morningbloom915's Sketchbook

[morningbloom915]

This is my first time posting a sketchbook on here. A lot of these sketches were done for the New artist seeking help thread ( http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64711 ) for practice. I would love some critique.

~Heather

[morningbloom915]

Found some of my other work (slightly older). Done from reference. One finished, and 2 progress shots of a WIP.

[Seedling]

Hi Morningbloom! Thank you for your comments in my sketchbook. If you would like to try oil-painting, I can't give you the best advice, because I'm new myself, but I can give you moral support. :-)

What are your objectives with your art?

[morningbloom915]

More stuff. Didnt do anything today. Spent all day reading about Bargue studies and oil painting.

Attached pictures are 1. Practicing values, 2. Terribly failed attempt to draw a crumpled piece of paper (yuck) and 3. New easel!!!

[morningbloom915]

Just finished a skull study.

[katsgod]

You have some really nice work in here....keep it up.

[Stupidity'sUglyHead]

Rad grills n bods. one thing may help in your shading is to use a uniform contour, like in your crumpled paper. Since paper doesn't really have a countour, you can pick the direciton you want. then bend it and alter the lines as if the paper is a 3d object. kinda like splines.

[morningbloom915]

Rad grills n bods. one thing may help in your shading is to use a uniform contour, like in your crumpled paper. Since paper doesn't really have a countour, you can pick the direciton you want. then bend it and alter the lines as if the paper is a 3d object. kinda like splines.

Could you explain this more in depth. I'm really baffled by how terrible that paper drawing was. No matter what I tried it didnt come out right. Would love your input, but I just dont quite understand what you've said here.

[Listing]

you have good sensibilities. Just keep training. Start to push your values.

[Seedling]

Hi Morningbloom!

About the risks of turning a fun activity into a career. Yes, at times it certainly does kill the fun of it. Usually I find this the case for myself when I have to grind my way through a bunch of tasks that just feel trivial. But the plus side of this is that the grinding is a lot like the grinding you go through in art school: when you finish, you get to turn around and survey the vast quantities of art you have made. You’ve been working out your art muscles even though the rest of you has been unwilling, and as a result you are a stronger artist than the one who spent the day on a job unrelated to art.

One trick to getting through those grindy spells is to learn to love your art as a craft, and love the process more than the product. That’s kind of what I’m trying for here with the oils, along with my other goals.

The starving artist idea holds about as much water as the soul-eating lawyer idea does. I know several lawyers, and none of them fit the nasty lawyer profile I was raised to accept as true.

If you already have a career in something else, you may be in a good position for self-study in art, so long as you set aside time each day to seriously study your craft. Just be aware that it’s going to take you a longer time than if you were to drop everything and go to an art school full-time. Looking around at this website, I think it is very possible that with serious dedication the resources here could be used in place of formal training. It’s just going to be hard.

I look forward to seeing more of your work!

[Stupidity'sUglyHead]

These are crosshatched, but if the assignment requires full on shading, it can represent the direction you move the pencil- consistent in regard to the bend of each 'crumple plane'

[surfacemonkey]

nice start to an SB!

Take a look at how many values you used on your skull, and how few you used on your crumpled paper.

On the paper, there are only bright white, and dark dark. A photograph of crumpled paper at such high contrast, won't look like paper either.

Here's a real crumpled paper photo with low contrast:



And the same paper with high contrast:



Try to do some pencils using a harder lead, to keep the light parts light. Also, practice using the pencils holding them at a very low angle to the paper.

[incolorinred]

yeah, crumbled paper is one of the harder things to attempt. Much harder than clother drapery in most cases. I think the main issue is you are trying to represent each plane on the paper as a perfect polygon. Look closely and differentiate between a crease and a bend in your drawing.

[morningbloom915]

Yeah I really just gave up on that crumpled paper thing before I gave it a chance. But, I figured I'd post it up anyway. I'm going to give it another go, when I'm in a less aggravated mood.

Thanks for the advice. It helps so much - at least in my head to get a better feel for how to approach the paper crumples. I love this place. I'm learning so much!

[morningbloom915]

Drew some live tomatoes I bought at the grocery store yesterday. They're organic!

Gonna tackle that paper thing again real soon.

[darkchild]

Hey there. You've got some great pieces of work in here so far. Maybe darken up your work a bit. I know I have trouble sketching too light. Love the Mustang pieces and this one: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1157494699

Keep on posting your work!

[morningbloom915]

Ok, I tried the paper again. I think it came out much better this try. Still not exactly what I hoped for, but way more recognizable.

I got the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. First three exercises are:
1. A self portrait. This happens to be my very first self portrait ever. It turned out alright. The forehead is too small. I have kind of a large forehead. I didnt really go in depth in the shading, as this was supposed to be fairly quick, but I did enough to suggest the shape of the face and such.

2. Human figure from the mind. I havent done much anatomy, and it shows. I did buy 2 anatomy books, however and will start working on anatomy immediately. I figured it was good to have a basis to see improvement. This was really all I could get. After this, I was at a loss.

3. Drawing of my hand. This turned out alright. Again, I didnt get really involved. Just a sketch, but it shows I do a much better job drawing from reference/life than from memory.

Please critique.

darkchild- thanks for stopping by my sb! I agree I need to be braver with value. I'll keep working on it.

