Sketchbook of Theeroos

[Theeroos]

Hello! (:
my name is Rosa, or Theeroos (tearose) I've been drawing off and on as a hobby since I've been a kid. I used to dream about getting a career as a children's book illustrator, but have since given up on that (though secretly I still have some hopes ) The problem was that every time I decided to once again get serious about my drawing, (instead of just doodling and sketching whenever/whatever I felt like); I focused too much on trying to imitate a style suitable for children's books. Rather than practicing the basics of drawing itself. Ultimately I would then get discouraged (as my "stylized" drawings ended up looking like crap) and give up.
But now I'm going to try once again, and this time not because of some far away dream, but just for me, because I want to get better at all aspects of drawing, and eventually painting too (though I'm gonna leave that until much, much later)
I'v been lurking on here for years, never dared to post anything though, and didn't see much point in making a sketchbook. But I figured I could use all the help and additional motivation I could get, so here I am (:
I've dusted off my sketchbook and been drawing everything around me since a couple of days, I spend most of my afternoon scanning some of it in, but as it turns out I either sketch too lightly, or I have a crap scanner; most of my sketches are barely visible. I do have a few that survived though.
I also have a whole bunch of quick sketches from posemaniacs, done with ballpoint pen. I tried it with my tablet first, and then a pencil, but I found that using a pen made me less afraid to just scribble around. Since I can't erase or undo, there's no point trying to get a pretty picture, so I can focus more on just drawing. They're kind of a mess, as I'm still figuring out the best way to go about doing them, but I think some of them turned out alright. The first 2 pages are 90 secs, the rest is 30.
And lastly Vilppu sketches; I just started today in the Vilppu drawing manual, and I'm still in the beginning of it, but already I feel like I've learned so much! I've tried the Loomis books before, since there easy to access but I never really got into it. Vilppu on the other hand is really lively and fun to draw. So I tried using his methods using virtual poses as reference, the first 3 or so really suck, but I think they get a bit better (:
But wait, I'm not finished yet! I have a question about pencils; I have no experience when it comes to the many different materials there are to use. What would you recommend for a (somewhat) beginning artist to use for still lifes and such? So far when sketching I always use a hard mechanical pencil, but that doesn't really work when trying to do more detailed drawings, I did dug up a 4B pencil somewhere, but it still felt rather limited in how much value difference I could get (though maybe that's just my inexperience) I've also been drawing fairly small so far, my sketchbook is about the size of half an A4, but I want to get a bigger one for more detailed studies.
Well, that was all for now, thank you for reading all this, and if you have any tips/crits for me, I'd love to hear them. There are so many things to learn, I don't really know where to start. For now I will be focusing on doing pencil studies of still lifes and such, as well as practicing anatomy. If you have any suggestions for good exercises I should do or books I could get, that would be great Thanks!

[Theeroos]

1 page 1 min gestures, copies from Vilppu, some studies, and 2 pages 30 secs gesture sketches (:
Hope it's not too light to view properly.

[Theeroos]

A still life study thingy, and some 30 secs gesture sketches again, for some reason I really struggled with those today. I had a couple more pages of them even, but they weren't even worth the effort of scanning in

[Theeroos]

Did a quick self portrait with a mechanical pencil, not as finished as it should, but I got arm cramp from holding the mirror xD
Took me about 45 min.

[Theeroos]

Ha, last night I was really quite proud of that self portrait, only now I see how terrible it really is xD
Oh well, today I did some Vilppu studies/copies and tried to draw some poses using round forms as vilppu explains. The last 2 poses are done without reference (that's why the last one sucks so much)
And a exercise I always see beginning artists do, so I figured I should as well :p Not sure if it's all that useful though as I have no idea if I got the shading right. But it was interesting to try and get the forms right and more or less in correct perspective.
And a lopsided thermos next to it (:

[Theeroos]

No, I haven't given up or quit! I was just on a holiday for about 2 weeks (: Didn't have a lot of time to draw, as I was supposed to be socializing with friends, I tried to go back to doodling my friends faces while hanging out together, but I seem to have forgotten how to get them right I used to that every other week but now I haven't done so properly in years, and it really showed, although the drawings weren't bad, they just didn't look properly like my friends. I did some studies of crocodiles, trying to build them up rather than simply copying the reference picture. Drew a zebra while in the airplane (using a photo from a magazine as reference), a random passenger also waiting on the plane ( I drew more people, but only this one was worth showing) and some faces of friends that turned out somewhat better than the rest.

[Theeroos]

Found some older drawings in my computer, just to show that I do draw digitally on occasion
Apple, speedportrait and just a lame sketch to show I can also draw(sort of) from imagination (: All done in photoshop.

[Theeroos]

Some sketches from yesterday and today. The 2 hands were from an experiment with a very big/thick pencil, which forces me to draw bigger, as well as using a different way of holding the pencil and the paper. The thumbs up is a big fail, I was too slow and kept accidently moving my hand xD
The last page is filled with sketches from today, showing my lack of self-discipline; I was supposed to do some more "serious" study drawings, but I was much more interested in doodling random stuff Well, I figure pointless drawings are still better than no drawings at all, and I don't want to lose my enjoyment in drawing by forcing it too much. On the bright side, looking at that page and comparing it to older random sketches, I feel I have already improved quite a bit! Which is very motivating to keep it up

[transitsoul]

Hello your line work is very fluid and you have a good grasp on the forms gonna have to keep up with your sketchbook

[lionheartGFX]

loving the form studies and the animals! great stuff, so far youre doing awesome just keep at it, there were some little drawings that just caught me by surprise you have a very delicate line cant wait to see where you get to in the future, dont give up!

