Toffeeliz's sketchbook 27-8-09

[Toffeeliz]

Hey there. I feel a little nervous setting up a sketchbook here, I get the feeling people might be disapointed when they click on this little thread heh - I'm posting here for honest crit and comments I really want to improve my painting skills and graphic skills. The pics in this first post are mainly traditional media - I'm a slow learner when it comes to digital methods.

[Onir]

Oooh nice start! The figures look great, nice volumetric limbs and good proportions (though the legs in the straight-on view of the man with his arms apart are flattening out a bit, though that might be a result of the watercolor). The red and blue colored piece is really nice as well, I like the shapes you've used.. at the same time I'm not 100% sure what it is exactly, but I like it regardless hehe. And you say you're slow with digital? That apple looks pretty darn good if you ask me Just keep working away at it, you'll get more and more confident.

Great start you've got here, keep updating

[Ash888]

The first two are great.
I love the composition of the second, nice work with the shading.
The bees are great, I like the loose style and the coloring.
I know we will be seeing great stuff from you in the future.
Post again soon.

[Toffeeliz]

Oooh nice start! The figures look great, nice volumetric limbs and good proportions (though the legs in the straight-on view of the man with his arms apart are flattening out a bit, though that might be a result of the watercolor). The red and blue colored piece is really nice as well, I like the shapes you've used.. at the same time I'm not 100% sure what it is exactly, but I like it regardless hehe. And you say you're slow with digital? That apple looks pretty darn good if you ask me Just keep working away at it, you'll get more and more confident.

Great start you've got here, keep updating

Yeah, I find drawing and painting legs a bit hard. The red and blue thing was drawn from the back of a dismantled HP monitor - my friend found it in a bush so she brought it to college and ripped it to shreds (and ripped her hands to shred in the process lol) i got to help hre smash the screen - it went boom!. It didn't look like anything when i was drawing it and it just started going crazy from there lol.
It took me a while to get comfortable with drawing the digital apple - I had the colour sliders on RGB and I'm more comfortable with LAB lol. THe apple was a massive patience test too heh, I just wanted to eat the goddamn thing!! and in the end I did lol. Thanks for dropping by man! hope you like the new update.

The first two are great.
I love the composition of the second, nice work with the shading.
The bees are great, I like the loose style and the coloring.
I know we will be seeing great stuff from you in the future.
Post again soon.

Glad you like it man The bees are some of my best drawings, I had to take a photo of its head to get the detail for the face though, so tiny! Thanks for the very nice words as well!

here's a WIP in my sketchbook in gouache. I'd not eaten beforehand so I wasn't really up to staying concetrated on this one =_=. I've rediscovered gouache as something amazing - it doesn't dry as fast as acrylic on the page and i like the opacity to it. I like that in oils but oils dries too slow at times and I tend to mix it in to itself on the page a little too much. Gouache ftw!

[Toffeeliz]

I've been trying all day to get a good digital sketch up but whatever i draw is just bland. So, here's a sketch a few weeks old and a terrible horrible unfinished self-portrait that i did in painter 9.

[Aenhimal]

you have a nice colour style, and keep working on your digital skills

PS: you ask me for some acrylics or oils paints so I post some on my SB, although they are not too good, see you

[geckochan]

Hey - fancy seeing you here! ^_~

You know what I'm really digging? In the sketchbook page with the texturey pink watercolour bg, you have those receding ruler-drawn shapes in the top left corner, and the combo of really technical, straight lines and really rough organic stuff is fantastic! I think a bit of contrast makes sketchbook-style work pop a lot more. Very naturalistic looking Painter sketch too - I thought it was acrylic! Even with the rough style, the shading seems rather random, but since it's unfinished I'm not sure if that's a helpful thing to point out. Hope you'll post it when it's done!

[Bagg]

hey man love your sketchbook colors are brilliant wish i could be as adventurous lol, can't wait to see some updates keep up the great work

[Gail_Blitzy]

I love your use of colour!! really sets the tone of the picture!

