The Journey of a Novice: Back to the Basics

[loper42]

Hi,

Welcome to my sketchbook. I'm an aspiring artist starting at the beginning of the art. I didn't seriously begin drawing until a year and a few months ago. Since then, I have made it a goal to draw everyday and improve as much as possible. I have been shadowing this site for about a year now and believe its time to bring myself into the open. Everyone on here is absolutely amazing and committed, and I'm always inspired by the creativity here.

One of my prominent goals is to learn figure drawing from life to the mind and eventually begin oil painting. But first, I'm going back to the basics.

The first drawing was me learning the effects of perspective. I'm trying to develop a greater understanding of it, because I think I skipped in my beginning learning process.




Any constructive criticism is absolutely welcome.

[loper42]

Hey guys,

Here is an update. The asian house was really fun to draw. I think I'm going to add details and draw another one. The self-portrait turned out a little strange. I was trying to draw in pen without erasing or anything like that.

Sorry about the paper for the banana. I was trying to use it to help guide my strokes. It helped allot in being selective with my lines.

Constructive criticism is welcome!

[loper42]

June 25

Trying to learn how to draw the human head and figure. Here are some practice drawings.

I still need practice, but I'm going to practice a bunch more and hopefully get them down. I'm reading through the Loomis books and they are really helping me understand the construction of the figure.

Constructive criticism is welcome!

[ErikHolfelder]

Hey loper42, thanks for checkin out my sb.

You're doing great! Just draw draw draw! Don't get discouraged if you don't get a ton of replies, just post a lot and people will see your commitment and start stopping by more.

The biggest thing you can right now is to learn to really see what's there. It's hard to distinguish between what you think you should see and what is really there. Keep doing anatomy studies and drawing from life. Try and see the angles of the edges of shapes, the negative space (spaces between and around the object), and the different relationships between parts of the object.

It'll all come in time, so long as you just keep drawing! Keep it up!!!

[loper42]

eekolite: Good advice. I suppose I can't expect people to notice my sketchbook until after I begin to show real commitment. I will definitely try more life drawings. I've been straying away from that and its good idea to go back to it for awhile.

Here's a bunch of gesture drawings. Gestures are hard, but I'm going to keep doing them until I've mastered them.

I think the self-portrait turned out ok. I was trying to use the information I learned from Loomis books, but I'm going to have do more to really grasp the concepts.

[Nenad]

Hi loper42, ok, let me get on to the point. The first sketch, the chair, everything looks good except for the seat itself, it somehow isn't right. The side shading isn't good, goes to up on the right, while it should ended a much earlier. Now, the seat itself, you should've done it a bit more elliptical, goeas up too much, ain't good. Try, I don't know, putting the empty glass in front of the seat on the screen, and observer the glass opening, the shape of it, if you put it right, based on the legs and else, you should see that it more elliptical than your seat. I hope you'll understand me.

Nice anatomy study, and I love that chinese little house or whatever it is, good perspective. Keep it up, practice and practice, all it is. See you around.

[furiana]

Hey! Your heads are already improving. That's got to feel good!

Since a lot of other people are already giving you good advice, I'll just leave two tips.

One is to remember that the inner corner of the eye is always lower than the outer corner of the eye, unless the head is tilted strongly upwards. You should see the difference in your sketches-from-imagination right away!

Second is to block in the shapes of the hair before filling in the strands. That would be the tip under "Layout: putting down the basics" in this tutorial. I'm in the process of learning which shapes to draw for which types of hair, but I can still vouch for how well it works!

HTH!

[loper42]

Nenad: I see what your saying. Its not the correct elliptical shape. I will definitely work on that and try and get more accurately circular chairs.

Furiana: Aw... thank you! I never thought about that for the hair. That makes perfect sense. I tried to use the eye advice while drawing the loomis heads. Thank you so much! I've always had trouble with hair and I think this just might help.

Here's a loud of work from yesterday and the day before that. The pen work was quite fun and I enjoyed trying to be conscious of my strokes. Although, the car could've been a bit better.

I think I'm starting the idea of gesture drawings and hopefully doing them everyday will make even better.

Any constructive criticism is welcome!

[Marlee.]

Hi loper42.

You're headed in the right direction here, its good to see so many loomis studies, it'll help a lot. It looks like you still don't have a strong understanding of the skull that lies underneath, but if you keep studying that it'll come. I suggest trying to get your hands on a 3-D skull model, if you can. You can pick up cheap plastic ones online.

