Starting from scratch, journal of progression

[Jiri92]

Hey guys, how are you all doing?

My name is Jiri Krewinkel. I'm 18 years old and from the Netherlands.

I've been lurking this forum and cgsociety for quite a while now, as well as random Devianart pages and I was always fascinated by these pieces that are posted here. Never did it occur to me I could be creating something like that. Well now I want to step my game up and get into the world of illustration.

I am COMPLETELY 100% new to illustration and concept art. I've read that Andrew Loomis is a great resource, so I went and got some of his books. I also have a WACOM Bamboo medium sized tablet to draw with.

The plan is to post my progress in here, just everything I create and hopefully see some good progression!

So please, give me all the critique you have on my pieces, as this will only help me grow.

You all seem like a friendly bunch so I'm looking forward to participating in this community.

Having said that, here's my very first piece.
I had no goal going into it whatsoever, just wanted to practice drawing a good face. From what I can see his mouth is way to small, and his eyes are very anime- and girl-like. Also his hairline doesn't seem to be at the right place.

[Jiri92]

hey! welcome to the forums your story sounds very similar to mine, i'm currently learning how to draw from scratch as well. you've already mentioned loomis - his books are a GREAT place to start - especially "drawing the head and hands" (you can read it online here ). i look forward to seeing more sketches!
keep posting!

Hey jazzanova, thanks a lot!

And yeah his Head and Hands book is the one I've got!

Work I did today:

Drawing the third head was really weird, I felt myself tilting my head to the left

[teapo]

Very nice start here buddy. That is quite an intro you made hehe. From the looks of it you are off to a great start with loomis. Try not to worry about details on the face for now but try to get down the basic shapes of the head and understand the planes of the face as well. I myself still need to practice more and more you might want to look into some hogarth books as well.

Mike

[Jiri92]

Very nice start here buddy. That is quite an intro you made hehe. From the looks of it you are off to a great start with loomis. Try not to worry about details on the face for now but try to get down the basic shapes of the head and understand the planes of the face as well. I myself still need to practice more and more you might want to look into some hogarth books as well.

Mike

Hey bro, thanks a lot for the kind words and advice, appreciate it.

Also, hogarth?

[ErikHolfelder]

Great start, with enough dedication you will see some crazy improvement in a few months and then in the coming years!

Hogarth is another author of some great drawing books just as Loomis is. Bridgman, loomis and hogarth are three giant names you'll see around here a lot. I think they all have some books available for free online, just search their names and pdf to find them, or find the hundreds of free ebooks thread.

Keep it up, draw from life, study photos, look over the drawing books. It's gonna be a wild ride! Good luck.

[Khimaira]

Check your PM's and keep it up. We're all looking forward to watching you improve.

[Jiri92]

Great start, with enough dedication you will see some crazy improvement in a few months and then in the coming years!

Hogarth is another author of some great drawing books just as Loomis is. Bridgman, loomis and hogarth are three giant names you'll see around here a lot. I think they all have some books available for free online, just search their names and pdf to find them, or find the hundreds of free ebooks thread.

Keep it up, draw from life, study photos, look over the drawing books. It's gonna be a wild ride! Good luck.

Hey bro, thanks and yeah, looking forward to it already!

Alright thanks for the clarification, I'll check out some of his books as soon as I'm ready with this Loomis book (if I get a lot of books and other learning material at the same time I won't be as focused to finish even 1 of them )

Check your PM's and keep it up. We're all looking forward to watching you improve.

Hey buddy, thanks a lot for you PM, have sent one back at ya!

Work I did today:'

I feel as if the eyes I draw are too 'anime'. And I'm also struggling with lips, gonna do some serious lip work! Third guy is supposed to be a native american. Fifth 'doodle' is an attempt to quickly create a face. And the last drawing is my recreation of a picture in which pro bodybuilder Flex Wheeler was posing, I failed his face a little though.

