MM Howard's Sketchbook - May Cause Temporary Blindness (Update: March 08,2010)

[MM Howard]

Okay....

*deep breath*

I was too scared to post on here for a long while. I signed up, I think, three months ago, with tons of sketches to post, (edit) but I was afraid of the type of critique I was going to get. I sucked it up and I'm ready to improve.

Just a little bit about me:

I'm 23 (old enough to drink, yay), want to go to school for art after getting my associates in Broadcasting for a BSA in either Animaton or Game Art Design, and hopefully will be the first out of a family of artists not to give up on it because of other things in life. Mostly self-taught, but took 6 art classes (had to stop due to family problems). That being said...enjoy, comment, and rip my art to shreds so I can get better!

(Note: Wasn't going for a likeness of Jessica Alba or copying every detail of the movie poster on first drawing, but it was fun to do!)

[Kaffinated]

Welcome to Ca and thank you for posting some excellent images. Never give up on that dream, man. I wanna see more art please. Damn good work you got going on.

[DreamstateIvory]

Welcome!

Your work wasn't good enough to be critiqued? >_< Your pencil shading is awesome. Lovely work. Would like to see more.

Keep it up.

[Elz]

Amazing work! I'd love to see more, keep up the great work.

[Silvenon]

Holy shit! You got some mad skills man! This is one of the best skecthbooks I've seen so far, it's really impresssing. Keep it up for god sakes!! Don't ever stop!

[lucretia]

Whoa..Amy Winehouse never looked so attractive :o

The set of faces looks really awesome too. Keep it up!

[MM Howard]

Kaffinate: Thank you! Been holding on to that dream for such a longtime I can't let go of it.
DreamstateIvory: Like I said, just terrified to post. I take it back, that didn't make any sense. LOL. Will post more.
Elz: Thank you. I really appreciate that.
SilvenonToo kind dude! I wouldn't say it was one of the best...but its awesome to see that. Thank you!
lucretia:I keep hearing the same thing. Thank you!

Here's some more sketches, a digital painting of an apple, and some digital sketches. Not completely great, but I'm getting there. My trial for CS3 ran out, so if I post anymore digital work, it'll probably be from GIMP.

Enjoy!

[MM Howard]

I decided that I'm going to try for Ringling and see what happens. Already working on a traditional portfolio (what I'm more comfortable with anyway).

Here is a character portrait from someone on DeviantArt. Her name is Chasity.

[Caffeine_stream]

some great pictures man but one thing you got all wrong!! amy whinehouse doesn't look like that, she looks like a dirty crack hoe. x P
other than that really good work.

[MM Howard]

some great pictures man but one thing you got all wrong!! amy whinehouse doesn't look like that, she looks like a dirty crack hoe. x P
other than that really good work.

LOL!

I guess I got a thing for them.

[James.C]

Hey MM, I saw you on the Ringling thread and I thought I would check out your sketchbook. Dude, great stuff, my favorite part of your drawing has got to be your strong outlines, you got a great style going on here and it really seems to work.

As for preparing a portfolio for Ringling they really like to see life drawing. I may be wrong but it looks like most of your work is from photographs/ magazines, so if possible try to attend a life drawing session, class, or sketch your family/friends/ pets.

Also if you finished that perspective piece, I think it would make a great addition to your portfolio, it looks awesome.

[thrilafrommanila]

wow you work is amazing! i would love to see more!

you've got me subscribed and hooked

[MM Howard]

jimboslutstien Thanks for visiting and taking a look. Yeah, I do copy a lot from photos, whether I copy them exactly or use them as references. I think that's my biggest problem. I used to do portrait drawing using a grid and I think Amy Winehouse was one of the first pieces I did without grid and just using the photograph. Best thing is that before I submit my portfolio is that I'm taking some figure drawing classes at a museum. None of these pieces are being submitted. At the moment I'm working on a couple of still lifes and plan on visiting downtown for perspective pieces.

As for the one life perspective piece, it's actually from my sketchbook while I was hanging out at Dunkin Donuts. Maybe I should visit there again and do a full, finished piece for my portfolio. Thank you again for visiting.

thrilafrommanila Wow, thank you! Hopefully next time you check it out I'll have an actual drawing from life.

[thrilafrommanila]

haha no problem, thank you for commenting back in my sketchbook.

i really like that amy winehouse picture, looks about 200% better than the real deal

[Kfeeras]

amy is great + nice paintings. draw lots from life and just "go for it" (-feng zhu) ;-)

cheers

-antonio

[MM Howard]

amy is great + nice paintings. draw lots from life and just "go for it" (-feng zhu) ;-)

cheers

-antonio

Thank you Kfeeras. I really appreciate the advice.

Here is my updated painted of Chasity Bell.

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

A good start here man. Keep on exploring colours and your own linework and you will get even better in no time!

-E

[TASmith]

I like that first figure for the use of material (positive-negative space) of her hair, and the twist of her torso. Go back to that material and do another ten.

The apple is pretty damn good. Maybe not quite bumskee level, but I'd call it professional.