[fragmentedchimp]

Good thing you opened this thing. i love peering into peoples minds WAHAHAHAHa - i mean. this stuff looks rad. Buying small books always encourages double the effort when your dealing with every sketch session, or it seems that way when i see other people and small books. maybe the pics just make it look like youve got a moleskin or something... WHATEVER.

i vote for more breaking of things and drawing them. drawing from life enhances .. EVERYTHING. oh, and go stare down more people at your local cafe, but bring your book along now. Hope to see more!

[Toffeeliz]

you have a nice colour style, and keep working on your digital skills

PS: you ask me for some acrylics or oils paints so I post some on my SB, although they are not too good, see you

Thank you just been to look at your thread, sorry for the late reply been away from the PC for a whiiiilllleee.

Hey - fancy seeing you here! ^_~

You know what I'm really digging? In the sketchbook page with the texturey pink watercolour bg, you have those receding ruler-drawn shapes in the top left corner, and the combo of really technical, straight lines and really rough organic stuff is fantastic! I think a bit of contrast makes sketchbook-style work pop a lot more. Very naturalistic looking Painter sketch too - I thought it was acrylic! Even with the rough style, the shading seems rather random, but since it's unfinished I'm not sure if that's a helpful thing to point out. Hope you'll post it when it's done!

Howdy! all the crit is helpful especially since in one place we know, crit is about as forth coming as a fifty pound note in the letterbox.
Shading: I was using a mirror in my very dark room so it was really hard to do. Probably why it never got further than a sketch. thanks for popping here - i'll go check yours now!

hey man love your sketchbook colors are brilliant wish i could be as adventurous lol, can't wait to see some updates keep up the great work

what's stopping you from being adventourous in your own stuff? just go crazy! i just do random stuff and worry about making it into something afterwords. hope you keep looking and thanks for popping in!

I love your use of colour!! really sets the tone of the picture!

thank you

Good thing you opened this thing. i love peering into peoples minds WAHAHAHAHa - i mean. this stuff looks rad. Buying small books always encourages double the effort when your dealing with every sketch session, or it seems that way when i see other people and small books. maybe the pics just make it look like youve got a moleskin or something... WHATEVER.

i vote for more breaking of things and drawing them. drawing from life enhances .. EVERYTHING. oh, and go stare down more people at your local cafe, but bring your book along now. Hope to see more!

You're right, I'm a moleskine


OK! UPDATE TIME! sorry for the whole MONTH AWAY. I just go back from a months travelling. Started in Hong Kong then stayed longest in Shunde, part of South China and then went to London to see some friends . Thanks for all the comments. I'll start putting some more fresh stuff up tommorow but today here is some of my sketchbook from while I've been away from the keyboard.

[Onir]

I must say I envy people who can really fill their sketch pages Cool update, there's a certain eeriness to the boy with the elephant headed man (I think that's an elephant head? also kinda looks like a horse skull to me) and the two with the little girl holding the bear. I think that's because of the color palette in all 3 and the ghostliness of the marks. The watercolor (or maybe it's gouache?) certainly lends to that sort of look, and, while it might be a bit hard to read in spots, it works well. Gotta say the one with the teacup is my favorite though; the black lines and the blue work well together and the entire thing has a nice flow to it. Nice

To step back to your previous post real quickly, I'd just suggest going as simply as you can early on when doing a self-portrait. It's really tempting to paint all the small value and color shifts right away, but it can really make things harder than they need to be early on. Either way just keep at it!

Nice update and welcome back! Sounds like you had quite an adventure around the world

[geckochan]

Hey Toffee! Sounds like you had an awesome holiday ^_^

That....thing with the head..is really evokative. Wonderful mystery in that image.

Also really interesting to see two versions of the same image (the girl). I prefer the warmer colours and loose brushwork of the first one, but the bottom one has a cold feel that might be what you wanted. In both of them though, I find it a little hard to discern what's going on, and would kind of like to see some harder edges here and there - although I'd understand any reticence to mess up a painterly image. But I think the painterliness can survive more information on there ^_^ (ps. are they studies for a larger piece?)

