14-year-old striving to improve. Updated 01/12/2010!

[snowies]

Hello. I'm Katie, and I'm currently thirteen years old.
I want to get as much feedback as possible so I can improve.


This is my first post. Nice to meet all of you. :)


Edit: I'm fourteen now. ;P

[snowies]

Did two pages today.

Anyone have any good studies they could recommend?
Especially perspective.

Sorry for crappy photos. Our scanners broken.

[snowies]

Only one page today. As the school year ends, it's getting a bit more hectic with last minute projects and such.

Oh, on the up news, I'm going to a four-week arts summer camp called Inner-Spark (or CSSSA) at Cal-arts for visual arts (painting). Hopefully, I'll learn a lot.

:)

[snowies]

Did some studies.
Sorry about not posting yesterday, I had no time.

:)

[snowies]

quick perspective thing before I go to bed.

hence it being really messy and awful.

:p

[snowies]

2 pages today.
:)

My scanner's still broken, by the way.

[snowies]

Last thing for tonight. I'm not very good at digital art, but I'm trying to improve my skills in it. Trying to do at least one thing a day, even if it's very sketchy.

I don't think I'm going to refine it any further, as it isn't supposed to be an actual piece. If you think I would learn by refining it further, then just let me know and I'll do what I can.
:)

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs19/f/2007/297/5/a/cry_1_by_bobbistock.jpg

I used this as reference. ^
I would have posted in to directly, but I was too lazy to grab the image and scale it down.

[tandy1000]

Keep going! You seem to have the right idea on what to do, just keep doing anatomy, gesture, form studies. I see some bridgeman already so that's good other artists to look up are Vilpuu, Bammes, Kevin Chen.

[Not_Deadman]

Good time to start, you got yo brain going and youre still able to learn pretty fast. You'll become great if you keep pushing yourself past your limits. Keep up the studies, writing down notes about how and why something looks and acts the way it does. Hope to see a lot more from you in the future

[Eugie]

Wow if you keep these studies up you'll be tearing it up in no time.

[Cyla]

I wish I was that good at 13...or even 21, haha. But do keep up the studies. The only thing I could even point out that isn't the obvious 'keep practicing!' is that in your second post with the drawing of the mouth with the teeth. The dental assistant in me says the teeth are slightly off, but otherwise the whole page is executed very well.

[snowies]

Thank you everyone for posting. I really appreciate it. :)


Three pages today.

[DStraX]

your stuff is pretty damn good! no way i was that good when i was your age :P
Keep posting and ask if you want some pointers, ill help if i can :)

Tim

[snowies]

DStraX: I'll have to take you up on the offer sometime. :)
---

Only one page today, which is a bit depressing, as I usually do 2 or 3 pages daily.
I had to finish a very frustrating art-heavy English project today. I was working on it from eight to five.

But, now it's done! :D

[Helltroll]

13!? Wow.
Wow.
When I was that age 4 years ago, I was producing crap, straight-on view manga people. But you've got these good color works and dedication to anatomical studies, bravo!

Keep this stuff up kid, it will pay off immensely! Don't stop here!

[vardoburrito]

You're doing anatomy studies, that's awesome. :)
Great initiative. [It took me until I was 26 :P]

Keywords that may help while doing human studies. (For me anyway)
Human body landmarks, i.e. Iliac crest, Sartorius muscle.
The brow bone is always prominent. (I think, you'll have to x2 check)
There's a whole long list, so observation and research is always a good thing. Keep a list of them, observe and practise.

http://gekos.no/art/index.php/component/option,com_idoblog/Itemid,60/id,68/task,viewpost/
'Creative Illustration' would be a nice first stop for Andrew Loomis noobs. I'm still going through it, as well as a whole heap of other artists.
'Successful drawing' covers perspective, which I think might help you out, or the very least spark a few little tidbits.
Master perspective and I think it opens up a whole wallop of freedom when it comes to art. [Just as everything else]


Keep up the studies & practise, as well as experiments on the side.

