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[Jhoan]

Here's a thing I started back on Sunday and finished up yesterday:



Have I ever told you guys that I hate drawing environments? Cause I really, really hate it. It's nothing but pure math. Put that figure there in the middle to help keep my sanity lol

edit: Unfortunately I can't scan it because it's a 11x14 image and my scanner only does 8x10 >.>

That looks pretty damn solid to me! Math in art can be incredibly rewarding when used correctly. Perspective scares me too since I tend to do it freehand and it's not my strongest skill at all. However, I've developed an appreciation for it and want to it more often since I'm writing a script for a comic based around life.

For the past several months, I've had Perspective for Comic Book Artists sitting underneath my desk on top of a stack of brand new comic paper. We get spoiled by illustration programs that wave away all the tedious measuring work away so it's nice to sit down and do it traditionally.

That said, environments are great! I read an interview with Michael Cho on CBR a few months ago since he was promoting Shoplifter (great, short read by the way with a simple color scheme). In that interview, he mentioned that drawing environments intimidated him as a kid IIRC so as an adult, he spent several months drawing environments to get a better understanding of them and developed an appreciation for it.

Any way, the moral of the story is do more of the stuff that scares you/is outside your comfort zone to become more rounded and get feedback on it to improve. Who knows? You might end up liking drawing environments moreso than characters. I clearly don't take my own advice. xD

@AdanVC , welcome! Those look pretty damn solid! It has some really nice varieties of line weights going on. I can learn a thing or two about inking techniques to add to the arsenal. What kind of pens are you using?

 

[LegendX48]

That looks pretty damn solid to me! Math in art can be incredibly rewarding when used correctly. Perspective scares me too since I tend to do it freehand and it's not my strongest skill at all. However, I've developed an appreciation for it and want to it more often since I'm writing a script for a comic based around life.

For the past several months, I've had Perspective for Comic Book Artists sitting underneath my desk on top of a stack of brand new comic paper. We get spoiled by illustration programs that wave away all the tedious measuring work away so it's nice to sit down and do it traditionally.

That said, environments are great! I read an interview with Michael Cho on CBR a few months ago since he was promoting Shoplifter (great, short read by the way with a simple color scheme). In that interview, he mentioned that drawing environments intimidated him as a kid IIRC so as an adult, he spent several months drawing environments to get a better understanding of them and developed an appreciation for it.

Any way, the moral of the story is do more of the stuff that scares you/is outside your comfort zone to become more rounded and get feedback on it to improve. Who knows? You might end up liking drawing environments moreso than characters. I clearly don't take my own advice. xD

@AdanVC , welcome! Those look pretty damn solid! It has some really nice varieties of line weights going on. I can learn a thing or two about inking techniques to add to the arsenal. What kind of pens are you using?

Thanks. My biggest issue with backgrounds and environments is that it's just so unfun, until very late into the process. That and, yeah, it is incredibly intimidating. With people/characters, everything is straight forward while environments are far more demanding of you, creatively and mentally. Having to create a space and then fill and detail it is a no small task.

I should probably do a lot more, and on smaller paper so I can scan them in instead of taking pictures of them with my phone lol

And yes, you must take your own advice as well

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

 

[AdanVC]

*awesome drawings*

Holy cow this are amazing!

@AdanVC , welcome! Those look pretty damn solid! It has some really nice varieties of line weights going on. I can learn a thing or two about inking techniques to add to the arsenal. What kind of pens are you using?

Thank you very much! I truly appreciate your words and sure! Here's my arsenal for inking:

I've been experimenting on inking with lot's of pens but I found that inking with a brush gives you the most satisfying results and line variety. The brush on the pic is a Series 7 #2 brush from Winsor & Newton. A little pricey but totally worth it because this brush will literally last you forever (as long as you take care of them properly) I've been using that brush for more than a year now and it still works like new as soon as I add some water to get a super fine shape and start inking. Sometimes I also use dip pens the ones for drawing manga and they work excellent when you want more uniform lines. Of course all of this will work only if you practice practice practice. I've been doing so for more than a year and of course there's still a loooooong way to go to ink neatly but it's been a fun journey so far. I totally recommend this book since is the one I'm currently reading to get into inking with a brush and how to do it like the old comic masters. Unfortunately I guess it's not on stock right now? Hope it's restocked soon!

 

[LegendX48]

More stuffs:

I haven't drawn much of this character in forever. Time to change that

 

[Prax]

There's that art vs art meme going around.
Any of you interested in joining too?
Here's mine. I just decided to use all my self-portraits/self-inserts:

Somehow they are also all in different styles. Whoops. lol

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

prax self portraits are all so cute and realprax is also so cutecutecute *______*

what is this... art vs art thingy :>

also hallo drawgaf <3 long time lurker here~ you are all very talented amg \o/

 

[Ayumi]

character design - started last night but mainly did it today:

it's been a while since i posted in here but i have been drawing every day. i'm doing a mentorship with kalen chock and anthony jones. i'm working on getting faster, but here's what i've been working on. a lot of it needs to be redone but i thought i'd share my progress.

