One Nice Day

[Xeon_OND]

I know what you mean about the people that just seem like naturals. But are they really naturals, you really have to think about it do you know how much they draw lol no one can just draw out of the blue (without practice) and do an awesome job at it.
Its funny cause Nephew A practices 100% more then B or C and you can tell that he does because is so much better. Some might say hes a natural but I've been him practice, and hes only 6 lol B and C are 9 and 7
and for the lost of lust for drawing I know what you mean 100% but for some reason that is when I draw the most. Its weird but idk. updated my sb if you didn't see Happy Trails

LOL, it seems our Diarum here has become an art instructor of sorts. LOL! Do you give them exercises from Betty Edwards' book? It's noble of you to encourage them to draw, because this world needs more attention on the arts. Imagine how great it will be if the entire Wall Street is replaced by Art Street, or Renaissance Street, or if Obama and leaders of the world spends all their energy on promoting art education instead of stupid wars.

Keep at it, dude! There seems to be significant improvement in your line confidence in your latest update, especially the last 2 drawings! Now, that's exciting! You'll be catching up with me real soon!

Now, I guess I gotta devise new methods to improve my drawings.

Nice day and Happy Trails!
Xeon

[Whirly]

Great work and I still continue to see improvement. The Faces are starting to feel more 3D and those still life chairs are great.

There are still things off with the faces so if I were to make a suggestion I would try doing a tone only chiaroscuro studies.
If you are able check out this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Artists-Comp...4&sr=8-1-spell which has what I mean in it.

Basically you want to work only with shading you start with the shadow shape and go outwards from the centre of it. If I can find an internet example of it I will post it.

This works quite well in digital as you have a bit more leeway for mistakes although dunno if that is a good or a bad thing hehe

[Kamber Parrk]

Xeon,

10 minutes is not much time to draw a human figure.

I'd say you were working pretty hard to break the figure down into its basic shapes-- and, that's what you gotta do.

Keep on grinding away!

[Pauladrian]

Hi, love that riding knight drawing! Also on some of the new faces I see some nice rendering, try to do more of that!

You still seem to have problems with proportions some times, there is a book that I came across recently that has really helped me regarding that matter, perhaps you want to have a look at it. It is actually a book for children I think, but I really dig it's approach to making a drawing by starting with the most impotant elements and working down to the details. It was recommended by this guy, who is an incredibly good artist imho, and who claims it was this one book that taught him how to draw.

[JakehC]

i can already see incredible progress! keep it up!

[Xeon_OND]

You still seem to have problems with proportions some times, there is a book that I came across recently that has really helped me regarding that matter, perhaps you want to have a look at it. It is actually a book for children I think, but I really dig it's approach to making a drawing by starting with the most impotant elements and working down to the details. It was recommended by this guy, who is an incredibly good artist imho, and who claims it was this one book that taught him how to draw.

LOL, I don't care whether a book is for kids or not, as long as it helps me to improve (even if the title says "Drawing for the mentally challenged"). I've downloaded it and will read it.

Great work and I still continue to see improvement. The Faces are starting to feel more 3D and those still life chairs are great.
There are still things off with the faces so if I were to make a suggestion I would try doing a tone only chiaroscuro studies.
If you are able check out this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Artists-Comp...4&sr=8-1-spell which has what I mean in it.
Basically you want to work only with shading you start with the shadow shape and go outwards from the centre of it. If I can find an internet example of it I will post it.

Yeah, I've seen that title before, and thought of purchasing it at one time, though I've too much things to handle now and I'll go on to that after I've gotten better with my accuracy, proportions. Chiaroscuro can be really weird if you've been drawing using line all along.

Xeon,
10 minutes is not much time to draw a human figure.
I'd say you were working pretty hard to break the figure down into its basic shapes-- and, that's what you gotta do.
Keep on grinding away!

I've a good mind to start drawing some stuff from my imagination every now and then after seeing your SB : loose, lively, happy, choke full of fun and without giving much care to how it turns out.

Anyway, I've ordered this book and is waiting for it to arrive, then I'll start copying Sargent's portraits and hope to learn something from these.

The most impressive portraits are those that uses mostly lines and not much tone and yet, somehow, are able to achieve a great likeness, such as Sargent's drawing of Madam X and Hans Holbein's portrait of Sir Thomas Eylot.

