PaperDoll's Sketchbook! (Nudity warning)

[PaperDoll]

So I think I meant to start a sketchbook when I posted my fat cat...but oh well, I guess he's getting his own special post [check him out here].

Other than the kitty, I've been trying to spend the dawning days of my summer break sketching, working on anatomy, and sleeping...a lot.

Because I don't want any man-pony tails popping up any time soon [inside joke], I am starting this sketchbook tonight, and looking forward to any crits you wonderful artists have (they are seriously super effin helpful).

FIRST WORK POST! [sexy lady]:

where it is now:


Thanks!
Ashley (aka PaperDoll)

[Razvan-Sedekiah]

Looking good! I'd say, try to hang on to some of those rough brush strokes, because they are really beautiful. (like on her stretched out leg.) The colors are really pretty. The neck area looks a little off... if you are working from a photo, look carefully at it.. and sometimes... even in a photo, stuff looks kinda odd, and then when you translate that in to a drawing, it looks more odd... so sometimes you have to edit stuff yourself. (hope that made sense... O_0???)

[PaperDoll]

ha! I guess you can't put drawings of naked ladies on photobucket! No worries, will host from own website! (watch, next I find out my website is shut down cuz they think I have porn on there. That'd suck.) Anyways, here's the update:

And Raz, you're totally right about the neck. It looks weird in the photo, then I messed it up when I started to smooth things out. I liked the strokes, too, but was unsure about them...so I'm glad you liked them, too...I'll keep that in mind when finishing it.

Speaking of finishing it...what do you (anyone who cares to answer) things it needs? And don't say lighting! Haha...jk...that's just what I'm struggling with on my damn fat cat.

[Ksan]

good improvement!! I have a suggestion for you though. I can see she is very tan, but to me the skin looks too much the same color. I'm guessing you may have eyedropper-ed the colors from the pic, and that's is good to start, but now make it pretty! There is actually, believe me or not, a ton of blue in the skin. Sometimes even green, yellow, and pink. Skin is translucent in a way, and those colors help with that. Never use black, muddys up the color. Do it over with a low opacity, try to blend it in and experiment. Good job, nice to see your update

[PapaLongLegs]

Originally Posted by Ksan

good improvement!! I have a suggestion for you though. I can see she is very tan, but to me the skin looks too much the same color. I'm guessing you may have eyedropper-ed the colors from the pic, and that's is good to start, but now make it pretty! There is actually, believe me or not, a ton of blue in the skin. Sometimes even green, yellow, and pink. Skin is translucent in a way, and those colors help with that. Never use black, muddys up the color. Do it over with a low opacity, try to blend it in and experiment. Good job, nice to see your update

Ksan is absolutely correct, you need more colours in the skin. Also, if you have eyedroppered the colours from a photo, don't! Yes these are the exact colours from that pixel in the image but doing this tends to give you an unnatural look to the picture, its also bad practice for any real life painting you may plan to do. I suggest going by eye, look at the photo and then choose a colour thats as close as you can get without eyedropping, use your artistic intuition if you will.

Also consider that just copying exact from a photo can render an image boring, I know you're practicing anatomy here but that leaves everything else to add your own spark to. Perhaps try changing the lighting in your copy? Or perhaps the scene. If you go for lighting remember cool light = warm shade and vice versa.

Looking good up to now anyway, nice study!

[PaperDoll]

Thanks Ksan and Papa (um, that's kinda weird calling you Papa...and calling you PapaLong doesn't quite sound right either...but I don't really feel like typing out the entire PapaLongLegs...sooooo I'm renaming you PLL ha!) I did feel a lil guilty about using the eye dropper tool...I did render the pose by eye though! Does that count, at least a little? I'll definitely go back and use more of me and less of copying...

I'm really bad at lighting...thanks for the tip about shadows, PLL, I didn't know that. Any other good tips? I could use 'em.

Thanks again guys!

[PapaLongLegs]

Hehe my awkward name eh, You can just call me Kris if you want thats my real name. Although Ive warmed to PLL now, it makes me sound important . Ive just noticed your "no lighhting comments" quote at the bottom of your last post, sorry about that! I always forget to keep reading.

As for any more tips I cant really think of any more specific to this piece. However there is something that doesn't quite sit with me about her toes, either theyre too big on one foot or too big on the other, I cant quite pinpoint it. Check it out! Hope that helps

[PaperDoll]

I guess I'm not very consistent, eh? That's no good!

So I thought I'd work on my painting skills some more, so here's a couple of speed paints I've worked on in the last couple weeks.









