-marie's- sketchbook (nudity)

[Marie]

This will be my first post of art, I had held back for a while, lurking, not sure where I was taking my art (or where it was taking me). I do think however I will try to focus a good part of my efforts on concept art. So... here goes coming out of the closet with my sketchpad.

Art is a journey for me, there is no final destination, just stops on the way. I tend to not finish things, which I'm working on correcting. Wherever I am, if I have a writing utensil I will draw, be it in a sketchbook, on a napkin, or a leaf. (hense some of the crappy pieced together scans) :)

starting out with some sketches/doodles

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/hands1.jpg
A bunch of very quick hand sketches pieced together, most of these took under a minute. Its an exercise that helps me to stop getting too absorbed in one small part and learn the basic shapes and gestures.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/hand1.jpg
another quick doodle of a hand

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/hand2.jpg
quick doodle & quick color

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/sketchbook6.jpg
more hands, two where done on napkins, the others for a class.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/sketchbook7.jpg
a watercolor bird, and a couple gestures.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/sketchbook8.jpg
some more gestures

I'll post some more in a few minutes.

I'm not in school, I have gone in the past but had to stop for a bit(serious health issues blah blah). I seem to be missing a focus, seriously, I've majored in Electrical Engineering, Architecture, Art, Computer Animation... right now my main goal is to learn to focus on something and not stop in the middle of a portrait to work on math problems, or go cut dead limbs off trees in the back yard.

I REALLY enjoy concept art and its members, I admire the creativity, skill, and comradery (spelling?) here, the way everyone helps each other to improve and gives encouragement. I have so much room to improve and grow and I hope sharing with you guys will help that too.

--marie-- :)

[Marie]

some more

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/selfportrait.jpg
self portrait, I'm not a little kid, I just play one on tv. (just kidding heh I do look like kid sometimes though)

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/sketchbook5.jpg
sketches

some color thingies
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/seagull.jpg
been working a bit on illustration type things, I do it in painter, I do use a photo reference (usually taken by me or family members). Don't trace of course. I spent 6 hours on this while I was in an extremely uncomfortable state.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/henrichicken.jpg
henri poulet, one of our cats.


I don't really have a decent website running at the moment, as I'm learning html etc, I'm fixing it up. But if you want to go look at it its here (http://neabez.home.comcast.net/)

I'll be updating as I can scan things in and finish digital stuff too.

Comments are welcome of course! I think right now I have so far to go and the list of things I really need to work on is large.

thanks :)

--marie--

[treeboy]

i love your style and how you rendered the hands/forearms, thin and bony, very interesting :)

keep it up. Id love to see some full body drawings

[Marie]

treeboy: thank you very much, come to think of it, i don't think I've ever drawn a full body in that style, I will take you up on that and give it a shot :)

[legacy]

nice work you got there.

you havea very cartoonish way of drawing hands that i've seen so far, but have the talent for realistic as well.
tahts a rare talent in my book.

can't wait to see more :D

[jester]

Nice sketchbook you have going here - please keep us updated!

Jester

[-The Swift-]

great sketchbook, you've made a good start to your site too.:)

[DeadPepper]

I agree with everyone else in this thread: Great Sketchbook!

Great hand sketches, its nice to see you learnt how to draw them entirely in proportion before moving on to your unique style. And i adore that seagull/bird image.

Keep it up :chug:

[Josef K.]

hey great lineart! love ur sketches!
i'm lookin' forward to see more of this

[Erik]

Great hands! And i love the color pieces too!

[Marie]

wow thank you guys very very much for the compliments!

I hope to get another post of sketches up before I leave for a trip tomorrow, and I should sketch a lot on the trip too I hope :)

Legacy, Deadpepper, Erik: Thank you very much, I probably spend too much time on hands and not the other body parts, one of my goals is to be comfortable at least with the entire body to be able to relax more and draw it exaggerated. I'll be working on it.

Jester thank you and I hope to keep updating on a regular basis :) and not fall it the slacker oblivion I once was.

Josef K well thank you very much, line art is an extremely lacking area for me, I've been trying to work on it since I've seen the great line art by artists here.

-The Swift: Thanks! I started to try and use dreamweaver the other day for the site and realized I was enjoying learning the code too much to do that. So even if its a bit slower, it will be coming along :)

-marie-

[Robolus]

Cool hand-studies, and the color tkingies are awesome!

[legacy]

marie: glad to see you want to work on other parts of the body rather than just hands, but remember to keep sketching the hands even when doing other stuff to keep your skills sharp :D

also, its very cool to see you wanting to LEARN code instead of just using dreamweaver. I am a skilled web designer in HTML and PHP so if you need any help or just want to talk about webdesign in general you can contact me anytime. just check my profile for all my contact info :D

keep up the good work.

[steak-tron]

this is a great thread marie, good figures with a plasticity about them, it's something i'm trying to do, dem hands is tight too -steak

[Marie]

thank you very much steak-tron :)

and Legacy I might just take you up on that offer when I return from my trip!

I'll be back around february 4th or so to post my sketchbook from the trip, take care until then.

[Marie]

Ok I've been sketching quite a bit lately after a long bout with not being able to hold a pencil. I even tried to sketch some then (the things you will do with scotch tape) but seeing as I couldn't control my hand either its scary :bashful:

this is a little guy I did a while back for a DSG, a little construct.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/robotconstruct.jpg

Been trying to work on portraits lately, forcing myself to do speed paintings in an attempt to relax when I draw/paint.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/micky2.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/micky1.jpg

this is a portrait of my sister in law, its not finished at all (especially the hair), I have to say that I'm learning a lot by doing this so far. Come back a day later and look at it and realize the large mistakes I've made that I didn't see the day before.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/judy2.jpg

Here is a nude sketch/painting (in painter), figured I'd put a link since I didn't warn about nudity in the subject... figure (http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/figurewip2.html)

Most of the color stuff I do in Painter... <3
I need to get scanning so there is more sketching in here too.

