Emily's book of Sparkles

[emilylorange]

I've gotten really out of practice, so I decided last night I should start a sketchbook here and try to post to it every day.

I've found lately I'm not pleased with anything I do from my head, so I decided to start with found object still life until I got my old control and concentration back.

One hour speed paint in photoshop - which last night I was pleased with, but this morning can plainly tell I'm still bad at symmetry, and the glass isn't sitting right 'in space'. It's rather misshapen and floaty, in fact. But, by gonnit, I DID SOMETHING :D

[sarbro]

it looks good!
love the colour you used.
Should upload more if you want your work to be commented on

[FightingSeraph]

It may not be as bad as you make it out to be, but I like how you managed to find out what's wrong with it. Just keep practicing the fundamental bits and pieces.

[emilylorange]

Allrighty. Was planning another quick still life yesterday but instead found myself inexplicably inspired at work. So I sketched out something and spent a few hours last night painting over it. Anatomy's not great and I'm bit embarrassed it's so messy, but both those things can be worked on ^^

[phoenicorn]

I wouldn't be embarrassed about the anatomy. I love the style and hope to see more of this kind of work. Keep it up.

[BlackDelphin]

First of all, THERE'S NOTHING TO BE EMBARRASSED ABOUT!!!!!!!
You're here to learn, you draw, you get better n you keep at it!

We all have to start somewhere, no?! :D
And heck! You seem to have a fine start! Anatomy is not to shabby, colours and values too. Now lets see you finish this baby up!! :cheerleader:

The only think i would like to point out, would be the hair. It seems a bit to up and away from the skull in an unnatural way.
Try looking at some images; it could help..

ps. i tried finding something myself, and the best i could do was this (http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs15/f/2007/071/6/b/Snow_White_4_by_Iardacil_stock.jpg). but it explains my point about the unnatural feel..
Hope i was of any help and congrats on starting a sketchbook!!!! :)

[emilylorange]

Some figure drawing from a photo found in a google search. I have a book of foreshortened poses I need to find kicking around here somewhere. THose would be good if I could find it o.o And a little more work on the green thing.

Thanks for your crits and encouragement :3 Not trying to ignore you, just have a WoW raid atm XD

[BlackDelphin]

The proportions of that figure seem a bit off, and the left shoulder seems to be in an uncomfortable position.. great values n cross-hatching though; nice lifework too
guess nothing major that can't be fixed with more concentration

so yeah! post more!! more anatomy n figures :meow:
ps. may i ask what caused the wow raid? i had it myself for a while, but now i have it under control; just curious to see what's yours

[glaudarien]

Pretty good start so far! Need some more posts to give a better critique but i think the best tip i can give is to just remember to keep using reference pics as much as possible, wiehter you copy it straight off, or use only parts of the image it will help you massivly to recognise things like porportion, light, colour and detail.. just aslong as you use good references (not too heavily edited for example) keep it up, i'll come back when you have some more :)

[emilylorange]

Not a lot of time last night, but I did find my foreshortening book so I did a bit of work from that. I suck at men folk, so, tada, men folk.

The foreshortened one is under exaggerated. And this guy has extremely flat feet. It's bizarre. Also flash photos suck for dynamic lighting :(

Edit: LOL andddd all of these are showing me that I need to adjust the contrast setting of the monitor at home. GG

[emilylorange]

Another figure work from my foreshortening book. This one's decent except my complete lack of planning meant it went off the page. Hope to update you on my little nymph girl tomorrow.

[emilylorange]

Finally had some time to sit down.

sarbro - Thank you ^^

FightingSeraph - I probably exaggerate a bit. In the face of so many talented artists, it's very hard to be confident. But thank you for your kind words.

phoenicorn - Thanks!

BlackDelphin - Thanks for the advice and the thoughts concerning her hair. I decided to keep it the way it was, mostly because the entire piece falls under weiiiiird, but I do appreciate your thoughts on the matter :3 I agree that there's something a bit off with the figure you critiqued but I'm not sure quite what, it was a bizarre photo. Maybe I should find the original and flip it so I can see what's wrong.

glaudarien - Thanks for the advice on references! I'm in the major habit of drawing from my head, so I probably *should* try harder to work from 'life'.


Anyway. I had time to put another hour into my weird thing. She's getting close to done as far as I'd pictured her, but I'm starting to wonder if I should put in a background. Not my strong point, but I suppose the practice would be good for me. Probably a bog or forest thing with similar colors but lighter values so she pops nicely.

I'm also a bit peeved with myself, because I really should have used more compliments in her shading, but I do still like her a great deal.

[HondaFoo]

Good work so far Emily, and I especially like your pencil sketches. I would like to see some work from life with that same sensibility to value and line!

[Ununquadium]

that crosshatching looks awesome. I wish i could do that... looks so effortless, yet efficient.

[Rich_C]

The face on your green lady painting is cool, hope you work on the rest of it as a full piece - should be a good one!

[emilylorange]

HondaFoo - Thank you, maybe I should do a self portrait this weekend. Haven't done one in a long while!

