My Digital Sketchbook. regularly updated. (image heavy)

[hihihihi88 0]

Very good , what progamme did u use?I am always using painter and photoshopI like the layer system in photoshtop and the brush in painter

[ndhill 0]

Thanks. I use Corel Painter almost exclusively. I really only use photoshop for juxtaposition with layers and compressing my images for the web. Painter seems to be awfull at that for some reason.

[ndhill 0]

well, I missed updating this week but that's because I'm working on something a bit larger in scale that will ultimately be part of an even bigger undertaking. It's an idea that I've had for quite some time but I've always had some sort of excuse to keep myself from starting it. In short, I'll be a little late but I have a good excuse. You'll have to take my word for it.

[spacewaste1405241471 0]

My god...Those are some insanely amazing pictures....I really respect and appreciated them because I am artisticly chalenged so anything beautyfull like those demands my respect immediatly.

Thank you for posting those images but isn't it eating up your bandwidth like crazy?

Go here http://imageshack.us/

A good place for a infinity of images to be stored for free

(I haven't tested it out though...But it seems like a good place...Hope it helps....L8r)

Thnx again for posting the wonderfull pictures man...My favorite was the first one you posted

[overture 0]

@ndhill: i was wondering something what blender in Painter would be best for getting a good skin texture, nice and smooth. I cannot seem to get the right turn out for it, it usually blenders way to much or when i alter the settings it doesn't do it enough.Or if possible do you know a good tutorial on the matter. I will keep trying, it is just a big change from Photoshop like i have mentioned before somewhere on here.thanksoverture.

[ignition 0]

oh WOW, I just noticed this thread and your site. This stuff is amazing man, awesome work!I also read through the tutorial on your site...great stuff. I don't know how you do it though, even with the pen thingy. All I have is a mouse, and I would die trying to do this stuff :DEverything looks terrific, you should hook up with some game mods and be a concept artist or something. I can do digital art, but not so much along the lines of making my own stuff/drawing, but rather digitally coloring and creating using brushes or other images. (hence my site, unreal wallpapers)once again, good work dude!Cheers, and keep it up -ignition

[ndhill 0]

spacewaste: Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. I have the upgraded hosting package which is about the same in terms of bandwidth as what I had with neopages (my previous freehost). I've been posting my stuff in every forum imaginable... My site traffic is usually so low that I can afford to, unfortunately. Thanks for the tip though. I'll be sure to hook up with them once things pick up. As long as I don't have to go back to photobucket...*cringe*

 

overture: I have a lot of blending brushes in my personal brush library which you can down load here. But I think just about any blender will do the job as far as texture is concerned. The secret of skin tones lies within the color and value, though. I think it's probably impossible to master. All I could really tell you is that a little bit of red highlight goes a long way. It's a very complicated subject that has stumped aspiring painters for millennia. As far as blenders are concerned in general though, go to your brush settings window and open up "well." The higher you set the bleed to resat ratio, the more smeary your brush is and vice versa.

 

Ignition: Thanks for the vote of confidence man. I've actually been involved with a few small projects, all of which sort of turned me off of mods. "Free projects" usually mean that everyone involved is busy making a living at something else, including me so they usually never see completion. I've also a variety of other things for free or at least for the prospect of seeing a commission but unfortunately, they never went anywhere either. My one piece of advice to anybody doing freelance work over the net is this; never work without a contract.

 

Anyway, here's my latest.

 

This is an illustration based on my all-time favorite novel, Frank Herbert's Dune.

[ignition 0]

Wow...that is beautiful. A sandworm?That looks terrific.....I love the eyes and the gaping mouth. Awesome detail put into all the little ridges along the body....how do you do it man? :DThat's imply amazing. Good work...wish I had a digital pen to draw with.Cheers! -ignition

[ndhill 0]

Thanks for the kind words. Yup. That's a sandworm.

[overture 0]

I really like the bold strokes you use on your work. i always seem to end up blending them all the time lol i really wish i didn't. i guess i need to practice, practice, practice! but so busy with college programming work so dull.anyways very nice work... again

[ndhill 0]

overture: Thanks man. Actually I'm just a slob naturally. I just figured 'why fight it?' What are you studying? I'd say the road to any good painting starts with a foundation of in-class life drawing. I'd seriously recomend it to anyone. You can find brief sessions open to the public for a few hours at just about any school with an art program if you can't afford the class.

 

anyway, as the folks at conceptart.org always do, they helped me find some things that needed to be fixed. Mainly constrast and depth issues. That's probably always been my biggest week area. So here's the update. Enjoy. Contrsuctive critique is always welcome here so don't hesitate.

 

[overture 0]

hey ndhill, that image looks better than the original . i am studying Software Programming at college i am coming to the end of my 2nd year which will be the end of the course in about June or July.I planned to go to Uni to study Graphic Design but i was not accepted due to some *BLEEP*-up by some people, they didn't tell me something which was required for me to have a chance to get into Uni. i am just practicing in my spare time at the moment with lighting in Painter.

[ndhill 0]

Thanks. You'd be surprised by how many times I end up going back to redo something even after it's been on my site for months.That sucks about uni. I know there are schools that I'd definitely love to attend but distance and cost prevent it. You can really accomplish a lot at any school though, if you really invest yourself. That's something I found out pretty quickly here at USM. No matter how bad the professor is, what you get out of the class is proportional to what you put in. My schools art program has no clue as to where to scratch the surface on digital painting so in that area, I'm 100% self-taught. It's the disciplines like traditional life-drawing, painting, color theory and 2-D design principles that really lend themselves to my work here, which I do separate from school.Keep at it, man. That's really the only thing that works in the end.-Noel

[overture 0]

thanks noel. i have been practicing all i can in my spare time at the moment being as it is coming to the end of the college year got a lot of work to finish. i have been sketching a lot on figure drawing 'cos i haven't actually focused on it that much before. it is going good, there are many(x infinity) techniques out there, when i am back at college i will probably checkout some books on figure drawing.also at my college they have no idea about where to start with digital art either. they have digital slices in their courses but that is just 3D stuff. it's a shame.overture.

[ndhill 0]

Sounds good. We all have to start somewhere. If it's books you're interested in, check out anything by Andrew Loomis. He's got some of the best texts on the subject of figure drawing. They're not so much a substitute for life drawing classes as they are helpfull companions that help you interperet what you're seeing in front of you. That's the real key. Unless you're observing the figure from from life, you're pulling images of the figure from a mental stock. The goal is to get those mental images as close to the real thing as possible or else you'll simply just be arranging parts. The figure is such a complex thing that requires attention to countless aspects and relationships. The ways muscles connects and interact with eachother, the way flesh composes itself under different positions and different orientations with respect to gravity, skeletal mechanics, etc.

 

Speaking of life drawings, here are a few figure studies and gestures done in class.