Marie (sorry for being gone so long!)

[Marie]

Update: I've tried to do some sketching every night, I'm kinda of scard to post some of it. But I will post some now and more later because I promised some friends I would. Currently (and this is no excuse for my quality hehe) just so you its clear, some if it is... done while heavily medicated, being a small person (80lb) I never partook in mind altering drugs, just observed most of my friends doing them... ironically it is now in my life that I am forced to take them so I can get better. I've been told to keep drawing through it and post it, just for the interesting fact to see the difference. I'm not even sure how noticable the difference is, except that i notice as i'm drawing that i'm less inhibited and probably more apt to fall asleep while doing it. :S

Notice the scary horse in the middle? I don't even remember drawing that lol... I can't even believe i took it that far. The bunnies... all referenenced off the internet.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/bunnies.jpg

Jackrabbits are different than bunnies... so lean and fast...also referenced off the interent (done in a think with a think Lowe's Home improvement store pencil so... why do i even have that pencil...).
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/jackrabbits.jpg

Mice!! (ref'd off the internet) Some need to go on the atkins diet.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/mice.jpg


Feet, ref'd from pics i took on my digi cam. I would have more for you, but... in my absentmindedness let both sets of my batteries go dead... so I'll resume tomorrow!
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/feet1.jpg

nothing amazing, just...sketches! got to keep this up.

[Marie]

Here is some stuff I worked on in painter... so afraid to post this, mostly because I have the great urge to ... crumple them up, but alas I can't ... its digital and my husband says i'm not allowed to delete anymore of my artwork heh.

This... is smudgey/dirty. I think it would do me good to do it all over again and try to get it.. cleaner? fix some issues. The face killed me, I had a lot of trouble with it.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/figurewip2.jpg

Ok... this...started as a dsg try, angel of death. I took a pic with my digital camera... there was a fork in her hand (there is meaning behind that and angel of death). And as I worked on it, it just decided to mean something else. It is NOT finished and is on hold...because frankly I have a LOT to learn about perspective, enviornment, lighting and making the figure appear to be in the enviornment.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/angelwip4.jpg

What I will say about the angel picture, is I did learn a lot from it so far. I realized that I need to start from square one on the things I mentioned. So now I have a goal to attain.

This is my first real attempt at putting the figure into a fantasy/creative setting, and real first attempt at adding a background... it was a good exercise... just to get over that FEAR that always made me stop and not do it. So I'm very happy that I did get as far as I did! and want to scold myself at the same time for not thinking it through.

goals I set for myself in the coming weeks are to pull out my old perspective notes, start from square one. Do some exercises in it, and create some backgrounds, then move to understanding lighting more, staging different thigns to draw from/paint from with different lighting. And to really read those great lighting tutorials that I only skimmed over before.

[Marie]

Just some figure studies in painter, and a few sketches.

A few figure sketches
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/figuresketch.jpg

A couple studies in painter, I think the more I do the more comfortable I am becoming with it.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/figure3.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/leaningfigure.jpg

(will be working on both some more a bit)

The color ones in painter, I am really really enjoying doing!

[Yoell]

very clean loose style, almost get a rockwell feel.

the hands and rabbits are great.

Drew

[Marie]

Thank you Yoell, I think I'm still finding my style, or its finding me... however that works. :) I'm off to bed, its my sleep time, I'm having so much fun with these, I'll try to update again soon (and not a month from now...).

[Darkside]

hey, you have a nice style going on here and your colors are great. now let us see some strong contrast nudes ;)

[Marie]

I'll bet most of us who don't sketch enough (or as much as we want to) are making that new years resolution to sketch everyday. I've actually started this a bit into december.

For christmas I was so happy to recieve 5 different sketchbooks, 2 of which are the spiral kind, so I hope hope hope they are easier to scan in than the others :)

I've sketched almost every day since mid december, practice here and there, some projects. This isn't all of it, so I suppose another thing I need to do is get a routine of sketch and scan down.

ok, the first 2 are crappy sketches from photos off the net, I just go through and sketch, there are many many other pages of these I'm having a heck of a time scanning in.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/sketchbook9.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/sketchbook10.jpg

next are two of komodo dragons, I plan to use them in a piece in the future, one I want to do a very good job on, because its for a very special friend and family member (so i'm starting early with the studies)

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/komodo1.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/komodo2.jpg

Did this for the dsg 632 (and didn't post it.. whats wrong with me), its a fairy and her weapon, which by the way is a poppy. Very quick, loose and experimenting with the tools/brushes in painter.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/dsg632.jpg

Just a random color sketch, working on the figure and it must of really signified somewhat of the way I was feeling that day. *unfinished... what isn't*

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/figure4.jpg

And last but not least, what I'm doing right now and enjoying ever ever so much. Last D&D game I got a request for a ToadHawk, the request came inbetween spurts of giggles. I decided to take it seriously and paint it... this is a work in progress:

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/toadhawk.jpg

I'm having so much fun with this... he's not too big, the size of a hawk or smaller, but don't be fooled, this sucker can claw out your eyes... and if you see a swarm of them... you are in for some hurting.

Thats it for now, I will try very hard for the new year to do a few things:

1. sketch everyday (i do this already)
2. Post my sketching/projects (I sorely lack here)
3. Finish something (i finished a bowl of mint chocolate chip icecream just last night!)
4. Never ever stop learning! (live by this)

thanks for looking, its not much, I will try to keep this up... perhaps I'll program that new pda to beep at me every other day to update.

