Art Studies

In this blog post I want compile all/most of the art studies I do. For each of them I want to focus on 2 things I did well-ish, 2 things I did not as well and a concrete thing I want to focus on improving in the next study. It's simply a way for me to not forget to learn from my practice sessions.

22 March 2025

Scene study from Kiki's Delivery Service

Things I did well

• The colors. I really like the biege apperance of the frock.
• The facial expression. I like that Kiki is slightly smiling.

Things I did not do well

• The composition of the wheat-y flower on the left - I wish it was higher.
• The shadow on Kiki's dress does not have a corresponding object in the foreground scene (ie unclear what's casting that shadow).

One concrete thing I can improve in the next study

• Pay attention to shadows on the character and see if the object can/should be included in the scene.

20 March 2025

Master study after Allison Aletha's tree vignette

Things I did well

• Grooves and colors of the tree look nice to me
• I like that I challenged myself to do a value study for this one (even though I didn't do it well).

Things I did not do well

• The plant shapes feel too cluttered and extra-overlapping making it a bit messy.
• The butterflies aren't well designed to fit in the composition.

One concrete thing I can improve in the next study

• Try to finish the painting in under 6 hours.

11 March 2025

Scene Study - Jungle book

Things I did well

• I more or less got the colors good despite how frustrating the drying gouache felt at the time.
• I guess I like that I gave the right bow a bit more dimension 🤷‍♀️

Things I did not do well

• I don't like the leaf shapes I made (especially the loopy looking ends I gave to some of the palm leaves)
• The black outline is too messy (so are the solid blocks of colors but I'm cheating by listing more than 2 negatives).

One concrete thing I can improve in the next study

• Do not use transparent paint when doing the outline.