♫ I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts dee dee... ♬

[Sapphirelullaby]

Great start, I can tell by the studies that you seem to be serious about improving. If you're intent on learning more realistic faces I would suggest taking photographs from wherever (your own, stock photos, etc) and tracing over the features. Not to publish of course, but juustt as an exercise to help you better understand how proportions /really/ work rather how you -think- they work. Doing this a couple times helped me understand eye sizes, the distance between the eyes (i always draw them too far apart, ack), etc etc. Once you feel like you've somewhat grasped it, do some more studies and then solidify what you've learned with freehanded stuff from imagination. Just a thought! Keep it up and good luck.

[Ambiguity]

Great start, I can tell by the studies that you seem to be serious about improving. If you're intent on learning more realistic faces I would suggest taking photographs from wherever (your own, stock photos, etc) and tracing over the features. Not to publish of course, but juustt as an exercise to help you better understand how proportions /really/ work rather how you -think- they work. Doing this a couple times helped me understand eye sizes, the distance between the eyes (i always draw them too far apart, ack), etc etc. Once you feel like you've somewhat grasped it, do some more studies and then solidify what you've learned with freehanded stuff from imagination. Just a thought! Keep it up and good luck.

You know when I really think about it I believe I do have a pretty decent grasp on the proportions(or measurements) of the face. I think what really need to work on is actual anatomy and perspective. The my lack of understanding with the latter especially tends to really screw up everything I do, including faces.

I wonder if studying perspective the way you would for backgrounds would directly help the way you draw humans. The camera is so close with portraits that you wouldn't be able to see you're vanishing points though, and I can't see drawing all that out for a shot like that being terribly practical. Looks like I need to do some more research still before I can put everything together well from my imagination.

Thanks for the comment and suggestion by the way. If not for learning more about proportion, maybe tracing would at least help my anatomy some, who knows?

[snatti]

Hey man keep working hard but dont start tracing to learn anatomy , just pick up a good book and start from there, my suggsetion tho

[Ambiguity]

Hey man keep working hard but dont start tracing to learn anatomy , just pick up a good book and start from there, my suggsetion tho

Any books you'd suggest?

[Januz]

Hey, nice studies man. But should do more of them (a lot more ). I'd suggest any of the Loomis books, you could also get videos from David Finch, Glen Vilppu, or Riven Phoenix.

On the topic of tracing, don't trace. Drawing construction lines over photos can be useful, but only after you've drawn a few of them from observation.

[Ambiguity]

Januz : Thanks for stopping by and for the compliment.

A few face studies(I don't know if I'm learning anything though ):

I'm soooo slow, I have to keep telling myself speed will come later, but it's still a bit discouraging(especially when a lot of others can fill huge pages no problem). I've actually been painting a lot of faces lately, but they've all been turning out horrible(probably because I was subconsciously trying get the sketches done fast) so I've just been scrapping them.

I really need a good method for studying surface features, I realized after doing these that I don't understand how things are supposed to look in perspective. Even the right face is turned ever so slightly, not sure that's executed well though.

[tangofanatic]

Decent sketches so far. In regards to the speed thing, this was a major issue recurring in the back of my head too. Just take the time to think through what you want to do and be patient. Unless you're of course aiming to get 'loose' and 'fast' lines. Keep it up, I like the sense of realism in these portrait sketches don't be afraid to take them further!

[Ambiguity]

tangofanatic: Thanks for the comment. And speaking of taking portraits further...


Here's a painting I've been working on of my mother for the past few days. It wasn't really a study because I knew I was going to refine a lot, and I was really just doing it for doing it. I think having to fix all my major mistakes had to have helped me some though, right?:
don't think I'm ready to paint in color yet. I wasn't really sure what to do on the hair, but I think it looks ok, I like the airbrushed look of it.

This painting has undergone some major changes since the initial sketch, I really need to take my time when doing that. I envy people who can get a very good likeness with just a few simple strokes, I hope I can get to that stage someday. For now I'm quite proud of how this turned out, it was surprisingly fun(or stress free at least) to paint .

[Psychobuddy]

Hey you're doing good, in terms of whether or not you're learning, as long as you're honestly trying (not tracing) you're learning. Keep practicing.

[Ambiguity]

Thanks Psycho', and if that's the case then I guess I'm learning ㅇㅅㅇ.

[Ambiguity]

Fixed a few things since the forums were down:

I think that's as far as I'll take that one, I'm happy enough with it.

[SpiralHorn]

Hey there, thanks for visiting my sketchbook. I like the painting of your mom, she's very pretty.

