Go go go! Zath's Sketches

[zathraya]

Hello! Thanks for viewing my sketchbook!

My name is Mikaela or Zath. I'm 20 years old and I'm a Junior in college majoring in Psychology though my passion has always been more for art. Currently torn on this path and maybe this will give me more confidence to pick up art more strongly again.

I was worried to start a sketchbook since I have no scanner or camera for traditional work, at the moment. And I don't have any money to get them. When I do find a job (hopefully soon) these are at the top of my list.

BUT I'd really like to get input so I can learn. Kinda nervous. I know I'm a beginner so I hope I don't burn any eyes out there. I'm working on fixing that and hopefully you guys can help!

Thanks for you time! Much appreciated!

And here we go...

[zathraya]

These are my newest studies recently. All done in Painter. Still not used to the program (fail).


Some random pic from google. I'm going to keep on the resources from now on though. I want to credit the right person. :/ (1.5 hrs)


Landscape study. Resource: Google. (3 hours)


Original photo:www.scottchurch.deviantart.com (2 hours)

[zathraya]

WIP Reference- Florence and the Machine: Lungs cover



Hands study. References= Bridgeman and my own hand


Doodle. Hoping to fix this up more. Any tips? Especially on the composition.


I've recently realized that I'm somewhat out of practice since injuring the tendons in my hand and not being able to practice for a month. Guess I'll have to work the rust off. Spring break so hopefully I'll be able to post a lot more!

[House Hatke]

Are you working on a tablet? Keep up the hand studies, they look good.

[zathraya]

@House Hatke: Yes I am working from a tablet. I haven't used it in a while so it's a bit foreign at the moment. And thanks I will. Glad to know I'm doing something right.

[zathraya]

45 min Gesture Drawings. Need to learn to loosen my grip...:/


Still life/value study of this freaky Valentines Day thing I have. The one on the right is just re-imagination.

Argh. I'm planning on working in pencil at the moment so no more today (till I get a scanner).

[zathraya]

Okay so...


Gesture Drawings (1min ea.)


(30min- 1hr ea.) Still life of a Peppermint Pill Bottle. The one on the right is the partially imagined one.


Another shot of the WIP I'm working on. Changed things around a bit.

Sadly that's all I got done today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to work more. But for now, sleep.

[zathraya]

Unexpected personal things occurred so this is the first time in about a day I've picked up my tablet. I find myself growing frustrated with learning how to paint what's in my head. It always comes out too fuzzy. look @ WIP for my meaning. Just gotta keep trying I guess. :/



My WIP. I can never get it to look right when I add in color over values. Any tips?


(1 min ea.) gesture drawings Reference(s): pixelovely.org


More hand studies. Reference: My own hands.

[Drex]

Nice work so far. Especially the hands.

One thing I notice that may help you is the line quality of your gestures. The poses are definitely starting to get that flow to them, but the sketchiness of the lines seem to be impeding them from reaching their full potential. I see it less so on your hand sketches than the full body poses. One way I found to help me correct that in my own gesture drawings was to try and make sure that I thought about which direction I wanted the line to flow before I laid it down and only allow myself to move in one direction to the other. If I needed to make one straight line for the entire leg for instance, I would only let those lines move from hip to foot, no going backwards. Hope this might help you!

[Nerferinn]

good job for getting started on studies! Don't give up More observation stuff will help you a long way!

[teapo]

hey zath. seems to me you're off to a good start :3 drex already pointed out some useful tips on the gestures-- think about what direction of the figure's limbs are moving in and 'generalize' it with one simple stroke. if that doesn't sink in yet perhaps try to simplify the limbs with basic shapes (sphere/cylinder/cube/pyramid/etc).

keep studying and drawing/painting!

[benny nihil]

Hey! I like the hand studies, the proportions look okay and that's a good thing. Keep working!