[Whirly]

Yeah, I've seen that title before, and thought of purchasing it at one time, though I've too much things to handle now and I'll go on to that after I've gotten better with my accuracy, proportions. Chiaroscuro can be really weird if you've been drawing using line all along.
)

Its annoying because I struggle to recommend buying it as the last two chapters are horrible. Just for some inspiration of what I mean about tonal portrait studies see here http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...t=Zhaoming+Wul

Raileyh's Art makes me drool.

Its wierd recommending this when I cant do it myself hehe

[CyGear]

Hey mate,
how are you?
Long time ago since I wrote last time here....., or?
So, I see you are like a machine....draw draw draw...you are a great motivator for me.
I would be very appreciated about your visist in my skechtbook.

CyGear

PS: Keep Posting and where the hell is Diarum?
He didnt post anything the last time.

[AlexEh]

Be careful mannnn! You automatically default to horizontal and vertical lines in your drawings, just like anyone learning does. Take a real close look at how things are positioned. Things are absolutely never perfectly horizontal or vertical as well they are never parallel unless its a perfect cylinder!

NOW GO DRAWWWWWWWWWWWW

[Xeon_OND]

Hey mate,
how are you? Long time ago since I wrote last time here....., or? So, I see you are like a machine....draw draw draw...you are a great motivator for me.
I would be very appreciated about your visist in my skechtbook.
PS: Keep Posting and where the hell is Diarum?
He didnt post anything the last time.

LOL, I've posted on your SB. Diarum is still working hard as hell, and is inspiring his nephews to draw like him.

Be careful mannnn! You automatically default to horizontal and vertical lines in your drawings, just like anyone learning does. Take a real close look at how things are positioned. Things are absolutely never perfectly horizontal or vertical as well they are never parallel unless its a perfect cylinder!
NOW GO DRAWWWWWWWWWWWW

Thanks for dropping by, DyIaneA! The last I heard, you finally went to an art school, so I hope everything's going awesome for you.

Btw, if you don't mind, could you point out a couple of my drawings which has the mistakes you mentioned? It will help me greatly, otherwise I still dunno where my mistakes are! Thanks Lord!

I'll post my next batch of drawings next week.

Good day!
Xeon

[PermaN00b]

Hi Xeon, it's been a little while since i last stopped by. sorry about that, i been playing outside all week, spring is here! lol. the newest faces are already showing improvement over the last ones. the shapes of the heads and jaw lines seem to be more accurate according to the refs. keep working at them! also, i like the kitteh. it's just one of the small sketches on one of the pages but it looks like you really captured the negative shape well. also, it feels like the lines are loose and fun in that one. don't be afraid to keep things loose like that. i think it adds life and character to the drawings. keep up the good work!

[HolyBovine]

Hi Xeon, greetings from a fellow singaporean

JJacks and a couple of others already gave some great advice *I could use those as well*.. a little something I'd like to add: Don't start detailing / rendering before you're happy that everything is in the right place. Rendering a bad looking face adds to frustration. Use a combination of techniques to get your facial features in their right places. Personally, what I do is to lay down markers, eg: a point for the tip of the nose, lips, corner of the eyes etc. It helps you see the angles and proportions as well.

Keep them coming. =)

[ilmenhin]

I can definitely see some improvements, particularly with you drawing objects~

One way you could study faces would be to do a draw over and compare the results with the lineart result and the photo. It helps me figure out the outline and features of a person. I have only done this once but I found it useful in learning where shadows fall as well.

(And yes I'm in Australia now but! My heart will always be in SG~ )

[redrobot]

work hard girl. its always practice practice and more practice!

[Xeon_OND]

Hi Xeon, it's been a little while since i last stopped by. sorry about that, i been playing outside all week, spring is here!

LOL, nothing to be sorry about. Spring is a good time to draw in the gardens, parks, sheds, countryside....over here, it's summer all year round and hot as hell.

Hi Xeon, greetings from a fellow singaporean
JJacks and a couple of others already gave some great advice *I could use those as well*.. a little something I'd like to add: Don't start detailing / rendering before you're happy that everything is in the right place. Rendering a bad looking face adds to frustration. Use a combination of techniques to get your facial features in their right places. Personally, what I do is to lay down markers, eg: a point for the tip of the nose, lips, corner of the eyes etc. It helps you see the angles and proportions as well.

