Keep-Going SKETCHBOOK - Updated on 12 March

[Nemome]

Hey Cristina.
Glad you came back. It's worth it to continue growing with all these other amazing artists.

Regarding your last drawings I would suggest to practice a bit more basic solid forms.
Your stuff is very loose (which isn't bad!), but try to develop one of these loose drawings more.
Make a loose gesture like drawing, as your used to, and then try to make a solid line art out of it where you could build a whole painting upon.

Keep on growing Christina!

[BlackLightG]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook. I like how you get the figures/poses correct. I find that the most frustrating part. Great work!

[BlackDelphin]

Pixelwalker - Thank you! It sure is nice being back here and seeing all the amazing art. And at the moment, i'm trying to experiment. And as embarrassed as this may sound, I forgot my old method of construction since I last drew one year and a half ago. So i'm basically trying to refind myself.

BlackLightG - ooh i assure you, it's a constant frustration to me as well. i'm trying to get rid of it though, thanks blacklightg!


Trough be told, I partially forgot how to paint digitally xD
The new method I developed in the last page before my absence was almost entirely new from what i used to do, and after a year and a half of absence, i have no clue as to how i did some fine edges from my previous work xD

That being said, here's a epic fail portrait i didn't have the mood to finish and some more sketches. I have no clue as to what style i want to have right now so i'll just be experimenting..

Did a female version of a character sheet. Concentrated on proportions more as usual. I really like the 3/4 view.

[kevin_]

great update, would like to see more work where you define it out a bit more!

[Dile_]

you got good attitude and you're on the right track! very cool enviro sketches on the last page!

[BludHund]

Heyyy! Good to see you back Cristina. Truth be told I was afraid that you had
just disappeared comeletely

But I though, no, not Cristina, she is far to ambitious and bad-ass for that

That mechanical cheetah is pretty cool, but you should darken up the crevices a bit,
maybe use a charcoal pencil or a Prismacolor black pencil.

I love those little landscape thumbnails. Very nice.

As far as portfolio goes, the first question I have is who is going to be looking at this portfolio?

Is it for application to a school, or for a job? The purpose of the portfolio will determine
what work you need to put in it.

As far as selecting pieces, or what should be cut out or replaced, the bottom line is that
it should represent only your very finest work. If you ever find yourself putting something
in your portfolio just to reach some magic number, that is certaily something that does not belong.

Simply sit down and pick only your absolute best pieces. If you end up with only 5-10 images,
well, you just need to work some more. If any piece is not up to the strength of the other
pieces, and looks out of place...you should just cut it.

So you can use your own judgement...that being said:

here's my two cents.

Definitely looks like you are on the right track with your studies. Take your time, soon you will
be better than ever!

[p sage]

Good stuff from BludHund

The flowing lines and enclosures you're doing on this page are great, and will benefit your understanding of how figures hold together.

When you're doing those, make the line very sweeping (drawing from your shoulder), and don't lift your pencil/pen/stylus. Make the ovals as symmetrical as you can. This will give your figures volume and unity.

And your xD's make me smile So good to have you back.

Now we gotta get B-Man back and have a party

[BlackDelphin]

kevin_ - thanks kevin, will try!

Dile_ - thank you very much! i'm trying to move my envos to digital now

BludHund - haha you're the man BludHund, thanks! that cheetah has a loong history and has a lot of flows, but it'll have to stay that way until someone will repaint the wall. i no longer have access to it, and it was done with a meagre HB pencil. The legs could use a LOT more rendering.

As for the portfolio, med school doesn't give me the luxury of so much spare time as to apply for an art school. My purpose is more job-related. I'm thinking, at some point i'll get good enough as to have someone hire me.

Your two cents don't work BludHund hahah, the link is invalid.

And thanks for the usual encouragement, really thank you!

p sage - i was actually wondering myself where B-Man is a couple of days ago..hahah good to see you all here guys, really nice encouraging community. no wonder i can improve!
As for drawing from the shoulder, it applies to wacom as well? Hahah xD I was drawing from the wrist, thinking it's digitally and i don't get accuracy otherwise..my wacom being a small one as well. Will try, thanks sage.

You guys are so motivating, thanks!
Asked for someone's opinion a few days ago, and even knowing that critique is good, and it will help me get better...i still felt down and didn't had the extra spunk to start drawing again. Seeing all these motivational comments this morning, made me try painting digitally again.
And because i forgot how i used to do it, thought i might as well try with the round hard brush for a change heh.
Had a lot of fun with this one.

And for anyone even THINKING to tell me that i eyedropped after 3h of concentration and colour choosing...don't, just don't. Save those thoughts for yourself :p
My reference wasn't even opened in photoshop. I've done this in the past specifically to stop myself from colour picking at all, and now it became a habit.

