Ice Crystal's Sketchbook

[Ice Crystal]

Lately, I have felt that I am making no progress in my art at all.... I have been lurking here for a while now, and I finally decided to start a sketchbook. Hopefully I'll see improvement as I go on?

These drawings are from before summer, but I thought I should put them since I haven't taken much time on drawings since.... I am horrible at drawing from imagination, so I drew all of these from pictures in books and the internet.

[Rhoades]

Hey, I'd say that's a pretty good start! My advice would be to work on shading, but even before that I would take more time making sure the perspective is dead on. I to am working on that, It's difficult! Keep sketching, and maybe check out a few anatomy books (even learning the human anatomy will help with drawing animals.) Anyways, take care and keep up the good work!

[Ice Crystal]

These are drawings since August... I might be posting too much... >_> I don't know how long I will have access to a scanner for, so I thought I should put these in as well.

There are actually some drawings I did from imagination here...

[Ice Crystal]

Thanks for the advice, Rhoades! I'll work on my perspective first... I've actually started drawing from a Bridgman book in an attempt to learn human anatomy.

[Enydimon]

Avoid feathering your lines as much as you can. Long and sweeping.

Keep studying and doing those exercises. Really try to understand what's going on. Keep going!

[Ice Crystal]

Thanks for the advice, Enydimon, I'll try to improve my line quality - I was attempting to do so today, and I found it difficult. My lines felt stiff, but hopefully they will become looser in time.

The cheetah was from a picture of Sooper-Deviant from DA. The digitals there are the sad products of overblending... I read the Digital Painting thread after, so hopefully the next will be better.

[Ice Crystal]

Exams have been taking up my time, so I have not drawn very much.

[Brightdreamer]

Oooh! Nice kitties!

For animal anatomy books, I personally like Jack Hamm's How to Draw Animals; he does a good job breaking down mammalian anatomy, and he has a nice section on cats in particular. (His dog section's a bit anemic, though...) I also like those Eyewitness-type kid science books; they often have a little anatomy in them, and lots of nice, clear pictures to sketch and study.

[Ice Crystal]

Thanks, I really needed a source to learn animal anatomy from.

I haven't drawn much recently.... I'm going to focus on the basics from now on, since I never really learned them. First, though, I need to post older things that I have been too lazy to scan.

[Ice Crystal]

Some Bridgman drawings that have been sitting in my sketchbook.

[Ice Crystal]

I'm actually fairly pleased with this still life from class... It's turning out better than I thought.

[Ice Crystal]

I need to draw faces more often and learn how to shade. Seems like I've forgotten that there are more pencils than just HB.

[Ice Crystal]

I only did I drawing off the cover of Natural Geographic.

[Ice Crystal]

Weird! I've been trying to upload my drawings for weeks, but it hasn't been working until today. The only images I have scanned are old, though.

[Ice Crystal]

I have new drawings that I have yet to scan.... currently, I'm working on a drawing for a contest. It's for a book series, Temeraire, about dragons. I've been working on it for a while, but it seems like I've just started.

[Ice Crystal]

Some more drawings. Still no studies, but I'll probably start later today.

[Ice Crystal]

I've been drawing people. Seems like I really need to get started on some sort of anatomy book.

[Ice Crystal]

I'm planning on starting on a Loomis book today, but I'm not quite sure which one.