|| Cold Coffe || Getting serious with caffeine in my system

[Cyprinus]

Great work as always, got nothing to crit, just keep going!! (:
Glad you mentioned Asaro, had a look at it. I've been wanting to study face structure a bit more for the longest time, but yeah, those planes are so hard to remember. You manage so well though!

[Suira]

Cyprinus: Thanks dude! Glad the asaro helps you! It's kinda hard to get them right, but they really teach a lof about construction, best tip I can give is focus in one area at a time. Like if you feel cheekbones are something you don't really understand in a 3d way focus on that, their rythims and shit and try to memorize it, then relate it to other parts and so on and so on. :)

Well, I'm having slow days lately, I'm gonna have to take a trip to the capital this week to get a computer and fix some stuff that needs to get done, so expect a lack of updates as of this week. I'll try to upload something, but I don't think I'll have much time to study at all.

First , another asaro copy ( playing a bit more with the proportions and trying to be more loose instead of getting it 100% accurate):



Some referenced studies, focusing more on raw construction rather than making pretty values and shit, still a ton of work to do:





And some heads from mind, some of them I went the tolkien route and tried to do some weird shit, but it looks crappy cause I'm now trying to do anything other than maping the construction:





Also got some posing planned for the CHOW and layed a setup for the painting, I hope I can finish it in time, but I can't be 100% sure, any crits are wellcome ( the coat shape is a placeholder so I'll change it don't worry xD)

[Lyraina]

Man you're really going crazy on those heads! Getting better by the day. The variations on the profile view are interesting to see!

Lol @ ChoW! :D Trousers made me laugh. My crit would be that he's a bit static, despite it being a kind of "cool" pose. Why not exaggerate the underlying gesture a bit, make him shift his hip a bit? Right now he looks like he's just standing there, trying to pose cool. Instead try to imagine him in motion, how would he let himself move into that position, how would he ease out of it again? Then freeze the most dynamic moment of that movement and exaggerate it.

Keep it up! :)

[rafa zanchetin]

Oh yeah man, these faces are getting gooood, that little one on the first page hit the awesomeness level. Not sure if I should add this or not, but on your asaro studies, it seems that the space and mouth are too big, now, that doesn't mean it's wrong as some people are like that, but if you're trying to find a perfect harmony might have to close the gap a little bit.
Loving the profile faces too, gotta learn where it's good to stylize, sometimes you get it wrong but then you'll know to not repeat again. Keep it up man, you're blasting.

[Jaetryn]

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. I love the hard work you're putting in since the last time i looked here. Mad inspiring bro! Keep it up, and the faces are looking nice. :)

My favorite profile is def that center middle one. Awesome shapes!

[Jaik]

Nice work! So much work. Its great.

Wicked gestures too man. Really nice lines to them. I really like the second ChoW one personally. Has some really nice rhythm to it.

Looking forward to seeing how your chow turns out this time. Hope I can make it in -___-

[Archreux]

God damn, man. Those faces really went up a level from the last page. Super solid construction and form.

The action in those thumbnails for the chow piece are all looking so great as well. I live the pose of the one with blew up bigger and got some color on, the action and attitude is all in the pose like it should be. I hope you can get some time to finish the CHOW.

Nice leveling, all that good work is showing through. :]

[Craig Paton]

Face drawings are looking awesome, man. Really shows how study of form and construction informs your work. Will need to put more focus on that myself.

Can't wait to see your Chow this week. Looking cool so far. :)

[Olof]

So many face, so many heads! Looking good so far :)

I'm curious to see some full rendered portraits from you. Do you do any like that?

[pnate]

Love those heads man. So cool to see you breaking down the construction and stuff down to the basics. Also diggin the Pinkman <3 One crit would be that his pants are very short compared to the length of his legs. If you make them longer but sag them, they can still look like hip hop pants.

[Suira]

Hey guys! I'm back! Sorry for not answering so many cool feedback right away, but I gotta leave in 5 minutes.

Long story short, I've been for a week in the capital super bussy trying to get a new computer built, solving bureaucracy issues, etc.

