HighRisk's daily-ish drawing adventures.

[HighRisk]

Dear Friends,

I've been lurking CA for about 6 years and this whole time I have been too nervous to keep a sketchbook. Well, I've decided to change that.

I'm determined to improve. A lot. In order to accomplish this, I will be doing as many studies as possible in my free time. I don't want to be one of those people who looks back at their life thinking, "Well, I used to be a pretty decent at art... then I gave up on it."

Please aid me in my artistic adventures by leaving critiques and advice.

I read every comment at least two or three times, because your advice means a lot to me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it when people take the time to say something helpful about one of my drawings. Don't be afraid to share your thoughts.

With gratitude,
HighRisk

[HighRisk]

Alrighty, here are some things to get this thread rolling!

First, a bunch of 30 second poses that I've done.
Second, a landscape speed paint from a stock photo reference on DA.
Third, a figure/clothing speed study from a stock photo reference on DA.

Enjoy! Comments and critiques always appreciated.

[Samszym]

wow. So many poses! The landscape and speedpaint look great as well! It's great that you're posting now and your SB is off to an awesome start! unrelated note, the rock in the right of the landscape looks like an unconscious dragon with his tongue sticking out. Keep the posts coming, can't wait to see more!

[insanelight]

Poses... a lot of fast poses... I really should do the same...
Keep it up!

[HighRisk]

Vertical - Thank you very much! I never noticed the dragon face, but when you pointed it out I had to laugh a little. I love subconscious imagery.

insanelight - Yeah, they can be very helpful. I also find it quite rewarding because after I've done a few 30 min - 1 hr sessions, I can look back and be amazed at how many poses I have drawn.

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Here are some more 30 second poses that I drew today, as well as a study from a stock photo by M.J. Ranum at DeviantART.

The second picture here took me 2.5-3ish hours and made me realize that I REALLY need to focus on stroke economy. I keep layering so many small strokes on each other to the point where it seems to make my cg art look lifeless. Not only that, but it takes me longer to cg this way because my strokes are inefficient. I'll definitely be working on improving that area.

Traditional art and some personal stuff soon to come so stay tuned!

[Creusa]

Nice studies. Are you interested in doing some stilllifes? They would help a lot.
And of course try to add some details in your work. Or do some studies of only objects to capture those details.
Good luck and all.

[HighRisk]

Creusa - Certainly! I love doing still life studies, I just haven't had a chance to do any in the last two or three days (which is when I started this SB, lol). I plan on doing some by the end of next week though. I have found that doing detail with color in digital painting is quite a challenge so I will definitely take your advice and focus on some still life pictures to help me improve. Thank you for your comment!

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Here are some pretty damn old pictures from 2009 that I have been itching to finish. The only problem is that I'm stuck and don't know how to fix them.
I've written my questions/concerns on the images, so if anyone is willing to drop me some feedback I will greatly appreciate it!
Please note that these images are pretty old, therefore I don't think they reflect my current skill or drawing style very much. Nonetheless, I think input of any sort will still benefit me greatly. Thanks for your time!

[kitfox]

Seems like most of your worries focus on the 'stiffness' of those last few paintings. #1 and #3 do look stiff and I think most of that has to do with the pose and the angle (perspective). #2 actually looks pretty nice. I'd add the feet by designing a nice pair of boots or shoes for her since her overall anatomy looks human. You could also reference some animal photos or anatomy sources if you want to give her beastly feet.

As for the stiffness in the two other ones. Probably the only way to really get rid of the stiff feel is to redo the pose. I've noticed something that adds a lot of dynamic feel to a pose, the arc of the back. Bring the characters chest out or tuck it in, make the spine bend, twist the torso. Also giving the characters something to do with their hands helps. For even more movement, tilt the main balance line of the pose, make the figures 'fall over' to a direction. Gesture drawing does worlds for this.

For clothes design you should take a look at some fashion magazines or shows. You could also look up random pictures of the theme you're planning for your character and play with the shapes and materials of the things you find, try make clothes out of them. For #1 I'd probably go with something futuristic scifi, or give it a feeling of magic by adding loose flowing clothes and more glowing runes/tattoos to her skin. For #3 maybe a longish skirt of sort, cut high up like the traditional style chinese dress. Can't say much for background, I'm bad with those myself.

