Lilly's Sketchbook

[iggytek]

nice one lilly,

ps dont be afraid to push detail, try to do exactly what you see when you study.

keep em coming :D

[smrr]

Liiiiilllllllyyyyyyyyy ~~!
Guess what? I'm seeing improvement in your edges already O_O! Well done!
Always so hardworking, aaaaaaaaaahh, gets me so pumped when I come in here!

Hey so, if you're not confident in colour, it'll come a lot easier to you if you understood values. Values are literally everything in a painting. This is why I think everyone should be _drawing_ a lot more than painting, especially when they start out.

There's this, that'll hopefully share insight some:
http://www.finearttips.com/2010/05/the-i...-painting/

I was actually searching and searching for an example that an artist posted on Facebook a while back. One of our contemporary master oil painters like Jeremy Lipking or Coro posted 3 artworks side by side, one was just the values, so black and white, everything looked readable and fine. Second was the painting as is, with the values in it, looked great... but the third was a painting _without_ values at all - it looked like a mess.

I hope you get what I mean <3
And be bold with your learning and brushstrokes,

Anyways, I'll stop pestering ya haha

Keep up the great, hard work, Lilly! o/

[lillysparks]

Thanks iggy! I keep saying i need to push detail in studies but never do so tomorrow I will actually take the extra time.

Thanks Smrr.^^ I know color and value are majorly linked in that the color needs to be the right value. I meant more in like creating a mood, or taking it the extra mile. I do though, don't feel comfortable with my understanding with value and making it work composition wise in a piece. Which is why I try starting most of my finish pieces of black and white first. I need to keep studying and try to gain a more sound understanding of it! The article you linked seems really great too.

Also I have been experimenting with doing things with no opacity and hard edges focusing on big shapes. It is hard in the sense that I need to learn how to simply things with shapes  and make the decisions by picking the right colors and values to accurately show different things that I would maybe spend less thought in more painterly things. So I wanna keep experimenting with that. Also I feel I need to get some reference anatomy wise and material wise to push the Demeter painting further so I will do that tomorrow. 

[lillysparks]

I ended up spending a lot of time trying to push this study today, and I am not really happy how it turned out. I tend to get especially bad at rendering out forest type things, and the girl face I should have spent a lot more time on so I may work on it more later. I still need to work on them edges a lot, and try pushing more studies cause it took a lot of time and didn't turn out how I would have wanted. 

[Gliger]

If you are trying to get better at rendering or values don't say "may work on it more later" definitely do, force yourself, make it perfect.

[Fedodika]

I like how you draw those hands it kinda reminds me of bridgeman in a way; Also like the girl WIP you're doing, psst, try using an overlay layer and see what happens ;)

[lillysparks]

Gliger yeah you are right I think when I posted it I was just a little frustrated but I shall continue it. 

Thanks Fedodika ^^ Yeah I should probably use more of layer effects, I did a layer effect to begin with but just kinda made a new layer over it. I will have to keep experimenting with them. 

Today I tried fixing the anatomy on my piece that has been bothering me, but I still need to work on it some more. Gonna keep trying to fix it, but it feels closer.

[Gliger]

Study looks great :D.
Not sure if it's intentional but, the helmet thingy feels kind of off perspective, like it needs to be turned to the left a bit (to her right).

[Mylqin]

The master study looks spot on, you really out done yourself!

As for the last piece I like how you smoothed the face out a bit more, I would define the deltoid a bit more specifically more the arm pit area, also now that Gliger pointed it out it I can see how the crown is off. I would convert the crown and face to planes on a different layer to see where exactly it should go and how it aligns with the rest of the accessories or the easier route though it requires a lil bit of trial and error just try to align the middle of the crown with the nose.

[pnate]

Good to see those studies getting done, particularly the master studies. Keep doing those like you've been doing and you'll learn so many juicy secrets.

If I could crit the illustration you're working on, one thing I would suggest is to add some rim light coming from behind, since the magic (to me) looks like it's parting the clouds. That way the light could help her pop some more and give some more impact. I know that's kind of a cliche thing to do, but as long as you don't go overboard I think it would be fine. But I'm a rimlight addict so maybe take it with a grain of salt.

I would also suggest taking picture of you holding a stick like she is and trying to get as close as you can to that. It's kind of a tricky positioning, so it helps to get some reference here as it looks a little wonky at the moment. Keep it up!

[lillysparks]

Thanks Gliger, mylqin and nate! 

Yeah the helmet thing is a little off I tried fixing that. I need to work a little more on the anatomy which is what I tried to do today somewhat. I will also start to mess around with rim light because it makes sense with the main light coming from behind her, and it is pretty magic like.

I tried working more on the master study a couple posts back, i feel the people look closer but I have trouble trying to render out the leafy/nature part the most so i will work on that more later. Also other studies and stuff.