eroquii's sketchbook -- my adventure begins here

[Beartankmaster]

Dude you're kickin ass and takin names! keep it up

[eroquii]

So many good studies!! Keep it up man. I envy your ability to study more then working on finished pieces. When you do, I think you'll be well prepared!

Thanks man! Though, I probably should do some creative/imaginative pieces soon.

This kinda made me laugh- even as someone who's been a professional animator for a few years now, I still lack confidence in my work. You're never as bad as you think you are. I was 20 when I went to animation school, and I was among the younger crowd, a bunch were in their 30's, one guy was 67 - doing it to enjoy retirement- so I wouldn't worry about age too much lol.

Most of the issues you're seeing in your work are quite advanced issues- skewed perspective on minor details, shoulder rigs, - things like that are pretty far along the learning train. Your work has a good sense of volume - and the overall proportions form of things are working pretty well.

For gestures- I recommend working with a thicker brush, chalk, or even crayons. Try to get the movement of the big forms in chunks, instead of trying to outline the character. Gesture should be more about capturing the action than getting an identical replica of the image. This is particularly true for animators. We really need to push the actions and try to get good clean silhouettes. Plus- crayons are fun!
This gesture below is pretty jacked if you look too hard- but it captures the movement - you can tell what's going on. If I wanted to do a longer drawing from this I could - so I consider it a success.

Gestures really get fun when you don't worry too much. most of them will look like a train wreck- but that's ok- as long as you're learning about movement and form - you're still winning
Happy sketching

Omg, You actually came to visit my sketchbook! I've been stalking your sketchbook for a while now. I'm a big fan. I guess I have been saying a lot of silly things. I've decided to tackle my weaknesses head on. I'm now going to the library to draw every day. Thanks so much for the tips! I have yet to pick up crayons or brushes to draw with, but I plan on getting some soon. I have been doing gesture drawing with what you said in mind.

Dude you're kickin ass and takin names! keep it up

Thanks Dichotomy! Same goes to you my friend!

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Woo, I finally hit page 2!

I've been doing mostly life drawing. I'm trying to tackle my fears head on and do anything that I'm too scared to do. After visiting the library every day, I'm finally starting to have fun, despite my fail attempts at capturing the gestures of people. I'm aiming to go every day or so. I have to make tackling my fears a habit if I want to improve. I also realize that I've been neglecting my creative side, so I need to address this.

I've never felt so lost doing something, but I fought with myself and tried anyway. The apple is my most recent one. Tried the banana and oranges first. Maaaaan, these things took me sooo long it's sad. Like an hour or so. lol



Some portrait studies.



Pixelovely 2 min gestures.



I have a lot of 10 second/30 second gestures, but I didn't bother to post them this time. Below are all my life drawing sketches, most from the library.

[lionheartGFX]

your perspective is getting more solid by the day! and i want to see more creative stuff from you too! try a chow or other forum activity or come up with your own i dont know haha but use that beautiful brain of yours and give us something! cant wait dude, keep it up!

[kiichi]

Your improvement is awesome dude! Keep it up!

[eroquii]

LionheartGFX - Aww, thanks Lionheart. You really know what to say to a person to make them feel good haha. I can't really see my own improvement so your words mean a lot to me. a chow sounds like a lot of fun! are you signed up for any forum activities at the moment?

Kiichi - Thanks to you as well kiichi! it's hard to step back and see if you're doing better sometimes. kind of funny, i posted the same thing in your sketchbook literally 1min later. how often do you practice and how long if you don't mind me asking. you seem to be going through an insane artistic growth spurt.

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Today's works! Let's bring up the pace shall we!? I have an idea for an imaginative painting for tomorrow. Didn't get a chance to put into work the advice Rhubix gave me today in my life drawing though.





I have to say, drawing at the library has turned out to be very fun! Spent like 3 hours today at the library. My pencil/pen seems to just want to glide on the surface of the paper. Though, I'm still paranoid I might be trying to be too loose.... idk. Is there a wrong way to approach life drawing? I don't expect to see improvements right away, but I'm not sure if I'm even learning drawing like this.

