AphexTweak's Sketchbook - Now with updates more often ;)

[AphexTweak]

Hello,

I've been meaning to start one of these sketchbooks for a while now... but for whatever reason I kept avoiding it due to life, procrastination and probably a little fear of really watching and tracking my improvement. My hope for this sketchbook is to give me a place where I can work and share with other artists. I would like to regain my creative spirit and a sense of artistic community in my life, that a corporate job has all but destroyed. I plan on posting anything and everything... whatever keeps me creating... and hopefully I'll be able to update this at least once a week if not more...

So thank you in advance to those of you who pop your head in here... take a look around, and feel to share your questions, comments and opinions (I will try and respond to them... but I make no guarantees)


Attachment 258195

[NicoRaven]

Congrats on starting an online sketchbook. There are many professional artist here so your in the right place when it comes to see critiques of your work. Your studies seem to be solid. But naturally I liked the ones you created mostly because the have some life to them not all but some.

[AphexTweak]

these used to be in my first post... now they're here...



































So much for updating this often... I've been drawing at least, just not updating. And I'm not up for scanning in a ton of sketchbook pages at the moment. Anyway, here is a page of hand studies that I did today. Hogarth as ref and done in PS.

[AphexTweak]

Did a few figure studies tonight. Not currently in any figure drawing classes so used some Loomis drawings as reference. One of these days I'll have enough free time to attend a figure drawing class...

[AphexTweak]

I'm back... another evening of studies... this time some Hogarth torso's from Dynamic Figure Drawing... He really accentuates all the muscles in that book. Tried adding some shading to match what his drawings looked like on some... eh, seem somewhat successful. Didn't replicate the graininess of the original drawing very well since its digital (still just trying to get used to drawing on a tablet, while looking up at a screen), but I hope I at least got somewhat close to some of the shading values. Until next time...

[AphexTweak]

More Hogarth stuff... doing better at drawing everyday and posting... getting more used to drawing on my tablet too... need to do some feet studies...

[AphexTweak]

A quick still life of my car keys... I can not paint... can you tell... something else to work on... and some Hogarth head studies. I used one of the default chalk brushes in Photoshop. I liked how it gave me some nice texture in my strokes and shading... i may use it more in the future... we'll see. Was tired of working on a white background too.

[AphexTweak]

So today I was browsing through mentler's "The Book of Bones" in the fine arts and discoveries section and one section near the end says "if any advice is worth giving it would be to try and draw a couple of hands everyday"... so on that note, thank you mentler, today i drew a couple of hands, and I hope you don't mind (if you ever visit here) that I used some of your hand drawings as reference. And I must say, the really sketchy form and structure was a fun challenge. Anyway here there are:

[AphexTweak]

So today I stumbled upon a site called www.posemaniacs.com/blog, it originally in Japanese, but Google's translator does a decent job of making it in English... doesn't really matter what language its in because the cool part of the site is its random generated poses using a 3d musculature textured model. You can do quick poses from 15 - 90 seconds or pick a pose etc. Really great site if you haven't seen it before. So since I have really done any true figure drawing, and this came pretty close to it, I decided to do a few rounds of 30 and 60 second poses. I condensed them into respective PS files... enjoy...

[AphexTweak]

Finished moving this past weekend hence the lack of updating and drawing... don't have internet at home yet... so I did these at work during my lunch break.
Wasn't really feeling it during the quick gesture drawings... at least not until near then end... but it obviously helped during the longer drawing...

60-90 second poses first
30 minute pose next.
Used Pose Maniacs for reference.

[AphexTweak]

Total Randomness... was tired of doing studies... so I just started scribbling on the page and came up with this stuff... played around a little with some color and brushes, but nothing fancy... about 45 minutes of sketching.

[KPetrasko]

The hand studies are really coming out well. Just glancing through them, you look to be getting more comfortable with them. I think the full body figures could use some more focus. The proportions seem good but they seem stiff in their movements.

[Tmza]

Nice hands indeed and also those quick poses are looking good.

[destinyapocalypse]

hhmm cool anatomic draws lıke thıssss



take care


me works:::::::>http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87447

[crashMMVII]

Great stuff, I really like the Bridgman studies from post #1 in particular.

One crit is that your digital linework seems to be less smooth than your traditional work, but I'm sure that more practice with your tablet will fix that.

Nevertheless, all of this is much better than mine, keep it up!

[AphexTweak]

KPetrasko: hands are getting earsier, but they're still really tricky. I see what you mean about hte stiff full body poses. I think I'm concentrating too much on structure and not enough on the flow of the pose.
Checked out your website... Awesome illustrations you have on there. Beautiful color.

Tmza: Thanks. I stopped by your sketchbook

destinyapocalypse: Thanks

CrashMMVII: Thanks. I'm still adjusting to drawing on the tablet and watching my monitor. it's getting easier but doesn't feel natural like a real sketchbook.

