junk

[tokidokizenzen]

http://www.poppon.com/stevec/assets/2d/07_1004.jpg

[tokidokizenzen]

Another "quick" sketch. Actually these are taking me longer than they should. Learning!
http://www.poppon.com/stevec/assets/sketchbook/07_1005.jpg

[cookepuss]

It's not junk. There perspective is a bit off, but I've seen worse from pros hacking out concept pieces. If all you're trying to do is convey mood and color schemes, these roughs will serve you well enough.

What app? PS or something else? For "painting" I like Art Rage. Such a great program for such a small price.

[EVIL]

Art rage is fantastic, well worth the 20 bucks, bit to cheap in my opinion, would have gladly payed double for it.

OC1.1 is great to, best sketch app I ever used. fantastic to lay out and mix rough color before taking it into PS.

Anyway, these are great sketches for mood! And they are good bases for more elaborate pieces in Photoshop or painter.

[tokidokizenzen]

cookepuss - It's PainterX, but I start the sketch in PS. I hate how Painter handles 1 pixel lines :P.. If you zoom out in the app sometimes the line goes invisible. PS is much better at handling this. I also do a little post color correct in PS. I've been hearing alot about ArtRage lately. I already purchased PainterX though :( Yeah i see what you mean about the perspective. I put my lines in there when I started out on the sketch but somewhere along they way I went astray!
EVIL - Thanks! I'm doing these to learn about colors and light. I'm glad they set a mood. I'll keep doing these for a while. Maybe later I'll try adding details to one of them. I'm so impatient though..

[cookepuss]

I start the sketch in PS. I hate how Painter handles 1 pixel lines :P.. If you zoom out in the app sometimes the line goes invisible. PS is much better at handling this.
Yeah. PS is rock solid. Whenever I want to sketch something out in PS, I use an 8.5"x11" @ 600dpi white canvas and a 7% black brush on an empty layer. With a quality Wacom you get a real feeling of actual paper. Closest I've ever come actually. Looks like pencil too.

I'll rough out the first layer with a @ 7% opacity and each layer thereafter at an additional 2%-3% more and slightly different brush colors. Sound weird, but you can get a real feel for where your stuff is going and where you made mistakes. I'm still not the best sketch artist around (read: I still suck), but this technique has improved my 2D skills a bit over the years.

Art rage is fantastic, well worth the 20 bucks, bit to cheap in my opinion, would have gladly payed double for it.
At least. I remember the first time I used it. I had a real "Bob Ross" moment, cutting in my happy little clouds or big trees and their friends. :) All of the acrylic fun and none of the mess.

[brian_h]

I would say off hand the first question that comes to mind about the pieces is: what are you trying to convey with in them? Is it purely mood or something more concrete...I see specific items, all of them technical..a building or city or a bridge and one item of transportation...a craft and a boat. It would be interesting what you want to show in these pieces, what the focus was.

As for perspective, I would definitely lay down some guidelines on a layer so you have some consistent perspective...doesn't have to be perfect but when its off...it's noticably off. Also remember the 1/3rds rule...for the most part there is an item almost exactly in the middle of the shot...varying the angle of the image, difference in scale and offsetting or adding more than one object could really help these pieces be stronger. 2 cents...hope it helps.

B

[brian_h]

One other thing forgot to mention...it might help open the pieces up a bit to not have a black or dark wall at the edge...at least on one side. In both pieces the image is 'framed' by buildings or cliff walls...this tends to not allow for some dynamic negative space and focus us on purely the object in the middle again...again 2 cents.

B

[tokidokizenzen]

Thanks brian_h. I never thought about opening up the comp in that way by not having 2 dark foreground elements on the sides. I think I do this pretty often so thats a good one for me to look out for. Yeah, I do need to look out more for perspective. It wasn't my main focus here but it should have gotten more attention than it did. I started the sketches out with nothing in mind so maybe that's why their purpose is cloudy. I should think more about what the subject is going to be next time :)
Cheers!
t

[brian_h]

Yeah, it happens to all of us...I usually speedpaint with layers for everything...the ship, the buildings, the background and the sky for example. That way you can reconfigure as you go...it an exercise so not coming up with the world's perfect piece is fine...I would though that a little bit of perspective, some repetition and overlaping or offsetting elements from center or at diagonals, as well as opening at least one side of the composition might be things to play around with even in exercises...as someone said there are a pile of throw away designs before the concept you usually see nails it.

B

[EVIL]

Another useful sketch tip is to paint with the biggest brush as the detail allows you to. So for rough color fills like for example an ocean, use a brush that is of big size and allows you to fill the area with roughly one stroke. Also don't focus on the form of that surface just yet; these things can be done later on and helps you to separate the different steps of your piece, allowing you to focus on one thing at a time. This is something I see allot when people try to sketch in paint like they would with pencil. You don’t paint lines, you paint planes and an effective painter can sketch in value and color planes with one stroke.

Hope this helps a bit

[tokidokizenzen]

Hey guys thanks for all the tips, it's helping me a lot. Been a while, most stuff I've been painting has been for work and I can't show that stuff :( Finally got around to painting for myself! I had a girl in the foreground of this env but ended up trashing it. Because she was a foreground element it called for more detail. My figure drawing is just not good enough for this sort of thing.



http://www.poppon.com/stevec/assets/sketchbook/08_0127_alley01.jpg

[Daniel_C]

Nice thats more like it! the lighting is what makes it here. nice and quick but each stroke counts.