nouge's sketchbook. Learning to draw - hopefully

[Greenhouse]

Nice studies! I like the cups and glasses. The lines are very slick. One suggestion is that you change the "Brightness constrast" before you post. It's hard to see them properly when they are this bright (It's just an advice).
Thanks for checking out my sb! Keep up the good work!

[nouge]

Greenhouse: Thanks man! My scanner is veeeery bright, so I do adjust the brightness/contrast. I've tried to take it a bit further for this update, though.

Today: from life, ref and mind, you can see what's what. The spoons were very good practice.

[nouge]

Heads from head, objects from life.
Notes to self: don't do noses so clumpy, and measure, measure, measure from life. Get in the right mode, think, place lines once. If you're unsure about where a line should go, you should do some more measurements and place more landmarks. Check angles and perspective.

[Kode]

Your line quality has improved so much since your first few posts, the iron in the last update is very well done.
Keep up the studies and thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!

[nouge]

Thank you, Kode! Both for stopping by and the compliments

Head from head, hairy spoons from life, heads from ref and posemaniacs (maybe 3-5 minutes each).

[black-swan]

your lines have gotten so much more confident, I like that you don't feather your lines like many people do. Some of the heads are excellent, particularly the last few in your most recent post. I'm also really enjoying looking at your drawings from life, again, good job with the ellipses and the spoons too.

Also, some nice gestures. Watch the proportions and maybe try to do some 10 second gestures, to get more of an instant reaction, less focus on exterior contours and more focus on direction, thrust and feeling for the forms (if that makes sense ;P)

[ja1307]

Nice improvements mr, keep on positing just to commit urself to consistently working it will really pay off. You need to teach me how to apply construction techniques, seems you use i a lo for your studies you understanding of perspective is pretty shit hot good the way your using your life studies to teach the fundamentals keep it up.

[PeteJ]

as mentioned above, your linework looks really clean. I struggle with that. just work more on proportions and have you ever heard andrew loomis's book on drawing the head, it helped me a lot with drawing the head.

[PeteJ]

you are getting better, i think you should do some more fully rendered drawings.

[nouge]

black-swan: Thank you and thank you again! I'll get to work on proportions and anatomy of the body soon, it's something I've barely touched upon. I tried some 10 second gestures too, but they're barely recognizable lines, so I didn't include them. It's good practice for seeing the direction and energy indeed, I'll make sure to keep doing them

ja1307: Thanks a lot, ja! I could do a write-up of how I think when I construct if you want, but I don't know if I know anything you don't, though

PeteJ: Thanks, Pete! I'll keep working, and yeah, proportions of the body is something I'm quite weak on. Loomis approach to drawing the head is great, I'm guilty of only getting through 1/3 of his book on the head so far, though! Got to finish it. And yeah, I should do more finished drawings.

Today, mad scribbles. In order of appearance: heads from head, heads from photos, figures from mind, heads and eye from mind, hands from life (I'm long-sighted, so got trouble with things that close) and hair from mind.

[AllyAlbon]

Looking good - love the lizards on the first page.

[black-swan]

very strong line work once again, it's nice to see the improvement across the whole thread

[Simbelmynë]

Very good idea with the spoon practice. Your lines look very stable, you construct very well.

[nouge]

black-swan: Thanks! Good to hear there's improvement, I get kinda blind with my own stuff.

Simbelmynë: Thank you, and welcome to CA! Yeah, the spoons are pretty challenging and fun, give it a try!

Life, mind, ref and life again. The very loose, curly lines in some of the referenced drawings come when I've been going for a while and just go "yeah, that line's there, don't care what it is but it's kinda like this". It's a style I'd like to use more actively, but it's not so easy getting there consciously. And if anyone's wondering, the top ones are a combination of marker and pencil.

[nouge]

Little drawing the past couple of days. Been drawing some cubes from mind and life. The worst ones were done blind, which was kind of fun as I learned about some of my misconceptions. Also a couple heads from mind.

[nouge]

Some head doodles, life and ref.

[black-swan]

Nice updates nouge. The hands are great, nice line work as usual.

Are you still going through 'drawing from the right side of the brain'?

I'd be nice to see some interiors or landscapes, if you feel like drawing them, . Also, maybe try to draw some women's and children's heads, or different types of heads for further variety. You're drawing heads from plenty of different angles which is great, try pushing yourself further, you can do it

[nouge]

Thanks, black-swan! The next exercises in the book are about interiors, which I've been anxious about doing I'll have time for drawing this weekend, so I'll do the exercises, some women and maybe landscapes. Thanks for pointing this out, I really should challenge myself more!

