David's Sketchbook ;)

[devares]

Not so quick study of the Guardians of the Galaxy scene, but I've enjoyed it. ^_^

[Bookend]

Very cool study! :D Awesome job. Was fun to see the progress.

[devares]

Thank you Bookend, I've got some new processes here as well... ;)

First one is just a goofy image of three graces that are... Welll, chillin and stuff. xD

Another one is how I see Arya Stark in Winds of Winter and it took me forever and was brutal as f*ck to paint. One thing that I've learned is never ever be afraid of your own painting and if you think something is wrong with your image, be bold about changes you make to it. Also, using as references photos of sunsets made by other people is really stupid. xD

Well, more stuff to come soon, I hope... ;)







Process for Arya's Contemplation is here (too big a file to upload here): https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1496577114

[Fedodika]

Yo dev, fantastic work on the wolf lady thing; I saw the process on art station and seeing how you work was really interesting. I know what you mean by "copying other people's photos of sunsets is stupid" photos of those generally have a terrible value and color range lol, paintings of sunsets have all the answers already there for ya!

I wanted to give you a critique here as a paintover so I don't just come off as hot air as I tend to do with people's sketchbooks hehe. Firstly, there was some points I saw in your process that I was confused as to why you changed. At some points the colors, and values looks better or there were moments that the detail you added took away from the image. 

You're doing a lot of things well, just when I look at the simplification going on, you could do it more. Less is more basically. Again, I'd reccomend doing some studies of old masters like Zorn and see how he simplifies detail in hair, trees, and the figure, all things you seem to draw a lot of. 

For real though Dev, I want you to be open to another opinion while you're working on something, so if you ever need someone to email your work to while your working for a crit, don't shy away from it, you can message me anytime, I'd be happy to help you bro, cuz I want you to succeed <3

SO I basically took a big brush and just blurred the shit out of some things and tried to clump and simplify the values, so maybe the picture will speak 1000 words, or at least a few good words :)

There are a few things I'm not crazy about in the composition like how her arms are placed, maybe think about having it interact more with he wolf (for next time of course.) Like I'm not sure what that hand is supposed to be doing, like make that pose yourself, and ask yourself, "why is my hand like this?" 

ask yourself, is this important?

Yes: Focus in on it, use blurs and soft edges within the rendering to heighten focus
somewhat: blur it a little, less detail
No; Blur the crap out of it. 


Girl in focal: important
Trees in the distance: Not important blur the shit out of it, simplify

So yea maybe open mine and flip back and forth and see the difference it might help i hope

[devares]

Holy molly, it's been a little while since I've posted anything. Well, I had some big ass problems with my back and couldn't paint for 2 or 3 weeks, which really, REALLY sucked. Just a word of some friendly advice from experience... MOVE! THE F*CK!! AROUND!!! FREQUENTLY!!!! people, I tell you. Right before it hit me, I was spending from 8 to 12 hours per day on painting or learning to paint. You know this bloody stupid phrase, find what you love and let it kill you by Bukowski? Yeah, well, don't. Or you won't be able to enjoy anything from it in the long run. But enough of my whining. Here's what I've been up to recently.

First, a bunch of sketches, mostly from imagination. Good exercise, to turn around a single female character is hard. Kim Jung Gi's abilities are killing me softly.










Next, bunch of colors studies of old masters, no color picking, mainly marine art, why, well, in a moment you'll see why. Great exercise, very satisfying, but hard. But good. Should do more, much more, actually, everydaykindofmore.












Last, my recent project I AM currently working on. As you can see, it's kind of marine art. Would love to hear your thoughts on it, it's a wip. I don't want to overwork it, as I have a tendency to do so, so I'm seeking advice. I've pushed it as far as I could. Feel free critique it away.




Fedodika! My man, forgive me for replying so late. I've read your advice early on and tried to apply some of it. I actually hate blurring things, it makes me want to scream. But simplifying things is better, especially in the distance. What we want to achieve is a sense of depth. I think gradation from simplicity to complexity works much better in doing so than blurring. At least for me. Speaking of that previous image, with a shewolf, yea, you're right about her hand and details. About the process, I had this idea in my head and I tried to stick to it, and because it took me a long time to finish that painting, every time I looked at it from the perspective of time, as with fresh eyes, some stuff bothered me, so I had to repaint it over and over again. With this last image, it was easier, because I had a clear idea in my head from early on, as you'll see when I'm finished with it. So critique away! I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Cheers, mate! I've also seen you're doing a lot of progress and great idea with those master studies.

[Fedodika]

Wow bro, lots of really really good stuff going on in this latest piece man. You really absorbed those studies well the waves and textures are fantastic, the clouds are gorgeous, and of course I have a few tweaks!

