Raphire's Sketchbook

[Raphire]

EDIT: Go to last page for stuff that is less crappy! lol
And I removed all the images from my first post... sick of having some random as the thread thumbnail... Some of them still can be seen on my Deviantart page though, not that anyone would wanna look at those D:

SKIP THE FIRST FEW PAGES IF YOU DONT WANT YOUR EYES TO BLEED!

[shiNIN]

Good decision to start this We have much more idea about your skills and flaws this way.

You aren't conceited, that's nice but don't think too little of you, just because you're still a beginner and don't produce anything like the most more skilled ones on CA. I've seen much, much worse stuff here. And you mentioned clean sketches in other SBs. Yeah, I know what you are talking about but look at my pencil sketches somewhere in the end of my sb, they're my best pencil sketches and they are damn messy. I wouldn't look at them, but if you cheer you up a little...
Your face expressions aren't bad Even if something is a little off, I see the character and expression, that's nice.
Your figures has various problems, an occuring one is their waist. You think it's something very thin but in reality, ribcage and pelvis aren't so far from each other and there are some important stuff there, you now... Even if one use tight corsets, the ribcage changes as well. Study the main masses of the body, especially the pelvis.

[Raphire]

Hey shiNIN! Thanks for dropping by.

Yea I have the most trouble with pelvises, which reminds me I need to draw the hip bones from a bunch of perspectives. Do you have any titles to recommend for in depth anatomy?(bones and all)
So far I only have all the Loomis and Vilppu books from looking around in the forums, and none of them seem to go down to the bones.

And can you put your finger on how the faces are off? I can't seem to tell. Is it the lack of symmetry?

Your sketchbook is really inspiring, to think I actually considered myself as working rather hard. I think you did more than me in a week than I can do in a month, you're definitely not slacking off as you say in your posts. There was also great improvement as well, I must agree with what other people in the thread are saying: it's time to work on a finished painting to see how far you've come.

Well I'm gonna go draw stuff now, I'm the one that has been slacking off!

[shiNIN]

I'm so totally lazy, I barely draw, I don't even really started, I'm half-assed But really. I collect stuff but actual drawing scares me... Especially bodies OTL

Oh regarding bones and especially pelvises, I just collect stuff from the net... For heads I have some books and tutorials but nothing for bones... And I collected zillion pictures about muscles as well It was troublesome because some of them was wrong (I even find anatomy problems in anatomy books... even in Loomis's books) and I searched to see where a single muscle is for several hours sometimes... Now I have some idea about the muscles but it doesn't mean I can draw a human figure. I love anatomy by the way, it's exciting and beautiful... And it's extremely hard as well

About your faces... The sketches are nice in general, but the eyes of the painted girls are often too big/long and assymmetrical. But I can say you paint pretty sensual lovely lips The third painted face has a very tiny nose and too scribbly hair. We can't and shouldn't draw every single hair but I better not talk about painting hair because I'm very bad at it.

[Raphire]

Symmetry is something that utterly eludes me, I've no idea why the more I try to fix it the more skewed it gets sometimes.


Haha, I definitely have that problem of looking at threads, tutorials and reading articles and collecting more stuff than I draw.

I started drawing 5 hours ago but now all I have to show for is 48 30 sec gestures and a page of cylinders which I wont be posting due to the crappiness, and the following:

[Raphire]

More working on basics, a quick study of an egg before I have it for breakfast.

[Raphire]

My first landscape, reffed the tornado, but it looks pretty fail.
Guess I'll pull the supernatural card then. It's a spirit tornado!

[shiNIN]

You don't waste your time Good
And the egg is wonderful, I love it. I plan to draw one myself, I buy very pretty ones lately.

[Nezumi Works]

You don't waste your time Good
And the egg is wonderful, I love it. I plan to draw one myself, I buy very pretty ones lately.

If you look around, you can find nice ceramic eggs traditionally used for darning socks. That way you don't have to worry about how long it's been out of the fridge.

[Raphire]

@ shiNIN: I swear eggs over here all look the same, haha

@Nezumi Works: I've certainly never seen those before, what kind of store might have them?



Today was kinda crappy, like the day before yesterday. Nothing decent to submit but I'm gonna put a few pages here anyway, more of a kind of training log than anything else. Not gonna post the terrible 30 sec and 2 min gestures though, I seem to have gotten worse at them

I don't seem to be improving.

[Raphire]

I swear the more I sleep the more my head hurts.

Stuff today that's a bit more than senseless scribbling and are not 30 sec gestures, obviously reffed:

[Raphire]

stuff I threw together in a few mintutes before I go slack off:

[Raphire]

after slacking off, two quick sketches:

[Raphire]

Intended this to be quick, but spent 2 hours on it.
Didn't paint that label, I cheated and shopped it in. lol

A bottle of gripe water. Dope shit, the stuff.

[Raphire]

Hour long eye study in PS after some pencil eye studies, then the usual basic stuff that still looks like shit:

[Raphire]

My second landscape, loosely referenced, gave myself a time limit of one hour.

Don't like it at all.

People stopping by, (if any) I know I'm not really "talented" or showing awesome improvement, but please say a word or two about what you think. Desperately need critique on my stuff.

[Raphire]

A wip I may or may not finish. Started as a wave study. Couldn't find a ref for the plane and figure so... pardon any noob mistakes.

