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[Carrie Sprod]

I am going to attempt to update this with some of my sketches regularly.

I am looking for any crits or helpful advice that people can offer! If you are considering commenting on my scribbles, please don't be afraid to pull them apart. I still have a lot to improve on and learn.
There is some absolutely fantastic work on this site; I hope to learn a lot from posting here.

I am currently studying an Illustration degree in Australia, in my final year.


I am attempting to learn how to digital paint, any pointers would be fantastic!
Below is a quick sketch I did recently at a cafe that I am attempting to digitally paint up.


Progress after a couple of hours of messing about in Corel Painter


Got some critiques on it (fix the stomach and downsize the headdress), below is with the adjustments. Not sure if it has lost something, going to ponder it some more before I render it up.



Went along to a 'armoured' life drawing session the other day, here are some of the sketches I came up with. Most of the poses were for about 10mins.




Merged some of the sketches into a makeshift fight scene;

[Carrie Sprod]

Here is some more stuff I have been working on -
Basic composition studies for some illustrations.









Getting a bit stuck on the below image -
Attempting to illustrate a Lovecraft story, can’t seem to get this race design right.
I think I need to go practice my basics for a bit and start over.

[Carrie Sprod]

Bubbles!
Quick environment scribble

[David Keen]

Great start for your sketchbook! Your blue girl image is really coming along but I think because the headdress is so large and covers quite a lot of the figure you may end up in that situation where you're painting the figure in pieces around the headdress which can be harder. Don't be afraid to create one layer for her and get everything resolved and working the way you'd like and then put your headdress on another layer over the top. Also are you using reference for that image or working out a figure in your head? Doing figure work in your head can be ok especially if you're going for a stylised look but there is nothing wrong with finding a photo and getting all the anatomy and proportions correct, it can also be great to jump up in front of a mirror and do the pose yourself and really understand how the figure is feeling.

The armoured life drawing sketches are awesome! You got some pretty resolved drawings done for 10 minute poses. Good proportion and value in all the sketches.

Your thumbnails are looking good, just keep on churning them out! Don't be afraid use a really dark black like you did in your bubbles environment, it makes that sketch look much more solid than the others.

Great start, keep it up!

[Carrie Sprod]

Awesome, cheers for the comment!
Yeah I neglected to use reference at all in my blue girl sketch. I like your suggestion of treating the girl first and then the headress over the top in seperate layers, I think it will fix a lot of the issues - I will try it out.


Small progress on environment sketch:


Attempt at animating - was lots of fun to do! Looking forward to trying something more interesting.


And heres some stuff from my actual sketchbook. Most from imagination, some images copied from artsyposes.com, and a couple of studies of my hand.
Sorry for the writing on some of them, I use my sketchbook to take notes in lectures.

[Trixtar]

Very cool sketches! -And I also like your handwriting

[Carrie Sprod]

Thankyou Trixtar!

Here are some more sketches from armoured life drawing. I was pretty tired and feel like I didnt put my best in this week, but oh well!

[David Keen]

Some awesome sketches here, especially the last seated pose on the "throne". Fun night, I'm looking forward to having another go sometime soon.

[Carrie Sprod]

Thanks Ebersol =]


Just started work on a digital sketch for fun, and to experiment with some more tools. Did a really rough thing then tried painting over it a little to fix up some of the design flaws. Kind of liking how it’s going, having fun just messing about with it. Any comments would be great!

[Trixtar]

Hopefully you'll keep working on that last piece?
-Because I'm kind of excited to see where it's going

I don't know how you did her mask, but it seems almost real to me... This is cool, I like it!

[Carrie Sprod]

Thanks Trixtar, I will try and stick with this image for a while. I’m not very good at finishing things off, I always seem to move on to a new image as soon as I have worked out where an image is headed! It’s a very bad habit.

Still trying to tweak the composition and tones a bit more before I move onto details - not sure about where I have the girl sitting on the page =/

[DatBlackguy]

cool artwork man

[Carrie Sprod]

Here is a character idea I have been working on a little bit today. Still might take it a completely different direction.. any opinion or advice on this one would be fantastic! I need all the help I can get.

[Carrie Sprod]

Bit more work on the girl. not sure if i should change her face completely, or keep doing small changes as below..

[Zporpnitteg]

Good stuff! Keep on doing it and you will be great!