[Toffeeliz]

I must say I envy people who can really fill their sketch pages Cool update, there's a certain eeriness to the boy with the elephant headed man (I think that's an elephant head? also kinda looks like a horse skull to me) and the two with the little girl holding the bear. I think that's because of the color palette in all 3 and the ghostliness of the marks. The watercolor (or maybe it's gouache?) certainly lends to that sort of look, and, while it might be a bit hard to read in spots, it works well. Gotta say the one with the teacup is my favorite though; the black lines and the blue work well together and the entire thing has a nice flow to it. Nice

To step back to your previous post real quickly, I'd just suggest going as simply as you can early on when doing a self-portrait. It's really tempting to paint all the small value and color shifts right away, but it can really make things harder than they need to be early on. Either way just keep at it!

Nice update and welcome back! Sounds like you had quite an adventure around the world

On the eeriness that you say is in the paitning pieces. the boy and the skull-man (it was from imagination so I can't say what it is for certain haha) was done in acrylics and the girl and bear piece is in oil (the pics are process shots, it's still WIP). When I paint I've stopped using pencil to plan everything out. It's a habit I've learnt in college this past year and I think I'm getting better results this way; pencils make it too tight and just lately I've found I work best loose.....like a noodle

I'll keep at it on the self-portrait front. I think I need to spend a day in front of the mirror in my mum's room or wait until I've repainted mine white so that I can see better. Working a room as dark as mine is a bit of a pain in the arse....a point for your kids; do not redocarete in the middle of "the goth phase".

Hey Toffee! Sounds like you had an awesome holiday ^_^

That....thing with the head..is really evokative. Wonderful mystery in that image.

Also really interesting to see two versions of the same image (the girl). I prefer the warmer colours and loose brushwork of the first one, but the bottom one has a cold feel that might be what you wanted. In both of them though, I find it a little hard to discern what's going on, and would kind of like to see some harder edges here and there - although I'd understand any reticence to mess up a painterly image. But I think the painterliness can survive more information on there ^_^ (ps. are they studies for a larger piece?)

The girl one is the larger piece that is getting worked on. It'sd a case of using up an old canvas board that is tired of so-many attempted paintings. This is referenced from a photo that I took in China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunde_District the Qinghui Gardens) and one of me when I was a smaller brat.

Here's some playing about with a brush and ink that I did today, and a drawing of my grandad and my hand that. The fanart of Tarzan is from yesterday (I was watching the dvd =_=). I may put another thing up today if I get finshed on it - am playing with something in Painter. Thanks for the comments guys!

[Toffeeliz]

Here's some figure drawing from May. Our college only gave us four sessions for the entire 2 year period of this course! > angry I am! If anyone wants to pose nekkid for me, give me a call! lol

[gutss]

I really like your figures: they look great and have a lovely weight to them. your use of colour is really fresh too (it entices me towards your pages!) and it's swell to see such chocablock sketchbook pages. and how I love those bees

I'm intrigued by your digital painting of what looks to me like a little koala monster up a tower. when painting you seem to really get your shadows down well and it'd be great to see it refined and finished

keep up the lovelylovely work (:

[Toffeeliz]

I really like your figures: they look great and have a lovely weight to them. your use of colour is really fresh too (it entices me towards your pages!) and it's swell to see such chocablock sketchbook pages. and how I love those bees

I'm intrigued by your digital painting of what looks to me like a little koala monster up a tower. when painting you seem to really get your shadows down well and it'd be great to see it refined and finished

keep up the lovelylovely work (:

The bees seem to have a lot of people's attention - I should do more like them lol.
The digital piece started off as random marks and then I worked it into the pic you see. I'm not too good at refining things but I'm going to keep working with it. I think what might be a better idea would be to make a new painting from this cos there's a lot of stuff I've noticed I can do to make it better Thanks for dropping by!

I'm getting tired with this sketchbook, it's almsot full. I bought a new one the other day and it's already got one page filled in that, but I'm going to wait until the last pages of te old one are full first before doing more on my new one. These pages are in gouache.

[Onir]

Ohh so they were acrylic and oils. Well looks like I was a bit off hehe, certainly interested in where ya might take em. Nice looking figures, I agree gutss that they have a nice weight to em; I like the line quality and the proportions seem pretty spot on. Fun sketchbook pages as always, really liking the calligraphic marks being incorporated with your drawings.