I'd love to see more of your recent paintings. Based on these and the unfinished painting we can look forward to some quality work. (Also the thread thumbnail is awesome!)

-Kitfox

[Malakuko]

Liking what I see so far, too early to comment on your work though. So post more!

EDIT: wow just as I say that a new post appears lol, I must remember to refresh pages before I post.
She looks stiff because its a stiff pose, back is straight, shoulders down and back, its like shes posing for a school photo or ID photo or something hehe. So maybe explore others poses with sketches if you dont want her to look stiff.
I dont think that shadow under her chin on her neck suits the piece since everywhere else on her is lit with a fill light, You could either add heavy shadows in other places or take it out I guess. For her left arm (which is looking kind of dead) it might make it more interesting to puch back the elbow, bring it out to the right ( in cameras eye) and put her hand on top of her right hand, maybe.

For the feet in the second one my first idea for the feet would have them sticking out pointing away from her.

I really like the third one, alot. Very painterly. I dont think its stiff to be honest but her center of gravity seems to be forward, you could move her top half back and her head a tiny bit forward to create some weight in her pose. Pants-less is good for me! For the bg why not put a dresser where her left hand is with like a lamp for another lightsource. Experiment with different colors for the bg. For this id say the simplier the better, the main focus is her. Also think of mood, is she happy sad angry? the Bg should reflect that.

[HighRisk]

kitfox - I never thought of the curve of the back as playing an important part in pose dynamics, but it actually makes a lot of sense and sheds a lot of light as to why so many of my drawings look stiff! I'll see if I can find the time to redraw the poses in both of those drawings to make them look more interesting. I'll definitely take everything you said into consideration. I ought to look at fashion magazines more. Oftentimes I forget how valuable those can be for artists. Thank you very much for your input!

Malakuko - Haha yes, I am a ninja. In regards to the shading under the chin, I was planning on giving the whole picture more depth, but I didn't bother giving her body any hard shadows because it would eventually get covered up with clothes anyway. I certainly will watch the area under the chin as I continue working on it, and if it still looks too dark toward the end then I will definitely take your advice. In regards to the third piece, I was also pretty happy with how painterly it turned out. I'm not sure how I got that effect because to this day I still haven't been able to copy it. Must have been a strange fluke. Thank you for the feedback. It certainly will be helpful.

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Here's a little WIP that I've been working on. I've been having a lot of trouble with her dress... it's supposed to be shiny-ish black pleather but it's just not turning out right, even if I make the highlights blindingly bright. Critiques are lovely, so please feel free to leave any if you wish. I really need to practice drawing more hands and feet.

[xinleh]

You're off to a great start!

Critiques on your latest piece. First of all, her head and hair seem a little too big for her body. Though I think anatomy isn't something that should be forced, it can only get better with insane amounts of studies (and even that isn't enough). Also, her pose in general is stiff -- notice how her head turns to the right while the body doesn't show movements, plus her right arms comes off too rigid for me. Like it's a straight line, and things in nature, anatomy, seldom are straight and mechanical. I would recommend doing poses in front of the mirror, even if the character you're drawing is the opposite gender (I'm not sure if you're a guy or girl, heh). You'll become more familiar with how the human body works. Hope that helps!

[HighRisk]

xinleh - Yeah, pose stiffness has been something I have struggling with for a very long time. I did have the opportunity to have a nude model in one of my drawing classes for about a month and a half, but even that didn't seem to help me very much. I can try referencing myself, but I may have difficulty because we don't own any large mirrors. (I'm a girl.) As far as her head goes, all I have to say is damn! I drew the head smaller and then I made it larger because I thought it was too small... I guess I will have to shrink it. I intended for her hair to be this huge puffy mess but that's not very obvious because I haven't finished rendering or detailing it. Maybe I overdid the puffy aspect... oh well... I will try rendering it more and see how it turns out.

I think my problem is that I simply have not done enough studies to get my anatomy straight, but I'm trying my best and I will continue studying anatomy every day so that I can improve. Thanks for your feedback! I'm going to check our garage and see if we have any large mirrors packed away.