[Ambiguity]

Constructive anatomy head studies:

The ones with necks were example copies, the rest were from my head(didn't know how to draw the neck in all those poses). The ones with an "x" next to them are failed attempts. I wasn't sure about that top right one, he is supposed to be looking down, maybe because there is no features it's hard to tell though.

P.S. Pretty sure it's impossibru to draw perfect circles digitally without chicken scratching or "cheating".

[Ambiguity]

Eye studies:

The quickly rendered eye is a copy from a video, the second is a copy of the steps without the video, the rest is practice using various photographs.

[in2eternity]

nice studies)))) Do more))

[Ambiguity]

SpiralHorn: No problem, and thanks!
in2eternity: Gracias, and I will try. It's hard to stay motivated

Random gestures from my head for fun:

I made the pelvises too small, and some of the collar bones too low, but whatever. I just wanted to try my hand at this 'cause it looked fun. I'll probably use reference next time.

[lionheartGFX]

like i already told you on sycras forum you are on the right track man, bucke down and WORK IT!!!!! all you need its the practical knowledge

[PeteJ]

Like pretty much what everyone else is saying, you are doing pretty well, just keep drawing.

[Exhno]

Hey man. Never got around to thanking you for stopping by at my sketchbook. I'm really diggin' those head and eye studies, and those last few pose studies are sweet. Keep on drawing! I look forward to keeping track of your progress.

[choopcheek]

ambi post more stuff. Your last post was way too long ago. I wanna see more stuff.

[ninaren]

oh wow what an improvement u have made in such short time. the study of your mother is gorgeous. Thanks alot for stopping by my SB and sorry for the late response, been abit busy with xmas and work I really appreciate the effort you did to help me so thanks alot and merry xmas in advance. Sorry I really dont have any critiques more than keep up with what you are doing, Im impressed with what u have done so far, subscribed

[MrFrenik]

You're on the right track with the construction studies , man. Take this a bit further and study perspective as much as you can and you'll start to see your understanding of form jump exponentially. Keep it up!

[Woolichooks]

Keep working on the studies and figure drawings. Your picture of your mom looked good. Keep posting!

[Ambiguity]

Oh wow, I wasn't expecting so many comments.

Everyone: Thanks so much for your comments and encouragement, it does mean a lot. I've actually have been drawing more recently, however is mostly been pretty basic stuff so I didn't think it was worth scanning in. I also draw a lot of stuff digitally, and if I'm not really attached to it(so 99% of what I draw) I usually just delete as soon as I'm done. It's not that I hate the stuff I'm drawing, I just don't feel obligated to save everything.

To get a sense of what I mean by "basic stuff", this is pretty much what I've been doing:

I also apply it to figures made out of basic shapes to practice foreshortening(which is pretty fun actually).


Exhno: No need to thank me, you do good work so of course I was going to stop by o.-


ninaren: I don't know how big of an improvement I've made since I've been decent at copying images for a long time now, but I definitely feel I've come up with a better process for working so at least that's something.

No worries about the response time, like I said, I wasn't even expecting any comments so this was a nice surprise. Don't worry about the critique either, I know I'm not giving much to go off of here anyways.


MrFrenik : Thanks man. I actually have been playing with freehand perspective quite a bit, I just haven't gotten into ultra technical linear perspective yet(not with rulers anyway). I'd like to be able to buy a good video series for that; I've got my eye on the videos in the Ctrl+Paint store, now if only I had the funds haha.

Incidentally, I think it's about time you update your avatar, you're significantly better now than that avatar would lead one to believe.

[vlad74]

I love those constructional drawings. You have potential. Keep it up.

[maths82]

Those constructional drawings will soon start to reflect in how easily you'll find yourself drawing complex forms and ideas out of your imagination, keep it up !

[Ambiguity]

vlad74, maths82: Thanks for stopping by and commenting, and yeah, I should probably do more of those heads, I've already kinda forgot the process .


Like I said before, I haven't been doing anything interesting, but I thought I should at least upload something:

[Ambiguity]

More junk:



I've decided I don't like sketching with a mecha' pencil, no line variation and it's harder to control how dark or light the lines are. I also decided I much prefer this new method for constructing heads over the loomis one(my lines are very light so you probably can't see what I'm talking about), it gets me to the forms much faster and feels less "rigid".

[Ambiguity]

They're not "real" gestures because I copied someone else's, just getting a feel for the process:


Legit gestures from my head:

[Ambiguity]

A few figures I did like 2 weeks ago and forgot to upload: