Jh's Sketchbook - Study! Practice! Apply!

[LongJh]

Dinosawr - Thank you! Ah yeah, I didn't really even notice it myself. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll definitely do some studies - my weak points seem to be the joints and connecting parts of the figure, haha.

Update! Have some drawings!

Figure studies after Bridgman. Did some shading to try to understand and differentiate the planes of the figure. I think it helps since Bridgman draws his figures in a really simplified, planar way. Still trying to figure out how to get the most out of studying his life drawing book.





Leg studies. To... study the leg.





Aand the sketchbook. Some of it are sketches of my next perspective drawing - which I'm currently pushing myself to complete as soon as I can!

[LongJh]

Hi all. Had an off day today so I drew a few things.

Finally finished my 2nd perspective drawing. It's a walled city kind of thing! It was pretty painful drawing every house and building and trying to match the perspective accurately (with a ruler and everything). But in the end I think I did ok. Though, I must admit I got lazy at the end and didn't do any details nearer to the foreground. Also, the design of the buildings are pretty bland I guess, and so is the arrangment of the city itself, and not enough variety. Will have to take not of all these in the future.



Some 30s gestures. Pretty lame lol, but I did these stick-figure style to practice proportions. So yeah, I was wondering if it helps or not. Also some 1min gestures. Ugh, I still draw really messily and inaccurately.





And some embarrassing figure drawings using posemaniacs as reference. Tried do some shading, but it came out terrible. I had no clue on how to shade the forms of the figure properly - especially on the face and torso.



Lastly, some Bridgman studies.

[LongJh]

Another update! Lots of Bridgman!

Sometimes I do a study and I don't feel like I've understood or learnt anything at all, or I felt that my process and approach was too clumsy. When that happens I try redraw it again and try to address the mistakes and weak points of the previous study. I think it helps a little.









Aaand random sketchbook stuff.

[LongJh]

Hello! Um, not super interesting, but here's some stuff!

A bunch of sphere studies. Mostly to practice colour and lighting, and also a little on brushwork and blending (used the hard round brush for all these). Learnt a bunch about lighting from this tutorial.









And some sketchbook pages!

[Klaustrophil]

yes sir! Love the intensity of your sketchbook. tons of studies, figures figures. Your dedication is very inspiring and I´ll subsribe.
Keep up with your studies :-)
greetings
klaus

[LongJh]

Klaustrophil - Thank you very much! And yeah, I'll definitely keep studying!

Aaand little more things.

Perspective practice. Finally got this one done after procrastinating for like a week. Main issues here will be line weight and design I guess. Also a little scale problems here and there. I keep getting lazy and rushing myself when finishing it up.



More sphere studies! Here mostly to practice different light directions and how it affects bounced light.



And some messy digi studies to practice colours. The last one didn't... turn out so well. Have to work on my edges!

[LongJh]

Sorry I'm late but here's another update!

Two quick digi doodles I did to practice my colours. I feel like I'm sort of stuck in the way I choose my colour schemes - gotta address this asap!





Next are a bunch of Bridgman studies. Hands! Finally made myself attack this huge weakness of mine. Will alternate between hands and feet for awhile.









And last are my sketchbook pages. A mix of life sketching and random things.

[Psychobuddy]

Great work! ^_^ You're, really tackling everything, keep it up, you're doing great.

[LongJh]

Psychobuddy - Haha thanks man! Yeah, trying to best to hit all my weak spots. Just gotta keep pushing!

A few quick digi studies here, about 20-30mins each. Nothing fancy. Practicing more on moody, low-key colours and values. Starting to get the feel of painting with the hard round brush now.













And one measly little sketchbook page. Was a pretty unmotivating week. Aaaaahh excuses!

'

[LongJh]

Time for an update! First are more digi studies. City buildings! I feel that the first one has pretty weak colours, the original photo looks waay better than this I swear.



More anatomy studies from Bridgman









And some sketchbook pages! The hands are from memory (to the best of my abilities) while the rest are a mix of life, ref and imagination.

[LongJh]

Hi everyone, some more pictures here. Uh, not really a very productive week. Bleh.

Some portrait studies from photos. Still having trouble drawing the right proportions of the face. Also trying to shade and render more.





More sketchbook! Just some random things. Working on my next few perspective drawings.





And lastly a quick digi doodle, 20 minutes or so. I have no idea what I'm doing here. Painting is hard.

[xNatje]

Great sketchbook!

[LongJh]

xNatje - Thank you!

