Boriol's Sketchbook

[Rhubix]

Your rocks are getting better .
Shinin has some good advice, don't feel trapped to use any brush or settings, play with different things. There are some fun downloadible brush settings from artists on here, or just sprinkled through the net. I've found some fun thinks to try from there.

When I first started doing the quick 30-60 second gestures we used black chalk (conte is the brand) or crayons. using something thicker lets you get down big forms like a whole leg, or an arm at once and you can focus on getting the action instead of the details of forms.
At the same time we were doing longer studies of the forms, anatomy, and things like that. Gradually the two things came together.
Speed comes with time. Don't work for speed, work for knowledge and it will come by itself

[Velocity Kendall]

i think your gesture sketches are good. economical and nice. good work keep it up!

[Boriol]

@Kendall - Thanks. I should spend more time on them, though.

@Rhubix - Thanks for the advice. None of the stores where I live carry any decent art supplies, so I'll ask my art teacher or get some online.

@Shinin - I always take your advice very seriously. I also showed it to some friends from school (sorry, I shoulda asked you first) and they confirmed that you had some of the best tips and critiques out there. So, thanks a bunch.

@Dsaac - I first took up drawing as a hobby, but about two years in I realized that if I was going to spend so much time on it, I may as well make a career out of it. I'm well prepared to drop anime if that's what whoever I'm working for requires, and I don't plan to include many--if any--anime-styled drawings in my portfolio for college.

HOWEVER.

I'm not ignoring your advice or anything, but I don't think doodling some manga sketches here and there will hurt me at all. I just came out of a huge art block and did some anatomy stuff and perspective, but I also did some manga stuff upon a friend's request. And I improved. I'm really sorry to disagree with you like this, but saying anime will cause me to fail as an artist is like telling Jim Davis not to draw cartoon animals. I acknowledge that anime is a style only accepted by a relatively small percentage of artists and commissioners, but the reason I joined ConceptArt was to build up more styles and to become adept in realism. I want to be able to draw whatever style is best for the job at hand. Currently, I'm the background and promo artist for a local community college, and they've asked that I do manga style. Also, I'm working on a game for my game dev. class, and my classmates have requested that I do anime cutscenes, sprites, and portraits. I don't plan on drawing anime for the rest of my career, but I do plan on using whatever is needed.

I've seen examples of your claim though. Browsing Deviantart, I've seen many, many artists who are very good at drawing anime, but couldn't draw a realistic face to save their lives. Their skills are limited and I've seen that their knowledge runs thin on anything aside from manga. But I've also seen some who do anime who are writing art books, putting up commission slots and having them filled minutes later, doing paid work for various companies, etc. These people are those who have studied their butts off every day, working on realistic anatomy, perspective, different coloring techniques, and other things. I'm starting to do those same things. I'm willing to work as hard as those I'm competing against, or harder, so that I can fulfill what I've been wanting to do since I first realized that I loved art.

--

1. 3-point perspective
2. Anatomy studies

I've done some gestures, poses, shading, random objects, etc., but I don't want to post those here till I get a better grasp on them.

[shiNIN]

What did I write I wonder... Well, thanks, I try to be of some help here... I'd love to draw myself but I'm not so godd at that It's so hard...

Hmmm... You still remind me of myself... Except that I would be lazy to draw every vertebrae I see you are very self conscious about drawing the shapes of bones... I'm not sure you should worry about it so much at this point (not like I'm one to talk, I'm the same. I feel it's definitely useful to know them well, I don't mean that part, just worrying can come into one's way) - but I still add something to your already numerous crits. The humerus, femur and fibula isn't so curved. If you don't know the exact shapes and proportions of every bigger bone in the body, you can get away with it I think - but you should draw limbs straight enough. For some reason, I experienced beginners often draw legs and arms as if the bones would be quite curved. They aren't.

Oh and instead of those vertebrae, you should lower the sketchiness level on those poor human figures. You slightly indicated the hands but the legs could use some more care and it's basically true for the whole figures. This sketchyness level is allowed for the quickest gesture studies only...

I hope I'm understandable, I'm not in my best shape in the end of winter.

Keep it up
I hope you draw things that you enjoy as well (I love anatomy but even to me, fun is something different than anatomy studies)

[Boriol]

I'm starting to enjoy drawing other things a lot more now--other things than manga. I looked back at my past in art and realized that the main reason I started drawing was because I loved comic books and wanted to make my own to fit with my stories (I've been writing consistently every night for about five years now--therefore, my writing is far superior to my art). When I found out about manga, I decided that I liked that more than what I'd originally been doing, so I started on it. THAT was my real reason. I said other things before, but the truth is that I actually didn't remember why I started or what my goals were.

But now I realize that comic book artists are not rich people. Therefore, I think commissions and illustration for a career are a better path, while doing comics or manga on the side.

*

Anyway: some anatomy stuff from imagination. I was bored in art class.

