The capricious sketch-book of Taven (constructive criticism welcomed)

[Taven]

Welcome to my Sketchbook!
Introduction updated 6th February 2012

I started this sketchbook three years ago, back when I was still in high school, with the intention of using it to motivate myself to do art and share my progress with others, as well as get constructive criticism and advice from the Concept Art community. While my sketchbook has suffered some neglect since then, I always seem to end up coming back to it. I'm currently in my third year of college, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, with a minor in Studio Arts. I welcome constructive criticism, and any advice or comments you might have. Please remember to look at the end of the sketchbook for the latest works, because this sketchbook is a few years old, and I'm always improving.




The spider I'm using as the thumbnail for the sketchbook The spider I had an excellent photo reference for, which you can see here. The photo is (c) Stephen Paul Forshaw, or Thricelight on Deviant Art, and was used for sketch reference with his permission. I highly recommend browsing through his gallery, he has some amazing photography there.

[Taven]

Orignal Sketchbook Introduction

Welcome to my sketchbook. Constructive criticism, comments, and advice are all wanted and appreciated. I’m a new member having decided to join since I’ve been popping in and browsing off and on for a few years now, and I’m hoping that I’ll get some good feedback to help improve my art. My main focus right now has been anatomy, and people-drawing. I also want to work on my composition skills; by altering the angles things are seen at, making poses more dynamic, or just implementing the thirds rule. I’ve taken classes that included painting and color theory, but I still tend to use very little color in my works, something I’ve been trying to change off and on for a while.

The first few don’t include that much anatomy-wise, but are a sampling of different sketches and my drawing level and have all been done in the last two days.

Some may appear a bit rough or blurry because my scanner, which is a part of the printer, refuses to scan things to anywhere. It photocopies them instead, despite the fact that I managed to make it work at least once before. I used our digital camera, which has apparently been getting lessons from the sea-gods of legend-- It’s capricious, unpredictable, and refuses to hold the amount of pictures it’s supposed to, while having to be ritually poked and prodded until it feels like turning on again (after randomly turning off).

Hope you enjoy,

--Taven















Orignal Sketchbook Second Post

SINCEREST APOLOGIES, I seem to have accidently spammed the sketch-book forum. I thought none were getting through due to this message:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 30720 bytes) in /home/concept/public_html/forums/includes/adminfunctions.php on line 1085

If anybody knows what that meant, by all means tell me. I'll be using this as my sketch-book thread, the others have been edited to say they're errors. Sorry once again!


=========================


I'm going to try to use this post for something positive as well. In the post above, the works are as follows:

1. Camera Kraken
2. Indian Art
3. Church
4. Forearm muscles
5. Yes, he's missing an eye
6. Feathers and Stripes

Not offical titles, but good for reference in discussing. I know there are things that could be better about them, but to keep your perpective fresh when you view them, I'll leave it to you to post what you see for things that could be improved.

--Taven

[lalovergel]

Thanks for coming to my Sb. I'll revise that issue, if you like you can go to the second link in my signature, there are a couple more studies on that WIP. As for your sketchbook, you have a nice call for details, but proportions and perspective are a little low. Not that i'm a master or something, but you could achieve more convincing depth by following more carefully your perspective guides. Nice work, please keep posting!

[BohemianChaos]

Hi Taven, thanks for stopping by my sb. I do agree, I probably exaggerated the neck a bit in that one sketch you mentioned.

One thing I can't stress enough is reference reference reference, no matter what it is. Eventually if you draw something enough from all angles possible, you will know how to draw it w/ your eyes closed (almost at least) Also, your line work is quite predominant, but do try to include value... your darkest darks, lightest lights, and the values in between. These will really make your forms pop out to the viewer.

Good luck! I can't wait to see what else you post.

[Taven]

You have a nice call for details, but proportions and perspective are a little low. Not that i'm a master or something, but you could achieve more convincing depth by following more carefully your perspective guides.

laloverge-- For proportions, I'll try to put up some better/more anamoy-focused based stuff soon. The Indian style art is focusing more on style then anatomy; although I could revise it to try to encompass both.

The forearms are directly referenced from an anatomy book, although if they're looking off that could be because I didn't spend the most time in the world there.

