Hawkswift's Sketchbook

[Hawkswift]

Another silhouette and a hand.

[Hawkswift]

Trying another method for character design - layered sketches, starting very loose and refining on successive layers as I go. Worth revisiting a few times. Not sure if it's as good of a starting point as the silhouettes though.

[Hawkswift]

Same as yesterday.

[Hawkswift]

Similar to the previous two days. I used the successive layers method to find a pose and copied it six times at reduced size to thumbnail some costume designs. The idea is for an alien prince superhero.

[Zauselbart]

good studies
i really like in the last post number 1 and 6

keep up the good work

[Hawkswift]

Are there any aspects of those two designs that you find particularly compelling? I'm thinking I'll take the bits i like from a bunch of them and work from there.

But not today. I'm a bit sick and distracted, so today was just a hand study.

[Hawkswift]

Back to design stuff. Also back to starting with silhouettes.

[thanoss]

Man I am going to be brutally honest with you and truthful, you may not like it or you may, and while I am no expert or anything I think it is what you need.
Alot of people here are just coming here and saying nothing but " good work", and "Keep going".

Lets be brutally honest for the past 4 this SB hasnt changed at all, you are doing mindless hand studys , if you can call them that or some character designs, if you can call them that, and then saying you did practice.
There isno point just doing something mindlessly for the sake of it and saying practice is practice. It is not, you just seem to be on this hamster wheel. Sorry to be brutally honest, but i really think someone has to tell you this. Again I am not trying to imply I am an expert or that i am gettr than you or anything, because I am trying to jolt you and make you move away from this, and really move away from this whole thing you have going on here in this SB. Because looking at it it seems you havnt learnt anything. You seem to have drawn the same hand for the past 3 years. Get back to the fundamentals man. There is no point posting for the sake of posting or doing some vague hand study for the sake of it, and then after the 1000th try you some how get it.

Once again sorry if this sounds brutal, but alot of people here, seem to be just living in cloud fairy land, and i think you really neeto get away from that.

[thanoss]

Man I am going to be brutally honest with you and truthful, you may not like it or you may, and while I am no expert or anything I think it is what you need.
Alot of people here are just coming here and saying nothing but " good work", and "Keep going".

Lets be brutally honest for the past 4 this SB hasnt changed at all, you are doing mindless hand studys , if you can call them that or some character designs, if you can call them that, and then saying you did practice.
There isno point just doing something mindlessly for the sake of it and saying practice is practice. It is not, you just seem to be on this hamster wheel. Sorry to be brutally honest, but i really think someone has to tell you this. Again I am not trying to imply I am an expert or that i am gettr than you or anything, because I am trying to jolt you and make you move away from this, and really move away from this whole thing you have going on here in this SB. Because looking at it it seems you havnt learnt anything. You seem to have drawn the same hand for the past 3 years. Get back to the fundamentals man. There is no point posting for the sake of posting or doing some vague hand study for the sake of it, and then after the 1000th try you some how get it.

Once again sorry if this sounds brutal, but alot of people here, seem to be just living in cloud fairy land, and i think you really neeto get away from that.

[Hawkswift]

While I don't agree on every point (which should surprise no one) I won't argue with the general point - I've been told similar things before. IIRC in this thread, even. Fundamentals are absolutely something I need to work on. Reminders help. That said, more of a suggestion of what to work on, in terms of specifics, would make statements like this more constructive.

I suspect it mostly comes down to still life drawing and basic forms (boxes, cylinders, cones, spheres) so I did a bit of that today.

[Hawkswift]

More wooden blocks. This time in pencil!

[Hawkswift]

Couldn't reach CA at posting time for a few days. More basics, mostly wooden block from life.

[Hawkswift]

And of course There was the malware incident...

The last few - Some from life, some playing with that character design a bit because it's fun, and fun helps motivation.

[Hawkswift]

A sphere. Definitely need to do more spheres from life - this one wasn't, and it shows.

[Hawkswift]

Working on ellipses to fit perspective cubes. And a sketch working on drawing from the shoulder rather than the wrist.


And a couple wooden blocks from life.

[Hawkswift]

Playing with the alien prince design again. And using the wacom while drawing from the shoulder. I find this fairly difficult - might require a change in setup.

[Hawkswift]

Cleaned up that design and replaced the space image with some more designed stellar imagery. I like the design. The execution needs some work.

[Tom Fenton]

I can see a problem with your drawing which i have myself, it may just be me and not what your doing but i thought id let you know. It seems you may be going to fast to start with, when you should be really careful with your strokes to get good proportions. Maybe i am wrong? Hope it helps!

[Hawkswift]

Taking more time to get the proportions, angles, and so on right at the beginning, huh? I'll give it a try.

Another rendition of the alien prince. I think the pose is better this time...

[Hawkswift]

Working basics a bit (ellipses in perspective) and playing with poses.

[Hawkswift]

Took the time to correct my proportions at the beginning. Definitely need to do more of this...

Thanks again for the heads up Tom!

[snatti]

Hello, i would keep pumping out ideas like you are already doing, but try to combine it with studies aswell, i believe it would help alot

[Hawkswift]

That's the current plan. Ended up slacking on studies this week - hopefully I'll be able to find more time for them next week.

More of the same, with less polish:

[Flügel]

I like the one man stnading and holding his hand up. very dynamic pose and gesture. also nice perspecitve tweak. You could try to vary the poses though. A lot of your people tend to stay legs spreaded,viewers left foot pointing to the front.
Your latest sketches are very dynamic. I think you could do more of those.

[Hawkswift]

I'll add more dynamic poses to the list... I think I need to concentrate more on studies for a while though. Or at least draw said poses from a model.

Decided to bring this one to a more finished state. Color choices come next.

[Hawkswift]

Color. And more cleanup. Not at all sure of the color choices on the character.

[Hawkswift]

Playing with poses.

[Hawkswift]

Playing with characters.

[Hawkswift]

Back to studies. Basic forms from this thread.

[thanoss]

Hawkswift. I know I have said this already, and I don't want to keep banging on about it, and its not meant to be hard on you or anything. But Jesus man slow down, think about what you are doing, Look and see what you are doing. There is no need to just practice for the sake of practicing then posting and then saying its a study. Really look at what you are doing man, if it takes you 2 hours extra to do something as simple as drawing a cube, Really look and examine what you are doing. Ask yourself questions, really understand what you are doing and why. DO DEEP LEARNING and not just shallow surface learning.This is the only way you are going to learn. Yes drawing a cube over and over again might be boring and you might lose attention, but do it man. You really need to start analysing what you are doing. Understand the ideas and associate ideas, think about what your goals are for your learning session, look for key ideas, how does information you know relate to other ideas, Why is something working in such a way. Really think about forms and shapes, slow down man, just slow down with your marks and think.