Umbravita's Little Thread of Progress

[Umbravita]

Oh hey it's DeDraMo.

Nyreen Kandros. And my hand is killing me.

Didn't realise I'd fucked up the perspective until after I finished. Go figure, lol.

[Umbravita]

WIP. Did it on paper, just scanned it and I'll be fixing up some of that horrible anatomy before I get paintin'.

[Umbravita]

Spent a few hours yesterday fixing up Lexi's sketch. It took forever to find a colour scheme I liked. After a few hours of experimenting with various colours, I went "fuck it" and started mucking around with photoshop filters.

Aaaand... go figure, in five seconds I found one I liked.

It feels like cheating but meh, digital art, may as well use it to its full potential.

Also Saren Arterius in a wig and dress, because my friends bugged me for it.

[lionheartGFX]

hey pretty awesome skethbook sir!! if i may i recommend you keep doing a buttload of those gestures, so you can get more energy into your sketching that should bump everything up a nodge, hope to see more stuff!!

[Umbravita]

Thanks Lion. I'll do some more gestures tomorrow.

---

Quick WoW fanart, pissing around in photoshop.

Drew a house today in class from photo ref, hit a wall o'tired about two hours in which disappeared as soon as I got home ready to take a nap. At least I should sleep well tonight.

Also another WIP shot of Lexi. Don't mind the lines on the face; I just chose to show the lineart layer so the colours didn't look disembodied. But her face is really bugging me so I'm eager for crit there; she's supposed to be a beautiful (if extremely pissed off) goddess and the way the face is painted she looks like an old gargoyle lady, lol. I think it's the forehead that's making her look like that but... aargh, I don't know.

I have a love/hate relationship with painting. :|

[Umbravita]

Missed a few days.

DA2 fanart. Hawke, looking over Hightown at night.

ETA: Also, scribbled over Lexi's face and redid it in like twenty minutes. I thought maybe I'd put her eyes in shadow, but nope... just looks weird instead of spooky. D'oh.

[kamikazel33t]

What happened to the gestures you said you will do , also crit on lexi's face is that you made her face look a little dead by emphasizing the cheek bones way too much as well as shading over her eyes which makes me feel like I am looking at a skull. The chiseled and less rounded appearance of her face is also what seems to be bothering me. If you want to attempt making her register as beautiful try studying the proportions of women's faces you find attractive as well as the common characteristics. If you want her whole figure to look just a smidge more attractive try making the hip to waist ration about 0.7

[Umbravita]

Kami: Whoops! I am sorry! I WILL do some soon.

---

Today:

- 20 min speedpaint of a TDK screencap. Supposed to be Gordon. Looks nothing like him. Longer, next time, then. I'll try doing an hour on the next study.

- A sketch for a quick piece I wanted to fix up on photoshop. (Yes. Salarians wearing speedos. Left to right: Maelon, Mordin, Kirrahe and Linron. They're throwing fits because they have actual budgies in their pants.) I really wasn't happy with how out of my depth I was with the heads, so:

- I did a whole bunch of salarian head practice from screenshots and stuff.

Yeah, I love salarians.

[kamikazel33t]

Hey buddy! Sorry I did not stop by your sketchbook sooner, I just wanted to say that you've been give me a boatload of encouragement so it is my turn to return the favor but you have to promise me one thing, which is to push it a little further in drawing! Do at least a sketch a day, it can be of anything. Later when you feel more confident start to slowly do more and channel your energy more into particular studies. Later you will start to feel that drawing will come real easy and you will find it hard to STOP yourself from drawing whenever there is a pen and paper in your hand xD. Now, do your best and show me what you are made of .

[Heyriel]

Great Sketchbook! I really like the speedpainting of the screencap, not sure how close it is to the reference but the colors work great together!

[Umbravita]

Thanks for the comments.

Whoops, got out of the swing of things. Back to business.

Quickie of my Shepard I forgot to upload.

Still life WIP. I intend to put a lot of time into this one. From life; lorikeet statue plus apple plus pocket watch.

[Umbravita]

Colours look so much more vibrant when I paint from life.

[Umbravita]

Sketch for Spring-Warmth over on dA. I forgot how much I loved portraits.

[Umbravita]

Finished the apple, which is just as well 'cause it went bad. Which means I'm going to have to make up some of the watch as I go along, since shifting the apple's changed the reflections and whatnot. Oh well. I'll have to knuckle down and finish that sometime.

Quick doodle/sketch of an OC of mine. I'd been making colour palettes all evening and played with one. It was kind of nice to do something scribbly.

[Revidescent]

That apple's looking really good! Tip for still lives - get in the background colours earlier if you can, leaving in that flat brown makes it harder to relate the colours.

(Love all the Mass Effect stuff, your Shepard looks awesome.)

[Umbravita]

Thanks Revidescent. I'll remember that for next time.

---

Not much to show because I've been following The Natural Way to Draw, and the first week's all gestures and contours, so nothing really to show. God, all that work leaves me feeling exhausted. Didn't finish yesterday's schedule so I have to catch up, too.

The Catch-22 is I'm so used to being productive now that if I stop to catch my breath, I'm bored witless. I'm hoping it's just a matter of developing the stamina to keep going. So tired.

Sketches from class. Still lifes.

[Umbravita]

Just discovered layer masks. Quick Homestuck fanart.

Wow, I can't believe I never learned about layer masks or how to use them before.

[Umbravita]

From class.

Roof with bug poison thingy (I think), seal, seagull, unfinished cat.

