Hit the brakes!

Sorcha's Despair is temporarily on hold.

I have a model from Deviant Art who said she'd send me some reference pictures for that pose. I have a couple of computer models in that pose, which are helpful... however I'm thinking that I need to see it modeled. I'm just not FEELING the anguish, sorrow, despair, hate, anger, rage from the computer models.

I want to be able to put those feelings into the painting.. I must see it.

I downloaded trials of ArtRage 3 and Corel Painter 12. I'm gonna play around with those a little I think.
I also signed up for a year of ImagineFX magazine which I probably shouldn't have done... for financial reasons but I was feeling so down. I wanted it! I can't wait to get the first issue.

Sorcha's Despair - Clothing Design B

So I haven't been able to work on this much today. Busy with cooking... and cleaning house. Taking care of kids...

However it hasn't been far from my mind. I'm still playing around with clothes for her. Here is one suggestion.. I like it quite a bit.  Colors aren't set yet.. but this is just a quick draft.

Sorcha's Despair- Clothing Idea A

Here is one idea of her clothing... I have a couple of other ideas in mind. I'll likely draw them out tomorrow since its 2am. Totally rough draft here...

Sorcha's Despair - SketchTweaks

Some neck and chest tweaks.... See if these help.

Working on some issues...

I can't wait to start painting her! However I want to nail down some of the things that are still bugging me...

I'm not sure about her feet.... I think the head is a little better. Maybe.

I beginning to try an imagine the background...

Sorcha's Despair

So based on some feedback from friends, family and members of the forums I am now a part of... I've made several adjustments.

Her pose is modified more and.. the head is different.

I've also made some quick changes to the background. Removing the body. I added the hand in the foreground. I haven't done hardly anything to the background yet... I'm still not sure how I plan to create it....

I removed the sensors over the nudity. I changed my journal to mature content. I just wouldn't want to get into trouble and have my account deactivated or something...

Ive been doing it wrong...

So I guess I've been doing my paintings wrong. So I've been watching a ton of videos and reading a bunch of workshops, and just trying to take as much info in as I can on how the "right" way is.

This is something that I want to do as a career so I need to do it right.

www.ImagineFX.com has some amazing work on it. I was so busy looking at all their workshops. I might even look into creating some of my own custom brushes which I've never done before.

I did start a drawing last night. I wasn't feeling well but I couldn't sleep and really felt the desire to draw.

So I'm working on the layout, composition and anatomy. I haven't added clothing yet, because in a critique on Sorcha some concerns about how the clothing worked were raised to my attention. I'm thinking about redesigning them. I had a really good idea, but I'm not sure how it will turn out.. We'll see.

Here is how its progressing so far. I'm not sure the head is right... as my reference for the pose was different. I changed it a little to try and fit the feeling of utter despair I'm trying to portray.

Imagine you've spent your entire life being shunned, and finally someone accepts you despite what they've heard, and what others do to him/her for it. They accept you and love you. Even though you spent a large part of your life hating others, they warm your heart.. and you finally accept them too. However fate tears them away from you.

This is how Sorcha feels. A village burned in the background. A toppling chimney stack attached to a skeleton of a house. Steam, and smoke pour off them. The rain is pouring down, and putting the flames out.. To the right lies a body. (I'm not sure if I should pull it closer or not.)

She was standing staring at the sky, and she drops to her knees and is crying her anguish and sorrow to the heavens, and the sky cries with her.

Newest Idea^^

Trying to build a background...

This is how it started.

Done for now!

I think she is finally complete!

Depending on feedback I may tweak her more or I may keep her as is.

Yey! I finished! Yey Yey Yey!

I posted asking for another critique! I hope its good!

Oooooo Its getting close!!

New Background

New update for Sorcha. I tweaked some stuff. And on top of that.... I'm working on the background! Its already looking pretty nice!!!

Here's the preview. I'm excited!

More work on Sorcha!

So just showing my progress. Maybe later. I'll put them all together... and show how it comes together.





So... I've added more movement in the bottom half of her outfit to match the top. A suggestion from my friend Koto!

Did some brainstorming with him to about Sorcha's right and left hands. I've decided on a couple of ideas... and we'll see if they come together in the next one! Also I still have to do the sea!
 

More Sorcha... Slowly

She's slowly coming along. Added a few more touches.

Bit more shading and some details. Added the hand.. I will add the "power" to the palm soon too. Which is why the top is so bright and bottom is so dark.

I'm excited... She's coming along!

Finishing Sorcha

So I realized that I haven't been happy about anything I've drawn since I had the critique on Sorcha, and felt like I failed miserably. I lost confidence in myself. I didn't believe in my ability anymore, and honestly that is a terrible feeling to have.

I've been wasting my life away on World of Warcraft, and then now that's been replaced by Star Wars the Old Republic. But lately... a friend convinced me to watch Naruto Shippuden. I watched 160 episodes of that in 5 days. I was hooked. Why am I mentioning this... well it inspired me. I felt the desire to draw again. Doing it is a different story. I feel like I've been on hold. I can't start anything new until I finish what I left undone. After talking about it with a friend... he gave me some wise suggestions. Something that I hadn't even thought about. He helped me. Thanks, Koto! *hugs*

So. Here's an update on Sorcha. I spent several hours last night working on the lighting. I still might tweak it a little. I started the hand... but it's not done.

After I finish the hand I will redo the ocean I think... and last. I will show the power in her hands.

Working on Sorcha

Sorcha is coming along.... although, I messed up and had to redo a lot yesterday. lol. I was dumb and started drawing on the preview and not the original. So I lost a lot of detail and it was too small. SO I went back to the original and I'm working on it there. It's coming along.

I'm SO TIRED. I have homework due tonight and I haven't looked at it yet....
I'm gonna play some World of Warcraft I think.

