Xemphait - Art School Journey

[Xemphait]

Hello hello! I am Corey "Xemphait" Grosz and I am starting this topic to house future postings of my assignments.

Before I get to assignment stuff though I wanted to share artwork I have done to show my starting point. There is a good mix of drawings from reference and drawings from imagination.

This is Em, an original character I use for various tabletop games. She is a huge source of inspiration for me and the primary subject for a lot of my art.

I have spent a lot more time with pencil and paper than digital, and I still gravitate that way due to comfort...

I have done some digital stuff, most of it was done on my phone (Samsung Note series):

Last I wanted to include the best illustration I have done (I can't believe it has already been a year since I painted it )

This last piece took forever... but I think it turned out great compared to all my past works. My goal is to be able to produce more stuff like this (hopefully better!) but be able to do it in less time.

[Kosmonaut]

Welcome to the forums! These look great both your pencil and paper and digital. I was surprised you do some of those on a phone because I wouldn't have been able to do that personally based on the screen size and how tiny your movements have to be. can't wait to see what you learn and make in the future.

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Photoshop For Digital Production 1 - Assignment 1 - Digital Pen Control

I tried this exercise 3 times on my Microsoft Surface with Photoshop using different sensitivity and smoothing settings, once on my Samsung Note 9 with Sketchbook, and once with pencil and paper.

Each of the 3 on the Surface were the worst , what is shown above is the best of the 3 done on the Surface... I had the brush smoothing at 25% (the first test was default at 10% and the second test I did 0% since Marc says we shouldn't use it).

I am pretty disappointed at how jittery the lines are on the Surface. At first I thought maybe it was because of the smooth glass, but the Note 9 is smooth too and I didn't have nearly as jittery lines.

Also, the Note 9 did a much better job knowing when I set the pen on the screen and lifted it off. The Surface had a lot of late-starts and early-stops on the lines, which I CTRL+Z'd and redid each time.

Last, for the circles, on the Surface the start and the end of the circle rarely lined up (probably related to the above).

When starting a new piece I tend to gravitate to pencil/paper first, then my phone, leaving the Surface last. Maybe I already subconsciously figured this all out...

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Photoshop For Digital Production - Assignment 2 - Image Adjustments

Overall I think this went well. The last part was rough though.

Fun fact, I have a bit of colorblindness (I already knew this).

Checking the RGB/HSV values for #1 the middle green is pretty far off. I brought it to my wife and she can see the difference between the two, but I can't

I put a little something together to help me understand where I struggle to tell the difference in hue:

I blotted colors 5 degrees in hue difference apart from each other in a long line, and noted where I couldn't tell the different between two blots. Green is really bad for me so I tried escalating the difference in hue to see if I could tell the difference... turns out there is an area that even at 40 degrees apart I can barely tell the difference.

I just try to stay away from colors that are close to green (they are ugly in my eyes anyways )

[Kosmonaut]

I tried this exercise 3 times on my Microsoft Surface with Photoshop using different sensitivity and smoothing settings, once on my Samsung Note 9 with Sketchbook, and once with pencil and paper.

Each of the 3 on the Surface were the worst , what is shown above is the best of the 3 done on the Surface... I had the brush smoothing at 25% (the first test was default at 10% and the second test I did 0% since Marc says we shouldn't use it).

I am pretty disappointed at how jittery the lines are on the Surface. At first I thought maybe it was because of the smooth glass, but the Note 9 is smooth too and I didn't have nearly as jittery lines.

Are you using the surface pen or are you using a graphics tablet by either Huion, XP-Pen, or Wacom? If you are using the surface pen I would try to get a graphics tablet

[Xemphait]

Yeah I am using the Surface Pen... I have tried going to a few stores to test out a real drawing tablet but none of the stores around me has one on display.

[Kosmonaut]

you could try to order one online, like if you have access to amazon at a good price, if you use the surface as a tablet to draw then a screen tablet may be what your more used to but if you don't mind getting used to the disconnect between looking at your screen and drawing not where your looking a graphics tablet is a good buy. I would recommend the Huion HS611 graphics tablet. Its also healthier for your sitting posture as well if you can get used to it. I would love to have a large graphics tablet but they only make them at the largest 11x6 compared to getting something 22"

[Kosmonaut]

I would recommend the Huion HS611 graphics tablet

I had this tablet before I upgraded to a screen tablet for the bigger size

[Kosmonaut]

Yeah I am using the Surface Pen... I have tried going to a few stores to test out a real drawing tablet but none of the stores around me has one on display.

For me, none of the stores around me do this either they have them available to buy in some stores but not for you to try out unless its an iPad or something similar

[Xemphait]

Which screen tablet are you using now?