Uwah, this is awesome! I love character art and concept art!

 

[LegendX48]

Here's some 3/4 view practice:

 

[Mik2121]

It doesn't totally count as "drawing-a-day" since it took two days, but... it's been forever since I post around here:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DNaY9



I need to keep doing more of this stuff. I do some at work but it's work related (obviously) and can't post it anywhere, plus they are more paintovers rather than full concept art.

 

[dno_1966]

Stunning!

great work everyone, keep it up, it's very inspiring for beginners like me.

 

[DM_Uselink]

It doesn't totally count as "drawing-a-day" since it took two days, but... it's been forever since I post around here:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DNaY9

I need to keep doing more of this stuff. I do some at work but it's work related (obviously) and can't post it anywhere, plus they are more paintovers rather than full concept art.

That's pretty sweet. The angle of the ground plane, as well as the light make for a good composition.

Here's something I did recently.

 

[LegendX48]

I made an apple with prismacolor pencils

 

[Ontoue]

It doesn't totally count as "drawing-a-day" since it took two days, but... it's been forever since I post around here:


I need to keep doing more of this stuff. I do some at work but it's work related (obviously) and can't post it anywhere, plus they are more paintovers rather than full concept art.

That is really fantastic, do you have any tips for painting stone/brick textures? That is something I have struggled with in my own piece and one that comes up quite often.


This one took about 20 hours, and I really feel like I am back out of my slump I've been in since my mother passed. I want to start making more art and posting more often.

 

[Mik2121]

That's pretty sweet. The angle of the ground plane, as well as the light make for a good composition.

Here's something I did recently.

Thanks! I wish I could use as many colors as you do, though, haha! It's hard to get so many colors to blend nicely.

That is really fantastic, do you have any tips for painting stone/brick textures? That is something I have struggled with in my own piece and one that comes up quite often.

Uhm, personally I usually paint the surface up to a certain point (add the colors I need, some general shapes), then add some photo detail on top. For this one, for the column, I painted it up to about 80% of the final visuals, then I took a photo with some bricks and masked it so that only the black areas would come through and then just layered it on top.

I know that might not be a very useful description, but.. that's what I did in this case.

 

[Ontoue]

Thanks! I wish I could use as many colors as you do, though, haha! It's hard to get so many colors to blend nicely.



Uhm, personally I usually paint the surface up to a certain point (add the colors I need, some general shapes), then add some photo detail on top. For this one, for the column, I painted it up to about 80% of the final visuals, then I took a photo with some bricks and masked it so that only the black areas would come through and then just layered it on top.

I know that might not be a very useful description, but.. that's what I did in this case.

No, that makes sense. I've heard of using photo overlays before but never tried it myself, I am far too lazy to go find things and take pictures of them.

1 hour study of a rock, following along a simple lesson from Ctrl Paint. I feel much more confident with my basic rendering skills now to make something very quickly, and I am pretty satisfied with this and its subtle texture.

 

[Mik2121]

No, that makes sense. I've heard of using photo overlays before but never tried it myself, I am far too lazy to go find things and take pictures of them.



1 hour study of a rock, following along a simple lesson from Ctrl Paint. I feel much more confident with my basic rendering skills now to make something very quickly, and I am pretty satisfied with this and its subtle texture.

You don't need to take photos yourself. Go to Google and image search something with the "Usage Rights" set to "Labeled for Reuse". Or go to some website that sells photo packs like www.photobash.org or private packs sell around gumroad!
I use my own photos only sometimes if I happen to take something useful, but 99% of the times, at least for now, it's stuff I found online.

 

[Ran rp]

Some artists offer free photo sets on Gumroad.

Noah Bradley's are great

https://gumroad.com/noahbradley

Dennis Houwers

https://gumroad.com/dennishouwers

Leesha Hannigan

https://gumroad.com/leeshahannigan

 

[DM_Uselink]

Thanks! I wish I could use as many colors as you do, though, haha! It's hard to get so many colors to blend nicely.

I am guilty of abusing over saturation. It's harder for me to use more subdued palettes. I should definitely try!

...but not today!

Here's another one using the same brush from the previous post I made.