[JuliusObviousMagnus]

Nice sketches you've got. And that little animation is really cool, hah

As for digital, I'm hardly an expert myself but working in a few layers makes things easier both for experimenting with different solutions, and correcting any possible problems that you might encounter. Even some very basic messing around with opacity, blending modes and color correction can give surprisingly good results. It's not really a revolutionary piece of advice, it's more about finding a method of work that suits you best. The best thing with digital is that you can rarely screw things up beyond repair, so just mess around and see what works

And I completely understand what you mean about abandoning a piece just after setting it up...something that I've got to change as well, hah. Having a done image in my mind is hardly the same as having it done on paper...

[blue7203]

With the first post, the sketch you did is super awesome, but when you painted it I think it lost in a sense the real "essence" of the sketch. Maybe it was on purpose, I don't know, but in my opinion there's something more graceful and animalistic in the sketch that wasn't captured in the painted ones. But you've got some really nice stuff

[Carrie Sprod]

Zporpnitteg: Thankyou! =D

JuliusObviousMagnus: Thanks ^^ I am experimenting a bit more with the digital programs every time I use them, slowly getting used to how to use layers effectively. Its definitely hard to mess up beyond repair, I am loving Photoshop for thumbnails, can block in stuff really fast and change it drastically without risk of going through the paper etc. Its just taking a lot of getting used to, I miss the smell of inks and paint and getting a bit messy as I work. I hope to master digital so it can go hand in hand with the traditional skills I am more used to working with.

blue7203: Yeah your right, I am finding it hard to translate sketches into digital paintings successfully. I definitely find it easier to work in biro, but its not exactly the most professional looking medium!! I was thinking maybe its just the skull that needs more detailing and work on as it is basically just blocked in, but I think there might be more issues in the basic paint up, a lot of the flow of the hair has been lost. I will need to go back and rework it before I start rendering it! It shall go onto the list of 'things to do'



Here's another test animation thing I did. This time entirely in Adobe Flash - I miss the textures of Photoshop!!




And here's some more scribbling for the girl character. Still cant quite decide exactly how she will look.

[Carrie Sprod]

Pirate concept sketch:

[Carrie Sprod]

Quick illustration of the girl character in a scene

[Carrie Sprod]

Quick sketch;





And an attempt at a character turnaround for a children's book:

[Carrie Sprod]

Something I started for fun. I have to draw male pirates for a children's book cover for my illustration work, needed to get a female pirate out of my system instead though!
Shes not even half finished, forgive the roughness. Uploading an earlier and later stage of the sketch.

[Carrie Sprod]

Decided to indulge and do something with ink and paint for a change! Feel like all I have been doing lately is staring at a screen.
Here is one of the things I came up with. Will post more later

[Okkoto]

That's a pretty cool concept

[David Keen]

You've been churning work out since I checked in last!! Some great stuff happening in the last few posts, I especially like the really rough version of the female pirate. There is so much energy in the piece at this stage and I feel like your feelings of inspiration come through very clearly. I also really like the traditional piece you put up last, there are a few issues with anatomy but they'd easily be fixed by using reference for the pose. It's hard to shoot that stuff yourself, but always worth it.

I have a short day on Friday this week and should be pretty energetic to go to life drawing if your workload permits. How're you going with everything as we near the end of the semester?

[Carrie Sprod]

Okkoto - Thankyou!

Eb - Yeah I'm really lazy about the reference thing!! I think I am always scared it will limit my idea. Need to get over that though, or learn my anatomy better!
Unfortunately I cant make it to life drawing this week, have a housewarming to go to that I really cant miss. Haven't been to life drawing in so long though, feel like I am missing out! Maybe next week?
The uni workload is insane at the moment. Way more than in past years. Hows it all going for yourself?


Anyway, here's something I have been mucking around with in photoshop. Trying to experiment with whats possible to do with the animation tools - seems pretty limitless! If only my time was limitless as well..

[Carrie Sprod]

About time I posted an update of what I've been doing since my last post.

Crits, as always, would be amazing!

[Carrie Sprod]

Messing about in my journal:

[FROZ3N]

Those enviros are coming along nicely. I enjoy your stuff . Its pretty cool, great job for your first digi stuff, staring at a screen and drawing on ice takes a while to get used to. (Im with ya)
keep pushing!