Sula's Sketchbook

[Ursula Dorada]

@Pearwood: :D yay! Depth, depth, yes!

Painting Drama 2 week 4
Some very tight restrictions this time around (light key + yellow primary)

[smrr]

Lovveeee the perspective and mood :D

[Ursula Dorada]

@Smrrfette: thinking of finishing this one at some point ^^

Low key + yellow primary

[Wolkenfels]

wow - that course is tough stuff... Good ones, Sula!

[Ursula Dorada]

@wolken: thanks man :D Yeah, it's demading. but in a good way hehe

I talked myself into lifting one of the restrictions on value on the last piece and earned an accent! yay


Also, high key + analogous, still trying to push the feeling of depth as a bonus.

[crackedskull]

Oh man, you've done some awesome paintings since my last visit.
Great shapes on the last 2 paintings.

[rafa zanchetin]

It's awesome to see your evolution in these 50(!!!) pages, especially on these last landscapes. May I ask, what course are you taking?

[JonHop]

Your pencil enviro drawings are stunning! Really beautiful, deer piece turned out great and I really like what youre doing with the limited pallette and key. Keep doing you :).

[Jaik]

Looks great Sula, really cool. That dragon definitely needed the higher values to read correctly, I read it as poison breath without it, I guess if you had to keep the low key that may have been a possible solution.

That last environment is my fave so far. Looks really good, the colours are great, the depth, everything.

Also I see you are browsing this thread at the same time as me, if you have updated in the time it takes me to write this message I may cry. DONT DO THIS TO ME AGAIN!

[nunopias]

Hey everyone!

First, yes, Sula is the short of my real name, Ursula. Feel free to use it :)
Second: not going to flood this one with old images, but I will try and keep this updated with new stuff as much as possible.

Here are two recent ones thou:
From my enviro sketching class on CGMA:




And a quick, no ref one. After watching Vilppu's DVD on anatomy. Her nose is too long...

Loving that portrait. . . keep it going! :D

[Ursula Dorada]

Thank you guys!


@cracked: thanks :D
@Rafa: thank you! And sure. Right now I am doing Painting Drama 2 with Chris oatley: http://chrisoatley.com/ Painting Drama requires an audition, and I think next class will start next April. Subscribe to the newsletter if you want more info :D He is an awesome teacher.

@JonHop: woot :D thanks man! Have to keep pushing

@Jaik: hahah you weren't doing a paint over, so I let that one pass hahah! And YAY thank you! The poison breath idea was quite cool actually. I need a decent dragon piece on my folio...

@Nunopias: hehe an oldie! Thank you :)


So i had my portfolio review with Todd Lockwood today, and it wen't.. better than expected :D I was sort of hoping he would tear everything apart, but hey, not really! He mostly had suggestions. Here are my notes:

1) I need to design with a bit more of confidence my value structure. Make the light work in favor of the subject of the painting. Get my highest contrast area on the "star of the picture". Don't be afraid to stack dark against light there.

2) Look for opportunities to make the light work in your favor. Kill detail everywhere else. I am doing a good job of not looking airbrushy, but I went overboard with detail. Don't be afraid to tone it down - but keep the brush marks. Just make them less textury. It's making stuff too busy.

3) The thing about making something looking finished but not over-rendered/over-textured: nail the shape. The shape needs to be nicely composed/designed. Same goes for edges. It doesn't need to be sharp all the time, but the shape needs to read well.

4) Brushstrokes around the form, and not following the contour. I totally missed this.

5) Once my values are in place, don't be afraid to push more shadows. This was funny because I though my pieces were already very dark. He put way more shadows in there and they worked just fine.

6) I have been distributing things too evenly on my paintings. Rocks the same size, bushes the same, overall shapes the same size; Values too close; Same amounts of texture. Try to break this sameness overall. Another thing I was aware, but was totally not seeing it.

:D
I was scared I'd be heartbroken after this, but having Todd Lockwood saying I have strong pieces made me all fuzzy inside hehe <3

And okay, since it's forbidden to update without art, here si something I have tried. I have no idea if it has worked. I am working on doing the regular painting of this, but I have no idea if it will stand either.
Dammit, this style thing :V

[Wolkenfels]

I hope noone gets bored when i send you a "you are awesome - i love your stuff!" message again. Keep going and keep reaching for the progress.

[Ursula Dorada]

@Wolken: :D I love them, so don't worry <3 Thank you!

This week focus on Panting Drama is lost edges. So please bear with me and my blurriness. No hard brushes on the exercises this week.

[Ursula Dorada]

I am kinda of freaked out about this whole edges concept
I have been trying to grasp it for a while now, but it doesn't make any sense; the more studies I make about them, the more they just seem to be arbitrary. I don't really see how doing it slighly softer or harder alter the outcome that much.

So yeah, my problem: I don't see edges. They seem like just an afterthought. I can make stuff look softer alright, but more than that? heh
So now that I have a week to make it work, I am a bit scared of this inadequacy of mine

I was doing some studies after ZhaomingWu ( http://www.zhaomingwu.com/ ), but it just looked even more arbitrary now. Dammit.

[Wolkenfels]

you most likely know this already but stapelton Kearns made some very interesting articles about edges on his blog. http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.de/search?q=edges

[Doolio]

[Ursula Dorada]

@Wolken: yup, reading it again :) Can't hurt
@Doolio: lol <3

The edge saga continues
Painting Drama week 5, Rainy Weather, soft edges
(Try and look for opportunities to not have edges Sula, c'mon, you can do it!)

[Jaik]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51913

That could also help. Its a pretty good guide, but from the sound of things are you arent struggling with creation of soft edges, rather the purpose of them.

[Ursula Dorada]

@jaik: Hey, thanks for the link man :) I have already read that a couple of months ago. I'll read it again

Also, there is this video about edges that is really cool too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJjUvCRiais

This is one is very nice too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPz8Xyt3z-w

but I am not sure this is exactly what the teacher is getting at
He is trying to dig out the artist from the Photoshop operator I have been this last few years.. so uhm. I promised to show the failures too, so have them. I should be drown in NDA stuff for the next few days, hopefully I will be able to do homework too

[JhonnyVDB]

wow, i really enjoyed browsing through your sketchbook!
Great work in there