Chisa's Happy Place - updated 25 June

[LoTekK]

You've got some nice line flow in those pose studies. The ref'd portrait is looking pretty good (hatching's fun, innit? ). I would push the values more, though. The eyes might be a tad far apart; I think her right eye might be a little too far from her nose. Good stuff, though! More, please.

[Dile_]

Nice face studie!
what can i more say,
great work! keep it up!!

[~Faust~]

Nice face, indeed and not animeish at all, which is first of all a godd thing in my book .
But watch your shading woman! Hair is something that is very hard to shade if you only see it as a gathering of hairstrings. It's a mass, a form, with planes and mouldings. And therefore reflections. Plus you got the values twisted up. The hair in the original is actually much darker than the skin of the face. You should do a setup before you draw somethng from ref.

If you want to practice shading I'd recomment you lay the pencils aside and begin with pens. There you'll see that shading is more than just setting as much stains on the paper until an area is darker. It's about where you put the lines and how you do it in order to create the illusion of light. Crosshatching will bring you there fast and pens are the best things to practice crosshatching. If you pick up the pancils again, you'll have much more thought of the lines and the effects you want to obtain. That's more or less the process I've been through and I kind of like my pencil shading right now

[HankTol]

Chisa, your stuff is really great. Thanks for the C&C in my sketchbook. I'm returning the favor.

Your stuff looks really good. Your on the right track, trying to tighten up your skills in realism. Grounding in the fundamentals is essential in any kind of stylised work, like anime.

Also great job on the Loomis stuff. Try to get your hands on Head and Hands, too. It's floating around the Web somewhere. In my opinion, it's not nearly as helpful as For All It's Worth is, but there's still a lot of good stuff.

For working on your shading: You might hate this, but my advice is to set up some still lives with losts of simple shapes and strong directional lighting, and draw, draw, draw. Any kind of drawing from life will help your hand and your understanding of light. Switching up techniques might be helpful as well for your understanding of light and shadow. Try some charcoal reduction drawings. For me, "carving" the lights out from the darkness somehow felt more intuitive, and was a great insight.

That's it for now, your stuff looks great. Keep it up!

[Dile_]

ehm.. Update ??
I want an update
I want an update
well make sure to post something ubercool soon, very soon!

[Dile_]

ehm.. Update ??
I want an update
I want an update
well make sure to post something ubercool soon, very soon!

[~Faust~]

Didn't you want to, like, update or something? Not to put any pressure on you

[Chisa]

Sorry for the long break guys! I've been catching up on a few urgent things, as well as generally being lazy Hopefully I can start maintaining a better balance.

Now to respond to these oldish comments

LoTekK: Thanks! I'm still getting the hang of the values thing, and shading itself, so I can imagine its pretty off right now. Another thing I'll have to look into a little more closely.

Dile: Yayy thanks for the support!

Faust: Ahh you got me, I have no idea how to shade hair so that its even vaguely realistic, I've always been able to treat it as masses with the cel-style colouring I'm used to. I wasn't actually going to attempt shading the hair in that portrait at all, but decided to put some strands in at the last minute. Any tips on making hair look more realistic? Hrmmm your pen method seems to make sense... I'll have to give it a shot.

HankTol: Thanks! I have the heads and hands book too, but haven't touched it yet. I'm having a lot of difficulty with facial anatomy at the moment though, so I'll probably start flicking through it soon. You're probably right about practicing shading simple shapes, I haven't really got the basics of it down yet so it would probably help, even if it isn't as interesting as drawing people. I don't actually know what charcoal reduction is... must google it...

Now for an actual update!


Just more copies of the gestures from Loomis... I'm sloooowly working my way through it. I'll move on to the mannikin frame thing next.



I found this great book in the newsagent by some photography magazine, full of nude photography. I was a bit disappointed that although it said it was supposed to be of 'average, normal Australians in their homes' I didn't see a single larger woman or man, no one over thirty, and there was a large number of models. Definitely not the epitome of your average Australian, but the photos are nicely done and very useful!

