Randomself's Sketchbook: Subway Sketches and Self Portraits - 9th July 2011

[Randomself]

-- New stuff at the last page as usual --

Hi everyone!

Figured I'd start a sketchbook here so I can get feedback on my work, also to help me get off my ass and draw more.. I have a looong way to go, but I figure this'll help me with that one sketch at a time.

Starting off with some figure studies I did from reference.. Eyeballed the proportions on the first two which resulted in really wonky proportions on the second, so I switched back to using some reference lines in the third.

Will be posting recent gestures too, thanks for checking this out!

[Rockhart]

very nice stuff! i would reccomend you continue to use refrence and buy some good anatomy books. and you're right about the second one the proportions are off. keep drawing and posting!

[Randomself]

Thanks Rockhart. Yeah, I have access to quite a few anatomy books, loomis, hogarth and all and have spent some time doing studies from them. The figures I drew from imagination felt really stiff tho, and my lecturer advocates gesture drawing as an important tool in learning how to draw natural and convincing poses from imagination.




These are gestures done on my journey on the subway to and from school each day.. I stay at the end of the line so I have the benefit of a seat to sketch from most of the time. Most of the poses are quite subtle so I try to emphasise details of the pose like the thrust of shoulders and hips but er, most of them just end up really flat looking.. Even so, such mundane poses are kinda interesting in a way.. cause I'm starting to notice how different people have their own unique way of sitting/standing around doing nothing...

[Randomself]

Gestures from my first live model drawing class. 30 sec, 2 min and 10min for the last one.



This is what my lecturer called a reality check.. A list of random nouns and adjectives from the class yielded the phrase "Hairy Book" as our subject for a 1.5h+ sketch drawn purely from imagination and without any reference. The point of the exercise was to simulate the feeling of an art interview test that many studios spring on aspiring hopefuls. The question he asked was do you think this drawing can compete on the world stage.....



I don't think I really need to answer that do I.. >_< .. back to the drawing board..

[Randomself]

Spent 3 hours on Sunday morning at the National Museum here in Singapore where an exhibit of Greek Sculpture is on loan from the Louvre.

Only managed these few drawings (had to rush off for an impromptu jam session), will definately return there to do more detailed studies before these centuries old sculptures return to France in March.



My favourite sculpture of the bunch, Aphrodite rising from the sea.. Solid marble yet the cloth in its wrinkled and wet see through state is totally believeable..



Fun little copic sketch, trying to do more of these on the train instead of just pencil sketching.. Love how freeform it is, just blocking out shapes, light and shadow then slowly detailing it. As someone who can get all tangled up in the details its much more spontaneous than pencil sketching for me..

[Jillian]

beautiful drawings you have here, you are much better at drawing with a pencil than I am. Thanks for sharing your work! I look forward to seeing more

[Randomself]

Jillian - Thanks.. haha, but you paint so well! anyway, I hope to try out some digital painting sometime soon..

I'm focusing more on hands at the moment.. plenty of willing hand models on the train.. =)



Some of this stuff is gonna be way backdated, cause I draw every day but somehow finding the time to scan and post everything seems to be difficult for me.. haha, but I shall post them all in time! Need feeedback too please!

[Vhan Juju]

Hey random! thanks for checking my SB, I can see what you mean by focusing more on the figure, than detailed skelly studies! good point!

Are you (also) a left handed artist?

[xinleh]

So I was looking through your posts and I'm astonished that you're from Singapore too. (So am I! So am I!) Are you taking any fine arts course?

I really like the flow of your anatomy sketches. They feel fleshy and raw but at the same time controlled. Shading-wise, I'd say work on your contrast and be bolder with your lines. But you're good! Love the hands.

[Randomself]

More stuff, a still life for a change.. still rather lousy contrast despite consciously trying kick it up a notch..

Vhan, nah I'm right handed.. but I can see how you could have gotten that idea, the nicely rendered hand studies were done from photo reference.. hmm.. I might wanna try training up my left hand too tho.. I had a phase where I was trying to train myself to be ambidextrous.. didn't work out too well tho, haha..

