Krystar's "stop suckin'!" Sketchbook!

[Krystar]

Hello CA!

My name is Ian Osborne, I'm 27 years old, live in Virginia, and have lurked around this site off and on for several years. I've recently made a few changes in my life and have finished my core curriculum in school. I start working towards a BFA in Studio Art hopefully this fall but it has been so long since I have drawn or painted that I have very little, if any confidence in my ability.

I am still attempting to determine if I want to focus on 3d modeling or with illustration or concept art in general, regardless a solid foundation in the basics is mandatory and I've been drawing/reading or studying for art least 8-12 hours a day, however I'm not doing nearly enough, I'm slowly trying to work my way to about 16 hours a day but its so easy to get distracted! I'll try to update this every day. I have a massive pile of sketches but I won't burden your eyes with those!

This sketchbook is here to change that! The only path to success and to overcome failure and or complacency is through sheer determination, considering I don't think I have too much in the way of talent and have thrown away enough years of my life doing little to nothing I cant think of something more motivational.

My overall goal for the end of the year is to have a fairly competent grasp of figure drawing from imagination and reference, a working knowledge of anatomy, more confident linework, and a basic foundation for understanding perspective, form, light and shadow.

Any comments/criticisms or questions are greatly welcomed, although I usually beat myself up and agonize over my countless mistakes!



DAY 1 - FEB 24

This is actually mostly work from yesterday but I'll update it later tonight with today's sketches. Scanner tends to scan a little light and I cant really find the time to load and re-level each scan

• These are posemaniac poses (which I do daily)
• Stuff from Hogarth's Dynamic Figure Drawing
• Random stuff from life
• Photoref stuff
• Vanderpoel plate studies

My first digital painting. I had some color calibration issues and couldn't get the shadow quite right although i spent nearly half the time on the shadows!
This was done from photo ref, not from life, bad form, I know!





Today I'm gonna hit up Bridgman and Peck most likely. My heads, hands, and feet are awful so I need to integrate that into my daily drawings. Also got a nice setup with mirrors for some life drawing.

[deadlyhamster]

wow, that are lots of studies. couple of them are even verry nice. good work and keep studying.

[Oatestwder]

wow some wonderful studies there. but now the pressures on, you've put daily in the title so I'm expecting daily updates!

[Krystar]

DAY 2 - FEB 25

Did several anatomy studies as well as Hogarth and posemanics (down today, only did 2 pages), have a few other minor things I haven't scanned yet (I will tomorrow).

I've been working mostly on the torso and hip areas, starting to get a better understanding of it! Just takes a lot of studying and drawing! Even though Hogarth is often touted for being too stylized, I find his very curve based figures are helping me straighten out my stiff line based drawings!

On the chopping block:

• Perspective study (doing this tomorrow) ~3 hrs
• Hands, feet, etc from life (mirror) and references.
• Getting started on Heads/facial features
• Still life sketches
• More imaginative stuff
• Master studies

Quick digital painting, I think its ehhh okay. I was mostly just fiddling and seeing if I could cobble something together with some PS brushes I got. Didn't learn much from doing this. So I'm gonna go back to painting from life/photo ref and using a more painterly method than slapping brush alphas around.

[Dope Fiend]

Hey! studies are lookin good, and i too expect to see daily updates, it's a tall order, specially when motivation is no where to be found, but i believe in you!!

so keep it up, and stop by my book sometime, i've got like 9-10 feet studies specifically on page 5

cheers

edit; and oh check out

http://pixelovely.com/tools/gesture.html

it's like Poseman, but better for some things

[Krystar]

Thanks guys for the encouragement! My hope to starting this sketchbook would be have some pressure to keep working at it everyday. Before I would draw for a few days, get lazy and just stop for an entire week so progress was really slow. It's much better to draw/paint for a few hours everyday than for an entire day once a week.

Dope Fiend: Ya that site is pretty nice I've used it for gesture stuff in the past, I should try using it again maybe for 60 second poses, especially considering they are much more natural than the posemaniac stuff.

I should scan some of my 30 second gestures from a few months ago, that'd be comedy

[Krystar]

DAY 3 - FEB 26

Spent a few hours messing around in photoshop and getting my tablet configured. Didn't too too many studies, mostly some stuff with perspective which I think helped me understand it a bit more, however I was totally lost on constructing complex forms in perspective. I'll have to come back to it later because it seems to require a lot of draftsmanship, precision and is more of an advanced topic. There are a few pages of exercises I didn't scan.


