Zaulta's Sketchbook

[JosephCow]

What online school are you doing that you don't like the art classes? Because you're also doing schoolism, right? Sorry not trying to pry, just curious.

Nice job on the assignments so far. The guy in the suit looks pretty good. The most recent study of a movie still has good colors, and they are massed. But it's missing some of the strong shapes of light on the guy's hat and jacket that make the scene look really cool.

[Zaulta]

@JosephCow

It's np, you're just asking so :p. The other online classes are for public high school classes. I like the projects that we do physically in art class, but based on past experience the work, imo, doesn't seem productive. For example, a bit after quarantine the art teacher assigned us to make ourselves into a lego character and I wasn't excited if they were going to make assignments similar, but that might just be me being selfish though. Also thanks for the compliments and I was just planning on adding the extremes later.



Finished the study. Was easier than I thought and didn't take as long either. Gonna watch the next schoolism lesson tomorrow. Next time I really need to start paying attention to soft/hard edges more and using the airbrush.



The online class pretty much asked to do a still life from life, but the instructions were pretty weird so I changed it to fit what I would've liked a bit better and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The teacher commented and it said it looked good, so I guess I can get away with it as long as it fits what they're essentially asking. Took my time doing this for the most part, messed up in some areas, and forgot about the pencil marks : ^).

[JosephCow]

Oh yeah, I see. The movie still looks really good now with the lights added. I had the same kind of thoughts about my high school art classes. It was pretty fun, but all the projects were mostly just for amusement, rather than a serious pursuit. It's kind of a shame if you want to be on a career path in art. But with schoolism and other teachers I'm sure you'll get leagues ahead!

[Zaulta]

@JosephCow
Yeah I agree, the art classes in high school don't really teach much only very basic stuff. It's probably like that cause it's meant for everyone or something and schoolism is pretty helpful and it's pushing me to do new things : ^).

Watched the next schoolism lesson and took notes : ^). I was procrastinating on it cause I knew it would be very hard, but got all my other school work out of the way. I don't think I understand the light works that well. Tomorrow gonna try to combine paintings that I like. Like taking lighting from one painting and put it in another.

[Zaulta]

More lighting practice : ^). Thinking about painting outside tomorrow. Also gonna finish the left girl tomorrow. Guy on the rights lips should be lower.



Did this before all the other ones and didn't like it.

[Zaulta]

Went to the park today to paint and found this really cool fallen tree. After painting this I think I understand how the light from the sky works a bit better. Probably this one is my best outside painting so far.



Took me awhile to decide on where and what to paint next. Was also getting pretty tired and had a hard time getting the roots on the right distinct.



Both of them together : ^). Each took about one and half hours to do.



When I came home from the park my parents were confronting me about my future career path and stuff @_@. They know I want to be an illustrator later and I just have a feeling that my mom doesn't think I'm going to be successful doing art. She keeps on hearing stories from some family members and patients from her work that, in general, artist struggle too much with money unless they're popular. I repeated what said many times to her I wanted to get an industry job and work in entertainment illustration and tried to explain the process of getting a job but :/ . I know my mom cares about my future but every time she tries to bring it up she puts down what I'm aiming for and gives the usual lecture about money.

[darktiste]

Well it seem your concern about pleasing other do you really think that gonna benifit you?Of course you want as much support as you can possibly get it doesn't seem that this is the case right now.I don't think here that your parent don't believe in your ability to make it i think there more concern that you not finding a job or get enough money and that totally understable.But it can be hard to explain to someone that there is a market and it can be possible to make it.The problem is it require time to compile information about the market that you would rather spend drawing instead of explaining why so i can understand the frustration.I recommend to just show her how much a illustrator can make and that might change her opinion but hey there alot of preconception attach to the field.Not every niche of art as it share of sucess so it can be understanble that some struggle to make it as artist.

