Help Me Get Better

[Blizzard5291]

Thank you for dropping by my sketchbook. Nice progress! As far as colors go, especially skin, try not to just do lighter and darker versions of the same color for shading. The color can vary a lot. Do some skin photo studies, or life studies, and really focus on the color. That could help bring your paintings to life some more and get rid of that plastic feel that they have.

[vatteh]

Strela - Thanks for the comment. In fact, yesterday I spent a good five hours studying drawings from Bridgman and I intend to studies like this alot more often. I also took a look at Mindcandyman's sketchbook and can agree with everyone else and say that this is very inspirational. I already bookmarked it and plan to look at it more often.

Twain - Thanks for stopping by!

Mactire - Yeah I have been trying to quit the eye dropper, and been getting a little better at kicking the habit. As far as books, I have been through Loomis' "Drawing the Head and the Hands" and agree with you on its goodness. I guess I better go through it a second time since there's no way I got all the information I need. I also took a look at the link and studied some of the drawings. Thanks for that, it really helped since I'm also trying to learn a lot more about construction of the human body.

Blizzard5291 - Your definitely right on that. Skin is so complex and I feel that I'm getting nowhere when it comes to comes to some kind of definite pattern I can follow. More studies to come.

Well for this week I just focused on more human anatomy studies and some heads from memory. Well, kind of from memory. I would now just look at a series of photos and look for the information I need when I get stuck, instead of just coping the photo as much as possible. Figure I can get more training this way.
I'm also trying to kick another habit of zooming in to early to focus on detail. You can see when I do this and lose sight of my work in whole, like the bald guy for example with his drifting right eye. Very frustrating! Any more tips would be nice.

[clifFroth]

Try doing some skull studies, that will greatly help you depict the face. Many of your eyes don't look set into a skull like eyes are. When doing your painting studies keep an eye on structure and proportion. The dog is way bigger than you depicted it in your Sargent study, while the girl is thinner and more shapely.

I used to be an eyedropper addict as well but gave it up completely and am glad I did. My grasp on color is far superior now than it ever used to be. Try doing an in depth study of an apple, the color variations are tremendous and it will help you 'see'.

Also try flipping the work around and look at it from fresh angles. This will help spot errors much quicker especially if you have been working on a piece for awhile.

Draw what you see not what you think you see. A lot of your faces look like you are trying to place things where you think they ought to be rather than where they are. I could of course be wrong.

Keep it up!

[Strela]

When I said that you should concentrate on at the beginning, I didn't mean that you should start from the basics. I meant that you should perhaps spend more time on the initial construction phase. The problems I see here are anatomical problems and if you're going to work on rendering something out, you may as well spend the extra time on the pencil to get it perfect before you start painting. I also kind of suspect that learning to draw faces really really well, even in a constructed but stylized style, might be a good idea before starting heavily on painting.

The Bridgman stuff can only help but it takes a lot of discipline to work on that.

If you wanna do master copies, look at Sargent. He's sort of the king of a lot of stuff.

I'm happy just painting squares. Someday I may get to the point where I can paint hexagons.

[vatteh]

clifFroth - The apple study sounds like a good idea. Definitely will try it sometime. And your right about my portrait studies. I'm still stuck with an more cartoonish feel. More observation studies to come.

Strela - Ok, now I see where you're coming from. Maybe a few works just focusing on quality can help me out. I tend to do a study for about 3 hours at most; I can take breaks in between to get a fresh eye and catch mistakes.

Kinda of a weak week for me when it comes to the amount I drew in my sketchbook. Finals are coming up so for the next two weeks, sketching will be a little light.
Portraits and a Sargent study. Looking at the Sargent study, I can already see I was weak when it came to color variety in the face, I just didn't see it at the time. Other tips will be appreciated .

[vatteh]

Well I did find some time after all. For today I got a portrait from a photo ref, a still life of stuff found in my dorm, and some sketches from pics found on characterdesigns.com.

[ProgDraws]

hi!

i see u got some trouble with the size of the eyes, and their positions in face.

some of then are too small (example:the guy on post #5), try to draw structure lines in the face then you will find where to put then

thats it, but i see u do shadows very well

congrats and keep going!

[Strela]

Faces are getting better. Draw more!