Ununquadium - I can only do that sort of crosshatching in pencil. If I try it with ink I think I'm too scared of screwing up, so I get all tight and the results are blah! ><

Rich_CThe - I think she's almost done! A few more hours should just about do it :3

Got in another hour on my little nymphish thing. Decided to go ahead and try to give her a background.

Also you're all going to hate me a bit, but I took on two World of Warcraft related projects. So that's probably most of what you'll see the next two to three weeks, but I'll try to mix it up with other things. But feel free to chide me all you want for essentially doing fanart! Because it does indeed make me very naughty :3

The first is a group of ten characters that will eventually be put together, but I'm drawing each separately so that their owners can each have an individual finished drawing. Started off last night with an orc shaman. I hate how my linart is always hard to read >< She's most of the way through her clean up, should be able to throw flat color on her soon.

[BlackDelphin]

Sometimes i just flip the drawing i did and i can sometimes see what's wrong. Worth a try :)

The wip of that chick is starting to look good, but she seems so thin..needs a bit more of a back.
Makes her head look big because of it.

Aaah i've been so picky on that piece :^^;:
Keep them coming! :D

[emilylorange]

BlackDelphin - No worries my dear! You're absolutely right, her head's huge XD I'm not at a place where I want to fix it, but you are very, very right :3


Last night I got in another 45 minutes on my green thing. I think another hour or two to get the last few details in should do it. Yay! Decided to give her a nice real background, and for something I did fast, I really like it o.o

Also spent a lot of time sketching 7 of the 10 characters to go into that huge WoW piece. Two more tonight and I can throw armor on them, clean them, and prep them for color.

This weekend we'll see if I have time to finish off greenie and start on the second WoW piece, as well as do some observation work - maybe a self portrait, but still life involves less moving furniture. Maybe I need to get a smaller mirror. lol

[emilylorange]

Didn't have a whole lot of time to myself yesterday. But I did a sketch comp for both of the larger pieces, whoo. And got the last two characters of the first giant one sketched out. Now I need to start blocking out one and cleaning up the others XD

[emilylorange]

Bah.

Nymph girl = DONE. Has problems but I'm very pleased with her.

Undead warlock portion of larger warcraft image done.

Started blocking out the second warcraft project but don't really like it. Am considering trying a different method.

[emilylorange]

Didn't have nearly as much time this weekend as I'd hoped for :<

More work on the larger piece. After this I should do a lot of observation.

[Icecold]

Whoo Whoo, i'll be definitely coming here more often, and i see Cristina's here before me ! ;D

I enjoy that style very much, and world of warcraft fanart's always nice too look at, It's such a rich world. Oh and stars from ICE!

[Mr.Alamo, C.]

lovely stuff,Emily,try to clean lineart a bit and concentrate weght on main planes,
it helps to concentrate attention of viewer,
keep it up!!!
Andreas

[AlexEh]

Great start to your sketchbook, I'd love to see some more still lifes comeing our way :D Keep it up.

[dhilipsomesh]

cool work good job
my sketch book (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72098&page=11)

[BlackDelphin]

Hehe yes i did find this sketchbook before you nyanya nnn nyanya! :D

And now the serious part. xD
I see you finished that drawing, and it looks good. Tough you should check the proportions from the beginning to avoid stuff like this.

Nice further updates too. More! :D

[emilylorange]

Sorry for the long time no post m'dears! I spent the last week arguing with the gas company over whether or not I had heat (guess what? I won the argument. HURF DURF).

So some more stupid work on that series of warcraft characters and a little more work out of my foreshortening book.

I promise after I'm done with all this there will be some observation work, like the good girl I am >>

[Mecha-shiva]

For the next to last pic, where is the figure's other arm? :/

[emilylorange]

For the next to last pic, where is the figure's other arm? :/

Edit: Ah, next to last. Like I said, worst lineartist ever. It's supposedly raised across the chest. Shading will help I hope.

[Kasei]

Oh hey, I like your style a lot! You get some really nice, clean work at the finished stage, I'm envious. Keep posting, I love your figure studies!

[style33]

i liked your all pencil works congrats emily :D

[mike butkus]

You have a very good sense of design, color and composition, good work.

[Majora]

solid sketchbook so far, keep it up :)

[Mecha-shiva]

Ah, okay.
I was hoping I didn't come off as ignorant but I couldn't really see it because it was completely blended into the frontpiece of the armor.

[jaredsalmond]

cool stuff! Really liking the costume design!

[Metal Fingers]

Nice designs and colors. I really dig the renders where you are just coloring in the linework, great stuff.

[emilylorange]

Eeek, a flood of people! Hello people! Thank you for your kind words :3

I'm afraid every once and a while I get this impression in my brain that I want to be a comic artist. Which fades quickly after I try and fail at layout (lol doing all the drawings separately and then shopping them together is cheating, right?).

So last night was just a bunch of thumbnailing. I felt a bit bad because it wasn't a lot of thumbnails but it took me some time, so I'm throwing in some older thumbnails as well. The old ones are especially great because they're out of order. YAY.

It's also kind of clear I lose interest fast, because the first 2-3 of both sets have nice contrast and then the rest are dumb scribbles. grr.

Maybe my problem is I want to do everything at once :P

[emilylorange]

Okay, so, actual drawings. Always a good thing.

