ABANDONED HIDEOUT

[Jeso]

Ammit, holly shit man, thats a grat use of 3d, nice image!

NinoKitten, lovely ink sketches!

Caisne, Those silluetes are looking sweet man, i like the no. 3 the most! I wanna see that done!

So, i finished this up yesterday, for a Card art driven portfolio. What do you guys think? Can you see this being printed in Magic? (tbh i cant, lol, but i feel im getting closer.) How about other lesser card games then?

mean leapoard

[NinoKitteN]

Yeah , I feel kinda useless here , I really don't think I can hand out any good crits ( plus I feel like I don't have the right to ). But I'm just gonna say that it would help if you could write a brief for the card illustration so we could get some context , that is for the less technical aspect. As for painting tips I really don't see how I can help. sorry. Still great stuff , just keep going everyone, really like the positive environment.

Gonna post some stuff I did a few months ago while I do some other studies and applications. Hope you enjoy ( any crits / comments are appreciated ).





That is all for now, back to watching the Jeremy Vickery DVD ( thanks for the suggestion caisne )

[JyonnyNovice]

Amit Sorry to hear about your life troubles - often struggles are a sign that our life is ready to take off, hope so that's the case for you! 3D work looks nice, the finished image is looking good too.

Jeso I don't know Magic but I could see that on a card game card definitely - although is portrait format better for those? Maybe more contrast and some really dark background trees could make it pop more.

NinoKitten Don't feel useless, say whatever you feel about anything here, no one is judging anyone! This group is good because we give each other little feedbacks, any comment is fine. People can take it or ignore it. I like the light - dark - light - dark thing you have going on in your portraits. Second one looks like something from a Japanese horror movie ^^

My scratchy attempts at faces... one day I will master these dumb little heads. Still got trouble with wonky / skewed features but I think it's getting better. My biggest problem, I think, is eyes right now - getting the size right and the curve of the eyelids and the recess under the brow... try again tomorrow !

[NinoKitteN]

Jyonny thanks for loosening me up and the best advice I could give you to understand face is to define tilt first , if you look at my gestures I do that by setting a sort of "visor" where they eyes fall upon, on that you just make paralelles for the rest of the features. Also , I bet you heard this before , check out loomis and his sphere method. FINALLY look into the Jeff Watt's friday night live quicksketch video , he explains how to simplify all the things ->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKfsZaNrmzM

also , Im adding more stuff, sorry for unloading.

[Amit Dutta]

@Jeso: Thanks man. About your card I find it a little odd that you would obscure the face of the main character with that arm. I feel there are some areas that feel a little clinical and could do with a bit of grunge and soft edges to give it a bit more of a textural atmosphere. Maybe try a soft vignette on the image as well to help frame the action as well. I like the rendering in general. A bit of awkwardness in that hip leg area but nothing catastrophic.

@Jyonny: Thanks man, much appreciated. I was just a bit of a drama queen yesterday. All things work out. The great thing is that I am getting craploads of freelance work. Kinda took me by total surprise. I wish I could post the stuff for that here, but I guess I shouldn't f* with the nda.
Anyway, have you tried doing bargue plate studies and focusing specifically on the eye area to nut out that alone? Stuff like these and others you can find might help?

@ninoKitteN: Crit away man. Be free. Your perspective is just as valid as anyone's as long as you know what you don't know.

[JyonnyNovice]

Amit & Nino Thanks for the advice guys, I will try all that stuff.

Paul That colouring style really works, so beautiful, reminds me of watercoloured comic books like Blacksad https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/da...sad_lg.jpg - throw some paper texture grain over yours and it'd look really authentic! Always girls though? How are you at drawing fellas? Thanks for the crit, I really suffer from that, almost everything I draw is skewed to the right - I try to look at it upside down and in the mirror and flip stuff when I scan it but usually it's too late to correct. Probably that's why my perspective stuff looks more solid than my other stuff since always spinning the page and aiming lines more precisely prevents that skewing (although a lot of it still comes out skewed). I'm sure there is some kind of daily exercise I can do to train myself out of that but I didn't find one yet... I'll try tomorrow like you suggested and throw down a horizon line and some verticals before I draw them.

Today's stuff, some skulls reference / memory, some heads, (everything skewed to the right >.<!) some Bargue drawings - first time I did Bargue and I really love it, it's like a kind of drawing meditation (and they didn't come out skewed ^_^b).

[Aumes]

Some of the stuff i worked on this week:

[Amit Dutta]

Paul: Great technique. Love it. If I was to say one thing all the women's faces look the same, but I think you have a handle on your skills really well, so I'm guessing it's intended.

Aumes: For the fat suit I like the design and idea but it looks a bit too cutout around the silhouette and lots of flat forms and volume especially in the lower torso. Try thinking of things in terms of primitive forms and how they interconnect and overlap, rather than as individual pieces to render, and paint any forms that are around the silhouette curving around the body more. I suspect it is because you are using phototextures before you have the fundamentals of form down.

Jyonny. Now replicate the angles and shapes of those bargue eyes onto your faces and see what happens.