So um, a small update here. Pretty much spent the weekend try to paint faces but they all came out really, really bad. Feeling pretty bummed out now. Why is it so hard, damn.

Anway I did one more 1-pt perspective practice. Starting to work on interiors now. Got mixed feelings about this one, I was pretty happy cuz I managed to get this done pretty fast (well, faster than how I normally take). About 6 hours or so. On the other hand I feel that my linework was sloppier than usual. But all in all I'm feeling pretty good about this cuz I usually don't do much much sci-fi, tech stuff often.



Next are the disasters which look like portrait paintings. I used some reference for the colours of the first portrait, which I feel had the nicest colours among the rest. But the facial features and general structure of the head seem awkward. The next few portraits were done along with Marta Dahlig's portrait painting tutoral. I tried to follow it the best I could but the beginning part always seems to go wrong for me. The features I paint always seem to be off and whenever I try to blend or add shadows, it looks like the face has been dirtied with mud or something. And as usual, the skin tones I choose always seems out of place.

The last portrait I feel had a little improvement. But I was still struggling with how to make skin look like skin and what shadow colours should look like. Also struggled with painting the eyes - they somehow always seem to look like they're crosseyed or surprised or shocked or whatever.

[LongJh]

Hi all. Took a little break the past week, just did some sketches here and there and did a perspective drawing. Also reading up on product design sketching - did a few freehand straight line practices and cubes and things like that too. Buut that's about it. Will be going full force practicing again right away!

Perspective practice. A room! It's not mine, though I do have a table like that. Trying to inject some "personality" in my perspective drawings by adding random details and props, although I must admit I do get bored pretty quickly when I'm working on a drawing for long time.



And sketches. The thumbnails are mini studies for the drawing above.

[Spudonkey]

I love your environments! So much detail

[LongJh]

Spudonkey - Hey, thanks! It's fun to add all those little details when drawing environments, and I'm really glad you liked it!

Got a pretty big update today! Finished up my entry for CGhub's New World's challenge. I learnt quite a bit on this painting, mainly that I need to work on my ability to clean up and refine my paintings to a more "finished' level.

So here's the final! The theme is Crystal Forest.



Also, some digi portrait studies. Not so good lol. Still having trouble with proportions and painting form.









Crystal studies, to practice for my New Worlds painting







Aaand sketches.

[PeteJ]

great studies! and that's an interesting way to block in hair.

[LongJh]

PeteJ - Thank you. Haha, yeah, it's really blocky and messy. Hair is another one of my weak points and I get pretty nervous trying to paint them.

Hi all! Just the usual bunch of boring drawings here. I swear one day I'll be able create amazing, meaningful art and designs!

A few pages of studies and notes I did along with Stan Prokopenko's video tutorials on youtube. His tutorials are really professional and highly informative - I really recommend watching it. I mainly try to write down key points and useful notes for my own reference and general practice for these.









And more sketchbook pages. As usual - from life, reference and some terrible doodles from imagination.

[LongJh]

Quick update!

More boring head study notes.









Aaand then some simple heads different angles from imagination.



Thats all for now!

[PeteJ]

You got some amazing clean studies, something I need to do better.

[LongJh]

PeteJ - Thanks man! I'm sure you're totally able to do it as well. With a little patience, it's actually pretty easy lol.

Another quick update here. I bought some highlighters from the bookstore in an attempt to find a cheaper substitute to do marker drawings with. So I did some sketching to test out what they could do. Um, also trying to see if I could get more into some industrial design type stuff. It was pretty addictive doodling with them at the beginning lol.

Sorry for the quality. I had to take photos instead of scanning them because a lot of the colours gets lost if I scan them.













Aand getting back to the serious studies again. A few hands for today. Will definitely have to do more full body studies soon, too.

[LongJh]

Hi all! Holidays are coming soon, so I'm hoping to make full use of the time to practice moar! Here's an update of what I've been doing. Mostly is a bunch of freehand lines and ellipses. I've been trying to get into industrial design style sketching. Here are a few pages of them, really lame lol, but I did like a ton of these (all on A3 copy paper).





And then some portrait digis! First one is done along with this tutorial. Uhhh, about 1 and a half hours each - that's when my stamina usually flatlines when painting portraits. Aaahh still a long way to go!





And lastly are some more sketches. Just filled up this particular sketchbook. Time to start a new one!

[LongJh]

Hello. Another update here.

So my master plan of drawing a lot during the holidays was pretty much a disaster due to some intense food poisoning on my part. Buut I did do some stuff in the end!

