Morderischen's sketchbook

[Morderischen]

Edit: Newer (and hopefully better) work on the lastest posts

Hello there. The usual long time lurker, now regular poster. Name´s César and first, I have to say I feel a bit intimidated about making my sketchbook given the ENORMOUS talent I see in these forums daily, but realized that this is kinda of a necessary thing to do if i want to improve my skills. And hell, rome wasn´t built in a day was it? Anyway without further delay I present to you... my art!

Also, I would upload the scans of my pshysical sketchbook but im having a bit of trouble figuring how to upload images... will edit once I figure it out.

[Blauringkraken]

Hey Morderischen!

I saw you posting in the drawing/painting study & support group and thought to watch at your SB here. You did an amazing job above! Keep going on! I also was intimidated by all those awesome artists here, but you've done the first step.

To your question: You can easily upload images if you use the advanced reply mode, not the instant one. Then click at Additional Options / Manage Attachments. That's it! :D

Yours, Steffen

[jorvaa]

Hallo Morderischen! I'm a newbie here as well, and yes, the talent here is overwhelming! You seem to be doing pretty well yourself, though - the painting looks great. I love the highlights and the colors on the apple. My only advice is to keep doing what you are probably doing already: practice every day, observe as much as you can, and always carry your sketchbook around with you. Finally, remember that talent is, for the most part, a myth. Working hard, efficiently, and passionately will give the illusion of "being talented", but it is really just love and hard work. One last word: perspective. Learn to love it, and it will pay off. And now I will step off my soapbox.

Keep updating!
-jorvaa

[Morderischen]

*BEWARE, HUGE ASS POST*
Hello again. @Steffen Thank you, managed to solve my uploading problem, thing was, my images were a teeny tiny bit too big (25 MB TIFFs) and been resizing all the sketches I had previously scanned. Silly me. Glad you liked the apple, I feel proud of the thing truth be told.

Jorva: Thanks mate, really appreciate those words. I do work daily, but for the most part, not as much as I'd wish. Not anymore. I even uninstalled my games and stuff haha... And yeah, in the sketches uploaded in this reply, I include some meagre perspective studies, very basic shiz really... the always present boxes. As a challenge to myself, I'm planning on doing a city scape, to finally sink perspective. But that'll come later in this month.

Now onto the art itself. Most of the sketches depicted here were made the last 5 months or so. I know, not much improvement for such a long period of time. Working on that. Pieces are uploaded in semichronogical order, that is, the first ones are older, the last ones are more recent, except for the nose studies, wich are recent. Tear em apart people!!! also, I divided this huge batch in two posts. Still i doubt it's easy for the eye....


Edit: OMFG ok what the hell happened to my attachments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Morderischen]

Sigh.... Info is on previous post. somethign happened and my attached images didn't upload... Here they are, first half.

[Morderischen]

second half:

[Morderischen]

Sorry for the late update, I just recently came back to school, and been making some errands out of town, so I've been somewhat busy to actually scan my sketches. The following were all done in the past 2 weeks, except for the knight dude, wich was made between december and january in bits of my free time and the guy thats being looked from above, wich was kind of as light study...thing. Most are fairly quick, the portrait is about 40 mins, its supposed to be skye edwards from group Morcheeba, turned out a bit...manly? haha. The rest are 10-15 mins. My scanner killed some of the contrast, so the sketches look a bit worse, but for the most part they are accurate. Any feedback you guys could provide would be most helpful.

