L4xord's Creative Journey (23th February)

[bodied]

Hi L4xord! I love that you are practicing with rendering, but sometimes we get so caught up in making the shadows blend together that it smooths out the entire form. It can be very important to show how the object exists in space with these precise shadows, especially for someone interested in industrial design. Maybe you can combine perspective and shadow studies by using flat or faceted shading. By doing this, you will begin to see the planes of an object, which helps to both define it and make it easier to place in a perspective study. This is just a really basic example of what I mean: Try seeing objects the same way as the vase on the right appears.

[L4xord]

Figures...

[L4xord]

First ever Hogarth studies.

[L4xord]

Wanted to try a bit of digital painting after working on my traditional skills (which still need work of course!). I've improved a bit I think. Did two digital studies from reference. The ear looks awesome from far away, though...

[L4xord]

P.S I feel capable of doing a possible teen challenge.

[Samszym]

Sup dude, it's really good to see you've found your calling and are working towards it!
I think you're moving too fast though, you don't have a solid grasp on basic form or perspective or proportion yet. Trying to move on to more advanced things like anatomy or shading or product design would be jumping the gun. Learn how to draw and describe form in space first, then you'll be able tackle light and design

You should read this to see mindcandyman's exercises and improvement, he started out where you are and became a great artist.
Also, along with your loomis studies, I recommend reading this very patiently and carefully. Read it over and over and do the assignments until you understand, no matter how easy or boring it is. Don't skip doing an exercise because you think you already know what it has to teach, you could be missing something vital, or you could miss an opportunity to understand it better.
this is another good, more technical book on perspective that you would get something out of, and Loomis' successful drawing is great too. This one is nice too, and it's pretty entertaining.

Draw from life as well. A lot. Half from books and half from life would be a good idea. Apply what you learn in books to what you see around you to really cement the lessons.

here are a few resources on form construction, Loomis' fun with a pencil would be fine for this too 1 2.

Restating, don't paint or shade or study anatomy yet. You're not ready. First things first, learn to crawl before you walk and all.

After you figure out form and perspective you can move on to the more fun things, here are a couple tools for when you get there.

Now go learn your perspective and become as great an artist as you want! With all the knowledge you have access to on the internet you have no excuse not to, unless you're really lazy. Which reminds me, I have to stop typing and draw. XD

Good luck!

[L4xord]

Quick WIP of a thing I'm painting.

[fishysmell]

Your biggest problems with anatomy are your proportions: length and relative limb sizes.

For general limb lengths:
When you bend your right arm to grab your right shoulder, you will see that the lower arm is a little shorter than your upper arm (unless you want to include the hand as part of the lower). When you bend your leg, you will see that your heel strikes your butt. Etc. You can find out a lot of neat, local measurements this way.

For limb sizes:
Your limbs and parts of limbs get smaller the farther you travel from your torso. For instance, your upper leg is bigger than your lower leg, your lower leg is bigger than your foot, and your foot is bigger than your toes.

Here's an image from clarification, just tell me if you'd like me to take it down at anytime!

[L4xord]

Your biggest problems with anatomy are your proportions: length and relative limb sizes.

For general limb lengths:
When you bend your right arm to grab your right shoulder, you will see that the lower arm is a little shorter than your upper arm (unless you want to include the hand as part of the lower). When you bend your leg, you will see that your heel strikes your butt. Etc. You can find out a lot of neat, local measurements this way.

For limb sizes:
Your limbs and parts of limbs get smaller the farther you travel from your torso. For instance, your upper leg is bigger than your lower leg, your lower leg is bigger than your foot, and your foot is bigger than your toes.

Here's an image from clarification, just tell me if you'd like me to take it down at anytime!

Thanks, that post was gold!

P.S. Don't worry I enjoy looking at my failures; it is a great way at looking at what you need to focus on.

[Whirly]

Hey I notice you re doing a lot of gesturing drawing but you are struggling a little bit. Thats fine everyone's kinda looks like that at first.

The thing that made me make a huge leap is to just spend a few days copying master's gesture drawings (from Vilppu, Mattessi, Sheldon Borenstein, Kevin Chen, Michael Hampton etc)

You begin to see how each of them simplifies certain things and simplification while still communicating the right things is the name of the game.

You may start to mimic for example the way Kevin sometimes lays in the pelvis for example. I just found for me it helped me make things click much easier. Give it a try!

[L4xord]

Some quick things that have nothing to do with each other (except that they all used references).
Kinda used as a warm down from my LONG Photoshop session.
Also I really want to try the current EOW as it will be my first ever competition. I really just want to do it for experience, you could say. BUT I don't think I have the skills to do it.
Also did some copies of master gestures. (next post)

[L4xord]

Copies of master gestures. Discovered areal cool figure drawing method and I even made my own!

[L4xord]

Only had a pen and wanted to start studying Bridgman.

[Candra H]

Good luck with Bridgman. I hear it's not the easiest figure drawing book to learn from.

You've got a nice sketchbook going and you should definitely keep up with it because the more you draw the better you get. The only way you can get worse is if you stop drawing altogether.

Re figure work. I've no idea if how I work is good or not but I found it easier to start from the bones out. So I studied bone structure then how the muscles fit onto them and now I'm starting to work on the outer shape. I used Joseph Sheppard's "Anatomy for Artists" for the bones and muscles and I'm working on Loomis' "Figure Drawing for all it's Worth" for the overall figure and how it moves/gesture/form construction etc. It's a method that works for me so maybe it could work for others too.