Spent a fuckton of money on the computer and the fuckers put in awesome components, except the PSU which is pure garbage, so my computer shutdown all the goddamned time, so I've been calling customer service and shit, in short, no time to draw. So I'm bringing some of the faces I doodled while in taxis, waiting rooms, etc. Not really great, but I feel the studies I've been doing are starting to pay off.

Thanks a lot for all the comments I'll get back to you when I come back from sending my computer to the store ( in 10 hours :( )

[crackedskull]

Those graphite faces look pretty good mate.

[Archreux]

Oh damn, sorry to hear about your computer. Those sort of problems can be a pain in the ass.

I think it's safe to say the studies are definitely paying off. Man, these are fucking delicious pencils. Really bringing the hunger out, haha.

The construction and form is looking solid. Try taking a bit more time with your crosshatching and shading. While it has its own sort of unique flavor, it is still a bit messy in a few areas. Other than that everything is great. :]

[rafa zanchetin]

Lol! Told ya it would melt, that's my CIA guy preventing you from finding me.
Great faces btw, I would guess you like smokes? lol.

[Lyraina]

Eh, where are you? Computer meltdown? Heatstroke? Don't be gone!

[Suira]

crackedskull Thanks mate, now that I seen then after a good long while I feel they suck, but thx anyway ^^

Archreux Thanks! Totally agree, dat shit needs some serious fixin :P

Rafa They'll get you someday, just wait and see xD

Lyra Life meltdown, more than anything haha, but hopefully I'm back to somewha regular updates. :P

Yo guys, I'm bak after a tremendously long hiatus. It's not like I've been doing nothing all this time, drawn quite a bit, but I just don't feel like showing ma shit. Totally inspired by all of your works! You guys are da best. I started Sam Nielson's course recently and he gives us some really basic sketches and we gotta make realistic renderings outta them and shit, so I bring oyu some, plus some shit I did last month that sucks balls big time, but it's better than nothing.

Sorry about the lack of updates or presense at all, I'm having some pretty hard times in every fucking aspect, there's also the prospect of moving and everything's a mess, so sorry bout my absence, but I've hit a new low lately, so I'm doing my best hehe.

Anyway, here's the crap.

Some faces:



Some brainfarts:





And the exercises from the course:






Second week: ( just values)



As a bonus, my face when I see rafa updates:



There's a lot more shit, but I just can't be bothered to scan, I know it's all lame, but whatever, I'm just trying to take it slow lately and not be too pushy against myself since I got a lotta shit on ma plate. See you soon hopefully ^^

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey man, welcome back. Sorry to hear you're at a low point - know that there's no such thing as a life without problems and problems can often propel us forward, sucks when you're in em though. I think your stuff is looking pretty tight anyway, even if it's not where you want it to be, it can still inspire people and make them happy! Best of luck man!

[rafa zanchetin]

Solid studies man, welcome back!
Are you going to move to a shittier place? Like the sun? hahaha
Let us know how the class goes!

[Heliux]

welcome back as well, man! Your portraits rule; I'll have to give that Asaro study a whorl myself. Wanted to do various sizing and spatial relationship studies with features, just not sure where to start.

[Suira]

JyonnyNovice: Thanks man! Yeah hard times are a necesary step, so it's all about just keep pushing no matter what or how hard it is :P The eternal struggle!

Rafa: Well, I'm going back to Spain!! I just can't wait, civilisation again! Lotta shit to handle still but it's close, it's close!

Heliux: Thanks man! I totally recommend you the asaro head, it's THE BEST, hard as fuck, but once you start realising a bit how it works it just opens a lot of hidden places for you to explore, I still have to work my ass off until I get some semblance of remote mastery but, it's worth the effort!

[u]Now, for a review on Sam Nielson's Lighting for Story and Concept Art[/u]:

First of all, the course is AWESOME, I've taken quite a few courses online, and this was one of the best. It focuses on what makes storytelling , it's elements, how it works, why it works, and how it is entangled in EVERY single aspect of your painting. How not only the design of a specific subject talks about its properties, but also how the colors and light you use to portray it influence your viewer's perception of it. All of this sounds like common sense, and I think most of us have it in mind to some extent, but let me be clear.

