My journey to becoming a better artist

[ja1307]

Just one more before bed another portrait study really focusing on the key areas now of shadow and how that defines the face. Really need to work on facial symmetry and eye brow placement and shape.

[Babaganoosh]

Even though it may not be symmetrical the shading and detail looks really good.

[razz]

Studies are a good way to go, but don't forget to do your own stuff. And lots of it. You don't want to get used to always seeing what you're drawing in front of you (unless it's fine art you're after). I fell for it and I'm climbing out of that hole ever since.

[JerryActric]

hey man, Im just starting out myself, but i can see you putting in some work good stuff and keeping pushing and you'll see improvements every day !

[ja1307]

Babaganoosh cheers for the encouragement i really struggle with symmetry in faces espc eyes and eyebrows.

Razz I hear you man. I guess drawing from my imagination is a little daunting at the moment maybe I need to lower my expectation levels, but I am always so displeased with the results. I feel a have a lot of good ideas in my head but really struggle with finer details such as costume design and props ect. I always wonder how people manage to churn out so many unique looking designs, not sure how much people are copying from whats already out there but I feel very behind in this area.

JerryActric cheers fella yeah i am seeing slight improvements but also a lot of stuff that i am really bad at and the balance is well and truly not in my favor.

Another crappy character from my mind maybe one day they will look half decent feeling rather frustrated at the moment but have to keep going.

[ja1307]

Tried another imaginative drawing reused my old dragon warrior design results are bad.

[ja1307]

This started out as an imaginative face which i am fairly pleased with then decided to throw on some armour for fun, i am sure the proportion are way off

[razz]

Ja1307, there's some good design advice at http://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL if you haven't seen those already. I could only repeat what I've learned from the episodes to help you out, but I guess watching them yourself would benefit you more. I'm kind of in the same situation as you, finding it hard to come up with designs. I believe it's because my visual library sucks, there's just not much stuff in my head to pull from.

Good luck, mate!

[ja1307]

Been doing some Loomis face studies today, trying to use his method for working out facial proportions, sometimes I feel I have the placement right but then when I actually draw in the features I think I make them to large at times and it throws off the proportions of the whole face. Really struggled drawing lips and the nose today for some odd reason. Tried to apply the knowledge from these studies to photo refd face studies not very good outcomes, almost seems I made a backwards step with portrait drawing today.

[ja1307]

More head proportion studies from this morning. Using Villup's method working on the basis that the eyes fall halfway, the nose halfway between eyebrows and chin and the lower lip halfway between chin and nose. Sketched out some imaginary heads using these proportions as a framework, then a couple of studies from Francis Tasis figure book, then redrew a couple of the Loomis studies that I had done last night. Will again do more face photo ref studies later.

[ja1307]

studies of a cross bow and helmets. Copied pics of 4 different types helmet then drew them from different angles from my imagination

[ja1307]

Main focus of my studies for this week with me the head/face. Working my way through Vilppu. Today worked from Head Anatomy part 1. What can i say the man is a genius his instructions and theories are so clear and just seem to click in my brain. I guess its a big difference reading and watching some one work. Even the act of watching him draw is a big eye opener. My studies at the moment may not reflect all the knowledge I am picking up but I have learned a lot between him and Loomis and I am exited about how quickly I am picking it all up.

Pages 1-4 are drawings made whilst watching the lecture and my notes trying to understand his principles about facial proportions, planes and general construction, suddenly I have started really seeing the head as a 3 dimensional form, thinking about whats going on under the skin in terms of muscles and bone and how this effects the look of the face.

The 5th and 6th pages are skull ref studies that I did I found this really useful to further think through what Vilppu is drawing to our attention to. I wanted to do studies that looked at the skull from different angles to really push the 3 dimensional aspect of my learning.

The 7th and 8th pages are imaginary faces that I did using the positions from my skull studies and trying to place features accurately, although I clearly have a lot of work to do and need to learn to draw noses lol, it was a great way to really test what I have learn and cement that knowledge. I will continue to take this approach to my studies.

[ja1307]

Ok its been a while since I updated. I have been working away but not as hard as I should have, had a lot of crap going on these last few months.
Anyway time to get down to serious business again. Have been doing some digi painting but so bad at the mo that its not worth posting.

Here are some recent face and figure studies that I have worked on recently. My scanner is broke so used my Iphone not the best pic quality.

Most of the faces are refed, couple are copies of Michelangelo's from the Sistine Chapel and some from other artists, trying to see how others simplify the face and stylise it for illustration purposes plus learn a thing or two about mark making.

A couple of portraits done from photographs and the last two are done from the imagination trying to see how much I have learned.

[MiladThaha]

Very inspiring sketchbook mate! Especially love your pencil value studies. Is there any secret to getting your lines like that? Cause they sure are slick.

And I can see the improvement in your work from the start, keep it going! Wish I could get back to mine asap, it's been dead a long while

[ja1307]

Had a pretty bad eve of drawing today yesterday. This was all that was worth positing, a little character sketch, pose was slightly reffed but the face was from the mind which was my aim. Seem to really struggle when rendering from the imagination, almost dont know where to place my marks with out having something to look at or how to create consistent values and a light source that makes sense. Hoping more studies from life will help with this. Any suggestions anyone?

[ja1307]

Been working away a bit today. Started off with some quick 30 second gestures from Quickposes and Posemaniacs. Seem to have improved a bit in capturing the essence of the pose and looking at shape more then simple contour. Images are not photographing well so will post later.

Drew a quick body from the mind, realised how little of the torso structure I actually knew. Been working a bit through Bridgman he is starting to make sense.

