A Struggling Beginner's Sketchbook (Updated December 9th)

[SkyTheArtist]

GO TO LAST PAGE FOR BETTER WORK! Lol

Hello everyone! Name's Ashlee (You can call me Sky), and I've just gotten into taking my drawings more seriously. I've dabbled on and off in practicing life drawings and what not, but starting just a few months ago, I really got into it, thanks to my mentor giving me that push.

I'm 18 years old, and fear that my level of skill isn't nearly up to par for people of my age. I will not let this hold me back, however. As late as I am, I can still do what I can to improve.

I have to admit, I am a little intimidated to be here. There are just so many amazing artists! But they do say that interacting with more advanced artists is more beneficial to a beginner than just staying 'round people near my level.

Feel free to critique me as harshly as you need to, without personally insulting me of course. Whatever it takes to jam improvement into my brain, do it. I'd also appreciate links to helpful sites and pages, and just general advice from you better artists out there. Here's the first three of my drawings I'm going to post:



Drawn from stock image





The names are of the DeviantART users that I referenced from.





Now these were actually done while I was out about town with my mom. No references here other than the people I saw, and the tree stump I had in front of me. LOL





I do intend to update this with much more. I just hope I don't forget. LOL. Any and all comments are welcome, but critique is most appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[a la bapsi]

Welcome to CA. :]
The best thing about being a beginner, is that everyone can teach you something new.
You pictures don't show up on my browser, but I'll check back for your latest.

[SkyTheArtist]

Welcome to CA. :]
The best thing about being a beginner, is that everyone can teach you something new.
You pictures don't show up on my browser, but I'll check back for your latest.

Aww, it sucks the browser isn't showing it, but that's okay. Thank you for the welcome. And it's true, so being a beginner here is beneficial to my learning. ^^

[AShelton]

Welcome to CA! I'm a beginner here, too, and though I can draw (after a fashion, there's a colored example of my skill in my sb), I'm starting at the beginning. Muddling through a lot, but that's okay.

Practice a lot and take your time. Good luck with your work; what you've got here looks good.

[SkyTheArtist]

Welcome to CA! I'm a beginner here, too, and though I can draw (after a fashion, there's a colored example of my skill in my sb), I'm starting at the beginning. Muddling through a lot, but that's okay.

Practice a lot and take your time. Good luck with your work; what you've got here looks good.

Glad you enjoy these so far. ^^ I stopped by your sketch book and left ya a little something. LOL. Thank you!

[Nibras]

Hey
welcome to ca
Great lil sketchbook so far and you going about it all in the right way
Start doing studies and life drawings but also don't forget to enjoy yourself
Well have fun and keep it up

[SkyTheArtist]

It's really appreciated. I should be updating again today everyone (Slow worker, also picky. ) So stay tuned!

[SkyTheArtist]

Yep, I did me some hand drawings today. (Well, started laaate last night). Trying to get a better understanding of one of the trickiest parts of the body to draw. Lol. Took at least two hours for the skeletal hand ALONE. I did goof off a little with my buddy, who happens to be staying the night, but I'm sure I at least spent two hours on the hand.

Not a big fan of the other two, but thats what the practice is for.

[dusty imp]

you're on the right track with the studies, keep it going.
you can also try setting up some simple still life with everyday objects - a ball, some bottles, a box or two; and drawing them from various angles. it's a very effective way to nail down the basics and keep track of your progress.

[eminkey2003]

Thanks for stopping by my thread. Keep practicing! That skeleton hand looks solid!

Whenever you're drawing from life or reference, just remember to draw what you see, not what you think you see. Don't spend too much time looking at the paper.

About the bald guy posing in shorts: remember to draw wrists, not just hands attached to arms.

[DAVEZILLA]

Thanks for the comments! I actually turned 16 like 2 months ago, but I hadn't updated my thread.

You have a great sketchbook so far. Just keep drawing anything and everything. Do a little bit of everything and you'll be a great artist. Don't just do one thing. If you do some studies, throw in something fun too, okay?

[KingCobra00]

This sketchbook looks good so far. I'd suggest some more still lifes. They really help to nail basic techniques and texture/shading.

[SkyTheArtist]

I just so happen to be in possession of Charcoal Pencils, A gift from my loving and amazing art teacher, Ms. Durkin. Along with this I have some sort of special paper (Forgot the name; Sorta off greyish with a weird texture..One of you may figure it out) and decided to see how I could do with them.

I'm not amazingly pleased, but I'm also not disappointed. How'd I do? You be the judge.

I'm not too amazingly pleased with the side-view...Lashes are hard. D:

(Sorry for IMG tags but...The attachment manager is not working. )

[DoodleMassa14]

The eyes are great, I think~ I really like the detail in the pupils! Maybe some more eyelashes in the bottom though. Keep up the good work Sky!

[SkyTheArtist]

Thank you Massa, and everyone else who commented. It means a lot to me.

[ROCKON]

LOVE the eye piece!
Keep pushing yourself, you are improving!

