Nice work, I like the robot suit guy and jesus looking guy.
For your vehicle drawing, use a bloody ruler! It's really killing what could be a pretty nice design.
I'd also suggest that you do some realistic portrait studies of women. I understand the vibe you're going for with these but they lack a sense of structure and anatomy.
I've been meaning to talk to you on AIM. I'll be in San Fransisco for like three days before GDC starts, we'll have to chill/draw!
Thanks for the input, dude! Much appreciated!
As for the vehicle, worry not! I'm going to either light box it, or do some 3d, and then fully flesh it out. I don't know why I posted all of these so big (about 150%), they're all a good bit smaller IRL.
And female faces. Yes. I'm no good at them yet, haha!
(The Jesus guy was some hipster I saw at the book store :P)
Hey guys, I'm really REALLY trying to get more 'finished' work, and I sort of feel like I am getting better at taking things to final.
As such, I am really REALLY trying to finish this particular pic.
Basically I'm going to go in and make the man made castle/gate thing all tricked out and bad ass. But before I do that, I feel like something in the perspective is all off. (never been a strong suit of mine, really.)
Could I get some tips or a draw over? And if anyth8ing else is bugging you guys PLEASE tell me. I wanna make this thing shine.
THANKS!
(and I guess the sketches weren't a hit, should I be posting them in the doodle thread or something?)
The question you should be asking yourself is "Why am I not posting in the doodle thread today?" Especially with nice character designs like the bottom shaded ones. Also have you tried using different lead pencils besides no2? Like HB B and really dark ones like 8B? I think it would bring out the values in your pencil work more.
I'll post a draw over for you and give you a good critique later today. So far, it's looking really nice. It could shape up to be one of the better pieces I've seen from you. But there are a couple of issues with perspective like you said.
As far as the lack of responses goes, I think it happens when people's work is good, not bad but not great. Just keep posting and people will give you feedback.
Edit:
Ok, I think that the main problem is something I've seen in your work before and that is the issue of scale. I think that while it is cool to have a big huge gateway in the side of a mountain, it doesn't exactly work from the vantage point that you have established. The problem is that the mountains appear tiny when they should be looming over the door and out of frame. You have already established this fact with the waterfall. Since the water has to be coming from somewhere, presumably a tall mountain, the mountains in the background have to be much higher than the waterfall. The mountains you have drawn are much too small. It looks like the water has had to go uphill to make it to the waterfall.
I think that that is everything that i see wrong with the perspective and such...make sure to always use perspective lines even just as a general guideline.
Here's my paint-over:
Things I've changed: Darkened the background to balance the entire picture.
Made the background mountains taller, probably should have lowered the waterfall as well.
Lessened the contrast between the mountains in the background and the sky to give more depth.
Shrunk the gate to establish scale.
Used a softer brush to push the background into space a bit more, look at the work of Min Yum for better examples of this. Sharpen your subject and soften the background elements.
I'm not sure if these decisions are exactly what you were going for or not, but they are just a few ideas for you to think about incorporating into your piece.
Arden Canelo: Thanks for your kind words on my work! There are actually a few reasons why I don't typically post in the doodle thread. For one, it is common for people to post an image dump, when they want feedback on multiple images, and don't want to spam the doodle thread. Secondly, and you will see this if you looks at ANY of the other threads by artists on the boards, it becomes a bit of an archive of my/their work. The only real appeal of the doodle thread is that is has more exposure.
At least, this is my understanding of it all. I may be wrong because I feel like my threads never generate too many replies compared to most. (May be what Dee said, though).
And to answer your question about lead, Right now I use a F pencil and a 2B. (I can't stand anything softer than that.)
Deelock! Thanks dude! A big help! I will definitely take this in mind as I go further (though it will end up being a good bit different than what your paint over ended up like).
[edit] I guess for full disclosure, here is something else I was considering.
WHELP, I'm heading to GDC in San Fran on Monday, and right now I'm scrambling to put together a portfolio.
Because, as we all know, I am no good at finishing anything, it has come down to a mad rush!
I know this format isn't exactly ideal for critiquing, but I keep an updated version of this as my wallpaper so I can get a grasp of the work holistically.
Please please feel free to comment or crit any part of any piece, or your thoughts on the body of work as a whole.
(Self crit; the environments are super weak, and I have a lot of work to do! haha.)
Use a ruler, virtual or otherwise. If you're doing these completely digitally, set up a layer with just red lines indicating perspective. It should help your vehicles and environments.