[shiNIN]

Hi
I like your last two paintings The first one is a nice little practice peace, nothing wrong with doing such ones. The sky is totally okay, with a little bit more interesting stuff below it could be a good enviro sketch. But the little tower has a style that clashes with the rest.

In the "more than wave study" painting... The plane is in the little free space in the corner, it doesn't look good. I think planes over water need more air... And if the foam is so white, I'd expect a more bright and light blue sky Though I'm sure your sky color doesn't actually mean it can't be bright sunshine.

I guess I'm not the greatest enviro critic at the moment... But I do what I can

I saw your other stuff before, I just couldn't say any useful, just 'nice studies, keep up with the good work'.

[Raphire]

Hey!
Thanks for being the only visitor of this place T_T

Haha I need to learn how to better integrate the little stuff I add as an afterthought in my studies, it seems. The little bit of sky was after the reference, and I thought it felt irritating so I put the plane in there. The reference was probably heavily 'shopped considering the really weird colours. I wonder if waves are really this color, all the refs I looked up looked somewhat like that.

Need to get better so I can start returning crits! lol

[Raphire]

Spent the previous day constructing heads and realised that the more rigorously I try to construct the uglier the head gets. Must be something wrong with the way I'm doing it. I put it down to poor draftsmanship and decided to go even more basic. Spent most of today drawing lines elipses and consrtructing cubes freehand. Much tougher than I thought it would be, but I was quickly able to see some improvement. I think no one wants to see lines and elipses so will not be posting them. Finally managed to get back to parkour today after a month long hiatus, so pardon the foggy and undetailed painting below, I guess my fatigue is showing through. lol

A very rough forest before I go sleep. Pretty much clueless how to add more detail. Will look at godlike artists for reference. Who would you consider godlike at painting forests? Drop some names please. Damn if I look at it again it's so dim and blur. gonna add to it tomorrow I guess.

[Raphire]

Nothing special for today, just some really rough mannequins from mind, and one page of my daily 40 30 sec gestures. Didn't manage to fix the forest, the fixed version seems no different.

[shiNIN]

Spent the previous day constructing heads and realised that the more rigorously I try to construct the uglier the head gets.

I know this feeling very well...

Hmmm... I don't really see why that painting need more details, I with to do not necessarily detailful enviros with atmosphere!
I'd focus on composition and otherbasic things instead of details. Not a bad pic but the big dark something in the left troubles me a bit. It's too monotone, nothing interesting in it but it's so dark I can't ignore it. And I would say much more useful stuff if my skills wouldn't be really small in this area.

[Raphire]

Lol, look like it had the opposite effect of what I intended, I read somewhere that darkening the edges of your painting with stuff helps with composition by containing the viewer's eye in the picture, i think it was from one of Feng Zhu's videos. Looks like I applied the technique wrongly.

[shiNIN]

I was thinking about parenthesis from Jack Hamm's book, Drawing Scenery
I agree, some dark edge, especially in the case of your pic (sunshine in the middle) can be helpful but your "edge" is too big. That moderately big deep darkness attracts my eye.

[Raphire]

A piece from yesterday that spent too much time trying to fix to no avail....

[Raphire]

Focused on head construction from loomis's books again. I feel like I'm at least getting the hang of it. Used to take a lot longer. A page or two of the stuff is below. Also working on a commission for a friend but am too embarrassed to post the crappy thumbnails. Having trouble with the poses and compositions.

[Raphire]

Another enviro, spent some more time on this than the rest. Still have lots to learn about colours... and composition. Added the character as an afterthought again. No idea how to render the character for more realism, in this kind of lighting. Advice anyone?

[Raphire]

Finally got down to studying the bones. Don't feel like i've learnt much though. And some (still) embarrassingly bad stuff from mind.

[Raphire]

Some quick and crappy stuff after recovering from a fever and flu. Not including the 30 sec gestures and shit.

[shiNIN]

Your poor sketchbook is so lonely as ever But you work diligently Oh my good, I studied pelvis a lot but actually drawing them from different than the simples angles... I never was motivated enough for that Good job.

The portrait in #25: Not bad, I like the colors, they give it a special mood And her mouth is lovely, sensual IMO.
Her nose is tiny, her eyes are a bit far apart and the shading of her cheeks makes her somewhat doll like because human cheeks has a different shape. The face isn't elliptical like a mask, the half cylinder of the mouth changes it quite a lot and I still speak of a very simplified approach... A real face is much more difficult, I won't ever bored of it .

Another enviro? Cool. The hair is very odd, she can't have that much so dense hair there and much less higher, the flowing of the hair is unnatural as well. And I don't see what's going on with her right leg, it can't be found anywhere. I like the enviro without the figure, it isn't quite exiting to be great all alone but it has a nice mood or at least I like it, I'm not good at criticizing enviros, I can spot only the most apparent flaws.
If the stones in the foreground doesn't form a little wall, then their perspective is wrong.

Sphere in #29: The shape is a lil bit wrong, not quite a circle but the tones are good I think I like it.

I see you draw good and less good faces, the head/neck/body connection is sometimes wrong, the necks are at the wrong place, are too short, sometimes the head is oversized. I don't know how one learns the proper head/body attachment and scaling, I have great problems with it myself

Keep up the good work