Started out last night with a little more study work. The most problematic part of male anatomy for me is the legs, so I found a good pose that really had defined leg muscles, and proceeded to murder it.

Some more color work on one of the little pinup drawings. Color somehow gave her a lazy eye >< Will fix when I finish it tonight.

And here's where I admit my childhood dream was to be an animator for Disney, and of course they were in the process of closing all their studios in favor of milking Pixar for all it's worth when it was time for me to pick a college, so I gave up on it. May not have been a bad decision, as the animation industry is hell for just about anyone with creativity working in it at the moment. Still a bit depressing tho.

Instead I just draw stupid cartoon things and pretend my life has any direction whatsoever.

[emilylorange]

Borf.

Another foreshortening study of manly legs. Tried a different method of cleanup so there shouldn't be random gray splooches.

Finished coloring the one pinup but wasn't able to fix the issue of her arm dissappearing into the chest. Though it's a little better. Hopefully in the final image the object she's resting her hands on will help.

Started the next pinup as well. Egotistical elves yayyyyy.

[erdbeerfeldheld]

Hey Emily! I like your style. Your characters look very lively and you aren't afraid of difficult poses. Good work! Some of your coloured pieces lack focus though ... Don't put the same amount of detail everywhere. Lead the viewer's eye with finished/less finished areas. Makes the pic more interesting =)

[Sweron]

:) some really nice art you have here.

I like your blue lady, stylish and nice variations of blue color.

Second, what I admire even more are you lines both traditional and digital.
What I want to know how you achieve it in digital medium and end up with such a nice painted cartoonish (or wow-ish :P) work? I would like to know if there are some tuts that helped you learn this, since I'm intrested in that style too.

Come visit my sketches sometimes :)

[Sweron]

:) some really nice art you have here.

I like your blue lady, stylish and nice variations of blue color.

Second, what I admire even more are you lines both traditional and digital.
What I want to know how you achieve it in digital medium and end up with such a nice painted cartoonish (or wow-ish :P) work? I would like to know if there are some tuts that helped you learn this, since I'm intrested in that style too.

Come visit my sketches sometimes :)

OH sorry for double post, I don't know how it ended up being posted twice. I'll report it myself so they delete it :)

[emilylorange]

erdbeerfeldheld - Indeed they do, indeed they do. I'll keep this in mind for later works.

Sweron - Thankyou! I'm afraid it's mostly self taught, though I can try to put something together if there's something in particular you're interested in.

Not much today. I was reaaaally sucking at anything and everything I drew. So I gave up and did an easier figure study, and also managed a simple scribble, mostly for the purposes of getting the outfit recorded. I'm going to try to ink it by hand. I LIVE ON THE EDGE.

[Royzy]

Great figure studies! Also really like how the green piece has come out. Keep up updating :D

[Klaw]

Nice Sketchbook Emily! I clicked here randomly, and was pleasantly surprised: I actually checked the whole thing. I really like your green bog girl you started in the beginning. NIce work! Keep going!

[emilylorange]

Well I fell off the wagon.

And just to be irritating I decided to get back on with furry fanart. Mock me as necessary, I'm just happy to be painting again.

Playing with perspective and working with less reliance on... lines (lol gotta start somewhere).

[Klaw]

These ducks are pretty intense. (love the expressions) Go for it! Now keep Going!
:)

[emilylorange]

Here ya go, something you'll like and something you won't.

2 hour speedpaint in photoshop of part of last night's dinner (...it turned out they weren't nearly as good as they look >:|). The bowl's wonky, and I think I know how I could have fixed it. Also I clearly got tired of it in a few places. BAD ARTIST.

And more of my worthless furry shenanigans that everyone should ignore. lol

Edit: Oh! I didn't see you sneak in there! Thank you Klaw ^^

[papervampire]

very nice work, you're work has a whimsical feeling that I enjoy, keep it up!

[kmoeini]

Nice update. You have a very cool style.

[PurplePlatypus]

Nice figure studies, keep them up. I like the one with the duck people, it has a nice feel to it, I’ll have to stick around and see it when it’s finished :)

[Steve G.]

Man I loved the Migthy Ducks when I was a little brat, always watched them before going to bed, thanks for the memories and it looks promising, I can't wait for the finished piece ;)

[emilylorange]

Steve G. - Haha nothing like a little recapture of your childhood.
PurplePlatypus - Thank you, hopefully I can finish it soon ^^
kmoeini - Thank you ^^
papervampire - Annnd thank you as well. I think that may be the first time someone called my work 'whimsical', but I rather like the descriptor.

I didn't have a lot of time to myself yesterday but I was able to go through the little folder I carry around as a sketchbook these days and scan in the scribbles I'd done at work.

So, drawings from photos and my brain of redwing blackbirds.
Doodle of a gnome warlock having a bit of a psychotic episode I should finish.
Me trying to ink something and failing miserably.... that needs to be cleaned up.
The same thing only with worse anatomy and hiding my mistakes with color.
Mostly head of Blair's Jerry and Avery's Bugs Bunny from old model sheets. And a gopher, which I promise you aren't that cute in real life.

[emilylorange]

Last night was a bit of an offnight. Nothing produced of great note.