First copied an image from his book then went and found photos refs that showed the same muscle structure in real life and did studies of those trying to pay attention to structure more. Then decided to go to Quickoses and do studies of the male torso trying to see under the skin where the muscles would be and draw these on top of the refd pose. think i will follow this structure and eventually see what I can come up with from my imagination. Or take clothes figures and try and draw the structure underneath think this will be a useful approach.

[ja1307]

just a quick update some gestures from this eve. 30 secs to 50 secs, found the longer ones harder seem to be used to rushing from the shorter gestures and did not use the extra time well. Decided to work in pen as i wanted to have to commit more to my lines but seem rather scratchy in the end. Also did a couple of quick sketches of my hands from life.

[kevin_]

i see a very good balance of imagination and practice in here, keep doing what you are doing!

[heix33]

Hey man, thanks. Really liking your sketchbook, I think you are focusing on the right things, you can see huge improvement from 1. page, May, which is not long time ago. There are nice descriptions even on wikipedia on different sort of armor and helmets if you're into that. Though Bridgman and Loomis are great, I consider Burne Hogarth to be the hardcore stuff, because he gets so into details and little planes when it comes to face for example, so try this out too. And i suggest start doing design and just studies of architecture and vehicles too, to broaden your drawing techniques that you can then apply to drawing figures and characters. But you are doing great so just keep going.

[ja1307]

Hey heix33 thanks for the feedback and the words of encouragement its always appreciated. Yeah I do have the Hogarth book i probably have far too many lol. But its only now that they are beginning to make sense. I agree with what you say about design studies espc clothing ect since majority of the characters we draw are fully clothed. I have tended to stay away from vehicles and buildings as they involve a lot of straight line s and perspective which I am not great at. So a great idea to throw myself into it. But its good to hear that people think i am making progress. To be honest since i have started this sketchbook thread I have sort of dipped in an out of it and have not had a consistent block of drawing but thats all about to change big time. So i intend to be updating on a regular basis a good way of keeping me motivated to be more consistent.

[SpiralHorn]

Great studies, you're definitely going in the right direction. I love the way you're handling the shading, especially on the cat and apple.

Can't wait to see more

[nouge]

Hey, thanks for stopping by!

I see you've got quite a nice sketchbook here. #103 contains a lot of great stuff, especially the master studies and the refed faces!

Keep it up!

[ja1307]

SpiralHorn:thanks for that although I always cant stand my pencil rendering, funny how every one always sees your work so different.

nouge: thanks its always good to get feedback and support on here.

Four pages of gestures from yesterday and two pages of hand studies. On the first page the first four hands are drawn from life and the second two are study copies. on the second page the hand drawn holding the salt grinder is my own hand drawn from life again the others are refd.

[ja1307]

I got out my copy of How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way cant believe how long ago I bought this book. Decided to go back to basics with figure drawing so did some copies of their stick mannequin figures. I then decided to do some studies from quickposes but draw out the poses as mannequins to think through the pose and check proportion angles and break it down to its simplest form. I also tried a little bit of construction on one. Then decided to draw some of my own poses from the imagination as stick men. Although a few are a bit awkward, I was fairly pleased by the result as its the first time I have been able to imagine poses and play around with the limbs to find the best angles ect. Usually I start trying to draw the whole outlined figure and it goes wrong so its been a very useful exercise and can now start to see how everything is going to fit together in time.

[ja1307]

Did this still life took about 2 hours, pretty shit. Looks muddy and values dont look correct. Two brown eggs and one white egg. Have not distinguished between light and darks well.

[ja1307]

Thought I would do another study again with the 3 eggs. A bit happier with this once was much looser with my mark making which helped and really tried to work with the forms. As a result I think this one has more volume and form whilst the first one seems flat. Still feel I am overworking areas and killing the life of it a bit but feel this one is a def improvement.

[Torres]

Hi there! Though I should return the favor and post here!
So... I see you are striving to improve on anatomy and such and that is definitively good! Gesture drawing and drawing from life is also great practice for the eye.
What I would recommend though is a lot more drawing from reference. And striving to get proportions right!

Try and keep the warrior drawings to a minimum until you get your fundamentals down. Then you'll be drawing some kick ass swordsmen and shizz
Hope it helps!

[ja1307]

Torres: Lol yeah I know what you mean. I just try and throw in a little bit of imaginative stuff to spice things up but like you say I do need to get my fundamentals in check. I did not even know about drawing fundamentals until I came on here I just used to draw so I have a lot of ground work to do for sure.

Did a couple more still lifes this eve, the first was fairly large and the rendering was become laborious so I stopped. Tried to do a smaller study of the same set up still was a 90 min labour lol.

Realised today that I seem unable to render round forms well, I am ok with flat planes like the bananas but the mango and the eggs were fairly tricky just dont seem to be able to render with the form. So going to do basic sphere rendering to tackle this, I guess thats why you can escape the fundamentals all catches up with you at some point.

[rem92]

The still life studies are looking good, but you could try to first build up the form well, and use a fell value range, to give it more 3d feeling, and then draw the little details and the marks on the fruits.

A good light source setting always helps a lot.

[MonoOrder]

Hey ja1307. I was happy to see your comments again on my sketchbook.

Your figures and faces have improved a lot since last time I came here. Especially the proportions. I'm liking the gesture studies as well as they seem to really capture the action of the pose.
It seems like you're having more fun than I am doing your drawings from your imagination than I am. I need to start incorporating those into my daily routines.
No matter what keep drawing.