Madfishmonger's sketchbook

**Madfishmonger** · September 28th, 2005, 04:38 PM

Hello! I'm new here, and looking for some help to improve my drawing.

Just messing around with some watercolour pencils, it's a stuffed giraffe my friend has.

My hand

From a photo of my cat Xerxes, done with a friend's fancy markers.

random studies

A statue of a frog. Shading not so good.

My foot.

A quick sketch of my friend's rabbit. My scanner is crap, I had to darken the image. Her ear is all messed up.

Since I'm obviously in need of some anatomy work, I started drawing this cat skeleton. I've only just started, and it's been surprisingly hard, but I think I'm getting the feel of it.

I can't say I'm not a little frustrated by the decline my art has taken, but at the same time, I've rid myself of a lot of bad habits. I spent a lot of time as a mopey goth, drawing other people's comics and not enough time developing my own style, and after that, my sketchbooks gathered dust. Though I am finding this is giving me a chance to start all over and (hopefully) learn it right. So please, some helpful critiques and specific techniques will be greatly appreciated.

**Sedig** · September 28th, 2005, 06:40 PM

Keep drawing! Dont give up or anything. By the way, Moping is bad for you, so dont do it. Draw instead. Keep a daily sketchbook. Draw all the time! Pay special attention to the shapes of things. Don't draw what you htink should be there, draw what IS there.

**peterhurman** · September 28th, 2005, 07:12 PM

the giraffe at the top of the page made me smile, it looks depressed. the pic of the cat done with your friends fancy markers is nice too.

the best advice i think i can give you is to draw from life as much as you can and try to get accurate propetions.

keep posting

**Madfishmonger** · September 28th, 2005, 07:39 PM

Thanks

I'm definately done moping, and have started to draw every day. The link to the anatomy sites in the FAQ have been helping me a lot.
It's such an interesting endeavour, to have to change your perceptions so much. Seeing what is there is not as easy as it sounds, your eyes and your mind are against you. Having to re-train youself to see is an odd thing to do, but a worthwhile one. I only hope that shows as I keep practicing.

**Nutter** · September 28th, 2005, 07:56 PM

You'll find a lot of support and encouragement here as long as your'e willing to put in the effort. good luck to you and keep it up.

**Madfishmonger** · September 28th, 2005, 08:15 PM

Oven G Love: Thanks, I used to have a really good eye for proportions, and I'm starting to feel that come back. I really want a set of those markers, they were so easy to use. I've never been that comfortable with colour, but I liked using those. I drew that giraffe for that very reason, he was cute and kind of sad.

**Madfishmonger** · September 28th, 2005, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by Nutter

You'll find a lot of support and encouragement here as long as you're willing to put in the effort. good luck to you and keep it up.

Thanks, that's exactly what I'm looking for

All I have is a small photo-size scanner, but some friends have scanners I can use. Just means it'll be a little slow on the updates until I get my own.
And yes, I will put in the effort, I'm tired of sucking

**Madfishmonger** · October 3rd, 2005, 05:34 PM

And I'm seeing an improvement already. It's made me quite happy. I've decided to do some "homework" but drawing nothing but anatomy until I get it right.
Sorry about the poor quality, as I said, I have naught but a teeny photo scanner, so some of these are chopped, but they're just sketches, so it's ok.

Not the large one I posted the head of before, a quick sketch to get the whole feel of it.

Drawing my cat Zippy. Just doing simple circle shapes to get the feel of him. He's always on top of my computer desk, rolling around in a state of perfect cat-Zen bliss.

More of the same. Same page.

A quick sketch of a skeleton, done from a reference (linked from the Anatomy for Artists link on this site). Not worrying to much about it looking nice, just getting the idea.

Just the skull. I tried to do another smaller one underneath, and found it looked sort of feminine, so I put flowers on her head.

Just the ribcage.

I've been drawing every day, and it's only getting better. I apprecitate the encouragement and inspiration I get from here. I feel like I'm at that part in the game where you can't get any further until you level up, and you have to wander all over the map just walking in circles until you get a random battle, and you have to fight the same monsters 736 times to get enough XP.

**Madfishmonger** · October 18th, 2005, 10:52 AM

A rose in my mum's front garden

Done from a reference picture. Bonus points to anyone who recognizes the reference in the notes.

A heart I've been drawing from a reference (link). Not quite done, but getting there.

