Sketchbook of Life

[Darlene]

Some new stuff. My paintings got put on exhibit, and my drawings aren't doing too badly either. Not too shabby!

Wheee!

[ARPelayre]

Welcome to Concept Art! Firstly I just wanna give you credit for beginning to post so early on. I wish I had done the same when I had first started out in art school. So kudos on that! Since you're working on the human body right now, I suggest picking up some tutorial books and start drawing from those. Look for books by Joseph Sheppard, Hogarth, or Bridgman. I guarantee you will learn a lot from them. Just keep practicing and studying from life and you will gradually build up your skill. Work hard, and remember to have fun

[thespianmonsalvo]

Congrats on starting up a SB! Keep posting so we can see more of your work, and keep drawing every day to get better. I draw a lot of gestures from fashion magazines and people at the coffee shop, so start drawing everything you see. The more you draw, the better you'll become. That's probably the first piece of advice I can give you.

[Darlene]

ARPelayre - Thank you, thank you. You are too kind! I do have a tendency to study from books and attend a lot of life drawings... But Not a big fan of bridgman in terms of studying anatomy and proper form. He seems to be really stylistic. I did take out one of his books in the library and try to imitate and absorb what he was trying to teach though, about 6 months back or so. I love art books and do my best to absorb from them But, since you're reminding me, I think I will take out more from the library. The library in my new college is bigger so I bet there will be a plethora of books to explore.. Hmm.. Need to get a library card too, come to think on it.

hespianmonsalvo - Thanks so much for your welcome and congratulating me! As Betty Edwards says, the key to being good at drawing is "Seeing", so I know exactly where you're coming from. I try to draw as much as possible, especially from what I can see. I draw a lot of my hands, since I'm uncomfortable with hands. I have a few gestures I drew in my previous post from people in the cafeteria. Someone caught me drawing them and I told them I was trying to get better . For some reason, people think it's creepy! Ah well, I keep doing it anyway. Luckily, I'm not shy and not afraid of what people think. I think I also need to improve my memory-drawing, that is, drawing from what my mind can remember from drawings that I do from "Seeing"..

Hmm..


Okies, so now that I have replied to my new 'fans' (hehe) and helpful critiquers, I can continue posting stuff. I've been trying to draw at every opportunity over the summer, so I have three sketchbooks full of stuff... I lost one of them, sadly... Ah well, my improvement continues. And now I have Photoshop, so I can fix my piccies too, so they're not so dark!

These are all gesturey. One's of a girl with curlyish hair. That's Tara. Unfortunatement, it doesn't look like her .. The Asian one, Kim, that looks pretty much like her though, yayay. And uhm, yes. Hand and foot. Skulls. Random half-assed yoga chick, whee. Gestures. Enjoy:

[kiwigarbage]

Hey Darlene!

It's lovely to see your work. This is a great starting point : ).

I think what's going to help you with your proportions (which is your main blockade right now I think) is starting to really play around with some inner working lines, which I see you starting with on the more recent ones. Try to be a bit more sparing with your lines, be more thoughtful with how you lay them down. Look at the curve on that leg or breast, where is the shadow, where is the light, where is the weight of the body...so on. Be more frugal! And don't rush. 30 seconds can be a lot (maybe too much) of time if you focus on the most expressive and effective marks.

Post more more more!

[Darlene]

Kiwigarbage - Thanks so much for the reply! Your comments and suggestions are very insightful. It definitely gives me something to think about for my next figure drawing class! Sparing with lines and more thoughtful about how I'm laying them down. That makes a lot of sense... I will work on the shadows too. Thank you!

Okay, a bit more stuff I've been working on today. It's less messy because it's pencil and not a big fat graphite stick, but it's still messy because the paper absorbs and won't let go of the bad pencil marks.

And it's not much... But I hope to add at least -something- new everyday.