As for Yes, He's Missing An Eye, I would agree that his proportions are off. He's missing an eye because I couldn't get the second the right size and shape to match the first.

For achieving more convincing depth, I'd agree I need to focus on that more. The last Stripes and Feathers is intentionally styled flat, but the main sketch incompassing depth -- The Church -- does have some things wrong with it, and looking at a perspective guide would probably help me to fix them up.

Thanks for your comments, hope to hear more as I get more up. =)

One thing I can't stress enough is reference reference reference, no matter what it is. Eventually if you draw something enough from all angles possible, you will know how to draw it w/ your eyes closed (almost at least) Also, your line work is quite predominant, but do try to include value... your darkest darks, lightest lights, and the values in between. These will really make your forms pop out to the viewer.

BohemianChaos-- Thanks for the reference advice. I try to use references in most of my work, but for these I didn't use any direct references except for on Yes, He's Missing An Eye which still has a ways to go for perportion correctness, as previously mentioned. Save for in Camera Kraken, which I used my camera as a real-life reference. Imagine that. =P

I tried to focus on values and shading in this re-sketch; as well as making the tenticle connections look less flat and more rounded.


As usual, comments and constructive criticism welcome. I think it's a bit blurry; my camera must be self-concious of imaginative portraits. ;P

[Writerof]

Hiya Taven,

Let's grab the crit stick and start off, firstly, the last one, a bit unsharp. The shading from what I can make out has potential but are you sure about you're light source? (A killer aquatic camera? )

The Eagle is a bit .. flat. I would suggest looking at references concerning eagles and other beasties, unless it was ment to be stylist like that. The idear is alright. So that's fine.

The head needs a bit of work. I like to suggest to look out for books made by Andrew Loomis. That guy knows what he's talking about. Practice a bit on proportions and drawing youre mother and/or sister and/or father as practice.
Life drawings are instrumental in learning the proportions of the human species.

Take youre time for drawing. Do not rush, although the detailing is alright, take youre time. It mostly helps me to un-rush (Yeah.. my problem to) to think about what I'm drawing.

P.s. sorry about bad English, but its not really my native tongue.

For the whole thing, youre doing alright, keep going, you'll get there.

Greetzz,

Writero

[Taven]

Firstly, the last one, a bit unsharp. The shading from what I can make out has potential but are you sure about you're light source? (A killer aquatic camera? )

I thought I'd try that angle of light source and see how it turned out. If there was a Kraken Camera it would probably be too deep under the see for much light source. For Johnathan Hunt's Kraken (used for reference in the second version for the tenticles, which kind of faded out in favor of the shading) he uses moonlight as an illumination, and it looks wonderful. I know where the illuminiation is coming from in mine realitivly well, but don't know it's source.

What do you think (you being a general you, anyone can reply to this question) about the circled points? I downsized it, but you can reference back to the large version. I think they look a bit off, but second opinions and viewpoints are good.

Possible Lighting Flaws

The Eagle is a bit .. flat. I would suggest looking at references concerning eagles and other beasties, unless it was ment to be stylist like that. The idear is alright. So that's fine.

For that one, yes, it was a style choice. I'd like to expound on it and do a more detailed and realistic version at some point, adding shading, depth and all those good things. I have done (previously, I think they're a year or so old now) eagle head sketches from references that turned out well, and if I re-sketch this, I'll certainly be using references so it looks more realistic.

Eagle drawings from references-- Old

The head needs a bit of work. I like to suggest to look out for books made by Andrew Loomis. That guy knows what he's talking about. Practice a bit on proportions and drawing youre mother and/or sister and/or father as practice.

Life drawings are instrumental in learning the proportions of the human species.

Yep, the head does need work, not to mention an eye. I've been trying to round up some photographs or magazine shots for reference and pratice. It would also probably help to look at my portrait drawing book (I forget who it's by at the moment). I'll post some more heads when I've sketched them and keep you folks updated.

The next few (two? Whatever =P) I did last night and early this morning, before my camera decided to slack off. By "slack off" I mean turning off whenever I tried to take a picture. Even when I put in new batteries, and yes, they were the correct direction. I've bought an adapter so I can plug it in, hopefully that will help. For the sketches, neither are "finished" but are still in process.


--Taven

[Taven]

Hey, another update for today. Don't get used to multi-daily updates, but for now enjoy.

