~ammoburger's sketchbook~

**ammoburger** · March 5th, 2006, 09:36 PM

Hey my name is Spencer, I'm eighteen, and this is my sketchbook thread where I will be posting recent and brand new works. I have had the privelege to study with talented artists such as Greg Mansi, Justine Bruner, Tim McGuire, Adrian Gottlieb, Paul Wee, Ron Brown, Aaron Westerberg, Glen Villpuu, Wendy Vanguard, Nathan Fowkes, Leonard Simkin, and Sirappio Calm thanks to my family for driving me back and forth from class countless times. Please feel free to offer suggestions and critique any of my work.

This is a fairly recent drawing from life done at Glen Villpuu's head drawing class. 3 hour pose with Faber-Castell pencil.

**Ryn** · March 5th, 2006, 09:50 PM

Wow. We're the same age but you're a deal better than me. This is really inspiring.

I have no crits to give. Just keep doing what you're doing, because everything here looks great.

Keep posting, I'd definately like to see more!

**Moysturfurmer** · March 5th, 2006, 09:52 PM

Well it's about time Spencer. Giving all your stuff to tSoFA and forgetting all about us.

Anyway, it kicks ass, as usual.

**Chichigo** · March 5th, 2006, 10:40 PM

i'm the same age too and i admire your structural gestures so much. They have so much BOUNCE in them, how do you go about doing them. i just get caught up with all the body parts, i can't capture the same feel like yours does.

that was some kickass influence you received from those artists.

**ammoburger** · March 5th, 2006, 11:29 PM

Chichigo - Thanks a lot. For figure drawing I have learned that it's important to simplify multiple angles and directions into single or c-curved lines. The truth is, if you start a figure drawing with the subtle angles in the shoulders or torso, you'll lose sight of the larger picture that includes the gesture and attitude of the pose. Simplify the larger masses of the body in the beginning and exaggerate the gesture to make it clear what the model is doing. Finding the angle of the shoulders is the way I start most of my figures. Thanks again for the compliments!

~ammoburger

**dire-musaera** · March 6th, 2006, 12:13 AM

You got a really strong sense for light and form.

its best proved by the guesture studies in which, despite the lack of shading, you still manage to capture a great deal of form just with limited lines.

i wonder how youd go about applying form to the imaginary

**Gilead** · March 6th, 2006, 12:27 AM

Excellent work so far.
You mention needing help in refining a drawing after the initial blocking-in stage. It's really the same thing again only using smaller shapes to block in smaller nuances of form. After that you do the same thing again just blocking in even smaller shapes. It's like cutting facets on a gemstone, you just keep knocking corners off until it has the look you want.

**ammoburger** · March 6th, 2006, 07:15 PM

I don't do very many drawings from my head so I am trying to do some stuff just from my imagination.

**Moysturfurmer** · March 6th, 2006, 07:19 PM

Good stuff as usual Spencer. The hair on the bearded guy's gullet looks slightly off as compared to the corner of his jaw, but I could very well be wrong.

**Artguy** · March 6th, 2006, 07:51 PM

These are awsome !

Just keep at it. Drawing out of your head just takes tons of practice. If you can set yourself a goal of like one head per day minimum. Do that for a year and you'll have a lot of practice in! It's also fun at the end of the year to look at all 365 heads together and see the progress!

**Madfishmonger** · March 6th, 2006, 09:15 PM

I am really enjoying your work, I hope to see more. You have an incredible amount of talent, keep it up, you'll only get better.

**ammoburger** · March 6th, 2006, 11:45 PM

New concepts.

**ammoburger** · March 8th, 2006, 08:28 PM

First I want to say, thank you all for you compliments! Means a lot to me.

Okay, the first head is a little screwed up. I didn't identify any source of light and I mixed the pen into the white that creates a blue muddy color. The top notes are taken from a thread in tips and tricks about edges which is very helpful. These are all concepts.