Got back to the wee elf, tried screwing with mixed media on the view outside my window, and worked some more from old Bugs drawings.

[Billion]

Im guessing you play wow also ..lol Anyways looks good your sketches are coming along nice keep it up !

[emilylorange]

Billion - Yep! And thank you :3

Didn't have a lot of drawing juices last night, but decided I should do more manleg studies, since I really suck at them. Still. So I grabbed my foreshortening book and did a pair of scribbles before bed.

[Mr.Alamo, C.]

like this comic stuff,very nice sb!
Regards,Andreas

[emilylorange]

Mr.Alamo, C. - Thank you dear ^^

Started in on a study of a flower on my desk, before it gets all wilty and gross. Think I'll be able to finish it tonight. I fucked up pretty hardcore on the image dimensions/DPI, but it still looks nice. lol

[emilylorange]

Finished up my study of the flower sitting on my desk ^^

[Klaw]

Nice job on the flower! More Ducks please! :)

[maeshanne]

the flower and the tree girl look great

[emilylorange]

Thanks for the praise guys.

I'm afraid yesterday was an off day for me. spent a lot of time farting around trying to get a pose right for a painting and failed at it. ohwell.

[Seraph Fawkes]

Ookay... Great sketchbook. No-no... Really good rendering! And WoW FTW! Anyway I like you style - it's already distinctive and ehm... style'ish? ) Keep doing what you doing, but...

Also try do some more enviros (it will help, I guarantee it!), and do realistic faces. I mean, even if your goal is to become cartoon\comic artist, knowing and being able to do realistic faces\bodies is necessary.

Anyway - great sb, try do post more, and... why not? Some stars for you! Great job )

p.s. too bad not enough votes (

[emilylorange]

Seraph Fawkes - blah environments. But probably should. Maybe speedpaints based off google searches? I guess it's better than nothing. As for faces, I was thinking my next study should be a self portrait, and spent last night trying to devise a reflective surface that would work. ALSO Stars! Oooooh stars! Thank you ^^

Last night I flailed around at this and was hating it, until about 15 minutes before I really should have gone to bed. Curse you, muse. ohwellz

Some obvious need for corrections became apparent, but I also realized it's pretty close to being done. Beyond refining the background and finishing off their legs, the rest of going to be solid color. Ossim.

[emilylorange]

Didn't really feel like I had the control to finish up the duckie painting, which is more tight... so I grabbed a photo out of a google image search and did a speedpainting of it for about 1.5 hours. Screwed up a lot on proportions and values, but... I guess it looks ok.

[emilylorange]

I wonder if I can get this stupid thing done by the weekend.

[Jamie Romoser]

really diggin those updates :sungod:

[emilylorange]

OmertA - Thank you^^

Anyway not a lot of time to myself yesterday, but was able to get a little done. Worked a bit on a sketch from above and got it into a point where I think I'll finish it off.

Also started a piece that I've owed someone foreverrrrrrrrrr of their warcraft character, since I figured I should finish those before I take commissions. I was all YAY until I realized I'd given her the same pose as one of the images earlier in this thread and went 'really, self? really?'. So haha I drew in a new leg in a way you'll totally be unable to tell >>

Not sure what I think of it yet. I guess it has potential. Need to fix the faceeeee.

[Ivan Turcin]

I want to see the last piece finished! So far it looks very good. Wander how it will look like in the end. Overall nice sketchbook you have here. Keep up the good work!

[emilylorange]

Ivan Turcin - Lol, I'd like to see it done too! Thank you ^^



This thing is getting to the point where if someone broke into my home and completed it for me, they'd be welcome to the m&ms in the fridge.

[emilylorange]

It was a packed weekend, so I didn't have a chance to work as much as I wanted. Oh well. *scuttle away*

[Flashback]

you have a really nice sketchbook here. I like your characters.

[Seraph Fawkes]

Hey just tell where do you and I'll do it for you ^____^

But seriously - it's almost finished and it looks great, and I do mean it! Also - nice night elf ) Have you ever featured somewhere, like fan art gallery at blizz?

[emilylorange]

Flashback - Thank you ^^

Seraph Fawkes - Thank you, and to answer the question not really. I got an honorable mention in their comic contest for http://www.darkelementals.com/altz/altz8.jpg some years ago. But nothing special. lol

Anyway. The stupid image is as done as it's getting. RAR.

Also some fast studies of bird skulls, for a bit of variety, and the bottom is me going 'I wanna draw a robot. Goddamnit I have no idea how to do a robot'.

[Seraph Fawkes]

Is that your strip? I've seen it, and it was great! Made me laugh for a while )

Good to see that image finished... Though maybe some gradient map of curvature play might give it something.. argh, whatever - good work!

[waffles!]

Very nice work! I can't manage to play games and do art anymore. Games (specially mmos/fps) just eat up all my time to the point where I don't wanna do art anymore. Good for you and I'm really digging your styles, the colours are rich and the figures are coming nicely. Your perspective on the duck piece looks a little off on your duck piece. Keep up the good work!

[Maerrick]

Great work! i love the confidence you have in your hard edge brushes!

