Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah Staying Awake

[LaleAnn]

I love your sketchbook gurl!! I laughed on the first pages seing all those penises and your comment about not getting laid! xD and then i got more and more in awe in front of your work. <3 Impressive skills! How the hell did I not stumble upon your SB before??

Anyway, thank you for putting a smile on my face and new inspiration in mah blood! You go get'em gurl! :D I'll be checking upon you here and at the Velvet revolvers! ^^

[Flo]

hey vicianius

great sketchbook, again somebody who practices harder and seems to get ahaed way faster than me. I hate you! haha that's a joke you are awesome. Also cool that you didn't like Nathan Fowkes. I never heard anybody say something negative about him, pretty much everybody is always in awe of him.

Personally I can totally relate. He also makes a big story before coming to the point he wants to talk about. When he does it is almost always flawless. In the end I didn't have a portfolio piece, because I was lacking a ton of knowledge from another class, so 1000$ well spent? I don't know.

anyway, in JavierP s sketchbook you said "how STOKED I am to see another artist here who focuses on constructive drawing!!!" what you mean with constructive drawing?

Btw love it how you seem really natural, talking about being tipsy, getting laid and all that stizz. Kinda refreshing after seeing a lot of people getting really mind-focused and head-driven.

[Vicianus]

Hey Lale and Flo!! Thanks so much for the compliments, I'm also always glad to hear people enjoy my general banter. And yeah, I think a lot of us artists, especially in online communities such as this tend to lean more towards work work work; there is an attitude that that is what you need to succeed - in my opinion, experiencing life in general is more important than being good at art. (I'm not the best example myself since I do spend a lot of time/energy practicing and have an on/off but generally bleak social life.) I think that doing things other than art, provided you still put in quantifiable effort towards improving your craft, will not only not deter progress but will enrich your work with new perspectives and an ability to see where you can work smarter and not harder -- I could rant on this subject endlessly, but I won't! This keyboard is really small.

By constructive drawing, I mean focusing on drawing three-dinensional forms as they connect in perspective, versus other drawing methods which focus on drawing the two dimensional shapes that make up a visual. Most artists tend to copy shapes and lines, "constructive drawing" draws while focusing on/thinking of the form, examples are such as Glen Keane, Jung Gi Kim, George Bridgman, Micheal Hampton, Michealangelo, etc.

I'm just popping by since I got necroed (I really appreciate the compliments!!) but since I'm here, the reason I have disappeared is because my laptop died, I can't use it anymore so as far as internet/contact goes I've been restricted to my phone. It's not worth the effort to get images up here for the moment - I'm broke, lots of new financial strain is on me - I have to pay back my student loans, my car quit on me two months ago. (Everything is breaking! Ah!)
Anywho, I'm not heartbroken about it or anything - I'm taking the opportunity to break old, terrible procrastination habits and really focus on self-improvement and my art. In any case, it's likely to be several months before I will update here again.

I'm going to pop by and leave some comments for you later Flo! I'm just on my work break atm and I'm almost out of time.

Keep working hard, crimson daggers!!

[Vicianus]

LOOKING FOR THEM SWEET, SWEET CRITS.
AND THAT DOPE-ASS ART ADVICE.

HEY GUYS! Long time no-see... I am right now, for the first time, back on my lap top with a reasonable internet connection. Let me put a dump up for y'all!

FIRST THINGS, FIRST.... I updated my portfolio website. CHECK ME OUT HERE. Actually, that's pretty much everything I'm going to dump.
But I will also image dump for the sake of y'alls convenience.

What have I been up to?
My laptop died. I did sketchbook studies for months and months. I was working mainly on raising my level of focus, discipline, consistency, and my ability to sit down and create detail-oriented work. I made a ton of progress. I consider myself able to sit down and create professional quality work at any time now, which was a quality that was iffy for me before now.

I just quit my day job where I was building scientific equipment. I'm trying to become a full-time artist. I'm really freaked out about it and need advice, actually. I'm looking on freelance websites like UpWork and Guru. The whole prospect of freelancing really freaks me out, people pay extremely low budgets for "expert" level work with several "options" and redoes. I don't know how to find solid clients who will give reasonable time-frames or payment that reflects the time-frame and pay that they want. I know I have the talent and skill for it, but jumping in and getting work feels really complex right now.

