Mydrako's Sketchbook - On a Journey towards Mastery of the craft...

[JS Neo]

//New Intro ---------------------------------------------------------------
Well now I am still trying to improve my skills so that I can be good enough to support myself with it. Now working in a 3d company which isnt so bad either. Kinda trying to constantly switch between left brain in the day and right brain at night when I practice my drawing.... *brain freeze*... Anyway, on i go...

//Old Intro ----------------------------------------------------------------
After reading the most inspiring sketchbook thread that span almost 5 years and 61 pages (and still increasing), I decide to start my own sketchbook to motivate myself to continue drawing and improving my skills. Here goes...

[ped454]

nice man. props to your start. Start drawing daily and it will become habit....I find myself rarely without a pencil on my ear and a sketchbook in my hand. Good studies for your first post. Hope to see more

My only suggestion is to look at a lot of the SB's here and perhaps crit on as many as you can. While commenting you can learn about a lot of things you like and a lot you don't. Hope to see you around. lats

[JS Neo]

Here is more drawings.... Hope to produce more every day...
I find that I cant really create really nice dynamic poses without referencing but practice I will!!


The right pic is abit wrong in perspective. Better do more perspective study..




That foreshortened pic is really hard to draw...!!

Ped454: Thanks for ur comments!! I am intending to draw everyday.. Your sketchbook is awesome..!! Left a comment there.. I will try to browse ard the sketchbook forum more as you advised

[Leper]

Nice studies man. Bodies are my weakness so ill be watching your improvement to pep myself up. Don´t let me down now. ^^

[JS Neo]

Leper: Thanks !! I am also just beginning to learn to draw in a realistic way. Art lessons in school never teach it properly Grrrrr... You should try watching vilppu's video. That guy is sooo good... I hope I can one day reach his level of control. I think the best way to improve is to start a sketchbook urself !! Lets learn together

[Evxyza92]

you got some nic estudies here man, I think I might try that spherical thing. Anyway it seems like you got some anatomy going here man.

[JS Neo]

More Studies coming up... Still trying to get use to drawing with a new grip method... CAn see many unsteady wriggly lines... but thats part of the learning process !!








Started to read Nicolaides' Book on drawing too. So here is teh gesture drawing exercise I did. I reference model from the photosets in characterdesigns.com. Great references if you can afford a anatomy book or dont have a model available.

[JS Neo]

Here is some wip i am working on. It is to be a practice to improve my tonal values which might eventually become a full painting. Done in photoshop.
Comments and Critics are welcome !

[Robojon]

Hey man! Some impressive figures so far i like the poses. Keep at it and they will totally pay off.

[JS Neo]

Update on my Elf face... Followed the way Min Yum aka bumskee works as described in 2DArtist Magazine by lying the color over the grayscale picture.

[JS Neo]

Uploading more sketches....

Did some eye studies. Some are from bridgeman's book.


Did a portrait in pencil today... Long time since i do a portrait. Feel kind of unfamiliar and exhausting after I complete it. The proportion end up slightly off.

[runaway]

mydrako... sounds familiar. we chatted before in msn man. [email protected]. nice to see a fellow sg here. this sketch is only days old but it's already filling up nicely! keep it going man. gonna start mine when i buy a scanner.. and can you provide the link to the sketchbook that span almost 5 years and 61 pages?

[Nistarn]

That elf face have great mood values, congratulations, keep posting

[JS Neo]

Runaway i do have ur msn haaa... so rare to find a sg here... anyway the inspiring thread is http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870 Hope you will be also inspired to start a sketchbook !!

Nistarn Thanks for the compliment. My first digital portrait glad it turn out okie. Still kind of struggling with color and value.. but will paint more to improve....

Here I tried to do my first speed painting (not very speedy imho lol) based on the dsg topic: Creature: BIG, QUADROPEDAL, GAUZE-WRAPPED, UNDEAD, ALIEN MUMMY
I feel it didnt turn out that well. The overall values are not very exciting imo. I stop applying the color after i am quite disgusted by the poor values..lolz.. Shall do more speed painting to improve my value and composition..

[JS Neo]

Did a master copy of sargent's work. Took about 1.5 to 2 hours...

[Sean Vaul]

sweet... ill have to try that color over grayscale technique if i ever get back into digi-work.

[JS Neo]

Sean Vaul It is a good method to adapt when you are not so confident with color (i am terrible with color ) as you are essentially separating the different process into 2 steps. Hence you can get very good values in ur painting before laying down the colors..

Anyway... more drawings from me.....
More portrait...I am doing one portrait from photo reference per week to strengthen my knowledge of the face and my rendering..


Some eye studies to zoom in on the details...


And some weird looking creature design that I came up with.. Not for pets definitely

[JS Neo]

More updates...
Feeling crap abt my abilities and somehow feeling lethargic and uninspired to work.... Will still try to get it going.....

Some drawing of a character from steven erikson's Malazan Series...Having problem with armor and weaponry dseign. Anyone have good practices to improve it pls let me know


Some anatomy drawing of the shoulder and torso.


A master copy of Raphael's study for his Transfiguration Painting.

[MeTaL-Mike]

nice stuff. try working from big shapes to small ones. block in your stuff first and then when you're satisfied with the general look go in for the kill

[JS Neo]

MeTaL-Mike THanks for ur advice.. I do have this tendency to dwell too much in one area before going to others. Bad habit.. Really have to break this habit.

Some update.
Never done environment much so here is my first try of EOW.. I am not intending to work towards a full color work becos i say to myself i am not going to touch color until i get my value study to a higher standard...!!

