Show us your drawings/artwork

You're exactly right in your description, it starts out as basic blobs of paint/value and refined until the forms emerge.

Art books? I've bought many over the years, all of which have gathered dust on my shelf and never served any real purpose other than a visually interesting form of inspiration and a way of looking cool to girls observing my bookshelf :p

Here's something to contemplate: You know Craig Mullins? If you don't, you'll most definitely recognise his work from FF The Spirits Within, Marathon, Halo and so on! Anyway... He didn't start drawing until he was 23, seriously! Just compelled to study illustration and learn forms. Shunned by the Art Centre lecturers and pushed towards other subjects he eventually ended up one of the best artists of our [digital] age. Inspiring, eh? :)

One of the drawings above was done over three layers so thought I'd save them out for you to see another step by step, side by side. :) Sometimes I'll only use one layer and have nothing of any real interest to save out.

greystockwip.jpg


A comparison...

Everyone can use a pen to write? Everyone has a different writing technique? Yet it's still legible?(in most cases)

That's the way I look at it. Same applies to drawing. Look at LanceCrossfire, his work is lovely and refined with careful brushstrokes in the right place. I'm as messy as anything. What ultimately matters is value, shape, forms. How you achieve those are irrelevant but it's still nice to practice and take in all varieties of techniques to improve! To me, my way of working is just far quicker and more effortless. Everyone is different :)
 
Just looking through the thread I can see an improvement on my own work, this practice stuff really does work :)

Oh and here's an updated version of an earlier rough sketch I posted up. Still not completed but I always leave things and walk away :p

titanic_speed3.jpg
 
Its not great!!..

desk1c.png


But it helpped me to make sure this would all fit

desk2gb.jpg


I also stuck more detailed measurements into AutoCAD just to make sure!! :D
 
shifty_uk said:
Just looking through the thread I can see an improvement on my own work, this practice stuff really does work :)

Oh and here's an updated version of an earlier rough sketch I posted up. Still not completed but I always leave things and walk away :p

[/QUOTE]

Your work is very good. Do you show it online and sell any of it?
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Thanks for your reply Shifty, what you've written is rather inspirational and making me think that I might just give it a go in the evenings!

I understand what you're saying about it being like handwriting and it's very true, Lancecrossfire's work is out of this world, I look at that and can't even begin to fathom how it was put together. Your work is more raw, it's possible to see the component parts that make it up which makes me think I could give it a go (to possibly laughable results!).

So can I ask what do you use to do it?

I use Photoshop everyday in my work and have a fundamental understanding of it's photo editing processes (I can't keep out of 'shop this' threads), but I have no knowledge of it's painting aspects.

I'm using CS5 and also have (somewhere) Painter, combined with a Intuos 4 tablet I've got all the ingredients, except any know how to give it a go.

Any tips on how to start...programs, brushes, settings?

That gives me an idea...we should start a thread for beginners art, post your newbie work! (obviously you and Lance aren't allowed to post :p)
 
Here's something to contemplate: You know Craig Mullins? If you don't, you'll most definitely recognise his work from FF The Spirits Within, Marathon, Halo and so on! Anyway... He didn't start drawing until he was 23, seriously! Just compelled to study illustration and learn forms. Shunned by the Art Centre lecturers and pushed towards other subjects he eventually ended up one of the best artists of our [digital] age. Inspiring, eh?
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I must thank you for that quote. It makes me feel better. I'm 18 and recently started drawing a few months ago. I seem to have an inherit skill, as nothing I make is 'terrible', I just need to keep practising. I always feel I got in the game too late though when I look at others' stuff. That kind of quote is really inspiring.
 
simulatorman said:
Your work is very good. Do you show it online and sell any of it?
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I'd love to earn an income from it, no matter how big or small. Trouble is, I've never known anyone in any form of art circle so I've never been pushed in the right direction. I wouldn't know where to start or what to pursue at all.

Celestial Nostos said:
I must thank you for that quote. It makes me feel better. I'm 18 and recently started drawing a few months ago. I seem to have an inherit skill, as nothing I make is 'terrible', I just need to keep practising. I always feel I got in the game too late though when I look at others' stuff. That kind of quote is really inspiring.
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I'm glad it inspires, it's never too late! That's what I tell myself, anyway. I'm 22. :p Mullins said he only got accepted onto an illustration course because of his 'credits'. Always found drawing(in the traditional sense with lines) difficult, even in his professional career but found solace in his ability accurately draft values/colour.
TheBigCheese said:
So can I ask what do you use to do it?

I use Photoshop everyday in my work and have a fundamental understanding of it's photo editing processes (I can't keep out of 'shop this' threads), but I have no knowledge of it's painting aspects.

I'm using CS5 and also have (somewhere) Painter, combined with a Intuos 4 tablet I've got all the ingredients, except any know how to give it a go.

Any tips on how to start...programs, brushes, settings?
Click to expand...

Laughable? Don't be silly, we're all in the same boat trying to learn. As I said earlier, it takes a life span to become a true craftsman(as cheesy as that sounds!).

Lance probably has the patience to sit and accurately paint every little part of those facial anatomies from reference. I hate to think how long he spent on those images, I'd have been bored after the first hour and a half so absolute kudos for that! Even my more completed pieces(the knight you referred to, for example), I had to come back again and again and spend no more than an hour at a time on it :p

This for example took me ages:

sitting_girl3.jpg


Mostly because I suck at line drawing and spent most of my time trying to get the forms correct! The shading to me, is the easiest and least time consuming part.

Brush settings: The image I posted the process for and largely most of my sketches are done using two default brushes in photoshop the square looking chalk brushes(there's loads of different sizes) and a basic round brush with pen pressure switched on.

That's it, open your canvas to an appropriate size and you're ready to rock! If you want my brush set, I'll send it over! Focus on the basics though, fancy brushes(none of which I have) can't add anything.

One thing I will say which I find pretty important is never start with a white canvas if you're doing a painting!

Why? Same reason oil painters block out the white canvas with an under paint layer. Very rarely in nature are things 100%, it just doesn't happen so you wont need or want it showing through. Better to get rid of it right away than spend the rest of your time trying to block every bit of white out with a brush after you've started.

:)

Hope that helps and inspires others to post their stuff no mater how rudimentary or beginner like!
 
shifty_uk said:
Lance probably has the patience to sit and accurately paint every little part of those facial anatomies from reference. I hate to think how long he spent on those images,
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The faces took no longer then 4 hours start to finish, with about a 15-20 min break in the middle. I timed myself deliberately to see what I could churn out in that time. The other images vary in time, anywhere from an hour to 4 again.

I'll add some more to the thread next week maybe when I've had a shot on my new Cintiq and submitted my uni work.
 
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Just thinking, would anyone be interested in a daily challenge type scenario, where by we'd post a reference image, sketch it out and upload our results? :)
 
shifty_uk said:
Just looking through the thread I can see an improvement on my own work, this practice stuff really does work :)

Oh and here's an updated version of an earlier rough sketch I posted up. Still not completed but I always leave things and walk away :p
Click to expand...
That's really nice work, definitely an improvement on your earlier pieces.
 
Can't wait til my student loan comes in. Buying a tablet for definite (thinking wacom intuos4 medium).

Prepare your angus for multiple crap drawn things from moi. :D
 
Jeez you lot make me sound like a poor amateur with all your fancy tablets :p My little bamboo is still going strong!

Just made an example of what I was talking about earlier, hardly decent so you lot do not have anything fancy to live up to :D

sabrina_rathje.jpg


I HATE FACES!
 
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