Zari's Sketchbook

[thebadkitty]

Hi, I'm new to CA. I came here from deviantART because, while I love drawing manga, there's nothing to grow off of as far as other art goes.

So, I come in search of critique and constructive criticism

Anyway, here's my sketchbook. Not much now, but I thought I should post something.

Most of what I have are quick sketches I've made of classmates while I was bored, in pen on notebook paper, in about 10 minutes each. Some of them noticed what I was doing and were nice enough to hold still for me. I'd love to take a life drawing class some day, but I have a busy schedule. Or ANY art class, in that case; I've always wanted to take one.





This one I began, but the lady was such an insufferable bitch I didn't feel like spending any of my time drawing the rest of her head. So I just started doodling.


This one I didn't finish the head of either, and I started drawing a random eye.


This one is one of my favorite things I've drawn lately. I had a box of crayola markers in my purse (for some reason), so I thought I'd try something new. Looks cooler if you tilt your head and squint.


Thank you for visiting my sketchbook!

[thebadkitty]

I'm a huge John Williams Waterhouse fan, so I thought I'd do a quick sketch of "A Mermaid".

I have this in the "art study" section right now. I'm going to be sketching her a lot.

[Rabid]

I can see especially in the last one how some Manga is carrying over into your studies but overall you have an excellent start. If you are going to crosshatch with pen I can help you out. Try several pen styles with loose and tight hatching, see what effects it gives you. Also, do full body poses, whenever you can. This will help you with size and height relationships in the future. And do get a sketchbook or carry it always because the notebook lines can be distracting. Good hunting!

[Atlantis]

Good faces; I think it's also a really good idea to draw from life with pen a lot, since the whole permanence factor makes you think your lines through more and teaches confidence, so good thinking there too.

It looks like you have a pretty good understanding of the features and the overall layout of the face, but it seems like your heads are lacking a little bit in the construction department, leading to some problems with proportion. If you can get your hands on some of George Bridgman's books (the guy who taught Norman Rockwell!), I think that his conception of the head as large blocks is very helpful in this regard.

Definite talent; keep drawing.

[Nam]

I agree with Rabid about the manga influence. Maybe lose some of the unecessary detail too.

Anyways, good start, keep it up.

[thebadkitty]

Thanks for all the feedback, guys!

Nam - I hadn't really thought about 'unnecessary details'. Thanks for pointing that out. I get kinda caught up in scribbling everything I see.

Atlantis - I'll definitely try and find a George Bridgman book. I looked him up, and he really <i>is</i> good. Blocking would definitely help with my proportions issue. Pens rock

Rabid - I took your advice and bought a sketchbook this morning. It makes sense that notebook lines can mess up your work. I liked them because big, blank pages seem kind of intimidating sometimes. I also tried playing with different crosshatching techniques a bit today on scratch paper, and I sort of remembered to practice them with my "Chocolat" sketch today (below).



Here's my sketchdump for today. I was at Blockbuster waiting for my boyfriend to get off work, so I picked different movie covers to draw from. I tried to practice head-on faces, since they're also a bit of a weak point for me. There weren't really any good full-body pictures in good enough detail, so I just stuck with faces. Maybe I'll try more bodies tomorrow.





This one I tried in pencil. NOT a fun experience for me, but I should still try and learn it. Tested my patience greatly.

[Peter Stapleton]

Hi Zari,
I think you have got a bit of a bad habit with your scribbly lines. You should take some time to practise getting the lines right first time instead of scribbling until it looks right. Take your time and slow down and get your hatching to be nice and uniform because it looks like you knock these out pretty quickly. Eventually, with some practise, you'll be very quick and very accurate with your lines.
With your last two pics both their left eyes are too small. The girl from chocolat, her lips are fine but the nose is too small as well as her eye. Get a mirror and look at your sketches through it and you'll be able to see these mistakes easier, almost like a fresh set of eyes.
You definately have some skill and these are some great sketches, just need to work your lines.

[Randomself]

good stuff all round, a nice start I must say.. I think the pencil portrait looks pretty good actually.. careful with the proportions tho, and you could push the shadows a little darker to get more contrast (I'm struggling with the darned low contrast issue quite a lot myself, haha)..

[thebadkitty]

Peter - I did knock this out pretty quickly, but you're right about my habit. Even if I did draw them fast, they shouldn't look so much like it. As for the Chocolat picture, I began drawing the left eye and the nose first, then went for the lips, and began basing everything else off the lips, so the proportions got mussed up early. Her left eye is sort of tilted funny too. Thank you for the mirror tip. I see what you mean, and I might start carrying one around with me

Random - Thanks for pointing out the contrast problem. Graphite frightens me, so I'm scared to touch it up too much in fear I'll make my usual smudgy mess.

[Rabid]

Very good sense of value in these new ones keep up these great studies... and no I'm not a comic artist but who knows...