[emilylorange]

Maerrick - Thank you ^^ I'm having a lot of fun with them. I haven't done anything beyond cel 'shading' in a long time, so this is a step up from that ^^

waffles! - It's a lot of time management. I have scheduled raids most nights and a bit of grinding afterward, but I don't make up stuff to do. It's easier now because WoW's getting towards the end of its expansion and there isn't much left to do that I haven't done already. Anyway, thanks for the honest feedback ^^

Seraph Fawkes - Well, it's a shame that Blizz didn't agree with you! XD

Anyway, figured that since I spent a lot of time on a silly piece, my next should be more observation. So beginnings of a still life.

I think my problems with proportions come from compartmentalizing far too early in the process, before the base drawing is 'correct'. I'll keep it in mind in the future. HAS A CANDY DISH.

I'm probably going to be out the next couple of days without net, so have a good weekend all!

[emilylorange]

I took a long weekend and did nothing. And it felt great. lol

Anyway, back to the still life, I suppose. Obvious lopsidedness that I guess I'll try to work on tonight. CIRCLES ARE HARD KAY

[Aut0n]

Really good stuff! I love the hard edges on your paintings, and the colors are fantastic. Don't be so down on yourself, it's good to be critical of one's own work, but as long as you're giving it your best and making an effort to improve, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Keep it up, I'd love to see more!

Also, do you paint in Photoshop? What kind of brushes do you use?

[emilylorange]

Aut0n - Thank you for the encouragement ^^ Most of this work is in photoshop, and funnily enough it's just a default round brush at 70%. Which I know is limiting. I wish I knew the secret to using custom brushes effectively, mine always look dumb :D



Anyway, last night I was feeling very blah about that still life, so I decided to poke at a project I thought about over the weekend, of sort of doing a bestiary of local wildlife, but choose weirder things and mix them together in a fantastical way. Being in the Rocky Mountains, my first idea was a ROCK BEAST. And then I was like MY MARKERS ARE PRETTY. And then I accidentally made something that was supposed to be crude and rocky look like a coral creature with badly drawn hands.

Ah well, it was fun anyway.

*mutter mutter still life*

[emilylorange]

In a blah mood today with a migraine. SO have some sparse work at my robot thing. I think to get the effect I want I'll actually have to study muscle structure more closely.

But maybe not while my brain is dancing around and revolting.

I don't know what I'm going to do about that still life. Just thinking about working on it annoys me :/

[Aresa]

Loving your work! Your paintings are coming along well and your linework is great. Keep at it and can't wait to see some more from you! :)

[Naidy]

Woah! I love this sketchbook, the subjects you've used are really interesting (WoW ftw!) and you show loads of talent.
Keep up the good work! :D

[emilylorange]

Naidy - Thank you ^^

Anyway I'm a bit blah this week, but ohwellz. More attempts at my robot, and I think I managed something like SUPER ASTRO BOY...

Doodle that I started trying to color last night and ended up with a weeeird androgynous face so I'll try again sometime. lol

And throwing color at that blood elf thing, not really sure what to do about value. oh well.

[Seraph Fawkes]

Wanted to say - you have interesting approach to coloring and painting. However I'd advise to try speedpainting and loosen your colors.

Anyway nice BE, though a little plumpy.

Cheers!

[AlexTooth]

Nice work, I love the duck characters! Moar :)

[Abrodos]

Good works! On your paintings, such as the 3 ducks one and the last one, I'd suggest to define space first, and to do it using large colour shapes. Once you've got the space defined, it'll be much easier to think in 3d. Those flat surfaces are an obstacle to take this step. Other than that, I'm liking your work:) Keep at it!

[element1988]

truely amazing work, love the ducks heh

[Bolo]

Wow the Mighty Ducks, I haven't see that show in ages. Great studies. Keep developing that style and keep having fun :)

[FightingSeraph]

I can see that you have made a bit of progress so far. However, it would help if you did a few more studies.

[emilylorange]

FightingSeraph - Hmm. I appreciate the honest opinion, but your statement is a bit vague. Is there something in particular you think I should be studying? Or just that I should on the whole be doing more studies than doodles?
Bolo - Thank you ^^
element1988 - Annnnd thank you as well ^^
Abrodos - I have a real problem going into detail before I should. Focusing on blocking everything out first would probably help, you're right!
AlexTooth - I'm tryyyyying lol XD
Seraph Fawkes - Belf likes cake! Why don't you!? ;) Good suggestions though, thanks!

Anyway this week I've been really lacking on inspiration and motivation, and thought I'd combine the suggestions of speedpainting and studying. So I sat down for an hour with a photograph of ROCKS (don't make fun of me man I fuckin love rocks). About halfway through my hand was like NO MORE PLZ... I guess it was mad I made it lead an Icecrown raid earlier.

On the whole, once again got too far into detail before I shoulda. Ohwell. I sort of looks cool. From a distance. >>

[emilylorange]

OH....riiiiiiight.

[Mahran]

OH....riiiiiiight.

You're a greeaaatttt artist! The main figure looks very cool, this piece has great potential!
Keep 'em coming

[emilylorange]

Mahran - Thank you dear XD

Ughhh. You know the worst thing about slumps isn't the guilt, it's how stiff I am when I come back.