 

[LegendX48]

Been reading through the Dark Phoenix Saga so here's a thing I started yesterday and finished up this morning:

It ain't her regular spandex suit cause I went in thinking, "how would it look if it were more tactical or in the MCU," and this is what I came up with.

edit: also, here's a so-so pic of Ciri from the witcher 3 in her dlc outfit I did back on Tuesday

It... came out crummy >.>

 

[Servbot24]

Haven't posted any drawings in a while as I'm currently in Croatia. Met guys like Marko Djurdjevic, Adrian Smith, Even Muhl Anderson, Dan Luvisi and others getting feedback and stuff - super valuable and a huge kick in the butt to draw more and study more productively (and all cool guys too)!

For now here's a page from my sketchbook when I went to Zagreb's zoo:

 

[LegendX48]

Did some (unsuccessful?) studies the last few days:

kinda hard to draw certain parts of the head when they aren't actually in the picture and you have to guess the hair style and/or everything above the forehead/eyebrows >.>

 

[Diabelli]

It doesn't totally count as "drawing-a-day" since it took two days, but... it's been forever since I post around here:


https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DNaY9



I need to keep doing more of this stuff. I do some at work but it's work related (obviously) and can't post it anywhere, plus they are more paintovers rather than full concept art.

Man, I love your stuff. Compositions are simple (in a good way), shapes are clean and distinctive with just the necessary paint strokes. Sometimes leaving out the superfluous details is the hardest thing about painting (I may or may not have stole that from Brahms). Your work reminds me of Eytan Zana's, and just like I have his tutorials I would totally buy a gumroad tutorial from you - have you ever considered doing one?

 

[sycam0re]

Haven't posted any drawings in a while as I'm currently in Croatia. Met guys like Marko Djurdjevic, Adrian Smith, Even Muhl Anderson, Dan Luvisi and others getting feedback and stuff - super valuable and a huge kick in the butt to draw more and study more productively (and all cool guys too)!

For now here's a page from my sketchbook when I went to Zagreb's zoo:

awww man you went to ifcc? tell me all about it! i wish i can go. how can artists afford to go to these things ;_;

good work per usual

 

[Servbot24]

awww man you went to ifcc? tell me all about it! i wish i can go. how can artists afford to go to these things ;_;

good work per usual

Yeah it was awesome! Definitely recommended if you ever get the chance. Lots of inspiration, lots of socializing with like-minded people and loooooots of drinking. x_x And it's all the pro guys that really go to town, lol.

I could only afford to go because art isn't my main income. I work at a software company as a technical account manager but am hoping to make the switch to a studio at some point. The feedback from IFCC is that I should go ahead and apply places, but I dunno... I kinda want to improve my portfolio a bit first. I may give myself 3 months or so to do that.

Couple more sketches from the trip. Marko Djurdjevic looked at these and you could just see the pain in his eyes at them not being up to par, haha. Gotta keep practicing!

 

[LegendX48]

Doing more studies cause I'm garbage:

Uuuuugghh......

 

[Beats]

I haven't really drawn anything else besides figure drawing stuff and fundamentals practice lately. Tried to sketch out a character today though. Still not where I want to be at, but going to keep at it.

 

[LegendX48]

I don't think I've ever done one of those "Draw this again!" pictures... until now

Now if only I had taken such frequent, 6 month breaks in between drawing back then @_@

Also, new art challenge is up for those interested: Great Gaf Art Challenge #25 - "Faeries"

 

[LegendX48]

And finally done with this

Pretty happy with it. Gotta read through more of that Loomis book, it's insane how helpful one tiny thing from that book has proven to be in a very short amount of time.

 

[Ontoue]

A sheet of eye practice from the past week. Drawing people and characters has been a major weakness of mine for a long time, but I feel confident enough to start trying again now, I suppose.

And a little more stone practice:

 

[DEATH™]

Cross post from Art Self Study Thread. Feedback please!

I really need help with values, especially on skin! Also, there is something missing on this one that I can't pinpoint what... help!

 

[Not]

I remember like 3 years ago when I actually was going to try to post something everyday. Anyway, I got tired of my old Wolverine avatar so I made a new Wolverine avatar. I pored over a legit anatomical reference book trying to get the musculature and proportions right (I suck at lats, trap, delts, TMs and especially ribs). And in the end I cut all that stuff out of the avatar anyway lol

alt colors

 

[Breads]

I've been flirting with the idea of a simple cartoony plague crow thing for a possible side project.

This is the initial pass. Design might evolve over time so I'm posting here for posterity. Also because I never post anything I do here which I feel like I should change. There is a lot of awesome stuff going on here.

Learned that I don't know shit about bird anatomy/ feet though.

 

[Mik2121]

Man, I love your stuff. Compositions are simple (in a good way), shapes are clean and distinctive with just the necessary paint strokes. Sometimes leaving out the superfluous details is the hardest thing about painting (I may or may not have stole that from Brahms). Your work reminds me of Eytan Zana's, and just like I have his tutorials I would totally buy a gumroad tutorial from you - have you ever considered doing one?

Hey sorry, forgot to come around here for the last few days!

