The Velvet Revolvers

[Jeso]

Woaahhh Vici, what a critique. Thanks a lot, I will definitely keep that in mind as i progress on this. I was gonna do some stuff already as i progress on the render, but you definitely gave me some ideas there, that definitely helps! Thanks.

Also I wanna say that, this is... fantasy popcorn art... Lol, I doesn't need to be practical or seem like it works on the real world, some times going crazy with shit or making something cool is enough for what it is. Like Cloud's sword lol.

Thanks again Vici, thats a hell of a critique. ^.^ VELVET REVOLVERs! HUAAAAAA!!

[Vicianus]

I was gonna dump this when I came by earlier, but I had to kind of run out the door! So I'm back (they call me slim shady)

Photoref - I did these by hand today because my tablet's been pissing me off, and I have to pay more attention to my proportions if I do it in pencil because I can't just resize the parts I missed (which I was doing a lot.)


Life Drawing -


I keep trying to do proportion problem solving on longer pose pieces, starting with a part and just going and it SO isn't working for me... I just end up with the same problems I always have LOL. I imagine maybe in five years I'll have this stuff ingrained enough in me that I could do something like that, but I really need to focus more on the structure and proportion stuff I've been studying and using it even in "composed" "pretty" pieces LOL because the drawings I'm doing in a shorter time are WAY better than the other ones I'm trying to do... >O<

Self portrait sketch study for a charcoal piece I'm gonna try to do for a contest in the next couple days -


PIG STUDIES -


Imaginative Art -

I found Micheal Hampton's book on figure drawing! I'm totally into his breakdowns, I haven't gotten very far but I'm going to be using that to study hard in the near future! \m/

MOSTLY okay I'm looking for some advice/resources on high-level finish digital painting process. I got some stuff from Fedo on my sketchbook which was great, but I would love some more too!

I feel like I understand rendering forms/light/color pretty well, but I do struggle a ton if I want to put in tighter details... :X I could easily just get away with it if I went for a painterly thing, but cheap tricks to get away with stuff I don't know how to do isn't for me -- at the very least I'd like to learn some fancy rendering tricks and decide what kind of execution I want based on the piece. :o (Also, I think I want to go after more of a fake photoreal style anyway.) Thanks to Fedo I've already looked into it a little but if anyone reads this and has an awesome resource come to mind, please pass it my way!! <33

[Vicianus]

@LordMinkx
Some definite improvements in these gestures already! There is better structure and proportion. c: I'm not a big fan of mannequin-mannequins anyway, something like this is just right.

One thing though... the colors your drawing with are ridiculously hard to see, which kind of negates the point of drawing it. :o Maybe you prefer these kinds of colors, if it was me I would have trouble sketching in bright blue on the same tone gray. Even if that's your ride-or-die preference, for presentation purposes you definitely want to show other people easily visible/understandable work.

I've been notoriously bad about poor presentation and I'm still really not great at it, but there is definitely something to be said for it. You can't always be the best artist on the slate, but if you can present your work really well it already knocks it up several notches. Just making the sure the contrast is just-so, cropping images correctly, composing them on centers and thirds, etc. Sometimes a lower quality piece presented well can beat a higher-level one if they present it poorly.

@Triggerpigking
Sweet twisting forms.

Some notes:

It could be a matter of style, but really your torso constructions are extremely thin? :o You could sell it, but I dunno if you're intending these to be accurate studies or more stylized ones.... either way, the rib cage proper wouldn't fit into that slender box. the proportion for the depth of the torso is 1/2 of the way across the front (shoulder to shoulder)

When it comes to the difference between the references and unreferenced forms... definitely a better knowledge of anatomy would help, but one thing I would like you to notice is in the referenced drawings, even though the boxes are "Twisting," they have a certain feeling of restraint. Most of the boxes only really bend, curve a little bit, or move on the waist/spine joint.
When you have jumped into your imaginative ones, you're kind of going all out. A lot of the boxes you made are twisted like a piece of ribbon, unlike the restrained forms in your referenced drawing. It seems like you're focusing really hard on the TWIST of the form, maybe to get a dynamic feel, but when using a method like this what you should think about it using the planes to express the pose you want. Instead of just making a twisting box, try thinking "I think I would like the side of the figure to be around here and this length," and then build off of the first plane you can make to form the rest of the box.

Also, ignoring any lack of anatomy knowledge, some of the boxes you're creating on your imaginative figure aren't even boxes anymore. Whether or not you know muscles and bones, while you're constructing just maintaining clean box forms will help a lot, to be honest if you can do that really well in the right proportions, knowing the size of the rib cage and muscles connections isn't going to make it much better unless you really want that extra level of detail. It's all about construction and proportion. So, try to make sure they stay more like boxes and that will bring you a step up.

While you do these constructions from imagination, too, if you do one that you feel is kind of "off," just check a similar one you did from reference earlier. :O It'll help the knowledge stick, and increase your accuracy!

@Jeso
YW!! I'm looking forward to seeing the progress! :D VELVET REVOLVERS, HUUAAHHHH

[Richie]

amazing pig studies Vicianus, thanks for all your comments and also all the notes you keep in your sketchbook really helps!

