"Create like a god, command like a king, and work like a slave"

**Syle** · December 3rd, 2010, 09:54 AM

-OnceDaily: thanks! that's good advice about loosening up with the gesture sketches. you're right, i should really be more conscious of my line control when doing those quick 30 second sketches; i need more fluidity to really capture the essence of the gesture, rather than attempting to be anatomically correct.

-Rhoades: thank you!

-karmiclychee: i bet you are right: Gage first, to get the basic fundamentals down solid, and then move on to Futurepoly to really hone your skills. Not sure what to tell you about being broke

I am in the same position as you, so you definitely don't want any of my advice!

**Kezhi** · December 3rd, 2010, 02:20 PM

Heya Syle,

Your perspective and shadow casting studies are looking pretty hot!~ As to comment on gestures it seems your focusing on the contours, I think looking more for the movement and pose of the figure yield better results for quick gestures like these. I would say to check out Vilppu's method for approaching gestures, he breaks it down pretty well.

Group is working out pretty good hehe, lets keep up the work

**Syle** · December 3rd, 2010, 07:06 PM

Could anyone comment on the shadows I marked with a "?". I am not sure if they are correct or not.

**Nemome** · December 3rd, 2010, 07:13 PM

Hey dude!

Do you know Vilppu? He has some good DVD's on figure drawing.
The first chapters, especially gestures, would help you a lot when you are doing these 60 seconds drawing.
I you can't to draw the figure till end, to "Random Poses", as fast as you can, but then do the figure complete.

Greetings, Sil

**Syle** · December 4th, 2010, 04:38 AM

More perspective + light studies.

**Syle** · December 6th, 2010, 02:06 AM

will be doing my sunday update here in a few minutes...finishing up a couple things.

EDITR: 2 updates. 1 of these images is an edited version of a recent sketch i posted. i fixed a shadow or two after i took a step back and looked at them. also, i am working on a digital painting to post later this evening/morning.

**Syle** · December 6th, 2010, 03:43 AM

UPDATE 12-6-2010: Started a digital painting. I know it's not much, but here is the rough outline, I will start blocking in color tomorrow and rendering from there.

UPDATE 12-10-2010: started blocking in color. i think i am starting too refined with my color. i think i need to just slather it on and focus on getting the base colors right before worrying about detail...this mostly goes for the apple, as it's obviously what i spent the most time on so far.

**zien** · December 10th, 2010, 07:01 PM

whats up man...thanks for the kind words bro.

ive been doing this art thing for about 8 years now...but really within the last year or two have been crunching hard on improving and i gotta say this site is really helping to push me. also, im 29...getting OLD man!

i just bought the bridgman's complete guide to drawing from life. $18 at barnes and noble and worth every penny man....go pick it up...wish i wouldve done it 10 years ago. I started at page one and have been drawing every pic in the book...and reading the little bits of wisdom he puts in here and there. he was a genius on breaking up the human form into edible/memorable pieces! the paper i used is a brown toned sketchbook that you can get from UTRECHT. its sweet for using white! and prisma color pencils work really nice on it as well. good luck man...hopefully some of this info helps out.

keep up the stellar work.

-zien

**Syle** · December 11th, 2010, 02:12 AM

Update 12-10: not getting enough sketching done as I'd like...really busy at the moment. My band is putting out an album here pretty soon, so that is kind of taking up a lot of my time.

EDIT: i forgot to give credit for the original digital painting of that 2nd image. i can't remember the name of the artist here on CA.org, but it really inspired me to pick up the drawing pencil again, so i thought i'd do a quick study of his/her work. i hope that's okay.

**Syle** · December 13th, 2010, 02:40 AM

UPDATE: my scanner isn't working for some reason. i may have to reinstall the drivers. i will either post tonight when it's fixed, or tomorrow when i have more time to figure out what's wrong.

**George Abraham** · December 13th, 2010, 05:04 AM

Good work on the still lifes. Keep pushing your observational skills. Allso try to set the habit early to apply the stuff you learn. Like the perspective. The little red box in your still is easy enough to apply perspective, it looks like it might have been done. If you have, good on you.

**Syle** · December 14th, 2010, 02:03 AM

Thanks for stopping by George. I did keep perspective in mind when I was doing that box

Thanks for noticing!

Okay, here is my weekly update. My gestures still LOOK terrible, but they are feeling better to draw. Even though it may not look like it, they felt a lot easier, and more loose to draw.

**Syle** · December 14th, 2010, 02:40 AM

Still life update. It's not much, but I feel that I am making progress. I am going to set aside a 2 hour chunk sometime this week to finish this still life and hopefully start a new one.

**Syle** · December 15th, 2010, 01:41 AM

Made some progress this evening on that still life. I got to spend a good couple hours on it! I had a ton of fun too! I think I will dedicate 1 more hour to it tomorrow and then leave it be.

**Syle** · December 16th, 2010, 01:34 AM

Loomis study: Spheres/Human head

Loomis, I love you. Your book is so much more interesting and approachable than Bridgeman. I think I need a year or two under my belt before I seriously dive into Bridgeman. Also, I think I need an anatomy book if I am to address Bridgeman with any sort of authority. Anyone have some recommendations for a good drawer's anatomy book?

**Syle** · December 17th, 2010, 10:01 AM

More sphere and value/light studies.

**Syle** · December 20th, 2010, 01:14 AM

This is all I've managed to get in the last 2 days. Been extremely busy...

With the holidays coming up, I am planning on getting a ton of face/proportion, perspective, and observational studies done. So plan on a big update after Christmas sometime

Also, I am starting a new DP tomorrow. It's my first attempt at referencing a photograph, so we'll see how it goes. It'll be an enviro-paintingl; also a first for me.

**Syle** · December 20th, 2010, 11:11 PM

Some value studies. I learned a lot doing that still life. I realized how much impact the background can have on defining a light'ed or shadow'ed edge. It also helped me really rub in some darks to make the highlight areas "pop" a bit more.

I am now going to start my new digi-painting enviro (from observation).

**Syle** · December 21st, 2010, 09:53 AM

Again, paying extra attention to the relation of edges between the foreground and background. I think I may have had a semi-breakthrough on how value is treated in contrast to lines.