Here I'm applying edges in value and seeing how I can identify them on a cast and then identify them in life drawing.

Gilead - Thanks that makes sense. I've been applying that thought to my latest drawings.

**Moysturfurmer** · March 9th, 2006, 11:29 PM

Nice updates Spencer. I really like the head on the upper right of the second piece from March 8th.

Cant wait to see your work for the Art Show at VAI.

**Ian Mack** · March 9th, 2006, 11:36 PM

It would be interesting to see some compositions from you!

Drawing from imagination takes awhile to get better at. It helps to draw from life first if only to build up visual information in your mind.

**ammoburger** · March 11th, 2006, 10:37 PM

Heres what I did at life drawing today. About and hour and a half.

**Matt Smith** · March 11th, 2006, 10:55 PM

I like your gesture sketches. Keep working on your facial structures. It would be cool to see some skull drawings.

**ammoburger** · March 12th, 2006, 12:44 AM

Some of these are poor attempts at self-portraits.

**Kman.** · March 12th, 2006, 12:48 AM

cool stuff! I like your self portrait, charcoal rocks =)

**ammoburger** · March 12th, 2006, 08:00 PM

Here's what I've got so far today. I decided to scan this because I'm taking a break for lunch. I'm still working on the page

**tensai** · March 12th, 2006, 10:32 PM

nice and loose but solid sketches in here. dont have particular comments or crits... think the 5 minute gestures, and this http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...elhighlite.jpg,
and the last update are some of your best.

keep it up man

**Hyskoa** · March 12th, 2006, 10:38 PM

I'm liking the nose a lot, very nice work!

**sly's hand** · March 12th, 2006, 10:47 PM

I like what you have here, at 17 I was distracted by dragon ball Z Wish I had learned something about life drawing

. The self portrait is coming along very nicely, I havent touched charcoal in a long time but you do good stuff for the time you take.

do you have any finished pieces, I am curious to see.

The faces you make have a nice style, reminds me of another guy... http://www.martinredmond.com/ He is somewhere on here mabey gone now but Good job and I look foward to more

Later,
sly

**ammoburger** · March 13th, 2006, 12:45 AM

Matt Smith - Yeah I'm definately do some skull drawings. I haven't done any in a while and it'll be really important for head drawing.

Ksama - Thanks a lot!

Sly - Yeah I too went through a Dragon Ball Z stage.

. The pieces near the beginning of this thread are the most finished pieces I have. For some reason I usually wind up modeling one part and then getting bored.

Melancholie - Thanks!

tensai - Thanks! It's always interesting to compare what I think my best drawing is to what others think it is. Often times they are different.

Here is a WIP from a head drawing book I bought. Haven a lot of fun playing with the white highlights. It's addicting. I love it because It helps train me to always seperate light and dark.

**Recursive_End** · March 13th, 2006, 02:47 AM

Nice sb
Your shading is really nice. Nothing much to crit, your doing all good.
Waiting for more

**ammoburger** · March 13th, 2006, 04:14 PM

Thanks Recursive. Yeah stay tuned I'll be updating every day or otherwise every other day depending on my schedule.

Here is stage two of the portrait I'm working on.

STAGE 2

**ammoburger** · March 13th, 2006, 06:55 PM

I did this really quickly today from one of T. Ryder's drawings. Need to work on the head.

**ammoburger** · March 15th, 2006, 10:35 PM

Heres a sketch I did from a Rembrandt painting.

**ammoburger** · March 17th, 2006, 07:11 PM

This one is a study from a drawing by Kevin Chen.

And this one is from a photo reference.

I'm having trouble with values in general because I'm a beginner to it but I fell I'm learning a lot as I do more drawings.

**tensai** · March 17th, 2006, 07:19 PM

again nice studies man. im cant really crit it right now, because you seem to know what you want to do and need to learn. just dropping by to say just keep on doing what youre doing, keep drawing and learning and have fun.

im enjoying your book.