Here's a sketch I did using one of the photos as a reference


A lot of mistakes now that I look at it again... I still need to work on shading and anatomy.

Some more figures referenced from that book... got a little discouraged from shading, so just did some quick outlines.



Phew. Now off to catch up on commenting on everyone's pages @_@

[Dile_]

that was a tiny update for being away for 12 -13 days...
but it was a good one
keep it up Chisa!

[LoTekK]

Hey, nice update. The Loomis gestures are looking good, but I'm really liking the last page of figures. The bottom right figure, though, doesn't show the same care that you've given the other three (which look great). The shaded figure looks good, but you've given her practically the same value throughout, which is flattening the piece quite a bit. Keep at it, though, just push the variation more.

[Party Butt]

You really make improvements. Nice Stuff in your last post.
But the shading(I hope its the right word if not the shadows..hmm) of the girl are a bit monoton.Try to make more contrast and being a bit cleaner.
I´m surprised how strong the difference between your anime stuff and the more realistic stuff is.

[Bowlin]

That last pic on your first day post... awesome colors. The drawing of the girl with loomis proportions... the rib cage on the loomis proportions is way too big for that girl. ... Keep up the good drawing. The manikin frames look better and better for ya.

[Denysiuk]

I think, that good idea is to put some guide lines (those black and especially red ones). It helps you to get good proportions, and you are not drawing better or worser, but as you can draw (technical). Put some circle forms to know where the body must have that shape. And finally when you are shading make it WITH FORM. If you have for example let, you can not shade it with straight and parallel lines. You MUST make curves (I've showed you the example) When you make that, picture looks way more natural, and we see it as 3D not 2D... it must have form not be flat...
Cheers

[Chisa]

Well, this is one of the things I worked on during my 'break'. It was a commission, and its a chibi, and I'm not expecting to get a good reaction here because the anatomy and such is terrible! But um... I'll post it here so I can reply to everyone without making a no-picture post



Dile: Haha I know, I haven't been sketching at all these past two weeks, and I just did all those today. I've been so slack! I've finished up a bunch of things that needed doing last week though, so I should have more time from now on.

LoTekK: Thankyou! Although it was just copied straight from Loomis. Yeah, I was getting bored of figures by the last one, and just wanted to finish it quickly so I could move on. The shading was hard on the woman because the lighting in the photo wasn't very distinct, although I guess I should learn to read it better or pick better references in the future.

Party Butt: Heya, thanks for dropping by! Good to see someone thinks I'm improving! Yes, my shading is terrible... I think that's what I'll concentrate on this week. I was suprised at the contrast at first too... I'm used to being a fairly decent anime artist, but now I'm finding myself starting from the bottom again with the realistic stuff. Studying this will complement my stylised work in the end and hopefully get me taken more seriously though, so its all for the best.

Bowlin: Thanks! I haven't done something like that in a long time... I've been lazy and got stuck on quick chibis >.< Hopefully once I've got my skills up I'll come back with some more stuff like that, only better!

Denysiuk: Woo, thanks so much for the paintover! They always help me a lot. I do those frames when I'm doing stuff from imagination, but tend to get lazy with it when drawing from a reference. I'll remember to use it next time, I always end up having trouble with proportions or bits hanging off the page so that should definitely help. The shading with form makes sense... it felt wrong when I was doing it, but I didn't know how to make it any better. Shading seems to be something I really need to look into properly. I'm still on that 'colour all in the same direction' primary school mentality.

Thanks everyone! I'm really feeing the love, its such a great inspiration to keep working. I'll try update more often from now on!

[~Faust~]

Why wouldn't we love that chibi? It's soooooo cute! I like anime, if it looks good. Such as this one.

[katsgod]

Nice sketch work...keep them coming.

[Chichigo]

Whoooowheeee. That chibi gave me a shock, its adorable, and damn, can you use photoshop. If only you were in toronto, there's a mascot contest for Anime North (the biggest anime convention in town) and your style definitely has a chance to win.

