Hayden's Sketchbook. (Newbie to 2D art)

[Hayden Zammit]

Hi everyone.

I'm pretty much a beginner with drawing and painting. I've done a short intro course on drawing which was cool, and I'm studying Vilppu's DVDs a lot at the moment so I can get better.

I want to work in the games industry as a 3D Enviornment artist, and I've always found that a lack of traditional 2D skill has let me down.

So yeah, I started this little sketchbook thingy hoping people will look at what I post and hit me with feedback and criticism. What I need to work on the most would be great.

And hopefully, I'll get better at it all.

[Hayden Zammit]

So, here's what I completed recently, using a Wacom.

[Hayden Zammit]

Here some more sketches:

[Hayden Zammit]

A character sketch. As always, feedback is great. I need as much of it as I can get!

[Hayden Zammit]

Still going through the Vilppu DVDs I have.

Should I just be focusing on his stuff for the moment? I've seen some of Andrew Loomis's stuff, and was wondering if I should be studying that too? Should I study it now or after I've learnt Vilppu's methods?


cheers.

[jason_maranto]

Practice makes perfect -- or at least huge amounts of practice...

I say stick with whatever intrigues you, but try to pick one subject (environments, people, creatures, etc.) and one medium to work on just that subject for a while. There's so many shiny toys and so many interesting subjects that you can easily get lost trying to do everything. That way after a bit you will have at least one medium and subject that you can hang your hat on... from there you can build out.

Best,
Jason.

[Hayden Zammit]

Practice makes perfect -- or at least huge amounts of practice...

I say stick with whatever intrigues you, but try to pick one subject (environments, people, creatures, etc.) and one medium to work on just that subject for a while. There's so many shiny toys and so many interesting subjects that you can easily get lost trying to do everything. That way after a bit you will have at least one medium and subject that you can hang your hat on... from there you can build out.

Best,
Jason.

Thanks for the tips, Jason.

I'm so conflicted. I'm really enjoying these Vilpppu DVDs on people drawing, but I do want to learn enviros as well lol. I'll stick with people for the time being, I think. At least with drawing.

[Hayden Zammit]

Some stuff from today. First one didn't go too good. Going through Glen Vilppu's lesson on ellipses and cylinders. The previous lesson was a lot about using box forms to lay out the pose, and I didn't like it much. Cylinders are a lot easier to use I think.

[Hayden Zammit]

I mentioned I did an intro to pencil drawing class in my first post. Found this sketch from class:

[Hayden Zammit]

Went through some more of Vilppu's teaching today. I'm starting to get the hang of his way of analyzing the figure and looking for gesture at the start.

I'm glad I learnt this stuff; on my own I probably would've just tried to draw in as best detail as I could manage from the start, and failed miserably no doubt.

Here's a sketch for today. Gonna try and post up at least a couple each day.

I know a lot of it - if not all - is wrong, but any tips on where I should be focusing specifically? Any other comments welcome.

[jason_maranto]

A thing I tell people when I talk about drawing the figure is to try to identify what precisely the spine is doing... it is common for beginners to draw the figure too stiff in the spine/torso and all the life goes right out the drawing. All the gravity of the body passes through and is balanced by the spine -- it is a critically important part of how we move. Remember that it tends to move in very complicated twists and bends at the same time, but always with the goal of trying to maintain balance in the body... gravity flowing through the body so to speak.

Best,
Jason.

[Hayden Zammit]

A thing I tell people when I talk about drawing the figure is to try to identify what precisely the spine is doing... it is common for beginners to draw the figure too stiff in the spine/torso and all the life goes right out the drawing. All the gravity of the body passes through and is balanced by the spine -- it is a critically important part of how we move. Remember that it tends to move in very complicated twists and bends at the same time, but always with the goal of trying to maintain balance in the body... gravity flowing through the body so to speak.

Best,
Jason.

Thanks for the advice. I'm starting to notice I'm doing that wrong when I practice too. I really think its because I'm too hesitant to push those curves and twists into it for fear that I'll over do it or mess it up. I'm spoilt by 3D art and the advantages of being able to undo mistakes lol.

I'll try some more today, focusing on making the spine less stiff.

[dracken]

Nice sketchbook, I just wanted to comment because I feel like we're in a very similar situation. I recently started on a series of drawing DVD's and after going through them skipping whatever I found hard I realized that unless you practice the hard stuff over and over, making a ton of mistakes you won't improve.

I think we're both at about the same level of drawing and what I found helps is slowly going every lesson, then practicing it from memory, then practicing it based on a model. For example now I draw the skull based on the instructions on the DVD, modifying it to fit the proportions of the model I'm looking at. I started doing this because I realized I wasn't drawing the model, I was just drawing what my mind decided to memorize as the symbol for "face." If that makes any sense...

Hope to see more posts and good luck.