[diamandis]

I have to say, drawing at the library has turned out to be very fun! Spent like 3 hours today at the library. My pencil/pen seems to just want to glide on the surface of the paper. Though, I'm still paranoid I might be trying to be too loose.... idk. Is there a wrong way to approach life drawing? I don't expect to see improvements right away, but I'm not sure if I'm even learning drawing like this.

Mix it up. Gestures are fun, and yours are turning out nice, but try some longer poses too, where you really try to get the figure down on paper accurately. Spend like 30 mins to an hour carefully trying to get the proportions of the model as close as you can, and work on getting shading in there. Just a thought. I gotta do that myself. I like gestures because they're over so fast, and longer drawings feel like they give me more opportunity to be like, "Shit, this isn't right *erase erase erase*" over and over. Well, that's not true: longer drawings give me the opportunity to get the outlines how I want them, do the shading, and when it's done, THEN I go, "Shit, this isn't right. Why did I shade this?"

You said you want to do comics / animation ultimately. Do you ever do copies of your favorite panels / pages from your favorite comics? Might be good to try. You'll absorb a little of the drawing style of your favorite artists, which will help you with the process of developing your own style. You'll also start getting a feel for composition, camera angles, drama, pacing, etc. Copying your favorite artists, even if it's just random elements (faces, hands, whatever), is a pretty fun way to build up your drawing skills. I see that you're already into doing manga style.

[kiichi]

See, that's kinda funny to me since I feel I'm barely treading water, just narrowly avoiding regression lol.

And as for how often and how long I practice drawing, it probably averages out to an hour every night. Judging by the volume of work you're putting in, look like you're doing more than an hour though!
I'm not sure if this helps a whole lot but when I don't have access to my sketchbook, like during a lecture, i find myself breaking down my classmates or professors into the basic volumes, gesture lines, things like that and trying to imagine the structures underneath. Maybe it isn't really helping, but it's a fun exercise to me at least and it might help you too

Keep up the good work

[eroquii]

Mix it up. Gestures are fun, and yours are turning out nice, but try some longer poses too, where you really try to get the figure down on paper accurately. Spend like 30 mins to an hour carefully trying to get the proportions of the model as close as you can, and work on getting shading in there. Just a thought. I gotta do that myself. I like gestures because they're over so fast, and longer drawings feel like they give me more opportunity to be like, "Shit, this isn't right *erase erase erase*" over and over. Well, that's not true: longer drawings give me the opportunity to get the outlines how I want them, do the shading, and when it's done, THEN I go, "Shit, this isn't right. Why did I shade this?"

You said you want to do comics / animation ultimately. Do you ever do copies of your favorite panels / pages from your favorite comics? Might be good to try. You'll absorb a little of the drawing style of your favorite artists, which will help you with the process of developing your own style. You'll also start getting a feel for composition, camera angles, drama, pacing, etc. Copying your favorite artists, even if it's just random elements (faces, hands, whatever), is a pretty fun way to build up your drawing skills. I see that you're already into doing manga style.

I definitely should mix it up. Thanks for the tip! Before I read this comment, I actually spent a large portion of this afternoon/evening being frustrated on 30 second gestures, trying to get the feel of the pose. I was trying so badly to apply what Rhubix had told me, but I think I have to balance it with longer studies. There's just something I'm not grasping in the gestures, and it probably has something to do with learning the basic construction of the figure/perspective. I don't think I've even done that many long gestures.

Yeah, my goal is to eventually work as one of those. I've copied panels in the past, but I definitely didn't put my all into studying the panels. I haven't attempted it in over a year though. I should probably give it another shot. I can see how it'd be a very useful exercise. Anime/manga is what got me into drawing, so it's all I ever really doodled when I was a child. Well, and TMNTs back in the day.

See, that's kinda funny to me since I feel I'm barely treading water, just narrowly avoiding regression lol.