[AliceA]

I like your style in the still life paintings, and I also like your green lady from the first posts a lot...I am so bad at that kind of things, so I am taking your works as inspiration, and hoping to progress :D

[fudgeloaf]

Hey thought i'd stop by your SB great work so far really good quality of line in your photo studies, and your ducks (mighty ducks right?) are showing great progress dont give up on the painting. Keep at it! I look forward to seeing more beaks soon :D

[emilylorange]

AliceA - Aww, thank you dear. I don't know if I've ever been called an inspiration before. :)

fudgeloaf - Lol yep, Mighty Ducks. Thank you very much ^^

Still trying to get back into the swing of things. Again. >>

So yesterday I drew a stupid pinup of my guild leader in an improvement of the style I used on my wow comics. What I've discovered is wrinkles are really funny. I don't know why! They just are.... and then tried at studying a cityscape (failing badly XD). It's a huge weakpoint for me but I want to do comics set in the LA area so I'd better learn *rarrr*

[Jamie Romoser]

cool sketchbook Emily dig the wow stuff have you ever enterd any to the wow fan art page?
keep it up looking forward to seeing more :)
have a good one
-Jamie

[emilylorange]

OmertA - I've considered it but haven't submitted anything yet. Thanks for stopping by ^^

Finally felt confident enough to get back to the belf piece and made some headway before realizing I hate the composition. yayyyyyyy.

And then sketches, because dammit, I drew them.

[pixel cheetah]

Hi Emily! I like your cartoony style, keep it up! The composition of the last pics is fine IMO, it is just her left leg that seems to be out of place. Did she break it during the fight? :P

[emilylorange]

Oh man who's been hella productive.

THAZ RIGHT.

pixel cheetah - Lol I noticed that yesterday as well. She will be fixed before she's done :)

Today we start off with a really bad city scribble. Oh well.

I've found a group of artists that have been really good for my productivity. Yesterday they introduced me to posemaniacs.com, which has a collection of 3d renders of the human muscle system in a variety of poses. There's even a simple flash tool that displays a random assortment for 30 seconds each, which is the closest I've gotten to gesture drawings in years.

I'm not very good at it, but got a bit better after about 20 minutes. I don't really value gesture drawings so yeah, I drew on top of everything XD This really loosened up my hand though, which made for a really enjoyable night of drawing in pencil (my back was really hurting, so I couldn't comfortably work at the computer last night).

I think I've managed to order these as I did them. Not sure.

I 'refined' the lines for 0-6 of Breakaway (stupid comic thing), so now they has clothes. These will probably be cleaned and ordered over the weekend. I tried, once, to draw the comic panels as my thumbnails laid it out. I can't. I hate it. They look terrible. So they're all individual drawings that get pasted together.


That's only half the page though, the other half (and the beginnings of the next page) got sketched last night. Rumors that I had to resort to images of raptor jesus to figure out how to draw the foot are exaggerated. Also for the first time I'm like, excited about this thing instead of guilty. After these two pages of NOT VERY GOOD PLOT I get to start having fun with my own characters.

Eep! And then I was like 'Wait I was supposed to do study stuff tonight' and did some work out of my foreshortening atlas. Because I still fail at male legs.

[emilylorange]

Did some posemaniacs last night but no really access to a scanner atm so those will wait for monday.

Did some cleanup and color and layout on a comic page yayyyy.

[NewGuy22]

Another fan of the ducks and wow fanart. Read over everything...you said you did not like the minor characters in you Belf piece? Is that right? Perhaps make them other players of the alliance ...maybe the new werewolf, male dwarf, female gnome, Draenei male if you can pull it, etc. I would sorta agree (so I'm hoping that is what you meant lol..) and would rather see something more sorc/warrior trying to drive home through her... *shrugs*..Cannot wait till I can make something of that caliber. And like duh. I totally want to go watch might ducks now....fuck. They got it on youtube? ..undead male priest ftw. PEACE ><

[emilylorange]

NewGuy22 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2273871771920314953# and the related videos should all be relevant.

Did some sketching that again, I can't scan til monday.

Also started work on a new vector image.... that I'd like to use as sort of a logo. We'll see. The color isn't anywhere cloe to done, just screwing around.

[emilylorange]

So for you today is some posemaniacs and a partial cleanup of that last panel. Don't really like the focal point. Will fix in photshop I think.

[emilylorange]

Well, lot's of stuff to make up for yesterday's silence.

Had my tablet with me at work so, two speed paintings. Trying to ease myself into more urban subject matter. I can do natural environments pretty well, but man made stuff is still a bit blah.

So a scene at an outdoor mall and a bit of rainy highway, from photographs found online.

(I love the stupid car blobs you have no idea. lol)

Also did some more gestures with posemaniacs (still suck at it). I think they're a bit better but I was distracted last night by the fact that the colored sharpies smell worse than the black ones could possibly ever hope to achieve.

Then did some work on my blood elf. Not a lot - was distracted often by my boyfriend's StarCraft II campaign next to me. But worked on fixing her dislocated leg and tried to get some work in on the foreground.

[emilylorange]

Yesterday was a day of screwing around, I guess.