I am between a Kamvas Pro 16 (4K) , Kamvas Pro 24 (4K), or possibly going all out on the Wacam MobileStudio Pro to completely replace my Surface.

It's unfortunate not being able to experience what it is like to use these firsthand, it's a lot of money for an unknown difference.

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Photoshop For Digital Illustration - Assignment 3 - Combining Images

I wasn't very passionate about the "dream house/castle" idea... so I went a different direction with it while still being about "combining images".

Choosing artwork with varying art styles and different lighting directions made it so I had to do a bit more than just image adjustments and spot healing. I had to repaint lighting on the bike and the girl to fit them into the scene better.

The final result isn't perfect (why did I leave the birds in the sky while it's raining? where are the clouds? lol) but if you don't pay too close attention to it, it looks pretty neat.

I really want to skip these basic photoshop things (I have used these tools before) and get to anatomy and gesture... but I am trying to be diligent about the class. I paid for all of it, after all.

[Kosmonaut]

I am using a Huion Kamvas 22 plus, but if you want to 4k go for it. I don't really see it as much as a difference it's fundamentally the same experience but its a change of how the screen feels to draw on imo as well as color accuracy. I would go for something based on desk size I made mine fit because I have a very large desk so think about the space that you have to spare. I also feel like you could the same or a better experience with a Huoin or XP-Pen in terms of quality compared to a Wacom(price wise), but I would go for an external display tablet so that if one thing breaks in the tablet you don't have to throw away or fix a whole computer. try watching reviews on each one you are thinking about before buying to get a sense of how they are.

[Kosmonaut]

I know you brought the full course but If you want to get to anatomy and gesture you don't have to go in order or watch all of the videos in the program. You can skip to where you want to go and come back to the earlier terms or lessons if you need to polish up on your fundamentals that's what the course is built for. It also can work as building fundamentals until you get to the stuff like anatomy and color slowly so that you have a solid base which makes the rest of the later stuff easier to grasp. I would still recommend watching the relevant videos though just to see if you can get any tips or pointers from them. I spent a day or two on the skeleton exercise in term 1 because I was used to drawing forms in 3d somewhat, so if you know things already you can skip those if you want to get to the stuff you don't know yet. Its your course you brought with your money use it how you want

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Photoshop For Digital Production - Assignment 4 - Selections, Liquify, and Heal Stamp

For the last two exercises I tried going the opposite direction of what was shown in the demonstration video, making the older picture look younger and trying to make the girl have the proportions of the alien (nightmare fuel!)

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Nude Figure Drawing - Practice

Drawing Skeletons over photos.

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Nude Figure Drawing - Practice

Proportions

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[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Nude Figure Drawing - Practice

30 Second Gesture

This exercise was infuriating

I had to restart a few times at the beginning because I'd have less than half the figure represented by the time the time was up. I could easily spend 30 seconds analyzing the pose before even beginning to draw...

Many of the poses were beautiful, it was crushing for the image to flip to the next one while I just had a mis-proportioned stick figure on paper, leaving all the beauty behind.

I do not feel that the majority of these sketches represent the pose/gesture very well. Clearly I have a lot of opportunity in this area to get better.

I will likely do another 30-second session before trying the 60 second. If I were to do 60 now I don't think I will have cemented the lesson that I REALLY need to observe, abstract, and sketch much more quickly than I am used to.

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Nude Figure Drawing - Practice

More 30 Second Gesture

60 Second Gesture

I still don't like 30 second gesture
A stick figure for me is not enough to represent which limbs are in front/behind to be able to be sure of the pose being represented.

With the 60 second sketches I sometimes had the time to outline a volume instead of a line, which helps show front/behind and perspective.

I still think I am very focused on basic construction... my understanding is gesture supposed to capture flow and energy. I am just not there yet. Plus many of the poses that I have used look relatively static with little energy in them (though I suppose I could exaggerate the pose to try to fabricate energy).

I see plenty of opportunity here: proportions, balance of the pose, and grounding are all areas that could use improvement. More practice required.

[Xemphait]

Practice: 10-15m Sketches

After doing so many super short sketches I NEEDED to do some where I spent some more time on them (stick figures are driving me nuts). I still tried to do them "quick", these took about 12m each.

[Xemphait]

Term 1 - Nude Figure Drawing - Figure from Reference

For this first reference drawing of this journey, I wanted to snapshot every 5 minutes of the drawing to show how I progress through the sketch. I am hoping I can get faster at getting to a point equivalent to my current 20 minute mark.

The final result looks pretty good to me, despite being a bit different from the reference in a few places. The main thing that I see that I would rather be closer to the original is the thickness of both arms, the closer arm should be a bit bigger and the further arm a bit smaller to really sell the perspective/depth.