You're doing great peanut!:P
Oh, and always have a pocket sketchbook or a notepad wherever you go. It's nice to jot down sparks of ideas.

[J.R.Segura]

It's amazing! Just 13 and you're working seriously... I started to believe on drawing and became serious this year, at 20.

So, If you believe on you and don't stop drawing every day. Im sure you'll be able to do great things with art.

Keep working!

[surfandsnow]

nice stuff, what I am most impressed with is your willingness to do studies and learn at your age. Make sure that you read to though, sometimes only half of the information is conveyed through the pictures. Theirs a link in my sig to a youtube series that focuses on perspective as well as another link to a list of some of the tutorials Ive read. Also, if you want a challenge heres a very good, but very long article on perspective. http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/tech10.html Its lengthy and challenging, but theres alot of good information in it. Keep at it.

[DStraX]

hey again :) looks like youre dooing god here.

when drawing anatomy studies, dont draw anything unless you understand how it works. theres no point in just tracing without understanding it ;) also if theres a part you dont understand find more refs or ask around til you do

Tim

[QuaTronics]

hey, very nice work mate!
on the last colour painting you might want to push the values and polish the edges,
that way it will become more readable,
a sketchbook to keep an eye on =)

oh and, im also about your age, 14, =)
check out my sketchbook to:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=157691

[jhofferle]

Nice start. You will get a lot of praise because you are so young. Make sure you continue to work on your weak areas or you will get sucked into chasing compliments instead of progressing.

[snowies]

Thank you everyone for posting. I'll pay attention to everything you've said.


I haven't been able to post lately because of laziness and it being the end of the school year. That doesn't mean I haven't been drawing, though. I have a lot of pages, but as I was taking pictures of them my camera died, so I only have one on the computer.
Once I charge the cameras battery (which means finding that accursed charger) I'll post the rest of the pages I've done up.

The picture below is just a few drawings I made while sitting in the car while my mom ran various errands. They aren't supposed to be realistic, I was just playing around with styles. I don't particularly like any of them, but maybe you guys can tell what's so off about all of them? Is it because I simplified the human features too much, or just because of my artistic inexperience?
Picture quality is super awful because the camera died after I took the first shot, which was angled (skewing the upper faces features) and cutting the top heads off.

Underneath that is a quick painting I did of a reference picture (I need to go find it again)
I plan to go back in and refine the face, hands, and well, the entire thing. It's very rough. I've also realized I have a hard time painting realistic facial features, so I'll work on that this weekend.

[Krato]

dont worry if you think you are bad or anything right now you still have allot of time to improve. your 13 after all. Welcome to CA

[mike butkus]

Hi Katie, i think you have a great deal of talent! Your studies of the hands and torso are excellent. Keep drawing and painting, one day it will all come together and you'll scare your self. Great job.

[snowies]

Okay, so I thought my camera's battery had just run out, but I can't get it to turn back on, even when I charged it. So, until my camera's fixed or I can get a hold of another camera, I can't take pictures of my traditional stuff.
Anyways, my traditional stuff heavily outweighs my digital stuff, so all I have is a lousy sketch. :p
I got frustrated with it after I realized that the pose is very static and the face is doing nothing.
I know it's very very rough and will probably remain that way until I can figure out how to make it more dynamic.

No reference.

2 weeks of school left! :)

[mike butkus]

Looks terrific!

[Zorcron]

definatly off to a good start really loving those studys i would try and pick up a large sketchbook
it may not be feasible to carry it around
many places but its important to learn to draw with your whole arm not just the wrist

you can get some very amazing gestures and loose lines that way

your lines look hard so i would try to loosen up a bit when you are first drawing and then zero down on the lines you prefer

work on some still life and really try and grasp the full value of everything it will help the drawing and your painting

hope this helps !

Ian

[snowies]

I have a larger sketchbook. I'll make sure to use it more so I can get a feel for drawing more with my arm. :]

Thank you for the advice/comments everyone. I really appreciate it.


