Some more stuff 4/29/07

**Number_6** · January 5th, 2007, 06:31 AM

After being out of the game for what feels like (and probably is) over six months, I figured I may as well start a new sketchbook. I'm going to try to update daily and focus on life drawings.

**j a k e** · January 5th, 2007, 06:53 AM

Good start. Good to see that you're ready to get down and dirty!

**Andorz** · January 5th, 2007, 11:02 AM

Stronger values! It looks kind of flat as it is now. Good luck with the daily updates!

**Number_6** · January 8th, 2007, 10:08 AM

Well, so much for daily updates. I did have stuff for the past two days, it just sucked so much that I didn't want to waste your time with it (seriously).

**Number_6** · January 9th, 2007, 09:52 AM

I was a drawing machine last night.

**aprat** · January 9th, 2007, 10:29 AM

You should take your time with the sketches, and try to draw a bit smoother, not just hatch randomly.

**Number_6** · January 10th, 2007, 02:24 PM

aprat: For the record, I did try to shade a bit smoother for the following picture. I'm not sure if you can tell though... As far as taking my time goes, I find I need to work fairly quickly, otherwise I become bored and stop wanting to draw. Still, I'll keep that suggestion in mind.

I don't know why all the things I feel like drawing are dark colours. As you can see, I don't really care to shade much.

**Will_S.** · January 10th, 2007, 02:31 PM

Well, there are some really beautiful drawings that can be done with just line. Try to experiment with line variety - try making some lines darker and thicker than others, and experiment with overlap to bring out the 3d characteristics of the objects. Try not to get too frustrated and just try your best. Keep practicing and show us some more. Good luck to ya

**Number_6** · January 11th, 2007, 08:51 AM

Will: Oh yeah, I know. It's the fully rendered stuff that really interests me though, so I'm hoping I can ease into it.

I'm really proud of the dropper bottle, btw.

**D.Labruyere** · January 12th, 2007, 04:21 PM

hey 6, been a while! ok, one crit which I think is very important, so that the viewer can read your image also better, make things darker and enlarge your contrast! you're grey's are way to close to eachother. For the rest I'm curious to see how this one will turn out

**Number_6** · January 13th, 2007, 10:03 AM

I used an HB pencil for the most part on this, and went at some of the parts with a kneaded eraser.
As for the top hat, I just felt like drawing one.

**finlay** · January 17th, 2007, 08:01 AM

Nice work! I love the mouse and the bottle has some nice shading to it. I can see you have made quite a bit of progress. I'm looking forward to seeing more improvements.

p.s. Thanks for the comment on my sketchbook dude

!

**Number_6** · January 31st, 2007, 07:51 AM

I haven't been too good at drawing daily so far, but I haven't stopped completely either. Here's what I've worked on since my last update. Viewers of my previous sketchbook will recognize one of the subjects all too well...

**Number_6** · April 2nd, 2007, 08:57 PM

Well, I'm back to attempting dailies. Let's see how it goes. I'm going to try for life drawings and imagination stuff each day, starting with some comics fanart for the imagination. Let me know if you can guess who this is.

**D.Labruyere** · April 15th, 2007, 06:21 PM

hehe, keep it daily keep it daily

and you'll improve in no time. Pick up an anatomy book and draw one bone and muscle a day, one life drawing a day and something whatever the hell you like and watch yourself improve.

Nice to see you again hehe.

**Number_6** · April 16th, 2007, 09:30 PM

Hey, drawings!

I don't have much to say about these, except for the heads. About halfway through them, I started looking at myself in the mirror while draing them. I think it really helped. The shading on the mannequin isn't very good, I don't really have an excuse.

**Number_6** · April 17th, 2007, 09:45 PM

More stuff, including a hand study of my favourite gesture.

**Number_6** · April 20th, 2007, 09:33 AM

More stuff. This is the first time I've tried to actually draw a room, and I think you can tell. I spent so long doing the sketch that I couldn't sit still long enough to do a good job shading.

