Sketch Things (October 21, 2012)

[andres333]

andres333 Can't wait to see your random designs. Are you taking cues from Alphonse Mucha?

erm...I dunno..I mean I hardly know Mucha..haha

[Aragah]

very creative man, great job!

[teapo]

wow sage. missed a whole bunch of udpates XD sorry for that, but i must say that your life drawing sessions are certainly paying off-- i can see the imagination works improving along with it. can't wait to see the cast studies of de Medici c: KEEP ROCKING!

[p sage]

Blah.

words = art poison

Gotta be brief

Lots of inspiring things coming together at the same time.

First, the Deathline Challenge... thanks to Gloominati for pointing it out.

Then Fallenangel's reasons for leaving ConceptArt.org.

Then laziness and some thought

I got super pumped about Deathline, and made three yearly goals, then broke them down to months, weeks, and then a daily regimen.

Then Fallenangel's comments about people posting pages and pages of studies "without even knowing why". Hmm.

Then laziness said "me next, please". There's a real cause for laziness, isn't there? You don't suddenly become lazy for no reason. I started to think about "why" was I feeling that way.

"Why" struck a chord with me. Why go through all this strict training, asked Fallenangel? Why practice so hard? Is there a time limit? (life is short). Is there a monetary benefit? (probably not) Then why?

Get better at drawing.... OK... why? Enjoy it more; become a 2D animator and write comic graphic novels. OK... so why aren't you doing more of THAT?

.
.
.

(silence)

.
.
.

Backing up--

The "regimen/hard practice" stuff works. Loomis. Bridgman. Figure drawing. Master copies. Movie stills. It's like going to the gym and working out your muscles really hard. You get results if you do the exercises correctly, and are consistent.

But I believe you can get stuck in this "workout" mode as if "working out" were an end unto itself. Do studies to get better. (To what end?)

It's like body building with no intention of using your newly trained muscles. It's as if you love to play football (soccer), but you're constantly in the gym pumping iron.

Why not spend more time playing the soccer? Why don't I (personally) just draw more "animation" and "graphic novel" stuff?

This idea of "playing the game" and "failing" go together. Go out there and "play football (soccer)". You won't always win the game, but you'll be out there learning from your mistakes. You'll train to improve your specific weaknesses.

The gym should serve your game, not the other way around. The creative artwork should be the focus, and the studies should serve them.

For me lately, too much "study". Figure drawing is great; but my goal isn't to draw dramatically lit figures in charcoal. It would be like getting huge biceps to make my football (soccer) skills better. Doesn't make sense.

Instead, I'd better start drawing what I've wanted to draw all along, and only do studies when there are errors in those works.

See what I'm saying?

--------

So it's this. Laziness-- my body is tired of doing exercises in skills I won't use for my animation & graphic novel stuff.

Must do more creative work; it's where the love is. Don't build skills just to build skills.

I'm going to slow down posting studies (will still do them), and focus on creating realistic works from my mind... which will lead me toward my goals.

I STILL SET these goals for the Deathline, but will approach much differently. They won't be set using "reps" or hard study quotas; instead, they will be set in terms of "creative pieces".

Start one new creative piece a day.

That's it.

In a year's time, I will have at least 365 new pieces.

I hope to get efficient and fast enough to finish these in less than a day, and that I will only do studies to fix errors in these pieces.

Don't want to become an "art god wunderkind" that has every art skill; it's too big of a goal right now. Master only the skills required for your one year Deathline goals. Go from there.

SIGH...

Hope I haven't UNinspired anyone and I wasn't brief after all

---

Stayed away from figure drawing sessions this week; probably won't go back on Wednesdays (too many politics), but I'll return on Saturdays.

These figs are from last week.

Wednesday is a poisonous day; mostly because of politics. I didn't do so well that night, so I just started over every time with a new drawing (between model breaks). Bleh.





Saturday





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Flanagan Man, just ... create... ya know? The studying thing isn't a race (cuz if it were, I would lose. LOL). Thank you.

ismo Separating light & shadow earlier sounds like a good key. Thanks bro.

Mr.Pryminista Good advice. Thank you. I need to get my brain rewired.

Ludic Thaaaaanks my young friend!

Satupeikko Yes, sir. The cast hasn't been used yet (I'm a slacker)... but will be soon. Thanks

Kerah Heh... thanks buddy. The bust was... embarrasingly expensive :o I think you should come up with the next idea, since I haven't even finished my jester.

anonanon Thank you!

cloudcan Hehe... thanks!

prsnsweeney Thanks man.

monstertree The sad fact of the matter is... it IS a moleskine .... the "gross" moleskine, apparently. Thank you, though

Flaskpost Thank you for the crit. I know what you mean about the feet... I think it's the rear (left) foot that's off, though. I noticed it when drawing it... but measured and... eh? It must be close... some of the overlapping forms are probably off, and it's not modeled very nicely I'll agree.