Thanks for the comment. I'm still learning myself so I don't feel confident in doing any sort of tutorial yet. I have been asked to record some timelapses of what I do so I might do that eventually!

I also got a Zana tutorial (the skull one). And my stuff might remind you of his because I pretty much enjoy the same style (painted but with lots of texture work that has a few more layers of painting on top again). Ideally I would like to do the same kind of stuff, though right now I'm just (?) a 3D Environment Artist

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I've been flirting with the idea of a simple cartoony plague crow thing for a possible side project.

This is the initial pass. Design might evolve over time so I'm posting here for posterity. Also because I never post anything I do here which I feel like I should change. There is a lot of awesome stuff going on here.

Learned that I don't know shit about bird anatomy/ feet though.

Is that a crowier Eileen? I like it, adorable

 

[Breads]

Is that a crowier Eileen? I like it, adorable

I'd be lying if I said Monument Valley x Bloodborne wasn't on my mind.

Thanks for the comment. I'm still learning myself so I don't feel confident in doing any sort of tutorial yet. I have been asked to record some timelapses of what I do so I might do that eventually!

I'll be looking out for it if you do. Love watching that kind of stuff. Learned most of what I know from it. Shadowplay is what I use for desktop recording nowadays. So lightweight I forget it's on sometimes.

 

[LegendX48]

Jesus christ, drawing digitally with regular drawing tablets (ie intuos pro, etc) is a pain in the ass @_@

been working on this since Sunday night:

the actual drawing would have been done back on Sunday if I had just done it with pencil and paper >.>

It's infuriating.

Ugh, sorry for the complaining, just needed to vent a bit

 

[zoukka]

Lunch fanart dookie.

 

[LegendX48]

and here's my latest disaster finally complete:

There's a lot more I could've done but hell with it, it's done! Now someone remind me to never ever draw digitally ever again.

 

[cakefoo]

Oh dear. This drawing really set the bar high for me to match. I don't have any formal schooling, I only jump on photoshop a few times a year, and this took a lot of mistakes and guesswork. But I feel so attached to the character because of how much time I put into it, like I've never felt before. I guess I'm getting a Wacom tablet soon, and I'm going to try to do at least a halfway decent drawing every day.

 

[zoukka]

.

 

[Cmagus]

I've been addicted to Rhythm Heaven the last few days. Did this quick little piece for fun.

It was made in Flash.

 

[Servbot24]

Lunch fanart dookie.

Don't know what it's from but I love it!

 

[DEATH™]

Feedback pls!

 

[zoukka]

Don't know what it's from but I love it!

It's time you install waifuwatch!

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Feedback pls!

Not sure about the proportions, the head feels big and the arms feel too small?

 

[DEATH™]

Not sure about the proportions, the head feels big and the arms feel too small?

Thanks! Most of my issues with this piece is the arm (The head I could fix later). I wanted to draw it a little bit foreshortened but it didn't translate too well on the linework (no way I can indicate depth on that). I added the armband to at least add a crosssection but I drew it with the wrong orientation (should be concave up).

Right now I came to a realization that I should avoid foreshortening unless its necessary (like punching/reaching out). Even most of the pieces I observed either have no foreshortening or go full foreshortening. I also screw up the silhouette getting the middle ground.

 

[Prax]

prax self portraits are all so cute and realprax is also so cutecutecute *______*

what is this... art vs art thingy :>

also hallo drawgaf <3 long time lurker here~ you are all very talented amg \o/

Haha! Thanks!
The Art vs Art thing is just surrounding your selfie with art you make--usually portraits of characters, but I have seen otehr artists using men's abs they've drawn or something. lol The main idea is to show off how you are represented in your art in some way, like maybe your image is used as a reference in how you proportion your figures. In my case, I just surrounded myself with self-insert art because I like playing up narcissist angle.


This is like the only thing I've drawn in weeks. I am bad. lol

You guys are so good with trying to do studies. I wish I had that kind of work ethic!


One of my friends is a recent illustration/art history grad and she's kind of looking to land a career in the field and I wish i had better advice for her, but the art field just seems so fraught with unpredictability/insecurity unless you have enough grit and work ethic to output even when you are not "feeling it". My sense is that unless you have a specific niche (let's be honest, a lot of this niche is gonna be erotica lol) or are really REALLY exceptional, it's going to always be a bit of starving artist mode. Any thoughts from some of you more established or about-to-enter-the-market guys?
I personally felt that I do not have the work ethic to "perform" creatively on a sustainable make-a-living level (I'm real flaky when it comes to art + money), so I've always been dodgy about pursuing it as a serious endeavour, but I like musing about the what-ifs a lot.

 

[zoukka]

more dank fanart

 

[Cmagus]

Some line art I did the other day while I was working with a new program.