Any tips or comments would be appreciated.

**Saise** · October 18th, 2005, 11:06 AM

Oh yeah, from pic to pic I can say that you 'evolve'

Keep Drawing, you have a potential. Practise make the master. :3. Greetings.

**Madfishmonger** · October 18th, 2005, 03:15 PM

Thanks, Saise, I was getting kind of frustrated there for a while, but it seems to be working.

**Madfishmonger** · November 6th, 2005, 02:37 PM

From a reference. For some reason when I was adjusting the levels, it turned purple, but it seems to bring out the shading a bit more so I left it. Now that I look at it, I think the ribcage is maybe too big.

**Qxzi** · November 6th, 2005, 03:28 PM

Saise is really right there, you are improving from picture to picture. The only way is for you to get any better is to draw EVEN MORE ! !

**Madfishmonger** · November 10th, 2005, 01:23 AM

A sketch I've been working on in my reading group, we're currently reading the Ramayana, and It's sort of inspired by that. I know some of my lines in the building are off, it's where I started and I didn't really know what I was drawing, I was just trying to loosen up. I do kind of like how the tree and mountain turned out, but mostly this is just playing.
And thanks, Qxzi, I slacked off for a bit, but I have to do it anyway.

**Madfishmonger** · November 23rd, 2005, 01:43 AM

The finished garden picture. I know all the lines in the building are
off, I started there and was just trying to loosen up my hand,
scribbly-drawing. I didn't intend for it to become a full picture, so I
wasn't really trying to get the lines right. The lines in the rest of
the picture are as good as I could get them (I still need a lot of practice in this area) but it was hard to balance them with the wonky building.

Detail

More detail

Some trees at the library. I was doing some negative space too, good practice. I still can't get round objects to work right, I was trying to draw this statue
they have in the park behind the library. It's this weird thing from the 60's, layers of disks in orange and yellow.

From a reference. Still eeds work, just the rough sketch. The shading
is terrible.
Reference:

**Madfishmonger** · January 2nd, 2006, 08:23 PM

Another one of my hand.

Something I started without reference. I know the hands are crap, I just doodled them in and plan to fix it later. She's supposed to be dancing in a garden. Not finished, obviously, and it probably won't turn out like I imagine it will, but I'll try anyway.

Baby heads, from reference. I didn't have a ruler to make the square, but I wanted to try anyway. It's lopsided and whatnot. I have a hard time drawing babies, they always look creepy.

Unfinished, from a National Geographic. An African wild dog, they have weird round ears.

Slightly redone sketch from before. I don't think I got the angle quite right.

**Anjo** · January 2nd, 2006, 08:52 PM

Hi there!

I see solid skill here and I agree that yo uare improving already, thats really great means you seem to be fast with that.

You put much effort in it as it looks like, try some more loose stuff with life drawing and try different things, your line quality is already quite good!
Sadly i cant see your last images.

Keep going girl! 8)

/edit okay now I see your latest stuff and theres the life drawing hehe, on the second pic from your last update, the hands of the figure look a bit off, besides great update!
greetz, anjo

**Madfishmonger** · January 3rd, 2006, 07:47 PM

Thank you, Anjo, that means a lot. I'm starting to feel a little better about what I'm drawing. The hands are awful, I just drew them 16 times and I couldn't get them right so I decided to go back to them later. Sorry about the pics not showing up, I think you must have looked at the post while I was resizing the images (I accidentally posted the giant scans). Got another one I'm working on now, shoudl have it done in a couple of days, I'll post it soon. I have to actually finish a sketch.

**Madfishmonger** · February 2nd, 2006, 08:43 PM

Something I've been working on for a while, trying to work on my portait skills. I could make it look like an old man, just not like him. Still not done, but getting closer.

This is the reference, National Geographic, March 1986.

From How to Draw Princesses and Ballerinas, a lovely art book a friend of mine's daughter has. http://www.usborne.com/ is the link, lots of good quality kids stuff there. I usually don't draw this way, and it was damn cute. Used some watercolour on it, the overlay didn't turn out quite right, need to fix it.

Drawn just last night from a D&D Monster's Manual. I swear I wrote the name of the beast, but it doesn't seem to be there. Felt like I was getting my old hands back with this one.