As for painting mediums? well, like others have said in your thread, I think you should probably concentrate on developing your drawing and observation skills for now and leave painting for later.

Good luck and draw, draw, draw!

[Rhubix]

Good work on the bridgeman studies. Those drawings have a much better solidity than the previous ones. Candra suggested it's not an easy book to learn from, but personally, I think it's a good fit for you, because it's so structural, and you seem to be struggling with that currently.

Currently, you have been working a lot in outlines, and contours. In post 61, bodied posted the faceted vase - I think that's a great example. Perspective studies, and exploring the volume of the figures will really help you improve - and bridgeman really makes his figures out of solid 3 dimensional forms.

Keep up the hard work
& happy sketching

[bjoern3000]

Hey L4xord.

I took the liberty to use your painting of the sphere to show you, what you need to keep in mind while making something look round and three dimensional.

Maybe you could make the following exercise:
draw a circle with a compass of about 2 inches diameter.
Then try to copy the sphere on the right as good as possible startig with the light tones. You will need a very soft pencil for the dark area in the south west and medium and hard pencils for the lighter areas. The untouched white paper should be the highlight.
Be really carefull and concentrated and take your time.

[Kapri]

Good to see you're taking on the fundamentals first. I read in another topic that you were getting "Drawing scenery" by Jack Hamm. I just started reading it today and so far it seems great. Let me know what you think.

The exersice bjoern3000 mentions is great since your understanding of the basic geo forms will determine how well you'll do in any other subject you try to draw / paint.

Another basic (basic, but extremely hard to get right) exersice you can try: take round plates from you kitchen and place them on different heights (table, ground, closet, shelf). Place them so you can see them all from 1 point. Sit there and just try to draw the different size elipses the plates are creating in perspective. Do the same exersice with cardboard boxes (or any other "straight edged" object you can find).

Take a knitting kneedle (or any other long straight object) to do your sighting / measurements with. Check angles and relations. Don't forget to always extend your arm fully and keep one eye (the same eye each time ) closed while meassuring.

A few hours of this each day for a couple of days will improve allot of skills.

If after that you want to study the figure first I recommend Vilppu for his DvDs and "Figure drawing: design and invention" by Michael Hampton for reading. I have figure drawing books by Bridgeman, Loomis, Hale and Matessi but for me none of them explain / teach clearer than "Figure drawing: design and invention".

Keep up the good work! Let's see some updates.

[L4xord]

Wow! Haven't been on here for ages, haven't really been doing much art either...
Really want to get into painting but I'll still definitely continue with the graphite stuff.

I'm going to try the stuff suggested by bjoern3000 and Kapri. I actually drew I graphite sphere just yesterday, but I have no idea where it went.

So I still aren't very good at heads or anatomical stuff.

[L4xord]

Try to grasp figures!!! But I don't know where I'm going wrong, all of these figures are 1 min. Am I putting too much detail, not enough on the actual pose?! Very annoying, I'm really trying to understand the human gesture.

[David_a_ray]

I haven't read everyone else's posts so if I'm repeating something, forgive me.

In my experience, getting really familiar with drawing basic shapes in perspective is a key element in drawing well. Then you can simplify the human figure (and everything else in the world) into simple shapes. However, you must keep in mind the proportions or you’ll wind up with some really funky looking people. Keep working with it. Perspective is a bitch for everyone starting out, but it eventually clicks in your head and you get it.

[L4xord]

A sphere

[AngeUnge]

your enthusiasm shows! i think it's great you're looking for different poses! but first, the general idea of anatomy needs some work.

posemaniacs.com

all you need for quick proportion gestures. do these. do a lot of these. fast. don't worry about 'completing' them at first, but strive for a full body representation. then keep going.

after that, live model studies are the best thing if you can get them. those masters studies you're doing can help, a lot of them showcase some very complicated skills... but from those two pencil drawings of an eyeball and the ear from the side i think you're capable of those stylistic challenges.

keep it up! :>

[L4xord]

Wow! All this struggling with traditional art has improved my digital art, although it is most certainly not as good as I would want it to be. The pictures are some semi-concepts for a game development project (I'm a hobbyist programmer). Of course I'll still be doing some traditional studies, but I'm looking at ways of transferring the traditional workflow into the digital one.

[L4xord]

More digital experimentation. I'm still have some work to do before I can say I'm remotely OK at digital painting. The first one failed and the second was a bit better...

[L4xord]

Some perspective. Ellipses are much easier on paper...

[L4xord]

Just wanted to say, I'm back. I took a break until I began my high school visual art class. I have begun it now, and can certainly see some 'large(ish)' improvement; still terrible at gesture and anatomy though . I'll post all the stuff I've done so far since I started the course tomorrow. I've also thinking of starting another sketchbook, so my art will appear fresh as this one was great since it got me started in art.

[L4xord]

NOTE: This are just warm-up sketches each 3-7 minutes long. I have only done one semi-'big' still life line drawing of a pot; which I'm yet to get back from my teacher.

[L4xord]

veni, vidi, sed non vici... (I came, I saw, but I did not conquer...)

Facial features have always been tricky for me to copy, I'll spend more time on them.

[L4xord]

Repaint of this... old work

[L4xord]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...se--yours.html Wow! Fascinating!