Sketchbook - Getting better for College - Dan Schmidt

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Hey so I guess I'm starting a sketchbook here, actually looking for critique so let me know how I'm doing.

I only have one serious drawing in progress, so I'll just have that for now









I see a couple problems with the figure of the knight that I need to fix, but I really need some advice on how to color the trees, a yellow/purple sky, and water. Especially water. Also, what step should I make next? Should I make a more refined draft?


Thanks

[ConnyNordlund]

For some reason I don't see anything in this thread.

[DRadDaDanDawg]

[DRadDaDanDawg]

http://imageshack.us/f/51/knightrough.jpg/



Sorry the 2nd ones a link, its too big a file

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Was trying to sketch my dog but he moved after I finished outlining his bum bum so its not great, messed up the head a bit but I also didnt want to spend too long on it

[Xcarbon]

do a lot of drawing from reference!! i like the dog

[wutangclam]

awesome man! check out posemaniacs.com it's a great resource !

[DRadDaDanDawg]

I sketched this but I can't save it as a jpeg and I cant upload it as any other file, what can I do here?

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Im doing some art classes, and have some pretty decent life drawings I would post, but my teacher is keeping them for now

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Somehow it turned dark but whatever

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Life sketch I did for my art class... Had to compress it soooo much

[DRadDaDanDawg]

OK I'm just going to upload a majority of my doodles from the past, what, 6 months?

And apparently my phone takes pictures that are just too big for this fourm... So Ill upload them all onto a different website and link them here

http://imageshack.us/g/1/9810674/

http://imageshack.us/g/1/9810676/

Not necessarily in order

[Gur Ghen]

Hey Dan,

welcome to ConceptArt.org!

I like the last life-sketch. Try to study the basic anatomy of the human body. I am sure that you will improve a lot by doing that. I would recommend Andrew Loomis for that. His books are really nice (there are a few. Dealing with different subjects). You can download his books here: http://www.alexhays.com/loomis/

It can be very boring to learn all of that stuff by books. So I think it's not bad to try some other "more interesting" stuff parallel to the studies from the books. If you want some nudepainting studies, you can find photos for that on sites like this one: http://artists.pixelovely.com/practi...igure-drawing/

But I would NOT recommend posemaniacs for that purpose! Posemaniacs is perfect for poses. But not for anatomy studies! That's because of the fact that posemaniacs uses 3D-models, which don't have real muscles. They have a texture with drawn muscles "skinned" on top. That way the body looks like a human body and it's more fun to draw, but does not have a correct anatomy. So keep that in mind and just use posemaniacs for what it is ment to be used: poses.

Also try to use your new learned knowledge. For example: after a few hours of anatomy studies try to implement them in simple sketches. Try to remember what you just learned and use it for the sketch. On that way you will really understand what you were studying all the time and won't forget it.

I hope I could help you a bit. Keep it up and it will be a lot of fun!

Gur Ghen

ps: try to keep the width of your images less than 800pixels. That way they should fit just fine. Also you can try to use the attachement manager for uploading all your files. Especially after the last update it's very easy to use

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Based off my work so far, and being a junior, what do I have to improve on to get into, say, CalArts? Or would there be a better school in california for me if I wanted to do animation?

I want to round my skills for what a college might want

[DRadDaDanDawg]

[DRadDaDanDawg]

[DRadDaDanDawg]

oh boy forgot to reduce their size. I made the sketches, then "bunny," then character sketch

[DRadDaDanDawg]

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Attachment 1607595

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Even looking back a week later at some of this stuff I can see really bad mistakes

[anivy]

Hi, I'm new here too

It looks like you're on the right track, but I would really recommend doing a lot of anatomy studies to help you improve. Also it would really help if you could make your images a bit smaller before you upload them, they're a bit big to see the whole image clearly. Don't worry if you see mistakes, that's how we get better!

[DRadDaDanDawg]

http://imageshack.us/g/1/9844916/

Sorry I have to link it, I just posted all the sketches I found in addition to my sketchbook... but my phones pictures are too large to directly upload to the fourm

[ConnyNordlund]

Keep pushing the studies. I'd like to see more of the sketches as well.
Scale your images down by the way. They are unnecessarily big.

