Cas makes a mess.(I love big crits and I cannot lie)

[Caspia]

After lurking for a number of years here I decided it was time to pull my pants up and try to actually improve on what I've been trying to do for a while now. Or at least emulate.

I'm aware that a lot of what I'm doing lacks depth and a great deal of basic knowledge about things. I intend to work on that here. I've been trying to improve by myself for about a year then I realised that hey, anatomy seems kind of important. So I fumbled about inexpertly for a bit then realised I had no idea what I was doing.

Enter the idea that I should make a sketchbook here after scuttling about watching everyone elses for a while. Currently I only have digital work as because of a recent move to another country, I have no scanner.

People motivate me to draw. I'm one of those creepy people that likes people watching. I think people are interesting. I enjoy drawing them, or at least attempting to.

Waffle over.

The images here are over the course of said year and the WIP is the most recent.

[Caspia]

More heads tomorrow. More minute sketches if I can grab someone who will stay still for that length of time.

[DairyProduct]

K well. It's clear to me that you know what you're doing in Photoshop. I especially like that last WIP, it's so striking! Its left eye (viewer's right) is too far out to the side, nothing a quick liquify can't fix.

Good start on your figures! Can't say a lot since you haven't much yet, but try to use bolder lines instead of petting them all the time.

Eager to see more work from you!

[Caspia]

@DairyProduct: I'm painting it using OpenCanvas 1.1 but you're quite right, it's a bit too far off. I'll sort that. Thank you for pointing it out, I'm awful at spotting these things.

I'm quite scared of sketching tbh but I'll try the bolder lines and cuddle them less. Cuddle, pet? No? Hm.

@Rhubix. Thank you, Bridgman books shall be added to the reading list when money appears. I'm a natural creeper. Most people over here don't tend to mind if I scribble and stare at them. Wrong weather for it at the moment.

Fish. I hate fish. Do you like fish? I don't. Still, must learn to draw things I hate so that I'm better at things I enjoy? Is that how it works? Perhaps just a better appreciation when I draw something fun.

More skulls and perspective boxes and heads.

More work on WIP. Moved her eye and fiddled with her chin. Not much progress.

[Caspia]

circles, circles, fish are like circles.

[Caspia]

Been sort of busy and concentrating too much on digital media. Going to try to spend April working through ink and watercolour again.

Small update featuring a self portrait. Everything as usual made in opencanvas 1.1

[Mila]

I like the colouring, but go gentle on the black outlining to mark shapes. :] ( In your first post )

Otherwise great sketchbook. Keep up the work :]

[Rhubix]

Huray for being a creeper! sketching people is great practice and lots of fun (even if moderately creepy. )
Seems like you have a good starting point as to what to work on. I found Bridgman books really good for figure drawing/anatomy so I definitely recommend them!

[Caspia]

But I do love my outlining *clings*

Thanks very much, I'm trying ease away from heavy outlines but I guess I find them...reassuring? Something like that.

[Caspia]

Sketches and silly bollocks because I don't have a scanner to post the rest of what I've done so far.

[Caspia]

Speed paint with the proportions all out of whack. Ref. used.

[Caspia]

30 second poses. Going to try doing more of these because quite frankly, I suck at drawing quickly.

[Caspia]

A weeks worth of 30 second figure drawings and a facial study that took me about 6-7 hours.

[Valyavande]

Wow, you're showing many steps here of your paintings. Good to see.
I think, you should use some more colours! Everything has more than just one basic colour. and play around with light and shadows. It's more than just using different values. Your pictures will be more lively if you give them colour variation.
Some interesting links that may help you:
http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/tutorials/light01.htm
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
http://navate.deviantart.com/gallery/11609382#/d2dwqgc
Just kick your ass and start playing around. Remember - it's digital. It's failsafe. Use layers or save your file with a new name. Nothing is lost if you run wild and overpaint it =)

[Caspia]

The thing about overpainting is that in open canvas 1.1 you can only use multiply layers, which is very limiting. I don't really have enough money for PS anything like that at the moment.

Thank you very much for the links though, they look interesting.

[Valyavande]

I don't know a thing about open canvas, never used it. Did you ever try gimp? It's freeware and I know some people who use it, because PS is to expensive and gimp has similar functions.
It has layers and layersettings, you can use your graphic tablet and I read that you can even use photoshop brushes in actual versions. Maybe it's an alternative for you

[Caspia]

Random lighting practice. Going to start using gimp for other layer issues, I feel to used to Open Canvas at the moment...

[Caspia]

30 second gestures and blargh

[tronrobot]

I like the way u use color in your photoshop paintings. I also see that your working on anatomy stuff...that's a real good idea. It will help you immensly. It can get boring tho, so don't let it overcome you!
Waiting to see moar.....

[Caspia]

Sorry for not being very productive. In the middle of moving house again and it's stressing me out and killing my motivation a bit. I'm also doing a lot of irrelevant crap for giggles that I'm not sure I should even post really.

Also Alphonse Mucha makes me tingly recently. No idea why.

[Caspia]

Gesture drawings from the past couple days. Don't know if there's any improvements going on. The 30 seconds I get to draw the figure is constantly becoming not enough. I'm still too slow.

[Caspia]

Practice at working from refs and silly bollocks. A shadow mucking about with a light wielding person and not really realising what it's doing.

[Caspia]

Had a weekend of blowing off steam and doing not much. Moving house is painful for me, the stress makes me productive though. Had a go at some caves and started a self portrait (with horns added, they're not there) Took my own ref. which is why it isn't very well lit. Might make another attempt at the skin.

I had done some more but Open Canvas crashed so I ended up playing with hair colours instead.

[Tides]

Awesome start! A lot of people seem to do those 30 second figure studies. I'm thinking I might add them to my arsenal.

[Caspia]

I thought that I would be able to copy and paste layers in Open Canvas 1.1 without all the white in the backround being added as well. I'm so sure I was able to do that before with line art for adjustments. Bah.

[Caspia]

...yeah I don't really have much of an explanation for these.

[Caspia]

Update on the self portrait. I wonder if "Horned, arrogant bitch." Is an appropriate title for such a thing?

[Caspia]

Taking part in this week's CHOW. Here's hoping that technical issues with Open Canvas and the layers wont matter too much -_-

[p sage]

Hi. Photoshop looks like a ton of hard work (I wouldn't know).

Here's a suggestion... look at some nice 5 star threads and find particularly interesting drawings... that is, unfinished work... then study it and try to understand how the artist did it.

It's taught me a lot looking at others' drawings.

Cheers

[Caspia]

slowly making friends with photoshop