Like your stuff, especially "Franklin's Doggone Deliveries". The only thing I can say is that in the last picture you've put together, something seems off about the figure. The hands are off, but the figure seems out of place with the rest of the image.
I feel like, with figures, you aren't treating it with the same confidence. The fabric and flowers of that are absolutely wonderful, but the skin and the tree branch feel mushy. I feel like if you make an effort to reign in the whispy lines in your sketch process, you may be able to combat this earlier in a painting.
I mean, looking at your sketches, It seems like you start really thinking about volume later in the process. With some better line economy, and a lot of restraint, you can teach yourself to not be all over the place when mark making, even early on. Then when you get to painting and you come to a shoe or a hand, you'll have actual plains to work with, rather than a general form.
I feel in a tremendous stagnant slump, actually. Not happy with anything I've been doing for the last six months. Might take a step back and just do linework for a while.
Personally, instead of doing just line work, I would try to do some smaller, limited studies in a few different categories. The color studies/composition studies in the art camp thread are a good example. The cloud paintings I've been doing are an effort for me to increase my confidence and to lay things down quickly, but coherently. I'm not sure if I'm getting better at it, but focusing on it for a fixed amount of time and then moving on is nice.
I find that mixing it up is better when I'm in a rut, rather than trying to force myself to hammer away at one thing.
Question, are the sketches you've shown as far as you go on the drawing stage before heading into paint?
If so, you might find it beneficial as far as the on the line economy/confidence issue to make a new layer and/or erase back what you've got and then go over the drawing again to tie down the finicky design aspects and shadow mapping, before heading into color. I get the feeling some of the trouble may be that you're trying to sort out too many issues at once, in the painting stage; by introducing another step where you can just concentrate on sorting out a handful of specific issues first, I think you'll probably get some stronger results.
What I mean by 'finicky design aspects' is scrutinizing issues such as:
-Shape variety- are you pushing the design enough in an abstract sense, looking for contrasts to play up? Can the silhouettes be made more distinct or read more clearly? For example, if you're drawing a hybrid animal person, you might describe the human portion with delicate, sweeping curves, and make the animal half more squared off and angular, to play up that contrast. Or if you've got a big guy wearing a backpack, giving him a backpack appropriate to his size will just be an ignorable detail, while giving him a small backpack will create a contrast which will make him look bigger. Looking for these subtle cues and exaggerations you can push can add a lot to a drawing.*
-Are arbitrary details such as clothing wrinkles or rocks in a field or trees in a forest or hair on head distributed in an interesting and varied but still logical way, or are they evenly distributed or overly symmetrical in an unnatural fashion?
This all may seem like nitpicky bullshit to major on about, but it's the sort of thing that can push a good drawing into being a great drawing.
When I say 'shadow mapping', I specifically refer to what Stan is doing here @ 1:15-3:34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncfm_3UnLKE&t=1m15s
I suggest this because while you generally know where the shadows go, you seem to have a tendency to make them vaguer than they need be, particularly with cast shadows. This may be a side effect of your line drawing work handling shading more with loosely defined areas of hatching, rather than using a distinct breakdown or light vs dark throughout and object, and using a variety of edge to achieve the illusion of the rolling of form.
The hatching may work great in an ink drawing, but the interesting qualities the hatching brings to the table can often be lost in translation when taken into the realm of full, painted color.
Doing a Bargue study, or trying to emulate the kind of shadow mapping that Ikage often uses in her drawings (NSFW) would likely go a long way to creating a more 'confident' look in your finished work, because working in that way kinda boils out any opportunity to employ vagueness, and forces you to make some deliberate decisions.
This is all stuff that you're not necessarily going to have all worked out to perfection in your head or in a rough sketch, but trying to hammer out while dealing with color can be slow and frustrating, like wading through molasses. You obviously can make a good lookin' picture with your current process, but if you're looking to try something new to try to level up a bit, that's where I'd start- maybe just working in black and white for a bit, getting familiar with changing up that photoshop brush hardness slider a lot.
