Mental-Mouse Needs to Practice

[Mental-Mouse]

Taking a Critical eye to change the way I do things...

[Mental-Mouse]

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[Mental-Mouse]

Amongst other things...I gotta work on how lips stretch and compress...

[RissaKay]

Hi there again! Have you looked into Loomis?? You can get his Drawing the Head and Hands book HERE for free, so I'd suggest looking at it and doing some studies from it, m'dear.

[Mental-Mouse]

Yeah, I've got a Loomis print out sitting a few rooms from me. Just gotta get up the motivation to start it.

Do you have any specific critique about what I am doing in my Cartooning that I should fix?
(I know I gotta work on my eyeball placement. Got a kink in my eyes that causes some problems)

[Ana Caspão]

In cartooning the whole has to be consistent, i don't see any serious problem with the eyeball placement.
I do however think you should stick to drawing reality ALOT more so that then you can distort it beautifully.
Stick with life drawing and drawing from photos 90% of the time and 10% of the time do it from imagination.
That's what I can really recommend you to do if you want your drawings to go to the next level.
Hope i have helped somewhat.

[Mental-Mouse]

Yarp, I keep on trying to do life study but always end up getting distracted and my mind wanders off.
I've yet to come up with a way to stay focused on it for any length of time and it has become endlessly frustrating.

And maybe its just me, I constantly see errors in my eyeball placement. One eye being far more dominant than the other.

[mdog]

If you have trouble staying focused on it, try building up to it by doing quick gesture drawings of poses and then working up to more detailed studies of bodies and faces. You don't have to drop the stylised sketches all together to do that, and I find that they will come out better after half an hour to a few hours of gestures and studies. You'll see a lot of improvement if you start doing that. Maybe this video on how to go about drawing gestures will help you get started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmiwGm32dXU

It's just one of many good resources. Good luck!

[Mental-Mouse]

Thanks! I'll give it a go and post the result!

[Mental-Mouse]

Managed to do some Gesture Drawings and tried to copy a few of the pictures. Forgot to save them though, found that I am really terrible at copying what I see.
Gonna try to do some blind contour line drawings. See if that helps...


Mental Doodle by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[mdog]

Blind contours are a great idea, too. Just remember: we're ALL terrible at drawing what we see at first, and we all get better at it. I've been pretty slow to improve in that department, myself hehe. I like the pose in this most recent sketch, too. The curve of her back and bottom it really nice. The pelvis area in general gives a sense of volume and weight, and I like the way her shoulders are pulled back. I think your sense of anatomy is already improving!

[Lucarky]

Love your line mate! Like MrFrenik suggested, try to make some construction lines in your works. Perspective can help a lot.

[Mental-Mouse]

Thanks for the Tips and Support! Im slowly working through replacing a horde of bad habits.

Did about half-an-hour of Gesture Work. Though overall, not much was done today due to sickness.



practice 9 attached head by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr


Whut... by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr


Shooty Cat Sketchy by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[Mental-Mouse]

Trying to do start Real Person face Practice...
Ow..my head...




Audrey Hepburn Sketch and Paint Practice 1 by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[Mental-Mouse]

Started abit of Loomis: "Head and Hands"

Hands all rebelling against breaking bad old habits...


Head Practice by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[mdog]

I can already see big differences! Nice progress!

[Triplaneta]

^ Damn ninja.

Nice progress man! imma subscribe to this thread, show us more.

[Mental-Mouse]

Thanks! Gonna try and keep these actual practices going. Entire Arm all manners of cramped up, brain went the same way. Though been at it near 10 hours today.


Passing Out Scribbles by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[Mental-Mouse]

Been Passed out all day due to migaines but had to do something before going back to sleep.

Making Character Sheets For my Changeling: The Lost group.


Bobcat Character Sheet by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[Mental-Mouse]

So damn sick...but managed to do abit. Even if it took for-damn-ever...


Bob Resized by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[Mental-Mouse]

Trying to get myself to do some proper practice is like herding cats. Cats with the attention span of a toddler overloaded with mountain dew.
I think I've had like...maybe six constructive hours of practice in these last few weeks...


feline something or other by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[Mental-Mouse]

And today concludes the 2nd day of drawing in my all fresh and new Figure Drawing I class...

With a small portion of my Psych class being spent sketching this out since it was right after Figure Drawing and I still felt like drawing...


snarky offensive remark resized by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

However after the Drawing II class after Psych...not as much wanting to draw.

[mdog]

I like that your faces are getting more dimensional! Can't wait to see more!

[Mental-Mouse]

Thanks and Huzzah! I didn't even really notice. I guess thinking the head as a box sees to have helped.

[Mental-Mouse]

First attempt at some Sequential Practice. Gonna try to do at least one a day.

Need a bigger scanner.


sequential practice 1 resized by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[mdog]

I really like the eyes in that last panel!

[PeopleEveryday]

I think you notice a lot of things in your cartoon heads that are very good things, like planar changes in the nose and the fullness/shape of lips. I definitely think that you would benefit from studying real humans. If that bores you, study some of the masters of cartooning or just a comic artist that you really really like.

For facial deformations and lip-stretching, facial contortionists might be a good thing to take a look at. Also, The Boondocks is really really great for extreme expressions.

Keep on crankin' and good luck!

[Mental-Mouse]

Indeed! I do like me some Boondocks and LeSean Thomas. I'll have to do some studies.
And yarp, normal face study bores me to tears but each day in figure class I at least try to draw the model's face...
My Drawing II class leaves me mentally tired from all the focus I gotta muster so as to actually do those Still Lifes.
Which I need alot of work in rendering beyond crap level.

[Mental-Mouse]

Did this about a month ago. Gonna try and post more things Im rather unhappy with.


Bob, of all time by Mental-Mouse, on Flickr

[smrrfette]

Wow I really love those Loomis studies you've done! And very cool oc!
Keep up the good work buddy!