Need sketchbook advice

**Saurabhinator** · June 10th, 2012, 10:17 AM

try practicing these exercises:

nice studies btw. Some nice improvement from first page.

**Rhubix** · June 10th, 2012, 03:37 PM

Sketching simplistic objects from life and trying to understand the entire form, do you guys think this is a good thing to practice?

Absolutly! This is really the foundation of drawing in general. Though initially, I think it's important to do studies like this using the horizon line- and long handed perspective techniques. I wish I could go back and tell myself this, because it really forces you to focus on good solid construction, instead of eye-balling it.

Basically, the problem I am having in constructive drawing though is when you foreshorten say the front plane or side plane I tend to mess up proportions or lose track of placement of features etc, any advice?

Doing perspective long-hand will help you with these issues. By using vanishing points and construction you can measure how long something is, or compare different pieces of the drawing.
Below I've done a sketch (I hope it's more helpful than confusing)

This is how you can figure out spacing with perspective.
A - if you start with a box you can find the center of each face, by drawning an X from corner to corner. This is true no matter what direction the box is turned.
B. using that new found center- you can draw line following the perspective to give yourself a line through the center of the box.
C. If you draw a straight line from one of the top corners through the center, until it meets the outside line- this is where your next box would be.

This is a great technique to learn- because you can measure distances. If you know the horses' nose is the same length as the head- you can use this method to figure out where the front of the nose will be.

Your initial practice sessions will be incredibly messy- but if you take the time to learn it well you will start to be able to do it in your head- and you wont need all the guide lines.

Saurabhinator linked a really fun tutorial - the only criticism I have is the artist doesn't use any construction lines - and it's obvious that he has a solid foundation in perspective already.

So far your making great progress, just keep digging up new ways to explore the fundamentals and challenge yourself

happy sketching

**will123will** · June 11th, 2012, 12:12 AM

saurabhinator- Hey, thx a lot for the vid, was very informative thx

.

Rhubix- Wow, really appreciated how in depth you went and really took the time out for that comment, means a lot. Funny thing is, I've been doing lots of perspective and form studying today, and the x to find the centre of the square and then use to find the equal distance trick I actually already knew but your tips were really helpful and I will practice them

.

Ok, so heres some perspective and form stuff, I think I need to solely practive structured stuff for now as I feel quite familiar with the fundamentals, however when I draw organic forms all of this tends to go out the window lol, leaving me confused with what I'm doing lol. Oh and I can't believe I'm on page 8 :0.

**will123will** · June 11th, 2012, 04:10 PM

Been slacking today

. Still finding it hard to imagine full 3d objects from pictures, are 3/4 views (side and top) best options for this, or should I have several pictures of the same object from different views, bit confused?

**will123will** · June 16th, 2012, 03:05 PM

Update

**will123will** · July 2nd, 2012, 11:05 AM

Update- totally got the idea for this off of sickbrush's stream. just messing around with projection and textures and it's not finished obviously. Will be uploading more perspective stuff too

.

**will123will** · July 3rd, 2012, 09:12 AM

Perspective drawing i've been working on and a crappy portrait

**will123will** · July 3rd, 2012, 02:56 PM

self portrait sketch

**will123will** · July 8th, 2012, 12:01 PM

3d model I've been working on in maya

**kevin_** · July 8th, 2012, 12:32 PM

good practicing man, do more studies and life work and just keep at it!

**will123will** · July 11th, 2012, 12:38 PM

Kevin_- Thx man, will definitely be piling up studies and life drawings soon too

Practicing more organic stuff in zbrush, my goal right now is to kind of bridge the gap between structured and organic objects. Obviously I need to do more head studies lol but just trying to understand how to go about how to study organic.

**will123will** · July 12th, 2012, 02:57 PM

recent studies

**will123will** · July 12th, 2012, 07:35 PM

Some more sketches

**will123will** · July 13th, 2012, 12:33 PM

quick portrait sketch studies, sketched about 10 so far and I think I'll do the 100 challenge with them, then remodel the zbrush head and see if theres an improvement

**will123will** · July 14th, 2012, 07:53 PM

Update on this need to push the contrast more and the eye on the left is too dark, values are so freakin' confusing.

**kevin_** · July 14th, 2012, 08:54 PM

cool updates, like the 3d stuff. want to try it out for myself sometime!

**Voodoo_Mama** · July 14th, 2012, 11:48 PM

oh great uppdates!
The house 3d model is looking great. Looks very elaborate.
Great drawings too, you have improved a lot, specially on perspective!
My only crit is with your portraits, in the latest update of portraits you made the eyes bigger than normal in some of them, so just keep t in mind :U
Anyways, great stuff, keep updating

**will123will** · July 15th, 2012, 09:10 PM

Kevin- Thx a lot man, and you should definitely try it out, the environment one is maya and the head was using zbrush

Voodoomama- Thx so much, means a lot, and yes I have a major problem with getting the eyes the right size lol, but I will try and fix it

Updates- All are studies except the second image which are from imagination, oh and sry for the terrible ear studies lol

**TNiznet** · July 17th, 2012, 05:10 PM

Nice improvements already, keep working Will. Those head studies will look great in no time.

**will123will** · July 18th, 2012, 08:52 PM

TNiznet- thx a lot man

Quick update of some lighting studies I've been doing, just think understanding more of how bounce light works, reflections and materials will
help me greatly

. Will be doing more of these and posting sketches in the following days

**Sickbrush** · July 19th, 2012, 11:31 AM

tower looks good and i like these last cube studies. keep pushing maannn!!

**will123will** · July 20th, 2012, 02:48 AM

Sickbrush- Thx a lot man, means a lot as I have been following your work

. Oh and the
tower bridge thing I did sucks really bad lol. Looking back on it now I'm wondering what the hell I was doing with the texture and why the line quality is so bad. Anyways, thx again

Just some more cube studies, really rough though lol.

**will123will** · July 21st, 2012, 06:46 PM

Some sketch studies and an illustration I've started. Something feels really wrong with the values or something so any advice on that would be great

**kevin_** · July 21st, 2012, 08:59 PM

nice updates, just keep at it. could give you crit but in the end its just practice that does the job!

**will123will** · July 21st, 2012, 10:48 PM

Kevin- Thx man, and I know what ya mean, it just ultimately comes down to working your ass off lol

Update on 3d model environment

**will123will** · July 29th, 2012, 02:26 PM

Updates, portrait obviously isn't finished, but now I realize how bad it looks

. Think I need to pay more attention to edges and soften things more.

**Voodoo_Mama** · July 30th, 2012, 10:34 AM

nice updates! I think your last portrait is a good start, you just need to keep going, add definition to the features, soften some edges, etc. just keep going!