[nerahla]

I need to break the addiction! It probably won't work. Alas.

So, I'm starting a sketchbook here.

I'm not sure how to go about it, what I should post. Finished work? Sketches? Ideas? Silly doodles? All of the above?

Well, I'm sure of one thing - I actually need the help, advice and criticism of anyone willing.

[nerahla]

okay, so I'm working on completely re-working my entire portfolio to you know, actually have work in there that I want to do.

My goal is to do fantasy book covers and trading card game art. I've done a little of that already in extremely small freelance gigs, but my sights are big. I want to see my work on books in the store one day. It's good to have goals, right?

Anyway, I need to caveat that I am not a line-artist. I work out a lot of stuff in paint. Lines are just a guideline for me and I always paint right over them.

Anyway, this is my current sketch for a wraparound style book cover. It's from a scene in Robert Jordan's latest book. I got some advice a while back that I should be solving my own problems and doing the kind of work that I want to eventually get. So that's what I'm trying to do.

[jskotte]

Nice start here. Post anything sketches, finished, studies pretty much everything.

[nerahla]

Well, I'm still playing World of Warcraft, mostly because I said I'd show up and you can't bail on 9 other guys when they count on your awesome DPS. What can I say, my mage tops the charts

Yes, yes, I know, I could be better at art if I never bothered with WoW. But it's fun. I'm trying!!

Anyway, stuff.




Edited to add large image

[mjasnowski]

Originally Posted by nerahla

Well, I'm still playing World of Warcraft, mostly because I said I'd show up and you can't bail on 9 other guys when they count on your awesome DPS. What can I say, my mage tops the charts

Yes, yes, I know, I could be better at art if I never bothered with WoW. But it's fun. I'm trying!!

Anyway, stuff.


(Do people not really use the Attachment Manager? Mostly I see much larger images. I have three possible ways to host my own images, should I just do that instead?)

I sometimes use it, but if you want larger, you'll need to use an embedded link to the image (Insert Image). It will get resized automagically, but will show up much larger in the post.

[nerahla]

Still playing WoW. I swear to god after today's raid though, I may just quit cold turkey. I can't stand wiping for three hours because people can't execute -- especially when I'm not the one screwing up! Gah! :P


More stuff.




I was thinking of perhaps opening up the canvas and putting it a moderate BG in this one, finish it out for portfolio maybe?

[jskotte]

Now you got a sketchbook, so now we'll make you post here, so you can't play Wow all the time

You said you wanted some crits, so I'll try, but take what I have to say with a grain of salt, it might not all be right, but hopefully it can give you something to think about.

First off, I like the 2 images, but in certain areas I think they need more texture. For example: the skin, and also the pink dress in the lite area on the breasts on the and also a bit on the blue one, I realize that there is some texture there, but it seems kind of solid, maybe mostly in the dark areas in the blue one.

Personally, I think I would extend the canvas a bit to the right on both of them to get all the smoke in, it's a nice S-shape and the eye likes to follow those, and it's disrupted a bit at the moment.

Last thing. The blue you're putting down in the hair in the last image is maybe a bit too much, it kind of looks like the blue is pushing her down, this sounds stupid, but hope you get the point.

Anyways, hope there was something you can use here.

Looking forward to more.

[kelsm]

I really like the first image with the blindfold. Great value changes on the form. You might want to lower the contrast on the lower part of the image, some of the details and contrast on her arm and belly draw your eyes away from the focal points at the top. You could also cover up her right arm as that is a high contrast area of the image.

The second image is better in that regard. Her pose is a bit stiff though and her facial expression could use a bit more subtlety. Overall nice piece though.