Gah Hand Cramp!

[triggerpigking]

quick update also gonna do some colored work tommorow.

[Eugie]

Try blocking in the joints with shapes before going straight into it. Use cylinders for examples for the legs, try looking at some Hogarth just so you can grasp that concept.

[Duplicitious]

Good job on sticking with everything !
keep it up

A way that I find helpful when trying to get proportions right is to use angle lines
ex.


always measure angles visually when you're drawing, simplify things down to straight lines. Always check negative space and where I have red dots on the photograph are areas to look for lines/angles but they aren't drawn in

Hope this makes sense

[Riley Stark]

Nice updates. Your shading is definitely improving quickly. (The wooden model study looks pretty nice. The only spot that's looking a bit flat to me is the upper part of the arm on our right, otherwise good job. ^_^)

You're making the lower-part of your legs a bit on the stumpy side, still. (Not by a ton, just by a little bit.) Keep watching your proportions and keep up the good work!

[Clur]

Your studies are looking great, it's admirable that you're so dedicated to them.

I think a few people have mentioned this before, but I think it would help you a lot to loosen up your lines. Maybe try drawing with your off-hand so you don't have as much control, or get a big pad of newsprint and try to fill up pages with a single quick drawing. That'd also help you get away from drawing with your wrist.

[triggerpigking]

@Eugie Looked at a bit of hogarth hes got some pretty good stuff and it look's like he go's a lot more into foreshortening than loomis does, thanks.

@Duplicitious Thanks for the tips ive tried doing that with my latest still life and it works well (still life still looks off though accidently nudged it a bit while drawing)

@Thanks for the praise on the shading I think shadings the best part of my drawings at the moment, I noticed the stumpy legs as well actually I went over it several times to make it longer but it still looks stumpy.

@clur By drawing with my off-hand do you mean drawing with my non dominant hand.

Havent really been all that productive the last few days, ive been a bit busy.
Good news though my mum said she could probably get me a tablet very soon as an early birthday present and I wanted to ask for a few recomendations im mainly looking for something from 50-70 odd quid ive been mainly thinking of buying this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-ctl470...dp_ob_title_ce
but I wanted to get you guys opinion first.
Also wondering what a couple of good free programs I could use would be.

Okay first I did a still life of a few of my controllers (don't get where that weird line came from couldnt find it on any of my other drawings and it wasnt on the page either.)


Working on a piece from my imagination linearts pretty much done but im a bit paranoid about colouring it in mainly cause im not sure on how to do the textures for the carpet ima gonna look up some tutorials on it and see how I do before I decide to colour it or not.



And finally a few horrible looking feet if your wondering why the shadings rushd my foot was majorly beginning to hurt.


And well thats all really for now I also attempted to do a pastel drawing but I came into it really unprepared and it was turning out really bad. I think I really need to get some new supplies I only have a few pastel pencils but they keep falling apart and aside form that all I have are a few of those really chunky sticks of pastel.

[Eugie]

Look into a wacom bamboo tablet, those are pretty cheap and sturdy.

[Riley Stark]

I agree that the Bamboo Tablet might be a good starting point for you. A lot of people start with those and can do some awesome things with them. It's inexpensive and will give you a good feel for starting to work digitally.

As for free programs, I'm honestly not sure what to recommend. I've had Photoshop forever (which I had to have for my main job doing graphic design) and I recently got Corel Painter (bought that last summer), but those are the only two I've used. I've seen people mention programs like Gimp or Paint Tool Sai, but I've never used them so I don't know what they're like to work with. (I think they're both free, though.) I'd go over to DA and skim through their forums -- I usually see people talking about their software there and a lot of people asking for good free programs, so you may have some luck looking for information there?

Nice study with the remotes.

