Mat Kaminski Sketchybewk

[matkaminski]

6-2-2014

Title: 6-2-2014
Date: June 2, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 1366px x 2048px

Notes: Yesterday was the day of studies again. Starting with this guy... a head portrait. Sorry that I don't have a link to the reference, but it was from a guy that I found on tumblr. Tried lots of new things to really see how far I could push this guy, and I have to say, having a new monitor really helps a bunch for color accuracy.

6-1-2014

Title: 6-1-2014
Date: June 1, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Varies.

Notes: Starting to gather more anatomy studies for the month. I'm trying to do something similar to what I was doing last month. I'll keep collecting them together

[matkaminski]

Leather-Clad

Title: Leather-Clad
Date: June 7 - 10, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is around 24" x 33"

Notes: This originally just started as a painting of simply... how big can I go? I wanted to try out an extremely large painting with as much detail, plus I had it in my head to do a study with purely leather. I got a bit carried away with the rendering, but this was sooo fun to paint!

Original ref: http://faestock.deviantart.com/

6-6-2014 Friday: Anatomy - Legs

Title: 6-6-2014 Friday: Anatomy - Legs
Date: April 6, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

6-3-2014 Tuesday: Anatomy - Chests

Title: 6-3-2014 Tuesday: Anatomy - Chests
Date: April 3, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

[Nowio]

You did a ton of amazing studies, just love these arm studies and I also really like the little robots szene you created. really inspiring! :D

[matkaminski]

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Nowio:

You did a ton of amazing studies, just love these arm studies and I also really like the little robots szene you created. really inspiring! :D

Thanks! I have many more to do! :O

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Portrait Painting Experiment

Title: Portrait Painting Experiment
Date: June 16, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is around 1400px x 2100px

Notes: I was trying to experiment with making digital look even more like traditional. There are so many textures that appear when you paint on a canvas that is really hard to mimic digitally. Either way, it was a fun experiment.
OH! And I was also trying to mimic John Larriva and the way he paints... but of course he's more fluid with his strokes of the paint brush.

Original ref: http://characterdesigns.com/

Title: Friday: Anatomy - Legs
Date: April 6 & 13, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

The Rogue (WIP)

Title: The Rogue (WIP)
Date: June 15, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: Earlier I started to paint a character archetype - The Druid. This is the second archetype, A rogue - specifically a fencer. It's planned that the arm-piece for her offensive arm (the rapier) would billow out so that it would be somewhat confusing as to which direction the sword would be coming from. It's still just a work in progress, but this is the start.

[matkaminski]

Guess That Show!

Just a preview of a WIP that I'm in the progress of. More on this soon...

Tuesday: Anatomy - Chests

Title: Tuesday: Anatomy - Chests
Date: June 3 & 17, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Wednesday: Anatomy - Arms

Title: Wednesday: Anatomy - Arms
Date: June 18, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

[meat]

Those figure studies still look awesome! Don't ever stop! You do seem to like doing them in section more. I'd suggest doing more full figures, but hey up to you.

[Cyprinus]

Great updates since I last visited your sketchbook, your studies are looking great! I'd agree with meat about the full figures maybe, but that's also only because I have so much trouble with the full figure and when I don't practice for some days I'll have problems immediately. And maybe a little more application? Oh, and which artist did you mean in your previous post, I think you forgot to mention the name? I'm really curious now XD

Anyway, you're doing great, keep it up!!! (:

[matkaminski]

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Cyprinus:

Great updates since I last visited your sketchbook, your studies are looking great! I'd agree with meat about the full figures maybe, but that's also only because I have so much trouble with the full figure and when I don't practice for some days I'll have problems immediately. And maybe a little more application? Oh, and which artist did you mean in your previous post, I think you forgot to mention the name? I'm really curious now XD

Anyway, you're doing great, keep it up!!! (:

I agree and disagree about the full figures part. Let me explain... so I've been doing full studies for quite some time now, and have come to realize that I pay close attention to only certain details - the face (specifically the eyes) and the arms. So I think it's pretty important that I cut those areas out somewhat so that I can keep my focus on the micro rather than the macro.
But I do agree that it's good to do full body studies and those are what I've been reserving when I find time during the weekend.

Now... the applied studies part I couldn't agree more. My fiancee recently pointed out something pretty damn important.

She was like: "You know... I notice you're like a work-horse. I can watch you do five-hundred hours of copies of things - with absolutely no complaints at all. But the moment you try to do something from your own head, it all just falls apart. You fold like a cheap suit. I want to see YOU! I think everyone can see that you can study all day, now let them see what makes you so different."

OH! And the artist is John Larriva. His work is astounding!
Thanks for checking in! :)

meat:
Those figure studies still look awesome! Don't ever stop! You do seem to like doing them in section more. I'd suggest doing more full figures, but hey up to you.

I actually answered this one just above, but yeah, more figures for sure! :) Thanks for the compliment, I need to keep on truckin!

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Ram Horns - A Study

Title: Ram Horns - A Study
Date: June 24, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: I worked a little backward this time, but this was a study for the bigger illustration below. Let's face it... horns of any variety are kind of a pain because of all the folds and ridges that are there. BUT they look awesome!
I was trucking along with my demon lord painting and lo and behold, I realized in mid-paint that... I have no idea really how ram horns work - SO! I thought, what better time than to study some horns from a photo. I took the study of the horns and began to apply it to the demon lord painting that I'm working on. I'm still in like mid-paint for the demon lord, but this is it so far:

Demon Lord - Applied Study (WIP)

Title: Demon Lord - Applied Study (WIP)
Date: June 24 & 25, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: This piece is really just a test to see how well I can use both applied studies, imagination and to really push that dramatic lighting. It still has quite a bit to go, but I thought I would share where I'm at currently. Finally breaking away from those damn studies to actually paint something that I enjoy.

[matkaminski]

June - Anatomy Summary

Title: June - Anatomy Summary
Date: June
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Varies

Notes: Overall, the month of June was, what I felt like, a bit of an unproductive month. I think maybe I was feeling down or perhaps all the pending housework was destroying my productivity, but I can say that I'm trying to make a point of the things that I need to work on. Edges and Stoke economy. These are the main things that I want to really make sure that I start to watch. I think I'm getting kind of there as far as getting really expressive with my painting technique, but I think it's still falling apart on those two aspects mentioned. It's a long and frustrating process, but hopefully in the end it will be worth it.
As always... time to just keep on powering more down!

Game of Thrones - Season 1, Episode 1
(Stark's Dilemma)
(Work in Progress)

Title: Game of Thrones - Season 1, Episode 1 (Stark's Dilemma) (Work in Progress)
Date: June 17 - 24, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 12.8" x 7.8"

Notes: I really want to do a study for every episode, so I've been taking screen caps of what I would consider to be a 'pinnacle' moment of each episode. I'm really behind as far as the work goes, but I love this show so damn much that I just want to keep pushing on my studies for these. They are some great examples of dynamic lighting, crazy scenes, and even awesome character design. Either way... more to come on these.

Demon Lord - Applied Study (WIP)

Title: Demon Lord - Applied Study (WIP)
Date: June 24 - 29, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: Still plugging away at this WIP. That staff is looking stupid and so is the altar... much work to go!

[Cyprinus]

Your anatomy studies are looking good as always, great work. I'd agree on the edges and stroke economy, especially edges. Since I started paying more attention to edges, my work has changed for the better (at least I feel so). If you'd like to read something, here's a post where Lyraina shared some links about the topic with me:
I hope this works and brings you to the post...

As for the demon lord, I really like the design of his head and face! Something that irritates me a little though is the right side of his coat/cape. Right now to me it looks like theres something pulling at it from the right lower corner. As I see it, if you consider gravity, I think the lines of the cape should be a bit more vertical. (it also disappears right after the staff...) Also, the area of the sleeve/cape of the arm that is holding the staff is still a bit unclear. I think though you haven't fully worked on this area yet since you say that it's still a WIP. It's great though seeing how you apply everything you studied in a work from imagination.

[clockodile]

Wow these studies show so much improvement. I skimmed through the first page and compared to that you have really improved with your brushwork and handling colour more accurately. It might help to try to block in colours with the biggest brush you can to avoid 'streakiness' in your surfaces - you seem to have improved at dealing with this though, so keep up the good work.

Great to see you making an effort to apply those studies too. If you have having trouble generating work from imagination, it could help to do more studies that focus on the construction of objects - drawing through the forms, building them out of primitive shapes (sphere, cube, cylinder, etc.) and the like. Once you learn the 3D shape language of things, you can reuse it or adapt it more fluently from your head.

For your demon lord picture, the design of the head area with the horns looks really cool, and I like how the horns act compositionally to draw attention in to his face like that. Well done on taking on such a challenging lighting challenge as well! Regarding the staff and altar, I have a couple of crits. The staff is lacking in a core shadow and is rather evenly lit, so it looks a bit flat - a shadow would be broken up by the detail of course, but it might be more effective to work that in first and build detail on top of it, using your light sources. Though it is open to interpretation, the perspective might be a bit off on the altar too - you might want to try experimenting with changing the angle of the nearest side so it is a bit closer to the viewer. (Since the altar is so near the viewer, it should demonstrate more perspective distortion/foreshortening than it does now.)

BTW, I really enjoyed looking at your 3D illustration project on the previous page, great designs on both the robots and their environment.

[matkaminski]

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clockodile:

Wow these studies show so much improvement. I skimmed through the first page and compared to that you have really improved with your brushwork and handling colour more accurately. It might help to try to block in colours with the biggest brush you can to avoid 'streakiness' in your surfaces - you seem to have improved at dealing with this though, so keep up the good work.

Great to see you making an effort to apply those studies too. If you have having trouble generating work from imagination, it could help to do more studies that focus on the construction of objects - drawing through the forms, building them out of primitive shapes (sphere, cube, cylinder, etc.) and the like. Once you learn the 3D shape language of things, you can reuse it or adapt it more fluently from your head.

For your demon lord picture, the design of the head area with the horns looks really cool, and I like how the horns act compositionally to draw attention in to his face like that. Well done on taking on such a challenging lighting challenge as well! Regarding the staff and altar, I have a couple of crits. The staff is lacking in a core shadow and is rather evenly lit, so it looks a bit flat - a shadow would be broken up by the detail of course, but it might be more effective to work that in first and build detail on top of it, using your light sources. Though it is open to interpretation, the perspective might be a bit off on the altar too - you might want to try experimenting with changing the angle of the nearest side so it is a bit closer to the viewer. (Since the altar is so near the viewer, it should demonstrate more perspective distortion/foreshortening than it does now.)

BTW, I really enjoyed looking at your 3D illustration project on the previous page, great designs on both the robots and their environment.

WoW! Thanks for the well-thought out response...
Alright, so to start off, the whole seeing through objects thing: Luckily that was taught pretty early on at art school, so I've been doing that for quite some time, BUT I think it would help to continue drawing up the forms from base to fully-costumed. I do agree though that of course it needs to be pushed even further.

I think lately I've stopped pushing myself because I've been comparing myself to all the artists that I enjoy and just getting discouraged rather than just pushing it to the limit. I've come to realize that I'm me, and they are them. So it's best to just do and draw what I would like to see. Things are really starting to look up, but it's always going to be a struggle.

The digital struggle is just something that I need to look back on and just do. I think that my struggle was less about actually being able to do it and more about the fact that I was a bad drawer trying to paint on top of it. So now I feel much more confident in my sketching ability and also my digital painting. I think I'll try this technique again!

I need to purely draw more from my head rather than just using reference for everything. Sometimes it's nice to just paint for the sake of painting rather than dealing with everything being completely accurate initially.

The Demon Lord picture has so many problems at the moment that I'm tempted to start back at the drawing board and just really rethink the design of the foreground - or just axe it all-together and just deal with the Demon only.

Thanks so much and I hope I'm not rambly, it's kinda late atm hahaha...

Cyprinus:

Your anatomy studies are looking good as always, great work. I'd agree on the edges and stroke economy, especially edges. Since I started paying more attention to edges, my work has changed for the better (at least I feel so). If you'd like to read something, here's a post where Lyraina shared some links about the topic with me:
I hope this works and brings you to the post...

As for the demon lord, I really like the design of his head and face! Something that irritates me a little though is the right side of his coat/cape. Right now to me it looks like theres something pulling at it from the right lower corner. As I see it, if you consider gravity, I think the lines of the cape should be a bit more vertical. (it also disappears right after the staff...) Also, the area of the sleeve/cape of the arm that is holding the staff is still a bit unclear. I think though you haven't fully worked on this area yet since you say that it's still a WIP. It's great though seeing how you apply everything you studied in a work from imagination.

I'm going to start doing something new as part of my post-process and really flesh the lines back out at the end. It might end up looking slightly comic-booky, but it might end up just looking nice period. It's worth a shot regardless... AND DOH, I only just now saw the link! :O

There are quite a few problems with the Demon that I stated above... UGH.
Anyway, thanks so much!

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Just a Bunch of WIPs

Title: Just a Bunch of WIPs
Medium: Photoshop CS6, Pencil
Scale: Varies

Notes: Ultimately, I'm just full of experiments at the moment, but the last one (Samus) is actually part of a contest that I'm going to be entering soon. It's basically just drawing a video game character on top of a pose that was provided. I thought it would be fun to paint some Zero-Suit Samus - although... I think I'm bordering on a pin-up version of her.Other than that just sketching around trying to get some ideas flowing.
More soon...

[matkaminski]

Contest Entry: Zero-Suit Samus

Title: Contest Entry: Zero-Suit Samus
Date: July 19 - 23
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 1589px x 3363px

Notes: The contest was sponsored by LaLunatique over on deviantart.
For the contest we were supposed to use one of her stock images and turn it into a video game character. It's not easy and I can honestly say that the main thing that held me up was just the pure openess of this task. I mean, there are literally thousands of female video game characters out there.
I'd have to say though, that I finally did it! I played to my strengths like my fiancee has been saying for quite some time and drew it all out first, and then proceeded to paint right over the pencils. That used to be one of my major blocks and I think it was a block for quite a few reasons, the first being a not very good under-drawing. Couple that with my previous lack of digital painting skills. All-in-all I'm counting this one as a success!
It was fun to do, and I can't wait honestly, to do more!

Ref was: Magical Jump

Oh and lastly: A bonus tutorial.

[matkaminski]

Absolved Returns!

Title: Absolved Returns!
Medium: Pencil, Photoshop CS6
Scale: Varies.

Notes: Getting ready for next semester.

It's going to be a crazy continuation of the Absolved project from last year.

Quick Studies

Title: Quick Studies
Medium: Pencil
Scale: Varies

Notes: Just trying to keep brushing up on my pencil works. Just some quick studies.

[matkaminski]

Birthday Present for Mimi

Title: Birthday Present for Mimi
Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board
Scale: Original is approx. 8" x 10"

Notes: Ashley came up to me not too long ago and was like... "You should do this painting for Mimi." She proceeded to describe what she thought would look good and I was like... TIME FOR REFERENCE. And so here is the result.
The puppy pictured is our little papillon, "Gypsy". This was for a birthday present. :)

Supernatural: Mini-Paintings

Title: Supernatural: Mini-Paintings
Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board
Scale: Each painting is approx. 3.5" x 4"

Notes: Just using reference and exaggerating it for fun. Really just practicing traditional painting. Taking reference and just pushing it hard.