Here are some boring perspective and anatomy studies!













Digital painting. I really need to stop trying to finish these all up and do them quicker!

[JamesSimons]

Your gestures have improved a lot since your first post, keep going!

[Dope Fiend]

and make sure you're doing some imagination as well (with ref if you want), but make sure you don't become to fixated on the actual studies, or copying..it's supposed to aid in your ability to convey your thoughts.

just puttin' it out there

and i'm curious, are you in school? i was doing daily updates til school started and i just couldn't manage it.

[Samszym]

I second the imagination thing, you can copy tons of drawings from instructional books but if you don't work to make it your own and get it in your head you won't get much information out of it.

[LeoDeo]

nice anatomy studies!

[Krystar]

Thanks for the advice and comments guys! My imaginative stuff isn't that good although it's getting better slowly. I need to develop some sort of process for testing my memory. I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. A few days ago I tried re-drawing the same thing over and over. This seemed to help but only for that one instance and took almost an hour alone. Sometimes I sketch random things or test my memory of a study. I could certainly use reference and draw and invent from there.
For the longest time I would just draw from memory, produce a terrible drawing and get discouraged and stop entirely. I stopped drawing mostly when i was around 12 or 13.

I'm noticing I have a MUCH easier time remembering things I draw from life compared to actual studies.

Obviously I've been focusing on the torso the past 2 weeks. I know how boring it can be to look through someones sketchbook of the same old anatomy studies but sometimes I enjoy doing them

Dope Fiend: I'm at comm college now but only taking 1 class to finish my degree, then I hope to transfer to work towards a BFA in Studio Art. I've heard some horror stories from State universities and art education so I'm taking it up to myself with the free time I have now to try to improve as much as I can before the fall. I look forward to the figure drawing classes more than anything since that seems to have the greatest return on learning to draw figures (live models!)

[Krystar]

DAY 4 - FEB 27

Didn't do too many studies today, watched a few tutorials and scribbled down some ideas for possible paintings in the future. I did enjoy doing this digital painting and managed to finish it in about 50 mins which is nice.
I think on Wednesday I'll spend the entire day doing gestures and basic geometric figures from ref and imagination. Gesture seems to be something you can never neglect. Sometimes I get confused when forms are twisting or bending over one another.

I'm getting fairly comfortable with the anatomy of the torso. I'm going to start moving onto legs and arms and get started with heads and facial features later next week!

[Dope Fiend]

OO that ladybug is looking good, good depth on the actual bug..

and horror stories, i.e. state unis suck for art education?

cause i was forced to go to one, i'm currently at..and it's pretty awful, got into cali college of arts and other schools on the west coast, but money prevents me sadly, so working on my own is the only way, and progress seems stagnant at times.

stop by my book sometime,

cheers!

[n1frit]

Goooood stuff!)) Keep it up!

[Untouched24]

Really cool man, always nice to see when people make a strong decision to make a commitment to art and watch them progress. Just remember to keep at it, consistency is the key. The last one to give up is the first one to succeed.

You seem to be on the right track with your studies, just remember to do studies and apply that knowledge to imaginative work to really solidify your understanding. It's looking good, keep it up!

[RyanRyan]

I'm just going to repeat what everyone else has said. Do some photo studies, to go along with the anatomy sketches, this might be a way to commit your studies to memory. Try to do some marionettes from your mind as well- both methods have worked for me to some extent.

Nice to see some one else in my age range with a commitment to anatomy. Peace!

[Krystar]

DAY 5 - FEB 28

Another update! Mostly random studies and the usual. Didn't get too much done today unfortunately. Sorry guys no digital painting today, but I'm going to do two tomorrow morning before class to make up for it. As I plan to do at least one a day even if its only for a few minutes just to get used to the digital medium. Need to draw more and stop getting distracted reading! There were a few other pages of random figures and perspective exercises I didn't bother to scan.

It's so much damn easier to understand forms when drawing from life rather than photographs.


