Albek's Art Blog

[albek]

Hey everyone. Hoping that posting stuff up here will help remind me to do more work aside from commissions. I've been feeling like I'm stagnating a bit and making myself do some personal projects where I can take more risks, and don't have to worry about time to price ratio's will (hopefully) help me push past that. Plus, any feedback you guys would care to give would be very helpful!

Starting off, here are a few bits I did in the last quarter of 2016:

[andrewnimble]

Hey there. These are nice! I especially like the last one. His expression feels like one side of his face was angry and the other one smiling, which makes it look awesome I also like the textures.
Hope we can help you to be more motivated here and keep improving!
See you around.

[lmx]

Which ones are from imagination? I recognize a character from Mass Effect last, but not the 2 other ones

[albek]

@andrewnimble Thanks! That's the expression I was going for, so I'm glad it came across!

@lemox The other 2 are just from my head; the witch because I wanted to do something halloween-y at the time, and the other my character from a homebrew tabletop rpg I'm (theoretically) playing in - mostly an excuse to draw a cyberpunk robot.

[big-misch]

Hello and welcome! Nice work you've posted!

I've heard multiple freelance artists mention the same problem, and they have all said the personal work outside your commissions is the answer! So I know it's more work for you, but it's worth it!

Can't wait to see them!

[enalya]

Hi, welcome! That is a good motivation
Your concepts and use of values are very good. I suggest to lower your contrast, especially use less low lights, even though our eyes love high contrast. I think it's too much - you drown some parts in darkness.
Furthermore, take a look at anatomy. For example the female witch' neck and the female robot's nose are a little off.

Keep it up!

[albek]

@big-misch Thanks, hope I don't disappoint! It's weird having to put off making money, but (I'm hoping) it'll allow me to do better work and maybe glimpse a livable wage in the future!

@enalya Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Definitely a problem with the robot's nose - one of those problems I was aware was there, but couldn't get the distance to properly see and correct it, something I really need to work on. The witch's elongated neck (and unnatural smile) were deliberate, but as its being highlighted as a mistake that presumably doesn't read right. I always have that problem when pushing proportions, not sure how other artist's manage to get away with it. Interesting point about the contrast. It's something I've been doing on purpose after people telling me my work didn't have enough value range, and I've been generally getting more positive reponses since. Guess I'm still not getting the balance right though, I'll keep trying

[albek]

A friend came up with a cool challenge, where those inclined would write some 6 sentence short stories/poems/descriptive pieces, and others so inclined would illustrate them. The above is my illustration inspired by the text they wrote. Its quite different to what I'd normally be doing, but it was a lot of fun; great excuse to experiment with lighting techniques and over-the-top effects. Plus, painting unusual textures on skin is always weirdly satisfying, as are clouds...

Anyway, here's the text they wrote:
"He follows, she leads.
Brother and sister. Silver and gold.
Night and day, night and day, day and night. Sometimes he almost reaches her - a shadow, a ghost, an echo.
He will never catch up."

And if you'd like to see some of the awesome artwork they've created, visit here: Dustillustration.tumblr.com