Ása's drawing journal [March 17th-Update at last!]

[AsaB]

Hello all!

I'm a 21 year old girl, been drawing most of my life but only really got serious about it when I was around 13 years old. I got a tablet last year so I've been venturing in the realms of digital art since then, but I'm afraid I've got a very long way to go in that department. Colour theory is not one of my strongest point. So I've decided to take a break from all the Photoshopping and improve my basics, i.e. life drawing, anatomy, lighting and all that jazz!

That's where CA comes in, I've been hanging here for a while and the level of professionality here amazes me, so I'm hoping to get a little wiser here I've already had a DA page for a while, and I think it helps to put my work online for feedback and critique. But CA is on a whole different level, I'm pretty sure you guys know your stuff better than the average 15 year old on DA.

So I'm just going to post my finished stuff now, both coloured and handdrawn, and then I'll hopefully update this sketchbook often! It'd be great to get some critique from you guys on my stuff, only way to improve And it also puts some pressure on myself to keep on drawing, having this thread.

Anyway, enough babbling! On to the art: (EDIT: removed my old work for the time being, will be back soonish)

(P.S. I've had some problems with colour management in Photoshop, some people see the colours of my work dull and washed-out, I've been trying for a long time to fix this, but I'm still having this issue. Hopefully it shows correctly to some of you :/)

[Krist]

improve whaa, it looks great, both digital and real, nice cloth work too

[AsaB]

Krist - Thanks, I appreciate the nice comment But you're welcome to crit my ass too, it's muchly needed!

[hmanafi]

hey AsaB,
I like your first page.great face drawings.and your costume designs too.
I think you should draw more from life if you want to add reality to your drawings.
keep it up

[Guilemo]

Really nice shading and anatomy you have here I'd focus more on colour theory, even though you have a nice foundation. Those hand studies are quite beautiful, especially the right one on the top.

I faved some of your pieces on dA by the way

Best
Henning

[AsaB]

hmanafi - Thanks for the advice! I guess I'll go rampaging amongst friends and family to get them to pose for me I'm more used to drawing from photographs, so it'll be challenging. But that's what it's all about!

Guilemo - Thank you for the kind words I know my colour sense isn't very good, I need more depth and dynamic in my colourings. And thanks for stopping by in my DA page!

[ped454]

you look like you're doing everything the right way. Your thought process is on track. the only thing I can suggest is this site

www.posemaniacs.com/blog

y'know. for whenever. later

[AsaB]

ped454 - Thanks, I'm glad to hear that, doing things the right away is quite crucial in this And thank you for the link, although I've actually come across it before somewhere on the forums. It's a great site with good reference models.

I'll post some of my more recent sketches soonish!

[paac]

Hey Ása, takk fyrir commentið. Geðveikt stuff hjá þér, þú ert pottþétt á réttri leið. Bara æfing sko, hehe. Sjáumst!

[AsaB]

paac - Hæ Pétur, takk fyrir hrósið! Já, þetta er auðvitað spurning um æfingu, en það er alltaf aðeins meira en að segja það, heh Þú ert með fáránlega flottar myndir, mjög gaman að skissubókinni þinni, mun pottþétt kíkja oftar við

I just scanned some of my recent sketches. These are quick full-body gesture poses, around 2-4 minutes each, except for the first heads and arms studies. I know there's plenty of error in these, so feedback is appreciated

[Bevin]

Hey, I think your work looks great, you're on a really good track, especially with the life drawing. There's a lot of fluidity in the motion in them. I will say that the musculature in the left arm in the second picture down on the left seems a bit off, but some anatomical studying should help there. Overall, really nice stuff, I think.

[AsaB]

Bevin - Thanks for the encouragement, glad to hear it! Life drawing is hard stuff, but I love it anyway, heh. Thanks for pointing out the musculature, I'll take out my anatomy books and take a closer look at it

[Brendan N]

Hey thanks for stopping by my book.

you have some good things going on in here, things are taking the right direction.