Finished up my last 1-pt perspective practice. Just in time for the new year! I admit I was a little sloppy on this drawing - didn't really put a lot of effort into the details, and the chandeliers, ugh. But what's done is done! Time to move on to 2-point perspective.



Next we have more digi studies. Round brush, no opacity pressure. About 30mins each.







A random sketch. Oh God I suck at drapery.



And last is a quick pic of some of my ID sketching practice. For uh, documentational purposes before I threw them away. They were starting to make a mess on my desk.

[Cojac]

Great work. You have improved a lot since my first visit here. I don't have any critique. Just keep practicing. Good luck.

[Palespyder]

I have the exact same problem right now, I am terrified to do my sketches in my actual sketchbook and so I use copy paper. When you did this, did you hole punch them and put them in a binder or just throw them away?

[LongJh]

Cojac - Whooo! Thanks! Yeah, I'll definitely keep practicing. Still have a long way to go!

Palespyder - Haha, yeah, that sketchbook nervousness is pretty annoying. I think it's fine to use copy paper - it's cheap and readily available, I do most of my studies on them. And yeah, I put all of my copy paper drawings in a binder, it's a nice way to archive all your stuff. And the best part is you get to rearrange them however and whenever you want because they aren't stuck to a book!

More stuff!

Eye studies after Stan Prokopenko. Will probably do a series of notes and studies after his tutorials. I did notice I tend to forget to apply some of the things I learnt when doing my own drawings, though. Will have to take note of that.





And more ID sketching. The first few drawings are my attempts to draw a low-poly beetle (kind of like those student works in FZD) and failing miserably. Drawing this way is really quite different and requires a ton of concentration to get nice, clean and accurate lines. My end goal here is to be able to sketch anything in any angle using perspective construction techniqes with good line quality/confidence.











Aaand lastly are some sketchbook sketches. Reference used for the pose in the first drawing - because I can't draw convincing poses for nuts - and the building in the background was a quick photo study.

[LongJh]

Hello! Got a little update here. More ID sketching lol. I'm so sorry if it's boring! I'll do other stuff soon I swear.




Level up! lol. Finally managed to draw a pretty decent looking insect thing after so many tries (last image).

[LongJh]

Update!

Started my 2-point perspective practice. So here we go, 2 points, middle horizon, exterior shot. Again trying to practice kinda like those FZD student works. Not as amazing though - I can see a few perspective distortion and scale mistakes, also the design is pretty weak I guess. Um, about 90% freehand lines - I only used the ruler to fix a few vertical lines. So yeah, line quality can definitely be improved. Overall I think I was rushing this and being sloppy (as usual).



Some quick digi studies. About 20-30mins each. As usual practicing colours and brushwork. Pretty relaxing to do these lol.





Bridgman studies again! I realised that because Bridgman's full figure examples in his life drawing book are really stylized and quite sketchy, doing these studies are more to understand the concepts that Bridgman is trying to convey - such as rhythm, balance, etc - and less to actually draw a realistic representation of a human figure. I find his specific anatomy drawings (eg. hands, legs, feet, etc) to be more useful in terms of studying how it actually looks in real life. What this mean is that I will also have to do some figure drawings from a real source instead of just studying his works.









And some sketchbook stuff. Ugh I still need a ton more practice drawing heads.





Whew, I guess that's about it for now.

[ForScience]

I really like the way that you are studying, I am already seeing improvement. I would love to see some more imaginative doodles in the mix, but I think you are moving in the right direction.

[LongJh]

ForScience - Thank you! Yeah, I should definitely work those imagination muscles of mine. Recently though, I feel like I really don't have much good ideas coming out of me. It's pretty frustrating, but I guess I just gotta work past it. But I'll keep doing my best!

Another update here. Sorry it's a little slow - it was a pretty busy week, didn't get much time to draw much at all.

But enough with the excuses. First is a perspective drawing practice. 2-point, bird's eye view. I did a cityscape, I always wanted to draw one. Didn't come out exactly how I wanted it (it looked way more amazing in my head), but I'd give it a pass. I must admit did get lazy with the details though, the windows all look very sketchy and wobbly.



Next are some figure drawings using the skeletal construction method. Was inspired by Matthew Archambault's youtube podcasts. I recommend taking a look at them, he has some pretty useful information in those videos.













And last are some more sketchbook pages. Had yet another one of those moments of fustration when I looked back at my older sketches and saw no visible improvement over the months. It still looks like I'm drawing with the same bad habits and with barely any creative imagination. Ugh.









Hope I'll be churning out some better stuff soon. Until next time!