StressCavity's Stuff /// I Want to Improve: Advice Appreciated!

[StressCavity]

Hey CA, I've been wanting to start a sketchbook for a long time now, and I've got to say that everyone on this site is an absolutely crazy artist. I picked up drawing as a hobby about one year ago, but over time I've realized that the concept art and illustration scene produces the most astounding artists and artwork, and would love to pursue it as well. I'm still terrible, but I feel that I'm at the level where if I need to learn something or fix something, I can (sorta), unless school or work shoots me down :/ I still need to study everything, but I'd love for people to see where I need improvement most or if there are any bad beginner's habits developing.

[StressCavity]

Some things I painted in the past 3 days (I need to paint more). First thing is a rock pony thing, second thing is a phallus head, third is a bunch of sad attempts at using color, and the last thing is what I drew today. I spent roughly 1.5 hours on the last one and it just seems so shit seeing how I see others do waaaaay better work in like, 30 minutes and less. Since that is the most recent thing, I'd like to ask if anyone has advice to painting motion blue effects? I just couldn't do it so I took the easy way out in the end and used a filter, but I hate doing that Also, I just realized how small I made the second dude's left hand. I suck ass at hands, but studies should remedy that, right?

[StressCavity]

2 things I did this morning. I really need to work on faces and anatomy, but I keep avoiding hard studying. I know anatomy should be from books and imagination, but should I follow books for faces too or just use reference? Skull studies? Also, what kind of studies help achieve better understandings of color, value, and perspective? Any and all input would be nice, I don't wanna suck

[StressCavity]

I think I'm more comfortable with warmer hues, which is bad because I can't work well with blues and purples at all
Little monster dude was about 1 hour. Advice would be awesome for either this or anything else.

[Edit] Added some sketches I forgot to upload from my sketchbook.

[lillianlai]

First of all, don't be so hard on yourself! It takes a whole lot of work and time for those awesome artists you love to get to where they are (and even then, I bet they still are trying to do better). I think it's great that you're already drawing lots, keep going at it! I like your sketches so far, they are pretty cool crazy creatures. Maybe you can try and set one thing you want to draw better at (eg. hands. I hate hands too, so hard.) and look at tutorials or books and most of all, draw, draw, draw. You can do it!

[4Evergreen]

Oh my gawd, your stuff is amazing xD I'm not really here to critique it, cause you're wayyy outta my league xD You were right: Everyone here are crazy artists and you're not the exception c: Just have fun with that you draw! It's a hobby so it should be fun right? ^^

[StressCavity]

Thank you 4Evergreen and lillianlai for the comments. I'll make sure to do some more studies (such as hands ) and try to enjoy it more haha.

First 2 is some old crap because I feel bad that the only thing I'm posting recently is the bottom stupid thing. I just want to make sure I keep this active, but I've been busy studying for finals and will be for about 4 more days. Then I'll be FREE Anyways, here's my sketch poops.

[StressCavity]

Really wish I had more time to draw right now. Finished my first 2 finals today and have to study for my math one tonight and tomorrow. I don't want to give myself the excuse not to draw though so I tried to spend about an hour tonight sketching some stuff. I promise I'll more studies once break starts, and if anyone can suggest some that would really help. First two were about 15 min and the last one was 30.

You can probably notice that I have a default head shape for creatures. Very uncreative

[StressCavity]

Was getting a bit mad with math so I took a real quick break and played around with the lasso tool. Also thought it looked nice as a thumbnail so I replaced the old one with this. Black and Orange is my favorite color scheme

[StressCavity]

Ugh, more avoiding finals. Just taking little breaks here and there, decided to use this one to draw something. I used to doodle with ink a lot more but I never really picked it up again so I thought a digi-sketch using the opaque brush would be fun. Crits on this or any other pieces would be nice.

[Dekufox]

I really love the colors you use!

