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Sketchbook; stickadtroja

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polycounter lvl 11
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stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
Hey all! Im starting one of these to push myself to get better at 2D. So crits and comments are more than welcome!

Im mostly in to fantasy but I feel that I need to do real, anatomic correct people and stuff to improve and get out of my comfort zone. So for every minutaur I try to make at least one realistic human.
heres my latest stuff;
goblin3y.jpg
minutaur.jpg
poseb.jpg

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  • Joseph Silverman
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    Joseph Silverman polycounter lvl 17
    Cool man! Looking forward to seeing more.

    I lke the giant holding the dude by the foot, it's pretty strong as an illustration, I think it could warrant that guy being fleshed out a bit.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    thanks man!
    you mean the minutaur or the hanging guy? cuz yeah it would be nice if I painted the hanging dude... not good at finishing pieces though. to lazy. so heres a new one instead;
    gammalcopy.jpg
  • DeusExMatteo
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    DeusExMatteo polycounter lvl 10
    Sweet old lady!
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    thanks mr DeusExMatteo!

    here's a quick portrait. came out kind of bland.

    peace


    queencopy.jpg
  • Blaisoid
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    Blaisoid polycounter lvl 7
    cool artworks, they deserve more polishing though. can't you hear their angry voices cursing your laziness?
  • Oranghe
    I'm loving the colors and your sketches but i agree with Blaisoid love to see it pushed more :D
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    here's a old one, and a new quickie. i agree with you guys, finishing stuff is my biggest problem, so i plan to do a finished piece as soon as i can.

    riddare2.jpg

    skiss6.jpg

    oh and also another unifinished sketch

    huntercopy.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    todays sketch. when in doubt, make goblin.


    goblin4copy.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    okey some new stuff.
    some anatomy study without ref. plan is to get some good ref and see how far off i was.

    skiss9copy.jpg

    and another girl, mostly done for clothes practice

    skiss8copy.jpg
  • Joseph Silverman
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    Joseph Silverman polycounter lvl 17
    Nice! I love the explosive linework and colors in this last one. Cloth looks super dynamic.

    You should do some studies from ref, though, man.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    Veeeery nice, me likey :).

    I'd prescribe trying so more dynamic poses and camera angles (or in this case, compositions) and colours too. Try and use your "explosive work" (as silverman puts it) try to assist in the feeling of the image.

    Van Gogh is an example. In this image (below) his style adds a cool and calm (and, okay.. sad) feeling to the image. But what im getting at is that he uses his brush strokes to add a mood to this image :).

    VanGogh-starry_night_ballance1.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    well i tried to do some more dynamic poses so this very wip image is the result. plan on finishing it so any critic would be super welcome now that ive mostly blocked out stuff.

    skiss10copy.jpg
  • matt luxton
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    matt luxton polycounter lvl 12
    really love your style and colour palette, keep up the great work
  • Pix
    I see so much potential in these sketches it's just mindblowing.
  • Cybersam
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    Cybersam polycounter lvl 8
    EXCELLENT POSES well done :). One thing I might point out is why the character on the right is looking shocked at the people behind him? You should add a character that is being stabbed BY the man on the right, that will explain why his back is turned.

    I cannot WAIT to see this in colour. Better PM me when you do :P
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    well been busy with work and stuff, you know the usual excuses, but now im back and i put some effort into finishing this one.

    skiss10_2.jpg


    any crits is as usual super welcome.
    Im think im going to focus more on dynamic lighting in the next piece since all the stuff i posted so far has really flat lighting
  • Pix
    it looks good so far and I did small crappy paint over to get across my words easier, if you make those creepy monster dudes bigger it might contrast more with human characters, also the painting itself is too far off to the right side hugging the third there, you might want to get rid of the shield too, it blocks too much information, if you make a spear and paint the guy holding it, make sure it's pointed to one of these monsters, just like if you would try to hunt a bear, you can also escape few things by making some fog in the distance perhaps lighter so the characters pop up more and those figures in the back taller for dramatic effect.

