I've posted these on other boards and I think that this board can help me get better as a concept artist. I know I have an issue with my perspective drawing and I am working on that. Hopefully I'll learn to get some of these concepts in to photoshop and create something on the level of what I see on these boards.

I have been seriously impressed with all of the work I've seen on this board. I realize I'm not up to speed with any of you all but that's how we learn right. Please feel free to be honest in your critiques.


-Cheers

Great start on your work. :) I'd say improving your line quality would help the most right now. I know these are sketches but the difference between a bleh sketch and a badass sketch is line work. The less you noodle with your lines and the more fluid and confident they are, the better your sketch will look. Also, if you use a darker line to indicate your final you it will help differentiate between what your construction lines are and the completed line.
The reason noodling is bad, in my opinion, is that it adds extra lines that don't need to be there at all. It just unessissarily complates your image. Less is more. The more concise you can be with your lines the more information you will be able to convey and the less lines you'll use. Keep it up!
:)

I like the top left craft, you should do some more work on this. The best way to improve your drawing is to keep drawing. The more you draw the better you will get. Most of my sketches are very quick and simple 'doodles' because I just want to get some ideas down before I forget them. I use it as a kind of shorthand for my 3D work, so mine are not the best for presentation work, but you have come to the right place, this is a great forum for looking at other artists styles and techniques. You can learn almost as much by looking.

Ed

Everything Tovette said! If I were you, I'd make more construction lines to get things correct, then thicken some lines and thin others.

I read somewhere that if you can put something behind part of the object, make it thicker. For instand a wheel well on a car. Panel lines are thinner because you can't put anything behind them.

It helps when you have to decide what gets thicker lines. When I did cartoons, I always used a thick outline on the outside of the character.

Perspective is real important!! If it's off, it's real noticable. Practice 1, 2 and 3 pt perspective and really practice ellipses!!!

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That technique is called layering. It helps differentiate between the foreground, midground, and background elements. Also, too, lines are not really lines- they're shadows; very thin shadows. Do you ever see actual lines in real life? Nope. If you do see a line it's because of shadow. If you can train yourself to think of lines as shadows it will help you when you sketch too.

Thin, thick, mechanical, expressive lines- they are all shadows.

I saw this shape in my sketches the other night and was playing around with it again in a meeting at work today (not what the meeting was for, I have to keep my hands busy somehow right?!?). I brought it home and then tried out some actual line work on it. It's still pencil and paper but maybe I can lay a pen to the next iteration of it.

I want to try and finish this one. I so often leave my ideas in a some what unfinished, realized state.

I probably will be asking for all of your help as I am starting to look at going further then I've really gone before.

Thanks for all the comments previously, I will try to get some sketching time in every night. I'll still post my free hand sketches so there are going to be a lot that aren't totally in perspective.

Looks cool. The back part is out of perspective. It's slightly flaring out which makes it look odd. The ellipses are not correct either.

There are 2 circles on the back. What do you want them to do? Go in, go out or be on the same plane?

If no one else does, I'll sketch an example tomorrow at work. Get a larger piece of paper or newsprint and extend all your lines into a vanishing point. Check to see what happens to them.

Great start.

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The circle piece on the side of the ship is supposed to be a drive section of some sort,I was thinking that it was going to run the full width of the ship port to starboard and having some design that looks like the Arc Reactor from Iron Man.

I can see where you say that the ship is flaring out, I presume that is the engine nacelle that gives it this look?

Here's a couple tips. Your ellipses should follow the minor axis (just a line drawn to the vanishing point). The thin part of the ellipse is the minor axis. I drew a square in perspective and divided it up into 8 areas. To get the correct degree, your ellipse should touch the middle of each side.

By offsetting your ellipses on the minor axis, you can create depth. If you are making nacelles, make them pop out a bit and define the parts so they seem to have a particular function.

Hope this helps. There are many ways to do things so you might not like my way but learning ellipses in perspective is really really important for something to look believable.



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I'm not worthy man! Thanks for showing me that. I've never got to see my work turn out like that before. is the coloring by pen or software?

Glad you like it. I drew it with a bic pen and added color in Photoshop. I did it freehand but my lines didn't converge exactly so I had to break out the ruler!

I did this ellipse drawing for another forum but it might help you when drawing them. As the cylinder gets farther away from your eye, the ellipse becomes more circular. Try drawing a glass from different vantage points. If it's perpendicular to your eye line, it's almost a straight line.



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Great stuff. :)

Thanks Ben and Jester. :)

I think I'm still off on my elipces, please as always let me know, but I wanted to try my hand at using some ink on these for rendering as well.

Please let me know what you all think.

Benjamin

Looks good. J6's advice is good too.

As far as color goes...I would rough out you perespective and do an overlay for your rendering.

Alot of stuff I have psoted here is usually the 3rd or 4th go around.

Hey Benjamin, the ellipse is wrong. It needs to rotate counterclockwise from it's current position. Remember the minor axis of the ellipse follows the line going to the vanishing point.

Check out this!! http://www.khulsey.com/perspective_ellipse.html

The lines on the nacelles look better! Color is fun but it's a whole new set of problems to solve!! Also the shadow is way off. There are formulas for the shadows. Scott Robertson's Gnomon DVD's will cover all of these things if you can afford them.

Here's a quick sketch to show what I mean.



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