[Hayden_Zammit]

That last digital painting is awesome. Love the colors and the looseness of it.

[BlackDelphin]

Hayden_Zammit - thank you very much! i'm trying to work more loose

Some steps for the envo and i did another drawing with the hard round and co
Trying to concentrate mostly on hard round brush.

I'm not sure how to really make the lighting pop out more..

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

Just swung by for another look at what you are up too and I have to say that I rather like the girl with the eye patch! good one that mate. Keep pushing it though and bring it up to a high polish it will do you good.
The figures in your other post have some anatomy problems creeping in so I would do those sets another ten times or so and really nail them, go on I know its a pain but you need to be harsh with your self and nail them.


all the best matey and keep up the good work!

[Kapil]

Hey just stopping by. Woud really love to see more progress on that eyepatch girl! Lookin nice.

[miycko]

so many updates love the figures in post 1140, very nicely done for your first time back in photoshop. Your latest landscape is very well executed, really like your use of color the custom brushes in that one, also sweet character sheets, it's great to see you churning out so much quality work keep them coming

[Pete Hidalgo]

Wow! Just Wow! Theres SOOO much work and dedication in this book. From page 1 to now the improvements were overwhelming! I really like the environment thumbnails and studies. Those are the thinks I am switching over to work on now.

[BludHund]

Hmm, that's weird...it works in my browser. Maybe its cached or something...



this time I spent FIVE CENTS, lol

Colors are looking great, BTW.

[Icecold]

Oh hey.

You wanted some advice regarding colors, to be honest i don't think you really need one, you've always were strong in this aspect Cristina, but to answer yout question. I would really recommend getting this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/COLOR-AND-LI...3120196&sr=8-3

There's nothing else that covers the topic better out there.
It will give you some fundamental knowledge alonside with some beatiful examples of execution. But there's no better way to just practice yourself, but you already know that :]

Cheers!

[Greip]

Your last landscape is truly vibrant! Bold strokes and good atmospheric perspective.

However I'd recommend to spend even more time on construction and shapes and forms. You're very good at rendering so take a break from that. I think your painting skills will improve more if you develop better understanding of forms. But it seems you're already spending a lot of time on that so my comment might be redundant.

[p sage]

Griep is right.

But if you don't know to practice that, an easy and fun way is to take a digital work that you really like...

1) Add a layer to it in photoshop/sai/etc.
2) Lower the opacity of the original layer
3) On the second layer, find the 2D and 3D shapes that you see.

Important! Make sure those shapes are accurately drawn and that you only use symmetrical shapes. Using odd shapes won't offer understanding about the construction of the larger forms.

After you go through a piece like that, then do a fast drawing of only those shapes, without lifting the stylus. You will be drawing the original in sketch mode just like the original artist!

This is a great way to learn.

Have fun

[BlackDelphin]

Lightship69 - thanks a lot, i intend to do them again and again. for one, i like doing character sheets.
as for the pirate chick, i can't even if i want to. my pc is down and the file was in there.
i now only have this version of her

Kapil - Thank you. I intended to, but like i said to Lightship69, that file was on a pc that doesn't work now.
Once i fix it, perhaps i will come back to her.

miycko - thank you very much for the motivation boost! always a pleasure seeing people like my art.
it makes me want to update even more. more digi envos to come micky. and those pencil landscapes i did after
your refs are still out there, ready to be scanned. i'll fill the page and then i'll post

Pete Hidalgo - thank you very much for the motivational comment, good luck with those studies too!

BludHund - i would give you two thanks on the post if i could, so i'm saying it here, thank you and thanks again!
most things you crossed out are old studies that i thought would still be ok, but i'd better make new better ones. what i
don't understand though, is why did you cross out the watercolour envo?
thanks for pointing out the best ones as well, i'll be looking at those as to compare with everything else that i want to add
also, what else do you think would be better i add? like a character sheet or sketches of some sort etc etc?

Icecold - colours...mm better yet said lighting i think.. i mean using the cool/worm of colours and values
to make that interesting lighting etc do i make sense? as for the book, i've had that recommended to me
a couple of times, so i will buy it when i have the possibility.

Greip - wow, i was thinking the contrary! that i am not so good at rendering, because my level is this..
i don't really know how to take it further and detail it, refine it to a finish. i agree with you, i need more construction.
i am surprised i can get this good results, considering how much i'm "eye balling" thinks heh, thanks for the comment

p sage - you mean once i find the simple shapes in the drawing, ("without lifting the stylus")
i do like a contour of some sort? not sure what you're pointing towards sage, but i'll do it digitally and
post, and see what you'll say. thanks!