[Darlene]

Some gestures. I tried to do as suggested, to be careful about where I'm placing the lines, but it was just so hard. I put the action line in there and then I panick and don't know which lines to draw. So I just draw what I see. I don't know how to draw what the motion is doing.. I'm just drawing the structure instead of motion or action or gesture.. I definitely need tips on this. I have this sinking feeling in my gut that my artwork can improve tenfold if I can figure out how to draw gestures properly.

Anyway, here they are. Anyone who can give me tips on drawing better gestures, I would be in gratitude and in debt to you.

[Darlene]

Yay, it got in! Thanks Oregano. : ) Critiques welcomed.

[Darlene]

Okay, crap doodles for tonight... I haven't updated in too long. Blah! I really want to add something new everyday, but I'm so busy..

But, I'm starting to really understand the structure of the face. Now if only I could get the structure of the figure. Help meeee. Heeelpp meeee.

Annnd work tomorrow.

Bam.

[Darlene]

I thought I was done for the night, but apparently not. This is from a photograph of a friend. I think in the photograph she was saying, "uhm, no." as in, I wasn't allowed to take the picture. But it was too late! 15 minutes.

[Darlene]

Hey all... This is me trying new things in photoshop, with the help of tips from Mr. Delicious, in his Sketchbook. Next I'll try doing an actual muscular study or something like that. For now it's just playing around with spacing and flow and opacity before I head to make pizza. Let's pretend I'm spiderman, since, you know, I'm working at a pizza place. Even though I'm not a man.

[Jaytea]

Ah, it's always good to start a sketchbook before you're 'five star', because, well, that's the point of a sketchbook. To improve.

I like how determined you are, posting something every day would be quite a feat. I'd like to suggest a couple things, a few I have trouble with myself. Values, first off, push them to the limit, beyond your breaking point. Get a B pencil of some kind and push hard to get from the paper white to the darkest value you can get out of a B. Also, keep working on those anatomy studies! If you'll notice in this, the tip of the finger is bent, but the middle isn't, which isn't possible; stuff like that. Keep working from reference, life, everywhere possible.

This is pretty good for a first few attempts at CG. Don't be afraid to make it darker and eliminate the white showing through.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Hey. Nice start. It's good to see you join in into the activities!
You'll learn a lot from that and it's just sometimes good to have a deadline.
SO. I see in your color work you're being very light. Try and really go opaque in your block ins or put a layer underneath everything that you fill with a warm 50% grey or whatever clor scheme you're headed for, that is.

Those gestures are a good start! The proportions are actually quite good. You should however get into the nitty gritty of anatomy much more.
Get a Bridgmans complete guide to drawing from life and download the Loomis pdf.s (I should put that in my sig. ;P)
Judging from your photo refd pic you need to learn more about the bone sructure (and muscles and stuff, in general) to understand what causes those shapes you're seeing.
Keep doing much, much more studies. The gestures are really a great foundation to build up the rest of the anatomy on.

[Jasper_]

Hey good start so far. Keep working on those gestures, it's good you understand how important they are. Digitallydumbfounded made some real good points here. Loomis and Bridgman are great teachers, and Vilppu as well, he's a master with gesture work. Colors could use some more contrast, maybe work on some grayscale paintings first, trying to push values, before starting directly in color.

Thanks for the comment in my SB. Most of my anatomy studies are from Bridgman and Joseph Sheppard. SO yeah just grab yourself an anatomy book and study like crazy. Keep it up and you'll get there eventually.

[Darlene]

Shalite - Very true! That's the conclusion I came to. A need to improve far outweighs the need to show off. I think I'm far too lazy. But I am determined, so I'm hoping that my determination will overshadow my laziness. Thank you for your thoughts on value-- I picked up a 5B today and see exactly what you mean. Maybe I should switch between pencils too. Thanks again.

