Xilliam's Sketchbook [Hell, it's about time]

[Xilliam]

Hi , my hope with this sketchbook is to grasp a strong understanding of art fundamentals before I head out to Art School after the military.

My ultimate goal is to make a living out of what I love and become a Concept Artist for some game company.
I really want to understand all that I can and I am willing to learn whatever it takes in order to get there.

Recently I have been drawing from life.

[Lux_Aeterna]

hey there, i like your value studies. I know how hard they can be! The final result turned out very nice, too.
Try also some value studies in colour.
I like to copy portrait photos for my value studies.

[Xilliam]

Originally I started drawing apples from real life, though I wasn't too impressed with the results. I have decided to start with the basics and draw spheres in order to improve my rendering skills and to help me identify values.

Each sketch I like to improve upon the previous so I take notes when I feel I need to.

Anyway, These are studies from last week and today.

[Xilliam]

Another Sphere Today
3.5 hours

[Xilliam]

This is all the stuff I did yesterday but didn't have time to upload.
Mostly just trying to learn anatomy and applying that (somewhat) to photo-studies.









And a face value study, no blending.

[Xilliam]

Here's some more stuff. I would of uploaded earlier but I got carried away and worked late into the night.

More Bridgeman and Loomis, as well as a color study from life.



Bridgeman:


Loomis: I definitely feel like I'm learning alot from his stuff.


Color study from life, Tomatoes. I will learn color!!!
Each was 2 hours or more (takes forever to mix colors) The red one is the only one blended and the other two are just basecolors.

[Xilliam]

Mostly just anatomy and gestures however I did manage to do a photo value study.
I seriously hope I didn't accidently mix old gestures into here(I just throw my papers on the ground after I'm done so things get mixed up).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Value study, color would have really taken forever, I'll save that for another time.

[ja1307]

Very nice start to your sketchbook you have very good value control and blending on your sphere studies. Keep it up

[Xilliam]

Uploading on monday since I was up all night working on the tomato study.
Seems like I did better this time compared to last, colors are much more accurate and shadows are blended, and I added minimal surfaces details.
I definitely see some progress.

Btw, I've noticed that the colors on my second monitor(an LED one that I don't draw with) are much brighter, for example, the tomato to the far right is red on the monitor I draw with, but orange on the other one.
Maybe it's because it is LED and colors are brighter? I don't know because I've been told before that when I worked on my LED monitor the color weren't as vibrant, so I switched to my glossy one.

Anyway could anyone please tell me if the far right tomato is more orange than red, because it's red in my still life. Thanks

Tomatoes are the same ones too, just rearranged, they seem to have ripened making it quite interesting to compare it to the first one.
Around 6 hours

[Xilliam]

Spent most of the day on warm-cool color study from life, took about 6 hours.
Was looking at a couple sketchbooks and I have decided that I should speed up my studies, focusing less on minor details and instead on the overall objects.
Sort of applied this to an hour long portrait study in values.

The apple was a 4 hour study.

No loomis today, was just to busy on everything else.

If I can achieve quantity and quality at the same time then that would be great!
My goal is to be able to get at least 4 1-2 hours studies per day, as well as loomis figure drawing and head&hands.

[Xilliam]

Rather slow today, manged to get only a few things done.
The orange is a two hour study, not much to say in terms of quality, but I did get a little better at mixing.

[tabletoppler]

awesome start! i love the practices you do, it's amazing how you can produce so much work in such a short time o; good job and keep working on those studies c:

[Xilliam]

Today I studied nothing but loomis.
Learning how to construct heads can be fun but tedious and times.

This is stuff from yesterday. I've decided to start uploading work from the previous day each day, I just find it a bit easier to manage that way.

[Psychobuddy]

AWESOME work man...just loads of really well done studies...keep it up. This is totally paying off and it's going to keep paying off.

[Nianto]

yay for anatomy1 it's the base of all our paintings/drawings ^.^ - aand value studies.. that reminds me of sth i should do (without blending.. D:

[Xilliam]

Anatomy Again, but this time I delved into figure drawing. It's stuff you gotta know so...
Also started watching the Scott Robertson Matte Surface Shading dvd, looks extremely helpful. I'll definitely be getting alot of studies from that.

[WRappiii]

Wow. What persistence. All these studies are coming out beautifully!

[Xilliam]

More anatomy. I can feel myself gradually learning more and it feels great!

[Xilliam]

I explored the Scott Robertson Planar Surfaces dvd today, it is very informative and it will certainly help me later on with future renderings

[AndreM]

Soo many studies!
As you painted in on the 2nd box: light is thrown back onto your box from the ground, so it makes sense for the bottom part of the box side planes to be a bit brighter. But not on the cast shadow side, light cannot be thrown back onto this surface as easily, because the ground is shaded. (so there is no easy way for the light to bounce back up onto this plane)
I think this is happening on all 3 studies - You have a brighter shade going at the bottom of the 7.5 shaded side of the 3rd study. If anything the bottom part should be darker because it is more unlikely for the light to be thrown in that direction.

keep pushing!

[Xilliam]

Uploading late once again. More anatomy, and some renders from photo.

[Xilliam]

More cubes from the matte surface shading dvd, no reflected light, no need to since the main point of this exercise was simply to show what the best light direction would be for a 1,2,3 read.

[Xilliam]

End of week, OK! So I've established my beachhead into the world of learning, now I must begin the advance.

I want to make a promise with myself for tomorrow to upload something everyday for the next 6 months, when I turn 19. That will be my goal, think I can keep it? We'll find out

The reference I used was from fineark.sk

[Xilliam]

This was a value study from photograph. Prometheus.

[Matsign]

Don't forget to apply those fundamentals; from time to time Include some imaginative work into your regiment.

[SmileWithStyle]

An inspiring ammount of studies I am happy when I can dish out 1-2 good studies a day (I am a master of procrastination ).

Kinda motivates me to draw MORE! Keep at it, and as Matsign pointed out, do some stuff from imagination, to apply those studies and make them really sink in.

[anivy]

You have sooo many beautiful studies here, can't wait to see more!