Thanks for dropping by, Bovine. Not sure if you've participate in the portrait days and figure drawing events organized by the Organisation of Illustrators' Council Singapore, but it's fun!

(And yes I'm in Australia now but! My heart will always be in SG~ )

I wish I was you. LOL

work hard girl. its always practice practice and more practice!

Thanks for the compliment! But I'm a guy. LOL

I should be going to a figure drawing session next Tue night, so till then.

[redrobot]

oops sorry dude! well work hard and do another fellow singaporean proud!

[Diarum]

Lol funny yea It says hes a make right under his name . Who is that pic of Xeon? I've always wondered, is your GF or ransom Asian girl from Google? lol. Anyways yea I got 2 of Burne Hogarths books the anatomy and pose one so it should be intresting whats on my update this weekend hopefully lol. Yea I haven't really wanted to read books but I need to buckle DOWN!!! any who Happy Trails

[Xeon_OND]

oops sorry dude! well work hard and do another fellow singaporean proud!

LOL, ok.....join the events at http://www.oicsingapore.com/wordpress if you haven't ready.

Lol funny yea It says hes a make right under his name . Who is that pic of Xeon? I've always wondered, is your GF or ransom Asian girl from Google? lol.

LOL, no time for any kind of love right now. This latest avatar is an Asian model who got involved in some sex + drugs + bad stuff scandal recently, and I saw her face in the newspaper, and it was so hot I went to Google her face pic.

Anyways yea I got 2 of Burne Hogarths books the anatomy and pose one so it should be intresting whats on my update this weekend hopefully lol. Yea I haven't really wanted to read books but I need to buckle DOWN!!! any who Happy Trails

Ok, awaiting those sketches from you!

[HolyBovine]

Will be going to the coming portrait day. See ya then I guess? haha!

[Xeon_OND]

Will be going to the coming portrait day. See ya then I guess? haha!

Nah, not sure if I could go this time as I've some family events. I'll see, though. Portrait day is so fun!

----------------------------------------------
UPDATE:

I'm proud to say I've been a good boy these 2 weeks and drawing real hard, to the extent that I almost fell sick last week. The feeling is like I haven't slept for 4 days. Back to normal now, though.

These 2 weeks, I've been thinking of ways on how to improve, so I thought long and hard, and have started using the below 3 methods:

1) Before drawing, find the central axis of the subject to see it's orientation and which way it's tilting, and then draw a faint line on the paper as a guide ("The Central Axis"). This really helps me a lot.

2) Holding my plastic drawing board upright in my left hand and draw on it using the right hand ("Neo-Easel"), instead of making it lie flat down on the desk. Now, my drawing board is at least an 50 - 60 degree angle, and I tilt it to 100% vertically upright occasionally to simulate the easel. This
i) solves the difficulty of translating visual info from one plane to another
ii) prevents distortion
iii) compare against the subject easier
The later drawings done this week were drawn using this method and it's fun.

3) Changing my pencil grip from the writing / extended tripod grip to holding it between my thumb and index finger, and drawing using a very light, loose style ("Windswept Pines in Gestalt Valley"). The idea is to be relaxed, use child-like 2D shapes and lines to get the proportions, position and perspective (angles) right first, before reinforcing the contours and adding in details.

Sorry for those 3 cheesy names above, but I love to add fun to my studies LOL

Below images for these 2 weeks. I hope to see some improvement before 1 June 2010, or I will cease to be a man.
I've even bought a Nutcracker and have it ready and according to the package, it says it can crack human nuts without pain.

Click on images to see finer version.

Some studies I did from Bridgeman's book 2 weeks ago in my office to pass time:



Mechanical perspective studiesfrom Deborah Rockman's Drawing Essentials:






I realized that this F-clamp is challenging to draw especially at certain angles, so I drew a lot of it this week. This F-Clamp forces you to get the perspective, position and proportion correct or the tinier parts won't fit, so it's very good training. Some of these drawings are crappy, though:


Portrait from a book. I forgot to scan the photo and returned the book to the library. There is a bit of likeness, but I want to achieve ABSOLUTE LIKENESS and nothing less:



You can see squiggly Nicolaides-like drawings in below drawings, but these are warm-ups, not gestures!

