kaspar's sketchbook

[kaspar]

hello everyone, im new here!

since i remember i always wanted to master the art of drawing. in the past, as i tried drawing the human figure and other things, i got easily frustrated due to lack of knowledge of the perspective, proportions, shading, any medium and aspect really, which led to little to zero patience and i had no willpower whatsoever to continue anything. but this has to change!

i am making a promise to myself that i will keep practicing, updating this thread, and hoping to progress until i get somewhat good at this

any tips would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

-

starting with A. Loomis "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth" and stumbling on major problems with proportions and scaling

22/1/2011





some still life objects. when im not aware i tend to press the pencil a little too hard. trying a bit gently and lighter here and there






23/1/2011


















posemaniacs.com (90 seconds)

[kaspar]

24/1/11

yesterday sucked.

1 - a vase out of perspective
2 - pouch and glasses
3 - still life from a distance, had no idea how to measure and horrible blocking
4-9 - posemaniacs
10 - reference
11 - reference, even the bird :C

[kaspar]

25/1/11

1 - shoulder/traps head doodling
2 - trying to hit the proportions again, should have drawn the side and back view too
3 - manikin!
4 - manikin in action, weight distribution
5 - manikin poses from imagination
6 - still life
7 - first portrait! was afraid of drawing the hair though :C

looking forward to tomorrow! IM NOT GIVING UP!

p.s. i hate the paper im drawing on. its paper for writing letters, very thin and clear-through + smudges EVVVEERYYWHERE!

[kaspar]

26/1/2011

almost watched the entire first lesson by Vilppu on Gestures! wow. great stuff, definitely helped me a lot to understand a few things. will have to watch again tomorrow so that it sinks in! also watched the first 3 lessons of Riven Phoenix talking about perspective, because i had a hard time understanding the stuff in Loomis book lol. i tried to follow on a piece of paper and i will have to continue the other 9 lessons digitally, because every object after the third lesson has to be generated on a grid

1 - lesson 01
2 - lesson 02, 3 point perspective?
3 - lesson 03, the grid
4-6 - vilppu

[kaspar]

27/1/11

slacking today

1 - 1 pose, 3 views
2 - from imagination
3 - 2 poses

[YJ Lee]

nice to see you are doing all the right stuff, got not much to say apart from keep drawing and keep improving!

[Catish]

hey kaspar. good start.

i was in exactly the same position as you about 6 years ago (wow, has it been that long? doesn't feel like it). i did lots of loomis studies ('the stick figures book'), some life drawing, and some stuff out of anatomy books.

my advice to you would be... don't mindlessly draw. thinking about what you're drawing is the most important thing. i drew for years and never improved, simply because i didn't think about what i was doing.

also, learn gestures and structure before you go in depth into anatomy study. it's more important than learning to draw a deltoid or a bicep early on.

observe life. draw it (not only in life drawing). i see you're doing this anyway, so that's good. then practice drawing from imagination. and go back and forth between these processes until something happens. lol. it takes a long time.

try not to get depressed about lack of skill. still try to find the fun in drawing, even if it's not great.

[p sage]

my advice to you would be... don't mindlessly draw. thinking about what you're drawing is the most important thing. i drew for years and never improved, simply because i didn't think about what i was doing.

Good advice.

Betty Edwards has got a lot of people thinking about the Right Brain's place in drawing; but you can't do competent work without the Left Brain. It's Analysis (left brain) and Synthesis (right brain) coming together that will give you the most success.

If you look at a model and blindly copy or do blind contours, you'll never gain an understanding. If all you do is study structure, you're not exercising the part of your brain that brings together different pieces of ideas in creative ways.

[kaspar]

YJ Lee: thanks, trying my best here, although i think im not drawing enough
Catish: thank you! this means a lot to me. i'll make sure to follow your advice!
p sage: thanks! i'll take a look into Betty's book

[kaspar]

28/1/11

not much today ...again. although i am surprised that i've managed to hold on and draw for 6 days straight, motivation is still there, but i need to force myself to draw some more, til i puke, you know?

[p sage]

YJ Lee: thanks, trying my best here, although i think im not drawing enough
Catish: thank you! this means a lot to me. i'll make sure to follow your advice!
p sage: thanks! i'll take a look into Betty's book

Actually it's probably best to avoid that book I used it as an example to show how one-sided thinking about art can be harmful.

[kaspar]

29/1/2011

no anatomy related studies today. long story short - i realized ive been drawing from day 1 (22/1) with 4B pencil and then found HB laying around. so i crosshatched around 2 imaginary poses, which i was afraid of doing earlier due to hardness of 4B's graphite. there is no light source intended as you may see, i was just x-hatching like a madman!

p sage: thanks again!

[Catish]

great gesture studies. keep doing them and feeling the rhythm of each figure (it's usually different depending on the pose). don't bother with too much shading or hatching at the moment. your form needs work first.

[LtPlissken]

You are doing some nice and right things,
great studies, you just stay in the pocket.

[JaneMag]

It was actually thar lovely sketchbook thumbnail that made me step inside here. Excellent eyecatcher.

Good work so far! Keep at it, you're doing great.

[kaspar]

31/1/11

LtPlissken: thanks man!
JaneMag: lol! thanks. and im glad you like the duck

im starting to hate posemaniacs' 30-90seconds, cant focus enough......i tried the "random pose viewer" instead

1-7 - posemanics
8 - oil pastels. used reference
9 - my old genius tablet still works! from imagination

[dsacc]

I see all is going well, although try not to use the tablet too much, you need to spend a lot more time on traditional no matter how tedious it can be.

[TheFallenAngel]

I really like your gestures, especially seeing as I should start doing them myself. Keep at it!

[kaspar]

2/2/11 - 2/9/11

studying volume and overlapping. ive been slacking (not drawing when i should be drawing) so much, that i might kill myself any time soon if i dont pull my shit together- hence no updates..

anyway, ive decided to slow down and not rush things! also, im going for 1000 poses, while studying Vilppu 24/7/365

and ive noticed i have serious problem with measuring and proportion when comparing posemaniacs poses with mine.

1 - posemaniacs
2 - doodling perspective from imagination
3 - posemaniacs
4 - posemaniacs
5 - vilppu
6 - vilppu
7 - some still life objects
8 - vilppu
9 - 3 ugly noses from imagination
10 - 20 - posemaniacs
21 - tried a serious approach to still life, everything is pretty much off and i didnt even bother finishing it