hoping to improve

[Abused mule]

Hello there. I'm a 19 year old who really wants to become an animator and.... has a personal vendetta against drawing noses.... but I will make an effort to draw them in things other than my personal for fun stuff. = v=;;

[Abused mule]

here's some figure drawings I did a while ago.

first bunch in class and the other on SAI

oh... and anyone got tips on drawing arms? = v=;;;;

:EDIT: Added an old character turnaround of my original character Mattie.

[Abused mule]

did a quick 20 minute still life thingy from one of Mikel Arrizabalaga's photographs.

.... I have a really short attentionspan for things like this.... can never go over an hour for most of my art.... is there any ways around this? D:

I've tried putting it down then coming back to pieces, but....... I never get the motivation to continue it after I've let it go for any amount of time.

[chuck18mp]

Hey nice work you have some really nice studies in here. The only way to get better is to work harder. I'll be subscribing to check your stuff out from times to times.

Keep up the good work!

[spiritvanished]

Hello! our ages are the same, and we seem to be close to the same stage in skill. Im admiring your style, especially the character design. Very Dead Leaves.

I'm also subscribing!
Maybe we can help each other grow!

[mybutterflyiris]

Your figure drawings look nice.
Why do you dislike noses? ...just curious

I have a really short attentionspan for things like this.... can never go over an hour for most of my art.... is there any ways around this?

Have you tried turning your canvas and ref. image upside down when coming back to it? It might give you a completely new challenge and thus motivate you to work more on it. Just a thought.

[Eightball_]

hey i'm 19 too, cool to see someone the same age on CA. i don't aspire to be an animator but a lot of my buddies do, so i kinda get dragged into a lot of their animator shenanigans. from what i glean from them, my advice would be to focus on gesture and structure. check out Glen Vilppu if you haven't already. painting and rendering are important skills to learn but animators really need to be good at turning 3d forms in their head and translate that into movement. sketches like the one you did with the pink underdrawing--that's the meat and potatoes. do lots of those! anyway, keep up the good work! looking forward to your next posts.

[Abused mule]

Chuck18mp::

Thanks. And I will.

Spiritvanished::

Thank you~! &&Haha... I had made this character a long time ago for an rp, and about a year later I found and watched dead leaves, such an amazing movie.
&&I have to admit, I do love them girls with grey hair~

Mybutterflyiris::

Uhm... Not sure. I find it more aesthetically pleasing, in my own art, to leave it out. I just find it looks pretty. X'D I add them to semi/realism and some photos where I think it would actually would look nicer with it in... but yeah, for the most part my personal art doesn't have them.

&&I've seen someone do that once, and never thought of doing it myself. O: I will have to give it a try. Thank you.

Eightball::

I just checked him out, verry fluid stuff. O: Thanks for that.

[a la bapsi]

hey--awesome stuff in your sketchbook so far, that character with the dreads looks fucking sweet.
i'm no animator but two cents would be to continue with the figures!
take some time studying anatomy--not to memorize muscle names or anything [though, i guess that would be cool to impress people? xD] but to pay attention to how joints work, for example [i notice that you can have just about anything go on between informed joints in an imaginative drawing and people will still buy it as a believable design *_*],
or where muscles connect and 'flare out' and connect back into the skeleton[it could help when designing different shapes for body types, since you'll know how that sort of stuff works for different people irl]

taking some time with some virtual pose files would be really good for you too--i think eddie was on the dot with animators having to know about turning forms, and doing what is essentially a reffed char turnaround from virtual pose [or better yet--a live model!] could help strengthen that inventive muscle!

anyway, again, i'm no animator [i've only recently had an interest in how the most badass inventive sketchers tend to be animators is all] but i hope my rambling helped you out a bit D: good luck on your journey!

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

Good start! I like the pen figures, I'd like to see some more of those and maybe environments and some props?

[Abused mule]

A few things I sketched up. the first bunch and the hands are from pose maniacs. [[first bunch is the 30 secconds thing]]

a la bapsi:: Yeah, the more I look around the sketchbooks here the more I see that people do alot of muscle and skeleton studies. so I might try to do some of those soon.

the flying dutchman::
Yeah, both of those are my weak points... so I will most definitely work on those.