HOOBOY

What else?
I got a boyfriend, my first. We're extremely close. I started doing stand-up comedy in October. I want to writes some comedy songs, HAHA, but all of that is on hold until I can start making enough to cover rent & my student loans doing art. I got like 4 days left at my day job this week. I just shotgunned some whiskey because I'm so freaked out about it, so I'm a bit buzzed, pardon my erratic writing....

Without further ado, ART!

Digital (Both of these done in the last two weeks)


"Ghoul Girl" - done in Krita, from imagination as always. Original character design.


Tattoo/logo design, I'm going to get printed as temporary tattoos. It's based on an original mermaid flash by Sailor Jerry.

SKETCHES
11x14" selections from two of my sketchbooks, done in prismacolor verithin ultramarine. (I filled nearly two sketchbooks, these are just what I scanned to update my portfolio.)



And 1 charcoal:


Yeah... I want those crits, I need advice on getting jobs ;A; I need to make at least $1000 a month to keep up with my bills, that doesn't even cover taxes. I know it's doable, but I'm really freaked out. I could use some tips & tricks from established freelancers.

Nice to be back!

[Fedodika]

Hmm i wish i could tell you! It's really hard to get established as a freelancer, but maybe i just think that because i don't market my art much.

However, if you do get desperate, i've done this and it really works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQftarWla4c

This guy gives sage advice on how street caricature is a great way to make quick money. The trick is to not charge people for them, so they'll sit down and get one from you, then if you do a good job they'll tip you. Last year when i was much worse than I am now, i actually was able to make about 15$ an hour doing caricatures at a fair. Some people don't pay, some people give you 10$ some give you 1$, some 20$. It all really depends how well you treat them and the impression you make, more than the technical side of the drawing.

1000$ a month is really doable if you're just brave enough to go out in public and do caricatures, but I'm not sure if you're up to it. I mean you can draw figures, so it's not insanely different from what you do already

But yea as far as freelance, i really don't have a clue (as i haven't had much luck,) i mean, fanart is a good way to get attention... Getting the one click llama badge on deviantart is a good way to get lots of interaction, takes a bit of legwork though. I'm sure other people on here could give you better advice on freelancing, but caricature is definitely something that works and i'm sure you can do them

[Adam Lina]

WB Stephany! Amit Dutta could give you advice on freelancing. Also PACT is now free https://www.artpact.com/

I tried caricatures 3 years ago before I was really serious about art too. Its a fun experience and a bit nerve racking with having people waiting on you to finish a drawing. Speed and people skills pretty much trump technical skill I find. I never tried that, offering them for free and taking tips, though. Might be something to try.

Those freelance sites are pretty much a waste of time from what I can tell. Bidding on jobs means you'll always be over worked and under paid if you actually win a job. Entry level freelance work is hard enough but those sites are even worse. The people hiring on them usually have no budget and will pay almost nothing. That and they'll have little to no experience working with artists and be generally a pain in the ass.

You want to send emails out to companies regularly. Do research on what companies would fit your style as well. You can most likely find a direct contact to art directors if you search hard enough. Good luck!

[Vicianus]

Thanks for the advice, guys!
Adam, that website is super helpful! :O Thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah you guys are right about the freelancing sites. I'm gonna steer clear and just spend the time trying to get real jobs, my situation is stable enough that I have that luxury.

Anywho... my engineer friends helped me fix my tablet, boy's dog ate the pen to the low-end monoprice I was using, so now I'm using my fancy Intuos4 again! HOORAY. I'm glad I held on to it after all.

Photorealism/texture practice from yesterday:

Using [url=http://imgur.com/gVl5L0W] from RGD as reference.

I learned a lot doing this!
I'm really not a fan of how my fur turned out, though. I wanted to do blown out lighting so I wouldn't draw in all the fur, but nonetheless what I did still seems... strokey. I want the work to look more photoreal and less "photo style" painting.

