My daily drawing thread

[TheTroubledLich]

Hi guys.

I remember reading a thread in which a guy made at least one drawing per day. After 2 years, he is quite skilled. He inspired me to do the same. So I will do at least one drawing per day from now on. Now don't expect an incredible amount of talent right off the bat. I'm starting with pretty basic things.

I would like it if you could comment on my sketches. It would be great if you told me what to do to fix things that don't work, so I can actually improve.

So, without further ado, here are my first drawings.

I started doing it in another forum yesterday, so I have 2 updates for you.

First one is the... completely uninteresting AC adapter!!! Hey, gotta start somewhere!

Second one is three sketches in one. A sphere, a cube and an eye.

Your criticism would be really appreciated.

[k4pka]

You appear to need to spend some more time looking at what you are drawing. Get yourself a cube, shine a spotlight on it, and draw away.

Really keep a close eye on the values, are the shadows uniformly black? Or is there reflected light evident? Do the shadows have hard edges? Or is it blended somewhat?

Its all about the observation.

[TheTroubledLich]

Thanks a lot for the reply, I'll keep that in mind. I think I'll draw a real object tomorrow and examine it.

Today, I drew a bizarroid thingy, just to shade something more complex. I ended up noticing how it... ressembled a certain thing I will not speak of here. That wasn't intentional.

Anyway, here is it. I tried to make the shadows less uniform and stronger near the base of the object.

[Dunnlop]

hey lich its aznmantis
i think u need to examine what ur drawing more. take note of the position of certain parts in relation to others, and the shades and values compared to others. um...im not too good at drawing things i see either, so i guess thats all i have to offer

[TheTroubledLich]

Thanks for the advice Dunnlop. I tried to examine this remote control and see all the different tones of shading in it. I only drew the basic shape of the remote control, I wanted this to remain strictly a shading experiment. This will be my last shading experiment, since it's frustrating to work hard on a drawing when the scanner doesn't even scan 1/3 of the tones I make.

I'm going to start studying human anatomy. But I'll still continue shading every day, it just won't be my main work.

Anyway, here's today's drawing.

[ProjectZeppherv2]

dude you images are huge! im on a high rez moniter right now and all of these images are off the screen. try scaling them down.

-chris

[TheTroubledLich]

Yeah, that's because I upped the quality since my stupid scanner wouldn't scan most of the tones on the paper. The quality will be lower today so the picture is smaller.

[dadamafia]

hey wassup. i couldnt wait for all the images to load becuz i have dialup so i will comment on what i see. if you are smudging in your drawings i would advise youto kinda stray away from that. try building up the values on your own. also spend more time looking at the object as you draw. some people focus too much on the paper rather than he object itself. with the plan you have i feel in two years you should be a million times better. just keep drawing and drawing and drawing and drawing. everything will fit together eventually.

[TheTroubledLich]

Thanks for the advice, dadamafia.

Today, I started my work on human anatomy with the eye. Unless there's something majorly wrong with it, I will do a nose tomorrow. I plan to draw a full face by the end of the week.

Well, here's the eye.

[TheTroubledLich]

I drew an eye again today. I followed the suggestion of someone in another forum, telling me I should draw it with the reference upside down. This is the result.

[TheTroubledLich]

Hey, hey, hey!

Today I present you with three noses, each viewed from a different perspective. Note that these noses do not belong to the same person. The order in which I made them is from bottom to top. In case you're wondering, the top one really was as flat as this in the picture. Poor guy.

Personally, I prefer the middle one.

Help, critics, tips would all be appreciated.

[TheTroubledLich]

I'm not really proud of today's drawings. Especially the laughing mouth. :/

Anyway, here they are.

[TheTroubledLich]

Another failed attempt at drawing a mouth is what you guys get today. -_-

[AdamBlack]

Looks like you're on the right track. Your noses are great. Your second eye is much better than the first. The mouths need more work, but then again, mouths are not easy to draw.

Here's something that might help you out: don't see the eye (or whatever) as an eye; see it as its basic shapes: spheres, ovals...that sort of thing.

When you can break down any object into its base geometric shape(s), then you can get the foundation of the object down on paper with a minimum of mistakes. After that, you work on the details a bit, and you're done.

