Nikitas sketchbook

[NikitaDarkstar]

Well I don't know how often I will update this seeing it can go up toa month between my drawings.. but I thought this would help me to draw abit more often and also it will allow me to post stuff thats jsut for training, didn't utrn out that great, etc.. you know how it goes... anyway only got one recent to post now, I'll update more later.

Just a sketch for my uni application work skills test (yes I'm quite aware that there are extremly small chances for me getting in). I was supposed to do 3 drawings of a situation where I've felt a lack of time/stress, this is one of them, I was trying to capture the feeling of having an enormus amount of work (or homework) to do and well yea... not sure how well I sucseeded though.


PS: THoose annoying spots on there is dust in my scanner.. I have no clue how to clean it out (one of thoose annoying multi machines (Lexmark X1130)) so if you know how to do it please let me know cause it's under the glass ><

[NikitaDarkstar]

Well that explains my flying desk problem (seriously the reason for the heavy shading was I got pissed at redrawing the floor for the 500th time and jsut shaded the hell out of the desk instead ).. gonna fave that link and read it tomorrow.. tryint to learn at 2am is a genereally bad idea you know?

And yea feel free to call me Niki thats what I'm usually called (just don't try ND I really don't like that ) *smiles*.. and I will most likley post a few other things in a few days.. the other two pitcures that go hand in hand with this one.. they're due in about a week (me panicking? nooo...) so well only thing that might get up before then is either old work or the other application drawings when they're done/I can't figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong

[Pixeldragoon]

Hey there Nikita!(Can we call you Niki?) The most noticeable problem with the first pic is the perspective. The floor is from an aerial perspective, while the table is from sort of a floor mounted space.

It takes a while to properly explain perspective; http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43831
There are a few links in that thread. Hope I could help!

Hope you can post more as well.

[hp]

hey niki! this is rawr from BF!!!! anyways, just a headsup. take a photo of your room and draw it

[Pixeldragoon]

Better yet, draw it from LIFE

[NikitaDarkstar]

Hey Rawr! ^^

And I better clean it first then.. need to find it before I can draw it

[NikitaDarkstar]

Well just wanted to update this with the first page of my new little (A5) sketchpad... just quick doodels I did in the car, a shop front, a attepmt at a funny face (somewhat failed.. was reading one of thoose Loomis books yesterday ), two attempts at boxing up a hand.. the fingers are too long in one and the other the thumb is dislocated (was foolish enough to use my own hand as reference, and I'm doubble jointed my thumbs are especially bad, they're almost never properly inplace...) and some random part of a parkinglot..

Sorry for the bad quality of the scan.. my scanner is somewhat evil and I just quick leveld this in photoshop ^^;

[hp]

i totally know what you mean about dislocated thumbs, ppl told me i painted my hand wrong but i was like, look! it does that! ^^

for hands, don't use loomis, i think he doesn't talk about structure enough perhaps or something...and they look too soft to me...but anyways use bridgman for hands. he discusses the fact that no matter what angle etc the hand is in, you use 6 (i think) lines to create a basic hand. i would recommend "constructive anatomy" by bridgman if you are looking for a book...not sure if you'll be able to find one but my university has a very beat up old copy...it's pretty good at getting body parts down to shapes, although some of the prints are poor and you can't really tell what is what.

for drawing buildings, bring a ruler or just make sure your lines are straight

you have to stay in the CA thunderdome, i have like 5 billion projs including the card from long long ago on BF but i'm still doing it supposedly

[NikitaDarkstar]

Heh well drawing in a moving car on a bumpy road does not help you create straight lines XD

And well my economy dosn't exactly allow me to buy super expensive books but hey thats what the internet is for right?

Oh and yhea pepole have a hard time beleving my thumds (anod other parts of my body) does that too.. but seriously when my hands are relaxed my thumbs are dislocated (no it dosn't hurt ) the joys of beeing doubble jointed and trying to use yourself as anatmoy reference XD

Oh and girl finnish that card! (and I've started an extremly rough sketch for the thunderdome.. can't promise it'll get done though )

*will post atleast one new finnished sketch when she can find the digicam* (my scanner just slaughters anything pencil...)

