Kat's sketchbook - And The Journey Continues

[Vyliss]

I've lurked here for long enough I think :) Even though I think my stuff sucks, I'll put up a part of my sketchbook in the hopes of getting some constructive criticism. I don't think I have gotten any helpful feedback on much of my work, so I really look forward to hearing something.

I know I have lots of improve on and am working at it everyday to better my skills. Hopefully if I'm not too embarrassed or lazy I'll update this post as often as I can.

:)

[Vyliss]

more stuff

[Vyliss]

and some more stuff :P i'm too lazy to scan stuff in as you can see. My printer and scanner share one plug :/

[Vyliss]

colouring practice

[MyOrangeHat]

Nice perspective stuff in your first post. And I like the portrait in your last post. But her face seems to be kind of floating a bit. I think maybe it's that the rest of her especially her neck is so out of focus. Maybe a little more detail on the neck would fix it. Right now it's distracting from a really pretty piece.

Keep posting. I'll check back! :D

[Coinpurse]

keep up with the Life studies, hit 'em up hard and fast!
Some cool stuff in here, but no need to slow down :D

[Vyliss]

yay some replies! thanks guys :)

[Vyliss]

Here's a colour study I did a while ago. Haven't done anything in colour since as I'm just concentrating on line and tone atm.

I found with this one I still had to use Photoshop's auto contrast (or one of those auto settings) to really make the image pop so my colours are still too flat >< I have a hard time not been scared to use the right colours I think. Anyway that's why I'm working my way up to it now so it's one less thing to worry about.

[JSpayde]

Thanks for the advice Vyliss. The cylinders are starting to get old and I'm trying my best to add what anatomy I at least partially know.

Love your females mostly, and that knight with the sword (looks like colored pencil) is really nice

[Eon]

Very nice sketchbook so far! Your observation and perspective skills are strong. Your imaginary construction is good but can be awkward at times, especially in the head department. Definitely getting somewhere awesome in a little while.

Do I recognize some Dean Yeagle? :)

Cool artwork. Keep at it!

[Vyliss]

an update. Just some head and gesture studies. Was fun to do and it really helped making those 2nd lots of heads without reference.

[Vyliss]

an attempt at a line type drawing. Might colour it later when I get to that. No ref.

[Viking Raider]

I'm liking your SB so far! I especially like the portrait of the woman (elf?) with the white hair about halfway down. Your line drawings are looking better, especially the last one. My only crit is try to experiment with line thickness. When every line is the same thickness, it makes the image flat. Save the thicker lines for parts that are overlapping or in front of something (the folded forearm). Just my .02...not that I'm an expert or anything!

VR

[Vyliss]

Viking Raider: Yea the first thing I tried was varying line thicknesses. But I thought it just didn't look good, I'm just a newb at it probably.

[Vyliss]

I like this pic except for her left hand (right for us). I know it's short and I need to fix it, I just can't be bothered right now.

[Vyliss]

This is for a Uni assignment. I guess Dean Yeagle has had some influence on me hehe, but can't help it, these are fun to do.

[Crane]

hey, some sweet stuff kicking it around here, i see alot of improvement already, and you certainly seem to have a good handle on digital painting, so jealous! lol what program do you use?

keep up the good work :sungod:

[Vyliss]

frogSweat : Thanks :) I use Photoshop, I think I'm more confortable sketching digitally than traditional just because I can erase an infinite amount of times and not ruin the paper, also the resizing tool is really helpful :)

Some new stuff, trying to get into tone now.
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Trying to do 2 light sources, not sure if it fits the picture though.
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My fire chick painstakingly redone in Illustrator and then painted. It needs to have only 3 colours but oh well it's ok I guess.

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[Vyliss]

here's the painted version of my fire girl
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[Jamesy]

I can definitely see an improvement just over the last few months. Your digitals are quite good too. I think it's weird that the digital sketching comes easier for you than regular pencil sketching. Do you have your pen sensitivity on (I probably have no clue what I'm talking about when it comes to digital)? It might be easier to practice with a pencil to improve the line quality of your pieces. Drawing from life also helps a lot in that department too.