[warlock1234]

toadhawk...genius(*laughs silently)...good and comical with your very tight style...your work is delicious....i want a bit more of that and this and...ooh....can you make more of that so i can have more...but seriously...nice progression...keep it up... :}

[Marie]

Thank you very much warlock :) .. heh the group is extremely excited about having the ToadHawk illustrated, what started as a joke is most likely going to show up in a compaign now.

It has a lot of tweaking and cleaning up to do, it needs some tail feathers. I had some and they looked all wrong, so they felt the might of the eraser.

I have requested that they give me more projects to do, I can't believe how much I am enjoying this type of thing... supposedly next is an elf who's toad familiar keeps being the only reason he doesn't die... so I've got to illustrate him unconcious with this toad standing over him protectively. Going to make it very comical, as it is a source of humor for the entire group.

thanks again for looking :) and commenting.

[NoUseFrAName]

nice work. No real crits...just enjoyed stopping by.
Keep it up!

-Rob

[jester]

Marie, I like your female studies and the komodo studies are great - they even show humorous aspects of those nasty beasts. Good job!
The toad hawk is such a crazy idea, perhaps you coukld push it even further, with bone/muscle anatomy studies, sights of the critter while hunting, feeding, sleeping and so on.

Jester

[Marie]

Thanks NoUseFrAName :)

Cool, that is a great idea and thank you Jester. I started doing some sketches and looking at toad and bird skeletons, then realized I was letting my mind jump around again too much and so I'm focusing on the toadhawk image at the moment, though you gave me so many ideas... wish I could just feed my thoughts into some sort of computerized pda thing to keep them all straight.

Here is an update of the Toadhawk so far:

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/toadhawk2.jpg

I'm dreading working on some sort of background, want it to be simple, perhaps more symbolic, but still something, heck even a shadow.

[jester]

You're welcome! :)

Be sure to be watched! ;)

Jester

[Marie]

Been a long time

First two are portraits I did while visiting family, crayola, tried to do them very quickly yet still get a likeness. There are several more than my mother apprehended, so i've got to get her to scan them for me.

My niece Tina
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/tinaportrait.jpg

My little sister kelly, who was unhappy it took me more than 60 seconds heh, she's got williams syndrome, I dont' know if you can tell from the portrait, but generally like downs syndrome children you can id a williams syndrome child by looks (at least those familiar).
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/kellyportrait.jpg

random (the two guys in bottom right look really familiar... I am wondering if I didn't subconciously create them inspired by something I've seen before... that feeling nags at me)
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/scribbles1.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/dogsketch1.jpg

can barely see this, its watercolor and a bit light. Was done for the kids, it has wings and a curly tail which just wouldn't scan.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/kidcreature1.jpg

Trying to learn to work with watercolors
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/watercolor1.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/watercolor2.jpg

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/birdsketch1.jpg

I am at once finding it difficult and fun, seems to be the mood Im in for watercolor.

just some sketching
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/sketch080105.jpg

I know its been a long time since update, I'll hopefully try to do it more often.

A bit of advice for those scanner impared. When its not working at all, don't make it more difficult than it is... just reach down... and plug it in :bashful:

Now that I've got it working plugged in, I just need to figure out how to get my light handed sketching to show up. have read some threads on it, but so far Im not too successful. I can change the levels and or curves in ps, but then it just looks... so.. different, and loses so much. I suppose it also gains a bit too...

[Blahm]

mucho skill! nice work.

[Dan1989]

I like your sketchbook. Your paintings are pretty nice too. Just keep updating for us ;)

[Magic Man]

Your artwork is absolutely fucking beautiful. Hail!

m

[Marie]

Thank you guys very much, I've such a long way to go.

The hardest part is scanning and posting though heh.

Being a stay at home mom (well I have a dog and a new kitty) I am starting to try and supplement our income with portrait drawing/painting, we'll see how it goes and I will definately be posting what I'm working on.

I've done it over the years for friends, and the number ONE thing that is frustrating is they give you this tiny photo and would like you to do some big magnificent oil painting with detail. Its hard to get them to understand that it would be a lot better to get a likeness if I could even see one in the photo. Passport photos are better than what they are giving me.

I'd prefer to have a live model :) but for now most of them are "suprise" presents for someone so photos will have to do.

My niece Sirena has promised to come model for me, so as soon as I clear the junk out of our living room to make room for a posing area I've got a painting I want to do with and interesting subject regarding earth worms...it has a history in her childhood and would mean a lot to her and the family. Also I think she is just going to model for me for my practicing too *yes!*

Again thanks for the complimetns and critiques are very very welcome.

I have this... one thing I did I'm totally embarrassed about it. I did it quick, then redid the whole think in a few hours for a silly contest (there were two entries) and its fanart, so I feel a bit silly... but I'm redoing it again and again. I want to keep re doing it, each time fixing, improving. I think its helping but who knows... now to post it... its embarrassing...

well off for now. (yeah i'll put it in with the next batch)

[bumskee]

:)

I love your paintings, my favourite is angel.. lovely wings.. nice skin tone too. :teeth:

well, when they give you a crappy photo, best thing is to take a picture your self, just take a camera and take one that you would like. :)

animal and water colour works are beautiful too, bah all your stuff is awsome.

Keep painting marie!

cheers,

[NightVision]

A very nice sketchbook you've got here.
There's a certain delicacy in your lines & colors that I like a lot !

Scanning takes too much time indeed, but I hope you'll keep posting :) .