[Theeroos]

Thank you! It's funny you both mention you like the lines, as I rather thought that was the weaker part of my drawings (:

Haven't had much time sketching, as I had to spend all my time working on a digital piece that had to be finished by yesterday. I wasn't going to post it here at first, since I'm not happy with it at all. But figured it's a bit childish to be afraid to show my failures, so here we go.
It was for something on the dutch drawing site oekaki.nl, we had an event, a bit like secret santa, but without santa and with oekakies
Anyway, it had to be an oekaki so that gave some limits in that I couldn't crop and resize. I don't like how it turned out, but didn't have time to start from sketch again, since I had postponed it to the very last days. It did show me once again, that I still have so much to learn. I think I already can see most things that are wrong with it, but crits and tips are still more than welcome :3
Then some hand studies from yesterday + random doodles, trying out a different way of drawing with pencil while watching a video from Vilppu, 30 sec poses, since it's been a while I did them, not sure if they are better this way, but it's fun to do them (: Some 60 sec faces from the drawing script, more random sketches and a study from Michelango, that's technically still a wip, but I'm probably not going to finish.

[The Think Tank]

You have a really great grasp of forms and how they seem to move and contort in space. Keep up the good work.

[Symson]

You have a very good sketchbook.

[Theeroos]

Woo, thanks Think thank, that's a really great compliment
I've been having some problems staying focused long enough to finish anything, especially when drawing digitally, I tend to get distracted way too easily.
So I haven't all that much to show;
I figured, since I seem to be doing okay with lines and form, I should stop doing easy stuff and move on to the next step; value!
So I set up a simple still life and started painting away, and after about an hour I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I wasn't anywhere finished but my apple was coming along quite nicely, or so I thought. Then I decided to check my values by turning down the saturation, and was stumped when my juicy looking apple turned into a formless glob of gray Tried to fix it but only ruined the parts of the apple that I actually liked, ruining the color and form completely. Frustrated I ate my still life and decided I had to start simpler with just values, and not start with color straight away. Just writing all this down, and showing my unfinished fail of a still life to show how not to do it So you can learn from my mistakes!
Some 30 sec poses, and 2 mins that actually turned out worse than the 30 sec, go figure :/ A 10 min one, with failed proportions, some doodles and sketches from life, and a value study I just finished. Trying to learn to see the bigger planes in value, and not get caught up in details straight away. Also an exercise in using a brush without having opacity set to pen pressure, I found it quite difficult, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. Took me about 2 hours, could have polished it more, but I think it's more useful moving on (:

[Theeroos]

Just one thing today (well, I also did some gesture drawings, but I can't be bothered to scan them in, they aren't very interesting to see anyway)
An exercise with value, the thought was to start with a black silhouette and then add pure white, and eventually add more shades. But I got caught up in the black and white stage, trying to get it to look good, and to read well, instead of focusing on getting the value right Wasted so much time!
I might still add more shades tomorrow, but for now I've enough of this picture.

[Zen-Fehr]

Pff. I don't think you wasted any time. Those blacks are really awesome, and they can be a pain on figures. The way the lady's sort of just cut out from the dude behind her looks super neat. u- u

[Istmin52]

Hey Theeros. Thanks for commenting on my holiday card I posted at the Critique Center. I ended up fixing some of it and I reposted it. It's up at the Critique Center and also my sketchbook.

I think you have a great start here. As for your stuff from imagination, I think you should draw both from imagination and from observation more or less equally. Drawing from imagination really requires you to think about what you are trying to do and if you have the knowledge to pull it off. You can also see what your weaknesses are. I'm just realizing this now. There's also nothing wrong with using reference if you don't know how to draw something.

[Istmin52]

I just happen to find this link this morning on what to put in a children's book portfolio. Thought you might be interested. http://onceuponasketch.com/2012/12/g...mber_197102594

[Theeroos]

@ Zen-Fehr; Thanks! I didn't mean a waste with the picture it self, but as far as studies go it's not all that useful (:
@ Istmin; Thanks for the comment and link, always interesting to read stuff like that
So I've been spectacularly lazy lately, I don't really have anything interesting to show, but I didn't want to neglect my sketchbook for too long, so here's just a couple of doodles from the last days. One pose from pixelovely, and a whole bunch of poses from imagination, some worse than others An unfinished still life thingy, and some drawings from life, trying to draw more confident (meaning I wasn't allowed to erase or go over lines again once I'd drawn them)
And that's it, I really need to get cracking on doing more serious studies :/

[Theeroos]

I have not stopped drawing; someone very dear to me unexpectedly died, and I had no motivation left to care much about updating this or looking at the forums at all.
Here are 2 studies I did just before it happened, the second isn't finished, but I don't intend to go back to it.
During the whole chaos of the funeral and everything that comes with it, I doodled plenty, but only one thing is really worth showing; a portrait of my dear departed friend. It's done pretty quick, so a bit rough, but I like it anyway. Since then I haven't felt like drawing much, but in the last few days I started doodling again, and I made 2 silly oekakies.
So that's all, I'm hoping to get back into it now, this person was very important to me, and he was always very enthusiastic and encouraging of my drawing, I helped a bit with starting to clean his house and found a whole bunch of my doodles he had kept! Now I feel like I owe it to him to get as high a level as I can possibly can with my drawing.
Thanks for looking (:

[Theeroos]

Hej, looks who's back again (:
It's been awhile, no excuse this time, just laziness and lack of self discipline.
Most of what I've done lately isn't worth scanning in, but here is some recent digital stuff;
A random oekaki, and a still life, that was supposed to be a value study, but I got distracted with the interesting colors I saw. It's fun to see how an object that at first glance you'd simply call white, actually has so many colors in it when you look closely (though of course in reality it's just reflected from the surroundings, but still)
I kinda got carried away with the colors, and had to tone it down a bit afterwards, but it was fun to do, even though I probably didn't learn much about value xD