My cameras still a mess, so I don't have any pictures of my actual sketchbook yet, but I do have a digital art image I'm working on. I like how it's turning out so far, and I hope to develop it further. The eyes seem a bit crooked, or is it just me?

reference picture: http://boredlamb-stock.deviantart.com/art/sth-2-123226010

[snowies]

Quick update.
:]

[keelman91]

hey.,ur stuff 4 13 is amazing ur prob better than i am now.keep up d great work

[AustenFM]

Wow, not bad at all!! You're already going down the right path with your studies, I wish I did them when I was 13, I've only just gotten around to actually studying the past half-year.

Keep up the good work! I cant wait to see how good you get!

[Leonor]

Welcome! :)

Wow. How do you manage to be so motivated? At that age I was expecting school to teach me, I had no initiative to do work like that myself. I would draw from imagination and expect to improve magically. I like to blame the times/ school/ trauma/ illness, etc but it's bullshit, innit? I mean, you have heavy school work and still do your studies. My only problem was/ is infinite laziness. :^^;:

I will watch you, it will be a treat to see you learn.

[snowies]

Okay, so I blocked in some sort of background. The grass is really bothering me, as it seems very messy and I can't get it to look good. I included the image without the grass as well.

I plan to clean up the clouds, I was just blocking them in.
:]

Ick. I just realized that the background color is pretty similar to the color of the girl, so she doesn't stand out as much. Should I just make the background darker?

[snowies]

Quick update!
:]

Okay, so I've fallen in love with the Decemberists new album The Hazards of Love. The entire album is one long narrative, and each song is just a continuation of the story. Anyways, I decided to illustrate each song as a little 'challenge' for myself. I really need to strengthen my backgrounds/composition/story-telling, so it seems like a good little challenge. The first song on the CD is the prologue, which is completely instrumental. However, I skipped it for the time being and started with the song where the story starts called 'The Hazards of Love 1'.
I sketched out a quick scene really quick which I hope to refine tomorrow.

When the picture is over, I hope to have the girls hand resting lightly over a wound on one of the fawns back legs. By the way, that's a sunset in the background, not a forest fire. :]

But, the girls (Margaret) form is so frustrating! Every pose I do seems very awkwardly placed--I'll look for references tomorrow and redo the way she's situated. I'm also not decided on her hair color.

Anyways, keep in mind that this is very loose and when I do refine it, the figure and deer will be rendered much more. This is mainly a loose sketch to figure out placement/composition etc.


When I can get the camera going, I think I'll just start uploading pictures I've done from that moment on out of my traditional sketchbook. It would be a bit bothersome to take/upload the pages I've filled while the camera broke down.

7 more school days.

[snowies]

Worked a bit more on it.
I can't find a good reference for the folds of the dress, and I can't make them look right. Help? ]:



Still very rough.

[Leonor]

I like your last composition, it's very promising with the sunset that looks like forest fire :) but I liked the girl better in profile. In the other drawing it's too noticeable you had a reference for the face but not for the body. Can you maybe find a reference for the body? It would be worth it. The composition is good and I like the colours as they are. I agree the grass wasn't working, leave it out. She doesn't blend with the background as you think she does, though because her face is very proud and her skin colours are warm. As I interpret it, she's obviously defiantly alive against the sky.

[Liam Harvey]

Miss, you are making me feel old, and want to time travel to tell my younger self to do the stuff you are doing.
Because at the age you are doing it, as well as the dedication you are showing towards improvement, it is inevitable you will create great things.

[kikindaface]

yeaaaaaaaaaah * claping in my hands * Great art for a 13 yo girl !!!! i'm impressed ! But i think you should to a lot more life drawing, do more sketches, more still lifes, more portraits, maybe selfportraits ! First of all, you must improve our drawing skills to the next level ! Same with digital painting ! try to paint from life, begin with fruits, be focused on picking up the good colors ( btw, your apple painting is really good ! ) Improve your skills !
Damn you'll become a great artist in a few years ! Keep your work up ! take care !