[NeonDuck]

nice start, and you've got some nice variety

some things to look out for:
- shading isn't terribly important when you start out. it takes forever to do and until you understand why it works the way it does, you're just copying random shapes. you'll learn more from 10 line drawings than 2 shaded ones
- have a look at volumes. andrew loomis' books are great reference for this, have a look at the way he constructs things from 3-dimensional primitive shapes. it's all about being aware of the 3d shape of what you're drawing.
- your lines could be a lot stronger. have a look at mike mattesi's blog, he teaches pretty much just line quality. the idea is that you can express a lot of things with just a line: a line can be a strong or weak curve, be hesitant or confident, portrait weight or force or intent or tension. have a look at his work or his book "force", you'll see what i mean

[Samszym]

Thanks for the comment, and great work! I see you're applying your studies, be sure to keep that up. Drawing a bunch of quick sketches to practice every new skill you learn would be really helpful. I wish I did that instead of just copy, I'd have grown way faster.
Anyway I feel like some of your images may still be too big. If there's not a crazyton of detail my rule is they should fit completely in the screen. Mine are usually 800-700 pixels high. Also do you have some way to crop your images? You've got a whole lot of white paper in these, if you leave a bunch of blank space the page in your SB will eventually get humongous and takes forever to load.

Okay on to the actual drawings! To me they seem pretty accurate, which is really good. I'd say in your imagination work ,like the noses, you should try to go for more extreme views and vary all the shapes, don't limit yourself to front, profile, and 3/4 and vary the top and sides and hook of the nose, not just the slope. Look up different noses and draw them, and create your own. I'd say the variation of people is the most fun thing about us.
I'd say your graphite shading's really impressive, it looks pretty lifelike. The pose of that guy in post five shows great depth and overlap, do more of that. I'm guessing the figures below the axe angel are Bridgeman studies, when you're studying him be sure to have very clear forms. I think that's what bridgeman's all about, simplified forms. Don't be afraid to grab some kind of reference picture when you're drawing complex things, like that guy with the sword. Using reference is a really good habit to get into.
When you're drawing something with a set design like that robot don't be trapped by the design. His spine would have to bend in that pose, but I think you kept it straight so you could show off the lines on his ab wire thing.

Wow this is getting long.

Looks like you're using posemaniacs for the gestures, this is a really good alternative since it uses real people and has an animal option as well. Gestures are rally good practice and warm up, do a lot of them and maybe do them smaller, if you draw smaller you can focus on the main idea of the pose, which is the point of gesture drawing.
Be really sue you're analyzing forms and anatomy in those figure drawings, you don't learn much by drawing down pretty tones. Try building figures out of simple geometric forms like cubes and cylinders to better grasp the mass.

The cubes look fine, you have nice clean lines. Try building something out of them.

Guess that's it, keep working hard and studying Loomis and anatomy and all that stuff blah blah blah It's midnight I should really finish my homework...

[Morderischen]

@NeonDuck: Thanks for taking the time to check out my sketches and for you feedback. Advice taken. I'll focus more on line and "force" (just acquired some sample pages of said book, will probably buy), wich is something I've somewhat struggled with. And I'll study both Loomis' and Bridgeman more thoroughly so hopefully you'll see more "mass" oriented studies rather than shading and value ones.

Vertical: Wow thanks for taking the time to writte all that out! this is just what I need ^^. I'll crop the images, you are right about the white space... shouldn't waste all fo those white areas too. Also, I actually use that site for my gestures, either that or irfanview slideshow, since I get the bad luck of getting the same poses quite often on pixelovely. I'll try to vary my perspectives more radically, but perspective is an area I'm still not very confident...all more the reason to do it right? haha. I do get crazy with the design of mechanical things and forfeit accuracy and coherence on such simple things as you pointed out, must get rid of that nasty habit. and I'm starting to immerse on the wonderful world of using reference. I used to think of reference as kind of forbidden thing...silly I know.

Now, for today's update we have: Animal 30 sec gestures, drawing animals is pretty fun O_O, first time I do it xD, also 30 sec human gestures. As adviced, made much smaller gestures to focus more on capturing well...the gesture. a pair of Tulips from life, about 30 mins. Those lack some contrast I belive, and finally, a 20 min dude from imagination where I tried to use hatching not very succesfully. Made the images as small as irfanview allows, hopefully the images won't be as cumbersome anymore.

[PeteJ]

You look like you are doing good so far.
On your gestures I think it might be better if you made them more "structured" than just outlining them. The raised arm of the 20 min dude looks too big. On the flower drawing, it looks rushed, and the flower pot's ellipse is off. Try constructing your stuff more accurately.

