Serp's occasionally updated Sketchbook!

**Cup of Joe** · September 10th, 2007, 03:42 PM

Woo woo updates!
First off, watch out on those wrist areas, some of your hands seem a bit off there.
As for the CHOW, your original sketch actually looks better than the final, because it's not so busy. There's nothing wrong with lots of detail, but many of the things on him are quite large and confusing. Also in the final, there is very little value variation in the character himself. Although you do automatically win my respect for even attempting to make sense out of the mess (to me) that is watercolors.
Aside from that, the improvement is very evident lately. Keep it up man!

**OBX** · September 10th, 2007, 11:33 PM

nice stuff. your improving tons. still need to work your anatomy.... I think thats a crit that can be given to anyone tho. I think one of your problems is the foreshortening on you characters. think about the horizon line and the vanishing points you've chosen. the most important things in most drawings are where your light sources are and where your vanishing points are for chosen objects. When you get good enough your brain will do it for you and you'll be able to worry about other things like composition, texture, value range, colors, materials, design, design motifs.... blah blah blah and so on for eternity. But the Hierarchy will usually have light source and perspective at the top.

Awesome hands and sp's. just experiment more with shapes, and line weight... the 2 go hand in hand pretty much. good stuff serp. see you around.

**Serpian** · September 16th, 2007, 04:38 PM

Yes, page seven!

Thanks, joe, and yes I know the values are very bad on that final. Watercolours are beautiful in the right hands, though.

Thanks, OBX. I'll do some work on perspective, that's one area I've been pretty much ignoring completely so far! And I always try to determine a light source when rendering even a little, but as I'm still a coward when it comes to values, it usually gets lost... Gotta work on that.

NOW, to the updates! Boy, do I have some extremely crappy photos today...

Yes, guys, it's the beginning of my fifth sketchbook. We loves geometric shapes!

Some hands, and wristwork (That's a term that should've been invented long ago!)

I'm attending a weekly evening course in drawing the next five weeks. This is from the first evening.

And finally, CORDYCEPS! Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5zTX1fn-38
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps

See you.

**Serpian** · September 18th, 2007, 04:28 PM

Update again! Hopefully I'll keep this pretty frequent!

Today I have some negative space practices, a still life, and some warmup for the COW100. OH YES I AM ENTERING

Also some crappy crap.

**Serpian** · September 23rd, 2007, 04:33 PM

Update!

Some more practices from an evening course, some other stuff, and then I'll be illustrating a book with a couple of other artists! It's a cliché post-apocalyptic future full of druggies and murderers!

Later..

**spudstudios** · September 25th, 2007, 08:48 AM

Doing all the rights things. Your still lifes are real nice. Keep posting!! :-)

**OBX** · September 26th, 2007, 11:14 PM

i second spud.

**Serpian** · October 7th, 2007, 03:55 PM

UPDATE! It's such a dump that i'll split it into two and post the rest tomorrow, because i wanna go to BED, please...

First some quick heads from life. The rightmost is the only one I'm actually pleased with.

Then some sketches for COW100! You'll not see the finals before the deadline though! (If I make it...)

And more work on that book I'm partly illustrating.

Later

**Serpian** · October 8th, 2007, 02:34 PM

Update again! Still life, book illustrations, cow sketches and a doodle...

**spudstudios** · October 9th, 2007, 09:40 AM

Nice, Nice.. You could consider underdrawing a little more to help with limb lenghts etc. Still good to see you cranking on. Keep it up!

**Juhani Jokinen** · October 14th, 2007, 01:37 PM

Mukavan näköisiä luonnoksia! Nuo käsi piirrokset näyttävät hyviltä mutta muuten ihmisen mittasuhteita kannattaa opiskella vähän lisää

Kannattaa lukea Loomis kirjoja.

-Juhani

**Cup of Joe** · October 15th, 2007, 06:08 PM

Keep up those life drawings man!
Aside from that, I am seeing a lot of well proportioned heads and upper bodies on top of small mid-sections and legs. Double check those proportions!

**Serpian** · October 19th, 2007, 08:14 AM

Thanks all three of you! All of you mentioned my bad proportons, so that's something I'll work on! (Och Anthriel, finlandssvenska FTW!

)

Some work from life and one from photoref. The girl from life and the photoreffed laughing guy are on really big paper, european A2.. For the record, I'm NOT very satisfied with the girl. But you gotta post the crap too, right?

Charcoal

Charcoal and white pastel

Pencil, HB

Graphite crayon

Have you seen my mentor thread? It's hardly begun, but just for further reference: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=108116

Later..

