MyioDeSopsia will be dedicated to this sketchbook

[MyioDeSopsia]

Hello everyone,
I've always been very impressed with people around here for the effort they put into learning and the success that they achieve through hard work. I plan on putting in as much effort as I possibly can all the time ,because I want to someday draw comics and paint images that bring stories to life. Any criticism or advice I can get I will certainly appreciate and heed because this is important to me! Please help me to get better!


Today, I've worked on drawing eyes. I always forget to draw the lids or I draw them in weird shapes. For reference, I used my sister's Vanderpoel book to practice in the pencil drawings. For the color images I used some stock photoes from da. I haven't really memorized the structure so I'll probably work on it tomorrow too.

[zombifried]

Hello MyioDeSopsia,
It looks like you're headed in the right direction. By way of critique, i wouldn't spend as much time with the texture: your textures are feeling a little more like rough metal, than like flesh. It's also distracting to the eye, at this point. Concentrate first on the form, second, on value The latter pencil sketches are a definite improvement.
Just keep practicing, and you'll get there. One more point: Don't fixate on one
thing: i.e. the eye...Draw as many diverse things as you are able. I'm still learning myself, so as usual, I'm seeing in other people's work, the same mistakes I have made, or am currently struggling with.
You're on the right track...Good luck!
~Zombifried
zombifried's sketchbook

[NickyBeats]

i can just tell your gonna be good. the studies look great, both from pencil and digital. the digital is more like an opaque colored pencil, but i like the effect. keep working hard!!

[MyioDeSopsia]

zombifried- I'm really glad you think I'm on the right track. Thank you for the feedback, I will certainly work on form now before I approach values and texture. I'll definitely try to draw many sorts of things. Thanx man!

NickyBeats-Thats very encouraging and motivates me to work harder, thanks!



Yesterday I tried to study the the form of the eye from the Vanderpoel book, then did some drawings from life, which I think did help me to understand the form a little better. I tied to draw just lines but I kept getting tempted to add value. Then I drew Wolverine and my wacom mouse. I tried to start some other life studies too, but we had visitors at my house so I couldn't do anything much after that.

I want to make sure I take good steps toward improving, for there is much to be improved, its just hard to know where to start. Not sure yet what I'll work on today, but I've got tons of energy.

[DSmith]

Hey there!

Good start,my suggestion would be to try to focus on your lines,because they look a bit jagged,but that can be correctid quickly if you focus on them.
Keep it up!

[h.k]

awesome eyes in the first post !! awesome ...

[Pixie Trick]

Lovely work on the eyes! In terms of your brushwork in PS, I would suggest try setting your brush setting to opacity and diameter controlled by pen pressure. Also, when painting, using a bigger brush to start off with will really help keep things clean.


I agree with zombifried; definitely on the right track!

[MyioDeSopsia]

DSMith-Thanks, lines are definitely going to require my attention, I usually use too many lines as well as jagged ones so I'm going to get working on it!

h.k.- Thankya

Pixie Trick- THANK YOU I had been using Painter and struggling to make it feel natural after I had given up on PS. But I just looked up how to set pressure to correspond to opacity in PS like you said and holy shizznit it feels like analog drawing. I would never have figured out how to do that if you hadn't mentioned it, thanks!


After I adjusted my tablet en a bit and changed some PS settings, I thought it would be good to practice lines by drawing hands from life. I think I got more comfortable with the tools as I went on, but I also ended up using too many lines. I want to get used to using the 'economy of lines' that makes drawings look neat. I suppose I should limit the time I spend on on drawing in order to help me realize which lines are the important ones, otherwise I'm just going to keep making messes.

[cifgha]

Great start of a sketchbook, your eyes are really splashihg.

When sketching you can set the linewidth to pen pressure, to get nice flowing lines.

Keep this up and you'll do fine

[redpandafire]

Very nice studies, theres a lot of goodies.

[MyioDeSopsia]

cifgha - Thanks, it seems like pressure-line width might be a good idea for practicing lines so I'll work with that too

unnamed.device - Thanks man!

redpandafire- Thankyou


This is what I've been working on that past few days. I definitely want to learn to draw hands well, but because hands are so challenging for me I've been using them to practice with lines. I drew my left hand namely, and did some Vanderpoel work on hands and arms. I want to limit the number of lines I use as well as make clean lines. Accuracy suffered severely however when I tried this. I'm not sure if this is a good way to improve, but it's certainly getting me thinking about using less lines.

There's a lot more I'm sure I can get out of the Vanderpoel chapters on arms, hands, wrists and shoulders, but that may have to wait for the weekend because work drags on a long time.

