Marlisa's SB Traditionals --> April 15 :::

**Marlisa** · July 4th, 2008, 10:20 AM

Hi there

I'm Marlisa, 18 years old now (turned 22 (omg i'm getting old) on May 3rd).

After browsing around for more than a year, I've decided to start my own sketchbook over here.
To be honest: I'm not really the sketching-type of person...

When I want to draw or paint something, I don't make any studies before I start with the project itself. Yeah I know, that's not really a good thing, but I can't help myself, haha.

I'm a student at the academy of Fine Art, in Amsterdam. (not anymore... stupid art academies).

x Marlisa

P.S.: My english isn't that great, so if I make some weird mistakes... don't laugh at me

**eminkey2003** · July 4th, 2008, 10:38 AM

I am impressed that you do not do studies before finishing pictures! That is a super portrait. I would make the form shadow on the hand lighter to separate it from the values of the cast shadow and the hair. In real life, it might be the same, so I could be wrong.

Also, post bigger images!

**Marlisa** · July 4th, 2008, 10:49 AM

Edit: @ eminkey2003: thanks for the compliment and the tip

l'll start with the only sketch/drawing thing I could find on this computer (my computer crashed a while ago, so most of my scanned work is gone... -_-').
I'll scan more drawings and sketches later this evening.

from ref.

His hand and his hair hasn't turned out that well, but I like his mouth and nose

I used the picture to practise on tinted paper with black graphite pencil for shadows and white pastel pencil for highlights.

x Marlisa

**Marlisa** · July 5th, 2008, 04:14 PM

I've found two old drawings somewhere on this computer today:

Steve from Neo-celtic band OMNIA (so it's NOT ozzy or someone like that...

)

Me with my precious nikon:

I know, the proportions are a bit weird

Not finished yet

All from ref.

x Marlisa

**Marlisa** · July 9th, 2008, 02:14 PM

Acrylic painting on canvas 40x50 cm.

**AmontilladoAg** · July 9th, 2008, 02:38 PM

I really like your work

I think you might need to push your values a bit more -- intensify those darks!

Show us more of your stuff; can't wait to see!

**a la bapsi** · July 9th, 2008, 03:27 PM

that first portrait's incredible.
I hope you make it to the academy in Utrecht. :]

**Lyno** · July 9th, 2008, 04:30 PM

Hi Marlisa,
Nice works you got here so keep posting

.
I'll try to check back later.

**Marlisa** · July 9th, 2008, 04:46 PM

@ AmontilladoAg: Thanx!

I'll try to do that a bit more, next painting.

@ a la bapsi: Thank u

About the art academy in Utrecht: there was no more space for more students next year. So, after I searched for more schools and didn't found any interesting things, I decided to take a break...

..but then ofcourse, I got a call from the art academy in Amsterdam; that they decided that I could do the whole year all over again

No break for me this year I guess

**Hybrid_75** · July 9th, 2008, 05:16 PM

nice stuff, is the black graphite just really dark pencil like 8b or is it like a charcoal pencil? keep it up. good luck with you studies.

**Marlisa** · July 9th, 2008, 06:19 PM

The grey-ish parts are 6B, the black parts are done with some kind of greasily charcoal. Really hard to erase

**Noë** · July 11th, 2008, 05:23 PM

Great stuff Marlisa,
Ofcourse the first portrait is absolutely awesome. You could definitely sell stuff like that.
The painting is also beautiful. I love the girls' hair, so many colour variations and nice highlights, must have taken a while to paint!
I guess it's good that you can do the year over at your school right? And it will probably be easier now that you've already done a lot of assignments and stuff?
As a crit: I'm not sure but it looks like you tend to make the mouth a bit too small on your portraits. Also watch the placement of the mouth very carefully. Often when something seems off on a face and you can't figure out what it will be the mouth being a bit too much to the left or right.

Oh well, great stuff, keep posting!
Love
Marleen.

**Marlisa** · July 12th, 2008, 06:12 AM

Thanks for the crit

that's absolutely true.
When I was about to toss the painting out of my window, I finally saw what was wrong with it. The distance between her eye and nose and her mouth wasn't right... I don't know what I was doing when I painted that -_-'

Her hair was the most fun to paint, maybe because it went so well

About my school: Yesterday I've heared that the teachers thought another year would be really difficult for me, because they had doubts concerning my talent... according to them I don't have any

I guess... another schoolyear would prove that, wouldn't it?

I'm working on a new painting (portrait) for a few days now (5 days non-stop... ) and I hope I can finish it today.

x Marlisa

**Marlisa** · July 12th, 2008, 09:38 AM

After 5 days of non stop painting... I couldn't bring myself to finish the painting today. I had to do something else than that.
So, here's an update:

Portrait of my cousin Mungledi:

Her left eye and cheak looked a bit strange.
Because of her eye, her teeth seemed to be too small, but now I've moved her eye, her teeth don't seem that small anymore

I think her face is ok now... only have to do her hair/shirt/background

x Marlisa

**MercilezzViper** · July 12th, 2008, 11:40 AM

Nice sketches!! Keep em coming.

**destinyapocalypse** · July 12th, 2008, 01:14 PM

wow nice jobs ilove your painting s

**kasblue** · July 15th, 2008, 08:51 AM

its all very cool!! dont slow down... keep em coming!!