The piece from imagination -- the line art looks pretty good. (Clean looking, clear.) Composition needs some help, but that's alright because you haven't really studied composition yet. (You never want to place people dead center because it's a bit boring. And you've got everything lined against that back wall there -- Why not put some candles circling around the guy on the floor to break things up a bit? Also, consider what the story you're trying to tell is. There aren't a lot of narrative elements at the moment to help the viewer understand what's going on. The guy's posture is fairly non-descript, so we don't necessarily know what his purpose is, and nothing is interacting with anything so we don't know what the purpose of the objects in the piece are. Everything is just sort of sitting there, which is fine if you just want a fairly static piece, or something kind of abstract in concept, but having some sort of storytelling element usually makes a piece far more interesting. Why does the guy have a watch for a head? Is he some sort of gatekeeper for the strange doorway to the left? His posture almost makes him look like he's slumped against the wall, dead. Did someone maybe kill him so they could get through the doorway? Is he sleeping and maybe this piece is supposed to be serene, where time doesn't pass? If you think things like this out, and then try to include some answers to questions in the piece, you can really grab a viewer's attention and make them want to study the piece for a while. You see what I mean?)

Haha - I know how that goes with things starting to get uncomfortable when you're doing life/anatomy studies from yourself. No worries.

[Clur]

Yes, I meant the non-dominant hand. As for tablets, a Wacom bamboo is what I use and it hasn't failed me yet. And you could try Open Canvas, it's free and pretty decent.

It's good to see you working on a piece from imagination! Riley Stark already gave a lot of great advice on that subject so I don't anything to add to the crit.

[Duplicitious]

Sai is a pretty good program for only about 50$ and will give you some good workability as the scope of that program is just huge...

definitely go with wacom bamboo if that's your price range!

[triggerpigking]

Riley Stark: Wasnt really trying ot make a story with the imaginitive piece (do like your ideas a lot though) its pretty much a random bunch of ideas which I just threw into one but I might try putting a few more story elements into my next one though.
Clur:Thanks for the suggestion ,ive personally never seen how drawing with your other hand helps that much but ill give it a shot for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

Sorry for not updating in a while im building up a bit of a schedule for myself think that might help me a bit and im gonna try updating a lot more now.

I took all your suggestions and I decided to go with the wacom bamboo and it actually came just two days after I ordered it and im really enjoying it so far although im no good at it yet.
I tried using a bunch of programs but I think ill stick with the sai trial for a while and then ill buy either sai or painter for my birthday, will probably be sai as im getting pretty used to it and its cheaper.

This stuffs mainly crap in my opinion I havent really been able to focus on things the last few days
think the anatomy studies turned out fine though.

[Eugie]

Yea the tablet is very hard to get used to at first, but hey, practice makes perfect. Your stuff is looking better by the way.

[Riley Stark]

Congrats on getting your tablet! (I'll be curious to see what you do with it! ^_^)

I've never used Sai, but I know a lot of people that love it. If it feels comfortable to you, then stick with it. (The more comfortable you are in a program, the easier it is to forget about the program and concentrate on just doing studies. As someone who knows first hand - Painter is a bit of a beast to learn and will ruin you for other programs if you start out with it. There are just soooo many options that it can be totally overwhelming if you don't already have digital experience, and it kind of functions differently than any other program I've tried. I'd definitely recommend Painter because it's an awesome program, but only once you get a better foothold on working digitally in general. Starting with something more simple will definitely be beneficial to you while you're just getting into things.. Much less to fuss with and worry about so you can just focus on the art side of things.)

The last update isn't crap. Just keep minding your proportions (measure, measure! - second to last drawing, foot on our left is as large as entire lower leg is!) and doing studies and you'll be on the right track.

[triggerpigking]

Just a quick update im also working on several ditigal things but im to tired to post them

[Riley Stark]

Good update. The soda cans look a bit flat with the way you shaded them - don't forget to vary your tones to show the shape of the object, even in shadows. (Also, when your shading follows the shape of the object, it helps to describe the form better, too. Especially when something is rounded.. It definitely helps to sell it better.)

