AK_Guerrero's Sketchbook

[AK_Guerrero]

Hi! My name is Joshua, I'm a senior in high school and I'm from Alaska.

In the past, I never took art seriously and would always just doodle and draw in my freetime or during classes. I love the feeling and satisfaction of drawing but could never really turn that image in my mind into a reality. This year is also my last for high school so I've been seriously contemplating on future careers and am realizing that I want to do something that allows me to be creative instead of the same thing over and over and over. Since there is no art class available at my school, I've decided to start the journey myself and have been studying on and off since this summer.

Since I've been lurking around the website for a while, I thought it was time to start a sketchbook. I'm hopeful that it will give me a reason (more like motivate) to draw everyday and give me a chance to see my progress and possibly receive some feedback and critique.

Any Critique is welcomed!

So...here we go!

[AK_Guerrero]

Here's some things I've done not to long ago

There first one is a skull study from an anatomy book,
the second is a life study from a mechanical hand on my desk,
and the third is an unfinished self portrait I started late at night in sketchbook pro. It was my third self portrait I've done and the first one I've tried digitally (maybe should have tried gray-scaled before color)

[AK_Guerrero]

Reading "Successful Drawing" by Loomis and tried to rotates some spheres (turned into heads, even if some are a bit lopsided)

[AK_Guerrero]

Testing out some pens. Went a little crazy with the lines

[Raymond Luk]

Hey Bro, this is the starts to some great stuff. I encourage you to keep drawing everyday and seriously set aside time for it :0 if you draw at least 3-8 hours a day, you'll be good in no time :s

[JoshB]

Great start to your SB, four posts in one day! Keep up that practice.

I also find its helpful to set mini goals like drawing for so many hours in a day or draw this # of heads, etc. Doing that will keep you from sitting down and having no idea what you should be working on. And will also lead to a more rounded practice routine.

[Matthias Kinnigkeit]

Nice sketches! I advice you once to really measure out the skull, that draw it once with very precise proportions. This woukd probably point out clearly some proportional mistakes that you can work on in your further skull studys. I also suggest you not to make studys with those hand model things. Use your own one it is the perfect model. You dont get the exact anatomy and certain important details like wrinkles and stuf from a hand model of this kind. So keep up the good work.

[AK_Guerrero]

@Raymond: Thanks for the encouragement, though 8 hours may be pushing it a bit
@JoshB: Thanks, that's actually a great idea! I usually have the problem of just bouncing around from subject to subject so this will definitely help me focus in on something.
@Matelo: Thanks! It makes sense to get a real feel for it first before attempting others. I also agree that the real life hand is much better than the stiff, one-directional joint hand. Something I've noticed is that I sometimes (probably more than I've notice) look at the thing I'm drawing more than the drawing itself, so maybe that will help me.


Here's some hand drawings from today. The first one was early this morning and just winged it and the rest were later in the day.

Trying to use sight measuring to make the proportions a tad more accurate. Need to work at it some more (forth) and also on curves and angles. I noticed that I tend to over-exaggerate the curve the first time or flatten it out when I try to fix it

[AK_Guerrero]

Some other things that wouldn't upload earlier

First is just me messing around in sketchbook and the second are gesture drawings (look a little stiff)

[Raymond Luk]

Hands are looking okay, it's good that you're aware of all the digits You'll really get a feel for doing hands once you draw em in quick 1 minute - 5 minute gestures xD
Value study of eye is looking great, for gestures, I suggest even trying some 2 minute or longer poses, just so you can complete the figure, and figure out what shapes you'll use to capture the overall form :0 Once you know how you want to simplify it, 1 minute poses get easier (bean shape for the body [not all poses])

Really like how you simplified the legs in bottom middle gesture

[AK_Guerrero]

@Raymond It's weird, I never considered doing gesture drawings for the hands. It actually makes a lot of sense...

Practicing some more figure drawing before sleep. This time, actually trying to simplify shapes (head, torso, pelvis) and trying to work with curves. Also something that has shadows...

[Raymond Luk]

Whoo niice you really managed to capture the gestures in this one xD When you get really comfortable and fast at drawing those shapes, you can then begin to add the contours (all dem muscles, and stuff that connect the torso and the pelvis) Start slow now, maybe use two lines for the thigh now, round out that forearm, little steps depending on how much time you got left :0

Keep practicing with the shadows!

[AK_Guerrero]

Here's a lot.

(1) and (2) are thumbs and hands, trying to break it down somewhat (messed up on the finger in the second one and creatively tried to fix it )
(3) is my water bottle that I drew while in class (quick sketch, got skewed to the right due to how I was sitting)
(4, 5 and 6) are trying out some perspective. Figured that if I could get some understanding of perception, it would help me better understand light and shadows.

edit: (7) added some hand drawings I whipped up before I heading to bed. I drew these a bit hastily, but I do feel like I'm starting to understand the general form of it (though I didn't pay as much attention to proportions as I should have)

[Raymond Luk]

Hey, good to see you have a ton of stuff in your last update Hands are definitely a good thing to study. You can also use a curved line to represent the joints (dem circles), as they tend to flow in a long a circular pattern xD And also, don't forget the knuckles are actually lower than the finger flaps palm up :0 the lines for the hand holding the pencil looks mighty cool!
And great perspective shapes, you got the angled stuff down :0
Keep drawing circles in perspective, a ton of em, until you're tired and never want to see another one again. It'll help you eyeball the shapes for your bottle xD (plus drawing spheres will be easier, though still brutal) x_x The first one in this link is how I actually plot my circles : http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/perspect5.html explained simply here : http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/1975/1/...ective%202.pdf
Once you do it enough, you'll be able to guesstimate what it should look like with just the cross :s Wait'll you do shadows in perspective 8D

[AK_Guerrero]

@Raymond: Thanks for the tips, you've been a big help! Just imagining drawing all those circles makes my head spin, but i know that it'll help in the long run.

