Sula's Sketchbook

[pnate]

Inspiring, as always. I like the more painterly-ness you've tried out, adds some fun visual interest to it :)

[Ursula Dorada]

@Wolken: thank you :D And yeah, I didn't spend as much time on the sketch as I should, as I'm really eager to solve the painterly thing. Still not sure where I am going with this, though.
@Shin: thank you :D <3 Rock on, mate
@Pnate: thanks man! Glas it's working. Still feeling a bit lost.

So yeah, between freelance and real life things (eww taxes)

[DK]

Really like that last one! I don't know if you wanna take it further, but maybe a simple wash of colors on a multiply layer to experiment (watercolor look?)? Just make sure the line-work stays in tact, it's beautiful.

Lots of hard work throughout in here.

[Ursula Dorada]

@Dennis: Thanks man :D And yep, I'll try it!

Today's study, after the amazing Nathan Fowkes (original: http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com.br/2014...study.html)

[meat]

Really like that pencil drawing. The shading transitions so smoothly, and there aren't even any underlying sketch lines.

[denikina]

Very nice texture in the last one :)

[Flo]

Hey Sula,

those last studies look great and the pencil-drawing of the warrior girl is also great.

for crits: maybe step out of your comfort zone a bit and do studies of technical stuff or weird plants / animals.

I would love to see a creature done by you :)

[Adzerak]

Oh yea. Sweet pencil drawing. All the good techincal stuff is there, the heavier lineweight on the opposite side of the light and the "out of focus"-effect added on her right side.
Have to agree with Flo there, would be sweet to see how you handled something like that. Could be one of those awesome moments where you go "wait, I can paint this kinds of stuff? huh, never knew!" xD

[Ursula Dorada]

@meat: Thanks <3
@Denikina: thanks :D Hopefully I will be able to try something similar in a personal soon.
@Flo: Haha thank you! You do have a point, i was planning to delving deep in perspective and start practicing buildings/architecture, but real life happened. Most of what I have been painting is leisure time between work. I do need to go back to study though. (and I still need to study much more enviros, those are very far away from comfort zone)
@Adzerak: Thank you! haha yep, it's planned!

Here, I have been messing with this the last few days, every 10 free minutes I had. Charcoal is so unruly... But it's fun. I need to mess more with it. I need a charcoal pencil, the sticks are terrible for any kind of detailing.

[denikina]

Oh, goooood, this is something, that rarely gets done with charcoal and it's really beautiful.

It's a funny medium - hard at first, but then its gets you the possibilities you wouldn't have with pencil. I don't know which kind of charcoal you have used - the softer, perhaps? It gets really nice values quickly, can get strong and dynamic lines, but also be very delicate. Remember doing some bird studies with it - amazing effects with black feathers :)

[crackedskull]

Having fun looking at your newer stuff, charcoal piece has a pretty nice composition among other things :)

[Ursula Dorada]

@Denikina: :D Thank you! Haha I actually don't know - we have a cheap yellow box of charcoal here that just list it by the size of stick. I was using medium sized sticks :p But no mention of how soft it was. I am curious to try the pencil version of it though, as soon as I find it to buy. And yes! Birds! I'll look into that :D

@Crackedskull: Thanks man :D <3

So!
Crazy busy week, I squeezed a photo study in between convention days. I know it looks comfort zony, but I'm trying to fine tune some things. I have a lot of value/temperature control I have been trying to nail down. Subtle things - but hopefully it will make difference in the long run.

[Ursula Dorada]

So, you know how this goes, Saturday I always steal some hours for me :)
Lots of things clicking into places, or so I hope.

[pearwood]

Lovely, Sula. A much softer look than usual.

[Adam Lina]

You should do your charcoals on a medium grey toned paper. That way you use the paper for your middle tones and your highlights pop out really nicely.

[Wolkenfels]

Sweet portraits, Sula! Especially like the hightlight on the skin of the upper one. Subtle and magical.

[Lyraina]

Aah that photo study is pretty, lovely skintones! ... No idea how you do it, but your paintings (especially portraits) have the ability to make me happy just by looking at them. <3

[Ursula Dorada]

@Hypnagogic: Surprisingly, I do not have any gray toned paper to try it out, can you believe? I have search everywhere, nope, tough luck. I am going to import some and try it out, but that will take a while :) Thank you!

@Wolken: Thank you <3
@Lyraina: <3 Yay! Your comment made my day back then <3 I have now, more often than not, the feeling my art is failing to connect =/ So thank you :hug:

Here, found some charcoal pencils and a proper charcoal stick. Seems I was using only very soft willow sticks - so using the eraser was sending me straight back to white on the paper, and it was hard to build tones. This seems more manageable now, just need to be aware and don't dive into too much details.

Loving the charcoal pencil to sketch <3
Next up, when I have some free time again, trees!

[Fedodika]

golly the edges on the brow line are so nice oooooooh i gotta do some of those!

[Ursula Dorada]

@Fedodika: <3 thank you! I need to do some more myself.

Here I am stealing time for myself again. Not really sure how I feel about this to be honest; Have you ever felt walking in circles? I need to get back to my study momentum asap