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Here are some reference that you might find useful - granted it's a raccoon skull and not a fox, but life's not perfect sometimes... lol! Lemme know when you've saved them. I'll eventually clear them outta my Dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u5x25y2xwlg3iy...2.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7u02covex84ga1...1.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxx84odw1l10nw...0.JPG?dl=0
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Hey Declan! Nice to see you're still arting :)
You already know my opinion on that but I'll back up Zearthus on the fact that you're still rushing. Take. Your. Time. Be more "generous" with your work and you'll improve faster. :)
It's really not about how fast you go or how fast you move your arm around when you're painting or sketching. Masters never go fast. They know what to look for and they know the time that needs to be put in. They do each stroke with thought and intention. Try to do the same. Paint with intention. Keep the important things in mind while doing it. Don't mindlessly paint in the sole intention to fill up the page with paint/color.
In other words.. Take the time to take the time. ;)
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Zearthus- Hello Zearthus. To answer your question, I usually spend at least an hour on each of these paintings, though I realise it may not look like that with some of them, haha. Maybe I do rush, I don't feel I do but I'm interested to know what you think could be refined, looking at them. Also, thank you for the perspective link.
Meat- Wow, thank you very much for those photos! Don't worry about it not being a fox skull-they both do belong to the order Carnivora after all. ;) I've saved them, so you can delete them from your dropbox now.
Lale- Hi again Lale! I'll try and be more "generous" with my work, but I wouldn't mind some pointers from you guys (or anyone, really) about where you think I have been rushing with my paintings. I think I can see in places what you guys mean, but I wouldn't mind some clarification. Maybe I need to challenge myself more, who knows.
Anyway, sorry about not having any work to update with, I just thought I'd respond to you guys. I'll make sure to post some stuff next time.
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Heey!
Wow lots of hard work on this sketchbook!
That conte study of the wooden car turned quite nice.
about the comments on rushing, I don't think its so much that you are rushing I think some tend to look more unfinished because the brushstrokes don't look very refined. I wish I could give advice on how to improve it, but it's something I struggle with too :/ I think its just practice and thinking carefully on stroke placement.
Howeverrr I do have a link that might help :D
http://muddycolors.blogspot.fr/2012/10/1...paint.html
Anyways keep on working from life and learning construction! I'm looking forward for more!
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Thank you for your comment, Voodoo. Perhaps you are right, though perhaps it's a bit of both of those things. Anyway, I will have a look at that link you sent me, so thank you.
I did another painting last night, a study from one of the reference photos Meat provided to me. It probably still looks rushed/unfinished, but I did spend more time on this one.
![[Image: kCjZlOFh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/kCjZlOFh.jpg)
Thoughts?
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edges are a lot better on that one bro good job!! see how the edge on the brow area are kinda fuzzy? take the black background color and run it along the contour, to make that fuzziness just black and get a sharp edge. try that technique on the whole painting and see if it changes it at all
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Thank you for commenting on my sketchbook! I read the book you recommended and it helped a lot. The sad thing is that I had the book for a while I just never sat down and read it.
One thing that helps me a lot when I am painting is to take breaks. I usually stop when I get really frustrated with a painting and come back so I can see it with fresh eyes. One thing I forget to do a lot when painting traditionally is to step back away from the painting to look for mistakes. One lesson that stuck to me while painting and drawing are to look for the light and dark pattern. When I paint I tend to overwork paintings because I try to blend everything.
For your early question about studying perspective, I agree with laleanna to study real life perspective. I know other people have suggested it before, but I also suggest getting Michael Hampton book on figure drawing. I like how he breaks down the body into simple and 3d shapes. Another good resource is proko https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV/videos . He has a lot of good videos on figure drawing.
I am looking forward to seeing more of your work.
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There have been a ton of great suggestions from everyone so far, so I'll just add to keep it up! Awesome to see that class helped you out. Think as carefully and thoroughly as you can through each of the principles you learned and you'll definitely keep improving. Like in that last skull study I can see a better understanding of value and planes. Keep it going and enjoy the process!
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Fedodika- Thank you, I've attempted that with some of my more recent painting attempts.
ZandraDragon- Yeah, I suppose I need to do that more myself. Thanks for reiterating those suggestions, I do have the habit of forgetting. Thank you.
Nate- Sure, I intend to integrate what I learnt from that class into my work as much as I can. Thank you, it was fun hanging out with you on your stream again recently.