More gestures, and then slapping color on a sketch from earlier. WHY? Because I can.

[emilylorange]

Was over analyzing life last night and couldn't focus, so the gestures are worse than ever.

Also got in another hour on the belf thing. Not a lot, but I can almost see the home stretch!

[emilylorange]

What an amazingly unproductive weekend.

(hey, you know it's going to be a good day when your sole source of joy is your first dentist visit in five years that ended in a declaration of no cavities and perfect floss technique. lol)

[emilylorange]

Because it's totally relevant to everyone everywhere, I made a mess of my notepad at work and was like 'oooooh'. I think I have a use for the result. HA

Also more gestures. I still really suck at them. Who'd have known.

On the upside I'm more confident with sharpies. So I scribbled out a bit of an idea. One's sort of a basic splot of a moon environment, the other's a quick light study from a photo taken of Buzz Aldrin on the moon. You do not fuck with Buzz Aldrin. He punched someone in the face in 2002 for calling the moon landing a fake. Bad. Ass.

[Flapenko]

1) I really like your sketchbook, very progressive and looks lovely, in a wonderful style.
2) Its really nice how you say what you have done and where the pictures came from, really gives insight into your working mind and also helps others a real insight into where to get started and also some ideas on how to work.
3) Thank you for helping me be a better artist by looking here.

I am afraid as someone who isn't as good I cannot give any advice but to keep going, your doing great as far as I can see =)

[Seraph Fawkes]

Hey, how it's going? Lil crit, though I understand that you probably don't have enough time to paint, anyway - you doing you big pieces bit too long. I mean it's not bad thing, but at pro level you have to go at highspeed. Neverming though, speed not always necessery and I gues you don't like to hurry.

However, if you interested in speeding things up, you try to speedpaints very speedly (f*ck too many "speed"words). By putting yourself in 20-30-40 minutes borders you'll soon gain some nice quck moves and it'l be easier to create and visualise your ideas.

Cheers!

[cout<mecha]

Don't know what the scribbles are for but there is a real familiarity and pleasantness to your character designs.

[emilylorange]

Flapenko - Thank you dear.
Seraph Fawkes - I think the two most recent 'speedpaintings' were actually under an hour, but I do need to time myself. The larger illustration of the elf is suffering mostly from a lack of interest. But it's a commission - an overdue one - that needs to get done and done well. Though I wouldn't mind if it broke off and fell into the ocean. But I suppose more speedpainting would help set a pace and mindset for later work.
cout<mecha - Thank you ^^

[emilylorange]

- The attachment manager isn't letting me upload for some reason, so I'll come back to this entry and fix it later. For now, links -

Well I'm back from vacation, <i>and</i> my boyfriend went home, so I have stuff and space for my scanner again. Hurray space, boo end of vacation and missing boy.

Had lots of time yesterday, so I sat down and finished the blood elf, on the prompting of an unrelated third party. It's ok. There are pieces of it I don't like now, the morning after (like the figures floating in the back, lulz), but really it needed to be finished, so now it is.

What I really wanted to work on last night and couldn't because of the belf. Made a quick compositional sketch idea before bed. Really like it. Maybe I should do a painted and a vectored version.

We were stranded in the airport for 8 hours thanks to your friends and mine, Delta Airlines. I'd bought myself one of those cheap crayola watercolor sets, for lolz. To keep myself busy I painted a little girl who was playing with a little farm set nearby.

Had another compositional idea, for a sort of fawn thing. And then it got weird. Didn't like the end result enough to even clean it up, but I like the idea anyway.

Scribblings that may amount to something, I'll see if I can piece it together by the end of the week.

Another compositional idea, with some very harsh perspective. Not sure if I'm that brave. Sorry if it's just a jumble of lines to you.

And gestures! Because dammit, more gestures. I still don't know if I'm getting any better by large leaps and bounds, but they're kind of fun at least.

[emilylorange]

You can't make me draw relevant things!

Though I do like it. See if I can finish it tonight, since I was told I need to work faster. >> lol

[emilylorange]

I get distracted easily. Sorry.

I went back to some sketches I did earlier and worked towards finishing them up. Only expected it to take half an hour so of course I was at it all night. Most of it went into.....Malloryyyy.

Then I was like 'gee I wish I understood the anatomy of this thing' which is quite difficult when I don't understand anatomy of anything. Try not to think too hard about it.

And next in line in 'things that I owe people', a character belonging to someone with a heavy anime/manga influence. This is mostly me trying to figure out how to draw his hair (it's really...something else). And making fun of my flailing.

Then I was like 'I can draw comics' even though that's a dirty lie.

And then a drawing of Emily that's far too static and blah for what I wanted to use it in, but it's ok for screwing with colors I guess.

[mehdi80]

waw exellent work Emily!!

[Seraph Fawkes]

That Bambi bimbo is hotie) Nice job. But.. maybe less beaks, and more faces?

[DSmith]

Hey There!

I love the World of Warcraft stuff,and the character designs as well!
Great stuff,keep it up!

[emilylorange]

mehdi80 - Thanks ^^
Seraph Fawkes - .... Maybe you should just.... Ignore today's update >> (my clever way of admitting you're right)
DSmith - Thank you!


LAST NIGHT I WAS TIRED OF EXISTING. Seriously I got home from work, ate ramen and crashed into bed for 3 hours. I don't even know why 9.9

Sorry it's nothing good. Maybe tomorrow ._.

[emilylorange]

Yesterday was an insanely busy day at work and then I came home and my raid was like YAY ICECROWN so no I didn't produce anything worthwhile at all.

Mwahahahaa I am ashamed. Oh well.

Stupid comic thing that worked better in my head and... well there was a challenge in one of the other subforums to draw a beast with a giraffe head. I think mine's more of a neopet.... I wasn't sure they'd appreciate it in the same thread as their monsters so I'm keeping it to myself >>

[cout<mecha]

Looks like your colors are doing a lot of the work for you when your anatomy skills falter. Some interesting shortcuts you've come with as well! Juicy stuff. I don't think I could have brought myself to do or try this knowing what I do about anatomy. Nonetheless that bum on the backside of the character one pic above is a little bit sideways. That could have really been a lot more comical a moment when we see our flaws for what they are. Also the swords' a bit sticky which tells me you are not taking your perspective into the distance. Perspective is HUGE, when it comes to these types of characters even without a lot of anatomical underdrawings. Try not to rush yourself too much!

[emilylorange]

cout<mecha - Thanks for the honest and thorough critique. Some good food for thought. There've actually been few wonky butts to speak of last week :D


Long and busy weekend (included studying for GMAT exam blahhh), so just tiny little updates today. Worked on shading and backgrounding for my wee comic page. Lots of problems that I can see, but I've redrawn the damn thing 4 times already and I can't just roll around on it forever. So long as I learn from it I guess.

And the friday daily sketch thing was an 'overweight pink devil with baby blue horns'. Everyone else chose a male character. Again, mine turned out silly, and not finished (because stipple can go stuck it), so I kept it to myself. >>

[emilylorange]

Is it 5 o clock yet? ._.

[emilylorange]

Ah, a long weekend that I technically had off but had too much stuff that needed doing!

Had my tablet at work and intended to do speed painting, but kept having to stand up and do other things so instead a study of hands found via google image search.

Finished my stupid comic page. It's ok, there's a lot of stuff about it I hate. What I've learned is, in the future, I should probably include rough dialog bubble areas in my thumbnails, because this was drawn with purely the artsy side in mind, completly forgetting that whole writing thing :P

And some colors slapped on two of the sketches from last week.

[raminafshari]

very interesting way of using color , you can handle a grate story boarding

[emilylorange]

raminafshari - Thank you ^^

Yesterday was a long day (really the next month looks like a lot of those :/), but I had enough time on my hands to get a quick piece out. There's a massive fire burning about 20 miles from where I live, that turned the sun orange and all the shadows blue.

[emilylorange]

Wake me uppp, when september eeeeends.

[cout<mecha]

I like the quirky style and display of action with your character, it comes of really polished and proffessional looking. One thing, try to lighten up the page a little and illuminate the space of the background or place light sources in the scene. Also someone said that you use this theme too often with same characters. That can also stifle things a bit. Still a great character though! Keep on! Hope you'll swing by.:rocker:

[Pixelwalker]

Woah!
Beautiful work on these two hands! You put the colors just right! Looks awesome!

More please! :D

[am●na,☼nafa&Kash☉fa]

lol mighty duckys!

[emilylorange]

I feel like not only am I constantly bringing a knife to a gun party here, but for some reason I keep coming back ;)

cout<mecha - Some good suggestions that I should consider, thank you ^^
Silwynar - Thank you.
am●na,☼nafa&Kash☉fa - INDEED :3


Have a dump. You're going to hate it because I'm not taking things seriously, but right now I'm having a shitty month and art's one of those few things I don't have to take seriously atm. SO THAR.

[Seraph Fawkes]

Hi there, hope things will get better for you, because in art you're doing really fine! I like this girl at the sundown.

Btw have you killed Lich King?

[cout<mecha]

Hey I understand a rough week for sure, had one last week as well. Trying to get revved up for this one. By the way the painting has more emotion than you may think. Makes me long for the good cartoons to be back on TV! Ha!

Nevertheless, guns, knives, chainsaws with drippy stuff already on it, doesn't matter, if it doesn't move the eye then it's kind of a let down emotionally. There can only so many lucky concept artist clones, after a while you have to rely more on skill than any one style.

By the way, you are one of the few people on these boards who actually DID update your sketchbook, even among some of skilled masters who complained that there were no updates...thinking the site was dead.

[cout<mecha]

Hey I understand a rough week for sure, had one last week as well. Trying to get revved up for this one. By the way the painting has more emotion than you may think. Makes me long for the good cartoons to be back on TV! Ha!

Nevertheless, guns, knives, chainsaws with drippy stuff already on it, doesn't matter, if it doesn't move the eye then it's kind of a let down emotionally. There can only so many lucky concept artist clones, after a while you have to rely more on skill than any one style.

By the way, you are one of the few people on these boards who actually DID update your sketchbook, even among some of skilled masters who complained that there were no updates...thinking the site was dead.