Danny's First Sketchbook (Learning to draw)

[crowbones]

This is a really inspirational thread! The improvement from when you started posting is awesome! Those hands look great.

[teapo]

wtf man... looks like you're learning a lot more in the traditional sense haha. that's not to say your digitals aren't good-- because they are! it's just crazy-- those hand studies yo!!

keep up the great work danny

[Danny_K]

Fallenangel Thanks bro, keep going is key
Icecold stop more often you wont see so much improvement haha, seriously though Blizz man Blizz one day...who knows even if not Bliz then some other bad ass studio, and my hope is that our ways may cross some day and we get to work desk by desk, if not then heck theres always skype haha.
LtPlissken always great hearing from you bud, hope your not training yourself to death
surfandsnow I feel the heads are improving too, long way to go still.
alexson Thanks bro, you are doing some serious progress yourself at your hub.
crowbones Thank you, glad you find my little sketchbook somewhat inspirational, I do keep it the way it is to show my progress from when I sucked to hopefully one sunny day I will suck less hah.
teapo Thanks yo! your doing good yourself keep rocking


Well... lots been happening lately, tough times money wise...actually things are so tough I had to start posting adds on craigslist to fix computers heck I made $240 in 2 days installing windows to people and some password cracking, LOL its funny how resourceful you become when you need the cash, google is your best friend LOL, you can find any solution to any computer problem... or any other problem in that matter.
Anyhow art wise I am still sketch booking as my laptop is still RIP, I got a new motherboard and I think I fried the new one too LOL so I let the professionals handle it in a shop... hopefully I will get my laptop running in less then two weeks. actually its not that bad being without a computer, I sure spend tons more time with my sketchbook and anatomy studies, my pencils getting better each time I sit and draw which is cool, and I do start enjoying pencils again just like in high school.

I know barely anyone reads this nonsense I write so I get straight to the point if you do read this you can send me some Laptop repair donation coin to my paypal account PM if your interested... Just kidding... no but seriously...haha
Have fun guys thanks for stopping.

[Icecold]

Very good sketches D,
Well i told you i'm going to california in about a year, so you bet our ways will cross

Now it's advice time:

Try to "soften down"; i assume you're still using that mechanical pencil, personally i hate them. They are too...artificial? maybe thats not the best term for them, but i heope you get the point. Try using a charcoal pencil and vine charcoal for a while, it makes a world of a difference, and once you get used to it you can apply things you've learned to the pencil drawings.

Here's a good example:

[Bing!]

great advice icecold and keep churning out those drawings danny!

[Fallenangel]

I agree about using some other pencil/charcoal for "softening" your sketches though personally i still prefer my old trusty 0.5 mech pencil .
One more crit is to watch those neck proportions, it's an important part of the body that
often people overlook. Make some head-neck sketches and studies.

Keep doing those sketches and studies you just won't believe how much you've improved since your earlier posts.

[LtPlissken]

Unfortunately I do not have any money to PayPal you
but I just like to say that I very much like your latest pencils.
Mechanical or Charcoal, I do not know, maybe it does not matter,
you just keep things rolling and never stop grinding.

[Feil Magnus]

This post (link below) is very usefull for decomposing body parts in simple shapes, for the neck for example it can be very helpfull :
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1432
hope it helps, keep the hard work your pencil work is good, charcoal can help as well.
cheers

[alexson]

[Icecold]

Knock Knock?

[Danny_K]

Thanks for the feedback guys I need it
My laptop is still dead and I'm too poor to even order myself a new graphics card, hopefully this paycheck I will be able to do so and finally fix my darn laptop and get back on track.
I am however spending lots of quality time with my sketchbook and books which is nice.
Nothing worth showing except maybe this soldier guy. might be a good one for a portfolio later.

[p sage]

Nice hand studies and all that.

Good work on this last one... his chest looks a little flat to me... maybe you could project it a little more out in front of him.

Hope you can get your comp fixed

[mike butkus]

#784, Wow what a great sketch! You really captured something here, well done.

[Danny_K]

I wish it was my sketch though

[Icecold]

Heh, you'll get there soon man, don't worry look at your first page and look at what you're able to do at the moment. Give yourself a year and i bet we'll see equally cool stuff from under your pencil.!

As for your question:
No, i'm not earning money yest it's for school-practice? i don't know how it is called in english, altho it's a normal concept artist job by any means.
It's a small family company hiring around 20 people making iphone,ipad games plus some casual and kids games for pc. Nothing special, but it will do for getting my feet wet

Laters!

