Another Portrait?!

Underpainting

With this self portrait, I wanted to have a bit more refinement and work on my color. I've learned a lot in this second one. Big stuff I learned: 

• Simplicity over detail. Too much detail everywhere means too many focal points. A simple brush stroke is better than 5 smaller ones. 
• I learned about edges. Soft edges  are just as important as hard ones.
• I learned I need to work on a likeness which means I need to have a better underdrawing... so don't rush it. 

Up close and personal.

The Critique.... It can be tough to take a hard look at one's one work, but necessary for improvement. I love getting helpful critiques from friends (most of the time), but my friends aren't always available. I guess, what I'm trying to say is cultivate the ability to critique yourself. It  is a skill that will really pay off in the long run. 

This is mostly for me. I like seeing the improvement from my first portrait to my second.... it makes me feel good. hahaha!

My twin is Awesome!

I think you can get this on Amazon.com

My twin sister is annoyingly good at giving gifts. This year for our birthday she gave me the coolest book, but it wasn't just the book. She drew diagrams, cartoons are wrote commentaries on each page! How could I compete with this? Sheesh!

Aren't these drawing so fun!!!???

Still, she's pretty dang awesome. Whenever we get together all my creative juices just flowing! Maybe its a twin synergy thingy.

The White Stag

At least... that's the working title. This has been an interesting journey. I'm working on a comic that is 50 pages long....actually its currently at a standstill because I freaked out. I've got it all thumb-nailed out but egads! character design??? Me???  So I started my "How to make a Perfect Pie" Comic only 25 pages long, still struggling with consistant characters... Then came this: "The White Stag" Only 12 Panels. Now that I've gotten this far, I'm feeling more confident about the other, bigger projects. 

Thumbnails, character design, layout,  and even some facial expressions!(though... they are covered up....)

Close up of one of the panels. This is done on a 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch paper. This allowed me to work out some of the kinks, and see how to do it better before I went big. 

Layout Question: Should I have the layout 1,2,3,4 across the top, or should I have it more like a book as you can see in the Critique's layout below. It goes 1,2 then down to the next row 3,4 as if it were on two separate pages... Similar to the traditional comic book layout. Thoughts?

These are things I know I already need to fix, which is why I did it small in the first place. Having to redo this much work and detail at a 7in size would have been a pain. Even so, this took me a couple of days of concentrated work. 

Ps. Thank you Ray for the idea, and thank you Hollie for be excited for me and cheering me on!

Use what'cha got

I don't have a light table. I wish I did. I know I could technically get my husband to make me one, but....meh. So During the day, I use my living room window and last night I did this:

Drawing is part of a super secret project! Muahahaha!

The glass is usually my acrylic's palette and the lamp is one we got at Home Depot for a couple of bucks. I use the lamp for lighting my recent self portraits and general use in the room. Makeshift and temporary, but it works. In other random art conversions, I use a laptop stand for a small drawing table, or easel for my smaller paintings. 

What are some things you've converted for your art uses?