Emily's book of Sparkles

[emilylorange]

I've gotten really out of practice, so I decided last night I should start a sketchbook here and try to post to it every day.

I've found lately I'm not pleased with anything I do from my head, so I decided to start with found object still life until I got my old control and concentration back.

One hour speed paint in photoshop - which last night I was pleased with, but this morning can plainly tell I'm still bad at symmetry, and the glass isn't sitting right 'in space'. It's rather misshapen and floaty, in fact. But, by gonnit, I DID SOMETHING

[sarbro]

it looks good!
love the colour you used.
Should upload more if you want your work to be commented on

[FightingSeraph]

It may not be as bad as you make it out to be, but I like how you managed to find out what's wrong with it. Just keep practicing the fundamental bits and pieces.

[emilylorange]

Allrighty. Was planning another quick still life yesterday but instead found myself inexplicably inspired at work. So I sketched out something and spent a few hours last night painting over it. Anatomy's not great and I'm bit embarrassed it's so messy, but both those things can be worked on ^^

[phoenicorn]

I wouldn't be embarrassed about the anatomy. I love the style and hope to see more of this kind of work. Keep it up.

[BlackDelphin]

First of all, THERE'S NOTHING TO BE EMBARRASSED ABOUT!!!!!!!
You're here to learn, you draw, you get better n you keep at it!

We all have to start somewhere, no?!
And heck! You seem to have a fine start! Anatomy is not to shabby, colours and values too. Now lets see you finish this baby up!!

The only think i would like to point out, would be the hair. It seems a bit to up and away from the skull in an unnatural way.
Try looking at some images; it could help..

ps. i tried finding something myself, and the best i could do was this. but it explains my point about the unnatural feel..
Hope i was of any help and congrats on starting a sketchbook!!!!

[emilylorange]

Some figure drawing from a photo found in a google search. I have a book of foreshortened poses I need to find kicking around here somewhere. THose would be good if I could find it o.o And a little more work on the green thing.

Thanks for your crits and encouragement :3 Not trying to ignore you, just have a WoW raid atm XD

[BlackDelphin]

The proportions of that figure seem a bit off, and the left shoulder seems to be in an uncomfortable position.. great values n cross-hatching though; nice lifework too
guess nothing major that can't be fixed with more concentration

so yeah! post more!! more anatomy n figures
ps. may i ask what caused the wow raid? i had it myself for a while, but now i have it under control; just curious to see what's yours

[glaudarien]

Pretty good start so far! Need some more posts to give a better critique but i think the best tip i can give is to just remember to keep using reference pics as much as possible, wiehter you copy it straight off, or use only parts of the image it will help you massivly to recognise things like porportion, light, colour and detail.. just aslong as you use good references (not too heavily edited for example) keep it up, i'll come back when you have some more

[emilylorange]

Not a lot of time last night, but I did find my foreshortening book so I did a bit of work from that. I suck at men folk, so, tada, men folk.

The foreshortened one is under exaggerated. And this guy has extremely flat feet. It's bizarre. Also flash photos suck for dynamic lighting

Edit: LOL andddd all of these are showing me that I need to adjust the contrast setting of the monitor at home. GG

[emilylorange]

Another figure work from my foreshortening book. This one's decent except my complete lack of planning meant it went off the page. Hope to update you on my little nymph girl tomorrow.

[emilylorange]

Finally had some time to sit down.

sarbro - Thank you ^^

FightingSeraph - I probably exaggerate a bit. In the face of so many talented artists, it's very hard to be confident. But thank you for your kind words.

phoenicorn - Thanks!

BlackDelphin - Thanks for the advice and the thoughts concerning her hair. I decided to keep it the way it was, mostly because the entire piece falls under weiiiiird, but I do appreciate your thoughts on the matter :3 I agree that there's something a bit off with the figure you critiqued but I'm not sure quite what, it was a bizarre photo. Maybe I should find the original and flip it so I can see what's wrong.

glaudarien - Thanks for the advice on references! I'm in the major habit of drawing from my head, so I probably *should* try harder to work from 'life'.


Anyway. I had time to put another hour into my weird thing. She's getting close to done as far as I'd pictured her, but I'm starting to wonder if I should put in a background. Not my strong point, but I suppose the practice would be good for me. Probably a bog or forest thing with similar colors but lighter values so she pops nicely.

I'm also a bit peeved with myself, because I really should have used more compliments in her shading, but I do still like her a great deal.