What I do is to plot random points on the paper, then get the pencil to pass through the dots using only curvy lines. At the end of it, when it becomes one big mass, I try to make out some shape from it using imagination (rabbit shape, monster shape etc.). Something like the automatic drawing technique the Surrealists used.












I thought the curves on the glass looks perfect, then I realized on closer look it's not balance:




In below shoe drawing, everything was going well and fits in nicely and looks just like the subject, and I started to got arrogant and carried away. In the end, I realized the front part of the shoe should be slightly longer (it should reach that gray line on the right):


Haven't done a self-portrait for decades! So I did one, and the result was crappy:


I did another one again, and this time, proportions seems to be much better, so I added in some rough shading to reward myself, but as you can see, the individual features still look 2D although I've used a lot LESS lines. I don't have patience to render the stupid hair.
My best self-portrait by far, because it has some likeness. I believe 50% was based on luck, though.


Today, I'll be going to another figure drawing workshop and will use the 3 methods to help me....not sure how it will turn out, because figures are very different from still life.

I'll fight on the land, I'll fight on the sea and I'll fight in the skies.
I'll never surrender (based on Winston Churchill's WW II quote)

Good day!
Xeon

[bubblesaw]

Lots of improvements... I love it keep going

Of course i don't know your face lol, but maybe i can help you look at some aspects of your drawing that may be wrong. To me your lips look a little to large. MAybe not wide enough either

[Diarum]

Man I wish I had you line quality, lol all of my stuff is feathered (for the most part) lol How come you haven't done any poses/gesture.
I would say that with your portrait that would should learn the basic proportions before you try and get your stuff done. Remember that your eyes are half way between the top of your head and your chin, and stuff like that. I think your using symbolic eyes and mouth too much, lol there is no way your mouth is that close together (looks like your trying to be a fish) like bubblesaw said they need to be wider, and not so thick.
And one ear is a lot further down then the other. And your shading is off by a mile, it looks like you were trying to get your skin color (Were you?) its a bad idea to try and get skin tone, stick with purely shadows and lights. Also I would watch the arches on your eye brows they aren't even at all.

Right above the eyes there are fold (your eye lids) they are important to draw because they add life to your drawings. Your Iris is WAY WAY WAY to Draw they are almost as dark as your pupils, I understand that you probably have brown eye (right? lol) Its more about the values then the color of the iris, And in the pupil/Iris there is always a light reflection in your eyes, this also adds a lot of life to your drawings because everyone has it. lol Unless you were in a dark room when you were drawing.

Just to add some stuff, the end of your mouth line, lines up with the pupil of your eyes. Your nostrils line up with your tear ducks. Your head is 5 eyes across. I think that your ears begin of the eye socket and ends about the end of your nose.

Lol just noticed that on the top your head on the right side goes up higher then your other side, something to watch out for.

Your other stuff is nice, lol nothing really to put on those, umm. Just keep doing what your doing and challenge yourself (Something I need to so) how are you getting such solid lines. You are confident in your line.

If I was to tell you anything it would be to do some more portraits of other people and yourself. And do some gestures and stuff that would be good to see, and it help with other stuff. Maybe try and do some imagination stuff, I have not seen many or maybe not any from you. Hmm, Think I ran out of things to say for the moment. Any who Happy Tails

[Kamber Parrk]

Hey Xeon,

You are getting really good at shoes and furniture.

Re portraits: 1. horizontal and vertical measurements don't look too bad, 2. try playing with some moveable lights to try to light up your head in a manner that shows structure better, 3. try orienting your head in a 3/4 position-- again to show more structure, 4. study the planes section of Loomis' Drawing the Head and Hands-- understand them-- look hard for them on your own face and exaggerate them-- you can always lighten up the lines later, 5. "harden" rounded forms by drawing them with straight lines-- again to emphasize structure, 6. don't smear tone on the drawing and hope for magic to happen-- carefully "map out" those planes so that your face looks like a "paint-by-numbers" drawing before you start any shading.

Keep drawing!

[lim2009]

Hey man keep moving,i think you are changing.