When you drew that second eye with the reference upside down, you were (most likely) subconciously looking at the geometric shapes rather than the "eye-ness" of the eye. I hope that makes sense.

At the risk of becoming flame-bait here, I'd like to suggest a goofy book for you: How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. This is a book I loved in my teens, made fun of in my twenties, and came back to in my thirties. The early chapters are great in teaching you to break down all objects into their basic geometric shapes. Which might help you out.

Thanks,

Adam

[TheTroubledLich]

Thanks a lot, I'll try to do that. If I see that book, I'll give it a try.

Ok, here's another attempt at drawing a mouth, with a different method. Can anyone tell me just how you guys draw mouths?

[sax87tenor]

You've got a pretty good eye for someone just starting. I have but a few suggestions.

You're filling in details that your mind is telling you should be there. Try drawing what you see more that what you think you should see (For instance the mouth drawing) A few things you can do to help this are blind contour drawings (put you pencil on the paper, and choose an object, now draw the outline of it without looking at the paper and without lifting your pencil) and also very quick gesture sketches (draw something or someone in about 30 seconds or so, just a quick stylized sketch).

Also, you're shading looks very smudged and messy, there are a couple of ways you can fix that too, if you're using your finger try using a kneaded eraser to clean-up the lines, you can stop using your finger and buy some stumps or tortillons (very cheap tightly rolled paper that you blend with), or you can use cross-hatching (very small close lines that are used instead of shading).

You're off to a great start and I wish you the best of luck, and you can e-mail me for any questions.

[Mercer]

here are some tips to help you it is basically what has been said just shorter...
-draw what you see...you're not drawing a nose or an eye...cause we can draw that without looking which causes us to use the billions of noses stored in memory as the ref. for a specific nose in front of you...try to blend out contour lines and go for soem contrast....i will post my fav. art book later. keep it up...

[AdamBlack]

Can anyone tell me just how you guys draw mouths?

Ugh. That's a little hard to explain. But this might help:

In regards to your mouth sketch up there, I see two things that you can focus on.

1. The lips should look like they curve more towards the viewer in the center. As if they're mounted on an oval that sticks out of the page (monitor/screen/whatever) towards you when you're looking at it. That can be done with shading, mostly.

2. The corners of the mouth shouldn't necessarily go to points. Find some nice-looking ladies (or men...whichever!) in a Google image search, and zoom in on the corners of their mouths. Oftentimes, those points actually go *in*...in to little pits at the corners of the mouths.

Argh. It's not easy for me to put this in words, in case you haven't noticed.

Well, I hope that helps a little bit. Work on those two things, then you can get into shaping and shading the upper lip and lower lip. Drawing from references is definitely the way to go there.

That's about it. I hope I didn't come off sounding like someone's hippie high school art teacher.

Adam

[Mercer]

"The artist's complete guide to figure drawing" anthony ryder....very good book not a read and live by book but, alot of good ideas and techniques whcih could be helpful.Amazon had some used books for like 4.95 can't beat that. I guess read alot of figure drawing books and do alot of life studies...

[TheTroubledLich]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

@sax87tenor: I am already using a tortillon. Now, I don't want to come off as if I was blaming my scanner on everything, but I do agree the shading is smudgy on these pictures. It's better on paper...

promise!

@Mercer: Right now, my budget is tight for christmas, but I'll see if I can find that book in a library.

@AdamBlack: I understand what you mean about the points, I'll try to change that. And I'll follow your tip on shading too.


Ok, built this one with basic shapes first. I think I finally found a technique to make the ripples in the lips: I use the eraser on the upper and lower parts of highlights, and erase in small lines. But the scanner killed most of this, as it's subtle. :/

Oh and, I couldn't post art yersterday because I was at a party nearly all day. Call me a lazy bastard, I don't care. :p:

[TheTroubledLich]

I used my technique to make the ripples, and though you don't see it there, it has really improved my mouths. I tried to work a bit more on the teeth and make them more proportionnal.

Anyone got tips on how to make realist looking teeth?

[ZapRadon]

Here's a trick to help with seeing.

Outline the patches of lights and darks, instead of shading. If you do it lightly, you can shade those areas later. What it will do is force you to see the planes--even lips have tops, sides and undersides. You don't want to see "lips"--you want to see light and dark patches.