I need a small break from using my brain!

Ok here is a preview of what I have so far. I've added some folds into the clothes, and I've redone her hair. Moved the moon, and re-sized it for a better composition. The ocean has yet to be fixed, however with the current format, there won't be too much contrast, because the moon, and the lights on the waves are going to be directly behind her. So I have to ponder this a little more.

The lighting isn't done at all. I am redoing her hand. The hand is going to be open palm up with a "power" in it. This will illuminate the front more. I will have to darken the front for more accuracy, and add a glow around her entire silhoutte.

I'll post more later...

Lost

I'm feeling a little lost. Not sure why. I guess maybe Sorcha's critique cut me a little deeper than I thought.

I'm afraid to draw. I don't like to fail and I failed...

Perhaps I am just tired. I've been working my @$$ off here at the house playing housewife, and student, and mother. I'm just not getting a lot of help, and it's hard. I'm really tired.



I just finished reading a good book called Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. This was a great book. I will probably read the second book soon. Son of Shadows. These are books that I can read several times. They are that good. I felt inspired to draw reading certain parts.



I want to do a WoW fanart. However.. I can't seem to get motivated. I think it's because right now I don't like WoW. It's irritating when I can't play more than one day a week because of school, kids, and stuff.

So what do I draw now... The guy from cgsociety.org, said that I should focus more on fundamentals and not worry about technique so much now.

Gah, I felt like I knew a pretty good amount, and I just feel so stupid now. Wondering where I go to look and work on that....

Sorcha Revised

Working on Sorcha's changes...

Don't know if they are totally accurate yet. Haven't done the clothes yet.

Im not sure about the hand.. it was quick  needs more work.

Does it look too big?




gotta figure out other lighting on it too.. like is it dark enough... how far does the light from the hands reach up? etc...

I like the direction its going though!

Sorcha Redo...

So I decided... I am going to redo Sorcha.. yup.

I made so many errors in lighting, and clothing, and composition, I got some tips from Robert Chang on cgsociety.org.

Here's the thread.


Sorcha's Critique Thread on CGSociety.org

He hasn't responded to my "notes" yet. I'm gonna post them here too.

These are all the notes about the alterations I am going to make on her.

Whew. I think I have my work cut out for me!

Sorcha's Critique!

So I posted Sorcha on cgsociety.org to be critiqued. A gentleman named Robert Chang critiqued me! Yey! It was nice to see some really solid points on where my weaknesses are. I had an idea of what they were... but honestly.. I didn't realize I was so wrong! I guess that's the way it works!



Here is what he said...

Instead of looking for tutorials that demonstrate the technical stuff, you really should be studying the foundational knowledge instead--things like composition, perspective, lighting/values, color theory, anatomy/figure, clothing folds...etc. The technical stuff is a piece of cake compared to the critical foundations, and if your foundations are solid, it only takes a very short amount of time to become proficient technically.

Compositionally, this is probably a bit loose and could be tightened up a bit by making it a portrait aspect ratio instead of square. The scene itself doesn't really need the extra space horizontally.

She is fairly attractive and her proportions are pretty good, so that's plus.

The lighting is incoherent because you have your main light source back-lighting the subject, yet, the subject is very bright in the front, as if there's another bright light source in front of her. To make the problem worse, that unexplained light source apears to be very diffused and coming from all directions, as if she's in a photography studio with a bunch of photography lights all going off as once. In order to make your scenes credible and authentic, you must first decide on exactly what your light sources are and then stick to it.

She should have a clear rim light on her from the moon, but the rest of her should be much darker, pretty much a silhouette. If you want to illuminate her from the front, then you need to think of a credible light source--perhaps a torch light, a bonfire, or even magical light--anything but a nondescript diffused light.

Her hair looks too stuff, like dried hay. Taper your lines when you paint hair strands. Set your pen to vary brush size by pen pressure, and then practice drawing tapered lines--it makes all the difference in the world.

Her clothing doesn't look credible because the lack of folds and wrinkles show you don't know how to depict natural looking folds and wrinkles, but by skipping them, the clothing looks over simplified in contrast to the details we see in the rest of her.

This is one of the obvious drawbacks of using photo references as a crutch--whatever isn't in the photo reference, you have a hard time painting out of your head, and it always looks less realistic/detailed/natural than the parts that did use photo reference.

The ocean looks too vague. The ripples and waves when backlit like that are actually very contrasty. Even if there's fog/mist, it still wouldn't look so smudgy. Instead, you should paint a contrasty ocean, then put a layer of fog/mist over it, instead just painting the ocean really vague and smudgy.

 He is totally right! Totally! 

At first I was like in my head.. "WOW I'M SO HORRIBLE.. OH MY GOD. WHY AM I DOING THIS?!" and then I realized that I was being a drama queen.

 

Took some breaths, and then re-read it looking at it from a different perspective. Haha. Had my husband read it too.


So... should I shelve this or redo it?

Sorcha complete!

So my first painting of Sorcha is complete. I'm happy she's done. She has consumed my dreams, and my waking available (when I'm not consumed by babies or toddler! Oye!) hours.
I'm really tired...

I am really proud of her. I hope in a year when I look back on her, I will still be proud of her! lol. I was looking through some of my old work today and was going.... what was I thinking... these are terrible!!


So far it's my best painting to date. I will continue getting better though. Here is a close up of her face, and necklace. The necklace I found during a google search for "Celtic Moon". I tried to find the owner to credit them with the design, however I couldn't locate them. If anyone knows who is the owner of this design please let me know!



Now for my next one! I'm thinking a fan art of World of Warcraft. God I haven't played in like weeks though... so I'm wondering if I want to become addicted again to feel the inspiration... or do I just want to draw another Sorcha. I have a great one in my mind...