You said you tend to have trouble refining things, and (if you don't mind) I would just say that one way to approach it is to continuously build smaller shapes as you go. Working large to small has been a mantra of mine for the last 6 months or something lol and I must say that it can really help in achieving more rendered pieces. Also for digital things work at a really high resolution so that you can zoom in further before hitting a pixelated level; things you might know but figured I'd say Keep it up!

[humanNature6115]

Nice figure studies.

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Sketchbook
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761

[Nele Ooms]

Really love your work, also great figure studies! I love the rough edges in your drawings but they're still combined with lines that are to the point. Love it! Keep it up!!

[Toffeeliz]

Ohh so they were acrylic and oils. Well looks like I was a bit off hehe, certainly interested in where ya might take em. Nice looking figures, I agree gutss that they have a nice weight to em; I like the line quality and the proportions seem pretty spot on. Fun sketchbook pages as always, really liking the calligraphic marks being incorporated with your drawings.

You said you tend to have trouble refining things, and (if you don't mind) I would just say that one way to approach it is to continuously build smaller shapes as you go. Working large to small has been a mantra of mine for the last 6 months or something lol and I must say that it can really help in achieving more rendered pieces. Also for digital things work at a really high resolution so that you can zoom in further before hitting a pixelated level; things you might know but figured I'd say Keep it up!

Larger shapes to smaller shapes? gotcha. I'll offer an opinion when I try but I don't really use much concious effort in it all tbh. When I do I tend to freeze up or get headache heh The calligraphic marks are random scribbles to get warmed up and while i think of what to draw.

Nice figure studies.

thank you very much

Really love your work, also great figure studies! I love the rough edges in your drawings but they're still combined with lines that are to the point. Love it! Keep it up!!

thank you I assume you mean the figure drawings on the rough edges part? Our teacher was keen that we should experiment with the media we had I was only too happy to oblige!

Sketching for the last two days has been appaling. =_= need to keep doing it just to keep a flow and there are some aspects I like on both pages. Also, an update on the oil painting, sorry for the naff photo.

[marc_redd]

Great sketchbook man! I like the spreads.

[Farvus]

Hey. What I like here is no fear of experimenting with different strokes and mediums. That's good. It will result in lots of versatility in future, I think.
Keep posting .

[dierat]

Hey Toffee, I saw your post in the personality thread and thought I'd come check out your sketchbook ^^

The piece that really stands out to me as a great sketch is your apple way up there, and I feel like the reason why is that the color on your apple is unifiying the image. Remember to add your colors all around the canvas. If you're putting blue into a shadow, add some of that blue to the other shadows and cool areas of the piece. But what I also really like about the apple is that the color and the value are working together to describe the forms. Remember that value comes first, then color. Your colors should be enhancing your values, not overshadowing them.

Okay I hope that stuff is helpful to you; I'm not totally sure that those suggestions are targeting your problems, but maybe you're find them interesting even if they're not so relevent to you The other thing I wanted to say is that I also rather recently learned to paint digitally, and I also started with Painter. I think it made it easier for me to understand how similar digital painting is to traditional drawing and painting. But after a while I felt that it was a struggle for me to build up my colors using Painter, and I found that for me it's actually easier to build up my image in Photoshop and then use Painter for its blending abilities if I need it.

Anyway, great sketchbook so far; keep up the studies^^

[Nele Ooms]

Yeah, I ment those (especially your figure drawings from May)
Thanks for your comments on the sketches, maybe I'm a little harsh for myself but it's a way of pushing myself
Love the new sketches too btw.

[Muz]

Been a while since i saw your sketches liz. Ive always admired your fluidity and attempts at trying new styles.

You seem to avoid feet though, draw more full figures . Or perhaps thats just the drawings you have posted here.

Keep it up.

[Onir]

Those are some cool warm up scribbles! lol Nice update, you've got nice line quality; I really like the curvy guy pointing (I think he's pointing?) on the bottom right moleskine page. The painting is coming along nicely as well; looks like you're really solidifying everything, which is helping the legibility. The colors do look rather dark right now (might be the image though), so I would just say watch out for that as you go along. If you're working in layers, then you might just be waiting to block in some light shapes on top hehe.

