darkarts' Daily Void

[darkarts]

So after nearly two years of lurking at conceptart.org, I decided it was time to get off my lazy ass and start drawing - although that took me almost 2 years too long, I've decided to correct that with this sketchbook. That I'm planning to update daily.

I'm so dead.

Anyway, I'm 15, and live in the Netherlands. I haven't been drawing seriously for all that long, maybe a month or two, though I doodled quite a lot before that. As far as I know, I've got a few big problems - my worst being that I'm bad at shading, mainly because I'm afraid to push value.

With that said, here are some pages - I hope I don't end up like this guy here... Thanks in advance for any critiscm - I greatly appreciate it!



15 minutes or so - we were in a museum with school, and we had to move on.

Some hand studies I've done: (First one is nearly over a year old)



What I can see is that the thumb muscle on the second hand is wrong - it's supposed to circle around the hand, not connect to it.





The last one is a bit flat, I think, but I didn't attempt any shading - for reasons mentioned above.

Some environments - first two are rock studies I did while on a trip.





And some perspective that went horribly wrong. Sitting on the beach bent over with a slanted sketchbook makes for one hell of a bad perspective study... I didn't even get the title straight!



A tree:



Pencil sharpener and a MP3 Player:




I saw a page from someone elses sketchbook, and was motivated to do the same study. These are from Loomis, and I think I'm going to do a few more tomorrow or so:



I had some Bridgeman studies as well, but they were drawn way too light for the scanner - and in some cases, I wrecked some of them by drawing random stuff on the pages.

Anyway, last one - This is a portrait which I need some help with. I set this up following a tutorial from Ron Lemen which was posted on this site, mainly because I wanted to practise shading and values. However, I've finished the first two stages, and there's a lot wrong here.

The original pic at: http://www.peterlanger.com/People/Me...s/MXPOP009.htm

And my sketch:



That was my workload. Again, thanks in advance for any critiscm you can give me - it's grealy appreciated!

[charcoalArtist]

darkarts

congratulations on starting your first sketchbook, you are young and have a lifetime ahead of you to get better, keep practicing and you'll see progress in no time, practice what you learn and have fun along the way

[darkarts]

charcoalArtist: Thanks man, it's nice to have some support along the way. And I'm most definetely having fun I checked out your homepage - it has some good stuff on it - you should put up a sketchbook too

( I was working on some sketches, but since it's late, I don't think I'll have those up before tomorrow.)

[charcoalArtist]

I have one, link is right under my signature..

talk to you later

[darkarts]

Heh, didn't see that there. I'm not that perceptive, I think

[darkarts]

Didn't have a whole lot of time today, but I managed to do two hand studies.

This one I didn't get a chance to finish - had to leave it as it is, and after two hours, it's no use going back to a similiar pose to finish it, since everything will be different anyway.



This one I did in about an hour... not wholly satisfied for the time taken, but I suppose it's ok. I see some problems, notably the small thumb and the fat fingers... I think I'll chalk it up to foreshortening issues on those fingers, had some problems with that.



That was it for today. Critique is appreciated as usual!

[Spooky Tonberry]

hey you're really getting the hang of drawing hands, there's so much impovement from your first post, keep at it! If I'm going to crit I'd have to say that the shape os the thumb seems a little unatural sometimes, and also on your earlier hand drawings, the fingers seemed too separate for a clenched pose, not close enough together. However, on that last hand the fingers look really good, they're positioning seems natural and the creases are perfect! look forward to seeing another post! (god that was longer than i thought it would be)

[darkarts]

Tonberry, thanks for the comments, I'll certainly work on that! I think there are two reasons my thumbs look unnatural - one is that there are a lot more planes to think about when drawing the thumb - the knuckle for example makes up a great deal of the form when drawing the thumb, and since it's (another) problem of mine to make something three dimensional, I can't really draw it that well. Also, I always take the thumb as a measurement to the rest of the drawing - it's kind of my first step into it. I dunno. Just throwing out some ideas. I'm glad you liked my last drawing though!

Edit: On a sidenote, is the link in your sig working? I wanted to look at some your work, but it gave me a 404 error... (The Deviantart version.)

This is something I did just now... I was watching the new Dark Sector game trailer and was instantly reminded of Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid. Since I wanted to draw something anyway.... out of my mind, no reference - just some resememblance. (Because of the face, of course )



Had a lot of fun drawing this, first time I used some basic construction - however, I still ended up being completely botched proportion wise because I took 6 heads instead of 8. (Didn't want to redraw everything.) Ah well...

[Spooky Tonberry]

oops, thanks for pointing that out(i forgot the hiphen in between the words.....ahem)

aaah, metalgear fanart, what an awesome game.....

[Dan1989]

What would really make these drawings more interesting is if they had more contrast. I know what you said about being afraid to push values, but the only way to overcome this is to get a dark pencil (6B would be a good one) and make a drawing with lots of dark shades, as dark as you can get them! Trust me, the longer you withhold from doing this the longer it will hurt you. Your hand drawings are getting better, just keep doing them! Also, you should read the loomis books as much as possible, they will really help you. Good stuff, keep up the good work

[darkarts]

Dan: Whoah! Never knew I was in your sketchgroup - I checked the list, but I didn't see my name there. Will certainly go 'round posting today. Anyway, thanks for the crit - yep, I do definitely need to pump up my contrast. Bad thing about it, normally I work with a 4B pencil, but I only had an H lying around. I've bought some new ones though - so I will be busting those out soon.