[Umbravita]

Hokay. I haven't been posting that much lately but I have been drawing a lot. Since most of what I've been doing is repetitive, I haven't been uploading much.

Here's a bunch of assorted stuff from this year that I haven't uploaded before. Mostly doodles, a few gestures, some cross contours. I am... not entirely sure I've "got" how you do cross contours, but we'll see, aye?

The one at the top I did just today, along with some of the profiles lower down.

I want to see if I can get into art school next year, but... IDK. I don't know how good you have to be. That doesn't mean I'm not going to bust my ass improving this year, just that I'm worried it won't be good enough. I don't know if they'll expect entrants to be crap (er, relatively speaking) or if I need to be really good to get in.

Also. Portfolios. I'd have to build one eeeek, and I have no idea how portfolios are physically presented. I've seen these carry cases with handles? Are they really that... over the top? I mean for professionals they look like they'd need that kind of thing, but do art school entrants need to present them like that? I have no idea. I'll look into it later this year.

[Umbravita]

Originally wasn't going to post this, but... I dunno. There seemed to be something a little more lively about these gestures than usual, so I had to post them. Maybe they're not actually that different, I don't know. I just loosened my grip and they seemed better than usual.

Getting into the routine of so much daily art. I was really struggling to open the sketchbook every day for a bit, today was a good day. I haven't always been able to keep up with TNWTD, sometimes I've only done half a day's work and had to take an extra day or two to catch up, but. Today was a good day.

[Rhubix]

The Catch-22 is I'm so used to being productive now that if I stop to catch my breath, I'm bored witless. I'm hoping it's just a matter of developing the stamina to keep going. So tired.

haha- that's the story of my life! If I try to relax I feel guilty for not drawing - then when I draw I'm so burnt out I hate all of it. I've figured out having a few beers and drawing stupid stuff with friends helps. It kind of combines drawing and relaxing lol.

Keep your subjects varied, and switching between studies and fun stuff like illustrations or designs. If you never stay in one place too long it helps- and you learn more along the way

Happy sketching!

[Niam]

Hello!
very nice figure studies!
hang in there! if drawing gets too frustrating I normally take a small break from it to read a book or go head out : ) its a good way to rest and find inspiration!
maybe try some value studies now that you're getting better at proportions? : P
Keep up the good work!

[Umbravita]

Rhubix: Yeah, I've been switching up the last few days. TNWTD was one heck of a grind so I've decided to work more slowly through it, do one exercise at a time, and space it out with other studies and imagination stuff.

Niam: Hey there! I'll attack some values studies next week. Thanks!

---

Wanted to tackle environments again. Did (most of) a thumbnail from ref, then it suddenly dawned on me I should probably learn to draw enviros before I try to paint them. Ahahaha. Keeping it here for posterity. Learn from my mistakes!

1-min gestures of my hands, and a soft pastel of a rainbow lorikeet statue I have. I didn't realise until after I'd finished that it would probably look a lot better if it was facing the viewer. I can't believe I didn't even consider that. Oh well, I'll just have to do it again then!

[kamikazel33t]

Nice! getting right back on the horsey , anyway remember to draw through the model when doing gestures. It is suppose to be you trying to capture the energy of the pose and not the model so here's a challenge to try and do a couple of five second gestures. You will be forced to use your impulse rather than following the contour, Good luck and keep it up !

[Niam]

Hello : )
your gestures are definitely looking better!!
nice life drawings! keep those up!
for the painting i agree with kami that it needs some hightlight (but its a WIP so >"<), also maybe try some harder brushes so that not everything seems so soft/blurry? : P

[Umbravita]

Kami: Hey man! Good to see ya again. I'll try some super quick gestures as you suggest, that sounds like it'll help.

Niam: Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

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Whoops, forgot to upload classwork. Could have done better with these -- you can't really see any depth in them at all. On Tuesday we went to the mangroves and I sat on a rock above the boardwalk and drew.

Top left is stairs and rocks and branches in front of water.

Top right is a little hidey hole I found on the side of the path. There was this hole in the bamboo (at least, I think it was bamboo) and I slid down and had a look inside. Didn't want to stay too long so I just did a quick 10-sec scribble of it. It's made the memory that much more vivid.

Bottom one is some steps made out of rocks. You can't really tell, though, because I didn't distinguish the foreground/background well enough.

Depression's sinking its teeth into me again so I haven't been productive. Adjusting my dosage. Wheeee.

[Niam]

Hello!
hey woah, didn't see my last post D: sorry if you saw my annoying repetitive advice ._.
try some bone structure studies, they improve your life/gesture drawing a lot
also for environments it would be a good idea to start on perspective studies and quick thumbnails!
great work gogogo!

[smrrfette]

All dat Mass Effect arts
I dig your skb dude! Keep artin'

[Umbravita]

Niam: What kind of perspective studies do you suggest? The old fashioned boxes in perspective? And I'll try to get some structure studies in the next few days. Thanks!

Smrrfette: Thanks man! Haha, I love Mass Effect. If the ME universe was real, I'd shit myself and run from Reapers -- er, I mean, I'd sit in the Citadel and draw salarians all day. They're so fun to draw, I should draw some more soon.

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Class today. These were done from reference, from someone else's sketches in art book whose titles and authors I can't remember. Can spot mistakes everywhere but there you go!

[Care]

interesting sb laura, u r very creative which is great. however i think a focus on proportions and form would be really helpful. focus on making every sketch you do the best sketch you have ever done, think in 3d, and try and pinpoint mistakes, one thing i see is the eyes are too big and too far apart, maybe try learning some face anatomy for help