Lucky's Sketchbook - The Journey

[LuckyCharm]

Hey guys! I'm not really new to the forums, but I've only been silently stalking 'till now haha!

Silly things about me:
- I'm a girl
- I'm in highschool
- I love drawing animals, nature and creating my own characters!
- I'm lazyyy
- I suck at drawing humans ....
- I love the color orange!
- My favorite animal is the tiger
- I love drawing dragons and dinosaurs!

I've never taken my art too seriously, just like a hobby. I've always had a "talent" for art (better than the average person, but pretty bad compared to anyone who actually knows about art XD) However, lately I've been contemplating the idea of taking art classes in college, maybe even minoring in it. And I've finally decided that it's time to take my art to the next level!

I know that if I don't push myself to keep practicing and doing exercises I'm never going to improve (or not as much as I want to!) so I thought doing a sketchbook would be the perfect way to improve

I've just bought a new sketchbook last week and have already filled a couple of pages which I'll be posting shortly (when I figure out how this works O.o)

Feel free to give me lots and lots of critiques, tips and any help in general you can share!

My main goals are to improve my anatomy and perspective, so I'll be doing studies that are more focused on that

[LuckyCharm]

Some bone sketches I did from Elleberger's book, 'An Atlas of Animal Anatomy'

Gotta be truthful though.. I cheated on the first batch of "tiger sketches" and copied them off a book *cough* I just.. wasn't really feeling the references when I tried to draw them lol
I do think it sorta helped though.. The last one was done by me from a reference picture, but I didn't finish it (lost the reference )

The skeleton isn't from any real animal, more like a general skeleton for all quadrupeds.. Still gotta add the paw bones, but you get the idea!
Got it from here btw http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107182

[blazingdimensions]

very nice start! nice to see another teen on CA, lovin the studies - keep em up and youll be a rockstar(or an artist lol) come drop by my sketchbook in the link below if you like

[LuckyCharm]

@blazingdimensions: Thanks! I'll go check it out

Oh, also, guys, I've decided I'll be updating every week (probably on Mondays or Tuesdays) 'cause it takes too long to scan, and I don't want to do it every day

Some old stuff:

I like the little birdie, but the trees suck haha I know XD Have been trying to improve those, maybe I'll post a few new ones later

[rokushoxxx]

Hey there, i love your bird pic , also its cool for you to have an updating schedule, that pushes you a bit more to do more studies and learn faster so its one of the things you might not wanna lose.
Thank you for stopping by my SB and the critics ^^ ill look into my boob problems ...
Wait, that didn't sound right -.- lol.

[rinnikirun]

Heyyyyyy I like your animal sketches, especially the pokemon sketch ( ahh I forgot what that pokemons name is ) Anyway, keep it up, glad to see another highschooler!

[LuckyCharm]

lol thanks guys!

@Ven: It's a Rattata!

Do you guys know which is the best Loomis book to study anatomy from?? Everyone recommends Loomis, but which book of his would you recommend specifically?

Drawing tigers is HARD!

[jamsession]

welcome on board! lovely stuff going on there and plus, you're in high school. it's not hard to imagine that you're gonna become one hell of an illustrator in max. 10 years. and it's just great to see that you strive for the fundamentals.

[Harmageddon]

Hey LuckyCharm, welcome aboard the Conceptart steamroller.
You'll find many people checking your book, few leaving comments and among those comments, some gems.
So far, you're off to a good start. I don't know what Loomis book to use, as I have downloaded them all and didn't really check them properly. There is a wealth of information in them, no doubt. I'd advice to buy them instead though. Studying from paper is much more relaxing than studying from your screen.
I've dug into Burne Hogarth's books, they are full of information as well, although more geared to a comicbook style character.
Other than that, keep studying, drawing from reference, practice perspective and the human form (which is hard). Maybe check posemaniacs, that might also help.
Good luck on the Skyrim inspired piece...don't play too much Skyrim for reference

PS: Drawing tigers is hard I know.

[LuckyCharm]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate your encouragement and support

I have a huge exam tomorrow (everything we've done this year! D: ) Haven't had time to draw because I've been studying (and complaining mainly), but tomorrow I'll be finally free from school! I'll dedicate my time to drawing, my goal is to get at least 3 hours a day, we'll see how that goes Will update with new stuff as soon as I can

[Aragah]

haha pretty cool stuff.

[Taroan]

These are really good! The bird painting, and your cliff painting really stick out.
On the cliff one, as things fade into the distance, they get bluer, not just desaturated and lighter.

A problem I see with your skulls is the chin line. The eye sockets, cheekbones and nose are great. It might help to draw the eye nose and chin lines quickly, and parallel to each other so you have a reference to go by. I have this problem with people torso, and thats really helped me.

This is a great start, I can't wait to see more,

Pete

[LuckyCharm]

Thanks for the support guys!

@Taroan: Yeah, I know my skulls are sort of disproportionate :/ I'll redraw them using some guidelines

[IrinaK]

hi, I like perspective studies, it's hard. I should do it myself

[LuckyCharm]

Thanks!

