Starting Over (updated on page 3...getting slightly better! I think oO )

[Daray]

MeTaL-Mike- Thanks man! Very kind of you

[Delmar]

Hey there,

really nice progress since i last visited your sb (old one). Good thing your starting life studies.

Frankly speaking, coloring is a bitch, i´m currently disputing with color theory and really try to improve, but it´s definitely tough

What i miss in some of your paintings is more contrast between lights and shadows, the values are sometimes pretty much the same between you're midtones and shadows. Would like to see some extreme light scenery with colored light....

Keep em cooming!

[Daray]

Some sketches. My RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) is really playing up now winter is here so I'm having to be careful, my tendons are already damaged and I'm only 24!

anyway:

Yin Yang CHOW entry!




Apple Gatherer CHOW piece, I didn't get to finish it!



Small bit I'm working on, this is the rough pencils I did today at work

[Daray]

Well couple of recent things, not had much time lately due to work One is my Demon character, was a pin up for halloween but now Im just making it into a 'normal' pic as its a bit late... The other pic is something I drew from pure emotion. My workplace is extremley stressful for me lately, and she looks basically how I felt today. The back didnt show on the dragon, its not entirely finished either. And that sword handle is possibly too short

[ped454]

Your sketches have so much potential. SOO much. The thing that gets to me is your colouring. The colours are very pale and the hue transitions are not very apparent at all. My suggestion is to create a palette using a colour harmony before you start colouring or to go into adjustment-hue/saturation and playing around with all the layers of colour and see what kind of impact you can get.....you've got insane sketches but the colour brings them down.

[Daray]

Yep completely agreed there. I've no painting/colouring background at all. I understand colour theory in my head, just not in practice. Something I'm kinda hoping to work on Funnily enough I mentioned to another member here this morning that my colours let my work down

[Daray]

Small sketch I've done at work of Serafina Pekkala from Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Was my favourite set of books as a kid and still today. Looking forward to the movie

[RandAlThor]

Hey Dar, nice update, but we want more... Update faster dude :-)

[Daray]

RandAlThor- I would if I could! I work too much and suffer from a mild disability in my drawing wrist

[Daray]

Just showing step by step bits whilst I remember. Not great at colours at all, maybe someone could show me where I'm going wrong

[Miles_]

These sketches have great potential but are limited by a lack in knowledge of anatomy. Your costume designs are awesome and original but you still need to do some studies. Anyway keep this up.

Miles.

[Daray]

spazazo - A lack of knowledge in anatomy? Explain further please.

[Daray]

Good god batman, I updated something! oh cute new smilies too.

anyway was trying to practice some painting after work, I was just messing about really. Anyway, here's ginger. Still working on it, need more depth in her skin I think!

[Xaya]

Good progress!
I would recommend you to use reference if you are not sure with how something has to look like (clothes and folds, hair or whatever).
Of course you shouldn´t copy the ref. one to one, but you should study them and recognise what is the essence that hair looks like hair.
(The red hair of the last painting isn´t bad)

Another thing you might keep in mind that there is always a lightsource that creates volumes and plasticity.
For example u used pure white for the whole eyeball. Doing so, you destroy the spheric form the eyeball normally has.

So i wanna see some studies next time from ref.,
if it is a selfportrait, a landscape or whatever.

[Sublimus]

Good start so far.

With your color work, it looks like you might be adding black to make things darker, and white to make them lighter. Only changing the value of the color is bad. Doing this makes things look chalky. Another method you can use to roll the form is to change the hue of the color. Slightly cooler for the shadows, and warmer for the light areas.

Hope that helps!

[Daray]

Righty, I'm updating this :o Another portrait of Serafina Pekkala, or at least my take on her. I wanted to try out some colouring *shudder* here you can see what ive done in the past hour or so. No more time to work on it tonight, but I hope its going in the right direction. I would love to make the colours more realistic, but I really really struggle with that type of colour. I dont think it would suit the illustrative type style Ive made here however. Long way to work on it yet!

Anyway, crits, tips and mucho help please! I want this to be the best piece yet!