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Yeah I have to bring them into photoshop from phone uploads and it becomes a hassle so Im uploading most of my stuff through Imageshack links now

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Sorry these were taken backwards, I was experimenting with different looks/styles with these characters as well as facial expressions

[DRadDaDanDawg]

First photoshop painting I made, going for a cartoony look, but not as good as I hoped, dont know how to improve it or any photoshop tricks for that matter, so if anyone has any tips let me know

Artwork for first album cover

Follow me on twitter for info @draddadandawg (hope im not breaking rules by doing this)

https://twitter.com/DRadDaDanDawg

[DRadDaDanDawg]

Sorry for the quality

Life sketches my over active english teacher who wears suits too big for him. Guess its good practice for how clothes fold

[DRadDaDanDawg]

I gotta stop uploading the shitty stuff I rush yo

[themegagod]

Based on what you uploaded yesterday, I'd say you need to stop drawing "in your style" for the time being. I'm not saying to lose that which makes you unique, but you are lacking fundamentals at this point, and that's what you need to focus on if you are trying to get into school.
Worry less about character design, and worry more about capturing what you see.

for example, on the second page, when he has his arms raised, is that really what it looks like when he raises his arms?

maybe if he has the anatomy of slenderman, yet if he is a real person (which you say he is) you are not drawing him. you are assuming you "know" what you are looking at and you are drawing him based on that. This causes you to ignore details of what he really looks like. A book called "drawing on the right side of the brain" explains this phenomenon as drawing symbols, basically ideas you have in your head; a stored archive of symbols (such as a circle with a dot in the middle to represent the eye), and not actually drawing what something looks like.
try and look up gesture drawing tutorials and figure drawing tutorials on youtube. here's one I like, yet use the principals he shows on a real person not a photo.
https://www.youtube(dot)com/watch?v=qrGnMar2pAI

And I know you don't have much time to catch a person's likeness, but truth is, you should be able to catch something more lifelike in only a matter of seconds. in 10 seconds you should be able to have an image that is recognizable, not perfect, but it should make the viewer register what they are looking at.
get loser and draw more fluidly. capture the wrinkles in the clothes, and start working on your line quality. Being in school I know your time is tight, but look up, and practice doing contour drawings and blind contour drawings. these will help you be able to knock out real details with more confidence, and they also teach you to spend less time looking at the page and more time looking at your subject (all skills vital to good observational work).

IF you had been drawing what you were looking at, the hands on your teacher would never have come out the way they did. It's things like that that can take what could be a decent piece and greatly damage it.
Perhaps if you are struggling with the concepts of a human in motion you should try to find books by bridgeman on the figure in motion. his books are great for that. His student loomis
did some great books too, and you can find his books online.

All in all I don't mean to scare you, or critique you too harshly, but I had a similar problem myself; I spent all of my high school years focused on creating from imagination, and solidifying my style, yet all that did was hurt me. Once I got out of school, and found the college I wanted to go to, and have since been trying to make a portfolio good enough to get in, I learned more in a few months than I had in possibly all of my years in school. And I'm trying not to exaggerate. Issue is, I now need to learn correct proportions, anatomy, realistic lighting, and so on that my "style" didn't deal with.

word of advice, if you know how to draw what you observe, you can easily skew those proportions and get a cartoon. If you can only draw cartoons, it is very hard to turn that back into a realistic observational drawing.

[DRadDaDanDawg]

for example, on the second page, when he has his arms raised, is that really what it looks like when he raises his arms?

Haha it was close waist up, and these are rushed because he was moving so much, and I gotta practice more, but yeah I see what you're saying haha (btw these wern't in my style... I dont think)

Overall I completely get what you're saying, and I agree, and I plan to work on it... But just to defend myself on why I wasn't looking as much as possible, is because I happened to be sitting in a place where my back was to where the teacher was lecturing, the best view of when he was in front of me and in a single pose for more that a couple seconds is the bottom drawing in the third picture, where he is pointing to the left (but the photo reversed it so pointing right)

I don't want to really defend myself or give excuses, and I completely agree with what youre saying. You've helped a lot over all of my posts, thanks a ton so far