Shai's Sketchbook - Feb 12

[shai]

Howdeh all!

Been a lurker here for some time and finally ready to start sharing my work.

Please, PLEASE offer any constructive critiques or suggestions. I really want to improve and with hard work and the helpful eye of you amazingly talented people, I'm sure that I can. Any help will be big help. In exchange, I'd be more than happy to make comments in your sketchbook too if you like.

Go to the last post to see (and critique! ) my latest drawings.

[ONIGATO]

i was impressed by your skill, you are a good artist.

[shai]

Moving first batch of sketches to their own post....


So about my first batch of sketches... they go from oldest to newest (all done within the past few weeks)... I'm using mostly photo references and myself in the mirror for anatomy reference).


Okay, so these are the most craptastic, me trying to get in the groove of things again, but thought I'd post them for the sake of showing development... all photo referenced except for the 4th, which is from imagination:








(Uuuuugggghhhhh...*closes eyes*)






From here on out, I finally got serious... I'm taking my time, starting to study anatomy, and trying to pay more attention to proportions (almost all photo referenced, will note otherwise):





(Self portrait using mirror... realized how fudged up the eyes are after scanning this in, but can't quite pin down what's wrong... suggestions?)


(Welp, tried to add a little imagination to this photo reference. This is where I realized I know nothing about shading, facial anatomy, or drawing hair. )








(observation of my cat Gary.. was peacefully sleeping, but perked up when he sensed my other cat Tama stalking him )


(referenced from an action poses book... didn't pre-plan so her hand w/ gun didn't make it on the page >_< ... I actually feel good about this drawing and where I'm going with things... Think I started getting a better awareness of anatomy here, but my attempt at shading sort of messed with the success of this sketch)


(the entire right side of her face was in shadow, so I got lost... )


(thought I'd try drawing a man for once *le sigh*... and oh no... hands & feet!)


(Slowed down after that last sketch and really tried to pay attention to what was happening with her arm + body in this perspective. Also refused to give up when I got to the hand this time.)


(photo reference, but wanted to add a little more character and personal style... I'm actually pretty happy about this one. )


(another photo reference I wanted to add a little more character to, but still pay attention to anatomy. Too scared to attempt shading and although I'm trying to pay more attention to eyes and facial structure, I'd really love to hear what I could do to improve on this..)


(*le sigh* Feel like I backslid on this one. I found myself getting lost in the details and anatomy sorta flew out the window .)


(facial study... hair, oh hair... how you elude me.)

[qlotzan]

dont feel like you dont have talent !!!! you have especial art movement just try do more sketching and you'll see the change

you need some study on anatomy and life art they are helpful for you look around you . start from your bedroom to outside


everyone came to this forum and join with it , have his/ her knowledge to share and know what the strengh and weakness in their art and try to work hard to improve it.


keep it up

good luck


Qlotzan

[shai]

Okay, so here's today's sketch.... could really use some advice on how better to use reference photos as a learning tool. I feel like I learn little bits, but overall just end up trying to draw what i see. I obviously got very lost on her right hand and her entire left arm... her armpits are pretty funky too. :<

I'd greatly appreciate if someone could point out some things or even do a quick draw-over. Thanks so much!

[LtPlissken]

You have pretty much overreacted about your wasted time and about your
lack of skills and art knowledge, cause actually you are good.
I was expecting some beginners drawings and sketches after
I have read your introduction, and then I got surprised, these pencils,
are so great. Are those some kind of special blue pencils, or just regular
color pencil?
The portraits are very well done and I like the last drawing also.
Ok, maybe her elbow is a bit higher than on the reference but, I
would not get frustrated about such small mistakes. You captured
the pose and that is the most important. BTW I am using the same
references sometimes as you are. (People and poses)
Keep posting, you are doing great.

[lord_senneian]

Lots of really good stuff here. You have really good line quality. Not only is your anatomy not bad, it's actually really good. Great expressions in the faces too. I'd really love to see you try working on giving some of these figures some values. Try some very dramatic lighting techniques on post them, I think it would work very well with your almost cartoony style.

[shai]

Thanks so much for the great comments y'all.

I suppose I should clarify my intro a little. I'm not a total beginner. I'm just one of those people who sorta fudged around in art school for this or that reason and though what I did learn has made it possible for me to find a job in the creative field (I do e-learning flash design), I've never attained my ultimate dream, which is to bring to life the images and stories I have in my mind. It's been years since I took drawing seriously, so I started this sketchbook to dive back into things with a fresh mind and fresh attitude... I guess I sorta feel like a beginner in that sense. It's really inspiring to see other people's sketchbooks here and what a little confidence can do!


