Lockenheim - Art School Journey

[ErroIsTheFool]

Ooo, I'm very interested to see how the fan art turns out!

I think the most important thing when it comes to faster sketching is comfort with drawing a certain subject. For example, I can much more quickly and easily draw a human body than when I first started drawing. A lot of the time is spent trying to correct errors and stuff.

Your idea of doing timed 10-15 min character sketches sounds like a good one to me, because it'll force you to capture the essential elements of the drawing and you can't get bogged down by the details while doing so. They may look ugly at first, but they'll get better as you get more experience! Though the longer form studies are important as well. (It's like in figure drawing you have gesture drawings and the long analytical figure studies, which are both important on getting better at drawing.)

Also, I have no idea if this video is relevant to your exact issue, but I think it's very thought-provoking and may be helpful, so I'll share it anyway!

[Lockenheim]

@playforwho89 @ErroIsTheFool Thank you very much for the feedback! I will have to give this a try. Thank you for the video Errol, I believe I have watched it before but I should watch it again as I have gotten better since I watched it the first time. I definitely don't have any tempo, most of what I do is painfuly slow. Marc had said this is not something to worry about, that I am really slow because I generally work on things that are much harder than where my skill level is at so I run into a lot of problems that need solved which is absolutely correct. I will keep moving on and practicing! Thank you everyone for the feedback. Going to be a light week for me this week as well then should be back in full swing.

[omarkamil2003]

I am really happy to see your progress, this is motivation material at this point ! And also your shading is awesome 😮.
GOOD STUFF!!

[Lockenheim]

@omarkamil2003 Thank you very much for the kind words! This is my update from last week! Just postiny my submission again and my updated work after feedback. Feedback is always welcome!

[gregorya]

This is a good start for 3D. I think you need to complete the circle behind her. Which modelling software did you use?

[ErroIsTheFool]

Ooo, this looks great! I love the lighting and how you drew her face! The only thing that might add a little touch is adding cast shadows to things like under the bows, under the hemline of the dress, and under her curly hair. That's just a suggestion, and it still looks great!

[Xybb]

Hey Locke,

I really like your recent pieces and how the progress is visible with each one. I don't know if Marc mentioned this but I feel like the pose could use a little more dynamism. I tried to show below how I'd approach it, but noticed that you were probably going for something less pronounced like the girl with the dress in your refernce. Still, I'd try to push at least the arms a bit more and maybe also change where she's viewing at, as the somewhat stiff gesture and the blank stare give her kind of robotic feeling (to me).

Overall I really like your approch and the thought that you out in each piece is apparent. Can't help but get motivated each time I look at your work.

(Whoops, forgot to flip the canvas back before saving. Sorry)

[Cha0s]

Nice work Locke! I'm excited to see how this turns out!

[Lockenheim]

@gregorya Thank you so much for the kind words! I made this is photoshop. It's funny you said that because Marc also said that it looked like it was a 3d model. The only thing I did in 3d for this piece was the most basic shapes on the last submission, I did that in Zbrush and did everything else in photoshop. I did change my lighting process starting on this piece and I think it helps everything read a bit bitter. @ErroIsTheFool Thank you so much for pointing these out to me as well! I appreciate you pointing these out to me as I am not super familiar with cast shadows so I frequently miss a lot! Thank you I will make these changes! @Xybb thank you so much for this feedback! Actually I was going for something like you have shown below where it was very dynamic. I did the gesture for this piece about 6 times or so and I tried to push the pose so hard until it broke multiple times. I was happy with my gesture originally but then when I put the dress on it all seemed to fade away. I like the way that you add the dynamism (is that a word) to the arms and the torso specifically because that is what is most visible. I will be taking notes on this! I think I tried to add to much of my pose in the legs and it didn't read well under the dress. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to do this paint over! @Cha0s Thank you so much for the kind words! Its funny Marc also said the same thing to me on stream and I have never actually made it this far on a piece so truthfully I am not sure what the next steps should be lol. I have gotten what I want to out of this piece, mostly working on rendering the dress but I will go back and make the changes that people here have suggested. Though I don't know if I can change the pose at this point in the process. Thank you so much everyone for your feedback and kind words!

[Lockenheim]

Here is my work for the week! Trying to get back into full swing, you know, life things. Anyways feedback always welcome!

Changes per suggestions for Gwen piece. Thank you to all for your kind feedback.

Studies and practice for this week.

And here is the progress on my piece for this week, Spider Gwen.

Initial block in is as far as I got! Thanks so much for checking out my work for this week and feedback always welcome! Thanks so much.

[mitsuki-youko]

yooo so much improvement - esp with ur lines in just 3 weeks! Noice!

[mitsuki-youko]

i love your black cat cafe design!! while it uses mostly simple shapes it looks amazing when paired with your coloring!

[nikolinkanikolova]

Really good work. There is just one thing that borders me. The arm should be over the chest. You have it in first sketches and then you lost it. You have made great progress:)

[Lockenheim]

@nikolinkanikolova Ohhh yeah! I can see that now! Thank you so much for pointing this out Niko! I really appreciate the feedback! And! It was perfect timing to as Im working on the shading in that area today! Figured id post a WIP while I was at it Thanks so much also @mitsuki-youko I spent so much time on that black cat cafe. My first two perspective assigments took an insane amount of time each, probably the highest amount of time on any piece I have done went into black cat and magic shop. Thank you for the compliments! Here is the WIP. Feedback always welcome.

[gregorya]

These are some very great studies. I really like to know how long does it take to make this? I'm still surprised it's not a full 3D Model. And I really like the gray scale painting.

[k_idraw_]

This is great. You should submit it to the Character Design Challenge once you finish it. The July Theme is Marvel (Heroes & Villains)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CharacterDesignChallenge

[ErroIsTheFool]

Wow, this looks great! I really love the rendering of the face!

[mitsuki-youko]

This study looks reeally good! though the hair looks a bit stiff.. i think the top part looks good but the bottom part looks like it should go down some more

[lionelkochanowski]

Wow this looks amazing! Great job.

[Lockenheim]

@gregorya Thank you! I put a lot of work into the values. It takes me quite a while to work on a piece. I would say I put 40 - 50 hours in on the previous gwen piece and I'm at maybe 20-25 hours on this piece so far. I would say the line art by is the most time consuming step for me and also the most difficult. I'm sure others could complete this in less time but I have to do a lot of problem solving as I paint as many of these things I have not done before. I had a feedback with Marc the other week where I asked him about my speed and such because I feel like I am just soooo slow with everything and he basically had told me that I am slow because I am always pushing things that are outside of my comfort zone, so I always have a lot of problem solving to do. Which I think is correct. He recommends people do 30% outside of comfort and 70% in comfort and I probably do the opposite ratio. Anyways I try to spend about 40-50 hours on each piece I work on and I try to get past where I got past the time before. Sometimes I do a basic 3d model to help me understand the lighting and values, and I do have the reference to the side. But I try not to use the reference when shading unless I really need to because I like to imagine it in my mind and how it would react on the form. @k_idraw_ Thank you so much for showing this to me! I took a look at the rules and requirements and I definitely will! I think I'm going to push this one as much as I can for that contest. @ErroIsTheFool thank you! I feel like I am getting closer to faces that I find pleasing, not there yet but I need to play around with the features more. @mitsuki-youko thank you for pointing this out! I do think the hair needs some work for sure and I think some of the hair is to similar. @lionelkochanowski Thank you!