[fantasyartist]

Hey man great start! The advice I can give you is to spend alot of time practicing the basics. Don't try to tackle stuff that's too complex yet. Find a good book on perspective and learn that as soon as you can. Then practice drawing and shading basic forms in perspective. Once you've mastered this you can draw anything. I'll keep an eye on this sb. Good luck!

[lying-lynx]

Hey there, there's already a lot of good advice in this thread, but I'll just back it up. Don't try to draw anything too complex yet, stick to the basics. If you build up from the beginning you'll make things a lot easier for yourself in the future.
If you dedicate a decent amount of time to drawing every day, and keep critiquing yourself, you'll notice a big difference in given time. Just make sure you keep at it.

[teapo]

good update man. i agree with the previous posters by trying not to get too detailed or complicated drawings. just focus on basic shapes/shading/perspective > then you can move onto details. but then again, everyone's learning process is different, so tackle what you think you should from the get-go

oh and looks like i'm late to reply about hogarth. looks like some others have pointed out where you can find his books

[Jiri92]

Hey man great start! The advice I can give you is to spend alot of time practicing the basics. Don't try to tackle stuff that's too complex yet. Find a good book on perspective and learn that as soon as you can. Then practice drawing and shading basic forms in perspective. Once you've mastered this you can draw anything. I'll keep an eye on this sb. Good luck!

Hey bud, thanks for the kind words and advice, I'll try to put your advice to good use!

Hey there, there's already a lot of good advice in this thread, but I'll just back it up. Don't try to draw anything too complex yet, stick to the basics. If you build up from the beginning you'll make things a lot easier for yourself in the future.
If you dedicate a decent amount of time to drawing every day, and keep critiquing yourself, you'll notice a big difference in given time. Just make sure you keep at it.

Hey lynx, thanks for the advice! What would you consider basic and complex btw? I keep hearing draw the basics and nothing too complex, but for me right now everything is complex!

good update man. i agree with the previous posters by trying not to get too detailed or complicated drawings. just focus on basic shapes/shading/perspective > then you can move onto details. but then again, everyone's learning process is different, so tackle what you think you should from the get-go

oh and looks like i'm late to reply about hogarth. looks like some others have pointed out where you can find his books

Hey bro,

thanks for the advice, same question for you though; what would you consider some basics to start with?


Work for today:

did a posemaniac drawing that was recommended by Khimaira,
tried naming all the muscles from memory as an excersize after I drew them.

Then did some heads, *tried* to get planes down, and did a tiny bit on the eyes, those things are tricky man!

[fantasyartist]

To answer your question, what i meant with basic forms were spheres, boxes and cylinders. When I was doing industrial design those were the first things we were thaught to draw, then we moved to more complex forms. Everything can be broken down into these simple forms so it's logical to master drawing them correctly from every angle. What I consider complex are objects/forms that require a lot of good observation and construction to get right, like the human figure or a car for example. Hope this helps. Keep practicing!

[pretzel]

Draw more from life and u will be better in no time

[Jiri92]

To answer your question, what i meant with basic forms were spheres, boxes and cylinders. When I was doing industrial design those were the first things we were thaught to draw, then we moved to more complex forms. Everything can be broken down into these simple forms so it's logical to master drawing them correctly from every angle. What I consider complex are objects/forms that require a lot of good observation and construction to get right, like the human figure or a car for example. Hope this helps. Keep practicing!

Ah thanks a lot, I immediatly put it into action!

Draw more from life and u will be better in no time

Hey Pretzel, thanks for the advice

Work I did today:

didn´t really have that much time, but I practiced some ´basic shapes´

[fantasyartist]

Nice work on those studies! you may want to use a ruler for those persepctive exercises at this point to be more accurate. Keep it up!

[qlotzan]

nice start mate you looks from the people who work hard to improve their artwork

you have a talent practice more and you'll see the improvement.

keep it up and have fun

Qlotzan

[Khimaira]

rofl, the sunshine! The studies look nice. I should take the time to do some as well.