I really wanted to go the old way and use some nice opaque brushes in Painter today, but I challenged myself by painting a Christmas ornament in PS with pressure-opacity. I feel kinda bad about how it looks, but I'm glad I did it because it made me learn a lot about PS....relative to what I already know....

I've got a long way to go, but at least I'm not stuck not knowing what to do. I appreciate any help I can get!

[MyioDeSopsia]

I'm going to include some older still lifes in this entry, hope it's ok.


I didn't draw yesterday. I fell asleep right when I got back from work. I tried to make up for the loss by doing more drawing today, but I'm getting tired. Well, I have the weekend off.
I did four simple one item still lifes in PS. Despite the colorful ball and the phone looking kinda....bad, I actually put a lot of time into them....sadly. I couldn't quite achieve the correct contrast on the colorful ball. PS is tough, but I really like pressure-opacity and I want to get good at it. I'll do some more studies and pay more attention while I'm doing them.
Below the four still lifes, is a collection of some still lifes I did in Painter during the time I was in school (NOT EXTREMELY RECENTLY )--in no particular order. Painter is a really cool program, but I don't think it has pressure-opacity?--thus you have to blend everything manually (with a blender). I don't know if this is something to steer away from because I hear that relying heavily on a blender is not good. My old still lifes are thus kinda blendy looking rather than smooth.
Lastly, is a referenced picture of George S Patton. I'm terrible at painting people, so i need to practice this urgently.

[BlackDelphin]

You choose some really nice subjects for your still life, wow! I really enjoy looking at them.
I do hope you'll post some more!

So far, the beginning of your sketch book is awesome! Don't stop!!

[Pixie Trick]

Gah! I feel like a lazy bum. You work too hard and are going to be so far ahead of me I'm going to have to steal all of your brain. Mwahahaaaaaa...ha...ha.... *ahem*

Those still lifes are awesome! I think popping in some different bg (such as some fabric or paper) as well as varying the lightsources will really help you learn about how object react to light a lot more.

Pen pressure isn't the most amazing thing on earth either. Using the pen pressure wisely is more important. In some ways it is a hindrance because the only way you can get the colour you chose is to press really, really hard. You therefore are more likely to use many lighter, smaller brushstrokes that create a muddy and fuzzy image. Sometimes using a big, strong brush is the better path. I really suggest getting some acrylics and play with those. They're the most forgiving of the traditional media in my opinion. By using traditional you have to live with the consequences of your past brushstrokes as well as the natural opacity of your paint.

You're doing well.....

[Ivan Turcin]

I especially like the flow of lines on hand studies. Nice start here.

[MyioDeSopsia]

BlackDelphin- Thanks, this means a lot to me.

Pixie Trick-Ha, yeah right, your sketches make mine look retarded.
I got right onto that fabric suggestion when I saw your message yesterday. I'm going to be a lot more creative with my still life lighting/bgs from now on.
Thanks for pointing out the limitation of pen pressure, because that makes complete sense and would probably have frustrated me. I wish I had that kind of insight. Acrylics hmm, that doesn't sound like a bad idea, probably would be a big challenge for me though


Ivan Turcin- Thank you, I've been working on my lines!



I haven't posted like all week, but it doesn't mean I'm not still dedicated.

Okay, I did some studies with cloth in them. I was really tired when I did the first two because I did them yesterday. The second one doesn't even look like what its supposed to be a picture of. I'll do some more shortly and I'm going to put lots more focus and patience into them.

I did some more hands, namely when I have extra time at work. I was really tired on the last pages. I need to comprehend them more. I should learn about the skeletal structure and read the Vanderpoel chapter in depth on hands and wrists.

I've also been doing some figure studies from 'The Male and Female figure in Motion', some are just made up from imagination--my attempt to comprehend more than copy. I've been doing a lot of trying to comprehend the figures from the image sequences given at different perspectives, but there are too many pages to scan so I've chosen this one. I feel like I can do better with this, so I'm probably going to work on this for another half hour tonight or something. Not sure why this image came out larger than life either....thought I fixed that before I uploaded....guess not....

Lastly, here is a sketch and design for the outline of a logo for and awesome game/software/programming/java group I'm in. We are working on an awesome game called 'Cogs' which is nothing ahem like ahem Pokemon. Another member of the team is going to color it so it'll be awesome collaboration.

[MyioDeSopsia]

Did some photo studies today in PS because I had a short work day. I have been using an opaque brush to lie down the colors and then a pressure sensitive brush to fill in the gaps. Some of these photo studies are actually pretty bad, but when I seem them not next to the photo they don't seem as bad. haha

The first one I found on the news, and the last three photo studies are from this place (http://www.amwest-travel.com/pacific_coast.html). The very last two image are from imagination. Didn't spend too long on them, but sometime soon I want to spend a long time on an imaginative drawing. They are very uncreative hmmm.... Well you have to start simple. I hope to improve at drawing environments. They seem to require a lot of understanding of color.

