winterfingers' sketchbook

[winterfingers]

Hello, and welcome to my sketchbook! : ) My name is Heather, or some people just call me winter
I started this sketchbook when I was 14 and I'm now 16.
I'm not sure yet what job/career I'm aiming for, still figuring that one out.
Any feedback is appreciated, especially constructive critique! I'm looking to improve and learn as much as I can

Thanks for dropping by!

PLEASE GO TO LAST PAGE FOR MOST RECENT WORK

[winterfingers]

Two studies I did after the last post I feel they turned out poorly, but I figure I should post the bad practices too! Reference used for both. Painted in Photoshop.
The first

The second

Other:
A personal piece from imagination. Also done in Photoshop.

A watercolour and pencil crayon.

Various digital practice/sketches



A piece for fun from imagination.


Any critique/observations/general comments are greatly appreciated!

[DHTenshi]

I'm really liking the use of color in your work, it's really interesting how you keep changing your palette from one piece to another! I love that! the portraits 3 and 4 from imagination (in your second post) are really well done, they're pretty eye catchy.

Also, would love to see the sketch of the one where a lot of water is flowing around the head of the girl, be turned out into a full rendered painting, i love the idea and the use of color.

I think you're doing a great job! keep it up!

You're 14 !!!??? ... forget what i said, you're doing amazing, freaking kids these days, i wish i would have started being more serious about art sooner!, amazing! please keep growing, you are really doing amazing

[fletcherv]

All of it is awesome! I really like the style of your first piece and your watercolor of the girl with her hair going up. I agree with DHTenshi, your use of color is great.

Keep going!

[Samszym]

fourteen? FOURTEEN!?! Wow. I disagree, you're most definitely NOT at beginner level.

Your painting style and use of color is just FANTASTIC. Everything is absolute eye candy. The only thing I'd say needs some work is your lips, they can be a little too narrow for your faces (the corners should line up with the pupils of the eye) and this might be a personal issue but the little dots of light or shadow on some of them can be sort of distracting.
But that's just a little problem, and it's only in a few of your pictures.

Welcome to CA, please keep posting this amazing work!

[allytha]

These are really wonderful. In the first study from life, your strokes are a little on the patchy side. The second study shows much better control, and conveys the planes of the face very nicely. Overall I really love how you handle skin tones, and your rich color pallets. Keep up the great work!

[winterfingers]

Posting on CA is most nerve-wracking ; v ;
Thank you everyone who gave input it is very appreciated!

DHTenshi: Thank you very much for the kind words and encouragement!
The one concept you're referring to I do hope to paint a finished version of, thank you! c :
fletcherv: Thank you so much for the encouragement!
Vertical:Thank you very much! Ahh you're certainly right about making the lips too small, I see that now. Thank you so much for pointing that out, I'll have to work on that! o v o
allytha:Thank you! Yes I agree about the first study ; u ; I had a lot of trouble with that one.
Thank you for the input!

Here's another batch of work
Urgh, there's an apparent lack of practice works and sketches.
Once my drum lessons are finished at the end of the month and I have more time I hope to start doing regular practices again, starting with figure drawing since that is a significant weakness of mine. Also starting out in acrylic now, I did a painting of some fruit I will post later. c:

An emotional piece from imagination, photoshop, stylized.

Ha ha;
An orangutan, as requested by someone on dA. Reference used, photoshop.(I had a hard time with this)

An acrylic painting, 10x14" canvas panel. From imagination, stylized

A realistic study, Photoshop. Currently a work in progress. I am trying to recreate a picture of the actor Jesse Eisenberg. I love portraits, but have a great weakness when it comes to making the portrait LOOK like the person I'm drawing. I'm using the colour picker and getting the colours from the actual picture I'm referencing. So rather than a painting exercise it's more of a seeing exercise.
It looks really REALLY ugly and rough right now, as well as I made a mistake at one point when saving the file, hopefully I can salvage it and keep going ha ha;;

An exercise of painting a sketch three different ways. The first (the one with the blood) turned out very rough, I had a lot of trouble with it.
Photoshop, from imagination, stylized




A head doodle. Photoshop, stylized

Some concept doodles, photoshop.
Inspired by the bits of writing on the walls in a horror computer game, specifically
'They left the blood lonely'

A beginning sketch from a photo study of a boy
with very fluffy hair.


Any and all critique/comments are very welcome! C: Thank you for viewing my sketchbook!

[TheFallenAngel]

Wow, amazing! Have you considered studying Loomis or Bridgman? They'd definately help you out

[wooden mango]

Very nice stuff. I love your style and use of colour

[winterfingers]

TheFallenAngel: Thank you! Yes I have heard of Loomis, but not Bridgman. I am definitely checking both of them out, thank you so much! o v o
wooden mango: Thank you so much! c:


Two studies from life I did today. Done in Photoshop, I'm not sure how long the first one took, the second took 46 minutes.
I hope to do more, drawing from life is actually quite fun! ; v ; (Although difficult;; )
There was a light source to the left, my computer light near the right (the blue-ish light).
The first

The second

[Vay]

Great coloring. 14 years old and already this great. I don't even have photoshop or a tablet yet, I'm so far behind.

