Oli's Sketchbook

[OliOli]

Want to improve so I started this sketchbook.

[Mr.Ebony]

Great start so far!

[Natalia Soleil]

when you do stilllifes, you should really keep an eye on form and perspective. i know its not always easy.. you can always take a picture of your stilllife setup, then overlay on your work, to compare and find mistakes you made

keep it up!

[OliOli]

@Mr.Ebony
Thank you!

@Natalia Soleil
I will definitely keep what you said in mind and next time I update hopefully my grasp on perspective will be a bit better! I have a few books on stuff like perspective iv'e been needing to read for a while.

[Psychobuddy]

Heyy! You're still lives are really good keep going on those, and don't just do posemaniacs add in other anatomy studies and photostudies of real people too.

[OliOli]

Tried doing one point and two point perspective, nothing complex just super simple stuff trying to get the hang of it, and

@Psychobuddy
Thanks, and I definitely plan on doing more studies of actual people!

[OliOli]

Didn't really do much today.

[OliOli]

Forgot to upload yesterday.

[OliOli]

A figure study, pose maniacs, some more practice on two point perspective, some hands, and some faces from imagination.

[OliOli]

Not much today.

[OliOli]

A portrait, a study, and a still life.

[OliOli]

I don't really do much on the weekends so I didn't bother updating.

[OliOli]

Landscape and a still life.

[OliOli]

Some Loomis and posemaniacs.

[Syle]

Good gestures work. Keep doing those, and don't stop. I've made that mistake WAY too many times.

As for your digital paintings, I would try hard to harden up your brushes (ie, lay down thicker/bolder paint/strokes). It looks to my eyes like you are trying to finesse it a bit too much; don't worry about that. Block in the big shapes with some really thick/non-transparent strokes, and then worry about finessing detail at the end.

Keep it up, you have a great start to your SB here!

[FatMoStank]

Nice quick gestures, your still lifes looks nice also.
You might want to pay attention to negative space if it feels wonkey.

- keep posting.

[OliOli]

@Syle I tried doing what you said about the brush and I've noticed that they look a bit better than my previous paintings, thanks!

@FatMoStank Alright, thanks! I'll try doing that!

[OliOli]

Tried to blend the landscape but it came out terrible.

[OliOli]

Not a lot today.

[OliOli]

Some Loomis, a speed paint, and a w.i.p.

[Syle]

Those dogs look great! Glad to hear that the advice is pushing you into a better direction.

Another thing I would recommend is working BIGGER. Bigger/bolder strokes. Focus in on the bigger values of your composition, and think less about the small details (at least in the beginning).

I try to focus my work around James Gurney's acronym: B.L.A.S.T.

Big brushes.
Large to small.
Accents last.
Soften edges.
Take your time.

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/20...last-rule.html

For that matter, check out James Gurney's book "Color and Light". It's sort of the beginner's (and even non-beginner's) Holy Grail of painting. I find myself flipping through it almost every time I settle down to paint.

[OliOli]

Just some paintings and pose maniacs.
@Syle I tried that out, thanks so much for all the advice! I'll have to stop by a book store some time and take a look at the book you mentioned!

[OliOli]

Just faces today.

[OliOli]

Some faces from imagination, then pose maniacs, then figures and faces from ref.

[OliOli]

Figures today.

[OliOli]

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[OliOli]

I seem to have some big trouble with blending and actually choosing the right colors. By choosing the right colors I mean that when I look at something and put down the color it turns out i'm choosing the wrong color, if that makes sense? Will me actually seeing colors for what they really are improve over time or is their some technique or something to help me get better at that? And whenever I blend my blocked in colors it always comes out looking muddy like the picture below, is there any way I can fix that too?

[BlackDelphin]

You use a lot of the hard edge brush. Try finding more of the soft edges, and paint them with a soft edge brush. Helps with atmosphere as well.
And try blending from the start, with a brush set to pen pressure, with varied opacity and flow.

Keep posting

[OliOli]

@BlackDelphin-Thank you for the feed back, I tried out what you said!

Just a painting of a face with no ref.

[OliOli]

Some other stuff I did today.