[Mr-Joe]

Hey,

This one is great:http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1157494699

and the mustang picture is very well done, but doesn't it smudge when you close that book?

I say put the time that you did on the mustang into everything you do and your golden..

Great work, keep doing it.

Joe.

[morningbloom915]

Sorry its been so long since I updated. The 15th was my birthday, and I didnt get to draw any that weekend. I've been working way too hard since then, and have only gotten to noodle around a little before I'm too pooped to do anything.

Here's some skeletal anatomy I'm working on currently.

Mr Joe: thanks for stopping by. The mustang does smudge when I close the book. It doesnt get closed very often, and when it does, I put a paper towel in between it and the next page. That seems to help tons.

[darkchild]

Hey good to see you back Nice update. Hopefully we'll see you post more often now? Great skeletal study. Maybe sketch a whole session of these. Keep on posting!

[morningbloom915]

DC: Thanks for looking in. I'm going to try and post at least every other day. That skeleton took an amazingly long time. Just goes to show I need more practice. I keep finding myself spending time on CA and not sketching! I'm still learning alot though.

Hopefully there will be another post for today, after I get some work in on this. Thanks to jkior's encouragement and help, I'm starting a bargue study. Took a picture of my setup, just for documentation. Most of these bargue pictures wont be interesting for a long time while trying to get the outline just right, so I may or may not post them all, but heres the beginning.

[morningbloom915]

Ok, more stuff today. Started some hand studies. I'll probably continue them some more tomorrow as well. Its really hard to hold my hand still.

Worked some more on the skeleton. I decided I want a model of the skeleton and looked online. Those things can get expensive quick! Anyone know any good places to get a cheaper (not full size, but still accurate) model of a skeleton?

The last is just a quick sketch for 3chw 19 - fish in front of a metal structure. I got an idea as I was heating up some dinner, so I may change it around a bit.

As always, C & C welcomed!

[Wade Felt]

Morningbloom,

You're off to a really good start here.

Seems like you're really *looking* at what you're drawing and you've got a great attitude towards leaning and improving your skills. Those two things will take you pretty far when you're starting out. You might wanna take a look at Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing". I kinda got along better with it than the Edwards's book.

Best of luck on the Bargue plate. I just finished my first one and it was a lot of work but so totally worth it. Just make sure you make it perfect.

Enjoy!
.wade

[Seedling]

Happy belated birthday, Morningbloom!

Something that may help you with those bones, and other complex subjects:

You seem to have picked a point, from which you are rendering outward. That is going to a few problems. The biggest problem will be proportion. You may get three-fourths finished and then realize that you’ve made each rib slightly too wide, and those small mistakes have piled up into one wacky ribcage. Instead, try sketching out the rib-cage as one solid object, first. The spine would make another solid object, and the shoulder bones another, etc. Then softly sketch in individual bones – but unrefined – rectangles are fine. Then after that, you should have a decent roadmap upon which to start capturing delicate curves and details.

Also, you seem to be drawing again and again over the same line. Try to let just one line do the talking. And if you find you’ve put a line in the wrong place, try just ignoring it while putting the line where it actually belongs.

You’re doing great! Keep going.

[morningbloom915]

Wade: Thanks for visiting. I'll be sure to return the favor. I'll have to check out that book next time I head to the store.

Seedling: You totally got me on the rendering outwards thing. The problem was, I blocked in the main shape, but then dove right into the bone details instead of trying to get them in the right places unrefined, so I ended up totally ignoring my main shape block in. I've also tried to be very aware of the drawing over and over the same line thing. I need to work on my line confidence. I tried really hard to do that with my most recent stuff. Thanks so much for your faithful visits and input into my path!

Ok, the only thing I have to post right now is my 3CHW entry. The topic was "a fish in front of a metal structure." This is what I came up with. I tried to be very aware of clean use of lines, value and distance and detail. I didnt get to spend as much time on it as I would have liked to, but I had fun, learned stuff and am mostly pleased with the results. What do you think?

Nothing further to show on the bargue scan. My bargue mentor has informed me, I need to make sure the inside of the scan is the same as the "white" of the paper, so I'm going to start over. Progress on that soon, I promise.

[asoir]

Hehe, keep going! =]

[Hendric VII]

Nice sketchbook. Your stuff looks very solid.

[druvid]

Some really great work in here! I particularly like the cars and the fish one tickles me. Looking at these, I'd like to perhaps see some deeper values, like those car pieces you showed. Maybe try using softer lead, perhaps. Nice work overall! I enjoyed looking at the work you have here.

And yay for organice tomoatoes.

[arttorney]

About those values, maybe some willow charcoal will give you blacker blacks than any pencil can do.

Love your easel. Get some paint all over it!

[taves]

very nice! Looks like you're off an running.

The next suggestion I would make in terms of "what do I work on now?" might be to get your images and subject matter to hold more "volume" and "weight". Most of the stuff you have now seems flat (thought still well drawn for where you're at ) so the next step would be to begin constructing your subject matter with shapes. Here, I used one of your drawings as an example (I appologize - I've been up WAY to long to be attempting something like this. )



after this, it will, or should, give you a better understanding of how light effects the object in this "space" (again, another crude drawing). How the light hits something, through plannar study of object surfaces, should help give your figure and subject matter a better sense of "weight" in the drawing:



So, anyway, those are just my suggestion. Feel free to take them or not. Either way, you need to keep posting so we can see the progress! Good luck.