UrbanHermits's Sketchbook

[UrbanHermit]

Hello Everyone,

I am a 23 year old who has just began drawing this year. I was always interested in drawing for fun as a small child but really never considered pursuing it seriously. Recently I decided to start drawing for a hobby again and I have now decided to see if I can get good enough get something more out of drawing other than just a hobby. I am interested in becoming an artist in the video game industry in the future, although my plans may change depending on how I progress.

I have started this sketchbook so I can get advice and guidance on how I can achieve my goals from this network of artists. I welcome constructive criticism from you all. I am starting form the very beginning so my work won't be great but hopefully that will change with plenty of practice. I draw most days and will post my drawings as often as possible.

I was really inspired by the progress of MindCandyMan's sketchbook which gave me the motivation to do this so I thank him for the inspiration.

[UrbanHermit]

Here are some recent studies from the Loomis book on drawing heads, I tried not to just copy the examples in the book but draw the sphere in various postions of my choice;

[UrbanHermit]

Studies on the bones and muscles that form the head. I did some eyes from memory after reading how the are constructed, the first 5 are crap but the last 2 aren't so bad I think;

[RickyS]

Hello! These studies are a good start! However it would also be nice to see some of your drawings from imagination to see how you can apply these studies to your work. After doing a session of studying you should try to draw what you've been studying from memory to see if it benefited you.

Also you seem to have a good understanding of structure based on your sphere studies from Loomis, however your ellipses need a bit of work for the most part. I would recommend learning a bit of mechanical perspective and technical drawing. It might seem boring, but it helps a lot with freehand sketching when you understand the principles behind it. Plus if you want to design vehicles later this is essential to know!

Other than that you have a good eye and clean lines, so keep posting. And here's a link to an article that explains ellipses if you're interested: Ellipses

[UrbanHermit]

RickyS, Your right my ellipses need some work. I plan to do some perspective studies this week and will be sure to work on my ellipses like you mentioned. I plan to start doing some faces from memory soon as well to help me use what I am learning. Thanks for the advice.

[krel]

Nice studies, man. I like how serious you take them. Keep posting, looking forward to more!

[hummel1dane]

Great start!
Yes definitely study perspective. According to Leonardo it's the backbone of the craft!

I will also recommend Vilppu and Robert Beverly Hale of course. Not to mention Gottfried Bammes and Bridgeman.

Hope you suceed in your career plans.

[TheButterBunny]

hey there, good start so far. I'm pretty new too and was doing the exact same Loomis studies the same day! I however was not as patient as you and looking at how much better you seem to understand them than me I think I'll go back and look at them again!

I agree with RickyS too, studeies are very important and I really admire the effort your putting in, but why not break it up a little! let us see what you can do!

Good Luck

Katie

[UrbanHermit]

Thanks for the comments

Krel Thats the plan try and take it seriously to achieve my goals of becoming good at drawing.

Hummel1Dane Yeah, perspective is important it's just so bloody boring! I am waiting for the book Figure Drawing: Design and Invention so you will see some full body drawings when I get this book.

TheButterBunny I find with Loomis you need to go slow because the way his book is structured it's hard to understand unless you take your time. I will start putting these studies into practice soon as well.

[UrbanHermit]

I took your advice and did some perspective studies today to improve my ellipses.

I did some still life drawings of objects in my room to practice values. I also did some spheres from memory

There are some random sketches I did as well of my feet and eyes. Plus a copy of a Leonardo Da Vinci drawing.

If someone could give me some advice on how to improve my values it would be very welcome.

[Turbosnail]

You've made a good start here mate. Keep up this impressive work rate my friend!!

[paperX]

great start man, I'll subscribe to this thread, hope you become another mindcandyman!

hmm just some advice, try not to be too systematic with rendering, try and observe/feel the form and structure of what you're drawing.

Edges are another thing that helps to convey form (soften edges to push parts back and harden/sharpen to pull things forward), this helps create contrast, marry this with contrast in value and you get a spacial sense in your forms.

Try see if you can get anything out of the Reilly method (explained here by Erik gist) :

http://www.erikgist.com/ErikGist_Wat...reTutorial.pdf

Keep working hard!

[UrbanHermit]

Turbosnail, Thanks for taking a look at my sketchbook.

PaperX, Thanks for the advice on shading and subscribing as well. That link you posted didn't work but I found an e-book with the Reilly Method explained in full.

I moved on to constructing the primary planes of the face from the Loomis book. Rather than just copy the images, I read the book then drew heads at various angles from memory to help me remember the planes. I did plan to do more today but I have a cold so need some rest.

[AustenFM]

Say man, thanks for the compliments in my SB! It looks like your off on the right track so far, Loomis was my gold standard when I first started to get serious about my art, he is brilliant when it comes to setting the foundation for your drawings. Once you get comfortable with what Loomis is teaching you, you should check out the anatomy books by George Bridgman.

http://ia311507.us.archive.org/1/ite...00briduoft.pdf

http://ia311518.us.archive.org/3/ite...a009564mbp.pdf

You can right click those links and click "save link as" to save the PDF's to your computer, they will be invaluable to you in the future.

Keep it up amigo, You're looking great so far ! I'll be around!

[UrbanHermit]

AustenFM, thanks for the links to the Bridgeman books. I will keep them saved for a later date.

I feel like crap today with this cold I have so didn't feel in the mood to draw. Although I forced myself to draw these heads using the little I have learnt from using the Loomis book. I took previous advice and did them from imagination to test my knowledge. They are pretty basic but will get better in the future hopefully. I will start doing more drawing when this cold clears up.