[Hayden Zammit]

Nice sketchbook, I just wanted to comment because I feel like we're in a very similar situation. I recently started on a series of drawing DVD's and after going through them skipping whatever I found hard I realized that unless you practice the hard stuff over and over, making a ton of mistakes you won't improve.

I think we're both at about the same level of drawing and what I found helps is slowly going every lesson, then practicing it from memory, then practicing it based on a model. For example now I draw the skull based on the instructions on the DVD, modifying it to fit the proportions of the model I'm looking at. I started doing this because I realized I wasn't drawing the model, I was just drawing what my mind decided to memorize as the symbol for "face." If that makes any sense...

Hope to see more posts and good luck.

Nice to hear someone else's experiences with it all.

I find that confidence is a major hinderance with me at the moment. I'm at the stage of drawing where I can barely draw anyhthing and I'm not confident. Because of this I get disheartened. The more I learn from these DVDs the more my confidence grows.

It's a huge motivator with me. With my 3D art, I can make just about anything that I want to make, or at least I'll know the right techniques to use. With 2D I barely knew anything before I started with these DVDs haha.

[Hayden Zammit]

New Sketches. Was trying to focus more on the hips and spine as was suggested, to try and make it less stiff.

[jason_maranto]

Big improvement -- now try to track the flow of gravity from the feet up through the legs into the hips through the spine and into the shoulders. There is almost always one hip that goes up as a result of it being the primary weight bearer and the corresponding shoulder usually drops to keep the balance with the spine moving to facilitate all of that counter balancing.

These inter-relationships of the main masses of the body are all based on the body fighting gravity and trying to keep it's balance at the same time... if you can think your way through how the body is accomplishing those tasks it becomes much easier to draw.

Best,
Jason.

[Hayden Zammit]

Cheers for the extra tips Jason. I'll try to address them in the next set of sketches I do. Here's the latest ones, a bunch of gestures from yesterday:

[Hayden Zammit]

And here's some more sketches. The last one was studying from the Vilppu DVD I'm up to.

[jason_maranto]

That last one shows big improvement, keep it up!

You'll have to do many hundreds of these (maybe thousands) but I think you are on the right track. Just practice and you'll naturally refine over time and repetition.

Best,
Jason.

[Hayden Zammit]

That last one shows big improvement, keep it up!

You'll have to do many hundreds of these (maybe thousands) but I think you are on the right track. Just practice and you'll naturally refine over time and repetition.

Best,
Jason.

In my case it'll probably have to be thousands heh. Pretty daunting, but I'm up for it.

Do you think I should be focusing entirely on Gestures and stuff for a while? Or should I start going through these Vilppu DVDs on detailed anatomy as well?

I've been meaning to do some drawings in response to your latest advice as well, but have been caught up on some 3D environment work.

[Hayden Zammit]

Well, I finally finished the environment I was working on, meaning I can get back to drawing practice again. I can't help but focus 100% on 3D work once I get to the lighting and rendering stage.

Not sure if this sort of art is really supposed to go on this site, but here it is:

[Mag-Neo]

---VERY NICE........ 3D inviro looking solid...... Keep more posting mate... GOOD LUCK!

[Xeon_OND]

Well, I finally finished the environment I was working on, meaning I can get back to drawing practice again. I can't help but focus 100% on 3D work once I get to the lighting and rendering stage.

Not sure if this sort of art is really supposed to go on this site, but here it is:

AMAZING!!!!!!!! GOD LIGHT!!!!!!!! MONSTER KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hayden Zammit]

MAG-NEO and XEON, thanks for the comments on the 3D piece.

Still been trying to get back into the swing of drawing. I've only had time to do a little. Got wound up in another 3d piece.

[Hayden Zammit]

Ok here's some more sketches. I was watching this DVD on drawing with pencils. It wasn't a Villppu one. He was talking about breaking things down into shapes like cubes and cylinders and cones before drawing them, or at least doing it in your head first. I'm having a bit more success with it.

and the other is a gesture, and the the third is a chinese boat I saw in a movie.

[Hayden Zammit]

Figured I may as well post up the latest environment I finished. It was a super quick one.

[Hayden Zammit]

Was going through a tutorial from idrawgirls.com on drawing female faces. I followed along for a bit, then started veering off, but I learnt a lot about what to look for and to use black and white value instead of just trying to jump in there with color.

[Hayden Zammit]

Some more sketches. The first are more gesture and head drawings.

The second is another gesture drawing that I tried to take further and the start of a sketch of Yobi, a the main character from Yobi: the Five Tailed Fox, a nice little korean film. I plan to make her into a game character later on.

I'm starting to realize that I rush things too much. Normally, I try to get the gesture drawings done in under a minute or so. I think the last two are a lot better than my previous efforts because I took things a lot slower.

[Hayden Zammit]

This took me a lot longer than it should have probably, but I learnt a fair bit. I done it just using value first which really helped me. Still not sure about the whole color thing though heh.

Working on another 3d environment at the moment too.

[Hayden Zammit]

a new sketch I did of a girl. her eyes look different to each other haha.