[KonnA]

Yeah, nice to see another younger artist... What you going to do with your art skills?

[SkyTheArtist]

Yeah, nice to see another younger artist... What you going to do with your art skills?

I intend to enter the animation field. Maybe not animating, but perhaps storyboarding, or character design...I'm not entirely sure yet. Thanks for stopping by!

[Leramettev]

Remember for eyes, the upper eye lid is much thinker than the bottom one because it does most of the blinking action.

Don't forget the tear duct!
Keep it up.

[SkyTheArtist]

Update time! This time we're taking a slightly different course, moving to tablet work. I'm currently borrowing my art teacher's (Bless her heart ) Wacom 9x12 tablet. I'm practicing it in Photoshop 7.0. First is a cartoon doodle of my character, Ashiri. This is why I need practice on anatomy. Lol



Now comes a problem....I attempted a Self Portrait with Tablet in Photoshop. I'm definitely not happy with the result, but it has opened my eyes to the fact that I need to learn digital coloring, and coloring in general. I'm almost embarrassed to put it up, but it's how I'm gonna learn. Any tips, links, or anything to help improve my coloring is greatly appreciated!

[iheartmyself]

tip for colour
NO BLACK XD

cereal though, black flattens everything, unless of course its a B+W photo and the values are very high
try some browns/reds instead, you should see a big difference

i try not to draw "lines", use negative space to make this image appear by painting around it. like with the eyes, paint in the mouth/chin with the pinky skin, then the colour of the lips you should see what i mean
you have done it on the lips, but try it on the eyes and nose and everything else haha

[SkyTheArtist]

Iheartmyself - Lmao. XD I love the gigantic reminder. Every time I see it, I'm going to think it. I suppose having black lines is a habit of mine, seeing as I'm used to cartoony styles. But you're right, it does make it look flat.

Thank you very much for the feedback!

[iheartmyself]

Iheartmyself - Lmao. XD I love the gigantic reminder. Every time I see it, I'm going to think it. I suppose having black lines is a habit of mine, seeing as I'm used to cartoony styles. But you're right, it does make it look flat.

Thank you very much for the feedback!

haha salright, you should sig it
...but then it could turn into a racial slurr, no dont sig it haha

i was the same, then i had a box of paints with no black...so i just made do, then i was like..oh....

[iambanana]

Yo! First of all, welcome to CA. I'm 18 too by the way, and have you even seen the average drawing skills of people our age? Take a look in your class mate's math book, and you'll see what I mean. You're probably leaps ahead.
You're alot better than I was when I joined CA.

Besides, it's never too late to begin drawing. Beginners all ages come in here, from 13 all the way to 30. So don't worry about that.

As for your digital, you should try to be a little more loose. What you've already made on your tablet seems abit stiff. Utilize your pen's pressure sensibility. Go wild. Have fun.

A nice method for colouring digitally which I use quite alot is to first make a black and white layer of what you want to colour, and then making a new layer above it, set to either multiply or color, and then colour on that layer. That way you only have to worry about colours. The lines you've made will stay.

Welcome to the forums! Stop by my sketchbook anytime.

[SkyTheArtist]

Thank you both very much for the feedback. I will keep an eye on using blacks for the digital painting, and I'm a little confused on how to activate the pressure sensitivity on Photoshop...

Now I'd like to ask those of you who are reading this: What would you like to see from me? What do you want to judge me on? I'd like to know specifically please. ^^

[iambanana]

Yeah so now you know how quickly you improve with the help and encouragement of the others on these forums.

Personally I'd like to see more faces and more digital from you.

[Izra]

Hey hey, nice gallery so far, your improvement is actually starting to show.

A few notes, you might want to draw faces a lot more, to both, study them and get used to the features, that way you won't have problems, try this at least once a day, either that or draw your hand constantly, don't worry much about rendering, just try to get the lines right D:

But you have great studies going on there so far, don't give up, remember, age doesn't matter, just how much you keep pushing.

[Medarel]

This is just a personal preference, but I think your drawings would look better if you didn't smudge out the shadows (like you did on the drawing of hands).
Your lines look nice, but the smudging makes the drawing look unclean and hide your lines.

I would like to see some more drawings like the third one in your first post. Always interesting to see all the different personalities you find when drawing people outside, and it's good practice as well :)

[JailHouseRock]

Hi sky, and Welcome to CA!
this sure is the place to be if you want to improve.
I like your studys, those hands and eyes are looking really good.
But you asked for what we'd like to see from you, well [I'm going to have to disagree with 'iambanana'] I think you
should stick with the pencils for now and just use the digitals for colouring,
and I'd try to draw more faces aswell, and if you get frustrated with the whole face just draw parts. [like you've done with the eyes]
And like Izra said age doesn't matter [I'm 16 by the way] just your comitment.
Your off to a great start, keep at it.

good luck

matt

[SkyTheArtist]

Thank you both! It seems a lot of people want me to do some faces, so that is what I'll do! They're a bit difficult for me, but...Nothing practice can't handle. Again, thanks for the feedback!