Gilles_draws9 sketchbook

[Gilles_draws9]

Some sketching practice from megaman zero artwork.

[darktiste]

Oh nice now you make me want to open up my own copy of the book and do some similar stuff.Are you going to clean up those line?

[Gilles_draws9]

Oh nice now you make me want to open up my own copy of the book and do some similar stuff.Are you going to clean up those line?

That's nice to hear
Right now am practicing sketching, trying to loose up a bit. Am planning to do more of these. So I will not clean those up.

[Gilles_draws9]

Some more sketches and started to study Dave Rapoza's linework.
Today I just wanted to focus on quickly laying in lines correctly.

[BeetleSpider]

Hey there, I like the way you use your lines, even if these are quick pieces. I don't know if these are your designs or if they're from something else but I like them in conjunction with your lines. Looks really cool.

[Gilles_draws9]

Some more Dave Rapoza's linework copies and megaman zero ones. I also studied basic planes of the head but those were to messy to show. I really like how those artists use lines to show form efficiently. I want to aim for that Level eventually in my own work.

[darktiste]

I don't want to throw you in all direction but i think you need to observe color more your color are less satured than what i see in my book(megaman).I think right now what you need to practice is line economy it the concept of avoiding chicken scratch what is chicken scratch it when your use multiple stroke instead of fluid and confident line.How do you practice line economy?You focus your attention in visualizing your line before you put it on the paper with a method call ghosting.What is ghosting?Ghosting in the same way a carpenter prepare is hammer before he strike it first he locate where he want the hammer to go and he do some fake strike to allign is hammer to the nail.In a similar way you prepare your pen by hovering over the paper or tablet and once you feel your have the line how you want it you put the pen down and voila.The secret is to avoid sprinting to the finishing line and to understand how to control your tool and how to use your arm.

[Gilles_draws9]

Portait study in 3hours.
The likeness is not really their but am statisfied with the colors.
I started messy because I didnt thought to finish it. Next time I need to practice my values better and give the face a better structure before moving further. The lips I made more red on purpose. Had fun.

[Gilles_draws9]

A Portrait study i did last week but i was not statisfied with that I reworked today.

[Gilles_draws9]

Color study Churchill.
On every painting am changing my approach to figure out a good method.
I was looking how Tianhua Xu applied his brushstrokes. Tried to mimic it. I started messy but I liked the energy of it.
I now notice now that his eyes need to bed closer and mouth bit wider.

[darktiste]

Here i am demonstration you how to properly review your own work if you want to practice improving your observation and visualisation skill.

First you take your image final copy and you use the resize tool and you overlay it over the original reduce the opacity of the layers to show if the scale is the same if you made it into multiple layers you can either merge all layers into one or copy all those layers and merge them into one.

There a tool where you can normally move a segment around this will be use to compare the original from the copy.


For demonstration purpose i am showing you how i think but ultimately this is more of a how to think will working rather actually a step by step approach.

What the ultimate goal is to simply visualize the segment or relative proportion of a shape.Since you don't necessary have an accurate eye yet it not forbidden to physically put stuff down and measure but be careful some as to not fall in the trap of over visually measuring else it where your work start to be more about accuracy than anything and it where your figure can start to look stiff.


What is the most important is that you practice being conscious about your decision making and being accurate about those choose.

Now let look at your work

Right now what i would suggest is you focus on accuracy of angle and curve and proportion.Forget about color value and detail practice simplification.Small detail are just more tricky bigger shape.

First of you want to work with the same scale image as your original.
To do that with a rule or without measure or estimate  the vertical lenght of the image measure or estimate  the horizontal lenght of that image .

Depending on your level of skill.*Remember tool are like wheel on a bike it better to learn to get them off as soon as you can so if you can estimate instead of measure.

Ok now we have were scale. Now we have to look at what is the easiest and biggest most basic geometric we can extact from the figure.This will help us establish the proportion of the figure a swell as establish some negative space That help use refine the outline of we figure.

