Jen's Sketchbook~ LATE SUMMER GRINDIN'

[wasabi89]

Great Style man! Loved the way you're rendering as well.
I Would like to see moar pencils !
keep well

see ya!

[zephyri]

Can I just say I love your more cartoon style stuff on the last page? Love your colour choices for all of the last three images. The studies are definitely paying off, little by little there's an improvement in each page of sketchbook stuff, (even though I feel your frustration at not feeling it sometimes).

Also - ignore the UK art person. I apologise on behalf of my country and it's daft approach to art in general (hell, look at the joy that is the Turner Prize).

As far as your personal piece (of the guy with the halo) further up page 5, I'd say maybe try incorporating some of that soft edge approach you have in the photo studies later on, and try not to simply paint it all back into hard edges like you did with the portrait from imagination... you might get a more dynamic feel to the image that way. Strikes me the image doesn't need much of an impressive background since all the storytelling is happening with the guy and the female hands.

Hope that was of some help, and thank you for dropping by my own sketchbook!

[CrashPoint]

Wow! you last couple pieces have a lot of expression! Really digging the color choices. Keep up the posts!

[Sapphirelullaby]

wasabi89: Thank you! I'll see if I can't whip out some pencils tomorrow ahah, its been a while.

zephyri: Ahhhh thank you! I'm glad you like them, that makes me happy ahah. Yeah, that lady from the UK was pretty off her rocker; but I suppose there's all types. As for the portrait with the guy and his lady frands, yeah, I was thinking about re-doing the colors on one from scratch; I was really just kind of trying to figure out the color palette at that point. The whole soft vs hard edges is something i juuustt discovered, so I definitely do plan to utilize it from now on ahaha! Hopefully I'll improve and learn about the technique the more I try it out. your welcome for the sketchbook comment. c:

CrashPoint: Thank you! Color is something I'm working on pretty hardcore so I'm glad to see that its paying off. Expression is another thing I like to play with, the last thing I ever want to do is have static, unlively characters! To me it just kills a piece if that's the case.

Alright, sloooowwwllyy starting to get into gear. Slooowwly.

First off, today's 1 hour speedpaint, some Loomis head studies, and a portrait sketch for a character of mine that I'll try and work at. Hopefully it works out, I'm not sure where that other piece is going.

[Psychobuddy]

Wow you have a really great sense for colour, uhm I don't actually have any real crits. Just keep posting!

[Sapphirelullaby]

Psychobuddy: ;v; thankyouuu

ok! today's stuff.

1) todays 1 hr speedpaint. I consider it kind of unsuccessful tbh, but its still a learning experience so that's alright. Still to work on prioritizing what to render and for how long. 2) I took a goofy little sketch of Vesperia's Raven that I'd done in my downtime and spent a little under 3 hours slapping some color on. I didn't worry about the structure or making it look finished, just had lots of fun with it. Need to loosen up more like that in the future. 4) Some sketches for a commission I've gotten for 6 chibis of character types for a game my friend's running. These'll be colored, and I plan to have some fun with them! 3) A first pass on colors for that portrait I showed earlier. Thoughts anyone??

[DragonL]

love your style

[kevin_]

great sb! your studies are very nice and your imagination work is equally as strong!

[Creusa]

your faces are already good, try to exercise with other parts of the body, especially feet and hands. mby some perspective studies too, almostall the stuff i see here is frontal

[Sapphirelullaby]

DragonL: thank you!
kevin_: thank you ;u; I'm glad to hear that my improvement in studies is rubbing off on my stuff from imagination. c:
Creusa: Thank you, and aye aye, cap'n!

two studies for today, since I missed yesterday's daily. 1 hour each. The first is based on a photograph by CA's own Wanimal, and the second is a study of a Cyril Tahmassebi piece. I'm also working on those chibi commissions but I'll wait to post those as a set when I'm done.

I'm hoping that studies of conceptual art by art/artists I admire will help me to better understand lighting, cinematography, landscape building etc as I break them down in order to re-paint. One thing I definitely learned this time around: I can't paint rocks. AHAha, my rockfaces are always /really/ organic looking from all the time I spend drawing people. I need to do some basic studies on mountains/rocks and figure out their structure better.