Your characters are also looking more believable as well since the anatomy and the attention to how things are worn on the figure are getting better. Keep posting!

[Vyliss]

Jamesy: yea I always have it on both flow and opacity. I know I need to work on my line, it's kind of embarassing. Even when using pen/ink I'm still very sketchy with it, I don't know if that's normal. The main reason I've just been sketching digitally now is because it's so much quicker getting it on the computer and on the net. If I draw on paper usually I just won't be bothered scanning it in and such (also cos my scanner isn't compatible with vista now that I've upgraded so it makes it that much more annoying). I do try to life draw as much as I can and that helps with line and stuff, I really love the quick 2-5 min gestures more than anything else, it keeps things interesting and fun.

[Soja]

Hey Vyliss!!

Welcome to the SSG! So well that's my first post in ur sb! Well keep it short this time cause it's already pretty late. But well i have a quick look through!
But first thanks for the nice post in my sb!! Made my day!!
Man ur stuff is pretty good! Ur digital stuff is damn good! U setting the standards pretty high for our ssg =)!! That's excellent!
As Jamesy said u should do lot of life drawing. Try to do some gestures drawing everyday where ever u go. That will help u to get more confidence for ur lines.
Keep at it!! Good night

[Rabbi Satan]

Are you kidding my Vyliss? Your stuff is great, loads loads better than mine.

I especially love your female figures, their poses are quite dynamic and realistic. Very well done :)

[Vyliss]

something different than my usual stuff for this update. Some still life value studies.
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Some illustrations I did for uni, I'm not greatest with environments but I tried and I learned a great deal about colour/value as well.
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[daestwen]

Oooh, i like the heeled shoe a lot.

I'm kind of at school, so not a lot of time to comment/crit, I'll have more worthwhile things to say later. Just thought I'd come and drop by. :)

[katsgod]

Very cool work. I like your stuff alot.

[Soja]

Hey Kat!

Nice update!
I like the shoe! Value and the mood is good!!
Also the one with the tree has some nice colors. Dont know if u should take the bright lighted ground a bit back some how it's toooo white takes the attention from the tree. And is there something flying infront of the tree or does it belong to the tree!
The one with the budda is quite nice too! Maybe the skin color is a bit to reddish but may bur intention wasn to get a skin color? Well and the fett and hands look bit weird. The big toe looks bit flat on the top!
Hope i could help u a little!!
keep at it!!

[Vyliss]

Thanks Soja, yea I know the guy in the buddha pic is so crap, I did it really quick cos I just wanted to say it's finished lol
I had the hardest time with colour in the tree pic but that's why I did a bunch of environment colour studies after that.
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I did these fast so they're not that great but the aim was to get the colours right. Man it's so hard not to use that eye dropper tool to cheat lol

And here are some more value studies of people from reference.
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[Rabbi Satan]

I love the 1st, 3rd and 4th environments in the first picture, very crisp clear quality, as well as the 2nd picture of the girl (Is it one of the Olsen Twins perchance? If so, very good work on capturing the likeness of the subject, I still can't do that to save my life, with portraits.).

Always pleasant to see you sb Vyliss, but it needs more pencil portraits of women, which you're quite good at (I'm currently drawing portraits from www.femalefaces.com, and they look NOTHING like the originals :( oh well, more practice I guess, onward ho!).

And also, how do you get the attachments to show up in the main body of the post, rather than at the end?

[Soja]

Already told u on Msn that i really love the environment studies! Do more of them!
Really like the first one the mood and colors are great! and the Value studies are also great! keep it comin!!
Done any Character today??

[Jamesy]

Hey, Vyliss, I didn't realize you updated a couple times from the last time I viewed your sketchbook. Your environments are looking very nice, and I think they're helping you with more than just the colors (depth, placement, and everything else). It's something I plan to do as well during the spring break. That sucks with the scanner, I have to walk to the computer lab every time I want to scan something because I can't figure out why mine doesn't work. With that said, I still can't wait until you post more pencils!

