Crackbook

[BenFlores]

hey , thanks for sharing that story, was nice to hear. nice studies, you should apply those though . i see in your schedule it is optional for you to apply them after 8 hours of studying. i know it sounds harsh but there really is no point in studying if you dont apply what you have learned, and im guilty of that too but it helps tonnes.
good luck!

[crackedskull]

Np Ben. You are absolutely right, will do it tomorrow. Thank you!


Back from city. The drawing zone started itching. I was beginning to doubt if I like drawing these last days, but it turns out this was the first time I seriously got overworked, I lost my focus and got burnt out for real, but now I have that feeling again. That inner well of willpower and focus has been refilled. Tired as heck, but cant wait for tomorrow. Ill welcome that 10 hours with open arms.
So I quess I learned another lesson while away from the home. Take a break once in a while, when you are still kind of new to working all day intensely. My mind needs more practice to work all day every day, but im getting there!

Loomis 31.

[crackedskull]

Updating. Got around 7 hours done, but now I have to help to build the 2nd floor of my house.
Luckily tomorrow's free to do art all day. Then at the 15th im busy for approx half day, after that I will have almost all the days to do art until school.

Didnt really have a schedule today because "do 10h of art" didnt sound daunting or stressing to me today :)

Loomis 32&33




Started a Game of thrones study and it turned into something else, havent fully rendered it because gonna get some crits for it first.



Movie study 7



Thumbnails 3

[crackedskull]

Updating, will add more later today.
Loomis 34



Loomis 35, practiced perspective. At first I hid the 2nd VP out the canvas and tried to visualize. Then I corrected the mistakes, and also I practiced linework a lot in this, earsed most though.



Started a study, got some crits on /ic/, then abandoned the ref and tried to work from head.
Pre crit study, this one is nearly the same as the reference image.



And after, the lips on the angle were quite hard.

[crackedskull]

Today was different, I did less, but focused on some pieces a lot, got 10h done. Also I went over 1h at some sittings, which isnt good for the eyes, but I just got so drawn in that I didnt care.

quickstudy


Thumbnail sketches, will use some later.



Updating on my concept, went crazy with it and changed it to nighttime, because that brings the magical glowy forest out better. Other than that, it was quite difficult to alter my previous image to this.

[crackedskull]

Hey, was a long day full of all kinds of stuff...exept art!

So I thought that I should do some art before sleep. See I made a pact, if at some day I dont do art, even a bit, then johnson will get 1mm shorter.




Yeah enough being silly, time to extinquish the fires in my eyes with some sleep.

[crackedskull]

Mid-day update.

Loomis 37&38.





Character from head.









Tips on character welcome, want to make it super realistic.

[Samszym]

That fire is much too dark right now. As the primary light source, it should be by far the brightest thing in the image. I think you should look look some reference for this lighting scheme.
I would try darkening the cool light and experimenting with the cropping, It may be better to have more space on the side of the fire.
The pose of the character's left arm (the one not holding the fire) reads to me as more of an an angry mom telling her children to clean their crypts before she incinerates their Hex box. I'd try changing that arm to more of a dangly, creepy silhouette if you're going for horror.

Best of luck on this dude!

[crackedskull]

Thanks for the critiques and humor, Samszym. The angry mom part cracked me up, I actually had a similar thought when I was doing the left arm.
I think the light green on the lower half is too powerful, will dim it down, also 3 highlights might be too much to pull off, but I'll learn more with it. Also I think ill add something on the foreground.

Hogarth 2



Studies.

[crackedskull]

Classic procrastination day. Did 5h then was about to do the rest, but then came this thing, then that thing and suddenly *poof* it got me. Gotta keep that slimy bastard under control. Still I love the fact that im able to do 5h even at my off day, that knowledge that my brain can adapt to working hard really brings hope.

I didnt work on my previous wips today, kinda have that "Just keep going, dont get attached to the previous works if saving them would be too time consuming" attidude.


Loomis 39- Used everything that I had learned to construct a face from imagination (bones'n'all) and then apply the tricky frontal upper lightening, was quite hard to do from head, specially the new lighting. Also did'nt remember the planes that well. Used the remainder practising lines.


Loomis 40.


Studied some of the many toturials I've saved up from /ic/.



Concept scene from thumbnail. I think I relied too heavily on texture brushes for this one. Only problems that stick out are the shoulderpads on the warrior on the front.

