Vadstart's Sketchbook

[vadstart]

Hey everyone, i grew tired of the loneliness of using Tumblr as a sketchbook and decided to migrate here where i can sketch while knowing that people are working on great art in neighbor threads at any moment
I've been painting for a few years already and my current goals are the following:
1) Learn how to use clear and interesting shapes in paintings and designs instead of copying ref 1:1
2) Get used to painting quickly and efficiently ('licking' the same spot over and over again for the whole hour is my bad habit)
3) Move at least a tiny step closer to the level of my favorite artist Laurel D Austin :3

Here's what i've been painting lately, starting off with a self portrait:

A couple of warmup sketches:

Composition and color master studies:

Progress on my ArtWar character, failed the deadline but not forgotten

And finally an interior tileset for the game we are creating with a friend:

[chris_r_art]

these are really good ! I like that you are kind of a bit like me and don't just let an Idea or a sketch stay out in the open but make a scene around it ^^ welcome to the forums !

[soluxos]

Welcome to the forums!
You made a nice start for your sketchbook. I like how you broke some studies down to their core elements, instead of jumping straight into painting mode. Also, I really like your Twitch splash art study! I'm gonna do some myself as well for practice.

Looking forward to more art updates of you ^_^b

[vadstart]

@chriswhatelse Thanks for the warm welcome! And yeah, i have a hard time letting ideas jsut go without exploring them

@soluxos Thank you! That's a technique i borrowed from Nathan Fawkes, really helps to understand the most important parts of a painting (i have a really bad habit of overdetailing everything and not having a clear focal points).

Finished concept sheet of Snilk:

Some sketches:

Quick sketch of our current Warhammer Fantasy Rpg party:

And some hoooooooorible faces done with pencil+brush pen, i really need to study more of them so they look more 3 dimensional and have less unnecessary detail (and also stick with just pencil for now, brush pen just adds a whole new level of difficulty on top of my shaky fundamentials, even though it's really fun to use)

[Georgie]

Love your portraits. The skin and eyes have a nice quality to them

[vadstart]

@Georgie thanks a lot! I still need to learn how the old masters mix in so many cool hues into the skin so it looks super rich and appealing.

After failing a lot with faces from imagination i decided to finally read up on Loomis:

Then i did some master and photo studies to ease my transition into a new process - the one with a relatively few, precise strokes focused on getting the form right, instead of 9000 semirandom ones that i usually do:

And the progress on the big illustration with Snilk - right now i'm wondering if i should change the composition somehow before jumping straight into rendering to finish:

[soluxos]

Aye, some really nice studies you got here, i can see much improvement in comparison with your first few studies in this sketchblog (:

As for your latest illustration, The painting so far looks really good!
I think revising the composition again will make the piece stronger. What I now notice is that both Snilk and his companion are both trying to 'compete' to get my attention; the canvas is torn in two basically because Snilk is on one side and his companion on the other.
The most 'desirable' is to have a ratio with thirds (=golden ratio), as it's one of the easiest but complex composition principle to implement in art. Overall, the piece feels a bit flat, lacking a feeling of depth.

I think you can get away with some extreme foreshortening in this one, that way you also force depth and dynamics in your piece. I added some examples from League of Legends splash-arts to give you inspiration:

Project Katarina

Blood Moon Talon

Heartseeker Lucian

Just my two cents, you can decide for yourself what you want to do with it [:

[vadstart]

@soluxos Thanks a lot for the great critique! I decided to change my composition after reading it - simplify the action, add more depth with foreshortening and setup clear priorities between the characters. Here's what i have right now - not ideal but WAAAY better than the last version (still need some polish and material definition before i can call it finished):

Also some studies from Loomis and Anatomy For Scultops by Uldis Zarins + sketches4fun:

[soluxos]

It's looking good dude, you're on your way (: