Kristina is now a FULLTIME freelance illustrator! - updated April 3rd

[Denoir]

awesome oilpieces ! 'would have loved to see the exhibition and the soccer match!!! X-D
yes, I meant the darkest range in the shadow area in relation to the parts of the shadows with reflected light. one can see it eighter way

[Maidith]

Thank you oren, Hellcow and Denoir

two new speedpaints... Photoshop and Wacom tablet, between 1-2 hours each.






Unfinished digital painting - Anne Boleyn's Revenge



I'm not happy with it and thus not in the mood to finish it, but it's still OK as a "speedpaint".
Maybe I'll want to finish it later when I have more skill...

Aarrrrgh my room is almost 30°C hot... and my notebook's CPU is almost boiling. No good! I'll turn off the computer and do some traditional sketching now.

[ilmenhin]

Your SB is just gorgeous to look through. I'm not an artist and I'm not sure if it's close but your art has that neoclassical feel about it, and it's just beautiful.

[sanakris]

Wow. Those cast study paintings and the figure drawings are jaw dropping magnificent. And the with classical studies the line sensitivity really reveals the form well. Keep at it Your doing a stellar job.

[Maidith]

ilmenhin, thank you

sanakris, thanks a lot

Finished my 1st still life at Angel Academy, whee!
Tomorrow's the last day at school, then I'll go to Rome for 2 days, with my awesome boyfriend, omg omg *.*
And then back home to Germany for summer holidays!
And then to Norway for one and a half months, to study with Odd Nerdrum. I'm a bit anxious already...



sketches from head

[zou]

nice works (in fact i mean greaaat)

your sketches from the head are also awesome.
i always wondered if angel student are given some some magics elixir or something ...
don't tell me they don't, cause i won't believe !!!

have nice trip

[Yor]

that still life is just plain awesome, i really like your lines in your sketches.
great stuff keep it coming!

[Alien Ape Star]

Most of the charcoal and some of the digital color studies are pretty decent but the 2nd cast oil painting is AWESOMENESS! Keep up the good work!

[Nele Klumpe]

The still life looks amazing! How long do you need to finish one of these? Looks like a lot of work...

[AlexTooth]

Love the drawings, great work

[aLDoDarK]

wow, I really enjoying your drawing and progression..
I like your sketch and colour! want to see more from you =)

[Maidith]

zou, thank you hehe, I'm not sure about the magical elixir for angel students, but everyone here is really kicking everyone's butt and the teachers are pushing everyone to do better. It's a hardcore motivational environment, I guess.

Yor, thank you

Alien, thanks!

Nele, danke! (here's some coffee). The still life took a couple of days, which is like lightspeed, at least for angel academy standards XD

Alex and aldodark, thank you

I went to Rome on Monday and Tuesday together with my awesome boyfriend, and it totally rocked (even though we didn't get to see all the Caravaggio paintings there). Especially the ancient Roman ruins were mindblowing! I think I know now what "Stendhal Syndrome" is.

New digital painting, I'm titling it simply "Eighty Nine".
It's a self portrait in the year 2078-2079... actually I would have to turn 300 years old to paint all the pictures I want to paint, if I include my procastination issues into the calculation. But let's have realistic goals! XD Turning eighty-nine one day (and still being able to paint then) is good enough for me!

[Emil_J.]

damn that still life from post #486 is mind blowing! You study at angel academy in Florence right? i consider applying for that school in a years time, would you recommend the school?

[LumoGraphite]

that old woman's right hand is backwards.

[Maidith]

Fumble:
I'm happy at Angel Academy and would totally recommend the school, if the program suits you. Obviously that's impossible to judge 100% until you've actually participated in class, but from the students' work on the website angelartschool.com you can see most of what's done here. I'll be happy to answer more questions

LumoGraphite: No idea, maybe you're right

Ok, some sketchbook pages... partly drawn from my idol's works, partly from imagination. Like, pretty much always!
And also two figure paintings from Angel academy, drawn from the live model. Sorry, the photos are so crappy. I will take new ones in 3 months (currently I'm home in Germany for the summer holidays, and left my paintings in my room in Florence! blah blah...)

Thanks for looking you folks always kick my ass!

[Dacountno2]

Very nice work! keep it up!

[zou]

the first color study is bluffing ! is it oil ?

if you would some suggestions:

your shading would be better with looser strokes
about the second image (standing bw man)
her right arm's shading seems to need more work
his right leg seems short and the fingers are weird (perhaps the model is weird)

keep up and good luck with your nexts

[Donna]

Girl, your progress is astounding I love that still life! Wow.

However, I think you need to work from your imagination more. 89 has an amazing concept, I love the idea so much! But if you put it next to your life drawings, I would never have guessed it was done by the same person. Anatomy flaws are visible (her hands), values and colours are all over the place. The background is gorgeous and almost photo-realistic, but it draws the attention away from the woman.

Keep working, Kristina, and have a wonderful summer It's awesome you're going to be learning from Odd, I just checked his website and it blew my mind a little *_*

[GaussianRaider]

Solid solid sketches, Kristina! I'm impressed... Have fun with Odd!

[nickydraws]

I enjoyed looking through your thread. I admire how you keep doing imaginative stuff besides your schoolwork.
And wow, you're going to study with Odd Nerdrum for a bit? How did that happen? Via school I'm guessing?
Also, can I ask where you buy this 'Umbria' paper? Is that the main paper you use at Angel's?

[Maidith]

Dacountno2, thanks

zou, thank you! yes, the studies are painted in oils on canvas. I'd love to use looser strokes but we're not allowed to do that yet XD

Donna, thank you! About the values, I was going for "natural" lighting, the sky as a light source. How would you solve this problem? (overpaint would be much appreciated!). Nevermind the hand, they prove that references are unreliable, haha XD If I ever use this image anywhere else, I'll fix them.

Mau, thank you

Norkagar, thanks! Some of my co-students also studied with Odd Nerdrum, that's how I got the idea.

About the paper: We use Canson paper for Bargue drawings. The "Umbria" paper is for charcoal drawings, and we bought it from Zecchi. It was the main paper used for charcoal drawings at Angel's. However it's apparently not produced anymore. There are other good papers for charcoal, though. Just use something that is sturdy and can take lots of brushing and erasing!

Just finished a new digital painting. This is the emperor Nero, and his girlfriend Poppaea Sabina, who are receiving the head of Octavia (Nero's step-sister and wife, whom he wasn't allowed to divorce so he had to get rid of her some other way).



Painted on my old desktop computer with 512 mb ram, so I had to keep it quite small, about 2000-3000 pixels wide. (Usually I work a bit bigger).

Edit:

OMG OMG OMG MY WACOM TABLET is WORKING again now!!!!
Whatever the problem was, ScanDisk seemed to have solved it. OMG OMG OMG. Just when I was getting totally desperate and thinking about buying a new tablet. Hahaha! XD
Ahh, now I can die happy! XD

[Maidith]

At the moment, and for 1 1/2 more weeks, hummel1dane is visiting me and teaching me the method of drawing in the Russian academic tradition.
This means consciously constructing 3-dimensional forms as you draw from life or imagination, as opposed to designing with flat shapes and edges. It's quite a conscious effort for me since I'm not used to it, but I'm learning a lot and it will certainly benefit my illustrating skills.

(And he's a damn good teacher! Thanks a lot! )






And some recent sketchbook pages!

[Maidith]

P.S. Here's also a bunch of WIP steps of my latest digital painting, posted above, for those interested!

[glasses]

oh man. this thread. I adore your charcoal figures all the way through and your grisaille paintings are lovely. The colour figure looks like it will be killer. I read about artists that study with Odd Nerdrum a fair bit- some of the guys from atelier stockholm, and on random atelier graduate websites and the like- and I'm curious how it comes about? Does he run classes? Does just take a lot of short term apprentices?

also, "oh yes it's taking me a lot to wrap my head around this russian academic tradition business" *straight away posts a perfect skull

[kidult]

Awesome work round here! Love the stil life at the top! That nero pic is really cool, I fell like it the skintones are a bit too saturated for the lighting in the background. It's as if no colour from the surrounding area is being picked up by their skin. The girl on the right of nero is the one that seems the most out

[prsnsweeney]

wow you have some brilliant work love it really like the progression of the last piece
also the rendering on the still life is amazing nice work id be very interested to hear about what your learning as far as the traditonal fine art goes. Right now im going to school for media arts and we dont have to much in the way of fine arts its all design and commercial related

[Loathsome]

groar I just want to steal your skills and touch it inappropriately D:

[Maidith]

glasses - thanks! I have absolutely no idea what will expect me at Nerdrum's studio in Norway, all I know is it's more like a workshop, no real "classes" or school. He's not much of a teacher, but neither am I, so I can understand he'd rather paint and have some people around him to help, rather than explaining the same thing all the time XD No idea how many short term apprentices were/are/will be there, but I'm certainly not the first. I'm very much looking forward to it!

kidult, thank you saturation looks ok on my screen, but I'll keep it in mind.

prsnsweeney, thanks!

Loathsome - haha XD


Here's some quick sketches done from life, at home!
My boyfriend was the model and Glen Vilppu the idol! XD
Times vary from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.
Thanks for looking :>

[Maidith]

Red chalk life drawing, my boyfriend was (again) the model.

And moar sketchbook pages...

[Maidith]

Portrait of my friend Ivy, painted from life (oil on canvas, about 2 hours).
And some more drawing exercises.

Just two more days until Norway, OMG OMG OMG i'm so excited!