BadWoolf's Sketchbook [NSFW]

[Abnormal]

Hey!!! great paintings and ideas :), here a little paintover  . Hope it helps (and make sense XD)

[BadWoolf]

Hey, that's awesome! Been ages since I got a paintover. Thank you :)

I'm definitely going back to that piece at some point, because I think it has potential. So I'll see if I can implement some of those changes (especially having the characters interacting & telling a story - very good point).

[BadWoolf]

Ok. I've been so bad at updating my sketchbook. So just to catch up, I'm going to quickly post some paintings I'm working on. I've been looking at them as thumbs, really trying to get the values and the composition right before I go back into rendering anything. If you have suggestions about comp/value/other big stuff then that's very welcome :) 

[BadWoolf]

So last night I did a little sketch. Just for funsies.




I really need more skills. Like, yesterday. And a portfolio. I'm going to try measuring my progress with a gamification system I made up: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-8226.html

[BadWoolf]

Just finished this :)

[BadWoolf]

Been doing some horse studies for this:

[BadWoolf]

Just finished:

[BadWoolf]

Studies. 

[BadWoolf]

Wow, I keep forgetting to update in here. I took a long break before September anyway. 

BUT

I'm back in the game ;)

Crits and paintovers welcome.



Study: [thought I did more on the textures but I seem to have lost that file *shrug*]




Some dragon BS WIP:




A portraity WIP:




WIP 3: I actually feel like this is going in the direction I want to go. I want to head for that zone where I can handle multiple characters and a background and tie everything together. So crits and paintovers are extra appreciated on this. So far I'm feeling the comp, and the rendering will get there eventually [haven't done much at all on the guy or the dragon yet, and the background will require some studies], but I'm less confident on value & saturation control:

[xelfereht]

did a quick paint over for ya, hope it helps


i just altered it how i would have for myself. please dont take this like im tryna be mean or anything.
in your version it feels like a guy in a dragon suit interrupted their conversation.
i tried to make it feel more threatening by lowering its posture and having them more in a position braced and ready
as a bit of added story i put her kinda holding him back a little like she has some hesitation about attacking.
changed the dragons color a bit to make it less day time kids show and put a warm photo filter to unify the colors of the piece.
practice feeling the story of the scene a bit more, get into the heads of your characters and feel how your body wants to move if you were in that situation.

you have some nice work. keep it up!

[BadWoolf]

Great paintover, thanks!

To be honest, deep down I knew that I wasn't happy with the storytelling. I couldn't decide what their reaction to the dragon was, so I didn't commit to a particular mood or narrative. I was going to change the guy's pose, but I'm terrible at action poses. So bad.

But I really love your suggestions - I love the more dynamic poses and the way that they contribute to the storytelling. I'll try some stuff out - do some studies, maybe take some ref photos of myself, and see if I can improve the posing.

And for the stiff/fake-looking dragon, I agree - I'm not really a dragon expert. I went to DragonCon earlier this month and I met Todd Lockwood and Lucas Graciano and now suddenly there's dragons all over my WIPS! But I'm still figuring out how to draw them (anatomy, how they move, rendering).

I'm going to regroup and definitely see how well I can implement some of those improvements. Top class paintover. Cheers!

[xelfereht]

Damn! Todd and Lucas.. i'm jelly!
I love dragons and i'm trying to get better at painting them but it's super hard and i'm yet to be really satisfied but its one of the things i want to be able to paint well.
theres so few dragons i've seen that i really like so i want to be able to paint them how i want to see them
Jae min kim, bayard wu, mr.jack and Laurel Austin paint some of my fav dragons :)
dragon scales are tricky because we don't have reptiles that size to see anymore
i like the way James gurney does his dinos and i'm trying to learn from that with my current dragon paintings.
anyway, i'm glad you liked the paint over
if the posing is tricky just imagine its you in that situation and you may be able to feel what pose you would naturally make.
whether its this piece or another, i highly recommend working on a piece till its satisfyingly done. even if it stays a wip for a year or two, iv'e done this a bunch now and the revising as your skills grow makes for great learning

[BadWoolf]

Studies

[BadWoolf]

Illustration idea: A woman casting a floral spell, weaving a loveheart in the air from flowers. I want to try out different compositions for illustrations, and I'm experimenting with cinematic-type angles.... so this one is the classic over the shoulder shot, with her lover forming a foreground to the piece.




Plan to throw some colours on and see if I like it. So far my least favourite thing is that the lover's pose from this angle isn't very expressive - impossible to tell if he's reacting positively or negatively to her. So... looks boring and doesn't contribute to the storytelling.

[BadWoolf]

Super rough colours, trying to figure out a mood/direction...

I think it's gotta be 1,3,4 or 6.

[BadWoolf]

Feeling so frustrated. Haven't painted since my last post due to wrist pain. the pain turns up in several different places in my forearm and is aggravated by heat or by use. Tendonitis, I think.

I was taking breaks... I was doing a really moderate amount of art per day and trying not to overwork myself. This problem has occurred several time in the last year, forcing me to take breaks of several weeks.

The ultimate fear: how could I ever become a professional if my body can't keep up?

Plan of action:Resist the urge to paint until December at least. Investigate wrist stretches and exercises from reliable sources. Invest in oil paints, research how to use them, and see if working on a large canvas can reduce strain on the forearm and encourage me to paint from the shoulder.

[Triggerpigking]

Shit that sucks to hear about your wrists dude, I hope you find a way to heal up from it!.
Have you been to a doctor? if you're doing a moderate amount of art per day and taking breaks then it'd be bizzare for you to be getting so much wrist pain.

If you can, do try to keep studying in the meantime, not drawing but just researching and if you can figuring out stuff in your mind, you don't need to put pen to paper to study.

Also digging that last piece, hope you go back to it after your break!.

[BadWoolf]

Thanks Trigger. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon. I've not seen a doctor - my local GP isn't that bothered about things; I'm sure he'd just tell me to rest it. Would be interested to have some kind of physio session though, to understand what's happen mechanics-wise and see if they recommend any exercises. We'll see.

In the meantime, when I have a longer moment, I'm going to check out everyone's sketchbook and see if I can give any meaningful crits. I think analysing the work of others can be a great way to learn without actually painting, and I haven't been as active around here as I'd like!

[BadWoolf]

Hallo!

No new art to post - still resting that wrist. Just popping in to say that I'll be trying to learn to paint with oils in the new year, and hopefully posting that progress here. So there's that.

I think I'll also be trying to redirect my focus with art. For so long I've been trying to grind out technical progress and portfolio pieces, and even though I've learned a few things from it, I really don't like the art I'm producing. It feels kind of soulless, you know? I feel like I'm producing what I think I should make instead of what I want to make. Problem is... I don't know what to make. And that really gets me down, to be honest. I'm looking back at those paintings I was working on a couple of months ago and there isn't a single one that I feel excited or impatient to get back to.

During my break from art I wrote a novel (first draft), so maybe painting my characters would be a fun thing. And I might dabble with fan art. I might make a return to only painting portraits. I love that more than anything else. On the other hand, I know that portraits are my comfort zone and I don't want to be afraid to step out of that comfort zone just because the results aren't immediately good.

Basically, I'm questioning what kind of art I want to make and why. I had a similar issue with my writing a couple of years ago, and although I still get the odd wobble, I'm much more confident now about what my niche/style/genre/voice is in the world of writing. I know it will become clear eventually with my art... and I also know that the more stressed I get about it, the less likely it is to resolve itself! So I'm trying to keep a cool head and trust that everything will fall into place in the end.

[BadWoolf]

made this cos a friend on dA wanted to see it, might as well share!




lol