[jennifereasley]

Hey Stace! Great sketchbook so far, i have to say i really like your personal character sketches. The clothing designs you come up with are really interesting!
With those painted landscapes i´d say they are a bit flat, there seems to be a lack of atmospheric perspective as the scenery in the bg is just as saturated and warm as that in the foreground. I noticed it was improved in your digital studies though, and i can only imagine how difficult oils are!
Your pencil studies are good, and it´s nice to see the volume of work increasing i´m finding that digital colour still life studies are really helping me so maybe mix some of those in too?

I´d love to be art buddies if you want as we are both sort of new here! Well mainly me but meh... :P *subscribes*

[phereous]

Nice sketchbook!, Bridgeman studies ftw! I like the concepts here, very imaginative

[Sorknes]

Great studies, they're moving forward!

Also, maybe do some digital with some harder brushes, it comes out a bit too mushy when you go all soft, harder brush gives you some better focal points, so your eyes wander around the picture more (which is what you want to make people interested in what's actually in there). Great work so far!

[Ravi_Gupta]

hey Stace.. nice for those life drawings...its good you feel them relaxing...can't post much reallyy.. coz busy with something else... but definetly will something or other in near days ... cheers!!

[stace]

BjornHurri - I absolutely appreciate you for taking the time to stop by. Thank you so much!

jennifereasley - Oh man, atmospheric perspective in oils is a pain to do! I'm going to start back into oils next week, and plan on doing a bunch of reading about it too. It's easier to change things digitally than it is traditionally, lol.
I took your advice and attempted a color still life today. I'd love your imput! And yes, art buddies all the way! You still need to add me onto MSN girl!

phereous - Thanks! Can never go wrong with Bridgman studies.

Sorknes - Ooh yeah, good point. I tried using a hard brush first today for my still life study. A lot easier to handle but doesn't quite blend like a soft edge brush. Of course, tons and tons of more practice will help too. Thanks for stopping by!

Ravi_Gupta - Dude! You better be posting something up soon if you're too busy to comment. Nah, I kid I kid, thanks for stopping by.


HEFTY POST! Thank goodness. Despite the fact I need to leave soon for a night of laughter watching RiffTrax LIVE.

Sketchbook:





Study book, good ole Bridgman!


Gestures. I had not a clue what the hell I was doing with the first one, just trying to see shapes better. The second one looks much better, lol.



I tried painting an onion and some shavings, but focused on just the onion. Then the smell got to me and I had to stop.

Process, trying out the hard brush first.


Thumbnails and the late start of my Drawing Jam entry, theme: God of War



Thank you all so very much for your time! Crit away!

[JoseVega]

hey stace...great job on your sb... really like your studies and its awsome to see a lot of it... thou i would love and like to see more finished pieces please?!

[MarcSampson]

nice stuff i like where it is going

[monstertree]

Looks like you're working really hard, thanks for sharing mate

[jennifereasley]

Hi Stace! Nice work on the onion still life. I can understand why you stopped cos of the smell! Would have been good to see some smaller hard brush strokes next to get some detail in there but where you got to looks good! Nice sketches as usual, you get a lot of character on to each page

Your thumbnails give a good sense of each composition, maybe making them smaller would let you churn out even more if you need more of course lol. Good work! Also i agree, more finished stuff and colour pretty please

p.s i´ll add you on msn tonight!

[stace]

cheo36 - Thanks comrade! Finishing pieces is a priority on my to-do list. I really need some portfolio pieces, waaah.

MarcSampson - Right back at ya, dude! Thanks for stopping by!

monstertree - Awe, thank you! Gotta work harder, though!

Jen - Awe yeah, now you can constantly remind me to do more color and finished works, because I'm pretty bad at reminding myself to do it, lol. Thanks for your comment, sweetie!


I changed my name, but I swear I'm the same person!

Anyways, a good friend of mine commented lately that anytime an artblock starts to happen, it just means you're leveling up. And I suffered a tiny art block, but instead of getting down about it, I reworked my schedule to push on through it. Quantity is down this week, but quality is starting to build up!

Also did some gouache work today. I'm rusty but it's been rewarding!

Here's what I have from the past week.

Sketchbook:
Some life drawing, and then tried drawing the faces of the actors in some movies I was watching. Quite challenging but fun!