You've got a great start to your sketchbook, now post a thousand more drawings, especially portrait studies. Then you're book will be be bogged down like mine and no one will have the patience for the downloads and you can get depressed, eat a bag of chips, and browse other's sketchbooks, like I'm doin now.

Oh yeah, I found this after the complaint thread in the lounge. if you go to page 2 of mine, you can see how another newb around here wigged out when I gave her some similar advice.

[silvestri99]

Great start to your sketchbook. I'm partial to the more cartoony style and I like what you've been doing in here. I'll say this (because i should do it more myself) do more painting work over those sketches....I love to see those progressions from start to finish. Again, Nice work...keep going!

[MM Howard]

Mischeviouslittleelf:

Thank you! I'm trying to get better at colors. That apple helped me a bit.

TASmith

I remember that. I don't know which one of them is worse. Anyway, I plan to thousands of drawings to get where others and you are. Thank you so much.

silvestri99

I'm partial to the more cartoony style (as you can see in some of my sketches). I hit a snag and I'm trying to get back to it by going into realism again. And yes, I will be working on those sketches. Thanks a lot.

Here's another portrait. I completely failed with this one. Starting over with a different reference, I'm starting to realize I make my face sometimes too long and the noses too long as well. My mother calls it "the weasel look". Ah my mother. Gotta love her.

Anyway, here's a unfinished Jennifer Lopez portrait. Hopefully the next try will be better:

[thrilafrommanila]

i love how you control you pencil in these portraits!

one suggestion is the most recent piece is that her left (our right) eye is a bit droopy looking, as if she has a lazy eye. and i'm not sure, but something seems off with the nose, as if it was too long. i dont really know about the last one, might just be my eyes

keep it up! i love your portraits!

[MM Howard]

i love how you control you pencil in these portraits!

one suggestion is the most recent piece is that her left (our right) eye is a bit droopy looking, as if she has a lazy eye. and i'm not sure, but something seems off with the nose, as if it was too long. i dont really know about the last one, might just be my eyes

keep it up! i love your portraits!

I see what you're saying. And no, its not your eyes. Its the portrait. Her nose is fact long and I didn't notice the eye before. Thanks for pointing it out.

This is what happens when you stop gridding, but I'm not going back to gridding. Its more fun this way. Thank you!

[thrilafrommanila]

i hate gridding

it looks cool when done by chuck close. for some reason by anyone else it looks so contrived.

[shiNIN]

were you _scared_? (I was too lazy - and faaaaaaaaar worse than you)
your pencil drawings are beautiful I wish for more!

[chuck18mp]

Awesome portraits!!!
we want some more!

[Kagemusha22]

You have some really interesting work up here. Your portraiture and shading really has developed over the last few months.

I'm really liking that Portrait of Amy Winehouse, and the colour one of someone from DeviantArt. (Do you have a reference photo, so they can be compared?)

As for the cartoony stuff, that's some great work too. There's of course great room to improve, but I think your right track. Have you done any quick, observational sketches? As they would be worth uploading, too.

[MM Howard]

shiNin: I've seen your sketchbook. You do interesting, imaginative creatures and you try to do them. That's better than anything I can do from a picture reference. Thank you, however, for the compliment. I'm glad you enjoy the pencil drawings.

chuck18mp Thank you chuck! Hopefully, after some observational stuff, I will.

You have some really interesting work up here. Your portraiture and shading really has developed over the last few months.

I'm really liking that Portrait of Amy Winehouse, and the colour one of someone from DeviantArt. (Do you have a reference photo, so they can be compared?)

As for the cartoony stuff, that's some great work too. There's of course great room to improve, but I think your right track. Have you done any quick, observational sketches? As they would be worth uploading, too.

The sketch with the shelf is an observational drawing (one lol), I have, they've all been more landscape, buildings type of thing.

And the color one I'm working on is actually a realistic venture into a cartoon character by a Deviant artist named bitwize. This is his character sheet for the character:



Its sort of an exercise on how well I can sketch a form from scratch realistic without any references. So far, next update will probably use a bit of reference for the facial anatomy.

Thank you for the critique!

[the ANGRY filipino]

Welcome to CA!
I like what you have posted so far!
Keep posting and we'll start with the crits after a while,
but for now, I like what I have seen,
there is room for improvement, but you seem to be willing to learn, and thats a good thing!

[TASmith]

Hey, you say your noses are too long - look at the person's cheeks. See how those swellings of skin curve up under the eyes to the nose. They form two triangle shapes on either side of the nose above the nostrils, that can best be seen in some of EM Gist's portrait sketches in the fine art section (it's a 5 star thread). Look for those triangles and don't put too much space between them, the eyes, and the nostrils, and your noses won't be so long anymore.

[MM Howard]

the Angry filipino

I never told you, but I love your user name. My family is nicknamed the Angry Puerto Ricans...for all the wrong reasons.

I realize I really haven't posted anything that can be critiqued. My problem is with men (I avoid them so much, but I would like to learn to draw them) and animals. Thank you again for the critque on Chasity (in the Critique Forum) and thanks for visiting my sketchbook.

TASmith

Wow...that's really someting I didn't realize. I have more to learn than I thought.

I'll take a look at that thread and thank you for the critique.