Finding my way one step at a time

[Ryan Provenzano]

@blog: Alright, well I have just risen my productivity(starting with the perspective boxes).
@umbra: That's something I need to do more. I will definitely do that now.

Here's quite a bit of things. Drew my father in the chair. All the other characters are from imagination, and one of them is really distorted, on purpose of course. Perspective studies, and proportions of man. I still need to finish the proportions of the woman, though. Practice with my inking pens and the characters I tried to ink came out horrible, so I definitely gotta do more practice with it.

[kamikazel33t]

Good job! I can see the improvement, for the perspective sketches keep pushing them and try to make cylinders in those cubes, try learning stuff like finding halves and thirds in perspective planes and how to divide them.

[Ryan Provenzano]

@kami: alright, the next time I do perspective studies I will do those things, thanks for the suggestion
Two guys playing chess(my brother and friend, was from life) on first one, longer pose study from pixelovely, hands study from a book, arm study from diagram, bus imaginary sketches and 1 other imagination head.

[wanana]

We are pretty much on the same level and i'm not really in any position to give you advice, but i do think that if you work on your line quality in order to make the drawings "cleaner" it would look a lot better.
Keep up the good work.

[Ryan Provenzano]

@wanana: I think you are right about the "clean quality" about my drawings. I made sure to be cleaner on some of these sketches(the robot, for example) and I believe it makes a difference. Thank you for the advice!
The third page annoys me the most, and the dude on the first page; just so completely failed on those ones. From imagination.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Perspective drawings. Getting a little more complex now.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Animal gesture drawings and some note-taking.
And a hand from life, really have to do more of these.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Human studies and some stuff from imagination. Really need to work on the female figure.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Imaginary sketches, drawing from life, perspective, humans.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Insect studies and just random sketching . Messed up proportions pretty bad on one of them.

[amaranthxx]

Well, I just looked through your sketchbook...You are definitely improving. I think it was a good idea to start studying beyond just Manga...though I like that style too. I think Glen Vilppu book is great. I also like Michael Hampton's book...You have been doing a lot of work with the figure, and I can see an improvement. I know other people have said it, but one thing that seems lacking to me in your sketchbook is still life drawings....and also some finished pieces...where you compose the drawing and frame it off, maybe tone the paper....just maybe something different to try. But, keep it up...I am working on my drawing skills, as well. I need to do more figure drawing myself...so thanks for the inspiration. I really liked that second skull drawing based off Bridgman that you did.

[kamikazel33t]

Keep going m8! I suggest you review your proportions a little more other than just anatomy because right now I see you draw your characters short and not the standard 8 head or 7 head tall height. Really try to apply what vilppu has been teaching you and try to use basic shapes for the structure of the limbs and torsos. Do some exercises to improve line quality as well!(I am doing a ton of those too!)

[Ryan Provenzano]

@amaranth: thanks man. I'm grateful to have inspired you. I definitely need to do some still-lifes man... And yeah, I think I need to finish some pieces. I'm starting to want to really up the quality of my work so I'm going to try to do more thoughtful and complete drawings.

@kami: Yeah, my lines... I really need to take my time and draw cleaner lines. And yeah my proportions are still definitely off in these. I still have trouble maintaining proportion when drawing poses.

60-sec gesture drawings from pixelovely.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Stuff from the rest of the week. Gesture drawing, forms practice, some proportion practice with reference and some from imagination, mentler study for gesture drawing, 60-sec gestures, some life drawings of people, and quick drawings from imagination as well.

[kamikazel33t]

Hey , I am liking that you are doing gestures! I think the problem you might be having with your imaginative drawings is that why you have the structure of the skeleton down, you do not have those muscle structures quite right. Try looking more into those gestural muscle drawings as well as looking more into your line quality. I've noticed that you go over the same stroke multiple times constantly, so I suggest that every time you notice this try to erase those fuzzy lines and draw it with one swoop, also try and draw with you shoulder and elbow while locking you wrist although you may not be used to it in the beginning, it is really useful to draw natural arcs though.

[Ryan Provenzano]

@kami: thanks for giving me advice all the time. I haven't gotten to doing muscle structures yet, but that's definitely what I'm going to do next. And the lines, I know...I don't really have an excuse for it. I draw with my natural arcs a lot and I draw with my arm. Anyways, I finally have some still lifes. Got boxes, sketches, and creatures. The two full body drawings are WIP, I believe.

[ebi]

Hey, thanks for visiting my sketchbook!
I was only able to glance at the video you sent me, but it looks pretty promising, so I'll make sure to watch it through tonight.

Since I'm still a beginner, I can't really give you any good critique, so all I can really say is: keep up with those studies and drawing from life!

