Journey of a beginner to became a good artist!

[Lucarky]

...and the end for the day. Some silly silhouettes.

[kingkostas]

Yo mate, lovely studies. Definitely keep up both the anatomy and the greyscale value studies. Think of limited range of values, dont confuse yourself with the middle ones. Maybe even in a greyscale piece semi-close your eyes to keep only the most important values. Always put down the big ones and then go to more and more values. So first find,identify and put the shadow[1 value of some darkness for now] then find the light[not the highlight] in the end you should have a somehow abstract depiction of some masses. Then pick a half-light[something between the other two] and put it in the areas where there is gradual transition [light a spherical surface in comparison to a cube]. After that you could add the other values.
Keep up the good work and you will be where you wish to be soon.

[Lucarky]

One dark for shadows, one light grey for lights (not highlights), and one middle-tone between light and shadow. Then the other values. Got it... hope to have got it. Thanks Konstant, next time I'll try follow your suggestion.

[kingkostas]

Well you are gonna improve really fast with your iron will . Just to add something.[one dark for shadows= no dark/black black][Just make it very dark but not black, you have to reserve the blacks for another job later, black blacks are limited as the highlights]] When you finish with the basic values the darker you had placed should take the place of reflected light by the time you add a dark/black line. There was a good picture with the basic tones in the tutorials section i think, it might be there check it out. It wasnt simple in the transitions but it named and presented the basic ones . Anyway lets both keep up mate

[ForScience]

I have a couple pieces of advice that you may find useful.

1. For the moment, avoid drawing in digital media. Stick to pencil and paper while you develop drawing skill. Move into digital as soon as you are very comfortable in graphite. If you need to do digital paintings, do the initial drawing in pencil and paper first, then scan and paint it digitally.

2. Keep a sketchbook on you at all times and draw from life every time you get a chance. Doing very quick drawings of people on the bus or at the mall or at school was the best thing I ever did to improve my line-work and confidence. I also love just drawing the scenery around me. It helps you learn about non-linear perspective and atmospheric perspective.

3. Do anatomy studies from anatomy books. I am pretty sure Loomis is free online. Bridgeman and Stephan Rogers Peck are also really good books on anatomy. Do not do studies from erotic photography. It teaches you bad proportion and it fails to teach about underlying structure due to the excessive use of bounce and soft light. It is also pretty distracting, and in my opinion, you can always tell if someone learned anatomy from looking at porn, and that is never a good thing. You will get comfortable with a specific set of very sexualized gestures that can really box you in as an artist.

4 Develop a rhythm of doing academic studies followed by observational studies followed by imaginative work. In that pattern you will learn something, then see how it is applied in nature, then see how it may be applied creatively. Do that over and over and you will grow very quickly.

[Lucarky]

Kostas & ForScience: Thank you so much for the explanation on values and the observation on how to do a good job in drawing and the workflow. I'll sure make something good with these advices.
I'd like to return in ancient times, in Greece, when life was much more simple and people had a lot of free days to spent in what they liked to do. Damn! Why there is only 24 hours in a day? If it were up to me, I will draw 25 hours a day.

[Lucarky]

Figure, mouth and values pencil studies.

[Lucarky]

Other poses for the day.

[kingkostas]

Great you are boosted up and you are doing great studies. You got what i wanted to say in the previous post, in the sphere you placed the dark darks in the belt and down there where little reflected light reaches.Do some more and if you feel you get it do the same kind of value-ing in more complex forms[you will have to think and render the forms as of combined spheres/cubes/cylinders etc]
keep up

[lionheartGFX]

oh the sweetness of the growing talent is so good, i want MORE you beautiful bastard GIVE ME MORE!

[Lucarky]

Kostas: thanks mate! I tried copying it from real, and surely I will always do a copy every day of still life.

lionheartGFX: If you expect more... I will give you MORE and MORE! Thanks mate!

[Lucarky]

FINALLY! My babies has arrived! Time to study hard!

[Izene]

Woohoo!!!!

those are some smexy books!!!

I only got Bold Vision
Its full of amazing art!

[Lucarky]

Maaan... Today my head is out of control... I produced only that. And I'm going mad to study horses anatomy!

Mine Reference

[Lucarky]

Other studies... and the character on the horse is an idea that I'm developing.