[HondaFoo]

Good work so far Emily, and I especially like your pencil sketches. I would like to see some work from life with that same sensibility to value and line!

[Ununquadium]

that crosshatching looks awesome. I wish i could do that... looks so effortless, yet efficient.

[Rich_C]

The face on your green lady painting is cool, hope you work on the rest of it as a full piece - should be a good one!

[emilylorange]

HondaFoo - Thank you, maybe I should do a self portrait this weekend. Haven't done one in a long while!

Ununquadium - I can only do that sort of crosshatching in pencil. If I try it with ink I think I'm too scared of screwing up, so I get all tight and the results are blah! ><

Rich_CThe - I think she's almost done! A few more hours should just about do it :3

Got in another hour on my little nymphish thing. Decided to go ahead and try to give her a background.

Also you're all going to hate me a bit, but I took on two World of Warcraft related projects. So that's probably most of what you'll see the next two to three weeks, but I'll try to mix it up with other things. But feel free to chide me all you want for essentially doing fanart! Because it does indeed make me very naughty :3

The first is a group of ten characters that will eventually be put together, but I'm drawing each separately so that their owners can each have an individual finished drawing. Started off last night with an orc shaman. I hate how my linart is always hard to read >< She's most of the way through her clean up, should be able to throw flat color on her soon.

[BlackDelphin]

Sometimes i just flip the drawing i did and i can sometimes see what's wrong. Worth a try

The wip of that chick is starting to look good, but she seems so thin..needs a bit more of a back.
Makes her head look big because of it.

Aaah i've been so picky on that piece
Keep them coming!

[emilylorange]

BlackDelphin - No worries my dear! You're absolutely right, her head's huge XD I'm not at a place where I want to fix it, but you are very, very right :3


Last night I got in another 45 minutes on my green thing. I think another hour or two to get the last few details in should do it. Yay! Decided to give her a nice real background, and for something I did fast, I really like it o.o

Also spent a lot of time sketching 7 of the 10 characters to go into that huge WoW piece. Two more tonight and I can throw armor on them, clean them, and prep them for color.

This weekend we'll see if I have time to finish off greenie and start on the second WoW piece, as well as do some observation work - maybe a self portrait, but still life involves less moving furniture. Maybe I need to get a smaller mirror. lol

[emilylorange]

Didn't have a whole lot of time to myself yesterday. But I did a sketch comp for both of the larger pieces, whoo. And got the last two characters of the first giant one sketched out. Now I need to start blocking out one and cleaning up the others XD

[emilylorange]

Bah.

Nymph girl = DONE. Has problems but I'm very pleased with her.

Undead warlock portion of larger warcraft image done.

Started blocking out the second warcraft project but don't really like it. Am considering trying a different method.

[emilylorange]

Didn't have nearly as much time this weekend as I'd hoped for :<

More work on the larger piece. After this I should do a lot of observation.

[Icecold]

Whoo Whoo, i'll be definitely coming here more often, and i see Cristina's here before me ! ;D

I enjoy that style very much, and world of warcraft fanart's always nice too look at, It's such a rich world. Oh and stars from ICE!

[Mr.Alamo, C.]

lovely stuff,Emily,try to clean lineart a bit and concentrate weght on main planes,
it helps to concentrate attention of viewer,
keep it up!!!
Andreas

[AlexEh]

Great start to your sketchbook, I'd love to see some more still lifes comeing our way Keep it up.

[dhilipsomesh]

cool work good job
my sketch book

[BlackDelphin]

Hehe yes i did find this sketchbook before you nyanya nnn nyanya!

And now the serious part. xD
I see you finished that drawing, and it looks good. Tough you should check the proportions from the beginning to avoid stuff like this.

Nice further updates too. More!

[emilylorange]

Sorry for the long time no post m'dears! I spent the last week arguing with the gas company over whether or not I had heat (guess what? I won the argument. HURF DURF).

So some more stupid work on that series of warcraft characters and a little more work out of my foreshortening book.

I promise after I'm done with all this there will be some observation work, like the good girl I am >>

[Mecha-shiva]

For the next to last pic, where is the figure's other arm? :/

[emilylorange]

For the next to last pic, where is the figure's other arm? :/

Edit: Ah, next to last. Like I said, worst lineartist ever. It's supposedly raised across the chest. Shading will help I hope.

[Kasei]

Oh hey, I like your style a lot! You get some really nice, clean work at the finished stage, I'm envious. Keep posting, I love your figure studies!