Several have mentioned looking more than drawing--and that's right, but there's a trick there, too. Stare at it until the 'lips' disappear, and all you are seeing is lights and darks. When the ref loses it's meaning, you're ready to draw. That's what turning it upside down helps you do, but you can get so you can do it at will with practice. It's something that 'clicks'..all of a sudden the drawing just works.

[Alberaan]

Hi Lich!
You are getting better!
I think I can help you with some tips:

I think, that your main mistake, is that you tend to "stereotype" what you are drawing: When you draw the mouths, you use your memory to draw them, not your eyes You draw "perfect" lips. Take a closer look at someone's lips. You'll realise these are irregular and "ugly" xD. They are not as cartoons. Try too detect the diferences between two different people's lips&eyes&noses.
Another tip, is to draw the same drawing over and over again. I think you should keep up with spheres and cubes for a while. Then, spend some time on eyes. Try like drawing a dozen eyes before you move on to noses.
My last tip: dont draw each teeth individually. These make the mouth look a monster Try to draw them as if they where the same shape, instead of different tooth.

Keep it up!

[TheTroubledLich]

Thanks for the advices, both of you. I guess I will have to develop my "sixth sense"

I will draw another mouth tomorrow, but today, I wanted to draw teeth. So here they are.

I will excuse their scary look by saying that in the reference picture, they also looked scary. O_o Well, at least I won't have any problems drawing undead mouths.

[TheTroubledLich]

I drew a mouth using a picture of a baby as a reference, and I must say, this is probably the best mouth I drew so far. I will probably draw something else tomorrow (finally!). Probably ears.

(But of course my scanner killed part of the picture )

Oh and I forgot to tell you. I didn't draw in a long while because I was gone for the holidays, and, frankly, I preferred enjoying myself rather than drawing. Call me a lazy bastard, I don't care.:p:

[Mercer]

I drew a mouth using a picture of a baby as a reference, and I must say, this is probably the best mouth I drew so far. I will probably draw something else tomorrow (finally!). Probably ears.

(But of course my scanner killed part of the picture )

Oh and I forgot to tell you. I didn't draw in a long while because I was gone for the holidays, and, frankly, I preferred enjoying myself rather than drawing. Call me a lazy bastard, I don't care.:p:

i thought drawing and enjoying were Synonymous.... i think if you draw the entire face in it's proportions the larger (face) will be able to make the smaller (noses,eyes) much easier to do. cause their relationships will be revealed to you ...

[TheTroubledLich]

i thought drawing and enjoying were Synonymous.... i think if you draw the entire face in it's proportions the larger (face) will be able to make the smaller (noses,eyes) much easier to do. cause their relationships will be revealed to you ...

Well, drawing is fun, but not as fun as playing with your spanking new games.

Right now, I'm waiting untill I can do the ears and the hair correctly until I start drawing entire faces. I just want to be sure I draw each perfectly. When I draw a face, I will have to find a way to make it all come together.

[TheTroubledLich]

Well, I have an ear for your guys!

The actual shape was pretty simple to make, but to make all the subtle shading to give it a 3d look took me a lot of time. I'm quite proud of the end result.

(Of course ?%$ scanner was evil -blah blah blah)

[TheTroubledLich]

Today, I drew hair.

All I can say is "OMG".

I started drawing them with "I'm gonna spend one week doing this..." in mind, sure that my first try would be shitty. Well guess what? With some help from an Elfwood tutorial, it actually turned nice!

As you can see, the ear is just outlined, I only wanted it as a reference.

Depending on the feedback I receive for this one, I will probably start my first big project tomorrow or the day after. I will draw a complete protrait. Can't wait.

[vmandala]

At the risk of becoming flame-bait here, I'd like to suggest a goofy book for you: How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. This is a book I loved in my teens, made fun of in my twenties, and came back to in my thirties. The early chapters are great in teaching you to break down all objects into their basic geometric shapes. Which might help you out.

I LOVE that book, at 13 I drew everything with that book at my side!! it's cheesey, but very good at the basics of drawing.

Keep it up though, I was impressed by the noses that you drew!! Mouths ARE hard, try using the side of your pencil instead of drawing a line for the mouth. Play with it until you feel like you like it, just don't give up!!

One drawing a day huh? That's more then I draw!!!!

Can't wait to see how it developes!