DigitallyDumbfounded - Funny you say that-- I definitely noticed that the picture was far too light. At least when I came back to look at it after work. Maybe my monitor was turned in an odd way, but I think my lack of toning the page contributed in a big way. I agree with you big time, I also feel I need to get into the nitty gritty of anatomy. I've been planning to head to my college's library and see what they have there, and have also been finding reference pictures on the internet. I took out Bridgman's complete guide to life drawing in my old college's library about 7 months ago. Though his works are accurate and show rare fluidity, they're also extremely stylistic and I'm hesitant to take out the book again before I know the basics. I really want to know the rules before I break them, if that makes any sense. I'm more than willing to take out his book again if I know that I'm not going to be leaning heavily on his style of doing things and more on the form and structure. But you're right, you're right! I will take out books on anatomy for draw-ers. XD And look for more internet references. I'll look at Loomis too, I only had a brief look at him before. I suppose anyone who can draw better than me is a good start to study from, so I can stop being stubborn about Bridgman. I'm sure I'll see vast improvement by at least doing many studies on his works.

Pyroclasm00 - See above about Bridgman, Loomis.. I've never heard of Vilppu. I like the name, sounds Science fictiony. I will definitely look into him/her. Been doing a lot of google searches for good anatomy books. As for working on grayscale first, I see what you mean. Starting from the ground up is probably the best idea. I'll do studies.. Studying is good. Must study!

Wow, lots of helpful comments. Thank you everyone for your help. I really and truly appreciate it.

I kinda started this without reading my comments, otherwise I would have started grayscale, as Pyroclasm00 said. This is a work in progress in any case, though.. I'll come back to it, maybe after I've tried doing some grayscale stuff first so I can understand value a bit more. I did tone the background though.

Yay for boxers.

[Shard]

hey Darlene good to see you committed to make a SB..nice start on that boxer..you'll see how fast you learn by doing those copies! keep at it!

[Darlene]

Shardana - Thanks a lot! Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm going to definitely keep up with the studies.. I seem to be a bit scatterbrained though

Well, this time I've got a bit of a dump with gestures and, because of popular demand, Bridgman studies. Now, I think maybe I didn't give the guy a good enough chance the first time. Afterall, George is Canadian.

I'm not too proud of these, because when I was doing them, I was lying on my stomach on my bed, just kind of scrawling them out.. But it still counts as practice. It's just not as good as it could be. I can do ten times better than this, I know I can! :3 The face of the girl is another attempt at Jilly, my friend from above. But I squashed her skull. So I will have to try again and measure proportions more properly.

I'm going to set aside time to draw everyday, if I'm able. At least three hours. I'm going to get good.

Anyone got a link on how to clean up scanned/digitally camera'd images?

As always, critiques welcomed.

[Lad]

Good work on that boxer D! I like the way you are going into your problems and suggestions head first and with little hesitation. Hopefully I can do the same :/

What I noticed on your work is that you seem to chicken scratch quite a bit. Don't worry I do this alot too. I just hid it better...or I think I do. What does help though, is having in your brain or just repeating "long lines" as you draw. I notice that when I do that it really does help my concentration and I get less of this chicken scratch.

Keep up the good work and SSG70 wooo!

[Psychotime]

If you have photoshop, after you scan the pic use Image->Adjustments->Auto Levels. That should clean it up.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

About the scanning. I have the same problem and I usually use levels and brightness/ contrast to darken the image and then I use the adjustments-> replace color function to brighten the bacckground again. Works well enough.
Play around with that and keep up the studies!!

[kidult]

Nice work but next time - double the amount! More work = more skill. They say you need to walk a mile on paer to get good - thats about 4000 pages of normal a4 size, so get cracking!

For the digital painting check this out:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107217

bumskee is king! and paint an apple

[Darlene]

Lad - Okay, in this next sequence I'm trying to take your suggestions into consideration. But I'm dubious about the effectiveness of it. I was trying to capture movement, now it just seems like linework. Am I missing something here? These gestures I'm showing now are probably my worst ones ever. But a smooth line makes sense.. So.. Where's the correllation? It must be more than just smooth lines. I did a lot of gestures this time though, so we shall see.

