Talo's Sketchbook

[Talo]

Tiny intro: Hello! I have many nicknames, but you can call me Talo or Sparrow I'm an 18 year young college sophomore majoring in Avian Studies. But I like to draw, and would like to improve my skills. Critique and advice is greatly appreciated.

Edit: Page 1 sketches are eewest, page 2 are eewer, page 3 are eew

I compiled all my old drawings into one image. I figure they're not of much use now but to show my beginning.

[delectro99]

yaaay zoology ^^
my favourite part of biology
but yeah, those links are not showing up,

[Talo]

December 26- December 30:
Didn't have much time to scan. So here's some work from the days gone by. I didn't scan everything though...should I?

1) Loomis

2) Loomis cylinder and then I got bored. So I doodled some tiny gryphons and drew a strange centipede.

3) I remembered these from a dream. Of course this dream was from August and dream clothing's hard to remember! I thought it best to get them down before I completely forget xD. I'll come back to improve them sometime.

4)Top: Observations of The Dog figure and my Mexican Rag Doll. Center: Some "dreamscapes". The one to the left had a blue scheme and I don't know how a deciduous tree could be so huge and feed off seawater...but that's dreams for you. Next to it is a desert with black sand. I can't really describe the sunset in the dream. Under it is a black river...that was an eye-straining dream. The land had a bright yellowish brown color and the sky was deep blue. Bottom: Bug thing from my dream and profile of my species from my previous post.

5)Trying out a technique from Jack Hamm's How to Draw Animals. I thought it was a good method of breaking down an animal's form

6) Quickly redrew some doggish creature from an older sketchbook of mine

7) A classmate. Reffed from photo.

[Blue Star]

You draw animals really well however I suggest you start some human life drawing. It will help you get better at drawing humans more realistically.Good start though. I hope to see more.

[Talo]

Blue Star- Thanks for the suggestion. Animals are my comfort zone, I must get out of them a bit. So I'll start some life drawings of people around me, maybe I'll find a class sometime

And another upload....last one for today. Drew an eagle skull and tried a blind contour. I have discovered that golden eagles and bald eagles are a lot different internally. Experimented with charcoal and I love it.

Tomorrow: Human anatomy studies! Bridgman, Loomis and Hamm.

[Carbono]

Nice to see someone drawing animals, seeying studies always puts a smile on my face.
Your sketches are looking pretty nice, can't wait to see your improvements!
Keep it up!

[Techno Junkie JC]

You have wonderfully soft lines and contours. The only thing I see wrong is the human side view's neck. The neck isn't quite that thick. If you notice, there usually is nothing underneath the chin, and the neck starts where the back of the jaw ends. Otherwise great. Just wanted to help. ^.^

[FunkdaFide]

I would agree with Techno Junkie on the soft outlines, though I don't know if that is necessarily a good thing. I think it might help add some punch if you tightened up your lines a little. Some of your pieces would benefit if you use more variation in line thickness. Ease off the line in places where there is a strong light hitting a contour, or if a surface is gently curving away from sight. I believe "suggested contour" is what I am referring to. Hope that helps.

As for good books, I buy anything that appeals to me. I have more than a few anatomy books, and while it may seem overkill, I like exposing myself to as many different approaches as I can. If you want supremely technical anatomy, get "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Rogers Peck. I believe there is another version for animal anatomy by the same writer/artist. Or for the more general approach to anatomy (and flashier presentation) there is Sarah Simblet's "Anatomy for the Artist". They are generally all good, although, there are a couple out there that I feel fall short of good. You'll eventually be able to tell the difference. Forget anything that doesn't give you a good overall explanation of the entire human body makeup.

Good luck with your work!

[delectro99]

oh god that centipede is scaring the crap out of me XD
try some life drawing, it would prolly help ya
love the skull sketch

[Ignominious]

good stuff here! you're studing the right stuff! (we have a lot of the same books)
like i said, studying the right stuff; anatomy, animals construction, perpsective...it's all really good to studying those thing! you're gonna be great if you keep it up!

(hey! i'm 16 too! as of...5 days ago)

[Talo]

Techno Junkie JC- Thanks for pointing that out! Much appreciated Reminds me of an iguana now that I look at it again xD

FunkdFide- Thanks for the insight, I take along the lines of “Don’t rely too much on line, also use light to express shape”. Correct me if I’m wrong though. And I do own “Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist”, just started reading it today. Hopefully it will help some more

Delectro99- Does it scare you out of a good portrayal or out of horrid composition? xD Life drawing…will do!

Ignominious- Hey! I was just taking a look at your sketchbook today! Nice to know that there are other young creature designers here. Nice to know that I’m going along on a good track. Hopefully, I won’t go astray!

(I am 16 as of two months ago.)

Today:
I rediscovered Terryl Whitlatch and I can definitely say she’s a concept art idol to me now. I must pick up The Wildlife of Star Wars, for I have failed to buy it thrice! And I shall reread the Katurran Odyssey which I do own, huzzah!

So sketches!

1- Started with animals and the general skeletal structure. I now see how the location of the “wrist” affects the animal’s lifestyle. Hamm.

2- Bones of front and back limbs. Hamm.

3- Simplified skull. Similarity of animal noses, ears, and eyes. Hamm makes a good point: Look for similarities among many, then differentiate.

4- Sketch of a tsuklaw, that species of mine. Head’s kinda small. After I finished it, it struck me that an aardvark would help me greatly in finalizing a design.

5- Instead of going from simple to complicated gestures, I did the reverse. But the simple ones are fun, I must draw some more. Doodle of a chupacabra too, one day I will do them justice.

Tomorrow I'll make myself draw more humans. And I have an idea for the C.O.W. so color may be coming up!

[Talo]

Today:
I continued reading Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist. I'm kinda slow at it (wanted to get the joint analogies down in the noggin'). Got distracted quite a bit, much to my Tom Sawyer book saying "Hey! Read me instead! You have a rough draft due Tuesday!"

Today's work:

1- Design for the C.O.W. I draw animals too cute, must break cartoon habit! Not sure if I'll develop it more for the C.O.W. And near the adult tail, I suppose I mean "End of tail acts as gastrovascular cavity during larval stage." A young'n would have no necessity for a cloaca They are called Traverio, which roughly translates to "River traveler" in Spanglish. Might have propulsion issues.

2- Some gestures. Watch them shrink!

3- Human skeleton from Peck. Me thinks he is partially big-boned.

Dunno what I'll do tomorrow. Maybe more Traverios, or animals, or humans. I kinda want to write, or finish my homework (school starts on the 7th!)

[Talo]

January 3:
Didn't work on art very much. Finished most of my work for school. Then I read a book on John James Audubon which really inspired me. He has been an idol of mine for nearly seven years

Sketches:
Drew a sparrow in my possession (she's currently recovering from an injury. Looks healthy but she's in a lot of trouble). Then I began reading a book on raptors from which I drew a black vulture and Mississippi kite. I'll probably be doing a lot of bird (s of prey) and human studies during the next few days. Hopefully I can find a good muscle chart of birds, if not, I'll try and locate a bird expert once I'm back in school. Yay biology based school!

[Vermis]

Nice work so far. Keep it up!

My advice on other matters, from bitter experience: know what kind of job you want to get out of zoology, and where you might get it. And get some experience too.

[Talo]

Vermis- Thanks, I will try! Zoology's kind of hard to decide on as far as careers go. As for experience, my school offers at the least two opportunities for hands-on experience, but they're not available until senior year. I have some work and thinking to do.



Today:
Didn't get much done art-wise for there was lots of housecleaning to do!

1- Hawk sketch. Reffed from photo. Attempted a golden eagle skeleton, but it was a confusing illustration. I'll go for a side-view skeleton next time. But I learned that their legs aren't short...they're looong!

2- Human skeleton from behind. Joints labeled. I like skeleton legs, hate skeleton ribs xD But I like this one more than the front view one. From Peck.

Time to sleep...

[Talo]

Today:
More work than yesterday, but not as much as I would've liked xD

1- Skeleton from the right side from Peck. Did the human outline this time, it helped to see where the meat goes.

2- Skull from Peck.

3- Bird skeleton from the web and labels from a Zoology class handout.