[PermaN00b]

Xeon sweet mercy man! the newest studies are fantastic! the bridgman skull is one of my favs. it looks loose and confident. but i think your strongest areas are your mechanical and still life drawings. you are getting REALLY good at them. your perspective and proportion in these areas seems spot on. i think this is where you really shine. i cannot wait until you start cranking out some original things like vehicles and city scapes. i think you're gonna be unstoppable with that stuff. keep cracking away at the portraits man. the human head is a lot harder than it looks! (it's kicking my butt right now) lol.

[Xeon_OND]

Lots of improvements... I love it keep going Of course i don't know your face lol, but maybe i can help you look at some aspects of your drawing that may be wrong. To me your lips look a little to large. MAybe not wide enough either

LOL, nah....my lips' width is just a tiny bit wider than my nose's width (the left and right edges of my lips fall between the corner of my eyes). That's why my mom used to tell me I've a very small mouth. LOL

Man I wish I had you line quality, lol all of my stuff is feathered (for the most part) lol

Since you know that's a problem, then you should start changing it!
IMHO, feathery line is a habit that's one of the easiest habit to solve in drawing. It's best to solve it now cos' it'll be easier, otherwise when you're 2 years into drawing and still doing feathery lines, it will be way harder to change that.

How come you haven't done any poses/gesture.

Nah, I want to be better at still life and drawing fundamentals before I delve into serious figure stuff. :p

how are you getting such solid lines. You are confident in your line.

I don't feather my lines, but I've a bad habit: I tend to draw a line, then I'll look at it, and it looks wrong! So I'll draw another line, and then another, till the line looks accurate. So, in a sketch, I tend to end up with plenty of lines all over the place (due to uncertainty).
When it's done, I choose the lines I want, then go over them with 1 line, and remove the rest with a kneaded eraser.
So, this is not true confidence, because true confidence = putting a line down and that's it.

If I was to tell you anything it would be to do some more portraits of other people and yourself. And do some gestures and stuff that would be good to see, and it help with other stuff. Maybe try and do some imagination stuff, I have not seen many or maybe not any from you. Hmm, Think I ran out of things to say for the moment. Any who Happy Tails

LOL, ok, noted. I'll try to do more self portraits. For the eyes, I've tried to draw them as accurately using contour drawing for those.

Maybe I should take a photo of my eyes and see how it's like.

3. try orienting your head in a 3/4 position-- again to show more structure

The 3/4 portrait! Yeah, I'm getting another mirror soon. The straight-on face portrait is the hardest to draw, though, because it's so hard (for me) to try to see where the jawlines and face bones start and end, but in a 3/4 portrait, you can see juts here, protrusions, angles etc.

Keep drawing!

You too! I demand to see more finished works from you. :p

Xeon sweet mercy man! the newest studies are fantastic! the bridgman skull is one of my favs. it looks loose and confident. but i think your strongest areas are your mechanical and still life drawings. you are getting REALLY good at them. your perspective and proportion in these areas seems spot on. i think this is where you really shine. i cannot wait until you start cranking out some original things like vehicles and city scapes. i think you're gonna be unstoppable with that stuff. keep cracking away at the portraits man. the human head is a lot harder than it looks! (it's kicking my butt right now) lol.

LOL, you praise me so high and so hard that I can't read this anymore!
Seriously, I'm still not happy with my drawings of still life, especially the more complex ones, and I still have a long way to go before I can be rated as "Decent".

Hey man keep moving,i think you are changing.

LOL, thanks, but....

Everytime I thought I've improved, I fall back 2 levels.

Last night, I went to a 1.5 hour figure drawing session.
It consists of one 30-min pose, a couple of 20-min ones, a 15-min one, followed by 10 min, 5 min, 30 second ones (long to short poses).

My drawings ended up in total disaster. They look like they're done by a retard.

I'm gonna post them here this week. Now that I think of it, even the toughest still life isn't as tough as the figure.
It's nothing but curves, and landmarks are so hard to nail.
All I see is one whole lump of human flesh.

I'm not going to waste my $ and go to any more figure drawing sessions until I've attended classes on it.
With no guidance and you just go in there and try to draw the figure in 30 mins and less, I felt very overwhelmed.
During the session, I wanted to leave because I was drawing crap, but I force myself to stay on. Argh!