[snowies]

Sorry for not posting in a while. There has been a lack of digital art. The camera still isn't working, but if I can find my moms camera charger I'll be able to use hers. When I can, I'll post all of my traditional work.


I started this last night just for fun with no reference, and now I've a bit frustrated with it.
I want to finish it today, but what I have so far just doesn't look right to me.

Everyone, thank you so much for your comments/critiques. You've been very helpful.
Leonor, I'll get some reference for the body soon and rework it. :D


Schools out! Camp in 5 weeks. (A visual/performing arts camp for 4 weeks. I'm majoring in painting, and they have figure drawing! I'm excited.) :)
I plan to draw/paint as much as I can this summer.

[L0rin]

Wow...skills! and for 13... you're making me feel bad :P
Keep it up and you will go far, very far.

[snowies]

I don't know if this is any better, but the nose seemed a bit too long before.

Opinions?

[Sarkys]

what the hell Oo
that's awesome for your age!
if you keep practising you'll become an incredible artist.

[Liam Harvey]

i think the most recent version is much better than the previous, i think the bridge of her nose could be thinner, and her eyes a little closer together.

perhaps use Greyscale/ black and white before venturing into colouring, as it helps with values and light, but im not to good with colour myself so it may be a personal preference on my part.

i notice the chin is different in this one too, this new one looks perhaps a little bit pointy but much more feminine.

really liking it so far.
keep it going!

[snowies]

Sarkys: Thanks. :)

Gerbil Fetus: I'm glad that it looks better now. I see your point about the eyes being a bit too far apart and how the bridge of the nose could be less wide. I'll make sure to fix that when I work on it next. Ah ,thanks for bringing up grayscale. I think I would improve from working in grayscale, I'll make sure to do more work in it from now on.
Thanks for the feedback. :]

Two quick landscapes. Speed-paints.

Ref:
http://seraphic--stock.deviantart.com/art/bridge-125448077

http://luova-stock.deviantart.com/art/schoolhouse-2-125401091

[snowies]

I did a still life of a cup today.
It was hard, which means I should draw from life more often. I would like to do at least one a day from now on, even if it's a really quick sketch.

It's been overcast all week, doesn't feel like summer.
I don't mind much, I actually like it when it's overcast. It's peaceful. :)

[Xo.]

You just should keep trying ... draw more and more... you are on a good way......if you manage to keep your interest in art you may make great efforts.....

one tip i would give you anyway.... just step back once in a while from your paintings draw like i dont know 3/4 hour then put the penicl or whatever down make a few steps back and may look at your paintings lots of ... lets call it mistakes you can figure out by yourself !

just train your view and not just your skill ;)

anyway hope i dont sounded to negative i think its pretty amazing for a 13 yr old! kepp goin

[Leonor]

I like those speepaints, you captured the essence of the environments well. Isn't it interesting to see how Impressionists influenced concept art? There is actually a use for their theories now.

I think you find the cup hard because your foundation knowledge of the perspective of the cylinder is not quite well understood yet. You need to know what the underlying rules and structure of what you are looking at are before you see it well.

[DStraX]

I see some improvement in you digital work :D try not to use 100% white or black when you are painting;) it looks more real if you try to stay away from that

[snowies]

My mom got me a bouquet of roses last week for my Jr. High promotion. I picked one out of the vase today and decided to use it for a still-life.

I think this turned out better than my cup yesterday. :]

Xo: That makes sense. My old art teacher would make me stand up and walk away from the drawing and try and spot the mistakes myself. It helped a lot. I need to start making that a habit again.

Leonor: The speedpaints were fun! I plan to do more.
I think you're right about my not understanding the perspective of cylinders. I've only studied perspective briefly, and I am far from understanding it. I really need to face my fears and do tons of perspective studies. :]

DStraX: Ah. Thanks for the tip. Are there any exceptions to that however, or is nothing in nature 100% white or black, just slight variations of it?

[Mumph]

Wow! I´m very impressed, keep up the good work! I don´t think I even understood that you could do studies when I was at your age :)

[snowies]

Mumph: Thanks!

For my still-life today (I hope to keep up the habit of doing at least one a day) I chose a random shoe from my closet. :]

[Sirkenneth]

Great still life-thats the a good route to take. They really help train your eye!

[snowies]

Sirkenneth: I agree. :]

----

A person I know's cat is going to die soon, so they wanted me to draw their cat, Joker, for them.

[Leonor]

Sorry to hear about the cat. Nice impression of him.

[snowies]

Haven't posted in a while! ]:
Camp was from July 11-August 7. Was really fun and a lot of hard work. I'll try to get some pictures of the work I did there up soon. I was a painting major, but also took design/figure drawing/sculpture/digital media classes.

Here's what I started last night:

Is the nose off, or are the eyes too far apart?

[Prolixite]

Simply spectacular - it's all I can say; you definately know where you are going :)

[snowies]

Prolixite: Thanks. :]

Eye study.

[scorpion007]

Excellent eye studies!

Yep, I'd say the eyes are a bit far apart in the previous painting. They should be about 1 eye width apart.

[snowies]

Scorpion007: Thanks.


I tried to fix her face, but I don't know if it's better or worse now? Bleh.

[snowies]

Haven't posted in a while. I'm sorry.
It's mostly because of schoolwork, I've been so busy. 2 AP and 3 honors classes. 9th grade's a lot harder than eighth. I like it though, its really fun.
:)

I've been taking classes from 9-4 (with an hour break) at Art Center's high school program ever saturday. Figure drawing and painting.

I'll post some things I've done there. There are a lot more,, so I'll try to post them soon.

I think I prefer Acrylic to Oil, probably because I'm very inexperienced with oil. Painting in oil is really frustrating, I can't get it the way I want it to look.

[SaintAsh]

Nice figure studies! Watch out for the feet, though; you're making them a bit too small.

[Jamie Romoser]

keep up the hard work im looking forward to seeing how you progress.
have a good one
-Jamie

[snowies]

Thank you for the tip on the feet. I notice it now that you mention it. :]


Some studies.

It's winter-break which means I can actually draw! First week of finals I've ever had our over. Phew.

Oh, and sorry for extremely poor picture quality. Didn't realize it until now. Some of the pages are curved which distorted a few of the drawings in the pictures.

[strange1900]

Like everyone's said it's great you're doing the studies (bridgeman stuff right? they look like box construction at any rate XD) but really make sure you understand what they're teaching you. For the longer digital things you do really try to apply what you learn about the figure, building from a gesture on up can be great practice. Oh, drawing yourself in a full length mirror could be really helpful too, it'll give you an idea of how what you learn applies to a real figure and it's way cheaper than a class with a model XD. Good luck :)

[snowies]

strange1900: It's a mix of different stuff. :) A lot of it is just from huge packets that my last figure-drawing teacher gave me. I wish I had a full-length mirror, but I do have a mirror that might do the trick, so I'll look into that.
I really want to start doing self-portraits every day, at least during winter break.



Something I worked on a little bit before bed tonight.
Photo reference by photographer zhang jingna


Sleepy. But, I plan to draw/paint a lot during the next three weeks.

[snowies]

Worked on it some more this morning. I feel that my ability to paint skintones has improved, even if I'm still poor at it. But, I'm still happy about that.


Still a WIP. :)

[theories]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!
And by the way, I'm 14 too so we're the same age C:


Awesome stuff! I really like the charcoal(?) studies you did, and the recent picture you've started is nice too.

[Brandon Pilcher]

Wow, snowies, your stuff is amazing considering that you're not even 14 yet. By comparison, any art I produced during that age was shitty.

[Bombur]

Ah, you're one year younger than me. It's always fun to see other young artists working hard :)

You're doing very good and the improvement from page one is huge. As for the last painting, her neck is a little bit too long i think. Great work though.