[Vyliss]

woohoo, second page finally!

Rabbi Satan :) thanks, not olsen twins though hehe, just some random girl from a modelling website. I had a hard time getting a likeness too. With attachments, after I upload my images with manage attachment, you go to the Attachment button which is next to the smilie face. Then you select the attachment you want to include in your text.

Soja hehe surprised ppl like those environments, I thought they weren't as good as other people's that I saw. They're kind of noob, but I had fun doing them and they were just quick studies. The first one I did took a bit more time because it was more elaborate and the colours were more intersting I guess. It's a study of one of James Paicks work.

Jamesy Yea I agree on the environment studies. I had to scan my stuff at uni today too. I have some life drawings that I scanned so you can see my recent crappy pencil drawings :P

Here's my crap looking life drawings I did this week

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Rest are sketches I did at uni or at a shopping centre. The shopping centre ones kind of sucks cos no one stopped for more than 2 seconds and it was harrrrrrd.

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And here is some gesture drawings done from reference:
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Gesture drawings from imagination. These took longer and that's why I didn't do as many, still need some more work on them :/
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[Quinn Simoes]

Vyliss,

You have a great SB going here, I don't see any "crap" drawings here, what I do see is allot of hard work and practicing. Your latest set of gesture drawings turned out really nice. Keep at it!

Quinn

[Jamesy]

I really like the life drawings, no matter how scribblely they look. It shows that you're working really hard towards getting better at the human form. You've probably been to a ton of life sessions and all and you've probably tried this method already, but try to do the quick 1-3 min poses on larger sheets of paper, that way you the whole arm movement going. One tends to "feel" the form more with this method (sorry if this sounds repititive). Those smaller gesture drawings from reference and imagination are also very interesting studies. It shows that you have a pretty firm grasp with balance, proportions, and movement of the form, which is something that I still struggle with. Well, I can't wait to see more, so keep postin!

[cout<mecha]

Nice works here Kat! You have good facility with your subject matter solid and complete. Also in some works you show good details. One thing to work on is you line of action in your originals not neccarily your figures.

[Vyliss]

Quinn Simoes thanks :)

Jamesy Yea usually at life drawing I use bigger paper but last time I only had an A4 size sketchbook with me. Thanks about the gesture drawings :)

cout<mecha That's one thing I don't 'get'. I rarely can come up with a pose that goes with a line of action, so I don't really start with one usually. I don't know, I find it hard to imagine a pose with one. It makes some poses weird and takes me longer to come up with where legs and arms should go but yea.

An update, did a bunch of skull/head studies.

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Attempted to do some thumbnail sillouettes, am quite bad at it :(

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A character I started then grave up on very quickly lol, I don't know, it's kind of boring.

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Tried to redesign Nariko (heavenly sword chick), obviously very bad designs lol but still good for learning. Also tried to do poses where the character has both feet firmly on the ground but you can feel some weight shift as well. Always found those really challenging so wanted to practice some.

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Skeleton study that I quickly grew bored of :)

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Fabric study. Definitely improved from first to last one hehe. The coloured one was hardest but it turned out better than I thought.

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[EvilBunny]

Wow, nice sketchbook. Liking your studies, gestures, as well as digital pieces. Shows me that I have a long way to go and more pages of studies to do. Almost feels like Australia is the place with the good artists..

[daestwen]

Niiice, I really like the fabric study. I think the coloured one came out great. Also, the portrait from reference on the previous page is very nice.

I could offer some critiques on the redesigned Nariko, mostly from a 'could she actually move in this and manage not to flash everyone' stand point, but I think you're already well aware. :P

[Soja]

Hey Vyliss!!! U workin hard! And it's looking good!!
Love ur gesture drawings and ur drapery studies!!
Really good!
About the redesign of Nariko, why dont u try to go another direction with the design? i mean colors or make her more modern or give her some other kind of clothe more european style or western? but try to keep her character??? i dont know just an stupid idea!
But keep up the good work! REally likin it!!

[MyOrangeHat]

WOW! Way to rock the studies lately. You're making me feel lazy. Your stuff is looking good and I really liked the color studies you did of the landscapes.

