Meow! :3 (WEEKLY UPDATES FROM NOW ON)

[Pretty_Angel]

Hello!

So this is my 2nd attempt to for a sketchbook at CA. 1st one starved slowly to death and should stay buried in the depths of the forum.

Some boring facts about me:

I'm Sabrina, 25 years old and student in Japan Studies and Art History. I started drawing and painting a while ago, but I'm still a noob. So yeah... critique plz. :3

Big issues:

• Anatomy
• Colouring/using paint in general
• Scenery conception

Any help is much appreciated!

[Pretty_Angel]

So first things first: Last winter semester I stayed in Japan for 6 months and during that time I didn't have any digital paining equipment with me - but my sketchbook that I almost filled up!

It's probably not that much output as others have here but it's not that bad at all. For the most part characters studies. Started out with a little help of Loomis.

(Also, the uploader is killing me, so I'll just put up the sketchdumps I composed for my dA. Makes it less complicated.)

[AsaB]

Yay, you made a sketchbook at last! Most awesome! I'm sure it'll become a fantastic catalyst for you :3 It provides good comments/crit and needed butt-kickings!

I've already commented on most of these sketches, but I still think they rock! That latest sheet with all those nicely rendered character portraits is beeeaautiful. Especially Romin!

[fluorine]

Love the character face study. Looks like they really have a different personality from each other! I need to do something like that~~~ That's why I love CA, I get new inspiration everyday.

What's the story behind these characters?

[Artofinca]

Nice sketches!

[Pretty_Angel]

Asa Yeah, finally! Sorry, not much new for you, haha. But I will upload the rest of my stuff asap and then I hopefully get some critique for my wip!

fluorine Thanks a lot! The characters are actually from a private story project. I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it (secretly I'm dreaming of turning it into a comic or something) but for now this is my playground when it comes to practising and doing studies.


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Ok then more stuff to show you!

This is the digital stuff I've done since I returned. Sadly university started again so that I didn't have more time for painting.

1) quick coloured sketch (though I'm not quite satisfied with the result)


2) a portrait for Johane Matte's Water Tribe comic based on her character design and that old famous photo of an Inuit woman:


3) mother-daughter portrait for Der-Shing Helmer and The Meek, based on her character designs


4) another coloured sketch; first did a grey-scale then tried to colour it... hmm... could be better. Was my first try in this technique.


5) Kulla for Anne Pätzke, based on her character design


6) a couple of style studies, partly based on some sketches from above


7) B/W study from one of my sketches


8 ) my sister and her boyfriend!

[Eiki]

Wow beatiful and solid character sketches here I particularly like your pencil handling.

I little envy you having been in Japan for 6 months :p Would klike to go there some day, too. Japan is so fascinating issue.

[BlackDelphin]

Aah glad to see you here on cA too~
And i see you brought your whole awesomeness too!!

[dierat]

Great work so far! Your portraits are wonderful. (I especially enjoy the portrait for Johane Matte's Water Tribe comic; that's beautiful.) My only crit is that some of your pencil works (for instance the drawing of the house in post #2) could use a little more contrast; your tones are a bit limited to the middle value range. Keep up the good work!

[Lapada]

heh REally nice clean and fun colouring style! and the bunny , SO CUTE! awwwwwww

[Pretty_Angel]

Eiki Thanks a lot! Being forced to just use the pencil for those months really helped. :3 As for Japan: If you should have the time and money you should really do it. It's definitely worth it!

BlackDelphin Haha, thanks! Always great to see familiar faces, isn't it?

dierat Thanks a lot! Yeah, the tonal control of my pencils got better over time but is still limited, as you said. Perhaps I should get a wider palette of various degrees of hardness or something. All the sketches above were just done with a 2B pencil (or rather plenty of them - my sweetheart got me a whole package of 2B Faber-Castells and I love them!)

Lapada Thank you! The little bunny even has it's own book series! Anne's work is really adorable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So guys and gals, let's come to the real fun part: I need help with a WIP!

Sketch:


Some wip-steps (didn't save many steps in progress; already uploaded these to my dA, hence the ridiculous watermark, lol):



Current status:


I know a lot of stuff is still off - though I can't put my finger on it. So if someone could help out with some concrete advise how to improve this painting I'd be very thankful! Redlines are welcome as well!

[BlackDelphin]

ALWAYS a pleasure to see familiar faces!

And about your wip...i think, for starters, his pose may be off? i mean...what is he practically doing? : So he's sitting there, right? relaxed, chopping off his wood, no, with some grass arround, some moss perhaps? and is that a tree, a tree (what's it called...the end of the tree...taht normally is under ground?) yeah...that part.. is the pose really relaxed? take a look again i say, flip it if you need, and make him mega relaxed to do his job

I also think the wood shall need more texture and shape variation..And perhaps do a grayscale of this to see if the lighting is off, if the values are good, so on, and so forth

=^_^=

[Pretty_Angel]

BlackDelphin Yeah, you know that's the problem I have. I know something is wrong, but I don't know what. It's driving me nuts, lol.

