Ally Albon's Sketchbook

[thedestroyer]

Very good painting style. You got the feeling for it.

Cheers

[AllyAlbon]

@Dark_Eyes - thank you and Merry Christmas, hope it was a good one.

@LTPlissken - Can't go wrong with naked ladies. Plenty more to come.

@Black Spot - plenty more practising on its way!

@TheDestoyer - Thank you! Really getting into it now.
_ _ _ _


I return from the in-laws! It was rather unproductive to say the least. I had been looking forward to five days of drawing, however, that became impossible and I didn't get any peace at all. Only filled three pages of my sketchbook. Am home now, and thoroughly enjoying the quiet before work starts again tomorrow.

This is the base of my Christmas Card this year.

[ANtY93]

Oh man, this Christmas card is awesome, great details on the bird!

[Macska]

Hm I think I know where to come next time for learning about bird feathers.

And just give the time that anatomy it's going to be good.

[Tamaira2011]

Great christmas card. I really love your animals especially your dinosaur drawings (even if I know that you don't want to draw these^^). Your studies of the human body are getting better and better. Keep it up. I like the cartoonish faces you have drawn here and there

[lemming-clone-]

Thanks for commenting on my sketchbook!
You have a great sense of color and how colors work together. I particularly like Autumn Woods (#74). That's painted up reallllly nicely. I agree with a lot of the other people here that you should definitely check and double check your proportions in your drawings. You have a lot of expression in your figures and portraits but I get distracted by the faulty proportions. Keep up the good work though!

[AllyAlbon]

@ANtY93 - thanks! Birds are best, and this one came out reasonably well, although still quite a few mistakes happening in there.

@Macska - thanks! But a long way to go yet with the birdies. They are just rather fun to draw.

@Tamaira2011 - ta! Glad you like the dinos. I will be drawing more, be assured! I just wanted to get more fundamentals down before I started drawing more "fantastical" creatures... but promised myself I could branch out in 2012. I got a new dino dvd for xmas... so dinos dinos dinos!

@lemming-clone- - so true about the anatomy. It makes me cringe when I look back on it, but it is slowly improving, so will stick at it.

_ _ _ _


Last entry of 2011! It has been a great year, and have rediscovered drawing again. Thoroughly enjoyed myself, and am looking forward as to what 2012 will bring. Wondering if one day I can draw professionally, many years from now. It's an exciting thought. For now, will end it on some sketches that are not great, but can only get better.

Have a great new year, everyone.

1. Sketches sketches, who got the sketches?
2. The faces are drawn from imagination, full body from ref.
3. Drawn from imagination. Getting there, albeit really slowly.

[Nyoron]

Wow you're very dedicated to anatomy. :yayca"
I like your animal drawings and how much work you put into this!

Can't wait to see more of you in the future!

[AllyAlbon]

@nyoron - thanks! Less dedicated, more annoyed at how bad they are, and the only way to sort that out is practice.


_ _ _ _


Happy new year everyone! New year, new sketchbook. And a resolution to buy a scanner TODAY as I am tired of taking such bad photos.

Have a few bits from last year (ha!)

1. quick digital pic from reference
2. Posemaniacs, 30 seconds.
3. Really fast and really bad, without reference.
4. Hands. I hate drawing hands. Although not as much as I hate drawing feet.
5. Arms drawn at the in-laws house. So frustrating and not so good as I was never left alone for more than five minutes at a time.

[Zeppelin]

The last one where you weren't left alone is actually my favorite. Your pencil work is so much more fluid and relaxed than the others. You've made good progress.

[Zoriy]

I like your painting with a bird ,good work =) keep it up!

[LastGen]

I agree with that, the last bird looks fabulous!

[JFierce]

I think the main issue I see is the head proportion compared to the rest of the figure. Like in post #97.

One thing you might try is next time your drawing the face also is just tone down the size of the facial features opposed to as you normally would. Take into account the other parts of the face that people tend to forget about like the planes around the cheeks. People tend to add a lot of emphasis on the eyes nose and mouth. Looking back I need to work on that myself lol. I still make my features a little too big in comparison.

[Theodor]

I think you are pretty good. The draw women better than men. Your men look like girly boys. Maybe you should draw hyper masculine cro magnon cave man dudes. Or maybe Connan?

Then take it down ity down a notch and end up with handsome masculine looking dudes.

What types of skulls are these? Is that toothy one in number 2 a musk deer?

[AllyAlbon]

@Zeppelin - Argh, don't say that. Stress is not a good motivator

@Zoriy - Thank you. Looks like a lot of people like my birdies, which is grand, as I like drawing them.

@LastGen - Thank you, i'm hoping to do a lot more birds in 2012.

@JFierce - absolutely agree with your comments. Looking through my stuff, a definite problem with large heads and features. Am fighting it all the way and some of my newer stuff seems a bit better proportioned.

@Theodor - agree with you absolutely! I prefer drawing girls to boys. Oddly enough, I have actually been drawing Tarzan recently, hopefully slightly more butcher than my normal lot! I cannot for the life of me recall what the skulls were, but I think they were small carnivores of some sort - musk deer have that "ridge" at the front of their jaw. Actually, that might be rather fun to draw!


_ _ _ _ _

I am a HAPPY BUNNY. I have managed to partially restore my old scanner. Although I will need to buy a new one, this has meant that have spent today bumming around and rescanning my pics so they are a lot clearer. I am slowly editing through my sketchbook, so they will be of better quality. I am already cringing at the standard of most of them but its good to see some progression.