Ok guys, I finally managed to convince myself to post this horrible horrible HORRIBLE portrait of Natalie Portman which I did today. This is like the first time in years that I draw a human (that isn't a cartoon). I've always avoided them, and I think you can see why. It seems like EVERYTHING is messed up! Argh, I don't even know where to start with this.. Also, please don't look at the hair! Wasn't really the focus of my drawing and I just added it quickly at the end

Was also doing some skull studies, but those things are hard! Took me 15 minutes to do ONE! I guess I'll try again tomorrow.. Sorry for the little amount of work, haven't been feeling good lately.

Here are my references for the skull and the portrait (if you can even call it that...)

[anjyil]

Nice start to your sketchbook. references, I find, are so important when starting out. You might want to try and find actual skull images rather than rendered ones--there is a different feel to them. Hard to explain, sorry ^_^; Can't wait to see more!

[LuckyCharm]

@anjyil: Thanks girl! I'll look around to see what I can find; too bad I don't have the money to buy a model skull

Sorry for the lack of updates guys! I haven't been feeling well lately, sleeping most of the day. Plus I was a bit discouraged for my sucky portrait, but I finally decided that I'm not gonna let a bunch of skulls beat me! So I'll draw something today and hopefully break this "art block" I've been having..

Also, an inspirational quote to keep me going. I've been feeling unhappy with my art cause it doesn't look the way I want it to, but I know all I need is to keep practicing, and eventually it will.

"Awesome artists are crappy artists that never gave up."

[rinnikirun]

Hey! I remember that quote, its such a good one to! Don't feel bad about the portrait, just keep working hard and fixing mistakes Anyway,something that would really help is drawing from life alot, see shapes out. Also bridgman and loomis are great for drawing heads. Cheers

[LuckyCharm]

Thanks Ven, and yes, I've been planning to try some life drawings too! I'll set up something quickly and see what I can do. Thanks for the nice comment

[jacilynw84]

I'm liking what I'm seeing here. As for the portrait stuff, its your first time, just keep going!

Bridgman is good recommendation, especially when you get part with planes, which I found really helpful.

[LuckyCharm]

Thanks Jacilyn! I actually have one of Bridgman's books, "Constructive Anatomy," which I hope to start reading soon (lent it to my cousin a couple weeks ago heh)

Anyway, found this awesome website the other day http://www.drawspace.com/, so in the mean time I'll try to go and follow the lessons there. Looked pretty useful and they go over most of the basics which is exactly what I need

[jacilynw84]

Thanks Jacilyn! I actually have one of Bridgman's books, "Constructive Anatomy," which I hope to start reading soon (lent it to my cousin a couple weeks ago heh)

Anyway, found this awesome website the other day http://www.drawspace.com/, so in the mean time I'll try to go and follow the lessons there. Looked pretty useful and they go over most of the basics which is exactly what I need

You're welcome. I also recommend his Hundred Hands book, since they are the hardest part to human body to draw. XD I need to get back into it.

As for that site, it looks interesting. I should take a look at it.

[anjyil]

Lucky-- I just googled key words with skulls in it ^_^ I saved a bunch of the ones I thought had the best form and/or lighting, but they are really hard to find. I, too, can not afford one of those nifty artist skulls...and my husband isn't too open to the thought, either -_-

[LuckyCharm]

@Jacilyn: I'll look for it! Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas heh
@Anjyil: Yeah, I don't think my parents would be too fond of buying me a skull. Anyway, I found this pics, maybe they could be helpful to you too? http://t-tiger.deviantart.com/art/Sk...ages-204853366 You have to download for whole set; was the best I could find up to now ^^;

UPDATE: Well, my mother decided to "clean up" my room cause it was a "mess." Now I can't find my Sketchbook and she doesn't remember where she put it... I hate when people touch my stuff >:/

[LuckyCharm]

It's being such a long time! Sorry for the lack of posts and updates guys ...

Well, I haven't been able to find my sketchbook yet, so I'm considering it lost for good. I'll try to buy another one asap though.
I hope everyone had an excellent New Year, and my resolution for this year is to draw more

Here are a couple of studies I did over the last couple of weeks, two old animal paintings I did in ArtRage a few months ago (both are WIPs which will probably never be finished), and an old Pokemon painting I found lying around (one of my first digitals ever!). I didn't do the silhouette of the palm leaves 'cause I'm lazy lol, sorry about that xP

[Jeff Bartzis]

Great start. Keep posting!

[Trixtar]

Very good
-And tigers just makes it even better

[pixel cheetah]

Your speedpaintings are looking good, keep it up! As for the head and for the human body try to draw the structure, not just what you see. Here is a site where you can find books by Andrew Loomis:
http://fineart.sk/photo-references/a...-anatomy-books
I would recommend: "Drawing the head and hands".

[LuckyCharm]

Thanks guys! And thanks cheetah for the link!

[LuckyCharm]

Just a quickie color study I did, didn't finish it, but I was quite proud of how the water turned out so I decided to post it anyway
I really like doing these, and definitely feel like I've gotten better

Also, a little Anatomy Study.. Had a hard time doing these I mainly had trouble getting the width of the bodies correct... Used this awesome little tut as reference http://bittersweetdisease.deviantart...et=24#/d3n4rix This could very well be the first time I try drawing a human body accurately lol