Psychotime and DigitallyDumbfounded - Thanks guys. Seems auto levels is easier, I'm not sure how dark to make it the other way, and how to make it all change? Hmm.

kidult - Only 4000 pages of normal paper? That's easy! .. I must have done 500 pages at least by now, right? So.. err.. okay, maybe not so easy. Yessir, I will get crackin'! Thanks for the link on bumskee's tutorial.. I was looking at it the other day too, so this gives me even more incentive.. Unfortunately, I don't have any apples :| Perhaps I will purchase one for this exercise. I do like apples.. I'm just unhealthy right now, haha.

Okay, without further adieu...hehe. I have some gestures from pose maniacs (30 seconds each. For some reason it just doesn't feel the same as life drawing sessions... I feel like my work is empty and lacking depth.. I swear it looks better when I've got life drawing gestures!), a bit of bridgman studies and a profile of my roommate. It actually does look like my roommate. I just need to work on hair. Maybe I should be pushing values a bit too. What do you think?

[kidult]

Nice stuff! For the gesture - the idea is to capture the pose with just a few lines. Your kinda out - lining the poses (do the same myself unless I concentrate) when really you are just looking for a simple line to represent the form. The 30sec pose on posemaniacs is a bit fast when your starting, cos you end up racing to finish. Try a slower pace 1st to get use it and then go fo the speedy ones. When doing a gesture perhaps try think 1st of the major weight line of the pose and put that in, then look for other prominent edges / profiles to add. I agree with you on the gestures from life being better but that is always the case. from life is better I think.
So try get better at the gestures before you try the speedy ones, the fastest I can do is 45secs. Always the idea behind the gestures is to practice quickly laying down a good pose / feel for the figure (they reckon you usuall spend 3-5 hours fixing the gesture you made in the 1st 5)
Keep up the good work!
The profile of your roomy is looking good and yes work those values (again sketching from life helps with this / also try b/w photo studies.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Agree with Kidult.

And I think you actually are clueless how to construct a gesture/mannequin, how to aproach the gesture?
Looks like it.
I'm trying out something new everytime.
Sometimes placing a middle line, then a ribcage place holder, or just straight lines, or, or, or... Many ways.
Also agree you go with 60 sec first. 90 is a bit too long, imo, because you start getting to exact.

The point is to put in the right "lenghts". Probably try stickmen really. Or simple ovals and stuff.
Don't think about the volume of that thigh or that muscle and try to sketch down a placeholder!! Don't think about the silhouette too much.
You'll get confused.

I love 30 seconds a lot actually, exactly for that purpose. Getting loose, figure out the tension in a form, the expression of the body Not bothering yet with the actual single shape and all that.

So, er, yeah. That portrait is GREAT! Didn't see that coming! Whatever you did there, do it again. Often.

[Darlene]

Kidult - Yeah, I agree... I'm doing everything I can to push my skills It's a long process, but in the end it will mean the most. I'll do some b/w studies soon.

DigitallyDumbfounded - It's true, I have no idea about gestures. I find people's advice too vague for me to be able to follow.. The "placeholder" may be a bit more helpful for future reference, but in the end I always end up making the form rather than the motion.. I think today's gestures are much better, however.


All right, so I'm sick and sniffly.. Blah.. And I'm also a bit frustrated, because this entire sketchbook is not even a quarter of the quality of works I'm pushing out. You're just seeing the "Warm ups" that I'm allowed to bring home. This is all crap work.. Except the profile of my roommate.. That comes close to what I'm able to do... But I have at least 15 drawings kept at school to choose from for my portfolio in the "portfolio assessment" at the end of this semester. Those drawings are my best works. Next week on Wednesday I'm going to have to remember to bring a digital camera to take pictures of them all so that you can all see that I'm not so terrible as I seem.. I am still pretty terrible anyway, but not as terrible as this sketchbook looks. This work is all summer stuff, not my real talent.. Anyway.. *Sniffle*

Today, we were to draw a portion of the female model we had, just choose a part. And I asked him if I had too much of the figure on my paper and he told me that I was at a stage or level where I could draw the whole figure if I wanted.. He just wanted the other people in the class to show that they could show proportion and value... That made me feel special. He basically said that I'm excelling And one of the other students said that my work just keeps getting better and better every week and looking amaazzinngg. So there! But those works aren't shown here, as the teacher kept them. He likes to keep all my good stuff, it's not fair! hehe

Okay, here's some gestures from class:

[bombchu]

Yah... I tried out pose maniacs today but they are a little stiff, and it's hard to get a good sense of depth, especially when you're starting out.