[Danny_K]

Not having a laptop to paint digitally sure put things in perspective for me and sure did make me more original with finding resources to draw from.
These are studies done for the past week, Hampton, Hogarth and some Venderpool and a warrior princess sketch.
Getting my new video card for the laptop tomorrow hopefully I will install it with no problems and everything will work just fine (holding my fingers crossed...)

Cheers!

[p sage]

Nice studies man... and the top one (this one) with the planes is looking boss.

Keep up the good work

[Nibras]

It's looking good danny, I am glad you're being resourceful with something that most people would see as a problem.
I like your drawings, my one critique would be to spend more time with those pencils and really turn them into rendered images. Push yourself to the limit and spend the needed time, especially on those pencil characters because they have so much potential but other than that just keep on drawing

[Fallenangel]

I agree with Nibras on trying to give your works more finished/rendered looks, i also think that although you need to keep making those lines loose as possible try to concentrate on the form and the proportions of the objects/muscles that you draw.

Keep up with those studies mate1

Alex.

[Danny_K]

Thanks for feedback guys much appreciated

Guess who got his laptop back and working?! ordered a new graphic card and things are rolling once again for me, the first night I got the laptop working I could not sleep most of the night I woke up like 2 times was too excited couldnt wait start painting again... I havent felt like this since I was a kid excited to go to a water park or something. so I woke up at 4:30 brushed my teeth went for a run and started painted around 6:30 am

so to celebrate the resurrection I did an extended study of kerrigan you can find the original pic on the SC2 site, learned quite a bit from this one although I can only dream to really paint like this
oh well maybe one day

And a picture of before and after, it helps to keep the workspace organized, otherwise I feel like im working in a dumpster.

[Danny_K]

Halo fellas, I have been going through The character design video tutorials from Jason chan, I got all 3 of them... which are really nice.
Anyhow focusing on gesture and sketchbook practice is just as important as designing character with photoshop, actually its something I should never stop doing.
I also understood the importance of drawing from reference and drawing other stuff from real life/photos to enrich your mental library and improve imagination. if you don't draw real stuff from life then how could you possibly create anything of your own?

Some sketchbook pages with gesture practice and some character designs.

[Danny_K]

More progress on the sci fi chick, any suggestions or critiques before I push it to color?
This will be one of my first characters for the portfolio, I figured I should start working on it by now...

[ashess]

Hey danny! doing great wirk here I See. i do still see a lot wrong w the lady.. the light line @ her back looks like its her spine or something; if is actually @ her back mover it backward. her right forearm needs to be foreshortend for her to be able to hold tjat staffn the other arm might need somr foreshortening too. the right leg you've filled in rounded, but the length again is too long for that. teach me how to do those lights &shades thoug;h looks soo great!

[BlackDelphin]

You've kicked it up a notch since I last came here Danny, well done! I really like how your figure drwing has evolved, and the flow i sense from then. I second what Ice said regarding the soft edges. And after my own observation, I think your balance-flow could be the next to work on. It would give the peace that extra something, making it more relaxing, more "smooth" to look at.

[Icecold]

The before reminds me of Rage against the machine
Good to hear your device is back and operational again.
That SC2 study is awesome, AWESOME!

[Danny_K]

ashess Thanks for pointing those problems out, leg adjusted

BlackDelphin Thank you dear, its great to see you back here sharing and just spreading good energies

Icecold Dude, duuuuuude.... the will conquers anything

Starting the day with some gesture drawings and then a character concept turned into an illustration O_o any advice or pointers would be great.
also an open canvas session with me bud Yuri.

[Ven S]

Amazing sketchbook Danny.

[ashess]

the leg is a lot better! though I think the light blue thing is still not in the right spot there. in the back I think I got where it goes wrong; the right shoulderblade should be overlap the blue area. unless it sticks out; but then it should be moved back/ to the left of the picture.

[Fallenangel]

The colors look much better as well as the pencil studies.
Try to make those line more confident, even if it looks crappy at first try to make shapes with single line or few lines try not to make 'em "hairy".
Keep making anatomy studies and sketches, and keep up with the great work!

Alex.

[Charmer]

Awesome coming forth Danny! But(t) the light on that girl in #806 is not correct I think, getting that right would make the whole image better imo

The "amazon" or "bow girl" looks decent, too. Your studies pay off man.

Keep it up