Anyway, I wasn't happy with how the chest of that ninja guy came out, so I took out Bridgeman's just before school and did a torso studying. Nothing great - all I can say is, it was early.

[charcoalArtist]

Hey. we ended up on the same SSG.. I'm on a quick lunch break and wanted to stop by to check the links in my signature.

I'll stop by later to check out your artwork,

[Profil]

I also got that bridgman study in my SB
It seems though that it is of in some way, can´t really catch it though.
Otherwise keep working

[darkarts]

Yeah, it's off. Like I said last post, it was early I think here is that the lines don't follow Bridgeman's example too closely - they're all off one way or another. The big right muscle is off, unbalancing the whole thing, and the left arm is too wide. Really bad sketch.

Tomorrow another busy day... hope I can get some stuff up.

[Sara-San]

^_^ I see why you commented on my loomis studies now. While you continue to improve on muscles and the little details, remember to pay attention to the proportions. I know I messed up quite a bit on the studies because of that.

I can't wait to see more!

[Dan1989]

I like the latest Bridgman study even if the proportions are off =P , I don't recognize it though, it makes me want to go buy more bridgmnan books! Keep up the progress.

[darkarts]

I started a drawing today, but it was too late to finish it. So I searched some older work and came up with this other Bridgeman study I did over a year ago. Haven't improved since then - not that I tried - but I suppose it will help in picking out flaws.



Ignore the faded out hand, I went over it with pastels, then erased, added lines, etc...



Working on some stronger values on that drawing. Also going to go over that portrait on Thursday, I think.

[Pixeldragoon]

Getting better! And those rock studies are BEE YOU TEE FULL!

[charcoalArtist]

hey, keep it up, I'm looking forward to seeing more work.

[darkarts]

A quick hand drawing I did with pen in French today... 5 minutes or so.



Will post more in a couple of [edit: hours...] something different than hands again

[Profil]

not much to say otherwise then keep working and nice lol

[IanE]

Howdy,

Good stuff, lots of hands, haha. Don't too many of them otherwise you'll train your hand and brain to work mainly with hands... no hard edges, vary the studies a little.

I noticed you've done a Loomis study that I have also done... you had written serratus major, it is the serratus magnus, just incase you have a test on it or something, haha.

Good anatomy studies, very good that you're drawing from life, the rocks. Drawing from life/observation is one of the best ways to improve. As for studying anatomy from the books and other references, don't just copy what you see, but take it all in, even try drawing what you see mirrored over so that your brain can really work to understand what you're looking at. Got that fancy tip from Michael Mentler, he's an anatomy guru on these boards, check out his sketchbooks and www.tsofa.com for his anatomy work, it's been a huge help to me and many many people.

Good work and good luck. Keep the drawings coming!

Ian

[darkarts]

OW MY GAWD! WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS THIS HORRIBLE CREATURE FROM THE DEEPEST PITS OF THE ABYSS? HAS IT COME TO EAT OUR BABIES???!!



For those who can't see it: It's supposed to be a cow.

Photo from here - Drah'n time 14: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43605

WIP, about an hour. Stopped because of bad light. So far, I think it's pretty

Profil: Thanks man. Anything about that abberation up here?


EDIT: Newsflash people, this is just in. Official sources tell me our extraterrestial LOOKS LIKE A DOG. Did martians start breeding horribly deformed pitbulls now? Only time will tell....

Iane: Thanks for the Crit! Heh, I must've misread the tag... I don't overly care about the names. It might be important, but right now I was more worried about placement and stuff. I'm trying hard to understand what I'm drawing - and you're right, the hands are getting old.

[charcoalArtist]

I could tell is a bull right away, it's not that bad, try building the major forms first then add details. I would add shade to the form on top of the eye, shade the bottom of the horns and add some texture to the top of the head to balance the heavy shade on the bottom left.

cheers

[darkarts]

Progress shot of todays work - about 2 more hours. I worked real slow, with interruptions and all - NOT finished yet! :



The ear is a bit too stretched out. Added main blacks, and pushed the darkest black a bit further. Got to do that for the rest as well. I'm stressing on the horns - the texture there is damn difficult, and it doesn't have a whole lot of value that translates easily into the drawing.

Charcoal: Yeah, good crits. Still need to work on some of those. Especially texture... wait a day, tomorrow I'll try to go crazy with that

Sorry I couldn't post in other people's sketchbooks today - I was obsessed with this.

[Fellah.]

Pretty good drawing with the bull. It pays off when you spend some time on your stuff - it shows here for sure. One crit tho; the eyes look a bit off, they should be a little more alike. The right eye is higher than the left, see it? And maybe get rit of the slobber under the mouth - look like a little worm Other than that it looks very nice.
Good luck dude!

[darkarts]

I like the slobber I noticed the eye placement too. Another thing I'll fix tomorrow. Thanks!

[Dan1989]

that cow is furking awesome Cows will dominate you! j/k Good stuff, keep up the dedication!

[Sara-San]

Moo? very good

[darkarts]

Hahah! Thanks guys! Glad to see ditching my English homework payed off.