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Here is a 1 hour speedpaint that I just finished. Today I made a chisel sort of brush and decided to test it out only to be reminded of how bad I am at stroke economy. Oh well, I guess that means I have to continue doing more studies. Crits greatly appreciated, as always.

[AlexEh]

Nice paints highrisk I can tell your very into it. I have the same problem as you I tend to make things very stiff. I think what will help a lot is when your spending your time on an image, spend the time making a very tight line drawing focusing on the movement. It's a lot easier to get it right with lines then it is with painting I find.

Once you feel confident with the drawing, then you start blocking in the light. Don't put any tone or value in until you feel the lines are good.

I think after a lot of time spent making good tight line drawings you will start painting a lot less stiffly intuitively.

Thanks for sharing keep it up!

[Nemome]

It also helps doing this 30 seconds gestures, which you are already doing!

In my opinion just go on and do more.
There is no secret ( T_T )

Greetings, Sil

[xinleh]

You know, stiffness is not just 'a problem' to overcome, it's THE issue, only reduced by time, experience and many, many hours of practice. I say reduced, because one can only keep getting better, and draw things that become more natural... with time. It's not a matter of drawing for 4 hours every day = stiffness is reduced by x amount of time. It's like if one keep going at the same subject, e.g. trees, then sooner or later it will come more naturally to you, although I believe there will always be more room for improvement. Same goes for rigidity in poses, that is natural, simply because we don't have an understanding of what we draw, and by understanding I mean not only on the technical level, but also on the emotional and subconscious level. And that will just mean: keep drawing, and never stop.

I don't usually feel like I'm the right person to give advice simply I'm so amateurish at what I do that it almost feels pompous to say this and this, when your drawings are much better than what I've accomplished, and really, I should be taking advice from you! As all things go, this is just my humble opinion, which, though I think there is certain truths to it, should really go towards helping myself first of all... that aside, enviro is looking good, keep it up

[HighRisk]

SenEnd - I think a lot of people have the stiffness problem, hehe. Also, you are definitely right about the issue of line tightness. I tend to want to draw quickly and my lines end up sloppy, unconfident, and not well defined. I haven't thought about making better line drawings, but now that I think about it I can see that you have a great point. Lines: yet another thing to add to my study list! Thank you for the comment!

Silwynar - Yes, but I'm sure we all wish there was some awesome secret to drawing better. Hehehe. I will definitely continue my 30 second drawings. Thanks for your time.

xinleh - You're definitely correct about everything you said. I think in my previous post I phrased my feelings incorrectly. What I meant to say was that "a contributing factor to the stiffness in most of my poses is my lack of understanding of anatomy"... and of course, the only way to understand anatomy better is to keep drawing. Also, regarding the topic of giving advice: I don't think you should feel bad about wanting to give me advice. As far as it comes to art, I believe that if a person has eyes and can see, that they are entitled to give constructive criticism. I'm not into that hogwash idea that someone has to have x amount of skill level to have the right to critique other people. So go ahead and say what you feel! Thank you very much for your input.

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So here's a medium-ish update. I didn't post yesterday so this is a combo of today's and yesterday's studies.

I'm finding that forcing myself to draw things that I'm not used to drawing is pretty difficult. Man, it is tiring and depressing especially when things don't turn out as well as I had hoped they would. The hand study below is a good example. I'm pretty sure the shaky, uncertain lines speak for themselves. I'm not going to give up though, just felt like sharing my thoughts.

As far as the poses go, I tried to slow down and get more gesture going so here are some one minute poses. I think I'll continue doing the one minute poses for a week, and then next week I will try doing 30 second gestures. (as opposed to the outline style drawings that are in my first post)

Also, I drew a few faces from the same model. You can find her photos here: faestock @ DA. I wanted to use one model just because I thought it would be more helpful towards getting my facial proportions straight.

Finally, a speed painting. This is one of my first speed paintings that includes architecture, so I was very nervous about doing it. When it comes to buildings, I seriously get mini anxiety attacks just thinking about drawing them, lol. Anyway, I experimented with a chisel and square brush and I kind of like the effect I got.

More to come soon. Going to try to get some traditional sketches done as well. Thanks for viewing!

