Sometimes I need a break from Graphic Design

[sjmarshy]

Hey, I'm new here, popped over from ifx and I've been lurking for a couple of days now. I'm 18, live in the UK and am currently studying Graphic Design at Nottingham Trent Uni. I really want to improve my drawing skills, and am hoping that the critique I get here will help to motivate me, as well as improve my work. Here goes!
oh, and by the way I'm aware that I spelt redemption wrong, I felt like an idiot when I noticed while I was painting.

EDIT 04/05/12: New sketchbook image

[sjmarshy]

Just a few more as I scan them. Crits encouraged! The third one, I got the arm completely wrong, the smaller sketch was attempting to work out what was wrong, I think it was better. here we go then

[sinneart]

Hi! Nice studies so far - just keep at it! A lot of your proportions seem a bit off, but with practice your observational skills will develop. A lot of people swear by loomis and bridgeman - might pay off to invest in some anatomy books! Looking forward to seeing more

[sjmarshy]

I have an anatomy book, some sketches coming from there when I find them, I probably will invest in some other anatomy books. well, for now, practice practice practice.

[sjmarshy]

another couple, making myself sketch more, fallen way out of practice with pencil these last few years, bad of me I know.
Been using pen a lot more, like this biro study was far quicker and I prefer it, even with mistakes, never bothers me with pen. I'm much more confident in my pen marks as well...ah well, lots of practice to go, and I will make myself do it.

[sjmarshy]

Added some nice colour to that last muscle study in biro...used photoshop for the colour.

[sjmarshy]

just some skull studies, been away for the past few days due to an internet connection problem, hopefully more on the way!

[sjmarshy]

a few drawings from today and yesterday done while on the Bus, or waiting for the bus, or in graphics in a lecture about InDesign.

[sjmarshy]

A few more, the painting is from imagination, sketches from either life or anatomy book.

[retardedmonkey]

Hey man nice studies so far. Good to see I'm not the only person who draws throughout every class!

[InFlame]

hey sjmarshy,

thanks for stopping by my sb and leaving a comment.

I think you have some nice things here but you have to keep an eye on proportions! it's good that you do studies from books, it's one way to learn about anatomy. but imo your free works from life observation (random sketches.jpg) are much better. your lines in those drawings are more controlled. keep it up, I think if you do more from life, you will improve very fast!

cheers,
rebecca

[sjmarshy]

It's ME!
uploading the reference too so you can see how good i was.
crits loved and adored!

InFlame: Cheers! I will be doing much more drawing for life, and I shall try to update it on here to show any improvements, or I won't see it as well as anyone else.

[Mr.Sunshine]

Excellent work and diligence. It's good you learning anatomy keep that up. In you self portrait your chin looks a litle odd and your head seems a little wide. Right now I need to work on proportion myself...

What is helping me learn how to understand contours better is blind contour drawing. You look at an image and draw it's "Lines" without looking at the paper. Good Luck!

[sjmarshy]

cheers, I'm really trying to do this drawing as much as I can alongside Uni.

[nocdav]

hey sjmarshy.. i really like ur skull studies.. all of them are like real.. but paintings are not perfect.. u should give some details to them i think.. and ur ref pic colouring is good.. please keep up drawing and posting...

[sjmarshy]

nocdav: Cheers, I use different styles when in different moods I think sometimes...I agree with adding more detail to my digital pieces though!

few updates,
first image is random doodles formulated while watching the GreenWing Special *small tear*
second is a quickish study from reference
third is 30 sec gesture studies taken from posemaniacs.com
fourth is just some random doodling characters....
enjoy haha.

[sjmarshy]

tada! haha
I tried to put a little more detail into this one.
Might not be finished on this either, would like some crits on it though.
self portrait

[Untouched24]

Hey man. Just wanted to see if I could give you any useful advice. Keep practicing from life/reference, but when you do it, pay very close attention to proportion, and everything's relative distance from everything else. What I mean is, when drawing, say a face, pay close attention how far down the bottom of the nose is from the bottom of the eyes, how far out the mouth goes in comparison to the eyes. Do the corners of the mouth extend to the pupil? Or is it a smaller mouth that only extends as far as the corners of the eyes.

Sorry if I'm not being very clear. I've just noticed a lot of your drawing have proportion issues, so just pay close attention to how far or close every detail is from the next detail. Look at the negative space, if something seems off, do a visual measurement and see why that is.

Anyway, I hope that at least made some sense. I should probably go draw myself now. Keep it up!

[sjmarshy]

So I'm back, after four years or so, right?

I never stopped drawing, though I haven't done as much as I would have liked. I'm hoping I'll start drawing more this coming summer, as university is nearly over. As I just re-discovered the joy of looking through others sketchbooks and seeing them improve, I'm going to try posting here again, and I mean really try.

Some nudes, first, I think I've at least improved my anatomy a bit.

[sjmarshy]

nude:

[sjmarshy]

quick gif showing what I'm doing at uni at the moment, this is more of a proof of concept than a finished piece, hence it coming into the sketchbook thread. I'm building a 3D alphabet based on a walk through manchester, I have a long way to go even with this one letter, it needs texturing.

[sjmarshy]

Another gif of the D, this time textured and properly lit, most likely my final for this letter at least. Now a full alphabet to go!

[sjmarshy]

sketch from Hel Looks

[Kaihartj]

Hey there! you're going on a good way so far, keep practicing anatomy and proportion, you have some issues, but it's all fixable with more and more work! keep going! you're doing good!

[sjmarshy]

some 30 second and 120 second figure drawings while my work was rendering

[sjmarshy]

120 and 240 seconds respectively:

[sjmarshy]

decided to draw 100 heads to try and improve, onto 21.

[sjmarshy]

here's more of my 3D stuff I'm working on, playing with depth of field and just starting to play with texturing too.

[sjmarshy]

hopefully now that uni is over and I don't have a job yet, I'll have some more time to draw and post. more heads, plus a bonus sketchbook page full of design work, which I'll be throwing in here and there.

[forestdino]

Keep the studies up, one can all ready see your improvement.