On life drawing: you have far too much fluff going on, clean up your line a bit. Remember that a line connects two points and typically describes and edge. Think about where you want it to start and where you want it to stop and what you want to say with the line. Don't slow or quicken your line as it approaches its destination - if need take it further than it is suppose to. Once you've made the line, do NOT go over it again. Don't say the same thing twice. Instead make sure that you you need another line, that it will say something different, and that it will follow a different route.

On the coloured images in the first post: Drop the heavy black line around the everything, especially the figures. They're doing a bunch of bad things:
1) They're destroying the forms completely and flattening everything out.
2) They constrict your figures, not allowing them to breath a little. As such, the figures quickly become lifeless.
3) Interfering with composition.
Read up on some colour theory, and get some complementaries and colour nuances going - subtlety is at the order of the day here.
Do some perspective drawing as well, the perspective on these could use quite a bit work.
Also for the time being, get away from any soft-edged brush. Only hard edges for you!

Hope that helps a bit! Everything you are doing here is going in the right direction, just need to keep pushing and make sure you stay in the right direction. Nice book though!
keep it up
cheers!

[AsaB]

Brendan N - Thank you so very much for the insightful post, it's tremendously helpful!

I see what you mean about the life drawings, I've always had such a messy drawing style, it's hard for me to be less sketchy. I constantly have to form the shapes lightly first (going over the same line often) and then yet again with a bolder stroke in order to define it. I'll take your advice into consideration next time

I'm still a beginner in Photoshop colourings (just in general, actually), so I'm very thankful for the useful tips. It's a habit to outline everything with black, do you mean I should drop the contours altogether or perhaps make them lighter in a different colour? I see dropping them is obviously much more painterly and loose, but it's very difficult for me and definitely out of my comfort-zone, but that only means more practice!

Colour theory and perspective, check! Will take a look at these.
One question about the hard brushes though, could you perhaps tell me what settings you use? I've tried using the regular hard round, but it seems difficult. Do you use custom brushes or tweak the regular one around a bit? I'm no expert in PS brushes.

Hope this wasn't too lenghty, but I'm very thankful for you taking the time to help

[eminkey2003]

Sometimes, you really have nice, neat lines, other times not. Keep it up! The blue line life drawing is solid. Practice more painting with less subtle shadows. I want to see more life, expression, and personality in the faces-- the blandness of them immediately stood out.

[AsaB]

eminkey2003 - Thanks for the honest words, they're very helpful! I'm having a hard time drawing with bolder and more confident strokes, as is apparent in most of my life drawings. It tends to vary though, I can't explain why, I guess I simply need more practice. And I'll try to improve my faces, I find it hard to draw dynamic and extreme expressions, so I'll work on that too Thanks again!

[NemesisOnline]

Thanks forr commenting on my sketchbook.
I love your historical costume drawings and the sense of volume in your life drawings. Your perspective needs more work, including atmospheric perspective (note how the sails of your boats remain the same color regardless of their distance).

[sjuskadur]

Your sketches are amazing cant point out a single thing that i saw that was off the model drawings are beautiful!

[Brendan N]

Brendan N - Thank you so very much for the insightful post, it's tremendously helpful!

Sure thing!

I see what you mean about the life drawings, I've always had such a messy drawing style, it's hard for me to be less sketchy. I constantly have to form the shapes lightly first (going over the same line often) and then yet again with a bolder stroke in order to define it. I'll take your advice into consideration next time

Go have a look at Lukias' sb - he remains VERY sketchy, tons of lines on the page, but he pulls it off. I think looking at his stuff will benefit you some. Also, have a peek at mentler's sb - there's no one who does figure drawing better than this dude. Look how intelligently both of them use their line, try and figure out what they're doing with it and why.

I'm still a beginner in Photoshop colourings (just in general, actually), so I'm very thankful for the useful tips. It's a habit to outline everything with black, do you mean I should drop the contours altogether or perhaps make them lighter in a different colour? I see dropping them is obviously much more painterly and loose, but it's very difficult for me and definitely out of my comfort-zone, but that only means more practice!

It depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to have flatness, like bluefooted's work, then the line is good. If you want to have form - a more realistic naturalistic approach - then the line has to go. I think the best way to practice the looser side of stuff is speedpaints - pop some studies out, do some characters, and just do a whole lot of painting. Right now it's all about mileage, the more you do the better you will become.

