sketchhh !

**neonndreams** · July 21st, 2011, 04:35 AM

hello! welcome to my sketchbook. i'm trying my best to improve. check out the last pages for more recent stuff!

i love/appreciate any and all advice, critique, pushes in the right direction, encouragement, etc. or just comments saying hi (:

**Taefa51** · July 21st, 2011, 04:47 AM

Oh my what, you are a crazy good beginner. You've got the right aspirations, the right direction--the right everything, really.

Loomis is always reliable; I can't comment on River Phoenix, but the program certainly looks promising. George B. Bridgman is also a popular resource around here (see Constructive Anatomy, Life Drawing, etc.). Keep revamping the structure of your figures and faces. Since you delved into digital painting, try rendering in grayscale so that values may come more naturally. Draw everything around you, then put your imagination to the test. Keep it up--you're off to a great start.

/end generic advice

**krysjez** · July 21st, 2011, 10:53 AM

hi Neon, those drawings are nothing to be embarrassed about! you're certainly on the right track. I would suggest trying to avoid using so many short sketchy lines connected together as it makes things look very fuzzy and messy.

while you work in digital, don't forget to spend some time exploring with your pencil. What kinds of effects can you produce when you vary the pressure you use? how about changing the angle at which you hold the pencil? drawing from the fingers? wrist? elbow? shoulder?

**thingways** · July 21st, 2011, 11:57 AM

You should try using posemaniacs.com and do a lot of quick sketch untill you get good proportions & shapes for your characters.

About rendering in photoshop, don't fear to put hard tones, more decisively, and use hard brushes.

**Featheredface** · July 21st, 2011, 12:22 PM

You are definitely on the right track. Just stick to the studies for now.

**thingways** · July 21st, 2011, 07:21 PM

I did a little paintover to illustrate what i was saying about hard brushes and shapes.
I did this beceause in the begining, it was hard for me to understand where to start with all thoses finished illustrations. Here you can see, i've set a basic color, then put shadows and some highlight with a hard textured brush.
If you find hard to start a drawing in photoshop, then scann in higher resolution. Remember that bigger files mean thinner details. (sorry if my english is not always correct).

**neonndreams** · July 21st, 2011, 07:46 PM

Taefa - thank you! I will look up Bridgman at the library. I have been drawing in pencil too - I'll upload those sometime today - these are mostly just the ones that I had saved on my computer when I made the thread. I had to resize a lot though, is there a way to make the attachments smaller without resizing in photoshop?

thingways - thanks a lot! how big a file would you recommend starting a drawing in for photoshop or painter? i found i like the painter tools a lot better than photoshop for drawing, but i know photoshop a LOT better so it's easier to figure out how to do what i want in that program. also my trial of painter expires in about 10 days ): thank you for your help though! after that sketch would you blend more with a softer brush? or still a hard one, but smaller? it's interesting to see everyone's different styles of painting...i don't have one yet. i don't know color theory very well besides basic hue/saturation/etc.

[image moved from first post]

**thingways** · July 21st, 2011, 08:08 PM

Well, i dont really know painter, but as i know it, this renders more "painting like" result, as i prefer to use photoshop beceause i think you can do more different things than in painter, and also beceause I always used it.

Personally, i start with a small file like 800*600 to put basic colors, and dont have to stretch up my brushes too hight to fill the "canvas". Then i try to decide composition of what i'm painting. Then, i start rendering and set te file to something like 1600*1200 (as it is the resolution of my screen). When I think i'm good to put some details, or when i see I have to zoom too much and see pixels of my file while painting, i set it up. But never exeeds 4000px wide beceause my computer starts to feel laggy if more.

For the next step, i'd add some more values, colors, more precisely still with a hard brush. I personally use soft brushes only if i have to do smooth transitions from a value or an other, or sometimes with softlights or things like smoke... You should try to download a brushet for photoshop, and understanding while looking at their painting how they use it.

