Dominicque's Sketchbook

[Dominicque]

Hi, thanks for the critiques guys! Would have messaged earlier, but I've had an anxious week. Buses in my city were striking, so I couldn't get to work. Followed the protocol of reporting an absence the day of, but because other people did as well. He threatened my job and said I had to come in or lose it, made fun of my anxiety. The manager is known for being an asshole, I did want to eventually leave, but this forced my hand. So, I'm currently out of the job and trying to find a new one, while trying to get work experience in the creative industries. Ah, it's stressful. 

I think I can see where you’re trying to go with this piece, and correct me if I’m wrong.

There’s a sense of hopeless drifting/floating. I tried to amplify the sensation of uncontrolled floating limbs, with the exception of one hand reaching out from the water (near the face like you have it). When you’re floating on water your limbs tend to reach outwards like a net rather than clench inwards to hold surface tension. Picture it like trying to guard a human sized bubble behind you. Containing what’s underneath gently so you don’t break the surface.

Wow Lydo, this is great! Thanks for the tips. I will definitely consider this the next time around. At the moment I've just focused on learning to render. I still want her to be in the general pose of her having her arm resting/floating on top of her stomach in shallow(ish) water. I used CSP's build in models as a ref, which probably explains why it's so stiff. I kinda of did what you were suggesting here, but her limbs are more close. 

Regarding the water pattern, it has a size hierarchy. It can be broken into larger sections (green) to smaller ones (purple > yellow).

Take note of how the sharper tips and lines of larger and smaller sections don't align. Eg, you don't have a purple boundary continuing as green one. Each section is self-contained. Also, smaller shapes accumulate — almost swirl around — the larger ones.


I hope this helps. I'm curious to see where this piece is going.

Thank you! It was definitely difficult for me to configure the pattern layout. In the OG pencil sketch it's more abstract, but still kind of recognisable as sea foam, I think this one completely misses the boat, though. I'll create a new layer and restart with this size hierarchy in mind.

Looks like I'm light-years away from the DC universe, I didn't know Jenny Quantum. Actually I'm not big on superheroes but I like the more acrobatic ones, they are a constant lesson in extreme gesture, just at the doorstep to the elastic cartoon physics.

Is your problem with paper tooth that the granularity doesn't show enough on the pencil strokes? I hope someone knows enough to answer. A soft pencil is likely to fill in the paper gaps while a hard pencil may flatten the bumps, resulting in the same visual flatness. Maybe the secret is in applying a very gentle pressure (I would fail at this).

The "copy image link" command is exactly what you need. It copies the link/address to the clipboard, and you can paste it somewhere else.

Multiply layers for shading, I don't know how that works, especially if you want to tint your shadows (because ambient light is seldom pure white). I was suggesting this only for grayscale line scans, to see your color layers through the white pixels.

I will refrain from commenting on the lady in the water because I'm curious of your own exploration.

She's was part of the 'Wildstorm' universe as part of 'The Authority'. Jenny is a reincarnation of Jenny Sparks, the first leads and her dads former boss. When WS was folded into the main DC university, her fathers make the cut, by not all members did. Unfortunately, she's no longer Apollo or Midnighter's daughter, which is disappointing. 'The Authority' were revealed as part of James Gunn's new DC shakeup. That's exciting for the fandom, hope we see he as their daughter in live action. For 'acrobatic' heroes, you are a fan of Spider-Man and Nightwing? For stretch cartoon physics, I would defo refer to Plastic man.

I'm doing Gabriela Niko's domestika class and her grain show through, but it's very soft and not distracting. I may just need to go slower/softer with my pencils. I can 'copy image link', but nothing happens, or at least I can't see my 'clipboard'. I've seen quite a few references to using 'multiply' for shadows, but the knowledge still eludes me. 

Thanks for commenting.