Valya's Sketchbook - harsh critique welcome (update: 23/03/2013)

[Steveland]

Thanks - I'm just trying to understand how to best approach the studies ...Esp with the heads, (blubb.jpg). How do you get to that stage, is it just pure outline or do you use the whole dividing the face up method? Teach me Oh wise one

[thegrayslayer]

Really nice work!

~Slayer

[in2eternity]

Great works here, I like a lot how you handle with colors )
Do studies from life as well, hope you'll find possibility, even if it's just a glass of water)

[Valyavande]

thegrayslayer: thanks!

in2eternity: thank you! some more studies would be really good, but I'm doing so many different studies already. Makes it difficult to focus on something

Update. Concept sketches this time. I tried to be creative! I got my Hellboy II - the Art of the Movie book this week and it is a great inspiration for me. Loved the creatures from the troll market, so I tried to develop my own. First one is a feather seller, the other one sells watches. But he's not finished. Need to go on tomorrow =)



and another photo study

[LtPlissken]

Very great armor rendering in #136.
The photostudy head and the heads
from imagination are not bad, but you
should study more the head proportions.
You have an excellent imagination, I like
the troll market creatures. Go more darker
with your pencils and increase the contrast.
She has a nice bikini.

[Valyavande]

LtPlissken: thanks a lot for this helpful comment! I will keep an eye on my pencil values.

Working on CHOW this week

[Steveland]

Nice image of the nymph and old hag..

[Valyavande]

Steveland: thank ya!

finished CHOW

[Othrandir]

Great colors on that beach chick

[Valyavande]

rastaray: thank ya!

Long time no update =( Had to many things to do for the university. But I started some paintings.

[takashmen]

hi, thanks for visiting my SB and thanks for calling my attention to mistake in thread title

this marker creatures are great,

two things i can advice you
while painting don't paint with lines, but with bigger shapes
also experiment with color, green looks better when contains some others color shades- blue, red and so on

cheers

[Valyavande]

takashimen: thanks for your advices!

Stuff, especially some heads from imagination

[Steveland]

Wow - your imagination portraits are outstanding

That ball looks great, can see it how it is really wet and reflective. Almost looks like a mixture between skin and egg/marble texture.

[Fallenangel]

Cool work so far, my only crit at this point will be about the blending, it's too smooth in my opinion and it makes the skin of your characters/objects surfaces look plastic.
Try to apply some more textures or to use some more textured brushes, as well with adding a bit more contrast to your work.

Keep up with the great job you do!

Alex.

[Valyavande]

Steveland: thanks for stopping by again! I made that ball with the help of a tutorial about flesh. Was kind of cool

Fallenange: Blending is kind of drama. But I'll try to apply more textures. Thanks a lot!

Painting progress with background perspective-fail. At least, there is something like perspective. Could have been worse.

[masterpug]

Nice work in here! The paints are coming along. It may be more of a style choice, but I feel like a lot of the play on light/shadow is missing. Everything seems to be made of the same material. I don't mean so much in texture but in how the light reflects. It all feels very solid and your darks don't squish up against the lights. It seels more like they flow into them which can make a piece harder to read. Contrast! That is the word I was looking for.

Beautiful work though. Can't wait to see how you come along.

[Stryke]

hey man, nice anatomy studies and I like your skin
you should show more definition on the bodies.

for example the legs at #158 drew my attention pretty fast because there is only a tiny bit of definition, they look just too blob - you know what I mean ;]

greetz
Stryke

[Black Spot]

Your imaginative and paintings of still lives have great form, but you lose it when doing photo studies, which is weird considering your last post - being good. Take the ocarinas from the first page - the life one outshone the photo study by a mile. Forget the photos and just do the other two.

[Valyavande]

masterpug: ah, you're so right. I already noticed for myself that I don't get it how to show the different materials with the light. It's more or less ok doing it in studies, but applying it to paintings from imagination is still giving me a hard time. Well, pracice will help =) Thanks for stopping by!

Stryke: yeah, you're right. I see the problem and I will try to make it better in futurepaintings =)

Black Spot: Thanks for visiting! Interesting to read that things from life are better than the photo studies. I need to tackle them more and I still think they are more fun, but they are a harder task too. Thanks a lot! I think your comment will help to kick my ass, doing more life studies.

update on the painting


fox skull from life

[teapo]

totally digging your brush work on the skull study in the latest update! also, good job on translating your concept sketch of the watch seller into a digital piece i need to start coloring my own pencil stuff XD. keep drawing/painting valya!

[Creusa]

Hm, u know I would recommend u to start using some hard brushes with high opacity, ur works look kinda blurred. More contrasted things will help also.
I am fighting this right now too.

[Valyavande]

teapo: thank you again teapo! I try to go on as always and digital painting is fun, you should really do it sometimes!

creusa: I need to rethink my brushwork at all. Most of the time I'm working with a hard brush with settings on pen pressure. But blending sucks D= Did not find the find the way that is working for me yet. Well, let us fight!

So, some chicks again from imagination. Did not work well this time

another life painting

[Fallenangel]

Looking good so far, watch out for the perspective and positioning of the planes on the real life studies, in the last picture it seems as if the table is tilted upwards and the "vase" is still standing straight.

Keep up with the great work!

[Wingal]

Thanks for stoping by my sketchbook, and even better for leaving me helpful advice! Your work is quite lovely! I really enjoy your sketches and imagination works! keep it up!

[Eric Young]

You've got a very good sketchbook. I can see improvement from the first page to the last. Keep up what you're doing and you'll keep improving.

[Valyavande]

Thanks for the comments!

Moar portraits



unfinished Waterhouse study, just started painting this morning. Many colours are off


I did some anatomy studies too. But nothing interesting. So, no scans.

[jhowell]

Great looking sketchbook! I really like the way you render your figures and characters, they appear to have a lot of mood and emotion in them. Keep up the great work!

[rumpenstiltzkin]

new updates looks nice, i love the last one esp. the colors looks nice and i love the dress

[Valyavande]

thank you all =)

I've got an Intuos 4 now! I start to get used to it. Feels kind of strange after using the bamboo fun for so long, but it's niiiice

so, more boring portraits. One is a repaint of one of my first digital paintings, even based on the same pencil sketch! So you can see the difference between my first digital footsteps and now


old thing is old (June 2008)

[in2eternity]

The first work in #169 is really great! And all those heads from imagination too))