Jaik Art Sketchbook - Beginnings

[Jaik]

EDIT (18th August 2012): Same as my last edit, better stuff is on the last page (page 10)



EDIT(1st April 2012): Please go to last page for more recent stuff, this stuff is kind of badddddd, not that page 5 is much better


Hello everyone,

First allow me to introduce myself. I am a 20-year old from Australia who has just figured out that he wants to become a concept artist.

My history in art is that I have always enjoyed drawing, through school I would doodle in my work books, in my spare time I would draw a little, but never anything serious. I did not take art in school, have no concept of colour theory, and wouldn't know incorrect (or correct for that matter) anatomy if it punched me in the face with an arm that was shorter than its other arm.

Basically, all I have is a strong desire to better myself, and one day I will become a concept artist. Its a story that is all too common on this forum, but the amount of sketchbooks which actually show true progression is inspiring to say the least.

This year I am going to be going to College of Fine Arts (COFA) university in Sydney to do a Bachelor of Fine Arts and I thought I would teach myself anatomy between now and the time that the semester starts (Beginning of March). Between this time I have sworn off playing around digitally on photoshop with my tablet and am solely focusing on pencil and paper studies.

This sketchbook will keep me motivated and I will be updating it every day (I hope), I am to draw every day for as much as I can. I was going to start on the 5th of Jan, but have been waiting for a scanner, I still dont have a scanner, but I need critiques because I am stuck and dont know what I am doing wrong. So its phone pics, but hopefully in a week or so I will have a scanner and then it will be all uphill..

I am begging for advice and critique at the moment even though these may look to bad to bother with.

I hope to get to know people here as I become an active user in this community.

Edit: First Post pics have been added to the bottom of the second post so that I could have a more interesting img in the forum.
First post ends with pre-dated 5th of January stuff. 90-second Pose maniac sketches, I didnt know where to start and this seemed as good as anything.

[Jaik]

I began with Andrew Loomis' book: Drawing the Head and Hands.
I am sure everyone is familiar with this and it is where the trouble starts, Im sure I am doing something wrong (will be on 9th of Jan upload).

[Jaik]

Sorry to be taking up posts like this.. and for image quality. Just trying to get up to date.

I kept drawing the head, but improvement was minimal at best. Still struggling with getting the features to sit right. I though it might be because I was doing them too small?

[Jaik]

I have been drawing more than this, I just wanted to give snapshots and since it is in the past, I didnt want to upload too much. I think I may be pushing it now lol.

As is plain to see I am doing something wrong, I think it has to do with the further away side of the face, but I cant seem to get it right. I worked out that in the "Plates" A. Loomis draws each individually so, not copies 1, so they are all slightly different so I went away from exact replication and moved to just following his words in the text with reference to the images.

Also, I seem to do it better one time, then worse the next.. Its a cycle thats driving me mad. Anyway, thats all up to date, still drawing today and will upload at the end, but HELP please!!!

[Jaik]

Kept drawing heads, as always.
Not really improving any more because I cant quite pick what Im doing wrong, the cheek bones were definitely too high so i started attempting to lower them a bit.
Once again, help would be appreciated.
Going to keep going at this sort of pace until Uni starts, I have a Bammes book coming in the mail but that will take a while :3

[Jaik]

Soo many heads ;_; and I'm not getting any better. Doesnt bother me, Ill get some directions when I go to Uni. Decided to do some poses, no real time limit on pose-maniacs, just didnt spend an excessive amount of time on any of them. Just doodles I guess

[Jaik]

More heads, a pose... I need to draw more, but got distracted yesterday watching Naruto... Ahwel..

Worked out I think the facial features are in the right spots no matter which way I twist the head.. Not 100% on proportions but I'll get there in time...

[Jaik]

Didnt draw at all yesterday but my Bammes book finally came n.n
So I will probably start looking at that tomorrow, or maybe I'll just keep going through Loomis.. Who knows...
Anyway, Study of Plate 6 of Drawing the Heads and Hands
I still think I am struggling with Mouths and Chins and the "Dark Side" of the head as I see it, but I'm slowly getting there, putting more details in allows me to balance it a bit better. Didnt get much done today, I actually had to work at work...
As always, someone, let me know your opinion?

[Jaik]

Ok, so last couple of days have been kind of busy with work and some parties and birthdays of close friends etc so haven't been able to draw THAT much and havent been able to post at all.
So basically, started with some figure proportion from Bammes, I am going to enjoy this book, it really took me a while to get my head around how best to use the book.
I also managed to start with 2H by 6H for some stupid reason, must of been a brain fart. Anyway fixed that up, did some more Loomis from Plate 7 and some 60 second, then 30 second Posemaniacs, I'm getting faster and I'm hoping better.