I actually am flipping that thing quite often (half of it is painted when flipped) and I have a black layer on top in colour mode so that I can switch grey-scale on and off whenever I want. From the latter I know that I still need to balance highlights and shadows.

As for the pose I'm not quite sure. To me it looks quite comfy. But yeah, something is off and I can't nail it down. :C

Ok then... here are the flipped and b/w versions... perhaps that might help?

[Sollid]

hi ^^
i dont feel like im in a position to give cc really, im so fresh here.. but if i was cutting a piece of wood i would keep my eyes on it, his eyes seem a bit off, and i'd love to see him cut that wood into something it kinda looks like a hairy coconut atm..
well, i dont feel very helpful, but i tried -.-' good luck

oh and btw, those collarbones connect alittle weird, it looks kinda flat

[Pretty_Angel]

Sollid Na, don't feel shy!
For your critique: Yes, you're right about the eyes thing. I'm trying to fix the problem for a while now (therefore the big changes in the face) - though I seem to be too stupid to get it right. Argh. Maybe I need to tilt the head a bit more? idk
Also working on the wood. Haha, I'm already glad that it doesn't look like a potato anymore. Though a hairy coconut is not much better. lol
I'll definitely check out the collar-bones. Thanks buddy!

[deerinheadlights]

It's a very nice painting! When I look at it the only thing that jumps out at me is that maybe the head os a little small? I think it looks that way because his sleeve is very large, I think it would work better if it was less loose. Loving your work so far!

[jackpot_anjr90]

Nice start! I'm really liking this latest one you've posted. The head seems like it may be a little small (I noticed this when comparing it to the size of his hand). Looking forward to seeing how this turns out

[JMonsterDesign]

Love your portraits and sketches! I really have no crits for you, you seem to be extremly confident!

[BlackDelphin]

I think i have something..look at the flipped version: i think the right shoulder (the one with the knife) is waay to big, and now look at the grayscale: i think the shading on the pants reflected by that knife-holding hand is off

Hope i said something useful ^^'
And good luck~

[laxon]

Beautiful work! I really love your pencil sketches in the very first post. Great use of strokes.

[Giorge]

hey , your doing god , keep it up , don't stop , where is that thing that you have on your avatar , looks nice , got my attention haha , see ya

[Icedearth15876]

Great stuff so far, the guy sitting against the tree cutting on the wood looks great. keep up the good work.

[Pretty_Angel]

deerinheadlights Yeah, the proportions are a pain in the ass. Made the sleeve a tad smaller. Seems to work at first glance. It looks a little less off now. Thanks!

jackpot_anjr90 Thanks a lot. Worked a bit on the proportions - though I still need to check them back once more.

BlackDelphin You're right! Tried to fix it a bit with correcting the clothes. Looks better now, though I probably need to check it once more. Haha, the pants were still very much beta-phase. Made some progress on them today - hope it's better now?

JMonsterDesign, laxon, Icedearth15876 Thanks guys!

Giorge Thanks! My avatar is Oola from Guild Wars. I made a fanart from her last year for a little contest. Here's the full painting:



~~~~~
Current progress:

• tilted the picture a little -> pose is a little bit more laid back now
• added/corrected some details with clothing
• gave the wood a bit more shape (still doesn't look like wood, or does it?)
• tried to fix the issue with his eyes (he should look at the wood... though I fail at this D: )
• fancy bag!

Proportions are still a mess - will correct that tomorrow. Hopefully.

[BlackDelphin]

Aah i am glad i can help you, and i am also glad that you see those proportion mistakes, nothing to crit till then :3

Keep at it~

[dierat]

Your WIP's coming along great! The face is just wonderful and I really envy your control over the folds in the clothing. For a crit, I'd like to see you add some variety to your colors. Presently the image is all green, brown, and a little ochre in the shirt. I would add a bit of warm yellow to the streaks of light in the background (and tint some of the right-side highlights on the figure with that same color) and add some blue-purple to the shadows in the foreground to push the depth of your values. And, this is really silly but for some reason that bag is really distracting me because of the vertical alignment; I would rotate the bag clockwise a little so it looks less posed (that should also add to your diagonal movement in the image a smidge). Good luck!

[Pretty_Angel]

Sorry, no update! Still working on it - currently I got not much time. Got a test on Monday and still need to learn a bit for it.

Also Team CHOW II started! I'm participating with Team Coco Meowza! I'll post my stuff for that in our team SB and after the month is done I'll probably upload it here. :3

BlackDelphin Thanks!

dierat Thanks a lot, that are some really helpful suggestions!

[Fayestardust]

Lovely to see you on here as well. I still love your character sketches best of all (the facial studies), I think they're brilliant.

[GweNdZ]

your sketchbook looks really awesome! Keep it up ^^

[BlackDelphin]

What oO you posted a reply and no thumbs!!??
Post man, post

[Icecold]

If you call yourself a noob the fck meh! i'll have to get a new tatoo
I Am NOOB on my forehead!


Awesome sketches, flawless! No crit! not needed just keep on working!

/worship