[purb36]

hey dude, thx for stopping by my place. your work is looking good, coming along strong. keep working hard! just to remember, there is also a plane under the chin that goes to the neck...your perspective on these also needs work. maybe you could get a like, plastic model of the head to draw from? or like, take the head off of a Ken doll? This might help you in thinking about perspective in regards to heads. i will draw up something for you to show what i mean.

*hope this helps; if not, ask me to explain more, and i will. take care!

[paperX]

hey man, purb36 did a great job with the correcting, I was gonna say that the proportions looked off on some of those heads.

Also, your works from imagination still shows that you are drawing from the "idealised" version of the human head from your mind. I urge you to look more into construction, bridgman, studying from reference and life just to get more knowledge and experience into your imagination work.

Btw, sorry about that link, here's the correct one:

http://www.erikgist.com/ErikGist_Wat...reTutorial.pdf

[UrbanHermit]

I haven't been drawing for about 2 weeks now due to illness so haven't updated since then. I had flu one week then got a tooth infection the next week. I am better now so I am back drawing again and updates should be more regular.

PaperX, I know those attempts at drawing heads are pretty rubbish. I will take my time with my studies on head construction before I attempt them again I think.

Purb36, I took what you said about the plane beneath the chin and have applied it to my recent studies on the facial planes. They do look better now so thanks for the advice.

I have decided to use a different book to learn about the construction of the head for now Loomis's book is good but hard to follow. So I am using ' Figure Drawingesign and Invention' which explains more clearly on how to construct the head. I will come back to the Loomis book in the future.

So here are some more facial plane studies trying out the methods from this book, they are all done from my imagination. I also did some ear drawings from the book. Lastly I did a quick sketch of a girl I saw in a dentist waiting room and one of my own hand.

[purb36]

these look TONS better, man. definitely a good pick-up; the hampton book is really good, imo. just remember with perspective stuff, if you're looking from above, you're not going to see the underside of the nose. so it's okay not to draw it, depending on the viewing angle. don't try to force it into the picture, cause you're not always going to see it. anyway, keep up the good work, i think you're DEFINITELY going about it the right way.

[Turbosnail]

Nice updates UH!! Keep up with those anatomical studies. They're definitely worth the time. Keep pushing yourself my friend!!

[UrbanHermit]

Purb36- Thanks, hopefully they will get even better. I would definitely recommend the Hampton book to anyone else interested in figure drawing. I see what you mean about the nose as well so I did some studies on the nose to give me an idea of some of the various angles it needs to be drawn.

Turbosnail I will keep it up but I need to push a lot harder.

I really need to update more often so I am going to sort out a loose schedule from next week to work from. This will give me some structure to my drawing by having small goals to achieve each day.

Here are some updates anyway, some studies of the nose from the Hampton book and others without looking at the book. I was experimenting on some of these which is why the shading is not great. Also some still life drawing for objects on or near my desk to improve my observation and shading skills.

[Ian Barker]

Wow, it's great to see all this hard work. Keep this up!

[krel]

The plug/socket looks really good man. Keep it up!

[UrbanHermit]

Liffey, Thanks for your support.

Krel, Thanks man, Hopefully we can spur each other now I have joined your sketchbook group.

Here are some studies of the nose. I did some from reference in a book which was pretty boring to be honest. I started drawing some from my imagination with the little I have learnt up to know as well. In the reference ones I just couldn't copy the artists shading style well, so used my own for the ones from my imagination with more success.

[DiR3Kt]

Hi man welcome to tha latecomers group

Wow you made quick improvements in head drawing the last batch is looking much better.

Nice to see some Hampton studies, your lines a clear and quite precise that's impressive. About your last noses I think the shading is a bit killing those drawing, I would have prefered to see the basic underlying forms there. And little question do you feel you applied what you learned from Hampton while doing them ?

Cheers and keep it doing mate!

[UrbanHermit]

DiR3Kt, thank you for the welcome. I hope we can help each other out to become better artists.

I know I have overdone it with the shading on those nose drawings. I used the noses to experiment with some shading techniques. At least I have learnt to not shade so heavily in the future. Even when you do something wrong at least you are still learning from it.

I did apply what I learnt from the Hampton book as well for the noses because I drew a box form first for each nose to help with the proportions before I added the finer details.

[Turbosnail]

Nice updates UH!! Particularly like the hole punch and plug & socket. The facial studies are also coming along nicely. Keep up the good work my friend!!

[UrbanHermit]

Turbosnail Thanks for your support as usual. Drawing stuff on my desk isn't the most exciting thing to do but I need to draw from life to improve my observation skills so they have to do for now.

I have had to take it easy on drawing recently. I have been getting some back and hand pain lately when drawing so I can't draw as much as I would like. I was in a car accident last year and got whiplash. The back and hand pain is associated with this I have been told by my doctor. So I am due to undertake some physiotherapy treatment soon to help with the pain.

I still have some updates though, I am not going to let it stop me. I have just been taking breaks and stretching when I feel any discomfort. Anyway the updates are some noses from imagination, eye studies, facial plane studies and more still life objects from my desk.

Studies are from the Hampton book.

[Sir Cam]

Wow man, you must have some sort of patience to make all your studies so neat, your Hampton drawings are quite nice. It's always cool to find another student of the constructive approach. Make sure to practice applying what you've learned from imagination often though so as to make sure you've retained it. I know that you've been doing that, it's just a reminder to keep on doing it.

[UrbanHermit]

SirCam Thanks for the compliment. Once I have learnt enough on head construction you should see some complete heads from imagination. I also intend to make my sketches less neat in the future after all it's only a sketchbook. I only make them neat so the drawing are more clear for people to see.

I have done some eyes studies again and done some drawings from my imagination with what have learnt up to now. So from imagination I have some eyes, lips and heads showing the facial planes.