4- Drawing of another species from 2004, I believe. They are tesken which are about the height of an ostrich (excluding the crest). I can type a lot about them, so do tell if you'd like the jumble. I'm going to do some studies of the large ratites sometime, as I cannot decide on their heads. I think I'll go for the large eyed one.

[Blue Star]

Nice sketches. I really like the skeletal study of the bird. That's cool but the shading for the pictures leave them looking flat. You need to push the values alittle more but other than that it's good.

[Talo]

Blue Star Thanks again for the crit. Yeah, definitely need to work on value!

I didn't draw all that much this week. Too much welcoming homework! I bought a smaller sketchbook today, so hopefully I'll be able to draw in class more (from life!)

Anyways this is a gryphon that I drew in English. Tried applying value a bit, not the greatest, but I do believe I might have improved. It also got me less dependent on outlines.

[Talo]

1- Cover page of my new sketchbook

2- Drawn during a zoology lecture at the zoo. Walrus from photo. Two of my inattentive friends, and a taxidermy caribou head I didn't get to finish.

3- Simplish skulls

4- Tsuklaw gestures

5- Quick photoshop painting of grassland. Reffed from google photo.

I'll have more time to draw Sunday and Monday. Got studying to do tomorrow

[Talo]

Pen is fun to sketch with! I don't depend on my eraser friend.

Character sketch


Outline of another character


Mini-gryphons and species sketches. Tazen #1's a little stiff with all sorts of other problems.


Bears form imagination. First one is another species. Robeart was drawn when a friend asked if I could draw a normal bear... He sort of got wings and a robot limb.


Thumbnail sketches of forests I found on Google image search.


English class doodles. Bunny inspired by Andy Riley.... and I must find some 3 dimensional shapes to study the basics of lighting from...

[Talo]

Life: Just got through finals and a busy weekend. But I got to do some anatomy studying today!

First four from Pecks' Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist.





The thoracic vertebrate sorts looked like a head so I redrew the basic shape and turned it into a creature

[Talo]

Long time no update!

Haven't improved very much. Junior year in high school is hectic! Anyways, here's a large dump, compiled of drawings from three sketchbooks.

Some boring views of characters. Must learn to draw lively things in boring classes:


Birds, cats, gryphons, tsuklaw


Some Peck. I have more, but it'd take forever to scan em.


And I'll post some stuff from the other sketchbooks tomorrow. I'm tired of scanning after just these.

[Talo]

Long time no post! Finally out of school, so I can focus a little more on art. Took a Drawing I class from March to June. Didn't learn as much as I wanted to, but did do some fun value studies later. These are from March. Nothing too good (in my opinion). Now the rest of them, then onto actual NEW studies! xD

[Talo]

April drawings

[Talo]

May drawings
Not a very productive month. Sorry for all the oldies, but at this time I'm sorta unmotivated to draw anything . Been kicking myself though! (figuratively) August will have more human studies! And so will September!

[Talo]

June drawings
Even more unproductive month! Went to Yosemite, but got sick so no drawing of nature's beauties

[Talo]

July drawings
Finally, productivity! Got into Atlas of Human Anatomy muscles which proved funner than bones. Also became interested in hyenas so I drew plenty from photographs, wish we had them at the zoo.

[Talo]

August drawings
More Atlas of Human Anatomy. Hyenas, coyotes, birds of prey. Yep. I'm pretty much going in circles right now. Uninterested in humans, uninspired by animals. I'll paint basic shapes until something strikes me

[Talo]

1) Attained a copy of Constructive Anatomy from my library. I must admit human anatomy frustrates me a bit, but in the end I like what I learned.
2) Mostly imaginative horse. More of a dream log sketch entry. Wings to remind me it was actually a pegasus. Going to start horse studies from Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists. I will redo this horse/pegasus afterward.
3) Today there were a ton of clouds in the sky. Finally after weeks of wanting them! They are tougher to draw than they seem, especially when you only have a pencil, a water pen and only an hour of free time, as well as inexperience in drawing constantly changing subjects.
4) Quick 1 hour card-sized drawing from last month. Made as present for friend who likes ravens and hearts.

[Talo]

A Small Menagerie
Decided to also post a few of my characters. Could've sworn I had more. Last one affected by scanner's jerkness.
Drawings from Older to Newer