, half of that spent on the damn tiny characters. :-/ I was thinking to add a few chopped up fellas behind the ogre to add to the story, but meh...

[AMircea]

A portrait I did yesterday on Hangout, took me about 2 hours. Not very proud of it because it's too flat. The other I've just finished, took me about 3 hours. I wanted to have the cliff lean more at the top but I couldn't quite get it right. I want to get rid of the cartoony feel, but don't know how yet. Critiques and comments are very much welcomed.

[Nikt]

Cool result for 2 and 3 hours! I'am not super pro- portrait- painter but someone said me that contrast shadows can make portrait looks better. I mean more hard shadow edges and more brighter (closer to white) areas on the face. (i hope y understand my english ;)

[AMircea]

@Nikt, thanks. That's very good advice. I definitely need to improve that.

Shitty environment with an extra shitty composition. Took 4 hours, 2 of which were spent adding and deleting stuff. This was probably the most frustrating drawing I've done so far. Good thing though is I've tried some new brushes, which was good practice. The castle was matte painted.

Note of the day: I need to do speed paintings to improve my lack of composition.

[Nikt]

perhaps this can help you: Ctrl+ Paint and Sycra have got useful and simple videos about Composition Basics)

[AMircea]

@Nikt. Thanks! I knew about them but I'll check them out better.

Some environments I did today on Hangout. About 20-30 min each. The 'Sex Shop' one is more or less how the composition for my previous environment should've been. Oh well.

Notes of the day: need to improve my perspective and to do some tree studies.

[AMircea]

More environments done on Hangout. The first file sucks big time but I posted it anyway.

Suggestions/critiques are more than welcome.

[AMircea]

Struggling with portraits. Around 2h each. Damn hard...

[jneumann26]

Nice Studies!

[AMircea]

@jneumann26, thank you!

some hand and feet studies

[AMircea]

So I've set a deathline to draw 100 portraits in the next 2 months. Maaaan, I don't think I know what I've got myself into.. It's gonna be though.

Here's the link. If you want a free portrait, feel free to contact me.
http://amircea.deviantart.com/art/Free-p...-359434067

This is the first portrait. It took me around 4.30h, but an hour or so was spent on the background. Need to get faster if I want to finish until Christmas. :D This was the reference: http://justifymysanity.deviantart.com/ar...-359428960
[attachment=16753]

[AMircea]

[Toxicpanda]

Wuhu I'm there /dance.
Btw I love your feet,nose and hand studies, that reminded me that I'll have to work on it too. (atm doing 100 lips)
I really hope you will finish your 100portraits project and I can't wait to see your progress through that period of time. Good luck!

[Ursula Dorada]

Love the water studies at the first post!
And yay, good luck with the portraits, youre going to be kicking ass by the end of it! Keep it up!

[silverkeeper]

Really good water and portrait studies ,keep it up!