Izra's sketchbook (hopefully updated daily) newbie in training.

[Izra]

Hello folks and good day, my name is Israel but do call me Izra please (old nickname of mine,) I'm a self-taught artist who's.. well currently messed up mentally, I started drawing at about age 11, stopped and came back to it at age 16 and started seriously studying art at age 18, mind you, I haven't done much of an improvement, at least not as much as I'd like.

Like many people, I started drawing anime, however, lately this style is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth and I would like to take my art to a higher level, which is why I decided to join CA, though I must admit, you guys made my decision difficult, mainly because I felt intimidated, but I blame that on my mental state.

Anyways, introductions aside, let's move on to the good stuff.



Character of mine, quick sketch though, trying to move away from anime/manga style by making him look more real, also, attached a small sample of what I drew like when I was 16, I believe that I've moved to the right direction, who knows.



Self portrait.



Tomoko's hand, copied from a picture of an irradiated japanese girl, can't find the original though =/



Grabbed a bunch of DA pictures and copied them for studying purposes.



Sample of my anime/manga style, couple of girls with monsters.



First assignment from Seedling's http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81332 (yeah I've been lurking for some time.) Think that I'll grab my self portrait and just modify it for assignment 2, what you guys think?


Annnnnd I believe that's everything worth noting; like I said earlier, I'm here to improve so criticize me in a helpful way please, pointers and the like would be nice too, I'd like to know what kind of activities you guys hold here to help me keep me motivated/poke at my creativity as well.

So yeah, first post ever in here, be nice to me D:

[erik-jan v/d schuur]

hey!

your work looks good and i see improvement in your drawings
you can see it very good in the faces how it was when you where 16
and 22.

what i do here is finding different drawing stylez and try them
same for coloring like some guys here on the forum are very good
in water colors so i do try that now to see how it looks
just experiment a lot and have fun you will get better and better
just keep drawing and experiment

or try to draw from live and from your mind what i do is both on the same
paper and mix it.

always keep up with things and try them
well just want to share my thoughts on how i work to improve.

[Izra]

Thanks for your reply `ej!

Indeed, I don't want to just lock myself up in one style, which is why I'm trying to expand my 'frontiers' lol.

About physical media.. I'm really short on cash at the moment and spending money constantly on either materials or tools gets costly for me, so what I'm trying to do is either copy things I see around in my room or take a picture or something and draw it on the computer, although, I'm not so broke that I can't sketch things with a notebook and a crappy pencil, so I'll try that.

Just adding that for people interested in knowing how I think, not a shameless bump! (gah now i sound self centered >< )

[Gail_Blitzy]

I like your pen drawings and the nice chuncky shading you have used - keep at it!

[Gadbury]

You could try those throw away Bic pens too, they're pretty cool to sketch with. Cool work though so far, I love the faces. Good luck dude!

[Izra]

Hey guys! thanks for the comments.

Mr Gadbury: I actually used to sketch with those a lot and just simply love them, they're really similar to a pencil in some ways, but allow you to achieve an amazing chiaroscuro when used right, think I might try them again!

Anyways, I bring you more goodies :D



Yet more portraits for study purposes, had a bit of trouble with the one on the right.



Decided to do a small sci-fi piece inspired by Space Marines designs from Starcraft and Warhammer 40k, this is the thumbnail I decided for and face of the model (quick sketch mind you.)



And voila! final sketch, thinking about taking it to Photoshop for a good session of painting, but I wanted to bring it in here first to revise anything that might be wrong with it, so if you guys could give me a hand with that, it'd be great!

Also, I think I'll go lurk the SB's of those who commented here, cheers!

[Izra]

More stuff:



Sketch for the DSG "Undead version of classic fairy tale character"



How it turned out, should I change anything/colour? any input would be nice.



Just a small pic I did in a paintchat, a friend said it was anime styled, which made me a bit upset because it wasn't what I was aiming for at all, you guys think I messed up? or is my friend wrong?

Anyways, that's all for tonight, I'll try to upload more stuff tomorrow, maybe I'll finally work on the Space Medic chick.

