Sketchbook ala Clur

[Lyraina]

Haha, I know that undo-reflex when painting traditionally.
That last two portraits are lovely, they go so well together color- and composition wise.
Do you use masking fluid for the white parts/contours, or are you working this clean?
Looks great!

[shockowaffel]

Nice Sketchbook, it's something else for sure.
Keep it up.

[Clur]

Umbravita: I was focusing only on form for that set of gestures, but I'll do some for movement in the future, thanks for pointing that out.
Ellyon: Haha, thanks! Though if my anatomy studies are coming out stylized that's probably not a good thing.
Lyraina: No, I am too stupid to figure out masking fluid. :'D What I do is make a very light lightart and then just paint around it, erasing as I go.
shockowaffel: Thank you! I really enjoy your illustration style, by the way.

---

So I'm derping around with comics again. My perspective is still pretty shaky but I'll keep working on it.

And some five minutes figures, and a little father's day card. My dad likes octopi (possibly because they are awesome.)

[sutapa]

very powerful sketches.....super liked!!
keep them coming.....

[knut-]

Great studies, you are very focused with nice ideas on character design.
I'd say to focus more on your lines, try to clean them a bit.
Nice watercolor enviros also!
Keep up!

[Clur]

sutapa: Thanks!
knut:I know my lines are terribly messy, I've been doing my figure studies in ink recently in hopes that I'll gain some discipline in my line making. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Clur]

Got another wip comic page, and some figures referenced from/inspired by Gustave Dore's illustrations.

[Naidy]

Ahhh. I'm never going to get sick of your stuff. And so good seeing you tackle more comics! The colours on this one are most agreeable too. Also, love the lad's face when he's being poked. ahaha.

Not much constructive to say, I'm afraid! I always leave your sketchbook thinking I ought to work harder on my own stuff. xD
Keep up the good work, mate!

[Clur]

Naidy: Thanks! The feeling's mutual, as I'm sure you know.

---

So here's a quick self portrait, a couple of studies and some face-finding attempts for a character of mine. (And the first drawing I did of him, some time last year. I've been feeling kind of down about my art lately, I thought the comparison might be a good pick me up.)

[Psychobuddy]

Hey thanks for stopping by my SB!

You have some lovely work, very whimsical...it reminds me of art nouveau. One thing to watch out for though is, don't let your style become too much of a crutch. In a few of the faces the underlying structure seems to be a bit off....buuuuut you could have been going for that, sorry if you were and I just totally missed it. >_<

[Clur]

Psychobuddy: No, you're absolutely right about the facial structure. I'll be starting some studies on that this weekend.

---

Finished another comic page, and I am so glad the next page includes a scene change because for the first time in my life I am sick of blue and yellow. D:

[Clur]

I'm trying to improve my grasp of facial structure, I thought mapping the skull and muscles over an actual head might help. I think it did? I suppose we'll find out.

[Clur]

Unfortunately I've been ill for the last few days (I can't be sure, but I think my sinuses tried to murder me), so I haven't been drawing much. But some stuff I did trying to get back into the swing of things.

[Clur]

Just plodding along~

[Lagarto]

You have a really nice and original style, and you use color greatly! I love the cat markings designs, and your idea of tracing your face for practising the structure is great! I will try it too.
also, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook and leaving a coment, I really appreciate it.

[Clur]

Lagarto: Thanks! I found the face tracing really helpful, I'm sure you will too.

---

Just for laughs I made another comparison thing, between the current version of my very first OC and the oldest drawing I still have of him. Try not to faint and the splendor of 16 year old me's character design skills.

Also some consistency/expression practice, and some other bits and pieces.

[Clur]

I tried doing gestures in photoshop today, bit weird at first but I did like not having to worry about filling up my sketchbook with them.

[littlebones]

Ahahaha, I admit, I giggled at the NO STEALING!! Brings back being on deviantart so long ago. Doing gestures in photoshop definitely takes some getting used to, but because it saves sketchbook room I like it better than on paper.

Glad to see you're still around and developing your cool style.

[Clur]

littlebones Obviously everyone wants to get their hands on that masterpiece of animu. :9

---

Moar indecipherable gestures and a comic page.