[crackedskull]

Hey I poured all my willpower to this one piece today. Took around 8-9 hours, will continue tomorrow. More info in the critique section.

[crackedskull]

Didnt get to do much today because of buying supplies/clothes for school and my personal pride about my last finished piece. By pride I mean that when I look back and see where ive come, it takes the pressure away, which isnt all good. Similar thing happened with my Bane piece. Its that I kind of want to reach the top (which is why I've set insane goals even if I have years until I get into freelancing, yet on the other hand I dont mind being just a good artist in a few years, then being a great artist in 10 or so.
I dont have a "do or die" situation, which is one of the main reasons that I dont push it to the max.
So yeah, got to work around that somehow.

TL;TR- just your usual artist ranting.

Loomis 41



Finished the concept.

[crackedskull]

"See I made a pact, if at some day I dont do art, even a bit, then johnson will get 1mm shorter."
God damn it! Well fuck sleep I made this 1h masterpiece sketch. Yeah disregard that 5h when im at my worst, turns out I cant do shit when im at my worst.


Today felt like I had regressed a year backwards in terms of discipline and all that.

I wouldnt have drawn a thing today if I wouldnt have seen that post I'd forgotten.

[crackedskull]

Loomis 42

[crackedskull]

Loomis 43&44

[crackedskull]

Loomis 45&46




Studies.

[florentK]

interesting stuff. I suggest you to slown down a little bit a spend more time on your studies. It looks a little bit scribbly particularly your sketches ( i know sketching line art with wacom is hard) Personally i don't manage to do it :p. or i use a more flat brush . I feel more comfortable.
You may do some more basic subject like fruits, vegetables. It seems a little bit "not fun" to do these kind of stuff but you will learn more and get more self satisfaction. Keep it up . And you will improve :)

[Samszym]

I second what Florent says, slowing down to nail the construction and get the most out of your studies is a good idea.
You also need to develop more line confidence, right now you appear to be drawing each line a few times hoping one looks correct. That results in a very scratchy, timid look. You've got to learn to make one line and have that be your line! If you're at all open to the idea, I recommend drawing with a pen on paper so you won't be able to ctrl+z or erase. Force yourself to draw one long line where it is needed and absolutely never draw over it, even if it isn't in the right place. It would probably be a better idea to start doing this with some boxes in perspective rather than human forms.

Best of luck man, keep pushing it.

[crackedskull]

Thanks FlorentK and Samszym. Sketchy lines are hard not to make for me, but I do exercises at every Loomis segment or so. Sometimes even when a line is accurate I feel the need to restate it. Also I sketch at fast speeds, which also causes inaccuracy, can't really help it.
Also the Loomis studies may be sketchier than usual, because I spend 1h for each segment and also sometimes I shade with scribbles. I quess I'll have plenty of time to practice confident linework at school :)

Today I started reading a book about willpower, quite interesting text I must say. I am interested in psychology aswell, so that probably explains it. Turns that willpower is a finite resource, and mine got depleted hard.

As for art, I kind of started to do it on my own, I didnt have to force myself today.
Loomis 47


Warcraft themed concept.

[Samszym]

Also I sketch at fast speeds, which also causes inaccuracy, can't really help it.

That reads as an excuse not to improve at something you're bad at. Check out the drawings on this blog post by Matt Jones. Those are very conservative and readable, and I doubt any of them took more then a few minutes. You can absolutely have both confident lines and quick drawing, it's a matter of knowing what line you want to make and training your hand to be dextrous enough to make it. The argument that drawing quicker results in more lines doesn't add up, what could be quicker than drawing a single line?

If you feel the need to restate a line even if it's accurate, erasing it and drawing a thicker line would look neater. There could be situations where you're going for a more messy, scratchy style, but I don't think that's the best way for studies to look.

As for shading with scribbles, I think it winds up being distracting because it creates a random pattern of very tiny dots, and the eye is drawn to the busy detail. People who were masters of hatching and crosshatching (like Franklin Booth and Rembrandt) also created tiny patterns like that but they knew where to distribute the patterns for the best effect, and they were dextrous enough to space the lines so they created an even tone. If you're interested in shading with line, do some master copies of pen and ink illustrations where line shading is done well to get the technique. Or you could just shade with tone since you're working digitally.