So, the biggest thing, is the sense of scale. In your picture, the boat and the castle look as if they are right next to eachother and the castle and the boat are the same size. Like the castle is a toy or something, only 20 or so feet tall. So what I did was made it smaller, and hit it with a soft brush to add some atmosphere to make it look further. Remember the biggest thing can be indicated as small things on canvas depending on how they're placed. Mountains are everyone's go to thing, so think of the castle as a far away mountain.

I added a bit of color here and there, like saturation, because you seem to be shading with black a lot and while some masters do that for really harsh blacks, they still add rich colors in the shadows. What I mean is when I run the color picker on the sail for example, the tones are very desaturated, and everything around it is very desaturated . So it all gets really close to grey, when sure, there are beautiful paintings that have all the hues really close to grey, but yours could use some more hits of rich color to balance out the painting which is very dark and all the colors are similar in intensity, except the sun or maybe some of the arches in the waves. 

I always use Ruan Jia or the Chinese painters I enjoy, they go way out of their way to have rich shadow colors, so maybe you'll see what I'm talking about

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/d8xvX
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0ogb8
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/d8b0Q

See how they hit little yellows, purples and shadows that kind of "lift" the values and textures off the canvas

a few more:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lxmqo
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Aries-570186455
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Cancer-570318961

It's achived with very light touches and like stripping detail out of things with a texture brush, it adds tons of beauty even if it isn't realistic; it feels realistic.

Also, I think the poses of the characters are confusing in comparison to the scene. The lady seems as if she is casually talking or explaining something and the fellow is calmly steering the boat. Meanwhile the waves are ripping and crashing all around, so it's like the calm sailors in the brutal storm. So one thing you could do to improve that is have their expressions be more panicked, like grasping onto the sides of the boat, or looking very tense. That or make the water less storm like, which i think the former would take less effort.

Great stuff man, also for staying in shape try jogging daily, and doing calisthenics like leg raises, push ups, squats; It's really helped me beat any back/wrist pain since i stuck with it, and it'll pay off long term. don't worry about losing time drawing while working out, you'll end up simplifying and working smarter since you have more fresh blood and neurons running through your brain, it'll only help ;)

[devares]

Alright, so heres mu update on this last piece of mine. I THINK I fixed perspective issues, values and color. Its supposed to be a nighttime with a full moon, so I had to change quite a lot... xD

Fedodika, their pose must be like this, cause Im trying to illustrate a certain scene, in which this lady does explain quite a bit to this guy, so... I wonder what youll think of this. Ive tried to address some of the issues youve pointed out. I personally think it looks better that way, tho Im far from being happy with it. And at least now I think the castle aint looking like a toy, huh. xD

Anyway, I would appreciate any help you can give me. Cheers!

[Fedodika]

Looks amazing man, I think you could make the castle smaller on the canvas, because I feel like the ship and the castle are both large elements, the waves and the sky are both similar in size to how they occupy the canvas. Everything has a symetrical size. If you just made the castle smaller, it'd add some variation in size and really add more to the focal point of the sailors

[devares]

I did try my best, Fedodika. It probably wasnt nearly enough, but hey, who gives a damn, lets paint some more! Heres the finished version with a process https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/ima...1504200461, only link tho, cause the file is too big. Also, some friendly advice that Ive found, cause you seemed to sulk a little, as we all do from time to time. Cheers, man!

[kikindaface]

love the 12 rules ! and your last painting is great ! maybe one thing that bother me a bit is that there is too much dark, the dude lacks of contrast, but maybe it's your choice of composition. Keep it up !

[AfricanVoodoo]

*sneaks in thread*

*takes the 12 fucking rules for success*

*whispers* your art is sexy thanks for sharing gotta go bye

[devares]

More master studies. Hjalmar Munsterhjelm, Hans Fredrik Gude, Alexandre Calame, Carlos de Haes. Those old guys are killing me not so softly. And they're only the tip of the iceberg! And now, a little change of subject and here we go again. Luis Royo was right. Being an artist at the beginning is a lot like being a monk. Oh, well. Fuck that shit, let's draw some more!

AfricanVoodoo: Don't be so shy, now, please, have a drink.

kikindaface: Looking back, composition sucked ass realy hard. More thumbnails and studies should solve this issue of mine.

[Fedodika]

BOOM!

GREAT STUFF!!!