As always, comments and constructive criticism welcomed.

--Taven

[dtr.aty]

cool stuff!

[AsaB]

Hey man, thanks for the visit in my sb

This is a good start and you've certainly got the rigth attitude! Being positive and popping out drawings daily is a killer combo Keep drawing and posting, and I know we'll see improvements from you.

Currently I think your line needs some work. It's fairly light and flat, seems like you're maybe a bit timid of pushing its limits, see how far you can take it. Some value studies would do you good. Use darker shadows, but of course keep an eye for the midtone and highlights as well.

But you're on the right track, and with some more anatomy studies you should be improving soon. By all means keep posting!

[Taven]

Heya, here with some updates. I've decided to participate in CHOW #103, and this week's topic is an evil female genie. I hope I can get it done in time! If you haven't looked at the thread, you should. Other members have posted some wonderful sketches of their ideas, and at a more advanced level then me.

So I've got a handful of sketches, nothing final, and a color work that's CHOW releated, and also a head. The picture shows the shading on the head HORRIBLY.











Please ignore the anatomy in the two colored genies. These are sketches for COLOR, and do not focus on proper build.

Some questions/things I'd like feedback on:

*Does the purple background make it look too flat?
*Does the orange look better in the background?
*Can you tell she's evil? If not, what would help?
*Comments about the coloring over all?
*Can you tell what the object at the bottom is?

Really hoping for some good, solid feedback and constructive criticism.

--Taven

[Taven]

Hey, I'm still looking for constructive criticism on the color scheme above, if you fancy commenting.

Here's some more sketches and things related to CHOW #103.








Yes, the last one is a blurry picture. No, it's not really that blurry.

This one is supposed to be anatomy based and will probably be the final layout.

Constructive criticism welcome!

I'll try getting a better and less blury picture uploaded, but for now there it is.

--Taven

[Aly Fell]

Hi Taven, You've got a real ability which needs to be honed. With your sketches, try forgetting about line. Draw from life (which I guess you do) when you can, and try to see objects as solid and not something which needs to be outlined. Everything has form and volume. You're getting it with the tentacled creature. Edges can be defined with juxtaposition of light and dark. This will also provide a degree of perspective on the characters. The genie doesn't look evil yet because she needs more expression. Play with the eyebrows and narrow the eyes to give more intensity, and remember expression is a key to character. Blank faces tell people nothing about what the personality is. Expression can also be in posture and movement, and if you can develop those in your drawing the character will come out more so.

If you're struggling with the pose use reference, there's nothing wrong with doing that. From looking a figurative stuff you can develop a visual familiarity with anatomy, and how things work, and when they don't. Eventually you'll be able to see this for yourself and become your own best critic. And use yourself as a model. Keep a mirror next to your desk and look at yourself to get ideas and reference. I'd love to say a bit more but, I'm off to bed now! It's 12.20 here in the UK!

[Taven]

Hi Taven, You've got a real ability which needs to be honed. With your sketches, try forgetting about line. Draw from life (which I guess you do) when you can, and try to see objects as solid and not something which needs to be outlined. Everything has form and volume. You're getting it with the tentacled creature. Edges can be defined with juxtaposition of light and dark. This will also provide a degree of perspective on the characters.

Poshspice-- Thanks for all the detailed advice! I'll try to work on this and post some more things that focus on shading for developing depth and adding better perspective. I hope to have those up sometime tomorrow.

I draw some things from life, some from reference, and some from imagination. I tend to do real-life drawing less, because I'm not quick enough to sketch people unawares, and I find asking people akward.

The genie doesn't look evil yet because she needs more expression. Play with the eyebrows and narrow the eyes to give more intensity, and remember expression is a key to character. Blank faces tell people nothing about what the personality is. Expression can also be in posture and movement, and if you can develop those in your drawing the character will come out more so.

I tried to give the lips a slightly devious twist, though I'm not sure how sucessfully that was communicated. The suggestions about eyes and eyebrows are both very nice, I will try playing around with those, in addition to trying to make the lip-thing clearer. I'll also work on posture and movement, although that will be tied in more with my anatomy studies. Goodness knows I can't expect instant results, but it's something to keep at.