Heya Xinleh, you're spot on about my contrast issues.. I realise I tend to be quite careful with my lines ever since I switched back to pencil.. gotta work on that..

Yeap, I'm from Singapore too! I'm actually doing a one year animation course of insanity here.. there's a strong emphasis on traditional skills, and after 3 months I really do see the benefits that they bring.. Nothing like 20+ A3 pencil portraits over 3 months to hammer facial proportion into my cranium, not to mention the anatomy studies.. sigh.. at this stage it's still only more of a sense that something is wrong and having to refer to reference, and not a "oh I know exactly where that goes" kinda proportionameter.. still need to draw mooore..

hmm.. you wouldn't happen to know where I could get a nice hardbound sketchbook, kinda like the ones they used to sell in Borders for $15+ would ya? My old faithful of 3 years has had almost 3/4 of its lifespan consumed in the past 4 months and will probably succumb to graphite cancer in April at the rate I'm going.. anyway, thanks for stopping by!

[xinleh]

Oh, animation. That's like a... faraway dream I'd like to dabble in someday once I get illustration out of my system. I'm more a fine arts person I think (even though I'm doing design) and stuff I'm more interested in are illustration & art books, as well as comic books and writing. Animation is so cool though. Where are you from previously? (since you're in Sg for a year.)

As for the contrast issue I think you're making progress. I'm not the best person you should ask this, but one thing I notice about your shading is that it's a little weak... ie, maybe work more on the cross hatching, introducing different levels for it. Take for instance the latest drawing of your hand (the anatomy of which I really like) No idea what it's called specifically but notice the round area where thumb meets wrist? You've only done an upward shading of it, neglecting the downward motion in which the structure runs. Think it in terms of a circle. You don't just shade the circle in a flat circular motion but also consider in terms of how it 'pops', ie. its 3dimensional value. Think in terms of the flow & understand how the structure runs. I'd say practise with some basic shapes, but I probably should do that too. XD Also, I've read somewhere that if your shading is too light, try a variety of B pencils. But I think improving your crosshatching is the best way first.

As for sketchbooks, I'm currently working with a new one I got from Art Friend by Daler Rowney, and it's thick and plump and makes me happy. Yellowish too, which just sends my inner fangirl into a squeeing fit. 160 pages, 80 sheets.

And I'd like to say that all those A3 portraits and anatomy sketches make me go green with envy. T___T

[thebadkitty]

Great sketches you've got here. I get what you mean about contrast issues, though.

In the top-left picture, with the hand in the middle, where the ring and pinky finger intercept with the thumb, the shading's a bit off. You've made the lines darker to separate them from the thumb, but it really makes them look like they're touching the thumb. If you're trying to make the thumb look farther away, try not making its lines so crisp, and make the foreground's lines more defined

[Randomself]

heh.. been quite awhile between updates.. Mind is spinning with animation, modeling and character design, all jostling for attention.. Anyways, had another Life Drawing session last week..



10 minute drawings.. worse than the first session it seems.. Tried out some vine charcoal tho, which was quite nice to use.. can get nice swooshy lines from it easily, nice variation of tone and line.. but er, not really demonstrated much in those two I did with it.. haha, but it deserves more looking into..

xinleh - oh, but animation and illustration go hand in hand! The concept art that goes into the production of both animated and live action films is always captivating to look at.. hmm..personally I like Chris van Allsburg and James Gurney's stuff.. oh, and Bill Watterson for the excellent Calvin & Hobbes!

Heh, I'm as Singaporean as they come.. graduated from Interactive Media Design in '05.. which was really more of an exercise in figuring out what it was I didn't really want to do, and deciding to go all out for animation.

Good call on the shading studies.. I haven't done one of those in ages.. er, sometime in poly if I recall correctly.. as for crosshatching, I really like the effects that those olden day engravers/wood carvers employed.. Ink drawings too, some awesome crosshatching going on there..