    I moved the characters to the middle and made those on right bit bigger, hence my crappy paint work, I wonder if this will work out for you.

    paintover.jpg
  • njc6425
    cool concept paintings, love the blue humanish character
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    pix: thanks a lot for the paint over and the crits! i totally agree with to much dead space on the left, i was actually going to have another blue guy between the trees, so maybe i add him later or crop the picture better. i agree also with the spear and the shield issue. im not totally sure about making the blue guys bigger though. i actually had them pretty big in my first sketch and then made them smaller. will go back on this one before i put it to rest, so ill see how i feel about the size then.

    njc6425: thanks!

    so heres some head studies. really want to learn to draw intresting faces. or to begin with, somewhat anatomic correct faces.

    skiss11.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    havent posted in a while but thought I would start now, to push myself to draw more.

    heres my most recent:
    riddare4.jpg

    not finished though (obviously) and i not very happy with the background, dont like the colours.

    also i maybe should put some to fight him in the foreground

    any comments/crits would be much appreciated!
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    new piece:
    skiss28.jpg
    as usual, crits are more than welcome!
  • Callesw
    wow, gotta say I like the dark kind of feel to your work.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    thanks! I checked your sketchbook aswell and there is some kickass stuff in there!

    new pic. ceature concepts for a friends game

    forest.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    wip for a new painting I'm doing;
    skiss33.jpg

    any crits would be super useful!
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    some progress:

    skiss33_2.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    somewhat finished. any crits would be appriciated!

    skiss33_3.jpg
  • Pix
    Coming up nicely, you might wanna to bump up the lighting and saturation by little.
  • Two Listen
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    Two Listen polycount sponsor
    Looking nice dude.

    Here's a couple things to consider:

    troja_po_1.png
  • Pix
    I think it sort of ruins the mysterious feel of his piece with strong lights like this.

    overpaint_mysteriousmonster.jpg

    1-2 it's about bringing attention to right parts of your image

    1. I painted this cyan fog you have over the hand slightly because that hand is clearly further away.

    2. Painted glow to the eyes to bring attention, it's a bright colour that instantly guides your eyes.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    hey really nice to get some feedback guys!

    two listen: both these are very good suggestions! i prefer the first one, and i thouhgt about adding a more direct light source and have dynamic shadows like yours. but even though it makes the picture more intresting for the eye, it detracts from the mood i'm trying to convey. the first picture of yours gives me a kind of exciting winter morning feel, and i want to have a more desolate, cold, lonely feeling...

    pix: i like this a lot actually! the face of the monster gets the eye straight away and everything else looks really cold, still and silent. i tried to mess around for a while with the contrast and levels settings in PS but i didnt get the same crispyness that you got. so i will probably have to do another paint pass...

    in either case, i added some slight glow on the eyes and also added snow flying in the air. im trying to make it more dynamic and add to the cold feeling...
    better or worse?

    skiss33_4.jpg
  • Pix
    Try soft brush at low opacity at lighter value then you can erase parts with hard round brush then it's up to layer opacity to do the rest.

    You can possibly dig in deeper with the cracks and darker values then punch up the areas of interest with higher contrast and value.

    Here is what I did for the eyes if you want to know, I painted the surrounding parts of monsters body using light saturated orange at low opacity and overlay layer, outer eye rims same orange but on light dodge layer and opacity change, then at the end I took lighter orange value and put it right on the eyes on normal layer, done it to correct the saturation a bit.

    Also last thing for some reason the guy with the axe bothers me a lot, sort of breaks the flow in your image, something about his body language. I think you could just paint a dwarf with his back against the wall.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    thanks! i really appreciate your feedback, but i havent spent spent any more time on that painting, other projects have been prioritized. i will do al the things you suggested before i add it to my portfolio.

    heres another piece, started as a warmup sketch but i now i feel i want to finish it.
    skiss38.jpg

    her anatomy is really not done. need to look more like a young woman than a girl, and the armor should have a more intresting siluette. im fairly happy with the trees and the colours though.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    fixed her armor...
    skiss38_1.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    2 new pieces; fantasy merchants from different races
    skiss41.jpg
    skiss44.jpg

    obviously i hate hands
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    new piece;
    skiss53.jpg
    probably going to add some people in it...
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    i wasnt really happy with the one above, so i redid it from scratch, and feel a lot better about it now. any crits would be more than welcome!
    skiss54.jpg
  • Pix
    Interesting characters.

    I'm digging that last one, reminds me of Princess Mononoke, you might wanna work on more dramatic lighting scheme here, stronger light on main character would be nice, you might also wanna work with more hues...I did slight overpaint for you, hopefully that helps to give you idea how to bring out your piece.

    (1) - Increased saturation in character using HARD LIGHT layer, using COLOUR DODGE layer you can work some sub surface scattering.

    (2) - Here is where I used some COLOUR DODGE to push these areas slightly, with soft brush.

    (3) - Dust motes you painted could be a nice addition like you have but you want them to be noticable so I did use COLOUR DODGE again

    (4) - Pushed shadows slightly to work values.