I got inspired by some awesome pinup photography so in case anyone's looking for some pretty ladies to paint--http://pussycatpinups.com/live/

Please, any crits or comments are SO welcome (and I'm not just saying that, I really mean it )

[Alexson]

Hey man those portraits are sweet! And thanks for the link, I need to start doing stuff like that too.

[PaperDoll]

Thanks Alexon! And you're welcome...I ran into it on a search for Alice in Wonderland refs...and I'm not really sure how that happened lol

Oh and Kris, I just realized I didn't respond to your comment. The toes do look kinda stupid cuz the photo cut off the foot right there...so I tried to make them up...and I'm just not so good at that! So thanks, I'll keep working on that

[PaperDoll]

Massive updateroo!

I'm considering graduate schools right now and bummed out because I feel like my undergraduate was a joke; I'd love to take more specific art classes (like 2d animation and character design) but those are just more undergraduate work...and blah! I'm so indecisive. If anyone can tell me what to do with my life, it'd be greatly appreciated, lol.

Anyways, so I have been working on stuff, and I'd really love if anyone could help me with better anatomy or making it a more powerful picture or even color and lighting.

First, some more speed paints, trying to get better/faster at portraits:



This one I was trying to work on a more complex skin tone. I didn't intend on making her look old, but I thought it'd be an interesting study in making a face reflect the structure underneath (you can let me know if I pulled that off or not)

Oh, and I tried to work on lighting here, as well, since that's something I'm really lacking at.


The next two are longer full blown paintings I'm trying to work on...The first is Calie Liddle, from the comic book series Return to Wonderland (brought to my attention by Rayartz's Comicon entry). Fuzzy on background ideas and her left (our right) eye is looking a little wonky to me...


This last one is my newest project. Really trying to go for intense lighting...but not sure how best to pull it off. Do you guys like it better with or without the dark gradient layer?



Sorry, all that must be so overwhelming, but I really appreciate any help

[Max Schulz]

hy paperdoll, in my mind you use to much dirty colors for skinshades. It always looks some kind of... yes, dirty. Martha Dahlig once wrote tutorials about not doing this mistakes and use a palette of bright, clean colors. Your Calie Liddle looks much better in comparison with the other drawings. Oh and I think in the perpective of your last drwaing the nose should be much longer in its middle.. so it should touching her lips. also her eyebrow looks some kinda weird to me. keep posting

[PaperDoll]

Thanks Max! I really appreciate the help, man (everyone here calls each other "man" because they're cool...and I want to be cool too so I'm gonna call you "man," ok, man? ha!)

Thanks for the link to Martha's site! I've seen her work and she does beeeeautiful skin tones, I'll definitely check that out. Do you think that I'm going into the grays a little too much on the palette? In my head, I was trying to get it more realistic by going grayer, but I guess that is just muddying the whole thing up. Once again, thanks for the help (oh and lil miss cupcake has got "some kinda weird" eyebrow and nose lol.)

[geeshin]

So for your latest post, if you want to make "intense lighting" I would recommend making the light/shadow contrast a lot higher. Don't just make everything in shadow black though, give it some dark color. And maybe even give the light source a color? Just so that your high lights aren't blinding white. But the darker values on the shadows will help pop out the character a lot more. Some work on the hands would be good. All in all, good start. Working with color is definitely hard, and I think you got the right idea of going desaturated will make it look more realistic. But there is a point where it will get muddy, and I've learned that many times haha.

[PaperDoll]

Thanks Geeshin for the lighting tips...I'll definitely go back and try that out.

I'm trying to work on my personal site some more...make it more dynamic. I've been working on this girl as kind of an avatar or allegorical self portrait (although it looks nothing like me...except for the eyes...haha jk). Crits welcome!

[PaperDoll]

So I've been bored and did some sketches (on paper...I was having graphite withdrawals <withdrawal face lol)


A characature of me with my chinchilla on my head


A naked lady and a baby alien...idk why they ended up on the same page. I'm having trouble with drawing poses without refs, especially the leg that juts out...I worked hard to make it look not whack...but I think it still does...


I was watching "The Crow" and was kind of upset that the dude got to turn into a...zombie...revenge...fighter man...and not the lady so I wanted to make a crow lady...And she likes to read. Yis.


Quick sketch of my mom from photo


Working on poses again, not from photos


Another characature--I call it STINK EYE lol


Another sketch from a photo (...but not of my mother...eh)


Vikki Blows. No, that's her real name.

[PaperDoll]

Study from photo--trying to make colors more "pure" than in the photo study in the first post--and no color picking! YAY! I think some of the reds may be a little too intense tho


An idea I had a while ago--I was having nightmares about roaches...lol

[PaperDoll]

Some new stuff! C&C more than welcome!