[HighRisk]

Some of today's sketches. I'm not sure whether I will have enough time to draw tomorrow (techincally today, but I haven't slept yet lol) because I have a midterm. We shall see.

First, some random items around the house.
Second & Third, 30 second poses and 1 minute poses. Trying to get some more gestural lines going.
Fourth, practicing drawing eyes and then some randomness.

Oh yeah and I'm sorry about the craptastic scans. My sketchbook is slightly larger than the scanner bed so it lifts some of the edges and chops off parts of the pages.

[8bit]

youve got loads of potential ! I think you can draw loose and get over the stiffness you metioned. Why not try and enlarge a couple of your small thumbnails fro mthe first post and paint over them? You can quickly see if a pose is working and go from there. thats what im trying to start doing at the moment.

Peas.

[Malakuko]

Really nice updates! I like how selective you were with your highlights in the landscape painting, more really is less The head studies are awesome aswell but maybe you should have gone for some of the more extreme poses, just to learn more. Nice eyes, you certainly got the roundness of them! Wow just noticing how much you improved during the course of your pose maniac studies! Really nice, if you want to push it even further you could try quickly jotting down the gesture of the pose and then nailing down the most important areas and leaving out the least. Just selecting the right areas is pretty hard It can help to take the pose yourself!

[HighRisk]

8bit - I'm really hoping that I can get over the stiffness. I think I'll try your suggestion about painting over some of my quick poses. Thank you!

Malakuko - With the heads, I was trying to get myself accustomed to drawing faces in simple poses first. I'm going to do the same for male faces, and after a few more runs I think I will try to do more extreme angles like you suggested. I'll also try out your suggestion about the poses... it does sound pretty difficult. Especially with only 30 seconds to make those decisions. Thank you for your comment!

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Since I didn't have much time today to do a lot of studies, I decided to experiment with different media.

First are some gestural 30 second poses done in brush and india ink. This was really difficult! I think I definitely need more practice with using brushes and ink.
Second are some 1 minute poses that I drew in ballpoint pen and then later went over them with watercolors. I was trying to focus on bringing out depth through the use of warm and cool colors.

[j.s. sabastian]

anna nalick.......amazing song....i really admire those photoshoped head shots i'm assuming that's you?

[HighRisk]

j.s. sabastian - Indeed, I love that song. The person in those photoshop headshots is a stock photo provider on DA. I believe that I have the link to her page in that post.

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Alrighty everyone, here is a pretty fat update. The night after my last post I found out that my grandmother died and I got pretty depressed so I moped around the house for a while. She was a big influence in my life because she lived with my family and took care of me while I was growing up so she was like a second mother to me. I'm feeling better now, but then I had two midterms and a paper due... needless to say I have been really busy!

Here's some personal stuff I have been working on as well as some traditional sketches. Ugh, my scanner butchered almost everything. The pencil drawings turned out too light and the ball point pen stuff got mangled and darkened. I need to keep messing around with the settings so that this doesn't happen any more! D:<

I never realized how mentally difficult it would be to post my sketchbook pages. When I look at them I honestly feel like they are complete crap... to the point where I actually feel really embarrassed even looking at them; but I guess it's also a good thing because now I'm really motivated to get better! I need to use traditional media more often.

[Augmenton]

You know, I can already see thos pose studies helping and it's only been some days. I agree that the best way to get out of stiff poses it to add curves to the spine. Find the center line of your character and try to avoid it being a straight line. Angle the hips, drop a shoulder, move the body! Great work so far, though. Keep it going!

[aadi]

great work keep going on
take cr

[HighRisk]

Augmenton - Thanks! I'll definitely keep practicing poses and thanks for the tip about the spine.

aadi - Thanks, you too.

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Took a little break today so I didn't get much done. A personal wip and some Loomis. Spent most of the time reading and taking notes so I didn't really get THAT many drawings done... but still.... Not too happy about the work in progress either. I see tons of anatomical errors and I don't like how her butt is sticking into the air. I may keep this one and redraw it once I get more skills... was hoping to add more characters in the scene but I'm extremely sleepy so I couldn't execute it the way I wanted, hehe.