AnthonyV's sketchbook

[Asatira]

Hands are coming along well. If you need more views of your hand, I'd suggest a mirror.

Still lives are good practice for learning to apply things you've learned in theory. You can learn how to measure, observe forms and value, how shadows fall, things you need to apply to other subjects, including people. You can also get an idea of good composition because you can play around with set-ups.

[Reutte]

Your hands that you're drawing from life are definitely the best looking out of all the hands that you've been drawing. Some of the loomis hands, their fingers look a little too long.

[AnthonyV]

Hand studies
Thanks everyone I'll keep it in mind

[tronrobot]

that last hand from life is very well done, that's a hard angle, yo!

[Asatira]

Loving the hands from life.

[KT]

I agree, the hand from life are good. I think you should try to translate some of the knowledge of form from the life drawings to the drawings from imagination, thing in terms of 3d and construction, if that makes any sense.

[AnthonyV]

Having an off day uuuugggghhh
It seems like atelier people stick to pencils and charcoal for drawing.
So I put down my mechanical pencil away and tried charcoal - couldn't get it to work
then I did some hands from life with a regular pencil - still couldn't get it to work...

[AnthonyV]

Tried charcoal again, ruined 3/4 the pencil by sharping too clumsily, zzzzzzz

[Asatira]

A new medium can be tricky to learn, even if it's supposedly similar to one you're familiar with. Charcoal just feels different. Next time you go to class, don't feel shy and ask questions about how to use it, like sharpening (I can't help, I rarely deviate from graphite. T_T)

That said, the charcoal works really well for the latest hand studies. Helps really get the gradation of shade/tone, and gets a really nice black.

[KT]

Yeah charcoal can be a bit difficult to get started with. It's helpful to think of it like a painting medium, to think in terms of mass (likes tonal shapes I guess) instead of line. If haven't read Harold Speed's The Practice and Science of Drawing, I would consider reading it as he goes over the subject further than I can. (I have a physical copy of the book and I love it)

[AnthonyV]

I tried using a dark/soft graphite pencil this time.

[Asatira]

Nice!

[KT]

Yeah really cool lighting from below. It seems like you've improved in using charcoal already, you seem to be thinking more in planes with it which is good,

[AnthonyV]

Gestures and stuff with hard charcoal, non-conte this time, I wish I had more time to draw today :X

[Reutte]

Your last four hands are definitely coming out much better!

[AnthonyV]

uggghh full day working...managed to cram some life drawings in though

[KT]

Good life drawings. I'd watch out about just outlining the body as it tends to look flat inside the outline if that makes any sense. By the way how long is your life drawing session?

[Black Spot]

With the 30sec drawings I'd stick to stick figures at first, getting the weight and direction of movement down first, then put the flesh on. It sure makes the 5 minute poses seem like a long time. Start small and get bigger when your confidence grows.

Nice improvement on the hands.

[hala]

Like KT said, don't treat charcoal like a pencil. Hold it differently, make strokes with your whole arm, and use it more for blocking rather than contouring. Also like blackspot said,with gestures, find the "movement" lines. EX: the curve of the back going into a sweeping leg. Define the overall balance of the figure and then put the flesh on. Also with your life drawings, try to observe the bigger shapes more, some parts are flattening out and it feels like you are paying too much attention to the outline and overall shape and neglecting the inner forms that build up the body.

THe imagination vs. life drawings are great--that is the best thing to do with studies!

[AnthonyV]

Thanks very much everyone
I have the day off tomorrow, so hopefully I can upload more stuff (no scanner sorry)

[KT]

Hey anthony. Those loomis studies are looking great, I'd try to apply some of the loomis head studies to your drawings from imagination.

[AnthonyV]

Thanks for your critiques everyone, they are ALL extremely helpful!
Loomis studies
and animal sketches from life (I accidentally squashed 2-3 bugs in my sketchbook wtf)

[KT]

It's nice to see you continuing your loomis studies. I'd say to pay a little bit more attention to the placement of the features on the face. I think you could make the animals a bit more structured by studying a good animal anatomy or animal drawing book. Joe Weatherly's book is really great if you're interested.

[Reutte]

hey Anthony, when you draw for fun, it seems as though you kinda make the people a bit narrow. One of my favorite tips I ever received from an artists was that all bodies need room for internal organs. XD Do you like drawing anime as a hobby?

Your animal studies are beautiful, they definitly have movment in them.

[AnthonyV]

@Reutte I like anime and I intentionally drew the figures narrow (choosing stylizing over realism)

[hala]

Im starting to see improvement in your studiessss : DDDD
If you like making people narrow for stylization, there are good ways to do it. Look into korean mangas (they tend to make very narrow people, I can give you some titles if you're interested), and study high fashion models perhaps. This way you can create narrow people that are still convincing. I also enjoy narrow and ridiculously tall people. High five!!

[Reutte]

Oh I see! I was just wondering because I also like anime/manga and I recognized the facial style really quickly. I wasn't sure if the body part was intentional or not. ^_^ Have you ever read xxxholic by Clamp? Very interesting stylization of characters in that series.

I also like that your new heads have cleaner lines.

[KT]

Yeah, your definitely improving. I'd pay a little more attention to the angle's of the cheek bones and the shapes of the eye sockets. I haven't tried it but loomis varies the proportion of the figures and has a chart that has the heads used back then for fashion drawing, though it might be outdated.

[AnthonyV]

@Hala *Highfive* Can you PM those korean manga titles?
I was debating learning to use charcoal and a regular pencil, now I'm just focused on learning structure. So I'm back to mechanical pencil (which makes effortless clean lines).

[Asatira]

Your studies are doing pretty well, especially Loomis. I'm not sure if I've said it in this sketchbook or not--forgive me if I'm repeating myself--but I'm with KT in learning to draw through your figures more and do less outlining. That tends to make them flat and unappealing, at least for me. Try to draw through the figure and work on getting the line of action of the pose, especially the shorter ones but can be applied to the longer poses.

Animals are pretty good, and I think you're getting more comfortable with the later ones. I'd suggest not doing cross-hatching for flat shading on animals like you did with the ostrich, it looks weird.

Here is a search result of images from xxxHolic. http://www.google.com/search?q=xxxho...2&ved=0CDYQsAQ