I have some new personal goals, I realized yesterday I have a tendency to think art is a lot harder than it is and sometimes that stops me from drawing. Thinking things like, making a well-composed piece is too haaaaard! or drawing things correctly is too haaaaard! kind of thing and I'll start drawing and give up or get disappointed, but the thing is... I'm tricking myself. Art isn't hard, especially not with the amount of knowledge I have at this point. I have more than enough knowledge tucked away to accomplish any kind of drawing I want to do, whether or not I'm in practice for it. Besides, regardless of how I feel about any piece that I make, impressing other people with art is super easy, people will fawn over high-school level anime drawings. It doesn't matter how I think it turned out, because most people will probably like it anyway.
I kind of fell out of my good habits of sketching constantly every day, so I'm getting back now into drawing non-stop.

Yup.
I'm back!

[John]

I thought you posted the original photo and forgot to attach your painting. I had to do a double take!

If I may nitpick a bit. The dog's left eye could've been less sharp, like the other eye maybe? Softer edges would probably look better. But overall? Wow this is amazing!

[Zipfelzeus]

I think the latest study turned out great but I think it's always different for the one who paints it since they had to look at the thing for the last several days.

Kudos for pushing it to this point if finish though. It's a really great practise even beyond learning about lighting and texture and stuff.

Those blue sketchbook pages look really great. I'm a sucker for design eventhough i still suck at it so it's always nice to see people have nice focus on it on their work.
I'll definitely have an eye on you. Can't wait what you can come up with :)

[Vicianus]

@John
Haha, thanks! That's exactly the kind of reaction I wanted to pull. :) Yeah, I think you're right. Especially since it's a zone away from the snout, that eye should probably be more blurry. :O Thanks for the feedback!

@Zipfelzeus
Hahaha, this only took like 7 hours, the bulk of it done in 5 straight hours in part of the day. :O I typically get really antsy and can't work on a study for more than one bulk period, so I tend not to work on them for more than one day.
Yeah, I know right? You can know all about texture and lighting in theory, but it won't do you any good until you practice actually finishing it. The way I feel about this on is along the lines of, I learned a lot, but it isn't hitting it yet.

Oh, thanks! :) Right? I love design work. It's such a subjective topic, it's not like learning to render at all. Studying how to make lines or textures is like learning arithmetic, studying design is like learning to compose music. Yin/yang....
Thanks for all the kind words!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-



This is the most recent thing I was working on. From r/sketchdaily Mollusk prompt the other day.
It's not dull like this in my painting program, I need to figure out why it's like this when I upload it. :O I was getting a similar effect from the dog painting, I thought it was just the screen brightness but there seems to be some program setting too. Hmmm...
It seems to be happening in the upload phase, actually. The JPGs in preview look right.
Whatever - this isn't finished, anyway. I want to make the squids more interesting with some nice body patterns and vibrancy. Maybe I'll make stickers out of this, or something!

I think I'm gonna switch to an entirely ala-prima style for my coloring. Historically, I've put a lot of b/w time into rendering the forms of subject matters and then I'll go back and layer color, but the feeling is never quite right without lots of extra layering time... I get a better effect going from a basic b/w shadow layout sketch to color. I'm gonna have to practice complicated textures like skin more to pull it off right, but the time and outcome difference should be well worth it... plus, that's how all of my favorite art was made! Norman Rockwell, Leyendecker, animation quache; simple blocks of color put together look so nice.
I think a lot about the difference between straight color and layered-wash looks - I've had a thing going with the "3D" rendering style before based on watercolor methods, and that intense value layering thing that Rappoza does has it's pros for capturing intense dimensionality and "realism" but there's something about more concise blocks of color that really allows more room for 2D design elements without really sacrificing the quality of realism...!

Pieces like:



are just so appealing to me... such wonderful shape and value design, such a good feeling of realism, good expression of dimension and texture... Rockwell is my absolute favorite! This guy and Kim Jung Gi, man. Wonderful, dimensional and designed linework with simple but realistic rendering <333 Oh my god. And the way they capture but characterize common scenes! It's just incredible! Ahhhh!
I'm really happy Rockwell was such a household name, because I can get his art book collections for really cheap *O*
I really don't think he gets enough recognition. He's one of the best illustrators and character designers, ever.