[Petter]

Niice studdies everywhere in this sketchbook.

[~Lover~]

Hey Marie,
I thought i'd take a look at your Sketchbook since you had a look at mine. Well, i have a loooong way to go til i'm as good as you, i'll just say that! I absolutely love the angel picture, it's such a lovely picture! I love the lil animals like the mice and rabbits too :^^: Nice Sketchbook!
~Lover~

[Crystalline_Blue]

Amazing sketchbook, the studies are great and I really like style. Inspiring stuff.

[Marie]

Thanks so much for the comments.

Bumskee: I love your sketchbook :) , compliments from you mean a lot to me. And I agree on the advice about taking the persons photo, it will save me a lot of woes in the future! thank you. I think I'm going to have to go back to the angel picture, and see what I can do to finish and work on it.

Nightvision: thanks so much, the delicacy has been mentioned before by several of my art instructors, some were complimentative and others wanted me to have a heavier hand. I'm trying to learn to do that if needed, but not lose the light touch, its just natural... now scanning it is another story, I wonder if a more expensive scanner would help.

Petter: thank you very much and I will try to keep them coming.

~Lover~: Thanks! and I've got a long long way to go myself. This might sound weird, but in combination with the classes I did take regarding art. I drew my hand. A LOT. Anytime a pen or pencil, crayon, or heck a rock sometimes was in my hand, I'd daw my other hand. Over and over, and somehow that helped me not just learn to draw hands (which still needs WORK!) but I found that now when I went to learn other things it helped, i noticed my line was more confident. It used to be very very very sketchy, millions upon millions of little hatches, never a continous line. So then I moved onto other things... but I feel that the hand fetish I had for a while helped in some way, maybe little, but it helped. I kind of rambled there, but its something that I still do and it made such a big impact in an area that I'd not been able to progress in before... confidence in my line and I'm sure other things. Funny thing is, the disembodied hand... ok, try putting it on a person and I choke up heh... time to work on that. I'll keep an eye on your sketchbook :) can't wait to see your studies!

magic man: oh yes and thank you, that really made my day, especially from someone's who's work inspires me quite a bit. :)

Been drawing some the last few days, bear with me on next post, going through a rather crappy attack.

[loomer]

This is a great sketchbook. You have a great sense of rhythm and movement in your figures.

The paints are looking really good too. Nice observations in color. I think the bird is the most successful because of one thing : your reference was better.

It looks like the portraits you were doing were taking with a flash photo. It's really difficult (and a bad idea) to paint from reference that uses a flash, because a.)it flattens things b.) eliminates details
That's why it's so popular in fashion photography. Your reference should have strong light and shade so you can evaluate and render forms optimally. I think if your reference was better...BAM - your work is going to skyrocket.

Looking forward to more stuff...Great job

[Marie]

Thank you tons for the advice Loomer. I do a lot from photo on the human ref's because I am not able to get out a whole lot. I will work on taking pics without it and see what I can do to get the lighting more "real" for the photo, though I know nothing takes the place of life. I'm thinking of doing paintings from mirror too so that I can better understand the coloring. Thats a real stumbling block there you've hit on :)

[madster]

Marie, you have a simply delightful style, and your portrait work has a quiet strength to it that makes everything you post SO enjoyable to look at!

But, where are the dragon's hats???? All these cool sketches, and not one ball-fringed sombrero... :[ ;)

Congrats on the new kitty.

~M

[Magic Man]

Think nothing of it Marie, you deserve the praise, absolutely gorgeous work - fast becoming one of my favourite artists on here, great attitude too.

You're obviously a person who does this because they love it, and if money comes in from it, its purely a happy accident. You're one of those people who can find inspiration from everything around them, and this is such a great gift, and I feel a very similar way to life which is why I guess I'm drawn to your work.

One thing I might add if you ever feel like spreading out in other directions, but you're work is obviously references a bit, from what you say. There's only as far as you can go when referencing, as Loomis put it, if you want something photographic in reproduction...just take a photograph ;)

I'd heartily encourage you (nay...shove if need be) to move inwards, start honing your skills to transfer from your mind's eye to the medium what wonderful world lies beneath your cranium, take those observation skills and lessons you have learned and pretty much mastered, and turn your trained eye towards the images you see in your head.

I think you could be an awesome concept artist - as I like to put it, the most faccinating place is in my head, all this work I do is simply increasing my motor ability to show people my inner workings.

Get to it lady!

m

[Mr.Blonde]

your figure studies are beautiful. absolutely awesome. Keep it up! try some more risky compositions with a few more elements in them, and turn your studies into finished pieces. (that you could even sell if you wanted to)

[Marie]

thanks so much for the crits and everything, I can't put in words how much it helps push me to move forward.

And yes... I certainly need to add a dragon with that sombrero soon :)

Here are some sketches from last couple days

part self portrait, right before crashing. Copper prisma pencil.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/selfportrait01.jpg

sketching (the dog and kitty like to move just when I'm getting into the drawing the turds)
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/sketch080605.jpg

this one yesterday in a restaraunt, was shaking real bad and could barely hold the crayon, but promised I'd try to keep drawing through all this so... bleh heh. (the food was good though!)
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/jon080605.jpg

This one started today, not sure where its going yet.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/girlwithstickwip1.jpg

[madplanet]

Excellent sketchbook. I can't say that I have any critiques, only compliments. I really enjoyed seeing your colored pencil sketches, as I use them a lot myself (not so much in my sketchbook, though). Your figures have good structure to them and they are very fluid. This goes way back to the beginning of your thread, but I really liked the hand studies that you did (this is something that I need to work on), they have some good stylization to them.