I'd like to see some more lifestudies too. You're doing good!

[furiana]

Glad to help.

I kindof wish we had a "Keep it up!" button next to the "Thanks" button! "This poster was encouraged 58 times in 10 posts" ;p

The zippered bag looks like the best of the bunch from this go-round, but oddly enough, the car is my favorite. I'm not really sure why!

[loper42]

Furiana: I completely agree, it would be very helpful for commenting. I have yet to try the hair method, I will be sure to do it soon.

Marlee: Yes, it definitely has been helping with the construction and placement for the face. I took your suggestion and looked into the skull. Although, I don't have a 3D model, but it has already helped me quite a bit and I will likely do more studies of the skull.

Sorry about the delay, I actually got some kind virus like sickness and tried desperately to draw while sick, but I was way too tired. On Tuesday and most of Wednesday I didn't do very much drawing. However, I did on Thursday and most of this stuff is from yesterday.


The pen stuff is my attempt and figuring how to draw a circle. I'm finding hard for me to make my lines the way I want them to be. However, I'm sure with more practice I will get better.

Constructive Criticism is welcome!

[dleoblack]

Hi Loper,
first nice sk, so continue to draw hard every day.
if can help, but I don't know if is correct, continue studying Loomis, I've seen that is a good way to learn anathomy fast: copy and then a few try from immagination.
Keep it up

[loper42]

dleoblack: Thank you! It has definitely added to my learning curve to learn loomis construction methods.

I did quite a few gesture drawings. I feel like I've finally figured out how to properly do them and have reached a new understanding. When I did the portrait, I tried Furiana's approach to hair and I thank you for the tip because it helped.

I will have new portrait done for next time and hopefully some more finished work.

Constructive criticism is welcome!

[loper42]

Here are some more drawings. Loomis is really helping with understanding the way that people move and head movements.

I feel like I need to work on my line work, but I'm not sure exactly how to improve them. Constructive Criticism is welcome!

[Marlee.]

Hey loper!
Great job with the gestures/poses. They really helped so much and if you do them regularly they'll skyrocket your ability. Just make sure you do some from imagination, afterwards. I know it can be frustrating! Trust me haha. Its a pain in the butt but it'll be worth it one day when you can draw a great, accurate figure easily. (Isn't it nice to imagine that someday, it will be possible to draw a good figure without drawing 30 other crappy attempts first? Its what I look forward to, hah.. I usually don't even get it on the 31st try yet.)
The loomis stuff looks good, its super helpful too as long as you remember to stress volume and form. Its still something i'm getting the hang of, but every time you lay your pencil to the paper to draw a figure or a person think of the sense of volume it has in real life. Try to communicate the shapes, like spheres, cylinders, cubes when you're drawing. Its tough. If you looked at my real life sketchbook you'd wade through pages and pages and pages of hundreds of cubes and cylinders. Remember that NOTHING is too basic to practice. (Doesn't everybody think, "of course i can draw a cube, thats easy"? I swear its harder than it looks!)

The stuff from life is good too. I love the plaid hat from a few days ago. Just take your time. With stuff like the rolling pin, which is cylindrical, it pays off to really have patience when you're putting those lines down to describe the form.

[dleoblack]

Hi Loper,
the suggestion I can give is, like Marlee, to take the time to learn. Continue to copy Loomis, Bridgman and photos taken from the net - nudes.
It's a long process to develop the right eye for proportions and overall figure "melody"...eh eh
take care

[DefiledVisions]

Good advice has been given already! definitely stick to what you're doing. Nailing the fundamentals is key.

I'll go ahead and crit you on your drawing technique. This is most noticeable in your portraits, you smudge. When drawing I suggest you either draw entirely with lines, hatching, or entirely with smudging. They don't go well together. Find the one you're most comfortable with and get really good at it
Also, when you fill in huge areas you seem to do it without any consideration on the direction of the lines, just scribbling 'here and there'. This brings your drawings down a lot, giving them a cheap look. Try to have all your lines follow the flow of the object you're shading.