....which reminds me.... these photo studies are helping me to think in rgb better. Painter had to me to think in saturation-value-hue. Now I can kinda separate out the r,g, and b from colors whereas when I would work in Painter I'd pa more attention to saturation and stuff. But as far as colors go, I clearly have a great long way to go.

Any help I can get will certainly save me.

[Naidy]

This is a lovely sketchbook!
Brilliant colourings and I love them eyes. Keep up the face and figure studies though, I'd like to see the rest of the face catch up with them awesome eyes you draw.
Keep up the good work!

[Pixie Trick]

Nice work!

Ha, yeah right, your sketches make mine look retarded.

Nooooooo way. A) You're sketches do not in any way shape or form look retarded. B) You're working so hard you're going to be brilliant in no time at all!

I noticed that when I took a really quick peek at your ref that they aren't all the same dimensions. You aren't going to be able to copy directly and keep proportions the same if the canvas size isn't the same. You can just mentally crop the image and only use a section, but I don't think that is what you are doing. If you want a canvas of exactly the same dimension you can put the ref into ps. add a marquee around it, hit copy, make a new document. Ps will automatically make the new canvas the same size exactly. You can then go and change the resolution of the canvas so it isn't 72 dpi.

Also, if you did the studies with a hard brush, why did you use such light strokes on the ones from imagination? You should be able to guess an approximate colour for water after doing those studies! While doing the studies, analyze (... or study. ) why you're doing what you're doing. This will better allow you to make an image of your own if you understand what's going on.

[engelhardt]

Hi MyioDeSopsia, I see a very good start here. I like the life studys (#13). You have a good understanding of colors, but I would like to see some more finished stuff - try to render a few of these more exactly. Stay assiduous!

[Scale]

Thanks for the comment!
I like your color studies especially, the palette choice is very good and the light feels natural on the objects even with few colors used. Nice to see many anatomy studies too. For the hands I'd suggest to study closely the shape and the movements of the wrist joint, because sometimes it looks a bit disjointed. I think important details to give the feeling of a solid hand are the upper side of the wrist and the metacarpal bones, when they are got right, suddenly the hand looks a lot more solid. The fingers and the overall lines and flow are already quite good.
Now I urge to draw some hands too!

[MyioDeSopsia]

Naidy-Thanks, I can't wait to start practicing faces.

Pixie Trick- Thanks for that tip. I was just making whatever dimensions and not realizing till it was too late that it was frustrating. PS making a new image the same dimensions as whatever is in the clipboard has certainly been helpful more than I thought it would be.
And your right with the brushes. Not sure why I used such a soft brush. Thanks for pointing it out. Definitely I'm going to try harder to study and comprehend the colors

engelhardt- Thanx man. I was trying to get started on a serious still life earlier this week after what you said. It's tough!

Scale- Thanks! Alright, I will try working more on wrists, hands are very hard for me. I'm going to plan on studying the metacarpal and wrist bones. Thanks again!


Alright guys, my laptop has six minutes left of power and I don't have my power cord, so I hope I can get through this quickly enough. I've done lots of figure sketching. Some from life at the beach and bookstore, some warmups from posemaniacs--posemaniac figures are so unnatural looking, also some studies from Muybridge's 60 classic photosequences book.

Also some studies of landscapes/trees from http://www.nature.org/rainforests/explore/photos.html


I'm not very happy with my brushwork. But I'm very happy with my improvement in my figure studies. Although posemaniacs is unnatural, I find doing some 30s warmups is pretty useful for loosening up. I tend to not even look at what I'm drawing when I do those. Learning proportions is one thing which posemaniacs can help you to do, but natural normal poses, not so much. I want to be good at natural poses so I may draw comics someday

The Muybridge book is very useful, and so it reading the Vanderpoel book. The information I get from the books is even useful for when i was studying from life at the beach and the bookstore this weekend. I went with Mondar and StephGibree, maybe they'll post theirs too.

As I was drawing figures and hands earlier this week, I was beginning to wonder how much better my drawings from the winter were than the ones I did now. Apparently, it was in my head that I had gotten worse....but when I opened up the sketchbook....the horrors which I beheld made me smile with delight....for I'll say I improved....much more road to cover though. So I better get going, especially with my brushwork.

[BlackDelphin]

Like i said, don't stop!

[Pixie Trick]

Wowza! Look-e at those figures!