I so desperately need a flatbed scanner...

[Jaik]

Little bit of Loomis and some Bammes proportion, moving slowly I know but I spent way too much time reading stuff instead of drawing.

[Jaik]

Some Bammes and some more Loomis.

[Jaik]

Bammes and Loomis as always. Boring I know, but I want to get the fundamentals really down before I start sketching again.

[Jaik]

Finally got my scanner.
Memorising the planes of the face atm. Kinda boring stuff. Got these planes ingrained in my head now for the next ones. yay >_>

[Rarebit]

Hello,

Do you find it satisfying to study in this way? Are you having fun?
I know there is a trend on these boards to engage in this sort of study...
I urge you to stop.
Working in this way probably feels productively neutral, that you will hone your craft privately and without embarrassment to someday return to your 'real' work as an anatomy bonjwa and to find this 'real' work miraculously improved in some subjective manner.
Well. Probably not.

I suggest that you draw whatever you'd like, as much as you'd like and perserve some sense for the joy of creating.
Have the tenacity to fail publicly and repeatedly in *your* own work, and to learn from it. Members of your creative community can't help you if you choose to isolate your self with this inoffensive book work.
In regards to the study of anatomy specifically-
Draw constantly, from life (and imagination). The study of anatomy is useless without a sense for mass/form in drawing. The best way to address this is to work from life. (The best (only) way to address drawing, is to draw. Alot.)
Work on a drawing until your tired of it, put it down, use your anatomical texts to analyze the drawing you've created. Make adjustments. Repeat.
Make gesture drawings from life, whether in a drawing studio or sitting on a park bench, put them aside, draw a figure based on the information in each of your gesture drawings- relying primarily on memory/imagination.

Just my 2¢
Best of luck,

[Jaik]

Rarebit Looking at it, I think you are right. I was hoping for pretty much exactly that "If I finish this book, Ill be able to draw a face well, every time." Or the body, or some part of the body.
I think I'll still continue with the study of loomis and bammes on the side, because I enjoy it, but.. it does get tedious.
Thankyou for the post in my sketchbook, it helped a lot.

Anyway, for today I did some loomis faces, you can pretty much see exactly where I read Rarebits informative post lol. Then I did some hands from reference, and a couple of horrible horrible faces from reference. they are bad, but I'm determined to upload everything, not just the good stuff.

[Jaik]

Started drawing my hands. I know this isnt very interesting and wont get me any crits, but I need to start somewhere.. And I find it kind of fun.

Need to practice cross hatching and also set up proper lighting because Im always in consta darkness...

Oh and a value study... This was cool, I think Ill do more of them, except I dont know how to do it on anything but a cloth :3
All the lines and shading are alot smoother in real life, still getting used to this scanner..

[Jaik]

So did some more value studies, about 30min each. I attempted cross hatching on the second one, definitely need more practice at that. It came out better in the scan though, not sure why.
Then I watched the first 30min of Aeon Flux and did some gesture drawing and copies of the screen paused. Not very good but it was the first time Ive done something like this and I had fun. Might do some more.

[Jaik]

Value study, some gestures and a couple of faces from aeon flux screen pauses.
Looking forward to starting Uni so I can draw people on public transport.

[Jaik]

Was at work today so not a heap. Very disrupting, this thing called a job.
Did some value studies of fruit, trying to get down cross hatching and general form.. not too bad, not too good. Second image is the same sort of deal with the swan, then I wanted to try and do values of a portrait with only horizontal shading, no line work or vertical lines, it didnt turn out too bad, his eye is horribly off on the right, not even aligned, but I was more practising the technique. Atleast you can tell its a child and cept he is meant to be indian and I dont think he quite has the traits, oh well :3

[eclip-se]

Check this, http://www.artinstructionblog.com/dr...ight-and-shade and the other stuff i posted in my thread. Nice start, keep it up

[Jaik]

eclip-se Thanks! That link is a really good page, going through it now. Also found a video of those peanut shape things that were all over your pages so i now know what they are lol. Very fun.


Ok first page was shading from imagination, after that its all from the above mentioned tutorial. I found a video on the internet about the peanut shapes, so I've started doing some of them. Plays a lot with imagination too which I like.

[bobtail]

I think this is a nice start . I agree with what Rarebit said about loosening up and drawing what you enjoy as well as the studies, and it might be my imagination but it seemed from your posts afterwards like you're enjoying it more. There's already improvement here - keep it up!!

