[vatteh]

Hey everyone.

I'm just a student trying to get better at art. I've been picking up my practice and I still have a CA sketchbook that you can take a look at here . Hopefully in a few years I will be good enough to enter into the industry and do art full time. But for now, here are some studies and works from memory. Feel free to crit.

kinda Motoko Fan art


My entry for the Crimson Daggers Bloodsports Challenge


A Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin study

[vatteh]

Just some studies and personal sketches.

self portrait


still life of my lamp


personal sketches to test from memory

[vatteh]

Here's my entry for the Crimson Daggers Bloodsport Challenge 11

My concept for the statue


The final image


Photo studies I did to prepare

[vatteh]

Sup guys. Just some studies and personal stuff

Still lifes of some shoes



Crimson Daggers Bloodsport 12 - Sell some Beer! We were to design a beer label to put in front of a beer bottle.


Drawing Jam 76 - Alternate Avengers Poster

[vatteh]

More stuff I did for CGhub Challenges.


DJ 78 - The Werewolf


DJ 79 - King of Beasts


DJ 80 - The Tree of Life


just a sketch

[Veneq]

Hey Vatteh - hopped over here after seeing your entry for the Breath Of Life character forge. Nice entry - you've improved quite a bit on that piece from your most recent sketchbook update.

Your studies look really really good and I can see a bit of that thing going on that happens to everyone where your studies are a lot stronger than your imaginative/personal stuff. I have a few suggestions to attack the problem that have helped me with varying success.

The first is to try to vary the method by which you study. For me I'll do studies that start with tight line work and then mask everything and go to work. Other times take a very painterly approach just blocking in large shapes and blobs and working your way down. And then sometimes I'll do combinations of the two where I sketch it out sort of loosely and just use lines more for proportion and positioning.

The last thing is to try to replicate studies from memory right after you complete them. Try to remember everything about the creation of the study. Anyway, keep up the hard work dude!

[vatteh]

Pierce - Thanks man. Yeah lately I've been taking the CA and CGHub challenges very seriously. I figure its a great way to see my progress. Ive always noticed how my stuff from memory is way weaker than my studies. And I've actually been doing the memory studies you recommended. They really are a good exercise. As for switching between lines and large shapes; that's something I should try. I usually just use start with big shapes for my studies and then use lines for my personal work. Gotta think about using more consistently with my work. Thanks again.

Ok, I'm going to try again to take this sketchbook more seriously and post work again. Here are some master studies I did a while ago.

[vatteh]

And heres some still life. Trying to go do these more often so I can actually interpret light instead of just copying shapes.

[amemoryinblue]

Amazing start to your sketchbook! And it's evident that you're very determined and practice a lot and it's really showing. You have nice lines and seem to have a good grasp on digital brushes as well What I believe you should focus on some is color variation - for example, I'm looking at a fish, clothes or armor that are built almost only of shades of the same hue - and color doesn't work that way from light to dark - it changes hues and saturation a LOT - something that you've definitely achieved when doing the studies from the masters paintings and from life. But to be able to do that from imagination I think you need to read some theory - and here's some info, I hope it is useful: color theory
There's a lot of discussion about hue, saturation and tones there and from what I remember the LAB color picker can be a big help
LINK 2
Good luck on your future drwings

[vatteh]

amemoryinblue - Thanks for the reply. I've got to focus on my colors more, I've been getting that critique alot now. Your second link on how LAB works was very interesting; I will send time learning how it works.

Here are some memory studies I've been trying.

Heres a Sargent study I did. The second panel is from memory afterwards and the third is corrections I did after I opened the original. This exercise really helps; You see all the things you just don't pay attention to when copying ans going on autopilot.

photo study of the same thing


for these I just didn't bother showing the second step.

[vatteh]

Latest piece I did for CharacterForge on CGHub - The Blue Wizards


Quick studies to prepare

[vatteh]

Recently I've been doing studies, then testing myself from memory to see how much I retained. I just did a study of one of my most favorite portraits on CGHub by crowgod. You can check it out here. Anyways heres the original.



And heres the first study. Now looking at it, I see I missed alot of edge work and colors in the face



And heres the first study form memory. Yeah realized how little I actually retained and paid attention in the study. Very disappointed, I wanted to redo this over and over again until I was satisfied.


The second from memory



The third from memory



The forth from memory. Trying to get that pale skin tone but made it too pink.



The fifth form memory



And the sixth from memory



I don't know whether it is a good idea to do studies from artists currently in the field and in the end I'm not satisfied with the final result, but I feel that I learned alot more doing this than what I usually would with a study.

[Blindrat]

I think yuor studies are very nice. The memory aspect you're doing is interesting way of doing them, but like in the last example I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about the "from memory" part. You did well with it to me as you in each attempt remembers one or more aspects of the original image, but it had more of yourself in it. This is a good thing as it comes off more as an interpretation than a typical master copy. It is inherently better to do studies from life in my opinion as there is little visual bias compared to an artists work where they have a certain way of seeing or rendering their subject.

Theres nothing wrong with studying from either though. Overall you're studies are coming along quite well and I hope to see you push yourself further. I love the lord of the rings studies as well, those came out quite well! Keep it up!

[vatteh]

Blindrat - yeah that's true. I'll have to make sure to mix up my studies and not be so hard or strict on myself when doing these.

I decided to try this again with a photo I found on The Sartorialist.
Here's the original study


1'st try from memory


2'nd try I focused on the pose, eyes and skin tones


3'rd try was about the cool highlights and nose


4'th try I focused on fixing the nose, but forgot the cool highlights on the skin tones.


I opened the photo and did corrections to the study above.