No more excuses: my sketchbook.

**AboutaDirk** · August 21st, 2011, 11:49 PM

Pushed by a user that will remain anonymous until he/she steps forward, I felt obliged to create myself a sketchbook. I was told to create a topic and post every day for a few months on end.

Now, whether intended or not, the thought struck me that yes, I do need practice. I should practice - and I will. Not later. Now.

A lot of excuses popped up in my head, why *not* to do this. I'm dead serious when I say that excuses formed out of thin air, the most 'legit' one being [i]"Yeah, but I'll be moving on so maybe I should postpone to after the weekend!"[i] Though that last one did not come out of thin air, (because I actually *am* moving Fri/Sat/Sunday) I shall not consider it an excuse not to draw. I might skip a day due to having no internet at the new place yet, but images WILL be uploaded.

**AboutaDirk** · August 22nd, 2011, 12:22 AM

So here we are, and I'll start this today with a few older sketches, and follow up with new ones later on in the day.

Two sketches attached:
1) Indiana Jones-esque adventurer grabbing a glowing ball
2) Some knight bloke growing a third arm by means of a demon punching through his chest from another dimension blablabla long story short: guy in pain.

**AboutaDirk** · August 24th, 2011, 12:27 AM

Couldn't post yesterday, but did manage to sketch a bit.

This was yesterday's result. Not so coincidentally, these are sketches for Character of the Week: the Gun-slinging Alchemist.

.edit: I attempted to draw a guy reloading his shotgun in a lazy way. Didn't quite work out the way I wanted though. This took me about an hour too -_-

**AboutaDirk** · August 24th, 2011, 12:32 AM

Today's sketches.

For the same contest, this is the Gun-slinging Alchemist.

This time, I decided to take the word "Alchemist" slightly different; this guy is basically a Mexican that likes to brew his own booze. I went for a Mexican because I wanted to draw a poncho, forcing me to do the opposite of what I normally do: hiding the legs.

Also, I switched to using a fine-liner to draw. I'm trying different media to find what I'm most comfortable with. I think this works a lot better than the above posted pencil sketches.

I'm quite satisfied since they make yesterday's sketches look like rubbish. Maybe this is just what I needed; some constant practice.

**Mary Rucker** · August 28th, 2011, 07:51 PM

I'm impressed by you determination. I should do this!

**AboutaDirk** · August 29th, 2011, 01:14 AM

Thank Mary!

Ugh. It was a hard weekend, filled with heavy lifting, sifting through memories long lost and sneezing like an asthmatic. Mostly because I am one.

So yeah, the move didn't allow me to draw, not even though I packed my sketchbook somewhere where I could access it. When the clock struck 9 each day, I passed out on my bed, no time for art. Sucks.

That said, I keep telling my colleagues I can't have lunch with them because that's the only time I get to draw, and here's today's results.

**JackAnimated** · August 29th, 2011, 07:11 AM

Hi AboutaDirk.

My first advice would be, be more confident in your line, and specific - don't scribble. Oh, and stay away from air-brush for now.

Looking forwards to seeing more.

**AboutaDirk** · August 29th, 2011, 06:54 PM

Reckon I should throttle down? Draw with less of a hurry?

One of the gripes with my drawing is that I can't picture something before I draw it. Sounds stupid, but I just can't. Maybe I should start there. Write down some words I can associate with a character, and then start drawing it?

---

About the airbrush thing; I tend to work in Photoshop, because I feel way more confident in my skills there. When I do work with pencils, I feel like I'm screwing up 95% of the time, or just don't know what I'm doing. It's a bit like swimming in the ocean with no beach in sight.

Does this kind of "skill" get frowned upon here? The "skill" to keep tweaking a piece until it looks more right than it did before? Because that's what I feel I'm doing. My sketch changes SO much over the course of the piece...

Here's some of the stuff I did (way) before.

Note that all of the attached images (except for the castle) started out as sketches with pencil (the lich changed about 95%, while with the sorcerer it was mostly a colour job.)

**AboutaDirk** · August 29th, 2011, 06:56 PM

Note that I've been holding off posting these because I kind of wanted to start without any baggage, and get somewhere with my actual drawing skills.

I have this idea in my head that anyone can do the above by just using ctrl+z a lot...

**Hem** · August 29th, 2011, 08:22 PM

Skippin lunch with your work mates to draw? Nice dedication. I'm in no place to give advice so I'll just say what everyone says, http://alexhays.com/loomis/ check out one of these and give it a go.

**AboutaDirk** · August 29th, 2011, 08:38 PM

Dedication... I dunno. Seeing what people accomplish here... That's due to dedication. I'm just starting.