[Jamesy]

Wow, lot of stuff this time! I think that redesigning of a character idea is a great one. Maybe I should try that too, since I seem to lack design skills in that area. The drapery studies are very nice, with the second grey one being my favorite (more tonal range than the other two). If I'm seeing the light source correctly, I think the yellow one could be darker in some areas. Other than that, keep up the good work!!

[Vyliss]

EvilBunny haha, thanks, lol that's a first, Australia is usually forgotten...

daestwen thanks and yea nariko design is pretty bad

Soja Good idea about redesigning Nariko! I think I'll do that :)

MyOrangeHat Thanks and if you're feeling lazy, get off here and get to drawing!

Jamesy I'm lacking design skills too which is the source of most of my frustrations lately.

Ok to next batch of drawings, mostly anatomy/gesture and tone this time.

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Last one on tone is a work in progress, reference pic used obviously.

[Soja]

WOW!!
Really nice studies!! And im lookin forward to see the finish one of the last pic!
Great! No critiques! Just keep doin it!

[OYO!]

Hey Katie, I dont have much time to give you some good critics now but I just wanted to say seriously you don't have anything to be ashamed of, you've already progressed a lot if you compare your first and last sketch or studies in this SB. So as I told you yesterday before going to lifedrawing, I know what you re going through, its normal, even marko went through that so stop winging :) and keep practising, there s no other secret. :)

oyo

[fionkell]

Hey there novocastrian :p You look like you've been hell busy and improvement is definitely showing, particularly your anatomy. Try some tone studies with a bit more on the blocky large shapes as opposed to finer details, can't think of anything else since there's better advice from others a few posts up heh.

Great work!

[Rabbi Satan]

Nice work Katie :)

I especially like the 4th in the series, the various poses with the female. Did you use a reference/model for this? If so, from which source? Posemaniacs?

You'll have to help me with my digital painting skills, mine are currently abysmal.

Anyway, I'm currently in Thailand, will try to get back to Hong Kong soon to start drawing on the computer again.

[Maridius]

That painting is really stunning. I had to slow down and take a nice long look at it and I can't wait until it's complete! It really hits you emotionally, especially the kneeling man, who suggests to me a gladiator who's barely survived the arena fight and is bearing the mixture of pain and relief as his master pours water over his wounds. Master because of the somewhat distant look on the standing man's face, as if this is routine maintainance. Wonderful work!

[Vyliss]

Soja - Thanks soja, i will when I have more time!

OYO! - hehe, I know

iolarnula - :) thanks, yea that's a good idea, might try that.

Rabbi Satan - Hey thanks :), I used references from Characterdesign.com

Maridius - hey Maridius, I used a photo reference but it's a nice photo I agree.

It's been a while since I've updated, mainly due to laziness, also havent gotten time to draw as much as previous weeks due to uni assignments. Anyway I have holidays for 2 weeks and I have a bunch of sketches to scan in still. Here are some studies from the last 2 weeks

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Some of these are pretty bad but still fun to experiment
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Something for a kids magazine. Thanks Adam (Form) for your help on this one
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[Maridius]

Don't know what to say except keep on drawing AND post more often! You and the entire SSG are more advanced than me so I think I'll start getting very repetitive--I'll function more as a cheerleader for now! Go out again to that mall and sketch more hapless shoppers. You certainly represented a lot of body types in your last 'live' drawing post!

[Jamesy]

Yay! Another Vyliss update! It's been awhile, but it looks like you've been working hard as the studies are looking good and everything. Are you taking a lot of non-art classes in school? Lucky for me all my classes are art-related (except for table tennis class, lol). Also, are you still working on that one piece you showed as a wip before this last post?

[Vyliss]

Art dump :P

[Vyliss]

I've slacked a bit I think haha, work and Uni is taking a fair bit of my time now, but anyway no excuses! I'll try to get back to the studies. I really miss them.

Last art dump was mainly sketches I did on the train to work or just scribbles while I was out.