[eminkey2003]

Cool ideas. I'd say loosen up, study anatomy (I'm with spazazo on that issue), and don't use local colors for shadows. Read this article, it explains everything about using complementary colors in shadows: http://painting.about.com/od/colourt...r_theory_6.htm

[Daray]

Thanks a lot eminkey2003! Silly really I did colour theory about 4/5 years ago, but Ive forgotten a lot of things, eep! Just means I have to work more

[Daray]

Ok, so Ive been reading up on the link that eminkey2003 suggest. That was really really helpful, thanks a lot!

So I've been using a photo of myself to practise this whole 'Dont shade with local colours but with complimentary colours'. Well, I think Im doing this right. I hope anyway I am lol ^^

Start of what Im doing so far, its about an hours work so far.Ive been working mainly on the eyes and the skin so far, Ive got an old pale skin with lots of red Ive discovered hehe ^^

Gosh, I feel really worried lol

[Daray]

Well I've decided to get back on track with some sketches. Since a couple of months before Xmas I've been really sick with Pernicious Anaemia. http://www.pernicious-anaemia-society.org/

So now its April, I've got myself back on track and the treatment is starting to work, I'm beginning to doodle again. I'm still stuck with colour theory, but I'm going to be signing up to some adult art classes hopefully soon

Anyway, some older doodles!

















And umm I painted some Eva Green, it was from Referance: http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...espa_2_005.jpg

[Daray]

Just updating with a sketch I did whilst waiting for my hospital treatment. Character from a small story I write.




And this is the WIP of a greyscale photoshop painting Im trying. Ive been struggling with colours for what feels years now and getting nowhere. So instead I tried it out without the colours. Its nowhere near completed and Im not 100% sure if the values here looks correct. She's supposed to hair very 'white' looking hair too.

Any help would be incredibly grateful, thanks

[K-bot]

Daray,

Hats off for working through bad health. I had surgery in September of last year that knocked me out for months, and I just went in a week ago and had the same surgery again. I know how hard it can be, but stick with it and try and use the down time if you can!

I think you (like me) would benefit the most from drawing with pencils and working on your anatomy and form. It's easy to noodle a painting for hours until it is close to right, but it will never look as good as if you start with a more solid drawing, and it takes forever. It's so quick and easy to change a pencil line, that it is much smarter to work that way. Plus, you can throw some lines around in your sketchbook when your down and not feeling well.

Good Luck

[Daray]

I managed to get a small bit of gesture sketching in whilst at work and stuff. You could tell where I started because I was putting too much detail in, then kinda slowly got a little used to this whole 'letting go' thing :p

[Daray]

I was a bit cheeky too, I timed myself yesterday after work to create a simple speed paint.I gave myself an hour (really not confident with this painting lark ) and well this is what I did. Its nowhere near 100% perfect, but nevermind!

[Daray]

Well its been utter months since I posted in here last. I really should learn to keep sketches in here no matter what they look like. My anaemia became more a pain throughout the summer months, lots of hospital trips and with the slightly annoying news of 'We aren't really sure why you have this type...' :/

Anyway some odd sketches I have on my shiney new computer. My style is changing dramatically too, I've loosened up on the comic style as such and now its going more towards an Art Nouvea style. Somebody gave me a Mucha print recently, and its really inspired me. It now hangs in my room like a small shrine

anyway enjoy. More to come, including some life drawing pieces.

[Daray]

I bought a new sketchbook this morning and swore to myself I would draw in it every day. So today I couldnt think what to draw, so instead I took this picture of Eva Green that was the in Total Film magazine. I'm not sure if this counts as anything, but I felt the need to try it out due to the odd hand angles.

Suprisingly I enjoyed it

[RandAlThor]

Welcome back D. Those last two posts are way above the early stuff and that chow127 is sweet. Keep the passion, and enjoy it... ;-)

[Daray]

RandAlThor - Thanks mate, I appreciate the comments!

[Daray]

An online friend has helped me recently, just by having a chat with me. I appreciate her for it incredibly. So I asked her other half what sort of style she like, he sent me onto Gorey. Really cool stuff.

So just this quick Thank you gift for her

[Daray]

*Shyly posts a few more* I need to study some more anatomy, especially hands, feet, shoulders! hmm.




And Im taking part in this weeks CHOW: Stilgar from Dune, a Freman. I've done a bit of research as I don't really remember the films and I haven't ever read the books. Both are just some quick ideas to see how they would pan out really. Struggling with the foreshortening on the 2nd piece, the sandworm he is riding would be quite small