A Beginner's Sketchbook

[MonoOrder]

Hello everyone.

I enjoy drawing but never really had any direction with it and have always had distractions. I'm 25 now and I've finally decided to take it seriously.

I've decided to start working from the very beginning, completing various exercises in books teaching the fundamentals as well as sketching my own things daily.


First here are a few of the exercises I've been working on during the past week.

[MonoOrder]

Here are some sketches. I've found it hard to commit to my lines as I feel the messy style better hides the great imperfections of my drawings.

[MonoOrder]

Here are some more exercises I've been doing from beginners drawing books as well as some sketches from the imagination. None of the real life observation stuff is translating into my drawing from imagination unfortunately.

I've been working on value/shading in my books and love how much dimension they add to my drawings. I'm especially pleased with the drawing of my left hand. My best drawing yet.

[MonoOrder]

I've mostly been working with pencil but started to work with pen and wash since my last post. I love how wash brings everything together in the picture. I still need to get better acquainted with using a brush and varying the amount of dilution.

For pen, creating value has been hard for me. I know the key is spacing but for more complicated shapes is when I've been having trouble.

Everyday I've been drawing for around a hour or so but I really want to kick it up to 3-4 hours per day. I'm already far behind in terms of age so I've got a lot of catching up to do!

[rishenko]

Looks like a good start, especially with the still life drawings. Screw age, just keep making slow and steady progress for the rest of your life and you'll be awesome. Keep it up, and you'll notice subtle, obvious improvements on a regular basis.

[MonoOrder]

rishenko - Thank you for the comment. I'll do my best to keep drawing; age should never be an excuse!

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I've started messing around with vine charcoal since my last post. I love how simple it is to create value with this medium and how forgiving it is when you make mistakes. But because of the messiness and how I don't have a well ventilated area to use fixative spray I'm gonna stop using vine charcoal and keep working with pencils.

[jakubvavrik]

Hi! Good start. Maybe you need to get your hand more under control. Beside drawing from observation, try to train straight lines (as banally it sounds) and then ellipses. Simply put two points on paper and try to connect them with line. Start with shorter distances and keep drawing and drawing. Remember to fixate wrist and use only shoulder/elbow to move your hand. I filled lots of pages of this excersize and it definitely helped me refine my linework (althou I need to train much more ). Dont get demotivated by age! I am almost 25 too and i started not so long ago so I feel little bit same Have fun.

[MonoOrder]

Rubajz - Thank you for the advice! I have to admit I wasn't doing any of those exercises you mentioned to get my hand control better.

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Since last update I started working more on faces. When I start using my bigger sketchpad (8.5"x13") my proportions have started to become very inaccurate. I've been having trouble especially on the nose and eyes. Also since I've been using pencil again filling in values are such a pain in the ass!

Last picture is of fabrics using conte which I will start messing around with.

[MonoOrder]

Worked on some really large (18"x24") gray paper using conte for the first two drawings. The bag came out decent since it was a simple object to draw but the coat was disappointing. Towards the end I just gave up looking for accurate values. I just smudged the conte with my fingers and never really bothered using the gray paper as a middle value.

For the last drawing I realized that I had a hard time drawing circular figures in a composition. The plate for the cup on the bottom right was really giving my massive problems that I just got frustrated and stopped with the drawing before I realized I didn't add in the cast shadows!

[MonoOrder]

Well I just finished going through all the exercises in my first drawing book. I used Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner, which is a book I bought before I started browsing through CA. While it didn't really teach me any specific techniques, it made me play with a lot of mediums which I found useful.

The last chapter focused on life drawings and got me messing around with framing my drawings as you can see in the ones drawn in charcoal below.

I also noticed my linework is needs A LOT of practice, especially for my pencil drawings. Rubajz commented on how to improve it above and I'm really going to make it a goal of mine to improve my lines and inject some confidence into them.

Other than that I'll be working through New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which I wish I started with from the beginning. I guess I was just suckered into the title of the first book I used since I was lacking confidence.

[syrella]

Keep up the hard work! I'm seeing improvement.

Edit: As for line work, try doing some (blind) contour drawing! It can be very helpful.

