Sir_Cam's Art Stuff

[Jussslic]

This is a really inspiring sketchbook! I know you consider yourself a novice, but there are some really beautiful sketches in here, and you certainly seem to possess the dedication that will get you where you wanna be! i love the confidence in your line

definitely lookin forward to whatever's next, now that you're getting into draping

[Sir Cam]

Jussslic- I appreciate your comment. I'm going to be experimenting with many new things soon as I have finally become comfortable enough to split my attention between figure drawing and some other areas of study. The only reason I held back on that for so long is that I feared slipping backward.

These are just some quick sketches done with a fountain pen. I feel that this is the beginning of an important stage in my learning and I am curious to see where it leads. Though these sketches really aren't that great, they aren't as stiff as my work usually is. I will post some recent material of my other areas of study soon enough.

[Sir Cam]

If anyone wonders why I don't update my sketchbook that often, it is because I don't really draw all that often. I've heard of artists having all sorts of intense training regiments (25-50 drawings a day, etc.), I just can't find the will to commit myself to that I guess. I can barely even do a single non half-assed drawing a day, I know that I'll never go pro with that. I just don't feel the motivation that the others seem too, maybe I'm uninspired. I actually spend most of my time drawing but I do so in an extremely lazy fashion causing 99% of my work to be bad. This almost always leads to intense frustration, as if I didn't know what was causing it in the first place. If I were actually posting everything that I draw, I'd be on page 20 by now.

I'm just posting these for a lack of better material to post. Not good, but not as bad as the other stuff I've cooked up lately. Sorry to be such a downer, I've been having a bit of an artist's block for a couple weeks now which is starting to wear on me I guess.

Edit: I removed the female drawing because I just didn't want to look at it anymore. It has nothing to do with any of the posters at all so don't worry about that, I just don't like the drawing.

[dierat]

Hey there, sorry to hear you've been down about your work. I think in general a good activity when you're in an artist block is to try something new, some new medium or subject. That's because when you're just starting something new, something you've never done before, it's easy to get lost in the exploration of learning. The all-time biggest motivation problem for artists is perfectionism and feeling like everything has to be amazing, which means they're never satisfied with their own work and start to feel like they shouldn't even start a piece because it just won't be good enough. Also if you haven't already, check out the motivation/inspiration thread in the art discussion forum; there are a lot of threads in there about overcoming artblocks, etc. (This one's my absolute favorite.)

Artblock discussion aside, I think the second piece you posted is fab. Your figures have a very particular style that I really enjoy. Her proportions (primarily the torso vs. hips proportions) feel a little off but it really adds to the style of the drawing.

Keep up the good work!

[Bartovan]

Hey man, don't give up! Your drawings are great. Motivation is like a pendulum: sometimes up, sometimes down. You've got to find something to keep you busy when it's down. You might want to try some new media (watercolors or so) or a different approach to get yourself going again.

[Sir Cam]

dierat-Thanks for the recommendations. I took your advice about trying something different as I had already been meaning to learn to work with watercolor. I agree completely about her proportions being off. I have a lot of difficulty with human proportions, especially with females. I still don't have it quite right but I'm trying to tweak them little by little hoping to get it right eventually. You could say that I'm learning through trial and error which is honestly how I've done most of my artistic study without a proper instructor. It is a slow method.

Bartovan-Thanks much for the comfort, I was having an off day I guess. I have been starting to feel a bit better about my work in the last few days so I think that I am coming out of the block I was in.

These are the sketches I've done recently, some of which I'm moderately pleased with, others not so much. I do feel that they're better than the last batch at least. I've been trying to learn painting recently and have been experimenting with watercolor which is probably a dumb place to start learning since I've heard that it is somewhat unforgiving compared to say... acrylic or pastel. The reason that I started with watercolor is simply that I've always loved the stylization. For instance, I've always found the old Japanese and Chinese prints very beautiful. I've seen some amazing watercolors from Albrecht Durer as well, I'm sure there's more. I'll probably be doing a still life or two with pastel in the near future.