[Jaik]

Bobtail Thanks for the kind words! I do enjoy them, very much like the scientific side of art, I find it interesting, its the reason I want to work through bammes book and work at all the muscles and stuff. And my imagination isnt great and something I really have to work on.

Small update. Didnt do much yesterday. Tried to use some of the peanut-shape warm ups as inspiration and turn them into characters, it didnt work well.. I really want to practice some mech stuff which I may do in the next couple of days which is why I started some cube practice and lighting.

Also need to practice perspective x.x

[Jaik]

Hello all.
So today, started off with some peanut shapes, then went on to 1min gestures from pictures I found on the web.
Picked the two most suitable (the ones i remembered most of it) and rendered them from memory, about 10min each. Then worked on some Loomis and the faces, I am proud to say, actually looked like young people not 50 year old deformed circus freaks.
Then I finished up with some imagination, drawing mostly on what i did yesterday and a car. All from my imagination I am proud to say.

PS: Sorry for image spam >.<

[Jaik]

Got a couple of solid hours in.
Started with loomis, because I could, didnt go to well. Got fed up with heads and moved on.
Did some 1minute gestures of random photographs, then chose my favourites and tried some 5minute gestures. Spent too much time on the face details on the first one, more balanced on the second. Im still trying to work out what to prioritize in a gesture.
1hr 15min drawing from imagination follows, with no refs, kinda just made it up.. guess thats what you call imagination...
Then just practising different kinds of gestures, mostly done from pose maniacs. Also from the music video "The thought of you" by Ryan Woodward. Amazing. I love the way he does gestures, I learn a lot just by watching it over and over.
At the very end theres some random reffed sketches while i was waiting for a friend to arrive, she was late -.- so i didnt expect to put quite so much detail into them.

[do9]

I like you determination and that you're posting every day, fundamentals can be boring but it pays of. Maybe you already know, but there's a weekly Spartan Camp over at Community activities, they've been really useful to me, maybe it's something for you as well? Good luck, keep it up and, very nice music video

[Jaik]

do9 Thanks! And those Spartan Camp things look interesting, I missed this one but will def do the next one.

Ok so today followed the same sort of routine as other days, couple of peanut shapes, then 1min gestures. My faves were then 5minute gestures, I marked them this time so that maybe I could get some crits just on basic gesture drawing, anatomy, form etc?
5min Gestures

1. http://raw.abduzeedo.com/post/169770...-rocha-is-lake
2. http://bestbookmarks.net/art/ani-hum...ennette-newell
3. http://www.cuded.com/wp-content/uplo...r_1600_931.jpg
4. http://qinni.deviantart.com/art/Let-Me-Out-190672677

After this i practised some movement sort of gestures from Bammes, and sitting down. I decided not to spend as much time on this and move on to the head and skull as Ill be doing gestures pretty often anyway.

PS. My imagination still sucks.. I mean really? a slug and a "female" cartoon dragon.. WELL DONE... *claps self* >.>

[alizak]

Hi just wanted to say that you and I are probably at about the same stage - I think you are doing an awesome job with all of your studies and hope we can both grow on CA - good luck!

[TFsean]

Hi there Jaik,

You are drawing a lot so thats a good thing, I actually already see some progress already, some of your poses now look more natural.

The biggest tip I would give is, yes draw a lot but dont let quantity over ride quality, and I dont mean quality as in finished pieces I mean how valuable the sketches and studies are to your development.
The biggest thing that will help you improve is being super active in your thinking whilst drawing, why is this like this, why does this make this etc.

I look forward to seeing you progress

[Jaik]

Alizak Thanks for the encouragement, I hope we can help each other in the future
TFSean Quality over quantity is probably a good way to go now. I do take notes on what I learn in a separate notebook, but I've taken in your advice today and forced myself to study values by copying images instead of just orbs. Any crits would be helpful!


Ok so today. Sorry guys! But I dont have that much to put up ;_; but I hope the pieces have a bit better quality to them today. Atleast in showing my progress thus far.

The first, you can see a new warm up technique Im using, drawing straight lines, curves, circles etc. Im really trying to improve my line quality. Then over the top I did two value studies of images.. They turned out okay. The Originals are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliejigsaw/6798630171/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a-a-m_2010/6791186451/

Then was a gesture drawing, half ref, half imagination.. Dont know why she has a saucepan and a kitchen knife.. its no better than the transvestite dragon.. But i tried to do some cross hatching and shading. Failed miserably. And her face looks like she was hit with the pan she is carrying...

Then another value study. This one is probs my fave so far, from ref again. Wish I thought of this concept.. but I didnt..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenrhazlett/6733541757/