Also, simply doing line exercises is also good. Challenge yourself to draw straight and curved lines without actually looking at anything. Draw two points and connect them. Rinse, repeat... Try doing those exercises before you start drawing to "remind" yourself about the line quality. Also, don't be afraid to be bold! If you get the line in the wrong place, it's not the end of the world (especially if you are able to see that it's wrong- seeing is half of the battle). In some cases, I'd say it's better to have a confident yet misplaced line than one that is shaky and out of control and kind of sort of maybe in the right place.

Just my thoughts...

[RoboMat]

The faces in #8 look really nice!

I've found it hard to commit to my lines as I feel the messy style better hides the great imperfections of my drawings.

Could be something that came out of my mouth!

[MonoOrder]

Syrella - Thank you for the advice on the blind contour drawing. I will use that for warming up once in a while!

Robomat - Thank you for the kind words. Let's both work on refining our lines!

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Below are the first few exercises from New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I can already see improvements from my first portraits and can't what results I can get after completing the book.

The first portrait is from imagination, while the second is a self-portrait.

On the drawing for the corner of my room I really struggled with perspective. Gotta add that to my list for things to study up on.

Last one is the upside-down drawing exercise that is pretty common. While the book told me it should take me 40 minutes to an hour I ended up spending over 2 hours on it! A lot of nitpicking and erasing can do that.

[MonoOrder]

Been doing some more exercises from Betty Edwards' book. It seems like she has some kind of personal vendetta against the left side of the brain by how often she criticizes it. Maybe she has some bad experiences in a math class in her youth.

[syrella]

Haha yeah, I noticed that too about her writing. I think she is more just trying to emphasize the good points of the "right brain".

Anyhow, though, keep up with the drawings! Looking at things in an upside down manner can be an easy way to trick the brain. It's funny how many things we think we see aren't actually there and vice versa. training the eye to see all of those little details can be a tricky process. Luckily, all it takes is some practice and hard work!

[MonoOrder]

syrella - Yeah there are a lot of neat tricks in the book on preparing the brain to see. Hopefully I can get through the book by the end of the month!

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Here are two more hands and two other drawings of still life. Thankfully I'm done with the hand drawings for now cause it was a pain in the ass to hold my hand still for that long.

[POPUPSart]

Hi PerfectGet

Thanks for commenting on my Sketchbook.

Do you find it helps your progress jumping around from all sorts of different subject matter?

I myself am trying to resist the urge to just draw whatever I want. I am trying to be strict and stick to one subject matter. Like at the moment I am studying anatomy from scratch. I intend to keep it that way until I have it perfected.

Different learning styles for different people, at least your way keeps it fresh eh?

Keep up the good work. I will be watching your progress. I hope you watch mine.

POPUP.

[triggerpigking]

Hey thanks for commenting on my sb.
I know how ya feel about the hand drawings really begins to ache after a while.

Something that ive found helps a lot is giving yourself goals like the 100 hundred skulls I did It gives ya something to draw when you cna't think of anything else and its pretty satisfying looking over the first ones you did and comparing them to your last ones.

Havent really got anything else to say so keep up the good work.

[MonoOrder]

Thank guys for commenting back.

POPUPSart: - I never really though that I was switching subject matter that much since I've just been focusing on getting the right contours down and working on getting the values correct. I'm pretty much going through beginners books and completing the exercises given to me while doing my own drawings focusing on still life on the side. I'll be watching your sketchbook as well as I like to see how people at a similar technical level to me progress.

triggerpigking - Thanks for the suggestion. I plan on doing those focused studies once I start working on anatomy. Seems like a great way to get better at a specific subject matter.

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Below are some more exercises I've been doing focusing on using a viewfinder to help with getting the contours of the drawing down correctly. Will also start focusing on negative spaces soon!

[MonoOrder]

Some more exercises mostly focusing on using the viewfinder and negative space to deal with foreshortening.

Looking at the last few entries my sketchbook feels really stale. I feel like I need some more fantasy/sci-fi drawings but whenever I do those I revert back to my 5 year old looking drawings.

[MonoOrder]

Some more studies and still life.

[Steeliebob]

Damn these latest are quite amazing!

[Shad-]

I agree with Steeliebob. Never quit doing sketches ! It will bring you further than you might even think of.
I think you will be good really soon if you continue working this hard !
I promise I'll keep an eye on you !