And as for how often and how long I practice drawing, it probably averages out to an hour every night. Judging by the volume of work you're putting in, look like you're doing more than an hour though!
I'm not sure if this helps a whole lot but when I don't have access to my sketchbook, like during a lecture, i find myself breaking down my classmates or professors into the basic volumes, gesture lines, things like that and trying to imagine the structures underneath. Maybe it isn't really helping, but it's a fun exercise to me at least and it might help you too

Keep up the good work

You're definitely doing well man, don't let your mind trick you. About the visualizing in life, I actually do similar things haha. Sometimes I even trace the contour of things in the air with my finger. Thanks for the encouragement and likewise! Keep posting! I want to see your progression *_*

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not really sure if i'm going to update tonight, all I have our poop 30 gestures that I did in frustration.

[lionheartGFX]

i second what diamandis said copying interesting panels is a fail free way to learn how other artist do dynamic shots and that fun pictures that we all seem to picture in our minds but go AAAAHHHRG HOW?!!! when we try to put it in the paper, maybe fiddling with those dynamic images we can find something useful? look at the strokes if they are visible, how clear are the shapes, where is the contrast? how is the tension and flow being handled in the picture, this must all be questions that pop into your mind when looking at others AND your OWN work, and about activities i just come up with a general theme and work from there, its usually stuff i KNOW ive never tried, like fuck i dont know graveyards? ive never drawn a graveyard, and it might give me a good oportunity to get the tombstones in perspective and design them creepy and shit...fuck im gonna go draw graveyards now man! gotta look for some reff first..busy busy!

now you go and do stuff that strikes your interest! keep tickling your brain the MOST make it work, never put a line in your paper that you havent drawn with your eye, i do this alot actually, looking at the subject i try to see what oportunities do i have to imply shape or form, maybe whats the most interesting part? alot of stuff really but mainly i try to "imagine the strokes" and then make them and see how it goes, its usually really far from my image but recently im getting closer to that! anyway keep it up!

[eroquii]

@Lionheart -- Yeah, haha. As always, you give good advice! The poses that always get me are those foreshortened ones. I fiddled a little bit with drawing some faces and proportions of other people's art and I ended up enjoying it. It was a fun little exercise, but I didn't explore it too much today.

I'm definitely attempting to challenge myself whenever possible. Just today I ventured into some speedpainting exercises without even knowing color theory.

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Without my noticing my habits and mindsets have completely shifted in the past month or so. I now do art for the majority of the day. Sometimes I can't even sleep out of excitement thinking about what to do next. I feel like I'm finally living, as corny as it sounds.

I did some longer studies on lovecastle.org. I have to say, felt refreshing to try longer poses.










Tried to pay closer attention to the overall balance/gesture on these.






Now, I don't have any idea how to paint, so I thought I'd try this exercise just for fun and see what I could do. I definitely need to revisit these on a later date to get more out of them. Speedpaints look really fun to do. Cheated for 2 of them and went longer than 5 minutes.





This one was actually my first one






Blew my entire evening on this. I wanted to focus on construction on this one. Tried to measure the still life with a knitting needle, but even then my objects were way off. I need to try this again since the perspective killed me. Just can't see those converging lines in real life, especially on ellipses.

Apologies for crap quality, my scanner wasn't big enough for the paper. My shadow got in the way of the photo. Took a picture of the setup so I could work out the perspective later.



Other stuff

[lionheartGFX]

oooh maan its so good to read that you are finally having such a blast with your drawings, and yeah long poses are so freaking fun, trying to make things look GOOD and better than before! those tries at the setherial maxforums thread are awesome! did you fiddle with the gamut mask AMAZING tool let me tell ya, and it seems it was sort of invented by james gurney if you didnt heres the link for you to try your own gamut masks http://www.livepaintinglessons.com/gamutmask.php

basicly you pick an option and move it around the color wheel until you feel comfortable with the colors in the corners, after that you copy that and paste it in ps and pick colors from There only! you will find that ALL the colors in the gamut mask work with each other! more more more more!

[diamandis]

Nice. You got in loads of practice. Where did you find that flour sack exercise? http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1359184031

[eroquii]

@LionheartGFX - Yeah, I've come to realize I need more time in general with the poses. I've bumped myself to 60 second gestures instead of 10-30 for now. I seem to be gaining more from them at the moment. Thanks for the link, but no hadn't seen it prior to you linking me. That does look cool!

@Diamindis - answered you in your thread bud.

