RyanBarrett's Sketchbook UPDATED 11-29-2012

[RyanBarrett]

updating semi-daily - new sketches at end of thread

[Dose206]

well, welcome to CA and good job on taking the plunge. I hope your stay here will be enjoyable as well as productive.

I like your creativity and would love to see more. I'd like to see some studies (human and animal bodies) because I think that those would help you vastly with your crazy guys that you're drawing.

[RyanBarrett]

Wow, didn't expect a reply so quickly! I was in the middle of preparing another batch of pages... and here they are.

Thanks for the words of encouragement... I'd really like to do more studies and life drawing, but there aren't alot of options around here for life drawing classes. I completely agree with you on my anatomy being sub-par.. you know of any good sites for animal reference? I have loads of human ref... but not a whole lot otherwise.

Also, I've noticed while browsing other sb's that there are captions under their images, between images, etc. I wanted to do the same, but can't figure out how.. seems they all lump together with the attachment manager. Any ideas?


Heres more sketches:

last one is a quick paint attempt in PS

[Dose206]

hey, nice batch.
as for being able to put captions and whatnot under you pics I was confused about that as well for awhile. But really it's easy. When you're typing your reply, after you hit "go advanced" and attach your images you can then click on the paperclip icon in the typing box. This will drop down a list of all the images that you have attached to the post that you are working on, and if you click on one it will insert the image wherever the cursor is in your body of text, and then you can type around it.

[RyanBarrett]

Ok... fairly large update... At first I was using the excuse "I don't have a scanner at home" for not updating more frequently... but then I figured out my digital camera takes decent enough pictures, and I should be improving my digital skills too. So, Here we go... Please critique harshly. Be cruel, point out every flaw, so that I might improve.

Some faces, no reference. I need help with lips, (and I'm sure lots more)




A demon thing that arose from some scribbles


A cartoon-styled robot.. I had a lot of fun drawing this one.


And a few digital attempts, Intuos2 with CS2:




Have a question for those who paint digitally:
I have trouble blocking in continuous tones without the "marker overlap" effect. I'm using a hard-edged brush at a low opacity to start.. maybe thats wrong. Picking a value and painting at 100% opacity works, but then I'm completely covering my paper texture. Any ideas?

[ajvenema]

yo dude! i see some nice ideas here, u cnat complain about having no inspiration

maybe u should try to work some more of them out, lkike u did to the robot!

[RyanBarrett]

I've printed myself a copy of Loomis's "Figure Drawing For All Its Worth" and am following along with Riven Phoenix's "Structure Of Man"
Here's my first few pages:

from Loomis


more Loomis manequins, head sketch


following along with "Structure of Man" any one out there purchase these training DVD's? I'd be curious to know what you think of them... I'm following along with the freebies... and am almost through them.


After having Loomis' ball and plane method drilled into my head, it was refreshing to have a more specific approach from Riven... I had no idea there were so many 'tricks' and symmetries on a human head.


more heads

[dose]

What's up, Ryan?

Good stuff in here so far. Keep working.

Anything new?

[ped454]

Yeah your stuff is actually quite decent. Your early posts remind me a lot of the Smurfs and you're picturing your stuff in 3d already...took me a hell of a long time to do that. keep givin' 'er

[iMaiM]

Very original and creatives designs / characters. Not much I can say except to crack down and practice some life drawing and anatomy. Speaking of which, I should go do some myself!

Keep it up, man. I'd love to see some more work in here!

edit: By the way, I LOVE the first pic in post#3. Very cool.

[RyanBarrett]

Continuing my anatomy study... here's a few more:

[dose]

Hey Ryan

As an exercise, try drawing a cube first and then dividing it into a skull. Like the exercise in the mentoring thread, make sure you get the cube right first. Then place the "sphere" of the cranium into it, then add the jaw. Use the lines from the cube to guide the lines of the skull. You can even use this technique for a straight-on front view or profile, but obviously in that case the cube will pretty much be a rectangle- but get that right first before moving on.

It can be a bit tricky, but is very useful. I'm hoping the exercises in the mentoring thread will build to putting complex shapes like a skull into perspective.

