Lyraina's sketchbook

[Archreux]

Wow, these pages are so packed full of goodness. There's so much work you do, I don't understand how you manage it all. it's impressive.

I really like your gestures. Your pens are great and carry a lot of confidence in their line work. Also, any sort of notes on that workshop would be awsome!

Don't be too scared to stare at people, haha. If there's anything I learned from observation, which is what I've been told by someone who caught me looking is "It's all about the free looks.". It's for the sake of art!

Maybe I missed reading a part your sketchbook where you mentioned why you're doing all of these studies and thumbnails, but are they preparation for a piece, or just general studying up for future application? They're looking really good and there's so many of them.

Looking forward to seeing a bunch of cool pieces! :D

[Mike]

If you're not trying to make those full opacity thumbnails look good then there is something wrong with me because they surely look damn good to me :D

Oh God I'm so afraid to go and draw things in public. I always think people would look at me strangely and think I'm some kind of a weirdo or so called "artist" who wants to show off or something. Feels weird :P Good to know someone is doing that succesfully not worrying about other people :P As I read it could be fun. Staring at people. Getting arrested maybe. I should try it.

And so so many gestures. I like that flow of your poses. Keep going :)

[ramalooke]

Fuuuck =D You are killing it. Looking at your work got me motivated to bust my ass and revisit my fundamentals. Need to catch up. Like fast ;o Thanks, and keep it up. Great stuff!

[pnate]

Killin it with the studies. And don't fear the life studies! Just stare those kids in the eyes, and when their parents confront you just say you need their children for art - they'll understand.

[Cyprinus]

Great studies and dedication like always, Lyraina! Your little pen enviros are looking really good!! (I tried something like this as well and I thought it was super hard). Also digging those solid brush enviros, great colours. And yay for real sketchbooks!!! I think it's super fun to observe people, it's a great opportunity to learn about all kinds of stuff. I'm not really afraid to stare anymore, but I never had any bad experiences. Usually I cover up with a smile and that's about it. Plus, I usually sketch in the tram and people are soooo deep into doing stuff with their smartphones, they don't even notice me :P

Keep it up! <3

[Lyraina]

Archreux: Thank you! :) Haha, I'll definitely stare some more at people. Just really need to get used to it, and the weekend was a good start on that since in Dresden/Berlin are way more people packed in one place than what I'm used to! Those recent studies are just me working on fundamentals again, mostly areas that I realized I am lacking when I did the last batch of finished pieces during cgma class. So I'm trying to polish what I was most unhappy with now (some color issues, but mostly drawing/structure/perspective things and also workflow), then do more finished stuff again and work on design, rinse and repeat :) Thanks for the comment! I will send you a note about the notes.

Mike: Haha! I was worrying a whole lot about drawing in public, and I can tell you, my adrenalin levels were so high I'm not sure how I managed to get some straight lines down. But I was worrying about a lot more at that weekend anyway, so decided to go all in and face all of my fears at once :P But it definitely can be fun! And there's not much to be lost, a few strange looks won't kill you, so I'd say just give it a try! Not sure about the getting arrested part. If that's your goal, maybe try some life sketching in girls' changing rooms somewhere? :P
But jokes aside, bring sunglasses and earphones if it makes you feel better - I sure wished I had thought of bringing those so separate myself a bit more from the outside world while drawing.
ramalooke: Haha, thanks a lot! Not sure you have anything to catch up to since you're way ahead, but revising fundamentals is always a good thing to do! :D

pnate: Thanks! I'll send you a postcard from prison after following your advice! :D

Cyprinus: Thank you! :) Yeah, I guess it's not really all that dramatic, I'll just have to get used to it and be less nervous about it!

WIP



Happy Halloween.



Not sure if WIP or scrap. Why can't I paint rocks...

[Fedodika]

SO much CUTE and BEWbS!!! hehehehehehe!!

rocks are like a special kind of random form, the values and texture don't make sense but they look so COOOL when dose masters do em right and EFFORTLESSLY!!

[Craig Paton]

Impressive that you braved drawing real people in the outside world. As a bearded male, my staring at people in public activities are limited.

Really loving all your pen and ink sketches, your wee thumbnails are awesome. Making some serious progress on your environments.

[CoreyH]

soooooooooo much work! very inspiring! Improving so fast :)

[Lyraina]

Fedodika: Thx! Yeah, should look at some master rock painters probably and figure out how they do it...