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Tried to do a serious still life today. I'm having too much trouble with these and I think it boils down to needing to be more patient with 'em.



Self-portrait in the mirror.



Went to the library today and drew for a bit. Felt better about these, but they're still pretty poo. Trying to expand to include some of the environment in some of the drawings.







I've been really thinking about what Rhubix told me and decided to really analyze my gesture drawings. I bumped them up to 60 seconds and felt better about 'em. Not posting all my gestures since it's too many pages. Just the ones I think I've done the best for critique. I've also been doing some longer poses and I came to realize that I had more of a tendency to copy than to construct. I must fix this!











Random doodles while watching DB.

[Yemi775]

Dude i see your dedication and progress keep at it man.

[I STRaY I]

Hey Eroquii, thanks for swinging by my SB again. I wish I had some good advice for you, but truth is you know tons more about this then I do. You're basically killing it. I come around here most times just to see what you're studying, so I can go do it. Also, you get some great feedback in here so I think it's been about covered. Mostly, if I had anything to say about what I want to see, maybe to just kind of take some shots at some stuff. I like your paintings you did in post 40, I actually think the one of the lady in the specs, not boring at all. It would be cool just to kind of see what it is you want to make from inside or from imagination or just for a challenge. But studies rock too, I'm a huge fan of still lifes. Keep the fire whatever you do!

[lionheartGFX]

hot damn eroquii sweet gestures and dbz doodles! i specially love the dbz doodles they look likle they were fun, you are also finding the tilt and relationship of the torso/hips much better now! now its just a matter of moving it in 3d in your minds eye and being able to put it in the paper, also see you are going to the library to sketch people this is just great KEEP DOING THAT seriously, life drawing its like the room of time in dbz For drawing, it just forces you to take all the world in and you improve and realize stuff much quicker from that, if you are still struggling as of how to draw the people in the library (in the few seconds/minutes you have)

take a look at this dudes method he uploads his video in real time so you can really look at his strokes, hes been doing it for years so it doesnt need construction lines and the drawins are loose and only implying form and pose, you could take something from him and adjust it to your way of working yknow make it yours

(There are several of his videos if you want to look at it mroe indepth its in hd too haha i dont remeber but in one video he actually tapes the cafe where he is in so you can look at how loose he actually draws his figures! )

[Rhubix]

Your gestures are looking more lively already - and you're not leaving out chunks of head and feet

There are endless ways to go about gesture drawing. The way I learned was similar to what I showed you, and using longer exercises to study contour line and perspective. This type of gesture isn't the prettiest- but it really shoves useful things into your brain. Gradually we started doing contour gestures- incorporating what we learned from both exercises.
I found it a really good approach because I wasn't as strong with perspective as a lot of my peers and using a running-line gesture allows you to feel your way around. Using pure contour is more difficult because you have to know where you're going. It's especially good with thicker utensils like chalk because you can put down a whole torso with the flat side and play around detailing with the point.

In the mean time, I agree with other folks about mixing it up as well.
Just to give you an idea what the schools do- my first year of animation school:
Life drawing- (3 hours)Class would usually be 25 - 1 minuet sketches 5- 5 minuet sketches, 3-10 minuet sketches and long poses for the rest of the time (25 minuets or 2 sessions of 25 minuets with the same pose)
perspective - observation and imagination
Principles of drawing - still life drawing from observation- focusing on construction, planes, and how light worked.
colour theory - all that with the colour wheel and what not.
representational painting - still life painting in grayscale first semester - full colour second semester.
design and composition - self explanatory.

We didn't get to draw any cartoons until 2nd year animation basics (bouncing balls and stuff), cartooning, storyboarding, background painting - but they stacked more fundamentals on us too. more life drawing, anatomy - animal drawing, head & features, hands & feet

Part of life drawing was to carry a sketchbook around with us and draw from life every day.
Another thing to throw in your pile would be Bridgeman books - I like his chunky form of anatomy.
I think You've already got some Vilppu stuff- another cartooning-friendly anatomist.