Vodus You're too kind.

Kungfoowiz Thank you for the encouragement. I'm not sure the fig drawings are going to be as frequent, but I'll try. Thanks again.

Fernteixeira Haha... you're right. Seurat was cool XD

wasabi89 You're far too kind to me. If I were to give you one piece of advice it would be to keep drawing the "fun" stuff and make it #1. Study things in your drawings that you want to fix; otherwise, just do fun stuff. It's the only way to keep the train rolling.

Marian Heh. Thanks Marian. Appreciate your support.

Just Call Me Bruce! You're right. This model had direct (front) light on her, right in front of me. They had to actually slightly move the light's pole out of my line of vision. So no good lighting; I had to hallucinate the shapes and shadows (everything was pretty blown out). Obviously I need more practice there. Thanks for the crit.

Ricardo Robles Saludos y gracias!

SMILEFACE

andres333 D'Oh! A pun! Juego de palabras! whatever

Aragah Thank you.

teapo O U XD
There may or may not be Medici studies for perusing... haven't decided yet
Thanks, man.

[Samurai_Nik]

Thnx p sage for looking at my sketchbook.
I really need to keep pushing myself to improve, hope I can do it.
I really like your figure work makes me feel I sould take classes and use charcoal again.

[b-dawg]

Hello there p sage and thanks a lot for stopping by my sketchbook!
I like your approach and I must say that you're really patient! I'm surely won't be able to do that ink excersises and draw that huge amount of perrier bottles and spheres as you've done I'm sure with such temper you'll go really far and patience is a very good thing for an animator

I also like how you did the Saturday study with white pencil!

And what about that Deathline challenge... I'm very inspired with this too and I decided to also accept it. And of course good luck to you with accomplishing your goals but don't forget to rest! I've seen in some threads (like Mr.Gloominati's and of course I want to do that myself) things like "I'll work like mad for a year, 15 hours a day, and then on 4th November 2012 I'll get up a really really very very damn great artist". That's an enchanting idea but don't forget that your body and also your mind isn't a perpetuum mobile and you need to rest, to lack information sometimes. There's such thing like Yerkes–Dodson law - to accomplish the task succesfully you need to have ENOUGH motivation, not more and not less but enough. Well that seems to me that I'm writing all that stuff for myself more than for somebody else because I'm prone to blame myself if I make a daily schedule, like "draw 30 studies every day", then draw for 3-4 days and then... MISS ONE DAY OF STUDIES because I'm too lazy or tired or whatever. And then I say: damn you woman, tomorrow you'll do 60 studies! And next day of course I can't do 60 studies because I have again some problems... and the number of what I must do grows and I just go mad and throw it all away D: So.... with all that pile of words I wanted to say - don't force yourself. And then you'll reach all your goals because you'll be healthy in you body and in your mind. Good luck! Now I shut up because I feel very stupid with all that I've written... XD

[Kungfoowiz]

Yeah man, that's a good plan, why do I draw? Jus love drawing, so whether I work at Asda or get paid to draw, it's qwl =) Remember fellow ninjikitty, Keep a pencil in every claw! =) Meeow =)

[Kerah]

Hey Chad
I sincerely think Fallen is exaggerating, it sounds a lot like a successful strike of nostalgia. My way is to concentrate on improving in what I lack the most (figure and hand studies atm) and often enough drawing things I love just to relax (knights, cool people and such).

I'm not really sure who posts Loomis studies without understanding their benefit, although I think I've seen people do them without really giving those studies the thought it requires.

I really like how you're dedicating yourself to create stuff that aren't just studies (I never really understood how people can enjoy doing ONLY studies) - however, don't force yourself too harshly into it because you'll end up hating it. Enjoy the flow of things, maybe do a livestream (and send me and others a message before going online) - see what you love, and do it without regret and second thought

About a challenge - what do you love drawing the most? Theme, certain kind of characters ... anything else?

See you around,
V.!

[wasabi89]

hey bro,
I like you gestures. You have a great line quality going over here
also loved Image17 in your last post. Great lighting!
dont have any crit here, keep killin it mate

[Wassim]

don't know what to say !! just wonderful man
i like all the studies , you're doing great
just keep the good work and keep postin

wassim

[Saarmander]

Hey P! Sounds like you've done some serious meditating on the year to come and what you want to get out of it, which is the whole point of the deathline I think. SO actually instead of being "un-motivating" I think what you said is SUPER MOTIVATING and makes a lot of sense. Best of luck at crushing the skills you need and want to get better at the stuff that makes you happy!

[KingElvis]

i really like what youre saying about working out for its own sake. I think the danger with this is, that this way of drawing is conditioning and it really almost killed that artistic flame in me. Im recovering from that tho. anyway,
very inspirational post, man, thx.
Im looking forward to seeing what youre creative juices come up with Let em roll!
that taco party vid is cool btw.

[Danny_K]

good!!

[Chris Sanders]

hey man thanks for the kind words in my sketch book!! dude, your quality of line is looking both gestural yet well considered and versed. love the figures on the previous page especially! keep up the sensuality!

Peace!

[Vritra]

Hey p sage, your last reply was far too kind. I'm not sure I can be anything, really. I'm not even sure whether I want to be. It's more of a journey right now, and not necessarily to a destination, you know? The terrains change according to me, and I change according to the terrains. Hmm, that was a bad analogy.

Anyway, a quick crit. I think you're getting too caught up in the smaller planes and moulding the little shapes to look at the basic underlying chunks. To take the bald man crying 'LOL' as an example; if the plane on the right of his nose is in shadow, there's no way there can be so much light on the side of his face/cheekbone/jaw/forehead. It's like there are two contradictory light sources (at least to me).

These are small things, really. Your life studies are looking really good, and I'm sure with time all that effort will show in your other works as well. Keep drawing, and best of luck.

[Just Call Me Bruce!]

Good luck on your deathline!
Go for broke!

[DStraX]

That stuff about doing studies and so on made me think thanks dude

Nice studies btw^^

[Pigeonkill]

Nice to see some clean cross hatching in those sketches. The lady is saying "hehe" but she seems to have sad puppy eyes

[miycko]

dude 227 is great especially the Loomis rendered poses, good work on those manikins and seriously awesome work on the life drawing sessions from the same post The two minute poses are awesome, just one of the things i should be trying as well. kudos on that master study in 264 its very nicely done. Those are some inspiring words in post 304 thanks for that dude & congrats on getting the large format scanner, it must make things so much easier

[andres333]

heh... your "Mucha" pun in my thread reminded me of a Spanish joke I know

"Me puedo bañar con diarrea?"
"Si, si te alcance"

Not a pun D: ....Seriously I wasn't joking at all :/
And sorry I didn't get the joke either haha..you speak spanish? where are you from?

[kimozabbi]

hey man, saw your post at miss bon bon sketchbook. i like the advice you gave her. i was wondering mind giving me some critique on my sketchbook?just want to know if im on the right track. thanks for your time!

[Samszym]

Uh hey just wanted to say you're a really helpful guy. I feel like I learned a lot just from reading comments you made. I feel inspired! Tomorrow I'm gonna work hard to reach my goals and also draw fun stuff!
Thanks for taking the time to make all these great comments. Your drawings are looking great too, sick hatching on the "laughing" people. Keep being awesome!

[prsnsweeney]

so i was reading what you were saying about people doing studies for the sake of doing studies and not not actually learning or knowing why they do it and they should do what they love and do that more instead of the studies and just do studies when they feel lacking in a certaint area but what happens if you study your ass off practice practice practice and realize that you no longer enjoy drawing cartoons or doing the stuff you were studying for? all of a sudden you appreciate art in a different way and cant stand drawing the same cartoons that used to make you happy?

[Sebastian Gromann]

yeah, that some great challenge you set yourself back in november! i'm impatient to see how this wil develop. calling for a post

[Dark_Eyes]

Chad Lehman, come in? come in?... you there? howza bout' posting here instead of in my sketchbook? I'm the biggest forum junky around, just sayin' make yourself happy this season... drop a load of your stinkiest bombs here and we can all suffer through this great catharsis together... lol just kidding happy holidays buddy.

[Alex Eh]

Hey P sage your last post was really really reaalllly good. It's been something I've been thinking about a ton lately. So I just want to thank you for it.

I think the "lazy" thing or the "burned out feeling, is just a trick, I don't beieve in it. I think it's just that you forgot what you wanted, or your having a hard time remembering what you wanted, or you never knew what you wanted in the first place. But if you keep what you wanted close to your heart and always always always remind your self of what it is you want you will never burn out, sometimes it might not feel super mega exciting. But if you remember clearly what you want you will keep working!

Your right with the, "study study study" but then not really knowing why your studying. You need to know which game your playing and use the studies to build the foundation for that game.

There are many games one can play when it comes to art! But only so few very basic foundations for playing that game well.

Let's start playing!

[Dark_Eyes]

5 stars! Merry christmas *****

[teapo]

wow, it's been quite some time since you last posted. but yeah, i certainly agree with you on the whole issue of well-- not just fallen angel, but amongst others who have left CA.org for the same reasons. though i am glad you are aiming to produce some imaginative/creative pieces at least once a day. pure study and nothing to show for it sometimes does cause us to be lazy in our art making process. so, the next update i expect to see some of those works you've been cooking up!

oh... and Happy Holidays my friend!

[Kerah]

Chad - where is ze update ?

[Marian Rowling]

Hey sage just want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope all goes well for you.