[shiNIN]

His left arm is too long and there's something with the hip... The abs are too much to the left and don't show that the belly bulges for every normal man... I guess... *sigh* I should learn about figures more, I neglect this highly important topic...

Hmmmm... I understand you but you should enjoy what you are doing as well... Financial reasons alone is strange to me. When I was barely an adult, many people wished to be a programmer because programmers have great salary... It isn't necessarily true, by the way.
If someone is a hedonist, he/she needs to find a job that he/she enjoys, there's no other way and it's better for others as well. Of course, others factors may be very important as well

[Wingal]

hey! Nice start on the book. I think it would be beneficial to study more of whats under the skin, like the muscles and bones, and test out a construction method that works for you. Also idk if you heard of posematics and pixel lovely but they both have cool tools for gesture drawing. =)

[Novbert]

Keep doing those studies! That's essential.
Besides that just another little remark: Three point perspective must be used with caution outside the triangle defined by the three points. Things can get really funny out there - as you might have experienced
Keep on sketchin'!

[Boriol]

@Shinin - I'm actually taking programming and game development as a fallback in case art doesn't work out at all. I've got a lot of writing done, too, so if I end up not liking programming and failing at art, I can write stuff. Although programming's pretty much a fallback for both art and writing. Yeah.

@Wingal - I don't have Internet access at my house, so I can't use Posemaniacs or Pixelovely very often. When I do get out to a hotspot, I end up browsing till my battery runs out. But yes, those are both great tools. I find that I have spontaneous level-ups when I use them.

@Novbert - I noticed the three point was different than what I usually see. I've definitely experienced the awkwardness that comes from being outside the triangle, and even near the edges it seems to slant more than I've ever seen in real life. It's definitely a tool to use with discretion.

-

I've realized recently that I'm forcing studies on myself too much, and I'm not enjoying them. It's not manga that I primarily enjoy. It's art. If I sit down and don't think about anything too much, I have way more fun than if I open a Loomis PDF and make myself draw every picture as anatomically accurate as possible. I usually quit a few minutes into such exercises. That's why I like Posemaniacs. Thirty seconds. If it looks like crap, so be it. I'll shut up now, because my laptop's out of battery.

[Dana_T]

It's great that you decided to start a sketchbook here, I think you'll definitely benefit from posting here and getting everyone's advice. Now let's see you post more often! xD

Now I'll say, drawing anime/manga style things is NOT a bad way of drawing. It's a style that an artist chooses for themselves. I drew like that for years xD The important thing is knowing that a good knowledge of anatomy, perspective, and 'realism' will help you develop your style INCREDIBLY. All the best manga artists are, at first, artists. And then they develop their stuff into a more stylized kinda thing.

Even if you don't like doing studies keep at em, but don't forget to draw things that you want to draw as well. You have to find a good balance between those two things. Something that's always helped me is taking studies and turning them into something I wanna draw. Take a photo of a dude in some sitting position - turn him into a character from a story! Stuff like that.

So just keep at the studies, and keep at your personal stuff as well. If you're passionate about learning you'll improve quickly and you'll be able to look back at old sketchbooks and say "DAMN. I used to draw like that?"

Hope this helped a little. xD

[Boriol]

So . . . I haven't been around in nearly a year. My reasons are irrelevant and unimportant (basically my 16-year-old self being an inexperienced kid). Here's a figure study referenced from Bridgman's Guide to Drawing from Life.

(You can probably disregard everything I say in this post after this sentence: it's just me rambling about random things.)

I was working on a piece for class with two angels fighting, but then I realized that I had too many things I needed to get a grip on before I could attempt any sort of large-scale drawing. Like lighting, composition, anatomy, and pretty much everything else that makes up a piece of art. I'll be holding off on that piece at least until I can grasp the basics.

The only thing I'm still pondering since (almost) last year is Dsaac's comments. I'm still not positive whether she's right or not. Either way, I don't think I'll be doing much, if any manga for quite awhile. So I suppose she's right after all. I say that, but it just happened yesterday, actually. I was browsing some famous manga artist's gallery (Ito Noizi, I believe) and realized: why should I spend all my time looking up to this guy when I could be even better than him?

I still like the style of manga, but for some reason I don't feel the need to draw it all the time anymore. Tastes change, I suppose. And human brains aren't fully developed till the mid-twenties. I'm only seventeen, so I'll probably have a lot of paradigm shifts and the like up till then.

@Dana - I'm in a sort of really weird confused state right now where I don't even know what I want to do with my art anymore, but I suddenly have a drive to get really good at just plain art. Manga or not, I'll work hard and improve. By the time I get good, I'll hopefully have figured out what I wanna do.

[shiNIN]

Welcome back! Whoa, what an improvement in the 3 sketches... I don't always can do that (once I tried to draw a man from a photo, not blindless copying but construction... my 30th was still lame... Bridgman is different, though, I experienced that).

Tastes can change a lot later too... My attitude towards anime changed quite a lot in the last few years too and I'm 35...

It seems a good idea to draw and draw and improve and you'll see. You are so very young