[AustenFM]

Those water colors actually turned out really nice, especially if you just started working with it. The face is beautiful, the depth you achieved with those shades is great, though don't forget to shade her neck from the shadow cast by the chin. When I squint her neck blends in with her face flattening it out a considerable amount,.

Lookin' good!

[Sir Cam]

AustenFM- You're very right about that. I need to get used to squinting to check my value variation, I'm not in the habit since I normally just do linear work. I'll be more aware of it next time, thanks for bringing it up.

I was digging through my old sketches today and I realized that even though I often feel that I am lazy and don't draw half as much as I should, I've done a shitload of work to get to where I'm at in the last 2 years. I've done far more studies than I myself even remember doing and I can see that I've worked just as hard as the folks around Concept Art that I admire. I know that I have an incredibly long way to go before I'll be where I'd like to be but this thought made feel a little better about my current skills.

Nothing special this post, a slick looking digital drawing but that doesn't mean anything in my opinion. I learned that the external Oblique should be grouped with the lower half of the Rectus Abdominus muscle through drawing it though (it's not in the drawing) so it wasn't a waste of time. The original pencil drawing is to the right of it so you can see what I adjusted. The drawing was very loosely based on a drawing by Glenn Vilppu. And then there's some older blue doodles I did.

[Sir Cam]

This drawing was loosely based on a painting by Raphael. There are plenty of problems with it. The structure and anatomy is simply too ill-defined and the tone is ridiculous. I also think that the arm is too long. I need to use more control. I'll post more stuff next time.

[Sir Cam]

Hey look at that, some actual sketches in my sketchbook thread. Some of these are Vilppu studies, some are drawn from imagination. It's funny, Everyone stresses the importance of the cube form (and it is important) but I am actually starting to feel that the sphere is the most fundamental of all.

[Sir Cam]

These are all actually old drawings, sketches and doodles that I just never got around to posting. I'm mainly just posting them now because I don't really have anything else to show. The last one is an old drawing that I actually did post a few pages back but I added some highlights for fun which I thought looked okay (doesn't fix the obvious problems with the wrists and ankles though). I am currently working on a drawing which I intend to paint so hopefully I can show something a little different next time around.

[Sir Cam]

Assorted doodles.

[Kogaras]

really like the doodles, seeing all those curves pushing for those poses

[DiR3Kt]

Your use of the Sheldon/Vilppu tools is inspiring, that is a nice sketchbook! *subscribed*

It's funny, Everyone stresses the importance of the cube form (and it is important) but I am actually starting to feel that the sphere is the most fundamental of all.

Hey don't forget the cylinder

Why not try to apply the gesture and construction to other things ? Can be horse, cat, landscape whatever... I think you can really learn alot (and find new motivations/satisfactions) by diversifing your art.

[Spaggen]

You are on fire man! Really really nice studies in here. Great understanding of the human form and very clean and confident lines.

Keep it going, you're doing great!

[Sir Cam]

spaggen- Thanks very much. It's definitely something that I still need to work on though, my drawings tend to be stiff.

DiR3Kt- Of course, the cylinder is useful aswell. It is neat that you recognize that I study their methods, I take that as a compliment considering I swear by their teachings. About drawings animals/environments and such, I suppose my rationale is just to take my studies one step at a time. I am still really weak in the area of drapery and I'm certainly no master of figure drawing. I have been dabbling in composition lately in the hopes that I could draw a decent scene but so far it seems over my head. I'll see what I can do though, maybe I'll be able to get something decent down. Thanks for the comment.

Spraggen-Thanks, you're too complimentary haha. I appreciate the comment though. I'm still working on the basics.

