Candragonart's Sketchbook

[Candra H]

Hey all. I'm new to CA and figured I should get started with a sketchbook, give people an idea of what I do and how I like to do it.

A lot of the work I'll be posting is pretty old but I wanted to run things from the beginning, hopefully show some development of skill and observation. Also, I'm pretty isolated so my human work is mostly from photos and source books.

Some dragons to start I think, since they're my favourite beastie. All C&C welcome and thanks in advance for looking.



















Fingers crossed the image loading works...

P.S. All of the above were done using sketching pencils and black fineline pen on cartridge paper.

[Candra H]

Hum, I just noticed I didn't attach a thumbnail. Does anyone know how to do this in an edit?

Edit; Ignore my stupidity. Finally figured out the thumbnail thingy.

[Candra H]

A few pen, ink wash, and white pastel pencil sketches of bones and an arm for musculature. Did these on A4 cartridge paper and they're a few years old again.

All C&C welcome and thanks for looking.

[Naidy]

Hello, hello!
I say it's a nice start. I happen to love dragons and I like how you draw them- but there's no harm in building up your knowledge of real lizards to help strengthen your understanding of dragons (You might get inspired to create all sorts of new types of dragons too.)

Also, I have to say I really like how much attention you're paying to your anatomy studies here, they look like polished off peices of work in their own right.
So, so, I hope you keep on posting- keep up the good work, mate.

[Kat_Rin]

wow, your dragons are sooo alive, I really like them. And I'm ipressed by your anatomy studies: they are great!

[James Thomas]

oo...you bring my dragons to shame! they r so good yours, how long did each of them take ?

[Vay]

Reminds me to start drawing more dragons or any lizard like creature. I am not a big fan of dragons now that they are over-used in the fantasy genre.

Very nice texture work on your dragons. Good form and rhythm too.

[Candra H]

Thanks all.

Providenc, I'm a slow worker so probably a lot longer than they should. Maybe about an hour on average for the sketchier ones and about three hours for the more finished ones.

Vay, I hear you about the saturation of dragons in fantasy. Guess I've just been working on my own type for so long I cant let it go or see it as part of the rest of the genre. Heh, love is blind and all that.

[Candra H]

Some line drawings of anatomy and skeletons next. Again, these are pretty old. Will hopefully have some more recent work to add soon.

(Uploading with attachment manager so fingers crossed these show up)

[Kat_Rin]

your anatomy studies is simply gorgeous! I wish I have your patience and diligence!

[Candra H]

Thanks Kat. Though, I actually admire your ability to produce technically believable anatomy studies quickly and in just a few lines. To me, thats a much greater skill.

A few more anatomy sketches then hopefully on to some other work later on. First three are observations from source books. Last three are from imagination.

Again, all C&C welcome and thanks for looking/commenting.

[Candra H]

Got some spare time today so I thought I'd add in a few more sketches.

Some random bits and pieces from imagination using graphite and a couple of observational sketches from source books using marker pens and drawing pens.

[Candra H]

Some character studies and sketches for a hopeful future webcomic. Pen and ink wash and sketching pencils for these.

[Candra H]

Okay, finally some recent doodles to add. A couple of sketches from anatomy books and two from outdoors, near where I live.

[Candra H]

Huh, weird. Those last pictures don't show as an update...

[Kat_Rin]

I really like your anatomy studies, especially a women's figure in post # 14. And I simply like the very last tree!!!

[Cyberman]

awesome dragons!

[dimi]

the dragons are awesome!!

[DARKTHUR]

Hey nice anatomy drawings you posted! Reminds me I should work on that too

Quite good comic characters you are working on too! that anatomy studies will make them look even better and help you when they have to move around!

[Candra H]

Thanks all for the encouragement and positive feedback. It pleases me endlessly that you like my beasties.

Quite good comic characters you are working on too! that anatomy studies will make them look even better and help you when they have to move around!

Thanks! You're very right about anatomy studies helping with comic characters. It's why I started studying the human figure properly, because I knew I'd never get anywhere with just ideas and no base knowledge of how a body moves and works or how to draw it. I still feel like I struggle with angles and position of limbs/hands/feet etc when I go to create comic characters but hopefully the more I study the human figure, the better my comic characters will get because thats the direction I want to go in.