[MyioDeSopsia]

BlackDelphin- Thanks, that will keep me going

PixieTrick-Haha, it was so much to scan @_@


I'm feeling quite depressed about painting. Scroll to the bottom of this post and you'll see why. It was supposed to be a marble in a tissue. I spent a long time on it. It looks terrible, but I'm still posting even the most horrendous stuff I make. I'm feeling really lazy about doing any studies with color. I don't know if I should just lay off it for now, or just do more even if they look bad. I don't care if my stuff comes out bad, as long as I am getting better, but I'm not sure how much effort I can put into it now.

So anyways, here are some sketchbook pages with some Muybridge photo studies, Loomis studies and many from imagination. Most of the faces are from imagination, but some I copied from HM magazine and some from a ww2 photo history book.

You can download some Loomis books from this shoddy website here: http://www.superidea.ru/intel/risuy.htm
Actually it's quite useful. To download his figure study book, download all five pieces on number 6 on that site, then you have to unzip them and do other stuff to put them together. Number 2 and 3 are interesting too.

If anyone has any tips on how to draw crazy folded tissues let me know.... I have great trouble with this. I know one is supposed to break it up into darks and lights and then continue from there....or to break it into shapes....maybe this is just something I have to practice more. Okay, I will do more cloth (tissue especially) studies right after I post this. I'll do them with pencil....

Okay, back to posting the stuff....

[Pixie Trick]

You are doing so much awesome work!!!!!!!! Meghtahhhh!!!... I feel like such a lazy bum.

I think for the tissue, you started getting into the details a bit too quickly. Perhaps making your eye get out of focus and all fuzzy will let you see the larger areas of value better. Wrinkly kleenex is very hard to paint, and simplifying it to larger areas to start off will might help out a bit. In simplest terms- what's in the light and what's not. Then- what's at an angle and partially in light, and what has reflected light. The biggest tool is the first step however.

Keep at it though. Nothing's going to come out perfect the first time. Sure you want it to be, but accepting it's not and moving on will eventually get you to be as perfect as you can. If you learned something it was time well spent. I think you can do it.

[NathanH]

Some wonderful stuff here MyioDeSopsia. I'm inspired by how full your pages are with work. Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon of TeeteringBulb.com recently put a post up on their blog about the importance of just keeping at it. Looking at your posts you can see how true that is. Here's the link.

[Icecold]

Very cool sketchbook.
I like the painterly effect in your digitals, which i've tried to achieve myself with no luck. You're a promising artist, i wish you all the best, as you're going to be a pro one day, no doubt.

[Ivan Turcin]

One thing I have learned so far is that we all tend to do the same eyes on our figures (regarding your head studies). But I haven't yet found the best way to overcome that
Anyway... keep it going. Cheers!

[MyioDeSopsia]

Pixie-- thanks so much for saying this. It really picked me up after that frustrating experience. I went back to the tissue, got my eyes out of focus, and looked for lights and shadows. I can see how this first step is a logical first step, thank yo so much.

NathanH- Your comment makes me really very happy. I read the blog and that has encouraged my determination even more! Thanks!

Icecold- Thank you! I will do everything I can to be a pro someday.

Ivan- Oh gosh, you're right! I tend to overlook these defining qualities, like eye shape. I probably would not have realized this. I suppose I ought to do some more referenced head studies to learn some variance in eye shape.


Howdy folks, I feel like I can name some of the things I've learned this week. Oh yeah, updates has kinda become a 'weekly' thing for me....instead a 'every few days' things which I had wanted to do.... but you know the work week.
So, I've tried drawing with values and lines this week. In the sketchbook pages below, I studied kangaroos, wallaroos, wallabees, elephants, deer, dik-diks, etc from a book called ANIMAL (smithsonian institute). I did a lot from imagination, memory, and from looking at some of the studies on the same page. The last image, of the deer, is a colored version of one of the little sketches I did from imagination/looking at another sketch. Not that great, but it was fun. I really likes that sketch.
In the other skecthbook (smaller one), I drew the road a lot from life, and trees and car. I drew them in the car, or during my lunch hour.
The computer sketches.....worked with the tissues more. I think I had some pretty low expectations on the first ones. Either that or I was half-assing them. I half-assed a lot of stuff before, and it just ends up shitty even though I'll spend like hours on it. In any case, I did some lie studies of a marble in different light. I found this to be very valuable to do little studies like this. It has helped me to better my brushwork. I'll probably to more like this. The four environments below the marbles--the one on the upper right hand corner is referenced from http://slowmuse.files.wordpress.com/...ark_forest.jpg (although it seems to be all over the internet, so I don't know where it is originally from). The other three environments are from imagination.

[EDIT: Holy mackerel I'm on the second page!]