[Sapphirelullaby]

Boop! Todays stuff. Apparantly I forgot yesterday's speedpaint...whoops. Maybe I'll do another tonight to make up for it.

1) A doodle from imagination for some warm up. Really need to practice painting sharp, angular shapes...they're just so strange ahhaa.
2) today's 1 hr study, based off a James Paick piece.
3) Rock study.
4) Another rock study. This one was painted over top the original photographs..the point was just to simplify the shape and understand the shapes of the rocks.
5) Anotherrr rock study, simplified shapes (not painted over)

[Sapphirelullaby]

I'm trying to fix my sleep schedule so I actually go to bed at a decent hour. I am exhausted I don't think I'll be arting any more tonight hahaa. todays stuff and an enviro from the the other day. I've been bad about dailies and studies lately, need to get back on that tomorrow onwards. To be fair though I've been doing a lot of research and watching loads of tuts and workshops so I've still been fairly productive.

1. enviro wip from imagination. Aha...haha.....

2/3. Yesterdays 1hr study that turned into a 5 hour rendering adventure. I had wanted to practice surface detailing so...veins! hairy legs! all that good stuff.

i also did some half asleep doodles in my sketchbook buuuut I am way too lazy to take pictures of those. Have a couple ideas for an illustration and concept work that needs to be done; i think I'll be forsaking that potrait wip, just not feeling it. Feel like doing something a little more exciting. We shall see!

[Mat Kaminski]

AMAZING!

(subscribed)

[Obstfelder]

Hi thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!

Great pieces you have here and great dedication with the studies. The last one is really sharp. Just don't forget to work on your design and illustration skills in addition to studies. That's where the magic happens.

Keep at it!

[Sapphirelullaby]

Mat Kaminski: ;v; thank you!!
Obstfelderp: aww thank you! And yes, definitely. I have a habit of keeping my imagination stuff to myself sometimes because im worried that's not what this forum is really about because it tends to be kind of stylistic, but thats just silly thinking. I'll definitely be posting more design stuff; in fact I just got started on some ahah

Hey guys! I still haven't been doing well with the whole 'daily' thing, ahh. Just loads of stuff going on at once, finishing that chibi commission, yadda yadda. Eitherway I've still been rather productive, watching lots of vids and doing research etc.

I'm happy to say that I managed to get Unemployment insurance after I lost my job in May, which will allow me to continue my studies pretty much uninhibited for a while, so that's exciting and a huge relief. I've decided I'm going to use the next two years working my ass off to study for my Graphic Design degree, practice for what I /really/ want to do (concept/production art), and seriously begin to put a portfolio together. Maybe I can find some small freelance jobs before I graduate, that would be amazing, so we'll see! I'm hoping to have at least a workable portfolio by next summer.

In the mean time here's everything I got done today! Lots of images.

1-6) All the chibi commissions are done. These had a bit of a tight deadline and well, frankly, they were for a friend so I severely underpriced myself ahah. I don't mind though because I had fun and he was helping me out in a pinch. I am hoping to one day in the future re-do a couple and just kind of go crazy on rendering them with lots of detail and surface attention because its something I need to practice.


7) Using my character Teri as character concept practice. So here's some sillohuettes. After this, I'll be doing conceptwork on his suit and gauntlets in more detail, then a character turn around/rendering, and then finaallyy a full out illustration if I still feel up the task and the idea still seems good. we'll see!

8) I'm calling this enviro done, even though it doesn't have the details I wanted to include and isn't really finished. I'm a little bit tired of it, and it wasn't planned out well enough. I think in the future I'll be doing smaller, much quicker thumbs (the more I can do in less time the better), and for the larger ones I'll try to plan out more extensively and see how that works out for me.

I was too tired for a daily today ahaha.

[Sajok]

Amazing work Jen! Your portraits are wonderful and expressive and your studies are great, especially your eye for colour.

Don't get disheartened and good luck with your search for work!

