Kit's sketchbook

[Miss.BonBon]

those gestures look great! especially that they are from imagination
I see you got the hang of those cross contour things! the bargue plate you did looks good too, I don't see any mistakes, your eye's are pretty well trained
keep it up

[kitfox]

browntear, thank you for the kind words and glad the mini tutorial was of some use. ^^

Miss.BonBon, I think I can spot mistakes in the Bargue quite easily but it's a lot harder to actually fix them because of the domino effect, when you move one thing, you need to move everything lined up in relation to it also and try to make judgements about what to not move. I still can't rely completely on my eye, and probably won't for a long time, so I do a lot measuring, at least did for this Bargue.

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Another update on the Bargue. Finalizing things but still need to fix some edges. I greatly underestimated the amount of time I needed to finish this. I assumed around 5 hours from the last stage I posted would be fine but I'm already 10½ hours in now, and still not finished. Getting close, though. So the total time to this stage must be something like 15-17 hours. Also asked Jonathan to increase my workload a bit, so maybe I'll get around posting some other assignments from the atelier besides Bargues soon.

[kitfox]

Probably finished with this Bargue, but still yet to hear the critique for it, so dunno. Full process must be around 18 hours now. I've never spent this long on a single drawing.

[kitfox]

Here's the final final version of the bargue, probably can't see the difference in a picture this small but whatever. And a crappy selfportrait, took less than an hour.

[Trailblazer]

Looks like your still going strong with the Atelier, good to see. When you've got some time I'd love to see you translate what your learning to another none bargue piece. Think your tonal transitions sound be vastly improved hey

[Miss.BonBon]

I know what you're talking about, it has happened a lot to me as well where I have progressed too much in a drawing and I detect mistakes here and there and when I want to fix them I see I have to erase the whole drawing! haha my eyes are still waaaay untrained so I can't detect those tiny faults you're talking about
I'm curious what kinda measuring you use, I'm guessing sight-sizing maybe? with your pencil? a string?

[kitfox]

Trailblazer, I have some sketchbook assignments that I need to do, which will be sketches from life. Just need to find the time for them...

Miss.BonBon, the way to avoid fixing mistakes in later stages of the drawing is to take the drawing process step by step and make each step as perfect as possible, keeping everything simplified and accurate. I use black thread for measuring. So far everything has been in sight-size (the Bargues).

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Start of my 3rd Bargue and last in the series, after this I'll be moving to cast drawing. Still a lot of work to be done with this one as it's pretty complex.

Btw, still got room in the Sketchbook support group, incase someone wants to join.

[browntear]

The profile bargue turned out great! Time well spent I think. And you may not like the self-portrait but I think working on the bargues seems to already have some good results on the self-portrait, like it looks like you blocked out some values in doing it. This last bargue looks awesome, I like the way you simplify it, the block-in stage always required a lot of thinking for me.

[Trailblazer]

Oh this one is going to be good, looking forward to the end result. You're putting out some excellent studies Fox.

[kitfox]

browntear, I'm slowly starting to grasp blocking out the shadow masses. Not entirely sure how to combine that with constructional thinking.

Trailblazer, haha, I don't know if it's going to be good, I think this Bargue will murder me.

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A little sketch between work shifts. Also did some adjustments to the Bargue but can't really tell at this stage. I'll post a WIP shot when I do some bigger changes.

[kitfox]

Been busy with a lot of excuses. But here's some progress on the Bargue. Many things wrong that I still need to fix.

[Trailblazer]

You can't possibly have as many excuses as I do. Don't over work yourself. Also nice progress on that Bargue.

[kitfox]

Trailblazer, maybe not that many excuses, just a few very bad ones, haha.

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More progress on Bargue, not even near done yet but progress anyway. And a sketch from life, 30 mins, very bad.

[Dark_Eyes]

5 STARS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! ***** nice barque studies

[browntear]

The Bargue is progressing very nicely. And the 30 minute sketch isn't bad, the perspective of the base looks slightly off but not much. Oh, and happy new year, kitfox!

[OHI]

That Bargue is looking really nice, man!

[ArtsySiridean]

Come back Kit. We miss you. D:

[kitfox]

New year ehh... it's been a while. I'm back at working on art, though, at bit less than before. Update on Bargue. Not nearly done with it yet.

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Dark_Eyes, thank you very much! ^^

browntear, plenty of things wrong with the quick sketches but thanks. ^^

OHI, thanks!

ArtsySiridean, I won't disappear but I might update a bit less often.

[Trailblazer]

Sounds like you hit a bit of a slump Kit. We've all been there, and some of us still are, just post what you can when you can and try not to let it get the best of you, you're doing so well.

[browntear]

Where are you Kitfox? That Bargue is looking awesome. Anyhow, hope all is going well, and hope to see more soon.

[kitfox]

Well, it's been a while. Still working with the atelier program, though had a break of a couple of months... Stopped doing night shift and switched to part-timing to give myself some breathing room.

Anyhow, here's some progress shots from my last project: selfportrait. The drawing in the first 4 shots has buffed up contrast to bring out the marks, as they were really light in those stages. Used a HB pencil + kneaded eraser all the way. Also got a new camera so the pictures should be a little better, hopefully.

Some themes going on in the picture: keep the proportion, transfer to limited value range, divide values to light/dark to maintain proper contrast, edge control (soft edges, soft edges everywhere!!! ...almost).

And I've stopped counting the hours on my leveling up thingie. Lost count a long time ago.

[Kolbenito]

I just started the Riven stuff and found your sketchbook. Just wanted to let you know I skimmed over your entire sketchbook and am very impressed/inspired by what you accomplished in a little over a year. Keep it up!

[Trailblazer]

Wow, great to see you back Kit, and man that last study is looking fiiiiiine. You're going and getting all ahead of us. Can't wait to see more.

[Miss.BonBon]

that self portrait thing is just awesome! how many hours did you spend on it? It looks very smooth and neat!