My sketchbook

[Dayle]

2 examples from tonights life drawing... ok-ish, first 5 minutes in ball point pen, second 15 minutes hb pencil. Did a few others but no real progress, kinda just getting back into it. Will need to start reading and doing theory again soon. I did a little alien with dual ray guns whilst at work, just a couple mins for fun.

[Dayle]

I had a go at this weeks Illustration of the week; The whe of Babylon. I ran out of time yesterday but was pretty happy with my image. It's poorly rendered and detailed but I think I can get better at that with more practice in photoshop (and more time to do a proper background). I need to invest more time in these exercises as they are so useful for development, gathering references and learning... before last week I didn't know what a whe of Babylon was!

[Revidescent]

Good on you for doing Illustration of the Week! The weekly challenges are great, if for nothing else than handing you a topic and a deadline. The biggest crit I have to offer on your effort is to back off from using the airbrush so much. While soft transitions are nice, you're losing any sense of bigger shadow shapes, so it just comes off looking blobby and mushy. Make sure you've got a clear separation of planes before you start softening it up. =)

[Dayle]

Thanks Revidescent. I ran out of time with that one, but yes, too soft and fuzzy! I think my process / rendering needs alot of developing (I have books and links to videos such as FZD school of design), just need to keep practicing.

Here is last weeks character of the week entry, the Changeling. I really enjoyed it and look forward to improving on my next one.

[Gibi]

Hey man, nice studies and good progress! Love the Carlito!

[Dayle]

Hey Gibi, thanks for the comments, my friend liked the Carlito portrait too!

I'm really glad to be back regularly at my life drawing sessions. Here is a collection of my sketches, I'm having fun and pleased with my progress, although some major foreshortning issues with the pose with the knee in the air... just a few more years of hard work, lol! Some are bigger than a4 and have been stitched together, not trying to manipulate them in any way!

[Dayle]

I've not updated for awhile. Moving house (again!?!), hopefully now I can start to get into a positive routine again. I've been doing lots of observational drawings, mainly quick gestures and life drawing classes.

Here are some sketches from February, I will try and post more stuff once I've scanned and formatted them. :-)

Also I tried another portrait study. I am struggling with symmetry, especially with eyes I think, although it's something I've noticed with arms and legs too. Will pay more attention next time.

[Incinerated]

Hey, just had a look through your sketch book, theres definately some progress, however keep checking your proportion's, keep at it.

[Dayle]

Incinerated. Thanks for the comments.

Here is a Bouguereau pencil study. Took about 6 hours. I wanted to try and get the sense of balance and weight that the original has. He is an amazing artist!

[Dayle]

A couple of weeks ago I attended an all day life drawing workshop. It was a long day but really interesting. It was broken down into three specific techniques, with an explaination, demonstration and then application, on a few short poses. At the end of the day there was two long poses, giving us time to practice what we'd learnt.

The first technique was to use simple shapes to create forms and volumes. This is useful to help give a sense of weight and volume to the drawing, not just an object floating in mid air.

The second one was using negative space. I found this particularly difficult (hence no examples!) to use as a technique for drawing, but, it has recently become a really valuable tool to help measure and check my drawings. By looking at the space around the subject I can see weather or not the angles and positions of what I have drawn is accurate.

The third technique was using strong directional lines, and is very useful for overall construction and proportions. The main emphasis was to establish techniques for quickly setting up a drawing without getting sucked into details or focusing on particular areas before the whole image had been accurately defined. That way mistakes can be quickly corrected before significant time has been spent on the drawing.

After the Easter break (2 weeks) I was back at life drawing tonight. Here is what I did, trying to take on board the above experiences and techniques. 2 x 20 minute poses and 1 x 40 minute pose.

[Riley Stark]

Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook. ^_^

Looking through yours, there is some great improvement from page one through now! Nice job!

Keep up with the studies doing all your studies, they're definitely working -- I think you should try doing a digital master study. (You'll be able to work on your figures and also bump ahead your painting skills, too. Pick a simple one and try to match your painting up to the original as close as you can get it -- Doing master studies has been the most helpful thing in teaching me how to paint and how use colors. Seriously, you learn so much from doing them.)

Side note for your digital stuff: never paint with either black or white, always use lighter or darker shades of colors to get your different values. Using either black or white will suck the life right out of whatever you're painting and make it look far less real. (Because you'll never see true black or white in real life - things that are those colors locally are always either absorbing or reflecting the colors around them, so they're always tinted based off of their surroundings/lighting. That kind of blew my mind when someone first pointed that out to me because I had never thought much about it before, but once it sunk in I was able to see it all the time in the world around me. Totally changed how I thought about colors.)

[Dayle]

Here's a 40 minute pose from life drawing. I'll spend the next few days working on my illustration of the week piece, and then do a digital master study as suggested by Riley Stark, he has some great examples in his sketchbook!

[Dayle]

Tonights work. A 2hr pencil sketch from pixelovely.com. Trying to get those values. I need lots more practice but think it's better than the last time I did this!

[IntoTheVoid]

Hey man, those life drawing sessions are looking great. Personally, I'd like to see more stuff from imagination (with reference), since it uses and trains a different set of skills than just life drawing alone would.

Your architecture sketches are really fun! They have great potential.

[Dayle]

IntoTheVoid - thanks man, I do sometimes participate in chows but I need so much practice in the basics still. But yes, I agree and will start doing more. The majority of previous entries I never posted, but they aren't too impressive anyways!

Here is my start of my photoshop / masterstudy as suggested by Riley. Another one of my favourite artists, Edward Hopper, this painting is Morning Sun and has fantastic tonal variation, colour and is really vibrant. First wip, about 2 hrs last night, not using ps to colour match, doing everything by eye.

One question for the Conceptart people. Sometimes you start by using grayscale, then overlaying colour. Other times start directly from colour, using a small palette and blending, darkening and lightening to get values. Is it just personal preference or is there a best practice method? Thanks. I actually prefer colour but have been trying to disipline myself to use greyscale.

[Dayle]

Hi. Life drawing update, am trying to get the overall shapes down quicker now, giving more time to work on the values and shading. 1 x 5mins, 1 x 15mins, 1 x 35mins and 1 x 45mins. Also posting my I.O.W23 entry. I am really happy with my progress on photoshop and forms... unfortunately did not do very well in the poll! One day I hope.

[Dayle]

Here is an update on my Hopper study, another 3 hours worth. Had to do some ps resizing & moving the head... feels like cheating a bit but too late to redraw it. Next time must pay more attention to construction first!

He is my attempt at this weeks chow, the Bounty hunter. Didn't get time to finish though.

[Dayle]

Here is my chow effort for this week. Might enter the poll if I get time to do a character sheet. Also finished my Edward Hopper Morning Sun study. Another two hours here, about 7 or 8 in total. Not posting my life drawings from the past couple of weeks, not much progress and they are getting boring! I need to think of something new and fresh to improve my sketchbook with!

[Dayle]

Tonight life drawing was great! 1 x 10 minute pose, 1 x 20 minute pose and 1 x 40 minute pose. Weather was nice too!

[SMILEFACE]

WOW YER LIFE DRAWING ARE AWESOME Dayle LOOKING FORWARDS TO MMRRAAOOORRR XDXDXD

[cricketts801]

Great sketchbook. Diggin all the study's and you can see improvement from the 1st page to the last!

[Dayle]

SMILEFACE Thanks for the encouragement! More will definitely follow in the near future!

cricketts801 Thank you.

So today I wanted to post something different. Firstly I wanted to post some pictures of buildings I have worked on with the sketchup comparison images. Nothing too exciting but still something I am pleased with and continuing to learn how to use.

In the same theme, my latest Environment and Industrial design cross over entries and the sketchup model I made. To achieve the sectional image I used about ten layers in photoshop with various jpgs of the 3d model. From the wire frame, transparent view, shadows and all the sections / interior cuts needed. By working from these and turning layers on and off and erasing information off different layers I managed to get a reasonably accurate 3d image showing the internal workings of my Orbital Refinery design.

Finally my attempt at this weeks chow 293 The Keymaster - not very pretty?!! I really need to figure out how to use brushes better (or better brushes) to get my rendering skills improving......

[Dayle]

Photoshop practice over the last week. Some demon chick... she's supposed to be feathery, not furry!

[Dayle]

More practice...

[Leysan]

Hi Dayle, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook. Very nice sketchbook you have here too. You have been improving alot especially figure drawing. I love your latest industrial design and sketchup models. 3d modelling is kind of a mystery for me for now, I'd love to learn that too. I've been reluctant to give advice lately, I guess just keep practicing and you'll improve.

[Dayle]

Thanks Leysan!

Here is last weeks EOW effort and my current concept for the Ghostly Courtiers chow.

[Dayle]

Work is stressing me out...

[Dayle]

Here are some of my life drawings from June and July. Lots more gestures / daily sketching to upload, just need formating first.

[Dayle]

A couple months worth of my lunchtime sketches (only the best ones) hence all the people eating and reading! Hopefully more tomorrow, I need to get up to date before I start anything new.

[Dayle]

Here are the rest of my daily lunchtime sketches from August. Also the house across from my tram stop, whilst waiting to go to work, and, the pub from today.