Diedra's sketchbook Vol. 2 - update 4/26/13

[Satu]

I luvs this painting (Have I said that already?)

[dierat]

Black Spot - I moved the ankle bone (tibia) back a little and softened it so it’s hopefully less distracting now. I agree the swords look a bit dull - I used a plastic toy sword as a reference and they came out a bit rounded as a result. It’s on my list of stuff to fix.

matejkovacic - Thanks!

Psychobuddy - Thanks!

tobbA - Thank you!

Kambei Shimada - Yeah it’s the Nine of Swords. But it’s just a personal piece; I’m not doing the rest of the deck or anything.

Satu - Thanks, I’m glad you like it!



Zomg an update! I was planning to wait until the forums are fully functional again, but I just got this about as far as I can and wanted to share. Crit welcome of course!

[Rotor]

It looks great.
The values are excellent but the thing I would consider is the lack of texture. You have metal, water, sand(?), all of which would have a very distinct feel to them. The fabric, skin and hair look good though. The colours gives it a nice ethereal quality.

Looking forward to getting my sketchbook up and running again once things cool off and the forum is back at full capacity. So how have you been?

[Black Spot]

I still think the ankle bone it too far to the front of the foot and not the side. I know you got a ton of critiques on the critique forum to work through, so I won't add any more.

[tobbA]

I think it's looking nice. However I can't make much sense of the shadows of the swords. (Though that might have been intentional?) And I feel like maybe she should cast a shadow too. It would definately add to the feeling that she's floating. I also feel like I'd like to know what I'm looking at with the water and the sky. Right now it looks like a gooey ambiguos mass. Perhaps adding some foam from waves near the beach might help. That said I really like the dream like quality it has.

[Angel Intheuk]

Wow the colours are gorgeous and the material is looking really good. I second Tobba's suggestion of a shadow underneath the girl.

[Kjesta]

Oh what a beautiful painting! Gorgeous colours, it really appears to glow from the inside. What confuses me a bit is the swords: I thought at first that the blades seen on the top actually belong to the swords beneath her, coming from above in a space-warping way. I'm sorry that I have nothing useful to add aside from this, I can't really find technical flaws... I like that it has a slightly religious feel to it, at least that's the vibe I get, can't pinpoint it though.

[dierat]

Oh crap, it’s been a while! Whoops.. Lately I’ve been working on some writing projects, so I’ve been kind of neglecting my artwork and online presence. But since it’s a new year and all, I’d like to change that.

Thanks for all the crits for that last piece; I really appreciate every suggestion. I plan to get back to that soon and rework it based on the feedback I’ve received here and elsewhere.

In the meantime, here are some some sketches n’ shizit.


From photos..



[Reference image here!]


[Reference source here!]



From life..







From the natural history museum..






Maya studies (from Introducing Maya)






And this is a quick low-poly sword model I made to help me get the angle of the cast shadows in that tarot painting up in my last post.

[Black Spot]

Nice update. The horse is fine except for the front leg - you did better on the giraffe.

[dierat]

Black Spot - Thanks! I'll try to pay better attention to the front legs in the future


I was thinking of doing a piece about the little mermaid. My idea is to have her crawling onto land with the fish tail still attached but ripped and falling off, like a snake shedding its skin.

I did a some composition sketches..




Then I took my favorite 4 and did a quick value sketch for each. Right now I'm leaning towards #12.

[cumquat]

Hi Diedra, thank you so much for the value drawing you did over my work in progress. Lovely sketchbook - the way you do fabric is really beautiful . By the way, I also like #12 on your mermaid pictures.

[StonemasteR]

dope stuff! I like #11 personally, but #12 would be nice if we could see her face too...

[Manuel Baum]

Hey Diedra! Thanks for the helpful comments in my sketchbook. I really like yours! I think that especially your digital paintings are awesome. Very naturalistic! Nice!

In the direction of animal anatomy, i have a book tip for you: http://www.amazon.com/Artists-Guide-.../dp/0486436403
I personally like this book, because it not only explains the form/anatomy of an animal, but also the purpose behind it. For example that the forelegs of horses are more like columns (straight), because they have to support most of the horses weight, while the hindlegs have a more dynamic structure to provide power and explosivenes. I think this is great, because it makes remebering way easier and it becomes easier to transfer knowledge to new animals, etc...

And i'm not sure, but maybe your linework could benefit from more hard angles. Your lines are very smooth (actually i like this and want to make my lines smoother ) and this is a good thing, if you want to present something smooth. But if you want to present something that has a harder form (for example men as opposed to women) harder angles can help to express what the form is like. What i want to say is: When you want to make a curved line, maybe think about if it's just two straight or slightly curved lines meeting in a not so strong angle. Example: The neck and/or forehead of the guy portrayed in post #248. I guess there should be slight angles...

I realize i didnt see many male faces in your sketchbook. Is this because you are uncomfortable with them (maybe because you think they look to feminine)?

Overpaint:

[dierat]

cumquat & StonemasteR - Thanks guys, I'm gonna go ahead and use #12. I really appreciate your input, thanks again!

embee - I will definitely look into that book; thanks for the suggestion! I know, I almost never draw men. It's not because I find them difficult or intimidating to draw - I just don't find them as interesting to draw. I don't know why exactly. Whenever I come up with an idea for a piece, it's always centered around a girl. And if there is a guy, he's more like a prop of hers than a character in his own right. I have this problem in my creative writing as well. I don't really mind that I have a slant towards one gender in my work, but I really need to get some illustrations with male characters into my portfolio to show that I can draw them when necessary. Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it!


I got a few comments that the hands in that photo study of my mother were distractingly bad, so I went back and reworked them based on some references I took of my own hands. I think now they kind of stand out for being the most detailed part of the image, but oh well. I sent her a huge print of it and she seems to really like it. (Click here to see the previous version.)




Here's a study of a photo of a skull (click here to see the reference)




And this is a still life I've been working on.

[Manuel Baum]

Very nice update! Your rendering is pretty sweet!
Small crit: The shadow of that wrist thing in the last image doesnt look right... maybe darken it where the wrist-thing gets closer to the ground?