[Zaulta]

@darkiste
Yeah you're right, I shouldn't really care about their opinion but I do want all of their support in what I want to do. I have shown her how much illustrators could make, but I overheard her say that she just doesn't think I understand. She thinks that video games and entertainment consist of only 3D modeling and wants me to learn 3d though I explained that just isn't true. She's just going to treat me like I'm an infant because I don't have a job. Both of my parents are letting me go to school for art, so I shouldn't complain but I think she's just very skeptical of the field, especially 2d stuff, and that's why she's objecting to it. Also, thanks for responding. Means a lot to see that someone understands <3.

Just did something small today and took a break. Went to grandparent's house for Mother's Day and just painted for about an hour. I'm starting see the occlusion light from the sky everywhere from leaves on trees to benches, never really noticed it until a day or so ago from the schoolism lesson. Also had to keep moving the statue cause I wanted it to be all in shadow @-@.

[JosephCow]

It seems like art is one of those careers where everyone else seems to suddenly be an expert on how it's done, where the money is, what is or isn't a good career. A lot of people mean well, but don't realize it's annoying. It can be really frustrating, especially starting out, because you have to justify what you're doing to everyone around you (and yourself) while you are still just focusing on getting good. But I guess what can you do except go for it anyway? :)

[darktiste]

I am not saying you should do this but maybe you should take a job part time on the side if you didn't already maybe just to demonstrate your also supporting yourself.I think what there trying to say between the line is you need to start to carry your own weight.It depend on who is paying for school of course this can create some form of expectation from them they either don't want to see you in debt or it just signaling it time to care more of your own weight.People can be really septical when someone put all is egg in one basket.Plus misconception about a field can be long and tedious to explain to people but at the end of the day you gotta tell her does she trust your or not?You can't let someone else fear weight on you gotta demonstrate confidence in your own skill to make it into the industry.Art isn't a field where there alot of respect from the general public i am sure they would rather see you become a doctor or something all parent want financial stability for there children.But there something more important than financial stability it happiness.But somehow those thing are connected for some people.It a mindset of materialism.Aslong as an artist eat as an roof and as friend and as it art i think the rest is just about how far he want to multiply what he as.

[Zaulta]

@JosephCow
Fully agree lol. Always hear a bunch of stories online on how hard it was to officially get your foot in the door and other people always telling you what to do when you try to get in to the industry, but still gonna try to go all in < 3.

@Darktiste
I was considering getting a part time job during the summer before covid happened and I'm still considering getting a job. Also should've rephrased it from not having a job to I don't pay the bills in the house. Yeah, while I was talking or arguing with her I did ask her if she did trust me, she kind of just avoided the question and I haven't let her concern weigh on me. It's just sad that she doesn't have confidence in the industry even though she hasn't done her research, but like you, I get it also.

Started some new studies focused on two clear different sources of light : ^). My stratage for the second light source is just ignoring it at first then using a screen layer to add it in. Reduce the opacity and combine it with the main layer.



Finished the redo thing @-@. Not gonna lie, wasn't really motivated to do this. Lighting is kind of hard though and also probably need to practice bodies more.

[Zaulta]

Finished the last head with small changes with the other ones



Started a new piece on an older oc o//o. Gonna try to refine this as much as I can tomorrow.



sketch



References and stuff on the right was done last month and in March



Mind as well copy and paste his story and my process in inventing him. He was made while I was in a class lol.

Story -
I wanted to make his theme taking your chances/risking it all for something greater and takes place in a steampunk society. All his life he has never been committed to anything compared to his others siblings who are just perfect. He comes from a rich family and after high school his parents paid the Air Force to accept his application even though he was completely unqualified. He’s a neutral good but he’s a very clumsy slow learner and since everyone knew he came from a very influential rich family he especially got picked on. A war suddenly breaks out and he is immediately sent to fight in the war. While fighting the enemy him and his crew crash land with him only surviving. He finds his mother, who he was very close to, conspiring with the enemy.

