There is only room for more

[cifgha]

Hello there,

My name is Marieke, I'm a 20 year old student from the Netherlands.
I love to draw, about a year ago I started to take it more serious. I got most of the books recommended here to help me in my quest.

With this sketchbook I want to document my improvement.
But before I can improve I need your help, so leave you comments and critisism and help me to improve myself.

First images are from my sketchbook, I like to draw people when I'm travelling, it helps drawing more realistic.
I also started drawing digitally, first objects are of course vegetables, but I also started colouring one of my recent sketches. This one isn't finished yet, I will keep you updated.

[J-P Nihtinen]

Welcome cifgha!
What i see here is nice bunch of sketches, this is good, keep up that rythm.
But id like to say first of all that first thing you should do is to draw lots of live models, nudes i mean. It helps a ton, secondly, try to copy works of masters (this is termendous help, escpecially for classists and realists)

But it really depends what you want to be when you are full fledged artist (which id say, nobody ever will be, for life is always only learning and learning). If you want to become concept artist, i can't say much, but draw alot (for i myself am classist student)
All i can say about that is that, you should think alot about your characters and who they are, reflect their individuality through their apperance and expressions. And when character is complete, i'd next think the enviroment which this charater would live in, and home of course, characters have their effect on their own enviroment, and like in parts of cities like ghetto, enviroment effects the character. Keep that in mind and be like scientist; Question everything you do. (which is also a good trick when drawing just about anything!)

And one more tip that i will give you, that i recently myself learnt too: Use tones of every single drawing you do, i learned this from working diary of Leonardo da vinci.

He gives this tip escpecially to young artists, so that you would get used to tones straight from the start of your career, for it will be MAJOR help, and will surely make your work LOT better then others who would have started at your time. But that does not matter after all, and since your 20 years old, it does not even matter anymore. It still, is surely major boost to your skills.

And also, always make up a challenge, if you draw something easy you will never learn anything.

But what i can say about your work, is that it's good that you do lots of sketches for start, but you should focus more on it what you are seeing and trust your eyes. For now that's most important and it's most basic thing before getting into something like Anatomy or perspective or golden cut in human.

You show good start, keep it up! and never freaking give up, OK? ;D
Hope this helps bro.

Enjoy your stay in Conceptart.

[in2eternity]

I like onion - looks very nice and realistic. What about people - they are not so bad, but you should have strong anatomy-based knowlege first- than it'll be easier and nicer

[cifgha]

@ J-P Nihtinen: Thanks for your very extensive reaction, I really appriciate it.
I have followed a nude drawing class for 3 months, it was great, I completely understand what you mean.
Unfortunately it only lasted 3 months and I won't be able to follow another class this year due to circumstances.

As for the shading, it has always frightened me to do shading, I really need to push myself to do things that are outside my comfort zone. My goal is to tone every single sketch I make, to improve this.

@in2eternity: Thanks for your support, you are absolutely right, I got some Brigman books on anatomy, but I haven't really used them yet.

My wish is to become a concept artist someday, I know thats what most people want here at CA, but I love to express myself with drawing and creating whole new worlds from imagination.

To become really good, you need to make sacrifices, I have decided that the sacrifices are absolutely worth it, so I try to draw as much as I can everyday.

I will post my recent sketches tomorrow, when I have acces to a scanner.

[cifgha]

As promised more sketches. I'm doing an elephant project now, drawing them from different angles with different lighting.

I'll post more tomorrow including some thumbnails of elephants from imagination.

[MyioDeSopsia]

Wow, really nice elephants, the values are great, especially on the second one

[cifgha]

@ MyioDeSopsia

Thanks, glad you like it

The last two elephants from ref, next ones will be without.

[redpandafire]

Wow the elephant studies show your effort. Very cool!

[cifgha]

@ redpandafire Thanks

The results of yesterday and today, I tried elephants from imagination. This was much harder then I thought at first, and took a hell of a lot of time to get a little grip on things.
This is really something I need to work at, so please feed me all your critisism, I need it to improve

[PaintMyBrain]

hey m8. I am glad you found my SB Thx for the great post u made. I really like your work, for not being serious that long you are very good. I see talent so keep at it. The elephants are very, and I mean very good, especially the closer ones.
As I am a beginner I can't really tell you what to do but I would say that just do different stuf and not only stuf you like, also draw hard stuf. Cheers/Brain

[Amarok]

I think the elephants from imagination are looking great! It's obvious that you were really doing your studies intently and trying to learn from them. Keep it up!

[cifgha]

@ PaintMyBrain Thanks, you give me motivation to keep going

@ Amarok Thanks, before I even start sketching I try to decide for myself what I want to learn from doing this sketch, this way I really try to push myself harder.


The next step in my elephant project, painting it in Photoshop. It took me about 3 hours to get to this, you're seeing now. It's a very slow process, I envy those who can make great speedpaintings in a quarter it takes me. Anyway gotta work harder

The last step will be an environment for my elephant to be angry at, I have never even tried an enviro, it scares me like hell.

[cifgha]

Haven't been at home this weekend, so no progress at the elephant project.

I have managed to do some sketches though.
One from the view outside, to practise perspective and two sketches from an animal skull, probably a rabbit.

[cifgha]

All right then, progress on my digital project. I decided to paint a mouselike creature to tease my elephant.

For starters some prelimary sketching to determine the posture of the mouse all from imagination.


Got any tips or critisism, please tell me.

[Nibras]

Awesome . You're doing the best things. Brilliant start, just make sure you keep this up with all your pieces.

Focused finished studies, then apply them in finished imagination work. Great stuff.