[armando]

I enjoyed your sketchbook and sense of humor. Love the expression on the first picture from Jan 10 2005, on the lower right hand corner. The dog paws came out cute too.

[cotron]

the figure paintings look great, keep pushing em... and don't be afraid to use ref, it seems frowned upon around here, but it's an illustrator's best friend when used correctly- don't copy, but learn from what you're seeing and make it work for your piece. I'm saying this because the ones with ref are really strong and I think you should keep going in that direction. like your book, I'll keep checking back!

[MarkHarchar]

Hey Marie,
Since I was up, I decided to take a gander through your sketch book. You have some really nice stuff here. You animal sketches and doodles are what struck me. They portray a real innocence to them. I can tell that you are an animal lover. The painting are really nice too. The pencil portraits seem to capture a real feeling in the faces, duh...portraits of faces. I'm going back to bed. Hope to see some new stuff soon!

[Marie]

Madplanet Thank you very much, I've actually really gotten into doing portraits with crayola crayons too, not sure why but its turning out fun. The hands, I do too much of and not enough of he other stuff. I think I do a lot of that because its safe... must step out of the box!

armando Thank you much ! I am having some difficulty with paws at the moment, I'll try to work on some more. Would like to understand them better.

Cotron That is exactly where I need to go, I will always use reference, its too valuable a tool to throw away :) but you hit it on the head, I need to USE it, not just copy it. Thats where I need to head, thank you for the crit!

hylandr2 oh I do love animals! So much that I have a lot of trouble showing them menacing, they all end up cute hehe, this could be a stumbling block :er: I hope you aren't having trouble sleeping, its odd how when you can't sleep when you want to... you sure as heck can sleep when you aren't supposed to (work etc). Bodies are funny like that, you'd stay up all night and about 15 minutes before the alarm goes off, you finally fall asleep, its a cruel mistress. Thank you so much for the compliments :)

Here is just a quick update, nothing major, more hands. I can't get a few of the pages to scan due to the lightness in which I drew... as a matter of fact, I can barely see them when viewing my sketchbook. Thats something I'll have to work on seriously.

Don't kill me on this update because its more hands, I was just doodling around when I could. The new meds are so strong I didn't even remember doing these at first, I just stared at them wondering how they got in my room/sketchbook... then it all came flooding back. I realize some people would pay good money for those kind of meds, but I'd really kind of like being lucid :wink: .. I put the carrots in the cabinet, a box of cheetohs in the fridge and I still can't find where I put the steak knives (good thing probably)!!

hand study on newsprint
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/handstudy1.jpg

another
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/handstudy2.jpg

taking it a little further, this one was drawn over something I was just splashing around with, sorry about that, having a tendecy to draw over other stuff lately.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/handstudy3.jpg

another, not so happy with... I am going to start working with some ink, like on the above... I think I liked it
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/handstudy4.jpg

I thought I posted these, but can't find them above (probably there and I am just skipping over) These are my hubby, who keeps getting told he looks like jesus when we are out in public... oh the irony in that...
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/jon.jpg

will do more soon, jesus promised to show me how to properly hold all the weapons, so will do photo refs of that. I'd like to make sure that when I draw anything containing weaponry that the figure is not going to fall and stab themselves in the head with it or whatnot.

Again thank you for the crits, thats what I need, got to move on out of the land of stagnation.

woops *edit* one more I forgot, this is just a value study and you can see is unfinished, I need to add in some lighter values I believe.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/face1.jpg

[bumskee]

Hey Marie.. :) love the hand studies.. I have placed my ash tray in the fridge before..and my phone too.. Took a while to find them.. but these days I usually look in the fridge first.. :S why is that? people putting things in the fridge..

Your husband drawings are good, I would watch out for the eye though seems a slightly big.. and he does look like jesus.. the value study, I think the arm is a bit wobbly, the face is beautifully done. :)

[the_allejo05]

marie nice ..i especially like your life drawings..dont be afraid of guidelines..on your husband portrait..some features are a bit misaligned.. i really like your last hand studies..keep it up..

[S.C. Watson]

some really great stuff here Marie. Love the figure work.

Cheers,
~Shane

[Main Loop]

i really like your color choices, your muted color schemes look good..

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art/figurewip2.jpg this was my favorite piece

[MarkHarchar]

Hey Marie, your hand studies are coming along nicely. The portraits of your husband are nice as well. The right port from his left side appears as though his eye is a bit too close to the fron of the facial plane. A general rule is about 1 eyes distance from the nose bridge area. I wasn't having trouble sleeping per say. My job wakes me up in the middle of the night and I have to get online sometimes.

As far as the fridge, you are better put the cheetos in the fridge than putting the milk in the cabinets...ick...

[sve]

Thank you marie! such a happy feeling when you see a real talent. I enjoyed your work a lot. It's light and airy and fun as a dancing. And beautiful.
Regards, Sveta

[darkchild]

Wow, I just got a chance to go through your SB, awesome work. I love the animal works as well as the nudes. Your portrait studies are reallt well done, but I gotta say my favorite has got to be the Toadhawk!

[omni1]

hmm, i totally likle this sketchbook -- the lines in your quick sketches are
to be admired-- and youve developed quite fast in painter too..hmm makes me thinkabout getting atablet of my own.. what setting (medium) do you use in painter?is it an oil setting of some kind?
ta

[chien]

greetings...

I was just looking around the forums till I came acorss this thread and saw your sketches, very outstanding, good strokes and very detail ones as well.

it's good practise that you've done and keep up the good work :-), looking at artwork like yours inspires even artists like me to try harder too.