Nice work!

[Toffeeliz]

Great sketchbook man! I like the spreads.

Thanx mate!

Hey. What I like here is no fear of experimenting with different strokes and mediums. That's good. It will result in lots of versatility in future, I think.
Keep posting .

thanks man I just draw however I feel like drawing. When I intend to do something it feels pretty stiff....so this stuff is proabably mostly doodles lol.

Hey Toffee, I saw your post in the personality thread and thought I'd come check out your sketchbook ^^

The piece that really stands out to me as a great sketch is your apple way up there, and I feel like the reason why is that the color on your apple is unifiying the image. Remember to add your colors all around the canvas. If you're putting blue into a shadow, add some of that blue to the other shadows and cool areas of the piece. But what I also really like about the apple is that the color and the value are working together to describe the forms. Remember that value comes first, then color. Your colors should be enhancing your values, not overshadowing them.

Okay I hope that stuff is helpful to you; I'm not totally sure that those suggestions are targeting your problems, but maybe you're find them interesting even if they're not so relevent to you The other thing I wanted to say is that I also rather recently learned to paint digitally, and I also started with Painter. I think it made it easier for me to understand how similar digital painting is to traditional drawing and painting. But after a while I felt that it was a struggle for me to build up my colors using Painter, and I found that for me it's actually easier to build up my image in Photoshop and then use Painter for its blending abilities if I need it.

Anyway, great sketchbook so far; keep up the studies^^

Wow, what a fantastic comment! It's been really helpful, so has going to your sketchbook and seeing how you work with that technique . I'll give it a go doing a neutral values painting but I've no digital for you today. For the apple I used photoshop but I like painter for the blending features . Photoshop feels too static a lot of the time, but you're right in saying its the best for setting up the basic painting.

Yeah, I ment those (especially your figure drawings from May)
Thanks for your comments on the sketches, maybe I'm a little harsh for myself but it's a way of pushing myself
Love the new sketches too btw.

thank you very much. keep pushing yourself but don't push too hard!

Been a while since i saw your sketches liz. Ive always admired your fluidity and attempts at trying new styles.

You seem to avoid feet though, draw more full figures . Or perhaps thats just the drawings you have posted here.

Keep it up.

Yeah...I always misjudge the length of the page. Whenever I draw something it tends to be pretty long lol. I'll post a full figure character sheet I'm working on later!

Those are some cool warm up scribbles! lol Nice update, you've got nice line quality; I really like the curvy guy pointing (I think he's pointing?) on the bottom right moleskine page. The painting is coming along nicely as well; looks like you're really solidifying everything, which is helping the legibility. The colors do look rather dark right now (might be the image though), so I would just say watch out for that as you go along. If you're working in layers, then you might just be waiting to block in some light shapes on top hehe.

Nice work!

The top right is a little off - the photo is really detailed and I already misjudged some of the perspective so it's not going to be the tightest painting in the world. I'm gonna keep working with it though . I'm not too happy with the moleskione figure you ref. but I'm glad it has some fans thanks for coming mate!

Been partying hard these few days....sorry

[DannySketch]

this is some good stuff mate, love how your balancing out studies with imagination stuff, whilst experimenting with different mediums as well!bravo, if you want to get your painting tight you may just wanna sit down for a few solid hours and paint from life, then stop, rest and repeat.

as far as i can see your doing all the right things though, just down to consistency now. keep it up.

[Toffeeliz]

this is some good stuff mate, love how your balancing out studies with imagination stuff, whilst experimenting with different mediums as well!bravo, if you want to get your painting tight you may just wanna sit down for a few solid hours and paint from life, then stop, rest and repeat.

as far as i can see your doing all the right things though, just down to consistency now. keep it up.

I'm gonna sit and paint for a few solid hours right now I think, but in the meantime, here's some stuff that I'm posting drawing wise. Character design mainly - I suck ass lol.
I'm going to restart the bear thing some other time maybe. The large water-tower shaped thing annoys me becuae I have no idea about it's scale. Once I've had a better look at it I'll be able to have a better crack.