[Morderischen]

PeteJ: Ugh, those tulips really came out horrid haha. It was actually quite rushed, since I was just waiting for my friend to pick me up, so I didn't put too much effort on it, but I thought of posting it anyways. I have taken your advice on constructing more accurately, and I'm working on it now, I include some bridgeman and loomis studies with this update, so I'm trying to tackle proportions and construction at the same time. Regarding gestures, yeah, I'm also currently working on adding more "force" to my lines, I *tried* to apply such principles on this update's gestures, altough they still look quite flat and all. Still, I like to work with sillouttes more rather than the more scribbly style, but like I said, I do agree they need to be more "volumetric" on some way. thanks for your input.

For today's update we have pretty much line drawings, as suggested. First 2 gesture pages are 30 sec, the last gesture page is 1 mins gestures. A few Loomis head studies from imagination using the famed divided ball and plane method, some perspective issues with some of them. A crappy soldier from imagination made during the last half of math class. Some mannekins, since my construction of the body sucks most of the time, as well as proportions. Finally, some brigeman style sketches, first two are copies from bridgeman's figure, last two are "bridgemanized" reference, the David and some random dude.

[Morderischen]

Hello there Concept Art!! I Tried to diversify a bit for this update, I include 2 gifs with the creation process for two somewhat quick figure sketches. In my travels through the wonderful interwebs, I found this "rilley method" for sketching wich I really really liked, specially for making quick figure studies, and decided to give it a go. Needless to say, I didn't quite suceed... but further practice should solve that problem, as with all things artsy. Also, made a small self portrait(that really does't look quite like me...)this is the first time I atempt to do a self portrait by the way . I think Im gonna do one daily, like many people here have done, since it seems like fun and a good study. A WIP, a still life from a can of light coke, I'm having a hard time making it look like a metallic object... I suck at photoshop ( and painting in general...sigh) so if anyone can give any pointers, please Also, daily gestures, 30 sec as usual. Enjoy.

[HolyCats]

Keep it up guy ! !They are interesting^ ^

[cgaddict]

Great to see you working so hard; Keep studying from anatomy books to help give you a better feel of the human form.

[Morderischen]

HolyCats:Thanks for the encouragement! glad you like 'em.

CgAddict: Hmm, interesting. I wonder if I should keep up the basic construction studies or jump to anatomy, now that you mention it, my anatomy is really quite simple. I guess those years of drawing simplified anime anatomy weren't very good... But I think I should keep at loomis/Bridgeman construction for a little more before going into the specific. Still, thanks for your input!

Today's update is rather...dissapointing. Truth be told, I've had a sort of block... I do try to draw, but I get frustrated at not getting down some things that I *should* have already dominated (construction, feature placement) coupled to some problems with my retarded school director. I have been less than inspired(?) to say the least. But I guess a small trip to the inspiration thread should get me going.I mostly worked from imagination, and in ballpoint pen, to force me to not make mistakes. Only a meagre 4 pages of sketches. The first 4 (+ the head in second page) are for a small engraving experiment im gonna do. The rest are just to relieve stress and whatnot. Enjoy.

[Pamz1e]

Hey! Thanks for visiting my sketchbook =) I am looking through your stuff and you seem to already know whats wrong! you are kind of hard on yourself, you are trying to improve on too many things at the same time. Something I learned is to work in steps, first - the gesture. Understand the pose, the weight, the movement, rhythm of the figure. Always do your gesture first. Then, work purely with proportion, do everything JUST to have good proportions. Don't care if your drawing is good or not, just make sure everything measures out. A good fast way is to think of it in heads http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=h...1t:429,r:2,s:0
Try to focus 100% on that for a little while.

[raminafshari]

you are working so hard , a bit shading on those pose studies could be good .

