Knight's sketchbook

[dimensional-knight]

Aw I was too slow to reply to your previous post.

*ninja*

Aw I was too slow to reply to your previous post. I didn't mean that her eyes were bad, only that imagining the image as a comic panel my eyes would be drawn first to her face, then too quickly to the bright green stroke at the top because her eyes are fuzzy. Now that I know she's a mermaid though, and fish eyes can be fuzzy...

Wow you can clearly see she's the main focal point in the image. :)

It's easier to get away with making the character a menacing presence on an empty scene, but once I added the lily pads I had to sharpen her and her eyes anyway because the viewer focus is no longer a half arc — without changes it'd bounce everywhere on her sides.

Your last version is excellent, I don't think you need to touch anything any more (unless you wanted it to be a standalone illustration that told the whole story).

I want to try add a little extra plane separation to her through hue shifting and finish cleaning up the un-skewing I did. She was getting seriously deformed by doing painting passes over a loose sketch. Plus I'll try out some water lily flowers, which are bright, so I might need to put a little extra focus on her to counter them. Let's see.

I like the more angular drapery (on the left) because I find it more fitting to the character's mood as you described it. I also like the texture of the charcoal-like highlights even though I suppose you will make them more silk-like. I also agree with you that using the top lighting is more solid.

Agree on everything, even on the appeal the white sketch highlights. I wish I knew how to keep that energetic and effortless look on finished pieces!

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Got around taking photos of the figure studies. First my latest hands on the new sketchbook, which I got to try the brand as a potential moleskine substitute and really wanted to love... but was forced to lightly sand so the paper is able to keep any graphite at all (look at the first unsanded page). It's so slippery! 






Feet silhouettes and half hand page on previous sketchbook.






I struggle with angles involving palm foreshortening and wanted to find a more natural way to structure the hands, so I tried something I've been stewing over for a while: Tracing.

It feels weird and wrong and I keep repeating "its like écorché, but for planes!" to myself, yet it is helpful. It's a good way to explore how to approach the subject and get used to unusually angled lines and overlaps. This was done between old and new sketchbook.