Guardian G.I.'s Sketchbook: Digging to China with a teaspoon

[Guardian G.I.]

Hello everyone.
My name is Alex, I'm 16 years old, I live in Belarus. I have been learning to draw for about one and a half months six and a half months as of November 2011 one year as of May 2012.
After reading this topic, I've finally got some courage to start a sketchbook here and post my somewhat crappy doodles.
Any critique or advice, or just a comment will be greatly appreciated.

NOTE: Unless you really want to look through pages of old bad sketches and my whining, skip to the last page. There, you can the latest bad sketches and even more whining, or, whatever.

[Guardian G.I.]

A few studies from Andrew Loomis's "Drawing the Head and Hands"

[Mez]

This is a good start! Keep on posting!

[rem92]

Good start ^.^ i would suggest learning abit of anatomy for the hands, like the skeleton and stuff, so you understand it better and you should put some more effort on the shadings or dont do it at all, cause it looks a little mediocre when you just loosely filling in the lines just for the hell of it. keep it up.

[Guardian G.I.]

@ Mez: Thanks!

@ rem92: Thanks a lot for the advice.

Today's update includes:

More studies from Loomis's "Drawing the Head and Hands";
An unsuccessful attempt at drawing heads;
Gesture studies from The Vilppu Drawing Manual;
Some still life pictures.

[Guardian G.I.]

Tanks are one of the most frequent things I usually draw (besides anatomy related stuff).

[Guardian G.I.]

Trying to learn perspective.

[Guardian G.I.]

.....

[Guardian G.I.]

Anatomy study.

[Guardian G.I.]

Here's a few sketches. First one is drawn from observation (the shading is quite crappy, I shall put more effort into it next time), the second one is from my imagination.

[Guardian G.I.]

Messing around with Scott Robertson's shape-building techniques.

[Guardian G.I.]

Drawing from life.

[BlackDelphin]

You're doing great with those Scott Robertson studies!
Perhaps try varying the stroke strength to give it more depth and more styled up look.
And about your observation studies, try constructing with those as well. Like with the barrel, start with your cube and spheres, and try staying as faithful to those as possible.
You'll get the hang of them if you keep practising, so don't stop

[Guardian G.I.]

@ BlackDelphin: Thanks for the kind words and all the advice!
Concerning the varied stroke strength, once I get rid of the lack of confidence in my lines, I'll try something with it, that's for sure.

Here's some Burne Hogarth studies.

Also, I'd like to post things more regularly, but that stupid procrastination severely hinders my drawing efforts.

[Guardian G.I.]

I've finally managed to overcome my fear, get outdoors and draw something.
Here's the results.

[Guardian G.I.]

Did these life drawings a few days ago.
It turns out that I don't know how to draw trees. Also, my shading is still horrible.

[J-P]

Hey man, good effort on all the studies, I can see improvement already
Just keep it up! I once heard that 10minutes of drawing every day will be far more productive than even 4 hours of drawing once a week. I guess the frequency keeps it at the top of your mind, so you're kind of drawing without actually drawing. If that makes sense
That link at the top is very inspirational btw, cheers for that.

[Guardian G.I.]

@ J-P Thanks for dropping by at my sketchbook!
I try to draw every day, but, unfortunately, due to my serious problems with procrastination, I keep wasting most of the time browsing the Internet instead. I hope that I will spend time more productively and efficiently once I get back to school.

This is my failed attempt at drawing an auto-portrait. It was looking good most of the time, and then I've started adding values and screwed everything up.

[Ven S]

I see progress in your life drawings. Keep it up

[fernandolins]

Cool, keep it up

[Guardian G.I.]

This is my left hand.

[Guardian G.I.]

Here's another autoportrait.
The facial features are misaligned, because I've forgot about the perspective.

[Guardian G.I.]

Here's the stuff I've drawn recently: statues and random people.
I've seen lots of people here in the sketchbook forum who go outside with their sketchbooks and draw people. For some odd reason I can't just go to any crowded place and start sketching people left and right — I'm afraid that I will look suspicious among the passers-by.

[Guardian G.I.]

Just some random exercise in perspective which I've did about a week ago and forgot to post.
Also, is it bad when I use a ruler when I draw (for drawing in general, besides setting perspective grids)?

[Guardian G.I.]

Two words: reference photos.

[Guardian G.I.]

Still life.

[Ven S]

Perspective studies are looking rad man! Keep hitting those anatomy studies.

[twilightmoon777]

That last prospective drawing you did is awesome!

And I totally know what you mean about feeling nervous and uncomfortable about going out and drawing folks. I feel like I'm invading their space when I sit down and draw them without permission. Maybe you can start drawing your family, friends, or pets first? Once you are comfortable with that then it might not be so awkward to draw random strangers or go to a park and sit on a bench far away. That way people won't know that you are secretly studying and or drawing them.

[Guardian G.I.]

Today's sketches of random people.
While sketching outdoors, I spend most of the time trying not to attract attention of people I draw. As a result, the quality of those sketches is, as you might guess, not so very good.

[Guardian G.I.]

Only now I've managed to figure out the Scott Robertson's technique for drawing cars.
The only thing I need right now is reference materials.

I drew this sketch during free time at school, that's why it is on lined paper.