I'd love to jump on board with this! I'll do a quick little introduction.
Hi I'm VeronicaRadd, I'm an artist from southern Ontario. I've been obsessed with art since I was a kid. My dad used to have lots of Dali paintings around the house and that sparked the fire in me. A few years ago I went to college for a graphic design degree but it wasn't for me so I dropped out. I then decided to work full time and do my art in my spare time. Now I'm 24, I do art shows every now and again, most of them at bars and restaurants. I think my dream is to paint full time. I would love to just do commissioned art pieces for the rest of my days. Sometimes I think I'd like to try creating a graphic novel but I still have a lot to learn before I can do anything like that.
My goals at the moment are to improve my Lighting and anatomy skills. As well as perspective. So basically a little bit of everything.
Welcome to the VELVET REVOLVERS! Make yourself comfy. You have some noble goals. I took a look around your DA. Pretty cool stuff. Very cool surreal pieces.
One thing I wanna say though, looking at your work. Is that you dont need to be good at perspective or anatomy or whatever rules of representational art you think you need. For the more surreal and out there subjects, you just gotta be creative I guess. You could just escalate whatever you already do now and keep working on that.
That being said though. If you ever want to representational art, like, more realistic figures, and like the modern style of fantasy published art, even comics, then yea. You have a ways to go on that end.
But that's what we are here for!
Do some figure studies from reference, pay attention to the patterns of nature. Draw the same arm 5 times. Things like that. Then work on a finished piece, put everything into practice. And then post it all here! And we chip in. Help you get better. :p
Disclaimer. We are all noobs, not art goods. Haha. So, take it with a grain of salt. All we say are suggestions, not laws to be followed.
Neat work Veronica! Welcome to the team! You shall go far with us!
Jeso: As for your question about ideas for Challenges: Maybe it would help everyone's individual progress if the challenge was more of a theme than a subject, if you know what I mean?
For example-- 'Mood' (Like incorporating mood with values/colour in whatever pieces you happen to be doing), or 'Cyberpunk' or 'Feathers' or 'Renaissance'. Something that inspires, but still remains open and/or vague enough for the person to work within it individually.
People seem to take their own individual approach to improvement, which I think should be encouraged-- So, I figure we could enhance the experience? I dunno. Just throwing out ideas.
Alright book! You make some valid points. How about Sci-fi week? I feel like a lot of us get hold up in the safety of Fantasy, because, you know, its easier to draw warriors than mechs. So how about that?
Also, I think I might be done with this thing for good. Time to move on.
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I've been looking for the perfect place to find feedback and I'm so glad I found this place. I can't wait to get started. I love the sci fi theme, it's one of my favorites :P I'll start a new piece next week and try to put all those tips into action.
Also Jeso, I wanted to mention that I read this thread and watched your lion warrior develop! too cool. Looks so clean and crisp. I'll be posting again soon! but here's a link to a piece I finished this morning :)
Veronica: AHHHH Da coloouuuursusususss. Haha Feel like im triiiipinggg here..
Nice work. It does create kind of an optic illusion when trying to focus on the eyes of the faces.
That pattern around the faces though, kind of sticks out a little much. Like it doesn't belong. maybe some kind of shading on it, would increase the feel of cohesion.
Okay guys. Starting next Monday is SCI FI WEEK! Do studies of space ships, robots, sci fi films. Go nuts. If you can, have something original you made by Sunday.
Suprisingly enough I feel like I find sci-fi(atleast robots anyway) easier then fantasy. still working on that robot project(actually drawing some studies for it now, gonna do a first draft of it soon), so i'm already working on some sci-fi stuff. thisi'll give me an excuse to draw other sci-fi stuff like daleks though XD.
Considering building a rota for myself, since i'm not drawing all that much recently(an hour a day usually) i'm thinking of cycling from imagination projects(the robot one currently) the proko stuff and probbly anatomy studies.
So, the client that was having me do the project I mentioned before has been a bit weird lately. Told he was gonna pay me last week, for a work I finished last month. Hasn't replied and stuff. So fuck it. I'm gonna show what I did for him. Cause I need to find work damn it, haha.
Its just a couple of characters actually. Not even that much.
Its been slow brothers. I feel like life is always beating down on you from all angles, and you are still stuck in the suck. I worked on the Lion, so there is that. Although, for some reason, something about it I dont like it. BUT, I feel like it was a break through piece for me. I'm finally making a jump from empty background characters to full illustrations. I need to do more of that.
I also enrolled in this stupid online course to teach English abroad. With the hopes of being able to move to Japan to do that someday. You know, living in Japan + arting life = perfect life.
Right now I just know that I want to get the fuck out of this place I'm in right now. Get the fuck out of this house, make more than fucking 100% a month... I just need out man...
Jeso: I hear you, man. Art is a lifelong journey, and you gotta keep breaking through. You'll break outta that house and make the money.
Lol, so weird, I wanted to do the same thing. Get the credentials, move to Japan. Lol, I've already made a big step moving to a completely different country. Different language. Different culture.
But, remember, it's hard. It's a completely different culture, it's expensive to live there (Even for residents), and when you're living there, it's not going to be heaven. You're going to be coming to terms with a lot of things which won't make sense to you.
I guess what I'm saying is-- Go for it, but... Enjoy your home while you're there. Enjoy being with friends and family. Enjoy going out to eat and being able to speak your own language to order food. You will take things for granted, I guarantee. There'll be great things, but there will be a lot that you will miss. So, remember to count your blessings n'stuff.
My contribution to Sci-fi week-- I took a break from my portrait study when I was inspired by Feng Zhu, who said we need to use the books we read to force us to visualize things.
Then I remembered these striking mental visuals from Dune: Paul Atreides and his mother the Lady Jessica wandering the desert dunes, and realizing they had found the Fremen when they came across plant life.
yo Book! That asian guy portrait turned out pretty good! Now about the Sci fi piece, we should try to boost up the sci fi elements on our images. I'm kind of in the same boat this time lol.
Jeso: Well, the image I created is from a Sci-fi book, and it's on another planet-- But, it doesn't -look- like it. So.. Yeah. XD I ordered a book to come in to the library I work at on science fiction art, so that couldn't have come at a better time. It's called "Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art." I'll get to pick it up tomorrow when I go to work. It's amazing-- I just came upon it by chance when I was searching the system thoroughly for any book title with the word 'art' in it. I had dreams about how amazing this book is gonna be last night, so... lol.
For now: I've done a horror study from Ash vs. Evil Dead.
Awesome demon. I loved this, and I think it shows.
I've had a crazy week so I didn't get to draw toooo much, but I did finish two quick drawings! I posted both new ones on my deviant art page, im not sure how to attack images yet :(
the most recent drawings I did are the aroura borealis and the giraffe family piece. would love feedback guys :) thanks
Welcome to the team! 
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