Cider's SB

[Cider]

Hi. I'm utterly ignorant about drawing & art, but for some reason I decided I want to learn how to draw. I found this site just the other day, and I'm amazed by the artistic talent and sense of community here. I'd be happy if even a little bit rubbed off on me!

Your comments and criticism are welcome--thanks for looking.

[Kino_PuA]

Haha upload some pics man ^.^

[Cider]

I decided to start with the Right Brain book, since it was already on hand. I'm not sure if I'm into the "science" (hope that doesn't offend!), but the exercises seem worthwhile. Since I'm a total newb, it's all new to me.

Here are three drawings the author suggests before reading lessons: my hand, a self-portrait (my wife laughed), and a portrait of somebody from memory (made me laugh).

[Cider]

Some more Right Brain exercises: upside-down drawing (copy of the author's copy of some old drawing), exercise using a view-finder tool (my hand), and an exercise to emphasize negative space (objects on my desk).

Funny thing about the third drawing: in spite of the view-finder tool, my proportions are still wacky. I turned the page and the next chapter is on perspective and proportion

[Cider]

A few practice sketches:

[Cider]

Drawings of my hand for practice:

[Cider]

Still working through the Right Brain book. I was supposed to concentrate on proportion and perspective for this exercise. Unfortunately, I don't like how it turned out at all.

[Cider]

First is an exercise from the Right Brain book (copy a JS Sargent drawing), and the second is a sketch from the cover of one of my wife's fashion magazines.

[Cider]

I don't have a model, so I've just been drawing heads from magazines. They all look extra clumsy to me, but this is the best I can do right now.

[Cider]

I'm still plugging away at it, making you guys look good. The wife had "Keys to Drawing" on the bookshelf, so I'm trying some exercises from that book. The drawings below are from life. The three blobs are a green pepper, if you can't tell . Hands and eyes are mine.

[Cider]

Drawn from a picture I took of one of our dogs:

[Cider]

Self-portrait fail . I used a mirror instead of a photograph this time. I can start to appreciate how good you people really are when I try stuff like this!

[Cider]

Update for the last week: some quick sketches of the dogs, a pistol from life, a samples from a few pages of 30-second sketches from some online pose tool (that was a laugh), and a portrait of our other dog. I kind of punted on the dog portrait at the end, because I just wasn't digging it.

[Cider]

I picked up the Nicolaides book at the library the other day, and decided to give it a try. I chose an interesting 60-second gesture drawing from each day to show my progress. As you can see, I'm starting from maximum suck, but its nice to know there's nowhere to go but up

[Hunin]

Thanks for commenting on my sketchbook.

Strong start here, I really like the post #11 of your dog, an excellent study. Your gesture drawings are interesting too, keep up the good work,

[Cider]

I'm still working on Nicolaides, which means lots of 60 second gestures. Here are a few from the past week:

[Hunin]

Very nice gestures, I like the quality of the marks (you can tell you're not being overly fussy or hesitant), from those drawings you get a clear sense of the movement of the whole- you've captured the gestures well. Thanks for the comment on my SB, but I think I have strayed too far into silhouette, of course I will hit certain contours of the figure whilst doing these drawings, but I really want to strive to capture the force behind the motion (or non motion as may be the case).

I've restarted my 5 hour (now 4 hour) contour study, I'm going to set a timer and do 15 minutes at a go, I can see the point of the exercise, but it's damn hard to concentrate!

I hope you keep going with the book

[Cider]

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm interested to see how your five-hour study turns out--I hope you add it to your sketchbook.

[Cider]

Still working on Nicolaides, so tons of scribble drawings this week. I'm all over the place with these things, but hopefully I'm internalizing some lesson, or experience, or something.

I also started casually going through Fun With a Pencil (no scans yet). I wasn't interested in drawing cartoon heads at all, but it turns out it's fun (duh).