UMMM yeah, I'm still not getting as much work done as I think I should. Hardly any, really. I'm in a really complicated place emotionally, because I'm spending a lot of time inside... alone... I'm out of touch with most of my friends and I'm not getting out because I live in AZ and it's BALLS HOT time of year. '''OTL So I get really bummed out and feel worthless and lonely, and in the brief interludes between those feelings I'm getting work done. I feel like I've regressed, my surroundings remind me a lot of when I was a homeschooled kid living with my parents, avoiding people and talking online a lot. It's not good, especially since I'm not even talking to people online really right now. Whoops. I used to really resent those times, so it's weird feeling like this again even though I should feel more like an independent adult. Something about not having a job and hanging around alone inside all day really makes me feel like a real piece of shit.

In other news, woke up to the dog having chewed up one of my tablet pens a SECOND TIME...
the bag that had my spare wacom pen was laid on the floor for the first time two nights ago and the dog fuckin' got in and chewed it up. -rolls eyes- Same thing that happened to my cheap monoprice pen. Check out my ghetto tablet set-up:


HAHAHA. The chord is wired in with magnet-wire and secured down with electrical tape. This pen is all fucking chewed up. Okay, luckily this isn't the pen that I use, it was my spare and the other one is fine, so it's not like I'm out of commission but it's still fucking annoying (and expensive.)
THE DOG WILL EAT EVERYTHING.

EDIT: Hm. That's weird... the colors are only bizarre on the imgur uploads. The same dullness happens on things I have uploaded here vs on my portfolio site. Wtf.

[Fedodika]

hahah girl you ain't alone feeling that way, you know my skype if you ever wanna talk it out. You'll get there when you get there :)

[Vicianus]

Hey guys.
Suffering major creative depression recently...
I was feeling better yesterday and made a cute little invitation for a kid's bday party and drew some porn, but my ego got the better of me and I tried to look for work and ended up really depressed again already this morning.

Here's just about all I drew since my last post a month ago:

[DK]

Hope you feel better soon, been there myself plenty of times. Nice porn though.

[Fedodika]

we lub u <3.... and strap ons of course :3

[Vicianus]

Thanks guys UoU <3

Here's another. Slow-going this afternoon -- I'm realizing I have the most trouble with foreshortened perspective extending horizontally, so... might focus more on that. Floor planes trip me up, dawg

[DK]

Cool idea for studies. I would take these a step further with a few layers, after you got the form down, include the bones first and then the anatomy. Helps to memorize all of the names as well. All of this will strengthen your knowledge when drawing stuff from the mind down the road. Keep it up.

kind of messy example

[Fedodika]

Doooo gestures bby gur they will sort them proportions ouuuut <3!!

[Vicianus]

@Dennis
Yeah, you're right. I'm a huge fan of the Russian Academy drawings where they have the skeleton and render next to each other. I'll spend some time really sitting down and making some on my next figures - I tried doing it on paper a while back but I got lethargic because proportions and compositions are not something I've internalized yet so it always makes doing comparative anything a pain... thanks for the suggestion!

@Fedodika
I do gestures and blocks for every drawing, they just get covered with darker lines or erased... I don't think my proportions are particularly wrong on any of these drawings, can you point out where are you seeing proportional issues?

-=-=-=-=-

Hey guys.
Started a turnaround today. Trying to nail that dimensional feel - in the sketch, I see the waistline and the ears "jumping" so I'm gonna fix that, but here's what I have:



I haven't really animated since I dropped out of the minor! And the most complex thing I did was about 3 tweens and a head turn... I've always been interested in doing animation, I've been wanting to make some.

[Adam Lina]

Hey Vic, its cool to see you posting again. The thing that bugs me about the two chicks banging is the girl getting drilled's leg is disappearing and kinda breaks the perspective of how shes laying. I dont know if that makes any sense. I guess you did that intentionally as a vignette. I woulda drew the leg just for the practice though. Thats a pretty neat animation!

[Fedodika]

sure hehe, well the dominatrix girls boobies look kinda lopsided like they are not the same size, her right one seems way way bigger than the left one. Also their torsoes seem kinda small from the rib section, but i could be wrong, as i don't know the ref ;).

Cool animation! what program did you use PS?