Actually started to think about environments for one of my graphic novels. Definitely will need to study more of those soon! And doodles, o'course.

Scribble page, but I liked the thumbnails I did on the top.


Photoshop Studies:
15 min photo study

4 hour still life study (might revisit and add colors)


Trying to patch up my relationship with gouache. Not as easy as digital, but I'm getting the hang of it. Color charts took a good part of my day, but it was helpful nonetheless.


This is about how far I got with my God of War piece. I know the Jam is over but I am still in love with my idea. I've just been going back and forth on what to do, especially with how timid I am with colors. I'll definitely work on it some more before I consider it trash (gotta get some more imaginative work done, sigh)


Any tips from you guys on how to do more completed imaginative works? I'm still missing a few links between my studies and my imaginative works. I've been thinking about continuing more value and shape stuff, might be getting too far ahead of myself with colors.

Ah, all I know is I'm going to have to work harder - and harder I shall. Thanks for your time, and possible comments and crits ahead.

[jennifereasley]

Wow, i really love your pencil sketches Stace, they´re so imaginative and your lines are always confident with good shading i have a similar sketchbook, need to start using pencils again! The gouache turned out well i think, i like the colours on the top 2 paintings the most.

The study of the mug and mouse is great, maybe if you go back to it you could tighten up the edges so it reads a bit clearer, and i think the mousepad perspective is a bit off but not by much ^^

I love your god of war design so far! I dunno why but i love all your sketches, i can´t ever seem to get that loose sort of abstract look in mine. Yours are just plain nice to look at.

I think in terms of doing more finished imagined works, just go with an idea you really like, start to thumbnail out compositions and colour passes, then just slowly work in to it from rough to detail. Sometimes i get bored so i make sure i always have all parts of the image at the same detail level so if i decide to call it finished, it at least looks readable :P Then if you want to you can keep working in to it til it´s polished.

Just my thoughts anyway, and remember, don´t be afraid to experiment with colour! And ideas for that matter. Digital is quite forgiving Just have fun ^^

Oh and remind me to actually do some painting at some point too :S hehe

[malo]

Hey Stacy,
updates are looking good! Really dig your moleskin and the 15 min head study is pretty good as well.
hope to see more traditional and digital stuff sonn

Cheers

[mjasnowski]

Great update, I'd say just keep doing what you're doing You seem to have a nice mix of personal and study images. As for the finished imaginative pieces, I'll echo what others have said, just push a piece as far as you can, even if you end up not 100% happy with the end result, you'l likely have learned something.

Looking forward to more

[stace]

Jen - Thanks for your comment, it meant an awful lot to me that you would spend the time to really go in depth. I'm thinking of doing more gouache, actually. And that mouse pad was a pain to draw, hehe. Like we've talked about before, I just get so nervous when it comes to my imaginative works, and how I'm still lackng a lot of skill. But I'm not going to get anywhere if I do nothing, so I'm definitely going to start trying to do more imaginative works for myself, thanks for the tips.

Malo - Thanks dude! More on the way.

Alex - Thanks, I'm working on getting more finished pieces. Just got to push myself a bit more. Love your sketchbook, too.

Mjasnowski - Thanks! I think I get too caught up in trying to make my imaginative pieces as perfect as they are in my head, and getting frustrated and stopping at the point when I realize that it's not exactly as I want it to be. Another thing to work on.

Okay, usually I update Wednesdays, but I work last night. I thought about skipping this week's update entirely. This past week was a struggle and I gave in to laziness more than I did to art. Shame on me.

Here's what I have regardless.

I actually went to a life drawing session. Boy, am I really rusty, but I have missed charcoal so much. Here are some gestures:




Photo ref'd gestures.



Two photostudies, just trying to have fun.



A sketchbook page I've steadily filled over the week. Working on an old character of mine.


I have been reading and re-reading this crits over and over again. I cannot thank you guys enough for what you've given me. I just feel bad that I haven't really applied it to my art. It's now a new month, what more of a reason would I need to keep chugging forward and pushing myself harder.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for any comments ahead.

[MarcSampson]

nice drawings and pretty good digital paintings as well

what ive noticed is that your anatomy overall is pretty decent.. ive seen it in a lot of sketchbooks now.. your faces really lack structure..try to understand the proportions of the face you dont have to reinvent the face every time you draw it