Another envo study.
This one actually took a lot more than the other,
choosing the colours was a real pain. That sky was the issue.
And i still didn't get it quite right but ooh well.. more practice.
Experimented with mood a bit more as well.

[TNiznet]

Wow last one is stunning! I am so guilty of color picking haha, I'll go for a period trying to match the ref's color manually, than ill get disappointed that the colors are way off and go insane with the picking -_-. I need to fight this tendency. For the lighting try using the soft brush, and have a couple dabs and play with the layer settings like overlay etc, or do a black and white gradient map and put it on luminosity. I tried it yesterday and thought it was great O.o.

Great sketchbook btw.

[p sage]

once i find the simple shapes in the drawing, ("without lifting the stylus")
i do like a contour of some sort?

No you're not thinking about contour, you're thinking about structure but while looking at someone's work you really admire. You see the shapes they used. After you have that worked out on a layer, make that layer into its own image and use it fo reference during the next step.

Then open a new file and start drawing those shapes (looking at your analysis drawing), without lifting the stylus. Be as accurate as you can, and try to be smooth and free with it. You'll see that the contour appears as if by magic

It's a fun way to work and learn.

[Nemome]

Good looking updates Cristina
Enviros get better and better.
As Icecold mentioned: You don't really need to worry too much about your colors. They are really good in my opinion.
Get behind other fundamentals first. Construction for example.

But hey! Just keep going.

[miycko]

i'm saying this as seriously as i possibly can, your environments are really kicking ass how long did this latest one take? the way you rendered the water is wonderful and though you may not be totally satisfied with the sky it still looks great. can't wait to see those pencil landscapes keep it up

[Cabbage Caterpillar]

Wow such nice landscape! I agree with miycko on the water. The sky looks great too! One thing I found with sky (or sunlight) is when it's perfectly horizontal (hold shift when painting bottom part of clouds, etc) it seems to look more right.. I'm a complete newbie so I might be totally wrong - that cheat just seemed to fix my landscape when I was doing the sky! lol

[kevin_]

nice updates! like the last two environments!

[LtPlissken]

I know that you announced your disappearance a while back,
but we are already missing you so much. I hope that medicine is
going fine and that you are happy as a daisy. Your landscape drawings
and studies had already entered in the book of history, you just haven’t
been notified about it yet. I am informing you that some big eyes are watching
your work currently, and your talent is slowly starting to shine as bright as ever.
I've been cruising around your portfolio a bit at night, and I am very happy
about how you did it. Especially the Portrait and the Environment section. And
the figure study section also. You have that immense creative power within you,
which you have to let go, not just through medicine but through drawing for sure.
You will be talking your grandchildren about your first pencil holdings, mark my
words. Vibrant strokes is what you are implementing in the modern sub order,
while looking at your latest enviro study with the sun going down, a tear run down on
my cheek. I know that you are too busy now and do not have time to update, but
you remember that there are people here who count on you, and they are
always eager to see your new beauty through artistic expression. Also I
was thinking when you come back, I started studying zoology a bit deeper,
mostly the heron and stork families, but more the heron. So I feel a bit ashamed
to ask this, but I would like that we study together, that is if you will have the
time and will. I am waiting you to post again more than anyone else.

[BlackDelphin]

A little something from this evening.
Will reply to everyone in the next few days.

Thank you for your constant support!

[BlackDelphin]

This morning when I looked at the drawing again it looked very dark. I adjusted the curves a bit.
But this makes me wonder, can my lenovo think pad screen give me a proper screen for drawing?
Hope so. It's the only option I got.

Hopefully, I'll reply later on today. Have a pleasant day guys!

[p sage]

Good work Cristina

[BludHund]

Heyyy, Cristina. Sorry about my lack of updates. Been busy getting ready to move cross-country.
...or some such excuse

you asked "what i don't understand though, is why did you cross out the watercolour envo?" I don't
remember, but looking at it again, I would say, the composition is not as strong as the other landscapes.
Primarily I think because of the pink sky...it kind of muddles with the color of the house, there isn't
enough separation and contrast.

You asked "what else do you think would be better i add? like a character sheet or sketches of some
sort etc etc?" That depends of course on what type of job you are applying for (IE, for an illustration
job, for a concept design job, for a job as a matte painter, etc.

I would say portraits and landscapes are your strongest points, color, rendering, values all look good.

I would say figures and characters are your weakest, so gesture, structure, drapery, anatomy, are areas
to work on. Also I have seen almost no industrial / mechanical / or interior environments, so those probably
deserve some attention (relative to the kind of work you want to do).

I liked the dark version...especially the eyes

what model of ThinkPad do you have Cristina? I am writing this on the X230 I just bought, and the display is nice