Your gestures are amazing... Watch your head-size though The figure before last especially, the head is too big. Idealized standard: the head is 1/8 of the body, rather, the body is made up of 8 head lengths... Of course it varies in real life... Uh... the books/pdf suggested will help you out with that lol but man, charcoal is definitely your medium

[kidult]

Nice gestures! If you dont have good stuff to show us you aint drawing / painting at home enough! more more MORE!!!
But hey great to hear your teach thinks you rock! keep it up and looking forward to the good stuff!

[Lad]

WOAH! Nice stuff you got here D.

On the first set of gestures I think that you went a little too overboard with the long line When I think of long lines I try to make confident strokes that I wouldn't have to redraw or draw over at the same time trying to get the motion and the figure with out chicken scratching.

I think you accomplish this a lot better with charcoal! Like the first one where she is posing as a Charlie's Angles girl. Your lines are long, confident, and show the figure!

Totally digging the last few when you actually had some real time to do some value work on your pieces. It seems when you have the time you really put some good work down making the shadings come out just right.

Lets see some male studies!

[Darlene]

First, thank you all for your words of encouragement. You all sure know how to walk the line of spurring me on and helping me to improve I felt pretty sick and unhappy with my work yesterday, so this is awesome.

bombchu - Thanks! Yeah, I'm noticing that I'm kind of not getting the 7 1/2 - 8 heads thing... The teacher pointed that out during class as well, though he still seemed impressed with the figure I had drawn (I can't wait to show you guys).. I will keep a closer eye on measurements from now on.. Hopefully I won't forget, hehe. It was actually conte, not charcoal. It's brown, but the auto levels makes it black. Meh, still shows up nicer than before, so I'm happy :3

kidult - Yeah! You're right! I don't know what it is about my quality of works at school and my quality of works at home. I spend a few hours at home everyday putting out gestures and studies, but I guess I'm not really taking the time to really focus as I do at school. Weird, huh? I will keep it up! Thanks so much.

Lad - Hehe, Charlie's angels... When she went into that pose I said, "BANG!" and everybody laughed. It was good times. And again, it was conte, not charcoal. It's funny 'cause I don't feel very effective with conte, it feels awkward and doesn't feel like it's doing what I want it to. Other times I really revel in it and love to use it. But, I enjoyed that pose. It was apart of 30 second gestures. The ones with tones were 5 minutes I believe. :o So, not much time.. I think having a real model makes the best difference, though. Like, I drew my roomie, she's kind of a real model. The studies and the gestures from pose maniacs don't look very good because it's not particularly real and with any depth, knawmean? ... Male studies huh? Well, don't mind if I dooo. My pleasure

I really had to push myself to do studies tonight.. Male studies. And from Bridgman. Webcomics keep me reading. OH, and I posted a link to a PDF of his book somewhere... Ah, I still have it on my clipboard. Here guys:

http://www.4shared.com/file/34705572...From_Life.html

Everything is done in pencil. The male study I have done today is actually the same one I was trying to colour above. And here are my studies for today (I'm being really good about updating everyday so far, I think it's because of my wonderful sketchbook support team!! FOR THE WIN):

[l0stinth0ughts]

HEy darlene, nice work. its good that you are starting to study the anatomy, which is that toughest subject, and i see some minor faults. dont rush yourself on the proportions. i find that the more patient you are the more decent the artwork comes out to be. just pace yourself and love to see more. keep up the studies