[Velocity Kendall]

excellent stuff, youre clearly working very hard. great colours!
maybe try your skills on new things, like cars or more animals.. im sure youll be kickass at whatever you focus on
definitely worth stars, keep it up!

[ArcZephyer]

I'm definitely repeating what's already been said but jees for 14 you really have a handle on digital painting already. I especially agree with your use of color, you have some very beautiful pieces no matter how many colors you use. My favorite is the image of the girl from the second post with 20 different colors in her hair . You manage to use so much color and have it work effectively at the same time. You even threw some textural elements in there! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work, it makes me want to experiment with color more.

[Zephyrion]

I love your style, and you are good for your age, but your noses seem a little "same-nose".

[winterfingers]

Vay:Thank you!
Velocity Kendall:Thank you so much! Yes I'm certainly going to start practicing drawing/painting animals, I've realized how rubbish I am at them; v ; And cars, I hadn't thought of that, I should probably draw some vehicles as well, thanks! o v o
ArcZephyer: Thank you very much! ; v ;
cannibalcarnivale:Thank you! That's true, looking through them all my cartoon-style noses look pretty much identical, oops. Thanks! : D

practice painting, acrylic, still life
My second time painting fruit. Seeing the proper colours is harder than I thought;

Houses from reference, photoshop

sewer sketch from reference, photoshop
I feel this went really poorly, I had trouble with it.
Backgrounds/scenery/architecture are high on my list of things to learn now.

An acrylic painting on canvas. Apples and colour, I wanted it to be bright and cheery.

From imagination, block doodling late at night (or rather early in the morning)

Lion sketch from reference, photoshop

Personal piece, and also part of a 100 theme/technique challenge: "2. Draw something with a stereotypically feminine theme or style. (Flowers, pastel colours, beautiful subjects?)"
From imagination, photoshop.

Personal piece pencil and photoshop.

120 second sketches from observation, this website:http://lovecastle.org/draw/index.php which was in vertical's signature, thank you, it's most helpful! O V O

[octopus_interphone]

Your stuff is really beautiful, and you seem to know what to do to address your weaknesses with studies. I can only suggest maybe more hands and backgrounds?

Your stylized stuff is so charming.

[CLANLESS]

Wow! Beautiful use of colors, very talented too. I hope you continue drawing, I look forward to more!

[winterfingers]

augh whoops I haven't posted here since May! Hopefully I can get into the habit of updating more frequently;

octopus_interphone: Thank you very much! And yes backgrounds and hands are certainly something I need to do more often /noted/ Thanks! : )
D.M.: Thank you so much! I will certainly keep drawing! o v o

I've done a bunch of stuff since my last post but I tried to get as much of it together as I could;;

I'm pretty sure everything here is done in photoshop.

I've done some really simple still lifes the past few weeks , just objects with no background for now. I'm finding it helpful and hopefully will move up to more complicated things soon. I don't get why so many people dislike doing still lifes. They're really fun! ; A ;



Some studies of scenery. I'm just starting out with backgrounds/scenery, so I figured the first thing I should do is just do some simple thumbnail-type studies, to get the feel of what nature looks like. All references are just from google images.


I then doodled one from imagination.


Various doodles I used reference for.


I did some studies of interiors from google images freehand. It's really hard doing perspective properly without any guides; though I thought this might be a good exercise to warm up before starting to learn to measure everything out when I'm doing perspective.


Various things from imagination. You'll notice right away I have the tendency to draw a lot of girls, and looking to the left. My colour palette has also become a rather repetitive, too many warm colours. I'm trying to get out of all of these habits! ; A ;



Some women pose drawing I did, from photos.



Some studies I did from an episode of Supernatural. I just paused at various places and drew whoever was onscreen.



And I'll stick these up here too.



Thanks so much for viewing! Any and all comments are appreciated! Especially advice and critique : )

[winterfingers]

Did some little 4 x 4" kind of abstract paintings today, and a 10 x 14" scene from a personal photo. Oil on canvas panel.

[Jasper_]

Whoa hey, great work! I always get excited when I see sketchbooks like this from people so young. Keep it up, your going to kick everyone's butt in no time!

[SadCloud]

im 20, and i thought you were some other 20 year old student before i actually read your first post. pld:

You have what teachers might call 'talent' but what people who know what they are talking about call 'ambition and creativity'.

your work really inspired me!

keep this up and I might just work up the motivation to draw something.

[winterfingers]

Jasper: wow thank you, especially coming from you, your work is amazing! I'm certainly hoping to work hard! : )
SadCloud: Thank you so very much! I will certainly keep going!