[Morderischen]

Pamz1e: You have a point, but I feel that if I don't work on that many things, I'm gonna fall behind. I know art is no competition, but if I seek to live from it to some extent, I can't afford falling behind. But I guess you are right... let's focus on one thing at a time. Thanks for passing by! Saludos desde México!

raminafshari:Ha. If only. I think I could push myself more. Like, posting daily or something. But first, lets go at a manageable pace shall we? Haha, well, I think my shading is fine for now, so I was focusing more on line, as previously suggested by other posters. Hopefully, this update is a bit more interesting, since most drawings are shaded. Apreciate that you passed by!

Today's update. Since I ALWAYS misplace something in any head I ever draw, I said FUUUUUUU YOU heads, and drew a few using loomis' method and also made some measurements. To be honest, I see a fair improvement in that last female head, but I think thats yours to judge isn't it? As always, made some gestures, and a 10 min female nude sketch. Enjoy.

[Morderischen]

Hey people. On this update, I focused on anatomy, particularly feet. A bunch of loomis' feet (the last one is my own foot), then some bridgman to complement. some 30 sec gestures,then I watched the anatomy streamed class I bought some time ago. Man, that was one of the most awesome things I have watched in a while. Tons of info, and also very practical. I think I can now make better use of bridgman's book, as well as anatomy books in general. Made a few(very few) sketches and notes, althogh not too many since I was mainly absorbing the info. And, can you belive it? Frazetta learnt from brigman's book. That gives me hope haha. Enough babble, here are the drawings ^^.

[Morderischen]

Hey there folks. This update will be splitted on two parts, I'll post the first part now, and will post part 2 later on the night. today's studies and other stuff include(in order of appearance): A small Rango fanart (I really liked that movie), anatomy studies from imagination, based on the previous "anatomy for artists" streamed class sketches, 30 sec gestures, quick soldier sketch based on some unposted(?) military equipment sketches, a mini comission of a dude, loosely based on thundercats/saint seiya, blind contour hands(god the awfulness) 1 min gestures where I tried to apply the first few concepts taugth on the FORCE book (one line per idea, applied and directional force), tests for textures with pencil and finally a sketch from a cenote trying to use those texturized strokes. Crits and comments more than welcome.

Edit: Oh how I love my short term memory... I just forgot all my sketching stuff back with the dentist. Go me. Will post part 2 tomorrow. Sigh.

[Morderischen]

It took me a little longer to recover my belongings... but I had my backup pencils and sketch pads thankfully. This time, I focused a bit more on rendering and values and all that good stuff. Namely, I realized while sketching peoples on the cinema, I suck at drapery, therefore, I did two drapery studies (one is still a WIP). Skull study, also, a WIP. Mech designs, mainly to study perspective grids. Some shitty super quick doodles, and a shitty sauce metal-thingy, along with a face I made while traveling in the car, also quite shitty. Military cameras and scopes, along with a referenced mech head. And that pretty much covers it.

[Morderischen]

Oh snap, Long time no see. Still in exam period, not much time to upload stuff. Thre should be a function tu upload batches of images or something... anyways. for this update We have small watercolor pencil test drawings, a mango, two sunsets and some bushes. I sticked with primary colors except in the bushes one, and one were I used brown for the sunset. All from observation. I'd like to think These aren't that awful right?

...right?

Anyways, also we have sketches from various sources, mainly streamed classes, the ones about female figure and the sketchbook clinic (the horses are sketches from the sketches of tolouse lautrec for example). I also made quite a few getures, but the post is quite big without them, so I will not include them. A few from life, like the leaf and the other thing below it that is supposed to be my bread I had for breakfast on saturday, a very quick apple from imagination and hand studies, a very crappy cloud aaand I guess that covers it for now. Sorry for the long time without posting. first batch:

[Morderischen]

Part 2:

[prsnsweeney]

hey nice start so far i would recomend doing a whole ton of studies of the face and facial features then doing anatomy studies of the body and then practice gesture drawing good stuff so far keep workin hard

[Morderischen]

@prsnsweeney: Holy molly someone replied.I hadn't noticed until now, and apparently you comunicated with me on a telepathic level, cause I unconsciously followed your advice xD made a bunch of faces and 3 self portraits, although I'm only uploading the one that actually looks like me and a lot of other stuff related to a little project I got into. I'll only uload the "faces of evil" for now, and then I'll post the rest of it. Thanks for taking your time to reply!