[Immortal Cintiq]

Really Cool Work here.

One thing I can critique, for the Muy Thai fighter, the hair on the leg looks kinda sharp imo. I wouldn't know how to fix it, hehe, but it looks off to me. Same with the hair on the portrait.

Keep it up!

[CrashPoint]

Once again great work, your studies are siiiiiiick! I love how you rendered the shorts on that kickboxer. Rock on!

[Sapphirelullaby]

Sajok: ;v; thank you, I really appreciate the kind words. I'll do my best!
Immortal Cintiq: Thank you! You know I didn't really realize that you made me re-examine the pieces ahhaa, now I can see it. I'll be sure to soften the effect next time
CrashPoint thank you again! I'm glad my studies seem to be doing well ahah. Need to get in the habit of posting original stuff too regularly.

ok! todays stuff. Started pretty late since I wasn't feel that well earlier.

1) still-life study WIP. Gonna try to do lots of small ones. I had to stop because my little sister wanted the light off to sleep ahha. Oh, the joys of sharing a room.

2) Just a doodle to relax and play around with different brushes.

[Sapphirelullaby]

gonna be spending the rest of tonight catching up on workshop notes and doing a little research so, today's stuff!

1) another speedie experiment thing
2) a quick enviro study (original by the artist Ehoto) that I forgot to post.
3) super duper quick enviro thumb...ahh..these are so hard. Need to do lots and lots of researchh

[Revidescent]

Your last few studies - most of the ones on this page - are really fantastic. I really like all the little characters, too.

[Fetsch]

Realy cool works in here, i like your little characters on this page alot! And impressive studies too, keep up the good work.

[kidult]

I love the style of your cartoon guys! Nice sense of personality

[JoshDArtist]

lovin the new updates!!! keep up with those enviro studies... they are rockin!

[Othrandir]

Oh wow awesome improvement!! The really cool thing is that your best stuff is when you let go and do your own thing... the colors in this :

also this environment looks really cool

[tangofanatic]

I'm digging the bottom image of post 28, good choice of colours and it looks like the cloth draped over her boobs is about to drift off!

[Sapphirelullaby]

tangofanatic: thanks!
PMrastaray: Thank you! yeah, there's something ot be said for more spontaneous art
AMJoshDArtist: Thank you! Yes, totally need to get back on enviro studies but I'll be focusing on illo work for a bit as I prepare my portfolio over the year. Hopefully that means lotsa updates because I plan to get paid to art I better get good!
AMkidult: thanks! I have a lot of fun with playing around with personality and mood.
Fetsch - ;v; thank you! I admire your artwork a lot so I squee'd a little when I got this reply, ahah! It's so encouraging.
Revidescent - Thank you! I think those little guys are a favorite of mine, too, ahaha.

wow its been dead here, need to fix that. Started a new school semester but now that I'm not working I should have more time to work on my portfolio and studies. Theoretically, anyway. I'm finding I'm having loads more homework than I did last year, guh.

Here's a quick 5 hour illustration for a school assignment (this Illustration class should kick me into producing art regularly, at least!), as well as some referenced Dany studies for an upcoming GoT picture. I've been doing a loot of small doodles since last update but I won't be putting them here..a fair amount of them can be found on my tumblr though.

oh man gotta figure out this new attachment system.......just had to re-write my information like three times sahfdshgf

[Aftertouch]

Really enjoying the tonal range in the illustration, I find new things to look at every time! Those hands are exquisite btw. Also the dany sketches are spot on!

[Sapphirelullaby]

thanks after!

finally another painting study! referenced, but this time I focused more on trying to get the likeness/expression down, and experimented with technique. I had wanted to do something much more loose and experimental but it just..didn't happen, whoops.

Also I now have a Tumblr which I'll be dumping more more serious studies and artworks on. I have another doodle tumblr, but that tends to fill up quickly with silly scribbles and reblogs, ahha.

[Fungus]

Yay, updates! I love how you can see the process of the last GoT painting from the references above. I think her likeness is spot on. Keep it up, those speedpaints are always an inspiration!

BTW it's thioindoxin from tumblr.