Your crosshatching also needs some attention - I made a quick sketch in photoshop to show you what I mean. As far as I have come to understand hatching there's two ways to go about, one is to stick to the straight lines and build up layers of those, the other is to use more curved c-shaped lines. As you can see both are great techniques, I however prefer the c-shape hatching, it's softer and gives a more organic feel to it. I combine both when doing pencil work.
In time your hand will grow confident and it will be almost like 'carving' out a drawing with these patches.
Keep on drawing! and keep the lines in mind when doing studies, don't smudge the lines, it's a bad shortcut - build up layers instead. And watch proportions!
oh and the eyes seem to be too far apart on this face, haha, you always learn something new with art

[loper42]

Thank you for commenting everyone it means a lot!

dleoback: Yeah proportions is definitely one of my weaknesses, but eventually I will master it. I agree I just need to slow down.

Marlee: I tried drawing from the mind like you suggested and its actually quite hard. I will post them next time. I'm definitely making it part of my routine, I think it helps solidify what your trying to draw. Thanks for the suggestion

DeviledVisions: Thanks for the thought out advice! I completely agree with you about the smudging. I have decided to completely stop doing that until I have mastered the line. Its really a bad habit to have. I like your method for hatching. I kind of tried it with the first portrait not to your quality. I shall do another one.

I'm pleased with the drawings from this post. I feel like I'm getting somewhere.

[loper42]

I took Marlee's suggestion and did some imagination work and let me say, I feel its already paid off. So thank you for the tip! I'm definitely doing those from now on after gestures and anything I draw.

Next post will have some studies and life drawings.

Constructive Criticism is welcome!

[furiana]

You already got good advice, so I'll just send some encouragement your way. Things are slowly improving! Keep it up!

[krysjez]

Nice progress. If you compare the July 10th portraits with the July 5th one there's already a noticeable improvement However some of the shading looks a bit haphazard (e.g. the shadow cast by the head and the shading on the neck for the woman in profile for July 10th)

[N E X T]

Nice progress so far - you have some really nice pencil sketches.

The portraits are good ( seccond one !! #18 )

but you should focus on the propotions - for example the height of the eyes is wrong ( #18 the first one )

keep it up!

[loper42]

NEXT: I agree my proportions are not that great. I'm just not sure exactly sure how to improve it though.

krysjez: Its good to know I'm making improvement.

furiana: Thank you! I'm definitely keeping it up.

Sorry I haven't posted my stuff in awhile, I got my license suspended for a stop light and I had to get it resolved so I could drive.

Constructive Criticism is welcome!

[furiana]

Hey, skull studies! One with an open mouth, too; that's tough.

[krysjez]

From the look of a few of the semicircles it looks like you're either drawing too slowly (laboriously, I believe, is the word) or going too fast and just trying to hit the center point. I guess you could try experimenting with different speeds while putting down lines, and find the one that results in the freest, most natural looking line. The pressure you apply with your pencil probably also affects that too - what if you drew with a slightly lighter touch?

[fudgeloaf]

Hey man got some good momentum building up in this SB dont slow down you've already improved and its been less than a month! Critique wise im quite new myself so dont know if my opinion counts much but anyway- Think more about where you place your lines, the only thing you need is patience when drawing and understanding each picture is a learning experience or atleast thats how I see it.

Great Dedication Keep it up!

[loper42]

fudgeloaf: Thank you! I'm definitely not stopping.

krysjez: I will definitely try that thanks for the tip. I can't seem to get the hang of semi-circles. So hopfully practice will beat that.

furiana: Yeah, it was pretty hard. But I think it helps allot with figuring out how to draw.

Thank you for the comments guys!

Here is some new stuff. I really enjoyed doing the sculpture of the Goddess of Justice.

[Nutella]

You've got a nice line quality to your drawings; that's really nice to see!

If you want to master figure drawing, you should definitely go to your library and go look @ the art section. I won't suggest any books (although I know of a few that really helped me) because it's you need to find books that help YOU. Some books helped me but might not help you at all, you know what I mean?

But I can say that as long as you stay dedicated, you're going to improve, and who knows. Maybe in a year, you'll exceed your current goals and be making master pieces

One book I do suggest reading: Art & Fear. Best book I've ever read.

[Diarum]

hey, Just stoppin by (lol I say that like I've post on here already >.<)
Anyhoo I think that your doing a good job keep at it its all about the pencil mile
more still life though just 100s and 100s of them

[MyioDeSopsia]

I'm seeing huge improvements in your portrait drawings. I think you should be very happy with that progress. You follow forms really nicely in your pen studies, especially on the bag near the top of post 8. Some of the pencil lines in your scans are kinda hard to see, but as far as criticism goes, I think you are heading the right way. Keep up the figure studies. If you want, do many many from memory/imagination too-- to better comprehend the figure and recognize what you do not comprehend as well.