I prefer to get proportion as accurate as soon possible in the first place and than once i got like atleast 80% of the space occupied with simple geometric form i like to start to get more accurate first starting with straight line rather than going straight to putting curve.

I prefer to do my study in small chunck of fundamental at a time this mean i am not trying to stress myself with how much idk yet.I only approach it in a chew able manner the problem is that to do just that. you gotta learn to challenge yourself and know what are your weakness and strong point.

My last word of advise is don't under estimate the usefulness of negative space and if you don't know what i am talking about well don't miss the opportunity to learn about it usefulness.Also don't forget that comparaison between two segment help you get more accurate at angle estimation and with shape you compare there size relative to an other but they also have angle you can use to compare against one and other.

[Gilles_draws9]

A really quick one before eating. I was trying to capture a traditional feeling. I notice some areas need to be darker.
Wanted to focus on his head. Am noticing that I ignore folds and hands. I need to study them.

[Gilles_draws9]

Thanks darktiste for the extensive information you wrote!
I will take this info for my next studies. Most of these I start doodling around and once am drawing I cant stop haha so they lack a good basic structure. My mom's birthday is in two weeks and I want to make a portait of her so i will apply your info about negative shape for sure. I am aware of the concept but i kinda forgot it existed. Glad you reminded me to it.

[darktiste]

I think for your value you need to work toward getting the confidence of going darker since this isn't a traditional medium there a easy fix to that it call learning about level ajustment.But more important than that is learning to simply your value and practicing value scale .But i am not going to be harsh on you since you stated it wasn't the objective of the study.Just something i noted that might be relevant in the future.

A tips for the beard would be to start with a darker tone and lay lighter tone over it try to keep your motive noddle like and use a small brush so it doesn't look like big noodle. also try to be more aware of your silhouette .By removing the loose hair your removing the read of your beard.Not the transition of thick to thin.

[Gilles_draws9]

I did a portrait of my father.
I exaggerated the colors a bit because I really like pink/purple colors.

[Gilles_draws9]

Some warm up Tianhua xu value studies. He is one of my favorite digital artist. Will make them more polished.
The rest of the day I gonna study anatomy on NMA.

[Gilles_draws9]

Portrait study of my mom.
Did a photohop filter on it to make it more traditional looking because I printed this to hang in the house.

[darktiste]

I don't know her but i would say you capture some of her character for sure.

[Gilles_draws9]

Hi its been a while I posted something.
These last months were really hard for me and my family. My mental was suffering a lot so I didnt draw much. Recently I felt better again so I started to train again.

Two days ago i discovered Lin Ran's work. By finding more about his work I found he uses a different method for choosing his colors. He recommends to use RGB-sliders instead of the color wheel or HSB. Most people use a substractive way of painting but this RGB is an addiditive way of working. It works more how real light would work. By mixing only red, green and blue you can great all other colors. So far its a very interesting method and am still experimenting with it.
Also Sycra has a video of it, explaining it in detail.
Also I started to use the airbrush more. I noticed that Lin Ran and other famous chinese digital artist use it a lot. It lets you blend the colors better because human faces are all a blend of colors etc.

These images below were all done a couple days ago while experimenting with these methods. They were done fast and very inaccurate. I did these warm up and be a bit more lose to put off steam haha.
For the next days I gonna focus more on drawing the structure and form of the face aswell as gesture/anatomy studies.

I have made an agenda were I focus on 4 fundamentals for the next months. Those are Anatomy, form/construction, value and practicing my 3D skills in Zbrush/blender.

[Gilles_draws9]

Today I decided to make a portrait of my favorite musician Ennio Morricone. Am always listening to his music or other classical componists of the past. They always lift up my mood in times of doubt.
To me Ennio's music was living proof that we didnt even scratch the surface of what is possible in terms of creativity.
Thank you old friend for giving me company in dark times. You will always be remembered through your music.