I have been feeling strangely able in my work lately but unfortunately, I am suffering a cold that is making it difficult to concentrate on my studies. These are all pretty sloppy for that reason but still they turned out at least satisfactory. I'm not beating myself up over the digital drawing this time because I didn't fall back on the digital media to fix a bad drawing. Rather, the drawing was already decent in pencil but tough to see so I went over it digitally to clarify the structure. I also digitally brightened some of the highlights on the toned drawing because it lacked contrast, something that happens often in my work. If the tone looks a bit inconsistent (it is) this is because I was sort of making it up as I went along. Hopefully I'll draw something more impressive soon.

[kitfox]

Hello,

sorry to hear about your cold. Read through your sketchbook and I really like your figure drawing stuff. Even though you keep saying you still need to work on basics and don't want to move to other stuff yet, I'd say you have a rather solid foundation. I think you've got enough understanding to push your art to a more finished level, if you will. You can always spent a little extra time on correcting your base figure and anatomy before adding up details.

If you don't want to mix up figure drawing with say clothing and folds etc, you could always do seperate studies of them. Studying values and tones on drapery is going to push on the same things for your figures. Learning to bring out different forms and shapes is not going to do any harm.

Working on foundation and basics is good, but I feel like it's something that always needs to be worked on. It's always going to be there. Focusing solely on basics might be holding you back from where you want to go with your art.

Great stuff nonetheless, keep it up!
(and thanks for the advice in my SB! ^^)

-Kit

[Sir Cam]

kitfox- What you've written makes a lot of sense to me, I agree 100%. In all honesty, it is just my nasty habit of giving up on a drawing the instant I sense that it is turning out poorly that is limiting my progress. I know full well how to maximize my rate of improvement in theory, but in practice it just comes down to discipline and this is where I fail. There are a lot of excuses I could make but the fact remains that I am hindering my own progress by continuing to do what I have been doing. I will not post again at Conceptart until I have some material that demonstrates my genuine efforts to improve, that is an oath. Hopefully I will take care of this sooner rather than later, procrastination is another one of my downfalls.

I was trying to be more aware of the Anatomy in these two but it is clearly off. The main problems that I am noticing is that I was thinking about anatomy before ryhthm and planes which simply killed the drawings. Not only that but the anatomy is certainly not as clearly defined as I had intended. I also think that I positioned the scapulae too far out from the torso in the blue drawing (which was a study of one of Aztecfireflower's drawings by the way). I need a lot more practice.

[krel]

Like your studies, man. Keep going

[Sir Cam]

krel- Thank you, I will.

I have been making genuine efforts to improve (I do hope it shows through in my work lol). I recently bought an amazing book on constructive figure drawing by a former student of Vilppu's, Michael Hampton. To be honestly, just by looking at the illustrations (I haven't read it yet) I'd have to say that this might possibly be the best book that I've ever owned on the subject, the drawings are incredibly thorough and simultaneously very clean and understandable. I've already learned a lot just by examining his work.

[TheHut]

I love this stuff. Impressive and inspirational. My only crit is that you need to do more face Studies. You seem to avoid the face the most. The faces you did draw lacked the intense accuracy and construction of your bodies. Your line quality is beautiful.

[Sir Cam]

TheHut- Thanks for the comment. Heads are indeed one of my weak point but to be honest, hands and feet give me more trouble. I have been meaning to practice head drawing anyways though so I'll be posting more of that soon. My problem with it tends to be getting my proportions right, lol.

Here are some more studies where I was mainly focused on proper construction of the figure. I need to pay closer attention to my proportions for sure. I am going to try to work more and more anatomy into my studies so hopefully I can post something like that soon. The head drawing does illustrate more or less my procedure in drawing heads. Rhythms and planes, rhythms and planes, rhythms and planes... oh, and proportions are important too lol.
__________________

[SecretSauce]

I'm seeing very nice improvement on the studies. Michael Hampton was actually my life drawing teacher for a couple of years when I went to college. Hes an awesome guy. Keep it up!

[Sir Cam]

SecretSauce- That's really cool that you were his student, I wish that I had the privilege of studying under such a skilled artist.