Untouched24: Thanks for the encouragement! Staying consistent so far, even after just these few days
I feel more comfortable and that Im actually making some progress. Needless to say I don't plan on stopping anytime soon

RyanRyan: Yeah I should do more photo studies, especailly more well-rendered stuff. I've kind of been putting that off untill I get a better
command of forms in space. The paper I use for most of these drawings is pretty terrible so even with a good pencil and a disciplined hand
it can be hard to get solid rendering.









Gonna go for a big update tomorrow no screwing around!

[Kalin]

From the looks of your Hogarth & other anatomy studies you wouldn't have a problem doing photo studies. It only adds to the repertoire in your head. But just start it when you feel ready
All of your sketches look good, and even the one enviro "green" digital painting you posted looks neat to me, it looks like it was painted on linen or something. Has a nice effect to it!

[Krystar]

DAY 6 - MARCH 1

Was fairly busy most of the day and didn't get a chance to draw or paint until later tonight. Managed to paint these. Perhaps I should try to do some timed paintings to force myself not to get carried away with details.

Tons of studies tomorrow though for sure!

Quite an interesting contrast of images... Both were modified from ref images.



Kinda screwed this one up.

[Krystar]

DAY 7 - March 2

Same old pretty much, was going to start working on heads but I think I'm going to focus a bit on the limbs. I did my first master study based off some of Michelangelo's sketches. Tomorrow I'm going to try to do more exercises to test my memory.

I'm not quite sure what to do for digital work. Still trying to figure things out doing random quick paintings. I'll see if i can find some decent tutorials for some guidance.

I need to draw more, WAY MORE. I'm not drawing nearly enough and I need to test my knowledge more. I have noticed some improvement but I can do more, faster, better!. The master study was a lot of fun actually and I felt I learned quite a bit about lines.

[jorvaa]

Great studies! You look like you're making progress. The paintings are good too - you have a grip on how to make texture, which is something I think a lot of people struggle with when they begin painting - especially digital.

[Krystar]

DAY 8 - March 3

Watched some stuff on perspective again and did some usual studies. Didn't have too much focus today unfortunately. I think its time to move on to other things.











I just cant seem to get these paintings to look how I want them to, they all just look fake and not painted at all. When I'm blocking in colors there is not enough variation, then i get carried away and spend too much time blending colors until It no longer becomes a quick photo study. Not to mention I accidentally fubared the texture on the rock, was testing a few things and didn't have a layer down before playing with a few brushes. I'm just going to try sticking with a square and round brush for a while. I'm also not sure what the good middle-ground is for blending, I try to hard to clean up the uneven opacity left by the brush strokes.

[Dope Fiend]

texture on that last piece looks good, maybe try studying some enviroments here on CA and google images? and place that rock a little farther in the distance as opposed to right in your face..shrug might make it more realistic

looking good as usual, do everything to make it fun (while maintaining the studies and discipline as well), then it will become addicting and habitual.

keep it up!

[Krystar]

DAY 9 - MAR 4

Few studies nothing special, gonna mix it up tomorrow for sure.











Fairly happy with how this came out! Tried to not agonize over blending too much. Still messed around with brushes a bit but decided not to apply anything.


Gonna do some photo studies tomorrow, need a break from the books. Need to get back to gesture as well.

[a la bapsi]

lovely construction studies!
keep up the good work, it'll pay off soon :]

[in2eternity]

Good start, I like your anatomy studies and colored works. Some things are off, but on page 2 it'll be very nice )

[Krystar]

Thanks! Some of the perspective stuff is off because I was just too lazy to lay out the vanishing points properly. I have trouble with the lower leg, generally make it too long haven't gotten used to its overall shape. Sometimes my proportions for the torso' especially in some of those later studies is too long.

Maybe I should do a bunch of quick proportion studies, I'm not sure but I think I keep elongating the lower part of the rib or the mass between the ribs and pelvis, I'm still not sure but If i screw it up enough eventually I should get it under control.

I really want to get some imaginative stuff on here considering it is actually CONCEPTART.ORG, but I'm just hesitant as I'd like to get my figure drawing and environments to a level where I can at least convey my ideas without embarrassing myself!

[NickyBeats]

god damn dude!! this is some hardcore studyin!! great job! dont slow down, your gonna be a master within the year!!

[Quigleyer]

Woa woa woa. AND we're in the same town.

Who the hell are you? I sent you a PM, we should definitely make acquaintances sometime. You are rocking hard here, my friend.

Seriously, we should meet up some time. Just hit me up.