**Darktwin** · April 20th, 2007, 04:00 PM

Good to see your drawing from life, I also think you should invest in some anatomy books, hogarth, bridgmen, just check out mentlers book here on CA. Keep working hard.

**Number_6** · April 22nd, 2007, 06:36 PM

Hey, thanks for the response.

Okay, so I missed a couple of days. Oh well, I made up for it today. I've discovered the ballpoint pen, and I love it. I was having trouble with some specific facial features (lips and noses), so I just drew a bunch of them as well. I think it helped a bit.

EDIT: Amusingly enough, you can't really tell it's ink. You'll just have to take my word for it that it's not pencil

**Bhrazz** · April 22nd, 2007, 07:36 PM

Your hands are quite nice

Keep drawing them in all position you can! While I can't give you much crits on anatomy I think you shouldn't be only drawing still life. Try some environment drawing and object as well.

Keep pumping stuff!

**voxelfog** · April 22nd, 2007, 08:20 PM

Those hand studies are good practice for proportions / line quality. Definately do more of those (and any drawings from life, really).

You could even try some blind contour drawings if you want. I've found those to be very helpful with line quality.

Looking good tho! Keep it up!

**CouchPotato** · April 24th, 2007, 04:55 AM

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook 6. It's good to see you drawing so much from life. I need to do the same haha. Just a bit of comment, your pencil stuff is very faint...is it because of your scanner? I mean, I can see that there is tonal range, but it just seem very faint, washed out.

**Number_6** · April 25th, 2007, 08:08 AM

Thanks for the comments guys!

Bhrazz: It's on my to-do list.

Voxelfog: Thanks for the suggestion, I've got some blind contours in today's update because of it.

CouchPotato: Do you mean the sketches or the fully shaded stuff? The sketches are pretty light, but the shaded ones look all right to me. EDIT: If you were referring to the earliest stuff though, that's becuase I worked exclusively with a 2H pencil. I've learned my lesson.

Anyways, here's today's update.

Some blind countour drawings

Some hands holding a ball

More blind countour drawings

A hand surrounded by facial features. I think noses are giving me the most trouble at the moment.

A mannequin drawing and some hands. The mannequin is notable in that it's the first time I've shaded directly instead of making a sketch first. The proportions are off, but I'm still pleased with the result.

Hey, some more hands!

Finally, some figures. Don't bother telling me to study anatomy, I already know. I think the 'Batman' one would have been better if I, you know, had some idea of a pose when I was doing it. These aren't much more than doodles.

**dmitri** · April 25th, 2007, 08:32 AM

Consider the direction of your hatching. Seems a bit random or repeating the form right now.
I've been reading and breathing way too much Nicolaides lately, so my advice is to really think of the form you are drawing. The wooden mannequin is basically cylinders, round shapes - try really drawing that roundness on your paper, just as if you were drawing on the 3D thing, instead of the flat surface of the paper.

Hatching that is against the form exaggerates the feature more than lines that repeat it. Terribly said... uh, ever heard that vertical stripes slim and horizontal ones make you look fatter? That's the thing - horizontal stripes on a shirt are against the form of a torso, thus making it seem fuller (or "fatter"

).

**Number_6** · April 29th, 2007, 09:51 PM

So, I'm not dead

Most of what I've been working on over the past few days were Loomis mannequins, which I put in another thread here.

I did do some other stuff though, and it's here. Hand sketches, blind countour drawings, one Loomis mannequin that didn't make it into the other thread, faces and facial features.

dmitri: Thanks, I'll try to focus on that.

**Loolarge** · May 6th, 2007, 04:08 AM

Hi!

thanks for your comment on my SB! Looking good. Some of the hand studies are very nice. I noticed you have a bouncing ball among your sketches, are you into animation as well?

I was doing some blind countour drawing exercises from "drawing on the right side of the brain" yesterday, it is supposed to help alot. But i cannot really tell how it affects me yet. The book says some artists even do this before every drawing session.

I'll be back!