[devares]

I'm seein your comment, and I'm like

BOOM!!! HERE COMES THE... BOOM!!! READY OR NOT!!! HA HA! HOW YA LIKE ME NOW!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZjpnXcGZ9w

Ahhh, childhood tunes. xDD

[Fedodika]

Yea they played that when the football team walked out lolol

[devares]

More studies, this time with focus on figures. And application of the workflow I've learned during studying to my own personal little something. It's finished, I guess, but if you have any critiques, fire away. I'll try to apply them. Running down that hill, baby.

Also, I'm on Instagram now as well. Follow me if you like, and let me know you're a dagger, I'll follow you back. ;)

Here it is: https://www.instagram.com/dev4res/

[Fedodika]

its a really nice environment; the figure seems like its almost working but I'm kinda unsure about it. Or more unsure as to why it's almost working. One thing is the hair style; im not sure what it's supposed to be and it looks like its reacting to the wind, but not in a way that complements the rest of the image. Another thing is the very color of the figure, it's dark and yellow hues dont really seperate it from the rest of the image that are around the same chroma and value, especially where shes places.

I got up and looked from the back of the room and she doesn't read at all; that's the issue. Look at some NC wyeth paintings and see how the figure always pops its silhouette from the background and reads. You could maybe try putting some clothes on her that gives her a different value, or some different skin tone that pops her from the dark values behind her

Nice stuff!

[devares]

New stuff, but this time, with a twist - my second (xDD) yt video... Oh, gosh. By hey, I've been doing so many of these master studies that I felt like recording it. Oh, well. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/EUfV1ll7PvI

Also, I've tried to finish that chick running down that hill, ain't satisfied, but hey. More to come. I've beeing drawing in my sketchbook for a while now, but I can't find enough resolution in me to scan it properly. Some day, I guess. ;)

[devares]

It's been a little while, as always, so here's what I've been up to recently.

A Song of Ice and Fire scenario which is unfinished, and open to any good critique...



next is a finished personal illustration of the Queen of the Dusk (with some nice process steps on my Arstation)



and a bunch of composition and color roughs, but this time - from imagination. It's a continuation of my master studies, meaning I try to recreate the sort of style I've been studying so far. I might push some of those roughs to a finish.











Aaand I plan on doing 5 variations of hue/saturation/value of this image that I've painted recently. It's still unfinished, though, and I'm a bit stuck with it, so any help would be appreciated. Well, I'll see how it goes.



And so, till the next time. Cheers. ;)

[Fedodika]

Hey Dev, so the latest piece is interesting, I think the biggest issue is a sense of depth.

So, when i first look at the image i see three different objects, the girl (with the rock underneath) the trees to the right, and the castle in the distance. If you were to put a block of flat tone to cover each of those things, their sizes would be quite close, hence killing a sense of size difference. I love the mood though and the colors are killer.

So you have two options here to improve that. Either make the girl WAAAY smaller to show how vast the castle is or the landscape. Or make the castle waay smaller and in the distance to show a great distance between her and it. Also try to vary the size of the trees, especially the one on the left, as they feel very cramped in the composition, maybe add more canvas to the left side and have some more breathing room from those trees.

Same with the clouds you know, make some tiny, some medium, some huge. I mean you're doing that but make it very intentional and push stuff, try to work in flowing lines and C or S curves in the clouds, like see how the clouds "move" on the canvas in a line that flows. Some of your clouds are very close to doing that but they seem very stumpy and while they have a cool texture and color, they don't feel like they're "moving."

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...ntains.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...GA2134.jpg


Hell even pull up some nice landscapes and draw lines on top of it with a strong color on a layer to find how they use flowing line in all composition!

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/sites/de...60_dc2.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/7d/5d/2e/7d5d2...ntings.jpg


As for the ice and fire first one, I'd try to play around with the values more as pretty much everything is a midtone or slightly dark and theres only one big highlight, which is essentially the best thing going for it.

The nudey girl in the woods has the same issue with value placement, she really meshes into the background and only reads so far as her silhouette. Like you could peak the blue tone in the distance behind her in more a v shape so she reads better. All this stuff is hard to explain...

I'd reccomend getting your pencil and paper out and give the color studies a break for a while. instead do value studies of these master paintings you're into with pencil and paper and take notes and really think about why they're placing this and that there. It's something I'm seeing is a consistent issue in these latest things is just values being too samey or not serving the composition.

and do very tiny thumbnail studies, dont spend long on them and try to break things down into simpler and simpler blocks of tone. The more you simplify the better, no detail, just blocks and shapes

Also read through this if you haven't and take lots of notes! the tone part late in it could give you some good ideas. The more you study, you'll naturally see more patterns in placing just the right amounts of mids highs and low value, but FOCUS ON VALUE and shapes, give color a break and see what happens ;)

https://illustrationage.files.wordpress....ration.pdf