I need to buckle down and read these loomis books. They seem to be working well for you so far. Gogo! :"D

[Jiri92]

Hey guys, been away for a couple of days. Had a sort of holiday. I went to Movie Park Germany with a couple of friends (Halloween Horror Fest, GREAT fun!) so I didn't get any work in. Didn't have a lot of time today as well, but atleast I managed to get something in.

Nice work on those studies! you may want to use a ruler for those persepctive exercises at this point to be more accurate. Keep it up!

Thanks bro! However I use photoshop to do all these sketches in, how can I get it straight in photoshop? When I use the line tool I get a line with 1 value therefore it doesn't look 'drawn'.

nice start mate you looks from the people who work hard to improve their artwork

you have a talent practice more and you'll see the improvement.

keep it up and have fun

Qlotzan

Hey Qlotzan, thanks a lot for your input. I consider myself to be pretty disciplined but having a great mastermind group (like this forum) always helps heaps!

rofl, the sunshine! The studies look nice. I should take the time to do some as well.

I need to buckle down and read these loomis books. They seem to be working well for you so far. Gogo! :"D

Hey man, thanks! Yeah you should definately get into those loomis books, stuff is filled with gems!

EDIT: Didn't include todays work:

as I said, didn't have a lot of time today, so I tried some sphere studies.

[Nemome]

Good update!
Nice to see that you are doing the basics first, because the loomis face plane study was a bit to heavy for you i think

Go on, study perspective, light and basic forms.

SILWYNAR

[Jiri92]

Good update!
Nice to see that you are doing the basics first, because the loomis face plane study was a bit to heavy for you i think

Go on, study perspective, light and basic forms.

SILWYNAR

Hey man, yeah haha those faces were a pain!

Thanks for the words of advice!

--

Work I did today:

tried some circle drawing in one try instead of trying to perfect it with multiple strokes, doesn't really work that well yet

[Mr.Thorne]

great start man.

[Jiri92]

great start man.

Thanks a lot, man!

---

Work I did today:

started off trying to draw circles in one quick movement.

[Jiri92]

Lots of bandrehearsal today, but I did manage to atleast get some spheres in!

[fantasyartist]

Nice work on those basic forms. I can see some improvement in your lines already. Remember to draw with your arm instead of with your wrist. This will make it easier to get those spheres right. When drawing straight lines, put two dots on your paper and try to connect them with one arm movement. This way you'll avoid that your straight lines look wobbly. Keep up the hard work!

[Falchion]

Very nice work. Looking forward to the improvement!

[Demotyme]

I see those Loomis studies! Once you've got the basic shapes down, it easy to create just about anything in any position in space. Keep it up man, even if you don't post everyday, DRAW everyday!

[Eclair]

hey! dont even thinnk to stop!

[Jiri92]

Nice work on those basic forms. I can see some improvement in your lines already. Remember to draw with your arm instead of with your wrist. This will make it easier to get those spheres right. When drawing straight lines, put two dots on your paper and try to connect them with one arm movement. This way you'll avoid that your straight lines look wobbly. Keep up the hard work!

Thanks man, I've took your advice and started drawing with my arm, little getting used to though.

Very nice work. Looking forward to the improvement!

Thanks bro!

I see those Loomis studies! Once you've got the basic shapes down, it easy to create just about anything in any position in space. Keep it up man, even if you don't post everyday, DRAW everyday!

Yeah man, that's the attitude I try to live by!

hey! dont even thinnk to stop!

I won't, promise!

-------

Now today's batch:

[Jiri92]

Hey guys! Wow I didn't how long it's been since I now see the dates!

Anyway I've been on a holiday with family for the last couple of weeks so I really didn't do anything, starting tommorow I'm going to be drawing everyday again and posting my progress!

Siked to start again!

[Jiri92]

Alright, focused on spheres today, also have a question for anyone that is interested in helping me out in one of the workfiles here