Today, some basic shapes from life, posemaniacs and an anatomy study.

[brebory]

Inspiring progress, buddy!

[dumbnudge]

Thanks for your supportive words in my sketchbook!
I like the conveyance of space and form in you're recent stuff! And your lines are getting tight. Really inspiring!

[ill_Buny]

I like your head sketches, they are so thoughtful and hatching is nice. Keep going, man.

[black-swan]

nice work on those basic cubes and cylinders, keep practicing at it to nail those contours

[nouge]

Thanks, brebory!

My pleasure, dumbnudge, and thank you for the compliments!

ill_Buny, thank you very much, I'll keep working!

Thanks, black-swan You'll see many more drawings of those basic shapes, aye.

All from life today. I was almost done with the chair when I saw how very wonky it was, so I redrew the bottom part of it with a ruler. I know how to draw a straight line, so I'll forgive myself this one time. Also did a bunch of figure gestures, but not posting those. I need to get a better way to express the different parts of the body quickly.

[Greenhouse]

Hey, nice work with the cubes and boxes! Those shapes look good. I think I’ll try that myself. I suck at drawing straight lines and need a lot of practice. So thanks for the inspiration today!
You’re mentioning about studying the body and the suggestion I have is to take a look at Loomis and Bridgman. There are many other good books about the body, but those is the two I have started with. Keep up the good work!

[nouge]

Thanks a lot, Greenhouse! The cubes are very good practice, I plan on doing them frequently. Having them physically is a real helper for measuring angles and proportions, I recommend it! For drawing straight lines, the warm-up I often do is nice. I simply fill an A4-sheet with vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines from edge to edge in one long, slow stroke. It has helped a lot with the confidence for straight lines as I can do ~30cm ones without too much wobbling. Also, as you'll see I've done some Bridgman today, it was a lot of fun! I had it written down as something to do, I just hadn't gotten around to it before now, but I clearly see why you like him. Thanks again for stopping by!

The word of the day is loose! Very little refinement here. Doodles, basic shapes from life, girls from ref and Bridgman copies. These are in order, or else the top doodles would probably look different. Copying Bridgman was FUN! His drawings are so loose, I barely care where I put my lines, which leads to little thinking and much drawing.




By the way, if any of you see any consistent mistakes in my figures, please mention them. I see too short legs, too long torsos and too short and thin arms at the moment.

[karmazon]

Good studies, you are definitely improving.

[black-swan]

The brigeman studies are looking really good. Keep practicing with the cubes, sometimes your lines aren't parallel to each other and it can make the cubes look wonky- maybe work on that before working on the finish of the cubes. Overall though, everything is looking good, you're making good progress. What are your eventual aims?

[nouge]

karmazon: Thanks a lot!

black-swan: Thank you very much! Yeah, there's a balance I'm having trouble with hitting when doing the cubes, which is measuring versus logic. My measuring can tell me that one angle should be like this, and another one should be like this, but when they're combined within the whole shape it becomes obvious by logic (perspective) that at least one of them is incorrect, but I often have trouble telling which one is wrong. I will make sure to invest more time in making them look good, and not accept that they're incorrect as often as I do. Thanks for pointing this out! As for my goals, I actually sat down and wrote a list about a month ago, which went:
I want to draw:
-recognizable, decent-looking portraits from reference/life
-scenes and landscapes with believable proportions and perspective from ref/life
-solid-looking characters (head+body+clothes) from mind
-decent-looking products/mech/interior from mind
The list is vague about what level I actually want to reach, but in essence it's correct about the things I want to learn. I study product design, so in 3 1/2 years I'm supposed to be pretty good at drawing, but I don't learn much about it in school, so I've taken matters into my own hands! So I'm not aiming to become a concept artist, but I would love to have illustration as a part-time job at some point. Wall of text, huh!

Today's update: a page of doodles, some Bridgman studies (loose, loose!), a drawing of my messy living-room (which I scanned lopsided) and a doodle coloured with markers and PS. I''ve also done quick cubes, blind contours etc, but not posting those today.

[nouge]

A few drawings from the past couple of days which weren't an incomprehensible chaos of lines. Ref and life.

[Lost Shock]

Awesome stuff all over, man. I'm always impressed at how good you are at judging angles/perspective. From the look of it you're just eyeing it, right?