Anatomy studies looking good, lines are getting more confident. Keep it up. To achieve more tones in your shadings (its very much all midtones right now), try a selection of pencils, I remember when i first started drawing my teachers only gave me a 2B and a 6B. But i say go for F or H for the lights and PACK UP THE DARKS.

[Denysiuk]

Wow, wow, wow... nice one! Your best artwork. Nice background, good colours, and this funny strong line around the 'person' This kind od manga/anime I like

[Dile_]

Cute stuff chisa

[Chisa]

Oh hey, so the rumours of CA being anti-anime are unfounded I guess its more the poor attitude of a lot of newbie anime artists that people object to more than the style itself?

Anyway, thanks for the positive response! I've been seeing plenty of entries for the AN mascot contest lately, and they're all incredibly good @_@ I can't stand up to the local talent for our own little convention, so I doubt I'd have much of a chance there.

Any suggestions on what kind of pencils I should buy? The newsagent I can get to easiest only had 2B and HB, but I can't actually tell the difference in darkness between them.

Okay, since I didn't get stomped on for posting anime, here's the sketch for the second of the two commissions I had to do for that character:



I actually drew this facing the other way and flipped it in Photoshop after a last minute decision, which is showing some problems with the head, but it doesn't seem to be as badly skewed as a lot of my work is. The commissioner has already approved it but I think I can get it looking better, especially with the pose - I'm not sure her legs and upper body are connecting properly? It's the same character as the previous chibi, and should be stylistically consistent. Any ideas?

[Recursive_End]

Cool pics
those anime ones look great ! nothing to crit on that side.
But on the realistic ones, well practice more. Even if its ugly, just do alot of em!!
anyway, keep posting, i'll keep an eye here

[Chisa]

Thanks Recursive! I think realistic work is very beautiful, its just ugly when I do it at the moment >.< Once I've finished up this last commission I'll be concentrating mostly on realism and giving anime up for a bit.

... well I went a little anime-ish on this one, its a present for a friend's bday. I used a photo reference for the face but the hair is based on her character, and I stylised the facial features a bit. I really need to study faces more, they always seem to come out a bit strange.



Also bought a set of pencils! Now I have everything from 2H to 6B, can't wait to play with them.

[~Faust~]

Hey, nice pic! Her nose has another angle than the rest of the face. Asymmetry is cool, though. But only if it was intended

[Chisa]

Unintended, unfortunately =_= I think the rest of her face was supposed to be in the same direction as the nose, but I kept adjusting things and kinda lost it.

[Dile_]

not much new stuff in here
keep update!
great new stuff however!
(muhaha, I have 1.5 week free now, so I will fill like 140 pages of crap in my SB so watch out (my "real" sketchbook) )

[Chisa]

Eep, sorry! My excuses are: graduated this week, have a driving test next week to practice for, and I found my Ranma 1/2 manga and stupidly decided to reread it all =_= I swear, its so addictive!

Got a little bit of new stuff, but all quickies. First one's gestures inspired from reading Ranma, it was supposed to be a girl who wields a giant brush and is a master of martial arts calligraphy.


Hands from reference and a guy on the bus. I wish I could have drawn his face because I found it really interesting, but I don't have the ninja sketching skills to draw people from the front discreetly.



More soon, hopefully!

[~Faust~]

I don't have the ninja sketching skills to draw people from the front discreetly.

There's no ninja skill or something like that. The only thing that prevents you from scetching other people from the front is your own fear to be catched as if you're doing something dirty. It's not dirty, it's an exercise and you don't do anybody any harm. Everytime I draw people they don't really give a shit, even if they notice, or they ignore it.

[dmitri]

...or sometimes they might find it funny and smile.
So, even if a few might get angry, there are lots of people who don't mind at all.
Go for it! It's much more fun than just the backsides!

[Dile_]

Nice life drawings
Strange, all people i draw from bus etc always have headphones on...

[gmags]

Nice improvement there chisa! I really like your anime pieces. Please post more.