*I don't know if you've ever read Force, but that gives a much better explanation of these things than I can give.
found some acrylics someone gave me; i thought I'd try doing a small painting every day (when possible) to change things up and be more productive. Oh, and to learn how to paint, I guess.
yesterday
(for bonus fun, the acrylics are all mixed up with my watercolours and for some colours I grabbed the wrong tube)
Whats interesting about this is that, usually I feel like whatever I'm seeing digitally is a fairly accurate representation of what they would do traditionally, give or take a few tricks.
You may want to consider playing around with your digital set up, more. You are on a mac, right? Which limits the amount of free programs you can gain access too, but I'm starting to wonder if you are one of the weirdos who would just rock the shit out of using painter, instead of PS.
I think I had a free version of Corel painter years ago, and I loved it, so you may be onto something there. I find PS very frustrating to paint with, and in fact I usually use Sketchbook Pro, but it doesn't have a lot of versatility.
I've resisted buying new art software because I'm like "man different tools won't make up for lack of skill," but if I can find a deal or something I might give it a shot. Alternatively, I could try being more sophisticated with the way I use PS; I suspect my approach to brush selection/use is fairly simplistic.
I know how it is to get comfy with a tool and not want to stop using it. I've had opportunities to play with alot of other programs, but in the end, I use photoshop. A good idea, though, is to try to use programs to their strengths. I'll occasionally sketch in OC or SAI and then go to photoshop. Also, Man, don't be afraid to use mixed media. You can "sketch" in traditional paint and scan/photograph and use that as a basis to play on.
Only that I'm sick of sitting at a computer, really. I've been way more motivated to do these traditional bits than any recent commissions, but hopefully I can start bringing some of the stuff I've learnt from these back into the digital realm and kick my enthusiasm for that back into gear.
Overreached myself on a cityscape which I'm not posting, I know basically where I went wrong - I may come back to it in a few weeks when I feel more confident.
portraits are easier
ran a green overlay layer in photoshop on this one to make it pop more, and I like the effect so now I just have to go back and do the same with real media to the original, somehow.
I have been doing stuff this week (shit a whole week since I posted?) but not a lot of time, plus I picked a big ass piece of canvas for this latest one and oh surprisingly big paintings take longer. Anyway, progress shot. Hopefully not much longer to go.
crummy photo, but then the painting is also pretty 'meh'. In retrospect, I should have gone in with big blocks of colour and not tried to do anything tight and detailed, it's lost all the spontaneity of the environment. Lesson learnt, I won't revisit this but I think I need to be a bit more adventurous with my landscapes.
Posts
I mean, looking at your sketches, It seems like you start really thinking about volume later in the process. With some better line economy, and a lot of restraint, you can teach yourself to not be all over the place when mark making, even early on. Then when you get to painting and you come to a shoe or a hand, you'll have actual plains to work with, rather than a general form.
I feel in a tremendous stagnant slump, actually. Not happy with anything I've been doing for the last six months. Might take a step back and just do linework for a while.
I find that mixing it up is better when I'm in a rut, rather than trying to force myself to hammer away at one thing.
If so, you might find it beneficial as far as the on the line economy/confidence issue to make a new layer and/or erase back what you've got and then go over the drawing again to tie down the finicky design aspects and shadow mapping, before heading into color. I get the feeling some of the trouble may be that you're trying to sort out too many issues at once, in the painting stage; by introducing another step where you can just concentrate on sorting out a handful of specific issues first, I think you'll probably get some stronger results.
What I mean by 'finicky design aspects' is scrutinizing issues such as:
-Shape variety- are you pushing the design enough in an abstract sense, looking for contrasts to play up? Can the silhouettes be made more distinct or read more clearly? For example, if you're drawing a hybrid animal person, you might describe the human portion with delicate, sweeping curves, and make the animal half more squared off and angular, to play up that contrast. Or if you've got a big guy wearing a backpack, giving him a backpack appropriate to his size will just be an ignorable detail, while giving him a small backpack will create a contrast which will make him look bigger. Looking for these subtle cues and exaggerations you can push can add a lot to a drawing.*
-Are you using curves vs straights in your designs? This gets bandied about a lot in animation design, but it's useful in designing any object. (http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2006/08/dd2-straights-against-curves.html http://bacon.iseenothing.com/otherpeoplestuff/lyrium_lifedrawing2.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1-jHL1s8ci4/T994UleEaZI/AAAAAAAADdg/N9BGjI66S_o/s1600/svscarm.jpg ). An example might be that dude's forearm in this painting- while having the contour be two similarly curved lines on each side is serviceable, it may be more interesting to play up the bulk of the brachioradialis muscle to break up the top contour.*
-Are arbitrary details such as clothing wrinkles or rocks in a field or trees in a forest or hair on head distributed in an interesting and varied but still logical way, or are they evenly distributed or overly symmetrical in an unnatural fashion?
