Eärendil's Sketchbook - Cast studies!

[QETALIVAN]

Nice improvement thru the skecthbook, just one advice....If I were you I wouldnt be so "dramatic" or "theatrical" with the enviros....too many special effects, or lights that may distract you from learning the basics of structure, basic drawing, and blocking tones, values, etc.... try to render only in a few pieces, but the majority of them, stay only keeping and learning how to build up how the light and proportions work. Its just and advice, keep it up!

[Earendil]

QETALIVAN: That would probably be more efficient, thank you! I'll make sure to mix up my studies more with really short stuff, medium, and long.

Two self portraits for today, both around 45 minutes. I'd love advice on how to do these, as I usually spend most of my time getting the outline right, then spending several minutes going "where do I start?" when it comes to placing the features. Proportion is going to be an issue for a while until I do more of these, but any advice would be great!

[Earendil]

Some gestures. When I went from 30 seconds to 90 seconds, it seemed to make a difference. I think taking time to understand what's in front of my eyes is better to start with, then the fast studies will also benefit.



And my SP for the day. After reading Betty Edwards chapter on proportions, I'm confident this issue is only temporary, and will continue to improve the more I do these!

[thesadpencil]

hey thanks for dropping by my sb. i really like what you have going on here so far, especially all those enviros (particularly the set of the chinese temple ones with all the different designs. i think you could benefit from more anatomy studies. your paintings right now tend to have a lot more darker tones than anything else i'd say try enhancing you light tonal values a bit more to help give more contrast in the images. other than that keep up the good work.

[Earendil]

thesadpencil>Thanks, I do have trouble with midtones and everything ends up being too contrasted/dark.

It's a good day, despite the rain outside.

My daily SP. Tried to draw a surprised/puckered expression. Don't suck your cheeks in, open your jaw, and keep your lips closed for 45 minutes.



This is a value study from memory. It's not finished, but I'm really trying to use the maximum range of values, and make it as photorealistic as I can. Soon, I will have a real desk, lamp, and cast to do these live. For now, I just drew a random contour, figured out the structure, then put in the values.



Environment of the Week. I have a little under a day to get this going. Here's the thumb, and below is its current state.

[Earendil]

My 5th self portrait. I setup some guides to proportion, and it helped a lot. I noticed my face was asymmetrical too. Weird! I never noticed before, but you can easily see it in the lips and nose. It's cool learning about my face and how little stuff changes the expression and "likeness".

Also, the final version of my EOW entry. Run awayyeeeee!

[Earendil]

Self portrait number 6. Having issues recognizing the line of my jaw with the line of the chubbiness underneath the jaw. Is there a line to draw, or is this the point to start hatching...Gotta figure it.

After some great feedback in the critique center I tweaked the EOW piece so the action of what was going on would read a little better. More feedback welcome too!

And some character sketches for a female thief done for the Seattle Sketchgroup. Must learn figure drawing. Now.

[kidult]

Just keep those studies up and you'l be rockin in no time!

[HAJiME]

Your landscapes are amazing. I especially like the one where you show a variation of weather and atmosphere. HOW do you do it?! Maybe you can help me out with landscapes? I don't even know where to start.

It's simply amazing how far your people have progressed in 3 pages. Wow. Really nice work.

[Earendil]

kidult> Thanks, that's the plan!

Hajime> Thanks, that was from Forms "Environmentoring" class. You can find it under the mentoring section. As for progression, it's been 13 months. I've seen people put more stuff in their SP in 13 days. Moar studies.

I'm reading Jack Hamm's "Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes". Meat and potatoes!

Here's my self-portrait for today. Number 7.

[Earendil]

Hokayyy, today I tried Loomis and head construction, combined with my self portrait. Not cool.

I'm going to keep practicing these but if anybody can shed light on where I'm going wrong, let me know. I'm not sure I understand enough of how the head/features/planes/shapes look in perspective, to connect that with how a sliced ball looks in perspective. Hell, I'm having trouble drawing correct curved lines denoting the form of the sphere. Loomis says to take a "thin slice" off both sides, but how much is a thin slice? I found an earlier thread where Dose recommended reading Successful Drawing, and absorbing everything in it regarding perspective, so I'm going to do that. I think there's something wrong with the way I'm denoting the slice, then finding that midpoint, then getting puzzled when the jaw line/side plane gets off. Seriously, I can draw a decent SP by comparing 2D elements, but don't understand how to draw lines over a sphere's surface? Definitely moar studies! Advice greatly appreciated!

