Meilin's Sketchbook

[Meilin]

Hey I'm 21 year old and have been lurking around this place for a while. I'm completely self-taught which means that I have basically learned everything so far the hard way
Now I have finally got the urge to learn how to paint. The last time I used colors where when I was 8 years old doodling in an aladdin coloring book so I expect this to be a long journey... as you might guess all crits are appreciated

[Smarty]

a good way to learn colur is to build from monochrome. By the looks of things these are digital. If so I'd paint them in black and white first and then try using the colour overlay tool with a limited pallete. Once your confortable doing that you cna dive straigth in with colour fomr the start.

[Meilin]

Thanks for your advice. I tried it out and here is the results:

[Meilin]

I came home too late tonight to do another color study. So I ended up doing some fast sketches instead

[Jaytea]

First attempts? Pffssshhh wow, that's a lot better than mine were. |D; Really like that goose- keep at it! Experiment, sketch, and play with layers and brushes. Those ladybug sketches are pretty neat. :] Look forward to seeing more.

[Meilin]

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm still trying to figure out how to mix colors digitally without using the smudgetool, but I have a blast in the meantime

Today I finally had time to go to the convenience store. It was about time… I ate up all my motives for still lives 2 days ago. But now the refrigerator is full and I’m ready to go again. I've stuck to simple forms so I could focus on different ways to create texture and mix colors. However I still can't seem to grasp how to achieve that almost shiny tomato look.

[Meilin]

It really feels as I'm taking two steps forward and one step backwards with this painting project. Well anyways this is what I managed to create today, experimented a bit more with different ways to mix colors.

[Meilin]

Just some sketches

[Meilin]

Decided to try and paint a portrait today, but didn't get passed the greyscale phase. Maybe I'll get around to color it another day. I used a reference image for this one, and yeah the girl looked kind of pissed in the original as well : )

[Meilin]

More tomatoes... it seems like tomatoes is the only thing in the refrigerator that I won't feel like eating no matter how empty it gets.
At last it's starting to feel as if I'm getting the hang of this color mixing matter, so maybe I will lay of the vegetables for a while.

[Meilin]

just some quick sketches of my classmates and my first attempt at painting an environment. Spent ~30 min on it.

[Meilin]

I had no idea that finding good skincolors was such a slow and painful process. Got this far with it before I realised that it got to little contrast. Think I'll try to fix it tomorrow.

[Meilin]

Did some more work on the portrait. It really has made me realize how much I need to practice drawing faces, so I did some eye studies as well

[Meilin]

Just some more eye studies today. With this I think I've reached 50 eyes, time to move on.

[Hudd]

Cool stuff. One thing that might help you with painting is to lay all of you darks down first and then come back in with the mids and the highlights. Great start to a sketchbook. Keep it up!

-Hudd

[Meilin]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook. I usually end up going with to few dark colors when I paint, I think it's because I feel like I see so much color in the shadows that I trick myself into believing that the color must be much paler and more saturated than it is. I'll try your trick and see if it makes me come around that issue.

I tried to do some environmental sketches today, used 30 min on each. I feel like I have really much to learn in this exercise, both with picking colors and with the more technical aspect of digital painting such as using brushes and blending color. Dunno if this is the best way to learn all these things or if I should spend more time on one image instead. Any crits, tips, and links to tutorials are appreciated.

[Meilin]

Another batch of environments, 30 min on each

[Meilin]

I had an idea for a painting; I dunno if I'm gonna take it to a finnished stage but did some research sketches just in case.

[Meilin]

Another long day in school today, so didn't have time to paint much, and when I sat down at my desk I was all over the place... so here is a little bit of this and a little bit of that

[Meilin]

I chose to go greyscale today to practice the use of brushes some more. Took around 40 min, but I think I should have stopped after 20... after that it just became kind of messy.

[Meilin]

Today's harvest:

[abiLity]

Hi Meilin, your linework is really good and your digital stuff becomes better and better. Keep it up!

[Meilin]

Thanks for the kind words, I'll try to push the progress even further

It just became one sketch today since I have exams coming up soon. I think I might have gone over my head with the complexity of this one though (gosh I must be really week when a flower manages to break me).

[Meilin]

Just another quickie. I think I'm getting closer to finding the right colors but I definitely need to work more on how to use pencils.

[kinjura]

Thank you for stopping by my sketchbook.

I'm really liking what I'm seeing here. You have already grown since your first post and i personally love the fact that your studies are coming in pencil and digital form. I know that I have always felt that working on one really improves the other - what are your thoughts on that?

Don't get discouraged about being self-taught, either. I went to art school and I have learned so much more through my own research than I did in any of my classes.

Looks great so far. I'll stop by again soon to see what you're up to.

[kuroart]

the studies are looking better and better. where did you get those reference images from? you're getting a good grasp of colors i'd say. keep at it.

[Φ]

hey there!, cool you stopped by my SB!
you´re getting better in those enviro studies!! I like!!!! and only in such short amount of time! keep it coming!
cheers

[Black Spot]

You've got a great sketch book started here. I'm enjoying watching the progress.

[Meilin]

Kinjura: thanks for dropping by. I must really agree with you. Before I started painting I was kind of cocky about my drawing skills, but since I started with this sketchbook I've discovered several flaws in my technique that I need to work on. But if I'm gonna be honest the plan was to focus hard on my painting techniques until Christmas, the sketches are just my way of slacking out

Kuroart: thanks for the encouraging words. Most of the environment references is from terra galleria, but some are things that I've taken myself and some things are just googled. I really love the advanced picture search on google... it makes my life so much easier

Bigfootrooper: Will do mate! Just gonna get the exams out of the way and then I'm gonna try learning some new stuff again

Black spot: Thanks mate, I'm trying hard

So this is what I got today... Tried to do one value study from memories of my hometown and the other is just the usual environment.

[Meilin]

I got my hands on some zhuzhu's brushes today so I played around with them for a little while before I went back to the books. There were some troubles with finding the right hues for the apple but I think the end result became kind of ok. Each sketch took around 30 min.