Thrives On Critique

**defineAudrey** · June 7th, 2007, 11:55 PM

This sketchbook is currently AWAKE!

[UPDATE] SKETCHBOOK ACTIVATED

Welcome to my thread of scribbles, proudly presented to you by a 17-year-old wannabe who will be majoring in illustration at Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD).
Now please critique until it bleeds!

Attached is the thumbnail for this sketchbook thread, please scroll down for the picture updates.

**Master 25 Days** · June 13th, 2007, 03:26 AM

wake it up!

**Envisor** · June 13th, 2007, 05:41 PM

Yeah, what he said!

**megadubitably** · June 17th, 2007, 02:25 AM

wakey wakey...let's see some work

**Zirngibism** · June 17th, 2007, 03:29 PM

This should do it -->

**seanblanton** · June 17th, 2007, 11:14 PM

welp, to say hurry up beforehand woulda been hypocritical, but now i can say it all i want

Come on!!!

**Zirngibism** · June 22nd, 2007, 08:15 PM

**defineAudrey** · July 2nd, 2007, 06:42 PM

Unless the words "life drawing" or "study" were mentioned, no references were used.

In order of pictures:
1. Graphite - Still life of Homer... quite old
2. Conte - old life drawing, and yes his spine really protruded that way 8o
3. Conte - old life drawing
4. Graphite - Portrait study & anatomy practice
5. Acrylic - Portrait Study
6. Digital - spontaneous play, actually my favorite of the bunch : )
7. Digital - commission (Art prostitution?! Oh noes!)
8. Digital - commission detail
9. Digital - my interpretation of Amano's character Rydia
10. Digital - more detail

Bring on the crits!

**RaistlinTheDark** · July 2nd, 2007, 08:55 PM

great stuff!

**heda** · July 2nd, 2007, 09:57 PM

Sweet stuff. Cant realy give crits to any of this.

will be glad to see more of you art in the future...

Where are you stars man? this deserves some...

**Master 25 Days** · July 3rd, 2007, 04:47 AM

Finally I can get SB pages to load. Worth the wait though!

The Homer piece looks very solid. #3's pose was captured really well. I can sense his weight on top of the stool. $6 has a very pop art feel.
My only crit for the digital stuff is to simplify your shapes more. Your image will read better. Right now I think you're blending a bit too much which can make you lose simplicity. A trick to getting clean shapes is to make a new layer, paint on top, then use the eraser to get rid of the excess. Then merge with the layer below. That way you don't have to try and paint around complicated areas.

The following tutorial talks about simplifying in one of the steps. http://www.simplestroke.com/wp/?page_id=11
It has helped me a lot in how I approach rendering things.

On #7, whether intentional or not, she looks a bit transparent in some areas, because you have the same color on her and the background along with the outline in between. I do like the setting though.

#8 is sweet! Although I haven't played FFIV. Her "wings" looks heavy. I think it will look better with more contrast on her and less on the wings. Her right thigh has a weird bent in it as well. Never the less it's a great piece.

Glad to have you finally join us!

**megadubitably** · July 3rd, 2007, 11:56 AM

Yay! I'm glad to see some of your work! I love the looseness in #'s 2 ^ 3, in 3 the face seems too rendered compared to the rest of the piece, maybe lower the eyes a wee bit.
However, you are quite good at rendering (as seen in the homer picture).
Your digital anime-ish pictures look nice! Master 25 hits the nail on the head about simplifying shapes and transparency. I love the colors you've used in #'s 6 ^ 7. In #8, the wings confuse me a little, but the pose and expression is very powerful.

Keep it up ^^

**Zirngibism** · July 8th, 2007, 08:19 PM

Wow, you have a nice range!

I love the way you did that portrait of the man (acrylic)- it brings up human personality just with the style of painting.

The figure drawings are masterful. You must've had a ton of practice! Beautiful values- really strong anatomy. Did that guy have some form of scholiosis?

That drawing of Plato reminds me of the drawing of a plaster cast of Hercules's foot in art class. (think I'll post it.) It's nice and consistent- good drawing.

Beautiful color on the last one- and good figure. I think the confusing part about it is that the "wing" thing in the foreground is so much larger than the other, but it's not really a problem with that particular piece.

The parallel lines in that piece (bands in the wings) and in that awesome "AAAAA" one (in mouth) reflect an interesting style.

**themissinglink** · July 8th, 2007, 08:54 PM

really nice stuff. i really love the traditional stuff. I also really like the Rydia (whoo FF4!!!) though i think in the future to use a higher opacity brush so you dont have that air-brushy look (thats if you dont want that look). keep up the great work.

