"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

[Pete Hidalgo]

LB great book. Live the skele-cats ha ha. Also that northern lights paint is pretty shexy. Just saying.

[littlebones]

Thanks, Pete, I appreciate it.

***

Nice, page 6!

Here's some environments. First three are done with reference, fourth is from imagination, and then there is a jellyfish.

[Clur]

Ah, I love that last batch of environments. My favourite is the fourth one, it has a cool old-fashioned science fiction feel to it. (Also jellyfish are awesome.) You could push it a lot further if you added a bit of contrasting colour, though. If you felt like it, of course.

... I've somehow completely failed to notice up until this point that you're Canadian. Salutations, countryman!

[littlebones]

Clur: Hail, fellow Canadian! Thanks! I do feel like working on that environment, I'm so glad you like it. It definitely needs to be less monochrome.

***

I want to work on this one and see just how good I can make it, so I'm gonna mess with it a bit more and then take it to the Critique Center. It will become less purple eventually. Right now I'm dissatisfied, so I may even start over from scratch. Not sure what to do except practice what real jellyfish look like. The perspective seems wrong to me. Still a good time making it so far, but it's barely even 1/10th done.

And then some actual jellyfish, again, because... they're more complicated than one would imagine.

[CrashPoint]

I was going through your sketchbook and wow! You have some great figure studies and your portraits are really improving! Keep up the hard work!

[littlebones]

Crashpoint: Thanks man, will do!

***

This is all I've got in me today. My mind is far too focused on other things.

[littlebones]

Some more work on that jellyfish thing and some 1-minute Drawing Script poses.

[littlebones]

I wish I had more than just a bit of progress on this to add but I'm afraid this is all there is for today.

It's nice to just come home from work and draw a bunch of wiggly jellyfish to chill music.

[littlebones]

Happy Friday.

[kevin_]

cool updates! those jellyfish look cool!

[Meps]

Long time no see! And wow, you've improved. Your stuff from Dr. Sketchy's on the last page is looking particularly good--great loose, gestural line quality, and your figures are continuing to get better. It's neat to see you doing all of these jellyfish studies--they seem like they're fun to paint. You're definitely introducing some color variation in your recent WIPs; I like the yellow on the jellyfish. You might want to consider thinning the jellyfish "cloud" just a little bit. As it is now, you have a bunch of them covering a large part of the picture plane and many of them are the same size. It might increase the visual impact and give you more of a focal point if you picked one or two (like the one in the upper-right) to leave big, and then shrink some of the others while also letting just a bit more of the landscape show through in the gaps.

Anyway, great to have you back! And thanks for commenting on my sketchbook You're motivating me to get off my butt and start uploading stuff again.

[littlebones]

kevin_: Thanks, bud!

Meps: Hooray, you're back! As for the jellyfish, I'm hoping they'll be less of an overwhelming cloud once they're painted and have atmospheric uh... fading (can't think of the proper word). I'll do my best to find a balance! You are right about many of them being similar sizes.

And you'd better start uploading again!

***

Today was Halifax's Pride Parade, so I went and staked out a good spot before the parade and sketched others who had the same idea. I'm slightly sunburnt, and these could be better, but drawing so small is tough! Also, funny thing, people move a lot.

I've made some progress on the jellyfish painting but I'm going to wait until I have more to upload yet another iteration.

[littlebones]

Dump. Not done on the jellies yet.

[littlebones]

Mario Kart.jpg

[littlebones]

30 one-minute gestures. I'm not in an art slump but this is a very busy week. I'm squeezing in what I can.

[Meps]

Great sketches from the pride parade! Drawing (unposed) people from life is super-tough.

The jellies are looking a lot better. The variation in sizes makes it read more easily, and the tails help to lead your eye from one to another throughout the composition. I know you're probably already planning on this, but I'll just say to be careful about color variation. The yellow is a great touch, but it might also work to throw in some blues and greens into the purple landscape, and maybe even some tiny hints of red or red-violet in the jellies. Just make sure not to put off introducing color for too long. You're making great progress, and I can't wait to see the rest of this piece!

(Thanks for beating me up about updates! XD I sometimes need the motivation to put stuff online. I'll work harder!)

[CarbonBased]

Hey LittleBones.
Great job on those jellyfishes. Not sure what to tell you about the pic, I guess try to work on a background a bit more, along side jellies to get a feel of how everything fits together better.
P.S. - Thanks for encouraging words in my sb, I will certainly update, just busy currently with non art. Which is a drag.
I'll be around to see your progress though. : ) Try hard and have fun!

[littlebones]

Meps: Thank you! And yes, it is incredibly tough, they move and stuff and sometimes they notice you and it's awkward. I'll definitely take your advice re: the painting. At first I liked the solid purple and yellow, but splashes of other colour, even subtly, will bring more depth into it I think. I assure you my bugging you to update is an entirely selfish endeavour.

CarbonBased: Heyy, glad to see you back! And yeah, the jellyscape needs some sharpening up. I'd say it's maybe a little over half done, I still want to spend a while on it. I totally get being busy with non-art - my updates have been noticeably scant lately. Life happens, sadly. I hope you at least keep drawing a little bit!

***

Spent about 5-10 minutes each on these. Small haul. Gonna tackle that painting again soon.

It is hard to reconcile wanting to be an artist with also being a thing that needs sleep. I think there's a species of dolphin who only sleeps with half of its brain at a time, meaning it can just keep moving constantly. Why can't that at least be an option for humans?

[littlebones]

Some more stuff for Spartan Camp (scribble poses!). I won't be updating again until Sunday or Monday, since I'll be out of the province. But I will be drawing, and I'll scan as soon as I get home.

[littlebones]

Good weekend! Haven't scanned the stuff yet, but here's some fun crud I drew.

[littlebones]

Dump. 3 minutes each. Super unimpressed you guys.

[littlebones]

bluck

[littlebones]

Man, I can't wait until I'm skilled enough so that my random cathartic scribblings are actually neat and evocative instead of just plain ol' sad.

Anyway, here's some stuff I've done over the past week that I'm only scanning and posting today.

35 days since I last went without drawing!

[littlebones]

Bridgman stuff and imagination stuff.

[Psychobuddy]

This last batch of pen drawing is great. Good studies all around. By the way, I just wanted to drop in and say, whenever I see the title of your SB, it always inspires me to just sit down and work a little harder. So thanks for that. ^_^

[Meps]

Great Bridgman studies! The faceless guy from post #172 is looking good in terms of lighting and values so far--it'd be cool to see it rendered a bit farther. You could use those reddish tones in your background to add some really good color variation Keep going!

[littlebones]

Psychotime: Thanks! I'm glad you find the quote so inspiring. I love it, too. Just the right kind of encouragement.

Meps: Thanks! Here's some more! I might work some more on faceless person, even though it was just a one-off paint vomit. I didn't think there'd be much worth keeping.

***

Some more Bridgman. I love the wiggly freedom of his lines, which is a fun challenge to try and achieve in pen. (I cheat - it's over non photo blue pencil.)

[Clur]

I couldn't tell those studies were drawn over pencil - the pens lines have a lot of strength all on their own. And the studies themselves look great, you've managed to capture some of the power of Bridgman's drawings.

[blu01]

Try to draw your own hands from life. You can apply your knowledge from Bridgman studies (I think you can add something which you like on Bridgman hands to your life drawings). Studies look great.

[littlebones]

Clur: What an awesomely nice thing to say, thank you!

blu01: Done and done. Thanks!

***

Hands and cats from reference, silly poses from imagination.

Edit: oh my god he literally has two left feet ahahahaha