NicoRaven's Nest (Watch as I try to take flight)

**Coinpurse** · August 4th, 2007, 09:22 PM

Lines.

I told the same thing to bhanu, your struggling desperately with your line work. Long smooth strokes my friend, none of that masterbation sketchy lines. Try this, before you start your drawing, draw long strokes with your pencil on a blank sheet of paper (draw about 100 different line strokes, and draw them fast). Consider it a daily exercise, start with straight lines, then curves, then circles and back to curves and straights. I used to do that ages ago, and It really did help me get where I am now with my art. Also push more figure/dynamics and life studies.

Keep at it

**h2rra** · August 12th, 2007, 08:20 AM

Imho you need to learn seeing proportions accurately and slow down on your studies. For example take loomis' ideal proprtion diagrams and copy them til they are almost perfect and then take a photo, then a still life. Learn drawing straight lines. If you can't copy a simple drawing accurately there's no way you will be able to draw an accurate human from life or imagination. And slow down!

**Jason Rainville** · August 12th, 2007, 10:25 AM

Hey man! I love SB's like these. You've started out right where you should have and you're doing a great job keeping up the work. You're studying the right things too. It's been said already, but there's ONE thing that I see holding you back, I'll try to reiterate that point;

Observation.

Not just looking at something and drawing it, but learnig to forget there's a hand in front of you, or a finger, or a fingernail. You have to forget that what is in front of your eyes is something you recognize. Just draw the shapes.

It took me a while to get a hold of this, but as soon as I got it, it was like an artistic explosion (well, it took a few months, so it was a slow explosion

) the point is though, that once you start drawing from life more accurately, you're REALLY tapping into the information that natures giving you. The way you're drawing right now is like trying to mine for gold with a spoon. That spoon is the thinking that "I see a finger, so I draw it" switch that spoon for a high-powered laser drill from HELL, a drill that cuts rock to the tune of "ok, so here's a line, and its has this angle, and I'm going to compare this andgle to the angle of the other line, but also, thisa mass I'm drawing is about yea big, compared to the mass next to it... etc etc etc."

It's a bit weird at first thinking like that, so here's some tips;

- Draw a light, very sketchy overall 'mass' for your pic to start. Anything that needs sectioning off (hands, fingers, limbs, anything smaller than the whole pic) section those off too. Right now it's not about accurary of shape, it's about accuracy of size make your eyes dart quickly back and forth from your pic to the ref, and try to spot any oddness. If something's off, fix it.

- Look at a line, and make SURE that it's going on the right angle. Compare that angle to its neighbor. again, look back and forth from both your ref and your pic quickly to see any weirdness.

- Don't look at eyes, look at the lines, shapes etc that make up eyes. There are creases, changes in light like on the 'shelf' of the lower eye etc that make up an eye. Follow the same rules here; first figure out how big the overall shape is by measuring things with your eye and mind. then try to place lines down at the proper angles, make shapes for light and dark and always ALWAYS compare sizes and angles. golden rule- if it looks wrong, fix it.

- Work on the whole pic at once. Don't start with one part and render it completely and move on, you have to take in the whole thing and work it over in stages, otherwise you could get too far on one part, realiose it's wrong and not be able to fix it.

Phew. Sorry for the long-winded post, but everyone can see you have the dedication to make this stuff great, just not quite the right 'tools' to pull it off. Try doing a piece the way I (and others) have mentioned. Spend some good time on it, making sure that it looks right at every step of the way.

Good luck

**Rabid** · September 26th, 2007, 03:28 PM

Keep up this great work, your doing very well and I'm glad to see you draw alot because alot of people ahve that problem. Massive difference between page 1 and 5. Really quick improvements...

**NicoRaven** · October 8th, 2007, 07:04 PM

uh umm.......

Wow it's so good to be back! Dammit, I missed you guys! Where else can one find a place where friends and comrades the world over who are all interested in one goal, art evolution. I've been away for roughly 4 months and shiver at the thought of all the time that was lost on other pursuits. Don't get me wrong I was simply earning my money to support my art and my art took a back seat then.......... I slowly lost my focus. Add that to the fact that viruses lay waste to my harddrive and put my computer bytes between life and permanent system failure.

I love art period. That is why I came and that is why I'm back.

**alesoun** · October 8th, 2007, 07:15 PM

Great to see you back!

Now, get working!!!!!!

**Evxyza92** · October 9th, 2007, 09:44 PM

Wow , there is some real improvement, well all you gotta do is drive and drive, man , I like seeing guys like you around here, and not all of these professionals, and people rendering all there stuff. The trick is like others have said to me is ot never ever be satsified with our current level, and always to to improve.

I feel I can relate to everything and se the improvement in your stuff, and as I did you will see improvement from every picture to the next.

**Jonas Heirwegh** · October 9th, 2007, 09:49 PM

Nice improvement!

Now I looked at your work and your still strugling with perspective. Look you need to learn to think in volume.
The best way to learn how to think that way is to learn perspective. Buy/download a book about perspective and do LOTS of simple constructions, try to understand it. You will see how much easier it will be to draw heads for example.
also practice linequality, best way to do this is to put two dots on a paper and connect those with a straight line. Then try curves the same way. Put the dots further apart and use your whole arm. Draw from your elbow..

Hope this helps..

**Sketch** · October 9th, 2007, 10:09 PM

If you're back than post some damn work!!! haha, it sucks when we have to do non art related shit to survive(I know, I do it everyday).
Epias gave you some good advice. I used to do that dot exercise a lot and I think it really helps. Should probably do it some more.