what is the technical skills that im lacking?

[PeteJ]

Someone said that on my sketchbook and im not too sure what exactly that means.
Plus I keep getting mixed comments with the way I render.
Some said it looks fine, but I know there's something not right with it because Some kinda points out that there is something wrong with it, but they never really point out exactly what im doing wrong they just suggest me to do certain things.

It be great if someone can look at my sketchbook and say exactly what is wrong.

[Qitsune]

I don't think "make it less messy" qualifies as a technical skill. But that's what I feel like saying when I see your sketchbook. But seriously, those are all sketches. Sketches are not means to look finished or to have perfect rendering, many pros make fairly ugly sketches. Do you have any pieces that are meant to be finished pieces so we can see how you fare on that side? You know, pieces that are supposed to show composition, scale, polished values?

[PeteJ]

no, i only have sketches so far.
but it's really just that?

[Arshes Nei]

Please keep drawing, it takes a long time to learn. You're just starting out and there's not much to go from in your sketchbook. So you need to draw more.

[bill618]

A couple of important things I would recommend are, you need to pay more attention to perspective and size consistency, to avoid a lot of the distortion exhibited in some of your sketches.
You have a van that looks like it was drawn in reverse perspective. Lines that should converge to the right vanishing point are converging to the left. The van’s rear is facing the viewer yet the rear wheels are clearly much smaller than the front. You have a tank drawn with the tracks foreshortened too much on the wrong side (left on your drawing). This is making the tracks look angled to each other, instead of parallel. You need to learn how to draw ellipses properly, also.

[Chris Bennett]

Someone posted that on my sketchbook and I'm not exactly sure what it means.
Also, I constantly receive mixed messages about my rendering methods.
Some say it looks fine, but I know there's something not right.
Those who do find fault only suggest alternative approaches rather than precisely point out where my work is going wrong.
It would be great if someone could look at my sketchbook and say exactly what they think is wrong.

Now I can understand you I'll go and have a look.

[Chris Bennett]

OK... Just had a looksee at your sketchbook Pete:

You possess a lot of raw talent, and with the right practice could seriously have what it takes.
So what's wrong?
OK:
So-called 'rendering' isn't different from 'drawing'. The first is producing shapes with tones, the second is producing shapes with outline. Often the two are combined.
So your problem is not 'rendering'. Your problem is drawing - improve that and you'll improve 'rendering' by default (at the same time)
So what is wrong with your drawing?
Drawing is the linking of shapes (sometimes clear ones, sometimes smeary, smudgy ones, sometimes a combination of both) to form a build up of pattern that suggests 3D forms.

So.

First: Have a clear 3D idea of what form you want to make - if it's a complex form, try and break it down into a combination of froms you can really grasp and hold in your mind.
Second: Having got the 3D form clearly visualised and understood in your mind, link up some shapes (clear, smudgy and a bit of both) that seem to buckle the paper into that form.
Third: Keep doing this until you have built the whole drawing.

The key is to link all your marks so that they do this.
Any that don't, that is to say, those that drop out of the matrix of your drawing, will make it look 'dirty'.
Your best drawings (some of your hand studies and the tank, for example) look clean because they are building forms with a coherent linkage of pattern.

They are like words: In the wrong order, with slack, approximate grammar and lack of clear purpose, they lose meaning, potency and power. At the extreme it becomes noise; or dirt.

Hope this helps Pete.
You do have the talent to do this.

Chris.

[Black Spot]

You abandoned your old SB - why? The two together show an improvement. Most of the comments veer towards do more of same - meaning just draw more.

You start too many threads, when you just need more pencil mileage. Go Draw.

[PeteJ]

i abandon it because there was a huge time gap of which I wasn't posting anything, and well, yeah logically I don't know why I did that, I just felt like making a new one.

and I guess i think too much, and when there's a question in my head, for some reason, it drives me crazy until I get several answers. Maybe im super curious/nosey?
even the smallest things can get me thinking for days.

[JFierce]

I've had gaps of half a year before as many do. Fuck it keep going.

[PeteJ]

So, just to make sure. I HAVE to render every form the exact same way, EVERY single line for rendering is drawn carefully, I cannot just rapidly scribble my shade in, or draw random hatching/cross hatching lines. I cannot mixed contour hatching with cross hatching.

[vineris]

So, just to make sure. I HAVE to render every form the exact same way, EVERY single line for rendering is drawn carefully, I cannot just rapidly scribble my shade in, or draw random hatching/cross hatching lines. I cannot mixed contour hatching with cross hatching.

You don't HAVE to do anything.

Really, if you want to scribble away with great abandon, do it. If you want to try something different to see if you get better comments, do that. If you think of a third thing to do, try it out. If you want to ignore everybody and draw with your feet do that.

If you want to discover something new you can't do just one thing over and over.

Eventually, through trial and error, you will discover what to put where to get the effect that you want. You will even discover what effect it is that you want, and what makes one effect better than another. You can't skip the trial and error, you have to keep doing different stuff until you know what it all does.

[Chris Bennett]

So, just to make sure. I HAVE to render every form the exact same way, EVERY single line for rendering is drawn carefully, I cannot just rapidly scribble my shade in, or draw random hatching/cross hatching lines. I cannot mixed contour hatching with cross hatching.

NO! The key thing is linkages, connections between every graphic moment to the next and the next, on and on throughout the entire image. Linkage/connections are the invisible grammar that builds the marks, be they scruffy, sketchy, neat, hard, soft, blurry, dots, lines, curls, swirls, angles, stipples or sweeps, into a potent image.

[JeffX99]

Backing up what vineris and Chris just said...and just adding that in addition to experimenting and developing mark-making skills you need to develop an aesthetic. That, to be honest, is probably the single most important thing to do. Without some internal sense of your own aesthetic you're just a rudderless ship...but if you know what you want, teh kind of statement you want to make...the rest is just doing it.

So how do you develop your own aesthetic? By exposing yourself to as many artists, works, techniques, periods and styles as you can. Compare, analyze and use a critical eye toward understanding what makes you excited about some work...less so about others. I would add that these things change over time as well...but at least start somewhere!

To get started I'll drop this in here...and since you're worried about the aesthetics of hatching, shading, etc. I thought this artist would be a great example (he is what we would call badass): Paul Calle...look him up:

[kliest]

sharp pencil .. draw with confidence.. scrubbing pencil only makes a fuzzy drawings..if you make a mistaken stroke draw over it and continue ..allow your mistaken strokes to guide you to a firm drawing..

[PeteJ]

Hope mods don't mind I post these stuff here for critique, but I want to get a crit primarily focused on my linework issue in this topic.

So how does it look so far? I payed more attention to the line work. Am I getting better or still making the same mistakes.

[dpaint]

Its not bad its just a little heavy handed and you need more practice. The drawing detracts from the handling. As was said fix your drawing. Drawing is accurate placement, rendering is accurate shading. Application is how you get those two things on the page. Here is an example from NC Wyeth. His rendering application is scribbly but his drawing is beautiful and his shading is accurate. See the difference between the work you posted and his?

[PeteJ]

I think I see it, contours are accurate and looks like done in a single try. and the shading does not go in places where there is not suppose to that type of tone or shadow.

[Charlie D]

http://www.linesandcolors.com/2011/1...at-the-morgan/

Follow instructions for the Morgan Online feature. It will allow you to examine the works of Ingres

There is a Charles Bargue tutorial somewhere on CA site. Doing some copies may help.

[Charlie D]

Old book, but probably as useful as any.

http://archive.org/details/sketchingrenderi00guptuoft