I think I was pretty straightfoward with the previous answer. A bunch of referenced faces (most don't look like who they are supposed to be, hence, faces of evil, bonus points to whoever catchs the reference), a couple of them from imagination, the very stylized ones obviously, and a self portrait that actually looks like me! I know...not very impressive but hell I feel good about it cause it looks like me!(with a fatter nose, oh well...) My portrait attempts always look so not like who I am portraiting...but this time it does!. Also included some other random crap, Like the future ninja dude, and I specially like the starfleet carrier heading into the stars thing. It originally started as two converging lines, and then it went all nuts xD. Also, I'd appreciate some feedback, as minimum as this can be, I can't improve further without people telling me were I suck.

Well I can, but it will be much slower, so pretty please?

[prsnsweeney]

hahah i wish i had telepathy... nice ninja man i like it ok for the faces nice job with having the underlying grid to keep the features in line now i would work on studying each feature do drawings of eyes noses mouths ears and from all sorts of angles then after you practice drawing each one then try doing a portrait study to tie it all together

[jbrown67]

awesome studies! your life drawing is looking great as are your figures. Make sure you keep you personal drawings like mechs and such in 3d space, they are looking 2d in some parts and 3d in others. try to apply your studies to your personal work a bit more and they will look incredible! keep up the good work.

[Morderischen]

Hey CA. Sorry for the long absense, but i swear it takes more time to upload and clean all the artwork that actually producing it... anyways, it's been about a month since the last update, sorry 'bout that but don't think I've slaking no sir! Now unto the replies:

prsnsweeney: I broke a bit from making faces to experiment a bit more with perspective, and this little project I got into has had me somewhat occupied. I'm gonna follow your advice and do a portrait somehwere this week. Thanks for stopping by!

jbrown67: Hey! thanks for coming along this way! I'm glad you find those studies good, however I need to push myslef a bit more in that aspect... I wanna make a 'long study" somethign more than an hour long...that looks more finished. So keep your eyes peeled . And yes I figured I needed to work on my perpective to think more 3D, So I've began working with these "perpoective grids" a la feng zhu, It really has worked for me with the last two vehicles I did so I'm finding that method very practical. I now just have to practice in order to achive accuracy.Again, thanks for visiting my lil' SB.

Now for the artwork summary. Since It's about a month of stuff, I'll upload just a batch of 10 or so images, and upload the rest in the next few days, untill I catch up. First, we have some weapon designs I made to show to a small group of informatic ingeneering students who are workign on a small workshop on videogames. They needed people to do some concept art stuffs and I decided to give it a shot. I got in, more because of necessity than skill (it's a fairly small group, we need everyone we can get) I am excited because this is my first serious or semiserious project. I would post some of the stuff I have been doing for them, but I'm not sure if I can post this stuff yet, so I'll have to ask. Next we have some eyes because, well, I wnated to do different color eyes just for the heck of it. Next, back and profile torso studies, based on bridgman and some reference, the ones in ballpoint pen are from imagination. Finally, a study to understand all parts of regular medieval armor, in order to better design well, armor. and that's it for now. Enjoy ^^:

[Morderischen]

Hey there. For today we have a few concepts for my game project, a few armor and sword ideas. Apparently I am not under any kind of NDA so it's fine The first 4 and the shaded armor are related to the project, the rest are usual daily practice and the likes, gestures, 3 very quick sketches from some religious art exposition I went (over here there is a lot of religious art and religion influenced social events) , a few hogarth studies along with some just for fun sketches, a soldier and an ethreal kinf of thing female and I think that covers it. Crits and comments welcome as always.

Edit: what the hell attachment manager... Sigh here come the images.