As long as you keep using your brain and looking for ways to improve - you will

Happy sketching

[eroquii]

@LionheartGFX - Thank you bud! Yeah, I'mma definitely keep doing it since it's very fun for me! I'm kinda frightened that I won't improve, so I'mma keep pushing myself. Gotta step into that hyperbolic time chamber haha. The video you showed me was awesome. I need to work on my line economy as well. You're awesome Lionheart. I appreciate all your feedback, keep 'em coming!!

@Rhubix - Thanks again for taking time to direct me. I really do appreciate it! With the information you just gave me I've gotten more of a sense of direction. I will keep grinding away at the fundamentals! I've been trying to analyze my work more critically recently, but I know I still haven't pushed myself to the fullest yet.

Again, thank you for the encouragement and tips.

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Must. level. up! I must admit, somewhere in the back of my mind I'm scared I won't improve. I have to keep pushing myself. Just a few studies for today. Was mainly watching videos.

Spent a lot longer than I usually do on the still life here. I still have no idea what I'm doing with the still lifes yet. I hate this life sketch, but i'll post it anyway. =/

[Cabbage Caterpillar]

Hey man, I really like your stuff drawn from life. They've got such a liveliness to them, I really enjoy looking at them. Especially the enviornment ones, I feel like I'm in it... Looking great!!
ps. The value study is also very nice!

[vices]

I'm loving the hell out of your anatomy studies~
Hampton's pretty cool right?

[eroquii]

@Cabbage Caterpillar - Thanks so much! You have no idea how much your kind words mean to me.

@vices - Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words! Yeah, I like his book. It seems to be the easiest for me to grasp, so I've been trying to make my way through his book while juggling some other ones. I like the way he breaks down the forms.

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Felt like I really backtracked a lot with this post. Tried to do a lot of the exercises on the simple forms and line economy. I really struggled with the value painting again. This was actually my 2nd attempt at the candle, but I won't bother posting the other one since it was even worse. Took around 4 hours, I think? lol. Not sure whether or not to block in with opacity or not and my blending sucks.

I've been really struggling recently and I'm having trouble pointing out my flaws to myself. Please critique me! I really want to improve

[diamandis]

You're doing better than I am with these construction exercises ... I just barely started looking at Bridgman. I know how to draw the head, ribcage, and hips as boxes, and connect them together with wires. Woo! I ordered Hampton's book too, should get that soon. Anyway, keep it up. You have serious work ethic. You'll look back years from now and be thankful you spent so much time on these exercises.

[Cabbage Caterpillar]

Hey Eroquii, I also have much trouble with value studies... and yes they take forever One thing I found helpful is to check my values against the actual photo every once in a while. I usually find that I am going wayyyy too light. Or that all my values are too smiliar. Sometimes I will put the photo right above or below my canvas just to compare. And then I notice things like not enough contrast.. etc. It is very frustrating sometimes though.. but keep going, you can do it!!!

[Beartankmaster]

You're kickin ass man keep it up. I need to work harder .__. lol

[lionheartGFX]

where is your stuff! i demmand work sir! ;D come on theres always a certain backtrack before a big improvement thats when you know you have to PUSH IT! work 1 thing at a time man, wether its, anatomy, line, tone/value, or a new medium make each drawing a focused drawing experience its a sketchbook anyways its not for portfolio or anything!

[V3T]

Alot of studies going on in here =o Keep it up! ^^

[I STRaY I]

This SB is screaming for an update!

[eroquii]

Lionheart and Stray: Thanks so much for keeping tabs on me. I really do appreciate it. =)

v3t: thanks very much! will do!

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Okay, so that took a bit longer than I thought. Weak update, but I gotta get back to grinding hard! Broke my routine and now I'm paying for it by feeling like everything I do is completely half-assed.

[smrrfette]

You are drawing like a maniac! Your skb is enjoyable to look at and I can see improvement in this page alone!
Keep up the good work, don't bash yourself too often, frustration is good!

[Rhubix]

Okay, so that took a bit longer than I thought. Weak update, but I gotta get back to grinding hard! Broke my routine and now I'm paying for it by feeling like everything I do is completely half-assed.

We all do that, I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. There's no way to be 100% all the time, I think you'd just catch on fire.
This post has some good movement in it. There's nothing wrong with taking a break from studies to do something fun. Otherwise what's the point