Sketchy Bits and Pieces

[Cryslara]

Hey there!

I think it's about time I jumped into the community after hanging around in the background for so long. I'm a young Australian artist and I can't get enough of art, it's always been such a crazy joy for me. The people here are amazing and constantly inspire me. I have a long road ahead of me but it's all good fun.

I've been shy of posting here because of how limited my subject matter has been to this point but in beginning to branch out I think I could learn a lot from just being here. I'm trying to challenge myself and get away from my safe subjects.

I love feedback and critique and I'm pretty hard to offend. I appreciate any thoughts.

Just to kick things off, I'll post a couple of my paintings.


A little critter I'm rather fond of.
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Another critter, a bit of practice with values and edges.
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This one was my entry to a contest Wacom held through DeviantArt earlier in the year. The story behind it is basically about the girl forgiving the kelpie who drowns her - the theme of the contest was 'Good Vs Evil' and I'm big on personal perceptions in all that kind of thing.
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And this was a private commission for a 21st birthday present, I had free reign on this so I included a lot of fun little things. I have such a love of Magpies.
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Thanks for dropping by!

[Saelyra]

So nice to see your work on here! I'll have to keep an eye on this thread.

I can never think of much to critique about your work, it's a bit too far ahead for my eye to catch much as 'off', haha. All I can think of at the moment is that the science/world builder part of my brain wasn't sure how to classify the recent bird critter- is it supposed to be based on any particular variety or just a general avian variant? I think the beak shape was confusing me a bit since I can't quite place it, but my ornithology is pretty amateur as it is.

I've always been really blown away by your use of color. It all just seems to compliment in a way that's natural yet still intriguing. Do you just tend to experiment until you find something that works? I remember you talking about adjustment layers once, but is that an active part of the process for you or more something to mess with later? And lastly, do you plan much in terms of standard color theory tricks? Like triadic or split complimentary or whatever... Sorry to go into questions on your thread rather than just crit, but I'm very curious. And perhaps someone else will stumble past and find it useful, heh.

[sanakris]

You have some amazing work that you are hiding. Reveal as much as you can. The clouds in your commission are well rendered and beautiful. Main focal points in the drawing really stand out, and atmospheric perspective in the renderings add but don't take away from the main focus. Keep it up. Really hope to see more of your work. :) and Welcome to CA

[LieutenantHanz]

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Everything you produce is absolutely radiant. I adore the warm tones. :)

[fionkell]

Hey, whereabouts in Oz are you from? I'm a Newcastle bogan :)

You're very good with bird anatomy, it's nice to see that there are people who pay attention to proper wing structure instead of throwing feathers on some limbs and calling them wings heh heh.

What I notice from your work here is that you tend to stick within certain ranges of colour, and generally your backgrounds serve as a supplementary atmosphere to the main figure/s. It'd be cool to see you tackle a harshly-lit environment, or some more inorganic surfaces in a scene, and just play around with different colours. Various environment studies and the like, the same scene at different time of day or weather.

Hopefully you don't mind my crits, you've got some great talent here!

[Alisa]

Your paintings are absolutely gorgeous, so excited to see your sketches! Thanks for finally jumping in :-) you are very welcome here!

[Cryslara]

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

Saelyra: In truth the most recent bird critter is of a fairly indeterminate origin, I was impatient to paint at the time so he has pretty superficial thought put into his traits. Your question has made me thoughtful about fantasy birds in specific niches though. That's seeming like a particularly fun area to explore.

I've always used an intuitive approach to colour with some basic colour theory knowledge but I'd like to expand this and recently I've been delving more into learning the technical side of things. So to this point I haven't used any of the standard tricks but I'd like to experiment with them.

As for my process at the moment, it varies a little! Sometimes it's rather haphazard because I jump in before considering the mood of the piece. I tend to build up colours through the painting, I don't have much skill with picking things that I want right off the bat and this is something I'm working on. Sometimes I'll use adjustment layers right at the start to experiment with a bunch of different colour schemes to find one that feels right. Other times I'll use them to give things a little more kick at the end.

Overall though I try not to rely on them too much - they're a handy tool that can save me time and give paintings that little bit of something extra but I'm always working on my own colour knowledge so that they don't become a crutch.

Sanakris: Thank you! I'll certainly be posting more here as often as I can, it's an inspiring place.

LieutenantHanz: Aww, thanks. I have a fondness for warm colours, though I'm trying to branch out more!

iolarnula: I didn't know you were an Aussie! Well, I think I did but had forgotten - I've enjoyed seeing your work around the place in the past. I'm from up on the North Coast though I did spend my early childhood down south of Sydney.

You've given some fantastic advice there, thank you. Environments are one of the areas I'm planning to focus on and I'll take your suggestions for exercises to heart here. I'd love to be able to paint stand alone environments.

Alisa: Thank you, I feel welcome!

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I was going to post some actual sketches with this post but there seems to be a big storm coming in, so I'll be back with some later.

[Cryslara]

Here's a bunch of digital scribbles from the last few months to flesh out my sketchbook a little. From here on I should be posting things as I do them. Categorising these showed that I need to do a bunch more observational drawings than I have been.

I sketch traditionally more than I do digitally but I'm lacking a working scanner so for now it's digital stuff!

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[Cryslara]

Some pages from my sketchbook from the past few months since I snapped a few photos this morning.
I've been drawing my cats a lot recently. I find it's a good exercise in trying to record movement quickly because they don't tend to stop washing themselves and flailing about the place. Also, I just love my cats.

I've also been trying to get back into simply drawing and working out forms with line rather than the broad shapes that I've become rather reliant on in painting.
And there's a few studies from 'Anatomy Drawing School' scattered through here.

Critique is always welcome!

[Cryslara]

Some sketches and studies I've been doing between work. I've been focusing on colour recently as well as trying to expand on my environments more because I feel very limited here. I'm trying to branch out into different sorts of lighting and scenes to what I'm accustomed to - next on the list is to try some cityscapes.

I'm very much open to advice! =)

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These two are referenced directly from photos, found online.
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And a quick little piece of paid work:
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[Inishmore]

What beautiful work you got there. I love the colours and lighting you use. Will be following this sketchbook for sure. :)

[pepokish]

You've got some really beautiful stuff, here -- and some fantastic creature designs. I absolutely admire the first creature you posted; his wings are so lovely. Keep it up!

[lkjhgfdsa]

Cool! Very good work and the sketchbook hands are sweet, Good show!