Ok here's my other gesture drawing making it about 100 for this week. Trying more construction in a few of them, but week 2 is more about that anyway.

[Lordminkx]

Richie: Well done mate! I envy you, your gestures look more structured than mine... You win this week, watch out for week 2 xDDD

Vicianus: Woooop how, how do you do those lines so clean? Hahaha Thanks for taking your time giving crits each others I feel bad because I can't give crits to your work.. :S Thanks again!
Ps: Your pig is awesome :O

Well more gestures...


And more stuff from EDrocks...Squint your Eyeees!

[Jeso]

Stuff from today, ain't much. That Dwarf is taking its time... D:  I just need to fix the ace thing and render it tho! Oil painting was no more today... I decided to just work on the Dwarf. yesterday I tried to paint a head in oils, it was so bad i just rubbed it down with a wipe. I need some instructions, I'm winging it too much I'm not progressing as quick as I could.





EDIT:

Scratch the no oil painting thing... Here is an Eye study :D Fuck me, I'm love with oils, couldn't help myself. Its 2 Am... Now I can die ...

[Jeso]

-Vici- Nice studies! Are those actually from a live model? o: I love the consistency of your self portraits, I remember in school they asked me to self portrait in different angles and every head looked like a different dude haha. Self portraits be tough... Dat pig tho... haha PPretty cool! Niceeee colors. Remember to do someof that from memory as well so you apply the study.

In some of your figures the hands are lagging on the quality. As a suggestion you could work on hands like crazy for a couple of days to try to bring that up to the lvl of your figures, Hands ... god damn hands i tell you. I think all of us should do exactly that. Maybe we should do a hands challenge thing lol.
Like Alex Negrea and his 2000 hands in a month challenge.


--Richie--

Keep doing what you are doing buddy. Gestures are gestures so its pointless to critique those. Specially when you do them super quick. Looking forward to see the more structural work.

--Jose--

Please use a color that pops the drawings off of the canvas haha, can barely see them. I assume all of those including the sketchbook stuff are quick gestures. So, good job on doing them. anything you do at that age is just huge pluses bro. at that age i was just drawing Goku for the 459th time... shirtless with melon pecs... and bricks for hands. But anyways, the environment stuff, The Black and white stuff looks pretty sweet, good stuff. The value studies, Actually MUCH better than the last batch you posted. Your foregrounds are popping out more now.

Good stuff everyone!

_Book_ Where is you?? !!!! D ;

[Triggerpigking]

Hey guys, not much to show today, but figured i should upload anyway, did'nt do any twisting forms just basic mannequiens, i'll work on twisting forms again tommorow. Also yes I do know how horribly botched the first ones proportions are XD.

Vicianus:Thanks for the crit!, yeah I was probbly focusing too much on the twisting part of it, plus i've been having trouble trying to think up twisting poses in the first place, ribcage is too thin as you said as well i'll try to keep the proportions better in mind.
Also, nice peridot sketch ;)

[Jeso]

Nice work Triger, You working from the Prokopenko videos? :p Those studies have nice weight to them. watch out for the length of the lower legs on your figures you tend to draw those too short.
Don't forget to comment on other people's work too ;)

Here is Today's Art dump for me...

Some hands, Spit portrait, FINISHED DWARF I think... and Daily Oil paint study nose and mouth.

[Jeso]

Shit from the Stream.. more to come later.

[Triggerpigking]

Jeso:Nice work on the dwarf, the weapon looks impractical but cool none the less, also works with the triangle on his chest, not sure if that was intended but it adds some cohesion to the image I think.

and yep working from proko, though the twisting forms were from Sycra, sorta changed from that now though, he was using a sorta twisted paper method to figure out the twist while i'm just applying it to a rectangle that covers the whole ribcage and pelvis sorta like vilppu's vids I think.
Yeah the legs are a bit short now that I look at it, which is weird for the reffed ones as I usually check them, probbly not paying enough attention to measuring them I suppose.


heres another update, did more twisting forms, right side is ref, left side is from mind though I used the ref occasionally to try to figure stuff out, some of these still look weird but I think i'm getting there more, it's more the extreme twists i'm having issues with, also trying to make the boxes more in proportion with the ribcage and pelvis.
Also i'm trying to get clean lines more so yell at me if I forget on some of these ;).
and the second pic is a knight dude I  gave up on near the end, was gonna draw a giant rabbit behind him but eh, too lazy XD.

[Jeso]

Hey Trigger, for those twisting forms, try using more.. squeezable shapes next time and see how that looks, like instead of using angular shapes like rectangles, use... Sacks... imagine the figure is a sack of sand or something. Or ovals... So that you can depict compress and stretch better. Otherwise good practice.
The knight dude has short lower legs as well. Maybe its the whole lower half that is too short compared to the upper half. So pay attention to that.

