I want to be the very best - M. Tsirides' Sketchbook
#1



Hello everyone, I decided I should be active in communities like CD. I'm very happy to have taken this opportunity since as long as I could remember myself thinking of concept art / illustration, I use to come across this wonderful community. So at first I'm really happy for that.

On second note I would like to say that am open to any critique, because I find critiques really resourceful and helpful. I'll try to post new content regularly, since I don't have a scanner that would be an issue so maximum 3-4 days each post.

My interests are mostly medieval and science fiction themed. I always liked magic and dragons over small cities spreading devastation and death (Happy thoughts). I began sketching and getting serious about it about 2 years ago. I want to explore everything about art related. My great inspirations are artists such as: (Classics) Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Tintoretto, Durer and (Digital) Kekai Kotaki, Dave Rapoza, Craigs Mullins, Feng Zhu and much more.

I'm looking forward for your feedback guys and I hope to make a good addition to CD community one day :)

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#2
Here are some sketches I did. Trying to figure out shading in the body using the rembrandt shading technique.


Attached Files Image(s)





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#3
So I started this new sketchbook at the start of this month with acrylics and traditional paint in general. Ended up adding ink as well in the palette of paints used. But my favorite since then is Gouache. Has a nice touch to it and the texture and feeling of gouache is really amazing.

So I did some material studies at the start of the pages and then some character and faces. Looking forward to explore more the traditional paint. Any tips you have regarding gouache or acrylics feel free to share. :)







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#4
Hi Tsirides, welcome to the forum. Nice to see someone else discovering gouache too. I've been messing with it for a few months and liking it more than acrylics. I like how you can rewet the dried up palette with a little water and keep using it. Plus when people ask me what paint Im using I can be all smug and say "Gouache, you've probably never heard of it. Its kind of obscure."

I just have a couple crits from what you've posted so far. It looks like you need to focus on proportions of figures. The arms on the girl at the top of the last post are too long and the cloaked guys proportions are off in several places. Remember the crotch is the mid point of the body and the arms come down to the mid thigh. Drawing figures from imagination a lot and checking the portions until you can get it right without thinking about it works to fix this tendency. Not correcting things like that for a long time will ingrain bad habits that are hard to break later. I hope this is helpful for you.

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#5
@Adam Lina: Thanks for the feedback, yeah I didn't knew about gouache until a month ago, when I came upon this artist "Steve Huston" and his amazing sketchbook of gouache :D. I felt in love when I saw a video on how to paint with it so I went on and bought Black and white to test it out and it's amazing.

Thanks for the crits, yeah I guess I really need to work out my proportions of my figures I've been struggling with them for a while. I need to do what you said, work from imagination and then fix upon references. I thought of an exercise I could dive into, 2 pieces from reference and the same from mind to see if I'm able to build a visual library as well. :)

Here is a study on a Rembrandt painting, I really like Rembrandt and everything about his work is really motivating and beautiful!



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#6
Focus now mainly on the fundamentals mate, there is nothing wrong doing concepts at this stage, but the fundamentals makes the goodnes in them, strong fundamentals = awesome concept and illustrations.
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#7
Hello Happy

Would like to ask if you are able to create a gray scale in charcoal or pencil? or low light and shadow study with coal?

And if yes. Can you put some drawings up? Happy

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#8
@nymph0: That's exactly what I'm trying to do, since I saw I have a problem with proportions. Thanks for the feedback I understand that fundamentals are always important to all artists.

@Martin J Intarat: Hey Martin, I think I'm able to do that, I have lots of stuff I can scan and fill up in here studies over the past year with Coal and pencil as well. But I rather upload more recent stuff, I'll try and do a study with Coal because I like the effect it gives out a lot until then (because as I mentioned before I don't have a scanner :( ) I'm posting up some pencil studies I did on proportions and master studies on proportions!





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#9
Okay it does look very fine. was a little nervous that you had gone underway with paint without having control of light and shade, (basic building blocks for a good painter is of course that he / she is also a good draw) Wisecracker

Looking forward to seeing more from you Happy

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#10
nothing new to report, I continue my studies for proportions since I had a big problem with them. Here are some digital work with no reference used tried to see how I'm doing with mind sketching, i've been feeling a bit rusty tbh. Thanks for the feedback Martin.