[rishenko]

Man, you are making some strong progress. It's obvious that your proportions and shapes are getting tighter and your linework more confident. Also, your negative space studies are great. One thing I try to do is pause during a drawing and study the negative spaces, or, if I'm having troubles with my objects relating to one another, I sketch out the negative spaces and see how they fit within my drawing.

As for pencil usage, you can definitely accomplish everything you need with a 2H or HB, just by shading with more pressure, as evidenced by MindCandy's work on his Bargue's.

If I did have to make a suggestion, it would be: combine both what you see with your eye with basic construction. Build the objects out of the basic shapes (spheres, eggs, cubes, cylinders, cones), add some basic perspective lines, and refine those shapes down into what you see. For me, this method allowed for comparison of shapes and negative space, as well as giving me a framework within which to work. Also, if you aren't already, make several thumbnails to get a feel for placement and direction of lines based on what you see.

[MonoOrder]

Steeliebob - Thanks for the comment.
Shad- - Thank you for the encouragement! Makes me want to work harder.
rishenko - Thank you for the suggestion! I just started working with perspective since my last update and will try to incorporate it into my all my drawings.

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Here are most of my drawings since the last update. Still making use of the viewfinder. The first one is me copying of Betty Edward's drawing but the rest are drawn from life.

My brain was having all sorts of problems trying to handle drawing things in perspective. It has gotten slightly better as I drew more but it will be something that I will need to keep working on.

[Brandon K]

I can already see some improvement since you first started this SB. Keep at it, do some anatomy studies and draw all the time, at least when you can. Dont give up, and you can be great someday

[ja1307]

Nice looking sketchbook think you are taking very good approach by drawing everything you see around you. One tip for you rendering is to think about the form of the object when you are making marks, and not just about value. Try and use you marks to describe the shape and feel of the object.

For example the plant pot (one of the last images in your recent post) your lines are more straight around the top, whilst the pot is rounded so there is a miss match. Also I think too many different directions of line in one area can make your drawing look a bit busy and harder to read. I am thinking about the pic you posted of the old man sitting in the chair. His legs have lines going in multiple directions takes away from the flow of the material.

but its a good start and good that your drawing as much as you are keep at it an improvements will come.

[MonoOrder]

Brandon K - Thank you for the comment. Anatomy studies will come soon!

ja1307 - You're right on the values and line directions. The drawing of the old man is of a copy and although I tried to shade in the same directions as the original, it came out completely different! I've added those problems to an ever-growing list of things I need to improve upon.

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I need to stop playing diablo 3. Although I'm still drawing everyday, it's not as much as I would like. I'm playing hardcore mode though so if I die I think I'll just stop playing it altogether. Only good thing that came of that game was I was able to draw a portrait of my friend while he was playing on my computer.

I'm almost done with the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain workbook. This last real chapter is on value and I'm really having trouble with my value shading. As ja1307 mentioned above the my current shading makes the drawings look busy. I'm really impatient when shading so my shading always look rough/forced.

Half the drawings below are copying studies. The bottom four are from life. I had a lot of trouble with ellipses. Drawing the little plate under the cup was maddening!

[ja1307]

Hey man thanks for dropping by my sketchbook. Think you are doing great by drawing so many different subject matter. Think you need to just pay attention to you values by having more contrast between your lights and darks and trying to make more subtle changes between the two. Rather then just suddenly shifting from light to dark. Patience is crucial when it comes to rendering I think if you want to have a finished look to your drawing. Its important to take it in stages I feel and build up tone gradually rather then putting down heavy quick marks. Maybe you should try and set aside some time just to practice gradual tonal shifts from light to dark, maybe by drawing simple forms like Spheres and cubes (because they are less scary to draw) and rendering those paying attention to form as well as value.

PS lets see the imaginative stuff too, mine is so bad but like anything will get better if I work at it so will yours so don't be shy about showing it, plus its a drawing right something else to get feedback on so its all good.

[MonoOrder]

ja1307 - Thanks for the advice. I really need to appreciate the process of rendering more instead of just rushing through it. I'll tackle on those value studies of simple forms to practice as well. As for the imaginative sketches I'll start posting those along with the other things starting from now. I'm sure it will be good to look back on those drawings in the future.

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More life drawing and studies in this update as usual. I really need to use sighting better to get a better accuracy of the size of the objects. Sometimes I get too lazy and skip that part as seen in the sketch of the fixative spray