And here is my daily oil study.
A note on my journey of oil paintings so far, I think I've painted in oils every day for a little over a week. And I'm just fucking loving it, I know I said it before, but... Fuck me, Im considering on changing my main medium to oils. I just love the process, holding a brush in my hand, mixing colors, suffering back pains (lol) Kinda feels like I'm doing real art. Of course Digital is art as well duh, nobody will ever take that away from me, but Oils guys, Its culture, its tradition, its such a warm and rewarding feeling when you finish something and you can hold it in your hands, instead of being limited to just looking at the pixels in the screen.
anyways, too much ranting.. here is the arm study i did today, from one of Bouguereau's paintings
Soon Ill make a full master copy of one of Bouguereau's.

[Bookend]

Wow, awesome work you guys. Vic, Richie, Mink, Jeso, and Trigger! You've all been working so hard with the time you've got. Really impressive improvements, too! Can see the construction a lot better on your work Rich and Mink, and Vic, your lines are looking clean and well thought out. Jeso-- Wow. That's all I can say.

I've been dead tired ever since I had a huge work event on Saturday, so I haven't been up to much since then. I haven't even had the heart to write my weekly review from last week. :S

I did pretty good last week, with the assignment and that colour study, but I just haven't been able to go near the computer for very long since Saturday. Just too tired. When I haven't been working, I've just been reading and relaxing and rejuvenating. Brain took too much.

I don't blame myself-- If it's too much, it's too much. I know that when I can do it, I will do it, so there's no question that I'm still in the game. I don't know if I'll end up picking up my pencil today, but if I do, it will be later on when I am in a good headspace and I can do my best work.

Anywho, great job again you guys!

[Triggerpigking]

Jeso:Not sure if this'll be helpful or not but theres a course on schoolism for oils last I checked, they brought out that subscription thing recently as well so it'd be cheap, might be helpful to ya.
Not that into traditional painting myself, to time consuming getting eveything set up though maybe once I have a bigger room i'll give it another go.

Took your advice and tried to put them into a more softer form, did the bean method from proko, never been able to get it to work much honestly but it's still effective for learning twisting, though I prefer drawing with boxes more, these ones are'nt exactly proportional but i'll try to get them moreso on my next lot tommorow.

[Jeso]

Hey Trigger! Thanks for the advice, I actually did not know about that course in Schoolism, Depending on the price, im really liking that option.

Buddy nice torsos! Those actually look much better than your previews attempt! Serious! You can choose whichever you like more, but for what its for, and after seeing both compared side to side. I think more beans will do you good.

Here is today's shits. Some heads, cloak, and a couple oil things that ate all my night time. An eye study from a chunk of Bouguereaus paintings. And a 2 hr little figure painting. I noticed when i was finished that the hue change is so abrupt her torso skin looks too different from the limbs. Lighting was like that, Failed to depicted well.
Oh well, My old figure painting teacher, who is a beast at this oil painting shit, told me that to get really good at oils really fast i am to do one of those a day, so i shall do that.

[Bookend]

Nice work there, Jeso-- Really great stuff. You really have the full weight and gesture of the pose! Keep it up!

I hope to contribute again too, but if it's just the environmental assignment stuff, I guess I can live with that.

[Jeso]

Hey guys, was way too tired last night to come in an upload shit. I painted in oils for like 4 hours straight last night.

Here is yesterdays shit. Some cloak studies, for an upcoming portfolio piece, and my daily oil stuff.





This last one, i'll probably work a little more on tonight. I most definitely need to decrease that foreground leg's size.

[Triggerpigking]

Jeso: Really they look better? huh, I suppose the twisting is down better but I feel like I have alot less control over perspective and proportions, I dunno perhaps I could do the cube first the build the beans inside of it, for less twisty forms I don't think the beans really that needed anyway, I'll keep practicing them anyway as it is helpin with twisty forms.

Anyway nice oils dude, the eye study looks like we can see both the top and bottom of the eyelid though which depending on perspective should be one or the other I think?(though perhaps you just painted one as a thick outline).
_________________________________________


Sorry not much to show for the last few days and most of it is meh, riddled with mistakes, don't know why but I became really distractable all of a sudden, don't think its tiredness as I think i've had enough sleep but I do get like this from time to time for some reason, can't shut my brain up and can't focus XD.
first two are more beans, tried to apply them to figures better, and the third is figures from ref but drawn from imaginary viewpoints.

[Jeso]

Nice work Trigger, dont worry about not showing a lot of work or cool looking work. At least you are showing up and putting whatever you do out there. Which is great. I wonder why everybody suddenly stopped posting here.

Anywho, today i just did oils. This might not look like much, but its around 6 hours of work.

[Bookend]

Nice work Jeso and Trigger! Wootwoot.

Bookend's Weekly Review:

I've been in recovery this week, so I haven't picked up any materials. But, I've been reading quite a lot, so I have a lot of material in which to derive plentiful inspiration from for the Environmental Design mentorship by Amit.

I plan to do my best. I know that it will probably be very crude work, seeing as it's supposed to be from imagination-- But, I'm looking forward to Amit's critique, and I hope that I can get it done quickly (But not sloppily), in order to take advantage of it.