As for so-called chicken scratching (messy lines), there's something that helped me to curb this habit somewhat. When you sketch stuff from reference, quick gesture drawings in particular, try not to look at your drawing too often and focus on the reference instead - even try to imagine your pen is actually following the shape of the reference object, and not marking lines - kinda like tracing, only not. At the same time try to draw without breaking the line if possible. Needless to say, your first drawings probably won't resemble the reference object much, but slowly you should recognize the actual shapes in the lines you just drew. This is not a method should be applied to any sort of final sketch, but I feel it helps to get yourself familiar with the form and therefore leads to more confident strokes. I believe it's from the book Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, you might wanna check it out if you feel like it.

[zathraya]

@ Drex: Yeah that does help thanks!

@Nerferinn: Thanks!

@CecilHartlely: I'm sorry I don't see anything. Maybe you could repost or something. I'm curious to what you posted.

@benny nihil: Hello! So you mean more of a blind contour? I'll start giving that a try with the hands especially. I actually checked out "How to draw from the right side of your brain" Maybe I missed something that would've helped with that. Guess I could check it out at the library again. Thanks for your time and tips!
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I feel bad I haven't been posting for the past three days. Things keep coming up. But I did draw yesterday and the day before.


Gesture drawings from Pixelovely.com (03/15/2012)



Gesture Drawing from a pixelovely.com "take a class" (Part 1; 03/16/2012)


Part 2 of the the "take a class"



A landscape study WIP Reference from : umbradenoapte-stock.deviantart.com


WIP of my own (no reference...yet) The previous WIP I was posting I scrapped out of frustration and decided to work on figuring out landscapes a bit more first.

[KONM]

Mmm. The smell of a new sketchbook.

I like what I see.
The only advice I have right now is to try and use less lines. Maybe try drawing with a brush pen?

-edit-

I also like this a lot: http://i42.tinypic.com/mwr4t2.jpg

[JFierce]

Big variety here which is good. Recent batch of hands look good!
Keep cranking them out. Seems like you have a focus with each one.
The best way to study is to focus on taking something out of every drawing you do.

Obviously with more strict studies like a bunch of hands or a bunch of gestures it's obvious the focus. But even with more polished things you can focus on something new or something that needs work.


There's always the issue of time. But occasionally a really intent study helped me. Since drawing is about what you see. The more you see the more you learn the more you learn the more you can see. It's a cycle.

[zathraya]

@KONM: Mmhmm~ Smells like strawberries. Yeah I'm working on that now. Hopefully my new ones will be a bit better about less lines. And Thanks!

@JFierce: Thanks for visiting my sketchbook. Yeah thanks I'm really working on my hands when I figured out how bad they've been in my imaginative drawings and such. I have a variety because of my poor concentration. I figure as long as I get the hours in for my weakest spots I might get somewhere. I have been trying to work on longer ones like the landscapes I've been doing. But not in one sitting usually (time is short-ish; 4-6 hrs a day). I'll defiantly do my best to incorporate my studies into the work from imagination. Thanks for the tips.
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Okay for today so far:


Reference: Pixelovely.com again (part 1)


(part 2)


Reference: Same as first WIP posting

Not doing well with my strokes today. Hopefully I'll be able to warm up more. Total time for these (3 hrs)

[cloudcan]

Tree's looking great! You picked a really complex subject & love how you're representing the details as a whole & not trying to get every single branch right. Great figure gestures but also try to think about the volumes & movement as a whole and don't worry too much about being exact, because here I see some 'going back to fix' and some unnatural stiffness that make some limbs look 'disjointed'. Keep posting! ^_^

[zathraya]

@cloudcan: Sorry it took so long for a reply. Okay so think of "volume and movement" and I do need to do faster gestures. I'll try not to get frustrated when I can't get it exactly in a short amount of time. Thanks for the tips!
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It's been a while since I've posted. Shame on me. Oh well. Actually I have been sketching everyday but most of it is in pencil (and I've been working on a sculpture). So without a camera there is no luck on posting pics of those... unless I can find a friend to borrow one from.... Well, today's batch:


Gestures: The fruits of a 1 hr session from pixelovely.com


Another from the session.


Final part of the session.