Thanks for the link, I'll have to download those to take 'm home, since moving left me internet-less for a bit. Already looked through a few of them, looks like a good bunch

**Darjan Jurincic** · September 2nd, 2011, 06:59 AM

Hi.
My major advice would be to avoid inks at the beginning since they don`t give you the chance to erase or go back repairing your own mistakes. Plus every line you pull when searching forms is visible so at the end your drawings could end up looking like a mess..
Using a hard pencil (H, HB, 2H) would be a better choice.
Hope it helps,
D

**AboutaDirk** · September 4th, 2011, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by Darjan Jurincic

Hi.
My major advice would be to avoid inks at the beginning since they don`t give you the chance to erase or go back repairing your own mistakes. Plus every line you pull when searching forms is visible so at the end your drawings could end up looking like a mess..
Using a hard pencil (H, HB, 2H) would be a better choice.
Hope it helps,
D

Good point. I went and bought me a couple of pencils (three actually, hb, h2 and h4) and an eraser. Oh and a sharpener of course

Add to that the bigger sketchbook that I carry with me wherever I go, and I almost look like a real artist.

Alright, so I'm unable to post any sketches up until about the 12th, which I think is Monday next week. I *will* however be drawing, so expect me to post a big post with a lot of material that day

**Strato** · September 4th, 2011, 07:58 PM

Can't believe I missed this thread. Subscribed. Don't disappoint!

**AboutaDirk** · September 16th, 2011, 01:35 AM

I might be purchasing a scanner soon. I'm spending a fair bit of time with my pencils and sketchbook, a fair bit more than I expected I would.

The thing is, when you don't have a scanner, taking pictures of your art can become a drag.

Here's one I took last night, after a bit of sketching.

Unfortunately, I got interrupted and had to stop drawing, just when I was starting to understand the deal with sketching with less lines. Seriously, I'm starting to see what you guys mean, and better yet, how I can start being more confident in my lining.

Cheers for that. So much to learn on these forums, it's dazzling.

**AboutaDirk** · September 20th, 2011, 11:31 PM

Not having a scanner sucks.

**america220** · September 20th, 2011, 11:35 PM

Those are some cool pictures! Love them especially the grim reaper guy.

**AboutaDirk** · September 21st, 2011, 07:34 PM

Yesterday's sketches. Attempting to understand legs.

**AboutaDirk** · September 25th, 2011, 07:29 AM

Bunch of characters for a Star Wars game. (Rebellion)

All I need for them is profile shots. So I cheated a bit... (a fair bit)

**Hem** · October 9th, 2011, 11:03 PM

Wow, quite a bit of improvement. I especially like your rocky monster and your scythey fire handed man. Keep it up my friend

**Blenz** · October 9th, 2011, 11:29 PM

Your sketches are really nice. I wanna see more of your finished stuff, it looks great! Keep up the good work

.!!!!

**AboutaDirk** · April 24th, 2012, 09:25 AM

Just updating. Been a while, going to try and draw a bit every now and then again. Have some sketches too, and a scanner since a few weeks. Haven't scanned them yet though, will have to do that later, cba.

Anyhoo, here's some Photoshop work. Love my tablet.

**dylanj70** · April 24th, 2012, 11:50 AM

Keep at it man, love your work! especially love the skeleton on the island! Really detailed!

Subscribed to it!

**AboutaDirk** · August 4th, 2012, 09:57 PM

Update time. Been doing very little, but now that I've got TWO new Wacom tablets (one at work, one at home, both intuos5, whereas I used to have a silly small bamboo) I'll be drawing a whole lot more.

I'm really excited about this!

Here's something I did at work, for a website. We ended up using different material (that I drew as well, different style, check primespeak.com) but I was pretty happy with these as well.

I'm going to look for more stuff straightaway, I have at least two more pieces to post.

**AboutaDirk** · August 4th, 2012, 10:03 PM

Here we go, Batman (yes, I did see the Dark Knight Rises

) and a turtle that's still work in progress. I'll post the finished version as soon as it's done.

The Batman one was a two-hour sitting, and basically an attempt at three things:

1) getting the hang of the new Wacom

2) drawing a cape + batman

3) drawing a cityscape. I'm very, very lazy when it comes to backgrounds, and generally don't know what to draw behind a character (I like drawing characters) but I think I've found a strategy now.

The turtle started out as a simple lighting test, since I that's something I was advised to work on. It felt pretty good drawing this, so I started adding details, and am thinking of adding 2 or 3 more of 'm, to see if I can keep the lighting consistent.

Don't mind the background image for the turtle please, that's just a quick copy/paste from google

Any hints and tips are welcome, as always

Cheers!