I've been try hard to improve lately but honestly, I have a feeling that I might overestimate my own abilities. If I didn't have high expectations in the first place then I wouldn't be disappointed with my work as often as I am. I see these beautiful illustrations in books that I read but when I try to emulate them, my work just comes out all wrong, lol. I haven't given up or anything, I've just been quite confused as to why I struggle so much.

[dierat]

Great work dude! I love seeing your process through the rougher construction sketches; it's really educational and inspirational for someone like me. I'm sorry to hear you're struggling to find improvement, but I've found for myself that periods like this are often the result of having found the 'glass ceiling' of my current skill level, and is often followed by a period of happy improvement once I've found the way around my current roadblock.

Just curious, but do you ever work from photos or models? I wonder if doing some referenced figure drawing might help you through this, as a way of comparing your current process and knowledge to real-life examples. And then you could also study the gesture and weight of the figure to ground your unreferenced studies better.

[Sir Cam]

Great work dude! I love seeing your process through the rougher construction sketches; it's really educational and inspirational for someone like me. I'm sorry to hear you're struggling to find improvement, but I've found for myself that periods like this are often the result of having found the 'glass ceiling' of my current skill level, and is often followed by a period of happy improvement once I've found the way around my current roadblock.

Just curious, but do you ever work from photos or models? I wonder if doing some referenced figure drawing might help you through this, as a way of comparing your current process and knowledge to real-life examples. And then you could also study the gesture and weight of the figure to ground your unreferenced studies better.

Thanks for the comment. Honestly, I seem to struggle with my work every other week so I should really quit bringing it up, haha.

I draw with photo reference often, though those drawings may be somewhat indistinguishable from my other work. This is because I try very hard not to copy. Sometimes I try so hard that I may as well just be drawing from imagination, lol. I agree 100% that I should pay closer attention to what I'm referencing but it is a very very fine line between paying close attention and copying. It requires a huge amount of control that I honestly lack. I will keep trying, but it's not easy.

It is fairly easy to pick out the drawings I did with reference, just look for the stiffest most illogical poses and you'll probably have found yourself a drawing I did from a photo. Strangely, I don't have much trouble at all working from master paintings. This is probably because the design and action are both already clarified making my job significantly easier. That is what makes drawing from photos so tough, the translation of the pose into the elements of design. I still can't do it well.

[Sir Cam]

The female quick sketch makes me realize my bad habit of not getting the head over the foot that is holding the weight which stiffens my poses. I really need to get a hold of that. Starting with the next post, I want to attack my weak points. Hands, feet, heads, drapery, and color. I can't procrastinate forever.

[kitfox]

Hello again!

Glad to see you busy working on stuff. I was reading through your sketchbook and noticed a trend that's showing up especially in your recent work. I don't know if it's an intended style you're going for or if you're just busy focusing on other aspects. Check your proportions. Your torso seems to stretch up to 4 heads long sometimes. That makes your legs look too short in relation and the figure seems unstable. If the figure is 8 heads tall (artistic proportions) the torso shouldn't be much taller than 3 heads. Legs and feet should be about 4 heads long in this case, crotch being the half way point of the figure.

I just found this a bit strange since in your older figures you've got the proportions 'correct' in my opinion. It's nothing major to fix, just pay attention how the figure changes with the proportions. I think your problem with weight of the figure feeling wrong might have something to do with this.

-Kit

[Sir Cam]

kitfox- No, not intentional at all lol. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I will definitely keep a closer eye on that. I've always had trouble with proportions actually, It is one of the many areas that I need to develop. I'll try to figure it out.

Here is a quick drapery study of Michelangelo's famous painting and a quick Anatomy/structure study. The drapery bothered me to no end, I feel that it is confusing and illogical. I need a lot more practice. I'm not satisfied with either of these and hopefully the next submission will be better.

[Sir Cam]

More quick studies, the face and the female quick sketch were from imagination.