boo

[maggie]

Thank you wreck! :P

It's been a while since I posted because of the exhibition. They also wanted my art for one more event, which was awesome!
Anyway, I finally got the chance to paint today! Here is a small update on my christmas thingy. I'm having a big struggle trying to avoid the anime look, which I deeply dislike.



And here is one photo of me and my art from the exhibition. :)

[Patrick Gaumond]

good progress on the winter piece!

The best way to avoid the anime look is really just to make the iris' much smaller, and the whole eye as well. Some of the facial proportions besides the eyes are a little anime too, but you can probably get away with it if you change the eyes.

[maggie]

Hello guys!
I've had quite a long vacation. I did draw a bit, traditionally but now I'm back on track!
I hope you've had great time during the holidays :)

Here is a little something form today - emma stone study.
I'm not quite happy with how it's going so far though. I feel like I'm painting for the first time -.-

[maggie]

finished it the other day

[maggie]

and a new one, photo study again

[StardustLarva]

That last one is really well done, I think your ability to render is getting better.

[maggie]

thank you, stardustLarva!

[devinn]

Maggie, you are doing great! Just continue to remain consistent with it all and you will get hella better hella quick. :)

I like the first image in post #60; it gave me a vibe similar to when I view Lois Van Baarle's work! Check out her stuff on deviant art if you aren't already familiar with her stuff.

[maggie]

Thank you so much Mannyhaatz! That actually means a lot because I love loish's art, she is an incredible artist. Also, this is one of the few paintings I've done from imagination.. and not using references is my biggest fear and insecurity. Soo yeah, thank you!



anyway, here's a 30 min speed paint from today. topic huge eyes

[maggie]

and here is yesterday's study




reference: http://i.imgur.com/UBK8jT7.jpg

aaand I suck at painting hair..

[maggie]

another study,
not quite happy with this one..

[pindurski]

Wonderful study:) Your progression from page 1 is fantastic. Definitely keep doing what you are doing because it's working.

[Fedodika]

dear maggie:

Heheeh i really love your profile picture it's blowing my mind how CUTTE!!! hehehee i also like your face drawings and paintings they are really cute too :3

(clears throat) erhm uhh i came here because i saw your profile somewhere and noticed you have a carrot at the end of your signature; if you don't mind, i would like to eat it, i mean if that's okay i'm really hungry and all the gum leaves around here have been eaten by other stingy male koalas. I'm the alpha here! i get the girlies! i Get the GUM LEAVES!

Erm but you don't have to give me it if you want to keep it or eat it yourself that's fine, maybe share with a friend or two.

Uhh on the subjecty of your gallery piece, the girl has really nice lips very kissable, attractive proportions, I would boop her little nose and giggle probably hysterically.

ok uhh i think it would BEHOOVE you to maybe practice to life, like painting from it. You have a good grasp of constructing faces and finding planes from reference but i think your understanding of three dimensionality would benefit. Oh yea and gesture is really cool too, try drawing lots of faces from like quickposes fast and build the forms with scribblies, use a pen to to make yourself commit to stuff and not worry if it aint gr8 m8.

By yea uuh just do that for a bit try to get loosey goosey and give me that carrot later if you don't want it, i'll trade you for like gum leaves or something but humans don't like those i don't think

[maggie]

@pindurski, thanks a lot! :)) and also thanks for the explanation on how you colour bw painting.. I don't want to spam your lovely sketchbook.

@Fedodika, you vegan monster you, carrots are friends not food!
I could give you the leaves tho.. I see you enjoy those!

on the subjecty, thank you very much for the kind words. Painting form life is not a bad idea at all but it also involves going out.. and it's deep cold winter here. So for now maybe I could download some 3d models of heads and sketch those. And do self portraits in the mirror of course.


here are some crappy sketches from yesterday. I tried to build them from spheres and stuff and imagine the 3d shape but nope. my brains don't think so.



next try today.

[maggie]

Some env rough studies form this evening. First one is from photo, second one is from an awesome painting by Andreas Rocha.