And, if you're looking for more realistic manga, you should definitely check out Vagabond ( by Takehiko Inoue),
in my opinion, the art in there is gorgeous!

Take care.

[amaranthxx]

I like the gesture drawings...really nice...they have nice rhythm to them. Sometimes I notice with your figure drawings, that the head isn't always in proportion to the rest of the body....a lot of time it seems to small to me for how big you drew the rest of it. The most recent on from Dec 10th, seems better than some of the earlier ones...But, just something to keep in mind.

Also, liked the still lives you did...The only thing with the apple is the tone of the reflected light seems too light to me...My understanding it the lightest tone on the dark side of the apple, should still be darker than the darkest tone on the light side of the apple. And that reflected light value seems lighter than your mid-tones on the light side of the apple. Just something to look at. I am just getting into tone, so there might be some exception I don't know about yet.

I also really like your Vilppu rotating boxes...I need to practice that myself...haven't really touched perspective yet.

Keep it up! Look forward to seeing more.

[Ryan Provenzano]

@ebi: no problem, just spreading the love around. I agree with your comment on studies and drawing from life. I feel that's what really leads me to improve. And I just looked at Vagabond, it looks pretty kickass. I really am a fan of seinen manga, so that kind of stuff is my territory .

@amaranth: thanks, I like doing gesture drawings a bit. Yeah, my head proportions can still be pretty off, I really suck at measuring proportions in my drawings. Though it seems to be getting better if I draw the head last.

I remember hearing that comment before on reflected light. It looked weird to me as well.

Thank you both, for your comments. I will keep it up!

This body of work is basically my attempts at improving my line-work, and trying to get my sketches to a more completed level. I have a re-drawing of a demon design for my gaming class. Some life drawing(really only one page this time). Some gestures(one being a left-handed gesture from imagination). And I'm getting into Andrew Loomis: Fun with A Pencil now! It's proved to be helpful already, and it's really fun to work with.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Finally, here's an update.

Anyways, it starts out with sketches for proportion and random sketches. Then it goes onto silhouettes because I felt it would be a good way to get better at designing and having proportion in my drawing. Then there's the collection of studies I've done in the mirror. And lastly more sketches

[Ryan Provenzano]

Drawings from this week. I really need to find a way to dedicate more time with drawing and still balance it with my school work.
Drawings on the bus and the cleanest one was drawn regularly(the one with the helm). Trying to actually design some characters now instead of drawing random naked dudes. Loomis studies at the end. I am going to try to do more studies now. Criticism/critique will be appreciated.

[Arteast]

Hey man i was in Forrest stream earlier and said i would check out your sketchbook so here i am! I think your doing everything just about right! Keep practicing and pushing yourself and keep doing those studies i have been slacking on them and need to pick them up again because they help a ton! Keep drawing from your imagination as well after you do the studies and apply the studies to your imaginative drawings something else i also need to work on. Also my last tip is i personally would stray away from drawing manga/anime type stuff. Keep at it man your doing great an improving a lot!

[JamesSimons]

It's nice to see you work on perspective keep that up!
I think this site will help your figure stuff a lot http://radhowto.blogspot.com.au/

anyway keep it up~
!

[Sir Cam]

I can see that you're studying the basics which is good. When I look carefully at some of your illustrations however, it seems to me that, although you are studying the correct material, you are not fully comprehending it. This is extremely common for beginners and I myself did the same thing early on. In fact, it took me about 3 years before I finally started to understand the purpose of some of those fundamental tools of drawing. I just want to recommend that you thoroughly contemplate why these books are teaching you these things or why great artists draw or paint the way they do. Understanding the practical application of the fundamentals is what enables you to use them properly. Just copying them out of a book without understanding their purpose is almost pointless. Again, I was quite guilty of this myself early on. It's like putting a computer together by following a manual. Yes, you can do it but does that make you a computer expert? I don't think so.

To be a little more specific, I can see that you're studying linear perspective. That's great, but do you understand why? It is to create a sense of depth on a 2D surface. Seems obvious but it really isn't until you fully understand its practical application. I can see that you're drawing boxes according to linear perspective which is great, but I don't get the sense that you're really feeling the volume of the cube; that you aren't visualizing it three-dimensionally and that to you, it is still just flat shapes and lines on a paper. My suspicion seems more or less confirmed when I examine your figure drawings which are quite flat (no offense). Again, this is extremely common for beginners so don't feel bad about it or anything, just try to be more aware. Rhythm is another example. I can see that you're studying it to some extant and that you're probably superficially aware that it refers to opposing curves but that isn't the point. Rhythm is just a compositional tool to create flow, nothing more, nothing less. When I look at your figure drawings, it seems that they don't really flow which tells me that you still don't quite get how to use rhythm.