SO! For today's entry, in an attempt to start addressing my fear of values, I tried my hand at digital painting. I used a photo reference and tried my best to resist the urge to use the eyedropper to pick colors. No tracing. I did an initial rough sketch, tried to get the proportions right, and then started painting on a top layer until i didn't need the sketch anymore . I can honestly say this is the best painting I've ever done and I attribute much of its success to comments I've read in other sketchbooks and the paint-overs people have been kind enough to do for others. It's still a work in progress... I still have some work to do on the face and since I got totally engrossed in the face, I completely forgot to address pretty much everything else.

Please give any helpful comments/critiques you might have on how I can push this painting further and I'll incorporate your feedback in my next post. Thanks!!

[shai]

Are those some kind of special blue pencils, or just regular
color pencil?

Hm... Its a blue Prismacolor Col-Erase pencil. For some reason I feel like I instantly draw a little better when I use one. I think it's because I find it easier to make lighter marks before committing, unlike graphite where I find myself grinding away.

Thank you for your comments, btw! Sometimes it takes someone else to point out when one is being to hard on themselves, so thanks.

[shai]

Ok, think I've finally gotten to the point with this where I'm not really learning anything and I'm starting to do things willy nilly, so I think it's time to move on to something new. Next post I plan to have some gesture drawings and try something from my imagination.

[Samszym]

Hey how's it going? nice studies and stuff. Couple of things, watch out for tangents in your drawings and try doing some cross contour studies. It might be a good idea to value out your pencil stuff. Keep up the good work!

[shai]

Okay, so here's some contour/gesture/WTF? sketches I've done the past two days.... There's a few in there that I like (#4, the two in #6... oh, and the gesture of the girl sitting in #5)... but daaaammn, the rest are pretty stank. I used posemaniacs for many of them... there's one drawing of a face that was from memory (i thought I was doing imagination, but when i finished i realized there was nothing imaginative about it at all just a relatively OK head )

Worst thing about some of those gesture thingies are the proportions! I didn't realize they looked like stubby little action figures until I was looking at them on my monitor. I think it's also pretty clear the ones I liked are the ones i was the most focused/clear-minded while doing.

Anyhoo... here it is, please give me some advice!

[~KJK~]

cute girls!

[shai]

New update, finally. A drawing of my little nephew. Thought I'd try working with value this time instead of avoiding it like the plague. Please leave comments on this and other drawings I've posted! 'tis the best way for me to find out what I need to improve on. Thanks!!

[Mr. Smile]

Hey there!
You capture your poses well and I also dig your style. I can see some proportion issues, but nothing big.

To the critique:
Maybe you should do more portraits to really nail those faces.
The last one looks awesome. Try to soften your strokes a bit, you´ll have easier time adjusting proportions and defining the shadows. Thats what I´m trying to learn right now, anyway.
Good luck and see you around!

[shai]

Thanks for the comments Mr. Smile. Will do more facial studies for my next few posts as well as try to keep a light hand with my pencil... I failed in that regard with today's drawing I see a detail and I dig in... just too deep! lol. I also need to start drawing bigger... this one is almost actual size and it was way to hard to do her face. Anyhoo... it's not much, but here's my effort for tonight, drawn from a photo reference.

[keigo]

Good sketches, your facials are very good indeed. Maybe you should do some more training on the body (I was thinking on the arms mostly, like the guy with sword, girl raising her fist etc).
Do some more fast croquis if possible, it's a very good way to learn how the body works.

Keep up with the good works!

[shai]

Woo hah! So here's my latest sketches... I know, I know, more studies! Have to stop getting so focused on one pose and spending all my time on it. Gave it another real go at putting in some values on the second drawing at least.

Comments please!

[Koh]

Some very nice stuff you've got going on here!

Would like to see some done with pencil as well, you seem to have a good grasp on value.


You should try this too if you haven't.
I know you've used the site but give the 30 second figures a shot.
http://www.posemaniacs.com/?pagename=thirtysecond
A lot of fun.

[kitana_mk]

Yes really You have good sense for volume and shape. You make the characters little cartoony but they are realistic enough.

Congrats.

I suggest to work more on figure in motion.

[NeonDuck]

nice work so far!

as has been pointed out, your characters are very cartoony. that's either a personal choice, or you're stuck in a bit of a rut and keep people the same way over and over. i say try drawing things differently now and then to loosen you up!

something else that makes your stuff look so cartoony are the outlines i think - you could try varying your line density a bit. hard creases and shadowed areas = hard thick outlines. light or smooth areas = soft or nonexistent outlines. just an idea

about gestures - you can do a good gesture in 2 lines, it's all about speed and flow. don't worry about shading or even outlines, just draw tons of them all over the page!
gesture isnt about producing something pretty, but instead something that communicates what you're trying to say. you can draw a very sad figure in very few lines, and you can draw 50 of them in the same time it'll take you to draw a single shaded one

[shai]

Wussed out in 2011 and didn't draw very much... finally come Jan 2012 I started drawing just about every day and kept it up all year. I'd say it's more like serious doodling... have still been too scared to do any planned out drawings/illustrations that relied mostly on my own imagination *tsk*... going to change that this year.

Lessee... Sold my 12" cintiq and bought an Asus EP121 off ebay this past November. I'm sure some will think this was an odd switch, but honestly, there was something about having to sit at my office desk, tied down to my desktop, that made drawing on my cintiq really unappealing... I hardly used it at home and haven't had to use it at work in a couple years, so I thought it'd be nice to switch to something with a pressure sensitive stylus, but is mobile. I'm absolutely loving the tablet, especially after upgrading to Windows 8. Best part is it was simply a trade, instead of having to shell out more money (really wanted the new Samsung ATIV 700, but I think I'll wait to shell out $1200+ on a tablet once the next gen of processors come out with improved battery life and graphics).

Aaaaanyhoo, I've pledged (again ) to stop being such a wuss about color and do more color sketches, so here's the first one I've done so far... pretty happy with it, looking forward to improving I'll post some of the sketches I've been doing over my long time away from this forum a bit later.

[The Pariano]

The figures in post 18 are very nice, I hope this new year will be very productive for you :] Is the latest supposed to be a fire entity? if so you may want to reference how flames actually appear; if it's just random fun then no worries.

[blazingdimensions]

nice stuff, on the drawing of the girl with the ponytail you stuck out her mouth to forward,and theres a little more space between her nose and mouth on the photo,everything else on the drawing looks good though. keep studying and keep it up oh and on the color flame thingy, you gradually increase saturation as you go along , and change in color from yellow all the way to red. for colors in general you generally want lights to be less saturated and darks have increased saturation. also think about the color of the light, warm or cool(like sky) or soft/hard lighting, hard as in sunlight which is a spot light and soft light is like the atmosphere which envelops everything. not sure if you know this stuff or not if you do sorry about the ranting. oh and something to remember warm light=cool shadows. and thats usually because the shadow would reflect the color of the sky oh and shadows are generally less saturated too.another thing for color is that theres more saturation generally in midtones of the same color usually.im not a pro yet and im self taught so take what i say with a grain of salt.for portraits there a different zones of the face to remember, the cheeks have more blood vessels so its redder, the chin and mouthish area can get more greenish and bluish depending, and the forehead has less blood and all that in it so its a bit more yellowish tinged. just some basic advice to remember.

[shai]

Thanks to you both for the comments! Now that I think about it, I guess this was less of a color study and more just me enjoying using bright yellow/red to paint a face with some dimension to it (as opposed to drawing with pen or pencil like I usually do). And yes, he was meant to be sort of fire-y looking, but only because of the colors, I wasn't trying very hard to make him look like he was actually made of flames. Your advice is incredibly helpful though and has reminded me that I should try to think more about my color choices and make conscious decisions about each mark that I'm making. Thank you!!

[shai]

Okay, thought I'd post up some doodles and whatnot. The last 3 are from last year and then the rest are more recent ones. I welcome critiques/comments on all of them About the most recent drawings... I'd kinda lost the passion in my daily sketching, and it suddenly dawned on me that everything I drew was usually done by looking at other peoples' work or photographs (which I know is good practice along with drawing from life), but none of my drawings really start as my own concept anymore and whatever does come from my imagination are always the same generic head with some generic expression (case in point, the girl in green and the other chick with no shirt ) So the first 3 drawings below are my attempt to start delving into my sorely neglected imagination and when doing so, try to draw something in a way I've never tried before). I have a feeling that lack of passion is really just a symptom of not feeling a sense of full ownership over what I'm creating.

I'd really appreciate comments on the "dude w/ horns" color sketch/painting and the two creatures hugging their stuffed animals. The painting.... Obviously it's still a work in progress, and I have been trying to use reference for it, but I've gotten soooo lost with it at this point. He's also suffering from a case of "generic expression/pose." HELP. O_O There's bits that I like, but my process feels so chaotic and I'd really appreciate any guidance in developing a more clear way of working on a painting like this.

And I see plenty of mistakes with the little creature guys, but I feel good about how they are starting to move away from all that generic-ness and are showing a little more liveliness. I was going for a more children's book feel with these and so there's also finally the hint of some kind of story being told, which is at least better than a blank stare off into la la land. I'd still love to see if y'all might have any suggestions and thanks in advance!

[shai]

Decided to put a little more time into that painting... I'd like to actually try and see it through to a finished work, rather than just some unfocused practice. I've started to try and figure out his face (worked on the right side mostly) and make his horns a more interesting shape... also starting to attempt to figure out his torso better... *determined!!*

[shai]

a little landscape sketch... eh, kinda just a cherry popper i've been terrified to try doing anything to do with landscapes, much less color, so my confusion and hesitance i think shows.... BUT I'm pretty happy to finally have given it a try and am looking forward to doing more and getting better