[_Ruuzi]

Nice SB! I also started my SB while feeling intimidated by all of the great artists here. But I feel like hanging around so many awesome artists, something will eventually rub off on me .

I really like your anime styled drawings they look nice and clean, and then your portraits with the pen are very clean and the shine on the hair is really nicely handled...you draw hair much better than I do, lol.

I think you are moving away from the Anime style (like you said you wanted to) and it seems like you are sort of in-between Anime styling and Realistic. Keep drawing from life or using pictures and eventually it will come.

[humanNature6115]

Good clean stuff you have here.
I used to do Anime along time,
may still get into it.

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

[Izra]

Thanks for the comment!

Hah yeah, I was initially not going to join out of fear of just getting dissed, but people in here are actually nice and encourage you to be better and better.

Annnd.. it seems like people think that my portraits are done by pen lol, which, are actually not done by pen, I use Open Canvas 4 and paint the portraits with the pencil tool at size 1 and nothing else (sometimes size 1.5 for heavy shading like edges) but amazingly enough, it does mimic pens really well.

And indeed, I do hope I'm moving away from anime style, I mean.. I don't really hate it at all, but it's starting to get boring really fast, I believe the best way to use this style is for a comic format since it looks good and is fast to do and tomorrow I'll see about getting a scanner at night to work on real life sketches.

And for those curious, here are some clean linearts using anime style (old stuff)




Friend's character.



Another friend's character.



I like this one, wanted to do a clock based armor and voila there it is.

Thanks again for the input guys, I'll upload more stuff tomorrow!

[Izra]

Updates.



More faces studies, babies are my bane.



Anatomies studies done on paper, heh my scanner blows.



Started working on values for the space marine/medic chick, was reading Loomis' books and took some of his advices, hope it's not too dark or anything, crits would be welcome, hopefully I pull it off, not too familiar with this whole values thing, specially with no references.

[SkyTheArtist]

Hey there! You have some pretty awesome drawings!

Now don't be ashamed of doing Anime! I'm not really into it myself, but it's sad to see that people link anime art with crappy art. Anime can be just as beautiful of a style as anything else if people work to improve their artwork with life drawings, anatomy study, coloring, landscapes...Anything they can! So if Anime is something you do want to do, then don't be ashamed to do it. If it's not, then...Disregard this part. Lol

I do like how you're doing studies, though. It'll so help in the long run. Keep on drawing! ^^

[Izra]

Hey Sky, thanks for the comment.

I'm not really ashamed of anime, I actually still use it whenever I want to do a comic story or something similar to that, or when someone asks me to use it for a requested artwork, the thing is that I'm finding it to be somewhat boring.

Again, thank you for your comment and input!

[_Ruuzi]

Nice Anatomy studies there with the torso. You are very skilled.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Dude thanx for commenting on my sketchbook!
Your's is coming along great nice improvement.
great anatomy skills there.

[lennon]

The studies that you show are great, but keep in mind that they are ULTRA exagerated. If I were you I would concentrate in beign more confortable with the positions of your caracters (the gesture).
Great stuff!

[Izra]

Hey everyone! thanks for commenting, MUCH appreciated :D

lennon: Indeed! I know they're *VERY* exaggerated, but this is just what I was looking for, it helps me memorize important muscles and I can just use my imagination to make them bigger or smaller.
-----
Moving on! sadly I couldn't do much today, so i bring you my entry for the DSG, first time I try to do an 'environment' thingy ever, hope y'all like it :D

[JailHouseRock]

Hi Izra, and wecome to CA.
you've got some cool stuff going here man.
It's great to see your anatomy studies, try to keep those up, they will help big time.
keep at it man you've got some great skill!

....and I love little zombie red riading hood!

matt

[erik-jan v/d schuur]

ohh i like your detail and linework on your old anime
you should try to color some of those would look good
great faces also.

[Vimerge]

Hey there nice work
I really like your face and torso sketches, your paintings seem quite blurry to me, try using some sharper brushes,
keep it up!

[res01ve]

I like the torsos. A fine job. Where did you reference them from?
Watch for a consistent vanishing point on the environment. Lay down a solid perspective grid first, makes for easier and faster sketching.
Nice work, keep it coming :.