I like the illustration of your pigeon and the cat, one of my favourites, just wish you good luck in the art field you'd like to pursue, look forward to see more artwork from you :-)

Tham Chien Yih
Junior Animator

[mentler]

Good book ‡ very expressive, especially the hands, little critters done with mega love as well

[endercoskun]

great work marie!! keep it up:yayca:

[madplanet]

I like all the latest ones, Marie. As far as drawing hands all the time, that's a good thing I think. It's all experience. And as long as your doing other things what's the harm. The one where you started something else and then drew over it looks good. It's not refined, more raw, and I like stuff like that. Although the rear arm and hand looks way too small, even though it's supposed to be smaller. You seem to like the 'muhahaha' pose.

[Marie]

ohh thank you, sorry for the late reply!


bumskee I don't know about the fridge thing, there must be something to it though, maybe we don't want anything to spoil... like the phone :tihi: You are right on about the eyes, I do need to use more guidelines, its something I will be working to do from now on, thank you for pointing that out, it will help me immensley, sometimes you just dont' think of these things yourself :)

and that arm is very wobly, how did I manage that? The things that one doesn't see when staring at something too long, that is now on the slate to work on too.

the_allejo05 thanks so much, I will definately keep it up and all the while try to improve

Oregano thanks man, I am liking what I'm seeing in your sketchbook too, glad you stopped by :)

Main Loop Isn't it the curse of all artists? that people will like the one they aren't happy with the best? :p glad you like it, the colors in it were eating at me, I felt they were kind of muddy but hadn't had the time to go in and redo, I'm glad you like it though, thank you much.

hylandr2 Oh thank you for that observation, right you are, I'm working on more portraits and trying to adjust to make the eye better, it seems to be a bane of mine. Trying to do them very quick while getting a likeness, though I'm reading to move to different views of the face for sure (now if I can just get him to look somewhere besides his monitor). And milk in the cabinet would stink! good point.

sveta oh gosh, thank you so much Sveta, it really makes my day when someone is made happy by something I've done, thats the best feeling :) now you make me want to paint more right now!

darkchild aww thats got such sentimental meaning by now, the toadhawk that is :) It was so much fun to do too. I have tried to work on it more and have singlhandedly succeeded in melting it! eek. So for now it stays as is! thank you for the kind words.

omni1 hmm I use mostly the oil pastel or sharp chalk, but I do change the settings up to something that feels good at the moment. For sketching I use the pencil or markers in painter. When I first started, I looked to Imphead for inspiration, he even was nice enough on his site to put some things that he does and thats how I kind of got into changing the brushes/tools around (yay for imphead). Imphead's website (http://www.imphead.com/) and here is what I read that kind of made me look into painter more blenderboy step by step by imphead (http://www.imphead.com/about/blendboywip/bb1.html). I love his paintings.

chien thank you so much for your kind words, it means a lot to me and keeps me inspired to keep going. :)

mentlerOh thanks so much mentler, wasn't sure anyone would like any of the "cute" things I did for the kids :) Hope to meet you within the next few months (i hope that soon) when I am going to sign up over at sofa! To be able to go to figure drawing sessions again makes me sigh whistfully.

e n d e r Much thanks Ender! I will try to keep it up :)

madplanet I don't know what it is lately but I just wanted to draw things that were in more odd or dynamic poses, I love the movement in them. That hand is a bit small isn't it, I wasn't sure when I did it if it worked or not, I believe I may have gone a litte too small.

The whole drawing over other things, I started drawing in crayola crayon a lot when I was around the kids and I'd draw in one color then draw over or overlapping in other colors. Sometimes I end up drawing through things I probably shouldn't :dur:

ok no update just yet, I'll host what I'm doing now... I'm embarrassed at the quality of it but... might as well post it... and my experience with...

The effect movies and television have on what people think you can do with a digital progam grrr. "No mam I can not take this pinkie sized man and blow it up with all that mans details to giant sized... yes yes, I know you saw them take a blur of a picture from a security camera and blow it up and sharpen it to reveal the villain..." I mean come on, you could make that blur of a photo into the pope and mary poppins eating sushi if you wanted... and so my next post is a portrait I was doing as a favour, its about done with flaws and all, because its making me cry. 2 weeks of asking for a better photo got me a thumbsize one but.. "they don't want that photo, they want the small one... can't you see what he looks like and go from there?"

all in all it makes me giggle, I can't let that get me too bent out of shape :)

[Marie]

ok, just digital stuff as I haven't scanned in the non digital yet:

just taking random drawings and poses and was trying to work on value again.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/girlwithstickwip1.jpg

wow her left arm is screwy! I didn't even notice until I viewed it on line.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/pupilvalue2.jpg

And the portrait, I need to host the image too, but I actually started this last one a day ago due to confusion of what was wanted. When I finally got a bigger picture I had mistakenly thought they wanted that painted, when no, in fact they need this particular one. In the photo his head is the size of the tip of my pinkie to give you an idea (and i have tiny hands!)

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/hammond2.jpg

I'm doing it for a really nice lady though as a favor and this the reverend who presided over her wedding. He's starting his own ministry, I thought it would be nice to help and good practice.

I'm learning a lot and have so much further to go. I'm finally really starting to see the different colors in skin tone somewhat. Also I was trying and trying to loosen up with the brushstrokes (maybe its all the trying and trying thats hurting me).