This course is an in depth dissection on this, on what are the limitations and contradictions in the narrative resources you can use, on how to make something subtle yet clear. I can tell that Sam put a lot of work and brain power into understanding all of this and much more, and how he effectively conveys it to his students in a very clear way that can be remembered.

Every assignment tackles a specific set of resources that you should use in your story telling for an illustration, but it's more than that. Personally I'm not aiming to become an illustrator, I mostly care about character design, and I feel this course is a must for anyone on my position. When you're focusing on environmental or character design ( specially on the later) it is my experience to focus solely on the shape design and the "flats" and surface properties of your character, but more often than not, the story of the character is of less importance than the previous mentioned in your approach ( at least that's what happened for me). This course really teaches you to be very mindfull on how the story of the character, the theme of the story he/she is involved in sould affect its design, and not only that but also the way such designs are presented to the art director. Introducing small hints of storytelling in the way you light a character ( even if it's on a white background) is key to sell your design in a believable way, and to be subtle about it takes not only a lot of practice but also knowledge on how thse narrative factors work, and that's what you get with this course.

Sam himself is an extremely helpfull guy, when you ask for feedback you get it almost instantly, I sometimes wrote him a messaghe at 3AM and got an answer at 3:25Am, which says a lot about his work ethic. Also loved how efficient his workflow is, he uses really simplified approaches and builts on complexity from there, one minute I was like: " I have no clue how he's gonna make this work with how blunt he's being" and a short while after I was like: "wtf happened? how come this looks so awesome!??".

Lots of gret lessons to be learned from him, and his course, really recomend it.

Now for the DISCLAIMER:
While the course is awesome and tailors to all kinds of levels of art mastery ( hell, I suck and I learned a lot with it) I feel that in order to really take full advantage of it you need a fairly strong grasp on fundamentals, specially regarding light and color theory, he provides you with lineart to paint on top of, and you can redraw it to suit your style if you want, so there's freedom. So overall I recomend this mostly for people who's , at least in the mid-tier of fundamentals mastery, otherwise, you'll be way too concerned with trying to get those down properly to pay close attention to what's being taught to you regarding narrative resources (which is the main focus of the course).

On the brightside , if you're like me and you pretty much suck balls at fundamentals in many aspects this course will teach you ( in addition to what I previously mentioned) what aspects of your fundamentals you need to focus on after the course is over, since it forces you to put to practise all you've studied and get out of the "student" mindset, in which you only study but don't really apply the stuff in a real way.

My rating would be 10/10 for this course, worth every dollar.

END OF THE REVISION

And now for another wall of text regarding my life developments and shit. I'll try to be brief, but I wanna explain my absence to you guys ( for those who give a shit hahaha).

I?m still in the process of moving, and I've been solving many issues regarding my documentation, finding a place back in Spain remotely ( a major pain in the ass) and , most importantly, find a decent place for my dogs here before I leave them ( which is proving to be the most depressing thing I've ever had to overcome).

Sum to that a profound feel of stagnation due to various reasons and a lack of motivation and you have my reason to not post shit. Recently I uninstalled all of my computer games and decided to just focus on my craft, even if I suck balls and I need distractions and whatnot, just fucking balls to the wall and do it. Still, the updates will be far and few in between until I am back in Spain and have stup my studio ( and by that I mean a table, a chair, a plugin for my computer and an internet conection xD).

For today I bring you some of the assignments I've been doing these past few months and some utterly shity and unfinished studies/warmups I've done this week.

Assignments: ( most of these are just painting on top of premade compositions and lineart, I changed the lineart only in the one with the explosion, the rest are basically untouched in that regard):

number 3.


number 4.


number 5.


number 6.


number 7.


And my brainfarts and shit:


this one I did for Dorian Iten, one of my ex-teacher, who gave me some great feedback via email a few days ago.

Of course, some fail heads from imagination:




And some quick skull studies I did using this AWESOME free app called SKULL SKETCHER, you can get it here .



Quick warmpus:


And experiments trying to apply various theories, mostly failed, but learned stuff, as usual:







And as a bonus, a warning ( and a screencap) : DON'T EVER PLAY FALLOUT if you wanna study intensely



Hmkay, bye!