Buhardilla's sketchbook

[Buhardilla]

So after lurking around on this site for a long while, I finally registered. It's been a long time since I've sat down to do art very consistently, so my new goal is to do a sketch a day. Hopefully having somewhere to post it will help me be consistent.

I'd like to strengthen my weaknesses, which is pretty much everything. Color, value, human figures, etc. Especially rendering environments and landscapes.

If you see any possible way I can improve on something, please let me know! You won't hurt my feelings no matter how blunt, I know this stuff needs work.

First up is a corsican ram. He was referenced from a few photos. I really like their horns. Hopefully next time the face will come out less flat looking.

[Buhardilla]

Here's today's study. I referenced an old photo of my grandpa's face. Faces are fascinating to me. Because of an old head injury I can't recognize people by their faces. Ever since that happened I've been kind of fixated on studying them. Was kinda mad because I couldn't find the 6B pencil.

The second sketch is from imagination. I should have used a reference for the skeletons. It was supposed to be a necromancer chick working on some minions.

[Vermis]

Unofficial welcome party: hello!

You look like you're off to a good start, as far as I can see; but I agree that there is quite a bit of flatness about it. I'd suggest less emphasis on dragging heavy, continuous contour lines around the subject. Use construction and perspective lines, sketch in basic forms, and so on.

But I don't think many would disagree that the better advice is: photos already flatten the image, so it would be best to sketch from life. See the thing in ultra-realistic eye-popping 3D, no glasses required.*
It might be difficult if you want to draw a couple more ovines, particularly the corsican ram, but looking at your location - any nearby wild areas, parks, zoos etc. where you can see Dall sheep? Not to mention other wildlife and some kick-arse scenery, I'll bet.

*"Well," he said, as he pushed his specs back up the bridge of his nose. "Not 3D ones, anyway."

[Buhardilla]

Thanks Vermis! Tomorrow or maybe later this afternoon if I have time I'll try sketching my son. He's still an infant so goes for long stretches without moving. I should take advantage of it and do some studies of his feet, face, hands, etc. There is a zoo around here, I'll be on the lookout for discount admission coupons to go on a sketching trip.

[littlebones]

That's such an unusual head injury, man! I have heard of it before, though. Do you find doing studies of people's faces helps you remember them better?

So jealous you have a zoo nearby, I unfortunately do not but it would be so nice.

Post more, I really like the study of your grandpa.

[Buhardilla]

Littlebones, I'm not sure if sketching helps or not. If I can tag a feature about someone (like Elvis' sneer, glasses, and awesome hair) and see them in context I can usually figure out who it is. If you show me early Elvis or crop the picture so I can't see his hair though, all bets are off.

Blah. So much for a sketch a day. Here's the tiny bit I've done in the meantime, really need to get back on things though.

A study of my dog's foot. I was going to do more but somebody knocked on the door and he decided to jump up and bark at them.

Then I sketched out an underpainting of my friend's little American pit bull terrier. The flowers in the margins are Scottish primroses, because the old blue pit lines come from Scotland and I didn't feel like using thistles. I started blocking out the base layer of paint. Please excuse the dead bug stuck to it. Stupid thing decided it was a nice place to land while it was drying.

[Buhardilla]

I've been trying to take advantage of having an infant around before he gets mobile, so here's a couple sketches of my son's face. The sleeping one is pretty messed up becuse he woke up and made a poop face. I should have just left it but tried to finish it anyway.

I also started a sketch for CHOW #260, but didn't do a final because I only noticed it the day before it was due. I'm pretty newbish with digital tools, so it's just kind of blobbed together. The concept was supposed to be, make yourself into a fantasy character. I started making myself into a necromancer, but not an evil one (I don't do the black leather bikini thing ). Was going for a folklorico type dress without all the color, giving my minions facepaint jobs so they can party for dia de los muertos with everybody else. Maybe at some point I'll finish it. Most likely it'll end up as an underpainting for an oil piece if that happens.

[HemogoblinHead]

Hi! I tried to PM you, but apparently I'm supposed to have at least ten posts under my belt before I can do that? I'm so new to this that I don't even have that many yet! Anyway, if you want to be critique buddies that would be awesome! Could you PM me?

[Buhardilla]

HemogoblinHead Sent you a pm! Sorry for falling off the planet for a while there.

After seeing that thread in Spartan Camp about doing 50 gesture drawings I've decided to try it. The deadline already passed there so they're going in the sketchbook. There was a cool idea to use a movie and pause it on different poses. I put in The Magnificent Seven and that's what these are from. The proportions are pretty wonky (like that weird pinhead dude) but I'm just taking them for what they are and moving forward... plus I can't remember what scenes they were from anyway.

[Buhardilla]

Phew, up to 14 figures now. These are referenced from random stills in The Two Towers. Sorry for the water damage. Apparently my son has caustic saliva.

[Buhardilla]

Finally got a chance to sketch again. Started messing around and drew a character from a story I'm writing. This is the first time I've managed to draw a portrait that feels like him.

His hat totally needs more work, but I'm fairly happy with the rest. Not too happy with my scanner and the weird glare it added to his clothes and the side of his face closest to the viewer. Ugh.

Maybe I'll practice doing some concept art character sheets with him at some point.

Edit: I added a quick scan taken earlier today. Apparently it wasn't as shiny before I used the smudge pencil on it and it didn't scan with the same glare over his cheekbone in that one. Augh it's going to bother me forever!

[Buhardilla]

Been working on some more studies and stuff. I've decided to work on real life body armor, so I can do believable imaginary stuff.

The riot cop is referenced from a photo on this link, shot by Gil Kaufman:
http://boingboing.net/2008/09/02/rio...-relaxing.html

The rest of the pics are all from imagination. I started drawing a cossack dude, then added a gas mask and went all crazy with it. I'm going to try doing a character sheet for him, he'll be a post apocalyptic cossack with a dog and a horse, maybe give him some cool weapons like a bandolier and a rifle, or a really big knife.

[Buhardilla]

Entered COW 263 and it was really fun. I definitely need to practice rendering stuff and environments, but this was a huge learning experience.

[Buhardilla]

Due to the epicfail of the background scribbles of the COW thingy, I've started doing greyscale environment speedpaint studies. I've never messed with landscapes much before, so this is a huge learning experience. It's also teaching me about using masks and stuff in photoshop.

This is my first one. It took about 45 minutes. It's pretty rough, but I think future ones will turn out a bit smoother since I didn't really know what I was doing with the tools to start with. It's referenced from a photo from Chi King's flickr set. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davelau/1071940502/

[Buhardilla]

Another speedpaint, this one in color referenced from this photo. I set a 45 minute timer because I'm also trying to get better at getting things down fast.

[dawnusllaw]

Thanks for commenting on my work! After looking through your SB I also wanted to say it looks like you've definitely improved. Your digital work is particularly impressive, I have no idea what i'm doing with that.

[Buhardilla]

Dawnusllaw: Thanks! I'm looking forward to see where you go with that piece. It's definitely off to a good start. Watching tutorials and then practice has helped my digital stuff more than anything. There's a lot of good material on youtube.

The latest speedpaint, from a reference again. I'm going to be referencing really heavily in my sketchbook for environment stuff until I get it really hammered into my head. Maybe next week I'll try and bring some to a more polished level.

[Lagarto]

your background speedpaints are looking great! Reminded me that I should practise them too