Sketchbook Thread of Johan Derycke

#1521

totally love the start on the second Van Dyck drawing, Johan!

The portrait is quite saturated, but I don’t know if AR offers colour control sliders sou you could check wether to continue with a dimmed down saturation?

#1522

I really like the two pencil drawing.

Definitely see a lot of improvement from last year.

#1523

awesome stuff mate.Your faces are extremely good,:applause:
Keep up the great work.

#1524

your annual mental crisis… I have those too, though a bit more often than once a year :slight_smile: Hope things are looking better these days!

The pencil studies are beautiful, especially the Van Dyck ones! Artrage, I’ve heard great things about it, and seen some cool stuff, but I’ll never leave my Photoshop… :wink: I think the portrait is off to a good start but there could be a bit more subtlety to the skin tones, things are looking kind of flat and saturated. Also try working some of the green from the background into her skintones to help tie the painting together - this might help a lot in the shadow areas, which are the weakest parts.

Are you back in your studies?

#1525

i looked up for this little link on planes of head which you might want to give a try.if you want let me know i have a small pdf for it as well.
http://www.planesofthehead.com/about.php

#1526

Hi Johan,

Great job on the pencil studies! As for the AR portrait, I suck at painting skin, but what the others said sounds good. :smiley: It’s good to see you working on stuff again. Hope to see more soon.

#1527

Lovely pencil work! Your mum looks a bit like my neighbour. I think the shadows on her skin need to be darkened to add more depth. :slight_smile: Have fun playing with ArtRage!

#1528

Mm, ArtRage is a great programme. I’ve tried a demo once, liked it, but decided to stick with Painter and Painter only :slight_smile: Speaking of that, it would be interesting to try and make something very painterly in Painter, which is quite easy in ArtRage, with its neat brushes. Looking forward to seeing what you’ll create next.

Hope everything’s ok at your place, mate :slight_smile:

#1529

Mu Thanks buddy. It’s also the end of that one… don’t ask me why… I just felt I had to stop at that point. Will see if I can fix that portrait if I find the time.

Betrayal Thank you!
xsiyou :slight_smile: glad you like 'em!

Del Thanks for the crit. Studies… I’m assuming you mean my time at the academy? Yes, I never miss class unless I’m sick. It’s just life drawing sessions really these days. Great to keep the routine alive. Will post more life drawings soon.
AR is difficult for me because there’s no brush opacity (at least I’ve not found it)… so I’m gonna be hitting that wall with my face a lot if I want to learn colors :slight_smile:
I like AR because of it’s extremely inituitive workspace and workflow, but I still prefer Painter.

killermachine Thanks for that link!
Wes thanks for the encouragement mate!
Tessa Thanks. I need to fix that portrait, don’t I? Colors are so hard to get right.
razz yeah I still love Painter the most as well. AR is nice to play with once in a while though.

Here’s some digital sketches.
The girl on the left is inspired by the amazing DANKA.
Y’all give him some love in his thread now!

5min


#1530

Today’s pencil sketches

#1531

Hey there!
Really cool sketches, specially the 5 min drawing one.
In the ArtRage portrait, I think it could use some stronger shadows, it looks a bit flat. Other than that, it’s looking really good , anatomy wise.

#1532

Colours can be mean sometimes - specially on screens. :wink:

Aww, there’s a couple of broken links in your second last post. I like the wispering girl. :slight_smile:

#1533

Hey Johan! Very cool pencil sketches, nothing to say about them… but for the digitals I suggest you to not use lines to mark the shadows. You are really more skilled in digital than me, but that little thing is the only one that “plays out of tune” in my opinion.

I really like the sketches of the man on the blue background

Waiting for an update^^

#1534

Voodoo-Mama Thanks for the critique.
Aviva Just gotta learn by doing. Such things take time, especially with me :wink:
Cisc0 Hm I’ll think about it. I like hatching though :smiley:

Here’s a real quick digital one in Painter…

#1535

I’m really depressed.
Not only is our financial situation far from comfortable (we’ve had just too many bills of multiple thousands of Euros the last couple of years, and another one coming up for a stupid fence), which is really preventing us to rebuild our savings back to an assuring level, artistically, things are really lowlevel too, as you can see on below sketches.
I know it’s just a matter of believing and optimism, but man… it just doesn’t stop.