[triggerpigking]

What annoys me about the soda cans is that I was really trying to vary the tones i think a lot of the problem is due to the directions i was shading it in though, I don't think any of my still lifes recently look that good they look really flat to me.

Gonna do another update later but I thought I might as well show some of my progress on my tablet stuff.

This is the main piece ive been working on still isnt finished yet still not sure how im going to be able to do the shading and the detail though but ill figure it out.



This was my first proper experiment which i based of this guide here http://forums.blackbutler.net/showth...Basic-Tutorial
I was trying to draw alucard from hellsing but I could'nt get the arm to work
so I looked up a few pictures on the net and found this.
I could'nt get it to work though because 1.im shit at drawing arms and 2. it wasn't going to work with the way the head was tilted. I was thinking about trying to redo the pic without suing the pic but I don't think the facial features worked out well they don't really capture the characters personality (hes batshit crazy) and ive thought of a different idea which would work a lot better with that pose so ive scrapped it.


And I also tried to colour in that imagination piece not sure if im going to continue this yet or restart it or just scrap it, thinking it might be too hard im mainly thinking about how to get a good warm glow look from the candles and I havent really been able to try shading out in the program so far but I might try to continue it.

[dierat]

This is the main piece ive been working on still isnt finished yet still not sure how im going to be able to do the shading and the detail though but ill figure it out.

Dude, don't even worry about that stuff yet. Get the structure down solid before you start thinking about details. It's like building a house - it happens in steps, and if you jump ahead too fast, you're going to end up painting the walls of a house that can't even stand up straight.

I did a little redline over your study to try to help you see where your image is straying from the source.



To echo Duplicitious in post #93, you need to simplify the image into straight angular lines and check their locations in relation to each other. Use straight horizontal and vertical lines (drawn in red) to check focal points (purple dots), use negative space (green lines) to compare the space between points, and double check the angles (in blue) of your lines to make sure they match up.

[Riley Stark]

Cool to see you trying the digital stuff!

You're not thinking in terms of structure when you're drawing, you're just drawing outlines and it's running you into trouble. This is why you do anatomy studies and practice rendering shapes -- it's rare that you'll be able to find a perfect reference, so you have to find many references and then try to supplement what you can't find reference for with what you know. For instance, having issues with the direction of the head for your second piece.. If you know the general structure of the head, you'll be able to build the face without needing a reference (aside from getting their personal characteristics/likeness down, which you should be able to figure out from various pictures.) You have to be able to build a drawing from the ground up before it'll look correct. (Example: It looks like you didn't construct the head in the first drawing - he's missing a good chunk of his jawline, you can't tell the shape of his nose at all because it's just a place-holder squiggle, and his eyes aren't circles sitting in a socket - they're just almond-shaped symbols. It makes it much more difficult to correctly render things out if you don't make marks that show their shapes, especially if you're just learning. This is something I still struggle with too.. I get so excited about painting that I just want to rush the preliminary stage, but it always messes me up later on and I have to backtrack, which takes twice as long. Build things first, have a plan. It makes everything turn out much better in the end with a lot less fuss.)

As far as color goes, if you're doing a color study -- try to match the colors as close as you can so you start developing an eye for seeing their true hues/values. Colors will change relative to what's around them, how they're being lit, etc. You have to learn to isolate the colors you're seeing for what they really are and not what you think they should be. Example: You painted your first piece with the skin tone as being a vibrant peach. (Which is what most people think skin color is, but that's rarely the case.) In the reference picture, it's much less saturated and cooler because it's lit outside, which reflects the blue from the sky into the lighting and changes the skin color accordingly. Now, if you wanted to paint the picture in warmer tones or in a different sort of lighting, that's fine, but you have to understand what you're changing to make the new scheme work in any sort of realistic way.