**ped454** · July 9th, 2007, 12:34 PM

beautiful stuff. your conte and digital is very nice. wicked sense of colour and juxtaposition. nice values as well

i also like how you can distinguish between styles...such as manga and realism...it shows skill

**defineAudrey** · August 15th, 2007, 12:09 PM

Thank you for your comments and critiques everyone!

Sorry for not updating in so long, I've been on vacation.

Phong - Thank you so much for the tutorial link! You really hit the nail with the suggestion to simplify - I've been thinking the same.
Those "wings" of hers are actually part of her clothing, I kind of elaborated on Amano's original sketchy design. The piece was meant to be more design-oriented, but I probably emphasized the realistic aspects of it too much.

Meg - Good observation! I tend to over-render faces because I've got a love for portraiture, haha. His eyes were actually that high, I believe the model was Native American. Thank you! I can see why the "wings" are confusing, I was going for an impractical design-oriented look with that one, yet I ended up making the figure really realistic, and so the product is very...conflicting.

Kirsten - Thanks for the compliments and crits! Yeah I really love capturing people... probably too much. Glad you appreciate the portrait and the "AAAAAA" piece, those are my favourite of the bunch. : ) Please see my reply to Meg regarding #8 ^

themissinglink - Thanks! The brush I use is actually at very high opacity already, I think I'm simply blending too much... Gotta get rid of that airbrushy look!!

Both were done over a month ago:
1. Digital - Commission detail, because I hate the rest.
2. Pencil Crayon - Commission of Sakura, her expression is off but I couldn't fix it due to its small dimensions.

**VenustusVis** · August 20th, 2007, 09:56 PM

OMFG!!! You young kids and your crazy artwork! I cannot beleive how good your stuff is and @ such a young age. I envy you. I really look foreward to working with you @ CCAD.

I don't want to promote my own work on your thread, but your one art peice (the nympish looking green girl with the wings reminds me of a digital painting I started a year ago after I saw a cirque de soleil show...Haha I still have so much to do on it. I can only hope that it turns out close to urs.

I won't post it here, because I think that would be rather rude, but I encourage you to take a look @ my sketchbook. I'll add where it's @ now.

Note: Only critique is work on structural drawing. You have your anime down good and your color concept is great, but anatomy/structure could use some work. It's not quite up to par with your other skills.

**Alvaradolol** · August 26th, 2007, 11:12 PM

I love the two new pieces, nice rendering of Sakura

**Kman.** · September 12th, 2007, 06:27 AM

sunbearu beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam!

Nice stuff audrey, nice and well rounded, from the drawings and paintings to the anime stuff. Keep at it! I wanna see your improvement

See you around campus

**Denart** · October 31st, 2007, 05:52 PM

I think its time for an ccad-Audrey-update

**Zirngibism** · February 9th, 2008, 04:46 PM

Yeah, the 2-piece update was nice, especially Sakura- I like how you got the motion. I'd make the hair a little crisper in the other commission detail.

**Pav** · February 26th, 2008, 11:10 AM

Props for drawing a Homer bust, a classical way to learn anatomy

**Zoroko** · March 6th, 2008, 04:21 AM

you go to CCAD? Wonder if I seen you on campus before!

**defineAudrey** · May 1st, 2008, 11:12 PM

Thanks for all your comments and interest everyone! I am determined to practice over the summer, so I will be updating this sketchbook again once school is over.

Zoroko - I am wondering the same myself now... I presume that your name is Renee... I don't believe I've met anyone by that name. Are you an illustration sophomore? I should probably see you around next year when I start taking all my illustration classes, or perhaps you could even join us at sketch group? : )

**humanNature6115** · May 2nd, 2008, 12:14 AM

keep postin.

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Sketchbook

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761

**KTF Fang** · May 14th, 2008, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by defineAudrey

Thanks for all your comments and interest everyone! I am determined to practice over the summer, so I will be updating this sketchbook again once school is over.

Zoroko - I am wondering the same myself now... I presume that your name is Renee... I don't believe I've met anyone by that name. Are you an illustration sophomore? I should probably see you around next year when I start taking all my illustration classes, or perhaps you could even join us at sketch group? : )

How about YOU join us at sketchgroups? JK'ing!

Hey sorry I was kind of out of it when you came over Monday. ANyway, hope you had a safe flight back and work hard this summer!

this is phong btw