I had some comments that my colors were too saturated, so I tought I’d re-calibrate my monitors again. After all, it had been a while already since the last calibration.
So last night I sticked my Huey Pro sensor agains my screens again, but what happened? After calibration, there is now this green color cast all over my screens, both of them. My mouse cursor has turned pink iso white… ARGH! I re-calibrated in different lighting conditions, daylight, just a bit of evening light, complete darkness, etc… I even uninstalled/reinstalled the software, but nothing seems to help.

I found out that the sensor is probably broken (it seems I’m not thie only one having these issues), so I contacted Pantone. According to what Pantone says on their website, the unit will be replaced. Let’s hope this will happen. It will probably take weeks if not months before I can do anything digital now though… GRRR

I’m frustrated!
Spring better be here soon :frowning:

kids fashion studies:

And some crap from imagination:

My god, 4 years of anatomy studies and still so frigging noobish mistakes.
It seems I am just smart enough to realize that I’m stupid.
That seriously sucks!

#1536

Hey Johan, I can tell you there is nothing bad about your drawings! And about the money - enjoy more the things you have and not those you don’t. The depression might not derive from your financial situation nor artistic, so try not to conclude things according to it. In those drawing, you’re talking about repetitive mistakes, and I think it’s most probably because you’re not calmed down enough before you start drawing. One of the best methods are to switch your hands; then we use to put only necessary marks on the paper, we get away of many bad habits, and get ourselves to another path in our brain. So then, when you feel you calmed down, you can switch back to your prime hand and try to keep the ease you gained. And whenever your bad habits return, repeat it. Try to change your habits, like where you usually draw, the order of actions, the time, anything. Sometimes we are in a dead end and need to open the window to let fresh air in.
And on the top of all, your progress is visible, only try to remember your victories more than your failures.
Cu buddy!

#1537

Thanks for the encouragement Michal.
I’ll try to keep my chin up, even though bad things keep screwing up things a bit.
Today, I heard I will probably have to keep working until end of june, before getting sacked.
Why complain? I hear you say! Well, I really wanted to follow Robert Chang’s 8 weeks course that starts in March:

Becoming a Better Artist – Critical knowledge and techniques for today’s artists

I think following this intense course would give my skills a serious boost and a giant step closer to where I would like to have been by now. However, I can never combine this intense program with my family, my school and my daytime job. There just isn’t enough time. I already sleep only 5 or 6 hours per day. I can’t pinch off another 3 or 4 hours of that, can I?

Anyway, as I said, I will try to think positive again. Another chance will occur sooner or later…

Today’s imaginary crap

Supper time and then I’m off to school!

#1538

Hi Johan,

I am sorry to hear about the financial situation and also about the monitor. Hopefully things will turn around for the better soon. I am enjoying your pencil sketches for the moment. Perhaps you should stop calling them crap? :wink:

That Robert Chang class sounds really really good. Wish you had the time for it. Just reading the course outline made me want to sign up, lol.

#1539

Sorry to hear about your financial situation Johan. It’s a very difficult not to let the stress of it effect all aspects of your life, but hang in there. Hope things improve real soon.

You should take your computer problems as an opportunity to work on some traditional things. How about a pastel piece, or acrylics? Least the colours you use with them will stay true :wink:

Maybe I should show you how bad a real noob’s human figure work from the imagination is :stuck_out_tongue: All the studies are paying off. Keep going! :slight_smile:

#1540

Wes, Tessa, thanks for the support.
That’s life eh… we always get over it :wink:
I remembered Bobby Chiu’s words: This is a test to see if I can pull through… and I will.
No pastel or acrylics yet, but here’s a quick pencil sketch I kinda like.