Sketchbook of Guitarhero14

#1

Here is a start of what I have. I just got my wacom and I still am trying to get used to it. Any critique is welcome!

Profile:

Gustave Courbet Portrait:

Portrait Start:

Reference for above picture:

#2

guitarhero14,

Welcome! Good to see your start here. :slight_smile: I recommend checking out the Skull Shading Exercise links posted in the Sketchbook Primer thread here:

Personal Sketchbook Primer and Tutorial / Workshop Guide
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=200&t=403198

I highly recommend focusing on grayscale for the time being to get a good handle on values. I look forward to seeing more of your work and hearing something about your art bkgrd and goals. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

-Rebeccak

#3

thats pretty good for a starter with wacom!~
i cant give any good critiques…but…
i think the first piece…the tones…or…well…it still seems kinda flat…
second piece…is it finished?seems pretty cool so far…~good luck finishing the portrait

#4

hi, nice start!

btw I just have one suggestion to you, : dont be affraid to use dark tone :), I know u can do it!

#5

hi,
nice thread start!

about the woman’s head drawing…
I see you’ve drawn the line for the mouth… but the left (her left) corner of the mouth isn’t on the line.
Also the angle of her jawbone is off a bit. If you look at that line from the ear downwards, it goes from right to left. In your drawing it’s the other way around. changin that would allow you to give the back of the cranium a bit more mass as well.

Hope to see an update soon!

#6

Hi, welcome :slight_smile:

Nice drawings! I especially like the Gustave Courbet Portrait, would love to see you develop this farther, to make it pop out from the background more.

#7

Thank you all for the comments and crits! I really appreciate it.

Rebecca - I looked at your tutorial and it looks amazing! I am going to stop the portrait for the time being and work on your tut. My background in art has spanned my whole life, I always drew when I was younger and never really stopped. I took a few painting classes in highschool and college. I spend quite a few years working in Maya and 3D Studio Max but it seems I burnt myself out on them. One day, a week or so ago I had the sudden urge to by a Wacom, so I did. I didnt go out and buy a top end one but this one seems to fit my needs(Graphire 4 4x5). I would love to do a few freelance jobs from home if I ever get my skills honed in. I am an auto body tech so I spend most my days working on cars and have done some airbrushing but nothing great, there is definetly a steep learning curve to that.

Elaine10 - The Gustave portait was considered finished, only because it was just suppose to be a quick exercise. I guess no artwork is ever finished.

xvampire - I will do my best :slight_smile:

NR43 - Thank you very much for the crit. I will post an update as soon as I finish Rebecca’s tutorial.

Roja - Thank you for your comment/crit. Do you suggest that I use darker shades to make it stand out more?

#8

I am following the skull tutorial and this is the progress so far.

#9

Hi…Guitarhero14…:slight_smile:

Nice to see your work , and thread…you might add a little more to the top of the skull, and really consentrate on the front planes of the forhead, to give it that rounded dome shape,…and really carve out under the cheek bone areas and around bottom of the eyesockets…go deep with the shadows, and save the lighter values for last,…will really give it depth.:slight_smile:
Nice start so far…looking forward to seeing how far you take it.:thumbsup:
You might also check out Icey’s thread listed in here,…he just did a great tutorial with a couple of cow skulls, that might be useful to you in your approach to doing this human skull…:slight_smile:
Stay away from the fumes of that airbrush…they are deadly…paint tends to grow fungus on it, when it gets trapped in your lungs :eek: :scream:
I used to do alot of airbrush work myself…motorcycle tanks ect.
pretty results, but hazardous to your health over a long period of time… :slight_smile:
Looking forward to seeing more of your work…:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

#10

guitarhero14,

Thanks for the reply! I think a lot of people, including me, paint part time, and thankfully with digital it is possible to get results fast. :slight_smile: Nice to see your start on the skull exercise! Keep pushing those values and continually refining.

A couple of handy PS shortcuts, which you may already know:

To change your brush size, use the shortcuts, [ for smaller brush, and ] for larger brush. In PS, Shift + [ makes the brush softer, and Shift + ] makes the brush harder.

Looking forward to seeing your progress. :slight_smile:

#11

I think I’d first add more lighter shades, white highlights here and there…and just slowly work to adding more colors if needed. This reminds me of those charcoal drawings using darks on lights on a medium tinted paper. I’d do experiments and save copies of your versions to see what looks the best :slight_smile:

#12

Well I took a break from painting for awhile, getting somewhat frusterated but decided to take another stab at it and I am finally figuring out PS. Here is a little practice from this morning. Planning on coloring it soon.

#13

Colored version

#14

Hi, just a quick note on something I noticed in your colored lips pic above. I think there should be more of a shadow on the top lip, make it a little darker especially near the opening. If you look on your gray lips, you actually do have a shadow there…but it seems missing from the colored version.

#15

I did not even notice that, I will fix. Thank you for pointing that out.

#16

You can easily add color on a greyscale painting by flattening your image first so you got only the one greyscale layer. Then add a new layer and set the layer blending mode to color.
Just start adding color on that layer then…

#17

I will definetly try that. I just painted over the grayscale with a default layer. Thank you for the tip.

#18

I decided to try out The Structure of Man videos and this is my progress so far. I really do enjoy these videos and will most likely purchase the whole set soon. I have tried learning anatomy from books but this seems to produce faster results and I can comprehend it. Let me know what you guys think. This is just getting the proportions correct.

#19

Been busy with work. Here is the progress so far.

#20

good to hear you are motivated to learn.

one more thing about color: I would strongly recommend not to start with color too soon. I’ve been drawing for about 1,5y now and still my focus is on greyscales. It doesn’t mean I am never using color but the emphasis is on studying values.

The thing is a colored painting won’t read well if the values are off. so beware of the trick in ps or painter with the color layer. It’s easy to add color but no matter what colors you use, your values must be good to get a good colored piece :wink:

Keep going on your structure of man studies… great stuff!