Colour theory and perspective, check! Will take a look at these.
One question about the hard brushes though, could you perhaps tell me what settings you use? I've tried using the regular hard round, but it seems difficult. Do you use custom brushes or tweak the regular one around a bit? I'm no expert in PS brushes.

I used Baronteiri's brushes before I finally got to making my own, they're pretty good for almost anything. You can download them at the bottom of this page:
http://www.barontieri.com/atelier.htm
If I remember correctly, the very first brush in there is the one I usually paint with. Best advice is to play around with all the settings all the time, see what works for you and what doesn't.

Hope this wasn't too lenghty, but I'm very thankful for you taking the time to help

no problem, my pleaure.

[AsaB]

Occidental_Martyr - Thanks, I'm glad you're liking the costumes! I'm definitely putting perspective on my list now, and thanks for the tip about the ships' colour too

sjuskadur - Hey, thanks! Glad to hear you like them! (Íslendingur, ekki satt?)

Brendan N - Thanks again for the helpful post I'm subscribing to these sketchbooks you mentioned and will analyze their life drawings, seeing other people's art is always inspiring and useful.

I've always liked inking with realistic paint (a la JessiBean's works), but I believe you're right though, it'll probably be more useful to study speedpaints and painterly stuff altogether. I'll focus on these now, and thanks a bunch for the PS brushes link, I'll go play around with these. Your advice has proven most valuable, I'm very grateful for your input

[Clodioz]

hey nice start for a sketchbook!

I just have one thing to say; in this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1197992921)
the right arm's deltoid is not in the correct position

the rest is very good (for me :] )

keep it up, cheers!

[AsaB]

Clodioz - Thanks for the advice! I don't know a lot about musculature, so it's good to know what I can improve

[Ruffy]

i love the cartoony style in the female characters i wished i had such clean and confident lines like you do.. great work

[AsaB]

Ruffy - Thanks for the compliment, I'm glad you like those!

[comixnut]

AsaB, this is a very cool start to say the least. You have gotten some serious advice already so i am looking forward to how you show us that into practice.

I have my own suggestion if i may (and since i did not read all of the above posts please forgive me if i am repeating what somebody else has already suggested).

I fell in love, in my life drawing class, with the continuous line drawing exercise. The idea being that your pencil never leaves the actual page (or your tablet). your eye roams the subject and you try to kind of follow it. The trick is that even if you go from shoulder to leg your line has to remain continuous. AS you do more of them you will learn when to press down harder and when to go lighter, so even a 'messy' drawing will contain a lot of life and the softer lines will tend to give volume to the heavier ones.

If i can manage to scan one of my drawings that i think MIGHT illustrate this (since i am not pro) i'll show it to you!

Keep up the great work, awesome to see new young people in here.

[Ape_with_a_pencil]

Very nice sketchbook. I love the girls of the world series. Keep up the good work!

[AsaB]

comixnut - Thanks for the great post, it's very helpful Your suggestion has not been mentioned to me earlier, so I'm really grateful for the advice. I've never tried in particular using the technique you recommended, but I've heard of it. I understand how it adds to the flow and motion, so I'll definitely try that one. Also, if it's not too much trouble, I'd love to see one of your own drawing that would clarify this even more
I'm so happy to get all this awesome advice from so many great artists, I'm very eager to start practising!

Ape_with_a_pencil - Thanks for the kind input I'm happy to hear you like the world series, thanks for the boost!

[SEVANS]

You have some very nice work. Your linework has a great 'flow' to it.

In the colouring side of things, I feel that the weakest area is your skin tones. When your colouring the pics are you just adding more black to the colour or actually picking a all new colour?
Try use a few different colours, not just a darken version of the first one (hope that makes sense).

[Draniel]

hi, thanks for checking my stuff
i like your illustration style a lot, and nice characters too!
your line work look really confident when you draw the comic style stuff, but there's too much line for your figure drawing, try to be more confident when you do the figure drawing next time, try to use as few lines as you can

[JPC]

The way you draw your women, there is definitely a style in develpment there. Looks very promising, looking forward to seeing more from you.