Oh, I finally found that while the Borders at Wheelock doesn't stock those sketchbooks anymore, the one at Parkway Parade has them in abundance.. heh, one less thing to worry about.. I'm rather attached to these, paper quality isn't as great as the Daler Rowney ones, but they're just massive! Plus now at the rate I'm going, the Daler Rowneys would really burn a hole in my pocket pretty fast..

thebadkitty - yeap, thanks for that! yet another example of drawing what I think I see and not what's actually there, haha.. probably could fix it by shading the whole thumb.. hrm.. I should do more hand studies.. ah, so many things, so little time..

[Amir the night wolf]

Cool sketches keep up the good work and Thanx for stopping by

[Alena]

Really nice sketchbook you have here.
I Like your pencil works... the rough sketches and especially the detailed works.
I would recommend to practise profiles a little bit though. Your front and 3/4 heads look good, but the profiles seem too flat...
And I would love to see something in colour^^

[Randomself]

Alena - Thanks for stopping by! Yeah, my profiles are pretty fuzzy.. It's been awhile since I did some serious facial studies.. Anyway, something in colour this time..





Heh, long time since I've posted anything, been crazily busy, mostly with this character design project.. Here's the final shot and some sketches I did trying to work out the pose. Not too happy with the human's anatomy, but within the time span that's all I could manage this time.. Well, it was pretty fun, will post more of the design process soon.

[Randomself]

Character designs with extremely embarrassing anatomy and facial proportions -facepalms- and those horrible hands! I'm spending almost 90% of my time on my environment modeling, and it's really taking a toll on my drawing abilities.. um.. still alive anyway.. more to come..

[xinleh]

Hey, you finally updated, awesome!

Nice costume design, especially that of the chinese warrior. Did you use any reference? I notice your poses are getting better. Shading can be improved though, as well as studying how the cloth falls over the body. The WWII soldier is looking a little flat, but maybe depth is not what you're going for here...?

Keep up the good work, and update more!

[Randomself]

xinlin - haha, a great big tonne of reference! The idea is actually to study the structure of what makes each look (in the case of chinese warriors, a crap load of seemingly unpractical cloth everywhere, though I kinda toned mine down), deconstructing it into its base parts and finally using the reference to create a unique design.

I do prefer the first to the WWII soldier, which I find rather uninspired. Shading wise, it's just to spruce the drawing up a bit as it's primarily a concept design assignment.

That being said, I'm really quite unhappy with the poses actually. Will be drawing furiously on my train rides from now on, so look out for more stuff here.. oh, do you have msn btw? Kinda silly posting back and forth here when we're both online.. haha

[Randomself]

Spent some time studying the Dynamic Figure Drawing book, cause lately I've been pretty unhappy with my figure drawing.. stuff like chest to pelvis ratios, where the leg attaches to the pelvis and so on have been bugging me, so that's what I was focusing on.. oh, and some crappy feet studies..

[xinleh]

Heyy. Some sleepy crit.

I like how soft your sketches feel, especially the muscle studies but I think you gotta work on feeling the weight of the line. Apart from that, work on proportions for the face and the shading but I'd really like to see some in-depth studies/variations too. =)

And you've been doing environ modelling haven't you? Post!

[Randomself]

Stuff done in the last 4 days.. my environment project is on the backburner now that we've begun character modeling, so all this is done whenever I can spare the time..

An arm study from Hogarth done while digesting a nice sushi buffet.. some sketches for my character's alien hand too..



Sketches on the subway of random people.. still pretty crappy.. need to draw larger as well..



20 min ZBrush sketch.. gotta get faster.. and practice more facial anatomy so the proportions are more ingrained in my mind.



More train dwellers.. getting a little bit faster.. even shaded some, but perhaps that time could be better spent working harder on proportions for now..



Daily Self Portrait #01, 11/05/08. Ref from mirror. Time taken is capped at half an hour. Idea suggested by Xinleh.. she actually suggested 5 a day as a joke, madness.. well, maybe later when we're more awesome yeah?