I am dropping out of uni so now I'm looking for some useful online classes. I really wanted to take Natahn Fowkes' 'Designing with colour and light' on Schoolism but is starts in October which is suuuch a long time.
Also I don't know what class I need to take first since I need to learn all the fundamentals.. I'm horrible with perspective/anatomy/gesture/lighting everything, everything.. and while I practice everyday, watch tutorials etc., I don't feel like I'm improving very much. I'm just becoming better at painting from references.... which is kinda useless I guess.
Maybe I will have to get out of my cozy room and really practice form life.
Meanwhile if you've had the misfortune to read this and if you have any suggestion like a good online school or a particular class, please share with me! :))

[Fedodika]

Dear Maggie,
I think the best thing you can do is assess what it is you want to be as an artist. Say you want to be a character concept artist; you'd really have to understand anatomy, gesture, and lighting, whereas perspective won't be as important. If you were to be an environmental artist then perspective/ and lighting would be crucial but gesture and anatomy wouldn't be at all. But most folks here want to be illustrators, and that involves a little or a lot of all those things.

You seem to like drawing portraits so illustration would be a good choice. Focus on learning the planes of the head, drawing from books and photos and understanding structure. Then move into gesture. a Great book I'd reccomend is "the Natural way to Draw" By Kimon Niccolaides. It will teach you tons of stuff about improving and the failure that must come your way. Also Micheal hamptons figure drawing design and invention is a perfect book for any artist wanting to improve.

None of us improve as quickly as we like, and other people will see it before you do. Dan warren was a great teacher to me and many people here about motivation and how the art industry works.

https://www.youtube.com/user/danwarren/videos

The older streams, near the bottom are incredible gold mines of information; and they could steer you in the right path.

Also check this sketchbook if you need inspiration
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthr...Sketchbook!

There are a lot of sketchbooks like this, but it really shows the work you gotta put in to get better fast :)

[maggie]

I guess my biggest problem right now is that I don't know what I want to be as an artist.. It's not like I haven't thought about it, I have, I just don't know the answer. I find everything so fascinating and interesting so I just don't want to limit myself.. I don't want to do just environments or characters but anything. Which is also kinda naive I suppose.

I would go for 'a little bit of everything' and eventually one day I will know what I want to be.
Thank you for the kind reply and also for the resources which I will definitely check out :))


Meanwhile here are some gesture drawings and anatomy studies from last night. I'm really sorry about the bad quality and the ugly way I put them together but I guess it's better than uploading 15 large images..





I've never felt so comfortable drawing ears! I don't know what happened to me haha. But I can do them without ref now^^

[Adam Lina]

Great job with the paintings and the sketches are coming along. Id recommend getting yourself into a life drawing group of some kind if you're not already. Also your quick gestures look pretty stiff. You could do some very fast gestures like 20-30 seconds to get the most basic rhythm lines down first. Basically focus more on major rhythm lines that flow throughout the figure. The Reilly rhythms of the figure are very helpful with this. Its hard to balance between trying to get correct proportions and not getting too stiff. Just keep practicing!

[maggie]

Thank you and yes my gesture drawing skills are pretty horrible so I should focus more on this.. but aren't 30 seconds too little? I did those gestures in 2 minutes.. I know it's very slow but I haven't done much of these before.. Anyways I will give it a try! Thanks for the advices! :)



here are some studies from today

[Adam Lina]

30 seconds is enough time to make 5 to 6 lines which is all you need to establish a gesture. Its not easy to simplify the whole body into its most basic rhythms so if you need to increase the time a little dont worry about it. Michael Hamptons book talks about it a little. Gesture is all about capturing the action of the body, not making a completed contoured line drawing of the figure with anatomy. If anything you want to use the least amount of lines possible to show what the person is doing.

Another book I recommend is Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators. I know you dont want to be an animator but the concepts in it are valuable for anyone drawing figures. Theres a website for it too http://www.drawingforce.com/ Its all about learning to see how forms flow into each other in "C" curves ,"S" curves and straights or "I". Thats why you'll hear people talking about gesture refer to "CSI".