[StressCavity]

Dekufox: Thank you for the compliment You'll soon see how bad I am with them though haha xD

Some really garbage stuff for today. I only did one study and only for 30 minutes I tried to use a 95-100% opacity brush to make sure I really knew what color I was choosing, but doing it from life was a lot harder than I expected. The rest were attempts at color again, but they're so off, I couldn't really salvage any of them lol. Finals JUST ended today (Think I did pretty good ) so I'm hoping to get maybe 6-8 hours of drawing a day. Of course now that I have a break I'll probably waste my time, but hopefully not. Anyways, advice, criticism, etc. is all super duper welcome. I'd prefer it over compliments (I'll take those too though ) since I really want to improve, and I want to utilize this break as much as possible.

[StressCavity]

Hey everyone, since finals have been over I decided to do more studies. I only managed to get around 3-4 hours for real drawing though and am a bit disappointed, but tomorrow I plan to make up for it way more

Anyways, I did some 15 minute studies then 2 personal drawings. I can't paint women at all (or men) so I think I'm gonna really try and tackle anatomy for a while. Painting it seems like such another animal than pencil/pen. Again, feedback is most welcome. Like, advice would be suuuper awesome since I really want to use this break well.

[StressCavity]

Blah, failed to meet my quota. Relatives came over and had to spend time with them today >:/ I am terrible at faces, so I'm gonna try and get better at them along with anatomy in general. Took me 3.5 hours to get this sheet filled out, too bad I can't upload at original size. Was kinda hoping i'd get through 20ish male AND female heads, but ended up only getting the males The bottom 3 that look really off are from memory, gotta practice more...

[Valyavande]

This is not a bad start for a sketchbook =) Good to see you work with traditional and digital media. Learning to draw is one big thing to make even good paintings. I think form and values are two things you should focus on. You can do it with a lot of studies from life and drawing many 3D shapes until you get a feeling of how they behave in space and change in different perspectives. If you start to understand the form, even the way you handle values will improve. Study how light behave on different shapes. It helped me to use photos and convert them into greyscales. In the beginning, colour can be very irritating. So get it out of the way.
Anyway, good thing that you're not afraid of big brushstrokes and there's even some nice pencil hatching in post #4. Keep it up! =D

[StressCavity]

Valyavande: Thank you for the advice! I have done a value study to try and remedy that but I must do many many more

Still not as much studying as I had planned :/ If all the studies took me 5 hours total is that slow? I'd like to know if I'm working too slow and being too lenient with my studies. Anyways, the studies for today were arm anatomy from bridgeman's constructive anatomy and imagination+ref, 6 heads to make sure yesterday's wasn't for nothing (looks like it was lol), and a value study as suggested by Valyavande (I started getting a migraine as this was towards the end so I didn't want to finish it ). I'm hoping to eventually fit a schedule with 1-2 hours of anatomy for every major body section and eventually be able to combine it into full body anatomical studies working with lines or painting, whatever needs work the most. Does that sound like a good idea or should I segment my time better? I've got 3 weeks to take advantage of for break and I want to use up as much of it as I can Work will start before school though, but that's not so bad. Suggestions, critiques, advice, anything will be much appreciated!!!

[StressCavity]

Hi CA, I forgot to post what I did digitally yesterday so here it is. Just a few figures, mixed between reference and imagination and I tried to put some values on 2 of em. I did some traditional stuff yesterday and today which I don't really want to scan cause they suck, and looking at it now I don't really have a lot to show for the past 2 days :/ Hopefully tomorrow I'll pick up some slack again but I'll just study accordingly. Again, feedback would be awesome!!

Oh, and I have to recommend the L'Ecorche app for the ipad/iphone. It was really handy for my traditional stuff for when I'm not in front of my computer as it's a rotatable, zoomable, anatomy figure.

[StressCavity]

More digi stuff. Trying to apply what little anatomy I know and some little value things. Gotta work on legs and full figures (and faces) too. Been doing most of my studies on traditional as I don't really like using my cheap tablet for linework. I'll post those later when they look better. If you've got a crit or feedback or something please let me know!

[StressCavity]

Advice or something would be really appreciated. I've been trying to find a balance between studies, creative work, etc. but I don't have the best idea of what would utilize my time the best. I don't want to study anatomy for 6 hours every day and then forget how to apply it, but I don't want my anatomy to slip. Same with color and etc.