Also felt like my old hand with this one, drawing on my new comic box. I draw what's inside, and this one has all my gothy angst-filled comics, so I'll be doing some fun stuff from those all over it. This is Roman Dirge's Lenore, and I thought this bit of her waking up from a nightmare was somehow cute, so there it is.

**Madfishmonger** · February 3rd, 2006, 08:13 PM

Also, a smartass friend said he'd like to see me do the other hand, so here it is:

**Madfishmonger** · February 7th, 2006, 12:48 AM

From National Geographic, March 1984. This woman was described as having a river-wide smile, that caught my attention, and I loved her expression. The scan doesn't do it justice, my shading seems to look a lot worse on the scan. Ah well. I think I might ink this anyway, haven't inked anything in ages.

**Madfishmonger** · February 21st, 2006, 12:56 AM

I am increasingly frustrated with these mental blocks, I can't figure out why everything I do is still so shitty. I'm not quitting.

This one got cut off, I'll have to scan it again.

This made me feel 16

From National Geographic

My friend's band the D Rangers.

Unfinished, from Grey's Anatomy

My mum lent me Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain so I figured I should go through it. Drawing this vase silhouette was part of the exercise, you were supposed to do a normal one and then a monster one, so of course it was Cthulu. I'm going to do a bunch more of these, they were fun, though the Cthulu was hard to mirror.

Another exericise, drawing Picasso's Igor Stravinksky upside-down.

Here it is right side up.

**Madfishmonger** · February 26th, 2006, 08:41 PM

more silhouettes. I know the cat one doesn't really give the trompe-l'oeil effect, but it was fun to do.

Practicing some line art, mostly drawing it upside-down. I love Dr McNinja, the art and the story are fantastic and the idea of him just punching a snake made me giggle.

Needs work, but I think I'm getting somewhere.

**chantienyee** · February 28th, 2006, 07:25 PM

Hey, thanks for the comment in that anatomy thread. Getting good is such hard work :p I really dig your D&D monster by the way! It looks a lot like Bahamut from Final Fantasy. Keep drawing!

**Madfishmonger** · March 1st, 2006, 05:07 PM

That's what it reminded me of, thank you! I knew it looked familiar but I couldn't place it. It is hard work, but we Saggitarians are quite stubborn when we commit ourselves to something (which isn't often), so I refuse to give up. Thanks

**Madfishmonger** · March 4th, 2006, 05:41 AM

It's like something in my head just let go.

Doing this arm study for s poster I'm working on. Had a friend hold a broomstick. I need a good camera. I sat back and looked up at my cat on the back of the couch, she looked so damn cute, I had to draw her.

The friend who was holding the broomstick. She was really relaxed (as you can see).

I drew both of these at the club listening to some awesome DJs. My athsma's acting up, so dancing was out of the question, but drawing doesn't bother my lungs.
Don't ask me what's going on in either of these, I wasn't thinking, I just let my hand go. Black ball-point pen on my little Hello Kitty notepad, I happened to have it in my bag. Felt good to let loose and not try so hard.

**Madfishmonger** · March 6th, 2006, 12:38 AM

Drawing my cats. A bit of it got cut off, my scanner's being stupid.

My D&D character (<--nerd). I used a tiny model as a reference. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but it was fun.

**Madfishmonger** · March 6th, 2006, 10:18 PM

Zippy is a 15-pound Zen master. He acheives enlightenment several times a day
and is demonstrated here performing two of his states of perfect bliss.

**~Faust~** · March 9th, 2006, 04:33 AM

Hi! You may not be in my Scetchgroup, but I'll post here anyways!

I began drawing my hand, also

, I'd suggest you do waaaay more anatomy-studies. Like Bridgman, Loomis, whatever. You'll find plenty of recommends here. If you want to become dope in anatomy, then study every drawing in This Thread. You may need a year or to, but after that you are an expert

Overall I think you should focus on what you want, where your flaws are and how you want to improve. Remember it's easy to do what you already can, but it's way harder to do what you can't yet. But only the former brings you further.

Whatever keep at it!

**Madfishmonger** · March 10th, 2006, 12:10 AM

Thanks, Faust, I'll keep up the anatomy work. I've got a copy of Grey's Anatomy, I'll draw more from that. I've just found a sketch club where they have models (and it's close to my apartment!), so more life drawing to. Here's what I accomplished today:

A plate of oranges yesterday:

My tiny kitten princess the day before:

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