Been working on another painting, I don't think it's done yet, but here it is:
![[Image: f2jAtDSh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/f2jAtDSh.jpg)
I'm probably going to continue it, I think I need to refine this one a bit more. Notably, I've attempted to integrate some structural studies I've been doing of canid (particularly fox) anatomy.
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Hey! I like your work, the skull is especially well-observed. You're getting a nice read of depth! I think you can get that into your new piece as well :)
Learning is not the same as performing.
Sketchbook
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Thank you for the compliments, Jeffrey.
Just finished this fox study. I was going to render the fur, but then found after a few attempts that I wasn't quite able to do it. Advice on creating such textures would be appreciated.
![[Image: xyTkmlMh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/xyTkmlMh.jpg)
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Left eye on the fox has that sense of depth for some reason really good job. But for some reason right eye looks little weird to me. However, value is pretty much amazingly done and good job there. :D
For fur i'm not really sure since i'm not traditional artist but you can maybe tray and take larger brush with stronger and thicker brush hair and put colour just on the tips od the brush. You can always practice on random piece of paper to be sure this will work. Anyway, just make strokes in direction of fur growth. Also you can use smaller brushes later on to add more detail.
That's at least how i'd do it. ^^ Hope this helps xD
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Hey Stardust! Long time since I've seen your stuff or communicated with you! That fox is looking really great, I agree with Panda that eye has such depth. I think the left eye looks ok to me, but it does make it feel like a stuffed dead fox rather than a living one - but I guess that's what you painted from so all good.
As to fur, there's an ink technique that could work with paint too as long as you have quite a thick mixture; you kind of flatten the end of the brush by making a heavy stroke on a piece of scrap paper, the bristles on the flattened tip should kind of break apart and create a kind of 'comb' brush tip which you can use to add fur in small sections with light strokes. Here's an ink demo of that technique, I'm sure you could get it to work with gouache too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7biI9qGKYD4
Watch from 15:40 for the technique, then again from 40:49 to see him using it.
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StonedPanda03-Thank you for the feedback, I've had some attempts at rendering fur since.
Jon-Heya Jon! Long time no see! Thank you for the link, I'll certainly take a look at it.
Phew, been a while since I've posted here! I thought I'd at least respond to you guys, anyway, so thank you. Anyway, it's a bit of a coincidence that I received these replies, seeing as I was actually planning to update here and see what people were up to.
Since my absence I've taken up oil painting, I'm sort of transitioning to using oils as one of my main mediums now. I've also been planning a graphic novel/webcomic, which is going ok at the moment. I'll probably post some stuff from that soon too. The reason for my absence was largely due to wanting to try my own thing for a bit and see where that would get me, also taking another class in the process.
Anywho, enough chat, here's a visual exploration:
![[Image: UtEFwh1h.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/UtEFwh1h.jpg)
My first attempt at oils, I used a photograph from a book by David Macdonald as reference.
I'll post more stuff when I get the chance, hopefully.
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My date settings are on US format, didn't realise!, thought you'd posted that one before on 7th Nov instead of 11th march! Amazing how a few months can show so much improvement! Feels like a lot of stuff is starting to come together for you ^^
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Jon and Koala-Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot.
While I'm at it, here's a further painting (spoilered as it is a bit graphic).
![[Image: OxcJyheh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/OxcJyheh.jpg)
My most recent oil painting, a sort of adaptation of a mummified rabbit carcass someone I know found. I looked at a lot of work by Francis Bacon for this one.
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Greetings Daggers, I hope you guys are doing well. I really ought to get back into the habit of posting here.
Anyway, here's my latest painting, another oil work:
![[Image: TC2I3i5h.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/TC2I3i5h.jpg)
I feel this one is massively flawed, plus the photo probably doesn't help (I couldn't really get very good lighting from the room I painted it in). Any advice on this piece?
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![[Image: mkMFLlnh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/mkMFLlnh.jpg)
My latest painting. Thoughts?
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Argh, I need to get back on track about focusing on specific areas again. I'll admit it's been very fun just doing my own thing, but I don't think I'm improving much as a result. I really need more patience to do this stuff (especially perspective...). I have a copy of the book Perspective for Artists by Rex Vicat Cole, which I should probably begin work with.
Anyway enough rambles, here's some little things:
![[Image: P9p0qi0h.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/P9p0qi0h.jpg)
A couple of biro pen sketchbook drawings. As pens they are pretty fun to work with.
![[Image: wizL2Bvh.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/wizL2Bvh.jpg)
A still life study I'm working on in oils. Any tips on rendering or anything else would be appreciated. I plan to keep working on this one shortly.
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