[Hunin]

Hey Cider, post some of your longer studies from Nicolaides please, and some Loomis work, I'd be interested in seeing how you're doing

[Cider]

Hi Hunin, thanks for dropping by. Most of my contour drawings are unrecognizable (especially the cross-contour ones), but I attached two for posterity anyways: a motorcycle jacket, and a shoulder bag (it's European!). Hard to believe those drawings represent two hours of my life.

The big black blob is supposed to be my dog sleeping on the couch. Pretty much all of my weight drawings ended up as black blobs. I try to keep reminding myself that it's all about the experience, not the product.

I'm working on chapter four now, so the weight drawing exercises have been replaced with modelled drawing exercises. The first example below is a hyena (from a photo, obviously), the second a rhino, and the third an overstuffed chair in the living room. The chair drawing looks odd, but to be honest, the chair looks kinda odd in person, too.

My gesture drawings got pretty wild this week, which troubled me a bit. Hopefully I'm not headed off into the weeds with this stuff--sometimes it's hard to know when doing self-directed study like this.

[BHCS]

Some of the gestures have very nice flow, I would like to see some more finalised poses from you though. Maybe try to draw the subject simply over the gesture work and see where your anatomy knowledge falls short.

Keep updating!

[Cider]

Hi BHCS, thanks for visiting. The list of my weaknesses has only one item: "everything," but understanding of anatomy is definitely a conspicuous problem. I think you make a good suggestion. I'm trying to concentrate on unit and impulse (as described by Nicolaides) when drawing gestures, but I can see how it would be useful to elaborate on some of those quick studies. Besides magnifying my weaknesses, it might help me understand how to relate a gesture study to a more finished drawing. Thanks for the advice.

[CarbonBased]

Thanks for taking your time looking at my sb.
Your gestures and silhouettes are nice. Keep doing those as a daily thing and you wont regret it.
From looking at your other sketches, I'd suggest trying to work on your lines. You seem to be afraid of them a little. You can always erase the line you don't like. So try to keep your hand a bit more relaxed and draw with longer lines.

[Cider]

From looking at your other sketches, I'd suggest trying to work on your lines. You seem to be afraid of them a little. You can always erase the line you don't like. So try to keep your hand a bit more relaxed and draw with longer lines.

Good observation. It also occurred to me that the lines I make aren't very attractive, but I wasn't sure how to address that. I was hoping the gestures would help (and I have quite a pile of them now), but it's nice to get some targeted advice. I wouldn't mind learning how to get nice tones like you do as well! Thanks for visiting.

[JulieSS]

It's funny you mentioned your peppers as looking like blobs (they don't to me!), as I have had several people asking what I was drawing when I did the same exercise (I had to go with a chili as that was the closest thing in the fridge).
Your gesture drawings are nice, I agree with the one that said maybe do a bit more finalised stuff, like your hyena, rhino and dog are good!

[Artpotion]

keep up the studies nice stuff!

[I-Bomb]

work a little more on line and proportion good studies you have so far and I hate to say this but work a little more on depth some sketches do look a little flat

[Cider]

JulieSS:
Thanks for commenting. I suppose the pepper shape is in the ballpark, but I'm not happy with the tones at all. I especially like the tones you made in your study of the dropper bottle.

Artpotion:
Thanks for the encouragement! Time will tell if I have what it takes to keep at it.

udonhead:
Why would you hate to point out the obvious? The drawings are terribly flat, but there's some hope: lately I've been spending a lot of time on exercises intended to develop an understanding of form. Light/shadow is a problem for me too, so that's another item on the long list of topics to study.

[Hunin]

Hey Cider, nice to see some of the longer studies, thanks for posting them.

It looks like you got the contour and weight exercises better than I did, I struggled to do these exercises for the appropriate lengths of time. The jacket does look recognizable- which is saying something considering the nature of the exercise.

The weight drawings/ modeled drawings are excellent, you can tell what you've drawn and you do get a sense of the gravity of the animals/ objects you've drawn.

And I wouldn't be too troubled by wild gesture drawings, to draw furiously and freely is an aspect of the exercise.

thanks again for posting these, it is really interesting to see someone else go through the exercises, gives you a lot of perspective