Tree's & People (updated 3jan)

[mariasun]

Hallo! art student and forever forum lurker comes out of hiding.
Mostly painting in oils and are deep in a landscape madness, although have a love for portraits that cannot go away. Anyway as I'm trying to make myself more active online so therefor making a sketchbook!

[MephistoLV]

These are very nice. I especially like the one of the dark trees against the red background.

[struve]

on your life drawings, one thing that would help would be to use more gradient in your shading. your highlights should start out strong then fall off. right now you are keeping the brightness of your highlights too consistent. the same thing goes for shadows as well. Once you start to apply these nice gradients your stuff will start to jump from the paper.

[lowkey]

yeah your environments are strong! I like the one with the red background too :0. I'd also second the advice about highlights on the life drawings. you can vary them to describe form too. keep them sharp on hard edges like the hip bone and light on soft curves etc. hope you post more!

[mariasun]

MephistoLV: Thank you, it's one of my own favourites, I wonder what it differs from my other ones hmm.

struve: I believe you are right! I think also a problem for me is that during life studies I'm still not very fast to get the figure right, so I rush both my shadowing and highlights, it's something I'm working on!

lowkey: Thank you! Very good suggestions, even though I am at artschool teachers never tell me these things, all I hear is good good do something different. Frustration to not know how to more on, I am glad I'm starting to post here

Some digital stuff from me, I am really trying to evolve my digital art, been working mostly in painter x but some of these are photoshop.
Any tips advice etc is greaaatly appreciated!

[Cranberry]

Very nice stuff you have here! Thanks for stopping by my SB, looking forward to more stuff!

[originalpink]

Hohoho nice to see u here! :-D
Looks like you're off with a very good start on your sb!

You know I like your stuff already, but the girl on the green sofa was new to me. And it's actually the one I like the most of your digitals so far!

I think you could bump up some contrasts (with highlights and mix the skin shadow tones with a bit more of red) and add pure colors into your paintings to further improve!

[mariasun]

Cranberry: Thank you=)
originalpink: Thanks, wow glad you see something good in it, i sure can't tehe.

Here's a dump of some oil paintings I've done this year and last year. I'm not putting a date on anything but my later works are definetly headed more towards landscapes.
I work mostly very small and with bad camera it's hell to take photos, i'm bummed the photos are so bad but hopefully not to terrible to look at.

[north pole]

aw.. ur stuff is so nice.. ur talented.. u can paint digital and traditional.. thats very good.. keep that.. well done.

[mariasun]

north pole: Thanks you, yeah I try evolve in both

First off, a copy of Millais Ofelia. Still not done but some small details left, i'm not intending on doing a fullon copy-just something for fun. I love the pre-raphaelites!
The other one is a Sargent study, still not done. I'm learning alot from Sargent, especially in his use of so much color.
Lastly, some recent life studies. I can't say I succeed in photographing them ugh.

[mariasun]

Painterx selfportrait

[ceriously]

I love your stuff! Especially the one with the branch in the foreground. I'm sort of envious of how you paint - it all looks so natural. I keep trying and I can only get a sort of calculated stiffness in my paintings. I think your potraits are great, and your foresty scenes are great, too, but what I'd really like to see is a painting that combines the two. I feel it would work great in your style.

I don't really have anything constructive to add, so I'll just hope for more updates. It was really a pleasure to look through.

[mariasun]

ceriously: Thank you, wow such a compliment, hmm I think with my landscapes everything comes easy-but with the portraits I -am- struggeling alot. Putting a human in my landscapes is something I want to do, but failing at it constanty. It's a goal though so I'm testing new things constantly

Here's some exercises with posemaniacs, maybe 20 min each. Also a skull, 1hour+ . Haven't done any anatomy studies at all- must start now!

[mariasun]

Trying to paint black x white base and then glazing it over in Painter x, but couldn't find a suitable brush. Still like it in black and white though.
Some more or less unserious portraits, random people.

[AlexTooth]

Wow nice work Mariasun, wish I had something I can critique but it all looks so good, very much has the feminine touch which is nice Do you do much memory drawing?

[mariasun]

AlexTooth: Thanks! Not as much as I would need to do! I am trying though, I feel I've improved alot since starting to study anatomy more.

Here's some digital, all in Painter X with my old graphire Wacom tablet.
The figures are all done with help from pose maniacs, the one with the deer and the girl I've used a photography I've taken of nature, and reference for the deer. The girl is my own imagination. It's also still w.i.p, struggling with it alot, my first almost successfull attempt at putting a human in my landscapes.

[Howie]

very nice work mariasun you have a great eye for color. I love the loose painterly style. The life studies are also looking good, maybe take a look at loomis and/or Bridgman they've been a huge help for me. Keep up the great work!

[mariasun]

Howie: thank you!

Sargent study in Painter X.

[B-Man]

tres bien! Mycket fint, Jag gillar dina jordnära färger.

[originalpink]

Wow tons of things I haven't seen before! (have been checking your blog for updates, :-/). As I've said before; your portraits have really grown (even thought you have been focusing your attention on landscapes the last year (right?))! :-D