"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

[littlebones]

- Samuel Beckett

Hi, I'm Jenn. I'm 23 and I want to stop wasting time, so please offer any helpful comments or criticism you have. Thanks!

I'm also getting two degrees totally unrelated to art! So it's very hard to keep up sometimes. But I keep doing this or it starts to feel like something's missing, so I do, because I have to.

[littlebones]

This is all stuff from my almost year-old Moleskine which I've stopped using as much for some reason. I don't know why I bought a Moleskine, even though it's some nice.

[pixel cheetah]

Hi Jenn. Do you know Loomis? You can find good pointers how to draw a head in perspective:

http://fineart.sk/photo-references/a...-anatomy-books

Also, you can find tons of good references at that site.

[littlebones]

I took a look at that Loomis site, I'm gonna have to go over that real thoroughly this weekend! I did take a quick peek and tried to apply some of those basic head concepts to some little faces I decided to do. I think they already look a little better than before, though I'm totally still fucking up. I'll do some actual legit serious studies later tonight. Thanks, man!

[littlebones]

I like when good people let me draw 'em real fast. This is what I came up with.

[Strato]

Hey LB.

As LordLouis once told me, "can you whack up the contrast on your scans a few notches?" I'm having a tough time seeing the details of your sketches, and I think I have an idea of a few suggestions for you, but I just can't tell. Also, look into either Fun with a Pencil or Figure Drawing for All It's worth with Loomis. If you study Loomis, he'll treat you very well.

[littlebones]

I can do that! Or at least, try. Or instead of yanking the contrast up I'll just try to draw/shade more boldly because damn, I draw so light sometimes my scanner doesn't even pick it up.

Re: Loomis - I have a free weekend ahead of me and I live right by a used book store that sells art books. Plundering time!

EDIT: Got a better photo editing program, messed with the contrast!

[littlebones]

Alright, so now that you can all actually see my scans you can look at this... thing I did this afternoon. I know little about drawing scenery and buildings but I'll never know until I try, so. I had about 15 free minutes on my lunch break to do this... today's been a regrettably artless one.

[littlebones]

Sat down on this lovely Saturday afternewn with some good tunes and Fun With a Pencil.

I first started off watching the video I got from the downloads section here, the Mike Bierek one about form, and I shaded a circle and my own little lumpy dough pile, and then just went along with the skull he was doing, so there's that too!

Now it's potluck time!

[glaudarien]

Hi there! Thanjs for the comment on my SB. You seem to be taking to loomis very quickly, can already see some good improvement here.

In order to draw perspective stuff freehand (like those buildings) it is good to practice your lines. A good way to do this is by connecting dots. Draw 2 dots around an inch apart and then connect them in 1 fluent stroke, then draw 2 more dots a further distance apart and connect them, increasing the distance each time, add more dots in between if the distance is too far - but always use jsut 1 fluent line to connect them. Next you can place un-uniformly placed dots (not in a straight line, more of a curve) and then connect them in one fluent line also. Use our elbow and shoulder rather than your wrist and you should start to find it much more confortable to draw more accurate freehand lines.

[littlebones]

Got up this morning and went directly for my sketchbook. Found Posemaniacs again and decided to do a bunch of practice poses, none of which came out perfectly but it's practice, at any rate.

The lady who looks like she's poopin' in the woods was from a photo reference, and the lighter was drawn from life. I'm proud of it because I went to reach for my lighter out of the corner of my eye and reached for my drawing instead, so it can't be that bad!

EDIT: Thanks glaudarien, I'll try that out!

[Shuty]

Great start Jenn!Keep practising like this and you'll improve very fast. If you like posemaniacs then you might like this site http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php It has a lots of photos of nude/clothed people in varius poses

[krysjez]

hey who says you are not qualified to crit my SB? I think you are definitely qualified. we are at the same level, at least.

legs too teeny tiny? -- yup

cute cat, by the way

[littlebones]

krysjez: Oh, I just mean I don't much know what to say to help that others can't likely say better, but thanks! Haha. Also yeah, her legs are really small, I picture her standing up and I'm like, lol.

Anyway here are some more poses. I looked at So You Think You Can Dance videos and did what I could do with blurry youtube stills. I just wanted to see if I could get something a little more dynamic going on.

[jdem]

Great work so far, can definitely see some awesome improvements! Keep going!

[Revidescent]

Good stuff, you're really showing a commitment to learning the basics. Your figures are nice and gestural and easy to read, but it might do you some good to do even a day or two of hardcore proportional drills - they're all looking kind of short, and thick in the legs. I think your best stuff is the stuff you've drawn from life, it's very, uh... lively.

(I like the SYTYCD ones too, that show's hella fun to draw from.)

[littlebones]

It's been a busy few days so I haven't had time to upload, but I did have the chance to draw here and there.

jdem: Thanks! I will!

Revidescent: Advice taken! You can see the start of that here. Not done with it yet though. I used Figure Drawing for All it's Worth as a resource, and did my best not to copy directly but to use it as a guideline. It took me so long and it's still not quite right but I intend to get these ideas down.