[NikitaDarkstar]

Well I thought I'd update this, first of all sorry for the poor quality but I had to use a digicam (cheap one ><) cause well that works better than my scanner, I jsut forgot it timestamps everything in big ugly yellow numbers. Well I adjusted this as good as I could in photoshop :/

A dragon head I'm working on mainly as a perspective study, I can only draw dragon heads from the side so I thought it was time to change that. Also my first time working on something this size, A2 paper and loving it! XD



A 20 minute A4 thingy.. I think I need to darken some shadows but I atleast tried to think of my lightsource here. ^^;

[Dile_]

Hey, pretty nice sketchbook! , well I would advice u to get the basics..
especiially form&proporation + persperctive, I think it is alot
of nice tutorials In the Ca.org WIKI
So check it out

BTW: You should do some life drawings also, I mean not doing stuff from your imagination. Draw by ref

[NikitaDarkstar]

*nods* I know I know I'm jsut gonna finnish up the dragon head and possibly coloring another thing (already wrecked it so might aswell continue) then I'm defently getting back to do some more basic stuff. With spring here I might actually even be able to sit outside and draw some (beeing inside with a photo is n't very inspiring). But yhea I'm gonna draw more from life, if my next drawing here isin't drawn by ref feel free to drop a sledgehammer on my drawing hand

[Orozc0]

ehhh. more life drawing.

[Lake]

read your post in the "why hate anime" thread. Props to you, welcome to CA! I started on a lower base than DA myself; I began in Elfwood. Sad, but true.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Heh panda I go an account there too.. mainly cause I like fantasy and well they do have some good artists there, but again no good feedback.. elfwood and DA is "feel good places" CA is "ok this is what you need to fix, now fix it" abit rougher but in the long run way way more usefull =)

Oh Btw sorry for the really random updates here.. for some reason I havn't been able to draw on a daily basis for a long time.. trying to get better =)

*will update when scanner cooporates*

[hp]

hey nikita! i would say maybe draw your dragons tougher looking but that's just my preference ^^

how's life been? it's been hectic as hell here...

update!!!!!!!!!

[NikitaDarkstar]

Bleh I don't even know where to put this but well I got bored and honestly couldn't find a pencil anywhere so I decided to pic up my tablet and train abit with it. It's simple and messy but I forbid myself to use the ctrl+z command or the eraser tool... so a simple ball to practise a little with my tablet and to kill some time...



PS: Any tips on how to make it look less hollow? the top half seems hollow to me but I don't know how to fix that digitally ^^;

[Pixeldragoon]

Use bigger brushes... don't kill your hand, use as much opacity as you can. Instead of having opacity at 6 and going over several times something (unless you are using two totally contrasting values, then it's okay), try upping it to 20 or so, and keep upping it until you get to a comfortable level.

A good way to keep things smooth is to use the biggest brush possible. Don't fill in with a small brush, it's much more economical with a big brush. smaller brushes are for details.

Good luck!

[Lake]

Use bigger brushes... don't kill your hand, use as much opacity as you can.

use WAY bigger brushes. If it helps, turn on pressure sensitivity for the opacity.

when rendering, I like to think of the light as being a gradient wrapped around something.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Thanks guys.. and ehh thats actually opacity 35 =S

But well I guess I should turn pressure sensetivite off for the brush size then? cause thats where I currently use it.

Panda, I'm not intierly sure what you mean by thinking of the light as a gradient, could you explain that abit more?

[Mindflaw]

Some quick thoughts

Try learning all about this it's easier to draw when you know what to look for
(got this link from browsing the internet)

http://public.idealab.com/~goncalves...l4/image44.jpg

and think always strip colour down to its values What I mean is think of the colour as greyscale..there is so much in colours that decieves our eyes otherwise.

[hp]

instead of building up the color quite like that you might have started with a circular selection so that you can't go out of the lines...and fill it in completely with a wash of color...then using huge brush put in most of the darks and lights...then with a finer brush add some texture and the highlights/rimlights. probably this is mostly how you did it, but it shouldn't take more than maybe 30 seconds (at which point you may want to refine it more).

if you wanna do studies like this you should look at the artistic anatomy forum on cgtalk. they have PLENTY of stuff to do ^^

[Ashrumm]

It would be good for you to start with life drawing you will improve at a much faster rate than you currently are now. Keep working, its time and energy that will help you.

[Lake]

Panda, I'm not intierly sure what you mean by thinking of the light as a gradient, could you explain that abit more?

I just mean that it transitions smoothly, instead of having a clear cut line. If you think about it being wrapped around the object, it will allow you to see it in three dimensions (at least in your head)