If you're struggling with the pose use reference, there's nothing wrong with doing that. From looking a figurative stuff you can develop a visual familiarity with anatomy, and how things work, and when they don't. Eventually you'll be able to see this for yourself and become your own best critic. And use yourself as a model. Keep a mirror next to your desk and look at yourself to get ideas and reference. I'd love to say a bit more but, I'm off to bed now! It's 12.20 here in the UK!

Thanks again for the great advice and the time!

--Taven

[Piecemaker]

first of thanks for the help my images are working now

as for the genie picture. to make her look evil as poshspice said expression is important but you could also use her hands to form a menacing pose. face and hands are the most difficult but most important pieces of a character. apart from that characters tend to look more evil or threatening when they look somehow distortet/disfigured; maybe you could give her a pale skintone and maybe spiked piercings or so. maybe some arabian tatoos?
or maybe she still has some bodyparts of a friend of the scimitar wielder in her claws

just some ideas:-)

[Piecemaker]

i thought about the genie and made a sketch. unfortunately i suck at anatomy but i tried to do something with the hands.



here its again with the overlay of a classic composition schema (golden mean and rule of thirds). i used the lower horizontal line as the horizon line and the main focus point is the genies face. unfortunately the body lies in the centre of the drawing which hurts the composition



maybe that sparks your imagination

good luck

[Taven]

i thought about the genie and made a sketch. unfortunately i suck at anatomy but i tried to do something with the hands.

here its again with the overlay of a classic composition schema (golden mean and rule of thirds). i used the lower horizontal line as the horizon line and the main focus point is the genies face. unfortunately the body lies in the centre of the drawing which hurts the composition

good luck

Piecemaker-- I have to say, your skecthes are awesome. If my finished work looks half as good, I'd be happy. Seriously, awesome stuff. I'll see what I can do for playing around with composition and making the hands do more then sit there.

But this bunch is focused on color. I was having fun exparamenting with my Demo of... ArtRange, was it? I finally bought an Imagine FX magazine, something I was looking at for awhile. It came with a free demo, although there's a ton of features missing-- That you can only get by buying the actual program. This is my first time playing around with the computer to color things...

Well, not the first and third. The third I was trying to get better shading on; I don't know if you can tell any difference from the picture. The last two are the color/computer ones I was playing around with.












As always, comments and constructive critisicim welcome.

[Writerof]

Heeya,

Sorry for not commenting right on the date , life got in the way. But let me start. You're main problem isn't ideas nor is it the composition, it's the anatomy. I know, It is gritty work studieing those things but, in the end its very rewording. I'm still practicing it to.

The eagly's eyes are nice. My compliments. The idear of the whole is executed accordingly. So that's fine.

May I again suggest looking at books from Andrew Loomis (Torrent it, you'll find it ) Make it youre drawing bible.

Greets and many salutations,

Writero

[Taven]

Weeeell, I got to the comp too late to enter the CHOW. There's a few different varitions and such, but this is what I WOULD have gone with, if I had submitted it on time. Comments and constructive criticism welcome, and I'll try to give y'all a better update tomorrow.

--Taven

Added To Show More Of Process

Comments and constructive criticism welcome. As you can see, in the end I decided to go for a black and white version; I wasn't as confident with my color-skills and the avalibe mediums.

--Taven

[Taven]

Hey, here's a glump of updates. As usual, consturctive criticism welcome. I'm working on making an entry for this week's COW, the topic of which is "Comet Rider". Any advice you can give on that or the other sketches is welcomed.

--Taven

[Writerof]

I must say! You're enthusiasm in drawing is really catching! You're already dealing with colors and I must say, the beginning is there. But you're drawings are a bit flat. If you visualize (That is something I am training myself at at the moment.) the light source you might be able to put the shades in the correct place. Begin very light at first and then bluild the shade up. Don't press to hard at first.

well, that's all for me!
Keep drawing!

Your's,

Writero

[Ravenseye]

hey i really like your bird sketchs. if you ever get your self some time you should do a like 3 day session. First day gesture birds for like a hour or two then the next day do hour gestures then hour composition then for the last day just the compostion. Things like this usually give me a good insight into seeing something like a bird in its complete freeness and builds up a library in your brain.