Drawing faces is just amazingly hard. Seems like it shouldn't be but it is. Any little line out of place makes the expression messed up somehow.

[Justyna]

Hi, thanks for visiting my SB

It's good you decided to do some studies, you improved with the faces, keep it up! You might also do some studies from A. Loomis or Vilppu.

[LordVenom]

Nice amount of studies, i'd recommend some vilppu dvd's if you can get a hold of some, they are really useful.

[Aluvay]

Hey, Some of it is coming along nicely. I am noticing lots of your looser paintings appear to be almost muddy, in my experience this is caused by using to small of a brush. Try working without zooming in to far and use the largest brush possible for each area and then slowly work smaller, it will help get a more blended and smoother look if your into that kinda thing. Keep doing it!

[vatteh]

ProgDraws - Thanks for the tip. I'll make sure to do that from now on.

Strela - Nice to hear from you again.

Justyna - Thanks. I do Loomis from time to time, I just got to make sure to study his books more often.

LordVenom - Thanks for the heads up. I'm looking onto it right now and can already see why he's recommended.

Aluvay - That's actually a good idea. I do tend to use a small brush size very early in a study but I didn't think of it as a big deal. Well now I know and will try to watch out for it.

The good news is that the semester is over and with no summer job, I just planned on drawing 24/7 for the next 2 1/2 months to destroy any major flaws. The bad news is that today my Wacom tablet broke and without a warranty, I'm stuck with notepad sketching for at least two weeks until I can get a new one. This can be seen as good news as I can just focus on fundamentals and stuff. Well see.

Well before my disaster today, I just did photo studies of faces and the 787 dream liner.

[vatteh]

Just want to show the sketches I did this week. Just portraits from reference and Bridgman studies. Replies are always welcome.

[ArtDisaster]

wow...man you improved so fast in those two or three months...nice work with painting...my advice is...study more anatomy...
and i'm waiting to see moooooooore

[vatteh]

ArtDisaster - Thanks. That's very motivating.

No tablet yet. I just did some Bridgman and Loomis studies as I wait for it to be shipped.

[LordVenom]

Nice to see all these loomis studies! That girl above the airplane is very nice, love it!

[vatteh]

LordVenom - Hey man. Thanks for the complement. I found those Vilppu DVD's but they're too expensive right now. Maybe another time.

I got my Intuos4 a few days ago and I'm back in business. Today I got some Film Stills, fan art and some stuff mostly from memory. Critiques like always are always welcome.

[vatteh]

I got something I just started to work on today. I'm not too comfortable with the smile or jaw, but besides that, it's turning out ok. Any other tips?

[vatteh]

Some studies of a photo and a 30 min still life.

[vatteh]

Hand studies, about 1 min each. Also some figure studies; all from reference. I used to throw discus in high school in case any one wonders why I picked these for refs. You probably don't, but whatever. Critiques are always welcome.

[vatteh]

Moar studies!

[vatteh]

Quick 1-3 min sketches. This time female heads (from reference).

[vatteh]

Another 3 min Figure Study, some 20 min speed paints and a work in progress. I'm really looking at the speed paints seeing that I need to do this more often.

[vatteh]

3 min face sketches, a 30 min speed paint, and some stuff from memory.

[we4er]

nice pics

[vatteh]

we4er - Thanks man.

A photo study, a fashion study and a character design.

[seetsy]

keep going with the studies bud, maybe do some more value studies and focus on form

[vatteh]

seetsy - Thanks for the support. Ill make sure to try that sometime.

I slacked and didn't do much studies today. Just a portrait and a quick sketch.

[vatteh]

I got a Photo Study of a portrait, a sketch, and a skin study. I know I messed up the face in the Skin Study, but the skin tones still don't feel right to me. The palate I used was from Marta Dahlig Skin Tutorial on ImagineFX. Any pointers are welcome.

[LordVenom]

Lots of great stuff man! I see the intuos 4 makes you wanna work even more Really like all the studies you are making. The movie still came out great (also i'm a big iron man fan so i wouldn;t dare say anything bad about them^^) The apple i don;t like though, you can do much better judging from your other stuff. You can;t really see where the light is coming from and if you put it in black and white you'll see the form is kinda lost. Try showing some more highlights maybe. Anyways other then that i love all the progress!