[Strato]

Your lines are looking a little chicken scratchy. Otherwise, you're on the right track. I'd do some blind contours and gestures to get you used the idea of trusting your hand to draw exactly what you need it to in 1 line instead of hacking it out in 3 or 4.

[littlebones]

Thanks, Strato! And yeah, I'm all too aware of the scratchiness of the lines. It's bitten me in the ass the few times I've tried to ink things. I'll be looking into doing contours, etc. for sure.

Anyway, here are some things from the past few days - more proportions, etc. And also some doodles done while watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare (we all have our guilty pleasures).

I'm actually a little bit proud of my Katniss Everdeen sketch up there in the corner, because it actually looks like how I pictured her! And, I take zero credit for the Cake the Cat (Adventuretime) doodle, clearly.

Random question: I keep my sketches to a maximum of 1000 px wide, are they an okay size for everyone?

[Alex Eh]

Hey there I feel your on the right track! Something I feel that helps getting your eye to see your mistakes better is measuring with a tool sometimes and comparing it to your drawing. Try and look for these mistakes with your eye but using a tool to help gets you familiar.

Keep it up! (Very delicious avatar you have)

[adelenta]

Hi great sketchbook you are having here. The studies looking really good, I especially love that last building sketch you did, the lines look so confident and free, so is the little flower sketch at the top corner above the building. Keep doing the great work.

[littlebones]

Nialain: Thank you! Do you mean like for the proportion studies from Loomis?

adelenta: Thanks

Alright here's some stuff I find alright mixed in with some stuff I drew while hungover on Saturday. Namely, the 2nd one. My heart just wasn't in it.

The figure drawings are referenced from the pixelovely website.

The crustacean things are for the Daily Sketch Group. It's been a while since I drew any kind of non-human creature!

Ugh, too many for one update. I'll try to keep this daily, and stop being too lazy to scan.

[Darjan Jurincic]

Hi Littlebones. The thing I would suggest you to do right from the beginning is to SLOW DOWN. It`s pretty clear that you try to finish your drawings as soon as possible. Remember: Things being done in a hurry will never come out good. Think it as if you would be cooking pasta for example - if you try to prepare a dish in 3 minutes, it will a.) not have a good taste and b.) it will look crappy. Same here.
Take your time with lines, understanding forms, making some preparatory/warm up sketches and go slowly. First try to fit the drawing on the paper so it doesn`t get a claustrophobia attack (the drawing has to breath, so it`s good to leave a little bit of blank "frame" around). Understanding anatomy will be easier if you pay attention to your own body and the people around. If you think about it, you`re having free anatomy lessons 24/7, you just have to observe how people move and look like. Remember stuff (what somebody does when running, drinking coffee, being nervous, sleeping ....) and when you get a SB in your hand try to put down what you saw. It will teach you the economy of strokes and what things are important when posing human bodies.
One more thing - especially at the beginning, try to avoid using soft pencils (B, 2B ...) because they can get messy and if you press to much, even after erasing, some mistakes will still be visible.

Hope it helps,
D

[littlebones]

Darjan: You're absolutely right. I draw much too fast and I don't take enough time on any of my drawings. It's actually a huge problem, and I haven't "finished" a drawing in years. With the exception of timed gestures, I'm going to see if I can start spending some serious time on single images.

Damn, you have a good eye, I've ditched the 2B for the HB pencil. I like how softer pencils feel when I'm drawing but you make a good point, I should leave them til later in the picture. Thanks so much for your comment.

***

Unfortunately, today was a bad day as far as having time to draw went, so all I managed to do was an hour-long "lesson" on Pixelovely - several 30 second gestures, two 5 minute ones, and two 10 minute ones (the second was meant to be 30 minutes, but I had to run before I could finish.) I'm going to try to do one of these every day for at least a week.

Oh, and a spider, because I have an idea and wanted to get more familiar with spider bits and pieces. There will be more spiders incoming.

All the spiders.

I know that compared to 90% of conceptart, I'm total crap, but I'm still doing better than I've ever done before. I can't wait to look back on these in 3 years.

[Strato]

I can't wait to look back on these in 3 years.

Me neither. See you on the other side of 3 years! Also, your 30 second gestures look like they could use a little more substance. Check out this great post on how to do gestures in general, but it'll apply even more to the shorter time limits: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...=225776&page=2

[twilightmoon777]

Not bad! Totally digging the sketchbook. Just work on your proportions and line work.

[Hem]

Ministry of silly walks! That and your gentleman crustacean = love.

[David Keen]

Really great work so far! There has already been such a dramatic improvement in your figure drawing, I am looking forward to seeing you get even better! The last few studies with some tone in there are particularly good. Keep at it!

[nahumfarchi]

Nice work! I enjoyed seeing you progress. And thanks for leaving a critique on my SB.

[Clur]

Hey! Thanks for taking a look at my sketchbook.

I love your figures. You're really good at catching movement and dynamism, so they feel really alive.

It'd be really nice to see a more polished drawing from you, I think.