Sketchbook of a Fledgling Artist

[A.J. Gardner]

Hi. I've been lurking around here for a week or so, gathering the courage to actually post...

I started drawing when I was a kid, but all formal training ended years and years ago. I never kept it up, and whenever I did get the craving to draw again, it would be just me drawing from anime related material by eye. I just drew what i saw.

Now I want to get into it again, but this time seriously. I have a long way to go, so I figured it would be best to start motivating myself by posting this sketchbook and try to practice by posting something daily. I know absolutely nothing about specific drawing techniques, so any advices is very much welcome. Heck, if anyone wished to mentor me would be awesome! ^_^

Okay, enough rambling. Here's some old art. I'll post some new stuff once I get around to scanning the doodles I've done lately.

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[A.J. Gardner]

Here's some doodles and my first attempts at practicing anatomy :p

My scanner makes these ugly blotches on my scans for some reason...

[SEVANS]

Just keep at it and ENJOY it - otherwise you'll just quit again.

If you get into a slump, try something new, photography, sculpture, anything, just keep the creative juices flowing.

Now, do some sketching and post your latest pics.

[A.J. Gardner]

Talk about getting back on the horse. Here's the crappy sketches I've been doing on and off, most of them were done months ago. But now I think I've really committed myself to drawing again.

The first few two were copied from Clamp art books. The rest is just sketches that probably won't be finished. The last is probably the worse, random doodles. But I guess it's better than nothing XD.

[SEVANS]

Have a look for the free Andrew Loomis pdfs that are around. He has some great ideas about underlying structure etc.

Plus, use more reference. Life or photos. Even manga style can benefit from this.

[A.J. Gardner]

Thanks for the advice. I got the pdfs, but haven't had the chance to look through them yet. I'm gonna try to do more reference drawings, but till I can scan what I got in my sketchbook, here's some digital sketch crap XD.

I still have trouble with the torso, even with a reference. But maybe I need to pay more attention.

[Radio24]

you've got a good start here with the anatomy study. keep going with it, try to draw more accurately with each drawing. Try drawing in pen so you can't erase, and keep drawing from life. If you feel like doodling... pick something in the room and draw it, focusing on form, light/shadow, finding planes and defining positions in space. keep it up, and good luck. welcome to CA

also, for torso check out Burne Hogarth's torso construction technique. he builds the figure starting with the torso.

[A.J. Gardner]

I feel like I so should have more to show for this week XP. But this week I'm gonna start some serious studying damnit! I added some gesture drawings, I'm not sure if Im actually doing them correctly though XD.

[A.J. Gardner]

Note to self: Draw more.

[A.J. Gardner]

(slips back in)

[A.J. Gardner]

No excuses. *recommits*

[Brightdreamer]

Congrats for climbing back on the horse! Keep an eye on proportions, and keep creepin' forward...

[tronrobot]

Cool stuff dude. i recomend getting an anatomy book like bridgeman or loomis

[A.J. Gardner]

tronrobot: Yes, I plan on working on Loomis next.

Some random sketches, trying to get the feel of drawing everyday, trying to sketch from life and failing, trying to draw from reference and failing (lol). Did pretty well copying another drawing though lol.

[A.J. Gardner]

Doodles

[A.J. Gardner]

Studying male proportions.

[A.J. Gardner]

Gestures (the ones that looked at least slightly decent) and working on proportions. No idea if I'm doing these right! lol

[Jyou]

Hey its me julie_eddie from the sketching zone. I draw in anime style too lets do our best

[A.J. Gardner]

The Megadump! Well, not really. If I can figure out a better way to upload stuff and scan stuff or take photos of them (btw, the photos are really dark here, sorry about that...and the scans suck too. Ah well) I'd definitely post a lot more often. Some stuff are a few weeks old, some just today.

Um lets see...we got gestures, loomis studies, figures, new quick self portraits (I can't draw my hair), a foot and at the end, I'm studying a Frank Frazetta piece, no idea how that's gonna turn out.


Back to the drawing board! Literally! Oh, btw, this is my new name. A new, focused start. Plus this is basically the handle I use everywhere else.

[Tim Murphy]

Hey AmbtheCreative,

When doing gesture, it's less about the contours of the form (the outside lines) and more about the action/flow of the pose. Here is a helpful video by Glenn Vilppu which demonstrates his way of approaching the gesture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguK0ehqROM

Note that its a fairly hard concept to get used to and use, but its payoff is huge. Good luck in your work!

[Mars.]

I think you seem to be on the right track with anatomy studies. I feel like once you get to a certain point with anatomy you can just visualize how things should be in your head. This is starting to happen with me, I can just see what is wrong with it and how to fix it. Before I could see what was wrong with stuff, but I had not idea how to fix it because I didn't know anatomy.

But good work, and do whatever you can to stay motivated, the only person stopping you from your goal is yourself.

[A.J. Gardner]

Radicou, Mars: Thanks for the comments and the video!

I'm trying to get my mind wrapped around gestures. It's funny how my longer ones look worse than my 30 secs ones, but I dont even know what's bad and what's not bad when it comes to gestures.

Here are some self portraits I forgot to upload. Need to stick to a daily routine!

[A.J. Gardner]

I have done tons of stuff...okay maybe not tons of stuff, but a lot of gestures and Loomis manikin drawings.

However, my scanner sucks and I have no patience. So just trust me when I say I'm working and once I get my camera working, I will photograph my next horrible gestures for you all to see.

For now, these are the only ones I managed to scan correctly:

[A.J. Gardner]

Gestures, Hogarth. Got to work more...

[A.J. Gardner]

Here my first random, out of order attempts at digital painting.

[Wingal]

You took a nice little dumb, but make sure not to let your sketchbook to get dusty again. I would suggest you do some grayscale value studies to enhance your paintings. http://www.ctrlpaint.com/sketching-value/

[A.J. Gardner]

I'll do that! Thanks for the comment!

Here's a nice sketchbook dump. Broken pieces of charcoal has messed up some of the sketches, but they were all for practice anyways. Also, this is totally out of order (in fact, I think the Loomis cartoon heads are in reverse, the more recent ones on top).

[Stryno]

I recommend reading Betty Edwards drawing from the Right Side of the Brain, you local library may have it. It helped me so much drawing what I see, and that has made the difference I needed. I can practice now and apply what I see to what I cannot. I see that you are on the right path, but Reading on the Right side of the brain well multiply your studies. good luck and keep up the hard work.

[GraphiX]

You have some promise showing. Though, I suggest not getting to caught up in the Loomis Cartoon heads. He has good stuff, but his cartoons are a little out there, and I recommend understanding the "normal" head first.