To know better color theories, the best, i think, is to study it from reality. Look long how light reflects on different materials, ho sky/different lights give colors to things, etc etc.

Here is an advanced tutorial of my favourite artist. Look everything in this video, you should learn a lot. http://maciejkuciara.blogspot.com/20...-tutorial.html

**neonndreams** · July 22nd, 2011, 03:37 AM

finally scanned some stuff from my sketchbook...i can never seem to get the eyes right which are the most important part. like no matter how carefully i draw them, they are always the wrong size or shape or too close or too far or crooked. i feel like i just have a lot of difficulty getting things to look 'right', and then i get really frustrated. any advice on this would be extremely appreciated. thanks

**neonndreams** · July 22nd, 2011, 06:30 PM

this is older...took way longer than it probably should have...

**neonndreams** · July 23rd, 2011, 05:43 AM

today i am starting a project! the 1000 heads study (: inspired by a user here on CA. i'm not setting a time limit for myself (yet) but my goal is to draw as many as i can! faces are definitely something i need to improve on. out of these four i like the last one the best i think, or at least i did while i was drawing it. i tried to loosen up more while i was drawing it and even if it's not the best looking it was easier to do....idk d:

also: i can't draw hands, why are they so hard!
and eyes....i still can't get symmetrical eyes. hopefully this project will help me with that though d:

**neonndreams** · July 24th, 2011, 04:50 AM

mehhhh

**neonndreams** · July 26th, 2011, 02:10 AM

just some attempts at heads & figures...the ones i like are 14, 16, 17, 18 and 24. the rest are shit, i can't draw lips...or much else for that matter. also sorry the scans are not top quality...

**neonndreams** · July 26th, 2011, 04:34 AM

trying to learn to draw lips better since they always seem to be screwed up when i attempt faces.

**kitfox** · July 28th, 2011, 09:39 AM

Hello,

you asked me about Riven Phoenix's drawing courses in my sketchbook. I personally like his courses. I don't really feel that it gets tedious to wait for him to explain things, because most of the time I'm busy drawing while he's explaining. Lately, I've found that I actually have to stop and rewatch bits of the video more often just to get my own marks down properly.

I totally recommend buying at least the first 2 courses (101 the skeleton and 102 the muscles). Apart from just anatomy, Riven teaches about artistic thinking, art process, sketching styles and rendering in his videos, and for me at least, it works better than reading it from a book. I can't say anything about the other courses 'cause I haven't worked on them, but 101 and 102 are good stuff in the least.

If you do start his courses, don't skip anything! Do everything he does (unless he says you don't have to), preferably a couple of times over. His teaching is very systematic, and can sometimes feel predictable and tedious because of that. But keep in mind that it's a system where you build knowledge on top of knowledge. Skipping things will make you miss important parts of the foundation to pile more knowledge on.

You seem to have a good drive to learn things, keep it up!

Couple of tips:
-How to learn in general: Study, measure, make mental formulas, apply the knowledge to see if it's working. If not, dig up more knowledge and repeat until it does.
-Making things look right, especially on faces, measure out the proportions to place features, measure out the size of features, pay close attention to the shape and details of features, understand the underlying bone structures and muscles, understand the 3d forms and how light hits them. Rest is up to technical skill, draw nice long lines instead of scribbling and render shadows lightly in layers.

**neonndreams** · August 1st, 2011, 02:11 AM

kitfox, thanks for the thorough response! the tips and advice are very helpful. i will probably continue with the videos then - i read somewhere that they all used to be available for free on youtube...oh well. the guy does deserve money for making all that. anyway....some eyes and heads that i'm not so pleased with. i really need to work on expression/anatomy/there's too much, it's daunting! and i know those faces are all wrong, upper right is way too short, still working on it...

**neonndreams** · August 4th, 2011, 02:50 AM

ahaha i don't even know. i have lots of stuff in my sketchbook too that i need to scan. i think i need to spend more time drawing and less looking at other people's sketchbooks, though (:

**neonndreams** · August 5th, 2011, 02:02 AM

hm i actually kinda like this one...photo reference although i think her leg might be too short.

