BH Sketchbook

[BlackHarpy]

Hi, everyone! My name is María and I'm 25 years old. In short, I'm a engineer who has always loved to draw. The thing is that I started to take seriously my improvement in drawing for a while, so, I'm been practicing everytime I can, checking drawings books (so far the ones of Loomis are my favorites), learning from photographs...
I think I'm on the right path, thoughI know the way of understanding the human figure takes its time. So, critiques and suggestions are very welcome. Apologies first, though, my sketchbook tends to be very messy, sometimes full of meaningless doodles that I only understand =/

Most of the drawings were made on december. I drew this after a dream I had, so I didn't checked on references.


Trying to draw my hands.



Some foreshortening studies.


And some faces.



This one is my newest on my sketchbook. Mostly to try some pencils I bought.


I also like digital art. These are made on Photoshop.

[BlackHarpy]

Hi again! More from my sketchbook. Some studies from photographs.




This one is suposed to be a self-portrait.

[BlackHarpy]

Hi, again. This time I share this illustration I'm doing in Photoshop =)

[BlackHarpy]

Some sketches made today. I've been studying some anatomy when I can and I feel is slowly paying off.

I guess I shouldn't say this since it might be implicit, but any suggestions for improvement is greatly appreciated =)

[kaiyul]

Hello BlackHarpy,

Love your jester/clown portrait, very nice colors!
I'll give you a critique of your newest page, particularly the girl in the top left.
What's good about it is you have a very nice sense of design for the clothing. The clothing drapes well over the character as well. Looking at it, they just seem like simple sketches/gestures. In a gesture your main priority is to get the proportions, angles and anatomy correct. At this stage of the drawing, the only thing I would say that is incorrect with the drawing is the size of the head relative to the rest of the body. Unless this is a child which I doubt because of the curves and breasts, the body size should be about 8.5 heads. Right now this character is about 7.5 heads tall. I would approach this drawing, putting indications of the clothing, but really nailing down the proportions first. After I was sure the proportions were correct, then I would move onto a little more detail.
Not sure if you know this, but you can practice your life drawing skills with this site http://www.posemaniacs.com/

Awesome stuff, keep up the great work!

[BlackHarpy]

Hi, kaiyul, thanks for taking the time and write your feedback, though you've left me a little bit confused.

I use Loomis books as reference for my anatomical learning, and they mention the ideal measurement of the ideal men is 8 heads, being 7,5 for realistic body size. I'm talking about the size of men, women are a bit shorter. A size of 8,5 or 9 heads are for very tall people. And the intention from the beginning was to draw a short character, anyway.

Since I've been using Loomis books for a while, I've come to get used to those proportions, I think 8,5 heads would be way taller for my taste, specially for a woman, and personally is the first time I see someone mention it as a average size. So, maybe it's a matter of personal preference, within some limits, of course. Or maybe I'm very used to see short people =P

I know Pose Maniacs, and I use it a lot, its a great page for quick gesture drawings... though I prefer to draw using photographs, videos, or siting in a mall and draw people, since I can see better the way the muscles work and facial expressions.

Thanks again =)

[BlackHarpy]

Some digital stuff to ease my nerves...