This all may seem like nitpicky bullshit to major on about, but it's the sort of thing that can push a good drawing into being a great drawing.
When I say 'shadow mapping', I specifically refer to what Stan is doing here @ 1:15-3:34:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncfm_3UnLKE&t=1m15s
I suggest this because while you generally know where the shadows go, you seem to have a tendency to make them vaguer than they need be, particularly with cast shadows. This may be a side effect of your line drawing work handling shading more with loosely defined areas of hatching, rather than using a distinct breakdown or light vs dark throughout and object, and using a variety of edge to achieve the illusion of the rolling of form.
The hatching may work great in an ink drawing, but the interesting qualities the hatching brings to the table can often be lost in translation when taken into the realm of full, painted color.
Doing a Bargue study, or trying to emulate the kind of shadow mapping that Ikage often uses in her drawings (NSFW) would likely go a long way to creating a more 'confident' look in your finished work, because working in that way kinda boils out any opportunity to employ vagueness, and forces you to make some deliberate decisions.
This is all stuff that you're not necessarily going to have all worked out to perfection in your head or in a rough sketch, but trying to hammer out while dealing with color can be slow and frustrating, like wading through molasses. You obviously can make a good lookin' picture with your current process, but if you're looking to try something new to try to level up a bit, that's where I'd start- maybe just working in black and white for a bit, getting familiar with changing up that photoshop brush hardness slider a lot.
*I don't know if you've ever read Force, but that gives a much better explanation of these things than I can give.
Twitter
Reading that was like turning on a giant lightbulb.
yesterday
(for bonus fun, the acrylics are all mixed up with my watercolours and for some colours I grabbed the wrong tube)
today
:?
My Portfolio Site
no idea if all this is actually improving anything, but it's a marvellous way to unwind.
Whats interesting about this is that, usually I feel like whatever I'm seeing digitally is a fairly accurate representation of what they would do traditionally, give or take a few tricks.
You may want to consider playing around with your digital set up, more. You are on a mac, right? Which limits the amount of free programs you can gain access too, but I'm starting to wonder if you are one of the weirdos who would just rock the shit out of using painter, instead of PS.
I've resisted buying new art software because I'm like "man different tools won't make up for lack of skill," but if I can find a deal or something I might give it a shot. Alternatively, I could try being more sophisticated with the way I use PS; I suspect my approach to brush selection/use is fairly simplistic.
http://artanecdotally.tumblr.com/post/32098791003/hannes-brushes-by-algenpfleger
I know how it is to get comfy with a tool and not want to stop using it. I've had opportunities to play with alot of other programs, but in the end, I use photoshop. A good idea, though, is to try to use programs to their strengths. I'll occasionally sketch in OC or SAI and then go to photoshop. Also, Man, don't be afraid to use mixed media. You can "sketch" in traditional paint and scan/photograph and use that as a basis to play on.
Did some process shots on this one, for some reason - well, in case I ballsed it all up at the end, really
Either way I'm all about these traditional works, Man. That bridge one, dude. I enjoy it.
If painting feels good, keep doing it. There is nothing like loving the media you are working with, its just one more barrier you can break down.
Tynic, this water with all of its glossy, detaily, colour/value variation is some Sargent level ridiculous.
portraits are easier
ran a green overlay layer in photoshop on this one to make it pop more, and I like the effect so now I just have to go back and do the same with real media to the original, somehow.
I can't tell what's happening in the far background, I'm not sure if that part is unfinished or if it just looks unclear in the photo
jesus fuck
If by this you mean "hang it on my wall" then I agree entirely.
debating whether to run a light glaze over this to tie it together more, or if that would just ruin the pallet.
hey nic if you could not hog multiple talents plz k thx