Start doing studies from life in color. Try to really think about how the lighting is working, how it's affecting the local colors of the objects you're looking at. (Local color example: regular coke can would be red, that's its local color -- take the can outside, it might look less red and more violet because of the blue sky reflecting off the can's surface.. local color would still be considered red, but you wouldn't paint it that way anymore because that's not necessarily the color you're seeing. That's what I'm talking about.)

Quick tips for painting: Never use black or white to paint with. It'll kill any sense of life in your colors. Stay away from dodge/burn tools -- it's very easy to abuse them and it'll cause similar results to painting with black/white. (It also can make things look very fake/plastic. You're much better painting everything by hand.)

Final note: Good job on using a harder-edged brush to start with! Most beginners go straight for the airbrushes and everything looks mushy. Stick to the hard edge and you'll be awesome. Keep it up! ^_^

[triggerpigking]

Quick update
Im gonna try and focus on structure aot more now as its obvious thats one of the weakest things in my drawings.

[Mat Kaminski]

You may not see it now, but your skill is improving almost exponentially with each update. The initial improvement is always quick and steady. Make sure you keep up with your updates like crazy and you'll see improvement steadily.

Your anatomy is gaining speed fast.

Digital tip: Use a hard edged round brush to start, it's very versatile plus gets you used to painting. Set the brush to pen pressure for size and you're good to go.

[triggerpigking]

Mat: Thanks im gonna try to update a lot more now seeing as college is almost over.

Nothing much today I was at my mums for half the day and found it hard to concentrate so these look a bit worse than usual I think.

[Riley Stark]

Mat's right -- you've definitely improved as you've been posting. Keep studying structure/anatomy and you'll see that it gets easier as you go, which will make drawing even more fun because you'll really be able to start exploring what you're hoping to accomplish as an artist. ^_^

(Actually, out of curiosity, do you have a path in mind? Like, do you want to be an illustrator one day? Are you doing this simply as a hobby and for your own edification? Do you want to do concept art? It might help for us to know so we can bear that in mind while we critique/make suggestions.)

[triggerpigking]

Riley Stark:Ill answer your question later just wanted to quickly post a few more things.


This looks really bad


Still working on this

[Riley Stark]

Hey, hey -- Watch the shape of that soda can! The top of a soda can isn't that small in relation to the rest of the cylinder. (Measure, measure..!) The writing/detail stuff you did on the side of the can looks pretty good all things considered (nice control of your brush), but you've got your cart before your horse: Get the shape right, figure out the lighting/values -- details are always last. (Because, to light this sucker, you're going to have to paint over all the detail work you did. I don't want you doin' the cheat of just dodge/burn or sloppy overlay-filter jazz to get all the lighting down either.. Bad habits! You'll just run into major problems if you learn to work that way.. Trust me.)

[triggerpigking]

Riley Stark: Don't know why but before I did the details I had a bit of a brian-fart and thought id of been able to do the lighting over it.
Oh and I don't think id be able to use them tools even if I wanted to because I don't think sai has them and I honestly would'nt know how to use them anyway.

About your question if I was to choose id want to make mangas but thinking realistically thats nearly impossible to get into so second best would definitely be Illustrator.
Im just gonna be trying out loads of different things though.

I need to try structuring these feet more I can't seem to get them right by just looking at them, loomis had a few pictures of feet a couple of pages back so im gonna look at them. I think I fucked up the length of the right foot bad as well.

Few more anatomy studies left one pisses me off it was going really well and I reached the top of the page.

Really love how this still life come out although though scanner fucks the shading up a bit I have to turn the brightness up otherwise you can't see the really light shading.

And finally ive messed with the coke can a bit im gonna redo the top tommorow.

[Damien Levs]

Hey Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook. You are definitely improving here. Just keep doing those studies from life and you'll improve no end. Self portraits are really good for improvement (I need to do more of those). That coke can is looking flat right now, but keep at it and try to see the values that really turn the form. What makes a cylinder look like a cylinder? I think you have chosen quite a difficult subject there. Personally I find metals very hard to render. But keep going with it, it will push you. take a week or even a month over it in small parts and really see it!

Keep going man, you're on good steed!

[Riley Stark]

Oh, I HATE when that happens -- you run out of page! Argg!

Decent line work, legs look a bit stumpy compared to the torso (on the left).
Question: Do you draw with your pad flat or at an angle? How you're holding the pad may be causing a slight distortion when you're drawing. (Just because I notice that when you draw legs in a vertical position, they always taper down/look too small compared to the torso areas.) If you're drawing more flat, holding the paper at more of an angle may correct the issue. (If that's what's going on.)

Nice array of objects in the still life. I can tell what each object is, so good job with that. ^_^ You've got a bit of a tangent on our left with the top of the orange vs. the bottom of the handle on the pot. You want to avoid things kind of ending/starting in similar spots because it hampers the illusion of depth (because then it feels like they're kind of in the same spot, not going back in space). If you see this happening when you're drawing a still life, just adjust the object so you get a better overlap (or, if you're feeling confident, you can just adjust your drawing). Look at how nicely the bright fruit on the right side overlaps the dark of the side of the pot -- That's what you want to go for.

Keep up the great work! (Seriously -- look at the still life objects on your first page and compare those to the one you just did. Great progress!)

[triggerpigking]

Damien Levs:Thanks gonna be hard to keep doing the coke can over a long period of time just because im going to have to keep my lamp perfectly still for a while otherwise it'll just fuck up the lighting.

Havent done portraits in a while which is weird as I used to do them alot I meant to do one today but I am having major problems with my internet so I could'nt get a good picture. As for self portaits I need to buy a mirror ,theres not a single smallish mirror in the house the only ones I could use id have to stand up for.

Riley Stark:I noticed this with the leg and arm drawings a while back where I sorta had them tilted on the paper.
I think the problem is that I sometimes tend to lay back on my chair while draiwing so it just looks right from that angle, the problem with the leg and arm drawings is that my moniter is directly infront of where I draw therefore I have to put my books and still lifes next to me and I usually move my chair around so I can see them clearer which is why there tilted alot.

It shouldnt be a problem in a couple of months though im trying to save up for a hd tv and im planning on ditching the moniter and plugging the pc into the tv which would give me alot more space.

Quick update nothing realy new like i said I was going to do a portrait as well but my internet is freaking out recently it tends to go off form 6am-to 4-8pm so ive been having a bit of trouble doing my work.


Not really all that good considering my last still life and I drew both of them seperately by the way just incase it looks weird.

I know the heads really messed up but ive attempted to draw this probbly about 5 or 6 times now so im really sick of it, don't know why but I just really could'nt get that head right no matter how I drew it, I think the rest of the it turned out good though edit:also just relized one arms smaller than the other

[Riley Stark]

Ha! Well that makes sense then! I thought it might be an angle-distortion issue..

I know what you mean about the head -- sometimes things just don't go right and you can't fix it. It happens. (The brain and hand just don't want to coordinate, no matter what you do. XD) You just let it go and try to get it right the next time around.

[triggerpigking]

Sorry for not updating in a while I had my friends round for 2 days and I was ill for a few more days because of that I havent really got much to show so ive got a bit of catching up to do.



Loved the way this turned out although the shading on the face needs more work I think its a bit too dark.


quick drawing of one of my dogs


Im gonna stop reading loomis for a while as it seems the next parts of the book would require me to know more about bones and muscles I was gonna start reading bridgeman but for some reason adobe reader is being a dick and it takes forever to load a single page (which by the way IS COMPLETELY BLANK!)
so im just gonna draw random people and bodyparts for a while until I can afford to buy a book copy of bridgeman, I have another book downloaded which runs alot quicker although im not sure if its any good ill post the name of the author later.


and finally a charcoal drawing of scp 173 you don't know what scp is look it up, if your a horror fan definitiely look it up believe me you won't regret it.