[Earendil]

Quick compositional study, trying to get values clearly separated, yet everything working as a whole to create depth and flow. Not sure, but I'm going to do more of these.

Loomis studies. Still hit or miss, but noticeably closer hits. No bullseye's yet.

And today's self portrait. No 9. A refreshingly different pose.

[Earendil]

SP No 10. Something different.

[Earendil]

SP's 11 & 12. Learning to draw reminds me of those graphs of the stock market, where there's a bunch of little ups and downs, but the overall trend is upward. Let me know where I can improve!





Some perspective studies from Dobsky and Loomis. Carl mentions other fields of view, and I wanted to see how a 90-degree cone of vision differed from a 60-degree cone of vision. I'm not even sure if I set it up right. Doesn't "seem" to be a difference, but I'm going to go further in depth. I just checked out Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling. Moar studies!

[Earendil]

Self portrait for the day, plus a 2-minute sketch of my partner. After all the intense concentration on exactness, it was nice to be loose for a bit. Still not happy with my lack of knowledge, so moar studies!

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Hey, great progress here.
I notice that you always seem to set eyes too closely together.
Eyes are one eye apart, heh, sounds funny, doens't it.
And you also place them pretty closely to the eyebrows.

[Earendil]

Thanks DD. I'll keep an "eye" out for those. *badumtssh*

Here are the last two days SP's. The last one is something I tried in low-light, I'm going to do it a leetle bit differently next time so it works better.

[Earendil]

Dump from the last several weeks. Sheesh O.o

Daily SP's and two stragglers.







More perspective studies from Loomis' "Successful Drawing".

















Sketches from Loomis.









These were photoreffed ladies.







This started out as controlled curves exercise and quickly turned into an attempt at "cute".



Char design for the Seattle Sketchgroup.





Sketches from the bus, and around town.















Goal: To have better lines.
Solution: Moar studies!

[Φ]

Good SB, very inspiring enviros!! I also dig those face-studies! keep em up

cheers!

[Earendil]

SP No 35. No erasing allowed. Bleah.

[kikindaface]

Nice sketchbook, man. Maybe you can try to draw more from life, it will really help you to improve. Keep it up !!

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

the selfportraits are comming along nicely! Keep that up, and draw more from life, seeing as that is how you can renew your impulses. I like the perspective stuff, good thing that you take the time to learn it, and the last enviro is good Strong SB, keep working!

-E

[Earendil]

walid D> Thanks, and yep!
Mischeviouslittleelf Man, I really liked your DEEP stuff. Thanks for visiting, and the comments. Definitely moar life!!!

And it just so happens, I've been drawing from life. Objects, my left hand (I'll depict youuu, if it's the last thing I doooooo!), and my face.

[Earendil]

More sketches from around town.









Projection. Very cool. This Loomis stuff is Grade A!


SP-38

[Earendil]

More SPOD's, Loomis perspective, and heads!

[BludHund]

Heads and faces are like the hardest thing evarr.

I have a general suggestion, which I would say applies particularly to your hand studies...don't concentrate on capturing the precise contours, but instead try to understand and depict the volumes and structure of the object. Even if you succeed in recording perfectly the outline of the subject, its not going to help you be able to create, only to duplicate.

So long as you're doing Loomis, let's see some mannekins

Oh yes and might I recommend a look at Hogarth's Dynamic Hands...it helped me a lot with those troublesome extremities.

[Earendil]

More Loomis perspective. It is so awesome how false horizons work, and how they related to inclined planes. Weehoo!

And the latest 3 SP's.

I'm enrolled in MindCandyMan's Classical Art Online Atelier, and will be starting studies (hopefully) this Wednesday. I look forward to working hard and whipping my skills into shape. Look for updates in the future!

[DARAF]

Way to study man, It will all pay off for sure.

[Benjamen Christ]

looking good ! i would try more anatomy studies , and lots of life drawing, look around you a just start drawing everything! dont rush, ive learned to take a lot from my surroundings , its usually the little things that really shine through in a piece!

[Earendil]

Whew! Ok, need to update! Been working on a Bargue study, sorry for the bad quality pics, I have to adjust contrast to even see the lines!

The first pic is an exercise to learn how to lay down tone properly, and also go back and try and fill in the pits of the paper for a nice even tone. Below that is the initial setup, and the current version of the block-in. Then I'll get feedback/correction/things-to-look-for-to-get-good-proportions, and hopefully have a refined version ready for toning by the end of this week.







Some landscapes done in 5 values (if I did them right)



More SP's. 47 is probably my best one to date. Woo.











OMgz. I r klvr.