1. Another quickie study at the in-laws.
2. Robins from imagination.
3. Study from painting.

[telohs]

I'm loving the digital environment in the update! Your sketches seems to be getting better, too. Although I think you might want to consider working a bit more on pencil flow. Like, sketching with a light touch adding in line weight and structure.

Keep up the good work !

[Theodor]

Yeah, skulls are cool. I have a bear, wolf and a red fox in my collection. I used to have a raccoon but my dog got a hold of it!

The coolest skull I had was a Possum, because it has huge teeth and a tiny brain. It looks like a dinosaur skull or therapsid or something.

[YihyoungLi]

Heya!

keep it up with the studies. The contours of your figures are described really well. I think the proportions can be helped by toning down the size of the heads, and lengthening the torsos. the birds are really cute.

[C33D]

Heya!

keep it up with the studies. The contours of your figures are described really well. I think the proportions can be helped by toning down the size of the heads, and lengthening the torsos. the birds are really cute.

i agree! the birds are awesome! you paint really well!

[AllyAlbon]

@Telohs - thank you. I think the sketching is gradually getting slightly better, but a looooong way to go.

@Theodor - Will have a look at some possum skull pics after that description, methinks!

@yihlongli - Thanks. Figures are slowly getting there, although I still think think they are very awkward. Still having issues with big heads, but over time, they are shrinking!

@C33D - Ta! Love me some birdies.

_ _ _ _

Finished up first day back at work after the holidays and I am ZZZZZZ.....zz..z...z.


1. Another self portrait from December. I'm sleepy in this pic too. Always sleepy!

2. Messing around at in-laws house. Having a go at drawing a yorkie in anticipation of doing a pic for my mum of her dog at some point.

[Theodor]

...so you flipped it...I am assuming you drew2 it from a mirror so no intead of your mirror image it looks like you.

Did you know if you turn your left glove inside out it fits your right hand?

You do eyes well. You should make that unfinished dog into a cyborg.

[Scriar]

Hi ally, the bird paintings are looking good. Keep an eye on your proportions with the figures, try drawing mannequins as shown in the Loomis books, concentrating on them at this point will help you alot with the overall proportions, then you can move on from there to start adding bones, muscles, etc http://www.fineart.sk/photo-referenc...rew-loomis/024 http://www.fineart.sk/photo-referenc...rew-loomis/026

[Marian Rowling]

Happy NewYear to you Ally. Good to see the progress you are making and how your figures are getting better. My only crit, meant to help, is that in some of. Your digital figures all the lines and edges feel to hard and sharp and dark. I suffer from this also and I have to keep reminding myself to think and foreground and background on my figures and how the line of a leg or arm behind another limb wouldn't be as hard lined as the limb in front.

Hope this makes some sense but it also something to think about with your portraits as well. Does the side of the face furthest away need as much definition? These are the questions I have started to ask myself.

[takashmen]

thanks for dropping by

looking on your drawings:
maybe try to use less lines and be more dynamic and fluent

not everything must by said

check this short tutorial for eg.

[pixel cheetah]

Your birds and dino studies are awesome! I also love the Frazetta study, do more! The human proportions are often off. I see that Scriar already linked the Loomis books, that should help you a lot. Do you really have that big eyes? Also, be more patient and precise with crosshatching, try to indicate the planes better. Happy new year!

[AllyAlbon]

@Theodor - yes, drawn from a mirror. I didn't know that about gloves, and that is bound to come in handy in this cold weather!

@Scriar - absolutely my weakest point. I am actually in the process of stepping back and looking at loomis and bridgman to try and control my insane proportions.

@Marian - thanks, and yes, I am hoping to get to the next stage of digital with fallout, hard/soft etc... so much to do, so little time!

@Takashmen - Thanks for the pdf, will definitely keep it in mind. that is one of my biggest annoyances, that I am not very fluid and freeflowing, I do like to keep to lines, a bit afraid to experiment and be free, but that will come with time. (I hope)

_ _ _ _

Work is kicking my bum and only been back for two days! Oh to stay at home and draw draw draw. By the time I get home, have dinner and sort out the boring usual stuff, I am too tired to do much else. Hoping this will change as I get back into the flow. And would love to have the motivation to produce another colour piece soon!

1. Squirrels! We have two that play outside the house and they are rather endearing.

2. another squirrel. Tried a new technique with the human characters, took a basic pose, blocked it in, then put away the reference and filled in the gaps from memory / imagination.

[LtPlissken]

Digitally painted bird more above is stellar.
Definitely worth coming here to see your
determination, improvements and of course
the nude females. Happy New year, and
please keep on going like this.

[ANtY93]

You draw so much, I'd like to have same determination as you ^^

I love ur animal drawings, they're really awesome

[AllyAlbon]

@Pixel_cheetah - Thanks. I love Frazetta and use his body type a lot for inspiration. And yes, I have been told that I have large eyes (although not that large!) which might explain why I draw them on all my characters. My proportions are rather shocking, still working on it!

@LTPlissken - Happy new year! Can't go wrong with naked ladies!

@ANtY93 - Thanks! I am hoping that with a bit of dedication, in 5/10 years I might be fed up with the rat-race and do this properly.

_ _ _ _ _

1. Drawn fully from imagination, with a tiny bit of ref afterwards on the man. Feel like its getting better, but hit a bit of a wall. Will break through!

2. Both from imagination. The Tarzan character is terribly out of proportion, but at least I am starting to see it.

[Lav]

Studies are looking good, but as you said yourself proportions are still off. It can be fun to play with proportions like in the bottom drawing, the tiny waist and very long legs look great, but the height of the breasts of your female drawings and the heads still look a bit freaky to be honest. I'd recommend focusing on that problem and I'm sure you'll be kicking ass in no time Keep up the good work