    Overall don't be afraid to use different layers, you can work as you do right now but then just use few layers with hard light or colour dodge, play with it, don't limit yourself :)

    mockup_stickadtroja.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    thanks so much pix! im very grateful for all the critics you give me!
    and so nice with an overpaint!

    yes, i could definitely push the saturation in all areas, and the character looks a lot more alive in your overpaint!
    i will go over it again and try to work in some more saturation and bouncy light and sss on the character.
    Pix wrote: »
    Overall don't be afraid to use different layers, you can work as you do right now but then just use few layers with hard light or colour dodge, play with it, don't limit yourself :)
    this though... im actually very hesitant to use different layes and effects. the reason why, is that i want to have full control, or rather know exactly what im doing. i rather learn to pick the colours right and know how sub surface scattering works, then to have the effect achived by colour dodge. to me there is too much stuff in photoshop that just "make stuff pretty", like overlay or sharpen. i know that this is kind of a limiting mindset, at least in terms of efficiency and speed, but when i do art for personal reasons, i prefer it, cuz i imagine that i wil benefit from it in the long run, and become a better painter by doing it "the hard way".

    i could be dead wrong though, i used to think this way about texturing 3d characters too, that i should handpaint ALL MATERIALS, but that i just had to give up on since it took to much time.

    anyways, im still super grateful for any critic and overpaints, they help me a lot! for example, due to your critic, i tried to work some sub surface scattering into the face in my latest piece;
    skiss59.jpg
  • Pix
    When it's for self improvement it's fine, it helps a lot when you escape using features and doing it the hard way, photoshop is just another medium to use :)

    But definitely something not to miss out if you will ever have to work for a client, you might wanna make it easier for the sake of saving precious time or even just for experimentation. :)

    New piece you made I can clearly see you try subsurface scattering, it also looks nicer, brings attention to the center of this piece, you can even try getting a flashlight and flashing it through your hand or fingers for reference.

    You also might wanna push dramatic lighting in your paintings quite a bit, focusing on areas of interest and all this.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    good crits, thanks!
    i especially agree about the dramatic lighting, my stuff often gets very flat.

    i tried to fix some of the issues in the forest painting, added bounced ligthing and more contrast;
    skiss54_2.jpg
    i also made a couple of new ones, im most pleased with the last;
    skiss63.jpg
    skiss64_1.jpg
  • Pix
    That's an improvement over the first one! I was watching some video and I believe it was Noah Bradley's, very talented artist, he said the key to dramatic lighting is to make everything else dark so even slightly lighter areas will seem very light by comparison, that way even the slightest value change will make it pop more by contrast so lightest value 70-90%, 40-70% for mid values, 10-40% Dark Values, never go below 10% or above 90% (HSB) on your colour picker, you might also be willing to lose contrast in certain areas and perhaps make things in background little bit softer in comparison to what's in midground and foreground, the trick is to use volumetric lighting using brighter colour or darker colour and big soft brush, very useful to push things into distance, you might also want to spend a lot of time in composition stage to work out main design and lighting scheme, so keep away from small brush as long as you can and work zoomed out to see overall picture and work out the basic shapes then basic lighting with colours, perhaps in navigator window, I'm not familiar with your process so saying this just in case. This way will allow you to tweak anything without feeling bad about changing something you worked on for at least few hours. There is also a trick, I haven't used it myself much, it's blowing up the paintings resolution and then continuing to paint, it tends to soften some edges in a very natural way.

    I notice you also tend to paint characters quite a bit, you can try using gradient, dark values going down from legs to lighter values around the head, also makes sense because light will hit there most and head is a point of interest.

    Now here is a scenario for lighting, you can use gradient tool to plan it out.
    Left is round gradient, right is linear gradient, you can see how it changes the way image reads, I also added cool colour gradient at the bottom, you can compare with your original, you don't even have to use gradient tool, you can use soft brush at big size.

    tweak.jpg
  • OXGears
    i've just seen wizards, heavy metal, and fire and ice last week... your characters and style just reminded me of it.
  • sukadiki
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    Thanks!

    Pix: thanks a lot for this!

    i havent posted in a long while, but now i have more free time, so i thought i would resurect this old sketchbook.

    heres my latest sketches;

    skiss66.jpg
    skiss73.jpg
    elddrake.jpg

    they are all just sketches, im thinking that i should make a finished piece soon, to not get too comfortable not finishing stuff.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    somekind of space-dimension gatekeeper;
    skiss74.jpg
  • AimBiZ
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    AimBiZ polycounter lvl 14
    I like your rendering. The metal feels really nice on the latest one. Really liking that red floating dude. Would be cool to see that character in a context.
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    thanks a lot!

    the red floating dude, i made as a concept for a volcano god for a friends imaginary point and click game.

    heres the latest finished painting;
    skiss76_1.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
    trying to do more enviros:
    skiss82_1.jpg
  • stickadtroja
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    stickadtroja polycounter lvl 11
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