The left and right side environments are confusing to me. I can't get a sense of the scale. The one on the left looks like a painting on a wall. If the mountains are supposed to be farther away, I would suggest making the colors lighter to indicate depth. The one on the right looks like the trail is slighter wider than a person, but the stone (?) thing on the right seems much larger. In the middle one, it's easy to tell the scale, we can see the door. I find the other two very confusing. Scale details (even subtle ones) will help the viewer.
At the beginning of Alien 3, when the convicts are extracting the EEV from the lake, there is a small silhouette on the crane, which gives the view a sense of scale. I think it's just a cardboard cutout with a small cloak or something, but seeing the detail blowing in the wind goes a long way and keeps the viewer from latching on to their initial confusion.
you should study female faces then. also reference them until youve memorized enough attractive shapes for them. Study the way other artitist do it. and steal from them.
your drawings might benift from spending more time on construction before jumping straight to making attractive contour lines.
Thanks Ken! I've been doing female face studies (men too, actually because I need help with both) and I've already noticed improvements.
In terms of construction, I can definitely see that it gets a bit wacky in the second guy from the right. But are you seeing any other major flaws, or is that more of a 'just tighten it up, and concentrate on it more' kind of crit?
Also, expect some big progress posted tonight!
(Because if there isn't big progress, I'm screwed! haha!)
subs, do you know Sketchup at all? or Maya? They might be handy tools to learn, if you want a way to quickly mock up a vehicle design or environment, to get the perspective down.
I agree on the scale thing, but that's already been said. I think you've got a nice sense of color going on in these pieces, and I think it'd be nice to do a few more environments (maybe not in time for GDC, but I mean...in the future?) that are little color comps, like what you've pretty much done, here. However, on the next ones you do, try to use some a few different color schemes than the purple/green you've used in these two.
On your figures, watch out on the feet. It seems like the feet are always pointing in the same direction, and/or the right leg (our right, not their right) is turned too far to the left. The first guy is the only one of those figures (including the creature) that seems relatively "grounded" (even though his feet and knees are both pointing in the same direction). On the antman and the woman, the ground seems to be sloping down to the right some. On the next guy (going right), I think the perspective of the whole body is a little off, (hips, chest, amount of shoulder being seen) for the feet to make any sense. The left foot is also not being viewed from the "top", really, and it should be. The last guy, the guy on the far right...I think his toes are tilted a bit too far down. Again, this creates confusion concerning the ground plane he's standing on.
Overall, I think it might benefit you to make some perspective grids for creatures and humans. It might help you figure out at what angle to draw the feet, how far apart the feet should be, and at what angle all other parts of the person should be drawn from. It's clear you understand the general idea: that not everything, from the head down to the toes, will be viewed straight-on (unless, of course, you're doing something like a turnaround). But I'm not sure if you're putting it into practice very effectively. I think roughing out some perspective lines could really help you (and use straight lines for that, rather than trying to do it freehand!)
ND : Thanks a bunch for your feedback! And thanks for your compliment about the colors. I honestly have no clue about color, so the fact they look similar is because I was just fooling around until it stopped looking horrible. haha! :P So I think I could definitely get some other color palettes in there once I get some more studies under my belt!
Perspective on the feet has always been an issue for me! I'm so bad it it that honestly I was kind of happy with how 'good' these ones turned out! I'll definitely try and correct them as best as I can.
ANYWHO! Here is my progress for the day. Now I have to go off to work and pull a 16 hour overnight shift! (But after that I have no more shifts at work, and can slave away at the computer until I'm blind!)
Some stuff I did yesterday. I think I'm going to drop the environments. It's kind of a tough choice, but I think they're bringing down the overall quality of my portfolio. I don't want requiters to think I'm some sort of specialist (because I want to be able to do it all). Better to be a decent specialist than a shitty generalist I guess!
Started on the ortho on this one. I'm going to do a front view too. This is looking kind of bland so far, any tips?
Shitty base colors for this environment. Kind of the reason I'm not going to work on them (I'd rather have a few GREAT works than a bunch of OKAY ones).
Something bizarre about the drawing of the guy with the mace hand. Our perspective is shifting from the waist up or something, I can't quite put my finger on it.
So this is where I stand right now; I graduated with a BFA from VCU a year ago, and have slowly drifted away from my love (drawing). I'm trying to get my ass back in gear, as I ramp up to move out to california to the Concept Design Academy in October.
I'm going to try and post weekly.
(this is stuff from last week)
And here are some little scraps from this week. Not nearly enough, but I'm starting to get hungry again, so I think next week I will have some more work for you guys!