Had time for a few quick studies. The linework made me almost think I hated drawing on a tablet, but a cintiq is too expensive a toy to justify the cash.

[Amit Dutta]

And one from imagination

[JyonnyNovice]

Aumes Great designs man, awesome imagination and execution too. Your stuff seems to lack contrast a little, putting some really dark areas in the crevices of his suit could really make that fat man pop!

Amit Great faces - females are so hard! Some kind of social conditioning to spot the tiniest flaw in a female face and disregard is as appealing (at least I feel that way sometimes - I can draw a screwed up male face and still think it looks nice or 'rugged' or something, but a screwed up female face just feels wrong -_- I blame capitalism!)


Random stuff from me, trying to go digital more, challenged myself to only use digital for the week.

[Amit Dutta]

Jyonny, thanks, and funny you should mention this. Muddy Colors post yesterday was advice from Moebius, check point 4.
http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.nz/2015/0...tists.html

If you are interested, I'm reading a book called 'making love' by barry Long which is a tantric love book, but it is more about how men have forgotten how to love women properly and leads to all sorts of shit we see of their treatment over the ages and way way before capitalism. Something in what he says rings true to me.

Your studies are nice and varied. I think you will get some nice traction out of that. Remember to try and apply to a finished piece every so often, at least once a month if not more I would say.

[NinoKitteN]

Jyonny What you are doing is great , I've been reading , well , listening to this audiobook called Mastery and it says that broadenning ( dunno if I spelled that correctly ) Is good to finding new approaches to any problem in painting or whatever the subject is. The thing that defines masters of crafts is their skill to analyze life as a message or code/answer to the problems you have. I don't think I explained it quite well , but huh , you should look into it, it's great.

Ammit Awesome difference on those sketches from the first to the last one. The last Zoe Saldana one has some really nice edges. Also , look into the book too :D

So I just wanted to post a couple of mini still lifes I did and the color work I've done after much struggle I think I nailed it , kind of I guess . I like how it looks for a first try. ( I had the proportions wrong from the beggining and while I painted it more it just spiraled out of control, but I kinda liked it. I know where I've failed on the proportions and I will keep it in mind, any tips on getting proportions right would be awesome )
Note- I did color first , Im just showing the grayscale version because I actualy like it more then the colored one.

[Amit Dutta]

NinoKitteN: Thanks! The book is a bit confronting, but very insightful I think. I did a brief outline of your study. The proportion issues should be apparent. I also think you twisted the head more towards us in the study. Nice work on the colour and value, some variances, but a good approximation.

In terms of tips, the measurement of angle and relative position is everything. I always try and judge angles of my lines in relation to other features before even putting down a stroke, and it is how I judge accuracy. Length of stroke is important but is easier to adjust if you nailed the angle. Not true the other way. Use your reference like a map built of lines at positions and angles. If the angle and placement of your stroke is wrong, the proportion will be off.

Basically think angles angles angles and judge them to other landmark features on the face. Hope that helps.



Another from imagination.

[NinoKitteN]

So , Ammit what you mean is that I should get the correct angle relations first and then decide the lenght between my angles ?

[Amit Dutta]

Yep. what really helps me is to nail the angle and position relative to other "correct" features first. Sometimes I do this just with short indication lines not even drawing the full thing. If you get these two right, everything else is just adding more detail. Almost anything on the face (or reproduction anything with drawing) can be reduced to a bunch of angles and their position in space.

accurate measurement is crucial to nailing likenesses. Otherwise you are just smooshing paint about.

Also undo your stroke every time if it isn't perfect, instead of going over and over it with new ones. Undo, take another look at reference and go for the stroke with full energy and vitality. It kinda goes against this idea we tend to idealise of painting like a leaping, gamboling lamb in a meadow with butterflies, free as the wind, but actually it stops a whole lot of messing around and you give each stroke your full attention. Sargent was not a fool!

[Caisne]

Hey guys. Sorry for being underground for so long. Cant thank you enough for keep posting and keeping this place alive. Was super busy with moving. No I got a full time job and sadly I will be a little less active. But i wont stop studying and doing my own shit. I will try to came out with new streaming schedule this weekend. And thank all of you, i would not made it without your support!

refind the creature from that sketches a little.

[NinoKitteN]

Hey man , welcome back , awesome idea man and congrats on the job , could u elaborate on that maybe :D ?

[NinoKitteN]

So , here are some warm up figure sketches , I didn't take a photo of all of them but here are most of them :

[JyonnyNovice]

Nino I think your portrait of the guy with the mustache looks better - more stylistic and funky looking anyway.

Caisne I think I said before but so happy for you man!

Some stuff I've been working on the last few days, aiming for solid perspective and accurate values without relying on blending modes or adjustment layers. The candle one is a bit off, the fourth one the light to dark value shift is too great and the last diving board looking one I mixed up the light direction and got a weird looking shadow but the others seem pretty ok to me. Not too concerned with reflected light and gradation in the shadows yet, just trying for solid construction and values so far.

[Aumes]

Studies from current week: