Vena

[Vena]

Thanks! Yeah, you can kinda see the line quality deteriorate as it goes on, and it got later into the night xD I don't think I will clean these up just because its kinda a silly comic, but thanks! It's encouraging because one day (ONE DAY!!! ) it would be great to start up an actual comic/webcomic.  

[Errol McGillivray]

Hm. I have a challenge for you Vena. Draw some relaxed poses. Let the figures sink into the surfaces. I think letting gravity affect them will take your already interesting cartoons and give them a semblance of life.  

[Vena]

Some relaxed poses? For my cartoons specifically?

This challenge shall be addressed!  

[Hade Ceyn]

wow the trolls and the druid are amazing! Did you paint them? They're great!  

[Yamiko]

Vena

@Yamiko,
Thanks! the gouache, well, its just like any paint really, like a better quality poster paint. Too many layers and it will flake - but with some water you can still get some transparency. I wanted to start practicing with it mainly because I dont have time to do oil painting right now, so I get more of that painting experience on a smaller scale :3

for the people watching, it was more like my friend and I were looking for interesting faces and shapes, and someone would pass by fairly quickly and we would try to jot down what we remembered, like a fat chin or small nose or something. (I remember the first guy I saw was like an Indian Michael Cera so that is what I tried to draw, haha). We settled down later in a food court so there were more stationary people. But yeah, I was definitely trying more to draw different face shapes rather than trying to get a real representation, just to practice getting some variety. I hate it when I draw the same face over and over!

Ah, the flaking sounds horrific! But flexibility with transparency is nice. I know nothing about oil painting except it takes several hours to dry in between.

That people watching is you did is pretty good practice. I ought to do that in cafes or any other populated place I have to wait, but I get too self-conscious if my targets have the potential to notice me.

And your objective to draw different face shapes addresses the weakness of general anime style too! XD lol. A lot of characters look too similar and it's nice to see art styles that have a variety of facial features. Your art style is very refreshing.  

[Vena]

Theradon

wow the trolls and the druid are amazing! Did you paint them? They're great!

I did them on Corel Painter heart  

[Vena]

Yamiko

Vena

@Yamiko,
Thanks! the gouache, well, its just like any paint really, like a better quality poster paint. Too many layers and it will flake - but with some water you can still get some transparency. I wanted to start practicing with it mainly because I dont have time to do oil painting right now, so I get more of that painting experience on a smaller scale :3

for the people watching, it was more like my friend and I were looking for interesting faces and shapes, and someone would pass by fairly quickly and we would try to jot down what we remembered, like a fat chin or small nose or something. (I remember the first guy I saw was like an Indian Michael Cera so that is what I tried to draw, haha). We settled down later in a food court so there were more stationary people. But yeah, I was definitely trying more to draw different face shapes rather than trying to get a real representation, just to practice getting some variety. I hate it when I draw the same face over and over!

Ah, the flaking sounds horrific! But flexibility with transparency is nice. I know nothing about oil painting except it takes several hours to dry in between.

That people watching is you did is pretty good practice. I ought to do that in cafes or any other populated place I have to wait, but I get too self-conscious if my targets have the potential to notice me.

And your objective to draw different face shapes addresses the weakness of general anime style too! XD lol. A lot of characters look too similar and it's nice to see art styles that have a variety of facial features. Your art style is very refreshing.

for people watching... go with a friend xD Makes it less creepy.. for some reason.. or maybe because it's 2 vs. 1 ;P

And I agree about the face shape thing... it is something I am always frustrated with. I started with a really generic anime style so sometimes I feel like I'm always doing the same formula for drawing faces. There are a couple of faces that just are in like EVERYTHING I draw if I don't try to conciously divert from it. I have a friend who draws the most amazing characters with all sorts of bizarre facial features and I hope to get where he is eventually! xD  

[Vena]

Trying to get back into the saddle painting wise, so I have been digging up older pieces I never finished. I am also trying to push myself digitally, experimenting with layering and texturing, since I am more of an old school painter... I don't like going over one or more layer, usually, in the digital realm. I am concerned about colors right now for this piece, I don't want to have too many crazy highlights or contrast, but at the same time I don't want it to appear dull. I wonder about my color choices too, though I feel ok about them for the most part, the flowers kinda bug me a bit. I feel like it would be redundant to make them purpley(er?).

 

[Yamiko]

Vena

for people watching... go with a friend xD Makes it less creepy.. for some reason.. or maybe because it's 2 vs. 1 ;P

And I agree about the face shape thing... it is something I am always frustrated with. I started with a really generic anime style so sometimes I feel like I'm always doing the same formula for drawing faces. There are a couple of faces that just are in like EVERYTHING I draw if I don't try to conciously divert from it. I have a friend who draws the most amazing characters with all sorts of bizarre facial features and I hope to get where he is eventually! xD

Haha, I'll keep that tip in mind. XD I

Good luck with drawing various types of faces! I find it extremely hard to get out of that mold. (Maybe drawing in caricature style can help. I've seen an interesting tutorial on it to capture exaggerations of facial features, but I'm a bit scared to get out of what I'm used to at the moment.)

-------------

As for your current work, I really like it!
The way you used the marble texture with the lettering is lovely, and I like how you colored this with subdued colors (not sure if I'm using the correct technical terminology because I 'm informally trained.)

I'm not sure what you mean by purpley-er colors though. Do you have an example of what you mean by that if you made the flowers more purplish?

I can see how the flower in the dark elf's hair ties with the bits of color from her skin.
But, weirdly enough, I think the colors of the flowers on her shoulder don't really tie in well with the rest of the color scheme.

I tested out repeating the color from the purple color on her rested arm and it did look monotonous. It was like her arm was melding with the flowers!
Then I tried seeing how the flowers would look if they were about the same color as the flower in the dark elf's hair.
For some reason, I think if the flowers were kinda reddish/pink like the one in her hair, it kinda looks nice because it might provide a sense of unity and some contrast at the same time. (Hopefully not too crazy of a contrast.)

Tell me what you think. (Because I could be terribly wrong, jumbling up all the random color theory stuff I've been reading. D: )

And painting with less layers is really fun. Didn't discover that until waaaay later. lol.  

[mistalina13]

I like the color scheme on your current work. It comes across as sort of serene and foresty. The texturing is a nice touch as well.

As for flower coloration, as she seems to be a night elf what about looking at the flora around Teldrassil and some of the other elf zones for inspiration? If you mute the pallets a little bit it could flow nicely with your color scheme you have going.  

[Virtuosorose]

I Super like your drawing. You are my New Idol....LOL smile  

[Vena]

Thanks for the input guys! I'm going to try to tackle the flowers today. I like the idea of more flowers like the color of the one in her hair Yami, I'm thinking now a muted base with a few of them appearing near the top. I need to get this done, I never get my drawings polished the way I want them xD  

[Vena]

So I see my last post was in 2010... lol.

I guess since then... I got a degree in Fine Arts, I made a film, and I did very little drawing other than things for my film! I am sorta doodling things here and there and its nice to be making stuff that is not-grad related again. Here's a couple of things I did in the last few days.

80's Rogue



and a Bariaur, for my friend's planescape campaign.



And cause I just spent a legitimate percentage of my life on it, here's a couple stills from my grad film.





I am now entering the post-grad lazy, where I am submitting my film to festivals and kinda not doing anything else. I'm going to try to pick up some freelance work with an old client but I think I am going to work on an illustration portfolio as well.