[Rhubix]

Yay for animation! . I've been working in the animation industry here in Ontario for a while, and it can be a fantastic job, if it's right for you. In this thread ->here<- I answered a bunch of questions from another person interested in animation, and you might find some of the conversation informative.
When it boils down to it, animation is a very attainable goal, you just need the stubborn drive to work for it.
You've got some fun work in here, and there's nothing wrong with leaving out a body part here and there for fun, if you don't ignore it all together when your working on your fundamentals. Oban Star racer has no noses, and the animation and layouts in that series are fantastic.

Personally, I've found the most advantages studies are gesture and perspective. As an animator it is helpful to learn as much about anatomy and general art principals, but those two are the most specifically applicable to animating.

oh... and anyone got tips on drawing arms? = v=;;;;

There are no tricks to drawing anything. You just need to pick it apart and see what shapes it's made of. This is where perspective comes in handy, study arm anatomy and see what all the pieces look like, and how they're connected. I really like bridgeman, because his work is so blocky- and simplified - compared to some of the more realistic books, like loomis which I think are much better for fine artists and realists (though, look at all of them and learn as much as you can, whenever you can). Next find a place with arms (I often draw on the subway or at the mall) - try to compare what you've learned from the anatomy book to real life examples. When you find weird bumps or twisty bits, refer to the anatomy book to see what your actually looking at.
Basically it's just a ping pong game of trying to figure out what everything is and refining your basic drawing skills to re-create the shapes effectively.
As a cartoonist or an animator, you can throw in the extra step of researching various cartooning styles and exploring how these parts are simplified and stylized.

.... I have a really short attentionspan for things like this.... can never go over an hour for most of my art.... is there any ways around this?

This is just a matter of self discipline. if you want to work as an artist professionally you need to learn to suffer through the boring parts. Currently I'm animating special effects. Some days I get to do fun stuff like explosions, other weeks I'm adding water ripples, over and over and over again.
Animation can be fun, but it is tedious work. You just have to force yourself to sit down and do the work.

Happy sketching

[Abused mule]

ok, did a 30 minute landscape drawing..... = v=;;;;
I really need to work on that... well, probably didn't help that I did it in a painterly style, which I am not good at doing either. Hrmm...

Maybe next time ill ink it.

Uhm, and here's a few character designs I did awhile back. I like to just crazilly splash some colours onto the space and then draw over with whatever I saw.
Though, the stella and dax one [[ spacegirl & octopus alien]] I ended up working a bit more on because I really liked it.

[Jamie Romoser]

I dig your figures and the style you have going here
keep it up
have a good one
-Jamie

[Abused mule]

a wip of a character design I'm working on.
Not too good at armor at all, so this is a test for myself, also just to add to my portfolio for little jobs here and there.

[FightingSeraph]

Not bad, and I like your studies, as well as your style. Flat-faced characters are fine (I've been drawing them since 2003), but the ability to work in multiple styles will help you greatly. (Look at the cartoons that golden-age animator Rod Scribner did for Warner Bros.) In addition, I would also recommend that you study the following:
The Fleischer Popeye cartoons (as well as early Betty Boop, Out of the Inkwell, and Superman)
'27-45 Disney
Adam Phillips (Bitey of Brackenwood)
SunnyGOES (Ninja vs Demon, WarMachine)
Perspective
Felix Hildebrandt
Cosmic Ghost
There's more to learn from them rather than motion comics, the latest Disney/Pixar film, James Cameron's Avatar, or Final Fantasy VII.

[Ccs]

Hey you're pretty good at construction of forms, and that's a nice turnaround, although animating all those pieces of hair would be a real chore. The sketch of the guy pulling on the rope looks a little unbalanced, with the foot looking big. I feel you tried for some foreshortening there that didn't quite work out. The body also looks really stiff in that pose, whereas it should look as if it's in the midst of action.