[Candra H]

Some bone structure breakdowns and a rough compositional sketch for a new dragon painting I'm developing. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements etc, I'd love to hear them. Feel like I'm floundering in beginner mode with this one.

Cheers

Candra

[Candra H]

Sketch of a Sea Eagle plundered from a postcard. Messed up the position so the wing heads off the edge of the page, but I might trace it onto bigger paper and develop it into a finished picture so it's all good.

Spent about an hour on it this morning.

[Kat_Rin]

I like your latest posts =) Especially the eagle: it's sooo alive!

[Candra H]

Thanks, Kat! I used to love drawing eagles and other birds of prey but fell out of it in recent years, so it's good to hear I can still get them to look vaguely believable.

Ech, havent done much sketching lately. Been getting bogged down with digital attempts - a total pain in the arse because it makes me feel like a useless beginner with no talent or skill whatsoever. Humpf! Got to keep grafting it though or I'll never learn.

Will try to update this thread soon.

[Candra H]

Study from source book in pencil. Lost patience with this and ran out of time so it's a bit scruffy and a lot of mistakes in it.




First ever attempt at digital painting. Had no idea what I was doing so just painted greys and black on top of a scanned sketch.




Got some fantastic advice from cool folks in the critique centre and had a go at a banana. Used a few different sizes of round brush and tried to blend the colours together. Not sure if it worked, and the under drawing is terrible but it was a good experience.

Any tips/suggestions/feedback on it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers!

[shiNIN]

Wow, you're working really diligently Good start!
I love dragons even if I rarely draw them (they're hard)...
It seems you tend to draw knees from front a bit too thin. You studied the bones there, it's a massive part of the body

Blending... I just use my hard round brushes and play with them for a while, 33% opacity is enough for my sketches I use the eyedropper tool like crazy, I use one of my tablet buttons for it Experiment a bit and you will find your way I guess, just forget about soft brushes unless you need some perfect smoothness for some fluffy stuff, for example... Well it seems you already know that I usually use a pressure sensitive opacity hard brush for a smooth look. But I'm still a beginner and we are different, that's why life is so interesting

[Candra H]

Thanks Shinin! Thats a good point about knees. I hadnt noticed until you pointed it out so I'll definitely work on that in future.

And thanks for sharing your blending methods. I've not used the dropper tool yet, wanted to get a feel for blending with the pen the same way I would with a real brush first, but will definitely be trying it out soon.

[Candra H]

Oh man, I havent been in here for so long... Been away for a bit then sick with the flu so no time or energy for art.

Still, managed to get some bits and pieces done over the last couple of days. Hopefully will have more updates to add soon.

Some hand studies first, from source book. I'm still really struggling with them. Think I need to do a lot more of these...



Very rough layout sketch for a webcomic panel. I've been mucking about in photoshop with colouring on it but couldnt get the next stage file size down small enough to display here, even after merging the layers and reducing it to a fraction of its former size...



Will keep trying and hopefully get it up soon because I'd love to hear what you guys think and if anyone has any tips on digital inking, I'd be very appreciative.

[Candra H]

Oh man, I'm totally useless at this digital malarkey. Not only am I struggling to learn all the tools and goodies and how to apply them believably, I also have no idea what I'm doing with the image sizes, layers, file types, previews etc...

Eh, the joys. But, no pain no gain as they say. I'll figure this thing out eventually.

And I just figured out how to merge layers and change the image to a smaller jpeg so I can post it here without blasting my browser to bits.

Would love to hear if you guys think it's heading in the right direction and I'll hopefully have an update of the next stage to post soon.





P.S. Apologies for rabbiting on. Just needed a bit of a rant I guess.

[Candra H]

Not much anatomy progress to report. Actually, not much of anything to report. Life keeps getting in the way right now and time just slips away...

Just a couple of very quick sketches - hands and legs. Going to need to do more detailed bone and muscle studies I think, because I'm just drawing what I'm seeing without any real understanding of whats going on underneath, and it shows in the legs sketch.

Any and all C&C welcome as always.