Maridius - Thanks :) We all need some encouraging once in a while

Jamesy - Well 2 of the classes I have is non-art related (theory). I've freed up some of my time now so I really want to get back to the studies, only 4 more weeks of uni left also so I'll be able to draw more.

Here are a couple of value studies I did today.
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[Sickbrush]

Keep doing what you're doing, keep drawing what you're drawing + experiments and explorations in any forms of visual arts.
I believe you're on the right track :) G'luck

[Freshlysqueezed]

you got some crazy progress there! stick to it!! (damn i feel bad about my self for being suck lol)

[Call0ps]

looking good girl! i love the gestures, and i demand more of those ! MOREE!!!! ^^

[shamandalie]

Hello i am now in your SSG! :P I see great potential, you seem to be able to paint well. But no update? UPDATEE!!! Really would love to see moreeee!!!

[Vyliss]

I've been putting off coming here to update anything because well... I only being drawing sporadically for the last 2-3 years and nothing I feel that great about updating...

Anyway, I've decided to finally get back to drawing/painting and pursuing my passion again! I hope to get enough time in my day to update this daily, but if not daily, then weekly.

Okay, I'm going to dig up some of the art I haven't got to share with you guys, it's not much but since moving house like twice, I need to find a lot of the stuff again.

[LtPlissken]

Wow, nice comeback after three years.
You got some very nice stylized paintings in here.
Will try to follow from now on.

[Little-Maiden]

Welcome to the Study group! Always great to see more in there. Loving your SB. Welcome back :)!

[pixel cheetah]

That apple and the lemon are fantastic! Keep it up!

[thisby]

Just stopping by to give your sketchbook some love :) I love love your recent nudes and the fruit studies. I wish I was more skilled so I could give you some good constructive feedback but I think I'm just a fan girl... eep (keep going! there, some good advice :p)

[Vyliss]

@LtPlissken Thanks.. yea it has been a while hehe

@Little-Maiden Thanks!

@pixel cheetah Thanks, I've been trying to draw more from life.. and it's so much harder than a photo!

@thisby Hehe, thanks and I will!

Ok, here's another art dump. I've started my personal project of drawing 100 heads, I hope I don't get sick of it anytime soon lol. Also some gesture drawings and drawings from imagination.

[Kerah]

The women are gorgeous and pretty much everything else!
Did I say the women are gorgeous?

[MBK]

Badass sketchbook you have here!

I completely relate to that whole drawing sporadically over long periods of time and not feeling all that excited about much of it....thing. But I gotta say, your work is fantastic. You are definitely on the right path here.

Your figures are showing a solid sense of form and those still life paintings are looking awesome!

All these figure poses from imagination are firing me up to get back to work lol

If I had to point out something i'd say a few of the heads in this latest update could use some darker darks to really pop the value range, but other than that its all looking damn good.

Anyways, keep it up! Can't wait to see the next upload.

[Clipper]

I love the portraits. Great work.

[Vyliss]

Some studies I did. The onions were from real life and they were pretty challenging.. the head is another one from the 100 heads exercise. Was hard to get the likeness of this one (can anyone guess who it is? probably not...)

Anyway, will need to do a personal piece or more stuff from imagination after all these studies :)

[Kungfoowiz]

Very good work here, think your faces are just awesome tbh. Good luck with the remaining heads in your challenge. =) Really liked the Suckerpunch study too =) Mmm.. lull.. think you're well on your way tbh, maybe just work on what you think are some of your weaker points.. Thank you for inspiring me =)

[Clipper]

I know that actress her name just slips my mind, if it were a multiple choice I'd get it. :T

Nice onions.

[metalhead3]

I know that actress her name just slips my mind, if it were a multiple choice I'd get it. :T

Nice onions.

maybe its Amanda Seyfried? The girl from mamma mia :p Weather I'm wrong or right, its still a beautiful portrait :)

[Vyliss]

maybe its Amanda Seyfried? The girl from mamma mia :p Weather I'm wrong or right, its still a beautiful portrait :)

Bingo! :) Yea it is her. But anyway, my portrait makes her look old for some reason.