[Taven]

I must say! You're enthusiasm in drawing is really catching! You're already dealing with colors and I must say, the beginning is there. But you're drawings are a bit flat. If you visualize (That is something I am training myself at at the moment.) the light source you might be able to put the shades in the correct place. Begin very light at first and then bluild the shade up. Don't press to hard at first.

Writerof-- Thanks! I've been doing some more color/computer coloring work, and hopefully I do better on getting shades and the illusion of depth and form (as oppose ot looking flat) better down.

hey i really like your bird sketchs. if you ever get your self some time you should do a like 3 day session. First day gesture birds for like a hour or two then the next day do hour gestures then hour composition then for the last day just the compostion. Things like this usually give me a good insight into seeing something like a bird in its complete freeness and builds up a library in your brain.

Ravenseye--The key word there is time! If there were 48 hours in one day, I'd still be busy... Or somehow managing to avoid doing my work. ;P That is good advice, though. I don't know if I'll do a whole three days focused on just that, but odds are Ill be doing some more bird works again sometime.


I'm back, with some updates that are older from my perspective, but will benew for ya'll. Once I get some time with my camera again, I'll have newer and a wider variety of things, but this is from what's already on my computer. As always, loving any constructive critisicm you have.

The programs I used include ArtRage 2 starter edition (which I got from the ImagineFX magazine), "brush" (a freeware program) and paint (the normal, boring it-came-with-the-computer kind =P). You can tell with the last one, I was just having some fun messing with effects.

[Taven]

It's been awhile since I've posted, but I've been keeping busy. As such, here's a whole load of things for your viewing pleasure. Remember: Consturative Criticism is ALWAYS welcomed.

As a note, you've already seen a version of the cometrider, but this one is done in pencil only, and in a different style. Also, the colored pictures aren't finished, as you may notice from some specific areas being uncolored.

Any advice on the sketch of the lady would be nice; I don't think I covered her proportions quite right. Also, it should be noted that for the Oasis sketch building syles, these were done after the angled sketch of the oasis, and that I used Assissan's Creed buildings as a model.

Here they are:

[Ravenseye]

I could almost see that black inked dragon being someones tattoo. I really like the mini buildings reminds me of something from assasins creed. Their a little off perspective wise but thats something you pick up with drawing buildings more.

[Taven]

Hey, it's been awhile, but here's a load of things I'd love to get some opinions about. As you can see, while not posting, I still keep busy. Medius used is colored pencil, and sorry for some of the bad/blurry shots.

[Writerof]

Might I suggest Andrew Loomis for the Headshots?

[Ravenseye]

I really like the sketch of the overview of the city its really neat. I also wanted to say thanks for all the comments on my work. You have been one of the few to stop in to my sketchbook. Thanks again. I think you will like whats coming if you decide to go further.

[Taven]

Okay, so it's been more then awhile. Infact, it's been a very long time since I've posted anything up here. I want to get back into the habit of doing that, with my work, and sketches, and looking and critiquing other people's work. Doing the CHOW etc., if I can remember to look those things up on Monday. So, given how long it's been, I'm not sure where to start.

I think I'll show off some of my finished works, and then probably another post later with some sketches. Right now my Camera (which is different from the one that turned into a Kraken) is out of batteries... Somehow it has enough juice to take a few pictures, but not to upload them to my computer. It's very eccentric.





This one I did for a friend, as part of loosing a bet. I always tell everyone "If you ignore the violence, there's pretty colors!"





This one I got printed on a poster, after some clean up on photoshop to erase some of the background grey. It was a Christmas gift for my mother, framed and all. She always liked this one the best of my works.



No, this isn't a self-portrait. For some reason, people ask that alot. Yes, it's supposed to be a man. You can tell it's in a slightly different style from my normal one, with a lighter coloring and not pressing so hard.



This is a page of my old sketchbook. Two pages, technically. I really like how it turned out.



That's the city of Atlantis, from Stargate: Atlantis. My reference was tiny, and it took FOREVER to do, but I think it turned out well. It's two pages, and this pic is a screenshot. You can see there's a gap between the two sides where you can see the desktop, I'm hoping to get a better shot of it to show off.

I'll see if I can rummage for some more "older" things for you guys, and then work on getting some nwer sketches up, too.

I also want to rant about what the Workshop in Texas was like, which I did attend.

[Taven]

The warrior ones are from the last two weeks, the saltworm ones from the lst few days. More to come.