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
It seems like there is a tendency for your eyes to be just ever so off. Here, luigi's eyes are unlevel (his right eye is quite a bit higher than his left and it doesn't seem to be related to his head possition) and Mario eye's suggest he's got a bit of a wobbly eye.
This goes back to the Jesus dude who also had a higher right eye.
Other than that, I'd say shade in more of your sketches, even if its loose because you're doing a lot of shading on the faces but then there is a huge contrast in shade from that to the rest of their bodies. This looks odd and makes the characters much darker in complexion than you are trying to show (i think, anyway)
These are mostly nitpicks though- its all pretty rad overall.
Napp: You're definitely right about the eyes! I need to pay better attention, or just do some simple construction lines first. And I see what you mean about the pencil shading too. I seem to have trouble going dark quickly, so only the face gets some of that value build up.
Thanks a lot for the feedback, too! It really helps! :P
Posts
Nice work, I like the robot suit guy and jesus looking guy.
For your vehicle drawing, use a bloody ruler! It's really killing what could be a pretty nice design.
I'd also suggest that you do some realistic portrait studies of women. I understand the vibe you're going for with these but they lack a sense of structure and anatomy.
Also: GDC WOOO!
PS: You're never on aim anymore
edit: OH! I also like little bat pirate guy.
I've been meaning to talk to you on AIM. I'll be in San Fransisco for like three days before GDC starts, we'll have to chill/draw!
Thanks for the input, dude! Much appreciated!
As for the vehicle, worry not! I'm going to either light box it, or do some 3d, and then fully flesh it out. I don't know why I posted all of these so big (about 150%), they're all a good bit smaller IRL.
And female faces. Yes. I'm no good at them yet, haha!
(The Jesus guy was some hipster I saw at the book store :P)
As such, I am really REALLY trying to finish this particular pic.
Basically I'm going to go in and make the man made castle/gate thing all tricked out and bad ass. But before I do that, I feel like something in the perspective is all off. (never been a strong suit of mine, really.)
Could I get some tips or a draw over? And if anyth8ing else is bugging you guys PLEASE tell me. I wanna make this thing shine.
THANKS!
(and I guess the sketches weren't a hit, should I be posting them in the doodle thread or something?)
I'll post a draw over for you and give you a good critique later today. So far, it's looking really nice. It could shape up to be one of the better pieces I've seen from you. But there are a couple of issues with perspective like you said.
As far as the lack of responses goes, I think it happens when people's work is good, not bad but not great. Just keep posting and people will give you feedback.
Edit:
Ok, I think that the main problem is something I've seen in your work before and that is the issue of scale. I think that while it is cool to have a big huge gateway in the side of a mountain, it doesn't exactly work from the vantage point that you have established. The problem is that the mountains appear tiny when they should be looming over the door and out of frame. You have already established this fact with the waterfall. Since the water has to be coming from somewhere, presumably a tall mountain, the mountains in the background have to be much higher than the waterfall. The mountains you have drawn are much too small. It looks like the water has had to go uphill to make it to the waterfall.
I think that that is everything that i see wrong with the perspective and such...make sure to always use perspective lines even just as a general guideline.
Here's my paint-over:
Things I've changed: Darkened the background to balance the entire picture.
Made the background mountains taller, probably should have lowered the waterfall as well.
Lessened the contrast between the mountains in the background and the sky to give more depth.
Shrunk the gate to establish scale.
Used a softer brush to push the background into space a bit more, look at the work of Min Yum for better examples of this. Sharpen your subject and soften the background elements.
I'm not sure if these decisions are exactly what you were going for or not, but they are just a few ideas for you to think about incorporating into your piece.
At least, this is my understanding of it all. I may be wrong because I feel like my threads never generate too many replies compared to most. (May be what Dee said, though).
And to answer your question about lead, Right now I use a F pencil and a 2B. (I can't stand anything softer than that.)
Deelock! Thanks dude! A big help! I will definitely take this in mind as I go further (though it will end up being a good bit different than what your paint over ended up like).
[edit] I guess for full disclosure, here is something else I was considering.
Because, as we all know, I am no good at finishing anything, it has come down to a mad rush!
I know this format isn't exactly ideal for critiquing, but I keep an updated version of this as my wallpaper so I can get a grasp of the work holistically.
Please please feel free to comment or crit any part of any piece, or your thoughts on the body of work as a whole.
(Self crit; the environments are super weak, and I have a lot of work to do! haha.)