Did some photo studies in photoshop, as you can see the studies vary wildly from the refs!;;
the first one I did three times, I find this really helpful, and each time it got a bit more accurate
Ref:
Study1:
Study 2:
Study 3:

the second I did once
ref:
study:

[watdekikker]

I really like your sketches, those bright coloured pieces are fantastic.

[SadCloud]

if your looking at doing very accurate drawing.. and honing your ability to sketch like that I would reccomend Bargue studies if you havn't heard of them already.

They are basically a bunch of pictures of casts which Art Students copy exactly to improve their judgement, spacial awareness and general mark making abilities.

Im not guna lie they are definatly not for the feint of heart, so im sure youll be fine.

If you can't get hold of some good Bargue Plates (the actual book cost me £50+£50 to ship it) then doing the best copy of any 'Old Master' drawing, sketch or painting will be enormously beneficial to you.

Peace!

[winterfingers]

watdekikker: thanks so much! : )
SadCloud: I hadn't heard of them! It looks like great exercise, I'll certainly try that out! thanks you much for the recommendation ; v ;/

I don't have time to post much I'm off to bed, but this week I'm doing a summer course 'Drawing and Painting the Human Figure' which has it's good and bad points, and seems to be all together worth the time it's taking up.
At the end of the week I'll try to get together and post as much of the work I did during the classes.

for now, a portrait from imagination

two doodles, using myself as reference


some vehicle studies I did (as suggested earlier by Velocity Kendall)
I was trying to keep my lines as simple as possible and barely erase
as you can see I'm pretty awful at it so far, especially the first car;;;
Heaven knows why I decided to try a new technique along with a new subject matter


Thanks for viewing!

[Ven S]

*Hmm she's probably 20 and in college*
My sketchbook, hello my name is Heather!
14

[JordyLakiere]

Hi, I think you're doing amazing at 14 years old! I wish I was as far as you are now when I was 14.

Here is some feedback! I think your values and proportions are fairly accurate, but your main problem is brush quality/line quality in the paintings from ref. Here's a quick paintover:



I circled some of the areas where its most apparant and redid them on the side. Try to really think about each brush stroke (even if it takes 5 minutes!), so you do a painting is the least ammount of strokes you possibly can (I still have trouble with this myself ) It will actually improve the time you spend (you have to redo less things because you're more accurate) and it will look better/cleaner. And eventually with time and practise you wont' even have to think anymore to get them right!

Hope you can use this feedback, keep practising!

edit Also in case you don't know it, it might be interesting to use the photoshop chalky brush (the black stroke in the image) it gives a nice painterly feel and IMO works better to get nicer brush strokes going. Cheers!

[winterfingers]

Wanderer_:Ahaha! Thank you! But I've still got a long way to go;;
Highelf: Oh thank you so much for taking the time to show me that, it was very helpful. I'll certainly work on my strokes, thank you!

I just have to say I feel most of these are downright awful, apologies for the ugly post!

Posting the things I did during the summer art camp I took this week, Drawing and Painting the Human Figure. Obviously this is not everything I did, I stuck to the exercises I felt would benefit most from critique.

The camp had it's good and bad points, the best part was that we had a model in twice during the week, and a lot of the exercises were totally different than what I usually do, so I was out of my comfort zone most of the time.
It was also fun but challenging to cope with crappy art supplies that have been abused many time before.

Unfortunately the camp was for teens, and a lot of the kids my age aren't very serious or can handle critiques yet (and are treated as such) but alas that's the way it goes.

First a male model, clothed (he was kind enough to take his shirt off for some of them though at least).

1 minute gesture drawing
pencil on newsprint


10 minute


10 minute with ink


Second, female model, clothed - although luckily there was a horrible heat wave this week and she has wearing very short shorts and a tube top

1 minute gesture drawing


10 minute (and three quick around 15 second gestures I doodled)


20 minutes, sketching from the model and then watercoluring (someone somehow got red paint on it on the bottom)
20 minutes sketching from the model and gouache painting with only the primary colours
good lord these are hideous


still life of a scarf in a cup and some fake grapes, around 15-20 minutes?


sketching from an almost-life size plastic skeleton, and a drawing of a print out of a statue photo using a grid


Thanks for viewing!

[soundstruck]

hey! first thing i want to say is that i love your dedication, and it makes me happy when you post new artwork!

i'm going to point something out (based on your recent traditional pencil drawings/ sketches).
make sure you keep an eye on your line quality. it is something i struggle myself (and a ton of other artists).

avoid scratchy or fuzzy lines because it kills motion and flow. try to keep your pencil on the paper in one, continuous line. the less lines the better.

looking forward to your next post!

[Dope Fiend]

Very nice for being so young, looks like you're tackling all the right things.

Don't have time to say much, but keep it up, and looking forward to more updates!