Daily Self Portrait #02, 12/05/08.



so that's it I guess.. will be doing those self portraits, will try my best to post more but school's pretty hectic, so may not update here daily.. Still definately want to up my traditional skills tho.. so I'm trying to find a balance.. thanks for looking guys!

[Randomself]

Didn't get much done on the train today.. was sleepy on the way back.. so was everyone else.. lol..



1 hour sketch in photoshop.Quite pleased with this one actually, didn't think I'd be able to pull it off cause it usually takes way longer than this.

Daily Self Portrait #03, 13/05/08.



Gotta keep pushing my limits.. please crit guys, need all the help I can get!

[humanNature6115]

Just keep doing what you are doing.


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Sketchbook
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761

[Randomself]

humanNature6115 - Yeap, I intend to.. =)

Daily Self Portrait #04, 15/05/08. Crappy excuse for a self portrait which doesn't look like me whatsoever..



Daily Self Portrait #05, 16/05/08. 1 hr Photoshop. Tried to push the contrast, but still can improve on that.. need to try turning a reference picture to grayscale, cause I just couldn't get the ear right where the glowy subsurface scattering was..



Yeap.. I missed a day.. which is bad.. I'm pretty amazed I made it this far tho.. lol.. more to come, hope you guys don't get sick of my face =P

[Randomself]

I went to a monthly artist's market here in Singapore where a bunch of illustrators (fulltime,freelance and amateur alike) gather to draw visitors to the market. They can then choose whichever drawings they like for $8 each.

These three are the nicer ones of the ones I have left. I actually sold one ink drawing, which was surprising.. kinda sad though, I really liked that one, but definitely an awesome experience. They sat for 15 - 20 minutes per drawing, making these last three girls for the day quite a scribble fest.



I'm still pretty slow when it comes to pencil drawings, they also don't have much contrast to them. Here was an early one before I figured out that I was much to slow to attempt full body sketches.



This one wasn't that bad, but still couldn't polish it up to what I wanted.



Overall it was a fun experience.. a great environment to practice, and cool people to talk sketchbooks and art supplies with.

I bought a few art supplies after seeing some of the other's at work.



This was done with a pentel brush pen, with a warm grey copic to add colour. I was trying to keep myself awake while doing my texturing of my character model.



Drew this while waiting for the Bratwurst Shop to open, also with the brush pen. Colours added in photoshop..

I still have a gorgeous dip pen with a very nice wooden handle , supple nib and sepia ink to play with.. but that will have to wait for when I'm more free..

[Hive_minD]

I'm really interested in seeing more ZBrush work.
Don't give up, It really gets fun when you get the hang of it!

Chris

[HFix]

good face studys and gestures, keep posting!

[shamandalie]

Hello dude! Are you from NYP...? I just graduated this year from animation in DMD. There are quite a few country mates here! Hehe. POST MORE YA HEAR?

[Randomself]

Hive_minD - Thanks man! I'll be starting a thread on Zbrushcentral too, got a few things in the works when it comes to Zbrush.

HFix - Thanks! Feel like I'm losing my grasp of facial anatomy from lack of practice tho, will be working on that

shamandalie - Heya! Haha, so many Singaporeans.. Cool.. nah, I was from IMD at TP.. animation too.. about to graduate from 3dsense Media School now..

Heya.. Been away from here quite awhile, so this update's a pretty mixed bag. I've been busy with school projects, these are the various traditional media stuff and studies that sneaked in along the way.. Cheers


Watercolour and pencil done while waiting for a physical fitness test.


Zbrush model that exploded into a crazy spiky thing after waiting a long time for it to be processed.. A quick paintover, and that time wasn't wasted anymore.. feel like modeling some of the buildings in there for real, can see some interesting shapes amidst the skyline..


Old Zbrush selfportrait, done in about 4 hours and looks more like Bruce Lee than me..


Rendering exercise for my digi painting class..


More class work, the high contrast was pretty tiring on the eyes tho..


Practice in shading primitive figures. Pose referenced from this Superman Vs Hulk drawing.

That's all for now!