[crisimikiwiki]

looking great luca! you're doing good. i actually really love this one:

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...9&d=1354200761

[ForScience]

good choice in books, I am working on Color and light at the moment. It feels like each page is a new revelation.

[Setherial]

looks like you're doing fine. keep practising perspective and each time you do a face check the perspective afterwards, check if all the lines go to the correct vanishing points. It's a good way of checking your own work. For great dynamic gesture poses I suggest you check out "Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life". It's an awesome book.

To start out with painting you might want to check out this http://www.maxforums.org/threads/set...p_01/0001.aspx
it's nothing fancy but it explains some of the basics, I wrote it as a favour to some guys who were asking me about digital painting. The good stuff is sort of scattered throughout the replies, you'll have to go through them.

[Lucarky]

ForScience: Yeah man! Gurney is really an awesome painter. I didn't open it yet, but soon I will take my studies on it.
Setherial: Thanks mate! Yes, looking at perspective is one of the most important thing that I have to do. I'm studying on Bridgman's and Michael Hampton's manuals, even if I'm not producing so much on anatomy drawing. I have to bone up on it.
The site seems very interesting, and for the beginner I am, it will be surely useful. Thank you!

[Lucarky]

Some pose study. Man, the weekend I never succeed to do what I want to produce. To much distraction... You know... girls...
Anyway here it is.

[lionheartGFX]

hey man check your post i cant see the latest drawing and hey awesome that you are going to try drawing animals, i recommend that you begin with the gesture of the animal dont think of proportions nor anything of the sort just try to make the drawing read as a horse and make the horse have good balance and action heres an example (not mine) of horse gesture, its a great animal to practice dynamism, movement and weight-balance:



after you get those gesture looking solid and dynamic then start adding anatomy to those gestures and really start to think how the horse functions (as a machine if you want to imagine it like that) its all hard work from there, also study the angles i had a hard time getting the horse head right but i drew some horse skulls and it all went away Good luck luckarky!

[TomSeas]

Great stuff in here, good to see such motivation.
Lots of great advice from Science and King.
I'd try and take some more time for certain studies to try and get your proportions right. Also be careful with the curves of the human body, they are symetrical. For instance the arm of the guy on the horde is quite symetrical where the triceps and biceps are. They make it look like a snowman figure. Also think about overlapping forms. That might help give more dimension.

[Lucarky]

lionheartGFX: Thanks for indicating the right direction mate. It will help a lot. I will sure have some time with horses, I know it's a difficult beast to domesticate. Re-posted the drawing...
TomSeas: Hi, and thanks for coming! Anatomy is really tough work. The guy on the horse is a speed drawing, just to hold the idea. He will be a great demon with great muscles. So I oversized them, knowing that was wrong like this, but surely you're right. Thank you for your advices mate. And by the way, great start on your sketchbook. I like spaceship models.

[ForScience]

I noticed that you are drawing from pixelovely.com gesture tools. I use that too. I would love to see some pages of fast ink gestures from you. There is no better way to improve your linework.

[Joe777k7]

Cool updates! Those books will help out alot

[Setherial]

great update, those poses are very well constructed.

[Lucarky]

ForScience: I'll do that for sure man! Monday I present some ink lineworks. Promise. By the way, how's your doughter? She has already a pencil in her hand instead of rattle?
Joe777k7: Thanks mate. They sure will help a lot!
Setherial: Thank you for your support mate. And by the way, you're site helps a lot. Thank you for sharing.

[MrFrenik]

I like your dedication and willingness to take crits and help from whomever you can get it. That tells me that you're really in this thing to "win it", so to speak. As it's been mentioned before, perspective is going to be your #1 thing to be studying right now, so figure out a way to apply a perspective study to EVERYTHING you draw from this point out. Doing anatomy? Draw people out of boxes. Studying values? Draw out the correct perspective positions for core and cast shadows according to a light source that you choose. There are so many ways to go about studying this, simply because perspective is in everything that we do as draftsman. Keep up the good work, man!

[Lucarky]

MrFrenik: Thank you mate. Your compliments and encouragements mean really much for me.
You're right. I have so much things to do and to think of, that I completely forgot perspective. Damn it! I will try from now on to apply perspective in almost everything I do.

[Lucarky]

Today, study on poses so far... First 5 ink on paper. Last is a study on poses with boxes construction. I think I'm understanding with boxes work. Will do it more on paper next time.