Sketchbook Thread of Vicmonty

#75

New image here. Howā€™s my progress going so far? What can I change to improve this image? Itā€™s taking a long long time, but itā€™s still fun. Iā€™m very slowā€¦

I see that i may have to work on the proportions of the arms.


#76

I should smooth out his right arm to get rid of that outline that seperates his shoulder from the rest of his arm. Itā€™s also seperating the bicep and tricep. I know they should be seperated, but how do I make it no so much of a dark outline?

#77

I changed his pose. Now I donā€™t have any arms to use as ref. Comments and critiques will be great!

#78

You can always use a mirror :wink:
Also, you shouldnā€™t be spending a lot of time rendering, when youā€™re not certain of the pose yet.
Do some quick sketches, say a dozen, pick the best pose and then do 5 or 6 different quick light thumbs, in which you let the light source have a different position. Pick the best one of those 6 thumbs and stick to it. Then use a mirror and simulate the lighting conditions as you want them in your painting.
Have fun!

#79

Do you remember the first time you had something ā€œclickā€ while you were painting? I canā€™t really explain it, but it happened while I was rendering. All that reading I have been doing about painting seemed to make sense and was real to me.
It was a great feeling and I felt another barrier come down. I think thatā€™s why I jumped ahead without fully nailing a pose. 12 thumbnails, then 6 with light and pick one. got it!
Thanks for always visiting my SB. I really appreciate you sharing your knowlegde with me.

#80

No worries mate, I learn just as much as you do by doing this (remembering myself of what to do) :smiley:

#81

hereā€™s the latest. almost 2 wks now. i learned a lot with this one. great time.

how can this one be improved?

#82

Your improvement from the beginning of this thread is really impressive. It gives me a little push to keep working. Great work!

#83

well I appreciate it. I have a long way to go. If it wasnā€™t for the response from this community, Iā€™m not sure how far I would have gone. The community just existing gave me a drive to move you know? The resources and the idea of creating and adding to the greatness that is CGS. Itā€™s frustrating, but rewarding when you see what you can do. Also, when people say practice helps, you have to listen.

#84

okay, so hereā€™s what iā€™ve been up to last wk in between family, work and school. Iā€™m starting to let loose a bit. enjoying this more. letting go of that ā€œfearā€.

photo ref. i fixed the hand once, still looks a bit twisted. 3 hrs photoshop

1 hr photo shop. photo ref.

photoshop. unsure about time, i started and stopped a few times. maybe an hr. masterstudy from this cgs thread. sorolla copyā€¦

#85

hey vic, your value studies are getting a lot better. I think for an hours work they work quite well. If I could leave a little tip, I would suggest not leaving large areas of white in a portrait painting, or else the image begins to look ā€œblown outā€ to use photography terms. Keep it up!

#86

1-2 hrs speed painting. not so much ā€œspeedā€ hehe.

looking at this now, it looks blurry. is it because of my strokes. nothing hard enough?

does the white in her dress give that ā€œburned outā€ look?

at first i thought i could pull off her sash with a really dark green. then i thought i saw a dark blue or dark purple. my eyes playing tricks on me?

her dress almost looked like it was a white, almost yellow dress.

I went with bright yellows for the highlights in the dress. was this a good idea?

I saw pink in here arm. then i thought to add some of that yellow highlight on her arm too.

the photo itself isnā€™t what we normally use to study because it was dim, to me. i guess the photographers style? I auto adjusted and got a pretty clear photo.

ref: http://stacifilth.deviantart.com/

#87

I agree with some of the other posts on your sketchbook your improvement is really inspirational. Keep up the hard work!

:beer:

#88

Thank you very much. Itā€™s that fear that keeps us from progressing. It takes a hold of us. Just let it goā€¦

#89

hello everyone. continuing to do what I can. I started a Rubenā€™s study. Then I caught wind of a Zelda 25th anniversary contest at cghub. So I came up with thisā€¦

photoshop, plus 4 hrs. comments and critiques please. Thank you. I hope to produce work good enough to go into my cgs portfolio soon.

#90

photo study. photoshop 2 hrs intuos 3. sorry but i canā€™t remember what site I pulled this photo from.

#91

currently working on a contest desinging street fighter zombies. I chose vega. ref photo courtesy characterdesigns.com



#92

everytime I start a new painting I think about all the work itā€™s going to take and feel like I canā€™t do it. Looking back at my Zelda piece, even though itā€™s not great, it makes me feel accomplished.

I just always feel like Iā€™m starting my first piece every new piece of art work I work on. I get confused as to where to start. Darks first? Lights and then darkest darks and lightest lights? I try to think on how I navigated through my last picture. I canā€™t remember.

All I do remember is that I felt overwhelmed! I also remember that I just dove into the piece. I chipped away at it one piece at a time in a sense.

When I paint, I have a bad habbit of expecting to see a masterpiece after a couple of strokes. I have to remind myself that itā€™s the gradual build up of a piece that makes it into something that the viewer would say ā€œoh yea, I accept thatā€.

Hereā€™s what I have so far in PS with my intuous. Please Please I need critiques on this whole SB. Thank you.

#93

Maybe doing a few simpler pieces will help restore the confidence.Do some still life paintings from life.
Take your time to set up a great still life, donā€™t rush. (for me personally, it often takes an hour or more)
Try to start painting without expectations of the result.
Just observe, measure, and paint what you see.
Slow down when painting
A rushed work is never good.

This can be very relaxing and is a great way to build confidence back to a higher level.
Paint as much still lifes as needed. When your confidence has grown and you find yourself drawing from imagination again, you will soon find out if you are ready or not.
If not, just go back to the still life painting.

Why still life?
It will make you think about the basics again.
If you practice those long enough, those basics about perspective, composition, tonal and chromatic effects etc will become 2nd nature and you wonā€™t have to think that much of how you will paint your idea, rather than think about your idea itself. Then you are ready to step up the ladder and tackle more difficult subjects.

In the mean time you can keep practicing anatomy etc by sketching outdoors (pencil or ballpoint pen are AWESOME media).

Remember that painting from imagination is harder than painting from life, because you have to see how your subjects are lit in your mind. Itā€™s not in front of you to see how the light falls on the forms.

Sometimes we want something so badly, that we tend to rush towards our goals.
Unfortunately, painting is a ā€œmetierā€ that does not allow for shortcuts.
There are none.
The hours studying the basics must be gone through.
So patience and persistence are your friends :wink:

Good luck and keep us posted of your progress.

#94

Same here. But after some time I can tell if itā€™s going anywhere or not. Usually spending more time on a piece will make it look better. I must say though, that sometimes itā€™s just not worth wasting time on a painting that really sucks. But itā€™s still practice, which makes you better. Currently Iā€™m working on a piece that is taking me very long just to see what I can achieve if I invest loads of time and not throw it away after a few hours, which does happen very often. Hopefully Iā€™ll end up with something halfway decent. Perhaps Iā€™m at this level where I really need a lot of time to paint something good looking. Maybe you are too. Itā€™s a great learning experience. Speed comes with skill, so take your time for those better results.
One other thing, use reference! Iā€™m quite lazy when it comes to that, but it helps so much, so I try not to skip the step of gathering refence images for my paintings. No reason why you shouldnā€™t do it.
Oh, and listen to what Johan said :slight_smile: Good luck.