Posts made by Steff

Very cool. I'll add this to my list of types of studies I need to be doing!

Welcome Tim!

A few more...

A hawk landed on a tree as I was sketching and stayed just long enough for me to get in some quick lines.

Trying out some indoor sketching. I still feel a little awkward looking around and sketching people though...

Will need to work on water and reflection!

This one is just... chunky... but the branches were good negative space practice.

Trying out more vibrant colors, and tried to convey the bigger mountains in the background with washed out color.

I recently watched one of Mark Taro Holmes's sketching videos and liked the way he draws bushes, so I tried it here. He also had some good advice about adjusting the color every time you dip your brush so you get some natural variation.

Thanks all! I really appreciate the comments

Right now I feel comfortable enough when I can use the ink to define things, so often I'll start with the line work first and then paint. But I've also tried to paint first and see how far I can take it with just watercolor before adding the line work to finish. I really like how the ink and watercolor look together, but I don't want to have to rely on it either. Anyway, one step at a time

Next three pages.

I really like how the left one turned out:

Trying to depict the haziness of the rain coming over the peak... it kinda worked?:

I like doing these small square studies, they're less intimidating to me. They are roughly 2" x 3":

More to come!

This thread will be the main place I put my sketches and studies. I'll start with recent stuff within the last few months. For now I'll mainly be posting watercolor field sketches and general studies, as well as digital studies as I go through the classes. I'll also post about resources, supplies and ideas I find helpful... maybe they'll be helpful to someone else as well

One of my biggest struggles with art has been not doing the work. I need to get in a lot more mileage, so at the end of last year I got in the habit of bringing my field sketching set everywhere to draw whenever I had a chance. Eventually I want to do narrative illustration and begin to do full compositions, but in the mean time I just want to get in the habit of just doing something, anything, as I get the hang of various mediums and basic art skills.

Thoughts and critiques are welcome! I can take it and my art needs it. My philosophy with art is to view myself as a beginner no matter what stage I'm at and how much I learn. While I might not try every piece of advice, I'll consider everything I read and see how it can influence my future sketches.

I'll start with the first three pages of the notebook I started in December. Want to see if my image sizing is working...

The very first page:

This one felt a bit heavy handed with the paint, mainly the sky, but I like the overall feel of it:

Trying to be a bit looser:

Nice detail That pastel pencil barn owl is great.

This is awesome. Also, love the Totoro in the window.

Very nice! I've been trying to do more outdoor sketching/watercolor lately and it is so much fun. The blue and brown mixing sounds interesting... will have to try! I also really like the painting with the tulips, it just flows well.

I'm enjoying your bird paintings! I like the layered texture on the upper wing/shoulder area. I love birds and want to do more paintings of them but I usually chicken out (wow, bad pun...) I'm still trying to figure out watercolor, but I've found that just working with it and doing lots of quick field sketches is really helping.

Great style... I look forward to seeing more of your work! Welcome

@Rich-Green This is great stuff. I've been wanting to learn to do gestural figure drawing like this, so this thread is motivating and helpful!

@Beatriz-Bett I hope you find them as helpful as I did! I felt pretty lost before getting into the fundamentals, so these really helped to ground me.

@Will-Terry Thanks! I just finished your Procreate course and found it to be a great intro to digital. I've been hesitant to get into digital, but this has sold me on it

@Leontine and @Sarah-LuAnn, thanks for the welcome!

@Lee-White Thanks! I think I'll set up a sketchbook thread soon. I'm really looking forward to your watercolor classes - I'm completely new to digital and enjoying learning it, but I love traditional media and it's great to see classes for that.

@shinjifujioka Thanks I'm glad to have found a place to connect and talk about art!

Just thought I'd introduce myself! A few months ago my husband (Renduin/Joe on this forum) was watching one of Will Terry's Youtube videos, and that was where I first heard about SVS. I finally signed up recently and I'm on my second course now. SVS is awesome!

Like many people I grew up enjoying art but mostly stopped once I reached my late teens. In 2012 I took up art again because I had stories I wanted to tell and illustrate. I dabbled around with no real direction and some really crappy watercolors (just skip the cheap stuff, it's not worth it) and got pretty much nowhere.

Up until recently I had accepted the belief that being good at art had more to do with luck rather than being a skill that could be learned. So finally, I took inventory of what I really wanted to do with the art and what my goals were, and this past October I created a list of art resources to work through. I started with the fundamentals and worked through some really helpful books on perspective (Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling), color (Color by Betty Edwards), and composition (Picture This by Molly Bang). I'm continuing to read these kinds of books alongside the SVS classes.

I was really excited when I found out about SVS. The focus on illustration and children's books is great and I think it fills a gap in the market. I see a lot of stuff online for digital concept art but not a lot of this type of illustration (maybe I've not been looking in the right places?). I love the balance on here between digital and traditional. I also can't wait for the new classes this year, they look great.

I'll stop before this gets too long, but I just wanted to say hello to this friendly forum and I enjoy seeing everyone's progress. I just needed to express how happy I am to have found SVS, it feels like Christmas or something