Gaute - Art school journey

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Hi. I've been drawing for some years, little bit on and off. Been through hectic times without economic security to really be able to dig into digital art But now I do, so have started out for full now. My main goal is to get my drawings to be able to tell a story. May start animating again after awhile too as I studied it for a year in Canada.

Second goal is to be able to live by it. I am a worker at heart, and can work for hours without end. But After 29 years I have noticed that the social jobs I usually end up getting does not fit an highly introverted person like me x)

Here's my journey:

It first started back in December 2018 so thought I'll share the first half year progress:

After that year I had to move back home, but spent some time just drawing anatomy over and over again between sending job applications:

(These)

Don't ask how many times I've drawn them I have no idea.

But no, onto the Journey: Have done the tasks from term 1, except Perspective. Focused a lot on Gesture drawings:

Image adjustments, was not able to get the last picture correct. Any tips I either had too much red or broken colors.

I went to the next class after awhile of failing hehe. So for 13 days I've been doing gestures. Here's a quick overview.

I wanted to experiment with it so started working on a project. This is how far I've got with the art class for now:

Date 12.16.2020

Little bit of improvement

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Here's the rest, was only allowed to post 5 pictures:

[Nene89]

Hey! I would say u are going in right direction with this figure drawing... something that I noticed in this last pic, seems like girl`s legs are disproportional with upper part of her body, it seems like they are too "strong"... anyway good job and keep practicing

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Thanks. Yeah, had a tendency to give my figures strong legs back in beginning 2019 late 18 which is the time it was drawn. Probably still do hehe even though I have started to become more free and dynamic with my proportions.

I'm pretty much all over the place on how I draw things, but it seems to be settling down more and more on a particular kind of look as I keep at it. So will see where it goes

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Progress update for my Crabby little drawing

[_Sasha_]

This is a really ambitions project and hope you finish it so we can see the finished piece!

As for feedback, I would recommend pushing the values, higher contrast for things that are close to the camera, and lower contrast (everything closer to grey) the further away from the camera it is. At the moment the painting feels a bit flat so that should help it pop a bit more.

Also to keep in mind, if you've got the character and crab quite bright/close to white, have the areas around them darker in value so they stand out more. It looks like you've done that a bit already but it doesn't feel 100% grounded, I think you need to make the whole rock behind them a fairly consistent value. And remember that you won't be getting ambient occlusion on the rock from the character as they're not close together in 3D space, even if they are on the page.

Hope this helps at all, and good luck!

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Thanks "I would recommend pushing the values, higher contrast for things that are close to the camera, and lower contrast (everything closer to grey) the further away from the camera it is" ^^ I'm actually doing that right now. Already looks better after lowering the contrast.

I'm confusing myself a little with the lighting though, as the crab eyes that the character hold onto are also going to have a glow. So far I've mostly sticked to the default front right side pointed lighting. So it's new to try having a 3 point lighting system. Some light from entrance and light from the two crab eyes.

[_Sasha_]

For the multiple light issue, what you could do is each light source on a different layer, light the character with each of the eyes individually then just set them to a layer mode like screen or overlay, that way you can focus on a single light source at a time.

And that second version has a better sense of focus I think. it's clear the character and crab are the points of attention.

Though I do think having the sky a nice bright colour with some subtle light beams leading into the cave towards the character could be a nice touch if you were so inclined.

[leeireo]

Sasha has already input some great tips! If I were to try to add on to hers, you might also want to keep in mind that the time of day can also dramatically change your lighting setup in this artwork.

For example, let's say your cave entrance was facing east and the sun was rising. A lot of the light would make it into the cave and be the dominate light source so the glow of the crab's eyes wouldn't affect the surroundings much.

But let's say it was midday in this scene. Then the sun would be on top of the cave so not much of the light will directly enter the cave. In this case, the crab's glowing eyes could affect the surroundings a lot more.

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Lots of good things here Thanks. As I've already have lights on it's own layer, I think I'll just start over and try out the one light at the time on each layer. Should make it simpler by a lot. I do fancy me some light beams.

[gaute.abrahamsen]

It's taking shape. I had a little try on coloring with Gradients in Krita like I usually did with Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint, but will have to try again tomorrow.

[gaute.abrahamsen]

I'm on a standstill now. I know there's plenty that can be done, but my brain just can't comprehend it and take it further than I have got so far. Neither do I have some magic detailed rock brushes like Marc use in Term 10 Digital Illustration x) Just swoop over, bam. Rocky surface.

This is what I've been able to do with what I do have at the moment. I do feel like ending it soon and do more character drawings.

[_Sasha_]

I think it looks good, you've clearly put a lot of time and effort into it.

There is definitely value in knowing when to stop, as there's always ways to add more details. And although that in itself can be a selling point, you don't want to get stuck in a rutt if it's causing you trouble!

Can't wait to see what else you make ^-^

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Thanks, then it's decided. Gonna put my sign on it when I got the time and put it out Kinda want to do more complex character poses together with all the steps I've used on this drawing next. With clothes as my cloth visual library needs a boost.

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Slowly going over to less lines. This one was to study lights from reference but still have heaps of distance to go with lighting and composition. It looks pleasing, but I do want my lights to be interesting. And my drawings to look less like clay, more like all the semi realistic professional drawings that are so easy to stumble upon on the net.

[gaute.abrahamsen]

My latest project, There's this Griffon mount in the game Guild Wars 2 I wanted to make into a humanoid. This is the final result

[gaute.abrahamsen]

Have stumbled into a group of other artists and we draw together many times a week. Got quite the progress compared to last time. If you scroll up on this topic you can see the old version of the drawing I've reworked here