[Clur]

Purty boring today...

[Clur]

... so hopefully today's stuff is a bit more interesting!

[Clur]

I've noticed that I never seem to get much art done on the weekends. So I think from now instead of feeling guilty about what I'm not doing, I'm going to reserve them for research, worldbuilding, and story plotting, since I do seem to be able to pump out a fair bit of that.

[Naidy]

Auuughghgg. I need to comment far more often here, but the stuff's always fantastic and I feel I need to write something more substancial than arse-patts. You put me in such a dilemmaaaaa.

I'm going to try today though, because you've just got so many interesting things up.

THE BIG POSITIVES:
That style of painting you're trying out lately, the one which features is post 149, in particular. I swear, I've been staring at that one of Johnny boy longer than I'd like to admit, but the colours, and they way you move them around compositionally in that one are just
I'm not even sure, you know! It makes me feel weirdly nostalgic. It seriously is beautiful, though and you should be proud of yourself for that one.
I feel you're really getting a good handle for digital. The expression practices with Johnny-boy in the same area also look nice. I think you're getting the handle of his face, glad you're figuring it out from all the angles. (Might I add, his ears are also adorable)
Watercolours are also looking nice! The insects are looking great and I'm glad you're using that often along side digitals. I'm so rusty with watercolours it reminds me I need to practice them again.

Sigh. A lot of positives, but honestly, I have some critiques, I promise!
Oh. I was going to say you could do more gestures but you already are churning out a fair lot of decent ones. Keep that up!
Right
but also, why not take a few and actually try to draw bigger ones. Have some more polished sketches of your characters moving about, fussing with their hands. It's actually really fun.

Also: Glad to see you veering a bit into no-blue territory. I know it's hard for you ;P
I bet you can push your colours even more though. You can work really well with the colours you have at your disposal, and have a great knack for how and where to place them tone wise, but I feel some of your pictures could be more vivid if they stepped a bit further out of blue,blue, and blue terriroty.

That's it, really! I hang about your sketchbook quite frequently and your progress really does blow me away, so keep at it! Great stuff as always, mate.

[Zikes]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!

You got a cool style and I really like your sketches! Those eyes that you draw are so nice. I don't feel I can critique on your stuff, since it's so stylized. But it's nice and just keep doing what you do!

[Clur]

Naidy: YUS critiques! I love it. I quite agree with everything you've mentioned, especially my Blue Problem. I've been trying to broaden my colour horizens lately, especially by using lots of black which is really outside my comfort zone. I'll keep pushing!

I've been slacking off doing proper sketches of my characters beyond their faces, thanks for pointing that out! I needed a kick there! But I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean by doing bigger gestures? For the record they're a lot bigger when I actually draw them, I just shrink them down for presentation purposes.

(By the way, for some reason I'm really tickled you noticed Johnny's ears! I think they're pretty cute too.)

Zikes: Thanks very much! It's a shame you don't want to critique my style, though. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

[Clur]

In which Clur makes it abundantly clear that she has no idea how a rifle is held.

[Clur]

Sorry about the image quality, my current sketchbook is too large for my scanner.

[Naidy]

Ah those last self portraits are adorable! If you don't mind me saying. ahha

I always love how you straight away tackle what ever crits you get, that's just crazy, and really inspirational to see. I already see a few more colour experiments and some interesting poses.
And I've no trouble clarifying what I meant, basically gestures are great for loosening up and it would be good to see you take certain fluid poses from the gestures and trying to replicate them in bigger, more polished drawings. It's difficult doing a 'finished' peice with the same sort of movement, you see, so I jsut rekon it's good practice.

And it looks like you're already doing that. I see bigger, more polished figures and you're having a mess about with poses from different angles. Things are looking good. So no crits this time, just keep it up

[wutangclam]

thank you so much for checking out my sb man! i really appreciate your critique and will study it thorougly! I love your watercolours btw, they colours are gorrgeoussssz!

[Clur]

Naidy: Oh okay, got it now. Looks like we were on the same page the whole time anyway.

Also I am terribly offended that you like my self portraits. Cease this complimenting of me immediately. ;D

wutangclam: Glad I could help, and thank you very much!