Tim

[RyanBarrett]

Here's some more anatomy drawings, still following along with "The Structure of Man" DVD set

[RyanBarrett]

My new years resolution is to update my sketchbook thread more often... which would require me to draw more often. I am committed to becoming a better artist, but my new Wii has consumed all my free time lately. ;D I would love to hear some critique from you guys... please feel free to be brutal or just plain cruel; I promise not to take it personally.

[Blue Star]

You have alot of interesting and diverse subjects in your sketchbook as well as styles. I really like your skeletal studies and the character design in your first post.

[§Hy9oD]

I really like your faces here ,( actually that's what I want to do ) I hope I can reach your level someday )

[Sammy Dee]

Hey mate, I'm not in much of a position to give advice, but I'm liking what's going on here, keep it going bud!

[RyanBarrett]

Long time no post! Time to remedy that...
A Compilation of doodles from an older sketchbook


Just more random doodles I hadn't posted yet.








More to come, and my recent anatomy scribbles too; I've committed myself to filling a 100 page newsprint with anatomy drawings in a month. That may sound meager to some but a big deal with my lack of free time / self discipline issues. I've purchased Ron Lemen's portrait drawing videos, they're great! Learning a TON about head construction. Thanks for the kind words so far, hopefully you'll see more frequent updates from me in the coming months.

[Samszym]

Nice work here! The anatomy stuff seems like an ambitious goal, it's great that you're working hard! I really like your sketches of robots and planetary explosions or whatever those were and the anatomy studies. Your cartoon and organic stuff doesn't look as controlled, it's like you don't know where anything's supposed to go. I think you should practice conomy, putting just what you need only where you need it. Here's a couple of links I think you might find helpful to learn about cartoony drawing.
Good luck, keep up the good work and keep the updates coming!

[RyanBarrett]

Shy90d, Sammy Dee: Thanks for the kind words!

Vertical:

Part of the reason the organic stuff doesn't look controlled is because it isnt; I start with random scribble and then try to see forms within them, and don't bother erasing any of my scribbling. But you hit the problem spot on as far as not instinctively knowing where to put things when doing characters, and thats where I think just plain pencil mileage will help (I hope!)

Thanks for the links; I have Preston Blair's newer reprint, and if you think thats good study material I'll definitely give it another look. Thanks especially for the posemaniacs replacements in your sig! I've been looking for something like that for awhile, the posemaniacs renders don't quite cut it for longer studies, those 2 links are fantastic.

[matthewactual]

I was about to critique everything, but noticed the 3 year time gap so I'm gonna hold back. Don't want my comments to be outdated! How has the progress been anatomy wise?

[bharat]

cool style man

[RyanBarrett]

MOAR old stuff:












Oh, and please critique away, old and new! didn't get alot of feedback on the initial posts because I quit updating, and I really haven't picked up the pencil again until very recently.

[RyanBarrett]

Couple of paint attempts in photoshop

[andres333]

nice..you might also want to do some gesture studies

[RyanBarrett]

andres333: Yep, that's what I'm doing now, working on anatomy, doing short drawings from random nudes here and here

Most of this batch is the remainder of the one sketchbook; sad thing is they're all in the same physical book I started posting from 3 years ago. Going to remedy that!

old posemaniacs gestures, 30 seconds each




doodle dump:




I'm sure you animators out there have dealt with the famous 'flour sack'. I'll have to do another few pages of these, great fun


More doodles, would definitely like some tips on how to construct an interesting composition, even when I'm just practicing; some peoples sketchbook pages are visually interesting as a whole.. mine are always just a collection of smaller drawings all over.








Everything from here forward was done within the last couple weeks (august 2011) and all subsequent updates will be new progress:

Ron Lemen/Reilly method heads:


Heavily inspired by Gnomon's "Drawing the Adult Male Head"






First couple pages of the promised newsprint anatomy:

[RyanBarrett]

Couple of faces done in Painter

[RyanBarrett]

Couple more photoshop paint-ups of old sketches. More studies coming soon, have a batch that needs scanned yet.

[RyanBarrett]

Got a tiny moleskin!




And started playing with gouache under prismacolors:

[RyanBarrett]

Starting playing with MyPaint the last few days, has some really great-feeling pencil brushes.