Been a while since I posted (real life stuff and all) so here's some more. Need to really start those lists so I can study one area more thoroughly than dabbling around.

I want to delve more into figure/full character drawing, but it's the anatomy part that's intimidating. More so of where to start and how detailed should I know.

(1) Me and some friends messed around and tried some DnD. Came up with a character that was an archer and a shifter (half feral...kind of).
(2) More two point perspective
(3 and 4) Reading a book about figure drawing and how spines have a sort of an "S" curve.
(5,6, and 7) Practicing some shading with spheres/ellipses in perspective and also using a ball on my table as reference.

EDIT: found a blue pen and did some free-handed perspective

[AK_Guerrero]

(1) Did some free handed and trying to do some shadows (meh). Also had a mirror and felt like trying some life drawing (looks so much better before scanned -_-)
(2)Serious attempt at shadows, starting with cubes.

[Raymond Luk]

Glad to help :] Keep posting stuff up, it's great!

First it's good to see that you're applying what you learned and coming up with your own poses, always important to apply :0
Your cubes are looking goood and it looks like you're ready to try crazier stuff with them (like putting separate cubes on different vanishing points)
Keep working on that book I didn't pay much attention to them, but those shapes really help you out later in gesture drawing

Moving along, your circles have greatly improved, especially in the freehand ones, looking forward to seeing more shading in the future xD
Your shadows are pretty spot on too, keep it up! :]

[AK_Guerrero]

@Raymond: Thanks! I need to start pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying some crazy perspective/poses.

I keep telling myself I'm going to at least post something once a day.

Found a mechanical pencil (0.5mm lead) and drew the espresso cup and stress ball that was just sitting on my desk. Added a smaller one done earlier that was on a separate paper. I did just notice that shading on the stress ball might not completely fit the shadow due to the lamp having two bulbs causing a split shadow (is that what you call it? double shadow?).

[Raymond Luk]

I admire your motivation :-0 A little everyday will begin to add up xD
And nice to see that you're doing some studies from life, very beneficial, pretty much a double shadow
I think you can push the shading a bit darker on that ball though

Circular forms definitely getting better
Another handy exercise is to reference from your drawing of the cup, and try to build it up in a different pose in perspective

[AK_Guerrero]

Probably should learn up more on value before focusing so much on shadows (even though the shadows practice is helping)

Even though I was just ranting about shadows, here's some more

(1 and 2) Drawing more shapes freehand. In the first one, I was just messing around and eyeballing it mostly. The second picture's shapes were drawn freehand (Larger ones turned out a bit shakey, trying to use arm to make a big downward stroke) and shadows were made more accurate using a ruler.
(3 and 4) Had an anatomy book and wanted to learn more about the torso, so why not start with the ribcage.
(5) Drawing in anatomy class. Looking back, I probably would have learned more if I payed more attention than drawing this
(6) Wanted to try something different so I messed around in Sketchbook Pro. Don't really know much about color and value, but tried to use some of the knowledge I pick up while watching and reading tutorials

[Raymond Luk]

Great job with the freehand shadows xD You're progressing very fast Nothing wrong with drawing anatomy in anatomy class xD

[AK_Guerrero]

It's been way too long since I posted. Was busy finishing the semester and took some time to relax.

Here's some stuff I was drawing here and there during that time.

These first 4 are just gesture drawings. I added in some basic shapes but it wasn't really accurate (mostly added in after the reference in the slideshow passed).



These next two were from the Bridgman book I bought with some gift money.


These last four are me trying to study light and value. Most of it is a bit lighter than reality due to being scanned in.




So yea, nothing too serious, but now it's time to delve in again.

[-RUSALKA-]

Wow. I like how similar our approach is to getting better - I've almost drawn exactly the same things! I've also just started and I recognize a lot of what you do. I'll follow you from now on.

[AK_Guerrero]

Started to study more on values and used a friend's photo as reference. Going to try and refine it a little more later.

Edit: added more to first picture. Altough I might have blended the shadows out too much, I feel like this study was beneficial

[AK_Guerrero]

Done late at night, some doodling and tried a still life with a shiny cylinder.




These last two are studying from Bridgman and how forms interlock with each other.

[AK_Guerrero]

Some more stuff from last night:

Reading up some more about anatomy



Did a value study and a still life with some objects of mine.

[AK_Guerrero]

Couldn't really focus today, due to energy or whatever else. Turned out kind of messy as well due to switching to a regular pencil instead of the regular mechanical that I've grown fond of.

Mostly reading about gesture stuff and got off focus and doodled


Maybe it's time to start drawing from life a bit more to better figure out form.

[AK_Guerrero]

Practiced some lighting in Photoshop for fun


Actually did a still life of my watch and scanned it in. Never got around to finishing


My hand

[AK_Guerrero]

So I've been working a bit on my line and working with values and light. Had to adjust the levels in Photoshop because the pages were too big to scan and I had to use a camera.

Playing with line weight and and basics


Learning about light. Was trying to see where the dividing line of light and shadow was so wasn't really concerned with looking good


More light and gradient stuff

[AK_Guerrero]

Some drawings I worked on today. I should really get a nice big light to make the pictures turn out better...

First real figure drawing I've attempted. Loving the new, bigger sketchbook for stuff like this. Might end up trying to add value later once I study a bit more.


wrapping lines around peanut shapes and messin' around