*edit* here is the ref picture (blown up considerable after I scanned it in)

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/hammondpic.jpg

due to the time constraints on this combined with the fact that it also was a free job, I went in with the photo and blocked in my proportions. I actually didn't at first and got this horrible mutilation in my trying to be speedy. I felt I should say that as I don't like bringing the photo into the image, it usually has a lot more life when one allows for the little nuances and artists gives when drawing without overlaying the image like that, not a paintover, but too close for me. I feel it shows in the stiffness of the picture that I did this too. (used the photo to block in proportions.) I was so happy when they had given me another photo, it was not a straight on shot and there wasn't a horrid flash, until I found out they wanted this picture exactly.

I looked for some good portrait artists and I found one guy I really liked named Simmie Knox, after looking at his paintings I would come back and loosen up some. (actually I find that inspiration from you guys here) Still not there yet but aimed in the right direction I hope. I am liking the looseness of his hands so far, but need to refine it I think for this.

Ok more updates when I get to scanning :)

doh, the girl is in photoshop and the reverend was started in photoshop but moved to painter.

take care and thank you guys so much.

[madplanet]

Yeah, the left arm doesn't quite right. it's the forearm bending out too far, I think. The right leg doesn't seem right, either. Maybe it's the lighter tones coming up from the calf. Her neck seems rather large, too.

I actually think that you did a decent job with the rev. Especially considering the size of the reference photo.

[bumskee]

agreed, looks fab to me. :) I think if anything you might work up a bit on the neck and the tie bit and lose some details on the fold in the arms. the face and hands are superb. :)

nice values with the chick, loving the clothing.. nicely done. :) looking forward to the update!!

[Marie]

thank you madplanet and bumskee :) I will get to work on the girl with the stick soon. Meanwhile just some sketches. I'm venturing into landscape/background with just some small studies that are really loose and unfinished... I think big thumbnails.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/practice1.jpg

Dave :) a very very good friend who lets me sketch him. He normally has teeth... I perhaps should of not omitted them, was having a heck of a time on the mouth for some reason.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/dave.jpg

doodle
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/colordoodle.jpg

Cayenne peppers from the garden, bumskee thread prompted me to grab them and paint them. I wasn't particularily happy with my rendering even for a quick one. (but they tasted good)
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/fruitsketches.jpg

I'm going to participate in the illustration activity (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41781&page=10&pp=60) that Rick Hershey is doing in the sketches section. Will be good to start doing this and hopefully help me get over anxiety. Here is the brief:

The image is for a horror anthology book. What I am looking for is a bust image of a middle aged man in victorian style clothing. The image should look like a classic portrait. However, half the mans face should be horribly disfigured and/or demonic looking. It must look human still, but you can push that as far as you like. . .

The image needs to be pen and ink linework, with a grayscale shading.

This is a pretty open assignment, I'd like to see everyone push the boundaries of the brief and give me something creative and professional.


I hope to learn a lot from this :)

Here are some very preliminary rough sketches, I spent a little time researching the clothing of victorian men and their hair styles, though I haven't gone into detail on the clothes yet. For his hair/beard I went with a style I find kind of crazy looking but interesting... I hope I can pull this off, here is to trying :painting:

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illoactwip1.jpg

Here is where I'm going with demon/deformation. At first I was putting a horn or two on his head and realized I wanted to be more creative and step back from the norm. I am drawing from the catfish for his demon face.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illoactwip2.jpg

I will definately keep updating, this is rough and it needs a lot of filling out and fixes.

Thanks again guys, you keep me going :) crits are more than welcome!

[Steph Laberis]

*gasp* Another cartoony artist girl with a love for nature! And another sketchbook that I'm subscribing to :)

You digital paint studies are so rich and compliment your life studies!

With your most recent work, I think the faster, smaller sketch of your bearded friend is working better than the more worked one. And honestly, the lack of teeth doesn't bother me, I almost think his personality reads as more jolly without 'em... :)

[bumskee]

nice update Marie, love the cloud studies.. clouds are nightmares I think, seems simple enough yet so damn confusing.. heh, keep at it, love the still life. :) hmmm looks hot.. keep us updated! cheers

[sly's hand]

I like your angels... My room to talk is nill ... I'm only droping by to say that I like them.

sly

[Marie]

willow-whisp yay! thank you :) your sketchbook is a big inspiration for me! And I know now not to be afraid of cute hehe.

I agree the little picture of dave is working better than the big one, you described him exactly! He is the most jolly of jolly persons there is, I'm very glad that came across. I had some proportion errors and it wasn't exact likeness, but was hoping to catch his spirt :)

bumskee aww thank you man, I love hearing from you :) Clouds are confusing, it seems the less I try the better they look, the more I try the more they look like popcorn, yet its hard to let loose like that.

Spicey hot food is the bomb too.

sly's hand Thanks so much for the compliment sly :) I am glad that you enjoy them.

Ok 3rd wip on the illustration activity, trying to fix facial issues and bring it together some. The clothing is proving difficult for some reason and it shouldn't be.

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illoactwip3.jpg

will keep posting updates :)

edit*will get updates asap, right now my kitten has an unhealthy fascination with the cursor and keeps hurling her body at my monitor... quite entertaining, time for a break! and slash I need to post that bird sculpt! yes.. must take pictures*

[MarkHarchar]

Hey Marie,
I was watching the progression of your illustration activity. One thing that you may want to look at doing is to make the guys mustache less hairy on the fish side and more like the whisker in order to bring a completely transformed look to that side of his face. Also, more catfish and pictures of catfish that I have seen have a small beady little pupils, rather than the walleye fish eye that you have. I do know what you are going for with it as it is, but you might want to test it out and see what works better. Good luck. It is coming along fine. :)

[madplanet]

Hi Marie, I agree that your cloud studies are coming along just fine. I like the orange in them. Whenever I draw clouds they seem so contrived. I guess I should just look up once in awhile, eh?