I was going to do a self portrait but I ended up working on this longer than expected. (4-5 hrs) oops. This was inspired by the book "Imaginative Realism" by James Gurney. AMAZING BOOK!! It it he talks about what he calls the "Windmill Principle" [here] . I think I've failed I just don't know what to do with it exactly. could use help there...

That's it for today.

[zathraya]

Feeling sick today, was worse yesterday. meh But I've been drawing here's what I've got for today:


The "Finish" of the previous WIP. Can't seem to saturate/un-saturate this properly. Tips?


Gesture drawings from Pixelovely.com. I have more buuuutt they really sucked. Just for warming up is all. (60 min ea.; I'm not doing so good today)


More hands. Ref: My hand


20 min self-portrait in mirror. DX

And unfortunately that's it today, at least I got something in.

[jablar]

good work with hands and faces, regarding poses - it needs some time, so don´t give up
keep tuned

[Drex]

Great improvement since I last checked your SB out. The second set of gestures in posts #17 and #19 are especially noteworthy, you're really starting to convey some emotion while keeping them relatively simple. Your lines in those are also definitely looking more representative of conscious decisions. Keep up the hard work!

[zathraya]

@jablar: Thanks! Don't worry I will.

@Drex: Thank you! I'm glad that my improvement is noticeable (though I personally only see it a little, but it's something). Thank you I will!

Okay so after starting longer more detailed painting I've realized that I really suck at shading. Meaning there will be a lot more still life's coming. But not today I guess.


Self Portrait: Idea from getting Pink eye. Used a mirror. I need to do more of these.


Okay this has no reference and is making me pull my hair out. This is the one that made me realize I need more Still Lifes. Any tips on anything would be great.

Sorry not much today. I'm going to be working in pencil so this isn't the last thing I'm working on today anyway.

[zathraya]

Been a while. I've been working in pencil mostly. But picked up my tablet today and decided to use it.


Study from Loomis on eyes


Hand studies. Ref: My hands


Self portrait in the mirror. Wanted to do something silly so I made a face and didn't brush out my hair. (Recently cut by the way so that's why it's short in this)


Just a WIP of mine

Until next time!

[zathraya]

Here's another batch. Didn't get as many hours as usual in but oh well. Better than nothing I guess.


Self Portrait... Unfortunately not as good as my last one.


Hand studies... mine again


An addition to the WIP before

[zathraya]

I've been neglecting posting pictures. Shame on me. I've been mostly working traditional. I got my hands on a camera but haven't used it for snapping pics of my art yet. But I picked up a little digital painting today.


Self Portrait


And playing around with random silhouettes. Trying to design a character for a painting in mind.

I sort of exited out of Painter 11 on a few things so I did do more but they were lost. So this is all I've got today. Hopefully will start being more regular on here.

[ULFR]

you need to loosen your grip and also take your time to do things... i can feel hurry in the strokes... but im a newbye anyway

[zathraya]

@UFLR: Ah. You got me! Yeah I do work a little too fast. I was hoping it didn't show too much. I'll start working a little slower!


Resource:@ woxys.deviantart.com
Did this for about 2-2 1/2 hrs.

Then I started on a WIP

Resource:Umbradenoapte-stock
Did this in about a 1/2 hour. I'll continue working on it tomorrow but this is the first WIP.

Gonna work in pencil for a while now. Sketch some thumbnails for an idea.

[jablar]

nice cat, looks quite sad... but I like it's eyes

[zathraya]

I know I haven't posted in ages but I want to start doing that again. I had a rough semester with my classes hopefully I'll have more time to post this summer. I did have a painting class during the semester and I've drawn when I was able. But here's what I've been working on most recently plus the paintings I did during the semester. I'm planning on playing with color theory and work on portraits, master studies and a little anatomy this summer.

For the painting the blue one with the vase I now see after taking a picture that it's way off and tilting. The portrait of my sister has way too many greys and the alignment of the still life of the trucks and vase with paintbrushes is off. I guess I'll just have to keep trying. I really do enjoy working with oils now though, even more than working digitally so I think I'll mostly work with those for a while.