Anyways, this crap is from today's digital stuff. Traditional just works so much better for anatomy (linework) to me.

[StressCavity]

Decided to do some more fun stuff. I'm still reluctant to paint faces on stuff like this since I absolute suck ass at them. Gotta do mooor studies :C

Also I swear the perspective is completely off, can someone give me some pointers? Especially on drawing cylindrical objects in perspective.

[StressCavity]

Decided to mess more with value and color on digital and leave anatomy more for traditional. I think I'll keep it this way since the color stuff is more fun to look at and that's what everyone would rather see

Rainbow shark thing. Was trying to push the look of glowing elements, etc. Hopefully it came out right? Anyways, feedback would be great, I'm still awaiting someone to help point me the right way or at least let me know if my study structure would be good for me.

[Kambei Shimada]

Good to see your working on a variety of things. The shark is pretty cute.

Keep up with the linework.

[Lychees]

Hey there! Also dreaming of becoming a Concept Artist... Also not good enough so I know that feel..

Don't think you're terrible though. I kind of like your style, also these studies are looking good.
One think I think you should pay attention to is values, sometimes it all looks a bit flat or messy.

[AJM]

I like all the fantasy stuff you're painting. Cool color schemes.

[Erikly]

Keep doin' it! you're going to be awesome. I'm digging some of your concepts and your monsters! Like what was said before, work on your line quality and your brush strokes. Some of your pieces end up looking a bit too muddy and rough. A few sharpened edges and a little blending could go a long way! I look forward to seeing more of your stuff!!!!!

[StressCavity]

Kambei Shimada - Thanks a million man! I agree, I really need to work on my linework some more, and maybe when it gets better I'll start posting some of the traditional stuff

Lychees - Glad to know theirs some competition I will definitely look more into smoothing out my values, but I tend to need those blocked in forms too grasp form better, but when I get over my nooby slump I'll be sure to put some nice polish on my work!

AJM - Thanks a bunch for the compliment

Erikly - Yes! I will definitely look into putting some more polish into future works! I kinda suck at it though but know I am keeping all the crits in mind when I try to draw

Some poopy stuff from today. Just a bunch of color tests where I try to convey a "local" color (I hope that's the right term, correct me please!) under different lighting scenarios. Worked from more mild to crazier color schemes except the end where I got super lazy. I think I learned a decent bit from it but I've been slacking big time on studying despite the "marathon of art" I planned to do over break. Guess the sleepless nights are catching up to me >_> Anatomy is again stuck with paper, but I've been really trying to nail down colors, value, and form lately despite the frustrations I've come across. Crits welcome! Areas where transitions are off, looks flat, etc. etc.

***Bah, after taking a second glance at this I see how shit this is. I promise tomorrow will be a better day!!!!!

[JuliusObviousMagnus]

Interesting stuff you have here, definetly on the right track.

Keep it up!

[AJM]

That color study on the bottom left is cool. I like the multiple colors and it really looks 3D. Did you use references for those studies?
Keep at it.

[StressCavity]

JuliusObviousMagnus - Thank you for the comment! I really do hope I'm on the right track

AJM - Hey buddy! If you're talking about the color studies, I did not use reference, but if you're referring to the figures and faces from post #17 and up then yes, I did I'll do my best to keep it up, and I hope you keep pushing out work too!!! Fast fast every day

For today I wanted to try and make up for yesterday's poopiness (emphasis on "try") and decided to do something more...application based? I did some crappy robot things which kinda were like a warm-up (although I really should've done some quick color studies or somethin') and then I thought a Christmas picture would be appropriate with a little bit of personal flair Last thing is some dumbo anatomy study I did in 1 minute to make sure I still remember since I haven't touched my pen today

[StressCavity]

Grrrr, I've been slacking again T_T I need to use the new year resolution as a real overhaul point. I didn't even draw yesterday and all I've got for tonight before I hit the hay is this dude... Gonna actually take a stab at animating tomorrow with my cousin but hopefully I'll pump out some actual content as well.

Also, is the advanced reply setup a bit fucked up for anyone else? All the text beneath the editor is all overlapped and jumbled, I can only make out the manage attachments button from the overlaying text.