The left and right side environments are confusing to me. I can't get a sense of the scale. The one on the left looks like a painting on a wall. If the mountains are supposed to be farther away, I would suggest making the colors lighter to indicate depth. The one on the right looks like the trail is slighter wider than a person, but the stone (?) thing on the right seems much larger. In the middle one, it's easy to tell the scale, we can see the door. I find the other two very confusing. Scale details (even subtle ones) will help the viewer.
At the beginning of Alien 3, when the convicts are extracting the EEV from the lake, there is a small silhouette on the crane, which gives the view a sense of scale. I think it's just a cardboard cutout with a small cloak or something, but seeing the detail blowing in the wind goes a long way and keeps the viewer from latching on to their initial confusion.
artistjeffc.tumblr.com http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistjeffc
Prox! Which pass did you buy? You DeeLock and I (and anyone else going/in the area) should meet up!
ALSO, second self crit: I still am shit at female faces.
Yes we should meet up.
We can eat food.
artistjeffc.tumblr.com http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistjeffc
your drawings might benift from spending more time on construction before jumping straight to making attractive contour lines.
In terms of construction, I can definitely see that it gets a bit wacky in the second guy from the right. But are you seeing any other major flaws, or is that more of a 'just tighten it up, and concentrate on it more' kind of crit?
Also, expect some big progress posted tonight!
(Because if there isn't big progress, I'm screwed! haha!)
I agree on the scale thing, but that's already been said. I think you've got a nice sense of color going on in these pieces, and I think it'd be nice to do a few more environments (maybe not in time for GDC, but I mean...in the future?) that are little color comps, like what you've pretty much done, here. However, on the next ones you do, try to use some a few different color schemes than the purple/green you've used in these two.
On your figures, watch out on the feet. It seems like the feet are always pointing in the same direction, and/or the right leg (our right, not their right) is turned too far to the left. The first guy is the only one of those figures (including the creature) that seems relatively "grounded" (even though his feet and knees are both pointing in the same direction). On the antman and the woman, the ground seems to be sloping down to the right some. On the next guy (going right), I think the perspective of the whole body is a little off, (hips, chest, amount of shoulder being seen) for the feet to make any sense. The left foot is also not being viewed from the "top", really, and it should be. The last guy, the guy on the far right...I think his toes are tilted a bit too far down. Again, this creates confusion concerning the ground plane he's standing on.
Overall, I think it might benefit you to make some perspective grids for creatures and humans. It might help you figure out at what angle to draw the feet, how far apart the feet should be, and at what angle all other parts of the person should be drawn from. It's clear you understand the general idea: that not everything, from the head down to the toes, will be viewed straight-on (unless, of course, you're doing something like a turnaround). But I'm not sure if you're putting it into practice very effectively. I think roughing out some perspective lines could really help you (and use straight lines for that, rather than trying to do it freehand!)
Good luck, mang, they're coming along
Perspective on the feet has always been an issue for me! I'm so bad it it that honestly I was kind of happy with how 'good' these ones turned out! I'll definitely try and correct them as best as I can.
ANYWHO! Here is my progress for the day. Now I have to go off to work and pull a 16 hour overnight shift! (But after that I have no more shifts at work, and can slave away at the computer until I'm blind!)
Started on the ortho on this one. I'm going to do a front view too. This is looking kind of bland so far, any tips?
Shitty base colors for this environment. Kind of the reason I'm not going to work on them (I'd rather have a few GREAT works than a bunch of OKAY ones).
And a bit of work on this guy so far too.
artistjeffc.tumblr.com http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistjeffc
So this is where I stand right now; I graduated with a BFA from VCU a year ago, and have slowly drifted away from my love (drawing). I'm trying to get my ass back in gear, as I ramp up to move out to california to the Concept Design Academy in October.
I'm going to try and post weekly.
(this is stuff from last week)
And here are some little scraps from this week. Not nearly enough, but I'm starting to get hungry again, so I think next week I will have some more work for you guys!
And some unfinished studies. Probably done with the guy, but the enviro will get more love.
Oh! And some fan art, hehe!
This goes back to the Jesus dude who also had a higher right eye.
Other than that, I'd say shade in more of your sketches, even if its loose because you're doing a lot of shading on the faces but then there is a huge contrast in shade from that to the rest of their bodies. This looks odd and makes the characters much darker in complexion than you are trying to show (i think, anyway)
These are mostly nitpicks though- its all pretty rad overall.
Thanks a lot for the feedback, too! It really helps! :P
And, for the most part I love your heavy shading. It just needs a bit more contrast (in this case lights) so it pops a bit.