**RandAlThor** · October 19th, 2007, 08:40 AM

Hey Serp, an impressive volume of sketches here. Some cool concepts and a good deal of anatomy studies. Couple of things to bear in mind for your next drawings are: line weight, shading, flow, contour and darker tones. other than that, keep up the good work man. Laterz :-)

**Cup of Joe** · October 19th, 2007, 05:58 PM

Nice work on that flower piece! Those highlights are dead on.
Crits from last time still apply. Remember that proportions and perspective apply to EVERYTHING, not just figures.
Keep it up!

**OBX** · October 22nd, 2007, 10:54 PM

mmmhm thats wat im talking about. keep up the studies and stick your nose to the grind stone. think about the long run more than the short term, but keep that balanced aswell. dont think "im only gonna spend 1 hr on this piece cos i know its gonna suck". thats the wrong attitude. give every piece 100%, and the time in deserves.... I know im not the best example of this but hey if you take anything away its that practice makes perfect. youve got the passion, now it just takes time to get there.

good luck on the cow. I just hit 50 colored tonight. got about 80 thumbs done. freakin lava divers was a hard topic. spent way to much time on it, and I know a few of them are duds.

**Serpian** · October 24th, 2007, 03:43 PM

Small update. Work for the book, and some for my mentoring thread...

**OBX** · October 31st, 2007, 12:21 AM

coo, cow 100 = done. Ill post my shiate after the poll is started. cant wait to see wat you did pal.

**Serpian** · November 1st, 2007, 02:43 PM

Something from SP day 1.11... You should join too!

More to come soon

**Serpian** · November 5th, 2007, 11:07 AM

The poll is up! This is my entry for COW 100.
In the poll thread, a resized, small version is posted. Which sucks. This should be the bigger picture. It's just a shame I didn't figure out how to fix it before the poll got up...

**Serpian** · November 15th, 2007, 03:23 PM

Updatez... A lot of dooles, some studies and a still life. Also more work on that book.

**Coen** · November 25th, 2007, 04:07 PM

Nice stuff Serpian, keep up the life drawing. Are you by any chance using "a guide to drawing" by Mendelowitz? Thought I recognized some assignments from that book (I never really started working through the book, but I really like the variety of art in it).

I could be wrong tho

**Serpian** · November 26th, 2007, 11:02 AM

Nope, never heard of that book. Which assignments do you mean? Thanks for the comment!

**Coen** · November 29th, 2007, 10:46 AM

Hmm mostly the still lifes in charcoal I think, I remember some exercises like that from the book. Also the chair I think. Oh well, it's been a while since I took a look at that book..

**Serpian** · November 29th, 2007, 02:43 PM

Update!

First most importantly, is this head all too big? Do I have to fix it? I need a second oppinion. The fist one being mine.

The rest are doodles, sketches, and some from life.

**Cup of Joe** · November 29th, 2007, 03:06 PM

Whoops, haven't dropped by in a while!
First off, I think the head is fine, but the shoulders are too tiny and throw it off. Try moving it closer to us (or down and to the right a bit, I guess.) Maybe beef up that forearm a bit so it matches with the bicep.
The life drawings are improving too, but watch out for those elipses. That jar lid on the last one is a tad out of whack.

Man, lot's of work from you lately! Definite confrats on finishing Chow 100 you crazy mofo.
Keep it up man!

**Serpian** · December 6th, 2007, 11:38 AM

Okay, I've moved the shoulder a bit... I'll post an updated version soon... End ellipses... My worst enemy! Meanwhile, here are some more pieces for that book!

**chaosrocks** · December 6th, 2007, 12:08 PM

Serpian... you could really use to start looking at value and composition
it looks like your drawings just land on the page whereever..... and the pencil values are all really really light. when you use an unclothed body your anatomy is ok but all the guys in uniforms looklike sacks of potatoes
the attention to detail and clothing is really hurting you. It is nearly impossible to get the clothes draped right if the underlying body isn't
keep working
crx

**Serpian** · December 6th, 2007, 06:02 PM

Hey, chaos, thanks for the comment! Yeah you're right, up to now I've really just tried to compose my pictures so that everything I want in there fits... And I'm afraid of values! I'm gonna do some bold pics to overcome that, hopefully. About drapery: it's on my to-do list. But the torsos of the soldiers are actually not clothing, but metal cuirasses... So.... I guess surface material is on my list as well! And I'm gonna double-check one-hipped indian there for anatomy (chatroom inside crit).

**Crush** · December 10th, 2007, 10:26 AM

Needs more boobs

Seriously though, I agree with chaos. Work on values and composition!

What I'll add to it is that I think you should take more time on your drawings in general, both in planning them and drawing them. It all looks very rushed and messy to me

Thanks for commenting my sketchbook btw