[Starexai]

Hey guys! I'm Edward Charles Thomas III (Edi) aka Starexai.

I'm creating this sketch book to hope for some awesome critiques from you awesome artists! I know all the basics to Photoshop but I feel like I'm completely new to rendering. I'm open eyes and ears when it's comes to any tutorials, tops and tricks I can get from the community.

Thank you for viewing and hopefully you enjoy yourselves viewing my adventure!

[Starexai]

There are moments where you begin a project, artwork, or anything creative and time is consumed by other responsibilities. At times we wish we could get back to them, but usually we have lost motivation by then. Well, finally I'm having that dejavu moment. Since viewing back at my pieces left on dusty shelves, I decided to finish them one by one!

This is a piece I started for a challenge on CGHUB from their challenges ! Unfortunately, around the time of creation, college assignments were kicking in and my motivation for this piece was forgotten. Well, the challenge was "Pin-Up Mermaid" from the 2D Character Forge section.

The Painting is named "A Mermaids Prayer" and here is the unfinished original for the challenge. Enjoy!




Taking time from a painting gives you a healthy and refreshed perspective when you return. Since this piece was forgotten, I was able to start anew from a completely fresh perspective. I did notice that her face was not symmaterical and a bit unproportionate if I were to flip the image. Also the direction in which her tentacle hair is flowing should flow to the other side since she's being pulled to the left of the painting. I decided to redraw her face, add some more tentacles and start from the canvas again.



Starting to feel a color scheme and need to work on the them for the atmosphere. Feel free to collaborate with me and add some input! It's always a beautiful moment when two or more brains can help create a story. Memories, experience, and a connection is developed. Plus, we are all learning from participating. Collaboration is totally worthwhile anytime, anyplace, with anyperson!



I'm reconsidering tilting her head again to show the pain and force of the pull.

[Starexai]

So this current step, I tried to block in value with basic mermaid flesh tone. I started to wonder what would she look like if I rendered her fully in one area? That's when her face appealed to me and I decided to render her face to get a feel the potential of the rest of her body's color scheme. I'm thinking of making her skin bioluminescent with a iridescent shine and a shimmery texture. Her face is what the rest of the body will be painted like the next time I post!

[Starexai]

Hey Everyone!



I hope you guys don't mind critiquing my studies I did of eyes today. Each pair of eyes took me about an hour to do and it's literally my first time sitting down and rendering any feature of the body as a sketch. I've never sat down to sketch anything just to learn unless it was for school. I figured I would start to REALLY push myself to better my skills.

I decided to use other artists work inspiration to help me learn color and how to render. I felt looking at a photograph is more difficult and if I could teach myself a process I will feel better in the end using photo reference. After my first three, I'm really comfortable with the process but my goal is 100 or enough to exhaust me.


I personally am proud of my results and I would suggest for you to choose inspiring artist to learn color, shape, form, and value! This has really pushed me to study especially since it's an interested reference to learn from.


References are from Sakimi Chan: http://sakimichan.cghub.com/

[mjasnowski]

These look great, if you're not already, try to incorporate some studies from life. While looking at a photograph (as you mentioned) has its pitfalls, other artists renderings of anatomy (eyes in this case) are essentially photos of sorts, and may be stylized.

Keep sharing and drawing!

[Starexai]

Thank you very much for your feedback and encouragement M0josnowski!

I forgot to mention but out of my 100 eye studies I'm planning on using different mediums, reference types, still life, life and different styles. Like there is a challenge I want to do where I paint the eyes with as few brushstrokes as possible!

[Starexai]

Admist the other non-digital work I have been doing for school, in between I have been working on my eye studies! I'm really excited for this learning process. I have never really been confident with rendering and here I am finally rendering something that I'm comfortable with afterall. Once I finish this page, I'll post the bundle and then work on a different set of eyes! So far Sakimi Chan has done me justice!

Feel free to ask questions or offer requests, idea's for types of eyes to be part of my studying process!

Always looking for critique and opinions!

[Starexai]

Recently, I had a class assignment to create an advertisement of a modern day product in an Art Noveau style. I have learned that looking through the artists of history are actually really inspiring if you understand their artwork. Before, I couldn't find as much appreciation as I do now until Chris Oatley's Academy accepted me as a student. Alfonse Mucha is probably one of my favorite artists around the 1900s.

The product I chose was "Manic Panic" hair dye. Well, this is the work in progress for the piece! Enjoy!



Here I gained references from Alfonse Mucha's "Four Prescious Stones" & "Autumn". I loved the color schemes for my Art Noveau piece and decided to illustrate a different approach to the face of the traditional woman. I was inspired by the oriental culture. I do find some area's uneasy like her chest, legs and her left arm. I did not use a reference for this pose which is very important to do and I wish time was taken to research anatomy for a similar pose.

Color Scheme Preview with Line Art.



Line Art



So I followed through with my color scheme and started laying out the flast base colors!

[Starexai]

Going for Daily sketching, studies, doodles etc! This is the beginning of March.