Diedra's sketchbook Vol. 1 - closed

[dierat]

I am no longer updating this thread. Please visit my current sketchbook thread for more recent work.



Diedra's sketchbook Vol. 2: August '10 - present

[dierat]

To start, here's a random self-portrait sketch (used 2 mirrors to get a clear view of myself from this perspective)


Some character sketches


Some landscape doodles



A developing character; the form was referenced from a photo

[dierat]

Here's some initial Painter X practice

[dierat]

And some more

[InFlame]

Good start, nice work in here! The selfportrait is my favorit so far! Take more from life, keep it up and you'll improve really fast!! But it really is a good start!

[throtailer]

Awesome shading, keep posting

[Viking Raider]

I agree, I like the self-portrait the best...I like the angle. You used mirrors to get that? Whew...

[Konstruktion]

The sp is really really nice, somehow it reminds me of one of my faqvourite artists, Glenn Farby, which ofcourse is a good thing! Draw lts and lots from life.. got any good anatomy books? If not, get something by Burne Hogarth, his books have helped me a looot

[dierat]

Thanks for the comments and support!

@Viking - yeah, I had 2 small (maybe 2'x2') mirrors, and one of them I attached to the wall next to and above my table. I used masking tape to hang it at an angle pointing towards my sketchbook. Then I had the other mirror sitting on the table showing me what the hanging mirror saw. The angle made it really fun to draw.

@Sarcophagus - lol, no, I don't. In uni I did a *lot* of lifedrawing, so I don't feel like my problem is that I'm unfamiliar with human anatomy. I mostly feel like I just need to keep practicing and get back into it. And I really need to draw clothed figures, because fabric always screws me up. Shoes too. But who's Glenn Farby?

Thanks for stopping by! ;D

[Konstruktion]

Glenn Fabry makes the covers to The Preacher, and have done a lot of other comicswork, not only covers. Really nice stuff!. And about the clothing, Burne Hogarth have written a book about wrinkles etc, you should look it up, Iknow I should do some clothin studies hehe

[dierat]

He just does the covers to the Preacher? Because I read a little once.. my brother bought it and showed it to me, but I don't remember really looking at the cover. But yeah, I'll definitely look up that book, now that you say there's one on clothes ;D

Okay, I fished out a couple more sketches. I'm planning to get these into Painter for practice and, well, just because I like them, but for now I don't see why I shouldn't post them anyway.





My bf tells me I draw heads too big for the body, especially in the last two of this post. I dunno if I really mind that or not.

[throtailer]

I think problem is that the bodies is too short, specially legs. I suggest u to learn proportions. Try Andrew Loomis books.

[dierat]

I have noticed that when I draw I tend to get smaller as I go down the page, so I'm going to try to mark out the porportions better in the beginning. I appreciate the suggestion ;D

[Konstruktion]

If you happen to find Burne Hogarths book called [url=Dynamic Figure Drawing[/url] I suggest you get it! Really helped me a lot, building up bodies with boxes and cylinders. And the name of the book about clothing is Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery: Solutions for Drawing the Clothed Figure. And I think I could say his books have taught me pretty much everything I know about drawing, I have studies some Loomis and Bridgeman too butHogarth always seems to suit me best!

[Looped_Warrior]

keep up the studies! woot!

[dierat]

So, for the past 2-3 weeks or something I've been doing these character sketches. And they're not great or anything, but I think it's helping me notice my problems and work at them a little bit. These are a couple that I liked a little better

[life on the sofa]

you had me hooked on the hat... only now do i see it was a scam :'(*cries*

all i can realy recomend at the moment is you study human anatomy...for you i think u need more ot focus on like faces and hands because you see mto be less able with those at the moment, and maybe laying off photoshop will help because photoshop can distort your anatomy for ever ( i found lol) if you get into bad habbits drawing people on a tablet or mouse etc

[dierat]

@sofa

Yeah, I probably should do more work specifically on hands just because I usually don't bother with them so much; I consider them to be more of a detail that I'll "get to later", you know. But I'm really not much for the anatomy books; I had my share of that in uni and I didn't find it to be fun. I think if I were to practice hands/faces, which I should, I'd do it from life.

But.. what do you mean that drawing with a tablet can teach you bad anatomy habits? It's not that different than drawing on paper when it comes to shaping the human form, is it?

[dierat]

Okay, I decided I should post some of my older drawings so you guys can see where I'm coming from and what I'm used to drawing. These are all from models, which I think I'm pretty okay at, but, you know, sometimes you just don't have nude ppl walking around to draw! What else can I say?

Anyway, some of these are a bit old, like 3 years or something.









And sorry these are a little small; they're just whatever I had in my folder.

[dierat]

Couldn't sleep; thought I should sketch...



All kinds of porportional issues in the limbs! Woo! Oh well, I'm tired..

'Night everybody!

[CouchPotato]

Hey dierat, thanks for always stopping by! I don't know how I could have missed the link to your sketchbook? lol sorry.

Did you like, learned drawing before but stopped and is now trying to get back into it after a long time? If so, please keep at it! Just a small suggestion if you don't mind haha. Make those legs longer!! Long legs are yummy! Ahem.

Just keep at it! You'll get back your sense of proportions before too long.

[dierat]

Thanks CP ;D No, I just started the sketchbook, so be guilt-free! ;D

Yeah, I used to draw figures frequently a couple years ago, but later in university I started doing printmaking and my subject changed. I started doing these abstract landscapes, which taught me lots about composition, lighting, and expression of vague themes, yada yada yada. But now I'm out of college, and I wanna draw ppl again, and I want to learn to use Painter. So right now my sketches are pretty touch-and-go; the ones from ref photos are usually porportionally together (as far as I can tell; let's wait 'til my eye adjusts and see how I feel about it then), but yeah, the ones from my imagination are getting these stubby legs :o I never notice 'til I get it up on the computer. So part of it is being aware during the initial stages, and part of it is just practice, I think. And then I need to work on my details and color.

And yeah, suggestions/crit are totally welcome ;D Thanks for coming by!

[dierat]

More Painter X stuff. The first two are my bf (so, from observation)





And these are from photos. They're from mjranum's da stock account, which has a ton of great well-lit nude photos to work from.







These both still need a lot of work, btw.

[Indi1288]

wow I love that last pic in the last post you did !!

[Th.]

your lights and shadows mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I cant get it...cant feel the whole value of drawing its so sad

good art of your!

[dierat]

Taking a little break from figures to work on painting. I bought that platter specifically for this purpose, so I'm going to try to make this kind of study a habit. But, well, what do I do with the mango? Are they any good in smoothies?

[dierat]

I have no love for this one, but, well.. that's just part of practicing, I suppose.

[CouchPotato]

hey dierat, i think your last two figure types are pretty good! the proportions look pretty ok for the most part. just the sitting one, i think maybe the foot is too thick, but could just be me haha.

not too good at color stuff, so i can't comment too much on those bananas lol, but is the background of the last one too similiar to the foreground? (in terms of values) not too sure haha.

[dierat]

Both feet or the one closest to us? The closer foot will probably change a little (if I ever get back to these) when the toes are defined. And with the latter bananas, well, I just paint-bucketed the bg so it wouldn't be left white. But I'll keep that in mind next time ;D

[dierat]

So my main problem, I've decided, is working out the human form without a reference. So I want to get in the habit of doing quick sketches from imagination and try to work through my issues. And figure out what's giving me the most problems. These aren't great, but they're a start.