The Victorian catfish dude is looking cool. He should look more fishy, like he's wet and slimy. I don't know how you should go about that, so maybe I'll just shut up now. Keep up the good work, always enjoyable.

[hurricane]

great art ! you are one talented gal :)

cheers and i wish you the best of luck with your studies !!

i will drop by again for sure !

cheers !

[Marie]

hey thank you so much guys for the crits and words of encouragement :)

Here is an update on the victorian horror guy:

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illoactwip4.jpg

I'm so happy I got to work on him some, all day was spent fixing my wacom (i almost cried eek) it started acting like it was in mouse mode but the settings were all like they should be. Eventually I tried to remove the drives and reinstall (BIG mistake there), even the wacom tech guy couldn't help me. But he said something that caught my attnetion and after some fiddling was able to load a driver from a few updates back and I'm sticking with it as long as it works heh.

I didn't want the guy to be a catfish guy and was trying to draw from the catfish but not incorporate it totally. I added some of those feeler things, well one, on his head even though that wasn't on the catfish I looked at.

I do however take all your crits to heart! Hylandr2 I worked on the eye some, making it beadier. Its giving me a heck of time, hopefully I'll get it to work tomorrow morn, because I thin beadier might make it a bit more creepy.

Madplanet Slimy, hmmm, thats a good idea, it would be creepy and icky... bah see now I have to go mess with it again :) hehe, kidding, I love to experiment and I love all of the comments. It sure makes me see and think of things I was not before. (and don't ever shut up, I like to hear your opinion, it helps me out a lot!)

Expressionwise, I tried to make his normal side kind of sad looking and tired. I figured if you were walking around with a face like that... But I didn't want to lose the scariness of his beasty side, so I hope I could get across an angry look there too.

Hurricane Thank you so much! Now I just need to get near the output you have ... so I will work on not sleeping ;)

**random thought** Learned today that I have been saying WACOM wrong, now its so hard to change since its habit... its not WAY-com its.. its more like wah-come if that makes sense... I felt silly when I kept pronouncing it wrong to the tech guy***

[Marie]

So, its 1am and I am putting my image up that I have finished for now, in case something comes up and I can't do somre more work on it tomorrow or something...

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illustrationactivity0913.jpg

Here is the point that I re read the brief for the 50th time and realize that I got stuck at "classical portrait" and kept skimming over LINE WORK with greyscale shading inside... ack! Literally banged my head on keyboard (I would not suggest that to anyone)

ok so here and now my flu and I are going to lay down :zzz: wish I would of not done that, I don't feel its where I want it to be at all!

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illustrationactivityink.jpg

zzzzz

[madplanet]

Great job on the beard! It's all looking real good, but I'm not crazy about the line on the last one. Keep up the good work.

[Marie]

I agree the line was to put it bluntly, sucking :dead:

Sooo I did it over, new lines and grayscale, its more graphic in nature and doesn't look as crappy (i hope) as that other one (because I wasn't trying to cover up a mistake on this one heh)

http://neabez.home.comcast.net/postingart/illusactpenink.jpg

now, now I need a cheeseburger

Not sure why I couldn't sleep, but I think it had something to do with that ugly line version I did hehe

[solorpower]

The girl on the green sheet is fine, nothing wrong with it. It looks painterly which makes it artistic, and the green hues give it a "cool" feel. Your husband is right, please do not delete your art - use it to improve on it, plus you can reflect on it later on and see how much you are improving!

Very good work!

[Crane]

brilliant stuff! the hands are as been said, interesting and well rendered.
my fave has got to be the toad hawk tho, hehe.

Mr Mcfuckedupface is nice n weird too. post more! post faster! crit me! :yayca:

[Marcatili]

Hey Marie,
I hope you didn't take my crit in the Illustration Activity thread as a discouragement. Seeing the work in the context of your wips explains a lot- the lines weren't working simply because you added them in as an afterthought to fit into the project.
The version you've got right before you added the lines is looking great! The textures of his hair, beard and the mottled bits on his demon side work really well.
The other stuff you've got here in your sketchbook looks good too...
Hope to see your next attempt at the Illustration Activity cause I'm sure you'll come up with something great.

[Marie]

Just wanted to throw an apology out there for my absence and all the broken links!!

All crits I take as a great learning lesson and a compliment in that you guys cared enough to crit!

I've been in and out of the hospital and busy being sick (haha). NO excuse by any means to stop doing something I love, and feeling inadequate (can't control my motor skills) is no excuse, art is the one sore spot I'm trying to recognize "feeling sorry for myself" and stop that sh*t.

I'll put up a new sketchbook soon, need to move all of my art over to a new site with more room, just have to do it in the next few days.

Hiding and Avoiding CA really hurt me more than helped obviously. Hope you guys will take me back :)

[madplanet]

Damn, good to have you back Micky. I just pm'd ya before I saw that you posted and I'm sorry to hear about being sick (no apologies for that--please!). Take your time getting your sketchbook up and running again, but we'll look forward to when it is.
Welcome back. :)

[sve]

Welcome back, Marie! You were missed. No one can take your place in the forum, you are one and only. Looking forward to see your new sketchbook and your new work. Always a pleasure to see you posting. I hope you are feeling better and I'm sad you were sick and spent a lot of time in hospital.
Wish you all the best,
With great respect,
Sveta

[sabe2003]

This- is awesome.
http://neabez.home.comcast.net/art2/handstudy3.jpg
I dig the ones were you have multiple images on one page.

[Mag-Neo]

-... really nice sketch. Especially all of your hands sketch has quite good rendered, some hands are looks like alive, amazing stuff...more & more... GOODLUCK... :yayca: