A single step (Updated 6/7/06)

[_Butler_]

Ok. Been meaning to do one of these for a while.

My name is John, I'm 19, and I'm studying Physics at Victoria University in Wellington. Art is one of those things I do in my spare time, I took it right through school.
I didn't do much last year being at uni and all, and now that I'm on holiday (or, after so much procrastination: half way through it) it is time to get back into it.

Far too many people have been far too complementary to me about my drawing for far too long. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tear my stuff to bits and beat me with pumpkins until I improve. Be honest, I can take it. I wont cry. Much.

This sketchbook will mostly consist of pencilwork. Occasionally I might splash out and do something in ink or oils, or *gasp* digital.
And don't expect this to be updated frequently. Maybe weekly at most. The point of this (aside from me trying to improve) is to get me to draw more. In theory at least. Lets see if it works....

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

I'll do this chronologically where possible. This is my folio from 7th form, being '04. Three panels. About 8 months work. The last panel was done in a week. :nohope: And yes, there is quite a lot of rubbish on there.
Board 1 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Foliopg12.jpg)
Board 2 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Foliopg22.jpg)
Board 3 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Foliopg3.jpg)

This time last year my friend's parents asked me to design a squirrel for their new business. (http://www.squirrel.co.nz)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Squirrel_stand1.jpg
The same, on all fours. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Squirrel_down.jpg)
With an acorn. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Squirrel_acorn.jpg)
With a big 'S'. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Squirrel_S.jpg)

Another constructive Chemistry lecture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/Whadyasayboy1.jpg

And a space marine :\ :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/General%2040k/SMavatar.jpg


And now the sketchbook proper. Bear in mind these are after a year off. And pre anatomy study, which is what I'm doing now.

If it looks good, it is most likely from ref. If anything looks familiar, inspiration probably came from this site.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Misc/Victor.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00014.jpg
This I made up as I went along, thus the lack of perspective and whatnot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00015.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00016.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00017.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/18.jpg

In case you didn't notice, I'm concentrating on the figure atm. Or trying to. :S

So,..first post,....I'll try to keep them coming. Don't hold your breath though.
Unless, of course, blue suits you.

[JaneM]

You've got a nice gathering of sketches here. You draw well. ;) What I think is that you use a pencil that's too thick, or too high in the B-level. Try sharpening the pencil more and use a thinner tip when drawing, to prevent the chubby look to your figures, as well as getting a more neat shading. Even better; combine different pencils to get a better result. Try using a hard pencil (like 3H or 4H) over the shading that's already done, and use the B pencils for the darkest shadows.
Keep 'em coming!

[_Butler_]

Thanks. :) I'll try experimenting with different leads [at some point in the future]. Currently I'm using a 2B mechanical pencil.

[Icey]

you drow a lot! That's good!
Are you doing this just for a hobby?...

[fooxoo]

Nice. Paintings look really good. You should check out how to make a more 3d effect with shading, also study eyes a bit more - how ot make them more rounded. All in all - very cool :teeth:

[_Butler_]

Thursdays contribution. (Try to overlook the feet.) It's more or less in proportion, isn't it?

++Image moved down below++

One thing I forgot to mention about the sketch pages in the original post: I realised I never seem to draw women. So as I enter the wonderful world of anatomy I'll try to focus on them a bit more. (Isn't it always the case?)

Icey - No, no I don't. What you see is about..2?..months worth. But yes it is just a hobby. Although hobby isn't really the word I'd use.

fooxoo - Thanks. And I definitely agree. I need to look into shading. I hope the eyes get there along the way. Could you point me in the direction of something helpful regarding shading and whatnot?

[mentler]

Good Bones

[Ubermensch]

It's great to see someone who's into art and science, all my friends go one way or the other and hate the other one. your stuff looks good but you definatley have room for improvement. You certainly know how to draw and you seem to be able to shade very well, now you need to learn proportion and perspective. They're a little hard to get down but once you do get them down your drawings will improve tenfold, especially your faces and bodies. You should try taking a class or 2 when you have the time and if your school has a live model session you should definately go. other than that, keep up the good work.

p.s. I love the warhammer 40k drawings, I use the space marines as models all the time for my drawings.

[_Butler_]

Sorry for the delay people. I have been drawing. And I should be drawing more now that uni has started.
I will try my best to update every week. (I promise.)

Thanks to all who have replied thus far.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00022.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00023.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00024.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00025.jpg

I've kept this light on the stuff I've been doing from Loomis. You don't need to see that. :)

[gmags]

Cool skull sketches there! Great book to learn from. Keep it up man! :)

[_Butler_]

New stuff! I seem to have lots of free time atm. And the inclination to draw. So yay.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/26.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/27.jpg

As it turns out Calculus is a really good time to draw. The following from my new little book done there:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/28.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/29.jpg

On a completely unrelated note, the calc assignments are hard. :[

More next week. Or thereabouts.

[_Butler_]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00030.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00031.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00036.jpg
^ Top left possibly inspired by Feeb. Top right from life (during a calc lecture).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00037.jpg
^ From life.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00039.jpg
^ Again, from life.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00034.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00032.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00033.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/m3ntor/Art/CCI00035.jpg

[o0Dave0o]

Hey man, things are really starting to take shape!! Those last few are definately well rendered and the are starting to feel more and more believeable. It looks like you feel more comfortable when you have reference in front of you. Something you might want to try is to draw something from reference and then get rid of the ref and your drawing and draw it again from memory.. It's a great little excercise and it will get you starting to really look at the shapes and forms that you're already being able to see.

Dave