My only critiscim with the elephant would be his left (our right) leg. You can't tell where it is, so just make that clearer. Also clean up the edges around the elephant. You probably want all hard egdes. Just use a hard brush and go around the edges.

Take care and keep rocking

[smuli]

Nice elephants! I like the way you shaded the photo studies and the sketches from memory aren't bad either. Mice look good too and I like the effort you took to make it look right in the pose. You seem to have lightened it a bit already but watch out for too dark shadows on the elephant, it easily makes it look kinda flat. Keep up studying the way you're doing!

[cifgha]

@ Linebo: Thanks for your advice Indeed the edges are too soft, I will fix that one.

@ Smuli: I'm glad you like it. I will watch my tones in the next painting.


As for lighting, this was the first time, so keep these crits coming
Next step the environment. I'll post that one tomorrow.

Yesterday I deciced to do some real life drawing in the park and later at the library. Main goal was drawing people, but the results were absolutely awful. Instead of my weekly model classes, I have got to pick this up weekly. So please remind me when I'm slacking.

Today was life objects drawing day. Drawing from photo ref isn't everything, I learned, so I try to vary between them. The first one is a bike chain, the second a really cute wooden statue of Buddha.
Especially the last one is wrong, but I fail to see why, so if anybody has any idea how to fix it, please say so.

[cifgha]

I'm beginning to get some insights in effective learning and motivation. That took about a year, but anyway I'm glad I finally understand myself and how to get myself motivated.

I have been drawing numerous humans, mostly from ref, but also from life drawing classes which I took. I have studied the books of Loomis and Brigdman, done a great deal of posemaniacs but up till now it had little effect on my drawing skills.
What I do know, mostly from Loomis, is the 8-headed proportion, differences between man and woman, etc.

But still I can't draw a simple human figure, eventhough I practiced it a lot. This isn't the core of my problem, though While drawing anything at all, most of the time it feels useless and I don't learn a lot from it. Those studies felt like a neverending spiral downwards, causing great motivational problems.

Recently when I decided to start my elephant project, I came up with a goal. I wanted to be able to draw an elephant from imagination, place it in some kind of environment and add some nice details. The end result would be a painting made in Photoshop.

With that in mind, I started asking myself, what kinds of information will I need to be able to do this? I had never drawn an elephant before, so my knowlegde was completely zero.

As you can see here, I started drawing elephants from ref and even shade them meticilous. Those elephants took me about 4 hours each, I had never been able to do draw such a long time at only one piece.
It was enormously satisficing and the whole project still is, as I'm still working on the environment.

Although I learned a lot the past year, only since this project, I feel an constant urge to draw,even study.

Anyway to make a very long story short, congrats if you kept reading, I found my motivation in doing various projects where I constantely keep working to a goal and keep analysing my process.

This is the way it works for me, it still won't be an easy path, but it matters less now. I don't think it works for other people like this, what I do believe that everybody needs to find their own way to learn the most effectively and this will differ from person to person.

I won't be as active the rest of the week and the next, because I'm really busy now for school and other projects I have to finish.

Don't worry, it will only be a short break

[cifgha]

I'm back, short break took a little longer
Anyways kept drawing, I will post small batches of sketches in random order these days to get it up to date.

As always feel free to leave feedback, it will be greatly appriciated

[cifgha]

This one was made while travelling. First I drew my handbag, next to it are small thumbnails of passengers.
Had a lot fun drawing these, got to work on the proportions though

[cifgha]

Allright, quite a big update with recent stuff and a little less recent
I'm experimenting with different mediums, it keeps me motivated.

First of all a painting I did a while ago, the first one I finished, yeah
Then a simple value study and sketches of all kinds of stuff and people.

Merry Christmas.

[jNeumann]

Great work, the watercolor Onion is my favorite. Keep Studying!

[George Abraham]

Nice tones and linework in your sketches. Keep challenging yourself.

[cifgha]

@George Abraham, thanks

Today's still life, I also practiced perspective and did some digital painting.
Both I'll post another time.

[purplegoat]

Awesome sketchbook. Seems like you are doing the right things to improve. So just keep going with it and keep pushing yourself to learn. Try to balance drawing from life, drawing from reference and drawing from imagination. Looking forward to more!

[kiwigarbage]

Yay! I approve of the types of studies you're doing. They are all full of intention, which is the key to learning. Know your aims, and success will happen

More tonal studies! I think you're tending to make things darker than they are.

Keep on drawin'

[cifgha]

kiwigarbage and purplegoat, thanks for your great advice and support

@Kiwi, great suggestion about the tonal drawings, I'll try to do some value studies when I got the time

I have decided to get cracking on the basics of drawing. So this sketchbook will be filled with lots of life drawing in combination with perspective and anatomy studies.
The next life drawing class will probably be in april, so until then it will be sketches from the train and my local library.
I don't have enough images in my head to be able to get some great imaginary stuff out, so this is my next goal

If anybody has some suggestions what to study, please say so.


Some visuals to go with this post

[cifgha]

I decided to join a one of conceptart's drawing groups.
Check it out here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=203567

I'll be posting a lot of that stuff in here for the time being.

First batch: 3 quick portrait studies from reference. I'm having problems choosing the right angle of the head. I found out that first laying down the right angle helps me position the head better. Studying some Loomis wouldn't be a bad idea I guess

[Steveland]

I'm trying to get that concept down, the positioning of the lines to determine the direction of the head. Great elephant though.

[cifgha]

I'm back for more

At the moment I'm trying to establish routine of drawing everyday. I won't be posting these everyday though, but at least once a week.

Most drawings are human related, because I'm really fascinated by them.

The sketches are from different feet, both from Loomis and observation. The painting is a selfportrait still in progress. I hope to finish it by sunday.