Lillen's Sketchbook

[Lillen]

Rather than post a lot of my past works, I'd like to keep moving forward and post more current works and studies. (Edit: If you're curious, here is a sample of my old works over time https://i.imgur.com/eQMMSKe.jpg)

Recently, I re-visited a master study I've painted before 5 years ago. Martha Dana Mercer 1899 by Anders Zorn. I really love this portrait, which is a bit ironic because it feels rather simple compared to Zorn's other works. 




Editing / Styling



I really love moody looks, and over time I've slowly come to prefer flatter, more stylized value control.




Cloud Study from Reference (Edited)
Reference Photo: Link
Photographer: photo_okina

One of my favorite artists released a cloud brush pack, so I'm taking the opportunity to do a few cloud studies. I don't feel particularly confident with this one. I plan to do a few more, following along with the tutorial.

Critique and comments welcome.

[darktiste]

Posting old stuff is somewhat about destroying old habit i don't advise on skipping it.You save yourself time if you do.There is no shame to it. But obviously those work are also not really representative of your current skill it just generally help to post them anyways to clarify your interest and where thing are perhaps stagnating.

Cloud study in my mind should be about brush control not letting the brush carry from end to finish.Cloud are the perfect excuse to practice edge control and doing them by hand create a strong visual signature.But there plenty of cool stuff out there also to use and just get the job done.

Anyways using brush texture is not a crime some people have made it there signature.You just might want to ask yourself the pro and con of you decision making but before anything have fun.

[Lillen]

Posting old stuff is somewhat about destroying old habit i don't advise on skipping it.You save yourself time if you do.There is no shame to it. But obviously those work are also not really representative of your current skill it just generally help to post them anyways to clarify your interest and where thing are perhaps stagnating.

Cloud study in my mind should be about brush control not letting the brush carry from end to finish.Cloud are the perfect excuse to practice edge control and doing them by hand create a strong visual signature.But there plenty of cool stuff out there also to use and just get the job done.

Anyways using brush texture is not a crime some people have made it there signature.You just might want to ask yourself the pro and con of you decision making but before anything have fun.

Alright, you make a good point. I will add a timeline of my old works. Link here: https://i.imgur.com/eQMMSKe.jpg and i'll add it to the top.

[Lunatique]

Yay! Finally another member who likes portraits as much as I do! And into the same type of artists/painting styles. Zorn, Sargent, Sorolla, Schmid, etc., are some of my biggest influences in painting, along with digital painters who are also heavily influenced by them.

Regarding the clouds. I have used cloud brush packs in the past, I find they're generally more suited to commercial works where deadlines are always looming, as they're a bit like shortcuts. But when doing personal works, I much prefer to just use general painting brushes I like and let the inherent texture/bristle marks of the brush show, as the results always looked more like the kind of organic and expressive painting I prefer.

[Lillen]

Clouds II (1.5-2 hrs)

Initially, I thought this study was about the same as my previous one in terms of quality. I felt very neutral about it, but after receiving some feedback from my trusted partner, I started to feel much more positive and hopeful.






Clouds III (2-3 hrs)

Now, it was time to move on to more interesting lighting scenarios. In comparison to my earlier studies, everything about this study went much smoother. I’m feeling good about it. The most difficult part was the rocks, which I’m considering adding to my never ending ‘things to study’ list. The method that I use is painting grayscale and then applying several gradient maps (and masks). I did this in 1 sitting, in about 2–3 hrs with mild sleep deprivation setting in. A friend pointed out to me later, I did make a careless mistake where the clouds form a tangent with the rocks. (Reminding me I should wait a day or two before I post.) They also said that my shapes initially were much stronger, but I had changed them to be more accurate like my reference. I had forgotten the lesson of my previous study, where I had focused more on editing the reference / designing my shapes. I still struggle in my mind between exaggerating shapes and pulling back to reality. I asked myself why I might be having this problem, and I came to a realization. Typically, I am a portrait artist, and my ‘bad habit’ for a while was overexaggerating to the point where it broke anatomy. Mentally, I hold myself back a bit on what I wanted to exaggerate to compensate this tendency. However, this does not serve well for landscapes. There is much more freedom to change the shapes. The past few weeks I serendipitously keep running into things that talk about being bold, free, and fearless with art. I shall take this as a sign.

Please Note: Nearly all the artworks I will be posting in this thread will be compressed jpgs / webp and Glazed due to AI scrapping my work. As a result, you may see some weird artifacts.

Yay! Finally another member who likes portraits as much as I do! And into the same type of artists/painting styles. Zorn, Sargent, Sorolla, Schmid, etc., are some of my biggest influences in painting, along with digital painters who are also heavily influenced by them.

Regarding the clouds. I have used cloud brush packs in the past, I find they're generally more suited to commercial works where deadlines are always looming, as they're a bit like shortcuts. But when doing personal works, I much prefer to just use general painting brushes I like and let the inherent texture/bristle marks of the brush show, as the results always looked more like the kind of organic and expressive painting I prefer.

I'm happy to meet another artist I have something in common with, and can learn from. Thank you very much for the kind advice! I will be practicing with my general painterly brushes.

[cgmythology]

Great work here, really enjoy the master study especially. I like your brushwork as well, it's very interesting and helps make your paintings pop. Good stuff!

[Jephyr]

Yeah — beautiful work that you've shared so far — please keep posting

[Lillen]

Great work here, really enjoy the master study especially. I like your brushwork as well, it's very interesting and helps make your paintings pop. Good stuff!

Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm trying to be more conscious of my brushstrokes. It's something I love about Zorn and Sargent's work.

Yeah — beautiful work that you've shared so far — please keep posting

Thanks! I am working on my portfolio, so I'll have more to share.

[Lillen]

I've taken somewhat of a break from my studies in favor of working on career related things. I'm currently an independent art student (self-educated). My goal is to become part junior freelance illustrator, part independent artist. My strength is character art, specifically semi-realistic stylized femme humanoids. (Despite my recent studies, I have no plans to specialize in landscapes / environment art. It is an area I'm weaker in, hence the practice.) I want to work on a mix of projects; creating art prints, developing my own characters and stories, drawing other people's characters, working with companies to illustrate book covers, card games, RPGs, etc. and maybe even branch out to the fine art world.



Working on improving my method / workflow / efficiency for painting rocks. Still a bit rough, but figuring things out slowly. Came to the conclusion I need to take a step back and work on my shapes more. Please share if you know any tips or brushes to get nice easy textures without photo-bashing.















Bonus figure sketches from photo reference

[Komodo]

I don't know if it'll work for you but I found out that using the lasso tool to create texture is a good time saver trick. I recommand giving it a try. Unfortunately I don't have acess to my pad and I can't draw an example for you, but take a look of the way Forrest Imel is using and explaining the tool in this video, from 8:08 to 10:50.

I'm still experimenting with it but I think that it works in a lot of landscape, nature scenarios.

Let me know if it worked out once you tried it out!

[cgmythology]

Excellent updates, nice to see you doing some environment studies as well. Your figure work is aces as always, great stuff!

[Daft Sketch]

Really nice work! I like your painterly style and the figures look great. Regarding shapes, I would try combining them more. In other words linking them together more; shapes in general but maybe shadows in particular.

Here's a video (long but very informative) on the topic based on Frank Frazettas work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs7ye6KJ5Y

Looking forward to more!

[Zvarthav]

I can't offer much feedback because I'm not very adept at art, but I really like your painting of the cliffs with the moon. Too bad about the artifacts due to AI taking your stuff. Interesting seeing your improvement through the years too. You're already good in my eyes but keep on painting and you'll become even better.