I have some updates... some of which I need to scan in... hopefully I'll be able to get that done soon... still unpacking from my move. I'll try and update again soon. In the mean time... did this study yesterday. Enjoy.

[Fraz]

Nice job. I love the hand studies. Keep at the anatomy, as it seems pretty good, but can be improved ( of course! ).
Just keep at it really. You are doing well!

Comment on my sketchbook if you would like

[Rabid]

These studies look very good, have you been applyign these to life drawings or just going from the book? A good way to test yourself and your skill's progression is to do a gesture of a hand from the book, from life and then from memory all same poses. Good work!

[chr!z]

Yeah the studies are boring but urgent. Your line looks pretty good!
Nevertheless I wonna see more creative digitalstuff.
This troll looks funny, i am anxous to see wich new creatures you maybe paint!

[AphexTweak]

Fraz: Thanks
RabidPeanut: Thanks. I've just been studying books. Great idea, I'll have to give that a shot
Chr!z: Thanks. Yea, studies can get boring. I hear ya on more creative stuff. I'll try and post some more of that stuff too..

Well as some of you may know November 1st was International Self-Portrait Day here on CA . I was able to participate for the second year in a row. In fact I believe my first post on CA was last year's Self-Portrait day. So I decided to post my SP from last year and the one that I just did for this year, here in my sketchbook. Now I can easily see both of them together.

SP from 2006 was done in PhotoShop with mirror for referenceand took about an hour.
SP from 2007 was done in blue col-erase pencil with a webcam for reference and took about 2 hours.

[AphexTweak]

Well, its been way too long since my last update. Been pretty busy with work so not much free time to doodle and what not... but I have at least been doing some drawing rather than none. Anyway, here it goes.

First is a bunch of faces... got the photo off of istock for ref... used the photo as a layer for placement of all the heads on the page and quickly sketched the head placement on a top layer. After sketching in the heads, I hid the photo layer and drew in the faces... and yes I admit, occasionally I would unhide the layer to see how I was doing... yes, a crutch, but I learned a few things.

Second image is just eye studies. Used photo refs for the eyes. I would draw the eye first, and on another layer I would paint and occasionally picked colors from the photo while painting. I'm not very good at determining the correct color so this helped me a lot and I sure learned a lot about the subtlety's of color.

Hopefully there won't be such a long lapse between updates... Enjoy

[Lyno]

Hi,

You've got some nice studies there but watch out for those ears. I think they should be a little bit higher (between the eyebrows and the nose).

Keep drawing and posting!
Gl

[AphexTweak]

Lyno: Thanks for the comment and the crit. I didn't even notice the ear thing until you pointed it out...

Here's a page full of noses... exciting huh... reallying trying to figure out the basic shapes and forms that make up the nose, and how its position relates to and interacts with the rest of the face.

[SEVANS]

Great studies, love seeing all the hands.
The eyes are very well done too.

No real crits, just wish to see a few more pics from life or photo ref. Will keep watching the thread.

[AphexTweak]

SEVANS: thanks for stopping by, I appreciate the comments.

Once again it has been to long for an update... but this time around its going to be a little bit of time travel... I finally had some time to scan some older drawings and studies that I did a while back in one of my sketchbooks... I've been meaning to do this for months now, but just haven't been able to. These are from May and June of this year. I still have some more drawings to scan, but that will have to wait again. So without further ado... hope you enjoy.

[AphexTweak]

Got some more scanning done tonight. Here is some randomness from the end of November. I just combined all these little doodles into one image.

[Lyno]

Hi!

Good work, I'm jealous on your studies, Wished I had more time to do some studies too ^^

Nice update, keep posting.
(Hmm... try to draw some woman faces too :p )

Gl

[AphexTweak]

Lyno: Thanks man. I just try and do the studies whenever I have any type of down time. Sometimes during my lunch break at work, or late at night after everyone has gone to bed, quick doodle here and there during the day.
Never really noticed that I didn't really have any women faces here... thanks for pointing that out...
So today I decided to do a page of female heads... enjoy

[Puck]

All the studies you are doing are very valuable and great to see - keep on with those bridgman and posemaniacs! The heads are very good as well. Try to bring that stucture you're learning into your fun doodles as well.

[AphexTweak]

I hate feet. More specifically toes... they are just so hard for me to draw... so I pulled a bunch of photo ref off the web and went at it.

And on a totally different note... I want to change the thumbnail next to my sketchbook... how the hell do I do that? I've tried changing the first image in the thread, attaching a "thumbnail" and it stays the same... anyone have any ideas/suggestions etc. what I may be doing wrong? Thanks in advance...

Anyway, on to the feet.