Fantasy Character Portrait A

Title: Fantasy Character Portrait A
Date: August 14, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: I was staring at the old Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale character portraits that were done some time ago, and was like... I want to try that! So this is just my first attempt at a fantasy character portrait done in that style. Trying to see if I can manipulate reference for my own purpose while still keeping my painterly style. I think this was a pretty successful attempt...
The comic version in my opinion just looks so graphic and awesome. It was just a play with the filters and managed to make it look sweet! More on this soon...

[matkaminski]

Digital Painting: Painterly Objects

Title: Digital Painting: Painterly Objects
Date: August 22, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC
Scale: Original is ~8.5" x 11"

Notes: For the first assignment in Digital Painting class we were to paint a transition from one color to another and also paint a sphere and a cube from imagination. Looking back at the cube I notice that it is kind of off kilter, but it was literally painted in like five minutes. I just wanted to knock it out pretty fast so that I could start painting more things. I actually think that I'm going to paint a few more stacks of cubes and maybe practice more concept-art simpler objects like crates and lights to start getting some object painting out of the way. As always, trying to make a push into the concept art world.

Two Warm-Up WIPs

Title: Two Warm-Up WIPs
Date: August 23, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC
Scale: Each piece varies.

Notes: I was just getting in some quick studies practice. There are lots and lots more of these in the pipe, plus I actually kind of want to push them further, but we'll see what happens. Regardless, more to come!

[matkaminski]

Will be streaming @ 10AM CST! See you there!

http://www.livestream.com/matkaminski/

[matkaminski]

Digital Painting: Speed Paintings

Title: Digital Painting: Speed Painting
Date: August 29, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC
Scale: Each 'piece' varies.

Notes: I've never really done applied speed painting before, and I can say that this exercise was REALLY fun to do, albeit extremely difficult.
First, let me preface with saying that each one was timed, in a reverse progression. We started with the thirty-minute painting and worked our way down to five minutes. The bottom-most piece (Donatello) was the first, and then they go in reverse order from there, scaling down by five minutes each. I think it was only natural that the objects become more simple as the time was reduced, but some people really gave it a try even at the five-minute mark.
Either way, we all powered our paintings down and there wasn't much fuss. It was really fun to do, and I actually want to try and do these more often. I think setting a time limit really helps!

"Ascendancy Soundtrack"

I posted recently about some goals... A bit of this will be reiterating that.
I am still planning on pursuing these, but let me preface these by saying that I am going to be pushing harder than ever this semester! I have very clear objectives for this class that I hope to achieve.

Firstly, let me start with where I am planning on going this semester. I think that should start with some serious thought into where I get my inspirations from, specifically for my portraiture.

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All artwork below this line is NOT MY WORK!
Each artist is listed with their respective work.
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Alex Negrea

I choose this one because of the subject matter.
I think it's interesting to vary your character designs. Alex Negrea seems to be a bit versatile from hyper realistic, to space-faring aliens. Because of this, I want to try and push towards the realistic rendering style combined with this subject matter.

John Larriva

Ultimately, I can't get away from this painterly style.
I think that my style actually lends itself towards this type of rendering. I love it so much, and it just so happens to be a good push towards an 'old-world' type of rendering. If you notice throughout some of my work, this happens to be what type of art I paint like.

Vinicius Menezes

I pursue this one because of the process. And also the texture.
I want to learn how to have a ton more edge control like here.

Min Yum

Texture, texture, texture!
I tend to fail in putting anything that visually breaks up the canvas, and somehow Bumskee manages to use this to great effect. I want to learn to start messing around with this.

Rahul Philip

Not only do I like how these are done, but I also love the color approach.
I want to try and push into this as well! As I implement color, I want to start approaching it with a more academic approach in terms of what color combinations to use and things.