**Brun** · July 15th, 2008, 09:19 AM

you are doing a great job here, the paintings from ref will help u a lot with building your own visual libery

keep it comming 'n rocking

**Marlisa** · July 16th, 2008, 07:24 PM

Thanks to you all

I know I really must draw a lot more...

But I can't find the time for it right now (even in my summer holidays i'm extremely busy)

I finished the portrait of my cousin yesterday:

It always looks different on the photo's

Very annoying.

More sketches/drawings/paintings coming!

**Marlisa** · July 18th, 2008, 06:02 AM

Hi!

I've scanned some old drawings yesterday to put on my website.
All made last year:

**clanlord** · July 18th, 2008, 08:19 AM

Keep up the good work!

Maybe the mouth of this one is too small --- mannietaf

**Noë** · July 20th, 2008, 03:08 AM

Ooooh love love love the portrait! Very nice!
I really like how you painted it, the mouth especially turned out great. But the rest as well..

One tiny nitpick: the picture you painted it from was overexposed. This means you're copying the flaws of photogrography onto your painting. It looks really nice on the light parts, but the skin looks a bit weird brownish (which I guess is her actual skincolour?) on the right side because of the overexposion these two don't really look right, but they probably don't already in the original photo. So I guess this has nothing to do with your technque, more with choosing reference pictures (although I do think she looks really nice and spontaneous on the painting, so this might have been the best picture).

Well great stuff

I'll keep coming by here every now and then.
Gotta update my sketchbook now

Love
Marleen

P.S. Have to tell you once more how much I love the ballerina in "pittkrijt". It gives such a nice effect on the tutu!

**Marlisa** · August 13th, 2008, 06:28 PM

@ clanlord: yeah I get what you mean. At first, I didn't want to draw the mouth because it looked already kinda weird on the photo... but it's even weirder to not draw it if you've already drawn the eyes and nose. So I kinda screwed it up

and I don't dare to draw any further (I've had some trouble with translating this, so I'm sorry if it's weird...)
@Marleen: Thank you! You're too kind

And about the portrait: I guess it wasn't that smart of me to use that photo for the portrait. But my uncle wanted me to paint that one, because it was the only one where she laughed spontaneously

And about the brownish dark right side of her face: I think I rather like that part

I don't know why, it just feels good or sometin...

A very small contribution this time... I feel ashamed of myself, really.
I've drawn more during the holiday's, but I'm afraid that the scanner will explode when I try to scan those horrible sketches -_-'
Maybe I'll try it tomorrow..

Pffeww... it took me half an hour to translate this. I will never post anything at this hour no more (even had struggles with this.. -_-')

**Noë** · August 16th, 2008, 05:10 AM

Oooh lovely!!
Maybe the head is a bit too small, but after measuring I'm not so sure anymore. It looks good proportion wise anyways..
Don't feel ashamed of your sketches, I guess it's good to have weak points and to be able to get better at them so you can actually feel better again because you improved?

Keep it up girl

I feel ashamed

, didn't really draw much this vacation.. Just worked and worked some more.
Love
Marleen

**kidult** · August 16th, 2008, 05:30 AM

Nice sketches and work here. Last one looks good but has some anatomy issues on the arm - stil a great piece tho - then for your painting in general try do some underpainting 1st instead of working stuff up into detail, piece by piece. Will make for more depth plus help tie in the pieces of your painting. Your current work method is more suited for pencil work to prevent smudging and such.
Try build your painting in layes instead of pieces.

**Verehin** · August 16th, 2008, 05:50 AM

Beautiful life drawing...keep it live

**Marlisa** · October 1st, 2008, 02:22 PM

Tnx guys!

A quick update:
-first 3 drawings are done with charcoal and 'pittkrijt' (don't know how to call it in english). The assignment was to make some sketches together with another student of my class, and it had to be about the first time we saw each other at school.

- next 3 are done in drawingclass @ school; we are practising still life this semester.
The things I had to paint monday were so crappy, that i didn't recognised anything (a horse skull, a guitarcase and a bucket...

) . Picture from still life at monday is attached...

- the last 2 things are from the assignment: 'draw things made by humans (head subject is architecture)'... within an hour.

x Marlisa

Edit: All things are made on 100x70 cm
Oh, and all things are made in real life, not done from photo or something (that's why I screwed up that still life painting

)

**dcriler** · October 1st, 2008, 04:17 PM

Your life sketches are beautiful!

Keep it up!

**Noë** · October 5th, 2008, 04:02 AM

Gorgeous work girl!

I especially love the 'zwarte diamant', but the other stuff is good too

I like the assignment you had to do with a classmate as well

Nice interpretations.
The architecture stuff is very good

I think you definitely improved there

On your first three images, something to work on might be to work a bit more with planes and shades (Ik bedoel euhm wat meer in vlakken werken, dan lijnen uitvegen).. Because I feel that the shadows and forms are slightly unclear, because from the rubbing of the charcoal the edges get really soft so the form doesn't read so well.. I hope you understand what I mean

not easy to explain in English

This applies especially to the pants and the face

But I still really like the face, just don't be afraid of harder shadows and sharper shapes, because those really define the face.

By the way: good that you're working so big

It's really hard though I know ^^ so it's extra nice work, thinking of how big you had to make these.

Thanks for stopping by in my sketchbook again

I'll reply there later today ^^ so we keep different conversations in different sketchbooks (would be a bit weird if I answered your questions here perhaps..
Anyways, see you around

And keep working like this ^^ lovely work!

Bye!
Marleen.