[ColorExcursion]

WOW, awesome dedication, i second what most people have already said, just keep at it !!! :D
Would like to see you draw yourself using a mirror like someone had previously suggested

[Tomaka]

You have some definite skill with a pencil! Your studies are fantastic and improving with every drawing. I really hope you keep it up!

[rth2art]

Latest digital pic is coming along really nice. You are working up some good forms and value which some of the earlier ones seem to be lacking. Keep grinding away, you seem to be moving along quick. Make sure you keep doing life studies so you can really nail down form.

[snowies]

Merry late christmas everyone! :]]

Small update, just two random things I did today. They aren't great or anything, but I felt that I would share them anyways.

No reference (that's bad, I know).

[Nibras]

Good on ya girl.

Your doing all the right things. Good practise and I am sooo ohh jealous of the art centre classes :P
Honestly just keep drawing nd painting, practising a lot and making sure it's still fun.

Keep at it :)

[Abrodos]

Great studies, it looks like you're working hard! On your digitals, the biggest thing I see is that when you want to make the shadows, you instinctively go for a less saturated colour, and your pics end up looking dull.
Anyway, good work! And don't give up on those 2 last enviros, they've got great potential, sure they can become some nice pieces and help you learn a lot.
Cheers, and happy new year!

[snowies]

Abrodos: Your right! I do instinctively do that. I'll try to use more saturated colors from now on. Thank you for pointing that out.



Some stuff.
Three pages from my real-life sketchbook (which I should probably go through and upload all of it, but it'd be a lot of work) They're Michaelangelo studies.


A figure painting from class

And a black-and-white figure study I did a while ago with a model. But it was a really quick pose. This one isn't new, but I just found it and thought I would post it. :) Done over summer.

And I'm sorry for the crappy photoquality of the sketchbooks but graphite is so silly. ): It always reflects.

[Zorcron]

super wicked studies keep em up and you will be places in no time

are you writing much in your sketchbook ? its really good to do some written responses to art you love or hate it helps you work though not just in your head why certain things are and arnt working though reading crit or writing crit on CA is super good too

do a lot more still life/ landscape from life when you paint ... it will help your use of color a ton

keep up the great work il keep tabs

[Eddieee]

I'm looking at the acrylics on the previous page and they're great. You should definitely keep exploring that medium.

Keep up the studies! I love those drawings with the washes.

[vasherai]

You are really good! Keep up the hard work!

[MilitaryRaiden]

These are great works especially if one considers your age - keep it up, girl!

[thegrayslayer]

As said already, just gotta keep up the training. Drawing all the time is the best way to learn more. I recommend getting on a life drawing course too if you can, you'll definitely get something out of it.

Keep posting.

~Slayer

[~Oblivion]

Katie these are amazing! Your teaching me some stuff at school =D You can make me better im sure

[snowies]

Um, just a little stylized thing I did before I went to bed tonight.

I'll do more studies soon, sorry. Haven't been posting a lot lately.

From my imagination.
It originally started as a doodle, but then the idea kept on changing as I went on which is probably a bit apparent.

Was fun to draw though. :)

[snowies]

Just a really quick portrait. :)


The line-quality is very poor, I'll probably touch it up.

[snowies]

The template belongs to > http://kamaniki.deviantart.com.
:)

I felt like doing this, haha.

[Styx]

Haha, nice little timeline there =P I cant wait till Monday!

~Matt

[snowies]

self portrait in watercolors

Poor picture quality. ):

[poetry man]

Hi snowies. Good start. you definitely are improving. I think figure drawing and perspective are the essentials to be able to draw anything. Master those two and you've got it made.

[Chelli]

Woo teenage artists (:
I'm glad you are being very technical and looking and getting into everything. In the long run, undersanding the antomy of the body and it's structure+muscles will help alot. .. Actually inspires me to do the same, and not be lazy and just skim over my notes.

Continue your studies, I think you have alot of potential and learn quite quickly.

again, great work ^^