I can see that you're studying anatomy which is a very good thing and you don't even need to be an artist to learn it (I learned anatomy long before I ever knew how to draw it) but it's important that you are aware that knowing the anatomy and being able to draw it are two very different things. Keep studying anatomy as you have, I think you're doing great with that, I just want to make sure you understand that distinction. So, how do you draw anatomy that you've learned? That's where the basics come in (rhythm, form, perspective, tone, color theory, etc.). Those basic tools are how you draw, what you're using them to draw, whether anatomy or otherwise, is virtually irrelevant.

I hope you understand the point that I'm trying to make. I want you to put full emphasis on learning the purpose of the things you're studying, otherwise you'll never be able to efficiently use them in your work and you'll make minimal progress. Blindly copying something out of Bridgman, Loomis, or whoever else (which is a mistake that I and so many others have made) is like parroting a word from another language. Yeah, you can say the word but if you don't know what it means, what's the point of saying it at all?

[Nextra]

Hello Nexuun,

Great improvements! I would agree with Umbravita, try pushing yourself out from your comfort zone.
This might sound counterproductive, but if you want to get good at drawing or painting manga, I thing you should learn how to do anatomy studies and quick sketches of the body.
This will help you improve your figures over all, making the "flow" in them more alive.

I suggest you ask a friend/family to pose for you, or start doing daily drawings from http://www.posemaniacs.com/thirtysecond

Good luck!

[Januz]

Wow you're working real hard. I agree with what Sir Cam said. Also, don't forget to measure and check for verticals/horizontals/diagonals/negative space.



Keep up!

[Ryan Provenzano]

Wow guys, your feedback has been amazing. It's my bad that I haven't updated a lot lately. The last three saturdays I've done life drawing of nude models for about 3 hours each sessions. It was an amazing experience and I learned so much, which will be impacting how I continue to learn.

@arteast: Yeah man, studies are so important and it's something I've never really acknowledged until now. I'll make sure to apply the studies to drawings from imagination. That is definitely something I agree with. I don't really draw manga/anime anymore. The stuff just finds a way into my style nowadays.

@james:dude, that site is awesome! I learned a lot by just reading the stuff. Like the method to drawing arms helps me so much with the elbows. I'll get back to doing some perspective soon.

@Sir Cam: I can not possibly thank you enough for this feedback you've given me. I've been thinking about what you said consistently and trying to learn more deeply about the concepts and the reason behind them. I am still not sure on rhythm though. I know about the opposing line rhythm but you're right, I really don't get rhythm yet. I'll have to do something about this. Your feedback has so much information in it that you have given me direction for a very long time, and I thank you for this. I will work on the flatness of my figures for sure. And I will really try to understand the basics of form and perspective to a higher degree.

@Nextra: Yeah, for the most part I've really lost interest in manga and am more interested in illustration and concept art for books/movies/cardgames/videogames. I'll be sure to do more studies and figure drawing in a more literal term, rather than just gesture drawings.

@Januz: Measuring is something I've recently massively dawned upon. I knew it was out there, but I didn't really know much about it till I did life drawing and read a book about life drawing as well. I'm getting into all that relative/comparitive measuring now. Thanks for the video too!

And now for the drawings. They're a mix of gesture drawings in charcoal. And 20 minute/30minute/1hour long poses done with pencil and charcoal for the atmosphere.

[Candra H]

I can already see an improvement over the last two pages. Great to see you getting life drawing in because that, and drawing as much from life as possible (anything and everything is fair game not just people), will help translate their three dimensional solidity into your drawings.

Keep working hard at cleaning up your lines too, though that will come with naturally as your confidence grows.

Good luck and keep at it!

[Ryan Provenzano]

@Candra: Thanks for the encouragement! I'll make sure to work on drawing from life. It is definitely a legitimate method of practice to help me learn form.

Anyways, I drew my drinking glass in front of me to practice ellipses. It helps to really consider the horizon line and the relative radius of the ellipse.

And then there's more cubes, with some quick sketches of people jumbled in there as well. Really trying to believe that there's really a cube there floating, and visualizing as well. Tried constructing the arm using forms.

[amaranthxx]

I can see an improvement...especially with the life drawing you have been doing...some of those quick gestures are really nice. One thing that stood out to me is the feet not being in proportion, or appearing a bit flat, maybe you could do some studies of jsut feet like you have done with hands and heads before..

Also, with the last entry with the glass and eraser, I think it would give more dimension to the cup if you added more cross contours....especially the horizontal ellipses. When you are drawing cross contours, I always find it is helpful to imagine that my pencil is actually moving over the surface of the object...dipping down if there is a dip...going up and over a cap...just something to look at...but I found cross contours really give form to my otherwise flat shapes.

But, keep it up...I bet those life drawing classes are fun.