**neonndreams** · August 5th, 2011, 08:37 PM

thought i would try an actual piece that is more than an ugly sketch. right now it's still at ugly sketch stage, but i was hoping i could get some critique on it and where to go next with it. i'm not sure if i should venture into color just yet or just shade with greys. anyway the picture reference is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurale...n/photostream/

ill cross my fingers and hope for someone to comment (:

**neonndreams** · September 20th, 2011, 12:29 PM

i haven't uploaded for a while. i've just been super busy moving in and getting back into classes and whatnot. BUT i have a weekly drawing class at the museum of fine arts starting this week which i'm excited for. hopefully it'll help me improve a lot. i don't have a scanner at college though so i'll post as much as i can, but it will be pictures taken with my camera probably. d:

anyway this is the painting i did for my dad for his birthday. photoshop cs5. it's him, and me when i was like 6! used a photo as reference.

also attaching a sketch and a wip. i liked the sketch of the girl (...me) a lot more than the finished version...not sure how to translate sketch to finished work well?

critiques and advice on painting with photoshop would be very helpful! (: thanks

**neonndreams** · September 23rd, 2011, 10:57 PM

figure drawing - mostly 30 seconds with a couple 1-minutes around the right side

photoshop

**neonndreams** · October 5th, 2011, 08:45 PM

took around an hour, just sketching in ballpoint pen from videos on vimeo.com (paused)

**neonndreams** · October 11th, 2011, 04:24 PM

some figure drawing from posemaniacs:

some perspective and faces and notes from loomis (successful drawing):

i don't really know about this one. some shit doodling:

some failed hands, a better hand, and some random girl:

sorry for the shitty lighting and whatnot.

**neonndreams** · October 11th, 2011, 06:34 PM

ballpoint pen
a sketchy lookin dude
[from reference...still can't really draw much from imagination yet]

**neonndreams** · October 11th, 2011, 08:43 PM

another ink sketch.
his fingers are a bit crooked and the right side of his face...but i like this one

**Rhubix** · October 11th, 2011, 11:46 PM

There's visible improvement from the beginning to the later images.
Keep up the perspective stuff - that's always a good plan- and maybe add some proportions studies - They should help with the occasional short leg here and long limb there (Though I still make my arms too long all the time heh)

Posemaniacs is ok, personally I like Pixilovely
and here's some Loomis stuff - everybody likes Loomis

Happy sketching

**neonndreams** · October 12th, 2011, 01:02 AM

thanks! yeah..for some reason i have a lot of trouble with the more complicated perspective stuff...even simple stuff really...i gotta work on that, it's on the long long list of things to do d:

thank you for stopping by (:

**neonndreams** · October 12th, 2011, 01:06 AM

oh gosh. haven't used the tablet in a while but thought it was collecting too much dust.
30 min in photoshop, had a lot of trouble with this, but i'm tired and drew lots today so i'm done with it. i think i should use actual grey tones instead of changing opacity on the brush..hm

**Dile_** · October 15th, 2011, 06:32 PM

Hi neonndreams, just saw your pm!

My first and most basic crit here will be for you to focus more on structure and construction. Do basic studies where you build everything up in basic blocks, cubes, spheres and cylindars etc. That will help you understand form better. Studying from photos is hard, because in the long run, it gives you a pretty poor idea of how form is rendered. It's great for reference though

The more subtle things are almost always lost in the simplification phase, especially in really good photos. And its better if your mind does the work for you when it comes to simplification and choosing what goes and what doesn't etc.

Keep it up! Great start!

**neonndreams** · October 18th, 2011, 12:09 PM

Thanks for the advice dile! I will work more on basics a lot this week. I have a bunch of stuff from sketchbooks and also from the art class i'm taking from the museum so gonna be updating lots in a bit (:

For now I have some sketches from my moleskine. i don't have a scanner so sorry for poor picture quality/bad lighting