Till then!
Xeon

[Xeon_OND]

Recently, I stumbled upon this book called Draw Naturally by Allan Kraayvanger.

The book uses an approach where you break down your subject into 2D shapes, then draw them out, then refine those shapes to make it look like the subject. I've been trying to get used to this way of drawing, because in theory at least, it seems such a fast and loose way of drawing, but my proprotions and perspective etc all go haywire after trying this method.

I've scanned some of the pages below. Click on image to see the words clearly:


The doodle-like drawings below are those done using the 2D-shape method mentioned in the book, and they look like trash. I tried this for 2 weeks but I can't do it, so I'm going back to my old way of drawing.

Click images to see undistorted size:


















And below are several drawings I did at the figure drawing session I mentioned 2 weeks ago. Figure drawing = hell





A drawing of a wooden model of a Korean ancient tower which my bro's girlfriend gave to me as a overseas gift. I failed to give it a feel of circular form; I failed:


I recently got a book of 42 John Singer Sargent's portraits, and I copied this for fun. JSS uses a lot of shorthand to draw the features, and I admire him for that. Best portraitist ever!


My self-portrait. I'm ashamed of this self-portrait not because it is ugly, but because I was lazy. Basically, after sketching in the features and all, I realize the nose was longer by half-inch. I could have erase the entire lower part of the face and re-draw it, but I was lazy and didn't, and pretended the mistake wasn't there. I am ashamed of myself and will not do this again. This resulted in the nose + face being too long and weird:


Below are 2 images from Deborah Rockman's book, Drawing Essentials.
These are Robert Schultz's works, and I very like his style of rendering; it's like the subjects are being bathed in light and yet it's so photo-realistic. I definitely want to have this exact rendering style in the far future:



--------------------------------------------------------------
Recently, I've been taking a cold hard look at my life. I realize that at this rate, working a 9 - 6:30 PM job from Mon - Fri, is actually doing big harm to my art. Not enough time to draw, and the stress of this totally-not-related-to-art office job is affecting my concentration to draw at times. Add to that, I've no guidance and direction in my learning.

I want to immerse myself in drawing and art-related stuff, and so I've decided to....

quit my job.

It's a hard decision, but someone once told me years back that a man has to take full charge of his life. It's now or never.
If I don't make this drastic change now, then 10 years down the road when I'm 36, I'll still be slaving away at a job I'm disgusted with, staring at the crappy LCD monitor looking at nasty spreadsheets with nothing but numerical figures.

I'll be enrolling in a full time course at Egg Story Digital Art Academy. They're not a fine arts school, but they do have specializations in concept art and lots of drawing (gesture, construction, anatomy) and sculpting in their modules.

I come to know recently of several students who study at Egg Story, and reading their blogs is so inspiring and encouraging, especially when you see how hardworking they are. Everyone is hacking away with their sketches and striving to improve, while I'm staring at crappy spreadsheets with my boss sitting behind me for the past 3 years guarding me like a hound. Enough.

The modules seems pretty intensive, which is what I want.
Maybe if I try hard enough, I could end up like my idol Baron Impossible one day.

“Six years ago when I was 35 my work was sub-par to everyone’s, because up until that point I hadn’t actually done any. Now I’m a full time illustrator.” – Baron Impossible

I went to their open house and am now going for an entrance test.
If everything goes well, I should be starting school 24 May 2010.

I come to realize how much I was missing out by trying to self-learn art. Reading books and trying to draw is good, but if you want to advance further to a professional level, you need education and formal guidance.


The days when I can draw more than 9 hrs per day is not far from now!

Good day,
Xeon

[Chaser226]

Hey Xeon, I see a lot of dedication and attention to detail in your perspective geometric drawings. Keep doing what you're doing, throw some figure studies in as well and you'll be well on your way. I wish you the best.

[mike butkus]

Your getting there, good job!

[Diarum]

Damn, what are you gonna do for money then? Thats good that you are gonna put that much dedication into it. I myself need to put my nose to the paper cuz I don't have to work for the time being, at least till school is out. You really seem to be improving a lot, that might be cause of the time between your updates . the last two are amazing lol, so awesome.


I CHALLENGE YOU TO A RACE AROUND THE WORLD!!!