Legend of Skull Island
This legendary island is well-known throughout the Gydrial Sea as an island to avoid. People go in and never came out. So what fearsome monster live on this island, no one can verify. The name of the island has been passed down for generation, but the origin of the name has been lost. People think that the name came from the strange tree that made up the swampy forest on the island, trees that have crevices and spiny roots that make the tree look like vicious skulls. Little did they know that the name actually came from the skulls of human that the native collect in the crevices of the trees as trophies to offer to their gods....

[CouchPotato]

Heya Mydrako, nice to see you posting in ConceptArt as well! And thanks for leaving a note in my sketchbooks haha. Also nice to see more sg people posting here. Most of us are too shy or something to have our stuff out to be critiqued or something.

The figure drawings in your first few posts have some proportional issues, although I'm not sure if it's just because you wanted to draw 6 head figures or something. The later ones look better.

I really like the Malazan series as well, and so I'd make a suggestion to broaden the arms of your characters. The way Steven Erickson describes his characters, especially the important male ones, WhiskeyJack, Anomander Rake, Caladan Brood and the like, they always sound like they can bash your head in with a finger flick (Caladan Brood), swing a slab of iron without breaking a sweat (Dragnipur in Anomander Rake's hands), walk out of a collapsing mineshaft like taking a stroll in the park (WhiskeyJack).

Probably you need to put some of that feeling of power into your designs lol.

That painting method sounds really good man. I'll be taking that up for sure.

(I just noticed you named one of the figures as Icarium. ALL the more reason to exaggerate lol)

[JS Neo]

CouchPotato The first few pictures are few pictures before i learned the proportions. They are copied from some figure drawing book. I still havent draw enough to have the instinctive feeling of the proportions but I will definitely work on it.

For me, injecting action and dynamism has always been a problem. Been doing more gesture drawing to strengthen it. Btw the character is supposed to be icarium hence the tall and rather lanky build. (at least i understand he is supposed to look like that) The book is awesome and while reading it, my brain is always flooded with all the images of the events and characters. Though after I try to put them on paper, they turn out crap... Definitely need to work harder !!

[JS Neo]

No update for a long time because I shifted to Vancouver to study for a year. Now more or less settled down and back to drawing...

Some anatomical drawing of the lower leg, knee and foot.

[JS Neo]

Huge update.... being rather lazy to post updates here. Until my mentor ask me to upload some pics.... Anyway here goes.....

This is a master copy of Rembrant's Self Portrait. Did it quite some time ago but somehow i didnt post it.


Here are some leg and feet studies from Vilppu's video...


Here I was copying from Loomis's Figure drawing book. Some stick figure drawing and some drawing of figure in perspective.
Sorry for the bad picture cos I have no scanner. Alot of details like construction lines are gone...

[JS Neo]

Homework 1.1
My mentor instructed us to do up 10 to 15 life drawing based on nude reference. Did one yesterday so posting it up now.

We are supposed to explain our techniques. Nothing special.
1) I set the proportion line, lay in the top of the head and the bottom of the feet and then put down some division. I used a modified proportion using vilppu's division which is from the top of the head to the bottom of the nose instead of using a head length. So using that measurement, my top half of the figure will be divided into 6.
2) I do not however lay the proportion line in a horizontal way. I sort of lay in the gesture and put down the proportion line as I go down the figure.
3) Then i try to block out the contour lines.
4) Wat is left is just rendering.

This picture is quite a challenge because of its 2 point lighting and slighting confusing shadows and shading. I think i mess up the stomach portion. I hope i manage to convey the sense of form.

[JS Neo]

Latest update on my life drawing practice set down by my mentor.
My drawing speed is rather slow. Take me almost 1 hour to do one picture.
Here are 3 drawing of nudes based on picture references



Today I met up with the vancouver local sketch group and we have a awesome time sketching in a cafe. Just try to spy on some unfortunate people ard me and try to sketch them down as soon as possible. This is my first time sketching in public and it is really quite an experience I think if not for the group who is sketching along with me, I would not have dared to done so.... at least not now... Not all the pictures are drawn from people ard me, some are just doodles of characters that came up.

[captainwatercolor]

Hello all.

I am new to this forum, and am enthralled by the sketchbooks. There is so much energy here, its mind-blowing.

[JS Neo]

I recently decide to start sketching again after a whole year of absence, mainly due to schooling in VFS. Now back in my hometown and settling into my job, my itch for drawing has reinvigorated. So back to the sketchpad I am now. So here is a small dump of a few weeks work.

The first two pictures is drawings from photos of my friends for their birthdays. (best and cheap gifts for frens ) Next one is a brague and bridgeman studies. The next few is drawing based on characters from a tv series. Some life drawings and sketches from imagination. Critics and comments is gratefully welcomed.

[JS Neo]

Here is my weekly dump. Been really busy this week with work and meeting old friends. But here is something whipped up during the week.

Here is some composition sketch. Some of them is done while watching Indiana Jones movie and much resemblances is unavoidable :p


This is a concept i have for a alternate version of the title Angels and Demons (story totally not the same as the book) portraying the anti-stereotypical of how a angel or demon should be like. Kinda influenced by the comic coro is working on abt homeless people being empowered to do good stuff.


A couple of gesture drawings... Need alot of practices on gesture.. Cant really create nice dynamic poses from imagination.







Next few is a couple of sketches from a portrait drawing session of 15 mins each.

[Pixie Bergman]

This is cool, nice studies! Keep it up!