EDIT: here is a concept am working on I'll make three different versions of some armors is for a project in my university. Starting out with the outline and then i'll go into color.



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#11
an update on the armor am working on, rough color up with some minor details. C&C is always welcome! :D



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#12
Well, i think for now everything looks pretty neat. :D Can't wait for finished version. Just out of curiosity what fabric are you going to use for this armor? Or you just go with the flow?

Btw, this reminds me of Zed from League of Legends a bit. I really don't know how and why. (probably colors)

// Sketchbook // DeviantArt //

May the painting skills be with you! :3
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#13
Great stuff, and awesome to see some variation in the media - as well as those GR/EN annotations ;)

The armor looks really promising - will you be doing a character turnaround, or is it just intended as a frontal illustration? What's the project about btw?

I know it's an armor and it's supposed to be more chunky, but it seems like the leg area lacks a bit differentiation: right now they seem to be almost the same width from hip to ankles. Your knees are almost as wide as lower quads, and then they abruptly become too thin just around the lower shins' area. Does this make sense? If that's how you intended it to be though, then ignore my comment. :o) Keep these coming and looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

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#14
@Stonedpanda03: Thanks a lot man, I was thinking metal to be honest, I had in mind the structure of the bee as far as the design would go but I'm not sure how close I am to that thought. Need to work a lot on that. Thanks for your feedback :)

@Minksy: Thanks a lot for your good word, do you happen to understand Greek? :P
I'm planning on doing some studies on his movement, it's because I intend it to be a concept art I wanted to do a frontal view and maybe back one too. I'll take my time on that one, doing some research and stuff. I just can't scan anything right now, because my university's library is closed for easter vacation. Thanks for the note on the legs I took some time to check where I was wrong and the Gastrocnemius muscle is indeed larger than what I intended in the first place. I corrected the left one so I can remember to change the right one as well. Thanks a lot for that!

Here is an update on that piece, as said sorry for not having updating the "sketchbook" with sketchbook stuff, but as I stated earlier I don't have access to a scanner.



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#15
It's nice seeing some people still studying traditionally. Keep it up"

Something I'm seeing in your work is that some of this looks a little rushed. I get that you've sketch loosely but some of the line work looks a bit sloppy. I'd think you'd benefit from trying to slow down a bit and care more about getting stuff right rather than just getting it down. You can see this in your Rembrandt study where it looks like you where in such a rush to get something down that you didn't take the time to lay it in correctly or with care. Being methodical and careful has helped me a lot because I used to have this problem and I suppose I'm sensitive to seeing it in others' work.

Anyway, keep working hard!

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#16
@Tristan Berndt: Hey dude, I really appreciate you dropping by. Yeah I've been noticing other's artists work and they seem to take careful strokes where I usually rush mine. I think I need to speed down. Is just coming from a speed painting study history it's hard to slow down. I will try though. I find it that it's very helpful to take a look at what you are doing.

Here is a quick study I did on a friend of mine. Sorry for not posting traditional sketches I'm just waiting until the 19th of April, for the library to open.




edit: a more worked version:



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#17
Okay so it's been a while since I posted up traditional studies and this time I'd like to show you some of my character design studies. My sketchbook except from learning things I focus on exploring new ways to draw. I believe it to be very important as well as learning anatomy and proportions. I usually like to study from life rather from photos because I come in contact with what I'm drawing. So mainly in this upload I focus on loose sketches and stuff from my mind and from life. So excuse me in advance if some are out of balance or stuff like that, I like exploring the design part as much as I like exploring the human and organic bodies of our world. :) That said I'm very open to any critique you guys have to give me and I very much appreciate it.

Also a small note, I don't reply without something to show so sorry again to some people if it took me years to reply. My Uni's library just re-opened and I'll try to be more active from now on until the summer.









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#18
Very interesting sketchbook, I really like your painterly style!

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#19
I really like the traditional stuff you're posting; it has a raw quality to it and I like that. All I can say really is just keep up your current studies, and you'll be sure to get somewhere.

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#20
Massive update:
I haven't posted here for a long time. Can't remember the last time I did post tbh.
Please C&C is very welcome! and thanks everyone who has taken their time to post till now! really appreciate it!

it's all sorted by date order started last month to work really hard on my constructive anatomy, perspective etc.

























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