Craig: Thank you! Haha yeah, I guess being neither male nor bearded I do have a certain advantage :P

CoreyH: Thank you! :)

yesterday's nov 1 portrait

[Lyraina]

chow - this stuff is taking way too long! could keep repainting and tweaking forever. ...now back to environments!

[denikina]

The little witch is adorable. :) Also, good job on the self-portrait (I wish I hadn't forgotten to do mine...). The design of the big witch (?) is positively crazy. :) Good job on the torso and stylised head, but something feels off about the her hands, mostly fingers in the right hand, and left leg (knee area).

[meat]

That is one very frightening chow Witch. If I saw that in a field a mile off I'd turn and run for my car asap. ... after shoving you in her direction. You have the thanks of a great nation.

[Tien]

that witch is crazy, By going across your sketchbook, i was thinking you were good, but looking at the last page... Your improvement is awesome !

[Jaik]

Perspective will help those rocks! (I think.. though I still suck at rocks too =/) but perspective! Yeah!
The chow is looking cool, though I did get unnerved the moment I noticed the boobs.. you really arent fond of clothing are you?

Really nice pieces lately. Sorry I havent been around to comment!

Your environments are getting a lot better. Are you finding the colour/value guessing is helping with your pieces?

The self portrait looks great :) The further side of your face might be turned slightly too far towards the camera though..

Also, I thought Nightwish broke up? Why are they back together? Not that I'm complaining, I was too young for their 'last' Aus tour so happy about that!


Really great stuff Lyra <3 Cant wait to see more!

[rafa zanchetin]

Damn Lyraina, you unleashed the beast? Painting like crazy!
Not sure if was from the schoolism workshop but your gestures jumped alot, they're very flowy and I see you're using the one side straight one side bumpy, that's a good one.
Keep rocking!

[Archreux]

Wow, nice character. That face is priceless. Haha.

Great self portrait, too.

Also, thanks for sending me those notes by the way. I didn't message you back only because I'm too dumb to figure out how the messaging system works. :V

[ramalooke]

Halloween illustration you did is awesome =D great job with painting this little girl, she looks perfect. painting little girls is hard as fuck. so props for that. a word of advice if i may have. try to pay more attention to forms. you tend to do good job with conveying forms around focal point but tend to forget about them around other areas of the image. for example. face of the girl (halloween piece) is nice and round with shadows and highlights, but here torso and arms are really flat. try to keep in mind what you render, what shape it have and how it should be lit. Side of that, great stuff, keep it up!

[Lyraina]

denikina: Thank you! Ugh, hands will bring me to an early grave one day. Not literally I hope, but still...

meat: Are you sure you want to do that? I might befriend her and take over world domination...

Tien: Thanks a lot for the kind words! :)

Jaik: Lol, perspective is always a great key word to throw at me, you'll always be right with that one! :P I do think that the color game helped, because it showed me some things about sky blue that I wasn't aware of before (gradient and hue and saturation), and also that I'm not neccessarily going too saturated in my pieces, but it's all about control - saturate the right areas (and colors). Also more awareness about things I was doing anyway, but only intuitively (like how yellow and bright areas behave when they get brighter). I have yet to prove that I can put it to good use in my own pieces, which is the hardest part though :(
Don't be unnerved by boobs! Boobs are nice, believe me. I was considering covering them up, making it more suitable in a design sense, but decided to try and push the 'crazyness' instead, to a degree where it's not about the boobs anymore but more like you'd feel like with tribes - where it feels just natural that their breasts are not covered. I'm not convinced I succeeded, but that's my excuse! :P
Nightwish never broke up! They kicked their singer Tarja many many years ago and hired Anette (which left my fan-heart bleeding in pieces), and now they kicked Anette and got Floor instead. Floor is super-awesome so I'm very hyped for the new album in early 2015!!

rafa: Haha yeah, got some (partly self-imposed) deadlines around Halloween I had to keep, also need to push myself more to do application and not just studies. Thanks for the kind words, glad you like the gestures :)

Archreux: Lol, don't worry about replying! Took me a while to find the message button myself :P Thanks!

ramalooke: Thanks a lot for the crits! You're right about the forms ... I wonder if that is me getting in a hurry once I'm done with focal points. Might have to slow down a bit more and make it more consistent, and think about the big form first and then details... thanks for pointing it out!

technique test



...which led to this mess with no special technique or workflow whatsoever... keep repainting and repainting and hoping it'll get better! such a mess, but didn't know how to approach it differently, forests are hard! critique appreciated, because that one better turns out good (going to be a present). below is the (mood) thumbnail.

[CoreyH]

Cant really offer any critique because I have no idea how to paint forests, however the colours are really really nice!