[Zaulta]

Some progress on the render. Still a lot of stuff I need to fix, like the eyes it looks like each one is looking at something else and I want to point the ends of the lips a little more up. Also having some trouble with the pants and I already know hands are gonna be hard : ^).



another progress check when I was done with my afternoon art time

[chubby_cat]

Hey Zaulta. Cool character and intriguing story you have for them (especially that lil twist at the end ;)) Keep it up. If I could offer one bit of critique, it would be to be careful of his nose. His nostrils are the same size and it's shaded in a way which make it looks like it's front facing (as opposed to the 3/4 view the rest of his face is in).

Hands are hard, but keep at it. You could always pause and study hands for a bit. What you paint doesn't have to be the *final* version. Look at J C Leyendecker (example in spoiler tag) in a lot of his paintings you can see he practised painting the hands (and many other things) off to the side before tackling the final image

Spoiler

[Zaulta]

@chubby_cat
The story was influenced by Naruto, Sanji from One Piece, AoT, and RWBY lol. Yeah thanks for the feedback <3, especially the nostrils and hand tips lol. I knew there was something else wrong but couldn't put my finger on it. With the hands, just tried to treat it similar to a small study. Would've just winged it, but gonna have to do some hand studies later.

Need to refine more and add the occlusion light and wanna try to finish this tomorrow. My wrist tendons are hurting : ^), prob because I was grinding a lot of League and started playing older pokemon games lol. After this is finished gonna give my hand rest from games and drawing.



refs for the hand



Worked on school assignments today. Drawing assignment for digital arts class. Pretty much wanted some figure drawings.

[Zaulta]

It's done : ^). I'm pretty proud of myself since I think it's the best digital painting I've done. The shadow on the nose is too dark now that I look at it and I need to learn how to add other light sources that are different colors. Also I was gonna do some studies after but got ganged up on my friends to stop cause of my hurting wrist, so started my rest early.

[Zaulta]

I was really bored today : ^). I was trying not to use my hurting hand most of the day, so just played pokemon a lot, read a book first time in forever, and watched the next schoolism and typed up notes with it. The main points of the lesson were: always pay attention to the surroundings of what you are painting even if there's no background, gradients within shapes (no two corners are the same color), color has three separate parts, and you can use any hue as long the value is good (like with only doing a character with no background, there can be anything in the background acting as a key light).

Didn't feel right not moving a pencil : ^), so timed a study for only an hour. It's pretty bad and didn't make a good sketch lol. Gonna try again tomorrow. I need to try to make using the soft brush a habit cause he has been emphasizing hard and soft shadows. Also when I do block ins I should go directly to the value of the shadows instead of slowly going down since the shadow side I painted is just a mess.



ref

[darktiste]

Playing game isn't the way to relax your hand believe it or not.If i was you i would use this time to listen and read mostly.If anything you should be maximizing your recovery by avoiding any physical activity that involve the affect area.Believe me or not one of the hardest thing can be to relax.What kind of injury do you have i might have some few thing to say about that.Injury might be due to poor ergonomy or overworking or poor drawing practice.

[Zaulta]

@darkiste
I was playing games only with my left hand lol. Yeah and I was reading and listening to videos today. It's just the tendons just before the wrist that feels sore, especially when I squeeze to make a fist with the last three fingers but before today it was more so sharper pains in the same area. I don't think it's serious though, probably just from repeatedly tapping buttons or something making the tendons all ripped up. Also appreciate that you're trying to help. <3

[Zaulta]

Hand feels better for the most part, just gonna try to play video games less for now.

Redid the study from last time. Really need to speed up my studies more (without timing). 90% of this was done in the first hour then spend the next 30 minutes pretty much nit picking. Also with the more finished painting from last week, I could've finished that in one day since a lot of it was really done after the block ins. Probably just a lot of being tedious that's making me take longer than I should.



Did a self portrait from the mirror today. Made myself look very weird and creepy since I gave myself a black expression and staring eyes. Made my eyes bigger and looks like I have make up on. I wanna try to add line art and start using the lasso tool in my paintings and that's gonna take some experimenting : ^). Also every time I try to use the air brush I don't think it looks right, then I go back to using the hard round back over the airbrush lol.



Not really happy with the self portrait, but I've gotten better at painting though especially with colors. Mirror self portrait from early February.