When I first started doing art, I initially wanted to do environment art for no other reason than the fact that I didn't want to animate. As I continue on, I realize that I actually prefer to just design characters. For some reason I had it stuck in my head that environments would be simpler. The reasons are insignificant, because it's much more important to A) have a clear goal up front, and B) to never compromise because "It's easier." As the saying goes, nothing good comes easy. And I whole-heartedly agree, because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be worth the time. Like I said, pay attention to yourself early on. I was interested in the character designs from the get-go, and I didn't listen to myself. Fast forward a tiny bit (not much) and you get closer to what I really wanted to do: character art. Baldur's Gate was probably my first real experience into what makes good character art - specifically for the portraiture.

I think from the moment I saw these until now, I just want to do portraits all day long. Character art was really pushed to the fore-front of my mind then and there. I guess that's why if you look through my blog, I've been constantly going back to the portraiture and characters. I have gotten into portraiture probably mostly in the past few months and I think this is an after-effect of my childhood gaming habits. I think I secretly always wanted to do this, I was just worried that I would never be good enough to get to this level.

My goal, overall, this semester is take portraits of people that I know, and use them as a basis for the final result of high-fantasy portraits. It's basically a combination of using very direct reference (since I have this crazy habit of using that), but using imagination to push them into interesting places from the character design aspect. If you look back the past few weeks, I've been starting to rethink my process and really get into a more painterly, but realistic approach to my painting style. If I can master this, I think it could potentially be a gateway into character illustration. Throughout this semester I think I will be heavily diving into the deep end of character-driven illustration. Be ready!

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All artwork above this line is NOT MY WORK!
Each artist is listed with their respective work.
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And on a side note... BOXES!

Cardboard is the Best Board

Title: Cardboard is the Best Board
Date: August 28, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 2048px x 1612px

Notes: Continuing on with what we were doing last class, I thought it would be good to paint a bunch of cubes all together. What better thing than a bunch of cardboard boxes! Anyway... just a fun painting to mess around with.

Sketchy Elf (Cont.)

Title: Sketchy Elf (Cont.)
Date: August 23 & 26, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC & CS6
Scale: Original is 3066px x 4582px

Notes: Decided to keep running with this one. I'm trying to learn to use more texture in my pieces as well as use reference effectively. I still need to get used to shooting my own reference more often so that it can be sold later hahaha! Anyway, just thought I would post the small bit of update on this character sketch. GOTTA RUN TO CLASS!

[matkaminski]

Digital Painting: Speed Paintings

Title: Digital Painting: Speed Painting
Date: August 29, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC
Scale: Each 'piece' varies.

Notes: I've never really done applied speed painting before, and I can say that this exercise was REALLY fun to do, albeit extremely difficult.
First, let me preface with saying that each one was timed, in a reverse progression. We started with the thirty-minute painting and worked our way down to five minutes. The bottom-most piece (Donatello) was the first, and then they go in reverse order from there, scaling down by five minutes each. I think it was only natural that the objects become more simple as the time was reduced, but some people really gave it a try even at the five-minute mark.
Either way, we all powered our paintings down and there wasn't much fuss. It was really fun to do, and I actually want to try and do these more often. I think setting a time limit really helps!

[matkaminski]

Illustration 5: Absolved Character Archetype #1 - The Grafter

Title: Illustration 5: Absolved Character Archetype #1 - The Grafter
Medium: Photoshop CS6, Pencil
Scale: Each 'piece' varies, final is 11" x 17"

Notes: The first assignment for the semester! And these are going to be such fast turnarounds.
Okay, so the first character archetype for Absolved is basically a glorified fence. I intend this character type to be more of a social gamer rather than a combat first type of character.
Throughout the sketches not only was I exploring the character, but also the Displaced race as a whole. What kind of clothing would they wear? What type of areas would they live in? Basic questions were at the forefront of my mind so that I could start to create a bit of environment for these guys / gals to live in.
Ultimately, I realized in the final that there are some shortcomings that I need to get over, most notable the real lack of distinguished light source. But I can say that this is a real step in the right direction for me because I have a real hard time breaking from my reference, so this is a major push into the right direction!
I want to redo this piece before the semester is over so that I can make it right!
More to come.